http://phys.org/space-news/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on earth science, astronomy and space exploration. Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away - the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance. http://phys.org/news257444960.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 17:29:30 EST news257444960 A new study combining the latest archaeological evidence with state-of-the-art geoscience technologies provides evidence that climate change was a key ingredient in the collapse of the great Indus or Harappan Civilization almost 4000 years ago. The study also resolves a long-standing debate over the source and fate of the Sarasvati, the sacred river of Hindu mythology. http://phys.org/news257415019.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:22 EST news257415019 The nation's food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere. http://phys.org/news257415092.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:09 EST news257415092 (Phys.org) -- What’s in a name? Quite a bit in climate science, where the term teleconnection refers not to digital communications, but rather to a recurring and persistent large-scale pattern of pressure and circulation anomalies that spans vast geographical areas. Recently, environmental researchers at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies reframed the discussion around the linkages between land changes and underlying urbanization dynamics by introducing urban land teleconnections as a conceptual framework for studying the multivariate nature of these processes in an integrated and productive manner. http://phys.org/news257409175.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news257409175 (Phys.org) -- Astronomers used to think that star formation simply involved the gradual coalescence of material under the influence of gravity. No longer. Making a new star is a complex process, among other things assembling a circumstellar disk (possibly preplanetary in nature) and at the same time ejecting material as bipolar jets perpendicular to those disks. These outflows help the young star balance its growth as new material accretes, but at the same time they disrupt the environment. Although jets from young stars have been known for over twenty years, their influences on the environment have remained uncertain, in part because the dusty natal clouds in which stars form obscure optical light. http://phys.org/news257412917.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 09:10:02 EST news257412917 (Phys.org) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the spiral galaxy known as ESO 498-G5. One interesting feature of this galaxy is that its spiral arms wind all the way into the center, so that ESO 498-G5's core looks like a bit like a miniature spiral galaxy. This sort of structure is in contrast to the elliptical star-filled centers (or bulges) of many other spiral galaxies, which instead appear as glowing masses. http://phys.org/news257407302.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 May 2012 07:02:20 EST news257407302 (Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found. http://phys.org/news257348253.html Space & Earth Sun, 27 May 2012 14:38:28 EST news257348253 Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match scientific consensus? http://phys.org/news257318674.html Space & Earth Sun, 27 May 2012 13:01:36 EST news257318674 (Phys.org) -- It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed. http://phys.org/news257320509.html Space & Earth Sun, 27 May 2012 13:00:06 EST news257320509 SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel smells like a new car, said astronauts at the International Space Station after opening the hatches Saturday following the spacecraft's landmark mission to the orbiting lab. http://phys.org/news257238786.html Space & Earth Sat, 26 May 2012 08:13:14 EST news257238786 The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule made a historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday, triumphantly captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm. http://phys.org/news257150720.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 May 2012 10:02:04 EST news257150720 A long-running joust to host a radio telescope that would give mankind its farthest peek into the Universe ended on Friday with a Solomon-like judgement to split the site between Australia and South Africa. http://phys.org/news257155017.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 May 2012 08:57:08 EST news257155017 Scientists on NASA's asteroid sample return mission, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), have measured the orbit of their destination asteroid, 1999 RQ36, with such accuracy they were able to directly measure the drift resulting from a subtle but important force called the Yarkovsky effect – the slight push created when the asteroid absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat. http://phys.org/news257100290.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 17:45:08 EST news257100290 (Phys.org) -- Recent geologic mapping of the Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars—an intensely eroded deposit near the northern edge of the cratered highlands—has revealed a wider distribution of its western component than was previously recognized. http://phys.org/news257098028.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 17:07:33 EST news257098028 (Phys.org) -- Molecules containing large chains of carbon and hydrogen--the building blocks of all life on Earth--have been the targets of missions to Mars from Viking to the present day. While these molecules have previously been found in meteorites from Mars, scientists have disagreed about how this organic carbon was formed and whether or not it came from Mars. http://phys.org/news257080769.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 14:00:12 EST news257080769 A forensic approach that links changes deep below a volcano to signals at the surface is described by scientists from the University of Bristol in a paper published today in Science. The research could ultimately help to predict future volcanic eruptions with greater accuracy. http://phys.org/news257081050.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 14:00:07 EST news257081050 (Phys.org) -- As people go about their daily lives, it’s easy to overlook the impact their lifestyle has on the environment. Resources are used and as a result of their use, certain elements are placed back into the environment, some of which many people may not even think about. One of these is what happens to chemicals we take in after our bodies finish with them? Some are breathed into the air though most are flushed down the toilet after being deposited into our feces and urine. Workers at waste treatment facilities could point out chemical ingredients found in shampoos, for example, or those used in the production of food for another and most particularly drugs that we take to keep our various ailments at bay. http://phys.org/news257069567.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 09:50:04 EST news257069567 A robotic device suspended under the ocean surface from a buoy off the New Hampshire coast is monitoring seawater for evidence of the red tide, clusters of microscopic plants that release toxins into fish and shellfish, making them poisonous to anyone who eats them. http://phys.org/news257069298.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 09:40:01 EST news257069298 The world's first private supply ship flew tantalizingly close to the International Space Station on Thursday but did not stop, completing a critical test in advance of the actual docking. http://phys.org/news257070527.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 09:29:10 EST news257070527 Cosmic impacts that once bombed Mars might have sent temperatures skyrocketing upward on the Red Planet in ancient times, enough to set warming of the surface on a runaway course, researchers say. http://phys.org/news257068150.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 08:50:04 EST news257068150 (Phys.org) -- Most people are fascinated by the colorful and exotic coral reefs, which form habitats with probably the largest biodiversity. But human civilisation is the top danger to these fragile ecosystems through climate change, oxygen depletion and ocean acidification. Industrialisation, deforestation and intensive farming in coastal areas are changing dramatically the conditions for life in the oceans. Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology from Bremen together with their colleagues from Australia, Sultanate of Oman and Italy have investigated how and why the corals die when exposed to sedimentation. According to their findings, oxygen depletion, together with an acidification of the environment, creates a chain reaction that leads to coral death. http://phys.org/news257066391.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 08:20:06 EST news257066391 (Phys.org) -- The influence of the ground beneath us on the air around us could be greater than scientists had previously thought, according to new research that links the long-ago proliferation of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere to a sudden change in the inner workings of our planet. http://phys.org/news256996158.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:07 EST news256996158 (Phys.org) -- A Sandia modeling study contradicts a long-held belief of geologists that pore sizes and chemical compositions are uniform throughout a given strata, which are horizontal slices of sedimentary rock. http://phys.org/news256991602.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 11:33:57 EST news256991602 New research from North Carolina State University shows that a wind-driven "tumbleweed" Mars rover would be capable of moving across rocky Martian terrain – findings that could also help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) design the best possible vehicle. http://phys.org/news256986689.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 10:13:15 EST news256986689 (Phys.org) -- ESA's Venus Express has been used to study the geology in a region near Venus' equator. Using near-infrared observations collected by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC), scientists have found evidence that the planet's rugged highlands are scattered with geochemically more evolved rocks, rather than the basaltic rocks of the volcanic plains. This finding is in agreement with previous studies, which used data from the spacecraft's Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) to map the planet's surface in the southern hemisphere. http://phys.org/news256980531.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news256980531 (Phys.org) -- It was a call that Rice University physicist Tom Hill had waited more than 20 years to receive. It traveled almost a billion miles to reach him. And the message — once it arrived from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft near Saturn — was so enigmatic that it would take another three years to decipher. http://phys.org/news256980490.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 08:28:27 EST news256980490 (Phys.org) -- Like a tourist waiting for just the right lighting to snap a favorite shot during a stay at the Grand Canyon, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has used a low sun angle for a memorable view of a large Martian crater. http://phys.org/news256980256.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 08:24:41 EST news256980256 Researchers have discovered New Zealand's earthquake-prone landscape is even more unstable than previously thought, recording deep tremors lasting up to 30 minutes on its biggest fault line. http://phys.org/news256966156.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 May 2012 04:29:31 EST news256966156 (AP) -- James Doohan, Scotty from "Star Trek," spent his acting career whizzing through the cosmos. Gordon Cooper was one of America's famous Mercury seven astronauts. And Bob Shrake spent his work life anonymously helping send NASA's high-tech spacecraft to other planets. http://phys.org/news256929849.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 May 2012 18:24:44 EST news256929849 (Phys.org) -- The universe is a marvelously complex place, filled with galaxies and larger-scale structures that have evolved over its 13.7-billion-year history. Those began as small perturbations of matter that grew over time, like ripples in a pond, as the universe expanded. By observing the large-scale cosmic wrinkles now, we can learn about the initial conditions of the universe. But is now really the best time to look, or would we get better information billions of years into the future - or the past? http://phys.org/news256927340.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 May 2012 17:42:26 EST news256927340