Category Environment/Geology

NASA, SpaceX launch US–European satellite to monitor Earth’s oceans

NASA, SpaceX launch US-European satellite to monitor Earth's oceans
The Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16.
Credit: NASA/Carla Thomas

About the size of a full-size pickup truck, a newly launched satellite by NASA and its partners will provide ocean and atmospheric information to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure, and benefit commercial activities, such as shipping.

The Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. Contact between the satellite and a ground station in northern Canada occurred about 1 hour and 30 minutes later at 10:54 p.m...

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UK study finds microplastics in all beverages tested, raising exposure estimates

UK study finds microplastics in all beverages tested, raising exposure estimates
Microplastics were found in all 155 beverage samples tested from the UK market. Credit: Pxhere

Microplastics have found their way deep inside our bones, brains, and even babies. A UK study found that 100% of all 155 hot and cold beverage samples tested contained synthetic plastic particles.

The researchers tested different products from popular UK brands, including coffee, tea, juices, energy drinks, soft drinks, and even tap and bottled water, and not a single beverage was free of microplastics (MPs). Surprisingly, the more expensive tea bag brand showed a higher concentration of MPs, compared to the cheaper ones.

Traces of plastics, including polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polyethylene—commonly used for food packaging and disposable containers—were ...

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This triple-layer sunlight catalyst supercharges green hydrogen by 800%

The material can effectively capture the sunlight so that the energy therein can be used for hydrogen production through the photochemical water splitting reaction.Photographer:Olov Planthaber

Researchers in Sweden have developed a powerful new material that dramatically boosts the ability to create hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight, making the process eight times more effective than before. This breakthrough could be key to fueling heavy transport like ships and planes with clean, renewable energy.

The chemical reaction to produce hydrogen from water is several times more effective when using a combination of new materials in three layers, according to researchers at Linköping University in Sweden...

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Global carbon emissions on track to exhaust 1.5°C budget in three years, study warns

climate
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The central estimate of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is 130 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) (from the beginning of 2025). This would be exhausted in a little more than three years at current levels of CO2 emissions, according to the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change study published in the journal Earth System Science Data, and the budget for 1.6°C or 1.7°C could be exceeded within nine years.

Prof. Piers Forster, Director of the Priestley Center for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study, said, “Our third annual edition of Indicators of Global Climate Change shows that both warming levels and rates of warming are unprecedented.

“Continued record-high emissions of greenhouse gases mean more of us ...

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