Solar storms pose risk to planet Earth, NASA warns
Richard Fisher, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, warns that wide spread blackouts and a loss of communication may occur if the earth is hit by a wave of solar flares, reported the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
Solar storms will cause the sun to reach temperatures of 5,500 degrees C, temperatures that will usually occur only a few times in a person’s life. The sun’s magnetic energy cycle peaks every 22 years and the number of sunspots and solar flares reaches a peak every 11 years.
It was reported that sometime around the year 2013, the Earth will be hit by massive amounts of magnetic energy, which may lead to large communication and air travel disruptions caused by the possible failure of major satellites orbiting the earth.
Since the last time the sun sent out a barrage of solar energy this strong, human kind has become heavily reliant on electronics that are easily interrupted by magnetic energy — from our mobile phones and GPS systems, to machinery in hospitals that sustain life.
Unless future precautions are taken, Fisher warns a massive world-wide disaster may occur.
More water on the moon than originally thought
NASA funded scientists have recently concluded that there is much more water present on the moon than originally believed. Previously, it was believed that lunar surface was completely dry and free of any water.
Found in its structural form known as a hydroxyl, the water is locked inside minerals inside the moon’s interior. The water is a minor component of the rocks found on the lunar surface.
Samples of rocks have shown that the water content ranges from 64 to 5,000 parts per billion. Earlier theories believed that water content was less than one part per billion.
These findings indicate that molecular level the water content on the moon could be larger than the water content of the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States.
It is believed that the moon was the result of a debris cloud formed after a planet approximately the size of Mars collided with Earth. During this compacting and cooling process, water may have escaped and been preserved as a hydroxyl molecules in the moon’s rock particles.
Suspended animation cracked
As reported by TG Daily, scientists have recently discovered an explanation as to how some humans and animals are able to ‘freeze to death’ and then make a full recovery after being warmed back up.
Through tests with yeast and worms called nematodes, it has been shown that these organisms are able to survive hypothermia if they are first put into a state of extreme oxygen deprivation known as anoxia.
Normally after 24 hours of being exposed to temperatures just above freezing, 99 per cent of the organisms died. However, if the organisms were exposed to a drastically reduced level of oxygen, the survival rate increased to 66 per cent in the yeast and 97 per cent in the nematode embryos.
Death by hypothermia happens after the body begins to slowly shut down cellular metabolic functions. Anoxia induced suspended animation appears to prevent the body from progressively shutting down its major functions that ultimately lead to death.
