MFA Media Group

From Harvey to Michael: How America's year of major hurricanes unfolded The past year has been marked by storms of record ferocity, apocalyptic damage and thousands of deaths Just two years after  Hurricane Matthew  forced her to flee her home temporarily, Adrienne Kennedy has again had to pack her bags and leave.  Hurricane Florence , which drenched the Carolinas last month, punched holes in Kennedy’s roof, causing it to collapse. “You do get kind of hopeless,” said Kennedy, who is renting a place 30 miles away. It may take a year to return safely home to Lumberton, North Carolina. “I was born and raised there. I don’t see myself living anywhere else. You have to be proactive. But it’s all up in the air,” she said. Kennedy, who has turned into a local organizer for climate resilience and disaster recovery, is far from the only person to suffer repeated hurricanes. Remnants of  Hurricane Michael , which roared over Florida’s panhandle and other states...

This speculative SpaceX timeline reveals roughly when, where, and how Elon Musk plans to colonize Mars Elon Musk is hell-bent on  colonizing Mars . That's the spirit with which he founded  SpaceX , his rocket company, in 2002. Musk was frustrated that NASA wasn't doing more to get people to the red planet — and concerned a backup plan for humanity wasn't being developed (for when Earth becomes an uninhabitable  wasteland ). Since then, SpaceX has developed several impressive aerospace systems: Falcon 1, SpaceX's first orbital rocket; Grasshopper, a small self-landing test rocket;  Falcon 9 , a reusable orbital-class launcher; Dragon, a spaceship for cargo and soon NASA astronauts; and  Falcon Heavy , a super-heavy-lift launcher. But Mars is a cold, unforgiving, and almost airless rock located some 140 million miles from Earth. Astounding ingenuity is required to land even a small spacecraft there today, let alone a  giant spaceship full o...

Complete Analysis of Snow Extent Over North America and Eurasia Below Normal For the past few weeks, snow cover has been increasing across the northern hemisphere, as it is usual for autumn. Snow cover extent over North America has been rapidly increasing, thanks to a specific weather pattern. On the other side, over Eurasia, we currently have below normal snow extent. Ensemble forecast does indicate a possible change in the near future. In the first two weeks of October, there was a very specific weather pattern across the northern hemisphere. We had ridging over the Bering Sea and the Arctic, which caused a cross-polar flow from the Arctic down into North America. That has helped increase the snow cover over the continent. On the other side of the world in Siberia, the same pattern had the opposite effect and has contributed to slower snow cover advance. October 1st-13th 500mb anomaly from NCEP reanalysis. Produced by Andrej Flis ...

In a posthumous message, Dr. Stephen Hawking says science under threat LONDON –  Stephen Hawking spoke from beyond the grave Monday to warn the world that science and education are under threat around the world. The words of the scientist, who died in March at 76, were broadcast at a London launch event for his final book "Brief Answers To The Big Questions." Hawking warned that education and science are "in danger now more than ever before." He cited the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain's 2016 vote to leave the European Union as part of "a global revolt against experts and that includes scientists." Acknowledging that science had yet to overcome major challenges for the world — including climate change, overpopulation, species extinction, deforestation and the degradation of the oceans — the physicist still urged young people "to look up at the stars and not down at your feet." "Try to make sense of ...

Huge Planets Have Been Detected Orbiting a Bafflingly Young Star A small star at the tender age of just 2 million years has revealed itself to be quite the precocious little cosmic object. Astronomers have discovered it has not one, but four planets in the protoplanetary disc of dust and gas that surrounds it - and they are all gargantuan, with the biggest coming in at 11 times the mass of Jupiter, and the smallest about the mass of Saturn. Moreover, their orbits are incredibly distant. The outermost is more than 1,000 times the distance from the star than the innermost. That's the most extreme range of orbits ever observed in a planetary system; Pluto, for context, is only around 102 times the distance from the Sun as Mercury. The star is named CI Tau, located around 500 light-years away in a star-forming region of the constellation of Taurus, and it's been a bit of a brain teaser since 2016. That's when the first of its planets - the largest of the four, th...

Newly Discovered Asteroid 2018 TV5 flew past Earth at 0.28 Lunar Distance (66,000 miles) A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 TV5 flew past Earth at 0.28 LD / 0.00068 AU (101 726 km / 63 209 miles) on October 6, 2018. This is the 55 th  known asteroid to flyby Earth since the start of the year, 2 nd  this month and 15 th  since September 3. 2018 TV5 was first observed at Catalina Sky Survey on October 5, 2 days before its closest approach. However, the information about it was made known to the public on October 15. This object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 3.4 and 7.6 m (11.1 - 24.9 feet). It flew past Earth at 05:24 UTC on October 6, with an estimated speed (relative to the Earth of 15.28 km/s. [  Ephemeris  |  Orbit Diagram  |  Orbital Elements  |  Mission Design  |  Physical Parameters  |  Close-Approach Data  ] Referen...

Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake Near Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia followed by a series of smaller quakes Rocks the Region A series of strong earthquakes hit near the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia on October 16, 2018. The sequence started with M6.3, registered by the  USGS  at 00:28 UTC. The quake was followed by M6.4 at 01:03 UTC and 14 quakes over the next 6 hours with magnitudes between 4.8 and 5.8. All of them struck at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The epicenter was located 167 km (104 miles) W of Tadine (population 7 492), New Caledonia and 243 km (151 miles) SSE of Isangel (population 1 437), Vanuatu. The quakes did not produce a tsunami. There are no people living within 100 km (62 miles). Some 9 000 people are estimated to have felt light shaking and 352 000 weak. The USGS issued a green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are highly vulnerable ...

Portland police investigating far-right skirmishes with leftist protesters A weekend of right-wing violence on both coasts. Members of the far-right Patriot Prayer group and the white nationalist Proud Boys group clashed with Antifa demonstrators in Portland Saturday evening, resulting in several skirmishes during what has turned out to be a weekend of right-wing violence on both coasts. The altercations began Saturday afternoon when the far-right groups organized a “Flash March for Law and Order” under the leadership of Joey Gibson, a political activist and former Republican candidate for Senate in Washington. The march was planned in response to a demonstration against police brutality last week when an  elderly driver pushed his car through the crowd . The incident resulted in no injuries but angered many protesters who chased the car and beat the vehicle as it was stopped, accusing the driver of attempted to mow them down. Nearby police did not intervene. ...