New Mars Pictures Show Signs of Watery "Aquifers"

Is or was Mars wet and if so is there still life or was there life on Mars? More clues with investigation of stunning images
New Mars Pictures Show Signs of Watery "Aquifers": "Stunning color images offer new evidence that plentiful water once percolated through Martian bedrock—and new hints as to where life might be hiding."

What triggers ice ages? still a puzzle

Have you seen the movie Ice Age? Funny and cute. But the real thing happened. So...

What triggers ice ages?: "by Rasmus Benestad, with contributions from Caspar & Eric

In a recent article in Climatic Change, D.G. Martinson and W.C. Pitman III discuss a new hypothesis explaining how the climate could change abruptly between ice ages and inter-glacial (warm) periods. They argue that the changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun in isolation is not sufficient to explain the estimated high rate of change, and that there must be an amplifying feedback process kicking in. The necessity for a feedback is not new, as the Swedish Nobel Prize winner (Chemistry), Svante Arrhenius, suggested already in 1896 that CO2 could act as an amplification mechanism. In addition, there is the albedo feedback, where the amount of solar radiation that is reflected back into space, scales with the area of the ice- and snow-cover. And are clouds as well as other aspects playing a role.


Martinson & Pitman III's hypothesis states that the fresh water input works in concert with the Milankovitch cycle and the albedo feedback. They conclude that 'major' terminations can only follow fr"

Video: Octopus Mating a Tangled Affair

Video: Octopus Mating a Tangled Affair: "Watch as a cyanea octopus overcomes ocean tides and fierce competition to attract a female's attention—only to have a hard time keeping it."

Magnificent Eagle Nebula where stars are being born

One of my wall pictures is a framed closeup of this magnificent Eagle Nebula where stars are being born. Taken with the Hubble Space Telescope it is a favorite astronomical photo for many.
Now it seems like more information is being found and stars are making their way to prominence to an even greater extent.
Sun’s “twin” found, as embryo
Feb. 16, 2007
Courtesy University of Colorado at Boulder
and World Science staff
Astronomers say they have peered at the embryo of a star that will probably develop into a virtual twin of our sun. It’s one of four new‐found “proto-stars” that are probably the youngest stars as‐tro‐no‐mers have ever imaged, there‐searchers said.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070216_sun-embryo.htm
more about the Eagle Nebula
M16: Pillars of Creation
Credit: J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU), HST, NASA
Explanation: It has become one of the most famous images of modern
times. This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995,
shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of
molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in
length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally
to form stars. At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright
young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar
nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with
the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away. The
pillars of creation were imaged recently by the orbiting Chandra X-
ray Observatory, and it was found that most EGGS are not strong
emitters of X-rays.

Frostquake, meteor or what was the noise in Ohio? 2/15/2007

This is an interesting report of a loud noise 2/15/2007
Frostquake, meteor or what was the noise in Ohio?
Here is additional information for this enigma mystery.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
UPDATE: Last night's 'big bang' might be a meteor
Mike Hansen, director of the Ohio Seismic Network, said there’s no evidence to suggest an earthquake could have caused the bang, especially not over the range specified. NBC-4 has fielded calls from Fairfield, Muskingum and Pickaway counties, and the National Weather Service heard similar tales from Cincinnati, Wilmington and Lebanon. CASSIOPEDIA History Channel Daily Bleed IMDB NY Times How To


“The type of waves that I see is not earthquake-type stuff. What bothers me is we don’t see it anywhere else,” Hansen said. “Right now this is mysterious to me.”

The National Weather Service’s station in Wilmington is equally lost, especially after hearing calls from the Cincinnati area. The only common factor is that each area was affected by Tuesday’s ice storm.

“It definitely wasn’t thunder,” a meteorologist there said. “We’re kind of stumped on that ourselves.”

Readers of NewarkAdvocate.com reported similar stories — a bang loud enough to shake houses, but with nothing apparently wrong afterward.

“We live in Indian Hills (west of Granville off Ohio 16) and the explosion at approximately 9 p.m. was so loud it shook our house!” one reader wrote. “We thought a sheet of ice came off of our roof onto the deck or our roof had collapsed, but after further investigation we could find nothing amiss.”

Not everyone agreed that it’s a meteor, however. NBC4 meteorologist Jym Ganahl said every contact he’s heard about the bang was writing from an area that got some layer of ice earlier this week.

“I’m 100 percent certain that it’s ice,” he said. “It’s only the areas that had a lot of ice. None have been from areas with just snow.”

Hansen did offer one idea, but not one that would explain the noise over such a large area.

He described a phenomenon called a “frostquake,” in which water seeping into the ground and freezing can cause the earth to break up and create localized bangs.

the full story at
http://tangotwo.blogspot.com/2007/02/update-last-nights-big-bang-might-be.html