NHS diaries: ‘It’s the most stressful organisation I’ve worked in in my life’

Diagnosing cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages is vital to help more people survive their cancer. But it requires the Government to ensure there are enough NHS staff in place.

Dawn Chaplin, a consultant radiographer, has seen her clinics get busier and busier over the years.

Dawn Chaplin, a consultant radiographer who diagnoses breast cancer, shares her experiences of working for a short-staffed and overstretched NHS.

“It’s very, very difficult – rewarding and unrewarding. I love my job and what I do, but the expectations are unrealistic,” she says.

Chaplin’s role involves taking breast scans and interpreting results, as well as taking biopsies of any lumps she sees. She worked full-time for the NHS for 10 years, before switching to work short-term contracts. She says the pressures have increased year on year.

“It’s completely changed over the last few years, the number of patients we’re expected to deal with has just increased beyond belief for the number of staff.”

Too many patients, not enough time

Chaplin typically runs two clinics a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“My clinics are enormous now, I’m expected see around 22 patients in my clinic, whereas I would be seeing 12-14 before.”

Despite the increase in numbers, Chaplin says she’s expected to complete each clinic in the same amount of time. This often means one clinic runs into another.

“Last Thursday, the clinic that was due to finish at 12.30pm actually finished at 2pm. But my afternoon clinic was supposed to start at 1.30pm, so already there were patients waiting for the next clinic while you’re still doing the first.”

This isn’t unusual. It means Chaplin rarely has time for a break, leaving her feeling that she’s “on a hamster wheel all the time”. This means more evening and weekend work to catch up.

But it’s not just her wellbeing that’s being affected, she thinks it’s having a big impact on patients too.

“They don’t get as much time with us as they used to be able to get. You try to give the patient as much time as you can but you’re always aware that there are 10 patients waiting outside to come in as well.”

And for Chaplin, the potential consequences are huge.

“Ultimately, I’m worried that people are going to die, because there’s just not enough people to diagnose the cancers in a timely manner.”

Chaplin fears a delay in cancer diagnosis could mean cancers present when they’re bigger, more advanced and more difficult to treat. “I worry it may lead to people dying earlier than they should,” she adds.

‘It’s the same across the country’

This isn’t an isolated problem, says Chaplin, having worked in many hospitals across the country and had the same conversations with colleagues. And it’s having a big impact on staff.

“People with fantastic skills, lovely, hardworking and dedicated people, are leaving to go and work elsewhere – outside the NHS and overseas – for more money and half the amount of stress,” she says.

According to analysis done on NHS staff survey results from 2018, almost 1 in 5 (18%) people are considering leaving the NHS to:

• take up a position in healthcare outside the NHS;
• retire or take an extended break; or
• take up a role outside of healthcare.

That’s on top of the 1 in 10 NHS diagnostic staff jobs that are already unfilled in England. “It’s the most stressful organisation I’ve worked in in my life,” says Chaplin. And this includes time in the RAF.

Time to act

It’s in the hands of the Government to make sure there are enough staff to diagnose and treat cancer early. And with cancer rates increasing and the government target to diagnose 3 in 4 cancers early by 2028, the pressure faced by NHS staff is only going to grow.

“I think the NHS is definitely in crisis, despite what the Government is saying. We need more staff.”

>> Join us in telling the Government you want thousands more lives to be saved by diagnosing cancer early

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2A4Z9qb

Diagnosing cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages is vital to help more people survive their cancer. But it requires the Government to ensure there are enough NHS staff in place.

Dawn Chaplin, a consultant radiographer, has seen her clinics get busier and busier over the years.

Dawn Chaplin, a consultant radiographer who diagnoses breast cancer, shares her experiences of working for a short-staffed and overstretched NHS.

“It’s very, very difficult – rewarding and unrewarding. I love my job and what I do, but the expectations are unrealistic,” she says.

Chaplin’s role involves taking breast scans and interpreting results, as well as taking biopsies of any lumps she sees. She worked full-time for the NHS for 10 years, before switching to work short-term contracts. She says the pressures have increased year on year.

“It’s completely changed over the last few years, the number of patients we’re expected to deal with has just increased beyond belief for the number of staff.”

Too many patients, not enough time

Chaplin typically runs two clinics a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“My clinics are enormous now, I’m expected see around 22 patients in my clinic, whereas I would be seeing 12-14 before.”

Despite the increase in numbers, Chaplin says she’s expected to complete each clinic in the same amount of time. This often means one clinic runs into another.

“Last Thursday, the clinic that was due to finish at 12.30pm actually finished at 2pm. But my afternoon clinic was supposed to start at 1.30pm, so already there were patients waiting for the next clinic while you’re still doing the first.”

This isn’t unusual. It means Chaplin rarely has time for a break, leaving her feeling that she’s “on a hamster wheel all the time”. This means more evening and weekend work to catch up.

But it’s not just her wellbeing that’s being affected, she thinks it’s having a big impact on patients too.

“They don’t get as much time with us as they used to be able to get. You try to give the patient as much time as you can but you’re always aware that there are 10 patients waiting outside to come in as well.”

And for Chaplin, the potential consequences are huge.

“Ultimately, I’m worried that people are going to die, because there’s just not enough people to diagnose the cancers in a timely manner.”

Chaplin fears a delay in cancer diagnosis could mean cancers present when they’re bigger, more advanced and more difficult to treat. “I worry it may lead to people dying earlier than they should,” she adds.

‘It’s the same across the country’

This isn’t an isolated problem, says Chaplin, having worked in many hospitals across the country and had the same conversations with colleagues. And it’s having a big impact on staff.

“People with fantastic skills, lovely, hardworking and dedicated people, are leaving to go and work elsewhere – outside the NHS and overseas – for more money and half the amount of stress,” she says.

According to analysis done on NHS staff survey results from 2018, almost 1 in 5 (18%) people are considering leaving the NHS to:

• take up a position in healthcare outside the NHS;
• retire or take an extended break; or
• take up a role outside of healthcare.

That’s on top of the 1 in 10 NHS diagnostic staff jobs that are already unfilled in England. “It’s the most stressful organisation I’ve worked in in my life,” says Chaplin. And this includes time in the RAF.

Time to act

It’s in the hands of the Government to make sure there are enough staff to diagnose and treat cancer early. And with cancer rates increasing and the government target to diagnose 3 in 4 cancers early by 2028, the pressure faced by NHS staff is only going to grow.

“I think the NHS is definitely in crisis, despite what the Government is saying. We need more staff.”

>> Join us in telling the Government you want thousands more lives to be saved by diagnosing cancer early

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2A4Z9qb

What has China’s rover found on the moon’s far side?

Tracks from China’s Yutu-2 rover approaching the crater where the rover has reportedly discovered a “gel-like” substance on the far side of the moon. Few details are known at this point. Image via China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)/Space.com.

What has China’s Yutu-2 rover discovered on the far side of the moon? That is a question a lot of people are asking after an intriguing report came out from Space.com a few days ago, which referenced a “gel-like” substance discovered in a small crater. Not many details are known right now, but there are some possible clues, as provided by planetary scientists who have commented on the finding.

The discovery was published in the “Drive Diary” for Yutu-2 (literally “Jade Rabbit”) in the Chinese government-sanctioned publication Our Space, on August 17, 2019. It was also tweeted by the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

Yutu-2, the follow-up to the first Yutu rover and part of the Chang’e 4 mission, first made the discovery back on July 25, day 8 of its mission. Previous driving plans were postponed, so scientists could take a better look at the material with the rover’s instruments. The oddity was first noticed by mission team member Yu Tianyi while he was checking images from the main camera on the rover. There were many small craters around, but one of them looked unusual, containing something with an unexpected color and luster.

Yutu-2 rover, part of China’s Chang’e-4 mission, has discovered an unusually colored “gel-like” substance during its exploration activities on the far side of the moon. Mission scientists are now trying to figure out what the mysterious material is. What do you think it is? pic.twitter.com/auw2F2JYvk

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) September 2, 2019

The material has been described as gel-like, but it should be noted that the actual appearance still isn’t known for certain yet. As others have noted, it’s possible that this is a mistranslation from Chinese reports. Some planetary scientists have speculated that what has been found may be impact melt glass from a meteorite strike (and the substance is in a crater) or perhaps volcanic glass from an ancient volcanic explosion. Both of those have been found before on the moon, including by Apollo astronauts.

According to Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the Open University in the United Kingdom, in Newsweek:

The fact that it has been observed associated with a small impact crater, this finding could be extremely exciting as it would indicate that a very different material could just be hiding underneath the very top surface. This would assume even a greater significance if these material turn out to have experienced interaction with water-ice (as the possibility of existence of water-ice in the top few meters of the lunar south polar region is predicted on the basis of recent remote sensing dataset).

As Walter Freeman, a physicist at Syracuse University, also noted:

We have lots of processes on Earth that cause interesting geology: the action of water, wind, and volcanism. But the moon has none of these, so meteorite impacts are the main thing that reshapes its surface. There’s a bit of precedent for this on Earth: at the site where the first nuclear bomb was tested in New Mexico, there is a glassy mineral called “trinitite” formed from the heat of the explosion. The same thing happens around meteorite impacts here.

In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts discovered unusual orange-colored soil on the moon. Could the Chinese rover discovery be of something similar? Image via NASA/Space.com.

In Our Space, the material was described as being significantly different from the surrounding lunar soil in shape and color, but not specifically how.

Both the material and the crater itself were examined with the rover’s Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument, which detects light that is scattered or reflected, to reveal their makeup. As previously reported, VNIS also detected material that originated from the lunar mantle, in the regolith of Von Kármán crater. That discovery was announced last May.

Is this new material the same or similar to what was found in Von Kármán crater? We don’t know yet, and there is still little information to go on. It would be odd if it actually was gel-like, but at the moment, most other scientists think that it is probably more like impact melt or volcanic glass. We don’t even know the specific color yet, other than it is “unusual.”

Could it also be similar to what Apollo 17 astronauts found in 1972? They discovered orange-colored soil near the Taurus-Littrow landing site, created during a volcanic eruption 3.64 billion years ago.

View of the Yutu-2 rover as it rolled off the Chang’e-4 lander last January. Image via China National Space Administration (CNSA)/The Hindu.

So far, there haven’t been any photos or analysis results released of the “gel” itself, so we will just have to wait for more information.

The Yutu-2 rover will now continue its journey west of the landing site. What else might it find? Yutu-2 was launched in December 2018 on the Chang’e 4 lander, landing in Aitken Basin near the south pole of the moon in January, and is the first rover to explore the far side of our closest celestial neighbor. As Zou Yongliao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua:

The far side of the moon has unique features never before explored on site. The exploration of this virgin land by Chang’e-4 might bring breakthrough findings.

For now, the “moon gel” finding remains a mystery, but stay tuned for further updates when more information becomes available.

Bottom line: The Chinese rover Yutu-2 has discovered an unusual “gel-like” material on the far side of the moon, according to state-run sources. But details are limited right now as to what it might actually be.

Via Space.com

Via Smithsonian.com

Via Newsweek.com

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31cS6Yq

Tracks from China’s Yutu-2 rover approaching the crater where the rover has reportedly discovered a “gel-like” substance on the far side of the moon. Few details are known at this point. Image via China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)/Space.com.

What has China’s Yutu-2 rover discovered on the far side of the moon? That is a question a lot of people are asking after an intriguing report came out from Space.com a few days ago, which referenced a “gel-like” substance discovered in a small crater. Not many details are known right now, but there are some possible clues, as provided by planetary scientists who have commented on the finding.

The discovery was published in the “Drive Diary” for Yutu-2 (literally “Jade Rabbit”) in the Chinese government-sanctioned publication Our Space, on August 17, 2019. It was also tweeted by the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

Yutu-2, the follow-up to the first Yutu rover and part of the Chang’e 4 mission, first made the discovery back on July 25, day 8 of its mission. Previous driving plans were postponed, so scientists could take a better look at the material with the rover’s instruments. The oddity was first noticed by mission team member Yu Tianyi while he was checking images from the main camera on the rover. There were many small craters around, but one of them looked unusual, containing something with an unexpected color and luster.

Yutu-2 rover, part of China’s Chang’e-4 mission, has discovered an unusually colored “gel-like” substance during its exploration activities on the far side of the moon. Mission scientists are now trying to figure out what the mysterious material is. What do you think it is? pic.twitter.com/auw2F2JYvk

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) September 2, 2019

The material has been described as gel-like, but it should be noted that the actual appearance still isn’t known for certain yet. As others have noted, it’s possible that this is a mistranslation from Chinese reports. Some planetary scientists have speculated that what has been found may be impact melt glass from a meteorite strike (and the substance is in a crater) or perhaps volcanic glass from an ancient volcanic explosion. Both of those have been found before on the moon, including by Apollo astronauts.

According to Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the Open University in the United Kingdom, in Newsweek:

The fact that it has been observed associated with a small impact crater, this finding could be extremely exciting as it would indicate that a very different material could just be hiding underneath the very top surface. This would assume even a greater significance if these material turn out to have experienced interaction with water-ice (as the possibility of existence of water-ice in the top few meters of the lunar south polar region is predicted on the basis of recent remote sensing dataset).

As Walter Freeman, a physicist at Syracuse University, also noted:

We have lots of processes on Earth that cause interesting geology: the action of water, wind, and volcanism. But the moon has none of these, so meteorite impacts are the main thing that reshapes its surface. There’s a bit of precedent for this on Earth: at the site where the first nuclear bomb was tested in New Mexico, there is a glassy mineral called “trinitite” formed from the heat of the explosion. The same thing happens around meteorite impacts here.

In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts discovered unusual orange-colored soil on the moon. Could the Chinese rover discovery be of something similar? Image via NASA/Space.com.

In Our Space, the material was described as being significantly different from the surrounding lunar soil in shape and color, but not specifically how.

Both the material and the crater itself were examined with the rover’s Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS) instrument, which detects light that is scattered or reflected, to reveal their makeup. As previously reported, VNIS also detected material that originated from the lunar mantle, in the regolith of Von Kármán crater. That discovery was announced last May.

Is this new material the same or similar to what was found in Von Kármán crater? We don’t know yet, and there is still little information to go on. It would be odd if it actually was gel-like, but at the moment, most other scientists think that it is probably more like impact melt or volcanic glass. We don’t even know the specific color yet, other than it is “unusual.”

Could it also be similar to what Apollo 17 astronauts found in 1972? They discovered orange-colored soil near the Taurus-Littrow landing site, created during a volcanic eruption 3.64 billion years ago.

View of the Yutu-2 rover as it rolled off the Chang’e-4 lander last January. Image via China National Space Administration (CNSA)/The Hindu.

So far, there haven’t been any photos or analysis results released of the “gel” itself, so we will just have to wait for more information.

The Yutu-2 rover will now continue its journey west of the landing site. What else might it find? Yutu-2 was launched in December 2018 on the Chang’e 4 lander, landing in Aitken Basin near the south pole of the moon in January, and is the first rover to explore the far side of our closest celestial neighbor. As Zou Yongliao at the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua:

The far side of the moon has unique features never before explored on site. The exploration of this virgin land by Chang’e-4 might bring breakthrough findings.

For now, the “moon gel” finding remains a mystery, but stay tuned for further updates when more information becomes available.

Bottom line: The Chinese rover Yutu-2 has discovered an unusual “gel-like” material on the far side of the moon, according to state-run sources. But details are limited right now as to what it might actually be.

Via Space.com

Via Smithsonian.com

Via Newsweek.com

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31cS6Yq

New names for 5 Jupiter moons

Jupiter officially has 12 new moons, discovered in 2018. They are outer moons; their orbits are shown here. Image via Carnegie Science.

The Carnegie Institution for Science – headquartered in Washington, D.C. – announced in late August that the winners of its Jupiter-moon-naming contest have been selected. From February to April, this institution had solicited name suggestions for five of the 12 moons of Jupiter discovered in 2018 by a team led by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard.

Sheppard commented:

I was blown away by the enthusiastic response for this contest. I hope the thought of these moons let everyone ponder the wonder and amazement that is our universe.

Astronomer Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Science led a team that discovered 12 new moons for Jupiter in 2018. Now 5 of those new moons have been given new names. Image via Carnegie Science. Visit Scott Sheppard’s Jupiter-moons page.

He added that there are many rules in place – regulated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – when it comes to naming new moons:

Most notably, Jovian naming conventions require its many moons to be named after characters from Greek and Roman mythology who were either descendants or consorts of Zeus, or Jupiter.

And there are other strictures as well, including a maximum character length and the final letter of each name, depending on the direction of a moon’s orbit. Carnegie Science combed through people’s suggestions and sent what they felt were the best-suited names to the IAU, which published the final names on August 23, 2019. Here they are:

S/2017 J4 is now Pandia. Carnegie Science said:

She is the daughter of Zeus and the Moon goddess Selene. Pandia is the goddess of the full moon and the sister of Ersa. The name Pandia was one of the more popular names entered into the contest. Our favorite submission was representing the astronomy club of the Lanivet School in Cornwall, England. Emma Hugo (@emmabray182) tweeted a picture of the astro club with a Pandia sign and the school’s Panda mascot, which is in honor of the village’s former role as bamboo supplier to the London zoo.

#NameJupitersMoons Pandia!! daughter of Zeus and Selene, goddess of moon's.
Also our schools logo/mascot is a panda, very similar name. The Astro club chose this name! Our village used to provide London zoo with bamboo for the pandas that lived there. pic.twitter.com/wR0940PHNc

— emma hugo (@emmabray182) March 20, 2019

S/2018 J1 is now Ersa. Carnegie Science said:

She is the sister of Pandia and, as such, also the daughter of Zeus and the Moon goddess Selene. Ersa is the goddess of dew. There were more than 20 tweets suggesting the name Ersa. Being the daughter of a Moon goddess seemed very appropriate for a Jovian moon. The first submission was from space news aggregator Aaron Quah (@8603103) and the submissions that most caught our eye about Ersa were submitted by the 12th grade students of Saint Sauveur High School in Redon, France (@StSauMoons), on behalf of the fifth grade at Hillside Traditional Academy in Mission, British Columbia (@mrgrouchypants), and on behalf of a 4-year-old lunar expert Walter who sang us a moon song (@Thoreson).

@JupiterLunacy Our 4-year-old resident moon expert Walter would like to submit 3 name options for Jupiter's new moons: Selene (Greek goddess of the moon and lover of Jupiter/Zeus) and their daughters Pandeia and Ersa. #NameJupitersMoons https://t.co/2YG2Q85Dyz

— Lindsey Hansen (@Thoreson) April 15, 2019

S/2003 J5 is now Eirene. Carnegie Science said:

She is the goddess of peace and the daughter of Zeus and Themis. About 16 tweets suggested naming a Jupiter moon Eirene. The first submission was from Quadrupoltensor (@Quadrupoltensor), and the entry for Eirene that caught our eye (@PJRYYC) was submitted on behalf of a 10-year-old who loves Greek and Roman mythology.

S/2003 J15 is now Philophrosyne. Carnegie Science said:

She is the spirit of welcome and kindness and is the granddaughter of Zeus and sister of Eupheme. Winning submissions were from an 11th grade history class with a proclaimed interest in Greek and Roman mythology, CHW3M Myth Experts (@Chw3mmyths); Victoria (@CharmedScribe); and Lunartic (@iamalunartic), an account dedicated to moons, which posted several videos about the contest, including one that evaluated this suggestion.

S/2003 J3 is now Eupheme. Carnegie Science said:

She is the spirit of praise and good omen, the granddaughter of Zeus, and the sister of Philophrosyne. Winning submission was from the same video by Lunartic (@iamalunartic).

Bottom line: The Carnegie Institution of Science has announced new names for 5 of Jupiter’s newly discovered moons.

Via Carnegie Science

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2LneiK3

Jupiter officially has 12 new moons, discovered in 2018. They are outer moons; their orbits are shown here. Image via Carnegie Science.

The Carnegie Institution for Science – headquartered in Washington, D.C. – announced in late August that the winners of its Jupiter-moon-naming contest have been selected. From February to April, this institution had solicited name suggestions for five of the 12 moons of Jupiter discovered in 2018 by a team led by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard.

Sheppard commented:

I was blown away by the enthusiastic response for this contest. I hope the thought of these moons let everyone ponder the wonder and amazement that is our universe.

Astronomer Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Science led a team that discovered 12 new moons for Jupiter in 2018. Now 5 of those new moons have been given new names. Image via Carnegie Science. Visit Scott Sheppard’s Jupiter-moons page.

He added that there are many rules in place – regulated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – when it comes to naming new moons:

Most notably, Jovian naming conventions require its many moons to be named after characters from Greek and Roman mythology who were either descendants or consorts of Zeus, or Jupiter.

And there are other strictures as well, including a maximum character length and the final letter of each name, depending on the direction of a moon’s orbit. Carnegie Science combed through people’s suggestions and sent what they felt were the best-suited names to the IAU, which published the final names on August 23, 2019. Here they are:

S/2017 J4 is now Pandia. Carnegie Science said:

She is the daughter of Zeus and the Moon goddess Selene. Pandia is the goddess of the full moon and the sister of Ersa. The name Pandia was one of the more popular names entered into the contest. Our favorite submission was representing the astronomy club of the Lanivet School in Cornwall, England. Emma Hugo (@emmabray182) tweeted a picture of the astro club with a Pandia sign and the school’s Panda mascot, which is in honor of the village’s former role as bamboo supplier to the London zoo.

#NameJupitersMoons Pandia!! daughter of Zeus and Selene, goddess of moon's.
Also our schools logo/mascot is a panda, very similar name. The Astro club chose this name! Our village used to provide London zoo with bamboo for the pandas that lived there. pic.twitter.com/wR0940PHNc

— emma hugo (@emmabray182) March 20, 2019

S/2018 J1 is now Ersa. Carnegie Science said:

She is the sister of Pandia and, as such, also the daughter of Zeus and the Moon goddess Selene. Ersa is the goddess of dew. There were more than 20 tweets suggesting the name Ersa. Being the daughter of a Moon goddess seemed very appropriate for a Jovian moon. The first submission was from space news aggregator Aaron Quah (@8603103) and the submissions that most caught our eye about Ersa were submitted by the 12th grade students of Saint Sauveur High School in Redon, France (@StSauMoons), on behalf of the fifth grade at Hillside Traditional Academy in Mission, British Columbia (@mrgrouchypants), and on behalf of a 4-year-old lunar expert Walter who sang us a moon song (@Thoreson).

@JupiterLunacy Our 4-year-old resident moon expert Walter would like to submit 3 name options for Jupiter's new moons: Selene (Greek goddess of the moon and lover of Jupiter/Zeus) and their daughters Pandeia and Ersa. #NameJupitersMoons https://t.co/2YG2Q85Dyz

— Lindsey Hansen (@Thoreson) April 15, 2019

S/2003 J5 is now Eirene. Carnegie Science said:

She is the goddess of peace and the daughter of Zeus and Themis. About 16 tweets suggested naming a Jupiter moon Eirene. The first submission was from Quadrupoltensor (@Quadrupoltensor), and the entry for Eirene that caught our eye (@PJRYYC) was submitted on behalf of a 10-year-old who loves Greek and Roman mythology.

S/2003 J15 is now Philophrosyne. Carnegie Science said:

She is the spirit of welcome and kindness and is the granddaughter of Zeus and sister of Eupheme. Winning submissions were from an 11th grade history class with a proclaimed interest in Greek and Roman mythology, CHW3M Myth Experts (@Chw3mmyths); Victoria (@CharmedScribe); and Lunartic (@iamalunartic), an account dedicated to moons, which posted several videos about the contest, including one that evaluated this suggestion.

S/2003 J3 is now Eupheme. Carnegie Science said:

She is the spirit of praise and good omen, the granddaughter of Zeus, and the sister of Philophrosyne. Winning submission was from the same video by Lunartic (@iamalunartic).

Bottom line: The Carnegie Institution of Science has announced new names for 5 of Jupiter’s newly discovered moons.

Via Carnegie Science

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2LneiK3

Neptune opposite sun September 10

On September 9, Earth and Neptune were closest for 2019. One day later, on September 10, Neptune reaches opposition, when it is 180 degrees from the sun in our sky. In other words, on September 10, Earth passes more or less between Neptune and the sun, as we do every year in our yearly orbit.

By closest, we don’t mean close. Neptune, the eighth planet outward from the sun, lodges in the outskirts of our solar system. Its current distance is about approximately 2.7 billion miles (4.3 billion km).

Click here to know Neptune’s present distance in astronomical units.

For any superior planet – that is, for any solar system planet beyond Earth’s orbit – opposition is a special event. When any planet outside of Earth’s orbit is at or near opposition, Earth comes closest to that planet for the year, and that planet, in turn, shines most brightly in our sky. Even at opposition, however, Neptune, the eighth planet, is not bright. In fact, Neptune is the only major solar system planet that’s absolutely not visible to the unaided eye. This world is about five times fainter than the dimmest star that you can see on an inky black night. You’ll need binoculars (at least) and a detailed sky chart to see Neptune in front of the constellation Aquarius.

Here’s a chart showing Neptune for the June 2019 to March 2020 observing season

Here’s another detailed sky chart showing Neptune

In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe Neptune. More images from Voyager.

Because we’re more or less between Neptune and the sun around now, Neptune is rising in the east around the time of sunset, climbing highest up for the night around midnight and setting in the west around sunrise. As viewed from Earth now, this world is in front of the constellation Aquarius the Water Carrier, right next to the 4th-magnitude star Phi Aquarii.

Phi Aquarii, though faint, is easily visible to the eye alone on a dark night. However, the moon displays a bright waxing gibbous phase on the day of Neptune’s opposition; and a few days thereafter, on September 13, the nearly full moon swings 4 degrees (8 moon-diameters) south of Neptune. So you’ll have to wait until the second half of the month to view Neptune in a dark sky.

Neptune and Phi Aquarii are so close together on the sky’s dome at present that the two readily fit within a single binocular field. In fact, you can see them together even through the telescope, with blue-green Neptune offering a color contrast to the ruddy tint of Phi Aquarii. Neptune is nearly 30 times fainter than the star Phi Aquarii. You may well be able to view Neptune with this star tonight, despite the lunar glare.

Even with an optical aid, Neptune may look like a faint star. You need to magnify Neptune by about 200 times and a steady night of seeing to view this distant world as a small disk.

Sky chart of the constellation Aquarius via IAU. Seek for Neptune near the star Phi Aquarii.

We know it’s unlikely you’ll see Neptune unless you have optical aid and a detailed star chart via Sky & Telescope.

Read more: September guide to the bright planets

By the way, if Earth and Neptune both orbited the sun in perfect circles and on the same plane, then Neptune would be closest to Earth right at opposition. Yet, the Earth actually comes closer to Neptune on September 9 than on the day of its September 10 opposition. That’s because, on September 10, the Earth is a bit closer to the sun (and, therefore, a bit farther from Neptune) than on September 9. Neptune is also closer to the sun on September 10 than on September 9. But Earth’s change in distance is much more significant than that of Neptune.

Bottom line: We’re closest to Neptune for 2019 on September 9. Neptune’s opposition – when it’s 180 degrees from the sun on the sky’s dome – is one day later, on September 10. You need optical aid to spot it. Links to charts here.

Resources:

Geocentric Ephemeris for Sun: 2019

Geocentric Ephemeris for Neptune: 2019

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2ZT3FGQ

On September 9, Earth and Neptune were closest for 2019. One day later, on September 10, Neptune reaches opposition, when it is 180 degrees from the sun in our sky. In other words, on September 10, Earth passes more or less between Neptune and the sun, as we do every year in our yearly orbit.

By closest, we don’t mean close. Neptune, the eighth planet outward from the sun, lodges in the outskirts of our solar system. Its current distance is about approximately 2.7 billion miles (4.3 billion km).

Click here to know Neptune’s present distance in astronomical units.

For any superior planet – that is, for any solar system planet beyond Earth’s orbit – opposition is a special event. When any planet outside of Earth’s orbit is at or near opposition, Earth comes closest to that planet for the year, and that planet, in turn, shines most brightly in our sky. Even at opposition, however, Neptune, the eighth planet, is not bright. In fact, Neptune is the only major solar system planet that’s absolutely not visible to the unaided eye. This world is about five times fainter than the dimmest star that you can see on an inky black night. You’ll need binoculars (at least) and a detailed sky chart to see Neptune in front of the constellation Aquarius.

Here’s a chart showing Neptune for the June 2019 to March 2020 observing season

Here’s another detailed sky chart showing Neptune

In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe Neptune. More images from Voyager.

Because we’re more or less between Neptune and the sun around now, Neptune is rising in the east around the time of sunset, climbing highest up for the night around midnight and setting in the west around sunrise. As viewed from Earth now, this world is in front of the constellation Aquarius the Water Carrier, right next to the 4th-magnitude star Phi Aquarii.

Phi Aquarii, though faint, is easily visible to the eye alone on a dark night. However, the moon displays a bright waxing gibbous phase on the day of Neptune’s opposition; and a few days thereafter, on September 13, the nearly full moon swings 4 degrees (8 moon-diameters) south of Neptune. So you’ll have to wait until the second half of the month to view Neptune in a dark sky.

Neptune and Phi Aquarii are so close together on the sky’s dome at present that the two readily fit within a single binocular field. In fact, you can see them together even through the telescope, with blue-green Neptune offering a color contrast to the ruddy tint of Phi Aquarii. Neptune is nearly 30 times fainter than the star Phi Aquarii. You may well be able to view Neptune with this star tonight, despite the lunar glare.

Even with an optical aid, Neptune may look like a faint star. You need to magnify Neptune by about 200 times and a steady night of seeing to view this distant world as a small disk.

Sky chart of the constellation Aquarius via IAU. Seek for Neptune near the star Phi Aquarii.

We know it’s unlikely you’ll see Neptune unless you have optical aid and a detailed star chart via Sky & Telescope.

Read more: September guide to the bright planets

By the way, if Earth and Neptune both orbited the sun in perfect circles and on the same plane, then Neptune would be closest to Earth right at opposition. Yet, the Earth actually comes closer to Neptune on September 9 than on the day of its September 10 opposition. That’s because, on September 10, the Earth is a bit closer to the sun (and, therefore, a bit farther from Neptune) than on September 9. Neptune is also closer to the sun on September 10 than on September 9. But Earth’s change in distance is much more significant than that of Neptune.

Bottom line: We’re closest to Neptune for 2019 on September 9. Neptune’s opposition – when it’s 180 degrees from the sun on the sky’s dome – is one day later, on September 10. You need optical aid to spot it. Links to charts here.

Resources:

Geocentric Ephemeris for Sun: 2019

Geocentric Ephemeris for Neptune: 2019

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2ZT3FGQ

Key facts about the new EPA plan to reverse the Obama-era methane leaks rule

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections

President Trump’s EPA is moving to roll back 2016 Obama administration methane leak regulations for key parts of the oil and gas industry, another example of what seems an across-the-board repudiation of Obama-era environmental and climate change initiatives. The new proposal, if made final, is certain to face legal challenges, with its ultimate fate perhaps being decided only by the administration in office in 2021.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in late August signed and later announced a proposed rule that would significantly weaken the methane leak reporting regulations. The proposed approach generally would allow transmission and storage sectors of the industry to self-regulate and self-report leaks of the highly-potent greenhouse gas.

In a prepared statement, Wheeler said “methane is valuable, and the industry has an incentive to minimize leaks and maximize its use.” He said that since 1990, “methane emissions across the natural gas industry have fallen by nearly 15%,” and that the new EPA approach “should not stifle this innovation and progress.” Separate rules on volatile organic chemicals “also reduce methane,” making the existing rule “redundant,” Wheeler argued.

Some large oil and gas companies, including BP, Exxon, and Shell, had voiced opposition to the new rules rollback.

But smaller companies and the industry’s principal trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, with more than 620 oil and gas company members, had pushed for weakening the methane regulations. They argue that mandated leak inspections are too costly and could make operation of small, often-leaky wells uneconomical. Wheeler appeared persuaded by these arguments, announcing that the new plan “removes unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry” and will save fossil fuel companies around $100 million over the next six years.

The larger oil and gas companies appear to have opposed the new EPA move at least in part because their natural gas interests benefit from being seen as a climate-friendly alternative to coal, and a “bridge fuel” for the transition from coal to renewable energy.

But some scientific research has suggested that methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure such as fracking can erase much of its claimed climate benefits. For instance, authors of a 2018 study published in Science found that the amount of methane resulting from leaks exceeds by 60% the estimates made by EPA. “Considerable amounts of the greenhouse gas methane leak from the U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain,” the authors of that study wrote. They said the difference between EPA’s estimates and their own are the result of “current inventory methods [that] miss emissions that occur during abnormal operating conditions.”

Methane and CO2 comparisons

Carbon dioxide exceeds by a factor of more than 200 times the levels of methane in Earth’s atmosphere, but methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in 2013 estimated that the greenhouse effect from methane is 34 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, and 86 times stronger over a 20-year period. Its potency decreases over time because methane is a relatively short-lived greenhouse gas, mostly breaking down under chemical reactions after about 12 years, whereas carbon dioxide persists in the atmosphere for centuries.

However, a 2017 study noted that most of the heat trapped by methane and other greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans and transported through Earth’s climate system for hundreds of years. As a result, their effects on climate impacts like sea-level rise last well beyond just the individual greenhouse gases’ atmospheric lifetimes.

Overall, methane is responsible for about 16% of human-caused global warming, carbon dioxide for 65%.

Methane levels in the atmosphere had flattened out between the years 2000 and 2006 but have risen sharply since then. Scientists have struggled to determine the source of this rise – could it be from agriculture (e.g. cattle burps), tropical wetlands, and/or fossil fuels?

Some previous studies have suggested agriculture could be the primary source, but an August 2019 study in Biogeosciences concluded, “shale-gas production in North America over the past decade may have contributed more than half of all of the increased [methane] emissions from fossil fuels globally and approximately one-third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade … the commercialization of shale gas and oil in the 21st century has dramatically increased global methane emissions.”

Shale gas production has boomed in the U.S. in recent years as a result of a rapid expansion of fracking, lending weight to this conclusion. And the industry is poised to continue expanding – a recent report from the advocacy group Food & Water Watch found more than 700 fracked gas infrastructure projects recently built or proposed for development in the U.S.

Click here to read the rest

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/316u1CA

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections

President Trump’s EPA is moving to roll back 2016 Obama administration methane leak regulations for key parts of the oil and gas industry, another example of what seems an across-the-board repudiation of Obama-era environmental and climate change initiatives. The new proposal, if made final, is certain to face legal challenges, with its ultimate fate perhaps being decided only by the administration in office in 2021.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in late August signed and later announced a proposed rule that would significantly weaken the methane leak reporting regulations. The proposed approach generally would allow transmission and storage sectors of the industry to self-regulate and self-report leaks of the highly-potent greenhouse gas.

In a prepared statement, Wheeler said “methane is valuable, and the industry has an incentive to minimize leaks and maximize its use.” He said that since 1990, “methane emissions across the natural gas industry have fallen by nearly 15%,” and that the new EPA approach “should not stifle this innovation and progress.” Separate rules on volatile organic chemicals “also reduce methane,” making the existing rule “redundant,” Wheeler argued.

Some large oil and gas companies, including BP, Exxon, and Shell, had voiced opposition to the new rules rollback.

But smaller companies and the industry’s principal trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, with more than 620 oil and gas company members, had pushed for weakening the methane regulations. They argue that mandated leak inspections are too costly and could make operation of small, often-leaky wells uneconomical. Wheeler appeared persuaded by these arguments, announcing that the new plan “removes unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry” and will save fossil fuel companies around $100 million over the next six years.

The larger oil and gas companies appear to have opposed the new EPA move at least in part because their natural gas interests benefit from being seen as a climate-friendly alternative to coal, and a “bridge fuel” for the transition from coal to renewable energy.

But some scientific research has suggested that methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure such as fracking can erase much of its claimed climate benefits. For instance, authors of a 2018 study published in Science found that the amount of methane resulting from leaks exceeds by 60% the estimates made by EPA. “Considerable amounts of the greenhouse gas methane leak from the U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain,” the authors of that study wrote. They said the difference between EPA’s estimates and their own are the result of “current inventory methods [that] miss emissions that occur during abnormal operating conditions.”

Methane and CO2 comparisons

Carbon dioxide exceeds by a factor of more than 200 times the levels of methane in Earth’s atmosphere, but methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in 2013 estimated that the greenhouse effect from methane is 34 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, and 86 times stronger over a 20-year period. Its potency decreases over time because methane is a relatively short-lived greenhouse gas, mostly breaking down under chemical reactions after about 12 years, whereas carbon dioxide persists in the atmosphere for centuries.

However, a 2017 study noted that most of the heat trapped by methane and other greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans and transported through Earth’s climate system for hundreds of years. As a result, their effects on climate impacts like sea-level rise last well beyond just the individual greenhouse gases’ atmospheric lifetimes.

Overall, methane is responsible for about 16% of human-caused global warming, carbon dioxide for 65%.

Methane levels in the atmosphere had flattened out between the years 2000 and 2006 but have risen sharply since then. Scientists have struggled to determine the source of this rise – could it be from agriculture (e.g. cattle burps), tropical wetlands, and/or fossil fuels?

Some previous studies have suggested agriculture could be the primary source, but an August 2019 study in Biogeosciences concluded, “shale-gas production in North America over the past decade may have contributed more than half of all of the increased [methane] emissions from fossil fuels globally and approximately one-third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade … the commercialization of shale gas and oil in the 21st century has dramatically increased global methane emissions.”

Shale gas production has boomed in the U.S. in recent years as a result of a rapid expansion of fracking, lending weight to this conclusion. And the industry is poised to continue expanding – a recent report from the advocacy group Food & Water Watch found more than 700 fracked gas infrastructure projects recently built or proposed for development in the U.S.

Click here to read the rest

from Skeptical Science https://ift.tt/316u1CA

What asteroid Ryugu told us

Here’s asteroid 162173 Ryugu in June 2018, as seen by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. This mission is the 2nd-ever sample-return mission to an asteroid. The earlier one was the original Hayabusa mission, which returned a sample from asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2010. Image via the Japanese space agency, JAXA.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft – launched in December, 2014 – traveled some 200 million miles to near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. It closed to within 12 miles (20 km) of the asteroid’s surface in June 2018. Hayabusa2 will continue traveling with this asteroid until December 2019, when it’ll begin making its way back to Earth. It’s due to return a sample of the asteroid to scientists in December 2020. In the meantime – in two studies published this summer – the Hayabusa2 mission has already given us valuable information about asteroids like Ryugu. Among other things, it showed that, if an asteroid like Ryugu were headed toward Earth – and if we on Earth decided to send a spacecraft out in an attempt to divert the asteroid – we’d need to take “great care” in the attempt.

Hayabusa2 released several small rovers to Ryugu’s surface. One was a German-French device, called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT). It was “no bigger than a microwave oven” and equipped with four instruments. On October 3, 2018, MASCOT separated from Hayabusa2 when the craft was 41 meters (about 100 feet) above the asteroid. MASCOT touched down on Ryugu for the first time six minutes after deployment, bounced a bit in the asteroid’s low gravity, then settled on its surface about 11 minutes later.

Hello #Earth, hello @haya2kun! I promised to send you some pictures of #Ryugu so here’s a shot I took during my descent. Can you spot my shadow? #AsteroidLanding pic.twitter.com/dmcilFl5ms

— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018

MASCOT lasted 17 hours on Ryugu, an hour longer than anticipated, until its non-rechargeable battery ran out. It carried out experiments in various places amid Ryugu’s large boulders, possible because MASCOT was designed to tumble to reposition itself.

Researchers learned Ryugu’s surface is dominated by two types of rock. They were surprised to find no evidence for fine-grained dust. They noted that millimeter-sized inclusions in the rocks are similar to those present in carbonaceous meteorites found on Earth. This group includes some of the most primitive known meteorites, some of which date back 4.5 billion years. In other words, these meteorites are some of the oldest stuff in our neighborhood of space, formed when our solar system was condensing solid material from its original primordial nebula of gas and dust.

Scientists knew thiz sort of meteorite was fragile. Hayabusa2 confirmed just how fragile this sort of material is.

Planetary researcher Ralf Jaumann from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof led a research team that analyzed MASCOT’s results. These scientists reported on their results in the August 23, 2019, issue of the peer-reviewed journal Science. Jaumann explained in a statement on August 22:

If Ryugu or another similar asteroid were ever to come dangerously close to Earth and an attempt had to be made to divert it, this would need to be done with great care. In the event that it was impacted with great force, the entire asteroid, weighing approximately half-a-billion tons, would break up into numerous fragments. Then, many individual parts weighing several tons would impact Earth.

Ryugu was found to have an average density of just 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter (.043 pounds per cubic inch). In other words, the asteroids is only a little “heavier” than water ice. But, the scientists said:

… as the asteroid is made up of numerous pieces of rock of different sizes, this means that much of its volume must be traversed by cavities, which probably makes this diamond-shaped body extremely fragile. This is also indicated by the measurements conducted by the DLR MASCOT Radiometer (MARA) experiment, which were published recently.

MASCOT’s descent and path across Ryugu, via DLR.

In that earlier study – published July 15 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy – scientists using Hayabusa2 data to study Ryugu pointed out an upside to the asteroid’s fragility. Their statement on July 15 said:

Ryugu and other asteroids of the common ‘C-class’ consist of more porous material than was previously thought. Small fragments of their material are therefore too fragile to survive entry into the atmosphere in the event of a collision with Earth.

These two studies of asteroid Ryugu were made possible by a space mission that, like all space missions, required years for planning and implementation. Thanks to the mission, scientists learned that what we knew from Earth-based observations about the nature of these asteroids was essentially correct. But they confirmed and refined their knowledge; they know more details now.

Ryugu is what’s called a near-Earth object (NEO). That’s an asteroid or comet that comes close to or intersects Earth’s orbit.

Ryugu itself is not on a collision course with Earth and likely never will be. That’s good because Ryugu is 850 meters (about a half a mile) across, large enough to do some serious damage to any world it might strike. It could wipe out a city, for example. But, again, Ryugu isn’t going to strike us. In part because we sent a spacecraft to it, we know a lot about the orbit of this asteroid. Its orbit around the sun is almost coplanar to that of Earth. The asteroid approaches us at an angle of 5.9 degrees to within a distance of approximately 100,000 kilometers (60,000 miles). These scientists said:

Ryugu will never come within the immediate vicinity of Earth, but knowing the properties of bodies like Ryugu is of great importance when it comes to assessing how such near-Earth objects (NEOs) could be dealt with in the future.

Bottom line: Two studies published this summer about asteroid Ryugu – based on data from the Hayabusa2 mission – confirm that the asteroid is fragile, even more fragile than scientists had thought. The good news is that fragments of this asteroid (or asteroids like it) might more easily burn up in our atmosphere. The bad news is that, if an asteroid like this one were on a collision course with Earth, and we planned to try to divert it (for example, by setting off a nuclear device in its vicinity), we’d have to do so with “great care” in order not to create multiple large bodies that would then impact Earth. By the way, in case you’re interested, Hayabusa is Japanese for Peregrine falcon, which is Earth’s fastest bird.

Source: Images from the surface of asteroid Ryugu show rocks similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites

Source: Low thermal conductivity boulder with high porosity identified on C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Via July 15 DLR statement

Via August 22 DLR statement

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

Here’s asteroid 162173 Ryugu in June 2018, as seen by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. This mission is the 2nd-ever sample-return mission to an asteroid. The earlier one was the original Hayabusa mission, which returned a sample from asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2010. Image via the Japanese space agency, JAXA.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft – launched in December, 2014 – traveled some 200 million miles to near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. It closed to within 12 miles (20 km) of the asteroid’s surface in June 2018. Hayabusa2 will continue traveling with this asteroid until December 2019, when it’ll begin making its way back to Earth. It’s due to return a sample of the asteroid to scientists in December 2020. In the meantime – in two studies published this summer – the Hayabusa2 mission has already given us valuable information about asteroids like Ryugu. Among other things, it showed that, if an asteroid like Ryugu were headed toward Earth – and if we on Earth decided to send a spacecraft out in an attempt to divert the asteroid – we’d need to take “great care” in the attempt.

Hayabusa2 released several small rovers to Ryugu’s surface. One was a German-French device, called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT). It was “no bigger than a microwave oven” and equipped with four instruments. On October 3, 2018, MASCOT separated from Hayabusa2 when the craft was 41 meters (about 100 feet) above the asteroid. MASCOT touched down on Ryugu for the first time six minutes after deployment, bounced a bit in the asteroid’s low gravity, then settled on its surface about 11 minutes later.

Hello #Earth, hello @haya2kun! I promised to send you some pictures of #Ryugu so here’s a shot I took during my descent. Can you spot my shadow? #AsteroidLanding pic.twitter.com/dmcilFl5ms

— MASCOT Lander (@MASCOT2018) October 3, 2018

MASCOT lasted 17 hours on Ryugu, an hour longer than anticipated, until its non-rechargeable battery ran out. It carried out experiments in various places amid Ryugu’s large boulders, possible because MASCOT was designed to tumble to reposition itself.

Researchers learned Ryugu’s surface is dominated by two types of rock. They were surprised to find no evidence for fine-grained dust. They noted that millimeter-sized inclusions in the rocks are similar to those present in carbonaceous meteorites found on Earth. This group includes some of the most primitive known meteorites, some of which date back 4.5 billion years. In other words, these meteorites are some of the oldest stuff in our neighborhood of space, formed when our solar system was condensing solid material from its original primordial nebula of gas and dust.

Scientists knew thiz sort of meteorite was fragile. Hayabusa2 confirmed just how fragile this sort of material is.

Planetary researcher Ralf Jaumann from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof led a research team that analyzed MASCOT’s results. These scientists reported on their results in the August 23, 2019, issue of the peer-reviewed journal Science. Jaumann explained in a statement on August 22:

If Ryugu or another similar asteroid were ever to come dangerously close to Earth and an attempt had to be made to divert it, this would need to be done with great care. In the event that it was impacted with great force, the entire asteroid, weighing approximately half-a-billion tons, would break up into numerous fragments. Then, many individual parts weighing several tons would impact Earth.

Ryugu was found to have an average density of just 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter (.043 pounds per cubic inch). In other words, the asteroids is only a little “heavier” than water ice. But, the scientists said:

… as the asteroid is made up of numerous pieces of rock of different sizes, this means that much of its volume must be traversed by cavities, which probably makes this diamond-shaped body extremely fragile. This is also indicated by the measurements conducted by the DLR MASCOT Radiometer (MARA) experiment, which were published recently.

MASCOT’s descent and path across Ryugu, via DLR.

In that earlier study – published July 15 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy – scientists using Hayabusa2 data to study Ryugu pointed out an upside to the asteroid’s fragility. Their statement on July 15 said:

Ryugu and other asteroids of the common ‘C-class’ consist of more porous material than was previously thought. Small fragments of their material are therefore too fragile to survive entry into the atmosphere in the event of a collision with Earth.

These two studies of asteroid Ryugu were made possible by a space mission that, like all space missions, required years for planning and implementation. Thanks to the mission, scientists learned that what we knew from Earth-based observations about the nature of these asteroids was essentially correct. But they confirmed and refined their knowledge; they know more details now.

Ryugu is what’s called a near-Earth object (NEO). That’s an asteroid or comet that comes close to or intersects Earth’s orbit.

Ryugu itself is not on a collision course with Earth and likely never will be. That’s good because Ryugu is 850 meters (about a half a mile) across, large enough to do some serious damage to any world it might strike. It could wipe out a city, for example. But, again, Ryugu isn’t going to strike us. In part because we sent a spacecraft to it, we know a lot about the orbit of this asteroid. Its orbit around the sun is almost coplanar to that of Earth. The asteroid approaches us at an angle of 5.9 degrees to within a distance of approximately 100,000 kilometers (60,000 miles). These scientists said:

Ryugu will never come within the immediate vicinity of Earth, but knowing the properties of bodies like Ryugu is of great importance when it comes to assessing how such near-Earth objects (NEOs) could be dealt with in the future.

Bottom line: Two studies published this summer about asteroid Ryugu – based on data from the Hayabusa2 mission – confirm that the asteroid is fragile, even more fragile than scientists had thought. The good news is that fragments of this asteroid (or asteroids like it) might more easily burn up in our atmosphere. The bad news is that, if an asteroid like this one were on a collision course with Earth, and we planned to try to divert it (for example, by setting off a nuclear device in its vicinity), we’d have to do so with “great care” in order not to create multiple large bodies that would then impact Earth. By the way, in case you’re interested, Hayabusa is Japanese for Peregrine falcon, which is Earth’s fastest bird.

Source: Images from the surface of asteroid Ryugu show rocks similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites

Source: Low thermal conductivity boulder with high porosity identified on C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Via July 15 DLR statement

Via August 22 DLR statement

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

T. rex had an air conditioner in its head

How did the Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs, regulate its body temperature? The giant reptile had a built-in “air conditioner” via two large holes in the roof of its skull, according to a team of researchers, who suggest that blood vessels acted as an internal thermostat on a T. rex, much like alligators have today for body temperature control.

The new study, published July 1, 2109, in the peer-reviewed journal The Anatomical Record, challenges over a century of previous beliefs. In the past, scientists believed two large holes — called the dorsotemporal fenestra — were filled with muscles that assisted with jaw movements. But that assertion puzzled University of Missouri’s Casey Holliday, lead author of the study. Holliday said in a statement:

It’s really weird for a muscle to come up from the jaw, make a 90-degree turn, and go along the roof of the skull. Yet, we now have a lot of compelling evidence for blood vessels in this area, based on our work with alligators and other reptiles.

A graphic thermal image of a T. rex skull. Image via Brian Engh.

The researchers used thermal imaging – devices that translate heat into visible light – to study alligators at a zoological park in Florida. They believe their evidence offers a different theory and new insight into the anatomy of a T. rex’s head. University of Florida’s Kent Vliet is a study co-author. He said:

An alligator’s body heat depends on its environment. Therefore, we noticed when it was cooler and the alligators are trying to warm up, our thermal imaging showed big hot spots in these holes in the roof of their skull, indicating a rise in temperature. Yet, later in the day when it’s warmer, the holes appear dark, like they were turned off to keep cool. This is consistent with prior evidence that alligators have a cross-current circulatory system – or an internal thermostat, so to speak.

An alligator’s body heat depends on its environment. The researchers found when alligators are trying to cool off, the holes in the roof of their skulls were dark, as if they were turned off. Image via University of Missouri.

Thermal imaging — devices that translate heat into visible light — allowed researchers to capture the body heat of alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida. Image via University of Missouri.

The researchers took their thermal imaging data and examined fossilized remains of dinosaurs and crocodiles to see how this hole in the skull changed over time. Study co-author Larry Witmer, of Ohio University, said:

We know that, similarly to the T. rex, alligators have holes on the roof of their skulls, and they are filled with blood vessels. Yet, for over 100 years we’ve been putting muscles into a similar space with dinosaurs. By using some anatomy and physiology of current animals, we can show that we can overturn those early hypotheses about the anatomy of this part of the T. rex’s skull.

Artist’s concept of a thermal image of a T. rex with its dorsotemporal fenestra glowing on the skull. Image via Brian Engh.

Bottom line: A new study says a structure in the top of the T. rex skull helped the dinosaur regulate its body temperature.

Source: The Frontoparietal Fossa and Dorsotemporal Fenestra of Archosaurs and Their Significance for Interpretations of Vascular and Muscular Anatomy in Dinosaurs

Via University of Missouri

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2UM60yy

How did the Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs, regulate its body temperature? The giant reptile had a built-in “air conditioner” via two large holes in the roof of its skull, according to a team of researchers, who suggest that blood vessels acted as an internal thermostat on a T. rex, much like alligators have today for body temperature control.

The new study, published July 1, 2109, in the peer-reviewed journal The Anatomical Record, challenges over a century of previous beliefs. In the past, scientists believed two large holes — called the dorsotemporal fenestra — were filled with muscles that assisted with jaw movements. But that assertion puzzled University of Missouri’s Casey Holliday, lead author of the study. Holliday said in a statement:

It’s really weird for a muscle to come up from the jaw, make a 90-degree turn, and go along the roof of the skull. Yet, we now have a lot of compelling evidence for blood vessels in this area, based on our work with alligators and other reptiles.

A graphic thermal image of a T. rex skull. Image via Brian Engh.

The researchers used thermal imaging – devices that translate heat into visible light – to study alligators at a zoological park in Florida. They believe their evidence offers a different theory and new insight into the anatomy of a T. rex’s head. University of Florida’s Kent Vliet is a study co-author. He said:

An alligator’s body heat depends on its environment. Therefore, we noticed when it was cooler and the alligators are trying to warm up, our thermal imaging showed big hot spots in these holes in the roof of their skull, indicating a rise in temperature. Yet, later in the day when it’s warmer, the holes appear dark, like they were turned off to keep cool. This is consistent with prior evidence that alligators have a cross-current circulatory system – or an internal thermostat, so to speak.

An alligator’s body heat depends on its environment. The researchers found when alligators are trying to cool off, the holes in the roof of their skulls were dark, as if they were turned off. Image via University of Missouri.

Thermal imaging — devices that translate heat into visible light — allowed researchers to capture the body heat of alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida. Image via University of Missouri.

The researchers took their thermal imaging data and examined fossilized remains of dinosaurs and crocodiles to see how this hole in the skull changed over time. Study co-author Larry Witmer, of Ohio University, said:

We know that, similarly to the T. rex, alligators have holes on the roof of their skulls, and they are filled with blood vessels. Yet, for over 100 years we’ve been putting muscles into a similar space with dinosaurs. By using some anatomy and physiology of current animals, we can show that we can overturn those early hypotheses about the anatomy of this part of the T. rex’s skull.

Artist’s concept of a thermal image of a T. rex with its dorsotemporal fenestra glowing on the skull. Image via Brian Engh.

Bottom line: A new study says a structure in the top of the T. rex skull helped the dinosaur regulate its body temperature.

Source: The Frontoparietal Fossa and Dorsotemporal Fenestra of Archosaurs and Their Significance for Interpretations of Vascular and Muscular Anatomy in Dinosaurs

Via University of Missouri

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2UM60yy