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Categories: Environmental: Wildfires, Space: General
Published Scientists dig into wildfire predictions, long-term impacts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. Scientists are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity.
Published Research supports use of managed and prescribed fires to reduce fire severity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists found that fires in America's dry conifer forests are burning hotter and killing more trees today than in previous centuries. The main culprit? Paradoxically, a lack of fires.
Published Picturing where wildlands and people meet at a global scale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity.
Published Understanding the many different ways animals are evolving in response to fire could help conservation efforts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In our modern era of larger, more destructive, and longer-lasting fires -- called the Pyrocene -- plants and animals are evolving quickly to survive. By synthesizing the wide body of research about rapid animal evolution in response to fire, a multidisciplinary team of ecology experts hopes to leverage what we already know to help foster evolution-informed conservation plans. In this way, they suggest, we can try to harness the ways in which fire impacts animals to protect vulnerable species -- working with evolution instead of against it.
Published Hidden cameras spot wildlife returning home after 2018 megafire
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers analyzed more than 500,000 motion-sensor camera trap images taken at a Northern California reserve in the years before and after the Mendocino Complex Fire to understand how the blaze impacted small- and medium-sized mammals. The study is one of the first to compare wildlife observations made before and after a megafire, and is also one of a limited number of studies to focus on the impacts of megafires on California's oak woodlands.
Published What causes mudslides and floods after wildfires? Hint: It's not what scientists thought
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists once assumed that flooding and mudslides after wildfires were linked to the waxy coating that builds up on charred soil, preventing water absorption. Researchers found that water flow came from absorbed water in both burnt and unburnt areas, suggesting that water was, in fact, being absorbed into burnt ground. The discovery provides valuable insights into where and when potential flooding and mudslides may occur and how landscapes recover after a wildfire.
Published Fungi blaze a trail to fireproof cladding
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have shown it's possible to grow fungi in thin sheets that could be used for fire-retardant cladding or even a new kind of fungal fashion.
Published Addressing justice in wildfire risk management
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The unequal distribution of wildfire risk in our society is influenced by various factors, such as social vulnerabilities and intersecting forms of inequality, including gender, age, ethnicity, or disability. A new article calls for more integrated and inclusive wildfire risk management approaches and proposes a novel framework mapping different justice aspects.
Published Three things to know: Climate change's impact on extreme-weather events
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers found that the effects of climate change on the intensity, frequency, and duration of extreme weather events, like wildfires, could lead to massive increases in all three.
Published First detection of crucial carbon molecule
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules. Methyl cation was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Published Einstein and Euler put to the test at the edge of the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The cosmos is a unique laboratory for testing the laws of physics, in particular those of Euler and Einstein. Euler described the movements of celestial objects, while Einstein described the way in which celestial objects distort the Universe. Since the discovery of dark matter and the acceleration of the Universe's expansion, the validity of their equations has been put to the test: are they capable of explaining these mysterious phenomena? A team has developed the first method to find out. It considers a never-before-used measure: time distortion.
Published Molecular filament shielded young solar system from supernova
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Isotope ratios found in meteorites suggest that a supernova exploded nearby while the Sun and Solar System were still forming. But the blast wave from a supernova that close could have potentially destroyed the nascent Solar System. New calculations shows that a filament of molecular gas, which is the birth cocoon of the Solar System, aided the capture of the isotopes found in the meteorites, while acting as a buffer protecting the young Solar System from the nearby supernova blast.
Published Never-before-seen way to annihilate a star
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers studying a powerful gamma-ray burst, may have detected a never-before-seen way to destroy a star. Unlike most GRBs, which are caused by exploding massive stars or the chance mergers of neutron stars, astronomers have concluded that this GRB came instead from the collision of stars or stellar remnants in the jam-packed environment surrounding a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy.
Published Wildfire smoke downwind affects health, wealth, mortality
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Smoke particulates from wildfires could cause between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths and cost between $36 to $82 billion per year in the United States, according to new research.
Published Groundwork for future ultra-precise timing links to geosynchronous satellites
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have demonstrated a capability long sought by physicists: transmitting extremely precise time signals through the air between far-flung locations at powers that are compatible with future space-based missions. The results could enable time transfer from the ground to satellites in geosynchronous orbit with femtosecond precision -- 10,000 times better than the existing state-of-the-art satellite approaches. It also would allow for successful synchronization using the bare minimum timing signal strength, which would make the system highly robust in the face of atmospheric disturbances.
Published Detection of an echo emitted by our Galaxy's black hole 200 years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of scientists has discovered that Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, emerged from a long period of dormancy some 200 years ago. The team, led by Frédéric Marin, a CNRS researcher at the Astronomical Strasbourg Observatory (CNRS/University of Strasbourg), has revealed the past awakening of this gigantic object, which is four million times more massive than the Sun. Their work is published in Nature on 21 June.
Published Exoplanet may reveal secrets about the edge of habitability
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source How close can a rocky planet be to a star, and still sustain water and life? A recently discovered exoplanet may be key to solving that mystery.
Published Jupiter's moon Europa may have had a slow evolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Europa may have a metamorphic origin for the ocean. While some scientists speculated this, a research team shows that if Europa indeed formed from hydrated rocks (i.e., rocks have hydrogen and oxygen), then enough of Europa's interior should get hot enough to release water directly from the hydrated rocks to form the ocean and ice shell.
Published Navigating underground with cosmic-ray muons
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Superfast, subatomic-sized particles called muons have been used to wirelessly navigate underground in a reportedly world first. By using muon-detecting ground stations synchronized with an underground muon-detecting receiver, researchers were able to calculate the receiver's position in the basement of a six-story building. As GPS cannot penetrate rock or water, this new technology could be used in future search and rescue efforts, to monitor undersea volcanoes, and guide autonomous vehicles underground and underwater.
Published Researchers demystify the unusual origin of the Geminids meteor shower
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Princeton researchers used observations from NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission to deduce that it was likely a violent, catastrophic event -- such as a high-speed collision with another body or a gaseous explosion -- that created the Geminids meteoroid stream. Mysteries surrounding the origin of the Geminids have long fascinated scientists because, while most meteor showers are created when a comet emits a tail of ice and dust, the Geminids stem from an asteroid -- a chunk of rock that normally does not produce a tail. Until now, this unusual meteoroid stream had only been studied from Earth.