Fed2 Star - July 29, 2018 - page 1 (of 2)
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Fiona Craig
Jul 29, 2018, 7:58:15 AM7/29/18
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Fed2 Star
Earthdate July 29, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
In this week’s Fed2 Star: it’s time for another newsdroid break, sending
a spacecraft to the sun, liquid water found under Mars’ south pole, the
red dust on Mars all comes from the same place, the moon may once have
been able to sustain life, coming up with a name for a Mars rover,
government publication accidentally includes advice on shooting
children, find out what countries’ names mean literally, and pictures of
artworks of ancient creatures which have been recreated. Plus Winding
Down, the tech newsletter from Alan.
Official News part one
NO FED2 STAR NEXT WEEK
by Hazed
Never mind the newsdroids – I am the one who needs a week off. Here in
England we are suffering through a prolonged heatwave; temperatures in
London where I live topped 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) a few days
ago and the weather forecast shows no respite from the sweltering sun
for another few weeks at least.
Summer temperatures like this are unusual in this country, and when they
do happen they rarely last for more than a few days. Our weather is best
described as “changeable” because it lies at the confluence of four
major weather systems, with the most common weather forecast in the
summer being for “sunny periods and scattered showers”. This is why we
always talk about the weather –there is so much of it to talk about.
So we are not geared up to deal with heatwaves. Roads start to melt,
railway tracks buckle, un-air-conditioned homes become unbearable, even
offices that do have air-con can’t cope with the extreme heat, and as
far public transport… well, it’s so hot on the tube (that’s the subway
in London) that some lines are seeing temperatures of over 40 degrees.
All this is why I am feeling tired and in need of a week off from doing
the Fed2 Star. We’ll be back on Sunday August 12.
Stop press: I wrote the above on Friday morning. By that evening the
country was experiencing torrential rain and thunderstorms. The heatwave
is due to resume on Monday but meanwhile we are enjoying a welcome
respite. The bad news is that it prevented me from seeing the blood moon
of the lunar eclipse on Friday evening, so I had to content myself with
looking at pictures of it on the internet, such as the ones in this
gallery:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2018/jul/27/2018s-blood-moon-seen-around-the-world-in-pictures
REAL LIFE NEWS: FLYING INTO THE SUN
by Hazed
NASA is sending a mission to the edge of the sun. (This obviously makes
me think of the Pink Floyd song ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the
Sun; you can see a video of the song accompanied by some amazing images
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zuEfmmCA5s.)
The Parker Solar Probe will take off on August 4 from Cape Canaveral in
Florida, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. It will head towards the sun, and
will fly closer to it than any previous missions, dipping into the edge
of the sun’s corona where the temperature is around 1,400C (seven times
hotter than the hottest kitchen oven).
There are many mysteries about the sun that scientists would love to
solve. The most puzzling is the fact that the sun’s surface is around
6,000C but the corona is an enormous three million degrees. Since the
corona takes its heat from the sun’s surface, there’s no way it can be
hotter than the surface. Except that it is, and we don’t know why. To
find out, we need to get a spacecraft down into the corona.
PSP will fly past Venus in September then drop towards the sun for its
first close pass on 1 November. Over time its orbit will see it creep
closer and closer until it skims just 6km above the surface of the sun.
The data that we get from this mission is sure to be fascinating and I
look forward to reporting on it in the future.
This reminds me of the old joke: when planning a mission to the sun,
someone asked the scientists how they would avoid getting burned up.
“!t’s OK,” was the reply, “we’re going at night.”
It also makes me wonder if they will find the ATM that lives behind the
sun (at least it does in Fed DataSpace).
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/22/parker-solar-probe-set-the-controls-for-the-edge-of-the-sun
REAL LIFE NEWS: THERE’S WATER ON MARS
by Hazed
Water has been found on Mars – real, sloshing, liquid water, not frozen
ice. A whole lake of the stuff is hidden beneath multiple layers of dust
and ice, say scientists in a new paper.
This is the first conclusive evidence that there is water existing in a
liquid state right now, and not just in the past.
The lake is under the planet’s South Pole, and it is about 20km across.
It was found by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere
Sounding instrument (MARSIS), which sent radar pulses below the ground
to check out a patch stretching 200km wide, between May 2012 and
December 2015. These pulses let us see what kinds of materials are
hidden under the surface.
The result is that the surface is mostly ice and dust to about 1.5km
down, but going deeper, the scientists found a layer that had a
particularly bright reflection. Analysing the surrounding deposits and
the temperature of the environment, they believe that this is a pool of
liquid water saturated with salty sediments.
The lead author of the paper, Roberto Orosei, who is the principal
investigator of the MARSIS experiment, said, “This subsurface anomaly on
Mars has radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments.”
This is a tremendously exciting find, as Orosei explained: “This
thrilling discovery is a highlight for planetary science and will
contribute to our understanding of the evolution of Mars, the history of
water on our neighbour planet and its habitability. This is just one
small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be
more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered.”
It’s also going to make life easier for future Mars colonists. After
all, Diesel couldn’t brew her famous ale without water.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/26/mars_water_found/
REAL LIFE NEWS: WHERE DOES THE RED DUST ON MARS COME FROM?
by Hazed
The surface of Mars is all dusty. The dust is red because it’s full of
iron – hence the rusty colour. But where does all that red dust come from?
It turns out it mostly comes from just one place, a formation called the
Medusae Fossae. This stretches for about a thousand kilometres across
the equator, and it is slowly crumbling and scattering its debris all
over the planet.
The rovers Spirit and Opportunity gathered data from Medusae Fossae, and
scientists examining the data have found that the structure is abundant
with sulfur and chlorine. Its material is the best chemical match for
the dust found everywhere on the Martian surface. Read the article at
the source link below for the geological details.
Martian dust is going to be a major problem for any future human
missions to the planet. It is already a hazard to the various rovers
that we have sent to roam the surface, covering their solar panels so
they can’t get energy and contaminating their sensitive instruments, so
the more we learn about the dust, the better.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/25/mars_dust_medusae_fossae/
REAL LIFE NEWS: WAS THERE LIFE ON THE MOON?
by Hazed
The moon is a desolate place, with no atmosphere and nothing except dust
and rock to be seen. But it may not have always been like that,
according to a new paper. Once, it’s surface could even have supported life.
The paper says that there were two periods in the moon’s history during
which it may have had the conditions needed for life to develop. The
first period was shortly after the satellite was formed, when an early
planet called Theia collided with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The
second time was about 3.5 billion years ago.
The theory is that the debris from which the moon was formed after that
gigantic collision would have retained some water as well as a small
concentration of volatiles. Once the body had grown in mass, the surface
would have been molten with flowing oceans of magma. These would have
belched out large volumes of hot gassy volatiles, including water
vapour. This could have formed into liquid pools of water and could have
created an atmosphere around the moon.
If those things were present for a long period, then the surface of the
moon could have been habitable, at least for a while.
To prove this theory, scientists will need samples of rock deposits from
the moon’s surface so they can see if there are any signs of there
having been water in the past and the other ingredients necessary for
life. Just one more reason why we need to get back to the moon.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/24/young_moon_life/
REAL LIFE NEWS: SUGGEST A NAME FOR A NEW MARS ROVER
by Hazed
The UK Space Agency wants the public to help name its forthcoming Mars
rover. But before you start planning to vote for Spacey McSpaceface, or
whatever other stupid name the public comes up with, it seems that they
have learned some lessons from previous public votes, and will eliminate
any idiotic suggestions from the list, and then use a panel of experts
to judge and make the final choice.
If you aren’t aware of the Boaty McBoatface problem, read the entry on
Wikepedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
Anyway, back to the Mars rover… it will be a six-wheeled rover sent to
Mars to arrive in 2021, and is being built by Airbus. They have set up a
page where you can suggest names for the rover – there’s a link in the
source article below.
Should your suggestion be the winning name, you’ll get a tour of the
Airbus facility in Stevenage, just north of London, where the rover is
being assembled and tested.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/the-uk-needs-help-naming-their-mars-rover-and-yes-the-1827750168
DUMB CIVIL SERVANTS OF THE WEEK: SATIRICAL POSTER PRINTED IN GOVERNMENT
PUBLICATION
by Hazed
A magazine published by the UK’s civil service recently included some
very unusual advice: it told parents that if they suspected their
children had rabies, they should shoot them!
The information was contained in a poster that was added to an article
about the history of government communications, in the current issue of
Civil Service Quarterly, just as if it was a genuine piece of government
advice. Of course, it wasn’t. It came from a satirical website called
Scarfolk Council, which is about a made-up town which the author Richard
Littler describes as “a dystopian satire of the 1970s that somehow leaks
into and reflects on current affairs”.
Littler has no idea how the poster ended up in an official civil service
magazine, but is clearly delighted.
Source:
https://news.sky.com/story/gaffe-as-civil-service-magazine-prints-poster-telling-parents-to-shoot-rabid-children-11443626
Earthdate July 29, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
In this week’s Fed2 Star: it’s time for another newsdroid break, sending
a spacecraft to the sun, liquid water found under Mars’ south pole, the
red dust on Mars all comes from the same place, the moon may once have
been able to sustain life, coming up with a name for a Mars rover,
government publication accidentally includes advice on shooting
children, find out what countries’ names mean literally, and pictures of
artworks of ancient creatures which have been recreated. Plus Winding
Down, the tech newsletter from Alan.
Official News part one
NO FED2 STAR NEXT WEEK
by Hazed
Never mind the newsdroids – I am the one who needs a week off. Here in
England we are suffering through a prolonged heatwave; temperatures in
London where I live topped 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) a few days
ago and the weather forecast shows no respite from the sweltering sun
for another few weeks at least.
Summer temperatures like this are unusual in this country, and when they
do happen they rarely last for more than a few days. Our weather is best
described as “changeable” because it lies at the confluence of four
major weather systems, with the most common weather forecast in the
summer being for “sunny periods and scattered showers”. This is why we
always talk about the weather –there is so much of it to talk about.
So we are not geared up to deal with heatwaves. Roads start to melt,
railway tracks buckle, un-air-conditioned homes become unbearable, even
offices that do have air-con can’t cope with the extreme heat, and as
far public transport… well, it’s so hot on the tube (that’s the subway
in London) that some lines are seeing temperatures of over 40 degrees.
All this is why I am feeling tired and in need of a week off from doing
the Fed2 Star. We’ll be back on Sunday August 12.
Stop press: I wrote the above on Friday morning. By that evening the
country was experiencing torrential rain and thunderstorms. The heatwave
is due to resume on Monday but meanwhile we are enjoying a welcome
respite. The bad news is that it prevented me from seeing the blood moon
of the lunar eclipse on Friday evening, so I had to content myself with
looking at pictures of it on the internet, such as the ones in this
gallery:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2018/jul/27/2018s-blood-moon-seen-around-the-world-in-pictures
REAL LIFE NEWS: FLYING INTO THE SUN
by Hazed
NASA is sending a mission to the edge of the sun. (This obviously makes
me think of the Pink Floyd song ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the
Sun; you can see a video of the song accompanied by some amazing images
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zuEfmmCA5s.)
The Parker Solar Probe will take off on August 4 from Cape Canaveral in
Florida, atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. It will head towards the sun, and
will fly closer to it than any previous missions, dipping into the edge
of the sun’s corona where the temperature is around 1,400C (seven times
hotter than the hottest kitchen oven).
There are many mysteries about the sun that scientists would love to
solve. The most puzzling is the fact that the sun’s surface is around
6,000C but the corona is an enormous three million degrees. Since the
corona takes its heat from the sun’s surface, there’s no way it can be
hotter than the surface. Except that it is, and we don’t know why. To
find out, we need to get a spacecraft down into the corona.
PSP will fly past Venus in September then drop towards the sun for its
first close pass on 1 November. Over time its orbit will see it creep
closer and closer until it skims just 6km above the surface of the sun.
The data that we get from this mission is sure to be fascinating and I
look forward to reporting on it in the future.
This reminds me of the old joke: when planning a mission to the sun,
someone asked the scientists how they would avoid getting burned up.
“!t’s OK,” was the reply, “we’re going at night.”
It also makes me wonder if they will find the ATM that lives behind the
sun (at least it does in Fed DataSpace).
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/22/parker-solar-probe-set-the-controls-for-the-edge-of-the-sun
REAL LIFE NEWS: THERE’S WATER ON MARS
by Hazed
Water has been found on Mars – real, sloshing, liquid water, not frozen
ice. A whole lake of the stuff is hidden beneath multiple layers of dust
and ice, say scientists in a new paper.
This is the first conclusive evidence that there is water existing in a
liquid state right now, and not just in the past.
The lake is under the planet’s South Pole, and it is about 20km across.
It was found by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere
Sounding instrument (MARSIS), which sent radar pulses below the ground
to check out a patch stretching 200km wide, between May 2012 and
December 2015. These pulses let us see what kinds of materials are
hidden under the surface.
The result is that the surface is mostly ice and dust to about 1.5km
down, but going deeper, the scientists found a layer that had a
particularly bright reflection. Analysing the surrounding deposits and
the temperature of the environment, they believe that this is a pool of
liquid water saturated with salty sediments.
The lead author of the paper, Roberto Orosei, who is the principal
investigator of the MARSIS experiment, said, “This subsurface anomaly on
Mars has radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments.”
This is a tremendously exciting find, as Orosei explained: “This
thrilling discovery is a highlight for planetary science and will
contribute to our understanding of the evolution of Mars, the history of
water on our neighbour planet and its habitability. This is just one
small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be
more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered.”
It’s also going to make life easier for future Mars colonists. After
all, Diesel couldn’t brew her famous ale without water.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/26/mars_water_found/
REAL LIFE NEWS: WHERE DOES THE RED DUST ON MARS COME FROM?
by Hazed
The surface of Mars is all dusty. The dust is red because it’s full of
iron – hence the rusty colour. But where does all that red dust come from?
It turns out it mostly comes from just one place, a formation called the
Medusae Fossae. This stretches for about a thousand kilometres across
the equator, and it is slowly crumbling and scattering its debris all
over the planet.
The rovers Spirit and Opportunity gathered data from Medusae Fossae, and
scientists examining the data have found that the structure is abundant
with sulfur and chlorine. Its material is the best chemical match for
the dust found everywhere on the Martian surface. Read the article at
the source link below for the geological details.
Martian dust is going to be a major problem for any future human
missions to the planet. It is already a hazard to the various rovers
that we have sent to roam the surface, covering their solar panels so
they can’t get energy and contaminating their sensitive instruments, so
the more we learn about the dust, the better.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/25/mars_dust_medusae_fossae/
REAL LIFE NEWS: WAS THERE LIFE ON THE MOON?
by Hazed
The moon is a desolate place, with no atmosphere and nothing except dust
and rock to be seen. But it may not have always been like that,
according to a new paper. Once, it’s surface could even have supported life.
The paper says that there were two periods in the moon’s history during
which it may have had the conditions needed for life to develop. The
first period was shortly after the satellite was formed, when an early
planet called Theia collided with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The
second time was about 3.5 billion years ago.
The theory is that the debris from which the moon was formed after that
gigantic collision would have retained some water as well as a small
concentration of volatiles. Once the body had grown in mass, the surface
would have been molten with flowing oceans of magma. These would have
belched out large volumes of hot gassy volatiles, including water
vapour. This could have formed into liquid pools of water and could have
created an atmosphere around the moon.
If those things were present for a long period, then the surface of the
moon could have been habitable, at least for a while.
To prove this theory, scientists will need samples of rock deposits from
the moon’s surface so they can see if there are any signs of there
having been water in the past and the other ingredients necessary for
life. Just one more reason why we need to get back to the moon.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/24/young_moon_life/
REAL LIFE NEWS: SUGGEST A NAME FOR A NEW MARS ROVER
by Hazed
The UK Space Agency wants the public to help name its forthcoming Mars
rover. But before you start planning to vote for Spacey McSpaceface, or
whatever other stupid name the public comes up with, it seems that they
have learned some lessons from previous public votes, and will eliminate
any idiotic suggestions from the list, and then use a panel of experts
to judge and make the final choice.
If you aren’t aware of the Boaty McBoatface problem, read the entry on
Wikepedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
Anyway, back to the Mars rover… it will be a six-wheeled rover sent to
Mars to arrive in 2021, and is being built by Airbus. They have set up a
page where you can suggest names for the rover – there’s a link in the
source article below.
Should your suggestion be the winning name, you’ll get a tour of the
Airbus facility in Stevenage, just north of London, where the rover is
being assembled and tested.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/the-uk-needs-help-naming-their-mars-rover-and-yes-the-1827750168
DUMB CIVIL SERVANTS OF THE WEEK: SATIRICAL POSTER PRINTED IN GOVERNMENT
PUBLICATION
by Hazed
A magazine published by the UK’s civil service recently included some
very unusual advice: it told parents that if they suspected their
children had rabies, they should shoot them!
The information was contained in a poster that was added to an article
about the history of government communications, in the current issue of
Civil Service Quarterly, just as if it was a genuine piece of government
advice. Of course, it wasn’t. It came from a satirical website called
Scarfolk Council, which is about a made-up town which the author Richard
Littler describes as “a dystopian satire of the 1970s that somehow leaks
into and reflects on current affairs”.
Littler has no idea how the poster ended up in an official civil service
magazine, but is clearly delighted.
Source:
https://news.sky.com/story/gaffe-as-civil-service-magazine-prints-poster-telling-parents-to-shoot-rabid-children-11443626
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