Isn’t this an amazing shot? Besides being beautiful, it’s also a cool look at the architecture of the bluebird’s wing.
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Isn’t this an amazing shot? Besides being beautiful, it’s also a cool look at the architecture of the bluebird’s wing.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
A composite of Europa made from images from the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited in the jovian system for eight years, beginning in 1995. Areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice. Image via NASA/JPL
This week, as Earth passes between the sun and Jupiter, and the giant planet looms brightest in our sky for 2015, the space community is buzzing with news of positive steps toward NASA’s planned mission to Jupiter’s fascinating moon Europa. On Monday (February 2, 2015), NASA administrator Charles Bolden mentioned the start of a selection process for projects to accompany a Europa mission. On the same day, the White House announced its fiscal year 2016 budget request for NASA, allocating $18.5 billion to the space agency, half a billion more than last year, and including $30 million to formulate this mission. This is in addition to the $100 million added to NASA’s budget last year to begin design work for a Europa mission.
Europa was too far away for the Pioneer spacecraft to see clearly when they passed in 1973 and ’74. Image via history.nasa.gov
A mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa – which is about the same size as Earth’s moon – is a long-cherished dream of space scientists and space fans. We’ve all been fascinated by the little moon since the two Voyager spacecraft swept through the Jovian system in 1979, providing the first detailed images of Europa’s icy surface. Those images caused many scientists to begin to speculate about the possibility of a liquid ocean, and possibly life, below Europa’s ice.
NASA’s latest concept for a Europa mission is called Europa Clipper. It consists of a spacecraft that will orbit Jupiter and conduct 45 low-altitude flybys of Europa during its planned primary mission of 3.5 years. The aim of Europa Clipper will be to explore Europa, while investigating the potential for habitability. The mission will aid selecting sites for a future lander. The probe has been envisioned as carrying ice-penetrating radar, a short-wave infrared spectrometer, a topographical imager, and an ion- and neutral-mass spectrometer.
Europa is thought to have a crust of ice perhaps 100 kilometers (60 miles) thick. Below this crust, space scientists believe, there may be a vast hidden ocean, kept in liquid state by constant squeezing from the powerful gravity of nearby Jupiter.
In a way similar to its thick crust, the ocean layer on Europa may be some 100 kilometers deep. Think of that in contrast to the deepest part of Earth’s ocean, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, a mere 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) deep. Europa’s ocean contains much more water than the oceans on Earth; it may contain some 3 times the amount of water as in all of Earth’s oceans. If it exists, it is likely vastly deeper than Earth’s oceans. And yet, scientists believe, there may be similarities between conditions in the Mariana Trench – where life can be found, even in the cold and dark – and in Europa’s ocean. On Europa, it’s believed, life may extract energy not from the sun via photosynthesis, but from hydrothermal vents, which are openings in the sea floor out of which heated mineral-rich water flows.
Astrobiologist Kevin Hand, JPL’s Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration, said on Monday at a special JPL Icy Worlds media event:
Europa’s ocean, to the best of our knowledge, isn’t that harsh of an environment.
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When Voyager passed Europa in 1979 … wow! The two Voyager spacecraft revolutionized our view of this little world and inspired decades of plans and dreams about space missions to Europa. Voyager 2 captured this image of Europa during its closest approach to the moon on July 9, 1979.
Above the thick, icy crust of Europa, though, it’s a different story. There, conditions are extremely harsh. At Europa’s distance from Jupiter, all space is awash in radiation from Jupiter’s vast radiation belts. The planned Europa Clipper spacecraft will have to dive into the radiation belts to fly over Europa’s surface.
If an unshielded human were aboard the craft, the amount of radiation in the vicinity of Europa is enough to cause severe illness or death after a single day’s exposure. A robotic spacecraft – like the Europa Clipper – will also have to be heavily shielded to endure the amount of radiation in this little moon’s vicinity.
How can life survive in these conditions, you might wonder? Europa’s thick, icy crust is thought to shield its ocean from the powerful radiation above.
The Europa Clipper concept is exciting, but it’s not likely to reveal life at Europa. It won’t be designed to search for life. Kevin Hand explained:
The way we framed the Europa mission science objectives is not to specifically look for life, but to understand habitability; the ingredients for life.
He said a search for life within Europa’s ocean isn’t technologically feasible at this time.
If everything goes according to plan, the Europa Clipper could be ready to launch as early as 2022 at a total cost of about $2 billion.
Europa rising above Jupiter’s cloudtops, as captured by the New Horizons spacecraft – en route to Pluto – in 2007. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: The space community is buzzing with news of positive steps toward NASA’s planned mission to Jupiter’s fascinating moon Europa. The mission is called Europa Clipper.
A composite of Europa made from images from the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited in the jovian system for eight years, beginning in 1995. Areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice. Image via NASA/JPL
This week, as Earth passes between the sun and Jupiter, and the giant planet looms brightest in our sky for 2015, the space community is buzzing with news of positive steps toward NASA’s planned mission to Jupiter’s fascinating moon Europa. On Monday (February 2, 2015), NASA administrator Charles Bolden mentioned the start of a selection process for projects to accompany a Europa mission. On the same day, the White House announced its fiscal year 2016 budget request for NASA, allocating $18.5 billion to the space agency, half a billion more than last year, and including $30 million to formulate this mission. This is in addition to the $100 million added to NASA’s budget last year to begin design work for a Europa mission.
Europa was too far away for the Pioneer spacecraft to see clearly when they passed in 1973 and ’74. Image via history.nasa.gov
A mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa – which is about the same size as Earth’s moon – is a long-cherished dream of space scientists and space fans. We’ve all been fascinated by the little moon since the two Voyager spacecraft swept through the Jovian system in 1979, providing the first detailed images of Europa’s icy surface. Those images caused many scientists to begin to speculate about the possibility of a liquid ocean, and possibly life, below Europa’s ice.
NASA’s latest concept for a Europa mission is called Europa Clipper. It consists of a spacecraft that will orbit Jupiter and conduct 45 low-altitude flybys of Europa during its planned primary mission of 3.5 years. The aim of Europa Clipper will be to explore Europa, while investigating the potential for habitability. The mission will aid selecting sites for a future lander. The probe has been envisioned as carrying ice-penetrating radar, a short-wave infrared spectrometer, a topographical imager, and an ion- and neutral-mass spectrometer.
Europa is thought to have a crust of ice perhaps 100 kilometers (60 miles) thick. Below this crust, space scientists believe, there may be a vast hidden ocean, kept in liquid state by constant squeezing from the powerful gravity of nearby Jupiter.
In a way similar to its thick crust, the ocean layer on Europa may be some 100 kilometers deep. Think of that in contrast to the deepest part of Earth’s ocean, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, a mere 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) deep. Europa’s ocean contains much more water than the oceans on Earth; it may contain some 3 times the amount of water as in all of Earth’s oceans. If it exists, it is likely vastly deeper than Earth’s oceans. And yet, scientists believe, there may be similarities between conditions in the Mariana Trench – where life can be found, even in the cold and dark – and in Europa’s ocean. On Europa, it’s believed, life may extract energy not from the sun via photosynthesis, but from hydrothermal vents, which are openings in the sea floor out of which heated mineral-rich water flows.
Astrobiologist Kevin Hand, JPL’s Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration, said on Monday at a special JPL Icy Worlds media event:
Europa’s ocean, to the best of our knowledge, isn’t that harsh of an environment.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
When Voyager passed Europa in 1979 … wow! The two Voyager spacecraft revolutionized our view of this little world and inspired decades of plans and dreams about space missions to Europa. Voyager 2 captured this image of Europa during its closest approach to the moon on July 9, 1979.
Above the thick, icy crust of Europa, though, it’s a different story. There, conditions are extremely harsh. At Europa’s distance from Jupiter, all space is awash in radiation from Jupiter’s vast radiation belts. The planned Europa Clipper spacecraft will have to dive into the radiation belts to fly over Europa’s surface.
If an unshielded human were aboard the craft, the amount of radiation in the vicinity of Europa is enough to cause severe illness or death after a single day’s exposure. A robotic spacecraft – like the Europa Clipper – will also have to be heavily shielded to endure the amount of radiation in this little moon’s vicinity.
How can life survive in these conditions, you might wonder? Europa’s thick, icy crust is thought to shield its ocean from the powerful radiation above.
The Europa Clipper concept is exciting, but it’s not likely to reveal life at Europa. It won’t be designed to search for life. Kevin Hand explained:
The way we framed the Europa mission science objectives is not to specifically look for life, but to understand habitability; the ingredients for life.
He said a search for life within Europa’s ocean isn’t technologically feasible at this time.
If everything goes according to plan, the Europa Clipper could be ready to launch as early as 2022 at a total cost of about $2 billion.
Europa rising above Jupiter’s cloudtops, as captured by the New Horizons spacecraft – en route to Pluto – in 2007. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: The space community is buzzing with news of positive steps toward NASA’s planned mission to Jupiter’s fascinating moon Europa. The mission is called Europa Clipper.
Tonight – February 4, 2015 – the full-looking waning gibbous moon closely partners up with Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. There’s an even brighter starlike object nearby, but it’s not a star. It’s the blazing planet Jupiter, now only two days away from its annual opposition and so now at its brightest and best. From North America, the moon is closer to Reg ulus than Jupiter. From Africa, Europe and Asia, the moon shines in the vicinity of Regulus but is more offset toward Jupiter. You’ll find these object above your eastern horizon at early evening. They climb highest up for the night at roughly 1 a.m. local time and sit low in the west as darkness gives way to dawn on February 5.
The moon and Regulus go westward during the night for the same reason that the sun travels westward across the sky during the day. The Earth rotates from west-to-east on its axis, making it appear as if the sun, moon, planets and stars move westward across the sky while the Earth stays still.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
If you’re up before sunrise on February 5, look for the moon, Jupiter and Regulus in the western sky.
Regulus is the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Here’s how to find Leo anytime. An imaginary line drawn between the pointer stars in the Big Dipper – the two outer stars in the Dipper’s bowl – points in one direction toward Polaris, the North Star, and in the opposite direction toward Leo.
In fact, the moon’s orbital direction is actually eastward (toward sunrise). Note the moon’s position relative to Regulus tonight. Then note its position relative to Regulus tomorrow night – or 24 hours later. The moon’s change of position in front of the background stars lets you know how far the moon revolves around our planet Earth in one day.
Regulus is well known for its extremely fast rotation rate. Our sun takes nearly four weeks to complete one rotation. In contrast, Regulus rotates one time in only 16 hours. This star has an equatorial diameter that’s 4.3 times greater than the sun’s but it still rotates at 700,000 miles (1,100,000 kilometers) per hour. At that speed, you could reach the moon in a little over twenty minutes!
Starting on December 18, 2016, a series of monthly lunar occultations of Regulus will take place until the series’ conclusion on April 24, 2018.
Bottom line: Enjoy the pairing of the waning gibbous moon and star Regulus on this Tuesday night, February 4, 2015! The blazing planet Jupiter – now at its best for this year – is nearby.
Live by the moon with your 2015 EarthSky lunar calendar!
Donate: Your support means the world to us
Tonight – February 4, 2015 – the full-looking waning gibbous moon closely partners up with Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. There’s an even brighter starlike object nearby, but it’s not a star. It’s the blazing planet Jupiter, now only two days away from its annual opposition and so now at its brightest and best. From North America, the moon is closer to Reg ulus than Jupiter. From Africa, Europe and Asia, the moon shines in the vicinity of Regulus but is more offset toward Jupiter. You’ll find these object above your eastern horizon at early evening. They climb highest up for the night at roughly 1 a.m. local time and sit low in the west as darkness gives way to dawn on February 5.
The moon and Regulus go westward during the night for the same reason that the sun travels westward across the sky during the day. The Earth rotates from west-to-east on its axis, making it appear as if the sun, moon, planets and stars move westward across the sky while the Earth stays still.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
If you’re up before sunrise on February 5, look for the moon, Jupiter and Regulus in the western sky.
Regulus is the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Here’s how to find Leo anytime. An imaginary line drawn between the pointer stars in the Big Dipper – the two outer stars in the Dipper’s bowl – points in one direction toward Polaris, the North Star, and in the opposite direction toward Leo.
In fact, the moon’s orbital direction is actually eastward (toward sunrise). Note the moon’s position relative to Regulus tonight. Then note its position relative to Regulus tomorrow night – or 24 hours later. The moon’s change of position in front of the background stars lets you know how far the moon revolves around our planet Earth in one day.
Regulus is well known for its extremely fast rotation rate. Our sun takes nearly four weeks to complete one rotation. In contrast, Regulus rotates one time in only 16 hours. This star has an equatorial diameter that’s 4.3 times greater than the sun’s but it still rotates at 700,000 miles (1,100,000 kilometers) per hour. At that speed, you could reach the moon in a little over twenty minutes!
Starting on December 18, 2016, a series of monthly lunar occultations of Regulus will take place until the series’ conclusion on April 24, 2018.
Bottom line: Enjoy the pairing of the waning gibbous moon and star Regulus on this Tuesday night, February 4, 2015! The blazing planet Jupiter – now at its best for this year – is nearby.
Live by the moon with your 2015 EarthSky lunar calendar!
Donate: Your support means the world to us
As I mentioned last week, I did a presentation at the recent Ontario Library Association Super Conference using my work on Canadian science policy as a case study in altmetrics.
Here’s the session description:
802F Altmetrics in Action: Documenting Cuts to Federal Government Science: An Altmetrics Case Study
The gold standard for measuring scholarly impact is journal article citations. In the online environment we can expand both the conception of scholarly output and how we measure their impact. Blog posts, downloads, page views, comments on blogs, Twitter or Reddit or Stumpleupon mentions, Facebook likes, Television, radio or newspaper interviews, online engagement from political leaders, speaking invitations: all are non-traditional measures of scholarly impact. This session will use a case study to explore the pros & cons of the new Altmetrics movement, taking a blog post documenting recent cuts in federal government science and analysing the various kinds of impact it has had beyond academia.
- Understand what Altmetrics are
- Understand what some pros and cons are of using Altmetrics to measure research impact
- Ways that academic librarians can use altmetrics to engage their campus communities.
I have an altmetrics reading list that I’ve compiled for the presentation here.
Here are my slides:
Thanks to my friend and Queen’s University colleague Nasser Saleh for stepping in at the end and convening my session. Overall it was a pretty good crowd and I thought the presentation went very well.
As I mentioned last week, I did a presentation at the recent Ontario Library Association Super Conference using my work on Canadian science policy as a case study in altmetrics.
Here’s the session description:
802F Altmetrics in Action: Documenting Cuts to Federal Government Science: An Altmetrics Case Study
The gold standard for measuring scholarly impact is journal article citations. In the online environment we can expand both the conception of scholarly output and how we measure their impact. Blog posts, downloads, page views, comments on blogs, Twitter or Reddit or Stumpleupon mentions, Facebook likes, Television, radio or newspaper interviews, online engagement from political leaders, speaking invitations: all are non-traditional measures of scholarly impact. This session will use a case study to explore the pros & cons of the new Altmetrics movement, taking a blog post documenting recent cuts in federal government science and analysing the various kinds of impact it has had beyond academia.
- Understand what Altmetrics are
- Understand what some pros and cons are of using Altmetrics to measure research impact
- Ways that academic librarians can use altmetrics to engage their campus communities.
I have an altmetrics reading list that I’ve compiled for the presentation here.
Here are my slides:
Thanks to my friend and Queen’s University colleague Nasser Saleh for stepping in at the end and convening my session. Overall it was a pretty good crowd and I thought the presentation went very well.
If national lawmakers took action on less than a dozen policy fronts, they could reduce child poverty in the U.S. by a whopping 60 percent. In sheer numbers, such a reduction would lift 6.6 million children out of poverty and significantly improve their opportunities for living long and fruitful lives. For the public health field, in particular, targeting poverty — a root determinant of lifelong disease and disability — could put an entire generation on a trajectory toward better health and well-being.
Those numbers are from the Children’s Defense Fund, which late last month released “Ending Child Poverty Now,” a report that provides a policy blueprint for cutting child poverty by more than half by building on policies and programs already in place. In fact, the report found that the nation could achieve this mark by investing just an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing efforts that increase employment, boost wages for low-income families and ensure that children’s basic needs, such as nutrition, are met. Currently, the U.S. has the second-highest child poverty rate among 35 industrialized nations — our children face a one in five chance of living in poverty. (The latest data show that 22 percent of U.S. children live in households with incomes below the federal poverty level — that’s less than $24,000 a year for a family of four.) The report reads:
Growing up poor has lifelong negative consequences, decreasing the likelihood of graduating from high school and increasing the likelihood of becoming a poor adult, suffering from poor health, and becoming involved in the criminal justice system. These impacts cost the nation at least half a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity and increased health and crime costs. Letting a fifth of our children grow up poor prevents them from having equal opportunities to succeed in life and robs the nation of their future contributions.
To analyze the potential impact, researchers from the Urban Institute examined nine policy changes: increasing the earned income tax credit for low-income families; increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10; creating subsidized job opportunities for unemployed and underemployed people in families with children; and expanding child care subsidies. The report also examined enhancing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit; increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (the program formerly known as food stamps); making the child tax credit fully refundable; expanding access to housing vouchers; and disregarding child support payments when calculating eligibility for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as well as passing full child support payments on to custodial parents (for TANF families, child support payments go through the TANF program and large portions are often kept by the state to offset the cost of assistance, though states can waive that option.)
Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure — a new measure the Census recently began using to better illustrate the complexities of poverty — researchers calculated a variety of far-reaching benefits. In addition to lifting 6.6 million children out of poverty, the proposed policy changes would reduce poverty among children younger than 3 by 64 percent as well as improve the economic conditions of an additional 4 million poor children, though those children would still be living below the poverty line. The changes would also reduce poverty among black children, who experience the highest poverty rates, by 72 percent, and single-parent families would experience a decline in poverty rates of 64 percent.
Getting down to the individual policy level, researchers found that expanding access to housing vouchers for low-income families with children had the greatest impact — a child poverty reduction of 21 percent. Increasing SNAP benefits was the second-most effective individual policy, reducing child poverty by 16.2 percent. Expanding the earned income tax credit would reduce child poverty by 8.8 percent, and expanding access to child care subsidies would reduce the rate by 3.1 percent. Assuming that a hike in the federal minimum wage would also affect workers making slightly below the current floor of $7.25 and slight higher than the new wage of $10.10, researchers calculated that raising the minimum wage would reduce child poverty by 4 percent. However, the change that affected income most was a transitional jobs program, in which an estimated 2.5 million parents would be expected to participate and which reduce child poverty by 10.7 percent.
Of course, reducing childhood poverty doesn’t happen without a significant investment. The Urban Institute researchers estimate that the policy changes would increase government expenditures by $77.2 billion. But to put that spending package in context, consider it equals just 0.5 percent of the size of the 2010 U.S. gross national product. Plus, the report found that the policy package would narrow the poverty gap by more than $28 billion, which translates into a 36.5-cent poverty reduction for every one dollar of new government funding.
“The Urban Institute’s analysis for (the Children’s Defense Fund) is clear: by investing more in existing programs the U.S. could substantially decrease child poverty immediately,” the report reads. “Shrinking child poverty by 60 percent and improving economic circumstances for 97 percent of poor children would improve the life chances of millions of children, bring child poverty in the U.S. in line with rates in other high-income countries, and help prevent poverty in the future.”
To read the full report, visit the Children’s Defense Fund. And click here for an accompanying report from the Urban Institute. Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on child health and poverty.
Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for more than a decade.
If national lawmakers took action on less than a dozen policy fronts, they could reduce child poverty in the U.S. by a whopping 60 percent. In sheer numbers, such a reduction would lift 6.6 million children out of poverty and significantly improve their opportunities for living long and fruitful lives. For the public health field, in particular, targeting poverty — a root determinant of lifelong disease and disability — could put an entire generation on a trajectory toward better health and well-being.
Those numbers are from the Children’s Defense Fund, which late last month released “Ending Child Poverty Now,” a report that provides a policy blueprint for cutting child poverty by more than half by building on policies and programs already in place. In fact, the report found that the nation could achieve this mark by investing just an additional 2 percent of the federal budget into existing efforts that increase employment, boost wages for low-income families and ensure that children’s basic needs, such as nutrition, are met. Currently, the U.S. has the second-highest child poverty rate among 35 industrialized nations — our children face a one in five chance of living in poverty. (The latest data show that 22 percent of U.S. children live in households with incomes below the federal poverty level — that’s less than $24,000 a year for a family of four.) The report reads:
Growing up poor has lifelong negative consequences, decreasing the likelihood of graduating from high school and increasing the likelihood of becoming a poor adult, suffering from poor health, and becoming involved in the criminal justice system. These impacts cost the nation at least half a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity and increased health and crime costs. Letting a fifth of our children grow up poor prevents them from having equal opportunities to succeed in life and robs the nation of their future contributions.
To analyze the potential impact, researchers from the Urban Institute examined nine policy changes: increasing the earned income tax credit for low-income families; increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10; creating subsidized job opportunities for unemployed and underemployed people in families with children; and expanding child care subsidies. The report also examined enhancing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit; increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (the program formerly known as food stamps); making the child tax credit fully refundable; expanding access to housing vouchers; and disregarding child support payments when calculating eligibility for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as well as passing full child support payments on to custodial parents (for TANF families, child support payments go through the TANF program and large portions are often kept by the state to offset the cost of assistance, though states can waive that option.)
Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure — a new measure the Census recently began using to better illustrate the complexities of poverty — researchers calculated a variety of far-reaching benefits. In addition to lifting 6.6 million children out of poverty, the proposed policy changes would reduce poverty among children younger than 3 by 64 percent as well as improve the economic conditions of an additional 4 million poor children, though those children would still be living below the poverty line. The changes would also reduce poverty among black children, who experience the highest poverty rates, by 72 percent, and single-parent families would experience a decline in poverty rates of 64 percent.
Getting down to the individual policy level, researchers found that expanding access to housing vouchers for low-income families with children had the greatest impact — a child poverty reduction of 21 percent. Increasing SNAP benefits was the second-most effective individual policy, reducing child poverty by 16.2 percent. Expanding the earned income tax credit would reduce child poverty by 8.8 percent, and expanding access to child care subsidies would reduce the rate by 3.1 percent. Assuming that a hike in the federal minimum wage would also affect workers making slightly below the current floor of $7.25 and slight higher than the new wage of $10.10, researchers calculated that raising the minimum wage would reduce child poverty by 4 percent. However, the change that affected income most was a transitional jobs program, in which an estimated 2.5 million parents would be expected to participate and which reduce child poverty by 10.7 percent.
Of course, reducing childhood poverty doesn’t happen without a significant investment. The Urban Institute researchers estimate that the policy changes would increase government expenditures by $77.2 billion. But to put that spending package in context, consider it equals just 0.5 percent of the size of the 2010 U.S. gross national product. Plus, the report found that the policy package would narrow the poverty gap by more than $28 billion, which translates into a 36.5-cent poverty reduction for every one dollar of new government funding.
“The Urban Institute’s analysis for (the Children’s Defense Fund) is clear: by investing more in existing programs the U.S. could substantially decrease child poverty immediately,” the report reads. “Shrinking child poverty by 60 percent and improving economic circumstances for 97 percent of poor children would improve the life chances of millions of children, bring child poverty in the U.S. in line with rates in other high-income countries, and help prevent poverty in the future.”
To read the full report, visit the Children’s Defense Fund. And click here for an accompanying report from the Urban Institute. Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on child health and poverty.
Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for more than a decade.
What a sight … the full moon coupled up with Jupiter on the night of February 3-4, 2015. Thank you to all the EarthSky friends from around the world who shared photos with our community.
Share your photos with EarthSky on Facebook, at Google+ or submit here.
Like EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today.
Doug Waters wrote: “The 100% full Snow Moon, accompanied by Jupiter, rise over the Neuse River drawbridge in New Bern, NC.” Thanks, Doug!
February 3, 2015 full Snow Moon and Jupiter rising as seen from Currituck, North Carolina by Greg Diesel Landscape Photography
Jupiter and full moon seen in Kuwait, February 3, 2015, by Abdulmajeed Alshatti
Our friend Göran Strand in Sweden wrote, “Tonight the moon and planet Jupiter are 7.5° apart in the sky and they make a lovely couple to watch … The light from the full moon is lighting up the clouds and coloring them in beautiful colors.”
The full moon with Jupiter as seen from Madrid, Spain. Photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Annie Lewis.
The February 3, 2015 full moon with Jupiter – plus iridescent clouds – shot in Greece by Nikolaos Pantazis
Jupiter and full moon in a ring of light, otherwise known as a lunar halo, February 3, 2015. From Estonia, by EarthSky Facebook friend Jüri Voit.
Bruce Wollard: Tarrant Launceston, Dorset, UK wrote “I went out with the dog at 11 p.m. and noticed a dramatic halo around the moon and a bright light to its left which is Jupiter.” Photo taken February 2, 2015.
Bottom line: Did you see dazzling planet Jupiter near the full moon on the night of February 3-4? If you missed the view, here’s an awesome gallery of photos by EarthSky friends! Enjoy!
What a sight … the full moon coupled up with Jupiter on the night of February 3-4, 2015. Thank you to all the EarthSky friends from around the world who shared photos with our community.
Share your photos with EarthSky on Facebook, at Google+ or submit here.
Like EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today.
Doug Waters wrote: “The 100% full Snow Moon, accompanied by Jupiter, rise over the Neuse River drawbridge in New Bern, NC.” Thanks, Doug!
February 3, 2015 full Snow Moon and Jupiter rising as seen from Currituck, North Carolina by Greg Diesel Landscape Photography
Jupiter and full moon seen in Kuwait, February 3, 2015, by Abdulmajeed Alshatti
Our friend Göran Strand in Sweden wrote, “Tonight the moon and planet Jupiter are 7.5° apart in the sky and they make a lovely couple to watch … The light from the full moon is lighting up the clouds and coloring them in beautiful colors.”
The full moon with Jupiter as seen from Madrid, Spain. Photo by EarthSky Facebook friend Annie Lewis.
The February 3, 2015 full moon with Jupiter – plus iridescent clouds – shot in Greece by Nikolaos Pantazis
Jupiter and full moon in a ring of light, otherwise known as a lunar halo, February 3, 2015. From Estonia, by EarthSky Facebook friend Jüri Voit.
Bruce Wollard: Tarrant Launceston, Dorset, UK wrote “I went out with the dog at 11 p.m. and noticed a dramatic halo around the moon and a bright light to its left which is Jupiter.” Photo taken February 2, 2015.
Bottom line: Did you see dazzling planet Jupiter near the full moon on the night of February 3-4? If you missed the view, here’s an awesome gallery of photos by EarthSky friends! Enjoy!
Answers in Genesis has announced today that they are suing the state of Kentucky for withdrawing a tax rebate. To make their case, they have released a long video featuring Ken Ham getting all the answers he wants from a lawyer wearing a greasy muskrat on his head.
The reason that Kentucky withdrew the tax exemption is that AiG refused to comply with state requirements. This was plainly stated by state representatives; they expected this “theme park”/”entertainment center” to abide by the same rules as any other commercial enterprise in the state.
We expect any entity that accepts state incentives not to discriminate on any basis in hiring. While the leaders of Ark Encounter had previously agreed not to discriminate in hiring based on religion, they now refuse to make that commitment and it has become apparent that they do intend to use religious beliefs as a litmus test for hiring decisions. For that reason, we cannot proceed with the tourism incentive application for the Ark Encounter project.
AiG’s defense rests on two points that were made repeatedly in the video. They claim that this is an act of discrimination against a religious organization because they are a religious organization, which is nonsense. Governor Beshear was practically frothing at the mouth in his eagerness to throw money at AiG when it was first proposed; he wanted to promote this so-called employment opportunity.
Their other point, even more frequently repeated, is that it’s not fair, that this program of tax incentives was an invitation to all businesses to apply, and they can’t discriminate against a religious organization. The lawyer said versions of this multiple times, even in response to a quote of the paragraph stating the state’s objections above:
It’s very well established in federal and state law that religious organizations get to be treated just like any other in a program like this.
Yes. They get to be treated like any other organization, which means that they also have to follow the same rules as any other organization. The problem is that they want a special privilege to avoid following some of the rules, so that they can discriminate in hiring. Stating like a mantra that they get to be treated the same as any other organization doesn’t sway me at all, because they are specifically demanding to not be treated the same.
There are rules. You want money from the government, you have to follow the government’s rules. Render unto Caesar, etc. Demanding exemptions isn’t an example of being treated equally…what next? Will you demand that the “museum” cafe be exempted from rules about employees washing their hands, because the Bible says nothing about germ theory?
Answers in Genesis has announced today that they are suing the state of Kentucky for withdrawing a tax rebate. To make their case, they have released a long video featuring Ken Ham getting all the answers he wants from a lawyer wearing a greasy muskrat on his head.
The reason that Kentucky withdrew the tax exemption is that AiG refused to comply with state requirements. This was plainly stated by state representatives; they expected this “theme park”/”entertainment center” to abide by the same rules as any other commercial enterprise in the state.
We expect any entity that accepts state incentives not to discriminate on any basis in hiring. While the leaders of Ark Encounter had previously agreed not to discriminate in hiring based on religion, they now refuse to make that commitment and it has become apparent that they do intend to use religious beliefs as a litmus test for hiring decisions. For that reason, we cannot proceed with the tourism incentive application for the Ark Encounter project.
AiG’s defense rests on two points that were made repeatedly in the video. They claim that this is an act of discrimination against a religious organization because they are a religious organization, which is nonsense. Governor Beshear was practically frothing at the mouth in his eagerness to throw money at AiG when it was first proposed; he wanted to promote this so-called employment opportunity.
Their other point, even more frequently repeated, is that it’s not fair, that this program of tax incentives was an invitation to all businesses to apply, and they can’t discriminate against a religious organization. The lawyer said versions of this multiple times, even in response to a quote of the paragraph stating the state’s objections above:
It’s very well established in federal and state law that religious organizations get to be treated just like any other in a program like this.
Yes. They get to be treated like any other organization, which means that they also have to follow the same rules as any other organization. The problem is that they want a special privilege to avoid following some of the rules, so that they can discriminate in hiring. Stating like a mantra that they get to be treated the same as any other organization doesn’t sway me at all, because they are specifically demanding to not be treated the same.
There are rules. You want money from the government, you have to follow the government’s rules. Render unto Caesar, etc. Demanding exemptions isn’t an example of being treated equally…what next? Will you demand that the “museum” cafe be exempted from rules about employees washing their hands, because the Bible says nothing about germ theory?
