Monday, November 30, 2015

Deadly kissing bugs reported in more than half of U.S., spreading Chagas disease



Daily News

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Wednesday, November 25, 2015, 11:58 AM
 

"Kissing Bug" now in Florida and Georgia
WTEV - Jacksonville, FL
 
Don't let the kissing bugs bite.
Here’s another reason to stay in New York this holiday season — the “kissing bug” has now spread to 28 states.

Texas is the latest to report an outbreak of infections from the Latin American triatomine bug after the pest had been spotted in other southern and western states, including Georgia, Alabama and California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The creepy crawler resembling a cockroach gets its colorful nickname because it likes to bite around the lips and eyes of people when they are asleep. More than half of the bugs carry a parasite that can cause Chagas disease in humans, dogs and other mammals.

The good news? To actually pass on the disease, the bug not only needs to bite you, but then defecate into the gash. If left untreated, up to 30% of bite victims will develop chronic conditions such as difficulty breathing, heart and intestinal complications, and, in extreme cases, death.

There have been eight million cases in Latin America and South America because of poorly constructed rural homes, according to the CDC.

To prevent an outbreak, the CDC recommends:

Sealing cracks and gaps around windows, walls, roofs, and doors.
Removing wood, brush, and rock piles near your house.



Read More Here

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Cars floating in rivers that were once streets, water gushing through ceilings and people sailing to work on boats – that’s the current picture in Qatar and Saudi Arabia



Floating cars, people in boats: Havoc as Qatar, Saudi Arabia ravaged by heavy rains (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

 
© carolyn_redaelli
Cars floating in rivers that were once streets, water gushing through ceilings and people sailing to work on boats – that’s the current picture in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both desert countries, which should be dry and sunny for the whole year.
 
Qatar’s capital Doha was apparently unprepared for the deluge and flooding that damaged many buildings in the city. The area near the capital’s Hamad International Airport was hammered with around 66mm of rain in just a few days, according to the Qatar Meteorology Department. For the record, Doha has 75mm of rain on average a year.
 Many buildings at the multibillion-dollar airport failed to hold up to the torrent: pictures and videos on social media show water flooding into the passenger terminal.
 


Cascades of water fell from a ceiling inside Ezdan Mall in Doha, Doha News reported.
“Inclement weather” prompted the closure of schools across the country as well as the US Embassy in Qatar on Wednesday.



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An international team of astrophysicists has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.



 

Scientists get first glimpse of black hole eating star, ejecting high-speed flare

Date:
November 27, 2015
Source:
Johns Hopkins University
Summary:
An international team of astrophysicists has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.

 
This artists impression shows a black hole consuming a star that has been torn apart by the black hole's strong gravity. As a result of this massive "meal" the black hole begins to launch a powerful jet that we can detect with radio telescopes.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Swift
 
 
An international team of astrophysicists led by a Johns Hopkins University scientist has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.

The finding reported in the journal Science tracks the star -- about the size of our sun -- as it shifts from its customary path, slips into the gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole and is sucked in, said Sjoert van Velzen, a Hubble fellow at Johns Hopkins.

"These events are extremely rare," van Velzen said. "It's the first time we see everything from the stellar destruction followed by the launch of a conical outflow, also called a jet, and we watched it unfold over several months."

Black holes are areas of space so dense that irresistible gravitational force stops the escape of matter, gas and even light, rendering them invisible and creating the effect of a void in the fabric of space. Astrophysicists had predicted that when a black hole is force-fed a large amount of gas, in this case a whole star, then a fast-moving jet of plasma -- elementary particles in a magnetic field -- can escape from near the black hole rim, or "event horizon." This study suggests this prediction was correct, the scientists said.

"Previous efforts to find evidence for these jets, including my own, were late to the game," said van Velzen, who led the analysis and coordinated the efforts of 13 other scientists in the United States, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Australia.

Supermassive black holes, the largest of black holes, are believed to exist at the center of most massive galaxies. This particular one lies at the lighter end of the supermassive black hole spectrum, at only about a million times the mass of our sun, but still packing the force to gobble a star.
The first observation of the star being destroyed was made by a team at the Ohio State University, using an optical telescope in Hawaii. That team announced its discovery on Twitter in early December 2014.

After reading about the event, van Velzen contacted an astrophysics team led by Rob Fender at the University of Oxford in Great Britain. That group used radio telescopes to follow up as fast as possible. They were just in time to catch the action.

By the time it was done, the international team had data from satellites and ground-based telescopes that gathered X-ray, radio and optical signals, providing a stunning "multi-wavelength" portrait of this event.

It helped that the galaxy in question is closer to Earth than those studied previously in hopes of tracking a jet emerging after the destruction of a star. This galaxy is about 300 million light years away, while the others were at least three times farther away. One light year is 5.88 trillion miles.
The first step for the international team was to rule out the possibility that the light was from a pre-existing expansive swirling mass called an "accretion disk" that forms when a black hole is sucking in matter from space. That helped to confirm that the sudden increase of light from the galaxy was due to a newly trapped star.

"The destruction of a star by a black hole is beautifully complicated, and far from understood," van Velzen said. "From our observations, we learn the streams of stellar debris can organize and make a jet rather quickly, which is valuable input for constructing a complete theory of these events."
Van Velzen last year completed his doctoral dissertation at Radboud University in the Netherlands, where he studied jets from supermassive black holes. In the last line of the dissertation, he expressed his hope to discover these events within four years. It turned out to take only a few months after the ceremony for his dissertation defense.

Van Velzen and his team were not the only ones to hunt for radio signals from this particular unlucky star. A group at Harvard observed the same source with radio telescopes in New Mexico and announced its results online. Both teams presented results at a workshop in Jerusalem in early November. It was the first time the two competing teams had met face to face.

"The meeting was an intense, yet very productive exchange of ideas about this source," van Velzen said. "We still get along very well; I actually went for a long hike near the Dead Sea with the leader of the competing group."
 

Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:
S. van Velzen, G. E. Anderson, N. C. Stone, M. Fraser, T. Wevers, B. D. Metzger, P. G. Jonker, A. J. van der Horst, T. D. Staley, A. J. Mendez, J. C. A. Miller-Jones, S. T. Hodgkin, H. C. Campbell, R. P. Fender. A radio jet from the optical and X-ray bright stellar tidal disruption flare ASASSN-14li. Science, 2015; DOI: 10.1126/science.aad1182

Maldives : Southern Addu City has suffered the worst storm damage in 40 years after 12 continuous hours of torrential rain left streets inundated and flooded some 200 households.

Maldives Independent

Addu City suffers worst floods in 40 years

Photos shared by the MRC show a foot of water inside some households.


Addu City floods
Addu City floods

November 25 14:56 2015
 
 
Southern Addu City has suffered the worst storm damage in 40 years after 12 continuous hours of torrential rain left streets inundated and flooded some 200 households.

“This is the worst flooding I’ve seen in decades. The water is knee-deep in most areas, and a majority of houses are under a foot of water,” saud Abdulla Thoyyib, the deputy mayor.

The Feydhoo and Maradhoo-Feydhoo wards suffered the most damage. According to the Maldives Red Crescent, some 32 houses in Feydhoo and 11 houses in Maradhoo-Feydhoo suffered major damage. A majority of household appliances were destroyed, a spokesperson said.

Residents are now worried of water contamination as sewers are full and overflowing. The city, home to some 20,000 people, and the second most populous region, is out of chlorine, according to Thoyyib.

The Maldives National Defence Forces have set up water pumps in the three worst affected wards. Sand bags have been piled up to stop water entering into 17 houses in the Feydhoo ward.


The rain, which started at 3pm on Tuesday, continued for 12 hours. The department of meteorology recorded 228mm of rain, the worst in 40 years in the Maldives.

“This kind of rain is not common and it has damaged houses that are normally safe,” Thoyyib said.



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In the last few weeks NASA has revealed the overall amount of ice has increased at the Antarctic and the amount of sea ice has also extended. ANTARCTIC temperatures have cooled over the past six years, study finds.




GLOBAL WARMING? NASA says Antarctic has been COOLING for past SIX years

ANTARCTIC temperatures have cooled over the past six years, according to US space agency NASA.

 

 
PUBLISHED: 07:51, Sat, Nov 28, 2015 | UPDATED: 12:58, Sat, Nov 28, 2015
 
Heimdal Glacier in southern Greenland, in an image captured on Oct. 13, 2015, from NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20 aircraft flying 33,000 fee 

NASA

Heimdal Glacier southern Greenland, from NASA's Falcon 20 aircraft at 33,000 feet above sea level.
An intensive scientific study of both Earth's poles has found that from 2009 to 2016 overall temperature has dropped in the southern polar region.NASA’s Operation IceBridge is an airborne survey of polar ice and has finalised two overlapping research campaigns at both the poles.In the last few weeks NASA has revealed the overall amount of ice has increased at the Antarctic and the amount of sea ice has also extended.Coupled with the latest announcement of slight cooling in the area, it has fuelled claims from climate change deniers that human industrialisation is not having the huge impact on global tenperature as often is claimed.
 
 
Map showing the extent of ice during the NASA studies 
NASA
Map showing the extent of ice during the NASA studies

Read More Here


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Examiner.com

New paper claims no pause in warming, but unaltered data says otherwise

November 25, 2015 9:20 AM MST
Authors Naomi Oreskes (L) and Erik Conway attend the 'Merchants of Doubt' premiere during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Photo by Aaron Harris

Read More Here



Next: How NOAA rewrote climate data to hide global warming pause

...................................................................................................

Nasa Earth Observatory

Earth is Cooling…No It’s Warming



In 1967 Hansen went to work for NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in New York City, where he continued his research on planetary problems. Around 1970, some scientists suspected Earth was entering a period of global cooling. Decades prior, the brilliant Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch had explained how our world warms and cools on roughly 100,000-year cycles due to its slowly changing position relative to the Sun. Milankovitch’s theory suggested Earth should be just beginning to head into its next ice age cycle. The surface temperature data gathered by Mitchell seemed to agree; the record showed that Earth experienced a period of cooling (by about 0.3°C) from 1940 through 1970. Of course, Mitchell was only collecting data over a fraction of the Northern Hemisphere—from 20 to 90 degrees North latitude. Still, the result drew public attention and a number of speculative articles about Earth’s coming ice age appeared in newspapers and magazines.


Graph of Northern Hemisphere temperatures, 1860 through 1970

Initial efforts to observe Earth’s temperature were limited to the Northern Hemisphere, and they showed a cooling trend from 1940 to 1970 (jagged line). Scientists estimated the relative effects of carbon dioxide (warming, top curve) and aerosols (cooling, bottom curve) on climate, but did not have enough data to make precise predictions. (Graph from Mitchell, 1972.)


But other scientists forecasted global warming. Russian climatologist Mikhail Budyko had also observed the three-decade cooling trend. Nevertheless, he published a paper in 1967 in which he predicted the cooling would soon switch to warming due to rising human emissions of carbon dioxide. Budyko’s paper and another paper published in 1975 by Veerabhadran Ramanathan caught Hansen’s attention. Ramanathan pointed out that human-made chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) are particularly potent greenhouse gases, with as much as 200 times the heat-retaining capacity of carbon dioxide. Because people were adding CFCs to the lower atmosphere at an increasing rate, Ramanathan expressed concern that these new gases would eventually add to Earth’s greenhouse effect and cause our world to warm. (Because CFCs also erode Earth’s protective ozone layer, their use was mostly abolished in 1989 with the signing of the Montreal Protocol.)



 
.................................................................................................

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Source: [[LINK||http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/||NOAA]])
This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.)
 
The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.1
 
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.



Read More Here

 

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:


  • Republic of Maldives: Vulnerable to sea level rise
    Photograph by Shahee Ilyas  
    Malé, capital of Maldives  Wikipedia.org

    Sea level rise

    Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century.4
    + expand
     
     

  • Global temperature rise

    All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880.5 Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years.6 Even though the 2000s witnessed a solar output decline resulting in an unusually deep solar minimum in 2007-2009, surface temperatures continue to increase.7
     
    + expand
     
     

  • Warming oceans

    The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.8
     
    + expand
     
     


  • Flowing meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet

    Shrinking ice sheets

    The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

    + expand
Read More Here

A new study has sequenced the first tardigrade (Water Bear) genome. Findings : 17.5% foreign species DNA.




tardigrade_fam
5. They’ve been around longer than nearly every other living organism.
Tardigrades roamed the earth and seas far before humans did – and will most likely outlast us. Will the tardigrades be nature’s last organisms standing? Only time will tell.

5 Reasons Why The Tardigrade Is Nature’s Toughest Animal
Read More Here

News release reports , Earth's magnetic field is not about to flip. Disputing reports of over 1 year ago stating the contrary




 

Earth's Magnetic Field is Not About to Flip, Like Previously Thought

First Posted: Nov 24, 2015 11:09 AM EST
 
Magnetic Field
(Photo : Huapei Wang, with source files courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD)
 
Earth's magnetic field is not about to flip. While the intensity of this field has weakened in the last couple hundred of years, researchers have found that this doesn't mean it's about to reverse.
 
Humans have lived through dips in magnetic field intensity before. However, there are debates about whether reversals of the magnetic field in the distant past had any connection to species extinctions. Today, a magnetic field reversal would have a huge impact due to one very important thing: technology. The magnetic field deflects the solar wind and cosmic rays. This means that with a weaker field, more radiation gets through which can disrupt power grids and satellite communications.
 
"The field may be decreasing rapidly, but we're not yet down to the long-term average," said Dennis Kent, one of the researchers, in a news release. "In 100 years, the field may even go back the other direction [in intensity]."


Read More Here

 
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Scientific American

Earth's Magnetic Field Flip Could Happen Sooner Than Expected

Changes measured by the Swarm satellite show that our magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than originally predicted, especially over the Western Hemisphere
 
Changes measured by the Swarm satellite
Changes measured by the Swarm satellite over the past 6 months shows that Earth's magnetic field is changing. Shades of red show areas where it is strengthening, and shades of blue show areas that are weakening.
Credit: ESA/DTU
Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite array called Swarm.
 
The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field — which extends 370,000 miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface — have sprung up over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard the Swarm satellites — three separate satellites floating in tandem.

The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is moving toward Siberia.
"Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years," Floberghagen told Live Science. "They have happened many times in the past."[50 Amazing Facts About Planet Earth]



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Earthquake - Magnitude 6.2 - 66km NNW of Taltal, Chile. Total of 7 earthquakes in 7 days ranging in magnitude from 4.6 to 6.2.



 

Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake Hits Off Chile Coast, No Damage Reported

 
Magnitude 6.2 Earthquake Hits Off Chile Coast, No Damage Reported
Santiago:  A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the northern coast of Chile on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, although there were no initial reports of damage.
The USGS said the quake's epicentre was located 18 miles (29 kilometres) below the seabed, 82 miles (132 km) southwest of Antofagasta.
The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.0, struck at 6 p.m. (2100 GMT).
 
 
Read More Here
 
 
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 photo Chile 6.2 Mag Earthquake_zpsf778htz8.png
USGS
Chile - 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake 11/27/2015 Total of 7 EQ in last 7 days
..........

7 earthquakes in map area

  1. M 5.2 - 81km WSW of Coquimbo, Chile

    2015-11-28 05:44:40 UTC 10.0 km

  2. M 5.0 - 68km NNW of Taltal, Chile

    2015-11-27 21:45:12 UTC 45.3 km

  3. M 6.2 - 66km NNW of Taltal, Chile

    2015-11-27 21:00:22 UTC 35.0 km

  4. M 4.6 - 103km NW of Coquimbo, Chile

    2015-11-25 20:57:58 UTC 10.0 km

  5. M 4.7 - 104km WSW of Illapel, Chile

    2015-11-24 21:19:55 UTC 10.0 km

  6. M 4.8 - 101km WSW of Illapel, Chile

    2015-11-24 09:14:16 UTC 13.9 km

  7. M 4.6 - 123km SSE of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

    2015-11-23 05:16:24 UTC 121.0 km

..........
 
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Flooding and wintry precipitation have led to at least 10 deaths in Texas and Kansas as a storm system moves across the central Plains



  •  
    By Slma Shelbayah and Kimberly Hutcherson CNN

    10 dead as wintry storm hits Plains

    Millions under winter weather, flood warnings

    UPDATED 4:59 PM CST Nov 29, 2015
    OK ice storm 11.29.15
    CNN KOCO
     
    (CNN) —The governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, has declared a state of emergency for her state, according to KOCO.
This follows an ice storm and flooding that has knocked out power for thousands of people throughout the state.

Meanhwhile, flooding and wintry precipitation have led to at least 10 deaths in Texas and Kansas as a storm system moves across the central Plains, authorities reported.

Five people died in single-vehicle accidents in Kansas, according to Lt. Adam Winters with the state's Highway Patrol. He said all of the accidents could be attributed to black ice or hazardous road conditions.

Flooding claimed at least three lives in the Dallas area. The victims include a man in Garland, northeast of Dallas. Benjamin Floyd, 29, was on his way to work when raging floodwaters swept his car off the road, according to CNN affiliate KTVT. He was unable to get out of his vehicle before it was submerged Friday, Garland city officials said.

The two other flooding deaths came in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, county emergency management officials said.

The National Weather Service reported ice storms in the Texas Panhandle. Three people died in a road accident on Interstate 40 about 45 miles west of Amarillo, the weather service reported.




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By studying data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Astronomers conclude a mysterious dimming star was probably caused by a family of passing comets.




Comet fragments best explanation of mysterious dimming star

Date:
November 25, 2015

Source:
Iowa State University

Summary:
Astronomers have responded to the buzz about a mysterious dimming star by studying data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. They conclude the dimming was probably caused by a family of comets passing in front of the star.

This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet. Observations of the star KIC 8462852 by NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes suggest that its unusual light signals are likely from dusty comet fragments, which blocked the light of the star as they passed in front of it in 2011 and 2013. The comets are thought to be traveling around the star in a very long, eccentric orbit.
Credit: Illustration by NASA/JPL-Caltech
Was it a catastrophic collision in the star's asteroid belt? A giant impact that disrupted a nearby planet? A dusty cloud of rock and debris? A family of comets breaking apart? Or was it alien megastructures built to harvest the star's energy?

Just what caused the mysterious dimming of star KIC 8462852?

Massimo Marengo, an Iowa State University associate professor of physics and astronomy, wondered when he saw all the buzz about the mysterious star found by citizen scientists on the Planet Hunters website.

Those citizen scientists were highlighting measurements of star brightness recorded by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Tiny dips in a star's brightness can indicate a planet is passing in front of the star. That's how Kepler astronomers -- and citizen scientists using the internet to help analyze the light curves of stars -- are looking for planets.

But this star had deep dips in brightness -- up to 22 percent. The star's brightness also changed irregularly, sometimes for days and even months at a time. A search of the 150,000-plus stars in Kepler's database found nothing like this.

So Marengo and two other astronomers decided to take a close look at the star using data taken with the Infrared Array Camera of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. They report their findings in a paper recently published online by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Their conclusion?

"The scenario in which the dimming in the KIC 8462852 light curve were caused by the destruction of a family of comets remains the preferred explanation …," wrote the three -- Marengo; Alan Hulsebus, an Iowa State doctoral student; and Sarah Willis, a former Iowa State graduate student now with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory.

Questions about the star were launched last month when a research team led by Tabetha Boyajian of Yale University reported on the star in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The astronomers reported how citizen scientists tagged the star's deep and irregular dips in brightness as "bizarre" and "interesting."

Boyajian and the other researchers looked at the data and investigated several possible causes. They wrote the "most promising theory" was a barrage of crumbling comets passing in front of the star.
In a subsequent paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, Jason Wright and colleagues at Penn State University speculated about other causes, including alien megastructures built to harvest energy while orbiting the star.

When the Iowa State astronomers studied the star with Spitzer infrared data from January 2015 -- two years after the Kepler measurements -- Marengo said they didn't see much. If there had been some kind of catastrophe near the star, he said there would be a lot of dust and debris. And that would show up as extra infrared emissions.

Marengo said the study looked at two different infrared wavelengths: the shorter was consistent with a typical star and the longer showed some infrared emissions, but not enough to reach a detection threshold. The astronomers concluded there were no excess infrared emissions and therefore no sign of an asteroid belt collision, a giant impact on a planet or a dusty cloud of rock and debris.

So Marengo and his colleagues say the destruction of a family of comets near the star is the most likely explanation for the mysterious dimming. The comet fragments coming in rapidly at a steep, elliptical orbit could create a big debris cloud that could dim the star. Then the cloud would move off, restoring the star's brightness and leaving no trace of excess infrared light.

And the alien megastructure theory?

"We didn't look for that," Marengo said. "We can't really say it is, or is not. But what the star is doing is very strange. It's interesting when you have phenomena like that -- typically it means there's some new physical explanation or a new concept to be discovered."

Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Iowa State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:
Massimo Marengo, Alan Hulsebus, Sarah Willis. KIC 8462852: THE INFRARED FLUX. The Astrophysical Journal, 2015; 814 (1): L15 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/814/1/L15

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Zika virus : A virus believed to cause under-developed brains and skulls in newborn babies has sparked a public health emergency in Brazil and the Caribbean.



 Independent

Zika virus: Health alerts in South America and Caribbean following fears illness may cause birth deformities

Doctors believe the illness may be linked to a rise in cases of microcephaly in infants
  • Alexandra Sims
  • Thursday 19 November 2015 Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease similar to dengue fever VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images

A virus believed to cause under-developed brains and skulls in newborn babies has sparked a public health emergency in Brazil and the Caribbean.

The Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease similar to dengue fever, was first identified on Easter Island, Chile in February last year and has since spread to Brazil, Columbia and the Caribbean.
On Monday, the Caribbean Public Health Agency confirmed five cases of the Zika virus in a territory of the Caribbean Community, according to Liverostrum News Agency.

The territory where the cases were confirmed has not been revealed.

Reports say the disease surveillance system operated by one of the community's members, Grenada, has since been heightened and health officials are on alert.


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Friday, November 27, 2015

Images of Comet Catalina with her twin tails captured by amateur Astonomer , Chris Schur of Arizona.



Phys.org

Comet Catalina grows two tails, soars at dawn

November 23, 2015 by Bob King, Universe Today
 
Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina shows off a compact green coma and two tails in this photo taken this morning (Nov. 22, 2015) at dawn from Arizona. The green color comes from carbon compounds fluorescing in UV sunlight. Credit: Chris Schur 
 
Amateur astronomer Chris Schur of Arizona had only five minutes to observe and photograph Comet Catalina this morning before twilight got the better of the night. In that brief time, he secured two beautiful images and made a quick observation through his 80mm refractor. He writes:
"Very difficult observation on this one. (I observed) it visually with the 35mm Panoptic ocular. It was a round, slightly condensed object with no sign of the twin tails that show up in the images. After five minutes, we lost it visually as it was 2° degrees up in bright twilight. Images show it for a longer time and a beautiful emerald green head with two tails forming a Y shaped fan."
North is up and east to the left in these two photos of the comet made by Dr. D.T. Durig at 6:23 a.m. EST on Nov. 21st from Cordell-Lorenz Observatory in Sewanee, Tenn. He estimated the coma diameter at ~2 arc minutes with a tail at least …


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-11-comet-catalina-tails-soars-dawn.html#jCp
Schur estimated the comet's brightness at around magnitude +6. What appears to be the dust extends to the lower right (southeast) with a narrower ion tail pointing north. With its twin tails, I'm reminded of a soaring eagle or perhaps a turkey vulture rocking back and forth on its wings. While they scavenge for food, Catalina soaks up sunlight.

I also headed out before dawn for a look. After a failed attempt to spot the new visitor on Saturday, I headed down to the Lake Superior shoreline at 5:30 a.m. today and waited until the comet rose above the murk. Using 7×50 binoculars in a similar narrow observing window, I could barely detect it as a small, fuzzy spot 2.5° south of 4th magnitude Lambda Virginis at 5:50 a.m. 10 minutes after the start of astronomical twilight. The camera did better!



Read More Here

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Croatia - First Snow of the Winter Season one foot deep resulting in downed trees and powerlines



Total Croatia News

First Snow of the Winter Season Causing Problems in Croatia

By , 22 Nov 2015, 15:50 PM News
 
Keep those summer beach memories close to hand - the first winter snow is here.
Almost the entire Lika region was caught in snowy weather last night. In Gospić, more than 30 centimetres of snow has fallen, while in mountainous areas the snow cover is even higher. Snow has caused the falling down of many trees which have damaged electrical lines, so the wider area of ​​Gospić was without power this morning. Director of Elektrolika Ernest Petri said that two transmission lines that supply electricity to Gospić have broken down. There are problems with the local phone lines as well, reports Index.hr and Vecernji List on November 22, 2015.

Snow and strong winds are causing traffic problems in the Primorje region. The Lika-Senj Police Department has announced that the Adriatic highway from Karlobag to Sveta Marija Magdalena is completely closed down, and on all the roads in Lika winter tyres are mandatory.



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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

5.1-magnitude earthquake in the state of Mérida triggered a rockslide. 1 fatality reported




One killed in rockslide triggered by earthquake in Venezuela

 
By Andrew V. Pestano Follow @AVPLive9 Contact the Author   |   Nov. 23, 2015 at 1:50 PM
 
 
 
 
A rockslide similar to the one pictured caused two vehicles to crash in Venezuela, killing one man. The slide was triggered by an earthquake. File photo by GCRO Images/Shutterstock
 
CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- One person was killed in Venezuela when a rockslide was triggered by a 5.1-magnitude earthquake in the state of Mérida, causing a traffic collision.
 
The Venezuelan Foundation of Seismological Research, or FUNVISIS, reported the epicenter of the earthquake was located about 18 miles southeast of the town of El Vigía at 4:08 p.m. at a depth of about 3 miles. Multiple aftershocks were recorded in the region.

Blas Federico Méndez, 41, died immediately and his son Emmanuel Méndez, 32, was injured after their vehicle made a frontal collision with an SUV. Both vehicles attempted to evade debris from a rockslide, but collided in the process. Two people inside the SUV were injured, El Universal reported.


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Weather-related disasters such as floods and heatwaves have occurred almost daily in the past decade, almost twice as often as two decades ago - UN report



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Major increase in weather disasters over last 2 decades

Since 1995, weather disasters have killed millions of people & left billions injured & homeless.


A flood-affected resident swims through floodwaters in Kalay, upper Myanmar’s Sagaing region on August 3, 2015. Relentless monsoon rains have triggered flash floods and landslides, destroying thousands of houses, farmland, bridges and roads with fast-flowing waters hampering relief efforts. Picture: AFP.

GENEVA – Weather-related disasters such as floods and heatwaves have occurred almost daily in the past decade, almost twice as often as two decades ago, with Asia being the hardest hit region, a UN report said on Monday.

While the report authors could not pin the increase wholly on climate change, they did say that the upward trend was likely to continue as extreme weather events increased.

Since 1995, weather disasters have killed millions of people, left billions injured, homeless or in need of aid, and accounted for 90 percent of all disasters, it said.

A recent peak year was 2002, when drought in India hit 200 million and a sandstorm in China affected 100 million.

But the standout mega-disaster was Cyclone Nargis, which killed 138,000 in Myanmar in 2008.




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Heavy rains, flooding and a spike in new arrivals could threaten the lives of over 110,000 Burundian refugees in overcrowded camps in Tanzania



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Fear of cholera, floods as Burundi refugees pack Tanzania camps

By Agencies, Citizen Digital

Fear of cholera, floods as Burundi refugees pack Tanzania camps
Heavy rains, flooding and a spike in new arrivals could threaten the lives of over 110,000 Burundian refugees in overcrowded camps in Tanzania, six aid agencies said on Monday, amid warnings of rising political tension in Burundi.

Life-threatening malaria and diarrhoea have been spreading in Nyarugusu, the world’s third largest refugee camp, since the rainy season began, and damage caused by a powerful El Nino has left aid agencies short of funds throughout east Africa.

“Refugees are arriving in the hundreds every day,” the agencies, which include Oxfam, Save the Children and HelpAge International, said in a statement.

“Many people are still living in overcrowded mass shelters months after their arrival, where wet floors and cramped conditions mean that the risk of respiratory infections and waterborne diseases is high.”

The agencies also fear a fresh outbreak of cholera, which killed 33 Burundian refugees in western Tanzania in May, as heavy rain sometimes makes toilets overflow and flood shelters.




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California's ongoing drought has left millions of waterfowl that migrate from northern climes with fewer places to land, seek food.



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California Drought Affects Winter Refuges for Migratory Birds

 
Sandhill cranes land in flooded fields at the Sandhill Crane Reserve near Thornton, California, Nov. 3, 2015. The state's ongoing drought has left millions of waterfowl that migrate from northern climes to California with fewer places to land, seek food.
Sandhill cranes land in flooded fields at the Sandhill Crane Reserve near Thornton, California, Nov. 3, 2015. The state's ongoing drought has left millions of waterfowl that migrate from northern climes to California with fewer places to land, seek food.
 
 
Reuters
 
With their red heads, 2.13-meter (7-foot) wingspan and a trilling call, migrating Sandhill Cranes provide a dramatic sunset spectacle as they land by the thousands in wetlands near Sacramento each night during the fall and winter.

But the state's ongoing drought has left the cranes, along with millions of other waterfowl that migrate from Canada and other northern climes to spend the winter in California, with fewer places to land, threatening their health as they crowd in on one another to seek shelter and food.

"They're left with fewer and fewer places to go, which will start to have impacts on their population," said Meghan Hertel, who works on habitat issues for the Audubon Society in California. "They can die here from starvation or disease or be weaker for their flight back north."


Beloved sight


The cranes are a beloved sight in California's Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys when they arrive each fall.

Tourists flock to see them as they take off en masse at dawn or land in a series of swooping, trilling groups as the sun goes down.


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