Earth & Space
New research in theoretical physics shows that black holes aren’t the ruthless killers we’ve made them out to be, but instead benign–if imperfect–hologram generators. The world could have been captured by a black hole, and we wouldn’t even notice, according to a new theoretical perspective.
In the beginning, there were simple chemicals. And they produced amino acids that eventually became the proteins necessary to create single cells. And the single cells became plants and animals. Recent research is revealing how the primordial soup created the amino acid building blocks, and there is widespread scientific consensus on the evolution from the first cell into plants and animals. But it’s still a mystery how the building blocks were first assembled into the proteins that formed the machinery of all cells. Now, two long-time University of North Carolina scientists – Richard Wolfenden, PhD, and Charles Carter, PhD – have shed new light on the transition from building blocks into life some 4 billion years ago.
S0 (Ben Davidson) presents evidence that while climate change is definitely happening on Earth (and other planets in the solar system), the global warming hypothesis is incorrect. Global warming models/predictions have been an abject failure for 20 years, and yet the IPCC claims ever-higher certainty? How does this happen and what comes next?
The Hubble Space Telescope is known for its dazzling images of cosmic phenomena, but it didn’t exactly start that way. Its first ever image, captured 25 years ago today, is decidedly less exciting. This is HD96755, a part of star cluster NGC 3532, about 1,300 light years away. It underwhelmed people back then, too.
Simply put, the Large Hadron Collider creates the biggest magnetic field on the entire planet, second to that created by the planet itself! It may seem only speculation linking the LHC to seismic activity, but we must take into consideration how magnetism on this grand of a scale affects the layers of the Earth.
For the first time in 50 years, mysterious ‘X-Files’ sounds have been recorded from the edge of space. A helium balloon built by a student for a NASA project captured the eerie hisses and whistles 22 miles above the Earth’s surface.The bizarre noises were captured using equipment designed and built by Daniel Bowman, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to LiveScience. The instruments recorded atmospheric infrasound – sound waves at frequencies below 20 hertz. Since infrasound is below human hearing range, the noises can only be heard when the recording is sped up. “It sounds kind of like ‘The X-Files,'” Bowman said. He added that the intensity of the sounds came as a shock, stating that he was “surprised by the sheer complexity of the signal.”
The Fermi paradox (or Fermi’s paradox) is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity’s lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations.
In Star Wars, the planet Tatooine has two suns. Is a double sunset a work of fiction, or is a binary star system possible? Julia Wilde of DNews provides the answer.
NASA is putting together an unprecedented team of scientists and researchers to analyze recently found exoplanets for the potential to support life. The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or “NExSS”, hopes to better understand the various components of an exoplanet, as well as how the planet stars and neighbor planets interact to support life.
Today’s earthquake in Nepal is reportedly a 7.8 – 7.9 magnitude. What does that mean in actual terms? We’ve all heard earthquakes described by magnitude number, and yet most of us have a relatively vague or distorted perception of what these numbers mean in the real world. This video illustrates the variation of energy released in easy-to-understand terms.
The Lyrid Meteor shower will reach its peak late on April 22 (Earth Day) when as many as 20 meteors per hour are expected to whiz through the night sky.
Earth & Space News April 11, 2015: Space weather – major sunspot coming into view; Earthquake watch; Global weather; Illinois Tornado; Earth’s magnetic field is fading
Earth & Space News April 10, 2015: Space weather – solar wind stream triggered a magnetic storm; Earthquake Uptick Watch – April 10-15, 2015; NASA Study Finds Small Solar Eruptions Can Have Profound Effects On Unprotected Planets; Global weather;
Government’s latest Orwellian tools to spy on citizens, known as “smart meters,” are literally blowing up and catching fire, risking lives and property to facilitate what even officials acknowledge amounts to intrusive state surveillance. In fact, your home may already have been fitted with one of the dangerous meters in recent years. The latest explosions of the controversial espionage devices, used to monitor citizens’ electricity and water usage, happened in California last week. Amid a government-caused water shortage across the state, bureaucrats are hoping to use the hazardous meters to catch citizens consuming more than their government-approved water rations. As more and more “smart” meters explode and burst into flames, though, citizens concerned about safety — not to mention privacy and liberty — are increasingly fighting back.
NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said on Tuesday that, within a decade, humanity will have found ‘strong indications’ of alien life. “I think we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years,” NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday (April 7).
