While NASA's Dawn mission is hot on the tail of the biggest rock in the asteroid belt, researchers are still finding new things within the treasure trove of data the spacecraft collected in 2011 and 2012. Back then Dawn was visiting Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, which scientists thought would be bone-dry.
Four and a half billion years ago, the Sun and Earth were just being born out of a giant explosion, and the solar system was HOT. All that heat likely boiled away the water on Earth's surface. So how did our parched planet come to be covered in water? The leading explanation is that it got carried here by comets and/or asteroids. They may seem dry and rocky now, but comets and asteroids would have carried a lot of water when they were young.
In 2010, the U.S. used less water than it has in a generation, according to a new announcement from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Since water is one of the vital ingredients for life on Earth, scientists want to know how it got here. One theory is that the water in our solar system was created in the chemical afterbirth of the Sun. If that were the case, it would suggest that water might only be common around certain stars that form in certain ways. But a new study,published today in Science, suggests that at least some of Earth’s water actually existed before the Sun was born -- and that it came from interstellar space.
NASA is deploying flight missions equipped with hyperspectral imaging instruments similar to those intended to distinguish dust components on Mars. The technology is being used to identify the components of algal blooms affecting the Western Basin of Lake Erie. The highly sensitive imaging instruments use spectral signatures to assign unique markers to each element and allow scientists to distinguish harmful algae from beneficial algae.
Over the past week, scientists have published the results of studies analyzing two very strange -- and very different -- lakes. One is Pitch Lake, a lake made of asphalt and filled with hydrocarbon gases on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. The other is Lake Whillans, a freshwater body located 800 meters under the surface of a glacier in West Antarctica. You might say the lakes seem unearthly, although they're located right on our home planet. Titan, Saturn's moon, has hydrocarbon lakes like Pitch Lake, and several moons in our solar system are thought to host liquid water underneath a thick layer of ice.
Physicists over at the Australian National University (ANU) have figured out a new technique that allows them to control water flow patterns. The invention could provide fresh ways to move objects floating in water, with the potential to revolutionise certain manufacturing processes or help control oil spills. But how do you control the waves without Poseidon's help?
