Earth & Space Weather

3 Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Planets That Could Support Alien Life (Video)

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Politicalblindspot.org - 6/26/13, Miriam Kramer

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The habitable zone of a nearby star is filled to the brim with planets that could support alien life, scientists announced yesterday (June 25).

An international team of scientists found a record-breaking three potentially habitable planets around the star Gliese 667C, a star 22 light-years from Earth that is orbited by at least six planets, and possibly as many as seven, researchers said. The three planet contenders for alien life are in the star’s “habitable zone” — the temperature region around the star where liquid water could exist. Gliese 667C is part of a three-star system, so the planets could see three suns in their daytime skies.

The three potentially rocky planets in Gliese 667C’s habitable zone are known as super-Earths —exoplanets that are less massive than Neptune but more massive than Earth. Their orbits make them possible candidates for hosting life, officials from the European Southern Observatory said in a statement.

Astronaut View of Fires in Colorado

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Earthobservatory.nasa.gov - 6/26/13

Astronaut View of Fires in Colorado

hick smoke billows across the landscape in these digital photographs of the western United States. Both photographs were taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on June 19, 2013.

Astronaut View of Fires in Colorado

While the Wild Rose blaze was fully contained by June 25, 2013, the West Fork Complex was still raging through the San Juan and Rio Grande National Forests. The West Fork Complex is a combination of three fires: the West Fork fire, the Windy Pass fire, and the Papoose fire. Lightning ignited the first of the blazes on June 5, 2013, and together they had charred approximately 75,000 acres (30,000 hectares) by June 25. The fires were burning in rugged terrain with large amounts of beetle-killed spruce forests.

Three super-Earths discovered in habitable zone of same star ‘for the first time’

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RTNews - June 26, 2013

Three Planets in Habitable Zone of Nearby Star (image from www.eso.org)

Three Planets in Habitable Zone of Nearby Star (image from www.eso.org)

Astronomers have found a record number of super-Earths orbiting in the habitable zone of a known star, 22 light years away from Earth. The planets, which have three suns, have one side illuminated at all times while the other is submerged in darkness.

The Gliese 667C star in the constellation of Scorpion has been well studied before. However, as a result of new observations the scientists made a stunning revelation – instead of three previously known planets the astronomers discovered up to seven, three of which are in the habitable zone of the star where liquid water could exist. All of those three planets are so-called super-Earths.

“This is the first time that three such planets have been spotted orbiting in this zone in the same system,” said one of the authors of the study, Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, UK. "By adding some new observations and revisiting existing data we were able to confirm these three and confidently reveal several more. Finding three low-mass planets in the star's habitable zone is very exciting!"

To read the rest of this story, please visit RTNews

Early monsoon brings trouble to Uttarakhand state, India

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The Watchers - by Chillymanjaro - 26 June 2013

Over the last few weeks torrential rainfall across northern India and Nepal has been inducing widespread flooding, cloudbursts, riverbank erosions and massive landslides. Heavy monsoon rains started about two weeks earlier than usual. 

Torrential downpours in northern India swept away roads, buildings and vehicles. The worst damage was reported in the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, located in the foothills of the Himalayas. The River Ganges and tributaries are flowing above danger level in several areas of Uttarakhand state.

Major Western United States Heatwave To Hit End Week into Weekend

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TheWeatherSpace.com- 6/25/13

062313d

A ridge of high pressure will cause elevated temperatures across most of the Western United States, from Arizona and California, northward to the US/Canada border.  This also may bring the first monsoon storms to the region as this abnormally large ridge of high pressure takes hold.

It’s that time of the year again, where a hot desert meets the Summer.  Temperatures in the 100s across Phoenix will turn to 115+, with 120+ along the Colorado River Valley as a ridge of high pressure builds in the area.

This ridge will be very large, bringing temperatures 15-20 degrees higher than normal for Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah.  Other areas like Montana, and Wyoming may also be in the outer fridges of the heatwave ridge.

With that heat will bring monsoonal moisture into play, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah may see the first monsoonal thunderstorms of the season with this event.

Interstellar Gas Clouds Seed New Planets With Building Blocks of DNA”

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2012IndyInfo.com- 6/24/13

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During the past decade, astrochemists have found that DNA molecules, the fundamental building blocks of life, find their origins not on Earth, but in the Cosmos. They are the languange of the Universe –the information they inherited comes from the stars and the cosmic ecology that formed them.

In February, 2013, scientists using the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia to study a giant cloud of gas some 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, announced that they had discovered a molecule thought to be a precursor to a key component of DNA and another that may have a role in the formation of the amino acid alanine.

When is the next Blue Moon?

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EarthSky.org, 6/25/13, Deborah Byrd

There are different definitions for Blue Moon. By popular acclaim, the Blue Moon refers to the second of two full moons to occur in the same calendar month. A Blue Moon is also regarded as the third of four full moons in a single season – a season being defined as the time period between a solstice and an equinox, or vice versa. Or, someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon. The next Blue Moon will fall on August 20-21, 2013. It’ll be a Blue Moon by the seasonal definition, that is, the third of four full moons to take place in a season, in this case between the June 2013 solstice and September equinox. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on November 21, 2010.

The next Blue Moon by the second-full-moon-in-a-calendar-month definition will be on July 31, 2015. The first full moon of July 2015 will be on July 1, 2015. Previously, the last monthly Blue Moon happened on August 31, 2012.

For more on this story please see EarthSky.org

India Flooding/Landslides Continue: Mortality Rate Rising (video)

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GFP NOTE: Mass transitions continue in the monsoon ravaged country of India. Landslides and flooding have devastated the area. Please send love to all those involved.

Associated Press reports on 6/24/13:

India’s death toll aftermath torrential rains reaches 1,000

Soldiers recovered more bodies as they cleared debris in villages flattened by landslides and monsoon floods in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, bringing the death toll from torrential rains above 1,000, the home minister said on Monday.

Army officials suspended rescue operations after bad weather early Monday reduced visibility in the mountainous area. Army troops are attempting to rescue more than 10,000 stranded people, many in the temple town of Badrinath.  Link: Guardian.uk.world

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