http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74pA5YH-ehY

NEW YORK, Monday, 22nd April 2013 – Mars One is happy to announce the launch of its astronaut selection program today. The search has begun for the first humans to set foot on Mars and make it their home.

Mars One invites would-be Mars settlers from anywhere in the world to submit an online application via apply.mars-one.com

This online application will be the first of the four rounds that together make the Mars One selection procedure. Round One will run for over five months and end on 31st August 2013. Applicants selected at the end of this round will include the first crew that will land on Mars in 2023. Mars One selection committees will hone the search for the first crew in three subsequent rounds and further training.

“We are very excited about launching the selection program. Round One is where we open the doors to Mars for everyone on Earth. This is an international mission and it is very important for the project that anyone anywhere can ask themselves: Do I want this? Am I ready for this? If the answer is yes then we want to hear from you,” said Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One.

In the last year Mars One received 10,000 messages from prospective applicants from over 100 countries. Mars One expects an unprecedented number of applications and even more internet users visiting the application website to support their favorite candidates.

Applicants are given the choice of publicly sharing and promoting their application page. While Mars One experts will choose which candidates progress to Round 2, everyone will have the opportunity to know the aspiring settlers and give them their vote of confidence.

Applicants will pay a small administration fee that varies across nations according to their per capita GDP. The variable fee makes the program equally accessible for applicants from all nations and also reduces the number of insincere entries.

Mars One is looking for applicants who are both mature and interesting. Beyond Round Four,in the seven-year period preceding their flight to Mars,all the potential settlers will be given the skills they will need on Mars and on their journey there. No particular academic or professional background is considered a prerequisite for selection.

“Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria,” said Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s Chief Medical Director and former NASA senior researcher.

“For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges.”

Throughout the astronaut selection program, Mars One will select applicants who have good physical and mental health and show five key character traits: Resilience, Adaptability, Curiosity, Ability to trust others, and Creativity/Resourcefulness.

In the last stage when 24-40 candidates have been fully trained and qualified, the final decision of choosing the first settlers will be decided by an audience vote.

“In a 1000 years, everyone on Earth will still remember who the first humans on Mars were, just like Neil Armstrong has etched in our memories forever. This makes the selection of the first crew to a different planet a very important election; in my opinion more important than most elections. We hope the whole world will join Mars One in our democratic search of the envoys of mankind to Mars, ” Lansdorp said.

About Mars One

The Mars One Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that will send humans to Mars in 2023 to establish the first permanent settlement outside Earth. Before the first settlers land on Mars a self-sustaining habitat will be set up with help of rovers and more settlers will follow every two years. A realistic mission plan has been designed using only existing technology available through the private space industry. The first footprint on Mars will fascinate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars.

Detailed company overview and notes on the application program is available on request.

My intention behind this project was to work out the formula behind all things viral on the internet. By merely knowing the composites of the magic behind what makes my human subjects want to react to what has been displayed before them, was a raging curiosity.

And then I got it all under control.

I realized that my answer laid buried much deeper than that. Everytime I saw something that gave me sudden clarity during the strangest situations, I myself was poisoned by the magic of wanting to share it. And so I succumbed to this spell and I did exactly that.

Ladies and gentlemen. I bring you the memes that I shared to my audience, never knowing that it would make my subjects react  the way they have. Here is #1:

Of course you remember when Obama won the US elections (again). Everyone knows what’s going on in the US of A thanks to TV (and internet)! I myself am quite fascinated by the American culture (but only when it crosses my path). There are cities there that have truly inspired me but most importantly, I love the way the rest of the world sees them.  America, Planet Earth’s Cowboys.

Bay Point Trading is a web development and search engine optimisation firm that has made waves within the local web development community. Waves caused by certain competitors who are constantly talking. And they’re not talking about the weather. They’re not talking about the latest series they downloaded from Warez (well one of them is but I don’t think anyone cares enough). They’re talking about Bay Point Trading. I know this fact as I work for Bay Point and we get emails from our network of fellow web developers and IT specialists that pass these discussions on to us. While these guys usually moan about receiving a call from one of our call centres, they tend to not only lambaste a company but the call centre industry as a whole as well. I get it, no one likes call centres or cold calls. I don’t. No one likes website advertisements, tv ads, radio ads or flyers being passed to them in traffic. I hate flyers. So then that would also mean that nobody likes what marketing professionals are actually doing? That means all the marketing companies out there are in fact out there to just annoy consumers…

The one thing our competitors never talk about though (and fretfully seem to try and avoid) is just how badly they actually want to be a part of my team. I mean without intentionally trying to sound biased (maybe with a little bit of tongue in cheek but no intended sarcasm), I took a step back the other day and realised how much of a dream it is for any digital marketer, web developer or SEO specialist to work for a company that has an immense database of clients to play with. Four dedicated servers stacked with over 4000 domains… each and every one of these domains being a canvas of the digital age.

See, when I started at Bay Point I remember sorting our clients alphabetically among 12 files.  There was one file for each month of the year. Six years later we’re instead sitting with a digitized database which reminds me of the time we uploaded all our clients to our local servers, a process which left us with 9 empty filing cabinets, each containing 4 drawers that had well over a hundred clients in each drawer. It’s quintuple the amount there were six years ago when I was sorting it alphabetically. Those 12 files would now seem like a brick in a wall compared to the 9 cabinets we had filled. A drop in a big bucket of water. I am left impressed because after a mere 5 years of working our asses off, apart from our ever expanding offices, evident growth in number of staff and new call centers,  I never actually realised the sheer size of Bay Point Trading’s client database until I was reminded of the process we endured converting it from 9 cabinets to one single digital database. We used to pull drawers, now we just enter a search term where one word often brings up pages of company names.

So with cut-throat competition, ever evolving technologies and platforms, immeasurable clientele expectations and a couple of envious players that see you as their enemy no matter how minor the thing is that stepped on their toes, the truth about this industry in terms of asshole competitors is enough to discourage any student from pursuing the life of a ‘digital marketing guru’.

It doesn’t matter how many followers you have on Twitter, how many cheap TV shows you’ve been on or how many student-filled conventions you’ve flapped your gums at. Personally for me, nothing beats the pleasure of having an internal catalogue of consumers from varying industries that know who you are and can’t wait to see what you produce for them next. Guess I prefer that.With humans being the only species on earth that has to pay to live on it, being productive is the kind of thing I invest time in which makes paying to live on this planet a little easier but most importantly, all the more pleasing. You can blog and tweet all day long and gain thousands of followers that will never put a single cent into your pocket… It is  the kind of lifestyle I am grateful for not having. I live the digital marketing dream at Bay Point Trading. The place where true creative passion meets admirable productivity.

That very day Asteroid 2012 DA14 passed earth without harm… News then broke out that there was a second meteorite that hit Cuba two hours prior to the Russian meteorite incident. Which left me thinking… is this just a coincidence or did these two meteors originate from Asteroid 2012 DA14? Did Asteroid 2012 DA14 perhaps survive massive impact with something else maybe, 2000, 300 000 or 2 billion years ago and the meteorites that crashed into earth were fragments that traveled alongside Asteroid 2012 DA14 for several light years?

Nope. NASA spoiled the fun and announced that the meteorites weren’t related to Asteroid 2013 DA14 at all.

But let’s take a closer look at Asteroid 2012 DA14 anyway…

THE THING NEARLY TOOK OUT OUR MOON!

It skipped right past our humble moon and nearly missed our satellites too! And here’s the shocker. It’s in an orbit, which means that it’s coming back for us! This very big ass Asteroid’s next near-miss approach is estimated to be in  15 February 2046! There is a big possibility that it may eventually hit Earth a 121 years from now provided that it hasn’t crossed any paths with nearby unknown black holes. Regardless of whether or not this asteroid will come straight  for us, we’ll all be dead in 121 years from now anyway right? …  So we got nothing to worry about, right? Wrong. Our children and grandchildren might still be alive. What about the children!?

We will most probably have technology advanced enough to vaporize anything that comes within a 100 000 km from Earth. But don’t forget that in a mere 33 years from now, it will still make another close pass by Earth. If astronomers happen to have miscalculated distances and velocities, then we could even be doomed by the 21st of Dec 2045 which will confirm the Mayan calendar‘s accuracy by 0.1% and my prediction by 100%!

Yep that looks like a safe distance from my house

SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF IT EVER HITS US?

Well, assuming that Asteroid 2012 DA14 heads straight for us on the day of its next “near-miss prediction”, DA14 will probably smash into and destroy an entire city or plonk into the ocean and create tsunamis big enough to destroy a city.

Fraps is only good for gaming.

The  other software I tried either didn’t record sound, had pretty fail frame rate capabilities along with all kinds of  of weird stuff that didn’t help me on my mission. At all.

Then I found Any Video Recorder… Makers of my favorite video converting software: Any Video Converter!

If you are finding yourself stuck, not knowing what to do… and all you want is that video playing before you, well, you’ve found it now. I will continue to publish solutions to my problems, trusting that they will help you too.

Computer rendering of the Swift spacecraft (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source: NASA.GOV WASHINGTON — NASA’s Swift satellite recently detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.

“Bright X-ray novae are so rare that they’re essentially once-a-mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen,” said Neil Gehrels, the mission’s principal investigator, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This is really something we’ve been waiting for.”

An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months. The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole.

The rapidly brightening source triggered Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope twice on the morning of Sept. 16, and once again the next day.

Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the center of our galaxy toward the constellation Sagittarius. While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to

30,000 light-years away in the galaxy’s inner region.

Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light.

The nova peaked in hard X-rays — energies above 10,000 electron volts, or several thousand times that of visible light — on Sept.

English: Artist’s conception of the spiral structure of the Milky Way with two major stellar arms and a central bar. “Using infrared images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way’s elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

18, when it reached an intensity equivalent to that of the famous Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant that serves as a calibration target for high-energy observatories and is considered one of the brightest sources beyond the solar system at these energies.

Even as it dimmed at higher energies, the nova brightened in the lower-energy, or softer, emissions detected by Swift’s X-ray Telescope, a behavior typical of X-ray novae. By Wednesday, Swift

J1745-26 was 30 times brighter in soft X-rays than when it was discovered and it continued to brighten.

“The pattern we’re seeing is observed in X-ray novae where the central object is a black hole. Once the X-rays fade away, we hope to measure its mass and confirm its black hole status,” said Boris Sbarufatti, an astrophysicist at Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy, who currently is working with other Swift team members at Penn State in University Park, Pa.

The black hole must be a member of a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) system, which includes a normal, sun-like star. A stream of gas flows from the normal star and enters into a storage disk around the black hole. In most LMXBs, the gas in the disk spirals inward, heats up as it heads toward the black hole, and produces a steady stream of X-rays.

But under certain conditions, stable flow within the disk depends on the rate of matter flowing into it from the companion star. At certain rates, the disk fails to maintain a steady internal flow and instead flips between two dramatically different conditions — a cooler, less ionized state where gas simply collects in the outer portion of the disk like water behind a dam, and a hotter, more ionized state that sends a tidal wave of gas surging toward the center.

“Each outburst clears out the inner disk, and with little or no matter falling toward the black hole, the system ceases to be a bright source of X-rays,” said John Cannizzo, a Goddard astrophysicist.

“Decades later, after enough gas has accumulated in the outer disk, it switches again to its hot state and sends a deluge of gas toward the black hole, resulting in a new X-ray outburst.”

This phenomenon, called the thermal-viscous limit cycle, helps astronomers explain transient outbursts across a wide range of systems, from protoplanetary disks around young stars, to dwarf novae

– where the central object is a white dwarf star — and even bright emission from supermassive black holes in the hearts of distant galaxies.

Swift, launched in November 2004, is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center. It is operated in collaboration with Penn State, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Orbital Sciences Corp.

in Dulles, Va., with international collaborators in the United Kingdom and Italy and including contributions from Germany and Japan.

Coming less than a year after the announcement of the first circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, this discovery proves that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star. The discovery demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.

Astronomers detected two planets in the Kepler-47 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright.

“In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a circumbinary system must transit a ‘moving target.’ As a consequence, time intervals between the transits and their durations can vary substantially, sometimes short, other times long,” said Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author of the paper. “The intervals were the telltale sign these planets are in circumbinary orbits.”

The inner planet, Kepler-47b, orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days. While it cannot be directly viewed, it is thought to be a sweltering world, where the destruction of methane in its super-heated atmosphere might lead to a thick haze that could blanket the planet. At three times the radius of Earth, Kepler-47b is the smallest known transiting circumbinary planet.

The outer planet, Kepler-47c, orbits its host pair every 303 days, placing it in the so-called “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. While not a world hospitable for life, Kepler-47c is thought to be a gaseous giant slightly larger than Neptune, where an atmosphere of thick bright water-vapor clouds might exist.

“Unlike our sun, many stars are part of multiple-star systems where two or more stars orbit one another. The question always has been — do they have planets and planetary systems? This Kepler discovery proves that they do,” said William Borucki, Kepler mission principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

“In our search for habitable planets, we have found more opportunities for life to exist.”

To search for transiting planets, the research team used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars. Additional ground-based spectroscopic observations using telescopes at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin helped characterize the stellar properties. The findings are published in the journal Science.

“The presence of a full-fledged circumbinary planetary system orbiting

Kepler-47 is an amazing discovery,” said Greg Laughlin, professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of California in Santa Cruz. “These planets are very difficult to form using the currently accepted paradigm, and I believe that theorists, myself included, will be going back to the drawing board to try to improve our understanding of how planets are assembled in dusty circumbinary disks.”

Ames manages Kepler’s ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA’s tenth Discovery Mission and funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

An artist’s impression of the anomaly.

The time for this blog to feature an article about ‘aliens’ or ‘UFOs’ had long been overdue and with the recent discovery of an flying saucer-shaped object lying at the bottom of the ocean, my timing couldn’t be any more perfect.

We have been questioning and searching for the existence of intelligent life beyond our own atmosphere for hundreds, if not thousands of years now. Call it an idea, imagination, a fantasy, fact or just fiction, I’ve always welcomed theories but never truly believed in them. While the unexplained and supernatural continue to tickle my interests, seeing something with my very own God-given eyes must be confirmed by an experienced scientist, geologist or biologist first before I am convinced that something out of the norm is real. There is logic reason behind everything that I believe in and if anything exists without logic reason; then it does not exist in any form other than a hoax or lie.

The year was 2011 when a Swedish team of shipwreck-treasure-hunting divers first stumbled upon a massive 200 foot wide anomaly at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Initial scans of the ocean floor conducted above the 80 metre deep disc shaped object revealed drag marks on the sea bed, leading up to the anomaly. So with imaginations running wild, things started getting weirder when the team of divers decided to go down there and find out what that thing down there is.

Two expeditions later, no one managed to return any samples and all they knew was that it was a huge mushroom-shaped structure covered in ‘soot’ that stood raised 4 meters above the seabed. It is round with jagged edges and there was what appeared to be a stairs and strange deep holes leading to who knows where.

With limited information after two expeditions and thousands of articles later, the media started losing patience with this self-branded team called “OceanX”. Journalists started doubting whether this ‘anomaly’ at the bottom of the ocean was nothing more than just a mere ploy to generate attention and make money (Since head of ‘OceanX’, Peter Lindeberg already has plans to take ‘wealthy’ tourists down there).

But what about the anamoly? What about the drag marks behind it? What about the staircase, the mysterious holes and the unnatural dome? What about the freaking fact that all electronic equipment gets cut off while in the vicinity of this damn thing!?

This better not be a money making publicity scam. I’ve ended up spending hours of my life writing this;  and a few more hours reading all the hype in the media as well as follow OceanX’s updates. OceanX have just headed down there for a third time now, and while this article is nowhere near finished until I have an answer, I expect Mr Lindendburg to bring back some solid answers this time around!

Update

So the OceanX Team finally returned from their expedition and made a post on their website. It reads:

The Ocean X Team returned with Ancylus to shore this Saturday.

After the expedition there are still a lot of questions that needs answers.
So the crew are planning more trips with the Ancylus in the future to try and solve the mystery.

On the last trip they managed to acquire samples from the unexplainable object.
The samples have been sent to analysis and as soon as we get the results, we will provide more info here.

I can’t wait.

Update 2

As can be seen in the image just above Update 1, there’s a circular object or ‘dome’ attached to the Baltic Sea Anomaly. Peter Lindeburg, head of OceanX diving team had the follwing to say in response to his drawing:

“During the last expedition it was confirmed that there is a wedge formed gap between the upper part (the circle) and the lower part (foundation/pillar). However, if the two parts are completely sepparated or if the upper part and the lower part are the same object has not been clarified“.

Doesn’t look anything like a flying saucer to me? (click for larger image)

Update 3

6 August 2012 –  At this very point in time I feel that this story has received way to much coverage for what it’s worth. I mean, is anyone still reading this? As painful as it is for me to admit that I’m losing interest, I can’t imagine what it must be like for you as the reader to have read this far… or follow these updates for that matter.

So here’s the latest. Ocean X leader, Peter Lindeburg “did a interview with the swedish Red Ice Radio and talked about the last trip and the latest news.”

The interview is available for download in MP3 format and here I am, prepared to give it a listen and report on what what is discussed as well as my views on the answers. But to be honest, I would much rather be launching my first online store, create another compilation album or update the progress on the Mars Curiosity rover (since that successfully landed on Mars at 5am GMT this morning and has made headlines across the globe with space geeks, like myself, worshiping NASA for their scientific awesomeness).

Okay mr Lindeburg, let’s hear what you have to say….

In the lengthily 1 hour interview, they run over how they found the Baltic sea anomaly. The story is no different than what I have reported before and in fact is very consistent with what the rest of the media reported.

During their 1st expedition, Ocean X found a big hole while the same hole seemingly disappeared when they went looking for it again during the 2^nd expedition. Peter describes it as “odd” and “mystic”. They also found that the anomaly’s base and the round top seemed separated during their second expedition. The base or foundation is a 7 metre high pillar and the upper dome is “very round shaped”.

Peter also explained during the interview that the anomaly’s surface and the pillar itself are made up of different materials. The currents down there are strong and that is probably why the upper dome’ surface is round and smooth. Peter Lindeberg also theorises that they may have found a volcano as that would make the most sense in explaining the anomaly’s upper dome.

UFO theory denied

Ocean X and Peter Lindeburg never claimed it to be a possible UFO or sunken space craft of any sort. They always suspected it to be a natural feature and they themselves are still unsure on what that thing down there is. People even got angry when the Ocean X team denied saying that it was a ‘UFO’.

“If it had to be a construction, it would be something over 50 thousand years old” Peter also said during the telephonic interview. They are currently awaiting on 3D images from scans as well as the samples that they took. The crew is apparently under a lot of pressure as they are being bombarded with questions that they themselves don’t even know the answer to.

3^rd Expedition

Ocean X had to pay geologists to look at RV images and also admits that they do not have the required funds to conduct proper study into this anomaly. They’ve also received an opinion from a biologist who admitted that it is a strange thing.  The biologist even suspects that it could be an organism “since the hole disappeared” from the first expedition simply disappeared.

With a possible 3^rd trip within the next 2 – 3 weeks, Peter also expressed that this time he wants to take experienced scientists with them. They’ve already received opinions from geologists who shot down the volcano theory.

At this point I feel that we are still nowhere closer to an answer than what we were since this whole thing was announced.

Stairs

Peter mentioned the stairs again and said that each step was about one meter higher. That definitely does not sound like a stair case made for humans. Another one of Peter’s theories is also that it could be from stairs built tens of thousands of years ago during the ice age.

Stones from the Atlantic

The Ocean X diving team took loose stones from the area around on on top of the object. They eventually found black basalt stones that originate from the Atlantic. As we know, the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea are in no way anywhere close to each other!

On problems with equipment

Ocean X experienced some damage to their equipment during the voyages. On one occasion a camera broke down, and they’ve also had a cable that short circuited… Nothing about this sounds suspicious at all but more like faulty equipment instead. Peter didn’t want to comment further on this.

The Documentary – “…we will reveal interesting things in the documentary…”

There’s currently a documentary production team following them on their expeditions and filming their findings. Peter admitted that there are more to the story than what they’re letting on… but they can’t say much due to the documentary being shot. Peter also said that they are saving a few things for the documentary.

Release dates are unconfirmed, but it could be out before the end of this year.

Second Anomaly

According to the sonar images, there is also a second anomaly which lays about two hundred metres away from the main anomaly (circle) but Ocean X haven’t had the chance to look at yet.

Update 4 will contain more concrete information once Ocean X release their findings after the analysis reports.

Related articles

• Is the Baltic Sea ‘Sunken UFO’ an Elaborate Scam?

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• UFO at the Bottom of the Baltic Sea Cuts off Electrical Equipment when Divers Get Within 200m

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• Baltic Anomaly: Far Stranger Than Any UFO Discovery

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• Aliens & UFOs – Re: CNN Video From the Baltic Sea UFO Salvage Effort

ICESCAPE Optical Insturments (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

WASHINGTON — Scientists have made a biological discovery in Arctic Ocean waters as dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert. A NASA-sponsored expedition punched through three-foot thick sea ice to find waters richer in microscopic marine plants, essential to all sea life, than any other ocean region on Earth.

The finding reveals a new consequence of the Arctic’s warming climate and provides an important clue to understanding the impacts of a changing climate and environment on the Arctic Ocean and its ecology.

The discovery was made during a NASA oceanographic expedition in the summers of 2010 and 2011.

The expedition called ICESCAPE, or Impacts of Climate on EcoSystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, explored Arctic waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas along Alaska’s western and northern coasts onboard a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker. Using optical technologies, scientists looked at the impacts of environmental variability and change in the Arctic on the ocean biology, ecology and biogeochemistry.

“Part of NASA’s mission is pioneering scientific discovery, and this is like finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert,” said Paula Bontempi, NASA’s ocean biology and biogeochemistry program manager in Washington. “We embarked on ICESCAPE to validate our satellite ocean-observing data in an area of the Earth that is very difficult to get to,” Bontempi said. “We wound up making a discovery that hopefully will help researchers and resource managers better understand the Arctic.”

The microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, are the base of the marine food chain. Phytoplankton were thought to grow in the Arctic Ocean only after sea ice had retreated for the summer. Scientists now think that the thinning Arctic ice is allowing sunlight to reach the waters under the sea ice, catalyzing the plant blooms where they had never been observed. The findings were published today in the journal Science.

Franz Josef Land, Arctic Ocean (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

“If someone had asked me before the expedition whether we would see under-ice blooms, I would have told them it was impossible,” said Kevin Arrigo of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., leader of the ICESCAPE mission and lead author of the new study. “This discovery was a complete surprise.”

During the July 2011 Chukchi Sea leg of ICESCAPE, the researchers observed blooms beneath the ice that extended from the sea-ice edge to 72 miles into the ice pack. Ocean current data revealed that these blooms developed under the ice and had not drifted there from open water, where phytoplankton concentrations can be high.

The phytoplankton were extremely active, doubling in number more than once a day. Blooms in open waters grow at a much slower rate, doubling in two to three days. These growth rates are among the highest ever measured for polar waters. Researchers estimate that phytoplankton production under the ice in parts of the Arctic could be up to 10 times higher than in the nearby open ocean.

Fast-growing phytoplankton consume large amounts of carbon dioxide.

The study concludes that scientists will have to reassess the amount of carbon dioxide entering the Arctic Ocean through biological activity if the under-ice blooms turn out to be common.

“At this point we don’t know whether these rich phytoplankton blooms have been happening in the Arctic for a long time and we just haven’t observed them before,” Arrigo said. “These blooms could become more widespread in the future, however, if the Arctic sea ice cover continues to thin.”

Previously, researchers thought the Arctic Ocean sea ice blocked most sunlight needed for phytoplankton growth. But in recent

ICESCAPE Mission Measures High Chlorophyll-a Under the Ice

decades younger and thinner ice has replaced much of the Arctic’s older and thicker ice. This young ice is almost flat and the ponds that form when snow cover melts in the summer spread much wider than those on rugged older ice.

These extensive but shallow melt ponds act as windows to the ocean, letting large amounts of sunlight pass through the ice to reach the water below, said Donald Perovich, a geophysicist with the U.S. Army Cold Regions and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., who studied the optical properties of the ice during the ICESCAPE expedition.

“When we looked under the ice, it was like a photographic negative.

Beneath the bare-ice areas that reflect a lot of sunlight, it was dark. Under the melt ponds, it was very bright,” Perovich said. He is currently visiting professor at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering.

The discovery of these previously unknown under-ice blooms also has implications for the broader Arctic ecosystem, including migratory species such as whales and birds. Phytoplankton are eaten by small ocean animals, which are eaten by larger fish and ocean animals. A change in the timeline of the blooms can cause disruptions for larger animals that feed either on phytoplankton or on the creatures that eat these microorganisms. “It could make it harder and harder for migratory species to time their life cycles to be in the Arctic when the bloom is at its peak,” Arrigo said. “If their food supply is coming earlier, they might be missing the boat.”

Bontempi believes the discovery also may have major implications for the global carbon cycle and the ocean’s energy balance. “The discovery certainly indicates we need to revise our understanding of the ecology of the Arctic and the region’s role in the Earth system,” Bontempi said.

Added by Juanne Coetzee

Msl20110602 PIA14175-full (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At this very point in time there’s a freaking man made object the size of  a car heading for another planet! How this doesn’t fascinate my fellow humans surprises me every time I think about it.