Category: Science

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Is Earth Close to Dangerous Tipping Point in Global Warming?

“It’s not really so much of a question whether the dangerous tipping point occurs at 450 or 550 ppmv CO2. It’s how do we get the (greenhouse) emissions under control so we don’t push past all the possible points at which the climate change becomes a seriously dangerous issue.”

- Chris Field, Ph.D., Director, Carnegie Institution's Dept. of Global Ecology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.

Almost 98% of the Antarctica South Pole continent is covered by ice, which averages a mile thick. Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall, according to a NASA survey done between 1992 and 2002. It also had a corresponding rise in sea level.  The survey documented for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: NASA/SVSSatellite image courtesy NASA.
Almost 98% of the Antarctica South Pole continent is covered by ice, which averages a mile thick. Antarctica lost much more ice to the sea than it gained from snowfall, according to a NASA survey done between 1992 and 2002. It also had a corresponding rise in sea level.  The survey documented for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: NASA/SVSSatellite image courtesy NASA.

June 1, 2007  New York, New York - The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported this year that there is at least a 90% certainty that global warming is man-made and will “continue for centuries.” The IPCC also reports that in coming decades, rising temperatures and rising sea levels will cause floods and mass famine. The implication is that there will be massive dislocations of humans and animals that have traditionally lived near coastlines. Despite the hard data, the George Bush Administration has resisted setting CO2 reduction goals, claiming there would be too many economic hardships for Americans. Ironically, it is the United States, which dominates the world list of greatest CO2 emitters.

 

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Antarctica: Unprecedented Western Ice Melt and CO2-Saturated Southern Ocean

"The western Antarctic ice melt was unprecedented.
We’d never seen anything like this in the past 25 years."

- Ted Scambos, Ph.D., Glaciologist, NSIDC

Yellow and red colors on western Antarctica indicate where NASA's QuikScat satellite in January 2005 detected snowmelt by radar pulses that bounced off ice formed when snowmelt refroze. The unprecedented ice melt was equal to the size of California. Image courtesy NASA/JPL.
Yellow and red colors on western Antarctica indicate where NASA's QuikScat satellite in January 2005 detected snowmelt by radar pulses that bounced off ice formed when snowmelt refroze. The unprecedented ice melt was equal to the size of California. Image courtesy NASA/JPL.

May 18, 2007  Boulder, Colorado -  The Washington Post, on May 16, 2007, published an editorial by three eminent American scientists in which these words were stated:  “Climate change is the most critical problem the Earth has ever faced.”

 

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Hubble Finds Dark Matter Ring

"This is the first time we have detected dark matter as having a
unique structure that is different from both the gas and galaxies in the cluster."
- M. James Jee, Ph.D., Astronomer, Johns Hopkins University

The dark matter ring was found within the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652), located 5 billion light-years from Earth. The ring measures 2.6 million light-years across. Image courtesy Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA.
The dark matter ring was found within the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652), located 5 billion light-years from Earth. The ring measures 2.6 million light-years across. Image courtesy Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA.

May 15, 2007  Baltimore, Maryland - The Hubble Space Science Institute reported today that astronomers using NASA's Hubble have discovered "a ghostly ring of dark matter that formed long ago during a titanic collision between two massive galaxy clusters.

"The ring's discovery is among the strongest evidence yet that dark matter exists. Astronomers have long suspected the existence of the invisible substance as the source of additional gravity that holds together galaxy clusters. Such clusters would fly apart if they relied only on the gravity from their visible stars. Although astronomers don't know what dark matter is made of, they hypothesize that it is a type of elementary particle that pervades the universe.

 

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Exploded Star 5 Times Brighter Than Any Supernova Seen Before

"This one is way above anything else known. It's really astonishing."

- Nathan Smith, Ph.D., UC-Berkeley

May 8, 2007  Cambridge, Massachusetts - The brightest supernova ever seen by human eyes was discovered in Fall 2006 by NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Lick Observatory ground-based optical telescope. The exploded star is called "SN 2006gy" and is five times brighter than hundreds of supernovae seen before. SN 2006gy is also the most energetic stellar explosion ever recorded. In fact, astronomers wonder if it is a new type of explosion that did not become a black hole like other supernovae, took 70 days to reach its supernova peak and remained brighter than other known supernovae for several months.

Illustration of SN 2006gy supernova in the constellation Perseus about 238,000,000 light-years from Earth. Illustration courtesy NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.
Illustration of SN 2006gy supernova in the constellation Perseus about 238,000,000 light-years from Earth. Illustration courtesy NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.

 

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Scientific Analysis of Chandler, Arizona, Sorghum Formation

Biophysicist W. C. Levengood's Pinelandia Biophysical Laboratory Case No. KS-07-101 about his analysis of the Sorghum bicolor plants in the Chandler, Arizona, randomly downed formation first discovered on March 25, 2007, by Michael A. Polani.
Biophysicist W. C. Levengood's Pinelandia Biophysical Laboratory Case No. KS-07-101 about his analysis of the Sorghum bicolor plants in the Chandler, Arizona, randomly downed formation first discovered on March 25, 2007, by Michael A. Polani.

Return to April 12, 2007, Earthfiles about Chandler formation.

May 1, 2007  Grass Lake, Michigan - After Chandler, Arizona, resident, Michael A. Polani, discovered the randomly downed pattern of Sorghum bicolor plants on March 25, 2007, I asked him if he would be willing to sample the plants for biophysicist W. C. Levengood. Michael agreed and went to the formation field on April 12, 2007, to gather both downed and standing formation plants and normal controls far outside the formation. To Michael's great surprise, at least 95% of the young, lush green plants had been cut out and removed. It was definitely not time for harvest and Michael still has not been able to confirm who owned the field, let alone why the premature removal of the plants. But about 5% of the randomly downed formation was left where he could collect samples from both flattened and standing sorghum. I provided Federal Express so that the plants would arrive at biophysicist Levengood's lab the next day, April 13, 2007.

W. C. Levengood taking respiration measurements of Charge Density Plasmas from crop formation plants in his Pinelandia Biophysical Laboratory in Grass Lake, Michigan. Photo by Linda Moulton Howe.
W. C. Levengood taking respiration measurements of Charge Density Plasmas from crop formation plants in his Pinelandia Biophysical Laboratory in Grass Lake, Michigan. Photo by Linda Moulton Howe.

 

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Unexplained Turbulence in Venusian Clouds

"It is not yet clear if atmospheric turbulences may be induced
by rough topography below the clouds."

- ESA

Artist's impression of European Space Agency's Venus Express orbiting Venus, courtesy ESA.
Artist's impression of European Space Agency's Venus Express orbiting Venus, courtesy ESA.

April 3 , 2007  Paris, France -  New images and data from the European Space Agency’s mission to Venus provide more details about the turbulent and noxious atmosphere of Earth’s sister planet. What causes violent winds and turbulences? Is the surface topography playing a role in the complex global dynamics of the atmosphere?

The images, showing a complex cloud system, were taken on the night-side of Venus at a wavelength of 1.7 micron that allows viewing the deep atmospheric layers. Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA.
The images, showing a complex cloud system, were taken on the night-side of Venus at a wavelength of 1.7 micron that allows viewing the deep atmospheric layers. Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA.

 

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Fastest Rotating Object in Our Solar System is One of Strangest

“We didn’t expect to find anything so strangely shaped
and so rapidly rotating. It’s the fastest, large rotating object
in the solar system."

- Michael E. Brown, Ph.D., Cal Tech


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March 30, 2007  Pasadena, California - For the first time in astronomical history, a huge, bizarre rock beyond Neptune has been linked to other orbiting bodies out there. Some how the big rock called 2003 EL61, which is almost the size of Pluto, got into orbit out in the Kuiper Belt where most every other object is made of ice. Not only is this huge rocky object there, it is the only object in our solar system shaped like an American football and tumbling long end-over-end every four hours.

Computer-generated image of 2003 EL61, courtesy Michael E. Brown, Ph.D., Cal Tech. To see it move, visit: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/
Computer-generated image of 2003 EL61, courtesy Michael E. Brown, Ph.D., Cal Tech. To see it move, visit: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/

 

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Impact of China’s Anti-Sat Weapon’s Test Debris?

"It would not surprise me if it caused the destruction of at least one working satellite and maybe a couple. I would be surprised if it was bad enough to cause the destruction of many satellites."

- Jonathan McDowell, Ph.D., Harvard Astrophysicist

Illustration of aging FengYun-1 weather satellite destroyed January 11, 2007, in Chinese anti-satellite weapon test, courtesy Earth Observation Resources.
Illustration of aging FengYun-1 weather satellite destroyed January 11, 2007, in Chinese anti-satellite weapon test, courtesy Earth Observation Resources.

January 19, 2007  Cambridge, Massachusetts  -   Craig Covault in Aviation Week & Space Technology online reported January 17, 2007, that "U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 miles altitude (new estimate is 530 miles up) on January 11, 2007, destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.

 

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Confusing Sun: Will Solar Cycle 24 Be Most Intense On Record?

"It’s a little confusing this time around, actually. We haven’t had this problem before ...but indicators (of big solar maximums) that have agreed and worked in the past don’t agree this time."

- David Hathaway, Ph.D., NASA

Three sunspots on the sun, January 11, 2007. Individual sunspots are often larger than planet Earth, which is shown scaled to size in the lower right, along with massive Jupiter. The scale line at lower left compares to the length of 10 Earths. Image courtesy SOHO.
Three sunspots on the sun, January 11, 2007. Individual sunspots are often larger than planet Earth, which is shown scaled to size in the lower right, along with massive Jupiter. The scale line at lower left compares to the length of 10 Earths. Image courtesy SOHO.
July 15, 2002, "most detailed images ever of sunspots" (Region 10030) on sun's granular surface by solar telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands, off African coast. Resolution is 62 miles (100 km). Colorized image by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Institute for Solar Physics.
July 15, 2002, "most detailed images ever of sunspots" (Region 10030) on sun's granular surface by solar telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands, off African coast. Resolution is 62 miles (100 km). Colorized image by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Institute for Solar Physics.

January 13, 2007  Huntsville, Alabama - If you could fly near the surface of the sun, there would be a lot of humming and sonic booms. At Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley, physicists have processed radio signals from the sun and produced audio files. The sun vibrates with a hum that goes up and down every five minutes. Stanford scientists call it "the singing sun."

 

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Universe’s Mysterious Dark Matter – First 3-D Map

"Without dark matter, there would have been insufficient mass
in the universe for structures to collapse and galaxies to form. ...Normal matter - including stars, galaxies and gas - is built inside an underlying
scaffolding of dark matter."

- NASA/JPL

First 3-dimensional map of dark matter distribution in this universe moving from the early universe (left) to the more recent universe (right).  Image credit NASA, ESA and R. Massey, Cal-Tech.
First 3-dimensional map of dark matter distribution in this universe moving from the early universe (left) to the more recent universe (right).  Image credit NASA, ESA and R. Massey, Cal-Tech.

Age of Universe: 13.7 billion years

Composition:
­     .4% glowing matter such as stars.
­   3.6% "normal" matter as we know it in planets and stars.
­ 23.0% cold, invisible "dark" matter detectable only by its gravitational influence on "normal" matter.
­ 73.0% invisible "dark" energy.

 

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