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Explorers

The critically acclaimed director James Gray took on the story of explorer Percival Fawcett's search for a lost city in Amazonia.

How Director James Gray Discovered the Insanity Behind the Search for “The Lost City of Z”

A story of Victorian-age madness and exploration in the South American jungle is coming to a theater near you

The lost colony of Roanoke

The Mystery of Roanoke Endures Yet Another Cruel Twist

An artifact found 20 years ago turns out to not be what archaeologists thought

Excavations inside the Fiesta Mall

Cool Finds

Skeletons Found Under a Florida Wine Shop May Be Some of America’s First Colonists

The skeletons, found in St. Augustine, Florida, likely date to the first decades of the oldest European settlement in the United States

"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine." No, wait, that's Finding Nemo.

Cool Finds

Take a Peek at the Mesmerizing “Cosmic Jellyfish”

NOAA’s research vessel Okeanos Explorer filmed this specimen of Rhopalonematid trachymedusa in the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa

A newly discovered katydid species uses drumming to communicate.

A New Age of Discovery Is Happening Right Now in the Remote Forests of Suriname

Today’s explorers and scientists are identifying new species at a rate that would’ve amazed Charles Darwin

Detail of a surfer in "A View of Karakakooa, in Owyhee," an etching made by an artist accompanying the Cook expedition.

What the First European to Visit Hawaii Thought About Surfers

The Europeans were fascinated by Pacific Islanders’ comfort in the water

Several armed guards accompanied Luiz Rocha and his colleagues throughout their work in Somaliland.

Meet the Researchers Who Scour the World’s Most Dangerous Corners in Search of Biological Riches

Militants, malaria and pirates are just some of the challenges these scientist-explorers face in their quest to map the world’s diversity

Cherry-Garrard during the Scott expedition

This Catastrophic Polar Journey Resulted in One of the Best Adventure Books Ever Written

Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s travel memoir is still the one to beat, and not only because it features penguins

Graves of Franklin Expedition members on Beechey Island

New Research

Thumbnail Reveals the Final Days of Franklin Expedition Explorer

A synchrotron micro-x-ray sheds new light on the cause that led to one crew member’s death

Bathochordaeus charon

Cool Finds

Scientists Finally Spot Giant, Slimy Sea Blob First Found Over a Century Ago

Discovered in 1899, the creature recently popped up in Monterey Bay

A 1933 Oil painting of the ill-fated aviator by Howard Chandler Christy.

Cool Finds

What to Make of Renewed Claims That Amelia Earhart Died as a Castaway

Reexamination of data from a 1940 skeleton, suggests that the long forearms may match those of the missing aviator

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on NASA's final space shuttle mission from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 8, 2011.

Trending Today

Many of NASA’s Recent Successes Actually Date Back to the Bush Administration

Some leaps, launches and grand plans for the future

This map changed how the world saw itself.

Cool Finds

Discover One of History’s Most Ambitious Maps

Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 map was the oldest document to use “America” to describe the body of land between Africa and Asia

Two 2001 images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter show a dramatic change in the planet's appearance when haze raised by dust-storm activity in the south became globally distributed. The images were taken about a month apart.

New Research

Major Martian Dust Storms Might Soon Envelope the Red Planet

A plus for meteorologists but perhaps bad news for rovers

The HMS Terror was missing for nearly 170 years after it got trapped in ice and sunk in frigid Arctic waters.

Second Ship From Sir John Franklin’s 19th-Century Expedition Found

Two years and a day after its sister ship was discovered, Canadian researchers find the H.M.S. Terror

Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park is one of the parks featured in the virtual reality tours.

Virtual Travel

Explore Some of America’s Greatest National Parks in Virtual Reality

The next best thing to celebrating the Centennial in person

Cool Finds

Adorable Stubby Squid Found Off the Coast of Southern California

Researchers aboard the E/V Nautilus happened across a particularly cute stubby squid

In NASA's new "Mars Rover" game, players drive a rover through rough Martian terrain, challenging themselves to navigate and balance the rover.

Cool Finds

Take a Spin Around Mars in NASA’s New Rover Game

Tour the Red Planet without the risk of a multi-million dollar crash

A researcher examines inscriptions by 16th century Europeans in a cave on Mona Island

Cool Finds

Cave Graffiti Shows Natives and Europeans Had Early Dialogue in the Caribbean

Cave art from both Taíno people and Spanish explorers in a cave on Mona Island shows the two had some early cultural understanding

An acorn worm observed at a dive spot called Twin Peaks

Journey to the Center of Earth

Mission to Mariana Trench Records Dozens of Crazy Deep Sea Creatures

The Okeanos Explorer has spent three months mapping the seafloor and recording deep sea life in the ocean’s depths

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