CubeSat Captures First Global Picture of Small Frozen Particles Inside Clouds
Looking at Earth from the International Space Station, astronauts see big, white clouds spreading across the planet. They cannot distinguish a gray rain cloud from…
Looking at Earth from the International Space Station, astronauts see big, white clouds spreading across the planet. They cannot distinguish a gray rain cloud from…
Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal…
Earth’s magnetic field provides an invisible but crucial barrier that protects Earth from the solar wind–a stream of charged particles launched from the sun’s outer…
A first-of-its-kind laser instrument designed to map the world’s forests in 3-D is moving toward an earlier launch to the International Space Station than previously…
A new MIT study reports that, if China follows through with its international pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, every one of its provinces will…
NASA scientists are hard at work trying to unlock mysteries of our planet’s ocean surface currents and winds using a new Earth science radar instrument…
The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is having a gold rush — one in which prospectors can gaze at glittering specimens of radiating golden…
Thunderstorms in Earth’s upper atmosphere remain something of a mystery. Scientists cannot reach them directly with instruments; they are too high for balloons and too…
Each new season brings change. Seasonal change on land is something that we’re familiar with and adjust to regularly. But what happens to billions of…
Up until about ten years ago, scientists thought they had a pretty good picture of how the moon and Earth came to co-exist. Then more…
Large concentrations of sulfites and bisulfites in shallow lakes may have set the stage for Earth’s first biological molecules. Around 4 billion years ago, Earth…
On rare calm days, the most striking thing you notice at an altitude of more than 8,000 feet on an Antarctic glacier is the silence….
Antarctica’s great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found….
On Sunday, March 25, a new program called “Finding Life in Outer Space” will debut on the Smithsonian Channel. The scientific lead for this program…
When an earthquake strikes, nearby seismometers pick up its vibrations in the form of seismic waves. In addition to revealing the epicenter of a quake,…
Notanee Bourassa knew that what he was seeing in the night sky was not normal. Bourassa, an IT technician in Regina, Canada, trekked outside of…
Nutrient-rich ash from an enormous flare-up of volcanic eruptions toward the end of the dinosaurs’ reign kicked off a chain of events that led to…
Imagine a year in Africa where summer never arrives. The sky takes on a gray hue during the day and glows red at night. Flowers…