Tag Archives: NASA

The NASA MAVEN mission to study Mars

A NASA image of Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope


You can keep tabs on the mission here.


The Discovery of Greenland’s Massive Canyon

NASA scientists have recently discovered a canyon underneath Greenland’s ice sheet by using radar data. The canyon is 400 miles long and half a mile deep (for comparison, the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and a little over a mile deep). This canyon was believed to have been formed before the glacier over Greenland formed.

Radar uses electromagnetic waves to penetrate through the ice. In much the same way that shining a flashlight through a window to a wall will case light to reflect off of the wall back to the person holding the flashlight outside, the longer radio waves used with radar reflect off of the earth’s surface.

It is definitely interesting to learn about this canyon, but the importance of the discovery is beyond being a neat fact. Water flowing beneath the glaciers actually contributes to a complex relationship with glacial movement and melting, and the transport of glacial melt water from inland portions of the glacier to the ocean is pertinent to this topic.

Watch as NASA’s GRAIL Spacecraft Crashes Into the Moon Today

If you happen to be perusing the internet and want something to watch, NASA will be providing live commentary as the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) craft crashes (purposefully) into the moon today. The mission has mapped the moons gravitational field, and allowed scientists to get a better understanding of the interior structure of the moon. Read more here.