NASA's New Radiometer Tunes In to Soil's Frequency
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
Whether it's a parched field or a boggy marsh, the ground naturally emits microwave energy. Not much energy - but enough that NASA's newest, more technologically advanced radiometer instrument can detect it from space, allowing scientists to study how much water is in the soil.
Soil moisture is an important measurement for weather forecasting, drought and flood predictions, agriculture, an ...
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NASA TV Coverage Reset for Launch of Newest Earth-Observing Mission
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 30, 2015 -
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission (SMAP) launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, now is scheduled for 6:20 a.m. PST (9:20 a.m. EST) Friday, Jan. 30, with a three-minute launch window. The launch of the United Launch Alliance/Delta II rocket was scrubbed Thursday due to a violation of upper-level wind constraints. Launch managers have initiated a 24-hour recycle. The weather ...
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NASA Engineer Advances New Daytime Star Tracker
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
Scientists who use high-altitude scientific balloons have high hopes for their instruments in the future. Although the floating behemoths that carry their instruments far into the stratosphere can stay aloft for days on end, data collection typically happens during the night when starlight can be detected. The instruments that operate during the day are limited in their field of view due to over ...
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British Satellite to Be Launched by Russian Proton-M Carrier Rocket
Moscow, Russia (Sputnik) Jan 30, 2015 -
The launch, slated for 15:31 Moscow time on Sunday, will be the first in this year's program. The contract to orbit the Inmarsat 5F2 was inked by the Russian-American International Launch Services Company ISL.
The Inmarsat-5F2, developed by Boeing Satellite Systems on a commission from Britain's satellite communications operator Inmarsat, is the second of three 5th generation Inmarsat sate ...
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The mouth of the beast
Paris (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
In 1976 several elongated comet-like objects were discovered on pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Because of their appearance, they became known as cometary globules even though they have nothing in common with comets.
They were all located in a huge patch of glowing gas called the Gum Nebula. They had dense, dark, dusty heads and long, faint tails, which were gene ...
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Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon Distance
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 30, 2015 -
Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now about 984 feet (300 meters) away.
The project is operating the rover without using the Flash storage system to avoid reset problems and is using instead random access memory (RAM) for temporary storage of telemetry. The project is preparing to mask off th ...
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Japan delays launch of satellite due to weather
Tokyo, Japan (XNA) Jan 30, 2015 -
Japan on Thursday postponed the launch of an information gathering satellite with a radar reconnaissance payload for the Japanese government due to weather.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. were quoted by the Kyodo news agency as saying that clouds prone to generating lightening may gather in the sky over the launch pad for the H-2A rocket at the ...
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UNH Scientists Launch "CubeSats" into Radiation Belts
Durham NH (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
Twin, pintsized satellites built in part at the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center will be launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:20 a.m. (EST) Thursday, January 29, 2015.
The 4x4x6-inch Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics (FIREBIRD II) "CubeSats" will be launched as independent, auxiliary paylo ...
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Cassini Catches Titan Naked in the Solar Wind
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 29, 2015 -
Researchers studying data from NASA's Cassini mission have observed that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, behaves much like Venus, Mars or a comet when exposed to the raw power of the solar wind. The observations suggest that unmagnetized bodies like Titan might interact with the solar wind in the same basic ways, regardless of their nature or distance from the sun.
Titan is large enough that ...
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Habitable Evaporated Cores
Seattle WA (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
I recently published a paper in Astrobiology that shows that it is possible to form Earth-mass potentially habitable planets from mini-Neptunes that migrate into the habitable zones of mid- to late M dwarf stars. Click here to see the poster I presented at the March 2014 EBI (Exoplanets, Biosignatures and Instruments) conference in Tucson, AZ. Also, check out the abstract from a talk I gave at A ...
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Long series of droughts doomed Mexican city 1,000 years ago
Berkeley CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2015 -
Archaeologists continue to debate the reasons for the collapse of many Central American cities and states, from Teotihuacan in Mexico to the Yucatan Maya, and climate change is considered one of the major causes.
A University of California, Berkeley, study sheds new light on this question, providing evidence that a prolonged period of below-average rainfall was partly responsible for the a ...
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Study: Ongoing bee decline could exacerbate malnutrition
Burlington, Vt. (UPI) Jan 27, 2015 -
Declining pollinator populations could push a quarter of the world's population back toward malnutrition, especially in developing countries where poverty is common and food is scarce.
Researchers at the University of Vermont and the Harvard School of Public Health set out to determine exactly how declining populations of pollinators, like bees, would affect food consumption in countrie ...
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China media vows punishment for dissenting Tibetan officials
Beijing (AFP) Jan 29, 2015 -
China's state media on Thursday called for officials who take an "ambiguous attitude" towards Tibetan independence to be prosecuted, after personnel in the region were reportedly punished for communicating with the Dalai Lama.
A total of 15 officials of the ruling Communist party had "violated discipline" for activities including "providing information to the Dalai Lama" and "participating i ...
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Sao Paulo warns of severe water rationing
Sao Paulo (AFP) Jan 28, 2015 -
Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest state and economic hub, have warned they are considering severe water rationing if the country's worst drought in 80 years continues.
Officials outlined draconian plans for alternating cuts that would leave areas without water for five days at a time.
"If the rain persists in not falling into the Cantareira reservoir system, the solution would ...
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China will play key role in Paris climate talks: French PM
Paris (AFP) Jan 28, 2015 -
Beijing has a crucial role to play in international climate talks being held in Paris in December, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told Chinese state media Wednesday, saying it was the key issue up for discussion between the two countries.
"2015 will be a crucial year with the COP21 conference being held in Paris, during which a strong and lasting accord must be agreed to address the envi ...
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Scientists develop potential late-stage rabies treatment
Athens, Ga. (UPI) Jan 28, 2015 -
A person bit by a rabid animal has only a finite amount of time to get treated with the proper vaccine before it is too late. Allow a rabid bite to fester long enough for the virus to reach the brain and for neurological symptoms to set in, and the infection is almost invariably fatal.
But a new vaccine, developed by scientists at the University of Georgia, promises to extend that windo ...
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China surveying government suicides amid graft drive
Beijing (AFP) Jan 29, 2015 -
China's ruling Communist party has ordered a survey of "unusual deaths" among officials, government websites showed Thursday, after reports that some had committed suicide to escape a crackdown on corruption.
An "urgent notice" called on officials to provide details of "party members who have died in unusual circumstances" since 2012, according to posts on government and party websites in th ...
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New York, meteorologists defend storm shutdown
New York (AFP) Jan 28, 2015 -
New York authorities and meteorologists on Tuesday defended a decision to shut down America's biggest city for a storm that skirted the Big Apple, dumping the worst snow east and north.
Travel bans were lifted, public transport resumed and parks reopened in the city of eight million people, easing many of the measures put in place as Winter Storm Juno moved in on Monday.
New York Mayor B ...
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Urban heatwaves getting worse, study confirms
Paris (AFP) Jan 30, 2015 -
Urban heatwaves have become more frequent over the last 40 years, scientists reported on Friday.
A weather database of cities around the world reveals "significant" increases in periods of extremely hot days and falls in the number of cold days, they found.
Previous research found that, in the four decades covered in the study, man-made global warming stepped up a gear.
But, in urba ...
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Litchi fruit suspected in mystery illness in India
Miami (AFP) Jan 29, 2015 -
A mysterious and sometimes fatal brain disease that has afflicted children in northeastern India for years could be linked to a toxic substance in litchi fruits, US researchers said Thursday.
Investigators say more research is needed to uncover the cause of the illness, which leads to seizures, altered mental state and death in more than a third of cases.
In the meantime, doctors who enc ...
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WHO says Ebola epidemic on the decline
Addis Ababa (AFP) Jan 29, 2015 -
Weekly Ebola infections in west Africa have dropped to below 100 for the first time in more than six months, figures showed Thursday, raising hopes the worst-ever outbreak of the virus is coming to an end.
The World Health Organisation said it had now shifted its efforts in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries worst-hit by the epidemic - from slowing the spread to stamping it o ...
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Experts in crisis talks to save rare rhino from extinction
Ol Pejeta, Kenya (AFP) Jan 28, 2015 -
Conservationists and scientists met in Kenya this week to come up with a last ditch plan to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction.
There are only five northern whites left on the planet - three live in a 700-acre enclosure on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, while the other two are kept in zoos in the Czech Republic and the United States.
"The battle is to work o ...
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Paris mayor wants to ban polluting trucks, buses
Paris (AFP) Jan 28, 2015 -
The mayor of Paris said she wants to ban polluting buses and trucks in the French capital from July to fight pollution in one of the world's most visited cities.
Paris has a relatively high population density and tourists are often surprised by the traffic levels in and around its historic sights.
The city also experiences periodic pollution spikes, forcing authorities to impose temporar ...
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H5N1 bird flu spreads to 11 states in Nigeria: govt
Abuja (AFP) Jan 29, 2015 -
Nigeria on Thursday confirmed that the H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread from seven to 11 states within a week, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina told an emergency meeting on the outbreak that "as of yesterday (Wednesday) a total of 11 states, have reported positive cases".
Cases have been recorded in Kano, ...
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Baleen whales hear through their bones
San Diego CA (SPX) Jan 30, 2015 -
Understanding how baleen whales hear has posed a great mystery to marine mammal researchers. New research by San Diego State University biologist Ted W. Cranford and University of California, San Diego engineer Petr Krysl reveals that the skulls of at least some baleen whales, specifically fin whales in their study, have acoustic properties that capture the energy of low frequencies and direct i ...
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