On September 5, 2020, California's Creek Fire grew so severe that it began producing its own weather system. The fire's extreme heat produced an explosive thunderhead that spewed lightning strikes and further fanned the roaring ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 30, 2025
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12
Strong Northern Lights-like activity is the standout feature of today's weather report, which is coming at you from a strange, extrasolar world, instead of a standard TV studio. That is thanks to astronomers from Trinity ...
Astronomy
Sep 26, 2025
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121
The seatbelt sign pings on, trays rattle, drinks slosh in their glasses. For many fliers, air turbulence can be an unnerving experience—and in a world warming under the effects of climate change, it is only set to worsen, ...
Environment
Aug 22, 2025
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0
Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led by scientists ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 14, 2025
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27
Between 50 and 100 kilometers (30–60 miles) above the Earth's surface lies a largely unstudied stretch of the atmosphere, called the mesosphere. It's too high for airplanes and weather balloons, too low for satellites, ...
Space Exploration
Aug 13, 2025
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33
On July 3, 2025, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a stunning photo of an event originally thought to be a sprite.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 12, 2025
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24
The rapid rise in global rocket launches could slow the recovery of the vital ozone layer, says Sandro Vattioni. The problem is being underestimated—yet it could be mitigated by forward-looking, coordinated action.
Space Exploration
Jul 19, 2025
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273
A resonance effect can significantly affect how a three-atom molecule cools down when excited, RIKEN physicists have found. The study, published in Physical Review A, highlights the complexity of the relaxation dynamics of ...
General Physics
Jul 17, 2025
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2
If we're to land humans on Mars in the coming decades, we'll have to know what challenges await them when they get there.
Space Exploration
Jul 9, 2025
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0
An intense and nearly historic weather pattern is cooking much of America under a dangerous heat dome this week with triple-digit temperatures in places that haven't been so hot in more than a decade.
Environment
Jun 24, 2025
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The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by the Earth's gravity. It has a mass of about five quadrillion metric tons. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1%. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night.
There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. It slowly becomes thinner and fades into space. An altitude of 120 km (75 mi) marks the boundary where atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry. The Kármán line, at 100 km (62 mi), is also frequently regarded as the boundary between atmosphere and outer space. Three quarters of the atmosphere's mass is within 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft) of the surface.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
