The EARTH archive
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58 articles · Page 2 of 3
February 2, 2016
On the morning of Feb. 20, 1962, John H. Glenn sat inside the Mercury Friendship 7 space capsule, perched atop a rocket that had initially been …
August 21, 2015
Lightning strikes far more often over land than sea and is more concentrated closer to the equator — both testaments to the greater atmospheric …
December 23, 2014
A recently launched satellite is now measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide with greater precision than ever before. Launched on July 2, the …
November 4, 2014
The sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, reaches temperatures of more than 1 million degrees Celsius, hundreds of times hotter than its visible …
October 6, 2014
As Curiosity and Opportunity rove around Mars, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Express and Mars Odyssey orbit above, and scientists …
August 8, 2014
In September 2012, the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice was the smallest on record since satellite monitoring began in 1979. Several …
June 10, 2014
“Hello World.” With that brief message, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) and followers around the world sent up a collective cheer. …
May 15, 2014
On June 16, 1963, during the height of the Cold War, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. It would be 19 years before …
November 18, 2013
NASA’s latest Mars mission, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter, successfully blasted off toward the Red Planet today to …
April 15, 2013
Airplane pilots have a long history of using euphemisms to minimize the sense of risk in their work. Pilot-speak for crashing an airplane, for …
April 3, 2013
Outbound communications from NASA to its group of Mars-observing orbiters and rovers will be curtailed starting April 4. And as of April 9, no …
December 6, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO: The face of the moon has always enchanted humankind, but new data from a NASA mission have given scientists a glimpse of what lies …
December 3, 2012
Too early to tell if findings are evidence of biological activity, scientists say SAN FRANCISCO: The Curiosity rover has detected evidence of …
August 6, 2012
This has been a year of scientific milestones. In just the last few months, we have witnessed the first successful launch of a privately built …
August 6, 2012
Sometimes humanity accomplishes something absolutely awesome. Tonight was one of those nights. We put another rover on Mars — by far the most …
January 5, 2012
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first step taken on the moon on July 20, 1969. Since that historic small step — which 600 million …
January 5, 2012
The Outer Space Treaty and planetary contamination Is there life out there? Finding life has been a goal of the exploration of other celestial …
January 5, 2012
Jason Marsh is done waiting around for someone else to transport him into space. Marsh, a system administrator near Washington, D.C., is …
January 5, 2012
Blogging on EARTH Usually, NASA hopes its space probes land safely at their destinations. This morning, the agency was planning for a big …
January 5, 2012
The moon isn’t quite the bone-dry place scientists once thought; instead, its surface is covered in water, according to a landmark finding …
January 5, 2012
Satellite maps can show everything from city blocks to inaccessible mountain peaks from the comfort of our living rooms. Now, they can show us …
January 5, 2012
Blogging on EARTH Today NASA released new Hubble images of dwarf planet Pluto — and far from being just an icy colorless rock, the images show a …
January 5, 2012
Today, at 4:53 p.m. ET, the space shuttle Discovery launched for the last time. When it returns to Earth in 11 days, the shuttle will be retired. …
January 5, 2012
As the space shuttle Atlantis prepared for liftoff for the final time this morning, I was humming Europe’s 1986 hit “Final Countdown” in my …
