A crater at Northeast Syrtis, one of the shortlisted landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover. (Image: NASA/HiRISE/University of Arizona)
The Curiosity Mars rover is in the prime of its robotic life, approaching dramatic layered deposits on the slopes of Mt. Sharp. But even as the four and a half year-old mission reaches the features it was initially sent to investigate, scientists and engineers are feverishly planning for the next rover mission, Mars 2020.
2020 is shaping up to be a busy year on ...read more
An animation of satellite images taken about a year apart shows a huge difference in the amount of water flowing through waterways in California’s Sacramento River Delta. (Images: NASA Worldview. Animation: Tom Yulsman)
This animation of satellite images shows in dramatic fashion just how far California has come following one of its most devastating droughts on record.
To get the full effect, make sure to click on the animated GIF.
On Feb. 9, 2016, California was still in the grips of th ...read more
With La Niña’s demise, just a small patch of blue indicative of cooler than average sea surface temperatures remains in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, very warm water has formed off the coast of Peru. (Source: NOAA View)
The La Niña of 2016 is now officially gone. Following on from a monster El Niño, it turned out to be one of the shortest and weakest on record.
La Niña, which can influence weather across many parts of the ...read more
Join SciStarter, Science Cheerleader and our partners from Discover Magazine and Astronomy Magazine at the free Family Science Days in Boston on February 18th-19th as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting.
This free event features tons of interactive science exhibits. Come talk with scientists, learn about their jobs, and explore science! SciStarter will help you DO science with citizen science including counting birds for the Great Bac ...read more
Can you spot the hitchhiker? (Credit: M. Maruyama)
Sometimes even experienced entomologists need a double-take to fully grasp what they’re seeing. And upon closer examination, they found a new species hiding in plain sight.
A new kind of beetle discovered in the Costa Rican rainforest almost passed by unnoticed, because it hides so well on the army ants it uses for transportation. It was only after the researchers tried to puzzle out the mystery of the ants with two abdomens that th ...read more
Bulbasaurus phylloxyron (Courtesy of Matt Celeskey)
You may have seen the story: Last week scientists decided to name a recently discovered mammalian ancestor after the Pokémon, Bulbasaur. But in this case, fiction is stranger than truth.
Indeed, the new species goes by the name Bulbasaurus phylloxyron, but its association with pocket monsters is coincidental. In taxonomy, it’s common to name a new species after its prominent features, and Bulbasaurus (bulbous lizard ) phylloxyron ...read more
Figure 3. Words, phrases, and topics most highly distinguishing females and males. Female language features are shown on top while males below. Size of the word indicates the strength of the correlation; color indicates relative frequency of usage. Underscores (_) connect words of multiword phrases. Words and phrases are in the center; topics, represented as the 15 most prevalent words, surround.
File this under “reinforcing stereotypes“: these scientists use word clouds created fr ...read more
In January, average extent of Arctic sea ice was the lowest on record
A polar bear perches on a slab of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, as photographed by Marcos Porcires aboard the research vessel Lance during the Norwegian N-ICE2015 expedition. (Source: Marcos Porcires/Norwegian Polar Institute)
A journalist would never write a story saying, “No homes burned down today.” Novelty makes news, not humdrum, every day stuff.
So why another story here at ImaGeo saying that Arctic sea ...read more
GOES-16 also promises better weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, solar flare alerts, and a host of other benefits
This full-disk visible image of the Western Hemisphere was captured by NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite at 1:07 pm EST on Jan. 15, 2017 and created using several of the 16 spectral channels available on the satellite’s sophisticated Advanced Baseline Imager. The image, taken from 22,300 miles above the surface, shows North and South America an ...read more
Lava flows into the ocean near Kilauea. (Credit: USGS)
For over a month, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been spewing molten rock into the Pacific Ocean, creating what was until recently a glowing waterfall of lava.
The most active of the main island’s five volcanos, Kilauea has been erupting since 1983. While the outflows usually pose no risk to human settlements, they have occasionally washed over houses and consumed roadways on the island. The most recent event began on New Year&rs ...read more
