A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has found that it is possible to levitate very thin discs in conditions that mimic the mesosphere using laser light. In their paper published in the journal Science ...
Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by lightning storms, and a valuable window into the composition ...
Space Exploration
Nov 21, 2011
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The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Earth Sciences
Jul 1, 2021
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Researchers in Canada, the United States and Europe have developed a new way to remotely measure Earth's magnetic field—by zapping a layer of sodium atoms floating 100 kilometres above the planet with lasers on the ground.
Earth Sciences
Oct 4, 2018
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After 16 years studying Earth's highest clouds for the benefit of humanity—polar mesospheric clouds—from its orbit some 350 miles above the ground, NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, mission has come to ...
Space Exploration
Mar 1, 2024
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NASA will test a new capability for supporting science research in the mesosphere with the launch of two rockets from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia on Feb. 9, 2023. The two Improved-Orion suborbital sounding rockets ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 3, 2023
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Ice-blue clouds are drifting high above the Arctic, which means the Northern Hemisphere's noctilucent cloud season is here.
Environment
May 29, 2020
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Cloud watchers have recently been given record-breaking glimpses of the rarest clouds in the skies. Stunning rippled blue clouds have been forming in the highest reaches of the atmosphere over Europe and the U.S.. These clouds ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 3, 2019
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NASA rockets launched during the Alaskan winter typically explore the interaction of solar winds with Earth's atmosphere and the resulting auroras that dance across the night sky. However this winter, between January 15 - ...
Space Exploration
Jan 9, 2018
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A team of NASA scientists and engineers now believes it can leverage recent advances in a greenhouse-detecting instrument to build the world's first space-based sodium lidar to study Earth's poorly understood mesosphere.
Space Exploration
May 16, 2017
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