Hello, Comet

 Comets don't swing by that often. Halley's Comet is once every 75 years or so. But some comets have even longer orbits.

C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is heading for its rendezvous with the sun at the end of January through beginning of February. It's small, so we may or may not be able to see it. It's not one of those big, spectacular comets.

It doesn't have a name because the last time this particular celestial visitor dropped in...was 50,000 years ago.

To give some idea, the Neanderthals became "extinct" about 40,000 years ago. In fact, when this comet last graced the sky, modern humans hadn't made it to Europe yet!

That's a pretty long trip.

Goodbye, InSight

 After four years, InSight's mission is over. It ends for the usual reason; the robot is out of power.

The lander spent nearly 1,500 days on Mars, twice as long as the mission parameters. (NASA lowballs mission parameters fairly consistently).

What kills robots on Mars? It's almost always the same thing; an accumulation of dust on solar panels.

We need an alternative way to power things on Mars or any manned mission will spend half its time sweeping panels!

InSight taught us a lot about Martian seismology and how the red planet lives.

Uh, Guys...

 This illustration of a black hole destroying a star. Need I say what it looks like? I think not...

Image from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Breeding colony?

A fossil site in Nevada that contains a lot of ichthyosaur skeletons is now believed to be a breeding colony. At first it was thought to be a tragedy, but the 37 skeletons are over a long period of time.

Like modern marine mammals, ichthyosaurs sought a safe place and company to give birth. (Ichthyosaurs were not dinosaurs, none of whom were live bearers to our knowledge).

How do we know? From a different kind of tragedy. Some of the fossils contained the bones of newborns still in the birth canal...the bodies of ichthyosaurs who died in childbirth.

Compounds not found on Earth...

 ...in a meteor that has been sitting in the Sahara for a while.

A 15 ton meteor.

Named "Nightfall" by locals. I love that detail.

The two compounds, elaliite and elkinstantonite already have synthetic versions.

Unfortunately, Nightfall is missing and was probably broken up and sold in China.

I do wonder how it got that name? I'm guessing it really scared the locals.

Bananas versus...COVID?

 ...and influenza. Turns out there's a protein in bananas that binds to high-mannose glycans. What are those, you might ask?

They're something that's present on the surface of viruses, but not healthy cells. The protein wraps around the virus and keeps it from infecting anyone.

They also confuse your immune system, but researchers now think they have a modified version that would work as a broad spectrum antiviral against all coronaviruses and influenza strains. The research began a while ago in the hunt for a treatment for MERS.

They're also examining it for use against cancer.

Bananas. Who'd have thought it.