Speaking of Science: Where the warbler winters

Prothonotary warblers, songbirds as yellow as sliced mangoes, breed in U.S. wetlands during warm months. Their plumage clashes against dark forests so starkly that a flock of them...

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A prothonotary warbler, wearing a small tracking device on its back. (Joan Eckhardt) Prothonotary warblers, songbirds as yellow as sliced mangoes, breed in U.S. wetlands during warm months. Their plumage clashes against dark forests so starkly that a flock of them appears like "butter dripping from the trees," said Ohio State University biologist Christopher Tonra. Such scenes are increasingly rare. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers prothonotary warblers to be a species of concern, and in Canada, the warblers are endangered. Tonra and his colleagues recently tracked the declining birds. The goal, as the researchers report Wednesday in the journal the Condor, was to discover where the animals spend the winter. Scientists knew that the animals, each of which weighs no more than a pair of nickels, migrated thousands of miles south each autumn and returned north in the spring. Previous research suggested that the birds sought shelter in coastal mangrove forests. If so, the loss of these habitats could explain the shrinking warbler populations. The warblers are too small for conventional satellite tags. Only in the past decade has technological miniaturization allowed researchers to track small birds. These geolocators sense sunlight, measuring the time from sunrise and sunset, which allows scientists to estimate a bird's location each day. The authors of the new study, conservationists in states from Wisconsin south to Louisiana and east to Virginia, tagged nearly 150 warblers with the tiny devices. Data recovered from 34 birds contained several surprises, Tonra said. Nine in every 10 birds spent the wintertime in a relatively small region in Colombia. "That was regardless of whether they were tagged in Wisconsin or they were tagged in Louisiana," Tonra said. The warblers clustered around the Magdalena River Valley in inland Colombia, not the coastal jungles. This valley "more mimics the kinds of habitats they breed in, in the temperate zone, than mangroves do," Tonra said. Jared Wolfe, a wildlife biologist at Michigan Technological University who was not involved with this research, said the warbler study was "precedent-setting" due to its geographic span and the number of birds tracked. "Identifying important winter areas represents a critical step towards conserving birds throughout their entire annual cycle," Wolfe said. "It challenges our ideas about where we think these birds go," said Kenneth Rosenberg, a conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who was not a member of the research team. Rosenberg applauded the thoroughness of the study but cautioned the trackers, affixed to birds that roost in dark and dense forests, may not sense the full amounts of sunlight. If that happened, it's possible the birds were actually living in forests closer to the equatorial coast, he said. The research team has partnered with Selva, a nonprofit conservation organization in Colombia. Focusing on this region in Colombia would produce "the biggest bang for our conservation buck," he said, for protecting winter habitats. Tonra and his colleagues also discovered that the birds dawdled on their way south. Instead of stopping just for a quick refuel, some birds spent as many as three weeks in Central American tropics before arriving in Colombia for the winter. Other migratory bird species, scientists are learning, make long stopovers, too. "This paper, and others, have really highlighted this blind spot," Tonra said. For these birds, migration appears to be a series of long-haul jumps punctuated by rest periods, rather than a steady trickle from backyard to backyard to, finally, jungle. During the stopovers, birds "need to put on fat, basically, to gain energy," Rosenberg said. In the warblers' case, that means feasting on snails and insects. Conservationists frequently point out the "ecosystem services" that animals provide for humans. Prothonotary warblers, for instance, hunt pests that damage coffee crops. But Tonra spoke, too, of this migration — a 3,000-mile journey completed by a creature that weighs less than most pocket change — as an ecological marvel. On fall and spring nights, warblers join "billions of animals flying above our heads," Tonra said. "And the more we can do to help them get there and complete that journey, since we've made it more difficult for them in many ways, is a really important thing." — Ben   ADVERTISEMENT   Running water, cranes, shockingly modern streets. At Pompeii, archaeologists find surprising tech. The show in Richmond reveals long-past innovations in the Roman city, which was buried in ash from Mount Vesuvius's eruption in A.D. 79. 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🚀 Asteroid Impact in September? Only 1 in 7000 Chance, Milky Way's Twin, a Year Since Opportunity Died, and More...

Top space stories this week from Fraser Cain, the publisher of Universe Today and host of the Guide to Space

View this email in your browser   Don't Worry About Asteroid 2006QV89. There's Only a 1 in 7000 Chance It'll Hit the Earth in September Have you heard the news that a killer asteroid is going to hit the Earth in September? Well, don't panic... much. Astronomers are currently predicting that there's only a 1 in 7,000 chance that asteroid 2006QV89 will strike the Earth.  The asteroid measures 40 meters x 109 meters, so it's a sizable spacerock. Bigger than the house-sized asteroid that exploded over Cheylabinsk in 2013. But not a lot bigger, so if it did smash into the Earth, it would cause limited damage. In fact, astronomers are tracking at least 850 other asteroids on the risk list. They're buzzing by the Earth on a regular basis. And now that we have the capabilities to track many of them, we're learning just how much of a cosmic shooting gallery we're in. Learning to intercept and move asteroids onto new trajectories should be a priority. One day, we'll tame all the asteroids out there in the Solar System, and this'll be one existential threat that we don't have to worry about any more. Thanks!   Fraser Cain Publisher Universe Today As always, if you have comments or questions, or suggestions on how I can improve this newsletter, please don't hesitate to reply this email or email me at info@universetoday.com. Patrons, don't forget to login to Universe Today. That'll remove all the ads for you. Join the 808 Patrons who get our videos early, see behind the scenes, and get no ads on Universe Today.     Open Space 40: To The Moon By 2024? And More...   In this week's live QA episode, I tackled questions about the reality of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, the loss of dark skies, will we ever be able to shop for our own personal spacecraft, and more. Subscribe to our podcasts: Universe Today Guide to Space Audio: iTunes - RSS Audio versions of all the media I upload to my YouTube channel, as well as bonus content, behind the scenes, interviews with Fraser and more Astronomy Cast: iTunes - RSS Your weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, which I co-host with astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay. We have episodes on every concept in space and astronomy, from black holes to the history of astronomy. Weekly Space Hangout: iTunes - RSS A weekly round-up of all the breaking space news. Rocket launches, new discoveries from Hubble, and planetary science by three PhD astronomers... and me.     There's a Ring of Cool Gas Wrapped Around the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole The center of the Milky Way is a busy place, and it's dominated by the supermassive black hole Sag A* with 4.1 million times the mass of the Sun. Astronomers have discovered that there's a large ring of relatively cool gas surrounding the black hole. (Cool is relative, it's only 10,000 degrees Celsius and not the millions of degrees in black hole accretion disks).     Europe is Working On a Reusable Space Transport System: Space Rider As part of its fleet of space vehicles, the European Space Agency is working on their own spacecraft capable of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. It's called "Space Rider", and it looks like a mini-space shuttle. ESA is hoping the first one will launch in 2022 atop its Vega-C rocket, and will be able to carry 800 kg of payload in its service bay.     NASA Will Allow Private Astronauts Able to Pay up to $22,500 a Day According to NASA, the International Space Station is open for business. If you've got a science project you want to test in space, or you just want to get away from it all, literally, you can now book time on the International Space Station. For a bare bones plan, you can pay $11,250 a day, and if you want all the services like food, air, water, internet, etc, it'll run you $22,500 a day. Of course you have to be able to pay to get there too, that'll cost millions.     Perfect Example of a Barred Spiral Galaxy, Seen Face On. This is What Our Milky Way Might Look Like It's like looking into a mirror. This is an image of galaxy NGC 7773 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows beautiful spiral arms with a bright barred core. This is a galactic structure that astronomers think matches our own Milky Way. Of course, it's hard to know since we're located inside it.     It's Been Exactly One Year Since Opportunity Sent This Final Message Home – on its 5,111th Martian Day Ready to feel a little sad? I regret to inform you that this week marks exactly one year since NASA's Opportunity Rover was taken offline by a planet-wide dust storm on Mars. And this was the last photograph the rover ever sent home. The bottom of the image is black because that's exactly when it ran out of power trying to send its data home. Thanks for all your service Opportunity.     1.2 Billion Years Ago, a 1-km Asteroid Smashed into Scotland Ouch, this must have hurt. Over a billion years ago, Scotland was ground zero to the largest asteroid impact that ever hit the United Kingdom. A kilometer-sized spacerock dug into a region off the Western coast of Scotland, excavating out an enormous amount of material. It impacted an ancient rift valley that filled up with sediment, preserving it nicely.       No, This Is Not A Hole In The Universe Have you seen this meme going around the internet? A dark void that emits no radiation of any kind? Well, this picture isn't it. And there's actually no such thing. There are cosmic voids out there, and they're absolutely fascinating. Ethan Siegel explains.     Mimas Pushes Through Saturn's Rings Like a Snowplow Mimas is the smallest of Saturn's big icy moons, but it does have a big impact on Saturn's rings. One of the most obvious features in the rings is the Cassini Division, a gap carved out by the inward migration of Mimas. The moon acts like a snowplow, pushing the rings aside, and clearing out a gap that's now 4,800 km wide.     Apollo 10's "Snoopy" Lunar Lander May Have Been Found in Space During the Apollo 10 mission, astronauts flew to really close to the Moon, as a practice run for future missions. They ejected their lunar lander, "Snoopy" into space and then returned home. After an exhaustive search, astronomers think they've located the lander flying through space.      Ceres is a Strange Place, Including a Volcanic Peak 4,000 Meters High Made From Bubbling Salt Water, Mud and Rock NASA's Dawn spacecraft recently wrapped up its mission at asteroid Ceres, turning up a number of fascinating discoveries at the dwarf planet. One of these is the fact that there's a mountain towering 4,000 meters high. It looks like it's a volcano that was formed when a bubble of mud, salt water and rock rose up from inside Ceres and erupted onto the surface.    This is What the Ground Looked Like After InSight Landed on Mars Have you ever wondered what it looks like after a spacecraft lands on the surface of another world? NASA had its InSight spacecraft take a picture of the ground right under it. You can see the pits in the ground where its retrothrusters fired, allowing it to make a gentle landing.      That Explains a Lot. The Moon's Largest Crater has a Chunk of Metal Embedded in it That's 5 Times Bigger than the Big Island of Hawaii The largest crater in the Solar System is located at the Moon's south pole, and now astronomers have another clue why it's such an enormous crater. They found a concentration of mass in the region, which looks like it's the remnant of a giant metal asteroid - or maybe the metal core of a planetoid - just below the surface.   Other Interesting Space Stuff New Instrument is Searching for Planets Around Alpha Centauri Could US Navy's Railgun Help Tap Moon's Resources? There's Venus at Sunrise From the Space Station You Can Use a Live Webcam to Watch NASA Build the Mars 2020 Rover The Japanese asteroid-hunter had another photo opportunity when it dropped a target marker on asteroid Ryugu NASA's Mars Helicopter passes another test on its way to the Red Planet in 2020 Black hole simulation solves a mystery about their accretion disks When you see pictures of strong auroras, they don't really capture how dynamic they are. So watch this real-time video from @AngryTheInch to really get a sense of the experience. Seriously, get this on your bucket list. New observations from the Planck mission don't resolve anomalies like the CMB "cold spot" As the search for dark matter continues to turn up empty handed, new experiments are looking for lighter particles The Ring Nebula Is Much, Much More Than A Ring Most planets will build up toxic gases, limiting the chances for life out there in the Universe Messier 87 – the Virgo A Supergiant Galaxy Intense aurora seen from the International Space Station Amazing Astrophotography on @universetoday The best time to observe the Moon is when it's half way between New and Full. That's when you get longer shadows on the craters, and you can really see the details on its surface. Like this picture by @zandi_photography. We have featured over 1,000 astrophotographers on our Instagram page, which has more than 174,000 followers. Want to do a takeover? Use the hashtag #universetoday and I'll check out your photos.   Find your way across the night sky. Choose a variety of astronomy gear. Follow the Moon and the planets. Find deep sky objects across the seasons in both hemispheres. Observe comets, asteroids, satellites and space stations. Learn to do astrophotography. Get it on Amazon for only $18.89. Here are some other options.       View this email in your browser

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