In this episode of NASA Explorers (Season 1 Episode 7), the scientists go back in time – by going underground. In the Arctic, a frozen layer of soil – permafrost, the “permanently” frozen earth – trapped dead plants and animals for thousands of years. As the climate warms, that soil is beginning to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide and methane – two harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Exciting new images from NASA’s robotic spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which is orbiting the Moon since 2009. China’s lunar lander Chang’e 4 which achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon and its surroundings in the Von Kármán crater can be seen in the images
An interesting map showing the locations of the North Magnetic Pole since 1590. The North Magnetic Pole moves over time due to magnetic changes in the Earth’s core. Today, the Geographic North Pole (the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth’s axis of rotation meets its surface, the northernmost point on the Earth) differs from the North Magnetic Pole by about 500 kilometers (311 miles).
If a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate about a horizontal axis, it would point straight down at the North magnetic
If we want to colonize Mars in the future, it would be better for us to terraform the planet, in order to make the colonization process safer and sustainable. But, terraforming Mars will be a real challenge for humanity.
NASA’s InSight lander takes a selfie – this is what it looks like on Mars (InSight is the abbreviation for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport). With its solar panels deployed, InSight is about the size of a small bus.
On 11 January 1672, the Fellows of the British Royal Society were treated to a demonstration of Isaac Newton’s reflecting telescope, which formed images with mirrors rather than with the lenses that had been used since the time of Galileo. Afterward, the fellows hailed Newton as the inventor of this marvelous new instrument, an attribution that sticks to the present.
However, this linear historical account obscures a far more interesting, convoluted story. Newton’s claim was immediately challenged on behalf of two other contenders, James Gregory,
Ignorance is a very, very bad thing. Last week, as North America suffering from extreme cold weather because of a phenomenon called “polar vortex“, Jim Hoft, founder of the American far-right news and opinion website The Gateway Pundit has tweeted that: “It’s a bit cold outside this morning in middle America… Aren’t you glad you aren’t heating your home with a solar panel like nitwit socialist @AOC is demanding?” (@AOC is the American politician and activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here.) What Jim Hoft says is flat-out wrong. Solar panels DO work in the cold. They work by absorbing LIGHT from the sun, not heat.
Here is a quick summary of the Earth’s snow cover between March 2000 and December 2018. These snow cover maps are made from observations collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s north and south poles. It is the reason why extreme winter conditions are bringing record-breaking cold temperatures to parts of North America.
