News Articles
Earth
Oct 1, 2019
At any given time, there is a fire burning somewhere on Earth. As the climate warms, it has directly affected the way fires occur, with longer fire seasons and more extreme fires that are harder to suppress. With a fleet of satellites orbiting Earth, NASA has a unique perspective to keep an eye on... Read More
Earth
Sep 13, 2019
In the Davis Mountains of far west Texas, at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, astronomers spend their nights peering at the stars through some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Soon they’ll be adding a more down-to-Earth job. Within sight of the giant domes, NASA is installing a... Read More
Earth
Jul 2, 2019
NASA’s Earth Science Research and Analysis (R&A) pro- gram’s Earth Surface and Interior (ESI) focus area sup- ports research and analysis of solid-Earth processes from crust to the core. This includes research on how the solid Earth interacts with the storage, movement, and trans- port of... Read More
Earth
Jun 25, 2019
Unlike some of its perpetually active neighbors on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands rarely erupts. The small, oval-shaped island most recently exploded in 1924 and in 1778.
The dormant period ended around 4:00 a.m. local time on June 22, 2019, when... Read More
Earth
Jun 21, 2019
On May 29, 2006, hot mud and gas began gushing from a rice field near a gas exploration well in East Java. More than a decade later, the Lusi mud flow continues on the Indonesian island. (The name is a combination of lumpur, the Indonesian word for mud, and Sidoarjo, the location of the flow). Over... Read More
Earth, ISS
Apr 30, 2019
The International Space Station (ISS) is sporting a new ‘light fixture.’ The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) will beam down laser light on Earth from the orbiting laboratory to reveal more about our environment and how it is changing.
Earth
Apr 19, 2019
Our magnificent planet is always ready for its close-up. On Earth Day, April 22, NASA wants to see your take. NASA invites you to celebrate the planet we call home with our #PictureEarth social media event. Post a close-up photo on social media of your favorite natural features, such as crashing... Read More
Earth
Feb 25, 2019
The Shiveluch volcano is erupting once again. It is one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Kamchatka Krai, a territory in northeast Russia. At least 60 large eruptions have occurred at Shiveluch in the past 10,000 years. The Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 acquired an image of the... Read More
Earth
Feb 11, 2019
It is increasingly rare to find new large impact craters on Earth, let alone such craters buried beneath ice. This study by MacGregor et al. describes a possible impact crater buried beneath two kilometers of ice in northwest Greenland. The circular structure is more than 36 kilometers wide, and... Read More
Earth
Dec 22, 2018
Dispersed across the Sahara Desert in northern Niger, the Aïr Mountains rise sharply from the low-lying sea of sand to provide unique scenery, aesthetically and geologically. The mountain range hosts volcanic peaks, is traversed by deep valleys, and makes up one of the world’s largest ring dike... Read More
Earth
Dec 6, 2018
GEDI will provide the first high-resolution observations of forest vertical structure at a global scale.
Earth
Nov 14, 2018
The Hiawatha impact crater was first suspected to exist in the summer of 2015, from examination of a compilation of Greenland's sub-ice topography radar measurements made by NASA over two decades. The visualizations of the subsurface shown below are derived from a spring 2016 airborne survey by... Read More
Earth, ISS
Oct 5, 2018
Did you ever notice how the air can seem cooler when you enter a forest? Humans aren’t the only living things that sweat to cool off. When trees and plants “sweat,” they cool themselves andcan cool the surrounding air.Through a process called transpiration,water and nutrients are taken up by plant... Read More
Earth, Ice
Sep 7, 2018
One of the key elements of Earth’s climate system is the cryosphere – the many forms of ice found on Earth. Two new NASA missions use different technologies to help scientists better understand how frozen water is affecting our planet. Both will continue satellite data records that have greatly... Read More
Earth
Aug 28, 2018
Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate, announced he will retire from the agency in February 2019.
