The oceans were brewed up right here on Earth – and were not delivered by asteroids and comets as commonly thought, a new study suggests.
Origin of the Ocean on the Earth: Early Evolution of Water D/H in a Hydrogen-rich Atmosphere
Solscape
Münzschatz auf Gotland belegt weit reichende Reisen der Wikinger
Einen kleinen Wikinger-Münzschatz hat ein Gärtner auf der schwedischen Insel Gotland beim Gemüsepflanzen entdeckt. Bisher grub er 69 Silbermünzen aus, die nach Schätzung von Archäologen aus dem 10. und 11. Jahrhundert stammen. Geprägt wurden die Münzen in mehreren europäischen Regionen sowie im Gebiet des heutigen Irak und in Usbekistan. Die Münzen belegen demnach die weit reichenden Handelsbeziehungen der Wikinger mit asiatischen Völkern.
Viking Treasure Trove Discovered in Swedish Garden
New observations downplay Mars water
Data and pictures from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) suggest that gullies that recently formed in some Martian craters were not created by liquid water. The gullies had formed in crater walls some time between two sets of Mars Global Surveyor images taken several years apart, and scientists speculated that groundwater leaking out the side of the crater could have caused the gullies. However, more detailed observations by MRO now argue that the gullies were formed by landslides of loose, dry material.
NASA Orbiter Provides Insights About Mars Water and Climate
Velociraptor Had Feathers
The finding of quill knobs on fossilized velociraptor bone demonstrates that even large dinosaurs were feathered and may have descended from animals capable of flight. Scientists have known for years that many dinosaurs had feathers. Now the presence of feathers has been documented in velociraptor, one of the most iconic of dinosaurs and a close relative of birds.
Dinosaur Fossil Shows Signs of Early Flight Mechanism
Neptune Has a Hot South Pole
Astronomers who were making temperature maps of Neptune discovered that the region around the south pole is hotter than the rest of the planet. Why? Neptune has a year that is 165 Earth years long and the south pole of the planet is currently tilted towards the sun.
A Warm South Pole? Yes, on Neptune!
Rotation Wobbles Cause Ice Ages on Mars
Researchers have found evidence that Mars has experienced a number of ice ages and speculate that wobbles in the planet’s rotation are the cause. These wobbles alter the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface and that might cause temperature variations significant enough to trigger an „ice age“.
New Theory Explains Ice on Mars
British solar plane breaks longest unmanned flight record
A lightweight, solar-powered plane built by British defence and security technology company QinetiQ has broken a world record for unmanned flight by staying aloft for 54 hours. The Zephyr, which has an 18-metre wingspan and weighs just 30 kilogrammes, smashed the previous best of 30 hours 24 minutes by nearly a whole day, flying to a maximum height of 58.355 feet.
QinetiQ’s Zephyr UAV exceeds official world record for longest duration unmanned flight
Ancient „Escape Tunnel“ Discovered In Israel
In excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in Jerusalem in order to expose the main road from the time of the Second Temple period, the city’s main drainage channel was discovered. According to the writings of Josephus Flavius, the residents of the city fled to this channel at the time of the revolt in order to hide from the Romans.
Archeologists find ancient tunnel used by Jews to escape Roman conquest of Jerusalem
Mars rovers survive dust storms!
Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe storms nearly killed NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, the solar powered robots are awake and ready to continue their missions.
Opportunity’s planned descent into the giant Victoria Crater was delayed by the storms, but now the rover is preparing to drive into the 800-meter-diameter crater as early as September 11.
Spirit also survived the global dust storms. On September 5, the robot climbed onto its long-term destination called Home Plate, a plateau of layered bedrock bearing clues to an explosive mixture of lava and water.
Both rovers are now 43 months into their missions originally planned to last three months.
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Large Asteroid Breakup May Have Caused Mass Extinction On Earth
The impactor believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms on Earth some 65 million years ago has been traced back to a breakup event in the main asteroid belt. A joint U.S.-Czech team from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University in Prague suggests that the parent object of asteroid 298 Baptistina disrupted when it was hit by another large asteroid, creating numerous large fragments that would later create the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula as well as the prominent Tycho crater found on the Moon.
Southwest Research Institute News
Abstract: An asteroid breakup 160 Myr ago as the probable source of the K/T impactor
Baptistina asteroid family
(PDF from the 2007 meeting of the Lunar and Planetary Institute)