Category Archives: Planets

Earthquakes: Earth is breaking?

 

Something strange is happening on our Earth. Per Gheorghe Marmureanu, Romania internationally renowned seismologist, This year "there are too many strong earthquakes" not explainable by science.

Analyzing the data US Geological Survey (USGS) is known as the number of earthquakes with a magnitude between 6,0 and 9,9 the Richter scale in the period 1 January – 12 October 2011 has reached its highest level in 20 age (185 earthquakes in 2011 than 151 the same period of 2010).

Magnitude2000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012

8.0 to 9.9

1

1

0

1

2

1

2

4

0

1

1

1

2

7.0 to 7.9

14

15

13

14

14

10

9

14

12

16

23

19

5

6.0 to 6.9

146

121

127

140

141

140

142

178

168

144

151

185

50

5.0 to 5.9

1344

1224

1201

1203

1515

1693

1712

2074

1768

1896

2104

2276

679

This year the situation is even more dramatic: in the first 5 months of the year there were two earthquakes exceeding 8 degrees (very rare event) e ben 50 earthquakes between 6 ° and 6.9 °.

Mars: still traces of water

Mars Express has returned images of a region on the Red Planet appears to have been carved by the flowing liquid. This adds further confirmation that in the past Mars had large volumes of water on its surface. The 21 June last year, Mars Express photographed a giant basin on the northern plains of the planet. Acidalia Planitia region is so vast that it can be seen from Earth by amateur astronomers.

The photos cover a part of the western edge of the region, where some of the numerous valleys show subtle signs of drainage. The presence of deep valleys, with tributaries in the form of small valleys show that the region is likely to have been formed by a process called that occurs when erosion along the base of a cliff worn soft layers of material.

The images also show defects in the Martian crust, which extends towards the region Fossae Ideo. Even here, the water may have played a vital role in exposing underground reserves, possibly forming lakes in craters near.

Apparent sediment covering the floors of some craters old once again indicate the presence of surface water.

In some cases, valleys begin at the edge of the craters, suggesting that the water has been released from the surrounding ground.

Some more recent craters are seen in the central areas of the image. Their relatively young age is demonstrated by the lack of erosion and by the fact that lie above old formations.

ESA Press

 

Arriva HARPS: we know whether we are alone in the universe?

After another purveyor of planets Kepler was launched. It's called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher)and a spectrograph installed on the Galileo National Telescope at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands, in Spain.

The spectrograph, designed to search for and characterize extrasolar planets similar to Earth, scrutinizes the northern hemisphere (in particular the area of ​​sky occupied by the constellation of Cygnus and Lyra)unlike his sister who searches ESO instead a portion of the southern sky.

The President of the National Institute of Astrophysics, Giovanni Bignami, enthusiastic, says "I am particularly pleased that it has opened HARPS-N, a tool that allows the Italian astronomical community and astrophysics to become actively involved in an important area of ​​research, the kind of research and analysis of extrasolar planets ".

The HARPS-N project is coordinated by an international consortium led by the Observatory of the University of Geneva, they participate in the National Institute of Astrophysics, lo Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Harvard College Observatory and the Harvard University Origins of Life Initiative in the U.S., and the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and Queen's University Belfast in the UK.

Planet Earth: provided a breakdown 40 years ago?

40 years ago, when the mail was in its infancy and computers occupied whole big rooms, a group of MIT researchers predicted current phenomena as the rise in oil prices, the loss of biodiversity’ and the emergence of a global ecological mentality.

The report ‘The Limits of Growth’ had predicted a collapse of the economy because of the incredible exploitation of resources around the 2030.

At the time the book was a huge success, with more than 12 million copies in more’ of 30 countries, but he was welcomed by the scientific world with very scetticismo.All 'time the work was targeted by criticism, but today all the research say that the authors were right. The main authors, Donella e Dennis Meadows e Jorgen Randers, have published two reviews of the relationship, in 1993 and 2006, who confirmed the predictions.

Even a work of Australian physicist Graham Turner has shown in 2010 As the trends of the variables examined in 1972 have been fully complied with until at least 2000. The OECD said that the 2050 we live in a world where resources are constantly being plundered, and that there’ “an urgent need to think in new ways”.

Aurore boreali: also exist on Venus

Our solar system has many more surprises of Serbia.

Take Venus: the '60s knows that almost no magnetic field, which means, for example, no aurora. But yes, in reality are possible. They tell us the latest data from the spacecraft Venus Express European Space Agency (That), reported in the pages of the team Science.Analizzati Tielong Zhang, astrophysicist at the University of Science and Technology of China, and Principal Investigator of the Venus Express Magnetometer (MAG), data to say that the precision: the behavior of the ionized gas and the weak magnetic field of Venus is characteristic of so-called magnetic reconnection.

Now, This is precisely the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection at the base of the polar aurora, and here's why: the solar wind (ie the flow of charged particles from the Sun) moves the magnetic field of planets, compressing it on the one hand and pulling it as a sort of elastic on the other. When the rubber band is released, and therefore the magnetic field back to its natural state, is liberated a large amount of energy. This energy accelerates the electrons towards the upper atmosphere, where they form the spectacular play of luce.Fenomeni reconnection have been observed in the magnetospheres of those planets are characterized by a strong magnetic field: Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, besides our Earth.

CO2 and climate: there is a correlation

Some British scientists, In a study published in the prestigious journal Nature, have questioned whether it was global warming to cause the increase of CO2. The document, that the magazine published last Wednesday, has broad implications for climate science , because the issue is the workhorse of the current scientific skeptics who deny there is a link between atmospheric carbon and global warming.

In the light of new research, appears that it is extremely likely that the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere contributes to Melting permafrost and warming of sea water. "This study should put to rest once and for all the false assertion that the increase of carbon dioxide has been a passive consequence of a rise in global temperatures ", dice Mark Maslin, professor at University College London.

"The study, also - adds Maslin - shows that global warming may be amplified by the release of CO2 produced from melting permafrost, that causes the decomposition of organic matter contained in its interior with the consequent release of the gas. So the study, continues the scientist, the close correlation between the increase of CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels and global warming and the consequent climate change. We are facing a real Copernican revolution, as this study argues that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, million years ago, contributed to raising the temperature on our planet ".

Source: meteoweb