The first spacecraft to successfully hit the moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 in 1959. Since then, dozens have intentionally or accidentally crashed into the moon, planets and other objects in the solar system. Israel and India both had landers crash into the moon this year. Yet, water on the moon, the greenhouse effect on Venus and the composition of comets have all been studied by hard-hitting spacecraft. As NASA tweeted, "Space is hard."

New timeline of the end for dinosaurs

The asteroid's impact into the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago was bad enough. But then rocks fell from the sky, wildfires ignited and tsunamis hit. It was the beginning of the end of the Mesozoic Era when dinosaurs ruled. A study led by Sean P.S. Gulick, a geophysicist, provides a new timeline of the first day of the Cenozoic Era. When the asteroid hit, it carved a hole 60 miles across and 20 miles deep, which triggered a tsunami and catapulted rock into the atmosphere. "Almost certainly some of the material would have reached the moon," he said.

These frogs aren't as scary, but still succeed

Poison dart frogs in one part of French Guiana usually are blue and black with yellow markings. But in the Mont Grand Matoury nature preserve, they have white stripes. Scientists found that the white-striped frogs were not as effective at scaring predators, but they avoided being outcompeted. Yellow-striped frogs were often found in the open while the white-striped ones were hidden, said J.P. Lawrence. White-striped frogs may have succeeded by altering their behaviors.

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