An estimated 3 million shipwrecks are scattered across the planet’s oceans. Most maritime mishaps take place close to shore where hazards to navigation — such as rocks, reefs, other submerged objects and vessel congestion — are abundant. While there is a romantic association of shipwrecks and buried treasure, it is desirable to know where they […]
Using archival data from the Japan-led Suzaku X-ray satellite, astronomers have determined the pre-explosion mass of a white dwarf star that blew up thousands of years ago. The measurement strongly suggests the explosion involved only a single white dwarf, ruling out a well-established alternative scenario involving a pair of merging white dwarfs. “Mounting evidence indicates […]
The ‘‘Pineapple Express’’ happens when warm air and lots of moisture are transported from the Central Pacific, near Hawaii, to the Eastern Pacific Ocean. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA’s GOES-West satellite showed the stream of clouds associated with that moisture from Dec. 9 to Dec. 12, 2014 and brought rain and snow to […]
The Pacific Northwest has been inundated with wildfires most stemming from lightning strikes during summer storms. Four of these wildfires can be seen in this natural-color Aqua satellite image collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument aboard. This image was taken on August 11, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, […]