Clouds in the sky can mimic cresting ocean waves. These photographic clouds are called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, and occasionally also go by the name billow clouds or shear-gravity clouds. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/kelvin-helmholzt-clouds…
Tag: Rain
How San Francisco Got a Very Special Monolith on Christmas Day
Ananda Sharma, founder of the app Gyroscope, describes to a local TV station the monolith he discovered during a Christmas-morning jog under a candy-cane red sunrise. “I think I smelled it before I saw it…” He spotted a double rainbow and wanted to peek at that too. At first, he thought the monolith was “a big post,” but as he got…
Space weather in Proxima’s vicinity dims hopes of habitable worlds
Astronomers used radio waves to study conditions in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun. The results suggest Proxima’s 2 known planets are likely bathed in intense radiation from this star, casting doubt on the planets’ potential for life. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/proxima-centauri-space-weather-planets-uninhabitable…
Woman marries a briefcase named Gideon
A woman from Moscow got married recently to a briefcase that she ‘met’ 5 years ago in a hardware store. Rain Gordon, who works as a nursery school tea… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/341958/woman-marries-a-briefcase-named-gideon…
What’s the birthstone for December?
If you were born December, you’ve got 2 birthstones, turquoise and zircon. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/december-birthstone-zircon-turquoise…
China Expanding Weather-Control Program To Make Artificial Rain, Snow
China is massively expanding its weather-control project, and is aiming to be able to cover half the country in artificial rain and snow by 2025, the government said Tuesday. Business Insider reports: The practice of “cloud seeding” was discovered in the US in 1946 by a chemist working for General Electric. China launched its own similar program in the 1960s. Dozens…
Phew! Record-smashing 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is officially over
November 30 marked the official end of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, although more storms are still possible. Why did 2020 have so many storms? And what does climate change have to do with it? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/record-smashing-2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-official-end…
Curiosity rover spots signs of ancient megafloods on Mars
We already know that Gale Crater on Mars used to hold a lake or series of lakes a few billion years ago. Now, NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence for ancient giant floods that washed through the region as well. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/megafloods-gale-crater-mars-life-curiosity-rover…
Triassic period ended with ‘lost’ mass extinction and a million-year rain storm, study claims
The Carnian Pluvial Event (CPE) ushered in 1 million years of rain and killed as many as 33% of all marine life, a new study suggests. Source: https://www.livescience.com/carnian-pluvial-episode-mass-extinction.html
Leonid meteor shower is building to a peak
The peak of the Leonids is likely to be before sunup on November 17, 2020. But people already catching some Leonids. Keep an eye out this weekend. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/leonid-meteors-before-dawn-november-17…