Topic: Pamela Gay
Modern Melt

Modern Melt

Our Earth is currently working its way toward being the exact opposite of a snowball Earth as we see glaciers and ice caps receding across the planet. This is fundamentally changing our landscape and how we as humans interact with that landscape.  These changes are most evident in the northern, Arctic landscapes of Alaska, Scandinavia, and Siberia where indigenous people’s have lived in close contact with the land, and rely on permafrost for refrigeration and frozen waterways for transit.  As permafrost melts weird stuff is happening. From amazing frozen animals being revealed, to...

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Stars are Messy Cannibals

Stars are Messy Cannibals

This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team....

The Dying Sun will Take Out the Earth

The Dying Sun will Take Out the Earth

Clumps of debris from a disrupted planetesimal are irregularly spaced on a long and eccentric orbit around the white dwarf. Individual clouds of rubble intermittently pass in front of the white dwarf, blocking some of its light. Because of the various sizes of the...

Watching Atoms Escape Venus

Watching Atoms Escape Venus

This image was processed from archived Mariner 10 data by JPL engineer Kevin M. Gill. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Atmospheres are what make a planet good or evil for life. One of the questions I get asked most often is, “Can we terraform Venus to be like Earth?” Sure!...

Catch the (Alien) Rainbow

Catch the (Alien) Rainbow

Each glory is unique, depending on the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and the colors of the light from the star that illuminates it. WASP-76 (the «Sun» of WASP-76b) is a yellow and white main sequence star like our Sun, but different stars create glories with...

Dear Future Self: Let’s Talk Climate Change

Dear Future Self: Let’s Talk Climate Change

Credit: NOAA Recent research published in Science Advances and led by Madalina Vlascenu finds that when it comes to climate change, we can’t scare people straight. Stories of gloom and doom focused on the fate of our world don’t inspire people to change their ways and...