Earth Space Science

A menacing wasteland. A destructive new weapon. A planet on the edge of catastrophe. Sheriff Duke can’t rest. There’s no time to slow down. The threats are unending. The enemy unyielding. If he wants to stop the apocalypse, he’ll have to cross a treacherous wasteland where the cannibals and murderers are the least of his worries, and the creatures infesting the landscape aren’t the most dangerous thing in his path. The race is on, the doomsday clock is counting down, and if he fails it will be more than his wife and child that are caught in the fallout. It’ll be the world.

Some see dust as dull stuff, useless at best, and sneeze-inducing at worst. But in the hands of writer Hannah Holmes, dust becomes a dazzling and mysterious force. As Holmes says, dust is a messenger, and air is its medium. And by the end of this fascinating journey through The Secret Life of Dust, we cannot help but agree.

In 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 took the first photos of the far side of the Moon. Even in their poor resolution, the images stunned scientists: The far side is an enormous mountainous expanse, not the vast lava plains seen from Earth. Subsequent missions have confirmed this in much greater detail. How could this be, and what might it tell us about our own place in the universe? As it turns out, quite a lot. When the Earth Had Two Moons is an astonishing exploration of planet formation and the origins of life by one of the world’s most innovative planetary geologists.

Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have been in existence for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than 50 times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths?

When Kell and his team return to Earth many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point. But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary - by total annihilation if necessary.

Earth burns. After generations in exile, we returned to our long-lost planet. Scarred. Haunted. Survivors. We - the last humans - are finally home. But our enemies still crave our blood. Seven alien species unite. Seven fleets bombard our planet. Seven armies invade our beautiful world. They have one goal: To kill us all. We refuse to lose Earth again. We will resist. We will fight for every hill, every valley, every stone, and blade of grass. We will defend our planet. At any cost. Together, we will raise our voices. We will sing the song of Earth. We will tell the enemy: Earth is ours!

The basilisks. Giant serpents from deep space. Their true name is unknown. Their homeworld is cloaked in shadow. But one thing is certain: They're killers. And they vow to kill us all.

In 1977, two extraordinary spacecraft called Voyager were launched to the stars. Affixed to each Voyager craft was a gold-coated copped phonograph record as a message to possible extra-terrestrial civilizations that might encounter the spacecraft in some distant space and time.

Billions died before humanity clawed its way up from the brink of extinction, defeating the aliens that treated us like mere beasts. After years of agonizing toil and hardship, we have finally built a first-rate fleet, forcing our hostile neighbors to accept our freedom. But in the center of the galaxy, a bitterly vengeful woman discovers the secret of the Plutonians. She is going to awaken them so the extraterrestrials can attack us with the deadliest ships in existence. If the Plutonians destroy our fleet, the others will surely swarm in like locusts and kill us.

In researching one of history's greatest scientific quests, a mission to measure the Earth and define the meter, Ken Alder stumbled on a 200-year-old secret: The meter, it turns out, is in error. This is a story of two men, a secret, and a timeless human dilemma: is it permissible to perpetuate a small lie in the service of a larger truth?

On board an X101 stealth aircraft, Lauren, Jack, and Mike arrive at the secret location of Sky Dreamer Corp - a place equipped with technology and resources far more advanced than anything they could have ever imagined.

They came from deep space. They came to destroy us. Fifty years ago bloodthirsty aliens devastated the Earth. Most of humanity perished. We fell into darkness. But now we rise from the ashes. Now we fight back. Marco Emery was born into the war. After his mother is killed, he joins the Human Defense Force, Earth's ragtag army. Emery must survive basic training, become a soldier, and finally face the aliens in battle. Against the alien onslaught, Earth stands alone. But we will fight. We will rise. We will win.

After a long and exalted military career, General Connor Gates thought he was finally ready to retire. He was wrong. When interstellar probes sent to Earth’s star system report back 40 years earlier than expected, the colonists learn that humans somehow survived the cataclysmic events of the past…but so did the enemy.

Recruited to follow the last signal of the mysterious Elders to a system halfway across the galaxy, Andy joins the crew of the James Bowie for another adventure into the unknown. The journey will be filled with mystery and wonder, with strange life seeded on far-flung worlds by the godlike Elders…and with danger. For the Elders didn’t leave our galaxy of their own accord. They were driven out by an implacable enemy, something beyond their understanding…and ours.

Mind Openers 2.0 is the second installment in a two-part set. It takes a fresh look at relativity, cosmology, and quantum theory by imagining a “sandbox universe”, in which space and time are treated as tangible and visualizable phenomena. In addition to providing an intuitive feel for the physics, the model makes a number of acutely unexpected predictions. The author is a geophysicist (MSc, fellow of geoscientists, Canada) and educator, who specializes in translating scientific material for the non-expert.

Darius has enjoyed a nice break from an action packed integration into the GGA. With Earth in limbo, and a lost colony likely in need of help, he knows his vacation is on borrowed time. He owes the Merchant Marines, Pavia, and humanity itself to do more, to be more. So when life is turned upside down again, he ventures back into the stars, helping those he can, when he can. The adventure is intense, his family bonds are tight, and the dangers ever-present.

At last, the Earth and the Colonial Union have begun formal discussions about their relationship in the future - a chance for the divisions in humanity to be repaired. The diplomats and crew of the Clarke are on hand to help with the process, including Ambassador Ode Abumwe and CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson, both of whom were born on Earth. But not everyone wants the human division to be repaired.... And they will go to great lengths to make sure it isn’t....

They destroyed the civilization of the ancient alien Elders thousands of years ago, and now they’re following Andy Clanton and the crew of the James Bowie back from the edge of the galaxy and into Alliance space, bent on wiping out all intelligent life in the galaxy. The Bugs probe for weakness, attacking new friends and old enemies, and forcing Andy and the others into union with forces that had tried to destroy them only months before and putting a wedge between the Earth and the Alliance.

Satellites may exist out in space, but they let us study Earth from the outside looking in. From climate change to natural disasters and more, find out how scientists are using satellites to tackle some of our world's most challenging problems.