“Have you ever been late and thought, ‘Usain Bolt wouldn’t have these problems?'” Well, in the realm of the world’s fastest animals, Bolt is a blunt force compared to some amazing records. It’s just – Holder is there. “
Whether on land, air, or sea, speed is essential for a variety of reasons. Finding your next meal or running away from sharp teeth all require speed and lots of speed.
The world’s fastest four-legged mammal is the cheetah. These amazing cats can accelerate up to 94 km/h (58.4 mph) in less than 3 seconds thanks to their powerful leg muscles and slender bodies.
Combined with their excellent eyesight, they are a formidable force when hunting animals such as impalas and gazelles across vast swaths of the African savannah.
Fastest insect (on land)
Flycatcher (Cicindela hudsoni) – The world’s fastest land-flying insect. Photographed on Fore Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Photo courtesy: Auscape/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
At 20mm long, the Australian beetle’s top speed of 9km/h (5.5mph) doesn’t seem that fast. But it becomes a little more impressive when you consider that this means that it travels a distance equal to 125 times its body length every second.
The beetle uses its speed and lightning reactions to catch and eat other insects, such as flies, in the blink of an eye.
Fastest insect (in flight)
A male horsefly (Hybomitra distinguenda) hovers in search of a female. Photographed in Surrey, England. Photo credit: Alamy
Male horseflies are the world’s fastest flying insects, reaching speeds estimated at 145 kilometers (90 miles) per hour. The fly itself is easily recognized by the colorful orange markings on its abdomen and is found all over the world, except in polar regions.
fastest bird (in flight)
White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus) in flight. Photo credit: JJ Harrison/Wikipedia
The white-throated blackbill may be the fastest bird in horizontal flight, but this has never been formally proven. It is said to be able to reach speeds of more than 170 km/h (105 mph), which, if proven, would make it faster than a golden eagle or a gyrfalcon.
The bird itself is a type of swiftlet, but it has a large body and a very narrow tail (hence the name). They are migratory birds that travel long distances, but are a rare sight in the UK and Ireland.
Ostriches are the fastest two-legged birds and can reach speeds of 70 km/h (45 mph) on land. Ostriches raise small wings to aid stability and use their long legs and powerful muscles to outrun many predators.
The ostrich’s leg muscles are so powerful that, although rare, it can kill a lion with a kick. However, their speed and power more than compensate for their lack of flight ability.
fastest fish
A black marlin (Istiompax indica) swims underwater with the sun in the background. Photo courtesy: Getty Images
The world’s fastest swimming fish is the marlin, with an estimated top speed of 129 km/h (80 mph).
Marlins are valuable game fish, but they are extremely difficult to catch thanks to their extremely sharp beaks and incredible stamina. The most popular place to catch this impressive fish is the Great Barrier Reef, but the fish can be found in many tropical regions, including the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Understanding time can be a complex concept. Einstein famously explained how time is relative, experienced differently based on the speed of an object. Let’s dive into the topic further.
Many animals have defied the odds and lived long, extraordinary lives. But which animal holds the title for the longest lifespan?
Scientists have studied longevity for years, with species on this list offering potential insights for longer, healthier lives. Let’s explore some of the world’s longest-living creatures.
Humans: Earth’s Longest-Lived Land Mammals
A photo of Jeanne Calment in 1995 at the age of 120. Photo courtesy: Pascal Parrot/Sygma/Getty Images
Jeanne Calment holds the record for the world’s longest-lived person, living an astonishing 122 years and 164 days. Born in 1875 in Arles, France, she claimed to have met Vincent van Gogh and humorously described him.
Calment credited her stress-free life and sense of humor for her longevity, even indulging in smoking after meals until she quit at 117. She outlived her daughter and grandson, passing away in 1997.
Glass Sponge: The Longest-Lived Aquatic Creature
Stalked vitreous cavernoma (hexatinerid) of Borosoma photographed at Maruru Seamount. Photo credit: National Marine Sanctuary/Wikipedia
The glass sponge, with its delicate appearance, can live up to 15,000 years, found in oceans worldwide at depths below 450 meters. Its unique ability to generate electrical impulses sets it apart from other creatures.
When threatened, the glass sponge’s flagella halt their beating, a survival adaptation distinct from other sponge species. Its shape remains unchanged when stimulated.
Cookie the Cockatoo: Earth’s Longest-Lived Bird
Cookie the pink parrot, photographed at Brookfield Zoo, USA, in 2008. Photo: Nimesh Madhavan/Wikipedia
Cookie the Cockatoo, a male pink parrot, holds the record for the oldest parrot, living until 83 years old before passing away in 2016 at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, USA.
Despite retiring from public life at 81 for health reasons, Cookie outlived other pink parrots by decades.
Naked Mole Rat: The Longest-Lived Rodent
Close-up of a naked mole rat (Heterocepalus glaber) in its underground burrow. Photo credit: Getty Images
Naked mole rats, resilient rodents, can survive 18 minutes without oxygen and show resistance to cancer. They live underground, protected from predators, and age differently than other mammals.
With accurate cell replication and DNA protection, naked mole rats can live for decades, with some reaching 37 years old.
Read more:
Ocean Quahog: The Longest-Lived Invertebrate
The oldest marine quahog is thought to be over 500 years old and is known as “Min”. Photo courtesy of Bangor University
The ocean quahog, an arctic clam species, holds the title for the oldest animal on Earth. A specimen found in 2006 off the coast of Iceland was estimated to be 507 years old by scientists.
Known as “Ming” or “Hafrun,” these clams display annual growth rings, allowing scientists to determine their age.
Aldabra Giant Tortoise: The Longest-Living Turtle
Adwaita, a giant Aldabra tortoise, rests in a cage at Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, India, on April 25, 2005. Photo by Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
The Aldabra giant tortoise, native to the Seychelles’ Aldabra Atoll, is Earth’s longest-living turtle species. The oldest, Adwaita, lived an estimated 255 years before passing away in 2006.
Greenland Shark: Earth’s Longest Living Fish
Greenland shark or Greenland sleeper shark (Somniosus microcepalus) swimming along the St. Lawrence River estuary in Canada. Photo credit: Alamy
Greenland sharks, with slow metabolisms, inhabit cold oceans and have lifespans difficult to estimate due to their unique physiology. Carbon dating suggests ages between 252 and 512 years.
Bobi: The Longest-Lived Dog
A photo taken on February 12, 2023 shows Bobi, the world’s oldest dog according to Guinness World Records, at her home in the village of Conqueiros, near Leiria, Portugal. Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
Bobi, a Rafeiro de Alentejo, achieved a remarkable 31 years before his passing, earning recognition as the longest-lived dog in history. Originally from Portugal, these dogs are known for their gentle nature.
The impacts of climate change are widespread, ranging from biodiversity loss to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, wildfires, and mass human migrations. Each year reveals more about our impact on the environment, with some discoveries more surprising than others.
One of the most shocking revelations to join this list is the recent discovery that our greenhouse gas emissions are altering the Earth’s rotation.
As a result, Earth days are gradually becoming longer, potentially leading to significant changes in how we experience time in the future.
“It’s fascinating how our actions as humans can have such a profound impact on the entire planet through the extensive climate change we’ve triggered over the last century,” says Professor Benedict Soja, a scientist at ETH Zurich who contributed to uncovering this concerning trend.
“This effect may surpass previous significant influences on Earth’s rotation.”
Could we see more hours in a day?
We are familiar with the greenhouse effect, where gases like carbon dioxide trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to a rise in temperatures.
Last year, global temperatures were 1.18 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century average, approaching the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set in 2015 as a limit to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
Record melting of Swiss glaciers in 2022 – Credit: Getty Images
The primary consequence of this warming is the melting of large ice areas in the Arctic and Antarctic, with Switzerland losing 10% of its glacier mass in the last two years, Antarctica shedding 150 billion tons of ice annually, and Greenland losing 270 billion tons.
While many are concerned about the impact of this melting on coastal areas, Soja and his team posed a different question: Will this significant mass redistribution likely prevail? What will be its broad-scale impact on the planet? In a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they provided an answer.
“As the ice melts, the Earth’s mass shifts from the polar regions to the oceans,” Soja explained. “This results in the Earth becoming flatter and more oblate, with its mass moving further from the rotation axis.”
Understanding the Mechanism
Similar to any rotating object, the Earth adheres to the law of momentum conservation. Simply put, momentum must be preserved, and it depends on the moment of inertia and rotational speed. As mass moves away from the rotation axis due to melting ice, the moment of inertia increases.
Therefore, to uphold its momentum despite ice melting, the Earth’s rotation slows down, elongating our days.
Soja likens this concept to a figure skater performing a spin, where extending the arms slows down the rotation, while pulling them in speeds it up.
The study indicated that from 1900 to 2000, the climate’s impact on the length of Earth’s day ranged from 0.3 to 1.0 milliseconds per century. Since 2000, accelerated melting has raised this rate to 1.3 milliseconds per century, with a potential increase to 2.6 milliseconds per century by 2100 if emissions remain unchecked.
While these changes may seem small in our daily lives, they could have significant effects on a globally synchronized technological network.
Considerations on Time Management
Three main timescales play crucial roles in timekeeping: International Atomic Time (TAI), Universal Time (UT1), and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). TAI relies on atomic clocks, UT1 is determined by Earth’s rotation, and UTC synchronizes the two.
Leap seconds were introduced in 1972 to align UTC with UT1 within 0.9 seconds.
Unlike predictable leap years, leap seconds are added irregularly as needed. Since 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added, with the most recent in 2016. Disruptions from leap seconds have caused issues in the digital age, impacting technology companies striving for synchronization.
Atomic clock made in Germany – Credit: Alamy
The recent discovery of Earth’s core slowing down further complicates matters. If the planet’s rotation continues to accelerate, a negative leap second may need to be introduced to UTC. This unprecedented situation poses substantial challenges as systems are unprepared for negative adjustments.
“This has never occurred before, and frankly, I don’t think anyone anticipated it,” Agnew remarked. He compares this scenario to the Y2K scare when concerns about potential computer errors surfaced at the end of the 20th century.
“The critical aspect is that we don’t know the consequences of introducing a negative leap second,” he cautioned. “The negative impacts could be unforeseen.”
According to Agnew, if the effects of climate change had not slowed down, a negative leap second would have been necessary in 2026. “Global warming might postpone negative leap seconds and eliminate their need entirely,” he noted.
While this discovery regarding climate change may offer a positive effect, considering less necessity for negative leap seconds, the implications of further greenhouse gas emissions outweigh any potential benefits. As the situation stands, negative leap seconds may still be required in 2029.
Perhaps it’s time to reconsider the current system?
Agnew proposed a solution to reduce the required precision between timescales, eliminating the need for negative leap seconds and allowing for more predictable positive adjustments.
“It could resemble a leap year. You add a fixed number of seconds at a specific time and accept that it may not be exact but is tolerable,” suggested Agnew.
This proposition aligns with the dominance of slowing over longer timescales, rather than the complex interactions involving Earth’s core or ice melting.
Efforts are reportedly underway to implement this system, with a target to eliminate the need for leap seconds by 2035. However, international agreement hurdles must be overcome. Failure to adapt before requiring a negative leap second could lead to unprecedented chaos, highlighting the urgency of the situation.
Meet the Experts
Benedict Soja: Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geoengineering at ETH Zurich.
Duncan Agnew: Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, specializing in crustal deformation measurement and geophysical data analysis.
Webcam images show asteroid burning up in the atmosphere over Siberia
Lensk LR/YouTube
Astronomers discovered the asteroid, about 70 centimeters in diameter, hours before it exploded harmlessly into the atmosphere above Siberia.
european space agency (ESA) issued an alert at 9:27 a.m. GMT, warning that space rocks could illuminate the skies over northern Siberia at around 11:15 p.m. local time (4:15 p.m. GMT).
Speaking before the event, Alan Fitzsimmons from Britain’s Queen’s University Belfast says objects of this size pose no danger to people on the ground, but early warnings are a positive sign that our ability to detect these objects before they hit Earth is increasing.
“It’s small, but it’s still going to be pretty spectacular,” Fitzsimmons said. “The sky above the impact site will darken and a very impressive, very bright fireball will spread across the sky for hundreds of kilometers around it.”
Several objects of this size collide with Earth every year, and we are getting better at detecting them early. The first discovery was in 2008. The next discovery was made six years later, but the pace of observations has picked up. Today’s asteroid, named C0WEPC5, is the fourth predicted to hit Earth this year.
Early warning of small asteroids gives astronomers the opportunity to observe them, collect data, and even try to collect any small pieces that survive. Fitzsimmons said the first such predicted impact in 2008 led to the recovery of a small piece of rock and generated important science. “What was beautiful was that the meteorite’s reflectivity matched exactly what was measured by telescopes before the impact, and it was a perfect match between what we saw in space and what we later found on Earth. It shows a very nice direct connection,” he says.
Detecting larger, more dangerous objects heading toward Earth could provide an opportunity to deflect them or at least evacuate the dangerous area.
A map showing where the asteroid is predicted to hit Siberia’s atmosphere.
ESA
NASA and ESA currently have dedicated programs for asteroid discovery and tracking. This involves a large network of dedicated observatories and amateur astronomers who read the positions of known objects so that their orbits can be better understood and predicted.
This latest asteroid was discovered by NASA’s Asteroid Earth Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). ATLAS operates four telescopes around the world and is designed to provide up to a week of collision warning.
“This is a victory for science, If you happen to be in Siberia this evening, there will definitely be something to take your mind off the very cold temperatures,” says Fitzsimmons.
We now know that dinosaurs were giant reptiles that dominated the Earth, but scientists have long wondered why it took them 30 million years to reach their peak. New research on their fossilized poop and vomit may have found the answer suggests that there was food in their waste.
Carnivorous dinosaurs like tyrannosaurus may have their herbivore ancestors to thank for their enormous size. The researchers propose that if these plant-eating animals hadn’t ingested so many plants, dinosaurs might not have evolved into the giant creatures we know today.
The fossilized poop and vomit, known as bromalite or copralite, dates back to around 230 to 200 million years ago, a time long before the reign of the tyrannosaurus and the Chicxulub asteroid impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs.
Scientists reconstructed a “food web” from the undigested meals of early dinosaurs, revealing the intricate relationships between different species during the Triassic period. By scanning over 500 fossils, they found evidence of various organisms, including beetles, bones, and partially digested fish.
Combining this information with climate data and other fossils provided insights into the diverse flora and fauna coexisting with dinosaurs on Earth.
“Sometimes seemingly ordinary fossils contain remarkable information that cannot be found anywhere else,” said Dr. Martin Kvarnström, a study co-author from Uppsala University in Sweden, as reported by BBC Science Focus.
Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, another co-author from Uppsala University, added, “Understanding the diet of early dinosaurs may help us grasp why this group thrived. The evolution of life on Earth hinges on predator-prey dynamics and feeding habits.”
A study published in Nature analyzed digestive samples from south-central Poland during the Late Triassic period when the region was part of the Pangea supercontinent.
According to experts, increased volcanic activity and humidity favored the growth of moisture-loving plants during this time, potentially influencing the evolution of dinosaurs.
The study utilized advanced scanning techniques to reveal detailed information from the fossils, highlighting changes in vertebrate populations leading up to the dominance of dinosaurs.
The researchers aim to apply this model to study ancient species in other regions and emphasize the importance of fossilized waste in reconstructing ancient food webs.
“Everyone is focused on finding fossilized skeletons, but it’s the waste that offers valuable insights into events from millions of years ago,” remarked Niedzwicki.
About our experts:
Dr. Martin Kvarnström is a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, focusing on using fossils to understand reptile diets, including dinosaurs.
Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, also from Uppsala University, specializes in the early evolution of dinosaurs and other quadrupeds.
Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of the trogonophid Amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossil specimens discovered in Tunisia.
rebuilding the life of Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi Ready to prey on large snails of the Brimulidae family. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.
Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi They lived in what is now Africa during the Eocene epoch, about 47 million years ago.
The new species belongs to Trogonophidae, a small family of limbless carnivorous lizard-like reptiles belonging to the clade Amphisbaenia.
“Amphibians are a group of charismatic fossil squamates with bizarre morphological features and extreme anatomical variations,” said lead author Dr. Georgios Georgalis of the Institute of Animal Systemology and Evolution, Polish Academy of Sciences and his colleagues. said a colleague.
“In particular, its unique skeletal structure has fascinated and puzzled researchers since the 19th century.”
“Before the advent and widespread acceptance of phylogenetics, amphibians were considered to be the third major group of squamates, along with Serpenta and the paraphyletic 'Lacerthilla'.”
“However, recent phylogenetic analyzes place them as a sister group to lizards in the family Caricidae, and this topology is supported by both molecular evidence and a combination of morphological and molecular evidence. The name Lacertibaenia has also been proposed for the clade Amphisbaenia + Lacertidae.
“Amphibians have a relatively rich fossil record spanning the Cenozoic era in Europe and North America, in addition to several Neogene and Quaternary occurrences from South America and some from Africa. Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary productions, very few Neogene productions from the Arabian Peninsula, and very few Neogene occurrences from southwest Asia. is. ”
“Trogonophidae is a fairly distinctive group of amphibians that is today distributed across northern and north-central Africa (including Socotra Island in Yemen) and the Middle East,” the researchers added.
“Currently, four extant genera are recognized. Agamodon, Diplometopon, Pachykaramasu, and the type genus, Trogonophis”
The most distinguishing feature of trogonophids is their hooked teeth, a feature found only among squamates in the otherwise Iguanian group Chronophytes. ”
“Trogonophids have other unique features among amphibians, including locomotion and burrowing patterns, shoulder girdle or hemipenes morphology, chromosomes, spinal arrangement, lack of caudal autodissection, and triangular cross-section. It also has features.
some specimens Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi It was discovered in a place where fossils of Jebel Chanbi Nature Park In Tunisia.
“Jebel Chambi National Park is located in the Kasserine region of central-western Tunisia,” the paleontologists said.
“Material for this study was obtained from a fossiliferous site (Chambi locus 1) consisting of fluvial-lacustrine deposits located at the base of the Chambi continental sequence.”
“These habitats support fish, amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, squamates, birds, and mammals such as bats, primates, euphorians, hyaenodonts, hyracoids, elephant shrews, marsupials, and mammals. It produces a diverse population of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates, including rodents and sirenians.
Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi At over 90 centimeters (35 inches) long, it was the largest amphibian ever known.
“Among the extant amphibian fliers, Amphisbaena Alba is the largest species, reaching a maximum total length of 81 centimeters (32 inches) and a skull length of more than 3.1 centimeters (1.2 inches), the researchers said.
Virtually all modern amphibians are burrowing animals and rarely appear on the surface outside of underground environments.
Nevertheless, certain features Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi They seem to contradict this natural history pattern and instead suggest that ancient species likely lived on the surface of the earth.
This is further supported by the extreme size. Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi which makes underground habits less likely to occur.
“Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi “This is a significant contribution to the fossil record of the hitherto little-known African Amphisbaenia, making it only the fifth species to be named extinct on the African continent,” the scientists concluded. .
“Furthermore, the new material from Chambi further adds to the extremely poor fossil record of the Trogonophidae.”
Regarding new species, paper this week, Zoological journal of the Linnean Society.
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Georgios L. Georgalis others. 2024. The world's largest earthworm lizard: a new giant trogonophid (Squamata: Amphisbaenia) with extreme dental adaptations from the Eocene of Chambi, Tunisia. Zoological journal of the Linnean Society 202 (3): zlae133;doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae133
Bacteria on a sample of asteroid Ryugu observed using an electron microscope
Matthew J. Genge et al. 2024
Rocks brought back to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu appear to be inhabited by microorganisms. But researchers say these microbes almost certainly came from Earth, not space. The contamination is a wake-up call for future sample-return missions, such as NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance, to search for extraterrestrial life.
In 2020, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa2 returned to Earth carrying 5.4 grams of rock collected from the 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid Ryugu. After landing in Australia, the sample capsule was transported to a custom-built facility in Sagamihara, Japan. There, the capsule itself was first opened in a vacuum chamber inside a clean room and then moved to a room filled with pressurized nitrogen for long-term storage. From there, a portion of the sample can be placed in a container filled with nitrogen and sent to researchers.
One of these samples was sent to the UK for research. Matthew Genge Imperial College London and colleagues. Genge and his team initially scanned the samples using X-rays, but found no evidence of bacteria.
Samples from asteroid Ryugu collected by Hayabusa2
JAXA
After 3 weeks, the samples were transferred to resin and further examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after another week. When Genge and his colleagues first looked at the sample and saw what appeared to be thread-like bacteria, his students “almost fell off their chairs” at the prospect of discovering extraterrestrial life. . “It was an exciting moment, but we also had in the back of our minds from previous research that bacteria tend to colonize rocks,” Genge said.
By tracking bacterial growth with follow-up SEM measurements, they found that bacterial populations varied in a manner similar to known microorganisms. Their familiar shape, combined with their absence in the first X-ray scan, makes it very likely that they were terrestrial in origin, Genge says.
He believes the samples may have become contaminated after being embedded in the resin. The experiment was conducted at a facility on Earth that also handles space rocks. Rock specimens often contain bacteria that are adapted to live within them. “All it takes is one bacterium or one bacterial spore for this to happen,” he says. “For example, when we’re preparing meteorite samples, we don’t usually see this kind of colonization happening, and that’s because the probability of it happening is so low. In this case , one bacterium fell onto the sample and started multiplying.”
But Genge added that this should serve as a warning for future sample return missions. “Finding microbes in samples returned from space should be the gold standard for discovering extraterrestrial life. If we were to do that, we would fly to Mars, collect samples, and bring them back. “If we found microorganisms in it, we would say that was the clincher,” Genge says. “But our findings really show that we have to be very careful in interpreting the samples because they are susceptible to contamination with terrestrial bacteria.”
Javier Martin Torres Researchers at the University of Aberdeen in the UK agree that changes in the microbial filament population suggest a terrestrial origin, but this does not exclude the possibility that they came from elsewhere. . “If you want to be sure that these microorganisms are not of extraterrestrial origin, you need to do DNA sequencing,” he says.
Scientists already knew that bacteria could survive very well in meteorite samples that fell to Earth, but this raises the possibility that bacteria could also survive on materials elsewhere in the solar system. It only strengthens it. “The microorganisms can use organic matter within the meteorite to sustain themselves. They’re feeding on an extraterrestrial snack,” Genge says. “So there may be an ecosystem on Mars. It’s a fairly sparse ecosystem, but it’s an ecosystem that’s supported by manna from the sky and by meteorites that fall on the surface.”
Uranus’ strange magnetic field may be much less strange than astronomers first thought, and it could mean that Uranus’ largest moon is much more active and perhaps even has a global ocean It means that there is.
The only direct measurement of Uranus’s magnetic field was obtained by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew close to the planet in 1986. The spacecraft’s measurements suggested that the magnetic field was skewed, meaning it was not aligned with the planet’s rotation, and that it was an anomalous field. It is rich in highly energetic electrons and lacks the plasma that is common in the magnetic fields of other gas giant planets like Jupiter. Astronomers at the time thought the results were so strange that they either invoked complex physics to explain the measurements or simply dismissed them as evidence that Voyager 2’s instruments had gone awry.
now, jamie jasinski Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reanalyzed Voyager 2 data and found that a rare explosion of solar wind that crushed Uranus’ magnetic field just before the spacecraft arrived may have distorted the data, causing the measurements to I discovered that it was disturbed. This means everything we thought we knew about Uranus’ magnetic field may be wrong, Jasinski says. “This is almost like resetting everything,” he says.
Jasinski and his team found that the solar wind compressed Uranus’s magnetic field to a size that typically occurs only 4 percent of the time. But for the past 40 years, scientists have assumed that is the normal state of affairs. Jasinski says the collapse of the magnetic field explains some of the strange results so far, including the lack of plasma and high-energy electrons.
If there is indeed plasma in Uranus’ magnetic field, and Voyager 2 just happened to miss it, it’s possible that not all of it came from the planet itself. Some may have come from Uranus’ moons, the largest of which are called Titania and Oberon. Until now, these moons were thought to be inert, but new research leaves open the possibility that they may be geologically active after all. This is consistent with recent calculations that suggest there may be a hidden ocean on the moon. “The solar wind may have wiped out all evidence of an active satellite just before the flyby occurred,” Jasinski said.
Bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice were used to estimate past temperatures
aldiami/Andreas Alexander/Alamy
Humankind has already caused around 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming since the start of the industrial revolution, according to new estimates based on temperature data collected from air bubbles trapped in ice.
Measuring anthropogenic global warming typically uses the period from 1850 to 1900 as a pre-industrial baseline. This is because this is the time when temperature records began. 2024 is almost certain to be the first year in which average temperatures rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above this baseline. This single-year data is influenced by naturally occurring factors such as the strong El Niño event, which has pushed up global temperatures.
When you remove this natural variation, scientists believe humans alone have caused 1.31°C of warming since the Industrial Revolution. But by 1850, the Industrial Revolution was already underway, and fossil fuel-powered engines were in use around the world.
Andrew Jarvis Lancaster University and Piers Foster Researchers at the University of Leeds, both in the UK, set out to establish a new pre-industrial baseline using data taken from Antarctic ice core samples. The pair analyzed the composition of air bubbles trapped in ice cores to establish atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from 13 AD to 1700, before humans significantly influenced atmospheric temperatures. This CO2 data was then used to establish the average global temperature over the same period, assuming a linear relationship between CO2 and temperature increases.
Using this new pre-1700 baseline, humanity has caused 1.49°C of warming by 2023, meaning the 1.5°C level has been “effectively reached,” the researchers say in their findings. It is written in the paper to be reported. “We have provided a new, scientifically defensible way to derive a pre-industrial baseline for measuring global warming,” Jarvis told reporters at a press conference.
Jarvis said the new method would also help reduce the uncertainty in temperature estimates based on the current 1850-1900 baseline used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Using ice core data to establish a baseline between 1850 and 1900, the researchers say humans caused 1.31°C of warming. This is consistent with existing median estimates, but the range of uncertainty is significantly reduced, the researchers note.
“The problem with just looking at surface temperature observations is that the further back in time you go, the more uncertain those observations become,” Forster says. “We are now much more confident than before that the current temperature is around 1.3°C.”
Jarvis and Forster hope their new method will be adopted by scientists and policymakers as the primary way to judge humanity's progress against global climate goals. “I think there is still room in the policy and scientific communities to rethink the pre-industrial baseline,” Jarvis said. “We know that the estimates for 1850 to 1900 incorporate warming, simply because that was not the beginning of the industrial revolution. We provide a way to operate from a secure baseline.”
However, new methods may not be future-proof. The linear relationship between CO2 concentrations and global temperatures is likely to break down as the climate changes. For example, if a so-called tipping point is triggered in the Earth system that triggers a series of warming events.
The new methods won't change the effects of climate change that are felt on the ground, Forster said. “The impact on human life from Spain and the hurricanes we are experiencing today is exactly the same whether you call it 1.3°C above pre-industrial levels or 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. is” . Influence is influence. ”
Richard Betts The Met Office, the UK's meteorological agency, said the new method “provides a clear and easy way to provide an up-to-date estimate of the current level of anthropogenic global warming”. Part of the reason is that it can produce “real-time” estimates of human-induced warming, rather than relying on 10-year moving averages as current estimates do.
He said the approach could help provide policymakers with a more up-to-date picture of current levels of warming, but changing the baseline used in the assessment would be an “objective” for climate action. It warned that it could be considered as “moving.'' “Even without changing the baseline, it is clear that current warming is much closer to 1.5°C than expected using older 10-year averages,” he says .
Hidden somewhere in the dark of space, there is a giant asteroid on a collision course with Earth. If we don’t spot it and somehow stop its arrival, it will hurtle through Earth’s atmosphere at 60,000 kilometers per hour and slam into the ground, vaporizing everything it touches.
With millions of asteroids hurtling through the inner solar system, the threat is inevitable. A conflict will occur sooner or later. But that doesn’t mean the Earth has to be a sitting duck. The global community is obsessed with planetary defense, carefully planning how to repel extraterrestrial invaders should they appear, or at least minimize carnage.
Among other things, this research includes scanning the sky for threats and testing missions to throw asteroids off course. But it also includes a surprising amount of role-playing, with scenarios in which teams impact asteroids in a war game. “Exercises like this are necessary because in the real world, we have not yet reached this point where we need to actually design and build a mission,” NASA said. Paul Chodas do a lot of role-playing. “It makes you think about details that you wouldn’t otherwise think about.”
In the coming paragraphs, you’ll be in the hot seat for a choose-your-own-adventure version of one of these role-playing games. You decide how to react when an asteroid comes towards us. Whether you want to crash your spaceship, use sunlight-absorbing paint to change its course, or just blow it to pieces, you’ll realize we have even more options…
Poisonous spiders are known as some of the deadliest and most dangerous creatures in the world. They are the stuff of nightmares and horror movies, famous for their ability to paralyze and subdue their prey while still alive.
While most spiders have venom glands, only some pose a threat to humans. Certain species can cause pain and discomfort similar to bee or wasp stings, while others can be more severe.
If you are unfortunate enough to be bitten, seeking medical advice and treatment is recommended.
Here are the top 10 deadliest and most venomous spiders to be aware of:
10 – Mouse Spider
Eastern mouse spider (Missulena bradleyi) photographed in Brisbane, Australia. Photo by Robert White/Wikipedia Commons
Mouse spiders, despite their name, do not actually eat mice. They are named for their underground burrowing habits rather than their prey.
While their venom can cause headaches and numbness, mouse spiders are not typically aggressive, and there is generally no cause for alarm despite their intimidating appearance.
9 – Lycosa Tarantula Spider
Portrait of a spider wolf (Lycosa tarantula) taken in a field. Photo credit: Getty Images
The tarantula spider wolf is nocturnal and has excellent eyesight. While they may appear intimidating, they are rarely aggressive towards humans, and their venom is not highly dangerous.
8 – Bulbul Spider
Female adult brown widow (Latrodectus geometaus) on her web. Photo credit: Getty Images
Bulbul spiders, with their distinctive markings, are found worldwide. While their bites can cause pain and symptoms like vomiting, they are not as dangerous as some other species.
7 – White-Tailed Spider
The white-tailed spider (Lampona cylindrata) lives in southern and eastern Australia. Photo credit: Getty Images
White-tailed spiders prey on other spiders and can cause nausea and headaches if they bite humans. They are often found hiding in clothing and shoes.
6 – Minami Microcrystal Spider
A female black widow spider (Latrodectus mactans) hangs upside down in its nest, displaying its distinctive red hourglass pattern. Photo credit: Getty Images
Black widow spiders are known for their venomous bites, but they only bite when threatened. While their venom can be harmful, serious illness or death is rare.
5 – Redback Spider
Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti) on red soil. Photo credit: Getty Images
Redback spiders are known for their painful bites, which can cause headaches and nausea. They are commonly found indoors.
4 – Brown Recluse Spider
Front view of the brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa). Photo credit: Insects Unlocked/Wiki Commons
Brown recluse spiders are shy and typically avoid humans. Their bites can be painful and may cause vomiting or fever.
3 – Chilean Spider
An immature male brown spider (Loxosceles laeta) photographed at the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki. Photo credit: S Siltane/Wiki Commons
The Chilean spider can cause severe tissue damage and scarring with its bites. In rare cases, it may lead to kidney failure or death.
2 – Brazilian Wandering Spider
A Brazilian wandering or banana spider (Phoneutoria spp.) photographed in the Tambopata Nature Reserve in the Madre de Dios region, Peru. Photo credit: Getty Images
The Brazilian wandering spider is large and venomous, with a bite that can cause various symptoms including paralysis, respiratory arrest, and even death if untreated.
1 – Australian Funnel Web Spider
A poisonous Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robotus) showing its fangs. Photo credit: Getty Images
The Australian funnel-web spider is incredibly venomous and aggressive. Their bites can lead to serious illness or death, particularly in children.
astronomer using Zwicky Temporary Facility (ZTF) investigated. Taurus resonance groupa large interplanetary system containing Comet 2P/Encke, several meteor showers, and possibly numerous near-Earth asteroids.
This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows comet 2P/Encke running along a pebble trail of its debris. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Minnesota.
“We can take advantage of the unique opportunity that this asteroid swarm has to approach Earth to more efficiently search for celestial objects that may pose a threat to Earth,” said Dr. Kuanji Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland. ” he said.
“Our results suggest that the risk of impact from large asteroids in the Taurus group is much lower than we thought, which is good news for planetary defense.”
Prior to this study, astronomers had predicted that the Taurus resonance complex contained a significant number of large kilometer-sized space rocks, probably left behind by large objects up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide. I was guessing.
If a large object were to hit Earth, like the Chelyabinsk asteroid in 2013, it could cause regional damage.
Even larger objects can cause extinction-level events, like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago.
“Fortunately, we found that there are likely only a small number of asteroids in this large size class, perhaps only nine to 14, in this population,” Dr. Ye said.
“Judging by our findings, the parent object that first spawned the swarm was probably closer to 10 km (6.2 miles) in diameter, rather than a giant 100 km diameter object.”
“We still need to be cautious about asteroid impacts, but knowing this result will probably help us sleep better.”
The Taurus swarm holds important clues about planetary evolution, especially because of its association with Comet Encke.
This comet has the shortest orbital period of any known comet, at just 3.3 years.
It is also unusually large and dusty for a short-period comet that orbits the sun within 200 years.
Considering all available evidence, scientists believe that Encke has experienced significant fragmentation in the past and may continue to do so in the future.
“Studying the Taurus swarm helps us understand how small objects like comets and asteroids form and break up over time,” said Dr. Ye.
“Our research has implications not only for asteroid detection and planetary defense, but also for our broader understanding of the solar system's celestial bodies.”
The researchers presented their findings. findings this week's DPS56Annual Meeting of the Planetary Science Division of the American Astronomical Society.
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Yosenshi others. 2024. In search of potentially dangerous asteroids in the Taurus resonance group. DPS56
According to some researchers, the moon may have been captured during a close encounter between young Earth and the Earth binary (a system consisting of the moon and other rocks). new paper Published in Planetary Science Journal.
Darren Williams and Michael Zugger explored the concept of collisionless binary exchange for capturing large satellites (comparable to or larger than the Moon) around Earth-mass objects inside and outside the solar system.
During six missions to the Moon from 1969 to 1972, Apollo astronauts collected more than 360 kg (800 pounds) of lunar rocks and soil.
Chemical and isotopic analysis of the material showed it to be similar to rocks and soils on Earth. It was found to be calcium-rich, basaltic, and dated to about 60 million years after the formation of the solar system.
Using that data, planetary scientists gathered at the Kona conference in Hawaii in 1984 reached a consensus that the moon formed from debris after it collided with a young Earth.
“The Kona conference set the story for 40 years,” said Darren Williams, a professor at Penn State University.
“But questions still remained. For example, a moon formed by a collision of planets, with the debris clumped together in a ring, should orbit above the planet's equator. Earth's moon should orbit above the planet's equator. It's circling around.
“The moon is more in line with the sun than the Earth's equator.”
“In an alternative binary exchange capture theory. Earth's gravity separated the binary star and latched onto one of the objects, the moon, which became a satellite orbiting its current plane.”
“There is evidence that this is happening elsewhere in the solar system.”
“The leading hypothesis in this field is that Triton, the largest of Neptune's moons, was drawn into orbit from the Kuiper belt, where one in 10 is thought to be a binary star. There is.”
“Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit, moving in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.”
“Its orbit is also highly tilted, making an angle of 67 degrees from Neptune's equator.”
Professor Williams and Professor Michael Zager of Pennsylvania State University argue that Earth could have captured an even larger satellite than the moon, an object the size of Mercury or Mars, but the resulting orbit would not be stable. It was determined that there was a possibility that the
The problem is that the Moon's “capture” orbit started out as an elongated ellipse, not a circle.
Over time, the shape of the orbit changed under the influence of extreme tides.
“Today Earth's tides are more advanced than the Moon's,” Professor Williams said.
“The high tide accelerates the orbit. It gives it a pulsation and gives it a little bit of a boost. Over time, the moon moves away a little bit.”
When the Moon approaches the Earth, the effect is reversed, as it was immediately after capture.
By calculating tidal changes and the size and shape of the orbit, the researchers determined that the moon's initial elliptical orbit had shrunk over a timescale of several thousand years.
The orbit also became more circular, until the moon's rotation became fixed in its orbit around the Earth, as it is now.
“At that point, the tides likely reversed and the moon began to gradually move away,” Professor Williams said.
“Each year, the Moon moves 3 centimeters away from Earth. At its current distance from Earth – 385,000 km (239,000 miles) – the Moon feels a significant pull from the Sun's gravity.”
“The moon is so far away right now that both the sun and Earth are competing for your attention. They're both being pulled by it.”
Mathematically, the researchers calculated, a satellite captured in a binary exchange could behave similarly to Earth's moon. However, it is not certain whether this is the origin of the moon.
“No one knows how the moon formed,” Professor Williams says.
“For the past 40 years, we've had one possibility as to how it got there.”
“Now we have two. This opens up a treasure trove of new questions and opportunities for further research.”
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Darren M. Williams and Michael E. Zagar. 2024. Formation of large-scale terrestrial satellites through binary exchange acquisition. Planetary Science Journal 5(9):208;doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad5a9a
Artist’s impression of Barnard’s b, a planet orbiting around Barnard’s star
ESO/M.Kornmesser
Barnard’s star, one of the Sun’s closest neighbors, appears to have at least one planet orbiting around it, and possibly three more that require further confirmation.
Astronomers have been searching for planets around Barnard’s star, 5.96 light-years away, since the 1960s. Barnard’s star is the next closest star to us after the three stars in the Alpha Centauri star system.
In 2018, researchers claimed to have discovered a planet at least three times the size of Earth called Barnard Star B, but subsequent analysis revealed that the apparent planet’s signal was actually a larger-than-expected star. Turns out it was caused by activity. .
now, Jonay González Hernández Researchers at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics have announced the discovery of a new Barnard star b, which has about 40 percent the mass of Earth.
The planet is much closer to its star than any other planet in our solar system, completing an orbit in just over three Earth days. This also means that its surface temperature is around 125°C (257°F), too hot for liquid water or life to exist.
Using an instrument called Espresso on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, González Hernández and his team observed tiny wobbles in Barnard’s star’s position caused by the orbiting planet’s gravity. I discovered this star.
They also found evidence of three more planets orbiting the star. However, the signal wasn’t strong enough to be certain, so more observations will be needed to confirm that.
“These detections are very tricky and always difficult because there is stellar activity, the magnetic field of the star that rotates with the star,” he says. Rodrigo Fernando Diaz at the National University of San Martin, Argentina. González Hernández and his team have thoroughly checked whether the observations are from a planet, but there could always be “unknown unknowns,” Fernando Díaz said. says. To really confirm this, he says, data from other telescopes is needed, which could take years of observations.
An exoplanet with at least half the mass of Venus orbits Barnard's Star, the closest single star to the Sun, once every 3.15 days.
Artist's impression of Bernard B. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.
Barnard's Star is a 10 billion year old red dwarf star located in the constellation Ophiuchus.
At a distance of about 6 light years, it is the second closest star to the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
The star, also known as Gliese 699 or GJ 699, is much smaller than the Sun and is classified as an M3.5 dwarf.
Despite the prospect of a “super-Earth” with a mass 3.2 times that of Earth in 2018, no planets have ever been confirmed to orbit this star.
The new exoplanet discovery is the result of five years of observations using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
“We were always confident that we would find something, even if it took a long time,” said Dr. Jonay González Hernández, an astronomer at the Canarias Astronomical Institute.
The newly discovered planet, named Barnard b, is about 20 times closer to Barnard's star than Mercury is to the Sun.
It orbits its parent star in 3.15 Earth days and has a surface temperature of about 125 degrees Celsius (257 degrees Fahrenheit).
“Bernard B is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known, and one of the few exoplanets known to have less mass than Earth,” said Dr. González-Hernández. Ta.
“But this planet is too close to its host star, closer than the habitable zone.”
“Even though this star is about 2,500 degrees cooler than the Sun, it's still too hot to support liquid water on its surface.”
In addition to the confirmed planet, astronomers also discovered hints of three more exoplanet candidates orbiting the same star.
However, additional observations are required to confirm these candidates.
“We need to continue observing this star to confirm other candidate signals,” said Dr. Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, also from the Canarias Astronomical Institute and co-author of the study.
“But the discovery of this planet, along with previous discoveries such as Proxima b and Proxima d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.”
Bernard B's findings were published in a. paper in diary astronomy and astrophysics.
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JI Gonzalez Hernandez others. 2024. A sub-Earth mass planet orbiting Barnard's star. A&A 690, A79; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451311
NASA announced on Wednesday that the troubled Boeing spacecraft will undock from the International Space Station on Friday and attempt to return to Earth without any astronauts on board. The uncrewed liftoff of the Starliner spacecraft is set to take place, assuming the weather is clear at the landing site in New Mexico. The return journey is expected to last about six hours, with the spacecraft scheduled to land at White Sands Spaceport early Saturday morning.
This return flight marks the final phase of a challenging test flight that did not go as planned. The mission was supposed to demonstrate Boeing’s capability to safely transport astronauts to the space station, leading to NASA certification. However, after encountering issues with thrusters and a helium leak from its propulsion system, the mission had to be aborted, leaving astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stranded on the space station for an extended period of time.
During a press conference, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, expressed excitement about Starliner’s return and the lessons learned from this test flight. The spacecraft is set to undock from the space station on Friday evening and land in New Mexico early Saturday morning.
The undocking process will be different without astronauts on board, with precautions taken to protect the space station in case of any malfunctions. After departing from the space station, Starliner will perform a deorbit burn before landing in New Mexico with the help of parachutes and airbags.
A successful return would be significant for Boeing, potentially signaling the safe return of NASA astronauts aboard the spacecraft. However, NASA has requested SpaceX to handle the return flight to minimize risks.
The certification process for Starliner remains uncertain, with NASA and Boeing working together to address issues and improve the spacecraft’s thrusters.
Boeing, along with SpaceX, was awarded a contract under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to develop spacecraft for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft has been successfully ferrying NASA astronauts to the space station since 2020.
Predicted trajectory of asteroid CAQTDL2 over the Philippines
Catalina Sky Survey/ESA
The asteroid struck Earth and burned up in the atmosphere east of the Philippines. Astronomers spotted it just hours before it streaked across the sky in a bright fireball, but many on the ground couldn’t see it because of cloudy skies caused by Typhoon Enteng.
The asteroid, estimated to be about one meter in diameter, was a NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey. It was originally designated CAQTDL2 and was later renamed 2024 RW1.
As expected, the asteroid struck the east of the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago at around 1645 GMT, 1745 London time, 1245 New York time, or 0045 local time. The impact speed was predicted to be 17.6 kilometers per second, or 63,360 kilometers per hour. Alan Fitzsimmons. That’s average for such an object, says a researcher at Queen’s University in Belfast, UK. “Don’t be fooled by Hollywood movies where you see something screaming into the sky and you have time to run out the house, grab your cat, hop in your car and drive somewhere. You don’t have time for that,” he says.
Asteroid CAQTDL2 can be seen moving across the sky in a purple circle.
Catalina Sky Survey
Luckily, no evacuations were necessary: NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office posted on social media that the asteroid “safely impacted Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Something that small wouldn’t do any damage on the ground because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks that,” Fitzsimmons said. Video shared on social media from Cagayan province in the northern tip of the Philippines shows a flickering green fireball appearing behind a cloud, followed by an orange tail, before disappearing a few seconds later.
☄️? Wow! The newly discovered 1-1.5m diameter asteroid 2024 RW1 (discovered by US near-Earth asteroid hunters) burned up over the Philippines just hours after it was first sighted.
This asteroid was not a danger, but if it had been, it could have been a warning to hunker down and take cover. pic.twitter.com/Fht4yqRsBP
Fitzsimmons said two to three objects this size hit Earth every year, and early detection is becoming more common – astronomers detected the first near-Earth asteroid before it fell to Earth in 2008. 2024 RW1 will be the ninth asteroid to be accurately predicted to hit Earth.
“The really good thing about this is that our survey telescopes are now good enough to detect these objects as they approach and to provide a warning,” he says. “In other words, if this object was bigger and potentially threatening to people on the ground, it would have appeared brighter and projected farther. So this is a really cool demonstration that our current survey systems work really well. Right now, we’re probably averaging about one asteroid per year that gets detected before it hits the atmosphere, and survey systems are getting better and better.”
Not only is Earth developing and improving its early warning systems, but in 2022 NASA’s Dual Asteroid Reorientation Test (DART) spacecraft proved it could potentially save Earth from a catastrophic impact with a larger object. DART struck the 160-meter-wide moonlet Dimorphos, slowing it slightly, demonstrating that in theory such a disaster could be averted. Next month, the European Space Agency will launch the Hera mission to study the consequences of the impact in detail and further our understanding of planetary defense.
Predicted trajectory of asteroid CAQTDL2 over the Philippines
Catalina Sky Survey/ESA
Astronomers have discovered that an asteroid is on its way to collide with Earth at thousands of kilometers per hour, likely somewhere east of the Philippines, over the ocean. Fortunately, this relatively small object won’t pose any harm and will simply burn up in the atmosphere in a fireball.
The asteroid, estimated to be about one meter in diameter, was a NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey. The asteroid has been named CAQTDL2 and is scheduled to impact Earth at approximately 16:45 GMT, 17:45 London time, 12:45 New York time, and at approximately 00:45 local time at the impact site in the Philippines.
It is currently estimated that CAQTDL2 will impact at a speed of 17.6 kilometers per second, or 63,360 kilometers per hour. Alan Fitzsimmons That’s average for such an object, says a researcher at Queen’s University in Belfast, UK. “Don’t be fooled by Hollywood movies where you see something screaming into the sky and you have time to run out the house, grab your cat, hop in your car and drive somewhere. You don’t have time for that,” he says.
Fortunately, no such evacuation is necessary. Although the impact would be dramatic and could shine as brightly as the moon in the night sky, it poses no danger to people on the ground. “An object this small can’t do any damage on the ground because it’s protected by the Earth’s atmosphere,” Fitzsimmons says. “It would just burn up harmlessly and then explode in a very impressive fireball.”
Asteroid CAQTDL2 can be seen moving across the sky in a purple circle.
Catalina Sky Survey
Fitzsimmons said two to three objects this size hit Earth each year, and early detection is becoming more common – astronomers first spotted a near-Earth asteroid before it fell to Earth in 2008. CAQTDL2 is the ninth asteroid to be accurately predicted to hit Earth.
“The really good thing about this is that our survey telescopes are now good enough to detect these objects as they approach and to provide a warning,” he says. “In other words, if this object was bigger and potentially threatening to people on the ground, it would have appeared brighter and projected farther. So this is a really cool demonstration that our current survey systems work really well. Right now, we’re probably averaging about one asteroid per year that gets detected before it hits the atmosphere, and survey systems are getting better and better.”
Not only is Earth developing and improving its early warning systems, but in 2022 NASA’s Dual Asteroid Reorientation Test (DART) spacecraft proved it could potentially save Earth from a catastrophic impact with a larger object. DART struck the 160-meter-wide moonlet Dimorphos, slowing it slightly, demonstrating that in theory such a disaster could be averted. Next month, the European Space Agency will launch the Hera mission to study the consequences of the impact up close and further our understanding of planetary defense.
Astrophysicists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration have conducted test observations that achieve the highest resolution ever obtained from Earth’s surface by detecting light emanating from the center of a distant galaxy at a frequency of about 345 GHz. When combined with existing images of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 and the Milky Way galaxy at a lower frequency of 230 GHz, these new results not only produce a 50% sharper picture of the black hole, but also a multi-color image of the region just outside the boundaries of these cosmic monsters.
This artist’s impression shows the locations of radio observatories on Earth that took part in the EHT Collaboration’s pilot experiment to produce the highest-resolution observations from the ground. Image courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser.
In 2019, the EHT Collaboration released images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, and in 2022, they released images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
These images were obtained by linking multiple radio observatories around Earth, using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), to form a single “Earth-sized” virtual telescope.
To get higher resolution images, astronomers typically resort to larger telescopes, or greater distances between observatories acting as part of an interferometer.
But because the EHT was already the same size as Earth, a different approach was needed to increase the resolution of ground-based observations.
Another way to increase a telescope’s resolution is to observe shorter wavelengths of light, and that’s exactly what the EHT Collaboration is currently doing.
“The EHT has seen the first image of a black hole at 1.3 millimeter wavelengths, but the bright ring created by the black hole’s gravity bending light still appears blurry because we’ve reached the absolute limit of how sharp an image we can make,” said Dr Alexander Raymond, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“At 0.87mm, the images will be clearer and more detailed, which may reveal new properties, some previously predicted, but also some perhaps not.”
To demonstrate detection at 0.87 mm, EHT researchers carried out test observations of distant, bright galaxies at this wavelength.
Rather than using the entire EHT array, they used two smaller subarrays, including ALMA and the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX).
Other facilities that will be used include the IRAM Thirty Meter Telescope in Spain, the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France, and the Greenland Telescope and Submillimeter Array in Hawaii.
In this pilot experiment, scientists achieved measurements down to 19 microarcseconds, the highest resolution ever achieved from the Earth’s surface.
But it hasn’t yet been able to capture an image: Though it has robustly detected light from some distant galaxies, it hasn’t used enough antennas to be able to accurately reconstruct an image from the data.
This technical test opens up new avenues for studying black holes.
With the full array, the EHT can see details as small as 13 microarcseconds, the equivalent of seeing a bottle cap on the Moon from Earth.
This means that at 0.87mm we can obtain images with approximately 50% higher resolution than the previously published M87* and Sagittarius A* 1.3mm images.
What’s more, it may be possible to observe a black hole that is more distant, smaller and fainter than the two black holes imaged so far.
“Observing changes in the surrounding gas at different wavelengths will help us solve the mysteries of how black holes attract and accrete matter, and how they can launch powerful jets that travel across the Milky Way galaxy,” said Dr Shepard Doleman, EHT founding director and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
This is the first time that VLBI technology has been used successfully at a wavelength of 0.87 mm.
“The detection of a VLBI signal at 0.87 mm is groundbreaking as it opens a new observational window into the study of supermassive black holes,” said Dr Thomas Krichbaum, astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.
“In the future, the Spanish and French IRAM telescopes in combination with ALMA and APEX will allow us to image smaller and fainter radiation simultaneously at two wavelengths, 1.3 mm and 0.87 mm, which was previously possible.”
JUICE spacecraft may be visible from Southeast Asia during unprecedented operation
European Space Agency
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) will land on Earth in what the European Space Agency (ESA) calls a “double world first.” It is scheduled to fly past Earth and the Moon on August 19 and 20, the first of several complex maneuvers along a looping path to Jupiter. You may be able to see the spacecraft in the sky as it speeds past.
JUICE was launched on April 14, 2023, and has been orbiting the Sun almost parallel to Earth ever since. But on August 19, its journey will start to get interesting: it will pass within 700 km of the Moon's surface, slowing down slightly using a method called gravity assist. The next day, it will drop to less than 7,000 km above Earth's surface, curving its orbit even further. That's when eagle-eyed astronomy fans in Southeast Asia may get a glimpse of the spacecraft.
All of this is necessary because if JUICE were to fly in a straight line to Jupiter, it would need more than 60,000 kilograms of fuel to get there, and even more to slow down and enter orbit once there. With the entire spacecraft's mass unfueled at 2,420 kilograms, this just isn't feasible. Instead, upcoming Earth-Moon flybys will send the spacecraft to Venus, where it will begin to accelerate, then fly past Earth twice to get it just fast enough to reach Jupiter in 2031.
The first maneuver may be the most complex of the entire mission, as JUICE must pass precise points relative to both the Earth and the Moon to en route to Venus. “It's like going through a very narrow corridor very fast, with the accelerator at full speed with only millimeters of clearance on the side of the road,” said ESA's Ignacio Tanco in statementA dual Earth-Moon flyby has never been attempted before, nor has a dual gravity assist been performed.
If all goes well, JUICE will not only head to Venus and then Jupiter, but it will also perform the first major tests of its scientific instruments. For some of the probes, this will be their only chance to observe the planet's surface and iron out any kinks before they reach orbit around Jupiter and begin their mission to search for hints of possible life on the planet's giant moons.
This new image is High resolution stereo camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft Calaris ChaosIt is the collapsed and dried-up remains of a vast ancient Martian lake called Lake Eridania.
This image taken by ESA's Mars Express shows Karalis Chaos, a region on Mars that is thought to have once held abundant water in the form of an ancient lake known as Lake Eridania. Image credit: ESA / DLR / Free University Berlin.
Lake Eridania once held more water than all other lakes on Mars combined, covering an area of over 1 million km.2.
The lake was larger than any known lake on Earth, containing nearly three times the volume of water as the Caspian Sea.
It probably first existed as one large body of water about 3.7 billion years ago, and then as it began to dry out, it emerged as a series of smaller, isolated lakes.
Eventually Lake Eridania disappeared entirely, along with the rest of the Red Planet's water.
“The bottom left portion of the frame reveals remnants of an ancient lake bed,” Mars Express researchers said.
“The boundary of this layer can be seen curving upward from the center of the frame, surrounding a large central crater.”
“The old lake bed is now filled with many raised banks, which are thought to have formed when ancient Martian winds blew dust across Mars.”
“This dust was then covered with water, transformed, and dried up again and broke apart.”
In addition to water, there are clear signs of volcanic activity in and around this area, known as Karalis Chaos.
“The image shows two long cracks running horizontally, crossing both the lake bed and the smoother ground above,” the scientists said.
“These are known as the Sirenum-Fossae faults, and they formed when the Tharsis region of Mars, home to the solar system's largest volcanoes, rose up, putting enormous pressure on the Martian crust.”
“A lot of the wrinkled ridges you see here are also the result of volcanic pressure.”
“These appear as wavy lines running vertically across the frame.”
“Wrinkle ridges are common in volcanic plains and form when new lava layers compress, buckle and deform while still soft and elastic.”
“Also interesting is this impact crater, created by a space rock colliding with Mars.”
According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Sunday was the hottest day on record.
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous record set in July last year.
Last month was the hottest June on record worldwide.
Sunday is The hottest day on record According to data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, on Earth:
The global average temperature reached 17.09 degrees Celsius (about 62.76 degrees Fahrenheit), slightly surpassing the previous record of 17.08 degrees Celsius recorded on July 6, 2023.
“We are now in truly uncharted territory and there is no doubt that new records will be broken in the coming months and years as the climate continues to warm,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.
So far, both July this year and July 2023 have been much warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average, according to Copernicus data. Before last year, the hottest day on record was August 12, 2016, when the average temperature reached 16.8 degrees.
Last week, a heatwave that hit southern and central Europe reportedly sparked wildfires in southern Italy, forcing the Greek Ministry of Culture to close the Acropolis for several hours. Associated Press.
In the United States, High temperature warning Six states, including Arizona, California and Montana, enacted special heat stroke laws on Tuesday. Officials believe more than 300 people have died from heat stroke in Maricopa County, Arizona, so far this year.
Last month was the hottest June on record globally, breaking records for the 13th consecutive month of record high temperatures. Copernicus Service Monitoring.
“As it gets hotter, we're going to have to significantly recalibrate how we live our lives,” said Bharat Venkat, director of the UCLA Thermal Lab, which studies the effects of rising temperatures.
As a more personal example, Venkat said he took his dog for a walk at a local mall this summer because the sidewalk was “really hot and I was worried his paws would get burned.”
He stressed that at a larger, more severe level, “many of these adverse effects overlap with existing social inequalities.”
People with underlying medical conditions are more susceptible to heatstroke. People who work outdoors, like delivery people or farmers, face a bigger problem. Certain structures, like prisons and food trucks, retain more heat, making them especially hot for people inside.
Global average temperatures typically peak between late June and early August because this is the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, which contains most of the world's land mass and population.
In the Southern Hemisphere, average temperatures are also rising due to melting Antarctic sea ice, the Copernicus Service reported.
This year has been particularly warm because of an El Niño weather pattern, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist and climate writer at Yale University's Climate Connections.
La Niña is Estimated Arrival There should be a moderate cooling effect over the next few months.
But overall temperatures will continue to rise and records will continue to be broken, Henson said.
Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science have discovered that the deep ocean floor of the Pacific Ocean, covered with polymetallic nodules, produces so-called “dark oxygen.”
Polymetallic nodules recovered from the ocean floor in a Northwestern University lab. Image courtesy of Camille Bridgewater/Northwestern University.
Polymetallic nodules – naturally occurring mineral deposits that form on the seafloor – are commonly found in the sediment-covered abyssal plains of oceans around the world.
These consist primarily of iron and manganese oxides, but also contain metals such as cobalt and rare earth elements, which are essential components of many advanced, low-carbon energy technologies.
For the new study, Dr Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science and his colleagues carried out experiments using chambers placed on the seafloor at a depth of around 4,200 metres to measure oxygen levels at multiple sites more than 4,000 kilometres apart in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific Ocean, where polymetallic nodules are found.
Nearly every experiment showed a steady increase in oxygen levels over the two days.
The researchers conducted additional laboratory analysis and claim that the source of the detected oxygen release is polymetallic nodules.
Based on numerical simulations, they hypothesize that the electrical properties of the nodes are responsible for oxygen production.
While the researchers note that it is difficult to estimate how much oxygen polymetallic nodules produce over a wide area, they suggest that this source of oxygen may support ecosystems on the deep seafloor, which could be affected if these nodules are mined.
“We understand that oxygen was needed for aerobic life to begin on Earth, and Earth's oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms,” Dr Sweetman said.
“But we now know that oxygen is produced even in the deep ocean, where there is no light.”
“So I think we need to rethink questions like where did aerobic life begin.”
of result Published in a journal Nature Chemistry.
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A.K. Sweetman othersEvidence for dark oxygen production on the deep seafloor. National GeographyPublished online July 22, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8
This article is based on a press release provided by Springer Nature and Northwestern University.
We live in the age of black hole photography. In 2019, the first photograph of a black hole was published. Naturally, it was difficult to capture. In fact, it required a telescope almost as large as the Earth. But for researchers like Alex Lupsaski of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, that wasn't enough. Lupsaski and his colleagues aim to capture a more detailed image, but to achieve that, they will need an even larger telescope.
The 2019 groundbreaking photo was taken by a network of radio observatories dotted around Earth, collectively known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Eight observatories worked together to produce an image as sharp as a single dish larger than anything we could actually build. Lupsaski is part of a team planning the launch of the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) telescope, which will extend this network 20,000 kilometers from Earth into space, effectively creating a receiver larger than Earth. This, he says, will give researchers the precision they need to measure a mysterious part of a black hole called the photon ring. In this case, the photon ring is produced by the supermassive black hole M87* in a nearby galaxy that appeared in the first photo.
LupsaskaAs deputy project scientist for the BHEX mission, he's a theorist specializing in the physics of extreme environments like the heart of a black hole. He tells us why this is our best hope of beating Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, and why an ambitious space mission is the key to finally unlocking that theory.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that explores wild ideas about manipulating the universe and tests them against the laws of physics, from splitting the moon to creating catastrophic events with gravitational waves. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Listen on Spotify or visit our podcast page.
In the early universe, there may have been tiny black holes as massive as mountains but smaller than atoms. If these primordial black holes exist, they could address major cosmological issues and offer endless opportunities for the Society of Dead Planets to explore.
In this episode, hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane are joined by black hole experts like Alison Kirkpatrick. Researchers at the University of Kansas are investigating the effects of placing a primordial black hole inside different objects, such as the Sun, Earth, or even the human body, yielding surprising results.
A small black hole inside a star or planet would have minimal impact, either passing through or staying near the center depending on the object’s mass. However, a larger black hole the size of Earth but with the radius of a grape could drastically alter the fate of the Sun or consume a planet from within.
Despite the risks, a black hole of this size could potentially manipulate gravity to reshape the universe. For instance, a small black hole near the Moon’s surface could counteract its drift away from Earth.
Kirkpatrick explains that standing a few meters away from a small black hole is relatively safe, but closer proximity would result in gravitational forces tearing apart the nearest parts of the body. Introducing a black hole into the body, even through teleportation, is not advisable.
Kirkpatrick strongly advises against placing a primordial black hole inside the human body due to the immediate havoc it would wreak. The American Medical Association did not provide a response regarding the effects of black holes on humans.
Life is abundant on Earth, from pigeons in the park to invisible microorganisms covering every surface. However, when Earth first formed 4.5 billion years ago, it was devoid of life. The question remains: how did the first life form emerge?
The answer is still unknown. If we understood the process, we could recreate it in a controlled environment. Scientists could replicate the right conditions with the right chemicals and potentially observe living organisms forming. Yet, this has never been accomplished before.
Although the exact origin of life remains a mystery, there are several clues that provide insight. Living organisms consist of various chemicals, including proteins and nucleic acids that carry genetic information. While these chemicals are complex, their basic building blocks are simple to create.
One of the first demonstrations of this concept came from chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. By simulating the early Earth’s conditions with water and gases, Miller produced amino acids, the fundamental components of proteins, through heating and electrical shocks resembling lightning.
Subsequent studies, such as one conducted by Sarah Simkuch, have shown how complex chemicals can arise from basic compounds. By starting with everyday chemicals like water and methane, researchers have generated thousands of substances found in living organisms.
While this abundance of chemical building blocks suggests a fertile environment for life to emerge, the transition from chemicals to life is not automatic. Several key factors contribute to the formation of life, including structure, sustenance, and reproduction.
Research into the origin of life has focused on creating systems that encompass these essentials, such as genetic molecules capable of self-replication. However, the interdependence of these systems suggests a simultaneous emergence may be more plausible, possibly within confined spaces like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or terrestrial pools.
While the exact beginning of life remains uncertain, advancements in understanding have made the origin of life seem less inexplicable than before.
Have you ever looked up at Earth’s Moon and wondered where it came from? Most scientists agree that a small planet called Theia collided with the young Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Most of the debris from this giant impact coalesced to become the Moon we see today. But where did the rest of Theia go? Qian Yuan and his colleagues hypothesize that Earth absorbed parts of Theia during the impact, and that these remnants of Theia remain deep inside Earth to this day.
Scientists believe that waves called mechanical energy waves Seismic wavesAs it passes through certain zones inside the Earth, its speed slows down. Large slow states Previous researchers have suggested that these zones are graveyards of ancient ocean floors that sunk into the Earth’s interior during plate tectonics, but Yuan’s team proposes that these zones could be the remains of Theia.
The research team found that the LLVP contains gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Volatile substancesVolatiles are most likely present during the formation of solar systems and planets, when material floating in space begins to accumulate. Because volatiles are light, they can escape into space if they get the chance. When Earth and Theia collided, volatiles from both planets were caught up in the collision. Scientists believe that most of the volatiles escaped into space, but Yuan and his colleagues suggested that some of Theia may have captured these volatiles and sunk deep inside the Earth, forming the LLVP.
To test whether the LLVP is a remnant of Theia, the researchers used a computer model designed to test how different types of solid matter interact with each other. Thermal evolution modelHe explained that other researchers have shown that Theia is made of a much denser material than Earth, so they wanted to test whether Theia’s denser material would mix completely with Earth’s or remain separate.
The researchers used a thermal evolution model to randomly scatter chunks of Theia-like material throughout a mass of Earth-like material and calculate how well they would mix. They ran eight models with chunks of different sizes, densities, and temperatures. In almost all of these models, they found that Theia’s material sank deep into the Earth and coalesced into LLVP-like mountains without mixing with Earth’s material.
The researchers performed seven giant impact simulations to further explore how Theia interacted with the young Earth. They used these simulations to collide Theia with Earth and calculate how that impact would have affected the Earth’s interior. These simulations found that after the collision with Theia, denser, more solid material sank toward the center, while less dense material stayed toward the surface, resulting in a layered Earth’s interior. The researchers explain that these simulations also suggest that denser material from Theia sunk deep inside the Earth without mixing.
The researchers concluded that Theia’s remains may have sunk to Earth and coalesced into a region similar to the LLVP, where it remained for the next 4.5 billion years. They further proposed that if Theia’s material was preserved inside the Earth for billions of years, the composition of the Earth’s interior could have changed.
They suggested that future researchers test their hypothesis by comparing the composition of the LLVP with basalts found on the Moon to see if it matches up. They also suggested that researchers use newer, more accurate models of Earth’s thermal evolution to further explore how Theia’s impact with Earth may have affected the evolution of Earth’s interior and the formation of the LLVP.
This weekend, there will be a passing asteroid near Earth, which poses no threat. With the right equipment and timing, you may be able to catch a glimpse of it.
The asteroid, known as 2024 MK, will be at its closest point to Earth on Saturday morning, passing at a distance about three-quarters of the way from Earth to the moon. It was first spotted two weeks ago by an observatory in South Africa and measures approximately 393 to 853 feet (120 to 260 meters) wide.
According to Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid expert at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, smaller objects pass by Earth regularly. Asteroids of this size come close to Earth roughly every 25 years.
“We may witness this event a few times in our lifetime, but it’s not a common occurrence,” he noted.
The 7,579-foot (2,310-meter) asteroid made a safe pass near Earth on Thursday, but it was too distant to be visible without specialized telescopes.
To see the asteroid on Saturday, skywatchers will need small telescopes as it won’t be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. It will move swiftly across the southern sky, making it challenging to spot.
Nick Moskovitz, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, mentioned, “The asteroid will move rapidly through the star field.”
For the best chance of seeing the asteroid, observers in the Southern Hemisphere should look high overhead. People in the US may have better luck spotting it on Saturday night when it might be less bright, but easier to see without the sun’s glare.
If you miss this event, mark your calendars for April 13, 2029, when the asteroid Apophis will pass close to Earth and be visible to the naked eye from parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
About 10,000 years ago, a handful of woolly mammoths washed up on an island off the Siberian coast in the Russian Arctic. Over the next few thousand years, this small group of perhaps eight animals grew into a stable population of 200-300 animals before going extinct about 4,000 years ago. These mammoths are the last known population of woolly mammals on Earth, and may have survived into modern times but for some bad luck.
The history of these mammoths has been clarified through genetic research. Love Darren A team from Stockholm University in Sweden and their colleagues looked at DNA from 14 mammoths from Wrangel Island and seven from the mainland, dating back to before melting ice sheets caused sea levels to rise and isolate them, covering a combined genetic history of 50,000 years.
The researchers’ analysis found that despite the small population, inbreeding wasn’t the cause of the mammoth’s extinction: While small genetic mutations accumulated, Dallen said, the population was good at eliminating larger, harmful ones.
“We can demonstrate that it’s unlikely that inbreeding or genetic disease caused the population to slowly decline and go extinct,” he said. “Despite the inbreeding, the population did well.”
Mammoth tusk found on Wrangel Island
Love Darren
But the team found that individual mammoths were affected by genetic diseases, and that this negative impact at the individual level had been ongoing for thousands of years. “This means that today’s endangered species, which in most cases were at risk of extinction until very recently, are likely to continue to suffer from genetic diseases for hundreds of generations to come,” says Dallen.
Dallen points to the Tasmanian devil as an example of a species that became isolated on a large island after mainland populations became extinct, leading to reduced genetic diversity. This in turn affects the immune system, Dallen says, which puts the species at greater risk of population decline when faced with new pathogens, such as the facial tumour disease that attacks Tasmanian devils.
“Natural selection appears to have been effective in eliminating potentially lethal mutations, but other, less severe mutations gradually increased,” they said. Adrian Lister At the Natural History Museum, London.
“We’re not sure whether this led to eventual extinction, but it’s possible that, combined with environmental changes, it did,” Lister said. “There are lessons here for monitoring the genetic health of endangered species today.”
The exact cause of the mammoths’ extinction is unknown, but interestingly, Wrangel Island contained freshwater lakes and rivers, which suggests that the mammoths may have been able to survive longer than similarly isolated groups that became extinct 5,600 years ago due to drought.
“Diseases, short-term weather events, tundra fires — all of these are thought to be random events,” Dallen says. “Because they’re random, they’re not inevitable. So if they hadn’t happened, the mammoths might have survived to this day, assuming humans hadn’t killed them when they arrived on Wrangel Island.”
The Earth is home to many extreme temperatures, from the frigid Arctic to the scorching Sahara Desert. But where is the hottest place on Earth?
Below are the 10 hottest places in the world based on the highest temperatures recorded.
The places on the list may not always be as hot as stated, but the record temperatures suggest high average heat, so be sure to bring plenty of water and a hat if you visit each spot.
If you want to cool down afterwards, check out the 10 coldest places on Earth.
10. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: 52°C (125.6°F)
Photo credit: Getty
Topping the list of hottest places on Earth was Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with a temperature of 52°C (125.6°F). Recorded June 22, 2010.
The heat was the highest on record for the region, beating the 51°C recorded in nearby Al Ahsa three days earlier.
This ancient port city is located in western Saudi Arabia, has a population of over 4.6 million and serves as the main gateway to Mecca.
9. Mexicali, Mexico: 52°C (125.6°F)
The temperature is 52°C (125.6°F). Recorded It was recorded in the Mexicali Valley, Mexico, on July 28, 1995. It is the ninth-warmest temperature on Earth. The valley also recorded the coldest temperature ever, −7.0ºC (19.4°F).
Located in the northern part of Mexico's Baja California state, this region is known for its heat, earning it the nickname “The City that Captured the Sun.” It has one of the harshest climates in Mexico, with an average high temperature of 42.2 °C (108 °F) in July and 21.1 °C (70 °F) in January.
8. Al Jazeera Border Gate (UAE): 52.1°C (125.8°F)
In July 2002, a temperature of 52.1°C (125.8°F) was recorded at the Al Jazeera border gate in the United Arab Emirates.
In July 2013, the region again nearly matched its highest ever temperature record (51.2°C).
These temperatures only last about 15 minutes. Temperatures above 50 degrees are almost unbearable. In the UK it reached 40.3°C (Coningsby) In July 2022, temperatures in the UAE rose by more than 10 degrees.
7. Turbat, Pakistan: 53.7°C (128.7°F)
Photo credit: Getty
The seventh hottest on this list is 53.7 °C (128.7 °F), recorded in Turbat, Pakistan on May 28, 2017.
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Confirmed The 53.7°C recorded in Turbat was the fourth highest temperature ever recorded at the time.
Turbat is known as one of the hottest cities in Asia and is located on the Kech River in the southwestern part of the country's Balochistan province.
6. Basra, Iraq: 53.9°C (129°F)
The Middle East is one of the warmest regions in the world, with many record-breaking days when temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Basra, Iraq, is one of those areas. recording The highest temperature reached was 53.9 °C (129 °F) on July 22, 2016.
This matches the heat recorded in Kuwait just one day earlier (more on that below).
Basra is located along the Shatt al-Arab River in the Arabian Peninsula and is a city with a population of approximately 1.5 million.
5. Mitriba, Kuwait: 53.9°C (129°F)
Badr Al-Ma’ilam Mosque in Kuwait City. Photo courtesy of Getty
The fifth-highest temperature on record Verified The maximum temperature was recorded at the Mitriba weather station in Kuwait, where it reached 53.9°C (129°F), according to the WMO.
This incredible temperature was recorded on 21 July 2016 and was confirmed as the hottest place on record in Asia. It was also the hottest officially recognized temperature in 76 years (at the time).
4. Tirat Zvi, Israel: 54°C (129°F)
The highest temperature ever recorded was 54°C (129°F) in Tirat Zvi, Israel, on June 21, 1942. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) classifies Israel as Europe, so depending on where you place the country, this is officially the highest temperature ever recorded on the European continent.
Tirat Zvi, located near the Israeli-Jordanian border, is on the west side of the Jordan River. Population: only 975 As of 2021.
3. Ahvaz, Iran: 54°C (129.2°F)
The highest continental temperature recorded was 54 °C (129.2 °F). Measured Occurred in Ahvaz, Iran between 4:51pm and 5pm on June 29, 2017.
Ahvaz, the capital of Iran's Khuzestan province, has a population of about 1.3 million and a history dating back to the Achaemenid period. The city is known for its nine bridges, including the Black Bridge and the White Bridge.
2. Kebili, Tunisia: 55°C (131°F)
Photo credit: Getty
The highest temperature ever recorded in Africa was measured at 55°C (131°F) in Kebili, Tunisia, on July 7, 1931. This is the second-highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.
Besides the continental record-breaking heat, Kebili The oldest example Settlement site of people who inhabited Tunisia during the Early Palaeozoic Era, about 200,000 years ago. Ancient stone tools have been found near the city.
1. Furnace Creek, Death Valley (USA): 56.7°C (134°F)
Photo credit: Getty
The hottest place on Earth is Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California (USA), where a temperature of 56.7 °C (134 °F) was recorded on 10 July 1913. During summer, the average daily maximum temperature in Death Valley is 45 °C (113 °F).
This is only the air temperature; ground temperatures are much higher. On July 15, 1972, the ground temperature was 93.9 °C (201 °F). Recorded In Death Valley, water is only a few degrees away from boiling temperature.
There have been subsequent claims of higher temperatures, but these have not been proven. One of the hottest places on Earth was recorded in 1922 in what is now Libya, at 58 °C (136 °F).
However, in 2012, the World Meteorological Organization Conclusion This was “improperly recorded” and was off by about seven degrees Celsius, they said.
Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes some crazy ideas for how to tinker with the universe and tests their effects against the laws of physics, from snapping the moon in half to causing doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify Or check out our podcast page.
By the end of the 16th century, pretty much everyone knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, not the other way around. This was a huge blow to those who thought the Earth was the center of the universe, but the Dead Planets Society is here to ease their disappointment. Yes, we're trying to revive geocentrism.
Putting Earth at the center of the solar system requires more than just fudging the math: The Sun is much more massive than our puny planet, so forcing it to orbit the Sun would be nearly impossible, so hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane would have to make some major changes to the solar system as we know it.
In this episode, Andy Rivkin Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland say the only way to make Earth an Earth-centered solar system would be to make it the most massive thing around – which would have some strange effects, assuming it doesn't collapse the planet into a black hole.
First, the Moon would have to speed up to maintain its orbit, orbiting the Earth in an hour or so before it would break apart. If the remaining planets didn't speed up too, they would all crash into the new giant Earth within a decade or two. The Earth's extra mass could also disrupt other nearby stars, causing them to start attracting it to Earth. A victorious Earth-centered solar system might not last long, but it would certainly come to a dramatic end.
Rare Earths Norway, a mining company, has made a groundbreaking announcement of discovering Europe’s largest proven deposit. This discovery of rare earth elements is highly regarded and could potentially be a game-changer for the Nordic countries and the broader region.
This continental Europe’s largest rare earth deposit, not controlled by China, presents a significant opportunity for Europe amid its oil crisis. The demand for rare earths and critical minerals is expected to grow exponentially as the transition to clean energy accelerates.
Rare Earths Norway revealed in a statement on June 6 that the Fen carbonatite deposit in southeastern India has an estimated 8.8 million tonnes of total rare earth oxides (TREO) with economically mineable prospects. The company also estimates 1.5 million tonnes of magnet-related rare earth elements that can be used in electric vehicles and wind turbines.
This discovery surpasses a significant rare earth deposit discovered last year in Sweden. Rare Earths Norway CEO Alf Rystad emphasized the importance of this discovery, stating that there is currently no mining of rare earth elements in Europe.
Going forward, Rare Earths Norway aims to contribute to mining at least 10% of the EU’s annual demand for rare earth elements by 2030. The company also plans to develop the Telemark rare earth deposit southwest of Oslo to strengthen Norway’s position in the European rare earths value chain.
The International Energy Agency highlighted the shortage of current supplies needed to transform the energy sector due to the geographic concentration of many energy transition elements. China, the world’s largest rare earth ore processor, plays a significant role in supplying rare earth elements worldwide.
Rare Earths Norway intends to continue exploration work at the site with further drilling planned for the coming month. The company aims to begin production by 2030 to contribute to Europe’s rare earth supply and reduce dependence on Chinese sources.
In a recent interview, Alf Rystad remarked that while the discovered resources are valuable, they won’t increase in value compared to oil and gas. He mentioned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s belief that lithium and rare earth elements will become more important than traditional fossil fuels in the future.
Planetary scientists first became aware of the connection between Earth and Jupiter in 2018, when they noticed striking similarities in images of Jupiter's giant cyclones and turbulent ocean currents. In 2022, they Analyzed High-resolution infrared image of a cyclone on Jupiter taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Analysis reveals that a type of convection similar to that seen on Earth helps sustain Jupiter's storms, which can be thousands of miles wide and last for years. The 2022 study focused directly on Jupiter's cyclones, but the authors also saw thin tendrils called filaments in the spaces between the vortices of gas. These filaments have analogues on Earth, and the authors used Juno's detailed images to study whether this similarity to Earth's oceanic and atmospheric processes is merely superficial.
This composite image, created from data collected by the JIRAM instrument on NASA's Juno spacecraft, shows a central cyclone at Jupiter's north pole and eight surrounding cyclones. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiated heat. The yellow (thinnest) clouds have a brightness temperature of about -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 degrees Celsius), while the dark red (thickest) clouds have a brightness temperature of about -181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.
Fronts are often featured in weather forecasts (for example, cold fronts and storm fronts) and apply to both gases and liquids.
A front is a boundary between masses of gas or liquid that have different densities due to differences in properties such as temperature.
In the ocean, fronts can also form due to differences in salinity, which, along with temperature, affects the density of seawater.
The main characteristic of a front is that its leading edge is characterized by strong vertical speed and can generate wind and currents.
To understand the role of the filaments clearly visible during Jupiter's cyclones in the Juno images, Dr. Leah Siegelman of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Dr. Patrice Klein of the California Institute of Technology examined a series of infrared images from Juno.
The series of images was taken 30 seconds apart of Jupiter's north polar region.
Because the images were taken in infrared, the team was able to calculate the temperature, finding that brighter areas were warmer and darker areas were cooler.
On Jupiter, the hotter parts of the atmosphere correspond to thin clouds, while the cooler parts are covered by thicker clouds that block more of the heat emanating from Jupiter's superheated core.
The researchers then tracked the movement of the clouds and filaments over the 30-second intervals between photos to calculate horizontal wind speeds.
These two pieces of information allowed the scientists to apply methods from ocean and atmospheric science to Jupiter to calculate vertical wind speeds that correspond to the temperatures and horizontal wind speeds the researchers derived from the images.
Calculating vertical wind speeds, they found that Jupiter's filaments do in fact move like Earth's fronts.
The vertical wind speeds at the edges of Jupiter's fronts also mean that the fronts transport energy in the form of heat from the planet's hot interior to the upper atmosphere, potentially generating large cyclones.
Although convection is the primary driving force, fronts account for a quarter of the total kinetic energy powering Jupiter's cyclones and 40 percent of the vertical heat transport.
“These cyclones at Jupiter's poles have continued since they were first observed in 2016,” Dr Siegelman said.
“These filaments between the larger vortices are relatively small, but they are a key mechanism for maintaining cyclones.”
“It's intriguing that fronts and convection exist and influence Earth and Jupiter, suggesting that these processes may also exist on other turbulent fluid bodies in the universe.”
“Jupiter's enormous scale and Juno's high-resolution images allow us to more clearly visualize how small-scale phenomena like fronts connect with larger-scale phenomena like cyclones and the atmosphere. These connections are often difficult to observe on Earth because they are much smaller and more ephemeral.”
“But the long-awaited new satellite, SWOT, will make observing these ocean phenomena much easier.”
“There's a kind of cosmic beauty in knowing that these physical mechanisms on Earth exist on other planets far, far away.”
Team paper Published in the journal Natural Physics.
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L. Siegelman & P. Klein. Frontogenesis at high latitudes on Jupiter. National Physical SocietyPublished online June 6, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41567-024-02516-x
Illustration of a protection bubble around the sun (yellow dot) and the earth (blue dot)
Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Two to three million years ago, the solar system encountered galactic-scale turbulence and collided with dense interstellar clouds, potentially altering both the Earth's climate and evolution.
Only recently have researchers been able to map the Sun's orbit through the Galaxy, particularly in relation to the relatively dense hydrogen clouds that pass through the interstellar medium, the vast expanse of space between star systems.
the current, Merab Offer A research team from Boston University in Massachusetts has found evidence that one of these clouds, a “local cold cloud ribbon” in Lynx, likely intersects with the Sun's heliosphere.
The heliosphere is a protective cocoon or bubble formed by the solar wind pushing out to the edge of the solar system. Within the heliosphere, the planet is protected from the worst gamma radiation in the galaxy.
The new study proposes that as the solar system passed through the interstellar cloud, the heliosphere retreated from it and moved inward toward the Sun. The researchers think that the heliosphere may have shrunk so much that Earth was outside the protective cocoon provided by the solar wind, perhaps for around 10,000 years.
Merab and his colleagues used the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite to map the location of the dense, cold clouds and the sun's past orbit.
Ofer says the heliosphere's encounter with the cold cloud coincides with deposits of the elements plutonium-244 and radioactive iron-60 in Antarctic ice, deep-sea cores and lunar samples. These elements, which originated from distant supernovae, would have been captured in interstellar clouds and deposited while Earth was outside the heliosphere.
“There are signs of an increase in these elements over the past two years. [million] “The solar cloud record going back 3 million years provides compelling evidence that the Sun did in fact pass through it around 2 million years ago,” Offer says. “The exposure of Earth to a cloud of cold interstellar material and the associated increase in atmospheric hydrogen and radiation almost certainly had a major impact on Earth and its climate.”
Sarah Spitzer The University of Michigan researcher says the paper provides “compelling” evidence that the heliosphere was exposed to a much denser interstellar cloud two to three million years ago. As the solar system passed through that dense, cold cloud, Earth would have been outside the heliosphere and directly exposed to the interstellar environment, she says.
“Understanding this can teach us about the impact interstellar material has had on life on Earth in the past,” Spitzer says, “but it also helps us better understand the impact the heliosphere has on life on Earth today, what would happen if Earth were exposed to interstellar material again in the future, and when that might happen.”
Evan Economo Researchers from Japan's Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology say it's intriguing to consider how encounters in “our nearby space” could have influenced the environment experienced by life on Earth.
“The heliosphere is part of the extended environment experienced by life on the Earth's surface, influencing climate and radiation from space,” he says. “If we had been outside the heliosphere for a period of time, it could have altered the evolutionary trajectory of a wide range of life, including humans. Such connections are highly speculative at this point, but they provide us with new research directions.”
Earth’s Speed It’s getting warmer 2023 is the highest on record, beating last year’s astonishing 92%. Record-breaking heatwave Leading scientists have calculated that the cause is human.
A group of 57 scientists from around the world used UN-approved methods to investigate what’s behind it. Last year’s heatwaveThey said that even if the rate of warming has increased, they found no evidence of a significant acceleration of human-induced climate change beyond increased burning of fossil fuels.
Last year’s record temperatures were so extraordinary that scientists have been debating what’s behind the spike, whether climate change is accelerating or if other factors are at play.
“When we see the world accelerating or going through a major tipping point, things aren’t happening,” said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study. “Temperatures are rising and things are getting worse exactly as we predicted.”
A person sprays water at passersby on a hot summer day in Karachi, Pakistan on May 30, 2024. Asif Hassan/AFP via Getty Images
This can mostly be explained by the buildup of carbon dioxide from increased fossil fuel use, he and his co-authors said.
Last year’s warming rate was 0.26C (0.47F) per decade, up from 0.25C (0.45F) the year before. Forster said that’s not a huge difference, but this year’s rate is the highest on record.
Still, outside scientists said the report paints a more alarming picture than ever before.
“While whether or not to tackle climate is a politically contentious issue, this report should remind people that it is actually a fundamentally life-saving choice,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin who was not part of the international research team. “To me, that’s something worth fighting for.”
Ocean Beach in San Francisco during a heat wave warning in California on June 4, 2024. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
The authors, who formed to provide an annual scientific update between major UN scientific assessments every seven to eight years, concluded that last year’s temperature was 1.43 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 average, of which 1.31 degrees was due to human activities. The remaining 8 percent of warming was Mainly due to El NiñoThese include natural, temporary warming in the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather around the world, as well as unusual warming along the Atlantic Ocean and other weather randomness.
Looking at longer time frames — decade-by-decade, which scientists prefer over annual periods — the world has warmed about 1.19 degrees Celsius (2.14 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, the report said. Earth System Science Data Journal found.
The report also says that if the world continues to burn coal, oil and natural gas, the planet is likely to reach a point within four and a half years where it will become unavoidable to cross internationally accepted warming thresholds. 1.5℃ (2.7℃) ).
Students experience extreme heat at an elementary school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on May 7, 2024. Chaidir Mahyudin/AFP via Getty Images
This is consistent with previous studies that project that if emissions trajectory remains unchanged, the planet will reach at least 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by early 2029. While reaching 1.5 degrees may be years away, it seems inevitable once all the carbon is used, Forster said.
Scientists say that going over 1.5 degrees won’t mean the end of the world or humanity, but it will be pretty dire. Past UN Studies Large-scale changes to Earth’s ecosystems are expected to become more likely with a warming of between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, ultimately resulting in the loss of the planet’s coral reefs, Arctic sea ice, plant and animal species, as well as more extreme and life-threatening weather events.
Last year’s temperature rise wasn’t just a minor spike — September was particularly unusual, said study co-author Sonia Seneviratne, head of the land climate dynamics department at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
A caged howler monkey receives treatment during a heatwave in Cunduacan, Mexico, on May 24, 2024. The heat was so severe that the monkey fell from a tree and died. Jose Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images
Seneviratne said this year was at the higher end of the range but within expectations.
“If there was an acceleration, it would be even worse, perhaps a worst-case scenario, where the world would reach a tipping point,” Seneviratne said. “But what’s happening now is already very bad, and we’re already seeing big impacts. We’re in the middle of a crisis.”
Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Environmental Studies, and Zeke Hausfather, a global climate scientist at the University of Berkeley, neither of whom worked on the study, said they still see an acceleration in warming, which Hausfather noted is much faster than the 0.18 degrees Celsius (0.32 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade that occurred from 1970 to 2010.
Medical workers treat a dehydrated patient in Austin, Texas, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images file
The scientists Big increase in SeptemberHausfather called that “staggering.” Wednesday’s report didn’t find enough warming from other potential causes. It said that while reduced sulfur pollution from ships had some cooling effect on the atmosphere, that was offset last year by carbon particles released into the atmosphere by Canadian wildfires.
The report also noted that undersea volcanoes, which released huge amounts of heat-trapping water vapor into the atmosphere, also spewed cooling particles, with the two forces roughly cancelling each other out.
“The future is in our hands,” said Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “It’s up to us, humans, not physicists, to decide how fast and how much the Earth will warm.”
Geologists have analysed 4-billion-year-old zircon crystals from Jack Hills in Western Australia’s mid-west region to date the emergence of fresh water back just a few hundred million years after the Earth formed.
Artistic conception of early Earth. Image by Simone Marchi/NASA.
On the early Earth, extensive interactions between flowing (fresh) water and the emerging continental crust may have been key to the emergence of life, but when the water cycle first began is unclear.
In the new study, Curtin University scientist Hamed Gamaleldien and his colleagues used the oxygen isotope composition of zircon crystals from Jack Hills in Western Australia to determine when the water cycle began.
Their findings suggest that meteoric water appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago, 500 million years earlier than previously thought.
“We were able to date the origins of the hydrological cycle, the ongoing process by which water moves around Earth and is essential for maintaining ecosystems and supporting life on Earth,” Dr Gamalerdien said.
“By examining the age and oxygen isotopes of microscopic crystals of the mineral zircon, we discovered an anomalously light isotopic signature that dates back 4 billion years.”
“These light oxygen isotopes typically result from hot freshwater altering rocks several kilometers below the Earth’s surface.”
“The evidence for the presence of fresh water this deep in the Earth casts doubt on existing theories that the Earth was completely covered by oceans 4 billion years ago.”
“This discovery was crucial for our understanding of how Earth formed and how life began,” said Curtin University scientist Hugo Orioluk.
“This discovery not only sheds light on the early history of Earth, but also suggests that land and freshwater systems provided the foundation for life to thrive within a relatively short time frame – less than 600 million years after Earth’s formation.”
“This discovery represents a major advance in our understanding of Earth’s early history and opens the door to further exploration of the origin of life.”
H. Gamaleldine othersThe Earth’s water cycle began 4 billion years ago or sooner. National GeographyPublished online June 3, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01450-0
WASHINGTON — THE PRESIDENT Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar power projects serving more than 900,000 households in low- and moderate-income areas. He also plans to expand the New Deal-style U.S. Climate Change Corps Green Jobs Training Program.
The grants were awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, with 60 recipients announced on Monday. Government officials expect the projects to reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million a year.
Biden’s climate announcement is aimed at energizing young voters in his re-election bid. Young people played a key role in defeating then-President Donald Trump in 2020. They have shown interest in Biden’s climate policy and are eager to contribute through programs like the Climate Change Corps.
Solar energy is gaining popularity as a renewable energy source that can reduce dependence on fossil fuels and improve the power grid’s reliability. However, the initial installation cost of solar energy remains a barrier for many Americans.
The grants include 49 state-level grants, six grants for Native American tribes, and five multi-state grants. They can be used for investments in rooftop solar power generation and community solar gardens.
Biden made the announcement at Prince William Forest Park in northern Virginia, about 30 miles southwest of Washington. The park was established in 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
Biden’s American Climate Corps, modeled after President Roosevelt’s New Deal, offers about 2,000 positions in 36 states, including partnerships with the Building Trades Union of North America.
The grants are part of the Solar for All program, funded by a $27 billion “green bank” established as part of a broader climate law initiative. The program aims to reduce climate change, air pollution, and support disadvantaged communities most affected by climate change.
EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe expressed excitement about the funds benefiting communities, providing skills, creating jobs, and helping households save on utility bills.
Among the businesses receiving grants are nonprofit projects in West Virginia, solar leasing programs in Mississippi, and solar worker training programs in South Carolina.
Concerns remain about Republican opposition to taxpayer-funded green banks and accountability for how the funds are used. The EPA previously allocated the remaining $20 billion in bank funds to support clean energy projects in various organizations and communities.
NASA stays in touch with its space probes, like Voyager 2, through the Deep Space Network (DSN), which consists of radio receiving antennas located in three different spots globally. These locations include Goldstone in California, Robredo near Madrid, and Tidbinbilla near Canberra.
Voyager 2 can only be observed from the southern hemisphere, making the DSS-43 antenna at the Australian site the sole antenna on Earth that can communicate with the spacecraft.
Currently positioned more than 20 billion kilometers from Earth, Voyager 2 has a transmitter that outputs approximately 23 watts (around eight times more powerful than a typical cell phone). By the time a radio signal reaches Earth, it has only about one-tenth of this power.
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To detect this extremely faint signal, DSS-43 and Voyager 2’s transmitters use narrowband, high-frequency signals that are highly directional and transmitted at slow bit rates.
Advanced signal processing techniques, minimal interference, and the fact that radio signals can travel through space with little obstruction allow DSS-43 to overcome long distances.
The antenna can transmit a signal to Voyager 2 at a much higher power level (up to about 400,000 watts) than it receives. This strong output can be easily picked up by the spacecraft even at far distances.
This piece (by Elouise Pace) addresses the question, “How can we communicate with Voyager 2, which is billions of miles away?”
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Chemical reactions in volcanic pools may have contributed to the birth of life on Earth
Michael S. Nolan/Alamy
One of the most important molecules in living organisms is synthesized from scratch under everyday conditions. The discovery suggests that this chemical formed naturally early in Earth's history and may have played a role in the origin of life.
The substance in question is called pantetheine. It is not a well-known name at the DNA or protein level. However, pantetheine is an important component of a larger molecule called pantetheine. acetyl coenzyme A, A “cofactor” that helps enzymes work.
“Coenzyme A is present in every organism ever sequenced,” he says. Matthew Powner At University College London.
Powner has spent most of his career discovering ways to make biomolecules from simple chemicals in a way that can occur naturally. Over the past decade, he has shown that: aminonitrile can be used to make nucleotide – the building blocks of DNA – and peptide, Short version of protein.
His team has now shown that aminonitrile can be used to make pantetheine in a series of reactions starting with simple chemicals like formaldehyde. This was done in water, often at such dilute concentrations that the reaction mixture appeared like clear water. The team sometimes used heat to speed up their work, but otherwise did not need to intervene once the reaction started.
“We just put everything in one pot. We literally just throw everything in, we don't change anything, we don't do anything, and we have a 60% yield of product,” Powner says.
Acetyl coenzyme A is involved in the synthesis of several biologically important chemicals. Some of the oldest microbial groups use processes involving microorganisms to obtain carbon from the environment.
Importantly, pantetheine is the active portion of the acetyl-coenzyme A molecule. No more than one bit is “essential to its functionality,” Powner says.
“Obtaining key organic biological cofactors from scratch,” he says, is impressive, “not to mention one of such centrally important ones.” Zachary Adam from the University of Wisconsin-Madison was not involved in the study.
For Adam, the importance of this research extends beyond pantetheine and acetyl coenzyme A. “They report this particular part of the cofactor, but intermediates have been shown to be important as well,” he says. Other chemicals produced in the process have been shown to aid in the production of other biomolecules. “They're building a network of compounds.”
Many ideas about the origin of life have assumed that a small set of biomolecules formed long before other molecules. For example, the “RNA world” hypothesis states that first life was made solely of RNA, and other chemicals such as proteins and lipids were added after RNA was able to make them. .
Powner is one of several researchers pushing for an alternative scenario in which many important molecules form early and interact from the beginning. “These products can all be products of the same chemical reaction,” he says. Rather than starting with just RNA, or just peptides, “it might be easier to make them all together, so the chemical reactions they perform are integrated from the original state.”
A European satellite that is malfunctioning is expected to fall to Earth and plunge uncontrollably through the atmosphere on Wednesday.
The European Space Agency said that most of the dead satellite is anticipated to burn up in the atmosphere and any surviving debris is unlikely to cause harm. However, it is challenging to determine the exact time and location of the spacecraft’s fall.
According to the Latest blog posts, the space agency estimated that the re-entry time will be around 10:41 a.m. ET on Wednesday, which would take approximately two hours. Based on the satellite’s orbit, the spacecraft was expected to be somewhere off the coast of North America in the Pacific Ocean during that period.
The space agency explained that much of the uncertainty about the re-entry of satellites is due to the challenge of predicting atmospheric density. Changes in air density, influenced by solar activity, impact the drag experienced by objects passing through Earth’s atmosphere.
The space agency stated that although there is uncertainty about the re-entry point of the dead satellite, it is unlikely to pose a threat to populated areas.
“Most of the satellites will burn out, and the surviving debris will be scattered somewhat randomly over a ground orbit averaging hundreds of kilometers long and tens of kilometers wide (this is why the risks involved are so great). “The reason for this is low),” said an expert from the agency’s Space Debris Countermeasures Office. I wrote it in a blog post.
The spacecraft, known as European Remote Sensing 2 or ERS-2, was an Earth observation satellite that collected data about Earth’s oceans, polar caps, and surface. The space agency said the satellite, launched in April 1995, was also used to monitor severe floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters in remote areas of the world.
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