Tonight’s waxing gibbous moon resides inside the Winter Circle – an incredibly large star configuration made of six brilliant winter stars. Look for the Winter Circle to fill up much of the eastern half of sky at nightfall. By mid-evening, the Winter Circle will swing to your southern sky, and then it will drift into the western sky around midnight.

More on the Winter Circle: Brightest winter stars

By the way, if you see two star-like objects that shine more brilliantly than any of the Winter Circle stars, you are looking at the planets Venus and Jupiter. Venus, the brighter of these two dazzling worlds, pops out into the western sky at dusk and early evening. From northerly latitudes, Jupiter appears high in the southern sky as darkness falls, and as seen from the Southern Hemisphere, Jupiter is seen in the northwest at nightfall. Shortly after Venus sets in the west around mid-evening, look for the red planet Mars to rise in the east; and as Jupiter sits low in the west around midnight, that’s when the ringed planet Saturn comes up in the east.

February 2012 guide to the five visible planets

Setting and rising times for the planets in your sky

The Winter Circle – sometimes called the Winter Hexagon – is not one of the 88 recognized constellations. Rather, it’s an asterism – a pattern of stars that’s fairly easy to recognize. Our sky chart cannot adequately convey the Winter Circle’s humongous size! It dwarfs the constellation Orion the Hunter, which is a rather large constellation, occupying the southwestern part of the Winter Circle pattern.

Here’s how to locate the Winter Circle from mid-northern latitudes. At nightfall and early evening, look high overhead for the bright star Capella. This star marks the top (or more properly, the northern terminus) of the Winter Circle.

As Capella shines way overhead, the constellation Orion the Hunter is prowling in the southern sky. Draw a line downward through Orion’s Belt to find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. This star marks the bottom (the southern tip) of the Winter Circle.

We include this sky chart to help you connect the Winter Circle stars.

By the way, tonight’s waxing gibbous moon also nearly aligns with the June solstice point – where the sun resides in front of the backdrop stars on the first day of a Northern Hemisphere summer. So enjoy the Winter Circle. And contemplate the return of summer – months from now!

Conservationists working in Central Africa to save the world’s rarest gorilla have good news: the Cross River gorilla has more suitable habitat than previously thought, including vital corridors that, if protected, can help the great apes move between sites in search of mates, according a habitat analysis published in early 2012.

A recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Zoo, and others used satellite imagery to study the Cross River gorilla's habitat -- the mountainous border region between Nigeria and Cameroon.Image Credit: Aaron Nicholas/Wildlife Conservation Society

The Cross River gorilla is the rarest of the four subspecies of gorilla, numbering fewer than 300 individuals across its entire range, limited to the forested mountainous terrain on the border region of Nigerian and Cameroon. The subspecies is listed as “Critically Endangered” and is threatened by both habitat disturbance and hunting, as the entire population lives in a region of high human population density and heavy natural resource exploitation.

Cool video: Man meets mountain gorillas

The habitat analysis, by researchers from the North Carolina Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other groups, used a combination of satellite imagery and on-the-ground survey work. The researchers say that the analysis will help guide future management decisions for Cross River gorillas living in the mountainous border region between Nigeria and Cameroon.

The Cross River gorilla, the most endangered great ape in Africa, is seen here in Cameroon's Limbe Wildlife Center. Images of wild Cross River gorillas are rare, due to the rugged terrain in which they exist and the great ape's elusive behavior. Image Credit: Nicky Lankester

WCS conservationist and co-author Andrew Dunn said:

The good news for Cross River gorillas is that they still have plenty of habitat in which to expand, provided that steps are taken to minimize threats to the population.

Using high-resolution satellite images, the research team mapped the distribution of forest and other land-cover types in the Cross River region. In order to ground truth the land-cover map, field researchers traveled to more than 400 control points to confirm its accuracy.

With the new habitat suitability map to guide them, the team selected 12 locations possessing all the characteristics of gorilla habitat (mainly forested landscapes far from human settlements) for field surveys. Most of these areas had no previous record of gorillas, but to their surprise, the team found signs of gorilla presence (in the form of gorilla dung and nests) in 10 of the 12 sites, thereby confirming the value of using satellite image analysis to predict suitable habitat and to prioritize areas in which to conduct further surveys.

Overall, the findings of the study represent a significant expansion of known Cross River gorilla range. The area now known to be occupied by gorillas is more than 50 percent larger than had previously been documented.

The study also located parts of the population under threat from isolation through fragmentation. For example, Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Nigeria, which contains a significant portion of the Cross River gorilla population, is only tenuously connected to the nearest sub-population of gorillas by farmland and other forms of habitat degradation. WCS researcher Inaoyom Imong said:

For small populations such as this one, the maintenance of connective corridors is crucial for their long term survival. The analysis is the first step in devising ways to rehabilitate degraded pathways.

Bottom line: A habitat analysis by researchers from the North Carolina Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other groups says that the Cross River gorilla – world’s rarest gorilla – has more suitable habitat than previously thought. The habitat includes vital corridors that, if protected, can help the great apes move between sites in search of mates.

Via EurekAlert

Watch this amazing video of a man’s amazing chance encounter with a troop of wild mountain gorillas near Bwindi National Park, Uganda.

He’s wide-eyed and beaming with joy.

Good news for world’s rarest gorilla

Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but events continue to occur in rural areas, spurred on by domestic actors, according to a report published January 31, 2012 by researchers in the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland.

New York, N.Y. (Sept. 14, 2001) -- A fire fighter emerges from the smoke and debris of the World Trade Center. The twin towers of the center were destroyed in a Sep. 11 terrorist attack. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jim Watson.

The largest number of events clustered around major cities:

Manhattan, New York (343 attacks)
Los Angeles County, Calif. (156 attacks)
Miami-Dade County, Fla. (103 attacks)
San Francisco County, Calif. (99 attacks)
Washington, D.C. (79 attacks)

While large, urban counties such as Manhattan and Los Angeles have remained hot spots of terrorist activities across decades, the START researchers discovered that smaller, more rural counties such as Maricopa County, Ariz. – which includes Phoenix – have emerged as hot spots in recent years as domestic terrorism there has increased.

The START researchers found that 65 of the nation’s 3,143 counties were “hot spots” of terrorism.

They defined a “hot spot” as a county experiencing a greater than the average number of terrorist attacks, that is, more than six attacks across the entire time period (1970 to 2008). Gary LaFree is director of START and lead author of the new report. He said:

Mainly, terror attacks have been a problem in the bigger cities, but rural areas are not exempt.

Researchers also found time trends in terrorist attacks. Bianca Bersani, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, said:

The 1970s were dominated by extreme left-wing terrorist attacks. Far left-wing terrorism in the U.S. is almost entirely limited to the 1970s with few events in the 1980s and virtually no events after that.

According to the new report, ethno-national/separatist terrorism was concentrated in the 1970s and 1980s, religiously motivated attacks occurred predominantly in the 1980s, extreme right-wing terrorism was concentrated in the 1990s and single issue attacks were dispersed across the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

The complete report Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United State, 1970 to 2008, is available online: http://ter.ps/9j.

Bottom line: According to a January 31, 2012 report, nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties. But events continue to occur in rural areas, spurred on by domestic actors, according to researchers from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence based at the University of Maryland.

Via UMD Newsdesk

In general, the lower 48 in the United States has seen very mild temperatures during the 2011-2012 winter.

Besides the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, snowfall has been very limited across the country. As of today, (February 3) the areas hardest hit with cold and snow have been Alaska and a large portion of central and eastern Europe. A jet stream, which practically acts as a boundary of cold air to the north and warm air to the south, has been stagnant across the United States and Canadian border with very few dips. When the jet stream “dips”, it becomes a trough and typically brings colder and stormier weather. However, these dips in the jet stream have not been substantial or long term to provide a sustaining cold pattern like it did back in January of 2011. Will February promise colder weather? What does a mild winter mean for spring 2012?

Take a look at the snowfall depth this year compared to 2011 at the same time. On February 1, 2011, the United States had 52.2% of the country covered in snow. On February 1, 2012, the United States only had 19.2% of the country covered in snow. Huge difference in one year!

Snow depth on February 1, 2011. Image Credit: NOHRSC

Snow depth on February 1, 2012. Image Credit: NOHRSC

As mentioned before, La Nina, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the Artic Oscillation (AO) have played major roles on our winter weather. We simply have not seen any sustain blocking near Alaska and Greenland that would provide the United States a shot of really decent cold air. In a La Nina pattern, the jet stream is typically further north and produces wet weather across the Pacific Northwest and drier weather in the south. The NAO has been positive for almost all of the winter, which means we are unable to establish a blocking pattern that will allow the cold air to be pushed to the south and affect the eastern coast. Temperatures across the deep south were seeing temperature readings of over 70°F (21°C). Many areas should only see highs in the upper 40′s to low 50′s in the deep south.

Take a look at the record highs that were broken on February 1, 2012. 124 places broke their record high, with 27 areas tying their record high:

Broken record high temperatures on February 1, 2012. Image Credit: NCDC

January 2012 is listed as the 3rd least-snowy January for the contiguous United States since snow records began in 1966. December 2011 was ranked as the 11th least snowy on record. According to Dr. Jeff Masters, if February comes in four to five degrees warmer, then the winter of 2012 will have a great shot of becoming the warmest winter recorded across the United States. Masters also states that the top five warmest United States winters occurred after 1992, with the 1999-2000 winter season coming in as the warmest ever recorded.

Map of current watches and warnings on February 3, 2012. Image credit: National Weather Service

Speaking of no snow and cold, our friends in Alaska, and now Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas would disagree. As of February 3, 2012, many areas across Colorado are experiencing blizzard conditions east of Denver. Many areas are expected to receive 12-18 inches of snow that will definitely cause major transportation issues. Some areas are already getting close to seeing 24 inches of snow. This storm could be considered the first significant storm for the 2012 winter season. The northeast had a snowstorm back around Halloween of 2011, but that never matched the intensity of this storm. Also, the western coast had significant snows in Washington as well, but most of these higher accumulations occurred in mountain areas. The storm system is very dynamic, and it will not only produce heavy snow, but it will likely trigger severe thunderstorms across the deep south in Texas and Oklahoma.

Here’s the risk areas for severe weather today:

Storm Prediction Center has issued a slight chance for severe weather across central and eastern Texas, Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, and western Louisiana.

Will February bring cold air?

In my opinion, I just do not see any cold air pushing south across the deep south and southeastern United States. Weather models are hinting at a possible cool down by February 10-15, 2012. The more reliable model run, the European (aka ECMWF), simply does not show a lot of cold air across the country. The GFS model run, however, shows a big eastern trough in the long range models. For now, I am leaning towards the ECMWF. The northeast will likely see cold shots with a few storm systems affecting the region in February. However, snow lovers in the deep south will likely have to wait until next winter to see snow.

Will an early start to spring-like weather trigger another active severe weather season?

This is still too far out to tell. If the NAO stays positive during the spring months, and a highly amplified jet stream digs into the south, then it will be very possible for severe weather outbreaks. However, if the NAO becomes negative, then spring could become cooler than average and decrease our chances for severe weather. Whether or not the NAO will become negative is the biggest question all winter. Only time will tell, but as of now, it looks like severe weather will likely continue in the south where the cold air tries to push into the warmer, and somewhat unstable atmosphere. I do believe there is a decent chance a huge cold snap could occur in the spring which could cause problems for plants and flowers that have, and might I say, are currently blooming. Many areas in the south are already seeing flowers, grass, and trees growing due to the mild temperatures seen in January.

Bottom line: January 2012 was the third least snowy January ever recorded since snow records began in 1966. A monster snowstorm will produce at least a foot of snow across Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas and will produce severe weather to the deep south in Texas/Oklahoma/Louisiana/Arkansas. Cold air has been dominant across Alaska all winter long with temperatures as cold as -60°F. As of now, Europe and even northern Africa are experiencing very cold temperatures as February begins. The only way this cold air will make it south and east of the Mississippi River is if the NAO becomes negative. For now, this remains to be unseen.

Beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder – it’s in the brain, according to a 2011 paper in the online journal PLoS One. And in a very specific part of the braia, too: the medial orbito-frontal cortex, located just behind the eyes. That’s according to co-author of the new PLoS One paper and brain expert Professor Semir Zeki, of the University College London. He told EarthSky’s Beth Lebwohl:

Philosophers have always been interested in: what is beauty, and what do all things that are experienced as beautiful have in common? And we are attacking these questions in an experimental setting. Can we answer any of these questions by reference to what happens in the brain?

Apparently, the answer is yes. Zeki exposed people from all kinds of different cultural/gender/age backgrounds to works of visual art and music. According to his paper:

The visual stimuli included paintings of portraits, landscapes and still lifes … The auditory stimuli included classical and modern excerpts.

Zeki found, by examining MRI images of his subjects’ brains, that when people look at something they find beautiful, a portion in the front part of the brain called the medial orbito-frontal cortex “lights up.” That is, there’s increased blood flow in this area. He believes it’s a near-universal response to beauty. Zeki added that the medial orbito-frontal cortex is a portion of the brain associated with pleasure, and also reward.

It really tells you seeking beauty is in fact seeking to reward your pleasure centers.

Seeking to reward them with the neurotransmitter dopamine, also known as the feel-good chemical of the brain. Zeki added that one thing that’s novel about his study – and a result he wasn’t expecting – is that beauty as perceived through the eyes (e.g., visual art), and beauty you receive through the ears (e.g., music) aren’t routed to different parts of the brain; they both “reward” the same spot. Not only that, he said, the degree of activity in the medial orbito-frontal cortex correlates very strongly to the degree to which you find a thing attractive. He explained:

Image Credit: was_a_bee

The extent of activity in the medial frontal cortex is directly proportional to the declared intensity of beauty. So if you experience something as very beautiful on a scale of 1 to 10 and you give it a 10, then the activity is going to be stronger than if you experience it as a 1 out of 10.

By contrast, Zeki said, he found that when people see something that’s aesthetically displeasing – something they find ugly – it lights up a completely different part of the brain.

… It is another region of the brain … called the amygdyla, which is also active when you look at frightening stimuli … also active with fear and anger … as if the body is being mobilized, or prepared, or planning some kind of motor action to avoid what is ugly.

Zeki said this research is most interesting to him because it offers a completely modern definition of beauty – instead of trying to find out which characteristics all beautiful objects (or musical works) have in common, he’s busy figuring out what they have in common in terms of how the brain perceives them.

Zeki added that his findings about how beauty affects the brain are so specific, the data could be useful to people like advertisers or the art community. But, he warned, applications of this research have certain ethical strings attached. Why? Because, just by looking at a person’s brain with an MRI, you can tell what they like, what they don’t like, and to what degree. In other words, looking into someone’s brain could translate into a real invasion of emotional privacy. He told EarthSky:

I think you’ll be able to tell what people like, what people dislike, what people find beautiful, what people find not beautiful. But this is of course an invasion into their subjective states, and invasion into their very private lives, and I’m not sure you want to do that. At any rate, this is not a question that should be left to [just] scientists. We are really interested in learning more about the brain. But all these studies done all over the world about value, judgment, reward pleasure and all these things are basically invading our very private worlds, and we have to be careful about this information.

Bottom line: According to co-author of the new PLoS One paper and brain expert Professor Semir Zeki, of the University College London, MRI scans show a specific part of the brain lighting up when something beautiful is seen or heard.

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2012 6:30 AM CST (12:30 UTC). Although it was mostly cloudy this morning in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the Punxsutawney Phil – our nation’s most famous groundhog – saw his shadow. According to folklore, when the groundhog sees his own shadow means there will be six more weeks of winter. No shadow for Phil would have meant an early spring, according to the Groundhog Day legend.

FEBRUARY 1, 2012. Groundhog Day is tomorrow, February 2. The day each year when we wait for the famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to emerge and provide a forecast for the late winter and early spring ahead. If he sees his shadow, we will get six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we will get an early spring.

How accurate is Punxsutawney Phil? I am all for a meteorological holiday that celebrates weather or weather pattern changes, but are we going overboard? Should we listen to a groundhog to predict our late winter forecast? Get nervous Punxsutawney Phil, the pressure is all on you now!

Two stars in Scorpius were Pawnee version of Groundhog Day

Everything you need to know: Groundhog Day 2012

Original Image Credit: alemaxale.

According to groundhog.org, Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow 99 out of 114 times. Back in the late 1800′s, there was a lull in activity regarding the groundhog’s schedule where there was no report. By 1900, the tradition officially began and we’ve been wondering since then if this lovely creature will see his shadow. Last year, Punxsutawney Phil did an extraordinary job “forecasting” our pattern when he did not see his shadow, thus giving us an early Spring. In fact, that’s exactly what we saw. Unfortunately, it later provided us massive flooding from the melting snow and an active severe weather season. The influence of a strong negative North Atlantic Oscillation(NAO) in the winter of 2011 became positive by February, and the extreme cold and snow in December 2010 and January 2011 eventually translated into warmer temperatures by late February for a large chunk of the United States. One of the large contributing factors of Punxsutawney Phil not seeing his shadow was the approach of a large snowstorm that swallowed a large chunk of the United States and produced over a foot of snow in parts of Chicago. The storm is known as the Groundhog Day Blizzard and was listed as one of the billion dollar disasters for the United States in 2011.

According to Stormfax.com, Punxsutawney Phil has only been correct 39% of the time. Of course, long range forecasts can be difficult to predict for the human forecaster. For example, the 2011-2012 winter outlook for the United States and Europe was suppose to be a very cold winter during the months of December and January. Instead, most of these regions are experiencing warmer weather with less snowfall. Recently, very cold temperatures have been over parts of central Europe, and Alaska is once again experiencing extremely cold temperatures with lows as cold as -60°C. For most winters, everyone typically hopes Phil does not see his shadow in hopes for an early spring. However this year, many people might hope for the opposite. With very little accumulating snow across the United States and lack of cold, winter weather enthusiasts have been extremely disappointed. It might become a celebration for many if Phil does see his shadow, which statistically, has happened roughly 87% of the time.

Here’s another question to ask: Can we be more specific? For instance, we have other groundhogs in various states that predict if we’ll see an early spring. Shouldn’t we all have one universal groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil to make it official? I mean, that’s not a polite way to treat Phil! If meteorologists use various silly “numbers” that rate your weather day or use random tornado indexes, then mass confusion would occur. We need one set of rules, and Phil should be the official one. Right? Also, how do we define “long winter”? In March of 1993, spring arrived early with extremely warm temperatures. Little did we know, a monster “Storm of the Century” would create severe weather across the southern states and blizzard conditions for portions of Birmingham, Atlanta, and points northward. Does a one/two day blizzard and a return to warm weather constitute the definition of a long winter? In my opinion, it should be defined as colder than normal temperatures with a greater increase in snow chances. Of course, if the east coast is experiencing cold and snowy weather, the west coast of the United States is likely experiencing ridging and warm/dry conditions.

Warmer conditions are likely for a good bit of February. Expect another update of this image in the near future with cooler temperatures across the northern United States. Image Credit: Climate Prediction Center

I am expecting cloudy conditions on February 2, 2012 for Phil, so there’s a chance he might not see his shadow. Of course, I still wonder how they know whether or not a groundhog can actually see it’s shadow. Think about it! In a meteorological standpoint, spring begins on March 1, 2012. The weather models have been flipping all over the place, but it appears as if colder weather is on the way next week for portions of the central and eastern United States. Whether we’ll see significant snowstorms is still in question as the models have been flipping and flopping back and forth with various solutions. As of now, I am thinking colder air between February 5-15th, and perhaps warmer weather towards the end of the month.

Bottom line: Punxsutawney Phil has had a 39% accuracy rate regarding his early spring/late winter forecasts. Phil has seen his shadow nearly 87% of the time, so the odds are for six more weeks of winter. However, cloudy and possibly wet conditions could occur on this day, which could increase the chances for Phil to not see his shadow and bring us an early spring. Weather forecasts past five to seven days are not reliable, so no one should rely on a groundhog. However, he got it right last year. Maybe he’ll ace it again this year? So On February 2: Happy Groundhog Day 2012!

NASA released the first video from GRAIL, its newest moon mission, yesterday (February 1, 2012). GRAIL stands for Gravity Recover and Interior Laboratory. It consists of two robotic probes – once called GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, but now officially named Ebb and Flow – that are orbiting the moon in tandem, using minute variations in the radio signals between them to help scientists to study the moon’s gravity. The overall goal of the mission is to learn more about the formation of our solar system. In the meantime, GRAIL has released its first video, showing the mysterious far side of the moon. You can view it below.

The video, taken by Ebb as part of a January 19 test, images the far side of the moon, a rugged, crater-laden place that never faces the Earth.

It begins at the moon’s north pole, flies over the 560-mile-wide Mare Oriental impact crater and then makes its way to the lunar south pole, finishing up with the 93-mile-wide Drygalski crater, inside of which is visible a star-shaped central peak created by an impact millions of years ago.

A view of the moon's south pole.

The GRAIL probes were given their new names as recently as January 2012 after a class from Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Montana won a nationwide naming contest. Hence Ebb and Flow.

The mission is the first robotic planetary mission to carry equipment whose sole purpose is education and outreach. They each carry a MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), which will allow students across the U.S. to study specific parts of the moon.

Students in the MoonKAM program will send requests for images of specific areas to the Mission Operations Center in San Diego, which will then send the schools the images. So far, more than 2,500 participants have signed up. They’ll begin using pictures in mid-March 2012, which is when Ebb and Flow’s science phase will begin. Scientists plan on testing Flow’s MoonKAM at a later date.

NASA says the MoonKAM program is designed to inspire students to consider careers in science and engineering. In a press release, Maria Zuber, GRAIL principle investigator, who narrates the clip, said:

The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon.

GRAIL spacecraft at moon. Image Credit: NASA

Bottom line: The first video from NASA’s Gravity Recover and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission was released February 1, 2012. The two spacecraft in the GRAIL mission, named Ebb and Flow by school children in January 2012, are now orbiting the moon with the goal of studying the moon’s gravity. Ebb captured this first video, showing the moon’s far side. In March 2012, students in the MoonKAM program will begin using images from GRAIL.

 NASA announces winners of student contest to name GRAIL spacecraft

GRAIL spacecraft will use lunar gravity to peer inside moon

Researchers have identified a new species of prehistoric crocodile. The extinct creature, nicknamed “Shieldcroc” due to a thick-skinned shield on its head, is an ancestor of today’s crocodiles. The discovery was published in the journal PLoS-ONE in February 2012.

Shieldcroc is the newest discovery of crocodile species dating to the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 95 million years ago. This period is part of the Mesozoic Era, which has been referred to as the “Age of the Dinosaurs;” however, numerous recent discoveries have led to some scientists calling the era the “Age of the Crocs,” according to Casey Holliday, co-researcher and assistant professor of anatomy in the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Researchers analyzed a portion of a fossilized crocodile skull to identify a new species, Shieldcroc. Analyzing scarring and ridges on the skull, he identified a thick-skinned “shield” on top of the skull. Image Credit: Casey Holliday/University of Missouri

Holliday identified Shieldcroc by studying a fossilized partial skull specimen, which was discovered in Morocco and held by the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto for several years before Holliday analyzed it. By analyzing blood vessel scarring on the bone, Holliday determined that the crocodile would have had a structure on top of its head, resembling a shield. The dents and bumps on the bone indicate veins delivered blood to a circular mound of skin, something never before seen in a crocodile. He said the shield was likely used as a display structure to attract mates and intimidate enemies and possibly as a thermo-regulator to control the temperature of the animal’s head.

Holliday compared Shieldcroc’s skull to those of other crocodilians. By comparing slopes of various bones, he found that the new species had a flatter skull than other known species. With this information, he believes it is unlikely that Shieldcroc wrestled dinosaurs on or near the shoreline. Instead, Holliday said the fossil indicates that Shieldcroc had thin jaws, likely used to catch fish.

Co-author Nick Gardner is an undergraduate researcher at Marshall University. He said:

We believe Shieldcroc may have used its long face as a fish trap. It is possible that it lay in wait until an unsuspecting fish swam in front of it. Then, if it was close enough, Shieldcroc simply opened its mouth and ate the fish without a struggle, eliminating the need for strong jaws.

Image Credit: Henry Tsai/University of Missouri

In addition, Holliday analyzed Shieldcroc’s skull and brain to estimate the overall size of the reptile. He said scientists often use head size of an animal to estimate its total length. Using several parameters, Holliday and Gardner estimate that this specimen had a five foot long head and was 30 feet long.

Although Shieldcroc lived more than 90 million years ago, Holliday said scientists can use information about the animal to gain a better understanding of today’s crocodiles.

Today’s crocodiles live in deltas and estuaries, the environments put under the most stress from human activity. By understanding how these animals’ ancestors became extinct, we can gain insight into how to protect and preserve the ecosystems vital to modern crocodiles.

Bottom line: Researchers have identified a new species of crocodile dating to the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 95 million years ago. They extinct animal, nicknamed “Shieldcroc” due to a thick-skinned shield on its head, is an ancestor of today’s crocodiles. The discovery was published in the journal PLoS-ONE in February 2012.

Via EurekAlert

In early 2012, astronomers announced that the Kepler satellite has found two additional gas giant planets – which they’ve labeled Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b – orbiting binary or double star systems. The planets are approximately Saturn-sized. Only one other planet orbiting a double star – Kepler-16b – was previously observed; its discovery was announced in September, 2011. The Kepler collaboration reported the two most recent planets of double stars on January 11, 2012, in the journal Nature.

Kepler-35 system. Artist: Lynette Cook / extrasolar.spaceart.org

Click here to expand image above

Kepler-34b orbits its two sun-like stars every 289 days, and the stars orbit one another every 28 days. Kepler-35b orbits its smaller and cooler host stars every 131 days, and the stellar pair orbit each other every 21 days. The planets reside too close to their parent stars to be in the “habitable zone”- the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.

Planets orbiting double stars were formerly the stuff of Issac Asimov novels and George Lucas films. But the authors of the Nature article estimate that for short-period binary systems – where two stars orbit each other on timescales similar to those mentioned above – at least 1% of them will host planets. This amounts to millions of systems, at least, not to mention the longer period double systems (some double stars take many years to orbit each other once) which the Nature article does not analyze.

Kepler 34b, Courtesy of W. Wilson et al.

As of this report, the Kepler satellite has currently located 2,326 candidate exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars other than our sun, but – other than the three planets mentioned above – all of these planets orbit single stars. Meanwhile, roughly one-third of all the star systems in the Milky Way are believed to be binary systems, where two gravitationally bound stars orbit each other. Only a handful of other systems are believed to be comprised of more than two stars, by the way. The star Castor in the constellation Gemini is believed to be a sextuple star system: three orbiting pairs of binaries!

The Kepler satellite, named in honor of the 17th century astronomer Johannes Kepler, was launched in 2009 with the precise mandate of locating Earth-like exoplanets, planets orbiting other stars. Prior to Kepler, while a few exoplanets had been discovered in the past, they were all very massive planets like Jupiter. Very massive planets, while relatively easy to detect, do not offer the possibility of Earth-like life. The Kepler satellite has offered us a look at the diverse planet landscape our galaxy offers.

The artist's rendering depicts the multiple planet systems discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Out of hundreds of candidate planetary systems, scientists had previously verified six systems with multiple transiting planets (denoted here in red). Now, Kepler observations have verified planets (shown here in green) in 11 new planetary systems. Many of these systems contain additional planet candidates that are yet to be verified (shown here in dark purple). For reference, the eight planets of the solar system are shown in blue. Credit: NASA Ames/Jason Steffen, Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics

Click here to expand image above

The Kepler satellite is also looking particularly close at double star systems to see what types of planets they host. These findings will provide important clues to how these systems form. Are double star systems formed through collisions of separate star systems, or do these binaries form from the same ‘star stuff’ simultaneously? Are double star systems more likely to host planets than single star systems? Kepler hopes to begin answering many of these questions.

Astronomers detect binary star systems in a number of different ways. Some binaries are close enough to be resolved optically through telescopes. We can actually see the two separate stars! For star systems farther away, more clever methods must be employed.

Measuring the luminosity, or brightness, of distant points of light provides clues as to whether not not they might actually be double stars. The system Algol, the Demon Star, found in the constellation Perseus, was noticed by early stargazers to have a varying luminosity. It wasn’t until 1783 that early scientists recorded its brightness varying in a repetitive pattern, dimming about every three days for 10 hours. They proposed that Algol was actually a binary system with one star eclipsing the other for those 10 hours.

The frequencies of the emitted light from a star system are also utilized to determine the nature of the system. Stars, as our sun, produce electromagnetic radiation over a range of frequencies, or colors. Our sun actually produces mostly visible light, but also infrared and radio waves in the low frequency side of the spectrum, as well as ultraviolet and x-ray radiation in the upper frequency bands. These electromagnetic waves behave similarly to the sound waves we’re more familiar with. We’ve all noticed the Doppler effect as vehicles with sirens have passed us: the sound waves moving towards us become higher pitched, or higher frequency, the sound waves moving away from us become lower pitched. The same effect happens with the electromagnetic waves that are light. Astronomers can measure the light from these binary systems simultaneously become repetitively higher and lower ‘pitched,’ allowing us to ascertain that that there are in fact two stars simultaneously moving towards and away from us.

The Kepler satellite, planet-hunter extraordinaire. Image Credit: NASA

Nowadays, once astronomers find a double star system, the task may turn to detecting any possible planets in the system. The Kepler satellite utilizes a very similar method to the aforementioned luminosity measurement. Kepler maintains its camera on a particular section of the sky, towards the constellations Cygnus, Lyra, and Draco. It then patiently waits until one of the stars momentarily dip in luminosity. This is the signal of an exoplanet. This dimming is interpreted as a planet transiting across the face of the star. By measuring the amount of dimming and the frequency of occurrence, the characteristics of the planet, such as size and mass, can be ascertained. With this little bit of information, it is possible to determine if the planet is Earthlike or more similar to the giant gaseous planets in the outer reaches of our solar system, such as Jupiter.

Though its recent discovery of Earthlike planets as well as planets orbiting double stars, the Kepler satellite is offering us an unparalleled view into the diverse solar landscape.

Kepler satellite homepage

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