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Home / News / Tags / methane
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A group of American researchers, based at the University of Washington (UW), and at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (UNC) has recently managed to take an important step forward in its quest of finding a method of converting methane gas into a liquid fuel. The innovation could see a lot more uses for m... |
23 October 2009
05:48 GMT |
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China has finished building the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, the 7,661-foot-long Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangtze River, only for a short time. Elevated to the rank of national symbol, the dam has already come under criticism from environmentalists, who say that it may be a potent methane source. During ... |
30 September 2009
05:41 GMT |
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According to a newly released report from the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) released today, September 2nd, it would appear that the current warming trend recorded in the Arctic could have massive repercussions on our planet. The study shows that as much as one quarter of the globe's population could be floode... |
2 September 2009
01:42 GMT |
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Astronomers were puzzled to discover fog on Titan, one of Saturn's most intriguing moons. In spite of the fact that they knew it supported an active methane hydrological cycle, the team had absolutely no idea that surface-atmosphere exchanges appeared as well. The find is the first ever to reveal the fact that t... |
1 September 2009
06:05 GMT |
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In addition to carbon dioxide, the main gas held responsible for global warming, methane, is one of the most potent agents that can bring about climate change. Efforts of reducing emissions exist, but they are insufficient. To make matters worse, it has been recently confirmed that the gas escapes its Arctic sea-bed ... |
18 August 2009
10:33 GMT |
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Last summer, as experts pointed their telescopes towards Saturn's moon Titan, they noticed a peculiar appearance on the surface of the body. It seemed as if a full-scale tropical storm was underway at its equator, in a manner eerily similar to how these formations look like back on Earth. In fact, the entire moo... |
13 August 2009
02:12 GMT |
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Since 2004, when the first traces of the gas were discovered on the Red Planet, the scientific community has been in frenzy. Once thought to be an inhospitable, barren landscape filled with desert, our neighboring planet is now considered to be either occupied by life forms, or as still having volcanic activity. Rega... |
11 August 2009
06:11 GMT |
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Methane is a rather unstable gas when exposed to sunlight, and it is easily broken up into its organic constituents after moderate exposure times, chemists say. Finding it on other planets is an equally difficult task for the same reasons, and that is why astronomers could not believe their eyes when it was clearly e... |
6 August 2009
19:11 GMT |
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Over the past couple of years, as vast amounts of scientific data on the Red Planet became available to research groups, scientists were overjoyed at noticing traces of methane on the surface of our neighbor. This was important because it implied biological sources – such as decomposing organisms – could ... |
6 August 2009
17:51 GMT |
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Other than being outstandingly beautiful and harsh to live in, the Arctic tundra is also one of the largest carbon sinks in the world, beside the oceans. Over millennia, impressive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been trapped by the soils and permafrost in these regions, and have been stored in the frozen ground... |
5 August 2009
01:28 GMT |
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Until recently, geologists and scientists believed that hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) were formed only from living microorganisms that were compressed in the upper layers of the Earth's crust, and heated with high temperatures from the upper mantle. Now, a new research comes to show that it may be, indeed, ... |
27 July 2009
06:04 GMT |
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Some 12,000 years ago, a massive methane emission was recorded on our planet, but its source has still remained a mystery to this day. Some researchers have argued that the release of sea floor hydrate deposits, as in mostly methane, could have had something to do with it, but a recent analysis of the largest sample ... |
25 April 2009
06:39 GMT |
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Researchers at the Stanford University have come up with a new study, which sets forth the idea that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may host a series of underground hydrocarbon oceans, as well as mountains whose tops are below the average height of the planet. The paper detailing the finds will be published in an... |
7 April 2009
05:40 GMT |
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Truly, the world of microbes and bacteria is one of many wonders, as naturalists say. It would appear that most species of such microorganisms have been “born” with special skills that make researchers' eyes water. For instance, a new discovery pinpoints a species of microbes that is able to turn wat... |
31 March 2009
06:34 GMT |
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Scientists are currently working on two fronts to discover a way of producing vast amounts of non-polluting electricity from special kinds of ice, which are readily available in many parts of the world. If the experts identify the correct types of the stuff, then they could literally burn it, to release the methane t... |
27 March 2009
07:20 GMT |
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Along with the nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, methane is one of the three gases that has been directly linked to the intensification of the global warming and climate change phenomena throughout the world. And while, sadly, CO2 levels continue to climb on account of all the fossil fuel that is being burnt at this ... |
11 March 2009
05:51 GMT |
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NASA officials have recently announced that a new reconnaissance probe will be sent to Mars' orbit around 2016, in order to investigate the planet's mysterious methane emissions. In fact, the main goal of the mission would be to determine if the gas that can still be detected in the Martian atmosphere comes... |
6 March 2009
05:45 GMT |
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Pluto is one of the smallest planets in the solar system, and it's located very far away from the Sun, beyond the orbit of Neptune. It's one of the dwarf celestial bodies, having a diameter of only one fifth that of the Earth. But, unlike our planet, it's made almost entirely out of rock and ice, and f... |
3 March 2009
04:58 GMT |
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A paper published in the January 29th issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters confirms what astronomers have been suspecting for the past couple of years, and namely that the atmosphere around Saturn's moon, Titan, which is approximately 10 times denser than that of the Earth, is capable of producing c... |
2 February 2009
10:32 GMT |
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Methane emissions, first recorded in 2003, emanate from Mars' surface even now, and have prompted many astronomers to say that the Red Planet is not yet dead from all standpoints, meaning that at least geological processes still have to be underway, in order for the gas to be pumped out. Some experts say that th... |
16 January 2009
08:22 GMT |
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The images sent by NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicate there's a high possibility that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is subject to a dynamic volcanic activity. Instead of regular volcanoes on which we know a lot, these particular ones don't eject lava, but icy water, ammonia and methane, substances... |
17 December 2008
05:53 GMT |
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Layers of very thick vegetation can be a very effective means of preventing landfills from releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane into the atmosphere, a new test study at the Rockhampton's Lakes Creek Landfill in Australia recently showed. Using methane capture towers can be prohibitively ex... |
28 November 2008
04:15 GMT |
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More or less, it was somewhat common knowledge that corn plays a crucial part in the industry of fast food, in one way or another. And in order to add more solid ground to this belief, a recent research has explored the real basis on which the $100-billion industry resides. The chemical tests performed in restaurants... |
11 November 2008
08:50 GMT |
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Although the presence of methane in Mars' atmosphere has been positively identified more than four years ago by three different sources, its provenience still eludes scientists. On Earth, we have the biomass to blame, namely the decaying plants and animal flatulence, but since none of these exists on Mars, a via... |
6 November 2008
04:31 GMT |
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New data analysis by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston indicate that perhaps man is not responsible for the phenomenon of global warming after all, in spite of the international agitation in this sense over the last period of time. Instead, this could just be part of a natural cycle... |
31 October 2008
12:16 GMT |
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The group of known threats to the environment has recently added two more previously ignored gaseous members. Although still far from the huge impact that carbon dioxide has as a greenhouse gas, the rising levels of methane and nitrogen trifluoride in the atmospheric air are fueling new concerns. Ron Prinn, an atmosp... |
27 October 2008
03:35 GMT |
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The previous greatest depth under the surface of the seafloor at which life was found is about two times less than that of the current record of 1.6 kilometers, thus encouraging future life searches on other planets in the solar system. The newly found microscopic life is also believed to be one of the hottest ever d... |
26 May 2008
11:19 GMT |
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Question: Can human beings and other living organisms, for that matter, burn spontaneously? Apparently yes, although there is no known scientific explanation for the phenomenon to date. The first case of such an occurrence was allegedly reported by anatomist Thomas Bartholin in 1663, who described how a woman burst i... |
23 April 2008
08:58 GMT |
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Another exo-planet found and yet another intriguing discovery! Astronomers reveal that an exo-planet detected back in 2005, located in a solar system in the Vulpecula constellation, 63 light-years away from Earth, has a methane-rich atmosphere. The planet dubbed HD 189733b is a gas giant relatively similar to Jupiter... |
20 March 2008
03:44 GMT |
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New observations with the Cassini orbiter show that Saturn's moon Titan contains large quantities of hydrocarbon liquid, about a few hundred times more than the natural reserves found here on Earth. Hydrocarbon gas condenses into Titan's dense atmosphere, then it is raining down on its surface much in the s... |
14 February 2008
02:48 GMT |
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I think it is pretty obvious that the petrol alone will not be sufficient enough to satisfy our energy needs in the near future. Thus, the scientists are permanently looking for alternative fuels and energy production devices. Natural gas is just one of the alternatives. Now you are probably wondering why we are not ... |
22 January 2008
06:05 GMT |
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Methane gas escapes from ocean floor fossil deposits at a rate of about two hundred or more cubic meters every day, which poses some environmental concerns, as the methane gas is a greenhouse gas, which causes a global warming effect 23 times more accentuated than carbon dioxide would, during a century. About half of... |
21 December 2007
08:40 GMT |
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Plastics may be toxic, but this one could clean the atmosphere of green house effect gases. A specially developed plastic imitating cell membrane can take carbon dioxide out of natural gas, lowering the quantities of this greenhouse gas dumped into the atmosphere. The new material could also extract natural gas from ... |
25 October 2007
08:40 GMT |
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An icy "Star Wars" world exists on Earth as well. Only that the characters are microscopical. A new research points to the fact that bacteria could survive trapped inside ice crystals, at ice depths of 3 km (1.9 mi) for over 100,000 years. This gives hope for life on remote, icy worlds in the Sun System.Living bacter... |
9 October 2007
03:48 GMT |
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Have you ever imagined a tropical paradise at -274 °F (- 170 °C)? But on Earth…as such thing does exist on the Saturn's largest moon, Titan, the only moon in the Sun System large enough to have an atmosphere. Methane rainfall soaks dunes of ice or tar on Titan's arid deserts, like a frozen mirror image of E... |
3 October 2007
04:28 GMT |
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A mud volcano has nothing to do with the proper volcanoes. Mud volcanoes appear mostly when gas pockets or gas deposits associated with oil manage to seep to the surface, transporting water mixed with solid material (mud, made mainly of clay and sand). Of course, these volcanoes are not hot at all, on the contrary, t... |
15 August 2007
13:51 GMT |
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Scientists around the world are disappointed, because the extrasolar planet that was the most likely to have liquid water on its surface, the key ingredient for life, has been found to be a boiling world, where water could never exist in its liquid state.The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and was thought... |
19 June 2007
03:33 GMT |
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If there is life on Mars, how does it look like? In the present conditions, Martians can be no more than bacteria. And some quite hardy bacteria. That's why a team at University of Arkansas has checked some of the toughest bugs on Earth, three different species of methane producing microorganisms, in various so... |
29 May 2007
09:14 GMT |
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Methane is a greenhouse effect gas 20 times more powerful than CO2.Fortunately, the emission of methane is reduced compared to that of CO2; but even so, its emissions are on a boom, due to human activity. Now a Brazilian team at National Space Research Institute (INPE) has found a way to cut off methane emission from... |
14 May 2007
06:06 GMT |
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The ozone's problem was signaled even from the 70s, when the United States intended to open a supersonic fleet between New York and Paris. The researches revealed the destructive effects of the oxides resulted from combustion on the ozone layers. Few years later, researchers concluded that chlorofluorocarbons ar... |
3 May 2007
17:11 GMT |
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Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane and the principal component of natural gas. Burning one molecule of methane in the presence of oxygen releases one molecule of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and two molecules of H2O (water).Unfortunately, it's also an important gre... |
30 April 2007
06:59 GMT |
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