Current Events

  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

Asteroid Image List


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This is a recent image of the asteroid Mathilde, from the NEAR ( Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) Spacecraft. It was taken on June 26, 1997 at a distance of 250,000 miles from the surface. (Courtesy of NASA).

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This is a comparison of Gaspra (top) with Mars' two satellites, Deimos (lower left) and Phobos (lower right). (Courtesy of NASA)

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This is an image of the asteroid Gaspra from Galileo on October 29, 1991. (Courtesy of NASA)

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Another image of Gaspra. (Courtesy of NASA/JPL)

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This is a montage of 11 Gaspra images taken by Galileo on October 29, 1991. (Courtesy of NASA)

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This is a montage of 24 images of the asteroid Vesta taken by the Hubble Space Telescope using the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2. These images were taken between November 28 and December 1, 1994. (Courtesy of NASA/STScI and B. Zellner, Georgia Souther Uni versity)

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This is an image of the asteroid Ida seen by Galileo on its way to Jupiter on August 28, 1993. (Courtesy of NASA/JPL)

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This is a composite image of Ida rotating seen by Galileo on August 28, 1993. (Courtesy of NASA/JPL)

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This is a color image of Ida and its moon, Dactyl. (Courtesy of NASA)

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Another image of Ida and Dactyl. (Courtesy of NASA)

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These are radar images of the asteroid Toutatis taken from Earth. (Courtesy of NASA)

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