This date in science: Hurricane Sandy hits U.S. Northeast

Amanda LewanWould You Believe?

Originally Published by EarthSky — October 29, 2012 was a great and bad day for meteorology. Hurricane Sandy – unofficially known as Superstorm Sandy – was making landfall, affecting millions of people along the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts. It was to be the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the second-costliest hurricane in United States history.

Newly discovered flux in Earth may solve missing-mantle mystery

EarthzineWould You Believe?

Originally published by Science Daily – It’s widely thought that Earth arose from violent origins: Some 4.5 billion years ago, a maelstrom of gas and dust circled in a massive disc around the sun, gathering in rocky clumps to form asteroids. These asteroids, gaining momentum, whirled around a fledgling solar system, repeatedly smashing into each other to create larger bodies of rubble — the largest of which eventually cooled to form the planets.

NASA Hubble finds new Neptune moon

EarthzineWould You Believe?

Originally published by EarthSky – NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting the distant blue-green planet Neptune, the 14th known to be circling the giant planet.

UK's industrial badlands are surprise ecology hotspots

EarthzineWould You Believe?

Originally published by New Scientist – This is Tilbury, east of London. It is one of hundreds of forgotten biological treasures in the UK’s “brownfield badlands”. The nation that gave birth to the industrial revolution is now the home of a remarkable wildlife revival on these old industrial sites.

World’s largest urban bat colony

EarthzineEcosystems, Would You Believe?

Bat colony in Austin, TX. Credit: Pam Rice Phillips. Originally published by EarthSky – The Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin is the spring and summer home to some 750,000 bats with up to 1.5 million bats at the peak of the bat-watching season. It’s the largest urban bat colony in North America.