June 27, 2011

Good Morning,

The unique smell of ocean waters as we know it may transform due to climate change. The chemical reactions that are responsible for the "cabbage-like smell" are dependent, in one way or another, on consistent climate conditions. Read the details in the second article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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New Mars rover arrives in Florida

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA says its next Mars rover has been delivered from California, where it was built, to Florida in preparation for launching this fall. An Air Force C-17 transport plane carrying the Mars Science Laboratory rover, better known as Curiosity, along with the rocket-powered descent stage that will fly the rover during the final moments before landing on Mars, arrived late Wednesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the agency said in a release Thursday. The rover and its descent state began the journey at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The design and building part of the mission is nearly behind us now," JPL's David Gruel, manager of the Mars Science Laboratory assembly, test and launch operations since 2007, said. "We're getting to final checkouts before sending the rover on its way to Mars." Curiosity, about twice as long and more than five times as heavy as any previous Mars rover, will use its 10 science instruments to explore and analyze the martian surface during a mission set to last two Earth years.


Climate change can change ocean chemistry

LIVERMORE, Calif. - An organic compound with a cabbage-like smell responsible for the distinctive "smell of the sea" could be sensitive to climate change, U.S. researchers say. Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say computer modeling suggests amounts of the compound dimethyl sulfide could fluctuate in certain parts of the ocean, increasing in some areas while decreasing in others, in response to climate change caused by the world's ongoing fossil-fuel dependency, an LLNL release reported Thursday. DMS is a sulfur-containing compound that affects the heat balance of Earth, affecting cloud condensation in the marine boundary layer over much of the remote ocean. DMS is produced by marine plankton and represents the globe's largest source of natural sulfur emissions. Once in the atmosphere it can reflect sunlight and stimulate cloud formation. "We found that DMS is locally much more sensitive to climate change than in previous modeling studies," LLNL's Philip Cameron-Smith said. "The shift in emissions will change the heating patterns." Climate warming could affect the plankton community and further alter the levels of DMS, researchers said.


Europe to build space re-entry vehicle

PARIS - The European Space Agency says it is going ahead with its re-entry vehicle demonstrator, known as the IXV, which it expects to launch in 2013. The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle research craft will be launched to an altitude of 250 miles, where it will begin its re-entry through the atmosphere back to Earth, the BBC reported Thursday. A pay-load of sensors will record data on how objects behave as they fall back through the atmosphere, data that should improve future spacecraft design, the ESA said. "IXV is providing Europe with important technologies and a step to more ambitious programs in the future," Antonio Fabrizi, an ESA senior director, said. The 2-ton vehicle will be equipped with flaps and thrusters to control its descent trajectory and a ceramic heatshield on its underside will prevent IXV from burning up. The ESA has signed an agreement with Thales Alenia Space in Italy for construction of the demonstrator, officials said.


Study suggests dinosaurs were warm-blooded

BONN, Germany - Dinosaurs, long considered lethargic and cold-blooded giants, may have actually been warm-blooded creatures with high body temperatures, German researchers say. "Originally, dinosaurs were considered to have been cold-blooded animals because they are reptiles, just like salamanders or crocodiles," Thomas Tutken, a biochemist from University of Bonn, said. The body temperature of such creatures depends on the ambient temperature. "This is why after a cold night, the mobility of today's reptiles is very limited, and so is their activity," Tutken said. With U.S. colleagues, the Bonn researchers developed a method of determining the absolute body temperature of dinosaurs with accuracy to within 2 degrees by analyzing the chemistry of their fossilized teeth. Using this chemical thermometer, the scientists analyzed teeth from Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus, two giant saurians from the sub-order of herbivorous sauropods that lived during the Jurassic Era about 150 million years ago. Camarasaurus proved to have a body temperature of about 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Brachiosaurus had a body temperature of 100.4 degrees. "Our data provide clear indications that their body temperature was clearly higher and more stable than ambient temperatures," Tutken said.

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