Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Demian Perry
50 years ago, the first probe to visit Mercury launched
Off to Mercury with a cold glance — Science News, November 10, 1973 Mercury ho! Mariner 10 is on its way. Venus ho, too. Launched at 12:45 a.m. (EST) on Nov. 3, Mariner should pass within 3,330 miles of Venus on Feb. 5. It will then become the first spacecraft to use a technique … of letting the gravitational field of one planet bend its course around toward a second objective. That’s Mercury, of course, where it will arrive less than two months later.
JWST spotted a new speedy jet stream in Jupiter's atmosphere
New beauty shots of Jupiter, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, reveal a speedy jet stream encircling the equator at an altitude never imaged before. Researchers have known about Jovian jet streams since Voyager spacecraft flew by in 1979. Those relatively stable winds occur near the planet’s main cloud decks, in the troposphere.
Giant planet ‘destabilization’ may have coincided with the birth of Earth's moon
A long-ago reshuffling of the giant planets in our solar system may have been instrumental in giving Earth its moon. For decades, planetary scientists have hypothesized that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were born much closer to the sun and that gravitational interactions among those planets jolted them into their contemporary trajectories (SN: 5/10/22). But the timing of that “giant planet orbital instability” has been tricky to nail down.
Here’s another strike against Venus having copious lightning
Venus has long been depicted as having a hellish atmosphere. Despite that reputation, evidence increasingly suggests that our neighbor’s cloudy shroud isn’t riddled with lightning. Last month, planetary scientists proposed that most if not all of the bright flashes observed in Venus’ atmosphere could be explained by meteors (SN: 9/11/23). Now, a separate team suggests that whistling electromagnetic waves often created by lightning on Earth and other planets are not sparked by lightning on Venus.
In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision
In a solar system about 1,800 light-years from Earth, two planets smacked into one another in an impact that vaporized them both. And astronomers caught them in the act. An incandescent blob of leftover planet, lingering after an impact, could explain a surge of infrared light from a remote star, researchers report October 11 in Nature. And the ensuing debris field could also explain a subsequent dimming of the star, the team says.
How drones are helping scientists find meteorites
Meteorites offer tantalizing clues about what the early solar system was like. But finding them is far from rocket science. Often, researchers simply fan out across a landscape and walk for hours while staring at the ground. Now, some scientists are turning to drones and machine learning to help spot freshly fallen meteorites much more efficiently.
Flashes in Venus’ atmosphere might be meteors, not lightning
Occasional flashes light up Venus’ shroud of clouds. Previous analyses have hinted that the bursts of light could be lightning in the hellish world’s atmosphere. But a new study suggests most of the flashes may be nothing more than the brief yet brilliant blazes of meteors. With upcoming missions planned for Venus, scientists are eager to figure out the light’s origin (SN: 6/2/21).
India’s successful moon landing follows recent failures by other countries
Space is hard, as the saying goes. As humans have endeavored to launch themselves and their machines beyond Earth, that maxim has been proven again and again. Recent attempts to touch down on the moon — a feat first accomplished nearly 60 years ago by the former Soviet Union’s robotic Luna-9 probe — have been particularly fraught with failure. But on August 23, an Indian spacecraft, for the first time, successfully landed on the surface of the moon.
50 years ago, mysterious glass hinted at Earth's violent past
Microtektites found in Caribbean may shed light on tektite origin — Science News, August 11, 1973 Though their origin remains a mystery to scientists, huge strewn fields of tektites have been found in widely separated areas of the world…. Microtektites have now been found in the Caribbean, and the characteristics of these newly found specimens may ultimately shed some light on the question of tektite origin…. Some believe that the tektites come from the moon.
50 years ago, mysterious glass hinted at Earth’s violent past
https://www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/072523_dp_tektites_feat.jpg-800x450.jpg Microtektites found in Caribbean may shed light on tektite origin —Science News, August 11, 1973 Though their origin remains a mystery to scientists, huge strewn fields of tektites have been found in widely separated areas of the world….
Satellite data reveal nearly 20,000 previously unknown deep-sea mountains Original
The number of known mountains in Earth’s oceans has roughly doubled. Global satellite observations have revealed nearly 20,000 previously unknown seamounts, researchers report in the April Earth and Space Science. Just as mountains tower over Earth’s surface, seamounts also rise above the ocean floor. The tallest mountain on Earth, as measured from base to peak, is Mauna Kea, which is part of the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount Chain.
Satellite imagery reveals ‘hidden’ tornado tracks
When a strong tornado roars through a city, it often leaves behind demolished buildings, broken tree limbs and trails of debris. But a similarly powerful storm touching down over barren, unvegetated land is much harder to spot in the rearview mirror. Now, satellite imagery has revealed a 60-kilometer-long track of moist earth in Arkansas that was invisible to human eyes.
‘Jet packs’ and ultrasounds could reveal secrets of pregnant whale sharks Original
How do you know if the world’s largest living fish is expecting babies? Not by her bulging belly, it turns out. Scientists thought that an enlarged area on the undersides of female whale sharks was a sign of pregnancy. But a technique used for the first time on free-swimming animals showed only skin and muscle. These humps might instead be a secondary sex characteristic on mature females, like breasts on humans, researchers report in the March 23 Endangered Species Research.
50 years ago, researchers discovered a leak in Earth’s oceans Original
Oceans may be shrinking — Science News, March 10, 1973 The oceans of the world may be gradually shrinking, leaking slowly away into the Earth’s mantle…. Although the oceans are constantly being slowly augmented by water carried up from Earth’s interior by volcanic activity … some process such as sea-floor spreading seems to be letting the water seep away more rapidly than it is replaced.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill ruined long-term shore stability
Long after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the marshy shores of the Gulf of Mexico were still feeling the effects of the disaster. Marsh grass retained plant-smothering oil, and the soil continued to crumble away at a faster rate than before the spill, causing the shoreline to retreat more rapidly than it would otherwise, a new study shows. Following an explosion in April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig pumped nearly 800 million liters of oil into the sea (SN: 2/12/20).
50 years ago, scientists discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Original
Setting sail into a plastic sea —Science News, February 10, 1973 Scientists on an oceanographic voyage in the Central North Pacific last August became startled about the number of manmade objects littering the ocean surface. [Far from civilization and shipping lanes], they recorded 53 manmade objects in 8.2 hours of viewing. More than half were plastic. They go on to compute that there are between 5 million and 35 million plastic bottles adrift in the North Pacific.
Humans’ stuff vastly outweighs humans
Have you ever felt weighed down by your material possessions? The boundless variety of stuff that humans manufacture — tractors, buildings, ballpoint pens, Hello Kitty backpacks — has serious heft: 30 trillion metric tons, a new study estimates. That’s about 50 kilograms for every square meter of Earth’s surface.
Rainwater can help trigger earthquakes
Where it rains, it rumbles. Rainwater and snowmelt help fuel intense earthquakes along a New Zealand tectonic fault, new research suggests. Tracing the source of water flowing through New Zealand’s Alpine Fault shows that more than 99 percent of it originated from precipitation, researchers report April 19 in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Scientists knew that underground fluids help trigger quakes, but the origins of these fluids have been uncertain.
The Making of the NPR News iPhone App
Early pencil sketch of the NPR News iPhone app. Calvin Carter/Bottle Rocket hide caption toggle caption Calvin Carter/Bottle Rocket What I love most about our new NPR News iPhone app is the way the design combines the plentiful content choices of the Internet with the effortless functionality of an old transistor radio.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Demian
Contact Demian, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack