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.

Pick a Postcard - Saturn


This is a color image of Saturn taken on August 26, 1990.
Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is a full color view of Saturn and its rings taken from Voyager 2 on July 21, 1981.
Courtesy of NASA

This is a false-color view of Saturn and its rings taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on Oct. 18, 1980.
Courtesy of NASA

This is an image of a storm on Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Courtesy of Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University), D. Gilmore, L. Bergeron (STScI), and NASA

This is a montage of images of Saturn and some of its satellites taken by the Voyager 1 in November 1980.
Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is an artist rendition of the Cassini spacecraft over Saturn's rings.
Courtesy of David Seal,JPL

This is another false color image of the unlit side of Saturn's rings taken from Voyager 1. B Ring details are clearly see in this image.
Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is a color enhanced image of Saturn's ring system taken on August 17, 1981.
Courtesy of NASA/JPL

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