Slow tsunami-like waves are rolling into the waters off Antarctica. Generated by storms churning as near as the Patagonia coast and as far away as the Gulf of Alaska, these waves jostle the continent’s giant floating ice shelves.According to a new study appearing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the rumbling may account for some of the decade’s most dramatic ice breakups, which may only get worse as the planet’s climate changes.
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A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation. Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation.
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for the world’s highest waterfall, Angel Falls, to be given back its indigenous name.
The falls, which drop nearly 1km (0.6 miles) from a flat-topped mountain in the south of Venezuela, are currently named after a 1930s US aviator.
Jimmy Angel is believed to have been the first outsider to see them.
Mr Chavez said they should be called Kerepakupai-Meru, the name used by the indigenous Pemon people of the area.
Over the past few weeks the United States has been pounded by a number of big snow storms. A week ago Washington DC received 18 inches of snow, setting a number of records.Oklahoma City hit a record with 14 inches of snow. Dallas-area received its first snowfall on Christmas Eve since records began in 1898. The snowfall also broke Christmas Eve records for Minnesota’s Twin Cities by over two inches. Twenty-three people were killed so far due to the extreme weather across the middle of the country.
While scientists say that it is not possible to link a single extreme weather-event—such as one record snowfall—directly to climate change, a pattern of increased heavy precipitation is expected due to climate change in the US.
