The European Space Agency announced on Dec. 2 that it will stop trying to contact the stranded Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which has been stuck in the wrong orbit for almost a month now. So it looks like it will fall to Earth. Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe launched
A massive sinkhole appears overnight at Beckham County near Sayre, Oklahoma. KFOR reports that the sinkhole is about 40 feet deep and 40 feet wide. Sinkholes are not so uncommon in western Oklahoma. Geologists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey say several things could
A group of scientists discovered threat to climate change posed by thawing permafrost, which could release stocks of stored carbon, is greater than estimated. The study, published in the British journal Nature, coincides with a 12-day UN conference on climate change,
Last week, ESA’s ground station in Perth, Australia added a feedhorn antenna to existing one and succeeded in communicating with Phobos-Grunt on two successive days. But all attempts to renew the contact failed since then. Yesterday station in Perth gave another try
The Geophysical Institute of Ecuador (IGEPN) reported that eruption of Tungurahua volcano created large clouds of gas and ash above the summit and it’s directed towards the southeast and the west, near city of Banos. Ash cloud up to 4 kilometers in the sky and
Through August, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) estimated that ten weather disasters costing at least $1 billion had hit the U.S., at total cost of up to $45 billion. However, the October 29 snow storm brings us up to eleven billion-dollar disasters. Flood
Declining sea ice in the Arctic has led to increasing erosion rates along the coast of the Beaufort Sea over the past fifty years, according to a new study led by Irina Overeem of the University of Colorado Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). Their
A line of sunspots stretching across the sun’s northern hemisphere appears to be an independent sequence of dark cores. A telescope tuned to the red glow of solar hydrogen, however, reveals something different. The sunspots are connected by sinuous filaments of
The Colombian volcano monitoring institute INGEOMINAS has raised the alarm level for Galeras volcano, after a number of a characteristic seismic signal often preceding eruptions at Galeras. One phenomenon, which seems to be a reliable precursor to eruptive activity,
Part of Myanmar’s breadbasket in the country’s centre is fast deteriorating and the area may face greater food insecurity without immediate action, local NGOs warn. Myanmar ranks #4 in the world for annual forest area lost per year. Between 2000 and 2005, the country
