For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the recent chirping of birds and blooming of flowers are welcome signs that spring has arrived — and a new video released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows a stunning glimpse of what this change of seasons looks like from space. The high-speed video […]
The Earth is spinning slightly faster than it was a few years ago, but the rapid melt of polar ice is keeping that acceleration in check, with consequences for timekeeping, a new study finds. The planet’s solid inner core rotates unevenly, and at present it’s gaining pace, causing the Earth to spin faster. The acceleration […]
A crack in an ice sheet an Antarctica ice sheet caused by climate change. Humanity is rapidly waking up to the fact that time is running out to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change. Ironically, climate change itself, primarily caused by the release of greenhouse gases via the burning of fossil fuels, […]
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself. The hours and minutes that dictate our days are […]
Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise. The author of the study, Duncan […]
The environmental impacts of spaceflight are becoming increasingly clear as more and more spacecraft are launched into Earth’s orbit. The growing number of satellites burning up in Earth’s atmosphere has concerned scientists for years, and now a new paper explores how the emerging shell of “conductive dust” around the planet that results from satellite re-entries […]
SpaceX’s third Starship megarocket made sure its epic demise would be remembered. Starship launched today (March 14) for the third time ever, soaring into space from SpaceX‘s Starbase site in South Texas. The giant vehicle notched a number of important milestones, including opening its payload door in space and conducting a propellant-transfer demonstration away from […]
Scientists have discovered geological evidence that the gravitational interaction between Mars and Earth drives a 2.4-million-year cycle of deep-sea circulation and global warming. The surprising link between Mars and Earth’s seas and climate sees deep currents wax and wane, and this connects to periods of increased solar energy and a warmer climate. The research could […]
Mars may be around 140 million miles away from Earth, but the red planet is influencing our deep oceans by helping drive “giant whirlpools,” according to new research. Scientists analyzed sediments, drilled from hundreds of deep-sea sites over the past half century, to look back tens of millions of years into Earth’s past, in a […]
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft will pass over Kansas as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere Tuesday morning. “NASA’s Crew-7 mission is splashing down off the Gulf Coast of Florida at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 UTC)—and skywatchers in the central and southern United States will have the chance to spot SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft […]
On Friday, March 8, a pallet of used batteries from the International Space Station (ISS) reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico following an unpredictable journey through orbit. The pallet contained nine batteries and weighed in at 2.9 tons. It had been tossed by the Canadarm2 robotic arm in March 2021 and and has […]
Because phosphates lie at the heart of almost every chemical reaction in the human body, scientists from California-based Scripps research had a hunch that a phosphate process known as “phosphorylation” occurred earlier in Earth’s history than we previously realized. Exploring this theory, scientists recreated the conditions of early Earth and were able to transition fatty […]