Universe Today » Earth

What If Earth Had Rings?

Nancy Atkinson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:10:26 +0000

While we're on the subject of Saturn…. I came across this video, and it poses — and answers — the interesting question, what would Earth look like if it had rings like Saturn? This animation was done by Roy Prol, and it shows not only how the rings would look from space, but also the view Earthlings would have of the rings. Prol says the ring views from Earth's surface were created according to the location's latitude and the viewer's orientation, and that the size of the rings was calculated respecting the Roche limit for the Earth. A very intriguing concept, and the video is very well done. The only bad thing about Earth having rings is that we probably wouldn't have our Moon, and we wouldn't have just found water on it!

You can read a very old discussion in the BAUT forum on the prospect of Earth having rings.

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The Stats Are In: No Global Cooling

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:11:33 +0000

Global Temperature graph. Credit: National Climatic Data Center, via the Associated Press.

The idea that the world is now cooling has been repeated in opinion columns, talk radio, pundit television and more. After a poll was released last week indicating that only 57 percent of Americans now believe there is strong scientific evidence for global warming, which is down from 77 percent in 2006, Seth Borenstein from the Associated Press decided to check out what the statistics are really saying about global warming or cooling. In a blind test, Borenstein sent accumulated ground temperature data from the past 130 years to four independent statisticians. He disguised the sources (NASA, NOAA and British meteorological data) and didn't tell the statisticians what the numbers represented; he asked them to just look for trends in the data. The experts found no true temperature declines over time; additionally, the last ten years comprise not only the highest data set in the record, but they also have a continued, positive trend.
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Heat-Shocked Diamonds Provide New Clue of Horse-Killing Impact

Anne Minard — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:55:05 +0000

California's Channel Islands, where heat-shocked soot and diamonds are suggesting a killing comsic impact. Courtesy NOAA and UC Santa Barbara

Archeologists have been divided about whether an extraterrestiral impact blasted North America about 12,900 years ago, wreaking havoc on Earth's surface and sending scores of species — including a pygmy mammoth and the horse — into oblivion.

New clues from California's Channel Islands should put any doubt to rest, says an international team of researchers.

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Solar Cycle Triggers La Nina, El Nino-like Climate Shifts

Anne Minard — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:57:19 +0000

Credit: National Center for Atmospheric Research

Researchers have discovered a link between the 11-year solar cycle and tropical Pacific weather patterns that resemble La Niña and El Niño events.

When it comes to influencing Earth's climate, the Sun's variability pales in recent decades compared to greehouse gases – but the new research shows it still plays a distinguishable part.
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Ancient Domes Reveal 3.45-billion-year-old Life History

Anne Minard — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:27:32 +0000

Rare, paleosurface view of how conical stromatolites would appear if one snorkeled in the shallows of a reef. Credit: Abigail Allwood

Ancient, dome-like rock structures contain clues that life was active on Earth 3.45 billion years ago, according to new research — and the findings could help shed light on life's history on Earth and other planets, including Mars.
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Prescription For Light Pollution

Tammy Plotner — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:43:13 +0000

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There's good news ahead for dark sky supporters – a real prescription for light pollution. It's called Resolution 516: Advocating and Support for Light Pollution Control Efforts and Glare Reduction for Both Public Safety and Energy Savings. What's it all about and how did it turn out? Then step inside… Where it's dark at last. (...)
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More Atmospheric CO2 Today Than in the Past 2.1 Millions Years

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:05:33 +0000

Researchers have been able to determine the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet by analyzing the shells of single–celled plankton. Their findings shed new light on CO2's role in the earth's cycles of cooling and warming, confirming many researchers' suspicions that higher carbon dioxide levels coincided with warmer intervals during the study period. But it also rules out a drop in CO2 as the cause for earth's ice ages growing longer and more intense some 850,000 years ago.
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History of Iron Yields New Insight Into Earth's Deepest Reaches

Anne Minard — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:23:14 +0000

Credit: Louise Kellogg, modified by James Rustad & Qing-zhu Yin/UC Davis

Earth may have given up its innermost secrets to a pair of California geochemists, who have used extensive computer simulations to piece together the earliest history of our planet's core.

This schematic of Earth’s crust and mantle shows the results of their study, which found extreme pressures would have concentrated iron’s heavier isotopes near the bottom of the mantle as it crystallized from an ocean of magma.(...)
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Life on Earth — and Other Worlds — Could Last Longer Than Expected

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:10:35 +0000

Most scientists predict that in about a billion years, the sun's ever-increasing radiation will have scorched the Earth beyond habitability. The breathable air will be toast, the carbon dioxide that serves as food for plant life will disappear, the oceans will evaporate; and all living things will disappear. Or maybe not. A group of researchers from Caltech have studied a mechanism which would cause any planet with living organisms to remain habitable longer than originally thought, perhaps doubling the lifespan. This sounds like good news for future inhabitants of Earth, but also, this mechanism could increase the chance that life elsewhere in the Universe might have the time to progress to advanced levels.
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With Moon Rocks in Hand, Parazynski Reaches Mt. Everest Peak

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:46:41 +0000

We've been following former astronaut Scott Parazynski's attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and now comes the news that he has successfully reached the summit, one year after a back injury forced him to give up his climb. "It was a wonderful experience, though and through," Parazynski said in a Skype interview with Miles O'Brien, "and certainly the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, both physically and mentally." Parazynski brought several objects with him to the world's highest summit, including rocks from the Moon, and remembrances of fallen astronauts. Parazynski is the first astronaut to summit Mt. Everest.
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Cosmic Rays too Wimpy to Influence Climate

Anne Minard — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:31:48 +0000

Illustration Credit: Simon Swordy (U. Chicago), NASA

People looking for new ways to explain climate change on Earth have sometimes turned to cosmic rays, showers of atomic nuclei that emanate from the Sun and other sources in the cosmos.

But new research, in press in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, says cosmic rays are puny compared to other climatic influences, including greenhouse gases — and not likely to impact Earth's climate much.

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European, Chinese Satellites Watch Solar Storms Pummel Earth

Anne Minard — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:48:09 +0000

Scientists have long understood that satellites are at risk from bombardment by solar storms. Now, they've gotten a closer look at how the storms are punishing Earth's magnetosphere, leaving satellites exposed.

The movie above, and the solar flare video below, were released by the European Space Agency today, along with descriptions of two solar eruptions spotted using ESA’s four Cluster satellites and the two Chinese/ESA Double Star satellites.

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Submit Your Questions for Scott Parazynski and Keith Cowing

Nancy Atkinson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:33:08 +0000

Scott and Danru on Pumor RI with Everest Behind Them. Credit: OnOrbit.com

Former astronaut Scott Parazynski is making an attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and has been sharing his adventures via Twitter, and his blog on OnOrbit.com. As we reported in in our article about Parazynski in March, he wants to share his experiences with as many people as possible. Earlier today, his "media sherpa," Keith Cowing from NASA Watch.com joined Parazynski at base camp and both Cowing and Parazynski have agreed to take questions from readers of Universe Today and answer them during their time on Mt. Everest. Parazynski has been blogging and Twittering during his preparations for the climb, and he even wants to Twitter from the summit. “I want to tell the story of exploration here on Earth and the corollaries it has with space exploration,” Parazynski told Universe Today before he left for Kathmandu, Nepal. “The intent is to share the story with as many people as we can, particularly young people.”

So submit your questions in the comments section and we'll relay them on. Questions can be about mountain climbing or space exploration. (...)
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Despite Global Warming, Wildfire Frequency Does Not Increase

Ian O'Neill — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:16:21 +0000

An Alaskan wildfire engulfs woodland (John McColgan/BLM Alaska Fire Service)

As global average temperatures rise, it is widely believed the frequency of wildfires will increase. However, this may not be the case. According to analysis of sediment from lake beds in Northern Alaska, the frequency of wildfires didn't relate to changes in temperature variation over the last few thousand years. This is strange, surely a warmer climate will dry out vegetation faster, creating more fuel for fires to ignite and spread? Apparently not, there appears to be a far more potent controlling factor at play…
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Where is the Most Remote Location on Earth?

Ian O'Neill — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:27:38 +0000

A heat map of travel-times to nearest city

According to a new study, less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of travel from the nearest city. This doesn't include air travel, it is ground-travel only (i.e. on foot, train, car, boat, bike, horse, donkey). So no matter where you are in the world, there's a good chance you can get to somewhere substantially populated within two days. At face-value, this might not seem very important, but when you look at the maps, you see many wilderness locations aren't quite as remote as we once thought they were. The Amazon Rainforest for example is surprisingly well connected (rivers are quite useful in that respect), and the remote deserts of Africa have a pretty efficient road network.

So, where is the most remote location on Earth? How long would it take to get there?
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A Day for Earth, but a Whole Week for Dark Skies

Anne Minard — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:50:51 +0000

Wednesday is Earth Day, but all week — Monday, April 20 through Saturday, April 26 — is National Dark Sky Week in America, when people are asked to dim the lights to see more stars.

If enough people participate, backyard and professional astronomers might be treated with a week of darker, starrier skies. The bigger idea is to raise awareness about sensible lighting practices, so skies might get a little bit darker all the time. And not just for astronomy buffs. Besides aesthetics, evidence is mounting that light pollution could have far-reaching effects for the environment and even public health.

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Major Utility Company Makes Agreement for Space Based Solar Power

Nancy Atkinson — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:55:25 +0000

Solar Collecting Satellite. Image courtesy of Mafic Studios.

One of the largest utility companies in the US has decided to look towards space to find more power. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in California announced a proposed agreement with startup company Solaren Corporation to provide 200 mega watts of space based solar power (SBSP) starting in 2016. PG&E is now seeking approval from California state regulators for permission to sign this agreement. While PG&E is not making any financial investment at this time, the announcement shows that SBSP is being taken seriously as a viable energy source. PG&E and the two other California utilities are required by the state to source 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010 and 30 percent by 2017. None are producing the required amount so far.
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Without Nickel, Life on Earth Could Finally Breathe

Anne Minard — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:54:20 +0000

Caption: Banded iron formations like this from northern Michigan contain evidence of a drop in dissolved nickel in ancient oceans. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science

Researchers have long puzzled over why oxygen flourished in Earth's atmosphere starting around 2.4 billion years.

Called the "Great Oxidation Event," the transition "irreversibly changed surface environments on Earth and ultimately made advanced life possible," said Dominic Papineau of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory.

Now, Papineau has co-authored a new study in the journal Nature, which reveals new clues to the mystery in ancient sedimentary rocks.

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Was the Tunguska Fireball a Comet Chemical Bomb?

Ian O'Neill — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:23:34 +0000

Over a century ago, on June 30th, 1908 a huge explosion detonated over an unpopulated region of Russia called Tunguska. It is probably one of the most enduring mysteries of this planet. What could cause such a huge explosion in the atmosphere, with the energy of a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs, flattening a forest the area of Luxembourg and yet leaving no crater? It is little wonder that the Tunguska event has become great material for science fiction writers; how could such a huge blast, that shook the Earth's magnetic field and lit up the Northern Hemisphere skies for three days leave no crater and just a bunch of flattened, scorched trees?

Although there are many theories as to how the Tunguska event may have unfolded, scientists are still divided over what kind of object could have hit the Earth from space. Now a Russian scientist believes he has uncovered the best answer yet. The Earth was glanced by a large comet, that skipped off the upper atmosphere, dropping a chunk of comet material as it did so. As the comet chunk heated up as it dropped through the atmosphere, the material, packed with volatile chemicals, exploded as the biggest chemical explosion mankind had ever seen…
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Countdown to Earth Hour 2009…

Tammy Plotner — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:12:59 +0000

There's less than 24 hours left before Earth Hour 2009 will begin. While you may hotly debate whether or not turning out your lights for one hour can impact our global climate – it's not about what actually happens to our planet during that hour, but about showing you care. 3,900 cities and towns in 84 countries around the world will be shutting down the lights at 8:30 pm local time in one of the biggest events in history. Even if you don't care, take the time to read just a little bit more… Where will you be when the lights go out? (...)
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Redoubt Re-ignites

Nancy Atkinson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:46:48 +0000

Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted twice Thursday morning, creating a 12-mile-high cloud of ash. The Alaska Volcano Observatory reported the first eruption came about 8:30 a.m., sending an ash cloud more than 9,100 meters (30,000) feet in the air. A second eruption came about an hour later, and blasted ash 20,000 meters (65,000 feet) high. After the second eruption, mud flows called lahars near the base of the volcano ran into the nearby Drift River. The National Weather Service also issued a flash flood warning for regions surrounding the Drift River, as eruptions can cause snow and ice to melt, causing the river to swell with melt water. The ash is predicted to drift as far as Anchorage, which lies about 160 km (100 miles) northeast of the volcano.
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Former Astronaut To Take Social Media to New Heights

Nancy Atkinson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:08:36 +0000

Scott Parazynski during his attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Credit: OnOrbit.com

In 2008, astronaut Scott Parazynski came within 24 hours of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest when a painful back injury forced him to abandon his climb. Now, Parazynski is on his way back for another attempt at summitting the world's highest mountain peak. But this time, he wants to take the rest of the world with him. If everything works as planned, Parazynski will blog, podcast, vodcast and more during the climb, and he even wants to Twitter from the summit. "I want to tell the story of exploration here on Earth and the corollaries it has with space exploration," Parazynski told Universe Today before he left for Kathmandu, Nepal. "They are both very hostile, unforgiving environments that require a lot of training, a lot of gear, and a lot of thought. The intent is to share the story with as many people as we can, particularly young people." Parazynski and his team have even agreed to take questions from readers of Universe Today and answer them during their climb.
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Ozone Success Story: NASA Video of Enviro Action That Worked

Anne Minard — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:27:32 +0000

Imagine the year 2065. Two-thirds of Earth's ozone is gone. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica is a year-round fixture with a twin over the North Pole. People living in mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C., get sunburned after five minutes. DNA-mutating UV radiation is up 650 percent, with likely harmful effects on plants, animals and human skin cancer rates.

Such is the world we would have inherited if 193 nations had not agreed to ban ozone-depleting substances, according to atmospheric chemists at NASA, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in Bilthoven. The researchers have unveiled new computer simulations this week of a worldwide disaster that humans managed to avoid.

In retrospect, the researchers say, the Montreal Protocol was a "remarkable international agreement that should be studied by those involved with global warming and the attempts to reach international agreement on that topic."

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Vernal Equinox – Busting the Myth of Balancing Eggs

Tammy Plotner — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:19:19 +0000

Season Diagram courtesy of NOAA

Spring officially arrives for everyone, including astronomers on March 20. The word "Equinox" literally means "equal night". It's all about the balance of light – not the myth of balancing eggs. On the universal date (UTC) of Friday, March 20, 2009 at 11:44 (am) both the day and night are the same length. But what's so special about it? It's a date that most of us recognize as symbolic of changing seasons. North of Earth's equator we welcome Spring, while people south of the equator are gearing up for the cooler temperatures of Autumn. But what's all this about balancing eggs? (...)
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Indian Balloon Experiment Nets Three New Bacteria

Anne Minard — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:12:03 +0000

Credit: ISRO

Indian scientists flying a giant balloon experiment have announced the discovery of three new species of bacteria from the stratosphere.

In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on gene sequencing, showed greater than 98 percent similarity with reported known species on earth. Three bacterial colonies, however, represented totally new species. All three boast significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbors on Earth.

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