Our Future: Oceans of Acid?

clipped from apnews.myway.com Acid oceans: the 'evil twin' of climate change "We're having a change in water chemistry, so 20 years from now the system we're looking at could be affected dramatically but we're not really sure how. So we see a train wreck coming," said Andrew DeVogelaere, the sanctuary's research director, while out kayaking this fall with a reporter in the cold waters. Oceans absorb about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere from human activities each year, says a new U.N. report released at the Copenhagen talks this week. That helps slow global warming in the atmosphere, the focus of the Copenhagen talks. But carbon dissolving in oceans also forms carbonic acid, raising waters' acidity that damages all manner of hard-shelled creatures, and setting off a chain reaction that threatens the food chain supporting marine life, including the lumbering sea mammals along the 276-mile coast of the California sanctuary and the rest of the U.S. West Coast.

Searching For the Real 'Pandora'

clipped from www.redorbit.com clipped from www.redorbit.com Searching For Our Own 'Pandora' Avatar's Moon Pandora Could Be Real Once a moon is found, the next obvious question would be: Does it have an atmosphere? If it does, those gases will absorb a fraction of the star's light during the transit, leaving a tiny, telltale fingerprint to the atmosphere's composition. "Alpha Centauri A is a bright, nearby star very similar to our Sun, so it gives us a strong signal" Kaltenegger explained. "You would only need a handful of transits to find water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane on an Earth-like moon such as Pandora." "If the Avatar movie is right in its vision, we could characterize that moon with JWST in the near future," she added. An exomoon in the habitable zone wouldn't face this dilemma. The moon would be tidally locked to its planet, not to the star, and therefore would have regular day-night cycles just like Earth. Its atmosphere would moderate temperatures, and plant life would have a source of energy moon-wide.

Martian Beachfront Property errodes too

Part of that highway fell into the sea

clipped from www.redorbit.com clipped from www.redorbit.com This false-color subimage shows the north polar layered deposits at top and darker materials at bottom exposed in a scarp at the head of Chasma Boreale, a large canyon eroded into the layered deposits. The polar layered deposits appear red because of dust mixed within them, but are ice-rich as indicated by previous observations. The water ice in the layered deposits is probably responsible for the pattern of fractures seen near the top of the scarp. The darker material below the layered deposits may have been deposited as sand dunes, as indicated by the cross-bedding (truncation of curved lines) seen near the middle of the scarp. It appears that brighter, ice-rich layers were deposited between the dark dunes in places. Exposures such as these are useful in understanding the recent climate variations that are likely recorded in the polar layered deposits.

clipped from www.redorbit.com White House Kicks-Off Broadband Boost In an effort to both expand high-speed Internet access and give the economy a publicly-funded pick-me-up, the Obama administration began doling out more than $2 billion in federal grants and loans this week to kick off a two and half month campaign to improve national broadband networks. Read More

IGN Launches 'Game On,'

I'm a member

clipped from www.redorbit.com IGN Launches 'Game On,' a New Videogame Channel SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- IGN.com, the leading online videogame media outlet, will power and serve as the content provider for Game On, a new videogame channel on MSN, which launches today at http://gameon.msn.com. Game On offers consumers a custom experience that features IGN's industry-leading editorial and video content and the highest-quality gaming information available on the Web today. It joins popular MSN properties like Wonderwall and Delish as the latest addition to MSN's stable of content partner offerings. Television. On December 12th FOX-TV will bring IGN's annual Holiday Buyer's Guide to television screens across the country. Online. IGN revealed a new version of its flagship site IGN.com, updated with a bold new layout and navigation capabilities to make the site as accessible and appealing as possible for new the broadening gaming audience. Online Video.

Thirteen - Scariest Coaster in the World

clipped from www.thesun.co.uk A NEW rollercoaster billed as "the scariest ride in the UK" is so terrifying thrill-seekers will have to sign a waiver to ride it. The young and the old are also banned from the white-knuckle experience which will be launched at Alton Towers Resort next year. The £15million ride will be restricted to 16 to 55-year-olds only and visitors limited to one ride per day "due to concerns about emotional maturity and physical health", resort bosses said. Adrenaline junkies will also be required to sign a waiver which assures the resort of their physical and mental health "to avoid any resulting lawsuits". "However, just as we take physical health and safety very seriously, Thirteen demands that we also consider our visitors' emotional health, and as such we're not afraid of introducing necessary measures to ensure riders are fully prepared and healthy enough to brave Thirteen."

hottest star in the Galaxy

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk Captured on film: hottest star in the Galaxy Astronomers have taken the first pictures of one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy. The temperature on its surface is 200,000C, 35 times hotter than the Sun. The mysterious dying star at the heart of the Bug Nebula – 3,500 light years away in the constellation Scorpius – has never been seen before as it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice. The images were taken to show off the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope after it began work again in September. The astronomers were amazed to discover the hidden star. Cezary Szyszka, a research student currently working at the European Southern Observatory, said: "We are extremely lucky that we had the opportunity to catch this star near its hottest point. From now on it will gradually cool as it dies. This is truly an exceptional object."