Happy Earth Day! With Comets and Monkeys!

Once again, April 22nd is Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day!

If there are two things to share, they're uplifting nature photos and wacky environment-related news stories.

I took all of the below pictures today.

Conifers in the background

CNET is reporting that Borisov, a comet, is "strange": Interstellar comet, visiting from deep space, is stranger than we thought

Both studies [Hubble and ALMA] show Borisov is extremely rich in carbon monoxide. It's not strange to find carbon monoxide in a comet, but the levels seen by Hubble and ALMA are off the charts, measuring about three times higher than comets from our home solar system. Because carbon monoxide only freezes at extremely cold temperatures, the research teams suggest it likely formed at the dark, outer edges of a distant star system before being flung toward us.

Comets in our solar system are extremely rare, but we're lucky enough to see Borisov as it enters our solar system, meaning we should be able to see its entire sojourn here. That makes me want to dust off my old telescope...

Rushing river

The month's worth of news on how COVID-19-related self-isolation measures have diminished air pollution appears to have come to a head. Fewer people on the streets also means more wildlife on the streets, as the Associated Press reports: As people stay home, Earth gets wilder and cleaner

As people across the globe stay home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, the air has cleaned up, albeit temporarily. Smog stopped choking New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, and India’s getting views of sights not visible in decades. Nitrogen dioxide pollution in the northeastern United States is down 30%. Rome air pollution levels from mid-March to mid-April were down 49% from a year ago. Stars seem more visible at night.

People are also noticing animals in places and at times they don't usually. Coyotes have meandered along downtown Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. A puma roamed the streets of Santiago, Chile. Goats took over a town in Wales. In India, already daring wildlife has become bolder with hungry monkeys entering homes and opening refrigerators to look for food.

As someone who lives in an upper-floor apartment, I have no worry about my building being taken over by goats. My fridge is full, though, thanks to the magic of online grocery ordering, so I may have to monkey-proof.

Macro needles!

Happy Earth Day again.