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...

According to a recent study led by the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a>, even if we did have the infinite power to artificially cool enough of the ocean to weaken a hurricane, the benefits would be minimal. By using sophisticated computer simulations, the experts found that even the energy alone which would be necessary to weaken <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hurricanes-stronger-climate-change/">hurricanes</a> before landfall makes it a highly inefficient method to mitigate such natural disasters.



“The main result from our study is that massive amounts of artificially cooled water would be needed for only a modest weakening in hurricane intensity before landfall,” said study lead author James Hlywiak, a postdoctoral fellow in Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami.



“Plus, weakening the intensity by marginal amounts doesn’t necessarily mean that the likelihood for inland damages and safety risks would decrease as well. While any amount of weakening before landfall is a good thing, for these reasons it makes more sense to direct focus towards adaptation strategies such as reinforcing infrastructure, improving the efficiency of evacuation procedures, and advancing the science around detection and prediction of impending storms.”



By using a combination of air-sea interaction theories and a state-of-the-art computer model of the atmosphere, the researchers estimated whether cooling areas of the ocean up to 260,000 km2&nbsp;in size - larger than the state of Oregon and equating to 21,000 cubic kilometers of water - by up to two degrees Celsius, would considerably weaken possible hurricanes. Their analysis revealed that, even with the largest area of cooling, the simulated hurricanes would weaken only by 15 percent. Moreover, the amount of energy needed to achieve such a small reduction would be the equivalent to over 100 times the amount consumed across the entire U.S. in 2019 alone.



“You might think that the main finding of our article, that it’s pointless to try to weaken hurricanes, should be obvious,” said study senior author David Nolan, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami. “And yet, various ideas for hurricane modification appear often in popular media and are even submitted for patents every few years. We’re happy to be able to put something into the peer-reviewed literature that actually addresses this.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00519-1">Nature Communications Earth &amp; Environment</a>.



---



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

Artificial ocean cooling could not weaken hurricanes

According to a recent study led by the University of...

Magnificent,Colours,In,The,Great,Barrier,Reef

In a new study led by the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a>, experts report that climate models are unreliable when it comes to predicting how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-played-a-key-role-in-shifting-ancient-coral-reefs/">coral reefs</a> will be damaged by tropical cyclones.



As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like tropical cyclones, scientists are attempting to use climate models to identify reef communities that will be the most vulnerable to storm damage.



In the current study, however, experts warn that the climate models are not yet reliable enough to determine which reefs will be most at risk from cyclone damage.&nbsp;



Cyclones produce destructive waves that can break apart or flatten coral reefs. The most damaging weather is found close to the eye of a cyclone.



“It can take decades to centuries for coral communities to recover from the damage that is caused by extreme weather events - and it is important that conservationists target their limited resources at those reefs which are more likely to survive climate change," explained study co-author Dr Marji Puotinen, a scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.



“To do that, they need to assess the vulnerability of coral reefs in the face of more extreme weather patterns. But currently, we are urging caution when it comes to predicting the damage that could be done to a coral reef from future cyclones.”&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed the accuracy of climate models by looking at how well they predicted recent extreme weather events. The study revealed that the models had failed to account for all of the features of a cyclone that result in damaging waves.



While the climate models predicted that the average cyclone will be more intense in the future with medium to high confidence, the models were less certain about the impact of tropical cyclone wave damage on coral reefs.&nbsp;



“Our investigation has identified the pros and cons of using climate models in coral reef conservation work," explained Adele Dixon, a doctoral researcher at the University of Leeds who led the study.



“The models are accurate in projecting at a global scale that cyclones in the future are highly likely to be more intense because of climate change. But they are less accurate in projecting how those cyclones will affect individual coral reefs – that is the result of more localised conditions such as the pounding of waves.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to the study authors, further research is needed to better understand the impacts of climate change on tropical cyclones and the damage they cause to coral reefs.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/23284277">Earth's Future</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

Climate models do not reliably predict cyclone damage to coral reefs

In a new study led by the University of Leeds,...

Since the 1990s, we've seen an increase in early onset cancer, defined as cancer diagnosed before the age of 50. This phenomenon has been noticed worldwide.



<a href="https://www.brighamandwomens.org/">Brigham and Women's Hospital</a> researchers wanted to understand why so many adults are diagnosed with cancers, including colon, esophagus, kidney, and breast cancers, at such an early age. The results are alarming.



The team analyzed global data on 14 types of cancer that had increased in adults under 50 from 2000 to 2012. They combed through studies that looked at possible risk factors and reviewed literature that described the clinical and physical aspects of early-onset <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sunlight-helps-green-sea-turtles-with-tumors-recover/">tumors</a>.&nbsp;



The experts determined that early life exposure to unhealthy lifestyle habits has increased throughout the decades. For example, children get less sleep than they did in previous decades.



"From our data, we observed something called the birth cohort effect. This effect shows that each successive group of people born at a later time (e.g., decade-later) have a higher risk of developing cancer later in life, likely due to risk factors they were exposed to at a young age," noted study co-author Dr. Shuji Ogino.&nbsp;



"We found that this risk is increasing with each generation. For instance, people born in 1960 experienced higher cancer risk before they turn 50 than people born in 1950 and we predict that this risk level will continue to climb in successive generations."



Moreover, the researchers believe our gut microbiome is negatively affected by processed food, sugar, and alcohol consumption.&nbsp;



"Among the 14 cancer types on the rise that we studied, eight were related to the digestive system. The food we eat feeds the microorganisms in our gut," said study lead author Dr. Tomotaka Ugai. "Diet directly affects microbiome composition and eventually these changes can influence disease risk and outcomes."



The experts plan to expand their research with a longitudinal cohort study that includes low- and middle-income nations, which they believe is the best way to achieve accurate results that can better inform future healthcare.&nbsp;



The paper is published in &nbsp;<a href="https://rdcu.be/cU24w">Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.</a>



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why are more adults under 50 diagnosed with cancer?

Since the 1990s, we've seen an increase in early onset...

According to <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-august-2022">new data</a> released by the <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/">Copernicus Climate Change Services</a> on Thursday, September 7, 2022, this summer was Europe’s hottest in recorded history. Blistering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activities-are-fueling-more-extreme-heatwaves/">heatwaves</a>, prolonged droughts, and massive wildfires all contributed to this unprecedented event, with the combination of high temperatures and extremely dry conditions fueled by climate change wreaking havoc across the continent.



This was the second time in a row that Europe broke such records, with average temperatures 0.4 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record set in 2021. August was particularly scorching, surpassing the 2018 record by a staggering 0.8 degrees Celsius. These extreme climatic conditions led to thousands of deaths, myriad of withered crops, vast forests turning brown and barren, and wildfires raging from the Caucasus Mountains to the Atlantic coastline and consuming about 50 percent more land than the previous record from 2017.



According to scientists, these problems were exacerbated by anthropogenic global warming. For instance, a recent <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/without-human-caused-climate-change-temperatures-of-40c-in-the-uk-would-have-been-extremely-unlikely/">study</a> has shown that greenhouse gas emissions made a July heat wave in the United Kingdom ten times more likely. Moreover, the climate-driven cycles of hot weather and droughts led to the formation of “heat domes” which deflected rain and forced Europe to bake under almost unbearable sunshine and heat.



“We expect these kinds of hot extremes to become more frequent and severe because of climate change,” said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus service. “Trends in this direction are clearly visible in the observational records.”



Globally, this summer was the third hottest on record, with massive heat waves scorching vast areas in China, and prolonged droughts plaguing the western United States and Canada. The South Pole was unusually warm too, with the extent of sea ice around Antarctica hitting a record low for July.



These heatwaves were often followed in many parts of the world by massive rainfall, such as those in Pakistan, which caused over 1,300 deaths and covered about one third of country in water, or the historic precipitations from the Death Valley that swept away hikers and destroyed roads.



“Whiplash events have always happened, but now we’re seeing the flips from one weather regime to another become more violent and disruptive,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at <a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/">Woodwell Climate Research Center</a>. This is “yet another clear signal that the climate crisis is with us now.”



---



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

Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022

According to new data released by the Copernicus Climate Change...

Domestic donkeys (Equus asinus) have been highly important to humans for millennia, providing a reliable source of animal labor and long-distance transport in many cultures. However, regardless of the key role they played in ancient pastoral societies across Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as the functions they still serve in low- and middle-income communities (especially in semi-arid and upland environments), relatively little is known about their origin, domestication timeline, and the impact of human management on their genomes.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.univ-tlse3.fr/">University Paul Sabatier</a> in Toulouse, France, has performed a comprehensive genetic analysis of both modern and ancient donkeys, revealing their origins, expansion, and management practices. By evaluating 238 modern and ancient donkey genomes - 207 modern donkeys, 31 ancient donkeys, as well as 15 wild equids - the scientists found strong phylogeographic evidence supporting a single domestication event in eastern Africa over 7,000 years ago.&nbsp;



This event was followed by a series of expansions throughout Africa and into Eurasia, where several sub-populations ultimately became isolated and differentiated, most probably due to the aridification of Sahara. Eventually though, genetic variants from Europe and the Near East found their way back into western African donkey populations.&nbsp;



“We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa,” the study authors reported.



In addition, the analyses revealed a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant approximately 2,200 years ago that likely contributed to increased genetic flow toward Asian donkey populations. Finally, throughout history, donkey management involved the interbreeding and the production of large-sized bloodlines, particularly during a period when these creatures were essential to the Roman economy and military activities.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3503">Science</a>.



---



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

Donkeys were domesticated over 7,000 years ago in Africa

Domestic donkeys (Equus asinus) have been highly important to humans...

According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC), over 20 percent of Americans who were infected with the coronavirus developed <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-long-covid-cases-started-out-as-mild-infections/">long Covid</a>, defined as experiencing Covid-related symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, or respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, or digestive symptoms for more than a month after the initial infection. Although severe acute infections increase the risk of developing long Covid, many people with milder Covid-19 cases are now struggling with this often debilitating – and little understood – condition.



Now, a new study led by <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/">Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health</a> has found that psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, stress, worry, and loneliness, before the initial Covid-19 infection is associated with an increased risk for long Covid.



“We were surprised by how strongly psychological distress before a Covid-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of long Covid,” said study lead author Siwen Wang, a research fellow in Nutrition at the Harvard Chan School. “Distress was more strongly associated with developing long COVID than physical health risk factors such as&nbsp;obesity, asthma, and&nbsp;hypertension.”&nbsp;



Scientists have long known that mental health influences the severity and outcomes of a variety of diseases, including respiratory ones, such as influenza or common cold. To clarify the effects of psychological distress before Covid infections on developing long Covid, the scientists enrolled a cohort of 54,000 participants in April 2020 and assessed their mental health. During the following year, 3,000 of the participants were infected with Sars-Cov-2, and the researchers followed them up to investigate their Covid symptoms and symptom duration.



They discovered that psychological distress before Covid-19 was associated with a 32 to 46 increased risk of long Covid, and a 15 to 51 percent greater risk of struggling with daily life impairments due to this condition.



“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to show that a wide range of social and psychological factors are risk factors for long Covid and daily life impairment due to long Covid,”&nbsp;said study senior author Andrea Roberts, an expert in Environmental Health at Harvard.



“We need to consider psychological health in addition to physical health as risk factors of long Covid-19. These results also reinforce the need to increase public awareness of the importance of mental health and to get mental health care for people who need it, including increasing the supply of mental health clinicians and improving access to care,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2796097">JAMA Psychiatry</a>.&nbsp;



---



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

Psychological distress increases the risk of long Covid

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),...

Tetrapods are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-half-of-the-worlds-vertebrates-reside-in-the-tropics/">vertebrates</a> (backboned animals) that have four limbs or leg-like structures. They include all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals and are thought to have evolved from lobe-finned fish way back in the Devonian Period, some 400 million years ago. The earliest tetrapods were aquatic and adapted to life in the water, but over time new species evolved that became more terrestrial and less dependent on watery environments for feeding, breeding and surviving.



In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a>, Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra and University College London investigated the skulls of over 100 living and fossil tetrapods to understand how skull bone arrangements had changed during the evolution of this important group. The scientists found that the skulls of tetrapods had far fewer bones than are found in the skulls of fish, both extinct and living, but that these bones had more complex connections between them than are found in fish skulls.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Tetrapod skulls generally have fewer skull bones than their fish ancestors, but simply counting the number of bones misses some important data," said study lead author James Rawson. "We used a technique called network analysis, where the arrangement of skull bones – which bones connect to which – is recorded in addition to bone number.”



“Traditionally, anatomy research has been mostly descriptive or qualitative. Network analysis provides a sound mathematical framework to quantify anatomical relations among bones: a kind of data often overlooked in most studies on morphological evolution," explained study co-author Dr. Borja Esteve-Altava.&nbsp;



One might expect that having fewer bones would make skull organization simpler, but this is not what the researchers found. They concluded that, for tetrapods, having fewer skull bones actually made the organization of their skulls more complex.



“It might seem strange, but having fewer bones means each of those bones must connect with more of its neighbors, resulting in a more complex arrangement," said Rawson. "Modern frogs and salamanders had the most complex skulls of all the animals we studied.” The skulls of the earliest tetrapods also became more consolidated into a single unit, whereas their fish ancestors had skulls made of several distinct sections.



By looking at the variety of skull bone arrangements over time, the authors also discovered that the origin of tetrapods coincided with a decrease in this variety. “We were surprised to find these changes to the skull seemed to limit tetrapod evolution, rather than promoting radiation to new habitats on land," said study senior author Professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Emily-Rayfield-940480df-c468-4e85-b0ba-1473e6b9f540/">Emily Rayfield</a>. "We think that the evolution of a neck, extinction events or a bottleneck in skull development may be responsible.”&nbsp;



“We also see a similar drop in structural variability for the limb bones in early tetrapods, but the drop in the limbs happens 10 million years earlier," said Rawson. "It seems that different factors were affecting skull and limb evolution in early tetrapods, and we have so much more to learn about this crucial time in our own evolutionary history.”



The authors of the study conclude that the cranial evolution of tetrapods is characterized by increasing complexity in terms of bone arrangements but decreasing variety. They say that, rather than promoting the diversification of life on land, these changes in skull anatomy actually limited the evolution of tetrapods for millions of years.&nbsp;



Image Credit: Science Photo Library / Alamy Stock Photo image ID (2G70HK2) Original artist: Mark Garlick



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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

Earliest land animals had fewer skull bones than fish

Tetrapods are vertebrates (backboned animals) that have four limbs or...

In the past history of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/food-production-affects-earths-natural-processes/">Earth</a> there have been times when magma from the molten mantle has flowed out into, or over, the solid crust of the planet. In the cases where these major volcanic events have led to excessive accumulations of lava, the resulting formations have been termed Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). Some LIPs have an aerial extent of a few million km2 and involve volumes of igneous rock totaling up to a million km3. Such phenomena clearly had major impacts on the geology, structure and natural environments where they occurred.&nbsp;



In addition, the formation of LIPs can be associated with significant increases in atmospheric carbon or sulfate gas emissions, which may cause either global warming or the formation of sulfuric acid and subsequent global cooling. It is no surprise then that the formation of some of the LIPs in the past 500 million years coincides in time with&nbsp;periods of rapid climatic change and with various <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_extinction">mass extinctions</a> of fauna and flora on land and in the oceans.



A new scientific study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo0866">Science Advances</a>, has now shed light on a possible cause of these major volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago. In the past, the formation of LIPs has been attributed to plumes of magma that have risen, under the influence of convection currents, through the Earth’s mantle. They have also been associated with the movements of Earth’s tectonic plates but, although there are numerous hypotheses about LIP formation, the exact causes have not yet been identified.&nbsp;



In the new study, led by scientists in the School of Natural Sciences at <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/">Trinity College Dublin</a>, chemical data was obtained from ancient mudstone deposits in Wales by drilling a borehole down to a depth of 1.5 km. Analysis of the chemical markers enabled the researchers to link two key events that occurred around 183 million years ago, during the Toarcian stage at the end of the Early Jurassic Period.&nbsp;



The team discovered that this time period coincides directly with the occurrence of the major volcanic activity that gave rise to the Karoo and Ferrar LIP’s which covered parts of what are today southern Africa and Antarctica with lava. This time was also characterized by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, by some of the most severe climatic and environmental changes ever, and by the Pliensbachian–Toarcian extinction event that affected the world’s fauna and flora.



Upon further investigation - and more importantly - the team’s tectonic plate reconstruction models helped them discover the key fundamental geological process that seemed to dictate the timing and onset of this volcanic event and others of great magnitude.



“Scientists have long thought that the onset of upwelling of molten volcanic rock, or magma, from deep in Earth’s interior, as mantle plumes, was the instigator of such volcanic activity but the new evidence shows that the normal rate of continental plate movement of several centimeters per year effectively prevents magma from penetrating Earth’s continental crust," said Professor Micha Ruhl, who led the research team.



“It seems it is only when the speed of continental plate movement slows down to near zero that magmas from mantle plumes can effectively make their way to the surface, causing major Large Igneous Province volcanic eruptions and their associated climatic perturbations and mass extinctions.”



“Crucially, further assessment shows that a reduction in continental plate movement likely controlled the onset and duration of many of the major volcanic events throughout Earth’s history, making it a fundamental process in controlling the evolution of climate and life at Earth’s surface throughout the history of this planet.”



The scientists hypothesize that a slowing of continental plate movement was the critical event that enabled magma to rise to the Earth’s surface and cause the major volcanic events that have punctuated Earth’s history. This volcanic activity, in turn, is thought to have delivered the devastating climatic and biological upheavals that led to some of the most extreme extinctions of biological life.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study of past global change events, such as in the Toarcian, allows scientists to disentangle the different processes that control the causes and consequences of global carbon cycle changes and constrain fundamental Earth system processes that control tipping points in Earth’s climate system.



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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

Major volcanic events linked to the slowing of tectonic plates

In the past history of Earth there have been times...

An,Antarctica,Nature,Scene,,With,A,Group,Of,Five,Adelie

Our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fish-grew-larger-as-the-oceans-cooled-over-millennia/">oceans</a> have absorbed over 90 percent of carbon monoxide emissions in the last 50 years, and the Southern Ocean has taken on the most of these emissions.&nbsp;



"The Southern Ocean dominates this ocean heat uptake, due in part to the geographic set-up of the region," said study lead author Maurice Huguenin, a PhD candidate at the <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">University of New South Wales</a>. "Antarctica, which is surrounded by the Southern Ocean, is also surrounded by strong westerly winds."



"These winds influence how the waters absorb heat, and around Antarctica they can exert this influence while remaining uninterrupted by land masses – this is key to the Southern Ocean being responsible for pretty much all of the net global ocean heat uptake."



Huguenin explained that cold water is drawn to the ocean's surface due to the uninterrupted wind patterns near Antarctica. As water is driven to the north, it absorbs heat from the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the South Ocean won't save us from the effect of climate change and rising sea levels.



"Sea levels are rising because heat causes water to expand and ice to melt. Ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented heat stress, and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is changing," said study co-author Matthew England. "All future projections, including even the most optimistic scenarios, predict warmer oceans in the future."



"If the Southern Ocean continues to account for the vast majority of heat uptake until 2100, we might see its warmth increase by up to seven times more than what we have already seen up to today."



This increase in warmth would be felt worldwide. It would affect the Southern Ocean's food web, causing ice shelves to melt, and impact ocean currents.



The scientists hope this research encourages ongoing monitoring of the Southern Ocean, including using Argo floats, instruments that can track the ocean's temperature, even at great depths. There is also an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.



"The less carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere, the less ocean change and sea-level rise we will lock in," said the researchers. "This can help limit the level of adaptation required by the billions of people living near the ocean, by minimising the detrimental impacts of ocean warming on both sea-level and their primary food source."



This research is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32540-5">Nature Communications</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Southern Ocean could become seven times hotter this century

Our oceans have absorbed over 90 percent of carbon monoxide...

At the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million years ago, a massive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-details-on-the-asteroid-impact-that-killed-the-dinosaurs/">asteroid</a> struck the Yucatan Peninsula in what is now Mexico, and triggered a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, along with over 75 percent of all living species. While scientists have long known that this catastrophic impact caused devastating wildfire that contributed to this mass extinction, how and when these wildfires started remained a mystery. 



Now, an international team of researchers from Mexico, Brazil, and the United Kingdom has found that the asteroid that hit the Earth almost instantly ignited wildfires up to thousands of kilometers from its impact zone.



“Until now it has not been clear whether the fires were caused as a direct result of the impact or subsequently, as vegetation killed by the post-impact darkness caused by the debris thrown up into the atmosphere was set ablaze by things such as lightning strikes,” said study co-author Ben Kneller, an expert in Geosciences at the <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/">University of Aberdeen</a>.



By analyzing rocks dating to the time of the asteroid strike, Dr. Kneller and his colleagues discovered that some of the wildfires broke out within minutes from the impact, in areas stretching up to 2,500 kilometers from the impact crater. The wildfires that were ignited in coastal areas were short-lived, since the backwash from the mega-tsunami caused by the impact swept charred trees offshore.



An analysis of the fossilized tree barks showed that the fires had already begun by the time the trees were washed away soon after the initial impact. According to the scientists, this was either due to an enormous fireball caused by the asteroid strike, or by the heat from droplets of melted rock falling back through the atmosphere in the immediate aftermath of the impact.



“Ultimately our research confirms how and when these devastating fires were begun and paints a vivid and quite terrifying picture of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the meteorite strike,” Dr. Kneller concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17292-y">Nature Scientific Reports</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs ignited massive wildfires

At the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 66 million...

A team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.univ-poitiers.fr/en/">University of Poitiers</a> has identified a new, giant species of long-extinct otter in Ethiopia that was likely the size of a modern lion. While contemporary otters weigh between four and 100 pounds, Enhydriodon omoensis weighted an estimated 440 pounds, making it the largest otter discovered until now. This creature lived between 3.5 and 2.5 million years ago, and was a fierce terrestrial <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-eddies-help-marine-predators-find-food/">predator</a>.



Traditionally, otters of the genus Enhydriodon were considered to be semi-aquatic animals, feeding on a variety of species common in African freshwater environments, including mollusks, turtles, catfish, or even crocodiles. The scientists analyzed stable oxygen isotopes and carbon in the tooth enamel of the newly discovered member of this group to clarify what type of environment it was inhabiting and what was it was feeding on. Presumably, the relative values of these isotopes should have been close to those of fossil hippopotami and other semi-aquatic animals. However, the researchers were surprised to discover that this giant otter occupied quite a different habitat from its relatives, and had a different diet.



“The peculiar thing, in addition to its massive size, is that [isotopes] in its teeth suggest it was not aquatic, like all modern otters,” said study co-author Kevin Uno, a geochemist at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>. “We found it had a diet of terrestrial animals, also differing from modern otters.” Most probably, E. omoensis was able to hunt prey that consumed a large variety of terrestrial plants, ranging from tropical grasses to vegetation from trees.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In future research, the scientists plan to sample a larger variety of African otter fossils and conduct studies of tooth enamel and the shape and structure of long bones, in order to better understand which place these gigantic creatures occupied in ancient ecosystems, and what was the cause of their extinction about 200 million years ago.



The study was published in the journal <a href="https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/fr/periodiques/comptes-rendus-palevol/21/30">Comptes Rendus Palevol</a>. In addition, the authors presented their findings in a short video on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V2Oc_ihdpY&amp;t=11s&amp;ab_channel=LaboratoirePALEVOPRIM">YouTube</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Gigantic prehistoric otter discovered in Ethiopia

A team of scientists led by the University of Poitiers...

Bullfrogs are considered the world’s leading <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/managing-invasive-species-can-improve-climate-resilience/">invasive</a> amphibian. The American bullfrog (Aquarana catesbeiana) is native to North America and was first brought to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1935 to produce meat. Now, it is farmed throughout the South and Southeast of Brazil, but has also spread into the wild, negatively impacting local ecosystems by competing with native species for food and other resources, feeding on other frogs, as well as snakes, birds, and even some mammals, and spreading fungal and viral diseases against which local species have little or no immunity.&nbsp;



Recently, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.fearp.usp.br/en/index.php/where-we-are/university-of-sao-paulo">University of São Paulo</a> (USP) and the <a href="https://www.unicamp.br/unicamp/english">State University of Campinas</a> (UNICAMP) has conducted the most comprehensive genetic analysis of the American bullfrog, and found that there are two populations of this species in Brazil, living on frog farms or invading local ecosystems.



“We confirmed the existence of at least two different populations of bullfrogs. One probably descends from the first bullfrogs introduced into Brazil. This population is present in practically all the South and Southeast. The other is basically confined to the state of Minas Gerais, but occurs in small numbers in other states,” said&nbsp;study lead author Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, a former master student in Biology at the USP, and currently a doctoral fellow at the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html">University of Zurich</a>.



“Our results show that captive and invasive bullfrogs are genetically indistinguishable, reinforcing the importance of preventing escape from frog farms,”&nbsp;added study senior author Taran Grant, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the same university.&nbsp;



By analyzing specific genes in 324 tissue samples from 38 sites where captive and feral bullfrogs are found, the scientists discovered that the vast majority belonged to the same population descending from the animals brought from North America in 1935. The other population descended from a batch of bullfrogs brought in the 1970s to Minas Gerais.



“The results of the genetic analyses match these two more well-documented introductions, although there’s anecdotal evidence of others in the 1980s and 2000s, and isolated initiatives by some producers. If there were other introductions, the animals concerned could have had the same origin or may have interbred and merged with the existing population. Alternatively, we simply didn’t collect samples from these individuals,” Jorgewich-Cohen explained.



Since these bullfrogs can transmit pathogens, such as amphibian chytrid fungi or ranoviruses – which often end up decimating local, immunologically naïve populations - it is highly important to stop farm bullfrogs escaping from farms and to enforce high sanitary standards by both producers and consumers.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13870-2">Nature Scientific Reports</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Brazil’s native ecosystems under threat from American bullfrogs

Bullfrogs are considered the world’s leading invasive amphibian. The American...

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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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" 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 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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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



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 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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