Author Archive for Ian O'Neill
Ocean Currents May Cool the Climate for a Decade
It would appear that rising atmospheric temperatures may be slowed or even stopped over the next ten years due to periodic changes in ocean circulation. As the Gulf Stream slows the flow of warm tropical waters from the equator to the North Atlantic, North America and Northern Europe will experience a slight reduction in atmospheric [...]
Explore Earth’s Ionosphere with Google Earth
The ionosphere is the final layer of atmosphere before space. This highly dynamic region is constantly exposed to the full intensity of the Sun, harsh ultraviolet radiation breaking down molecules and atoms. Highly charged ions and free electrons therefore fill the ionospheric layers. Critical to terrestrial communications, the ionosphere also plays host to the largest [...]
Gaia Hypothesis: Could Earth Really be a Single Organism?
Can a planet like Earth be considered a single living organism? After all, the human body is composed of hundreds of billions of bacteria, and yet we consider the human body to be a single organism. The Gaia Hypothesis (or popularly known as "Gaia Theory") goes beyond the individual organisms living on Earth, it encompasses [...]
Titan Launch Pad Tower Blown Up at Cape Canaveral (Gallery)
Cape Canaveral's Titan launch pad gantry was demolished on Sunday. The tower was built in the 1990's to support the US Air Force Titan 4 rocket program. The site has been used for NASA missions as well, including the launch of the Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission in 1997. Launch Complex 40 is being demolished and then [...]
Supermassive Black Hole Kicked Out of Galaxy: First Ever Observation
For the first time, the most extreme collision to occur in the cosmos has been observed. Galaxies are known to hide supermassive black holes in their cores, and should the galaxies collide, tidal forces will cause massive disruption to the stars orbiting around the galactic cores. If the cores are massive enough, the supermassive black [...]
Global Warming is Accelerating Faster than can be Naturally Repaired
It appears the Earth's climate has the ability to naturally regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Historic records extracted from ice cores show quantities of CO2 have varied widely in the last hundreds of thousands of years. This evidence appears to support the global warming critics view that current observations of the human-induced greenhouse effect is [...]
