Tag: Earth

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Iain Boyd is a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. President Donald Trump announced a plan to build a missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, on May 20, 2025. The system is intended to protect the United States from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and missiles launched from space. Trump is calling for the current budget to allocate US$25 billion to launch the initiative,…

In mid-May, a giant wall of dust paraded across parts of the U.S. Midwest, and, thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) East satellite, we were able to follow along. In mid-May, a giant wall of dust paraded across parts of the U.S. Midwest, and, thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) East satellite, we were able to follow along. The GOES-19 spacecraft, which has been in space for less than a year after launching in…

Antarctica has gained ice in recent years, despite increasing average global temperatures and climate change, a new study finds. Using data from NASA satellites, researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai tracked changes in Antarctica’s ice sheet over more than two decades. The overall trend is one of substantial ice loss on the continent, but from 2021 to 2023, Antarctica gained some of that lost ice back. However, this isn’t a sign that global warming and climate change have miraculously reversed. Picture a long ski slope with a small jump at…

The most powerful explosions in the known universe come from what are known as gamma-ray bursts — though they may not sound particularly exciting, scientists usually speak about these incredible blasts of electromagnetic radiation in the same breath as giant collapsing stars and black holes. We’ve catalogued quite a few of these events since the 1960s, and even used them to help us understand more about galaxy superclusters, but one particular kind of gamma-ray burst has remained somewhat of a mystery. It’s called a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), and it…

Space weather and cyberattacks can cause similar disruption to our civilization’s indispensable technology systems. Telling one from the other swiftly and reliably can make billions of dollars’ worth of difference to economies that could grind to a halt when such disruptions occur. Shortly after noon on April 28, the whole of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula plunged into darkness. An unknown incident shut down power grids serving Spain, Portugal and parts of Southern France. In an instant, the working day was over for millions of people as anything not powered by a…