🪨🔥 #Earth’s inner core reaches about 5,500°C, roughly as hot as the surface of the #sun.

Scientists from UC #SantaCruz and Sun Yat-sen University calculated this using diamond anvil cells and shock-wave experiments that simulate the extreme pressures deep underground. The outer core’s liquid #iron also generates #Earth’s magnetic field, which protects all #life from #solar #radiation.

👉 https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/how-hot-is-earths-core

#geology #temperature #science #magneticfield #planet #heat #solarsystem #geophysics #volcano #earthscience #lifescience

Predicting Volcanic Eruptions

People have long hoped to reliably predict volcanic eruptions. An automated system at Piton de la Fournaise in France has been doing so since 2014 with an impressive 92% accuracy. The tool, called Jerk, makes its predictions based on real-time measurements of subtle ground movements associated with magma fracturing rock on its way to the surface. Its predictions have ranged from minutes to hours before the start of an eruption.

So far, the team has only tested the system at one volcano, but they are working to install a second version at Mount Etna, where they’ll see whether other volcanoes produce a similar signal ahead of eruption. If so, Jerk could provide valuable warnings in populated areas and give geologists an automated alternative for monitoring remote volcanoes.

To learn more, check out the team’s open access paper and this interview with the team leaders over at Gizmodo. (Image credit: F. Beauducel; research credit: F. Beauducel et al.; via Gizmodo)

👹🔴 Researchers from #Hokkaido University and the #Okinawa Institute of #Science and #Technology analyzed five auroral events over #Japan from June 2024 to March 2025, combining satellite #data with #photos from citizen skywatchers.

They found that red #auroras reached unusually high altitudes (500-800 km) during #storms previously classified as moderate, suggesting #solar activity may be stronger than standard measurements indicate. The findings have practical implications for #satellites in low #Earth orbit, because heated upper #atmosphere expands and creates extra drag on #spacecraft.

👉 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260521072359.htm

#weather #magnetosphere #science #geophysics #space #ionosphere

Herring Spawn

From mid-February to early May, tiny silvery Pacific herring gather along the shallow coastlines of Vancouver Island off British Columbia, Canada. In these sheltered waters, they spawn; female fish produce sticky eggs and males flood the area with milt, which turns the water a milky turquoise or green. The colors can be so vivid that the spawn is visible to satellites.

Barkley Sound, on the island’s southwestern side, frequently hosts spawning, as its rocky shoreline provides protection and the pockets of lower salinity that the fish favor. After spawning, the fish migrate back to their feeding grounds in deeper, nutrient-rich waters. (Image credit: R. Cutler; via NASA Earth Observatory)