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Dawn Reaches Milestone Approaching Asteroid Vesta

By Guest PostMay 5, 2011Scienceasteroid, asteroid belt, asteroid vesta, cape canaveral air force station, celestial body, christopher russell, cosmic rays, dawn spacecraft, earth, earth orbiting telescopes, florida, gamma ray, interplanetary travel, marc rayman, NASA, neutron detector, orbit, planet, protoplanet, radio signal, spacecraft, terra incognita, vesta

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has reached its official approach phase to the asteroid Vesta and will begin using cameras for the first time to aid navigation for an expected July 16 orbital encounter. The large asteroid is known as a protoplanet — a celestial body that almost formed into a planet.

At the start of this three-month final approach to this massive body in the asteroid belt, Dawn is 1.21 million kilometers (752,000 miles) from Vesta, or about three times the distance between Earth and the moon. During the approach phase, the spacecraft’s main activity will be thrusting with a special, hyper-efficient ion engine that uses electricity to ionize and accelerate xenon. The 12-inch-wide ion thrusters provide less thrust than conventional engines, but will provide propulsion for years during the mission and provide far greater capability to change velocity. (more…)

UF Pine lsland Pollen Study Leads to Revision of State’s Ancient Geography

By Guest PostMarch 3, 2011Scienceavon park formation, calusa indian village, david jarzen, deep injection well, early eocene, evolution of mammals, florida, flowering plants, fort myers, fossils, fredrick rich, geologic history, gray lignitic clay, jonathan bloch, limestone, marine environments, oligocene epoch, paleontologist, phytoplankton, pine island, pollen, sea level

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new University of Florida study of 45-million-year-old pollen from Pine Island west of Fort Myers has led to a new understanding of the state’s geologic history, showing Florida could be 10 million to 15 million years older than previously believed.

The discovery of land in Florida during the early Eocene opens the possibility for researchers to explore the existence of land animals at that time, including their adaptation, evolution and dispersal until the present. (more…)

Shark Attacks Increase Worldwide; Florida Continues Four-year Decline

By Guest PostFebruary 7, 2011Environment, Generalapex predators, australia, beach, economic downturn, egypt, fishing lines, florida, george burgess, hawaii, ichthyologist, native floridians, red sea, shark attacks, South Africa, tourists, united states, unusual shark incident, Vietnam, water temperatures, worldwide

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The number of reported shark attacks last year increased worldwide but declined in Florida, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File annual report released today.

Ichthyologist George Burgess, director of the file housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, said Florida typically has the highest number of attacks worldwide, but 2010 marked the state’s fourth straight year of decline. Florida led the U.S. with 13 reported attacks, but the total was significantly lower than the yearly average of 23 over the past decade. (more…)

The Long-Term Fate of the Oil Spill in the Atlantic

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2010Environment, Scienceapril 20, axel timmermann, buoyant particles, chemical, computer simulations, deepwater horizon, fabian schloesser, florida, florida current, gulf of mexico, gulf stream, honolulu, jamstec, microbial degradation, ofes, oil spill, oliver elison timm, rig, soes, straits of florida, university of hawaii at manoa

Honolulu, HI – The possible spread of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig over the course of one year was studied in a series of computer simulations by a team of researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

(more…)

State of Florida Leverages Microsoft Cloud Solution for Census Count

By Guest PostJune 11, 2010Technologybing, census count, cloud solution, dean cannon, florida, floridians, gail thomas-flynn, house of representatives, Microsoft, microsoft silverlight, myfloridacensus, state and local government, u.s. census bureau, web-based application, windows azure

*Built on Windows Azure, MyFloridaCensus.gov helps Floridians identify homes, neighborhoods and communities for 2010 census.*

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House of Representatives is making one final push over the next month for its state residents to be counted in the 2010 Census, through its MyFloridaCensus (https://www.myfloridacensus.gov) website and Web-based application.