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As we celebrate Earth Week, there is no better way to remember why we work so hard to conserve it, than to gaze down at our home from above. NASA collected and published this week a video compilation of the best satellite images and data visualizations they captured over the last year. In these images, you can see the planet changing before your very eyes.
And if you want to stretch your mind further about our living planet, consider the Gaia hypothesis. As explained in an essay by Ferris Jabr, the science writer for The New York Times, “‘Life is not something that happened on Earth, but something that happened to Earth,’ said David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute. ‘There is this feedback between the living and nonliving parts of the planet that make the planet very different from what it would otherwise be.’ As Dr. Margulis wrote, ‘Earth, in the biological sense, has a body sustained by complex physiological processes. Life is a planetary-level phenomenon and Earth’s surface has been alive for at least 3,000 million years.'” #EarthDay #PictureEarth
This op/ed was originally featured in SpaceNews on March 30th and has been reprinted with their and the author’s permission. By Nancy Colleton Small businesses and large multinational corporations face incredible challenges and uncertainty in today’s world. Whether an uncertain economy, continuing impact of a pandemic, or the rapidly changing natural environment of water scarcity, ecosystem […]
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Experts are finally uncovering the secrets of Mars; new spacecraft, research, and data are helping NASA and other space agencies fill in gaps in knowledge about the potential for life on the red planet.
Why This Matters: For decades, scientists have explored the idea of placing humans on Mars for research not only on the planet itself but on its potential to sustain human life.
Continue Reading 677 wordsNASA has named 27 asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter after Black, Hispanic, and Native American astronauts to recognize their contributions and inspire a new generation of potential space explorers. Among those honored include Stephanie Wilson, Joan Higginbotham, Ed Dwight Jr., José Hernández, and John Herrington.
Why this Matters: NASA, like many American industries, has struggled with diversity — only 18 Black astronauts have gone to space.
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