Fact Book

Columbia STS-107: The Damage Nobody Could See For sixteen days, seven astronauts lived and worked aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The danger ...

Earthquake Early Warning: How an Alert Can Arrive Before Strong Shaking An earthquake early-warning message may reach a person just before t...

Why the Northern and Southern Lights Glow, Shift, and Change Color A ribbon of light crosses the night sky, brightens, twists and then fades...

The Thermocline: The Invisible Temperature Boundary Hidden in the Ocean The ocean can look like one connected body of water from a boat, but...

Life Without Sunlight: The Secret World of Black Smokers What happens when the ocean has no sunrise? At the bottom of the sea, black smoker...

The Ocean's Sound Highway: How a Whale Call Can Travel Vast Distances Underwater sound behaves differently from sound moving through air...

How a Solar Storm Can Make GPS Less Accurate Without Damaging Your Phone Your phone may be sitting perfectly still while its GPS position se...

Sinkholes Explained: What Happens Underground Before the Surface Collapses A street can look ordinary until a section of ground suddenly giv...

San Francisco 1906: The Earthquake Was Only the Beginning How can a devastating earthquake last less than a minute, yet leave a city burn...

Volcanic Ash and Aircraft: Why a Cloud of Rock Can Threaten Jet Engines At cruising altitude, an airborne ash cloud may look deceptively sim...