Space as a National Asset for Canada Conference taking place in London, Ont. | CTV News - CTV News London

The growing role Canada plays in space exploration and innovation is being discussed in London, Ont. this week.

Academics, industry leaders and students are among those taking part in the Space as a National Asset for Canada Conference (SNAC).

The event features a wide range of out-of-this-world topics which stretch beyond rockets, satellites and deep space telescopes.

Participants are also discussing Canada’s role in space from ethical and medical perspectives while debating everything from space junk to space food.

“This conference is really the first time in Canada we have a space-focussed conference when everyone from the field can come together and exchange information,” said Denis Vida, a postdoctoral associate of meteor physics at Western University.

The conference began with Lisa Campbell, the President of the Canadian Space Agency. Remotely she shared her excitement about Canada’s supporting role in the upcoming Artemis moon mission and its planned lunar station.

“We’re in the design phase of the Canadarm3, our A.I.-enabled space-robotic system that Canada is contributing to the lunar gateway, a new space station that will orbit the moon,” Campbell revealed.

President of the Canadian Space Agency Lisa Campbell speaks at the Space as a National Asset for Canada Conference in London, Ont. on Oct. 31, 2022. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, slated to be part of Artemis II is also addressing the conference.

.“There is going to be a Canadian astronaut on the moon for the first time, which is absolutely bonkers!” said Vida.

But as Canada’s space industry looks to grow on the world stage, it faces a challenge in recruiting.

Campbell confirms just 28 per cent of the Canadian space workforce consists of women.

Diversity is also a challenge.

That’s why Western’s Institute for Earth & Space exploration (also known as Western Space) is working to broaden the definition of space work to include multiple fields.

“It’s engineers, it’s medical students, it’s astronomy students, planetary science students,” said Sarah Gallagher, the director of Western Space.

Yet in a time of geopolitical uncertainty on earth, Vida believes Canada is well positioned to provide a safe place for space research.

“Canada is right in the middle of it. So it is really good to be a Canadian student and a young researcher in Canada because we have access to both European and American science projects," Vida concluded.

The SNAC conference runs through Tuesday. 

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2022-10-31 17:13:00Z
1633154081

Astronomers spot largest potentially hazardous asteroid detected in last eight years - Phys.org

Twilight observations with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile have enabled astronomers to spot three near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) hiding in the glare of the Sun. These NEAs are part of an elusive population that lurks inside the orbits of Earth and Venus. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years. Credit: DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine

Twilight observations with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, have enabled astronomers to spot three near-Earth asteroids (NEA) hiding in the glare of the sun. These NEAs are part of an elusive population that lurks inside the orbits of Earth and Venus. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years.

An international team using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, has discovered three new near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) hiding in the inner solar system, the region interior to the orbits of Earth and Venus. This is a notoriously challenging region for observations because asteroid hunters have to contend with the glare of the sun.

By taking advantage of the brief yet favorable observing conditions during twilight, however, the astronomers found an elusive trio of NEAs. One is a 1.5-kilometer-wide asteroid called 2022 AP7, which has an orbit that may someday place it in Earth's path. The other asteroids, called 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27, have orbits that safely remain completely interior to Earth's orbit. Also of special interest to astronomers and astrophysicists, 2021 PH27 is the closest known asteroid to the sun. As such, it has the largest general-relativity effects of any object in our solar system and during its orbit its surface gets hot enough to melt lead.

"Our twilight survey is scouring the area within the orbits of Earth and Venus for asteroids," said Scott S. Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the lead author of the paper describing this work. "So far we have found two large near-Earth asteroids that are about 1 kilometer across, a size that we call planet killers."

"There are likely only a few NEAs with similar sizes left to find, and these large undiscovered asteroids likely have orbits that keep them interior to the orbits of Earth and Venus most of the time," said Sheppard. "Only about 25 asteroids with orbits completely within Earth's orbit have been discovered to date because of the difficulty of observing near the glare of the sun."

Finding asteroids in the inner solar system is a daunting observational challenge. Astronomers have only two brief 10-minute windows each night to survey this area and have to contend with a bright background sky resulting from the sun's glare. Additionally, such observations are very near to the horizon, meaning that astronomers have to observe through a thick layer of Earth's atmosphere, which can blur and distort their observations.

Discovering these three new asteroids despite these challenges was possible thanks to the unique observing capabilities of DECam. The state-of-the-art instrument is one of the highest-performance, wide-field CCD imagers in the world, giving astronomers the ability to capture large areas of sky with great sensitivity.

Astronomers refer to observations as "deep" if they capture faint objects. When hunting for asteroids inside Earth's orbit, the capability to capture both deep and wide-field observations is indispensable.

"Large areas of sky are required because the inner asteroids are rare, and deep images are needed because asteroids are faint and you are fighting the bright twilight sky near the sun as well as the distorting effect of Earth's atmosphere," said Sheppard. "DECam can cover large areas of sky to depths not achievable on smaller telescopes, allowing us to go deeper, cover more sky, and probe the inner solar system in ways never done before."

As well as detecting asteroids that could potentially pose a threat to Earth, this research is an important step toward understanding the distribution of small bodies in our solar system. Asteroids that are further from the sun than Earth are easiest to detect. Because of that these more-distant asteroids tend to dominate current theoretical models of the asteroid population.

Detecting these objects also allows astronomers to understand how asteroids are transported throughout the inner solar system and how gravitational interactions and the heat of the sun can contribute to their fragmentation.

"Our DECam survey is one of the largest and most sensitive searches ever performed for objects within Earth's orbit and near to Venus's orbit," said Sheppard. "This is a unique chance to understand what types of objects are lurking in the inner solar system."

"After ten years of remarkable service, DECam continues to yield important scientific discoveries while at the same time contributing to planetary defense, a crucial service that benefits all humanity," said Chris Davis, NSF Program Director for NOIRLab.

The findings are published in The Astronomical Journal.

More information: Scott S. Sheppard et al, A Deep and Wide Twilight Survey for Asteroids Interior to Earth and Venus, The Astronomical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ac8cff

Provided by Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

Citation: Astronomers spot largest potentially hazardous asteroid detected in last eight years (2022, October 31) retrieved 31 October 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-astronomers-largest-potentially-hazardous-asteroid.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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2022-10-31 19:37:03Z
1610753707

Mars Express Got so Close to Phobos That it Needed to be Reprogrammed to Keep the Moon in Focus - Universe Today

Let’s talk about Phobos. We know it’s a moon of Mars and it orbits the planet once every 7.4 hours. It has a huge impact crater called Stickney. It measures about 9 km across. That’s pretty big, considering Phobos itself is 28 km across on its longest side. But, beyond that, Phobos presents something of a mystery.

This oddly dark little world fascinates planetary scientists because of its amazingly weird cratered and striped surface. They also want to know if it’s a solid body or a floating rubble pile. If so, how did it get that way? And, more importantly, they want to know how it got to be Mars’s largest satellite. All these questions indicate that, for now, Phobos remains something of a mystery waiting for a solution.

Exploring Phobos Close-up

Recently, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter flew past Phobos as part of its regular mission. The idea was to get “up close and personal” with this moon and bombard it with low-frequency radio waves from the onboard MARSIS instrument. There was only one hitch—a typical flyby of Phobos by the spacecraft would put it too close to get useful MARSIS data. That’s because the instrument always did its best work from a distance. The original software allowed it to study the Martian surface (and beneath it) from about 250 kilometers away.

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An artist’s illustration of the Mars Express Orbiter above Mars. Its MARSIS instrument has been updated so it can study the moon Phobos. Image Credit: Spacecraft: ESA/ATG Medialab; Mars: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The radio waves MARSIS sends mostly reflect from the surface of an object and provide valuable information about conditions and structures there. But, some signals actually penetrate the crust and reflect back from deeper layers. The reflections helped scientists map the substructures on Mars and figure out if there are different layers of ice, rock, water, or soil. The instrument also played a role in finding signs of liquid water on the Red Planet.

So, how can MARSIS help figure out the big questions about Phobos and its origin? At the moment, scientists have two hypotheses about its past. “Whether Mars’s two small moons are captured asteroids or made of material ripped from Mars during a collision is an open question, said ESA Mars Express scientist Colin Wilson. “Their appearance suggests they were asteroids, but the way they orbit Mars arguably suggests otherwise.”

MARSIS Delivers an Early Look

The best way to find out its origin is to look inside Phobos. Typical optical images can only tell scientists so much. But, instruments that can probe inside Phobos can reveal a lot. That’s where MARSIS comes in. Thanks to a major software upgrade, MARSIS made observations during the recent close approach. It can now “see” beneath the surface of this little moon as it flies by to look for structural clues.

“During this flyby, we used MARSIS to study Phobos from as close as 83 km,” said Andrea Cicchetti from the MARSIS team at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics. “Getting closer allows us to study its structure in more detail and identify important features we would never have been able to see from further away. In the future, we are confident we could use MARSIS from closer than 40 km. The orbit of Mars Express has been fine-tuned to get us as close to Phobos as possible during a handful of flybys between 2023 and 2025, which will give us great opportunities to try.”

MARSIS data from Phobos flyby. The top-right image shows the ‘radargram’ acquired by MARSIS during the flyby of Phobos on 23 September 2022. A radargram reveals the ‘echoes’ created when the radio signal emitted by MARSIS bounces off something and returns to the instrument. The brighter the signal, the more powerful the echo. The continuous bright line shows the echo from the moon’s surface. The lower reflections are either ‘clutter’ caused by features on the moon’s surface, or, more interestingly, signs of possible structural features below the surface (e). Section A—C was recorded using an older configuration of the MARSIS software. The new configuration was prepared during the ‘technical gap’ and successfully used for the very first time from D—F. The left and bottom-right images show the path of the observation across the surface of Phobos. Credit: INAF – Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica

The Data Indicate Something Beneath the Phobos Landscape

MARSIS output a radargram based on data captured on September 23, 2022. Essentially, the radargram depicts “echoes” created when the signal from MARSIS’s 40-meter-long antenna bounced back off of something beneath the surface. That could indicate a layered structure, which might indicate that Phobos is a captured asteroid. It could also mean that there’s a variety of objects inside Phobos that could make it a floating rubble pile. Of course, more flybys will capture more data, which should give more details about what’s lurking beneath the crust of Phobos.

The close-up studies will help scientists program the upcoming Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission that will land on Phobos no earlier than 2024. It will gather samples and return them to Earth in 2029. Data from those samples should help settle Phobos’s origin question once and for all.

For More Information

A close encounter with a mysterious moon

Origin of Phobos and Deimos by the impact of a Vesta-to-Ceres sized body with Mars

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2022-10-31 03:48:22Z
1630689946

House-Hunting for Caves on Mars Has Already Started - The New York Times

Researchers identified nine caves on the red planet that might make suitable shelters for future astronauts.

The neighborhood is a wild card, and moving there is bound to be expensive. But one of the best options for shelter when humans finally make it to the red planet will be subterranean caves. These rocky hollows, which exist in droves on both Earth and the moon, are natural buffers against the harsh conditions of Mars.

In a presentation this month at the Geological Society of America Connects 2022 meeting in Denver, researchers pinpointed nine leading cave candidates worthy of future exploration. All of these grottos appear to extend at least some distance underground, and they’re close to landing sites accessible to a lightweight rover.

These structures would offer a respite from the challenging Martian environment, said Nicole Bardabelias, a geoscientist at the University of Arizona. “Everything at the surface is subject to harsh radiation, possible meteorite or micrometeorite bombardment and really large day-to-night temperature swings,” she said.

To home in on Mars’ most sought-after real estate, Ms. Bardabelias and her colleagues consulted the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog. This compendium, based on imagery collected by instruments aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, inventories over 1,000 candidate caves and other peculiar-looking features on Mars. (Think of it as the first Martian multiple listing service.)

Just as any discerning home buyer would filter search results on Zillow or StreetEasy, the researchers narrowed the catalog by imposing two criteria. First, they required that a cave be within roughly 60 miles of a suitable spacecraft landing site. Second, they stipulated that high-resolution imagery be available.

Ms. Bardabelias and her collaborators defined a suitable landing site as one below an elevation of roughly 3,300 feet. Such relatively low-lying locales are favorable landing sites because they give spacecraft more time to slow down as they travel through Mars’ thin atmosphere, Ms. Bardabelias said.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance captured an image of terrain near Hephaestus Fossae where another cave can be found. The researchers highlighted nine caves that would be close to future astronaut landing sites.NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

“Mars has just enough atmosphere that you can’t discount it, but not enough to actually give you a significant amount of aerobraking,” she said, referring to using a planet’s atmosphere to slow an incoming spacecraft. “If you don’t have enough space between when you hit the top of the atmosphere and where you’re supposed to land, it’s going to be very, very hard for you to do the entry, descent and landing sequence properly.”

The team also required that top-shelf imagery be available for each cave candidate. Until brokers appropriate NASA’s Mars Helicopter for Martian real estate photography, that honor belongs to HiRISE, or the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Ms. Bardabelias is lead operations engineer for HiRISE, which is capable of discerning features on Mars as small as about 3 feet across but has imaged less than 5 percent of the planet’s surface to date.

There were 139 apparent caves that satisfied the team’s criteria, and Ms. Bardabelias and her collaborators manually examined images of each one. After disregarding features like bridge-shaped rock formations that obviously weren’t caves, the team analyzed the remaining pit-like features. The researchers homed in on only those that appeared to extend some distance underground, which yielded a sample of nine leading cave candidates.

These potential caves, the largest of which has an opening that could swallow a football field, are all worth a closer look, Ms. Bardabelias said. But none of the rovers currently operating on Mars are close enough to explore any of these caverns, so that task falls, for now, to spacecraft orbiting the red planet. Follow-up HiRISE images taken from different angles and in different lighting conditions will reveal new details about these caves, Ms. Bardabelias said. You can help the HiRISE team decide what to photograph next by voting for your favorite cave.

It’s fitting that we’re looking to caves once again for shelter as we prepare to explore new worlds, said Glen Cushing, a space scientist at the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey and the creator of the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog, not involved in the research. “That takes us all the way back to the dawn of humanity.”

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2022-10-31 07:10:20Z
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Would Mark Watney Have Survived in Real Life, and What This Can Teach Us About Sending Humans to Mars - Universe Today

We want to send humans to Mars eventually, and while this will be both a historic and exciting journey, it could also be tragic and terrible, and we must also address the potential pitfalls and risks of such an adventure. The intent behind this is to allow fans of space exploration to consider the full picture of such an endeavor. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Real-life human space exploration has done a good job taking cues from science fiction, and as we prepare to send humans to Mars in the coming years, we should examine one science fiction franchise that captivated the hearts of millions. That franchise is The Martian, with both the book and film being absolute triumphs, for they depicted the full might of the human spirit as the protagonist, Dr. Mark Watney, endured countless roadblocks and setbacks as he overcame planet-sized adversity just to make it home. But as heartwarming as The Martian was, this still begs the question: Would Mark have survived in real life? The answer is….

Maybe.

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Let’s first examine why Mark might not have survived, and we outline two reasons: Mechanical failures and radiation sickness. One crucial juncture in his journey was when his habitat airlock literally blew out, which destroyed his crops and depressurized the habitat. While the reason behind this was not mentioned in the film, the book describes the reason for the blowout as being from overuse. Mark said himself that his mission was designed for only 30 days but for redundancy they had ~60 days of food. NASA excels at redundancy. However, one must consider that all mechanical components have lifetimes, and at some point, they just literally fall apart or stop working entirely. Now, if his airlock gave out due to overuse, then could his other mechanical components in the habitat have done the same at some point? Most notably, the oxygenator, water reclaimer, and atmospheric regulator, which were all responsible for literally keeping him alive. If one fails and he can’t fix it, he’s dead. Also, one tiny hole in that plastic sheet he used to seal the airlock would have killed him instantly, as well.

The next reason is radiation sickness, as Mark was in a habitat on the surface for 18 months on a planet with no magnetic field or ozone layer to protect him from the cosmic rays coming down every day. It’s never mentioned whether his habitat was sufficient to offer adequate shielding from this radiation, but assuming it’s not, his health might have started to deteriorate after a while, which might have been exacerbated by his weight loss over the course of his journey. We think his mechanical components might have failed before this happened, but we digress.  

Now, let’s examine why Mark might have survived, and we need only one reason, which we’ve mentioned already: redundancy. NASA is built on redundancy. They have backup plans for their backup plans, and on and on. An excellent example of this is the Apollo 13 mission, which saw three astronauts stranded in space after their oxygen tank exploded on the way to the Moon, and in the end, they swung around the Moon once and came home. While the film depicts absolute chaos in mission control and astronauts yelling at each other in space, this quite literally never happened, which can be found in the archived audio recordings. Everyone remained calm, cool, and collected because they had things under control thanks to redundancy. They knew what do to and how to do it. Before we send humans to Mars, it’s highly likely NASA will have plans in place for the worst-case scenarios, to include the probability of someone being stranded on the Red Planet.

Before we send humans to Mars, we must consider all probabilities. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We must remember that while going to Mars will be both historic and exciting, it could also be tragic and terrible. Would Mark have survived on Mars? Maybe. But as we continue to plant our flag a little farther in the cosmos, let’s take our cue from this great franchise to mitigate the potential risks and pitfalls of sending humans to Mars.

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

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2022-10-31 00:27:46Z
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House-Hunting for Caves on Mars Has Already Started - The New York Times

Researchers identified nine caves on the red planet that might make suitable shelters for future astronauts.

The neighborhood is a wild card, and moving there is bound to be expensive. But one of the best options for shelter when humans finally make it to the red planet will be subterranean caves. These rocky hollows, which exist in droves on both Earth and the moon, are natural buffers against the harsh conditions of Mars.

In a presentation this month at the Geological Society of America Connects 2022 meeting in Denver, researchers pinpointed nine leading cave candidates worthy of future exploration. All of these grottos appear to extend at least some distance underground, and they’re close to landing sites accessible to a lightweight rover.

These structures would offer a respite from the challenging Martian environment, said Nicole Bardabelias, a geoscientist at the University of Arizona. “Everything at the surface is subject to harsh radiation, possible meteorite or micrometeorite bombardment and really large day-to-night temperature swings,” she said.

To home in on Mars’ most sought-after real estate, Ms. Bardabelias and her colleagues consulted the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog. This compendium, based on imagery collected by instruments aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, inventories over 1,000 candidate caves and other peculiar-looking features on Mars. (Think of it as the first Martian multiple listing service.)

Just as any discerning home buyer would filter search results on Zillow or StreetEasy, the researchers narrowed the catalog by imposing two criteria. First, they required that a cave be within roughly 60 miles of a suitable spacecraft landing site. Second, they stipulated that high-resolution imagery be available.

Ms. Bardabelias and her collaborators defined a suitable landing site as one below an elevation of roughly 3,300 feet. Such relatively low-lying locales are favorable landing sites because they give spacecraft more time to slow down as they travel through Mars’ thin atmosphere, Ms. Bardabelias said.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance captured an image of terrain near Hephaestus Fossae where another cave can be found. The researchers highlighted nine caves that would be close to future astronaut landing sites.NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

“Mars has just enough atmosphere that you can’t discount it, but not enough to actually give you a significant amount of aerobraking,” she said, referring to using a planet’s atmosphere to slow an incoming spacecraft. “If you don’t have enough space between when you hit the top of the atmosphere and where you’re supposed to land, it’s going to be very, very hard for you to do the entry, descent and landing sequence properly.”

The team also required that top-shelf imagery be available for each cave candidate. Until brokers appropriate NASA’s Mars Helicopter for Martian real estate photography, that honor belongs to HiRISE, or the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Ms. Bardabelias is lead operations engineer for HiRISE, which is capable of discerning features on Mars as small as about 3 feet across but has imaged less than 5 percent of the planet’s surface to date.

There were 139 apparent caves that satisfied the team’s criteria, and Ms. Bardabelias and her collaborators manually examined images of each one. After disregarding features like bridge-shaped rock formations that obviously weren’t caves, the team analyzed the remaining pit-like features. The researchers homed in on only those that appeared to extend some distance underground, which yielded a sample of nine leading cave candidates.

These potential caves, the largest of which has an opening that could swallow a football field, are all worth a closer look, Ms. Bardabelias said. But none of the rovers currently operating on Mars are close enough to explore any of these caverns, so that task falls, for now, to spacecraft orbiting the red planet. Follow-up HiRISE images taken from different angles and in different lighting conditions will reveal new details about these caves, Ms. Bardabelias said. You can help the HiRISE team decide what to photograph next by voting for your favorite cave.

It’s fitting that we’re looking to caves once again for shelter as we prepare to explore new worlds, said Glen Cushing, a space scientist at the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey and the creator of the Mars Global Cave Candidate Catalog, not involved in the research. “That takes us all the way back to the dawn of humanity.”

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2022-10-30 19:53:17Z
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Invasive, spiny plant can be fatal to B.C.’s bats, says non-profit group - Global News

Invasive plants may be deadlier than you think, according to one non-profit society.

This week, the Invasive Species Council of B.C. (ISCBC) posted a story on how the burdock plant (Arctium spp) can be fatal to bats.

The plant, with its spiny, rounded flower heads, can inadvertently trap bats, which then can’t free themselves.

Read more: Pretty plant is dangerous, toxic, warns Invasive Species Council of B.C.

Read More

• Pretty plant is dangerous, toxic, warns Invasive Species Council of B.C.

“The bat community has been aware of the potential for bats to be snagged on burdock for many years,” said Mandy Kellner, a wildlife biologist with B.C.’s Community Bat Program.

“We always get intermittent reports and photos, but numerous reports have come in this year already. Of course, these incidents are just the ones that people see and report – we don’t really know the full scope of this problem.”

A bat trapped in burdock. The plant is deemed to be an invasive species in B.C. Credit: F. Iredale

The ISCBC says burdock is a noxious weed that can be found in many parts of the province — commonly along fence lines, roadsides and streams — and that it can spread very easily.

According to the province, common burdock plants grow around a metre tall and have hollow lower-leaf stalks. Another type, the great or giant burdock, is similar in appearance but has flowerheads that can be more than 2.5 cm across.

2:03 Installing a home for bats in your backyard, an eco-friendly way to combat bothersome mosquitoes

“Bats, birds, basically any small animal can get stuck in burdock, notorious for its rounded flower heads with hooked spines (burrs). These burrs are so sticky they were the inspiration behind velcro,” said Allison McCabe of ISCBC.

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As such, the ISCBC says if you see a burdock plant, dig it up and properly dispose of it.

The ISCBC says cutting it down before it flowers is the best remedy. But if it’s already flowering, it can still be dug up – but double bag it and take it to the landfill.

Doing so will help the province’s bat population, which, in turn, helps keep insects at bay.

1:47 Bats showing signs of a comeback in Nova Scotia, decade after 90% were wiped out by disease

“Bats are awesome and inherently fascinating,” said Kellner. “They are the unsung heroes of insect control.

“When you consider that each bat can eat up to its weight in insects each night, that’s a lot of insects getting eaten all spring, summer, and fall.”

The ISCBC says there are 15 species of bats in B.C., all of which are insect eaters.

The non-profit society also says bats have a slow reproductive rate, so losing bats to burdock plants can impact local populations.

“Sometimes bats fly too close to burdock while chasing insects, and their wings get stuck,” said ISCBC. “This is just one issue in a list of many facing the bat population in B.C. today.”

For more information about ISCBC, including learning about invasive species identification, visit their website.

1:51 Bat pups learning to fly in the Okanagan

&copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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2022-10-30 00:07:10Z
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Enormous meteor strike blows 500 foot-wide crater into Martian surface - Digital Trends

One of the biggest meteor strikes ever witnessed in the solar system has been recorded by two different Mars missions. The impact caused seismic waves to shake the planet and is helping scientists to understand more about the Martian interior.

The strike occurred on December 24, 2021, and scientists had already observed its results in the form of a magnitude 4 marsquake which was detected by the NASA InSight lander. But when reviewing images of the surface collected from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers realized they could see an enormous crater that appeared at the same time, showing that the quakes were caused by a large impact.

“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, who leads InSight’s Impact Science Working Group, in a statement. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”

Boulder-size blocks of water ice can be seen around the rim of an impact crater on Mars, as viewed by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE camera) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater was formed December 24, 2021, by a meteoroid strike in the Amazonis Planitia region. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The meteor which struck the planet is estimated to be between 16 and 39 feet wide, and it hit the planet hard enough to create a crater that is almost 500 feet wide and 70 feet deep. As it struck the planet it exposed layers beneath the surface and threw up material that traveled as far as 23 miles from the crater, which is in the Amazonis Planitia region.

“The image of the impact was unlike any I had seen before, with the massive crater, the exposed ice, and the dramatic blast zone preserved in the Martian dust,” said Liliya Posiolova, who leads the Orbital Science and Operations Group at MSSS. “I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to witness the impact, the atmospheric blast, and debris ejected miles downrange.”

Illustration of an impact causing surface waves to spread across Mars. ETH Zurich, Doyeon Kim, Martin van Driel, Christian Boehm

The impact caused seismic waves which not only traveled through the planet’s interior but also propagated across its surface. It’s rare to observe these surface waves and they are helpful for researchers who want to understand more about the structure of the planet’s crust.

“Until now, our knowledge of the Martian crust has been based on only a single point measurement under the InSight lander,” explained the lead author of one of the papers, Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich, in another statement.

With this new data point, the researchers were able to see that the area of crust between the lander and the impact site seems to have a higher density, while previous measurements suggested that the crust below the lander has a lower density. It could be that there are different rock types on the surface, or the rocks beneath the lander could have been created by a different process than other regions of the planet.

The research is published in two papers in the journal Science.

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2022-10-29 19:17:22Z
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A space rock slammed into Mars on Christmas Eve. It revealed a hidden surprise - CNN

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

CNN  — 

You never forget your first Mars mission.

When NASA’s InSight spacecraft arrived at the red planet on November 26, 2018, it was the first time I covered the landing of a spacecraft on Mars. The robotic lander made a graceful, ballet-like touchdown on the Martian surface.

Moments later, it sent back a “beep” and a photo of its landing site to mission control, as if to say, “I made it!” As the InSight team erupted into cheers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, I was dancing right along with them thousands of miles away at my desk.

The mission has made incredible discoveries about quakes on the red planet and what Mars’ core might be like.

But the InSight mission is nearing an end as dust obscures its solar panels. In a matter of weeks, the lander won’t be able to send a beep to show it’s OK anymore.

Before it bids farewell, though, the spacecraft still has some surprises in store.

Other worlds

Ice chunks glimmer around the rim of a newly formed crater on Mars.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

When Mars rumbled beneath InSight’s feet on December 24, NASA scientists thought it was just another marsquake.

The magnitude 4 quake was actually caused by a space rock slamming into the Martian surface a couple thousand miles away.

The meteoroid left quite a crater on the red planet, and it revealed glimmering chunks of ice in an entirely unexpected place — near the warm Martian equator.

Meanwhile, researchers tested a microbe nicknamed “Conan the Bacterium” under Mars-like conditions. The hardy organism’s ability to withstand harsh conditions led the scientists to believe ancient microbial life might be sleeping deep beneath the Martian surface.

Curiosities

Humans aren’t the only beings that pick their nose.

For the first time, an aye-aye, an unusual-looking lemur species, was documented rooting around in its nose — and then licking its finger clean.

Other nonhuman primates sample their own snot, too — but the critter’s incredibly long middle finger means it can reach all the way back into its throat, as depicted in a CT scan taken by the researchers.

Local legends associate the nocturnal aye-aye’s lengthy digit with prophecies of death in its native Madagascar. But researchers hope people will see the value in saving this misunderstood and highly endangered creature.

Climate changed

Emperor penguins live across the Antarctic Peninsula in a multitude of colonies.

Bernard Breton/Adobe Stock

Emperor penguins may reign supreme at the South Pole, but the iconic species is at risk of going extinct due to the climate crisis.

As greenhouse gas and carbon emissions warm the Earth, the floating world in the Southern Ocean these marine birds call home melts. Sea ice is where they breed and raise their chicks, remain safe from predators and forage for food.

When sea ice disappears, entire emperor penguin colonies can vanish.

The flightless seabirds have now been listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service — that means they’ll receive new protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Ocean secrets

Marine archaeologists have finally located an elusive 17th century shipwreck in Sweden.

The researchers found the Äpplet, one of four warships created on the order of King Gustavus Adolphus in 1625. The vessel was a sister ship to the Vasa, which capsized on its maiden voyage and is on display in a Stockholm museum.

The Äpplet served in Europe’s Thirty Years’ War and then was deliberately sunk in 1659 after being deemed unseaworthy. Researchers now plan to make a 3D image of the shipwreck as it rests on the seabed.

Across the universe

The James Webb Space Telescope's new image showcases the Pillars of Creation in mid-infrared light.

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

The James Webb Space Telescope showcased last week a sparkling view of the star-forming region called the Pillars of Creation.

A new image of the same feature, captured in mid-infrared light, reveals the dark underbelly of the normally ethereal scene where dust has drowned out the starlight. Only a few red stars pierce the darkness.

The towering columns resemble a tangle of ghostly figures clawing their way across the cosmos. With Halloween around the corner, it would be a fitting illustration of “the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir” from Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ulalume.”

Additionally, Webb spied a distant surprise that might be an ancient merger between two galaxies during the early days of the universe. And planetary scientists made a startling discovery about exoplanets that may narrow the search for habitable worlds.

Explorations

Check out these intriguing stories:

— A mysterious field in China’s Hengduan Mountains is filled with dozens of species of rhododendrons. Rather than competing with one another, they’ve evolved to live in harmony. (add link Friday)

— Retired astronaut Scott Kelly is part of a new expert team that will delve into the mysteries of UFOs. The highly anticipated NASA study kicked off Monday.

— Meet some adorable additions to the tree of life. After years of effort, researchers have discovered six new species of rainfrogs on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes.

Want to minimize your role in the climate crisis and reduce your eco-anxiety? Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Greener limited newsletter series.

Like what you’ve read? Oh, but there’s more. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.

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2022-10-29 15:39:00Z
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Closest Black Hole Ever Discovered // Starlink as GPS // Early Life Killed Mars - Fraser Cain

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2022-10-28 23:01:27Z
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NASA spacecraft records epic 'Marsquakes', images show debris hurled up to 40 KM | WION - WION

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2022-10-28 16:00:53Z
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James Webb telescope images show three new galaxies | KVUE - KVUE

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2022-10-27 22:43:57Z
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As InSight lander nears end, NASA details meteorite strike on Mars - Euronews

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON -The InSight lander, perched on the surface of Mars since 2018, will run out of power and stop operations within four to eight weeks, NASA said on Thursday, even as scientists detailed a big meteorite strike it detected that gouged boulder-sized chunks of ice surprisingly close to the planet’s equator.

Dust has been accumulating on solar panels that draw power for the U.S. space agency’s stationary lander, exacerbated by a dust storm, and has been depleting its batteries, planetary geophysicist Bruce Banerdt of NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, InSight mission’s principal investigator, told a briefing.

InSight’s mission, which has helped reveal the internal structure of Mars and its seismic activity, originally was planned for two years but was extended to four. When the power runs out, NASA will lose contact with InSight, Banerdt said.

“InSight has been successful beyond my expectations,” Banerdt told Reuters. “We have determined the thickness of the crust, the size and density of the core, and details of the structure of the mantle. For the first time we have a detailed global map of the deep interior of another planet – other than the Earth and moon.”

InSight also established that Mars is seismically active, detecting 1,318 marsquakes.

Two research papers published in the journal Science detailed meteorite strikes on the Martian surface detected by InSight in September and December of last year. Seismic waves triggered by the impacts revealed fresh details about the structure of the Martian crust, the planet’s outer layer.

“What an awesome capstone science result to end on – literally going out with a bang,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA‘s Planetary Science Division, told reporters.

Of particular interest was a space rock with a diameter estimated at 16-39 feet (5-12 meters) that crashed last Dec. 24 in a region called Amazonis Planitia, carving a crater about 490 feet (150 meters) wide and 70 feet (21 meters) deep.

It caused a magnitude 4 quake detected by InSight’s seismometer instrument, while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed the crater from space. Boulder-sized blocks of ice were seen strewn around the crater’s rim.

Objects that large enter Earth’s atmosphere about once a year but generally burn up in our planet’s thicker atmosphere.

“A whole lot of water ice was exposed by this impact,” Brown University planetary scientist Ingrid Daubar, part of the InSight science team, told the briefing. “This was surprising because this is the warmest spot on Mars, the closest to the equator we’ve ever seen water ice.”

Glaze said that while ice is known to exist near the Martian poles future human exploration missions would aim to put astronauts as close to the equator as possible for warmer conditions. Ice near the equator could provide resources such as drinking water and rocket propellant.

“Having access to ice at these lower latitudes, that ice could be converted into water, oxygen or hydrogen – that could be really useful,” Glaze said.

The September 2021 crater also was large, about 425 feet (130 meters) wide. The two were the largest impacts detected by InSight since arriving on Mars.

InSight for the first time detected seismic waves traveling like ripples on water along the Martian surface, as opposed to deeper in the planet’s body. The reverberation from the two impacts gave clues about the crust over a wide geographical expanse in the northern hemisphere.

The three-legged InSight sits in a vast and relatively flat plain called Elysium Planitia, just north of the equator. Until now, InSight had obtained data on the structure of the Martian crust, consisting mostly of fine-grained volcanic basalt rock, only in the area beneath its landing site.

The crust at the landing site was composed of relatively soft material, less dense rock. This was not the case for the other regions covered by the new data, where the crust appears denser.

“As a consequence of our analysis of surface waves, we now understand that the crust of Mars north of the equatorial dichotomy – a conspicuous feature seen from the topographic variation on Mars that divides the southern highlands and northern lowlands – has a relatively uniform structure,” said seismologist Doyeon Kim of the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, lead author of one of the studies.

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2022-10-27 20:28:12Z
1617691662

Images: NASA's Lucy spacecraft provides new views of the moon - Phys.org

Single Frame of the Lunar Central Highlands Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL/Tod R. Lauer (NOIRLab)

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured this image of the moon's surface on Oct 16, 2022, about 6.5 hours after it flew by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists. The image was taken while Lucy was between the Earth and the moon, approximately 160,000 miles (260,000 km) from the moon, so it shows shows a perspective familiar to Earth-based observers. The image is of a 800 mile (1200 km) wide patch near the center of the last quarter moon. Many familiar craters are visible, including the relatively fresh crater Arzachel just left of center. The prominent fault scarp called the Straight Wall is visible cutting across the lava plains to the lower left of center.

The image, which is made by combining ten separate 2 millisecond exposures of the same scene to maximize image quality, has been sharpened. Each pixel represents approximately 0.8 miles (1.3 km).

This image was taken with L'LORRI (Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager), Lucy's high resolution greyscale imager. L'LORRI was provided and operated by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Terminator mosaic

Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL/Tod R. Lauer (NOIRLab)

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured this mosaic of the moon's surface on Oct 16, 2022, between 7.5 and 8 hours after it flew by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists. At its closest approach, the flyby took the spacecraft within 224 miles (360 km) of the Earth, passing below the altitude of the international space station. Lucy was an average of approximately 140,000 miles (230,000 km) from the moon when these images were taken.

The mosaic was taken while Lucy was between the Earth and the moon, so it shows a perspective familiar to Earth-based observers, centered near the terminator of the last quarter moon. The view includes the rugged, heavily cratered, Southern Highlands near the bottom of the mosaic, and the ancient, lava-filled impact basin Mare Imbrium near the top. The bright, fresh crater Copernicus is conspicuous near the left edge of the mosaic.

This mosaic, which is made from 5 separate 1 millisecond exposures, has been sharpened. Note that the image covering the uppermost portion of the edge of the moon was taken at an earlier time, resulting in a small mismatch in the images there. Each pixel represents approximately 0.7 miles (1.2 km).

Single frame of Mare Imbrium

Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL/Tod R. Lauer (NOIRLab)

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured this image of the moon's surface on Oct 16, 2022, about 8 hours after it flew by the Earth for its first of three gravity assists. The image was taken while Lucy was between the Earth and the moon, so it shows a perspective familiar to Earth-based observers. The image shows a roughly 600 mile (1000 km) wide swath of lunar terrain, dominated by the ancient, lava-filled impact basin Mare Imbrium. The Apennine Mountains, part of the Imbrium basin rim, which were the landing site for the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, dominate the lower-right portion of the image. Lucy was approximately 140,000 miles (230,000 km) from the moon when the image was taken.

The image, which is a single 1 millisecond exposure, has been sharpened. Each pixel represents approximately 0.7 miles (1.1 km).

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Lucy spacecraft captures images of Earth, Moon ahead of gravity assist

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Citation: Images: NASA's Lucy spacecraft provides new views of the moon (2022, October 27) retrieved 27 October 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-10-images-nasa-lucy-spacecraft-views.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

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2022-10-27 05:44:10Z
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