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<keyword id="19905255" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="SpaceX" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="SpaceX" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="SpaceX">SpaceX</keyword> will launch its first uncrewed <keyword id="23083681" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Starships" source="keywords">Starships</keyword> to <keyword id="19901192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="keywords">Mars</keyword> in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens, Chief Executive Officer <keyword id="19903807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="keywords">Elon Musk</keyword> announced on Saturday. Elon Musk stated that these will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. He added that if those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in four years. Taking to X, Elon Musk stated, "The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. "If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years. Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years. Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet," he added. In another post on X, Musk stated that SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and made the reuse economically viable. "SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and, much more importantly, made the reuse economically viable. Making life multiplanetary is fundamentally a cost per ton to Mars problem," Musk posted on X. "It currently costs about a billion dollars per ton of useful payload to the surface of Mars. That needs to be improved to USD 100k/ton to build a self-sustaining city there, so the technology needs to be 10,000 times better. Extremely difficult, but not impossible," he added. In June this year, SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever made, launched and achieved key objectives planned for its fourth test flight that showcased the vehicle's reusability, CNN reported. It was launched from a private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6 at 8:50 am ET, and the company streamed live coverage on X. The Starship launch system has the upper Starship spacecraft and a rocket booster known as the Super Heavy. According to SpaceX broadcast, of the rocket's 33 engines, 32 lit during the launch of the Starship, according to CNN report. The vehicle achieved multiple milestones during the test flight, including the survival of the Starship capsule upon reentry during peak heating in Earth's atmosphere and splashdown of both the capsule and booster. After separating from the spacecraft, the Super Heavy booster for the first time executed a landing burn and had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after eight minutes of the launch. Meanwhile, the Starship capsule achieved orbital insertion. Around 50 minutes following the launch, the spacecraft started its controlled reentry journey, and a colourful buildup of plasma could be witnessed around the vehicle as its heat shield faced the extreme temperatures of Earth's atmosphere, CNN reported. The Starlink satellites of the company helped in the livestream that was continuously available during reentry. A flap near the camera view on Starship seemed to scorch during reentry, and particulate matter blocked some of the view of the camera, the report said. In the end, Starship was able to achieve its expected landing burn into the <keyword id="19899989" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="keywords">Indian Ocean</keyword>.

Elon Musk: SpaceX to launch first Starships to Mars in two years

In humanity's relentless quest to find <keyword id="21578132" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="life-beyond-Earth" source="keywords">life beyond Earth</keyword>, the key lies in discovering a world capable of hosting water. Excitingly, scientists may have pinpointed a <keyword id="46100" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="planet" source="Orion">planet</keyword> beyond our solar system that harbours vast oceans of this life-sustaining liquid! While thousands of exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) have been identified so far, only a rare few lie within the ‘<keyword id="22426573" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Goldilocks-zone" source="keywords">Goldilocks zone</keyword>’—an area neither too hot, nor too cold, and thereby perfect to allow <keyword id="19997618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="liquid-water" source="keywords">liquid water</keyword> to exist. Among these, <keyword id="22376712" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="LHS-1140-b" source="keywords">LHS 1140 b</keyword> stands out. Since its discovery in 2017, it has been subject to extensive examination. Located 48 light years (about 450 trillion kilometres) away from Earth, LHS 1140 b is relatively nearby in astronomical terms. This <keyword id="20349430" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="exoplanet" source="keywords">exoplanet</keyword> is 1.7 times larger than Earth and boasts 5.6 times its mass. Originally, scientists classified LHS 1140 b as a "mini-Neptune," a small gas giant with an atmosphere too thick in hydrogen and helium to support life. However, recent observations from the <keyword id="19899749" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="James-Webb-Space-Telescope" source="keywords">James Webb Space Telescope</keyword> (JWST) have revealed a surprising truth: LHS 1140 b is a rocky "super-Earth," altering our understanding of its potential to support life. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The most promising ocean world candidate" comment="subhead" text="The most promising ocean world candidate">The most promising <keyword id="22426572" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ocean-world" source="keywords">ocean world</keyword> candidate</cmsannotation> The <keyword id="20951574" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Webb-telescope" source="keywords">Webb telescope</keyword> recently achieved a breakthrough by analysing the planet's atmosphere during its transit across its star. The absence of hydrogen and helium signatures led to the conclusion that the planet is not a mini-Neptune. Instead, the planet's density suggests it houses large quantities of water, as per study co-author Martin Turbet from France's CNRS research centre. Lead study author Charles Cadieux, a PhD student at the University of Montreal, remarked that among all known temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b is possibly the most promising candidate for confirming liquid water on the surface of an alien world. Approximately 10 to 20 percent of the exoplanet's mass is estimated to be water. In stark contrast, Earth's oceans account for a mere 0.02 percent of its mass. The state of this water, whether liquid or ice, hinges on the planet's atmospheric composition, with gases like carbon dioxide playing a crucial role. One encouraging factor is the planet's gentle warming by its red dwarf star, which is only one-fifth the size of our Sun. This stellar relationship suggests that the exoplanet's surface temperature is likely comparable to that of Earth and Mars. One hypothesis is that the planet's surface is predominantly ice, but with a substantial liquid ocean in areas most exposed to the star's heat. This ocean could span approximately 4,000 kilometres in diameter, covering about half the surface area of the Atlantic Ocean, according to models. Alternatively, the liquid water might be concealed beneath a thick ice shell, similar to the icy moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. Webb's instruments have detected indications of “the presence of nitrogen,” Cadieux noted, emphasising that further research is required to confirm this finding. Nitrogen, ubiquitous on Earth, is considered another potential life-supporting ingredient. The researchers aim to secure additional observation time with the Webb telescope to gather more data on LHS 1140 b. They estimate it will take at least a year to determine whether the exoplanet has an atmosphere, and an additional two to three years to detect the presence of carbon dioxide. The study was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and can be accessed <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15136" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">here</a>.

Using the Webb telescope, scientists may have found the ‘best bet’ for an ocean world outside our solar system!

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX's Starship rocket completed its first full flight and ocean splashdown.</li><li>Surviving the ultrahot, high-stress plummet through Earth's atmosphere is a huge milestone.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-mega-rocket-too-powerful-first-orbital-launch-2023-4">SpaceX's ambitious mega-rocket, Starship</a>, just proved that it can not only fly into space but also survive the extreme plummet back to Earth mostly intact.On Thursday, both stages of the rocket — the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-how-spacex-changed-starship-mega-rocket-explosion-elon-musk-2023-9">Super Heavy booster and the Starship rocket</a> — reached a major reusability milestone when they both landed in the water after launch.Super Heavy landed in the Gulf of Mexico minutes after liftoff. But Starship's splashdown was even more impressive. The rocket ship flew into space, briefly cruised above Earth, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-describes-fiery-plunge-in-spacex-crew-dragon-2020-8">screamed back through the atmosphere</a> at about 17,000 mph, enduring plasma lashing it at temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit.<div type="image" title="starship thick metal fin in foreground with bright purple light behind it" height="1626" width="2880" msid="110773101" hostid="261"></div>As it approached the Indian Ocean, Starship fired its engines in an effort to flip itself upright and slow itself down, practicing a controlled landing. It's not clear how soft the landing was, as the spaceship was clearly shredding pieces on the livestream and visibility became poor as it approached the water.<div type="image" title="pieces of SpaceX's Starship rocket flying off as it reenters earth's atmosphere" height="940" width="1692" msid="110773092" hostid="261"></div>Whatever happened, the ship completed its mission by sinking into the ocean.Believe it or not, cannonballing into the sea is a big deal for Starship. Last time it attempted the feat, in March, it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-reentry-video-2024-3">disintegrated midfall</a>.<div type="image" title="starship reentry spaceship body with a thick haze of bright red-orange plasma lining its belly as it falls toward the ocean" height="729" width="1280" msid="110773098" hostid="261"></div>Now Starship and its Super Heavy booster are one big step closer to fulfilling their revolutionary promise of being the first fully reusable rocket system capable of reaching orbit. If Starship can translate this ocean landing into a land landing, it could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3">slash the cost of spaceflight significantly</a>.<div type="image" title="starship super heavy rocket tall black on a foggy launchpad next to black launch tower" height="1586" width="2876" msid="110773094" hostid="261"></div>Then, of course, there are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-person-elon-musk-dedicate-wealth-mars-colony-2021-1">Elon Musk's Mars ambitions</a>. Starship is the vehicle that's supposed to build his city on the red planet, with a population of 1 million people."No rocket before this has had the potential to extend life to another planet," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">Musk, who founded SpaceX</a> in 2002 for this very purpose, <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1776669097490776563">said</a> in April, standing before Starship at the company's Texas facilities.<h2 id="97c93410-e680-430e-a1c6-a633aaa545a0">Starship's 4th flight to space</h2>The giant launch system, standing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-big-is-spacex-starship-2023-4">taller than the Statue of Liberty</a>, fired its Raptor engines and roared past its launchpad in Texas on Thursday morning.The launch wasn't perfect — one engine failed to light. But the rocket still worked.<div type="image" title="32/33 engines on SpaceX's Starship lit" height="218" width="402" msid="110773095" hostid="261"></div>Just as it did on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-elon-musk-rocket-launch-flight-three-2024-3">its flight in March</a>, the rocket's Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship rocket ship high above Earth, allowing the winged spacecraft to continue into space.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's starship megarocket in space" height="860" width="1897" msid="110773102" hostid="261"></div>The booster fell back to Earth, practiced firing its engines to lower itself as if it were landing on solid ground, and splash-landed in the Gulf of Mexico.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's super heavy booster hitting the gulf of Mexico with water splashing everywhere" height="686" width="1206" msid="110773093" hostid="261"></div>That checked off SpaceX's first vehicle-return goal for the flight. Next was Starship itself.On its plummet back to Earth in March, Starship fell out of communications. SpaceX eventually declared it lost, likely broken apart or blown up by the stress of reentering the atmosphere.But on Thursday the rocket ship survived the fall, splashing into the ocean and completing its first full flight.It wasn't unscathed, though. One of its flaps began to rip off and shred midfall, and the camera offering the live view cracked.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's Starship fin coming apart as it reenters earth's atmosphere" height="1080" width="1920" msid="110773096" hostid="261"></div><h2 id="d3da20ad-1924-426e-8bf9-91351b2d8bd3">Next step: catch the rocket with 'chopsticks'</h2>No orbital launch system on Earth is fully reusable. SpaceX pioneered reusing the lower stage of a rocket — its booster — with the Falcon 9, the workhorse that takes NASA missions and Starlink satellites to orbit.Starship-Super Heavy is poised to be the first system to also reuse the upper stage: the spaceship that enters orbit after the booster falls away.A Starship prototype already proved that it could lower itself to a soft landing from a flight 6 miles above Texas, albeit after several <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-spacex-starship-rocket-exploded-five-times-2023-4">explosive failed attempts</a>. But returning from orbital heights to land in one piece is another feat.<div type="image" title="starship reusable rocket spaceship prototype sn8 serial number 8 landing engine burn boca chica texas december 9 2020 50703141068_45874a2fa8_o" height="2152" width="3840" msid="110773097" hostid="261"></div>On its next flight, SpaceX might attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster with giant "chopsticks" on its Texas launch tower."I think the odds of actually catching the booster with the tower, probably like 80% or 90% this year," Musk said in April. "Which is insane. Like actually, when we first talked about it, it sounded so batshit crazy."As for Starship, the upper stage, it might not descend from space to an actual landing pad until next year, he said."We just need to be confident that we can get through the high heating portion of the reentry reliably, and then we will bring the ship back and we'll land on the tower as well," Musk said.

Starship lands in the ocean with its engines firing for the first time, bringing Elon Musk one step closer to Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists want $60 million to try trapping carbon dioxide in the sea floor off the coast of Canada.</li><li>They say reactive basalt rock across the planet could turn CO2 into rock at the bottom of the ocean.</li></ul>A major solution to the climate crisis may lie at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-crack-mystery-of-huge-gravity-hole-in-the-indian-ocean-2023-6">bottom of the ocean</a>.Across the planet, basalt rock deposits on the sea floor have the potential to trap carbon dioxide, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sargassum-turning-smelly-seaweed-into-a-carbon-removal-opportunity-2023-5">removing the heat-trapping gas from our atmosphere</a>.That's why a team of scientists wants to build floating rigs at strategic offshore locations. Rather than extracting oil from the ocean floor — as offshore rigs currently do — these futuristic platforms would be injecting CO2 into it.Powered by their own wind turbines, the floating stations would <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carbon-capture-storage-expensive-climate-change-2021-9">suck carbon dioxide out of the sky</a> (or even out of seawater) and pump it into holes in the sea bed.The scientists call their project Solid Carbon because, if it works as they expect, the CO2 they inject will forever be rock at the bottom of the ocean.<div type="image" title="bottom of the ocean sandy rock formation in dark waters" height="1500" width="2958" msid="111293862" hostid="261" sizebytes="72820"></div>"That makes carbon storage very durable and very safe," Martin Scherwath, a geophysicist working on the project and a staff scientist at Ocean Networks Canada, told Business Insider.Unlike other storage techniques, we wouldn't have to worry about carbon returning to the atmosphere and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heat-waves-are-dominating-summer-and-its-not-abnormal-anymore-2022-7">raising global temperatures</a>.It's not yet certain whether these oceanic carbon-removal factories would work as expected. First, the scientists need about $60 million to test a prototype at sea.<h2 id="53f09086-6783-45c9-a518-2850153add7d">How the bottom of the ocean could remove carbon from the sky</h2>The scientists estimate that, worldwide, basalt rock could permanently store more carbon than all of Earth's fossil fuels can emit. Just look at this map of potential sites across the planet, marked in yellow.<div type="image" title="world map with vast yellow patches snaking through all the oceans and some big splotches within each continent" height="769" width="1023" msid="111293863" hostid="261" sizebytes="76958"></div>That doesn't mean it's safe to keep burning fossil fuels indiscriminately. This strategy is unlikely to be technologically, politically, and economically feasible in every location on the map. It will also be slow and expensive to scale up.Still, the scientists say just a few rigs could make a big difference. In the Cascadia Basin off Canada's west coast, near Vancouver Island, there's room for about 20 years' worth of global carbon emissions, according to Scherwath. That's where they hope to conduct a field test."The reason that that location is so appealing, is that it's probably the spot on the globe where we know the most, have the most data, the most scientific expeditions, the most studies about the nature of the ocean crust," David Goldberg, a geophysicist and professor of climate science and carbon management at Columbia University, who's been developing this idea since 1997, told BI.<div type="image" title="map shows vancouver island canada above Washington USA with a star marking the proposed injection site for solid carbon far offshore in the ocean" height="941" width="2000" msid="111293856" hostid="261" sizebytes="47484"></div>The plan rests on a chemical reaction that already occurs naturally. Basalt rock is highly reactive, full of metals that readily grab CO2 and chemically combine with it to form carbonate minerals.The basalt also tends to be broken up and porous, leaving plenty of room for new carbonates to fill in.In Iceland, a project called CarbFix has proven a small-scale version of this process, dissolving CO2 in water (yes, that's sparkling water) and injecting it into underground basalt.Within two years, the CO2 gas mineralizes, becoming rock deep underground.<h2 id="988d2238-1182-4b6d-8b5d-82fc9c3778ca">The final stretch of reversing climate change</h2>These oceanic carbon-storing factories would be a giant and costly undertaking — exactly the kind of mega-project we may eventually have to resort to if we want to cool the planet back to pre-industrial temperatures."We have to come up with the money. I don't think there's a way around it," Scherwath said.That said, Solid Carbon is no substitute for the basic, immediate measures that climate experts worldwide are calling for, including swapping fossil fuels for renewable energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/food-system-role-in-climate-crisis-possible-solutions-2019-8">reducing the carbon emissions of our food systems</a>.Rather, Scherwath says this is one of our later carbon-capture options, decades from now, to shave off the last few tenths of a degree of global warming. To have the option, though, we need to start developing it now.According to one <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25259/negative-emissions-technologies-and-reliable-sequestration-a-research-agenda">report</a> from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the world may need to draw down 10 billion tons of CO2 each year in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and have any chance of restricting global warming to the targets set forth in the Paris Agreement.To reach that goal, "you're gonna need every last drop," Goldberg said.That can include restoring ecosystems that naturally store carbon, like forests and wetlands, as well as capturing CO2 straight from the atmosphere and storing the gas underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs.<div type="image" title="Seattle Shell Arctic offshore drilling" height="2865" width="4909" msid="111293861" hostid="261" sizebytes="1262212"></div>The trouble with those methods is the carbon could escape, via forest fires or seeping up through abandoned oil wells.Solid Carbon scientists say carbon rock is stuck on the sea floor for thousands of years. They also argue that in the ocean, there's plenty of room to scale up and little risk of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-build-infrastructure-transportation-housing-regulation-environment-2023-11">disgruntled neighbors fighting the project</a>."This is a good compliment to the other methods, but it's also the most expensive one," Scherwath said.<h2 id="ea90e680-4951-4f9c-bb5f-c9980aae11ac">Seeking $60 million</h2>The Solid Carbon demo would send out a ship with pre-captured CO2, drill a hole in the sea floor, and inject it there. They would use an existing cable network to monitor the site and check for any escaping gas.The trouble is funding. The group has applied for federal grants in the US and Canada, as well as foundations, according to Goldberg. So far they've been unable to secure the $60 million they need to run the pilot.Goldberg suspects that's partly because there's no clear way to make money from capturing carbon and shooting it into the bottom of the sea."I mean, climate change is so expensive," Scherwath said. "The way to think about it might be similar to sewage treatment in cities, like it has to be done."If they had the money, Goldberg thinks they could start running the pilot in a year or two.

Scientists want to pump carbon into a hole at the bottom of the ocean in a $60 million pilot project to help stop climate change

Save your oceans. They are turning warmer every year

It's truly astounding how viruses can thrive in the harshest conditions, enduring the frigid permafrost of ten-thousand-year-old ice and the scorching heat of thousand-metre-deep hydrothermal vents. Yet, maintaining a mere houseplant can feel like an uphill battle. As you contemplate playing soothing tunes for your struggling Monstera, scientists have unveiled an extraordinary discovery. Exploring sediment retrieved from the depths of the <keyword id="985546" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mariana-trench" source="Orion">Mariana Trench</keyword>, researchers stumbled upon a previously unknown <keyword id="10860" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="virus" source="Orion">virus</keyword> that had adapted to this inhospitable environment. At an astonishing depth of 8,900 metres, it's the deepest location ever recorded for a <keyword id="6734361" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bacteriophage" source="Orion">bacteriophage</keyword>, a type of virus that infects <keyword id="6376020" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bacteria" source="Orion">bacteria</keyword>. This tenacious virus has been endearingly named vB_HmeY_H4907. The newly found phage targets bacteria from the <keyword id="19145618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="halomonas" source="Orion">Halomonas</keyword> family, which inhabit the deep <keyword id="53745" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ocean" source="Orion">ocean</keyword> near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, where scalding mineral-rich water constantly emanates. Interestingly, another member of this bacterial family, H. titanicae, is anticipated to play a role in the eventual deterioration of the sunken Titanic by 2030. While bacteriophages are thought to be the most abundant life forms on <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword>, discovering one at such extreme depths is still remarkable. Genomic analysis has also revealed its presence in oceans across the world. This virus shares structural similarities with its host, reproducing without causing the bacterial cell's demise, a process known as lysogeny. In contrast, viruses that follow the lytic cycle use their bacterial hosts for replication and eventually burst out of the cells in a manner reminiscent of the movie "Alien." This discovery significantly advances our understanding of the diversity, evolution, and genomic characteristics of deep-sea phages and their interactions with host bacteria. The identification of more viruses in extreme environments adds valuable chapters to our understanding of Earth's virosphere.

Mariana Trench's hidden secret: the remarkable discovery of deepest-dwelling underwater virus that feasts on bacteria

<ul class="summary-list"><li>California's extreme weather has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it, scientists say.</li><li>Record-breaking ocean temperatures in 2022 caused the air to hold more moisture, which fuels storms.</li></ul>This article is part of Insider's weekly newsletter on sustainability, written by Catherine Boudreau, senior sustainability reporter. <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/639a388c36f47a829b0ccf3f/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9zdWJzY3JpcHRpb24vbmV3c2xldHRlci9pbnNpZGVyLXN1c3RhaW5hYmlsaXR5/62616365333b7cf6e7074d68Bfb7029c5" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">Sign up here</a>."New ride at the boardwalk."That was the <a href="https://twitter.com/DustinMulvaney/status/1612928140212592640" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">tweet from Dustin Mulvaney</a>, a resident of Santa Cruz, California. His post included a picture of a whirlpool where a river empties into Monterey Bay. Mulvaney is an environmental studies professor at San José State University and told Insider that he's never seen the river so high in the 22 years he's lived there. The photo Mulvaney shared was just one of countless images documenting the damage California has endured over a couple weeks. First came a bomb cyclone with its whipping winds and high swells that destroyed piers jutting into Monterey Bay. Then a series of atmospheric rivers inundated the region with heavy rainfall that poured down the Santa Cruz Mountains and overflowed rivers.The pattern has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it. Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Tuesday that the crisis is creating more intense, extreme events that often set off "cascading hazards" like intense drought, followed by devastating wildfires, followed by dangerous flooding and mudslides. In the last two years, Santa Cruz experienced prolonged drought and a major wildfire in 2020 that burned <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/czu-lightning-complex-including-warnella-fire/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">tens of thousands of acres</a>. Now it's among the hardest hit areas in California, where storms brought more water in a week than the state has received in months. At least 17 people have died, including one in Santa Cruz, Gov. Gavin Newsom said while surveying the damage in the county. <a href="https://poweroutage.us/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">Nearly 90,000 residents don't have power.</a> It could be months before the full extent of the damage is tallied up. But these disasters are becoming more expensive. NOAA climate scientists <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202212" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">reported there were 18 weather and climate disasters in the US last year</a> totalling $165 billion in damages — the third most costly on record behind 2017 and 2005. So how exactly does the climate crisis affect the events in California? The world's oceans are getting hotter because they trap more than 90% of the heat from all those greenhouse gas emissions humans create. As a result, the air also gets warmer and holds more moisture. That feeds more water into the atmospheric river flowing in the sky over the West Coast, said John Abraham, a thermal scientist at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.Abraham <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-023-2385-2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">coauthored a study by two dozen scientists</a> that found ocean temperatures in 2022 were the hottest on record. "The amount of heat going into the ocean is the equivalent to the energy of five Hiroshima bombs being detonated every second of every day for the entire year," Abraham told Insider. "It's a shit ton of heat."Mulvaney is aware of these dynamics, yet he doesn't want to flee California, in part because the state's government is investing in climate resiliency. He cited enhanced levee systems to help control flooding and projects that reduce wildfire risks."That's the one silver lining," he said.

Oceans are absorbing heat equal to 5 Hiroshima bombs every second and that's helping power massive storms

<keyword id="18530965" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="southampton-southampton" source="Orion">Southampton Southampton</keyword>, Aug 25 (The Conversation) <keyword id="75770" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coral-reefs" source="Orion">Coral reefs</keyword> thrive in parts of the world's oceans that are low in nutrients. This mystery has puzzled scientists for centuries and has become known as the "Darwin paradox of coral reefs". Our new study adds the missing piece of the puzzle. We found that many species of coral cultivate and feed on the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. This vegetarian diet allows the corals to tap into a large pool of nutrients that was previously considered unavailable to them. Stony corals are soft-bodied animals made up of many individual polyps that live together as a colony. They secrete limestone skeletons that form the foundation of reefs. The coral polyps acquire nutritious compounds rich in nitrogen and phosphorus by catching prey like zooplankton with their tentacles. Many coral animals are also dependent on a <keyword id="6527304" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="symbiosis" source="Orion">symbiosis</keyword> - a mutually beneficial relationship - with the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. These photosynthetic algae produce large amounts of carbon-rich compounds, such as sugars, and transfer them to the host coral to generate energy. However, as most photosynthetic products are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorous, they cannot sustain the growth of the animals. Our findings suggest that, while coral animals may survive brief periods of starvation by feeding on their symbionts, some coral reefs could face the risk of prolonged nutrient deficiency due to global warming. This is concerning. Coral reefs are important underwater ecosystems that provide a home and feeding ground for countless organisms, sustaining around 25% of the world's ocean biodiversity. Vegetarian diet The symbiotic algae living within the corals are very efficient at taking up dissolved inorganic nutrients, like nitrate and phosphate, from the surrounding seawater. Even in nutrient-poor areas of the ocean, these compounds are present in considerable amounts as excretion products of organisms, such as sponges, that live close by. Ocean currents can also transport these nutrients to reefs. The coral host, on the other hand, cannot absorb or use nitrate and phosphate directly. But, through a series of long-term laboratory experiments, we demonstrated that corals actually digest some of their symbiont population to access the nitrogen and phosphorus that these algae absorb from the water. To provide evidence that the nutrients accumulated by the growing coral tissue originated from the symbionts, we supplied the corals with a chemical form of nitrogen that can only be absorbed from the water by the symbionts, not by the coral host. This nutrient compound was marked by a technique called isotopic labelling, which uses nitrogen atoms that are heavier than normal. These "heavy" isotopes allowed us to track the movement of nitrogen between the partners of the symbiosis by ultrasensitive detection methods. With this method, we could unambiguously demonstrate that the nitrogen atoms that sustained the growth of the coral tissue were derived from the dissolved inorganic nutrients that were fed to their symbiont algae. Our data suggest that most species of symbiotic corals can supplement their nutrition through such a vegetarian diet. From the laboratory to the ocean Together with our colleagues, we also analysed corals growing around remote islands in the <keyword id="12350" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="Orion">Indian Ocean</keyword>, some with seabirds on them and some without. Our results show that corals have the potential to farm and feed on their symbiont algae in the wild too. The reefs around some of these islands are supplied with substantial amounts of nutrients that come from "guano" - the excrement of seabirds nesting on the islands. On some of the other islands, seabird colonies have been decimated by invasive rats. The reefs surrounding these islands receive fewer nutrients. We measured the growth of staghorn coral colonies both around islands with and without dense seabird populations and found that growth was more than twice as fast on reefs that were supplied with <keyword id="18530966" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="seabird-nutrients" source="Orion">seabird nutrients</keyword>. About half of the nitrogen molecules in the tissue of the coral animals from islands with seabirds could be traced back to uptake by the symbiont algae. Global warming could complicate matters In the future, some coral reefs could face a decrease in nutrient availability due to global warming. Research suggests that warming surface waters are less likely to receive nutrients from deeper water layers. The reduced water productivity could result in fewer nutrients for their symbionts and subsequently less food for the coral animals. Our study indicates that some coral reefs might become vulnerable to starvation as ocean temperatures warm. When we moved corals from water with ample nutrients to water with fewer nutrients, they continued to eat their symbiont algae. This behaviour allowed them to sustain their growth for a few weeks, even in the absence of feeding. But once they had exhausted their population of symbiotic algae, the coral underwent bleaching (referring to the white appearance of the corals with low symbiont numbers in their tissue), stopped growing - and in some cases eventually died. Our findings reveal that corals can not only acquire nitrogen and phosphorus by feeding on prey as other animals do. But, by eating parts of their symbiont stock, they can also efficiently tap into the pool of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus that is otherwise only accessible to plants. Through this process, symbiotic corals gain an advantage over other animals in environments that are low in nutrients, explaining their prominent role in the formation of reefs in nutrient-poor water. However, increasingly severe nutrient depletion will add a further threat to some coral reefs already experiencing bleaching caused by heat stress.(The Conversation) AMS AMS

How coral reefs turn vegetarian to thrive in oceans low in nutrients

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Earth's oceans are getting greener, scientists have found using satellite imagery. </li><li>More than 56% of the Earth's oceans have changed color over the past 20 years. </li></ul>Earth's deep blue oceans have been fading and changing in color. Scientists aren't exactly sure why, but they think humans are to blame.Two decades of satellite images have revealed that <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=da31dbdd9de977555bb7aab7eb8f0781c92c67a89151b617b65347ba3c32602b&amp;postID=64f5a6739d1e19b967468fc0&amp;postSlug=earth-deep-blue-oceans-are-fading-scientists-arent-sure-why-2023-9&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41586-023-06321-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 56% of the world's</a> oceans have seen significant changes in color.The change is most dramatic in tropical oceans, which have become greener over the past two decades, per a study published in July in the journal Nature. Scientists fear these color changes could be harbingers of yet another global crisis in ocean food chains as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/experts-share-reasons-hopeful-climate-crisis-2023-4">the planet warms</a>."This gives additional evidence of how human activities are affecting life on Earth over a huge spatial extent," B.B. Cael a researcher at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, UK, and <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2023/study-oceans-color-changing-climate-change-0712">an author on the study</a>, said.<h2>Greener oceans mean more life — and that's not necessarily good</h2>The color of the oceans can tell us a lot about their health. "The reason we care about this is not because we care about the color, but because the color is a reflection of the changes in the state of the ecosystem," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/12/worlds-oceans-changing-colour-due-to-climate-breakdown-study-suggests">said Cael</a>, per The Guardian.The ocean's color depends on what's in the upper layer of the water column. A deep blue sea doesn't have not much life in that upper layer.When an ocean turns green, however, that usually means the ocean is teeming with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-sea-phytoplankton-bloom-bosphorus-turquoise-photos-2017-6">phytoplankton</a>, tiny organisms that can use sunlight to capture carbon and turn it into sugars, just like plants do. In the latest study, scientists used imagery from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-fires-nasa-satellite-images-show-increased-carbon-monoxide-levels-2019-8">NASA's Aqua satellite</a>, which has been monitoring ocean color changes for more than two decades.They found that while some oceans are getting marginally redder or bluer, most of the oceans that have seen a change in color are getting greener, which could mean more phytoplankton.That's not necessarily a good thing.Though these plankton are crucial to marine ecosystems — they form the basis of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whales-capture-carbon-climate-change-dying-pooping-2022-12">complex food chain</a> that feeds everything from sea birds to whales — ocean ecosystems are very finely tuned, and any <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/12/world/climate-change-ocean-colors-scli-intl-scn/index.html#:~:text=New%20research%20shows%20that%20our,over%20the%20last%2020%20years.&amp;text=The%20color%20of%20the%20ocean,according%20to%20a%20new%20study." target="_blank" rel="noopener">change to the ecosystem</a> can ripple across the food chain. "All changes are causing an imbalance in the natural organization of ecosystems. Such imbalance will only get worse over time if our oceans keep heating," said Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a researcher at MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and the Center for Global Change Science who worked on the study, to CNN. <h2>Scientists are racing to understand why our oceans are fading</h2>For now, these changes are small and likely not big enough to cause a major overhaul of the food systems, said Cael, per The Guardian. Still, these results are "sobering," Dutkiewicz, told CNN."I've been running simulations that have been telling me for years that these changes in ocean color are going to happen," she said in a press release. "To actually see it happening for real is not surprising, but frightening," she said.Scientists will now try to understand exactly what is causing the changes in color to better predict how our oceans could evolve as the planet gets warmer.Most likely, it will come down to "multiple factors changing in parallel," said Michael J Behrenfeld, a researcher of ocean productivity at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the research, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/12/worlds-oceans-changing-colour-due-to-climate-breakdown-study-suggests">The Guardian reported</a>.It's possible, for instance, that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/expert-how-i-keep-baby-family-safe-toxic-plastic-microplastics-2023-1">microplastics</a> in the water could contribute to the changes in color. Asked if these changes in color might ever become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, Dutkiewicz told CNN it's difficult to know for sure. "If a big tipping point was reached in some places: maybe," she said.

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