After a month and a half trapped in its mothership, NASA’s NanoSail-D spacecraft has finally unfurled the first solar sail to circle the Earth. Solar sails, gossamer-thin sheets that feel the pressure of the solar wind, have been suggested as a best hope for propelling spacecraft between the stars. They’re the only known method of space travel that doesn’t require carrying heavy fuel on the... 

A thick haze of organic material let the early Earth soak up the sun’s warmth without absorbing harmful ultraviolet rays, according to a new study. The model offers a new twist on an old puzzle: Although the sun was so dim billions of years ago that the Earth should have been a ball of ice, the young planet had liquid oceans capable of supporting life. “Given these recent papers, we can probably... 

You will probably find this weird, but most people have never seen a real cave in their whole lives; still, those who do remain permanently fascinated by this amazing display of natural force. Caves are definitely a wonder of nature themselves, but every once in a while you hear about one that’s so amazing you wouldn’t even believe it’s real. So is the case with the following caves, which I... 

Nearly 15 years after the first managerial team of Biosphere 2 was ordered out by federal marshals, scientists yearn for a way to fulfill the true promise of Earth-in-a-bubble experiments. “We need to do this again, and better,” said Daniel Botkin a University of California, Santa Barbara naturalist who sat on Biosphere 2′s original advisory committee. “We don’t understand... 

For the first time, scientists were able to track an asteroid from space to the ground and recover pieces of it. The bits are unlike anything ever found on Earth. The asteroid was spotted entering Earth’s atmosphere over Sudan in October and was believed to have fully disintegrated, but an international team found almost 280 pieces of meteorite in a 11-square-mile section of Sudan’s Nubian... 

Sam Hughes  presents a host of methods for ending the planet — and life — as we know it. Enjoy! 10. Total existence failure (Current feasibility rating: 0/10) You will need: nothing Method: No method. Simply sit back and twiddle your thumbs as, completely by chance, all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms making up the planet Earth suddenly, simultaneously... 

Bringing together imagery from many different satellites and astronaut missions, NASA’s Earth Observatory publishes fantastic images with highly detailed descriptionss, feature articles and more. Gathered here are some standout photographs from the collections in the Earth Observatory over the past years. The East African volcano Nyiragongo accounts for 20 percent of all recorded eruptions... 

Traffic Accident – Baghdad 33°19’37.28″N, 44°17’4.78″E Traffic Accident – Baghdad 33*20`18.93″N, 44*22`40.93″E Capsized Cruise Ship – Korea 35°9’20.89″N, 129°8’49.49″E Crane Collapse – Holland 52°1’44.67″N, 4°17’20.73″E Some of the sights you find in Google Earth are just plain mysterious....