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New York Post
10 hours ago
- New York Post
Stunning Northern Lights could be visible in 15 states tonight— and even New York may get lucky
New York City's skyline could shine extra bright tonight. The Northern lights could light up the sky across 15 states tonight — including the Empire State. Overnight — Aug. 18 to 19 — a burst of solar wind is expected to create a minor geomagnetic storm, allowing Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, South Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington, New York, Wyoming and Iowa to see stunning skies overhead. 3 The Aurora Borealis will be shining from late August 18 until the early morning hours of August 19 in these specific 15 states. Getty Images The best chance to see the auroras will be between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time. These lights can be visible from up to 600 miles away, so you don't need to be directly under them to see them. For the best view, experts suggest heading to a dark spot away from city lights and looking north, specifically between midnight and 2 a.m. And luckily, you don't need any special equipment to take in the beauty — just look up at the sky. If you want to capture the moment, using the 'night mode' on your smartphone should be enough to snap some good photos. 3 The states most likely to see the auroras tonight are: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, South Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington, New York, Wyoming and Iowa. NOAA Luckily for those who don't want to stay up super late to catch the jaw-dropping view, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) believe that it should be visible through Wednesday, Aug. 20. The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, occur when charged particles from the sun — known as solar wind — collide with Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, according to 3 The best chance to see the auroras will be between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time. Portland Press Herald via Getty Images These particles are funneled toward the poles, where they interact with gases like oxygen and nitrogen, exciting them and causing them to release light. The color of the aurora depends on the gas and altitude. Green is most common, while red and purple are rarer. Geomagnetic storms, often caused by solar flares, can intensify these displays, making the auroras brighter and visible further south, according to Perlan. The lights tonight are expected to appear with moderate intensity. Earlier this month, while in space stationed on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, NASA astronaut Anne McClain was lucky enough to capture on her phone the moment that the aurora borealis illuminated over Earth. 'I love how this one illuminated our Dragon, and I also love the dance of satellites on the left in the latter part of the video,' McClain captioned her video shared to X. 'It's interesting how the aurora creeps along the top of the atmosphere as it comes up over the horizon. I have added traveling to see auroras from Earth to my bucket list!'
National Geographic
13 hours ago
- National Geographic
What is the Jurassic period and why did it end?
The heyday of dinosaurs, the Jurassic era saw Earth's climate change from hot and dry to humid and subtropical. The Jurassic period was characterized by a warm, wet climate that gave rise to lush vegetation and abundant life. Many new dinosaurs emerged—in great numbers. Above, Dimorphodon reptiles fly over a herd of Mamenchisaurus dinosaurs coming down to a river for a drink. Illustration by CoreyFord, Getty Images By National Geographic Staff Thanks to this rich record, we know that the Jurassic was the height of dinosaurs roaming a tropical Earth filled with ferns, flowering plants, and conifers. It was also a time when sea monsters, sharks, and blood-red plankton filled inland seas borne of crumbling landmasses. Here's what the Jurassic period was really like. ('Jaw-dropping' fossil reveals epic prehistoric battle) Environmental conditions during the Jurassic At the start of the Jurassic era, the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea continued and accelerated. Laurasia, the northern hemisphere, broke up into North America and Eurasia. Gondwana, the southern half, began to break up by the middle Jurassic. (In 250 million years, this may be the only continent on Earth) The eastern portion—Antarctica, Madagascar, India, and Australia—split from the western half, Africa and South America. New oceans flooded the spaces in between. Mountains rose on the seafloor, pushing sea levels higher and onto the continents. All this water gave the previously hot and dry climate a humid and drippy subtropical feel. Dry deserts slowly took on a greener hue. Palm tree-like cycads were abundant, as were conifers such as araucaria and pines. ('Living fossil' cycad plants are actually evolution's comeback kings) Ginkgoes carpeted the mid- to high northern latitudes, and podocarps, a type of conifer, were particularly successful south of the Equator. Tree ferns were also present. (Huge fossil is oldest giant flowering tree in North America) The oceans, especially the newly formed shallow interior seas, teemed with diverse and abundant life. At the top of the food chain were the long-necked and paddle-finned plesiosaurs, giant marine crocodiles, sharks, and rays. Fishlike ichthyosaurs, squidlike cephalopods, and coil-shelled ammonites were abundant. Coral reefs grew in the warm waters, and sponges, snails, and mollusks flourished. Microscopic, free-floating plankton proliferated and may have turned parts of the ocean red. (See the microscopic world of plankton in stunning detail) Dinosaurs flourished during the Jurassic period. Species such as Harpactognathus, Camarasaurus, Ceratosaurus, Allosaurus, Camptosaurus, Marshosaurus, and Megalneusaurus (illustrated above) quickly dominated the world. Illustration by Sergey Krasovskiy,Jurassic period dinosaurs On land, dinosaurs were making their mark in a big way—literally. The plant-eating sauropod Brachiosaurus stood up to 52 feet (16 meters) tall, stretched some 85 feet (26 meters) long, and weighed more than 80 tons. (How the world's deadliest mass extinction actually helped the rise of dinosaurs) Diplodocus, another sauropod, was 90 feet (27 meters) long. These dinosaurs' sheer size may have deterred attack from Allosaurus, a bulky, meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two powerful legs. This story originally published on January 6, 2017. It was updated on August 18, 2025.
Newsweek
17 hours ago
- Newsweek
Early Warning Sign for Aggressive Cancers Discovered
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A protein found in our cells could act as an early warning sign for aggressive cancers—and a new target for drugs to stop them spreading. This is the discovery of scientists from Brunel University of London, who have shown for the first time that a protein that helps a cell prepare to divide can also trigger metastasis. High levels of 'SAS-6' makes cells grow more and longer cilia—tiny antennae that sense their surroundings. These cilia activate a pathway known as YAP/TAZ, which controls genes that help tumors grow and spread to other parts of the body, the researchers explained. The SAS-6 protein plays a role in building tiny hair-like structures on the cell's surface, which can then activate signals that make cancer cells more aggressive. Illustration representing lungs and cancer spread inside body. Illustration representing lungs and cancer spread inside body. wildpixel/Getty Images "Our data uncover a novel role for the centriolar protein SAS-6 in ciliogenesis [the building of the cell's antennae], YAP activation and cancer cell invasion," said Brunel biomedical scientist Barbara Tanos in a statement. "The main cause of death in cancer patients is metastatic disease, which happens when cancer cells invade tissues far away from the main tumor [spreading to another part of the body]," Dr Tanos explained. "We found that cells with increased SAS-6 levels became more invasive and that this invasion was reverted by removing cilia." The team investigated what happens when cells produce a version of SAS-6 that does not break down. They found the cells not only grew longer cilia but moved more and noticeably changed shape, becoming flatter and more flexible—all signs of an invasive cell. When the scientists blocked the YAP pathway or removed the cilia, however, the cancer invasion "reduced to almost negligible levels". They then found the same pattern in a real lung cancer cell line, which has high levels of SAS-6. Removing the protein in this patient-derived cell line stopped the cancer's ability to spread. Because several human cancers have unusually high levels of SAS-6, it could potentially be used as a marker for metastatic cancer, the scientists said. Research suggests these SAS-6-associated cancers include lung adenocarcinoma, colorectal cancer and breast cancer, among others. Lung adenocarcinoma (a type of non-small cell lung cancer), for example, is the most common type of lung cancer in the U.S., accounting for 45 percent of all lung cancer cases in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Understanding how SAS-6 and cilia drive cancer cell invasion could also help design novel therapies based on cilia specific signaling pathways, the researchers explained. "We think this gives us a new way to understand how cellular signals control cancer spread," said Tanos. "It could lead to smarter therapies and better ways to predict which cancers will turn aggressive." Newsweek has reached out to the researchers for comment. Do you have a tip on a health story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about cancer? Let us know via health@ Reference Hargreaves, E., Collinson, R., Jenks, A. D., Staszewski, A., Tsalikis, A., Bodoque, R., Arias-Garcia, M., Abdi, Y., Al-Malki, A., Yuan, Y., Natrajan, R., Haider, S., Iskratsch, T., Wang, W.-J., Godinho, S., Palaskas, N. J., Calvo, F., Vivanco, I., Zech, T., & Tanos, B. E. (2025). Dysregulated SASS6 expression promotes increased ciliogenesis and cell invasion phenotypes. Life Science Alliance, 8(10).
