Tarter Source

2022–we had plenty to do

The world’s biggest plant! In the coastal waters of Shark Bay, Australia, scientists discovered that a seagrass bed of Poseidon’s ribbon weed is actually one plant. The massive organism covers an area of 77 square miles. Scientists began surveying the bed’s genetic code and found that every single shoot was genetically identical; they were all clones. This means that over time the seagrass grew from an initial seed into one large bed. The growth rate of Poseidon’s ribbon weed is about 14 inches a year, meaning the seagrass bed took 4,500 years to grow to its current size. (Smithsonian Magazine)

Dragonflies are killers. The insects have a 95 percent success rate in killing their prey, making them the most successful predatory hunters on the planet. In comparison, cheetahs have a 58 percent success rate, and lions are successful only 25 percent of the time. Dragonflies’ slender bodies, long, transparent wings, and multifaceted eyes make them ideal hunters. They fly at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. Their wingspan and design offer the predatory insects agility and mobility. Dragonflies are also equipped with multiple lenses and a vast field of vision. Their brainpower is evolved enough to course-correct if they lose sight of their prey. Better yet (for humans), their targets are often mosquitoes and flies. (Ranker)

Burmese pythons may not overrun the Everglades after all. The snakes that have taken to the Florida swamplands have no known predators in the region—or so scientists thought. For the first time, biologists have observed a native species, a bobcat, raiding a python nest and eating its eggs. Later, when the bobcat returned to find the snake guarding its nest, the cat took a swipe at the reptile. “When you get interactions like this and see the native wildlife fighting back, it’s like a ray of sunshine for us,” says Ian Bartoszek, an ecologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. (National Geographic)

Things aren’t going well in Antarctica. On the western side of the continent, directly south of Argentina, there’s enough ice to raise sea levels by 10 feet. Early this year, researchers saw ominous hints that a large collapse could be a reality due to climate change. A major ice shelf cracked suddenly and unexpectedly in 2022. The rupture could kick off a destructive chain reaction causing the ice shelf to “shatter into hundreds of icebergs, just like your car window,” the first step in a major collapse, says researcher Erin Pettit. (National Geographic)

Speaking of Argentina, in 2022, we learned that Americans shouldn’t complain too loudly about the 7 percent inflation rate suffered this year—not when Argentinians have seen prices rise by more than 90 percent. (Bloomberg)

Spiders can dream. Daniela Roessler, an ecologist at the University of Konstanz, turned her attention to the jumping spiders that inhabit a field near her home in Trier, Germany. She noticed that sometimes when the arachnids snooze, they twitch. “The way they twitched made me think of dogs and cats dreaming,” Roessler said. After setting up a lab to observe them, the resulting study published in 2022 reveals that jumping spiders experience a sleep-like state with rapid eye movements similar to those observed in dreaming humans. (National Geographic)

It wasn’t a movie: we hit our target. NASA smashed a spacecraft, known as DART, directly into an asteroid in September. They wanted to see if a collision could knock the asteroid off its orbit, something that might protect Earth from an apocalyptic asteroid strike (like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs millions of years ago). The $325 million craft—about the size of a vending machine—was directed at the asteroid Dimorphos, about 6.8 million miles away from Earth. (BestLife)

Greenland is disappearing. The world’s second-largest sheet of ice, also known as Greenland, seems to be disappearing faster than scientists previously thought. Warmer ocean waters and rising air temperatures have accelerated melting. According to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Greenland is losing about 250 billion metric tons of ice each year. (BestLife)

Now we know how Saturn got its rings. Astronomers from MIT and UC-Berkeley put forth an explanation that not only accounts for the planet’s rings, but also its numerous unique moons. They suggest that Saturn once had an icy moon, which they called Chrysalis, that was torn apart approximately 160 million years ago by tidal gravitational interactions from Saturn and its moon Titan. The rings are the shimmering remains. (Real Clear Science)

We discovered new worlds in 2022. NASA reported finding 5,000 exoplanets, the name given alien worlds beyond our solar system. Although planetary scientists have discovered thousands of them, it’s likely that what’s been identified is just the tip of the iceberg. Over a trillion exoplanets are estimated to exist in our Milky Way galaxy alone. The James Webb Space Telescope —the most powerful telescope ever built— was able to view some of these planets this year. But we’re going to have to come up with some catchier planet names. Example? One detected this year has been labeled AB Aurigae b–a name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like Jupiter or Saturn. (Mashable)