Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2018

The Internet Is Obsessed With This Perfectly Symmetrical Mushroom Cloud

Capping a week when the last thing anyone wanted to hear about was news of a mushroom cloud, a viral photo of a glorious, impossibly symmetrical storm cloud has nevertheless entranced the internet with its perfect mushroominess. Gulf Shores, Alabama, resident Rick Geiss snapped the impressive picture from his local...

May 31, 2018

Here's How Your Water Bottle Could Start a Fire

Leaving a water bottle sitting in your car sounds benign enough. But on a hot, summer day, the plastic can act as a lens, focusing light into a high-energy beam that's intense enough to burn material like car-seat upholstery. Last summer, Idaho Power shared its video of a water bottle...

May 31, 2018

Photos: Fruits of the Sonoran Desert

Sun, sun, everywhere (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)During the month of June, the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States is best known for its extreme heat and lack of rainfall. Arizona set the record for the highest known temperature in the month of June...

Apr 30, 2018

Massive 'Dead Zone' in the Arabian Sea Is the Biggest in the World

A massive dead zone in the Arabian Sea is the largest in the world, a new study reveals. Dead zones are oxygen-starved ocean regions where few organisms can survive. They emerge in ocean depths ranging from 650 to 2,600 feet (200 to 800 meters), when influxes of chemical nutrients —...

Apr 30, 2018

Origami Robots Just Helped Build the World's Smallest House

Pushing the tiny-house movement to bizarre new limits, French scientists have constructed the world's smallest house on the tip of an optical fiber. With each wall spanning about 0.0006 inches in length (15 micrometers, or 15 millionths of a meter), the humble chalet is too small to accommodate a dust...

Apr 30, 2018

Why Is NOAA's Brand-New, Billion-Dollar Weather Satellite Going Blind?

A very expensive satellite's first several months in space are going very wrong. The cooling system that the multibillion-dollar device needs in order to properly observe the atmosphere failed to start, leaving the satellite partly blind. Named GOES-17, the glitchy orbiter is a brand-new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)...

Apr 30, 2018

The Oldest Known Tree in Europe Is Having a Growth Spurt

Perched high on a cliff in southern Italy, a bone-white pine tree has watched the Renaissance come and go, seen dozens of wars rage and resolve, and stood by as thousands of less-persistent organisms lived and died on the rocky slopes below. The tree, nicknamed Italus, has seen a lot....

Feb 28, 2018

This Tiny Diamond Contains a Mineral That's Never Been Seen Before

A schist in the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a geologist's best friend. For proof, look no further than a recently mined diamond that contained a mineral that had never been seen in nature — until now. The discovered mineral — called calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3)— was...

Feb 28, 2018

Expect a Warm, Wet Spring Across the US

Spring is likely to bring weather that's warmer and wetter than usual to much of the U.S., especially in the mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). However, areas plagued by recent drought — such as California, Oregon, southern Alaska and much of...

Feb 28, 2018

What Is a Blue Moon, Anyway?

Skywatchers tonight (March 31) will be treated to the second and final Blue Moon of 2018, just on the eve of Easter. What is this type of moon, and is it actually blue? For those who wanted to see an aqua-hued orb, sorry but the term Blue Moon has nothing...

Jan 31, 2018

8 Trillion 'Gallons'! Huge Blob of Magma Found Atop Undersea Volcano

A giant undersea caldera near Japan hosts a lava dome made from 8 trillion gallons of molten rock. The dome, which is 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) wide and 1,968 feet (600 meters) tall, is solid rock now, and it doesn't presage an impending eruption. However, it does add a new...

Jan 31, 2018

Here's What You Can Expect from This Spring's Weather

Is the United States heading into a chilly and rainy spring, or a tepidly warm and drought-ridden one? The answer, as always, depends on your location, according to the March, April and May weather outlook released today (Feb. 15) by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center (CPC). Temperatures will be lower...

Jan 31, 2018

Freakishly Warm Weather in the Arctic Has Climate Scientists 'Stunned'

During the Arctic winter, when the sun hides from October to March, the average temperature in the frozen north typically hovers around a bone-chilling minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 degrees Celsius). But this year, the Arctic is experiencing a highly unusual heat wave. On Feb. 20, the temperature in...

Dec 31, 2017

Frozen Family Fun: Try These Cold-Weather Science Experiments

Record-cold temperatures sweeping across parts of the Midwest, East Coast and Southeast likely have many shuttered indoors with the heat cranked up. Lengthy stints inside can be a recipe for cabin fever. For those looking to keep their kiddos occupied and have chill family time, there's a way to use...

Dec 31, 2017

The Hole in Earth's Ozone Layer Is Healing

Efforts to heal the hole in Earth's ozone layer over Antarctica appear to be paying off, according to a new, first-of-its-kind study that looked directly at ozone-destroying chemicals in the atmosphere. Earth's ozone layer protects the planet's surface from some of the sun's more harmful rays that can cause cancer...