Daily Archives: 15. September 2020


15.09.2020 - 21:04 [ NASA ]

NASA, NOAA to Discuss Solar Cycle Prediction During Media Teleconference

Tuesday, 9/15/2020

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will discuss predictions for the upcoming solar cycle during a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 15. Tracking the solar cycle is a key part of better understanding the Sun and mitigating its impacts on human technology and infrastructure.

During the teleconference, experts on the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel will discuss recent updates in solar cycle progress, and the forecast for the upcoming cycle, Solar Cycle 25.

15.09.2020 - 20:05 [ Informationsdienst Wissenschaft ]

P-ONE: Neues Observatorium im Pazifik für hochenergetische kosmische Neutrinos

Astronomen beobachten das Licht, das von entfernten Himmelsobjekten zu uns kommt, um das Universum zu erkunden. Licht verrät jedoch nichts über hochenergetische Ereignisse außerhalb unserer Galaxie, wie etwa über die Jets aktiver galaktischer Kerne, Gammastrahlenausbrüche oder Supernovae. Denn auf ihrem langen Weg durch das Universum verlieren Photonen mit extrem hohen Energien einen Teil ihrer Energie durch Interaktion mit anderen Teilchen.

15.09.2020 - 19:39 [ Xinhuanet ]

Somali leaders urged to reach deal on credible electoral model

President Mohamed Farmaajo and leaders of the five regional states, as well as the governor of Banadir region, kicked off their meeting in Mogadishu on Sunday to discuss an inclusive model for the elections scheduled for December and February 2021.

15.09.2020 - 19:30 [ teleSUR ]

AMLO Will Seek a Referendum To Prosecute Former Presidents

Since August, activists from different political parties have been asking people to sign a petition to demand that former presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Felipe Calderón, and Enrique Peña Nieto be judge over corruption charges.

15.09.2020 - 19:20 [ Xinhuanet ]

China sends nine satellites into orbit by sea launch

Nine satellites, belonging to the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 group, are launched by a Long March-11 carrier rocket at the Yellow Sea, on Sept. 15, 2020. China successfully sent nine satellites into planned orbit at the Yellow Sea Tuesday. The nine satellites blasted off atop a Long March-11 carrier rocket, China‘s first sea-launched rocket, at 9:23 a.m. (Beijing Time).

15.09.2020 - 19:06 [ Trend.az ]

Dubai-based DP World links up with Israel Shipyards

Dubai-based logistics and maritime services giant DP World (Dubai Ports World) has signed a collaboration agreement with Israel Shipyards Ltd., controlled by Shlomi Fogel, Sami Katsav, the Schmeltzer family and the Gold Bond Group (itself controlled by Fogel and the Schmeltzer family),

15.09.2020 - 18:56 [ KNEWS ]

NATO to host Greek-Turkish meeting in Brussels

Representatives from Greece and Turkey are due to meet at NATO headquarters on Tuesday for technical military talks in a bid to de-escalating tension

15.09.2020 - 18:50 [ The Guardian ]

Big in Japan: UK announces first major post-Brexit trade deal

Bilateral trade is currently conducted under the EU-Japan deal that came into effect last year, but that agreement will no longer apply to Britain from December 31.

15.09.2020 - 18:14 [ Richard Panek / Washington Post ]

Everything you thought you knew about gravity is wrong

(02.08.2019)

“What are you talking about? Gravity is the force of attraction that makes things fall straight down.” But say it to a physicist, and the answer you’ll get is, “That’s right.”

I know, because those are the two answers I’ve been getting for the past few years, ever since I figured out that nobody knows what gravity is, and that just about nobody knows that nobody knows what gravity is. The exception is physicists: They know that nobody knows what gravity is, because they know that they don’t know what gravity is.

15.09.2020 - 18:01 [ Europäische Weltraumagentur / European Space Agency - ESA.int ]

Secrets for Solar Orbiter to solve

(04.09.2020)

The Sun’s magnetic field is responsible for all the solar activity we see; it drives the 11-year ebb and flow in the number of sunspots, and dominates the behaviour of the solar atmosphere. Furthermore, this magnetic field surrounds the entire solar system, creating a giant bubble known as the heliosphere that is filled with electrified gas known as plasma. Disturbances in this plasma can affect the planets, creating aurorae and interfering with the behaviour of technology. Yet the details of the magnetic field’s initial generation inside the Sun are not yet understood.

15.09.2020 - 18:00 [ CNN ]

In Earth‘s early history, a day was 23.5 hours and a year lasted 372 days

(13.03.2020)

We‘ve long known that an Earth day lasts 24 hours, and that remains constant because Earth‘s trip around the sun doesn‘t vary.

However, the number of days that make an Earth year have shifted and shortened because days have grown longer. That is thanks to the moon‘s gravity, which draws on ocean‘s tides and slows Earth‘s rate of rotation.

15.09.2020 - 18:00 [ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ]

Eine Schaltsekunde mehr Zeit

(30.12.2008)

Wie unregelmäßig sich die Erde dreht, sieht man daran, dass zwischen 1999 und 2006 sieben Jahre vergehen mussten, bis eine Schaltsekunde nötig wurde; diesmal sind es nur drei Jahre.

15.09.2020 - 17:10 [ CBS News ]

On-Time Earth Baffles Scientists

(31. März 2003)

To make the world’s official time agree with where the Earth actually is in space, scientists in 1972 started adding an extra „leap second“ on the last day of the year.

For 28 years, scientists repeated the procedure. But in 1999, they discovered the Earth was no longer lagging behind.

At the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder, spokesman Fred McGehan said most scientists agree the Earth’s orbit around the sun has been gradually slowing for millennia. But he said they don’t have a good explanation for why it’s suddenly on schedule.

15.09.2020 - 16:58 [ Newsweek ]

NASA Shows Einstein Was Right: Our Sun Is Losing Mass – and Its Grip on Our Solar System

(19.01.2018)

As our sun gets older, it‘s losing mass, and so its gravitational pull becomes weaker. As a result, the orbits of all the planets in our solar system are expanding, not unlike „the waistband of a couch potato in midlife,“ according to a new NASA press statement.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown that the aging sun is behaving according to Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity.

15.09.2020 - 16:53 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Team Studies Middle-aged Sun by Tracking Motion of Mercury

(18.01.2018)

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

15.09.2020 - 16:49 [ Sparkonit.com ]

The Orbits Of All The Planets In Our Solar System Are Expanding As The Sun Gets Older, Study On Mercury’s Orbit Reveals

(25.01.2018)

“Mercury is the perfect test object for these experiments because it is so sensitive to the gravitational effect and activity of the Sun,” explained Antonio Genova, the lead author of the study and a MIT researcher working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers were able to make these calculations from the data gathered by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft which made three ‘flybys’ of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 and orbited Mercury between March 2011 and April 2015 before it crashed into Mercury in 2015, Mail noted.

15.09.2020 - 16:30 [ University of North Carolina at Charlotte ]

Solar Rotation Effects on The Thermospheres of Mars and Earth

(spring 2006)

The first thing that must be understood in this paper is the chain of events that is being tracked. From the Sun‘s rotational quirks, to their effects on CO2 in the respective atmospheres of Mars and Earth. There is also a comparison to older, normalized data from Venus.

(…)

Interestingly, once the data was compiled, there was no correlation found between the levels of CO2 found in the upper atmosphere (~150km on Earth, where this transformation takes place.) Broadening their search, the authors found a strong correlation between the ratio of CO2/O2 and the thermal changes. They feel this suggests that the thermal diffusion effect relies on some form of resonance between the two molecules involved

15.09.2020 - 16:17 [ Harvard.edu ]

Equatorial solar rotation and its relation to climatic changes

(29. September 1977)

During the years from 1965 to 1976, the magnitude of the solar rotation speed averaged annually showed a good inverse correlation with the annual relative sunspot numbers. It is suggested that this variation of the equatorial solar rotation speed may be responsible for the earth‘s present unusual climatic conditions. A similarity concerning the low sunspot activity for 1976 and the year 1643, just before the beginning of the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) with its very severe climatic conditions, is pointed out. It appears, therefore, likely that the present unusual climatic conditions will remain as long as the solar activity continues to decrease.

15.09.2020 - 16:15 [ Hans Volland / Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics / researchgate.net ]

Periodic variations of solar radiation – a possible source of solar activity-weather effects

(May 1979)

It is suggested that long-lasting co-rotating active longitudes on the Sun may be associated with small variations of the solar radiation reaching the Earth. The oscillations have a basic period of about 27 days and are not expected to have amplitudes greater than 0.1%. They result in a time-varying heat input to the Earth‘s continents and, since the land exchanges heat with the overlying atmosphere, this oscillatory heating process generates large-scale planetary waves, mainly of the Rossby-Haurwitz type, in the atmosphere.

15.09.2020 - 15:42 [ Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics / ScienceDirect.com ]

The effect of the 11-year solar-cycle on the temperature in the upper-stratosphere and mesosphere: Part II numerical simulations and the role of planetary waves

(July 2005)

The numerical simulations presented here suggest a mechanism by which a small change induced by the solar forcing can generate a large atmospheric response.

15.09.2020 - 15:27 [ Potsdam Institute / Youtube ]

Rossby waves and extreme weather

(15.4.2016)

Learn how giant airstreams high in the sky get trapped sometimes – leading to devastating weather extremes on the ground. Copyright: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK and Climate Media Factory. This video was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

15.09.2020 - 15:14 [ US National Science Foundation ]

Researchers find link between Atlantic hurricanes and weather system in East Asia

(11.08.2020)

In the new study, the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers say that a stronger East Asian Subtropical Jet Stream (EASJ) is associated with fewer Atlantic tropical cyclones.

The EASJ is an upper-level river of wind that originates in East Asia and moves west to east across the globe. It carries with it an atmospheric phenomenon called a Rossby wave.

Rossby waves occur naturally in the Earth‘s oceans and atmosphere, forming because of the planet‘s rotation

15.09.2020 - 14:25 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Researchers Track Slowly Splitting ‚Dent‘ in Earth’s Magnetic Field

(17.08.2020)

Earth’s magnetic field acts like a protective shield around the planet, repelling and trapping charged particles from the Sun. But over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, an unusually weak spot in the field – called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA – allows these particles to dip closer to the surface than normal. Particle radiation in this region can knock out onboard computers and interfere with the data collection of satellites that pass through it – a key reason why NASA scientists want to track and study the anomaly.

The South Atlantic Anomaly is also of interest to NASA’s Earth scientists who monitor the changes in magnetic field strength there, both for how such changes affect Earth‘s atmosphere and as an indicator of what‘s happening to Earth‘s magnetic fields, deep inside the globe.

15.09.2020 - 14:19 [ Sky News ]

NASA investigates mysterious South Atlantic Anomaly

(18.08.2020)

Scientists at NASA are investigating the mysterious South Atlantic Anomaly, a region of weakness in the Earth‘s magnetic field that is growing in size.

On average, the planet‘s magnetic field has lost almost 10% of its strength over the last two centuries – but there is a large localised region of weakness stretching from Africa to South America.

15.09.2020 - 14:11 [ Nature.com ]

Rapid geomagnetic changes inferred from Earth observations and numerical simulations

(06.07.2020)

Rapid changes in field direction have also attracted significant attention, particularly in the context of polarity reversals18. Historically, the fastest directional changes were attributed to lava flows at Steens Mountain, though these results are now thought to be untenable19. Currently, the fastest directional changes noted are those recorded by sediments in central Italy20, where angular changes in the Virtual Geomagnetic Pole position (P^V) reach values of ∂P^V/∂t∼1∘yr−1. These rates are about a factor of 10 faster than values of ∂P^V/∂t∼0.1∘yr−1 for the modern field, similar to the difference in rates of intensity change between the modern field and spikes.

15.09.2020 - 14:05 [ ScienceDaily.com ]

Earth‘s magnetic field can change 10 times faster than previously thought

(06.07.2020)

The clearest example of this in their study is a sharp change in the geomagnetic field direction of roughly 2.5 degrees per year 39,000 years ago. This shift was associated with a locally weak field strength, in a confined spatial region just off the west coast of Central America, and followed the global Laschamp excursion — a short reversal of the Earth‘s magnetic field roughly 41,000 years ago.

15.09.2020 - 13:26 [ EOS.org ]

The Thermosphere Responds to a Weaker Than Normal Solar Cycle

(05.04.2019)

The cooling near solar minimum is natural and specific to the thermosphere. The cooling thermosphere does not affect the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth’s surface where people live. The temperatures we experience on the ground do not get colder because of this solar cycle. NASA and other climate researchers continue to see a warming trend in the troposphere. These two effects are ongoing but unrelated.

Nitric oxide and carbon dioxide play important roles in cooling the thermosphere.

15.09.2020 - 12:52 [ Donna Laframboise / nofrakkingconsensus.com ]

3 Things Scientists Need to Know About the IPCC

(01.09.2015)

The bottom line is that this is a week of naked political horse trading that goes on behind closed doors. Journalists are not allowed to witness what takes place, which is why we’ve been looking at official IPCC photos here. This is what they permit us to see.

It’s only after the diplomats have haggled over this Summary – paragraph by paragraph – that the final version gets officially released at a press conference.

The world is then told that science has spoken. But what’s just happened has nothing to do with science. Scientific truth is not determined in the dead of night by UN-level negotiations. On what planet would such an approach make scientific sense?

But the bad news doesn’t stop there. There’s actually a step in the IPCC process in which the original, lengthy report gets amended so that it conforms to the politically-negotiated Summary. I am not making this up.

15.09.2020 - 12:40 [ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ]

Zum Venustransit: Leben in Säurewolken?

(07.06.2004)

Andere Astrobiologen haben dagegen noch grundsätzlichere Bedenken. Wenn es die venerischen Luftbazillen wirklich gäbe, so ihr Einwand, hätten sie oder ihre Stoffwechselprodukte in den Meßdaten der Venussonden schon lange auffallen müssen. „Wo Leben existieren kann, neigt es zu Dominanz“, sagt etwa der Nasa-Astrobiologe Chris McKay. „Wenn ich aus meinem Fenster blicke, sehe ich überall Grün – warum, bitte, sind die Venuswolken nicht grün?“

15.09.2020 - 12:32 [ BBC ]

Venus clouds ‚might harbour life‘

(25.05.2004)

„Current theories suggest that Venus and the Earth may have started out alike. There might have been a lot of water on Venus and there might have been a lot of carbon dioxide on Earth,“ Professor Ingersoll explained.

But all that was to change. On Earth, life in the oceans took in carbon dioxide and turned it into limestone. On Venus, 30% closer to the Sun, any oceans boiled away and the water vapour added to the runaway greenhouse effect.

15.09.2020 - 11:57 [ Harold Morowitz and Carl Sagan / Nature.com ]

Life in the Clouds of Venus?

(16.09.1967)

WHILE the surface conditions of Venus make the hypothesis of life there implausible, the clouds of Venus are a different story altogether. As was pointed out some years ago, water, carbon dioxide and sunlight—the prerequisites for photosynthesis—are plentiful in the vicinity of the clouds. Since then, good additional evidence has been provided that the clouds are composed of ice crystals at their tops and it seems likely that there are water droplets toward their bottoms. Independent evidence for water vapour also exists5.

15.09.2020 - 11:56 [ ScienceDirect.com ]

Water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus

(December 1972)

Infrared spectra of Venus produced by a Fourier spectrometer flown aboard the NASA CV 990 jet aircraft were analyzed for water-vapor content by comparison with calculated model spectra. The reflecting layer model gave an abundance of 1.6 ± 0.4 μ of precipitable water for the two-way transmission of the Venus atmosphere. The scattering model resulted in a value of 0.25 ± 0.10 μ of water per scattering mean free path.

15.09.2020 - 11:53 [ New York Times ]

Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds

(14.09.2020)

“This is an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding,” said Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the papers (one published in Nature Astronomy and another submitted to the journal Astrobiology). “It will definitely fuel more research into the possibilities for life in Venus’s atmosphere.”

15.09.2020 - 11:42 [ Nature.com ]

Detection of phosphine: new aspects of the phosphorus cycle in the hydrosphere

(26.05.1988)

According to our measurements and calculations, about 5g of phosphorus per day was released as phosphine from an Imhoff tank settling 2,000 m3 per day of raw sewage. Under laboratory conditions, it was also demonstrated that phosphine is released by bacterial reduction from a medium containing inorganic phosphorus.

15.09.2020 - 11:31 [ Nature.com ]

Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus

(14.09.2020)

Here we report the apparent presence of phosphine (PH3) gas in Venus’s atmosphere, where any phosphorus should be in oxidized forms. Single-line millimetre-waveband spectral detections (quality up to ~15σ) from the JCMT and ALMA telescopes have no other plausible identification.

15.09.2020 - 10:42 [ Washington University in St. Louis ]

Meteorite study suggests Earth may have always been wet

(27.08.2020)

A new study finds that Earth’s water may have come from materials that were present in the inner solar system at the time the planet formed — instead of far-reaching comets or asteroids delivering such water.

15.09.2020 - 10:24 [ Science Magazine ]

Earth’s water may have been inherited from material similar to enstatite chondrite meteorites

(28.08.2020)

The origin of Earth’s water remains unknown. Enstatite chondrite (EC) meteorites have similar isotopic composition to terrestrial rocks and thus may be representative of the material that formed Earth. ECs are presumed to be devoid of water because they formed in the inner Solar System. Earth’s water is therefore generally attributed to the late addition of a small fraction of hydrated materials, such as carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which originated in the outer Solar System where water was more abundant. We show that EC meteorites contain sufficient hydrogen to have delivered to Earth at least three times the mass of water in its oceans.

15.09.2020 - 09:40 [ ORF ]

Blümel legt in Kritik an EU nach

Finanzminister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) legt bei seiner Kritik an der EU nach. „In der EU werden regelmäßig die Regeln gebrochen, und das geht einfach nicht“, sagte er im Gespräch mit der „Welt“. „Ich habe mittlerweile das Gefühl, die europäische Ebene und die Brüsseler Bürokratie reagieren nur auf Druck. Wenn große Länder sich beschweren, wird schnell reagiert, bei kleineren Ländern weniger schnell.“

15.09.2020 - 09:21 [ ORF ]

Rechtsstaatlichkeit: Parlament für mehr Druck auf Polen

Die EU-Abgeordneten werden während der ersten Sitzung nach der Sommerpause am Donnerstag über ihren Standpunkt zu dem Zwischenbericht abstimmen. Wegen der Coronavirus-Pandemie tagen die EU-Politiker in Brüssel und nicht wie gewohnt im französischen Straßburg. Die Abstimmungen erfolgen per E-Mail.

15.09.2020 - 08:41 [ Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom / Twitter ]

We want a great future relationship and a free trade agreement with the EU – but we will not get there if they seek to divide us. We must protect the sovereignty and integrity of our United Kingdom.

15.09.2020 - 01:38 [ Tagesschau ]

Johnson zum Brexit-Kurs „EU hat Revolver nicht vom Tisch genommen“

Am Abend stimmte das Parlament dann in erster Lesung für die umstrittene Änderung des Brexit-Vertrages. Für die Gesetzesvorlage votierten 340 Abgeordnete, dagegen 263. Das neue Binnenmarktgesetz würde den im Januar mit der EU geschlossenen Brexit-Vertrag einseitig ändern.

15.09.2020 - 01:14 [ ORF ]

Britisches Unterhaus stimmt für Änderung von Brexit-Vertrag

In einer ersten Abstimmung hat sich allen Warnungen zum Trotz eine Mehrheit im britischen Unterhaus für das umstrittene Binnenmarktgesetz von Premier Boris Johnson ausgesprochen. 340 der Abgeordneten votierten gestern Abend für das Gesetz, mit dem Johnson Teile des gültigen Brexit-Deals ändern will.

15.09.2020 - 01:03 [ teleSUR ]

Coronel Leads the National Foundation of the Arts in Brazil

As part of his conservative agenda, however, the former Captain Bolsonaro is determined to prevent schools, universities, art centers, and other cultural spaces from continuing to be „niches“ for Marxist thought, as he claims.