NASA
Sun Power
With four million solar panels covering 10 square miles of land, China’s Longyangxia Dam Solar Park is the largest in the world. As solar energy becomes cheaper, solar plants are getting bigger. In 2015, California was home to the two largest producing solar plants on Earth, before India’s Kmuthi Solar Power Project eclipsed the Golden State in 2016. Even now, a new project in China’s northwest threatens to topple Longyangxia’s reign, with six million panels expected to produce a capacity of 2,000 Megawatts – that’s enough to power around 330,000 homes.
Ehang
Hail a flying passenger drone
Dubai is already a futuristic world, and come summer 2017, it has plans to whiz some of its (willing) denizens around in single-passenger drones. The city already tested the Chinese-built Ehang 184, capable of carrying up to 220 pounds and flying at 100 mph. And to think we once hailed taxis with wheels…
NASA
More ice breaks off Antarctica
The Antarctic ice sheet is growing weaker, and NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite continues to capture images showing massive chunks of the Pine Island Glacier breaking off into the sea. This one shows a cracked slab around one mile long heading for the ocean. NASA calls this “tiny” compared to a 2015 event in which a 225-square-mile iceberg calved into the water. Another Antarctic ice crack – over 70 miles long – has also generated a lot of attention recently, and it’s certainly one to watch: If it breaks off, it will be an iceberg the size of Delaware.
Dinghua Yang & Jun Liu
Long necks and live birth
PopSci’s Eleanor Cummins reported on an unprecedented dinosaur discovery this week: “A blood-thirsty boss with a neck about five-and-a-half feet long.” The dino was also pregnant with live young at the time of her death. While long necks are fascinating, scientists are even more perplexed by her pregnant belly. Previously, they thought that ancient reptiles – along with their modern-day cousins, birds and crocodiles – all laid eggs. This bloodthirsty boss just made waves.
Kelly M. Grow/California Department of Water Resources
Dam problems
For the first time in it’s 49-year history, the Oroville Dam overflowed. The California Department of Water Resources captured the spill-over, as seen in this image. Even worse, the surge of water formed a sinkhole in the dam’s spillway — which is kind of like a long concrete waterslide. This threatened to unleash a flood, prompting the state to temporarily evacuate around 200,000 people. The great flood didn’t come – this time.
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