The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons culminating in a rare blue moon.
Catch the first show Tuesday evening as the full moon rises in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. That’s because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometres) away, thus the supermoon label.
The moon will be even closer the night of Aug. 30 — a scant 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometres) distant. Because it’s the second full moon in the same month, it will be what’s called a blue moon.
“Warm summer nights are the ideal time to watch the full moon rise in the eastern sky within minutes of sunset. And it happens twice in August,” said retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, dubbed Mr. Eclipse for his eclipse-chasing expertise.
The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won’t happen again until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Masi will provide a live webcast of Tuesday evening’s supermoon, as it rises over the Coliseum in Rome.
“My plans are to capture the beauty of this … hopefully bringing the emotion of the show to our viewers,” Masi said in an email.
“The supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky,” he added.
This year’s first supermoon was in July. The fourth and last will be in September. The two in August will be closer than either of those.
Provided clear skies, binoculars or backyard telescopes can enhance the experience, Espenak said, revealing such features as lunar maria — the dark plains formed by ancient volcanic lava flows — and rays emanating from lunar craters.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the sturgeon moon. That’s because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August, hundreds of years ago.
The two instruments aboard Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) spacecraft with NASA contributions, have captured their first test images. The results indicate that the space telescope will achieve the scientific goals that it has been designed for – and possibly much more.
The mission will delve into some of the biggest mysteries about our universe, including the nature of dark matter and why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. Scientists call the force behind this accelerated expansion “dark energy.”
“We are thrilled to see that the NASA-supplied detectors and other hardware are working as expected and are incredibly excited about the scientific results that will come in the months and years ahead,” said Mike Seiffert, project scientist for the NASA contribution to Euclid at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Given these test images, scientists and engineers behind the mission are confident that telescope and instruments are working well. Mission specialists will continue performance-verification tests for the next couple of months before science observations begin.
“After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it’s exhilarating and enormously emotional to see these first images,” says Euclid Project Manager Giuseppe Racca of ESA. “It’s even more incredible when we think that we see just a few galaxies here, produced with minimum system tuning. The fully calibrated Euclid will ultimately observe billions of galaxies to create the biggest-ever 3D map of the sky.”
More About the Mission
Three NASA-supported science teams contribute to the Euclid mission. In addition to designing and fabricating the sensor-chip electronics for Euclid’s Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument, JPL led the procurement and delivery of the NISP detectors. Those detectors along with the sensor chip electronics were tested at NASA’s Detector Characterization Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI), at Caltech in Pasadena, California, will archive the science data and support U.S.-based science investigations using Euclid data. JPL is a division of Caltech.
Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.
The Night Sky This Week: July 31-August 6, 2023
This year there are 12 months, but 13 full moons. It’s a product of a lunar year being 354 days while a solar year being 365.24 days. That means one month of the year must have two full moons—and that’s August 2023—but it gets even better. Not only is this week’s full “Sturgeon Moon” joined on August 31 by a full “Blue Moon,” but both are 2023’s closest full moons—“supermoons”! As such they will appear just slightly larger and a bit brighter than average, though it’s hard to tell the difference.
Tuesday, August 1: A ‘Supermoon’ And ‘Lammas’
The second full Moon of summer in the northern hemisphere, the “Sturgeon Moon” is a supermoon, turning full while 357,311 km from Earth. That’s only slightly farther away than next month’s closest full Moon, so the “Sturgeon Moon” will be very big and very bright. It will look its best at moonrise on two successive evenings, Monday, July 31 and Tuesday, August 1.
Today is also Lammas, a traditional pagan celebration of the first harvest of the season. The date is astronomically significant because today is a cross-quarter day—the halfway point between June’s solstice and September’s equinox.
Thursday, August 3: Moon And Saturn
Stellarium
Thursday, August 3: Moon And Saturn
Rising in the east-southeast in darkness tonight will be a 96%-lit waning gibbous moon. Look just to the left of it and you’ll see ringed planet Saturn. It’s the ideal time to train a telescope on two of the night sky’s most beautiful objects.
The constellation Ophiuchus in night sky.
getty
Constellation Of The Week: Ophiuchus
The summer constellation of Ophiuchus is known as the 13th constellation. Despite it being a very large constellation on the ecliptic—so therefore hosting the Sun just like Leo, Taurus and all the others—it was the victim of ancient Babylonians aversion of the number 13 (a superstition that continues even now). It’s therefore little-known and ts bright stars rather lost to all but committed stargazers.
Find the bright star Rasalhague at the top of Ophiuchus then go to the right to find Rasalgethi at the foot of Hercules. Just below Rasalgethi is where you’d see NASA’s ancient Voyager 1 space probe … if you had terrific eyesight (it’s only the size of a small car). Ophiuchus is also where in 2021 astronomers found 70 rogue Jupiter-type planets. The sun hangs out in front of Ophiuchus from late November through December 18 every year.
A supermoon shines on April 27, 2021 in Karlsruhe, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Object Of The Week: Supermoons
This week sees the rise of 2023’s second “supermoon.” They occur because the moon’s orbit of Earth is slightly elliptical, so in every 29.5 day orbit there is a point when it is closest to Earth and therefore appears slightly largest in our sky (perigee) and a point when its farthest, so looks smaller (apogee).
Perigee and apogee happen every month 14 days apart, but only rarely do they coincide with the phases of the Moon we notice most easily—the full moon. The closest perigee full moons of any given year tend to be called supermoons. There are four in 2023—July 3, August 2, August 31 and September 29.
Stargazers will be treated to a very special double feature next month, with a pair of supermoons appearing in August – closing off with a rare blue moon.
The first, called Sturgeon, should be able to be seen from the UK on Tuesday 1 August with its peak at 7.31pm (BST) and just 222,159 miles (357,530km) away. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the Sturgeon moon because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August hundreds of years ago.
On Thursday 31 August, the moon will be even closer – a mere 222,043 miles (357,344km), with its peak at 2.35am (BST). And because it is the second full moon in a month it is called a blue moon.
For comparison, at its furthest point from the Earth, the moon is about 252,088 miles (405,696km) away.
The last time two full supermoons appeared in the same month was in 2018 – and it will not happen again until 2037, according to the Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, the founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Luckily it should be relatively easy to see the cosmic display if the skies are clear.
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich states: “So long as there’s not too much cloud, the full moon will be an unmistakable white orb in the sky. This is a good opportunity to use a small telescope or a pair of binoculars to see the moon’s detailed surface, or even try taking a few interesting moon photos.
“However, you can see the moon perfectly well with just your eyes. Seeing moonrise just after sunset, or moonset just before sunrise, will be an impressive sight as it will appear enormous compared to the surrounding landscape.”
According to the observatory, a supermoon appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter compared with the satellite at its farthest away.
The word supermoon was coined by the astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. Nolle’s definition states that if the moon is within 10% of its closest distance at the moment of full moon, it is considered a supermoon.
Masi will provide a live webcast of Tuesday evening’s supermoon, as it rises over the Coliseum in Rome.
“The supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky,” Masi told Reuters.“My plans are to capture the beauty of this … hopefully bringing the emotion of the show to our viewers.”
A group of Canadian scientists is awaiting delivery of an outer space postcard from the past.
On Sept. 24, seven years after it blasted off from its Florida launch pad, NASA’s OSIRIS−REx spacecraft is expected to drop a capsule into the Earth’s atmosphere containing matter plucked from the surface of an asteroid dating from the early history of the solar system.
"I’ve never worked with extraterrestrial material," said Dominique Weis, a geoscientist at the University of British Columbia, who’s in line to get a tiny sample.
"I’m perfectly excited."
The material comes from Bennu, previously known as near−Earth object 101955, a frozen chunk of rock about 500 metres across and roughly 450,000 kilometres from Earth. OSIRIS−REx has orbited within a couple hundred metres of its surface, scooped up a shovelful of it and is on its way home to drop off the package of whatever it found.
A Canadian−built set of lasers helped guide OSIRIS to its destination and produced a relief map of Bennu accurate to within a couple centimetres of height.
"In six weeks, we took data that provided the most detailed asteroid model ever," said Michael Daly of York University’s Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, who headed the team that designed the lasers. "You could see fractures and details in the rocks.
"We’re very proud of that."
Bennu was chosen for several reasons.
It’s a doable distance. It’s large enough for a spacecraft to orbit — although OSIRIS set a record for the smallest orbit yet. And it’s considered "primitive," relatively unmodified since its origin billions of years ago.
That makes it a window into the early history of the solar system, said Weis.
"The idea is to go as far back in time as possible," she said.
Alan Hildebrand, a University of Calgary geoscientist, who is also to receive a Bennu bit, said that sheds light on Earth’s history as well.
"The Earth was formed by asteroids getting together," he said. "Studying asteroids helps you understand the origins of our planet."
Bennu can help answer questions such as how the early crust of the Earth formed, he said.
As well, Bennu is from an area of space that cooled off well before the central part of what became the solar system, "freezing" those materials before they were altered by heat. And grabbing samples directly from the asteroid’s surface means scientists don’t have to account for the effects that flying through Earth’s atmosphere has on meteorites.
"The rocks comprising Bennu are from an older part of the solar system," Hildebrand said. "We get to see the whole suite (of constituents) without the atmospheric filter."
Finally, Bennu is thought to be rich in carbon. That could mean it contains organic compounds — those composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.
Some scientists think those compounds could offer clues to how life began on Earth — although Hildebrand points out planets such as Mars and Venus are also showered with such material and don’t appear to host life.
Bennu’s bits won’t be the first asteroid pieces brought to Earth. Two previous Japanese missions have brought back samples.
But the yield from OSIRIS is expected to be much larger. The Hayabusa missions brought back about five grams of asteroid — OSIRIS’s yield is estimated at anywhere between 60 grams and two kilograms.
"We’ll have more material to do more things," Hildebrand said.
Canadian scientists are getting samples of Bennu because of Canada’s $61−million investment in OSIRIS. But before any lab starts to warm up its mass spectrometer, NASA makes sure recipients know how to handle the precious grains, practising protocols on fragments of meteorites.
"We rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and rehearse some more," said Weis. "We are working on the methods to be as sensitive and precise as possible."
OSIRIS has already led to the publication of dozens of research papers. The arrival of its Bennu samples is expected to lead to many more.
The spacecraft also has enough fuel in its tank to take on more work after its return.
OSIRIS−REx, renamed OSIRIS−APEX, is to head off to study Apophis, an asteroid roughly 370 metres in diameter that will come within 32,000 kilometres of Earth in 2029. The spacecraft will then use its thrusters to try to dislodge dust and small rocks on and below that asteroid’s surface.
OSIRIS will then send information on the rock’sbehaviour back to Earth — its last assignment.
The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons culminating in a rare blue moon.
Catch the first show Tuesday evening as the full moon rises in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. That's because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometers) away, thus the supermoon label.
The moon will be even closer the night of Aug. 30 -- a scant 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) distant. Because it's the second full moon in the same month, it will be what's called a blue moon.
"Warm summer nights are the ideal time to watch the full moon rise in the eastern sky within minutes of sunset. And it happens twice in August," said retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, dubbed Mr. Eclipse for his eclipse-chasing expertise.
The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won't happen again until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Masi will provide a live webcast of Tuesday evening's supermoon, as it rises over the Coliseum in Rome.
"My plans are to capture the beauty of this ... hopefully bringing the emotion of the show to our viewers," Masi said in an email.
"The supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky," he added.
This year's first supermoon was in July. The fourth and last will be in September. The two in August will be closer than either of those.
Provided clear skies, binoculars or backyard telescopes can enhance the experience, Espenak said, revealing such features as lunar maria -- the dark plains formed by ancient volcanic lava flows -- and rays emanating from lunar craters.
According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the sturgeon moon. That's because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August, hundreds of years ago.
------
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The engineers, under the leadership of the European Space Agency (Esa), stuck at it because of the prize on offer - the first truly global view of what the winds on Earth are doing, from the surface all the way up into the stratosphere (from 0km to 30km).
However, in the time it took for Aeolus to get to the launch pad in 2018 and fly its near 5-year mission, best practice for de-orbiting defunct spacecraft had changed.
They now need either the ability to pinpoint their fall back to Earth to a safe zone, or to be sure of burning up completely as they come through the atmosphere.
Aeolus couldn't meet these criteria. Its propulsion system was not powerful enough to fully direct where it came out of the sky, and up to 20% of its hardware was expected to survive to the surface of the Earth (likely elements of the satellite's graphite telescope and its fuel tanks).
Esa flight controllers spent the past week building up to what they called an "assisted re-entry" instead. They commanded the satellite to progressively lower its altitude in a series of manoeuvres, the last of which on Friday dropped it to a height of roughly 120km.
From there, drag from the atmosphere was predicted to pull the satellite down to destruction within about two and a half revolutions of the planet.
Sensors available to US Space Command confirmed the final moments of Aeolus occurred over the Antarctic continent at around 19:00 GMT.
How to measure the wind from space
ESA
Aeolus fired an ultraviolet laser through the atmosphere and measured the return signal using a large telescope
The light beam was scattered back off air molecules and small particles moving in the wind at different altitudes
Meteorologists adjusted their numerical models to match this information, improving weather forecast accuracy
The biggest impacts came in medium-range forecasts - those that look at weather conditions a few days hence
Aeolus had a key role during the Covid-19 pandemic, replacing wind data lost because planes were not flying
Aeolus's first-of-a-kind observations provided critical information for medium-range weather forecasts. That is, it tracked wind behaviours that would contribute to weather patterns a few days hence.
Its work improved knowledge of hurricanes, and of how volcanic ash travels in the high atmosphere.
Before Aeolus, wind profiles were obtained via a hotchpotch of methods - from whirling anemometers, balloons and planes to the satellites that infer wind behaviour by tracking clouds in the sky or by sensing the choppiness of ocean waters.
But these approaches are all limited indications that tell us what is happening in particular places or at particular heights, and it's why the global perspective from Aeolus was so highly prized.
Max Alexander/Airbus DS
Esa member states have already approved a budget of €413m (£353m) to begin work on a pair of follow-up spacecraft named, appropriately, Aeolus-2.
A further financial contribution (approaching €900m) will come from Eumetsat, the intergovernmental organisation that manages Europe's meteorological satellites.
The first of these follow-ons should launch towards the end of the decade.
And the UK's Esa contribution, €71m, combined with its big subscription (16%) to Eumetsat, means the British arm of aerospace manufacturer Airbus will probably lead the production of the spacecraft once again.
Vancouver Island skies are set to host a remarkable celestial event to kick off the month of August, delighting stargazers and aspiring astronomers.
The moon known as the sturgeon supermoon will rise over Victoria on Tuesday, August 1st.
There are four supermoons in 2023: July’s Buck Moon, August’s Sturgeon Moon, followed by a Blue Moon, and September’s Harvest Moon.
According to the Farmers Almanac, the August full moon earned its name due to its occurrence during the period of summer when the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain witnessed an abundance of giant sturgeon.
The moon will reach its fullest peak on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 1st, reaching peak illumination at 11:32 a.m. That evening, look toward the southeast after sunset to catch a glimpse of the Sturgeon Moon rising.
For the best viewing experience, enthusiasts are advised to venture far from city lights. Parks, remote, and rural areas offer optimal vantage points to witness this captivating natural wonder.
A full Blue Moon will also occur later in the month on Wednesday, August 30th—and it will be the closest supermoon of the year!
As of this publication, next week’s weeks weather is expected to be full of sun and clear skies making it perfect for viewing.
Full Sturgeon Moon
When: Evening of August 1st or early morning of August 2nd
Where: Look up toward the southeastern sky after sunset
Scientists say they have managed to wake up roundworms asleep for 46,000 years, according to a new analysis published Thursday in PLOS Genetics. The worms were pulled out of the Siberian permafrost, 40 metres below the surface, where they stayed frozen but alive in a “state of suspended metabolism called cryptobiosis.”
By very slowly and gently thawing the roundworms, also called nematodes, researchers were able to get them to the point where they could wriggle around, eat and even reproduce.
One of the worms was bred in a lab for 100 generations, after researchers found that the species could reproduce parthenogenetically, or without a male partner.
The study published Thursday builds on prior research published in 2018, which estimated that the roundworms dated back 42,000 years and belonged to two genera: Panagrolaimus and Plectus.
But by radiocarbon dating plant matter found with the worms, researchers say they could get an even more precise date of 46,000 years old. The worms were found in a prehistoric burrow left by arctic gophers of the genus Citellus, they wrote.
The research team also conducted a new genetic analysis of the worms and found that the Panagrolaimus worms belonged to a completely new species. The team named the new worm Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, for the Kolyma River near where it was found.
It’s possible that these nematodes have been asleep since the Pleistocene, meaning these tiny worms have “evolved mechanisms potentially allowing them to suspend life over geological time scales,” the report reads, adding that these results could one day lead to improved conservation efforts for endangered species, especially in the face of global warming and extreme heat.
More on Science and Tech
“Our findings are essential for understanding evolutionary processes because generation times can range from days to millennia,” concludes Philipp Schiffer, one of the authors who oversaw the study.
But not all scientists are convinced these roundworms really travelled tens of thousands of years in time.
“I don’t doubt the age of the organic material in the permafrost,” Byron Adams, a biologist at Brigham Young University told Scientific American. “Those values are likely legit.”
He doesn’t believe the authors of the study have done enough work to show that the roundworms in their permafrost sample “are not simply surface contaminants.”
Study co-author Teymuras Kurzchalia, a cell biologist emeritus at the Max Planck Institute, told Scientific American that while he was not there when the samples were extracted in 2002, he trusts the scientists who were, and believes the sterility procedures used were enough to prevent contamination.
The sheer length of time these worms survived is causing even scientists’ heads to spin.
“This raises the question of whether there is an upper limit to the length of time an individual can remain in the cryptobiotic state,” the study reads.
A comparison of the P. kolymaensis worm with a common nematode species used in labs found that the two species used the same chemical mechanisms to enter cryptobiosis.
The common dauer larva must process a sugar called trehalose in order to survive being frozen. A genetic analysis found that the genes required for this process were also present in the ancient P. kolymaensis.
“This survival kit is the same as it was 46,000 years ago,” Kurzchalia says.
These results are particularly exciting because, as the world continues to face record-breaking heat, it could be invaluable to know how some animals are able to survive such extremes.
“We need to know how species adapted to the extreme through evolution to maybe help species alive today and humans as well,” Schiffer said.
Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets, and asteroids. And each year we're discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home.
Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn't stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years, we've found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as.
The discovery of some of these dwarf planets has given us reason to believe something else might be lurking in the outskirts of the Solar System.
Could there be a ninth planet?
There's a good reason astronomers spend many hundreds of hours trying to locate a ninth planet, aka " Planet Nine" or "Planet X". And that's because the Solar System as we know it doesn't really make sense without it.
Every object in our Solar System orbits around the Sun. Some move fast and some slow, but all move abiding by the laws of gravity. Everything with mass has gravity, including you and me. The heavier something is, the more gravity it has.
A planet's gravity is so large it impacts how things move around it. That's what we call its "gravitational pull". Earth's gravitational pull is what keeps everything on the ground.
Also, our Sun has the largest gravitational pull of any object in the Solar System, and this is basically why the planets orbit around it.
It's through our understanding of gravitational pull that we get our biggest clue for a possible Planet Nine.
Unexpected behaviors
When we look at really distant objects, such as dwarf planets beyond Pluto, we find their orbits are a little unexpected. They move on very large elliptical (oval-shaped) orbits, are grouped together, and exist on an incline compared to the rest of the Solar System.
When astronomers use a computer to model what gravitational forces are needed for these objects to move like this, they find that a planet at least ten times the mass of Earth would have been required to cause this.
It is super-exciting stuff! But then the question is: where is this planet?
The problem we have now is trying to confirm if these predictions and models are correct. The only way to do that is to find Planet Nine, which is definitely easier said than done.
The hunt continues
Scientists all over the world have been on the hunt for visible evidence of Planet Nine for many years now.
Based on the computer models, we think Planet Nine is at least 20 times farther away from the Sun than Neptune. We try to detect it by looking for sunlight it can reflect – just like how the Moon shines from reflected sunlight at night.
However, because Planet Nine sits so far away from the Sun, we expect it to be very faint and difficult to spot for even the best telescopes on Earth. Also, we can't just look for it at any time of the year.
We only have small windows of nights where the conditions must be just right. Specifically, we have to wait for a night with no Moon, and on which the location we're observing from is facing the right part of the sky.
But don't give up hope just yet. In the next decade, new telescopes will be built and new surveys of the sky will begin. They might just give us the opportunity to prove or disprove whether Planet Nine exists.
The “founding father” of the cemetery died elsewhere but was reburied at Gurgy. He must have been of great significance to the close kin group who used the cemetery. Credit: Drawing by Elena Plain; reproduced with the permission of the University of Bordeaux / PACEA
The Neolithic lifestyle, based on farming instead of hunting and gathering, emerged in the Near East around 12,000 years ago and contributed profoundly to the modern way of life. The ability to produce and store extra food led Neolithic people to develop new social customs built on wealth, and therefore form social hierarchies.
After an early phase of diffusion and having reached regions in western Europe, settled societies became more complex, which is sometimes reflected in the funerary world as well. The Paris Basin region in northern modern-day France is known for its monumental funerary sites, understood as being built for the society's "elite." In this context, the site of Gurgy "Les Noisats," one of the biggest Neolithic funerary sites without monument in the region, begs the question who these people buried with different practices were.
Using new methods for obtaining and analyzing ancient DNA data, and by sampling nearly every individual from the flat cemetery, researchers from the PACEA laboratory in Bordeaux, France, and from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reveal two massive family trees which open a window into the lives of the people of this prehistoric community. The work is published in the journal Nature.
Massive family trees
In their study, the scientists analyzed genome-wide ancient DNA data from 94 individuals buried at Gurgy, combined with strontium isotope ratio values, mitochondrial DNA (maternal lineages) and Y-chromosome (paternal lineages) data, age-at-death, and genetic sex. Two family trees could be reconstructed, the first connecting 64 individuals over seven generations is the largest pedigree reconstructed from ancient DNA to date, while the second connects twelve individuals over five generations.
Reconstructed family tree of the largest genetically related group in Gurgy: The painted portraits are an artistic interpretation of the individuals based on physical traits estimated from DNA (where available). The dotted squares (genetically male) and circles (genetically female) represent individuals who were not found at the site or did not provide sufficient DNA for analysis. Credit: Drawing by Elena Plain; reproduced with the permission of the University of Bordeaux / PACEA
Exploring the pedigrees revealed a strong patrilineal pattern, where each generation is almost exclusively linked to the previous generation through the biological father, which connects the entire group of Gurgy through the paternal line.
At the same time, combined evidence from mitochondrial lineages and strontium stable isotope revealing a non-local origin of most women suggested the practice of patrilocality, meaning that the sons stayed where they were born, and had children with females from outside of Gurgy. Settling in with the male partner's home community is known as virilocality.
By contrast, most of the lineage adult daughters are missing, in line with female exogamy, potentially indicating a reciprocal exchange system. Interestingly, these "new incoming" female individuals were only very distantly related to each other, meaning that they must have come from a network of nearby communities, instead of just one nearby group. This lends support to the existence of a relatively wide and potentially fluid exchange network comprising many (including smaller) groups.
Another notably unique feature at Gurgy is a lack of half-siblings, suggesting neither polygamous nor serial monogamous reproductive partnerships (or the exclusion of offspring from these unions from the main cemetery), when compared to the, so far, only other example of union practices from Neolithic megaliths.
A founding ancestor
In the frame of this patrilocal system, one male individual from which everyone in the largest family tree was descended could be identified as the "founding father" of the cemetery. His burial is unique at the site, as his skeletal remains were buried as a secondary deposit inside the grave pit of a woman, for whom, unfortunately, no genomic data could be obtained. Therefore, his bones must have been brought from wherever he had originally died to be reburied at Gurgy.
"He must have represented a person of great significance for the founders of the Gurgy site to be brought there after a primary burial somewhere else," explains Marie-France Deguilloux from the University of Bordeaux, co-senior author of the study.
Although the main pedigree spans seven generations, the demographic profile suggests that a large family group spanning several generations arrived at the site. With almost no subadults buried at the site during the first few generations, and by contrast no adult burials in the last generations, only a short use of the site is expected. The group must have left a previous site, leaving behind any previously deceased children but still brought the lineage father.
Only a few generations later the same happened: the adult of the last generations left Gurgy for another place, leaving behind their own children. Hence, Gurgy was probably only used for three to four generations, or approximately one century.
These largest pedigrees reconstructed to date from ancient human DNA data, combined with multiple lines of evidence, represent an unprecedented step forward in our understanding of the social organization of past societies.
"Only with the major advances in our field in very recent years and the full integration of context data it was possible to carry out such an extraordinary study. It is a dream come true for every anthropologist and archaeologist and opens up a new avenue for the study of the ancient human past," concludes Wolfgang Haak of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, senior author of the study.
Citation:
Family trees from the European Neolithic shed light on social organization (2023, July 26)
retrieved 26 July 2023
from https://phys.org/news/2023-07-family-trees-european-neolithic-social.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.
A prior launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX is set to make history with tonight’s scheduled launch of the heaviest geostationary satellite ever, EchoStar 24, also known as Jupiter 3. You can catch the action live right here.
Watch
Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their View
Jupiter 3 will be launched using SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, one of the world’s most powerful operational rockets. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, July 26, 2023, at 11:04 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The satellite will first be sent to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), from where it will maneuver to its final destination: a geostationary orbit 22,300 miles (35,700 km) above Earth.
You will be able to watch the launch live on the SpaceX website, SpaceX’s YouTube channel, or through the live feed provided below. The U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicts an 85% chance of favorable weather for tonight’s anticipated launch.
Hughes JUPITER 3 Mission
A key aspect of the mission is the satellite’s bulk. With a total payload mass of 9.2 metric tons, Jupiter 3 will be the heaviest geostationary satellite ever launched, according to Hughes Network Systems, the operator of the satellite. Despite its significant weight, the Falcon Heavy, which can exert over 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and is capable of delivering 26.7 metric tons to GTO, is more than up to the task.
Jupiter 3, constructed by Maxar, features an entirely new architecture based on a broad range of advances. The next-gen device is an ultra-high-density satellite that will double the capacity of the Hughes Jupiter fleet and, once operational, will “support in-flight Wi-Fi, maritime connections, enterprise networks, backhaul for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and Community Wi-Fi solutions, in addition to satellite internet connectivity across North and South America,” according to Hughes. Once deployed, the satellite—the largest that Maxar has ever produced—will have a wingspan that stretches for 10 stories and include 14 solar panels.
Graphic: Hughes
The Falcon Heavy stands tall at 230 feet (70 meters), and it’s composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores. For this mission, both side boosters will attempt vertical landings roughly 8 minutes after launch, while the central booster will crash into the ocean.
This mission marks the seventh for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and the third for 2023. It’s also the 50th mission of the year for SpaceX, in what is another impressive year for the Elon Musk-founded company.
