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Populations of the most common bird species in Europe and the US are being altered by climate change

For the first time researchers showed climate to be having a similar, significant impact on bird populations in large, distant areas of the world. Their study used population-predicting models and three decades of field data, gathered by bird-watching volunteers. The findings are published in the journal Science. Led by Durham University scientists, the team developed models that related each species' habitat to long-term climate patterns. Using annual climate records - from 1980 to 2010 - these models were able to predict where a species had experienced an improvement or a decline in suitable climate."We then had this amazing data set collected by thousands of volunteers over decades - where people have gone out and counted birds across different countries in Europe and the United States," explained lead researcher Dr Stephen Willis. "We can use that to see to what extent our predictions match what people are finding on the ground." The outlook ...

Europe and Russia have launched a joint mission to the Red Planet

The satellite, called the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), lifted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 09:31 GMT. The probe will investigate whether the methane in the world's atmosphere is coming from a geological source or is being produced by microbes. If all goes well, the two space powers expect to follow up this venture with a rover, to be assembled in the UK, which will drill into the surface. That could launch in 2018, or, as seems increasingly likely, in 2020.It will take the carrier rocket more than 10 hours to put the satellite on the right trajectory to go to Mars. This involves a series of engine burns by the Proton's Breeze upper-stage to build up the velocity needed to break free of Earth's gravity. These will fling the TGO away from Earth with a relative velocity of 33,000km/h. The flight sequence is sure to strain the nerves of space agency officials. For Russia especially, the Red Planet represents a destination of wretched ...

Europe's rarest seabird will be extinct within 60 years

Urgent action is needed to stop the Balearic sheerwater being drowned in fishing lines and nets, say scientists. The bird breeds in the Balearic Islands, sometimes stopping off in British waters as it migrates north. Research shows the global population is not sustainable in the long term. There are about 3,000 breeding pairs left. The main threat to the bird is becoming entangled in fishing gear, according to findings published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Other risks include hunting by the likes of cats and other small mammals. Prof Tim Guilford of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford is co-researcher on the study. He told "The survival of adults from one year to the next and especially of young adults is much lower than we thought. "The species is unsustainable - it is on the road to extinction." Estimates suggest about half of deaths in adult birds are due to accidental capture in fishing lines and nets. ...

Europe excited by Dream Chaser mini-shuttle

Nasa has extended contracts to existing commercial cargo carriers, Orbital ATK and SpaceX, but has added a third team: the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). This new entrant will fly an automated mini-shuttle called Dream Chaser. Esa has agreements to co-operate with SNC, which should now lead to European companies providing components. Chief among these contributions will be the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM) - a new system developed in Europe to join spacecraft together. Dream Chaser will have one at its rear to make a sealed connection to a free port on the orbiting platform. Astronauts will move through the IBDM to access the vehicle's several tonnes of supplies.The selection of SNC by Nasa to run at least six cargo sorties to the ISS, starting no earlier than 2019, should trigger a multi-million-euro contract between Esa and QinetiQ of Belgium. The firm will lead a consortium in the production of the first IBDM - a prototyp...

UK researchers have signed the contract to the development the first Extremely Large Telescope in Europe

UK specialists have marked the agreement that will prompt the advancement of one of the first instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope. The E-ELT will be the greatest optical and infrared observatory ever developed, with an essential reflect barely shy of 40m over. A British-drove consortium will make a £50m spectrograph called Harmoni. This will tease separated the shades of far off worlds to focus the properties of those articles. Its information will assist stargazers with comprehension their piece, the material science at work, and their flow - how the systems travel through space. The agreement was marked between the European Southern Observatory association, which is building the E-ELT, and the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, the nation's primary financing body for space science. The arrangement will see Oxford University lead the task, with Prof Niranjan Thatte in charge, while get together of the ...

Two Galileo satellites ready to go

Two more route and timing shuttle are because of dispatch on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. Their fruitful situation in circle will bring the quantity of satellites in the group of stars to 10 - 33% of the path to a system of 30 stages. Lift-off is set for 23:08 neighborhood time (02:08 GMT). The shuttle ought to partitioned from the rocket's upper-arrange a little more than three-and-a-half hours after the fact. Galileo is a task of the European Commission, the EU's official branch. It is intended to supplement the American Global Positioning System (GPS), while in the meantime presenting additional exactness for clients. Albeit committed administrations in view of the European system won't be made accessible until no less than 14 operational satellites are in circle, the signs from each new expansion in the sky can be abused by getting gadgets with perfect chipsets. "There are various chipsets that have been created and are in the business sector...