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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 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.
The Voyager team stands behind a model of the Voyager spacecraft. Project Manager, Ed Massey, stands at the far left.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA/JPL

Missions Possible!
News story originally written on April 12, 2002

There has been a lot of news lately about different space missions. You might have heard that astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia did five space walks to fix and update the Hubble Space Telescope. That went really well and the Hubble should be sending back super pictures by next month!

Voyager 1 also needed to be fixed. But, NASA couldn't send astronauts to fix that spacecraft because Voyager 1 is way past Pluto! So scientists sent signals to Voyager so that the spacecraft would turn on a back up position-sensing system. The spacecraft needed a new one of these so that it will know where it is.

Cassini fired its engines for about 10 seconds last week, putting it back on track for its trip to Saturn. Cassini was launched in October 1997 and will arrive at Saturn on July 1, 2004. Just two years to go! How old will you be when Cassini gets to Saturn?

Last modified April 12, 2002 by Jennifer Bergman.

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