The volcano hurling ash 12 miles high

It may not have done anything for 9000 years, but now Chile’s Chaitén volcano has decided to start erupting it’s doing it big-time. Blowing ash 12 miles up into the sky, it has caused stunning ‘dirty storms’ where the huge dust clouds have turned into ferocious lightning storms. The photos are pretty breathtaking – although [...]

Saturn’s lightning 10,000 times more powerful than Earth’s

I love being in the middle of a thunderstorm – being in the center of the light, noise and heavy rain is a really exhilarating experience. But new research from NASA’s Cassini probe makes me think that maybe Saturn would be an even better place to experience a massive storm.
Why? Saturn’s storms not only have [...]

Where is the brightest place on Earth?

Where’s the brightest place on Earth – the place that is illuminated most when the Sun has gone down? New York’s Times Square perhaps… what about the glow of office lights around London’s business district… or maybe the bustling heart of Mumbai, the world’s most populated city. They’re all pretty bright, but of course nothing [...]

How to change the world this Earth Day – be optimistic!

Happy Earth Day everybody! If you want to be green but don’t have the time, or don’t know how to, today’s the day to start saving our planet. We’re always hearing about how our planet is in danger of being destroyed by humans – the picture many scientists paint for our amazing planet’s future is [...]

NASA’s new image of the stars that shouldn’t exist

Beautiful, isn’t it? But I think it also looks a bit weird compared to most galaxies. Lots of scientists think it’s strange too, although not just because of what it looks like.
Until now it was thought that the majority of stars always form in the centers of galaxies, because that’s where most of the star-forming [...]