Science Wrap: A new Earth, a new dinosaur species, and 2024 could be hottest year ever

This week in science saw the discovery of a new exoplanet that resembles Earth, a fossil of a meat-eating dinosaur recovered from Spain and the possibility of 2024 becoming the hottest year EVER.

ALSO READ: 2024 could be the hottest year ever, thanks to El Nino... and you thought 2022 was hot!

Meanwhile, in the realm of water, more than half of the world’s big lakes are drying up while an Indian seaman brings home samples from four oceans to observe microplastic content in them. 

1- New dinosaur fossil found in Spain and there’s a football connection  

On Thursday (May 18), scientists in the Spanish town of Cinctorres came across a partial skeleton of a previously unknown dinosaur species that has been recently studied and christened. 

The newly discovered carnivorous dinosaur had an elongated skull reminiscent of a crocodile and had curved teeth to help in ripping the flesh of its prey. It has been given the name Protathlitis cinctorrensis AKA “champion from Cinctorres”. 

This name has been chosen as a nod to the UEFA Europa League soccer title won by the Villarreal football club in 2021.Villarreal lies in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, the same as Cinctorres.

The new discovery has allowed paleontologists to have a closer understanding of a highly successful group of meat-eaters that hunted both on land and in water. While they have only recovered the dinosaur’s right upper jawbone, a tooth and five vertebrae, they have concluded that it definitely belonged to the dinosaur group known as spinosaurs. The biggest member of this group Spinosaurus ranked among the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of all time.

2- 53% of the world’s lakes have shrunk

Lakes, once a major source of drinking and irrigation, are now becoming the poster-children of climate change. In a recent report published in Science Magazine, it seems that more than half of the world’s largest lakes have dried up in the past three decades. 

“About one-quarter of the Earth’s population lives in these basins with lake water losses,” surface hydrologist Fangfang Yao told Science. Satellite observations on nearly 2,000 freshwater and salt lakes were relied on. The conclusion of the report is that 53% of the world’s lakes have shrunk while only 22% have reported an increase in the water volume. 

While climate change and human consumption were identified as the chief reasons behind drying up of natural lakes, the lakes in reservoirs are mainly drying up because of buildup of sediments. 

3- Mysterious Earth-like planet with volcanoes

A new discovery joins the leagues of exoplanets, celestial objects outside our Solar System. Resembling Earth in size, the exoplanet known as LP 791-18 d has been found revolving around a star in June 2019 by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Further observation to study it was done by TESS along with the now-retired NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

As for its exact location, LP 791-18 d is very much in the Milky Way Galaxy  but about 86 light years away from our Solar System. The planet bears a rugged, rocky surface and it is being speculated that it’s covered with volcanoes. Despite revolving around a star, it doesn’t rotate on its own axis. 

Further research suggests that it might also have traces of water but not as we would think. As astronomy professor Björn Benneke told NASA, "The day side would probably be too hot for liquid water to exist on the surface. But the amount of volcanic activity we suspect occurs all over the planet could sustain an atmosphere, which may allow water to condense on the night side."

4- Commander Abhilash Tomy brings home water samples from four Oceans

Commander Abhilash Tomy, the second runner-up of the maritime contest Golden Globe Race, has also collected water samples from the Indian, South Pacific, North and South Atlantic oceans. 

The purpose of this activity is to study the increasing threat of microplastics in the seas. In a tweet, Tomy added that these samples will be tested at Central Testing Labs, a facility in Abu Dhabi to understand the concentration of microplastics in each sample. 

5- Will 2024 be the hottest year ever?

Pseudoscientists might deny it but global warming is very much real. Just look at the summer of 2022 when even European traffic lights began melting! But it turns out that 2022 has found its competitor in the form of the next year. 

2024 might indeed become the hottest year ever with the World Meteorological Organisation (under the United Nations) warning that global temperatures are likely to rise to record levels in the coming five years.

WMO suggests that the world will get 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the mid 19th century from 2023 to 2027. But why is this surge happening? Human-led climate change is obviously to blame and matters will become worse with the climate phenomenon known as El Nino all set to develop in the coming months, matters are going to get worse. To put it simply, El Nino (AKA Little Boy in Spanish) is a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific and generally causes the areas in its purview to get warmer.