Churchill Science

When volcanoes erupt, there is a huge cloud of dust, gas, and sometimes ash. For a long time, scientists have known that there are lightning strikes inside these clouds, but needed to invent a way to screen out the cloud itself to get a picture of what was going on inside.

This image was taken by the Lightning Mapping Array, set up by scientists to take measurements inside the volcanic cloud at Mt. Redoubt in Alaska. The scientists set up their equipment when they heard that Mt. Redoubt was getting ready to erupt again, and waited two months until the eruptions began. Here’s yet another reason why it’s important to monitor volcanoes!

The Kepler spacecraft was launched into space last night. Its job is to take pictures of planets that orbit around other stars.

Here’s an animation:

And here’s the video of Kepler’s launch.

A fossilized snake skeleton was discovered in Colombia. It was big enough to eat a cow! Don’t worry, it’s extinct now.

Take a guess – what do you think this is? And why is Lisa so excited about it?