Satellite imagery captures Tonga’s Hunga volcano erupting. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted for the second time in 2 days and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-West satellite captured imagery of the eruption. The eruption also triggered a tsunami that hit the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. This time-lapse video composed of images taken from space shows how powerful the eruption was.
Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev (born August 27, 1958) was in space when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. He was stranded on board the Mir Space Station during the dissolution of the USSR. As the country that had sent him into space no longer existed, his return was delayed until further notice. He stayed in orbit for 311 consecutive days, twice as long as the original duration of the mission. He eventually returned back to earth – to a very different nation.
Home building and design have come a long way. While most homes rely on materials like concrete, plaster, and masonry, new technologies are making it easier to convert construction and household waste into usable materials – opening up more doors for eco-friendly buildings.
One of the parts most damaged by the current rate of climate change is Earth’s bodies of water. Scientific forecasts have estimated that in the next century, almost all coral reef habitats on our planet will be decimated. This is largely due to continuing ocean acidification among other practices done by humans, which all drastically destroy our coral reefs and underwater ecosystems.
On December 31, 2021, the Biden-Harris administration extended the International Space Station (ISS) operations through 2030. Today, NASA has introduced a new International Space Station logo for extending operations.
Earth has had a long and complex history since its formation roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Initially, it was a molten ball, but eventually, it cooled and became differentiated. The Moon was formed from a collision between Earth and a protoplanet named Theia (probably), the oceans formed, and at some point in time, about 4 billion years ago, simple life appeared.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that that viral “Remove Before Flight” James Webb Space Telescope meme was actually an April Fool from 2016.
The climate crisis and the chemistry of the oceans are inextricably connected. The oceans have absorbed close to a third of our carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, leading to an increasingly acidic environment (hence the term, Ocean Acidification) and making it more difficult for organisms such as corals, mollusks, and plankton to form their shells and skeletons.
Mapping future changes in ocean chemistry is the first step in developing mitigation strategies. However, our knowledge of the future state of the oceans relies on mathematical models that are often not calibrated with modern ship-based observations.
Dr. Li-Qing Jiang of the University of Maryland and his collaborators are improving ocean acidification predictions by coupling millions of past and present ocean chemistry measurements with the best model projections at each location of the global ocean.
In this video, Carl Sagan rides a bicycle and talks about the speed of light. “Something funny happens at the speed of light”.
Here are the top 10 most beautiful Earth photos taken from the International Space Station in 2021. Which one is your favorite? Or if your favorite image was not listed here, please leave a comment below. To see all images taken from the ISS and published by NASA, visit Space Station Images webpage.