Study suggests Earth once had many moonlets — until they merged to form the moon
This narrow-angle image taken by NASA's Cassini shows the moon in August 1999. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) The moon is the most obvious and familiar object in Earth's night sky — constant, consistent, predictable in its monthly cycles and its daily rising and setting. Astronomers understand the moon's movements so thoroughly that even a break from the routine, like an eclipse, can be anticipated 1,000 years in advance. But we don't know the moon as well as we think. In fact, for years..>> view originalFor US, 2016 was the second-warmest year on record
January 10, 2017 —After months of broken heat records across the globe, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has declared 2016 the second-hottest year on record in the continental United States.The data, collected by NOAA's National Centers For Environmental Information (NCEI), indicated that the average temperature for the Lower 48 was 54.9 degrees F. (12.7 degrees Celsius) last year. The only other year where that average was higher was in 2012, when the average temperature..>> view originalBumblebee is first bee in continental US to be listed as endangered
The rusty patched bumblebee is in worrisome decline and it is a race to keep it from becoming extinct, the agency said. "Listing the bee as endangered will help us mobilize partners and focus resources on finding ways right now to stop the decline," Wildlife Service Midwest Regional Director Tom Melius said.The population of the rusty patched bumblebee has shrunk by 87% since the late 1990s, the wildlife service said. Bees help pollinate 35% of the world's food, and bumblebees pollinate everyth..>> view originalAn asteroid had a semi-close encounter with Earth
A previously undetected asteroid that could rival the size of a mid-sized Boston office building passed by Earth this week in a close shave that brought the object within half the distance of the moon. The space rock — with the catchy name 2017 AG13 — was likely somewhere between 36 feet and 115 feet across, a relatively small size that makes asteroids difficult to detect when they are far away from Earth but could be very dangerous if they broke up or hit the ground near a city. Advertisement..>> view originalAstronauts Baker and Fossum retire from NASA
Astronauts Baker and Fossum retire from NASA Rae Botsford End January 11th, 2017 NASA astronauts Mike Fossum (left) and Mike Baker retired from the space agency on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017. Image Credit: NASA On Saturday, Jan. 7, astronauts Mike Baker and Mike Fossum both retired from NASA to pursue work in the private sector. Both of the spaceflight veterans served in the U.S. military, and both wore numerous hats during their time with the space agency. Fossum first worked with NASA in 1981, s..>> view originalSpying on Our Stellar Neighbors: New Strides Made in Alpha Centauri Planet Hunt
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Earth's lonely sun is an outlier: most of the nearest sun-like stars have a stellar buddy or two in orbit with them. And researchers are getting closer to probing those complicated systems to directly image their planets. At last winter's meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), Space.com reported on a talk by Ruslan Belikov, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, about how to complete a seemingly impossible task: using a deformable mirror ..>> view originalAntarctica is about to lose an enormous piece of ice. The question is what happens after that.
The Larsen C rift on Nov. 10. (John Sonntag/NASA) Last week, British scientists announced a disturbing finding — a crack in the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula had dramatically accelerated its spread, increasing 11 miles in length in the space of a month. This means the floating ice shelf, which is nearly as big as Scotland and the fourth largest of its kind in Antarctica, is poised to break off a piece nearly 2,000 square miles in size, or over 10 percent of its total area. An..>> view originalHazardous Marine Toxin Could Rise with Warming Water
Most seafood lovers have never heard of domoic acid, but it might be time for them to start paying attention — the material, occasionally found in shellfish, is a serious health risk, and researchers have recently linked its presence with climatic phenomena. Domoic acid is a neurotoxin produced by certain kinds of algae. Because algae are the base of the marine food chain, the acid gets transferred to other animals, including shellfish. The shellfish-harvesting industry keeps a careful eye on do..>> view original
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Study suggests Earth once had many moonlets — until they merged to form the moon and other top stories.
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