The Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon will soon be landing back on the Earth as it has now started its journey back to the home planet.

Chang'e-5 started its journey back to the Earth on Sunday with its engine being ignited at&nbsp; 230 km (143 miles) from the surface of the moon early on Sunday. The engine&nbsp;was then shut down after 22 minutes as the craft turned towards the Earth, China's&nbsp;National Space Administration said in a statement.

If the mission is declared a success, China will become the first country since 1976 to bring back lunar samples and the third in the world to ever bring back samples from the moon — the first being the US and second being the Soviet Union.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-lunar-probe-change-5-mission-lands-on-moon-report-346765">China's lunar probe Chang'e-5 mission lands on Moon: Report</a>

The landing will take place in&nbsp;Inner Mongolia. In the beginning, it was reported the mission was to collect nearly 2 kg&nbsp;(4.4 lbs) of samples of rocks and soil from "Ocean of Storms" — a part of the Moon. However, the final weight of the samples&nbsp;hasn't been disclosed yet, and will be revealed only after the spacecraft lands.

This is China's first moon mission since 2013. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-lunar-probe-change-5-mission-lands-on-moon-report-346765">Chang'e-4</a>&nbsp;probe in January 2019 had landed on the far side of the Moon. However,&nbsp;Chang'e-5 landed on the Moon and started drilling on the surface of the Moon within hours of landing.

The Chinese foreign ministry has described this as "revolutionary in increasing human understanding of the history of the Moon."

The Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon will soon be landing back on the Earth as it has now started its journey back to the home planet. Chang'e-5 started its journey back to the Earth on Sunday with its engine being ignited at 230 km (143 miles) from the surface of the moon early on Sunday.

The Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon will soon be landing back on the Earth as it has now started its journey back to the home planet. Chang'e-5 started its journey back to the Earth on Sunday with its engine being ignited at 230 km (143 miles) from the surface of the moon early on Sunday. The engine was then shut down after 22 minutes as the craft turned towards the Earth, China's National Space Administration said in a statement. If the mission is declared a success, China will become the first country since 1976 to bring back lunar samples and the third in the world to ever bring back samples from the moon — the first being the US and second being the Soviet Union. Also read| China's lunar probe Chang'e-5 mission lands on Moon: Report The landing will take place in Inner Mongolia. In the beginning, it was reported the mission was to collect nearly 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of samples of rocks and soil from "Ocean of Storms" — a part of the Moon. However, the final weight of the samples hasn't been disclosed yet, and will be revealed only after the spacecraft lands. This is China's first moon mission since 2013. The Chang'e-4 probe in January 2019 had landed on the far side of the Moon. However, Chang'e-5 landed on the Moon and started drilling on the surface of the Moon within hours of landing. The Chinese foreign ministry has described this as "revolutionary in increasing human understanding of the history of the Moon."

China moon probe begins journey back to Earth after collecting lunar samples

It's a well-established fact that humans take a heavy toll on nature. This has been especially true in the 20th century and ahead. But now there are signs that we may truly be stretching limits of the planet we call home. A study published in Nature magazine says that Human-made materials outweigh Earth's entire biomass.

The meaning of this inference is scary. It means that our plastics, our concrete, electronic waste materials etc along with other things weigh more than plants, animals and other biomass.

The study has examined changes in global biomass and human-made mass from 1900 to present day. The researchers found that at the beginning of the 20th century, the mass of man-made objects was just 3 per cent of world's total biomass.

But now the human-made mass has reached a whopping 1.1 teratonnes.&nbsp;

1 teratonne is 1,000,000,000,000 tonnes.

The amount of plastic alone is more than the mass of land animals and marine creatures combined, said the study.

Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/outer-space-just-got-a-little-brighter-348678">Outer space just got a little brighter</a>

The study mainly focussed on man-made materials such as concrete, metal, plastic, bricks and asphalt among other things and does not include man-made waste.

However, the reasearchers say that each person in the world is responsible for creation of human-made matter equal to more than his or her body-weight.

The study has been carried out by Ron Milo and his colleagues from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

It's a well-established fact that humans take a heavy toll on nature. This has been especially true in the 20th century and ahead. But now there are signs that we may truly be stretching limits of the planet we call home.

It's a well-established fact that humans take a heavy toll on nature. This has been especially true in the 20th century and ahead. But now there are signs that we may truly be stretching limits of the planet we call home. A study published in Nature magazine says that Human-made materials outweigh Earth's entire biomass. The meaning of this inference is scary. It means that our plastics, our concrete, electronic waste materials etc along with other things weigh more than plants, animals and other biomass. The study has examined changes in global biomass and human-made mass from 1900 to present day. The researchers found that at the beginning of the 20th century, the mass of man-made objects was just 3 per cent of world's total biomass. But now the human-made mass has reached a whopping 1.1 teratonnes. 1 teratonne is 1,000,000,000,000 tonnes. The amount of plastic alone is more than the mass of land animals and marine creatures combined, said the study. Also Read: Outer space just got a little brighter The study mainly focussed on man-made materials such as concrete, metal, plastic, bricks and asphalt among other things and does not include man-made waste. However, the reasearchers say that each person in the world is responsible for creation of human-made matter equal to more than his or her body-weight. The study has been carried out by Ron Milo and his colleagues from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Human-made materials outweigh Earth's entire biomass now, says study

The universe is a shade too bright.

That might be the last news you expected to hear toward the darkening end of a dark year. But that is what a band of astronomers has discovered, using cameras on the New Horizons spacecraft that once visited Pluto to measure the darkness of interplanetary space.

“There’s something out there unknown,” said Tod Lauer, of the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. “The universe is not completely dark, and we don’t yet completely know what it comprises.”

Four billion miles from the sun, far from bright planets and the light scattered by interplanetary dust, empty space was about twice as bright as would be expected Lauer and his colleagues found. The most likely explanation, he said, was that there were more very faint galaxies or star clusters contributing to the background light of the universe than their models indicated. Or even that black holes in the centers of otherwise undistinguished galaxies were pumping extra energy into the void.

A less exciting possibility, Lauer said in an email, was that “we messed up and missed a light source or camera artifact that we should have figured out. This is what I worry about the most.”

A more intriguing, if speculative, suggestion involves what might be called cold dim matter. The universe is thought to be filled with “dark matter,” its exact substance unknown but whose gravity shapes the visible cosmos. Some theories suggest that this matter could be clouds of exotic subatomic particles that decay radioactively or collide and annihilate themselves in flashes of energy that add to the universal glow.

Lauer and his colleagues prefer to leave such speculations to particle physicists. “Our work is solely concerned with measuring the flux level itself,” he said in an email. “As observers, we offer this up for those who can figure out what to do with it.”

Marc Postman, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and an author of the report, which was published online in November, said, “It is important to do this to get an estimate of the total energy content of the universe, which helps inform us about the overall cosmic history of star formation.”

For the record, the amount of extra light they found bouncing around the universe is about 10 nanowatts per square meter per steradian, a measure of solid angle on the sky. (It takes 4(PIE) steradians to cover the entire sky).

Lauer compared this measurement to the amount of light supplied by the star Sirius or an open refrigerator a mile away. “To make it a little closer to what we did, you can think of lying in bed with the curtains open on a dark moonless night,” he wrote in an email. “Perhaps you’re awake and are staring at the walls. When Sirius clears the mountains, or your neighbor raids his fridge, we would see the light in the room get a little brighter.”

However, he noted, “Your distant neighbor eating leftover turkey at three in the morning is not going to wake you up at night from the glare.”

He said the measurement had a 5% chance of being a fluke; that margin of error is known as 2 sigma, and is a far cry from the gold standard for a discovery of “5 sigma,” or 1 chance in 3.5 million of being wrong.

The team’s measurement included only light in the visible wavelengths and needed to be augmented by radio, X-ray and infrared background measurements, Postman said.

For centuries, the darkness of the night sky was the source of a paradox named after German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Presumably, in an infinite static universe, every line of sight ends at a star, so shouldn’t the sky appear as bright as the sun?

But astronomers now know that the universe is only 13.8 billion years old and expanding. As a result, most lines of sight do not end on stars but on the fading glow of the Big Bang, and the wavelengths of the glow are now so extended that they are invisible to the eye, making the sky look dark.

But how dark is dark?

It’s no small feat to add up all the light you cannot see. There are distant galaxies too faint to trip the most sensitive detectors on giant telescopes, but which pump energy into the dust and gas that is strewn about space.

The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on Jan. 19, 2006, and sped by Pluto on July 14, 2015. On Jan. 1, 2019, it zoomed past Arrokoth, formerly called Ultima Thule, one of untold numbers of cosmic icebergs that live in the Kuiper belt on the outskirts of the solar system. It is still going.

Lauer’s measurements were based on seven images from the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, a camera on New Horizons, and taken when the spacecraft was some 4 billion miles from Earth. At that distance the spacecraft was well beyond the distracting glow of planets or of interplanetary dust. Indeed, Postman said, going even 10 times farther out would not have produced a cleaner darkness.

“When you have a telescope on New Horizons way out at the edge of the solar system, you can ask, How dark does space get anyway,” Lauer wrote. “Use your camera just to measure the glow from the sky.” In this case, the images were of distant Kuiper belt objects. Subtract them, and any stars, and what remains is pure sky.

The camera, Postman said, is a “white light imager,” receiving light across a wide spectrum spanning visible and some ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths.

Once the team measured the level of light in the sky background, they then had to resort to mathematical models of how many faint galaxies were lurking under the normal limits of detection. When that amount was subtracted from their measurements, an equal amount of light remained of unknown origin.

“It’s as if you counted all the people on Earth but left out Asia,” Postman said. Lauer said this was the most accurate measurement of the background light yet.

The study follows on earlier work by Michael Zemcov of the Rochester Institute of Technology, who had a smaller set of images to analyze — four 10-second exposures instead of 195 30-second exposures.

He and his colleagues derived an upper limit of about 19 nanowatts per square meter per steradian — in the same ballpark as Lauer’s results.

“This kind of measurement really pushes our understanding of both the instrument and the brightness of the light from all the stuff between us and the distant universe,” Zemcov said in an email. “People have posited a variety of sources, but the jury is still out on what it could be.”

What we can’t see may yet change our understanding of the universe, but Dan Hooper, a physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, splashed cold water on the idea that the culprit was dark matter. In an email, he said that he and his colleagues, brainstorming, had not come up with any new physics that would explain this added light, “with the exception of a couple of really baroque and otherwise unappealing options.”

The universe is a shade too bright. That might be the last news you expected to hear toward the darkening end of a dark year. But that is what a band of astronomers has discovered, using cameras on the New Horizons spacecraft that once visited Pluto to measure the darkness of interplanetary space.

The universe is a shade too bright. That might be the last news you expected to hear toward the darkening end of a dark year. But that is what a band of astronomers has discovered, using cameras on the New Horizons spacecraft that once visited Pluto to measure the darkness of interplanetary space. “There’s something out there unknown,” said Tod Lauer, of the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. “The universe is not completely dark, and we don’t yet completely know what it comprises.” Four billion miles from the sun, far from bright planets and the light scattered by interplanetary dust, empty space was about twice as bright as would be expected Lauer and his colleagues found. The most likely explanation, he said, was that there were more very faint galaxies or star clusters contributing to the background light of the universe than their models indicated. Or even that black holes in the centers of otherwise undistinguished galaxies were pumping extra energy into the void. A less exciting possibility, Lauer said in an email, was that “we messed up and missed a light source or camera artifact that we should have figured out. This is what I worry about the most.” A more intriguing, if speculative, suggestion involves what might be called cold dim matter. The universe is thought to be filled with “dark matter,” its exact substance unknown but whose gravity shapes the visible cosmos. Some theories suggest that this matter could be clouds of exotic subatomic particles that decay radioactively or collide and annihilate themselves in flashes of energy that add to the universal glow. Lauer and his colleagues prefer to leave such speculations to particle physicists. “Our work is solely concerned with measuring the flux level itself,” he said in an email. “As observers, we offer this up for those who can figure out what to do with it.” Marc Postman, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and an author of the report, which was published online in November, said, “It is important to do this to get an estimate of the total energy content of the universe, which helps inform us about the overall cosmic history of star formation.” For the record, the amount of extra light they found bouncing around the universe is about 10 nanowatts per square meter per steradian, a measure of solid angle on the sky. (It takes 4(PIE) steradians to cover the entire sky). Lauer compared this measurement to the amount of light supplied by the star Sirius or an open refrigerator a mile away. “To make it a little closer to what we did, you can think of lying in bed with the curtains open on a dark moonless night,” he wrote in an email. “Perhaps you’re awake and are staring at the walls. When Sirius clears the mountains, or your neighbor raids his fridge, we would see the light in the room get a little brighter.” However, he noted, “Your distant neighbor eating leftover turkey at three in the morning is not going to wake you up at night from the glare.” He said the measurement had a 5% chance of being a fluke; that margin of error is known as 2 sigma, and is a far cry from the gold standard for a discovery of “5 sigma,” or 1 chance in 3.5 million of being wrong. The team’s measurement included only light in the visible wavelengths and needed to be augmented by radio, X-ray and infrared background measurements, Postman said. For centuries, the darkness of the night sky was the source of a paradox named after German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. Presumably, in an infinite static universe, every line of sight ends at a star, so shouldn’t the sky appear as bright as the sun? But astronomers now know that the universe is only 13.8 billion years old and expanding. As a result, most lines of sight do not end on stars but on the fading glow of the Big Bang, and the wavelengths of the glow are now so extended that they are invisible to the eye, making the sky look dark. But how dark is dark? It’s no small feat to add up all the light you cannot see. There are distant galaxies too faint to trip the most sensitive detectors on giant telescopes, but which pump energy into the dust and gas that is strewn about space. The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on Jan. 19, 2006, and sped by Pluto on July 14, 2015. On Jan. 1, 2019, it zoomed past Arrokoth, formerly called Ultima Thule, one of untold numbers of cosmic icebergs that live in the Kuiper belt on the outskirts of the solar system. It is still going. Lauer’s measurements were based on seven images from the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, a camera on New Horizons, and taken when the spacecraft was some 4 billion miles from Earth. At that distance the spacecraft was well beyond the distracting glow of planets or of interplanetary dust. Indeed, Postman said, going even 10 times farther out would not have produced a cleaner darkness. “When you have a telescope on New Horizons way out at the edge of the solar system, you can ask, How dark does space get anyway,” Lauer wrote. “Use your camera just to measure the glow from the sky.” In this case, the images were of distant Kuiper belt objects. Subtract them, and any stars, and what remains is pure sky. The camera, Postman said, is a “white light imager,” receiving light across a wide spectrum spanning visible and some ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. Once the team measured the level of light in the sky background, they then had to resort to mathematical models of how many faint galaxies were lurking under the normal limits of detection. When that amount was subtracted from their measurements, an equal amount of light remained of unknown origin. “It’s as if you counted all the people on Earth but left out Asia,” Postman said. Lauer said this was the most accurate measurement of the background light yet. The study follows on earlier work by Michael Zemcov of the Rochester Institute of Technology, who had a smaller set of images to analyze — four 10-second exposures instead of 195 30-second exposures. He and his colleagues derived an upper limit of about 19 nanowatts per square meter per steradian — in the same ballpark as Lauer’s results. “This kind of measurement really pushes our understanding of both the instrument and the brightness of the light from all the stuff between us and the distant universe,” Zemcov said in an email. “People have posited a variety of sources, but the jury is still out on what it could be.” What we can’t see may yet change our understanding of the universe, but Dan Hooper, a physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, splashed cold water on the idea that the culprit was dark matter. In an email, he said that he and his colleagues, brainstorming, had not come up with any new physics that would explain this added light, “with the exception of a couple of really baroque and otherwise unappealing options.”

Outer space just got a little brighter

The early environment of our planet was as poisonous as that of present-day Venus, as gases got away from a magma sea during Earth's turn of events, researchers have found, subsequent to dissolving drifting marbles with lasers for their exploration.&nbsp;

As indicated by researchers, an item the size of Mars probably collided with youthful Earth in an effect that delivered enough energy to liquefy down the early planet's whole mantle – the layer between the center and covering – transforming it into magma.&nbsp;

This mammoth occasion would have stripped the majority of Earth's then-climate, to be supplanted by another one, overwhelmed via carbon dioxide and with little nitrogen - much like the barometrical creation of Venus today, and like Mars.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/asteroid-size-of-burj-khalifa-set-to-collide-with-earths-orbit-next-week-345021" hreflang="en">Asteroid size of Burj Khalifa set to collide with Earth’s orbit next week</a>

The discoveries come from an investigation by Paolo Sossi and his group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, whose paper, distributed in Science Advances on Wednesday, taken a gander at "Earth's magma sea and its Venus-like early air."&nbsp;

To comprehend the air of early Earth the group set out to reproduce those conditions by gliding a little bit of rock over a gas stream and afterward softening it with a 1900°C laser.&nbsp;

"This little liquefied marble gliding at very nearly 2000 degrees is kind of a small Earth in its liquid state," Sossi disclosed to New Scientist.&nbsp;

By utilising various gases in the stream to suspend the bit of liquid stone, the specialists reproduced differing environmental conditions, permitting them to see which one most firmly related to tests of Earth's mantle and the geographical record.&nbsp;

The group found that once the environment delivered from early Earth's magma sea cooled, it would have "looked like that of present-day Venus." This, they state, infers that the current contrasts among Earth and Venus' climates, reflect what occurred after the two planets shaped.&nbsp;

Our planet is large enough that gravity keeps its air set up, not at all like Mars, while Earth's situation in the close planetary system additionally makes it adequately cool contrasted with Venus, the second planet from the sun.&nbsp;

This implies that, in contrast to Venus, the water stays in fluid-structure on the Earth's surface and can retain carbon dioxide from the climate to forestall the planet overheating - and, vitally, make and keep up the conditions essential for supporting life.

The early environment of our planet was as poisonous as that of present-day Venus, as gases got away from a magma sea during Earth's turn of events, researchers have found, subsequent to dissolving drifting marbles with lasers for their exploration.

The early environment of our planet was as poisonous as that of present-day Venus, as gases got away from a magma sea during Earth's turn of events, researchers have found, subsequent to dissolving drifting marbles with lasers for their exploration. As indicated by researchers, an item the size of Mars probably collided with youthful Earth in an effect that delivered enough energy to liquefy down the early planet's whole mantle – the layer between the center and covering – transforming it into magma. This mammoth occasion would have stripped the majority of Earth's then-climate, to be supplanted by another one, overwhelmed via carbon dioxide and with little nitrogen - much like the barometrical creation of Venus today, and like Mars. Also read: Asteroid size of Burj Khalifa set to collide with Earth’s orbit next week The discoveries come from an investigation by Paolo Sossi and his group at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, whose paper, distributed in Science Advances on Wednesday, taken a gander at "Earth's magma sea and its Venus-like early air." To comprehend the air of early Earth the group set out to reproduce those conditions by gliding a little bit of rock over a gas stream and afterward softening it with a 1900°C laser. "This little liquefied marble gliding at very nearly 2000 degrees is kind of a small Earth in its liquid state," Sossi disclosed to New Scientist. By utilising various gases in the stream to suspend the bit of liquid stone, the specialists reproduced differing environmental conditions, permitting them to see which one most firmly related to tests of Earth's mantle and the geographical record. The group found that once the environment delivered from early Earth's magma sea cooled, it would have "looked like that of present-day Venus." This, they state, infers that the current contrasts among Earth and Venus' climates, reflect what occurred after the two planets shaped. Our planet is large enough that gravity keeps its air set up, not at all like Mars, while Earth's situation in the close planetary system additionally makes it adequately cool contrasted with Venus, the second planet from the sun. This implies that, in contrast to Venus, the water stays in fluid-structure on the Earth's surface and can retain carbon dioxide from the climate to forestall the planet overheating - and, vitally, make and keep up the conditions essential for supporting life.

Scientists unravel Earth's early atmosphere after melting hovering marbles with lasers

Paleontologists call it the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, but it has another name: “the Great Dying.” It happened about 252 million years ago, and, over the course of just tens of thousands of years, 96% of all life in the oceans and, perhaps, roughly 70% of all land life vanished forever.

The smoking gun was ancient volcanism in what is today Siberia, where volcanoes disgorged enough magma and lava over about a million years to cover an amount of land equivalent to a third or even half of the surface area of the United States.

But volcanism on its own didn’t cause the extinction. The Great Dying was fueled, two separate teams of scientists report in two recent papers, by extensive oil and coal deposits that the Siberian magma blazed through, leading to combustion that released greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/greenlands-largest-glaciers-likely-to-melt-faster-than-feared-study-343852" hreflang="en">Greenland's largest glaciers likely to melt faster than feared: Study</a>

“There was lots of oil, coal and carbonates formed before the extinction underground near the Siberian volcanism,” said Kunio Kaiho, a geochemist at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and lead author of one of the studies, published this month in Geology, which presented evidence for the burning of ancient fossil fuels by magma. “We discovered two volcanic combustion events coinciding with the end-Permian land extinction and marine extinction.”

The findings solidify the Great Dying as one of the best examples that we have from Earth’s history of what a changing climate can do to life on our planet.

Kaiho and his team retrieved samples from rock deposits in south China and northern Italy that formed around the time of the extinction, and they detected spikes of a molecule called coronene. That substance, Kaiho explained, is produced only when fossil fuels combust at extremely high temperatures — like those you might find in magma.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/chemicals-found-in-daily-use-products-could-decrease-covid-19-vaccines-effectiveness-reports-343850" hreflang="en">Chemicals found in daily-use products could decrease COVID-19 vaccine's effectiveness: Reports</a>

One potential issue with coronene, says Henrik Svenson, a geologist at the University of Oslo who was not involved in the work, is that it forms only at temperatures exceeding 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, and to reach such temperatures, the fossil fuels would have had to be enveloped inside the magma, not just sitting next to it.

But the team’s findings are backed up by a Nature Geoscience study published last month that presents chemical evidence for the acidification of the oceans after the fossil fuel combustion and greenhouse gas release.

As the planet warmed, the oceans absorbed more and more carbon dioxide. This caused waters to acidify to the point that organisms like corals would have dissolved, explained Hana Jurikova, a biogeochemist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who led the study. Jurikova and her team discovered spikes of the element boron — a proxy for acidity levels — in fossil brachiopod shells found in rocks in Italy that stretch across the extinction boundary.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/coronavirus-mutations-appearing-in-siberia-russian-scientists-343820" hreflang="en">Coronavirus mutations appearing in Siberia: Russian scientists</a>

“For the first time, we’re able to explain what caused the extinction,” Jurikova said. “If you just increase the temperature, organisms often find a way to cope. But the problem is if you really change temperature and acidification, and maybe nutrients, that’s when your organisms will not be able to adapt.” Today, with sea-surface temperatures on the rise, the oceans are acidifying, and some shelled animals are already showing signs of their shells dissolving.

Svenson thinks the next step for geologists is field work in Siberia to get a handle on whether ancient magma interacted with the fossil fuel deposits as the new studies imply.

“A lot of this we simply do not know,” Svenson said.

While you may be tempted to draw an analogy between the Great Dying and today’s warming climate, there are significant differences. For one, the greenhouse gases emitted during the Permian-Triassic events were far greater than anything humans have produced. Also, the volcanoes released carbon dioxide 252 million years ago at a rate much slower than humans emit it today.

“The amount of carbon released to the atmosphere per year from the Siberian traps, it was still 14 times lower than the rate we have at the moment,” Jurikova said. “So, the amount of carbon we’re burning per year at the moment is much higher than during the largest extinction. I mean, that’s incredible, right?”

Paleontologists call it the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, but it has another name: “the Great Dying.” It happened about 252 million years ago, and, over the course of just tens of thousands of years, 96% of all life in the oceans and, perhaps, roughly 70% of all land life vanished forever.

Paleontologists call it the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, but it has another name: “the Great Dying.” It happened about 252 million years ago, and, over the course of just tens of thousands of years, 96% of all life in the oceans and, perhaps, roughly 70% of all land life vanished forever. The smoking gun was ancient volcanism in what is today Siberia, where volcanoes disgorged enough magma and lava over about a million years to cover an amount of land equivalent to a third or even half of the surface area of the United States. But volcanism on its own didn’t cause the extinction. The Great Dying was fueled, two separate teams of scientists report in two recent papers, by extensive oil and coal deposits that the Siberian magma blazed through, leading to combustion that released greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. Also read| Greenland's largest glaciers likely to melt faster than feared: Study “There was lots of oil, coal and carbonates formed before the extinction underground near the Siberian volcanism,” said Kunio Kaiho, a geochemist at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and lead author of one of the studies, published this month in Geology, which presented evidence for the burning of ancient fossil fuels by magma. “We discovered two volcanic combustion events coinciding with the end-Permian land extinction and marine extinction.” The findings solidify the Great Dying as one of the best examples that we have from Earth’s history of what a changing climate can do to life on our planet. Kaiho and his team retrieved samples from rock deposits in south China and northern Italy that formed around the time of the extinction, and they detected spikes of a molecule called coronene. That substance, Kaiho explained, is produced only when fossil fuels combust at extremely high temperatures — like those you might find in magma. Also read| Chemicals found in daily-use products could decrease COVID-19 vaccine's effectiveness: Reports One potential issue with coronene, says Henrik Svenson, a geologist at the University of Oslo who was not involved in the work, is that it forms only at temperatures exceeding 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, and to reach such temperatures, the fossil fuels would have had to be enveloped inside the magma, not just sitting next to it. But the team’s findings are backed up by a Nature Geoscience study published last month that presents chemical evidence for the acidification of the oceans after the fossil fuel combustion and greenhouse gas release. As the planet warmed, the oceans absorbed more and more carbon dioxide. This caused waters to acidify to the point that organisms like corals would have dissolved, explained Hana Jurikova, a biogeochemist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who led the study. Jurikova and her team discovered spikes of the element boron — a proxy for acidity levels — in fossil brachiopod shells found in rocks in Italy that stretch across the extinction boundary. Also read| Coronavirus mutations appearing in Siberia: Russian scientists “For the first time, we’re able to explain what caused the extinction,” Jurikova said. “If you just increase the temperature, organisms often find a way to cope. But the problem is if you really change temperature and acidification, and maybe nutrients, that’s when your organisms will not be able to adapt.” Today, with sea-surface temperatures on the rise, the oceans are acidifying, and some shelled animals are already showing signs of their shells dissolving. Svenson thinks the next step for geologists is field work in Siberia to get a handle on whether ancient magma interacted with the fossil fuel deposits as the new studies imply. “A lot of this we simply do not know,” Svenson said. While you may be tempted to draw an analogy between the Great Dying and today’s warming climate, there are significant differences. For one, the greenhouse gases emitted during the Permian-Triassic events were far greater than anything humans have produced. Also, the volcanoes released carbon dioxide 252 million years ago at a rate much slower than humans emit it today. “The amount of carbon released to the atmosphere per year from the Siberian traps, it was still 14 times lower than the rate we have at the moment,” Jurikova said. “So, the amount of carbon we’re burning per year at the moment is much higher than during the largest extinction. I mean, that’s incredible, right?”

Burning fossil fuels helped drive Earth’s most massive extinction

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this. This&nbsp;may have resulted in inadequate response to the problem and we may be at a point of no return. These fears may be true according to researchers who say that global warming will continue even if greenhouse gas emissions responsible for it are reduced to zero.

"According to our models, humanity is beyond the point-of-no-return when it comes to halting the melting of permafrost using greenhouse gas cuts as the single tool," lead author Jorgen Randers, a professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, told AFP.

The researchers have published their finding in the journal Scientific Reports.

So what's the way to stop global warming?

According to the researchers, the only way to do it is to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them so that they do not go back into it.

Using a stripped-down climate model, Randers and colleague Ulrich Goluke projected changes out to the year 2500 under two scenarios: the instant cessation of emissions, and the gradual reduction of planet warming gases to zero by 2100.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/uk-firm-plans-to-turn-moon-rock-into-oxygen-building-materials-341869">UK firm plans to turn moon rock into oxygen, building materials</a> 
 
In an imaginary world where carbon pollution stops with a flip of the switch, the planet warms over the next 50 years to about 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- roughly half-a-degree above the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- and cools slightly after that.

Earth's surface today is 1.2C hotter than it was in the mid-19th century, when temperatures began to rise.

The findings of the researcher if absolutely accurate, does not sound well for the future of humanity as it means that we do not have any way to stop a process that may lead to melting of polar ice-caps and increasing sea levels that may see many megacities around the world going underwater.

But many scientists are contesting the claims made in the study and also the method by which the study was conducted.

Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London, also pointed to shortcomings in the model, known as ESCIMO, describing the study as a "thought experiment."

"What the study does draw attention to is that reducing global carbon emissions to zero by 2050" -- a goal championed by the UN and embraced by a growing number of countries -- "is just the start of our actions to deal with climate change."

(With AFP inputs)

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this.

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change is a very real threat that mankind faces. But many, including prominent world leaders have ignored this. This may have resulted in inadequate response to the problem and we may be at a point of no return. These fears may be true according to researchers who say that global warming will continue even if greenhouse gas emissions responsible for it are reduced to zero. "According to our models, humanity is beyond the point-of-no-return when it comes to halting the melting of permafrost using greenhouse gas cuts as the single tool," lead author Jorgen Randers, a professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, told AFP. The researchers have published their finding in the journal Scientific Reports. So what's the way to stop global warming? According to the researchers, the only way to do it is to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and store them so that they do not go back into it. Using a stripped-down climate model, Randers and colleague Ulrich Goluke projected changes out to the year 2500 under two scenarios: the instant cessation of emissions, and the gradual reduction of planet warming gases to zero by 2100. Also Read | UK firm plans to turn moon rock into oxygen, building materials In an imaginary world where carbon pollution stops with a flip of the switch, the planet warms over the next 50 years to about 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- roughly half-a-degree above the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- and cools slightly after that. Earth's surface today is 1.2C hotter than it was in the mid-19th century, when temperatures began to rise. The findings of the researcher if absolutely accurate, does not sound well for the future of humanity as it means that we do not have any way to stop a process that may lead to melting of polar ice-caps and increasing sea levels that may see many megacities around the world going underwater. But many scientists are contesting the claims made in the study and also the method by which the study was conducted. Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London, also pointed to shortcomings in the model, known as ESCIMO, describing the study as a "thought experiment." "What the study does draw attention to is that reducing global carbon emissions to zero by 2050" -- a goal championed by the UN and embraced by a growing number of countries -- "is just the start of our actions to deal with climate change." (With AFP inputs)

Reducing greenhouse gas emission even to zero won't stop global warming: Study

A decade ago, a band of astronomers set out to investigate one of the oldest questions taunting philosophers, scientists, priests, astronomers, mystics and the rest of the human race: How many more Earths are out there, if any? How many far-flung planets exist that could harbor life as we know it?

Their tool was the Kepler spacecraft, which was launched in March 2009 on a 3-1/2-year mission to monitor 150,000 stars in a patch of sky in the Milky Way. It looked for tiny dips in starlight caused by an exoplanet passing in front of its home star.

“It’s not E.T., but it’s E.T.’s home,” said William Borucki when the mission was launched in March 2009. It was Borucki, an astronomer now retired from NASA’s Ames Research Center, who dreamed up the project and spent two decades convincing NASA to do it.

Before the spacecraft finally gave out in 2018, it had discovered more than 4,000 candidate worlds among those stars. So far, none have shown any sign of life or habitation. (Granted, they are very far away and hard to study.) Extrapolated, that figure suggests that there are billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. But how many of those are potentially habitable?

After crunching Kepler’s data for two years, a team of 44 astronomers led by Steve Bryson of NASA Ames has landed on what they say is the definitive answer, at least for now. Their paper has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/scientists-uncover-oldest-evidence-of-slingshot-tongue-341109">Scientists uncover oldest evidence of 'slingshot' tongue</a> 
 
Kepler’s formal goal was to measure a number called eta-Earth: the fraction of sunlike stars that have an Earth-size object orbiting them in the “goldilocks” or habitable zone, where it is warm enough for the surface to retain liquid water.

The team calculated that at least one-third, and perhaps as many as 90%, of stars similar in mass and brightness to our sun have rocks like Earth in their habitable zones, with the range reflecting the researchers’ confidence in their various methods and assumptions. That is no small bonanza, however you look at it.

According to NASA estimates there are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, of which about 4 billion are sunlike. If only 7% of those stars have habitable planets — a seriously conservative estimate — there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable Earths out there in the whole Milky Way alone.

“We want to be very conservative in case nature has any surprises regarding habitability,” said Ravi Kumar Kopparapu, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and one of the authors of the report. “So we are lowballing the estimates intentionally.”

On average, the astronomers calculated, the nearest such planet should be about 20 light-years away, and there should be four of them within 30 light-years or so of the sun.

“It took 11 years from launch to publication, but this is it,” said Natalie Batalha, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who directed the Kepler mission during most of its life and was one of the authors of the new paper, in a triumphant email. “This is the science result we’ve all been waiting for — the reason that Kepler was selected for flight in December 2001.”

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/did-we-just-discover-the-moons-long-lost-sibling-340734">Did we just discover the Moon's long-lost sibling?</a>

The new result means that the galaxy is at least twice as fertile as estimated in one of the first analyses of Kepler data, in 2013. That finding, by Andrew Howard, Erik Petigura and Geoffrey Marcy, who were not part of the Kepler team, concluded that about one-fifth of sunlike stars harbored planets in their habitable zones.

Batalha said that one improvement this time around was the addition of data from the European GAIA satellite, which has measured the position and brightness of 1 billion stars. That knowledge allowed the Kepler scientists to more precisely chart the habitable zones of their stars.

Another improvement was better handling of the statistics, although, as Batalha noted, “surveys are inherently incomplete. You can’t call up every citizen; you can’t observe every star.”

In the case of Kepler, that limitation was serious. The spacecraft’s orientation system failed before Kepler could complete its prime survey, which limited it to detecting planets that had orbital periods of less than about 700 days — about twice the duration of an Earth year.

In an email, David Charbonneau, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said he was slightly skeptical of the results: “The Kepler Mission didn’t detect many (arguably, any) true Earth analogues, i.e. planets with the same radius as Earth AND orbiting at the same period, and hence receiving the same amount of light, AND orbiting sun-like stars.”

As Batalha said at the time, “We don’t yet have any planet candidates that are exact analogues of the Earth in terms of size, orbit or star type.” We still don’t. As a result, the astronomers had to extrapolate data from the planets they did see.

Although these Kepler planets are Earth-size — one-half to 1 1/2 the radius of Earth — and are presumably rocky, nobody knows what they are like in any detail, nor whether anything does, or could, live on them. They are too far away for further study. So far we know of only one planet, our own, that harbors life.

But there are plenty of opportunities yet to find one. The Kepler measurement of eta-Earth only pertains to stars like the sun, but in the galaxy those stars are vastly outnumbered by smaller, dimmer stars known as red dwarfs. One-quarter to one-half of red dwarfs also harbor habitable-zone planets, according to work by Courtney Dressing, now at the University of California, Berkeley, although some astronomers worry that radiation flares from such stars would doom any life trying to get started there. Red dwarf planets were not included in the new analysis of eta-Earth.

The red dwarf planets are relevant to the search for life because Kepler has passed the torch to a spacecraft called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which was launched in 2018 to scour the entire sky for exoplanets within a few hundred light years of Earth — the local neighborhood. So far TESS has discovered 66 new exoplanets and has cataloged more than 2,000 candidates.

Most of those planets were expected to be found circling red dwarfs, said George Ricker, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and principal investigator for the mission, in an email: “Since about three-fourths of the stars in the solar neighborhood are M dwarfs, that leaves open a very large discovery space for TESS in the decade ahead!”

Batalha said that young scientists in the future might yet find a way to improve the value of eta-Earth; “until then, this will be the de facto standard.”

The value of eta-Earth is an important and hitherto unknown factor in a mathematical expression known as the Drake equation. It is used by astronomers to estimate how many technological civilizations might exist in the galaxy — and that we might be able to contact by radio or other means some cosmic day.

It’s time to move on the next factor in the Drake equation for extraterrestrial civilizations: the fraction of these worlds on which life emerges. The search for even a single slime mold on some alien rock would revolutionize biology, and it is a worthy agenda for the next half-century as humans continue the climb out of ourselves and into the universe in the endless quest to end our cosmic loneliness.

A decade ago, a band of astronomers set out to investigate one of the oldest questions taunting philosophers, scientists, priests, astronomers, mystics and the rest of the human race: How many more Earths are out there, if any?

A decade ago, a band of astronomers set out to investigate one of the oldest questions taunting philosophers, scientists, priests, astronomers, mystics and the rest of the human race: How many more Earths are out there, if any? How many far-flung planets exist that could harbor life as we know it? Their tool was the Kepler spacecraft, which was launched in March 2009 on a 3-1/2-year mission to monitor 150,000 stars in a patch of sky in the Milky Way. It looked for tiny dips in starlight caused by an exoplanet passing in front of its home star. “It’s not E.T., but it’s E.T.’s home,” said William Borucki when the mission was launched in March 2009. It was Borucki, an astronomer now retired from NASA’s Ames Research Center, who dreamed up the project and spent two decades convincing NASA to do it. Before the spacecraft finally gave out in 2018, it had discovered more than 4,000 candidate worlds among those stars. So far, none have shown any sign of life or habitation. (Granted, they are very far away and hard to study.) Extrapolated, that figure suggests that there are billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. But how many of those are potentially habitable? After crunching Kepler’s data for two years, a team of 44 astronomers led by Steve Bryson of NASA Ames has landed on what they say is the definitive answer, at least for now. Their paper has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. Also Read | Scientists uncover oldest evidence of 'slingshot' tongue Kepler’s formal goal was to measure a number called eta-Earth: the fraction of sunlike stars that have an Earth-size object orbiting them in the “goldilocks” or habitable zone, where it is warm enough for the surface to retain liquid water. The team calculated that at least one-third, and perhaps as many as 90%, of stars similar in mass and brightness to our sun have rocks like Earth in their habitable zones, with the range reflecting the researchers’ confidence in their various methods and assumptions. That is no small bonanza, however you look at it. According to NASA estimates there are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, of which about 4 billion are sunlike. If only 7% of those stars have habitable planets — a seriously conservative estimate — there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable Earths out there in the whole Milky Way alone. “We want to be very conservative in case nature has any surprises regarding habitability,” said Ravi Kumar Kopparapu, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and one of the authors of the report. “So we are lowballing the estimates intentionally.” On average, the astronomers calculated, the nearest such planet should be about 20 light-years away, and there should be four of them within 30 light-years or so of the sun. “It took 11 years from launch to publication, but this is it,” said Natalie Batalha, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who directed the Kepler mission during most of its life and was one of the authors of the new paper, in a triumphant email. “This is the science result we’ve all been waiting for — the reason that Kepler was selected for flight in December 2001.” Also Read | Did we just discover the Moon's long-lost sibling? The new result means that the galaxy is at least twice as fertile as estimated in one of the first analyses of Kepler data, in 2013. That finding, by Andrew Howard, Erik Petigura and Geoffrey Marcy, who were not part of the Kepler team, concluded that about one-fifth of sunlike stars harbored planets in their habitable zones. Batalha said that one improvement this time around was the addition of data from the European GAIA satellite, which has measured the position and brightness of 1 billion stars. That knowledge allowed the Kepler scientists to more precisely chart the habitable zones of their stars. Another improvement was better handling of the statistics, although, as Batalha noted, “surveys are inherently incomplete. You can’t call up every citizen; you can’t observe every star.” In the case of Kepler, that limitation was serious. The spacecraft’s orientation system failed before Kepler could complete its prime survey, which limited it to detecting planets that had orbital periods of less than about 700 days — about twice the duration of an Earth year. In an email, David Charbonneau, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said he was slightly skeptical of the results: “The Kepler Mission didn’t detect many (arguably, any) true Earth analogues, i.e. planets with the same radius as Earth AND orbiting at the same period, and hence receiving the same amount of light, AND orbiting sun-like stars.” As Batalha said at the time, “We don’t yet have any planet candidates that are exact analogues of the Earth in terms of size, orbit or star type.” We still don’t. As a result, the astronomers had to extrapolate data from the planets they did see. Although these Kepler planets are Earth-size — one-half to 1 1/2 the radius of Earth — and are presumably rocky, nobody knows what they are like in any detail, nor whether anything does, or could, live on them. They are too far away for further study. So far we know of only one planet, our own, that harbors life. But there are plenty of opportunities yet to find one. The Kepler measurement of eta-Earth only pertains to stars like the sun, but in the galaxy those stars are vastly outnumbered by smaller, dimmer stars known as red dwarfs. One-quarter to one-half of red dwarfs also harbor habitable-zone planets, according to work by Courtney Dressing, now at the University of California, Berkeley, although some astronomers worry that radiation flares from such stars would doom any life trying to get started there. Red dwarf planets were not included in the new analysis of eta-Earth. The red dwarf planets are relevant to the search for life because Kepler has passed the torch to a spacecraft called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which was launched in 2018 to scour the entire sky for exoplanets within a few hundred light years of Earth — the local neighborhood. So far TESS has discovered 66 new exoplanets and has cataloged more than 2,000 candidates. Most of those planets were expected to be found circling red dwarfs, said George Ricker, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and principal investigator for the mission, in an email: “Since about three-fourths of the stars in the solar neighborhood are M dwarfs, that leaves open a very large discovery space for TESS in the decade ahead!” Batalha said that young scientists in the future might yet find a way to improve the value of eta-Earth; “until then, this will be the de facto standard.” The value of eta-Earth is an important and hitherto unknown factor in a mathematical expression known as the Drake equation. It is used by astronomers to estimate how many technological civilizations might exist in the galaxy — and that we might be able to contact by radio or other means some cosmic day. It’s time to move on the next factor in the Drake equation for extraterrestrial civilizations: the fraction of these worlds on which life emerges. The search for even a single slime mold on some alien rock would revolutionize biology, and it is a worthy agenda for the next half-century as humans continue the climb out of ourselves and into the universe in the endless quest to end our cosmic loneliness.

Looking for another Earth? Here are 300 million, maybe

Scientists have identified 24 planets outside our solar system that they say may have conditions more suitable for life than the Earth. 
The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, details characteristics of potential "superhabitable" planets, that include those that are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth.

The researchers from the Washington State University (WSU) in the US noted life could more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our Sun.

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The 24 top contenders for superhabitable planets are all more than 100 light years away, but the study could help focus future observation efforts, such as from NASA's James Web Space Telescope, they said.

"With the next space telescopes coming up, we will get more information, so it is important to select some targets," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor at WSU and the Technical University in Berlin.

"We have to focus on certain planets that have the most promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth because there could be planets that might be more suitable for life than ours," Schulze-Makuch said.

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The researchers identified superhabitability criteria and searched among the 4,500 known exoplanets beyond our solar system for good candidates.

Habitability does not mean these planets definitely have life, merely the conditions that would be conducive to life, they noted.

The researchers selected planet-star systems with probable terrestrial planets orbiting within the host star's liquid water habitable zone from the Kepler Object of Interest Exoplanet Archive of transiting exoplanets.

While the Sun is the centre of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years, they said.

Since it took nearly 4 billion years before any form of complex life appeared on Earth, many similar stars to our sun, called G stars, might run out of fuel before complex life can develop, according to the researchers.

In addition to looking at systems with cooler G stars, they also looked at systems with K dwarf stars, which are somewhat cooler, less massive and less luminous than the Sun.

The researchers said K stars have the advantage of long lifespans of 20 billion to 70 billion years.

This would allow orbiting planets to be older as well as giving life more time to advance to the complexity currently found on Earth, they said.

However, to be habitable, planets should not be so old that they have exhausted their geothermal heat and lack protective geomagnetic fields.

Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, but the researchers argue that the sweet spot for life is a planet that is between 5 billion to 8 billion years old. Size and mass also matter.

A planet that is 10 per cent larger than the Earth should have more habitable land, the researchers said.

One that is about 1.5 times Earth's mass would be expected to retain its interior heating through radioactive decay longer and would also have a stronger gravity to retain an atmosphere over a longer time period, they said.

Water is key to life and the researchers argue that a little more of it would help, especially in the form of moisture, clouds and humidity.

They noted that a slightly overall warmer temperature, a mean surface temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius greater than Earth, together with the additional moisture, would be also better for life.

Among the 24 top planet candidates none of them met all the criteria for superhabitable planets, but one has four of the critical characteristics, making it possibly much more comfortable for life than our home planet, the researchers added.

Scientists have identified 24 planets outside our solar system that they say may have conditions more suitable for life than the Earth. The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, details characteristics of potential "superhabitable" planets, that include those that are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth.

Scientists have identified 24 planets outside our solar system that they say may have conditions more suitable for life than the Earth. The study, published in the journal Astrobiology, details characteristics of potential "superhabitable" planets, that include those that are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth. The researchers from the Washington State University (WSU) in the US noted life could more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our Sun. Also read: NASA's new stunning time lapse video shows a gigantic star exploding The 24 top contenders for superhabitable planets are all more than 100 light years away, but the study could help focus future observation efforts, such as from NASA's James Web Space Telescope, they said. "With the next space telescopes coming up, we will get more information, so it is important to select some targets," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor at WSU and the Technical University in Berlin. "We have to focus on certain planets that have the most promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth because there could be planets that might be more suitable for life than ours," Schulze-Makuch said. Also read: NASA to send its new $23 million toilet to International Space Station The researchers identified superhabitability criteria and searched among the 4,500 known exoplanets beyond our solar system for good candidates. Habitability does not mean these planets definitely have life, merely the conditions that would be conducive to life, they noted. The researchers selected planet-star systems with probable terrestrial planets orbiting within the host star's liquid water habitable zone from the Kepler Object of Interest Exoplanet Archive of transiting exoplanets. While the Sun is the centre of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years, they said. Since it took nearly 4 billion years before any form of complex life appeared on Earth, many similar stars to our sun, called G stars, might run out of fuel before complex life can develop, according to the researchers. In addition to looking at systems with cooler G stars, they also looked at systems with K dwarf stars, which are somewhat cooler, less massive and less luminous than the Sun. The researchers said K stars have the advantage of long lifespans of 20 billion to 70 billion years. This would allow orbiting planets to be older as well as giving life more time to advance to the complexity currently found on Earth, they said. However, to be habitable, planets should not be so old that they have exhausted their geothermal heat and lack protective geomagnetic fields. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, but the researchers argue that the sweet spot for life is a planet that is between 5 billion to 8 billion years old. Size and mass also matter. A planet that is 10 per cent larger than the Earth should have more habitable land, the researchers said. One that is about 1.5 times Earth's mass would be expected to retain its interior heating through radioactive decay longer and would also have a stronger gravity to retain an atmosphere over a longer time period, they said. Water is key to life and the researchers argue that a little more of it would help, especially in the form of moisture, clouds and humidity. They noted that a slightly overall warmer temperature, a mean surface temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius greater than Earth, together with the additional moisture, would be also better for life. Among the 24 top planet candidates none of them met all the criteria for superhabitable planets, but one has four of the critical characteristics, making it possibly much more comfortable for life than our home planet, the researchers added.

24 planets may have more suitable conditions for life than Earth: Study

2/5th of the world's plants are at the risk of extinction and scientists are racing against time to save the planet. Watch report.

Plants and fungi underpin life on earth | Urgent conservation is need of the hour

A new report of the UN on the state of nature talks about how the international community collectively missed a critical deadline to safeguard biodiversity.

UN report: World missed a critical deadline to safeguard biodiversity

The moon is getting rusty. And it actually takes rocket science to understand the phenomenon.

There are plenty of iron-rich rocks on the moon -- but rust is only produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water.

The dichotomy has been solved by researchers, who have enough evidence to prove their findings.

India's lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, orbited the moon in 2008, and gathered data that said there are water molecules on its surface.

When researchers at NASA and the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology analysed the data recently, they were stunned to find hints of hematite, a form of iron oxide known as rust.&nbsp;

Not only is there no air on the moon, but it is flooded with hydrogen that flows from the sun, carried by solar wind. Rust is produced when oxygen removes electrons from iron; hydrogen does the opposite by adding electrons, which means it's all the harder for rust to form on the hydrogen-rich moon.

This rust was more concentrated on the side of the moon that faces Earth -- which gave impetus to their research.

Earth is encompassed in a magnetic field, and solar wind stretches this bubble to create a long magnetic tail in the downwind direction. The moon enters this tail three days before it's full, and it takes six days to cross the tail and exit on the other side.

During these six days, Earth's magnetic tail covers the moon's surface with electrons. Dust particles on the moon's surface can then float off the ground, and moon dust might fly into a dust storm, according to NASA.

And oxygen from the Earth travels on this magnetic tail to land on the moon, where it interacts with lunar water molecules to create rust.

The magnetic tail also blocks nearly all solar wind during the full moon -- meaning the moon is temporarily shielded from the blast of hydrogen, opening a window for rust to form.

This theory could also explain why rust has been found on other airless bodies like asteroids.&nbsp;

It, however, remains unclear how exactly water on the moon is interacting with rock. 
&nbsp;

The moon is getting rusty. And it actually takes rocket science to understand the phenomenon. There are plenty of iron-rich rocks on the moon -- but rust is only produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water.

The moon is getting rusty. And it actually takes rocket science to understand the phenomenon. There are plenty of iron-rich rocks on the moon -- but rust is only produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water. The dichotomy has been solved by researchers, who have enough evidence to prove their findings. India's lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, orbited the moon in 2008, and gathered data that said there are water molecules on its surface. When researchers at NASA and the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology analysed the data recently, they were stunned to find hints of hematite, a form of iron oxide known as rust. Not only is there no air on the moon, but it is flooded with hydrogen that flows from the sun, carried by solar wind. Rust is produced when oxygen removes electrons from iron; hydrogen does the opposite by adding electrons, which means it's all the harder for rust to form on the hydrogen-rich moon. This rust was more concentrated on the side of the moon that faces Earth -- which gave impetus to their research. Earth is encompassed in a magnetic field, and solar wind stretches this bubble to create a long magnetic tail in the downwind direction. The moon enters this tail three days before it's full, and it takes six days to cross the tail and exit on the other side. During these six days, Earth's magnetic tail covers the moon's surface with electrons. Dust particles on the moon's surface can then float off the ground, and moon dust might fly into a dust storm, according to NASA. And oxygen from the Earth travels on this magnetic tail to land on the moon, where it interacts with lunar water molecules to create rust. The magnetic tail also blocks nearly all solar wind during the full moon -- meaning the moon is temporarily shielded from the blast of hydrogen, opening a window for rust to form. This theory could also explain why rust has been found on other airless bodies like asteroids. It, however, remains unclear how exactly water on the moon is interacting with rock.

The Earth is contributing towards rust on the Moon

Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of a black hole -- the oldest ever detected -- that shouldn't even exist according to the current understanding of cosmic monsters so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull.

Born of a merger between two other black holes, GW190521 weighs in at 142 times the mass of our Sun and is the first "intermediate mass" black hole ever observed, two consortiums of some 1,500 scientists reported in a pair of studies.

"This event is a door opening into the cosmic process for the formation of black holes," co-author Stavros Katsanevas, an astrophysicist at the European Gravitational Observatory, said in an online press conference.&nbsp;

"It is a whole new world."

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A so-called stellar-class black hole forms when a dying star collapses, and is typically three to ten solar masses in size. &nbsp;

Supermassive black holes found at the centre of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, range from millions to billions of solar masses.

Up to now, black holes with mass 100 to 1,000 times that of our Sun had never been found.

"This is the first evidence of a black hole in this mass range," said co-author Michaela, an astrophysicist at the University of Padova and a member of the Europe-based Virgo Collaboration.&nbsp;

"It may lead to a paradigm shift in the astrophysics of black holes."&nbsp;

The findings, she added, support the idea that supermassive black holes could be formed through the repeated merger of these mid-sized bodies.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/in-a-rare-event-astronomers-discover-saturn-like-planet-orbiting-small-cool-star-318644">Also read:&nbsp;In a rare event, astronomers discover Saturn-like planet orbiting small cool star</a>

What scientists actually observed were gravitational waves produced more than seven billion years ago when GW190521 was formed by the collision of two smaller black holes of 85 and 65 solar masses.

When they smashed together, eight solar masses worth of energy was released, creating one of the most powerful events in the Universe since the Big Bang.&nbsp;

Gravitational waves were first measured in September 2015, earning the lead researchers a physics Nobel two years later.

Albert Einstein anticipated gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity, which theorised that they spread through the Universe at the speed of light.

Challenge to current models

GW190521 was detected on May 21, 2019 by three interferometers, which can measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus as gravitational waves pass Earth.

According to current knowledge, the gravitational collapse of a star cannot form black holes in the range of 60 to 120 solar masses because -- at that size -- the stars are completely blown apart by the supernova explosion that accompanies collapse.

And yet, the two black holes that gave rise to GW190521 were both in the range.

"This event is a challenge for the current models of black hole formation," said Mapelli.

It is also a hint of how much is still not known.

"This detection confirms that there is a vast universe that has remained invisible to us," said Karan Jani, an astrophysicist with the Nobel-winning LIGO gravitational wave experiment.

"We have very limited theoretical and observational understanding of this elusive class of intermediate black hole."

But the very fact it could be detected is itself remarkable.

"Our ability to find a black hole a few hundred kilometres-wide from half-way across the Universe is one of the most striking realisations of this discovery," Jani added.

The two studies were published in Physical Review Letters, and Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) consortium is led by scientists at MIT and Caltech, while the Virgo collaboration includes more than 500 scientists across Europe.

Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of a black hole -- the oldest ever detected -- that shouldn't even exist according to the current understanding of cosmic monsters so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull.

Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of a black hole -- the oldest ever detected -- that shouldn't even exist according to the current understanding of cosmic monsters so dense not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Born of a merger between two other black holes, GW190521 weighs in at 142 times the mass of our Sun and is the first "intermediate mass" black hole ever observed, two consortiums of some 1,500 scientists reported in a pair of studies. "This event is a door opening into the cosmic process for the formation of black holes," co-author Stavros Katsanevas, an astrophysicist at the European Gravitational Observatory, said in an online press conference. "It is a whole new world." Also read: This is when the universe will end! A so-called stellar-class black hole forms when a dying star collapses, and is typically three to ten solar masses in size. Supermassive black holes found at the centre of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, range from millions to billions of solar masses. Up to now, black holes with mass 100 to 1,000 times that of our Sun had never been found. "This is the first evidence of a black hole in this mass range," said co-author Michaela, an astrophysicist at the University of Padova and a member of the Europe-based Virgo Collaboration. "It may lead to a paradigm shift in the astrophysics of black holes." The findings, she added, support the idea that supermassive black holes could be formed through the repeated merger of these mid-sized bodies. Also read: In a rare event, astronomers discover Saturn-like planet orbiting small cool star What scientists actually observed were gravitational waves produced more than seven billion years ago when GW190521 was formed by the collision of two smaller black holes of 85 and 65 solar masses. When they smashed together, eight solar masses worth of energy was released, creating one of the most powerful events in the Universe since the Big Bang. Gravitational waves were first measured in September 2015, earning the lead researchers a physics Nobel two years later. Albert Einstein anticipated gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity, which theorised that they spread through the Universe at the speed of light. Challenge to current models GW190521 was detected on May 21, 2019 by three interferometers, which can measure a change thousands of times smaller than an atomic nucleus as gravitational waves pass Earth. According to current knowledge, the gravitational collapse of a star cannot form black holes in the range of 60 to 120 solar masses because -- at that size -- the stars are completely blown apart by the supernova explosion that accompanies collapse. And yet, the two black holes that gave rise to GW190521 were both in the range. "This event is a challenge for the current models of black hole formation," said Mapelli. It is also a hint of how much is still not known. "This detection confirms that there is a vast universe that has remained invisible to us," said Karan Jani, an astrophysicist with the Nobel-winning LIGO gravitational wave experiment. "We have very limited theoretical and observational understanding of this elusive class of intermediate black hole." But the very fact it could be detected is itself remarkable. "Our ability to find a black hole a few hundred kilometres-wide from half-way across the Universe is one of the most striking realisations of this discovery," Jani added. The two studies were published in Physical Review Letters, and Astrophysical Journal Letters. The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) consortium is led by scientists at MIT and Caltech, while the Virgo collaboration includes more than 500 scientists across Europe.

Scientists detect mysterious 'intermediate mass' black hole

The US Presidential elections are always a huge affair and comes with its own problems and controversies. This year, with the ongoing pandemic, problems have doubled up. However, to make matters worse, an asteroid is headed towards the United States.

The celestial object, 2018VP1, is headed towards the Earth and that too on November 02 — a day before the much-controversial elections.

Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has claimed the asteroid is&nbsp;diameter is 0.002 km, or about 6.5 feet, but probably won't have a deep impact.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/car-sized-asteroid-becomes-closest-ever-seen-passing-earth-nasa-321591">Also read|&nbsp;Car-sized asteroid becomes closest ever seen passing Earth: NASA</a>

The asteroid, which was first discovered in Palomar Observatory in California in 2018, can have three imoacts but NASA has observed that "based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days", there is only a&nbsp;0.41 per cent chance of the asteroid actually hitting the Earth.

The upcoming US Presidential elections have always been facing problems due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, that has made it difficult for voters to go to voting centres to vote. The US lawmakers are urging people to opt for mail-in voting, which the US President Donald Trump feels will be an "embarassment" for the country.

Trump is re-running for the post of President against Joe Biden, who is winning the race, as per the early polls. The elections are scheduled for November 03, with Trump claiming that the results will not be announced for weeks.

The US Presidential elections are always a huge affair and comes with its own problems and controversies. This year, with the ongoing pandemic, problems have doubled up.

The US Presidential elections are always a huge affair and comes with its own problems and controversies. This year, with the ongoing pandemic, problems have doubled up. However, to make matters worse, an asteroid is headed towards the United States. The celestial object, 2018VP1, is headed towards the Earth and that too on November 02 — a day before the much-controversial elections. Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has claimed the asteroid is diameter is 0.002 km, or about 6.5 feet, but probably won't have a deep impact. Also read| Car-sized asteroid becomes closest ever seen passing Earth: NASA The asteroid, which was first discovered in Palomar Observatory in California in 2018, can have three imoacts but NASA has observed that "based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days", there is only a 0.41 per cent chance of the asteroid actually hitting the Earth. The upcoming US Presidential elections have always been facing problems due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, that has made it difficult for voters to go to voting centres to vote. The US lawmakers are urging people to opt for mail-in voting, which the US President Donald Trump feels will be an "embarassment" for the country. Trump is re-running for the post of President against Joe Biden, who is winning the race, as per the early polls. The elections are scheduled for November 03, with Trump claiming that the results will not be announced for weeks.

Asteroid heading towards Earth a day before US elections: NASA

An asteroid which is slowly moving towards Earth was recently discovered by two Indian schoolgirls.

The asteroid in question is shifting its orbit, which will eventually cause it to potentially cross paths with our planet.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/world/astronaut-shares-picture-of-hurricane-hanna-from-space-leaving-netizens-in-awe-316415" hreflang="en">Astronaut shares picture of Hurricane Hanna from space leaving netizens in awe</a>

10th Standard&nbsp;students Radhika Lakhani and Vaidehi Vekariya stumbled upon the asteroid in the midst of a school project. They then named the asteroid HLC2514.

Project by Space India and NASA

Both the students are based in Gujarat’s city of Surat, on the eastern coast of India. They were working on a project by Space India and NASA. As part of this, students had access to telescopic images from the University of Hawaii when they then analysed.

Space India’s astronomer told CNN that the girls were able to identify the body using a software which analysed images captured by NASA’s PAN Star telescope.

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The project began in June 2020. After the analysis was over, the details were sent out to NASA. Vekariya, 15, told CNN that on July 23 they had received an email from NASA which confirmed that they had spotted an asteroid heading for earth.

On the lookout

The girls were able to identify the object by being on the lookout for moving objects in the images.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/world/giant-swarm-of-flying-ants-spotted-from-space-over-britain-314245" hreflang="en">Giant swarm of flying ants spotted from space over Britain</a>

Currently, the asteroid is circling Mars, and does not remain a threat to Earth. However, in over a million years, it will move closer to Earth. Even though it may not cause any harm to our planet, it still remains a potential hazard. The estimated distance between the asteroid and Earth a million years from now will still be more than 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

Asteroids are small rocky objects that usually orbit the sun, but may change their course over time.

The student Vekariya told CNN that “this was a dream”, but suggested that they couldn’t celebrate because of the pandemic.

An asteroid which is slowly moving towards Earth was recently discovered by two Indian schoolgirls. The asteroid in question is shifting its orbit, which will eventually cause it to potentially cross paths with our planet.

An asteroid which is slowly moving towards Earth was recently discovered by two Indian schoolgirls. The asteroid in question is shifting its orbit, which will eventually cause it to potentially cross paths with our planet. Also read: Astronaut shares picture of Hurricane Hanna from space leaving netizens in awe 10th Standard students Radhika Lakhani and Vaidehi Vekariya stumbled upon the asteroid in the midst of a school project. They then named the asteroid HLC2514. Project by Space India and NASA Both the students are based in Gujarat’s city of Surat, on the eastern coast of India. They were working on a project by Space India and NASA. As part of this, students had access to telescopic images from the University of Hawaii when they then analysed. Space India’s astronomer told CNN that the girls were able to identify the body using a software which analysed images captured by NASA’s PAN Star telescope. Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving towards Earth https://t.co/EYrEosDVEF pic.twitter.com/EdVvdcYx8k — CTV News (@CTVNews) July 28, 2020 × The project began in June 2020. After the analysis was over, the details were sent out to NASA. Vekariya, 15, told CNN that on July 23 they had received an email from NASA which confirmed that they had spotted an asteroid heading for earth. On the lookout The girls were able to identify the object by being on the lookout for moving objects in the images. Also read: Giant swarm of flying ants spotted from space over Britain Currently, the asteroid is circling Mars, and does not remain a threat to Earth. However, in over a million years, it will move closer to Earth. Even though it may not cause any harm to our planet, it still remains a potential hazard. The estimated distance between the asteroid and Earth a million years from now will still be more than 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. Asteroids are small rocky objects that usually orbit the sun, but may change their course over time. The student Vekariya told CNN that “this was a dream”, but suggested that they couldn’t celebrate because of the pandemic.

Students from Gujarat in India spot an asteroid heading towards Earth

Two teenage girls from India have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid by poring through images from a University of Hawaii telescope, an Indian space education institute said on Monday.

The asteroid is presently near Mars and its orbit is expected to cross that of Earth in about one million years` time, said SPACE India, a private institute where the two 14-year-old girls received training.

"I look forward to... when we will get a chance to name the asteroid," said Vaidehi Vekariya, who added that she wants to become an astronaut when she is older.

The asteroid, currently called HLV2514, may be officially christened only after NASA confirms its orbit, a SPACE India spokeswoman said.

Radhika Lakhani, the other student, said she was working hard on her education. "I don`t even have a TV at home, so that I can concentrate on my studies."

Asteroids and comets pose a potential threat to Earth, and scientists discover thousands of them each year. In 2013, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower exploded over central Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured from its shockwave.

The two girls, who hail from Surat, discovered the object as part of an asteroid search campaign conducted by SPACE India along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group.

IASC Director J. Patrick Miller confirmed the discovery, according to an email from him to the girls seen by Reuters. 
The girls used specialised software to analyse the images snapped by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, and made the discovery in June, SPACE India said.

The institute is among the few private space education initiatives in India, a country known for championing low-cost space technology that has spurred missions to the moon and Mars.

Two teenage girls from India have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid by poring through images from a University of Hawaii telescope, an Indian space education institute said on Monday.

Two teenage girls from India have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid by poring through images from a University of Hawaii telescope, an Indian space education institute said on Monday. The asteroid is presently near Mars and its orbit is expected to cross that of Earth in about one million years` time, said SPACE India, a private institute where the two 14-year-old girls received training. "I look forward to... when we will get a chance to name the asteroid," said Vaidehi Vekariya, who added that she wants to become an astronaut when she is older. The asteroid, currently called HLV2514, may be officially christened only after NASA confirms its orbit, a SPACE India spokeswoman said. Radhika Lakhani, the other student, said she was working hard on her education. "I don`t even have a TV at home, so that I can concentrate on my studies." Asteroids and comets pose a potential threat to Earth, and scientists discover thousands of them each year. In 2013, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower exploded over central Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured from its shockwave. The two girls, who hail from Surat, discovered the object as part of an asteroid search campaign conducted by SPACE India along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group. IASC Director J. Patrick Miller confirmed the discovery, according to an email from him to the girls seen by Reuters. The girls used specialised software to analyse the images snapped by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, and made the discovery in June, SPACE India said. The institute is among the few private space education initiatives in India, a country known for championing low-cost space technology that has spurred missions to the moon and Mars.

School girls in India discover Earth-bound asteroid

The United Arab Emirates has postponed the launch of its mission to Mars due to weather conditions at the launch site in Japan.

The UAE government communications office said that a new launch date in July will be announced soon.

The UAE's Hope Probe, the first interplanetary mission by an Arab country, was due to launch from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 12:51am UAE time on Wednesday&nbsp;for a seven-month journey to the red planet. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/nasas-curiosity-rover-embarks-on-mars-road-trip-312520">Also Read: NASA's Curiosity rover embarks on Mars road trip</a>

While the mission objective is to provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, the probe is a foundation for a much bigger goal - building a human settlement on Mars within the next 100 years.

The oil-rich Gulf nation plan to establish a "science city" on Earth that will reproduce Mars' atmospheric conditions, with the goal of establishing a human colony on the Red Planet around 2117. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/us-china-and-uae-all-set-to-take-advantage-of-mars-current-position-312295">Also Read: US, China and UAE all set to take advantage of Mars' current position</a>

Only the United States, India, the former Soviet Union, and the European Space Agency have successfully sent missions to orbit the Red Planet, while China is preparing to launch its first Mars rover later this month.

(With inputs from agencies)

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The United Arab Emirates has postponed the launch of its mission to Mars due to weather conditions at the launch site in Japan. The UAE government communications office said that a new launch date in July will be announced soon.

The United Arab Emirates has postponed the launch of its mission to Mars due to weather conditions at the launch site in Japan. The UAE government communications office said that a new launch date in July will be announced soon. The UAE's Hope Probe, the first interplanetary mission by an Arab country, was due to launch from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 12:51am UAE time on Wednesday for a seven-month journey to the red planet. Also Read: NASA's Curiosity rover embarks on Mars road trip While the mission objective is to provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, the probe is a foundation for a much bigger goal - building a human settlement on Mars within the next 100 years. The oil-rich Gulf nation plan to establish a "science city" on Earth that will reproduce Mars' atmospheric conditions, with the goal of establishing a human colony on the Red Planet around 2117. Also Read: US, China and UAE all set to take advantage of Mars' current position Only the United States, India, the former Soviet Union, and the European Space Agency have successfully sent missions to orbit the Red Planet, while China is preparing to launch its first Mars rover later this month. (With inputs from agencies)

UAE Mars mission postponed due to weather conditions

The Earth’s magnetic field, ie, the location of the North Pole and the South Pole is never stable. In fact, it&nbsp;is&nbsp;continuously in the process of flipping, until it gradually does. What’s North Pole today will be South Pole in a hundred thousand years, and vice versa.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/we-all-come-from-star-dust-is-no-longer-just-a-saying-and-scientists-agree-311418" hreflang="en">'We all come from star dust' is no longer just a saying, and scientists agree!</a>

However, scientists have discovered a new piece of information about this which could change how we understand magnetic poles. The pole reversal, according to new study published in Nature Communications, could happen ten times faster than previously thought.

On an average, the phenomenon happens every few hundred thousands of years.&nbsp;This switch has multiple implications, for it affects life on Earth, and the course of evolution.

One degree per year? Wrong!

Earlier, scientists thought the maximum shift in the magnetic field would amount to one degree per year, but this new research says over ten degrees of movement could be taking place every year. The researchers reached this conclusion by following up on computer simulations of the outer core which is primarily made up of nickel and iron and resides 2,800 kilometres below the planet’s surface. This is the part of the planet which decides the magnetic field and the changes in it.

<h6><img alt="This handout picture obtained from the European Space Agency (ESA) on August 7, 2018 shows a view taken by German astronaut and geophysicist Alexander Gerst, showing drought affected areas across Germany and Central-Europe as seen from the International Space Station on August 6, 2018. " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ec1b2f0b-dc4b-42bc-bc2b-a44b3498a143" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design-3_25.jpg" /> 
This handout picture obtained from the European Space Agency (ESA) on August 7, 2018 shows a view taken by German astronaut and geophysicist Alexander Gerst, showing drought affected areas across Germany and Central-Europe as seen from the International Space Station on August 6, 2018. | AFP</h6>

The researchers from University of California San Diego juxtaposed their digital imitations of the core with a timeline of magnetic pole activity over the last 100,000 years and were able to find similarities which pointed to a faster movement.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/a-massive-star-in-a-far-off-galaxy-just-disappeared-leaving-behind-no-trace-310032" hreflang="en">A massive star in a far-off galaxy just disappeared, leaving behind no trace!</a>

When the magnetic field of Earth experiences changes, they can get&nbsp;replicated in the sediments, lava, and objects made out of these!

The scientists also posited that the quick switch may be attributed to localised fluctuations in the intensity of the magnetic field. For instance, they noted a movement of almost 2.5 degrees per year 39,000 years ago. This was right after the planet’s magnetic field became weak in Central America.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/a-blazing-fireball-produced-a-sonic-boom-in-tokyo-skies-leaving-residents-confused-311108" hreflang="en">A blazing fireball produced a sonic boom in Tokyo skies, leaving residents confused!</a>

The field, besides facilitating compass based navigation, also protects living beings from solar radiations, and the poles are constantly on the move, without us noticing it!

Even though they can’t still pinpoint to the exact cause and projected timeline of the shift, one thing’s for sure: the switch is contingent on a lot of factors that we still have no idea about!

The Earth’s magnetic field, ie, the location of the North Pole and the South Pole is never stable. In fact, it is continuously in the process of flipping, until it gradually does.

The Earth’s magnetic field, ie, the location of the North Pole and the South Pole is never stable. In fact, it is continuously in the process of flipping, until it gradually does. What’s North Pole today will be South Pole in a hundred thousand years, and vice versa. Also read: 'We all come from star dust' is no longer just a saying, and scientists agree! However, scientists have discovered a new piece of information about this which could change how we understand magnetic poles. The pole reversal, according to new study published in Nature Communications, could happen ten times faster than previously thought. On an average, the phenomenon happens every few hundred thousands of years. This switch has multiple implications, for it affects life on Earth, and the course of evolution. One degree per year? Wrong! Earlier, scientists thought the maximum shift in the magnetic field would amount to one degree per year, but this new research says over ten degrees of movement could be taking place every year. The researchers reached this conclusion by following up on computer simulations of the outer core which is primarily made up of nickel and iron and resides 2,800 kilometres below the planet’s surface. This is the part of the planet which decides the magnetic field and the changes in it. This handout picture obtained from the European Space Agency (ESA) on August 7, 2018 shows a view taken by German astronaut and geophysicist Alexander Gerst, showing drought affected areas across Germany and Central-Europe as seen from the International Space Station on August 6, 2018. | AFP The researchers from University of California San Diego juxtaposed their digital imitations of the core with a timeline of magnetic pole activity over the last 100,000 years and were able to find similarities which pointed to a faster movement. Also read: A massive star in a far-off galaxy just disappeared, leaving behind no trace! When the magnetic field of Earth experiences changes, they can get replicated in the sediments, lava, and objects made out of these! The scientists also posited that the quick switch may be attributed to localised fluctuations in the intensity of the magnetic field. For instance, they noted a movement of almost 2.5 degrees per year 39,000 years ago. This was right after the planet’s magnetic field became weak in Central America. Also read: A blazing fireball produced a sonic boom in Tokyo skies, leaving residents confused! The field, besides facilitating compass based navigation, also protects living beings from solar radiations, and the poles are constantly on the move, without us noticing it! Even though they can’t still pinpoint to the exact cause and projected timeline of the shift, one thing’s for sure: the switch is contingent on a lot of factors that we still have no idea about!

Earth's magnetic poles may be flipping by 10° each year, way more than previously thought!

Pluto, a dwarf planet which was formerly known as the ninth planet in our solar system may have a subsurface ocean owing to its initial warm temperatures, researches posited on Monday.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took images of the dwarf planet’s surface in 2015, which led researchers to believe that the planet had a “hot start” 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth, along with our whole solar system was created.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/spacexs-envisioned-machinery-will-not-only-take-us-to-mars-but-reduce-travel-time-on-earth-tremendously-306615" hreflang="en">SpaceX's envisioned machinery will not only take us to Mars, but reduce travel time on Earth tremendously!</a>

"When Pluto was forming, new material would have been coming in and impacting its surface. Each impact is like an explosion that would warm the nearby area," said Carver Bierson, University of California Santa Cruz planetary scientist and the lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"If Pluto formed slowly, the surface would cool between each impact and generally stay very cold. If Pluto formed quickly, you have impact on top of impact and the surface doesn't have time to cool. We calculate that if Pluto formed in less than 30,000 years, the heat from these impacts could have been sufficient to lead to an early ocean," Bierson added.

<h6><img alt="The planet Pluto is pictured in a handout image made up of four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken in July 2015 combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced color global view" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="aee9560c-1bdf-4326-a9df-33ad0cb2548b" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design-4_8.jpg" /> 
The planet Pluto is pictured in a handout image made up of four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken in July 2015 combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced color global view | AFP 
&nbsp;</h6>

Pluto is situated in the region called the “Kuiper Belt”, and orbits the sun 40 times farther away than the Earth.

Additionally, the planet may have an icy outer shell spanning hundreds of kilometres. Scientists believe this layer protects an ocean of water which may be mixed with salts and ammonia. Pluto may also have a solid rocky core below.

If this is true, the cracks on Pluto’s surface would finally make sense. Water is bound to expand as it freezes, and this implies that Pluto’s oceans froze over time.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/astronomers-detect-another-mysterious-recurring-radio-burst-in-space-304417" hreflang="en">Astronomers detect another mysterious, recurring radio burst in space</a>

Pluto is a very cold planet, with temperatures running as low as minus 230 degree Celsius (minus 480 degrees F).

Water, an important ingredient of sustaining life, may point to Pluto’s ability to be able to host living organisms.

"Water could have been interacting chemically with the rocky core beneath the ocean, giving you more chemical ingredients to work with," Bierson added. "Are those the right ingredients for life? We don't know. We need to learn more about how life forms, or how life could form, to find these answers."

(With inputs from Reuters)

Pluto, a dwarf planet which was formerly known as the ninth planet in our solar system may have a subsurface ocean owing to its initial warm temperatures, researches posited on Monday.

Pluto, a dwarf planet which was formerly known as the ninth planet in our solar system may have a subsurface ocean owing to its initial warm temperatures, researches posited on Monday. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took images of the dwarf planet’s surface in 2015, which led researchers to believe that the planet had a “hot start” 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth, along with our whole solar system was created. Also read: SpaceX's envisioned machinery will not only take us to Mars, but reduce travel time on Earth tremendously! "When Pluto was forming, new material would have been coming in and impacting its surface. Each impact is like an explosion that would warm the nearby area," said Carver Bierson, University of California Santa Cruz planetary scientist and the lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Geoscience. "If Pluto formed slowly, the surface would cool between each impact and generally stay very cold. If Pluto formed quickly, you have impact on top of impact and the surface doesn't have time to cool. We calculate that if Pluto formed in less than 30,000 years, the heat from these impacts could have been sufficient to lead to an early ocean," Bierson added. The planet Pluto is pictured in a handout image made up of four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken in July 2015 combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced color global view | AFP Pluto is situated in the region called the “Kuiper Belt”, and orbits the sun 40 times farther away than the Earth. Additionally, the planet may have an icy outer shell spanning hundreds of kilometres. Scientists believe this layer protects an ocean of water which may be mixed with salts and ammonia. Pluto may also have a solid rocky core below. If this is true, the cracks on Pluto’s surface would finally make sense. Water is bound to expand as it freezes, and this implies that Pluto’s oceans froze over time. Also read: Astronomers detect another mysterious, recurring radio burst in space Pluto is a very cold planet, with temperatures running as low as minus 230 degree Celsius (minus 480 degrees F). Water, an important ingredient of sustaining life, may point to Pluto’s ability to be able to host living organisms. "Water could have been interacting chemically with the rocky core beneath the ocean, giving you more chemical ingredients to work with," Bierson added. "Are those the right ingredients for life? We don't know. We need to learn more about how life forms, or how life could form, to find these answers." (With inputs from Reuters)

Pluto may have been a warmer body when it was formed 4.5 billion years ago

SpaceX is considered one of the most ambitious companies of modern-day! The company have gone even further than anybody’s expectations.

An advertisement for job hiring for the company published on Tuesday revealed how the company is planning to develop floating spaceports to be used as launch sites for SpaceX’s “Super Heavy” launch vehicles.

Tech Crunch first reported how these rockets will be used to move large payloads to Moon, and probably to Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pointed that these would also be used for travelling on Earth.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/spacex-confirms-putting-60-new-starlink-internet-satellites-into-orbit-303249" hreflang="en">SpaceX confirms putting 60 new Starlink Internet satellites into orbit</a>

Musk pointed out that the purpose behind the job posting, originally spotted by Dan Paasch will be to induct new people to help the company achieve this mission.

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The upcoming Super Heavy rocket boosters, intended to be worked with its Starship spacecraft, will allow hypersonic travel on Earth, which would cut travelling time tremendously. Take this - flights that took over a day will now take only a couple of hours.

The basic goal of SpaceX, which was to put humans on Mars and the Moon, are primarily why such heavy machines are being developed. No official work seems to have begun yet.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="/science/spacex-confirms-putting-60-new-starlink-internet-satellites-into-orbit-303249" hreflang="en">SpaceX confirms putting 60 new Starlink Internet satellites into orbit</a>

Musk has reiterated his plans to “make humans an interstellar species”, with the idea to colonise multiple destinations, with Mars and Moon first on the list.

If the plan materialises, not just space but travelling on the planet might become a lot easier! The rationale is to enable travel at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, which will cut down both on the duration and the fuel cost for the flight. If that happens, one may be able to travel from New York City to Paris in under an hour.

SpaceX is considered one of the most ambitious companies of modern-day! The company have gone even further than anybody’s expectations. An advertisement for job hiring for the company published on Tuesday revealed how the company is planning to develop floating spaceports to be used as launch sites for SpaceX’s “Super Heavy” launch vehicles.

SpaceX is considered one of the most ambitious companies of modern-day! The company have gone even further than anybody’s expectations. An advertisement for job hiring for the company published on Tuesday revealed how the company is planning to develop floating spaceports to be used as launch sites for SpaceX’s “Super Heavy” launch vehicles. Tech Crunch first reported how these rockets will be used to move large payloads to Moon, and probably to Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pointed that these would also be used for travelling on Earth. Also read: SpaceX confirms putting 60 new Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Musk pointed out that the purpose behind the job posting, originally spotted by Dan Paasch will be to induct new people to help the company achieve this mission. SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth https://t.co/zLJjz43hKw — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 16, 2020 × The upcoming Super Heavy rocket boosters, intended to be worked with its Starship spacecraft, will allow hypersonic travel on Earth, which would cut travelling time tremendously. Take this - flights that took over a day will now take only a couple of hours. The basic goal of SpaceX, which was to put humans on Mars and the Moon, are primarily why such heavy machines are being developed. No official work seems to have begun yet. Also read: SpaceX confirms putting 60 new Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Musk has reiterated his plans to “make humans an interstellar species”, with the idea to colonise multiple destinations, with Mars and Moon first on the list. If the plan materialises, not just space but travelling on the planet might become a lot easier! The rationale is to enable travel at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, which will cut down both on the duration and the fuel cost for the flight. If that happens, one may be able to travel from New York City to Paris in under an hour.

SpaceX's envisioned machinery will not only take us to Mars, but reduce travel time on Earth tremendously!

As the climate changes rapidly because of human activity, scientists and researchers have always struggled to find a corner of the Earth unaffected by people.

But researchers from Colorado State University have now identified an atmospheric region which remains unchanged by human activity. They say it is the world's cleanest air, free from particles caused by human activity, located over the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica.

This result was based on a first-of-its-kind study of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean.

Researchers found that the boundary layer air, which feeds the lower clouds over the Southern Ocean, was free from aerosol particles produced by human activity -- including burning fossil fuels and wastewater disposal -- or transported from other countries around the world.

Research scientist and co-author of the study Thomas Hill explained that "the aerosols controlling the properties of SO (Southern Ocean) clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents," he said in a statement.

"Overall, it suggests that the SO is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities," he added.

Scientists sampled the air in the marine boundary level, and then examined the composition of airborne microbes. And found that the microbes' origins were from the ocean.

They also concluded that aerosols from distant land masses and human activities, such as pollution or soil emissions caused by land use change, were not travelling south and into the air.

Scientists say that the results show a stark difference to all other studies from oceans both in the northern hemisphere and subtropics, which found that most microbes came from upwind continents.

In the study hence published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, scientists described the area as "truly pristine." 
&nbsp;

As the climate changes rapidly because of human activity, scientists and researchers have always struggled to find a corner of the Earth unaffected by people. But researchers from Colorado State University have now identified an atmospheric region which remains unchanged by human activity.

As the climate changes rapidly because of human activity, scientists and researchers have always struggled to find a corner of the Earth unaffected by people. But researchers from Colorado State University have now identified an atmospheric region which remains unchanged by human activity. They say it is the world's cleanest air, free from particles caused by human activity, located over the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica. This result was based on a first-of-its-kind study of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean. Researchers found that the boundary layer air, which feeds the lower clouds over the Southern Ocean, was free from aerosol particles produced by human activity -- including burning fossil fuels and wastewater disposal -- or transported from other countries around the world. Research scientist and co-author of the study Thomas Hill explained that "the aerosols controlling the properties of SO (Southern Ocean) clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and that Antarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganisms and nutrient deposition from southern continents," he said in a statement. "Overall, it suggests that the SO is one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities," he added. Scientists sampled the air in the marine boundary level, and then examined the composition of airborne microbes. And found that the microbes' origins were from the ocean. They also concluded that aerosols from distant land masses and human activities, such as pollution or soil emissions caused by land use change, were not travelling south and into the air. Scientists say that the results show a stark difference to all other studies from oceans both in the northern hemisphere and subtropics, which found that most microbes came from upwind continents. In the study hence published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, scientists described the area as "truly pristine."

This is the place where you can find the cleanest air on Earth!

We have all read about how the magnetic field of the earth protects us from the solar radiation. However, according to reports, that magnetic field is now weakening.

As per the reports, the magnetic field around the earth, on an average, has lost almost 10% of its strength over the last two centuries.

However, a rapid shrink has been observed in the South Atlantic Anomaly, a stretch between Africa and South America. A large and rapid shrink has been observed in this region over the past&nbsp;50 years just as the area itself has grown and moved westward.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science-tech/nasa-finds-evidence-of-parallel-universe-where-time-runs-backward-299949">Also read:&nbsp;NASA finds evidence of parallel universe where time runs backward</a>

Scientists from European Space Agency (ESA) from the Swarm Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) are using this data from ESA's Swarm satellite constellation to study the anomaly. The Swarm satellites can identify and measure the the various magnetic signals that combine to make up the Earth's magnetic field.In the last five years, a second centre of minimum intensity has developed towards southwest of Africa. Researchers believe that this could mean that the anomaly can split into two separate cells.

The weakening of the magnetic field is also causing technical difficulties for the satellites and spacecrafts orbiting the planet.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/scientists-prepare-a-map-of-antarctica-turning-green-due-to-climate-change-300122">Also read:&nbsp;Scientists prepare a map of Antarctica turning green due to climate change</a>

The South Atlantic Anomaly has been appearing over the last decade, but has developed vigorously in the last few years. Dr Jurgen Matzka, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, said:&nbsp;"We are very lucky to have the Swarm satellites in orbit to investigate the development of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The challenge now is to understand the processes in Earth's core driving these changes."

One most speculated reason behind this is that there is a chance that the time for Earth's pole reversal is coming near.

Pole reversal is when the north and south magnetic poles flip. While this flip will not occur immediately or suddenly, and will happen over centuries,&nbsp;there would be multiple north and south magnetic poles during this period, all around the planet.

This is definitely not the first time that pole reversal will be happening on the Earth. This event has occurred few times in the history of our planet, as per the scientists and we are long overdue by the average rate at which these reversals take place (roughly every 250,000 years).

While this is not going to affect or alarm the general public to a huge extent, it is causing technical difficulties for various satellites and spacecrafts, as the&nbsp;magnetic field getting weaker, charged particles from the cosmos can penetrate through to the altitudes that low-Earth orbiting satellites fly at.

(With inputs from agencies)

We have all read about how the magnetic field of the earth protects us from the solar radiation. However, according to reports, that magnetic field is now weakening.

We have all read about how the magnetic field of the earth protects us from the solar radiation. However, according to reports, that magnetic field is now weakening. As per the reports, the magnetic field around the earth, on an average, has lost almost 10% of its strength over the last two centuries. However, a rapid shrink has been observed in the South Atlantic Anomaly, a stretch between Africa and South America. A large and rapid shrink has been observed in this region over the past 50 years just as the area itself has grown and moved westward. Also read: NASA finds evidence of parallel universe where time runs backward Scientists from European Space Agency (ESA) from the Swarm Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) are using this data from ESA's Swarm satellite constellation to study the anomaly. The Swarm satellites can identify and measure the the various magnetic signals that combine to make up the Earth's magnetic field.In the last five years, a second centre of minimum intensity has developed towards southwest of Africa. Researchers believe that this could mean that the anomaly can split into two separate cells. The weakening of the magnetic field is also causing technical difficulties for the satellites and spacecrafts orbiting the planet. Also read: Scientists prepare a map of Antarctica turning green due to climate change The South Atlantic Anomaly has been appearing over the last decade, but has developed vigorously in the last few years. Dr Jurgen Matzka, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, said: "We are very lucky to have the Swarm satellites in orbit to investigate the development of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The challenge now is to understand the processes in Earth's core driving these changes." One most speculated reason behind this is that there is a chance that the time for Earth's pole reversal is coming near. Pole reversal is when the north and south magnetic poles flip. While this flip will not occur immediately or suddenly, and will happen over centuries, there would be multiple north and south magnetic poles during this period, all around the planet. This is definitely not the first time that pole reversal will be happening on the Earth. This event has occurred few times in the history of our planet, as per the scientists and we are long overdue by the average rate at which these reversals take place (roughly every 250,000 years). While this is not going to affect or alarm the general public to a huge extent, it is causing technical difficulties for various satellites and spacecrafts, as the magnetic field getting weaker, charged particles from the cosmos can penetrate through to the altitudes that low-Earth orbiting satellites fly at. (With inputs from agencies)

Earth's magnetic field weakens; satellites and spacecrafts malfunction

An astronomer has discovered the closest black hole to the Earth, about 1,000 light-years away.&nbsp;

The hole is so close that two stars swirling around an invisible object is visible with the naked eye on a clear dark night in the southern hemisphere.

The previous black hole was three times away from the current discovery. According to astronomers, it was at a distance of 3,200 light-years.

Every light year is 5.9 trillion miles.

The recently discovered black hole is the nearest to the earth, according to astronomers.

According to media reports, on the scale of the Milky Way, the black hole is in the backyard. Close to the doorstep.

The black hole which is centrally located in the Milky Way is more than 25,000 light-years away.

Scientists can discover these holes, like the latest one, when they absorb parts of a partner star or any other objects falling into them.

And most of them remain unspotted as they do not have anything close to swallowing.

An inner star’s orbit helped in the discovery of the closest black hole.

The 25-miles diameter hole was a part of the three-star dance system called HR 6819.

And the two stars were not very close to be sucked.

European scientists in Chile found something four to five times the mass of the sun was pulling on the inner star and said it was a black hole.

The spotting of the black hole suggests that there could be more out there.

There are around one billion small dense objects in the Milky Way, according to astronomers.

An astronomer has discovered the closest black hole to the Earth, about 1,000 light-years away. The hole is so close that two stars swirling around an invisible object is visible with the naked eye on a clear dark night in the southern hemisphere.

An astronomer has discovered the closest black hole to the Earth, about 1,000 light-years away. The hole is so close that two stars swirling around an invisible object is visible with the naked eye on a clear dark night in the southern hemisphere. The previous black hole was three times away from the current discovery. According to astronomers, it was at a distance of 3,200 light-years. Every light year is 5.9 trillion miles. The recently discovered black hole is the nearest to the earth, according to astronomers. According to media reports, on the scale of the Milky Way, the black hole is in the backyard. Close to the doorstep. The black hole which is centrally located in the Milky Way is more than 25,000 light-years away. Scientists can discover these holes, like the latest one, when they absorb parts of a partner star or any other objects falling into them. And most of them remain unspotted as they do not have anything close to swallowing. An inner star’s orbit helped in the discovery of the closest black hole. The 25-miles diameter hole was a part of the three-star dance system called HR 6819. And the two stars were not very close to be sucked. European scientists in Chile found something four to five times the mass of the sun was pulling on the inner star and said it was a black hole. The spotting of the black hole suggests that there could be more out there. There are around one billion small dense objects in the Milky Way, according to astronomers.

Three times close black hole spotted around 1,000 light-years away from Earth

A large near-Earth asteroid will safely pass by our planet on Wednesday morning, providing astronomers with an exceptional opportunity to study the 1.5-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) object in great detail.

The asteroid, called 1998 OR2, will make its closest approach at 5:55 a.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. PDT).

While this is known as a "close approach" by astronomers, it's still very far away: The asteroid will get no closer than about 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers), passing more than 16 times farther away than the Moon.

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LIVE NOW: Ask us anything about asteroid 1998 OR2, interstellar comet Borisov and comet ATLAS. Asteroid 1998 OR2 will safely fly by Earth on April 29. 
 
Join <a href="https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AsteroidWatch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PlanetaryDefense?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PlanetaryDefense</a> experts on <a href="https://twitter.com/reddit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@reddit</a> to ask questions about comets and asteroids: <a href="https://t.co/PEPWiVc1OY">https://t.co/PEPWiVc1OY</a> <a href="https://t.co/OQyqeGRS2w">pic.twitter.com/OQyqeGRS2w</a>
— NASA (@NASA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1255225026648903682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Asteroid 1998 OR2 was discovered by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July 1998, and for the past two decades, astronomers have tracked it.

As a result, we understand its orbital trajectory very precisely, and we can say with confidence that this asteroid poses no possibility of impact for at least the next 200 years.

Its next close approach to Earth will occur in 2079 when it will pass by closer -- only about four times the lunar distance.

Despite this, 1998 OR2 is still categorized as a large "potentially hazardous asteroid" because, over the course of millennia, very slight changes in the asteroid's orbit may cause it to present more of a hazard to Earth than it does now.

This is one of the reasons why tracking this asteroid during its close approach -- using telescopes and especially ground-based radar -- is important, as observations such as these will enable an even better long-term assessment of the hazard presented by this asteroid.

Close approaches by large asteroids like 1998 OR2 are quite rare.

The previous close approach by a large asteroid was made by asteroid Florence in September 2017. That 3-mile-wide (5-kilometer-wide) object zoomed past Earth at 18 lunar distances.

On average, we expect asteroids of this size to fly by our planet this close roughly once every five years.

Since they are bigger, asteroids of this size reflect much more light than smaller asteroids and are therefore easier to detect with telescopes.

Almost all near-Earth asteroids (about 98%) of the size of 1998 OR2 or larger have already been discovered, tracked and cataloged.

It is extremely unlikely there could be an impact over the next century by one of these large asteroids, but efforts to discover all asteroids that could pose an impact hazard to Earth continue.

A large near-Earth asteroid will safely pass by our planet on Wednesday morning, providing astronomers with an exceptional opportunity to study the 1.5-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) object in great detail.

A large near-Earth asteroid will safely pass by our planet on Wednesday morning, providing astronomers with an exceptional opportunity to study the 1.5-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) object in great detail. The asteroid, called 1998 OR2, will make its closest approach at 5:55 a.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. PDT). While this is known as a "close approach" by astronomers, it's still very far away: The asteroid will get no closer than about 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers), passing more than 16 times farther away than the Moon. LIVE NOW: Ask us anything about asteroid 1998 OR2, interstellar comet Borisov and comet ATLAS. Asteroid 1998 OR2 will safely fly by Earth on April 29. Join @AsteroidWatch #PlanetaryDefense experts on @reddit to ask questions about comets and asteroids: https://t.co/PEPWiVc1OY pic.twitter.com/OQyqeGRS2w — NASA (@NASA) April 28, 2020 × Asteroid 1998 OR2 was discovered by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in July 1998, and for the past two decades, astronomers have tracked it. As a result, we understand its orbital trajectory very precisely, and we can say with confidence that this asteroid poses no possibility of impact for at least the next 200 years. Its next close approach to Earth will occur in 2079 when it will pass by closer -- only about four times the lunar distance. Despite this, 1998 OR2 is still categorized as a large "potentially hazardous asteroid" because, over the course of millennia, very slight changes in the asteroid's orbit may cause it to present more of a hazard to Earth than it does now. This is one of the reasons why tracking this asteroid during its close approach -- using telescopes and especially ground-based radar -- is important, as observations such as these will enable an even better long-term assessment of the hazard presented by this asteroid. Close approaches by large asteroids like 1998 OR2 are quite rare. The previous close approach by a large asteroid was made by asteroid Florence in September 2017. That 3-mile-wide (5-kilometer-wide) object zoomed past Earth at 18 lunar distances. On average, we expect asteroids of this size to fly by our planet this close roughly once every five years. Since they are bigger, asteroids of this size reflect much more light than smaller asteroids and are therefore easier to detect with telescopes. Almost all near-Earth asteroids (about 98%) of the size of 1998 OR2 or larger have already been discovered, tracked and cataloged. It is extremely unlikely there could be an impact over the next century by one of these large asteroids, but efforts to discover all asteroids that could pose an impact hazard to Earth continue.

Asteroid 1998 OR2 to safely fly past earth this week

Earth Day is an annual event to raise awareness about environmental issues and inspire people to take action. Fifty years on, the day has become more important than ever if we want to save the planet.

Earth Day 2020: Why We Need to Act Now

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