Ernie Hilsenrath spent more than 40 years working for NASA, and though he officially retired a few years ago, he is still a great advocate for his employer and for science. The longtime atmospheric chemist is both amazed and troubled by how few people know that NASA works in Earth science. He is equally troubled […]
The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office can confirm a bright fireball observed by several eyewitnesses in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee on Mar. 7, 2012 at 10:19:11 p.m. EST. The fireball was observed by three NASA cameras located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Tullahoma Tenn., and Cartersville, Ga. The meteor was first recorded at …
The next full Moon is on Thursday, March 8, 2012. The Moon will be 180 degrees away from the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 4:40 am EST, and will appear full for about three days around this time, from Tuesday evening through Friday morning.The full Moon in March is known by many names: the Worm …
Our colleague and NASA video producer, Jefferson Beck, offered his own take on the gaping crack in the Pine Island Glacier. He had the privilege of flying over that rift last fall, so he included some film footage from the flights. Jefferson has been to both Antarctica and Greenland with the IceBridge mission, and his crew has […]
For those of you who played geographical detective with the MISR image quiz, here are this month’s clues and answers: 1) Within this country lies a picturesque desert, located at the bottom right of the image. This desert was home to a group of enigmatic ancient people who were known for their skill and resourcefulness. […]
By Lora Koenig I am feeling a little sad as I write this post. I always do when writing the last post of a research season. Being able to share my science is one of my favorite parts of my job. I assume some of you looked at our blog’s photos and thought “they’re crazy,” […]
There was a bright fireball visible over north Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and South Carolina at 7:02:36 PM EST last night. All 4 NASA meteor cameras in the SouthEast picked it up 48 miles above the town of Rossville, just south of Chattanooga, moving at 9 miles per second (32,400 mph) slightly north of east. The …
By Randy Skinner The wind began to blow at approximately 1:00AM on December 20. In Antarctica the wind blows most of the time, as there is nothing to slow it down and air is continually shifting from location to location due to density. But this was different: The force of the wind was strong enough […]
Much of the ice that blankets Antarctica is tied up in glaciers that slide slowly toward the sea. Fed by these glaciers, ice shelves form along the Antarctic coast, floating as thick, frozen plates on the sea surface. Every so often, these ice shelves calve large icebergs. In March 2000, a colossal iceberg calved off […]
By Ludovic Brucker The only wildlife we saw during our three-week traverse was three snow petrels and one Antarctic petrel. I still haven’t decided if they were sort of a Christmas gift, or the announcement of a storm! The birds visited us when we were at camp 5,430 km (265 mi) inland. I was surprised […]
