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NASA’s Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Sciencebinary system, double sunset, Galaxy, gravitational pull, gravitational tug on stars, habitable zone, john knoll, kepler 16b, kepler mission, kepler space telescope, laurance doyle, NASA, planet orbiting two stars, san francisco, saturn, star wars, tatooine, visual effects, william borucki

PASADENA, Calif. — The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it. (more…)

MSU Scientists Suggest How Countries Can Cooperate on Climate

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Environmentclimate change risk, climate policy, greenhouse gas mitigation, linear compensation

EAST LANSING, Mich. — When countries try to work together to limit the effects of climate change, the fear of being the only nation reducing greenhouse gas emissions – while the others enjoy the benefits with no sacrifice – can bring cooperation to a grinding halt. (more…)

NASA Mars Research Helps Find Buried Water on Earth

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Scienceairborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping, airborne sounding radar prototype, arabian peninsula, depth and extent of aquifers, earth desert, essam heggy, evidence for climate change, geological processes, jet propulsion laboratory, low frequency radar signal, maps of freshwater aquifers, mars orbiting spacecraft, muhammad al rashed, NASA, north africa, northern kuwait, radar sounding technology, semi arid environments, southwestern united states, subsurface of mars, water saturated zones, west and central asia

PASADENA, Calif. — A NASA-led team has used radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars to create high-resolution maps of freshwater aquifers buried deep beneath an Earth desert, in the first use of airborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping.

The research may help scientists better locate and map Earth’s desert aquifers, understand current and past hydrological conditions in Earth’s deserts and assess how climate change is impacting them. Deserts cover roughly 20 percent of Earth’s land surface, including highly populated regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, west and central Asia and the southwestern United States. (more…)

Something Odd Is Happening With Namibia’s Weather

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Environmentages of sediments, bedrock outcrops, drainage basins, river sediment, weather in namibia, western namibia

Southwestern African country is no arid desert–this year

Something’s up with the weather in Namibia, say geoscientists Kyle Nichols of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Paul Bierman of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt. (more…)

USGS Releases Resource Estimate for Afghanistan Rare Earth Prospect

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2011Economyafghanistan, geologic assessment techniques, khanneshin carbonatite, mineral resource assessment, rare earth element, resource estimate

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates at least 1 million metric tonnes of rare earth element resources within the Khanneshin carbonatite in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. This estimate comes from a 2009-2011 USGS study funded by the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). (more…)

When Plants Go Polyploid

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2011Natureanimal evolution, diploid lineages, evolutionary gamble, hereditary information, plant lineages, polyploid lineages, polyploidy

Plant lineages with multiple copies of their genetic information face higher extinction rates than their relatives, researchers report in Science magazine.

While duplication of hereditary information is a relatively rare event in animal evolution, it is common in plants. Potatoes, coffee, bananas, peanuts, tobacco, wheat, oats and strawberries, to name but a few, all carry multiple copies of their genetic material, in a condition called polyploidy. (more…)

UCLA Psychologists Discover a Gene’s Link to Optimism, Self-Esteem

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2011Health, Scienceadenine variant, baldwin way, depressive symptoms, empathy, gene link to optimism, good social skills, guanine variant, hormone, oxtr, oxytocin, oxytocin receptor gene, psychological disorders, shelley e taylor, shimon saphire bernstein, stress and depression

UCLA life scientists have identified for the first time a particular gene’s link to optimism, self-esteem and “mastery,” the belief that one has control over one’s own life — three critical psychological resources for coping well with stress and depression.

“I have been looking for this gene for a few years, and it is not the gene I expected,” said Shelley E. Taylor, a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA and senior author of the new research. “I knew there had to be a gene for these psychological resources.” (more…)

New Video/Images of Walrus Haulout

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2011Environment, Naturealaska, arctic basin, chukchi sea barrier beach, female walruses, human disturbance, icy cape, inupiaq community, native village of point lay, pacific walruses, point lay, radio tracking walruses, radio transmitters, sea ice, usgs alaska science center, walrus haulouts, walruses

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The USGS Alaska Science Center has released new high-resolution video of Pacific walruses hauling out near Point Lay, Alaska, in late August, 2011.

Also available on the USGS Alaska Science Center walrus website are animations of the walruses’ movements as tracked by radio transmitters, and FAQs on the ongoing walrus studies. (more…)

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