The most famous image of Earth is one taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on their way to the Moon in 1972. Not only is it a beautiful picture, but it was the first time many people had ever seen an actual photo of our full planet. Fast forward a few decades, and we can see that view every day. Here’s your world today—as seen by satellites floating around in orbit—in all of its watery wonder.
We’ve all gawked at beautiful clouds before, but we never really think about how those clouds formed. One of the most beautiful sights in nature is a huge thunderstorm bubbling up on the horizon, smacking the top of the atmosphere and spreading out like a giant umbrella. Here’s a look at how these anvils form.
Every winter, one of the coolest trends to circulate around the web is courtesy of unfortunate, bored souls stuck in the northern tundra with nothing better to do than throw cups of boiling water into the air. Once the water leaves the cup, it immediately turns into "snow." Let's take a look at how and why that happens.
Social media lit up around 7:30 this morning with hundreds of pictures of an incredibly dramatic sky over New York City, with layers of dark, intense clouds swirling over Manhattan. Clouds this ominous usually signal the approach of a horrible storm or Tammy Swanson. What kind of clouds were they?
When NASA launched the first weather satellite back in 1960, it was little more than two television cameras strapped to a satellite and shot into orbit. Fast forward through the technological explosion of the late 20th century, and now you can watch the evolution of storms in near real-time, one-minute increments from your living room.
Around this time every year in the higher latitudes, looking up to the sky after sunset might get you one of the most beautiful sights nature can provide. If you're lucky, you can catch these electric blue clouds looming dozens of miles up in the atmosphere, and they are downright incredible.
