Aurorae from Bethalto, Illinois . Credit: Pamela L Gay A year ago this week, on May 10-13, 2024, the Sun triggered an amazing series of auroras that were visible to folks living in the mid-latitudes. Those amazing few nights - and another set of events in October 2024 - reminded all of us that our Sun is a wild and crazy star capable of turning the darkest nights into a technicolor dreamscape.  Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAO, indicates that the number of sunspots on our Sun’s surface may be on the decline, and as we start the slow slide down...

One of the most common questions faced by those of us who study other worlds is this, “What good is studying planets when we have issues here on Earth?” Well, it turns out Earth happens to be a planet and sometimes geology can tell us really cool things about...

Our planet is constantly changing under the forces of humans, geology, and even the Sun.  And while we can see what humans do daily and what geology does through quakes and eruptions almost weekly, catching the Sun being its bad self is a lot harder because it’s a lot...

Nordenskjöld glacier viewed from where its ice front was located in 2017. Credit: Dr Pierre Tichit Global travel and trade are making it easier and easier for invasive species to make their way to new parts of the world, including places where little to no life was...