Welcome to Cosmos, a Minnesota town that's out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
See why this Minnesota town is out of this world
In Cosmos, Minnesota, residents are a little closer to the stars.
"We had a real moon rock here one year after the moon landings and it came from NASA," said Cosmos City Councilman Mark Minnick.
Minnick, a life-long resident and a town historian, says Norwegian immigrant Ole Nelson built the first log house in the 1860s, but pioneer Daniel Hoyt came up with the name "Cosmos" as a way to bring people in. Hoyt had plans to build a major university in town.
"Big. Everybody would want to come. Full credentials. Oh, it was going to be big time. Big time," Minnick said. "The name stuck, but the university didn't materialize."
But that didn't really matter, because the name is what put the town on the map.
Instead of the typical Elm Street or Oak Street, Cosmos named all its streets after galaxies, planets and constellations, from Milky Way to Mars Street.
WCCO
And when you travel through town, busy Highway 7 briefly turns into Astro Boulevard. Even the water tower is space-themed, but it's nothing like the old water tower, which had a rocket sitting right on top of it, about 140 feet closer to space. It could blast off, but it just wouldn't get very far.
"Those are oil barrels and then the local blacksmith shop welding everything up, made the nose cone and the fins and then it got mounted on top of the water tower," he said.
The rocket is now in the town's Space Festival parade every July. Neptune Ned and a random bird simply known as "Local Chicken" also make an appearance.
The town's local newspaper, the Galactic Gazette, has more than 100 subscribers and contains space news and dad jokes. The staff is comprised of Minnick, his wife Deb and friend Curt Meyer.
This Cosmos is a smaller universe, and that's OK with its space-loving residents. Though some are still waiting for an alien other than Neptune Ned to pay a visit.
"They exist, they just aren't showing themselves," Minnick said.
The Cosmos Space Festival began after the moon landing in 1969. It's the third week in July, and it's not all about space. In the past, they've also had carnival rides, pig races and "cow pie bingo."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
25 minutes ago
- Medscape
Can Tumor Patterns Predict Lymphoma Treatment Success?
Large B-cell lymphomas (LBCL) exhibit three distinct microenvironment archetype profiles defined by specific immune and stromal cell patterns. These profiles show divergent cell-cell communication pathways and correlate with different clinical outcomes following CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. METHODOLOGY: Researchers employed single nucleus multiome sequencing of 232 Large B cell lymphoma tumors and controls to comprehensively define the cellular landscape and stereotypical patterns in lymphoma microenvironment archetype profiles. Analysis included 217 lymphomas (110 newly diagnosed and 107 relapsed/refractory cases) and 15 controls. Control tissues comprised nonmalignant reactive lymph nodes biopsied due to suspicion of lymphoma in patients with (n = 13) or without (n = 2) prior lymphoma diagnosis. Available remaining nuclei underwent DNA and RNA extraction followed by whole-exome sequencing (n = 174), low-pass whole-genome sequencing (n = 174), and bulk RNA sequencing (n = 208). TAKEAWAY: Cell subsets co-occurred in three distinct lymphoma microenvironment archetype profiles characterized by: sparsity of T cells with high frequencies of cancer-associated fibroblasts and tumor-associated macrophages; lymph node architectural cell types with naive and memory T cells; or activated macrophages and exhausted CD8+ T cells. Researchers identified that divergent patterns of cell-cell communication underpinned the transcriptional phenotypes of archetype-defining cell subsets. The Fibroblast/Macrophage archetype showed association with inferior outcomes following first-line rituximab plus chemotherapy treatment. Analysis revealed that patients with T-cell exhausted archetype tumors had significantly higher rates of progressive disease as best response to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy (4/6) compared to Lymph Node archetype (0/8; Fisher test, P = .017). IN PRACTICE: 'The assembly of nonmalignant components of human tumors into prototypical microenvironmental patterns, or archetypes, has been described across cancers. Each archetype consists of a dominant, interconnected cellular network that promotes tumor growth through divergent mechanisms. Furthermore, differences in cell frequency and function between microenvironment archetypes have been suggested as potential biomarkers for immunotherapy response,' the authors of the study wrote. SOURCE: The study was led by Michael Green, PhD, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It was published online in Cancer Cell . LIMITATIONS: According to the authors, the patient cohort's clinical heterogeneity, while reflecting real-world population, limited their ability to directly assess associations between archetypes and outcomes. The researchers noted that the Fibroblast/Macrophage archetype is linked to high-risk features and increases in prevalence in later therapy lines, while the Lymph Node archetype is associated with low-risk features and declines in prevalence, potentially skewing distribution among treated patients. The authors acknowledged uncertainty about whether LymphoMAPs remain stable between diagnosis and relapse or change with treatment. The researchers emphasized the need for studying LymphoMAP archetypes in uniformly treated cohorts and randomized trials, preferably with biopsies at both baseline and relapse. DISCLOSURES: The study received funding from the Schweitzer Family, the MD Anderson Lymphoid Malignancies Program and NCI P01 CA272295. Michael Green, PhD, reported ties with Sanofi, Kite/Gilead, Abbvie, Allogene, Bristol Myers Squibb, Arvinas, Johnson & Johnson, Daiichi Sankyo, and DAVA Oncology and stock ownership in KDAc Therapeutics. Todd Fehniger, MD, PhD, disclosed being an inventor on patent applications held by Washington University, as well as having relationships with Wugen Inc, Orca Bio, Indapta Therapeutics, HCW Biologics Inc, Affimed, AI Proteins, and the National Institutes of Health. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.
Forbes
30 minutes ago
- Forbes
SpaceX Rocket Explodes Into Giant Fireball During Test At Texas Starbase Facility
SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded into a massive fireball while it was being prepared for a flight test at its Starbase testing facility in Texas on Wednesday night, marking the latest in a series of explosions that have marred the testing of the rocket company's most powerful launch vehicle. FILE PHOTO- SpaceX's mega rocket Starship exploded during a test on Wednesday night. The explosion took place around 11 p.m. CDT and was captured on SpaceX's livestream as the Starship rocket was being prepared for a flight test. In a statement, the company said it was preparing the Starship for its tenth flight test when it 'experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand.' SpaceX said the safety clear area around the rocket test site was 'maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.' The company said there are 'no hazards to residents in surrounding communities,' but urged locals to ' not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.' A spokesperson for the Brownsville Fire Department told ABC affiliate KRGV-TV that firefighters have been dispatched to the site of the explosion, but the full scale of the incident was unknown to them. This is a developing story.
CBS News
39 minutes ago
- CBS News
SpaceX Starship upper stage explodes during ramp-up to expected engine test firing
A SpaceX Starship upper stage exploded in a spectacular conflagration during ramp-up to an expected engine test firing at the company's Starbase manufacturing facility on the Texas Gulf Coast late Wednesday, destroying the rocket in what appears to be a major setback for the Super Heavy-Starship vehicle Elon Musk says is critical to the company's future. Video from LabPadre, a company that monitors SpaceX activities at Starbase, showed the Starship suddenly exploded in a huge fireball just after 11 p.m. CDT, 10 to 15 minutes before the anticipated engine test firing, sending flaming debris shooting away into the overnight sky from a churning fireball that engulfed the test stand. A SpaceX Starship upper stage blew up late on June 18, 2025 at the SpaceX Starbase manufacturing facility on the Texas Gulf Coast. LabPadre via Storyful The video showed what appeared to be two major explosions, the first detonation near the nose of the rocket followed a moment later by a second eruption of flame and debris on the left side of the spacecraft. The test stand disappeared in a billowing fireball that rose into the overnight sky like a bomb blast. The Starship was being filled with a full load of liquid oxygen and a partial load of high-energy methane fuel when the detonations occurred. Ninety minutes after the initial blast, fires appeared to still be burning out of control at what is known as the Massey test site, where cryogenic testing and hotfire tests are typically conducted. "On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase," SpaceX said in a statement on the social media platform X. "A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for. Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. "There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area." The explosion's impact on the test site infrastructure was not immediately known. SpaceX has a history of making relatively quick recoveries from failures or setbacks but this mishap, along with destroying a nearly-ready-to-launch Starship, may have caused significant damage to Starbase infrastructure. In any case, the next test flight will be indefinitely delayed. Known as Ship 36, SpaceX was expected to launch the Starship atop a huge Super Heavy booster around the end of the month on the integrated rocket's tenth unpiloted test fight. Hotfire tests are a normal precursor to actual flights, allowing engineers to verify upgrades and overall performance prior to committing it to launch. SpaceX has launched nine Super Heavy-Starship test flights since April 2023. The first three flights ended with explosions or breakups that destroyed both stages. The fourth, fifth and sixth test flights were partially successful, but two of the three most recent flights ended with Starship explosions before the spacecraft could reach its planned sub-orbital trajectory. The third, most recent flight on May 27 reached its planned trajectory but spun out of control and broke up during atmospheric entry. NASA is counting on the giant rocket to launch a Starship variant carrying astronauts to a landing near the moon's south pole in the next two or three years. To get the Human Landing System -- HLS -- Starship variant to the moon, SpaceX will need to launch 10 to 20 Super Heavy-Starships to refuel the lander in low-Earth orbit before it can head for the moon to await the arrival of the astronauts aboard a Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule. Given the complexity of the architecture, the need to launch multiple Super Heavy-Starships, perfect the autonomous transfer of super cold propellants and new technology to keep the cryogenic liquid methane and oxygen from warming up and boiling away in space, failures like Wednesday's will make the schedule all the tougher to meet.
