You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us.



This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (<a href="http://english.gig.cas.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GIGCAS</a>) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating.



They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the Moon, and returned to Earth by China's <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=CHANG-E-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chang’e-6 mission</a>.



These invaluable samples have allowed them to investigate the Moon's peculiar dichotomy and the results have shed light on some of its secrets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-chang-e-6">What is Chang’e-6?</h2>



The Chinese space program launched Chang'e 6, their latest Moon mission, on May 3, 2024. The spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 5 rocket at 9:27 UT (that's 5:27 PM Beijing time). 



Their goal? To grab about four pounds (2 kg) of Moon rocks from the far side - something no one had done before.



The lander touched down in a huge crater called the South Pole Aitken Basin. The team used both a scoop and a drill to dig up surface samples and even went 2 meters deep into the lunar soil. 



They also sent out a small rover that cruised around taking snapshots of the lander doing its work.



Once they collected the samples, the crew packed them into an ascent vehicle sitting on top of the lander. 



On June 3 at 11:38 PM UT (7:38 AM Beijing time the next day), this vehicle shot up from the Moon's surface and met up with the orbiter waiting above. They made the handoff on June 6, 2024.



After ditching the ascent vehicle (which crashed back into the Moon), the return vehicle hung around in orbit for a couple weeks before heading home. 



It pulled off a tricky skip-entry through Earth's atmosphere and landed in Inner Mongolia's Siziwang Banner region on June 25 at 6:07 UT (2:07 PM Beijing time). 



The final haul? Roughly 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg) of Moon rocks and soil from the far side -- marking another big win for China's space program.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-far-side-vs-visible-side-of-the-moon">Far side vs. visible side of the Moon</h2>



The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/its-official-earth-now-has-two-moons-captured-asteroid-2024-pt5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moon's</a> dichotomy is visible in its topography, chemical composition, crustal thickness, evidence of volcanism and, most noticeably, in the difference in geomorphology between its near and far sides.



The near side of the Moon is home to the familiar "man in the moon" maria - the dark "seas" that are the result of ancient volcanic activity. 



These areas were flooded with molten lava that created rocks known as mare basalts.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1s.webp" alt="Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan" class="wp-image-1950782"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan</figcaption></figure>



How about the far side? Well, here's where it gets intriguing. Only about 2% of this hidden part of the Moon is covered in the basalts, compared to around 30% on the near side.



This inexplicable difference is a vital part of the lunar global dichotomy that the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program aims to unravel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-secrets-of-the-moon-s-far-side">Secrets of the Moon's far side</h2>



Thanks to the Chang’e-6 lunar soil samples, Professor XU's team discovered the existence of two different types of mare basalts, low-Ti, and very low-Ti (VLT). 



“The samples returned by Chang’e-6 provide a best opportunity to investigate the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/2024-pt5-mini-moon-say-goodbye-to-earths-second-moon-we-barely-got-to-know-you/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> global dichotomy,” said Professor XU.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-eruptions_basalt-types_credit-GIGCAS_1s.webp" alt="The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS" class="wp-image-1950784"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS</figcaption></figure>



Let's not dismiss the aspect of dating these samples either. With high-precision Pb-Pb dating techniques, the team determined that the low-Ti basalt dates back to around 2.83 billion years ago.



This attests to the presence of "young" magmatism or volcanic activities on the far side of the Moon. But of course, young is a relative term when we talk about 2.83 billion years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-the-history-of-volcanoes">Mapping the history of volcanoes</h2>



With such valuable information now in our hands, we can clearly chart the volcanic timeline on the far side of the Moon. 



Led by Professor LI Qiuli, the team conducted radioisotope dating on 108 basalt fragments, with 107 of them revealing a consistent formation age of 2807 million years ago.



But there's more. One fragment, a high-aluminum basalt, was dated to a monumental 4203 million years ago, making it the oldest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/harvest-moon-2024-will-feature-a-partial-lunar-eclipse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> basalt for which age has been precisely determined.



This implies elevated levels of volcanic activity on the far side of the Moon for at least 1.4 billion years - between 4.2 billion and 2.8 billion years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



These findings, available for everyone to dissect, can help recalibrate the existing lunar crater chronology models. 



Christopher Hamilton, an independent planetary volcano expert, emphasized the importance of obtaining samples from this previously unchartered lunar territory.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1s.webp" alt="China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP" class="wp-image-1950787"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP </figcaption></figure>



More than just understanding the Moon, these lunar soil samples also have implications for some broad astronomical theories.



The new data indicates a constant impact flux after 2.83 billion years, which can offer new insights into planet migration in the early Solar System. 



So, by looking at the Moon, we are indirectly learning about our own cosmic neighborhood as well!



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



With more missions like the Chang'e-6, the future will undoubtedly bring many enlightening discoveries about our constant celestial companion.



In the end, we see that the Moon, despite its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-may-have-captured-the-moon-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">familiar appearance</a>, still hides untold secrets waiting to be discovered. 



These lunar missions represent a new age of lunar and planetary exploration that pushes the boundaries of our understanding.



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The researchers from the <a href="https://english.cas.cn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a> express their gratitude for the support received from various institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. These institutions' enduring support enables such important lunar explorations.



The study is published in the journals <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08382-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1093" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Far side of the Moon had volcanic eruptions for over one billion years

You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us. This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIGCAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating. They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far...

Heat stress and water shortages present challenges to the agricultural industry, especially in regions where plants are more vulnerable to extreme climate changes. 

Plants require few things to thrive; sunshine, air, water, and nutrients. Like humans who sweat when the weather gets too hot as a way to cool down, plants have similar transpiration tricks to keep on growing. 

Plants transpire water vapor through their pores to cool down and some plants even close their pores during the hottest parts of the day to conserve water.

Understanding how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-impact-water-cycle/">plants across the world conserve and use water </a>would not only help with water management and agriculture but would also allow researchers to know which plants are under stress. 

Longer, hotter, dry seasons and heat waves are impacting many regions, and as climate change continues to reshape our planet’s ecosystems, some plants could die off and some could be more resilient to changes. 

But now, a new instrument called ECOSTRESS (Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) could help monitor and improve plant health around the world as well as optimize agricultural water use. 

The mission of ECOSTRESS, according to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7170&amp;utm_source=iContact&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=NASAJPL&amp;utm_content=daily20180625-2">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)</a>, is to measure plant temperature from the International Space Station which will reveal how plants all around the world are using water. 

Current satellites are limited in their measurements of the Earth’s surface, and no satellite in orbit is able to take global transpiration measurements. Some satellites can only take measurements at the same time every day because of their orbit, and some that are geostationary are too far away to accurately measure transpiration. 

What makes ECOSTRESS such a game changer is that it will be attached to the International Space Station. 

“The space station opens the door to do new science,” Simon Hook, the principal investigator for ECOSTRESS, told JPL News. “You're in low Earth orbit, so you can produce detailed images, but at different times of day, so you can look at the diurnal cycle.”

By measuring plant temperature, the ECOSTRESS team will be able to detect areas where plants are under stress because they are not able to stay cool or conserve water even though they appear green and healthy. 

This will provide enough warning to intervene and save the plants before it’s too late, according to NASA JPL. 

Besides taking incredibly accurate measurements of plant water use, ECOSTRESS can help researchers better understand the world’s water and carbon cycles as climate change continues to take hold. 

“Extreme weather is in the forecast for a warming world and being better able to manage water in a time of increasing water scarcity or stress is really critical,” said Woody Turner, the program scientists for biological diversity at NASA headquarters. “We have to grow food regardless, so it's best if we do it efficiently.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Andreas Levers, CC BY-NC 2.0, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7170&amp;utm_source=iContact&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=NASAJPL&amp;utm_content=daily20180625-2">NASA JPL</a>

New game-changing instrument will measure global plant water use

Heat stress and water shortages present challenges to the agricultural...

The <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA) is one of the United State’s first line of defenses in the fight against climate change. 

Data from the NOAA has been crucial for climate change studies, and observations from previous NOAA missions and satellites show just how much temperatures, climate, sea levels, and polar ice have changed in the past few decades. 

The mission of the NOAA reflects its goals for understanding the fundamentals of climate change. The mission reads as follows: “Understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts. To share that knowledge and information with others and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.”

However, that mission may change under the suggestions of Timothy Gallaudet, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere for the Department of Commerce in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Gallaudet was assigned as the secretary of commerce in October of 2017, and at a recent Department of Commerce summit, the proposed a new mission statement for the NOAA.

The new mission would completely reshape the NOAA’s stance on climate change, according to the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/news/press-release/noaa-mission-statement#.WzGJoNJKhPb">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. 

At the summit, Gallaudet suggested that the NOAA change its mission to: “To observe, understand and predict atmospheric and ocean conditions. To share that knowledge and information with others, and to protect lives and property, empower the economy, and support homeland and national security.”

“This is a shocking change in the mission of one of the nation’s premier scientific agencies,” Andrew Rosenberg, Director of the Center for Science and Democracy at UCS said in a recent statement. “Axing its focus on climate change and resource conservation is foolhardy. Understanding the changing climate is becoming more critical by the day, as the effects of global warming mount, and it’s essential to protecting our economy and security, as the work of NOAA has shown time and again.”

Under the new administration, there have been concerns that the president and his cabinet do not <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trump-admin-ignore-climate-change/">value climate change science</a> or any significant plans to reduce climate change. 

After <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/climate/trump-paris-climate-agreement.html">pulling out the Paris Accord</a>, the president has been very clear about his priorities when it comes to climate change, and now with this new statement, Gallaudet seems to be echoing the current cabinet’s aim to minimize the realities of global warming. 

But although the new suggestion does change some crucial wording of the current NOAA mission, Gallaudet acknowledges that it in no way is final. 

In a statement Monday, Gallaudet said that his proposal “was not intended to exclude NOAA's important climate and conservation efforts, which are essential for protecting lives and the environment. Nor should this presentation be considered a final, vetted proposal,” <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/25/noaa-wont-drop-climate-and-conservation-its-mission-agency-says/731304002/">USA Today</a> reported.

Gallaudet stressed that he supports the efforts to understand climate change and protect and manage vital ecosystems. 

Time will tell if Gallaudet means to keep his word or if the Union of Concerned Scientists were right to raise the alarm. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandett@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

NOAA won’t remove climate from mission despite worrying remarks

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of...

A robot that can customize fresh hamburgers will soon be offering its services to residents of San Francisco. The company behind this undertaking is <a href="http://creator.rest">Creator</a>, which will also be the name of the first-ever <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/restaurant-music-affects-order/">restaurant</a> to automate the preparation of any major food from start to finish.

According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/">Bloomberg</a>, the new 14-foot-long robot consists of 20 computers, 350 sensors, and 50 actuator mechanisms. 

The massive culinary tool will deliver an incredibly fresh burger, as it grinds the beef, slices the buns, and grates and melts the cheese on demand. The system will also add any of 12 seasonings and 15 sauces, as well as locally-sourced vegetables, for each individual order.

When the assembly process is completed after around 5 minutes, the burger will travel along a conveyor belt, ready to be served by a human. 

Company founder Alex Vardakostas has been working on the concept of a robotic kitchen for many years. He told Bloomberg that when he first started the process of creating the machine over eight years ago, an automated system for making food was not inevitable.

“Now not only is it inevitable, but it also produces a much higher quality product,” said Vardakostas. He explained that the machine can cook burgers and slice vegetables with more efficiency and less risk of contamination compared to humans.

The first storefront to showcase the automated hamburger kitchen is expected to open in San Francisco this September. Despite the use of only natural beef and high-quality ingredients, the price of the burger will be just $6. Creator plans to expand the use of its robotic culinary services to smaller communities as well.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Creator

Automated restaurant in San Francisco has robots make burgers

A robot that can customize fresh hamburgers will soon be...

Even if successful emission strategies were implemented and carbon emissions reduced worldwide, there’s still all the remaining CO2 lingering in the atmosphere that has to be dealt with to limit global warming. 

If the goals of the Paris Accord are to be met, it will require both limiting emissions <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-removal-climate-goals/">and removing CO2 </a>with negative emissions technologies. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://ims.ucsc.edu/">Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz</a> conducted a new study evaluating the potential of an electrogeochemical process that removes carbon from the atmosphere, generates hydrogen for fuel, and counters ocean acidification. 

The results were published in the journal Nature Climate and found that the electrogeochemical technology could be a more energy efficient and cost-effective alternative to other popular negative emissions options being developed. 

Ocean acidification is one of the major drivers of coral bleaching, and electrogeochemistry could restore alkalinity to the world’s oceans by using electricity produced from saline water to generate hydrogen and oxygen. 

The process would also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and balance ocean pH. 

“It not only reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide, it also adds alkalinity to the ocean, so it's a two-pronged benefit,” said Greg Rau, the first author of the study. “The process simply converts carbon dioxide into a dissolved mineral bicarbonate, which is already abundant in the ocean and helps counter acidification.”

Currently, the most popular option for negative emissions is "biomass energy plus carbon capture and storage" or BECCS, which involves growing biomass like trees to capture emissions. 

However, the resulting emissions from BECCS would have to be buried underground, and it’s not as effective as electrogeochemistry, according to Rau. 

The study found that electrogeochemistry could increase carbon removal and energy production more than 50 times what BECCS could do and at a much a lower cost. 

Because more investment and time has been put in BECCS, the biomass method is quicker to being implemented in the real-world and some biomass plants are already under operation. 

Electrogeomechsty, on the other hand, has only been tested in a lab scenario and the researchers note that more work is necessary before it can be considered as a feasible option for negative emissions. 

“It's early days in negative emissions technology, and we need to keep an open mind about what options might emerge,” said Rau. “We also need policies that will foster the emergence of these technologies.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

New process can capture CO2 while countering ocean acidification

Even if successful emission strategies were implemented and carbon emissions...

Mosquitoes are known to host some of the world’s most dangerous viruses, but a team of scientists say they could soon be used to eradicate malaria. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/malaria-india-mosquitoes-cattle/">Malaria</a> kills roughly 830,000 people every year, and according to the <a href="http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/malaria/en/">World Health Organization</a>, nearly half of the world’s population is at risk from Malaria. 

The UK group <a href="https://www.oxitec.com/oxitec-to-apply-new-generation-of-self-limiting-mosquito-technology-to-malaria-spreading-mosquitoes/">Oxitec</a>, which previously developed a bioengineered mosquito that could potentially stop the spread of the Zika and dengue fever in South America, have now created a second generation “friendly mosquito” whose purpose is eradicating malaria. 

According to <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/engineered-mosquitoes-backed-bill-and-melinda-gates-wipe-out-malaria-990338">Newsweek</a>, Oxitec is creating a kind of vector control by using engineered male mosquitoes whose female offspring will die before reaching adulthood. 

Male mosquito offspring will live into adulthood and pass on the gene to other female mosquitoes, causing their female offspring to die and so on. Only female mosquitoes require a blood meal and thereby pass on diseases to humans when feeding. 

Oxitec created self-limiting gene technology which was successfully proven to reduce the spread of dengue fever, and now the company recently announced that it will be expanding its friendly mosquito to target malaria. 

A four million dollar donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation makes the new Oxitec project possible. 

“With the support and partnership of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, Oxitec is entering the fight against malaria with a powerful, innovative vector control technology,” said Grey Frandsen, CEO of Oxitec. “We’ve built a strong, proven biological engineering platform capable of developing self-limiting mosquito strains that can be used to combat specific disease-spreading species. We’re now leveraging that platform to contribute to the fight against mosquitoes that transmit malaria.” 

The Gates have been dedicated to eradicating malaria and have donated billions to improving global healthcare and reducing poverty, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/15/bill-gates-charity-donation-microsoft-shares-foundation">the Guardian. </a>

Oxitec will begin field trials in 2020, although the company has already faced pushback from local communities in the Florida Keys who banned trials in their areas due to concerns about genetic modification. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Could genetically engineered mosquitoes eradicate malaria?

Mosquitoes are known to host some of the world’s most...

While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/economic-impact-climate-change/">climate change models</a> are crucial for researchers, conservationists, and policy makers, these projections come with a level of uncertainty which can be challenging for creating accurate representations of future climate. 

One major problem for climate models is the unpredictability of the atmospheric heating and moistening of clouds. 

But now, a new study conducted by researchers from <a href="https://engineering.columbia.edu/">Columbia Engineering</a> may have found a way to produce more accurate models by using machine learning to correctly represent how clouds will react to carbon emissions. 

The study was published in the journal American Geophysical Union. 

“This could be a real game-changer for climate prediction,” said Pierre Gentine, the lead author of the paper. “We have large uncertainties in our prediction of the response of the Earth’s climate to rising greenhouse gas concentrations. The primary reason is the representation of clouds and how they respond to a change in those gases. Our study shows that machine-learning techniques help us better represent clouds and thus better predict global and regional climate’s response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations.”

Gentine and a team of researchers created a machine-learning representation of clouds which they called Cloud Brain or CBRAIN. The researchers trained a deep neural network to learn from a simulation of clouds. 

CBRAIN is artificial intelligence which is why it could prove so useful for climate models. 

The researchers say that the machine learning technology could accurately predict cloud heating and moistening as well as global temperatures based on varying concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. 

“Our approach may open up a new possibility for a future of model representation in climate models, which are data-driven and are built ‘top-down,’ that is, by learning the salient features of the processes we are trying to represent,” said Gentine.

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Game-changing AI tool can predict cloud responses to climate

While climate change models are crucial for researchers, conservationists, and...

Although tracking technology has made great strides in recent years, giving researchers a closer look at the behavior and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/magic-great-migrations/">migrations of birds, fish, and marine mammals</a>, there are still limitations in studying animals that migrate to the remotest corners of the globe. 

For example, songbirds that migrate to the Arctic earlier and earlier every year present a challenge to researchers who are not sure exactly when the birds come to their breeding grounds. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> took up this challenge, and conducted a study using field recordings from Alaska’ North Slope to create an algorithm that could calculate when songbirds migrate to the area. 

The results, published in the journal Science Advances, could be an asset to researchers who want to understand how climate change is affecting wildlife around the globe. 

“Our methods could be retooled to detect the arrival of birds and other vocal animals in highly seasonal habitats," said Ruth Oliver, the study’s lead author. “This could allow us to track large-scale changes in how animals are responding to climate change.”

Tracking songbirds and other migratory species that travel thousands of miles is difficult. Songbirds are too small to tag with GPS receivers which are a common way to track an animal's movements. 

The researchers tried a different approach to traditional tracking and in 2010 set up microphones in Alaska’s Brook Range that would pick up recordings of any animals and ambient noise in the area. 

For five seasons the researchers recorded noise in tundra from May through July with the hopes that the recordings would show when white-crowned sparrows and Lapland longspurs arrived to mate and raise their young. 

After the recordings were finished the researchers had to find a way to quickly analyze the vocal calls and identify which ones signaled the start of the birds’ mating season.

To do this, the researchers trained an algorithm to sift through the data and distinguish bird calls from wind, trucks, and other animal noises. The algorithm was then able to estimate when the birds had arrived. 

The algorithm’s estimates matched with the researcher’s own observations in the field.

The ability to quickly sift through data with an algorithm is extremely valuable for researchers looking to get a better understanding of a species or animals’ behavior and patterns over a long period of time. 

“An archive of acoustic recordings tells you how biodiversity is changing over time,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who was not involved in the study.“Understanding the dynamics of songbird arrival and breeding timing is the doorway to thinking about climate change and how temperature, weather, and snowfall are affecting various species.”

Next, the researchers will work on making their algorithm able to identify the bird calls of a specific species while continuing to focus on migration patterns and arrivals of different songbirds to see how climate and environmental changes impact breeding and biodiversity. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: John Wingfield

New AI tool reveals how climate change is affecting songbirds

Although tracking technology has made great strides in recent years,...

Scientists at the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/">University of Edinburgh</a> have used a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/public-opinion-gene-editing/">gene-editing</a> technique to create pigs that are resistant to one of the world's most costly animal diseases. In the United States and Europe alone, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) leads to a loss of $2.5 billion every year.

“Gene editing gives us a powerful tool to help reduce losses in the farming industry while improving the health and welfare of the animals themselves,” said study co-author Professor Alan Archibald.

PRRS can cause fatal breathing problems in young pigs and can cause pregnant females to lose their litters. 

The virus attaches on the surface of cells to a receptor called CD163. Using a gene-editing tool, the investigators managed to remove the section of CD163 that the virus attaches to, leaving the rest of the gene intact.

The research team collaborated with Genus PLC to produce pigs with the specific DNA change. While previous studies have found that this modification could make cells resistant to the virus in the lab, this is the first study to expose the pigs themselves to PRRS.

None of the modified pigs became sick after exposure to the virus, and blood tests showed no trace of infection. In addition, the DNA alteration did not appear to cause any changes to the health or well-being of the pigs.

“These results are exciting but it will still likely be several years before we're eating bacon sandwiches from PRRS-resistant pigs,” said study co-author Dr. Christine Tait-Burkard.

“First and foremost we need broader public discussion on the acceptability of gene-edited meat entering our food chain, to help inform political leaders on how these techniques should be regulated.”

“We also need to carry out longer term studies to confirm that these genetic changes do not have any unforeseen adverse effects on the animals.”

“If these studies are successful and the public are accepting of this technology, we would then be looking to work with pig breeding companies to integrate these gene edits into commercial breeding stocks.”

The study is published in the <a href="http://jvi.asm.org/">Journal of Virology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists make pigs resistant to costly virus with gene-editing

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have used a gene-editing...

Roughly 570 million years ago, life on Earth began a drastic transformation and for the first time, we can now see evidence of a diverse group of species in the fossil record. This period of history is called the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oldest-animal-fossil-footprint-on-record-discovered-in-china/">Cambrian Explosion</a> because of how quickly different species evolved. 

Researchers are still discovering new fossils that shed further insight into this time on Earth, and a new study examining the fossil of a nude sea creature provides answers to an old mystery about where the species belongs.

[caption id="attachment_1215635" align="aligncenter" width="709"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Cambrian-fossil-full.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1215635" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Cambrian-fossil-full-709x1024.jpg" alt="" width="709" height="1024" /></a> Image Credit: Derek Siveter/Tom Harvey/Peiyun Cong[/caption]

Discovered by a team of scientists from the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/">University of Leicester</a>, <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">the University of Oxford </a>and <a href="http://www.ynu.edu.cn/English/home.htm">Yunnan University,</a> China, the fossil is from a group of animals called chancelloriids. 

Because of their long tube shape, chancelloriids are often compared to sponges. However, scientists have been unwilling to classify them as such because chancelloriid spines are different from today's modern sponges. 

Chancelloriids first appeared during the Cambrian Explosion but went extinct soon after. 

The new chancelloriid fossil species, called Allonia nuda, allowed researchers to better understand the animals and give them a place on the phylogenetic tree of life. 

Allonia nuda was found in the Chengjiang deposits of Yunnan, Province China, an area rich with fossils from the Cambrian Period. 

The species could have measured 50 centimeters or more but had very few tiny spines, and its nude coloring led the researchers to think that more fossils may be “hiding in plain sight.” 

Although the Allonia nuda spine is different from sponges, the pattern of body growth is similar to some modern sponges which supports the original proposal that the species belongs in the sponge family. 

“Fossil chancelloriids were first described around 100 years ago, but have resisted attempts to place them in the tree of life,” said Tom Harvey, an author of the study. “We argue that their pattern of body growth supports a link to sponges, reinvigorating an old hypothesis. We're not suggesting that it's "case closed" for chancelloriids, but we hope our results will inspire new research into the nature of the earliest animals.”

The results, published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show how important classifying early fossils is to understanding early animal evolution. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Derek Siveter/Tom Harvey/Peiyun Cong

New Cambrian Explosion fossil may be an early relative of sponges

Roughly 570 million years ago, life on Earth began a...

In June of 1988, a time when most experts treated global warming as a future issue, NASA’s leading climate scientist James Hansen announced on Capitol Hill that Earth's atmosphere was already warming and that it was getting worse. Hansen told the <a href="https://www.ap.org/">Associated Press</a> that he wishes that his forecast about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/developing-countries-global-warming/">global warming</a> had been wrong, but unfortunately it was right. 

Hansen's first attempt to bring Congressional attention to the issue was in the fall of 1987, but he assumes the cold weather did not help to bolster his case. Hansen then testified on a record hot day in June, a couple of months before his study was published that described just how much greenhouse gas emissions would trap heat and boost temperatures. 

Thirty years later, it seems that Hansen's warning fell on deaf ears regardless of the season, even though his predictions were remarkably accurate. 

For their investigation in 1988, Hansen and fellow NASA scientists used three different scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, which they classified as being high, medium, and low. The team focused its study on the potential warming that would result from medium-level emissions.

Hansen projected that, by 2017, the globe's five-year mean temperature would be about 1.85 degrees higher than the average temperature from 1950 to 1980. NASA's five-year mean global temperature by the end of 2017 was 1.48 degrees above the 30-year average.

According to the AP, this discrepancy was due simply to the fact that a slight cooling of the Sun was not accounted for in the study.


Hansen also predicted extreme weather days for the current decade across four U.S. cities.

Clara Deser is the top climate analyst at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She said that Hansen's extreme weather predictions were “astounding” in their accuracy.

Hansen is now an adjunct professor who directs the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>. He is also an environmental activist, and wants to see more action taken to save the planet for future generations, including his grandchildren.

Hansen told the AP that what he really wants now is for “the warning be heeded and actions be taken.” 

“All we’ve done is agree there’s a problem,” Hansen told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk">The Guardian</a>. “We haven’t acknowledged what is required to solve it. Promises like Paris don’t mean much, it’s wishful thinking. It’s a hoax that governments have played on us since the 1990s.”

To his colleagues that find fault with his “anti-government job” of environmental advocacy, the professor is unapologetic. 

“If scientists are not allowed to talk about the policy implications of the science, who is going to do that? People with financial interests?” 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

First expert to warn about global warming wishes he’d been wrong

In June of 1988, a time when most experts treated...

Colonizing a planet outside of our own solar system would be challenging enough, but first, we’d have to get there. 

Even with huge advancements in space travel, it would take thousands of years to reach our closest neighbor <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exoplanet-proxima-centauri-life/">Proxima Centauri B</a>.

In that time, humanity’s survival would depend on a sizeable crew that could jumpstart a new thriving population that would continue to give birth to future generations as the ship traveled to its destination. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://en.unistra.fr/">University of Strasbourg</a> in France conducted a study that calculated just how many people would be needed to start new colony and pilot a ship to Proxima B. 

The results were published in the journal arXiv, and the number of people needed to colonize the new planet is surprisingly low. 

First, the researchers needed to calculate how long it would take to reach Proxima B, which is located within the habitable zone of its own sun, like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/moon-longer-days-earth/">Earth</a>, meaning there is a possibility for water and life. 

The planet was discovered five years ago and in order to get there, we would first have to develop a new spacecraft that could reach incredibly high speeds. 

“The fastest human-made objects are far from reaching such high speeds and a manned mission to Proxima Centauri b would thus take much longer,” the study authors said. “If we aim at exploring or colonizing the closest exoplanet from the Earth, it is mandatory to find a faster spacecraft.”

Apollo 11, which reached speeds of almost 40,000 km per hour would take over one hundred thousand years to get to Proxima B according to the researchers. 

A new probe, the Parker Solar Probe, was used as a better model because it is predicted to reach speeds of 700,000 km per hour and at those speeds, a ship could reach Proxima B in 6,300 years. 

The researchers then used Monte Carlo simulations, a class of algorithms that can determine numerical outcomes, to calculate how many people would have to board the ship and then populate enough healthy generation to reach the planet. 

Determining a realistic population size was difficult because the researchers had to factor in certain scenarios like inbreeding, infertility, and accidents. 

According to the simulations, only 98 people would be needed to start a colony of humans on Proxima B. 

The team even factored in a future catastrophe 2,500 years after the ship launched to see if a plague or other disaster could eliminate the entire crew. 

98 is the lowest number of people needed to successfully start a population that could eventually colonize our closest habitable neighbor. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

It only takes 98 people to start a colony on a new planet

Colonizing a planet outside of our own solar system would...

Frogs have existed on Earth for about 200 million years – much longer than our species has been around. But despite their longevity, getting to know how different species of this amphibian have evolved and what their origins may be is rather difficult. Because frogs are generally small and lightly built, they don’t tend to preserve well after their demise. Luckily, one individual juvenile frog that lived 99 million years ago had the misfortune of being trapped in a blob of sap with a beetle – likely it’s intended dinner – and was preserved perfectly for our scientists almost 100 million years later.

The now extinct species (Electrorana limoae) that was preserved in amber – the fossilized version of sap – is one of four fossils that provide the earliest evidence of frogs living in wet, tropical forests. These are the oldest known examples of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/transparent-skin-glass-frogs/">frogs</a> preserved in amber. The study was published in Nature’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

“It’s almost unheard of to get a fossil frog from this time period that is small, has preservation of small bones and is mostly three-dimensional. This is pretty special,” says David Blackburn, the associate curator of herpetology at the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a> and co-author of the study. “But what’s most exciting about this animal is its context. These frogs were part of a tropical ecosystem that, in some ways, might not have been that different to what we find today – minus the dinosaurs.”

Amber deposits have been a godsend for scientists the world over, preserving species that would have withered away over millennia without its protection. The amber deposits in northern Myanmar especially provide a unique record of ancient forest ecosystems. This discovery of the Electrorana species, the first frogs to be found in these deposits, add to our knowledge of frog species in the Cretaceous period. In particular, they contribute to our understanding that frogs inhabited wet, tropical forests for at least 99 million years.

“Ask any kid what lives in a rainforest, and frogs are on the list,” says Blackburn. “But surprisingly, we have almost nothing from the fossil record to say that’s a longstanding association.” The frog fossil record heavily favors larger species that lived in arid, seasonal environments – even though most frogs today live in tropical forests.

Despite this discovery, Electrorana actually raises more questions than answers, according to Blackburn. Many of the characteristics herpetologists use to determine the details of a frog’s life history – such as the inner ear, top of the backbone, hip bones, and more – are either missing or were not fully developed in the young frog. However, the bones that are visible do provide clues about the species’ possible living relatives. Interestingly, the species that have similar features include fire-bellied toads and midwife toads, which are Eurasian species that live in temperate, not tropical, environments. 

More of these discoveries will need to be made in order to paint a clearer picture of the frog’s evolutionary history in tropical rainforest environments. But in the meantime, we can thank sap for helping preserve this tiny species for almost 100 million years.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Lida Xing/China University of Geosciences

Amber fossil reveals oldest evidence of frogs in tropical forests

Frogs have existed on Earth for about 200 million years...

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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.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&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.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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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.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



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.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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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.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&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.

How the immune system responds to injury

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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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.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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...