Penguin Poop Seen From Space

Posted by samzenpus on Friday June 5, 2009 @06:58AM from the don't-eat-the-brown-ice dept.

Scientists have found ten new emperor penguin colonies by spotting their skid marks on the Antarctic ice from satellite images (video on page). The ice around the penguins gets very dirty because they congregate in a small area in very large colonies for months. Peter Fretwell, Mapping Expert, British Antarctic Survey says, "What we find is that we can see the guano (excrement) from space. They stay in the same space in very large colonies for eight months of the year and the ice around them gets very dirty, and it's that that we can see on the satellite images."

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Newsflash! by Quiet_Desperation · 2009-06-05 07:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

Object within the resolution limit of space camera is observed! Gasp!
1. Re:Newsflash! by gstoddart · 2009-06-05 15:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Object within the resolution limit of space camera is observed! Gasp!
  Completely unexpected ability to find new penguin colonies and better understand the population. Cool!
  Just because it's obvious in hindsight, doesn't mean that it was expected or even thought of before.
  Cheers
  
  --
  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Don't eat the yellow snow by dave562 · 2009-06-05 08:19 · Score: 2, Insightful

There's nothing else to see here, move along.