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.

Saturn

Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, has the most spectacular set of rings in the solar system. We now know that Saturn has moons in addition to its complex ring system.

Visit another planet: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Dwarf Planets
Have you ever seen the <a href="/earth/Magnetosphere/aurora.html">Southern or Northern Lights</a>? Earth isn't the only planet that puts on these beautiful light shows, which are also called the "<a href="/earth/Magnetosphere/aurora.html">aurora</a>". Aurora have been seen at both <a href="/saturn/saturn_polar_regions.html">poles of Saturn</a>, too, as well as at the poles of <a href="/jupiter/magnetosphere/jupiter_aurora.html">Jupiter</a>. These "<a href="/earth/Magnetosphere/tour/tour_earth_magnetosphere_09.html">curtains of light</a>" sometimes rise 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above the <a href="/saturn/atmosphere/S_clouds_overview.html">cloud tops</a> near Saturn's poles. The <a href="/space_missions/HST.html">Hubble Space Telescope</a> took this picture in 2004.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)</em></small></p>

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Explore Saturn

Interior and Surface of Saturn

The Giant planets do not have the same layered structure that the terrestrial planets do. Their ...Read more

Atmosphere of Saturn

The dramatic appearance of Saturn stems mainly from the spectacular rings. What is visible ...Read more

Saturn's Magnetosphere

Saturn's magnetosphere is not as big as Jupiter's, but is very large nonetheless. It extends ...Read more

Saturn's Moons and Rings

Saturn has the largest, most complex, and best-known ring system in our Solar System. ...Read more

The Poles of Saturn and its Moons

There's a lot of strange and interesting stuff going on at both the North and South Poles of ...Read more

Planetary Facts

All of the relevant information about Saturn collected on one page, including details about size, orbit ...Read more

Myth and Culture

The planet was named after the Roman god, Saturn, the god of agriculture and the harvest. ...Read more

Missions to Saturn

A table containing information about the spacecraft that have visited Saturn ...Read more

Images and Multimedia

Access wonderful captioned photos and illustrations that will inspire and excite you. ...Read more

Saturn Links

These are links to other great web sites about Saturn. But beware: you don't want to get caught ...Read more

More about Saturn

Historical Events

5/24 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, died on this date in 1543 Details
5/30 7.5 magnitude quake hits Quetta, Pakistan in 1935
5/31 7.9 magnitude earthquake hits Peru in 1970

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Do you know what a circumpolar constellation is?

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Earth and Space Science Concept of the Day

Do you know what this word or phrase means?

Graben
xGraben : A graben is a down-dropped block of the earth's crust resulting from extension, or pulling, of the crust.

Click on the word to find out!

Research Highlights

“Missing” Heat May Affect Future Climate Change

Current observational tools cannot account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on Earth in recent years, according to a "Perspectives" article in this week's issue of the journal...Read more

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