Potentially Hazardous Rock Makes First Pass by Earth

A European space telescope has captured new images of the huge asteroid Apophis, revealing that the potentially hazardous object is actually bigger than previously thought — and you have a chance to see the space rock yourself in two free webcasts tonight.

Asteroid Apophis has long been billed as a "doomsday asteroid" because of a 2004 study that predicted a 2.7 percent chance of the space rock hitting Earth when it passes within 22,364 miles of the planet in April 2029, European Space Agency officials said. Later studies proved, however, that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth during that flyby, but astronomers continue to track the object since it will make another pass near Earth in 2036.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/09/potentially-dangerous-asteroid-apophis-bigger-than-thought-see-it-online/#ixzz2HWBfrT00

Un asteroide pasará entre la Tierra y la Luna en febrero

lamentiraestaahifuer

CNN

Un asteroide pasará relativamente cerca a la Tierra el próximo 15 de febrero. Tanto, que transitará entre nuestro planeta y la Luna y estará mucho más próximo que incluso algunos satélites de telecomunicaciones en órbita.

El asteroide, que fue detectado por la Agencia Espacial Europea en marzo pasado, pasará a sólo 22.000 kilómetros del globo. La distancia de la Tierra a la Luna es de alrededor de 384.000 kilómetros.

“Pasará muy cerca pero no va a impactar la Tierra, eso lo sabemos. Va a pasar por la órbita de nuestros satélites, los que toman imágenes meteorológicas y los de GPS, pero es poco probable que choque contra ellos”, dijo Chad Myers, experto climático de CNN.
El asteroide, llamado 2012 DA14, tiene alrededor de 50 metros de diámetro y según Myers no será lo suficientemente brillante para que pueda verse en el cielo sin ayuda aparatos.
Los científicos aún no tienen certeza el efecto que la gravedad de la Tierra tendrá en la trayectoria del asteroide.

Scientists try to access ancient body of water

GlobalToronto

Filmmakers capture 75 minutes glacier breakup

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Earth’s magnetic field long overdue for a reversal that could end our current way of life

survivepoleshift 

Scott Sutherland | Geekquinox

When a reversal does eventually happen, we have a good idea of what it will and won't do — both to us and the planet …The idea that Earth's magnetic field will flip — switching the north and south magnetic poles — isn't anything new. It's even been the topic of choice for some doomsday prophets, since it will, apparently, destroy the planet or at the very least turn it on its side, putting an end to us in either case.

It's well known that the polarity of Earth's magnetic field changes. Geologists have seen this change by examining the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. When magma wells up at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is cooled by the ocean water, crystals in the magma will orient themselves in the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Thus, bands of cooled magma along the ocean floor are a geologic record of what direction the magnetic field pointed in during Earth's history, and show that the magnetic field has reversed every 100,000 to 50 million years or so.

Within the last 5 million years, the reversals have been characterized by long periods of stability, of between 450,000 and 590,000 years, separated by several shorter-term reversals. The last reversal happened around 780,000 years ago, so by reckoning of some, we are long overdue.

Reversals are thought to occur when large areas of the Earth's liquid iron outer core become oppositely-aligned to their surroundings. If enough areas of the outer core do this, the entire magnetic field will flip. This does not happen suddenly, though. It takes thousands to tens of thousands of years for this to occur.

When a reversal does eventually happen, we have a good idea of what it will and won't do — both to us and the planet.

Speculation by some is that when the magnetic field flips, it will be because the solid iron inner core of the planet flips 180 degrees. This will cause the surface of the planet to shift at least 90 degrees, effectively switching our lines of latitude and longitude, and destroying us in the process. However, only the size of the inner core affects the magnetic field, with a growing core making a stronger field and a shrinking core making a weaker field, and a shift in the magnetic field will not effect the orientation of the solid core at all. Even if it did, it would take tens of millions of years for such a change to spread out from the core, through the liquid outer core, and through the mantle, before it reached the Earth's surface and did us in.

What it will do is cause a weak period in the magnetic field strength for a thousand or more years, as the various parts of the liquid outer core sort themselves out to all orient in the same direction. This would expose us to heightened amounts of solar radiation, and solar particles could even punch large, although temporary, holes in the ozone layer. Our technology would bear the greatest brunt of this kind of event, though. Even now, solar storms and coronal mass ejections can cause havoc with computers, communications systems and power grids, and this would be much worse with a weakened magnetic field. Additionally, there would be several magnetic poles during this time, making travel by compass much more difficult. What's certain is that it wouldn't be the end of us, but it would be the end of our current way of life.

There have been some signs that the magnetic field may be on the move, since within the last century, Earth's magnetic field has shifted and has lost some of its strength.

"Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century," said Conall Mac Niocaill, a geology and geophysics professor at Oxford University. "In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards."

Or it may not. The field changes, both in direction and strength, are well within the normal range that we've seen over the past million years or so. Also, just because something has happened in the past is no guarantee that it will happen in the future.

On the other hand, a large area underneath South America and the South Atlantic — called the South Atlantic Anomaly — was identified in the 1990s as a weak spot in the Earth's magnetic field, and could indicate a large area of the liquid core changing its polarity. It seems to be the only large area of weakness, though, so who knows if it is simply a temporary phenomenon, or a sign of things to come.

The European Space Agency is launching its 'Swarm' magnetic field mission next month. With two satellites in polar orbit to examine the magnetic field directly, and one satellite in far orbit to examine the effects of solar activity on the field, the mission could bring us much closer to understanding the Earth's magnetic field and gain more insight on how it is changing.

Could asteroid dust counter climate change on Earth?

Scientists have proposed creating a dust cloud made of asteroid material that could help to cool Earth. Here, an artist's depiction shows what a spacecraft spewing asteroid dust might look like.

NBC news/ By Charles Choi Contributor

To combat global warming, scientists in Scotland now suggest an out-of-this-world solution — a giant dust cloud in space, blasted off an asteroid, which would act like a sunshade for Earth.

The world is warming and the climate is changing. Although many want to prevent these shifts by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that trap heat from the sun, some controversially suggest deliberating manipulating the planet's climate with large-scale engineering projects, commonly called geoengineering.

Instead of altering the climate by targeting either the oceans or the atmosphere, some researchers have suggested geoengineering projects that would affect the entire planet from space. For instance, projects that reduced the amount of solar radiation Earth receives by 1.7 percent could offset the effects of a global increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that climate models suggest average global temperatures will rise by 2 to 11.5 degrees F (1.1 to 6.4 degrees C) by the end of this century.

"A 1.7 percent reduction is very small and will hardly be noticeable on Earth," said researcher Russell Bewick, a space scientist at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. "People sometimes get the idea of giant screens blocking the entire sun. This is not the case ... as [the device] is constantly between the sun and the earth, it acts merely as a very light shade or filter."

Shading Earth One proposal to shade Earth from the sun would place giant mirrors in space. The main problem with this concept is the immense cost and effort needed either to build and launch such reflectors or to construct them in outer space — the current cost to launch an object into low Earth orbit runs into thousands of dollars per pound. Another would use blankets of dust to blot out the sun, just as clouds do for Earth. These offer the virtue of simplicity compared with mirrors, but run the risk of getting dispersed over time by solar radiation and the gravitational pull of the sun, moon and planets. [Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas]

Now, instead of having a dust cloud floating by itself in space, researchers suggest that an asteroid could essentially gravitationally anchor a dust cloud in space to block sunlight and cool the planet.   More >>

As sea levels rise, Kiribati eyes 6,000 acres in Fiji as new home for 103,000 islanders

Richard Vogel / AP, file

Authorities in Kiribati, seen here in an aerial photo taken in 2004, have been considering several unusual options to combat climate change, including constructing sea walls and even building a floating island.

msnbc.com

Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.

Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could provide an insurance policy for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave.

"We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it," Tong said. "It wouldn't be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won't be a matter of choice. It's basically going to be a matter of survival."

Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the international date line, has found itself at the leading edge of the debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.

Warming oceans could melt ice faster than expected

Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of sea water contaminating the island's underground fresh water, which remains vital for trees and crops. He said changing rainfall, tidal and storm patterns pose as least as much threat as ocean levels, which so far have risen only slightly.

Some scientists have estimated the current level of sea rise in the Pacific at about 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year. Many scientists expect that rate to accelerate due to climate change.

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace via AP, file

In this 2005 photo released by Greenpeace, Pita Meanke stands beside a tree as he watches

Fiji, home to about 850,000 people, is about 1,400 miles south of Kiribati. But just what people there think about potentially providing a home for thousands of their neighbors remains unclear. Tong said he's awaiting full parliamentary approval for the land purchase, which he expects in April, before discussing the plan formally with Fijian officials. More >>

James Cameron Headed to Ocean's Deepest Point Within Weeks

James Cameron [Photo-Krista Kennell]

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published March 8, 2012

Squeezed into a submersible as futuristic as anything in his movies, James Cameron intends to descend solo to the ocean's deepest point within weeks, the Canadian filmmaker and explorer announced Thursday. (See more pictures of Cameron's sub.)

Just Tuesday, during testing off Papua New Guinea, Cameron dived deeper than any other human has on a solo mission. Now he aims to become the first human to visit the Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep in more than 50 years—and to return with animals, images, and data that were unthinkable in 1960.

That year the two-person crew of the U.S. Navy submersible Trieste—still the only humans to have reached Challenger Deep—spent only 20 minutes at the bottom, their view obscured by silt stirred up by the landing (more on the Trieste dive).

By contrast, the Cameron-designed DEEPSEA CHALLENGER sub is expected to allow the explorer to spend about six hours on the seafloor. During that time he plans to collect samples and film the whole affair with multiple 3-D, high-definition cameras and an 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter-tall) array of LED lights.

Already the tech-laden sub has taken Cameron a record-breaking 5.1 miles (8.2 kilometers) straight down. That Tuesday dress rehearsal for Mariana made the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER the deepest-diving submersible in operation and the deepest-diving single-pilot sub in history.

Designed to sink strangely—and efficiently—upright, the 24-foot-tall (7-meter-tall) craft was eight years in the making. Among its advances is a specially designed foam that helps allow the new sub to weigh in at 12 metric tons, making it some 12 times lighter than the Trieste.

Despite its innovations, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER's spherical steel cockpit just barely accommodates its single occupant—in this case, Cameron, the man behind Avatar, Titanic, The Terminator, and, fittingly, The Abyss.

Nothing in his fictional worlds could quite prepare him for real-life exploration, said Cameron, a veteran of dozens of deep-sea submersible dives.

"When you're making a movie, everybody's read the script and they know what's going to happen next," said Cameron, also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence, in a video statement. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

"When you're on an expedition, nature hasn't read the script, the ocean hasn't read the script, and no one knows what's going to happen next."  

More >>

Sun points a loaded gun in our direction

NASA / SDO

An "intensitygram" from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the double-barreled sunspot active region 1416 pointing toward Earth.

By Alan Boyle

As solar activity builds toward an expected peak in 2013, a double-barreled sunspot has been doubling in size over the past couple of days and now has the potential to shoot significant eruptions in our direction.

It's not certain that active region 1416 will erupt with coronal mass ejections as violent as the blasts that were thrown off by the sun late last month. But it has developed a mixed "beta-gamma" magnetic field that packs enough energy to throw off medium-scale solar flares, SpaceWeather.com reports.

"Any such eruptions this weekend would be Earth-directed as the sunspot turns to face our planet," SpaceWeather's Tony Phillips wrote.

Medium-size M-class flares are generally associated with the kinds of solar storms that produce enhanced auroral lights, but not huge inconveniences on Earth. It's the X-class flares you really have to watch out for: That level of solar storming could affect radio communications as well as satellites and electrical grids if the operators of those systems aren't careful.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have a wide array of space assets monitoring the sun, and for now all's quiet on the solar front. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center reported some problems tracking the Advanced Composition Explorer, a satellite that plays a key role in tracking solar storms, but those problems are expected to go away as ACE's orientation with respect to the sun improves. More >>

Solar blast heading our way

By Alan Boyle

The sun has unleashed a blast in Earth's direction, and that should cause brighter-than-normal auroral displays this weekend. Skywatchers won't be the only ones monitoring the storm: The folks in charge of power grids and orbiting satellites will also be on guard to make sure the disturbance in the (geomagnetic) force won't be disruptive.

Word of today's blast, technically known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, comes via SpaceWeather.com's Tony Phillips. NASA says the outburst sparked an M3.2-class solar flare, as well as a stream of electrically charged particles that is due to interact with Earth's magnetic field on Saturday. "Viewers can be on the lookout for increased aurora," NASA says.

M-class flares are capable of causing brief radio blackouts near the poles as well as minor radiation storms, but it's unlikely that this one will disrupt communication or power transmission networks. The forecast would be different if it were an X-class storm heading our way. As the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle in 2013 or so, we can expect to see more powerful solar outbursts.  More >>

Changing Climate Will Make Massive Shifts in Earth's Vegetation [NASA study]

Scientific American Magazine/ By Lauren Morello and ClimateWire

Climate change will alter the mix of vegetation on 49 percent of Earth's land surface by the end of this century, scrambling and shifting existing ecosystems, according to a new study.

Researchers at NASA and the California Institute of Technology say the changing climate will also convert 37 percent of the world's land ecosystems from one type -- such as tundra, forest or grassland -- into another by 2100.

Those vegetation shifts are likely to affect animals and insects that have evolved to live among particular plant species and within certain temperature and precipitation ranges, said the study's lead author, independent scientist Jon Bergengren.

"Animals that are dependent on plants will either have to migrate with the plants, if the plants can successfully migrate, or hang on with plants that are struggling to survive," said Bergengren, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Either way, there are problems."

Bergengren said that widespread human development will complicate and in some cases prevent plants and animals from migrating to new habitats as climate change alters existing ecosystems.

"A lot of times, when a plant or animal wants to migrate, it runs into a monoculture agricultural zone, or it runs into a city," he said.

The study, published by the journal Climatic Change, is based on the output of a computer model of vegetation change. Researchers used the model to project how the world's vegetation would shift over the next three centuries under the "middle of the road" greenhouse gas emissions scenario developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It assumes the world's greenhouse gas emissions will double by 2100, then stabilize.

Northern forests move into the tundra.   More >> 

Have scientists discovered Earth's twin?

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new exoplanet candidates, researchers announced Monday.

The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation. These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.

The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one that could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.

 NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.

"We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a news conference on Monday.

Hunting down alien planets The $600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.

Kepler detects alien planets using what's called the "transit method." It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet transits — or crosses in front of — the star from Earth's perspective, blocking a fraction of the star's light.

The finds graduate from "candidates" to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they're not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.

The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.

To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's discoveries should end up being the real deal. More >>

Growth Has an Expiration Date

---

Guest Blog/

By Tom Murphy 

Indefinite growth on a finite planet is impossible. Few would argue the truth of this statement in physical terms, but most believe that economic growth is immune to such a claim, because—the story goes—economics can be decoupled from physical throughput via efficiency improvements, transformative technology/innovation, and increased activity in low-resource-use “service” industries. All of these things happen, and are real. But I argue in a series of blog posts on Do the Math that these notions, too, have limits. I also explore what this means for the concept of sustainability.
We begin with a startling illustration that continued energy growth at 2% per year has us consuming energy at a rate equivalent to the power output of all 100-billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy inside of 2500 years! Furthermore, no matter what the energy technology, the Earth’s surface would become so hot that water boils in a little over 400 years, and we reach the surface temperature of the sun in 1000 years. This is not global warming from CO₂, but straightforward thermodynamics, and is an inescapable consequence of a continued growth trajectory on Earth. There are many reasons why this won’t happen—which is to say that we will end physical growth (in energy, for instance) within a century or two at the latest. Fusion (even the “cold” variety) is not exempt.
Next is a demonstration that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely against a constant energy supply. This starts with the observation that efficiency cannot be increased arbitrarily. We’ve got maybe a factor of two to gain, yet, at a typical rate of 1% per year. Nor can low-intensity activities continue to grow forever in a flat-energy world, because such things will saturate the economy—some fraction of which must still rely on a non-growing energy base. Some decoupling can extend economic growth for a time, but complete decoupling is not a real possibility. More >

1,000 Places To See Before You Die: What's Your Number One?

huffingtonpost.com - The perennial guide to iconic travel destinations, "1,000 Places To See Before You Die," is back with a brand-new edition. To celebrate the myriad of gorgeous, tasty and just plain amazing spot... More >

Wild rides: the 11/11/11 Great Blue Norther and the largest wave ever surfed

By Jason Samenow
You better be ready when a giant wave comes crashing down - not just in the ocean - but also the atmosphere.

Atmospheric wave pattern (reconstructed using modern data) that set up the 11/11/1911 “Great Blue Norther”. A huge dip in the jet stream over the western half of the country and big ridge (rise) over the East set up a volatile transition zone in the heartland. (NOAA (via University of Missouri) ) That’s what happened in Chicago 100 years ago when the temperature dropped from a record high of 74 to a frigid 16 in the same day (November 11, 1911). Even more stunning, Springfield, Missouri nose-dived from 80 to 8 degrees, a precipitous 72 degree drop.
The Chicago Weather Center offers some more background:
One of the most sudden and dangerous cold blasts in American history roared across the Plains and Midwest one hundred years ago today, November 11th 1911. In addition to the historic temperature drop, the storm system known as “The Great Blue Norther” also produced deadly tornadoes that were quickly followed by blizzard conditions.
The incredible blast of cold air arrived on the leading edge of a huge dip in the jet stream, the stormy segment of a long wave in the atmosphere.
“...the cold air mass interacted with a strong jet stream that then uncharacteristically plunged south to the American Midwest and into an existing and unusual warm and moist air mass being funneled into the Midwest by southerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico” according to researchers at the University of Missouri (UM).
In the days before satellite or radar, these researchers found residents had little warning. That was surely the case in Janesville, Wisconsin, where an F4 tornado killed 9 people and injured 50, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
“Within an hour after that tornado struck, survivors were working in blizzard conditions with near zero degree temperatures to rescue people trapped in tornado damage debris,” the NWS wrote.
Patrick Market, an atmospheric scientist at UM, described the Blue Norther as a “rare and unique” event. The closest analog to this storm is one that occurred on January 29, 2008, but wasn’t nearly as strong according to Market and his team.More >

Russian Mars Probe Will Likely Come Crashing Back to Earth

wired.com/ By Adam Mann

Things are looking grim for the Russian space agency’s Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars, with experts in the space industry calling the probability of rescue nearly zero.

The spacecraft has been stranded in low-Earth orbit following an engine failure almost immediately after launch on Nov. 8. Efforts to contact the probe have proved futile and the Pentagon’s NORAD has reportedly projected that the vehicle will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 26, the day after NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to launch. (Wired was unable to confirm this date with NORAD due to the federal holiday.)

It was hoped that Phobos-Grunt would be the first fully successful Russian mission to the Red Planet after a 50-year-long string of failures. It was set to land on Mars’ moon Phobos and return a soil sample from its surface.

The spacecraft is currently in a decaying orbit around Earth that should allow it to remain in space for at least a few weeks. During this time, Russian engineers will continue trying to contact the probe, hoping for a miracle.

In the event that no contact is established, the probe will soon fall back to Earth. The probable fall zone is currently very large — between 51.4 degrees N latitude and 51.4 degrees S latitude, which includes most of the U.S., part of Europe, all of Africa and Australia and virtually all of South America and Asia — and could prove dangerous if the spacecraft were to come down over a populated area.

While most of the 15-ton vehicle is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, its size and mass suggests that some debris would reach the Earth’s surface.

Image: Roscosmos/IKI

A child is born and world population hits 7 billion

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 10/31/2011 5:50:20 AM ET

Countries around the world marked the world's population reaching 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone and warnings that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources.

While demographers are unsure exactly when the world's population will reach the 7 billion mark, the U.N. is using Monday to symbolically mark the day.

A string of festivities are being held worldwide, with a series of symbolic 7-billionth babies being born.

The celebrations began in the Philippines, where baby Danica May Camacho was greeted with cheers and an explosion of photographers' flashbulbs at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.

The Guardian newspaper reported that Danica, whose name means morning star, had been chosen by the U.N. to be one of a number of symbolic 7 billionth babies. It is not known who the actual baby is.

Danica arrived two minutes before midnight Sunday, but doctors decided that was close enough to count for a Monday birthday.

'She looks so lovely' The baby received a shower of gifts, from a chocolate cake marked "7B Philippines" to a gift certificate for shoes.

 

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 More >

Epic Light Show Flashes Above U.S.

Discovery News
Right this moment, there's an epic magnetic battle raging above our heads.
On Monday, at around 2 p.m. ET, a coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into the Earth's magnetosphere. According to NASA's Space Weather Laboratory, the conditions were just right for the CME's magnetic field to compress the Earth's magnetosphere so much that, for a short time (between 3:06 p.m and 3:11 p.m. ET), energetic solar wind particles penetrated as deep as geosynchronous orbit -- home to hundreds of communication satellites.
ANALYSIS: Epic Aurora Caught Cross Country -- Share YOUR photos of the aurora!
Although the interactions between solar plasma and Earth's magnetic field are often invisible, tonight is an exception. Vast aurorae are rippling through the atmosphere at very low latitudes.
At time of writing, the US was being given a dazzling show as Spaceweather.com reports:

Northern Lights have spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous USA. Sighting reports have come from as far south as Arkansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Maryland, New York, Ohio and central California.

Yes, central California! To see some of the auroral displays, the Universe Today has a few reader's photos featured. My personal favorite is an earlier photograph taken in Norway.


More >

The Plan to Bring an Asteroid to Earth

• By Adam Mann

PASADENA, California — Send a robot into space. Grab an asteroid. Bring it back to Earth orbit.

This may sound like a crazy plan, but it was discussed quite seriously last week by a group of scientists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology. The four-day workshop was dedicated to investigating the feasibility and requirements of capturing a near-Earth asteroid, bringing it closer to our planet and using it as a base for future manned spaceflight missions.

This is not something the scientists are imagining could be done some day off in the future. This is possible with the technology we have today and could be accomplished within a decade.

A robotic probe could anchor to an asteroid made mostly of nickel-iron with simple magnets or grab a rocky asteroid with a harpoon or specialized claws (see video below) and then push the asteroid using solar-electric propulsion. For asteroids too big for a robot to handle, a large spacecraft could fly near the object to act as a gravity tractor that deflects the asteroid’s trajectory, sending it toward Earth.

Read more >

How Life Arose on Earth, and How a Singularity Might Bring It Down

By George Musser  
It didn’t take long for the recent Foundational Questions Institute conference on the nature of time to delve into the purpose of life. “The purpose of life,” meeting co-organizer and Caltech cosmologist Sean Carroll said in his opening remarks, “is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide.” Well, there you have it. Carroll is one of the most reflective scientists I know and would never claim to reduce all of human existence to molecular disequilibrium. Still, it’s nice to know your place in the grand scheme of things. The FQXi meeting had much to say about where we came from—and where we’re headed.
Read more >