What is the asteroid belt?

Here is the inner part of our solar system, from the sun to the 5th planet, Jupiter. In this illustration, the asteroid belt is the white donut-shaped cloud. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Meet the asteroid belt, a place in our solar system where small bodies – mostly rocky and some metallic – orbit the sun. These little worlds are also sometimes called minor planets. They move mostly between the orbits of the fourth planet Mars and fifth planet Jupiter. Astronomers once thought they were all that was left of a rocky planet, long ago torn apart by Jupiter’s gravity. Now, most astronomers now think the asteroid belt is just rubble that Jupiter’s gravity prevented from ever coalescing into a planet. Thus the asterids are likely simply leftovers from the ordinary processes that created our solar system, 4.6 billion years ago.

Their name, asteroid, means starlike. They got this name because – in the early 1800s, when the first asteroids were discovered – astronomers thought they looked like stars. And yet their movement in front of the star background, caused by their nearness to us, showed them to be something other than stars.

Measurements of the amount of material in the asteroid belt suggest it contains about enough material – combined together – to form a body smaller than Earth’s moon.

Comprising an estimated one to two million asteroids more than half a mile (about a km) across, plus untold millions of smaller ones, the asteroid belt contains objects which vary wildly in size. The smallest are probably no bigger than pebbles. The biggest object in the asteroid belt was also the first one to be discovered, in the year 1801. It is 1 Ceres, which measures some 587 miles (945 km). Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet, by the way, by the International Astronomical Union.

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This orthographic projection shows the largest body in the asteroid belt – 1 Ceres, discovered in 1801 – now categorized as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union. Ceres is one of several main-belt objects visited by spacecraft. This composite image is from the Dawn spacecraft, still the only earthly spacecraft to have orbited first one body in our solar system (Vesta, 2011 to 2012), then gone on to orbit a second (Ceres, arrived 2015). See the 2 bright spots in Occator Crater? They spawned speculation about alien life on Ceres, but turned out to be salt deposits. This image is made from views Dawn took during its low-altitude mapping orbit, at about 240 miles (385 km) above the surface. Image via NASA.

Outer space is vast. And thus, despite there being many millions (possibly billions) of objects in the asteroid belt, the average distance between them is 600,000 miles (about a million km). This means that spacecraft can fly through the asteroid belt without colliding with any asteroids, although, obviously, a chance collision can never be ruled out completely. The asteroid belt is certainly nothing like the densely-packed asteroid fields depicted in fantasies like “Star Wars” and its ilk.

Standing on any asteroid in the belt, you would likely be unable to see any other asteroids, because of their distance.

The asteroid belt lies between 2.2 and 3.2 astronomical units (AU) from our sun. One AU is the distance between the Earth and sun. So the width of the asteroid belt is roughly 1 AU, or 92 million miles (150 million km).

Its thickness is similarly about 1 AU thick.

Here’s asteroid 4 Vesta – discovered in 1807 – the 2nd-biggest asteroid after Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. A towering mountain at this asteroid’s south pole – more than twice the height of Mount Everest – is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the “snowman” can be seen at the top left. Image via NASA.

The asteroid belt is often referred to as the “main” belt to distinguish it from other, smaller groups of asteroids in the solar system such as the Lagrangians (for example, Trojan asteroids orbiting in Jupiter’s orbit around the sun) and Centaurs in the outer solar system.

What was thought to be a homogeneous belt is now known to be slightly more complicated. There are different and distinct zones within the main belt asteroids, especially at its peripheries, where astronomers now recognize the Hungaria group at the inner edge and the Cybele asteroids at the outer. Toward the middle of the belt there is the highly-inclined Phocaea family.

In addition, astronomers have established that the age of asteroids in the main belt also varies. They’ve now classified several asteroid groupings by their age including the Karin family, a group of about 90 main-belt asteroids that share an orbit and are thought to have come from a single object an estimated 5.7 million years ago. And there is the Veritas family, from an estimated 8.3 million years ago. A very recent group is the Datura family, dating from just 530,000 years ago from a collision.

Read on Wikipedia about asteroid families.

Read on Wikipedia about asteroids that have been visited by spacecraft

In order to be round, a body in space has to have enough internal mass to have strong-enough gravity to have pulled itself into the shape of a ball. Most asteroids don’t accomplish this, and thus they come in all sorts of shapes. Here is asteroid 433 Eros – discovered in 1898 – now famous as the 1st asteroid ever to be orbited by a spacecraft, NEAR Shoemaker, in 1998. This object is considered a main-belt asteroid: although its orbit crosses that of Mars, it doesn’t quite reach that of Earth. Yet it’s also considered a near-Earth asteroid … a subject for another day! Image via NASA.

Bottom line: The asteroid belt is a region of our solar system – between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter – in which many small bodies orbit our sun.

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Here is the inner part of our solar system, from the sun to the 5th planet, Jupiter. In this illustration, the asteroid belt is the white donut-shaped cloud. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Meet the asteroid belt, a place in our solar system where small bodies – mostly rocky and some metallic – orbit the sun. These little worlds are also sometimes called minor planets. They move mostly between the orbits of the fourth planet Mars and fifth planet Jupiter. Astronomers once thought they were all that was left of a rocky planet, long ago torn apart by Jupiter’s gravity. Now, most astronomers now think the asteroid belt is just rubble that Jupiter’s gravity prevented from ever coalescing into a planet. Thus the asterids are likely simply leftovers from the ordinary processes that created our solar system, 4.6 billion years ago.

Their name, asteroid, means starlike. They got this name because – in the early 1800s, when the first asteroids were discovered – astronomers thought they looked like stars. And yet their movement in front of the star background, caused by their nearness to us, showed them to be something other than stars.

Measurements of the amount of material in the asteroid belt suggest it contains about enough material – combined together – to form a body smaller than Earth’s moon.

Comprising an estimated one to two million asteroids more than half a mile (about a km) across, plus untold millions of smaller ones, the asteroid belt contains objects which vary wildly in size. The smallest are probably no bigger than pebbles. The biggest object in the asteroid belt was also the first one to be discovered, in the year 1801. It is 1 Ceres, which measures some 587 miles (945 km). Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet, by the way, by the International Astronomical Union.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! Nearly sold out. Order now!

This orthographic projection shows the largest body in the asteroid belt – 1 Ceres, discovered in 1801 – now categorized as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union. Ceres is one of several main-belt objects visited by spacecraft. This composite image is from the Dawn spacecraft, still the only earthly spacecraft to have orbited first one body in our solar system (Vesta, 2011 to 2012), then gone on to orbit a second (Ceres, arrived 2015). See the 2 bright spots in Occator Crater? They spawned speculation about alien life on Ceres, but turned out to be salt deposits. This image is made from views Dawn took during its low-altitude mapping orbit, at about 240 miles (385 km) above the surface. Image via NASA.

Outer space is vast. And thus, despite there being many millions (possibly billions) of objects in the asteroid belt, the average distance between them is 600,000 miles (about a million km). This means that spacecraft can fly through the asteroid belt without colliding with any asteroids, although, obviously, a chance collision can never be ruled out completely. The asteroid belt is certainly nothing like the densely-packed asteroid fields depicted in fantasies like “Star Wars” and its ilk.

Standing on any asteroid in the belt, you would likely be unable to see any other asteroids, because of their distance.

The asteroid belt lies between 2.2 and 3.2 astronomical units (AU) from our sun. One AU is the distance between the Earth and sun. So the width of the asteroid belt is roughly 1 AU, or 92 million miles (150 million km).

Its thickness is similarly about 1 AU thick.

Here’s asteroid 4 Vesta – discovered in 1807 – the 2nd-biggest asteroid after Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. A towering mountain at this asteroid’s south pole – more than twice the height of Mount Everest – is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the “snowman” can be seen at the top left. Image via NASA.

The asteroid belt is often referred to as the “main” belt to distinguish it from other, smaller groups of asteroids in the solar system such as the Lagrangians (for example, Trojan asteroids orbiting in Jupiter’s orbit around the sun) and Centaurs in the outer solar system.

What was thought to be a homogeneous belt is now known to be slightly more complicated. There are different and distinct zones within the main belt asteroids, especially at its peripheries, where astronomers now recognize the Hungaria group at the inner edge and the Cybele asteroids at the outer. Toward the middle of the belt there is the highly-inclined Phocaea family.

In addition, astronomers have established that the age of asteroids in the main belt also varies. They’ve now classified several asteroid groupings by their age including the Karin family, a group of about 90 main-belt asteroids that share an orbit and are thought to have come from a single object an estimated 5.7 million years ago. And there is the Veritas family, from an estimated 8.3 million years ago. A very recent group is the Datura family, dating from just 530,000 years ago from a collision.

Read on Wikipedia about asteroid families.

Read on Wikipedia about asteroids that have been visited by spacecraft

In order to be round, a body in space has to have enough internal mass to have strong-enough gravity to have pulled itself into the shape of a ball. Most asteroids don’t accomplish this, and thus they come in all sorts of shapes. Here is asteroid 433 Eros – discovered in 1898 – now famous as the 1st asteroid ever to be orbited by a spacecraft, NEAR Shoemaker, in 1998. This object is considered a main-belt asteroid: although its orbit crosses that of Mars, it doesn’t quite reach that of Earth. Yet it’s also considered a near-Earth asteroid … a subject for another day! Image via NASA.

Bottom line: The asteroid belt is a region of our solar system – between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter – in which many small bodies orbit our sun.

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Wow! More evidence for active volcanoes on Venus

New research confirms that volcanoes might be erupting on Venus even now. This image shows Idunn Mons, a volcanic peak on Venus, long suspected of being active. The colored overlay shows heat patterns derived from surface brightness data collected via ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft from May 2006 to the end of 2007. Image via ESA/ NASA/ USRA.

Earth is one of several worlds in our solar system known to have active volcanoes. Now, a new study from Universities Space Research Association (USRA) confirms that – as has been conjectured before – cloud-covered Venus appears to be volcanically active as well.

It’s been known since the early 1990s that Venus has many volcanic features. NASA’s Magellan spacecraft found extensive lava flows beneath the perpetually cloudy atmosphere of Venus, but how old are they? That’s the unanswered question.

Thus, as yet, there’s still no smoking gun to prove that any Venus volcanoes are still active.

USRA announced its intriguing new findings on January 3, 2019. They come not from Venus, but from an earthly laboratory. The peer-reviewed paper was published the same day in Science Advances.

The new evidence stems from spacecraft data on lava flows on the surface of Venus, some of which, the researchers now estimate, may be no more than a few years old. The Venus Express orbiter – launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2005 – continuously sent back science data from its polar orbit around Venus until 2014. It studied lava flows on Venus by measuring the amount of infrared light emitted from Venus’ surface during nighttime.

The data obtained were good enough to distinguish between fresher and older/altered lava flows, but the actual ages of the flows still weren’t well understood.

Justin Filiberto is the study’s lead author and a USRA staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. To learn more about the ages of lava flows on Venus, he and his colleagues simulated conditions in the intensely hot and corrosive atmosphere of Venus in a laboratory. They wanted to see how different minerals might react and change over time, under these conditions, on Venus’ surface.

It turned out that olivine – abundant in basalt rock, which makes up about 90% of Venus’ surface – reacted very rapidly. Within only weeks, it became oxidized, that is, coated with two iron oxide minerals, magnetite and hematite. From the paper:

We obtained VNIR [visible to near-infrared] reflectance spectra of natural olivine that was altered and oxidized in the laboratory. We show that olivine becomes coated, within days, with alteration products, primarily hematite … Our results indicate that lava flows lacking VNIR features due to hematite are no more than several years old.

Therefore, Venus is volcanically active now.

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Maat Mons, a 5-mile-high (8-km-high) volcano on Venus, with lava flows. This perspective view is based on radar images from the Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus in the 1990s. Image via NASA/ JPL/ Wikipedia.

Absolute confirmation of active volcanoes on Venus would be a major discovery. After all, Venus is the world next-inward in orbit around the sun. It’s very similar to Earth in size and density. If it doesn’t have active volcanoes, and Earth does, the question would be, why not?

But if it does have active volcanoes, then this discovery is extremely significant in studies of all the terrestrial rocky planets – not just Venus and Earth, but also Mercury and Mars – in our solar system. Filiberto commented in a statement:

If Venus is indeed active today, it would make a great place to visit to better understand the interiors of planets. For example, we could study how planets cool and why the Earth and Venus have active volcanism, but Mars does not.

Radar image from Magellan of lava channels in the Lo Shen Valles region of Venus. Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center/ Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Previous studies have also made the case for active volcanoes on Venus, including this one, published on June 28, 2015, in Geophysical Research Letters. According to James Head, a geologist at Brown University and one of the 2015 study’s co-authors:

We were able to show strong evidence that Venus is volcanically, and thus internally, active today. This is a major finding that helps us understand the evolution of planets like our own.

Another clue was the previous detection of upticks in sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of Venus in the 1970s and 1980s by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. From the paper:

The behavior of SO2 and polar haze can be plausibly explained by episodic injection of SO2 into the cloud top regions, for example, by active volcanism.

This was also noted in the new paper:

This active volcanism is consistent with episodic spikes of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere measured by both the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Venus Express, which could have been produced by the same eruption that formed the young lava flows.

Justin Filiberto of Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), the lead author of the new study. Image via LPI.

Thus the new study now builds on earlier ones, and the case for active volcanoes on Venus becomes stronger and stronger. What will need to happen to confirm active volcanoes on Venus with absolute certainty? Filiberto said:

Future missions [to Venus] should be able to see … flows and changes in the surface and provide concrete evidence of its activity.

Future missions to Venus are currently on the drawing board and advocated by many researchers. They could provide more detailed data on the volcanoes, helping scientists learn their similarities to, and differences from, those on Earth.

Studies have suggested that Venus used to be more Earth-like, billions of years ago. Why did the two worlds diverge so radically, so that Earth is now livable, while Venus is perpetually cloud-enshrouded, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead?

It’s hoped that data from future spacecraft will help scientists understand why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.

Olivine crystals before and after alteration and oxidation, as seen in laboratory experiments duplicating Venus’ atmosphere. The rapid reaction suggests that similar lava flows on Venus are only a few years old. Image via Science Advances.

Bottom line: A study by scientists at USRA provides new evidence that Venus is still volcanically active.

Source: Present-day volcanism on Venus as evidenced from weathering rates of olivine

Via USRA

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New research confirms that volcanoes might be erupting on Venus even now. This image shows Idunn Mons, a volcanic peak on Venus, long suspected of being active. The colored overlay shows heat patterns derived from surface brightness data collected via ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft from May 2006 to the end of 2007. Image via ESA/ NASA/ USRA.

Earth is one of several worlds in our solar system known to have active volcanoes. Now, a new study from Universities Space Research Association (USRA) confirms that – as has been conjectured before – cloud-covered Venus appears to be volcanically active as well.

It’s been known since the early 1990s that Venus has many volcanic features. NASA’s Magellan spacecraft found extensive lava flows beneath the perpetually cloudy atmosphere of Venus, but how old are they? That’s the unanswered question.

Thus, as yet, there’s still no smoking gun to prove that any Venus volcanoes are still active.

USRA announced its intriguing new findings on January 3, 2019. They come not from Venus, but from an earthly laboratory. The peer-reviewed paper was published the same day in Science Advances.

The new evidence stems from spacecraft data on lava flows on the surface of Venus, some of which, the researchers now estimate, may be no more than a few years old. The Venus Express orbiter – launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2005 – continuously sent back science data from its polar orbit around Venus until 2014. It studied lava flows on Venus by measuring the amount of infrared light emitted from Venus’ surface during nighttime.

The data obtained were good enough to distinguish between fresher and older/altered lava flows, but the actual ages of the flows still weren’t well understood.

Justin Filiberto is the study’s lead author and a USRA staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. To learn more about the ages of lava flows on Venus, he and his colleagues simulated conditions in the intensely hot and corrosive atmosphere of Venus in a laboratory. They wanted to see how different minerals might react and change over time, under these conditions, on Venus’ surface.

It turned out that olivine – abundant in basalt rock, which makes up about 90% of Venus’ surface – reacted very rapidly. Within only weeks, it became oxidized, that is, coated with two iron oxide minerals, magnetite and hematite. From the paper:

We obtained VNIR [visible to near-infrared] reflectance spectra of natural olivine that was altered and oxidized in the laboratory. We show that olivine becomes coated, within days, with alteration products, primarily hematite … Our results indicate that lava flows lacking VNIR features due to hematite are no more than several years old.

Therefore, Venus is volcanically active now.

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Maat Mons, a 5-mile-high (8-km-high) volcano on Venus, with lava flows. This perspective view is based on radar images from the Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus in the 1990s. Image via NASA/ JPL/ Wikipedia.

Absolute confirmation of active volcanoes on Venus would be a major discovery. After all, Venus is the world next-inward in orbit around the sun. It’s very similar to Earth in size and density. If it doesn’t have active volcanoes, and Earth does, the question would be, why not?

But if it does have active volcanoes, then this discovery is extremely significant in studies of all the terrestrial rocky planets – not just Venus and Earth, but also Mercury and Mars – in our solar system. Filiberto commented in a statement:

If Venus is indeed active today, it would make a great place to visit to better understand the interiors of planets. For example, we could study how planets cool and why the Earth and Venus have active volcanism, but Mars does not.

Radar image from Magellan of lava channels in the Lo Shen Valles region of Venus. Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center/ Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Previous studies have also made the case for active volcanoes on Venus, including this one, published on June 28, 2015, in Geophysical Research Letters. According to James Head, a geologist at Brown University and one of the 2015 study’s co-authors:

We were able to show strong evidence that Venus is volcanically, and thus internally, active today. This is a major finding that helps us understand the evolution of planets like our own.

Another clue was the previous detection of upticks in sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere of Venus in the 1970s and 1980s by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. From the paper:

The behavior of SO2 and polar haze can be plausibly explained by episodic injection of SO2 into the cloud top regions, for example, by active volcanism.

This was also noted in the new paper:

This active volcanism is consistent with episodic spikes of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere measured by both the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Venus Express, which could have been produced by the same eruption that formed the young lava flows.

Justin Filiberto of Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), the lead author of the new study. Image via LPI.

Thus the new study now builds on earlier ones, and the case for active volcanoes on Venus becomes stronger and stronger. What will need to happen to confirm active volcanoes on Venus with absolute certainty? Filiberto said:

Future missions [to Venus] should be able to see … flows and changes in the surface and provide concrete evidence of its activity.

Future missions to Venus are currently on the drawing board and advocated by many researchers. They could provide more detailed data on the volcanoes, helping scientists learn their similarities to, and differences from, those on Earth.

Studies have suggested that Venus used to be more Earth-like, billions of years ago. Why did the two worlds diverge so radically, so that Earth is now livable, while Venus is perpetually cloud-enshrouded, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead?

It’s hoped that data from future spacecraft will help scientists understand why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.

Olivine crystals before and after alteration and oxidation, as seen in laboratory experiments duplicating Venus’ atmosphere. The rapid reaction suggests that similar lava flows on Venus are only a few years old. Image via Science Advances.

Bottom line: A study by scientists at USRA provides new evidence that Venus is still volcanically active.

Source: Present-day volcanism on Venus as evidenced from weathering rates of olivine

Via USRA

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Contemplate the apex of the sun’s way

Tonight, as you look up at the stars, think about the direction our local star, the sun, moves through our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers call the sun’s direction of motion through the Milky Way by a great old name. It’s called the solar apex or the apex of the sun’s way.

The solar apex is located in our sky in the direction of the constellation Hercules, southwest of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp.

Vega is a bright star. So you can look for it, and find it pretty easily. At this time of year from mid-northern latitudes, Vega appears over the northwestern horizon at dusk and early evening. Vega sets around mid-evening. It also appears low in the northeast sky in the predawn and dawn hours.

So look for the star Vega, and contemplate the fact that our sun and family of planets travel more or less toward it.

With its blue-white color, Vega also happens to be one of the loveliest stars you’ll ever see.

The blue-white star Vega is located near the apex of the sun’s way – our sun’s direction of motion through space. Photo via Fred Espenak at AstroPixels.com. Used with permission.

A friend from Australia wrote:

I seek to find out what speed our sun is traveling at and also how many years it takes to circumnavigate the galaxy.

Our sun takes a long time to circumnavigate the Milky Way, which is a collection of several hundred billion stars, with an estimated diameter of about 100,000 light-years. There are various estimates for the speed the sun travels through the galaxy, but its speed is about 140 miles per second.

Likewise, there are multiple estimates for the length of time it takes the sun to complete one circuit of the galaxy, but a typical estimate is about 230 million years.

That period of time – the length of the sun’s orbit around the Milky Way’s center – is sometimes called a cosmic year.

EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Vega is the brightest star in a famous star pattern known as the Summer Triangle. From mid-northern latitudes, as darkness falls on January evenings, the Summer Triangle sits close to the west-northwestern horizon.

By the way, our sun and planets travel more or less away from the star Sirius in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius is the sky’s brightest star. Not surprisingly, Vega and Sirius lie in opposite directions in Earth’s sky.

You can look for Sirius at this time of year, too. Remember, Vega resides almost exactly opposite Sirius. If you have an unobstructed horizon, this evening you might see Sirius low in the southeast, as Vega sits low in the northwest.

At mid-northern latitudes, you’ll possibly see both stars around 6 to 7 p.m. local time in January. Sirius swings low in the southwest sky by around 2 to 3 a.m., at which time Vega reappears in the northeast sky (at mid-northern latitudes).

Use Orion’s Belt to find Sirius, the brightest star of the nighttime sky. From mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, you might see Sirius low in the southeast, as Vega sits low in the northwest.

Bottom line: Our sun moves around the center of the galaxy, toward the star Vega. Astronomers call this motion the apex of the sun’s way. One circuit – about 230 million years – is called a cosmic year.

A planisphere is virtually indispensable for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky Planisphere today!

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Tonight, as you look up at the stars, think about the direction our local star, the sun, moves through our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers call the sun’s direction of motion through the Milky Way by a great old name. It’s called the solar apex or the apex of the sun’s way.

The solar apex is located in our sky in the direction of the constellation Hercules, southwest of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp.

Vega is a bright star. So you can look for it, and find it pretty easily. At this time of year from mid-northern latitudes, Vega appears over the northwestern horizon at dusk and early evening. Vega sets around mid-evening. It also appears low in the northeast sky in the predawn and dawn hours.

So look for the star Vega, and contemplate the fact that our sun and family of planets travel more or less toward it.

With its blue-white color, Vega also happens to be one of the loveliest stars you’ll ever see.

The blue-white star Vega is located near the apex of the sun’s way – our sun’s direction of motion through space. Photo via Fred Espenak at AstroPixels.com. Used with permission.

A friend from Australia wrote:

I seek to find out what speed our sun is traveling at and also how many years it takes to circumnavigate the galaxy.

Our sun takes a long time to circumnavigate the Milky Way, which is a collection of several hundred billion stars, with an estimated diameter of about 100,000 light-years. There are various estimates for the speed the sun travels through the galaxy, but its speed is about 140 miles per second.

Likewise, there are multiple estimates for the length of time it takes the sun to complete one circuit of the galaxy, but a typical estimate is about 230 million years.

That period of time – the length of the sun’s orbit around the Milky Way’s center – is sometimes called a cosmic year.

EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Vega is the brightest star in a famous star pattern known as the Summer Triangle. From mid-northern latitudes, as darkness falls on January evenings, the Summer Triangle sits close to the west-northwestern horizon.

By the way, our sun and planets travel more or less away from the star Sirius in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius is the sky’s brightest star. Not surprisingly, Vega and Sirius lie in opposite directions in Earth’s sky.

You can look for Sirius at this time of year, too. Remember, Vega resides almost exactly opposite Sirius. If you have an unobstructed horizon, this evening you might see Sirius low in the southeast, as Vega sits low in the northwest.

At mid-northern latitudes, you’ll possibly see both stars around 6 to 7 p.m. local time in January. Sirius swings low in the southwest sky by around 2 to 3 a.m., at which time Vega reappears in the northeast sky (at mid-northern latitudes).

Use Orion’s Belt to find Sirius, the brightest star of the nighttime sky. From mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, you might see Sirius low in the southeast, as Vega sits low in the northwest.

Bottom line: Our sun moves around the center of the galaxy, toward the star Vega. Astronomers call this motion the apex of the sun’s way. One circuit – about 230 million years – is called a cosmic year.

A planisphere is virtually indispensable for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky Planisphere today!

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

Ferocious fires in Australia intensified this week

NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite collected this image with its VIIRS instrument on January 1, 2020. The red points indicate actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands. Image via NASA.

Originally published at NASA on January 2, 2020. Reprinted here with permission.

As the New Year starts, the outlook for the bushfire situation in Australia continues to be grim. These huge and disastrous fires continue to burn ferociously and with abandon, and reports have come out that the fires intensified in the 12 hours prior to the January 2 original publication of this article. NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured imagery of the fires and the resultant billowing smoke cascading off the edge of Australia on January 1, 2020.

In the resort town Mallacoota, Australia, wildfires surrounded the southeastern seaside town. Over 4,000 people were forced to seek refuge on the beach and even boats in the water on January 1 as deadly blazes closed in. The scene was described by residents as apocalyptic, with the sky turning a dark orange. On the major fire updates page of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service page (this is discounting more fires that have plagued the states of Victoria and Queensland) there are nearly 1.5 million hectares (3.67 million acres, or nearly 6,000 square miles) that are continuing to burn just in New South Wales alone. According to the Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC website:

The 2019/20 fire season is well underway with multiple large bushfires occurring since the release of the previous Outlook in August. Queensland and New South Wales in particular have experienced severe fires, but all states have had challenging fire conditions. Catastrophic fire danger ratings have been issued in NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, and there has been loss of human lives and animals, and damage to property and the environment.

The 2019/2020 outlook for the fire season was showing:

above normal bushfire potential for large fires to take hold based on recent and predicted weather, the dryness of the land and forests, recent fire history and local firefighting resources.

This prediction has come to pass and exceeds the outlook for the year. And no end is currently in sight.

The map below taken from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service website shows the areas on fire as of January 2, 2019. There is almost no area which has not been affected to date.

For more information about the map and the individual fires go to: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me. Image via New South Wales Rural Fire Service webpage.

NASA’s satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke from fires, provide information for fire management, and map the extent of changes to ecosystems, based on the extent and severity of burn scars. NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing instruments, many of which contribute to our understanding of fire in the Earth system. Satellites in orbit around the poles provide observations of the entire planet several times per day, whereas satellites in a geostationary orbit provide coarse-resolution imagery of fires, smoke and clouds every five to 15 minutes.

For more information visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/missions/index.html

NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks “right now.”

Bottom line: An update on Australia’s fires, focused on the use of satellite data, originally published at NASA on January 2, 2020.

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

NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite collected this image with its VIIRS instrument on January 1, 2020. The red points indicate actively burning fires, detected by thermal bands. Image via NASA.

Originally published at NASA on January 2, 2020. Reprinted here with permission.

As the New Year starts, the outlook for the bushfire situation in Australia continues to be grim. These huge and disastrous fires continue to burn ferociously and with abandon, and reports have come out that the fires intensified in the 12 hours prior to the January 2 original publication of this article. NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured imagery of the fires and the resultant billowing smoke cascading off the edge of Australia on January 1, 2020.

In the resort town Mallacoota, Australia, wildfires surrounded the southeastern seaside town. Over 4,000 people were forced to seek refuge on the beach and even boats in the water on January 1 as deadly blazes closed in. The scene was described by residents as apocalyptic, with the sky turning a dark orange. On the major fire updates page of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service page (this is discounting more fires that have plagued the states of Victoria and Queensland) there are nearly 1.5 million hectares (3.67 million acres, or nearly 6,000 square miles) that are continuing to burn just in New South Wales alone. According to the Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC website:

The 2019/20 fire season is well underway with multiple large bushfires occurring since the release of the previous Outlook in August. Queensland and New South Wales in particular have experienced severe fires, but all states have had challenging fire conditions. Catastrophic fire danger ratings have been issued in NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria, and there has been loss of human lives and animals, and damage to property and the environment.

The 2019/2020 outlook for the fire season was showing:

above normal bushfire potential for large fires to take hold based on recent and predicted weather, the dryness of the land and forests, recent fire history and local firefighting resources.

This prediction has come to pass and exceeds the outlook for the year. And no end is currently in sight.

The map below taken from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service website shows the areas on fire as of January 2, 2019. There is almost no area which has not been affected to date.

For more information about the map and the individual fires go to: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me. Image via New South Wales Rural Fire Service webpage.

NASA’s satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke from fires, provide information for fire management, and map the extent of changes to ecosystems, based on the extent and severity of burn scars. NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing instruments, many of which contribute to our understanding of fire in the Earth system. Satellites in orbit around the poles provide observations of the entire planet several times per day, whereas satellites in a geostationary orbit provide coarse-resolution imagery of fires, smoke and clouds every five to 15 minutes.

For more information visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/missions/index.html

NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks “right now.”

Bottom line: An update on Australia’s fires, focused on the use of satellite data, originally published at NASA on January 2, 2020.

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

January’s birthstone is the garnet

Photo via cobalt123

The birthstone for January is the garnet.

The name “garnet” is derived from the Latin “granatum” meaning “pomegranate” because the crystals resemble the fruit’s red color and seed-like form. Most people think of the garnet as a red gemstone, but in fact, it exists in all kinds of colors – such as black – as well as many shades of red and green. It can even be colorless. The garnet’s variety of colors comes from metals such as manganese, iron, calcium, and aluminum. Some varieties even contain mineral fibers that produce the illusion of a four- or six-rayed star within the stone. Green garnets are most highly prized but are very rare. Emerald green and colorless stones are highly valued, followed by pure red garnets.

Image via USGS

Garnets are commonly found as small pebbles in streams, where the igneous and metamorphic rocks that contain them have weathered away. They’re found in many places around the world, including North and South America, Australia, India, Asia and Spain.

Ancient warriors believed that garnets brought victory. The Crusaders used them as protection against wounds and accidents during their journeys. In contrast, Asiatic warriors believed that glowing garnets, used as bullets, inflicted more severe wounds. In 1892, during hostilities on the Kashmir frontier, the Hanza tribesmen fired on British soldiers with garnet bullets, believing them to be more effective than lead bullets.

In the former Czechoslovakia, evidence of garnet jewelry dating to the Bronze age was found in ancient graves. Garnet jewelry has also been discovered dating back to 3100 B.C. in Egypt, 2300 B.C. in Sumeria, and 2000-1000 B.C. in Sweden. Garnets were treasured in 3rd and 4th century Greece, and continued in popularity during Roman times. Across the Atlantic, Pre-Columbian Aztec and Native Americans also used garnets in their ornaments.

As with many precious stones, garnets were once believed to hold medicinal powers. In Medieval times, it protected its wearer against poisons, wounds and bad dreams, and cured depression. Red garnets relieved fever, hemorrhages and inflammatory diseases.

Find out about the birthstones for the other months of the year:
January birthstone
February birthstone
March birthstone
April birthstone
May birthstone
June birthstone
July birthstone
August birthstone
September birthstone
October birthstone
November birthstone
December birthstone

Bottom line: If you were born in January, your birthstone is the garnet

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Fm7eta

Photo via cobalt123

The birthstone for January is the garnet.

The name “garnet” is derived from the Latin “granatum” meaning “pomegranate” because the crystals resemble the fruit’s red color and seed-like form. Most people think of the garnet as a red gemstone, but in fact, it exists in all kinds of colors – such as black – as well as many shades of red and green. It can even be colorless. The garnet’s variety of colors comes from metals such as manganese, iron, calcium, and aluminum. Some varieties even contain mineral fibers that produce the illusion of a four- or six-rayed star within the stone. Green garnets are most highly prized but are very rare. Emerald green and colorless stones are highly valued, followed by pure red garnets.

Image via USGS

Garnets are commonly found as small pebbles in streams, where the igneous and metamorphic rocks that contain them have weathered away. They’re found in many places around the world, including North and South America, Australia, India, Asia and Spain.

Ancient warriors believed that garnets brought victory. The Crusaders used them as protection against wounds and accidents during their journeys. In contrast, Asiatic warriors believed that glowing garnets, used as bullets, inflicted more severe wounds. In 1892, during hostilities on the Kashmir frontier, the Hanza tribesmen fired on British soldiers with garnet bullets, believing them to be more effective than lead bullets.

In the former Czechoslovakia, evidence of garnet jewelry dating to the Bronze age was found in ancient graves. Garnet jewelry has also been discovered dating back to 3100 B.C. in Egypt, 2300 B.C. in Sumeria, and 2000-1000 B.C. in Sweden. Garnets were treasured in 3rd and 4th century Greece, and continued in popularity during Roman times. Across the Atlantic, Pre-Columbian Aztec and Native Americans also used garnets in their ornaments.

As with many precious stones, garnets were once believed to hold medicinal powers. In Medieval times, it protected its wearer against poisons, wounds and bad dreams, and cured depression. Red garnets relieved fever, hemorrhages and inflammatory diseases.

Find out about the birthstones for the other months of the year:
January birthstone
February birthstone
March birthstone
April birthstone
May birthstone
June birthstone
July birthstone
August birthstone
September birthstone
October birthstone
November birthstone
December birthstone

Bottom line: If you were born in January, your birthstone is the garnet

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Fm7eta

Earth closest to sun on January 4-5

Cartoon above via Sara Zimmerman at Unearthed Comics.

Our planet Earth will reach its closest point to the sun for 2020 on January 4 or 5, depending on your time zone. It happens on January 5 at 07:48 UTC. In United States time zones, that’s January 5 at 2:48 a.m. Eastern Time, 1:48 a.m. Central Time, 12:48 a.m. Mountain Time – and January 4, at 11:48 p.m. Pacific Time, 10:48 p.m. Alaskan Time and 9:48 p.m. Hawaiian Time. Translate UTC to your time.

Astronomers call this celebrated point in Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun perihelion, from the Greek roots peri meaning near and helios meaning sun.

Best New Year’s gift ever! EarthSky moon calendar for 2020

At its closest point, Earth swings to within 91,398,199 miles (147,091,144 km) of the sun. That’s in contrast to six months from now, when the Earth reaches aphelion – its most distant point – on July 4, 2020. Then we’ll be 94,507,635 miles (152,095,295 km) from the sun.

In other words, Earth is roughly 3 million miles (5 million km) closer to the sun in early January than it is in early July. That’s always the case. Earth is closest to the sun every year in early January, when it’s winter for the Northern Hemisphere.

We’re farthest away from the sun in early July, during our Northern Hemisphere summer.

Source: Fred Espenak’s Earth at perihelion and aphelion, 2001 to 2100

Image via NASA.

So you see there’s not a huge distance difference between perihelion and aphelion. Earth’s orbit is very nearly circular. Thus it’s not our distance from the sun – but instead the tilt of our world’s axis – that creates winter and summer on Earth.

In winter, your part of Earth is tilted away from the sun. In summer, your part of Earth is tilted toward the sun. The day of maximum tilt toward or away from the sun is the December or June solstice.

Though not responsible for the seasons, Earth’s closest and farthest points to the sun do affect seasonal lengths. When the Earth comes closest to the sun for the year, as around now, our world is moving fastest in orbit around the sun. Earth is rushing along now at almost 19 miles per second (30.3 km/sec) – moving about .6 miles per second (one kilometer per second) faster than when Earth is farthest from the sun in early July. Thus the Northern Hemisphere winter and – simultaneously – the Southern Hemisphere summer are the shortest seasons as Earth rushes from the solstice in December to the equinox in March.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer season (June solstice to September equinox) lasts nearly five days longer than our winter season. And, of course, the corresponding seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are opposite. Southern Hemisphere winter is nearly five days longer than Southern Hemisphere summer.

It’s all due to the shape of Earth’s orbit. The shape is an ellipse, like a circle someone sat down on and squashed. The elliptical shape of Earth’s orbit causes the variation in the length of the seasons – and brings us closest to the sun in January.

Image via Dna-webmaster.

Bottom line: In 2020, Earth’s closest point to the sun – called its perihelion – comes on January 5 at 07:48 Universal Time (at 1:48 a.m. CST).

Are the December solstice and January perihelion related?

A planisphere is virtually indispensable for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky Planisphere today!

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/322mINa

Cartoon above via Sara Zimmerman at Unearthed Comics.

Our planet Earth will reach its closest point to the sun for 2020 on January 4 or 5, depending on your time zone. It happens on January 5 at 07:48 UTC. In United States time zones, that’s January 5 at 2:48 a.m. Eastern Time, 1:48 a.m. Central Time, 12:48 a.m. Mountain Time – and January 4, at 11:48 p.m. Pacific Time, 10:48 p.m. Alaskan Time and 9:48 p.m. Hawaiian Time. Translate UTC to your time.

Astronomers call this celebrated point in Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun perihelion, from the Greek roots peri meaning near and helios meaning sun.

Best New Year’s gift ever! EarthSky moon calendar for 2020

At its closest point, Earth swings to within 91,398,199 miles (147,091,144 km) of the sun. That’s in contrast to six months from now, when the Earth reaches aphelion – its most distant point – on July 4, 2020. Then we’ll be 94,507,635 miles (152,095,295 km) from the sun.

In other words, Earth is roughly 3 million miles (5 million km) closer to the sun in early January than it is in early July. That’s always the case. Earth is closest to the sun every year in early January, when it’s winter for the Northern Hemisphere.

We’re farthest away from the sun in early July, during our Northern Hemisphere summer.

Source: Fred Espenak’s Earth at perihelion and aphelion, 2001 to 2100

Image via NASA.

So you see there’s not a huge distance difference between perihelion and aphelion. Earth’s orbit is very nearly circular. Thus it’s not our distance from the sun – but instead the tilt of our world’s axis – that creates winter and summer on Earth.

In winter, your part of Earth is tilted away from the sun. In summer, your part of Earth is tilted toward the sun. The day of maximum tilt toward or away from the sun is the December or June solstice.

Though not responsible for the seasons, Earth’s closest and farthest points to the sun do affect seasonal lengths. When the Earth comes closest to the sun for the year, as around now, our world is moving fastest in orbit around the sun. Earth is rushing along now at almost 19 miles per second (30.3 km/sec) – moving about .6 miles per second (one kilometer per second) faster than when Earth is farthest from the sun in early July. Thus the Northern Hemisphere winter and – simultaneously – the Southern Hemisphere summer are the shortest seasons as Earth rushes from the solstice in December to the equinox in March.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer season (June solstice to September equinox) lasts nearly five days longer than our winter season. And, of course, the corresponding seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are opposite. Southern Hemisphere winter is nearly five days longer than Southern Hemisphere summer.

It’s all due to the shape of Earth’s orbit. The shape is an ellipse, like a circle someone sat down on and squashed. The elliptical shape of Earth’s orbit causes the variation in the length of the seasons – and brings us closest to the sun in January.

Image via Dna-webmaster.

Bottom line: In 2020, Earth’s closest point to the sun – called its perihelion – comes on January 5 at 07:48 Universal Time (at 1:48 a.m. CST).

Are the December solstice and January perihelion related?

A planisphere is virtually indispensable for beginning stargazers. Order your EarthSky Planisphere today!

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/322mINa

News digest – breast screening AI, NHS waiting times, brain tumour scans and ‘prehab’

Artificial intelligence could make breast screening smarter 

An algorithm developed by researchers from Google Health and Imperial College London is just as good as a radiologist at spotting breast cancer in screening images. BBC News covered the new software, which was trained using screening images collected by Cancer Research UK. Learn more about the research on our blog.  

We’ve partnered with @GoogleHealth to help make breast cancer screening smarter: https://t.co/L7lUGxBpYT pic.twitter.com/aKyYA3MDgM

— Cancer Research UK (@CR_UK) January 1, 2020

‘Stop smoking’ resolution scrapped by Public Health England 

Public Health England have axed their ‘stop smoking’ new year’s resolution drive in favour of a year-round campaign based on apps, emails and Facebook. But charities have criticised the move, which came after Public Health England’s anti-smoking budget was cut by £1.2 million. Get the full story at The Telegraph. 

National campaigns, which encourage people to stop smoking, have been axed,despite evidence showing they’re effective. These cuts undermine the Govt’s aim to make England smokefree by 2030. We support @lunguk in calling on Govt to reinstate funding for these important campaigns. https://t.co/q99jp4Myi4

— CRUK Policy (@CRUK_Policy) December 27, 2019

‘Prehab’ fitness programme could cut recovery time 

A new pre-treatment fitness programme could help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and cut the amount of time patients need to spend in hospital. More than 500 people in Greater Manchester area have taken part in the programme so far, which includes 3 fitness sessions a week. Read more in The Guardian. 

Smoking ban named top public health achievement  

The ban on smoking in public spaces has topped surveys as the greatest public health achievement of the 21st century – credited with a 20% fall in heart attacks and other cardiac conditions in the 10 years since it was passed in 2007. The sugar tax on soft drinks came in second. Read more at The Guardian.

Hospitals will ‘struggle’ to meet wait time target for cancer patients

NHS England have made plans to bring in a new waiting time target for cancer diagnosis, despite continued staff shortages. Targets will require 70-85% of referred patients to be told if they have cancer or not within 4 weeks of being referred for tests. But experts from the Royal College of Radiologists warn the targets will be unachievable for many hospitals, as The Independent explains. 

Modelling study suggests targeted screening could prevent ‘1 in 6 prostate cancer deaths’ 

According to UK researchers, screening men with a higher genetic risk of prostate cancer every 4 years could prevent 1 in 6 deaths. Previous studies have found the test, which measures the amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood, isn’t reliable enough to screen for prostate cancer in the general population. But the researchers concluded that the benefits of a targeted screening programme could help to negate some of the known harms of prostate screening. This theory would now need to be put to the test in a real-life trial. More on this at Nursing Times. 

A decade of breakthrough cancer therapies 

Mail Online has compiled a list of some of the top medical breakthroughs of the decade. On the list – immunotherapy for cancer, a targeted ovarian cancer drug and a highly targeted radiotherapy treatment called SABR. 

Amazon ‘cancer cure’ books provide false information 

Cancer experts have criticised Amazon for selling books promoting fake cancer cures. Mail Online reports that more than 3,000 titles were listed, wrongly advising cancer patients to drink carrot juice or adopt an alkaline diet to help cure their disease. Experts recommend that anyone considering an unconventional treatment speak to their doctor first, as many ‘natural’ remedies could cause more harm than good.  

E-cigarettes have given stop smoking efforts a boost 

Writing for The Guardian, Professor Linda Bauld and Dr Suzi Gage look back at one the most controversial years for e-cigarettes since they were first introduced. But despite ongoing controversy, they say that e-cigarettes are ‘still safer than smoking’.  

And finally… 

Children with brain tumours could be spared aggressive treatments thanks to a new scan that’s able to predict the speed of tumour growth. The test will help treatment to each child’s brain tumour and aims to reduce the side-effects of treatment and improve children’s quality of life. The Guardian has the story. 

Scarlett Sangster is a writer for PA Media Group. 

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

Artificial intelligence could make breast screening smarter 

An algorithm developed by researchers from Google Health and Imperial College London is just as good as a radiologist at spotting breast cancer in screening images. BBC News covered the new software, which was trained using screening images collected by Cancer Research UK. Learn more about the research on our blog.  

We’ve partnered with @GoogleHealth to help make breast cancer screening smarter: https://t.co/L7lUGxBpYT pic.twitter.com/aKyYA3MDgM

— Cancer Research UK (@CR_UK) January 1, 2020

‘Stop smoking’ resolution scrapped by Public Health England 

Public Health England have axed their ‘stop smoking’ new year’s resolution drive in favour of a year-round campaign based on apps, emails and Facebook. But charities have criticised the move, which came after Public Health England’s anti-smoking budget was cut by £1.2 million. Get the full story at The Telegraph. 

National campaigns, which encourage people to stop smoking, have been axed,despite evidence showing they’re effective. These cuts undermine the Govt’s aim to make England smokefree by 2030. We support @lunguk in calling on Govt to reinstate funding for these important campaigns. https://t.co/q99jp4Myi4

— CRUK Policy (@CRUK_Policy) December 27, 2019

‘Prehab’ fitness programme could cut recovery time 

A new pre-treatment fitness programme could help reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and cut the amount of time patients need to spend in hospital. More than 500 people in Greater Manchester area have taken part in the programme so far, which includes 3 fitness sessions a week. Read more in The Guardian. 

Smoking ban named top public health achievement  

The ban on smoking in public spaces has topped surveys as the greatest public health achievement of the 21st century – credited with a 20% fall in heart attacks and other cardiac conditions in the 10 years since it was passed in 2007. The sugar tax on soft drinks came in second. Read more at The Guardian.

Hospitals will ‘struggle’ to meet wait time target for cancer patients

NHS England have made plans to bring in a new waiting time target for cancer diagnosis, despite continued staff shortages. Targets will require 70-85% of referred patients to be told if they have cancer or not within 4 weeks of being referred for tests. But experts from the Royal College of Radiologists warn the targets will be unachievable for many hospitals, as The Independent explains. 

Modelling study suggests targeted screening could prevent ‘1 in 6 prostate cancer deaths’ 

According to UK researchers, screening men with a higher genetic risk of prostate cancer every 4 years could prevent 1 in 6 deaths. Previous studies have found the test, which measures the amount of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood, isn’t reliable enough to screen for prostate cancer in the general population. But the researchers concluded that the benefits of a targeted screening programme could help to negate some of the known harms of prostate screening. This theory would now need to be put to the test in a real-life trial. More on this at Nursing Times. 

A decade of breakthrough cancer therapies 

Mail Online has compiled a list of some of the top medical breakthroughs of the decade. On the list – immunotherapy for cancer, a targeted ovarian cancer drug and a highly targeted radiotherapy treatment called SABR. 

Amazon ‘cancer cure’ books provide false information 

Cancer experts have criticised Amazon for selling books promoting fake cancer cures. Mail Online reports that more than 3,000 titles were listed, wrongly advising cancer patients to drink carrot juice or adopt an alkaline diet to help cure their disease. Experts recommend that anyone considering an unconventional treatment speak to their doctor first, as many ‘natural’ remedies could cause more harm than good.  

E-cigarettes have given stop smoking efforts a boost 

Writing for The Guardian, Professor Linda Bauld and Dr Suzi Gage look back at one the most controversial years for e-cigarettes since they were first introduced. But despite ongoing controversy, they say that e-cigarettes are ‘still safer than smoking’.  

And finally… 

Children with brain tumours could be spared aggressive treatments thanks to a new scan that’s able to predict the speed of tumour growth. The test will help treatment to each child’s brain tumour and aims to reduce the side-effects of treatment and improve children’s quality of life. The Guardian has the story. 

Scarlett Sangster is a writer for PA Media Group. 

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