Saharan-fed sunsets in the US

A vast plume of Saharan dust blankets Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2020. Image via Yamil Lage/ AFP/ Getty Images.

By Scott Denning, Colorado State University

A hot desert wind is carrying a massive cloud of Saharan dust into the southern United States this week. Dust plumes from the Sahara routinely blow westward across the Atlantic at this time of year, but this event is a doozy – by some measures, the biggest in decades. And a second plume appears to be forming about a week behind the big one.

Across the southeastern U.S., from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas and potentially as far north as Indianapolis and Cincinnati, dust effects will likely be visible in the coming days. Trillions of dust grains will reflect sunlight in every direction, creating milky white skies. The dusty haze reflects some sunshine back to space, cooling the surface a bit where the plume is thickest.

Longer waves of red and orange light tend to penetrate the dusty haze, so sunrises and sunsets are likely to be especially beautiful. On the downside, where the plume mingles with showers or thunderstorms, downdrafts may carry desert dust to Earth’s surface. This will impair air quality and could trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks. The more dust reaches an area, the more pronounced the effects will be.

For atmospheric scientists like me, this huge dust plume is more than a cool event – it also shows how the Earth’s physical geography creates weather and climate patterns. Here’s what causes these plumes to form.

On June 16, 2020, the GOES-East satellite captured this GeoColor imagery of an expansive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert traveling westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Read more about this image. Image via NOAA.

Earth’s rotation and uneven heating create climate zones

Our planet’s climate and weather systems start with motion in the atmosphere – swaths of air rising and falling, or moving horizontally from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas.

Earth’s rotation and the fact that the planet is warmer near the equator than at the poles create circulation patterns in the atmosphere. At higher latitudes, toward the poles, winds blow faster and move from west to east. Near the equator, winds blow more slowly and travel from east to west. These are the trade winds that blew ships toward the New World during the age of exploration.

In the deep tropics, rising air expands and cools. The water vapor in it condenses and falls, producing rainforests that are the most productive ecosystems on the planet in the Amazon, the Congo, parts of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Atmospheric circulation – the movement of air through Earth’s atmosphere – helps create the planet’s weather patterns and climate zones.

In the subtropics of both hemispheres, sinking air compresses and warms, vaporizing every little wisp of cloud to produce the world’s arid regions: the Gobi, Atacama, Sonoran, Namib and Australian deserts. The largest desert is the belt of searing aridity that stretches across the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula and reaches deep into Central Asia. This is where trans-Atlantic dust plumes form.

Wavy winds and lofting dust

The Sahara is so hot and dry that North Africa is hotter than the equator at this time of year, although it lies thousands of miles farther north. This is the only place on the planet where the gradient of hot to cold runs backward – from the subtropics to the equator.

In the space of 1,000 miles (1,600 km), from the Atlantic coast of Ghana to the deep interior of Mali, the landscape changes from dripping jungle to searing sand. Evaporation keeps the rainforests cooler than the deserts to their north. This reversed thermal gradient affects the predominant trade winds, causing them to undulate back and forth and up and down in gigantic easterly waves from June through October.

The combination of a huge expanse of roasted land and an upside-down thermal pattern allows billows of high wind to free sand and dust from the Sahara’s hot surface, lofting it high on buoyant thermals and carrying it far to the west. As the air acquires a heavier and heavier burden of dust, it becomes even more erosive, sandblasting the arid landscape ever more thoroughly.

The largest dust plumes are ejected westward across the tropical Atlantic. Much of this desert dust is deposited in the ocean, but some of it reaches the Americas.

A mass of very dry, dusty air is moving across the Atlantic right now.

This NOAA animation predicts the movement of the #SaharanDust plume from now through Sunday evening (June 29).

Learn more about the #SaharanAirLayer: https://t.co/OJLrnuKiLI pic.twitter.com/yvPjiE5o91

— NOAA Research (@NOAAResearch) June 24, 2020

Fertilizing rainforests and short-circuiting hurricanes

Over the ocean, African easterly waves gobble up water vapor from the warm sea surface and can blow up into tropical storms. Nearly all Atlantic hurricanes start out as undulating breezes over the reversed thermal regime of West Africa.

Big Saharan dust plumes interfere with the formation of Atlantic hurricanes in at least three ways. First, their very dry air dilutes the humidity whose condensation forms the fuel of tropical storms. Second, upper-level winds that carry these plumes blow more strongly than winds at the surface. This variation in wind speed, known as wind shear, blows the tops off of thunderstorms before they can become organized into bigger systems. Third, dust plumes reflect and scatter tropical sunlight, reducing the tropical sun’s evaporating power and starving storms of their moisture.

For all of these reasons, tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes are less likely when big Saharan dust plumes are active over the Atlantic. That’s good news for coastal residents in the U.S. but bad news for surfers, since tropical storms are the main generators of waves in summer.

View this post on Instagram

Saharan dust is a mixture of sand and dust from the Sahara, the vast desert area that covers most of North Africa. This dust mixed with rainy weather, left us a memorable sunset ? . . . . #trini_surfer #viewtt #triniphotographer #trinidadphotographer #trinidadphotography #triniphotos #trinidadandtobago?? #sahara #saharadust #saharadustsunset #stormclouds #rainynight #rainysunset #stormysunset #trinidadsunsets @sunset_vision #sunset_vision @sunset_stream #sunset_stream #sunsets #sunsetlovers #sunsetlovers? #sunsetskies #sunsetsniper #sunsetphotography #sunsethunters #sunsetmadness #sunsetview #sunsetphoto #sunsetlight #sunsetcolors #sunsetphoto

A post shared by ??i??i?_???ƒ?? ? ?????? ? ???f (@trini_surfer) on Jun 22, 2020 at 2:26am PDT

And dust plumes provide other benefits. Desert dust is an important source of nutrients for downwind ecosystems, both in the ocean and on land. Soluble iron in the dust helps some species of algae in surface waters to thrive. These tiny organisms form the foundation of food webs that sustain thousands of other species.

The dust also contains phosphorus, which is critical to the growth of tropical forests in Central and South America. These rich ecosystems get some phosphorus by dissolving local rocks at their roots but need more, which they receive from desert dust wafted thousands of miles westward by African easterly waves.

If you’re in an area affected by a dust plume, don’t forget to look up. You may see odd-looking skies or stunning sunsets, created by interlocking chains of cause and effect that link vast regions on both sides of the tropical Atlantic and sweep us into the drama of our spinning planet.

Scott Denning, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Hot desert winds are blowing an enormous plume of dust from the Sahara across the Atlantic and into the southeastern U.S. The plume could impair air quality in some areas, but these events also produce benefits. Minerals in the dust fertilize ocean plankton and Latin American rainforests, and the hot winds suppress hurricanes and tropical storms. And while skies may be hazy by day, look for some spectacular sunsets.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31l5DAg

A vast plume of Saharan dust blankets Havana, Cuba, June 24, 2020. Image via Yamil Lage/ AFP/ Getty Images.

By Scott Denning, Colorado State University

A hot desert wind is carrying a massive cloud of Saharan dust into the southern United States this week. Dust plumes from the Sahara routinely blow westward across the Atlantic at this time of year, but this event is a doozy – by some measures, the biggest in decades. And a second plume appears to be forming about a week behind the big one.

Across the southeastern U.S., from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas and potentially as far north as Indianapolis and Cincinnati, dust effects will likely be visible in the coming days. Trillions of dust grains will reflect sunlight in every direction, creating milky white skies. The dusty haze reflects some sunshine back to space, cooling the surface a bit where the plume is thickest.

Longer waves of red and orange light tend to penetrate the dusty haze, so sunrises and sunsets are likely to be especially beautiful. On the downside, where the plume mingles with showers or thunderstorms, downdrafts may carry desert dust to Earth’s surface. This will impair air quality and could trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks. The more dust reaches an area, the more pronounced the effects will be.

For atmospheric scientists like me, this huge dust plume is more than a cool event – it also shows how the Earth’s physical geography creates weather and climate patterns. Here’s what causes these plumes to form.

On June 16, 2020, the GOES-East satellite captured this GeoColor imagery of an expansive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert traveling westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Read more about this image. Image via NOAA.

Earth’s rotation and uneven heating create climate zones

Our planet’s climate and weather systems start with motion in the atmosphere – swaths of air rising and falling, or moving horizontally from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas.

Earth’s rotation and the fact that the planet is warmer near the equator than at the poles create circulation patterns in the atmosphere. At higher latitudes, toward the poles, winds blow faster and move from west to east. Near the equator, winds blow more slowly and travel from east to west. These are the trade winds that blew ships toward the New World during the age of exploration.

In the deep tropics, rising air expands and cools. The water vapor in it condenses and falls, producing rainforests that are the most productive ecosystems on the planet in the Amazon, the Congo, parts of Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Atmospheric circulation – the movement of air through Earth’s atmosphere – helps create the planet’s weather patterns and climate zones.

In the subtropics of both hemispheres, sinking air compresses and warms, vaporizing every little wisp of cloud to produce the world’s arid regions: the Gobi, Atacama, Sonoran, Namib and Australian deserts. The largest desert is the belt of searing aridity that stretches across the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula and reaches deep into Central Asia. This is where trans-Atlantic dust plumes form.

Wavy winds and lofting dust

The Sahara is so hot and dry that North Africa is hotter than the equator at this time of year, although it lies thousands of miles farther north. This is the only place on the planet where the gradient of hot to cold runs backward – from the subtropics to the equator.

In the space of 1,000 miles (1,600 km), from the Atlantic coast of Ghana to the deep interior of Mali, the landscape changes from dripping jungle to searing sand. Evaporation keeps the rainforests cooler than the deserts to their north. This reversed thermal gradient affects the predominant trade winds, causing them to undulate back and forth and up and down in gigantic easterly waves from June through October.

The combination of a huge expanse of roasted land and an upside-down thermal pattern allows billows of high wind to free sand and dust from the Sahara’s hot surface, lofting it high on buoyant thermals and carrying it far to the west. As the air acquires a heavier and heavier burden of dust, it becomes even more erosive, sandblasting the arid landscape ever more thoroughly.

The largest dust plumes are ejected westward across the tropical Atlantic. Much of this desert dust is deposited in the ocean, but some of it reaches the Americas.

A mass of very dry, dusty air is moving across the Atlantic right now.

This NOAA animation predicts the movement of the #SaharanDust plume from now through Sunday evening (June 29).

Learn more about the #SaharanAirLayer: https://t.co/OJLrnuKiLI pic.twitter.com/yvPjiE5o91

— NOAA Research (@NOAAResearch) June 24, 2020

Fertilizing rainforests and short-circuiting hurricanes

Over the ocean, African easterly waves gobble up water vapor from the warm sea surface and can blow up into tropical storms. Nearly all Atlantic hurricanes start out as undulating breezes over the reversed thermal regime of West Africa.

Big Saharan dust plumes interfere with the formation of Atlantic hurricanes in at least three ways. First, their very dry air dilutes the humidity whose condensation forms the fuel of tropical storms. Second, upper-level winds that carry these plumes blow more strongly than winds at the surface. This variation in wind speed, known as wind shear, blows the tops off of thunderstorms before they can become organized into bigger systems. Third, dust plumes reflect and scatter tropical sunlight, reducing the tropical sun’s evaporating power and starving storms of their moisture.

For all of these reasons, tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes are less likely when big Saharan dust plumes are active over the Atlantic. That’s good news for coastal residents in the U.S. but bad news for surfers, since tropical storms are the main generators of waves in summer.

View this post on Instagram

Saharan dust is a mixture of sand and dust from the Sahara, the vast desert area that covers most of North Africa. This dust mixed with rainy weather, left us a memorable sunset ? . . . . #trini_surfer #viewtt #triniphotographer #trinidadphotographer #trinidadphotography #triniphotos #trinidadandtobago?? #sahara #saharadust #saharadustsunset #stormclouds #rainynight #rainysunset #stormysunset #trinidadsunsets @sunset_vision #sunset_vision @sunset_stream #sunset_stream #sunsets #sunsetlovers #sunsetlovers? #sunsetskies #sunsetsniper #sunsetphotography #sunsethunters #sunsetmadness #sunsetview #sunsetphoto #sunsetlight #sunsetcolors #sunsetphoto

A post shared by ??i??i?_???ƒ?? ? ?????? ? ???f (@trini_surfer) on Jun 22, 2020 at 2:26am PDT

And dust plumes provide other benefits. Desert dust is an important source of nutrients for downwind ecosystems, both in the ocean and on land. Soluble iron in the dust helps some species of algae in surface waters to thrive. These tiny organisms form the foundation of food webs that sustain thousands of other species.

The dust also contains phosphorus, which is critical to the growth of tropical forests in Central and South America. These rich ecosystems get some phosphorus by dissolving local rocks at their roots but need more, which they receive from desert dust wafted thousands of miles westward by African easterly waves.

If you’re in an area affected by a dust plume, don’t forget to look up. You may see odd-looking skies or stunning sunsets, created by interlocking chains of cause and effect that link vast regions on both sides of the tropical Atlantic and sweep us into the drama of our spinning planet.

Scott Denning, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Hot desert winds are blowing an enormous plume of dust from the Sahara across the Atlantic and into the southeastern U.S. The plume could impair air quality in some areas, but these events also produce benefits. Minerals in the dust fertilize ocean plankton and Latin American rainforests, and the hot winds suppress hurricanes and tropical storms. And while skies may be hazy by day, look for some spectacular sunsets.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/31l5DAg

A monster quasar in the early universe

Artist’s concept of a quasar, a very distant and exceedingly luminous object powered by a central supermassive black hole. Image via International Gemini Observatory/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA/ P. Marenfeld/ UANews.

Although quasars are found over a range of distances, most are exceedingly far away. The very distant quasars exist at a time shortly after the Big Bang, when our universe was young. Our current understanding of quasars is that they lie in the centers of young, active galaxies. The luminous, powerful and energetic quasars are thought to be driven by a process of accretion onto supermassive black holes. This week, astronomers announced the discovery of the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. By contrast, the quiescent and relatively sedate black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy has a mass of only 4 million suns. In honor of the new quasar’s discovery via telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea, the quasar has been given the Hawaiian name Poniua’ena, which means:

… unseen spinning source of creation, surrounded with brilliance.

The newly discovered quasar is formally designated J1007+2115. It’s the first quasar to receive an Indigenous name, created by 30 Hawaiian immersion school teachers during a workshop led by the A Hua He Inoa group, part of the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center – an astronomy and culture education center – in Hilo, Hawaii.

The quasar’s brilliance suggests its monstrously massive central black hole. Consider our Milky Way’s 4 million solar mass black hole again, in contrast to Poniua’ena’s 1.5 billion solar mass black hole. Consider that a million seconds is about 12 days, while a billion seconds is 31 years. So you can see, perhaps, that this distant quasar and its black hole are truly colossal.

Poniua’ena is one of only two quasars known from the same early period in our universe’s history. The statement from the University of Arizona, whose astronomers led the discovery, explained:

The supermassive black hole powering Poniua’ena makes this quasar the most distant, and therefore earliest, object known in the universe to host a black hole exceeding 1 billion solar masses. According to a new study documenting the quasar’s discovery, the light from Poniua’ena took 13.02 billion years to reach Earth – starting its journey just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

A scientific description of the discovery is available now via arXiv and will be published in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters. The study introduces a mystery about this quasar, which is … how could such a massive black hole have formed at such an early time in the history of our universe? Lead author Jinyi Yang of Steward Observatory at University of Arizona said:

It’s the earliest monster of this kind that we know of. The time was too short for it to grow from a small black hole to the enormous size we see.

Co-author Xiaohui Fan, also of Steward Observatory, said:

This discovery presents the biggest challenge yet for the theory of black hole formation and growth in the early universe.

Their statement explained:

The notion that a black hole of Poniua’ena proportions could have evolved from a much smaller black hole formed by the collapse of a single star in such a short time since the Big Bang is next to impossible, according to current cosmological models.

Instead, the study authors suggest that the quasar would have had to start out as a ‘seed’ black hole already containing the equivalent mass of 10,000 suns as early as 100 million years after the Big Bang.

Read more about how this quasar was discovered, from UA

The discovery of a quasar from the dawn of the cosmos provides researchers with a rare glimpse into a time when the universe was still young and very different from what we see today, the researchers said.

Current theory suggests that at the beginning of the universe, following the Big Bang, atoms were too distant from one another to interact and form stars and galaxies. The birth of stars and galaxies as we know them happened during the Epoch of Reionization, about 400 million years after the Big Bang. Fan said:

In the aftermath of the Big Bang, the universe was very cold, because there were no stars yet; no light. It took about 300 to 400 million years for the first stars and galaxies to appear, and they began heating up the universe.

Their statement further explained:

Under the influence of heating, hydrogen molecules were stripped of electrons in a process known as ionization. This process lasted only a few hundred million years – a blink of an eye in the life of the universe – and is the subject of ongoing research.

The discovery of quasars like Poniua’ena, deep into the reionization epoch, is a big step towards understanding the process of reionization and the formation of early supermassive black holes and massive galaxies. Poniua’ena has placed new and important constraints on the evolution of the matter between galaxies, known as the intergalactic medium, during the reionization epoch.

Fan added:

This quasar looks like it was detected right at the mid-point of that period, and the fact that we can observe these objects helps us refine what happened during that period.

Artist’s concept of the formation of the quasar Poniua’ena, starting with a seed black hole 100 million years after the Big Bang (left), then growing to a billion solar masses 700 million years after the Big Bang (right). Image via International Gemini Observatory/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA/ P. Marenfeld/ UANews.

Bottom line: Astronomers just announced the discovery of the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. The object has been given the Hawaiian name Poniua’ena.

Source: Poniua’ena: A Luminous z=7.5 Quasar Hosting a 1.5 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole

Via University of Arizona

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

Artist’s concept of a quasar, a very distant and exceedingly luminous object powered by a central supermassive black hole. Image via International Gemini Observatory/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA/ P. Marenfeld/ UANews.

Although quasars are found over a range of distances, most are exceedingly far away. The very distant quasars exist at a time shortly after the Big Bang, when our universe was young. Our current understanding of quasars is that they lie in the centers of young, active galaxies. The luminous, powerful and energetic quasars are thought to be driven by a process of accretion onto supermassive black holes. This week, astronomers announced the discovery of the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. By contrast, the quiescent and relatively sedate black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy has a mass of only 4 million suns. In honor of the new quasar’s discovery via telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea, the quasar has been given the Hawaiian name Poniua’ena, which means:

… unseen spinning source of creation, surrounded with brilliance.

The newly discovered quasar is formally designated J1007+2115. It’s the first quasar to receive an Indigenous name, created by 30 Hawaiian immersion school teachers during a workshop led by the A Hua He Inoa group, part of the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center – an astronomy and culture education center – in Hilo, Hawaii.

The quasar’s brilliance suggests its monstrously massive central black hole. Consider our Milky Way’s 4 million solar mass black hole again, in contrast to Poniua’ena’s 1.5 billion solar mass black hole. Consider that a million seconds is about 12 days, while a billion seconds is 31 years. So you can see, perhaps, that this distant quasar and its black hole are truly colossal.

Poniua’ena is one of only two quasars known from the same early period in our universe’s history. The statement from the University of Arizona, whose astronomers led the discovery, explained:

The supermassive black hole powering Poniua’ena makes this quasar the most distant, and therefore earliest, object known in the universe to host a black hole exceeding 1 billion solar masses. According to a new study documenting the quasar’s discovery, the light from Poniua’ena took 13.02 billion years to reach Earth – starting its journey just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

A scientific description of the discovery is available now via arXiv and will be published in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters. The study introduces a mystery about this quasar, which is … how could such a massive black hole have formed at such an early time in the history of our universe? Lead author Jinyi Yang of Steward Observatory at University of Arizona said:

It’s the earliest monster of this kind that we know of. The time was too short for it to grow from a small black hole to the enormous size we see.

Co-author Xiaohui Fan, also of Steward Observatory, said:

This discovery presents the biggest challenge yet for the theory of black hole formation and growth in the early universe.

Their statement explained:

The notion that a black hole of Poniua’ena proportions could have evolved from a much smaller black hole formed by the collapse of a single star in such a short time since the Big Bang is next to impossible, according to current cosmological models.

Instead, the study authors suggest that the quasar would have had to start out as a ‘seed’ black hole already containing the equivalent mass of 10,000 suns as early as 100 million years after the Big Bang.

Read more about how this quasar was discovered, from UA

The discovery of a quasar from the dawn of the cosmos provides researchers with a rare glimpse into a time when the universe was still young and very different from what we see today, the researchers said.

Current theory suggests that at the beginning of the universe, following the Big Bang, atoms were too distant from one another to interact and form stars and galaxies. The birth of stars and galaxies as we know them happened during the Epoch of Reionization, about 400 million years after the Big Bang. Fan said:

In the aftermath of the Big Bang, the universe was very cold, because there were no stars yet; no light. It took about 300 to 400 million years for the first stars and galaxies to appear, and they began heating up the universe.

Their statement further explained:

Under the influence of heating, hydrogen molecules were stripped of electrons in a process known as ionization. This process lasted only a few hundred million years – a blink of an eye in the life of the universe – and is the subject of ongoing research.

The discovery of quasars like Poniua’ena, deep into the reionization epoch, is a big step towards understanding the process of reionization and the formation of early supermassive black holes and massive galaxies. Poniua’ena has placed new and important constraints on the evolution of the matter between galaxies, known as the intergalactic medium, during the reionization epoch.

Fan added:

This quasar looks like it was detected right at the mid-point of that period, and the fact that we can observe these objects helps us refine what happened during that period.

Artist’s concept of the formation of the quasar Poniua’ena, starting with a seed black hole 100 million years after the Big Bang (left), then growing to a billion solar masses 700 million years after the Big Bang (right). Image via International Gemini Observatory/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA/ P. Marenfeld/ UANews.

Bottom line: Astronomers just announced the discovery of the most massive quasar yet known in the early universe. Its monster central black hole has a mass equivalent to 1.5 billion of our suns. The object has been given the Hawaiian name Poniua’ena.

Source: Poniua’ena: A Luminous z=7.5 Quasar Hosting a 1.5 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole

Via University of Arizona

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

Coronavirus reports: “As a Black man with advanced prostate cancer, who wouldn’t be worried?”

Earlier this month, Public Health England published a long-awaited report on how factors like age, ethnicity and sex are linked to a person’s risk of COVID-19.

The report confirmed what many news headlines had already implied – that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and seems to be exacerbating many other existing health inequalities too.

And while a follow-up report has gone into more detail about why inequalities might exist between ethnic groups, there are still some unanswered questions.

We spoke to Anisha and Alfred about the latest findings.

Anisha: “We need to deal with health inequalities”

Anisha wearing PPE for a clinic.

Anisha, a GP who has had bowel cancer, was concerned when the COVID-19 figures started to come out. “As someone who is BAME and working in the frontline of the health service I thought, how scared should I be?”

A particular worry for Anisha was that, after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2018, some of her cancer treatment could make her more vulnerable to the virus. “As I am of Asian origin and have had cancer treatment myself not so long ago, I did think whether I should be working, but only for a split-second. This is my job and I want to be here.”

And it’s not just Anisha who’s worried, the headlines about increased risk of COVID-19 are creating huge anxiety in Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities.

“There are so many unknowns about what is going on. Is it related to genetics? Vitamin D? Is it cultural or socio-economic? Is it due to barriers to health messages?

“There was talk in the latest government report of issues like people not asking for PPE. The answers are going to be so complex.”

But even though the figures have so far raised more questions than they’ve answered, Anisha feels it’s important to get them out there.

“The reason that we can even ask some of these questions is because of the statistics that are coming out around COVID-19 – these statistics are being monitored so closely for so many reasons, and health inequalities are being highlighted immediately.”

The next step for Anisha is for governments and health services to learn from them. “As a GP, I am a health provider, and we need to deal with health inequalities – it’s our job.”

“Within BAME communities, we know that there can be different challenges around health messaging, and extra work is needed on education.

“There can be stigma around certain illnesses, and around treatments, lack of knowledge of symptoms, and fear, as well as generational attitudes to talking about health. These may lead to later diagnosis of a wide range of illnesses, including cancer.”

And while, as a disease, COVID-19 is very different to cancer, Anisha thinks that it shows how much work is needed to break down these inequalities.

“The fact that we are even talking about these issues is a good thing – it is something that has needed to change.”

Alfred: “As a Black man with advanced prostate cancer, who wouldn’t be worried?”

Alfred on one of his daily walks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alfred is having treatment for advanced prostate cancer. “I had to go into hospital during lockdown because I was feeling unwell and needed to be checked out. I was given a COVID-19 test and, when it came back as clear, I was so relieved.”

“As a Black man with advanced prostate cancer, and hearing all the stats since the start of COVID-19, who wouldn’t be worried?”

Alfred says that while the COVID-19 test results provided some relief, the concern lingers. “With the lockdown relaxing, I am so worried about further waves of COVID-19.”

“I have heard so many people in BAME communities who have been affected by COVID-19. It has spread so much fear.”

Like Anisha, Alfred has questions about the figures. “The COVID-19 statistics are showing problems, but they need to be investigated further. Are there specific cultural issues that are important within those groups too? We have not got to the bottom of the causation. There are more questions.”

And for Alfred, it’s bigger than COVID-19. “When I was in hospital, a doctor was talking about people coming to hospital being diagnosed with cancer later. It was a reminder that cancer has not gone away, and the inequalities within BAME communities exist in cancer too.”

He’s concerned that further waves of COVID-19 could compound issues. “BAME people could be more affected, and they could also be more affected by the backlog in cancer too – how many more things do we need to deal with?”

“When it comes to health messaging, there are trust issues. Whether it’s from Number 10, the Department of Health or charities, health advice needs to be backed up by investment in reaching communities. You have to listen to people who have experience of communities and harness these experiences to make an impact.”

For Alfred, working with people from different communities is essential to health initiatives. “Whether that’s about COVID-19 or cancer, if you aren’t doing it right, you won’t get far.”

Tom Bourton is a media volunteer liaison manager at Cancer Research UK

Thanks to Anisha and Alfred for sharing their experiences with our Media Volunteer Liaison team. Anisha is also on Instagram as @doctorsgetcancertoo

If you would like to share your story with us, please visit our website. And if you have questions about cancer, you can talk to our nurses Monday to Friday, 9-5pm, on freephone 0808 800 4040.

Read more from us:

• Our work saves lives – that must mean Black lives too
• Coronavirus and cancer – June updates
• We stand in solidarity with our Black research community 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2Vh7q5q

Earlier this month, Public Health England published a long-awaited report on how factors like age, ethnicity and sex are linked to a person’s risk of COVID-19.

The report confirmed what many news headlines had already implied – that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and seems to be exacerbating many other existing health inequalities too.

And while a follow-up report has gone into more detail about why inequalities might exist between ethnic groups, there are still some unanswered questions.

We spoke to Anisha and Alfred about the latest findings.

Anisha: “We need to deal with health inequalities”

Anisha wearing PPE for a clinic.

Anisha, a GP who has had bowel cancer, was concerned when the COVID-19 figures started to come out. “As someone who is BAME and working in the frontline of the health service I thought, how scared should I be?”

A particular worry for Anisha was that, after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2018, some of her cancer treatment could make her more vulnerable to the virus. “As I am of Asian origin and have had cancer treatment myself not so long ago, I did think whether I should be working, but only for a split-second. This is my job and I want to be here.”

And it’s not just Anisha who’s worried, the headlines about increased risk of COVID-19 are creating huge anxiety in Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities.

“There are so many unknowns about what is going on. Is it related to genetics? Vitamin D? Is it cultural or socio-economic? Is it due to barriers to health messages?

“There was talk in the latest government report of issues like people not asking for PPE. The answers are going to be so complex.”

But even though the figures have so far raised more questions than they’ve answered, Anisha feels it’s important to get them out there.

“The reason that we can even ask some of these questions is because of the statistics that are coming out around COVID-19 – these statistics are being monitored so closely for so many reasons, and health inequalities are being highlighted immediately.”

The next step for Anisha is for governments and health services to learn from them. “As a GP, I am a health provider, and we need to deal with health inequalities – it’s our job.”

“Within BAME communities, we know that there can be different challenges around health messaging, and extra work is needed on education.

“There can be stigma around certain illnesses, and around treatments, lack of knowledge of symptoms, and fear, as well as generational attitudes to talking about health. These may lead to later diagnosis of a wide range of illnesses, including cancer.”

And while, as a disease, COVID-19 is very different to cancer, Anisha thinks that it shows how much work is needed to break down these inequalities.

“The fact that we are even talking about these issues is a good thing – it is something that has needed to change.”

Alfred: “As a Black man with advanced prostate cancer, who wouldn’t be worried?”

Alfred on one of his daily walks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alfred is having treatment for advanced prostate cancer. “I had to go into hospital during lockdown because I was feeling unwell and needed to be checked out. I was given a COVID-19 test and, when it came back as clear, I was so relieved.”

“As a Black man with advanced prostate cancer, and hearing all the stats since the start of COVID-19, who wouldn’t be worried?”

Alfred says that while the COVID-19 test results provided some relief, the concern lingers. “With the lockdown relaxing, I am so worried about further waves of COVID-19.”

“I have heard so many people in BAME communities who have been affected by COVID-19. It has spread so much fear.”

Like Anisha, Alfred has questions about the figures. “The COVID-19 statistics are showing problems, but they need to be investigated further. Are there specific cultural issues that are important within those groups too? We have not got to the bottom of the causation. There are more questions.”

And for Alfred, it’s bigger than COVID-19. “When I was in hospital, a doctor was talking about people coming to hospital being diagnosed with cancer later. It was a reminder that cancer has not gone away, and the inequalities within BAME communities exist in cancer too.”

He’s concerned that further waves of COVID-19 could compound issues. “BAME people could be more affected, and they could also be more affected by the backlog in cancer too – how many more things do we need to deal with?”

“When it comes to health messaging, there are trust issues. Whether it’s from Number 10, the Department of Health or charities, health advice needs to be backed up by investment in reaching communities. You have to listen to people who have experience of communities and harness these experiences to make an impact.”

For Alfred, working with people from different communities is essential to health initiatives. “Whether that’s about COVID-19 or cancer, if you aren’t doing it right, you won’t get far.”

Tom Bourton is a media volunteer liaison manager at Cancer Research UK

Thanks to Anisha and Alfred for sharing their experiences with our Media Volunteer Liaison team. Anisha is also on Instagram as @doctorsgetcancertoo

If you would like to share your story with us, please visit our website. And if you have questions about cancer, you can talk to our nurses Monday to Friday, 9-5pm, on freephone 0808 800 4040.

Read more from us:

• Our work saves lives – that must mean Black lives too
• Coronavirus and cancer – June updates
• We stand in solidarity with our Black research community 

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog https://ift.tt/2Vh7q5q

Find the Summer Triangle

The Summer Triangle is made of 3 bright stars – Vega, Deneb and Altair – in 3 different constellations. Image via our friend Susan Gies Jensen in Odessa, Washington.

It’s summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. The days are long, the sun is at its most intense for the year, the weather is warm. And the summer sky is with us, too. The famous Summer Triangle is ascending in the eastern sky on these June and July evenings.

The Summer Triangle isn’t a constellation. It’s an asterism, or noticeable pattern of stars. This pattern consists of three bright stars in three separate constellations – Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, and Altair in the constellation Aquila the Eagle.

Learn to recognize the Summer Triangle asterism now, and you can watch it all summer as it shifts higher in the east, then finally appears high overhead in the late northern summer and early northern autumn sky.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate what you can.

Image via Jimmy Westlake/ Steamboat Pilot&Today.

How to find the Summer Triangle. As night falls in June or July, look east for a sparkling blue-white star. That will be Vega, in Lyra. Reigning at the apex of the celebrated Summer Triangle, Vega is also the brightest of the Summer Triangle’s three stars, which are all bright enough to be seen from many light-polluted cities.

Look to the lower right of Vega to locate the Summer Triangle’s second brightest star. That’s Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila the Eagle. A ruler (12 inches, 30 cm) held at arm’s length fills the gap between these two stars.

Look to the lower left of Vega for another bright star – Deneb, the brightest in the constellation Cygnus the Swan and the third brightest in the Summer Triangle. An outstretched hand at arm’s length approximates the distance from Vega to Deneb.

It’s difficult to convey the huge size of the Summer Triangle asterism. But you’ll see it. These three bright stars – Vega, Deneb and Altair – will become summertime favorites.

The Summer Triangle, ascending in the east on June evenings.

Summer Triangle as a road map to the Milky Way. If you’re lucky enough to be under a dark starry sky on a moonless night, you’ll see the great swath of stars passing between the Summer Triangle stars Vega and Altair. The star Deneb bobs in the middle of this river of stars, which arcs across dark summer skies. This sky river is, of course, the edgewise view into our own Milky Way galaxy. Although every star that you see with the unaided eye is a member of the Milky Way, at this time of year we can see clearly into the galaxy’s flat disk, where most of the stars congregate. By August and September, we have a good view toward the galaxy’s center.

Once you master the Summer Triangle, you can always locate the Milky Way on a clear, dark night. How about making the most of a dark summer night to explore this band of stars – this starlit boulevard with its celestial delights? Use binoculars to reel in the gossamer beauty of it all, the haunting nebulae and bejeweled star clusters along the starlit trail.

Scott MacNeill of Exit Pupil Creative Workshop captured this photo of the Summer Triangle, constellation Hercules, bright Milky Way, and the bright red star Antares among more.

Summer Triangle as nature’s seasonal calendar. The Summer Triangle serves as a stellar calendar, marking the seasons. When the stars of the Summer Triangle light up the eastern twilight dusk in middle to late June, it’s a sure sign of the change of seasons, of spring giving way to summer. However, when the Summer Triangle is seen high in the south to overhead at dusk and early evening, the Summer Triangle’s change of position indicates that summer has ebbed into fall.

View larger. | Great Rift of Milky Way passes through the constellation Cassiopeia and the Summer Triangle.

A word about asterisms. As we mentioned above, asterisms aren’t constellations; they’re just patterns on the sky’s dome. Constellations generally come to us from ancient times. In the 1930s, the International Astronomical Union officially drew the boundaries of the 88 constellations we recognize today.

Meanwhile, you can make up and name your own asterisms, in much the same way you can recognize shapes in puffy clouds on a summer day.

Some asterisms are so obvious that they’re recognized around the world. The Summer Triangle is one of these.

Summer Triangle and the top of the Louvre Pyramid from EarthSky Facebook friend VegaStar Carpentier in Paris.

Bottom line: How to find the Summer Triangle asterism, a large pattern made of three bright stars.

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

The Summer Triangle is made of 3 bright stars – Vega, Deneb and Altair – in 3 different constellations. Image via our friend Susan Gies Jensen in Odessa, Washington.

It’s summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. The days are long, the sun is at its most intense for the year, the weather is warm. And the summer sky is with us, too. The famous Summer Triangle is ascending in the eastern sky on these June and July evenings.

The Summer Triangle isn’t a constellation. It’s an asterism, or noticeable pattern of stars. This pattern consists of three bright stars in three separate constellations – Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, and Altair in the constellation Aquila the Eagle.

Learn to recognize the Summer Triangle asterism now, and you can watch it all summer as it shifts higher in the east, then finally appears high overhead in the late northern summer and early northern autumn sky.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate what you can.

Image via Jimmy Westlake/ Steamboat Pilot&Today.

How to find the Summer Triangle. As night falls in June or July, look east for a sparkling blue-white star. That will be Vega, in Lyra. Reigning at the apex of the celebrated Summer Triangle, Vega is also the brightest of the Summer Triangle’s three stars, which are all bright enough to be seen from many light-polluted cities.

Look to the lower right of Vega to locate the Summer Triangle’s second brightest star. That’s Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila the Eagle. A ruler (12 inches, 30 cm) held at arm’s length fills the gap between these two stars.

Look to the lower left of Vega for another bright star – Deneb, the brightest in the constellation Cygnus the Swan and the third brightest in the Summer Triangle. An outstretched hand at arm’s length approximates the distance from Vega to Deneb.

It’s difficult to convey the huge size of the Summer Triangle asterism. But you’ll see it. These three bright stars – Vega, Deneb and Altair – will become summertime favorites.

The Summer Triangle, ascending in the east on June evenings.

Summer Triangle as a road map to the Milky Way. If you’re lucky enough to be under a dark starry sky on a moonless night, you’ll see the great swath of stars passing between the Summer Triangle stars Vega and Altair. The star Deneb bobs in the middle of this river of stars, which arcs across dark summer skies. This sky river is, of course, the edgewise view into our own Milky Way galaxy. Although every star that you see with the unaided eye is a member of the Milky Way, at this time of year we can see clearly into the galaxy’s flat disk, where most of the stars congregate. By August and September, we have a good view toward the galaxy’s center.

Once you master the Summer Triangle, you can always locate the Milky Way on a clear, dark night. How about making the most of a dark summer night to explore this band of stars – this starlit boulevard with its celestial delights? Use binoculars to reel in the gossamer beauty of it all, the haunting nebulae and bejeweled star clusters along the starlit trail.

Scott MacNeill of Exit Pupil Creative Workshop captured this photo of the Summer Triangle, constellation Hercules, bright Milky Way, and the bright red star Antares among more.

Summer Triangle as nature’s seasonal calendar. The Summer Triangle serves as a stellar calendar, marking the seasons. When the stars of the Summer Triangle light up the eastern twilight dusk in middle to late June, it’s a sure sign of the change of seasons, of spring giving way to summer. However, when the Summer Triangle is seen high in the south to overhead at dusk and early evening, the Summer Triangle’s change of position indicates that summer has ebbed into fall.

View larger. | Great Rift of Milky Way passes through the constellation Cassiopeia and the Summer Triangle.

A word about asterisms. As we mentioned above, asterisms aren’t constellations; they’re just patterns on the sky’s dome. Constellations generally come to us from ancient times. In the 1930s, the International Astronomical Union officially drew the boundaries of the 88 constellations we recognize today.

Meanwhile, you can make up and name your own asterisms, in much the same way you can recognize shapes in puffy clouds on a summer day.

Some asterisms are so obvious that they’re recognized around the world. The Summer Triangle is one of these.

Summer Triangle and the top of the Louvre Pyramid from EarthSky Facebook friend VegaStar Carpentier in Paris.

Bottom line: How to find the Summer Triangle asterism, a large pattern made of three bright stars.

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

1st quarter moon is June 28

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Composite image of a moon nearly at 1st quarter with some of the features you can see on the moon at this phase – captured April 30, 2020 – by our friend Dr Ski in the Philippines. He wrote: “… 10 hours before 1st quarter and the Lunar V and Lunar X are well defined …” More about Lunar V and X below. Thank you, Dr Ski!

A first quarter moon rises around noon and sets around midnight. You’ll likely spot it in late afternoon or early evening, when it’s at its highest in the sky. At this moon phase, the moon is showing us precisely half of its lighted half. Or you might say that – at first quarter moon – we’re seeing half the moon’s day side.

We call this moon a quarter and not a half because it is one quarter of the way around in its orbit of Earth, as measured from one new moon to the next. Also, although a first quarter moon appears half-lit to us, the illuminated portion we see of a first quarter moon truly is just a quarter. We’re now seeing half the moon’s day side, that is. Another lighted quarter of the moon shines just as brightly in the direction opposite Earth!

And what about the term half moon? That’s a beloved term, but not an official one.

Lunar X and Lunar V appear when the moon is near its 1st quarter phase. They aren’t really Xs and Vs on the moon. They’re just high areas, catching sunlight, creating an example of pareidolia on the moon. Aqilla Othman in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, caught them both in May of 2017. Notice that he caught Lunar X and Lunar V.

Here’s a closer look at Lunar X and Lunar V. Photo by Izaty Liyana in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. What is Lunar X?

Tom Wildoner wrote: “One of my favorite areas to photograph on the moon near the 1st quarter! I captured this view of the sun lighting up the mountain range called Montes Apenninus. The moon was casting a nice shadow on the back side of the mountains. This mountain range is about 370 miles (600 km) long with some of the peaks rising as high as 3.1 miles (5 km).”

Bottom line: The next 1st quarter moon will come on June 28, 2020, at 08:15 UTC. That’s 3:15 a.m. CDT.

Read more: Top 4 keys to understanding moon phases

Check out EarthSky’s guide to the bright planets.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate.

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

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Composite image of a moon nearly at 1st quarter with some of the features you can see on the moon at this phase – captured April 30, 2020 – by our friend Dr Ski in the Philippines. He wrote: “… 10 hours before 1st quarter and the Lunar V and Lunar X are well defined …” More about Lunar V and X below. Thank you, Dr Ski!

A first quarter moon rises around noon and sets around midnight. You’ll likely spot it in late afternoon or early evening, when it’s at its highest in the sky. At this moon phase, the moon is showing us precisely half of its lighted half. Or you might say that – at first quarter moon – we’re seeing half the moon’s day side.

We call this moon a quarter and not a half because it is one quarter of the way around in its orbit of Earth, as measured from one new moon to the next. Also, although a first quarter moon appears half-lit to us, the illuminated portion we see of a first quarter moon truly is just a quarter. We’re now seeing half the moon’s day side, that is. Another lighted quarter of the moon shines just as brightly in the direction opposite Earth!

And what about the term half moon? That’s a beloved term, but not an official one.

Lunar X and Lunar V appear when the moon is near its 1st quarter phase. They aren’t really Xs and Vs on the moon. They’re just high areas, catching sunlight, creating an example of pareidolia on the moon. Aqilla Othman in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, caught them both in May of 2017. Notice that he caught Lunar X and Lunar V.

Here’s a closer look at Lunar X and Lunar V. Photo by Izaty Liyana in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. What is Lunar X?

Tom Wildoner wrote: “One of my favorite areas to photograph on the moon near the 1st quarter! I captured this view of the sun lighting up the mountain range called Montes Apenninus. The moon was casting a nice shadow on the back side of the mountains. This mountain range is about 370 miles (600 km) long with some of the peaks rising as high as 3.1 miles (5 km).”

Bottom line: The next 1st quarter moon will come on June 28, 2020, at 08:15 UTC. That’s 3:15 a.m. CDT.

Read more: Top 4 keys to understanding moon phases

Check out EarthSky’s guide to the bright planets.

Help EarthSky keep going! Please donate.

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

Epic graduation photo, Alberta, Canada

View the full panorama at EarthSky Community Photos. | Photo of recent graduate Cheyann Clarke-Colburne, taken June 13, 2020, by Christy Turner.

Christy Turner captured the photo above of a friend’s daughter – a 2020 graduate, Cheyann Clarke-Colburne – under a lowering sky near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Christy wrote:

Incredible mammatus clouds and a rainbow help complete a graduation photo shoot. Since Cheyann didn’t get a proper occasion to wear her beautiful graduation gown, we scheduled a photo shoot at her grandparents’ farm. What we didn’t count on was nature delivering up an incredible backdrop post-storm.

Thank you, Christy, and all the best to you, Cheyann!

By the way, in case you’re not familiar with them … mammatus clouds are the pouchlike protrusions hanging from the clouds in the photo above. Most clouds are formed by rising air. But mammatus clouds form when air sinks from a higher layer into a lower layer, bringing ice crystals with it.

Mammatus clouds are typically a short-lived phenomenon. They often last only 10 or 15 minutes, don’t necessarily foretell a storm, and they don’t drop downward to form tornadoes. But they look awesome!

Read more about mammatus clouds and see spectacular photos here

Bottom line: Coolest graduation photo ever! Mammatus clouds – and a rainbow – provide the backdrop.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3i4emwI

View the full panorama at EarthSky Community Photos. | Photo of recent graduate Cheyann Clarke-Colburne, taken June 13, 2020, by Christy Turner.

Christy Turner captured the photo above of a friend’s daughter – a 2020 graduate, Cheyann Clarke-Colburne – under a lowering sky near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Christy wrote:

Incredible mammatus clouds and a rainbow help complete a graduation photo shoot. Since Cheyann didn’t get a proper occasion to wear her beautiful graduation gown, we scheduled a photo shoot at her grandparents’ farm. What we didn’t count on was nature delivering up an incredible backdrop post-storm.

Thank you, Christy, and all the best to you, Cheyann!

By the way, in case you’re not familiar with them … mammatus clouds are the pouchlike protrusions hanging from the clouds in the photo above. Most clouds are formed by rising air. But mammatus clouds form when air sinks from a higher layer into a lower layer, bringing ice crystals with it.

Mammatus clouds are typically a short-lived phenomenon. They often last only 10 or 15 minutes, don’t necessarily foretell a storm, and they don’t drop downward to form tornadoes. But they look awesome!

Read more about mammatus clouds and see spectacular photos here

Bottom line: Coolest graduation photo ever! Mammatus clouds – and a rainbow – provide the backdrop.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3i4emwI

New Exotica Catalog will help guide search for ET

The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia is one of the telescopes used by Breakthrough Listen for SETI. Here, an artist has portrayed a signal from a Fast Radio Burst – or FRB – detected by the telescope. FRBs are one of the sorts of objects on the new Breakthrough Listen Exotica list. Image via UC Berkeley.

Are we alone in the universe? That’s one of the biggest, still unanswered questions facing humankind. Now, the Breakthrough Listen initiative has announced the release of a comprehensive Exotica catalog, listing over 700 objects and phenomena in the known universe of potential interest to scientists searching for technosignatures, that is, evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence beyond just the radio signals focused upon in traditional SETI.

Breakthrough Listen says the targets listed in its Exotica catalog will also be useful for the study of astrophysics in general.

A new paper detailing the creation of the list – officially called The Breakthrough Listen Exotic Target Catalog, or Exotica Catalog – was published as a preprint at arXiv on June 23, 2020.

As explained by Breakthrough Listen:

Breakthrough Listen to date has largely focused on the search for ‘life as we know it’ – including Earth-like planets around sun-like stars such as Kepler 160. But what if extraterrestrial intelligences are not like us, but are found in the frigid reaches of the outer solar system, the extreme gravity of neutron stars, the brilliant cores of active galaxies, or the hearts of the richest galaxy clusters? Now we’re announcing an expanded approach, targeting ‘one of everything’ in the universe.

The new Exotica Catalog includes over 700 distinct objects. It has an example of each type in our Prototype sample, extreme objects with record-breaking properties in our Superlative sample, and lingering mysteries in our Anomaly sample. A small Control sample rounds out the list with sky locations we do not expect to be special as a comparison.

With the Exotica catalog, we aim to answer many questions. Have we been looking in the wrong places? Might a few of the objects we think are natural actually be artificial? Could some natural phenomenon or problem with our instruments fool us into thinking we are looking at a signal from an intelligence? What can we learn by using the unique Breakthrough Listen backend to observe the natural world?

Graph depicting what kinds of target selections are included in the catalog. Image via Lacki et al./ arXiv.

The intention of the catalog is to include “one of everything” in the observable universe. It is the first catalog in recent years to cover the entire vast array of exotic phenomena, from distant galaxies to objects in our own solar system. The idea is that it will serve as a guide for researchers searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life, as well as studying natural astrophysical phenomena. Brian Lacki, a graduate student at Ohio State University and lead author of the new catalog, said in a statement:

Many discoveries in astronomy were not planned. Sometimes a major new discovery was missed when nobody was looking in the right place, because they believed nothing could be found there. This happened with exoplanets, which might have been detected before the 1990s if astronomers looked for solar systems very different than ours. Are we looking in the wrong places for technosignatures? The Exotica Catalog will help us answer that question.

The catalog is not just limited to SETI, though. My hope is that any program with a new capability may use the Exotica catalog as a shakedown cruise around the universe.

Artist’s concept of a Dyson sphere megastructure, one type of hypothesized alien technosignature. Image via SentientDevelopments.com.

While the catalog has over 700 listings, those listings are grouped into four main categories:

• Prototypes: a list containing at least one example of every known kind of celestial object (apart from those too transient to present realistic observation targets). Planets and moons, stars at every point of their life cycle, galaxies big and small, serene star clusters and blazing quasars, and more are all included in the list.
• Superlatives: objects with the most extreme properties. These include examples like the hottest planet, stars with unusually high or low metal content, the most distant quasar and fastest-spinning pulsar, and the densest galaxy.
• Anomalies: enigmatic targets whose behavior is currently not satisfactorily explained. For instance, the famous “Tabby’s Star” with its bizarre dimming behavior; ’Oumuamua, the interstellar object that passed near Earth in 2017; unexplained optical pulses that last mere nanoseconds; and stars with excess infrared radiation that could conceivably be explained as waste heat from alien megastructures.
• Control sample: a list of sources not expected to produce positive results.

Artist’s concept of a pulsar. When pulsars were first discovered, it was thought they might be artificial beacons, but they turned out to be a natural phenomenon. The new catalog will help to better differentiate between natural phenomena and actual artificial artifacts. Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center.

There is also a new classification system for anomalies and new plans for observations of some of these objects based on the catalog.

This catalog is an innovative and welcome addition to the overall SETI effort, as it broadens the focus to many other celestial objects and phenomena, while traditional SETI tended to search only for radio signals, and more recently, light or laser signals. Technosignatures are the new big thing in the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. But even the search for those until now has focused primarily on looking for evidence of “life as we know it” around nearby stars. According to Andrew Siemion, leader of the Breakthrough Listen science team:

Technosignature searches to date have largely focused on the search for ‘life as we know it’: nearby stars, in particular those known to host planets with the potential for liquid water on their surfaces. The expanded search capabilities that Breakthrough Listen has made possible allow us to consider a much wider range of possible technology-laden environments.

The Exotica Catalog will include “one of everything” of a wide range of known objects and phenomena in the universe. Image via Goddard Space Flight Center/ Space.com.

Yuri Milner, the founder of Breakthrough Initiatives, also said:

Breakthrough Listen has already greatly expanded the breadth and depth of its search. The publication of this catalog is a new and significant step for the program.

Pete Worden, executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, added:

When it comes to the search for intelligent life, it’s vital to have an open mind. Until we understand more about the forms another civilization and its technology could take, we should investigate all plausible targets. Cataloging them is the first step toward that goal.

No confirmed technosignatures have been found yet, but the new, expanded search is really just beginning. The universe is vast, so it’s logical that finding something conclusive, if it’s out there, might take a long time. The Exotica Catalog will help to narrow down the search to some of the most interesting candidates and locations, and of course, new ones are always been discovered as well. The guiding principle behind it is the concept of “survey breadth,” i.e., the diversity of objects observed during a program. This will help astronomers constrain the project’s focus to the most interesting or promising targets and weed out natural phenomena that could be mistaken for artificial, and vice-versa.

Brian Lacki of Breakthrough Listen and lead author of the new catalog. Image via CCAPP.

Last February, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) also announced an outline for new approaches to the question of alien intelligence, and how best to look for it. This was a big step away from the old SETI paradigm, and could now be referred to as SETI 2.0.

We don’t know what surprises the new catalog will yield, but it is an exciting venture that just may help scientists determine whether humanity has any intelligent companions out among the stars and galaxies.

Are we alone? Breakthrough Listen’s new Exotica Catalog will help scientists search for technosignatures: signs of past or present intelligent extraterrestrial life. Image via Breakthrough Listen/ Danielle Futselaar/ SETI Institute.

Bottom line: The Breakthrough Listen project has released a new Exotica Catalog with over 700 “one of everything” targets in the universe.

Source: One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog

Via Breakthrough Initiatives

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3i317wf

The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia is one of the telescopes used by Breakthrough Listen for SETI. Here, an artist has portrayed a signal from a Fast Radio Burst – or FRB – detected by the telescope. FRBs are one of the sorts of objects on the new Breakthrough Listen Exotica list. Image via UC Berkeley.

Are we alone in the universe? That’s one of the biggest, still unanswered questions facing humankind. Now, the Breakthrough Listen initiative has announced the release of a comprehensive Exotica catalog, listing over 700 objects and phenomena in the known universe of potential interest to scientists searching for technosignatures, that is, evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence beyond just the radio signals focused upon in traditional SETI.

Breakthrough Listen says the targets listed in its Exotica catalog will also be useful for the study of astrophysics in general.

A new paper detailing the creation of the list – officially called The Breakthrough Listen Exotic Target Catalog, or Exotica Catalog – was published as a preprint at arXiv on June 23, 2020.

As explained by Breakthrough Listen:

Breakthrough Listen to date has largely focused on the search for ‘life as we know it’ – including Earth-like planets around sun-like stars such as Kepler 160. But what if extraterrestrial intelligences are not like us, but are found in the frigid reaches of the outer solar system, the extreme gravity of neutron stars, the brilliant cores of active galaxies, or the hearts of the richest galaxy clusters? Now we’re announcing an expanded approach, targeting ‘one of everything’ in the universe.

The new Exotica Catalog includes over 700 distinct objects. It has an example of each type in our Prototype sample, extreme objects with record-breaking properties in our Superlative sample, and lingering mysteries in our Anomaly sample. A small Control sample rounds out the list with sky locations we do not expect to be special as a comparison.

With the Exotica catalog, we aim to answer many questions. Have we been looking in the wrong places? Might a few of the objects we think are natural actually be artificial? Could some natural phenomenon or problem with our instruments fool us into thinking we are looking at a signal from an intelligence? What can we learn by using the unique Breakthrough Listen backend to observe the natural world?

Graph depicting what kinds of target selections are included in the catalog. Image via Lacki et al./ arXiv.

The intention of the catalog is to include “one of everything” in the observable universe. It is the first catalog in recent years to cover the entire vast array of exotic phenomena, from distant galaxies to objects in our own solar system. The idea is that it will serve as a guide for researchers searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life, as well as studying natural astrophysical phenomena. Brian Lacki, a graduate student at Ohio State University and lead author of the new catalog, said in a statement:

Many discoveries in astronomy were not planned. Sometimes a major new discovery was missed when nobody was looking in the right place, because they believed nothing could be found there. This happened with exoplanets, which might have been detected before the 1990s if astronomers looked for solar systems very different than ours. Are we looking in the wrong places for technosignatures? The Exotica Catalog will help us answer that question.

The catalog is not just limited to SETI, though. My hope is that any program with a new capability may use the Exotica catalog as a shakedown cruise around the universe.

Artist’s concept of a Dyson sphere megastructure, one type of hypothesized alien technosignature. Image via SentientDevelopments.com.

While the catalog has over 700 listings, those listings are grouped into four main categories:

• Prototypes: a list containing at least one example of every known kind of celestial object (apart from those too transient to present realistic observation targets). Planets and moons, stars at every point of their life cycle, galaxies big and small, serene star clusters and blazing quasars, and more are all included in the list.
• Superlatives: objects with the most extreme properties. These include examples like the hottest planet, stars with unusually high or low metal content, the most distant quasar and fastest-spinning pulsar, and the densest galaxy.
• Anomalies: enigmatic targets whose behavior is currently not satisfactorily explained. For instance, the famous “Tabby’s Star” with its bizarre dimming behavior; ’Oumuamua, the interstellar object that passed near Earth in 2017; unexplained optical pulses that last mere nanoseconds; and stars with excess infrared radiation that could conceivably be explained as waste heat from alien megastructures.
• Control sample: a list of sources not expected to produce positive results.

Artist’s concept of a pulsar. When pulsars were first discovered, it was thought they might be artificial beacons, but they turned out to be a natural phenomenon. The new catalog will help to better differentiate between natural phenomena and actual artificial artifacts. Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center.

There is also a new classification system for anomalies and new plans for observations of some of these objects based on the catalog.

This catalog is an innovative and welcome addition to the overall SETI effort, as it broadens the focus to many other celestial objects and phenomena, while traditional SETI tended to search only for radio signals, and more recently, light or laser signals. Technosignatures are the new big thing in the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. But even the search for those until now has focused primarily on looking for evidence of “life as we know it” around nearby stars. According to Andrew Siemion, leader of the Breakthrough Listen science team:

Technosignature searches to date have largely focused on the search for ‘life as we know it’: nearby stars, in particular those known to host planets with the potential for liquid water on their surfaces. The expanded search capabilities that Breakthrough Listen has made possible allow us to consider a much wider range of possible technology-laden environments.

The Exotica Catalog will include “one of everything” of a wide range of known objects and phenomena in the universe. Image via Goddard Space Flight Center/ Space.com.

Yuri Milner, the founder of Breakthrough Initiatives, also said:

Breakthrough Listen has already greatly expanded the breadth and depth of its search. The publication of this catalog is a new and significant step for the program.

Pete Worden, executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, added:

When it comes to the search for intelligent life, it’s vital to have an open mind. Until we understand more about the forms another civilization and its technology could take, we should investigate all plausible targets. Cataloging them is the first step toward that goal.

No confirmed technosignatures have been found yet, but the new, expanded search is really just beginning. The universe is vast, so it’s logical that finding something conclusive, if it’s out there, might take a long time. The Exotica Catalog will help to narrow down the search to some of the most interesting candidates and locations, and of course, new ones are always been discovered as well. The guiding principle behind it is the concept of “survey breadth,” i.e., the diversity of objects observed during a program. This will help astronomers constrain the project’s focus to the most interesting or promising targets and weed out natural phenomena that could be mistaken for artificial, and vice-versa.

Brian Lacki of Breakthrough Listen and lead author of the new catalog. Image via CCAPP.

Last February, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) also announced an outline for new approaches to the question of alien intelligence, and how best to look for it. This was a big step away from the old SETI paradigm, and could now be referred to as SETI 2.0.

We don’t know what surprises the new catalog will yield, but it is an exciting venture that just may help scientists determine whether humanity has any intelligent companions out among the stars and galaxies.

Are we alone? Breakthrough Listen’s new Exotica Catalog will help scientists search for technosignatures: signs of past or present intelligent extraterrestrial life. Image via Breakthrough Listen/ Danielle Futselaar/ SETI Institute.

Bottom line: The Breakthrough Listen project has released a new Exotica Catalog with over 700 “one of everything” targets in the universe.

Source: One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog

Via Breakthrough Initiatives

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/3i317wf