grobbins

Fishermen from Karachi, Pakistan, made an impressive haul this week: a 40-foot whale shark, shown here as it was hoisted onshore Tuesday. The animal had been found dead in the Arabian Sea. Though they are the world’s largest fish, whale sharks are harmless, eating only plankton and small fish. They are known to tolerate close approach by humans; tour boats as near as southern Baja, Mexico, offer viewing of the animals. The sharks dwell in tropical waters across the globe. But reports of... Read Full Story

NASA created a bit of sensation with the Jan. 25 release of its new “blue marble,” a high definition, composite image captured by an Earth-observing satellite called Suomi NPP . The agency now presents the sequel: another blue-marble shot showing the eastern hemisphere. With Africa prominent, this image shows Earth from a distance of nearly 8,000 miles. What look like four vertical streaks of haze are actually sunlight glinting off the oceans. The image is composed from six orbits of the... Read Full Story

A new NASA analysis shows 2011 was the ninth warmest year on record, as rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to push long-term global-average temperatures higher. The analysis, from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, places 2011 among the ten warmest years ever recorded, nine of them in the 21st century. But 2011 was 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the warmest year, 2010; a statement from NASA said that shows the importance of... Read Full Story

Click here to view the embedded video. Dozens of rare, “offshore” killer whales moved across miles of Orange County coastline Thursday, delighting whale watchers and sending researchers scrambling to identify this normally elusive group of orcas. The offshore whales — 40 or more reported off Dana Point Thursday — are a distinct population from the ‘transient’ whales that paid a call to Orange County earlier month . Smaller than the transients, and fond of attacking sharks as prey, they... Read Full Story

Randy and Meredith McKenzie and their dog, Duke, who was saved from drowning Wednesday by staff members at the Dana Point Ocean Institute. The Institute is visible in the background. Photo courtesy Ocean Institute. A boxer named Duke that nearly drowned while his exhausted owner tried to save him was rescued Wednesday by staff members from the Dana Point Ocean Institute , who arrived by dinghy just in time. Duke was struggling in 58 degree water just before 9 a.m., tangled in lines from... Read Full Story

Orange County should see two more days of sun and cool weather before moisture moves down from the north, raising the chance of a rainy weekend, the National Weather Service says. How far south the rain will reach is so far uncertain, but some could arrive in Orange County as soon as Friday night. The same storm system, linked to the Pacific jet-stream, is already bringing snow to the Pacific northwest. Wednesday and Thursday should remain largely sunny, with slightly warmer... Read Full Story

Phobos-Ground probe is readied for flight early in November in Baikunor, Kazakhstan. The probe became stuck in orbit after its launch Nov. 9, and is expected to fall back to Earth as soon as Sunday. Photo from AP and Russian Roscosmos space agency. A space probe stuck in orbit could fall back to Earth as soon as Sunday or Monday, though most experts say the chance that debris will harm anyone on the surface is slim. And even as the Russian space agency released new forecasts of the... Read Full Story

Our Milky Way galaxy is bursting with planets, including billions that have masses similar to Earth’s, astronomers revealed in a study published Wednesday . The other-worldly conclusion comes from a six-year survey of millions of stars that relied on their gravity, and that of the planets circling them, to act as a kind of lens, magnifying the light of stars behind them — and allowing scientists to compute their masses. The result: Planets appear to be more plentiful than stars in the... Read Full Story

Wednesday's predawn burst of color was fast and furious. Here, at 6:49 a.m., the rising sun paints thin clouds over the Santa Ana Mountains in a time exposure from the Sunkist Street bridge over the eastbound 91 freeway. The color peaked at the time for about ten minutes and then quickly faded. Traffic streaks, right and center, on the eastbound 91 transitions to the north and southbound transition roads to the 57 freeway in Anaheim. The 91 freeway is to the left. Register Photo by Bruce... Read Full Story

The week begins with mostly sunny skies and the last of the gusty mountain winds, the National Weather Service says, with temperatures dropping and morning fog returning by midweek. A system of high-pressure air over California should keep inland highs in the 74 to 79 range Monday, 64 to 69 on the coast, with morning winds gusting to 25 mph near the foothills. Far more powerful gusts raked the Santa Ana Mountains over the weekend, the Weather Service said, including one gust of 82 mph in... Read Full Story