Wild Weather of Distant 'Failed Star' Revealed

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Astronomers have mapped out the weird and wild weather of a so-called 'failed star' in unprecedented detail.

Using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, researchers documented the windy, cloud-covered weather of a brown dwarf - a strange celestial object too big to be a planet but not massive enough to undergo fusion reactions like a star. The new results were presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting here Tuesday (Jan. 8).

Like the objects themselves, brown dwarf weather is odd and intriguing, researchers said.

'Unlike the water clouds of Earth or the ammonia clouds of Jupiter, clouds on brown dwarfs are composed of hot grains of sand, liquid drops of iron and other exotic compounds,' study co-author Mark Marley, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said in a statement. 'So this large atmospheric disturbance found by Spitzer and Hubble gives a new meaning to the concept of extreme weather.'

The two spacecraft monitored a brown dwarf with the clunky name of 2MASS J22282889-431026. Spitzer and Hubble used different wavelengths of light to monitor the ways its clouds moved at any given time, spotting storms the size of Earth swirling through the brown dwarf's atmosphere.

Although such observations are new for odd objects such as brown dwarfs, weather patterns like this have been observed elsewhere in the universe.

'What we see here is evidence for massive, organized cloud systems, perhaps akin to giant versions of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter,' co-author Adam Showman of the University of Arizona said in a statement.

'These out-of-sync light variations provide a fingerprint of how the brown dwarf's weather systems stack up vertically,' Showman added. 'The data suggest regions on the brown dwarf where the weather is cloudy and rich in silicate vapor deep in the atmosphere coincide with balmier, drier conditions at higher altitudes - and vice versa.'

While they're cooler than bona fide stars, brown dwarfs are still extremely hot. The brown dwarf the team studied has an estimated temperature between 1,100 and 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (600 to 700 degrees Celsius).

Researchers plan to use Spitzer and Hubble to monitor the weather of more brown dwarfs in the future to see how this one stacks up by comparison. The techniques employed in the study should also come in handy to help characterize alien planets with future instruments, scientists said.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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At 55.3 Degrees, 2012 Was the Hottest Year in American History

Well if you didn't believe in climate change before, meteorologists are now saying 2012 saw the highest temperatures ever recorded in the U.S. mainland, displacing a record set 14 years ago. Data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 114 weather stations established an average temperature of 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit, a whole degree higher than the previous record in 1998. The NOAA summed up our sweltering, sweaty condition:

The year consisted of the fourth warmest winter, a record warm spring, the second warmest summer, and a warmer-than-average autumn. Although the last four months of 2012 did not bring the same unusual warmth as the first 8 months of the year, the September through December temperatures were warm enough for 2012 to remain the record warmest year, by a wide margin.

The Weather Channel dug into the data and found another impressive number: the 114 weather stations administered by the NOAA recorded 34,008 daily record high temperatures (out of 41,724 daily records total). By comparison, the NOAA recorded just 6,664 record daily lows from the same stations.

RELATED: This Spring Was the Hottest Ever

In other words: global warming is real.



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Alabama preps for severe weather preparedness

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama's second annual Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday will be the weekend of Feb. 22-24.

The state Revenue Department says the state will waive its 4 percent sales tax on items used to prepare homes and businesses for hurricanes and tornadoes. Some cities and counties will do the same.

Items covered by the sales tax holiday include batteries, battery-powered radios, flashlights, tarpaulins, duct tape, plywood, self-contained first aid kits and fuel containers costing up to $60 per item. Also included are portable generators costing up to $1,000 each.

Online: http://www.revenue.alabama.gov



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It's So Hot in Australia That They Added New Colors to the Weather Map

See that deep purple in the middle of this acne-red weather report from Down Under? That right there represents 129.2° F or 54 °C - it's a brand-new shade that the Australian bureau of meteorology was forced to add to its heat index because their country is, you know, kind of on fire. 'The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau's model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,' David Jones, head of the bureau's climate monitoring and prediction unit, told The Sydney Morning Herald, which notes that the previous record high was 50.7°C (123°F), recorded in 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport in the southern part of Australia - right around where the new shades of hot are showing up today.

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To give you an idea of just how uncomfortable this Australian heatwave really is, consider that it's just past midnight there right now ... and it's 95°F in Sydney. Doubly scary are the giant fire risks that come with the heat - risks so severe Australian officials are taking no chances and labeling the warning 'catastrophic.' 'A 'catastrophic' warning carries the risk of significant loss of life and the destruction of many homes, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service,' reports CNN.



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Earth's Forecast Looks Warm and Full of Volcano Eruptions

Discovered: Global warming could cause more lava flow; humans started popping pills ages ago; babies begin acquiring language in womb; Mars astronauts would be very sleepy.

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Cloudy with a chance of lava. We know about the rising sea levels and increased incidence of superstorms associated with global warming. But here's another nasty side-effect of unrestrained climate change: more volcano eruptions. A new study from Germany's GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel finds that global warming could exacerbate Earth's igneous activity. By sifting through layers of volcanic ash at the bottom of Central American seabeds, the scientists reconstructed the timeline of eruptions stretching back over 460,000 years. 'In times of global warming, the glaciers are melting on the continents relatively quickly,' says GEOMAR geophysicist Marion Jegen. 'At the same time, the sea level rises. The weight on the continents decreases, while the weight on the oceanic tectonic plates increases. Thus, the stress changes within the Earth to open more routes for ascending magma.' [Scientific American]

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Ancient pills treated sore eyes. Lest we think that self-medicating is something thoroughly modern, University of Pisa researchers have found that humans were popping pills as early as 140 BC. The place: ancient Rome. The affliction: sore eyes. The remedy: zinc carbonates hydrozincite and smithsonite, the same materials used in 21st century skin and eye treatments. 'To our knowledge, these are the oldest medical tablets ever analysed,' says lead researcher Erika Ribechini about the sampling of pills found on a wrecked cargo ship off the coast of Italy. 'Findings of such ancient medicines are extremely rare, so preservation of the Pozzino tablets is a very lucky case.' [New Scientist]

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Language acquisition begins in the womb. Researchers have noticed that babies respond with familiarity to their parents' native tongues from the moment they're born, but seem to perceive other languages as unfamiliar. Pacific Lutheran University psychologist Christine Moon says that this suggests language acquisition begins while babies are still gestating. 'It seems that there is some prenatal learning of speech sounds, but we do not yet know how much,' Moon says. She and her colleagues reached this conclusion by studying 80 newborns, half in the United States and the other 40 in Sweden. They piped vowels associated with each country's respective language through headphones, observing how long the babies would suck their pacifiers (when they stopped, a new syllable would be triggered). They observed longer stretches of pacifier sucking when babies heard foreign syllables, suggesting that they were more interested in these strange sounds and more familiar with their native syllables. [Science News]

RELATED: Science Has a New Drug to Erase Your Painful Memories

A trip to Mars would make astronauts very sleepy. Inspring as a manned trip to Mars would surely be, astronaut walking on the red planet might not be as spunky as the Apollo crew that hopped so energetically around the moon. Simulations done by the Mars500 team in Moscow suggest that astronauts undertaking the trip from Earth to Mars would get sleepy and sedentary during the long journey. Six volunteers between the ages of 27 to 38 who participated in Mars500 committed to a 520 mission simulation. At the end of the study, they tended to sleep more and favor leisure activities like playing video games or reading books. Commenting on these findings, Gloria Leon of the University of Minnesota says, 'What they're showing is that NASA and other organizations need to pay close attention to developing some measures that will prevent hypokinesis.' [Science Now]



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Analyst cuts ratings for coal cos. on weak demand

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Raymond James analyst on Monday cut his ratings for a trio of coal companies, saying that mild winter weather has driven down the price of natural gas and reduced demand for coal.

THE OPINION: James Rollyson said that after a tough 2012, he was originally optimistic about coal company prospects in 2013, as natural gas companies slowed their production growth and natural gas prices began to rise.

Rollyson thought that higher natural gas prices would prompt some utilities to switch from gas to coal, boosting demand for the coal companies.

But while natural gas prices did rise a bit, the number of heating days in in November and December ran about 13 percent below normal and 2 percent below last year's mild winter. In addition the weather in many parts of the country is expected to remain mild, at least for the near term, further reducing heating demand, Rollyson said.

Natural gas futures prices have fallen from about $4 per 1,000 cubic feet in November to $3.27 on Monday, a drop of more than 18 percent.

Rollyson said that while natural gas prices, and demand for coal, should still be up from last year's levels, they won't be as high as previously expected and will probably delay a recovery in U.S. coal prices.

As a result he cut his ratings for Cloud Peak Energy Inc. and James River Coal Co. to 'Market Perform' from 'Outperform' and for Consol Energy Inc. to 'Outperform' from 'Strong Buy.'

THE SHARES: In afternoon trading, Cloud Peak shares fell 33 cents to $19.13; James River lost 12 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $3.48; and Consol dropped 60 cents to $31.83.



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Biofuels cause pollution, not as green as thought - study

OSLO (Reuters) - Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday.

The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel - seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal - released a chemical into the air that, when mixed with other pollutants, could also reduce farmers' crop yields.

'Growing biofuels is thought to be a good thing because it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,' said Nick Hewitt, who worked on the study with colleagues from England's Lancaster University.

'What we're saying is 'yes, that's great, but biofuels could also have a detrimental effect on air quality',' he added.

The report, in the journal Nature Climate Change, looked into the impact of a European Union scheme to slow climate change by producing more biofuels.

Hewitt told Reuters there would be a similar impact wherever biofuels were produced in large quantities in areas suffering air pollution, including the United States and China.

Poplar, willow or eucalyptus trees, all used as fast-growing sources of renewable wood fuel, emit high levels of the chemical isoprene as they grow, the study said. Isoprene forms toxic ozone when mixed with other air pollutants in sunlight.

'Large-scale production of biofuels in Europe would have small but significant effects on human mortality and crop yields,' said Hewitt.

'As far as we know, no one has looked at the air quality of growing biofuel crops before,' he added.

The report estimated that ozone from wood-based energy to meet the European Union's 2020 goal would cause nearly 1,400 premature deaths a year, costing society $7.1 billion.

The European plan would also would reduce the annual value of wheat and maize production by $1.5 billion since ozone impairs crop growth, the study added.

LUNG PROBLEMS

Siting new biofuel plantations far away from polluted population centres would help limit ozone formation, the study suggested. Genetic engineering might be used to reduce isoprene emissions, it said.

Ozone can cause lung problems and is blamed for killing about 22,000 people a year in Europe. Overall air pollution, mainly from fossil fuels, causes about 500,000 premature deaths in Europe a year, according to the European Environment Agency.

Sunday's study did not compare the potential damage caused by biofuels to the impact on human health from producing coal, oil or natural gas as part of policies to slow global warming. 'We're not in a position to make that comparison,' Hewitt said.

He noted that the main reason to shift to biofuels was to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, mainly from fossil fuels, that U.N. studies project will become ever more damaging this century.

The United Nations' World Health Organization estimates global warming has caused more than 140,000 deaths annually worldwide since the 1970s.

The biggest impact was recorded in developing nations where the floods, droughts and other disasters blamed on climate change left millions suffering from diarrhea, malnutrition, malaria and dengue fever.

Burning biofuels is viewed as neutral for climate change because plants soak up carbon when they grow and release it when they burn or rot. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, add carbon to the atmosphere from underground stores millions of years old.

Biofuels are often blamed for causing food price spikes by competing for cropland. Responding to such criticisms, the European Commission said last year it aimed to limit crop-based biofuels - such as from maize or sugar - to five percent of transport fuels.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)



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