Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands on a path in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, near pink flags marking research areas. (Annie Ropeik/NHPR)
At the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in northern New Hampshire, the pandemic broke a decades-long streak of field research. Now, scientists there are adapting with new technology recording the sounds of the forest, which they hope will transform their long and influential record of a changing world.
In late fall, Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands out in camouflage and cargo pants against the bright yellow of the woods. He s got binoculars around his neck, and he s loading gear from his truck into a backpack two kinds of batteries, microphones, GPS devices and more.
Editor s note: This is a story about sound. We highly recommend listening.
In late fall, Dartmouth biologist Matt Ayres stands out in camouflage and cargo pants against the bright yellow of the woods. He s got binoculars around his neck, and he s loading gear from his truck into a backpack – two kinds of batteries, microphones, GPS devices and more.
Matt Ayres unloads gear from his truck in Hubbard Brook.
Credit Annie Ropeik / NHPR
Ayres specialty is caterpillars and other insects, but today s he s here on a bird monitoring mission in this 12-square-mile research forest, created by the federal government on the southeast slopes of Mount Moosilauke in the 1950s.
The largest lake on Saturn’s largest moon Titan may be deeper than a thousand feet. Even though it’s been more than three years since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft finished orbiting Saturn (when it dove down into the planet’s atmosphere), experts are still finding valuable information from the data that it collected.
In one of Cassini’s last flybys of Titan (specifically, the 104
th flyby of the moon on August 21, 2014), it was able to capture significant data of the moon’s largest lake called Kraken Mare. Based on preliminary data, it was believed that the lake was at least 115 feet deep but according to more in-depth analysis, it has been revealed that it is much deeper – at least 1,000 feet. In fact, it is so deep that the radar on board the spacecraft couldn’t probe all the way down to the bottom of the lake.
Titan s Kraken Mare Lake is 10 times deeper than earlier thought: Cassini study They also found that the Kraken Mare lake is nearly the size of all five Great Lakes combined around 2,45,012.8 km. FP Trending January 26, 2021 11:04:07 IST An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, the large liquid methane sea on Saturn’s moon Titan.. Image credit: NASA/John Glenn Research Center
Data from the Cassini mission s last flyby of Saturn s moon Titan is still revealing valuable scientific data, more than three years after its demise. New research has suggested that the Kraken Mare Lake on Titan is 10 times deeper than earlier thought. Valerio Poggiali, a research associate at the
Astronomers Spot Sea At Least 1,000-Feet Deep on Saturn s Moon Titan
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Even though NASA s Cassini spacecraft ended its mission to Saturn just over three years ago, scientists and astronomers are still sifting through the mounds of data the craft was able to transmit prior to its fatal descent into the Saturnian atmosphere. Astronomers from Cornell University s Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science recently published The Bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan s Kraken Mare, a journal entry studying the largest body of water on Saturn s largest moon Titan.
Ahem, you know the fictional home of Thanos.
According to the journal, Kraken Mare which earned its excellent name in 2008 is upwards of 1,000 feet deep at some points. In fact, as the astronomers suggest the lake could be much deeper, except Cassini wasn t able to provide additional data beyond that benchmark.