Posts

Showing posts with the label ground

How is snow made? An atmospheric scientist describes the journey of frozen ice crystals from clouds to the ground

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How is snow made? – Tenley, age 7, Rockford, Michigan The thought of snow can conjure up images of powdery slopes, days out of school or hours of shoveling. For millions of people, it’s an inevitable part of life – but you may rarely stop to think about what made the snow. As a professor of atmospheric and planetary sciences, I’ve studied how ice crystals floating in the sky become the snow that coats the ground. It all starts in the clouds. Clouds form when air near the Earth’s surface rises. This happens when sunlight warms the ground and the air closest to it, just like the Sun can warm your face on a cold winter day. As the slightly warmer air rises, it cools – and the water vapor in that rising air condenses to form liq...

NASA's historic Mars helicopter Ingenuity grounded for good

WASHINGTON: NASA said on Thursday its Mars robot  helicopter Ingenuity, the first vehicle to achieve powered, controlled flight on another world, has been grounded for good after flying dozens of times over three years, ending a landmark mission that far exceeded all expectations. The fate of Ingenuity was sealed when imagery beamed back to Earth after its 72nd and final flight on Jan. 18 showed that a portion of one of the miniature whirligig's twin rotor blades had broken off, leaving it incapable of further operation, NASA officials said. "It is bittersweet that I must announce that Ingenuity, the 'little helicopter that could' - and it kept saying, 'I think I can, I think I can' - well, it has now taken its last flight on Mars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a video posted on social media. What was planned as a 30-day technology demonstration of no more than five short flights ended up stretching well beyond the expectations of eng...