Scientists don’t expect to get their hands on Martian soil anytime soon, so they’re making their own.

Created by University of Central Florida astrophysicists, this red soil, called Mars “simulant,” is designed to give researchers a useful approximation of the actual, far-off extraterrestrial soil. This might be especially relevant for testing the growth of crops, or how exploration equipment might fare on the surface.

At $20 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has already placed an order, according to the university. 

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Source: Mashable | Scientists make artificial Martian dirt, will sell it to you for

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

It’s been an exhausting few days, so let’s take a moment to appreciate Beautiful Illinois. 

I’m not talking about the state of Illinois, though I’m sure it’s great. I’m talking about @IllinoisViews, a Twitter account dedicated to posting the most breathtaking photos of their beloved Prairie State. Kind of. 

The account, which offers no information about its creators, tweets stunning photos of other places and insists they’re in Illinois.  Read more…

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Source: Mashable | All the most beautiful places in the world are in Illinois, according to this Twitter account

Saturday Night Live‘s recurring Weekend Update sketch is usually a rapid-fire series of one-liners cracking jokes at the top headlines of the week. It’s telling that this five-minute segment from the show’s Season 44 premiere focused only on one thing: Brett Kavanaugh.

Hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost — who look much more at home here after their questionable Emmy Awards appearance — trade barbs back and forth, touching on Kavanaugh’s angry demeanor during Thursday’s Senate hearing, his beer-soaked high school years, and his overall (lack of) fitness for the job of Supreme Court justice.  Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Here's five minutes of 'Saturday Night Live' Weekend Update trashing Brett Kavanaugh

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable‘s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Some days are so damaging to your faith in humanity, you may find yourself idly wishing for the cleansing global firestorm that would follow an impact from the kind of asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

If that’s the case, then astrophysicist and planetary scientist Michael Busch has some bad news. Over the last couple of decades, telescope-watchers like him have done such a good job of detecting and tracking the orbits of all possible extinction-level rocks out there that we can now say with confidence that none will hit us, at least not in the next 860 years.  Read more…

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Source: Mashable | 'Armageddon'-style asteroid will now not destroy human race, sorry