The sun bombards Earth with enormous amounts of radiation which strike Earth's atmosphere in the form of visible light plus ultraviolet (UV) infrared (IR)
About 30 percent of the radiation striking the Earth is reflected back out to space by clouds ice and other reflective surfaces.
which passes out of the atmosphere into space. The balance between incoming and outgoing radiation keeps Earth's overall average temperature at about 59 F 15 C). This exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation that warms Earth is referred often to as the greenhouse effect because a greenhouse works in much
The coconut palm ranks as one of the most useful plants on the planet. For generations cultures in tropical regions have used it for food cosmetics or building materials.
and incoming radiation from the sun. Solar radiation passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed partially on the surface of Earth.
Some of the incoming radiation however is reflected back out toward space. Gases in Earth's atmosphere absorb some of that reflected radiation;
when applied to the skin as a cream before sun exposure. Melatonin may also be effective for jet lag especially in preventing daytime sleepiness
A more modern reference to the phrase occurred on The Simpsons. The episode includes a scene has 10-year-old Bart Simpson remarking to his friend Milhouse The sun is out birds are singing bees are trying to have sex with them as is my understanding..
While other planets in Earth's solar system are either scorching hot or bitterly cold Earth's surface has relatively mild and stable temperatures.
and protect the planet. But humans have changed Earth's atmosphere in dramatic ways over the past two centuries resulting in global warming.
There's a delicate balancing act occurring every day all across the Earth involving the radiation the planet receives from space
and the radiation that's reflected back out to space. Earth is bombarded constantly with enormous amounts of radiation primarily from the sun. This solar radiation strikes the Earth's atmosphere in the form of visible light plus ultraviolet (UV) infrared (IR)
and other types of radiation that are invisible to the human eye. UV radiation has a shorter wavelength
About 30 percent of the radiation striking Earth's atmosphere is reflected immediately back out to space by clouds ice snow sand and other reflective surfaces according to NASA.
which passes out of the atmosphere and into space. It's this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing radiation that makes the Earth habitable with an average temperature of about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) according to NASA.
Without this atmospheric equilibrium Earth would be as cold and lifeless as its moon or as blazing hot as Venus. The moon
Venus on the other hand has a very dense atmosphere that traps solar radiation; the average temperature on Venus is about 864 degrees F (462 degrees C). The exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation that warms the Earth is referred often to as the greenhouse effect because a greenhouse works in much the same way.
Incoming UV radiation easily passes through the glass walls of a greenhouse and is absorbed by the plants
CO2 and other greenhouse gases act like a blanket absorbing IR radiation and preventing it from escaping into outer space.
when the sun heats the ground up. Also plants on the south side of a building tend to bloom earlier than those on the north side
which takes up too much space in a coop. Economically meat from a grown turkey bird is much more valuable than an extra large fried egg.
But this natural phenomenon will likely become less reliable as climate change disrupts the planet experts say.
Though trees that currently populate more Southern states might move in to fill that space few
A warming planet could have a host of other effects on fall foliage too he said.
#Why Do We Still Send Animals into Space? A gray rhesus macaque made history yesterday (Jan 28)
when the primate reportedly flew into space in an Iranian mission. It also became part of a long line of animal astronauts.
But since science has proved time and again that humans can survive the extraterrestrial trip why do countries bother sending monkeys and other living creatures up into space at all these days?
There's nothing new about sending a monkey in space. But sending other animals into space can provide valuable scientific lessons for interplanetary travel
and space greenhouses he said. Animals in Space: 10 Beastly Tales Front-line testers At the beginning of the space race countries sent chimpanzees dogs and rabbits into space as testers.
Scientists believed that if the hapless animals could survive the weightlessness the extreme speeds and the rapid acceleration then humans had shot a fair as well.
But since then more than 500 people have traveled to space and space tourism isn't too far away from becoming mainstream.
So testing the survivability of short-term space travel for humans is not a pressing scientific concern Halberg said.
Photos: The First Space Tourists Of course not all space-based animal experiments have fundamental scientific value said Nathaniel Szewczyk a biologist at the University of Nottingham who has studied 24 generations of nematodes in space.
 At times it's a bit difficult to see the value.  Often you have high-school students that are doing experiments
 Interplanetary travel Instead animal experiments in space can provide insights into the dangers of longer voyages such as interplanetary or interstellar travel for extraterrestrial colonization.
and it would take four years to travel to Mars to set up a colony Halberg said.
but we need to understand how organisms respond to these space conditions Halberg told Livescience.
and go into an extreme hibernation with zero metabolism he said thereby withstanding the punishing radiation desiccation and frigid temperatures of space.
Space greenhouse Once humans get to another planet we would need to find a way to stay alive.
Sending a space greenhouse full of fruits vegetables and pollinating insects may be one way for humans to feed themselves on a Mars mission.
But pollinators for instance could be confused by the zero pressure or weightless environment of space. And fruits and vegetables may not have the same life cycle in space Halberg said.
All organisms On earth have adapted to a gravitational pull of one atmosphere so if we change that how do the organisms respond?
Follow Livescience on Twitter@livescience. We're also on Facebookâ & Google+.
#Why Elk Are Robbing Birds Sonya Auer of the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently won the Elton Prize from The british Ecological Society for her research and writing.
Warming Planet Pushing Species Out of Habitats Quicker Than Expected Elk eat plants and they especially like the tender new shoots of trees like maple and locust compared with conifers
and farmland but don't do well in dense thickets they need open spaces where males can display to females as a part of their breeding ritual Hughes said.
and ocean sinks mask the extent of how rapidly the planet is warming from greenhouse gases.
Yet it is important to note that REDD+is working for the planet and for businesses Today REDD+projects protect 14 million hectares of threatened forests across the globe (an area the size of Bangladesh)
''The planet is getting warmer and human behavior is responsible. The changing climate has brought early spring late-ending fall and large amounts of rain and snow.
it helps protect the skin from sun damage and pollution. Keeping you cleansed and preventing kidney stones Asparagus can act as a natural diuretic due to its high amounts of the amino acid asparagine.
and create a more sustainable planet. Here are five major ways we cut waste and helped protect the environment in 2013.1.
and if they're not altered by the courts they should be very effective in reducing CO2 emissions from the power sector said NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies researcher Drew Shindell.
You May Also Like Carbon dioxide Passes Global 400 ppm Milestone Climate Change Could Warp Rails With#Sun Kinks Cold U s. Winter Caused By Warm Tropical Waters?
Her hair shone silver in the sun as she turned back to her cub. They were savoring sweet huckleberries sprouted in soils enriched by the ashes of a wildfire half a century ago.
domination of the planet. They argue that we should focus on domesticating landscapes to serve economic growth of the human juggernaut rather than protecting remaining wild lands
Stars of the Animal kingdom Cockroaches When you see a cockroach crawling toward you have wished you ever you could just steer it away like a remote-controlled car?
Researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental science outfitted some leatherback turtles with backpacks that contained satellite-tracking devices.
Every patch of flaking stucco every sagging gutter every DIY disaster all were exposed to the revealing sun. Suddenly my neighbors who generally don't live in the same bubble of conservation concern in which
We are not going to see the planet sprayed with erythritol and the chances for widespread crop application are slim Sean O'Donnell a professor of biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia who worked on the experiment said in a statement.
The study compared climate models of a human-free Earth to a planet crawling with hunter-gatherers and farmers.
and 445 parts per billion (ppb) without human influence on the planet He said. Parts per million denotes the volume of a gas in the air;
Take advantage of the rich nutritional quality of these insects by frying sun-drying smoking or steaming termites in banana leaves.</
This image of tule fog was taken Jan 17 2011 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite according to NASA's Earth Observatory
. When the coffee plant's caffeine-laden leaves fall to the ground caffeine compounds sink into the soil where they prevent the germination of other plant species that would normally compete with the coffee plant for space
Prizes such as the automotive XPRIZE (vehicle efficiency) the lunar XPRIZE (space exploration) the genomics XPRIZE (genome sequencing)
How Plate tectonics Started A cold crusty shell of a planet that regularly kills off its occupants with violent earthquakes
But Earth's grinding plates the source of its deadly tectonics are actually one of the key ingredients that make it only planet with life in the solar system (found so far.
Now a new model seeks to explain why Earth's plate tectonics is unique among the sun's rocky planets.
These plates move around the planet on top of convection currents in the mantle the hotter rock layer between the crust and Earth's core.
and ends up looking like a plate boundary Bercovici told Live Science's Our Amazing Planet.
The researchers also compared their Earth plate tectonics model to Venus finding that the surface of Venus was too hot for plate tectonics to develop.
+Original article at Live Science's Our Amazing Planet a
#Tomato-Rich Diet May Lower Kidney Cancer Risk Women who eat more tomatoes or other lycopene-containing fruits
when they come in he said. 3. Stay in the sun Tick nymphs have leaky cuticles
Play sets should be kept in the sun away from the shade he added. Ticks won't cross a barrier of wood chips placed around the yard's perimeter perhaps
Though American dog ticks don't usually harbor diseases that sicken people the lone star tick can often hitchhike on a pet into the home so pet owners should check pets for the bugs as soon as they come indoors.
In a blink of Geologic time in as little as 100000 years the majority of living species on the planet were wiped out of existence.
Other scientists point to indications of a massive asteroid impacting the southernmost tip of the C# in
Amazon Green-Up Actually Satellite Error Surprising dry season growth spurts spotted in the beleaguered Amazon rainforest are fake the result of misleading satellite data a new study finds.
We think we have uncovered the mechanism for the appearance of seasonal greening of Amazon forests shadowing within the canopy that changes the amount of near-infrared light observed by MODIS lead study author Doug Morton of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
In the tropics in June the sun is low casting long shadows when the MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensors that fly aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites snap images
By September around the time of the equinox the sun is directly overhead and the forest canopy is shadow-free and highly reflective in the infrared.
If we continue blindly along the current path ignoring the unintended consequences of our actions we risk losing the monarch's migration one of the true natural wonders of our planet.
#Predicting Mars Cuisine: Grasshoppers with a Side of Fungi (Op-Ed) Doug Turnbull is a hard-science-fiction writer.
Turnbull contributed this article to Space. com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The first humans to land
and explore Mars will certainly have to bring their food with them. However if a permanent settlement on Mars is to be both physically
and economically sustainable eventually settlers will have to grow most if not all of their food on the Red planet.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First unlike hardware or electronics food is a consumable which means that the settlers will need a continuous supply.
Shipping anything to Mars will be monumentally expensive at least in the early years. Sending a kilogram (2. 5 pounds) of basic food to Mars would likely cost many times more than a similar amount of Beluga caviar consumed On earth.
It costs $7000 to $10000 per kilogram to ship material out of Earth's orbit.
However there has been limited only research into actually growing food under the conditions plants are likely to encounter on Mars. The Red planet's gravity is 38-percent that of Earth
and several plans call for a reduced-pressure environment in the Mars habitats as well. In the near term before colonists can construct greenhouses they will have to use artificial light from LEDS for example to power their plants'photosynthesis. NASA has conducted plant-growth research in microgravity aboard the International Space station (ISS) and in the Long Duration Exposure
9700 kg) cylindrical satellite that orbited Earth for nearly six years in the 1980s. Still the effects that these factors will have on plant growth specifically in a Mars environment are still largely in the theoretical stages of research.
Only actual plant-research experiments that simulate conditions in Mars's gravity and pressure can answer those questions.
Multiple approaches exist to create this type of simulation. A manned construction in low-Earth orbit could simulate a low-gravity environment.
Powered by two solar panels pointed toward the sun the lab would rotate at two revolutions per minute (rpm) simulating Mars's gravity.
One section could house the crew and another the plants in experimental growing media such as simulated Mars soil or fluid for hydroponic gardening.
The lab section would have to replicate the atmospheric pressure suggested for future Mars habitats by Dr. Robert Zubrin President of The Mars Society.
Under conditions similar to those expected on Mars plant studies could determine which species would thrive and
Every satellite must maintain altitude and rotation control which is managed by the satellite's attitude
and orbit control system part of its onboard systems bus. Engineers could configure this system to emulate Mars'gravity.
Indeed the Mars Gravity Biosatellite competition (created by the Mars Society following a brainstorm session between Dr. Zubrin
and Elon musk founder of Spacex) provides a model for how to do this. That project which focused on studying mammals in Mars gravity could possibly be adapted for the study of plants.
Even without such studies it is still possible to speculate about food sources for Mars settlers.
Initially a vegetarian diet would seem logical as it is the simplest in terms of agricultural management. Soybeans provide basic proteins capable of sustaining human health.
and mizuna lettuce in space along with carbohydrate staples like wheat and rice. All would be likely choices as mainstay foods
if they can thrive under Mars-like conditions. Mars will lack direct sunlight and other sources of nutrients that people take for granted here On earth.
At least in the early years Red planet residents will not have access to fruits containing Vitamin c so they would have to rely on vitamins
just as astronauts do today. All of the above-mentioned crops can grow hydroponically to conserve space and resources.
Some experiments growing plants in simulated Martian soil have met also with success. In addition to providing a food source greenery offers the added benefits of converting carbon dioxide exhaled by settlers into oxygen essential for maintaining a long-term bio-regenerative life support system.
Plants also provide the psychological benefits of relaxation and a general sense of well-being. On to what probably drew the reader to this article in the first place:
Mars settlers could also turn to grasshoppers as an additional food resource. While not popular in most European countries and the Anglo-sphere grasshoppers are a major source of animal protein in Asia Africa and South america.
Finally it would be much easier to transport insects to Mars than to send large animals.
The insects could become part of the Mars culture too. Future settlers on the Red planet would likely come from all over the world
and many would not suffer from the Eeeew factor many Westerners associate with eating insects.
So grasshoppers may become a meat staple for Mars residents. Of course this would depend upon the guaranteed reliability of grasshopper containment systems.
Mars settlers certainly would not fare well with the grasshopper equivalent of Star trek's tribbles.
While the exact forms that agriculture would take on Mars are still very much an unknown at least one thing is clear:
Before many years have passed Mars settlers certainly will have developed their own unique cuisine. Turnbull's most recent Op-Ed was Why Robots May be the Future of Interplanetary Research.
This version of the article was published originally on Space. com. o
#History of the Celts The Celts#refer to a people that thrived in both ancient and modern times.
hidden from the sun###oeno sylvan nymphs Here found a home nor Pan but savage rites And barbarous worship altars horrible On massive stones upreared;
and shape of the earth and of the universe the movements of the sky and of the stars and what the gods intend##he wrote.
#Earth's Oldest Living things Immortalized in Stunning Photos Photographer Rachel Sussman traveled the planet for a decade in search of organisms that have witnessed thousands of years of history.
</p><p>Strange stripelike features in Earth's magnetic field are caused by the planet's spin
</p><p>The so-called zebra stripes form when the electric field around Earth generated by the planet's rotation previously thought to be too weak to impact the fast-moving particles creates a striped pattern in the inner electron belt.</
date of the moon to within 100 million years of the birth of the solar system the best timeline yet for the evolution of our planet's natural satellite.</
</p><p>This new discovery about the origin of the moon may help solve a mystery about why the moon
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/44585-moon-age-revealed-lunar-mystery. html target=blank>Moon's Age Revealed
><p>The idea that our universe may be just one among many out there has intrigued modern cosmologists for some time.
and recent research suggests these pip-squeaks dubbed techni-quarks are likely lurking in the universe.</
The sun shone on the meat. Corned beef is cooked in the can and should be sterile.
because the physical space is too tight or because for one reason or another you don't actually want to carve up the person who is attacking you.
when it comes to your health or the health of the planet? The short answer is no.
The growth of chocolate research Since Hollenberg's studies cocoa research has intensified mainly due to the largesse of companies like Mars Inc. most famous for Milky way bars and M&ms.
What's striking is that candy companies such as Mars and Nestle's have hired respected nutrition scientists
Mars has collaborated with such institutions as Harvard the University of California at Davis and even the United states Department of agriculture's Agricultural research service.
and do the right thing for the planet. Palm oil is everywhere The stakes are high.
#Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Triggered Lethal Acid rain The oceans soured into a deadly sulfuric-acid stew after the huge asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs a new study suggests.
Eighty percent of the planet's species died off at the end of the Cretaceous period 65.5 million years ago including most marine life in the upper ocean as well as swimmers and drifters in lakes and rivers.
Scientists blame this mass extinction on the asteroid or comet impact that created the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of mexico.
A new model of the disaster finds that the impact would have inundated Earth's atmosphere with sulfur trioxide from sulfate-rich marine rocks called anhydrite vaporized by the blast.
and his co-authors simulated the Chicxulub impact conditions in a lab zapping sulfur-rich anhydrite rocks with a laser to mimic the forces of an asteroid colliding with Earth.
The tiny droplets likely stuck to pulverized silicate rock debris raining down on the planet
#Kansas Grass Fires Seen from Space A new satellite image shows grass fires scattered like seeds across the Kansas prairie.
This image snapped by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite was acquired March 31.
About 80 percent of prairie vegetation is grass (40 to 60 species) with the remainder made up of more than 300 species of wildflowers plus trees scrubs and lichens according to Live Science's Our Amazing Planet.
along with information they want to appear on the home screen including an astronomy screen that will zoom in on that day's moon and even show the entire solar system.
The potato was the first vegetable to be grown in space. In October 1995 NASA and the University of Wisconsin created the technology to do so with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages
#Lost Microbes are Eroding Amazon s Ability to Capture Carbon (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
Visitors to the western Sierra's lower elevations may find themselves abruptly stepping from a lush redwood grove onto sun-lashed bedrock.
Hahm and his co-authors linked the pluton boundaries to the Sierra's patchy forest cover by comparing satellite forest cover data with geologic maps and collecting hundreds of rock samples.
along with Hansen's photograph by NASA's Earth Observatory shows a view of the Two Bulls fire from space.
Taken by an instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite on June 8 this image shows smoke from the fire.
and his co-authors combined satellite and aircraft data to provide a comprehensive look at methane which is a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas.
Satellite monitoring of methane emissions will get a much-needed boost next year with the planned launch in 2015 of the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument aboard a Sentinel satellite operated by the European space agency.
and so must rely on outside sources such as the sun. Crocodilian climbers Crocodiles are considered usually ground-dwellers
and into the sun. However the existence of night-climbing suggests the behavior has another function perhaps the ability to see danger coming.
In comparison global average temperatures have risen about 1. 4 degrees F (0. 8 degrees C) according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
and potatoes and sauerkraut are also stars of German cuisine. Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage
and then opened the windows so the bees didn't overheat in the closed space.
whereby 70m customers in 118 countries would consume an estimated 1%of the food eaten every day on the planet in a Mcdonald s outlet.
#Mysterious Energy Ribbon at Solar system's Edge a'Cosmic Roadmap'A strange ribbon of energy and particles at the edge of the solar system first spotted by a NASA spacecraft appears to serve as a sort of roadmap in the sky for the interstellar
By comparing ground-based studies and in-space observations of solar system's mysterious energy ribbon which was discovered first by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) in 2009 scientists are learning more details about the conditions
at the solar system's edge. The study also sheds light into the sun's environment protects the solar system from high-energy cosmic rays.
Photos and Images from NASA's IBEX Spacecraft What I always have been trying to do was to establish a clear connection between the very high-energy cosmic rays we're seeing from the ground
and what IBEX is seeing study leader Nathan Schwadron a physicist at the University of New hampshire told Space. com. Previously maps from ground-based observatories showed researchers that clusters of cosmic rays extremely high-energy
particles that originate from supernovas are correlated with the IBEX ribbon. The ribbon is roughly perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field
In the longer term Schwadron said work like this will help scientists better understand more about the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.
Travelling through the transition zone The sun's sphere of influence in the solar system is known as the heliosphere.
The sun's solar wind of high-energy particles flows within the heliosphere and pushes back against high-energy cosmic rays originating in interstellar space.
Voyager 1's measurements of the magnetic field from the edge of interstellar space show a starkly different direction of the magnetic field inferred in the IBEX ribbon Schwadron said.
This stands in contrast to findings from NASA and other science groups saying Voyager 1 is definitively in interstellar space.
or Space. com@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.+Original article on Space. com a
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011