An unusual type of solar eclipse occurred last year. Usually it is the Earth’s Moon that eclipses the Sun. Last June, most unusually, the planet Venus took a turn. Like a solar eclipse by the Moon, the phase of Venus became a continually thinner crescent as Venus became increasingly better aligned with the Sun. Eventually the alignment became perfect and the phase of Venus dropped to zero.
Join the Gyre Expedition for a close-up look at how garbage impacts our planet. This team of scientists, artists, and educators journeyed into the Alaskan wild this summer to study and gather marine debris. What they collected will become part of a 2014 traveling exhibit that seeks to bring the environmental harm of trash into perspective.
George Everest – whose name adorns the world’s highest peak – was buried by the sea. Have you ever wondered Who was a man, whose name was given the the highest mountain in the world?
Anatoly Beloshchin is a Russian photographer who specializes in underwater shots. He has produced some exceptional images of cave diving around the world, as well as stunning shots of Antarctica and even submerged portraiture.
The first thing you notice about Sarnia, Ontario, is the smell: a potent mix of gasoline, melting asphalt, and the occasional trace of rotten egg. Sarnia is home to more than 60 refineries and chemical plants that produce gasoline, synthetic rubbers, and other materials that the world’s industries require to create the commercial products we know and love. The city’s most prominent and profitable attraction is an area about the size of 100 city blocks known as the Chemical Valley, where 40 percent of Canada’s chemical industry can be found packed together like a noxious megalopolis. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, Sarnia’s air is the most polluted air in Canada. There are more toxic air pollutants billowing out of smokestacks here than in all of the provinces of New Brunswick or Manitoba.
How can you tell the two poles apart? Where are the penguins? What about the bears? The Arctic pole is located in the Northern Hemisphere within the deep Arctic Ocean, while the Antarctic pole is smack in the middle of the ice-covered Antarctica. Camille Seaman describes how enterprising people and organisms have found ways to reside around both poles despite the frigid temperatures.