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!
Today, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) celebrates its fifth anniversary in space. LRO launched from Florida on June 18, 2009 and after a four-day journey, it successfully entered lunar orbit on June 23. In the succeeding five years, LRO has continued to shap
Chairman of clean energy provider "SolarCity", Elon Musk, announced yesterday the company has signed an agreement to acquire Silevo, a solar panel technology and manufacturing company. The news comes just a couple of days after his Tesla Motors
CSIRO has used solar energy to generate hot and pressurised ‘supercritical’ steam, at the highest temperatures ever achieved in the world outside of fossil fuel sources.Supercritical steam is a breakthrough for solar energy and means that one day the sun cou
Research provides measurements for scientists searching for water in solar systemWater is thought to be embedded in the moon’s rocks or, if cold enough, “stuck” on their surfaces. It’s predominantly found at the poles. But scientists probably
The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is a solar observatory located on the north side of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains of southwestern San Bernardino County, California (USA), approximately 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of downtown Los Angeles.The tele
In a bid to accelerate the development of electric vehicle technology car manufacturer Tesla Motors has released all their patents to the public domain, its CEO Elon Musk announced on Thursday, June 12, 2014.Musk made the announcement on the Tesla Motors blog
If the icy surface of Pluto's giant moon Charon is cracked, analysis of the fractures could reveal if its interior was warm, perhaps warm enough to have maintained a subterranean ocean of liquid water, according to a new NASA-funded study.Pluto is an extremely dista
Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico report evidence for potentially oceans worth of water deep beneath the United States. Though not in the familiar liquid form — the ingredients for water are bound up in rock deep in the Earth&rsq
In today’s digitally driven world, access to information appears limitless. But when you have something specific in mind that you don’t know, like the name of that niche kitchen tool you saw at a friend’s house, it can be surprisingly hard to sift
Millions upon millions of fish and sea creatures are dying around the world, but it's all very mysterious, as there does not appear to be much explanation for it, logical or otherwise.When more than six tons of fish died recently in Marina del Ray, it made headlines
