August 6, 2012

Good Morning,

The Mars rover landing was big talk this weekend, and we have details on its safe landing and mission objectives. Check out the last article in this issue for all the details.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Distant galaxy scene of cosmic violence

GARCHING, Germany - A seemingly tranquil galaxy that has been the scene of violent cosmic events has been captured in new telescopic images, European astronomers said. The galaxy, NGC 1187, discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1784, looks tranquil and unchanging but it has hosted two supernovae explosions since 1982, they said. The galaxy's half a dozen prominent spiral arms containing large amounts of gas and dust show bluish features indicating the presence of young stars born out of the clouds of interstellar gas, a release from the European Southern Observatory's headquarters in Garching, Germany said. In October 1982, the first supernova -- a violent stellar explosion, resulting from the death of either a massive star or a white dwarf in a binary system -- was observed in the galaxy by the ESO's LA Silla Observatory in Chile, then in 2007 a second supernova was observed by an amateur astronomer in South Africa. The newly released image of NGC 1187, which is 60 million light-years from Earth, was created from observations taken as part of a yearlong study following the more recent supernova, which can still be seen shining long after the time of maximum brightness near the bottom of the image, astronomers said.


Antarctica once home to tropical palms

FRANKFURT, Germany - In a warm period 52 million years ago, tropical vegetation -- including palms trees -- thrived on the coast of Antarctica, researchers say. Drill cores of sediment obtained from the seafloor near Antarctica showed evidence of the intense ancient warming phase, researchers at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, said. The findings highlight the extreme contrast between modern and past climatic conditions in Antarctica and the extent of global warmth during periods of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, a university release reported Wednesday. About 52 million years ago, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more than twice as high as the greenhouse gas' level today, researchers said. "If the current CO2 emissions continue unabated due to the burning of fossil fuels, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, as they existed in the distant past, are likely to be achieved within a few hundred years," paleoclimatologist Jorg Pross said. "By studying naturally occurring climate warming periods in the geological past, our knowledge of the mechanisms and processes in the climate system increases. This contributes enormously to improving our understanding of current human-induced global warming." The findings also support computer models that indicate future climate warming will be particularly pronounced in high-latitude regions near the poles, the researchers said.


Earth's ability to deal with CO2 studied

BOULDER, Colo. - Carbon dioxide emissions are still rising but so is the capacity of Earth's vegetation and oceans to soak up much of it, a U.S. study found. Despite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions from human activities in recent decades that are warming the planet, the Earth has shown it can absorb about half of them, researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder reported Wednesday. The study examined CO2 emissions reports from the past 50 years showing rising levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere during that time and found that while CO2 emissions had quadrupled, natural carbon "sinks" that sequester the greenhouse gas doubled their uptake in the past 50 years, lessening the warming impacts on Earth's climate. "What we are seeing is that the Earth continues to do the heavy lifting by taking up huge amounts of carbon dioxide, even while humans have done very little to reduce carbon emissions," post-doctoral researcher Ashley Ballantyne said. "How long this will continue, we don't know." Earth's natural carbon sinks cannot absorb atmospheric carbon indefinitely, researchers said. "It's not a question of whether or not natural sinks will slow their uptake of carbon, but when," doctoral student Caroline Alden said. "We're already seeing climate change happen despite the fact that only half of fossil fuel emissions stay in the atmosphere while the other half is drawn down by the land biosphere and oceans," she said. "If natural sinks saturate as models predict, the impact of human emissions on atmospheric CO2 will double."


NASA Curiosity rover lands, explores Mars

PASADENA, Calif. - The Curiosity rover, the biggest and most advanced spacecraft ever sent to another planet, landed safely on Mars early Monday, the U.S. space agency NASA said. The nuclear-powered, car-size automated motor vehicle -- part of NASA's unmanned Mars Science Laboratory mission -- touched down about 1:31 a.m. EDT and almost immediately began transmitting photographs showing its own wheels safely on the surface of an ancient geological feature known as Gale Crater near the Mars equator and 154 million miles from Earth. Curiosity carries the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on the surface of the Red Planet and is expected to revolutionize the understanding of the planet, gathering evidence Mars is or was capable of fostering life, if only in microbial form. Besides trying to determine if Mars could ever have supported life, the $2.5 billion mission is to study its climate and geology, and plan for a human mission to the planet. President Barack Obama has established a goal of sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, and NASA Associate Administrator John Grunsfeld said Sunday humans might one day live there, too. The spacecraft is expected to pave the way for important leaps in deep-space exploration, including bringing martian rock or soil back to Earth for detailed analysis.

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