• Bright fireball accompanied by sonic boom over central Mexico

    A bright fireball was observed and recorded over central Mexico at 06:47 UTC on May 21, 2016. The event was accompanied by a sonic boom as the meteor disintegrated in the atmosphere. Several witnesses from Mexico City, Puebla, and Tlaxcala said a green and white…

  • Strombolian eruption at Etna’s Voragine crater, Italy

    During the afternoon of May 18, 2016, the lava fountaining activity at Etna's Voragine crater passed into a modest Strombolian activity, which continued to feed the lava overflow toward west until the late evening, INGV Osservatorio Etneo reports today. A second…

  • Very bright fireball over Northeastern US, ground shaking reported

    A very bright fireball was observed over the Northeastern US at around 04:50 UTC on May 17, 2016. The event lasted between 3 and 8 seconds and was accompanied by fragmentation and sonic boom. The American Meteor Society received 144 reports by 09:30 UTC. The…

  • Record-breaking heat wave sparks fires across Israel

    A fierce heatwave accompanied by strong and dusty winds is spreading across Israel. According to media reports, more than 370 people were treated for heat-related conditions, including fainting, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke on May 14 and 15, 2016. Eilat in the…

  • Michael Armstrong: The ‘culture shock’ of planetary catastrophe

    In this presentation, Michael Armstrong will review the broad spectrum of human and cultural effects that followed from solar system instability and episodic catastrophe. These effects include earth’s environment and ecology, physical changes in human biology,…

  • 3-D structures of moving volcanic clouds to aid forecasts

    A research team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland has used the satellite measurements of sulfur dioxide, the main component of volcanic emissions, and maps of the location and vertical profiles of volcanic aerosols to improve the…

  • Flying through explosive magnetic phenomenon to understand space weather

    Analyzing data obtained by four identical spacecraft that passed directly through a magnetic reconnection site on the boundary between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere, researchers have observed how this explosive physical process converts stored…

  • Explaining the Mohave earthquake swarm, Arizona

    Prompted by a swarm of earthquakes constantly shaking the grounds of Mohave County, Arizona, since late March 2016, Dr. Lee Alison, the Arizona State Geologists, Director of the Arizona Geological Survey, filmed a brief video clip to educate the residents and inform…

  • The 2016 Mercury transit as seen by SDO

    In a rare astronomical event known as a planetary transit, Mercury passed between the Earth and the Sun on May 9, 2016. The transit occurred between roughly 11:12 and 18:42 UTC and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured it in multiple views. Each century hosts…