Natur hautnah erleben ist das Motto von „Streaming Planet“, dem ersten Internet-Fernsehsender, der sich ausschließlich dem Thema Natur und Reise widmet. Hier sind insbesondere die Vulkanaufnahmen in der Rubrik „naturwunder erde“ sehenswert.
http://www.streaming-planet.de/
Solscape
Erdrutsch am Ätna sandte Flutwelle nach Osten
Vor ungefähr 8.000 Jahren löste ein gewaltiger Erdrutsch am Ätna auf Sizilien eine Katastrophe im östlichen Mittelmeer aus: eine ganze Flanke des Vulkans sackte damals ins Meer ab und brachte weitere Ablagerungen vor der Küste Siziliens ins Rutschen. Dabei entstand das heutige Valle del Bove, ein hufeisenförmiger Einschnitt an der Ostseite des Vulkans. Der durch den Erdrutsch ausgelöste Tsunami rollte durch das gesamte östliche Mittelmeer und brachte womöglich die Steinzeitmenschen in der Gegend des heutigen Israel dazu, ihre Siedlungen zu verlassen. Das zeigen Modellrechnungen, die Maria Teresa Pareschi vom Nationalen Institut für Geophysik und Vulkanologie in Pisa und ihre Kollegen in der Zeitschrift „Geophysical Research Letters“ vorstellen.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2006GL027790
New Horizons probe makes its first Pluto sighting
The New Horizons team got a faint glimpse of the mission’s distant, main planetary target when one of the spacecraft’s telescopic cameras spotted Pluto for the first time:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/112806.php
Seismologists measure heat flow from Earth’s molten core into the lower mantle
For the first time, scientists have directly measured the amount of heat flowing from the molten metal of Earth’s core into a region at the base of the mantle, a process that helps drive both the movement of tectonic plates at the surface and the geodynamo in the core that generates Earth’s magnetic field.
https://news.ucsc.edu/2006/11/978.html
Astronomers find First ever Gamma Ray Clock
Astronomers using the H.E.S.S. telescopes have discovered the first ever modulated signal from space in Very High Energy Gamma Rays – the most energetic such signal ever observed. Regular signals from space have been known since the 1960s, when the first radio pulsar was discovered. This is the first time a signal has been seen at such high energies – 100.000 times higher than previously known – and is reported in the Journal „Astronomy and Astrophysics“.
https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/pages/press/old/PressRelease/LS5039Press-2006/PressRelease_E.html
A giant planet embedded in the magnetosphere of its star
Using the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, an international team of researchers has just discovered a magnetic field on Tau Bootis, a star orbited by a giant planet on a close-in orbit: the first ever detection of this kind!
Black Hole Erupts on Camera
ESA’s Integral space observatory has spotted a blast of gamma rays from a suspected black hole in the Milky Way. The outburst occurred on September 17, 2006, and gradually built in brightness over the course of a few days before declining again. It’s this rise and fall of brightness, called a light curve, that allowed astronomers identify the source as a black hole. It’s likely that a disk of gas and material orbiting the black hole became unstable, and a portion of it collapsed, creating the outburst.
Integral catches a new erupting black hole
The results, described in the article „IGJ 717497-2821: A new X-ray Nova“ by Roland Walter et al., appeared in „Astronomy and Astrophysics 461, L17-L20 (2007)“.
A free access online version can be found here.
Amazon Indians Using Google Earth to Protect Tropical Forests
A non-profit organization called the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) has been providing Amazon Indian natives (who know the tropical forests better than anyone) with GPS hand-held units and Google Earth so they can help keep track of illegal mining and tree cutting on their lands. Since Google has updated many of the areas with higher resolution, it has even been possible now to identify illegal mine sites in the satellite photos. The Indians are using the GPS units to mark locations of roads, airports, and mining operations deep in the tropical forests. They then put the locations into Google Earth and are sharing the data with government officials to track down illegal operations. Apparently, members of the Google Earth team have been helping them out.
What a perfect example of combining technology with traditional hunting and land knowledge to help reduce environmental destruction!
https://news.mongabay.com/2006/11/amazon-indians-use-google-earth-gps-to-protect-forest-home/
Cosmic-ray clues
New clues about the origins of cosmic rays, mysterious high-energy particles that bombard the Earth, have been revealed using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. An extraordinarily detailed image of the remains of an exploded star provides crucial insight into the generation of cosmic rays. For the first time, astronomers have mapped the rate of acceleration of cosmic ray electrons in a supernova remnant. The new map shows that the electrons are being accelerated at close to the theoretically maximum rate. This discovery provides compelling evidence that supernova remnants are key sites for energizing charged particles. The map was created from an image of Cassiopeia A, a 325-year-old remnant produced by the explosive death of a massive star. The blue, wispy arcs in the image trace the expanding outer shock wave where the acceleration takes place. The other colors in the image show debris from the explosion that has been heated to millions of degrees.
Chandra Discovers Relativistic Pinball Machine
VLT Image of Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313
The captivating appearance of an image of the starburst galaxy NGC 1313, taken with the FORS instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope, belies its inner turmoil. The dense clustering of bright stars and gas in its arms, a sign of an ongoing boom of star births, shows a mere glimpse of the rough times it has seen. Probing ever deeper into the heart of the galaxy, astronomers have revealed many enigmas that continue to defy our understanding.
The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy