Earth has earthquakes, Venus has venusquakes. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, working with NASA, are helping create a Venusian seismometer that can operate long enough in that planet’s extremes to provide insight into its seismicity. It’s a major challenge. Venus has surface temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt […]
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted a regulatory waiver to the University of Alaska Fairbanks unmanned aircraft systems test site. The agency’s decision supports aircraft manufacturers and operators in proving the safety of their drones so they can be certified for flight in the national airspace system. The Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, […]
Rod Boyce of Two Rivers, Alaska, reports that he has noticed — at a time when the outside air’s temperature has not been above freezing since October — three butterflies living in his heated garage. Though we in middle Alaska will be thinking a lot about insects in a few months, mosquitoes and their kin […]
Earthquakes in the Nenana Basin region of Interior Alaska last longer and feel much stronger than a quake of comparable magnitude would in a non-basin region, due to the behavior of the seismic waves once they reach the area. That’s because the seismic waves get amplified as they bounce back and forth off the sides […]