planet

6Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, SCIENCE

A Dwarf Planet – What Is It?

What is a dwarf planet? – Myranda, age 8, Knoxville, Tennessee The word “planet” came from the ancient Greek words that mean “wandering star.” That makes sense, because for thousands of years, people have watched planets change position in the night sky – unlike stars, which appear fixed and unmoving to the naked eye. That’s how the ancients discovered five of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Astronomers using telescopes found Uranus in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930. Solar system leftovers I’m a space scientist with a passion for astronomy and the exploration of the Solar System. I received my Ph.D. in physics in 1994, about the time astronomers began to find more and more objects beyond Neptune, in the Kuiper belt. That’s a place in space that holds the ...

Must-See Planet Of The Apes Movie (1968), As Relevant As Ever

31Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

MOVIES

Must-See Planet Of The Apes Movie (1968), As Relevant As Ever

Planet of the Apes, the original movie with Charlton Heston, was produced in 1968 when I was a child of only five years. Back then, I was joyous whenever this science fiction film aired on television because I was also passionate about the future of space exploration and the possibility of encountering aliens on another planet. However, it all seemed so surreal. Furthermore, I thought it was impossible that apes could have ever commanded the world. Fifty-three years later, having viewed the movie again, I can interpret the script from a different, mature perspective while also appreciating the prophetic capacity of the plot, which included poignant visuals and metaphors. It is not my intention to give away everything that happens in this science fiction movie. However, I aim to point out s...

The Arctic hasn’t been this warm for 3 million years – and that foreshadows big changes for the rest of the planet

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

The Arctic hasn’t been this warm for 3 million years – and that foreshadows big changes for the rest of the planet

Every year, sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean shrinks to a low point in mid-September. This year it measures just 1.44 million square miles (3.74 million square kilometers) – the second-lowest value in the 42 years since satellites began taking measurements. The ice today covers only 50% of the area it covered 40 years ago in late summer. This year’s minimum ice extent is the lowest in the 42-year-old satellite record except for 2012, reinforcing a long-term downward trend in Arctic ice cover. Each of the past four decades averages successively less summer sea ice. NSIDC As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in human history. The last time that atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached today’s level – ab...

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

VIDEO REELS

Protecting half of the planet is the best way to fight climate change and biodiversity loss – we’ve mapped the key places to do it

Humans are dismantling and disrupting natural ecosystems around the globe and changing Earth’s climate. Over the past 50 years, actions like farming, logging, hunting, development and global commerce have caused record losses of species on land and at sea. Animals, birds and reptiles are disappearing tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural rate of extinction over the past 10 million years. Now the world is also contending with a global pandemic. In geographically remote regions such as the Brazilian Amazon, COVID-19 is devastating Indigenous populations, with tragic consequences for both Indigenous peoples and the lands they steward. My research focuses on ecosystems and climate change from regional to global scales. In 2019, I worked with conservation biologist and strategist ...

The UAE’s Mars mission seeks to bring Hope to more places than the red planet

13Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

The UAE’s Mars mission seeks to bring Hope to more places than the red planet

On July 14, a new Mars-bound spacecraft will launch from Japan. While several Mars missions are planned to launch over the next month, what makes this different is who’s launching it: the United Arab Emirates. Though new to space exploration, the UAE has set high goals for the probe, named Hope. The mission aims to further study the climate of Mars, but Omran Sharaf, mission lead, also says, “It’s a means for a bigger goal: to expedite the development in our educational sector, academic sector.” With space exploration usually pursued by actors like the United States, Russia, China, the European Space Agency and more recently, India, Hope will be the first mission to the red planet from a Middle Eastern country. As a space policy expert, I believe Hope is also significant in two other way...

Meteorites from Mars contain clues about the red planet’s geology

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY

Meteorites from Mars contain clues about the red planet’s geology

Despite the pandemic, NASA is on track to launch its Mars rover, Perseverance, this July from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its central mission will be to search for evidence of previous life on Mars. An exciting component of the rover will be a specialized drill that will collect rock and soil samples to be cached on the surface of Mars. If all goes according to plan, the cache will be retrieved by a future mission in 2031 and, for the first time, material from Mars will be brought back to Earth for analysis. As someone who studies Martian geology, I’m definitely looking forward to 2031 but am grateful I don’t have to wait 11 years to study rocks from Mars. Martian rock samples are already here on Earth in the form of meteorites. How rocks from Mars end up on Earth All Martian meteorites wer...

26Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CULTURE

Can Your Burger Really Save the Planet?

Choosing a veggie burger won’t stop climate disaster, but here’s why you should do it anyway. Burgers have recently become a main course on the menu of climate action. Whether it’s the Impossible Whopper, the promise of cell-based meat, or the debate over grass-fed beef, hamburgers—and how they’re made—are being served as a symbol of how we can disrupt and reduce one of our greatest impacts on the planet. But that doesn’t mean the solution is as simple as changing what’s on your grill. Agriculture is responsible for up to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. About half of that comes from livestock production, and the biggest culprit, by far, is beef production. Researchers say that countries like the United States will need to cut beef consumption by 90 percent to...

19Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

By Reconnecting With Soil, We Heal the Planet and Ourselves

Enslavement and sharecropping cannot erase thousands of years of Black people’s sacred relationship with the land. Dijour Carter refused to get out of the van parked in the gravel driveway at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. The other teens in his program emerged skeptical, but Dijour lingered in the van with his hood up, headphones on, eyes averted. There was no way he was going to get mud on his new Jordans and no way he would soil his hands with the dirty work of farming. I didn’t blame him. Almost without exception, when I ask Black visitors to the farm what they first think of when they see the soil, they respond “slavery” or “plantation.” Our families fled the red clays of Georgia for good reason—the memories of chattel slavery, sharecropping, convict leasing, a...