The rare Night Parrots were rediscovered

 Beautiful rare night bird thought to be extinct is rediscovered after 100 years 

The night parrot is a small green-and-yellow-coloured species, officially known as pezoporus occidentalis, which has not been seen in its native home of Australia since long. The rare Night Parrots were uncovered in their natural environment. The elusive night parrot, a small green-and-yellow bird officially known as pezoporus occidentalis, has been spotted in Australia for the first time in over a century. This nocturnal breed is notoriously difficult to monitor and protect due to its nocturnal habits. Elusive birds can be hard to protect, especially when they move under cover of darkness and lie low in thick desert grass by day. That’s the challenge with the night parrot, a small green-and-yellow species long considered near-mythical across Australia’s interior. A focused effort on Ngururrpa Country set out to answer three practical questions: where these parrots are living, what threatens them there and what people can do now to keep them alive. The approach was hands-on and methodical. Instead of waiting for chance sightings, the team paired local knowledge with tools which worked while people sleep. The goal was simple: build a clear picture of the night parrot’s daily needs and the pressures nibbling at its edges, find them then save them.

Bird enthusiasts embarked on a mission to discover where these parrots reside. From 2020 to 2023, rangers and scientists deployed an array of equipment across numerous sites in the region, determined to locate the elusive bird. They used a special device called a 'songmeter' to record the birds communicating through sound. In 2024, it was announced that their search had been successful. They didn't just find one bird, but what is believed to be the largest population of the species in the world. They discovered at least 50 of the rare species living there, having only ever detected the occasional individual in the past. Indigenous rangers and scientists deployed rugged, weatherproof audio recorders across dozens of sites. Night parrots have distinctive calls, so detections on these devices acted like pins on a map. When recordings confirmed parrots at a location, camera traps followed to learn which predators showed up nearby. The team also collected predator scat to identify what those hunters had been eating, then added decades of satellite imagery to track how often fires rolled through the landscape. Nick Leseberg, an ecologist at the University of Queensland and a co-author of the study, helped explain the soundscape these devices captured. “One of the night parrot’s diverse array of calls sounded like “didly dip, didly dip,” like a telephone, explains Leseberg. Another sounded like “dink dink,” resembling a bell.”

These rare species are so endangered they've been placed on the IUCN Red List, indicating a high risk of total extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated their numbers in 2022, with the BBC reporting that there could be as few as 40 to 500 left in the wild. Cameras frequently recorded dingoes near parrot habitat. At face value, a wild dog near a small bird sounds like trouble. But scat analysis told a different story: cat remains showed up often. Feral cats hunt stealthily at night and can wipe out inexperienced fledglings. Dingoes appear to keep cat numbers in check, either by direct predation or by making key areas less comfortable for cats. This balance matters. Push down dingo presence and cats may surge; keep dingoes on the scene and cat pressure may fall. For a species which nests and roosts on the ground, fewer cats near those roosts can mean more chicks making it through their earliest weeks. The hunt for these elusive creatures was no walk in the park and required a team of dedicated professionals armed with weatherproof audio recorders. The eight parrots have unique calls which can be picked up by these devices, and once one was confirmed to be in an area, camera traps were used to gather more information. These cameras allowed the team to see what predators were attracted by the presence of the rare birds. They also collected predator droppings to help identify them and compared this with old images to understand how often they typically move through the landscape.

Monitors detected night parrots at more than half of the surveyed sites, stretched across a wide slice of desert. The pattern points to a real population, not a stray bird passing through. Follow-up work located the birds’ daytime roosts inside dense, older clumps of spinifex grass. In this region the key plant is bull spinifex, also known as Triodia longiceps, which forms tough, dome-like shelters where a parrot can stay cool and hidden. These shelters aren’t interchangeable. Younger, sparse spinifex doesn’t offer the same cover. Night parrots depend on mature, tightly packed clumps which take time to form. When those clumps are lost, there’s no quick substitute. The Great Sandy Desert sees lightning strikes and long, dry spells which can set off fast-moving fires. When blazes return too often, older spinifex doesn’t get the years it needs to grow into protective domes. The study found that country around roosts tends to burn on a cycle of several years, which is quick in plant terms and risks keeping the habitat stuck in a youthful, thinner stage. There’s a practical fix within reach. Cooler, well-planned burns at the right times can create a patchwork of fuel breaks. The mosaic reduces the odds that one high-intensity wildfire will sweep across the sandplains and erase parrot shelter in one go.

Nick Leseberg, an ecologist at the University of Queensland who co-authored the groundbreaking study, explained how these methods worked. Based on where birds were heard and how many called at once, the team estimates there could be about 50 night parrots in the protected area. For a species with very few confirmed individuals across Australia, this figure carries weight. It points to Ngururrpa Country as an important stronghold. A stronghold isn’t guaranteed safety. A single rough fire season could knock back the habitat. Predator control programs which harm dingoes could open the door for more cats. Fresh disturbances, vehicle tracks, new weeds which change fire behavior, or grazing stock, could tilt the system in the wrong direction. The research revealed that dingoes were often heard near the rare parrot's habitat. Despite appearing mostly harmless, cats also continued to appear, posing a threat as predators due to their stealthy nocturnal hunting.

Fire management should lean on the rangers’ deep local knowledge and use modern mapping to guide cooler-season burns. Those burns can cut fuel, set natural breaks and lower the odds of summer wildfires racing across roosting country. Predator control should avoid harming dingoes, since dingoes may be doing important work by suppressing cats. The night parrot needs old, dense spinifex for daytime cover, a fire rhythm which lets the grass mature, and a predator community where cats don’t run the show. Keeping the landscape relatively quiet, limiting disturbances and keeping grazing stock out, will help the vegetation hold its form. The team also pointed to tools which can sharpen future counts and maps. Genetic methods, such as DNA recovered from feathers, could give more precise estimates. Tiny tracking tags could show how far these parrots travel at night to feed and which patches matter most during the dry months. The rediscovery of the elusive night parrot has demonstrated the effectiveness of dedicated rangers and scientists working together for a significant environmental cause. The complete study, providing further details about the species and their behaviours, is available for guidance. This work shows what happens when Indigenous rangers and scientists align methods with the land. With careful burns, smart predator management, and steady watchfulness, Ngururrpa Country can keep those needs on the table and give this shy bird a fair shot to survive.

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Mars Time Zone

 Scientists say time runs faster on Mars, Messier as compare to earth and moon

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) fulfills a vital role in national security: employing the sort of people who would, if they got bored, take over the world. It takes a specific kind of person to run the persnickety gravitational calculations of exactly how fast clocks tick on Mars relative to the Earth. Thanks to NIST, two of these people have recently shared their calculations, instead of building a lair under a volcano to perform evil experiments. They found that Mars time runs faster than Earth time, and considerably messier. Thanks to Einstein’s relativity, time flows differently on Mars than on Earth. NIST scientists have now nailed down the difference, showing that Mars clocks tick slightly faster, and fluctuate over the Martian year. These microsecond shifts could play a big role in future Mars navigation, communications and even a solar-system-wide internet. It’s a small time gap with big consequences for space exploration. Mars time runs faster and cracking that cosmic time gap could help humanity spread across the solar system. Gravitational lensing, or light bending around massive objects, is another example of general relativity at play.  

In strong gravitational fields, time flows more slowly. Albert Einstein first described this effect, known as time dilation, in his 1915 theory of general relativity. Scientists working in precision timekeeping must account not only for the Earth’s gravity, but also that of the Sun and Moon. They have become very good at that. The evidence is on your phone: the accuracy of GPS is thanks to minute adjustments to clock rates in different locations around the Earth. Future spacefarers will need to know the exact time on Mars relative to the Earth. Any kind of precision location system, such as GPS, depends on clock rate conversions. The new study by NIST, models the gravitational field on Mars at different points throughout its orbit to predict what that clock rate should be. They double-check their results using in-situ gravitational observations from Mars. On Earth, finding the exact time is effortless. Our planet relies on a sophisticated global system which combines atomic clocks, GPS satellites and ultra-fast communication networks to keep everything in sync. The precision does not extend naturally beyond Earth. Albert Einstein showed that time does not move at the same pace everywhere in the universe. The rate at which a clock ticks depends on gravity, meaning clocks run slightly slower in stronger gravity and faster in weaker gravity. Even coordinating time across Earth is complex. Extending that coordination across the solar system is far more challenging. For future explorers hoping to live and work on Mars, one fundamental question must be answered first: What time is it on Mars?

The Juno spacecraft contributed Martian gravity measurements as it flew past the red planet. Modelling Martian time is a lot more complicated than it is for the Earth. Not only is it harder to actually take measurements which would allow scientists to check their math, but the math itself also involves more factors. Mars’ lower mass means gravity is a lot weaker on its surface than on Earth. Even without external effects, Martian time flows faster than Earth time. But the Mars time to Earth time conversion depends on a lot more than Mars’s gravitational field. The biggest complication for time on Mars is the eccentricity of its orbit. Eccentricity describes how elongated and oval-shaped an orbit is, as opposed to circular. Since Mars’ orbit is considerably more eccentric than Earth’s, its distance from the Sun varies much more. Mars’s lower mass, only 10% of the Earth’s, also makes it easier for other bodies in the Solar System to push it around. While the motion of Mars doesn’t affect the Earth’s gravity much, the motion of Earth matters a lot to Mars. The ever-changing locations of the Sun and the Earth push and pull on the surface gravity of Mars and, consequently, its clock rate. Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have now produced a precise answer. Their calculations show that, on average, clocks on Mars tick 477 microseconds (millionths of a second) faster per day than clocks on Earth. This difference is not constant. Because of Mars' stretched orbit and gravitational influences from other bodies, the time difference can vary by as much as 226 microseconds/day throughout the Martian year.

The NIST scientists outlined a framework for highly precise timekeeping on the Moon. Understanding how time passes on Mars is essential for future missions, said NIST physicist Bijunath Patla. As NASA prepares for more advanced Mars exploration, accurate timing will be critical for navigation, communication and coordination across planetary distances. "The time is just right for the Moon and Mars," Patla said. "This is the closest we have been to realizing the science fiction vision of expanding across the solar system." A difference of 477 millionths of a second may seem insignificant. It is roughly one thousandth of the time it takes to blink. Yet such tiny differences matter greatly in modern technology. For example, 5G communication systems require timing accuracy within a tenth of a microsecond. Today, messages sent between Earth and Mars take anywhere from four to 24 minutes to arrive, and sometimes even longer. Patla compared the situation to communication before the telegraph, when handwritten letters crossed oceans by ship and replies took weeks or months to return. Developing a reliable framework for timekeeping between planets could eventually allow for synchronized communication networks across the solar system. "The time is just right for the Moon and Mars. This is the closest we have been to realizing the science fiction vision of expanding across the solar system." Bijunath Patla, NIST physicist says. "If you get synchronization, it will be almost like real-time communication without any loss of information. You don't have to wait to see what happens," Patla said.

To make the calculations possible, NIST researchers selected a specific reference point on the Martian surface, comparable to sea level at Earth's equator. Using data gathered from years of Mars missions, Patla and fellow NIST physicist Neil Ashby estimated surface gravity on Mars, which is about five times weaker than Earth's. Gravity from Mars alone was not enough to explain the full picture. The solar system is a dynamic environment filled with massive objects which constantly pull on one another. The Sun contains more than 99% of the solar system's total mass, and its gravitational influence dominates planetary motion. Mars' location in the solar system, its distance from the Sun, its neighbors like Earth, the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, forces it into a more elongated and eccentric orbit. By contrast, Earth and the Moon follow relatively stable paths. As a result, time on the Moon consistently runs 56 microseconds faster/day than time on Earth. "But for Mars, that's not the case. Its distance from the Sun and its eccentric orbit make the variations in time larger. A three-body problem is extremely complicated. Now we're dealing with four: the Sun, Earth, the Moon and Mars," Patla explained. "The heavy lifting was more challenging than I initially thought." After accounting for Martian surface gravity, orbital motion, and the gravitational effects of the Sun, Earth and Moon, Patla and Ashby arrived at their final calculation.

Although Mars time changes over the course of a Martian year, the authors found an average difference of 421.5 microseconds (millionths of a second, or μs)/day between Mars and the Earth. It doesn’t sound like much, but think of it this way: For every day that passes on Earth, Mars falls behind our clocks by 421.5 μs. If we don’t model and compensate for the difference, that’s enough to render 5G wireless, for instance, totally useless. By predicting this discrepancy, the authors have theoretically enabled 5G cell service on Mars, although some minor technological advancements will be necessary to make this happen. But their model does come with big error bars. Mars operates on a different schedule than Earth in more ways than one. A single Martian day lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, and a Martian year stretches across 687 Earth days compared with 365 days on Earth. Beyond those obvious differences, scientists needed to determine whether each second on Mars passes at the same rate as it does on Earth. An atomic clock placed on the surface of Mars would function normally. The clock itself would tick just as it does on Earth. The problem appears when that Mars clock is compared with one on Earth. Over time, the two clocks drift apart. The task for scientists was to determine exactly how large that offset becomes, similar to defining a planetary time zone. The calculation proved more complicated than expected. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, gravity alters the flow of time. Clocks slow down in stronger gravity and speed up where gravity is weaker. A planet's motion through space also affects how time passes, with orbital speed contributing additional changes.

The new model of Martian time is vastly more precise than the previous model. The previous model was created by the exact same people who made the new one. Nonetheless, it fits the data about a hundred times worse than the current best model of Moon to Earth time conversion. You’ll never guess who the authors are on that one. Fully synchronized interplanetary networks remain far in the future, as do permanent human settlements on Mars. Still, studying these timing challenges now helps scientists anticipate the obstacles ahead, Ashby noted. "It may be decades before the surface of Mars is covered by the tracks of wandering rovers, but it is useful now to study the issues involved in establishing navigation systems on other planets and moons," Ashby said. "Like current global navigation systems like GPS, these systems will depend on accurate clocks, and the effects on clock rates can be analyzed with the help of Einstein's general theory of relativity." Patla added that the research also advances fundamental science. Measuring how time behaves on distant worlds provides new tests of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity. "It's good to know for the first time what is happening on Mars time-wise. Nobody knew that before. It improves our knowledge of the theory itself, the theory of how clocks tick and relativity," he said. "The passage of time is fundamental to the theory of relativity: how you realize it, how you calculate it and what influences it. These may seem like simple concepts, but they can be quite complicated to calculate." When they compare their model of clock rate to real gravitational observations from Mars, their guesses are only off by an average of 100 ns (a billionth of a second) every day. This is astoundingly precise, but still a hundred times worse than their errors on the Moon, which are about 1 ns every day. Mars is a messier place to visit than the Moon, and time runs strangely there as the study concludes.

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