April 12, 2016 - GULF OF MEXICO - Scientists have finalized a four-year study of newborn and fetal
dolphins found stranded on beaches in the northern Gulf of Mexico
between 2010 and 2013. Their study, reported in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms,
identified substantial differences between fetal and newborn dolphins
found stranded inside and outside the areas affected by the 2010
Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The study team evaluated 69 perinatal common bottlenose dolphins
in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, the areas most affected by the
spill, and 26 others found in areas unaffected by the spill. The work
was conducted as part of an effort to investigate an "unusual mortality
event" in the Gulf primarily involving bottlenose dolphins, beginning in
early 2010 and continuing into 2014.
Scientists saw higher numbers of stranded perinatal dolphins in
the spill zone in 2011 than in other years, particularly in Mississippi
and Alabama, the researchers report. The young dolphins, which
died in the womb or shortly after birth, "were significantly smaller
than those that stranded during previous years and in other geographic
locations," they wrote.
Bottlenose dolphin gestation takes about 380 days, so perinatal
dolphins that died in the early months of 2011 could have been exposed
in the womb to petroleum products released the previous year,
said University of Illinois veterinary diagnostic laboratory professor
Kathleen Colegrove, who led the study. Colegrove works in the
Chicago-based Zoological Pathology Program at the U. of I.
"Dolphin dams losing fetuses in 2011 would have been in the earlier stages of pregnancy in 2010 during the oil spill," she said.
The researchers report that 88 percent of the perinatal dolphins
found in the spill zone had lung abnormalities, including partially or
completely collapsed lungs.That and their small size suggest
that they died in the womb or very soon after birth—before their lungs
had a chance to fully inflate. Only 15 percent of those found in areas unaffected by the spill had this lung abnormality, the researchers said.
The team also found that the spill-zone dolphins were "particularly
susceptible to late-term pregnancy failures, signs of fetal distress
and development of in utero infections including brucellosis," a
bacterial infection that can affect the brain, lungs, bones and
reproductive function. Extensive testing found no evidence that an
unusual or highly pathogenic Brucella strain was involved.
"These findings support that pregnant dolphins experienced significant
health abnormalities that contributed to increased fetal deaths or
deaths of dolphin neonates shortly after birth," Colegrove said.
A previous study by many of the same researchers revealed that nonperinatal bottlenose dolphinsstranded
in the spill zone after the spill were much more likely than other
stranded dolphins to have severe lung and adrenal gland damage
"consistent with petroleum product exposure."
"These diseases in pregnant dolphins likely led to reproductive losses," Colegrove said.
"Our new findings add to the mounting evidence from peer-reviewed studies that exposure
to petroleum compounds following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
negatively impacted the reproductive health of dolphin populations
living in the oil spill footprint in the northern Gulf of Mexico,"
said Dr. Teri Rowles, a veterinarian with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response
Program and a co-author on the study.
More information: KM Colegrove et al. Fetal distress and in utero
pneumonia in perinatal dolphins during the Northern Gulf of Mexico
unusual mortality event, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (2016). DOI: 10.3354/dao02969
January 19, 2016 - SPACE - From January 20 to February 20, all five visible planets will sit in a
line from the horizon to the moon - for the first time since 2005.
Dr Alan Duffy, research fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, said that this reasonably rare alignment is “essentially a quirk” of the universe.
All the planets sit on a flat plane but have different yearly cycles – so for all five visible planets to happen to line up is “something well worth seeing,” he said.
According to Dr Tanya Hill, senior curator at the Melbourne Planetarium, there will be another chance to view the planets lined up in August, but then not again until October 2018.
From Wednesday 20 January, star gazers will have a 5.30am-5.40am AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) window to get the best view of the alignment.
Venus brightest of 4 morning planets now.
http://bit.ly/1Jax6ar
When Mercury joins this week, there will be 5! Twitter: EarthSky
Venus and Jupiter will be easiest to see and Mars, while a little harder, will have a distinctive red glow to look out for.
“The big challenge will be Mercury,” said Alan. Because Mercury is so close to the horizon, there is only a small time period when it has appeared before the sun comes up.
Tall buildings and trees could also block your view of the final planet.
Alan’s advice is to find as clear a horizon as possible and, most importantly, a dark sky. While it isn’t impossible in the city, light pollution and sky scrapers will make the viewing much harder.
The alignment will be visible from 20 January until 20 Feburary and Alan suggests to go out on more than one day to watch the event if you don’t quite catch it the first time.
“There are only a few amazing things in the night sky that can be seen without any equipment,” Alan said, adding that it is worth the early morning rise.
Tips
The alignment will be visible to the naked eye from 20 January from 5.30am-5.45am AEDT until 20 February 5am-6am AEDT.
Hold your arm up in a straight line from the horizon to the moon and the planets should fall along that line.
Try to find a flat horizon and a dark sky.
Don’t give up! It may take more than one early morning to see the full alignment.
The
memory of the cataclysms was erased, not because of lack of written
traditions, but because of some characteristic process that later caused
entire nations, together with their literate men, to read into these
traditions allegories or metaphors where actually cosmic disturbances
were clearly described. - Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky. March 24, 2015 - SPACE
- Jupiter’s large orbital journey across the early solar system may
have cleared the way for the oddball arrangement of our planetary
system, scientists say – even to the point of destroying burgeoning
young planets.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology created a model for the formation of Jupiter and Saturn, dubbed 'Grand Tack,'which
shows Jupiter’s migration towards the sun – the area of the inner solar
system, where planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars exist – until
Saturn is formed. Saturn’s formation caused Jupiter to reverse course
and migrate outward to its current orbit.
In other exoplanet
systems, there is generally evidence of super-Earths that have formed,
which are planets 10 times the mass of Earth. “[Those planets]
tend to have very thick and massive atmospheres with pressures that
exceed that of the Earth by factors of hundreds, if not thousands,” lead study author Konstanti Batygin, a planetary scientist at Caltech in Pasadena, told Space.com.
Jupiter smashed the solar system like a wrecking ball, study claims.
These
super-Earths are conspicuously absent in our solar system, so
researchers think they may have existed in the inner solar system before
Jupiter’s migration. They theorize that as Jupiter moved inward and
then outward, its gravitational pull would have set off a series of
collisions that smashed the newborn planets to pieces.
“It’s the same thing we worry about if satellites were to be destroyed in low-Earth orbit,” co-author Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. “Their
fragments would start smashing into other satellites and you’d risk a
chain reaction of collisions. Our work indicates that Jupiter would have
created just such a collisional cascade in the inner solar system.”
Scientists
say the resulting debris would have mostly spiraled into the sun and
caused a second generation of inner planets to form later from the
depleted material. This could explain why Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
are younger than our outer solar system planets, with smaller and with
thinner atmospheres.
“While Earth-mass planets may indeed be
plentiful in the galaxy, truly Earth-like planets, with low atmospheric
pressure and temperatures on the surfaces, are likely an exception to
the rule,” said Batygin. - RT.
February 7, 2015 - EARTH - The following stories constitutes some of the latest incidents of Earth changes across the globe.
Ice halo around the moon seen in the UK
Last night many observers in the UK reported seeing an odd halo of light around the moon.
The remarkable phenomenon was captured in stunning images, showing the moon surrounded by a bright ring of light.
The spectacle is caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere, specifically
when thin cirrus or cirrostratus clouds are present at an altitude of
about 20,000 feet (6,100 metres).
During cold weather these
clouds can contain millions of hexagonal ice crystals, and as light from
the moon - which is just reflected sunlight - passes through the
atmosphere, it refracts in a particular way within the crystals.
Specifically, the light refracts at angles no smaller than 22° -
sometimes leading the phenomenon to be called a 22° halo - which results
in a ring around 44 times larger than the moon itself.
Different colours of light are bent at different angles, resulting in
the inner edge of the halo being slightly red, and the outer edge having
a slightly bluer tint.
Pictured is the moon halo over the, Isle of Wight.
The moon halo is formed by a high-altitude ice crystal cloud that
gathers around the moon
The light refracts at angles no smaller than 22°
in the ice crystals (illustrated) - sometimes leading the phenomenon to
be called a 22° halo - which results in a ring around 44 times larger
than the moon itself
The reason that it forms as a ring is because of
the angle of refraction. The only light that reaches your location is
that which is located at the right distance away from the moon to form a
ring. Here, a vapour trail from a plane is seen cutting through the
halo above Herefordshire
The effect is not exclusive to the moon, however. It can also occur around the sun, for the same reasons described above.
On some occasions the halos are accompanied by sundogs - bright spots
either side of the moon or sun as the crystals sink through the air,
causing the light to be vertically aligned.
'Ice halos are
atmospheric phenomena that can occur around the sun or the moon, when
tiny crystals of ice in the atmosphere refract and reflect light,
creating a halo around the solar or lunar source,' Ben Biggs, Editor for
All About Space magazine, told MailOnline.
'Visually,
they can range from the one we could see last night in parts of the UK,
which was a cool and slightly creepy perfect circle around the moon, to
a bright and ethereal display featuring multiple arcs and 'sundogs'
(also known as parhelia), which appear as bright spots at the corners of
the halo when the sun is near the horizon.'
'Even the more
ordinary halos are fairly uncommon in the UK but in particularly bright
and bitter conditions, such as in the US, absolutely spectacular ice
halo displays can appear.'
Ice halos were once said to be a
sign that a storm was approaching, as cirrus or cirrostratus clouds
often come before a large storm front.
However, the clouds can
also occur without a large storm approaching, so their use as an
accurate weather prediction tool is not entirely accurate. - Daily Mail.
Homes evacuated as mudslide, flooding hit rural Jefferson Co.
Dozens
of homes were engulfed by floodwaters Friday in the small town of
Brinnon after extremely heavy rain overnight in rural Jefferson County
forced the Duckabush River over its banks near Hood Canal.
A
mudslide also damaged homes and three people were rescued after their
truck became stranded as they were fleeing the rushing floodwaters.
Evacuations are under way in the area, but so far there are no reports
of injuries. A swift water rescue team is in the area. Several vehicles
also were stranded in floodwaters from the rain-gorged Duckabush River,
including a Jefferson County sheriff's patrol car.
"It's pretty bad," said Assistant Fire Chief Ben Andrews. "There are a lot of homes that have water in them."
A National Weather Service spotter reported that 4.43 inches of rain
fell in the area between 4 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 a.m. Friday.
Emergency responders initially rushed to the area near Shorewood Road
and Kelly Road in Brinnon, off Duckabush Road, at about 1 a.m. Friday
after receiving reports of a mudslide, said a spokeswoman for the
Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management. The slide
reportedly blocked the road and damaged five or six homes.
Now
crews are going to door to door to check on residents stranded by
floodwaters from the Duckabush River, which flows from the Olympic
Mountains. Many homes are completely surrounded by floodwaters.
Nicole
Black, whose home is located just above the flood zone, said the area
occasionally experiences minor flooding when it rains heavily, but "this
is different."
"This is a lot more than we're used to," she
said. "This is beyond our comfort zone." She said the flooding may have
been worsened by a mudslide on a bank that was logged about two years
ago.
She said crews are going door-to-door with Zodiac boats and a large dump truck to evacuate residents.
"It wasn't very fun," said Elyssa Brown. "This is the second time it's happened."
The last time was in December when the Duckabush also went over its banks.
"It's horrible," said Keri Nelson. "We've already had it happen and we haven't even recovered from the last time."
WATCH: Severe flooding in Brinnon, Jefferson County.
Marlene Standerfer and her husband are staying put, even though the
water is up to their doors, and their house is surrounded by water. They
say they're not nervous.
"We've come out a lot of times and sat at the picnic table and watched all the logs come down," said Marlene Standerfer.
The fire crews say the evacuations are advisable, but not mandatory...
At least not yet. Even along Kelly Road on the north side of the river,
we saw smoke from a chimney -- a family deciding to ride it out despite
water around -- and probably inside their home.
Flood Watches and warnings
remain in effect for much of Western Washington, including rivers in
Grays Harbor, Clallam, Jefferson, Skagit, Whatcom, Mason, Pierce and
Snohomish counties.
More heavy rainfall is forecast through the weekend, with significant rainfall in the Mount Rainier area as well.
Several Cascade Mountain rivers also are threatened by potential
flooding, including the Nooksack, Skagit, Stillaguamish and Puyallup
rivers.
"This is only the beginning of things getting worse,"
Black said. "If this rain continues like it is projected to everybody
here needs to get out and we need to make sure these banks don't fall." -
Komo News.
Orange snow covers Russian city, bewilders residents
Residents
of the city of Saratov, some 858 km from the Russian capital, have been
shocked as they looked out of the windows and saw their neighborhoods
covered with orange snow.
The residents shared the news in social
networks as the colorful snow appeared to be seen in almost all parts of
the city. Its color varied from light yellow to intensive orange.
Such
unconventional snowfall caused numerous concerns among the city people.
Some social network users were worried that could be radioactive or
could contain harmful chemical substances. Others were afraid they had
problems with eyes and color vision.
Local residents contacted the Svobodnye Novosti news agency, which quizzed an expert on the phenomenon.
Saratov
weather forecast service director Mikhail Boltukhin said it was quite a
common event and it was absolutely harmless for people and animals. He
said the orange snow was caused by a cyclone from the Western Sahara
which brought some sand from the African desert to Russia.
WATCH: Orange snow in Russia.
“The air coming from the West contains tiny particles of sand, which give the falling snow an orange hue,” Boltukhin said. “Similar
phenomena have been observed recently in various districts of the
region and in other parts of the country, particularly in Crimea.”
There are no toxic substances, as it is natural sand, the expert added. - RT.
Cluster Of 7 Small Earthquakes Hit Bay Area From North To South
(CBS)
A
swarm of seven small earthquakes hit the Bay Area Wednesday evening,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s automated seismograph alert
network.
The quakes ranging from magnitude 0.4 to 1.6 struck shortly before 8 p.m. Pacific Time at an estimated depth of 5km below the earth’s surface. Deeper quakes are less noticeable while a shallow quake–in the 0 to 40 mile depth range–can feel much stronger than their actual reported magnitude. Quakes just below the earth’s surface, in the 0 to 10 miles range, can cause even more damage at lower magnitudes.
The quakes hit from the Hollister area in the south to as far north as Napa. - CBS.
Mercury levels on the rise in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna
Mercury
concentrations in tuna are increasing by nearly four percent a year,
according to a new University of Michigan-led study, which suggests
rising atmospheric levels of toxin are to blame.
Researchers came
to this conclusion using the findings from three previously published
reports, which studied yellowfin tuna caught near Hawaii in 1971, 1998
and 2008. In the studies, scientists tested the tuna’s muscle tissues,
finding that nearly all of the mercury they detected was the toxic
methylmercury.
As part of their reexamination of these studies,
scientists included yellowfin tuna between 48 and 167 pounds and used a
computer model that controlled for the effect of body size.
In
total, data from 229 fish was analyzed: One hundred and eleven from
1971, 104 from 1998 and 14 from 2008. The researchers found that mercury
concentrations in the yellowfin tuna did not change between the 1971
and 1998 datasets. However, concentrations were higher in 2008 than in
either 1971 or 1998. Between 1998 and 2008, the mercury concentration in
yellowfin tuna increased at a rate greater than or equal to 3.8 percent
a year, according to the new study.
Reuters/Tony Gentile
We crunched the data & looked at mercury levels in an ocean of popular fish. Top 4= off limits
http://lnitup.co/1lwhd1U
“The take-home message is
that mercury in tuna appears to be increasing in lockstep with data and
model predictions for mercury concentrations in water in the North
Pacific,” said Paul Drevnick, an assistant research scientist at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, in a statement. “This study confirms that mercury levels in open ocean fish are responsive to mercury emissions.”
Mercury
is a potent toxin that can accumulate to high concentrations in fish
and pose health risks to people who eat large, predatory marine fish
such as swordfish and tuna. The US Food and Drug Administration and
Environmental Protection Agency advises women of a child-bearing age,
nursing mothers, and young children to avoid swordfish, shark and king
mackerel, and to limit their consumption of tuna to 6 ounces per week.
Consumption of large amounts of polluted fish can result in coronary
heart disease and brain damage in children.
The principal source
of mercury pollution in the oceans comes from emissions from coal-fired
power plants and artisanal gold mining.
For decades, scientists
have expected to see mercury levels in open-ocean fish increase in
response to rising atmospheric concentrations, but evidence for that
hypothesis has been hard to find.
“Mercury levels are
increasing globally in ocean water, and our study is the first to show a
consequent increase in mercury in an open-water fish,” Drevick said. “More
stringent policies are needed to reduce releases of mercury into the
atmosphere. If current deposition rates are maintained, North Pacific
waters will double in mercury by 2050.” - RT.
Electric Universe: Two 'rare' observations of red sprites over South America - a few days apart
At
the ESO's observatories located high in the Atacama Desert of Chile,
amazing images of distant objects in the Universe are captured on a
regular basis. But in January 2015, ESO photo ambassador Petr Horálek captured some amazing photos of much closer phenomena: red sprites flashing in the atmosphere high above distant thunderstorms.
The photo above was captured from ESO's Paranal Observatory. A few days earlier during the early morning hours of Jan. 20 Petr captured another series of sprites from the La Silla site, generated by a storm over Argentina over 310 miles (500 km) away.
Add caption
Sprites spotted from ESO’s La Silla observatory by Petr Horálek (left horizon)
So-named because of theirelusive nature,
sprites appear as clusters of red tendrils above a lighting flash,
often extending as high as 55 miles (90 km) into the atmosphere. The
brightest region of a sprite is typically seen at altitudes of over
40-45 miles (65-75 km).
Because they occur high above large
storms, only last for fractions of a second and emit light in the
portion of the spectrum to which our eyes are the least sensitive,
observing sprites is notoriously difficult.
These furtive
atmospheric features weren't captured on camera until 1989. Continuing
research has since resulted in more images, including some from the
International Space Station. When they are spotted, sprites - and their
lower-altitude relatives blue jets - can appear as bright as moderate
aurorae and have also been found to emit radio noise. It has even been
suggested that looking for sprite activity on other planets could help
identify alien environments that are conducive to life.
Find
out more about sprite research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks,
and check out the PBS NOVA program "At the Edge of Space" below about a
sprite hunt in the skies over Denver, CO conducted by a team of American
scientists and Japanese filmmakers.
Storm Of The Century: At least eight killed as huge storm batters Turkey
At least eight people have been killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm that has battered Turkey since Sunday.
The storm, a southwesterly known locally as a Lodos, hit the Marmara, Aegean, Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions of the country, causing roofs of houses to collapse and forcing residents in some areas to flee the rising waters.
In the northwestern province of Edirne close to the border with Greece, the flooding of the Meric and Tunca rivers cut off the Karaagac neighborhood, home to 5,000 people.
Military vehicles and helicopters were dispatched to rescue the inhabitants, with Edirne governor Dursun Ali Sahin describing the flooding as the disaster of the century.
No casualties were reported in the area, but Sahin warned the situation could worsen, with water levels expected to rise further.
"Rescue efforts will continue in the coming hours. We know for a fact that road transportation across the river will be closed for 10 days," he told local television reporters.
Four people in different provinces were killed by collapsing buildings on Monday. A taxi driver died when high winds brought a crane down on his cab.
In the southeastern province of Gaziantep, three young children from the same family were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, after high winds forced fumes back down the house's chimney.
The storm brought down the roofs of more than 300 buildings and around 100 vehicles were damaged in Bursa province.
Local media footage showed huge waves slamming into the shore, and a mosque's stone minaret being blown down.
Turkish Airlines said it had canceled more than 100 flights over the weekend due to adverse weather. - Reuters.
Heavy snowfall disrupts normal life in Kashmir
Heavy snowfall in Jammu and Kashmir hit electricity, water and blocked national highway, disrupting normal life.
Roads
in Ramban area were filled with snow making it difficult for vehicles
to ply due to which people had to walk long distances carrying their
luggage. National Highway-44 was completely blocked, restricting
transportation.
Srinagar on Sunday had received season's first
snowfall bringing cheers to residents. However, snowfall did not bring
much delight to residents of Ramban district.
"This may be the
season's first snowfall (in this area) and it has caused a lot of
problems to everybody here as all the roads are closed. Since morning it
has increased and causing a lot of troubles," said a resident, Sunder
Singh.
As per local media reports, the weather department has
predicted snowfall for next three days. The minimum temperature recorded
was minus 0.2 degree Celsius.
Reportedly, an avalanche warning has also been issued in higher reaches of the valley.
Meanwhile, Shimla also received three to 90 centimeters of fresh snowfall.
"Since
yesterday it is snowing heavily here and this will increase the
business of hotels, restaurants and taxis as more tourists will visit
this place," said a resident, Rakesh Kumar.
Minimum temperature recorded was two degree Celsius. Forest officials arrange food for animals in Kashmir's national park following snowfall
With
thick blanket of snow covering Kashmir, officials in Srinagar's
Dachigam national park are busy arranging food material for birds and
animals, deprived of natural vegetation due to snow.
Kashmir has been receiving heavy snowfall for the last four days, disrupting normal life.
According to wildlife officials, animals especially the endangered
Hangul deer wander outside their safe havens in search of food. The
officials have placed huge chunks of dry willow salt in various parts of
the national park to feed the endangered species of animals.
WATCH: Heavy snowfall sweeps Jammu and Kashmir.
"So
our responsibility increases that these wild animals in search of food
and natural habitat do not go out of forest and we try to supply with
alternative food for these animals so that they do not face any
problems," said wildlife official, Nazir Ahmed.
According to
2009 census, the population of the Hangul, also known as the Kashmiri
stag, was estimated to be between 201 and 234, against 117-180 in March
2008.
The preventive steps come in the wake of state
meteorological department warning of an avalanche in the higher reaches
of the Valley.
Snowfall in states like Jammu and Kashmir and
Himachal Pradesh has a direct impact in other states like Punjab,
Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
- Times of India | Yahoo.
Air in 90% of China’s cities still not safe for breathing, despite ‘war on pollution’
Woman wear face masks on the Bund in front of the Oriental Pearl TV
Tower during a hazy day in downtown Shanghai January 26, 2015.
(Reuters/Aly Song)
Air
pollution in China is still incredibly high – 90 percent of its cities
stand below the threshold for air safety standards in 2014.
The “war on pollution” started a year earlier is having some effect, but hazardous emergencies are still in the hundreds.
Only
eight of China’s 74 large cities have managed to meet official air
safety standards in 2014, according to the Environmental Protection
Ministry. This is five cities more than in 2013, when only three cities –
Haikou on the island of Hainan, the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and the
coastal resort city of Zhoushan – officially met air quality standards.
Seven of the 10 most polluted Chinese cities are around Beijing, despite the capital’s efforts to combat the situation.
There were also “471 environmental emergencies in total in 2014, down 241 from a year earlier,” the ministry also said.
The
particles considered to be most harmful to health – PM2.5 – are slowly
decreasing, down to 93 micrograms per cubic meter from 106 this year in
Beiging, Hebei and Tianjin region last year.
But that’s still
three times the approved limit of 35 micrograms. China, however, does
not expect to reach the safety standard before 2030.
A government
official in mid-January blamed the pollution in the southwestern Sichuan
province on bacon, of all things. Apparently, levels spiral out of
control as locals engage in the age-old tradition of smoking bacon on
the eve of the Chinese lunar New Year, which this year will fall on
February 19.
Coal production remains another contributor to air pollution – a dirty industry that has earned China a lot of notoriety.
The
Hebei province worries the government more than any other place, as six
of its cities have all scored off the charts for smog and coal
pollution. They alone account for 60 percent of the entire pollution.
But the sticking point is to find alternative sources for energy. So far
the government has only been shutting down factories.
The one
bright spot in all this is the Pearl River Delta: its PM2.5 levels are
within the legal and health limits. But the No. 1 pollutant there is
ozone. - RT.
Mysterious "dirty rain" falling in Eastern Washington, Oregon
While
it's been a routine, rainy day in Seattle, those over in southeastern
Washington and northeastern Oregon have had a strange phenomenon: A
dirty, milky rain.
Several reports have come in from Spokane,
Walla Walla, Pendleton -- and really across much of that region. The
rain has left a dirty residue on cars and has flooded social media over
there with people wondering what is causing the odd rain.
So far,
the official cause remains a mystery, but officials with the National
Weather Service offices in Spokane and Pendleton are looking into it.
The Walla Walla emergency management office posted photos of their area,
which show much more of an ashen look to their rain. Their office
suggests it all could be ash washing out from an eruption of Volcano
Shiveluch in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Their office says it spewed an ash
plume to about the 22,000-foot level in late January and has deposited
ash in a widespread area across parts of the Northwest.
The Spokane office of the National Weather Service posted a new photo Friday afternoon showing the cloudy rain that collected in their rain gauge.
"Definitely much cloudier than the typical rain water we see," they wrote on their Facebook page. "We
have heard a few theories thus far including; volcanic ash from Mexico
or Russia, dust picked up from last night's strong winds, or perhaps ash
from last year's wildfires over SE Oregon/SW Idaho. We still don't have
a definitive answer."
We'll let you know when we indeed do get more definitive answers. - Komo News.
Seismologists find 2-mile fault line in Irving, Texas
Seismologists studying the recent earthquakes in Irving and Dallas have found a fault line.
The scientists from Southern Methodist University gave a report on their finding to local leaders Friday morning.
Initial
results from 20 new seismic monitors installed in the area show the
earthquakes are relatively shallow. That explains so many people as far
away as Plano can feel them.
They've also been concentrated along a narrow, two-mile line.
That
suggests a fault line extending from Irving into West Dallas. It runs
from Highway 114 to Walnut Hill Road along the Trinity River.
"This
is a first step, but an important one, in investigating the cause of
the earthquakes," said SMU seismologist Brian Stump. "Now that we know
the fault's location and depth, we can begin studying how this fault
moves - both the amount and direction of motion."
The next step is looking for the triggers and determining whether they are natural or manmade.
“Sometimes
what triggers an earthquake can be very small, so all of these factors
have to be considered when looking for that trigger,” said Heather
DeShon, another seismologist from SMU.
The report notes two
inactive gas wells in the area and one wastewater injection well about
eight miles to the northwest. But, the scientists have not yet
determined if those wells are causing the quakes.
WATCH: SMU seismologist identify fault line in Dallas and Irving.
The U.S.
Geological Survey previously pinpointed the locations of the earthquakes
in a circular pattern around the old Texas Stadium site. The team from
SMU no longer believes that map is accurate.
The closest USGS monitor is 40 miles away and some are as far away as 900 miles, they said. - FOX4 News.
May 08, 2014 - FLORIDA, UNITED STATES- The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon well blowout vomited more than
210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and onto its
shores--the largest accidental, offshore oil spill in history. It killed
wildlife, tainted fisheries, and damaged coastal ecosystems from
marshes in Louisiana to beaches in Florida. But due to a paucity of
data, the true extent of the damage is still not yet known, especially
where bird mortality is concerned. What research does exist is
confidential property of the U.S. government, and will not see the light
of day until the lawsuit against BP has run its course, the next phase
of which begins in 2015.
A Brown Pelican. Rebecca Field
Into this vacuum step J. Christopher Haney, Harold Geiger, and Jeffrey
Short, three researchers with extensive experience in environmental
monitoring and post-spill mortality assessments. In their recent study,
which has been accepted for publication in Marine Ecology Progress Series, the authors estimate that up to 800,000 coastal birds died as a direct result of the Deepwater Horizon
spill. That number, as large as it is, is on the conservative side,
says Audubon Director of Bird Conservation for the Gulf Coast and
Mississippi Flyway, Melanie Driscoll. Once further studies are
conducted, says Driscoll, the number will certainly exceed one million.
In comparison, a quarter of a million birds are estimated to have died
as a direct result of the Exxon Valdez, a spill that was much smaller than that of Deepwater Horizon.
The study itself uses two models to estimate coastal
bird mortality. The carcass sampling model attempts to answer a
seemingly simple question: for every bird corpse found during clean-up
efforts, how many bird bodies were missed, due to factors such as
scavenging, or the bird dying at sea, or decomposition? The other model,
called the exposure probability model, attempts to quantify how many
birds of each species would have encountered the oil, given the size of
the slick at any given time and estimated population densities. Despite
these being two very different ways to estimate bird mortality, the
models agreed very closely with the possible range of bird deaths:
between 600,000 and 800,000 over the 95 days of the "acute phase" of the
spill. Another way to think about that: 8,000 coastal birds died every
day during the acute phase.
While the numbers are sobering on their own, drilling down to individual
bird species reveal population-level impacts on their numbers.
According to the paper, 36 percent of the entire Laughing Gull
population in the northern Gulf of Mexico died within that 95-day
period. Fifteen percent of Royal Terns perished, as did 12 percent of
Brown Pelicans. On Queen Bess Island, Driscoll saw an entire colony of
Royal Tern chicks oiled; they all subsequently died due to oil exposure.
The suffering that Driscoll observed during the actual spill
foreshadowed this devastating loss of bird life, and she says she has
feared that the toll could exceed a million birds. In the paper by Haney
et al., says Driscoll, the researchers went to great lengths to explain
how they used data from this and other spills to make their
calculations. The authors described sources for overcounting and
undercounting. For example, if oiled birds tend to fly toward shore, the
researchers may have overestimated the number of birds that died. But
sources of undercounting are far more prevalent: During the spill,
searchers only collected whole carcasses, and they did not search
breeding colonies until months after the initial spill. Further, the counts missed the carcasses that were either burned or skimmed away when rescue workers removed oil from the water's surface. The researchers also chose to not count live oiled birds and they deliberately excluded entire classes of birds--marsh-dwellers such as gallinules, rails, bitterns, and some herons and egrets.
More than 2,000 miles of marsh were affected by the spill, representing
a large number of bird deaths which are not accounted for in the
analysis.
The mortality from acute oil exposure is only a fraction of the damage
that Deepwater Horizon wreaked upon the Gulf. Four years after the
disaster, some200 miles of Louisiana beach is still contaminated with
oil. Studies on shrimp and dolphins have shown long-term health issues
with animals exposed to oil and dispersant during the Deepwater
Horizon--lowered reproductive success, chronic health problems, and
starvation due to loss of food sources.
The most distressing aspect of this entire situation, says Driscoll, is that, four years later,BP is putting more energy into stonewalling than restoring the Gulf.The
third phase of the lawsuit against BP for its violation of the Clean
Water Act will not begin until 2015--five years after the disaster. This
means that most compensatory funds to help restore the Gulf have not
yet materialized. Meanwhile, BP attempts to discredit studies that show
harm to Gulf resources and has started refusing to fund research to
understand delayed and chronic effects on birds and other wildlife, says
Driscoll. While birds and other wildlife in the Gulf struggle to
recover, the government and conservation communities use early
restoration money to repair damage and steward the birds, doing what
they can to make sure the animals get the best chance at long-term
survival.
- Audubon Magazine.
January 18, 2014 - ARCTIC - Tiny tempests above cracks in Arctic sea ice help pull down toxic
mercury and ozone from the sky — an unexpected new source of mercury
pollution in the polar environment, according to research published
Wednesday in the journal Nature.
An aerial photo of sea ice cracks, or leads, near Barrow, Alaska.
Mercury leaves the atmosphere above the Arctic
every spring. About 20 years ago, scientists discovered how it escapes:
a strange chemistry triggered by the sun that takes place mainly along
coastal areas. When the sun peeks above the horizon after a long, dark
winter, the solar rays jump-start chemical reactions that quickly remove
mercury and ozone from the lowest layers of the atmosphere. (The ozone
destroyed during this process is a pollutant, not the protective ozone
in Earth's stratosphere, a layer of the atmosphere above the one humans
live in, called the troposphere.)
One player in this chemical chain, molecular chlorine, recently was
measured for the first time in the Arctic at surprisingly high levels of
up to 400 parts per million, according to a separate study published
Sunday (Jan. 12) in the journal Nature Geoscience. The high chlorine
levels were tracked above Barrow, Alaska, in spring 2009. (Parts per
million is a unit of volume that denotes, in this case, that for every
million molecules of air in the region, 400 of them are chlorine.)
The mercury, a neurotoxin to
humans and wildlife, ends up on snow and ice, and not all of it goes
back into the atmosphere after the summer melt. "This adds hundreds of
tons of mercury to the Arctic every year," said Daniel Obrist, an
atmospheric scientist at the Desert Research Institute in Nevada and a
co-author of today's Nature study.
Mercury Mixing The
chemical reactions stop once they "eat" all the mercury and ozone in
the air just above Earth's surface. But recently, a campaign to better
understand this unusual Arctic chemistry discovered that roiling air
currents above cracks in Arctic sea ice — similar to the swirling
turbulence above a pot of boiling water — can suck down more mercury
from higher in the sky, about a quarter-mile (400 meters) up, restarting
the chemistry.
"This
came as a surprise," Obrist told LiveScience. "We would not have
thought that this physical mixing would lead to a resupply of mercury."
While
studying mercury chemistry during the Bromine, Ozone and Mercury
Experiment (BROMEX) field project near Barrow in 2009 and 2012,
researchers discovered higher-than-expected concentrations of mercury above these sea-ice "leads," or cracks.
"When
the leads open, we see a very quick increase in mercury
concentrations," said Chris Moore, a co-author of the Nature study and
an atmospheric scientist at the Desert Research Institute. "They jump
from essentially zero to global background levels within a couple of
hours." (The global background level is the atmospheric concentration of
mercury; in the Arctic, it is 1.3 to 1.5 nanograms per cubic meter.)
Here's what happens: When Arctic sea ice
cracks apart, relatively warm ocean water meets frigid polar air,
causing atmospheric turbulence, Moore said. This mixes up the layered
Arctic atmosphere, which would otherwise prevent the sunlight-triggered
chemistry from reaching mercury higher in the sky.
Future Effects The
Arctic sea ice undergoes its biggest cracking and fracturing in the
spring, at the same time as the sun reappears after winter. This raises
the question of what will happen as the extent of Arctic sea ice changes
in response to global warming.
"We really need to understand how these environmental processes may change in the future," Moore said.
"This
is a very dynamic process, and it will change from year to year,
depending on how much seasonal sea ice we have," he added. (Seasonal sea
ice is year-old ice, unlike perennial ice that lasts longer than one
freeze-thaw season.) "This transition to an Arctic that has more
seasonal sea ice means there is potential for this mechanism to happen
over a larger and larger area," Moore said. - TWC.
November 20, 2013 - EARTH - Three very strong Planetary Alignments (Venus-Sun-Saturn), supported by (Venus-Earth-Jupiter) and (Mercury-Sun-Uranus) fall during this time-frame with strong Lunar astrological aspects indicate a potential for a 6.5-7.0 Magnitude Earthquake for the Western Honshu, Japan Region on either one of these forecast days.
This is my own analysis using Heliocentric Imagery, geocentric portrait and harmonic translations to predict possible effects here on earth.
I am using astrological aspects in this forecast in-conjunction with lunar modulation and extremes in orbital orientation. - Solar Watcher.
WATCH: Earthquake Watch - November 29-30, 2013.
Coincidentally, Comet ISON, touted as the "comet of the century," is now
in full "outburst mode," having brightened dramatically over the course
of the last week and will reach perihelion (the comet's close graze past
the surface of the sun) on about November 28 or 29.
According to amateur astronomers across the globe, it's now visible to the naked eye.
COMET ISON PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN:
Comet ISON is plunging toward the sun at 140,000 mph (62 km/s). You can
almost feel the velocity in this image taken on the morning of Nov.
20th by astronomers using the 0.4 meter telescope at the Observatorio de
la Hita in La Puebla de Almoradiel, Toledo, Spain:
"The comet looked very bright," report the observing team. "The tail was not as well defined today because of the proximity of morning twilight...but still splendid!!"
The comet is brightening rapidly as it approaches the sun. Experienced observers put ISON's rising magnitude near +4.0, well above the threshold of naked-eye visibility. The problem is, the glare of the sun is brightening even faster. Amateur photography of the comet will be possible for a few more days and, soon, only NASA's fleet of solar observatories will be able to track the sundiver.
Observationally speaking, the next big event in the timeline of Comet ISON's journey comes on Nov. 21st when the comet enters the field of view of NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft. The Heliospheric Imager on STEREO-A will pick up the comet just as Earth-bound telescopes begin to lose it. In the days that follow, STEREO-B, SOHO and the Solar Dynamics Observatory will join the hunt, providing continuous views of Comet ISON all the way to perihelion (closest approach to the sun) on Nov. 28th. - Space Weather.
June 21, 2013 - SPACE - Full moon falls on June 23, 2013 at 11:32 UTC (6:32 a.m. CDT in the U.S.). Thus, for many, the moon appears about as full in the June 22 evening sky as it does on the evening of June 23. This full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year. It also presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August, 2014. In other words, it’s not just a supermoon. It’s the closest supermoon of 2013.
At United States’ time zones, the moon will turn full on June 23 at 7:32 a.m. EDT, 6:32 a.m. CDT, 5:32 a.m. MDT and 4:32 a.m. PDT.
We astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon. The word perigee describes the moon’s closest point to Earth for a given month. Two years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many used the term supermoon, which we’d never heard before. Last year, we heard this term again to describe the year’s closest full moon on May 6, 2012. Now the term supermoon is being used a lot. Last month’s full moon – May 24-25, 2013 – was also a supermoon. But the June full moon is even more super! In other words, the time of full moon falls even closer to the time of perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth. The crest of the moon’s full phase in June 2013, and perigee, fall within an hour of each other.
What does supermoon mean exactly? And how special is the June 23, 2013 supermoon?
Astronomers say it’s tough to notice the difference in size between a
supermoon and any other full moon. But photographs show it. Check out
this size comparison from our friend Alec Jones in the UK.
The supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right), compared to an average moon of
December 20, 2010 (left). Note the size difference. Image via Marco
Langbroek, the Netherlands, via Wikimedia Commons.
What is a supermoon? The word supermoon didn’t come from astronomy. Instead, it came from astrology. Astrologer Richard Nolle of the website astropro.com takes credit for coining the term supermoon. In 1979, he defined it as:
…a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near
(within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit
(perigee). In short, Earth, moon and sun are all in a line, with moon in
its nearest approach to Earth.
By this definition, according to Nolle:
There are 4-6 supermoons a year on average.
That doesn’t sound very special, does it? In fact, the June 2013 full moon lines up much more closely with perigee – the moon’s closest point to Earth – than Nolle’s original definition. According to Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2013, the 2013 June full moon falls only 22 minutes after the moon reaches perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth for this month and year.
At perigee, the moon lies only 356,991 kilometers (221,824 miles)
away. Two weeks later, on July 7, the moon will swing out to apogee – its farthest point for the month and year – at 406,490 kilometers (252,581 miles) distant.
Day and night sides of Earth at instant of June 22-23 full moon
Day and night sides of Earth at instant of full moon (2013 June 23 at
11:32 Universal Time). In North America, the full moon is setting in the
west at sunrise on June 23. From eastern Asia, it’s rising in the east
at sunset. The full moon resides close to zenith – straight overhead – as seen from the Samoan islands in the central South Pacific Ocean. Image credit: Earth and Moon Viewer
How super is this supermoon? June 2013 presents the
moon’s closest encounter with Earth until August 10, 2014, at which
time the moon will be a scant 5 kilometers closer to Earth. The full
moon will come even closer to Earth on September 28, 2015 (356,877
kilometers) and closer yet on November 14, 2016 (356,509 kilometers).
November 2016 will feature the closest full moon until November 25,
2034! Maybe this helps you see that supermoons – while interesting – are
fairly routine astronomical events.
Even the proximity of full moon with perigee isn’t all that rare.
The extra-close moon in all of these years – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014,
2015 and 2016 – finds the full moon taking place at or nearly the same
hour as lunar perigee. More often than not, the closest perigee of the
year comes on the one day of the year that the full moon and perigee
most closely coincide. (See table below.)
How often is moon both full and closest to Earth?
Closest full moons recur in cycles of 14 lunar (synodic) months, because
14 lunar months almost exactly equal 15 returns to perigee (moon’s
closest point to Earth). A lunar month refers to the time period between successive full moons, a mean period of 29.53059 days. An anomalistic month refers to successive returns to perigee, a period of 27.55455 days.
Hence:
14 x 29.53059 days = 413.428 days
15 x 27.55455 days = 413.318 days
This time period is equal to about 1 year, 1 month, and 18 days. The
full moon and perigee will realign again on August 10, 2014, because
the 14th full moon after the 2013 June 23 full moon will fall on that
date.
Looking further into the future, the perigee full moon will come
closer than 356,500 kilometers for the first time in the 21st century on
November 25, 2034 (356,446 km). The closest full moon of the 21st
century will fall on December 6, 2052 (356,425 km).
For the moon to come closer than 356,400 kilometers (221,457 miles)
is quite a feat. In fact, this won’t happen at all in the 21st century
(2001-2100) or the 22nd century (2101-2200). The last time the full moon
perigee swung this close to Earth was on January 14, 1930 (356,397 km),
and the next time won’t be till January 1, 2257 (356,371 km).
Will the tides be higher than usual? Yes, all full
moons bring higher-than-usual tides, and perigee full moons bring the
highest (and lowest) tides of all. Each month, on the day of the full
moon, the moon, Earth and sun are aligned, with Earth in between. This
line up creates wide-ranging tides, known as spring tides.
High spring tides climb up especially high, and on the same day low tides plunge especially low.
Today’s extra-close full moon accentuates these monthly (full moon) spring tides all the more.
If you live along a coastline, watch for high tides caused by the June 23 perigee full moon – or supermoon
– over the next several days. Will the high tides cause flooding?
Probably not, unless a strong weather system moves into the coastline
where you are. Still, keep an eye on the weather, because storms do
have a large potential to accentuate high spring tides.
As a result, if you live near a coast, you’ll want to be on the lookout for higher-than-usual tides.
Because the moon – as always – shines opposite the sun in our sky at
full moon, you’ll see the moon beaming all night tonight from dusk until
dawn. This extra-close full moon is likely to usher in large tides
along the ocean shorelines for the next several days, especially if
these high tides are accompanied by strong onshore winds.
Bottom line: The full moon of June 22-23, 2013 is the closest and
largest full moon of this year. By a new definition – one that has just
entered the world of astronomy from astrology – many will call it a supermoon.
There are three full moons in 2013 that meet the definition of a
supermoon – May, June and July. But this June 22-23 full moon is the
most super of the supermoons! A super-duper moon! - Earth Sky.
May 25, 2013 - SPACE - A trio of bright planets is shining together in the sunset sky, a
must-see night sky sight for stargazers this Memorial Day weekend.
Mercury, Jupiter and Venus appear close together in the sky, May 24-26, 2013.
CREDIT: Sky & Telescope
Three planets — Jupiter, Venus and Mercury
— can be now be seen in the western sky at dusk, weather permitting, in
a rare and beautiful gathering that changes from night to night.
Astronomers call a meeting of objects in the night sky a conjunction,
but this planet parade is better described as a "Grand Conjunction."
The brightest of the three planets is dazzling Venus,
of course. Jupiter and fainter Mercury will also be very close by. All
the action is taking place low in the west-northwest sky about 45
minutes to an hour after sunset where, over a span of a week, the three
planets will seem to perform slow acrobatics; some might go so far as to
call it a celestial pas de trios (French for a ballet of three), low in the evening sky. All three planets will be readily visible to the naked eye, but binoculars will certainly enhance the view.
WATCH: Solar Eclipse & Evening Planets - May 2013 Skywatching Guide.
Planets on parade
From Friday to Tuesday (May 24 to May 29), Jupiter, Mercury and Venus
will fit within a 5-degree circle — small enough to fit inside the bowl
of the Big Dipper — an unusual configuration called a "trio." The
planets will appear closest together on May 26th, when they are
separated by less than 2.5 degrees. For comparison, your closed fist
held out at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of the night sky.
Here is a chance to see for oneself that nearby solar system objects
generally seem to move faster than more distant ones. Tonight (May 24),
after darkness falls, we'll have a planet configuration in Taurus the Bull
consisting of Mercury (109.5 million miles), Venus (153.3 million
miles), and Jupiter (563.4 million). The motions of Mercury and Venus
can be detected with the naked eye from one night to the next, but
Jupiter's travel against the background stars is not very noticeable in
even a week.
Also during the next few weeks we'll be treated to an exceptionally
favorable elongation of Mercury for Northern Hemisphere observers. The
planet's angular distance from the sun will reach a maximum of 24
degrees on June 12, about 4 degrees less than the greatest possible.
Mercury, Jupiter and Venus appear close together in the sky, May 30-31, 2013.
CREDIT: Sky & Telescope
Plan your planet conjunction watch
Here are some key local dates of events for skywatchers viewing at dusk in North America. You can see a video of the three planets' path here as they move across the night sky. May 24: Mercury appears 1.4 degrees above Venus; Jupiter sits 4 degrees to their upper left. May 26: This is the evening that the planet trio is
tightest together — all three fit within a circle less than 2.5 degrees
wide. They form a triangle with Mercury at the top, Jupiter at the lower
left corner and Venus at the lower right. The Venus-Jupiter and
Venus-Mercury gaps are both almost exactly 2 degrees. And Mercury is in
conjunction with Jupiter, the pair separated by 2.4 degrees. May 28: The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter
are closest together, separated by just one degree (equal to the
apparent width of two full moons). In the days leading up to now,
Jupiter closes in on Venus from the upper left. This evening, Jupiter
appears below and to the left of Venus and in the evenings that follow,
then heads on down toward the glow of sunset. Jupiter's brightness
easily rivals Sirius, the brightest star
in the night sky, yet shines only one-sixth as bright as Venus. Even
though Jupiter is on the far side of the sun and about as small as it
ever appears, in a telescope it still shows the largest disk of any
planet. Meanwhile, Mercury shines more than 3.5 degrees above Jupiter.
May 31: The three planets are now separating and going
their separate ways; Jupiter sinking lower while Venus and Mercury edge
higher up. All three are now stretched out and equally spaced in a
diagonal line from upper left to lower right, spanning 8 degrees.
Mercury is the highest, Venus is in the middle and Jupiter is down at
the lower right.
Just after sunset on Sunday May 26, the three brightest planets, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury, will form a perfect tiny triangle in the western sky.CREDIT: Starry Night Software
Planets compared
Consider some of the interesting contrasts between these three worlds: Mercury
is the smallest and closest planet to the sun; a rocky world with a
surface very similar in appearance to that of the Moon, showing
extensive basaltic-like plains and heavy cratering, indicating that it
probably has been geologically inactive for billions of years.
Venus has often been referred to as our "sister" planet in terms of
size, but is so shrouded in a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that
its brilliance in our sky is largely due to its high reflectivity (about
76 percent). Thanks to that thick cloud blanket Venus is also the hottest planet, with temperatures of up to 872 degrees F (467 degrees C). Jupiter
is an entirely different kind of planet. It is the largest in our solar
system and enveloped in a thick dense atmosphere composed chiefly of
hydrogen and helium, and is icy cold (minus 234 degrees F or minus 145
degrees C). Ordinarily it appears second only to Venus in brightness,
its remoteness being compensated by its great size. Its surface area is
about 130 times that of Venus. It makes one wonder just how the ancient
Romans decided to name Jupiter after the chief of the gods, although
they knew nothing concerning the planet’s physical characteristics.
The evening planets – Mercury, Venus and Jupiter – as they appear on May 24. They set shortly after sunset
whereas the full moon stays out all night long on May 24/25. For North
America, Mercury and Venus are in conjunction on the evening of May 24.
After the planets depart
As we transition from May into June, Mercury will be fading steadily,
experiencing an 11-fold decrease in brightness in less than a month. As a
consequence, this so-called "elusive planet" will be far easier to spot
during this upcoming week when it will be brighter as well as setting
about 1.5 hours after the sun as seen from mid-northern latitudes.
Friday, May 31, may very well be the last evening Jupiter will be
readily visible for most observers. In the days that follow, the
combination of low altitude and the bright evening twilight will team up
to effectively hide it from our view until it reappears in the morning
sky early in July.
As for Venus, it will slowly become easier to see in the western
evening sky, but the operative word is slowly." Not until early
September will Venus set until after the end of twilight and it’s saving
it best showing for late November and early December when it will be
more than twice as bright as it is now and will be setting three hours
after the sun. - SPACE.
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse On May 25, 2013.
The moon took the smallest of dips through the Earth's shadow
in a minor eclipse last night (May 24) and you can watch the lunar event
live online via a webcast. The lackluster lunar eclipse
will star in a free webcast by the Slooh Space Camera, which offers
live views of the night sky via remotely operated telescopes. The
eclipse webcast began at 11:37 p.m. EDT (0337 May 25 GMT).
This image from the Space Telescope Science Institute depicts the penumbral lunar eclipse expected to occur on May 24, 2013.
You can watch the lunar eclipse webcast on SPACE.com
courtesy of the Slooh Space Camera. The event comes on the heels of a
"ring of fire" solar eclipse on May 10 and another partial lunar eclipse
on April 25.
Stargazing experts predict that tonight's eclipse won't be anywhere
near as impressive as the other recent eclipses because only a tiny
sliver of the May full moon will pass through the penumbra, the
outermost part of Earth's shadow.
"It will thus be
impossible to notice anything out of the ordinary concerning the moon's
overall appearance," SPACE.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao explained
in a viewing guide today. "It will, in fact look like any other full moon."
Lunar eclipses
can only occur when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from
the sun, which occurs during the full moon phase. When the moon is
perfectly aligned with the Earth, it is completely in the Earth's
shadow, causing a total lunar eclipse that can yield amazing views of a
blood-red moon. However, the moon's orbit is tilted, so it does not line
up perfectly each month. When the moon only passes through part of the
Earth's shadow, it causes a partial lunar eclipse. A dip through the
outer edges of the shadow, like tonight's eclipse, is a penumbral lunar
eclipse.
A map shows the area where the penumbral lunar eclipse of May 25, 2013, will be visible on Earth.
Tonight's penumbral lunar eclipse will be primarily visible from the
Americas and western Africa, according to NASA eclipse expert Fred
Espenak at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. It will begin at
11:53 p.m. EDT (0353 GMT) and end just before 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427
GMT). The time of greatest eclipse, when the moon will be at its deepest
point into Earth's shadow, will be at 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT),
according to Espenak.
The Slooh eclipse webcast will originate from two telescope feeds
from the firm's observatory in the Canary Islands off the west coast of
Africa. The webcast will include a recorded audio commentary by
astronomer Bob Berman of Astronomy magazine.
The moon will barely graze Earth's penumbra of May 25, 2013, as shown in this diagram.
You can follow the webcast directly from the Slooh Space Camera here: http://www.slooh.com/
The full moon of each month has a series of traditional names given by
many different cultures. The full moon of May is most widely known as
the Full Flower Moon, but has also been called the Milk Full Moon and
the Corn Planting Full Moon. - Huffington Post.
Supermoon And Slight Penumbral Eclipse For Full Moon On May 24-25.
In 2013, the May full moon presents the third full moon after the
March equinox. In North America we often call this particular full moon
the Flower Moon, Rose Moon or Strawberry Moon. That star by tonight’s
full moon is Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius
the Scorpion. Plus the moon is one day away from lunar perigee
– the moon’s closest point to Earth for this month. By a newly coined
popular definition, that makes this May 24-25 full moon a supermoon. And the moon will undergo an extremely minor penumbral lunar eclipse
tonight. With a penumbral eclipse magnitude of 0.0158, just 0.5
arc-minutes of the moon’s southern limb will pass into Earth’s pale
penumbral shadow. It’s such a shallow eclipse that it’ll be mainly of
academic interest and very difficult to detect. For more about the May 2013 lunar eclipse, click here.
Jv Noriega in Manila, Philippines sent in this photo of tonight’s supermoon.
When exactly is the May 2013 full moon? The May 2013 full moon falls at the same instant all over the world: May 25 at 4:25 Universal Time.
Clock time and/or date for this full moon – and every full moon –
will vary by time zone. For London, the moon turns will at 5:25 a.m.
BST on the morning of May 25; that means the moon will appear more full
on the night of May 24-25 than on the night of May 25-26. Likewise, for
the U.S. East Coast, the moon turns full on May 25 at 12:25 a.m. EDT.
Meanwhile, for all places to the west of the U.S. Eastern Daylight Time
zone, the moon turns full not on May 25 … but on May 24 at 11:25 p.m.
CDT, 10:25 p.m. MDT and 9:25 p.m. PDT.
Technically speaking, the moon turns full at the instant that the
moon lies most opposite the sun for the month. For general reference,
though, we can say the moon is full all night long. Because the May
24-25 moon stays more or less opposite the sun throughout the night,
watch for the full moon to rise in the east around sunrise, climb
highest up in the sky around midnight and to set in the west around
sunrise.
As seen from most of the world – when the moon rises on the evening of May 25 – it’ll be a waning moon. - EarthSky.
