and understanding carbon processes said Zheng who is based at NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The UAVSAR data is higher resolution with less interfering noise than most such data from satellites according to NASA.
and understanding carbon processes said Zheng who is based at NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The UAVSAR data is higher resolution with less interfering noise than most such data from satellites according to NASA.
#Rare Meteorite Grains May be from Supernova That Sparked Solar system Two surprising grains of sand in a pair of meteorites that landed On earth suggest they were formed in a single supernova that occurred billions of years ago new research suggests.
These grains may even come from the same star explosion that sparked the formation of the solar system scientists say.
Both meteorites were found in Antarctica and appear to date from before the solar system was born 4. 6 billion years ago.
Each contains a single grain of silica (Sio2 which is the main ingredient of sand).
and extremely rare so rare in fact that scientists suspect both grains came from a single supernova.
This type of supernova occurs when a massive star runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion and collapses in on itself in a giant explosion.
These are the first such grains found in primitive meteorites and are distinct because of the type of oxygen contained in the silica.
Previous research has uncovered a handful of space rocks containing silica grains enriched in oxygen-17
which is thought to be created by living stars. But a slightly heavier version of oxygen called oxygen-18 was found in these two new grains.
Oxygen-18 must be formed in a supernova. Supernova Photos Great Images of Star Explosions The silica grains are so small they are invisible to the naked eye.
Using an instrument called a Nanosims 50 ion microprobe which magnifies objects 20000 times graduate student Pierre Haenecour of Washington University in St louis uncovered the single grain in one of the meteorites.
The other was found by Xuchao Zhao now a scientist at the Institute of Geology
and Geophysics in Beijing China inside a meteorite discovered by the Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition.
Haenecour investigated just how the silica grains might have come to be and found that their formation would have required a complex process of mixing material from various different layers of the star as it exploded.
Because the precise mixing required to create oxygen-18 is so specific the researchers suspect that both silica grains originated in the same supernova.
That supernova might even be the same explosion that gave rise to the solar system the researchers speculated.
Scientists think a shock wave from a supernova might have been the event that caused a rotating cloud of gas
and dust to condense eventually giving rise to the planets of our solar system. As it exploded the supernova also would have seeded the cloud with material
and some of that material may have ended up in the meteorites we find today. The research is detailed in a paper published in the May 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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#Rare Video: Endangered Chicks Emerge from Nest This could be the first and last high-definition video of a Spoon-billed sandpiper chick emerging from its nest.
One of the world's most critically endangered species the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years according to a statement from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which released the video.
Only about 100 pairs were counted at its breeding grounds in the Russian Far east last year and the population has declined 25 percent annually in recent years.
The surge in carbon dioxide levels due to human activity since the Industrial revolution is now causing an overall warming of the planet that is having impacts around the globe.
if scientists don't know where to put revived species that had been driven off the planet because their habitats became unsafe.
but older ones grew a dry hard rind in the sun like a cow patty.
#Satellites Spy Beetle Attacks on Forests A new computer program detected a slow-motion decline and subsequent revival of forests in the Pacific Northwest in recent years.
A combined cooking and gardening program can have a dramatic impact on children's attitudes to food in a relatively short space of time said study author Lisa Gibbs Ph d. an associate director at the Jack Brockhoff Child Health
which make up one of the most amazing animal migrations on the planet. Truckers currently have to take a road that circumvents Tanazania's Serengeti National park and Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve a long journey.
Experts say the Mediterranean diet is indeed one of the healthiest diets on the planet said Katherine Tallmadge a dietitian and the author of Diet Simple (Lifeline Press 2011.
The traditional Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest diets on the planet experts say.
The timber structure contained an open space at the center and was likely open at the top.
Bison Shrink as Planet Warms Bison roaming the U s. prairie may grow smaller as a result of climate change a new study suggests.
Our partnerships include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration-supported Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites;
a longstanding cooperative agreement between UMD's Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center and the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center;
The warming of the planet will affect a number of areas of society and key sectors of the economy beyond agriculture extending to human health national security hydropower
Adaptations in grape growing and wine making represent only a few of the many adjustments the world will have to make as a result of the warming planet.
Sipes recently sent SPACE. com these stunning images taken over the Fourthâ of July weekend from Sequoia National park in California.
Over the 4th of July weekend my family went on a road trip to the Sequoia National park to see giants and stars.
For the first time we saw the night sky as nature intended Sipes wrote SPACE. com via email. 6 Stellar Places for Skywatching in the US The sequoias reminded us how small we are
or image gallery please contact managing editor Tariq Malik atâ spacephotos@space. com. This story was provided by SPACE. com a sister site to Livescience.
#Strange Object Near Star May Create'Comet Factory, 'Study Suggests A mysterious object lurking near the young star Oph IRS 48 could
along with observations of dust grains change our understanding of planet formation astronomers said. Observations of the system revealed a dust trap of millimeter-size grains on one side of the star with smaller micrometer-size particles spread evenly throughout the disc.
The particles astronomers said could eventually clump into a comet factory producing kilometer-size rocks such as those found in the Kuiper Belt outside Neptune's orbit.
The cause is likely an object perhaps a huge planet or perhaps a failed brown dwarf star that has a mass 10 times that of Jupiter.
So far however astronomers can see only the object's effects on the system; there's no direct evidence that it physically exists.
Giant Planet In the Making Spotted?(Video) Nienke van der Marel a Ph d. student at Leiden Observatory in The netherlands said the researchers original plan was to analyze the gas.
However We received the data and said'What is it? That's not what the disc is supposed to look like!'
what they were observing could help explain how dust grains grow over time to become the beginnings of planets called protoplanets.
and debris. Conventional planet-forming theory posits that the dust eventually sticks together and grows forming larger and larger objects until they reach the size of planets (in the case of rocky planets) or planetary cores (in the case of gas giants such as Jupiter).
There's a radial drift problem with the theory however that has persisted among astronomers for a generation.
Within the disc surrounding the star there is higher pressure closer to the star and lower pressure farther away.
Due to this pressure gradient gas and small micrometer-size particles have slightly slower orbital velocities around the star.
When the friction drops their speed below a certain threshold they drift toward the star
and spiral into the star. Enter the dust-trap theory: If there were a way to form an environment for the dust to grow perhaps it could solve the radial-drift problem.
In the case of Oph IRS 48 the astronomers think that an object with a mass 10 times that of Jupiter is forming vortices at the edge of the system creating an area of high pressure that balances out the high pressure near the star.
The grains are too far away from this star to form planets their density is low as they're in a region that should be made up mostly of ice according to planetary-formation theories.
They could however become icy 1-kilometer-wide objects in time similar to what is seen in the Kuiper Belt in Earth s solar system.
This belt is believed to be the spot where many comets are born. Chicken-and-egg problem There is a chicken
and could potentially have created the massive planet that is partially responsible now for creating this other trap said Phil Armitage a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder who wrote an analysis of the paper in the journal Science.
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or SPACE. com@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+d
#Stunning Byzantine Mosaic Uncovered in Israel Archaeologists have uncovered an extraordinary mosaic that would've been used as the floor of a public building during the Byzantine Period in
The tiny creatures pump out up to 50 percent of the planet's oxygen said Edward Theriot a diatom expert and evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was involved not in the study.
A supervolcanic eruption could wreak as much havoc as the impact of a mile-wide asteroidby blotting out the sun with ash reflecting its rays
For instance<a href=http://www. space. com/15994-carl-sagan. html>Carl Sagan</a>famously likened the age of the universe to a calendar year with humans only showing up in the last few hours of New Year'
</p><p>As far back as Archimedes philosophers have wondered how many tiny particles could fit in<a href=http://www. space. com/52-the-expanding-universe-from-the-big-bang-to-today. html>the universe</a>.Archimedes
and the stadia lengths between Earth and the sun said Henry Mendell a classical historian at California State university Los angeles.</
</p><p>When Einstein conceived of his equations of relativity he included a small constant called the<a href=http://www. space. com/19282-einstein-cosmological-constant-dark-energy. html>cosmological
The numbers are the area of right-angle<a href=http://www. space. com/2453-celestial-triangles-jupiter-mingles-stars. html>triangles</a>with integer or fraction length sides.
if their digits were written out in decimal form they would stretch to<a href=http://www. space. com/55-earths-moon-formation-composition-and-orbit. html>the moon</a>and back.
s number a number so large that simply trying to remember all the digits would turn your head into a a href=http://www. space. com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp. html
>black hole</a>.The number which at one point was the largest number to ever be used in a math proof arose in response to a simple riddle about how to allocate people to a certain set of committees with a few constraints.</
Additionally by oerecording the movements of the sky deities (sun moon planets and stars) they developed accurate calendars that could be used for prophecy Sharer wrote. oewith long-term records the Maya were able to predict planetary cycles the phases
of the moon and Venus even eclipses he said. oethis knowledge was used to determine when these deities would be in favorable positions for a variety of activities such as holding ceremonies inaugurating kings starting trading expeditions or conducting wars.
Sharer wrote that while agriculture and food gathering were a central part of daily life the Maya had sophisticated a economy capable of supporting specialists and a system of merchants and trade routes.
Tim Kovar is a master tree-climbing instructor and the founder of the Tree Climbing Planet.
because being up in a treetop is one of the last frontiers of the planet. If you get 200 feet up in a tree
Thar Hills--And Toxic Mercury (ISNS) --When gold was discovered in California in 1849 the miners were confronted with a problem:
Mercury was added to the sluices to form an amalgam with the gold that settled to the bottom.
Mercury taint from the Gold Rush has been found in the food supply in the San francisco area
Mercury contamination from gold mining is a worldwide problem. Two yearsâ ago scientists discovered that gold mining in the Amazon had contaminated already the food supply in the Madre de dios area of Peru in that case from burning off the mercury in the amalgam.
In another paper published this week scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science mapped the contamination at Madre de dios using space satellites.
Douglas firs and pine trees can repair this damage as frequently as every hour said Katherine Mcculloh a plant ecophysiologist at Oregon State university in a past Our Amazing Planet interview.
The high concentration of deer in a small space saturates the soils with nitrogen from pee according to a study published online in the journal Ecology.
 Data from satellites in space offer us important clues about how plants are responding to spring summer and autumn conditions
and buildings are very good absorbers of the sun's rays. Rising numbers of scale insects in cities could spell trouble for city trees which can provide some environmental benefits like cooling through shade and carbon sequestration.
because competition for space is stiffer Greater demand means that homes and businesses tend to be smaller
and green space to compensate for less indoor space. Land conservation Urban boundaries and compact cities reduce humanity's concrete footprint.
This leaves more space for wilderness and agriculture which absorb and store carbon in the soil or vegetation at higher amounts than do buildings or roads.
The ivory crush was taking place at the Rocky mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City Colo. just outside of Denver with a star-studded list of speakers including Kristin Bauer
The first was data from the Landsat 7 satellite which launched in 1999 and has been snapping satellite photos of the globe ever since.
Next Landsat's operator the U s. Geological Survey altered its policies to make all of the data from Landsat 7 and previous Landsat satellites free.
There will be natural materials plenty of light and open spaces. It might seem unlikely that the digital world can provide similar kinds of healing environments.
so he set up three virtual reality spaces: a nature island with waterfalls rivers different kinds of trees flowers plants grass rocks a beach and dirt paths;
Results in the other two spaces the geometric shapes and Shibuya station were marked far less.
#Warm Water Under Antarctic Glacier Spurs Rapid Melting A two-month-long expedition to one of the most remote sites on the planet the sprawling Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica
#Water on Mars: Curiosity Rover Uncovers a Flood of Evidence LONDON Water water everywhere and some of it fit to drink.
That s the picture of ancient Mars that has emerged during the past few months thanks to discoveries by NASA's Curiosity rover
which has been exploring the Red planet since touching down inside Gale Crater in August 2012. The announcements have come in dribs
and drabs but presented together recently here at the European Planetary Science Congress they provide compelling evidence that Mars was quite wet in the distant past.
The Search for Water on Mars (Photos) During many sessions at the conference which was held Sept. 8 to Sept. 13 in London scientists presented details of the rover s most exciting finds made before it began the long drive toward the towering
We know that on Mars there was what we interpret to be a habitable environment where water was good enough for us to drink Melissa Rice of the California Institute of technology in Pasadena said after a presentation on imaging results from Curiosity s workhorse Mastcam instrument.
She talked about rocks that Curiosity studied earlier this year finding evidence that ancient Mars could have supported microbial life.
either formation in or substantial alteration by water on Mars. Further this water had to be neutral and benign.
Flowing rivers More strong evidence of Mars'wet past comes from Curiosity s discovery of calcium sulfate veins fissures in the surface rock that once sampled with a laser-firing instrument called Chemcam
This story was provided by SPACE. com a sister site to Livescience. Follow SPACE. com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
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#Water Woes: Vast US Aquifer Is Being tapped Out Nearly 70 percent of the groundwater stored in parts of the United states'High Plains Aquifer a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states from South dakota to Texas
NASA satellites that studied the parched land determined that the drought depleted the region's aquifers to low levels that had rarely been seen
The question said Patricia Ryberg a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute is coped how plants with photosynthesizing constantly for part of the year and then not at all when the winter sun set.
Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all water use on the planet and many crops in the western United states are irrigated heavily.
what reaching this population milestone might mean for our planet from our ability to feed that many people to our impact on the other species that call Earth home to our efforts to land on other planets.
A recent United nations analysis of world population trends indicates global population growth shows no signs of slowing with current projections estimating a staggering 11 billion people could inhabit the planet by the year 2100
Some scientists say rapid population growth could be catastrophic for the planet because it will likely lead to overcrowding in cities add stress to Earth's already dwindling resources
Most scientists agree that humans are to blame for most of the planet's warmingsince 1950 but precisely
What 11 Billion People Mean for the Planet It's a question that's really hard to answer
A growing debate Increasing the number of people on the planet does not in itself intensify climate change said David Satterthwaite a senior fellow studying climate change adaptation
This flurry of activity has taken a toll on the planet. Since the start of the Industrial revolution human activities have increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide by a third according to NASA.
There are opinions that we're already past a sustainable population now in terms of being able to provide a high quality of life for every citizen on the planet said David Griggs a climatologist
In regions of the world where vast population growth is projected such as Sub-saharan africa the issue of dwindling natural resources will likely be magnified. 5 Places Already Feeling the Effects of Climate Change Feeding a hungry planet
since global warming may cause arid regions of the planet to become even more parched. In the United states the Bureau of Reclamation released a report on the status of the Colorado river Basin in December 2012.
While the impact of population growth on climate change remains a topic of debate experts agree that finding ways to mitigate the effects of climate change will be critical for the sustainability of the planet.
what reaching this population milestone might mean for our planet from our ability to feed that many people to our impact on the other species that call Earth home to our efforts to land on other planets.
 The plight of Madagascar's lemurs is just one example of how a rising population of humans is contributing to the sixth-largest mass extinction in the history of the planet most biologists say.
What 11 Billion People Means for the Planet Every knowledgeable scientist is worried sick said Paul Ehrlich a researcher and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford university.
If the planet is going to exist in a form that is habitable for people cities can't operate the way they operate right now Weissburg said.
what reaching this population milestone might mean for our planet from our ability to feed that many people to our impact on the other species that call Earth home to our efforts to land on other planets.
and exactly how the planet will feed this growing population is one of the biggest questions society faces in the coming years experts say.
What 11 Billion People Mean for the Planet However the world's future food security is not a simple matter of producing more food.
 Experts agree the planet can definitely produce enough food for 11 billion people but whether humans can do it sustainably
Beetles wasps grasshoppers and other insects are very efficient at converting the food they eat into body mass take up very little space
what reaching this population milestone might mean for our planet from our ability to feed that many people to our impact on the other species that call Earth home to our efforts to land on other planets.
Given that the existing population is already taxing water supplies in many regions how will the planet provide for all the new people who will be here next century?
What 11 Billion People Means for the Planet Water is the new oil said Bill Davies a plant biologist at the Sustainable agriculture Center at Lancaster University in England.
To provide for the planet it's critical to understand the available water supply by creating detailed maps of where water is scarce
But because measurements rely on distant satellites in space they have relatively poor spatial resolution said David Maidment a hydrologist at the University of Texas at Austin.
Agriculture uses about 70 percent of the freshwater on the planet said Giulio Boccaletti managing director of the Global Freshwater Program at the Nature Conservancy.
 Good news bad news In theory there could be enough water for everyone on the planet.
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.
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