short story

The Night Sky In September 2025: Two Eclipses, Bright Aurora And Saturn
September ushers in a season of dramatic celestial events, from Saturn at opposition and some close planetaring pairings to a spectacular “blood moon” total lunar eclipse — though the latter is not visible in North America. As days shorten ahead of the autumnal equinox, stargazing becomes an evening activity, and a rewarding one as the constellations rise and fall with the changing of the season up above. Here’s everything you need to know about stargazing in September 2025.
By Muhammad Sabeel5 months ago in Earth
Exploding Seeds and Reactive Petals: The Most Bizarre Plant Defenses. AI-Generated.
Sandbox Tree: The Plant That Throws Its Seeds Like Bullets The sandbox tree (Hura crepitans), native to tropical regions of South America, has earned nicknames like "dynamite tree" for a reason. Its fruit capsules are shaped like small pumpkins, but when they ripen, they explode with a loud bang, ejecting seeds at speeds up to 240 km/h.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Flowers That Don’t Look Like Flowers: Nature’s Masters of Disguise. AI-Generated.
Bee Orchid: The Flower That Pretends to Be a Female Bee The bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) is one of nature’s cleverest tricksters. Its flower mimics the shape, color, and even texture of a female bee, right down to the fine “hairs” and scent it emits.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Get Ready for a Glorious Harvest Blood Moon on September 7.
The Corn Moon and Its Meaning September’s full moon is often called the Corn Moon, a name passed down through Native American and European farming traditions. It marked the season of harvesting late-summer crops, especially corn, before the chill of autumn arrived. While many associate September’s full moon with the Harvest Moon, that title officially goes to whichever full moon is closest to the autumn equinox. In 2025, the Harvest Moon falls in October, leaving September with the traditional Corn Moon.
By Hamd Ullah5 months ago in Earth
Zombie Flowers: When Blooms Grow on Dead Plants, Bones, and Ashes. AI-Generated.
Ghost Plant: A Flower That Lives Without Light The ghost plant, also called Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), looks like something out of a ghost story — a pale, waxy flower that grows in dark forests, far from sunlight.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
The Coldest Flowers: How Plants Bloom in Ice, Snow, and Arctic Winds. AI-Generated.
Arctic Poppy: The Flower That Follows the Midnight Sun In the icy tundras of the Arctic, where temperatures often stay below freezing and sunlight is limited to a few months per year, the Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum) manages to bloom. It grows low to the ground to avoid wind exposure, and its stem moves to track the sun across the sky — a survival strategy called heliotropism.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Creatures with Blue Blood, Green Bones, and Other Strange Body Chemistry. AI-Generated.
Horseshoe Crabs: Creatures with Blue Blood The blood of the horseshoe crab isn’t red — it’s bright blue. This unusual color comes from the presence of copper-based hemocyanin, instead of the iron-based hemoglobin that gives human blood its red hue.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Living Fossils: Animals That Haven’t Changed in Millions of Years. AI-Generated.
Horseshoe Crabs: Ancient Creatures with Blue Blood Horseshoe crabs have walked the Earth for more than 450 million years — that’s older than the dinosaurs. They look like armored helmets from another world, with a hard shell, long tail spine, and multiple eyes.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Creatures That Live Inside Rocks, Ice, and Other Impossible Places. AI-Generated.
Bacteria That Live Inside Rocks (Endoliths) Deep beneath the Earth’s surface, scientists have discovered microbes called endoliths — organisms that live inside the cracks of solid rock. Some were found miles underground, surviving in complete darkness, high pressure, and zero oxygen.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Animals That Were Once Thought to Be Myths — But Are Real. AI-Generated.
Okapi: The Forest Giraffe That Looked Too Strange to Exist When European explorers first heard about a creature in the Congo that looked like a mix between a zebra, a giraffe, and a horse, they thought it was just a myth or tribal legend. But the okapi is very real. With its striped legs like a zebra and body like a short-necked giraffe, it confused scientists for decades.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
No Parents, No Problem: Animals That Reproduce Without Mating. AI-Generated.
Whiptail Lizards: All-Female and Fully Functional Some species of whiptail lizards, like the New Mexico whiptail, are made up entirely of females. These lizards reproduce through parthenogenesis — a process where an egg develops into an embryo without fertilization from a male.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth
Born Old: Animals That Age in Reverse or Barely Age at All. AI-Generated.
The Immortal Jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) This jellyfish isn’t just a sea creature — it’s a biological mystery. Known as the immortal jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii has the unique ability to reverse its own aging process. When faced with stress, injury, or starvation, it doesn’t die. Instead, it reverts to its earliest form — a polyp — and begins its life cycle all over again.
By Secret5 months ago in Earth