There will come a time when the sun grows so hot that earth's ocean boil and evaporate. In roughly a billion years the oxygen and hydrogen will be split apart by the hotter sun and the hydrogen will drift into space, the oxygen will combine with anything it touches, and the earth will resemble present-day Venus. Then again, if we try hard, maybe we can
speed that way up!
The ocean is currently absorbing heat 15 times faster than at any point in the last 10,000 years, researchers have uncovered. The discovery offers a compelling argument as to why atmospheric temperatures have stabilized during the last decade -- an oft-quoted point by climate change skeptics.
In the new study published in the journal Science, marine and coastal sciences Professor Yair Rosenthal from Rutgers University teamed up with Braddock Linsley of Columbia University and Delia W. Oppo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Together, they examined the shells of tiny single-celled organisms known as foraminifera found in sediment cores taken from the seas surrounding Indonesia where the Pacific and Indian oceans overlap.
- I may be in the D.C. area in a few weeks researching a book project but there's two touristy things I'd definitely like to do while there: 1) meet some DKos regs in the flesh and 2) visit one or both locations of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Anyone up for either/or?
- Driving while Googling?
- Venus may be the hottest terrestrial world in our solar system, super-volcanic Io might most resemble Dante's Inferno, but we have a new candidate for most hellish earth-like world and it's not even a close call: Kepler 78b.
- Remember that clocks fall back early tomorrow morning in most parts of North America. But if you happen to be up at the crack of dawn on the east coast, you might want to look toward the rising sun for a look at this rare event.
- Young science geeks and entrepreneurs, pay attention, this is the future and there's money involved:
The Space Frontier Foundation is proud to announce its sponsorship of the SpaceVision 2013 conference and their Student Business Plan Competition (BPC). SpaceVision is run by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), making the sponsorship a direct investment in the future of NewSpace.