A new monthly record for atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations has been recorded in February 2019, at 411.66 parts per million. Although this new record, observed at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory, isn’t much higher than the previous record of 411.31 ppm, the fact that this new record happened nearly three monthsread more
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service are predicting that the northern polar vortex is likely to split once again later this month, into not just two, but three separate vortices that are expected to bring unseasonably cold and stormy weather to parts of Europe and North America.
The polar vortex is a low-pressure area of air that resides over both of Earth’s poles, with the vortex at each pole spinning in a counter-clockwise direction, and bordered around their edges by the jet stream. Occasionally, the Northern Hemisphere’s vortex splits into a number of separate gyres that drift south, bringing colder Arctic air along with them.
read more
Extending its mission well past 2015’s groundbreaking exploration of Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft made a close pass on New Year’s Day with the distant trans-Neptunian object (486958) 2014 MU69, better known by its nickname, Ultima Thule. This event is not only a great start to the New Year for NASA, it also sets a new record for the farthest object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft.
read more