A new study has found that <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/airpollution_intro.html&dev=">pollution</a> from <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/particulates.html&dev=">fine particles</a> in the air - mainly the result of burning coal or <a href="/earth/interior/eruptions.html&dev=">volcanic eruptions</a> - can shade <a href="/earth/Life/cnidarian.html&dev=">corals</a> from sunlight and cool the surrounding water resulting in reduced growth rates. Coral growth rates in the Caribbean were affected by volcanic aerosol emissions in the early 20th century and by aerosol emissions caused by humans in the later 20th century. For more information, see the <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_278202_en.html">press release</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Toby Hudson (Wikimedia Commons)</em></small></p>This dramatic view of Jupiter's <a href="/jupiter/atmosphere/J_clouds_GRS.html&dev=">Great Red Spot</a> and its surroundings was obtained by <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&dev=">Voyager 1</a> on Feb. 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometers) from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 100 miles (160 kilometers) across can be seen here. The colorful, wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex end variable wave motion.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>Greenland's <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/cryosphere_glacier1.html">ice sheet</a> saw a record <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/olpa/greenland_10dec07.html">melt</a> in July 2012. Scientists studying this event have found that this melting event was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air and amplified by the presence of a blanket of thin low-level <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html">clouds</a> which pushed temperatures up above freezing. For more information see the <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/21638">press release</a> from the University of Wisconsin Madison.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison</em></small></p>An artist's rendering of the moment of impact of a massive <a href="/our_solar_system/meteors/meteors.html&dev=">meteorite</a> at the end of the Cretaceous (at the end of the <a href="/earth/geology/hist_mesozoic.html&dev=">Mesozoic Era</a>). Many scientists have concluded for decades that a meteorite four to six kilometers in diameter impacted the Earth at this time, resulting in a <a href="/earth/past/KTextinction.html&dev=">mass extinction of dinosaurs</a> and many other life forms. Recent research suggests that perhaps <a href="/headline_universe/olpa/chicxulub.html&dev=">massive volcanic eruptions</a> may be been responsible for the extinction.<p><small><em>Courtesy of Don Davis, NASA</em></small></p><p>The United Nations <a href="http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/PAND_report.pdf" target="_blank">estimated</a> that between 1994-2015, there were 6,873 natural disasters worldwide, which affected 218 million people and claimed 1.35 million lives. </p> <p>Check out the materials about natural disasters in <a href="/earth/natural_hazards/when_nature_strikes.html&dev=">NBC Learn Videos</a>, and their earth system science connections built up by the related secondary classroom activities.</p><p><small><em>NBC Learn</em></small></p>This historic image is the first ever taken from a spacecraft in orbit about <a href="/mercury/mercury.html&dev=">Mercury</a>, the innermost planet of the solar system. Taken on 3/29/2011 by <a href="/space_missions/robotic/messenger/messenger.html&dev=">MESSENGER</a>, it shows numerous craters across the <a href="/mercury/Interior_Surface/Surface/surface_overview.html&dev=">surface</a> of the planet. Temperatures there can reach over 800F because Mercury is so close to the Sun and rotates so slowly. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury earlier in March 2011.<p><small><em>NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington</em></small></p>


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