Despite NASA’s Earth science division facing uncertainty in the new administration, the space agency has just announced its plans for a new mission. Its purpose is to monitor two aspects essential to Earth’s climate, the state of vegetation and greenhouse gasses. The mission will involve the launch of a new satellite known as GeoCARB. More specifically, the newly announced GeoCARB mission … [Read more...]
ESA’s ExoMars Mission Gets Funded Despite Schiaparelli Setback
The European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission had an uncertain fate after the test of the Schiaparelli lander ended in failure by crashing into Mars at high speed. However, it seems that the ESA managed to obtain the necessary funding for their upcoming mission. Not many experts and scientists were expected to receive the green light to proceed with the ExoMars mission after disastrous results of … [Read more...]
Snow Geese Threatened By Contaminated Water
Thousands of migrating snow geese landed near the Berkeley Pit in Butte on Tuesday alerting the officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Dead birds have been already spotted around the site, but Montana Resources officials cannot establish how many of them died because no boat is allowed in the pit. In other words, the biologists won’t be able to retrieve the dead specimens for a full … [Read more...]
The Eruption of Popocatepetl Mexican Volcano Forms Enormous Ash Cloud
The Popocatépetl Mexican volcano has started its activity since Friday when it began to spew a huge column of ash almost 3.1 miles up in the sky. Near the location of the volcano, in the southeast region of Mexico City, there are a number of villages. The residents have been warned to prepare for eventual seismic activity. An online warning was issued by Mexican National Center for Disaster … [Read more...]
Fijian Ants Are the World’s First Farmers
Farming is what enabled human communities to evolve beyond just being hunters and gatherers. However, it seems that we were not the first species to realize the benefits of farming. Scientists have discovered that Fijian ants started to plants their own crops millions of years before we did. A team of researchers from the University of Munich, Germany has reconstructed the evolutionary history of … [Read more...]
Europe’s Mars Orbiter Begins Instrument Testing
A few months ago, the European Space Agency (ESA) with assistance from the Russian federal space agency, launched the ExoMars program. It involved both a lander meant to test the technologies of future rovers landings on Mars as well as a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). While the first spacecraft crashed, the TGO orbits the Red Planet and it is starting to test its observation equipment. The Mars … [Read more...]
Study Finds Coconut Crabs Are the Strongest Pinchers
Crabs are known for the strength of their pinches, but among all species, the coconut crabs take the crown as the strongest pinchers on land. Researchers analyzed crabs of various sizes and found that the largest one they studied had the highest pinching force of all crabs. A team of researchers from the Okinawa Churashima Foundation in Japan examined a number of coconut crabs, scientifically … [Read more...]
Idaho Removing Juniper Trees to Preserve Sage Grouse Habitat
The Sage Grouse is an imperiled bird thanks to the constant loss of habitat due to human activity as well as the rapid increase in juniper trees. Now, federal and state officials are proposing a large scale project consisting in their removal to allow the populations of sage grouse to flourish once more in the state of Idaho. The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced this … [Read more...]
The Dead Sea is Gradually Evaporating
The Dead Sea, famous for its particular characteristics, as it has among the highest concentrations of salt as well as having the lowest elevation, being 429 meters below the standard sea level. However, this unique natural attraction of historical importance may very well disappear one day as scientists recorded a gradual shrinking because of evaporation. The body of water owes its name to the … [Read more...]
Pigs’ Personalities Can be Optimistic or Pessimistic
If you like pigs as more than just a food source, then you should know that they share some traits with humans. Researchers discovered that pigs’ personalities can be optimistic or pessimistic depending on their moods and environments. The study was published in the journal Biology Letters by researchers from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. It is the … [Read more...]