Measuring Meteorites to Reveal the Origins of the Earth

The planet we call home has a 4.5-billion-year history, but humans have only been around for a tiny fraction of this time. To discover what happened before life arose on Earth, and even before Earth’s formation, scientists can study objects sent from space – from icy comets and rocky asteroids to tiny particles of interstellar …

Space Weather Underground: A Magnetometer Array with Educational Opportunities

The complex processes of Earth’s ionosphere may occur far above the planet’s surface, but when monitored from numerous locations at sufficient distances, they can be measured using inexpensive equipment on the ground. Dr. Charles Smith at the University of New Hampshire has assembled an extensive team to do just that, with participants ranging from space …

How do we know if an asteroid headed Earth is dangerous?

There are a lot of things that pose a threat to our planet – climate change, natural disasters, and solar flares, for example. But one threat in particular often captures the public imagination, finding itself popularized in books and films and regularly generating alarming headlines: asteroids. by Jonathan O’Callaghan

10 Amazing Moon Facts

Earth has got only one moon – a rocky, cratered place, about a quarter the size of Earth and an average of 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away. It is simply called – well, “the Moon” because people didn’t know other moons around other planets existed until Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610. …

Here’s how scientists planning to deflect asteroids that might damage Earth

Asteroids – the bits and pieces left over from the formation of the inner planets – are a source of great curiosity for those keen to learn about the building blocks of our solar system, and to probe the chemistry of life. Humans are also considering mining asteroids for metals, but one of the crucial …

NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on the Moon

For a long time, the Moon was considered bone dry. And that’s not a surprise since our satellite has no atmosphere that could prevent liquid water from immediately evaporating into space. But what remained hidden from even the eyes of the Moon travelers, discovered by the probes, orbiters, and observers: there are enormous amounts of …

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Collects a Significant Amount of Material from Asteroid Bennu

NASA’s OSIRIS REx spacecraft was supposed to grab a sample of the asteroid Bennu so that it could be returned to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft grabbed the sample on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, but, it’s taken a few days to actually get photos of the tool. Now the mission scientists at NASA realized that …