Saturday, November 14, 2009 According to scientists, the land territory of Russia has expanded by about 4.5 square kilometres within the last few years in the Far East due to seismic and volcanic activity. The gained land was recorded in the Sakhalin Peninsula. Boris Levin, head of the Institute for Sea Geology and Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the increase happened primarily due to two seismic events. The first, in August of 2007, was when a heavy 6.8 earthquake near the city of Nevelsk in the Far East raised about three square kilometres of seabed above the level of the water. The second was in June…

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Chinese state news today declared Jade Rabbit, China’s first moon rover, irreparably damaged. The Chang’e 3 lander, the first lunar lander for 37 years and of the third nationality, touched down and launched Jade Rabbit in December. Jade Rabbit was designed to spend three months seeking out natural resources but has not functioned since a fault was discovered on January 25. The probes have to shut down for two weeks each month to survive the “lunar night”, during which surface temperature drops to -180 °C or less. The first lunar night of the mission was weathered successfully but Chinese scientists suspected the rover had failed on…