The Universe contains many types of massive formations that shape our understanding of how stars and galaxies group together. Astronomers have long studied these sprawling patterns, which give valuable clues about where matter gathers and where it remains thinly spread. 



These features define how cosmic evolution unfolds and guide current theories of how the universe expands.



Recently, a team of experts announced a giant find. This collection of galaxy clusters surpasses previous giants by orders of magnitude.



This study adds fresh insights by demonstrating that our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/interstellar-tunnel-found-that-connects-our-solar-system-to-other-stars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmic neighborhood</a> can still surprise us with unexpected details about how matter arranges itself across unimaginable distances.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-galaxy-clusters-distribution">Galaxy clusters distribution</h2>



Hans Böhringer from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (<a href="https://www.mpe.mpg.de/main" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPE</a>) coordinated the effort in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Physics (<a href="https://www.mpp.mpg.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPP</a>) and teams in Spain and South Africa. 



Their work relied on the ROSAT X-ray satellite’s survey, which singled out clusters of galaxies by detecting the energetic radiation these huge clusters emit. 



These data allowed the researchers to build a three-dimensional map of our cosmic vicinity.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_3D-model_credit-MPE_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_3D-model_credit-MPE_1s.webp" alt="Three-dimensional representation of the Quipu superstructure. Credit: MPE" class="wp-image-1960534"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Three-dimensional representation of the Quipu superstructure. Credit: MPE</figcaption></figure>



“If you look at the distribution of the galaxy clusters in the sky in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light-years, you immediately notice a huge structure that stretches from high northern latitudes to almost the southern end of the sky,” explains Böhringer.



By tracing each cluster’s position in space, his team pinpointed how matter spreads out in swirling patterns of galaxies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-quipu-superstructure">The Quipu superstructure</h2>



The researchers named this discovery “Quipu,” taking inspiration from the knotted string recording system once used by the Incas. 



Observed as a long strand with smaller threads branching off, the Quipu superstructure contains 68 galaxy clusters with a combined mass of about 2.4 × 10^17 solar masses. 



Its size of roughly 1.4 billion light-years makes Quipu the largest superstructure ever accurately measured, surpassing the Sloan Great Wall’s 1.1 billion light-years.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_illustration_credit-MPE_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_illustration_credit-MPE_1s.webp" alt="Distribution of galaxies (color coding) and galaxy clusters (black dots) in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light years surrounding us. The five superstructures are marked: 1 Quipu, 2 Shapley, 3 Serpens-Corona Borealis and Hercules (overlapping in the sky), 4 Sculptor-Pegasus. The area enclosed by white lines is shadowed by the disk of the Milky Way. Credit: MPE" class="wp-image-1960536"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Distribution of galaxies (color coding) and galaxy clusters (black dots) in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light years surrounding us. The five superstructures are marked: 1 Quipu, 2 Shapley, 3 Serpens-Corona Borealis and Hercules (overlapping in the sky), 4 Sculptor-Pegasus. The area enclosed by white lines is shadowed by the disk of the Milky Way. Credit: MPE</figcaption></figure>



“This breaks the size record of all reliably measured cosmic structures,” note the researchers who compared the finding with other known formations. 



“The Quipu superstructure, end to end, is slightly longer than the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/SDSS-3D-Universe-Map-Credit-Sloan-Digital-Sky-Survey-Team-NASA-NSF-DOE_fig2_357328983" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sloan Great Wall</a>,” says J. Richard Gott III at Princeton University, who helped discover the Sloan Great Wall. “Congratulations to them for finding it.” 



The name also reflects a connection to Chile, where many distance measurements took place, and where ancient quipus are showcased in Santiago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quipu-and-cosmological-principle">Quipu and cosmological principle</h2>



Across extremely large distances, matter is believed to spread out nearly evenly. At smaller scales of about a billion light-years, it collects in superclusters and leaves behind voids. 



This balance underpins the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cosmic-order-or-chaos-universe-expansion-may-follow-a-hidden-pattern/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmological principle</a>, which suggests that if we look far enough, the universe should appear uniform in every direction. 



Some experts argue these huge arrangements question that principle’s validity, with past findings triggering debates. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/great-sloan-wall_superstructure_SDSS_credit-MIT_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/great-sloan-wall_superstructure_SDSS_credit-MIT_1s.webp" alt="Sloan Great Wall of galaxies. SDSS 3D Universe Map Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Team, NASA, NSF, DOE." class="wp-image-1960531"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sloan Great Wall of galaxies is 1.1 billion light years long. SDSS 3D Universe Map Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Team, NASA, NSF, DOE.</figcaption></figure>



“Making observations in too small a part of the universe, which has been done earlier on, can be misleading,” says Böhringer. 



Another point comes from an ambiguous definition of the principle. “There is not yet one definition of the cosmological principle that every cosmologist agrees on,” says Alexia Lopez at the <a href="https://www.uclan.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Central Lancashire</a> in the UK. 



Meanwhile, Seshadri Nadathur at the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Portsmouth</a> notes that “some of those galaxies may drift apart from each other instead of collapsing in on themselves, in which case, according to some interpretations, it’s not really a bound structure.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cosmic-measurements-and-consequences">Cosmic measurements and consequences</h2>



Quipu’s existence highlights how vast formations can shape calculations of cosmic expansion rates and the properties of primordial radiation left over from the early universe. 



Astronomers pay close attention to features like superclusters because they alter light paths and influence how we determine important parameters such as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unknown-factors-are-accelerating-the-expansion-of-the-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hubble constant</a>. 



Small discrepancies can add up when researchers aim for precise numbers in modern cosmological studies.



“Even if these are only corrections of a few percent, they become increasingly important as the accuracy of cosmological observations increases,” emphasizes Gayoung Chon from the Max Planck Institute for Physics. 



This structure offers a reminder that the cosmos presents patterns on many scales. Those patterns appear to affect how we interpret data on the universe’s origin and shape the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-galactic-explosion-provides-clues-about-galaxy-evolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution of galaxies</a> in our vicinity and beyond.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quipu-and-the-incas">Quipu and the Incas</h2>



The Incas once managed vast territories using quipus, a system of knotted strings that helped track resources and information. 



Each knot arrangement acted like a code, revealing essential data in a form that required no written script.



Quipu’s naming borrowed that image of intertwined threads. 



Researchers see it as a nod to humanity’s long history of gathering knowledge, whether through knotted strings or advanced telescopes that trace the distribution of galaxies across cosmic depths.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-next">What happens next?</h2>



The discovery underscores how ongoing surveys might uncover more structures. 



Scientists are keen to see if similar patterns exist in parts of the sky that remain less charted, which could either confirm current theories or reveal new gaps in our understanding.



Future maps will rely on technology to gather clearer data from remote regions. 



These efforts reflect a human wish to capture our place in the universe, searching for the patterns that connect everything from particles to vast congregations of galaxies.



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Featured image: The open cluster Westerlund 1 is located roughly 12,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar) where it resides behind a huge interstellar cloud of gas and dust. Credit: <a href="https://www.esa.int" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ESA</a>



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Astronomy and Astrophysics</a>.



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Largest structure ever found in the universe is 1.4 billion light years long

The Universe contains many types of massive formations that shape our understanding of how stars and galaxies group together. Astronomers have long studied these sprawling patterns, which give valuable clues about where matter gathers and where it remains thinly spread. These features define how cosmic evolution unfolds and guide current theories of how the universe expands. Recently, a team of experts announced a giant find. This collection of galaxy clusters surpasses previous giants by orders of magnitude. This study adds fresh insights by demonstrating that our cosmic...

Bright,Flowers,And,Leaves,Of,Red,Peony,Against,Blue,Sky

Since they are only capable of converting up to 20 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity, current <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/green-solar-panels-appealing/">solar panels</a> are not very efficient. In order to generate a sufficient amount of electricity, such panels require a lot of space, often leading forests to be cut down or farms to be replaced by panels.&nbsp;



Now, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland</a> is aiming to make solar panels more efficient by harnessing plants’ energy to convert sunlight into chemical energy. Such panels would be smaller and produce the same amount of energy as those we are currently using without claiming so much space.&nbsp;



The scientists aim to use biological molecules to make electricity which can then be harvested to power solar devices or stored in batteries for future use. This process mainly involves leveraging molecules’ fluorescence.&nbsp;



“Any sort of molecule that fluoresces, gives off light. If we excite the fluorophore, it can transfer its energy to metal nanoparticles, and if the particles are close enough to each other, they will knock off electrons and generate current,” explained lead author Lahari Saha, a doctoral student in Chemistry at Maryland.



However, as the scientists stress, these processes are not only limited to molecules that fluoresce, and would in fact just require molecules that have high absorption of light, such as chlorophyll, beta carotene, or lutein, which are relatively inexpensive and easy to extract from plants.



Another benefit of such solar panels is that they would be much easier and safer to recycle than the ones we currently use, which relay on expensive materials such as silicon and contain toxic elements like lead and cadmium. By contrast, the new solar panels will consist mainly of plant-based molecules and other materials such as copper, which would make them much easier to recycle while not polluting the environment. Moreover, by selecting materials with greater longevity, these panels will also last longer and need to be replaced less frequently.



By constructing such efficient solar panels that don’t have a large environmental footprint, the experts hope to help farms maximize food production over generating energy, and, at the same time, protect the world’s forests.



The study will be presented on Wednesday, February 22 at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.biophysics.org/2023meeting#/">67th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting</a>&nbsp;in San Diego, California.



—-



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</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.

Scientists harness plant energy to improve solar panels

Since they are only capable of converting up to 20...

Seismograph,For,Earthquake,Detection,Or,Lie,Detector,Is,Drawing,Chart.

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> has recently discovered that an everyday quirk of physics may be a crucial tool in predicting the world’s most powerful <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-tides-earthquakes/">earthquakes</a>. According to the experts, a frictional phenomenon may be a critical key in understanding when and how violently faults move. While this alone cannot allow scientists predict when and where the next major earthquake will strike – since the forces behind large earthquakes are very complex – it will nevertheless offer scientists a new way to investigate the causes and potential for damaging earthquakes to occur.



The researchers squeezed rocks collected from a well-studied fault off the coast of New Zealand in a hydraulic press and discovered that they were very slow to heal and slipped easily. Introducing this finding in a computer model used to estimate the earthquake activity in that area, the results pointed towards a small, slow-motion tremor every two years, an almost exact match with observations from the New Zealand fault. Thus, a fault that is slow to heal is more likely to move harmlessly, while one that heals quickly is more probable to stick until it breaks into a large, damaging earthquake – a phenomenon that also explains, for instance, why it takes more effort to shove a heavy box from a standstill than it does to keep it in motion.



“The same physics and logic should apply to all different kinds of faults around the world,” said study co-lead author Demian Saffer, an expert in Geophysics at UT Austin. “With the right samples and field observations we can now start to make testable predictions about how big and how often large seismic slip events might occur on other major faults, like Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest.”



The experts believe that the clay-rich rocks that are common at many large faults may be regulating earthquakes by allowing plates to slip quietly past each other, limiting the buildup of stress.&nbsp;



“This doesn’t get us any closer to actually predicting earthquakes, but it does tell us whether a fault is likely to slip silently with no earthquakes, or have large ground-shaking earthquakes,” explained co-lead author Srisharan Shreedharan, an assistant professor of Geosciences at the <a href="https://www.usu.edu/">Utah State University</a>.



Since at Cascadia, for instance, there is little evidence of shallow, slow-motion tremors, the <a href="https://pnsn.org/">Pacific Northwest Seismic Network</a> (PNSN) aims to place sensors across key areas of the fault, in order to monitor the possibility of major earthquakes.&nbsp;



“We want to zero in on the processes in the shallow part of the fault because that’s what governs the size of the tsunami,” said Harold Tobin, the director of PNSN. “Fault healing doesn’t explain everything, but it does give us a window into the working of subduction zone faults that we didn’t have before.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf4930">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



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New tool designed to predict earthquake severity

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

As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-tech-can-capture-carbon-dioxide-from-the-atmosphere/">carbon dioxide</a> continues to build up in our planet’s atmosphere, scientists are investigating ways to eliminate this gas more efficiently from the air. However, the world’s leading carbon sink is the ocean, which captures 30 to 40 percent of all the CO2 produced by human activities. Thus, many researchers have recently taken into consideration the possibility of removing CO2 directly from seawater in order to mitigate emissions.



The existing methods for doing this usually apply a high voltage across a stack of membranes to acidify a feed stream by water splitting, a process that converts bicarbonates in the water to CO2 molecules. However, such membranes are expensive, and other chemicals are also required to drive the overall electrode reactions at both sides of the stack, making the procedure even more expensive and complex. Recently though, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) may have found the key to a highly efficient and inexpensive removal mechanism.



“We wanted to avoid the need for introducing chemicals to the anode and cathode half cells and to avoid the use of membranes at all if possible,” said study senior author Alan Hatton, a professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.



The experts devised a reversible process consisting of membrane-free electrochemical cells, in which reactive electrodes are used to release protons to the seawater fed to the cells, triggering the release of the dissolved CO2 from the water. This process is cyclical: it first acidifies the water to convert dissolved inorganic bicarbonates to molecular CO2 that is collected as a gas under vacuum, while afterwards, the water is fed to another set of cells with a reversed voltage to recover the protons and turn the acidic water back to alkaline before releasing it back to the ocean. Once one set of electrodes is depleted of protons during acidification and the other is regenerated during alkalization, the roles of the two cells is reversed.



Since CO2 buildup has increased ocean acidification, threatening vast populations of corals and shellfish, the removal of this gas and reinjection of alkaline water – which could be done through dispersed outlets or far offshore to avoid dangerous local spikes in alkalinity - could slowly start to reverse this process.&nbsp;



However, once the CO2 is removed from seawater, it will still need to be disposed of. This could be done by burying it in deep geologic foundations beneath the seafloor or by chemically converting it into a compound such as ethanol that can be later used as a transportation fuel or integrated into other specialty chemicals.&nbsp;



“You can certainly consider using the captured CO2&nbsp;as a feedstock for chemicals or materials production, but you’re not going to be able to use all of it as a feedstock. You’ll run out of markets for all the products you produce, so not matter what, a significant amount of the captured CO2&nbsp;will need to be buried underground,” Hatton explained.



Since desalination plants are already processing ocean water, these new carbon removal systems could efficiently be integrated into such already existing plants. Other locations could include ships that would process water as they travel, offshore drilling platforms, or aquaculture farms. Ultimately, it could lead to the global deployment of free-standing carbon removal plants.



“The carbon dioxide problem is the defining problem of our life, of our existence. So clearly, we need all the help we can get,” concluded co-author Kripa Varanasi, a mechanical engineer at MIT.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D2EE03804H">Energy &amp; Environmental 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



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Removing carbon dioxide from seawater

As carbon dioxide continues to build up in our planet’s...

Imagine if we could reverse the effects of aging simply by exercising. A new study, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP283836">The Journal of Physiology</a>, suggests that exercise may indeed make the muscle cells of lab mice more youthful and may help ameliorate the adverse effects of aging in humans too.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The process of aging involves predictable, progressive changes to cells. During their life, cells express different patterns of genes, and those patterns of expression (epigenetics) are unique to each phase in a cell’s life, from young to old, such that it is easy to identify a cell’s age. Older cells become less able to regenerate, suffer from the shortening of their telomeres and show increasing numbers of dysfunctional mitochondria. Eventually, these accumulating conditions lead to a loss of cellular function and to cell death.&nbsp;



However, it is possible to rejuvenate aged cells and make them "act young" again. For example, a human ovum may be over 30 years old before it is fertilized, at which time it becomes reprogrammed to form numerous pluripotent cells that give rise to a new individual with "young" cells.&nbsp;



Initially, scientists imagined that many genetic factors must be involved in turning back the hands of time like this, but in 2006 a study by Dr. Kazutoshi Yamanaka and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka showed that it was possible to reprogram cells in this way using just four master genes named Oct3/4, Klf4,&nbsp;Sox2 and&nbsp;c-Myc,&nbsp;often abbreviated to&nbsp;OKSM. These four reprogramming factors are often called the Yamanaka factors.



The four protein transcription factors can make highly specialized cells (such as skin cells) revert back to stem cells, which are in a younger and more adaptable state. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for this discovery. In subsequent research it has been shown that, in the correct dosages, inducing the Yamanaka factors throughout the body in rodents can ameliorate the hallmarks of aging by resetting the gene expression patterns such that the cells mimic the characteristics of more youthful cells.



It has long been established that exercising has beneficial effects for people, in terms of increased strength of bones and muscles, improved mobility and endurance, and lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. But it now looks that exercising may help rejuvenate the epigenetic nature of cells as well. In previous research, mice nearing the end of their life-spans were given weighted wheels on which to run, thus ensuring that they built up muscle while they exercised. After two months of regular weighted wheel running, their muscle cells had the epigenetic age of mice eight weeks younger than sedentary mice of the same age.



Based on these findings, the authors of the current research decided to compare the epigenetic (gene expression) profiles in skeletal muscle fibers from mice who had been allowed to exercise late in life and from mice that overexpressed&nbsp;OKSM&nbsp;in their muscles,&nbsp;as well as to genetically modified mice that overexpressed only&nbsp;Myc&nbsp;in their muscles. Of the four factors,&nbsp;Myc&nbsp;is the one induced by exercising skeletal muscle.&nbsp;It is thought that Myc&nbsp;may serve as a naturally induced reprogramming stimulus in muscle, making it a useful point of comparison between cells that have been reprogrammed via over expression of the Yamanaka factors and cells that have been reprogrammed through exercise. This "reprogramming” reflects how an environmental stimulus can alter the expression of genes.&nbsp;



Using global gene expression analysis in the muscle fibers of the different groups of mice, the research team (six of whom are affiliated with the University of Arkansas), found that the factor Myc&nbsp;was elevated in muscle fibers following exercise training in aged mice. Thus, the team concluded that exercise does indeed promote a gene expression profile that is more typical of youthful cells.&nbsp;



While it would be nice to imagine we could someday manipulate levels of Myc&nbsp;in muscles to achieve the rejuvenating effects of exercise without doing the hard work, this would not be the correct approach, explained study co-author Kevin Murach, an assistant professor in the U of A’s Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation.&nbsp;



First,&nbsp;Myc&nbsp;would not be able to replicate all the beneficial downstream effects that exercise has throughout the body. It is also known that&nbsp;the expression of Yamanaka factors, such as Myc, can trigger cancerous tumors in animals, and rewire the cell so far back that it loses its specific identity. Clearly, there are inherent dangers to manipulating the expression of these factors. Instead, Murach&nbsp;thinks manipulating&nbsp;Myc&nbsp;might best be employed as an experimental strategy to understand how to restore exercise adaptation to old muscles showing declining responsiveness.&nbsp;



Possibly it could also be a means of supercharging the exercise response of astronauts in zero gravity, or of people confined to bed rest who only have a limited capacity for exercise.&nbsp;Myc&nbsp;has many effects, both good and bad, so defining the beneficial ones could lead to a safe therapeutic that could be effective for humans down the road.



Murach sees their research as further validation of exercise as a polypill. “Exercise is the most powerful drug we have,” he said. In this light, it should be considered a health-enhancing, and potentially life-extending, treatment along with medications and a healthy diet.



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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



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Exercise may actually be the fountain of youth

Imagine if we could reverse the effects of aging simply...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ade6049">Science Advances</a> has investigated how watching <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-disaster-movies/">movies</a> – a favorite pastime for billions of people – makes us feel and think in comparison to other activities such as performing tasks or resting. According to the experts, film watching leads to a “flatter” brain hierarchy, suggesting that less neural computation is needed when performing such an activity, a finding which could explain the pleasurable and escapist feelings people have when engaging in such activities.



The scientists used high resolution large-scale neuroimaging data from 176 people watching clips from movies including Home Alone, Inception, Erin Brockovich, The Social Network, or The Empire Strikes Back to examine the hierarchical reorganization of the brain movie watching elicits.



By building whole-brain models of the neural activity elicited by movie watching and comparing it to models emerging from performing tasks or resting, the experts discovered that the brain hierarchy is flatter when watching movies, suggesting that the brain is less driven by internal dynamics and needs less computation during such as activity, thus making us feel momentarily free from the stressful experience of working and having to solve problems. While watching movies, the brain is allowed to just absorb the cinematic narrative, in a process apparently responsible for the highly motivating and soothing pleasure elicited by movies.



“The study provides novel, important insights into the causal mechanisms underlying complex changes in brain hierarchy. Using more naturalistic stimuli such as movies provide a fast and convenient way to measure important changes in the anatomical connectivity found in, for example, neuropsychiatric disorders, and can lead to new insights in vulnerable populations including children,” explained study lead author Gustavo Deco, a neuroscientist at the <a href="https://www.upf.edu/en/">Pompeu Fabra University</a> in Spain.&nbsp;



“This study provides intriguing new evidence for how movies can change the whole-brain hierarchical organization needed for orchestrating brain computation,” added lead author Morten L. Kringelbach, a professor of Neuroscience at the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> and <a href="https://international.au.dk/">Aarhus University</a>.&nbsp;



“The brain abstracts coherent narratives from still images and sound, which sets us free to transcend the rat race of survival, if even for the briefest moment. The study shows the truth of words of the late great French director Jean-Luc Godard: ‘Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.’”



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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



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How does watching movies affect our brain?

A new study published in the journal Science Advances has...

Sunset,Sea,Water,Ocean,Wave

According to a new study conducted by an international team of scientists, the state of the world’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-warming-could-be-devastating-to-all-living-creatures/">oceans</a> keeps deteriorating due to global warming. The experts analyzed three key indicators of climate change, and found that continued historical record-breaking temperatures, all-time high levels of ocean salinity-contrast, and increased ocean stratification (the separation of water into layers) show no signs of slowing down.



“Global warming continues and is manifested in record ocean heat, and also in continued extremes of salinity. The latter highlight that salty areas get saltier, and fresh areas get fresher and so there is a continuing increase in intensity of the hydrological cycle,” said study lead author Lijing Cheng, an oceanographer at the <a href="http://english.iap.cas.cn/">Institute of Atmospheric Physics</a> (IAP) in China.



This massive amount of heat going into the oceans has serious consequences for our planet. The increasing saltiness – and therefore stratification – of the oceans can significantly affect how heat, carbon, and oxygen are exchanged between the water and the atmosphere above it, and can lead to ocean deoxygenation (loss of oxygen), which may have cascading consequences not only for marine life and ecosystems, but also for terrestrial life, including humans.&nbsp;



A drop in ocean biodiversity and the displacement of important species can wreak havoc on fishing-dependent communities and their economies, dramatically affecting the way most people interact with their environments.



“Some places are experiencing more droughts, which lead to an increased risk of wildfires, and other places are experiencing massive floods from heavy rainfall, often supported by increased evaporation from warm oceans. This contributes to changes in the hydrologic cycle and emphasizes the interactive role that oceans play,” said study co-author Kevin Trenberth, an expert in Climate Analysis at the <a href="https://ncar.ucar.edu/">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a>.



In future research, the scientists aim to better understand the changes of the Earth’s major cycles and thus improve projections of how heat, water, and carbon interact. Clarifying these issues will give scientists and policymakers an idea of what can be done preemptively to prepare for higher temperatures, extreme weather events, and other consequences coming along with warming oceans.



“The oceans are absorbing most of the heating from human carbon emissions. Until we reach net zero emissions, that heating will continue, and we’ll continue to break ocean heat content records, as we did this year. Better awareness and understanding of the oceans are a basis for the actions to combat climate change,” concluded co-author Michael Mann, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a>.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00376-023-2385-2">Advances in Atmospheric Sciences</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



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Record-breaking ocean heat continues

According to a new study conducted by an international team...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/satellite-data-reveals-vulnerable-tropical-forests-on-a-global-scale/">Tropical forests</a> that are recovering from logging were considered by scientists to be efficient carbon absorbers, as the new trees grow rather quickly. However, according to a new study led by <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> (ICL), carbon released by soil and rotting wood outpaces the carbon absorbed by new growth, making these recovering forests sources of carbon for years afterwards. These findings highlight the need for logging practices that minimize collateral damage to improve the sustainability of the industry.



“Our results show that for the tropical forest we studied, logged areas are a source of carbon even a decade after logging has occurred. This means we need to reassess their role in global carbon budgets – we can no longer apply the blanket assumption that they are carbon sinks,” said study lead author Maria Mills, an expert in carbon fluxes at the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/">University of Leicester</a>.



“A lot of the carbon released in recovering forests is from collateral damage – trees that have died as a result of damage during the logging operations left to rot, and from disturbed soil. Logged forests still have value – we know they have a&nbsp;unique biodiversity&nbsp;– so making sure they are also not releasing extra carbon through better logging practices will boost their sustainability,” added lead researcher Terhi Riutta, an ecosystem ecologist at the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>.



While most previous studies of recovering forests have focused on measuring tree growth in order to estimate the amount of CO2 taken from the atmosphere, this new study also measured the amount of carbon emanating from the ground (soil and dead wood) to calculate the carbon budget from the incoming and outgoing carbon flows for both logged and unlogged forests.



The analysis revealed that, while unlogged forests are usually carbon neutral, moderately and heavily logged tropical forests are a significant carbon source. The experts estimate an average carbon source of 1.75 +/- 0.94 tons of carbon per hectare in moderately logged forest plots and 5.23 +/- 1.23 tons of carbon per hectare in severely degraded plots, with CO2 emissions continuing at these rates for at least one decade after logging.



&nbsp;“The measurements from the tower show us whether the forest area is a source or a sink of carbon, and the soil monitoring tells us why this is. From these measurements, we know logged forests are still a source of carbon up to a decade after they have been logged, and that this primarily comes from organic matter in the soil or from rotting wood,” concluded co-author Rob Ewers, an expert in Forest Ecology at ICL.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2214462120">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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



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Recovering forests act as carbon sources

Tropical forests that are recovering from logging were considered by...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01594-8">Nature Climate Change</a> has investigated the potential cost of unrealized <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-will-greatly-increase-flood-related-displacement/">flood</a> risk in the U.S. real estate market. The researchers found that flood zone property prices are currently overvalued by $121–$237 billion, with many highly overvalued properties concentrated in counties with no flood risk disclosure laws, such as Florida, but also inland areas in northern New England, eastern Tennessee, central Texas, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Montana.&nbsp;



The experts also found that unpriced flood risk throughout the country could significantly impact local governments and communities, with low-income households being particularly vulnerable to home value deflation.



“Increasing flood risk under climate change is creating a bubble that threatens the stability of the US housing market. As we’ve seen in California in the last few weeks, these aren’t hypotheticals and the risk is more extensive than expected—and that risk carries an enormous cost,” said study lead author Jesse Gourevitch, a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="https://www.edf.org/">Environmental Defense Fund</a>, a non-profit environmental advocacy group from New York.&nbsp;



“These risks are largely unaccounted for in property transactions, encouraging development in flood-prone areas. Accurately pricing the costs of flooding in home values can support adaptation to flood risk, but may leave many worse off.”



Currently, over 14.6 million properties in the U.S. face at least a one percent annual probability of flooding, with potential yearly damages to residential properties exceeding $32 billion. Due to climate change, the frequency and severity of flooding is projected to increase by 11 percent and average annual losses by at least 26 percent by mid-century. These increasing flood-related costs have led to growing concerns that housing markets are mispricing such risks, causing a real estate bubble to develop.



“There is a significant amount of ‘unknown’ flood risk across the country based solely on the differences in the publicly available federal flood maps and the reality of actual flood risk. As that unknown risk is realized, there are significant implications for both individual property values and the health of the larger housing market,” explained study co-author Jeremy Porter, a senior research fellow at <a href="https://firststreet.org/">First Street Foundation</a>, a non-profit organization researching and communicating the impact of past, present, and future floods.



According to the scientists, low-income households are at greater risk of losing home equity from price deflation due to factoring in estimated flood risks, standing to lose up to ten percent of their market value.&nbsp;



“The risk of overvaluation is higher in lower-income communities. For many people, their most valuable asset is their home. We need policy approaches that improve the transparency of climate risk in markets while also providing increased support and protection for frontline communities,”&nbsp;urged co-author Carolyn Kousky, the Associate Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund.



“Most of the overvaluation is coming from homes that aren’t currently being told that they have significant risk of flooding. This should be a red flag that local, state, and federal governments need to do better to manage and communicate flood risk. There is a clear need for improving flood risk communication via updated flood maps, broadening flood risk disclosure laws at the state and federal level, and increasing investment in flood risk reduction. And as we decide how to adapt to these risks, decisionmakers will have to grapple with the moral question about who bears the cost,” Gourevitch concluded.



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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



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Hidden flood risks plague the US housing market

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change...

With the largest wingspan of any living bird on Earth, the Wandering Albatross is a spectacular creature. Unfortunately, like many other tube-nosed bird species, it is currently under threat of extinction. Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/">Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization</a> (CSIRO) and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/">University of South Australia</a> (UNISA) has found that the feathers of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kauai-endangered-seabird-populations/">seabirds</a> such as the albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could protect these endangered species from further decline.



The experts compared 15 element concentrations in the feathers of 253 tube-nosed seabirds from the Southern Hemisphere, representing a total of 15 species. The analysis revealed that the feathers of large seabirds (weighing over 400 grams) such as the Wandering Albatross contained nutrients which did not match the availability of nutrients from their habitats. By contrast, smaller birds which foraged more locally had feathers with trace element concentrations that were 10-to-100-fold higher than those of larger species. These “feather profiles” could help scientists decipher the movements and habitats of open ocean seabirds.



“Small birds that spend a lot of time feeding on planktonic crustaceans in particular areas acquire specific elements from those areas. In contrast, larger birds do not have the same element signature because they forage across multiple ocean basins,” said study co-author Sophie Petit, a wildlife ecologist at UNISA.



“Our work with feathers may explain why species like the Wandering Albatross that breed slowly and that are difficult to study because of their open ocean habits travel over such extraordinary distances. It points at the significance of micronutrient availability and associated ocean processes in the conservation of seabirds.”



Better understanding the factors which affect the distribution of an endangered group of seabirds could help future conservation efforts. “It’s fascinating to think that highly mobile marine animals may be travelling long distances to meet their mineral needs, in addition to their energy needs. But what this also tells us is that we must continue to protect biodiverse marine areas to ensure micronutrient availability for threatened bird species,” said study lead author Lauren Roman, a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO.



“One of the biggest threats to biodiverse marine areas is climate change, as it has the potential to affect nutrient cycles and distribution across the Southern Ocean. While more research needs to be done, this work expands our ecological knowledge about oceanic species and the significance of micronutrient availability for the survival of seabirds like the Wandering Albatross,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.13629">Global Ecology and Biogeography</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



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Feather “fingerprints” reveal secrets of endangered seabirds

With the largest wingspan of any living bird on Earth,...

With funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, researchers and conservationists have launched Operation Pangolin in an effort to save endangered pangolins from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lynx-population-in-france-is-on-the-brink-of-extinction/">extinction</a>.&nbsp;



The pangolin is the most trafficked wild mammal in the world, and is also among the least studied animals. This makes it difficult for experts to develop effective conservation strategies.



There are eight species of pangolins, all of which are protected under national and international laws. Even still, pangolins are illegally trafficked for sale of their scales.



Dr. Dan Challender is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist based in Oxford University’s Department of Biology and the Oxford Martin School who has been involved in pangolin research and conservation for 15 years.&nbsp;



“In the last decade pangolin populations in Central Africa have been under increasing pressure from offtake for local use and international trafficking of their scales,” said Dr. Challender.



“This project has the potential to transform pangolin conservation, first in key locations in Central Africa, and then extending into parts of Asia. By taking an interdisciplinary approach and using novel technology and artificial intelligence methods, the project will give pangolin populations in these regions the best chance of survival.”



Matthew H. Shirley from Florida International University is the project lead for Operation Pangolin.“Without urgent conservation action at a global scale, all eight species of pangolins face extinction,” said Shirley. “Operation Pangolin is a chance to alter the conservation landscape for pangolins and other wildlife threatened by illicit human behavior.”



According to a press release, the team is developing toolkits for pangolin monitoring and data collection, a critical first step to prevent extinction of these evolutionarily distinct and imperiled mammals.&nbsp;



“Accurate, actionable data is the foundation of effective conservation efforts,” said Gabe Miller, director of technology on behalf of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. “Operation Pangolin will provide a blueprint for how conservationists can turn data into solutions that address important issues like wildlife trafficking and the biodiversity crisis head on.”



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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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World Pangolin Day: project launched to save the elusive mammal

With funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, researchers...

About 56 million years ago, our planet experienced one of the largest and fastest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/comet-strike-caused-an-ancient-global-warming-event/">global warming</a> events in the history. The so-called Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was exceptional both in terms of its amplitude (with global temperatures rising by five to eight degrees Celsius) and its suddenness (about 5,000 years – a very short period on a geological scale).&nbsp;



By analyzing sediments collected from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.unige.ch/en/">University of Geneva</a> (UNIGE) has now found that this event – which led to the extinction of a vast number of terrestrial and marine species – was characterized by an increase in rainfall seasonality, which led to the movement of massive quantities of clay into the ocean, making it uninhabitable for many species.&nbsp;



Due to the similarities between PETM and current global warming – including possible causes such as high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere – the geological remains of this period are closely studied by scientists in order to estimate what could the future of our planet look like.



“The objective of our study was to investigate the influence of these climatic changes on sedimentary systems, i.e. on the processes of sediment formation and deposition, and to understand how these changes could have been transmitted from the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean,” said lead author Lucas Vimpere, a postdoctoral fellow in Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNIGE.



The scientists analyzed sediments collected from over eight kilometers deep in the Gulf of Mexico, a giant “sink” in which material eroded and transported from North America during million of years is discharged. “For reasons of cost and infrastructure, the sediments used to study the PETM are generally taken from shallow marine or continental environments. Thanks to the collaboration of an oil company, we were able to obtain a sample of unprecedented quality, without any alteration,” Vimpere explained.



Surprisingly, the analysis revealed that the ocean floor was composed first of a massive layer of clay and then a layer of sand. “At the time of the PETM, we thought that there had been more precipitation, and therefore more erosion, and that large quantities of sand had then been transported first by the fluvial systems into the oceans. However, thanks to our sample, we were able to determine that it was the clays and not the sands that were transported in the first instance,” said study senior author Sébastien Castelltort, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNIGE.



Thus, this period does not seem to be marked by an increase in the annual rate of precipitation – as scientists previously assumed – but rather a rise in its seasonality and intensity, which led to an increased mobility of the river channels that transported large quantities of fluvial clays to the ocean depths, significantly harming a variety of marine species.



“The PETM is a potential analogue of current warming. As recent IPCC reports show, we are also now seeing an increase in the seasonality and intensity of rainfall. As our study shows, this is likely to destabilize sedimentary systems in the same way as during the PETM and with the same consequences for the oceans and living species,” Vimpere concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G50641.1">Geology</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



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Ancient global warming event sheds light on Earth's future

About 56 million years ago, our planet experienced one of...

By using a new machine learning-operated algorithm, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a> has recently detected eight new radio signals originating from five stars located 30 to 90 lightyears away. While there is no evidence yet that these signals might come from <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">extraterrestrial</a> lifeforms, the experts argue that the possibility that other advanced civilizations might use them as “technosignatures” to communicate with us should not be excluded.



The researchers developed a deep-learning algorithm to organize data from telescopes by weeding out human-made interferences to allow astronomers to focus on real patterns coming from distant areas in the universe and then look for patterns which could provide evidence that such signals could be technologically generated.



“We need to distinguish the exciting radio signals in space from the uninteresting radio signals from Earth,”&nbsp;said study lead author Peter Ma, an undergraduate student majoring in Physics at the University of Toronto.



By using this groundbreaking algorithm, the scientists examined over 150 TB of data from 820 nearby stars, on a dataset which had previously been searched through in 2017 by classical techniques, but considered as devoid of any interesting signals. However, the eight signals recently detected through this technique resemble quite closely what astronomers expect extraterrestrial signals to look like.&nbsp;



By contrast to signals caused by natural phenomena, which tend to be broadband, these signals were narrow band. Moreover, they exhibited what is known as a “slope,” meaning that their origin had a certain degree of relative acceleration with our antennas, and thus suggesting that they were not coming from Earth. Finally, while human radio interference usually occurs in both ON and OFF observations since their source is close by, these signals appeared only in ON-source observations.&nbsp;



“First, they are present when we look at the star and absent when we look away, as opposed to local interference, which is generally always present.&nbsp;Second, the signals change in frequency over time in a way that makes them appear far from the telescope,” explained study co-author Steve Croft, a project scientist at <a href="https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1">Breakthrough Listen</a>, the world’s largest research program aimed at finding evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations.



Unfortunately, the scientists were unable to detect the radio signals again through follow-up observations. Nevertheless, these findings highlight the power of using machine learning techniques in exploring our universe and possibly put us in contact with other civilizations.&nbsp;



“We’re scaling this search effort to one million stars today with the MeerKAT telescope and beyond. We believe that work like this will help accelerate the rate we’re able to make discoveries in our grand effort to answer the question ‘are we alone in the universe?’” Ma concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01872-z">Nature Astronomy</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



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Mysterious radio signals: are aliens trying to contact Earth?

By using a new machine learning-operated algorithm, a team of...

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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



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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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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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



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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



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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



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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 



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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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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