Chemistry: General Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology
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Scientists discover missing piece in climate models      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

As the planet continues to warm due to human-driven climate change, accurate computer climate models will be key in helping illuminate exactly how the climate will continue to be altered in the years ahead.

Biology: General Biology: Marine Ecology: General Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
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Loss of oxygen in lakes and oceans a major threat to ecosystems, society, and planet      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Oxygen is a fundamental requirement of life, and the loss of oxygen in water, referred to as aquatic deoxygenation, is a threat to life at all levels. In fact, researchers describe how ongoing deoxygenation presents a major threat to the stability of the planet as a whole.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
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Cosmic wrestling match      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Our universe is around 13.8 billion years old. Over the vastness of this time, the tiniest of initial asymmetries have grown into the large-scale structures we can see through our telescopes in the night sky: galaxies like our own Milky Way, clusters of galaxies, and even larger aggregations of matter or filaments of gas and dust. How quickly this growth takes place depends, at least in today's universe, on a sort of wrestling match between natural forces: Can dark matter, which holds everything together through its gravity and attracts additional matter, hold its own against dark energy, which pushes the universe ever further apart?

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
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Vivid portrait of interacting galaxies marks Webb's second anniversary      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Two for two! A duo of interacting galaxies commemorates the second science anniversary of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which takes constant observations, including images and highly detailed data known as spectra. Its operations have led to a 'parade' of discoveries by astronomers around the world.

Environmental: General Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Complex impact of large wildfires on ozone layer dynamics      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a revelation highlighting the fragile balance of our planet's atmosphere, scientists have uncovered an unexpected link between massive wildfire events and the chemistry of the ozone layer. Using satellite data and numerical modeling, the team discovered that an enormous smoke-charged vortex nearly doubles the southern hemispheric aerosol burden in the middle stratosphere of the Earth and reorders ozone depletion at different heights. This study reveals how wildfires, such as the catastrophic 2019/20 Australian bushfires, impact the stratosphere in previously unseen ways.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Oceanography
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High and low tide cause low and high methane fluxes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Methane, a strong greenhouse gas that naturally escapes from the bottom of the North Sea, is affected by the pressure of high or low tide. Methane emissions from the seafloor can be just easily three times as much or as little, depending on the tide, according to a new study.

Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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Unprecedented warming threatens Earth's lakes and their ecosystems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Lakes, with their rich biodiversity and important ecological services, face a concerning trend: rapidly increasing temperatures. A recent study by limnologists and climate modelers reveals that if current anthropogenic warming continues until the end of this century, lakes worldwide will likely experience pervasive and unprecedented surface and subsurface warming, far outside the range of what they have encountered before.

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How the 'heart and lungs' of a galaxy extend its life      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Galaxies avoid an early death because they have a 'heart and lungs' which effectively regulate their 'breathing' and prevent them growing out of control, a new study suggests. If they didn't, the universe would have aged much faster than it has and all we would see today is huge 'zombie' galaxies teeming with dead and dying stars. That's according to a new study that investigates one of the great mysteries of the Universe -- why galaxies are not as large as astronomers would expect.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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Scientific definition of a planet says it must orbit our sun; A new proposal would change that      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the sun, is massive enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape, and has cleared away other objects near its orbit around the sun. Scientists now recognize the existence of thousands of planets, but the IAU definition applies only to those within our solar system. The new proposed definition specifies that the body may orbit one or more stars, brown dwarfs or stellar remnants and sets mass limits that should apply to planets everywhere.

Chemistry: General Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Study finds health risks in switching ships from diesel to ammonia fuel      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Without additional regulation, burning ammonia in ship engines could cause serious impacts on air quality that could result in more than 600,000 additional premature deaths per year, according to new research.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
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Dark matter in dwarf galaxy tracked using stellar motions      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible 'glue' of the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a galaxy offers clues to what this substance is, and how it's relevant to a galaxy's evolution.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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Mars likely had cold and icy past, new study finds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The question of whether Mars ever supported life has captivated the imagination of scientists and the public for decades. Central to the discovery is gaining insight into the past climate of Earth's neighbor: was the planet warm and wet, with seas and rivers much like those found on our own planet? Or was it frigid and icy, and therefore potentially less prone to supporting life as we know it? A new study finds evidence to support the latter by identifying similarities between soils found on Mars and those of Canada's Newfoundland, a cold subarctic climate.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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The origins of dark comets      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Up to 60% of near-Earth objects could be dark comets, mysterious asteroids that orbit the sun in our solar system that likely contain or previously contained ice and could have been one route for delivering water to Earth, according to a new study.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography Geoscience: Severe Weather
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The Gulf Stream is wind-powered and could weaken from climate change      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New evidence of changes to the Gulf Stream during the last ice age could indicate additional sensitivity to future climatic changes, finds a new study.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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Strong evidence for intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Most known black holes are either extremely massive, like the supermassive black holes that lie at the cores of large galaxies, or relatively lightweight, with a mass of under 100 times that of the Sun. Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are scarce, however, and are considered rare 'missing links' in black hole evolution.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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Cutting farm nitrous oxide emissions helps climate and ozone layer      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Adding crushed basalt rocks and special fertilizers can reduce potent nitrous oxide (N2O) greenhouse gas emissions and help safeguard the stratospheric ozone layer.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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Found with Webb: A potentially habitable icy world      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A international team of astronomers has made an exciting discovery about the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b: it could be a promising 'super-Earth' covered in ice or water.