Scientists estimate that climate change will get even worse by the end of the century.

STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists predict that by the end of this century carbon dioxide could reach the highest levels. Scientists around the world are disappointed after witnessing Trump’s new decision of maintaining the beliefs of his party which does not admit that climate change exists, claiming that this is a hoax. They do not believe that global warming is due to the massive amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.

By the end of this century, carbon dioxide may reach the highest levels ever

The majority of scientists claims that climate change is even worse because of the continuously increasing levels of carbon dioxide which now surpassed 410 parts per million. Largely, this is related to the widespread use of fossil fuel. The rising heat in the atmosphere causes dramatic weather oscillations like cold, heat, flooding and drought, all of increasing strength, oscillating with higher amplitude.

When rapid changes in our planet’s biosphere occur, every creature suffers when struggling to adapt every time to new conditions to survive, finding a new balance. Even if some of the world leaders believe that climate change is just a legend, they should probably think twice before saying this while this issue will only get worse as time passes by and nobody tries to find any measures to annihilate it.

Environmentalists try to convince world leaders that global warming is not a hoax

Moreover, experts in the insurance industry have admitted that there was registered an increase of 15% in payout because of catastrophes related to weather conditions, like flooding or hurricanes, during the last five years. The most terrible part of this whole problem is that America already has all the needed technology and resources to replace fossil fuel or at least reduce its consumption, using more eco-friendly alternative to save the planet.

America could easily become an energy-independent country, using other sources for providing energy, like geothermal, solar wind turbines to develop electricity. In this way, the carbon dioxide levels would be reduced from the atmosphere. State officials should think about implementing new environmental programs of planting trees.

There are a lot of possibilities which could help our planet overcome the climate change problem. What it is indeed necessary is to convince everyone that global warming is not a joke and that our lives depend on our efforts. World leaders should develop strategies to reduce the greenhouse gasses.

Image source: pixabay

Manatees were reclassified, being no longer an endangered species.

STATES CHRONICLE – On March 30, manatees were erased of the US endangered species list of the Interior Department, and they were reclassified as being threatened species. The robust marine animal known as sea cow appears now to be only threatened by extinction. The reason for this relisting is a rebound of a manatee population called the West Indian manatees located on the coastline of Florida.

Manatees are no longer listed as endangered species

The range of this population extends from the southeastern United States through the basin of Caribbean. The US Interior Department stated that the number of manatee population is larger than 6,600 only in Florida while in the 1970s the number was reduced to a few hundred. The Caribbean countries, environmentalists, and the US government have contributed to 30 years of conservation efforts to make possible this recovery.

The Interior Department claimed that some of the measures which helped to boost the conservation efforts included the redesign of levees and rocks, imposing speed limits on boats and developing manatee sanctuaries. Phil Kloer, a spokesman for the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, stated that this is a successful story for them since their efforts proved to be helpful.

The population of manatees increased to 13,000 individuals

Nevertheless, the US Interior Department pointed out that the federal protection for manatee will continue to be available. Frank Jackalone, the director of the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, has criticized this decision of preserving the federal protections, arguing that state and local authorities will ease the rules regarding boat speed limit which was once created to protect manatees.

He also underlined the fact that Florida boaters will see this reclassification as a sign that they are now allowed to increase the speed in areas where manatees live. Last year, about 520 manatees died, and 104 of them died due to watercraft. Jackalone argued that the decision of the US Interior Department did not consider mentioning the impact of closing power plants in Florida which helped manatees stay warm during the cold season with their warm water outflows.

Even if this animal is no longer listed as endangered species, it is more likely to become so shortly. When a species is listed as endangered, it means that it is on the verge of extinction. The Interior Department declared that its total population managed to rebound to 13,000 individuals

Image source: wikipedia

Scientists indicated that Martian moons may have formed rings around the Red Planet in the past.

STATES CHRONICLE – The two small Martian moons are believed to have been rings in the past, in the early stages of our solar system. Deimos and Phobos may have formed rings around Mars. They are less likely to have been captured from the asteroid belt by the gravity of the Red Plant. The new study was recently published in the Nature Geoscience magazine.

Minton and Hesselbrock developed a new theory about Mars’ moons

Based on the new research developed by David Minton and Andrew Hesselbrock, both researchers at the Purdue University, the small moons of Mars may be the result of a process of ring formation and destruction which encircled the planet, being initially triggered by the impact of a massive object more than four billion years ago.

One or even more such celestial objects may have dispersed debris into space, creating a ring near the limit of which any celestial body would be caught into the gravity field of the planet. This limit or threshold is known as the Roche Limit. Scientists estimated that approximately 80% of the detritus from the impact fell back on the surface of the Red Planet, while the rest remained floating at the Roche Limit, coalescing into moons.

Researchers claim that the Martian moons may have been rings around the planet in the past

As time passed by, these celestial objects which are known as moons would have been attracted toward the planet due to gravitational interactions which occurred between Mars and the debris. These Martian moons orbit faster around the planet compared with Mars’ speed of rotation. Thus, tidal interactions would have slowed down these celestial objects and outer, bigger moons would have engulfed inner, smaller ones.

The remaining moon would be attracted towards Red Planet’s Roche Limit and be torn into pieces, and the debris would form a new ring. As this cycle repeated, the moons became smaller and smaller because more detritus fell back on the surface of Mars. Minton and Hesselbrock argue that they believe that six such cycles have happened up to this moment.

By using the mass of a moon, researchers could establish the size of the first ring. In a similar way, by knowing the size and weight of the ring, researchers can work backward and compute the size of the moon which was torn apart into millions of pieces of debris that formed the ring. This hypothesis could be correct since there are some areas on Mars covered in sand, as a result of the rubble which fell back on the surface of the planet.

Image source: flickr

NASA scientists developed several Valkyrie R5 robots and signed them up in a competition.

STATES CHRONICLE – Scientists developed a humanoid robot called Valkyrie R5, and they are currently testing it to prepare it for a future Mars landing process. The Northeastern University received from NASA’s Space Robotics Challenge a $2 million robot named Valkyrie Robonaut 5. The tests are performed in a warehouse in Massachusetts. Back in 2015, the humanoid robot reached the Northeastern University, being part of Taskin Padir’s proposal sent to NASA for the Space Robotics Challenge software testing.

Scientists from NASA developed three Valkyrie R5 robots

Taskin Padir is an engineering professor at Northeastern University. Murphy Wonsick, a Ph.D. student at Northeastern University, argued that NASA scientists have done all the work regarding the hardware and now researchers at Northeastern are developing Valkyrie R5’s capabilities. Wonsick claimed that the robot could accomplish several tasks, to move around and make decisions.

Scientists decided to move the humanoid robot to the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation Center (NERVE), which is a warehouse space conducted by UMass Lowell, outside Boston. Based on the report developed there, the criteria that are tested at the NERVE research site are the following: navigation in tight spaces, bipedal locomotion, and onboard vision systems.

These humanoid robots need to be improved to be able to face Mars colonization

NASA has created three more such humanoid robots. One of them remained at NASA, the second one was awarded as research loans to Northeastern University, and the last one was purchased by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. According to data provided by NASA, in the final round of the Space Robotics Challenge, each Valkyrie R5 assigned to every team of researchers will be challenged to solve the aftermath of a dust storm which affected a Martian habitat.

Thus, the robots need to align a communications dish, repair a solar array and fix a habitat leak. The Space Robotics Challenge is part of the Centennial Challenges program at NASA which is bound to offer $1 million to the team which will be able to develop abilities of Valkyrie R5’s dexterity to be able to work with astronauts, but also independently, preparing for future Mars colonization.

Valkyrie is known to be a descendant of NASA’s R5 descent, measuring about six feet and weighing approximately 290 pounds. The three institutions which were chosen by NASA to educate these robots are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Northeastern University and the University of Edinburgh. They are all bound to develop the humanoid robots’ ability to face and solve tough situations during Mars explorations.

Image courtesy of: flickr

Researchers spotted massive groups of humpback whales off the coast of South Africa.

STATES CHRONICLE – Researchers have spotted massive groups of humpback whales off the coast of South Africa. Humpback whales are usually known as being solitary mammals. They prefer to be alone rather than in large groups. Nevertheless, the latest events indicated the exact opposite. These giants were spotted gathering in big groups of up to two hundred individuals.

Humpback whales gathered in massive groups

Scientists are wondering how such an event could happen since whales do not gather in groups larger than 20 individuals. This is an odd kind of event. Ken Findlay, the lead author of the study who conducted a team of researchers from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, claimed that he has never witnessed anything like this before.

He conducted the team of researchers to follow and observe how whales gather in groups and they were also asked to analyze their behavior. These researchers developed three separate reports, examining groups of whales in 2011, 2014 and 2015. They were able to observe them with the help of aircraft and drones, but also by boat.

Researchers believe that the main reason for these group is food

Humpback whales from the Southern Hemisphere usually migrate from the polar feeding territories in summer towards nursing and calving grounds in tropical and subtropical waters during winter. Findlay and his team observed that some whales remained on the South African coast instead of migrating. Alex Zerbini, a wildlife biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective, claims that these massive creatures may be searching for food.

He argued that over time, the social habits of humpback whales did not change, despite locating super-groups of about two hundred individuals. Nevertheless, if these mammals detected massive concentrations of food, they will tend to gather around their meal, forming massive groups. Zerbini also explained that populations of humpback whales have developed to reach outstanding numbers in recent years.

This species had finally indicated a sign of recovery from whaling back in the 20th century when they were on the verge of extinction. He also noted that when there are more whales in the ocean, they also end to group and researchers see more whales. This happens due to the high number of such mammals. It is clear that, like any other species, they gather where they found a large amount of food. Apparently, their diet mainstay of krill has reached outstanding numbers in some habitats.

These massive gatherings only represent a sign of wellness, where humpback whales have triumphantly returned in large numbers.

Image source: wikipedia