A Moment of Science would like to clarify a small point of navigation: the difference between a mile on land and a nautical mile.
Humans use a process called "Constructing a cognitive map" to mentally visualize their surroundings. Do birds do this too?
Learn about dung beetles and their nightly travels on this Moment of Science.
The North Star is the brightest star in the constellation known as the Little Dipper. It is called the North Star because of the special position it occupies relative to the earth’s axis. If you were to stay up all night gazing at the stars, you’d slowly see them revolve around a point in the sky known as the North Celestial Pole.