Earth May Be Experiencing a Seventh Mass Extinction.

How May Earth Experience a Seventh Mass Extinction? Thousands of species disappear from the Earth's biota yearly due to global extinction. Scientists now believe that the first such event occurred millions of years earlier than previously thought because of environmental changes.

As the Cretaceous period ended 66 million years ago, most dinosaurs mysteriously vanished. Before then, some 252 million years ago, the vast bulk of Earth's creatures died out between the Permian and Triassic periods.

The University of California at Riverside and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University found a similar extinction 550 million years ago during the Ediacaran period. This study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

An actual "mass extinction" has yet to be determined, but the percentage of creatures lost is comparable to those of these earlier episodes, including the ongoing one.

About 80% of all Ediacaran animals, the first sophisticated, multicellular living forms on the planet, vanished, and scientists believe environmental changes are to blame.

Chenyi Tu, a paleoecologist from the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study, explains that "geological data suggest that the world's oceans lost a lot of oxygen" and that the few surviving species had bodies adapted for lower oxygen environments.

Creatures who perished in this first event were soft-bodied and did not survive well in the fossil record, making their extinction story harder to piece together than those of the following events.

UCR paleoecologist and study co-author Rachel Surprenant said, "We suspected such an event, but to prove it, we had to assemble a massive database of evidence." The group gathered data on the habitat, body size, food, mobility, and habits of every Ediacaran species known to science.

Furthermore, in the discussion of Earth May Be Experiencing a Seventh Mass Extinction, This study aimed to debunk the theory that the massive extinction at the close of the Ediacaran period was due to causes other than climate change. A lack of proper data collection or a shift in animal behavior due to, say, the introduction of predators were previously proposed as possible causes for the occurrence.

The animals "did not just move elsewhere or get eaten — they died out," as Chenyi put it because their geographic distribution over time is visible. We've established, with complex data, that the biotic community has been dwindling.

They measured dead organisms' surface area to volume ratio, indicating oxygen depletion played a role in the fatalities. Heather McCandless, a UCR paleoecologist and research co-author, explained that "if an organism has a greater ratio, it can get more nutrients" and that the bodies of the creatures who did survive into the following era were modified in this way.

Mary Droser, a paleoecologist at the University of California, Riverside, and her graduate student, Scott Evans, now of Virginia Tech, are responsible for this effort. The next session will focus on these creatures' evolutionary beginnings rather than their ultimate demise.

By today's standards, life in the Ediacaran would seem bizarre. Many creatures could move, but they were utterly alien to modern life. Disc-shaped Obamus coronatus and raisin-like Attenborites janeae, both named for former president Barack Obama and English naturalist Sir David Attenborough, respectively.

Despite being the first test subject for evolution on Earth, these creatures only survived for a few million years. Droser emphasized how quickly this was in the context of evolution.

While the exact cause of the dramatic drop in atmospheric oxygen levels at the epoch's conclusion remains a mystery, we can be confident that shifts in Earth's environment have the potential to destabilize and even wipe out life on the planet at any time. All past and current mass extinctions can be traced back to this change category.

Phillip Boan, a geologist at UC Riverside and co-author of the study, stated, "There's a strong association between the success of life and, to quote Carl Sagan, our 'pale blue dot.'"

The end of the world can happen to anything. Boan said that while we plan for the future, we should consider the disastrous impacts of climate change on ecosystems.

Earth May Be Experiencing a Seventh Mass Extinction; stay tuned for more.

NASA Captures the Sun in a Huge Wind Smiley Face (LOOK)

NASA produced a photo of the sun "smiling" just in time for Halloween.

Their Solar Dynamics Observatory took the positive image they shared in late October through Twitter.

NASA stated that the smile we see here is made up of three coronal holes, which are solar oscillations during which fast bursts of the solar wind are emitted.

"These dark areas on the Sun seen in ultraviolet light are known as coronal holes and are regions where rapid solar wind gushes out into space."

It reminds us of the Hubble Space Telescope image of a big smiling emoji formed of stars.

The image was discovered by an amateur astronomer and entered into NASA's Hidden Treasures of Hubble competition. She zoomed down on a galaxy cluster that appeared to be smiling down on Earth, the grin created by light distortion caused by powerful gravitational lensing.

"Beaver Blood Moon" Is The Final Opportunity To View A Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2025!

The 2nd  total lunar eclipse of 2022 will be visible to skywatchers on November 8. Parts of the phenomenon will be seen in the eastern hemisphere from eastern Asia to Australia to the Pacific to North America. This past May saw the most recent total lunar eclipse.

According to Alphonse Sterling, a NASA astronomer based out of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, a total lunar eclipse occurs once every 1.5 years on average. There have been several possibilities to witness lunar eclipses this year. Still, the next total lunar eclipse won't happen until 2025, making the one happening in November this year's best bet.

The Moon moves from right to left during a total lunar eclipse, giving a time-stamped eclipse diagram. The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio created this image.

When Earth's shadow (the umbra) completely covers the Moon, we see a total eclipse of the Moon. The deepest section of Earth's shadow is called the umbra, which fully blocks the Sun's light. The outermost part of Earth's shadow is called the penumbra, and it only partially blocks the Sun's light.

The Moon takes on a crimson tint when it enters the umbra. Because of this, lunar eclipses have earned the nickname "Blood Moons." This is a "Beaver Blood Moon," so named because the full Moon in November is known as the Beaver Moon (also known as the Frost, Frosty Moon, or the Snow Moon).

At the time of a total lunar eclipse, the Moon and the Sun are in opposing positions in the sky. Given that the Moon makes a full circle of the Earth every 27 days, many have puzzled over why lunar eclipses don't occur every month. The inclination of the Moon's orbit relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun causes the Moon to pass above or below Earth's shadow frequently. Only when the Moon's orbit lines up with Earth's and the Sun's can there be a total lunar eclipse.

On November 19, 2021, just before sunrise, a nearly total eclipse of the full "Beaver Moon" was caught over New Orleans. It was the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years, lasting 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 24 seconds at 97% coverage. Photo via NASA's Michoud Assembly Center.

In the Americas, things will get going on November 8 at some ungodly hour. At 3:09 am CST, the partial eclipse will start, totality occurring between 4:16 and 5:42 am. After that, the partial phase will resume at 6:49 am. If you happen to be in the eastern United States, you'll miss the last portion of the eclipse because the Moon will have set during or just after totality.

The coloration of the Moon, which turns red during the totality of a lunar eclipse, is another distinguishing element of such an event. Light from the Sun is refracted, filtered, and scattered by the Earth's atmosphere, producing a reddish hue. The scattering is known as Rayleigh scattering, after the 19th-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh.

This is a map of the areas that can view the lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022. The limits of the visible region during eclipse contact times are shown as contours. Mid-eclipse, as seen on the map, occurs at a sublunar longitude of 168°57'W. The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio created this image.

Sunsets and sunrises seem red because of Rayleigh scattering as well. Because of their different wavelengths, red and blue light from the Sun are scattered in different ways when they hit with gases in Earth's atmosphere. Some of this red light is refracted, or bent, by Earth's atmosphere, casting a spectral red glow on the Moon. Atmospheric circumstances brought on by volcanic eruptions, fires, and dust storms can affect the degree to which a fully obscured Moon appears red.

What does Earth appear from the Moon's vantage point during a lunar eclipse? Astrophysicist at Marshall University, Mitzi Adams, claims that during a total lunar eclipse, astronauts on the Moon will perceive a crimson ring around a silhouetted Earth. It's exciting to think about how Earthlings may experience astronomical occurrences away from their home planet as NASA strives to create a permanent human presence on the Moon with the Artemis program.

Contrary to solar eclipses, observing a lunar eclipse does not necessitate special eye protection (which occurs during the daytime). With binoculars or a telescope, the lunar eclipse can be observed with the naked eye.

According to Sterling, folks who observe a total solar eclipse with friends or family can have a lot of fun by keeping track of who notices the totality's crimson color first and how it develops throughout the eclipse.

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China's FAST telescope finds the enormous atomic cloud.

The world's most enormous atomic cloud, which is twenty times the size of our Milky Way galaxy, was discovered by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST).

The research, conducted by a multinational team led by Chinese experts, was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature on Wednesday.

Stephan's Quintet was studied by astronomers using the largest single-dish telescope yet built. These findings demonstrate the existence of a massive low-density gaseous structure located away from the cluster core of Stephan's Quintet.

The hydrogen atoms that make up the atomic cloud stretch for about 2 million light-years. A distance of one light year is approximately 9.46 trillion kilometres.

The most recent discovery supports the idea that gaseous structure is produced due to galaxy interactions. It's been around for a billion years already.

Another implication of the findings was that there could be more extensive low-density atomic gas formations in the universe.

According to lead author Xu Cong of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "the atomic gas with low density should have been destroyed by the ultraviolet radiation in the cosmic background based on current theories." This finding casts doubt on our current understanding of galaxies' evolution and the universe's gaseous structure.

A path that brings nearly 30,000 asteroids close to Earth has been detected.

Asteroids are chunks of rock thrown out during the early stages of solar system creation about 4.6 billion years ago.

key points:

1. The earliest known Earth-approaching asteroid was (433) Eros

1. So, none of the asteroids that have come close to Earth has been dangerous.

1. Scientists have discovered the vast majority of these space rocks in the last ten years.

The European Space Agency stated that the number of known asteroids had passed the 30,000 mark, just days after Nasa announced that it had successfully altered the path of an asteroid in deep space. The orbits of these NEOs are dangerously close to Earth as we travel around the Sun.

The vast majority of these interstellar rocks were only discovered within the previous decade, within 1.3 au of the Sun (1 au being the distance between the Sun and Earth). The asteroid's orbit can bring it within 45,000,000 kilometres of Earth's. More than a million asteroids have been discovered by astronomers so far.

Asteroids are chunks of rock that were left over during the assembly of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. According to the Nasa Joint Propulsion Laboratory, an asteroid is considered a near-Earth object if its average distance from Earth is less than 1.33 times the distance from Earth to the Sun (the Earth-Sun distance is roughly 93 million miles) (JPL).

In 1898, Carl Gustav Witt and Felix Linke at Berlin's Urania Observatory found the first near-Earth asteroid (433). According to the European Space Agency, the stony asteroid would come within 22 million kilometres of Earth during its orbit.

Hubble and other observatories, like Gaia, are used with ground-based telescopes to track the asteroid and analyse their orbital motion. Gaia's primary objective is cataloguing one billion stars in the galaxy; knowing asteroid dangers is an added bonus.

Gaia has increased our understanding of the galaxy's star system, which serves as a backdrop for asteroid observations. Tineke Roegiers, a community supporter of the Gaia mission, explained that accurate calculations of asteroid orbits depend on a thorough understanding of the sky's star distribution.

While astronomers have stated that none of the recently identified near-Earth asteroids poses a threat to Earth for at least the next century, it is possible that some of these objects could yet enter Earth's atmosphere and survive.

"Most large, potentially destructive asteroids (1 km in diameter or more) have been found, and none appear to pose an impact risk for at least another century. Those that may have an effect in the future can be studied and a deflection mission planned in advance "The European Space Agency said.

Lobster eyes inspire Chinese scientists to study the universe.

Who would have guessed that lobsters would inspire an advanced telescope to allow us to explore the depths of space? In contrast, the Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy (LEIA), initially referred to as a Wide-field X-ray Telescope, was successful for researchers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) (WXT).

Images revealed in August show that LEIA's 36 micro-pore lobster-eye spectacles and four large-array CMOS sensors are its most distinctive features.

The motivation

It was quickly realized that lobster eyes are unique due to their structure, which consists of multiple tiny square tubes all pointing to the same spherical centre. The lobster's vision is greatly improved by this structure.

An American scientist first proposed the idea of modelling a telescope like a lobster eye to detect X-rays in space in 1979. Until advancements in micro-processing technology made it possible, this concept remained unrealized for quite some time. Then, researchers created lobster-eye glasses with square holes as thick as human hair all across the lenses.

The NAOC X-ray Imaging Laboratory has been working on lobster-eye X-ray imaging technology since 2010, and they've recently made a significant advancement in the field.

High resolutions in the spectrum

The recently released LEIA not only has the highly anticipated lobster-eye glasses, but it also is a frontrunner in the installation of CMOS sensors, which are capable of processing with high spectrum resolutions.

Space-based X-ray astronomical research are now possible with the use of CMOS sensors. It is a significant advancement in the field of X-ray astronomy detecting technology, "Xinhua reported that NAOC researcher Ling Zhixing said.

He explained that the telescope's vast field of view allowed it to monitor X-ray fluctuations in cosmic objects more efficiently, making it possible to identify rare but intense cosmic occurrences.

Ling says his new X-ray telescope can survey an area of sky around the size of a thousand moons, while prior telescopes could only survey an area about the size of the moon as seen from Earth.

Ling speculates that the field of vision of the twelve similar telescopes mounted on the upcoming Einstein Probe satellite might be as vast as approximately 10,000 moons.

The LEIA was launched into space at the end of July atop a spacecraft driven by a solid-propellant rocket, and will be part of the Einstein Probe satellite, which is scheduled for flight at the end of 2023.By uncovering hitherto unknown black holes and tracking their distribution across the cosmos, the mission will contribute to our understanding of where and how these objects first formed.

A Russian astronaut is hitchhiking to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's next mission.

SPACEPORT OF CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - On Wednesday, Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX was scheduled to send into orbit the next long-duration crew of the International Space Station, consisting of a Russian cosmonaut riding shotgun with two American astronauts and a Japanese astronaut.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Endurance Crew Dragon capsule was scheduled to blast out from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at noon EDT (1600 GMT).

The four-person crew is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) in about 29 hours on Thursday evening to begin a 150-day science mission aboard the orbiting laboratory approximately 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.

Crew-5 is the name given to the fifth full-fledged ISS crew that NASA has sent into space on a SpaceX vehicle since Tesla owner and SpaceX founder Elon Musk began flying American astronauts into orbit in May of 2020.

Nicole Aunapu Mann, a seasoned combat pilot, making history as the first indigenous woman deployed to orbit by NASA and the first woman to take the commander's seat of a SpaceX Crew Dragon, is in charge of the newest crew.

Anna Kikina, 38, is the only female cosmonaut currently serving with the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the first Russian to fly on an American spacecraft amid heightened international tensions over the conflict in Ukraine. In 2002, a cosmonaut was the last person to ride a U.S. rocketship to orbit on a NASA space shuttle.

THANK YOU, WITH LOVE, FROM RUSSIA

Under a new ride-sharing agreement agreed by NASA and Roscosmos in July, Kikina is effectively exchanging places with a NASA astronaut who boarded a Russian Soyuz trip to the ISS last month.

Kikina is set to become only the fifth Russian woman to travel into space, joining a cosmonaut corps traditionally dominated by men.

She recently shrugged off the attention garnered by her Roscosmos status, saying in an interview, "In general, for me, it doesn't matter." However, I know the weight of accountability I have as the leader of my country's citizens.

Captain Mann, 45, is an expert in fluid mechanics and has a master's degree in engineering. He's flown in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mann will make history by becoming the first Native American woman to travel to space as a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. John Herrington, who flew on a shuttle mission in 2002, was the only other indigenous American to go into space.

Josh Cassada, 49, a U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot with a doctorate in high-energy particle physics, is Mann's NASA astronaut classmate and pilot for Wednesday's launch.

Veteran robotics expert and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, 59, round up the team. This is Wakata's eighth space mission.

Three Americans, one Italian, two Russians, and a NASA astronaut who launched in a Soyuz live on the ISS.

Many of the recruits' duties will involve medical research, such as the 3-D "bio-printing" of human tissue or the investigation of microorganisms cultured in microgravity.

The U.S.-Russian-led collaboration that includes Canada, Japan, and 11 European countries has been continuously occupying the ISS since November 2000. At the length of a football field, the International Space Station is the largest artificial object in orbit.

After the fall of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of the Cold War tensions that sparked the original U.S.-Soviet space race, the outpost was established in part to repair relations between Washington and Moscow.

In light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, which prompted the Biden administration to impose severe sanctions against the Russian government, cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos has been tested like never before.

Sergei Krikalev, a top Roscosmos official, said his organisation has Moscow's approval to continue with ISS until 2024 and expects to secure Kremlin "permission" to extend the connection beyond until Russia constructs a successor space station.

NASA predicts that the ISS will be able to function with its present partners until 2030.