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Science

Super Blood Moon, A Glowing Turtle, And Other Amazing Images Of The Week

Including a robot hugging a teddy bear

By Lydia Chain and Nicole Lou

October 2, 2015

The world's longest glass suspension bridge opened in the Shiniuzhai National Park in China. The bridge spans 984 feet, but all that stands between travelers and the 590 foot drop is an inch of glass. And a solid steel supporting structure, just in case.Getty Images and China Foto Press

University of Montana scientists just discovered the earliest fossils of North American coral after the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period. It took corals 20 million years to recover from the extinction event.Montana Hodges

Last week, a sinkhole formed under a popular campsite in Queensland, Australia. No one was injured, but this is the second sinkhole to emerge near Inskip Point in only four years. Scientists are still trying to figure out the cause behind the event, though they have ruled out earthquakes as a possibility.Kieran Hudson

Jose Antonio Hervas pieced together more than 200 photographs to create this image of the super blood moon eclipse during the fall. It is the rare time lapse image of what happens when a lunar eclipse occurs while the moon is closest to earth. The next lunar event like this will not happen until 2033.Jose Antonio Hervas

NASA's Dawn spacecraft mapped the surface of Ceres on a mission during the late summer. This false color view holds clues to the mineral composition of the dwarf planet, which is in Neptune's orbit. Under Ceres' surface is an icy mantle and a rocky inner core.NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Tesla Motor's latest SUV, the Model X, is the stuff of dreams you didn't even know you had. The fully-electric vehicle shines with 762 horsepower and can reach up to 150 mph. Launched this week, the Model X also has the honor of being the SUV with the lowest roll-over risk, most aerodynamic design, and even comes with a "bioweapon defense mode" for the end times.Tesla Motors

The first bioluminescent reptile was discovered this summer when David Gruber saw a glowing red and green hawksbill turtle swim by. He is now researching why a turtle might fluoresce.David Gruber and National Geographic

NASA and NOAA satellites picked up images of Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin as it approached the Atlantic Coast of North America.NASA/NOAA GOES Project

This beautiful pink orchid had been in flower stalls since 2013, and scientists assumed it was a man-made hybrid. But DNA analysis showed it was a previously undiscovered, rare wild species.Rogier van Vugt (Hortus botanicus, Leiden University)

MIT's Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) released a robot that can pick up fragile and hard-to-hold objects. The robot's gripper is 3D-printed with silicone, so it's soft and precise enough that it won't even break eggs or CDs. The secret to the robot is its ability to recognize an object and apply the appropriate amount of force needed to pick it up.MIT CSAIL

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