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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, April 16th 2025 - 14:50 UTC

Tag: NASA

  • Wednesday, October 24th 2018 - 08:49 UTC

    NASA pictures a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea

    The picture was taken last week by scientists on a Nasa research plane. Such objects are not unknown, however, and even have a name - tabular icebergs

    Nasa has released a striking photo of a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica. The US space agency said the object's sharp angles and flat surface suggested it had recently broken away from an ice shelf. The edges are still pointed, and have not yet been worn down by the ocean waves.

  • Tuesday, October 2nd 2018 - 09:12 UTC

    NASA scientists solve mysteries of the Earth's rotation wobbling

    Around 2000, Earth's spin axis took an abrupt turn toward the east and is now drifting almost twice as fast as before, at a rate of almost 17 centimeters a year

    Using satellite data on how water moves around Earth, NASA scientists have solved two mysteries about wobbles in the planet's rotation - one new and one more than a century old. The research may help improve our knowledge of past and future climate.

  • Friday, August 31st 2018 - 08:34 UTC

    India announces its first manned space mission to cost US$1.4bn

    The Indian manned mission, announced by PM Narendra Modi will aim to send a three-member crew to space for five to seven days in a low earth orbit

    India announced it expected to spend less than 100 billion rupees (US$1.43 billion) on its first manned space mission to be launched by 2022, suggesting it is likely to be cheaper than similar projects by the United States and China.

  • Wednesday, January 31st 2018 - 20:06 UTC

    Lunar trifecta: supermoon, blood moon and blue moon; NASA livestreaming

    The moon, about as large as it can be in the sky, will turn a blood red color in the hours before dawn.

    It’s a once in a ‘blue moon’ occurrence and time for the moon to take the spotlight. Following the great solar eclipse last August, serendipity will strike on Wednesday 31 January, when a total lunar eclipse is set to occur at the same time as a supermoon and blue moon.

  • Wednesday, January 31st 2018 - 09:29 UTC

    NASA satellite keeps track of wildfires in Argentina

    NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of a wildfire in La Pampa Province, on January 29, 2018.

    Roughly 12,000 wildfires burn each year in Argentina, charring more than 1.3 million hectares (5,000 square miles) of forest and grasslands. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of one of them on January 29, 2018.

  • Monday, January 29th 2018 - 10:22 UTC

    Ozone hole: NASA's satellite confirms 20% less depletion; recovery by 2080

    Antarctic ozone hole forms during September in the South Hemisphere winter as returning sun’s rays catalyze ozone destruction cycles of chlorine and bromine

    Scientists have shown through direct satellite observations of the ozone hole that levels of ozone-destroying chlorine are declining. Measurements show that the decline in chlorine, resulting from an international ban on chlorine-containing man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), has resulted in about 20% less ozone depletion during the Antarctic winter than there was in 2005, the first year that measurements of chlorine and ozone during the Antarctic winter were made by NASA's Aura satellite.

  • Friday, January 19th 2018 - 10:08 UTC

    Global surface temperatures in 2017, the second warmest since 1880, says NASA

    2017 was the third consecutive year in which global temperatures were more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above late 19th-century levels.

    Earth’s global surface temperatures in 2017 ranked as the second warmest since 1880, according to an analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, globally averaged temperatures in 2017 were 0.90 degrees Celsius (1.62 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean. That is second only to global temperatures in 2016.

  • Friday, December 22nd 2017 - 10:36 UTC

    Falklands included in US universities and NASA project to keep track of kelp floating forests

    Floating Forests users have helped map kelp forests along the entire coast of California from 1984 to 2011

    Kelp forests grow along coastlines worldwide, largely hidden from view. Like rainforests, they're among the planet's most important ecosystems: beautiful but fragile habitats for a wide array of plant and animal species. But scientists believe kelp forests are being threatened by climate change. Now, researchers from UCLA and seven other universities have an improved tool for tracking these shifting ecosystems, the largest of which is about 5 miles long.

  • Tuesday, November 14th 2017 - 10:30 UTC

    Antarctica melting from below by some type of buried super-volcano, according to NASA research

    A geothermal heat source, a mantle plume deep below Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, explains some of the melting that creates lakes and rivers under the ice sheet

    The Antarctic is being melted from below, according to a new study by Nasa - and a type of buried super-volcano may be to blame. The Nasa study adds evidence that there is powerful geothermal activity underneath the ice, creating lakes and rivers below the surface.

  • Wednesday, December 7th 2016 - 21:54 UTC

    Massive rift in Antarctica: could become the largest iceberg since 2000

    New images taken on November 10 reveal a crack in the Antarctica ice shelf that is growing in size and depth. Scientists state it will eventually break off.

    A massive rift in the Antarctica has been spotted by NASA, but the troubling details about the rift is causing the agency to worry. The ice shelf in Larsen C that is close to breaking off is as big as the size of the state of Delaware.