An artist's rendering of the moment of impact of a massive <a href="/our_solar_system/meteors/meteors.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">meteorite</a> at the end of the Cretaceous (at the end of the <a href="/earth/geology/hist_mesozoic.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Mesozoic Era</a>). Many scientists have concluded for decades that a meteorite four to six kilometers in diameter impacted the Earth at this time, resulting in a <a href="/earth/past/KTextinction.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">mass extinction of dinosaurs</a> and many other life forms. Recent research suggests that perhaps <a href="/headline_universe/olpa/chicxulub.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">massive volcanic eruptions</a> may be been responsible for the extinction.<p><small><em>Courtesy of Don Davis, NASA</em></small></p>According to <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-277">NASA scientists</a>, the Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, becoming the first spacecraft to leave the <a href="/our_solar_system/solar_system.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">solar system</a>. The space probe is about 19 billion km from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Sun</a>. <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Voyager 1 and 2</a> were launched in 1977 on a <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">mission</a> that flew them both by <a href="/jupiter/jupiter.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Jupiter</a> and <a href="/saturn/saturn.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Saturn</a>, with Voyager 2 continuing to <a href="/uranus/uranus.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Uranus</a> and <a href="/neptune/neptune.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Neptune</a>. Voyager 2 is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 15 billion km away from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">Sun</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>On May 20, 2013, a massive EF5 <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado.html">tornado</a> hit Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities and lives. The tornado, on the ground for 40 minutes, took a path through a subdivision of homes, destroying block after block of homes, and hitting two elementary schools just as school was ending as well as a hospital. Hundreds of people were injured, and 24 were killed.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Ks0stm, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license</em></small></p>This image is a montage of high resolutions photographs of the Earth taken in January 2012 by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite. The image shows many stunning details of <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/earth.html">our home planet</a> - <a href="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/VIIRS_4Jan2012.jpg">particularly at high resolution</a>. The beauty of our planet is obvious from space - our blue <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/overview.html">waters</a>, our white <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html">clouds</a>, and the green from <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Life/life.html">life</a> abundant at the surface.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>The massive 9.0 magnitude <a href="/earth/geology/quake_1.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">earthquake</a> off of Honshu, Japan on <a href="/headline_universe/march112011earthquaketsunami.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">11 March 2011</a> generated a <a href="/earth/tsunami1.html&dev=1/images/h/neptune/tragedy_commons.html">tsunami</a> that exceeded 10 meters on the coast near the epicenter. This image shows model projections for the tsunami wave height in cm which are in good agreement with the observed waves. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who were lost, and their families, as we remember this event.<p><small><em><a href="http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/files/2011/03/680_20110311-TsunamiWaveHeight.jpg">NOAA Tsunami Wave Height Projections image</a></em></small></p>The <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado/fujita.html">EF-5</a> <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado.html">tornado</a> that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st, 2013 was the widest ever recorded in the US, according to the National Weather Service in Norman Oklahoma. The tornado, which remained on the ground for 40 minutes and reached 2.6 miles across (4.2 km), took the lives of 18 people including storm chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of National Weather Service, Norman Oklahoma</em></small></p>


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