This week, the October sky is treating us to a brilliant display that you won't want to miss -- the Hunter's supermoon, a rare comet, and the Orionids meteor shower. 



Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is a rare comet making its journey past Earth, offering a unique opportunity to witness its tail of icy particles glistening against the dark canvas of space.



In addition, this week features the biggest supermoon of the year, Hunter's supermoon, which will illuminate the night with a breathtaking orangish glow.



Since Tuesday, the moon has looked larger than usual, and it’ll keep that appearance through Friday. By Thursday morning, as people head out for their morning commute. Depending on the weather in your area, Thursday night being the best time to see the full Hunter's supermoon..



And let's not forget the dazzling Orionids meteor shower, where you can catch glimpses of shooting stars streaking across the sky, resulting from debris left by Halley's Comet.



There's truly something for everyone in this celestial display. So, grab a warm jacket, perhaps a pair of binoculars for a closer look.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-80-000-year-old-time-traveler">80,000-year-old time traveler</h2>



Meet <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-anticipated-comet-of-2024-returns-this-weekend-after-80000-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS</a>, a celestial wanderer that's been on an 80,000-year long odyssey. 



From the outermost regions of our solar system, this comet embarks on an interminable journey around the sun. The last time it paid us a visit, our ancestors were just crafting civilizations.



Although its closest Earth pass was on October 12, it remains visible for the remainder of the month. 



So, how do you spot it? An hour into the sunset, turn your sight to where the sun has sunk and voila. The elusive comet, while difficult to sight with the naked eye, could be seen with a pair of binoculars. 



Don't miss this rare chance to witness a phenomenon that won't return for another 80,000 years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hunter-s-supermoon">Hunter's Supermoon</h2>



Next up...mark your calendars for October 17, 2024. The night sky is all set to parade the Hunter's Moon, but this year it's not just a full moon -- <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hunters-supermoon-prepares-to-illuminate-the-october-skies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">it's a supermoon</a>! 



This phenomenon occurs when the moon is at its closest to Earth during its full phase, making it larger and brighter.



The Hunter’s Moon got its name from the historical practice of hunters utilizing the bright moonlight to track game and gather food in preparation for winter. This full moon rises soon after sunset, extending the period of illumination more than usual.



As it ascends, the Hunter’s Moon appears particularly large and orange, a visual effect produced by its lower position on the horizon and the scattering of light in the atmosphere.



This lunar phase holds cultural significance across various traditions, representing a time for preparation and gathering, underscoring the importance of readiness for the impending colder months.



The Hunter’s Moon is generally in October -- although once every four years it makes an appearance in November.



While contemporary life may not depend on this extra light to hunt or complete outdoor tasks, the Hunter’s Moon remains a fascinating reminder of nature’s rhythms and the cyclical changes of the seasons.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-puts-the-super-in-the-supermoon">What puts the 'super' in the supermoon?</h3>



So, you might ask, "What's so super about the supermoon?" As Anna Gammon-Ross, a seasoned astronomer from the <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Museums Greenwich</a> explains, a supermoon occurs when a full moon is nearest to Earth in its orbit. 



This cosmic alignment results in a moon that's roughly 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. On seeing the radiant orb hanging low in the sky, you'd agree that the supermoon does indeed earn its name.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shooting-stars-orionids-meteor-shower">Shooting stars: Orionids meteor shower</h2>



The Orionids meteor shower is one of the highlights of the October night sky. These meteors are actually tiny bits of dust left behind by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orionids-meteor-shower-peaks-this-weekend-heres-what-to-expect/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Halley's Comet</a> as it travels through the solar system. 



When Earth passes through this trail of debris, the particles slam into our atmosphere at incredible speeds -- up to 148,000 miles per hour! As they burn up, they create those bright streaks of light we love to watch.



What's cool about the Orionids is that they're known for their fast and bright meteors, often leaving glowing trails that last for a few seconds. 



The best time to catch them is in the early morning hours before dawn, when the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/betelgeuse-one-of-our-brightest-stars-will-vanish-from-sight-next-week/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">constellation Orion</a> (which gives the meteor shower its name) is high in the sky. 



Just find a comfy spot away from city lights, let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and enjoy the show -- no special equipment needed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-skywatching-101">Skywatching 101</h2>



All set to behold these cosmic spectacles? Here are some tips to enhance your experience:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Search for a location far from city lights to escape light pollution. </li>



<li>Always check the weather. Clear skies are your best pals for skywatching. </li>



<li>Bring your binoculars. For the supermoon, they are optional, but they'll help with the comet and make meteor watching more fun. </li>



<li>Comfort is key. Dress warmly and consider bringing a blanket or a chair. </li>



<li>Patience is a virtue. Allow around 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.</li>
</ul>



These celestial showstoppers make for some spectacular photography opportunities. 



For the supermoon, a camera with manual settings, plus a tripod for steadiness, can help capture stunning shots. 



For the meteors, a wide-angle lens with a long exposure setting can help you nab a shooting star.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-wonders-to-watch">More wonders to watch</h2>



October's skywatching doesn't end with the comet, supermoon, and meteor shower. 



Throughout the month, Venus brightly greets morning risers, while Saturn and Jupiter are earlier night visitors. 



Mars is a bit elusive but worth seeking out. Several constellations, such as Cassiopeia and Perseus, also adorn the night sky. 



If you're a novice stargazer, a smartphone app can help you navigate the starry expanse.



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Hunter's supermoon, a comet, and Orionids meteors are sharing the sky tonight

This week, the October sky is treating us to a brilliant display that you won't want to miss -- the Hunter's supermoon, a rare comet, and the Orionids meteor shower. Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is a rare comet making its journey past Earth, offering a unique opportunity to witness its tail of icy particles glistening against the dark canvas of space. In addition, this week features the biggest supermoon of the year, Hunter's supermoon, which will illuminate the night with a breathtaking orangish glow. Since Tuesday, the...

A new study reveals that one out of three Canadians experienced severe loneliness during the second wave of COVID-19. Dr. Lamson Lin Shen of the <a href="https://www.cityu.edu.hk/">City University of Hong Kong</a> estimates that loneliness affected 34.7 percent of the population, which is much higher than previous estimates of 14–27 percent that were established in other parts of the world.&nbsp;



According to the study, individuals who experienced job instability during the pandemic had double the risk of developing severe loneliness compared to people with secure employment.



“This concerning magnitude implies that during the pandemic lockdown, severe loneliness was ubiquitous in Canada,” said Dr. Lin. “This is probably due to the disruption in daily social activities, which normally help people cope with stress, as well as the intense social isolation caused by the lockdown measures implemented in many provinces of Canada.”



The research was focused on data from thousands of participants in the Canadian Perspective Survey Series, which was conducted during the second wave of the pandemic. Dr. Lin used machine learning to identify population patterns of loneliness.



The analysis revealed that migrants who experienced job insecurity - such as business closures, layoffs or absence from work due to COVID-19 infection - were among the most at risk of severe loneliness.



“The COVID-19 pandemic indeed amplified immigrants' susceptibility to loneliness,” said Dr. Lin. “This may be due to the fact that many migrants to Canada are over-represented in low-paid, low-skilled, unstable jobs, such as retail positions, cleaners, or cashiers, that require extensive interaction with the public, so they are at greater occupational risk of COVID-19 infection and consequential employment insecurity.”



The analysis also identified groups that have a higher risk of loneliness, regardless of the pandemic, including youth and adolescents, women, people living alone, people with a limited social circle, binge drinkers, abs recent cannabis users.&nbsp;



“My findings further shed light on the importance of building an equitable mental health care system in the pandemic response and recovery in Canada and other immigrant-receiving countries of the world,” said Dr Lin. “Primary care providers and mental health clinicians should assess loneliness symptoms in their routine patient examinations. At the community level, social care organizations should develop early prevention and intervention programs targeting high-risk groups with a greater burden of loneliness, especially for immigrant and marginalized populations.”



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.131">Journal of Affective Disorders</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Loneliness was widespread during the second wave of Covid

A new study reveals that one out of three Canadians...

On January 15, 2022, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-clues-about-the-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-eruption/">Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai</a> - an underwater volcano in the Tongan archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean - violently erupted, sending powerful shockwaves around the world and triggering devastating tsunamis. Until recently, scientists have been unable to reliably measure how tall the towering column of ash and water (the volcanic plume) that was ejected into atmosphere was. 



Now, by using satellite-based images, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has discovered that this volcano produced the highest-ever recorded plume, which has broken through to the mesosphere layer of the atmosphere. 



Usually, since in the troposphere (the atmosphere’s lowest layer), temperature decreases with height, how tall a volcanic plume is can be estimated by measuring the temperature recorded at its top and comparing it to a reference vertical temperature profile. However, if the eruption is so large that that the plume penetrates into the next atmospheric layer (the stratosphere), this method becomes unreliable because the temperature begins again to increase with height, due to the ozone layer absorbing UV solar radiation.



To overcome this problem, the scientists used a new method based on a phenomenon called “the parallax effect” (the apparent difference in an object’s position when viewed from multiple perspectives). Since the location of the Tonga volcano is covered by three geostationary weather satellites, the researchers were able to apply the parallax effect to the aerial images these satellites captured. 



The analysis revealed that the plume reached an altitude of 57 kilometers, which is significantly higher than previously documented eruptions, such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines (40 km), and the 1982 eruption of El Chichón in Mexico (31 km). 



“It’s an extraordinary result as we have never seen a cloud of any type this tall before. Furthermore, the ability to estimate the height in the way we did (using the parallax method) is only possible now that we have good satellite coverage. It wouldn’t have been possible a decade or so ago,” said study lead author Simon Proud, a research fellow in Satellite Data Analysis at Oxford.



“We’d also like to apply this technique to other eruptions and develop a dataset of plume heights that can be used by volcanologists and atmospheric scientists to model the dispersion of volcanic ash in the atmosphere,” added study co-author Andrew Prata, a postdoctoral fellow in Atmospheric Physics at the same university. “Further science questions that we would like to understand are: Why did the Tonga plume go so high? What will be the climate impacts of this eruption? And what exactly was the plume composed of?”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abo4076">Science</a>.



Image Credit: Simon Proud / Uni Oxford, RALSpace NCEO / Japan Meteorological Agency



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tonga eruption released the highest known volcanic plume

On January 15, 2022, Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai - an underwater...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> (UQ) in Australia has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-disrupts-gut-health-increasing-risk-of-other-infections/">Covid-19</a> activates the same inflammatory response in the brain as Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. The experts studied the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the “microglia” – the brain’s immune cells, which play a fundamental role in the development of age-related neurodegenerative disorders.



“Our team grew human microglia in the laboratory and infected the cells with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19,” said study senior author Trent Woodruff, a professor of Pharmacology at UQ. “We found the cells effectively became ‘angry,’ activating the same pathway that Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s proteins can activate in disease, the inflammasomes.”



According to study lead author Eduardo Albornoz – a postdoctoral fellow in Neuroscience, Immunology, and Pharmacology at the same university – triggering the inflammasome pathway can spark a “fire” in the brain that begins a chronic and sustained process of killing off neurons.



“It’s kind of a silent killer, because you don’t see any outward symptoms for many&nbsp;years,” he said. “It may explain why some people who’ve had Covid-19 are more vulnerable to developing neurological symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease.”



The scientists discovered that the spike protein of the virus was enough to start this process, which was further exacerbated when the brain already contained proteins linked to Parkinson’s disease. Thus, if someone is already pre-disposed to Parkinson’s, getting infected with the new coronavirus “could be like pouring more fuel on that “fire” in the brain,” according to Professor Woodruff.



Fortunately, the scientists also discovered a potential treatment – a class of UQ-developed inhibitory drugs that are currently in clinical trials with Parkinson’s patients. “We found it successfully blocked the inflammatory pathway activated by Covid-19, essentially putting out the fire,” Dr. Albornoz said. “The drug reduced inflammation in both Covid-19-infected mice and the microglia cells from humans, suggesting a possible treatment approach to prevent neurodegeneration in the future.”



“Further research is needed, but this is potentially a new approach to treating a virus that could otherwise have untold long-term health ramifications,” Professor Woodruff concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01831-0">Molecular Psychiatry</a>. &nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Covid-19 could trigger inflammation in the brain

A team of researchers led by the University of Queensland...

In 2019 and 2020, the Siberian Arctic experienced an unusual number of devastating fires, raising concerns in the scientific community, as the Arctic has vast areas of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/permafrost-could-release-much-more-carbon-than-expected/">permafrost</a> – a permanently frozen layer of subsoil which accumulates large amounts of carbon. The fires significantly damage the permafrost and contribute to the release of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. But was this increase in fires in 2019-2020 an exceptional case or a trend that will become worse as the Arctic warms?



By analyzing satellite observations between 1982 and 2020, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.csic.es/en/csic">Spanish Council for Scientific Research</a> (CSIC) has found that, although these fires were indeed exceptional, global warming will most likely drive increasingly more megafires over the following decades, releasing massive amounts of carbon.



“In 2020 alone, 423 fires were detected in the Siberian Arctic, which burned around three million hectares (an area almost as big as the whole Belgium) and caused the emission of 256 million tons of CO2&nbsp;equivalent [similar to the annual emissions of CO2&nbsp;in Spain]. With future warming, these megafires will be recurrent at the end of the century and will have different implications, both for the Arctic and for the global climate,” said study lead author Adrià Descals, a research scientist at CSIC.



“We detected fires above the 72nd&nbsp;parallel north, more than 600 km north of the Arctic Circle, where fires are unusual and where winter ice was still visible at the time of burning. Many fires were detected with a few days of difference, so we hypothesize that increases in thunderstorms and lightning are the main cause of the fires, although further investigations would be required to demonstrate how much human activities may influence the fire season in this remote region.”



According to the scientists, the concatenation of several factors related to rising temperatures, such as drier weather conditions, longer summers, and more vegetation, is what generated the fire rate increase, and will likely increase the frequency of such events in the future.



“The fact that there is more and earlier vegetation reduces the availability of water in the soil, and plants suffer greater water stress,” said Aleixandre Verger, a researcher at CSIC. In turn, “extreme heat waves, such as in 2020 in the Siberian Arctic, increase vulnerability to drought, as they can desiccate plants and reduce peat moisture, and therefore increase the intensity of fires and carbon emissions.”



“Climate warming therefore has a double effect on fire risk: it increases the susceptibility of vegetation and peatlands to fire and, on the other hand, it increases the number of ignitions caused by thunderstorms,”&nbsp;added Descals.



“The areas burned in 2019 and 2020 could be exceptional events, but recent temperature trends and projected scenarios indicate that, by the end of the century, large fires such as those in 2019 and 2020 will be frequent if temperatures continue to increase at the current rate,” the scientists concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abn9768">Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Arctic warming will increase permafrost megafires

In 2019 and 2020, the Siberian Arctic experienced an unusual...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) has found that mobile phones placed in vehicles and equipped with special software could collect useful structural integrity data while crossing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-satellites-bridges/">bridges</a>. Thus, they could become a less expensive alternative to sets of sensors attached to bridges themselves.



“The core finding is that information about structural health of bridges can be extracted from smartphone-collected accelerometer data,” said study co-author Carlo Ratti, the director of the <a href="https://senseable.mit.edu/">MIT Sensable City Laboratory</a>.



The research was conducted at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, as well as at a smaller bridge in Ciampino, Italy. The scientists developed an Android-based smartphone application to collect accelerometer data when the devices were placed in vehicles passing over the bridge.



“In our work, we designed a methodology for extracting modal vibration frequencies from noisy data collected from smartphones. As data from multiple trips over a bridge are recorded, noise generated by engine, suspension and traffic vibrations, [and] asphalt, tend to cancel out, while the underlying dominant frequencies emerge,” explained study co-author Paolo Santi, a principal research scientist at the Sensable Lab.



In the case of the Golden Gate Bridge, the researchers drove over the bridge 102 times with their devices running, while also collecting data from 72 Uber drivers with activated phones. By comparing the data with that from a group of 240 sensors that had been placed on the bridge for three months, they found that the data from the phones largely converged with that from the sensors. Although the information collected on the smaller bridge in Italy appeared to be slightly more divergent with that from sensors placed on the bridge, the results nonetheless showed that only a modest number of trips over the span of a few weeks could be sufficient to obtain useful data about bridge modal frequencies.



“Vibrational signatures are emerging as a powerful tool to assess properties of large and complex systems, ranging from viral properties of pathogens to structural integrity of bridges as shown in this study. It’s a universal signal found widely in the natural and built environment that we’re just now beginning to explore as a diagnostic and generative tool in engineering,” said study co-author Markus Buehler, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT.



“We still have work to do, but we believe that our approach could be scaled up easily - all the way to the level of an entire country. It might not reach the accuracy that one can get using fixed sensors installed on a bridge, but it could become a very interesting early-warning system. Small anomalies could then suggest when to carry out further analyses,” concluded senior author Carlo Ratti, another professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/commseng/">Nature Communications Engineering</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mobile phones could detect if bridges are in good shape

A new study led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

Although we may never learn about the existence of life beyond Earth or other intelligent civilizations, there is a significant chance that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extraterrestrial-life-inside-planet/">extraterrestrial life</a> could be soon detected. But what will humanity do when we discover that we are not alone in the universe? The new <a href="https://seti.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/">SETI Post-Detection Hub</a>, hosted by the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St Andrews</a> will act as a coordinating center for an international effort bringing together expertise across both the sciences and the humanities for devising impact assessments, protocols, procedures, and treaties designed to enable an efficient and responsible response.



&nbsp;“Science fiction is awash with explorations of the impact on human society following discovery of, and even encounters with, life or intelligence elsewhere.&nbsp;But we need to go beyond thinking about the impact on humanity. We need to coordinate our expert knowledge not only for assessing the evidence, but also for considering the human social response, as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we don’t know is communicated. And the time to do this is now,” said John Elliot, the coordinator of the SETI Post-Detection Hub.



“Scanning signals of assumed extra-terrestrial origin for structures of language and attaching meaning is an elaborate and time-consuming process during which our knowledge will be advanced in many steps as we learn ‘Extra-Terrestrial.’”



While there are many procedures and entities established by the United Nations for dealing with the possible threats posed by asteroid impacts, nothing similar is in place for the detection of extraterrestrial life. At the moment, the only existing “contact” protocols are those drawn up by the SETI community itself in 1989, which were last revised in 2010. However, these protocols focus solely on general scientific conduct, and constitute non-enforceable aspirations that fall short of being useful for practically managing the full process of searching, handling evidence, confirmation of detections, post-detection analysis and interpretation, and possible responses.



Fortunately, the SETI Post-Detection Hub now provides a permanent “home” for coordinating the development of a fully comprehensive framework for dealing with extraterrestrial life, drawing together an international community of scientists and policy experts to work on topics such as message decipherment, data analytics, and the development of regulatory protocols, space law, and societal impact strategies.



“Will we ever get a message from E.T.? We don’t know. We also don’t know when this is going to happen. But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill prepared – scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless – for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow and which we cannot afford to mismanage,” concluded Dr. Elliot.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What will humans do if we discover extraterrestrial life?

Although we may never learn about the existence of life...

Aerial,View,Of,Amazon,Rainforest,,South,America

The central Congo Basin is home to the world’s largest tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-level-rise-can-increase-fires-in-tropical-peatlands/">peatland</a> complex, covering an area of around 16.7 million hectares, which is bigger than the area of England and Wales combined. Unlike temperate peat bogs that mostly accumulate carbon in the form of mosses, these peatlands underlie lush tropical forests and contain organic matter from the fall of leaves and forest debris. In addition, they are influenced by the movement of water from rivers and have been a source of food and resources for local people for thousands of years.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Congo Basin spans across six central African countries, but the peatlands occur mostly within the Republic of Congo (ROC) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Due to the remote and inaccessible location of these peatlands, little research has been done on how the ecosystems function, although a previous study estimated that 29 Pg of carbon is stored below ground in peat across the region. (A Petagram is equivalent to a Gigaton and equals one billion metric tons.)&nbsp;



With the uncertainties surrounding the effects of climate change, scientists are concerned that this massive amount of stored carbon may be released into the atmosphere and contribute further to greenhouse gas concentrations. In order to understand the history of the Congo Basin peatlands, Congolese and European researchers have now taken samples of peat from beneath the remote swamp forests in the region. The results of their analysis, published in the journal Nature, carry a sober warning for the entire world, particularly as environmental leaders gather at the COP27 climate talks next week.



The research, led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a>, involved analyzing plant remains in samples taken at depths beneath the surface of the peat. The scientists used waxes from plant leaves preserved in the samples to calculate the rainfall levels at the time that the plants were living. This enabled them to reconstruct a record of the vegetation and rainfall in the central Congo Basin over the last 17,500 years, from when the peat began to form.&nbsp;



The record showed that peat was accumulated gradually in the region up to around 7,500 years ago. During this time, the peat acted as a store of carbon. However, between 7,500 and 2,000 years ago, the peat layers either decomposed or never accumulated. The researchers described this as the “ghost interval." This same ghost interval was found in peat samples from hundreds of kilometers away in the DRC indicating it happened across the whole peatland region.&nbsp;



“The peat samples show us that there was a period of around 5,000 years when there was almost no build-up of peat, less than 0.1 mm per year.&nbsp;The samples also reveal what the rainfall and vegetation was like when the peat was formed. Together they give a picture of a drying climate that got progressively drier until about 2,000 years ago," explained study lead author Dr. Yannick Garcin of the National Research Institute for Sustainable Development of France.



At the height of this drought, rainfall was reduced by at least 800 mm a year. This caused the water table in the Congo peatlands to drop, exposing older layers of peat to the air, which led to decomposition and the release of carbon dioxide.&nbsp;The peatlands&nbsp;only&nbsp;stopped releasing carbon and reverted back to&nbsp;taking carbon out of the atmosphere when the&nbsp;climate&nbsp;got wetter&nbsp;again&nbsp;in the past 2,000 years, according to the results of the study.&nbsp; &nbsp;



“This drought led to a huge loss of peat, at least 2 meters,” said Dr. Garcin. “The drought flipped the peatland to a huge carbon source as the peat decomposed. This decomposition only stopped when the drought stopped, allowing peat to start accumulating again.”&nbsp;



The scientists warn&nbsp;that, while the peatlands are&nbsp;currently largely intact and managed sustainably by local people, they are vulnerable.&nbsp;If current global warming produces drying effects in the Congo region, history could repeat itself and 30 billion tons of carbon from decomposing peat could end up in the atmosphere. This is equivalent to all the emissions from burning fossil fuel globally over a three-year period, and the impact on climate change could be catastrophic.&nbsp;



“Our study brings a brutal warning from the past. If the peatlands dry beyond a certain threshold they will release colossal quantities of carbon to the atmosphere, further accelerating climate change," said study senior author Professor Simon Lewis. “There is some evidence that dry seasons are lengthening in the Congo Basin, but it is unclear if these will continue. But evidence from our study shows that drier conditions have existed in the past and did trigger a breakdown of the peatlands as a store of carbon.”&nbsp;



“This is an important message for world leaders gathering at the COP27 climate talks next week. If greenhouse gas emissions drive the central Congo peatlands to become too dry, then the peatlands will contribute to the climate crisis rather than protect us," emphasized Professor Lewis.



In addition to the threat of the peatlands getting drier&nbsp;from climate change, the region is subject to additional pressures which could cause damage to the fragile peatland ecosystem. These include draining the peatlands for industrial-scale agriculture, logging, and oil exploration.&nbsp;The central Congo peatlands are home to a rich biodiversity, including forest elephants, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, all of which form part of this globally important but threatened ecosystem.



Professor Corneille Ewango from the University of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, led the expeditions to collect the peat samples from the DRC.&nbsp;



“This is another astonishing finding about the peatlands. They are more vulnerable than we thought, and everyone must play their role in protecting them," said Professor Ewango. “Polluting countries must cut their carbon emissions fast, to limit the possibility of droughts pushing the peatlands past their tipping point. The DRC will also need to strengthen protection of the peatlands. At stake is one of the most wildlife and carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth."



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Congo Basin could release billions of tons of carbon

The central Congo Basin is home to the world’s largest...

A growing collection of research suggests that the unique wing patterns found among thousands of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-do-oakleaf-butterflies-mimic-dead-leaves/">butterfly</a> species are all tied to an ancient set of simple ingredients. The latest of these studies, led by the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a>, was focused on the rare Atala butterfly.



“Evolution does not just mean change,” said study lead author Andrei Sourakov. “When it stumbles upon successful designs, they stick around, sometimes for hundreds of millions of years.”



In particular, Sourakov set out to test a theory from the 1920s called the nymphalid groundplan, which proposes that butterfly wing patterns are organized around distinct, concentrically arranged bands.



“Rather than a unified composition, butterfly wings are more like a collage created by wing-pattern elements belonging to different symmetry systems,” said Sourakov.



While this basic blueprint has been confirmed in several decades of research, the studies were primarily focused on butterfly species of the Nymphalidae family.



Nymphalids diverged from their closest relatives, the lycaenids, around 90 million years ago. Now, Sourakov wanted to investigate whether lycaenids have maintained the ancient pattern of wing symmetry found in nymphalids.&nbsp;



“The idea that the nymphalid ground plan applies to the lycaenids, which diverged from nymphalids when the dinosaurs were still around, is a big assumption to make,” explained Sourakov.



The Atala butterfly was chosen for the study for its unique history and its striking color patterns. The Atala is one of the only toxic species in the lycaenid family, and this toxicity is signaled by its bright red abdomen. On the Atala’s bottom wings, two spots of the same red color stand out against black scales and blue spots.



In the early 1900s, Atala butterflies nearly disappeared from their native range in Florida when their host plant was overharvested. Today, the plants and butterflies have been restored. For the study, Sourakov used a colony of Atala butterflies that is preserved at the Florida Museum’s McGuire Center.



Based on an interesting method used in previous studies, Sourakov exposed pupating insects to a blood thinner called heparin. This technique has been found to alter the wings of adult butterflies.



“Wing-pattern elements belonging to the same symmetry systems should react in similar ways to the same treatment,” said Sourakov. “By tweaking the expression of the underlying genes, such experiments allow us to understand the amazing variation that is found in butterflies and help us pinpoint the exact source of that variation.”



The experiment revealed that Atala and nymphalid butterflies shared similar responses to heparin. Depending on the concentration of heparin used, the adult wing spots either expanded, contracted, or faded entirely.&nbsp;



“Remarkably, there seems to be many similarities between Atala’s wing pattern and the nymphalid ground plan,” said Sourakov. “Future studies will be necessary for determining whether the same genes control the banding patterns and colors of Atala and other lycaenids compared to other butterfly families, but I hope these results have laid the groundwork for further inquiry.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7246248">Tropical Lepidoptera Research</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Atala butterflies have retained ancient wing patterns

A growing collection of research suggests that the unique wing...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.colgate.edu/">Colgate University</a> has found that summer <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thawing-arctic-hillsides-are-contributing-to-climate-change/">thaw</a> in Antarctica occurs nearly a month earlier, and lasts for a full two months longer than previously thought. These findings change our scientific understanding of seasonal thawing in parts of the Antarctic continent, raising alarms regarding the negative impact of global warming on our planet.



“Antarctic water tracks and ephemeral wetlands are a primary location for biogeochemical soil processes driving cold desert soil formation. Though the spatial extent of water tracks and wetted soils has been mapped in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) on the basis of mapping darkened pixels in high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, the timescale over which water tracks and wetlands form and the duration of these biogeochemically active environments remain unknown,” the study authors explained.



By using a combination of in situ soil sensors and data from two complementary remote imagining platforms (<a href="https://www.planet.com/">Planet</a> and <a href="https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/">WorldView</a>) - which can scan the surface of the Earth daily or even multiple times per day - the scientists determined the start and end dates, together with the duration of wetted soils at ten sites located across the MDV. Their analyses revealed that Antarctic summer thawing is much more extended temporally than previously thought.



“What we found was that when you can scan coastal Antarctica almost every day, not just a couple of times a summer, we see that the ground is actually thawing and turning into icy swamps a full month earlier than we used to think, and it’s staying wet and thawed a full two months later, even into March,” said study co-author Joseph Levy, a geomorphologist and planetary scientist at Colgate.



“What’s even more fascinating is that this ground is thawing and staying thawed at temperatures below freezing, so we know salts must be helping it to melt and keeping it muddy, like salting a road during a snowstorm.”



According to the researchers, while this extended melt is beneficial for organisms that need meltwater to survive in Antarctica’s harsh climate, it is quite bad news for the long-term stability of the permafrost and for ecosystems that thrive in freezing conditions.



“This extended hydroperiod has intriguing implications for biogeochemical processes such as long-term soil development in the Antarctic, biological functioning in long-lived soil waters and droplets, and the thermal evolution of Antarctic permafrost. Our observations can serve as a baseline for detecting future change in the duration and extent of water track and wetland processes in the terrestrial Antarctic in response to future climate change,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2022.2123858">Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Antarctic summer thaw lasts longer than previously thought

A new study led by Colgate University has found that...

People have always been fascinated by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rhinos-show-that-diseases-can-disrupt-conservation-efforts/">rhinos</a>, finding them charismatic and impressive. These great mammals are depicted in historical and contemporary artworks and photographs for many different reasons and researchers have begun to appreciate the potential of these images as a rich source of data. This is particularly salient as numbers of rhinos of all species decrease and research on living specimens becomes more and more difficult. 



In a recent study, researchers from the University of Helsinki, <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and the Rhino Resource Center (RRC) in the Netherlands undertook an analysis of 1,531 pieces of artwork and 1,627 photographs depicting rhinos, all of which are held in an online repository by the RRC. Their aim was to investigate the ways in which depictions of human interactions with rhinos have changed over time. In addition, they used a sample of 80 profile photographs of rhinos to determine whether morphological data on horn lengths, extracted from photographs, indicate any change in this feature over time.&nbsp;



In the archives of the RRC, the researchers found digital records of artworks dating back over the past 500 years, and of photographs from the last 150 years. They assigned these to broad categories that represented different relationships between society and rhinos; for example, hunting, conservation, natural history and captivity. Categories were further grouped as consumptive or non-consumptive. Consumptive relationships involved the death of rhinos or their removal from the natural habitat (e.g., hunting, curiosity, museum, captivity, dominion, poaching and circus), whereas non-consumptive relationships did not kill or remove rhinos from their habitat (e.g., conservation, caretaking, education, academic, cartoons).



Although all five extant species of rhinos are represented in the RRC’s data set, the researchers found that earlier images more commonly show Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) whereas the two African species (white rhino&nbsp;Ceratotherium simum, and black rhino&nbsp;Diceros bicornis) feature more prominently in recent images. Images of Javan (Rhinoceros sondaicus)&nbsp;and Sumatran&nbsp;(Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) rhinos are uncommon throughout the data set.



The results of the study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10406">People and Nature</a>, showed a clear change in how rhinos are portrayed. Hunting scenes in both artwork and photos were more common prior to 1950, but conservation became more common after this date. Depictions of rhino natural history and rhinos in captivity also became more common in artwork from the late 1700s onwards, and in photos from the 2000s onwards. Furthermore, the researchers found that the proportion of images featuring non-consumptive uses of rhinos increased over time, although in this case from the turn of the 19th century.&nbsp;



Many hundreds of photographs showing rhinos shot dead by hunters, taken in the late 19th&nbsp;and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, are present in the collection. These include a photograph of American President Theodore Roosevelt, taken in 1911, standing triumphantly over a black rhino he had just killed. Other early images show rhinos as huge, frightening animals chasing humans. The researchers think these images helped justify the hunting of these animals.



The experts also propose that peak times of hunting activities coincided with European colonial expansion into regions where rhinos occurred and that, once colonial powers pulled out of these regions and they achieved independence, European hunters no longer had easy access for hunting. The researchers suggest that the number of hunting images for a given species is likely to be associated with the true levels of hunting, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to be correlated with the reported declines in rhino numbers during this time.



“We found that we can use images from the last few centuries to visualize how human attitudes towards wildlife have changed, and how artists have influenced these views,” said Dr. Ed Turner at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, senior author of the report.



The images suggest that there was very little effort to promote rhino conservation to the public before the 1950s. But after this the focus suddenly changed from hunting the animals to trying to keep them alive. The most recent images appear to reflect a growing awareness of the threats facing the natural world in general.



“For at least a few decades now there’s been much more of a focus on the conservation of rhinos – and this is reflected in the more recent images, which relate to their conservation in sanctuaries or their plight in the wild,” said study first author Oscar Wilson, who is now based at the University of Helsinki, Finland.&nbsp;



The 80 photographs of individual rhinos used to assess changes in horn length represented all five of the extant rhino species. Morphological measurements of body and horn dimensions were made so that horn length could be accurately related to overall body size. This was important as the photos did not have any measure of scale. Analysis of the results showed that, across all species, the horn length increased with body size, and the relative length of the horn to body length decreased slightly, but significantly over time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers think rhino horns have become smaller due to intensive hunting. Whether this has been for trophies or to supply material for medicines or traditional carvings in certain eastern and middle-eastern countries, the rhinos with the largest horns are invariably the targets. This leaves smaller-horned individuals to breed and pass on their genes for smaller horns to future generations. According to the researchers, these results could be indicative of directional selection in response to hunting pressures, as has been noted in obvious features such as horns and tusks in other groups of animals.



“We were really excited that we could find evidence from photographs that rhino horns have become shorter over time. They’re probably one of the hardest things to work on in natural history because of the security concerns,” said Wilson. “Rhinos evolved their horns for a reason - different species use them in different ways such as helping to grasp food or to defend against predators – so we think that having smaller horns will be detrimental to their survival.”



“Taken together, our results demonstrate the potential and scope for using online images to study the changing relationship between people and the natural world, and long-term morphological changes in species," concluded the study authors. "We advocate a greater use of these data, and the development of more image repositories such as the RRC, to bring data together in an easily accessible format with associated detailed information.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Historical photos suggest that rhino horns have gotten smaller

People have always been fascinated by rhinos, finding them charismatic...

In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/10/30/23426406/ai-animals-google-translate-karen-bakker-sounds-of-life">Vox</a>, Karen Bakker – an expert in Digital Innovation at the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> – has argued that humans could soon communicate with animals, as groundbreaking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-intelligence-earth-data/">artificial intelligence</a> tools are designed to decode patterns in non-human sounds, such as the waggle dance of honeybees, the low-frequency noises of elephants, or the clicking made by whales. Yet, according to Bakker, such innovations can raise ethical dilemmas, since they could also be used to manipulate – rather than merely understand - wildlife.&nbsp;



For a long time, humans have sought to find ways of communicating with animals. While just a few decades ago, such attempts would rather belong to a science fiction movie, recent scientific and technological developments have now brought them closer to reality. For instance, in 2018, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.mi.fu-berlin.de/inf/groups/ag-ki/index.html">Dahlem Center for Machine Learning and Robotics</a> in Germany has designed the RoboBee, an AI tool that mimics the waggle dance of bees, which is used by these insects to relay information to one another. This robot turned out to be so successful that some of the bees started to follow directions from it, such as where to move within their hive.



Other such attempts include the <a href="https://www.projectceti.org/">Project CETI</a> (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), which uses advanced machine learning techniques to decipher the sounds of sperm whales, one of the world’s most enigmatic oceanic species, or the research of Katie Payne, an expert in Bioacoustics at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> who uses artificial intelligence to pick up the infrasonic sounds produced by elephants.



Although humans have communicated with animals in the past too, they usually did it from a human-centered viewpoint, such as teaching primates sign language. By using AI, scientists now hope to use the animals’ own language to communicate with them. “What [these researchers] are doing is not trying to teach those species human language, but rather compiling, essentially, dictionaries of signals and then attempting to understand what those signals mean within those species,” Bakker explained.



However, such attempts lead to significant ethical conundrums, depending upon how they will be used. Thus, enabling humans to speak with different animal species could create a&nbsp;“deeper sense of kinship, or a sense of dominion and manipulative ability to domesticate wild species that we’ve never as humans been able to previously control,” she concluded.



Professor Bakker explained in more detail these new technological developments in her new book, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206288/the-sounds-of-life">The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants</a> (2022). &nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Can we communicate with animals using artificial intelligence?

In a recent interview with Vox, Karen Bakker – an...

A team of zoologists led by the <a href="https://www.up.pt/portal/en/">University of Porto</a> has recently described a new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/owls-humans-visual/">owl</a> species from Principe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in Central Africa. Although its official description was published only now, suspicions of its occurrence started already to emerge in 1998, and testimonies from local people suggesting its existence can be traced back as far as 1928.



The Principe Scops-Owl, or&nbsp;Otus bikegila, belongs to a group of small owls – the scops-owls - found across Eurasia and Africa, and including widespread species such as the Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) and the African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis).&nbsp;



The easiest way to recognize this species in the wild is its specific call. “Otus bikegila's unique call is a short “tuu” note repeated at a fast rate of about one note per second, reminiscent of insect calls. It is often emitted in duets, almost as soon as the night has fallen,” explained study lead author Martim Melo, an expert in the diversification of bird fauna in Africa at the University of Porto.



The experts believe that this owl can be currently found only in the remaining old-growth native forest of Principe in the uninhabited southern part of the island, occupying an area of just about 15 km2. In this small area though, the density of this species is quite high, with a population estimated at around 1,000-1,500 individuals.



However, since all the members of the species occur in this single, small location, the scientists have proposed that the species should be classified as critically endangered - the highest threat level on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a>. Closely monitoring its population will be essential to get more precise estimates of its size and current trends.



“The discovery of a new species that is immediately evaluated as highly threatened illustrates well the current biodiversity predicament. On a positive note, the area of occurrence of the Principe Scops-Owl is fully included within the Príncipe Obô Natural Park, which will hopefully help secure its protection,” the researchers concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1126.87635">ZooKeys</a>. 



Image Credit: Martim Melo



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New owl species discovered in Africa

A team of zoologists led by the University of Porto...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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