Brian Hackney

Nov 16, 2023 | cbsnews.com | Brian Hackney

Emperor penguins are not simply majestic. These birds are tough creatures who manage to survive in some of the harshest weather conditions imaginable.  The penguins breed and live on frozen sea ice in the Antarctic. But the Antarctic Sea ice is disappearing due to a warming planet and the melting sea ice threatens their very existence. "They show up at the breeding season and the ice isn't there, so they have nowhere to breed," explained Dr. Birgitte McDonald.

Oct 17, 2023 | cbsnews.com | Brian Hackney

SAN FRANCISCO -- Over three decades after the powerful Loma Prieta earthquake struck, some experts maintain that the strongest quake to hit the Bay Area since 1906 could have been much more destructive. Legendary geologist and onetime head of USGS Menlo Park Allen Lindh suspected something was on the way. He leaned back in his chair in early October of 1989, and said, "Those Lake Elsman earthquakes.

Oct 12, 2023 | cbsnews.com | Brian Hackney

SAN FRANCISCO -- A rare annular eclipse will sweep south through southern Canada, the Western US, then Central and South America on Saturday. It will not, however, be viewable as an annular eclipse in anywhere but extreme (that is, extreme—think Goose Lake) northeastern California. For the Bay Area, it'll be a partial solar eclipse, with about 76% of the sun photobombed by the new moon.

Sep 24, 2023 | cbsnews.com | Brian Hackney

Fragments from asteroid Bennu delivered safely to earth SAN FRANCISCO -- Lockheed engineers erupted in applause as Osiris-REx became the first U.S. spacecraft to bring samples from an asteroid back to earth. The drama unfolded early Sunday morning as the probe, superheated to incandescence by entry speeds in excess of 27,000 miles per hour, streaked over the skies of San Francisco, headed for the Utah desert.

Sep 23, 2023 | cbsnews.com | Brian Hackney

NASA mission to asteroid returning to Earth SAN FRANCISCO -- An asteroid is screaming toward impact with earth Sunday morning in the Utah desert. You'll be relieved to know it's only about a half pound of actual asteroid and is encased inside a canister. The source is Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid which has a 1 in 1,750 chance of impacting earth between the years 2178 and 2290. So, no matter how good your health care is, you will not be around to witness that near-miss.