After hatching, the chick is taken care of and guarded for three weeks until it is large enough to take care of and fight for itself. During this time the parents feed the chick small meals. After the chick has grown a little older, it is fed in bigger meals by both parents. The parents both take turns to go and find food, that are about 12% of their body weight (around 600 g (21 oz)). They find food such as fresh squid, fish and krill.
Albatross chicks take a long time to fledge (learn how to fly). In the case of more bigger albatrosses, it can take up to 280 days. And even for the smaller albatrosses, it can take from 140 to 170 days. Like many seabirds, albatross chicks later become even heavier than their mother and father. When they are preparing their body for flying, they may also grow flight feathers, which makes them sometimes as heavy as their parents. Between 15% and 65% of those who fledged survive to find their mate after. Albatross chicks learn to fly on their own. Their parents do not teach them, and instead they return to the nest even after their chick has left.
The name "albatross" came from the Arabic word "al-câdous" or "al-ġaţţās". This means a pelican, or can mean "the diver". This word later became English, also mixed with the Portuguese word "alcatraz", which means "gannet". This is also where the name of the prison Alcatraz comes from. The "OED" explains that the word "alcatraz" was at first supposed to be used for the frigatebird. But perhaps the change of the word to "albatross" was because of the Latin word "albus". This means "white", which is opposite to the frigatebirds which are black. In Portuguese, the word still presently used for the bird, "albatroz," came from the English albatross.
They were once known as Goonie birds or Gooney birds, especially the albatrosses in the North Pacific. In the southern hemisphere, most people still call the albatross mollymawk, which came from the word "malle-mugge", an old Dutch. The name "Diomedea", given to the albatrosses by Linnaeus, is from the story about the Greek warrior Diomedes becoming a bird.
Albatrosses have been described as "the most legendary of all birds". When people are sad or feel they are carrying a burden, they may use the expression 'to have an albatross around their neck'. There is a myth that sailors do not shoot or eat albatrosses because they think it will bring bad luck, but in reality sailors regularly killed and ate them. They were often thought of as the souls of lost sailors. The Māori people used the wing bones of the albatross to carve tattoos into their skin at ceremonies.
Even though they were legendary birds in many myths, albatrosses were still attacked by humans. In the beginning, Polynesians and Aleut people hunted albatrosses. As Europeans began to explore the world, they too began to hunt albatross. They "fished" for them from boats and ate them or killed them for sport.
In the Midway Islands there have been many airplane crashes because of collisions with Laysan Albatrosses, causing fatalities in both the albatross and human population. Tall towers killed 3000 birds in between the years 1964-1965. Because of this, the towers were taken down. Recently, people have tried to stop human activity in the islands and this has helped lessen the number of birds dying.
Another threat to albatrosses are introduced species, like rats or feral cats (cats that live without being cared for by people), which attack the albatross or its chicks and eggs. Albatrosses have lived on islands where there are few land mammals and they are not adapted to defend themselves against them. Even animals such as mice can be dangerous. For example, on Gough Island the chicks of Tristan Albatrosses are often attacked and eaten alive by house mice.
Sometimes albatrosses, as well as many other kinds of seabirds, are killed because they eat plastic. The amount of plastic eaten in the seas has increased very quickly since the first record in the 1960s. This is because of waste thrown overboard by ships and trash dumped in the ocean. Sometimes litter on beaches has been washed into the sea by rivers. It is impossible to digest plastic, and the undigested plastic stops other food from being digested. This makes birds starve and die. The plastic can even be vomited out and fed to the chicks by the parents. Although plastic is not the main reason why albatrosses die, it is still a serious problem.
Scientists and people who try to help albatrosses are working with governments and fishermen to stop these threats. They have come up with solutions such as fishing at night, dying the bait a blue color to hide it from the albatrosses, setting the bait under the water, and more. For example, a study by some scientists and fishermen in New Zealand tested putting the fishing lines below the reach of certain kinds of albatross species. The use of some of these ideas has been successful by stopping the number of Black-browed Albatross that died in the last 10 years. Conservationists have also worked on taking away introduced species to protect the albatrosses.
One important step towards protecting albatrosses and other seabirds is the 2001 treaty known as the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, signed by thirteen countries, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, South Africa, France, Peru, Uruguay and the United Kingdom. One of the Agreement's key activities is to provide expert advice on seabird bycatch mitigation to fisheries managers, both in domestic and high seas fisheries.
Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star that is likely a part of the Alpha Centauri star system and is the closest star to the Sun at a distance of
. It is in the constellation of Centaurus.
Proxima Centauri was found to share the same proper motion as Alpha Centauri in 1915 by Robert Innes while he was Director of the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 1951, Harlow Shapley said that Proxima Centauri was a flare star. Recorded photographs showed that the star became measurably brighter about 8% of the time, making it the most active flare star then found.
Red dwarfs are usually far too faint to be seen with the naked eye, that means without a telescope. Proxima Centauri has an apparent magnitude of 11 while its absolute magnitude is a very dim 15.5. Even from Alpha Centauri A or B, Proxima would only be seen as a 5th magnitude star.
Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about the last 32,000 years. Barnard's Star will make its closest approach to the Sun around AD 11,700, when it approaches to within about 3.8 light-years. However, at that time, it will "not" be the nearest star, since Proxima Centauri will then have moved even closer to the Sun. Six stars will come closer to Earth in the next 45,000 years.
In 2016, a exoplanet was found by the European Southern Observatory around Proxima Centauri, Proxima Centauri b (or Proxima b). It was found in the habitable zone, and was thought to be Earth-like, with an ESI of 0.87. While being Earth-like, it may not be habitable on the surface, since Proxima Centauri gives off strong solar flares and high solar winds, which could strip away parts of the atmosphere of the planet, making it less habitable.
In October of 2016, scientists at France's CNRS research institute said that the planet may have oceans on its surface, and a thin atmosphere. If this idea is true or not is not known.
Another planet, Proxima Centauri c, much farther out than b, was discovered in 2019. It is seven times heavier (more massive) than Earth. It is too cold to be habitable. Because it showed up brighter than expected when photos of it were taken, it may have a ring system five times wider than that of Jupiter.
San Jacinto fault