Asteroid,Vesta,In,Space.,Surface,Of,Space,Stone,From,Asteroid

For more than a decade, Vesta has sat in a scientific gray zone: too big and geologically complex to be an ordinary asteroid, yet never quite elevated to the status of a true planet. 



Its basalt-covered surface hinted at a molten past, and early analyses of data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft suggested that Vesta possessed the same fundamental architecture as Earth - crust, mantle, and metallic core. That tidy picture has now been upended.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vesta-s-internal-structure">Vesta's internal structure </h2>



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) re-examined Dawn’s gravity and imaging records with greatly refined calibration methods. The result is a radical reinterpretation of Vesta’s internal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/asteroid-vesta-found-to-have-channels-that-look-like-water-made-gullies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">structure</a>.



Rather than harboring a dense central core, the 500-kilometer-wide body appears almost uniform throughout. 



“The lack of a core was very surprising. It’s a really different way of thinking about Vesta," said study co-author Seth Jacobson, a planetary scientist at <a href="https://msu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michigan State University</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vesta-s-history-is-surprisingly-complex">Vesta's history is surprisingly complex</h2>



The research team reached this conclusion by looking at a property called the moment of inertia, which governs how an object’s mass is distributed and, consequently, how it spins in space. 



Bodies with heavy centers behave like figure skaters who pull their arms in to rotate faster; those with evenly distributed mass spin more sluggishly. Vesta’s spin signature fits the latter description, contradicting earlier models that required a substantial iron-nickel core.



To obtain their revised measurements, principal investigator Ryan Park and colleagues spent nearly a decade perfecting the cross-calibration between Dawn’s onboard cameras and radio-tracking data transmitted through <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA’s Deep Space Network</a>.



“After nearly a decade of refining our calibration and processing techniques, we achieved remarkable alignment between Dawn’s Deep Space Network radiometric data and onboard imaging data,” Park explained. 



“Our findings show Vesta’s history is far more complex than previously believed, shaped by unique processes like interrupted planetary differentiation and late-stage collisions.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-two-competing-theories-on-vesta">Two competing theories on Vesta</h2>



Two competing ideas now vie to explain what Vesta really is. One option is that the object began to differentiate - melting internally so that metals could sink and silicates rise - but the process froze in mid-stride. 



That would make Vesta a kind of geological time capsule, preserving a rare snapshot of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scorching-world-offers-clues-to-planetary-evolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">planetary evolution</a> arrested before its final act.



Yet this scenario clashes with laboratory analyses of meteorites that match Vesta’s spectral fingerprint. “We’re really confident these meteorites came from Vesta,” Jacobson noted. “And these don’t show obvious evidence of incomplete differentiation.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fragment-of-a-lost-world">Fragment of a lost world</h2>



The alternative, more audacious hypothesis is that Vesta is not a stalled planet at all but a fragment blasted off a larger world during the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/distant-icy-worlds-are-unlocking-secrets-of-the-solar-system/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">solar system</a>’s chaotic youth. Jacobson first floated the idea informally years ago, suggesting that some meteorites might be relics of violent impacts among embryonic planets.



“This idea went from a somewhat silly suggestion to a hypothesis that we’re now taking seriously due to this re-analysis of NASA Dawn mission data,” Jacobson said. 



If correct, Vesta would be a shard of primordial crust from a planet that continued to accrete elsewhere - or perhaps never reached maturity because subsequent collisions shattered it beyond recognition.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-implications-of-the-study">Broader implications of the study</h2>



Either explanation reshapes Vesta’s scientific value. In the incomplete-differentiation model, the body offers insight into the thermal limits that determine whether small planetary embryos grow full cores. 



In the impact-fragment model, Vesta becomes forensic evidence of the collisions that sculpted the inner solar system, possibly preserving geochemical clues to an unknown “parent” planet. 



Jacobson’s research group is already building computer models of such giant impacts, while graduate student Emily Elizondo examines how ejected debris might migrate into the asteroid belt and survive for billions of years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-directions">Future research directions </h2>



More work lies ahead. Planetary <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chemists-could-be-key-to-prevent-animal-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chemists</a> can re-evaluate Vesta-derived <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-meteorites-tell-us-about-their-birthplace-in-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meteorites</a> in light of the new gravity data, looking for isotopic markers that would either support or refute a uniform interior.



Meanwhile, improved dynamical simulations could test whether a collision-origin scenario can reproduce Vesta’s current orbit and composition. 



Dawn’s legacy data set remains a treasure trove; the same re-processing techniques may yet reveal subtler interior details or reconcile inconsistencies in previous models.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pieces-of-an-ancient-planet">Pieces of an ancient planet</h2>



Whatever the final answer, Vesta’s story now looks less like a straightforward tale of arrested growth and more like a detective mystery spanning 4.5 billion years. “No longer is the Vesta meteorite collection a sample of a body in space that failed to make it as a planet,” Jacobson said.



“These could be pieces of an ancient planet before it grew to full completion. We just don’t know which planet that is yet.” 



In reframing Vesta from wannabe planet to either an unfinished embryo or a planetary shard, scientists gain fresh perspective on the tumultuous processes that forged the terrestrial world we inhabit today.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02533-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Astronomy</a>



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Asteroid Vesta may be a fragment of a lost world

For more than a decade, Vesta has sat in a scientific gray zone: too big and geologically complex to be an ordinary asteroid, yet never quite elevated to the status of a true planet. Its basalt-covered surface hinted at a molten past, and early analyses of data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft suggested that Vesta possessed the same fundamental architecture as Earth - crust, mantle, and metallic core. That tidy picture has now been upended. Vesta's internal structure A new study led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory...

When NASA’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/traces-of-an-ancient-ocean-found-on-mars/">Mars</a> rovers discovered manganite oxides in the Gale and Endeavor craters on Mars in 2014, scientists suggested that the red planet might have had more oxygen in its atmosphere billions of years ago. However, a new experimental study conducted by the <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University in St. Louis</a> (WUSTL) found that, under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily form without the presence of atmospheric oxygen.



Since Mars is rich in the halogen elements chlorine and bromine, the experts conducted laboratory experiments using these two substances to oxidize manganese in water samples that they made to replicate fluids from early Mars.



“We were inspired by reactions seen during chlorination of drinking water,” said study senior author Jeffrey Catalano, a professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at WUSTL. “Understanding other planets sometimes requires us to apply knowledge gained from seemingly unrelated fields of science and engineering.”



The experiments revealed that halogens converted manganese dissolved in water into manganese oxide minerals thousands or even millions of times faster than oxygen could do this. Moreover, under the weakly acidic conditions thought to characterize early Mars’ surface, bromate produces manganese oxide minerals faster than any other known oxidant.



“Oxidation does not necessitate the involvement of oxygen by definition,” said study lead author Kaushik Mitra,&nbsp;a postdoctoral fellow at <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/">Stony Brook University</a>, who completed this research as a graduate student at WUSTL. “Earlier, we proposed viable oxidants on Mars, other than oxygen or via UV photooxidation, that help explain why the red planet is red. In the case of manganese, we just did not have a viable alternative to oxygen that could explain manganese oxides until now.”



However, although these findings suggest there was not much oxygen on ancient Mars, there is no particular reason to conclude that there was no life either. “There are several life forms even on Earth that do not require oxygen to survive. I don’t think of it as a ‘setback’ to habitability - only that there were probably no oxygen-based lifeforms,” Mitra explained.



“We need more experiments conducted in diverse geochemical conditions that are more relevant to specific planets like Mars, Venus, and ‘ocean worlds’ like Europa and Enceladus in order to have the correct and full understanding of the geochemical and geological environments on these planetary bodies. Every planet is unique in its own right, and we cannot extrapolate the observations made on one planet to exactly understand a different planet,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01094-y">Nature Geoscience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Ancient Mars had less oxygen than previously thought

When NASA’s Mars rovers discovered manganite oxides in the Gale...

Many centuries ago, ancient Celtic cultures believed that mistletoe was a “universal healer" with medicinal qualities that could boost health and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mediterranean-diet-improves-sperm-quality-and-fertility/">fertility</a>. Now, a study led by <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a> confirms that mistletoe can be very beneficial to human health by sealing wounds for days at a time.&nbsp;



Mistletoe berries produce a sticky thread known as viscin that is strong enough to seal wounds. In collaboration with experts at the Max Planck Institute, the team found that wet viscin fibers can transform into films that rigidly and transparently adhere to surfaces as they dry.



“The sealant remained flexible, allowing free movement when performing everyday tasks and was resistant even to brief water rinsing,” wrote the researchers. “To remove the seal from the tissue, friction could be used by simply rubbing the sealed area.”



Study lead author Matthew Harrington's research is primarily focused on exploring natural adhesives to create advanced bio-inspired materials. He said the fact that viscin can adhere to both wood and fur or feathers may be evolutionarily relevant.&nbsp;



“But it is more difficult to explain the adhesion to various synthetic surfaces, such as plastics, glass and metal alloys, from an adaptive point of view," said Harrington. “So, viscin may just represent a very versatile adhesion chemistry, which is what makes it so interesting to explore what happens chemically.”



This is the first time researchers have investigated the potential medical uses of the glue found in mistletoe berries. Next, the experts hope to gain a better understanding of the chemistry of viscin film for replication.



Study first author Nils Horbelt said he wore the adhesive on his skin for three days and found it flexible enough to move without breaking.



"I wore a thin film of viscin on my skin for three days to observe its adhesive qualities and was able to remove it from my fingers afterwards by simply rubbing them together," said Horbelt. "But there still remain many questions about this very unusual material."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus">PNAS Nexus</a>.



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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



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Mistletoe berries have surprising healing properties

Many centuries ago, ancient Celtic cultures believed that mistletoe was...

With the holiday season fast approaching, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.etsmtl.ca/en/home">École de technologie supérieure</a> (ÉTS) and <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a> has estimated the environmental footprint of a traditional Christmas meal in Canada. The experts found that meat-based meals have a much higher <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fast-fashion-carbon-footprint/">carbon footprint</a> than vegetarian or vegan ones, thus negatively contributing to the climate crisis our planet currently faces.



By using the Life Cycle Assessment Tool (LCA) – a technique that helps scientists estimate the potential impact of lifestyle choices on global warming, biodiversity loss, or water pollution - the researchers compared the environmental impact of typical holiday foods with other food with smaller ecological footprints.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that a typical Canadian Christmas meal consisting of a roast ham, pork pie, and a slice of fruit cake, consumes up to 70 percent of a person’s daily carbon budget, according to the targets set at the Paris Agreement, which aim to maintain global temperatures lower than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Thus, the large carbon footprint of such a meal leaves little room for other Christmas-related activities such as heating, transportation, or gift buying.



According to the researchers, ham roast and pork pie have a significantly higher impact than all the food consumed in a day by an average person in Canada on a typical omnivorous diet, confirming that the food usually consumed during holidays increases substantially our carbon footprint.&nbsp;



On the other hand, a meal consisting of a vegetable pie, vegan Wellington, and vegan cake would only use about 14 percent of an individual’s carbon budget, along with a very small parcel of land where these vegetables had to be cultivated.



These findings are quite sobering in a context in which we are strongly encouraged to limit our personal carbon footprint to 2.9 tons of CO2 equivalent per year in order to reach the 1.5C target set by the Paris Agreement, or about eight kilograms per day for all goods and services, including food.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Christmas dinner has a large environmental impact

With the holiday season fast approaching, a team of researchers...

On Monday, December 19, a mysterious shockwave in a gust of solar wind crashed into the Earth’s magnetic field, opening up a crack in the magnetosphere. According to <a href="https://spaceweather.com/index.php">Space Weather</a> – an organization keeping track of such events – the barrage of plasma that penetrated the magnetosphere has led to a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/geomagnetic-storm-auroras-sky/">geomagnetic storm</a>.



Although the shockwave’s origins are not exactly known, scientists believe it could have come from a coronal mass ejection (CME) launched by the sunspot AR3165, an area on the Sun’s surface which already released at least eight solar flares on December 14, causing a brief radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp;



Sunspots are areas on the Sun’s surface where strong magnetic fields, created through the flow of electrical charges, entangle before suddenly snapping and releasing bursts of radiation called solar flares, or plumes of solar material called coronal mass ejections. Once launched, these CMEs can travel at extremely high speeds (often millions of miles per hour), sweeping up charged particles from the solar wind which, if pointed toward the Earth, can trigger geomagnetic storms.



These storms occur when solar debris consisting of electrons, protons, and alpha particles gets absorbed by the Earth’s magnetic field. If they are strong enough, they can create cracks in the magnetosphere which remain open for several hours, enabling some solar material to stream through and disrupt power systems, satellites, and radio communications.&nbsp;



Fortunately, the current storm was rather weak, causing only minor fluctuations in the power grids and impairing some satellite functions, such as those for mobile devices and GPS systems. However, scientists anticipate that in the following years, more powerful geomagnetic storms could warp our planet’s magnetic field to such an extent that satellites may tumble to Earth, electrical systems could be severely disrupted, and the Internet might stop working completely, thus causing trillions of dollars’ worth of damage, while triggering widespread blackouts and endangering thousands of lives.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Mysterious solar shockwave has cracked Earth’s magnetosphere

On Monday, December 19, a mysterious shockwave in a gust...

Who,Was,Naughty,This,Year?,Traditional,Santa,Claus,Sitting,At

A long-established Christmas tradition in many parts of the world is rewarding well-behaved children with gifts, but handing out just lumps of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-40-countries-pledged-to-stop-using-coal-power-at-cop26/">coal</a> to miscreant ones. Currently, such Christmas-related lumps of coal are widely available from major online retailers, and the #coalforchristmas hashtag crops up on social media myriad times.



However, in an opinion piece from the Christmas issue of the journal <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2970">BMJ</a>, <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/">National Health Services</a> (NHS) pediatrician Tamsin Holland Brown and her daughters Lilac and Marigold have made an environmental – and compassionate – plea for ending this “outdated and potentially harmful” tradition.&nbsp;



In their view, not only does the burning of this non-renewable fossil fuel exacerbate the current climate crisis, but its impact on air quality can endanger the health of both children and adults. “It would be good for goodness’ sake if coal was left in the ground,” they argued.



Moreover, receiving such a “gift” could also turn out to be damaging for children’s mental health. In times when global anxiety is massively fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change, fostering friendships and connections between the generations might help combating anxiety much better than receiving a lump of coal.



Citing Greta Thunberg, the young eco-activist who inspired millions of children to go on school strikes to raise awareness about climate change, the authors also made a case for rewarding “naughtiness.” According to Thunberg, children “can’t save the world by playing by the rules,” so such children deserve to be on Santa’s nice rather than naughty list.



In Brown’s and her daughters’ opinion, alternatives to punitive coal could include recycled/upcycled gifts, plant-based foods, walks and bike rides in nature, inspiring books, or even stick insects. Since coal is a dangerous fossil fuel, giving it to children means that adults are in fact the naughty ones.



“The suggestion that children on the naughty list only deserve coal is outdated and potentially harmful to the environment and children’s health. Making or choosing gifts that connect children to people of all ages, nature, and animals can foster emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing over the festive season and could make a lifetime of difference,” the authors concluded.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Santa should phase out coal as a punitive Christmas gift

A long-established Christmas tradition in many parts of the world...

The phrase “to swallow one’s tongue” has circulated since at least the 1980s, signifying a variety of things such as falling silent to experiencing a general feeling of fear. While it is anatomically impossible for a human to swallow their tongue, a new study led by the <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/">Florida Museum of Natural History</a> has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cane-toads-make-long-distance-calls-for-love/">cane toads</a> (Rhinella marina) actually achieve this feat every time they eat.



The scientists used X-ray videography to investigate toads’ feeding behavior, offering the first glimpse of what frogs do once their food reaches their mouths. The analysis revealed that cane toads swallow prey by using a complex pulley system of cartilage and muscle that travels so far down their throats, it butts up against their hearts.



“We know a lot about how frogs extend their tongues and how it sticks to their prey, but prior to this study, essentially everything that happens after they close their mouths was a mystery,” said study lead author Rachel Keeffe, who conducted this research as part of her doctoral degree in Biology at the <a href="https://www.ufl.edu/">University of Florida</a>.



After placing the toads in a clear observation box, the researchers fed them a steady stream of crickets while filming them using X-ray videography. “We weren’t sure what was happening at first,” Keefe explained. “The whole floor of the mouth was pulled backward into the throat and the tongue along with it.”



Examining meticulous reconstructions of movements into 3D animations, the scientists observed that once the toad’s tongue has reached its fullest extent, the hyoid – a cartilaginous plate with loops and prongs attached to muscles on the floor of their mouths – retracted into their throats. Then, the tongue, which is directly attached to the hyoid, was slingshot back into the mouth. It still remains unclear how far back the hyoid can move, since its path is blocked by the toad’s heart, which the animal slides up against milliseconds before the tongue and its attached prey smash into the cartilaginous cushion.



Finally, in order to dislodge the concussed insect from its sticky tongue, the toad uses what the experts call a “hyoid dorsal ascent.” “The hyoid shoots up and presses the tongue against the roof of the mouth, after which it moves forward, essentially scraping the food off into the esophagus,” Keefe explained. The entire feeding process takes less than two seconds, with most of the time spent repositioning the tongue and hyoid after swallowing.



Since there is a rich diversity of feeding mechanisms among the over 7,000 known frog species, further comparative studies are needed to clarify whether the feeding behavior of cane toads is the rule or the exception.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac045">Integrative Organismal Biology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Cane toads swallow their tongue when they eat

The phrase “to swallow one’s tongue” has circulated since at...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/belgian-microbiologists-improve-the-flavor-of-beer/">Beer</a> is one of the oldest and most popular alcoholic beverages in the world. While some people love and other hate the distinct, bitter taste of hops used to flavor beer, new research led by the <a href="https://en.unimib.it/">University of Milano-Bicocca</a> has revealed that particularly “hoppy” brews could have unexpected health benefits. The experts discovered that, in laboratory dishes, chemicals extracted from hop flowers can inhibit the clumping of amyloid beta proteins, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) – a debilitating neurodegenerative disease, characterized by memory loss and personality changes in older adults.



Part of the difficulty in treating AD is that there is a considerable time lag between the beginning of underlying biochemical processes and the onset of symptoms, often with several years separating them. Thus, since irreversible damage to the nervous system can occur before one even realizes that they might have the disease, preventive strategies and therapeutics which can intervene before symptoms appear are of increasing scientific interest.



One of these strategies involves so-called “nutraceuticals,” or foods which have certain medicinal properties, such as – as the present study argues – the hop flowers used to flavor beers. The scientists created and analyzed extracts of four common varieties of hops using methods similar to those used in the brewing process. Their analyses revealed that these extracts had antioxidant properties and could prevent amyloid beta proteins from clumping in human nerve cells. The most successful extract was from the Tettnang hop, which is found in many types of lagers and lighter ales.



When the researchers separated this extract into fractions, the one containing high levels of polyphenols exhibited the most powerful antibiotic and aggregation-inhibiting activity and promoted processes allowing the body to eliminate misfolded, neurotoxic proteins. By testing the extract in a C. elegans animal model, the scientists found that it protected the worms from AD-related paralysis, although this effect was not extremely pronounced. These findings nevertheless suggest that hop compounds could serve as the basis for the development of nutraceuticals which halt the development of Alzheimer’s disease.



“Our results show that hop is a source of bioactive molecules with synergistic and multitarget activity against the early events underlying AD development. We can therefore think of its use for the preparation of nutraceuticals useful for the prevention of this pathology,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.2c00444">ACS Chemical Neuroscience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Beer could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease

Beer is one of the oldest and most popular alcoholic...

The Thwaites Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea is one of the biggest <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/melt-ponds-on-the-greenland-ice-sheet/">ice sheets</a> in West Antarctica but it is highly unstable and disintegrating rapidly. It buttresses and braces against the mighty Thwaites glacier and slows down its rate of melting, at least on its eastern edge. This is important because the Thwaites glacier, also nicknamed the “Doomsday glacier,” has been retreating rapidly over the past 20 years and has become the largest net contributor to sea-level rise among the Antarctic glaciers.&nbsp;



For this reason, an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a> in the UK, investigated the factors influencing the melt rate of the Thwaites Ice Shelf. Using two automated sensor systems, moored about 4 km from one another, the researchers collected data from different depths under the Thwaites Ice Shelf. The sensors recorded water temperature, salinity, pressure and horizontal current speed at an upper depth of a few hundred meters, and at a lower depth of over 700 meters.&nbsp;



In their research study, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5">Nature Communications</a>, the researchers found that the shallow layers of the ocean underneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf warmed considerably during the period between January 2020 and March 2021. It did not appear that the excess heat originated locally because there was little evidence of melting at the base of the ice sheet where the sensors were installed. In addition, the content of glacial-meltwater under the ice increased in the upper layers at the same time.&nbsp;



Combining the measurements with computer simulations, the researchers determined that most of this meltwater likely originated from the Pine Island Ice Shelf, further to the east, and flowed into the area beneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf under the influence of a gyre (circulating ocean current) centered in Pine Island Bay. &nbsp;This proposed mechanism explaining how warm meltwaters are found under the Thwaites Ice Shelf was also supported by data collected using tags that were attached to seals.&nbsp;



Both the model simulations and the data from seal tags showed that a gyre near the Thwaites Ice Shelf weakens in winter, which allows more heat to reach shallow areas beneath the ice shelf. Satellite images showed that the Southern Hemisphere summer season of 2020/2021 was unusual because it had a high concentration of sea ice in regions near the Thwaites Ice Shelf, and this is known to weaken the gyre in Pine Island Bay, meaning that excess meltwater from adjacent ice sheets is not removed by the gyre but instead enters the cavity under the Thwaites Ice Shelf.



When the base of the Pine Island Ice Shelf comes into contact with slightly warmer ocean water, it melts and the fresh water mixes with the saltwater. This makes the ocean water less saline and, therefore, less dense. It forms a buoyant layer of water that is warmer than the surrounding water, and when this flows under the Thwaites Ice Shelf, it melts the base of the ice there. This means that the melting of one ice shelf can influence the melting of another ice shelf nearby. This is a factor that has not been considered before.



“We have identified another process that could impact the stability of ice shelves, revealing the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice," said study lead author Dr. Tiago Dotto of the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at UEA.



“Circumpolar Deep Water, a warm variety of Antarctic waters, is a key player in melting the base of ice shelves,” he said. “However, in this study, we show that a great amount of heat at shallow layers beneath one ice shelf can be provided by waters originating from other melting ice shelves nearby. Therefore, what happens to one ice shelf, can impact the adjacent ice shelf, and so on.”



“This process is important for regions of high ice shelf melting such as the Amundsen Sea because one ice shelf sits next to the other, and the export of heat from one ice shelf can reach the next one through the ocean circulation."



“These atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean interactions are important because they can prolong warm periods beneath ice shelves by allowing warm and meltwater-enriched water to enter adjacent ice-shelf cavities," said Dr. Dotto.



“Gyres potentially existing in other regions around Antarctica may also cause a greater number of ice shelves to be prone to intense basal melting associated with prolonged warm conditions, and as a result further contribute to global sea-level rise.”



The authors conclude that ice shelves are connected through the coastal circulation and that what happens under one ice shelf greatly influences what happens under the ice shelves further downstream in the coastal current. They emphasize that future models should consider the meltwater pathways from adjacent ice shelves if they are to simulating the fate of the Antarctic ice shelves accurately.&nbsp;



Image Credit: Karen Alley



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Why the "Doomsday glacier" is melting from below

The Thwaites Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea is one...

An international team of scientists has recently uncovered an extremely rare piece of evidence that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/early-dinosaurs-benefited-from-changes-in-global-climate/">dinosaurs</a> sometimes ate mammals. The experts discovered the foot of a tiny mammal approximately the size of a mouse preserved inside the gut contents of a&nbsp;Microraptor zhaoianus -a small feathered dinosaur that lived in the early Cretaceous period.



According to study co-author Corwin Sullivan, a paleontologist at the <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/index.html">University of Alberta</a>, it is extremely rare to find conclusive evidence of dinosaurs’ diets because of how difficult it is for a dinosaur’s gut contents to be preserved.&nbsp;



“There was always interest in [Microraptor’s] diet because there had been previous specimens that contained remains of different vertebrates inside the rib cage, but we have the first one that contains parts of a mammal,” he explained.



The fossils of this Microraptor were found within Jurassic and Cretaceous lake deposits in today’s northeast China. Previous fossils belonging to this species discovered in the same region have been found with gut contents of fish, birds, and lizards, suggesting that they had highly diverse diets. However, it is not yet clear whether Microraptor consumed these animals in a predator-prey relationship or by scavenging.&nbsp;



Information about dinosaurs’ diets is crucial for learning more about the inter-species relationships existing at the time these creatures roamed the Earth. “We’re slowly gathering pieces of information about these past ecosystems and the animals that inhabited them. So what this discovery does is fill in a little bit of information in that it’s showing the diet of&nbsp;Microraptor&nbsp;was even broader, even more generalist, than we thought previously,” Sullivan said.&nbsp;



“That tells us something about this animal and, by extension, tells us that there were generalist carnivores in these ancient ecosystems — that that niche existed,” he concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2022.2144337">Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Rare evidence shows that dinosaurs ate mammals

An international team of scientists has recently uncovered an extremely...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dolphins-have-accents-that-vary-by-region/">Dolphins</a> and other marine animals are frequently affected by human disturbances in their habitat, including overfishing, noise pollution from shipping, construction activities, oil exploration, and navy sonar activity, as well as climate change. Although these types of disturbances can interrupt critical animal behaviors such as foraging or socializing, measuring them is difficult since the animals live under water.



Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> (U-M) has developed wearable sensors for marine mammals similar to fitness trackers used by humans – known as biologging tags – that can monitor the movement and behavior of underwater creatures.



“Our goal is to use tag data to estimate foraging events, how many fish were consumed during a day, and connect that to estimates of how much energy dolphins use during the movement required to catch those fish,” said study senior author&nbsp;Alex Shorter, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at U-M. “This is important for conservation because we can then use our approach to estimate energetic costs when these animals are disturbed.”



By attaching the biologging tags between the blowholes and dorsal fins of six dolphins, the scientists managed to noninvasively measure features such as speed, temperature, pressure, and movement, during several swimming trials. In some of these trials, the animals started from rest at a floating dock and then swam an 80-meter lap underwater at speeds up to 21 kilometers per hour. When left to swim alone, the tags tracked movements for periods ranging from 9.5 to 24 hours. One dolphin tracked for a 24-hour period swam over 70 kilometers.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, this method could be extended to tag data from a variety of animals in the wild. “Our tag-based method is universally applicable to both animals in managed and wild settings, and can lead to a host of new research in monitoring the physical well-being of dolphin populations, which in turn will inform how we as humans are affecting their travel patterns, feeding requirements and lives in general,” said study lead author Joaquin Gabaldon, a postdoctoral researcher in Robotics at U-M.



“From a technological perspective, it is our hope that other researchers see the potential of dedicated on-tag speed sensing, and pursue the development of more adaptable speed sensors to enable energetics monitoring for a wider variety of marine animals.”



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.244599">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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Dolphin activity trackers will help inform conservation efforts

Dolphins and other marine animals are frequently affected by human...

A team of scientists from <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/">Johns Hopkins Medicine</a> investigating how the brain works amid age-related <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hearing-loss-linked-to-dementia-in-aging-dogs/">hearing loss</a> has recently discovered that old mice are less capable than young ones to turn off certain actively firing brain cells in the midst of ambient noise. This inability creates a “fuzzy” sound stage which makes it difficult for the brain to focus on one type of sound, such as spoken words, while filtering out surrounding noise.&nbsp;



Although scientists have long associated inevitable age-related hearing loss to deteriorating hair cells in the inner ear, this new study suggests that the brain has much to do with this condition, and thus, that it may be possible to treat this type of hearing loss by re-training the brain to tamp down wildly firing neurons.



The researchers recorded the activity of 8,078 neurons from the auditory cortex of 12 old mice (16 to 24 months old) and 10 young mice (two to six months old). In a first experiment, they conditioned the mice to lick a water spout when hearing a specific tone. Then, they made the mice perform the same exercise while playing “white noise” in the background.



While, without the ambient noise, both young and old mice licked the water spout when hearing the tone, in the presence of the ambient noise the old mice were worse at detecting the tone and licking the spout than their younger counterparts. Moreover, the young mice tended to lick the spout at either the onset or end of the tone, while older mice licked it at the start of the auditory cue, but sometimes also before the tone was presented, suggesting that they thought a tone was present when it was not.



Next, in order to assess how auditory neurons performed during these hearing tests, the scientists employed a method called “two-photon imaging” – which uses fluorescence to identify and measure the activity of hundreds of neurons at the same time - to get a glimpse into mice’s auditory cortex.



The analysis revealed that, under normal conditions (when the brain worked correctly in the presence of ambient noise), some neural activity increased when the mice heard the tone, while other neurons were repressed. However, in the older mice, there was more neural activity overall, and the neurons that were supposed to turn off when the tone was played in the presence of ambient noise failed to do so. Moreover, just before the auditory cue, there was up to twice as much neural activity in old mice, indicating that their brains may be “firing” or behaving as if a tone is present when it is not.



“In older animals, ambient noise seems to make neuron activity more ‘fuzzy,’ disrupting the ability to distinguish individual sounds,” said study senior author Patrick Kanold, a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins.



Fortunately, due to its flexible learning potential, the mammalian brain could be “taught” to address this auditory fuzziness in older animals, including humans. “There may be ways to train the brain to focus on individual sound amid a cacophony of noise,” Kanold concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0955-22.2022">Journal of Neuroscience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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.

What is the brain’s role in age-related hearing loss?

A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine investigating how...

A growing body of research evidence highlights the existential threat that climate change and its consequences pose to humanity, and to the Earth’s ecosystems and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/habitat-quality-and-biodiversity-impact-bee-health/">biodiversity</a>. However, a new study conducted by researchers at <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a> has found that college biology textbooks are woefully inadequate in covering this crucial topic. This may go some way to explaining why a 2021 Gallup poll found that only 43 percent of Americans see climate change as a serious threat over their lifetimes.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed 57 college introductory biology textbooks, published between 1970 and 2019. They assessed the content pertaining to climate change in terms of four categories: 1) the number of sentences of text devoted to climate change; 2) the location of the section in the textbook; 3) the topics addressed, including greenhouse effect, impacts of global warming, and actions to mitigate climate change; and 4) the presentation of data in figures.&nbsp;



They found that the presentation of climate change information in college textbooks has varied significantly over the five decades in question. Prior to 1990, textbooks had a median of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change. In the 1990s, the median length of climate content was 30 sentences. This rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually decreased in the 2010s – dropping to a median of 45 sentences.



According to Jennifer Landin, an associate professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and a co-author of the study, that amounts to less than three pages of information.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s really a very small amount of content,” she said. “I certainly think we can go into more detail explaining the relationships between carbon, where this carbon is coming from, how it relates to fossil fuels, where fossil fuels come from. There are all these elements that we can address that I think are being glossed over.”



Landin and her co-author, Rabiya Ansari, suggested that the decrease in climate change content may have been a result of controversy and political backlash. Increased media attention on the topic in the 1990s and 2000s due to the signing of the Kyoto Protocol (the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), along with U.N. climate change conferences and the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” led to growing controversy and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/22/science-confirms-it-denial-of-climate-change-is-all-about-the-politics/">climate denialism</a>, which could have made textbook publishers shy away from covering the issues.



The researchers noticed other concerning trends in the textbooks as well. Coverage detailing potential climate change solutions decreased to just 3 percent of the total content on climate change, from a peak of about 15 percent in the 1990s. In addition, information on climate change was increasingly relegated to the very last pages of the books. Whereas textbooks from the 1990s positioned the climate change section approximately 85 percent through the book, those from the 2010s only tackled climate change material in the last 2.5 percent of the book. This means that if the instructor taught the content in the order in which it appeared in the textbook, the section on climate change was highly likely to be skipped or left out completely.&nbsp;



“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s – even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” said Landin. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change.”



The findings of the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, did reveal some ways in which the presentation of climate change content has improved in recent years. Textbooks from the 70s and 80s focused primarily on facts relating to the greenhouse effect, whereas more recent textbooks contained significantly more information on the harmful consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise, health risks to humans, biodiversity loss, extreme weather events and food shortages.&nbsp;



Landin said she was encouraged by these changes and wanted to credit textbook authors for adding information on the potential impacts of warming temperatures. However, she stressed that publishers and authors should also include actions that people could take to mitigate climate change, thereby giving students a sense of how they can contribute to the solutions rather than the problems. Many actionable solutions already exist and are helping rewrite the most dire climate projections.&nbsp;



She adds: “We are hoping that this study will serve as a wake-up call for publishers and instructors. We need to do a much better job of incorporating climate change into our courses if we want to prepare students to understand the role that climate change is playing in shaping life on Earth and how we study it.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer



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.

Climate change is not adequately covered in college textbooks

A growing body of research evidence highlights the existential threat...

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



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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



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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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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



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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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