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>Sinkholes are <a href="/teacher_resources/main/frameworks/esl_bi8.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">natural hazards</a> in many places around the world. They are formed when water dissolves underlying <a href="/earth/Water/carbonates.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">limestone</a>, leading to collapse of the surface. Hydrologic conditions such as a lack of rainfall, lowered water levels, or excessive rainfall can all contribute to sinkhole development. On 2/28/2013, a sinkhole suddenly developed under the house outside of Tampa, Florida, leading to the tragic death of its occupant, Jeff Bush.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Southwest Florida Water Management District</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/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">solar system</a>. The space probe is about 19 billion km from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Sun</a>. <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Voyager 1 and 2</a> were launched in 1977 on a <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">mission</a> that flew them both by <a href="/jupiter/jupiter.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Jupiter</a> and <a href="/saturn/saturn.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Saturn</a>, with Voyager 2 continuing to <a href="/uranus/uranus.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Uranus</a> and <a href="/neptune/neptune.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">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/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">Sun</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>March 2012 marks the first anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude <a href="/earth/geology/quake_1.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">earthquake</a>, <a href="/earth/tsunami1.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">tsunami</a>, and resulting nuclear accident in Japan on <a href="/headline_universe/march112011earthquaketsunami.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">11 March 2011</a>. The tsunami did massive damage, wiping out entire villages and killing ~16,000 people, and leading to one of the most serious nuclear accidents in history. This image shows before and after photos of the area north of Sendai, where 10,000 people were lost.<p><small><em>Photos by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?hp">GeoEye/EyeQ</a>.</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>Stars don't last forever. Occasionally, a star bigger than our Sun will end its life in a huge explosion, called a <a href="/the_universe/supernova.html&dev=1/images/ipcc_ar4_faq_5_1_fig_1_big.gif">supernova</a>. The center of the star collapses in less than a second, blowing away the outer layers of the star. There are many beautiful images of supernova remnants, the expanding shell of gas made up of the outer layers of the original star. This image is the Vela Supernova Remnant.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of the Anglo-Australian Observatory/Royal Observatory Edinburgh</em></small></p>


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