Geology News
NASA Current Events

“For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. [...] They’ve just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the program.”

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Large Hurricane on Saturn

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Diamond Dust over Saskatoon

The Bone Worm

“The team operating NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

In just the past few years astronomers have discovered over 800 exoplanets. Now they are working on methods to evaluate their atmospheres.

As recently as 1979, astronomers only knew about 12 sungrazing coments. Now they have discovered about 2500.

NASA has cut a deal with Russia to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station at the rate of $70,000,000 per seat.

“NASA scientists don’t often learn that their spacecraft is at risk of crashing into another satellite. But when Julie McEnery, the project scientist for NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, checked her email on March 29, 2012, she found herself facing this precise situation.” Quoted from the NASA video release.

NASA’s Earth Observatory has satellite images that display flooding in the area around Fargo, North Dakota from early and late April 2013. They show waters of the Red River covering farmland around the city.

“NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn’s north pole. [...] The hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth.

“Comet ISON is potentially the “comet of the century” because around the time the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun, on November 28, it may briefly become brighter than the full Moon.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

NASA image.

“NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the “habitable zone,” the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“NASA’s FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable lunar orbit where astronauts can visit and explore it. The proposed mission would combine the efforts of three NASA mission directorates: Human Exploration and Operations, Science and Space Technology.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“An infrared sensor that could improve NASA’s future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“A new study tracks the “rain” of charged water particles into the atmosphere of Saturn and finds there is more of it and it falls across larger areas of the planet than previously thought.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon and also material resulting from matter and energy coming from above.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“The mission to find, capture and redirect an asteroid robotically, and then visit it with astronauts to study it and return samples takes advantage of expertise across all of NASA in an integrated approach to exploration.” Quoted from the NASA budget request announcement.

“This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the rover.”

“NASA’s Kepler space telescope has witnessed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion star. The findings are among the first detections of this phenomenon.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

NASA Image

“Studying volcanoes can be hazardous work, both for researchers and aircraft. To penetrate such dangerous airspace, unmanned aerial vehicles, especially those with electric engines that ingest little contaminated air, are an emerging and effective way to gather crucial data about volcanic ash and gases.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“Animation depicting the ‘life’ of a photon as it travels across space and time, from the very early universe to the Planck satellite.” Quote from the NASA/JPL video release.

“On March 18, 2013, the newly launched Landsat Data Continuity Mission began to send back images of Earth from both of its instruments — the Operational Land Imager and the Thermal Infrared Sensor. This view of Fort Collins, Colorado, is among the satellite’s first images.” Quoted from the NASA image release.

A collection of some of the most interesting photos of volcanic eruptions that we have seen from USGS, NASA and NOAA.

“Astronomers have found some of the youngest stars ever seen, thanks to the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

Ever since planets have been observed through telescopes Mars has been considered to be the best candidate for life beyond earth. Now some researchers believe that Jupiter’s moon Europa is the most promising place to easily find evidence of extraterrestrial life.

CNN has a gallery of photos showing Comet Pan-STARRS in the sky over several US locations. The video below about Comet Pan-STARRS is from NASA.

USA Today has a two-minute video that recounts five important discoveries already made by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

“Mexico’s Popocatépetl Volcano released a plume in early March 2013. On March 8, Volcano Discovery reported an ash plume reaching roughly 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) above the volcano crater, or about 7 kilometers (4 miles) above sea level.” Quoted from the NASA image release.

“An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes. Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life — in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“Peering over the shoulder of giant Saturn, through its rings, and across interplanetary space, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spies the bright, cloudy terrestrial planet, Venus. The vast distance from Saturn means that Venus only shows up as a white dot.” Quoted from the NASA image release.

“Since their discovery over 50 years ago, the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts have been considered to consist of two distinct zones of trapped, highly energetic charged particles.” The accidental discovery of a third belt will require a rewrite of textbooks. Quote from the NASA press release.