New isotopic analysis of Apollo-era Moon rocks shows that the water locked inside them likely came from our planet . Image via Wikimedia Commons/Gregory H. Revera

In September 2009, after decades of speculation, evidence of water on the surface of the Moon was discovered for the first time. Chandrayaan-1, a lunar probe launched by India’s space agency, had created a detailed map of the minerals that make up the Moon’s surface and analysts determined that, in several places, the characteristics of lunar rocks indicated that they bore as much 600 million metric tonnes of water.

In the years since, we’ve seen further evidence of water both on the surface and within the interior of the Moon, locked within the pore space of rocks and perhaps even frozen in ice sheets. All this has gotten space exploration enthusiasts pretty excited, as the presence of frozen water could someday make permanent human habitation of the Moon much more feasible.

For planetary scientists, though, it’s raised a knotty question: How did water arrive on the Moon in the first place?

A new paper published today in Science suggests that, unlikely as it may seem, the Moon’s water originated from the same source as the water that comes out of the faucet when you open a tap. Just as many scientists believe the Earth’s entire supply of water was initially delivered via water-bearing meteorites that traveled from the asteroid belt billions of years ago, a new analysis of lunar volcanic rocks brought back during the Apollo missions indicates the Moon’s water has its roots in these same meteorites. But there’s a twist: Before reaching the Moon, this lunar water was first on Earth.

A closeup of a melt inclusion inside lunar rocks. These inclusions reveal clues about the water content trapped within the Moon. Image via John Armstrong, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington

The research team, led by Alberto Saal of Brown University, analyzed the isotopic composition of hydrogen found in water within tiny bubbles of volcanic glass (supercooled lava) as well as melt inclusions (blobs of melted material trapped in slowly cooling magma that later solidified) in the Apollo-era rocks, as shown in the image above. Specifically, they looked at the ratio of deuterium isotopes (“heavy” hydrogen atoms that contain an added neutron) to normal hydrogen atoms.

Previously, scientists have found that in water, this ratio changes depending on where in the solar system the water molecules initially formed, as water that originated closer to the Sun has less deuterium than water formed further away. The water locked in the lunar glass and melt inclusions was found to have deuterium levels similar to that found in a class of meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, which scientists believe to be the most unaltered remnants of the nebula from which the solar system formed. Carbonaceous chondrites that fall to Earth originate in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Higher deuterium levels would have suggested that water was first brought on to the Moon by comets—as many scientists have hypothesized—because comets largely come from the Kuiper belt and Oort Cloud, remote regions far beyond Neptune where deuterium is more plentiful. But if the water in these samples represents lunar water as a whole, the findings indicate that the water came from a much closer source—in fact, the same source as the water on Earth.

The simplest explanation for this similarity would be a scenario in which, when a massive collision between a young Earth and a Mars-sized proto-planet formed the Moon some 4.5 billion years ago, some of the liquid water on our planet was somehow preserved from vaporization and transferred along with the solid material that would become the Moon.

Our current understanding of massive impacts, though, doesn’t allow for this possibility: The heat we believe would be generated by such an enormous collision would theoretically vaporize all lunar water and send it off into space in a gaseous form. But there are a few other scenarios that might explain how water was transferred from our proto-Earth to the Moon in other forms.

One possibility, the researchers speculate, is that the early Moon borrowed a bit of Earth’s high-temperature atmosphere the instant it formed, so any water that had been locked in the chemical composition of Earth rocks pre-impact would have vaporized along with the rock into this shared atmosphere after impact; this vapor would have then coalesced into a solid lunar blob, binding the water into the chemical composition of lunar material. Another possibility is that the rocky chunk of Earth was kicked off to form the Moon retained the water molecules locked inside its chemical composition, and later on, these were released as a result of radioactive heating inside the Moon’s interior.

Evidence from recent lunar missions suggests that lunar rocks—not just craters at the poles—indeed contain substantial amounts of water, and this new analysis suggests that water originally came from Earth. So the findings will force scientists to rethink models of how the Moon could have formed, given that it clearly didn’t dry out completely.

Who’s in the suit? Increasingly, it’s our digital selves. Photo from NASA/STS-104

Ever since the collective “YOU” became Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006, campaigns to get our attention have increasingly sought out our digital selves. You can name a Budweiser Clydesdale. You can pick Lays’ new potato chip flavor. And it’s not just retail that wants your online opinions: You can vote for who will win photography contests. You can play the futures market on who will win elected offices. And with enough signatures, you can get the White House to read your petitions.

Many science endeavors rely on such crowdsourcing. With a simple app, you can let researchers know the exact date that your lilacs or dogwoods bloom, helping them to track how seasonal cycles are shifting as a result of climate change. You can join the search for ever-larger prime numbers. You can even help scientists scan radio waves in space to search for intelligent life outside of Earth. These more traditional crowdsourcing efforts allow users to brainstorm ideas and process data from computers at home.

But now, a few projects are allowing us to put our virtual selves beyond Earth’s atmosphere through recently launched space missions. Who said that rovers, space probes, a handful of astronauts and pigs were the only ones in space? No longer are we just bystanders watching spacecraft launch and cooing over images returned of other planets and stars. Now, we can direct cameras, help run experiments, even send our avatars–of sorts–to inhabit nearby planetary bodies or return to us in a time capsule.

Here are a few examples:

Asteroid Chimney Rock: On April 10 (tomorrow), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will open up a campaign that allows visitors to their site the opportunity of sending their names and brief messages to the near-Earth asteroid (162173) 1999 JU₃.  Called the “Let’s meet with Le Petit Prince! Million Campaign 2,” the effort aims to get people’s names onto the Hayabusa2 mission, which will likely launch in 2014 to study the asteroid. When Hayabusa 2 lands on the asteroid, the names submitted–embedded in a plaque of sorts on the spacecraft–will stand as a testament to the idea that humans (or at least their robotic representatives) were there.

The Hayabusa2 mission, scheduled for launch in 2014, will attempt to return an asteroid sample back to Earth in 2020. Artist’s rendition by Akihiro Ikeshita/JAXA

The campaign is reminiscent of how NASA got more than 1.2 million people to submit their names and signatures, which were then etched on two dime-sized microchips and affixed to the Mars Curiosity rover. Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky–what useful function is brought by having people’s names out in space? But the idea of “tagging” a planet or an asteroid–preserving a bit of yourself on what will over decades become space junk–has powerful pull. It is why Chimney Rock, with its etchings from early explorers and pioneers, is the historical marker it is today, and why gladiators scored their names into the Colosseum before they fought to the death. For mission leaders hoping to get the public enthusiastic about space, nothing’s more exciting than a bit of digital graffiti.

Interplanetary time capsules: A key goal of Hayabusa2 is to return return a sample from the asteroid in 2020. Mission creators saw this as a perfect way to get the public to fill a time capsule. Those seeking to participate are encouraged to send to mission coordinators their thoughts and dreams for the future along with their hopes and expectations for recovery from natural disasters, the latter likely a way to get people to express their feelings on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan’s east coast. Names, messages, and illustrations will loaded onto a microchip that will not only touch down on the asteroid’s surface, but will also be a part of the probe sent back to Earth with asteroid dust.

But why stop at a mere 6-year time capsule? The European Space Agency, UNESCO, and other partners are blending crowd sourcing with space technology to create the KEO mission–so named because the letters represent common sounds across all of Earth’s languages–which will bundle thoughts and images of anyone who seeks to participate and will launch this bundle in a probe that will only return to Earth in 50,000 years.

Project operators write on KEO’s website: “Each one of us have 4 uncensored pages at our disposal: an identical space of equality and freedom of expression where we can voice our aspirations and our revolts, where we can reveal our deepest fears and our strongest beliefs, where we can relate our lives to our faraway great grandchildren, thus allowing them to witness our times.” That’s 4 pages for every person who chooses to participate.

On board will be photographs detailing Earth’s cultural richness, human blood encased in a diamond, and a durable DVD of humanity’s crowdsourced thoughts. The idea is to launch the time capsule from an Ariane 5 rocket into an orbit more than 2,000 kilometers above Earth, hopefully sometime in 2014. “50,000 years ago, Man created art thus showing his capacity for symbolic abstraction.” the website notes. And in another 50,000 years, “Will Earth still give life? Will human beings still be recognizable as such?”Another logical question: Will whatever’s left on Earth know what’s coming back to them and will be able to retrieve it?

Hayabusa2 and KEO will join capsules already launched into space on Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2. But the contents of these earlier capsules were picked by a handful of people; here, we get to choose what represents us in space, and will get to reflect (in theory) on the thoughts bound in time upon their return.

You, the mission controller and scientist: Short of going to Mars yourself, you can do the next best thing–tell an instrument currently observing Mars where to look. On NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), a camera designed to image Mars in great detail. Dubbed “the people’s camera,” HiRISE allows you–yes, you!– to pick its next targets by filling out a form specifying your “HiWishes.”

A recently launched nanosatellite is allowing the crowdsourced winners of a crowdsourced screaming contest the chance to test whether screams can be heard in space. Launched in February, the nanosatellite’s smartphone-powered brain will broadcast the screams–no word yet on results. But you may find just listening to the yelling therapeutic! This guy’s roar got the most votes:

New data from the Voyager 1 probe, more than 11 billion miles away from the sun, indicate that it has entered interstellar space after 35 years of travel. Image via NASA/JPL

Update: Since the press release announcing Voyager 1′s exiting the solar system, NASA has clarified that the final indicator of this event—a change in the direction of the magnetic field surrounding the craft—has still not been observed. As was first observed in December 2012, Voyager 1 is in a new outermost region of the solar system called “the magnetic highway,” not true interstellar space. This post has been edited to reflect the clarification.

Since the dawn of the Space Age, our manned missions and unmanned probes have reached the Moon, asteroids and other planets. But only now do we have confirmation that a human-made object has reached a new milestone: The Voyager 1 space probe is at the furthermost edge of the solar system.

According to a paper recently accepted for publication by the journal Geophysical Research Letters, data transmitted by probe—which is now more than 11 billion miles away from the Sun—reveal that it has exited the heliosphere. The heliosphere (also called the heliosheath) is the region of space influenced by the solar wind and is commonly accepted as the outer border of the solar system. Thirty-five years, 6 months and 15 days after its launch, the spacecraft will soon enter the second phase of its mission—studying the interstellar medium that exists between our galaxy’s star systems.

Bill Webber of New Mexico State and F.B. McDonald of the University of Maryland (who has passed away since the paper was written) came to the conclusion after analyzing radiation data transmitted by Voyager 1 last August 25. The probe’s sensors detected that the levels of radiation from cosmic rays that had come from the Sun dropped to less than 1 percent of what they’d been previously, while radiation from galactic cosmic rays (which originate from beyond the solar system) doubled in intensity.

Although there is no exact boundary that defines the edge of the solar system, the point at which the Sun’s cosmic rays and galactic cosmic rays meet indicates the edge of the region dominated by our Sun’s solar wind, and thus the outside border of our star’s system. Webber says that the sudden change in radiation indicates Voyager 1 passed this point.

“Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,” he said in a press release issued by the American Geophysical Union today. He also noted that it’s possible the probe hasn’t reached true interstellar space, but rather a separate, not-yet-understood region that lies in between our solar system and the interstellar medium.

This image from 2009 shows Voyager 1 at the edge of the heliosheath. But new data indicate Voyager 1 has passed the heliopause and entered the interstellar medium. Image via NASA/JPL

Since its launch in 1977, the spacecraft has conducted a grand tour of the solar system, passing by and photographing Jupiter and Saturn and providing us with some of the first-ever close-ups of the gas giants. Voyager 2, a twin probe, visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and is still firmly within the solar system for now, 9.4 billion miles away from the Sun.

In 2005, Voyager 1 entered the heliosheath (the region in which the solar wind begins to slow down due to encountering the interstellar medium), and last October, researchers reported that it may have left the heliosphere altogether. Soon afterward, though, scientists cautioned that it may not have exited the heliosphere’s outer boundary, because a shift in the direction of the magnetic field had not yet been detected.

Despite the announcement alongside the new paper, this may still be the case—Voyager 1 may have finally exited the heliosphere, but not yet entered interstellar space per se. According to NASA, “A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.” Thus, the probe is in an unexpected region in between the heliosphere and interstellar space, previously referred to as a magnetic highway.

Either way, though, it’s still in the starting stages of its journey, set to spend millennia—yes, millenia—traveling through the interstellar medium, though it will probably not be able to record or send back data after around 2025.

After an estimated 40,000 years, it will come relatively close (within a light year) to another star—and at that point, could serve as something of a time capsule. The Voyager 1 carries a Golden Record, designed to present a virtual snapshot of humankind to other life forms, contains everything from images of DNA and the Taj Mahal to recordings of whale sounds and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

As Timothy Ferris wrote in Smithsonian last May when he reflected on the 35th anniversary of the Voyager mission, “The Voyagers will wander forever among the stars, mute as ghost ships but with stories to tell…Whether they will ever be found, or by whom, is utterly unknown.”

Mars, photo via Pixabay

Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, Mars began to shift from a wetter, warmer climate to the dry and cold planet we see today. This period of geologic change, known as the Hesperian age, was a turbulent time. The red planet saw widespread volcanic eruptions and catastrophic flooding as melted ice rushed into wide craters, forming lakes. These natural disasters carved a network of basins into its surface called outflow channels, eroding the terrain and reshaping the landscape of the planet. The exact end of this geologic period in Mars’ history is unknown, but scientists give a rough estimate of 3 billion years ago.

Later, many of these outflow channels became covered with lava, burying evidence of Mars’ geologic history. But now, a new map of the planet’s subsurface shows for the first time what one of these buried channels looks like in three dimensions. The findings, published today in the journal Science, reconstruct the Marte Vallis, the largest of the youngest channels on Mars. Marte Vallis is located in the Elysium Planitia region, an expanse of plains along the equator and the youngest volcanic region on the planet.

To create the 3D map,  the researchers used data from Shallow Radar, a device that probes for liquid or frozen water underneath Mars’ crust. Known as SHARAD, the technology is on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, which is currently circling the planet to study its climate. SHARAD’s orbital sounding radar works in much the same way as medical imaging scans. It sends signals to the surface, some of which automatically bounce back to the spacecraft. The signals that don’t readily bounce back can penetrate Mars’ crust and register buried structures before returning to the device. The data appears in two-dimensional cross sections, which are then pieced together to build the 3D representation. In this manner, a deeply grooved set of channels was revealed.

3D visualization of the buried Marte Vallis channels underneath the surface of Mars. Image via Smithsonian Institution/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Sapienza University of Rome/MOLA Team/USGS

The system of channels, which is somewhere between 10 million to half a billion years old, spans 60 miles in width and stretches for more than 600 miles in length. From what can be seen of Marte Vallis from the surface, the channels are similar in structure to more ancient channel systems traced to the Hesperian, but the lava that had obscured many of their features made it difficult for researchers to make accurate estimates about its depth.

The new data reveals that the scale of erosion for Marte Vallis had indeed been underestimated: the 25-mile-wide main channel is at least twice as deep than earlier approximations indicated. The map shows multiple perched channels which feed into the deeper and wider main channel. These channels once lay along a series of four islands, which floods eroded into teardrop-shaped hills.

The researchers found that the geometry of the features are similar to those of the planet’s oldest channels, which are less obscured by lava, making them easier to study. This also suggests that the Marte Vallis could have been carved entirely by water, says lead study author Gareth Morgan, a geologist at the National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. In fact, most Mars scientists accept that outflow channels on Mars were carved by water. Lava also carves out tunnels through thermal erosion heating up the terrain, but Morgan says that this process is implausible for the scale of erosion at the Marte Valle channels. The speed of rushing water is also more efficient at erosion that the flow of lava, which can get stuck on rock, Morgan says. In addition, lava creates tunnels that aren’t as wide—typically only several miles across—so collapsed tunnels couldn’t account for the broad size of the channels.

Using the map, researchers were also able to pinpoint the source of the floodwater: a now buried portion of the Cerberus Fossae fracture, a series of fissures in the planet’s surface. The researchers posit that water from a reservoir deep below Mars’ surface was released by nearby tectonic or volcanic activity, and it worked quickly to form the channels. These channels would have been a short-lived affair,” Morgan says. “The fracture would have connected this groundwater to the surface. After a short duration of weeks or months, the source would have been exhausted.”

But why was water in that reservoir during a time when the rest of Mars is believed to have been dry? Water, the authors believe, could have collected in aquifers below the surface during the Hesperian. This water hypothetically could have remained stable in liquid form long after the Hesperian ended. Morgan feels that the 3D map could provide more evidence to support this hypothesis, showing that Mars was wet place in the more recent—as opposed to far ancient—past.

More than 20 similar outflow channels are spread out on the surface of the planet, extending hundreds of miles in length. The most prominent are located in the Chryse Planitia, a circular volcanic plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The largest, the Kasei Valles, runs for 1,500 miles along the plain.

Cataclysmic floods like the ones that shaped Mars’ channels aren’t unique to the red planet. Approximately 14,000 years ago, the largest known flood on Earth sprang from Lake Missoula, a prehistoric body of water that existed at the end of the last Ice Age in present-day Montana. The waters eroded part of the landscape of Washington state, forming the Channeled Scablands, a terrain that resembles Martian outflow channels. Marte Vallis’ main channel is estimated to be between 226 and 371 feet deep, a depth that’s comparable to the Channeled Scablands.

So if Mars’ expansive outflow channels were formed by gushing water, the question remains: Where did it all ago?

Some of it vaporized, drifted to the planet’s poles, and precipitated as ice on polar caps, Morgan says. Similar to the ones we have on Earth, the polar ends on the Red Planet are covered in miles-thick layers of ice. The water also could have pooled into shallow areas below the surface, where it also froze—in 2008, NASA’s Phoenix mission confirmed that ice exists in the porous soil that makes up much of the planet’s surface.

Another possibility, Morgan says, is that the ancient water again escaped deep underground, forming a large reservoir that awaits its chance to flood again.

Comet PanSTARRS, seen here from Australia, will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere starting around March 6. Photo by stargazer Terry Lovejoy

This year is shaping out to be an exciting one for us to see chunks of rocks and ice as they hurl through space. We’ve had an asteroid the size of half a football field zoom within the paths of our orbiting satellites and a 10,000 ton meteor the size of a grey whale blow up over Russia. Now, Comet PanSTARRS is making its closest approach to Earth today and will be visible to observers in the United States starting later this week and through the middle of the March.

People in the Southern Hemisphere have been able to see PanSTARRS for weeks because its orbit was traveling below the celestial equator–the projection of Earth’s equator out into space. The comet hooks northward, crossing the celestial equator, on Thursday–look for it low in the western sky, just after sunset, for a few weeks thereafter.

Comets–balls of ice and dust–glow because heat from the Sun vaporizes ice. This direct change from ice into gas causes the comet to develop a coma–a large cloud of gas around its solid nucleus. The path of the coma through space creates two tails, a broad dust tail and a thin ion tail composed of gas molecules ripped apart by sunlight, both of which always point away from the Sun. Although each tail may be more than a million miles long–and PanSTARRS’s tails are sure to lengthen as they get closer to the Sun–they look short and stubby, according to Space.com. This tiny tail is likely an optical illusion that results from viewing the comet over a relatively bright twilight background, so astronomers recommend that you use binoculars or a small telescope to catch a better glimpse.

Officially called PanSTAARS C/2011 L4, so named because it was discovered by the University of Hawaii’s Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in 2011, the comet is now about 100,000 million miles from Earth. The “L4″ in its name stems from the fact that it was the the fourth comet discovered during the first half of June. But it’s the “C” that’s getting astronomers excited. This letter indicates that it’s a non-periodic comet, meaning that the icy body never has–and never again will–come close to the Sun.

Born from the Oort cloud–a giant spherical cloud at the edge of our solar system named after a 20th century Dutch astronomer–PanSTARRS and other comets like it hold dust and gases from our solar nebula’s earliest days, 4.5 billion years ago. And unlike Halley’s comet, which returns every 75 years, PanSTARRS’s upcoming trip to the Sun will be humanity’s only chance to see it.

The behavior of these types of comets is anyone’s guess. “Prepare to be surprised. A new comet from the Oort Cloud is always an unknown quantity equally capable of spectacular displays or dismal failures,” explained Naval Research Lab astronomer Karl Battams, according to a NASA video about the comet. “Almost anything could happen. On one hand, the comet could fall apart–a fizzling disappointment. On the other hand, fresh veins of frozen material could open up to spew…jets of gas and dust into the night sky.”

How bright will it be? Answering that question requires knowing how astronomers scale the apparent brightness of objects in the sky. Low numbers and negative numbers are the brightest. For example, the Moon’s brightness averages about -12.75. Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, has a magnitude of -1.47 and the North Star’s magnitude varies, but hovers around +2. Under the best conditions, the faintest stars that humans can see without the aid of binoculars or telescopes is +6. Late last week astronomers were skeptical that PanSTARRS would get brighter than +2.2. But now, experts anticipate that the comet will be +1 or brighter when we attempt to scan the evening sky in hopes of viewing it.

A wide-field view of PanSTARRS over Western Australia on March 3. Photo by Jim Gifford

PanSTARRS will likely be its brightest as it makes its closest approach to the Sun on March 10. At that time it will be just inside the orbit of Mercury–coincidentally, there will be no Moon in the sky to overpower its glow. And its glow–particularly its characteristic tails–is what viewers hope to see.

Comet PanSTARRS will be viewable to the unaided eye in the western sky just after sunset–on March 12 and 13, it will visible near a thin crescent moon, presenting a great photo opportunity. Artist rendition via NASA

PanSTARRS will show off its best photos ops on March 12 and 13 when the comet will appear close to the thin crescent Moon. As the Moon waxes in the days to follow, its brightness will make the comet look fainter.

Check out viewing tips, and be sure to catch viewing parties in your area. Let us know what you see!

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A sunspot six times the diameter of Earth formed on the sun on Wednesday. Image via NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center

On Wednesday, NASA released an image of a series of enormous sunspots snapped by at the Solar Dynamics Observatory, an orbiting telescope. The sunspots—the dark spots in the center of the image—are estimated to be larger in diameter than six Earths placed next to each other.

These sunspots pose no inherent danger—they’re merely temporary areas of intense magnetic activity that inhibit the sun’s normal convection currents—but, on occasion, the unstable area around a sunspot can trigger an unusually large solar flare (below), flinging streams of radiation outward from the sun. And a big enough solar flare can lead to an alteration in solar wind significant enough to set off a geomagnetic storm here on Earth, with the potential to short the circuitry on satellites and disrupt our telecommunications infrastructure worldwide.

To be clear, such a scenario seems unlikely to occur from this current set of sunspots—SpaceWeather.com indicates there is just a 15% chance of X-class flares at the moment, the minimum level necessary to knock out satellites and ground-based communications technologies. But we decided to take this opportunity to imagine just how far-reaching the effects of a massive solar flare would be in today’s ultra-connected world.

It so happens that at least once during recorded history, a solar event of this magnitude did occur: the solar storm of 1859. On September 1 and 2 of that year, the largest geomagnetic storm in recorded history occurred, causing aurorae (the northern and southern lights) to be visible around the world. The Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser wrote:

Those who happened to be out late on Thursday night had an opportunity of witnessing another magnificent display of the auroral lights…The light appeared to cover the whole firmament, apparently like a luminous cloud, through which the stars of the larger magnitude indistinctly shone. The light was greater than that of the moon at its full, but had an indescribable softness and delicacy that seemed to envelop everything upon which it rested.

Of course, the massive solar storm also caused damage, triggering telegraph malfunctions (even giving operators electrical shocks) and causing some telegraph pylons to suddenly spark and catch fire.

A much smaller solar storm occurred in 1989, knocking out power throughout much of Quebec for over 9 hours, disrupting communications with several satellites in orbit and interfering with the broadcast of short-wave radio in Russia. Aurorae were reportedly visible as far south as Florida and Georgia; given the ongoing Cold War and the fact that many had never seen this phenomenon before, some feared that a nuclear strike was in progress.

How did solar activity 93 million miles away lead to such destruction? These types of storms are the result of a sudden coronal mass ejection (CME)—a massive burst of solar plasma (electrons, protons, and ions) that is hurtled out into space—which often occurs alongside particularly large solar flares.

The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged particles thrown out from the sun towards earth, but a particularly large CME can lead to a big enough surge in the speed and energy of the particles to disrupt the magnetic field surrounding Earth. This, in turn, causes aurorae and the disruptions to our telecommunications equipment, which rely upon electromagnetic forces.

An artist’s rendering of the solar wind interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. Image via NASA

If a CME as large as the one that triggered the 1859 storm were to occur today, the consequences could be devastating. Given the increase in our reliance on electricity and telecommunications (even since 1989), the effects would certainly be far more significant than malfunctioning telegraph pylons.

It’s hard to appreciate just how many aspects of modern life rely on technologies that could be affected. As Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics told National Geographic in 2011, ”Every time you purchase a gallon of gas with your credit card, that’s a satellite transaction.” A giant storm could disrupt our GPS systems, communication with planes in flight and other crucial satellite-based technologies.

But the biggest concern, experts say, would be disruptions to our power grid—as a 2011 OECD report (PDF) on the impacts of solar storms points out, “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend.” A surge in solar wind can blow out power transformers by melting their copper windings, and especially in highly interconnected regions (such as the East Coast), transformer failures can trigger cascading effects, spreading power outages over wide areas.

One analysis looked at a 1921 storm—which was ten times more powerful than the 1989 event—and estimated that if it occurred today, it would leave some 130 million people without power, potentially affecting water and food distribution, heating and air conditioning, sewage disposal and a host of other aspects of the infrastructure we take for granted daily. The total cost of an even larger storm, such as the 1859 event, could be enormous: an estimated $1 to $2 trillion in the first year alone, and a total recovery that could take 4 to 10 years in total.

The good news is that CMEs large enough to trigger a disruptions like the 1859 storm are rare–for the most severe damage to occur, a CME has to be directed in such away that Earth receives the brunt of the blast. Fortunately, solar activity occurs in a cycle with a duration of roughly 11 years, during which all kinds of solar activity (including the number of sunspots, the frequency of flares and the level of mass ejections) fluctuate from high to low and back to high again. However, we’re near the peak of the cycle, which NASA predicts will occur this fall.

Both NASA and the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center monitor solar activity and issue warnings when CMEs and other alterations in the solar wind occur. The SWPC’s current 3-day forecast predicts no storms over the weekend, despite this new enormous sunspot.

If a massive CME were spotted, such 3-day forecasts give us some lead time: there are some measures electric utilities could take to protect their equipment, such as quickly disconnecting transformers. Polar flights, which travel at the highest altitudes, could be rerouted to avoid contact with damaging solar particles, and some satellites could be switched into a safe mode to minimize damage. Here on Earth, at the very least, we’d have some time to prepare for potential power blackouts and other problems.

A rendering of Asteroid 2012 DA14, which will pass within 17,200 miles of Earth’s surface. Image via NASA/JPL

This Friday afternoon at approximately 2:26 Eastern time, an asteroid roughly half the size of a football field (147 feet) in diameter will pass extremely close to the Earth—just 17,200 miles from our planet’s surface. That said, there’s no need to worry, as NASA scientists confirmed with certainty nearly a year ago that the asteroid will not make an impact and poses absolutely no threat.

Nevertheless, the proximity of the asteroid’s path is noteworthy: it will come within a distance 2 times the Earth’s diameter, passing us by even closer than some geosynchronous satellites that broadcast TV, weather and radio signals. As Phil Plait writes in his comprehensive post on the asteroid over at Slate, “This near miss of an asteroid is simply cool. It’s a big Universe out there, and the Earth is a teeny tiny target.”

The asteroid will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites that orbit earth. Image via NASA/JPL

The asteroid—likely made of rock and referred to as 2012 DA14 by scientists—was first spotted last February by astronomers at Spain’s Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra. Asteroids, like planets, orbit the Sun, and this one passed us by on its last orbit as well, but at a much greater distance—it came within roughly 1.6 million miles last February 16. After this year’s near miss, the rock’s orbit will be altered significantly by the influence of Earth’s gravity, and scientists calculate that it won’t come near us again until the year 2046 at the soonest.

On Friday, though, it will pass by Earth between 18:00 and 21:00 UTC (1-4 p.m. Eastern time, or 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Pacific) and come closest at roughly 19:26 UTC (2:26 p.m. Eastern, 11:26 a.m. Pacific). That means that observers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia get to see its closest pass at nighttime, whereas those in North America, Western Europe and Africa will have to wait until after sunset, when the asteroid has already begun to move away.

For all observers, the asteroid will be too small to see with the naked eye, though it should be viewable with binoculars or a telescope. Universe Today has the technical details on where exactly to spot the asteroid in the sky. A number of observatories and organizations will also broadcast video streams of the asteroid live, including NASA.

A fly-by like the one on Friday isn’t particularly rare in terms of mere proximity. There are seven closer asteroid passes on record—in 2011, a tiny asteroid set the record for near misses by coming within 3300 miles of Earth, and in 2008, an even smaller one actually made contact with the atmosphere, burning up over Africa.

Both of those rocks, though, were less a meter across.What distinguishes this asteroid is that it’s passing close by and theoretically large enough to cause major damage if an impact were to occur. While an asteroid of this size passes this closely roughly every 40 years on average, a collision with an object this size only happens once every thousand years or so.

What kind of damage would that impact wreak? For a comparison, many are noting the Tunguska event, an explosion over a remote area Russia in 1908 that was likely caused by an asteroid of similar size burning up in the atmosphere. The explosion knocked down more than 80 million trees covering an area of some 830 square miles; scientists estimate it released more than 1,000 times as much energy as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and triggered shock waves that would have registered a 5.0 on the Richter scale.

Of course, unlike in 1908, we now have the power to observe approaching asteroids well ahead of time—and might have the ability to prevent potential collisions. Bill Nye is among those who argue that this event should serve as a wake-up call for the importance of investing in asteroid-detecting infrastructure, such as observatories and orbiting telescopes. The B612 Foundation supports this mission, and advocates for the development of technologies that could slightly alter the path or speed of an approaching object to avoid an impact.

This time, at least, we’re lucky. But Ed Lu, a former astronaut and head of B612, says this event should not be taken lightly. ”It’s a warning shot across our bow,” he told NPR. “We are flying around the solar system in a shooting gallery.”

Jupiter, which is now close to the Moon in the night sky, will be less than a finger’s width from the Moon tonight.

Over the weekend, the Sun moved into the constellation Aquarius, blocking it from view in the night sky. Although the “Age of Aquarius” of popular culture is far off, tonight some Western Hemisphere observers will get a little bit of astronomical free love as the Jupiter–the second brightest planet in the night sky (the brightest being Venus)–kisses the Moon.

To sky watchers in most of North America, the planet and the Moon will flirt: Jupiter will be less than a finger’s width from the waxing Gibbous Moon. The time of their closest approach varies by location–observers on the East coast will see it at around 11:30 p.m. Central time stargazers should look up at around 10:00 p.m., while those in Mountain time will see Jupiter’s nearest approach to the Moon at about 8:30 p.m. Pacific time observers will catch their best view early in the evening, at roughly 7:00 p.m.  The close approach can be best seen with a wide-field telescope at low magnifications (40x or lower) or binoculars, but can even be viewed with the naked eye.

From much of South America, the planet will appear touch the Moon; in some regions, the Moon will completely hide Jupiter from view. This game of hide-and-go-seek, termed occultation, will cause Jupiter to disappear and reappear from the skies over much of central South America. However, when viewed from much of the east coast of Brazil and Uruguay, the Moon will set before Jupiter reemerges.

In some parts of South America, shaded above, the Moon will hide Jupiter from view. Observers in the oval region will see Jupiter disappear, but will not see its reappearance, as the Moon will set before the planet reemerges.

For the past few days, Jupiter has been close to the Moon at sunset, but today, careful observers may even be able to spot Jupiter in the late afternoon, before the Sun sets.  “First locate the Moon medium-high in the east; then look a few Moon-widths left or lower left of the Moon for Jupiter,” explained Tony Flanders,  associate editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. “It should be easy to spot with binoculars if the air is clear,” he said in a statement.

Those with telescopes can even see Jupiter’s Great Red Spot between 9:00 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. EST today. In addition, Jupiter’s moon Europa will pass in front of Jupiter between 8:13 and 10:37 p.m. EST, although the moon’s shadow–which crosses Jupiter from 10:22 p.m. to 12:46 a.m. will be easier to spot. Have fun planet-watching!

A meteorite, newly discovered in Morocco, contains ten times as much water as many Martian meteorite discovered previously. Image via Agee et. al.

Last year, noted meteorite collector Jay Piatek traveled to Morocco and bought a single stone, less than a pound in weight, that had been discovered in the country some time earlier. When he passed it on to researchers at the University of New Mexico to perform a mineral analysis, they found something unexpected.

The meteor seemed to have originated on Mars, but the rock’s composition didn’t exactly match any of the well-studied meteorites from there found previously. When the researchers compared it to data from soil and rock samples obtained by Curiosity and other recent Martian rovers, though, they realized that rather than originating in the planet’s mantle, as the others had, it appeared to have come from the Martian crust.

Most intriguingly, when they analyzed the basaltic breccia rock even more closely, they discovered it contained a large quantity of water molecules locked in its crystalline structure. While previous studies of Martian meteorites have suggested the presence of water on the red planet, this sample’s analysis, published today in Science, revealed that it contained 10 times more water than any Martian meteorite examined before.

The discovery of the water molecules in the rock at concentrations of 6000 parts per million could indicate the presence of liquid water sometime during Mars’ history. “The high water content could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water either from volcanic magma, or from fluids from impacting comets during that time,” study co-author Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institute said in a statement.

Apart from the presence of water, the researchers say that information they’ve gleaned over the course of a year-long analysis of the meteor—the first ever linked to the Martian crust—could significantly impact our understanding of the planet’s geology as a whole. The meteorite is primarily composed of chunks of basalt cemented together, indicating that it formed from rapidly cooling lava, likely on the planet’s crust. While we’ve found meteorites from the Moon that match this composition, we haven’t seen anything like it from Mars previously.

Already, the researchers determined that the specimen is roughly 2.1 billion years-old, formed during Mars’ Amazonian epoch, a time period from which we had no previous rock samples. “It is the richest Martian meteorite geochemically,” Steele said. “Further analyses are bound to unleash more surprises.”

The levels of radiation astronauts experience over the course of an extended mission in deep space could lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s. Image via NASA.

NASA has big plans for manned travel in deep space. Although missions haven’t been officially announced yet, experts speculate that the agency plans to establish a space station on the far side of the moon sometime in the next decade, a stepping stone towards landing on an asteroid in 2025 and potentially trying to reach Mars sometime around 2033.

Getting to Mars, though, would require astronauts to endure a round-trip (or possibly one-way) journey that could be as long as three years—which could be particularly worrisome given the results of a study on the health effects of cosmic radiation published today in PLOS ONE. Although we’ve known for some time that the radiation experienced by space travelers could pose problems over the long term, this new study is the first to establish a link with an increased chance of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

The researchers, a group from NASA and the University of Rochester, came to the finding by testing a specific type of cosmic radiation—high-mass, high-charged (HZE) iron particles—on mice. This kind of radiation is of particular concern, because its high speed (a result of the force of the exploding stars it’s originally expelled from, light-years away) and large mass mean that it’s tricky to protect against.

Here on Earth, we’re largely protected from it and other types of radiation by our planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field, but even a short time in deep space means much higher levels of exposure, and we haven’t yet figured out how to construct a shield that effectively blocks it. ”Because iron particles pack a bigger wallop it is extremely difficult from an engineering perspective to effectively shield against them,” M. Kerry O’Banion, the paper’s senior author, said in a statement. “One would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete.”

After producing radioactive particles that generate this type of radiation using a particle accelerator at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, the researchers exposed the mice to varying doses of the radiation, including levels comprable to what astronauts would experience on a mission to Mars. The breed of mice they used has been the subject of numerous studies on dementia and Alzheimer’s, so scientists have a relatively good understanding of how rapidly the disease and related symptoms develop over time.

But when the researchers put the mice through a series of behavioral tests—seeing if they were capable of remembering objects or specific locations—those that had been exposed to greater levels of radiation were far more likely to fail, demonstrating signs of neurological impairment far more early in life than is typical in the breed. Additionally, autopsies of these mice revealed that their brains contained higher levels of beta amyloid, the “plaque” considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

This result doesn’t mean we have to abandon dreams of deep space travel—or even that this kind of radiation definitively leads to accelerated neurological degeneration—but it does show that cosmic radiation is going to be a graver concern the longer space missions get. Ingenious engineering has addressed many of the difficulties of space flight, but this remains a problem to be solved.

“These findings clearly suggest that exposure to radiation in space has the potential to accelerate the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” O’Banion said. “This is yet another factor that NASA, which is clearly concerned about the health risks to its astronauts, will need to take into account as it plans future missions.”

Space shuttle Endeavour at its new location in the California Science Center. Image via Wikimedia Commons

The year is almost over and media outlets across the country are reflecting on the news makers of the past 365 days and the celebrated and notorious who passed away in 2012. Their compilations show that a handful of late greats of space exploration will not be with us in 2013.

Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, passed away on August 25. Image via NASA

2012 witnessed the passing of two legends in human space exploration: Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride. Armstrong, who died on August 25 from complications following heart bypass surgery, made history when stepped off the Apollo 11 spacecraft and onto lunar soil on June 29, 1960. The commander of the mission, Armstrong and his “small step for man” but “giant leap for mankind” inspired a nation slogging through the Cold War–millions of people turned on the TV to watch his moonwalk live and to witness what humanity can accomplish with dedicated investment in science. Armstrong has been the subject of several books, the namesake of elementary schools, and the inspiration for a 1969 folk song. A lunar crater near the Apollo 11 landing site is named after him, as is an asteroid. But perhaps his most lasting legacy will be his footprints on the moon, which without any weather to disturb them may last for thousands of years, giving mute encouragement to future generations that efforts to explore our solar system can meet with success.

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died on July 23. Image via NASA

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died July 23 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. An astrophysicist with a doctorate degree from Stanford, Ride flew first on a Challenger mission in 1983; at 35 years old at the time of her flight, she is the youngest American to have ventured to space. When she flew in a second Challenger mission in 1984, she became the only American woman to fly into space twice. Her career made her household name and, after enduring a continual skepticism on whether a woman should be an astronaut, she became a role-model for women who sought entrance into male-dominated fields.

Six months before the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, Roger Boisjoly warned that cold weather could disrupt the seals connecting the solid rocket booster together. “The result could be a catastrophe of the highest order, loss of human life,” Boisjoly, a mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist wrote in a memo to Morton Thiokol, his employer and the manufacturer of the boosters. Later investigations showed that Boisjoly’s recommendations became mired in corporate bureaucracy. Below-freezing temperatures the night before the launch prompted Biosjoly and others to plead to their bosses that the flight be postponed. Their advice went unheeded, and 73 seconds after launch, Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members. Boisjoly was called as a witness by a presidential commission that reviewed the disaster, but was later shunned by colleagues for being a whistle-blower. He then became an advocate for workplace ethics and was given the Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility by the AAAS. He died January 6 of cancer in his colon, kidneys, and liver.

The shuttle program itself reached the end of its lifetime in 2012. On Oct 14, Endeavour made its last trek–through the streets of Los Angeles–to its final home at the California Science Center. Atlantis was moved to the Kennedy Space Center’s tourist exhibits on November 2, and Enterprise was delivered to the U.S.S. Intrepid, docked off Manhattan’s West Side, this June. Discovery arrived at Smithsonain’s Udvar-Hazy Center on April 19.

Comet ISON, still just a faint glimmer at the crosshairs of this telescope image, could be the brightest comet in a generation next November. Image via E. Guido/G. Sostero/N. Howes

Over the past year, we’ve seen a ton of scientific milestones and discoveries of historic importance, from the discovery of the Higgs Boson to the landing of a mobile laboratory on Mars. Science, though, is defined by its relentless march forward: No matter how much we learn, there are always more questions to answer. So, after our roundup of 2012′s most surprising (and significant) scientific events, we bring you the most exciting studies, projects and science developments we’ll be watching for in 2013.

1. Comet Ison: Back in September, a pair of Russian astronomers discovered a new comet heading in our direction. At the time, it was just a faint blip detectable only with the most sophisticated telescopes, and it was unclear how visible it would become during its approach. Now, though, astronomers are predicting that when it passes by us and closely orbits the sun in November and December of 2013, it could be the astronomical sight of our lifetimes. “Comet Ison could draw millions out into the dark to witness what could be the brightest comet seen in many generations—brighter even than the full Moon,” astronomer David Whitehouse writes in The Independent. One thing’s for sure: we’ll be watching.

Russian scientists plan to drill the last few meters into the subglacial Lake Vostok in January and February in an attempt to collect water and sediment samples that have been isolated for millions of years. Image via National Science Foundation

2. Lake Vostok: For more than a decade, a team of Russian scientists has worked to drill nearly 12,000 feet down into Antarctica’s icy depths with a single purpose: to obtain samples from the ultra-deep isolated subglacial lake known as Lake Vostok. After barely reaching the water’s surface last Antarctic summer, they now plan to return at the end of 2013 to drill fully into the lake and use a robot to collect water and sediment samples. The lake may have been isolated for as long as 15 to 25 million years—providing the tantalizing potential for long-term isolated evolution that could yield utterly strange lifeforms. The lake could even serve as a model for the theoretical ice-covered oceans on Jupiter’s moon Europa, helping us better understand how evolution might occur elsewhere in the solar system.

Rival American and British teams were also racing to probe the depths of other subglacial lakes in search of life—the American team’s efforts to reach subglacial Lake Whillans is expected to meet with success this January or February, while the British have been forced to cease their drilling efforts into subglacial Lake Ellsworth due to technical difficulties.

Experts predict that algae-based biofuels, now on sale at a handful of spots in California, could take off in 2013. Image via Wikimedia Commons/Honeywell

3. Algae Fuel: Experts predict that 2013 will be the year when vehicle fuels derived from algae finally take off. A handful of biofuel stations in the San Francisco area started selling algae-based biodiesel commercially for the first time last month, and after the product met state fuel standards, the pilot program is expected to be expanded shortly. Because algae use less space, grow more quickly and can be more efficiently converted into oil than conventional crops used for biofuels, advocates are excited about the possibility that algae-based fuels could wean us off petroleum without using up precious food crops.

New findings about the cosmic microwave background, the energy resulting from the Big Bang that still radiates through the universe (imaged above), could help us better understand how space originally formed. Image via ESA/ LFI & HFI Consortia

4. Cosmic Microwave Background: Energy left over from the Big Bang still radiates through the universe—and the European Space Agency’s plans to use the Planck satellite to measure this energy more precisely than ever before could help us better understand the formation of the universe. The 1965 measurement of this microwave energy first supported the concept of the Big Bang, and subsequent examination of variations in the radiation has led to more sophisticated theories about our universe’s earliest days. The Planck satellite, launched in 2009, has already collected a wide range of valuable astronomical data and images, but plans to release all this info in early 2013 has the cosmology world all atwitter.

IBM’s Watson supercomputer could start helping doctors diagnosis illnesses in 2013. Image via IBM

5. Supercomputers to the Rescue: A number of supercomputers around the world could have a remarkable impact at solving problems in health, the environment and other fields over the next year. Yellowstone, a 1.5 petaflops cluster computer in Wyoming, was installed this past summer and will spend 2013 crunching numbers (1.5 quadrillion calculations per second, to be exact) to refine climate models and help us better understand how storms and wildfires move across the planet. Meanwhile, Watson, IBM’s world-famous Jeopardy-winning supercomputer, is currently being trained by doctors to recognize medical symptoms and serve as a diagnostic tool, providing treatment options based on case histories and clinical knowledge. So far, the computer has been trained to recognize breast, lung and prostate cancers.

The Sun traces a figure eight pattern in the sky when viewed at the same time every day for a year. This pattern, called an analemma, allows you to know when the solstices occurred. Image courtesy Jailbird

Despite all the doomsday hype about December 21 being the last day of the Mayan long count calendar, dawn broke today and the world hasn’t ended. Though there is still day left for apocalypse to start, NASA in particular will be relieved when today turns into tomorrow–over the past few weeks, hundreds of concerned citizens have been calling the agency every day for reassurance, prompting NASA to post a video intended for release tomorrow on “Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday.”

“Dec. 21, 2012, won’t be the end of the world as we know,” NASA relates on its website, “however, it will be another winter solstice.”

Perhaps the coincidence of the solstice with the resetting of the Mayan calendar has fueled the idea that today is a mystical day. The winter solstice is the day of the year that contains the shortest amount of daylight and the longest amount of night–it marks the beginning of winter, and many cultures celebrate how it heralds longer amounts of daylight to come. But astronomically, the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice was the specific time of the day–6:11 a.m. Eastern, in fact–when Sun’s rays at the the Tropic of Capricorn were directly overhead. The Sun’s rays will never be directly overhead at any point south of this latitude.

Archaeological evidence supports the idea that many ancient cultures knew about the solstices–several monuments, such as the earliest known ancient astronomical observatory in Newgrange Irelend (where the rising sun today illuminated the structures inner chamber for the first time since the last winter solstice) were built in such a way as to mark solar events. But this all begs the question–how did the ancients know when the solstice would occur?

The answer may lie in the meaning of the word “solstice.”  Derived from the Latin sol (Sun) and sistere (to make stand, as in to stand still), during the solsticies the Sun’s position north or south of the celestial equator (an imaginary plane that extends Earth’s equator out into space) stands still. In other words, the seasonal movement of the Sun’s path, as seen from any fixed location on Earth, reaches a low point before reversing direction.

This low point is something that given clear skies and patience, you could see for yourself. Imagine going outside at the same time of day every day for a year and taking a picture of the Sun. As the days pass, you’d notice that the position of the Sun in each picture changes with respect to the horizon. Combining all your pictures into a single image shows that the Sun’s position traces a figure eight pattern, called an analemma.Depending on the time of day and that you record your observations (a.m. or p.m.), and your latitude, the analemma will be tilted. The analemma traced at the North Pole would be fully vertical with the small loop at the top, and the one traced at the equator would be horizontal. The analemma at the South Pole would be vertical with the big loop at the top, but you would only be able to see a portion of it–the rest would be hidden by the horizon.

Why does the Sun trace this odd path? The reasons boil down to two facts. First, the Earth is titled at an angle when it rotates, and second, the Earth has an eccentric orbit–it orbits in an ellipse as it revolves around the Sun. Universe Today puts it this way: “an object with a perfectly circular orbit and no axial tilt, the Sun would always appear at the same point in the sky at the same time of day throughout the year and the analemma would be a dot, an object with a circular orbit but axial tilt similar to Earth’s, the analemma would be a figure of eight with northern and southern lobes equal in size, an object with eccentricity similar to Earth’s, but no axial tilt, the analemma would be a straight east-west line along the equator.”

Looking at the analemma you created over the course of the year, you can notice a key thing–your figure eight is symmetrical. A line of symmetry drawn through the analemma intersects the shape at two points other than where the lobes touch. The days that you recorded the Sun at those points are the solstices; the one lower in the horizon is the winter solstice and the higher one is the summer solstice. You can also notice that the point on the analemma closest to the horizon–marking the latest sunrise or sunset, depending on whether you made your analemma in the morning or evening–was not recorded on the day of the solstice.

The ancients didn’t have cameras, so their calculations of the solstice may have involved how the shadow of a stick planted in the ground, when measured at the same time every day, traces a similar analemma to what you can document with your camera. In fact, the Mayans were adept at using shadows to mark the equinoxes and solstices.

The solar analemma may have been a powerful tool to tell the ancients that longer days were about to begin. The same can be said for us–all we need to do is make it past midnight today!

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A graphic data readout of the a collision of two protons, briefly producing a Higgs Boson, from the Large Hadron Collider. Image via CERN

The year 2012 was a major one for science. We saw scientists develop a new type of drug to combat HIV, figure out how to store digital data in DNA—fitting an astonishing 700 terabytes of information into a single gram of it—and even invent a coating for the inside of condiment bottles that could eliminate our stuck-ketchup-headaches once and for all (though, admittedly, this one is a little less groundbreaking than the others). Yet a few milestones in particular—discoveries, technological feats, realizations, and inventions—stand out:

1. The Higgs Boson: The landmark discovery by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) of the once-mythical particle might be the most significant scientific discovery of our lifetimes, but it’s also one of the most surprising. Stephen Hawking, the Einstein of our time, famously bet Michigan physicist Gordon Kane $100 that it would never be found.

In an interview with The Atlantic, physicist Lawrence Krauss explained why so many experts had agreed with Hawking, arguing that the existence of the Higgs—a particle (and associated field) that makes certain types of elementary particles behave as though they had mass—was just too convenient, as it was originally posited simply to explain away an apparent difficulty in an otherwise appealing theory in theoretical physics.

The theory seeks to unite all physical forces under the same set of rules. But how can electromagnetic forces–governed by massless photons–fit under the same theoretical umbrella as the weak force, which is governed by bosons with discernible mass that control radioactive decay? Efforts to answer this conundrum gave birth to  the Higgs boson. Krauss noted,”It seemed too easy…It seemed to me that introducing an invisible field to explain stuff is more like religion than science…Great, I invented invisible hobgoblins to make things right.”

Incredibly, in this case, it turned out the hobgoblins were real.

An artist’s rendering of the theorized Earth-like planet, potentially capable of containing liquid water. Image via University of Hertfordshire/J. Pinfield

2. Earth-Like Planets: 2012 featured a ton of exoplanet discoveries, but the sighting of HD 40307g was without a doubt the most unexpected and exciting.  The planet, bigger than earth but not so large as to be a gas giant, seems to orbit in its sun’s “goldilocks zone” (not too hot and not too cold), making it potentially capable of hosting liquid water, considered a prerequisite for life as we know it.

Even better, it’s just 42 light-years away: distant by human standards, but fairly close by compared many of the astronomical objects, making future projects to observe the planet much more feasible.

A composite image of self-portraits taken by Curiosity on Mars. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

3. Curiosity Reaches Mars: Okay, the mission itself wasn’t too surprising—it’s been in the works since 2004—but what was so astonishing was the sudden surge of public interest in the rover and in space exploration as a whole. For decades following the manned Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, general enthusiasm for space science had slowly ebbed. After Curiosity’s successful landing, though, it surged. Among other things, video of NASA engineers celebrating the feat went viral and the official Curiosity twitter account garnered some 1.2 million followers.

People are so interested in Curiosity‘s exploits, in fact, that even an engineer’s throwaway line about “a discovery for the history books” pumped up expectations so much that we were bound to be disappointed by the actual finding: that early Martian soil samples seem to be representative of what we know of the planet as a whole, and that its chemistry is complex enough to have potentially once supported life. Bigger news might come over the next few years, but as project scientist John Grotzinger said, “Curiosity’s middle name is patience.”

For many Americans, Superstorm Sandy drove home the idea that climate change is real. Image via NASA

4. Climate Change Is Even Worse Than We Thought: After decades of warnings from scientists that our greenhouse gas emissions will soon wreak havoc with the climate, we’re now starting to see the consequences—and they sure aren’t pretty. As a whole, experts are saying that the even the most frightening climate scenarios have proved to be too conservative in their analysis of how rising carbon dioxide concentrations will alter precipitation patterns, drive ocean acidification, lead to more powerful storms and, in general, make most parts of the planet grow warmer.

One silver lining might be that the public is now starting to acknowledge climate change as a present-day problem, rather than a hypothetical trend that could take effect in the future. Sadly, this has come only after record-breaking heat waves, droughts and the tragic impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Although the most recent international climate talks in Doha accomplished little, there are hopes that this shift in opinion could lead to a long-awaited change in policy sometime soon.

A digital rendering at the atomic level of a new type of water desalinization method developed at MIT, which uses a one-atom-thick sheet of graphene (blue) to filter impurities (green and purple ) from water molecules (red and white). Image via David Cohen-Tanugi

5. A New Way to Desalinate Seawater: With world populations expected to keep growing and potable water projected to grow more scarce over the coming century, a practical and cheap means of desalinating sea water is one of materials science’s holy grails. In July, MIT researchers announced the development of a new method of desalinization using one-atom-thick sheets of graphene, a pure carbon substance. Their method could be far cheaper and less energy-intensive than existing systems—potentially providing a way to solve many of the world’s water problems once and for all.

An artist’s rendering of the matter ejected from the quasar SDSS J1106+1939 surrounding a black hole. Image via ESO/L. Calçada

The stereotypical black hole is a region of space that powerfully sucks in anything that comes near. While that’s sort-of true, many black holes are surrounded by quasars: dense, matter-rich regions at the centers of galaxies that eject astonishing volumes of radio waves, light and many other forms of energy.

Astronomers, using data from the European Southern Observatory‘s Very Large Telescope in Chile, have spotted a quasar (labelled SDSS J1106+1939) that is spewing more energy than any one found previously. “The rate that energy is carried away by this huge mass of material ejected at high speed from SDSS J1106+1939 is at least equivalent to two million two million million times the power output of the Sun,” said Nahum Arav of Virginia Tech in a statement. “This is about 100 times higher than the total power output of the Milky Way galaxy—it’s a real monster of an outflow.”

Quasars, some of the most luminous and energetic objects in the known universe, result from matter drawn in by the immense gravitational force of the largest type of black holes. While all this gravity easily sucks in visible light, scientists believe much of the matter doesn’t make it all the way in, instead condensing into a swirling accretion disk.

When all this matter is drawn together, it is eventually ejected in a powerful outflow that constitutes a quasar. The team’s discovery, published today in The Astrophysical Journal, has an energy output more than five times as much as any previously known quasar. The team estimates that each year, it ejects a mass equivalent to roughly 400 suns, moving at a speed of roughly 8,000 kilometers per second.

Since quasars mostly spew energy in the form of radio waves, rather than visible light, for years astronomers only knew them as sources of radio energy with no matching visible object. Over time, as more powerful telescopes were developed, scientists were eventually able to see them. In addition to radio waves and small amounts of visible light, quasars also eject matter and energy of a range of wavelengths, including X-rays.

An X-ray image of a different quasar, labelled PKS 1127-145. The x-ray jet extends an estimated million light years from the quasar itself. Image via NASA/CXC/A.Siemiginowska(CfA)/J.Bechtold(U.Arizona)

This discovery confirms theoretical calculations and computer simulations that predicted such enormous outflows of energy could exist. These theories could in turn help explain a number of mysteries, say the researchers, such as how the mass that makes up a galaxy interacts with the mass contained in a black hole at its center.

As a result, astronomers and cosmologists have been searching for a quasar this energetic for some time. ”I’ve been looking for something like this for a decade,” said Arav, “so it’s thrilling to finally find one of the monster outflows that have been predicted.”