New Planet Found in Our Solar System?

Odd orbits of remote objects hint at unseen world, new calculations suggest.

Artist's conception of a small icy object beyond Pluto (file picture).

Illustration courtesy G. Bacon, STScI/NASA

Richard A. Lovett in Timberline Lodge, Oregon

for National Geographic News

Published May 11, 2012

An as yet undiscovered planet might be orbiting at the dark fringes of the solar system, according to new research.
Too far out to be easily spotted by telescopes, the potential unseen planet appears to be making its presence felt by disturbing the orbits of so-called Kuiper belt objects, said Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
Kuiper belt objects are small icy bodies—including some dwarf planets—that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Once considered the ninth planet in our system, the dwarf planet Pluto, for example, is one of the largest Kuiper belt objects, at about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) wide. Dozens of the other objects are hundreds of miles across, and more are being discovered every year.
(See "Three New 'Plutos'? Possible Dwarf Planets Found.")
What's intriguing, Gomes said, is that, according to his new calculations, about a half dozen Kuiper belt objects—including the remote body known as Sedna—are in strange orbits compared to where they should be, based on existing solar system models. (Related: "Pluto Neighbor Gets Downsized.")
The objects' unexpected orbits have a few possible explanations, said Gomes, who presented his findings Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Timberline Lodge, Oregon.
"But I think the easiest one is a planetary-mass solar companion"—a planet that orbits very far out from the sun but that's massive enough to be having gravitational effects on Kuiper belt objects.
Mystery Planet a Captured Rogue?
For the new work, Gomes analyzed the orbits of 92 Kuiper belt objects, then compared his results to computer models of how the bodies should be distributed, with and without an additional planet.
If there's no distant world, Gomes concludes, the models don't produce the highly elongated orbits we see for six of the objects.
How big exactly the planetary body might be isn't clear, but there are a lot of possibilities, Gomes added.
Based on his calculations, Gomes thinks a Neptune-size world, about four times bigger than Earth, orbiting 140 billion miles (225 billion kilometers) away from the sun—about 1,500 times farther than Earth—would do the trick.
But so would a Mars-size object—roughly half Earth's size—in a highly elongated orbit that would occasionally bring the body sweeping to within 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers) of the sun.
Gomes speculates that the mystery object could be a rogue planet that was kicked out of its own star system and later captured by the sun's gravity. (See "'Nomad' Planets More Common Than Thought, May Orbit Black Holes.")
Or the putative planet could have formed closer to our sun, only to be cast outward by gravitational encounters with other planets.
However, actually finding such a world would be a challenge.
To begin with, the planet might be pretty dim. Also, Gomes's simulations don't give astronomers any clue as to where to point their telescopes—"it can be anywhere," he said.
No Smoking Gun
Other astronomers are intrigued but say they'll want a lot more proof before they're willing to agree that the solar system—again—has nine planets. (Also see "Record Nine-Planet Star System Discovered?")
"Obviously, finding another planet in the solar system is a big deal," said Rory Barnes, an astronomer at the University of Washington. But, he added, "I don't think he really has any evidence that suggests it is out there."
Instead, he added, Gomes "has laid out a way to determine how such a planet could sculpt parts of our solar system. So while, yes, the evidence doesn't exist yet, I thought the bigger point was that he showed us that there are ways to find that evidence."
Douglas Hamilton, an astronomer from the University of Maryland, agrees that the new findings are far from definitive.
"What he showed in his probability arguments is that it's slightly more likely. He doesn't have a smoking gun yet."
And Hal Levison, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, says he isn't sure what to make of Gomes's finding.
"It seems surprising to me that a [solar] companion as small as Neptune could have the effect he sees," Levison said.
But "I know Rodney, and I'm sure he did the calculations right."

Revealed the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle?
 
PERHAPS you are already familiar with a place that is considered the most mysterious of the earth, the Bermuda Triangle. Many mysterious stories that emerge from these places, for example the story about the loss of the ship and its entire crew when sailing in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle.
The ship listed missing among other things, to April 1925. Raifuku freighter ships from Japanese Maru sank after sending the message:'' Looks like a giant knife thing! Hurry, please! We can not escape!'' But the ship was no longer hopeless, lost without trace with all hands.
In December 1961, the Southern Isles tanker suffered a similar fate. When he was sailing in a convoy of a sudden he disappeared. The only other ship that saw a small light that is considered as the light left by the sunken ship. Subsequently, in December 1964, twin tankers, Southern District also drowned in a similar way. It disappeared without leaving a mark SOS when sailing across the region north to South Carolina.
Listed above only events that stand out. Though there are many small boats are missing. Even the aircraft had come to be a victim. On December 5, 1945 recorded five torpedo launcher peasawat TMB-3 Avenger Grumman disappeared. Before it lost contact, they claimed not to know the direction. Though the flight commander, Lt. Charles Taylor has picked up the Air 2500 flight hours. So he's not inexperienced pilots. In fact, sent a rescue plane was lost.
Why the Triangle?
The loss of ships and aircraft in waters around it are being taken seriously by scientists. No one would dare try to pass through the area. Since the horrific events occur, people began to name the area as'' Satan'' or'' Triangle Devil's Triangle''. While the word triangle derived from the projected points on the map, shaped like a triangular geometry, the location of the Bermuda Islands, Puerto Rico and Florida. All located in the Atlantic Ocean region covering 1.5 million square miles or 4 million square kilometers.
According to the book The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berfilz published by Doubleday & Co. New York (1974), noted that ships and aircraft lost was attacked by some sort of alien, aka ETI / Exstra Terrestrial Intelegency, that intelligent beings from outer space who ride the white glowing flying saucer . So the white light seen by the victim before losing contact is light flying saucer aliens known as the UFO (Unidentified Flying Object).
Or there are more scientists who say that the planes and ships were sucked into the hole passage of time, such as the loss of all materials when entering into a black hole (black hole).
According to Bill Dilon of the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Field Center, some of the victims before losing contact there is always describe a white light flashing is a possibility that methane gas spray of the water. Such bursts of water to a boil caused by methane gas that is heated in the sea. Events similar to events in the oil drilling rig in the Caspian Sea that claimed many victims.
Keep in mind, in the Bermuda Triangle are mine methane. Well, if you come out when the sea floor is cracked or deformed, then the gas will push sea water up. Encouragement was not half-hearted, strong bursts of water and boil the sea. So the aircraft can be affected by semburannya.
Another theory as the cause of the loss of an aircraft in that area is the destruction of the compass. Because the crew so do not know his position, then spinning them until the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea and disappeared in the waves swallow. Because they would compass the destruction of the magnetic field.
Not Superstition
Although it can not be explained clearly what damage the magnetic compass, Prof. John Surya PhD, Indonesia's leading physicists, agree with foreign writers Larry Kusche in his book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved. As written in the book, that the loss of ships in the Bermuda triangle can be explained scientifically and rationally. Some are due to accidents, bad weather, running out of fuel and so on. So, we do not need to explain the weird and superstitious.
Bermuda Triangle mystery has been revealed otherwise. According to scientists, the Bermuda Triangle is a common phenomenon of acute gas, natural gas, as gas is produced by boiling water, mainly methane gas, which is the main cause behind the loss of several aircraft and ships. Evidence of discovery that brings a new perspective on the mystery that has haunted the world for many years was contained in the report of the American Journal of Physics. Professor Joseph Monaghan examined the hypothesis that accompanied by David May at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Two hypotheses of the study were giant balloons methane gas out of the ocean floor that causes most, if not all, mysterious accidents at that location. (24)

Dinosaur gases 'warmed the Earth'

Apatosaurus, formerly known as Brontosaurus, produced a lot of wind

Continue reading the main story

David Wilkinson from Liverpool John Moore's University, and colleagues from the University of London and the University of Glasgow published their results in the journal Current Biology.

Sauropods, such as Apatosaurus louise (formerly known as Brontosaurus), were super-sized land animals that grazed on vegetation during the Mesozoic Era.

For Dr Wilkinson, it was not the giants that were of interest but the microscopic organisms living inside them.

"The ecology of microbes and their role in the working of our planet are one of my key interests in science," he told BBC Nature.

"Although it's the dinosaur element that captures the popular imagination with this work, actually it is the microbes living in the dinosaurs guts that are making the methane."

Methane is known as a "greenhouse gas" that absorbs infrared radiation from the sun, trapping it in the Earth's atmosphere and leading to increased temperatures.

Previous studies have suggested that the Earth was up to 10C (18F) warmer in the Mesozoic Era.

With the knowledge that livestock emissions currently contribute a significant part to global methane levels, the researchers used existing data to estimate how sauropods could have affected the climate.

Their calculations considered the dinosaurs' estimated total population and used a scale that links biomass to methane output for cattle.

"Cows today produce something like 50-100 [million tonnes] per year. Our best estimate for Sauropods is around 520 [million tonnes]," said Dr Wilkinson.

Continue reading the main stor

Current methane emissions amount to around 500 million tonnes a year from a combination of natural sources, such as wild animals, and human activities including dairy and meat production.

Expressing his surprise at the comparative figures, Dr Wilkinson added that dinosaurs were not the sole producers of methane at the time.

"There were other sources of methane in the Mesozoic so total methane level would probably have been much higher than now," he said.

Supermoon Coming Saturday—Not a Threat to Earth

 

But year's closest full moon will be a beautiful sky show, astronomers say.

On Saturday night, the full moon will be closer to Earth than at any other time this year, an occurrence that's been labeled a supermoon.
Due to the moon's egg-shaped orbit, there are times when our natural satellite is at perigee—its closest to Earth—and at apogee, its farthest.
The term "supermoon" was coined in 1979 to describe a full moon that coincides with perigee—something that happens about once a year, on average.
(See pictures of last year's supermoon.)
During this week's perigee, the moon will be 221,801 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, and that close approach will happen within minutes of the official full moon phase, which occurs at 11:35 p.m. ET.
"As a consequence, this translates into it appearing as much as 16 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of 2012—not a huge amount, but definitely noticeable," said Geza Gyuk, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
The moon's proximity won't have any major effects on our planet, according to astronomers, who hope to dispel fears that the looming lunar orb causes natural disasters.
"While we know that during new and full moons the tides are greatest—and if it's in concert with a storm surge it might produce unusual flooding—there is no scientific evidence that earthquakes and other natural disasters are connected," Gyuk said.
(Related: "Titanic Sunk by 'Supermoon' and Celestial Alignment?")
"Supermoons have been happening for billions of years, and nothing particularly special occurs on these dates—except, of course, for a beautiful full moon."
Another Supermoon on the Horizon
For photo hounds, the most picturesque moments during Saturday's supermoon will occur in the minutes after local sunset, as the full moon hovers above the horizon.
"What you should see is the moon rising, deeply colored and looming over the foreground objects," Gyuk said. (Related pictures: See how a lunar eclipse turns the full moon red.)
Because the size of the moon's orbit varies slightly, each monthly perigee is not always the same distance from Earth.
In March 2011, for example, sky-watchers were treated to the closest supermoon in two decades, when the moon was a mere 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) from Earth.
(Also see "'Dark' Supermoon Tomorrow: New Moon Gets Closest to Earth.")
And next month the full moon will again roughly coincide with perigee, albeit one that puts the moon a bit farther away, at 222,750 miles (358,482 kilometers), Gyuk said.
"The full moon will appear to be just half of one percent different in size," Gyuk said. "So if you miss this month's supermoon, don't worry, you can see it again when it is only one percent less bright."

Scientists Race to Save World's Rice Bowl From Climate Change

 

More frequent floods and droughts expected in Southeast Asia.

Swells rise into a rice field in Dhal Char, Bangladesh, making it hard to cultivate. Climate change may make such events more frequent and severe.

This story is part of a special National Geographic News series on global water issues.

Climate change is predicted to cause more intense and frequent floods and droughts in Southeast Asia, threatening the world's rice bowl and millions of people who live there unless preventive actions are taken soon, scientists warn.
At the Climate Smart Agriculture in Asia workshop held in Bangkok, Thailand, last month, climatologists and agricultural researchers discussed farming practices and technologies that could help the region cope with global warming's effects, including rising temperatures, increased salinity, and sporadic rainfall.
The conference was about "bringing all these players together to look at how the research agenda needs to change in the agricultural research world in relation to climate change," said Bruce Campbell of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which helped organize the two-day workshop.
In addition, scientists at the meeting discussed potential ways to use agriculture to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions such as methane. Agriculture, forestry, and changes in land use account for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, said Campbell, who is the program director of CGIAR's Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
"That's a significant portion," Campbell said, "but we can reduce it."
(Related: "See the Global Water Footprint of Everyday Crops")
Breaking the Breadbasket?
The countries of South and Southeast Asia are home to more than 30 percent of the world's population, about half of whom depend on agriculture—mainly rice, but also other crops such as wheat—for their livelihoods. But according to the World Bank, global warming could reduce agricultural productivity in the region by 10 to 50 percent in the next 30 years.
Some changes are apparent already. For instance, steadily rising sea levels have already led to an increase in the salinity of the water in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where the Mekong River empties into the South China Sea. This has forced some people in the region to abandon rice production and shift to shrimp farming.
"In a way, they're prospering from the change because they make more money raising shrimp than from rice," said Matthew McCartney, a hydrologist with the CGIAR International Water Management Institute, who attended the workshop. "But not everybody has the capability to do that. Some people are adapting, but others are losing out as a consequence of sea level rise."
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rising sea levels will increase salinity in the soils of rice-growing areas in deltas and flood plains of other major rivers in Asia, including the Ganges, the Yangtze, and the Yellow Rivers.
In the long term, such changes could force Asian countries to shift their rice farms to other locations, similar to how some wineries in Australia have moved to lower—and cooler—areas to counter the harmful effects of global warming on their grapes.
"In Asia, there's the possibility that you're really going to have to think more about radical transformations in order to adapt, as the shift from rice to shrimp illustrates," Campbell said.
(Related: "Artificial Crops Water Glaciers in Indian Highlands")
Recharging Aquifers
But in other circumstances adaptation can be incremental, and require only a gradual shifting of farming systems. One such solution discussed at the Bangkok workshop was using Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) technology in the region. MAR involves using land in upstream areas of major rivers to capture and store floodwater in natural underground aquifers, and then pump it out during dry spells for farmers to use.
"The idea is to set aside land where you know the soil conditions and geology will allow water to infiltrate very quickly into the ground and pump it out later for irrigation," McCartney explained.
MAR has been used for water storage in arid areas such as Australia and Southern Europe, but not in relatively wet regions that get regular rainfall such as Southeast Asia, he added.
But the use of MAR in the region makes sense, because it could simultaneously solve two major problems that scientists foresee affecting the region. First, it would create a backup source of water that farmers could draw from in times of drought. It could also lessen damage from floods by diverting water from swollen rivers.
"In Thailand, it could have had a major impact in reducing the flooding [last year] in Bangkok," McCartney said. The floods caused $40 billion in damage.
Early calculations indicate that about 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) of recharge basins could irrigate more than 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) of farmland. Rather than establishing one large recharge basin, the idea is to create lots of smaller basins in suitable locations across the landscape.
"You could quite easily make up the loss of production in the land that you've set aside for the recharge basin," McCartney said.
Juliet Christian-Smith, a senior researcher at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, agreed that groundwater storage technologies such as MAR could provide useful buffers against the increased variability in rainfall that climate models predict.
"There are a lot of positives associated with storing water underground," Christian-Smith said. "We usually think of our water supply as coming from surface water such as snowmelt and rivers, but in fact . . . much of the water that supports irrigation and our global food supply comes from groundwater and in many cases it is being depleted faster than it is being recharged, leaving room for underground storage."
Because it stores water underground, MAR isn't vulnerable to some of the problems that plague dams, she added. For example, climate simulations predict that many parts of the Earth will experience warmer temperatures, which will in turn increase evaporation rates at dams. "There's also problems with sedimentation, because if you have more flooding, you could have more subsidence and erosion," she said. "That means your dam life and the amount of water it can store is reduced."
CGIAR's McCartney said MAR use in Southeast Asia is still only at the idea stage. "It hasn't gone beyond people thinking about it," he said. "There would need to be quite a lot more research done."
One question that will need to be resolved, Christian-Smith said, is what impact recharge has on water quality. A recent study in Bangladesh, for example, indicates that repeated injection of water into underground aquifers could leach arsenic and other toxic chemicals from the ground and concentrate it in the water supply.
(Related: "Megafishes of the Mekong")
A Novel Solution for Water and Climate
Attendees at the Bangkok workshop also discussed ways to help farmers not only deal with climate change locally, but actually lessen its global impact by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases their crops produce.
One promising technology for doing this is called rice alternative wetting and drying. As the name implies, it involves alternately flooding and drying rice fields to reduce the amount of methane produced. Normally, farmers leave their rice fields submerged for the entire growing season, but this generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. By drying the fields periodically, scientists at the International Rice Research Institute have shown that water consumption could be slashed by 30 percent and greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 25 to 50 percent, without reducing yields.
"This is a fantastic technology for water savings and greenhouse gas emission savings," Campbell said. "Rice is so important across the whole of Asia that if one could implement this technology in many different places, you could have significant reduction in methane production."
But as with MAR, the details of this technology will have to be worked out before it can be widely implemented. For example, Campbell said, farmers must put much more effort into water management; at the moment there are no incentives to encourage them to do so. In other cases, large numbers of farmers would have to coordinate their flooding and drying cycles for it to be most effective.
Long-Term Management
While promising technologies, neither MAR nor rice drying will be enough to resolve all of the agricultural problems that scientists predict will accompany climate change, experts say.
"To mitigate negative effects of climate-induced floods and drought require the application of integrated management concepts that have been developed in the past years and are now increasingly applied," said Wolfgang Grabs, a hydrologist with the United Nations World Meteorological Organization, a co-sponsor of the Bangkok workshop.
"These include both structural and non-structural methods," Grabs said, "such as dykes and levees, land use planning, storage facilities for water, improved forecasting and management of water resources, as well as suitable climate change adaptation approaches."
CGIAR's Campbell agreed. "I don't think there's going to be a silver bullet," he said. "You're going to have to do many different things."

A Scottish-style safari

 
The Cairngorms are home to the United Kingdom’s only herd of reindeer. (David Tipling/LPI)

Imagine the comical mating ritual of the capercaillie bird, the flash of a red squirrel sprinting by and the grunt of a reindeer -- all set against the backdrop of an ancient Caledonian forest, remnants of a landscape that once covered the British Isles.

• Related article: Mini guide to Aberdeen, Scotland

Cairngorms National Park is nearly 4,500 sqkm of mountain wilderness in northeastern Scotland and is the country’s largest protected area. The diversity of its fauna and flora is often overlooked due to its renowned status as Britain’s top ski destination. But its isolated location, far from any big cities, means that the Cairngorms are less visited than most other national parks in Britain. A mere 1.5 million visitors (as opposed to the Lake District’s 15.8 million) make the journey each year.
Arctic voyage
From the park’s main town, the ski centre of Aviemore, valleys of lofty pine trees and pristine lochs cut dramatically into corrie-riven mountains and the United Kingdom’s most extensive plateau. This granite massif retains the characteristics of an arctic-alpine tundra ecosystem, where high-altitude forest and wild, rocky plains combine with cold winds and low temperatures to provide a habitat found nowhere else in Britain. This remoteness has allowed rare animal, bird and plant species to thrive, and its mountains are among the world’s last sanctuaries for many Arctic birds and plants outside of the Arctic Circle.
Walk on the wild side
The Cairngorms is famed for two creatures: the osprey, which nests on a reserve after declining to near-extinction in Britain during the 20th Century, and the United Kingdom’s only herd of reindeer, which ranges free in the Reindeer Park above Aviemore. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds runs guided walks around the Loch Garten reserve north of Aviemore between April and August to see ospreys and other seasonal incumbents such as siskins, crossbills, sandpipers and otters. Ask at the Reindeer Park about joining the herder and leading your own reindeer on a half-day trek to their mountain enclosure (possible between June and August only).
The Rothiemurchus Estate, one and a half miles from Aviemore Railway Station, provides a host of family-friendly safaris themed around the distinctive, shaggy ginger Highland “coos” (cows), red squirrels and red deer. Meanwhile, nearby Atholl Estates whisks you off by Land Rover on safaris which take in various birds of prey, mountain hares and deer, in stunning forest and moorland terrain. If you are looking for more than just wildlife-watching, Alvie Estates offers a glimpse into life on the other side of the fence: human management of the land and its potential conflicts.
High-altitude wildlife
The hikers and climbers that make it to the most remote Cairngorm forest and plateau can expect to see even rarer species.
The Scottish crossbill, Britain’s only endemic bird, has the park’s pine trees as its sole stomping ground. The capercaillie, a large, colourful bird with one of the natural world’s most entertaining courtship displays, uses these forests as one of its last European breeding grounds. Wildcats and pine martens also roam. Higher up on the plateau, Arctic buntings, ptarmigan and golden eagles can be glimpsed, while the mountain scrub is adorned with rare plants such as globeflower and roseroot.   
Recently, the reintroduction of once-native species to Scotland (such as elk, boar and wolves) caused fierce controversy at the Highland estate of Alladale, an idea that could seem laughable to the locals around Cairngorms National Park.  With so much prestigious, flourishing wildlife of its own, it is ironic that the national park does not get more international attention. But the laughter ricocheting through the valley is far more likely to be the capercaillie, attracting its mate. Listen out: it will sound like a quickening drum beat followed by a bottle of champagne being uncorked and poured. It is a one-of-a-kind experience, to be sure.

Jambi forest can Expires in Two Years

 
JAMBI, KOMPAS.com - Head of the Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) Trisiswo Jambi Province says no meaningful safeguards Jambi forest which covers about 1.2 million acres of endangered runs out.

"Seeing the rampant destruction efforts by both humans and nature, it is possible forest in Jambi could be discharged the next two years," said Trisiswo in Edinburgh on Thursday (4/12/2012).

The threat of a reduction in forest area of the most obvious is illegal activities and uncontrolled forest encroachment due to the eradication effort is not running optimally.

According Trisiswo, now more than half of production forests and protected forests have been damaged.

He pointed out, Ecosystem Restoration Forest Conservation Indonesia (Reki) is an area of ​​101 thousand hectares partially damaged and 30 percent of which was converted to oil palm plantations.

"We are very difficult to conduct surveillance and prevention because our resources are very limited. Members of the safeguarding of forests there were only about 60 people and an average of 40 years old and over," he explained.

"If there are no funds, it could harness the Civil Service Police Unit members to be converted into forest protection force," he explained