The powerful infrared space telescope is powering down after 16 years. It has revolutionized our understanding of solar systems, including hidden surprises in our own.
cool tools
Posted inFeatures
Firing Up Climate Models
Scientists are working to incorporate wildfire data into climate models, resolving hindrances related to scale, speed, and the complex feedbacks between the climate and wildfire emissions.
Posted inFeatures
Seismic Sensors in Orbit
Navigation satellites are enabling high-precision, real-time tracking of ground displacements, supplementing traditional methods for monitoring and assessing earthquakes.
Posted inFeatures
Scientists Scramble to Collect Data After Ridgecrest Earthquakes
Ground shaking in Southern California, including a magnitude 7.1 temblor, triggered a massive mobilization effort to collect seismological, geological, and geodetic data.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Curiosity Rover Reveals Oxygen Mystery in Martian Atmosphere
An air-sampling study has captured long-term trends in the concentrations of five key atmospheric gases for the first time.
Posted inOpinions
Eight Lessons I Learned Leading a Scientific “Design Sprint”
Applying the fast-paced technique, pioneered by Google to spur rapid innovation, to space science yielded unexpected benefits and may be a model for collaborations across many scientific disciplines.
Posted inNews
A New Dimension to Plate Tectonics
New tools to model and visualize subduction zones in 3-D are providing researchers with insights into the gaps inherent in the theory of plate tectonics.
Posted inNews
California Launches Nation’s First Earthquake Early Warning System
The country’s first publicly available, statewide warning system could give California residents crucial seconds to duck and cover before a quake.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Looking Away from the Sun: Improved Tracking of Solar Storms
A new tool for tracking coronal mass ejections away from the Sun opens a path toward more accurate warnings for operators who have to cope with adverse space weather.
Posted inGeoFIZZ
Was Ahab Truly “Lord of the Level Loadstone”?
Herman Melville’s bicentennial provides a good excuse to examine how well the Pequod’s monomaniacal mariner knew his geomagnetic magic.