When Volcanoes Spew Lightning

Several days ago, a volcano that had been dormant for 9,000 years near the coast of Chile erupted spectacularly, hurling liquified metals and lightning many miles into the sky. The results, which you see here, are called a "dirty thunderstorm," and are quite rare. Nobody is certain what causes them, but according to National Geographic it's believed to be "the result of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collid[ing] to produce static charges—just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms." Want to see a photo of the volcano plume from space? More »

Supermassive Telescope Hears What the Early Universe Looks Like

Yeah, you read that headline right. This supermassive radio telescope, set to be completed in Chile in 2012 (you're seeing an artist's rendering), listens to frequencies between the infrared and radio spectrum. It tunes in particles that will give astronomers an unprecedented portrait of the early universe, as well as planetary and star formations in our current volume of space. It's called the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA for short). One of the best parts of the array is that it comes with giant antenna transporters that allow researchers to reconfigure it on the fly. Just last week, the transporters arrived in Chile. Want to see one? More »