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Nut Zero

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully shot a laser toward India's Vikram lander on the Moon. However‚ this was not the first shot in a new space war but a carefully planned scientific experiment. The laser traveled about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from orbit to the surface of the Moon‚ hitting a target just 5 centimeters (2 inches) wide. It was the first time a laser was shot from around the Moon to a target on its surface. The tiny Oreo-sized target‚ a Laser Retroreflector Array‚ was placed on the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s Vikram lander. The laser bounced off the target and was picked up again by NASA as it whizzed around the Moon. Bouncing light to and from satellites is used on Earth to know where they are in their orbit. On the Moon‚ this approach could be used to determine the precise location of a stationary object. “We’ve shown that we can locate our retroreflector on the surface from the Moon’s orbit‚” mission leader Xiaoli Sun‚ from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center‚ said in a statement. “The next step is to improve the technique so that it can become routine for missions that want to use these retroreflectors in the future.”The Laser Retroreflector Array has eight quartz-corner-cube prisms set into a dome-shaped aluminum frame.Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterXiaoli Sun’s team developed the retroreflector on Vikram as part of a partnership between NASA and ISRO. The device can reflect light coming from any direction. It is also completely optical‚ so it doesn’t require power or maintenance. This means they could keep finding the precise location of Vikram over and over again for decades to come. Vikram is no longer functional so it's not actually going anywhere‚ but future missions will move on the Moon‚ and knowing where they are will be important.Surprisingly the difficulty was not the target. Retroreflectors on the Moon about the size of a suitcase have been used since the Apollo era. Thanks to those we know that the Moon is moving away from us by 3.8 centimeters (1.5 inches) every year. NASA used the only laser instrument around the Moon right now‚ the Lunar Orbiter's altimeter‚ LOLA. LOLA‚ which has been working 13 years beyond its primary mission so far‚ was not designed to hit such a small target‚ usually aiming for an area 10 meters wide.      “We would like LOLA to point to this Oreo-sized target and hit it every time‚ which is hard‚” said Daniel Cremons‚ a NASA Goddard scientist who works with Sun.It took LOLA eight goes to hit the Vikram retroreflector but if LOLA can do it‚ specialized future lasers could easily make retroreflectors a crucial technology for future lunar missions. NASA also has a retroreflector on Japan's SLIM‚ which landed on the Moon on Friday. We shall see if LOLA can repeat the same impressive feat again.

The yellow-winged bat is a vibrant species that comes in brilliant yellow‚ found flapping across countries in Africa. They’re one of five species of false vampire bats from the continent‚ but that’s not the only fake thing about them.Yellow-winged bats (Lavia frons) are around 58–80 millimeters (2.3–3.1 inches) in size with the females typically a little larger than the males. This comes in handy when they’re with pup‚ as the females have the laborious task of flying around with their babies clinging on. A recent preprint revealed how carrying young can influence a female bat’s flying ability.“Our results suggest that pregnancy has a significant effect on flight in female bats‚ with a particularly strong impact on achieving upward motion after emergence‚” wrote the authors of the preprint that hasn’t yet undergone peer review. "However‚ the higher wingbeat rate per second recorded from bats flying during the pregnancy period implies that bats acclimate to such changes in body mass by altering their flight behaviors to sustain upward motion while pregnant.”Not an easy task‚ then‚ but the female yellow-winged bat has a sneaky set of tools to make the process a little easier for her freeloading carry-on. Close to her anus sits a pair of false nipples that the pup uses as a way of clinging on. The fake nipples mean the female can continue foraging and feeding while she carries her pup for several weeks after birth. It’s an unusual setup‚ but for the yellow-winged bat‚ it works.The pups hang onto their flying moms with the aid of false nipples.Image credit: abubakaringim via iNaturalist‚ CC BY-NC 4.0“The mother-young attachment was secure: young Lavia held a 'false' (non-functional) inguinal nipple in its mouth‚ wrapped its legs around its mother's neck‚ and clutched the back of her neck with its feet‚” wrote the authors of a 1987 observation of yellow-winged bat parental behavior.“The young periodically released its hold on a false nipple and suckled from a pectoral nipple. Occasionally the young released its hold with its mouth‚ suddenly dropped down and hung pendant‚ grasping the mother's neck with its feet. From this position the young could stretch‚ groom‚ or flap its wings.”Human babies might not cling to false nipples on their parents’ butts (thankfully)‚ but we do get our own kind of false nipple. Known as supernumerary nipples‚ they affect around 6 percent of the popular and are present from birth‚ but often get mistaken for moles.The other false thing about yellow-winged bats is their vampire status‚ being one of five false vampires found across Africa. Falling into the familiar Megadermatidae‚ the false vampires get their name for their superficial resemblance to true vampire bats‚ but crucially‚ they have a much broader diet that encompasses insects‚ small vertebrates‚ and fruits‚ rather than just chugging blood.The yellow-winged bat looks more Pokémon than animal‚ so it seems fitting that it has a couple of special moves up its sleeve. Or anus‚ as it were.