When you’re the country’s astronaut who has clocked the most days in space, such as NASA’s Jeff Williams with his 534 days of space time, you still may not be a household name or a social media star, but when you bring home ultra high-def (UHD) footage of the Earth, the internet loves you.
Bob Walker, a senior Trump adviser, says the new administration will slash funding for NASA to study climate change. He says half of all climate scientists doubt climate change is real.
The world is waiting to hear what President-elect Donald Trump has in mind for governing the U.S. Among the biggest questions is what will happen to the budget for climate and energy-related activities.
Climate change has many components — rising sea levels, alterations in rainfall patterns, and an increase in severe storm activity, among others. Communities around the world are faced with the need to plan for climate change but don’t have the information available to do so effectively. Two such communities are Sonoma, California, and Caldas, Colombia.
Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg, and Yuri Milner must be overjoyed with the latest exciting discovery of an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri solar system. Orbiting Proxima Centauri, one of three suns in Alpha Centauri, the newly discovered “Proxima b” is being hailed as the nearest Earth-like planet ever found. Luckily for Hawking and his
In the never-ending non-contest between climate change deniers and climate scientists, there is plenty of gloating to go around. Tossing down the gauntlet once again, Peter Sinclair challenges Joe Bastardi, the King of Climate Change Deniers, to a six-year review of Bastardi’s 2010 prediction on Arctic sea ice behavior. Award-winning climate writer and videographer Sinclair
First discovered by University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on April 27, 2016, Earth’s new moon, or “mini moon” has been officially confirmed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Officially named “2016 HO3,” the newly discovered asteroid is dubbed a “mini moon” because it not only orbits the Sun–it orbits Earth, as well. Although NASA
Originally published on Sustainnovate. February 2016 was the most anomalously warm month — 2.43° Fahrenheit (1.35° Celsius) warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980 — in 135 years of record keeping, according to NASA.
The good news is that NASA has just released research on how temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide may change because of the concentrations of greenhouse gas growing in Earth’s atmosphere. The space scientists have based their conclusions on historical measurements and robust scenarios of increasing carbon dioxide produced from 21 climate models: specifically, General Circulation
Those with the bent of an inventor will probably like this one — NASA’s new “Journey to Mars Challenge” will be awarding up to $15,000 (from a total prize pot of $15,000) to contest entrants who come up with, and describe in great detail, one or more “Mars surface systems/capabilities and operations” necessary for the
The iconic Pillars of Creation recently had their portrait retaken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in high-def as part of the telescope’s 25th anniversary celebration. The new image — showing the trio of giant columns of gas illuminated by the light of massive stars next to the Eagle Nebula (M16) in def — is as
Coming up on New Year’s Eve, earthlings tend to celebrate milestones of the year passed, as well as look expectantly toward the future. Here, Planetsave brings you some of the best space coverage of 2014 in various media. The overall winner has to be the six-minute ultra-high definition timelapse video, with custom soundtrack, compiled by
This year, nature brings us a special pre-Halloween treat: a blood moon. In the US and Canada, lift your eyes skyward in the early hours tomorrow morning for the second total lunar eclipse of 2014. The Moon veiled slowly red and back the first time this year in April. Just over 5% larger than that phenomenon, Wednesday
A rather strange-looking “feature” was recently observed forming, and changing, in the hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s moon Titan by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The interesting feature covers an area of over 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) in Ligeia Mare — one of the biggest seas on Titan. Cassini has now observed the feature twice, with
Here’s one of the funniest ways to tell world time that I have ever seen. I call it “Dial-a-Time,” although that’s not the official name for it. (The official name is “xkcd.com/1335/”.) First of all, with this graphic you have to get used to the fact that you are looking at the world from Antarctica
When we think of a supernova, we usually think of a massive explosion that wipes out the entire white dwarf star (dying stellar body). However, thanks to a collaboration of research scientists from leading American astronomers and astrophysicists and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, we now know that isn’t always the case. In
The closest full moon of 2014 occurs this week, on Sunday, August 10, at 2:11 p.m. EDT. It’s the fourth and biggest of 2014’s five rogue Supermoon events. We’ll be able to see the Moon reach its perigree, when it draws closer to the Earth than at any other time during 2014. As we noted
Two meteor showers come out of the constellation Aquarius (the Water Bearer), nearest the dim star Delta Aquarii, this time of year: the southern and northern Delta Aquarids. The peak for the southern Delta Aquarids, which are starting Monday and Tuesday, is very gradual, so anytime this week should provide good viewing. The Southern Hemisphere
OCO-2 is only a little thing, about 6 ft long, 3 ft in diameter, and less than half a ton in weight (NASA/JPL-Caltech, artist’s conception). It will be harder to deny the existence of climate change now that NASA has successfully launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air
Underwater habitat at Aquarius Reef Base (photo provided to Flickr courtesy of Stephen Frink, www.stephenfrink.com/) On July 2, 2014, ocean scientists who have spent the last 31 days living in an ocean-floor habitat 63 feet underwater will decompress and return to the surface. They’ve been down there on “Mission 31” intensively studying ocean acidification and climate
Fabien Cousteau, ocean explorer and grandson of famed Jacques-Yves Cousteau, began a historic subsea mission on Sunday. He’s studying ocean impacts of climate change (especially acidification, which occurs as the sea absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide), effects of plastic and other pollution on marine life, and overfishing of marine resources, which diminishes the ocean’s biodiversity. You
You may have heard that the days of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, are numbered. The Milky Way is one of the dominant galaxies of a cluster known as the Local Group. The other major player in the group is the Andromeda nebula (M31). And according to recent measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope,
Mercury, innermost planet of our Solar system (zodiac-astrology-horoscopes.com) Sunday night, May 25, you may want to take a look at the planet Mercury. It’s the best night all year for viewing our feisty little sunmost neighbor from Earth’s northern hemisphere. On this date, Mercury will reach its elongation—the farthest point it travels to the east
More imminent than deadly viruses or terrorists at national events is the phenomenon of climate change, a force examined in a groundbreaking new report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Titled National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods and Wildfires are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites, the study examines
There are the good wildfires, and there are the bad. Unfortunately, the latter often overwhelm the beneficial ones. We’ll go on with stories from San Diego in a minute—it’s a long story of an actually short time—but here’s a word about the bright side first. Whoopi Goldberg had a thought that’s worth repeating: When you
Tonight’s the first annular solar eclipse of 2014 (April 28-29), but almost nobody will be able to see it. The ring of fire will be visible only from the uninhabited region of Wilkes Land in Antarctica, the southern edge of Indonesia, and the South Indian Ocean. Australians will experience a partial solar eclipse, as may
Artist’s conception of Kepler-186f in its solar system (NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech) It’s a bit less possible now that we’re alone in the universe. The $600-million Kepler Space Telescope, launched five years ago to identify planets, has spotted more than 3,800 and confirmed 966 of them. The last one, fifth planet of a star in the
The incredibly rare sight of an asteroid’s disintegration was recently captured in a series of images by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The images show (in great clarity) the never-before-seen process of a fully intact asteroid coming apart — into ten pieces in this instance. While fragile comet nuclei have been observed disintegrating during close approaches
An entirely new type of black hole — one that’s ‘super-powered’, and highly compact — was recently discovered by an international team of astronomers. This first of its kind black hole has been dubbed MQ1 by those involved. The researchers — who had been studying the galaxy known as M83 — came across the black
The recent discovery and subsequent observations of the supernova SN 2014J have led researchers to realize that the primary ‘yardstick’ used by astronomers to measure cosmic distances may not be such a constant after all. Six weeks ago (on January 21), a super-bright supernova was discovered in the nearby galaxy of M82, by researchers in
An incredibly powerful X4.9-class solar flare erupted from the Sun on February 24, 2014, peaking right around 7:49 pm EST, according to NASA. The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a number of images and some footage of the event. The solar flare is by far the strongest seen yet this year, and one of the strongest
The rogue runaway star Kappa Cassiopeiae — also known as HD 2905 — is the subject of a stunning new image taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The image shows, in detail, the incredible bow shock created by the star’s ‘rapid’ movement through the galaxy. Bow shocks could be described as something somewhat like the
The strongest solar flare yet seen by NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) was recently captured in a beautiful new image. The flare, which erupted from the Sun at 2:40 pm EST on January 28, 2014, registered as an M-class solar flare — a moderate flare, not as strong as the powerful X-class flares, but
NASA says the ejecta from this newly formed 100-foot (30 -meter) crater on Mars extend over 9 miles (15 km) from the center of impact. The crater is at 3.7 degrees north latitude, 53.4 degrees east longitude on the Red Planet. Scientists viewing the images of this area from JPL’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera
Despite what some in the “mainstream” media assert, there is no “debate about global warming” — not amongst informed scientists, anyways. Scientists knowledgeable about climate change debate only the finer details, such as: how much CO2 increase will double surface temperature (known as the Climate Sensitivity Equilibrium), or, the role of aerosols in slowing or
By collecting most of the hot, soapy water that flows off of you during a ten-minute shower, Orbital Systems’ new closed-loop shower promises to reduce your water use by up to 90%, all while reducing the energy it takes to keep that water warm- by as much as 80%! All of which begs the question:
On Monday, November 18, the launch window for NASA’s latest space probe mission will open and — weather permitting — an Atlas V rocket will lift off from Kennedy Space Center carrying MAVEN: Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution Mission (Ok, so it’s not a perfect acronym), which will collect Martian atmospheric data and perform other
The Sun’s magnetic field is about to flip. According to recent measurements gathered by NASA-supported observatories, the vast solar magnetic field is on the verge of making its regularly occurring reversal. The solar magnetic field reverses in polarity approximately every 11 years. “It looks like we’re no more than three to four months away from
Saturn’s moons Mimas and Pandora are the subject of a beautiful new image taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The photo was taken by Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on May 14, 2013. Seeing the two moons together in one image makes for an interesting sight, owing to their differences — Pandora is a relatively small moon (50
NGC 524 — a very striking looking, old lenticular galaxy — is the subject of a beautiful new image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The very interesting — and truly ancient — galaxy is located in the constellation of Pisces, and lies about 90 million light-years from the Earth. The image shows the shape
The Inquisition of Climate Science by James Lawrence Powell is an essential literary resource for understanding how modern climate science is conducted, and equally, for understanding how climate change denialism has evolved and continues to undermine the public interest, to its great peril. Powell’s title smartly preempts the spurious notion of a “fair and balanced”
Gas-giant planets are far more likely to orbit very closely to their parent star than they are to orbit at distances farther away, according to new research made possible by the Gemini Observatory’s Planet-Finding Campaign. “It seems that gas-giant exoplanets are like clinging offspring,” says Michael Liu of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy
Saturn’s moon Dione may possess a subsurface ocean, one which may have at one time been geologically active, new images obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest. The new images are of Dione’s rather strange 500-mile-long mountain — Janiculum Dorsa. After analysis by researchers on the Cassini science team, it’s been concluded that the images suggest
NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity is now getting ready to begin its journey to Mount Sharp — the rover’s primary science destination on the Red Planet. The enormous Mount Sharp has been Curiosity’s eventual goal since the early planning stages of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Before beginning the 5-mile journey to Mount Sharp, Curiosity has
The 2013 Amazon forest fire season is shaping up to be a devastating one according to researchers from NASA and the University of California, Irvine. Their predictions warn of a 2013 fire season that will be considerably more severe than either the 2012 or 2011 seasons were, for many of the forests of the Amazon.
NASA’s relentless solar-powered Mars rover Opportunity has now set a new record — greatest distance traveled by a US made vehicle on another world. The Opportunity rover was originally scheduled only for a three-month mission that began back in January 2004, but the solar-powered rover has shown itself to be quite tough and long-lasting —
Ever wish you had a planetary time machine that allowed you to see the progression of geological or industrial changes leading up to our present time?…Ever wanted to see how much your city has grown over the past 25 + years…or view the dramatic loss of forest cover in the Amazon…or the retreat of Alaska’s
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity is now gearing up to do its second-ever rock drilling and sampling. Curiosity is scheduled to begin the move to the “Cumberland” rock within the next few days. The “Cumberland” rock is only around nine feet to the west of the first rock that Curiosity drilled back in February. Since then,
