Science and Exploration

[SoNotHer]

The year 2012 is starting off with a big bang, displaying all five visible planets within the course of a single night. By visible planet, we mean any planet that has been known since time immemorial, and can easily be seen with the unaided eye. In their outward order from the sun, the five visible planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

The sky’s brightest and second-brightest planets – Venus and Jupiter, respectively – pop out first thing at dusk. Look for the moon, the brightest heavenly object in the nighttime sky, and you simply can’t miss nearby Jupiter. And Venus, the most brilliant heavenly body after the sun and moon, blazes away in the southwest corner of the sky after sunset. Venus sets at early evening while Jupiter stays out till well past midnight.


The evening planets after dark on Sunday, January 1, 2012.

For the fun of it, we show the solar system’s two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, on our sky chart. Uranus, the seventh planet outward from the sun, was discovered in 1781, and Neptune, the eighth planet outward, was first seen in 1846. You’ll need an optical aid and a detailed sky chart to see either planet in the evening sky.

Where is the ecliptic in relation to the Milky Way?

As viewed from mid-northern latitudes, the moon and Jupiter swing pretty much due west around 11:00 p.m., at about the time the red planet Mars comes up in the east. Some three hours thereafter, at roughly 2:00 a.m. local time, Jupiter sets in the west as the ringed planet Saturn rises in the east. Watch for Mercury, the innermost planet, to climb above the southeast horizon some 80 to 60 minutes before sunrise.


Morning planets - Mars, Saturn and Mercury - at early dawn.

You don’t have to stay up all night long to see all five visible planets. Watch Venus and Jupiter beautify the evening shortly after sunset, and then catch Mars, Saturn and Mercury as the predawn darkness begins to give way to dawn.

From - http://earthsky.org/tonight/five-vis...f-the-new-year

[SoNotHer]

Scientists rediscover rarest US bumblebee

Cockerell’s Bumblebee was last seen in the United States in 1956.



A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico. Known as “Cockerell’s Bumblebee,” the bee was originally described in 1913 from six specimens collected along the Rio Ruidoso, with another 16 specimens collected near the town of Cloudcroft, and one more from Ruidoso, the most recent being in 1956. No other specimens had been recorded until three more were collected on weeds along a highway north of Cloudcroft on Aug. 31, 2011.

Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from dozens to thousands of specimens, but not this species. The area it occurs in is infrequently visited by entomologists, and the species has long been ignored because it was thought that it was not actually a genuine species, but only a regional color variant of another well-known species. Yanega said that there are nearly 50 species of native U.S. bumblebees, including a few on the verge of extinction, such as the species known as “Franklin’s Bumblebee,” which has been seen only once since 2003. That species, as rare as it is, is known from a distribution covering some 13,000 square miles, whereas Cockerell’s Bumblebee is known from an area of less than 300 square miles, giving it the most limited range of any bumblebee species in the world.

Yanega pointed out that it is not especially surprising for an insect species to be rediscovered after decades, when people might otherwise imagine that it may have gone extinct. When an insect species is very rare, or highly localized, it can fairly easily escape detection for very long periods of time,” he said. “There are many precedents – some of them very recently in the news, in fact – of insects that have been unseen for anywhere from 70 to more than 100 years, suddenly turning up again when someone either got lucky enough, or persistent enough, to cross paths with them again. It is much harder to give conclusive evidence that an insect species has gone extinct than for something like a bird or mammal or plant.

Entomologists rediscover many such “lost” insect species and discover entirely new species on a regular basis, at the rate of several dozen species every year, primarily in groups such as bees, wasps, beetles, and plant bugs. According to recent estimates, approximately 8 million species are in existence, the vast majority being insects of which only about 1 million have been described.

Bottom line: A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered Cockerell’s Bumblebee, the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, in the White Mountains of New Mexico. The bee was last seen in the U.S. 1956.


Douglas Yanega is senior museum scientist at UC Riverside.

From -

http://earthsky.org/biodiversity/sci...t-us-bumblebee

[Midnight]

Fly away fly away little bees. They have found you again! lol

[Midnight]

Poor little bees

http://www.sciencenewsblog.com/blog/10320122

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-pompei...130608439.html

The mystery of Pompeii's trashy tombs explained.

[SoNotHer]

Scientists Look to European Bats for Answers on White Nose Fungus in U.S.

By Rachel Bogart

According to the Associated Press, Craig Willis, a biologist from the University of Winnipeg, is looking for a solution to control white nose fungus, a disease that is killing bats in several U.S. states, by studying a similar fungus in European bats. Numerous bats in Europe have survived the fungus and scientists believe white nose fungus spread to the U.S. from Europe. Willis' research has focused around finding this link and proving that the fungus is an invasive species. This would ultimately lead to scientists researching why the fungus has been so fatal in the U.S. and help scientists manage the disease. Here are some facts about white nose fungus and how its impacted bats in the country:

* The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that white nose fungus, also known as white nose syndrome, was first found in February 2006 in a cave about 40 miles of Albany, N.Y.

* As of October 2010, white nose syndrome has been confirmed in New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Maryland, as well as several areas in Canada.

* Government agencies have continued to close off caves to the public in hopes of quarantining the disease while scientists try to find out more about the spread of the problem, according to Wired.

* By declaring the fungus an invasive species, wildlife agencies would have increased access to funds in order to fight it.

* Since March of 2008, scientists estimate that more than one million bats have died from the disease, with a majority being little brown bats, according to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

* Infected bats can be identified by having white fungal growth on their muzzles and or wing tissue, though infected bats don't always have these symptoms, in addition to displaying abnormal behavior.

* An article from ABC News noted that the abnormal behavior associated with white nose syndrome is what kills the bats, specifically causing them to end their hibernation early and starving to death in winter.

* In some areas hit by the disease, the mortality rate of infected bats is as high as 90 percent.

* Bats are especially susceptible to white nose syndrome during hibernation since bats congregate in large numbers in caves, reported the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

* Indiana bats are likely the most vulnerable it's a state and federally endangered species with 50 percent of the bats hibernating in a former mine that has been confirmed as having white nose syndrome.



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[Midnight]

Wonder if its like when "civilized" nations went to new countries and killed off the indiginous population with TB, small pox etc.