McKenzie Prillaman, Science News Journalist Profile

Articles

Two spacecraft created their first images of an artificial solar eclipse

5 days ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

It takes two to tango. Or at least to imitate a total solar eclipse from space. Two spacecraft orbiting Earth have begun to mimic the phenomenon, with images from one of the duo’s successful early attempts unveiled on June 16. These artificial eclipses — produced when one satellite blocks the other’s view of the sun — will help researchers better understand the solar system’s star, specifically its outermost atmosphere: the corona.
Distant nebulas star in one of the first images from the Rubin Observatory

5 days ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

Clouds of gas and dust swirl within a nebula 5,000 light-years away, seen in more detail than ever before. With this view of the Lagoon Nebula — and the much farther Trifid Nebula in the upper right — the Vera C. Rubin Observatory makes its public debut. This image and others unveiled in a livestream June 23 offer just a glimpse of what the observatory will capture over the next 10 years from its perch atop Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the Chilean Andes.
Black hole-shredded megastars power a new class of cosmic explosions

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

Massive stars know how to go out in style. Some of the brightest, longest-lived flares probably come from megastars getting shredded by supermassive black holes, researchers report in the June 6 Science Advances. This new class of cosmic explosions — dubbed extreme nuclear transients, or ENTs — release more energy than any other known transient, an event that changes brightness in the night sky.
Here’s how a collision of star remnants launches a gleaming jet

2 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

When the remnants of two stars collide, their union can launch a dazzling jet of high energy matter. A new computer simulation reveals how the merger, which forms a black hole, emits that bright beam, researchers report in the May 30 Physical Review Letters. Scientists found in 2020 that gravitational waves detected a year earlier came from two neutron stars — dense leftovers of exploded stars — paired up in a system 3.4 times the mass of the sun.
The ‘bone collector’ caterpillar wears its prey as camouflage

2 weeks ago | snexplores.org | McKenzie Prillaman

abdomen: This is the central, "gut" region of a vertebrate animal's body; it contains the digestive organs. In mammals, this body segment tends to sit between the diaphragm and pelvis. beetle: An order of insects known as Coleoptera, containing at least 350,000 different species. Adults tend to have hard and/or horn-like “forewings” which covers the wings used for flight. bug: The slang term for an insect. Sometimes it’s even used to refer to a germ.
A possible new dwarf planet skirts the solar system’s edge

3 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

A possible cousin of Pluto seems to be circling the far reaches of the solar system. The dwarf planet candidate 2017 OF201 travels in a superwide orbit, with the sun relatively near one end of its huge elliptical path, researchers report in a paper submitted May 21 to arXiv.org. Its route differs from those of other distant large objects in a way that may challenge the idea that the solar system houses an undiscovered planet.
A private Japanese spacecraft failed on its way to the moon's surface

3 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

A Japanese lunar lander called Resilience failed to softly touch down on the moon’s surface on June 5. The spacecraft’s status is currently unknown after Tokyo-based company ispace lost communication with it, but the lander was unable to decelerate properly. The company is calling it quits on the current mission. “This is our second failure, and by these results, we have to really take it seriously,” ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada said during a June 5 press briefing.
Wet fingers always wrinkle in the same way

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

Summertime soaks in the pool often leave fingertips shriveled and pruney. Each time someone goes for a dip, their digits wrinkle in the exact same patterns, researchers report in the May Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. That’s because the folds follow the paths of blood vessels below the skin’s surface, which generally stay in place. Many people think that fingers and toes wrinkle when wet because the skin swells when it absorbs water.
FDA significantly limits access to COVID-19 vaccines

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is changing its policy on who should get COVID-19 shots, potentially limiting access to new vaccine formulations as they enter the market. New and updated jabs will be approved only for people ages 65 and up, as well as those between 6 months and 64 years with at least one medical condition that heightens their risk for severe outcomes, according to the new FDA framework unveiled May 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
What gene makes orange cats orange? Scientists figured it out

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | McKenzie Prillaman

Orange cats are so goofy that people joke that the chaotic kitties share one communal brain cell. But most of these domestic felines — along with multicolored calicos and tortoiseshells — actually do share something: a single genetic mutation that makes their fur ginger, researchers report in two studies published May 15 in Current Biology.