State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Astronomy

  • Olafur Eliasson’s Latest Creation Combines Art and Science on an Italian Glacier

    Olafur Eliasson’s Latest Creation Combines Art and Science on an Italian Glacier

    The renowned artist installed an astronomical device to draw attention to the changing climate at Italy’s Hochjochferner glacier.

  • Quiz: The Decade in Science News

    Quiz: The Decade in Science News

    On the event horizon of a new decade, keep calm and put your lab coat on, and test your knowledge of some of the developments that made headlines in the 2010s.

  • Scientists Track Deep History of Planets’ Motions, and Effects on Earth’s Climate

    Scientists Track Deep History of Planets’ Motions, and Effects on Earth’s Climate

    Scientists are developing a geologic record of how other planets have influenced the orbit of Earth, and thus its climate, over the last 200 million-plus years.

  • Days on Earth Are Getting Longer. You Can Thank the Moon, Not the Seasons.

    Days on Earth Are Getting Longer. You Can Thank the Moon, Not the Seasons.

    For anyone who has ever wished there were more hours in the day, geoscientists have some good news: Days on Earth are getting longer. Very slowly.

  • Celestial Music

    Celestial Music

    Did you ever watch stars, and hear distant singing? New telescopes see that the galaxy’s ringing! Listen now carefully, open your ears To Johannes Kepler’s great “music of spheres.”

  • Black Holes

    Black Holes

    In most observed galaxy hearts, Massive black holes reside, Formed from dark-baryon parts, As huge stars collapse or collide.

  • A Moon Holiday to Get Away From It All

    A Moon Holiday to Get Away From It All

    A national park on the moon? Preposterous? Not if the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, put forward by Congresswomen Donna Reed (D – Maryland) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D – Texas) passes. We could very well be on our way to having a national park on the Moon protecting sites of historical value – where…

  • The Starry Messenger

    The Starry Messenger

    Summer Ash, a current Frontiers of Science Fellow at Columbia College, takes a page out of Galileo’s book and looks towards the cosmos under the ever-enlightening lens of a telescope. Read her ruminations on our night sky here: The Starry Messenger The universality of the sky was revealed to me last night. It started simply…

  • Olafur Eliasson’s Latest Creation Combines Art and Science on an Italian Glacier

    Olafur Eliasson’s Latest Creation Combines Art and Science on an Italian Glacier

    The renowned artist installed an astronomical device to draw attention to the changing climate at Italy’s Hochjochferner glacier.

  • Quiz: The Decade in Science News

    Quiz: The Decade in Science News

    On the event horizon of a new decade, keep calm and put your lab coat on, and test your knowledge of some of the developments that made headlines in the 2010s.

  • Scientists Track Deep History of Planets’ Motions, and Effects on Earth’s Climate

    Scientists Track Deep History of Planets’ Motions, and Effects on Earth’s Climate

    Scientists are developing a geologic record of how other planets have influenced the orbit of Earth, and thus its climate, over the last 200 million-plus years.

  • Days on Earth Are Getting Longer. You Can Thank the Moon, Not the Seasons.

    Days on Earth Are Getting Longer. You Can Thank the Moon, Not the Seasons.

    For anyone who has ever wished there were more hours in the day, geoscientists have some good news: Days on Earth are getting longer. Very slowly.

  • Celestial Music

    Celestial Music

    Did you ever watch stars, and hear distant singing? New telescopes see that the galaxy’s ringing! Listen now carefully, open your ears To Johannes Kepler’s great “music of spheres.”

  • Black Holes

    Black Holes

    In most observed galaxy hearts, Massive black holes reside, Formed from dark-baryon parts, As huge stars collapse or collide.

  • A Moon Holiday to Get Away From It All

    A Moon Holiday to Get Away From It All

    A national park on the moon? Preposterous? Not if the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, put forward by Congresswomen Donna Reed (D – Maryland) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D – Texas) passes. We could very well be on our way to having a national park on the Moon protecting sites of historical value – where…

  • The Starry Messenger

    The Starry Messenger

    Summer Ash, a current Frontiers of Science Fellow at Columbia College, takes a page out of Galileo’s book and looks towards the cosmos under the ever-enlightening lens of a telescope. Read her ruminations on our night sky here: The Starry Messenger The universality of the sky was revealed to me last night. It started simply…