Scientists have found 12 new deep-sea species in the Atlantic that had not been known to science before. The findings are a result of a five-year-long undersea project that involved 45 research expeditions carried out by over 80 scientists from across 13 countries.
By MOHANA BASU
Twelve new species of sea creatures discovered in the Atlantic
Scientists have found 12 new deep-sea species in the Atlantic that had not been known to science before. The findings are a result of a five-year-long undersea project that involved 45 research expeditions carried out by over 80 scientists from across 13 countries.
The mission of the ATLAS project was to study the North Atlantic, including its water, the seafloor, currents and most particularly the creatures that live there.
Most of the research was conducted using underwater robots. In addition to the 12 new deep-sea species the team found, they also discovered 35 species living in areas where they were not previously known to reside. Among these were a new kind of coral and a sedentary animal that resembled moss. Read more about it on ABC News.
Japan developing wooden satellites
A team of scientists in Japan has announced that they are developing the world’s first satellites made out of wood that will tackle the issue of increasing space junk.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), there are nearly 6,000 satellites circling Earth and about 60 per cent of them are junk. Some estimates suggest that there could be 15,000 satellites in orbit by the year 2028.
There is an increasing threat of space junk falling to Earth. They can also collide and destroy active satellites and jeopardise future space missions.
Space experts and researchers have been investigating different options to remove and reduce the space junk.
The team from Kyoto university has now started research on the use of wood materials in space and are hoping to create the first wooden satellites by 2023.
The partnership will begin experimenting with different types of wood in extreme environments on Earth. These wooden satellites would burn up without releasing harmful substances into the atmosphere or raining debris on the ground when they plunge back to Earth.
Dwarf planet-sized asteroid hidden in the solar system
Scientists have discovered evidence of a dwarf planet-sized asteroid in our solar system. The researchers made this conclusion after studying a small shard of meteorite that arrived on Earth in 2008. According to the researchers, this meteorite came from an asteroid roughly the size of Ceres, which is the biggest object in the solar system’s asteroid belt.
It also appears to have been formed around water and under some pressure. The shard of the meteorite is known as Almahata Sitta. In 2008, a 9-ton asteroid came into Earth’s atmosphere, and exploded into some 600 meteorites over Sudan.
This was the first time that scientists had been able to predict an asteroid impact before it actually happened. That allowed the scientists to scoop up 23 pounds of samples, which have been the object of scientific study. Read more about it on Independent.
A third of US rivers are changing colour
Over 200,000 satellite images taken over a 34-year period since 1984 show that a third of the rivers in the US have significantly changed colour, turning from blue to yellow and green.
The satellite images taken from NASA and the US Geological Survey’s Landsat programme showed rivers with a dominant hue of yellow, while more than a third of images were mostly green. Just 8 per cent of river pics were mostly blue.
Since most of the rivers are changing colour gradually, it is not noticeable to the human eye. Areas where the colour changes have been the fastest are more likely to have increased human activity.
Rivers can appear to be shades of blue, green, yellow or other colours depending on the amount of suspended sediment, algae, pollution or dissolved organic matter in the water. Usually, river water turns green as more algae blooms, or when the water carries less sediments. Rivers tend to turn yellow when they carry more sediment.
Originally published at The print