Image of the Day for May 4, 2026 Scientists relied on satellite data to understand how the Antarctic glacier lost so much ice so rapidly. May 04, 2026 View more Images of the Day: To say something moves at a glacial pace is to imply sluggish, unhurried change. But what transpired over the course of 15 months at Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier was uncharacteristically quick. Between January 2022 and March 2023, the glacier lost about 25 kilometers (15 miles) in length. That included a two-month period in which the terminus retreated more than 8 kilometers (5 miles)—the highest rate of grounded glacial ice loss observed in modern history. A team of scientists published an analysis of Hektoria’s collapse based on a suite of remote-sensing data, finding that its particular geometry enabled the rapid change.…