Once Curiosity rover made it to Mars, the imagination naturally wandered to the possibility of people getting there some day. We took a look at some of the most interesting plans humans have made to send representatives to the Red Planet in this Aug. 9 gallery.
Image: NASA/Ames Research Center
Buried in the National Library of Medicine's collection of more than 17 million items are some pretty amazing, largely unseen objects from around the world. Our Apr. 2 gallery of our favorite images from the book Hidden Treasure was a hit with our readers.
Images courtesy of Blast Books, New York, from the book Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, edited by Michael Sappol. Captions adapted from the book.
One of the stars of NASA's fleet of satellites is Aqua, named for its ability to measure water vapor in the atmosphere, water in the oceans, as well as ice and snow. As of May, Aqua's six instruments had been functioning perfectly for 10 years, gathering 29 million gigabytes of data in that time. This collection of some of Aqua's most beautiful images, including the one above of Mt. Etna erupting, was our second most popular gallery of the year.
Image: NASA
Many of our most popular posts are image galleries, and this year our readers favorite collections included microscope photos, doomsday scenarios, auroras and lots of images of Earth from space.
The satellite image above of Brasilia is part of the most popular post of the year.
I think it's safe to say that our readers like looking at images of Earth from space almost as much as we do. Satellite imagery was the subject of four of Wired Science's 10 most popular galleries of 2012, with this gallery of planned cities topping the list.
Image: NASA/USGS
It is hard to argue with naming an unexpected eruption that produced 20+ km lava flows from multiple fissures the recipient of the 2012 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year. In late November, reports began to filter in that a new eruption had started on the slopes of Tolbachik, one of a cluster of Kamchatka volcanoes that includes Bezymianny and Kliuchevskoi. However, unlike its more active neighbors, Tolbachik hadn't erupted in over 36 years. Much like that last eruption in 1976, the latest Tolbachik eruption was a fissure eruption that coalesced into singular vents with long -- and I mean long -- a'a lava flows. As of late December, the eruption was ongoing, steaming away on the snowy slopes of the remote volcano.
Image: Lava flows snaking from the erupting vent on Tolbachik, seen on December 15, 2012. KVERT/Yu. Demyanchuk.
Etna started the year off with a bang -- multiple paroxysms over the first few months of 2012, extending a string that started in 2011. Some of these paroxysms were spectacular, sending lava flows snaking down the volcano (see above) and producing small pyroclastic flows during explosions when lava would interact with snow. Activity settled down as the year went on, although a new tephra cone grew within the Buoco Nuovo crater. Etna periodically steamed and glowed through the end of the year and a deep-seated seismic swarm closed out 2012 at Sicily's volcano.
Image: Lava flows from the February 9, 2012 eruption of Etna. Boris Behncke/Osservatorio Etneo.
Considering no one actually noticed the eruption happening until weeks after it was over, Havre makes an impressive showing in the 2012 Pliny rundown. I'm, of course, partial to the eruption as I had a role in tracking down the source of the large pumice raft that was discovered in the Kermadec Islands north of New Zealand during early August. It turns out that the pumice came from a seamount that had not been recognized as an active submarine volcano (it didn't even appear in the Global Volcanic Program database - it does now) - one of three eruptions in/near New Zealand in the course of a few weeks of late July to early August. (see #4 Tongariro and #9 White Island).
Image: The plume and early pumice raft from Havre seamount, seen on July 19, 2012. NASA Earth Observatory.
Much like Kilauea, Japan's Sakurajima is a constant in the Pliny's. Sakurajima kept producing its multitude of small explosive eruptions, many of which are caught on the webcams that are pointed at the volcano. Some of this year's explosions reached even higher than normal, upwards of 6 km / 20,000 feet.
Image: Video capture of Sakurajima on April 10, 2012. Photovolcanica.
When most people think about the active volcanoes of New Zealand, Ruapehu springs to mind. However, that volcano merely rumbled in 2012. It was its neighbor, Tongariro, that decided to take action with two explosive eruptions from the Te Maari craters during the summer and fall after months of seismic unrest and increased gas emissions. This was the first eruptive activity on the main Tongariro massif since 1896. Neither eruption was long-lived and mainly appeared to be steam-driven events that sent ash over the region near the volcano. However, any time that is new introduction of heat beneath a volcano, you need to watch to see if new magma might be on its way, so 2013 could be more eruptions at Tongariro.
Image: The plume from the November 21, 2012 eruption of Tongariro. Craig Miller/GNS Science.
Guatemala's Fuego had one of its most active years in decades, with multiple large eruptions. One of the biggest was in May, when the volcano not only produced pyroclastic flows and a 5 km / 16,000 foot ash plume, but also an impressive fire fountain and lava flow. These eruptions continued throughout the year, with over 30,000 people evacuated from the region around Fuego during September.
Image: The eruption plume from Fuego seen on September 13, 2012. NASA Earth Observatory.
Kilauea is one of the perennial Pliny contenders - landing one spot higher in the 2012 countdown than in 2011, when it actually produced a new fissure eruption (just shows that 2012 was a volcanically-subdued year). We saw rising/falling of the lava lakes, new ocean entries and plenty of lava flows along the east rift zone of the shield volcano -- all events that should continues into 2013 (although I'm hoping for something big in March when I'll be visiting Kilauea for the first time!)
Image: A pahoehoe lava flow on the coastal plain of Kilauea, seen on October 29, 2012. HVO/USGS.
Tungurahua had an especially active year, with some large explosive events that sent pyroclastic flows down the slopes of the volcano and ash across the region. The activity prompted repeated calls for evacuations around the volcano and significant damage to the crops that grow on the slopes of the Ecuadoran volcano.
Image: Tungurahua erupting in December 2012. IGEPN, M. Yepez.
We start off with a three-way tie of very different volcanoes -- one that looked like it might do something spectacular but never did, one that does spectacular things but in a remote location and one that produced both an explosive eruption and a weird, spiny dome. I know many of us spent the spring intently watching Popocatepetl in Mexico, waiting for a significant eruption, but luckily for all the rumblings, the people living near the volcano didn't face a large eruption. Over in Kamchatka, Bezymianny had a number of explosive eruptions, including a large eruption in late August/early September (see above). Finally, New Zealand's White Island had a small explosive eruption during the same week as Tongariro's eruption. The island volcano then produced a small but very strange-looking dome within the crater (that is still being visited by tourists on a regular basis).
Image: Top - Webcam capture of Popocatepetl; Middle - Bezymianny erupting on September 1, 2012, KVERT; White Island on December 12, 2012, New Zealand, GNS Science.
The ballots are in, the results are counted and now its time to count down to the 2012 Pliny winner for Volcanic Event of the Year. The methodology for voting - I give 5 points for every 1st place vote, 4 points for 2nd place, 3 points for 3rd place and 1 point for every vote 4th place or higher. I received a lot of ballots this year and for the second straight year, the winner was by a sizable margin, both in terms of points ahead of the runner up (56) and number of 1st place votes (24). I've added the total number of points each volcano earned in parentheses next to its name. Here we go!
(all received at least 1 vote): Copahue, Chile/Argentina; Katla, Iceland; Kliuchevskoi, Russia; Laguna del Maule, Chile; Lokon, Indonesia; Nyamuragira, Congo; Poas, Costa Rica
Copahue (above) might be garnering votes across two years if the recent activity is just a prelude to new activity in 2013. A number of the other honorably mentioned volcanoes definitely experienced significant eruptions. However, some merely kept people's attention or garnered new respect without actually producing a single fragment of ash.
Image: Copahue erupting on December 22, 2012. NASA.
On August 5th, the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft cut through the Martian atmosphere, deployed a supersonic parachute, and lowered the Curiosity rover from a hovering, retro-rocket-powered platform, placing it gently on the surface. The mind-boggling sequence of events, nicely dramatized in the viral video “7 Minutes of Terror,” went down perfectly, marking the beginning of the mission’s geological exploration of Gale Crater. Over the next several months, the car-sized machine underwent deliberate testing and tentative drives to make sure the payload was in working order. In the process, the science team found small organic molecules (of uncertain origin) and evidence of ancient water flow “somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” according to co-investigator William Dietrich. In 2013, Curiosity will make its way to the towering Mount Sharp, where it will zap and sniff layered rock deposits to determine if habitable conditions once existed in Gale Crater.
Image: One of Curiosity's self portraits. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems)
It’s been another good year for exoplanets, as the Kepler mission entered its extended mission with 105 confirmed planets under its belt. A different group of researchers, working with data from a telescope in Chile, found a planet orbiting our closest stellar neighbor – Alpha Centauri. The planet speeds around its star at a distance of just 6 million kilometers; for comparison, mercury only gets as close as 46 million kilometers to our Sun.
Image: An artist's impression of a small planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our solar system. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
The Extremo Files completes its round up of the year’s most impressive exploratory feats today with a look at the best mountaineering expeditions of 2012. Kraig Becker, the climber and outdoor enthusiast behind The Adventure Blog gives his picks on the following pages. Becker launched the blog several years ago to chronicle the amazing expeditions and adventures that continue to take place around the globe even in the 21st century.
"When the mainstream media covers mountaineering, most stories usually revolve around Mt. Everest," Becker said. "And while that mountain is the tallest on the planet -- and remains incredibly popular with the general public -- year in and year out, the most impressive climbs take place on other, lesser-known peaks. 2012 was an impressive year for mountaineering, and these are my picks for the best of the best."
Above:
2012 got off to an impressive start with the first successful summit of Gasherbrum I last March. Located in Pakistan’s Karakoram Range, the 8080-meter (26,509 ft) peak is the eleventh tallest mountain on the planet, and while it has been scaled numerous times in the summer, it had never been conquered in the winter. Polish climbers Adam Bielecki and Janusz Golab, along with Pakistani mountaineers Ali Sadpara and Shaheen Baig, faced subzero temperatures, heavy snow, and blistering winds to reach the summit in the most demanding season of the year. Sadly, three other climbers from a different team perished attempting the same ascent, disappearing during their summit push.
-- Kraig Becker
Image: Gasherbrum I, Pakistan (Credit: Dr. Olaf Rieck)