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While we were all tucked up in bed in the early hours of Halloween‚ Portugal was about to start a record-breaking streak. For six days in a row‚ more energy was produced from renewable energy sources than was consumed across the entire country.A record-breaking streakThe new record was set between 4 am local time on October 31 and 9 am on November 6 – 149 consecutive hours‚ breaking 2019’s record of 131 hours – during which 1‚102 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy were produced. This ended up being more than the country needed‚ with both industrial and household consumption only reaching 840 GWh.Although this record doesn’t mean that fossil fuel plants weren’t operating at all during this time‚ another national record set during this time demonstrated that may well be possible in the near future. Beating a previous high of 56 consecutive hours‚ Portugal also managed to go natural gas-free for 131 hours in a row‚ and for 95 of those hours‚ produced enough clean energy that some could be exported to neighboring Spain.Speaking of the achievement in a statement posted to its website‚ REN‚ the company in charge of electricity and gas supply in Portugal‚ said: “These significant achievements confirm that Portugal has been maintaining a sustainable trajectory in progressively integrating indigenous renewable sources‚ while upholding the primary objectives of supply security and service quality.”Ahead of the gamePortugal is something of a trend-setter when it comes to renewable energy. Whereas the rest of the European Union didn’t pledge itself to become carbon-neutral by 2050 until 2019‚ Portugal did so in 2016. It had also aimed to stop the use of coal as a fuel by 2030‚ and with the last of its coal plants having shut down nearly two years ago‚ it achieved that goal nine years early.The country’s main sources of renewable energy are wind and solar‚ which in the future could be combined into hybrid plants. “If we combine wind and solar‚ what we see is that there is a big complementarity‚” said Hugo Costa‚ who oversees the renewables arm of the state utility‚ speaking to Canary Media. “Typically‚ when we have wind blowing‚ we don’t have sun. And when we have sun‚ typically we don’t have that much wind.”As with its coal plants‚ Portugal aims to decommission all of its natural gas-fired power plants by 2040. Earlier this year‚ it also set out plans to double the country’s solar and hydrogen energy capacity – the country is already the home of Europe's largest floating solar park. All being well after public hearings‚ Portugal may be well on its way to achieving its carbon-neutrality goals.

Since living through a pandemic‚ we’ve all recently become acutely aware of the stresses associated with living in close quarters with a single group of people for a prolonged time. Spare a thought‚ then‚ for the six men and women who entered the Russian Academy of Science’s SIRIUS-23 project last Tuesday – and won’t come out again for 360 days.The team – compromising crew commander Yuri Sergeevich Chebotarev‚ flight engineer Anzhelika Anatolyevna Parfyonova‚ crew doctor Ksenia Dmitrievna Orlova‚ and researchers Olga Sergeevna Mastitskaya‚ Ksenia Sergeevna Shishenina‚ and Rustam Nazimovich Zaripov – will spend the next almost-year in a sealed-off facility at the Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow. It’s the fourth mission launched in the SIRIUS project – the name stands for “Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station” – a joint endeavor from NASA and IBMP. As in previous experiments‚ the crew will nominally be on a simulated lunar mission: performing a flyby‚ multiple “landings” and surface operations‚ using a rover for investigations‚ and so on. But diverting though that all is‚ it’s not the main goal of the mission. “The research is not about exploring the lunar surface‚” NASA announced at the start of 2019’s SIRIUS-18/19 missions. Instead‚ the agency explained‚ they are “a series of missions to better understand how the human body and mind adapt to increasing durations in spaceflight missions with crews representing different countries and cultures.”The subjects are being sealed away for space science.Image Credit: IBMP (CC-BY-NC-SA)But that makes this mission rather unusual‚ in fact – because NASA is sitting it out.“The agency is not participating in the 12-month SIRIUS 23 mission‚” confirmed Anna Schneider‚ a public affairs specialist at NASA Johnson Space Center‚ in a statement to Space.com.“NASA’s Human Research Program is participating in isolation research and other Earth-based analogs‚ including the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) and the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA)‚ Antarctica‚” elaborated Schneider‚ “as well as evaluating other domestic and international analogs‚ to ensure key research goals can be completed to inform future human spaceflight missions. ”Without Americans on board‚ SIRIUS-23 is making history as the first monolingual isolation experiment for IBMP‚ with all crew members speaking Russian. It’s also noteworthy that four of the six Moscownauts are women‚ noted Anastasia Stepanova‚ a PhD student in space resources at the Colorado School of Mines and one of the scientists on the SIRIUS-19 team.“Sirius-23 is different in many ways [from] the previous SIRIUS-17‚ 19 and 21 simulations‚” Stepanova told Space.com.“One year is a challenging duration that will be filled with many biomedical experiments on board.”For example‚ she explained‚ the crew’s ability to cope with technical malfunctions of various seriousness will be studied‚ as will the physical consequences of long-term and regular extravehicular activity and night work. Also of interest are the psychological and social ramifications of spending so long in isolation – effects which have so far proved not entirely positive.After all‚ as various futurists look to colonizing the moon and Mars for humanity’s future‚ it’s experiments like SIRIUS that will decide how feasible such long-haul expeditions really are. So watch this space: in a year‚ we’ll either have confirmation that our species can cope with interplanetary missions – or‚ worst case scenario? One hell of a whodunnit.

During the early stages of their invasion of Ukraine‚ Russia experienced a significant loss when its flagship‚ the Moskva‚ was sunk by Ukrainian forces in the Black Sea. The vessel’s destruction was a surprise not only to the Russians‚ but also to many who observed this conflict at the time‚ but now researchers believe they have evidence that the Ukrainian army benefited from an unusual weather phenomenon that made the attack possible.According to the work of two radar experts at the Swedish Defense Research Agency and a meteorologist from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute‚ the Ukrainian military were only able to see and target the Moskva missile cruiser because of a temperature inversion that occurred at the time. During this unique event‚ the usual situation switched around‚ whereby cooler air was at lower altitudes with warmer air above it.This‚ they argue‚ allowed the Ukrainians' radar signal to refract off the atmosphere‚ carrying it much further than would normally be possible. This is why the Ukrainians were able to see and subsequently sink the warship.“Before launching an anti-ship missile‚” the researchers write in their paper‚ “a target must first be detected and positioned‚ for example by an accompanying radar system. However‚ when the missiles hit the Moskva she was well beyond the normal radar horizon of any ground-based radar system‚ making the ship undetectable under normal circumstances.”The fact that the Ukrainians were able to hit the Moskva was therefore something of a mystery‚ which led some to suggest that a US aircraft had tipped them off to its location‚ a rumor that has since been denied.  Interestingly‚ as the researchers note‚ an alternative explanation was offered by the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda in December 2022. According to a series of interviews they conducted with military personnel‚ weather conditions had allowed the Ukrainian’s R-360 Neptune anti-ship missile system‚ complete with its search-and-track radar (known as Mineral-U) to spot the vessel in the Black Sea.The impact the atmosphere can have on radar has been studied for almost a century. It is known that radio waves can be attenuated (weakened or interfered with) by rain and are normally refracted slightly towards the Earth due to variations in the atmosphere.The existing models used to calculate radar’s horizon in “normal” atmospheric conditions can therefore sometimes underestimate or overestimate its reach due to prevailing meteorological conditions.“In this work‚ we have examined [the Ukrainska Pravda’s claim] by calculating the atmospheric refractivity from meteorological reanalysis data and thereafter applying an electromagnetic wave propagation model‚” the authors write. “We found that at the time of the missile launch the atmospheric conditions were indeed allowing a ground-based radar to detect targets close to the sea surface at much longer distances than normal.”“The results show that atmospheric conditions must be considered carefully‚ even during warfare‚ as their impact on radar wave propagation can be considerable. With increasingly detailed and accurate meteorological reanalysis data available‚ it is now possible to perform in-depth analyses of past atmospheric propagation conditions.”The study is published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

During excavations in Saudi Arabia at the Al-Qurh archaeological site‚ archaeologists discovered a giant stone hand axe or biface‚ named for elongated fragments hewn and sharpened on both sides‚ resembling blades. Our ancestors used such tools to hold a chopper in their hands‚ to butcher animal carcasses‚ remove skins‚ and possibly even cut down trees. The Middle Eastern artifact is 250‚000 years old. However‚ it wasn’t the age that surprised archaeologists but rather the size—more than half a meter (1.6 ft). Only a giant could have used such a chopper‚ meaning a person significantly larger in size than ordinary individuals. Archaeologists from Saudi Arabia aren’t making assumptions; they pledge to conduct further excavation‚ seeking other large tools to understand their intended purposes. It’s possible that further discoveries will shed light on who used these giant axes and the tasks they performed. Scientists from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of California‚ Los Angeles (UCLA Institute of Archaeology)‚ are also puzzled. Recently‚ they found two giant stone axes during excavations on a hillside in the Medway Valley‚ Kent‚ England. The ‘English axes’ date back 300‚000 years. “At present‚ we don’t understand the purpose behind these large tools‚” admitted Letty Ingrey‚ the archaeologist leading the excavations. She suggested that these huge axes might have symbolized something‚ such as strength or skill‚ rather than being used practically for their size. Enthusiasts‚ inspired by the enormous tools of ancient people‚ consider them evidence supporting the existence of giants. They hint that the Middle Eastern giants were larger than the European ones‚ estimating them at 4 meters (13 ft) and even stretching the estimates to about 6 meters‚ basing this estimation on the size of their axes. The post Archaeologists have found a giant stone ax 250‚000 years old appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Imagine a mother duck leading a parade of over 70 ducklings – a sight so extraordinary it seems almost fictional. Yet‚ this is precisely the scene captured by wildlife photographer Brent Cizek on the serene waters of Lake Bemidji‚ Minnesota. Cizek‚ an avid wildlife enthusiast‚ often explores the lakes near his home‚ camera in hand‚... The post ‘Super mom’ duck shows off her parenting prowess with over 70 ducklings in tow appeared first on Animal Channel.

Imagine the surprise of nurse Elizabeth Potter from Red Wing‚ Minnesota‚ when she discovered a mysterious hole in the backyard fence her husband had painstakingly built. Little did she know‚ this was the beginning of a charming tale involving their Saint Bernard‚ Everest‚ and the neighbors’ Mastiff‚ Bear. Everest and Bear‚ despite being separated by... The post Determined pup comes up with ‘creative’ plan to see his best friend next door appeared first on Animal Channel.

Remember those viral challenges that swept the internet‚ like the cinnamon challenge or the chubby bunny challenge? Well‚ there’s a new craze in town‚ and it’s all about dancing! The latest sensation is the “Git Up” challenge‚ sparked by Blanco Brown’s catchy tune and dance tutorial. This fun-filled dance has already racked up over 43... The post Police dog breaks out in “dance” – captures internet’s heart with 16M views appeared first on Animal Channel.