A new species of Ground Beetle from Mexico.

Ground Beetles (Carabidae) are large, usually carnivorous Beetles, abundant across much of the globe. They are able to defend themselves by secreting noxious or caustic chemicals from glands on their abdomens (Bombardier Beetles are Carabids). Larger species are often unable to fly. Ground Beetles have a fossil record dating back to the Triassic; there are around 40 000 described extant species.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 4 July 2013, George Ball and Danny Shpeley of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta describe a new species of Ground Beetle from Oaxaca State in Mexico, as part of a wider study into Ground Beetles in the Americas.

The new species is placed in the genus Coarazuphium and given the specific name whiteheadi, in honour of Donald Whitehead, deceased, who collected some of the specimens from which the species is described. Coarazuphium whiteheadi is described from two female and one male specimens from cloud forest remnants at high altitudes western Oaxaca. It is a small Ground Beetle, 4.13-4.40 mm in length, yellow-white in colour, with an elongate oval body.

Coarazuphium whiteheadi in dorsal view. Scale bar is 5 mm. Ball & Shpeley (2013).

See also Two new species of Jewel Beetle from Central America, Two new species of Sap Beetle from North America, Two new species of Clown Beetle from Madagascar, A new species of Scavenger Scarab Beetle from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China and A new species of aquatic Beetle from the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University.

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Magnitude 4.5 Earthquake in northern Sonoma County, California.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 4.5 Earthquake at a depth of 2.6 km, 6 km to the north of The Geysers in Sonoma County, northern California, slightly before 12.25 pm local time (slightly before 8.25 pm GMT) on Sunday 12 January 2014. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, though people in the area reported feeling strong shaking for 15-20 seconds.

The approximate location of the 12 January 2014 Sonoma County Earthquake. Google Maps.

California is extremely prone to Earthquakes due to the presence of the San Andreas Fault, a tectonic plate margin that effectively bisects the state. The west of California, including Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, is located on the Pacific Plate, and is moving to the northwest. The east of California, including Fresno and Bakersfield is on the North American Plate, and is moving to the southeast. The plates do not move smoothly past one-another, but constantly stick together then break apart as the pressure builds up. This has led to a network of smaller faults that criss-cross the state, so that Earthquakes can effectively occur anywhere.

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events and the underlying structures that cause them. If you felt this quake (or if you were in the area but did not, which is also useful information) then you can report it to the United States Geological Survey here.

See also Magnitude 3.0 Earthquake in Mendocino County, California, Magnitude 2.6 Earthquake in northeast Sonoma County, California, Magnitude 4.5 Earthquake off the coast of northern California, Magnitude 3.4 Earthquake in northern California and Northeast California shaken by Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake.

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The shape of Kuiper Belt Object 2003 SQ317.

The Kuiper Belt is a region of the Solar System extending from the orbit of Neptune at about 30 AU (i.e. 30 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth) out to about 50 AU from the Sun it contains a very large number of bodies known as Kuiper Belt Objects, which are thought to be left over from the formation of the Solar System, elements of the original proto-planetary disk that were to widely scattered, and had to high an angular momentum, to assemble into planets under their own gravity. Some of these objects are large enough to be considered dwarf planets, notably Pluto (formerly considered to be a planet), Makemake and Haumea.

In a paper published on the online arXiv Database at Cornell University Library on 6 September 2013,  and in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on 3 December 2013, Pedro Lancerda and Andrew McNeill of the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast and Nuno Peixinho of the Center for Geophysics and Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra, describe attempts to model the shape of one particular Kuiper Belt Object 2003 SQ317.

2003 SQ317 was discovered in September 2003 (the designation 2003 SQ371 indicates that it was the 7941st object discovered in the second half of September 2003). It has an eccentric 279 year orbit inclined to the plane of the Solar System, with an average distance of 42.7 AU from the Sun. It is considered to be a Haumea Family Object, a body with a similar orbital path and albedo to the dwarf planet Haumea, possibly formed by an ancient collision involving the proto-Haumea and another body, though modeling a scenario that could start in such a collision and end with the current pathways of these objects has proved elusive. In 2010 it was noted that 2003 SQ317 had a notably variable albedo, dimming and brightening by a factor of 14 over a period of 3.7 hours, suggesting that it might have a highly irregular shape.  

The calculated orbit of 2003 SQ317. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

Based upon additional observations of 2003 SQ317 using the ESO New Technology Telescope located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, Lancerda et al. attempted to build a model of the object that fit with the observed pattern of brightening and darkening. 

They were able to come up with two, equally plausible models to account for this. Firstly 2003 SQ317 could be an flattened elongate body (Jacobi ellipsoid) spinning so that the body alternatively presents long and short sides to the Earth. Secondly the object could in fact be a pair of gravitationally bound bodies (a Roche binary pair), rotating one in front of the other, so that alternately one and two bodies can be seen.

Jacobi ellipsoid model that best fi ts the lightcurve of 2003 SQ317. Lancerda et al. (2013).

Roche binary model that best fi ts the lightcurve of 2003 SQ317. Lancerda et al. (2013).

2003 SQ317 is too small and too distant for its shape to be resolved visually with any current telescope. It would in theory be possible to differentiate between the two models it the mass of the object were known (the binary pair would need to be considerably more dense than the Jacobi ellipsoid), though there is no easy way to do this at the current time. 2003 SQ317 is likely to be a rubble pile type object rather than one or two large rocks, which would allow it quite a range of possible densities, and make it hard to determine its density based upon its mineralogy (which can sometimes be assessed from albedo).

See also Asteroids in retrograde orbits, Four more asteroids found to be co-orbitals of Neptune, Neptune's Trailing Trojans, The stability of Neptune's Trojan Asteroids and Pluto gains a fourth moon.

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Worker killed at Tasmania copper mine.

A worker has been killed at the Mount Lyell Copper Mine at Queenstown, Tasmania, at about 8.00 am on Friday 17 January 2014. George Welsh (53) of Queenstown was buried by a mud discharge while working at a lower level in the mine. A mud discharge in a mine typically happens when excavation exposes a pocket of mud (a mixture of clay and water), which then flows into the shaft.

The Mount Lyell Copper Mine. The Advocate.

This is the third fatality in six weeks at the Mount Lyell Mine. on 9 December 2013 Craig Gleeson (45) and Alistair Lucas (25), died after falling over 20 m down a shaft during maintenance work, prompting a two week closure at the mine while an investigation was carried out. The mine will now be closed again while a fresh investigation is carried out by WorkSafe Tasmania and the Tasmania Police. 

See also Two workers killed in accident at Tasmanian copper mine, Worker killed at Western Australia ore mine, Mining company fined for desecrating sacred site in Australia's Northern Territory, Acid spill from gold mine adds to Edith River's woes and Copper spill causes pollution alert on the Edith River in the Northern Territory, Australia.

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At least 16 dead after landslides at Tomohon in North Sulawesi.

It is feared that at least 16 people have died after a pair of landslides hit the Tomohon-Manado road close to Tomohon in North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia on Wednesday 15 January 2013. One of these is understood to have hit a house where at least a dozen people were sheltering from the rain, sweeping it down a 50 m ravine. So far one person has been pulled from the debris alive and two bodies have been recovered. The second landslide is understood to have hit traffic on the road, sweeping several cars and motorbikes into a ravine.

Rescue workers searching for survivors after a landslide on the Tomohon-Manado Road. Fiqman Sunandar/Antara News.

The incidents followed 11 hours of continuous heavy rain. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. December and January represent peak rainy season on Sulawesi, and landslides and flooding are common at this time of year. This has been made worse by a tropical depression that moved over the island this week, having caused problems on Mindanao in the Philippines the week before. Over 40 000 people have had to leave their homes on Sulawesi, with floodwaters reaching 2.5 m in places.

Rescue workers evacuating people from flood hit areas of Mandano. Yudi Makka/AFP/Getty Images.

See also At least nine dead following flash floods and landslides on Mindanao Island, Philippines, At least two dead following landslides at mining site on Dinagat Island in the Philippines, Landslide kills four in Central Java, Family has close escape as landslide hits house in Penampang, Malaysia and Miner killed in landslide on Mindanao Island, the Philippines.

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Asteroid 2014 AW32 passes between the Earth and the Moon on the day it is discovered.

Asteroid 2014 AW32 passed the Earth at a distance of 186 500 km (slightly under half the distance between the Earth and the Moon) at about 9.40 pm GMT on 10 January 2014. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, and were it to have done so it would have presented no threat. 2014 AW32 is calculated to be between 5 and 19 m in diameter, and an object of this size would be expected to break up in the Earth's atmosphere between 40 and 23 km above the planet's surface, with only fragmentary material reaching the ground.

The calculated orbit of 2014 AW32. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

2014 AW32 was discovered on 10 January 2014 (the day of its closest pass of the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2014 AF16 implies that it was the 822nd asteroid discovered in the first half of January 2014 (period 2014 A).

2014 AW32 has an 386 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted to the plane of the Solar System that takes it from 0.78 AU from the Sun (i.e. 78% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.30 AU from the Sun (i.e. 130% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). The closeness of this orbital period to our own means that it is thought to make frequent close passes of the Earth, the most recent having been on 27 December 2012 and the next predicted for 15 December this year.

See also Asteroid 2014 AD16 passes by the Earth, Asteroid 2014 AK51 comes closer to the Earth than the Moon is, two days before being discovered, Asteroid 2014 AM51 passes the Earth four days before being discovered, Asteroid 2014 AY32 passes the Earth before being discovered and Asteroid 2013 UB1 passes the Earth.

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Three giant exoplanets in very wide orbits around young stars.

In the past two decades a large number of planets have been discovered orbiting other stars (exoplanets). The vast majority of these have been large planets orbiting close to their host stars, such planets being easier to detect due to the influence that their gravity has on the star. Planets further from their stars are harder to detect, as their gravity has less effect upon the star, and they have long orbital periods which will tend to mask this anyway. Such planets are more likely to be detected by direct imaging, though this will require separate observations over a long period of time to confirm the relationship with the host star.

In a paper published on the online arXiv database at Cornell University Library on 29 November 2013 and accepted for publication in The Astrophysics Journal, a team of scientists led by Adam Kraus of the Department of Astronomy at the The University of Texas at Austin and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics describe three giant planets orbiting young stars at distances in excess of 100 AU (i.e. more than 100 times the distance at which the planet Earth orbits the Sun). All three bodies had previously been noted as potential planets over a decade ago, but can only now be confirmed as objects in orbit about their stars, due to follow-up observations that have tracked their movement. 

Large planets in very wide orbits about young stars presents a considerable challenge for conventional models of planet formation, since it should in theory take far longer for a planet to form this far from a star, potentially never accreting into a large body at all. Our own system contains considerable material beyond the orbit of Neptune (30 AU from the Sun), but this has apparently never accreted into a large planet, despite the 5 billion year age of the Solar System.

The first of the three new planets orbits the binary system FW Tau AB near the center of the Taurus- Auriga complex, 473 light years from Earth. The FW Tau system comprises two red dwarf stars  (FW Tau A and FW Tau B) each though to have a mass 28% of our Sun's orbiting one another at a distance of 11 AU (11 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth). The system is thought to be about 1.8 million years old. The planet, FW Tau b (when naming objects in other stellar systems stars are given upper case letters and planets lower case letters), is calculate to have a mass 10 times that of Jupiter and orbit at a distance of 330 AU (over 10 times the distance at which Neptune orbits the Sun). 

Infrared image of the FW Tau system. The image is not coronagraphic; most of the image is shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the wide companion, while a box of size 0.5′′ is instead shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the primary star in the close binary. North is up. The scale bar is 1 arc inch; i.e. 1/21 600th of the circumference of an imaginary sphere around the Earth. Kraus et al. (2013).

The second new planet orbits the binary star ROXs 42B, 440 light years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus. The binary system comprises two stars with masses of 89% that of the Sun and 36% that of the Sun, orbiting at a distance of less than 10 AU. The system is thought to be 6.8 million years old. The new planet, ROXs 42B b is calculated to orbit this pair at a distance of 140 AU and have a mass 10 times that of Jupiter. A second, potential body in the system, provisionally dubbed ROXs 42B cc1, is thought to be a background star.

Infrared image of the ROXs 42B system. The image is not coronagraphic; most of the image is shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the wide companion, while a box of size 0.5′′ is instead shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the primary star in the close binary. North is up. The scale bar is 1 arc inch; i.e. 1/21 600th of the circumference of an imaginary sphere around the Earth. Kraus et al. (2013).

The third new planet orbits ROXs 12, another star in the constellation of Ophiuchus, 391 light years from Earth. ROXs 12 is thought to have a mass 87% of that of the Sun and to be 7.6 million years old. ROXs 12b orbits this star at a distance of 210 AU, and has a mass 16 times that of Jupiter.

Infrared image of the ROXs 12 system. The image is not coronagraphic; most of the image is shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the wide companion, while a box of size 0.5′′ is instead shown with a linear stretch that saturates at 110% of the peak brightness of the primary star in the close binary. North is up. The scale bar is 1 arc inch; i.e. 1/21 600th of the circumference of an imaginary sphere around the Earth. Kraus et al. (2013).

See also Kepler 63b; a giant planet in a polar orbit, A superjovian exoplanet directly imaged orbiting the A-class pre main-sequence star HD 95086, A fourth body in the KOI-13 system, Wasp-12b; slowly boiling away... and KOI-13b, a big, hot planet not a Brown Dwarf.

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