DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ How space debris circling Earth could lead to disastrous ‘Kessler Syndrome’
▼ + stars: | 2025-01-04 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Meanwhile, a massive fragment of a space object crashed to Earth in a remote village of Kenya. The space debris is just one of several pieces that have plummeted back to the planet. ESATens of thousands of identifiable pieces of space junk orbit Earth, along with potentially millions more that can’t be seen or tracked. “So we are heading towards the situation that we are always dreading.”The scenario, in which space debris collides and creates more debris, is called Kessler Syndrome. Eventually, the proliferation could make Earth’s orbit too clogged for satellites to orbit — or for space missions to launch.

Persons: ”, Vishnu Reddy, Kessler, Oleg Dirksen, Brie Drummond, Cylix, Richard Smith, accidently, Daisy Cadet, —, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt, Jackie Wattles Organizations: CNN, SpaceX, Super Heavy, University of Arizona, Northern, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife, California Academy of Sciences, Mount, CNN Space, Science Locations: South Texas, Kenya, Tucson, Pacific, Greenland, Simushir, Russia, Japan, California, Gulf, Alaska, New York City, South Africa, New, South America, Wales, Mount Everest, China, New York’s Orange

☆ Heat wave in Alaska killed a record 4 million seabirds
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-26 | by ( Julianna Bragg | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Northeast Pacific heat wave, known as “the Blob,” spanned the ocean ecosystem from California to the Gulf of Alaska in late 2014 to 2016. However, the magnitude and speed of the die-off during this heat wave was particularly alarming to Drummond and her team. Brie Drummond/USFWS Before the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific marine heat wave, a common murre census plot at the Semidi Islands, Alaska, had 1,890 birds (left). Before the start of the 2014 heat wave, Alaska’s murre population made up 25% of the world’s population of the seabird species. Half of the data collected from organisms such as phytoplankton and even homeothermic top predators presented “neutral” responses to the heat wave.

Persons: Brie Drummond, murres, Drummond, ”, we’ll, ” Nora Rojek, ” Drummond, Falk Huettmann, Huettmann, ” Huettmann Organizations: CNN, Northern, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife, University of Alaska Locations: California, Gulf, Alaska, Bering, Islands, Pacific, New York City, Fairbanks, Japan, Russia, King

☆ What a Marine Heat Wave Reveals About Our Warming Oceans
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-01 | by ( Delger Erdenesanaa | Ian C. Bates | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They call it “the Blob.”A decade ago, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific shot up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal. A high pressure system parked over the ocean, and winds that churn cold, nutrient-rich water from the depths to the surface died down. Stagnant, warm water spread across the Northeast Pacific, in a marine heat wave that lasted for three years. Under the surface, the food web broke down and ecosystems convulsed, at first unseen to humans on shore. Researchers are still untangling the threads of what happened, and they caution against drawing universal conclusions from a single regional event.

Locations: Pacific, West Coast

☆ Peculiar fossil reveals oldest toothless bird from 120 million years ago
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —A peculiar fossil has helped scientists discover an unusual bird that lived among the dinosaurs 120 million years ago, and the find is changing the way researchers think about avian evolution. Enantiornithines are known as “opposite birds” because they had a shoulder joint feature that greatly differs from the ones modern birds have. “Before Imparavis, toothlessness in this group of birds was known to occur around 70 million years ago,” Clark said. When Jingmai O’Connor, the Field Museum’s associate curator of fossil reptiles, visited the Shandong museum’s collections a few years ago, the fossil caught her attention. While modern birds have fused forelimb digits, enantiornithines still had independent movement in the “little fingers” on their wings.

Persons: Sir David Attenborough, ”, Alex Clark, Imparavis, ” Clark, Jingmai O’Connor, O’Connor, Clark, “, enantiornithines, ” O’Connor, ” Attenborough Organizations: CNN, University of Chicago, Field Locations: China, China’s Toudaoyingzi, Shandong

Search resuls for: "murres"

4 mentions found