deerstalker
The Perseverance rover on Mars dropped off a tube of rock samples and it looks like it came straight from a galaxy far, far away. There’s (probably) no kyber crystals inside, but it bears a strong resemblance to a lightsaber. Somehow we doubt that the design similarities are an accident. There’s probably a bunch of Star Wars-loving nerds at NASA geeking out over this moment as well. If you’ve seen Apollo 13, you’ll know that NASA is also capable of the same kit-bashing skills that led to the iconic lightsaber hilts.
Whether or not the sample holder is meant to look like a lightsaber, the task of returning them to Earth is a big deal. Each hilt (or sample tube) is filled with a sample collected by Perseverance. NASA shares information about each one, including pictures from the rover of the drill site. Not counting the pet rock it picked up in its wheel while roving around Mars, Perseverance has collected 18 samples. The rover dropped the first one at a potential pickup spot near its original landing site. Next, it took the picture above to make sure the sample hadn’t rolled under the rover’s wheels. It will drop more lightsabers/tubes over the course of the next two months. But it also holds onto duplicates of each sample in case anything goes wrong.
Returning the samples to Earth is a long term goal. NASA is aiming to put a lander on Mars in 2028 and the samples may not make it back to Earth until 2033. Even then, scientists would preserve some of the the rocks for decades. That way, they can be analyzed with technology that doesn’t even exist yet. Researchers did the same with lunar samples collected by the Apollo program, some of which they are just now studying 50 years later.
If you want your own lightsaber/Perseverance sample tube, you can try kit-bashing your own build. Or put one together on your next trip to Savi’s Workshop at Galaxy’s Edge in the Disney theme parks. That way, you’ll get to choose what color your lightsaber is. We assume all those coming back from Mars will be red.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
The post Perseverance Rover Dropped a ‘Lightsaber’ on Mars appeared first on Nerdist.
The Perseverance rover on Mars dropped off a tube of rock samples and it looks like it came straight from a galaxy far, far away. There’s (probably) no kyber crystals inside, but it bears a strong resemblance to a lightsaber. Somehow we doubt that the design similarities are an accident. There’s probably a bunch of Star Wars-loving nerds at NASA geeking out over this moment as well. If you’ve seen Apollo 13, you’ll know that NASA is also capable of the same kit-bashing skills that led to the iconic lightsaber hilts.
Whether or not the sample holder is meant to look like a lightsaber, the task of returning them to Earth is a big deal. Each hilt (or sample tube) is filled with a sample collected by Perseverance. NASA shares information about each one, including pictures from the rover of the drill site. Not counting the pet rock it picked up in its wheel while roving around Mars, Perseverance has collected 18 samples. The rover dropped the first one at a potential pickup spot near its original landing site. Next, it took the picture above to make sure the sample hadn’t rolled under the rover’s wheels. It will drop more lightsabers/tubes over the course of the next two months. But it also holds onto duplicates of each sample in case anything goes wrong.
Returning the samples to Earth is a long term goal. NASA is aiming to put a lander on Mars in 2028 and the samples may not make it back to Earth until 2033. Even then, scientists would preserve some of the the rocks for decades. That way, they can be analyzed with technology that doesn’t even exist yet. Researchers did the same with lunar samples collected by the Apollo program, some of which they are just now studying 50 years later.
If you want your own lightsaber/Perseverance sample tube, you can try kit-bashing your own build. Or put one together on your next trip to Savi’s Workshop at Galaxy’s Edge in the Disney theme parks. That way, you’ll get to choose what color your lightsaber is. We assume all those coming back from Mars will be red.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
The post Perseverance Rover Dropped a ‘Lightsaber’ on Mars appeared first on Nerdist.
Despite their tendency to stomp on major cities and cause billions in property damage, people just love Godzilla and his fellow kaiju. In fact, we love them so much that we kind of wish we could have them as pets. Pets that happen to have the ability to spit atomic fire on everyone who annoys us. Well, we might not be able to have any kaiju as pets in real life. But now, we have these adorable, squishable mini versions, and they’re really the next best thing. Yes, Godzilla Squishmallows are now available, and you can own Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla.
Thanks to US Today News (via Comic Book), we’ve seen the first images of Godzilla and his pals from their own collection of 8″ Squishmallows. The four-part line was announced this week, and Toy Drops is overseeing the distribution of these adorable little beasts. Along with the King of the Monsters, the first wave of four includes Rodan, Mothra, and Mechagodzilla. You can check out several images right here.
Squishmallows Godzilla actually looks a lot like adorable nephew Godzooky from the old 1970s Godzilla cartoon. Mothra looks like some kind of lost Pokemon character from the ’90s. Little Mechagodzilla looks like what would happen if R2-D2 and BB-8 had a very angry baby. And Rodan looks like “what if a Cabbage Patch Kid was also a dinosaur?” Which is not a bad thing at all.
Godzilla and pals follow other licensed Squishmallows toys like Pokemon, which had Gengar and Pikachu selling out almost instantly. The Nightmare Before Christmas characters like Jack and Sally have some Squishmallows too, and even Spider-Man Miles Morales has one. But we think that the Japanese kaiju are the cutest ones so far. Sorry about it, Jack Skellington. There’s just nothing cuter than a tiny cuddly version of a deadly prehistoric monster that breathes fire and really hates Tokyo. You can order these precious monsters right here.
The post Squishmallows Godzilla, Mothra, and More Make For Adorable Squishable Toys appeared first on Nerdist.
Rian Johnson, et al, like to call his Benoit Blanc movies whodunnits, and they are, but not the way you’d assume. Knives Out starts as a whodunnit, morphs into a paranoid thriller where we’re rooting for the supposed murderer, only for it to morph back into a whodunnit by the end. Johnson’s follow-up, Glass Onion, on Netflix now, does a similar switcheroo. We think we’re watching one thing, with one victim and an unknown murderer, only to find out it’s something very different. But the biggest twist of Glass Onion is that there really wasn’t a twist at all.
Major spoilers from here on out, folks.
The setup of Glass Onion finds gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) joining a murder mystery trip to billionaire tech mogul Miles Bron’s (Edward Norton) lavish (ridiculously so) private island. The mystery starts right away. Why has Blanc been invited? Why would Bron’s jilted former partner Andi (Janelle Monae) show her face? And who could possibly be out to kill Bron for real?
The entire first act sets all the pieces into place. We learn about Andi having started the company and Bron promptly snaking his way into getting it all for himself. All of their supposed friends side with Bron, which has given them their own successes. But Andi’s presence puts everyone on edge, especially Bron who assumes she’s out to get him for real. Well, that’s sort of true. Men’s rights Twitch streamer Cody (Dave Bautista) dies suddenly and Bron believes the killer will strike him, only for Andi to end up dead.
Or so it seems. We then cut back to before the trip to learn the true-true. The woman we, and everyone, believes is Andi is actually her twin sister Helen. Andi is already dead, and Helen wants Blanc’s help in uncovering who killed her. This is a fun revelation because it lets the audience know Blanc was in on things from the start. Helen makes herself up to be Andi and arrives on the island with no one the wiser.
So then who killed Cody? And who shot Helen believing it be Andi? Occam’s razor this shit. The big twist, as Blanc tells the room, is not that it was some clever concoction by a genius, but the depraved act of a scared moron. Bron killed Andi, and Bron swapped his drink with pineapple in it with the pineapple-allergic Cody. He learned the truth and planned to expose him. Then during the hubbub, Bron shot Helen believing her to be Andi. It was all incredibly obvious, really, but we, like Blanc initially, expected something far more complex. Nope!
Like Knives Out, the resolution to Glass Onion feels a bit weird when you first see it. That’s not what you expected. But that’s exactly what Rian Johnson does best. We expect a criminal mastermind and instead get a rich doofus who thinks he’s better because he has money. The big twist is not who killed anyone, it’s how the killer will get their comeuppance. Nothing as sweet at the holiday like 1%ers facing consequences. It’s downright Dickensian.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
The post GLASS ONION’s Big Whodunnit Twist, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.