Astronomers have discovered another potentially habitable planet – and it’s at least seven times the mass of Earth. Dwarf star HD 40307g hosts a system of six planets, and one of those is believed have the potential to support human life.
Posts tagged "Earth"
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Newfound 'super-Earth' could support life →
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A Planet in Peril: Is Earth Approaching a Tipping Point? →
The Earth has never stood still. Change is built into the life of the planet, whether physical changes to the surface of the Earth — through the slow action of erosion or glaciation — or biological changes to the species that populate it. We only have to go back to the last ice age — which peaked just 20,000 years ago, a coffee break in geological time — to see a climate that is utterly different from the one human beings have thrived in for the last few thousand years. Heraclitus had it right: the only constant is change.
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Humans Stripping Earth of Its Resources →
The world’s biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could get bleaker.
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NASA views our perpetual ocean →
The swirling flows of tens of thousands of ocean currents were captured in this scientific visualization created by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
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Hot, crowded, and running out of fuel: Earth of 2050 a scary place →
A new report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development paints a grim picture of the world in 2050 based on current global trends. It predicts a world population of 9.2 billion people, generating a global GDP four times the size of today’s, requiring 80 percent more energy. And with a worldwide energy mix still 85 percent reliant on fossil fuels by that time, it will be coal, oil, and gas that make up most of the difference, the OECD predicts.
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An Even Warmer Future Ahead →
By 2050, global average temperatures will probably be between 1.4°C and 3°C (between about 2.5°F to 5.5°F) higher than they were from 1960 to 1990.
A lot is riding on global warming predictions for everyone from biologists to policy-makers to farmers. And while the climate scientists who create the models want to get the numbers right, the new study, which used many thousands of personal computers to both refine and raise previous estimates of future temperatures, points out just how hard it is to predict the future of something as multi-faceted and complex as climate.
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Fundamental steps needed now in global redesign of Earth system governance →
Some 32 social scientists and researchers from around the world, including a Senior Sustainability Scholar at Arizona State University, have concluded that fundamental reforms of global environmental governance are needed to avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system. The scientists argued in the March 16 edition of the journal Science that the time is now for a “constitutional moment” in world politics.
Research now indicates that the world is nearing critical tipping points in the Earth system, including on climate and biodiversity, which if not addressed through a new framework of governance could lead to rapid and irreversible change.
“Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth’s sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years,” wrote the authors in the opening of “Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance.”
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npr:
Here’s a look back at a NPR visualization showing how the world’s population has grown to 7 billion. The video was just recognized in this year’s SND Best of Digital Design awards.
Congrats NPR Design Team!
Source npr -
New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star →
An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface. The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light years from Earth.
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NEOShield to assess Earth defence →
NEOShield is a new international project that will assess the threat posed by Near Earth Objects (NEO) and look at the best possible solutions for dealing with a big asteroid or comet on a collision path with our planet.
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Details of Earth’s core ‘ironed’ out →
Researchers have zeroed in on the behavior of iron—a key component of the Earth’s core—by conducting high-pressure experiments to simulate conditions at the planet’s interior.
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IEET Senior Fellow Jamais Cascio spoke at the NEXT 2010 conference in Denmark recently, on the subject of geoengineering.
Source ieet.org
