An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp;



This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/manganese-discovery-ancient-mars-earth-like-water-lake-habitable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mars</a>’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2443" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geochemical Perspective Letters</a> that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-mars-watery-past">Tracing Mars’ watery past</h2>



Scientists have long known that the Lafayette Meteorite interacted with liquid water on Mars, but the exact timing of this event was uncertain.&nbsp;



Dr. Marissa Tremblay, an assistant professor at Purdue University’s <a href="https://www.eaps.purdue.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences</a> (EAPS), led an international research team to determine the age of the water-altered minerals in the meteorite, pinpointing it to 742 million years ago.



“Dating these minerals can therefore tell us when there was liquid water at or near the surface of Mars in the planet's geologic past,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



The findings suggest that while liquid water wasn’t abundant on the surface at this time, it likely came from melting subsurface ice, or permafrost, caused by intermittent volcanic activity - a phenomenon still observed on Mars today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preserving-a-moment-in-mars-geological-timeline">Preserving a moment in Mars’ geological timeline</h2>



The study not only identified when water interacted with the meteorite but also established that the dating was unaffected by events after the meteorite left Mars.&nbsp;



“The age could have been affected by the impact that ejected the Lafayette Meteorite from Mars, the heating it experienced during the 11 million years it was floating in space, or the heating when it fell to Earth,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



However, the team confirmed that none of these factors altered the age, validating the timeline of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-lost-most-of-its-water-but-where-did-it-go/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">water</a> interaction.



Study co-author and Purdue EAPS researcher Ryan Ickert applied heavy isotope analysis to further verify that previous data on the meteorite’s water-rock interaction had likely been skewed by other geological processes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This meteorite uniquely has evidence that it has reacted with water. The exact date of this was controversial, and our publication dates when water was present,” said Ickert.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mysterious-journey-of-the-meteorite">Mysterious journey of the meteorite </h2>



The Lafayette Meteorite’s journey to Purdue is something of a mystery. It was found in a university drawer in 1931, though how it got there remains unknown.&nbsp;



In previous research, Tremblay and her team used crop disease markers from organic contaminants found on the meteorite to narrow down when it might have fallen to Earth.



Once the meteorite was ejected from Mars, it endured constant cosmic ray bombardment in space, which produced certain isotopes, offering clues to its time of impact on Earth.&nbsp;



“Many meteoroids are produced by impacts on Mars and other planetary bodies, but only a handful will eventually fall to Earth,” Tremblay said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-planetary-time-capsules">Planetary time capsules</h2>



Meteorites like Lafayette serve as planetary time capsules, offering invaluable data on the geological and environmental history of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-meteorites-can-be-traced-to-three-asteroid-families/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">home worlds</a>. With their dense structure, metallic content, and magnetic properties, meteorites are often distinguishable from Earth rocks.&nbsp;



“We can identify meteorites by studying what minerals are present in them, their mineral relationships, and by checking for a fusion crust formed during entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



By analyzing these traits and their chemical signatures, scientists can often determine a meteorite’s planetary origin.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-complex-history-of-meteorites">Complex history of meteorites</h2>



This research marks a significant milestone for the team, which included scientists from institutions across the globe, such as the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC), the University of St. Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Bristol, and London’s <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Natural History Museum</a>.&nbsp;



“Before moving to Purdue, Ryan and I were both based at SUERC, where the argon-argon isotopic analyses of the alteration minerals in Lafayette took place,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



Their partners at SUERC and the Natural History Museum have long contributed to studying Lafayette’s complex history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dating-minerals-in-meteorites">Dating minerals in meteorites</h2>



Dating the water-altered minerals in Lafayette, and others in its class of Martian meteorites called nakhlites, has been a central focus in planetary science, as they uniquely capture moments when liquid water was present on Mars.&nbsp;



Due to complex alterations over time, previous attempts to date these minerals were plagued with uncertainties.&nbsp;



However, the team has now developed a robust dating method that could be applied to other meteorites, enhancing our understanding of when water might have been present on Mars and other planetary bodies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-planetary-science">The future of planetary science</h2>



Thanks to the Stahura Undergraduate Meteorite Fund, Tremblay and Ickert’s research on the Lafayette Meteorite will continue, with the involvement of undergraduate students in Purdue EAPS.&nbsp;



This opportunity allows students to engage in real-world planetary science, helping to reveal the intricate histories of meteoritic samples.



Tremblay and her team’s work on the Lafayette Meteorite highlights its scientific significance, revealing a complex history that ties it to Mars’ geological past.&nbsp;



Their findings not only deepen our understanding of Mars but also set a precedent for future studies that might unveil even more about the red planet’s climate history, water activity, and potential for supporting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-mars-rocks-contain-signs-of-life-scientists-call-to-bring-them-back-to-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">life</a>.



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Meteorite that struck Mars reveals when the planet had liquid water

An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp; This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of Mars’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal Geochemical Perspective Letters that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity. Tracing Mars’ watery past Scientists have long known that the Lafayette...

Suraj the elephant spent many of his 45 years on Earth chained up in a tiny, dark room in a temple located in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He was kept dehydrated and malnourished while held as an attraction for temple visitors. That is, of course, until a year ago, when Suraj was finally saved by wildlife rescue workers. 

According to <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/">Yahoo News</a>, when <a href="http://wildlifesos.org/">Wildlife SOS</a> (WSOS) volunteers found Suraj, he was living in “solitary confinement in a 20 foot by 20 space with tight spiked chains on all four limbs… 24/7, from dawn to dusk.”

The rescue effort turned out to be no easy operation. According to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html">Daily Mail UK</a>, WSOS workers needed an armed team of more than 70 law enforcement officials to settle a stand-off with 200 temple supporters. 

Emancipation was only the first step in Suraj’s road to recovery. At the time of his rescue, Suraj was in such rough shape from his years in captivity that a crane was needed to lift him onto his feet. While he has made incredible progress since then, many of Suraj’s health problems have continued to require daily care from the WSOS team. 

"You can't undo 50 years of abuse in just a few weeks," said Rhea Lopez, WSOS Elephant Campaign Manager. "But over the first few months at the center, we've gotten to know Suraj — experiencing his first taste of freedom, his capacity to forgive, and his absolute joy in little things. It's rewarding and just completely indescribable."

"It's amazing to see the progress Suraj has made in the last year," added Nikki Sharp,  Wildlife SOS Executive Director. "Sometimes it's hard to imagine the amount of pain and loneliness he endured for so many years. We can't return him to the wild from where he was taken, but we can give him some joy in his life. Seeing him doing so well makes us more motivated to help others in a similar situation as he was."

Suraj the elephant has since been named one of <a href="http://time.com/">Time magazine</a>’s Most Influential Animals of 2016. According to Daily Mail UK, he now spends his days “strolling free, foraging, investigating new smells and sounds.” Suraj also allegedly loves peppermint, peanuts, and papaya.

--

Photo courtesy of <a href="http://wildlifesos.org/blog/an-update-on-suraj-the-one-eared-elephant/">Wildlife SOS</a>

Suraj the elephant: a harrowing story of survival

Suraj the elephant spent many of his 45 years on...

What’s going on in the world today? Plenty. In your daily dose of Earth news for January 9, 2017, you'll find a new nature miniseries, tips on algae growth, potential uses for earwax, and more.
<h2>Earth news for January 9, 2017:</h2>
<h4>BBC launches ‘Spy in the Wild’</h4>
With “Planet Earth II” over, nature fans are looking for their next fix. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdrQL5Ff-A">Spy in the Wild</a>” aims to provide it. The new <a href="http://bbc.co.uk/">BBC</a> documentary conceals cameras in lifelike robots, and sends them to watch animals in their natural habitats.

Maybe they're a little too lifelike. In the first episode, a robot disguised as a langur monkey successfully infiltrates a group in India. When the robot was dropped from a height, the monkeys began mourning, producers said.

The miniseries airs in the UK beginning Thursday. In the U.S., the first episode will run February 1 on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/">PBS Nature</a>.
<h4>Could earwax be the next big tech innovation?</h4>
Scientists at the <a href="http://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology</a> have taken on a new – and sort of disgusting – project: figuring out a technological use for earwax.

The project was inspired after her boyfriend had water trapped in his ear by an earwax plug, doctoral student Alexis Noel said. She wondered how the earwax was able to allow the water in, then trap it so effectively, and mentioned it to Dr. David Hu. They decided to take on the problem.

Using earwax from pigs, sheep, rabbits, and dogs, they began testing its properties and trying out different uses. They’ve found that earwax is made up pretty consistently across species.

They also found that it has excellent filtering properties. As earwax collects dust, it traps it. When too much dust is trapped, the earwax crumbles and falls away, and new wax is formed.

While they’re still studying exactly how earwax is formed, the researchers already see potential uses in tech. One idea would be to create a biomimetic adhesive surface for ventilation systems in robotics and other machinery.
<h4>Colorful new flatworm species discovered in Brazil</h4>
Scientists have found three new land-based species of flatworm in the Araucaria forest of Brazil. Flatworms are invertebrates, and also predators that hunt other invertebrate species.

The Araucaria is part of Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest and is considered to be a hotspot of flatworm diversity, the scientists wrote in their article in <a href="http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=11093">ZooKeys</a>, an open access journal. The three new species belong to the genus Cratera.
<h4>In forests, Missouri bees prefer darker flowers</h4>
Bees prefer darker colors in cool climates, at least when it comes to flowers. That’s what scientists at <a href="https://www.slu.edu/">St. Louis University</a> discovered while observing how native bee species interact with birds foot violets.

In most cases, the bees prefered the concolor morph, in which all five petals of the flower are light in color. In sunny locations, the concolor morph far outnumbers the bicolor morph, which has two dark purple petals and three light ones.

But in shady, wooded areas, the bicolor morph makes up about half of the flower population. Bees in these areas always land on the darker petals to feed, the researchers found. Testing revealed darker petals were warmer.
<h4>Scientists at UC Irvine find a new method for recycling greenhouse gases</h4>
A team of researchers from <a href="https://uci.edu/">University of California, Irvine</a> has discovered a new method for dealing with carbon dioxide: using it to help produce biofuel.

The bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii can be used to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. Though toxic in enclosed spaces, carbon monoxide can be used to produce biofuels and chemical products. Their findings were published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.2245.html">Nature Chemical Biology</a>.
<h4>Biodiversity of algae is important in biofuel production</h4>
<a href="https://www.umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> researchers studying algae-derived biocrude have found that when raising algae, biodiversity is important. They found that growing a wide variety of algae reduced crop failure and gave a better return on investment. While their research was conducted indoors in tanks, that will be true in outdoor tanks or ponds, too, the researchers said.

The research is being funded by a $2 million, four-year grant from the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>.
<h4>Scientists explore link between rainfall in West, Rocky Mountain air quality</h4>
When the western U.S. suffers from a drought, Rocky Mountain air quality suffers, too, scientists at the <a href="http://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a> found.

That’s because drought sparks more wildfires, which creates haze in the Rockies, the scientists said. Haze can be evaluated with instruments that measure aerosol optical depth – the amount of aerosols between the sensor and the sun.

Aerosols in the Rockies went up when the west was in a drought, according to the study published in the journal <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a/meta;jsessionid=5E21027595D39B0B34BD2C5716CCDC9D.c4.iopscience.cld.iop.org">Environmental Research Letters</a>.
— January 9, 2017

Earth news daily: January 9, 2017

What’s going on in the world today? Plenty. In your daily...

Tornado outbreaks are on the rise, but the trend doesn’t seem to be connected to climate change, scientists have found.

“The frequency of tornado outbreaks (clusters of tornadoes) and the number of extremely powerful tornado events have been increasing over nearly the past half-century in the United States,” the researchers wrote in the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6318/1419">new study</a>.

Tornado outbreaks can last anywhere from one to three days, and feature both thunderstorms and at least six tornadoes.

The major storms roll through, leaving a trail of deaths and damage in their wake. Damages from thunderstorms and tornadoes for the first half of 2016 were estimated at $8.5 billion, the research team found.

What they wanted was to figure out how much the tornado outbreaks have increased. They also wanted to figure out the cause.

For their research, the scientists analyzed meteorological data from the <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>. They used new statistical tools, such as extreme value analysis, to study all of the data.

The estimated number of tornadoes in an outbreak today has doubled since 1965, they found. Or in other words, the “worst case scenario” that meteorologists would expect 50 years ago was a 40-tornado cluster once in five years. Today, meteorologists should brace for an 80-tornado outbreak during the five-year period, scientists said.

They also looked at potential causes for the increase, focusing on convective available potential energy (CAPE) and vertical wind shear as the two most likely sources for the windy weather.

Earlier studies predicted that as global temperatures rise, CAPE will rise along with them. They saw tornado outbreaks as a side effect.

But wind shear, which does not appear to be affected by warming, seems to have a lot more of an effect on tornado outbreaks, the new study found.

“Extreme meteorological environments associated with severe thunderstorms show consistent upward trends, but the trends do not resemble those currently expected to result from global warming,” the scientists wrote.

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/">Science</a>.

Scientists: large tornado outbreaks are happening more often

Tornado outbreaks are on the rise, but the trend doesn’t...

A new, open source plant database could help farmers choose top-producing bioenergy crops. To show the database's value, the scientists who developed it used it to show that Miscanthus yields more than twice as much biolfuel as switchgrass in the U.S.

Shared databases like this one are becoming more popular for plant science, climate change, and ecology research. But databases for biomass crops are lacking, Dr. Stephen Long said. The <a href="http://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> professor was the study's lead author.

"To understand yield trends and variation across the country for our major food crops, extensive databases are available – notably those provided by the <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/">USDA Statistical Service</a>," he said. "But there was nowhere to go if you wanted to know about biomass crops, particularly those that have no food value such as Miscanthus, switchgrass, willow trees, etc."

To collect a useful mass of data for these crops, researchers at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology's <a href="http://www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/">Energy Biosciences Institute</a> came up with <a href="https://www.betydb.org/">BETYdb</a>. The open-source repository for physiological and yield data will aid in future bioenergy research, the researchers said.

The plant database also supports automated data collection as well as big data analysis. The latter is important, because BETYdb already contains more than 40,000 open-access records.

“By making all of this data open access, we hope that researchers can identify new plants and best practices for biomass production," first author Dr. David LeBauer said. "We've been using these data not only to summarize what has been observed in field trials, but also to identify new crops and predict productivity in new environments."

To show the database’s value, scientists used the plant database to definitively establish that Miscanthus has a yield 2.4 times higher than switchgrass. The difference held up under a wide range of management and environmental conditions, such as fertilization rates, stand ages, and planting densities.

Miscanthus was originally grown only in Europe. There, it was twice as productive as switchgrass, a North American native, regardless of temperature, water, or nitrogen.

"This was based on limited data and did not take into account the breeding improvements in switchgrass that were occurring," Long said. "Now that Miscanthus is grown in North America along with many improved cultivars of switchgrass we wondered: does the remarkable two-fold difference in yield still hold? And it does."

The research was published in the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2486">Global Change Biology</a>. The <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a> and the Energy Biosciences Institute funded the study.

New plant database could set the pace for biofuel production

A new, open source plant database could help farmers choose...

The Tibetan Plateau has earned the nickname “The Roof of the World.” With an average elevation of more than 13,000 feet, the oxygen level is about 60 percent that of sea level. Winter temperatures drop below -20 Fahrenheit. To say it has a challenging climate might be an understatement.

But humans may have taken on that challenge a lot earlier than we imagined.

The discovery comes after archaeologists studied “yeti prints” found in the Himalayas. The prints turned out not to be from mythical snow monsters, but from ancient humans who may have been the first settlers of the plateau.

The prints were found fossilized in mud from a hot spring near the Tibetan village of Chusang. An international team led by the <a href="https://www.uibk.ac.at/index.html.en">University of Innsbruck</a> in Austria analyzed the prints, and dating techniques put them at between 7,400 and 13,000 years old.

Previously, archaeologists believed humans began living on the Tibetan Plateau a little over 5,000 years ago at most.

That means the Chusang site – located about 14,000 feet above sea level – is the oldest archaeological site on the Tibetan Plateau.

It also indicates people may have been living in the area when the prints were made. The trek from Chusang down to sea level is 230 miles long and treacherous. That indicates people were likely staying in the highlands long-term – maybe even permanently – at the time they were made.

The find offers new insights into how humans adapted to high altitude lifestyles.

“High-elevation environments (over 8,000 feet above sea level) were some of the last places in the world that humans colonized and, so, they offer something of a natural laboratory for studying human adaptation,” study co-author Dr. Randy Haas said in a <a href="http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2017/01/research-sheds-new-light-on-high-altitude-settlement-in-tibet.html">press release</a>.

“Research on high-elevation populations around the world tells us that there were multiple adaptive pathways,” he added. “Our findings clarify that genetic and cultural responses on the Tibetan Plateau played out over considerably longer time spans than previously thought.”

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/journals">Science</a>.

Humans may have moved to Tibetan Plateau earlier than we thought

The Tibetan Plateau has earned the nickname “The Roof of...

One natural wonder almost wasn't. According to a new study, the Great Barrier Reef almost drowned due to rapid sea-level rise during the last Interglacial Period, more than 125,000 years ago.

The increase in sea level resulted from melting glaciers and polar ice sheets. The researchers who conducted the study said it's a worrying indication of what could happen if modern climate change continues.

The Last Interglacial period is worth studying to learn more about our current time, the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/">University of Sydney</a>-led research team said. Temperatures and sea levels were higher than they are currently, but similar to where we might be headed if carbon dioxide emissions continue to contribute to climate change, they said.

There are some differences, though.

A multitude of other threats affect the modern Great Barrier Reef that are unrelated to sea-level rise. Warming sea temperatures, pesticide run-off, and dredging from mining operations all play a role in the struggles the shallow coral reef faces today. These issues pose a real threat to the reef's biodiversity, the scientists said.

Adding the threat of drowning on top of all that makes for a terrible cherry on top of a pretty awful sundae.

Dr. Belinda Dechnik of the university's School of Geosciences was the lead author of the paper.

"This provides the first snapshot of this paleo-reef against a background of rapid environmental change, including possible mass ice-sheet collapse," Dechnik said.

In the course of the study, Dechnik examined reef specimens from the 1970s stored at <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/">Geosciences Australia</a> in Canberra, as well as new specimens from core samples obtained in 2015. This research was able to accurately identify the age of the fossil reef below the current Great Barrier Reef, which grew from 121,000 to 129,000 years ago.

“The Great Barrier Reef is like a sponge cake – the modern reef is just the last layer,” Dechnik said.

The research was the most comprehensive investigation of the second-last layer, the researchers said.

Depending on the severity of mass ice sheet collapse, Dechnick said the sea levels on the Great Barrier Reef could potentially rise as high as six meters – the same level as during the Last Interglacial. She doesn't expect the modern rise in sea levels to be quite so extreme, though.

That doesn't mean the reef isn't at risk.

"In combination with climate change predictions by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> and in the absence of improvements to reef management and human impacts, sea-level pressures could tip the reef over the edge, potentially drowning it for good," she said.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/global-and-planetary-change/">Global and Planetary Change</a>.

Great Barrier Reef almost drowned as seas rose 125,000 years ago

One natural wonder almost wasn't. According to a new study,...

The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a> has put a uranium mine cleanup proposal on hold after Republican lawmakers said part of the proposal was too harsh.

Under the new requirements, uranium mining companies would have been required to clean up groundwater contaminated by the mining process. They would also be required to monitor their former mines for years or even decades.

The new regulations were ready to go into place, but after complaints that the monitoring rule is too stringent, the EPA has pulled back. Instead, it will put the proposal on hold and open a six-month public comment period.

The agency has also made some changes to the proposal, such as allowing the <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/">Nuclear Regulatory Commission</a> or individual states to determine some of the uranium mine cleanup standards on a site-by-site basis.

“I rarely say this about the EPA, but the agency made the right decision in delaying implementation of this new rule, which could burden the industry with unnecessary red-tape,” Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, said in a <a href="http://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=8A98314F-7282-48B2-AE23-DA7F021A35AA&amp;ContentType_id=AE7A6475-A01F-4DA5-AA94-0A98973DE620&amp;Group_id=91d2f483-0ad8-44ac-bcc4-fc2c82d75e07">press release</a>.

Enzi and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, were two of the lawmakers pushing back against the new rules. Wyoming is home to five active in-situ uranium mines.

At in-situ uranium mines, water laced with chemicals is pumped into the ground. The chemicals dissolve the uranium – used for nuclear power and weapons – out of sandstone deposits. Then the water, now full of radioactive uranium, is pumped out of the ground again.

Although most of the uranium is retrieved from the water, enough of the radioactive mineral is left to contaminate groundwater. Uranium occurs at much high levels than natural near in-situ mines.

The mines take steps to keep the tainted water from flowing out of the area, but leaks do occasionally occur. The uranium industry points out that no drinking water has been contaminated – but many of the mines are far from population centers.

That may not always be the case. Environmentalists and the <a href="http://www.powderriverbasin.org/">Powder River Basin Resource Council</a>, which works to protect agricultural and environmental interests, point to growing populations in western states as a reason the groundwater should be cleaned up as soon as possible.

Uranium mine cleanup rule in U.S. delayed after pushback

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has put a uranium mine...

This winter, several sightings of the mysterious and rare lynx have been reported across Colorado. Last week, one such lynx was spotted parading through the Purgatory resort in southwestern Colorado. Photos and tweets quickly began to flood social media with accounts of the exciting appearance.

Just two weeks prior, two rare lynx were spotted along a mountain highway in Molas Pass, located 15 miles north of the Purgatory resort. The pair appeared to be a mother and daughter. 

"My heart just about busted out of my chest when I realized what I was seeing," Dontje Hildebrand told the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/9c1439096d4a4e739b254153f577c4df/Ski-run-surprise:-Lynx-stroll-past-crowds-in-rare-sightings">AP</a>. 

Lynx are medium-sized wild cats that have short tails, tufted ears, and broad paws that allow them to walk across the snow with ease. They typically grow to be 3 feet long and weigh about 30 pounds.

Lynx are native to Colorado, but were nearly wiped out in the 1970s due to overhunting. But in 1999, the state began reintroducing the wild cats by relocating a limited population from Alaska and Canada. It has been estimated that roughly 50 to 250 lynx live in the wild in Colorado today, generally in the southwestern portion.

According to <a href="http://cpw.state.co.us">Colorado Parks and Wildlife,</a> exact population figures are difficult to calculate because lynx can be so hard to find. But the increasing frequency of lynx sightings is an encouraging sign that the animals are settling into the area with increasing comfort following their reintroduction.

Still, lynx have remained an endangered species in the continental United States since 2000, according to the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a>. The state of Colorado uses mounted automated cameras to track which areas lynx settle into.

Lynx are not seen as a threat to humans, said a spokesman from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. But because of their unpredictable nature, humans are discouraged from feeding or approaching them.

Rare lynx sightings reported across Colorado

This winter, several sightings of the mysterious and rare lynx have...

A second red panda has died at the <a href="http://www.elmwoodparkzoo.org/">Elmwood Park Zoo</a> in Norristown, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Philadelphia. The red panda, a 2-year old male named Shredder, died Wednesday of heart disease brought on by an enlarged heart and thickened heart walls.

Shredder was the second of triplets to die. His older sibling, Clinger, died in December 2015 of encephalitis related to a brain parasite. Zoo officials are examining the surviving sibling to confirm that he is in good health.

The red panda species has been listed as endangered since 2008, with less than 10,000 red pandas alive in the wild across the globe. Populations continue to decrease primarily due to habitat loss and poaching.

The red panda triplets came to the Elmwood Park Zoo from the <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/conservation">Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute</a> in Washington, D.C.. According to the institute, red pandas and giant pandas are not that closely related, though they do share a name. 

Red pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. The mammals are also known as red bear-cats due to their ambiguous features, which include reddish-brown fur, long, thick tail, and a cat-like physique. They can also be mistaken for raccoons due to the white badges around their face.

Red pandas can be difficult to study because they are generally nocturnal and also very shy. As a result, exactly population figures can be tricky to determine.

Second endangered red panda dies at Philadelphia zoo

A second red panda has died at the Elmwood Park...

New research has been published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> outlining the discovery of a 52-million-year-old fossilized fruit in South America. This plant family’s history is largely unknown because so few samples have been found in the fossil record. The family of plants, nightshades, includes foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers – however, given this fruit’s age, it’s probably best left uneaten.

This ancient fruit was found in a fossilized rainforest in Patagonia, where, as N. Ruben Cuneo of the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio reports, these discoveries “are probably destined to revolutionize some traditional views on the origin and evolution of the plant kingdom.” Many researchers believe this area will yield many more discoveries of fossil plants.

Peter Wilf, a professor of geosciences at <a href="http://www.psu.edu/">Pennsylvania State University</a>, led the team that discovered the fossilized plant. He told BBC News, “Here we have this discovery of these incredibly rare, delicate fossils – here you have a berry surrounded by this papery calyx – it’s almost unheard of that such a thing could be fossilized.”

The fossilized fruit is of the genus Physalis, belonging to the family Solanaceae, or nightshade, which includes flowering plants such as tobacco and petunias. The berry is also closely related to tomatillos and ground cherries.

It was previously believed tomatillos and ground cherries evolved more recently – around the time the Andes appeared. Scientists say this discovery shows the origin of the genus goes back tens of millions of years, much further than previously thought.

In the much warmer world of 50 million years ago, South America was closer to Antarctica and Australia than it is today.

Wilf further emphasized the importance of this discovery, explaining, “It’s the only fossil fruit ever found in this whole group of plants, that now has over 2,000 species. A lot of the evolutionary history of life, especially plants, which are rare as fossils, is largely unknown.”

The story of the 52 million year-old fossilized fruit

New research has been published in the journal Science outlining...

Raising a wild animal is generally a task best left to its mother. <a href="http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/">Milwaukee County Zoo</a> employees have taken on the job, however, to save the life of a young Amur tiger cub.

Kashtan was just a couple weeks old and a mere 10 pounds when he contracted an illness. The infection had already killed one of his three sisters, so the zookeepers removed him for veterinary care.

After a course of antibiotics, he was able to return to the zoo’s Big Cat Country exhibit, but not to his mother.

First, the zoo staff needed to feed him five times a day. During the course of his illness, he didn’t gain as much weight as he needed to during those vital first weeks.

Second, they worried that after so much time, his mother would reject him.

“Female tigers also have the potential to injure offspring if reintroductions are attempted,” the zoo said in a <a href="http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/news/2016/tigercubsdebut.php">press release</a> about the tiger cubs’ debut. “The primary concern of the Zoo’s animal care staff is to avoid any risk of injury to the cub.”

So the exhibit’s staff took over Kashtan's care. They weaned the Amur tiger cub from his bottle and he beginning to enjoy a meaty diet. He also gets plenty of play time with his sisters, Eloise and Bernadette, away from their mother.

It’s a unique situation. Usually when a tiger orphans or rejects a cub, zoos look for other orphaned cubs and raise them together. But in Kashtan’s case, his parents and sisters are still alive. That means he can stay at his home zoo and learn to socialize with his sisters.

The zookeepers will also work with Kashtan to teach him tiger interaction and socialization skills when his sisters are with their mother.

That will stop in another month or two, when he’s large enough that he could hurt them during play sessions.

The unusual efforts to save the Amur tiger cub were in part because Amur tigers are endangered. While tiger numbers rose for the first time in a century last year, only about 3,900 Amur tigers survive in the wild, the <a href="http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/amur-tiger">World Wildlife Fund</a> reports.

Amur tiger cub hand-raised by human foster parents after illness

Raising a wild animal is generally a task best left...

Could the Northern Hemisphere be headed toward a new ice age?

The plot of the 2004 film, “The Day After Tomorrow,” may have seemed far-fetched, at least at the time. In the movie, global warming causes ocean currents around the world to suddenly stop, creating a massive storm that destroys major cities and prompts a new ice age across the Northern Hemisphere. But according to a new report from a team of scientists at the <a href="https://ucsd.edu">University of California, San Diego</a>, this terrifying series of events actually happen, and sooner than one might expect.

According to the team of researchers from UCSD’s <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu">Scripps Institution of Oceanography</a>, current climate models drastically underestimate the potential for ocean currents to collapse by overestimating the stability of a currently known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. 

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a massive current pattern in the Atlantic that brings warm saltwater northbound, and carries cold freshwater southbound. The system is responsible for transporting considerable amounts of heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic, where it is released into the atmosphere. The AMOC relies on a balance of freshwater and saltwater. But with increased levels of carbon dioxide on track to continue to melt Arctic ice, a massive influx of freshwater would be sent into the ocean and disrupt this balance.

When the team of researchers ran the existing climate change models with a reduced bias toward the AMOC, the result showed that circulation currents could in fact diminish and cause drastic cooling across the Northern Hemisphere. Current estimates predict that carbon dioxide levels will double to 700 ppm by 2100. According to the data, ocean circulation patterns could collapse 300 years after the CO2 levels double. 

If the collapse occurred, North Atlantic surface temperatures would drop 2.4 degrees Celsius, and surface air temperatures could drop by as much as 7 degrees Celsius.

According to Wei Liu, who led the study, “The significance of our study is to point out a systematic bias in current climate models that hinders a correct climate projection. A bias-corrected model puts the AMOC in a realistic stability regime and predicts a future AMOC collapse with prominent cooling over the northern North Atlantic and neighboring areas. Our study has enormous implications for regional and global climate change.”

Could the Northern Hemisphere be headed toward a new ice age?

Could the Northern Hemisphere be headed toward a new ice...

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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

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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

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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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://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

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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

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://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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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"

[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...