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NASA just found out what these dark streaks on Mars are, and it's game-changing.

Over the weekend, NASA teased some very big news.

More specifically, all weekend long, the agency teased that a major Mars mystery was solved.


This morning's press conference, broadcast live from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on NASA Television and on the agency's website, did not disappoint.

A self-portrait of the Curiosity Mars rover. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

At 11:30 a.m. Sept. 28, 2015, NASA announced that, for the first time, they have evidence of flowing water on Mars.

They're called Recurring Slope Lineae, or RSL. They appear as dark streaks that begin in late spring, grow in the summer, and disappear by fall. Until now, NASA researchers couldn't explain what the streaks were.

Turns out, the streaks are evidence of salty water intermittently moving across the surface of the planet.

These dark, narrow streaks were formed by flowing water on Mars. Photo by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

But this isn't the first time water's been found on Mars.

(Wait, what?) Yep. Researchers discovered water frozen in small, salty puddles on the planet's surface at night and permafrost at Mars' poles.


Permafrost on the surface of Mars. Exciting. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

But this latest announcement and discovery marks the first time that flowing water has been found on the incredibly cold, harsh planet.

Evidence of moving water could be a huge step forward in the search for life, and it opens up possibilities when it comes to the red planet's ability to sustain human life.

So ... are we sending humans to Mars? Not just yet.


Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/Arizona State University.

Even with the discovery of moving water, inhabiting the red planet — or even sending humans for a visit — is still a long way off. (Sorry, Matt Damon).

So for now, NASA and other international space agencies are conducting dry runs here on Earth.

Last October, six strangers (three men and three women) were picked to live in a dome on a Hawaiian volcano for eight months to simulate a stay on Mars. NASA backed the study to see if people isolated from civilization can work together and get along. It was essentially "Real World: Red Planet."


Even with successful simulations, NASA estimates the first human-manned mission to Mars won't happen until the 2030s.

That may seem like a long time to wait, especially after today's announcement. But as Dr. Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, told the crowd at today's announcement, it's all about safety.

"NASA's approach to exploration is not 'Star Trek.' It's not 'go where no man has gone before,'" he said. "It's really a very methodical approach for which we learn everything about the environment that we're going to subject humans to that we possibly can. ... And I anticipate continuing to do that for many years before humans even get in the vicinity of Mars."

But! This is a major breakthrough, and it lays the groundwork for many missions to come.

While you can't drink the water on Mars (it's much too salty) and you can't grow crops with it (the atmosphere on Mars is too thin), finding moving water on Mars is truly unprecedented and opens a lot of doors for exciting missions and exploration to come.

As astronaut John Grunsfeld said at this morning's announcement, "We are on a journey to Mars, and science is leading the way."

Photo by NASA/Greg Shirah.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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A nasty note gets a strong response.

We've all seen it while cruising for spots in a busy parking lot: A person parks their whip in a disabled spot, then they walk out of their car and look totally fine. It's enough to make you want to vomit out of anger, especially because you've been driving around for what feels like a million years trying to find a parking spot.

You're obviously not going to confront them about it because that's all sorts of uncomfortable, so you think of a better, way less ballsy approach: leaving a passive aggressive note on their car's windshield.

Satisfied, you walk back to your car feeling proud of yourself for telling that liar off and even more satisfied as you walk the additional 100 steps to get to the store from your lame parking spot all the way at the back of the lot. But did you ever stop and wonder if you told off the wrong person?

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Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

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Health

8 nontraditional empathy cards that are unlike any you've ever seen. They're perfect!

Because sincerity and real talk are important during times of medical crisis.

True compassion.

When someone you know gets seriously ill, it's not always easy to come up with the right words to say or to find the right card to give.

Emily McDowell — a former ad agency creative director and the woman behind the Los Angeles-based greeting card and textile company Emily McDowell Studio — knew all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of uncomfortable sentiments.

At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma. She went into remission after nine months of chemo and has remained cancer-free since, but she received her fair share of misplaced, but well-meaning, wishes before that.

On her webpage introducing the awesome cards you're about to see, she shared,

"The most difficult part of my illness wasn't losing my hair, or being erroneously called 'sir' by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo. It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn't know what to say or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it."

Her experience inspired Empathy Cards — not quite "get well soon" and not quite "sympathy," they were created so "the recipients of these cards [can] feel seen, understood, and loved."

Scroll down to read these sincere, from-the-heart, and incredibly realistic sentiments.

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Health

This woman's powerful 'before and after' photos crush myths about body positivity

"Body positivity is about saying that you are more than a body and your self-worth is not reliant on your beauty."



Michelle Elman, a body positivity coach, helps people who are struggling to find confidence in their own skin.

After persevering through numerous medical conditions and surgeries in her own life, Elman realized a few years ago that body positivity wasn't just about size or weight. Things like scars, birthmarks, and anything else that makes us feel different of self-conscious have to be a part of the conversation, and she tries to make the movement accessible to everyone.

Sharing her own journey has been one of her most effective teaching tools.

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via wakaflockafloccar / TikTok

It's amazing to consider just how quickly the world has changed over the past 11 months. If you were to have told someone in February 2020 that the entire country would be on some form of lockdown, nearly everyone would be wearing a mask, and half a million people were going to die due to a virus, no one would have believed you.

Yet, here we are.

PPE masks were the last thing on Leah Holland of Georgetown, Kentucky's mind on March 4, 2020, when she got a tattoo inspired by the words of a close friend.

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