Northern

A star system 3,000 light-years away, known as T Coronae Borealis, is expected to become visible to the naked eye between February and September 2024, due to a nova outburst. This rare event, occurring roughly every 80 years, will brighten the star from magnitude +10 to +2, making it as luminous as the North Star. The phenomenon is a result of a thermonuclear reaction within a binary star system, involving a white dwarf and a red giant, and represents a unique opportunity for skywatchers to witness a once-in-a-lifetime…

Credit: Marcia Wright, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons The legacies of California's 1849 Gold Rush and the relentless search for gold that continued decades later are well known: the rise of San Francisco, statehood, Wells Fargo, Levi's jeans, and a Bay Area football team named after the fortune-seeking miners. But along the shores of Clear Lake,…

Spatial correlation fields of CAM3 simulated δ18O in northern China and outgoing longwave radiation. a Spatial correlations between CAM3 simulated JJA amount weighted precipitation δ18O (δ18Op) in northern China and JJA outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) at each grid cell. b Same as a but for CAM3 simulated water vapor δ18O (δ18Ov) at lower-troposphere (1000–750 hPa) in JJA. Credit: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2024). DOI:…

“Guess who’s back on the news, it’s your favourite Republican hoods,” spits Móglaí Bap on Kneecap’s 2019 track, Get Your Brits Out – a roiling, riotous tune, rapped in both English and Irish, in which the trio imagine a drug-fuelled night out with DUP politicians.“Favourite Republican hoods” is a cheeky yet apt descriptor for how the provocative, satirical Irish-language rap group have been received this year. Kneecap became the surprise stars of Sundance film festival, where their biopic – a semi-fictional origin story…

Researchers at the site in Ranis, Germany, had to get around a massive rock to find the human-made tools. Pioneering groups of humans braved icy conditions to settle in northern Europe more than 45,000 years ago, a "huge surprise" that means they could have lived there alongside Neanderthals, scientists said Wednesday. The international team of…

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 meters deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. Credit: Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0 A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans—Homo sapiens—had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years…

A new report by the U.S. branch of the non-profit Environmental Investigation Agency says that investment interest and government tax incentives are fuelling intense mining exploration in remote northern B.C. — raising concerns about the environmental impacts of the work and its financial implications.The report focuses on the transboundary region, which falls along the border between the Alaska panhandle and the province of B.C. Much of this exploration is focused on the so-called Golden Triangle, which in many areas is…

Lateral expansion of Sphagnum mosses over mineral soil forest in Salamajärvi national park. Credit: Teemu Juselius-Rajamäki.A recent study from the University of Helsinki has revealed that the northern peatlands have been expanding in size over the past centuries. This finding contrasts with the previous belief that the growth of peatlands in Fennoscandia had either stopped or slowed down considerably, as it was assumed that all the flat regions conducive to peat development had already been transformed into peatlands.The…

African biomass burning plumes seen from the wing the NASA DC-8 as it descends to Ascension Island during the ATom-1 mission. Credit: Samuel Hall, NSF NCAR The forests and grasslands of northern tropical Africa take in about as much carbon dioxide in the wet season as they release in the dry season, according to a new study based on observations from aircraft. The findings contradict earlier research that relied on satellite…

Snowpack is shrinking across the Northern Hemisphere thanks to climate change, and many communities could soon face a “snow-loss cliff,” according to the most comprehensive assessment yet.  The effects of climate change can vary dramatically from place to place, which is why it’s been difficult to suss out the bigger picture with snowpack until recently. Now we can see that many of the hardest hit places also happen to be those that depend on snowpack for their water. Other communities that have seen relatively little…