So confident are NASA that the apocalypse will not happen on December 21st that they have released a video 10 days ahead of schedule entitled 'Why the World Didn't End Yesterday'. Outlining point by point each of the so called 'myths' that surround the end of the Mayan calendar, astronomical and planetary experts debunk [...More...]
A nearly 70-feet-long dock that floated ashore on a beach in Oregon is definitely debris from last year's tsunami in Japan, a state official said Wednesday. Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Haven said the Japanese consulate in Portland, Oregon, traced the seven-feet-tall concrete and steel floating dock to a manufacturer in [...More...]
These stunning pictures are some of the winners in one of the world’s biggest underwater photo competitions. From grinning great whites to colourful nudibranchs and underwater strip poker players it runs the whole spectrum of water related photography. And with 12,000 entries from 123 different countries submitted to the underwaterphotography.com website, some of the [...More...]
Stargazers from across the globe gathered together to watch one of the rarest astronomical spectacles yesterday. From the U.S. and UK to South Korea, people around the world turned their attention to the daytime sky to make sure they caught the planet Venus passing directly between the sun and Earth – a transit that [...More...]
Punting through this unusually coloured lake it looks like this worker is wading through water running red with blood. But while they are not taking to the bizarre looking Lake Retba, in Senegal, west Africa for some sort of morbid rescue mission, it is an unsavoury job of sorts. That's because the blood red [...More...]
Thick dust clouds block our night-time view of the Milky Way, creating what is sometimes called the Dark Rift. The fact that — from the viewpoint of Earth — the sun aligns with these clouds, or the galactic center, near the winter solstice is no cause for concern. Credit: A. Fujii One of the [...More...]
On Sunday, May 20th, the sun is going to turn into a ring of fire for it's annular solar eclipse. It is the first annular eclipse to be seen from the United States in 18 years and the first one to be visible from earth in more than 2 years. The eclipse will also be [...More...]
Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather – great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun – some people worry that a gigantic "killer solar flare" could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth. Citing the accurate fact that solar activity [...More...]
Supernova 1987A was the closest exploding star seen in modern times. It occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that orbits our own Milky Way. Images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope were combined to make this composite of the blast's expanding debris. Credit: NASA / ESA / P. Challis and R. [...More...]
Photo courtesy of NASA A full moon this weekend is set to be the biggest of this year, earning itself ‘supermoon’ status. This month’s full moon will officially happen this Saturday at 11.35pm. It coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth, known as its perigee, which will bring it to 221,802 miles away, [...More...]
Schematic illustration of Earth's magnetic field. Credit: Peter Reid, The University of Edinburgh Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the [...More...]
Mysterious yellow-green cloud loomng over the city of Moscow, Russia puzzled residents as Friday is the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. Green dust clouds moved in from the south-west. But officials say that given the time of year and the atmospheric conditions, the mysterious green cloud is actually a cloud [...More...]
ExxonMobil Corp. says it is cleaning up about 80,000 gallons of oil that spilled from a pipeline in rural Pointe Coupee Parish, northwest of Baton Rouge. The company says the pipeline was shut down Saturday night after a loss of pressure. The spilled oil was discovered on Sunday. No injuries have been reported. The [...More...]
Panic spread today after tsunami warnings were issued following two massive earthquakes off Indonesia. Thousands of people in Aceh – 270 miles from the epicenter of the first 8.7 magnitude quake – fled to the hills fearing a repeat of the deadly 2004 tsunami. Buildings shook for four minutes and there were reports of [...More...]
The water flowing through Venice's famous canals laps at buildings a little higher every year – and not only because of a rising sea level. Although previous studies had found that Venice has stabilized, new measurements indicate that the historic city continues to slowly sink, and even to tilt slightly to the east. "Venice appears [...More...]
Kevin Peterson, Department of Natural Resources reports that thousands of fish have died in a fish kill on the Pelican River near Orr, Minnesota. "It was a substantial fish kill, It's an unfortunate loss of our fisheries resource," Peterson said. The kill occurred over a 2 mile stretch of the Pelican River and was probably [...More...]
In New Zealand, it's being called "Marmageddon." The island nation is facing a dwindling stock of the beloved Marmite spread after recent earthquakes in Christchurch forced the manufacturer to shut down the only factory producing the stuff. A spokesman for Sanitarium, the maker of the salty breakfast spread, says it has now run out [...More...]
The earth’s structure can be compared to an orange: its crust is the peel supported by the earth’s heavy mantle. That peel is made up of a continental crust 30 to 40 kilometers thick. It is much lighter than the thinner oceanic crust and protrudes from the earth’s mantle because of its lower density, like an iceberg in the sea.
The Greek island of Santorini is showing increasing signs of volcanic activity, a U.S. researcher says.
A small tsunami hit Japan’s northeastern coastline on Wednesday, officials said, after a strong earthquake rocked the region almost exactly a year on from the country’s worst post-war natural disaster.
Glowing green and red, shimmering hypnotically across the night sky, the aurora borealis is a wonder to behold. Longtime sky watchers say it is the greatest show on Earth. It might be the greatest show in Earth orbit, too. High above our planet, astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been enjoying an up-close view of auroras outside their windows as the ISS flys through geomagnetic storms.
Like a stream of air shooting out of an airplane’s broken window to relieve cabin pressure, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego say lava formations in eastern Oregon are the result of an outpouring of magma forced out of a breach in a massive slab of Earth. Their new mechanism explaining how such a large volume of magma was generated is published in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Nature.
Extreme summer temperatures are already occurring more frequently in the United States, and will become normal by mid-century if the world continues on a business as usual schedule of emitting greenhouse gases.
Climate change spells trouble for many tropical birds – especially those living in mountains, coastal forests and relatively small areas – and the damage will be compounded by other threats like habitat loss, disease and competition among species.