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

    x

    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

    x

    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

    x

    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.
An artist's depiction of a shooting star. Look out for meteors of all sizes during the shower this month!
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of Corel Photography

Make a wish on a shooting star! It's time for the Perseid meteor shower!
News story originally written on August 12, 2003

Look out for the Perseid meteor shower! People in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see the largest number of meteors from the shower on Tuesday August 12th and Wednesday August 13th, 2003.

To see the most meteors, ask your parents if you can go out to look at the sky right after sunset on Tuesday August 12th, 2003 or wake up an hour before the sun rises on Wednesday August 13th, 2003. Make sure the sky is not covered with clouds.

Perseid meteoroids are little pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle. This comet has a lot of dust that travels with it. The dust makes a cloud that the Earth speeds through every year at about this time. They may be tiny, but these dust particles can make an amazing show in the night sky!

Last modified August 12, 2003 by Lisa Gardiner.

Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!

Our online store includes fun classroom activities for you and your students. Issues of NESTA's quarterly journal, The Earth Scientist are also full of classroom activities on different topics in Earth and space science!

Windows to the Universe Community

News

Opportunities

You might also be interested in:

More and more Moons of Jupiter

Astronomers have discovered twelve new moons of Jupiter so far this year. Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. It has more moons than any other planet. Jupiter has 52 moons that we know about....more

Mars Close to Earth in August 2003

On August 27, 2003, Earth and Mars will be very close together. Well, close for planets anyways. The two planets will still be almost 56 million kilometers (about 35 million miles) apart. They will be...more

More Moons around Jupiter & Saturn

Astronomers have discovered nine new moons. The astronomers found eight new moons of Jupiter and one new moon of Saturn. Jupiter has 60 moons that we know about. Saturn has 31. All of the new moons are...more

Mercury Transit on May 7, 2003

The planet Mercury crossed in front of the Sun on May 7, 2003. When that happens, astronomers call it a transit. A transit is like a solar eclipse. An eclipse happens when the Moon passes in front of the...more

Spots on the Sun

Did you know that the Sun has spots? Right now it has some very big spots. There are two groups of sunspots on the Sun right now. Each group is about as big as the planet Jupiter, which is the largest...more

More than 100 planets orbit distant stars!

Astronomers have found another planet outside our solar system. That makes a total of 102 exoplanets that have been found so far! The astronomers that found the exoplanet, have been searching outside...more

Map of the Sky

Have you ever wanted to see a picture of a star? How about 2 million pictures?! The Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)has put together all these images of stars for you to see! Just click on the link below...more

The Equator is Growing!

Earth may look like a giant marble from space, but it is not exactly round! It is a little wider around the equator, like a tangerine. But Earth's shape does not stay the same! Scientists have been watching...more

Shop Windows to the Universe

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.

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and NASA, our Founding Partners (the American Geophysical Union and American Geosciences Institute) as well as through Institutional, Contributing, and Affiliate Partners, individual memberships and generous donors. Thank you for your support! NASA AGU AGI NSF