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!
Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms caused severe flooding in the Mecca (Makkah) region, Saudi Arabia on Thursday, October 10, 2024. Warnings were issued for 8 regions including Madinah, Makkah, and Jazan.
Astronomers have discovered that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS), the largest storm in the solar system, is undergoing a surprising oscillation in shape. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope collected over 90 days, researchers observed fluctuations in the storm’s size, shape, and speed.
Approximately 41 000 years ago, Earth’s magnetic field reversed during the Laschamp event. This caused the magnetic field to weaken to just 5% of its current strength, allowing more cosmic rays to reach the planet’s surface.
A bright fireball was reported by hundreds of people over Australia’s east coast on the morning of Thursday, October 10, 2024.
Moderate strombolian activity at Stromboli’s North Crater area on October 8, 2024, led to lava overflow, which gradually diminished by the morning of October 9 before intensifying again.
New research reveals that deep magma buoyancy, rather than the proportion of solid and molten rock, drives volcanic eruptions. The study, conducted by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Bristol, highlights the importance of searching for clues much deeper in the Earth’s crust, where rocks are first melted into magma before rising to chambers closer to the surface.
MIT researchers have recently reported the detection of 2-methoxyethanol, a previously unknown molecule, in space. The study utilized machine learning and ALMA observations to find this complex molecule in the star-forming region NGC 6334I. The discovery enhances the understanding of molecular complexity during star formation, providing new insights into the chemical processes that occur in space.
Extremely heavy rains have struck Western Australia over the past couple of days, causing significant flooding that has severed the main route connecting Western Australia with the rest of the country. The flooding has also left seven people missing since Sunday, March 10, 2024.
St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, Canada, received 53 cm (20.9 inches) of snow on March 8, 2024, breaking the previous daily March snowfall record of 50 cm (19.7 inches) registered on March 4, 2005. This marks the second storm to bury parts of the region in less than a month.
Over four decades after its launch, Voyager 1’s journey takes a mysterious turn as it sends back incomprehensible signals from the edge of the solar system, sparking concern and curiosity among the team at NASA.
