Earth

22:43 November 5, 2009 PST

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission will make global observations of soil ...

The 658kg (1,450 lb) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil moisture on a global scale. The unique radiometer it carries will enable passive surveying of the water cycle between oceans, the atmosphere and land thereby playing a key role in the monitoring of global climate change. Read More

WEARABLE ELECTRONICS

Time to think globally - the wn-2 Earth watch

By Mick Webb

12:22 October 5, 2009 PDT

The wn-2 watch with orbital view of a miniature Earth
(Image: Think The Earth)

Much like the recent spherical Eris watch, here’s another way to tell the time that is a little “out of this world”. Japanese not-for-profit organization Think The Earth has released the wn-2 watch, featuring a tiny replica of the Earth that rotates in the same direction and at the same speed as the real thing. By offering a view similar to that seen from orbit, the creators hope the wn-2 (which stands for “watch Northern Hemisphere”) will encourage the wearer to put things in perspective and consider the world around them. Read More

RESEARCH WATCH

A hard rain's gonna fall on exoplanet COROT-7b

By Mick Webb

04:12 October 5, 2009 PDT

An artist's impression of the exoplanet COROT-7b. Theoretical models suggest it may have l...

Raining rocks? The concept may not be as preposterous as it sounds according to scientists at Washington University in St Louis who have theorized that a recently-discovered exoplanet, COROT-7b, may have an atmosphere that does exactly that. Read More

CAMERAS AND IMAGING

Atmospheric photos from Project Icarus

By Paul Ridden

17:19 September 21, 2009 PDT

The Earth as seen from probably the cheapest balloon photography setup ever

Attaching a camera to a helium-filled balloon, a group of students from MIT recently managed to get some pretty decent photographs of our beautiful planet from an estimated 93000 feet up. Nothing remarkable there you might say - high altitude balloon photography has been around a long, long time - until you consider the cost of the experiment: about USD$150. Read More

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LRO - a giant leap for data transfer from the moon

By Jeff Salton

22:52 August 27, 2009 PDT

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter hitches a ride with an Atlas V/Centaur rocket from Cap...

How is it that my cell phone still loses connection in the city and my laptop barely gets the Internet in the mountains, yet NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) can keep in touch with Earth from 238,800 miles away, 24 hours a day? Additionally, LRO can transmit 461GB of data per day (the equivalent amount of information found in a huge library), sending this information at a rate of up to 100Mb/s, while my so-called high-speed Internet service struggles to provide about 1-3Mb/s. Obviously, it’s not what you know but who you know! Read More

ECOGIZMO

Four crucial resources that may run out in your lifetime

By Loz Blain

06:14 August 27, 2009 PDT

Can the Earth sustain 9 billion people? We'll find out in the next 50 years.

We're living in lucky times. Living standards - in the Western world, at least - are the highest in history. It's an era of relative peace and plenty that would amaze our ancestors. But it's not going to continue forever; we're already stretching many of our natural resources to their limits, and the world's population will jump from 6.5 billion to around 9 billion over the next 50 years. Get ready for a painful correction - here are four interconnected resources that are headed for a catastrophic squeeze within our lifetime. Read More