• Spectacular eruption of Mt.Etna – twelfth time this year

    The Mount Etna volcano in Sicily, Italy, erupted for the twelfth time this year on Monday.Throughout 2011, activity at Sicily’s Mount Etna has been characterised by paroxysms: short, violent bursts of activity. Each event has included volcanic tremors, ash

  • Red sprites high above Earth

    High above Earth in the realm of meteors and noctilucent clouds, a strange and beautiful form of lightning dances at the edge of space. Researchers call the bolts "sprites"; they are red, fleeting, and tend to come in bunches. Martin Popek of Nýdek in t

  • Hurricane Irene makes landfall

    Irene is a category 1 Hurricane with sustained winds of 85 m.p.h. Its effects so far have included 4 deaths in North Carolina, hundreds of trees uprooted, power outages, and structural damage. Structural damage, though minor so far in most places, has also been of a

  • Report: Exxon fights US over major oil discovery

    Exxon Mobil Corp. and the federal government are fighting over one of the largest oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico that could yield billions of dollars of crude in coming years, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.The Julia oil field, about 250

  • Space junk cleanup poses grand challenge for 21st century

    Scientist warn about threat to spacecraft and the enviroment that posses space debris orbiting the Earth. According to J.-C. Liou of the Orbital Debris Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the space junk trend no longer can be reversed by full compliance with

  • Antiproton ring found around Earth

    Antiprotons appear to ring the Earth, confined by the planet's magnetic field lines. The antimatter, which may persist for minutes or hours before annihilating with normal matter, could in theory be used to fuel ultra-efficient rockets of the future.Charged particle

  • Behemoth sunspot 1263 has almost doubled in size

    Behemoth sunspot 1263 has almost doubled in size this weekend. A 28-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the spot developing a tail that has added some 50,000 km of length to the active region.This development may increase the likelihood of a stro