Musk’s Money, Ceres Habitat, Cow Science and More Mysterious News Briefly — January 8, 2021

Mysterious News Briefly — January 8, 2021

After a number of failed launches and explosions in 2020 at the SpaceX launch facility in South Texas near Boca Chica Beach, the FAA is asking for public input on whether SpaceX should be allowed to expand there. You’ll know it’s been approved when you see every resident of Boca Chica Beach driving a Tesla.

China’s space program has three major missions scheduled in the next few months to begin building its new three-module space station in low Earth orbit. Crew members on the ISS are probably hoping it’s nearby, stocked with Chinese food and makes deliveries.

In a new study that sounds a lot like the plot of the sci-fi book and TV series “The Expanse,” Finnish researchers propose building a permanent human habitat made of connected megasatellites equipped with artificial gravity in the orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. If scientists are turning to TV series to inspire future space missions, most people would rather they use Star Trek.

Identical twins may form from the same egg and get the same genetic material from their parents, but a new study found that they pick up on the average 5.2 genetic mutations in the womb that actually make them non-identical at birth. Get ready for your formerly identical twins to start arguing that “Mom always liked your genome best!”

In an effort to “infuse curiosity” among its young people and to “sensitize and educate” them about the bovine species, the government of India will conduct a nationwide voluntary online examination on cow science next month, with an emphasis on the products that can be made from cow dung and urine. It’s a multiple choice test, with ‘None of the above’ as a possible answer but not ‘Eww.’

Before you buy that next 50-pound bag of dog food, a new study reports that humans feeding leftover lean meat to wolves during the harsh winters at the end of the last Ice Age (14,000 to 29,000 years ago) may have helped the bonding that led to the early domestication of dogs. They found the wolves preferred meat from horses, so you may want to give Fido your leftover hotdogs.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service – the European Union’s climate monitoring system – reports that 2020 tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, and this occurred without help from an El Nino climate event which spreads warm air from the equatorial Pacific around the globe. How hot was 2020? It was so hot, those mysterious monoliths still standing can now be used as space heaters.

Researchers at the Institut Curie in Paris, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics found a genetic mutation in the cilia and flagella of male sperm cells can cause them to steer off-course on their way to the egg and may contribute to male infertility. Could this also be the same reason males refuse to use maps?

After sending a probe filled with asteroid Ryugu’s rocks and soil safely back to Earth, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft fired up its engines and is now on its way to a small asteroid called 2001 CC21 where it’s expected to arrive in July 2026. After hearing about what happened to Ryugu, will 2001 CC21 turn its dark side to Hayabusa2 and hide?

Elon Musk announced that Tesla Inc. shares increased by 7.9% in 2020, putting his net worth at $194.8 billion, or $9.5 billion more than Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and making him the world’s richest person. At this point, wouldn’t it be cheaper for him just to buy Mars?

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