"There’s more plastic out there than meets the eye," said USGS scientist Gregory Weatherbee, "It’s in the rain, it’s in the snow. It’s a part of our environment now." Image of virga via Flickr/tinyfroglet.
Research at one of the world's clearest, cleanest lakes - Lake Tahoe in the US Sierra Nevadas - suggests the microplastics problem is widespread in freshwater systems, not just in oceans. Read more and watch a video.
“Virtually no geological record will remain of us whatsoever. Not plastic birthday balloons, not piles of denuded chicken bones, not Charlton Heston shaking his fist at some littoral colossus. It will all be worn away, destroyed, or hidden forever.” Read more.
View larger. | Full moon comes at 12:29 UTC today (8:29 a.m. Eastern). Read more about tonight's moon. This shot is from master nature photographer Colin Legg in Australia. He wrote that he snapped this shot back in March 2019, as a homage to the Apollo 11 50th anniversary this year. It's the moon rising in the coastal town of Carnarvon - in Western Australia - home to the largest NASA space tracking station outside the United States in the 1960s and 70s. Read more about Carnavon's role in the Apollo missions. Thanks for a brilliant photo, Colin!
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Radu Anghel of Bacau, Romania, captured this image on August 13. He wrote, "We noticed that it was like a 10-minute window between bright meteors ... So we grabbed the chairs and smiled to the stars. In less than 2 minutes the stars smiled back! Live long and prosper! :) " Thanks, Radu! View more meteor photos from earlier this week.
