This dramatic view of Jupiter's <a href="/jupiter/atmosphere/J_clouds_GRS.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">Great Red Spot</a> and its surroundings was obtained by <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">Voyager 1</a> on Feb. 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometers) from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 100 miles (160 kilometers) across can be seen here. The colorful, wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex end variable wave motion.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p><p>The United Nations <a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/PAND_report.pdf" target="_blank">estimated</a> that between 1994-2015, there were 6,873 natural disasters worldwide, which affected 218 million people and claimed 1.35 million lives. </p> <p>Check out the materials about natural disasters in <a href="/earth/natural_hazards/when_nature_strikes.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">NBC Learn Videos</a>, and their earth system science connections built up by the related secondary classroom activities.</p><p><small><em>NBC Learn</em></small></p>This historic image is the first ever taken from a spacecraft in orbit about <a href="/mercury/mercury.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">Mercury</a>, the innermost planet of the solar system. Taken on 3/29/2011 by <a href="/space_missions/robotic/messenger/messenger.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">MESSENGER</a>, it shows numerous craters across the <a href="/mercury/Interior_Surface/Surface/surface_overview.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">surface</a> of the planet. Temperatures there can reach over 800F because Mercury is so close to the Sun and rotates so slowly. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury earlier in March 2011.<p><small><em>NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington</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&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">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>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>An artist's rendering of the moment of impact of a massive <a href="/our_solar_system/meteors/meteors.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">meteorite</a> at the end of the Cretaceous (at the end of the <a href="/earth/geology/hist_mesozoic.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.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&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">mass extinction of dinosaurs</a> and many other life forms. Recent research suggests that perhaps <a href="/headline_universe/olpa/chicxulub.html&edu=elem&dev=1/moons/=/copyright.html">massive volcanic eruptions</a> may be been responsible for the extinction.<p><small><em>Courtesy of Don Davis, NASA</em></small></p>


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Mysterious Clouds Produced by Aircraft

Without meaning to, airplanes can cause certain types of clouds to produce snow or rain and can leave behind odd-shaped holes or channels in the clouds ...Read more
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Clouds in Art

Landscape painters have been representing clouds in their art for centuries. Different artists with different styles have painted clouds differently. Check out the Clouds in Art Interactive ...Read more
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Space Weather Multimedia Gallery

Animations, images, and videos portraying space weather and solar activity. Watch sunspots form and see aurora shimmer and dance across the skies ...Read more
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Life in the Polar Regions

All sorts of living things call Earth’s polar regions home – from tiny lichens encrusting the rocky landscapes of the Arctic tundra to huge blue whales swimming through the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. ...Read more

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. This giant ball of hydrogen and helium gas is large enough to contain more than 1,000 Earths. Dozens of moons circle the 5th planet from the Sun ...Read more

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Electromagnetic Radiation

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