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.

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STScI and NASA

Inter-planetary Net!
News story originally written on August 3, 1998

According to Vint Cerf, inventor of the TCP/IP standard that the Internet runs on, NASA researchers are working on a way to extend the Net to Mars! Mr. Cerf said that, "There is now an effort underway to design and build an interplanetary Internet."

The planned extension of the Net would make live broadcasts from NASA missions to Mars easier, boosting their public visiblility. Researchers are working on ways to overcome the obstacles in the path of the signals. These "pings" take six hours to travel from Mars to Earth!

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Hubble Monitors Weather on Neighboring Planets

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Galileo visits Callisto

Early morning on November, 4 1996, NASA's Galileo spacecraft approached to within 686 miles of the stark, crater-smeared Jupiter's moon Callisto. This is the first time that Galileo has approached Callisto,...more

High-altitude ionosphere found at Io by Galileo

Scientists participating in NASA's Galileo mission have discovered that the during its Io fly-by, Galileo spacecraft may have flown through a dense, high-altitude ionosphere. This discovery suggests that...more

New discoveries at Jupiter's moon Ganymede

NASA's Galileo spacecraft has transmitted back crisp new images of Jupiter's moon Ganymede which show the moon's surface is daubed by comet and and asteroid impact marks. In addition to these findings,...more

Hubble captures Jupiter and Io

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Hubble's auroral images of Jupiter

Scientists studying Jupiter's auroral regions are using images from Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 to map the planet's immense magnetic field and better understand the auroral phenomena. Aurorae...more

Dust storm hits the Martian north pole

The Martian north polar is seen to be besieged by a Texas-sized dust storm. Two Hubble Space Telescope images, taken about a month apart shows this storm sitting at the edge of the north polar cap. It...more

Mars Global Surveyor Update

According to the most recent flight status report printed on January 24, 1997, the Mars Global Surveyor is in excellent condition and well on its way to the dusty red planet. The Mars Global Surveyor...more

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