NASA says lessons learned from 2011 twisters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The killer tornadoes that hit the southeastern United States a year ago left mostly chaos in their trail, but they also handed scientists some interesting lessons, says Nasa (US aeronautics agency). The lessons could come in handy as unseasonably warm weather reaches across much of the US, bringing with it early tornadoes.
The 27-28 April twisters were “the costliest convective storms in US history”, the agency says of the deadly storms: 202 tornadoes in two days took 316 lives. Tornado topography, which looks at how the lay of the land may affect potential storms – valleys to channel them, mountain slopes to help air roll quickly – was given a scientific boost by the massive number of storms in a short time in adjacent areas.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 6,000-plus ton satellite that is expected to fall to Earth late Friday has gripped US media this week, and the frenzy of concern over where it will fall has extended to Italy. Civil protection authorities in northern Italy Friday told people the risk is greater in their area and they should stay home to avoid the possibility of falling debris.
Nasa, the US space agency, says the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is one of hundreds that return from space every year but this one is the size of a small van. Most of it will burn up during re-entry, but chunks weighing more than 150 kg could survive the fall. The odds of a person belong hit are nevertheless tiny, on the order of 0.03 percent. Italian authorities say the odds are 1.5 percent in the north of the country.
Civil protection authorities are warning Italians not to go near any pieces of the satellite they find, because they could emit toxic gases.
US media have made the story headline news all week. The satellite was launched in 1991. It has spent 7,317 days in space.
The Gravity Probe B results proving Einstein's theories on the geodetic and frame-dragging effects. (photo, ©Nasa)
Data from Nasa’s Gravity Probe B (GP-B), a satellite launched in 2004 to investigate two parts of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, confirms that he was right, Nasa announced 3 May. The final results published online in the journal Physical Review Letters were presented at a press conference in Washington DC Wednesday 4 May.
The first part of Einstein’s theory that the satellite was out to research is the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a planet or a star. The second is frame-dragging, the amount of space and time that a spinning object pulls with it as it rotates.
“Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey. As the planet rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it’s the same with space and time,” says Francis Everitt, GP-B principal investigator at Stanford University in a Nasa press release. “GP-B confirmed two of the most profound predictions of Einstein’s universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research. Likewise, the decades of technological innovation behind the mission will have a lasting legacy on Earth and in space.”
Links to other sites: BBC, Nasa, New York Times, Stanford
The idea that a bacterium found in the sludge at the bottom of California’s Lake Mono might be able to nourish itself with arsenic rather than phosphate has come under intense scrutiny since US space agency Nasa first hosted a press conference on the findings 2 December. The authors of the original report are faulted for sloppy techniques which may have compromised the integrity of the data they were reporting.
Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, wrote on her blog 4 December that the original paper‘s authors do not “present ANY convincing evidence that arsenic has been incorporated into DNA (or any other biological molecule).” Redfield writes that she doesn’t “know whether the authors are just bad scientists or whether they’re unscrupulously pushing Nasa’s ‘There’s life in outer space!’ agenda.”
Science Magazine published an interview 20 December with the lead author of the original paper, Felisa Wolfe-Simon, in which she tries to reply to the many criticisms she and her co-authors have received since the report was released. Wolfe-Simon answered some of the many questions scientists put to her, and Redfield published her comments on Wolfe-Simon’s replies.
Two spiral galaxies colliding provide a spectacular image of the creation of new stars at the extremely rapid rate of 100 solar masses (100 times the mass of our sun) per year, says Nasa about an image that combines views from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
Galaxies collide. Image from NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI
The researchers were surprised to see the starburst so far from the centre of the galaxy, which holds the greatest concentration of stars that might collide as the two galaxies merge. They estimate that 80 percent of the infrared light being emitted may come from a region only 700 light years across. The extent of the merging galaxies, known as II Zw 096, is estimated at 50,000 light years.
Links to other sites: NASA, Spacefellowship.com
Nasa Perseid map
(GenevaLunch.com) – What a universe! As the Earth passes through a cloud of dust from a comet, the Swift-Tuttle, bits of the space debris flame out in the atmosphere to create a cosmic light show known as the Perseid meteor shower.
These meteors are called Perseids because it appears as if they originate in the Perseus constellation.
The show begins at sundown tonight, Thursday 12 August, when Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon pop out of the western twilight in tight conjunction.
No telescope is required to enjoy this naked-eye event.
Links to other sites: How to see the Perseid meteor shower (Nasa), wikipedia
Perseid captured in video in 1997
US astronauts have written to US President Barack Obama ahead of his expected announcement about a revised US space programme, in Florida Thursday 15 April. They praise what is likely to be an overall spending increase of $6 billion, but deplore the scrapping of the Constellation programme, saying it will reduce the US to a second- or third-rate power in space exploration.
Links to other sites: CNN, Mercury News, Nasa (with live streaming of Obama’s talk, starting at 18:30 Swiss time), NPR
Moon craters (photo: Nasa)
The moon definitely has water, US agency Nasa announced 13 November, describing preliminary findings of its lunar crater observation and sensing satellite (Lcross). The satellite “plunged” into a crater of the south pole of the Moon 9 October 200. The water was found in the crater, which is permanently in shadow, as part of a hunt for ice. Nasa says the discovery “opens a new chapter in our understanding of the Moon.”
US space shuttles will be taken out of service in 2010 after the International Space Station, a multi-nation construction, is completed. At that point the US will be reliant on Russia for travel to and from the station. Nasa, which oversees the American space programme, is taking bids and expects to award $50 million, part of the government stimulus package, in seed money to encourage the development of commercial travel to and from the station, as well as eventually to the moon and other locations in space. The winners of the contract are likely to be announced in late September. Nasa, Reuters
Nasa photos of solar eclipse 22 July: Taiwan at 08:30 and 09:30 - the world turns black and white
Nasa, the US aeronatics and space administration, has published a series of images of the 22 July total solar eclipse, the most complete eclipse during the 21st century, and it provides a wealth of information about the eclipes, including maps and a link to live coverage on a special Nasa 22 July total solar eclipse web site.
Dongfang Greg Chung, 73, a former Rockwell and Boeing engineer, has been found guilty in a court in Los Angeles, California in the US of spying for China. According to CNN he has been convicted of “charges of conspiracy to commit economic espionage; six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country; one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China; and one count of making false statements to the FBI.” He risks up to $1 million in fines and several years in prison; sentencing is set for November. Chung is accused of stealing thousands of documents related to the United States space program and the Delta IV shuttle.
Death Valley, California, with Aster programme digital images (click on image to view larger)
The US space agency Nasa and the Japanese Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry have put together what they say is the most complete topographic map of the Earth, using 1.3 million individual “stereo images” to compile it. “This unique global set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines that need elevation and terrain information” and the information is free and readily available online, says a Nasa official, Woody Turner. Nasa
Rover robot, Mars
Lausanne, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – A data-collecting robot straight from Mars is one of the highlights at an international trade fair in Lausanne 12-15 May that brings together environment-minded companies in micro-technology, jewelry and watchmaking. Some 500 exhibitors are expected at the joint EPHJ (Environnement Professionnel Horlogerie Joaillerie) and EPMT (Environment Professional Micro-technology) International Show in Beaulieu, Lausanne, an increase of 40 percent from 2008 thanks to strong and growing demand in micro-technology. EPFL will be holding a day-long conference on nanotechnology and lasers during the fair, which serves as a showcase for new products.
