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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