This educational brief describes the structure of Earth's magnetosphere, how it interacts with energetic particles emitted by the sun, and how it protects Earth from the effects of these particles. Short descriptions of NASA missions to study the magnetosphere, solar wind, and other particle emissions are included. Full description.

This educational brief provides an overview of solar activity, including a description of Earth's magnetosphere and of various solar phenomena such as the solar wind, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), sunspots, solar flares, and others. A list of links to additional material is also provided. Full description.

This educational brief discusses the advances in our knowledge of Mars topography brought about by the high-resolution map produced from Mars Laser Orbiter Altimeter (MOLA) data. Individual features and regions are described along with any new insights provided by MOLA into their origins. Full description.

This educational brief provides a summary of the historical development of our understanding of magnetism and magnetic fields, including a listing of many of the contributions of individual scientists. Links to additional information are embedded in the text. Full description.

This educational brief provides a description of the use of spectroscopy to identify elements in the stars, including a scientific explanation of bright line and dark line spectra, from an historical perspective. A list of links to additional information and images of atomic spectra is also provided. Full description.

This science brief introduces OMNIWeb, an internet-based data retrieval and analysis interface for near-Earth solar and geomagnetic data. A summary of solar and heliospheric physics, including basic terms, is also provided. Full description.

This educational brief provides an overview of how previously unrevealed information about our galaxy and other celestial objects can be obtained by examining their energy emissions in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum other than that visible to the human eye. Remote imagery of the Milky way in several wavelengths is included, and links to additional information are embedded in the text. Full description.

This educational brief presents a discussion of how the Landsat project has been able to provide data on environmental changes and potential problems. Topics include a short history of the project, an overview of the sorts of environmental issues Landsat satellites are able to "see" from space, and a brief description of ground truthing and how it supports remotely sensed data. Full description.

This tutorial explains the Keplerian elements, the seven numbers which are required to define the orbit of a satellite. Each section addresses one of the elements, giving a literal definition as well as a practical explanation in simple language with some examples of typical numeric values. Full description.

These documents describe the potential impacts of global climate change in each of the fifty states. Impacts discussed include temperature change, changes in precipitation, human health effects, rise in sea level, and changes to water supplies. Additional impacts are predicted for agriculture, forest cover, and sensitive ecosystems. Full description.