Current Events

  • Irish Chronicles Document Links Between Volcanoes and Weather
    A study of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong corr...Read more

    x

    Irish Chronicles Document Links Between Volcanoes and Weather

    A study of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong correlation between the occurrence of volcanic eruptions and extreme cold weather in Ireland over a 1200 year period. Data analyzed in this study cover the period from 431 to 1649, during which time up to 48 volcanic eruptions are identified in Greenland ice core records through deposition of volcanic sulfate in annual layers of ice. You can find the study (open access), published on 6 June 2013 in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article. Find out more about how volcanoes can influence climate.
  • EF-5 Tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma Widest Ever Recorded in US
    The EF-5 tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st was the widest ever recorded in the US, acco...Read more

    x

    EF-5 Tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma Widest Ever Recorded in US

    The EF-5 tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st was the widest ever recorded in the US, according to the National Weather Service in Norman Oklahoma. The tornado, which remained on the ground for 40 minutes and reached 2.6 miles across (4.2 km), took the lives of 18 people including storm chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young. For more information on the tornado, visit http://ow.ly/i/2hfDG.
  • 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

    x

    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.
A Hubble Space Telescope image of stars in the globular cluster M22.
Click on image for full size
NASA, ESA, and K. Sahu (STScI)

Stars

The pinpoints of light that you see in the night sky are stars. Your ability to see the stars depends on how bright they are (their "absolute magnitude"), as well as how close they are to Earth. Stars are giant balls of gas in space that shine through the darkness. The Sun is an average star that Earth orbits.

Check out some Star Statistics or visit the All Star Gallery to learn about specific stars.

You can visit these interesting ExploraTours that explain How to Build a Star and that take A Peek into the Lives of Stars.

Last modified July 31, 2008 by Becca Hatheway.

Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!

The Summer 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, available in our online store, includes articles on rivers and snow, classroom planetariums, satellites and oceanography, hands-on astronomy, and global warming.

Windows to the Universe Community

News

Opportunities

You might also be interested in:

Cool It! Game

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Magnitude - a measure of brightness

Astronomers use a special term to talk about the brightness of stars. The term is "magnitude". The magnitude scale was invented by the ancient Greeks around 150 B.C. The Greeks put the stars they could...more

A Star Is Born... But How?

Daniel Wolf Savin, a senior research scientist at Columbia University's Astrophysics Laboratory, has published a paper on the research he and his colleagues have done on how stars began. In their research,...more

Waterworld Discovered Orbiting a Nearby Star

Astronomers have discovered a planet about 40 light-years from Earth that contains water. They describe this planet as a "super-Earth" planet because it is between one and ten times the mass of the Earth....more

Black Holes Out for a Spin

Everyone is awed by black holes. How could there be a thing that devours all light and matter around it...so that matter can never escape?!? A new discovery has been made about black holes - some of them...more

Hubble Detects the First Extrasolar Planetary Atmosphere!

You probably know there are nine planets in our own solar system...but did you know that we know of 76 planets that are outside our own solar system? These planets orbit other stars and are called extrasolar...more

NASA Reveals Two New Missions

NASA has just revealed its newest missions, Swift and FAME. These two projects are part of MIDEX, NASA's medium class explorer program. The agency had to choose from over 31 proposals, which was very...more

President of Peru Visits Ancient Incan Sites

Peru's new president, Alejandro Toledo, was sworn in on July 28, 2001. The next day he visited Machu Picchu and Cuzco. There were ceremonies at both locations where Toledo asked for the blessing of the...more

Shop Windows to the Universe

Arches National Park Geology Tour provides an extensive, visually rich description of the geology of Arches, by Deborah Ragland, Ph.D. See our DVD collection.

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