NASA Camera Snaps Images of the Moon Crossing Face of The Earth
Since the beginning of the space age more than 50 years ago, NASA, the U.S. space agency, has provided the world with spectacular images of our planet, solar system and universe. Now, NASA has just released an amazing ‘animated gif’ (see above) that shows the moon as it moves across of the sunlit side of […]
Mercury’s Surface ‘Painted’ With Carbon from Comets
A first glance, the planet Mercury looks a lot like our Moon, both gray and pockmarked with craters after being bombarded with meteorites and blasted by the solar wind over the millennia. Some take the similarity further, referring to them as “twins.” The color of Mercury’s surface though is much darker than the moon, so […]
About Half of the Water You Drink is Older than the Sun
New research reveals that as much as one half of all of Earth’s current water supply is older than the Sun. An international team of scientists led by Ilse Cleeves at the University of Michigan looked back into creation of Earth and our solar system to find out where all of the water came from. […]
Two Martian Probes Set to Orbit Red Planet
Two unmanned spacecraft headed to Mars, one launched by the United States and the other by India, will soon reach the Red Planet within days of each other. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe, launched November 18 is set for insertion into Mars orbit (MOI) on Sunday, September 21. India’s first interplanetary spacecraft, […]
Study: Sun Plays Role in Lightning Strikes
Lightning is one of nature’s most spectacular and mysterious phenomena, yet there is much scientists still don’t know about it. British researchers have found evidence that high-energy particles, which are blown toward Earth on the solar wind, play a role in triggering lightning on Earth. These energized solar particles can travel from the sun at […]
Astronomers Spot Square-shaped Hole in Sun
NASA astronomers recently noticed an odd looking, square shaped hole in the sun. What they saw is called a coronal hole, something that occurs on a regular basis. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, says the coronal hole is an area within the corona […]
The Sun is About to Flip Its (Magnetic) Poles
Here at Science World, one of our favorite topics is the sun. We’ve been able to provide you with a number of informational pieces regarding events and phenomena such as the ebb and flow of the sun’s activity throughout its roughly 11 year solar cycle. As the sun goes through this process – from when […]
IRIS: New NASA Spacecraft to Study Mysterious Region of Sun’s Atmosphere
Did you know that the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is much hotter than its surface? Scientists have been quite curious about a mysterious interface region of the Sun’s atmosphere that amplifies energy from about 5,800 degrees Kelvin on the surface, or photosphere, to around 1,000,000 degrees Kelvin in the corona. With Thursday’s launch of […]
Third Radiation Belt Discovered Around Earth
NASA scientists have discovered a third radiation belt briefly surrounded Earth for about a month before being blasted away by an interplanetary shock wave from the sun. Experts had long thought there were only two distinct regions of trapped radiation. But the third ring was spotted by twin Van Allen radiation probes NASA launched in 2012 […]