Solar eclipses are viewed as must-see phenomena, but bees don't treat them that way, a study in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America says.
What we're hearing: Nothing. During the 2017 solar eclipse, bees were completely silent. As the full shadow of the moon covered up sunlight, bees stopped buzzing. They resumed activity shortly after the moon's alignment between the Earth and the sun shifted and daylight returned.
Drone footage released Thursday shows the devastation left by Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, which slammed the Florida Panhandle as a near-Category 5 hurricane, packing sustained winds of 155 mph.
NASA is citing an issue with a Russian Soyuz booster rocket as the cause of the aborted launch of a rocket carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, two minutes after takeoff from Russia Thursday morning.
Details: The rocket reached about 31 miles in altitude — just below the boundary of space — when the failure occurred, Deputy Chief Astronaut Reid Wiseman said during a press conference Thursday. The crew landed approximately 11 miles outside of Zhezqazghan, a small city in central Kazakhstan. NASA officials praised Russian rescue efforts for retrieving both crews safely.
Hurricane Michael has wreaked havoc in the Florida Panhandle since making landfall as a Category 4 storm Wednesday afternoon, killing at least two people and creating "catastrophic" damage in the region.
The big picture: Hurricane Michael exploded from a tropical storm to a near-Category 5 hurricane in just four days, making it one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the continental U.S.
Hurricane Michael intensified at an extraordinarily rapid pace, growing from a tropical storm on Sunday to a borderline Category 5 storm featuring one of the lowest air pressure readings ever observed in a landfalling hurricane in the U.S. by Wednesday.
Why it matters: Hurricane Michael is occurring just days after the United Nations released a major report on climate change, concluding that potentially irreversible and major consequences, including extreme weather events, will grow far worse much earlier than previously thought.
Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach, Fla., as a high-end Category 4 storm early Wednesday afternoon, killing at least two people and causing catastrophic damage.
The big picture: It's the strongest such storm on record to hit the Florida Panhandle and one of the strongest ever to strike the continental U.S. — and it severely impacted Florida's electricity grid and oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
An American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut are safe after an emergency landing occurred when their launch from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station failed, per the AP.
The big picture: The failed launch, which had NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on hand in an attempt to improve U.S.-Russia relations, caused Russia to temporarily suspend further manned space launches. The U.S. relies on Russian Soyuz booster rockets to ferry American astronauts to the ISS after NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011.
This chart shows every Atlantic storm tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 1987, including Hurricane Michael. The higher the line within each year, the higher the recorded wind speed.
By the numbers: Hurricane Michael exploded from a tropical storm to a near-Category 5 hurricane in just four days — that's why the chart shows such a rapid increase in wind speed. It hit the Florida panhandle with the third-lowest atmospheric pressure of any storm ever to hit the continental United States (919 millibars), and was among the five strongest by sustained winds at landfall (155 mph).
Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach, Florida as a high-end Category 4 storm early Wednesday afternoon — the strongest such storm on record to hit the Florida Panhandle and one of the strongest ever to strike the continental U.S.
Why it matters: This storm has caused catastrophic damage in parts of the Florida Panhandle where the core of the storm first moved ashore. Hurricane Michael will continue to cause damage overnight as it moves through Georgia and into South Carolina, with hundreds of thousands likely losing power. The storm has set milestones even as it moved further inland, becoming the first Category 3 storm to hit Georgia in 120 years (and doing so after it passed through another state, no less).
Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, at 1:40 pm ET, as a powerful Category 4 storm. Professional storm chasers and journalists are capturing the massive storm and the damage it is causing to the Florida Panhandle, packing 155 mph sustained winds as of 1:30 pm ET.
Hurricane Michael's eye, as viewed from space. GIF: NASA
Hurricane Michael has made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, at 1:40 p.m., as a powerful Category 4 storm. Its minimum central air pressure of 919 millibars and maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour put it on the cusp of Category 5 status.
The big picture: The storm ranks as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S., with a minimum air pressure comparable to Hurricanes Camille, Andrew and Katrina. It is the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the Florida Panhandle, and catastrophic damage is expected near the landfall zone. Wind damage and power outages will extend inland to Tallahassee and southern Georgia.
Florida Democrats have filed an injunction calling for a registration extension of at least a week as Hurricane Michael hits Florida as one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes ever.
The big picture: Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is running against Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson for a Senate seat, has extended the voter registration deadline for areas impacted by Hurricane Michael to one day after offices are able to re-open. Democrats want the deadline, which was originally October 9, extended to October 16, per USA Today.
The Weather Channel's Mike Bettes tried to evacuate his crew from near the landfall location of an intensifying Hurricane Michael, but the meteorologist — who was injured in 2013 while chasing tornadoes for the network — was forced to turn back.
Why it matters: TV networks may have placed reporters in harms' way, near the water and where the core of the storm's strongest winds could cause "catastrophic" damage. The Weather Channel has some of the most experienced weather experts in the business, so for them to try to evacuate as the storm approached is a sign of the storm's fury.
Hurricane Michael explosively intensified on Tuesday night into a powerful Category 3 storm, and is now forecast to road ashore Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane in the central Florida Panhandle. Barring a last-minute weakening trend, this would put the storm into the history books as one of the most intense hurricanes ever to strike the Florida Panhandle, with the worst of the storm hitting between Pensacola and Apalachicola.
The big picture: Michael has the potential to cause "catastrophic damage" from strong winds and a potentially huge storm surge that will be pushed into the state's Panhandle and Big Bend region, the National Weather Service says. The storm is moving steadily northward toward the Florida Panhandle, with time having run out for residents to prepare. It is forecast to continue intensifying through the time of landfall sometime Wednesday.
