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Category: climatology – Page 19

A team from Nagoya University invented a heat-switch device for lunar rovers to withstand the Moon’s extreme temperatures. The technology optimizes thermal control, alternating between cooling and insulating, facilitating longer missions with less energy.

Astronauts navigating the moon’s terrain in a vehicle contend with not only the perils of zero gravity and potential crater falls, but also drastic temperature swings. The moon’s climate ranges from searing highs of 127°C (260°F) to bone-chilling lows of −173°C (−280°F).

Team from Nagoya University in Japan developed a heat-switch device designed to enhance the durability of lunar rovers. Their collaborative research with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency was featured in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering.

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LAFAYETTE, Colo. - The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected RTX’s small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies in Lafayette, Colo., to build two 12U CubeSat buses for NASA’s PolSIR mission.

The PolSIR mission will study ice clouds that form at high altitudes throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions. In addition to designing and manufacturing the bus platforms, Blue Canyon will also provide mission operations services.

The PolSIR instrument –Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer– will observe the full diurnal cycle of high-altitude ice clouds to improve climate forecasts and provide climate models with important insights into how Earth’s atmosphere will change in the future.

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Dr. Adomas Valantinas: “What we’re seeing may be a remnant of an ancient climate cycle on modern Mars, where you had precipitation and maybe even snowfall on these volcanoes in the past.”

How unique is the climate of Mars compared to Earth? This is what a recent study published in Nature Geoscience hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how frost could form on the summits of volcanoes that comprise the Tharsis volcanic province on Mars. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the present-day water cycle on the Red Planet and could have implications for harnessing some of it for future human exploration, as well.

For the study, the researchers used more than 30,000 images from the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas orbiter and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter to analyze morning frost on the summits of Olympus Mons (Mars’ tallest volcano and the tallest planetary mountain in the solar system), Arsia and Ascraeus Montes, and Ceraunius Tholus. Additionally, the researchers used climate model simulations to ascertain if water could condense and form at these summits, as well.

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Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago.

Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. But what if drastic changes like these are not only a result of Earth’s environment, but also the sun’s location in the galaxy?

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, lead author and astrophysicist Merav Opher—an astronomy professor at Boston University and fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute— found evidence that some two million years ago, the solar system encountered an so dense that it could have interfered with the sun’s . Opher and her co-authors believe this shows that the sun’s location in space might shape Earth’s history more than previously considered.

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Tourists normally have to pay big money and brave cold climates for a chance to see an aurora, but last weekend many people around the world simply had to look up to see these colorful displays dance across the sky.

Usually banished to the poles of Earth, the auroras strayed as far as Mexico, southern Europe and South Africa on the evening of May 10, delighting skygazers and filling social media with images of exuberant pinks, greens and purples.

But for those charged with protecting Earth from powerful solar storms such as the one that caused the auroras, a threat lurks beneath the stunning colors.

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New astrophysical research highlights a significant cosmic event two million years ago when the solar system passed through a dense interstellar cloud. This possibly altered Earth’s climate by exposing it to enhanced cosmic radiation, supported by increased isotopes found in geological records.

Earth was a very different place around two million years ago, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago. Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

But what if drastic changes like these are not only a result of Earth’s environment, but also the sun’s location in the galaxy?

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Japanese electronics company Toshiba has developed a new kind of cobalt-free battery that could lead to cheaper, more sustainable EVs in the future.

The challenge: Road transportation is a significant contributor to climate change, accounting for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so transitioning from fossil fuel-powered cars and trucks to electric vehicles (EVs) is crucial to meeting our climate goals.

The lithium-ion batteries used in most of today’s EVs have several problems, though, and a big one is that their cathodes are made of cobalt, a rare and expensive metal often mined using child labor and environmentally destructive practices.

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