Article Title:
Water found in habitable super-Earth's atmosphere for first time
Published: Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Author: Jake Parks
Summary: Water vapour has been found in the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18 b. This planet is about 110 LY away and sits in the constellation Leo, where it orbits a small red dwarf star (approximately one-third the mass of our sun). K2-19 b could be the most Earth-like planet scientists have come across with temperatures ranging from -73° C to 47°C and an atmosphere that could support life. The planet has earth like features but is still not quite Earth, K2-18 b is roughly twice the diameter of Earth, and about 8 times as massive. The only problem is that the technology available to us today is not advanced enough to say for sure if K2-18 b is habitable. There is a possibility that it is a water world, with a global ocean covering the surface. The discovery of this planet could lead to advances in technology in an attempt to learn more about a possibly habitable planet. As space technology advances we begin to see and understand more and more of the universe and all the galaxies, planets, and stars that it contains. With the acceleration of Climate Change it might be time for the human race to look for a plan B, and K2-18 b could be it.
Article Title:
Giant bubbles spotted rushing out from Milky Way’s center
Published: Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Author: Mara Johnson-Groh
Summary: Two giant radio bubbles have been recorded extending out of the Milky Way over 1400 light years. These types of bubbles have been seen previously in 2010 when astronomers noticed 2 giant gamma ray radiation bubbles above and below the galaxy spanning a combined 50,000 light years. The two new bubbles also closely follow the path of unexplained magnetized filaments of radio emissions. Astronomers think that the bubbles could have been caused by an extremely energetic explosion near the centre black hole of the Milky Way. “The most likely explanation is a flare up in the black hole’s activity as it gobbled up extra nearby material and burped out other particles and radiation. The bubbles could also have been created by an extreme burst in star formation that sent a shock wave across the galactic center. Or possibly, it was a combination of both events.” (Johnson-Groh).The discovery of these radio bubbles leads to more insight into our galaxy, and the black hole that sits at the centre of it. This information, paired with the newly taken “photo” of a similar black hole, could lead to discoveries on the behaviour of supermassive black holes.
Article Title:
The Sky This Week from September 6 to 15
Published: Friday, September 06, 2019
Author: Richard Talcott
Summary: This article is less informational and more something that I didn’t know existed. The article gives information on stars and planets that can be viewed using a telescope by an amateur astronomer. It goes through each day of the week and gives the time and position in the sky that a certain planet or star can be viewed. The website that the article is published gives a new article every week to highlight all the different things visible in the night sky. This is a really cool way of giving people interested in astronomy a chance to see things with a simple telescope at home, and is also a great way of inspiring kids to enter the field.
Article Title:
A star is dead: Hubble sees aftermath of a sun’s death
Published: Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Author: Hailey Rose McLaughlin
Summary: The Hubble telescope took images of a dying star in the Gemini Constellation. The planetary nebula had a symmetrical structure that made scientists believe it was two suns instead of one. The sun-like star blasted off its outer layers after death, leaving behind the hot remains. The whole system can be seen in the photo, it glows because the dying stars radiation interacts with galactic dust. The star will eventually cool off and turn into a white dwarf.
Article Title:
Cosmic collision may reveal how giant stars form
Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Author: Mara Johnson-Groh
Summary: The formation of giant stars has been a long debated mystery in the astronomy field. Giant stars aren’t seen in the same areas where low mass star formation occurs. Scientists believe that there has to be some other triggering event that causes massive stars to form. About 2.73 million light years away in the Triangulum Galaxy scientists have witnessed a rare event; two giant gas clouds colliding. The clouds are 190,000 and 240,000 times more massive than the sun. The clouds collided at incredibly high speeds about 500,00 years ago. Scientists have found a specific signature of hydrogen inside the collision that indicates high mass stars and predict that the force from the collision caused the clouds to collapse to form 10 new, high mass stars. High mass stars are rare, but produce the majority of the galaxy’s visible light. They also have a huge impact on the surrounding area because of the radiation they give off during their lifespan, and because of the heavy elements they release during their explosive deaths. Until recently, there was not much observational evidence on the formation of huge stars, this new discovery gives evidence to support the theory that high mass stars require some special event to form.
Article Title: A Serious Case of Shrinkage
Published: September/October
Author: Paul Deans
Summary: Jupiter’s most iconic feature, the Great Red Spot, could be on its way out. The storm is located in between two conveyor belts of cloud: the South Equatorial Belt (SEB) and the South Tropical Zone (STrZ). These two jet streams are moving in opposite direction, which kept the Red Spot stable for a long time because the winds feed it energy. Recently, the SEB has been dragging material away from the GRS, creating long strands of red cloud. Although there has been fluctuation in the size of the Red Spot in the past, the images in this article clearly show that the spot has dramatically decreased in size over the last 45 years. It’s possible that the Giant Red Spot of Jupiter could be no longer existent in the near future.
Article Title: O Sunspots, Where Art Thou?
Published: September/October
Author: Paul Deans
Summary: The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of sunspots, we are currently on Cycle 24. During the past 18 months, the sun has been without sunspots for about 60% of the time. There are different opinions on the strength of the upcoming Cycle 25. Robert Leamon at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believe that Cycle 24 will end in April 2020, and that Cycle 25 will be low in the number of sunspots, similar to the current cycle. Another opinion from Irina Kitiashvili of NASA’s Ames Research Center and her colleagues, is that the upcoming maximum will be 30 to 50% lower than the past cycle, making it the weakest in the past 200 years. Lisa Upton of Space Systems Research Corporation believes that the maximum for Cycle 25 will be between 2023 and 2026 with a peak number of sunspots between 95 and 130. Cycle 24 peaked at 84, making Upton’s prediction higher than Kitiashvili’s for a very low maximum for Cycle 25. Scott McIntosh of the High Altitude Observatory predicts a peak of 155 sunspots, making this the highest prediction. It’s impossible at the moment for anyone to come to an agreement on what Cycle 25 will look like, or to determine if it will follow Cycle 24’s pattern. Will it be a record low? Or will there be an increase in sunspots? In order to answer these questions we will have to wait and see how our sun’s next 11-year cycle plays out.
Article Title:
‘Orbital Gateway’ guides some comets into inner solar system
Published: Tuesday Sept 24, 2019
Author: Joel Davis
Summary: Scientists have found a region of space that could answer the long debated question of how Centaurs (comet/asteroid like rocks in space) from the Kuiper Belt make their way to Jupiter’s orbit. Most comets from the Kuiper Belt or the Oort cloud are sucked in by a gravitational force, swing around the Sun, and then are shot out again. Comets that are strongly influenced by Jupiter’s orbit are considered Jupiter Family Comets (JFC). Gal Sarid of the University of Central Florida and a team of researchers have discovered a “short-lived dynamical gateway” that is located just outside the orbit of Jupiter that the majority of JFCs pass through. After running simulations they discovered that more than two thirds of all Jupiter Family Comets are from Centaurs passing through this region of space. Centaurs that become JFCs do so within a few thousand years after entering the gateway. This discovery could advance our understanding of the orbital and physical transitions that make up the comet population we see today.
Article Title:
Jupiter may have been hit by a massive proto-planet long ago
Published: Thursday, August 15, 2019
Author: Korey Haynes
Summary: In 2016 the Juno Spacecraft arrived at Jupiter to look through the dense clouds and gaze into Jupiter’s core. The findings of the spacecraft were not what scientists were expecting. Previously Jupiter was thought to have a dense core, with a sharp transition to the rest of its gaseous outer layers, however Juno revealed a fuzzy boundary, and a core that bleeds out to nearly half the planet’s radius. Jupiter’s formation was thought to have started with the collection of heavy elements forming a dense core, and this core having gravitational pull on lighter gases such as hydrogen and helium, which make up most of the planets mass. This prediction of Jupiter’s formation supports the theory of a dense core with distinct transition between layers, however this is not the case. Astronomers led by Shang-Fei Liu from Sun Yat-sen University have come up with a theory to explain the strange formation of Jupiter’s layers. The theory is that, early in Jupiter’s formation, a large proto-planet roughly the size of Uranus, had a head on collision with young Jupiter. Although the chances of this collision are about one in a trillion, we know that the early system was a violent place, and head on collisions were not uncommon. It’s possible that Jupiter’s dense core had enough gravitational force to suck in a large body if it got close enough. If this collision occurred, it could take billions of years for the core to settle back down, and sharp layers to form again.
Article Title:
Clues to ancient giant asteroid found in western Australia
Published: Tuesday May 17, 2019
Author: Australian National University in Canberra
Summary: Scientists have found evidence of a massive asteroid that could have struck Earth 3.46 billion years ago. Tiny glass beads called spherules were found in northwestern Australia, these beads were formed by vaporized material from the asteroid impact. Andrew Glikson from the Australian National University predicted that “The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis, and would have made cliffs crumble. Material from the impact would have spread worldwide”. The asteroid would have been 20-30km across and would have created a crater hundreds of kilometers wide. You would think a crater this size would be easy to find, but any craters formed early on in Earth’s life would have been destroyed by volcanic and tectonic activity. The glass beads were found in some of the oldest known sediments, making this asteroid the second oldest known asteroid to strike Earth, and one of the largest. Testing found platinum, nickel and chromium, all of which match elements found in asteroids. Glikson believes there are many more asteroid strikes to be discovered, and that they could have significantly impacted the way Earth evolved.
Article title:
Astronauts mix cement on ISS, pave way for future space colonies
Published: Monday, September 09, 2019
Author: Jake Parks
Summary: For the first time cement was mixed in space. Astronauts mixed the cement ingredients and allowed it to sit for 46 days. The results were interesting as the cement formed differently in low gravity than it does on Earth. The space cement has a more uniform density compared to the “layered structure due to gravity-induced sedimentation” (Parks) that Earth cement has. This structure should make the cement stronger, but in addition to the uniform density of space cement, it also forms with more air pockets than regular cement. The air bubbles do not rise to the top due to low gravity, and instead stay inside the cement as it hardens. These air pockets counter the effects of the uniform density, making the cement weaker. More tests on the strength and durability of the space cement will be conducted to determine if it is safe for building. This discovery that cement can be formed in space leads to other possibilities, such as mixing concrete in space. Concrete is a combination of cement and things like sand and gravel, which could potentially be recreated in space using moon dust. This could be the beginning of colonies being built on other planets using moon dust concrete, as concrete is one of the easiest, cheapest, and safest materials for building. Concrete has an added benefit of protecting against radiation, and can be easily formed into many different shapes.
Article Title:
The real Jurassic Park was a vast desert
Published: September 30, 2019
Publisher: National Science Foundation
Summary: A new study revealed that parts of the Navajo desert in easter Utah are much older than previously predicted. Deposits from the largest known sand sea in Earth’s history show that desertification occurred at some point, turning fertile grasslands to vast deserts. Rock layers discovered in an NSF-funded study reveal signs of lakes that once occupied interdune areas. These lakes served as watering holes for dinosaurs and other small mammals. The evidence suggests that the desert, at some point, had a “wetter climate and more active hydrological cycle” than previously thought. These 200 million year old deposits demonstrate the importance of studying sedimentary rock layers to reveal the earth’s extensive history.
Article Title:
Expect the Unexpected: Geology and Maya warfare
Published: September 6, 2019
Publisher: United States Geological Survey
Summary: During studies focused on man made environmental change in North and Central America, a groundbreaking discovery on pre-Hispanic Maya warfare was made. USGS scientist David Wahl made the discovery while studying climate, vegetation, fire history, and human activity in sediment layers from Laguna Ek’Naab in northern Guatemala. While studying these rock layers, Wahl noticed a thick layer of charcoal, indicating a large fire. This layer of charcoal is evidence of a large, widespread fire that burned across the ancient Maya city near the lake at the end of the 7th century. After the discovery of this strange layer of charcoal, excavations of nearby areas took place, where a coin was discovered with the name of the city that was burned, Bahlam Jol. This name was recognized from another monument where it was declared by the king of Naranjo, a nearby city, that Bahlam Jol was burned down by their forces not once, but twice. This is the first recorded evidence that ancient Maya civilizations used this type of warfare, previously this method was predicted to be limited to 800-950 CE. This article outlines the importance of geological studies in not only earth’s geological history, but also human kinds history. The rock records left from sedimentation give a detailed view of the events that occured in the past, natural and man made.
Article Title:
W.Va. energy company plans to solar field in Greene
Published: Oct 22, 2019
Author: Rick Shrum
Summary: Longview Power LLC, a coal powered plant, plans to build a 76 million dollar solar field in Greene County. It is expected to produce up to 70-Megawatts of power using 185,000 solar panels place on land that the company bought on both sides of the Pennsylvania-West Virginia line. The company hopes to pair solar energy with pre-existing coal and gas fired plants, to produce mass amounts of energy to supply the growing demand for power in the United States. They hope to make Greene County the energy capital of the US.
Article Title: Humans at the helm of Gaia
Published: August 10 2019
Author: Micheal Marshall
Summary: At the 100th birthday of James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, a grim message on Earth’s future was presented. “Humans have seized the controls, for better or worse”. The Gaia hypothesis states that life on Earth acts to preserve its own existence, by stabilising conditions on the planet. Humans have been shifting Earth’s systems out of whack, pumping out greenhouse gases, destroying habitats, and much more, sending Earth’s balance off kilter and heating up the planet at a very fast pace. Our overwhelming consumption of fossil fuels has caused the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica to start melting, these sheets contain enough water to raise the sea levels by 65 metres. 3.8% of our global emissions are from plastics, most of which get dumped in the oceans. The solution to this issue is to drastically change our fossil fuel consumption, however, some scientists believe it is too late and have begun looking into artificial ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A possible method would be pumping certain areas of ocean with rich nutrients, causing an increase of seaweed, which would suck up carbon and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. This solution is similar to a theory of how the climate changed about 55 million years ago, where a large amount of the plant azolla grew and then sunk down to the sea floor, bringing large amounts of CO2 with it.
Article Title: I’ve come around on Nuclear Power
Published: July 2019
Author: Wade Roush
Summary: Scientist Wade Roush talks about his transition from opposing nuclear power generation, to accepting it as one of the only solutions for the climate crisis. Nuclear power generation is dangerous but it creates massive amounts of electricity while releasing zero carbon. The cons of course being the risk of explosion, and the toxic waste leftover. Another problem with nuclear power is the construction of the reactors, two new Westinghouse Electric Company reactors under construction are five years behind and around $14 billion over budget. Comparing the cost of nuclear power to that of fossil fuels makes coal and oil mining much more lucrative and attractive for big rig companies. As the fight for climate change continues, nuclear power generation might take off, as the main source of global electricity.
Article Title: Plenty more mountains in the sea
Published: 23 March 2019
Author: David Hambling
Summary: New undersea mountains, known as seamounts, were identified by a team led by David Sandwell and Brook Tozer in San Diego, California. Over 5000 new seamounts were uncovered in the most detailed map of the ocean floor ever produced. This map will be valuable for climate study and tsunami prediction because seamounts can affect ocean currents that influence climate change. Only 10% of the ocean floor is mapped with sonar, the rest is mapped by measuring gravity on the sea’s surface. Seamounts exert a greater gravitational force than the flat seabed does. This new map was made using readings from the French-Indian AltiKa sensor launched in 2013, which can measure the distance to the sea surface within 21mm.
Article Title: Tree stump kept alive by nearby trees
Published: 3 August 2019
Author: Ruby Prosser Scully
Summary: Sebastian Leuzinger and Martin Bader at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand discovered a tree stump that should have been long dead, but was being kept alive by neighboring trees. They placed water monitors in the stump and the two nearby trees. Over the following weeks they noticed a pattern, during the day the water in the neighboring trees evaporates through the leaves, and the stumps water levels were low. At night when the neighboring trees were dormant, water levels in the stump increased. This discovery gives proof to the idea that forests are “superorganisms”, all the trees are connected and in some cases will give their nutrients to one another.
Article Title:
What Happens under the Yellowstone Volcano?
Published: October 17 2019
Author: GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre
Summary: New mapping of the chimney like “mantle plume” that sits under the Yellowstone Volcano has filled the gaps in the previous mapping. Yellowstone is known as an intraplate volcano, which are volcanoes that form at “hotspots” under the Earth’s crust, rather than at tectonic plate boundaries. The mapping of this mantle plume inside of this volcano has given more insight into other intraplate volcanoes like the ones that formed Hawaii. These volcanoes are formed when the Earth’s crust is melted away and a mantle plume carries the molten rock to the surface, where a volcano begins to form. Volcanoes can be used to demonstrate the rock cycle. Earth’s crust is heated into a metamorphic rock, which is melted into magma which rises to the surface where it hardens into volcanic rock. This volcanic rock is eroded by wind or water and then washed away to eventually be deposited as sediment, to form a sedimentary rock.
Article Title:
Rare mineral discovered near Nepisiguit Falls
Published: Oct 20, 2019
Author: CBC News
Summary: Mineral hobbyist Jesse Chamberlain discovered a rare mineral at a former mining site in New Brunswick. Chamberlain was out looking for minerals with his girlfriend when he stumbled upon an unfamiliar substance about 2 feet under the ground. He and his girlfriend gathered samples and posted about them on a New Brunswick geology facebook page, where Matt Stimson, assistant curator of geology and paleontology at the museum of New Brunswick, asked if they would donate the samples to the museum to be analysed. The mineral called melanterite is an iron sulphate, a mixture of water and copper that dissolves when submerged in liquid. This mineral would be common in dry climates like the desert, but it is rare for it to be located somewhere with a wet and humid climate.
Article Title:
Machu Picchu: Ancient Incan Sanctuary intentionally built on faults
Published: September 23 2019
Author: Geological Society of America
Summary: Using a combination of satellite imagery and field measurements, Rualdo Menegat, a geologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, mapped a dense web of intersecting fractures and faults underneath Machu Picchu. The mapping suggests that the urban sectors, agricultural fields, as well as stairs and buildings are all oriented along the trends of the major faults. Other ancient Incan cities are also situated at the intersections of major faults. These results leads Menegat to believe that this ancient civilization took advantage of the fragile and easily carved rock located along the fractures and faults. As well as providing plentiful amounts of building resources, the faults also directed meltwater and rainfall to the site, providing the city with a source of freshwater. The faults and fractures also aided in drainage of water during heavy storms, protecting the city from flooding.
Article Title:
What makes Earth’s surface move? Could the surface drive mantle movement?
Published: October 30 2019
Author: CNRS
Summary: Using an incredibly complex model of the earth, scientists created a fictional planet very similar to earth. After nine months of working on equations, they reconstructed the evolution of the planet over a period of 1.5 billion years. This model of earth and its systems was created to answer the long standing question; do the plates cause the mantle to move? Or does the mantle cause the plates to move? The question on how the Earth’s surface moves has been debated by scientists since the discovery of the lithosphere and asthenosphere, this article compares it to the question of what came first? The chicken or the egg? The model revealed that two thirds of the surface moves faster than the underlying mantle, meaning it is the surface that drags the interior, while the other third is the opposite. The continents are mainly dragged by deep motion within the mantle during the construction phase of a supercontinent. However when a supercontinent breaks up, the motion is driven by the plates as they sink into the mantle. This complex model of Earth could provide information on a multitude of other things such as mid ocean ridges, subduction of plates, and volcanic activity.
Article Title:
Southern California earthquakes increased stress on major fault line
Published: October 30 2019
Author: University of Iowa
Summary: A series of earthquakes and tremors in California has increased the stress on the Garlock Fault, which has been dormant for more than a century. On July 4th an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck in the Mojave Desert, and a second quake with magnitude 7.4 struck the next day. Accompanying the two quakes were more than 100,000 tremors. These earthquakes and tremors increased stress on a 12-16 mile stretch of the Garlock fault, while the other 165 miles show a decrease in stress. The fault line has been dormant ever since earthquake measuring devices were created, at least 100 years, however there is geological evidence of large quakes in the past. Bill Barnhart, a geodesist at Iowa, and researcher at the U.S Geological Survey, and his team predict that the fault line could produce an earthquake with a magnitude between 6.7 and 7.0.
Article Title:
Secret of explosive volcanism unlocked
Published: November 15 2019
Author: Technical University of Munich
Summary: An international team of scientists including a group from the Technical University of Munich have discovered a new telltale sign for an impending volcanic eruption. Previously scientists would study seismographs to predict incoming eruptions, however this method is not always reliable and can give little to no warning. In studying Mount Merapi on Java, it has been discovered that there is another process that indicates an eruption. As lava flows out of a volcano, it is permeable, this means that outgassing can occur. As the lava begins to harden less and less gas escapes the volcano, which causes an increase in pressure. The buildup of pressure caused by the lack of permeability causes the volcano to erupt violently as the gases find a way to escape. The amount of outgassing from a volcano can be studied and used to predict the eruption, as outgassing decreases more and more, pressure builds up and eventually a violent eruption of lava and gases will occur. Photographs from before and during the eruption of Mount Merapi on May 11th 2018, supports the three stage model Prof. H. Albert Gilg states that "The research results can now be used to more reliably predict eruptions. A measurable reduction in outgassing is thus an indication of an imminent eruption."
Article Title:
Marine Geologists Find Freshwater in Norweigan Sea
Published: Sep 2, 2019
Author: News Staff
Summary: Dr. Wei-Li Hong, a Researcher at Geological Survey of Norway and his colleagues used a remote- controlled vehicle to collect the water after being told by fishermen that they discovered freshwater in Nordbreigrunnen. The leakage of freshwater likely originated from a large hidden aquifer beneath the sediment of the seabed. This aquifer was likely developed during the last Ice Age as the ice sheets that covered Norway pushed into the Earth’s crust, forcing large amounts of meltwater down into the cracks of the seabed. Recently freshwater was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean which could have been developed in the same way as that in Norway. These discoveries indicated that there could be other aquifers under the seabed that could serve as a source of freshwater.
