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FURTHER SEPTEMBER 2021

CONTENTS On the Cover

NASA’s 12-year Lucy
mission, set to begin later
this year, will explore seven
asteroids near Jupiter—
including Patroclus and
Menoetius, shown here
in an artist’s rendering.

ART: MONICA SERRANO
ASTEROID 3D RENDER:
RONALD PANIAGUA

PROOF EXPLORE

15
THE BIG IDEA
6 26
The Story of
Collars of Conviction Human Difference I N N OVATO R
On assignment at To challenge racism,
the Supreme Court, we must decide what The Bear Protector
a photographer trains stories we will tell Wildlife ecologist Rae
her lens on late Justice about who we are. Wynn-Grant tracks
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s bears and promotes
signature accessories, BY ANGELA SAINI diversity in science.
“pieces of history.”
ADVENTURE BY ANNIE ROTH
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
Surfing Teahupoo CLOSER LOOK
ELINOR CARUCCI In a coastal Tahitian
village, find dramatic Eating the Problem
beauty, rich culture— From lionfish to kudzu,
and some of the world’s invasive species—
heaviest waves. usually destructive
and disdained—can
BY CELESTE BRASH be delicious.

ALSO BY EVE CONANT

• Fossilized Feather ALSO
• PPE Pollution
• Venus Flytraps • Wigmakers
• A Woman War

Photographer

S E P T E M B E R | CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S Small Wonders Cheetahs for Sale 20 YEARS AFTER 9/11
Unprecedented views Somaliland fights traf-
of the solar system’s ficking of the iconic cat. Afghanistan 2021
smallest objects are Will the Taliban
shedding new light on BY RACHAEL BALE take control when
big cosmic mysteries. PHOTOGRAPHS BY U.S. forces leave?
NICHOLE SOBECKI
BY MICHAEL GRESHKO BY JASON MOTLAGH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 60 PHOTOGRAPHS BY
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 36 KIANA HAYERI
Tracking the Melt
POSTER High in the Andes, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 96
scientists work to
Solar System better understand Echoes of Loss
in Action climate change. Items found at 9/11 sites
See our planet’s tell compelling stories.
neighborhood in BY SARAH GIBBENS
the universe—in all PHOTOGRAPHS BY BY PATRICIA EDMONDS
its chaotic glory and ARMANDO VEGA PHOTOGRAPHS BY
surprising order. HENRY LEUTWYLER
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 86
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 124

TAKE A
SMART STEP
TOWARD A
MORE SECURE

FUTURE

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S E P T E M B E R | FROM THE EDITOR

20 YEARS

Pausing to RememberAFTER 9/11

BY SUSAN GOLDBERG

IF YOU’RE AGE 30 or older, you probably kindhearted. Today, when Bernard, Members of the group
remember what you were doing when Asia, and Rodney would be 31 years traveling with National
you heard about the events of Septem- old, it’s devastating to think of our col- Geographic pause in Dulles
ber 11, 2001. It’s one of those indelible, lective loss. International Airport for a
where-were-you moments, like the photo before their flight.
attack on Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy On 9/11 we also lost three caring From left to right: James
assassination for earlier generations. teachers: Sara Clark, James Debeun- Debeuneure, Rodney Dick-
eure, and Hilda Taylor, who accom- ens, Bernard Brown, Hilda
This month, we commemorate panied the students. Sara, 65, and her Taylor, Asia Cottom, Joe
the 20th anniversary of “9/11”—that fiancé were making wedding arrange- Ferguson, and Ann Judge.
instantly recognizable, vastly inade- ments. James, 58, a father and grand-
quate shorthand to describe a day that father, enjoyed golf and collecting art.
killed nearly 3,000 people and launched Hilda, 58, a mother and grandmother,
the longest war in modern U.S. history. loved to cook and work in her garden.

Two stories in this issue explore 9/11. The others whose passing we mourn
One’s an on-the-ground report from were National Geographic employees.
Afghanistan. The other features still Ann Judge, 49, arranged trips around
life photography of seemingly ordi- the world for our journalists and exec-
nary objects—a pair of boots, a watch, utives; Joe Ferguson loved teaching
a snapshot—that aren’t ordinary at all. children about geography. He was 39.
These objects, some never before dis-
played, came from the rubble of the We salute those we lost 20 years ago
World Trade Center in New York, a field with this quote from the Pentagon 9/11
in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Memorial: “We claim this ground in
Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Those remembrance of the events of Septem-
were the sites where al Qaeda terrorists ber 11, 2001. To honor the 184 people
crashed hijacked planes, instantly cre- whose lives were lost, their families,
ating a frightening new world. and all who sacrifice that we may live
in freedom. We will never forget.” j
The plane that hit the Pentagon was
American Airlines Flight 77, bound for
Los Angeles. At 9:37 a.m., five hijackers
slammed it into the building’s west side,
killing themselves, 59 others aboard,
and 125 on the ground. Among the dead
were eight people traveling to an ecol-
ogy conference sponsored by National
Geographic. Every year on Septem-
ber 11, at our Washington, D.C., head-
quarters, we pause to remember them.

Three of the National Geographic
travelers were 11 years old: Bernard
Brown, Asia Cottom, and Rodney Dick-
ens, each with a future whose promise
would never be realized. Each child had
been selected to attend the conference.
Each child, according to tributes writ-
ten at the time, was smart, determined,

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PROOF

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELINOR CARUCCI
LOOKING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE

6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

COLLARS OF CONVICTION

Her robe accessories were just one way Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood out on the high court.

VOL. 240 NO. 3

This collar made for the
late Ruth Bader Ginsburg
is imbued with personal
meaning: Each of the four
layers of fabric represents
one member of her imme-
diate family.

SEPTEMBER 2021 7

PROOF

Left: Ginsburg wore this pink-and-blue beaded collar, a gift from women’s groups at Georgetown University Law Center, to
President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address. Top right: Ginsburg was a fan of opera; this is a copy of a jabot
8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

worn by opera singer Plácido Domingo, from the Metropolitan Opera gift shop. Bottom right: One of Ginsburg’s original
lace jabots, which she frequently wore on the bench between 1993 and 2008 and in official portraits.

SEPTEMBER 2021 9

PROOF

Clockwise from top left: Ginsburg sometimes wore this vibrant red-and-gold collar, a thank-you gift from a staff member,
to weddings; a white-beaded South African collar, said to be Ginsburg’s favorite; a spiky metal piece worn in the first official
10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Court portrait with Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018; a gold-and-purple collar the justice considered to be elegant; a rainbow
pride collar from Ecuador that Ginsburg first wore in 2016; and a doily-like lace collar, a gift.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 11

PROOF

THE BACKSTORY

O N A S S I G N M E N T AT T H E S U P R E M E C O U RT, A P H OTO G RA P H E R
TRIES TO DO JUSTICE TO A JUSTICE’S FASHION TRADEMARK.

A R R I V I N G AT the U.S. Supreme Court Carucci cry is embroidered with a quote
to photograph a collection of Ruth from Ginsburg’s husband, Martin: “It’s
Bader Ginsburg’s iconic collars less not sacrifice, it’s family.” For Carucci, it
than two months after the justice’s reflects the many facets of the justice’s
death, Elinor Carucci was nervous but identity: wife, mother, Jewish daughter
prepared. Knowing she’d have roughly of immigrants, second woman on the
six minutes to make images of each high court. Balancing disparate roles,
collar, Carucci had spent the previous Carucci notes, “is something so many
day photographing makeshift replicas of us women struggle with.”
she cut from paper towels. Carucci says
her goal was to capture the vibrancy To Carucci, an Israeli immigrant and
and character of the cherished Gins- mother of a queer child, the collars—
burg accessories: “It really was like one in rainbow pride colors—are ripe
looking at pieces of history.” with meaning: “Emotional and per-
sonal and political and so many things
The delicate collar that made at once.” — N ATA S H A DA LY

Ruth Bader Ginsburg served on the high court from 1993 until her death in September 2020.

TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS, CONTOUR RA BY GETTY IMAGES

EXPLORE IN THIS SECTION

Fossilized Feather
Under Tahiti’s Waves
Historic Wigmaking
Invasives on the Menu

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 240 NO. 3

The Story of
Human Difference

RACE IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT, NOT A BIOLOGICAL TRAIT. THAT ’S
THE SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS—SO WHY DO MANY STILL DOUBT IT?

BY ANGELA SAINI

O O R I G I N TA L E S E X I S T everywhere. In the United
States there is the myth of Manifest Destiny, that
European settlers were preordained to spread west
across America. In China the remains of Homo erectus
known as Peking man are used to claim an unbroken
Chinese lineage going back at least 700,000 years,
with suggestions that this was a direct ancestor and
among the first in the world to harness fire.

In India religious nationalists have suggested that
fantastical legends as described in old Hindu epics
aren’t allegories but actually happened. One promi-
nent Indian scientist has even said that the tale of a
woman who gave birth to a hundred children is testa-
ment to ancient Indian skill in advanced reproductive
technologies that are only now being rediscovered.

One of Donald Trump’s parting shots before leav-
ing the presidency was to create an advisory panel
called the 1776 Commission, to promote his vision
of a “patriotic education” in the United States. The

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 15

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA Biological
Differences:
commission’s report downplayed the realities of dis- Myths Linger
crimination and deliberate human exploitation in the
nation’s founding. It took particular aim at scholars When scientists insisted in one
and activists who call attention to historical injustice of the world’s leading medical
as part of addressing modern-day inequality. journals, the Lancet, in May 2020
that “genetic make-up” could be
Trump’s effort was short-lived because President a possible factor in the varying
Joe Biden disbanded the commission the day he was COVID-19 outcomes seen among
sworn in. But the culture wars weren’t over—Trump ethnic groups at the time, they
wasn’t the first political leader to try to claim the echoed a strain of thinking that
past for his own ends, and he won’t be the last. Visit has persisted through medical
national museums or monuments anywhere in the literature for centuries. In 1793,
world and you will see triumphalist displays that when a yellow fever epidemic
paint countries in their best light, serving narratives hit Philadelphia, white physicians
of greatness often wrapped in notions of ethnic or claimed that Black people were
racial superiority. To respond in these times, we naturally immune. In 2016 a study of
must decide what stories we really want to tell about around 200 medical students and
ourselves and who we are. residents published by researchers
at the University of Virginia found
T H E B E L I E F I N D E E P - RO OT E D population difference that around half held at least one
is among the most well-worn of political tools. The belief about “biological differences
Nazis in Germany sought to define a Germanic peo- between Blacks and whites, many
ple, building a case for racial exceptionalism. Not of which are false and fantastical
just history but biology and archaeology too have in nature.” They included the
long been recruited into efforts to emphasize group myths that Black people have a
difference, selling populations the illusion that they higher tolerance for pain and
are naturally better than others. have thicker skin. —A S

Over time, these stories can become woven into
identity in subtle and insidious ways, embedding
themselves into our understanding of who we are.
They can distort the way even today’s scientists think
about human difference.

The history of race is a reminder that science isn’t
just about theories and data; it’s also about which
facts are recruited into the stories we tell about
human variation. European Enlightenment nat-
uralists and scientists once decided that humans
might be divided into discrete groups in the same
way as some other animal species, before arbitrarily
setting the boundaries for these categories. They
attached meaning to skin color, using sweeping cul-
tural stereotypes about temperament, intelligence,
and behavior. These pseudoscientific ideas went
on to inform Western medicine for centuries. They
formed the basis for the Nazi eugenics program of
racial cleansing and the Holocaust.

Although it has been known for at least 70 years that
race is undeniably a social construct and that those
18th-century thinkers were misguided in their assump-
tions, many scientists still labor under the belief that
race is biologically real. The story embedded itself so
firmly that even when it became clear that we are one
genetically indivisible human species, it remained
difficult for many researchers to look beyond it. The
old narrative looms too large in their imaginations.

The rise and fall of racial myths during the COVID-
19 pandemic have been a case in point. Social media
speculation in early 2020 that Black people couldn’t
catch the virus morphed just a few months later
into the claim that they were more susceptible to
it. Scientists themselves fanned these flames of

16 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

ILLUSTRATION: TRACY J. LEE S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 17

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

misinformation by wondering out loud whether SCIENTISTS NEED TO BE
genetic differences between races might have played CAREFUL ABOUT WHICH
a role in mortality rates despite there being next to OVERARCHING NARRATIVE
no data to support that assertion. Social determi- THEY SERVE. IS IT ONE THAT
nants of health, including poverty, geography, and EMPHASIZES THE ESSENTIAL
occupation, were woefully overlooked. UNITY OF OUR SPECIES?

That was, until the murder of George Floyd in the first place. Perhaps it comes down to the stories that
spring of 2020. Suddenly there was a palpable shift some scientists want to believe, even in the face of
in the narrative around race and health. undeniable evidence.

The scientific facts remained the same: Race was as Academics often claim that they are led by data,
much a social construct as it ever was. But now there not by politics. But it’s interesting to note just how
was a global conversation on what race really meant much politics has shaped how scientists think about
and how the explicit and implicit effects of racism human difference. It’s no coincidence, for example,
so viscerally impact the body. Physicians, I noticed, that eugenics as a serious discipline deflated after
began to call for more research on socioeconomic World War II, thanks to efforts by antiracists within
status, diet, toxic environments, and prejudice in science and anthropology. Neither is it by chance that
health care. I was invited to speak about my work some of the most blatant falsehoods about women’s
on bias in science at medical schools and scientific minds and bodies began to be debunked from the
institutions across the globe. 1970s onward, riding a wave of feminist scholarship.

These developments prove that the political envi- But of course, there are always those who will want
ronment has enormous influence on the questions to retain the old stories. In a world in which populism
scientists ask and the answers they give. When the and ethnic nationalism are on the rise, that’s to be
backdrop to our human story is one of natural group expected. Our origin stories, our traditional ways of
difference, researchers inevitably will look to genetics seeing the world, can feel like security blankets in
and innate factors first. But when that backdrop has troubled times. We may cling to them against our
more historical context, showing race to be a prod- better judgment. For those who feel they have the
uct of social factors, the focus instead swings to how most to lose from racial, class, and gender equality—
groups of people live and how they’re treated. That whose lives have been cushioned by social injustice
subtle realignment helps us to diagnose the problem rather than damaged by it—there’s no incentive to
where it is rather than where we might imagine it to be. change the narrative.

W E A R E S T I L L I N A BAT T L E over the story of human Scientists need to be careful about which over-
difference. Far-right groups and ethnic national- arching narrative they serve. Is it one that emphasizes
ists scour scientific journals for scraps of evidence the essential unity of our species? Reminding us, for
they can cherry-pick to support their claims that instance, that we are genetically more alike than any
the course of human history has been decided by other primate species and that individual difference
genetically stronger races and that social inequality far outweighs any group difference? Or is it one that
today is simply a product of these innate differences searches in the margins of our genomes for the tiny
between populations. statistical differences between populations, con-
sciously or unconsciously playing to those who seek
Only recently, two papers published in the early to divide us in other ways?
1990s by a controversial Canadian psychologist were
retracted from the journal Psychological Reports The facts may be the same either way, but it’s the
after editors realized that the work was “unethical, story we tell ourselves that matters. j
scientifically flawed, and based on racist ideas and
agenda.” Similarly deficient papers are under review Angela Saini is a British science journalist, broadcaster, and the
by that journal and others. But when the errors are author of books including Superior: The Return of Race Science.
this egregious, one has to wonder what has taken
scientific publishers quite so long. Equally, we need
to ask how they managed to get published in the

Unfinished work Fund to be reformed Name changed Repatriation planned
For decades, the UC Health-care network A University of Pennsylva-
Historical legacies of race science Berkeley School of MSI Reproductive nia museum apologized
and eugenics live on in many Public Health bene- Choices rebranded for possessing skulls
modern-day institutions. But fited from a research in 2020 so it’s no lon- (some from enslaved
fund originally created ger named for Marie people) that a 19th-
efforts are under way to reframe to study eugenics. The Stopes (1880-1958). century doctor unethi-
the past, correct mistakes, and school says the fund Over time, her support cally acquired and used
will be repurposed to for family planning and to claim whites’ suprem-
make science more inclusive. —A S repudiate its past, per- women’s rights has acy. The museum aims
haps by establishing been eclipsed by her to return the skulls to
an antiracist institute. support of eugenics. “ancestral communities.”

D I S PATC H E S BREAKTHROUGHS | E X P L O R E
FROM THE FRONT LINES
PPE Where It Shouldn’t Be
OF SCIENCE
AND INNOVATION The fight against COVID-19 has had
environmental costs. Mountains of
personal protective equipment have
been discarded—at one point, an
estimated 3.4 billion masks a day.
What shielded humans now harms
wildlife, like the perch trapped in this
glove in the Netherlands and count-
less birds snared in mask straps. —A R

PA L E O N TO L O GY PLANT LIFE

FROM A DINO’S WING? A Magnetic
Charge in
ON THE 160TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF Its Chomp
THIS FOSSILIZED FEATHER, SCIENTISTS ARE STILL
INVESTIGATING THE DINOSAUR IT ADORNED. When the Venus
flytrap’s jawlike
S I N C E I T E M E RG E D from a Bavarian limestone quarry in 1861, the leaves are stimulated
first known fossilized feather has been a paleontology icon: shock- by prey, the plant
ingly similar to modern bird feathers yet unfathomably ancient. produces a small
The 150-million-year-old, isolated plume was the first fossil ever magnetic field, new
called Archaeopteryx lithographica—a name that now refers to a research has found.
type of feathered dinosaur discovered less than two miles away in Such fields have
the same rock layers as the original feather. But did Archaeopteryx been detected
the dinosaur really shed its namesake feather? National Geographic in only two other
Explorer Ryan Carney, a paleontologist at the University of South plants: a bean and
Florida, says the answer is a resounding yes. In a paper published a single-celled
last fall in Scientific Reports, Carney contends that the feather not alga. The scientists
only belonged to an Archaeopteryx but also specifically helped who discovered
form the upper surface of the dinosaur’s left wing. Now Carney is this field think it’s a
reconstructing how Archaeopteryx flapped its wings, to test whether by-product of elec-
it could have flown under its own power. — M I C H A E L G R E S H KO trical impulses that
trigger the flytrap’s
PHOTOS (FROM TOP): AUKE-FLORIAN HIEMSTRA; MUSEUM FÜR NATURKUNDE BERLIN; PAUL STAROSTA, GETTY IMAGES leaves to close. Bio-
magnetism of this
type has been stud-
ied extensively in
the human brain but
is less understood in
plants. —A N N I E ROT H

E X P L O R E | ADVENTURE

In French Polynesia, waves are revered and feared at the legendary

S O M E O F T H E WO R L D ’ S heaviest waves crash along the reef of Teahupoo,
on the southeastern coast of Tahiti. The power of these barrels explains
the small village’s selection as the venue for the 2024 Olympic surfing
competition, but it’s also a place of dramatic beauty and rich culture.

A WILD RIDE SURF AND TURF MORE TO EXPLORE
On water: Visitors hire
The barrier reef rises local water taxis for Boat tours take in the
from dizzying depths at up-close views of expert remote Fenua Aihere and
Teahupoo’s Passe Havae; surfers riding the waves— Te Pari coastlines adja-
it has the perfect shape as well as glimpses of cent to Teahupoo. Here
and location to amplify dolphins and, August travelers find waterfalls
Pacific Ocean swells. through October, hump- that tumble into the sea,
These can become the back whales. Not far from caves linked to Polyne-
thundering surges known the black sand beach, sian legend, and paths
as plunging waves. May snorkelers can explore leading to ancient petro-
through October is the colorful coral gardens. glyphs. To help protect
best time to catch the the ecosystem and boost
action, but exceptional On land: A sandy trail fish populations, locals
surf rolls in year-round. beyond the Tirahi Rivière have designated a roughly
For this image, photogra- meanders past brightly three-square-mile marine
pher Andy Bardon went painted houses to a palm- zone around Teahupoo
below the surface. “A deep shaded point where fam- to be under rahui, a tradi-
breath and calm nerves ilies picnic and surfers tional Polynesian fishing
are required to safely dive begin their paddle out and harvesting ban.
under and photograph to the break.
these waves,” he says. But
then “a biodiverse under-
world reveals itself.”

BRAVE THE WAVE

22 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C NGM MAPS

‘SURFING TEAHUPOO FEELS
LIKE BATTLING TWO GIANTS,

WITH THE MOUNTAINS ON
ONE SIDE AND THE OCEAN
BREAKING ON THE OTHER.’

—Michel Bourez, Tahitian Olympic surfer

surf break off the village of Teahupoo.

BY THE NUMBERS

1

NUMBER OF ROADS LEADING
TO TEAHUPOO

30+

HEIGHT THE WAVES CAN REACH,
IN FEET

1,420

APPROXIMATE POPULATION
OF TEAHUPOO

Hawaii (U.S.)
PA C I F I C
OCEAN

AUS. French
Polynesia (FR.)
NEW
ZEALAND

BY CELESTE BRASH P H OTO G R A P H BY ANDY BARDON

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 23

E X P L O R E | PLANET POSSIBLE

PHOTOS: R. TSUBIN (1), FLOORTJE (2), ISABELLE ROZENBAUM (3), ANNA EFETOVA (4), GETTY IMAGES; LORI EPSTEIN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION (5)

EXPLORE

INNOVATOR RAE WYNN-GRANT

BY ANNIE ROTH PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE

She tracks bears and
promotes diversity in
nature and science.

Rae Wynn-Grant wants people to
know that bears aren’t bad news. The
National Geographic Explorer focuses
on ways to eliminate negative inter-
actions between these charismatic
carnivores and the humans living near
bear habitat. Translating painstakingly
collected data, she brings communi-
ties information about where bears
are, where they’re traveling, and how
locals can protect themselves.

In her work as a wildlife ecologist,
she has also tracked lions across
Tanzania and monitored ring-tailed
lemurs in Madagascar. As her career
progressed, Wynn-Grant, who is based
in Santa Barbara, California, has grown
stronger in her advocacy for the neces-
sity of diversity in nature—and in
the sciences.

She was the lone Black person
among her academic peers when she
started studying wildlife ecology. The
lack of diversity became only more
obvious as she advanced in her field.

But she’s found that her success has
inspired a new generation of aspiring
ecologists of color. “I feel so much more
hopeful about the future,” she says,
“the future of wildlife, the future of the
environment, the future of equity and
justice and opportunity—because I’m
seeing more people of color showing
up in these spaces where I used to be
the only one.” j

The National Geographic Society
funds Wynn-Grant’s work. Learn more
about its support of explorers protecting
critical species at natgeo.com/impact.

E X P L O R E | TOOL KIT 2

1

4
3

7

6
5

COIFFED LIKE COLONIALS

28 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

8
9

10 11 1 & 2. Curling irons
Heated on a stove, the
12 tongs are used to shape
buckles, the curls at a
13 wig’s temples.
3. Shaving equipment
14 A wigmaker could give
shaves using a steel
PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE straight razor, brass basin,
and bristle brush.
IMAGINE A FOREFATHER establishing a colony or organizing a government 4. Formal wig
without his favorite powdered wig. Impossible, right? The hairstyles of White wigs (this one’s horse-
18th-century America live on at Colonial Williamsburg, a history museum hair) are for occasions such
in Virginia. There, wigmaker Debbie Turpin and an apprentice fashion new as balls or portrait sittings.
dos using hand-sewn wefts of hair and maintain wigs worn by their fellow 5. Powdering mask
costumed interpreters. As she describes the tools of her trade, Turpin men- During touch-ups with wig
tions delivering a wig to the Marquis de Lafayette (or rather, the interpreter powder, this leather mask
channeling the French aristocrat). Her job is unique, Turpin knows: “You shields the wearer’s brow.
won’t find a shop like ours anywhere else in the country.” —HICKS WOGAN 6. Combs
They’re carved from horn,
probably cattle or deer,
for a lady (left) and gent.
7. Braided queue
Attached at the back, it
makes hair look longer.
8. Hackle
This device helps remove

knots from hair and
secure it for weaving.
9. Hair ruler
Before it’s woven into
sections called wefts,
hair is carefully measured.
10. Powdering bellows
A squeeze of this device
lightens a wig’s color by
dusting it with powder.
11. Powdering cone
The bewigged can breathe
with his face inside this
during heavier powder
applications.
12. Pink powder
Powders with tint—here,
from dried rose petals—
can match wig to clothing.
13. Blockhead with caul
Wigmakers’ terms for the
wooden head form and the
caplike wig base, block-
head and caul are both
sized to the customer. Silk
thread (14) is used to sew
hair wefts on the caul.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 29

E X P L O R E | CLOSER LOOK

The whole hog: Tamales are stuffed with wild boar meat, lard, and broth at Dai Due restaurant in Austin, Texas.

EATING THE PROBLEM

FROM LIONFISH TO KUDZU, INVASIVE SPECIES—
USUALLY DESTRUCTIVE AND DISDAINED — CAN ALSO BE DELICIOUS.

BY EVE CONANT

T WO WO R D S T H AT don’t look tempting on a menu? coalition. “Our culture revolves around eating.”
“Swamp” and “rat.” Perhaps conservation could too?

At least that’s the dark-humored consensus among The South is hard-hit but hardly alone. The United
a literal boatload of chefs cruising along a Louisi- States is home to more than 6,500 invasive species—
ana swamp just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. non-natives that can reproduce aggressively, out-
They’re touring at the invitation of local ecologists compete and spread disease to local species, and
who want their help saving Louisiana’s threatened destroy habitat. Nutria may not be a crowd-pleaser,
wetlands. And the “swamp rat” is the invasive nutria, but a plethora of other invasive plants and animals
once imported from South America for its fur but are increasingly on chefs’ radars.
now loose in the wild, chewing up so much habitat
the state has a six-dollar-a-tail bounty on the rodent. The “invasivore” movement, while small, has its
culinary and conservationist logic. Imagine a wild-
“Chefs here are our local celebrities,” says Jacques foraging species that’s not just “grass finished”—it’s
Hebert of the Restore the Mississippi River Delta spent its life browsing organic habitat. Sprinkle in

PHOTO: JODY HORTON, THE HOG BOOK

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E X P L O R E | CLOSER LOOK

THEN THERE ARE THE Perhaps the most infamous invasive is kudzu,
FERAL HOGS. WORRIED the so-called “vine that ate the South.” It’s been
TEXAS OFFICIALS smothering habitat since it was first formally intro-
CALL THEM ‘OUTLAW duced from Japan to the U.S. at the 1876 world’s fair
QUADRUPEDS.’ CHEFS in Philadelphia. Chef Matt Marcus has served kudzu
CALL THEM ‘WILD BOAR.’ pickled, dried, fermented—and fried, with pecans
and browned butter—to diners in Atlanta. In the
some “micro-local” and “snout-to-hoof” chef-speak, South, he jokes, “If we fry it, they’ll try it!”
and proponents say you have some serious starter
ingredients for environmental stewardship. The weed also inspires Gulf Shores, Alabama, chef
Chris Sherrill of the NUISANCE Group, whose acro-
Take lionfish, a damaging—and delicious— nym stands for plants and animals that are a “Nui-
invasive. Native to the South Pacific and Indian sance, Underutilized, or Invasive, but Sustainable
Oceans, they were first spotted in the Atlantic Ocean and Available through Noble Culinary Endeavors.”
in the 1980s. They’re overpopulating reefs and,
without native predators, “fear nothing,” says spear “Every chef in the Southeast could incorporate
fisherman and biologist Alex Fogg. He describes kudzu in a billion applications,” he says while serving
how they’re venomous, not poisonous, as we devour it up in a pesto. “I sourced it off the road where I knew
a tempura-fried, caramel-glazed, and beautifully they hadn’t sprayed for pesticides, picked some off a
plated specimen—one so outlandishly spiky it could telephone pole, put it in a food processor with olive
double as a medieval weapon. and roasted acorns, lots of garlic, some sweet onions,
and Parmesan cheese.”
We’re at GW Fins, an upscale New Orleans restau-
rant whose chef that night, Tenney Flynn, had sent Then there are the feral hogs. Worried Texas offi-
out an Instagram alert that lionfish was on the menu. cials call them “outlaw quadrupeds.” Chefs call them
“There’s a novelty factor,” he explains, checking to “wild boar.” At Dai Due Butcher Shop and Supper
see how we also like the lionfish crudo with Fresno Club in Austin, patrons pick up “certified boarganic”
chili, kaffir lime, taro chips, and mint. hog fat soap and dine among walls decorated with
the skulls of nilgai—antelope imported for game
“There’s people who would never in a million years hunting from India in the 1930s and now competing
consider taking the life of a wild animal,” says Fogg. with native wildlife and cattle for grasses. Chef Jesse
“But lionfish are something that those folks can get Griffiths leads feral hog butchery classes and hunts
behind, because they’re helping the environment.” A on ranches overrun with feral hogs, nilgai, and axis
vegan once told him that lionfish is the only animal deer—another imported game-ranch escapee.
she’d ever eat, “because of the cause.” Fogg runs an
annual lionfish spearfishing tournament in Destin, “Eating invasives is a great thing to do right now,”
Florida. This year’s winning team, Florida Man, got says Griffiths, as we chat over wild boar tacos and
$10,000, and festivities included a restaurant week salami made of rich-tasting nilgai. He even has a
with lionfish as the star ingredient in fajitas, tacos, recipe for “Chocolate Pig Cake” with hog lard. “It’s
ceviches, and “Little Simba” sushi rolls. a rich flavor,” he says, and “highlights how much
you can use a feral hog for.” He says many Texans
Asian carp also infests and dominates waterways. poison the hogs, a torturous death with negative
Baton Rouge chef Philippe Parola, who runs a “Can’t environmental effects. A swift hunt, he argues, is
Beat ’Em, Eat ’Em!” website devoted to invasives, is humane by comparison. “And every feral hog you
turning the carp into comfort food: premade and eat or serve is also one less animal that you pull out
frozen fish balls that can be dropped into a deep of an industrial agriculture situation.”
fryer. He’s planning to target college cafeterias and
stadiums for mass consumption. “We can’t wait,” he He knows it’s not a perfect solution. “There was
warns. “This had to be done yesterday.” some ecologist who said it right—we’re not gonna
barbecue our way out of this.” But that doesn’t dimin-
ish the allure. These invasive species are “incredibly
destructive—and highly edible.” j

Eve Conant is a staff writer and editor for National Geographic.

Wild Flavors

Invasive species from feral hogs and kudzu to
lionfish (left to right) are increasingly gracing

southern tables. Other parts of the country
too are embracing the cause with events such

as cook-offs featuring nutria in Oregon and
invasive-crayfish boils around the Great Lakes.

PHOTOS, LEFT TO RIGHT: MARTIN DEMMEL, TONY L. MOORE, FEDERICO CABELLO, GETTY IMAGES (ALL)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SEPTEMBER 2021

F EAT U R E S Small Wonders. . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 36
Cheetah Trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 60
Weather Station . . . . . . . . . . P. 86
Post-9/11 Afghanistan.. P. 96
Artifacts of 9/11 . . . . . . . . . .P. 124

60 ‘ T H E A P P E A L O F C H E E T A H S
IS NO MYSTERY. A S CUB S,
THEY HAVE HUGE ROUND
EYES, FUZZY LITTLE BODIES,
AND MOHAWK-LIKE RIDGES
OF FUR DOWN THEIR BACKS.’

PHOTO: NICHOLE SOBECKI

SMALL
WONDERS

Modern astronomy

is giving us unprecedented views
of the tiny objects littering our
These small

solar system.

bodies are yielding clues to the universe’s biggest mysteries.

B Y Michael Greshko In 2015 comet C/2014
Q2 Lovejoy—seen here
in a two-photo mosaic—
neared the sun for the first
time in millennia. Lovejoy
likely hails from the Oort
cloud, a distant shell of
icy objects thought to sur-
round the solar system. It’s
one of the roughly 4,000
known comets among the
billions estimated to exist
in our cosmic backyard.

37

RUNNING ON SUN explore Jupiter’s
Trojan asteroids.
A solar array for NASA’s These ancient swarms,
Lucy spacecraft unfurls which orbit the sun
as it is tested at a Lock- alongside the giant
heed Martin facility planet, may hold clues
in Colorado. Set to to the solar system’s
launch in October, original layout.
Lucy will need two of
these arrays to gen- PATRICK H. CORKERY, LOCKHEED
erate power during MARTIN
its 12-year mission to
OPENING IMAGE: VELIMIR POPOV AND
EMIL IVANOV AT THE IRIDA
OBSERVATORY



DOWN TO EARTH Curation Center (right)
in Sagamihara, Japan.
On December 6, 2020, Scientists hope it will
a capsule released by help unlock secrets
the Japanese space- about early planet
craft Hayabusa2 landed formation and perhaps
among the silvery salt- even the origins of life
bushes and terra-cotta on Earth. Although
soil of the Australian Hayabusa2’s cargo has
outback. The container returned, the space-
held debris the space- craft is now on an
craft had collected extended mission that
from the near-Earth will take it to another
asteroid Ryugu in 2019. asteroid in 2031.
The ancient material
now resides at the JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION
Extraterrestrial Sample AGENCY (LEFT); NORIKO
HAYASHI (RIGHT)

S M A L L W O N D E R S 41

TARGET ACQUIRED

As wide as the Empire
State Building is tall,
the asteroid Bennu is
the smallest body ever
orbited by a space-
craft. On October 20,
2020, Bennu became
the third asteroid to be
sampled by spacecraft
when NASA’s OSIRIS-
REx plunged its arm
into the surface (inset)
and collected some of
its dust and pebbles.
A capsule carrying the
sample should land on
Earth in 2023.

VISUALIZATION BY KEL ELKINS,
NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT
CENTER; NASA GODDARD SPACE
FLIGHT CENTER/UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA (INSET)

DANTE

LAURETTA IS

SERENE as

he prepares

for the 17

seconds

he’s worked

toward for

the past

16 years.

Lauretta, a University of Arizona planetary
scientist, is transfixed by a monitor showing
three simulated views of a rubbly, top-shaped
object floating in a sea of stars. That’s the aster-
oid known as 101955 Bennu. He’s watching it
while perched on an upholstered metal stool
inside an unassuming building in Littleton,
Colorado. With its cinder-block hallways, pop-
out ceiling panels, and the occasional wasp
problem, the building could be mistaken for a
run-of-the-mill office suite. But the spacecraft
decals on the walls and the labels above each
cubicle—Electrical Power; Telecom; Guidance,
Navigation & Control—reveal its true function:
mission control at Lockheed Martin Space.

It’s 1:49 p.m. mountain time on October 20,
2020, and the screen shows Bennu sitting
within a green hoop that represents the orbit of
a NASA spacecraft with a mouthful of a name:
the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource
Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer—
OSIRIS-REx for short. In less than three hours,
this robotic emissary will attempt to descend
and touch Bennu for the first time, hopefully
trapping a sample of extraterrestrial dust and
pebbles for return to Earth.

S M A L L W O N D E R S 43

PLANET NURSERY Launched in 2016, OSIRIS-REx h
the sun twice to catch up with Bennu
Near-infrared images, more than 200 million miles away on
captured by the Gem- October day. At roughly a third of a
ini South telescope in Bennu is the smallest celestial body a
Chile, reveal planetary has ever orbited. Its surface is so rugg
leftovers around other ta’s team spent a year mapping it to
stars. Each disk of icy, place to descend. All this buildup sh
rocky debris surrounds today’s main event a tense moment,
a young star (blocked late stage of the billion-dollar mission
out here). Many disks seems at peace.
have inner “holes”
likely carved out by “The spacecraft is in a really go
newly formed planets. today,” he tells me.
These disks resemble
our solar system’s Why go through all this stress and
Kuiper belt, which a few pounds of dust and rubble? Fo
lies beyond the orbit the asteroid’s building blocks form
of Neptune. the solar system’s earliest days, mo
billion years ago. These rocks, which
COMPOSITE FROM FIVE IMAGES they contain carbon, represent a prist
BY INTERNATIONAL GEMINI of how the planets formed and perh
OBSERVATORY/NOIRLAB/GPIES/ Earth got the starter materials for life
T. ESPOSITO, UC BERKELEY ically, it’s literally pay dirt,” Lauretta

But just as Bennu carries the stuff of
also has the power to destroy. Bennu c
enough to Earth that astronomers beli
a small but serious chance—one in 2,7
could collide with us between 2175 an
samples OSIRIS-REx brings back coul
designing the right defense against
that could release more than two mi
the energy of the ammonium nitrate
rocked Beirut a year ago—enough to
a state or province, possibly even a co

On a grander scale, Bennu and O
symbolize two parallel revolutions
astronomy that are upending old con
the solar system. Today’s telescopes ca
small, faint objects than ever before
astronomers to survey the skies and
cosmic population that surrounds the
ets. Twenty years ago, humans knew
a hundred thousand celestial bodies i
system. By early 2021, we’d catalog
more than a million objects orbiting t

At the same time, space agencies a
world have developed the tools and te
to visit and explore these worlds—and
pieces of them back to Earth for close

The stakes are far from abstract.
The picture of the solar system we
in school seems to have a logical arc
But astronomers and planetary scien
suspected for decades that something

had to orbit since by the looks of it, it’s extremely difficult to DUSTY
u, which is explain how Uranus and Neptune could have
this fateful formed where they orbit today. Our cosmic home BEGINNINGS
mile wide, appears to be missing some of the most common
a spacecraft types of planets that orbit alien stars. And as of In the wake of our sun’s formation, a cloud of dust and gas was
ged, Lauret- 2021, Earth is the only known harbor for life. left swirling around the infant star. Gradually these materials
find a safe began to clump together, forming the beginnings of planets.
So how, exactly, did our solar system end up In the celestial chaos, these objects collided, sometimes forming
hould make here—and give rise to its inhabitants? larger bodies and other times being broken up entirely. Over
but at this four billion years later, countless bits of leftover rubble remain
n, Lauretta Small bodies such as Bennu were long dis- trapped in the gravity of our sun and its planets.
missed as mere leftovers in the process that
ood mood created the planets. But now researchers know
how important these bodies are in the search
d effort for to answer such massive questions. Like Bennu,
or starters, many are time capsules, essentially unchanged
med during since the birth of our sun. Others could similarly
re than 4.5 pose a threat to life on Earth. By tracking, visit-
show hints ing, and sampling these primordial worlds, we’re
tine archive finally getting a chance to see where we came
haps where from—and to hopefully stop these objects from
e. “Scientif- destroying who we’ve become.
a says.
f creation, it HHUUMMAANNKKIINNDDI’NS’STINETREERSETST in small bodies—
comes close astronomer-speak for every natural object orbit-
ieve there is ing the sun that isn’t a planet, dwarf planet, or
700—that it moon—has been with us as long as there have
d 2199. The been people looking up. For millennia, cultures
ld be key to around the world have spotted the comets and
an impact meteors visible in the night sky and treated them
llion times as important omens. There was only so much
e blast that people could do to learn more, though, because
o devastate small bodies reflect very little sunlight and there-
ontinent. fore are hard to find in the blackness of space.
SIRIS-REx
in modern By the dawn of the 20th century, astronomers
nceptions of had found roughly 500 asteroids orbiting the
an see more sun, starting with the 1801 discovery of Ceres.
e, allowing The pace of discovery really began to crank up
d fill in the in the 1980s and ’90s as telescopes improved. In
eight plan- 1992 astronomers spotted the first world—aside
w of roughly from Pluto and one of its moons—that is beyond
in the solar Neptune’s orbit, confirming theories of the solar
ed slightly system’s outer zone now called the Kuiper belt.
the sun. Today astronomers know this far-flung region
around the is filled with thousands—perhaps hundreds of
echnologies thousands—of icy bodies.
d even bring
er study. But if you had to pinpoint when the small-
body frenzy began, a reasonable choice would
all learned be March 11, 1998. That’s when the U.S.-based
chitecture. Minor Planet Center, the world’s official repos-
ntists have itory of all asteroid and comet orbits, issued an
g was amiss, ominous-sounding press release: An asteroid

S M A L L W O N D E R S 45

MULTITUDES OF MINORS Leftover fragments of planetary building blocks orbit the sun in the form of asteroids,
comets, and dwarf planets. Ranging from pristine to geologically active, these small bodies
offer clues to our solar system’s history through their composition, orbit, and behavior.

Rocky residuals EROS: vesta: PSYCHE:

Objects that orbit closer to the sun are mostly small Bright and stony Intact protoplanet Rare orb
and rocky. Jupiter’s gravity likely prevented the
formation of a planet in the main asteroid belt and Eros is one of thousands of Models suggest that as many as a hundred Did collisions rip off a rocky layer
caused early protoplanets to collide and break apart. asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit emerging planets started to form. Vesta, surrounding the metallic core of
Their combined mass is less than that of Earth’s moon. and may be fragments from the largest asteroid, appears to be the only an ancient developing planet? An
larger asteroids or the burned- intact survivor. Craters, fractures, and lava upcoming mission will investigate
out remnants of comets. flows scar this object’s surface. whether that’s Psyche’s origin story.

Some ejected par- Rotation is Deep dust Gullies on crater Basaltic VESTA, Thought to At least
ticles are retained speeding up, ponds in walls hint at watery crust Dawn, 2011-12 be up to 60 two large
by gravity. which could craters debris flows. percent metal depressions
alter its orbit.

Stony
mantle

21 mi

Uniform Metallic
internal core
structure
355 mi
EROS,
Diameter: 1,850 ft Meteorites NEAR Shoemaker, Ejected 172 mi
from Vesta 1998-2001 material
BennU: Artist's
Clinging shards BENNU, Large impact crater; interpretation
This spinning collection of gravity- OSIRIS-REx, 2018-2021 possible source of
bound rubble shows its age with smaller asteroids PSYCHE,
dark, cracked surface rocks that Mission name,* date visited Psyche,
have been weathered by the sun. launch 2022

I N C L I N AT I O N60º Hazard zone main asteroid belt CERES,
Dawn, 2015-18
SCATTERED ORBITS Large asteroids and comets Colliding debris broke apart early
that orbit close to Earth are planets as they formed. Particles with Rocky
Scientists have identified over a million considered potentially hazard- similar orbital properties clustered core
objects close to Earth. Celestial bodies ous. Over 2,100 such objects are into groups known as asteroid families.
farther from the sun—estimated in the under experts’ watchful eyes.
trillions—are more difficult to observe
due to their distance and darker, less 606 mi
reflective surfaces.
Salty
Known objects are shown by water-ice
30º the tilt of their orbit relative
CERES:
to the major planets. The anomaly
The only dwarf planet in the
Asteroid main belt has a thick under-
Potentially hazardous asteroid ground layer of salty ice that
Centaur erupted through a surface
Trans-Neptunian object pockmarked with small craters.

RYUGU,
JAXA Hayabusa2
2014-2020

SUN MERCURY VENUS EARTH MARS MAIN ASTEROID BELT

NEAR-EARTH ASTEROIDS

0 1 Astronomical unit (AU) 234

BODIES NOT TO SCALE. *NASA MISSION UNLESS OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED. †OBJECT COUNT AS OF JUNE 30, 2021.

Beyond the frost line PLUTO: Icy 1,099,978 BODIESHAVEBEEN
mantle CATALOGED IN OUR SOLAR
At this distance from the sun, water begins icy Dwarf SYSTEM. TRILLIONS HAVE
to condense into ice. Bodies typically are Possible YET TO BE IDENTIFIED.†
icier and gassier, with more elliptical orbits. Methane-capped ice mountains ocean
Out here many objects are paired, both and a heart-shaped, 2.5-mile- ODD OBJECT:
small and planet-size. thick nitrogen glacier are some Thin nitrogen- THE visitor
of the features on this minus and methane-rich Its extreme speed and
2.7 mi 387°F dwarf planet. atmosphere trajectory leads scientists
to believe the asteroid
Two lobes ‘Oumuamua originated
together outside our solar system.

Dust and Retrograde PLUTO, Vents thrust 500 ft
gas jets rotation New Horizons, 2015 out gas
1,430 mi
Ice and rock
material Water-ice
mountains
Surface made Rocky Reflective
of water ice Nitrogen core surface
glacier
LINE Artist's
COMET 67P CHARON Ice volcano interpretation
CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO, 750 mi
FROST ESA Rosetta, 2014-16 At 12,200 miles apart, Pluto and its ‘OUMUAMUA,
Large, deep moon Charon always show each other observed 2017
COMET: canyon the same face as they orbit.
Icy contact How we know
Porous, pitted, and spewing dust- Sometimes when objects pass
filled water vapor, comets also in front of a brighter body,
have been shown to sometimes information about their size
host life-building compounds. and shape can be revealed.

60º

JUPITER’S TROJANS, Centaurs trans-neptunian objects The Unknowns
Lucy, Traveling between Jupiter and About 4,000 small bodies have been identified
launch 2021 Neptune, these objects—part in this zone past Neptune’s orbit so far. Many, Our solar system stretches
comet, part asteroid—can be such as four of the known dwarf planets, are more than 50,000 times
Trojans forced by the larger planets large enough to have their own moons. Earth’s distance from the
Millions of asteroids toward the sun or out of the sun, and there is still much
are balanced between solar system altogether. Haumea Makemake to learn about its far reaches.
the pulls of Jupiter
and the sun. Pholus

30º

Orcus

Neptune’s Quaoar MANUEL CANALES, EVE CONANT, NGM
Trojans STAFF; PATRICIA HEALY, ALEXANDER
STEGMAIER, MATTHEW TWOMBLY
NEPTUNE
30 3D ART: ANTOINE COLLIGNON

SOURCES: ASTORB DATABASE AND
NICK MOSKOVITZ, LOWELL
OBSERVATORY; BETHANY EHLMANN,
CALTECH; KEVIN PETER HAND, NASA/
JPL; MICHAEL SHEPARD, BLOOMSBURG
UNIVERSITY; NASA/UNIVERSITY OF
ARIZONA/CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY/
YORK UNIVERSITY/MDA

JUPITER S AT U R N URANUS KUIPER BELT
20
CENTAURS

5 10 40 50 AU 60

MANUEL CANALES, NGM STAFF; discovered the previous December would come Internation
PATRICIA HEALY, ALEXANDER STEGMAIER within 26,000 miles of Earth’s surface in 2028, the “dwarf
with a small chance it would hit the planet. Pluto. In th
ART: ANTOINE COLLIGNON found even
The story quickly made headlines around the have learne
SOURCES: KEVIN PETER HAND, NASA/JPL; NICK world, and the news hit a public increasingly motions ar
MOSKOVITZ, LOWELL OBSERVATORY; MICHAEL aware of how much damage an asteroid could
deal. A few years earlier, geologists had iden- Some ob
SHEPARD, BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY tified the crater left by the asteroid that struck stable, bor
Earth 66 million years ago, killing off all the where they
dinosaurs except birds. Was the incoming space Arrokoth, w
rock the next Big One? flew by in 2
erratic orbit
Astronomers raced to double-check their cal- have such d
culations. By the next day, Don Yeomans and sun that th
Paul Chodas with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab- tugs from a
oratory had figured out that the asteroid would
sail harmlessly by Earth at a distance of 600,000 These “d
miles. Whew—crisis averted. Still, the back-and- Brown and
forth cast a glaring spotlight on how little support betray the p
there had been for finding killer asteroids. times more
billions of
By coincidence, the Hollywood blockbusters tem’s exurb
Deep Impact and Armageddon premiered just
months after the affair, reinforcing asteroid But even
impacts as the apocalypse du jour. In May 1998 so much ab
Congress told NASA to find at least 90 percent of are made o
all asteroids at least six-tenths of a mile wide that they play in
come within 121 million miles of the sun, and to really begin
do it within a decade. By July NASA had desig- to bring pie
nated an office to oversee the asteroid search.
AT DAW
Astronomers didn’t just have political will on
their side. They also had the right technology. AT DAWN
By the late 1990s digital camera sensors had Tachibana’
gotten big and sensitive enough to outperform lia’s Woome
the cumbersome glass plates used for decades mile span o
to take pictures of the night sky. Telescopes sud- miles nort
denly could see smaller, fainter, and more dis- patch of de
tant objects. And because the new data arrived inal groups
digitized, researchers could analyze them with In 1947 Aus
computer software, simplifying the process. range miss
summer m
Mike Brown, an astronomer at California Insti- spot for a sp
tute of Technology in Pasadena, saw firsthand
what followed. In 2002 Brown and his colleagues Tachiba
decided to upgrade the 48-inch-wide telescope Tokyo, was
at California’s Palomar Observatory with a large for the 16-
digital camera. When Brown aimed the instru- journey thr
ment toward the Kuiper belt in hope of finding ware had co
objects bigger and brighter than the region’s and wizene
few hundred known denizens, his team started pebbles nea
discovering so many new worlds, “I just felt like second tim
things were falling out of the sky,” he says.
Ten years
Brown’s discoveries included three objects tion Agency
that each were at least half as wide as Pluto, and agency to re
one—named Eris for the Greek goddess of dis-
cord—that was more massive. So in 2006 the

52 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

nal Astronomical Union voted to create RAIN OF ROCK?
planet” category that now includes
he 15 years since, astronomers have Astronauts collected
the first pristine
n more objects beyond Neptune—and samples from another
ed just how diverse they are in their world, including soil
ound the sun. ejected from the
bjects in this frigid potpourri have moon’s Copernicus
ring orbits that imply they formed crater (above), which
y are today, such as the reddish object was retrieved during
which NASA’s New Horizons probe the Apollo 12 mission
2019. Others have been scattered into (below). Those samples
ts by Neptune’s gravity, and a rare few suggest the crater
distant, elongated orbits around the formed about 800
hey probably don’t feel gravitational million years ago,
any of the known planets. possibly during intense
detached” small bodies are so odd, asteroid showers that
d some astronomers suspect they bombarded Earth and
presence of an unseen planet several its natural satellite.
e massive than Earth, lurking tens of
miles from the sun in the solar sys- JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION
bs. AGENCY/SELENE (TOP); CHARLES
n our best telescopes can tell us only CONRAD, JR., NASA (BOTTOM)
bout what all these strange objects
of, what they’re doing, and the role
n the evolution of the solar system. To
n filling in the puzzle, humans needed
eces of the cosmos to Earth.

N ON

N DOENCDEEMCBE MERB E6R, 2020, Shogo

6, 2020,

’s helicopter touched down in Austra-

era Prohibited Area, a 47,000-square-

of bush-stippled outback about 300

h of Adelaide. Over millennia, this

esert has seen many uses. Six Aborig-

s have long called these lands home.

stralia designated the region a long-

ile testing facility. And on this soggy

morning, the site served as a landing

pacecraft returning from an asteroid.

na, a scientist at the University of

s in Woomera with his team hunting

inch-wide capsule. After a searing

rough Earth’s atmosphere, that hard-

ome to rest among silvery saltbushes

ed trees, delivering pristine dust and

arly as old as the sun itself for just the

me in human history.

s prior, the Japan Aerospace Explora-

y, or JAXA, had become the first space

etrieve a sample from the surface of an

asteroid. The Hayabusa mission rendezvoused By visiting asteroids in space and sampling

with the asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2005, but the them, scientists may help solve an enduring

sampling maneuver didn’t go as planned. A cap- mystery: How did Earth’s surface become an

sule bearing only a light sprinkling of its dust oasis for life, even though the planet formed so

grains landed in Woomera in 2010. Its successor, close to the sun? As it took shape more than 4.5

Hayabusa2, set off in 2014 to the near-Earth aster- billion years ago, our home world went through a

oid 162173 Ryugu—and did its best impression scorching, hellish youth. Yet here we sit, our pale

of a superhero’s bottomless utility belt once it blue dot sloshing through space as a biological

arrived at its target. haven that depends on water and carbon.

Inside the spacecraft, engineers had packed Some research suggests that despite baking

a suite of scientific instruments, a lander, three in the inner solar system, the infant Earth’s

rovers, an impactor designed to make an artifi- building blocks could have contained enough

cial crater, and a breakaway camera that filmed hydrogen to account for much of our planet’s

the blast while the main spacecraft moved out of water. But meteorites and impact craters across

range for its own safety. Those accessories aided the solar system point to another, paradoxically

Hayabusa2 in its ultimate goal: twice alighting violent source of hydration: bombardment by

on Ryugu, firing a pellet into its surface, and asteroids and comets. So far, missions sent

out to small bodies have provided

tantalizing hints of these ancient

impacts’ boosts to Earth’s prebiotic

by visiting chemistry.

asteroids, scientists The 1,500 grains of Itokawa

hope to learn how returned by the first Hayabusa
Earth’s surface mission show that the asteroid’s
minerals contain water that looks

became an oasis for chemically similar to Earth’s. And

life, even though when the European Space Agen-

the planet formed cy’s Rosetta mission became the
so close to first spacecraft to orbit and land
a probe on a comet, between 2014
the sun. and 2016, it revealed that up to a

quarter of the comet’s mass is made

up of organic molecules formed by

collecting the schmutz that sprayed outward. nonliving processes. It also showed that some of

Now, 5.4 grams of jarringly dark grains and the material brought to an infant Earth may have

pebbles are in a lab outside Tokyo, shepherded been especially fragrant: Based on its chemical

there from the Australian outback by Tachiba- profile, the comet would smell like a noxious

na’s team. This is humankind’s first up-close blend of rotten eggs, formaldehyde, and a horse

look at Ryugu’s surface and subsurface, and stable’s harsh fumes, with a dash of almond.

upcoming studies will provide invaluable Clearly, small bodies aren’t bit players in the

records of the solar system’s history. epic saga of Earth’s evolution—they’re central

Until missions such as Hayabusa2, scientists characters. But we can’t just think in terms of

relied on meteorites that had fallen to Earth their utility to Earth. If anything, robotic mis-

to delve into the solar system’s origins. Some sions have underscored that asteroids and com-

of these primordial lumps indicated that the ets are tiny worlds with terrains all their own.

asteroids that shed them contain a surprising These objects cover such a wide range of shapes,

amount of water-bearing minerals, as well as the sizes, and histories, “it’s as if we suddenly have a

types of carbonaceous chemistry that can give million new kinds of worlds to explore,” says Ari-

rise to some of life’s building blocks. But even zona State University planetary scientist Lindy

these extraordinary insights come with a catch: Elkins-Tanton, who is principal investigator on

Meteorites aren’t completely pristine, having a NASA mission to explore an oddly reflective,

gotten to Earth’s surface only after surviving a likely metallic asteroid called Psyche.

fiery descent through our atmosphere. Beyond their makeup, the diverse movements

54 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

of small bodies are revealing how important similar to the giant planet’s path around the sun.
these worlds have been in shaping the star sys- If today’s small bodies were to try and invade
tem we all call home. Jupiter’s turf like this, they’d most likely collide
with the behemoth or get scattered by its gravity,
TTHHEESSAAMMECECOOLLOORRAADDBOOUBIULIDLDININGG that houses possibly even getting kicked out of the solar sys-
OSIRIS-REx’s mission control contains the cav- tem. So how did Jupiter acquire its entourage?
ernous room where engineers build other NASA
missions—including a robotic paleontologist In 2005 Levison and his colleagues at the Côte
of sorts that soon will trek toward Jupiter. To d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France, published
see this spacecraft back in October, I put on my an influential hypothesis, now called the Nice
space-day best—a face mask and a slippery, model, which posits that the solar system began
head-to-toe “bunny suit” designed to prevent with many more small bodies than it has now,
my clothes and skin from contaminating any- and that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
thing. Then I walk into a huge, cream-colored formed closer to the sun than they currently
clean room humming with ventilation. Hal Levi- orbit. As small bodies gravitationally tugged at
son and Cathy Olkin, scientists at the Southwest the gas giants, the planets’ orbits shifted until
Research Institute in Boulder, join me. they slipped into an unstable configuration.

Levison and Olkin are the principal and dep- Suddenly, the planets are thought to have
uty principal investigators, respectively, on the reeled and staggered, their orbits ballooning
first mission to explore Jupiter’s Trojan aster- outward to their current positions, where Jupi-
oids, two swarms of primordial objects that lead ter captured its Trojans. In the fray, many small
and follow Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. bodies either scattered inward toward the sun
The way Olkin and Levison see it, the Trojans or got ejected from the solar system. The inner
are the solar system’s fossils, so Olkin suggested planets, including Earth, may have felt the after-
they name the mission Lucy, in honor of the effects as an increase in bombardments. “The
famous skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, solar system is really like somebody picked it up
a distant ancestral cousin of Homo sapiens. early on and shook it real hard,” Levison says.

It’s not just my first up-close look at this After launching this October, Lucy will fly by
spacecraft; it’s Levison’s too. As it happens, the a series of target Trojans from 2027 to 2033. The
engineers building Lucy are testing a key mech- bodies’ color, composition, density, and crater-
anism while we’re visiting. To keep the space- ing should help researchers figure out when and
craft’s gaze fixed on its targets during a planned where each formed within the solar system, aid-
series of high-speed flybys, Lucy’s instruments ing similar estimates for the rest of the Jupiter
sit on a platform that, in turn, is mounted to the Trojans. These data will throw down a gauntlet:
spacecraft’s chassis via a dual-axis gimbal, not To have a shot at being correct, future simula-
unlike the one that stabilizes handheld cameras. tions of early solar system formation must rep-
The entire mission rests on that one robotic licate whatever patterns Lucy finds. Along the
limb. If it flexes incorrectly or at the wrong time, way, the spacecraft will snap the first resolved
Lucy’s instruments may collect blurred data—or images of the Trojans humans have ever seen.
at worst, stare into darkness.
“This is the last stable population of minor
We form a spaced arc around the rig, eager planets that hasn’t been explored,” Olkin says.
for the show. It moves slowly, methodically, “The time is right.”
and even this small motion delights Olkin and
Levison. “It’s alive! It’s alive!” Levison jokingly DESPITAELL THIS
exclaims. The pair’s eyes stay glued to their
team’s creation as it stirs awake. DESPITE ALL THPISRPORGORGERSESSS, , astronomers
know we’re only beginning to scratch the surface
The Jupiter Trojans that Lucy will study pre- of what’s out there—and what perks or perils
sent a dynamical riddle: They don’t appear might be lurking in the darkness.
to have formed in place, but their orbits are
extremely hard to enter because they are so When the Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins
operations in 2023 in Chile, it will spend a decade
mapping the southern night sky in stunning
detail, most of it 825 times over. University of

S M A L L W O N D E R S 55

EYE ON THE SKY

Engineers huddle
beneath the two-
foot-wide sensor array
that will power the
Vera C. Rubin Obser-
vatory’s 3.2-gigapixel
digital camera, the
biggest ever built for
astronomy. Under
construction in Chile,
the U.S.-funded obser-
vatory is expected
to find about five
million more asteroids,
comets, and other
small bodies after it
goes online in 2023.

JACQUELINE ORRELL, SLAC NATIONAL
ACCELERATOR LABORATORY



SPACE INVADER

In 2019 Crimean comet
hunter and telescope
engineer Gennadiy
Borisov (below) spot-
ted an object moving
too fast to be orbiting
the sun. Now called
2I/Borisov, that comet
(above) is one of just
two large bodies from
other stars we’ve seen
moving through the
solar system. Thou-
sands of interstellar
interlopers are likely
out there right now.

O. HAINAUT, EUROPEAN SOUTHERN
OBSERVATORY (TOP); YULIA
ZHULIKOVA (BOTTOM)

Washington astronomer Željko Ivezić, the sur- moonlet at about 15,000 miles an hour, shorten-
vey’s project scientist, often likens the survey to ing the moonlet’s orbit by as much as 10 minutes.
filming “the greatest movie of all time.” Stitch all
of its pictures together into a cosmic time lapse, If DART proves a success, future humans may
and the resulting video could run in full-color need to use a scaled-up version of this maneuver
HD for 11 months straight. to keep Bennu in check. But first, much smaller
pieces of Bennu will soar harmlessly through our
By the end of 2033, the Rubin Observatory is atmosphere—thanks to that spacecraft being
expected to dramatically increase the count of commanded from the Denver suburbs.
known small bodies. Its predicted haul includes
another five million asteroids in the main belt, IT’S NOW 4:13 P.M.
about 300,000 Jupiter Trojans, 40,000 objects
beyond Neptune—and 10 to a hundred objects IT’S NOW 4:13 P.MM. MOUONUTNATIANINTITMIME E on
passing through our solar system that formed October 20, 2020, and the 17 seconds Dante
around alien stars, adding to the two astrono- Lauretta long awaited have come and gone—to
mers have found since 2017. his utter delight.

For Michele Bannister, an astronomer at New Two minutes earlier, he and his team received
Zealand’s University of Canterbury, the Rubin word that OSIRIS-REx was within five meters
Observatory’s potential discoveries evoke awe. of Bennu’s surface, and that the spacecraft’s
“We basically have been the kids on the sea- onboard hazard-detection system had given it
shore, standing there picking up a few shells the green light to proceed. Wearing a clear plas-
and admiring how beautiful they are,” she says, tic mask to show more of his face under COVID-
“and all around us is this vast ocean spreading 19 protocols, Lauretta breaks into a smile. Asked
out—which is suddenly going to be something how he feels, he comes up with just one word:
we can go out and explore.” “Transcendental.”

Mapping this celestial sea also is expected to Systems engineer Estelle Church then con-
find another 100,000 near-Earth asteroids that firms that the commands she sent have been
come within 121 million miles of the sun, some executed. Millions of miles from Earth, dodging
of which may be “potentially hazardous” like boulders bigger than houses, OSIRIS-REx has
Bennu: objects wider than 500 feet, with orbits collected its bounty and is backing away.
that take them within 4.7 million miles of Earth’s
path around the sun. If we’ve learned anything The tip of OSIRIS-REx’s sampling arm got so
from COVID-19, let alone the climate and extinc- packed with debris that it jammed open, and the
tion crises, it’s that the systems that undergird team had to rush to seal the leaking container
modern civilization are brittle. Now imagine within its return capsule. As a result, they don’t
throwing a big space rock at them. know how much of Bennu they’ll be bringing
back to Earth when OSIRIS-REx drops off the
“Obviously, near-Earth asteroids and com- capsule in 2023. But they suspect it’ll be plenty,
ets, that’s a much less likely problem compared and that a closer look at its chemistry will shake
to something like this pandemic,” says Amy up our understanding of biological beginnings.
Mainzer, a University of Arizona planetary sci-
entist who specializes in near-Earth asteroids. “The likelihood that there’s life elsewhere in
“But ... eventually, if you wait long enough, the the galaxy, even in the universe—we’re gonna
unlikely events—they will happen.” understand that a lot better,” Lauretta says.

Protecting Earth from such a fate won’t require We’re made of star stuff, as the old Carl Sagan
ragtag crews of nuke-toting astronauts, like in the adage goes. But as products of the solar system,
movies. If astronomers can forecast a collision we also could see ourselves as Bennu brothers,
with enough notice, a zippy spacecraft could be Psyche sisters, comet cousins—kin to the aster-
launched in time to hit the asteroid and render oids and comets that chronicle our deepest
its orbit harmless. In 2022 a NASA mission built histories. In a sense, we too are the sun’s small
and managed by the Johns Hopkins University bodies: endlessly diverse and beautiful, bearing
Applied Physics Laboratory will try out this the secrets of life itself. j
maneuver with a spacecraft called the Double
Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART for short. Michael Greshko is a staff science writer for
DART will slam into a near-Earth asteroid’s tiny National Geographic.

S M A L L W O N D E R S 59

A seven-month-old
cheetah in the back
of an SUV hisses at a
rescuer’s outstretched
hand. Authorities
intercepted the cub,
later named Astur,
before he could be
sold to a smuggler.
But every year scores—
perhaps hundreds—
of mostly very young
cheetahs are trafficked
out of Somaliland to
Persian Gulf states to
be sold as pets.

60