Jupiter, Saturn, moon on June 6-8, plus a word about the daytime moon

If you stay up late on the nights of June 6, 7 and 8, 2020, you can glimpse the moon with the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn, ascending in the east. Or see them before daybreak. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/daytime-moon-this-upcoming-week…

Born in June? Here’s your birthstone

Happy birthday June babies! Your month has 3 birthstones – pearl, moonstone, and alexandrite. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/june-birthstone-pearl-moonstone-alexandrite…

Murder hornets? 5 questions answered about Asian giant hornets in North America

Are ‘murder hornets’ from Asia invading North America? An entomologist who lived among them in Japan explains what’s true about the predatory insects. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-are-asian-giant-hornets-dangerous…

Newly reprocessed images of Europa make the icy moon even more interesting

Jupiter’s moon Europa is the smoothest object in the Solar System. There are no mountains, very few craters, and no valleys. It’s tallest features are isolated massifs up to 500 meters (1640 ft) tall. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-05-newly-reprocessed-images-europa-icy.html…

As the climate shifts, a border moves

Italy’s northern border with Switzerland depends on the natural, morphological boundaries of glaciers’ frontiers. But in recent years, glaciers have been melting at increased rates due to climate change. This has caused the border to shift noticeably. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/climate-warming-glacier-italian-swiss-austrian-border-moves…

Will SETI 2.0 lead to a discovery of intelligent aliens?

2020 has been an exciting year so far for SETI – the search for extraterrestrial life – in terms of new technological developments and strategies. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/seti-breakthrough-listen-new-technologies-and-strategies…

Time-traveling ESA team explore a virtual moon

If someone had been watching as Apollo 15’s Falcon Lunar Module headed down beside the moon’s Appenine mountains in 1971, then this is what they would have seen. ESA researchers, working with UK company Timelab Technologies, are recreating historic missions to the moon in high-definition 360 virtual reality, as a way of gaining new insights from vintage instrument data—as well as…

Ripples on Pluto hint at subsurface ocean

A new study of unusual ripples on Pluto’s far side add to the evidence for a subsurface ocean on this distant and cold dwarf planet. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/pluto-subsurface-ocean-new-horizons…

Why did Ecuador’s tallest waterfall stop flowing?

With water dropping 150 meters (490 feet) through a thick patch of cloud forest, San Rafael Waterfall was one of Ecuador’s most captivating landscapes and attracted tens of thousands of visitors per year. But on February 2, the water stopped flowing. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/disappearance-ecuador-san-rafael-waterfall…