We’re here to help you! The New York city government, in an effort to control its rat population (the small rodent kind), decided to release opossums in Brooklyn to eat rats. Instead, the opossums have ignored the rats, and now Brooklyn is overrun with both rats and opossums. More here. Key quote:
“Didn’t any of those brain surgeons realize that the opossums were going to multiply?”
Check out these newly posted images of lunar cave pits, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The depth estimates range from 100 to 300 plus feet.
[Ed. I should note that some of these images have already been posted on behindtheblack. For example, the center image found here) was first discovered by reader James Fincannon and posted by me on July 15 and July 26, when I discussed the challenges of accessing the bottom of these pits. I also posted an image of the Mare Ingenii pit on July 13.]
On August 9, 2010 the camera on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took some routine calibration images and captured the Earth from lunar orbit, showing the western hemisphere with relatively little cloud cover. The picture below is a tiny piece from that global image, cropped to show the United States. The details are pretty remarkable, considering the distance. You can explore the full global image in detail here.
Research results posted today [pdf] at the European Planetary Science Congress show that the methane in Mars’s atmosphere is seasonally variable and far more short-lived than predicted, disappearing in less than a year. Some process, therefore, must be both using it and replenishing it. On Earth, that’s almost always done by some form of life process. Key quote by one of the scientists, from the press release:
“Only small amounts of methane are present in the martian atmosphere, coming from very localised sources. We’ve looked at changes in concentrations of the gas and found that there are seasonal and also annual variations. The source of the methane could be geological activity or it could be biological we can’t tell at this point.”
The image below shows the three regions (in yellow) where the methane is concentrated.
For the fifth time in two years Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has gone into safe mode because of a computer reboot.
Microbes survive 553 days attached to the outside of the International Space Station as part of a scientific experiment.
Rather than address the many questions people have about climate research (questionable research, unclear data, corrupt scientists), the White House has come up with a much better approach: Change the name of “global warming” to “global climate disruption.” Now, doesn’t that explain everything?
New results from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, including a new global topographic map.
From the caption: A lunar topographic map showing the Moon from the vantage point of the eastern limb. On the left side of the Moon seen in this view is part of the familiar part of the Moon observed from Earth (the eastern part of the nearside). In the middle left-most part of the globe is Mare Tranquillitatis (light blue) the site of the Apollo 11 landing, and above this an oval-appearing region (Mare Serenitatis; dark blue) the site of the Apollo 17 landing. Most of the dark blue areas are lunar maria, low lying regions composed of volcanic lava flows that formed after the heavily cratered lunar highlands (and are thus much less cratered).
It appears that the Arctic icecap has reached its 2010 minimum. Though the icecap extent in the spring was the largest since 2002 (see image below), the melt was fast and the minimum appears to be the third lowest since 1979.
Does this mean the icecap is melting and will disappear shortly, as some politicians like to believe? Hardly. Though the data suggests a long term decline in ice extent, recent trends also show evidence that the icecap might be recovering. What will actually happen is still anyone’s guess.
The U.S. is doing its own satellite maneuvers, placing for the first time a spacecraft into the Earth-Moon L1 and L2 points.
How blind cave fish find food. Key quote:
“Vibration Attraction Behavior” (or VAB) is the ability of fish to swim toward the source of a water disturbance in darkness. Postdoctoral associate Masato Yoshizawa measured this behavioral response in both wild caught and laboratory raised cave and surface-dwelling fish using a vibrating rod at different frequencies as a stimulus. Most cavefish displayed VAB and would swim toward the vibrating rod and poke at it, while few surface fish did.
University of Arizona scientists have built a hydroponic lunar vegetable garden on Earth. More information here. Key quote:
The membrane-covered module can be collapsed to a four-foot-wide disk for interplanetary travel. It contains water-cooled sodium vapor lamps and long envelopes that would be loaded with seeds, ready to sprout hydroponically.
In a preprint paper [pdf] posted on the astro-ph website tonight, scientists have increased the odds, by one order of magnitude, that the asteroid Apophis will hit the Earth on April 13, 2036. Fortunately, these new odds remain low, at 1 chance in 4.5 million.
Say goodbye to sunspots?
Science discovers the obvious! The US Geological Survey has learned that if water looks and smells bad, you probably shouldn’t drink it.
Good news for science: UCLA has backed off from its plan to fire a politically incorrect professor, giving Dr. James Enstrom an eight month reprieve as it reviews his case.
Don’t bet the bank on this: In a preprint paper posted tonight on the astro-ph website, scientists predict the discovery of the first Earthlike extrasolar planet — using statistical analysis alone! Fun quote:
Using a bootstrap analysis of currently discovered exoplanets, we predict the discovery of the first Earth-like planet to be announced in the first half of 2011, with the likeliest date being early May 2011.
Back to the climate-theory drawing board: A paper published today in Nature Geoscience suggests that the ocean conveyor belt that brings warm water to the northern Atlantic is far more complex than the original theories proposed. These results strengthen earlier reports that also questioned the conveyor belt theory.
Using archival Hubble Space Telescope images astronomers have discovered 14 objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Key quote:
The newfound objects range from 25 to 60 miles across (40 to 100 kilometers), said the researchers.
This breath-taking image of Saturn and its rings was taken by Cassini on July 19, 2009 and posted on the Cassini image gallery on August 27, 2010.
