Preparations are underway to launch into space the most advanced laser instrument of its kind next month. It will begin a mission to measure – in unprecedented detail – changes in the heights of Earth’s polar ice. Learn more about NASA ICE’s #ICESat2: https://go.nasa.gov/2wfA7T2
A controversial new study in lab mice hints at sex-based differences in cosmic ray–induced cognitive decline.
In a quest to cut the cost of clean electricity, power utilities around the world are supersizing their solar farms.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in southern Egypt, where what will be the world’s largest solar farm — a vast collection of more than 5 million photovoltaic panels — is now taking shape. When it’s completed next year, the $4 billion Benban solar park near Aswan will cover an area 10 times bigger than New York’s Central Park and generate up to 1.8 gigawatts of electricity.
Continue reading “Supersized solar farms are sprouting around the world (and maybe in space, too)” »
In late July, Bruce Jakosky and Christopher Edwards published a paper titled “Inventory of CO2 available for terraforming Mars,” which was sponsored by NASA. The paper analyzed the amount of volatiles, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), on or in Mars currently, and concluded reasonably that there are not enough volatiles available on Mars to terraform it sufficiently for a person to not need a pressure suit. Jakosky is the principal investigator for MAVEN, the NASA Mars orbiter studying the planet’s atmosphere. He and his co-author wrote what is technically an accurate paper, in spite of what was an existing mild controversy over the amount of some volatiles in the soil and regolith of Mars.
