Al Hajar Mountains in OmanL_B_Photography/Shutters​tock A section of Earth’s mantle beneath Oman appears to be unusually warm, in what researchers say may be the first known “ghost plume” – a column of hot rock emanating from the lower mantle without apparent volcanic activity on the surface. Mantle plumes are mysterious upwellings of molten rock believed to transmit heat from the core-mantle boundary to the Earth’s surface, far from the edges of tectonic plates. There are a dozen or so examples thought to occur underneath the middle of continental plates – for instance, beneath Yellowstone and the East African rift. “But these are all cases where you do have surface volcanism,” says Simone Pilia at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. Oman has no such volcanic clues. Pilia first came to suspect there was a plume beneath Oman “serendipitously” after he began analysing new seismic data from the region. He observed the velocity of waves generated by distant earthquakes slowed down in a cylindrical area beneath eastern Oman, indicating the rocks there were less rigid than the surrounding material due to high temperatures. Other independent seismic measurements showed key boundaries where minerals deep in the Earth change phases in a way consistent with a hot plume. These measurements suggest the plume extends more than 660 kilometres below the surface. The presence of a plume could also explain why the region has continued to rise in elevation long after tectonic compression – a geological process where the Earth’s crust is squeezed together – stopped. It also fits with models of what could have caused a shift in the movement of the Indian tectonic plate. “The more we gathered evidence, the more we were convinced that it is a plume,” says Pilia, who named the geologic feature the “Dani plume” after his son. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month. Sign up to newsletter “It’s plausible” that a plume indeed exists there, says Saskia Goes at Imperial College London, adding the study is “thorough”. However, she points out narrow plumes are notoriously difficult to detect. If it does exist, however, the presence of a “ghost plume” contained within the mantle by the relatively thick rocky layer beneath Oman would suggest there are others, says Pilia. “We’re convinced that the Dani plume is not alone.” If there are many other hidden plumes, it could mean more heat from the core is flowing directly through the mantle via plumes, rather than through slower convection, says Goes. “It has implications, potentially, for the evolution of the Earth if we get a different estimate of how much heat comes out of the mantle.” Journal referenceEarth and Planetary Science Letters DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119467 Topics:

An artist's illustration of an unlucky massive star approaching a supermassive black hole. Credit: University of Hawai'i Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. At any given time across the universe, massive cosmic bodies are releasing incomprehensible amounts of energy. Stars burn like celestial nuclear fusion reactors, quasars emit thousands of times the luminosity of the Milky Way galaxy, and asteroids slam into planets. But all of these pale in comparison to a new class of events discovered by researchers at the University of Hawai’i’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA). According to their findings published June 4 in the journal Science Advances, it’s time to classify the universe’s most energetic explosions as extreme nuclear transients–or ENTs. ENTs are as devastating as they are rare. They only occur when a massive star at least three times heavier than the sun drifts too close to a supermassive black hole. The colliding forces subsequently obliterate the star, sending out plumes of energy across huge swaths of space. Similar events known as tidal disruption events (TDEs) are known to occur on a (comparatively) smaller scale, and have been documented for over a decade. But ENTs are something else entirely. “ENTs are different beasts,” study lead author and astronomer Jason Hinkle explained in an accompanying statement. “Not only are ENTs far brighter than normal tidal disruption events, but they remain luminous for years, far surpassing the energy output of even the brightest known supernova explosions.” Hinkle was first tipped off to ENTs while looking into transients—longlasting flares that spew energy from a galaxy’s center. Two particularly strange examples captured by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission caught his eye. The pair of events brightened over a much longer timeframe than previously documented transients, but lacked some of their usual characteristics. “Gaia doesn’t tell you what a transient is, just that something changed in brightness,” Hinkle said. “But when I saw these smooth, long-lived flares from the centers of distant galaxies, I knew we were looking at something unusual.” Hinkle soon reached out to observatory teams around the world for what would become a multiyear project to understand these anomalies. In the process, a third suspect was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego. After months of analysis, Hinkle and collaborators realized they were witnessing something unprecedented. An infrared echo tells us that a dusty torus surrounds the central black hole and newly-formed accretion disk. Credit: University of Hawai’i The ENTs analyzed by astronomers displayed smoother, longer lasting flares that pointed towards something very particular—a supermassive black hole accreting a giant, wayward star. This contrasts with a more standard black hole that typically acquires its material and energy unpredictably, resulting in irregular brightness fluctuations. The energy and luminosity of an ENT boggles the mind. The most powerful ENT documented in Hinkle’s study, Gaia18cdj, generated 25 times more energy than the most powerful known supernovae. For reference, a standard supernova puts out as much energy in a single year as the sun does across its entire 10 billion year lifespan. Gaia18cdj, meanwhile, manages to give off 100 suns’ worth of energy over just 12 months. The implications of ENTs and their massive energy surges go far beyond their impressive energy outputs. Astronomers believe they contribute to some of the most pivotal events in the cosmos. “These ENTs don’t just mark the dramatic end of a massive star’s life. They illuminate the processes responsible for growing the largest black holes in the universe,” said Hinkle. From here on Earth, ENTs can also help researchers as they continue studying massive, distant black holes. “Because they’re so bright, we can see them across vast cosmic distances—and in astronomy, looking far away means looking back in time,” explained study co-author and astronomer Benjamin Shappee. “By observing these prolonged flares, we gain insights into black hole growth when the universe was half its current age… forming stars and feeding their supermassive black holes 10 times more vigorously than they do today.” There’s a catch for astronomers, however. While supernovae are relatively well-documented, ENTs are estimated to occur at least 10 million times less often. This means that further study requires consistent monitoring of the cosmos backed by the support of international governments, astronomical associations, and the public.

Remember the banana peels, apple cores, and leftover pizza you recently threw in the garbage? Today, your food waste—and your neighbors’—is emitting climate-warming greenhouse gases as it decomposes in a nearby municipal landfill. Buried food scraps and yard waste at 51 dumps across Colorado generate an amount of methane equivalent to driving 1 million gasoline-powered cars for a year. About 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a period of 20 years, methane accounts for 11% of global emissions that scientists say are warming the atmosphere and contributing to more intense and severe weather, wildfires, and drought. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane pollution in Colorado, after agriculture and fossil fuel extraction. Draft methane rules released last month by the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment would, for the first time, require some dump operators to measure and quantify methane releases and to fix leaks. The proposal mandates that waste managers install a gas collection system if their dump generates a certain amount of the climate-warming gas.  It also addresses loopholes in federal law that allow waste to sit for five years before such systems are required—even though science has shown that half of all food waste decays within about three and a half years. The draft rule surpasses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards in the amount of landfill area operators must monitor for emissions. It’s set to be heard by the state’s Air Quality Control Commission in August. Proposed regulations require the elimination of open gas flares—burning emissions directly into the atmosphere—and urge the use of biocovers and biofilters, which rely on bacteria to break down gases. The 70-page draft also calls for more routine and thorough monitoring of a dump surface with advanced technologies like satellites, which recently recorded large plumes of methane escaping from a Denver-area landfill. “We’ve had our eyes opened thanks to technology that has made the invisible, visible—now we know the extent of the problem, which is much greater than what estimates have portrayed,” said Katherine Blauvelt, circular economy director at Industrious Labs, a nonprofit working to decarbonize industry.  “When landfill operators fail to control leaks, we know harmful pollutants are coming along for the ride.” Cancer-causing volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and toluene, escape with methane leaching from landfills. These chemicals also contribute to the formation of lung-damaging ozone pollution, an increasing problem for the 3.6 million people who live in the greater Denver metropolitan area. Indeed, the region along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains ranked sixth in the nation for the most polluted air—with unhealthy ozone levels reported on one out of every 10 days, on average, according to the American Lung Association’s 2025 “State of the Air” report. The state is also woefully behind in its compliance with federal air quality standards. State officials and environmental advocates agree that reducing methane emissions from landfills, which are easier to mitigate than cow burps, for example, is one of the quickest and most efficient ways to slow warming in the short term. “Waste deposited in landfills continues producing methane for decades as it breaks down—and it’s one sector where Colorado has yet to directly take action to reduce these greenhouse gases,” said Tim Taylor, a supervisor in the state’s air pollution control division, in an online hearing last February on the proposed landfill methane rules. Colorado’s draft regulations are similar to those in California, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington, he added. More than 10 landfills in the state are already required under federal rules to have gas collection and control systems. Yet even with such technology in place, disposal facilities routinely exceed federal methane emissions caps. The state’s health department has also identified a dozen municipal solid waste landfills, based on a preliminary analysis, that would be required to put such systems in place under the proposed rules, Zachary Aedo, an agency spokesman, said in an email to Capital & Main. Many of these facilities are operated by counties, some of which expressed concerns about their ability to pay for such systems. “We are a small rural county, and a multimillion-dollar containment system is going to be more than we can build,” testified Delta County Commissioner Craig Fuller at the February hearing. “The financial equation of this whole thing is absolutely mind-boggling—we are struggling as it is to provide health and human services.” Other county officials embraced the proposed tightening of rules. “Landfills across Colorado, including in Eagle County, are leading sources of methane pollution,” said Eagle County Commissioner Matt Scherr in a March 6 statement. “As a local elected official I support a robust rule that embraces advanced technologies to cut pollution, protect public health and help the methane mitigation industry thrive.” For larger landfill companies, like Waste Management, which operates 283 active disposal sites nationwide, figuring out which technology works to best monitor emissions from a dump’s surface is proving a complex challenge. The company is testing technologies at facilities with different topographies and climate fluctuations to understand what causes emissions releases, said Amy Banister, Waste Management senior director of air programs. “Landfills are complicated, emissions vary over time, and we have emissions 24/7,” said Banister at an online meeting last September of a technical group created by Colorado health department officials. “Drones produced a lot of false positives—and we need more work understanding how fixed sensors can be applied in a landfill environment.” State health officials suggested municipalities could offset the costs of installing gas collection systems at disposal sites by converting methane into energy. Several landfill operations in Colorado currently have such waste-to-energy systems—which send power they generate to the state’s power grid. “We are mindful of the costs of complying with this rule and how tipping fees may be impacted,” said Taylor, an air quality supervisor, at the February hearing. “Analyses conducted in other states of their landfill methane rules found there wasn’t an increase in tipping fees as a result of regulations over time.” Tipping fees are paid by those who dispose of waste in a landfill. If operators passed on compliance costs to households, a state analysis found, the yearly average annual fee would increase $22.90 per household. Colorado’s push comes as the EPA issued an enforcement alert in September that found “recurring Clean Air Act compliance issues” at municipal solid waste landfills that led to the “significant release of methane,” based on 100 inspections conducted over three years.  Such violations included improper design and installation of gas collection and control systems, failure to maintain adequate “cover integrity,” and improper monitoring of facilities for emissions. To address gaps in federal regulations, which require operators to measure emissions four times a year by walking in a grid pattern across the face of the landfill with a handheld sensor, Colorado’s draft rules require third-party monitoring. Such measurements must be conducted offsite by an entity approved by the state’s air pollution control division that uses a satellite, aircraft or mobile monitoring platform. The infrequency of such grid walks—which skip spots that operators deem dangerous—contributes to the undercounting of methane emissions from landfills, according to a satellite-based analysis. An international team of scientists estimated potent greenhouse gas emissions from landfills are 50% higher than EPA estimates. Satellites like one operated by nonprofit Carbon Mapper found large methane plumes outside the quarterly monitoring periods over the Tower Landfill in Commerce City, northeast of Denver. The satellite allowed scientists to see parts of the landfill not accessible with traditional monitoring—measurements that found that such landfills are underreporting their methane emissions to state regulators, said Tia Scarpelli, a research scientist and waste sector lead at Carbon Mapper. “Landfill emissions tend to be quite persistent—if a landfill is emitting when it’s first observed, it’s likely to be emitting later on,” she added. Scarpelli cautioned that it’s important for regulators to investigate with operators what was happening on the landfill surface at the time the leak was measured. Tower Landfill’s operator, Allied Waste Systems of Colorado, provided reasons for such large methane releases in a January 2024 report to the state’s health department, including equipment malfunctions. The fix for about 22 emissions events over the federal methane limits detected in August 2023 by surface monitoring: “Soil added as cover maintenance.” Like many dumps across Colorado and the nation, the Tower Landfill is located near a community that’s already disproportionately impacted by emissions from industrial activities. “These landfills are not only driving climate change, they are also driving a public health crisis in our community,” said Guadalupe Solis, director of environmental justice programs at Cultivando, a nonprofit led by Latina and Indigenous women in northern Denver. “The Tower Landfill is near nursing homes, clinics, near schools with majority Hispanic students.” Physicians in the state warned that those who live the closest to dumps suffer the worst health effects from pollutants like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, which are linked to cancer, heart, and other health conditions. “People living near landfills, like myself, my family and my patients, experience higher exposure to air pollution,” testified Dr. Nikita Habermehl, a specialist in pediatric emergency medicine who lives near a landfill in Larimer County, at the February 26 public hearing, “leading to increased rates of respiratory issues and headaches and asthma worsened by poor air quality.” —By Jennifer Oldham, Capital & Main This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.

A swirling sea of pink, where fluffy tufts float majestically upward, while elsewhere violet plumes rain down from above. This is the Sun as seen in groundbreaking new images — and they're unlike anything you've ever laid eyes on.As detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists have leveraged new coronal adaptive optics tech to bypass the blurriness caused by the turbulence of the Earth's atmosphere, a time-old obstacle that's frustrated astronomers' attempts to see features on our home star at a resolution better than 620 miles. Now, they've gotten it down to just under 40 miles — a light year sized leap.The result is some of the clearest images to date of the fine structures that make up the Sun's formidable corona, the outermost layer of its atmosphere known for its unbelievable temperatures and violent, unpredictable outbursts.The authors are optimistic that their blur-bypassing techniques will be a game-changer."These are by far the most detailed observations of this kind, showing features not previously observed, and it's not quite clear what they are," coauthor Vasyl Yurchyshyn, a research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Center for Terrestrial Research (CSTR), said in a statement about the work."It is super exciting to build an instrument that shows us the Sun like never before," echoed lead author Dirk Schmidt, an adaptive optics scientist at the US National Solar Observatory.Stretching for millions of miles into space, the corona is the staging ground for the Sun's violent outbursts, which range from solar storms, to solar flares, to coronal mass ejections. One reason scientists are interested in these phenomena is because they continue to batter our own planet's atmosphere, playing a significant role in the Earth's climate and wreaking havoc on our electronics. Then, at a reach totally beyond our very limited human purview, is the corona's mighty solar wind, which sweeps across the entire solar system, shielding it from cosmic rays.But astronomers are still trying to understand how these solar phenomena occur. One abiding mystery is why the corona can reach temperatures in the millions of degrees Fahrenheit, when the Sun's surface it sits thousands of miles above is no more than a relatively cool 10,000 degrees. The conundrum even has a name: the coronal heating problem.The level of detailed captured in the latest images, taken with an adaptive optics system installed on the Goode Solar Telescope at the CSTR, could be transformative in probing these mysteries.One type of feature the unprecedented resolution revealed were solar prominences, which are large, flashy structures that protrude from the sun's surface, found in twisty shapes like arches or loops. A spectacular video shows a solar prominence swirling like a tortured water spout as it's whipped around by the sun's magnetic field.Most awe-inspiring of all are the examples of what's known as coronal rain. Appearing like waterfalls suspended in midair, the phenomenon is caused as plasma cools and condenses into huge globs before crashing down to the sun's surface. These were imaged at a scale smaller than 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles. In solar terms, that's pinpoint accuracy."With coronal adaptive optics now in operation, this marks the beginning of a new era in solar physics, promising many more discoveries in the years and decades to come," said coauthor  Philip R. Goode at the CSTR in a statement.More on our solar system: Scientists Detect Mysterious Object in Deep Solar SystemShare This Article

News Planetary Science Venus’ tectonics may be actively reshaping its surface The planet’s surface may be tectonically active in ways that are similar to Earth’s The 1989 Magellan mission captured images of Venus’ rounded mountain belts called coronae (four shown), which may be evidence of tectonic activity. JPL-Caltech/NASA By Nikk Ogasa 17 seconds ago Things may be moving on Venus’ surface. In 1983, researchers discovered that the planet’s surface was speckled with strange, circular landforms. These rounded mountain belts, known as coronae, have no known Earthly counterparts, and they’ve remained enigmatic for decades. But hot plumes of rock upwelling from Venus’ mantle are shaping the mysterious landforms, a new analysis suggests. If true, that mean that Venus’ surface is tectonically active, and not merely a stagnant layer, researchers report May 14 in Science Advances. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has long been one of the most exciting targets in the search for life beyond Earth. Many scientists believe that an ocean lies below its icy surface, potentially hosting geologic activity capable of supporting life, but what happens on the moon’s seafloor is still largely a mystery. Although discussions on Europa are mostly centered around this hidden ocean, the shell of ice that envelops the moon has its own surprises. A study recently published in The Planetary Science Journal suggests that Europa’s surface ice is constantly changing. The evidence explored in the study paints a better picture of Europa’s outermost layer, and it may even reveal the interior processes that shape the moon’s unique structure. Europa's Surface IceEuropa has the smoothest surface out of any known object in our Solar System, but it’s far from lacking variety. The surface is rife with distinct geologic features, such as ridges, plains, and cracks, that cross over each other. Their disorderly appearance is linked to a fitting name, “chaos terrain.”Some regions with chaos terrain also provide insight on Europa’s surface ice. Most of Europa’s surface is made of amorphous ice, which lacks a crystalline structure. Scientists previously believed that Europa’s surface was entirely covered by a thin layer of amorphous ice, and that below this was crystalline ice (the form that most ice on Earth takes). However, the researchers involved with the new study have confirmed that certain areas of Europa’s surface contain crystalline ice, aligning with spectral data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This same ice also appears below the surface in these regions as well. “We think that the surface is fairly porous and warm enough in some areas to allow the ice to recrystallize rapidly,” said lead author Richard Cartwright, a spectroscopist at Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.Activity in the OceanA few other factors have convinced the researchers that an ocean exists below Europa's icy surface. The regions where ice recrystallizes show evidence of sodium chloride (what we know as table salt), carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide. “Our data showed strong indications that what we are seeing must be sourced from the interior, perhaps from a subsurface ocean nearly 20 miles (30 kilometers) beneath Europa’s thick icy shell,” said author Ujjwal Raut, a program manager at the Southwest Research Institute. “This region of fractured surface materials could point to geologic processes pushing subsurface materials up from below.”The Europa Clipper's MissionAlthough Europa and its subsurface ocean will be a crucial target for future space exploration, some scientists have expressed doubts regarding its capacity to sustain life. A series of obstacles could make finding life on Europa more difficult. At an American Geophysical Union conference last year, scientists reported that the ice layer covering the moon's surface is thicker than expected, indicating that there may not be enough heat or activity in the subsurface ocean to support life. Scientists aren’t yet sure if an abundance of hydrothermal vents or seafloor volcanoes sit at the bottom of the ocean — these features have been crucial in driving life on our own planet. Observations of Europa haven’t fully confirmed the existence of plumes, either, which would be a clear sign that material from the ocean could be transported to the surface. About 5 years from now, in 2030, scientists will get an unprecedented view of Europa as NASA's Europa Clipper approaches the icy moon. Launched last October, the Europa Clipper will reveal many secrets that still surround the moon's surface and the ocean below. Among its various objectives, the mission will look for plumes, which would be able to eject microbes — if they truly do exist on the moon — into space for the Europa Clipper to examine. Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:The Planetary Science Journal. JWST Reveals Spectral Tracers of Recent Surface Modification on EuropaThe Planetary Society. Europa, Jupiter’s possible watery moonThe Planetary Society. Could Europa Clipper find life?Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.

From the very first day Disneyland opened its gates in 1955, attractions based on movies were among the park’s biggest draws. Rides like the Mad Tea Party and Peter Pan’s Flight dazzled visitors, immersing them in worlds they had only previously experienced staring up at a big screen in a darkened theater.Both of those rides continue to operate at Disneyland, and at Walt Disney World and other Disney parks around the globe. In the decades since, they’ve been joined by dozens of other movie-based attractions, not only at Disney’s parks but also at Universal’s — a company built on a 100+-year-old foundation of cinema.With their striking visuals and iconic characters, movies make the ideal foundation for theme park attractions. Maybe that’s why so many of the best rides ever created take inspiration from movies. Like the 25 attractions listed below. A couple date back 70 years; others are brand new, like the ones recently installed at Universal’s Epic Universe park. Each of my picks also includes a video of the ride for the vicarious thrill seekers out there. (You know who you are.)Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making MoviesThese days, Universal’s theme parks are almost exclusively devoted to rides and environments that let guests feel like they have stepped inside their favorite movies and shows. That’s a stark contrast to their parks’ initial concept as a place where tourists learned the secrets of film and TV production, with a couple bigger rides thrown in for extra oomph. One of the best examples of old-school Universal was Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies. After a 3D highlight package of Hitchcock films, guests were ushered into a soundstage where a “director” and his “crew” explained how Hitchcock shot Psycho’s shower scene. Then guests could wander an interactive area, and participate in demonstrations of the practical movie magic behind movies like Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and Saboteur. It was like a cross between a thrill ride and a museum — and for a budding cinephile, it was a paradise. It closed in 2003 to make room for [deep sigh] Shrek 4-D.Alice in WonderlandAlthough the appropriately psychedelic Alice in Wonderland ride has existed in one form another for well over 50 years, it’s still surprisingly immersive. The current version of the attraction (which was opened in 2014) speed runs through almost the film’s entire plot in about three minutes, and features an effective blend of animatronics and screens, and climaxes in a leisurely descent down the outside of the show building, with picturesque views of the Matternhorn and Fantasyland. As old school “kids rides,” go, this is about as good as it gets.Avatar: Flight of PassageThe centerpiece of Animal Kingdom’s land based on James Cameron’s Avatar, Flight of Passage takes the central premise of its inspiration — human beings using technology to step into the bodies of the giant blue-skinned aliens — and actually gives the riders the sensation of riding on a banshee through the skies of Pandora. (In order to complete the illusion, your seat “breathes” like a living creature.) The technology works surprisingly well, and the 10K ride footage (yes, 10K) looks spectacular.READ MORE: Disney Announces New Theme ParkBack to the Future: The RideThe unforgettable Back to the Future: The Ride let visitors board a detailed copy of the franchise’s DeLorean time machine for an aerial chase through the centuries. (The story of the simulator, which played out in pre-show videos featuring Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson, involved Doc recruiting tourists to help him catch Biff after he steals the time machine.) With special effects by 2001: A Space Odyssey legend Douglas Trumbull, BTTF:TR lived up to the old Universal slogan that promised a vacation where you could “ride the movies.” Its closure was inevitable; the “future” of the Back to the Future franchise is set in 2015, i.e. our past. The two American versions of the attraction closed by the late 2000s, although Universal Studios Japan’s version managed to hang on until 2016 — one year after Marty and Doc went back to the future.Dumbo the Flying ElephantIs there any movie ride more iconic than Dumbo? Disney doesn’t seem to think so; Dumbo’s the only ride that they have built at all six of their main “castle” theme parks: Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and, in 2016, Shanghai Disneyland. You could call the ride simple; guests board a vehicle that looks like the floating pachyderm, each with a joystick that allows the rider to shift their Dumbo up and down. You could also call it elemental; it taps into little children’s desire to fly, and it empowers them to take control of their experience. As long as Disney continues to operate theme parks, Dumbo will keep on flying.Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout!Disneyland purists were skeptical when the company announced they were going to re-theme the California Adventure version of the beloved Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction into a ride based on the popular Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. But when the ride opened, most had to admit: It was pretty darn fun, and possibly better than the Tower of Terror (at least in California. which had a simpler and less impressive ride system than the original Twilight Zone ride in Florida). Instead of a haunted hotel’s elevator, guests now board “gantry lifts” that bounce up and down an elevator shaft, stopping at different floors to view the Guardians in battle with an alien monster while one of six songs from the eclectic soundtrack plays. It’s possibly the most effective re-use of an existing ride system in Disney history, and thanks to the different songs (and synchronized visuals and drops) it holds up very well on multiple visits, which probably explains why it remains one of the most popular attractions at California Adventure many years after it first opened.Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike AdventureMovie rides often emphasize theming over adrenaline, but Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal’s Islands of Adventure nails both. There are beautiful animatronic monsters, including unicorns, centaurs, and Hagrid’s beloved dog Fluffy, all integrated into a roller coaster that races around the outskirts of the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (The ride reaches its top speed of 50 miles per hour in a matter of seconds via one of its seven different launches.) The fact that riders are carried along on their own motorcycle or sidecar not only enhances the immersive quality, it increases the thrill. There’s nothing quite like blasting backwards at 50 miles per hour on a bike seat to get your blood pumping.Harry Potter and the Battle at the MinistryEpic Universe’s Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry levels up the concepts of earlier Universal dark rides like Spider-Man or Transformers. Guests board large seated elevators that appear to fly up, down, and around the Ministry of Magic from the Harry Potter films, where they help the franchise’s core trio of heroes as they fight the evil Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). The attraction boasts some of Universal’s most seamless illusions ever, and its entrance — which transports you via “floo” from 1920s Paris to 1990s London to emerge into the Ministry of Magic’s grand hall — is a jaw-dropping spectacle. That reveal is a bigger “wow” than a lot of entire rides at other amusement parks.Harry Potter and the Forbidden JourneyThe first of Universal’s ever-expanding Wizarding World attractions, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was like no other ride when it first opened at Islands of Adventure in 2010. Housed inside an impressive creations of the Hogwarts castle (with a carefully themed queue filled with Easter eggs and character cameos), Forbidden Journey lets riders board “enchanted benches” for a trip around, through, and under the magical school with Harry Potter and his friends. Some of the large-scale animatronics are starting to show their age; the seamless blend of screens, sets, and an advanced KUKA arm vehicle have been surpassed by other attractions in the last decade. Still, that central conceit of letting you feel like you are flying on your own Nimbus 2000 always works like magic.Hogwarts ExpressUniversal’s second Wizarding World was a financial inevitability after the first one proved so successful. Making the second area Diagon Alley — and then connecting the two lands via a functional Hogwarts Express train — was a masterstroke. Each of the respective areas houses its own distinctive station, and guests queue up for a ride on the iconic locomotive, where they sit in individual cabins and glimpse familiar faces from the Harry Potter franchises out their compartment window (actually a high-definition screen). Silhouettes and voices spied in the hallway enhance the immersion, and because the train runs in both directions, there are two totally distinct videos to enjoy.Indiana Jones AdventureRiding through it today, it’s hard to believe Indiana Jones Adventure is 30 years old. The combination of an old-fashioned dark ride with high-tech special effects holds up extremely well. The premise supposedly dumps tourists on a guided jeep tour (led by Indy’s buddy Sallah) into the “Temple of the Forbidden Eye” that (spoiler alert) does not go to plan. (Nothing ever does on a theme park ride.) In practice, it’s all an excuse to let guests experience Indiana Jones’ greatest hits: Rickety suspension bridges, plumes of fire, barrages of darts, thousands of bugs, and, of course, speeding away from an enormous rolling ball. Add in some of that classic John Williams Raiders of the Lost Ark music, and you have all the makings of a great movie ride.Jurassic World VelociCoasterDon’t ask me to explain the story of this one. They built a roller coaster inside the Jurassic World raptor enclosure? What’s next? A genetically engineered dinosaur that’s even stronger, faster, and smarter than a T.rex and can also camouflage itself? (Okay, so maybe the geniuses running Jurassic World would build a roller coaster in the raptor enclosure, objection withdrawn.) Whatever cockamamie story they cooked up to justify the concept, it was worth it; VelociCoaster is not just a great movie ride, it’s a great roller coaster period. With a top speed of 70 miles per hour, it’s also one of the fastest. It features multiple launches, inversions, and intricate dinosaur theming. Universal’s come a long way from that old Jurassic Park River Adventure.KongfrontationKing Kong has been a mainstay in Universal’s various theme parks since the mid-1980s, when a giant Kong animatronic was added to the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. That was expanded to a full-blown attraction at Universal Studios Florida called Kongfrontation, where guests evacuated from Manhattan on the Roosevelt Island Tramway after Kong runs amok. Naturally, the evacuation did not go smoothly (like I said, nothing ever goes according to plan on a theme park ride) and Kong grabbed the tram before a last-second getaway. It was a surprisingly intense experience with fun touches — like the fact that the Kong animatronic’s “breath” smelled like bananas. Kong was put out to pasture in 2002 to make way for a roller coaster inspired by The Mummy franchise. The great ape has since found a new home at nearby Islands of Adventure, where an attraction called Skull Island: Reign of Kong opened in 2016.Millennium Falcon: Smugglers RunI know this is a polarizing ride; some visitors don’t care for its video game vibes, or the fact that it contains no Han Solo and only fleeting glimpses of Chewbacca. Personally, after almost a dozen rides, I love it. I love the life-size Falcon replica outside the entrance and the incredibly detailed recreation of the Falcon interior, complete with holochess table. Then the ride itself is a blast; certainly at its most fun when you get to pilot the ship, but also very enjoyable as a gunner or an engineer. (I’ve done them all multiple times.) It’s awesome with a group of friends working together (or razzing each other for failing to get that second coaxium canister) and it’s incredible when you ride with kids, who get to feel like they made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein ExperimentThere are lots of dark rides; Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment is areally dark ride. Years of experience with their Halloween Horror Nights gave Universal the confidence to make a genuinely scary (and darkly witty) attraction, one with monsters and jump scares galore. Guests enter an eerie recreation of Frankenstein Manor, then wind their way through its atmosphere-soaked rooms, past glowing equipment and crates filled with organs and lab rats. They emerge in the laboratory of Victoria Frankenstein, who wants to restore her family’s good name by capturing Dracula. Say it with me this time: Nothing ever goes according to plan on a theme park ride. Frankenstein’s latest experiment goes horribly wrong in the most pulse-quickening ways, and leads to appearances (and scares) from all of the classic Universal Monsters. The ride, as well as the surrounding castle and queue, are so detailed. It’s like a vintage horror fan just stepped into a dream come true — or the best nightmare ever.Peter Pan’s FlightMaybe the definitive Disney dark ride, Peter Pan’s Flight is a true classic; some 70 years old at this point, and still magical. (An overhaul in the 1980s probably didn’t hurt in that regard.) Guests board “flying” pirate ships for a trip to Never Land with Peter Pan and the Darlings. Where a lot of the old school Disney dark rides are surprisingly scary (ask anyone who rode the O.G. Snow White ride and they’ll tell you), Peter Pan’s Flight is all about giving young kids (and the young at heart) a taste of what it might feel like to fly high above London in the ride’s famous centerpiece sequence.Radiator Springs RacersThe Cars franchise has never been among Pixar’s most critically acclaimed efforts. The series’ big ride at California Adventure, though, is a true blockbuster, combining state-of-the-art animatronic cars and a thrilling race component, where s pair of vehicles carrying two sets of riders zoom around an impressive recreation of Radiator Springs. It’s not too intense for Cars’ core fanbase, and just exciting enough for everyone to feel like it’s worth the ride’s perpetually long wait times. Plus now we know where the cars from Cars come from; at some unknown point in the future, the animatronic full sized Lightning McQueen and Mater from Radiator Springs Racers will gain sentience and turn against their human masters. It’s only a matter of time.Splash MountainWhatever you think of The Song of the South and its depiction of life in the late 19th century, the ride Disney inexplicably chose to theme to it (in 1989!) was a lot of fun. A log flume enhanced with animatronic cartoon characters and one of Disney’s most famous songs (“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”), it combined Disney’s flair for storytelling with family-friendly thrills. The fact Disney never released The Song of the South on home video meant it was only a matter of time before Splash Mountain got tossed into the briar patch itself. The ride lives on in a new form, though; the mountain and flume are now the subject of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you’re desperate to ride Splash Mountain again, you’ll need to take a trip to Japan; it’s still operating at Tokyo Disneyland.Star ToursThanks to constant updates, the original Star Wars ride at Disneyland still holds up well more than 35 (!) years after its first introduction. The original version had a single film that played in a simulator; guests’ pleasure cruise to Endor would go slightly out of control — nothing ever goes to plan on a theme park ride — and then wander into a battle with the Death Star. The current version, which makes zero sense in Star Wars continuity, sends Star Tourists to famous locations from the nine Star Wars movies and various Disney+ shows, and includes cameos from numerous characters. Disney has continually added new segments to the ride, and the modern CGI looks superb. Plus, because each ride contains a random handful from the 20 different possible segments, Star Tours always full of surprises.Star Wars: Rise of the ResistanceThere are several really good Star Wars attractions on this list, but Rise of the Resistance is the best of the bunch — or maybe the best movie-based theme park ride period. It’s long, full of surprises, and contains multiple ride vehicles and sequences. It’s almost a greatest hits of Disney Imagineering; there are screens, advanced animatronics, human performers, “holograms,” movie star cameos, trackless ride vehicles, full-size space ships and AT-AT walkers, and a giant hanger filled with Stormtroopers. It really feels like you’ve wandered into an increasingly perilous Star Wars adventure, and the theming and thrills are off the charts. I’m sure that some day some ride will top Rise of the Resistance. For now, it’s the irresistible #1.Studio Backlot TourFor some 60 years, trams have taken Universal visitors through the studio’s famous backlot. While the ride has evolved with the times, it also maintains a lot of the tram tour’s original flavor, taking guests through Hill Valley from Back to the Future and past the Psycho house from the famous horror franchise. Guides share behind-the-scenes secrets and hacky jokes, and videos that run on screens in the tram as it makes its way from stop to stop provide context and history. For old-school movie lovers, it’s still a thrill to take a trip into Hollywood history, and the ride’s unusual length — almost an hour! — makes it a welcome break from walking all day.Toy Story Mania!Toy Story Mania! took the basic concept from Disney’s existing Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery rides and gave it a computerized facelift befitting the first computer animated feature in history. Instead of aiming at animatronic targets, paired riders compete in a series of digital shooting games. They toss eggs and rings, throw darts, and break plates; each target gets assigned a different score, so strategy becomes very important. The interactivity works seamlessly, and the Toy Story theming is on point. The unique pull-string mechanism on the gun you use can be quite a workout on the forearms, though, so make sure you warm up before you ride.Transformers: The RideHere’s a hot take for you: The Transformers ride at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood is better than any of the Michael Bay Transformers movies it’s based on. It’s short and sweet, with impressive 3D effects, and it immerses you inside a wild — but, unlike the Bay Transformers films, surprisingly coherent — adventure to protect the Allspark from the evil Decepticons. Up to 12 guests board a ride vehicle (presented as a Transformer named Evac) which then blasts, zooms, and flies through a dark ride that blends animatronic effects with 3D screen technology. My job required me to sit through all those dreadful live-action Transformers movies. If that was the price I paid for this terrific ride, it was worth it.Turtle Talk With CrushFor my money, there may not be a better example of the so-called “Disney magic” than at Turtle Talk With Crush, which first debuted in Epcot’s The Seas pavilion and has since been duplicated in numerous parks around the world. In it, guests get to interact with Crush, the surfer dude turtle from Finding Nemo. And they truly interact; advanced animation/puppetry tech allows an unseen Disney animator to perform the role of Crush as he tells stories, answers questions from the audience, and cracks jokes. The illusion is seamless; I’ve rarely seen my daughter as dazzled as the time she got to ask Crush a question and he gave her a brilliantly silly and very personalized answer. (Note: Magic Kingdom’s similar attraction, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which uses the same technology to create a faux comedy club, is nearly as good as Turtle Talk.)WaterworldLook, I already wrote a whole piece about the magic of the Waterworld stunt show for absolutely no reason other than I genuinely love it. Go read that, go visit Waterworld, and make sure this amazing show is still running until the rest of the polar ice caps melt and dry land is but a myth. It’s incredible.Honorable Mention: Earthquake: The Big One, Frozen Ever After, The Great Movie Ride, King Kong: 360 3-D, Mad Tea Party, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Tron Lightcycle Run.Amazing Theme Park Rides Based on Movies That Were Never Built

The sparks from a magic spell, plumes of smoke, ultraviolet or electric blue energy bolts, city lights seen through mist or rain, open fields of swaying grass... It’s hard to imagine a modern game without the evocative power of visual effects.Visual effects are the key to creating deeply immersive experiences for your players. And thanks to continuous hardware advancements, what used to be available only for Hollywood blockbusters can now be attained in real-time.VFX Graph is one of several major toolsets available in Unity for artists and designers to create with little or no coding. With its node-based visual logic, you can create any number of simple to complex effects for projects across genres.Our new 120-page e-book, The definitive guide to creating advanced visual effects in Unity, guides artists, designers, and programmers using the Unity 2021 LTS version of VFX Graph. Use it as a reference for producing richly layered, real-time visual effects for your games.The VFX Graph creates GPU-accelerated particle systems, and therefore requires compute shader support to maintain compatibility with target devices. It works with theUniversal Render Pipeline (URP, including the 2D Renderer) and the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP).Compared to the Built-in Particle System, the VFX Graph can drive more particles with faster simulation, customizable behaviors, extensibility, Camera Buffer access, and native Shader Graph integration. You can use any custom shader created in Shader Graph to target VFX Graph. These shaders are able to use new lighting models like HDRP hair or fabric, and can even modify particles at the vertex level to enable effects like birds with flapping wings, wobbling particles like soap bubbles, and so much more.The VFX Graph e-book is as beautiful to look at as it is inspiring and informative. Created in collaboration with Wilmer Lin, a veteran VFX artist from the film and games industries, and internal experts on the Unity Graphics team, it’s generous in scope, level of detail, thoughtful instruction, images and videos, and numerous downloadable resources and references for VFX authoring in Unity.Let’s take a quick look at what’s in the guide.Get a thorough understanding of each part of the VFX Graph, starting with the VFX Graph Asset and component, and the VFX Graph window. Learn how to create logic with Systems, Contexts, Blocks, Properties, Operators, Blackboards, Subgraphs, Events, Attributes, and more.Visual effects often involve many moving pieces. Connecting them to the correct points in your application is essential to integrating them at runtime. You’ll learn about the available tools for playing back an effect and how to use them:Event Binders:These listen for several different things that happen in your scene and react to specific actions at runtime.Timeline:Sequence visual effects with Activation Tracks to send events to your graph at select moments. Gain precise control with pre-scripted timing (e.g., playing effects during a cutscene).Property Binders: These link scene or gameplay values to the Exposed properties on your Blackboard so that your effects react to changes in the scene, in real-time.Colorful swarms of Particle Strips, explosive effects for a crashing Meteorite, and an extra slimy GooBall: These are just a few of the effects you’ll find in the Visual Effect Graph Samples(HDRP).Each sample highlights different scenarios involving the VFX Graph. For a better understanding, this section of the e-book examines how some of these samples were created, namely through the use of:Shader and VFX Graph togetherGPU Events to trigger other systems in the same graphOrganic movement added to Particle Strips via the Noise Operator, and available Blocks for customizing each Particle Strip’s texture mapping, spawning, and orientationA single graph to drive other graphs in a visual effectA Spawn Context to trigger many other effectsExperimental mesh sampling to fetch data from a mesh and include the result in the graphSee the e-book for more clips that show the different samples, including the following introduction to the GooBall scene.Effects aren’t isolated in a vacuum. Often you’ll need to supply them with external data to achieve your intended look.What if you want the genie to emerge from a magic lamp? Or you’d like to integrate a hologram? While you can accomplish much of this with math functions and Operators, you might need the effect to interact with more complex shapes and forms.This section explains how to use three Data types supported in Unity to enhance your visual effects: Point Caches, Signed Distance Fields, and Vector Fields. Other tools you’ll learn about are the VFXToolbox, which features additional tools for Unity VFX artists, and Flipbook Texture Sheets to bake animated effects into a sprite.Other chapters in the guide cover optimization techniques for visual effects, future developments for VFX Graph, and finally, a long list of tutorials and videos. We’re thrilled to be able to offer you this valuable resource, which is free to download (as all of our technical e-books are). Please don’t hesitate to share your feedback with us in this forum.For a full list of available Unity e-books, check out the How-to hub or browse the documentation under Working in Unity > Best practices guide.

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. You can now own a $1 gold coin celebrating one of America’s most revolutionary achievements: the NASA Space Shuttle program. The latest variant in the ongoing American Innovation $1 Coin series is available to order through the United States Mint. Selected to represent the state of Florida, the noncirculating legal tender is the third coin released this year and the 28th coin in the 15-year project first announced in 2018. While the coin’s front displays the series’ Statue of Liberty image, the back shows the shuttle launching above plumes of exhaust. United States Mint Medallic Artist Eric David Custer sculpted the image while Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Designer Ron Sanders designed it. “The Space Shuttle, officially known as the Space Transportation System, remains one of the most iconic and influential spacecrafts in history,” explained US Mint acting director Kristie McNally in an accompanying announcement. “As the world’s first reusable spacecraft, it played a pivotal role in advancing space exploration. We are honored to celebrate this major achievement.” The Space Shuttle’s iconic design (including the image displayed on the new $1 coins) frequently featured not just the shuttle itself, but its large external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters. Those attachments detached after the shuttle reached a predetermined altitude. While the boosters included parachutes allowing them to be recovered and reused, the fuel tank was designed to disintegrate during its atmospheric reentry along a ballistic trajectory ensuring any remnants landed in the Indian or Pacific Oceans. The Space Shuttle coin is the 28th in the American Innovation series. Credit: US Mint NASA relied on the Space Shuttle to transport astronauts on missions from April 1981 until its retirement in July 2011. The spacecraft blasted off a total of 135 times from one of two launchpads in Florida, returning to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at the end of 78 of those trips. During its tenure, the shuttle flew the first women and minority crew members into space, as well as delivered components for both the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station (ISS). The program was not without tragedy, however. The Challenger and Columbia disasters of 1986 and 2003, respectively,  collectively claimed the lives of 14 astronauts. In 2004, President George W. Bush announced plans to retire the Space Shuttle program following the completion of the ISS. Today, NASA primarily relies on private contracts with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin for astronaut and mission transport. The ongoing Artemis lunar program will use an Orion spacecraft designed by Lockheed Martin. The Space Shuttle’s influence today is far more than just symbolic. The Artemis program’s rocket booster engines, casings, and main engines are all repurposed and refurbished from Space Shuttle craft. The Artemis I mission alone utilized components previously employed on 83 shuttle missions. The United States Mint announced its American Innovation $1 Coin series celebrating American achievements across science and technology in 2018, and has already featured three space-related selections prior to the Florida coin. Delaware’s coin from 2018 showcases Annie Jump Cannon, the pioneering astronomer responsible for the star classification system still used today. Meanwhile, Maryland’s 2020 entry pays tribute to the Hubble Space Telescope, and Alabama’s 2024 release includes the Saturn V rocket. Later this year, Texas will become the fifth space-centric $1 gold coin with its Mission Control design.

“Near the Military Base” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 feet. All images courtesy of the artist and Spinello Projects, shared with permission Esaí Alfredo’s Oil Paintings Merge Mysterious Narratives with ‘Miami Vice’ Noir May 15, 2025 Art Kate Mothes In an iconic 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live, Steve Martin and Bill Murray shuffle onstage dressed like tourists. Peering out beyond the camera—and thus behind us—they repeatedly ask, “What the hell is that?” Stoking our curiosity and never divulging what “that” really is, yet preventing us from ever seeing it either, the answer is left entirely to our imaginations. Beyond the duo’s characteristic absurdity, we’re enticed to consider the endless possibilities of the unknown, just out of frame. For Miami-based artist Esaí Alfredo, the confines of the cinematic screen and a sense of wonder play central roles in large-scale, enigmatic oil paintings. Male figures stand facing the distant horizon, observing dark plumes of smoke or, in some cases, events only they can see. “The Wait” (2025), oil on canvas, 50 x 72 inches Alfredo draws inspiration for his palette from Miami Vice, specifically the rich pastels and glowing contrasts evocative of the show’s stylized, 1980s New Wave aesthetics. Bright pink and teal complement the deep blacks of nighttime. “I allow myself to play with colors and lighting situations that appear surreal or impossible,” he tells Colossal, sharing that the choice of hues serve as tools for telling stories. He adds, “My biggest influences in terms of color have been old movies, science fiction, theater, and the cinematography of films by Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock.” Alfredo also likens his paintings to screenshots or freeze frames, as if plucked from an enigmatic, longer narrative. His sketchbook contains countless renderings, including drawings of settings and characters akin to storyboards for a movie. Once he translates a basic sketch into a color study, Alfredo translates the idea to photographic compositions involving real people and various objects. “Once I have all my reference photos ready, I compose an image on my iPad to see how the painting will turn out. The rest is painting,” he says, leaving enough room for the inevitable improvisation. “La Playa Lucia” (2025), oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches A suite of new paintings titled STARLESS that Alfredo recently exhibited with Spinello Projects at EXPO CHICAGO are “snapshots of a larger story I’m still uncovering,” he says. Otherworldly magentas and teals envelop figures in a variety of natural landscapes, beneath a sky devoid of celestial objects. Instead, mysterious objects fall from above, and the characters react to the phenomena with wonder, fear, and confusion. “I love capturing those moments when we feel powerless and can only observe for a moment before taking action,” he says. Find more on Alfredo’s website and Instagram. “The Theme Park” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches “Moon” (2025), oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches “The Everglades” (2025), oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches “Antonio” (2025), oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches Detail of “Near the Military Base” Next article