An image of Hurricane Sandy taken by the GOES-13 satellite on October 28. This category 1 <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/hurricane.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">hurricane</a> was huge, spanning a horizontal distance of about one-third the US continental landmass. The storm came onshore in New Jersey, and gradually moved northeast. The storm disrupted the lives of tens of millions in the eastern US, doing billions of dollars in damage, resulting in over 30 deaths. Visit the National Hurricane Center's webpage on <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/">Hurricane Sandy</a> for details.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>Lunar eclipses are special events that only occur when certain conditions are met. First of all, the Moon must be in <a href="/the_universe/uts/moon3.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">full phase</a>. Secondly, the <a href="/sun/sun.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">Sun</a>, <a href="/earth/earth.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">Earth</a> and <a href="/earth/moons_and_rings.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">Moon</a> must be in a perfectly straight line. If both of these are met, then the Earth's shadow can block the Sun's light from hitting the Moon. The reddish glow of the Moon is caused by light from the Earth's limb scattering toward the Moon, which is reflected back to us from the Moon's surface.<p><small><em>Image credit - Doug Murray, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida</em></small></p>On May 20, 2013, a massive EF5 <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado.html">tornado</a> hit Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities and lives. The tornado, on the ground for 40 minutes, took a path through a subdivision of homes, destroying block after block of homes, and hitting two elementary schools just as school was ending as well as a hospital. Hundreds of people were injured, and 24 were killed.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Ks0stm, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license</em></small></p>Scientists at the University of Michigan have found that <a href="/earth/polar/cryosphere_permafrost1.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">permafrost</a> in the <a href="/earth/polar/polar_north.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">Arctic</a> is extremely sensitive to sunlight. Exposure to sunlight releases carbon gases trapped in the permafrost, including <a href="/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">climate-warming</a> <a href="/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">carbon dioxide</a>, to the <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">atmosphere</a> much faster than previously thought.<p><small><em>George Kling, The University of Michigan</em></small></p>A near-Earth <a href="/our_solar_system/asteroids.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">asteroid</a> - named 2012 DA14 by astronomers - passed within 17,200 miles from Earth on February 15, 2013. On closest approach at about 1:25 p.m. CST on February 15, although it was within the orbit of the <a href="/earth/moons_and_rings.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">Moon</a> and even geosynchronous <a href="/space_missions/satellites.html&edu=high&dev=1/earth/Atmosphere/moons/h/neptune/neptune_il.html">satellites</a>, it didn't strike Earth! Find out more from <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130201315144.html">NASA</a>! Fragments of a meteorite hit Chelyabinsk, Russia on 2/15/2013 <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorite-idUSBRE91E05Z20130215">injuring over 500</a>. Learn about <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/our_solar_system/meteors/meteors.html">meteors and meteorites</a>.<p><small><em>NASA/JPL-CalTech</em></small></p>This image is a montage of high resolutions photographs of the Earth taken in January 2012 by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite. The image shows many stunning details of <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/earth.html">our home planet</a> - <a href="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/VIIRS_4Jan2012.jpg">particularly at high resolution</a>. The beauty of our planet is obvious from space - our blue <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/overview.html">waters</a>, our white <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html">clouds</a>, and the green from <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Life/life.html">life</a> abundant at the surface.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>


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