Counting Down to the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) Launch
In October 2018, we’re launching the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, to study Earth’s dynamic interface to space. Its combination of remote and in situ measurements…
In October 2018, we’re launching the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, to study Earth’s dynamic interface to space. Its combination of remote and in situ measurements…
This view of southern California was taken by the Apollo 7 crew during their 18th revolution of the Earth, on October 12, 1968. Photographed from…
A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research…
Two days before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite captured a 3D view of the 2017 storm. At…
Researchers in Canada, the United States, and Europe have developed a new way to remotely measure Earth’s magnetic field—by zapping a layer of sodium atoms…
International Space Station Commander Alexander Gerst has a better view of our home planet than most. From aboard the orbital laboratory he sees Earth in…
When a coastal tide rolls out, it can reveal beautiful ripples in the temporarily exposed sand. These same undulating patterns can also be seen in…
Arctic sea ice likely reached its 2018 lowest extent on September 19 and again on September 23, according to NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow…
Just as an oven gives off more heat to the surrounding kitchen as its internal temperature rises, the Earth sheds more heat into space as…
On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the poles in summer,…
The Earth’s magnetosphere contains plasma, an ionized gas composed of positive ions and negative electrons. The motion of these charged plasma particles is controlled by…
Subtropical gyres are huge, sustained currents spanning thousands of kilometers across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where very little grows. With nutrients in short supply,…
Three hundred and ten miles above our planet’s surface, near-Earth space is abuzz with action. Here begin the Van Allen Belts, a pair of concentric…
Over a mere four days this summer, snow from the previous winter melted into a pond of slush on Canada’s Lowell Glacier. Mauri Pelto, a…
On August 23, 2018 the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide visualization. Produced in real time,…
Arctic sea ice isn’t just threatened by the melting of ice around its edges, a new study has found: Warmer water that originated hundreds of…
It’s not quite a smoking gun, but one could be forgiven for thinking of it that way: a distinctive cloud formation that often signals damaging…
The detection of “minimoons” — small asteroids temporarily captured in orbit around Earth — will vastly improve our scientific understanding of asteroids and the Earth-Moon…