A Massive New Storm System Just Appeared Over Neptune. Do not be alarmed, but a bright storm system three quarters the width of our entire planet has emerged over Neptunes equator, in a region where no bright clouds have ever been witnessed before. The extremely surprising observation was made by astronomers Ned Molter and Imke de Pater of the University of California Berkeley, during a test run observing Neptune at twilight at the W. M. Keck Observatory at Maunakea, Hawaii. The storm, which spans roughly 5,6. June 2. 6th and July 2nd, according to a press release issued by Keck this week. Historically, very bright clouds have occasionally been seen on Neptune, but usually at latitudes closer to the poles, around 1. Pater said in a statement. Storm Over The Pacific Patch' title='Storm Over The Pacific Patch' />Never before has a cloud been seen at, or so close to the equator, nor has one ever been this bright. A distant ice giant thats only been visited by a single spacecraft, Voyager 2, the inner workings of Neptune remain largely mysterious to planetary scientists, although theyve witnessed some impressive meteorological action in its azure skies over the years. The Hubble Space Telescope saw a similar bright cloud complex in 1. Voyager 2 in 1. 98. In 2. 01. 5, a new dark vortex cropped up in Neptunes southern hemisphere. Scientists have been attempting to track the anti cyclone ever since, snagging some beautiful images with Hubble last year. As UC Berkeleys Mike Wong explained in a talk I attended at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting last December, dark spots often have these bright companion features which absorb strongly in the part of the spectrum associated with methane. Mortal Kombat Scorpion 112 Action Figure Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat Action Figures Cant get enough Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat fanatics will love. The Great Pacific garbage patch, also described as the Pacific trash vortex, is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered. Shop new, used, rare, and outofprint books. Powells is an independent bookstore based in Portland, Oregon. Browse staff picks, author features, and more. FILE This Aug. 11, 2009 file image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a patch of sea garbage at sea in the Pacific Ocean. When I spoke with Wong after his talk, he told me his team was trying to figure out why the dark vortex was drifting to the south. His research group was also exploring models to elucidate what actually makes dark spots dark. The most exciting possibility is that this could indeed be associated with a dark vortex, Wong said when I emailed him about the latest Neptune observations. We cant resolve enough detail to know, but this could be some type of wave activity associated with dark vortices. It would be great to image something like this with an extremely large telescope. Neptune orbiterDe Pater and Molter also suspect the bright clouds chilling near Neptunes equator could be related to gases rising up and condensing out of a deeply rooted dark vortex system. The clouds might also be an enormous convective system, similar to those seen on planets like Saturn. We were very surprised to learn that the storm was consistent with being right at the equatorits difficult to understand how a deep vortex could be sustained there, since the Coriolis force is zero, Molter said in an email to Gizmodo. It could be that the underlying vortex is a few degrees north or south of the equator, or that this cloud lacks an underlying vortex and will quickly shear apart. De Pater and Molter plan to continue investigating the colossal cloud complextheyre hoping to secure more observing time at Keck this fall. Neptune is the windiest planet in the Solar System, and studying its complex weather can shed light on the inner workings of ice giants, a club that it shares with just one other planetary oddball, Uranus. Unlike gas giants, which are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, ice giants contain a larger share of heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. They may even harbor hidden liquid water oceans. Discoveries like this one underline just how little we know about the atmospheres of the ice giants, Molter said. Storm Over The Pacific Patch' title='Storm Over The Pacific Patch' />From cookies to beer and from gumbo to cake, there are 18 ways you can celebrate food holidays all month long More. In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,800 toys into the ocean. What happened to those toys led writer Donovan Hohn on. Researchers map plastic patch bigger than Greenland floating in the South Pacific. When researchers flew over the swirling mass of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for a closer look, they werent expecting it to be pretty. The article has been updated with comments from Molter and Wong. All the data updates for Patch 7. PTR build 23993 including Healing Priest updatse and Tier 20 set bonus changes. Researchers Explore Growing Ocean Garbage Patches. The researchers say that when a predator a larger fish or a person eats the fish that eats the plastic, that predator may be transferring toxins to its own tissues, and in greater concentrations since toxins from multiple food sources can accumulate in the body. Charles Moore found the Pacific garbage patch by accident 1. Hawaii. As captain, Mr. Moore ferried three researchers, his first mate and a journalist here this summer in his 1. Storm Over The Pacific Patch' title='Storm Over The Pacific Patch' />He is convinced that several similar garbage patches remain to be discovered. Anywhere you really look for it, youre going to see it, he said. Many scientists believe there is a garbage patch off the coast of Japan and another in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Myth Defense 2 Full Version more. Photo. DISPOSED Rubbish in the Pacific, where Charles Moore found a large trash patch by accident 1. Credit. Mario Aguilera Bonnie Monteleone, a University of North Carolina, Wilmington, graduate student researching a masters thesis on plastic accumulation in the ocean, visited the Sargasso Sea in late spring and the Pacific garbage patch with Mr. Moore this summer. I saw much higher concentrations of trash in the Pacific garbage patch than in the Sargasso, Ms. Monteleone said, while acknowledging that she might not have found the Atlantic gyres highest concentration of trash. Ms. Monteleone, a volunteer crew member on Mr. Moores ship, kept hoping she would see at least one sample taken from the Pacific garbage patch without any trash in it. Just one area just one, she said. Thats all I wanted to see. But everywhere had plastic. The Pacific garbage patch gained prominence after three independent marine research organizations visited it this summer. One of them, Project Kaisei, based in San Francisco, is trying to devise ways to clean up the patch by turning plastic into diesel fuel. Environmentalists and celebrities are using the patch to promote their own causes. The actor Ted Dansons nonprofit group Oceana designated Mr. Moore a hero for his work on the patch. Another Hollywood figure, Edward Norton, narrated a public service announcement about plastic bags, which make their way out to the patch. Photo. Mr. Moore holds a bottle covered with barnacles and algae, indicating it had been in the water for a long time. Credit. Lindsey Hoshaw for The New York Times Mr. Moore, however, is the first person to have pursued serious scientific research by sampling the garbage patch. In 1. 99. 9, he dedicated the Algalita foundation to studying it. Now the foundation examines plastic debris and takes samples of polluted water off the California coast and across the Pacific Ocean. By dragging a fine mesh net behind his research vessel Alguita, a 5. Mr. Moore is able to collect small plastic fragments. Researchers measure the amount of plastic in each sample and calculate the weight of each fragment. They also test the tissues of any fish caught in the nets to measure for toxic chemicals. One rainbow runner from a previous voyage had 8. The research team has not tested the most recent catch for toxic chemicals, but the water samples show that the amount of plastic in the gyre and the larger Pacific is increasing. Water samples from February contained twice as much plastic as samples from a decade ago. This is not the garbage patch I knew in 1. Mr. Moore said. This is a totally different animal. For the captains first mate, Jeffery Ernst, the patch was just a reminder that theres nowhere that isnt affected by humanity. Correction November 2. An article on Nov. The student, Bonnie Monteleone, visited the Sargasso Sea, which is part of a feature known as the Atlantic gyre. Thus, it was not the case that she might not have found the gyre. Ms. Monteleone said instead that she might not have found the zone with the highest concentration of trash. Continue reading the main story.