kenbecker.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Exciting AVO update New cam @ Spurr's SPCR station is set up to avoid snow; 2 zooms available. A new livestream cam in Anchorage offers daytime views Link to Facebook www.facebook.com/share/1C8AaC... livestream www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLME... Photo cred: USGS Volcanoes UAFGI Alaska DGGS 🌋🧪⚒️ #Alaska

submitted 38 minutes ago • 0 comments

AVO’s April 17 update notes modest recent changes and no gas data for a month, making outcomes less certain. Eruption risk is lower than in March, but a major event is still possible ⚒️🧪🌋 avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 4 hours ago • 0 comments

NASA's Curiosity rover found up to 10.5% siderite in Gale Crater rocks, adding to clues that ancient Mars had a CO₂-rich atmosphere and liquid water. This helps explain the planet's missing carbonates. 🧪⚒️🔭 #Mars #Astrobiology www.nasa.gov/centers-and-...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

AVO Spurr update is large, see here avo.alaska.edu/news/hans/DO... ⚒️🌋🧪 USGS information volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/ If an eruption occurs Official warnings of ashfall www.weather.gov/afc Official forecasts of ash hazard to aircraft www.weather.gov/aawu/ Ash Advisories for aircraft www.weather.gov/vaac/

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Quiet autumn, Olympic National Park, Washington, July 2017 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Earth's oldest known impact crater, 3.47By old in Western Australia's Pilbara region, was discovered. Shatter cones confirm the strike, which might've influenced early plate tectonics and added conditions favorable for life. Paper www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪🌋⚒️ #Astrobiology #EarthHistory

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

3D seismic data reveals 52ft tall megaripples from the Chicxulub impact below Louisiana Relevant paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Article about 2021 paper www.livescience.com/megaripples-... 2021 study www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... ⚒️🧪🌊 #Geology #Paleontology #megatsunami

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

New research shows massive volcanic eruptions released 16M+ km³ of magma, helping split Africa and S. America 135M yrs ago, possibly causing extinctions. www.livescience.com/planet-earth... ⚒️🌋🧪 Relevant paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #Geology #PlateTectonics #EarthScience

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Tsunami preparedness week is over, but it is good to have a local resource. The main link is for Alaska from AEC, and a tsunami inundation map for Alaska is here earthquake.alaska.edu/sites/defaul... 🧪⚒️🌊 🌋 Use this thread to add any more information local to your area for other people to reference!

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Wild Spire, Fairbanks, Alaska, July 2017 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Scientists studying K2-18b with JWST have detected signs of molecules linked to life (dimethyl sulphide) More data is needed to confirm #Astrobiology #Exoplanets #K218b 🧪🔭 Articles www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/s... www.npr.org/2025/04/16/n... Alternative theory arxiv.org/pdf/2401.11082 download PDF

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

New article from AEC: The Alaska Earthquake Center is installing GNSS antennas nicknamed "metal mushrooms" at seismic stations. These devices enhance earthquake monitoring by measuring precise ground shifts. 🧪⚒️ #Seismology #GNSS #EarthquakeMonitoring #AlaskaScience

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting a binary brown dwarf system at a 90° angle, the first confirmed "polar planet." This rare configuration challenges current models of planetary formation. 🧪🔭 #Exoplanet #Astronomy #ScienceAdvances Relevant paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

AVO update 4/16/25 Unrest continues at Mount Spurr volcano. Seismicity remains elevated with occasional small, shallow volcanic earthquakes detected beneath the volcano over the past day. Satellite and web camera observations were obscured by clouds. ⚒️🌋🧪 avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

NASA's Perseverance rover found ancient Martian rocks on Jezero Crater’s rim, including one sample dating back over 3.9By.These findings offer insights into Mars' early history and potential to have supported life ⚒️🧪🔭 #Mars #Perseverance #Astrobiology Statement www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-p...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

New research finds Earth’s original building blocks contained enough hydrogen to produce water internally, challenging the long held idea that Earth’s water was delivered mainly by asteroids. 🔭🧪⚒️ #EarthScience #PlanetaryOrigins Relevant paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Astronomers found a rare "two-faced" white dwarf star, one side rich in hydrogen, the other in helium, revealing new insights into stellar evolution. www.newsweek.com/space-astron... Relevant paper here iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... 🧪🔭 #Astronomy #WhiteDwarf #SpaceScience

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

The Lyrids are coming, here's how and when to watch: www.space.com/36381-lyrid-... Here is the meteor activity outlook for this week. www.amsmeteors.org/2025/04/mete... 🧪🔭

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Silent Sound, Port Orchard, Washington, November 2017 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

The Full Arc, Fairbanks, Alaska, July 2023 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Hubble tracked a magnetar moving at 2.5M mph, likely kicked out by a supernova ~400 years ago. Its trajectory could pinpoint the region where it was born, 8,000 light years away. 🧪🔭 #NASA #Hubble #Magnetar #Astrophysics Relevant paper www.aanda.org/articles/aa/...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Unrest continues at Mt Spurr. Seismicity elevated with small, shallow volcanic quakes beneath the volcano (past 24hrs). Typical steaming from the summit was observed in cam images during periods of clear viewing conditions. No activity observed in satellite images avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr 🧪⚒️🌋

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

New analysis of lunar samples from the Moon's far side reveals significantly less water than the near side, supporting the theory that a massive collision shaped the Moon's asymmetry. 🔭🧪 #MoonFormation #LunarScience #PlanetaryGeology Relevant paper www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

100My old footprints of tail-clubbed ankylosaurid dinosaurs have been discovered in Canada. The newly identified species, Ruopodosaurus clava, is known by 3-toed tracks found in British Columbia and Alberta Paper here www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ⚒️🧪 #Paleontology #Dinosaurs #Ankylosaur

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

A new study suggests the universe may rotate extremely slowly—once every 500 billion years—potentially solving the Hubble tension over conflicting cosmic expansion rates. phys.org/news/2025-04... Here is the paper academic.oup.com/mnras/articl... 🧪🔭 #Cosmology #Physics

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

AVO update 4/14/25 Unrest continues at Mt Spurr. Seismicity elevated with occasional small, shallow volcanic quakes beneath the volcano (past 24hrs). No evidence of steaming in web camera images. Satellite observations were obscured by clouds. 🌋⚒️🧪 avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Astronomers have located the universe's missing hydrogen gas in vast ionized halos enveloping galaxies, addressing a significant cosmological mystery. 🧪🔭 #Astrophysics #Cosmology #DarkMatter phys.org/news/2025-04... Preprint here arxiv.org/abs/2407.07152

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Scientists have discovered a massive subsurface water ice deposit on Mars, possibly the planet’s largest. This finding could reshape future exploration and insights into Martian geology. 🧪🔭 #Mars #Space Source paper agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Forest Road, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, September 2021 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Before the Leap, Fairbanks, Alaska, August 2017 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Scientists using JWST found a star swallowed its planet not via red giant expansion, but after the planet's orbit decayed over millions of years. The engulfment ejected gas/dust and created a hot molecular disk, offering insights into planetary system endings. 🧪🔭 #Webb #Astronomy #Space

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

NASA's Perseverance rover analyzes unique, light-toned rocks at "Bright Angel" on Jezero Crater's rim. Potentially older & silica-rich, findings suggest they are either igneous or water-altered sedimentary rocks, key to understanding Jezero's geological and water history. 🧪⚒️🔭 #Mars #Perseverance

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

AVO update 4/13/25 Unrest continues at Mount Spurr volcano. Seismicity remains elevated with occasional small, shallow volcanic earthquakes detected beneath the volcano over the past day. No significant activity was detected in satellite or web camera views. 🧪⚒️🌋 avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

The 2018 Kīlauea eruption triggered a large phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific. Nutrients released from lava flows fertilized the nutrient-poor ocean waters, demonstrating a direct link between volcanic activity and marine ecosystem response. 🧪 #Kilauea #Phytoplankton #OceanScience

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Here's a good read from the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2025/04... The study itself is paywalled (the article is not), so you will need an institutional account to access it. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪⚒️

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Temporal Shore, Cape Arago, Oregon, December 2017 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Terra Lucem, Fairbanks, Alaska, July 2022 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

China’s Zhurong rover found tilted sedimentary layers in Mars’ northern lowlands, suggesting an ancient ocean shoreline. Radar data supports theory of a vast vanished ocean in Mars’ past. eos.org/articles/bur... Here's the research www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... ⚒️🧪🔭

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Gaia data reveals the Small Magellanic Cloud is being torn apart by the Large Magellanic Cloud’s gravity, with stars moving in opposing directions. Findings may reshape galactic evolution models www.space.com/the-universe... The paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... 🧪🔭

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

NOAA's GOES-19 satellite is now operational as GOES East, replacing GOES-16. It will monitor Atlantic weather, wildfires, and solar activity with advanced instruments, including the first compact coronagraph for real-time space weather monitoring. The satellite completes the GOES-R series 🔭🧪⚒️

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Here's a great info page for the upcoming Lyrid meteor shower earthsky.org/astronomy-es... 🧪🔭

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

This was another good paleobiology read Cyanobacteria developed phycobilisomes to absorb green light 2.4B yrs ago, as iron-rich Archaean oceans filtered sunlight. Phycoerythrobilin gave them a competitive edge, fueling oxygenation/biodiversity. Green light adaptation may mark life on exoplanets 🧪⚒️

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Winter Afternoon, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, October, 2020 Photo credit Kenneth Becker #photography

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

AVO update 4/12/25 Unrest continues at Mount Spurr volcano. Seismicity elevated with occasional small, shallow volcanic quakes detected beneath the volcano over the past day. No significant activity was detected in satellite or web camera views. Photos credit AVO 🌋🧪⚒️ avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

AVO update 4/11/25 Mt Spurr unrest continues: ~55 quakes last week, similar to prior week. Deformation paused. No SO2 detected. AVO plans gas flight. Ice collapse into crater lake noted. Clouds limited views. Monitoring works; CKT cam snow-covered, SPCR cam clear. 🧪⚒️🌋 avo.alaska.edu/volcano/spurr

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments