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Astronomical News

Rosetta probe set for comet collision
By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent, Darmstadt
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One of the most audacious space missions ever undertaken is about to come to an end.

The Rosetta probe that has been tracking a comet for the past two years is going to deliberately crash itself into the 4km-wide ball of ice and dust.

European Space Agency scientists say the satellite has come to the end of its useful life and they want to get some final, ultra-close measurements.

Rosetta is not expected to survive the impact with Comet 67P.

But even if some of its systems remain functional, pre-loaded software on board will ensure everything is shut down on contact.

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Controllers here at Esa's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, commanded Rosetta to change course late on Thursday.

Goodbye Rosetta: Watch the Sky at Night special this coming Sunday, BBC Four at 2200 BST

Rosetta arrived at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - to give the comet its full name - in August 2014, after a 10-year journey from Earth.

In the 25 months the probe has lived alongside the mountainous object it has acquired more than 100,000 images and instrument readings.

dropped a small robot called Philae on to the surface in November 2014 to gather additional information - a historic first in space exploration.

Comets are thought to be the near-pristine leftovers from the formation of the Solar System, and so all the data sent back from 67P will give scientists a remarkable glimpse into the conditions that existed four and a half billion years ago.

"We're now entering the final stage of the space segment of the mission, if you like. But Rosetta's data will be exploited for decades to come," said Rosetta flight director Andrea Accomazzo.

Comet 67P - "Space duck" in numbers
spinning_comet_with_scale_optimised_624.gif

  • A full rotation of the body takes just over 12 hours
  • The axis of rotation runs through the "neck" region
  • Its larger lobe ("body") is about 4 × 3 × 2km
  • The smaller lobe ("head") is about 2.5 × 2 × 2km
  • Gravity measurements give a mass of 10 billion tonnes
  • The volume is estimated to be just over 21 cu km
With 67P currently 573 million km from the Sun, and moving further away daily, there is now precious little solar power to operate the probe's systems.

Not only that - the data rates associated with that separation have become painfully slow: just 40kbps, akin to dial-up internet speeds.

Rather than put the probe into hibernation or simply let it slowly fade into inactivity, the mission team has determined that the venture should try to go out in style - as bittersweet as that may be.

"We've taken the world on a thrilling scientific journey to the heart of a comet and, in turn, we've seen the world take Rosetta and Philae's amazing adventure into their hearts," Mark McCaughrean, the senior science advisor at Esa, told BBC News.

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As the probe heads towards its destructive finale, it will train its cameras on some deep sink holes to try to see inside 67P.

It is in the walls of these pits that the scientists expect to get the highest-resolution images yet of one of Rosetta's key discoveries - the observation that the comet appears to be made up of lumps of material of very similar scale.

"There's a kind of bumpy texture that some people have called 'goose-bumps' and some others have called 'dinosaur eggs'," explained Mark Bentley from the Graz Institute for Space Research, Austria.

"These are features that are about three-ish metres in size. And whilst it's possible that they're produced by some weird and whacky erosion process, it could also be evidence of the sort of building blocks from which the comet has been formed."

It is unclear how many pictures Rosetta will be able to send back to Earth before it crashes. The desire is to despatch images taken from as little as perhaps 15m or 20m from the surface.

All the information will be routed through big radio dishes operated by the US space agency, which has been a partner on the project.

Esa project scientist Matt Taylor said the team had discussed the idea of putting Rosetta to sleep for a few years and then trying to wake it up again when 67P next visited the inner Solar System. But there was no confidence Rosetta would still be working: "It's like one of those 60s rock bands; we don't want to have a rubbish comeback tour. We'd rather go out now in true rock'n'roll style."

[email protected] and follow me on Twitter:@BBCAmos
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37511861
 
RIP Rosetta
Rosetta mission ends in comet collision
By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent, Darmstadt
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Image copyrightESA/ROSETTA/MPS FOR OSIRIS TEAM
Image captionRosetta's last image of Comet 67P, taken from a little over 20m above the surface
Europe's Rosetta probe has ended its mission to Comet 67P by crash-landing on to the icy object's surface.

Mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, was able to confirm the impact had occurred when radio contact to the ageing spacecraft was lost abruptly.

The assumption is that the probe would have been damaged beyond use.

In the hours before the planned collision, Rosetta sent back a host of high-resolution pictures and other measurements of the icy dirt-ball.

"I can announce full success of this historic descent of Rosetta towards Comet 67P," said European Space Agency mission manager Patrick Martin.

"Farewell Rosetta; you've done the job. That was space science at its best."

Researchers expect all the data gathered at 67P in the past two years to keep them busy for decades to come.

How Rosetta ended its mission

In pictures: Rosetta's final descent

Social media reaction

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Image copyrightAFP
Image captionRosetta's radio link flatlines. There should be a tall green spike in the middle of the frequency carrier signal
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Image copyrightESA
Image captionIt was an emotional occasion for everyone connected with the mission
The loss of signal, which happened at 11:19 GMT (12:19 BST; 13:19 CEST), was greeted by muted cheers and handshakes - not so surprising given the bittersweet nature of the occasion.

Some of the scientists watching on here in Darmstadt have spent the better part of 30 years on this project.

"People are very sad today but I think they really understand how proud we are and how proud they should be that we've pulled this mission off," said Esa's senior science advisor, Mark McCaughrean.

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Media captionProf Monica Grady from the Open University reacts as Rosetta completes its mission
Throughout Friday morning, the instrument teams had followed every twist and turn as the probe aimed for a touchdown spot on the head of the 4km-wide, duck-shaped comet.

The researchers had wanted the descending probe to get a look inside one of the many pits that pockmark the surface.

These sinkholes are often the places where 67P ejects gas and dust into space. But they also afford an opportunity to look at the object's interior, to see the lumpy ice blocks that may have come together to build the comet billions of years ago.

Some of the images that came back were acquired just seconds before the collision. These pictures will have resolutions that can be measured in millimetres. "They're super-duper," enthused Holger Sierks, the head of the Osiris camera team. "I've got goosebumbs just thinking about all this," he told BBC News.

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Image captionThe comet is heading out towards Jupiter. Light falling on its solar panels was diminishing to the point where it would no longer have been able to operate all its instruments
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is currently heading away from the Sun, limiting the solar energy available to Rosetta to operate its systems.

Rather than put the probe into hibernation or simply let it slowly fade into inactivity, the mission team determined that the venture should try to go out with a bang.

European Space Agency project scientist Matt Taylor said that even if Rosetta was sent to sleep with the intention of waking it up again when 67P next visited the brighter environs of the inner Solar System - there was no guarantee the technology would still be working properly.

"It's like one of those 60s rock bands; we don't want to have a rubbish comeback tour. We'd rather go out now in true rock'n'roll style," he said just before landing.

Because Rosetta was not designed to touchdown, some of its structures very likely broke on contact with the comet. Controllers left no room for doubt in any case by pre-loading a software sequence that would jump the computers into a shutdown when the probe felt the impact jolt.

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Rosetta arrived at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - to give the comet its full name - in August 2014, after a 10-year journey from Earth.

In the time it has lived alongside the mountainous object, it has unlocked the secrets about its behaviour, its structure and chemistry.

Rosetta even dropped a small robot called Philae on to the surface in November 2014 to gather additional information - a historic first in space exploration.

The European Space Agency says the mission has been an outstanding success and will transform our understanding of the huge icy dirt-balls that wander among the planets.

The American scientist Alan Stern, whose Alice instrument has made far-ultraviolet observations of the comet to study composition and activity, said all the science teams involved still had much work to do: "We've got 70,000 spectra; we've barely scratched the surface in terms of looking at the data."

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Image copyrightESA/ROSETTA/MPS FOR OSIRIS TEAM
Image captionAt 15.5km from the surface - the head of the duck is in full view
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Image copyrightESA/ROSETTA/MPS FOR OSIRIS TEAM
Image captionAt 11.7km from the surface, a lot of texture is evident in the icy, dusty cometscape
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Image copyrightESA
Image captionAt 5.8km away, the smooth plain contrasts with a rubble field
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Image copyrightESA/ROSETTA/MPS FOR OSIRIS TEAM
Image captionA mere 1.2km from 67P, individual boulders come into sharp relief
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37520420
 
More 'probably not aliens, but maybe...'

https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03031

"Finally we consider the possibility, predicted in a previous published paper, that the signals are caused by light pulses generated by Extraterrestrial Intelligence to makes us aware of their existence. We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an ETI signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis. The fact that they are only found in a very small fraction of stars within a narrow spectral range centered near the spectral type of the sun is also in agreement with the ETI hypothesis. However, at this stage, this hypothesis needs to be confirmed with further work."
 
Odd.

On following your link, whilst there is the cautious equivocation quoted above, then they go and spoil it all, with this stormer at the bottom (last time I checked, the word 'probably' does not mean the same as 'possibly'....so, what's going on?)

"Accepted for publication by PASP: Signals probably from Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Analysis of 2.5 million SDSS spectra found signals predicted in a previous publication in only 234 stars overwhelmingly in the F2 to K1 spectral range"
 
All eyes on the red planet as ESA's lander prepares to hurtle towards Mars
The Schiaparelli probe is set to begin a dramatic descent to the surface of Mars. Will it enter the history books as the first successful Mars landing for Europe?
Ian Sample Science editor
Friday 14 October 2016 14.15 BST

The moment has come. Having travelled half a billion kilometres across the solar system, a European spacecraft will release a robotic lander on Sunday and send it spinning towards Mars and a place in the history books.

Mission controllers expect the Schiaparelli lander to separate from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, at 3.42pm UK time, one million kilometres from Mars. The pair will reach their destination on Wednesday when the mothership swings into orbit and the lander heads for the rust-red surface.

Named after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, the 600kg (1323lb) lander faces a dramatic six minute descent. As it punches into the Martian sky at 21,000 km (13039 miles) per hour, the disc-shaped probe will endure temperatures of more than 1500C (2732F). A parachute and thrusters will slow the descent, until the lander belly flops the last two metres onto the Meridiani Planum, a flat expanse near the equator.

Apart from the US, the Soviet Union, and modern day Russia, no other country has put a working lander on Mars. The closest Europe came was in 2003 when the UK-led Beagle 2 lander set down on the surface, but failed to call home. Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) expect to do better this time.

“It is very important that it goes right. It will be the first successful Mars landing for Europe. We have to keep a cool head,” said Michel Denis, flight director at ESA.

A joint ESA venture with Russia’s space agency, the ExoMars mission is arguably scientists’ best chance of finding life on Mars. The Trace Gas Orbiter will loop around the planet and sniff the atmosphere for methane - potentially a waste gas emanating from subterranean microbial Martians. Meanwhile, the lander will monitor conditions on the ground and test technology for the ExoMars rover, which is expected to launch in 2020. The rover will hunt for microbial life in Martian soil samples pulled up with a two-metre-long drill.

But first the spacecraft must make it to Mars. Soon after the Schiaparelli lander parts company with the Trace Gas Orbiter, it will go into hibernation to save power. As it nears the planet, the probe will wake and aim for a small ellipse-shaped landing zone. A smooth descent will see the probe touch down at 3.48pm UK time on Wednesday.

The battery-operated Schiaparelli is expected to last about two days on Mars. From the moment it lands, it will take weather measurements and record electrical fields near the surface. Swirling dust storms that can spread across the whole planet generate such strong electric fields they can rip apart carbon dioxide and water molecules in the atmosphere.

High above Mars, the Trace Gas Orbiter must slam on its brakes so it can be captured by the planet’s gravity. The braking manoeuvre calls for a main engine burn of more than two hours, but in that time the spacecraft will pass behind the red planet and lose all communications with Earth. “We won’t know if it has gone into orbit properly until it comes out the other side,” said Denis.

The Trace Gas Orbiter, a giant machine measuring 18 metres across with its solar arrays unfurled, will take many months to steer into the right orbit from which it can do serious science. But with its sensors fully operational at the end of next year, the orbiter will sniff the Martian atmosphere for low levels of gases, including the mysterious methane detected by Europe’s Mars Express orbiter more than a decade ago. The surface of Mars appears to belch out plumes of the gas. While it may come from natural reactions in rocks, it could equally be a sign of life.

“The more we can study these trace gases, the more we’ll understand the full picture,” said Håkan Svedhem, project scientist on ExoMars. Should the orbiter detect enough Martian methane, it can learn where the gas comes from. A key measurement will be the ratio of carbon isotopes. When methane is made by life, it has a different proportion of carbon-12 to carbon-13 than when it is given off from geological processes.

“Methane on Mars is a longstanding puzzle. Is it coming from geological activity under the surface or is it coming from life? Either of those would be amazing, but life would of course be stunning,” said Andrew Coates, who works on the ExoMars rover at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory. If the rover launches as planned, it will arrive in 2021.

“The ExoMars rover will be the first mission in recent times to look for signs of life. Nasa’s rovers have followed the water and made important discoveries, but what they haven’t been able to do is actually get to the life question. That’s the really new thing we’ll be able to do with the rover,” Coates said.

etc...

https://www.theguardian.com/science...s-esas-lander-prepares-to-hurtle-towards-mars
 
It looks like the great Galactic Ghoul has destroyed another Mars mission:
How the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander may have met its fate on Mars
The European Space Agency is not yet certain that the probe crashed, but data analysis so far indicates a destructive collision with the red planet’s surface
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Thursday 20 October 2016 15.41 BST

It was supposed to be the first European spacecraft to carry out science on Mars, but it now looks likely that the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Schiaparelli lander met its end in a destructive high-speed collision at the planet’s surface.

Although ESA has not yet conceded that its lander crashed - and it may be weeks before its fate is known for certain - scientists said that this appeared the most likely scenario.

Jorge Vago, the ExoMars project scientist, said: “That [a crash] sounds plausible. Based on what we know [a soft landing] is unlikely.”

The data beamed back from Schiaparelli show that the first five minutes of its descent went flawlessly. The craft entered the atmosphere at about 21,000km (13,039 miles) per hour, its heat-shield worked effectively and it deployed its parachute to slow it from supersonic speeds to around 240 km (149 miles) per hour.

The probe also successfully switched on its radar, which it uses to refine the descent sequence, based on its speed and altitude. At some point after switching on the radar, Schiaparelli’s sequence began to depart from what scientists had anticipated, however.

First, it jettisoned its parachute about 30 seconds earlier than happened in their simulations - not a problem in itself because the craft had already slowed down to its terminal speed and was in free fall. Next, its retrorockets switched on, but only for three or four seconds rather than the 30 seconds required to slow Schiaperelli down sufficiently for a gentle landing.

“I don’t know how much you would decelerate in a few seconds of engine, but not a lot,” said Vago. “If you’re talking about the lander going down at 200 km/h or so... that would mean we lost the lander.”

After the thrusters switched off, the craft carried on transmitting for a further 19 seconds, during which time its computers entered their “landing” sequence, then the transmissions went silent. The thrusters are designed to switch off automatically a few metres above the surface to avoid throwing up a large plume of Martian dust.

The sudden radio silence, 50 seconds sooner than expected, could indicate that the craft had smashed into the surface at high speed. Its belly featured a crushable structure, something like the crumple zone on a car, designed to absorb the final shock of touchdown - but this was supposed occur at walking pace.


If the collision happened at high speed, Schiaparelli may have ended up in a squashed state similar to that of Nasa’s Genesis probe, when it crashed down in a Utah desert in 2004 after its parachute failed to deploy. If Schiaparelli split apart, it is likely to have “stayed in big chunks” rather than shattered, Vago predicted.

Nasa is already using its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to image the landing site, but locating the paddling pool-sized craft, could take weeks or months - although probably not the decade it took to find the ill-fated Beagle 2. Schiaparelli’s parachute, which is about eight metres across when laid flat, might help lead scientists to the craft’s final resting place.

The question now is how the failed landing will affect plans for ESA’s six-wheeled rover, due to be launched in 2020, for which Schiaparelli was always intended as a technology demonstrator.

The part of the descent sequence that worked well for Schiaparelli differs from the rover, which will rely on four parachutes, including a giant one 35 metres in diameter, instead of just one. However, the rover is designed with a similar onboard computer, radar, gyroscope and accelerometer, and it seems that one of these bits of machinery - or the dialogue between them - was where things went wrong.

“The concern is will we be able to learn enough from this attempt to be sure that the next one, which is much more ambitious, will work well?” said Vago.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...iparelli-lander-may-have-met-its-fate-on-mars
 
Images reveal crashed Mars lander
By David ShukmanScience editor
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Image copyrightNASA
The European Space Agency has tried hard to avoid using the words "crash" or "failure" about its attempted Mars landing but the fate of the spacecraft is cruelly exposed in new pictures.

The Schiaparelli lander is seen in greater detail than ever before, lying on the Martian surface.

It is well within its intended landing zone but obviously unable to function.

The images, gathered by Nasa, could provide important new clues about what went wrong.

They show a dark patch around the capsule - a possible hint that a fuel tank exploded - and the indication is that the impact gouged out a crater 50cm deep.

Last week's landing - a joint Esa-Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) endeavour - was billed as a "technology demonstrator" to pave the way for a far bigger venture in 2020 with a sophisticated rover to hunt for clues about life.

The loss raises difficult questions about the risks involved in that follow-on mission and whether Esa's member governments will be too nervous to pledge the funds needed to mount it.

The Schiaparelli spacecraft was meant to touch down last week using a combination of a heat-shield and a parachute to slow its fall and retro-rockets to lower it to the surface.

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Image copyrightNASA
Image captionThe new photos put the fate of the lander beyond doubt
Instead communications were lost during what should have been the final minute of the descent and it is estimated that the spacecraft hit the ground at about 300kph.

It was quickly established that the parachute and back cover were released earlier than they should have been, according to a pre-programmed sequence of tasks.

It is also known that the retro-rockets, which should have fired for 30 seconds, only operated for three or four seconds, and the lander probably fell from a height of 2-4km.

In the aftermath of the attempt, Esa's Director-General, Jan Woerner, claimed that the mission was a success because the spacecraft transmitted data for five of the six minutes of its descent, providing useful information and proving that key stages of the operation had worked well.

He also highlighted that the lander's mother ship, known as the Trace Gas Orbiter, had been successfully placed in an orbit that would allow it to sniff the Martian atmosphere for hints of methane.

Soon after the mission, Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter gathered pictures of the landing zone which revealed the presence of two new dots in the Martian landscape - a dark one for the spacecraft and a white one for the parachute.

Now the same spacecraft has used its more powerful HiRise camera - with a resolution of 30cm per pixel - to focus on the landing zone and produce the images released today.

In a bitter irony, it was the same US orbiter that managed to spot Europe's earlier attempt at a Mars landing, with the Beagle-2 mission in 2003.

Those images showed how the tiny craft had made it to the surface in one piece but then failed to fully open its solar panels which meant that it could not communicate or survive.
Click to expand...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37788444
 
'World's largest telescope' relocates to Palma after outrage in Hawaii over plan to build on sacred mountain
James Badcock, Madrid
3 November 2016 • 7:01pm

The world’s largest telescope may be built in Spain’s Canary Islands instead of on its intended site in Hawaii after campaigners opposed the project, which they say would violate a sacred mountain.
Last year protesters blocked access to the Mauna Kea mountaintop site where the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) would sit, sparking a bitter legal battle.
The squabble in Hawaii over the telescope - which is designed to explain how the universe took shape - has led to the volcanic Spanish island of La Palma being suggested as an alternative.
The Canary island boasts clear skies and hosts several other telescopes which are already probing deep space.

Campaigners such as Kealoha Pisciotta, the president of the Mauna Kea Ohana group defending the mountain, say that the authorities should not have given the go-ahead to a project which will further desecrate island’s highest peak.
“The mountain needs to be revered. It’s a temple,” Ms Pisciotta said.

“Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources’ mandate is to protect the island’s cultural and natural resources, but it has not done so.”

Earlier this week, Henry Yang, chair of the TMT international board, said that the governors had identified the Roque de los Muchachos observatory as “the primary alternative to Hawaii". Hawaii’s state supreme court has nullified TMT’s construction permit with a final decision expected on the $1.5 billion telescope later this month.
The Pacific island's dormant volcano is already the site of the 13 other smaller telescopes, some of which are being decommissioned.

The Mauna Kea site remains the TMT board’s preferred option, largely because it is at an altitude of just over 4,000 metres, an advantage over Roque de los Muchachos’ 2,250 metres above sea level. The lower altitude means there is more water vapour in the telescope’s line of sight that could block mid-infrared wavelengths as astronomers seek data for research into the early Universe and the atmospheres of exoplanets.

“We’ll be watching the situation in Hawaii carefully, hoping that continues to move forward,” Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a member of the TMT board of governors, told Nature.

But time is running out for Mauna Kea, chosen as the optimum site by the TMT board in 2009. Instruments are already being fabricated with on-site construction due to start by early 2018 at the latest.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...cope-relocates-to-palma-after-outrage-in-haw/

Hmm... Seems we haven't yet left behind the clash between Science and Religion... How strong is this religious feeling in Hawaii...?
 
They really need some better names for telescopes.
 
Super beaver moon to rise over Cornwall on Monday

On Monday a super beaver moon will rise in the skies over Cornwall - yes, really.

On November 14, the moon will be closer to Earth than it has been this century.
Not only will it be passing closer to us than any year since 1948, but it won't occur again until 2034.

During the event, the moon will appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than an average full moon.
The event is known as a super beaver moon, as native Americans named the November full moon beaver moon as it was the time of year for setting beaver traps.

The moon's distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather than a circular one. Scientists have dismissed notions that the phenomenon could cause bizarre behaviour or natural disasters. Its most significant impact is likely to be on the tide.

If you take any good shots of the super beaver moon we would love to see them, and you can send them to [email protected]

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/new..._beaver_moon_to_rise_over_Cornwall_on_Monday/

Yes, a super moon will produce super spring tides. (That's why the coaster Pilsum is currently anchored in Falmouth bay waiting to go upriver to Truro, possibly this afternoon.)

But the tides lag a little behind the moon phases: Monday's HW at Falmouth will be 5.4 m, but the biggest spring tides will be 5.5 m on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
 
rynner2 said:
Super beaver moon to rise over Cornwall on Monday

On Monday a super beaver moon will rise in the skies over Cornwall - yes, really.

On November 14, the moon will be closer to Earth than it has been this century.
Not only will it be passing closer to us than any year since 1948, but it won't occur again until 2034.

During the event, the moon will appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than an average full moon.
The event is known as a super beaver moon, as native Americans named the November full moon beaver moon as it was the time of year for setting beaver traps.

The moon's distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather than a circular one. Scientists have dismissed notions that the phenomenon could cause bizarre behaviour or natural disasters. Its most significant impact is likely to be on the tide.

If you take any good shots of the super beaver moon we would love to see them, and you can send them to [email protected]

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/new..._beaver_moon_to_rise_over_Cornwall_on_Monday/

Yes, a super moon will produce super spring tides. (That's why the coaster Pilsum is currently anchored in Falmouth bay waiting to go upriver to Truro, possibly this afternoon.)

But the tides lag a little behind the moon phases: Monday's HW at Falmouth will be 5.4 m, but the biggest spring tides will be 5.5 m on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Click to expand...

Will it produce Werebeavers? :eek:
 
Pluto 'has slushy ocean' below surface
By Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website
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_92475235_66ae8c96-d03d-4a36-9805-1302325a142a.jpg
Image copyrightNASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Image captionA subsurface ocean could explain some Pluto's puzzling alignment with its moon Charon
Pluto may harbour a slushy water ocean beneath its most prominent surface feature, known as the "heart".

This could explain why part of the heart-shaped region - called Sputnik Planitia - is locked in alignment with Pluto's largest moon Charon.

A viscous ocean beneath the icy crust could have acted as a heavy, irregular mass that rolled Pluto over, so that Sputnik Planitia was facing the moon.

The findings are based on data from Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft.

The space probe flew by the dwarf planet in July 2015 and is now headed into the Kuiper Belt, an icy region of the Solar System beyond Neptune's orbit.

Sputnik Planitia is a circular region in the heart's left "ventricle" and is aligned almost exactly opposite Charon. In addition, Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, which results in Pluto and Charon always showing the same face to each other.

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Image copyrightNASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Image captionNew Horizons saw evidence of flowing nitrogen ice, analagous to glaciers on Earth
"If you were to draw a line from the centre of Pluto's moon Charon through Pluto, it would come out on the other side, almost right through Sputnik Planitia. That line is what we call the tidal axis" said James Keane, from the University of Arizona, co-author of one of a pair of papers published on the subject in Nature journal.

This is strongly suggestive of a particular evolutionary course for Pluto. The researchers contend that Sputnik Planitia formed somewhere else on Pluto and then dragged the entire dwarf planet over - by as much as 60 degrees - relative to its spin axis.

Slushy pup?
He explained: "If you have a perfectly spherical planet... and you stick a lump of extra mass on the side and let it spin, the planet will re-orient to move that extra mass closer to the equator. For bodies like Pluto that are tidally locked, it will move it toward that tidal axis - the one connecting Pluto and Charon."

Prof Francis Nimmo, from University of California, Santa Cruz, one of the authors of a separate study in Nature, told the BBC's Inside Science radio programme: "There's more mass in Sputnik Planitia than in surrounding regions - so somehow there's extra stuff there."

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Image copyrightNASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Image captionCharon is Pluto's largest moon; the two bodies always show the same fact to one other
But there's a problem with this idea, because the feature is thought to be the result of an impact with another object at some point in Pluto's past.

"Sputnik Planitia is a hole in the ground, so there shouldn't be more weight, there should be less weight. If the story is correct, you have to find some way of hiding extra mass underneath the surface of Sputnik Planitia," said Prof Nimmo.

"If you take some of the ice beneath Sputnik Planitia and replace it with water, water is denser than ice... so you'd be adding extra mass. That would help Sputnik Planitia to have more mass overall."

If a massive impact created the basin, it may have also triggered any material - such as a slushy ocean - beneath the surface to push Pluto's thin crust outward, causing a "positive gravitational anomaly" that would have caused the dwarf planet to roll over.

Prof Martin Siegert, from Imperial College London, who was not involved with either study, called the result "fascinating".

"The ocean would be incredibly cold, and hyper saline (I think they said enriched in ammonia), so unlike water on Earth or Europa," he told the BBC News Website.

"It would certainly be an extreme environment! Perhaps the most extreme in the Solar System?"

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Image copyrightNASA
Image captionNew Horizons was launched on its way to Pluto in 2006
But James Keane thinks phenomena other than a subsurface ocean could explain the alignment of Sputnik Planitia with Charon.

"Sputnik Planitia is filled with several kilometres of volatile ices. These ices are predominantly things that we think of as gases here on Earth - nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. On Pluto these are solid, and they behave almost like glaciers do on Earth," he said.

His team's explanation focuses on the nitrogen ice: "Each time Pluto goes around the Sun, a bit of nitrogen accumulates in the heart... once enough ice has piled up, maybe a hundred metres thick, it starts to overwhelm the planet's shape, which dictates the planet's orientation.

"If you have an excess of mass in one spot on the planet, it wants to go to the equator. Eventually, over millions of years, it will drag the whole planet over."

But he added: "It's hard to distinguish between either scenario, so both teams will have to do future work to try to test both hypotheses."

New Horizons, which is about the size of a baby grand piano, was launched on 14 January 2006 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. After its flyby of Pluto, mission scientists identified a second target - an icy Kuiper Belt body called 2014 MU69 - which the probe should reach in 2019.
Click to expand...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38005104
 
I've posted this under Astronomicals, since the claims are such that the alleged images were taken via NASA cameras
Full details and pictures at this link

Mystery as UFO hunter posts images of huge spherical object in front of the Sun that was captured by NASA cameras
By Paddy Dinham For Mailonline21:52, 19 Nov 2016, updated 20:42, 21 Nov 2016

  • A huge blue sphere was picked up by cameras on the STEREO HI1 satellite
  • UFO hunter Pamela Johnson claims the Sun started reacting to the object
  • There are frames missing from the next two days but it's now disappeared
Scientists and conspiracy theorists across the world have been left stunned after Nasa cameras picked up a mysterious blue sphere moving in front of the Sun.

Facebook user Pamela Jonhson, who lives in Mexico, shared the images from a link to Nasa's website, claiming the Sun reacted to the object.

The images, taken from Nasa's STEREO satellites which orbit the Sun, show the large spectacle in clear view - before it goes missing from other frames.

 
Ermintrude said:
I've posted this under Astronomicals, since the claims are such that the alleged images were taken via NASA cameras
Full details and pictures at this link

Mystery as UFO hunter posts images of huge spherical object in front of the Sun that was captured by NASA cameras
By Paddy Dinham For Mailonline21:52, 19 Nov 2016, updated 20:42, 21 Nov 2016




    • A huge blue sphere was picked up by cameras on the STEREO HI1 satellite
    • UFO hunter Pamela Johnson claims the Sun started reacting to the object
    • There are frames missing from the next two days but it's now disappeared
Scientists and conspiracy theorists across the world have been left stunned after Nasa cameras picked up a mysterious blue sphere moving in front of the Sun.

Facebook user Pamela Jonhson, who lives in Mexico, shared the images from a link to Nasa's website, claiming the Sun reacted to the object.

The images, taken from Nasa's STEREO satellites which orbit the Sun, show the large spectacle in clear view - before it goes missing from other frames.
Click to expand...
It was just swamp gas from a weather balloon, trapped in a thermal pocket reflecting the light from Venus.
 
Vardoger said:
It was just swamp gas from a weather balloon, trapped in a thermal pocket reflecting the light from Venus.
Click to expand...

Turns out, it is in fact interference from a secondary camera of the sun itself over the feed of this camera, that bled into the shot through high electromagnetic interference from the sun. Good explanation here, with overlays of the sun images at the same instance from the second camera, that clearly shows the details of the Sun.
 
Mars probe returns first pictures
By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent
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_92717094_20161122_163828_north_of_da_vinci_pan_1.jpg
Image copyrightESA/ROSCOSMOS/EXOMARS/CASSIS/UNIBE
Europe's and Russia's new satellite at Mars has sent back its first images of the planet.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived on 19 October, putting itself in a highly elliptical parking orbit.

This must be circularised over the coming year before the mission can begin full science operations.

But scientists have taken the opportunity of some close passes to the planet in recent days to check out the TGO's instrumentation.

_92717102_20161122_161611_arsia_chasmata_pan_new.jpg
Image copyrightESA/ROSCOSMOS/EXOMARS/CASSIS/UNIBE
Image captionA structure called Arsia Chasmata on the flanks of one of the large volcanoes, Arsia Mons. The width of the image is around 25 km
There is delight at the quality of the pictures returned from camera system, CaSSIS (the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System).

TGO passed over a region called Hebes Chasma at its closest approach, just 250km from the Martian terrain.

"We saw Hebes Chasma at 2.8 metres per pixel," said Nicolas Thomas, the camera's principal investigator from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

"That's a bit like flying over Bern at 15,000km/h and simultaneously getting sharp pictures of cars in Zurich."

TGO sensors NOMAD and ACS also came through their early tests successfully.

These are the sensors that will make a detailed inventory of Mars' atmospheric gases.

In particular, they will go after the components that constitute less than 1% of the planet's air - chemical species such as methane, water vapour, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide.

Methane is the main focus. From previous measurements, its concentration is seen to be low and sporadic in nature. But the mere fact that it is detected at all is really fascinating.

The simple organic molecule should be destroyed easily in the harsh Martian environment, so its persistence - and the occasional spikes in its signal - indicate a replenishing source of the gas.

The speculation is that it could be coming from microbial life somewhere on the planet.

It will be CaSSIS's job to look for possible geological forms on the surface that might tie into methane sources. A fourth instrument, FREND (successfully tested in recent days, too), will sense hydrogen in the near-surface. This data can be used as a proxy for the presence of water or hydrated minerals.

This again is information that could yield answers to the methane question.

TGO was the unspoken success on the day Esa's Schiaparelli lander crashed into Mars.

The surface probe had been dropped off at the Red Planet by TGO and was making its ill-fated descent just as the satellite took up its parking orbit.

The successful insertion almost went unnoticed in the fuss over Schiaparelli.

TGO is the first phase in a joint venture at Mars that Europe is undertaking with Russia.

The second step in this project known as ExoMars is to put a robot rover on the planet in 2021.

It needs a large injection of cash on the European side to go forward, however - just over €400m.

Research ministers from Esa member states are meeting this week in Lucerne, Switzerland, to try to resolve this budget problem.

Seeing TGO perform so well should at the very least give the politicians a warm feeling as they push through their difficult discussions.

_92717096_20161122_162100_noctis_labyrinthus_localregion_crest1.jpg
Image copyrightEMANUELE SIMIONI
Image captionThe first CaSSIS stereo reconstruction of a small area in Noctis Labyrinthus. The image gives an altitude map of the region with a resolution of less than 20 metres
Click to expand...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38147682
 
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