China’s robotic Chang’e 5 will be the 1st sample-return from the moon since the 1970s. It launched successfully last week atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket. Now it’s reported to have entered orbit around the moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-moon-mission-change-5-sample-return…
Tag: storms
Scientists predicted a large sunspot. Now it’s here
Last week, scientists from the National Solar Observatory predicted a large sunspot would emerge before Thanksgiving. Now the sunspot – AR2786 – is in view. Here’s how they did it. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nso-predicts-large-sunspot-thanksgiving-nov2020…
Uncovering the hidden side of storms: France’s Taranis satellite to launch in November
Sprites, elves, jets… few people know that scientists habitually use such other-worldly words to describe transient luminous events or TLEs, light flashes that occur during active storms just a few tens of kilometers over our heads. Few people also know that storms can act as particle accelerators generating very brief bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. But what are the physical…
How the US Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps
Joseph Cox, reporting for Motherboard at Vice: The U.S. military is buying the granular movement data of people around the world, harvested from innocuous-seeming apps, Motherboard has learned. The most popular app among a group Motherboard analyzed connected to this sort of data sale is a Muslim prayer and Quran app that has more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others include…
Mars is getting a new robotic meteorologist
Mars is about to get a new stream of weather reports, once NASA’s Perseverance rover touches down on Feb. 18, 2021. As it scours Jezero Crater for signs of ancient microbial life, Perseverance will collect the first planetary samples for return to Earth by a future mission. But the rover will also provide key atmospheric data that will help enable future…
Martian Dust Storms Parch the Planet By Driving Water Into Space
sciencehabit writes: Two years ago, a global dust storm veiled Mars. But although the storm took a toll, killing off NASA’s Opportunity rover, it also revealed that such storms play an important role in how the once-wet planet loses its water. In 2014, looking back at data from 2007, scientists noticed that the fluorescent fog of hydrogen in the martian upper…
Dust storms on Mars are tossing water from its atmosphere into space
Mars has dried out over the past 4 billion years, and that may be partly because water is lofted into the upper atmosphere by dust storms and then escapes into space Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2259487-dust-storms-on-mars-are-tossing-water-from-its-atmosphere-into-space/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
2020 Atlantic hurricane season busiest on record
The formation of Subtropical Storm Theta on November 10 over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean made the 2020 season the most active on the 169-year record. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/2020-atlantic-hurricane-season-busiest-on-record…
The International Space Station is 20 and going strong
20 years ago, three astronauts stepped aboard the ISS. It’s since hosted residents from many countries, creating humanity’s first history of living in space. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/20-years-iss-what-its-future-holds-nov-2-2020…
Electric! Astronomers find sprites in Jupiter’s atmosphere
Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission say they have detected sprites or elves – electrical phenomena above thunderstorms on Earth – in the clouds of Jupiter for the first time. Unlike the red-colored earthly ones however, the Jovian ones are blue. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sprites-or-elves-in-jupiters-atmosphere-lightning-juno…