O Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, o principal bombardeiro estratégico dos Estados Unidos, caiu e matou oito tripulantes após a decolagem da Base Aérea de Edwards, a nordeste de Los Angeles, na Califórnia.

A queda, que ocorreu na segunda-feira (15), deixou uma enorme coluna de fumaça preta na base aérea, localizada no Deserto de Mojave.

O B-52 Stratofortress estava em uma missão de teste de rotina, disseram as autoridades, e “os indícios iniciais são de que não era possível sobreviver à queda”.

Essa aeronave militar foi fabricada em 1961, e já participou de todas as guerras americanas desde o Vietnã, como no Iraque, na Síria e no conflito com o Irã neste ano.

Embora seja décadas mais velho que os atuais tripulantes, esse modelo continua sendo a pedra angular da frota de bombardeiros dos EUA, enviando uma mensagem importante aos aliados e adversários dos americanos.

Segundo a Força Aérea dos EUA, esse tipo de bombardeiro é capaz de voar em altas velocidades subsônicas em uma altura de mais de 15 mil metros. Ele normalmente leva uma tripulação de cinco pessoas, e pode transportar até 31.750 kg de bombas e outras munições.

A aeronave também é capaz de transportar armamento nuclear, além de possuir capacidade de navegação.

A versão atual em operação, o B-52H, ainda desempenha um papel importante no arsenal da Força Aérea, que inclui 76 dessas aeronaves.

A Força Aérea Americana costuma usar a Base Edwards, na Califórnia, onde ocorreu o acidente, para realizar testes aeroespaciais devido à paisagem desértica e aberta.

A Boeing entregou a primeira aeronave para um teste do Programa de Modernização do Radar do B-52 em dezembro de 2025.

A Força Aérea americana prevê operar os B-52 até 2050.

A new study has found that hunter-gatherers in northern Spain breastfed their children for up to four years, revealing how prehistoric communities in the Cantabrian region lived and survived some 7,000 years ago.

The study, published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, analyzed ancient teeth from Los Canes Cave in Asturias to reconstruct the diets of these early humans at different stages of life.

Lead author Antonio Higuero-Pliego of the International Institute of Prehistoric Research of Cantabria at the University of Cantabria said the prolonged nursing period likely helped young children survive. Breast milk provided nutrition and immune protection while young children were still vulnerable to disease.

Researchers examined seven teeth from Mesolithic individuals buried at Los Canes Cave, a burial site in eastern Asturias dating to the sixth millennium BC. They applied sequential dentine analysis, a method that traces diet year by year through childhood using isotope ratios measured in thin sections of a tooth.

Why hunter-gatherers in Cantabria breastfed children for years

The results confirmed a terrestrial diet for all individuals, with nutrition coming from land animals and plant resources. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values supported this finding across all analyzed teeth.

One individual stood apart. A sharp increase in carbon isotope levels around age eight pointed to a brief period of consuming low-trophic marine resources, most likely shellfish. The change lasted only a short time before the diet returned to entirely land-based foods.

The analysis also uncovered stress signals in at least two individuals, appearing around age 11 in both cases. Researchers linked these patterns to the physiological demands of puberty. Both individuals survived these episodes.

Strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel added further evidence. Values for all individuals fell within the expected range for the area surrounding Los Canes Cave.

This suggests that the children of these hunter-gatherers were breastfed and raised close to where they were eventually buried, pointing to limited long-distance movement.

Tooth chemistry reveals an inland and coastal territorial divide

The territorial pattern also showed up in diet. Inland communities like those at Los Canes relied entirely on land-based resources.

Coastal communities, by contrast, ate a diet that included substantial amounts of marine food, reinforcing the view that the two groups occupied and exploited separate environments.

Higuero-Pliego noted that combining dentine sequences with strontium data gives a much richer picture of prehistoric life than bone collagen analysis alone, which reflects only the final decade or more of a person’s diet.