From bright planets to a mythological bird soaring among the stars, July 2025 has an exciting show lined up in the night sky.&nbsp;



NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (<a href="https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/whats-up/">JPL</a>) has shared its skywatching highlights - revealing what to be on the lookout for this month, from sunset to sunrise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-planets-in-motion">Planets in motion</h2>



Venus reigns in the morning sky all month, shining brightly in the east during the hours before sunrise. Look for it near the Pleiades star cluster and two brilliant stars - Aldebaran and Capella.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-lost-most-of-its-water-but-where-did-it-go/">Mars</a> is visible in the western sky shortly after sunset, glowing about 20 degrees above the horizon before it sets a couple of hours later. On July 28, it forms a striking pair with the crescent Moon.



Jupiter begins to climb into the morning sky after mid-month. Initially low on the eastern horizon, it rises higher each day, heading toward a dramatic August conjunction with Venus.



Mercury is visible only briefly - watch for it in the west during the first week of July, beginning about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. It stays close to the horizon and sets quickly, so timing and a clear view are key.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-energy-imbalance-discovered-on-saturn/">Saturn</a> makes its entrance around midnight and climbs high in the southern sky by dawn - offering a glimpse of the planet for early risers.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/SQu8utmfOQk?si=IG-nb7ithbJF3vQD
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">What are some skywatching highlights in July 2025? Look for Mars in the evening, Venus and Jupiter in the morning, and find the eagle constellation, Aquila, soaring overhead.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-first-successful-mars-mission">The first successful Mars mission</h2>



July 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of NASA’s Mariner 4 mission, which performed the first successful Mars flyby in 1965. 



The spacecraft sent back the first close-up images of the Martian surface and revealed that the planet’s atmosphere was thin, cold, and not as Earth-like as once imagined.&nbsp;



Before Mariner 4, many scientists and the public still held out hope that Mars might resemble a second Earth - perhaps even supporting vegetation or signs of life.&nbsp;



However, the grainy black-and-white images, showing a cratered, barren landscape, were a sobering reality check that reshaped our understanding of the Red Planet.



Despite dashing earlier hopes, Mariner 4 paved the way for decades of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-collapse-why-did-mars-become-a-desert/">Mars</a> exploration. It was the first time humans had seen another planet up close. The mission proved that long-distance robotic exploration was not only possible, but essential.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-spotting-aquila-in-the-july-sky">Spotting Aquila in the July sky</h2>



July is also the ideal time to view Aquila, the Eagle constellation, in the eastern sky during the first half of the night. Its brightest star, Altair, is easy to spot and forms part of the Summer Triangle, along with Vega and Deneb.



Aquila represents the eagle of Zeus in Greek mythology - a powerful messenger and symbol of divine strength. 



Altair marks the eagle’s heart, with its wings stretching wide across the night sky. To find it, look for the triangle-shaped pattern and note that Altair sits at the southern point.



While Aquila’s other stars aren’t as bright, they’re easier to trace under dark skies. The second half of July is especially good for observing this constellation, as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-did-earth-get-its-moon-a-new-theory-has-emerged/">Moon</a> rises later and leaves the early night sky darker.



For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Aquila is a summer favorite. Once you’ve located Altair, try to follow the eagle’s full wingspan across the sky. It appears to fly northward with its wings outstretched.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-dates-for-july-skywatching-nbsp">Key dates for July skywatching&nbsp;</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>July 1–7: Mercury is bright and easy to spot in the west after sunset - if you catch it in time. It vanishes within an hour of sundown.</li>



<li>July 21–22: Look east before sunrise to see Venus and Jupiter joined by a crescent Moon, along with several bright stars.</li>



<li>July 28: In the evening sky, the Moon passes close to Mars, offering a beautiful pairing.</li>
</ul>



Whether you’re watching Mars fade into the west or spotting Venus and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/jupiters-past-how-the-young-gas-giant-shaped-our-solar-system/">Jupiter</a> at dawn, July will be a rewarding month to keep an eye on the sky.&nbsp;



NASA’s monthly “What’s Up” guide helps us stay connected to the ever-changing night sky. To explore more about NASA’s space missions and skywatching tools, visit <a href="https://science.nasa.gov">science.nasa.gov</a>.



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July 2025 skywatching: Bright planets and a summer constellation 

From bright planets to a mythological bird soaring among the stars, July 2025 has an exciting show lined up in the night sky.&nbsp; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has shared its skywatching highlights - revealing what to be on the lookout for this month, from sunset to sunrise. Planets in motion Venus reigns in the morning sky all month, shining brightly in the east during the hours before sunrise. Look for it near the Pleiades star cluster and two brilliant stars - Aldebaran and Capella. Mars is...

The discovery of fossilized dinosaur prints on the coast of Scotland near Inverness provides the first evidence that dinosaurs lived on the Scottish mainland. 

Previously, the only Jurassic evidence of dinosaurs in Scotland was found on the Isle of Skye, nicknamed Jurassic Isle because of the wealth of dinosaur footprints found in the area. 

The discovery of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-dinosaur-footprints-jurassic/">50 footprints on the Scottish island this year</a> are thought to be the oldest dinosaur fossils ever found in Scotland, dating back 170 million years. The prints come from theropods and massive sauropods. 

However, a recent discovery by Neil Clark, the vice president of the <a href="https://www.geologyglasgow.org.uk/">Geological Society of Glasgow</a>, shows that sauropods also walked on the mainland of Scotland. 

Sauropods measured 60 feet tall and 80 feet long and their massive tales was one of their best defenses. According to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>, the herbivores could create a sonic boom with just one crack of their tale. 

Clark had long felt that there must be more evidence of dinosaurs in Scotland besides just on the Isle of Skye and during a conference at Inverness, Clark came upon just the evidence he was looking for. 

A massive footprint, perfectly preserved along the shoreline of Northeast Scotland and dating back 170 million years ago was discovered by Clark in March. The print most likely belongs to a member of the sauropod family.

[caption id="attachment_1217665" align="aligncenter" width="563"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-21-at-10.28.54-AM.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1217665" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-21-at-10.28.54-AM.png" alt="" width="563" height="675" /></a> Image Credit: Dr. Neil Clark[/caption]

“I was excited - I knew the significance of the find straight away,” Clark told the Daily Mail. “They are from a completely new part of Scotland for dinosaurs and will add significantly to our understanding of dinosaurs of that age in Britain.”

Clark is working to raise funds to help further explore dinosaur footprints around Inverness and other parts of Scotland using drones that can record the location of dinosaur prints and measure how the prints weather the impacts of erosion. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Footprints reveal that dinosaurs roamed the Scottish mainland

The discovery of fossilized dinosaur prints on the coast of...

On January 17th of this year, bright flashes lit up the night sky above Detroit, Michigan. The flashes were the result of a meteor explosion as it disintegrated in the atmosphere. These extremely bright meteors are called bolides, and roughly 2,000 of them pass through the Earth’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activity-seasonal-cycles/">atmosphere</a> each year, exploding with the force of between 0.8 and 8.1 tons of TNT. Despite the fact that thousands of these bolides are seen from Earth annually, the Michigan bolide was an especially interesting event for scientists to study.

This meteor explosion was captured by infrasonic microphones and seismometers, which gave researchers the rare opportunity to compare the data with satellite and ground camera images. A team of scientists led by Michael Hedlin of <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/">Scripps Institution of Oceanography</a> has published a report in <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/srl">Seismological Research Letters</a> in which they use this data to pinpoint the time, location, and height of the bolide disintegration, as well as calculate an approximate yield for the explosion.

When the Michigan bolide exploded in our planet’s lower atmosphere, it produced large shockwaves and a variety of soundwaves in the low-frequency and infrasound range below 20 hertz. Seismic stations in the Central and Eastern US Network (CEUSN) captured these waves using infrasound microphones. Scientists also detected the burst in seismic wave data collected by stations in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario.

The researchers used this data to make calculations on the location, height, timing, and yield of the bolide’s disintegration. They then compared those values with the “ground truth” for these characteristics that were calculated through optical observations of the meteor taken by cameras on the ground and from recordings by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite.

As Hedlin explains, “it’s pretty unusual for such immense events to occur over a heavily instrumented area; they could be expected to occur once every several decades.” 

The researchers conclude that the infrasound and seismic calculations were consistent with the optical observations – although some of the calculations such as location and yield provided by infrasound data come with a significant amount of statistical uncertainty. However, the seismic data was used to pinpoint the location and height of the burst within kilometers, and was in agreement with the optical data. 

Scientists can use this study to assess the potential threat these bolides pose on the ground, as well as use data from bolide bursts as test cases to determine how well infrasound and seismic instruments can locate and characterize secret nuclear test explosions. Their findings can be utilized to “make some inferences about how detectable similar-sized anthropogenic events would be – how far away from the explosion source we’d be able to detect signals, for example,” concludes Hedlin.

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By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Michigan meteor explosion helps scientists detect future threats

On January 17th of this year, bright flashes lit up...

The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brainprints-new-fingerprints/">brain</a>, has been considered central to the experience and perception of fear for many years. But now, new research has revealed that the role of the amygdala is much more complicated than previously thought.

The study's author, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, is a research scientist at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/">Massachusetts General Hospital</a>.

“Scientists originally hypothesized that the amygdala contained the circuitry necessary for fear and its related behaviors,” said Dr. Barrett. “They continually broadened their hypotheses for the amygdala's role with accumulating research in both humans and non-human animals. The amygdala was then thought to contain the circuitry for negative emotions, for emotions in general, and eventually, for anything broadly effective, such as threat.”

“Through the natural process of systematic scientific investigation, it's become clearer that the amygdala plays a role in signaling the rest of the brain to information that is important to learn because it is relevant to allostasis - the brain's process of anticipating the needs of the body and attempting to meet those needs before they arise. Whether threatening, rewarding or novel, this to-be-learned information will help the brain better predict future occasions.”


Ever since a study by University of Chicago researchers Heinrich Klüver and Paul C. Bucy was published in the 1930s, the amygdala has been associated with fear. The authors described transformative behavioral changes in rhesus monkeys after they had this region of their brains removed. The monkeys became unafraid of approaching snakes and other threatening animals.

According to Dr. Barrett, experts had concluded the amygdala was integral to a central fear system in the brain by the early 1990s. However, the perception of the amygdala's role began to change around 1994, when a team at the University of Iowa College of Medicine began to publish studies of a patient with rare bilateral lesions of the amygdala resulting from a condition known as Urbach-Wiethe disease. 

The experts found that the patient was unable to recognize facial expressions of fear, underscoring the earlier conclusions about the role of the amygdala. 

Further trials with the patient revealed that she had difficulty perceiving facial expressions of other emotions when those expressions involved a widening of the eyes.


Dr. Barrett explained that these findings led to the development of new theories about the role of the amygdala in the experience and perception of fear. It now seems that the amygdala does not directly control fear, but is involved in a person's ability to attend to the whites of another person's widened eyes. This is more important to social functioning.

“The amygdala is not necessary to experience or perceive fear,” said Dr. Barrett. “Amygdala neurons very likely contribute to fear in some instances, but the neurons can't be said to actually compute fear. More likely, amygdala neurons act as a context-sensitive sentinel for learning threat and reward.”


“The original hypotheses about the amygdala's role in fear turned out not to be supported after careful study across decades. This is a good example of how the scientific method, at its best, works.”

Dr. Barrett's paper is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/home">Trends in Neurosciences</a>.

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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The amygdala plays a complex role in how we experience fear

The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the brain, has been...

The science of beauty is simpler than you might expect. Famed poet John Keats once wrote, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever,” though he certainly was not the only writer to illustrate our fascination with beauty in words.

Poets, philosophers, writers, and psychologists have long looked at what draws us to beauty, but recently a new study examined the concepts beauty with science. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/">New York University</a> conducted an analysis of beauty and found that the driving factors behind how we respond to and process something aesthetically pleasing are much simpler than was previously realized.The science of beauty is simpler than you might expect 

“It is widely assumed that the experience of beauty requires prolonged contemplation. But our primer reveals that a fraction of a second is enough,” said Aenne Brielmann, the lead author of the study. 

The results were published in the journal Current Biology. 

The research is part of a growing field of study called empirical aesthetics which is a branch of psychology that delves into the experiences of beauty and art. 

Understanding why we respond to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-media-beauty-standards/">beauty the way we do</a> is important because it is one of the main motivations behind consumer spending. The beauty industry alone is worth <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2017/05/18/self-made-women-wealth-beauty-gold-mine/#5f308bc72a3a">445 billion dollars</a>.

Trends by themselves can’t dictate consumer buying motivation, as companies must also work to create products and services that appeal to the public’s drive to own beautiful things or improve personal features.

For the study, the researchers analyzed writings on beauty from Plato, Oscar Wilde (19th-century novelist and playwright), Alexander Baumgarten (18th-century philosopher), and Gustav Fechner (psychologist). 

“Beauty is famously subjective and supposed to be intractable by science, but some of its key properties follow simple rules,” said  Denis Pelli, a co-author of the paper. “Philosophers have long supposed that the feeling of beauty is a special kind of pleasure. Yet, our analysis of research in the field shows that the feeling of beauty may merely be a very intense pleasure, not otherwise special”

The researchers found that while symmetry can enhance beauty, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for personal tastes and subjectivity. 

Instead, the researchers found that, as philosophers from centuries past claimed, beauty is a feeling of pleasure. When we’re faced with something beautiful, it stimulates activity in the pleasure centers of our brain. 

The results, according to the researchers, could help better explain what motivations drive consumer spending and decision making. 

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The science of beauty is simpler than you might expect

The science of beauty is simpler than you might expect....

A study from the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> has created a timeline for the history of life, from the time of its origin until the present day, using a combination of genomic and fossil data.

While palaeontologists have attempted for many years to understand the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hybridization-evolution-life/">life</a>, the fossil record is extremely fragmented. The quality of this record weakens further back in time toward the Archaean period, more than 2.5 billion years ago. At this time, the Earth's crust had cooled enough to allow the formation of continents and microbes were the only form of life.

“There are few fossils from the Archaean and they generally cannot be unambiguously assigned to the lineages we are familiar with, like the blue-green algae or the salt-loving archaebacteria that colours salt-marshes pink all around the world,” explained study lead author Holly Betts.

“The problem with the early fossil record of life is that it is so limited and difficult to interpret - careful reanalysis of the some of the very oldest fossils has shown them to be crystals, not fossils at all.”

New discoveries and novel interpretations of existing fossils have led to conflicting theories about the timescale of the early history of life.

“Fossils do not represent the only line of evidence to understand the past. A second record of life exists, preserved in the genomes of all living creatures,” said study co-author Professor Philip Donoghue.

Dr. Tom Williams explained, “Combining fossil and genomic information, we can use an approach called the ‘molecular clock’ which is loosely based on the idea that the number of differences in the genomes of two living species (say a human and a bacterium) are proportional to the time since they shared a common ancestor.”


In collaboration with Mark Puttick from the <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/">University of Bath</a>, the Bristol team mapped the history of life on Earth without relying on the oldest fossil evidence.

“Using this approach we were able to show that the Last Universal Common Ancestor all cellular life forms, ‘LUCA,’ existed very early in Earth's history, almost 4.5 Billion years ago - not long after Earth was impacted by the planet Theia, the event which sterilised Earth and led to the formation of the Moon,” said study co-author Professor Davide Pisani.

“This is significantly earlier than the currently accepted oldest fossil evidence would suggest. Our results indicate that two ‘primary’ lineages of life emerged from LUCA (the Eubacteria and the Archaebacteria), approximately one billion years after LUCA.”

“This result is testament to the power of genomic information, as it is impossible, based on the available fossil information, to discriminate between the oldest eubacterial and archaebacterial fossil remains.”

The study findings support modern views that the eukaryotes, the lineage to which human life belongs, is not a primary lineage of life.

“It is rather humbling to think we belong to a lineage that is billions of years younger than life itself,” said Professor Pisani.

The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>.

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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New timescale reveals the origin and history of life on Earth

A study from the University of Bristol has created a...

Researchers recently discovered the world’s oldest solid cheese in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/horse-buried-ceremonial-tomb/">3,200-year-old tomb</a> of an ancient Egyptian mayor and with it, the earliest biomolecular evidence of the deadly bacteria Brucella melitensis. 

The cheese was discovered in a pot as part of the tomb of Pthames who was a mayor of the Egyptian capital Memphis. 

Pthames tomb was first discovered in 1885 but then was later forgotten and buried by desert sands until recent recovery efforts took place in 2010. 

Researchers took samples from a white lumpy mass found in a jar along with cloth that could have either covered the mass or helped preserve it. 

The researchers say that the cloth would not have been suitable for liquid contents so whatever was in the jar must have been solid, according to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6064031/Worlds-oldest-cheese-3-200-year-old-Egyptian-tomb-carries-killer-bacteria.html">Daily Mail </a>which reported on the study. 

To identify the contents of the jar, the researchers dissolved a sample of the white mass, purified the proteins contained within the sample, and analyzed the proteins. 

After analyzing the sample, the researchers discovered that the white mass was a dairy product made from both cow milk and either sheep or goat milk. The team concluded that the mass was likely a kind of cheese. 

Luckily, being buried as such with the tomb, the researchers were still able to identify the cheese’s properties. 

“The material analyzed in this study is probably the most ancient archeological solid residue of cheese ever found to date,” Enrico Greco, a chemical scientist at <a href="https://www.unict.it/en/">Catania University</a> in Italy who helped identify the cheese, told the Daily Mail. “The constituting material was a dairy product obtained by mixing sheep or goat and cow milk.”

Besides cheese, the researchers also found the presence of a bacteria called Brucella melitensis which can cause brucellosis, a sometimes fatal disease that you can still get from eating contaminated products from infected animals. 

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Enrico Greco

The world’s oldest cheese contains deadly bacteria

Researchers recently discovered the world’s oldest solid cheese in the...

Facial recognition, voice-activated unlocking technology, and thumbprint recognition are all ways that can be used to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/technology-identify-people-walk/">identify someone</a> based on their unique traits. But there may soon be a new foolproof method to identify individuals, and it has to do with the physical links between regions in the brain called the connectome. 

Every person’s connectome is unique, and brainprints created using connectome mapping could help identify people, even differentiating between twins. 

Researchers are also working with neurological imaging and machine learning to show changes in the brain over time due to disease, environmental influences, and inherited traits. 

A person’s brainprint may one day help explain the driving factors of autism spectrum disorders or attention deficit disorder. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> proved that connectomes could be used to identify individuals by measuring the connectomes of 699 brains form five different datasets. 

Further analysis showed that connectomes act as unique fingerprints and that connectomes could be used to identify someone with a nearly 100 percent rate of accuracy.

In a <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171102151036.htm">2017 study</a>, researchers from the <a href="https://www.ohsu.edu/xd/">Oregon Health and Science University</a> (OHSU) found that although each person’s brainprint is unique, connectomes also demonstrate familial relationships and inherited traits. 

For this study, the researchers used two datasets of functional MRI brain scans from 350 adult and child siblings. 

The researchers were then able to use a combination of imaging and machine learning to identify siblings, even twins, but also found that only some the connectome was unique to each individual. 

“This confirms that while unique to each individual, some aspects of the family connectome are inherited and maintained throughout development and may be useful as early biomarkers of mental or neurological conditions,” said Oscar Miranda-Dominguez, the lead author of the OHSU 2017 study.

OHSU professor Damien Fair currently heads a lab solely focused on understanding the connectome and what it can relay about the brain over time as well as the development of certain neuropsychiatric conditions. 

“These findings add to the way we think about normal and altered brain function,” said Fair. “Further, it creates more opportunity for personalized and targeted treatment approaches for conditions such as ADHD or autism.”

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: <a href="http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/">The NIH Human Connectome Project</a>

Could brainprints become the new fingerprints?

Facial recognition, voice-activated unlocking technology, and thumbprint recognition are all...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-humans-climate-change-2/">Climate change</a> isn’t a new occurrence on our planet. The Earth’s climate has been shifting through periods of warming and cooling ever since it was first formed over 4.5 billion years ago. In fact, one of these cooling periods occurred just 8,000 years ago, when around 6200 B.C.E., climates cooled across the planet. Scientists believe that giant glacial lakes in North America spilled into the Atlantic Ocean, changing sea currents and weather patterns, ultimately triggering what is now known as the 8.2-kiloyear event (as it occurred roughly 8,200 years ago).

This cooling event lead to much drier summers in the Northern Hemisphere, which would have certainly created some problems for ancient farmers. Now for the first time, an international team of researchers from the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> and <a href="https://international.amu.edu.pl/">Adam Mickiewicz University</a> has found evidence of just exactly how people living during that time may have been affected. 

They did this through digging up fragments of clay pottery (or potsherds) buried in ancient trash piles in one of the world’s oldest protocities – known as Çatalhöyük. 

Çatalhöyük existed in what is now central Turkey. From around 7500 B.C.E. to 5700 B.C.E., early farmers grew wheat, barley, and peaks and raised cattle, goats, and sheep in this small city of about 10,000 inhabitants. When the 8.2-kiloyear event occurred, it would have dried up feed crops and grazing lands, as well as resulted in colder winters. This likely would have led to thinner livestock in reduced numbers. And because the people of Çatalhöyük stored animal meat in clay pots, the researchers imagined that they could assess the “chemical echoes” of the animals’ dietary distress. 

Using gas chromatography – a type of mass spectrometry that identifies elemental variants known as isotopes – the researchers looked at the hydrogen isotopes of the fat deposits in these clay pots. This helped them determine that the sherds dating to roughly 8,200 years ago had a ratio of isotope deuterium – or heavy hydrogen – that was 9 percent higher than other hydrogen isotopes from the sample. 

This is an important find, as previous research on the area’s climate and plant chemistry had found that lower precipitation rates were linked to higher ratios of heavy hydrogen. The livestock would have taken up more of this heavy hydrogen through grazing during the climate cooling. 

The researchers report the first direct archaeological evidence of this phenomenon in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>. It’s possible that through similar analysis of other fat-soaked pot sherds from different sites around the world, the researchers will be able to accurately recreate climate conditions for other ancient cultures.

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By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ancient pottery shows effects of climate change on early humans

Climate change isn’t a new occurrence on our planet. The...

The ability of scientists to predict natural disasters such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-landslides/">landslides</a> and earthquakes is something that can save lives when applied correctly. While an instrument such as a seismograph can detail tremors leading up to an earthquake, it doesn’t give anybody nearby that much time to evacuate the area. 

Luckily, researchers from the <a href="https://www.unimelb.edu.au/">University of Melbourne</a> have developed a software tool that uses applied mathematics and big data analytics to predict the boundary of where a landslide will occur – two weeks in advance. 

The researchers knew that there are always warning signs leading up to a collapse that causes a landslide, but it was difficult to determine what these signs are. 

“These warnings can be subtle. Identifying them requires fundamental knowledge of failure at the microstructure level – the movement of individual grains of earth,” says Antoinette Tordesillas, a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. “Of course, we cannot possibly see the movement of individual grains in a landslide or earthquake that stretches for kilometers, but if we can identify the properties that characterize failure in the small-scale, we can shed light on how failure evolves in time, no matter the size of the area we are observing.”

The early clues leading up to a landslide are patterns of motion that change over time, ultimately becoming synchronized. 

“In the beginning, the movement is highly disordered,” explains Tordesillas. “But as we get closer to the point of failure – the collapse of a sand castle, crack in the pavement or slip in an open pit mine – motion becomes ordered as different locations suddenly move in similar ways.”

Their model decodes the data on movement, turning it into a network that allows the researchers to extract hidden patterns on motion, and see how they change in space and time. The key is in detecting the ordered motions in the network as soon as possible, which is when these movements are at their most subtle. This new software is now focused on using algorithms and big data to formulate risk assessment and management actions that may be able to save lives.

“People have gone somewhat overboard on so-called data analytics, machine learning and so on,” says Robin Batterham, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “While we’ve been doing this sort of stuff for 40 years, this software harnesses the computer power and memory available to look not just at the surface movement, but extract the relevant data patterns. We’re able to do things that were just unimaginable in a mathematical sense 30 years ago.”

With this new technology, it’s possible that we’ll be able to predict when a landfill or dam might break, when a mudslide may occur, or when a building’s foundation will crack or move. Being able to apply this throughout the world could save countless lives in the future.

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By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New technology can predict landslides well before they happen

The ability of scientists to predict natural disasters such as...

New research has proven that, even on a cellular level, what doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger. 

According to a new study, cells that experience stress early on have healthier development and decreased rates of toxic buildup than unstressed cells. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.salk.edu/">Salk Institute,</a> the <a href="https://medicine.yale.edu/">Yale School of Medicine</a> and <a href="https://www.appstate.edu/">Appalachian State University</a> conducted the study and found cells exposed to stressors for a brief period fared better later on and produced more antioxidants than unstressed cells.

The results, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, could help with the development of new and innovative <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/halting-aging-rejuvenating-cells/">anti-aging treatments</a>. 

“The novelty of this study is that we've generated a model in which we can turn off antioxidant production in mitochondria but in a reversible way,” said Gerald Shadel, the senior author of the paper. “So we were able to induce this stress for specific time windows and see how cells responded.”

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and for the study, the researchers focused on toxic buildup produced by the mitochondria called superoxide. 

Mitochondria produce an enzyme called superoxide dismutase (SOD) to convert superoxide into something less toxic to the cell. 

The researchers wanted to find a way to turn off SOD enzyme production to see how short bouts of superoxide stress affected the cell later on. 

The team did this in genetically identical mice while still in utero and had a control group of mice with SOD enzyme production unaffected. The mice with the SOD switch turned off were exposed to brief periods of cellular stress from superoxide buildup. 

Once the mice were born, the researchers analyzed liver samples taken from the group that had SOD production turned off and the mice whose cells were allowed to function normally. 

In the mice who had dealt with superoxide buildup, their liver cells were more resilient and there were higher levels of antioxidants, less superoxide buildup, and more healthy mitochondria. 

None of these things were found in the liver samples of the mice who hadn’t had SOD production turned off. 

The researchers also found similar results in cells that had been grown either with the SOD switch or without. Cells exposed to superoxide stress were healthier, according to the research. 

It will be exciting to see if these findings could help create pathways to trigger cell resilience against common aging diseases like Alzheimer's. 

The results show that short-term mitochondrial stress doesn’t weaken or damage the cell, but instead strengthens the cell and could help keep cells healthy for longer periods of time. 

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

What doesn’t kill you really does make your cells stronger

New research has proven that, even on a cellular level,...

Moth study confirms Darwin’s theory of evolution. Scientists at the <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> have investigated the survival odds of pale and dark forms of the peppered moth, Biston betularia. The researchers demonstrated that the pale moths are safer from predators when there is less pollution, while darker moths have a better chance of survival when the air is more polluted. 

The research confirms <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/darwins-finches-first-originate/">Darwin's</a> theory of evolution. The prevalence of darker varieties of moths or other animals in polluted areas, also known as “industrial melanism,” provides critical evidence to support natural selection.

“Through a bird's eyes, the pale peppered moths more closely match lichen-covered bark, whereas darker individuals more closely match plain bark,” said first author Olivia Walton.

“Crucially, this translates into a strong survival advantage; the lighter moths are much less likely to be seen by wild birds when on lichen-covered backgrounds, in comparison to dark moths.”

During the Industrial Revolution across the UK, pollution killed the lichen on trees and the bark was darkened by soot. As a result, a new type of peppered moth emerged with darker wings.

Years later, when the soot cleared up and the lichen recovered, the pale moths made a major comeback. While this phenomenon has been well-documented, it was never investigated whether the camouflage protected the moths from birds and other predators.


“This is one of the most iconic examples of evolution, used in biology textbooks around the world, yet fiercely attacked by creationists seeking to discredit evolution,” said Professor Martin Stevens.

“Remarkably, no previous study has quantified the camouflage of peppered moths, or related this to survival against predators in controlled experiments.”Moth study confirms Darwin’s theory of evolution

“Using digital image analysis to simulate bird vision and field experiments in British woodland, we compared how easily birds can see pale and darker moths, and ultimately determine their predation risk.”

“Our findings confirm the conventional story put forward by early evolutionary biologists - that changes in the frequency of dark and pale peppered moths were driven by changes in pollution and camouflage.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/commsbio/">Communications Biology</a>.

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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Olivia Walton

Moth study confirms Darwin’s theory of evolution

Moth study confirms Darwin’s theory of evolution. Scientists at the...

A <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/first-genome-data-egyptian-mummies/">mummy</a> housed in an Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy since 1901 was embalmed 1,500 years before traditional Egyptian embalming was thought practiced.

It was believed that the Turin mummy, which had not undergone any conversation treatments through the museum, had been naturally mummified in desert sand. 

However, researchers from the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a> and <a href="https://www.mq.edu.au/">Macquarie University</a> saw the unique opportunity the untouched Turin Mummy presented in learning about prehistoric mummies and conducted a chemical analysis on the subject. 

The researchers found that the Turin Mummy was between 20 and 30 years of age when he died. 

The results, published in the journal Journal of Archaeological Science, show that the mummy, which dates from 3,700 to 3,500 BC, was preserved with resins, botanicals, and plant oil which soaked into its funerary wraps and preserved the body. 

It’s a similar process used in ancient Egyptian funeral practices however, the mummy was embalmed 2,500 years before embalming had reached its peak. 

“The examination of the Turin body makes a momentous contribution to our limited knowledge of the prehistoric period and the expansion of early mummification practices as well as providing vital, new information on this particular mummy,” said Jana Jones, an Egyptologist and expert on Ancient Egyptian burial practices from Macquarie University. 

The Turin mummy is not the first to provide evidence that embalming was happening earlier than previously thought, but the new study confirms these earlier findings and shows that not only was embalming used earlier but it was also common over a wider geographical area before Ancient Egypt reached its apex. 

“Having identified very similar embalming recipes in our previous research on prehistoric burials, this latest study provides both the first evidence for the wider geographical use of these balms and the first ever unequivocal scientific evidence for the use of embalming on an intact, prehistoric Egyptian mummy,” said Stephen Buckley, an archaeological chemist and mummification expert. 

The Turin mummy reveals burial traditions typical of Ancient Egyptian society were practiced much earlier and across a greater area than previously realized and helps provide insight into how embalming evolved through the years. 

“The results change significantly our understanding of the development of mummification and the use of embalming agents and demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary science in understanding the past,” said Tom Higham, an expert on radiocarbon dating. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Dr Stephen Buckley, University of York

Ancient mummy reveals early Egyptian embalming practices

A mummy housed in an Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How the immune system responds to injury

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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