I’m often asked about the space probes that are leaving the solar system, never to return. There are five of them: Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 – all launched in the 1970s – and New Horizons, which began its journey to Pluto and beyond in 2006.
It can take a long time for a crow to forgive your transgressions – perhaps as long as 17 years! And it’s a similar story for the Australian magpie. Luckily, they take bribes!
An annual festival now celebrates the story of Frederick Fisher’s ghost.
Famed for whale sharks, Ningaloo is also a safe nursery for lactating humpback whales and their newborn calves.
Once in a while, our planet reminds us of its awesome power by releasing a little of the magma that permeates its mantle in a volcanic eruption.
The way ahead is blocked by an imposing jumble of jet-black boulders precariously stacked on each other. Beneath this is an eerie underworld of secret chambers where giant pythons and carnivorous ghost bats lurk.
As I was coming up the rickety steps of the Zanci Homestead dugout in Mungo National Park several years ago, something slapped me in the face and squeaked. My head snapped up to see, 10cm from my face, a welcome swallow defending its nest site. I was definitely not welcome!
A crunching of the numbers reveals some extremely sobering facts about the carnage caused by feral cats in Australia.
One of the many mysteries of Stonehenge – where its Altar Stone came from – has recently been solved by Australian scientists.
Ask almost anyone which planet has rings around it, and you’ll get the answer “Saturn”, especially if they’ve ever viewed it through a telescope. But not many people know that the other gas giants in our Solar System – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – also have rings, although they’re much fainter than those of Saturn.