Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[February 10-16th, 2019] Missing Opportunity, a snowy tribute to da Vinci, a dating app for cows, and the rest of the week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
When the Opportunity rover landed on Mars in 2004, the 400-million-dollar project was only expected to operate for 90 days. Opportunity, however, proved far hardier than NASA engineers expected. It continued to operate for 14 years—55 times is projected lifespan and traveled across 28 miles of the Martian surface. Though it survived several sandstorms, in 2018, it went inactive. After many attempts to regain contact with the rover, NASA finally decided the rover was gone for good this week, declaring mission accomplished.
Opportunity taking the first selfie on Mars.
Armed with a snow shovel instead of a paintbrush, Robert Greenfield of Toronto paid tribute to Renaissance great Leonardo da Vinci by making his own version of the famed Mona Lisa in his back yard. After his hard work was completed, Greenfield insisted his masterpiece be displayed in the “Igloouvre.”
People aren’t the only ones who can have trouble finding love, that’s why UK farmers have all started downloading the Tudder dating app. Launched just ahead of Valentine’s Day, the app features 42,00 profiles of cows available for breeding across the UK. Users can get a good look at a cow, read their stats, and decide whether to swipe right for their own cow.
In an effort to relieve stress for her eighth-grade art students, Brady Sloane—an art teacher at Madison Middle School of Abilene, Texas—decided to channel her inner Bob Ross. She wasn’t the only one, however. She and her students all decided to dress up as the public tv painting legend, donning wigs and blue jeans to paint happy, little trees.
Credit: Greg Jakiewicz
The USS Hornet was an aircraft carrier in World War II, participating in the Doolittle Raid against Tokyo, and the famed Battle of Midway. Though it was seasoned in the naval battles of the Pacific theater, the ship was scuttled off the coast of Japan on October 26, 1942. Lost for decades, a research team has just found the wreckage resting in the murky deep. Much of the equipment sits eerily intact, with tractors still on deck and guns pointed to the surface.
C. Navigea Ltd, R/V Petrel
