A star escapes the Milky Way
Astronomers have identified a star that is escaping the Milky Way, moving at about 2.7 million miles per hour, the fastest velocity yet discovered.
Year: 2015
El Niño has finally arrived, far weaker than predicted
The uncertainty of science: The periodic warm weather pattern called El Niño has finally arrived in the mid-equatorial Pacific Ocean, more than a year late and far weaker than predicted by scientists.
The announcement comes a year after forecasters first predicted that a major El Niño could be in the works. At the time, NOAA predicted a 50% chance that an El Niño could develop in the latter half of 2014. The agency also said the wind patterns that were driving water east across the Pacific were similar to those that occurred in the months leading up to the epic El Niño of 1997, which caught scientists by surprise and contributed to flooding, droughts and fires across multiple continents.
In the end, last year’s forecasts came up short, in part because the winds that were driving the system petered out. Researchers, who have been working to improve their forecasting models since 1997, are trying to figure out precisely what happened last year and why their models failed to capture it.
But remember, these same climate scientists are absolutely sure that their climate models can predict the temperature rise of the climate to within a degree one century hence. Yet, they have no idea why this El Niño turned out weak and late, even though it exhibited the same early features as the epic 1997 El Niño.
New images from Mangalyaan
Indian scientists have released a new set of color images taken by their Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan.
The image on the right is of Arsia Mons, one of the three giant volcanoes to the east of Mars’ biggest volcano, Olympus Mons. Arsia Mons is important for future manned colonization, as there are known caves on its western flanks. In addition, those western flanks show solid evidence of past glaciers, which means that it is very likely that those caves will harbor significant quantities of water-ice, making settlement much easier.
Dawn has entered orbit around Ceres
Get ready for cool images! Dawn was successfully captured by the gravitational field of Ceres early this morning, and is now in orbit around the planet/asteroid.
Because of the orbital mechanics of its arrival, however, Dawn will observing Ceres’s night side until mid-April, which means we will not see many new images until then.
Hayabusa-2 shifts to cruise
Japan’s space agency JAXA announced today that its asteroid probe Hayabusa-2 has successfully completed its initial check-out and is now in cruise as it heads to an asteroid rendezvous in 2018.
NASA schedules commercial manned demo missions to ISS
The competition heats up: NASA has now added to its ISS schedule the planned launch dates for the first demo missions of SpaceX’s and Boeing’s privately built manned capsules.
For Boeing, its CST-100 will first launch on an uncrewed test flight to the Station via the “Boe-OFT” mission in Apr, 2017 – on a 30 days mission, ending with a parachute assisted return. Should all go to place, the second mission will involve a crew – yet to be selected – on a mission designated “Boe-CFT”, launching in July, 2017, on a 14 day mission to the ISS.
The [planning] dates show SpaceX to be the most advanced in the Commercial Crew path, with their projected test flight dates currently set to win the honor of being the first Commercial Crew vehicle to arrive at the orbital outpost. That first Dragon 2 mission, designated “SpX-DM1″, has a December, 2016 launch date, ahead of a 30 day mission – most of which will be docked to the ISS – ending with a parachute assisted landing in the Pacific ocean. This would be followed by “SpX-DM2″, a crewed flight, launching in April of 2017, on a 14 day mission. This would mark the first time astronauts have launched from American soil on a US built spacecraft since Atlantis’ STS-135 mission in 2011.
American manned space exploration should begin to get very exciting in the next two years, with multiple companies now capable of putting humans in space.
Blackmore’s Night – Minstrel Hall
An evening pause: Performed live by Ritchie Blackmore in Paris, 2006.
Hat tip to Danae.
“Listen, you better not have a church down there.”
Another quote from the same article:
As for Pastor Olive – his church will no longer meet in its church-owned coffee house. Instead, it is taking its congregation “underground” until the issue is resolved.
Remember, this is happening in Florida, in the United States.
The oceans that Mars lost
New data from a six year study of the water in the modern Martian atmosphere have allowed scientists to estimate the amount of water Mars once had.
About four billion years ago, the young planet would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres. “Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space,” said Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, and lead author of the new paper.
The image on the right is an artist’s conception of the oceans that would have existed on Mars, based on modern elevation data.
I must note that this conclusion, the size of the lost Martian ocean, is based on the assumption that the isotope ratios of Martian water started out the same as the Earth’s. While this is a reasonable assumption, it does not have to be true. Nonetheless, these conclusions, using ground-based telescopes, do match up with similar data obtained by Curiosity.
Lerner illegally provided Democrats with confidential tax information
Working for the Democratic Party: Newly released emails now prove that Lois Lerner not only illegally provided confidential tax information to Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), her harassment of conservatives was apparently coordinated with the Congressman’s office.
In addition, Cummings had denied these facts publicly and privately to the House as he tried to shut its investigation down prematurely.
“These documents, indicating involvement of IRS officials at the center of the targeting scandal responding to your requests, raise serious questions about your actions and motivations for trying to bring this investigation to a premature end. If the Committee, as you publicly suggested in June 2013,’wrap[ped] this case up and moved on’ at that time, the Committee may have never seen documents raising questions about your possible coordination with the IRS in communications that excluded the Committee Majority,” [states] the letter sent by [Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa and the chairmen of five congressional subcommittee chairmen].
“As the Committee continues to investigate the IRS’s wrongdoing and to gather all relevant testimonial and documentary evidence, the American people deserve to know the full truth. They deserve to know why the Ranking Member and Minority staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform surreptitiously contacted the IRS about an individual organization without informing the Majority Staff and even failed to disclose the contact after it became an issue during a subcommittee proceeding…We ask that you explain the full extent of you and your staff’s communications with the IRS and why you chose to keep communications with the IRS from Majority Members and staff even after it became a subject of controversy.”
It must be made clear here what happened: Cummings’ office contacted Lerner at the IRS about a specific conservative organization, demanding confidential tax information about it and that it be targeted for investigation by the IRS. Lois Lerner immediately complied. And his office did it not because of any illegal act by this conservative organization but because that organization was successfully uncovering voter fraud that helped Democrats get elected.
How does this make you feel? Criticize a Congressman and he has the power to send the IRS after you.
NASA picks landing site for next Mars lander
NASA scientists have chosen a specific region of Mars, Elysium Planitia, to land its next Mars science probe.
The landing-site selection process evaluated four candidate locations selected in 2014. The quartet is within the flat-lying “Elysium Planitia,” less than five degrees north of the equator, and all four appear safe for InSight’s landing. The single site will continue to be analyzed in coming months for final selection later this year. If unexpected problems with this site are found, one of the others would be imaged and could be selected. The favored site is centered at about four degrees north latitude and 136 degrees east longitude.
InSight launches next year.
Cass Elliot, Mary Travers, & Joni Mitchell – I shall be released
An evening pause: Performed live on the Cass Elliot Show, 1969.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.