The Rockefeller State Park Preserve near Pleasantville, New York, features a fine example of a glacial erratic, a giant rock left behind thousands of years ago by a glacier as it moved. In this case, the word erratic functions as a noun. Both the...
A San Antonio, Texas, listener recalls that when she was a youngster, she’d pester her mother by asking the name of lots and lots of rocks on the ground. Her mother eventually began referring to those specimens as leaverites — as in “leave ’er...
A rock or particle of debris out in space is called a meteoroid. If it enters the earth’s atmosphere, it’s a called meteor. So why is it called a meteorite when it falls to earth? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Photos and tests from the Mars Rover show an abundance of hematite, a dark red mineral that takes its name from the Greek word haima, meaning “blood.” Another mineral, goethite, is named for the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an...
A day on Mars is about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth, so astronomers have a word for that unit of time. They call it a sol, from the Latin word for sun. NASA scientists refer to and the day before the current sol as yestersol. They tried...
leaverite n.— «“It’s ’leaverite,'” says Smith of one specimen: “Leave ‘er right there.” But after a few more pans of sand the kids hit paydirt.» —“A Madness for Moonstones” by Anne H...