Tag archive: Earth

If you've ever dreamed about what it would be like to travel through space, here is your chance: Today NASA released some of the most stunning high-definition images of nighttime earth ever captured, along with video from the International Space Station traveling over North America and witnessing the Aurora Borealis. The videos look as if James Cameron and Terrance Malick somehow melded minds, but like religion and politics, it’s better… Read More

Scientists have never had a good handle on exactly how many species of plants, animals, and fungi there are on Earth. Estimates have ranged from 3 to 100 million species. However, a new study, published in PLoS Biology, has yielded a much more accurate (we hope) idea of how many different types of living organisms are on our planet. Scientists now believe that about 8.7 million species live on Earth, an estimate that's accurate, give or… Read More

In these boiling days of July, it's easy to blame the sun for our high electric bills, but scientists have discovered that 44 terawatts, or 44 trillion watts, of heat continually flow from inside the Earth's core and mantle into space. Using 20,000 boreholes across the globe, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and KamLAND are figuring out exactly what causes our planet to produce so much heat. While we know… Read More

Massive fires in central Africa have emitted an enormous amount of pollution, which was recently measured by NASA's Aura satellite. The resulting image, above, shows a dark-red “butterfly” of high-density air pollution hovering over the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north and Angola to the south. The pollution is caused by massive annual agricultural burns. The fires are used to clear the remains… Read More

NASA has released a new image of the sun from March 29, 2011. The portion of the sun that's covered is actually the Earth. This photo was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft that orbits the Earth at a distance of 22,000 miles. 72 minutes a day the SDO witnesses the sun being eclipsed by the Earth like this. In February, two NASA probes also gave us our first simultaneous shot of the entire surface of the sun, all… Read More

Yesterday, NASA confirmed a very vital piece of information to all mankind: we now know that the sun is, without a doubt, a sphere. For the first time, the space agency is able to see both the front and back of the sun. Luckily, there were no surprises. NASA now has an uninterrupted feed of both sides of the sun, allowing it to monitor and gather invaluable information about its health and inner workings. To obtain the 360 degree view, NASA… Read More

Will Wright would be proud. The BBC reports that an international group of scientists are working on a simulator with the goal of replicating everything that happens on Earth. It will track everything from weather patterns to disease spreading to traffic congestion to financial transactions all over the globe. The Living Earth Simulator (LES), as it is nicknamed, is being created to advance scientific understanding about everything that is… Read More

It is, they claim, the most complete topographic map of Earth ever made. With detailed measurements taken by NASA’s Terra spacecraft, the new map just published by NASA and the Japanese government covers 99% of the Earth’s surface – although the poles have been left off.  The map was created by processing or correlating 1.3 million stereo-pair images snapped that had been taken by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne… Read More

In the run up to the Mobile World Congress 2009, Samsung has officially announced Blue Earth, a new all-touchscreen smartphone powered by sunlight. The front of the phone is one giant touchscreen interface, while the back boasts a solar panel which the company claims can generate enough electricity to keep the phone charged and ready to go. And Samsung's environmentally-conscious efforts don't stop there: the phone is made from… Read More

The glory that was Rome lives again in 3D splendor in Google Earth. The popular service has reconstructed the most famous city of the ancient world, giving visitors a chance to zoom around 6,700 buildings and more than 250 place marks. The 200 buildings already well known to scholars have been rendered as faithfully as possibly. Google teamed with Virginia University and Past Perfect Productions on the venture, and the 3D models are… Read More

Yesterday 501 images and text messages were beamed out from a radio telescope in the Ukraine to a planet 20 light years away. The material, collectively called A Message From Earth, had been put together from a competition by social networking site Bebo covering what people would like aliens to receive. Among the articles are pieces on a first kiss and world peace, the BBC reports. Now in binary format, they’re currently traversing… Read More

What is Google’s stance on privacy? That’s the question being asked, at least by Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) after The Smoking Gun website reveal court papers filed by the search giant in a privacy suit over its Street Views mapping tool. In its filing Google asserts that “complete privacy doesn’t exist.” But, says NLPC’s Boehm, Google had responded to a politician by saying… Read More

If Google Earth’s cumbersome 3D navigation system made you feel more like you were designing L-brackets in AutoCAD than soaring over the mountaintops as a bird, the latest revision of the software may just fix that problem. Google released version 4.3 of Google Earth on Wednesday, with a host of updates including improved navigation, more buildings, and Street View. To fix the somewhat clunky way of interacting with 3D… Read More

Following in footsteps laid down by Google with Google Earth and Google SketchUp, Microsoft announced on Thursday that users of its Virtual Earth application now have the ability to add custom 3D objects to the landscape. The new Microsoft Earth -3DVIA is the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and Dassault Systems, a company that’s specializes in 3D designs and life-cycle management. The application allows users to… Read More

In a new venture, Google is using its Google Earth to help nonprofits. Called Google Earth Outreach, it will use Google Earth layers to allow the nonprofits to tell their stories. The program will provide the resources andsoftware the nonprofits need to implement the technology.   While most of us know Google Earth as something free, there’s also a Pro version (which costs $400) that has tools for buildingmaps and layers.  … Read More