Full moon over Carnarvon, Australia

View larger. |Photo by Colin Legg. Visit Colin on Facebook.

Full moon comes today – August 15, 2019 – at 12:29 UTC (8:29 a.m. Eastern). Read more about tonight’s moon. This shot is from master nature photographer Colin Legg in Australia. He wrote he snapped it back in March 2019, as a homage to the Apollo 11 50th anniversary this year. It’s the moon rising in the coastal town of Carnarvon – in Western Australia – home to the largest NASA space tracking station outside the United States in the 1960s and 70s. Read more about Carnavon’s role in the Apollo missions.

Thanks for a brilliant photo, Colin!

Bottom line: Full moon over Carnarvon, Australia

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View larger. |Photo by Colin Legg. Visit Colin on Facebook.

Full moon comes today – August 15, 2019 – at 12:29 UTC (8:29 a.m. Eastern). Read more about tonight’s moon. This shot is from master nature photographer Colin Legg in Australia. He wrote he snapped it back in March 2019, as a homage to the Apollo 11 50th anniversary this year. It’s the moon rising in the coastal town of Carnarvon – in Western Australia – home to the largest NASA space tracking station outside the United States in the 1960s and 70s. Read more about Carnavon’s role in the Apollo missions.

Thanks for a brilliant photo, Colin!

Bottom line: Full moon over Carnarvon, Australia

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Z64oUG

Microplastics found in Lake Tahoe

From the infamous garbage patch islands of floating plastic to the guts of fish and bellies of birds, plastic pollution of all sizes is ubiquitous and well-documented in Earth’s oceans.

Now, research at one of the clearest, cleanest lakes in the world – Lake Tahoe, on the California/Nevada border – suggests that the problem is also widespread in freshwater systems.

Katie Senft is a staff researcher at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Senft began sampling beaches last summer, and continued this summer, in the first study of microplastics in Lake Tahoe. The research team found microplastics – that is, plastic fragments less than 5 mm (.2 inches) in length – at every beach they sampled. Senft said in a statement:

The ocean gets a lot of attention about plastic in the water, and our freshwater lakes don’t. This issue has flown under the radar in the Tahoe Basin.

When plastics enter the environment, be it terrestrial or aquatic, they stick around for a long time. We don’t know the long-term implications of having plastics in our water and in our soil.

Lake Tahoe. Image via Joe Proudman/UC Davis.

To look for microplastics, the team scoops sand into glass mason jars at defined distances across the lake’s shoreline. Back at the lab, the samples are analyzed under a microscope for plastics.

Unlike many freshwater systems, the wastewater produced in the Tahoe Basin is piped out and does not return to the lake. Wastewater is the main source of microplastics in most freshwater systems. That’s why Senft thinks that the microplastics in Lake Tahoe have a different source. She said:

The microplastics we’re finding at Lake Tahoe are most likely from improperly disposed trash.

Residents and visitors can help, Sendt said, by reducing the amount of plastic brought to the beach from the beginning. Lake Tahoe has some of the nation’s cleanest drinking water, so foregoing the packs of small plastic water bottles for a reusable one is an easy place to start.

Bottom line: Researchers are finding microplastics in the water of Lake Tahoe.

Via UC Davis

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From the infamous garbage patch islands of floating plastic to the guts of fish and bellies of birds, plastic pollution of all sizes is ubiquitous and well-documented in Earth’s oceans.

Now, research at one of the clearest, cleanest lakes in the world – Lake Tahoe, on the California/Nevada border – suggests that the problem is also widespread in freshwater systems.

Katie Senft is a staff researcher at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Senft began sampling beaches last summer, and continued this summer, in the first study of microplastics in Lake Tahoe. The research team found microplastics – that is, plastic fragments less than 5 mm (.2 inches) in length – at every beach they sampled. Senft said in a statement:

The ocean gets a lot of attention about plastic in the water, and our freshwater lakes don’t. This issue has flown under the radar in the Tahoe Basin.

When plastics enter the environment, be it terrestrial or aquatic, they stick around for a long time. We don’t know the long-term implications of having plastics in our water and in our soil.

Lake Tahoe. Image via Joe Proudman/UC Davis.

To look for microplastics, the team scoops sand into glass mason jars at defined distances across the lake’s shoreline. Back at the lab, the samples are analyzed under a microscope for plastics.

Unlike many freshwater systems, the wastewater produced in the Tahoe Basin is piped out and does not return to the lake. Wastewater is the main source of microplastics in most freshwater systems. That’s why Senft thinks that the microplastics in Lake Tahoe have a different source. She said:

The microplastics we’re finding at Lake Tahoe are most likely from improperly disposed trash.

Residents and visitors can help, Sendt said, by reducing the amount of plastic brought to the beach from the beginning. Lake Tahoe has some of the nation’s cleanest drinking water, so foregoing the packs of small plastic water bottles for a reusable one is an easy place to start.

Bottom line: Researchers are finding microplastics in the water of Lake Tahoe.

Via UC Davis

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2ZafVCm

Andromeda galaxy, closest large spiral

View larger. | The Andromeda Galaxy with 2 of its satellite galaxies, via Flickr user Adam Evans.

Although several dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which can’t be seen from northerly latitudes, the Andromeda galaxy – also known as M31 – is the brightest galaxy you can see. At 2.5 million light-years, it’s also the most distant thing visible to your unaided eye.

To the eye, this galaxy appears as a smudge of light larger than a full moon.

Josh Blash captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy. It’s big, bigger than a full moon. If you know approximately where to look for this hazy smudge in your night sky – and your sky is very dark – you might pick out the galaxy just by looking for it.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Meteors in the same field of view as the Andromeda galaxy. Omid Ghadrdan in Iran caught the scene on August 11, 2019, and wrote, “What can I say? Wonders of the universe. Just compare the golf-ball-sized meteors with the galaxy bigger than ours.” Thank you, Omid!

When to look for the Andromeda Galaxy. From mid-northern latitudes, you can see M31 – also called the Andromeda galaxy – for at least part of every night, all year long. But most people see the galaxy first around northern autumn, when it’s high enough in the sky to be seen from nightfall until daybreak.

In late August and early September, begin looking for the galaxy in mid-evening, about midway between your local nightfall and midnight.

In late September and early October, the Andromeda galaxy shines in your eastern sky at nightfall, swings high overhead in the middle of the night, and stands rather high in the west at the onset of morning dawn.

Winter evenings are also good for viewing the Andromeda galaxy.

If you are far from city lights, and it’s a moonless night – and you’re looking on a late summer, autumn or winter evening – it’s possible you’ll simply notice the galaxy in your night sky. It’s looks like a hazy patch in the sky, as wide across as a full moon.

But if you look, and don’t see the galaxy – yet you know you’re looking at a time when it’s above the horizon – you can star-hop to find the galaxy in one of two ways. The easiest way is to use the constellation Cassiopeia. You can also use the Great Square of Pegasus.

Most people use the M- or W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy. See how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the constellation Cassiopeia. The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen is one of the easiest constellations to recognize. It’s shaped like the letter M or W. Look generally northward on the sky’s dome to find this constellation. If you can recognize the North Star, Polaris – and if you know how to find the Big Dipper – be aware that the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia move around Polaris like the hands of a clock, always opposite each other.

To find the Andromeda galaxy via Cassiopeia, look for the star Schedar. In the illustration above, see how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Most people use Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy, because Cassiopeia itself is so easy to spot.

Use the Great Square of Pegasus to find the Andromeda Galaxy. A line between Mirach and Mu Andromedae points to the galaxy.

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the Great Square of Pegasus. Here’s another way to find the galaxy. It’s a longer route, but, in many ways, more beautiful.

You’ll be hopping to the Andromeda galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus. In autumn, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a great big baseball diamond in the eastern sky. Envision the bottom star of the Square’s four stars as home plate, then draw an imaginary line from the “first base” star though the “third base” star to locate two streamers of stars flying away from the Great Square. These stars belong to the constellation Andromeda the Princess.

On each streamer, go two stars north (left) of the third base star, locating the stars Mirach and Mu Andromedae. Draw a line from Mirach through Mu Andromedae, going twice the Mirach/Mu Andromedae distance. You’ve just landed on the Andromeda galaxy, which looks like a smudge of light to the unaided eye.

If you can’t see the Andromeda galaxy with the eye alone, by all means use binoculars.

The Great Andromeda Nebula, photographed in the year 1900. At this point, astronomers could not discern individual stars in the galaxy. Many thought it was a cloud of gas within our Milky Way – a place where new stars were forming.Image via Wikimedia Commons.

History of our knowledge of the Andromeda galaxy. At one time, the Andromeda galaxy was called the Great Andromeda Nebula. Astronomers thought this patch of light was composed of glowing gases, or was perhaps a solar system in the process of formation.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that astronomers were able to resolve the Andromeda spiral nebula into individual stars. This discovery lead to a controversy about whether the Andromeda spiral nebula and other spiral nebulae lie within or outside the Milky Way.

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble finally put the matter to rest, when he used Cepheid variable stars within the Andromeda galaxy to determine that it is indeed an island universe residing beyond the bounds of our Milky Way galaxy.

Artist’s concept of our Local Group via Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Andromeda and Milky Way in context. The Andromeda galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy reign as the two most massive and dominant galaxies within the Local Group of Galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which, in addition to the Milky Way, also contains the Triangulum Galaxy and about 30 other smaller galaxies.

Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies lay claim to about a dozen satellite galaxies. Both are some 100,000 light-years across, containing enough mass to make billions of stars.

Astronomers have discovered that our Local Group is on the outskirts of a giant cluster of several thousand galaxies, which astronomers call the Virgo Cluster.

We also know of an irregular supercluster of galaxies, which contains the Virgo Cluster, which in turn contains our Local Group, which in turn contains our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Andromeda galaxy. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within this Virgo Supercluster. Its diameter is thought to be about 110 million light-years.

The Virgo Supercluster is thought to be one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe.

View larger | View zoomable image | A portion of the Andromeda galaxy via NASA/ESA.

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is at RA: 0h 42.7m; Dec: 41^o 16′ north

Bottom line: At 2.5 million light-years, the Great Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31) rates as the most distant object you can see with the unaided eye.

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View larger. | The Andromeda Galaxy with 2 of its satellite galaxies, via Flickr user Adam Evans.

Although several dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which can’t be seen from northerly latitudes, the Andromeda galaxy – also known as M31 – is the brightest galaxy you can see. At 2.5 million light-years, it’s also the most distant thing visible to your unaided eye.

To the eye, this galaxy appears as a smudge of light larger than a full moon.

Josh Blash captured this image of the Andromeda galaxy. It’s big, bigger than a full moon. If you know approximately where to look for this hazy smudge in your night sky – and your sky is very dark – you might pick out the galaxy just by looking for it.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Meteors in the same field of view as the Andromeda galaxy. Omid Ghadrdan in Iran caught the scene on August 11, 2019, and wrote, “What can I say? Wonders of the universe. Just compare the golf-ball-sized meteors with the galaxy bigger than ours.” Thank you, Omid!

When to look for the Andromeda Galaxy. From mid-northern latitudes, you can see M31 – also called the Andromeda galaxy – for at least part of every night, all year long. But most people see the galaxy first around northern autumn, when it’s high enough in the sky to be seen from nightfall until daybreak.

In late August and early September, begin looking for the galaxy in mid-evening, about midway between your local nightfall and midnight.

In late September and early October, the Andromeda galaxy shines in your eastern sky at nightfall, swings high overhead in the middle of the night, and stands rather high in the west at the onset of morning dawn.

Winter evenings are also good for viewing the Andromeda galaxy.

If you are far from city lights, and it’s a moonless night – and you’re looking on a late summer, autumn or winter evening – it’s possible you’ll simply notice the galaxy in your night sky. It’s looks like a hazy patch in the sky, as wide across as a full moon.

But if you look, and don’t see the galaxy – yet you know you’re looking at a time when it’s above the horizon – you can star-hop to find the galaxy in one of two ways. The easiest way is to use the constellation Cassiopeia. You can also use the Great Square of Pegasus.

Most people use the M- or W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy. See how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the constellation Cassiopeia. The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen is one of the easiest constellations to recognize. It’s shaped like the letter M or W. Look generally northward on the sky’s dome to find this constellation. If you can recognize the North Star, Polaris – and if you know how to find the Big Dipper – be aware that the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia move around Polaris like the hands of a clock, always opposite each other.

To find the Andromeda galaxy via Cassiopeia, look for the star Schedar. In the illustration above, see how the star Schedar points to the galaxy?

Most people use Cassiopeia to find the Andromeda galaxy, because Cassiopeia itself is so easy to spot.

Use the Great Square of Pegasus to find the Andromeda Galaxy. A line between Mirach and Mu Andromedae points to the galaxy.

Find the Andromeda galaxy using the Great Square of Pegasus. Here’s another way to find the galaxy. It’s a longer route, but, in many ways, more beautiful.

You’ll be hopping to the Andromeda galaxy from the Great Square of Pegasus. In autumn, the Great Square of Pegasus looks like a great big baseball diamond in the eastern sky. Envision the bottom star of the Square’s four stars as home plate, then draw an imaginary line from the “first base” star though the “third base” star to locate two streamers of stars flying away from the Great Square. These stars belong to the constellation Andromeda the Princess.

On each streamer, go two stars north (left) of the third base star, locating the stars Mirach and Mu Andromedae. Draw a line from Mirach through Mu Andromedae, going twice the Mirach/Mu Andromedae distance. You’ve just landed on the Andromeda galaxy, which looks like a smudge of light to the unaided eye.

If you can’t see the Andromeda galaxy with the eye alone, by all means use binoculars.

The Great Andromeda Nebula, photographed in the year 1900. At this point, astronomers could not discern individual stars in the galaxy. Many thought it was a cloud of gas within our Milky Way – a place where new stars were forming.Image via Wikimedia Commons.

History of our knowledge of the Andromeda galaxy. At one time, the Andromeda galaxy was called the Great Andromeda Nebula. Astronomers thought this patch of light was composed of glowing gases, or was perhaps a solar system in the process of formation.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that astronomers were able to resolve the Andromeda spiral nebula into individual stars. This discovery lead to a controversy about whether the Andromeda spiral nebula and other spiral nebulae lie within or outside the Milky Way.

In the 1920s Edwin Hubble finally put the matter to rest, when he used Cepheid variable stars within the Andromeda galaxy to determine that it is indeed an island universe residing beyond the bounds of our Milky Way galaxy.

Artist’s concept of our Local Group via Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Andromeda and Milky Way in context. The Andromeda galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy reign as the two most massive and dominant galaxies within the Local Group of Galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which, in addition to the Milky Way, also contains the Triangulum Galaxy and about 30 other smaller galaxies.

Both the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies lay claim to about a dozen satellite galaxies. Both are some 100,000 light-years across, containing enough mass to make billions of stars.

Astronomers have discovered that our Local Group is on the outskirts of a giant cluster of several thousand galaxies, which astronomers call the Virgo Cluster.

We also know of an irregular supercluster of galaxies, which contains the Virgo Cluster, which in turn contains our Local Group, which in turn contains our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Andromeda galaxy. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within this Virgo Supercluster. Its diameter is thought to be about 110 million light-years.

The Virgo Supercluster is thought to be one of millions of superclusters in the observable universe.

View larger | View zoomable image | A portion of the Andromeda galaxy via NASA/ESA.

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) is at RA: 0h 42.7m; Dec: 41^o 16′ north

Bottom line: At 2.5 million light-years, the Great Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31) rates as the most distant object you can see with the unaided eye.

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It’s raining plastic in the Rocky Mountains

Image via Flickr/tinyfroglet.

In a new study, researchers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) discovered multicolored microplastic shards, beads and fibers in more than 90 percent of rainwater samples taken from across Colorado, including samples for more than 2 miles (3,000 meters) high in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that pollute the environment. Microplastics aren’t a specific kind of plastic, but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than 5 mm (.2 inches) in length.

Researcher chemist Gregory Weatherbee is lead author of the USGS study. He told The Guardian:

I think the most important result that we can share with the American public is that there’s more plastic out there than meets the eye. It’s in the rain, it’s in the snow. It’s a part of our environment now.

They believe garbage dumped in the environment is the main source of microplastics, as well as plastic fibers released from synthetic clothes.

Rainwater samples collected across Colorado and analyzed under a microscope contained a rainbow of plastic fibers. Image via USGS.

The researchers, who were studying nitrogen pollution at the time, collected rainwater samples from across Colorado and analyzed them using microscopes.

The growth in single-use consumer plastics has fueled a surge in plastic pollution across the globe.Other recent studies have turned up microplastics high in the remote Pyrenees Mountains, in the deepest part of the ocean, in Arctic sea ice, and in U.S. groundwater.

It is estimated there are now 5.25 trillion pieces of ocean plastic debris, and a recent report estimated the quantity of plastic in the sea will triple by 2025.

Bottom line: A recent study has discovered microplastics in rainwater over the Rocky Mountains.

Source: It is Raining Plastic

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Image via Flickr/tinyfroglet.

In a new study, researchers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) discovered multicolored microplastic shards, beads and fibers in more than 90 percent of rainwater samples taken from across Colorado, including samples for more than 2 miles (3,000 meters) high in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that pollute the environment. Microplastics aren’t a specific kind of plastic, but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than 5 mm (.2 inches) in length.

Researcher chemist Gregory Weatherbee is lead author of the USGS study. He told The Guardian:

I think the most important result that we can share with the American public is that there’s more plastic out there than meets the eye. It’s in the rain, it’s in the snow. It’s a part of our environment now.

They believe garbage dumped in the environment is the main source of microplastics, as well as plastic fibers released from synthetic clothes.

Rainwater samples collected across Colorado and analyzed under a microscope contained a rainbow of plastic fibers. Image via USGS.

The researchers, who were studying nitrogen pollution at the time, collected rainwater samples from across Colorado and analyzed them using microscopes.

The growth in single-use consumer plastics has fueled a surge in plastic pollution across the globe.Other recent studies have turned up microplastics high in the remote Pyrenees Mountains, in the deepest part of the ocean, in Arctic sea ice, and in U.S. groundwater.

It is estimated there are now 5.25 trillion pieces of ocean plastic debris, and a recent report estimated the quantity of plastic in the sea will triple by 2025.

Bottom line: A recent study has discovered microplastics in rainwater over the Rocky Mountains.

Source: It is Raining Plastic

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2YOKcrk

Did these tardigrades survive crash-landing on the moon?

Meet a tardigrade, also known as a water bear. A few thousand of them (dehydrated) were sent to the moon on the Beresheet spacecraft, which crashed on April 22, 2019. They’re cute … right? Image via Eye of Science/Science Source/ScienceNews.

Tardigrades – also known as water bears – are some of the toughest and most resilient creatures on Earth, even though they are virtually microscopic in size, less than a millimeter long. They’re known to be able to survive almost any environment you can throw them into, even space. Now, it seems that some of them (or possibly their remains) are calling the moon home, thanks to a crash landing of a spacecraft a few months ago. But while tardigrades might be hardy, there’s no reason to think they’ll be taking over our nearest celestial neighbor, any time soon.

The tardigrades were part of a “lunar library” sent to the moon on Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft. That library was a project of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create “a backup of planet Earth.” The library, the size of a DVD, included 30 million pages of information, human DNA samples and thousands of dehydrated tardigrades.

Beresheet attempted its landing in the Sea of Serenity on April 11, 2019, but crashed after a problem with the engine in the last moments. As Nova Spivack, founder of AMF, recounted:

For the first 24 hours we were just in shock. We sort of expected that it would be successful. We knew there were risks but we didn’t think the risks were that significant.

The impact site of the Beresheet spacecraft in the Sea of Serenity region of the moon, as seen on April 22, 2019. The lunar library onboard contained various samples of DNA from Earth, including dehydrated tardigrades. Image via NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Wired.

Since Beresheet had crashed, Spivack and others needed to know the fate of the library. Did it survive the crash? What about the tardigrades? Were they strewn across the lunar surface when the crash occurred? Since the library was designed to last millions of years, and considering its composition – made of thin sheets of nickel – and the trajectory of the spacecraft in the final moments, Spivack thinks it likely did remain mostly intact.

In all likelihood then, the tardigrades in the library are still sitting there in their dehydrated dormant state as they were, waiting to be revived again. They can’t do that on their own, though; they need to be brought back to Earth so they can be exposed to an atmosphere again. Only then can they be rehydrated, so there is little worry about them taking over and colonizing the moon!

The idea was to see how well the tardigrades survived the trip to the moon and whether they could be revived again later. Tardigrades are known for entering dormant states in which all metabolic processes stop and the water in their cells is replaced by a protein that turns the cells into glass. This is completely normal for them. Tardigrades have been revived as much as 10 years after becoming dormant, although scientists think they could probably survive much longer without water.

Spivack hadn’t originally planned to send any DNA to the moon this soon, tardigrades or otherwise, but then changed his mind a few weeks before the library was sent to the Israelis. As well as the dehydrated tardigrades, other samples were included in the epoxy resin between each layer of nickel. These included hair follicles and blood from Spivack himself and 24 other people. Even some samples from holy sites were included, such as the Bodhi tree in India.

A section of AMF’s lunar library containing thousands of tiny, high-resolution images of book pages. Image via Bruce Ha/Wired.

A copy of the first nickel layer of the lunar library. The center image was removed in the actual library. Image via Bruce Ha/Wired.

The library also contains delicate engravings in the nickel, which were done by scientist Bruce Ha, who had developed a technique for engraving high-resolution, nano-scale images into nickel. Images were etched into glass using lasers and then nickel is deposited in a layer on top, atom by atom. The images look holographic – three-dimensional – and are so small you need a microscope with 1,000x magnification to see them.

There was some concern that the resin might damage the nickel engravings but Spivack said it may actually have helped saved the library from destruction on impact:

Ironically, our payload may be the only surviving thing from that mission.

There are 25 layers of nickel in the library, each one only a few microns thick (one micron is one thousandth of a millimeter). Those layers contain a wide range of earthly goodies: 60,000 high-resolution images of book pages, include language primers, textbooks, and keys to decoding the other 21 layers. This includes nearly all of the English Wikipedia, thousands of classic books, and even the secrets to David Copperfield’s magic tricks. All of that is found in only the first four layers. Other layers contain the DNA samples and tardigrades.

Artist’s concept of Beresheet on the moon. Unfortunately, the lander crashed instead. Image via SpaceIL/The Verge.

Spivack wants to send more similar libraries to the moon and beyond in the future, including DNA samples. The idea is too have multiple “backups” of life on our planet, including from endangered species. It’s an elegant solution, since thousands of copies of the library can easily be made, and terabytes of data can be kept in a small vial of liquid. A new AMF crowdfunding campaign this fall will solicit DNA samples from volunteers to include on the next moon mission. It would seem prudent to have backup copies of life on this planet, as Spivack explained:

Our job, as the hard backup of this planet, is to make sure that we protect our heritage, both our knowledge and our biology. We have to sort of plan for the worst.

Bottom line: Some of the hardiest organisms known on Earth, tardigrades, were aboard the Beresheet spacecraft that crashed on the moon last April. But with no atmosphere or water, there’s practically no chance they could revive themselves out of their dormant dehydrative state.

Via Wired

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Meet a tardigrade, also known as a water bear. A few thousand of them (dehydrated) were sent to the moon on the Beresheet spacecraft, which crashed on April 22, 2019. They’re cute … right? Image via Eye of Science/Science Source/ScienceNews.

Tardigrades – also known as water bears – are some of the toughest and most resilient creatures on Earth, even though they are virtually microscopic in size, less than a millimeter long. They’re known to be able to survive almost any environment you can throw them into, even space. Now, it seems that some of them (or possibly their remains) are calling the moon home, thanks to a crash landing of a spacecraft a few months ago. But while tardigrades might be hardy, there’s no reason to think they’ll be taking over our nearest celestial neighbor, any time soon.

The tardigrades were part of a “lunar library” sent to the moon on Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft. That library was a project of the Arch Mission Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create “a backup of planet Earth.” The library, the size of a DVD, included 30 million pages of information, human DNA samples and thousands of dehydrated tardigrades.

Beresheet attempted its landing in the Sea of Serenity on April 11, 2019, but crashed after a problem with the engine in the last moments. As Nova Spivack, founder of AMF, recounted:

For the first 24 hours we were just in shock. We sort of expected that it would be successful. We knew there were risks but we didn’t think the risks were that significant.

The impact site of the Beresheet spacecraft in the Sea of Serenity region of the moon, as seen on April 22, 2019. The lunar library onboard contained various samples of DNA from Earth, including dehydrated tardigrades. Image via NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Wired.

Since Beresheet had crashed, Spivack and others needed to know the fate of the library. Did it survive the crash? What about the tardigrades? Were they strewn across the lunar surface when the crash occurred? Since the library was designed to last millions of years, and considering its composition – made of thin sheets of nickel – and the trajectory of the spacecraft in the final moments, Spivack thinks it likely did remain mostly intact.

In all likelihood then, the tardigrades in the library are still sitting there in their dehydrated dormant state as they were, waiting to be revived again. They can’t do that on their own, though; they need to be brought back to Earth so they can be exposed to an atmosphere again. Only then can they be rehydrated, so there is little worry about them taking over and colonizing the moon!

The idea was to see how well the tardigrades survived the trip to the moon and whether they could be revived again later. Tardigrades are known for entering dormant states in which all metabolic processes stop and the water in their cells is replaced by a protein that turns the cells into glass. This is completely normal for them. Tardigrades have been revived as much as 10 years after becoming dormant, although scientists think they could probably survive much longer without water.

Spivack hadn’t originally planned to send any DNA to the moon this soon, tardigrades or otherwise, but then changed his mind a few weeks before the library was sent to the Israelis. As well as the dehydrated tardigrades, other samples were included in the epoxy resin between each layer of nickel. These included hair follicles and blood from Spivack himself and 24 other people. Even some samples from holy sites were included, such as the Bodhi tree in India.

A section of AMF’s lunar library containing thousands of tiny, high-resolution images of book pages. Image via Bruce Ha/Wired.

A copy of the first nickel layer of the lunar library. The center image was removed in the actual library. Image via Bruce Ha/Wired.

The library also contains delicate engravings in the nickel, which were done by scientist Bruce Ha, who had developed a technique for engraving high-resolution, nano-scale images into nickel. Images were etched into glass using lasers and then nickel is deposited in a layer on top, atom by atom. The images look holographic – three-dimensional – and are so small you need a microscope with 1,000x magnification to see them.

There was some concern that the resin might damage the nickel engravings but Spivack said it may actually have helped saved the library from destruction on impact:

Ironically, our payload may be the only surviving thing from that mission.

There are 25 layers of nickel in the library, each one only a few microns thick (one micron is one thousandth of a millimeter). Those layers contain a wide range of earthly goodies: 60,000 high-resolution images of book pages, include language primers, textbooks, and keys to decoding the other 21 layers. This includes nearly all of the English Wikipedia, thousands of classic books, and even the secrets to David Copperfield’s magic tricks. All of that is found in only the first four layers. Other layers contain the DNA samples and tardigrades.

Artist’s concept of Beresheet on the moon. Unfortunately, the lander crashed instead. Image via SpaceIL/The Verge.

Spivack wants to send more similar libraries to the moon and beyond in the future, including DNA samples. The idea is too have multiple “backups” of life on our planet, including from endangered species. It’s an elegant solution, since thousands of copies of the library can easily be made, and terabytes of data can be kept in a small vial of liquid. A new AMF crowdfunding campaign this fall will solicit DNA samples from volunteers to include on the next moon mission. It would seem prudent to have backup copies of life on this planet, as Spivack explained:

Our job, as the hard backup of this planet, is to make sure that we protect our heritage, both our knowledge and our biology. We have to sort of plan for the worst.

Bottom line: Some of the hardiest organisms known on Earth, tardigrades, were aboard the Beresheet spacecraft that crashed on the moon last April. But with no atmosphere or water, there’s practically no chance they could revive themselves out of their dormant dehydrative state.

Via Wired

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2N8NU7M

What are the full moon names?

Full moon over Rillings Hills near Colorado Springs, Colorado, via Forrest Boutin Photography.

The 2019 lunar calendars are here! Order yours before they’re gone. Makes a great gift.

Some almanacs like to give each month a special full moon name. Other almanacs like to reference full moons relative to seasonal markers, as defined by equinoxes and solstices. Is one way better than the other? No. Both have their roots in folklore. Of course, both the monthly names and the seasonal names necessarily favor either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. That’s because the moon has different characteristics in the two hemispheres, at opposite times of year. For example, the Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. So it falls in September or October for the Northern Hemisphere, and it falls in March or April for the Southern Hemisphere.

Find lists of common full moon names, below.

Northern Hemisphere full moon names by month

Southern Hemisphere full moon names by month

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere)

When is the next Blue Moon?

Full moon setting. Photo via Carl Galloway.

Full moon via EarthSky Facebook friend Lee Capps.

Northern Hemisphere full moon names by month:
January: Old Moon, Moon After Yule
February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
March: Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Lenten Moon
April: Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Pink Moon
May: Flower Moon, Planting Moon, Milk Moon
June: Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon
July: Thunder Moon, Hay Moon
August: Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon
September: Fruit Moon, Harvest Moon
October: Harvest Moon, Hunter’s Moon
November: Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, Beaver Moon
December: Cold Moon, Moon Before Yule, Long Night Moon

Southern Hemisphere full moon names by month:
January: Hay Moon, Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, Mead Moon
February (mid-summer): Grain Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon, Wyrt Moon, Corn Moon, Dog Moon, Barley Moon
March: Harvest Moon, Corn Moon
April: Harvest Moon, Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon
May: Hunter’s Moon, Beaver Moon, Frost Moon
June: Oak Moon, Cold Moon, Long Night Moon
July: Wolf Moon, Old Moon, Ice Moon
August: Snow Moon, Storm Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
September: Worm Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, Chaste Moon, Sap Moon
October: Egg Moon, Fish Moon, Seed Moon, Pink Moon, Waking Moon
November: Corn Moon, Milk Moon, Flower Moon, Hare Moon
December: Strawberry Moon, Honey Moon, Rose Moon

About once every 19 years, February has no full moon at all.

Moreover, in seven out of every 19 years, two full moons will fall in the same calendar month. And in a year where February has no full moon at all, as in the year 2018, you can actually have two full moons in January and two full moons in March, in which case you have eight calendar months with two full moons in one 19-year lunar cycle. The second of the month’s two full moons is popularly referred to as a Blue Moon. Read about the March Blue Moon.

Full moon from EarthSky Facebook friend Fernando Alvarenga in San Salvador.

Full moon via Flickr user Ava Verino.

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere):
After the winter solstice:
Old Moon, or Moon After Yule
Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, or Wolf Moon
Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon

After the spring equinox:
Grass Moon, or Egg Moon
Planting Moon, or Milk Moon
Rose Moon, Flower Moon, or Strawberry Moon

After the summer solstice:
Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon
Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon
Fruit Moon, or Harvest Moon

After the autumnal equinox:
Harvest Moon, or Hunter’s Moon
Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon

There are usually three full moons between an equinox and a solstice, or vice versa. Seven times in 19 years, four full moons fall in a single season. In that case, the third of a season’s four full moons is also called a Blue Moon. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on May 21, 2016 and the next will be on May 18, 2019.

Possible to have only 2 full moons in a single season?

.

Full moon via Michelle Eve Photography.

.

Photo via EarthSky Facebook friend Patricia Smith Mims.

Bottom line: Northern and Southern Hemisphere full moon names, listed first by month and then by season.

Read more: 4 keys to understanding moon phases

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2OWcE61

Full moon over Rillings Hills near Colorado Springs, Colorado, via Forrest Boutin Photography.

The 2019 lunar calendars are here! Order yours before they’re gone. Makes a great gift.

Some almanacs like to give each month a special full moon name. Other almanacs like to reference full moons relative to seasonal markers, as defined by equinoxes and solstices. Is one way better than the other? No. Both have their roots in folklore. Of course, both the monthly names and the seasonal names necessarily favor either the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. That’s because the moon has different characteristics in the two hemispheres, at opposite times of year. For example, the Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. So it falls in September or October for the Northern Hemisphere, and it falls in March or April for the Southern Hemisphere.

Find lists of common full moon names, below.

Northern Hemisphere full moon names by month

Southern Hemisphere full moon names by month

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere)

When is the next Blue Moon?

Full moon setting. Photo via Carl Galloway.

Full moon via EarthSky Facebook friend Lee Capps.

Northern Hemisphere full moon names by month:
January: Old Moon, Moon After Yule
February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
March: Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Lenten Moon
April: Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Pink Moon
May: Flower Moon, Planting Moon, Milk Moon
June: Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon
July: Thunder Moon, Hay Moon
August: Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon
September: Fruit Moon, Harvest Moon
October: Harvest Moon, Hunter’s Moon
November: Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, Beaver Moon
December: Cold Moon, Moon Before Yule, Long Night Moon

Southern Hemisphere full moon names by month:
January: Hay Moon, Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, Mead Moon
February (mid-summer): Grain Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon, Wyrt Moon, Corn Moon, Dog Moon, Barley Moon
March: Harvest Moon, Corn Moon
April: Harvest Moon, Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon
May: Hunter’s Moon, Beaver Moon, Frost Moon
June: Oak Moon, Cold Moon, Long Night Moon
July: Wolf Moon, Old Moon, Ice Moon
August: Snow Moon, Storm Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
September: Worm Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, Chaste Moon, Sap Moon
October: Egg Moon, Fish Moon, Seed Moon, Pink Moon, Waking Moon
November: Corn Moon, Milk Moon, Flower Moon, Hare Moon
December: Strawberry Moon, Honey Moon, Rose Moon

About once every 19 years, February has no full moon at all.

Moreover, in seven out of every 19 years, two full moons will fall in the same calendar month. And in a year where February has no full moon at all, as in the year 2018, you can actually have two full moons in January and two full moons in March, in which case you have eight calendar months with two full moons in one 19-year lunar cycle. The second of the month’s two full moons is popularly referred to as a Blue Moon. Read about the March Blue Moon.

Full moon from EarthSky Facebook friend Fernando Alvarenga in San Salvador.

Full moon via Flickr user Ava Verino.

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere):
After the winter solstice:
Old Moon, or Moon After Yule
Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, or Wolf Moon
Sap Moon, Crow Moon or Lenten Moon

After the spring equinox:
Grass Moon, or Egg Moon
Planting Moon, or Milk Moon
Rose Moon, Flower Moon, or Strawberry Moon

After the summer solstice:
Thunder Moon, or Hay Moon
Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon
Fruit Moon, or Harvest Moon

After the autumnal equinox:
Harvest Moon, or Hunter’s Moon
Hunter’s Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon

There are usually three full moons between an equinox and a solstice, or vice versa. Seven times in 19 years, four full moons fall in a single season. In that case, the third of a season’s four full moons is also called a Blue Moon. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on May 21, 2016 and the next will be on May 18, 2019.

Possible to have only 2 full moons in a single season?

.

Full moon via Michelle Eve Photography.

.

Photo via EarthSky Facebook friend Patricia Smith Mims.

Bottom line: Northern and Southern Hemisphere full moon names, listed first by month and then by season.

Read more: 4 keys to understanding moon phases

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2OWcE61

Interacting galaxies

Image via ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans.

This Hubble Space Telescope image – released August 9, 2019 – shows a pair of galaxies known as UGC 2369. The two galaxies are interacting, which means that their mutual gravitational attraction is pulling them closer and closer together and distorting their shapes in the process. You can see a bridge of gas, dust and stars connecting the two galaxies, created when they pulled material out into space across the diminishing divide between them.

According to a description of the image from ESA:

Interaction with others is a common event in the history of most galaxies. For larger galaxies like the Milky Way, the majority of these interactions involve significantly smaller so-called dwarf galaxies. But every few billion years, a more momentous event can occur. For our home galaxy, the next big event will take place in about four billion years, when it will collide with its bigger neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. Over time, the two galaxies will likely merge into one — already nicknamed Milkomeda.

Bottom line: Hubble image of interacting galaxies.

Via NASA

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Tx5fIJ

Image via ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans.

This Hubble Space Telescope image – released August 9, 2019 – shows a pair of galaxies known as UGC 2369. The two galaxies are interacting, which means that their mutual gravitational attraction is pulling them closer and closer together and distorting their shapes in the process. You can see a bridge of gas, dust and stars connecting the two galaxies, created when they pulled material out into space across the diminishing divide between them.

According to a description of the image from ESA:

Interaction with others is a common event in the history of most galaxies. For larger galaxies like the Milky Way, the majority of these interactions involve significantly smaller so-called dwarf galaxies. But every few billion years, a more momentous event can occur. For our home galaxy, the next big event will take place in about four billion years, when it will collide with its bigger neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. Over time, the two galaxies will likely merge into one — already nicknamed Milkomeda.

Bottom line: Hubble image of interacting galaxies.

Via NASA

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Tx5fIJ

Artificial Intelligence labs, immigration and NHS funding: what do the latest Government announcements mean for cancer?

It’s been a busy few weeks for the new Government, with several announcements about science and the NHS. This included £1.8 billion for the NHS to spend on buildings and kit, a new National Artificial Intelligence Lab and a change to immigration rules for the ‘world’s best scientists’.

Here’s what this string of Government commitments could mean for cancer.

Repairs, rebuilds and kit – where is the money going?

First up, the Prime Minister announced £1.8 billion for the NHS in “capital spend”, meaning it will be used to upgrade facilities and equipment.

There’s been some debate about whether this can be called “new money”, as technically, some of it was money that hospitals already had, but couldn’t spend. But whether it’s new or not, it will make a big difference for the many hospitals that urgently need repairs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, said this is ‘just the start’ of the Government’s plans for improving the state of NHS buildings and kit. And it’s a promising sign for cancer: more capital funding could help improve the machines used to diagnose and monitor cancer, like CT scanners, and could also help make sure the NHS has the most up-to-date radiotherapy kit.

But while this will go some way to addressing the immense strain the NHS is under, it won’t fix NHS staffing shortages – and this is our top priority.

Future tech for a future NHS

Next, the Government turned their attention to a new £250 million national Artificial Intelligence (AI) laboratory.

AI covers technology that can perform tasks that otherwise would be done by humans. It could have a big role to play in healthcare in the future, for example by checking scans taken during breast screening, or predicting future demand in hospitals.

One of the reasons AI is so exciting is that it could be used to automate some of the more basic hospital tasks, giving NHS staff more time to spend with patients. And with growing NHS staff shortages, any technology that can help ease the strain is extremely welcome.

New AI tech is being developed all the time, but the NHS doesn’t have a clear idea of how it could be used in practice. That’s where the new National AI Laboratory comes in, testing if and how the new tech can be used in the NHS.

The Secretary of State also announced that up to 5 million people in the UK would get a ‘free personalised health report’, based on their DNA. It’s part of a research project exploring if it’s possible to identify people at higher risk of developing certain diseases – including cancer – and then help them to reduce their risk.

The idea and funding to read the DNA of 5 million healthy people was originally announced in December 2018, but the focus on preventing disease using genome analysis is new. It’s an exciting prospect, but it will be a while before it could benefit patients.

World-leading science needs global talent

Rounding off the week, the Prime Minister announced his intent to change immigration rules for the ‘world’s top scientists’ with plans to remove the current cap on the number allowed to enter each year on a ‘Tier 1’ visa, which is the visa for ‘exceptional’ scientists.

Brexit has created some uncertainty for the future of UK science, so this is a welcome step in the right direction – but there’s still much more to do to make sure science is protected after the UK leaves the EU.

It’s vital that scientists at all career levels can work in the UK, and that researchers based in the UK can collaborate easily with their international counterparts. We’ll be working behind the scenes to influence Government and the EU in the next few months, so that we can continue to make progress in the global fight against cancer.

Good news on the Horizon 2020

And in the final announcement of the week, the Government recommitted to protecting scientists who currently have EU funding – for example, through the Horizon 2020 Programme – if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

In practice, this means the Government will step in to cover any funding that is lost because of a no-deal Brexit, and will evaluate any new research bids that are underway at the time, so the projects might get funding from the UK instead of the EU.

The announcement will be reassuring news for the scientists in the UK who rely on this funding – although many will hope it never comes to that. Many scientists and science funders have raised their concerns about what a no-deal Brexit could mean for science, something we blogged about last year.

And while this is a helpful short-term fix, it won’t be enough to safeguard UK science if we leave the EU without a deal.

What’s next for the NHS?

The last few weeks have seen some encouraging announcements from the new Government, but there’s much more to do. And as our chief executive writes, diagnosing cancer early should be at the top of their list.

Early diagnosis is something both the Government and the NHS already recognise as important – there’s an ambition to diagnose 3 in 4 patients at an early stage by 2028 in NHS England’s long term plan. And if this target is met, thousands more lives could be saved.

It’s a fantastic goal, but the unfortunate reality is that right now there aren’t enough NHS staff to make it happen.

That’s why ahead of the next month’s spending review, where the UK Government decide where to its spend money over the next year, we’re campaigning for a new cancer workforce plan to make sure the NHS has the staff it so desperately needs, now and in the future.

> Join us and ask the new Prime Minister to make beating cancer a priority.

Rose Gray is a policy manager at Cancer Research UK 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/31zUdW3

It’s been a busy few weeks for the new Government, with several announcements about science and the NHS. This included £1.8 billion for the NHS to spend on buildings and kit, a new National Artificial Intelligence Lab and a change to immigration rules for the ‘world’s best scientists’.

Here’s what this string of Government commitments could mean for cancer.

Repairs, rebuilds and kit – where is the money going?

First up, the Prime Minister announced £1.8 billion for the NHS in “capital spend”, meaning it will be used to upgrade facilities and equipment.

There’s been some debate about whether this can be called “new money”, as technically, some of it was money that hospitals already had, but couldn’t spend. But whether it’s new or not, it will make a big difference for the many hospitals that urgently need repairs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, said this is ‘just the start’ of the Government’s plans for improving the state of NHS buildings and kit. And it’s a promising sign for cancer: more capital funding could help improve the machines used to diagnose and monitor cancer, like CT scanners, and could also help make sure the NHS has the most up-to-date radiotherapy kit.

But while this will go some way to addressing the immense strain the NHS is under, it won’t fix NHS staffing shortages – and this is our top priority.

Future tech for a future NHS

Next, the Government turned their attention to a new £250 million national Artificial Intelligence (AI) laboratory.

AI covers technology that can perform tasks that otherwise would be done by humans. It could have a big role to play in healthcare in the future, for example by checking scans taken during breast screening, or predicting future demand in hospitals.

One of the reasons AI is so exciting is that it could be used to automate some of the more basic hospital tasks, giving NHS staff more time to spend with patients. And with growing NHS staff shortages, any technology that can help ease the strain is extremely welcome.

New AI tech is being developed all the time, but the NHS doesn’t have a clear idea of how it could be used in practice. That’s where the new National AI Laboratory comes in, testing if and how the new tech can be used in the NHS.

The Secretary of State also announced that up to 5 million people in the UK would get a ‘free personalised health report’, based on their DNA. It’s part of a research project exploring if it’s possible to identify people at higher risk of developing certain diseases – including cancer – and then help them to reduce their risk.

The idea and funding to read the DNA of 5 million healthy people was originally announced in December 2018, but the focus on preventing disease using genome analysis is new. It’s an exciting prospect, but it will be a while before it could benefit patients.

World-leading science needs global talent

Rounding off the week, the Prime Minister announced his intent to change immigration rules for the ‘world’s top scientists’ with plans to remove the current cap on the number allowed to enter each year on a ‘Tier 1’ visa, which is the visa for ‘exceptional’ scientists.

Brexit has created some uncertainty for the future of UK science, so this is a welcome step in the right direction – but there’s still much more to do to make sure science is protected after the UK leaves the EU.

It’s vital that scientists at all career levels can work in the UK, and that researchers based in the UK can collaborate easily with their international counterparts. We’ll be working behind the scenes to influence Government and the EU in the next few months, so that we can continue to make progress in the global fight against cancer.

Good news on the Horizon 2020

And in the final announcement of the week, the Government recommitted to protecting scientists who currently have EU funding – for example, through the Horizon 2020 Programme – if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

In practice, this means the Government will step in to cover any funding that is lost because of a no-deal Brexit, and will evaluate any new research bids that are underway at the time, so the projects might get funding from the UK instead of the EU.

The announcement will be reassuring news for the scientists in the UK who rely on this funding – although many will hope it never comes to that. Many scientists and science funders have raised their concerns about what a no-deal Brexit could mean for science, something we blogged about last year.

And while this is a helpful short-term fix, it won’t be enough to safeguard UK science if we leave the EU without a deal.

What’s next for the NHS?

The last few weeks have seen some encouraging announcements from the new Government, but there’s much more to do. And as our chief executive writes, diagnosing cancer early should be at the top of their list.

Early diagnosis is something both the Government and the NHS already recognise as important – there’s an ambition to diagnose 3 in 4 patients at an early stage by 2028 in NHS England’s long term plan. And if this target is met, thousands more lives could be saved.

It’s a fantastic goal, but the unfortunate reality is that right now there aren’t enough NHS staff to make it happen.

That’s why ahead of the next month’s spending review, where the UK Government decide where to its spend money over the next year, we’re campaigning for a new cancer workforce plan to make sure the NHS has the staff it so desperately needs, now and in the future.

> Join us and ask the new Prime Minister to make beating cancer a priority.

Rose Gray is a policy manager at Cancer Research UK 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/31zUdW3

Update on India’s Chandrayaan-2 moon mission

Animation of Hohmann transfer – an elliptical orbit used to transfer a spacecraft between two circular orbits around the same body in the same plane. While this GIF shows the Hohmann transfer for NASA’s InSight spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2 shall be following a similar approach on August 14, 2019. From its orbit around the Earth, the spacecraft will enter an elliptical orbit that takes it nearer to the moon. Once there, a series of breaking mechanisms will slow it down for lunar capture. Image via Wikipedia.

With all of the five Earth-bound maneuvers successfully completed as planned, India’s Chandrayaan-2 will be shifting trajectories tomorrow (August 14, 2019). The Lunar Transfer Injection (LTI), scheduled between 0300 to 0400 hours (IST) will glide the spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit precisely aimed to target the moon.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 22, 2019. The 8,488-pound (3850-kg) spacecraft was subjected to multiple orbit raising maneuvers that increased its altitude and decreased the influence of Earth’s gravity on the spacecraft. The fifth and final maneuver was performed on August 6, 2019. According to a statement from ISRO:

Fifth earth bound orbit raising maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully today (August 6, 2019) at 1504 hours (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 1041 seconds. The orbit achieved is 276 x 14,2975 km. All spacecraft parameters are normal.

The next maneuver is Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI), which is scheduled on August 14, 2019, between 0300 – 0400 hrs (IST).

On August 14, the spacecraft’s propulsion systems will fire up once again at a specific point in its orbit around the Earth. This burn will be precisely timed so that the boost given to Chandrayaan-2 will target the spacecraft not to where the moon is at the time of the burn, but where it will be in the near future. This calculation has to be extremely precise since too large a burn can fling the spacecraft past moon’s orbit, and a burn that doesn’t last long enough will not reach the moon at all.

A successful LTI will take Chandrayaan-2 near the moon and allow it to enter the moon’s orbit on August 20, 2019. 48 days after launch, the spacecraft is expected to soft-land on the moon’s south pole on September 7.

Here are a few of the first images captured by Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander:

Image via ISRO

Image via ISRO

Image via ISRO

Bottom line: Chandrayaan-2 is still orbiting the Earth. On August 14, it will be directed towards a path to the moon.

Follow the Chandrayaan-2 mission on Facebook and Twitter

Via ISRO

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31yzfqC

Animation of Hohmann transfer – an elliptical orbit used to transfer a spacecraft between two circular orbits around the same body in the same plane. While this GIF shows the Hohmann transfer for NASA’s InSight spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2 shall be following a similar approach on August 14, 2019. From its orbit around the Earth, the spacecraft will enter an elliptical orbit that takes it nearer to the moon. Once there, a series of breaking mechanisms will slow it down for lunar capture. Image via Wikipedia.

With all of the five Earth-bound maneuvers successfully completed as planned, India’s Chandrayaan-2 will be shifting trajectories tomorrow (August 14, 2019). The Lunar Transfer Injection (LTI), scheduled between 0300 to 0400 hours (IST) will glide the spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit precisely aimed to target the moon.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 22, 2019. The 8,488-pound (3850-kg) spacecraft was subjected to multiple orbit raising maneuvers that increased its altitude and decreased the influence of Earth’s gravity on the spacecraft. The fifth and final maneuver was performed on August 6, 2019. According to a statement from ISRO:

Fifth earth bound orbit raising maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully today (August 6, 2019) at 1504 hours (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 1041 seconds. The orbit achieved is 276 x 14,2975 km. All spacecraft parameters are normal.

The next maneuver is Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI), which is scheduled on August 14, 2019, between 0300 – 0400 hrs (IST).

On August 14, the spacecraft’s propulsion systems will fire up once again at a specific point in its orbit around the Earth. This burn will be precisely timed so that the boost given to Chandrayaan-2 will target the spacecraft not to where the moon is at the time of the burn, but where it will be in the near future. This calculation has to be extremely precise since too large a burn can fling the spacecraft past moon’s orbit, and a burn that doesn’t last long enough will not reach the moon at all.

A successful LTI will take Chandrayaan-2 near the moon and allow it to enter the moon’s orbit on August 20, 2019. 48 days after launch, the spacecraft is expected to soft-land on the moon’s south pole on September 7.

Here are a few of the first images captured by Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander:

Image via ISRO

Image via ISRO

Image via ISRO

Bottom line: Chandrayaan-2 is still orbiting the Earth. On August 14, it will be directed towards a path to the moon.

Follow the Chandrayaan-2 mission on Facebook and Twitter

Via ISRO

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31yzfqC

Astronomers see a new type of pulsating star

Scientists have discovered a new type of pulsating star, called hot subdwarf pulsators. In other words, the stars are hot, they’re on the small side, and they change rapidly in brightness. This photo shows a nebula, or cloud, surrounding a dead giant star, now categorized as a subdwarf O. Photo via European Southern Observatory.

A team of scientists led by UC Santa Barbara researcher Thomas Kupfer announced on August 1, 2019, the discovery of a new class of pulsating star. Stars that pulsate – or change periodically in brightness – might be changing due to a change in the star’s temperature. Or the star might actually be changing its size. Or both temperature and star radius might be changing. True pulsating stars can vary in brightness by some 10 percent, these scientists said. Stars may vary in brightness over second, minutes, days, months or even years. The new pulsators vary in brightness about every five minutes.

News of the discovery was published in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters in June. Kupfer explained in a statement:

Many stars pulsate. Even our sun does on a very small scale. Those with the largest brightness changes are usually radial pulsators, ‘breathing’ in and out as the entire star changes size.

By studying pulsations in detail, scientists can learn about these stars’ interior properties, he said.

Like so many discoveries in astronomy, this one was serendipitous. Kupfer and his colleagues at Caltech were searching for extremely close binary, or double, stars in data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which is located at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. The ZTF uses a 48-inch telescope and a camera with a 47-square-degree field of view to scan (or “survey”) the sky. Four stars stood out due to large changes in their brightness over just a few minutes. Follow-up data quickly confirmed that they were indeed pulsators, not binary pairs.

Kupfer and his collaborators have now identified the stand-out stars as what are called hot subdwarf pulsators. A subdwarf is a star about one-tenth the diameter of the sun with a mass between 20 and 50 percent that of sun. They’re incredibly hot — up to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit (50,000 degrees Celsius), compared to the sun’s 10,000 F (5,500 C). Team member Lars Bildsten, also of UC Santa Barbara, explained:

These stars have certainly completed fusing all of the hydrogen in their core into helium, explaining why they are so small and can oscillate so rapidly.

Read more about the different types of pulsating stars

The team’s statement further explained:

The discovery came as a surprise. Scientists hadn’t previously predicted the existence of these stars … but in retrospect they fit well into the leading models of stellar evolution.

Because of the stars’ low masses, the team believes they started life as typical sun-like stars fusing hydrogen to helium in their cores. After exhausting the hydrogen in their cores, the stars expanded into the red giant stage. Usually, a star will reach its largest radius and begin fusing helium deep in the core. However, the scientists think these newly discovered stars had their outer material stolen by a companion before the helium became hot and dense enough to fuse.

In the past, hot subdwarfs were almost always related to stars which became red giants, started fusing helium in their cores, and then got stripped by a companion. The new findings indicate that this group includes different types of stars.

Kupfer commented:

Some do helium fusion and some don’t.

These astronomers said the stars’ pulsations let them probe the masses and radii of the stars, and then compare these measurements to computer models of how stars behave. UC Santa Barbara astrophysics postdoctoral student Even Bauer (@evbauer_astro on Twitter), also a team member, commented:

We were able to understand the rapid pulsations by matching them to theoretical models with low mass cores made of relatively cold helium.

Thus a chance discovery by a sky survey instrument – which spends its nights silently, steadily observing the heavens – has led to new insights on the way stars evolve. Kupfer commented:

I expect that these large, time-domain surveys like the Zwicky Transient Facility will bring many unexpected discoveries in the future.

Bottom line: Scientists have discovered a new type of pulsating star, called hot subdwarf pulsators. In other words, the stars are hot, they’re on the small side, and they change rapidly in brightness.

Source: A New Class of Large-amplitude Radial-mode Hot Subdwarf Pulsators

Via University of California, Santa Barbara

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31CuFb2

Scientists have discovered a new type of pulsating star, called hot subdwarf pulsators. In other words, the stars are hot, they’re on the small side, and they change rapidly in brightness. This photo shows a nebula, or cloud, surrounding a dead giant star, now categorized as a subdwarf O. Photo via European Southern Observatory.

A team of scientists led by UC Santa Barbara researcher Thomas Kupfer announced on August 1, 2019, the discovery of a new class of pulsating star. Stars that pulsate – or change periodically in brightness – might be changing due to a change in the star’s temperature. Or the star might actually be changing its size. Or both temperature and star radius might be changing. True pulsating stars can vary in brightness by some 10 percent, these scientists said. Stars may vary in brightness over second, minutes, days, months or even years. The new pulsators vary in brightness about every five minutes.

News of the discovery was published in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters in June. Kupfer explained in a statement:

Many stars pulsate. Even our sun does on a very small scale. Those with the largest brightness changes are usually radial pulsators, ‘breathing’ in and out as the entire star changes size.

By studying pulsations in detail, scientists can learn about these stars’ interior properties, he said.

Like so many discoveries in astronomy, this one was serendipitous. Kupfer and his colleagues at Caltech were searching for extremely close binary, or double, stars in data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which is located at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. The ZTF uses a 48-inch telescope and a camera with a 47-square-degree field of view to scan (or “survey”) the sky. Four stars stood out due to large changes in their brightness over just a few minutes. Follow-up data quickly confirmed that they were indeed pulsators, not binary pairs.

Kupfer and his collaborators have now identified the stand-out stars as what are called hot subdwarf pulsators. A subdwarf is a star about one-tenth the diameter of the sun with a mass between 20 and 50 percent that of sun. They’re incredibly hot — up to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit (50,000 degrees Celsius), compared to the sun’s 10,000 F (5,500 C). Team member Lars Bildsten, also of UC Santa Barbara, explained:

These stars have certainly completed fusing all of the hydrogen in their core into helium, explaining why they are so small and can oscillate so rapidly.

Read more about the different types of pulsating stars

The team’s statement further explained:

The discovery came as a surprise. Scientists hadn’t previously predicted the existence of these stars … but in retrospect they fit well into the leading models of stellar evolution.

Because of the stars’ low masses, the team believes they started life as typical sun-like stars fusing hydrogen to helium in their cores. After exhausting the hydrogen in their cores, the stars expanded into the red giant stage. Usually, a star will reach its largest radius and begin fusing helium deep in the core. However, the scientists think these newly discovered stars had their outer material stolen by a companion before the helium became hot and dense enough to fuse.

In the past, hot subdwarfs were almost always related to stars which became red giants, started fusing helium in their cores, and then got stripped by a companion. The new findings indicate that this group includes different types of stars.

Kupfer commented:

Some do helium fusion and some don’t.

These astronomers said the stars’ pulsations let them probe the masses and radii of the stars, and then compare these measurements to computer models of how stars behave. UC Santa Barbara astrophysics postdoctoral student Even Bauer (@evbauer_astro on Twitter), also a team member, commented:

We were able to understand the rapid pulsations by matching them to theoretical models with low mass cores made of relatively cold helium.

Thus a chance discovery by a sky survey instrument – which spends its nights silently, steadily observing the heavens – has led to new insights on the way stars evolve. Kupfer commented:

I expect that these large, time-domain surveys like the Zwicky Transient Facility will bring many unexpected discoveries in the future.

Bottom line: Scientists have discovered a new type of pulsating star, called hot subdwarf pulsators. In other words, the stars are hot, they’re on the small side, and they change rapidly in brightness.

Source: A New Class of Large-amplitude Radial-mode Hot Subdwarf Pulsators

Via University of California, Santa Barbara

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31CuFb2

Perseids sparse, but some saw them

View larger. | Moonlight obscured the peak of the Perseid meteor shower this year; many are saying the shower was sparse. But some people did see meteors. Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona caught this earthgrazer last night, the night of August 12, 2019. Notice its colors! Thanks, Eliot!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | For some, the best meteor-watching hours, shortly before dawn, were a chance to escape the heat and catch a few meteors. Vlad Dumitrescu in Romania caught this image on the morning of August 11. He wrote: “We went out observing and stayed until after the moon went down. The radiant went higher and activity improved. It was a good night to look up and enjoy nice temperatures, after some rough daylight hours, 37 degrees Celsius [98.6 degrees Fahrenheit] warm. Clear skies!” Thank you, Vlad!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Tom Wildoner of the Dark Side Observatory in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, has an automatic camera set-up for meteor observing. He caught this one on August 11 and wrote: “After a quick review of 700 images captured last evening, I only captured a single bright Perseid meteor … You can see this bright meteor streak above center near the constellation Cassiopeia (sideways W) and pointing in the direction of Perseus. The brighter stars have been enhanced in this image to help orient your view, North is marked on the image.” Thanks, Tom!

Bottom line: Photos from the 2019 Perseid meteor shower.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2KLnHJE

View larger. | Moonlight obscured the peak of the Perseid meteor shower this year; many are saying the shower was sparse. But some people did see meteors. Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona caught this earthgrazer last night, the night of August 12, 2019. Notice its colors! Thanks, Eliot!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | For some, the best meteor-watching hours, shortly before dawn, were a chance to escape the heat and catch a few meteors. Vlad Dumitrescu in Romania caught this image on the morning of August 11. He wrote: “We went out observing and stayed until after the moon went down. The radiant went higher and activity improved. It was a good night to look up and enjoy nice temperatures, after some rough daylight hours, 37 degrees Celsius [98.6 degrees Fahrenheit] warm. Clear skies!” Thank you, Vlad!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Tom Wildoner of the Dark Side Observatory in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, has an automatic camera set-up for meteor observing. He caught this one on August 11 and wrote: “After a quick review of 700 images captured last evening, I only captured a single bright Perseid meteor … You can see this bright meteor streak above center near the constellation Cassiopeia (sideways W) and pointing in the direction of Perseus. The brighter stars have been enhanced in this image to help orient your view, North is marked on the image.” Thanks, Tom!

Bottom line: Photos from the 2019 Perseid meteor shower.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2KLnHJE