Current Events

  • Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm
    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm rep...Read more

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    Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm

    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm repeatedly. Daily levels of CO2 can vary due to weather, and there are seasonal trends as well. The level of atmospheric greenhouse gases continues to increase, now over 120 ppm since the Industrial Revolution began. For more on the Keeling Curve, see http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/. Find out more about greenhouse gases and warming.
  • Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley
    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Io...Read more

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    Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley

    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. On May 20th, a massive tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities - destroying over 100 homes and hitting two elementary schools and a hospital - with many casualties and deaths. Our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues suffering from these storms. For more on the May 20th storms, see the NOAA Storm Prediction Center Storm Report.
  • 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.
This is a composite image of the small moons of Saturn.
Click on image for full size
NASA

Small Moon

A small moon is a moon which is hard to see. The pictures of these moons often have poor resolution. In general, no detailed spectra of these moons have been taken. This makes it hard to know anything specific about these moons. Small moons are about the size of a city.

As the cameras we send into space aboard spacecraft improve so will the pictures we take of these small moons. An example of a small moon is Saturn's moon Helene which is only 10 miles across! It is still difficult to say anything about this moon because the features are too hard to see.

Most small moons are also icy, meaning that they seem to be composed of ice. For example Uranus' moon Miranda which is small, only 200 miles across, but seems to be made of ice. Some small moons may be rocky, however.


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Helene

Helene was discovered on February 29, 1980, by Pierre Laques and Raymond Despiau of the Pic du Midi Observatory, France, and J. Lecacheux from the Meudon Observatory, France. Their discovery was made using...more

Miranda

Miranda was discovered by G. Kuiper in 1948. It has a standoff distance of 129,780 km. Miranda one of the smallest icy moons, and is as wide as the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco, being 47...more

Saturn Holds Title for Most Moons!

In the last 20 years, there have been many observations that lead us to think that Saturn has many more small moons than we previously thought. In fact, October 26, 2000, a group of astronomers announced...more

Saturn Holds Title for Most Moons! (Updated)

In the last 20 years, there have been many observations that lead us to think that Saturn has many more small moons than we previously thought. In fact, in October 2000, a group of astronomers led by Brett...more

Jupiter's Moons and Rings

Jupiter has // Call the moon count function defined in the document head print_moon_count('jupiter'); moons and a ring system. The four Galilean satellites; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are among...more

Nereid

Nereid was discovered by G. Kuiper in 1949. Of the 8 moons it is the farthest from Neptune, with a standoff distance of 5,513,400 km. Nereid is one of the small moons, and is about as long as the distance...more

Hyperion

Hyperion was discovered by W. Bond in 1848. Hyperion is the 3rd farthest moon from Saturn, with a standoff distance of 1,481,000 km. Hyperion is 175 x 100 km (117 x 67 miles) in size. Its dimensions make...more

Saturn's Moons and Rings

Saturn has // Call the moon count function defined in the document head print_moon_count('saturn'); moons and a complex ring system. The moon Titan is one of the few moons in the solar system with a significant...more

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We now offer the Cool It! card game in our Science Store. Cool It! is the new card game from UCS that teaches kids about the choices we have when it comes to climate change.

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