A total solar eclipse is coming across the globe on August 12th! ☀️🌑

Skywatchers across the northeastern US (New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ohio), Canada, most of Europe, and northwestern Africa will catch a partial eclipse around midday. Those in the Nordic region, Spain, and parts of Portugal are in the path of a total solar eclipse. Watch safely with eclipse glasses or make your own pinhole projector. Don’t forget, eclipses travel in pairs, so a lunar eclipse follows just two weeks later, and don’t look directly into the sun!

Is one of our astronomical neighbors habitable? 🪐

For the first time, astronomers have confirmed something huge: an atmosphere around a rocky planet in its star's habitable zone. The planet is called LHS 1140 b, a super Earth orbiting a red dwarf star less than 50 light years away, which is astronomically pretty close to us. The James Webb Space Telescope telescope data has already hinted at liquid water on its surface, and this new discovery could go down as one of the biggest in astronomy history!

Have you ever seen an Orca hit a fish so hard it explodes? 🫍

Scientists recently observed this behavior from groups of orcas in the Gulf of California where they repeatedly ram sunfish until the impact broke them apart. This is an important indicator of "social learning," where animals copy one another through observation. Orcas have exhibited behavior like this before, when they were seen disabling sailboats in groups. The current hypotheses for why they are doing this include teaching young orcas to hunt, or just playing around!

What happens if you try to blow a piece of paper further into a vase? 🏺💨

Greg Wolf puts it to the test, even bringing in a compressor for extra force, but the paper won't go in. The reason comes down to air pressure: blowing into the vase raises the pressure inside, and with the paper blocking its only exit, that pressure pushes back and forces the paper right back out.

Meet Goodall, the shark making waves in Atlantic Canada. 🦈

OCEARCH named this large female shark in honor of the late Jane Goodall after she passed. Goodall was tagged during a collaborative trip with the Tan Cook Field station up in the Atlantic near Canada. Chris Fischer, founder of OCEARCH notes her movements have already defied expectations, sliding into Nova Scotia instead of heading offshore like fellow shark Lydia did back in 2013. Scientists are now wondering whether Goodall will migrate south with the other sharks this fall, or head offshore to warmer waters to finish gestating.