Lab Notes

Blasting the planet next door

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In September 1859, the most powerful explosion in recorded history burst from the surface of the sun, releasing more energy than a billion of...

Making the planet great again

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In his 2001 book Who Owns the Sky, entrepreneur Peter Barnes suggests that any system designed to tax heat-trapping pollution must redistribute the revenue...

Scouting for life on Mars

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In 2012, a Dutch foundation called Mars One announced plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars, with the first settlers arriving in...

Predicting seasons of the sun

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Although you might take it for granted that the sun is extremely stable over time, the star at the center of our solar system...

Diving into Saturn

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I finally arrive on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, California, around 3:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 15 to bear witness to the final gravitational dance...

New Horizons at Pluto

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In the 1960s, the Apollo missions to the moon inspired a generation of scientists and engineers to pursue careers in space exploration. On the heels of those successes, the Voyager missions to the outer solar system inspired my generation. I vividly remember the ...

Forecasting nature

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In 1973, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Accurate predictions of the weather several...

Experiencing research

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Imagine if you could test-drive your anticipated career before going through all of the effort and expense of obtaining the necessary education. It’s not...

Comet ATLAS shrugs

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In late December 2019, a telescope in Hawaii operated by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) discovered a comet on its way to...

Hitching a ride to orbit

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On April 23, SpaceX launched another crew of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), the third successful mission of the commercial crew transport...

Searching for sister Earth

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In last year’s blockbuster movie Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey leads a team of astronauts on a quest to find a new planet like Earth, after humanity collectively destroys the climate on the only home we’ve got...

Igniting space weather

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In March 1989, a powerful eruption from the Sun slammed into the Earth’s magnetic field and took down a regional power grid in Canada,...