Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2017

Life on Earth May Have Started with a Cosmic Splash

A new study bolsters the theory that the chemical origins of life on Earth were midwifed by meteorites that delivered essential building blocks from space. Meteorites slamming into warm, small ponds on the planet's rising land surfaces more than 4 billion years ago could have delivered those building blocks into...

Sep 30, 2017

Hurricane Ophelia on Rare Course Toward Ireland, U.K.

As if the 2017 hurricane season weren’t already notable enough, now Hurricane Ophelia is on a rare track toward Ireland and the British Isles. While it will no longer be a tropical system by the time it reaches them, it could still bring rain, stormy seas and winds gusting up...

Aug 31, 2017

3 Hurricanes Are Roiling the Atlantic At Once

The Atlantic officially has three hurricanes churning simultaneously — Irma, Jose and Katia. Irma, a powerful Category 5 storm, is currently battering Puerto Rico and on track to slam into Florida, while Jose is barreling toward the Caribbean Islands, while Katia is menacing the Gulf of Mexico. Both Jose and...

Aug 31, 2017

If Hurricane Irma Hits Miami, Damage Could Be 'Unprecedented'

As Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida, it's looking increasingly likely that South Florida, a major population hub, could take a major hit from the monster storm. But how bad would a direct hit from Hurricane Irma be? The answer is really, really bad. The storm could cause unprecedented levels of...

Aug 31, 2017

Where Will Hurricane Irma Make Landfall on the Florida Peninsula?

Ferocious Hurricane Irma continues to roar through the Atlantic on its path toward the Florida Peninsula. As of 2 p.m. EDT today (Sept. 8), the eye of Hurricane Irma was located 57 miles (92 kilometers) off the northern coast of Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The fierce...

Aug 31, 2017

Irma Batters Florida, Could Retain Hurricane Strength Through Monday

Irma struck the U.S. mainland today (Sept. 10), making landfall in Florida at 9:10 a.m. local time as a Category 4 hurricane, and experts predict that Irma will remain a hurricane though the morning of Sept. 11 and perhaps longer. After hitting Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys, Irma moved...

Aug 31, 2017

3 People Die After Falling into Volcanic Crater

Three members of a family have died after falling into a volcanic crater in Italy, according to news reports. The family of four from northeastern Italy was on vacation in Pozzuoli, viewing the sulfurous Solfatara crater. Their 11-year-old son ran through a safety barrier and went onto an unstable portion...

Aug 31, 2017

Human-Caused Climate Change Could Doom Coastal Cities, Neil Tyson Says

The United States might not be able to recover from climate change if extreme weather events and flooding continue to swamp the country's largest coastal cities, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told CNN yesterday (Sept. 17). In an interview with reporter and TV host Fareed Zakaria on CNN's GPS, Tyson discussed...

Aug 31, 2017

Hurricane Maria's Aftermath: Photos Reveal Devastation on Caribbean Islands

Hurricane Maria Aftermath (Image credit: NASA/Randy Bresnik/Twitter)Hurricane Maria underwent a dramatic transformation on Sept. 18, 2017, when the Category 1 storm strengthened into a major beast of a hurricane, reaching Category 5 status in just 18 hours. The storm roared through the Caribbean, smacking into the island of Dominica, before...

Jul 31, 2017

Death Valley Breaks Record for Hottest Month Ever in the US

July temperatures in Death Valley have incinerated previous records. With an average daily high temperature of 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit (41.9 degrees Celsius), July was the valley's hottest month on record, blazing through the former record of 107.2 degrees F (41.8 degrees C) set in 1917, the National Weather Service's Las...

Jul 31, 2017

El Nino's Absence May Fuel a Stormy Hurricane Season

The hurricane season is likely to be extra active this year, thanks to a likely no-show from El Niño. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center released an updated hurricane season outlook today (Aug. 9). The new prediction ups the odds for a blustery, extremely active hurricane...

Jul 31, 2017

Climate Change Is Driving These Cute Mountain Critters Out of Their Homes

The chirps of the American pika have gone silent in a core portion of their habitat in California. New research finds that the pika (Ochotona princeps) disappeared from a 64 square-mile (165 square kilometers) section of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Lake Tahoe between the 1950s and the early...

Jul 31, 2017

Harvey Response: NASA Lends Space-Based Eyes to Recovery

NASA is aiding the humanitarian response to Tropical Storm Harvey by surveying the storm's impact from above. This effort will provide expert data to relief agencies. Harvey first hit southeastern Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, and made landfall in southern Louisiana as a tropical storm on...

May 31, 2017

Watch the Waters Rise in 'Holoscenes' Climate Art Installation

NEW YORK — An artistic interpretation of climate change comes to Times Square for the 2017 World Science Festival, in the form of Holoscenes, an outdoor installation that places a series of human occupants in an enormous aquarium, to explore humanity's uneasy relationship with rising seas in a warming world....

May 31, 2017

Why Are the Vermilion Cliffs So Red?

If you've ever visited the Grand Canyon, Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs or the astonishingly rainbow-colored hills of China's Zhangye National Geopark, you likely noticed they have one thing in common: red-colored rocks. How did these rocks get so red? The answer involves iron, which bonds with other elements to form minerals...