Biggest Wave Spotted; Walking Heel-to-Toe; Newborn Exoplanets
New Record for Biggest Wave Measured by Buoy The UN’s World Meteorological Society says the biggest wave ever to be measured by a buoy was identified at 0600 universal time on February 4, 2013. The colossal 19-meter swell was spotted in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the UK. The previous highest wave recorded […]
Black Hole Back Doors?; Io’s Atmosphere; No New Stars in Galaxy Center
Do Black Holes Have Back Doors? Most people describe a black hole as a cosmic object with gravity so strong that it sucks in any kind of material that comes close to it. What happens to stuff that is pulled into a black hole? Some scientists think that matter that enters a black hole gets […]
New Report Predicts Possible Dip in Global CO2 Emissions
An international collaboration of scientists, in a new report, predicts the percentage of global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels may actually dip slightly in 2015 compared to 2014 levels. “In 2014, global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels grew by just 0.6 percent,” said the report’s lead author Rob Jackson, a professor of Earth […]
New Sunspot Index Breaks Link Between Solar Activity and Climate Change
A newly updated analysis of sunspot numbers over the last 400 years suggests solar activity has nothing to do with climate change, a discovery that eliminates a key argument used by those who question human caused climate change. Some of those who suggest that climate change is not anthropogenic in nature contend that changes in the […]
Close Call for ISS; Threat to Polar Bears; Binary System Cannibal
ISS Crewmembers Back to Work after Close Call with Space Junk Fear that a floating piece of space junk could impact the ISS sent astronauts the station’s crew scrambling onto a docked Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft on Friday (07/17). Luckily, the debris passed the station harmlessly, and the crew was back at work. Houston’s Mission Control […]
Pope’s Encyclical Draws Reactions from Climate Change Scientist and Skeptic
In the 1600’s, Galileo angered the Roman Catholic Church for supporting the Copernican system that placed the Sun at the center of the solar system, with Earth and other planets circling it. At the time, most people subscribed to the geocentric system, which had Earth at the center of the universe, with the sun, planets […]
Science Scanner – A Fish for Your Wounds? US Megadroughts; Help for MRI Stress
“Megadroughts” May Impact Parts of US in the Late 21st Century California has been contending with one of the most severe droughts on record. Now a new study is predicting that in the second-half of our current century, the U.S. Great Plains and the Southwest, including California, will face what could be considered “mega-drought” conditions […]
Volcanic Activity Linked to A Warm and Wet Ancient Mars
Exploratory missions to Mars, such as NASA’s Curiosity Rover, have provided more and more evidence that Mars at one time was warm enough for water to flow on its surface. Now a new study published in the journal “Nature Geoscience” has found that those ancient, warm periods on the Red Planet probably took place in […]
Report – Record High Amount of CO2 will be Released in 2014
A new report by the Global Carbon Project, an international science/environmental group, shows that the emission of carbon dioxide, one of the world’s top greenhouse gases – which scientists say leads to global warming – will not only rise once again in 2014, but will set a record high of 40 billion metric tons. As […]
Rising Levels of Human-Caused Water Vapor in Troposphere will Intensify Climate Change Projections
When it comes to greenhouse gases that contribute most to global warming, most people think of substances such as carbon dioxide, methane or even hydrofluorocarbons. But did you know that, for a while now, scientists have considered the vapor of the most important ingredient in sustaining life on Earth – water – as one of […]