Source: laboratoryequipmentThe water found on the moon, like that on Earth, came from small meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites in the first 100 million years or so after the solar system formed, researchers from Brown and Case Western Reserve universities and Carnegie Institution of Washington have found.
Evidence…
Source: facebook.comManicouagan crater from the ISS
The Manicouagan Impact Crater, Quebec, Canada photographed from the International Space Station 12:36 GMT March 15, 2012, 215 million years after an asteroid three miles in diameter smashed into the Earth.
Source: ikenbotAsteroids Battered Young Earth Longer Than Thought
A giant ancient barrage of asteroids striking Earth may have lasted much longer than previously thought, with some collisions perhaps even rivaling those that created the largest craters on the moon, researchers say.
Scientists think untold numbers of asteroids and comets pummeled Earth, the moon and the inner planets during an era known as the Late Heavy Bombardment about 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. Investigators continue to debate the precise nature of this epoch in terms of what happened and how long it lasted.
To learn more about the Late Heavy Bombardment, scientists would like to analyze the most obvious evidence cosmic impacts leave behind, their craters. However, while such craters are preserved well in the vacuum of the moon environment, they disappear quickly on Earth due to erosion and tectonic activity.
Instead, researchers analyzed other evidence of asteroid impacts — millimeter- to centimeter-thick layers of rock droplets known as spherules.
Source: Flickr / europeanspaceagencySan Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco and the bay, photographed by ESA astronaut André Kuipers onboard the International Space Station.
Source: facebook.comBahama archipelago
The Bahama archipelago is as fragile as it is beautiful. Photographed from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut and Expedition 27 flight engineer Ron Garan on September 15, 2011.
Celebrate Earth Day in Super High Resolution
Changing Weather
The Elektro-L 1 satellite captures the changing weather of the planet below each half hour. The top image was taken May 14, while the lower image, which shows large shifting weather patterns, was taken months later, in October.
These images may be among the largest single photos ever taken of our planet, according to James Drake, who processed them. You can download full-resolution, 11,000 x 11,000 pixel versions of the top and bottom images but, be warned, they are each larger than 100 MB.
(via scinerds)
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