NASA satellite finds 39 unreported sources of air pollution

Scientists at NASA’s Environment and Climate Change Canada and researchers at University of Maryland, College Park and Dalhousie University discovered 39 unreported “major” sources of toxic air pollution. Using the space agency’s satellite imaging, the group located the man-made sources where toxic sulfur dioxide is being emitted. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a contributor to acid rain and is regulated on the ground by the EPA. However, to properly police the emissions, the government agency has to know the location of the pollutants.

These revelations were made possible by new computer processing tech that can take raw data from the Dutch-Finnish Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA’s Aura spacecraft and translate it into sulfur dioxide concentration estimates. The advancements also allow scientists to detect smaller sources, like “oil-related activities” and more modestly-sized power plants.

Using satellite imagery of sulfur dioxide sources, the scientists were able to pinpoint “hotspots,” locating unreported emission sites after analyzing data collected between 2005 and 2014. The study found that the sources were coal-burning power plants, smelters and oil and gas operations mostly in the Middle East, but also located in Mexico and Russia. NASA says that reported emission levels in some of these areas was two to three times lower than the levels scientists found after studying satellite data from the 9-year span.

In total, the unknown sources and the discrepancy in the reported numbers could account for 12 percent of the total human-made sulfur dioxide emissions. That’s quite the swing, and it can potentially have a major impact on the air quality in the regions where the sites are located. The study also found 75 natural sources of SO2, some of which are in unmonitored remote locations. This study was the first to provide annual measurements for those non-active volcanoes that are slowly leaking toxic gas.

Source: NASA (PR Newswire)

Rare galactic alignment produces beautiful light ‘ring’

First predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, an “Einstein Ring” is a rarely observed, but incredibly interesting astronomical phenomenon that occurs when two distant galaxies are perfectly aligned, millions of light years apart. The light from the more distant “source” galaxy becomes bent and distorted as it passes through the gravitational field caused by the mass of the less-distant “lens” galaxy, resulting in a circle of light around the glow of the lens.

This newest Einstein Ring was discovered by PhD student Margherita Bettinelli of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias while she was examining images captured by the Dark Energy Camera in Chile. Bettinelli recognized the tell-tale shape and her team used a spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS to confirm the discovery, which is now being called the “Canarias Einstein ring.”

And it’s a beautiful example, apparently. According to Phys.org, the ring is “one of the most symmetrical discovered.” Its near-perfect circular shape indicates the two galaxies are almost exactly aligned even though the source galaxy is 10 billion light years away. Due to universal expansion, it took about 8.5 billion years for the light from the source to reach us here on Earth, which means we’re actually seeing the more distant galaxy as a bright, blue galaxy full of new stars. The lens, meanwhile, is a mere 6 billion light years away and already appears as a older, “more evolved” galaxy.

Y Combinator basic income test makes up for jobs lost to tech

Whether it’s rational or not, there’s a fear that the technology industry is stealing jobs, leaving people without a way to make a living. Startup accelerator Y Combinator thinks it might have a solution, however: give people a basic income. It’s devising an experiment that tentatively gives 100 Oakland families a minimum wage as a way to compensate for tech-driven obsolescence. The 6- to 12-month dry run will offer $1,000 to $2,000 per month to people of various economic backgrounds (not just the unemployed) to see how it influences everything from education to recreation. Ideally, this baseline would both soften the blow of working less and give you a better chance at training for (or creating) a new career.

The test is still under development, so don’t consider everything settled. With that said, it’s no shock that this experiment exists in the first place. Both the tech world and politicians have been floating the idea of basic income for a while. Moreover, Silicon Valley is increasingly convinced that it can solve many of the world’s ills — witness efforts by Facebook and Google to bring internet access to less fortunate regions.

Of course, whether or not the concept succeeds is another matter. Y Combinator argues that the march of technical progress will not only make basic income necessary at some point (once the robots have your job), but lower the cost of living enough to make the concept realistic. Critics, however, argue that it’ll simply be too expensive, won’t motivate people or won’t offer enough cash to get by. As it stands, the idea might be premature even if it’s reasonably sound — it’ll be a while before AI is good enough to take over some of the more challenging jobs.

Via: Quartz

Source: Y Combinator