News digest – blood cancer immunotherapy, energy drink ban, ‘no-deal’ Brexit plans and our Annual Review

Engineered cell therapy given initial ‘no’ for NHS in England

A ‘promising’ immunotherapy has been provisionally rejected as a treatment for some types of aggressive lymphoma by health regulators in England. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the treatment was too expensive and not enough was known about how it compared to standard chemotherapy treatment. The decision will be reviewed later this year. The Express and our News Report have the story.

Government could ban energy drink sales to children

The prime minister has proposed banning the sale of energy drinks to children in England, amid health fears. Research suggests that children in the UK consume more energy drinks than children in most other European countries, and the drinks have been linked to obesity, tooth decay and hyperactivity. The Government will now consult on how to implement the ban, and what age it should apply to. BBC News and The Guardian have more.

Genetic ‘weather forecast’ could help predict if bowel cancer will return

Scientists have developed a computer model that can help to track how cancer evolves using tumour DNA in blood samples, reports Forbes. They plan to use this information to predict when a tumour might stop responding to treatment. In early tests involving people with advanced bowel cancer, the model picked up DNA changes that indicated treatment had stopped working earlier than scans would in three quarters of patients.

Waiting times for NHS tests in Scotland continue to rise

The number of Scottish NHS patients waiting longer than the 6-week target for key medical tests has continued to increase. The target applies to tests like MRI and CT scans, endoscopies and colonoscopies, which are often used to diagnose cancer. BBC News covered the new NHS figures, which show that around 8 in 10 patients were seen within 6 weeks between March and June this year, compared with 9 in 10 patients in 2016.

Potential impact of the Government’s ‘no-deal’ Brexit plans discussed

The first in a series of plans for how the Government would respond to a ‘no-deal’ Brexit were published last week. And according to the pro-EU campaign group Scientists for EU, UK scientists risk losing access to the majority of EU research funding if the Government fails to reach a deal. BBC News has more.

And in another Brexit story, the Government’s plans to stockpile medicines in the event of no-deal Brexit could cost up to £2 billion, warned the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain. The Guardian has the details.

We also blogged about what the Government’s no-deal Brexit plans could mean for cancer treatment, care and research.

And finally

We published our 2017/18 Annual Review this week. From developing an ‘intelligent knife’ for cancer surgery to discovering better treatments for children with brain tumours, it’s packed with our research highlights from the year. We also spoke with our outgoing Chief Executive, Sir Harpal Kumar, about how the world of cancer research has changed since he joined the charity.

Katie 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2ouyygy

Engineered cell therapy given initial ‘no’ for NHS in England

A ‘promising’ immunotherapy has been provisionally rejected as a treatment for some types of aggressive lymphoma by health regulators in England. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said the treatment was too expensive and not enough was known about how it compared to standard chemotherapy treatment. The decision will be reviewed later this year. The Express and our News Report have the story.

Government could ban energy drink sales to children

The prime minister has proposed banning the sale of energy drinks to children in England, amid health fears. Research suggests that children in the UK consume more energy drinks than children in most other European countries, and the drinks have been linked to obesity, tooth decay and hyperactivity. The Government will now consult on how to implement the ban, and what age it should apply to. BBC News and The Guardian have more.

Genetic ‘weather forecast’ could help predict if bowel cancer will return

Scientists have developed a computer model that can help to track how cancer evolves using tumour DNA in blood samples, reports Forbes. They plan to use this information to predict when a tumour might stop responding to treatment. In early tests involving people with advanced bowel cancer, the model picked up DNA changes that indicated treatment had stopped working earlier than scans would in three quarters of patients.

Waiting times for NHS tests in Scotland continue to rise

The number of Scottish NHS patients waiting longer than the 6-week target for key medical tests has continued to increase. The target applies to tests like MRI and CT scans, endoscopies and colonoscopies, which are often used to diagnose cancer. BBC News covered the new NHS figures, which show that around 8 in 10 patients were seen within 6 weeks between March and June this year, compared with 9 in 10 patients in 2016.

Potential impact of the Government’s ‘no-deal’ Brexit plans discussed

The first in a series of plans for how the Government would respond to a ‘no-deal’ Brexit were published last week. And according to the pro-EU campaign group Scientists for EU, UK scientists risk losing access to the majority of EU research funding if the Government fails to reach a deal. BBC News has more.

And in another Brexit story, the Government’s plans to stockpile medicines in the event of no-deal Brexit could cost up to £2 billion, warned the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain. The Guardian has the details.

We also blogged about what the Government’s no-deal Brexit plans could mean for cancer treatment, care and research.

And finally

We published our 2017/18 Annual Review this week. From developing an ‘intelligent knife’ for cancer surgery to discovering better treatments for children with brain tumours, it’s packed with our research highlights from the year. We also spoke with our outgoing Chief Executive, Sir Harpal Kumar, about how the world of cancer research has changed since he joined the charity.

Katie 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2ouyygy

Unprecedented summer heat in Europe ‘every other year’ under 1.5C of warming

This is a re-post from Carbon Brief.  Dr Andrew King is a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne and Dr Markus Donat is a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales

As summer gets underway in the northern hemisphere, much of Europe has already been basking in temperatures of 30C and beyond.

But while the summer sun sends many flocking to the beach, with it comes the threat of heatwaves and their potentially deadly impacts. Tens of thousands of people across Europe died in heatwaves in 2003 and 2010, for example, while the “Lucifer” heatwave last year fanned forest fires and nearly halved agricultural output in some countries.

With international ambition to limit global temperature rise to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels now enshrined in the Paris Agreement, we have examined what impact that warming could have on European summer temperatures.

Our results, published today in Nature Climate Change, find that more than 100 million Europeans will typically see summer heat that exceeds anything in the 1950-2017 observed record every other year under 1.5C of warming – or in two of every three years under 2C.

Human influence on European climate

There has been a substantial amount of work showing that recent heatwaves and hot summers in Europe have been strongly influenced by human-caused climate change.

This includes the very first “event attribution” study that made a direct connection between human-caused climate change and Europe’s record hot summer of 2003. As a densely populated continent, recent hot summers and heatwaves have hit Europe with spikes in mortality rates.

Europe is also a particularly good location to study the implications of the Paris Agreement limits because it has among the longest and highest quality climate data in the world. This means we have a better understanding of what past summers in Europe have been like and we can evaluate our climate model simulations with a higher degree of confidence, relative to other regions of the world.

In our study, we looked at the hottest average summer temperatures across Europe since 1950 and found that for most of the continent these occurred in 2003, 2006 or 2010. There are exceptions, of course. For example, in Central England the hottest summer remains 1976.

You can see this in the graphic below, which maps the decade of the hottest summer across Europe. The darker the shading, the more recently the record occurred.

Map showing decade of warmest summer on record (since 1950). The darker shading shows more recent decades. Source: King et al. (2018)

Using the historical record hot summer between 1950 and 2017 in each location in Europe as a benchmark, we then examined the likelihood of a summer exceeding that record in model simulations. We assessed four different scenarios: a world without climate change, the world of today’s climate, a 1.5C warmer world and a 2C warmer world.

Consistent with previous studies, which have examined specific heat events in Europe like those in 2003 and 2010, we found that the likelihood of recording a new hottest summer today is higher than in a world without human-induced climate change.

Similarly, when we extend our analysis to the 1.5C and 2C world simulations, we find a continued increase in the likelihood of historically unprecedented hot summers at individual locations across all of Europe.

The impact on humans

Our next step was to estimate how many people would be exposed to historically unprecedented summer average temperatures in each of our four model worlds. For this analysis we kept population levels the same (at the 2010 level), rather than factoring in historical changes or future forecasts.

We found systematic increases in the number of people in Europe projected to experience unprecedented summer heat.

In a typical summer in the current climate, we would expect that 45 million Europeans would experience summer temperatures above the existing record for their location. However, in an average summer in a 1.5C world, we project that 90 million Europeans – about 11% of the continent’s population – would experience a summer warmer than any in recorded history. In a 2C world this figure would almost double again to 163 million Europeans (20% of the population).

We also find that the possibility of very high population exposure to historically unprecedented hot summers increases dramatically from the world of today to a 1.5C world or a 2C world.

The table below shows the likelihood of seeing a summer where 100-400 million Europeans experience a record summer in each of the four model worlds. You can see that more than 100 million Europeans (top row) will typically see unprecedented summer heat every other year under 1.5C of warming – or in two of every three years under 2C.

And while there is a negligible likelihood of seeing a summer where more than 400 million Europeans (bottom row) experience a new record hot summer under pre-industrial conditions or in the current climate. Yet in a 2C world, we project this would happen roughly every seven years.

The table shows the likelihood in a given year of a summer where more than 100, 200, 300 and 400 million people experience a summer beyond the observed record. Numbers in parentheses show 90% confidence intervals and redder colours indicate increased likelihood. Source: King et al. (2018)

Benefits of climate action

Our analysis illustrates that in a 2C world Europeans would experience more frequent and intense heat extremes than in a 1.5C world.

Despite the fact that restricting global warming would benefit the world’s poorest more than others, our study shows that for Europe specifically, taking stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need not be a purely selfless act. The countries and peoples of Europe, especially those in southern Europe which have borne the brunt of recent heatwaves and hot summers, would benefit from reduced exposure to heat extremes if the 1.5C Paris limit is met as opposed to the 2C global warming limit.

European emissions pledges are currently rated as inadequate in reaching either the 1.5C or 2C Paris targets. Our study strongly supports progressively more ambitious reductions to be proposed at the periodic stocktakes, the first of which will probably be in 2023.

While European countries are taking stronger action to curb emissions compared to many other developed nations, it is in Europe’s own interests to maintain and strengthen these pledges.

King, A. D. et al. (2018) Reduced Heat Exposure by Limiting Global Warming to 1.5C, Nature Climate Change, doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0191-0

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2wuDlmo

This is a re-post from Carbon Brief.  Dr Andrew King is a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne and Dr Markus Donat is a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales

As summer gets underway in the northern hemisphere, much of Europe has already been basking in temperatures of 30C and beyond.

But while the summer sun sends many flocking to the beach, with it comes the threat of heatwaves and their potentially deadly impacts. Tens of thousands of people across Europe died in heatwaves in 2003 and 2010, for example, while the “Lucifer” heatwave last year fanned forest fires and nearly halved agricultural output in some countries.

With international ambition to limit global temperature rise to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels now enshrined in the Paris Agreement, we have examined what impact that warming could have on European summer temperatures.

Our results, published today in Nature Climate Change, find that more than 100 million Europeans will typically see summer heat that exceeds anything in the 1950-2017 observed record every other year under 1.5C of warming – or in two of every three years under 2C.

Human influence on European climate

There has been a substantial amount of work showing that recent heatwaves and hot summers in Europe have been strongly influenced by human-caused climate change.

This includes the very first “event attribution” study that made a direct connection between human-caused climate change and Europe’s record hot summer of 2003. As a densely populated continent, recent hot summers and heatwaves have hit Europe with spikes in mortality rates.

Europe is also a particularly good location to study the implications of the Paris Agreement limits because it has among the longest and highest quality climate data in the world. This means we have a better understanding of what past summers in Europe have been like and we can evaluate our climate model simulations with a higher degree of confidence, relative to other regions of the world.

In our study, we looked at the hottest average summer temperatures across Europe since 1950 and found that for most of the continent these occurred in 2003, 2006 or 2010. There are exceptions, of course. For example, in Central England the hottest summer remains 1976.

You can see this in the graphic below, which maps the decade of the hottest summer across Europe. The darker the shading, the more recently the record occurred.

Map showing decade of warmest summer on record (since 1950). The darker shading shows more recent decades. Source: King et al. (2018)

Using the historical record hot summer between 1950 and 2017 in each location in Europe as a benchmark, we then examined the likelihood of a summer exceeding that record in model simulations. We assessed four different scenarios: a world without climate change, the world of today’s climate, a 1.5C warmer world and a 2C warmer world.

Consistent with previous studies, which have examined specific heat events in Europe like those in 2003 and 2010, we found that the likelihood of recording a new hottest summer today is higher than in a world without human-induced climate change.

Similarly, when we extend our analysis to the 1.5C and 2C world simulations, we find a continued increase in the likelihood of historically unprecedented hot summers at individual locations across all of Europe.

The impact on humans

Our next step was to estimate how many people would be exposed to historically unprecedented summer average temperatures in each of our four model worlds. For this analysis we kept population levels the same (at the 2010 level), rather than factoring in historical changes or future forecasts.

We found systematic increases in the number of people in Europe projected to experience unprecedented summer heat.

In a typical summer in the current climate, we would expect that 45 million Europeans would experience summer temperatures above the existing record for their location. However, in an average summer in a 1.5C world, we project that 90 million Europeans – about 11% of the continent’s population – would experience a summer warmer than any in recorded history. In a 2C world this figure would almost double again to 163 million Europeans (20% of the population).

We also find that the possibility of very high population exposure to historically unprecedented hot summers increases dramatically from the world of today to a 1.5C world or a 2C world.

The table below shows the likelihood of seeing a summer where 100-400 million Europeans experience a record summer in each of the four model worlds. You can see that more than 100 million Europeans (top row) will typically see unprecedented summer heat every other year under 1.5C of warming – or in two of every three years under 2C.

And while there is a negligible likelihood of seeing a summer where more than 400 million Europeans (bottom row) experience a new record hot summer under pre-industrial conditions or in the current climate. Yet in a 2C world, we project this would happen roughly every seven years.

The table shows the likelihood in a given year of a summer where more than 100, 200, 300 and 400 million people experience a summer beyond the observed record. Numbers in parentheses show 90% confidence intervals and redder colours indicate increased likelihood. Source: King et al. (2018)

Benefits of climate action

Our analysis illustrates that in a 2C world Europeans would experience more frequent and intense heat extremes than in a 1.5C world.

Despite the fact that restricting global warming would benefit the world’s poorest more than others, our study shows that for Europe specifically, taking stronger action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions need not be a purely selfless act. The countries and peoples of Europe, especially those in southern Europe which have borne the brunt of recent heatwaves and hot summers, would benefit from reduced exposure to heat extremes if the 1.5C Paris limit is met as opposed to the 2C global warming limit.

European emissions pledges are currently rated as inadequate in reaching either the 1.5C or 2C Paris targets. Our study strongly supports progressively more ambitious reductions to be proposed at the periodic stocktakes, the first of which will probably be in 2023.

While European countries are taking stronger action to curb emissions compared to many other developed nations, it is in Europe’s own interests to maintain and strengthen these pledges.

King, A. D. et al. (2018) Reduced Heat Exposure by Limiting Global Warming to 1.5C, Nature Climate Change, doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0191-0

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2wuDlmo

Global warming is intensifying El Niño weather

As humans put more and more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the Earth warms. And the warming is causing changes that might surprise us. Not only is the warming causing long-term trends in heat, sea level rise, ice loss, etc.; it’s also making our weather more variable. It’s making otherwise natural cycles of weather more powerful.

Perhaps the most important natural fluctuation in the Earth’s climate is the El Niño process. El Niño refers to a short-term period of warm ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, basically stretching from South America towards Australia. When an El Niño happens, that region is warmer than usual. If the counterpart La Niña occurs, the region is colder than usual. Often times, neither an El Niño or La Niña is present and the waters are a normal temperature. This would be called a “neutral” state.

The ocean waters switch back and forth between El Niño and La Niña every few years. Not regularly, like a pendulum, but there is a pattern of oscillation. And regardless of which part of the cycle we are in (El Niño or La Niña), there are consequences for weather around the world. For instance, during an El Niño, we typically see cooler and wetter weather in the southern United States while it is hotter and drier in South America and Australia.

It’s really important to be able to predict El Niño/La Niña cycles in advance. It’s also important to be able to understand how these cycles will change in a warming planet. Fortunately, a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters helps answer that question. The authors include Dr. John Fasullo from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and his colleagues.

El Niño cycles have been known for a long time. Their influence around the world has also been known for almost 100 years. It was in the 1920s that the impact of El Niño on places as far away as the Indian Ocean were identified. Having observed the effects of El Niño for a century, scientists had the perspective to understand something might be changing. 

For example, in 2009–2010, intense drought and heat waves gripped the Amazon region – far greater than expected based on the moderate El Niño at the time. In addition, from 2010 to 2011, severe drought and heat waves hit the southern USA, coinciding with a La Niña event. Other extreme weather in the US, Australia, Central and Southern America, and Asia stronger than would be expected from El Niño’s historical behavior have raised concerns that our El Niño weather may be becoming “supercharged.”

To see if something new was happening, the authors of this paper looked at the relationship between regional climate and the El Niño/La Niña status in climate model simulations of the past and future. They found an intensification of El Niño/La Niña impacts in a warmer climate, especially for land regions in North America and Australia. Changes between El Niño/La Niña in other areas, like South America, were less clear. The intensification of weather was more prevalent over land regions.

So, what does this mean? It means if you live in an area that is affected by an El Niño or La Niña, the effect is likely becoming magnified by climate change. For instance, consider California. There, El Niño brings cool temperatures with rains; La Niña brings heat and dry weather. Future El Niños will make flooding more likely while future La Niñas will bring more drought and intensified wildfire seasons.

Unsurprisingly, we’re already seeing these effects, with record wildfires in California fueled by hot and dry weather. We are now emerging from a weak La Niña, so we would expect only a modest increase in heat and dryness in California. But the supercharging of the La Niña connection is likely making things worse. We would have California wildfires without human-caused global warming, but they wouldn’t be this bad.

Dr. Fasullo nicely summarized the findings of the paper:

Click here to read the rest

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2PoGyLh

As humans put more and more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the Earth warms. And the warming is causing changes that might surprise us. Not only is the warming causing long-term trends in heat, sea level rise, ice loss, etc.; it’s also making our weather more variable. It’s making otherwise natural cycles of weather more powerful.

Perhaps the most important natural fluctuation in the Earth’s climate is the El Niño process. El Niño refers to a short-term period of warm ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, basically stretching from South America towards Australia. When an El Niño happens, that region is warmer than usual. If the counterpart La Niña occurs, the region is colder than usual. Often times, neither an El Niño or La Niña is present and the waters are a normal temperature. This would be called a “neutral” state.

The ocean waters switch back and forth between El Niño and La Niña every few years. Not regularly, like a pendulum, but there is a pattern of oscillation. And regardless of which part of the cycle we are in (El Niño or La Niña), there are consequences for weather around the world. For instance, during an El Niño, we typically see cooler and wetter weather in the southern United States while it is hotter and drier in South America and Australia.

It’s really important to be able to predict El Niño/La Niña cycles in advance. It’s also important to be able to understand how these cycles will change in a warming planet. Fortunately, a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters helps answer that question. The authors include Dr. John Fasullo from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and his colleagues.

El Niño cycles have been known for a long time. Their influence around the world has also been known for almost 100 years. It was in the 1920s that the impact of El Niño on places as far away as the Indian Ocean were identified. Having observed the effects of El Niño for a century, scientists had the perspective to understand something might be changing. 

For example, in 2009–2010, intense drought and heat waves gripped the Amazon region – far greater than expected based on the moderate El Niño at the time. In addition, from 2010 to 2011, severe drought and heat waves hit the southern USA, coinciding with a La Niña event. Other extreme weather in the US, Australia, Central and Southern America, and Asia stronger than would be expected from El Niño’s historical behavior have raised concerns that our El Niño weather may be becoming “supercharged.”

To see if something new was happening, the authors of this paper looked at the relationship between regional climate and the El Niño/La Niña status in climate model simulations of the past and future. They found an intensification of El Niño/La Niña impacts in a warmer climate, especially for land regions in North America and Australia. Changes between El Niño/La Niña in other areas, like South America, were less clear. The intensification of weather was more prevalent over land regions.

So, what does this mean? It means if you live in an area that is affected by an El Niño or La Niña, the effect is likely becoming magnified by climate change. For instance, consider California. There, El Niño brings cool temperatures with rains; La Niña brings heat and dry weather. Future El Niños will make flooding more likely while future La Niñas will bring more drought and intensified wildfire seasons.

Unsurprisingly, we’re already seeing these effects, with record wildfires in California fueled by hot and dry weather. We are now emerging from a weak La Niña, so we would expect only a modest increase in heat and dryness in California. But the supercharging of the La Niña connection is likely making things worse. We would have California wildfires without human-caused global warming, but they wouldn’t be this bad.

Dr. Fasullo nicely summarized the findings of the paper:

Click here to read the rest

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2PoGyLh

The silver lining of fake news

This is a re-post from ClimateSight

What exciting times we live in! The UK is stockpiling food and medicine as it charges willingly into a catastrophe of its own choosing. The next Australian prime minister is likely to be a man who has committed crimes against humanity. And America has descended so far into dystopia that it can’t even be summed up in one pithy sentence.

I spend a lot of time wondering how future generations will look back upon this period in history. Will there be memorial museums on Nauru and at the US-Mexican border, pledging Never Again? Will the UK’s years in the European Union be heralded as a golden age for the country? And what will the history books say about Donald Trump?

When I imagine these future historians, giving their seminars and writing their books and assigning their students essays, there is one overarching theme I’m sure they will focus on. One puzzling phenomenon is at the root of so much of the madness we face today. Our future historian might title such a seminar “Widespread public rejection of facts in the early 21st century”. Or, if you wish to be so crass, “Fake News”. A distrust of experts, and of the very idea of facts, now permeates almost every part of public life – from science to economics to medicine to politics.

Climate change used to be the sole target of this. I’ve been wrestling with fake news on climate change for more than ten years now. And I used to get so frustrated, because my friends and family would read dodgy articles in respectable newspapers written by fossil fuel executives and believe them. Or at least, consider them. Reasonable people heard debate on this issue and assumed there must be some merit to it. “Both sides of the climate change debate have good points to make,” they would reasonably say.

It’s different now. Denialism has spread into so many topics, and received so much attention, that reasonable people are now well aware of its existence. “You guys, did you know that there are people who don’t believe in facts?!” is the gist of so many dinner conversations around the world these days. And the exhausted climate scientists sit back, twirl their spaghetti around their fork, and say “Yes, yes we know. So you’ve finally caught on.”

This is the weird silver lining of fake news: reasonable people now take climate change more seriously. When they read bogus stories about global cooling and natural cycles and scientific conspiracies, they just say “Aha! These are the people who don’t believe in facts.” It’s like the dystopia of 2018 has inoculated many of us against denialism. More and more people now understand and accept the science of climate change, even while those who don’t grow louder and more desperate. Climate change deniers still exist, but it seems that their audience is shrinking.

(Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re actually doing anything about climate change.)

***

PS I am now Twittering, for those of you who are so inclined.

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2wuDjeg

This is a re-post from ClimateSight

What exciting times we live in! The UK is stockpiling food and medicine as it charges willingly into a catastrophe of its own choosing. The next Australian prime minister is likely to be a man who has committed crimes against humanity. And America has descended so far into dystopia that it can’t even be summed up in one pithy sentence.

I spend a lot of time wondering how future generations will look back upon this period in history. Will there be memorial museums on Nauru and at the US-Mexican border, pledging Never Again? Will the UK’s years in the European Union be heralded as a golden age for the country? And what will the history books say about Donald Trump?

When I imagine these future historians, giving their seminars and writing their books and assigning their students essays, there is one overarching theme I’m sure they will focus on. One puzzling phenomenon is at the root of so much of the madness we face today. Our future historian might title such a seminar “Widespread public rejection of facts in the early 21st century”. Or, if you wish to be so crass, “Fake News”. A distrust of experts, and of the very idea of facts, now permeates almost every part of public life – from science to economics to medicine to politics.

Climate change used to be the sole target of this. I’ve been wrestling with fake news on climate change for more than ten years now. And I used to get so frustrated, because my friends and family would read dodgy articles in respectable newspapers written by fossil fuel executives and believe them. Or at least, consider them. Reasonable people heard debate on this issue and assumed there must be some merit to it. “Both sides of the climate change debate have good points to make,” they would reasonably say.

It’s different now. Denialism has spread into so many topics, and received so much attention, that reasonable people are now well aware of its existence. “You guys, did you know that there are people who don’t believe in facts?!” is the gist of so many dinner conversations around the world these days. And the exhausted climate scientists sit back, twirl their spaghetti around their fork, and say “Yes, yes we know. So you’ve finally caught on.”

This is the weird silver lining of fake news: reasonable people now take climate change more seriously. When they read bogus stories about global cooling and natural cycles and scientific conspiracies, they just say “Aha! These are the people who don’t believe in facts.” It’s like the dystopia of 2018 has inoculated many of us against denialism. More and more people now understand and accept the science of climate change, even while those who don’t grow louder and more desperate. Climate change deniers still exist, but it seems that their audience is shrinking.

(Of course, this doesn’t mean we’re actually doing anything about climate change.)

***

PS I am now Twittering, for those of you who are so inclined.

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2wuDjeg

New research, August 20-26, 2018

A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.

Climate change

Effect of coupled global climate models sea surface temperature biases on simulated climate of the western United States (open access)

Temperature, precipitation, wind

Global bimodal precipitation seasonality: A systematic overview

Spatiotemporal variations of annual shallow soil temperature on the Tibetan Plateau during 1983–2013

Lake surface water temperature change over the Tibetan Plateau from 2001–2015: A sensitive indicator of the warming climate

Estimating changes in temperature distributions in a large ensemble of climate simulations using quantile regression

Surface air temperature variability over the Arabian Peninsula and its links to circulation patterns

Urbanization effects on changes in the observed air temperatures during 1977–2014 in China

Annual cycle of temperature trends in Europe, 1961–2000

Analyses of the oceanic heat content during 1980–2014 and satellite‐era cyclones over Bay of Bengal

Extreme events

Collective resources in the repopulation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

A review of cyclone track shifts over the Great Lakes of North America: implications for storm surges

Investigating relationships between Australian flooding and large‐scale climate indices and possible mechanism

Impacts of climate variability and change on seasonal drought characteristics of Pakistan

Observed trends and future projections of extreme heat events in Sonora, Mexico

Conditions associated with rain field size for tropical cyclones landfalling over the Eastern United States

Forcings and feedbacks

Accounting for Changing Temperature Patterns Increases Historical Estimates of Climate Sensitivity

A new perspective on solar dimming over the Tibetan Plateau

The impacts of atmospheric and surface parameters on long-term variations in the planetary albedo

Assessment of aerosol–cloud–radiation correlations in satellite observations, climate models and reanalysis (open access)

The cloud-free global energy balance and inferred cloud radiative effects: an assessment based on direct observations and climate models (open access)

Sources of uncertainty in the meridional pattern of climate change

Decoding Hosing and Heating Effects on Global Temperature and Meridional Circulations in a Warming Climate

Cryosphere

Climate response to the meltwater runoff from Greenland ice sheet: evolving sensitivity to discharging locations

Fluctuations in Arctic sea-ice extent: comparing observations and climate models (open access)

Theoretical study of ice cover phenology at large freshwater lakes based on SMOS MIRAS data (open access)

Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

Hydrosphere 

Response of subtropical stationary waves and hydrological extremes to climate warming in boreal summer

Climatological and hydrological patterns and verified trends in precipitation and streamflow in the basins of Brazilian hydroelectric plants

Global implications of 1.5 °C and 2 °C warmer worlds on extreme river flows (open access)

Impact of climate variation on hydrometeorology in Iran

Atmospheric and oceanic circulation

Potential influence of the Atlantic Multi‐decadal Oscillation in modulating the biennial relationship between Indian and Australian summer monsoons

Ocean circulation reduces the Hadley cell response to increased greenhouse gases

ENSO's Changing Influence on Temperature, Precipitation, and Wildfire In a Warming Climate

Carbon and nitrogen cycles

The response of the marine nitrogen cycle to ocean acidification

Pathway-dependent fate of permafrost region carbon (open access)

Spatial and temporal variability of pCO2, carbon fluxes and saturation state on the West Florida Shelf

Analyzing temporo-spatial changes and the distribution of the CO2 concentration in Australia from 2009 to 2016 by greenhouse gas monitoring satellites

Carbon storage potential in degraded forests of Kalimantan, Indonesia (open access)

Climate change impacts 

Mankind

Long-Term Study of a Hantavirus Reservoir Population in an Urban Protected Area, Argentina

The health sector’s role in governance of climate change adaptation in Myanmar

The influence of political ideology and socioeconomic vulnerability on perceived health risks of heat waves in the context of climate change

The economic impact of climate risks in China: evidence from 47-sector panel data, 2000–2014

Transitions to freshwater sustainability

Identifying hotspots of land use cover change under socioeconomic and climate change scenarios in Mexico (open access)

Human–environmental drivers and impacts of the globally extreme 2017 Chilean fires

Extremal dependence between temperature and ozone over the continental US (open access)

Crop production losses associated with anthropogenic climate change for 1981–2010 compared with preindustrial levels (open access)

The insight of agricultural adaptation to climate change: a case of rice growers in Eastern Himalaya, India

Predicting future frost damage risk of kiwifruit in Korea under climate change using an integrated modelling approach

Bridging the Gap Between Climate Science and Farmers in Colombia (open access)

Developing a framework to quantify potential Sea level rise-driven environmental losses: A case study in Semarang coastal area, Indonesia (open access)

Sub-national government efforts to activate and motivate local climate change adaptation: Nova Scotia, Canada

Biosphere

Detection of positive gross primary production extremes in terrestrial ecosystems of China during 1982‐2015 and analysis of climate contribution

Tree radial growth is projected to decline in South Asian moist forest trees under climate change

Species‐specific phenological trends in shallow Pampean lakes (Argentina) zooplankton driven by contemporary climate change in the Southern Hemisphere

Untangling methodological and scale considerations in growth and productivity trend estimates of Canada’s forests (open access)

Rainfall-dependent influence of snowfall on species loss (open access)

Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate‐driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests (open access)

Mass and Fine Scale Morphological Changes Induced by Changing Seawater pH in the Coccolith Gephyrocapsa oceanica

Influence of winter precipitation on spring phenology in boreal forests

Resilience of tropical tree cover: The roles of climate, fire, and herbivory (open access)

Warming springs and habitat alteration interact to impact timing of breeding and population dynamics in a migratory bird (open access)

Tree water balance drives temperate forest responses to drought

Body size shifts influence effects of increasing temperatures on ectotherm metabolism

Sensitivity of mangrove range limits to climate variability

Soil multifunctionality and drought resistance are determined by plant structural traits in restoring grassland (open access)

Climate–fire interactions constrain potential woody plant cover and stature in North American Great Plains grasslands

Other impacts

Extreme levels of Canadian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere over central Europe on 21–22 August 2017 (open access)

Fire frequency analysis for different climatic stations in Victoria, Australia

Forest Fires Across Italian Regions and Implications for Climate Change: A Panel Data Analysis (open access)

Projected centennial oxygen trends and their attribution to distinct ocean climate forcings

Climate change mitigation

Climate change communication

Global Warming’s “Six Americas Short Survey”: Audience Segmentation of Climate Change Views Using a Four Question Instrument

The IPCC and the new map of science and politics

Relating perceptions of flood risk and coping ability to mitigation behavior in West Africa: Case study of Burkina Faso

Protocols and partnerships for engaging Pacific Island communities in the collection and use of traditional climate knowledge (open access)

Climate Policy

Examining the critical role of institutions and innovations in shaping productive energy policy for Russia 

Emission savings

Spatial greenhouse gas emissions from US county corn production

2010–2016 methane trends over Canada, the United States, and Mexico observed by the GOSAT satellite: contributions from different source sectors (open access) 

Other papers

Other environmental issues

First long-term and near real-time measurement of trace elements in China's urban atmosphere: temporal variability, source apportionment and precipitation effect (open access)

Palaeoclimatology

Climate impact on the development of Pre-Classic Maya civilisation (open access)

Dynamic vegetation simulations of the mid‐Holocene Green Sahara

Carbon cycle dynamics linked with Karoo-Ferrar volcanism and astronomical cycles during Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic)

Influence of Surface Topography on the Critical Carbon Dioxide Level Required for the Formation of a Modern Snowball Earth

Mediterranean winter snowfall variability over the past millennium

On the relationship between coral δ13C and Caribbean climate

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2LKCfYz

A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.

Climate change

Effect of coupled global climate models sea surface temperature biases on simulated climate of the western United States (open access)

Temperature, precipitation, wind

Global bimodal precipitation seasonality: A systematic overview

Spatiotemporal variations of annual shallow soil temperature on the Tibetan Plateau during 1983–2013

Lake surface water temperature change over the Tibetan Plateau from 2001–2015: A sensitive indicator of the warming climate

Estimating changes in temperature distributions in a large ensemble of climate simulations using quantile regression

Surface air temperature variability over the Arabian Peninsula and its links to circulation patterns

Urbanization effects on changes in the observed air temperatures during 1977–2014 in China

Annual cycle of temperature trends in Europe, 1961–2000

Analyses of the oceanic heat content during 1980–2014 and satellite‐era cyclones over Bay of Bengal

Extreme events

Collective resources in the repopulation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

A review of cyclone track shifts over the Great Lakes of North America: implications for storm surges

Investigating relationships between Australian flooding and large‐scale climate indices and possible mechanism

Impacts of climate variability and change on seasonal drought characteristics of Pakistan

Observed trends and future projections of extreme heat events in Sonora, Mexico

Conditions associated with rain field size for tropical cyclones landfalling over the Eastern United States

Forcings and feedbacks

Accounting for Changing Temperature Patterns Increases Historical Estimates of Climate Sensitivity

A new perspective on solar dimming over the Tibetan Plateau

The impacts of atmospheric and surface parameters on long-term variations in the planetary albedo

Assessment of aerosol–cloud–radiation correlations in satellite observations, climate models and reanalysis (open access)

The cloud-free global energy balance and inferred cloud radiative effects: an assessment based on direct observations and climate models (open access)

Sources of uncertainty in the meridional pattern of climate change

Decoding Hosing and Heating Effects on Global Temperature and Meridional Circulations in a Warming Climate

Cryosphere

Climate response to the meltwater runoff from Greenland ice sheet: evolving sensitivity to discharging locations

Fluctuations in Arctic sea-ice extent: comparing observations and climate models (open access)

Theoretical study of ice cover phenology at large freshwater lakes based on SMOS MIRAS data (open access)

Salinity Control of Thermal Evolution of Late Summer Melt Ponds on Arctic Sea Ice

Hydrosphere 

Response of subtropical stationary waves and hydrological extremes to climate warming in boreal summer

Climatological and hydrological patterns and verified trends in precipitation and streamflow in the basins of Brazilian hydroelectric plants

Global implications of 1.5 °C and 2 °C warmer worlds on extreme river flows (open access)

Impact of climate variation on hydrometeorology in Iran

Atmospheric and oceanic circulation

Potential influence of the Atlantic Multi‐decadal Oscillation in modulating the biennial relationship between Indian and Australian summer monsoons

Ocean circulation reduces the Hadley cell response to increased greenhouse gases

ENSO's Changing Influence on Temperature, Precipitation, and Wildfire In a Warming Climate

Carbon and nitrogen cycles

The response of the marine nitrogen cycle to ocean acidification

Pathway-dependent fate of permafrost region carbon (open access)

Spatial and temporal variability of pCO2, carbon fluxes and saturation state on the West Florida Shelf

Analyzing temporo-spatial changes and the distribution of the CO2 concentration in Australia from 2009 to 2016 by greenhouse gas monitoring satellites

Carbon storage potential in degraded forests of Kalimantan, Indonesia (open access)

Climate change impacts 

Mankind

Long-Term Study of a Hantavirus Reservoir Population in an Urban Protected Area, Argentina

The health sector’s role in governance of climate change adaptation in Myanmar

The influence of political ideology and socioeconomic vulnerability on perceived health risks of heat waves in the context of climate change

The economic impact of climate risks in China: evidence from 47-sector panel data, 2000–2014

Transitions to freshwater sustainability

Identifying hotspots of land use cover change under socioeconomic and climate change scenarios in Mexico (open access)

Human–environmental drivers and impacts of the globally extreme 2017 Chilean fires

Extremal dependence between temperature and ozone over the continental US (open access)

Crop production losses associated with anthropogenic climate change for 1981–2010 compared with preindustrial levels (open access)

The insight of agricultural adaptation to climate change: a case of rice growers in Eastern Himalaya, India

Predicting future frost damage risk of kiwifruit in Korea under climate change using an integrated modelling approach

Bridging the Gap Between Climate Science and Farmers in Colombia (open access)

Developing a framework to quantify potential Sea level rise-driven environmental losses: A case study in Semarang coastal area, Indonesia (open access)

Sub-national government efforts to activate and motivate local climate change adaptation: Nova Scotia, Canada

Biosphere

Detection of positive gross primary production extremes in terrestrial ecosystems of China during 1982‐2015 and analysis of climate contribution

Tree radial growth is projected to decline in South Asian moist forest trees under climate change

Species‐specific phenological trends in shallow Pampean lakes (Argentina) zooplankton driven by contemporary climate change in the Southern Hemisphere

Untangling methodological and scale considerations in growth and productivity trend estimates of Canada’s forests (open access)

Rainfall-dependent influence of snowfall on species loss (open access)

Can ecosystem functioning be maintained despite climate‐driven shifts in species composition? Insights from novel marine forests (open access)

Mass and Fine Scale Morphological Changes Induced by Changing Seawater pH in the Coccolith Gephyrocapsa oceanica

Influence of winter precipitation on spring phenology in boreal forests

Resilience of tropical tree cover: The roles of climate, fire, and herbivory (open access)

Warming springs and habitat alteration interact to impact timing of breeding and population dynamics in a migratory bird (open access)

Tree water balance drives temperate forest responses to drought

Body size shifts influence effects of increasing temperatures on ectotherm metabolism

Sensitivity of mangrove range limits to climate variability

Soil multifunctionality and drought resistance are determined by plant structural traits in restoring grassland (open access)

Climate–fire interactions constrain potential woody plant cover and stature in North American Great Plains grasslands

Other impacts

Extreme levels of Canadian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere over central Europe on 21–22 August 2017 (open access)

Fire frequency analysis for different climatic stations in Victoria, Australia

Forest Fires Across Italian Regions and Implications for Climate Change: A Panel Data Analysis (open access)

Projected centennial oxygen trends and their attribution to distinct ocean climate forcings

Climate change mitigation

Climate change communication

Global Warming’s “Six Americas Short Survey”: Audience Segmentation of Climate Change Views Using a Four Question Instrument

The IPCC and the new map of science and politics

Relating perceptions of flood risk and coping ability to mitigation behavior in West Africa: Case study of Burkina Faso

Protocols and partnerships for engaging Pacific Island communities in the collection and use of traditional climate knowledge (open access)

Climate Policy

Examining the critical role of institutions and innovations in shaping productive energy policy for Russia 

Emission savings

Spatial greenhouse gas emissions from US county corn production

2010–2016 methane trends over Canada, the United States, and Mexico observed by the GOSAT satellite: contributions from different source sectors (open access) 

Other papers

Other environmental issues

First long-term and near real-time measurement of trace elements in China's urban atmosphere: temporal variability, source apportionment and precipitation effect (open access)

Palaeoclimatology

Climate impact on the development of Pre-Classic Maya civilisation (open access)

Dynamic vegetation simulations of the mid‐Holocene Green Sahara

Carbon cycle dynamics linked with Karoo-Ferrar volcanism and astronomical cycles during Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic)

Influence of Surface Topography on the Critical Carbon Dioxide Level Required for the Formation of a Modern Snowball Earth

Mediterranean winter snowfall variability over the past millennium

On the relationship between coral δ13C and Caribbean climate

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/2LKCfYz

September guide to the bright planets

View larger. | Our friend Duke Marsh wrote on August 23, 2018: “Four of the five bright planets joined the moon above the riverfront in New Albany, Indiana. Each planet can be see directly below its name at the top. Looks best viewed full-screen on a computer monitor or large tablet.” These worlds will continue to light up the sky at nightfall throughout September, 2018.

Click the name of a planet to learn more about its visibility in September 2018: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Mercury

Circle September 11, 12 and 13 on your calendar, for that’s when the waxing crescent moon goses by Venus and Jupiter. Read more.

Venus is the brightest planet, and – as seen from around the world -lights up in the southwestern or western sky after sunset, and is nearly impossible to miss as the evening “star” – unless you reside at a far northerly outpost, such as Alaska or Scandinavia. That far north, Venus sets very soon after sunset.

Although Venus always ranks as the 3rd-brightest celestial object after the sun and moon, it outdoes itself in September 2018. Look for this dazzling world to shine at its brilliant best in the evening sky around the time of the September equinox.

Read more: Venus at greatest illuminated extent on September 21

At mid-northern latitudes, Venus sets roughly 1 1/2 hours after the sun in early September. By the month’s end, that’ll taper to about an hour after sunset.

What’s interesting is that – as seen from mid-northern latitudes – Venus reached its highest altitude in the evening sky after sunset in June 2018. And yet Venus’ greatest elongation (greatest apparent distance from the setting sun) happened last month, on August 17.

Why? It’s because of the shifting angle of the ecliptic, which marks the annual path of the sun, and the approximate path of the moon and planets across our sky. From our northerly latitudes, the ecliptic falls closer to the horizon and makes an increasingly shallower angle with the sunset horizon as we approach the September autumn equinox. That keeps Venus low in the sky at northerly latitudes.

Venus, the moon – and see the moon’s reflection in Lisbon, Portugal on August 13, 2018. Photo by Henrique Feliciano Silva,

The Southern Hemisphere has the big advantage in seeing Venus because September is a late winter/early spring month in that part of the world. Therefore, day by day, the ecliptic climbs higher in the sky and intersects the sunset horizon at an increasingly steeper angle as the Southern Hemisphere approaches their September spring equinox. That places Venus high above the setting sun (rather than to the side of it as for us northerners). At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere (South Africa, southern Australia), Venus sets about 3 1/2 hours after sunset in early September and 2 1/2 hours after the sun at the month’s end.

In short, when it comes to the height of the ecliptic in the evening sky, remember the saying “spring up and fall down.” At sunset on the spring equinox, the ecliptic soars highest up for the year. At sunset on the autumn equinox, the ecliptic falls lowest down. That applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Circle September 11, 12 and 13 on your calendar. That’s when the young moon will be sweeping past Venus (and Jupiter) in the evening sky. The western twilight will make the pairing all the more picturesque.

From the Southern Hemisphere, look for Venus to adorn the evening sky from now till nearly the end of October 2018. At middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, it’ll take a diligent effort to catch Venus after sunset in late September and early October 2018.

Watch for the moon to move by the planet Jupiter and the star Antares from September 13 to 15, 2018. Read more.

Jupiter remains bright and beautiful throughout September 2018. Its opposition took place on May 8-9, 2018, and ever since, the planet has been shifting westward, or in the direction of sunset. Around the world, you’ll find Jupiter highest up for the night around dusk or nightfall, appearing rather low in the southwest sky at northerly latitudes; in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll see Jupiter quite high in the western sky.

Jupiter is brighter than any star, but it’s not brighter than Venus, which beams mightily in the west or southwest after sunset. This month, Jupiter reclaims its spot as the 4th-brightest celestial object, after the sun, moon and Venus. For some two months, from about July 7 to September 7, Mars supplanted Jupiter as the brighter of these two heavenly bodies.

Once again, as with Venus, Jupiter stays out longer after sunset in the Southern Hemisphere. That’s because the ecliptic (pathway of the sun, moon and planets) hits the evening horizon almost straight up and down in the Southern Hemisphere, yet at a shallow angle in the Northern Hemisphere.

For instance, at mid-northern latitudes (United States, mainland Europe, Japan), Jupiter sets about 3 hours after the sun in early September and about 2 hours after at the month’s end.

In contrast, at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere (Cape Town, South Africa, and southern Australia), Jupiter sets about 5 hours after the sun in early September and about 3 1/2 hours after by the month’s end.

Jupiter shines in front of the constellation Libra the Scales until November 2018. Look for Libra’s brightest stars near Jupiter, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali (both star names are pronounced with the same rhythm as Obi-Wan Kenobi of “Star Wars”).

If you aim binoculars at Zubenelgenubi, you’ll see this star as two stars. Zubeneschamali, meanwhile, is said to appear green in color, although, astronomers say, stars can’t look green.

Let the moon guide your eye to Jupiter for several evenings, centered on or around September 13.

Watch for the moon to sweep by the planets Saturn and Mars from September 17 to 19. Read more.

Saturn and Mars are ideally placed for viewing around nightfall. Around the world in September, Saturn transits – reaches its highest point in the sky – around dusk or nightfall. Then Mars transits roughly two hours after Saturn does.

Click here for a recommended sky almanac providing you with the transit times for the planets.

From mid-northern latitudes, Saturn stays out until around midnight (1 a.m. daylight saving time) in early September. By the month’s end, Saturn will set around 10 p.m. (11 p.m. daylight saving time). Mars will follow Saturn beneath the western horizon roughly two hours after Saturn does.

From temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, Saturn and Mars both stay out until well after midnight.

You can tell Mars from Saturn because Mars has a reddish color and Saturn looks golden. Binoculars show their colors better than the eye alone.

Watch for the moon to pair up with Saturn on or near September 17 and with Mars on or near September 19.

At present, both Saturn and Mars shine more brilliantly than a 1st-magnitude star. However, Mars is brighter than Saturn. Saturn’s brilliance peaked at its June 27 opposition, and Mars’ brilliance came to a head at its July 27 opposition.

It’s not often that Mars outshines Jupiter, normally the fourth-brightest celestial object to light up the sky, after the sun, moon and Venus. But, for a couple of months in 2018, Mars outshines Jupiter from about July 7 to September 7, 2018.

Both Mars and Saturn are slowly dimming throughout the month. Because Mars is dimming at a faster rate than Saturn is, Mars will be nearly 10 times brighter than Saturn at the beginning of the month, and some 5 times brighter by the month’s end.

Remember Mars’ historically close opposition of August 28, 2003? That year, it was closer and brighter than it had been in some 60,000 years. The July opposition was the best since 2003, and what’s more, Mars will remain bright and beautiful all through August 2018!

Read more: Mars brighter in 2018 than since 2003

Click here for more about close and far Mars oppositions

Diagram by Roy L. Bishop. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Used with permission. Visit the RASC estore to purchase the Observer’s Handbook, a necessary tool for all skywatchers. Read more about this image.

Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system, might still be visible before sunrise from the Northern Hemisphere and the southern tropics in early September. But this world is rapidly falling into glare of sunrise throughout the month, and its reign as the morning “star” will officially end on September 21, 2018 (same date that Venus reaches its greatest illuminated extent in the evening sky).

In the last week of August 2018, Mercury formed an equilateral triangle with the bright stars Pollux and Procyon. In the first week of September, Mercury will be farther away from Pollux and Procyon on the sky’s dome, making an isosceles triangle instead.

What do we mean by bright planet? By bright planet, we mean any solar system planet that is easily visible without an optical aid and that has been watched by our ancestors since time immemorial. In their outward order from the sun, the five bright planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets actually do appear bright in our sky. They are typically as bright as – or brighter than – the brightest stars. Plus, these relatively nearby worlds tend to shine with a steadier light than the distant, twinkling stars. You can spot them, and come to know them as faithful friends, if you try.

Bottom line: In September 2018, four planets arc across the sky at dusk and nightfall. Venus lights up the western sky, with Jupiter shining above Venus. Mars and Saturn light up the southern sky at nightfall from northerly latitudes. From the Southern Hemisphere, Mars and Saturn shine high overhead. Click here for recommended almanacs; they can help you know when the planets rise, transit and set in your sky.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate what you can to our annual crowd-funding campaign.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to EarthSky News by email

Get your EarthSky 2018 lunar calendar now, while they last.

Visit EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze, and recommend a place we can all enjoy.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/IJfHCr

View larger. | Our friend Duke Marsh wrote on August 23, 2018: “Four of the five bright planets joined the moon above the riverfront in New Albany, Indiana. Each planet can be see directly below its name at the top. Looks best viewed full-screen on a computer monitor or large tablet.” These worlds will continue to light up the sky at nightfall throughout September, 2018.

Click the name of a planet to learn more about its visibility in September 2018: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Mercury

Circle September 11, 12 and 13 on your calendar, for that’s when the waxing crescent moon goses by Venus and Jupiter. Read more.

Venus is the brightest planet, and – as seen from around the world -lights up in the southwestern or western sky after sunset, and is nearly impossible to miss as the evening “star” – unless you reside at a far northerly outpost, such as Alaska or Scandinavia. That far north, Venus sets very soon after sunset.

Although Venus always ranks as the 3rd-brightest celestial object after the sun and moon, it outdoes itself in September 2018. Look for this dazzling world to shine at its brilliant best in the evening sky around the time of the September equinox.

Read more: Venus at greatest illuminated extent on September 21

At mid-northern latitudes, Venus sets roughly 1 1/2 hours after the sun in early September. By the month’s end, that’ll taper to about an hour after sunset.

What’s interesting is that – as seen from mid-northern latitudes – Venus reached its highest altitude in the evening sky after sunset in June 2018. And yet Venus’ greatest elongation (greatest apparent distance from the setting sun) happened last month, on August 17.

Why? It’s because of the shifting angle of the ecliptic, which marks the annual path of the sun, and the approximate path of the moon and planets across our sky. From our northerly latitudes, the ecliptic falls closer to the horizon and makes an increasingly shallower angle with the sunset horizon as we approach the September autumn equinox. That keeps Venus low in the sky at northerly latitudes.

Venus, the moon – and see the moon’s reflection in Lisbon, Portugal on August 13, 2018. Photo by Henrique Feliciano Silva,

The Southern Hemisphere has the big advantage in seeing Venus because September is a late winter/early spring month in that part of the world. Therefore, day by day, the ecliptic climbs higher in the sky and intersects the sunset horizon at an increasingly steeper angle as the Southern Hemisphere approaches their September spring equinox. That places Venus high above the setting sun (rather than to the side of it as for us northerners). At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere (South Africa, southern Australia), Venus sets about 3 1/2 hours after sunset in early September and 2 1/2 hours after the sun at the month’s end.

In short, when it comes to the height of the ecliptic in the evening sky, remember the saying “spring up and fall down.” At sunset on the spring equinox, the ecliptic soars highest up for the year. At sunset on the autumn equinox, the ecliptic falls lowest down. That applies to both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Circle September 11, 12 and 13 on your calendar. That’s when the young moon will be sweeping past Venus (and Jupiter) in the evening sky. The western twilight will make the pairing all the more picturesque.

From the Southern Hemisphere, look for Venus to adorn the evening sky from now till nearly the end of October 2018. At middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, it’ll take a diligent effort to catch Venus after sunset in late September and early October 2018.

Watch for the moon to move by the planet Jupiter and the star Antares from September 13 to 15, 2018. Read more.

Jupiter remains bright and beautiful throughout September 2018. Its opposition took place on May 8-9, 2018, and ever since, the planet has been shifting westward, or in the direction of sunset. Around the world, you’ll find Jupiter highest up for the night around dusk or nightfall, appearing rather low in the southwest sky at northerly latitudes; in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll see Jupiter quite high in the western sky.

Jupiter is brighter than any star, but it’s not brighter than Venus, which beams mightily in the west or southwest after sunset. This month, Jupiter reclaims its spot as the 4th-brightest celestial object, after the sun, moon and Venus. For some two months, from about July 7 to September 7, Mars supplanted Jupiter as the brighter of these two heavenly bodies.

Once again, as with Venus, Jupiter stays out longer after sunset in the Southern Hemisphere. That’s because the ecliptic (pathway of the sun, moon and planets) hits the evening horizon almost straight up and down in the Southern Hemisphere, yet at a shallow angle in the Northern Hemisphere.

For instance, at mid-northern latitudes (United States, mainland Europe, Japan), Jupiter sets about 3 hours after the sun in early September and about 2 hours after at the month’s end.

In contrast, at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere (Cape Town, South Africa, and southern Australia), Jupiter sets about 5 hours after the sun in early September and about 3 1/2 hours after by the month’s end.

Jupiter shines in front of the constellation Libra the Scales until November 2018. Look for Libra’s brightest stars near Jupiter, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali (both star names are pronounced with the same rhythm as Obi-Wan Kenobi of “Star Wars”).

If you aim binoculars at Zubenelgenubi, you’ll see this star as two stars. Zubeneschamali, meanwhile, is said to appear green in color, although, astronomers say, stars can’t look green.

Let the moon guide your eye to Jupiter for several evenings, centered on or around September 13.

Watch for the moon to sweep by the planets Saturn and Mars from September 17 to 19. Read more.

Saturn and Mars are ideally placed for viewing around nightfall. Around the world in September, Saturn transits – reaches its highest point in the sky – around dusk or nightfall. Then Mars transits roughly two hours after Saturn does.

Click here for a recommended sky almanac providing you with the transit times for the planets.

From mid-northern latitudes, Saturn stays out until around midnight (1 a.m. daylight saving time) in early September. By the month’s end, Saturn will set around 10 p.m. (11 p.m. daylight saving time). Mars will follow Saturn beneath the western horizon roughly two hours after Saturn does.

From temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, Saturn and Mars both stay out until well after midnight.

You can tell Mars from Saturn because Mars has a reddish color and Saturn looks golden. Binoculars show their colors better than the eye alone.

Watch for the moon to pair up with Saturn on or near September 17 and with Mars on or near September 19.

At present, both Saturn and Mars shine more brilliantly than a 1st-magnitude star. However, Mars is brighter than Saturn. Saturn’s brilliance peaked at its June 27 opposition, and Mars’ brilliance came to a head at its July 27 opposition.

It’s not often that Mars outshines Jupiter, normally the fourth-brightest celestial object to light up the sky, after the sun, moon and Venus. But, for a couple of months in 2018, Mars outshines Jupiter from about July 7 to September 7, 2018.

Both Mars and Saturn are slowly dimming throughout the month. Because Mars is dimming at a faster rate than Saturn is, Mars will be nearly 10 times brighter than Saturn at the beginning of the month, and some 5 times brighter by the month’s end.

Remember Mars’ historically close opposition of August 28, 2003? That year, it was closer and brighter than it had been in some 60,000 years. The July opposition was the best since 2003, and what’s more, Mars will remain bright and beautiful all through August 2018!

Read more: Mars brighter in 2018 than since 2003

Click here for more about close and far Mars oppositions

Diagram by Roy L. Bishop. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Used with permission. Visit the RASC estore to purchase the Observer’s Handbook, a necessary tool for all skywatchers. Read more about this image.

Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system, might still be visible before sunrise from the Northern Hemisphere and the southern tropics in early September. But this world is rapidly falling into glare of sunrise throughout the month, and its reign as the morning “star” will officially end on September 21, 2018 (same date that Venus reaches its greatest illuminated extent in the evening sky).

In the last week of August 2018, Mercury formed an equilateral triangle with the bright stars Pollux and Procyon. In the first week of September, Mercury will be farther away from Pollux and Procyon on the sky’s dome, making an isosceles triangle instead.

What do we mean by bright planet? By bright planet, we mean any solar system planet that is easily visible without an optical aid and that has been watched by our ancestors since time immemorial. In their outward order from the sun, the five bright planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. These planets actually do appear bright in our sky. They are typically as bright as – or brighter than – the brightest stars. Plus, these relatively nearby worlds tend to shine with a steadier light than the distant, twinkling stars. You can spot them, and come to know them as faithful friends, if you try.

Bottom line: In September 2018, four planets arc across the sky at dusk and nightfall. Venus lights up the western sky, with Jupiter shining above Venus. Mars and Saturn light up the southern sky at nightfall from northerly latitudes. From the Southern Hemisphere, Mars and Saturn shine high overhead. Click here for recommended almanacs; they can help you know when the planets rise, transit and set in your sky.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate what you can to our annual crowd-funding campaign.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to EarthSky News by email

Get your EarthSky 2018 lunar calendar now, while they last.

Visit EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze, and recommend a place we can all enjoy.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/IJfHCr

Beluga whales and narwhals go through menopause

A trio of beluga whales. Image via AQUAS Aquarium in Japan.

Although most humans with ovaries go through menopause – marking the end of the child-bearing years – most animals do not. Almost all animals continue reproducing throughout their lives. Now a new study has found two more species – beluga whales and narwhals – that do go through menopause, bringing the total number of known menopausal species to five. Besides humans, the rest are toothed whales, including belugas, narwhals, killer whales (which are actually in the dolphin family) and short-finned pilot whales.

Scientists have long been puzzled about why these few species have evolved in such a way as to stop reproducing, partway through life. Sam Ellis, of the University of Exeter, is lead author of the new study, published August 27, 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. Ellis said in a statement:

For menopause to make sense in evolutionary terms, a species needs both a reason to stop reproducing and a reason to live on afterwards.

In killer whales, the reason to stop comes because both male and female offspring stay with their mothers for life – so as a female ages, her group contains more and more of her children and grandchildren.

This increasing relatedness means that, if she keeps having young, they compete with her own direct descendants for resources such as food.

The reason to continue living is that older females are of great benefit to their offspring and grand-offspring. For example, their knowledge of where to find food helps groups survive.

Orcas – killer whales – stay with their mothers for life. Photo via Robert Pitman/UK.Whales.

Menopause in killer whales is well-documented by more than 40 years of study. But because scientists don’t have such detailed information on the lives of belugas and narwhals, the new study used data on dead whales from 16 species The study found dormant ovaries in older beluga and narwhal females.

The findings, said the researchers, suggest belugas and narwhals have social structures which – as with killer whales – mean females find themselves living among more and more close relatives as they age. According to a statement from University of Exeter:

Research on ancestral humans suggests this was also the case for our ancestors. This, combined with the benefits of “late-life helping” – where older females benefit the social group but do not reproduce – may explain why menopause has evolved.

Narwhal. Image via turbosquid.com.

Bottom line: A new study has found that beluga whales and narwhals go through menopause, bringing the total of animals known to experience menopause to five.

Read more from University of Exeter

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A trio of beluga whales. Image via AQUAS Aquarium in Japan.

Although most humans with ovaries go through menopause – marking the end of the child-bearing years – most animals do not. Almost all animals continue reproducing throughout their lives. Now a new study has found two more species – beluga whales and narwhals – that do go through menopause, bringing the total number of known menopausal species to five. Besides humans, the rest are toothed whales, including belugas, narwhals, killer whales (which are actually in the dolphin family) and short-finned pilot whales.

Scientists have long been puzzled about why these few species have evolved in such a way as to stop reproducing, partway through life. Sam Ellis, of the University of Exeter, is lead author of the new study, published August 27, 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. Ellis said in a statement:

For menopause to make sense in evolutionary terms, a species needs both a reason to stop reproducing and a reason to live on afterwards.

In killer whales, the reason to stop comes because both male and female offspring stay with their mothers for life – so as a female ages, her group contains more and more of her children and grandchildren.

This increasing relatedness means that, if she keeps having young, they compete with her own direct descendants for resources such as food.

The reason to continue living is that older females are of great benefit to their offspring and grand-offspring. For example, their knowledge of where to find food helps groups survive.

Orcas – killer whales – stay with their mothers for life. Photo via Robert Pitman/UK.Whales.

Menopause in killer whales is well-documented by more than 40 years of study. But because scientists don’t have such detailed information on the lives of belugas and narwhals, the new study used data on dead whales from 16 species The study found dormant ovaries in older beluga and narwhal females.

The findings, said the researchers, suggest belugas and narwhals have social structures which – as with killer whales – mean females find themselves living among more and more close relatives as they age. According to a statement from University of Exeter:

Research on ancestral humans suggests this was also the case for our ancestors. This, combined with the benefits of “late-life helping” – where older females benefit the social group but do not reproduce – may explain why menopause has evolved.

Narwhal. Image via turbosquid.com.

Bottom line: A new study has found that beluga whales and narwhals go through menopause, bringing the total of animals known to experience menopause to five.

Read more from University of Exeter

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2LKGtj0

Saturn and its rings

View larger. | Photo by Tom Wildoner at the Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, Pennsylvania. August 28, 2018. Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mmED Triplet Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ASI 290MC, and Televue 2.5x Powermate (1.25”). Captured with SharpCap software (best 25% of 30k frames) and processed in Corel Paintshop Pro. Thank you, Tom!

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View larger. | Photo by Tom Wildoner at the Dark Side Observatory, Weatherly, Pennsylvania. August 28, 2018. Sky-Watcher Esprit 120mmED Triplet Refractor, Celestron CGEM-DX mount, ASI 290MC, and Televue 2.5x Powermate (1.25”). Captured with SharpCap software (best 25% of 30k frames) and processed in Corel Paintshop Pro. Thank you, Tom!

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Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large spiral

View larger. | The Andromeda Galaxy with 2 of its satellite galaxies, via Flickr user Adam Evans.

Although several dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which can’t be seen from northerly latitudes, the Andromeda galaxy – also known as M31 – is the brightest galaxy you can see. At 2.5 million light-years, it’s also the most distant thing visible to your unaided eye.

To the eye, this galaxy appears as a smudge of light larger than a full moon.

Josh Blash captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy. It’s big, bigger than a full moon. If you know approximately where to look for this hazy smudge in your night sky – and your sky is very dark – you might pick out the galaxy just by looking for it.

When to look for the Andromeda Galaxy. From mid-northern latitudes, you can see M31 – also called the Andromeda galaxy – for at least part of every night, all year long. But most people see the galaxy first around northern autumn, when it’s high enough in the sky to be seen from nightfall until daybreak.

In late August and early September, begin looking for the galaxy in mid-evening, about midway between your local nightfall and midnight.

In late September and early October, the Andromeda galaxy shines in your eastern sky at nightfall, swings high overhead in the middle of the night, and stands rather high in the west at the onset of morning dawn.

Winter evenings are also good for viewing the Andromeda galaxy.

If you are far from city lights, and it’s a moonless night – and you’re looking on a late summer, autumn or winter evening – it’s possible you’ll simply notice the galaxy in your night sky. It’s looks like a hazy patch in the sky, as wide across as a full moon.

But if you look, and don’t see the galaxy – yet you know you’re looking at a time when it’s above the horizon – you can star-hop to find the galaxy in one of two ways. The easiest way is to use the constellation Cassiopeia. You can also use the Great Square of Pegasus.

Most people use the M- or W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy. See how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the constellation Cassiopeia. The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen is one of the easiest constellations to recognize. It’s shaped like the letter M or W. Look generally northward on the sky’s dome to find this constellation. If you can recognize the North Star, Polaris – and if you know how to find the Big Dipper – be aware that the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia move around Polaris like the hands of a clock, always opposite each other.

To find the Andromeda galaxy via Cassiopeia, look for the star Schedar. In the illustration above, see how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Most people use the Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy, because Cassiopeia itself is so easy to spot.

Use the Great Square of Pegasus to find the Andromeda Galaxy. A line between Mirach and Mu Andromedae points to the galaxy.

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the Great Square of Pegasus. Here’s another way to find the galaxy. It’s a longer route, but, in many ways, more beautiful.

You’ll be hopping to the Andromeda galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus. In autumn, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a great big baseball diamond in the eastern sky. Envision the bottom star of the Square’s four stars as home plate, then draw an imaginary line from the “first base” star though the “third base” star to locate two streamers of stars flying away from the Great Square. These stars belong to the constellation Andromeda the Princess.

On each streamer, go two stars north (left) of the third base star, locating the stars Mirach and Mu Andromedae. Draw a line from Mirach through Mu Andromedae, going twice the Mirach/Mu Andromedae distance. You’ve just landed on the Andromeda galaxy, which looks like a smudge of light to the unaided eye.

If you can’t see the Andromeda galaxy with the eye alone, by all means use binoculars.

The Great Andromeda Nebula, photographed in the year 1900. At this point, astronomers could not discern individual stars in the galaxy. Many thought it was a cloud of gas within our Milky Way – a place where new stars were forming.Image via Wikimedia Commons.

History of our knowledge of the Andromeda galaxy. At one time, the Andromeda galaxy was called the Great Andromeda Nebula. Astronomers thought this patch of light was composed of glowing gases, or was perhaps a solar system in the process of formation.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that astronomers were able to resolve the Andromeda spiral nebula into individual stars. This discovery lead to a controversy about whether the Andromeda spiral nebula and other spiral nebulae lie within or outside the Milky Way.

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble finally put the matter to rest, when he used Cepheid variable stars within the Andromeda galaxy to determine that it is indeed an island universe residing beyond the bounds of our Milky Way galaxy.

Artist’s illustration of our Local Group via Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Andromeda and Milky Way in context. The Andromeda galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy reign as the two most massive and dominant galaxies within the Local Group of Galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which, in addition to the Milky Way, also contains the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies.

Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies lay claim to about a dozen satellite galaxies. Both are some 100,000 light-years across, containing enough mass to make billions of stars.

Astronomers have discovered that our Local Group is on the outskirts of a giant cluster of several thousand galaxies – which astronomers call the Virgo Cluster.

We also know of an irregular supercluster of galaxies, which contains the Virgo Cluster, which in turn contains our Local Group, which in turn contains our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby and Andromeda galaxy. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within this Virgo Supercluster. Its diameter is thought to be about 110 million light-years.

The Virgo Supercluster is thought to be one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe.

View larger. | View zoomable image. | A portion of the Andromeda galaxy via NASA/ESA.

Bottom line: At 2.5 million light-years, the Great Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31) rates as one of the most distant objects you can see with the unaided eye.

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is at RA: 0h 42.7m; Dec: 41^o 16′ north

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View larger. | The Andromeda Galaxy with 2 of its satellite galaxies, via Flickr user Adam Evans.

Although several dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which can’t be seen from northerly latitudes, the Andromeda galaxy – also known as M31 – is the brightest galaxy you can see. At 2.5 million light-years, it’s also the most distant thing visible to your unaided eye.

To the eye, this galaxy appears as a smudge of light larger than a full moon.

Josh Blash captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy. It’s big, bigger than a full moon. If you know approximately where to look for this hazy smudge in your night sky – and your sky is very dark – you might pick out the galaxy just by looking for it.

When to look for the Andromeda Galaxy. From mid-northern latitudes, you can see M31 – also called the Andromeda galaxy – for at least part of every night, all year long. But most people see the galaxy first around northern autumn, when it’s high enough in the sky to be seen from nightfall until daybreak.

In late August and early September, begin looking for the galaxy in mid-evening, about midway between your local nightfall and midnight.

In late September and early October, the Andromeda galaxy shines in your eastern sky at nightfall, swings high overhead in the middle of the night, and stands rather high in the west at the onset of morning dawn.

Winter evenings are also good for viewing the Andromeda galaxy.

If you are far from city lights, and it’s a moonless night – and you’re looking on a late summer, autumn or winter evening – it’s possible you’ll simply notice the galaxy in your night sky. It’s looks like a hazy patch in the sky, as wide across as a full moon.

But if you look, and don’t see the galaxy – yet you know you’re looking at a time when it’s above the horizon – you can star-hop to find the galaxy in one of two ways. The easiest way is to use the constellation Cassiopeia. You can also use the Great Square of Pegasus.

Most people use the M- or W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy. See how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the constellation Cassiopeia. The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen is one of the easiest constellations to recognize. It’s shaped like the letter M or W. Look generally northward on the sky’s dome to find this constellation. If you can recognize the North Star, Polaris – and if you know how to find the Big Dipper – be aware that the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia move around Polaris like the hands of a clock, always opposite each other.

To find the Andromeda galaxy via Cassiopeia, look for the star Schedar. In the illustration above, see how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Most people use the Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy, because Cassiopeia itself is so easy to spot.

Use the Great Square of Pegasus to find the Andromeda Galaxy. A line between Mirach and Mu Andromedae points to the galaxy.

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the Great Square of Pegasus. Here’s another way to find the galaxy. It’s a longer route, but, in many ways, more beautiful.

You’ll be hopping to the Andromeda galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus. In autumn, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a great big baseball diamond in the eastern sky. Envision the bottom star of the Square’s four stars as home plate, then draw an imaginary line from the “first base” star though the “third base” star to locate two streamers of stars flying away from the Great Square. These stars belong to the constellation Andromeda the Princess.

On each streamer, go two stars north (left) of the third base star, locating the stars Mirach and Mu Andromedae. Draw a line from Mirach through Mu Andromedae, going twice the Mirach/Mu Andromedae distance. You’ve just landed on the Andromeda galaxy, which looks like a smudge of light to the unaided eye.

If you can’t see the Andromeda galaxy with the eye alone, by all means use binoculars.

The Great Andromeda Nebula, photographed in the year 1900. At this point, astronomers could not discern individual stars in the galaxy. Many thought it was a cloud of gas within our Milky Way – a place where new stars were forming.Image via Wikimedia Commons.

History of our knowledge of the Andromeda galaxy. At one time, the Andromeda galaxy was called the Great Andromeda Nebula. Astronomers thought this patch of light was composed of glowing gases, or was perhaps a solar system in the process of formation.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that astronomers were able to resolve the Andromeda spiral nebula into individual stars. This discovery lead to a controversy about whether the Andromeda spiral nebula and other spiral nebulae lie within or outside the Milky Way.

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble finally put the matter to rest, when he used Cepheid variable stars within the Andromeda galaxy to determine that it is indeed an island universe residing beyond the bounds of our Milky Way galaxy.

Artist’s illustration of our Local Group via Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Andromeda and Milky Way in context. The Andromeda galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy reign as the two most massive and dominant galaxies within the Local Group of Galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which, in addition to the Milky Way, also contains the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies.

Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies lay claim to about a dozen satellite galaxies. Both are some 100,000 light-years across, containing enough mass to make billions of stars.

Astronomers have discovered that our Local Group is on the outskirts of a giant cluster of several thousand galaxies – which astronomers call the Virgo Cluster.

We also know of an irregular supercluster of galaxies, which contains the Virgo Cluster, which in turn contains our Local Group, which in turn contains our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby and Andromeda galaxy. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within this Virgo Supercluster. Its diameter is thought to be about 110 million light-years.

The Virgo Supercluster is thought to be one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe.

View larger. | View zoomable image. | A portion of the Andromeda galaxy via NASA/ESA.

Bottom line: At 2.5 million light-years, the Great Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31) rates as one of the most distant objects you can see with the unaided eye.

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is at RA: 0h 42.7m; Dec: 41^o 16′ north

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Great Square of Pegasus points to Andromeda galaxy

Tonight, look for the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. It’s becoming well placed for evening viewing from Northern Hemisphere locations. The Great Square of Pegasus is a great jumping off point for finding the famous Andromeda galaxy, also known to astronomers as Messier 31.

As seen from mid-northern latitudes, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a … well … a big square. Go figure. The Great Square of Pegasus sparkles over the eastern horizon at about 9 p.m. daylight-saving time in late August and early September. Some two weeks from now – around mid-September – the Great Square will return to the same place in the sky about an hour earlier. By autumn, people at northerly latitudes will see the Great Square of Pegasus at nightfall.

For some idea of the Great Square’s size, extend your hand an arm length from your eye. You’ll see that any two Great Square stars are farther apart than the width of your hand.

Now let’s find the Andromeda galaxy. To get your bearings, locate the Great Square of Pegasus in your eastern sky this evening (or on the chart at the top of this post). But instead of thinking of the Great Square as a square, think of it as a baseball diamond. Now imagine the farthest star to the left – Alpheratz – as the third-base star. A line drawn from the first-base star through Alpheratz points in the general direction of the Andromeda galaxy.

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View larger. | Many people find the Andromeda galaxy from the two streamers of stars extending from the Great Square (they are the constellation Andromeda). Or they find the galaxy via the constellation Cassiopeia. This photo via EarthSky Facebook friend Cattleya Flores Viray.

Now let’s get more specific. If it’s dark enough, you’ll see two streamers of stars flying to the north (or left) of the star Alpheratz on August and September evenings. To me, these two streamers make a pattern much like a bugle or a cornucopia. They are actually another constellation, the constellation Andromeda the Princess. Along the bottom streamer, star-hop from Alpheratz to the star Mirach. Draw a line from Mirach through the upper streamer star – which is called Mu Andromedae – and go about the same distance again as that between Mirach and Mu. You’ve just located the Andromeda galaxy!

View larger. | The Andromeda galaxy (right side of photo) as seen by EarthSky Facebook friend Ted Van at a Montana campsite in mid-August 2012.

What does the Andromeda galaxy look like the eye alone? It looks like a fuzzy patch in a dark sky. If you can’t see this fuzzy patch of light with the unaided eye, maybe your sky isn’t dark enough. Try binoculars! Don’t worry if you miss it tonight, for the Andromeda galaxy will be in the evening sky from now until spring.

The Andromeda galaxy and two satellite galaxies as seen through a powerful telescope. To the eye, the galaxy looks like a fuzzy patch. It’s an island of stars in space, much like our Milky Way. Image via NOAO

Bottom line: The Andromeda galaxy can be seen somewhere in our sky for much of every year. Every August, it’s ascending in the sky during the evening hours. To the eye, it looks like a fuzzy patch.

Help support EarthSky! Visit the EarthSky store for to see the great selection of educational tools and team gear we have to offer.

Mirach: Guide star to three galaxies

Cassiopeia the Queen also points to the Andromeda galaxy

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Tonight, look for the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. It’s becoming well placed for evening viewing from Northern Hemisphere locations. The Great Square of Pegasus is a great jumping off point for finding the famous Andromeda galaxy, also known to astronomers as Messier 31.

As seen from mid-northern latitudes, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a … well … a big square. Go figure. The Great Square of Pegasus sparkles over the eastern horizon at about 9 p.m. daylight-saving time in late August and early September. Some two weeks from now – around mid-September – the Great Square will return to the same place in the sky about an hour earlier. By autumn, people at northerly latitudes will see the Great Square of Pegasus at nightfall.

For some idea of the Great Square’s size, extend your hand an arm length from your eye. You’ll see that any two Great Square stars are farther apart than the width of your hand.

Now let’s find the Andromeda galaxy. To get your bearings, locate the Great Square of Pegasus in your eastern sky this evening (or on the chart at the top of this post). But instead of thinking of the Great Square as a square, think of it as a baseball diamond. Now imagine the farthest star to the left – Alpheratz – as the third-base star. A line drawn from the first-base star through Alpheratz points in the general direction of the Andromeda galaxy.

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View larger. | Many people find the Andromeda galaxy from the two streamers of stars extending from the Great Square (they are the constellation Andromeda). Or they find the galaxy via the constellation Cassiopeia. This photo via EarthSky Facebook friend Cattleya Flores Viray.

Now let’s get more specific. If it’s dark enough, you’ll see two streamers of stars flying to the north (or left) of the star Alpheratz on August and September evenings. To me, these two streamers make a pattern much like a bugle or a cornucopia. They are actually another constellation, the constellation Andromeda the Princess. Along the bottom streamer, star-hop from Alpheratz to the star Mirach. Draw a line from Mirach through the upper streamer star – which is called Mu Andromedae – and go about the same distance again as that between Mirach and Mu. You’ve just located the Andromeda galaxy!

View larger. | The Andromeda galaxy (right side of photo) as seen by EarthSky Facebook friend Ted Van at a Montana campsite in mid-August 2012.

What does the Andromeda galaxy look like the eye alone? It looks like a fuzzy patch in a dark sky. If you can’t see this fuzzy patch of light with the unaided eye, maybe your sky isn’t dark enough. Try binoculars! Don’t worry if you miss it tonight, for the Andromeda galaxy will be in the evening sky from now until spring.

The Andromeda galaxy and two satellite galaxies as seen through a powerful telescope. To the eye, the galaxy looks like a fuzzy patch. It’s an island of stars in space, much like our Milky Way. Image via NOAO

Bottom line: The Andromeda galaxy can be seen somewhere in our sky for much of every year. Every August, it’s ascending in the sky during the evening hours. To the eye, it looks like a fuzzy patch.

Help support EarthSky! Visit the EarthSky store for to see the great selection of educational tools and team gear we have to offer.

Mirach: Guide star to three galaxies

Cassiopeia the Queen also points to the Andromeda galaxy

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How tiny metal beads could make chemotherapy more effective for brain tumours

Treatments for brain tumours aren’t good enough. Only around 1 in 7 people will survive their disease for a decade or longer. And those in this small but fortunate fraction may also be left with lifelong reminders of their cancer in the form of side effects from their treatment.

But coming up with better ways to tackle these diseases is fraught with difficulty. This stems from the fact that brain tumours are hard to study in the lab. And their complex biology has held back the progress seen with treatments for other cancers.

For example, aggressive brain tumours, such as glioblastoma, quickly spread throughout the brain. This means surgery often won’t be enough to treat the disease, because the operation can’t remove all the cancer cells. It’s then only a matter of time before these invasive cells seed the tumour’s return, and from there the person’s outlook sadly becomes exceedingly bleak.

So, what’s needed to turn this harrowing situation around? Our scientists are on the case. And they’ve come up with an innovative idea that they believe could be a game changer for these patients.

A masked attacker

One way that doctors try to deal with the rogue tumour cells left behind after surgery is chemotherapy, often with the drug temozolomide. But chemotherapy drugs aren’t specific to cancer cells – they target any cell that’s growing quickly in the body. They can therefore cause serious side effects that limit how much of the drug can be given, and that limits their effectiveness.

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre have come up with an idea to solve this issue – and we gave them one of our Pioneer Awards to get it off the ground.

Blending their complementary scientific skills, neurosurgeon Dr Paul Brennan and chemist Professor Asier Unciti-Broceta are developing a new way to make chemotherapy more targeted, and therefore hopefully more effective.

Their two-pronged approach involves modifying the chemotherapy drug temozolomide and creating a harmless implant to be inserted into the brain. The modified drug and implant eventually work together at the tumour site to essentially become a mini drug-making factory.

They’re tweaking the drug so that it’s inactive when given to the patient. They essentially give it a ‘mask’, which means it can travel around the body without causing any unwanted harm to growing healthy cells that it meets.

That’s until the drug reaches the implant: tiny beads made from the metal palladium. These would be placed inside the brain around the area where the tumour was removed during surgery. When the drug encounters the metal, it gets switched on in the perfect place to potentially kill any cancerous cells that might be left in the brain.

To find out more, we visited the team in Edinburgh. Watch the video below to see what they’ve been up to.

Beyond brains

By creating a localised attack, the scientists hope that side effects from the chemotherapy will be greatly reduced. That means more chemotherapy could be given, and hopefully that could mean a longer life for the patient.

It’s early days and this approach is still being developed in the lab, so it could be some time before reaching patients. But the results from cancer cells in Petri dishes so far have been encouraging, and the scientists now have their sights set further than brain tumours. Radioactive implants are sometimes used for prostate cancer, for example, so they’ve already started research in mice to explore its potential for this disease too.

While there’s still much to be done, hopefully one day this bright idea will become something meaningful for patients.

Justine

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2BYCv6N

Treatments for brain tumours aren’t good enough. Only around 1 in 7 people will survive their disease for a decade or longer. And those in this small but fortunate fraction may also be left with lifelong reminders of their cancer in the form of side effects from their treatment.

But coming up with better ways to tackle these diseases is fraught with difficulty. This stems from the fact that brain tumours are hard to study in the lab. And their complex biology has held back the progress seen with treatments for other cancers.

For example, aggressive brain tumours, such as glioblastoma, quickly spread throughout the brain. This means surgery often won’t be enough to treat the disease, because the operation can’t remove all the cancer cells. It’s then only a matter of time before these invasive cells seed the tumour’s return, and from there the person’s outlook sadly becomes exceedingly bleak.

So, what’s needed to turn this harrowing situation around? Our scientists are on the case. And they’ve come up with an innovative idea that they believe could be a game changer for these patients.

A masked attacker

One way that doctors try to deal with the rogue tumour cells left behind after surgery is chemotherapy, often with the drug temozolomide. But chemotherapy drugs aren’t specific to cancer cells – they target any cell that’s growing quickly in the body. They can therefore cause serious side effects that limit how much of the drug can be given, and that limits their effectiveness.

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre have come up with an idea to solve this issue – and we gave them one of our Pioneer Awards to get it off the ground.

Blending their complementary scientific skills, neurosurgeon Dr Paul Brennan and chemist Professor Asier Unciti-Broceta are developing a new way to make chemotherapy more targeted, and therefore hopefully more effective.

Their two-pronged approach involves modifying the chemotherapy drug temozolomide and creating a harmless implant to be inserted into the brain. The modified drug and implant eventually work together at the tumour site to essentially become a mini drug-making factory.

They’re tweaking the drug so that it’s inactive when given to the patient. They essentially give it a ‘mask’, which means it can travel around the body without causing any unwanted harm to growing healthy cells that it meets.

That’s until the drug reaches the implant: tiny beads made from the metal palladium. These would be placed inside the brain around the area where the tumour was removed during surgery. When the drug encounters the metal, it gets switched on in the perfect place to potentially kill any cancerous cells that might be left in the brain.

To find out more, we visited the team in Edinburgh. Watch the video below to see what they’ve been up to.

Beyond brains

By creating a localised attack, the scientists hope that side effects from the chemotherapy will be greatly reduced. That means more chemotherapy could be given, and hopefully that could mean a longer life for the patient.

It’s early days and this approach is still being developed in the lab, so it could be some time before reaching patients. But the results from cancer cells in Petri dishes so far have been encouraging, and the scientists now have their sights set further than brain tumours. Radioactive implants are sometimes used for prostate cancer, for example, so they’ve already started research in mice to explore its potential for this disease too.

While there’s still much to be done, hopefully one day this bright idea will become something meaningful for patients.

Justine

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2BYCv6N