http://www.gps.caltech.edu/news_releases/rss News releases from the Division of Geology and Planetary Science at Caltech en-us The sea floor off the coast of Eureka, California, is home to a diverse assemblage of microbes that scavenge methane from cold deep-sea vents. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a technique to directly capture these cells, lending insight into the diverse symbiotic partnerships that evolved among different species in an extreme environment. The community's interconnected metabolism sheds light on how the anaerobic microbes, which consume nearly 80 percent of the methane leaked from marine sediments, limit oceanic emissions of this potent greenhouse gas. Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13141.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13141.html The origin of the Grand Canyon has been a topic of scientific controversy for nearly 140 years. Now, with geochronologic data from the canyon and surrounding plateaus, geologists from the California Institute of Technology present significant evidence that lends new insight into its history of formation. The researchers found that a large canyon, directly above and just as deep as the deepest part of the modern-day Grand Canyon, had already formed by 55 million years ago in overlying strata. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13129.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13129.html Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding newly formed stars where planets are born. Now the detection of water vapor in the inner part of two extrasolar protoplanetary disks brings scientists one step closer to understanding water's role during terrestrial planet formation.<br>"This is a much larger story than just one or two disks," says Geoffrey Blake, professor of cosmochemistry and planetary sciences and professor of chemistry at Caltech. "With upcoming observations of tens of young stars and disks, we can construct a story for how water concentrations evolve in disks, and hopefully answer questions like how Earth acquired its oceans." Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13121.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13121.html From its humble beginnings as a remote patch of the Arroyo Seco used to test rockets, JPL has grown into the leading U.S. center for robotic space exploration. Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/explorerlayout-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/explorerlayout-web.pdf After decades of searching, no one's found life on Mars&mdash;or have they? Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/marslayout-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/marslayout-web.pdf A self-professed Caltech "lifer," JPL Director Charles Elachi has spent 40 years using spaceborne radar to explore such exotic places as the Sahara, Venus, and Titan. Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/elachilayout-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/elachilayout-web.pdf The two Voyager spacecraft transformed our view of Earth's place in the solar system, and 30 years after launch, they're still going where no one has gone before. Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/voyagerlayout-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/voyagerlayout-web.pdf A mission designed to unveil the origins of the solar system returned to Earth with a thud. Fortunately for science, however, all is not lost. Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/genesislayout-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX4/genesislayout-web.pdf For the past two decades, radar images from satellites have dominated the field of geophysical monitoring for natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides. These images reveal small perturbations precisely, but large changes from events like big earthquake ruptures or fast-moving glaciers remained difficult to assess from afar. Until now. Sebastien Leprince, a graduate student in electrical engineering at Caltech has written software that correlates any two optical images taken by satellite. It has proved extremely reliable in tracking large-scale changes on Earth's surface, like earthquake ruptures, the mechanics of "slow" landslides, or defining the fastest-moving sections of glaciers that, due to global warming, have recently increased their pace. Leprince described his software and results of many of its applications on December 14 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:00:00 -0800 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13080.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13080.html Scientists have long searched for what triggers earthquakes, even suggesting that tides or weather play a role. Recent research spearheaded by Jean-Philippe Avouac, professor of geology and director of the Tectonics Observatory at Caltech, shows that in the Himalayan mountains, at least, there is indeed an earthquake season. It's winter. Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13081.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13081.html When termites are chewing on your home, your immediate thought probably isn't "I wonder how they digest that stuff?" But biologists have been gnawing on the question for more than a century. The key is not just the termite, but what lives in its gut. A multitude of genes from the microbes populating the hindgut of a termite have been sequenced and analyzed, and the findings reported in the journal <i>Nature</i>. Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13067.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13067.html At the end of the Pleistocene epoch some 10,000 years ago, two species of condors in California competed for resources amidst the retreating ice of Earth's last major glacial age. The modern California condor triumphed, while its kin expired. Now, after the most extensive study of condor fossils and skeletal remains to date, Caltech senior undergraduate Valerie Syverson has documented evidence that confirms the modern California condor is different enough from a larger, extinct condor that lived during Pleistocene time to classify the two as distinct species. Syverson teamed up with Donald Prothero, a paleontologist at Occidental College and a guest lecturer in geobiology at Caltech. They studied bones from recently dead condors and compared them with those found in the extensive bone pile of Los Angeles's Pleistocene-aged La Brea tar pits. Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13055.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13055.html Andrew P. Ingersoll has been awarded the 2007 Gerard P. Kuiper Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society in honor of his outstanding contributions to planetary science. The award was presented this week during the annual DPS meeting in Orlando, Florida. Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13042.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13042.html Caltech scientists and their colleagues have devised a new way to study Earth's past climate by analyzing the chemical composition of ancient carbonate marine fossils such as shells and corals. The first published tests with the method, published September 13 in the journal <i>Nature</i>, further support the view that atmospheric CO2 has contributed to dramatic climate variations in the past, and strengthen projections that human CO2 emissions could cause global warming. Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13025.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13025.html It may not be a waterworld that would field many of Kevin Costner's dreams, but the exoplanet HD 189733b has just been found to have water vapor in its atmosphere. The observation provides the best evidence to date that water exists on worlds outside our own solar system. The discovery was made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which possesses a particularly keen ability to study nearby stars and their exoplanets. HD 189733b is located 63 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. "Water is the quintessence of life as we know it," says Yuk Yung, a Caltech professor of planetary science and one of the authors of a paper appearing in this week's journal Nature. "It is exciting to find that it is as abundant in another solar system as it is in ours." Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13014.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13014.html Without the 250 microbe species that populate their guts, termites would derive no fuel from the wood they chew. The details of this remarkable symbiosis, which are being explored by a Caltech scientist, may also be relevant to our own fuel needs. Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX2/leadbetter-web.pdf http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXX2/leadbetter-web.pdf Die-hard Pluto fans still seeking redemption for their demoted planet have cause for despair this week. New data shows that the dwarf planet Eris is 27 percent more massive than Pluto, thereby strengthening the decree last year that there are eight planets in the solar system and a growing list of dwarf planets. According to Mike Brown, the discoverer of Eris, and his graduate student Emily Schaller, the data confirms that Eris weighs 16.6 billion trillion kilograms. They know this because of the time it takes Eris's moon, Dysnomia, to complete an orbit. Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13003.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13003.html Peter Goldreich, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics, Emeritus, has been named winner of the 2007 Shaw Prize for astronomy by the Shaw Prize Foundation of Hong Kong. The announcement was made Tuesday, June 12, at foundation headquarters in Hong Kong. Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13004.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13004.html Hiroo Kanamori, one of the world's leading authorities on earthquakes, has been awarded the 23rd annual Kyoto Prize by the Inamori Foundation of Japan. The announcement was made recently in Kyoto. Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13002.html http://mr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR13002.html