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Wally Funk, a trailblazing aviation pioneer who was denied the opportunity to become a Nasa astronaut and half a century later became the oldest woman to travel into space, has died aged 87.

Funk died peacefully on Wednesday evening at her apartment in an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas, city councilwoman and close friend Duff O’Dell said on Thursday. O’Dell, who described herself as Funk’s caregiver, said she was by Funk’s side. Funk had fallen a couple of times recently and had an infection in her leg. “It took its toll,” O’Dell told the Associated Press.

“Wally was a beloved Grapevine resident whose extraordinary accomplishments and generous spirit left an enduring legacy,” the city of Grapevine shared on Facebook.

“The City of Grapevine proudly recognizes Wally Funk, whose extraordinary career has inspired generations by breaking barriers in aviation and space exploration. Funk continues to serve as a global symbol of determination, perseMore...verance, and excellence.”

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Within minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered carcasses – one after another.

Some were mixed in with washed up kelp. Others were under rocks.

Each month, scientists and volunteers conduct surveys of dead seabirds and find what Russell describes as a grim assessment of the impact of a massive marine heat wave that has lingered for months off parts of the California coast.

The surveys that have been carried out by various organizations for decades help build a baseline of information on beached sea life to detect threats and their impact.

Many seabirds, including California brown pelicans, loons and grebes, starved to death in recent months as record-setting ocean temperatures decreased the band of cold, nutrient-rich surface water where krill, anchovies and sardines thrive near the shore, said Russell, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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A well-worn expression among oceanographers and others who explore the watery depths of planet Earth is that we humans “know the surface of Mars better than our ocean floors.” Covering more than 70 percent of the world’s surface, oceans are notoriously difficult to study—not to mention pretty inhospitable to any creatures sans gills.

Case in point: Scientists from Tokyo University and Hokkaido University in Japan stumbled across some mysterious jet-black eggs while piloting a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of roughly 6,200 meters (or 3.85 miles).

This is the maximum depth of the abyssopelagic zone, which is the deepest layer of most of the ocean—hadopelagic zones are technically deeper, but only fill deep trenches. Any biological discovery in this zone is immensely important, as the life cycles of creatures living there are largely unknown.

Unsure what these eggs were, University of Tokyo marine researcher Yasunori Kano—who was at the controls of the ROV at the time—opted to retrieve a sample of the eggs for further analysis topside.

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Sometime on Oct. 21 of last year, high above the Arctic Circle, a lone missile shot skyward from a Russian island.

The missile flew northeast and then banked and began flying in loops for hours over the barren, frozen landscape.

According to Russian and Western sources, the new weapon, known in Russian as Burevestnik and by NATO as Skyfall, was powered by a small nuclear reactor. Few other details were forthcoming.

Now, two MIT researchers have published an analysis that sheds fresh light on how the nuclear-powered missile actually worked. If they are correct, the October flight test marks the first time a nuclear-powered aircraft has ever flown. It would also suggest the opening of an extraordinarily dangerous new chapter in the 21st century's simmering arms race.

"This is something that is possible, but wildly expensive and very dangerous," said Jake Hecla, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a dual appointment in both aerospace and nuclear science and engineering, who led the new analysis along with co-author R. Scott Kemp.

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‘This would have been a wild dream a year ago,” says Andrea Ceccolini, standing on Arctic sea ice just a 4-mile snowmobile ride from the Inuit town of Cambridge Bay, northern Canada. To his left are sky blue ponds of meltwater created in the last few days by a sun that no longer sets in the high north summer. To his right, the sea ice is still a brilliant white, the light dusting of snow on top continuing to sparkle.

“It’s incredibly different, the boundary – I mean, you can point to it,” he says. The difference is the result of a bold geoengineering experiment being conducted by Ceccolini’s company, Real Ice, funded by the UK government.

Five months earlier, the team had braved temperatures of -40C on the sea ice to drill holes and pump 50,000 tonnes of ocean water up on to its surface. It froze almost immediately, thickening the 1.5-metre-deep ice by about 50cm, according to the new measurements.

That has protected the ice, at the start of the melt season at least, and is an early sign that one day, perhaps, it may be possible to refreeze a significant part of the Arctic.

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Time to look up, stargazers – there’s going to be a planetary "kiss" on June 9.

You'll be able to spot the two brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus, with the naked eye at about 45 minutes after sunset on June 9. Mercury will be nearby as well. They will appear at their closest point of the convergence at 9:35 p.m. ET, according to EarthSky. The planets will trace the ecliptic plane, an imaginary line in the sky that marks the sun’s path. The moon and planets follow this same line.

Venus and Jupiter appear to align about once every 13 months, so the next time they meet in the sky will be on Aug. 5, 2027, but they’ll be obscured by the sun's light. The next visible rendezvous is expected to occur on Nov. 10, 2028, according to SkyandTelescope.

How to get the best view.

Using a set of binoculars will help, according to SkyandTelescope. Both planets will fit within the same field of vision, though it's preferable to watch this celestial spectacle without magnification. That means you can simply use your eyes.

A celestial optical illusion.

While they may look close in the sky, Venus and Jupiter are actually millions of miles apart.

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