Arts, Science and Technology Educational Corporation of Tehachapi

06/15/2026

The seven foot (2.15 meter) wooden canoe was discovered in 2021 about 15 feet (4.6 meters) below the surface of a freshwater cenote near Chichén Itzá in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Remarkably well preserved, researchers believe it may have been used in sacred rituals rather than for transportation.

The discovery became even more intriguing when divers found the remains of a dog, eagle, turkey, armadillo, and a human foot bone nearby. To the ancient Maya, cenotes were considered entrances to the underworld, where offerings were made to the gods and the spirits of the dead.

The canoe’s heavy construction would have made it poorly suited for everyday travel, strengthening the theory that it served a ceremonial purpose. While early testing suggested it dates to the 16th century, additional analysis is underway to determine its true age.

More than just a canoe, the discovery provides a fascinating look at the beliefs of the ancient Maya and the ceremonies they may have carried out at what they saw as the entrance to the underworld.

📸: National Institute of Anthropology and History

05/29/2026

It is amazing that ALVIN will re-launch this year!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18tyjUNCaN/

05/19/2026

05/19/2026

05/19/2026

This is brilliant

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1J4txgFk8B/

05/09/2026

Happy 100th birthday to David Attenborough!

Sir David Attenborough is a renowned British broadcaster, natural historian, and environmental advocate who has dedicated more than seventy years to documenting the natural world.

*If you see him trying to play with LEGO, they are to be confiscated immediately*

05/09/2026

Read that again. A nuclear-powered robot is picking up a rock that has been sitting on Mars for billions of years on a planet 140 million miles away from us.

Not a simulation. Not a rendering. An actual machine we built, launched into space, and landed on another planet, where it has been operating continuously for over 13 years. Curiosity runs on a plutonium-238 nuclear battery called an RTG. No solar panels. No charging. Just steady power from decaying radioactive material, enough to keep it drilling, analyzing, photographing, and transmitting data across the solar system every single day regardless of dust storms, freezing nights, or the complete absence of anyone nearby to fix it if something goes wrong.

The rock its arm is touching has sat in that exact spot since before complex life existed on Earth. Before fish. Before dinosaurs. Before humans. Before every civilization that has ever risen and fallen on this planet. Undisturbed for billions of years until a machine from Earth reached out and touched it.

Every command sent to Curiosity takes between 3 and 22 minutes to arrive. Engineers on Earth cannot control it in real time. They plan instructions hours in advance, send them across 140 million miles of empty space, and wait. The rover makes decisions autonomously. It navigates hazards, protects itself, and continues the mission without anyone holding its hand. We built something capable of doing science on another planet independently for over a decade. That is not normal. That is one of the most extraordinary things our species has ever done. And most people scrolled past it today without a second thought.

05/09/2026

Nature’s geometry meets the edge of the universe. 🌌
​Check out this incredible alignment over the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert! Those striking, parallel bands are Undulatus clouds, formed by periodic waves of air cooling just enough to turn water v***r into visible "stripes."
​While they look like they’re converging on the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes, it’s actually a beautiful optical illusion caused by the wide-angle lens. Right place, right time, and a quick-thinking photographer! 📸
​Credit: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

05/09/2026

KELT-9b's dayside reaches 4,000 degrees Celsius.

For comparison, the surface of our Sun is approximately 5,500°C. KELT-9b's atmosphere is approximately 73% as hot as the photosphere of our own star.

Iron melts at 1,538°C. Titanium melts at 1,668°C. Both v***rize at temperatures far below 4,000°C.

On KELT-9b, iron and titanium are not solid, not liquid — they are v***r. They exist in the atmosphere as gases, forming the clouds of this planet. Not water droplets. Not ice crystals. Metal v***r.

Imagine a planet where the weather is made of molten iron.

KELT-9b orbits its host star in just 36 hours — completing a full year every day and a half. The stellar radiation is so intense that the atmosphere is being continuously stripped away, leaving a tail of escaping material trailing behind the planet in its orbit.

A place where neither time has meaning nor matter has stability.

This planet is not a world. It is a furnace. And the furnace is winning. 🔥