The Watchers team and our contributors bring the latest on extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, space weather, and all things science. We're all about making sense of the natural world and keeping you informed on what’s happening. Got a tip or a question? Hit us up using the form at newstips!

  • MESSENGER mission ends with planned impact on Mercury’s surface

    NASA's Mercury exploration mission "MESSENGER" ended on Thursday, April 30, 2015 with a planned impact into Mercury's surface at 19:26 UTC. MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft impacted "Shakespeare&

  • Tracking the SO2 emission from Calbuco eruption

    Ash and pumice particles were lofted high into the atmosphere after an explosive eruption of Chile's Calbuco volcano on April 22, 2015 and the debris has been darkening skies and burying parts of Chile, Argentina, and South America for nearly a week. Along with 210

  • 3D Earth observations from space

    Results from a recent field campaign, which was organised to help investigate the potential of a new Earth observation mission concept, have provided a unique 3D glimpse of the peaks and troughs under the Mittelbergferner glacier in the Austrian Alps, ESA reports today.

  • Monster northern Texas supercells, gorilla hail, and tornadoes

    New video from North Texas tornadic supercells on April 26, 2015, including the stovepipe tornado near Rio Vista, TX by TVNweather!Storm chasers were all over these storms providing life-saving reports until the tornado threat passed after midnight. At least 4 tornadoes

  • Northwestern scientists develop first liquid nanolaser

    Scientists from the Northwestern University have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser. And it’s tunable in real time, meaning you can quickly and simply produce different colors, a unique and useful feature. The technology could lead to practical application

  • Stanford historian uncovers the dark roots of humanitarianism

    Through a study of the history of the French colonial Congo-Océan Railway, Stanford historian JP Daughton has discovered how modern humanitarianism arose from the brutality of European colonialism.Modern humanitarian endeavors are generally perceived of as works

  • A satellite revolution in oceanography

    Plymouth is one of England’s historic port cities, a place from which sailors, soldiers and scientists have set off to sea for centuries. Today there’s a new twist to the tale though, as oceanographers now have a huge fleet of satellites in space to add to t

  • Huge magma chamber discovered deep beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano

    A team of University of Utah seismologists discovered and made images of a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock about 19 to 45 km (12 to 28 miles) beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano, and it is 4.4 times larger than the shallower, long-known magma chamber.The hot rock

  • Super Typhoons 2013 – 2015

    This video shows top four Super Typhoons in the Southwest Pacific region from 2013 – 2015.GPM/GMI precipitation rates are displayed as the camera moves in on the storm. A slicing place move across the volume to display precipitation rates throughout the structure of the