Algae have even managed to survive days on a panel on the outside of the space station. By Sam Wong Sprouting cotton plants on the moon. Trending Latest Video Free. It's taken some remarkable adaptations for limpets to survive in their changeable seashore habitats.
Protected from the elements by their hard, cap-like shell, these molluscs eke out a living by scraping food from the rock surface with a tongue-like structure covered in hundreds of tiny teeth. Not only has low lighting led to a number of interesting nocturnal adaptations , but some organisms rely directly on moonlight to navigate and procreate. Although there's no scientific evidence to suggest the Moon affects our mood, it can inspire one fascinating Mediterranean plant to weep.
Also known as the joint pine or Mormon tea, Ephedra foeminea is a gymnosperm, a group of ancient, flowerless plants that rely on insects for pollination. Without flowers or other lures, the joint pine has developed an unusual technique to get the attention of potential pollinators. In bright moonlight, each little cone produces droplets of fluid to help stick its pollen to passing insects. These droplets sparkle under polarising light moonlight , creating a glittering disco-like display that draws beetles and other nocturnal insects to the plant.
Under the moonlight in Africa, the dung beetle Scarabaeus zambesianus uses the polarisation pattern of moonlight and the way it scatters through the atmosphere to navigate in a straight line. Tom says, 'If you're a dung beetle with a fresh dung pile, the best thing to do is to take your newly rolled dung ball and leave in a straight line, moving as quickly and efficiently as possible to your burrow, because if you hang around you might get eaten by a predator or lose your dung ball to a competitor.
He adds, 'In recent research done in a lab in Sweden, scientists placed dung beetles under non-polarising artificial light and discovered that they travelled in circles. Stars that go supernova are responsible for creating many of the elements of the periodic table, including those that make up the human body.
Help local wildlife, see more stars and get better rest - just a few compelling reasons to join the dark side. From bioluminescent lures to infrared abilities, meet some of the animals that have found ways to master life in the dark. Get email updates about our news, science, exhibitions, events, products, services and fundraising activities. You must be over the age of When the moon passes out of view of the sun, it is in the region where the Earth's magnetic field stretches out onto space, away from the sun this is called the magnetotail.
At those times, charged particles from Earth, and only the Earth, will reach the moon. The ions get out of the Earth's atmosphere because when sunlight or the occasional cosmic ray hits atoms of oxygen or any other gas at the edge of space, those atoms can lose an electron, becoming charged. Earth's magnetic field captures the resulting ions, and some get flung out into space. Terada told Space. Earth's upper atmosphere and the moon have relatively little oxygen, whereas the solar wind has more.
The lunar soil's oxygen content has three components: One is rich in oxygen, and that is from the solar wind. Another is poor in oxygen, and it wasn't clear where that came from, until the team looked at the data and compared this component to the ions in Earth's atmosphere. The third feature is that the ions from the sun are more highly charged. Neutral oxygen atoms have eight protons and eight electrons. Comets hitting the moon may have left some water molecules on the surface.
Some of the molecules then accumulated in dark polar craters, forming beds of solid ice that some scientists and engineers have discussed mining for future human explorers.
The dust and atmosphere can have serious consequences for astronauts planning to travel to the moon. Moondust stripped Apollo spacesuits threadbare. Understanding the material floating in the lunar atmosphere should help space exploration programs to design the next generation of spacesuits and lunar equipment. Ultraviolet sunlight affects the released gases by ejecting electrons, which gives them an electrical charge that can cause the particles to levitate more than a mile into the sky.
At night, the opposite occurs. Atoms receive electrons from the solar wind and settle back down near the surface. This floating fountain of moon dust travels along the boundary between night and day, creating a glow similar to Earth sunsets.
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