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My pick for the most compelling — and scary — remote sensing image of 2018

This past year brought all too many disasters, including rampaging wildfires, destructive volcanic eruptions, swirling tropical cyclones, and a host of other events that brought misery to millions of people worldwide.

Many were visualized by satellites looking down on Earth, and as 2018 draws to a close, I thought I’d feature one that I found to be particularly compelling. It’s the image above showing California’s Camp Fire, created by blogger and remote sensing expert Pierre Markuse.  …

CITIZEN SCIENCE SALON

Five ways to integrate citizen science into your New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! We resolve to make it easier than ever for you to discover and engage in research that needs you. Here are simple ways to integrate citizen science into your own resolutions.

Cheers!
The SciStarter Team

Resolution 1: Bake
From the creators of the global Sourdough Project, wherein 500 people sent in sourdough starters from all over the world, we have New Year, New Bread.Share your sourdough successes with others and help scientists learn how breads baked from …

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This started as a story about really cool clouds on Earth, but then it led to this: Does it snow on Mars?

Mars is certainly cold. With temperatures that can plunge to more than negative 100 degrees Celsius, it’s bloody frigid!

But as cold as it might get, does it snow on Mars?

This wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when I photographed the scene above near Boulder, Colorado with my iPhone. But when I got home and started investigating the beautiful phenomenon I had documented, I eventually came around to that rather un-obvious question. How I came to it — as well as the answ …

ROCKY PLANET

Geoscience That Made Headlines in 2018

2018 was quite a year across the geosciences … which is hardly shocking considering we live on the most geologically active planet in the solar system. Some of the events were tragic, because when it comes to headlines, that is what gets the most attention. Others were warnings of things that could be headed our way and others were, thankfully, downright exciting and uplifting. Here’s my quick takes on some of the big geoscience events from the year that was:

Lower East Rift Zone Erupti …

CITIZEN SCIENCE SALON

Book Review: Citizen Science for Now and for Always

Mary Ellen Hannibal, Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction, New York, NY: The Experiment, 2016. 432 pp. $29.95 hardcover, $17.95 paperback.

Mary Ellen Hannibal’s Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction is a beautiful collection that explores a wide range of stories. From the intimate moments of an individual’s life to the larger narratives of communities, Citizen Scientist tells stories that weave together a gran …

THE CRUX

How We Found Jupiter’s 79 (At Least) Moons

Jupiter is king of the planets. It’s huge, it’s bright in our night skies, and even four of its comparatively tiny moons are bright enough to see with the most basic of telescopes. We’ve sent nine probes either into orbit or on a close flyby of the planet. And yet, as recently as this past year, we discovered not one, but twelve new moons around Jupiter, bringing the total to 79. How haven’t we exhausted this particular moon mine yet?
The Easy Targets First
The answer is that most of Jupit …

D-BRIEF

Figuring Out How Plants Grow in Space is Vital for Future Missions

Space Plants
Will future astronauts be able to snack on fresh space-grown produce? New research is advancing the study of plant growth in space, which may one day support humans living and growing their own food in space or on the surface of Mars.

Researchers at the University of Florida Space Plants Lab are analyzing tissue taken from plants that have spent their entire lives growing in the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station. It’s revealing that plants can in …

D-BRIEF

Faint Starlight in New Hubble Images Lets Astronomers ‘See’ Dark Matter

Two astronomers have devised a method that lets them “see” dark matter with the light from rogue stars. The pair has shown how images of faint starlight taken with the Hubble Space Telescope can be used to map dark matter’s distribution in galaxy clusters. The novel technique could ultimately help explore the nature of dark matter.

Dark matter remains one of the great mysteries of modern science. A theoretical form of matter, dark matter is thought to make up about 85 percent of a …

D-BRIEF

Two for One: How Our Brains Reward Us Twice for Every Meal

Food. It’s probably on your mind quite a bit this holiday season, whether you’re anticipating festive meals or dreading the pounds you might pack on during a bout of epicurean overindulgence.

Though tips on managing our cravings for all things sweet and fatty abound, it’s also worth remembering that the odds are stacked against us when it comes to resisting the call of another slice of pie.

Our brains respond to food, and even the sight or thought of it, with a heady rush of chemicals …

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Seen from space: the volcanic eruption that likely triggered Indonesia’s devastating tsunami

In Indonesia, they call it “Anak Krakatoa, meaning “child of Krakatoa.”

It’s a volcano that rose from the sea in the 1920s decades after one of the most deadly volcanic cataclysms in recorded history killed tens of thousands of people and all but obliterated the island of Krakatoa, between Java and Sumatra.

Now, Anak Krakatau has itself brought great misery to Indonesia, with an eruption that apparently triggered an underwater landslide, which in turn sent a tsunami racing towar …