Strange and hidden Jupiter-size exoplanet spotted by astronomers and citizen scientists | Space

A group of astronomers and citizen scientists has uncovered a hidden planet the size of Jupiter in a distant solar system, and they should get the chance to see it again soon.

The planet, designated TOI-2180 b, is relatively close to us here on Earth, at only 379 light-years away. But what makes this world special among the sample of known giant exoplanets is that it takes a whopping 261 days to orbit its host star, much longer than most gas giants discovered outside of our solar neighborhood.

The team spotted the world using data gathered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. TESS spots exoplanets by finding very small and repeatable dips in a star’s brightness that are caused by a planet blocking a little bit of the star’s light as it transits, or passes between the spacecraft and the star. While TOI-2180 b’s orbital period is not quite confirmed, scientists predict TESS will see the planet again in February.

Source: Strange and hidden Jupiter-size exoplanet spotted by astronomers and citizen scientists | Space

Here’s how and when to watch longest lunar eclipse in 580 years

Mark your calendars, the Beaver Moon eclipse is a must-see — and it’s the longest of the century!

On the morning of Friday, Nov. 19, the full Beaver Moon will take place in a 97%-total lunar eclipse, according to NASA, meaning that nearly all of the moon’s surface will be shrouded in the Earth’s shadow.

November 2021’s eclipse will be about three and a half hours long, stretching from 2:18 to 5:47 a.m. EST. The Beaver Moon eclipse will peak at 4:02 a.m. EST, NASA reports, and will be visible across North America.

This history-making, near-total lunar eclipse coincides with the full Beaver Moon, which will reach peak illumination at nearly the same moment as the eclipse’s height. But don’t worry — the moon will appear full from Thursday evening through Saturday morning, meaning you can catch an unencumbered glimpse of the full moon, too.

The Beaver Moon gets its name from beaver hunting season, which used to peak this time of year. Plus, beavers start retiring to their lodges for the winter around now, too. Other names for November’s full moon include the Digging Moon (from the Tlingit), the Whitefish Moon (from the Algonquin), and the Frost Moon (from the Cree and Assiniboine).

Source: Here’s how and when to watch longest lunar eclipse in 580 years

Austria locks down unvaccinated as COVID cases surge across Europe | Reuters

Austria imposed a lockdown on people unvaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday as winter approaches and infections rise across Europe, with Germany considering tighter curbs and Britain expanding its booster programme to younger adults.

Source: Austria locks down unvaccinated as COVID cases surge across Europe | Reuters

A Large Asteroid Will Pass by Earth This Week – Is It a Threat to the Planet?

Recent weeks have witnessed a series of medium-to-large-sized asteroids cross paths with Earth’s orbit. The largest of the pack – asteroid 2004 UE – is on track to make its closest approach to the planet November 13.

 

Asteroid 2004 UE is approximately 160 meters in diameter and will travel close to the Earth this week. Any object over 140 meters in diameter could cause major damage to cities or coasts if there were to be a collision, said astronomy professor Leslie Looney. “Asteroid 2004 UE is not considered a safety concern since the closest approach to Earth’s orbit on November 13 will be more than 30 times the Earth-moon distance.” Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

What are near Earth objects, what are they composed of and how do we know?

Near Earth objects are meteoroids, asteroids, or comets with orbits that bring them close to Earth’s orbit. They are the leftovers of our solar system formation process, which means they are the nearly pristine bits and pieces of ice and rocks from which the planets formed. We know their orbits from tracking them, and we know of their composition from examining their reflected and infrared light and by comparisons to objects that we have visited with space missions.

There seem to be a lot of large NEOs in Earths neighborhood in recent weeks. Is this unusual?

Over the last 20 years, NASA has dramatically increased the number of known NEOs – from knowing of less than a thousand to nearly 28,000. The precise dimensions of NEOs can be difficult to resolve due to their small size and great distances. However, those estimated by NASA to be 140 meters or more along their longest axis – most asteroids are potato-shaped, so their dimensions can be described as roughly spherical – have been mandated by Congress to be classified as NEOs. The increase in the number of objects classified as NEOs was in part due to this mandate. Anything of this size could have a catastrophic impact on Earth, destroying cities with large losses of life. This awareness leads to more reporting of objects.

Source: A Large Asteroid Will Pass by Earth This Week – Is It a Threat to the Planet?

An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming

An asteroid about the size of a refrigerator shot past Earth last week, and astronomers didn’t know the object existed until hours after it was gone.

It was a close call (from a cosmic perspective); the space rock’s trajectory on Oct. 24 carried it over Antarctica within 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) of Earth — closer than some satellites — making it the third-closest asteroid to approach the planet without actually hitting it, CNET reported.

Scientists were unaware of the object, dubbed Asteroid 2021 UA1, because it approached Earth’s daytime side from the direction of the sun, so the comparatively dim and small visitor went undetected until about 4 hours after passing by at its closest point, according to CNET.

Source: An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming

Biden announces new vaccine mandates that could cover 100 million Americans – CNNPolitics

 

(CNN)President Joe Biden on Thursday imposed stringent new vaccine rules on federal workers, large employers and health care staff in a sweeping attempt to contain the latest surge of Covid-19.

The new requirements could apply to as many as 100 million Americans — close to two-thirds of the American workforce — and amount to Biden’s strongest push yet to require vaccines for much of the country.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said, his tone hardening toward Americans who still refuse to receive a vaccine despite ample evidence of their safety and full approval of one — the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine — from the US Food and Drug Administration.
He said vaccinated America was growing “frustrated” with the 80 million people who have not received shots and are fueling the spread of the virus. And he acknowledged the new steps would not provide a quick fix.
“While America is in much better shape than it was seven months ago when I took office, I need to tell you a second fact: We’re in a tough stretch and it could last for awhile,” Biden said in an early evening speech from the White House.
At the center of Biden’s new plan is directing the Labor Department to require all businesses with 100 or more employees ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week, an expansive step the President took after consultation with administration health officials and lawyers. Companies could face thousands of dollars in fines per employee if they don’t comply.
Biden also signed an executive order requiring all government employees be vaccinated against Covid-19, with no option of being regularly tested to opt out. The President signed an accompanying order directing the same standard be applied to employees of contractors who do business with the federal government.
He also said 300,000 educators in federal Head Start programs must be vaccinated and called on governors to require vaccinations for schoolteachers and staff.
And Biden announced he would require the 17 million health care workers at facilities receiving funds from Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated, expanding the mandate to hospitals, home care facilities and dialysis centers around the country.
“We have the tools to combat the virus if we come together to use those tools,” Biden said at the outset of what was billed as a major speech to tackle the latest phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new rules amount to the most dramatic steps to date to get more Americans vaccinated. Once cautious of vaccine mandates, the Biden administration is now wholly embracing them as vaccine hesitancy persists among certain groups.
Administration officials acknowledged the requirement for large employers could be challenged in court. But they said their hope was to provide cover of federal rules to businesses who want to require vaccines for employees.
The new rules come as the Delta variant tears through communities across the country, causing upticks in hospitalizations and deaths particularly in areas where vaccination rates remain low.

Source: Biden announces new vaccine mandates that could cover 100 million Americans – CNNPolitics

Peek Into Fauci’s Closet Reveals Horrific Experiments on Beagles, Tests Left Dogs in Obvious Pain

A government watchdog investigation has uncovered evidence of animal abuse involving the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is led by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The agency used $424,455 in taxpayer dollars to support University of Georgia researchers who performed experimental drug tests on 28 beagles after infecting them with parasites, according to the Daily Caller.

Documents obtained by the White Coat Waste Project showed that some of the dogs “vocalized in pain” upon being injected with an experimental vaccine.

Source: Peek Into Fauci’s Closet Reveals Horrific Experiments on Beagles, Tests Left Dogs in Obvious Pain

Heat Wave Kills 1 Billion Sea Creatures Off Canada’s West Coast : NPR

 

With the Pacific region hitting record-setting temperatures in the last few weeks, a new study from Canada shows the heat waves’ enormous impact on marine life: an estimated 1 billion sea creatures on the coast of Vancouver have died as a result of the heat, a researcher says.

But that number is likely to be much higher, professor Christopher Harley from the University of British Columbia says.

“I’ve been working in the Pacific Northwest for most of the past 25 years and I have not seen anything like this here,” he said. “This is far more extensive than anything I’ve ever seen.”

Harley reaches his estimates by counting the number of sea creatures, mostly mussels, in a section that he says is representative of an entire beach. He varies measuring some beaches that are rocky and some that are not to get a full estimate for the entire ecosystem.”

This is a preliminary estimate based on good data, but I’m honestly worried that it’s a substantial underestimate,” Harley told NPR from a beach in British Columbia, where he continues to survey the casualties from the most recent heat wave.

Source: Heat Wave Kills 1 Billion Sea Creatures Off Canada’s West Coast : NPR

Physicist to Tucker Carlson: Climate Change Is ‘Fiction of the Media,’ Not an ‘Existential Threat’

‘There’s very little in terms of extreme weather that has changed over the last many decades,’ a former Obama administration official said.

Democrats and their media lapdogs are rabidly hyping the bogus narrative that climate change is an imminent “existential threat” to mankind as part of a cynical move to promote left-wing agendas.

That’s the takeaway from a Fox News interview with physicist Steven Koonin, who offered scientific support to those who believe grifting climate alarmists are flippantly weaponizing this sham talking point to enrich and empower themselves.

“It’s a fiction of the media and the politicians who like to promote that notion,” Koonin said on Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today.”

Source: Physicist to Tucker Carlson: Climate Change Is ‘Fiction of the Media,’ Not an ‘Existential Threat’

Steven E. Koonin (born December 12, 1951)[1] is an American theoretical physicist and director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. He is also a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering.[2]

Source: wikipedia

National Geographic says there’s a fifth ocean on Earth

The National Geographic Society marked World Oceans Day on Tuesday by declaring that the waters around Antarctica will now be known as the Southern Ocean — the planet’s fifth ocean.

The National Geographic Society is changing the world map.

The 130-year-old exploration and education non-profit marked World Oceans Day on Tuesday by declaring that the waters around Antarctica will now be known as the Southern Ocean — the planet’s fifth ocean.

“The Southern Ocean has long been recognized by scientists, but because there was never agreement internationally, we never officially recognized it,” National Geographic Society Geographer Alex Tait said.

“It’s sort of geographic nerdiness in some ways,” Tait said. “We’ve always labeled it, but we labeled it slightly differently (than other oceans). This change was taking the last step and saying we want to recognize it because of its ecological separation.”

Source: National Geographic says there’s a fifth ocean on Earth

Wuhan lab was to get $1.5M in federal grant money for bat study: emails

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars more in federal grant money than chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated to lawmakers last week, newly released emails show.

The messages, obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, show that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) allocated $826,277 to the lab over a six-year period ending in 2019 via the New York City-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.

But Fauci, the longtime NIAID director, told a House Appropriations subcommittee on May 25 that the funding commitment “was about $600,000 over a period of five years, so it was a modest amount.”

US funding of the lab has come under scrutiny amid the ongoing controversy over whether the coronavirus leaked from the research hub into the 11 million-strong city of Wuhan, triggering the worst global pandemic in a century.

Source: Wuhan lab was to get $1.5M in federal grant money for bat study: emails

Understanding the origin of covid-19 is the only way to prevent future pandemics, scientist says – The Washington Post

Baylor University’s Peter Hotez adds his voice to a chorus that includes prominent Democrats and Republicans,

“There’s going to be COVID-26 and COVID-32 unless we fully understand the origins of COVID-19. This is absolutely critical,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Hotez said that he believes the US needs to do more than launch an intelligence investigation into theories that the virus emerged naturally from animals or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.

“I’m personally of the opinion that we’ve pushed intelligence as far as we can,” Hotez said, saying that the US needs to send experts to the original epicenter of the pandemic in Wuhan.

“We need a team of scientists, genealogists, biologists, bat ecologists in the Hubei province for six months to a year-long period and fully unravel the origins of COVID-19.”

Source: Understanding the origin of covid-19 is the only way to prevent future pandemics, scientist says – The Washington Post

Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World – Scientific American

These pathogens already kill 1.6 million people every year, and we have few defenses against them.

We are likely to think of fungi, if we think of them at all, as minor nuisances: mold on cheese, mildew on shoes shoved to the back of the closet, mushrooms springing up in the garden after hard rains. We notice them, and then we scrape them off or dust them away, never perceiving that we are engaging with the fragile fringes of a web that knits the planet together. Fungi constitute their own biological kingdom of about six million diverse species, ranging from common companions such as baking yeast to wild exotics. They differ from the other kingdoms in complex ways. Unlike animals, they have cell walls, not membranes; unlike plants, they cannot make their own food; unlike bacteria, they hold their DNA within a nucleus and pack cells with organelles—features that make them, at the cellular level, weirdly similar to us. Fungi break rocks, nourish plants, seed clouds, cloak our skin and pack our guts, a mostly hidden and unrecorded world living alongside us and within us.

“This epidemic will not take a break,” says Flávio Queiroz-Telles, a physician and associate professor at the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, who saw his first case of deadly fungi in 2011. “It is expanding.”

Source: Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World – Scientific American

Source: What is mucormycosis, the fungal infection affecting COVID patients in India?

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV  flight on the Red Planet  – YouTube

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter will attempt to take flight on the Red Planet early Monday morning, and you’ll be able to watch live as the NASA team tracks this historic test from mission control.

Should the four legs of this tiny 4-pound (1.8 kg) helicopter leave the Martian surface, it will become the first time that NASA—or any other space agency—has successfully attained powered controlled flight on an alien planet. Success would introduce an entirely new dimension to exploring the Red Planet.

You can watch the live stream below starting at around 3:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 a.m. PDT) on Monday April 12. NASA hasn’t said yet when images or even video of the flight attempt will be available, but we’re hoping for later on Monday.

Harvard Plans to Blot Out Sun – Bill Gates Approves? | IE

Called the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), the project is a scientific experiment designed to help us better grasp the possibility of applying stratospheric aerosols in the field of solar geoengineering.

The experiment involves improving the fidelity of simulations (computer models) of solar geoengineering to generate answers to vital questions surrounding the notion. To fully understand both the risks and benefits of solar geoengineering, scientists will rely on these simulations — but there is an inherent risk to relying on simulations: namely, current technology tends to predict an overly optimistic outcome.

This is why SCoPEx will gather quantitative measurements of aerosol microphysics — along with atmospheric chemistry, which are two points of high uncertainty in present-day simulations.

The experiment involves flying a balloon above Sweden to see if it can block sunlight on its way to Earth — with hopes of creating a new way of fighting global climate change.

Source: Harvard Plans to Blot Out Sun – Bill Gates Approves? | IE

Dead whale in the Mediterranean probably ‘one of the largest’ ever found | Live Science

The carcass of an enormous finback whale (Balaenoptera physalus) was discovered near the Italian port of Sorrento earlier this week, the Italian Coast Guard said in a Facebook post.

Officials discovered the carcass on Sunday (Jan. 17), before towing it to the nearby port at Naples. The whale measured about 65 feet (20 meters) long and likely weighed more than 77 tons (70 metric tons) — likely making the corpse “one of the largest” ever found in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the agency.

Coast Guard divers first discovered the whale after a young calf swam into the Sorrento harbor in a state of distress, according to news reports. The calf reportedly rammed its head into the harbor walls several times before retreating back underwater; when divers followed it, they discovered the fin whale’s corpse.

Related: Images of whales: giants of the deep

The calf is presumed to be the dead whale’s offspring, and the Coast Guard is monitoring for signs of the young whale’s return. Meanwhile, marine biologists in Naples are working to ascertain what killed the whale.

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Finback whales (also known as fin whales) are the second-largest animals on Earth, after the iconic blue whale. Finbacks can grow to be 85 feet (25 m) long and weigh up to 80 tons (72 metric tons), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They are considered endangered after commercial whaling decimated the global finback population over the last century.

Today, commercial whaling is illegal throughout most of the world, and boat strikes pose the biggest threat to finbacks, according to NOAA.

Source: Dead whale in the Mediterranean probably ‘one of the largest’ ever found | Live Science

Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century | Live Science

It could mean a “negative” leap second.

The 28 fastest days on record (since 1960) all occurred in 2020, with Earth completing its revolutions around its axis milliseconds quicker than average. That’s not particularly alarming — the planet’s rotation varies slightly all the time, driven by variations in atmospheric pressure, winds, ocean currents and the movement of the core. But it is inconvenient for international timekeepers, who use ultra-accurate atomic clocks to meter out the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) by which everyone sets their clocks. When astronomical time, set by the time it takes the Earth to make one full rotation, deviates from UTC by more than 0.4 seconds, UTC gets an adjustment.

Until now, these adjustments have consisted of adding a “leap second” to the year at the end of June or December, bringing astronomical time and atomic time back in line. These leap seconds were tacked on because the overall trend of Earth’s rotation has been slowing since accurate satellite measurement began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since 1972, scientists have added leap seconds about every year-and-a-half, on average, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The last addition came in 2016, when on New Year’s Eve at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, an extra “leap second” was added.

Source: Earth is whipping around quicker than it has in a half-century | Live Science

Radio Emissions Have Been Detected from an Exoplanet – Universe Today

Invisible Glow Finding planets out in the Universe is pretty hard. I say this despite the fact that two planets in Earth’s skies are aligning tomorrow to form one of the brightest objects seen in hundreds of years. But while the brilliant Jupiter and Saturn are always visible to the naked eye, Neptune wasn’t directly … Continue reading “Radio Emissions Have Been Detected from an Exoplanet”

Source: Radio Emissions Have Been Detected from an Exoplanet – Universe Today

China sends world’s first 6G test satellite into orbit – BBC News

China has successfully launched the world’s first 6G satellite into space to test the technology.

It went into orbit along with 12 other satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province.

High-speed technology will be trialled, which will be one of the core elements of sixth-generation communications.

The satellite also carries technology which will be used for crop disaster monitoring and forest fire prevention.

The satellite is meant to trial new technology expected to be 100 times faster than 5G.

Source: China sends world’s first 6G test satellite into orbit – BBC News

Bad Astronomy | New research looks at what alien worlds might be able to find Earth

When I was a kid, and survived on a diet of 100% trashy sci-fi, I would sometimes go outside at night, look up at the stars, and wonder how many worlds were out there.

Yes! The Earth orbits the Sun in a flat ellipse. From our viewpoint that means the Sun moves around the sky once per year on a line, a literal reflection of the Earth’s orbit on the sky, which we call the ecliptic. Any stars in the sky close to the ecliptic would see the Earth transit the Sun once a year (well, once an Earth year) and could easily detect us*.

New research shows there are lots of them. And they make interesting targets for people involved with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). After all, if we’re looking for planets that are like Earth, and can support life — and maybe, hopefully, possibly, finding that life, even intelligent life — then there may come a time when we want to talk to them. Aliens living on planets close to our ecliptic might already know we’re here. That makes the first phone call a lot less awkward.

So how many stars are there like that?

Lead research author Lisa Kaltenegger explains:

Attempts have been made to make a list, but it’s not all that easy. First you have to work out the geometry; how far from the ecliptic can you be and still see the Earth transit? The trig isn’t too bad, and the answer is about a quarter of a degree, making a strip on the sky centered on the ecliptic half a degree wide (for comparison, and if you look at the geometry you’ll realize not uncoincidentally that’s about the same width as the Sun in the sky).

Source: Bad Astronomy | New research looks at what alien worlds might be able to find Earth

Venus, once billed as Earth’s twin, is a hothouse (and a tantalizing target in the search for life) | Space

Our view of Venus has evolved from a dinosaur-rich swamp world to a planet where life may hide in the clouds.

As Earth’s sister planet, Venus has endured a love-hate relationship when it comes to exploration. Now, new results suggest the presence of a signal of potential habitability on Venus, and the long-forgotten sibling may find itself back in the spotlight.

With its orbit near the rising or setting sun, Venus shone clearly to the first ancient astronomers. As humanity began to explore the solar system, a world with nearly the same mass and radius as Earth seemed like the most promising target. Venus sits on the border of our sun’s habitable zone, the region around a star where a planet should be able to host liquid water on its surface, and ideas of a veritable twin planet swam before the eyes of scientists and the public alike.

Related: Venus clouds join shortlist of places to search for alien life
More: The greatest mysteries of Venus

Source: Venus, once billed as Earth’s twin, is a hothouse (and a tantalizing target in the search for life) | Space

Ice Age cave bear carcass found in northern Russia, university reports

 

Scientists at North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) in Yakutsk, Russia, on Monday announced a finding of “great importance” — a preserved Ice Age cave bear carcass, estimated to be to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old.

Even the bear’s nose is still intact, the university said in a statement.

The preserved bear was found by reindeer herders on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, part of the Lyakhovsky Islands archipelago in northern Russia, according to a statement from NEFU.

“Today this is the first and only find of its kind — a whole bear carcass with soft tissues,” scientist Lena Grigorieva said in a statement.  “It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place.

Source: Ice Age cave bear carcass found in northern Russia, university reports

Asteroid news: ‘Near-Earth’ rock just came closer than the Moon | Science | News | Express.co.uk

A NEWLY discovered asteroid whizzed past Earth last night, coming closer to our planet than the Moon.

Asteroid 2020 RF3 flew within one lunar distance – the distance between the Earth and the Moon – making it the 61st asteroid to do so this year. Astronomers only discovered the asteroid on September 12, 2020, shortly before it made its close approach last night.

The space rock, which was found by astronomers using the PAN-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, came within just 0.24 lunar distances, or 92,000 kilometres, of Earth.

Asteroid RF3 is a small space rock with an estimated diameter between 5.3 and 12 metres.

The asteroid belongs to the Aten group of space rocks, which are asteroids which have an orbit with a close proximity to Earth.

According to NASA, there are more than 1,100 Aten asteroids in the solar system.

asteroid

Asteroid news: ‘Near-Earth’ rock just came closer than the Moon (Image: GETTY)

Source: Asteroid news: ‘Near-Earth’ rock just came closer than the Moon | Science | News | Express.co.uk

Food allergies may be linked to baby wipes, study says

Does your child suffer from food allergies? Baby wipes may be the cause, according to a new report.

Researchers from Northwestern University recently conducted a study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, to determine the environmental and genetic factors associated with the allergy.

To do so, they examined clinical evidence on food allergies. They learned that 35 percent of those with them have three gene mutations that diminish the skin’s barrier, which can expose the body to allergens.

However, they learned not everyone with the mutations develop food allergies. After exposing mice with similar mutations to food allergens like peanuts, they discovered the nuts alone had no effect.

“Then I thought about what are babies exposed to,” lead author Joan Cook-Mills said in a statement. “They are exposed to environmental allergens in dust in a home. They may not be eating food allergens as a newborn, but they are getting them on their skin. Say a sibling with peanut butter on her face kisses the baby. Or a parent is preparing food with peanuts and then handles the baby.”

Source: Food allergies may be linked to baby wipes, study says

2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be slightly above-average, researchers say

Colorado State University hurricane researchers are out with their forecast for the season ahead

The Atlantic hurricane season will be slightly above-average this year, Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers predicted Thursday. The researchers cited a “relatively low likelihood of significant El Niño” conditions as a main factor.

In total, the team believes there will be 14 named storms. Hurricane researchers predict seven of the storms will become hurricanes and three will reach “major hurricane strength with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.”

They explained why El Niño patterns are likely to make a difference.

“El Niño tends to increase upper-level westerly winds across the Caribbean into the tropical Atlantic, tearing apart hurricanes as they try to form,” the researchers said.

CSU hurricane researchers believe this season’s activity will be about 135 percent of the average season. For reference, last year’s hurricane activity — which included one major storm after another — was nearly two and a half times greater than average.

The team forms their forecasts by using 60 years of data, referencing sea surface temperatures, vertical wind shear levels, sea level pressures, El Niño conditions and other factors. They plan to provide updates on May 31, July 2 and Aug. 2.

The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

Source: 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be slightly above-average, researchers say

Landfall probability

The report also includes the probability of major hurricanes making landfall:

  • 63 percent for the entire U.S. coastline (average for the last century is 52 percent)
  • 39 percent for the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida peninsula (average for the last century is 31 percent)
  • 38 percent for the Gulf Coast from the Florida panhandle westward to Brownsville (average for the last century is 30 percent)
  • 52 percent for the Caribbean (average for the last century is 42 percent)

The forecast team also tracks the likelihood of tropical storm-force, hurricane-force and major hurricane-force winds occurring at specific locations along the coastal United States, the Caribbean and Central America through its Landfall Probability website.

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