New study suggests diet and exercise are for the birds

New research shows that birds moderate food intake and activity level to manage their weight.

Katie Willis - 03 November 2020 UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA 

A new study shows birds use diet and exercise to regulate their weight. Red Knots, like this one, provided with high quality food, greatly reduce intake rate on the rich diet, while birds with less rich food consume more. Photo credit: Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0

To regulate their body mass, birds use a tried and true method—diet and exercise, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists. 

“The results are so simple that it's almost surprising,” said Kimberley Mathot, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology. “Anyone can tell you that if you want to lose weight, you should get moving and change how you eat. It turns out—birds do just that.”

Unlike mammals, which often become obese when given unlimited access to food, birds can maintain almost constant mass even when food is plentiful. And while understanding why body mass regulation is useful for birds has been a topic of research for many years, this is the first study to examine just how birds do it.

The research team conducted two experiments to examine how birds regulate their body mass. In the first, the scientists manipulated predation danger, which resulted in decreased body mass. “The results show that increased activity and decreased food intake—or dieting—contributed to the mass loss,” said Mathot.

In the second, birds were presented with two types of food—one high in quality and calories and one lower in quality. “Here, we found that birds maintained nearly constant body mass. This was also achieved by moving more and eating less when food was suddenly higher quality,” explained Mathot, who conducted this research in conjunction with Eva Kok, a PhD student who is co-supervised by Mathot and Theunis Piersma from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Combined, these research results indicate that birds have mastered the simple and effective tools of managing diet and exercise to match their current environment. 

This work was done in collaboration with the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, including Theunis Piersma, Piet van den Hout, and Anne Deking. This research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant, the Netherland Organisation for Scientific Research, and Waddenfonds.

The paper, “Red knots (Calidris canutus islandica) manage body mass with dieting and activity,” was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology(doi: 10.1242/jeb.231993).

#SPIRITANIMAL

Rare yellow 'albino' turtle that 'looks like melted burger cheese' is rescued from a village pond in India

Animal is believed to be a rare example of the specie called Indian flap shell
It is a bizarre yellow colour likely due to a genetic mutation causing albinism
Villagers s rescued the animal from a pond in a West Bengal, India

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 3 November 2020 

A bizarre turtle that is bright yellow has been spotted in a village pond in West Bengal, India.

The rare animal is afflicted with a form of albinism which affects its colouration and has been compared online to melted cheese on a burger.

It belongs to a rare species called the Indian flap shell turtle.


A bizarre turtle that is bright yellow has been spotted in a village pond in West Bengal, India. The rare animal is afflicted with a form of albinism

Sneha Dharwadka posted images of the turtle on Twitter and suggested two potential explanations for its bizarre colouration. 

'It's an albino kind whose peculiar yellow colour is may be bcoz of either some genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment,' he says. 

The Indian flap shell turtle, which is normally green, is typically found in South Asia and is between 9 to 14 inches long.

In August, a similar animal of the same species was discovered in Nepal.

At the time it was compared to a mythological incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu.

These two events make up just the fifth and sixth sightings of albinism in this species.

Sneha Dharwadka posted images of the turtle on Twitter and suggested two potential explanations for its bizarre colouration. 'It's an albino kind whose peculiar yellow colour is may be bcoz of either some genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment,' he says

The Indian flap shell turtle, which is normally green, is typically found in South Asia and is between 9 to 14 inches long. In August, a similar animal of the same species was discovered in Nepal

pic.twitter.com/kNQ4F48lTI— Ordingandr (@Ordingandr96) November 1, 2020

Kamal Devkota, a reptile expert who documented the previous find, said the reptile had a deep spiritual significance.

'Not only golden animals but turtles overall have significant religious and cultural value in Nepal,' he said.

'It is believed that Lord Vishnu took the form of a turtle to save the universe from destruction in his incarnation.

'In Hindu mythology the upper shell of the turtle denotes the sky and lower shell denotes earth.'

Vi tushnu'srtle avatar, known as Kurma, is today worshipped in a number of temples in India.

The golden turtle owes its remarkable colour to chromatic leucism — a condition characterised by a loss of colour pigmentation.

Leucism usually results in white, pale or patchy skin, but in this case it lead to xanthophores — cells abundant with yellow pigments — becoming dominant.

God said: pic.twitter.com/3m20Iqk5Oe— WeaponTheory (@WeaponTheory) November 1, 2020

Kamal Devkota, a reptile expert who documented a similar previous find, said the reptile had a deep spiritual significance. 'Not only golden animals but turtles overall have significant religious and cultural value in Nepal,' he said

Uganda opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine arrested, police rout protesters

By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan police used rubber bullets, live rounds and tear gas to break up a protest by supporters of opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine after he was arrested on Tuesday following the filing of his nomination papers, aides and witnesses said.


FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Ugandan musician turned politician, Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine addresses a news conference at his home in Kasangati, Kampala, Uganda July 24, 2019. REUTERS/James Akena/File Photo

At least 15 people were injured in the disturbances at the home compound of Wine, 38, also a musician who has parlayed his relative youth and upbringing in a slum into a popular following against veteran President Yoweri Museveni.

Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, aims to end Museveni’s 35-year, increasingly authoritarian grip on power that has made him Africa’s third longest-ruling president.

Wine was detained near a venue where nominations were being filed with the electoral body and then driven in a police van to his compound, which was full of what aides said were thousands of supporters who had gathered in protest at his arrest.

Police moved in, firing tear gas and rubber bullets as well as some live rounds over the heads of the crowd, aides to Wine told Reuters by phone.


“The situation is very volatile...A lot of people have been injured,” an aide said from inside the compound. At least 15 people were injured from tear gas and rubber bullets, he said.

Police Spokesman Patrick Onyango said in a WhatsApp message there had been injuries and police would give details later. It was not immediately clear why Wine was arrested, as the election body had told him he met all the requirements for candidacy.

His youthful age, music and upbringing in a slum have earned him considerable popularity in the relatively young East African country of 42 million, unnerving Museveni’s ruling party and drawing periodic security crackdowns on Wine’s supporters.

“...Mr Museveni, since you have failed to control your greed and lust for power, our generation is determined to save you from yourself and stop your 35-year-old dictatorship,” Wine said in a speech before his arrest.

Don Wanyama, Museveni’s spokesman, did not respond to a Reuters call and texts requesting comment.

Wine has said that being “born hustling and born to hustling parents, raised in the ghettos”, meant he could understand the struggles of ordinary Ugandans.

Since he expressed his presidential ambitions, police and the military have repeatedly dispersed his rallies, and beaten and detained his supporters.

Museveni was cleared to run in the elections on Monday. Elections are scheduled for February next year.


Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Heinrich


Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Neanderthals and humans were engaged in brutal guerrilla-style warfare across the globe for over 100,000 years, evidence shows

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens evolved from one ancestor 600,000 years ago 

Two species co-existed together until Neanderthal extinction

Dr Nicholas R. Longrich of the University of Bath explains it for The Conversation

By NICHOLAS R. LONGRICH FOR THE CONVERSATION

PUBLISHED: 3 November 2020

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were closely related, sister species who evolved from the same ancestor and co-existed for millennia.

But scientists have tussled with trying to explain why Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years and humans lived on.

Several theories have been put forward to explain how this happened, including competition for the same resources, such as food and shelter; Neanderthals being unable to adjust to rapid climate change; and direct confrontation.


Now it is believed a combination of all of these things contributed to the Neanderthal extinction.

But the latest data reveals the two hominin species were fighting grisly guerrilla-style battles for 100,000 years.

Dr Nicholas R. Longrich, a senior lecturer in evolutionary biology and palaeontology at the University of Bath explains more in an article for The Conversation.

Scroll down for video

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This graph, created by study author Dr Longrich, shows the global battles which waged for millennia between Neanderthals and humans, both archaic (blue) and modern (red)


Far from peaceful, Neanderthals were likely skilled fighters and dangerous warriors, rivalled only by modern humans

Around 600,000 years ago, humanity split in two. One group stayed in Africa, evolving into us.

The other struck out overland, into Asia, then Europe, becoming Homo neanderthalensis – the Neanderthals. They weren’t our ancestors, but a sister species, evolving in parallel.

Neanderthals fascinate us because of what they tell us about ourselves – who we were, and who we might have become.

It’s tempting to see them in idyllic terms, living peacefully with nature and each other, like Adam and Eve in the Garden.

If so, maybe humanity’s ills – especially our territoriality, violence, wars – aren’t innate, but modern inventions.

Biology and paleontology paint a darker picture. Far from peaceful, Neanderthals were likely skilled fighters and dangerous warriors, rivalled only by modern humans.
Top predators

Predatory land mammals are territorial, especially pack-hunters. Like lions, wolves and Homo sapiens, Neanderthals were cooperative big-game hunters.

These predators, sitting atop the food chain, have few predators of their own, so overpopulation drives conflict over hunting grounds.

Neanderthals faced the same problem; if other species didn’t control their numbers, conflict would have.

This territoriality has deep roots in humans. Territorial conflicts are also intense in our closest relatives, chimpanzees.

Male chimps routinely gang up to attack and kill males from rival bands, a behaviour strikingly like human warfare.

This implies that cooperative aggression evolved in the common ancestor of chimps and ourselves, 7 million years ago.

If so, Neanderthals will have inherited these same tendencies towards cooperative aggression.




Neanderthalensis were skilled big game hunters, using spears to take down deer, ibex, elk, bison, even rhinos and mammoths. It defies belief to think they would have hesitated to use these weapons if their families and lands were threatened. Archaeology suggests such conflicts were commonplace

Homo sapiens WERE to blame for Neanderthal extinction

A supercomputer may have finally ended the debate over what caused the extinction of Neanderthals.

Mathematicians used the enormous processing power of the IBS supercomputer Aleph to simulate what happened throughout Eurasia around 40,000 years ago.

It revealed that the most likely explanation for Neanderthal extinction is that Homo sapiens, who migrated into Europe around the time of the extinction of Neanderthals, were better hunters and out-competed them for food.

Humans and Neanderthals are known to have overlapped, and even mated, but the superior brain power of Homo sapiens eventually wiped out their distant cousins.

Experts have long quarrelled over whether it was tumultuous climate patterns, competition for food with Homo sapiens or the interbreeding with this new species that ultimately led to the demise of Neanderthals.

All too human

Warfare is an intrinsic part of being human. War isn’t a modern invention, but an ancient, fundamental part of our humanity.

Historically, all peoples warred. Our oldest writings are filled with war stories.

Archaeology reveals ancient fortresses and battles, and sites of prehistoric massacres going back millennia.

To war is human – and Neanderthals were very like us. We’re remarkably similar in our skull and skeletal anatomy, and share 99.7% of our DNA.

Behaviourally, Neanderthals were astonishingly like us.

They made fire, buried their dead, fashioned jewellery from seashells and animal teeth, made artwork and stone shrines.

If Neanderthals shared so many of our creative instincts, they probably shared many of our destructive instincts, too.
Violent lives

The archaeological record confirms Neanderthal lives were anything but peaceful.

Neanderthalensis were skilled big game hunters, using spears to take down deer, ibex, elk, bison, even rhinos and mammoths.

It defies belief to think they would have hesitated to use these weapons if their families and lands were threatened.

Archaeology suggests such conflicts were commonplace.

Prehistoric warfare leaves telltale signs. A club to the head is an efficient way to kill – clubs are fast, powerful, precise weapons – so prehistoric Homo sapiens frequently show trauma to the skull. So too do Neanderthals.

Another sign of warfare is the parry fracture, a break to the lower arm caused by warding off blows. Neanderthals also show a lot of broken arms.

At least one Neanderthal, from Shanidar Cave in Iraq, was impaled by a spear to the chest.

Trauma was especially common in young Neanderthal males, as were deaths.

Some injuries could have been sustained in hunting, but the patterns match those predicted for a people engaged in intertribal warfare- small-scale but intense, prolonged conflict, wars dominated by guerrilla-style raids and ambushes, with rarer battles.


The Saint-Césaire Neanderthal skull (pictured) suffered a blow that split the skull around 36,000 years ago in France

A map showing the relative dates at which humans arrived in the different Continents, including Europe 45,000 years ago. Humans and Neanderthals co-existed for about 8,000 years before Neanderthals went extinct
The Neanderthal resistance

War leaves a subtler mark in the form of territorial boundaries. The best evidence that Neanderthals not only fought but excelled at war, is that they met us and weren’t immediately overrun.

Instead, for around 100,000 years, Neanderthals resisted modern human expansion.

Why else would we take so long to leave Africa? Not because the environment was hostile but because Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe and Asia.

It’s exceedingly unlikely that modern humans met the Neanderthals and decided to just live and let live.

If nothing else, population growth inevitably forces humans to acquire more land, to ensure sufficient territory to hunt and forage food for their children. But an aggressive military strategy is also good evolutionary strategy.

Instead, for thousands of years, we must have tested their fighters, and for thousands of years, we kept losing. In weapons, tactics, strategy, we were fairly evenly matched.

Neanderthals probably had tactical and strategic advantages.

They’d occupied the Middle East for millennia, doubtless gaining intimate knowledge of the terrain, the seasons, how to live off the native plants and animals.

In battle, their massive, muscular builds must have made them devastating fighters in close-quarters combat.

Their huge eyes likely gave Neanderthals superior low-light vision, letting them manoeuvre in the dark for ambushes and dawn raids.
Sapiens victorious

Finally, the stalemate broke, and the tide shifted. We don’t know why.

It’s possible the invention of superior ranged weapons – bows, spear-throwers, throwing clubs – let lightly-built Homo sapiens harass the stocky Neanderthals from a distance using hit-and-run tactics.

Or perhaps better hunting and gathering techniques let sapiens feed bigger tribes, creating numerical superiority in battle.

Even after primitive Homo sapiens broke out of Africa 200,000 years ago, it took over 150,000 years to conquer Neanderthal lands.

In Israel and Greece, archaic Homo sapiens took ground only to fall back against Neanderthal counteroffensives, before a final offensive by modern Homo sapiens, starting 125,000 years ago, eliminated them.

This wasn’t a blitzkrieg, as one would expect if Neanderthals were either pacifists or inferior warriors, but a long war of attrition.

Ultimately, we won. But this wasn’t because they were less inclined to fight. In the end, we likely just became better at war than they were.

The original article was published on The Conversation and can be read here.

A close relative of modern humans, Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago


The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 40,000 years ago.

The species lived in Africa with early humans for millennia before moving across to Europe around 300,000 years ago.

They were later joined by humans, who entered Eurasia around 48,000 years ago.

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The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a direct ancestor - the two species split from a common ancestor - that perished around 50,000 years ago. Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit

These were the original 'cavemen', historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.

In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we've been selling Neanderthals short.

A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of 'caveman' than anyone thought possible.

It now seems likely that Neanderthals had told, buried their dead, painted and even interbred with humans.

They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.

They are thought to have hunted on land and done some fishing. However, they went extinct around 40,000 years ago following the success of Homo sapiens in Europe.

War in the time of Neanderthals: how our species battled for supremacy for over 100,000 years

Lady Gaga posts 'redneck' endorsement video of Joe Biden

Trump launches attack on Lady Gaga and LeBron for backing Biden

Lady Gaga and LeBron James’ campaigning for Joe Biden has made them targets for Donald Trump

Harriet Alexander


Donald Trump has attacked LeBron James and Lady Gaga for their support of Joe Biden, mocking them as being unpatriotic.

“Lady Gaga, oh, I could tell you a few stories about her,” he said, speaking on Monday at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania — Mr Biden’s hometown.

“Lady Gaga is not too good."

The president was equally unimpressed with James — a long-time nemesis, reviled for his friendship with the Obamas and his vocal support for Mr Biden, and for Democrat causes.

Mr Trump said he "felt badly for LeBron" — who won his fourth NBA Championship on 11 October — because Finals ratings were down so much.

He added: "I didn't watch one shot. I get bored."

The crowd then erupted into chants of “LeBron James sucks”, to which Mr Trump responded: “What a crowd!”

James has recently said that he had no interest in a social media war with the president.

“I don’t go back and forth with anybody. And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with that guy," he told the New York Times. 

"But we want better, we want change in our community. We always talk about, ‘We want change,’ and now we have the opportunity to do that.”

The president then mocked Jon Bon Jovi, who performed for Mr Biden last week at a rally
"Jon Bon Jovi, every time I see him he kisses my ass,” he said, to whoops from the crowd.

He also ridiculed Beyonce for her backing of the Democrats, mispronouncing her name.

Gaga, who was a strong supporter of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, released a clip on Twitter mocking Trump voters as rednecks, dressed in military fatigues and leaning on a huge truck.

“I’m voting for America, which means I’m voting for Joe Biden,” she said in the clip.

In another she dressed up as a Kardashian-style "influencer", urging young people to be sure to cast their vote.

She posted a photo of her and Mr Biden, who she referred to as “my friend”.

On Monday night Gaga performed at a drive-in rally in Pittsburgh.

The 34-year-old singer has been getting under Mr Trump’s skin for several days now with her pro-Biden activism, and in particular her membership of Artists Against Fracking, a group founded by Yoko Ono in 2012.

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh called her an "anti-fracking activist" and said Mr Biden was prioritising "the desires of the liberal Hollywood elite and the radical left."

If Lady Gaga’s powerful warning about Donald Trump doesn’t make you vote for Joe Biden, nothing will

PATRICK KELLEHER NOVEMBER 3, 2020

Donald Trump (Win McNamee/Getty) and Lady Gaga (Neilson Barnard/Getty)

Lady Gaga has said Donald Trump thinks fame has given him the right to grab women “by any part of their bodies”.

The “Stupid Love” singer eviscerated the Republican president at a rally for Joe Biden on Monday night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2 November) with a powerful message about Trump’s treatment of women.

“To all the women, and all the men with daughters, and sisters and mothers – everybody, no matter how you identify, now is your chance to vote against Donald Trump, a man who believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters, or sisters, or mothers, or wives by any part of their bodies,” Gaga said at the rally. 

“Vote for Joe, he’s a good person,” she added.

Lady Gaga with a simple message to voters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 'Vote for Joe. He's a good person.' pic.twitter.com/9L1NwuniMI 
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 3, 2020

Donald Trump bragged about kissing and groping women without consent in a 2005 video.

Lady Gaga was referencing a shocking video that resurfaced during the last presidential campaign in 2016, in which Donald Trump bragged about grabbing women “by the p***y”.

In the 2005 video, Trump said boasted about his efforts to seduce a married woman and said he might start kissing a woman he was about to meet without consent.

“I don’t even wait,” Donald Trump said in the tape. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything,” Trump said.

The recording shocked the world and became a symbol for Trump’s disregard for women. Despite this, he went on to win the 2016 presidential election.

Trump faces off against Joe Biden on Tuesday (3 November), with the Democratic nominee leading in the polls – and Lady Gaga has been doing everything she can to ensure the anti-LGBT+ president is booted out of office.

In addition to her appearance at Monday night’s rally, Gaga has been vocal on social media in her strident criticism of Trump and her repeated calls for people to get out and vote.
Lady Gaga has urged her followers to ‘change the system’ by voting for Joe Biden.

In a video shared on social media on Friday (30 October), Gaga urged people to help “change this system” while wearing various outfits from her legendary career, including the famous meat-dress, her Super Bowl costume, and the outfits she wore in the music video for “Poker Face” more than a decade ago.

“If you want to change this system, if you want this country to be different than it is right now, you have got to participate in this election,” Lady Gaga said in the video, in which she avoided referencing Donald Trump directly.

“When they announce who has won the election, it will be very clear what this country has become. The government is not going away tomorrow and unless you have a plane ticket to another country and somewhere that you’re gonna live, this is going to be your home.

“I’m telling you that no matter how you feel your future is still in your hands with this vote. What you choose to do will affect you. and the fact is that the most critical vote right now is the one this country may never get to see, it’s yours.”

Biden is leading in the polls ahead of the presidential election.

Scientists release new view from OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid smash and grab

November 2, 2020 Stephen Clark

This view from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s navigation camera shows asteroid Bennu as the probe moved in for a sample collection maneuver Oct. 20. 

Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

Scientists say the touch and go landing by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on an asteroid last month revealed fresh insights into the structure of loose rocks that may cover the surfaces of many small planetary bodies — material that is more akin to a playground ball pit than solid bedrock.

The structure of the asteroid’s outermost layer is evident in imagery captured by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft as it swooped down to the airless world more than 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth on Oct. 20.

The next day, NASA released imagery from a narrow-angle camera aimed at the spacecraft’s 11-foot-long (3.4-meter) robotic arm. A dinner plate-sized sample collection device at the end of the arm fired a bottle of compressed nitrogen gas as the spacecraft contacted the surface of asteroid Bennu, a small planetary body measuring about one-third of a mile in diameter.

The discharge of nitrogen gas helped force asteroid specimens into the collection chamber. After six seconds on the asteroid’s surface, OSIRIS-REx fired thrusters to back away from Bennu.

Scientists later received close-up images of the sample collection head, showing it crammed with material scooped up from the asteroid’s surface. Some asteroid particles were visible escaping from the collection chamber, prompting managers to command the spacecraft to stow the sample head inside its Earth return capsule sooner than expected, minimizing the loss of specimens.

The sampling device was sealed inside the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s return capsule Oct. 28.

Late last week, officials released another series of images taken during the spacecraft’s touch and go landing. These were captured by a wide-angle navigation camera on OSIRIS-REx.

According to the OSIRIS-REx science team, the navigation camera — or NavCam — images were captured over a period of approximately three hours. The sequence begins around an hour after OSIRIS-REx performed an orbit departure maneuver to begin its descent, and ends about two minutes after the spacecraft’s back-away burn, officials said.

A slew, or rotation, maneuver is visible in the middle of the image sequence as OSIRIS-REx points its sampling arm toward target sampling site on asteroid Bennu, a region named “Nightingale.”

“As the spacecraft nears site Nightingale, the sampling arm’s shadow comes into view in the lower part of the frame. Shortly after, the sampling head impacts site Nightingale (just outside the camera’s field of view to the upper right) and fires a nitrogen gas bottle, which mobilizes a substantial amount of the sample site’s material,” the OSIRIS-REx team wrote in a description of the NavCam imagery.

“Several seconds later, the spacecraft performs a back-away burn and the sampling arm’s shadow is visible against the disturbed surface material. The team continues to investigate what caused the extremely dark areas visible in the upper and middle parts of the frame,” the team wrote. “The upper area could be the edge of the depression created by the sampling arm, a strong shadow cast by material lofted from the surface, or some combination of the two.

“Similarly, the middle dark region that first appears in the lower left of the image could be a depression caused by one of the spacecraft thrusters as it fired, a shadow caused by lofted material, or a combination of both.”

The Lockheed Martin-built OSIRIS-REx spacecraft relied on the black-and-white navigation camera images to autonomously guide itself to a safe touchdown zone on Bennu. Navigation algorithms compared the camera’s images to a map pre-loaded into the spacecraft’s computer, helping OSIRIS-REx determine its location relative to the asteroid.

With its sample secured in the return capsule, OSIRIS-REx is set to depart the vicinity of asteroid Bennu next year to begin the trip back to Earth. The spacecraft will release the return capsule for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and landing at the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023.

Artist’s illustration of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with its sampling arm extended. Credit: NASA

NASA’s $1 billion Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer mission launched Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. OSIRIS-REx’s primary goal is to return asteroid samples to Earth for detailed analysis by scientists, who hope to uncover clues about the origins of the solar system.

The mission requirement was for OSIRIS-REx to gather at least 60 grams, or 2.1 ounces, of asteroid material. Scientists said before the Oct. 20 touch and go landing that the spacecraft could collect much more, and evidence suggests it likely snared more than 2.2 pounds, or 1 kilogram, of asteroid specimens, according to Dante Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona.

Data from the brief touchdown on the asteroid indicated the spacecraft’s robotic arm sunk up to 19 inches (48 centimeters) into the Bennu’s soft surface.

While the mission’s scientific payoff will wait until the asteroid samples return to Earth, Lauretta said Thursday that scientists are already learning about the physical characteristics of Bennu.

The spacecraft detected small particles flying off Bennu soon after it arrived at the asteroid in December 2018. Those particles appear similar to the flaky material that leaked out of the TAGSAM head.

“It looks like a box of cornflakes out in space,” Lauretta said. “And they’re fluttering around kind of in random motion. They are coming from the TAGSAM head for the most part, but they are colliding with each other. They’re spinning and tumbling. We can resolve many of them.

“So it’s a great imaging calibration data set to better understand the particle ejection events, and the particles trajectories that we observed throughout the entire encounter with the asteroid,” Lauretta said. “Wven though my heart breaks for the loss of sample, it turned out to be a pretty cool science experiment.”

OSIRIS-REx’s contact with the asteroid surface Oct. 20 also provided a rich dataset, suggesting the outer layer of the asteroid’s soil and low-density rocks lacked much cohesion. The spacecraft’s robotic arm touched the asteroid as OSIRIS-REx approached at just 0.2 mph, or 10 centiemters per second, about a tenth the speed of a typical walking pace.

“When the TAGSAM head made contact with the regolith, it just flowed away like a fluid,” Lauretta said. “And I think that’s what would happen to an astronaut if she were to attempt to walk on the surface of the asteroid. She would sink to her knees or deeper — depending on how loose the soil was — until you hit a larger boulder or some kind of bedrock.”

He said the “ground truth” data gathered by OSIRIS-REx will help scientists reexamine models of asteroid geology.

“It’s fascinating that there was so little resistance to the spacecraft from the asteroid surface,” Lauretta said. “Basically, it’s kind of like a ball pit at a kid’s playground. You kind of jump into it and you just sink in.

“Luckily, we had those back-away thrusters to reverse the direction of motion, or we might have just flown all the way through the asteroid,” Lauretta joked.

The fresh measurements of asteroid density from OSIRIS-REx will help scientists refine assessments of the impact risk Bennu might pose to Earth. Scientists have calculated a 1-in-2,700 probability that Bennu might strike Earth in the late 2100s.

Much of the asteroid might burn up in Earth’s atmosphere due to its porosity.

“Thermal analysis indicates that a lot of the material on the surface of Bennu — particularly the large black hummocky boulders which are a major component of the surface — they seem to have material properties that would not survive passage through the atmosphere intact,” Lauretta said. “They would fragment, and much of the material will be lost.”

That means the pristine specimens collected from Bennu are unlike any meteorites or asteroid fragments that have fallen to Earth and reached the surface intact.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

Mississippi's Racism Is On Its Ballot. Now Black Residents Must Fight A Pandemic And Lines To Vote.

“It used to be Southerners didn't want Blacks to vote because they're Black. Now they don’t want them to vote because they're Democrats.”

Emmanuel FeltonBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on November 2, 2020

Barbara Gauntt / Reuters
A campaign rally for Democratic Senate candidate Mike Espy in Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 3, 2020.

Black Mississippians who go to the polls Tuesday will likely be waiting in long lines, and potentially be exposed to a lethal virus that has disproportionately hurt their communities, after state Republicans refused to loosen voting restrictions in the midst of the pandemic.

There’s a lot more on the ballot than just the presidential election: The people of Mississippi will be deciding between a sitting Republican senator with a history of racist remarks and a former US secretary of agriculture who would be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction.

They will be deciding whether to replace a confederate symbol on the state flag.

And they will vote on the fate of a Jim Crow–era law that effectively makes it impossible for a Black person to win statewide office, because it requires governors and other state leaders to win a majority of the statewide vote as well as secure the most votes in a majority of 122 state House districts.

Local election officials are predicting record turnout and long lines across Mississippi on Election Day, in the only state nationwide where lawmakers didn’t give citizens either the option to vote early in person or to mail in a ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislature only expanded early voting to people who were under physician-order quarantine — which some officials say requires a doctor’s note — or who were taking care of someone in quarantine.

“It's already a lot busier,” said Jackie Jackson, deputy circuit clerk in Jefferson County, who said, even under the state’s strict rules, the county had already been seeing more absentee voters turn up at their office than she can remember over her over 20 years working there. “It’s probably going to be the busiest Election Day I've at least seen.”

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Some voting rights advocates are worried that amid a new surge in coronavirus cases, Black Mississippians in particular will have to decide between risking their health and exercising their right to vote.

Over 1,300 Black people in the state have died from COVID-19 so far, and while there has been a recent spike in deaths among white Mississippians, Black residents are still 2.5 times more likely to die of the disease.

Mississippi’s voting laws have long been among the most restrictive in the nation with few expansions to access since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but additional restrictions like a new voter ID law in 2014. Unlike in many other states, Republican leaders made little effort to expand voting access in light of the extraordinary concerns over health and safety during the pandemic. In a pair of lawsuits, advocates pushed for broader exemptions but were largely unsuccessful.

“It used to be Southerners didn't want Blacks to vote because they're Black. Now they don’t want them to vote because they're Democrats,” said Robert Howard, a political science professor at Georgia State University who studies Southern politics.

He added that it’s hard to disentangle any decisions on voting procedures from issues of race in the South.

In September, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and ruled that people with medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19 were not automatically entitled to an absentee ballot. That was after Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson appealed a state court’s decision approving the protections.

State law does allow Mississippians with disabilities to vote early — but Robert McDuff, the civil rights lawyer pushing for expanded protections in the case, said the Supreme Court’s decision leaves it open to county clerks to decide who does and doesn't qualify as having a temporary disability during the pandemic.


Rogelio V. Solis / AP
A woman in a face mask walks past a sign encouraging voters to vote absentee in light of COVID-19 precautions on the grounds of the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi, Oct. 6, 2020.

As of Oct. 25, the last time Watson issued an update, over 142,591 Mississippians had voted early. That’s a record for the state, but Mississippians have cast just 12% of the total number of ballots in 2016. As of Sunday, voters nationally have cast over two-thirds of the total number of ballots cast in 2016. In nearby states with more robust early voting laws like Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, voters have already cast over 80% of the total ballots they cast in the last presidential election. Texas surpassed its total number of votes cast in 2016 by the time early voting closed on Friday.

Given how much harder Black communities in the state have been hit by COVID-19, voting rights activists say the state’s lack of accommodations for the pandemic is just the latest in a long line of efforts to suppress the votes of the Black community.

Mississippi has among the most racially polarized electorates in the country. Black Mississippians overwhelmingly vote for Black politicians and Democrats, while the vast majority of white voters there vote for white Republican candidates. And like elsewhere in the country, masks have become wrapped up in politics.

“The Republicans perceived that it would be in their political interest to discourage people from voting,” said McDuff. “Particularly low-income people, particularly people who would be following public health guidelines more strictly, because those people are perceived to be Democrats not Republicans, generally speaking.”

While the state’s first wave hit its Black community hardest, as the election approaches, Mississippi is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus cases fueled by white Mississippians who refuse to wear masks, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the top health officer in Mississippi.

“We have had really pretty good uptake by a lot of folks in the Black community with masking and social distancing,” Dobbs said on a call with reporters. “And I just want to say that I think big parts of the white community, especially in areas that maybe weren’t as hard-affected [this summer], have not been as compliant or engaged actively with social distancing and masking. And I think that does make a difference.”

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves let the statewide mask order expire at the end of September, but county clerks are assuring voters that polling locations will be safe. Under regulations handed down by the secretary of state, poll workers, poll watchers, and elected officials must wear masks in the precinct. Voters, however, won’t be turned away if they refuse to wear a mask.

Barbara Gauntt / Reuters

An Espy supporter at a drive-in style campaign rally in Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 3, 2020.

Voting rights advocates like Oleta Fitzgerald, director of the Children’s Defense Fund’s southern regional office, are worried about unmasked white voters showing up at the polls and intimidating Black voters.

"They know the population most at risk are people of color, and so not expanding early and absentee voting during this pandemic was a backdoor way of trying to decrease turnout,” said Fitzgerald.

Even with limited early voting, long lines have already been reported at the circuit clerk’s office in Hinds County, the most populous county in the state and a Democratic stronghold, where a record 13,000 absentee ballots have been cast. That picture differs across the state. In counties where Black and white voters are more evenly split and Republicans have control of the county clerk’s office, there have been far fewer absentee ballots cast. Part of the concern for advocates is that so much is left up to how accommodating county clerks want to be to voters concerned about COVID-19.

Fitzgerald is worried about places like Jones County, where election commissioner Gail Welch posted on social media earlier this year to warn about an increase in Black voter registration there in the wake of the effort to remove the Confederate symbol from the state flag.

“The blacks are having lots [of] events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved, too,” she wrote on Facebook.

“So far, we've seen county clerks in majority Black counties are being a lot more lenient with how they read the rules related to the COVID, they're also allowing some leniency in terms of the fear that you've got some other kind of health issues,” said Fitzgerald.

“Right now, what I’m concerned about is voter protection on Election Day. We have a number of counties that are majority white but have large Black communities. There’s where we’re concerned that there might be some efforts to intimidate those folks on Election Day. So the poll monitoring, poll watching all of that is more critical than ever, especially with all the dog whistles that have gone off this year,” she said, referring to President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric.

Others are more hopeful that despite the challenges, the system will work for voters in Mississippi tomorrow.

“Mississippi is a horrible place to try to vote in, but I think that our circuit clerks and our election commissions are doing everything that they possibly can,” said Christy Wheeler, co-president of the Mississippi League of Women Voters. “I think that we will see a huge turnout and that we may have lines, but I absolutely believe that because if they show up by 7 p.m., even though there might be long lines, they'll get the opportunity to vote.”

Voters will be deciding whether to reelect Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who gathered national headlines in 2018 when she said of a supporter, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Rogelio V. Solis / AP
Incumbent Republican US Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith gestures as she speaks at a campaign stop at the Richland, Mississippi, City Hall, Oct. 29, 2020.

Around the same time, CNN dug up 2014 photos from her Facebook page, in which she is posing in a Confederate soldier hat with an old Civil War rifle in hand; she captioned the photo, “Mississippi history at its best!” Hyde-Smith defeated her Black Democratic opponent Mike Espy by 7 points in a 2018 special election.

The two are set for a rematch on Tuesday. There have been few polls in the race, though one last week showed Hyde-Smith up by 8 points. Espy, for his part, has said the election will come down to Black turnout and he's hoping for that to be higher than the previous records set when President Barack Obama was on the ballot.

In the same poll that had Espy down by 8 points, 61% of voters supported changing the state flag and a small majority supported repealing the law requiring statewide candidates to win in a majority of the 122 state house districts. Opponents of that law say it dilutes the Black vote and makes it all but impossible to elect a Black candidate to statewide office since the candidate would also have to secure support in heavily white communities.

“Justice is on the ballot,” said Fitzgerald. “Safe and healthy schools are on the ballot. Childcare and healthcare are on the ballot. Financial support for small businesses that are being left is on the ballot. And then we say, Jim Crow is on the ballot.”

Arekia Bennett, executive director of the nonpartisan Mississippi Votes, said she knows that voters will be facing even more challenges than usual this year, but she’s hopeful Mississippians won’t be deterred, given everything that’s at stake.

“We've got the senatorial race, we've got folks running for our supreme court, and we also have three ballot measures,” said Bennett. “There's one to remove the 1890 Jim Crow law. We get to vote for the flag, and we get to vote for or against the usage of medical marijuana. We need people to show up and make their voices heard like never before here, because we've got an opportunity of a lifetime to make some drastic changes.”




Emmanuel Felton is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

A Judge Blocked A Trump Policy That Allowed Officials To Deny Residency To Immigrants Who Might Use Public Benefits

The policy had allowed officials to deny green cards to immigrants who were deemed likely to use Section 8 housing vouchers, most forms of Medicaid, and other assistance.

Hamed Aleaziz  BuzzFeed News Reporter


Last updated on November 2, 2020

Elliot Spagat / AP

Immigrants in Tijuana, Mexico, listen to names being called from a waiting list to claim asylum at a border crossing in San Diego on Sept. 26, 2019.

A federal judge on Monday blocked a key Trump administration policy that allows the government to deny permanent residency to immigrants who officials believe are likely to use public benefits.

The ruling by US District Court Judge Gary Feinerman is the latest in the back-and-forth legal saga over the “public charge” policy, which was a major initiative pushed by the Trump administration in its efforts to restrict immigration.

Immigrant advocates have long said the policy would change the face of immigration and discourage people from seeking public benefits, such as Medicaid. In recent months, they have warned the impact would be especially acute during the pandemic as immigrants weigh whether to enroll in publicly funded healthcare coverage.

In the less than a year since it’s been implemented, the policy has been blocked multiple times, though the administration has been successful in lifting the previous rulings. After Feinerman’s order in the Northern District of Illinois, a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official emailed immigration officers across the country informing them that the “judgment is applicable nationwide and is effective immediately.”

“USCIS must immediately cease implementing the public charge final rule,” wrote Daniel Renaud, a lead USCIS official. A spokesperson for USCIS also said in a statement that the agency "will fully comply with the decision and issue additional forthcoming guidance while the agency reviews the decision."

The Immigration and Nationality Act has long allowed the government to reject granting permanent residency to immigrants who were determined to be a financial burden on society, or a public charge, meaning they’re dependent on the government for financial support.

The Trump administration’s rule, however, altered how the government decides if someone is a public charge, allowing officials to deny green cards to those who are deemed likely to use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Section 8 housing vouchers, and assistance, public housing, or most forms of Medicaid.

The policy was implemented in late February.

“Donald Trump has continually tried to instill policies that penalize diversity. His administration’s attempt to shortchange immigrants by changing public charge threatens our public health and destroys communities that have immigrant populations who make these places across America great,” said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, which brought the lawsuit that led to the ruling on Monday.

Groups help homeless overcome challenges to voting

Washington, D.C., residents experiencing homelessness register to vote in the 2020 election at a Pathways to Housing DC event. Photo courtesy of Pathways to Housing DC

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- As Americans face unprecedented challenges to voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the homeless community appears poised to cast tens of thousands of ballots this year, spurred by mobilization efforts and interest in the election, advocacy groups say.

An estimated 567,000 people experienced homelessness on any given night in 2019, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual Point-in-Time count. Brendan O'Flaherty, a professor of economics at Columbia University, predicted that this number could be as much as 45% higher due to the pandemic, an addition of nearly 250,000 people.

Studies have shown that an average of 60% of the homeless population are eligible voters, which would add up to about 340,000 to 490,000 people given the estimated increase this year.

Many leaders who work with the homeless said they have helped larger numbers register, get ballots or vote early than in the past.

Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, heads the organization's national Every One Votes campaign encouraging groups working with the homeless to incorporate voting into their efforts.

Roman said she doesn't have data on how many homeless people have cast votes so far this year, "But...the feedback has been really good. And I think we've got...a lot more people...We've pushed it harder this year."

'I have to participate'

Christina Giles, a 41-year-old D.C. native experiencing homelessness, cast her ballot through early voting last week for the first time in years.

"I have to participate in the politics to stop things from happening," Giles said, referring to injustices toward the Black community. A student at Strayer University, she said she has always been interested in politics and activism, but that she made sure to vote this year because she believes much is at stake.

The voting rate among the homeless population is historically one of the lowest in the nation. Just 41% of eligible voters who earn less than $10,000 a year voted in 2016 -- the lowest of any income group, according to the Census Bureau. A 2012 study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that voters experiencing homelessness are estimated to vote only about 10% of the time compared with an average of 54% nationally.

Although a seris of court cases in the 1980s confirmed that the homeless could not be denied the right to vote for lacking a traditional residence, each state maintains its own requirements for establishing residency within a certain precinct. In D.C., homeless people can use the address of a shelter or social services provider to register by providing a government-issued document or a letter from a service provider attesting to the applicant's living situation.

Giles said voting this year was "super easy" because she was homeless and eligible for many services, like voting assistance. She received help casting a ballot through Pathways to Housing D.C., a Housing First provider that launched a new get-out-the-vote campaign this year.

The initiative was formed after demonstrations that erupted this spring over systematic racism and inequality


"That's another misconception that a lot of people have about people experiencing homelessness -- that they're not interested," said Briana Perez-Brennan, who heads the voting campaign at Pathways. She said that for many people, it comes down to being "recognized as a human being" and the realization that "my voice matters."

"And that's so huge," she said. "Especially in the context of this election."

Lack of address

Perez-Brennan said the group has registered more than 100 new voters.

Turnout for Tuesday's election has beaten many records already, with a surge in early and mail-in-voting. Although most of the U.S. homeless population live in urban areas like New York City and Los Angeles, swing states like Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania had estimated pre-pandemic homeless populations of 10,000 to 30,000 on any given night in 2019, a range which could now be 14,500 to 43,500 due to the coronavirus. That could translate to thousands of homeless votes in states with razor- thin margins.

Homeless voters have always faced struggles casting a ballot because they lack an address, ID, transportation, Internet connections or access to other resources. This reality is made more difficult by some new anti-fraud voting laws like the Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002 to curtail voting irregularities seen during the 2000 election.

The law ultimately led to an intensification of residency and identification requirements in many states, two particularly difficult aspects of the voting process for the homeless who may not have an up-to-date ID or an address. Disenfranchisement of the disabled, immigrants and felons also disproportionately affects the homeless.

The pandemic has only complicated matters.

Many shelters have had to limit intake or shut down to meet safety guidelines, while the number of volunteers contributing time to shelters and programs like the voter campaign has decreased. Displacement between shelters is more common, as is breaking up informal encampments, making transport to the polls or mailing in ballots more difficult. And like other Americans, the homeless also face long lines, confusing instructions and COVID-19 fears if they go to polling places.

Maisha Pinkard, director of Friendship Place homeless shelter in D.C., said her team has recently helped register clients to vote and use the office as an address for their mail-in ballots or voter ID cards. Pinkard said more than 100 of her clients requested ballots; her group helped them get the ballots completed and in the mail.

Shelters like Pathways plan to incorporate voter registration into their on-boarding processes permanently."Now it's a movement, it's like a cultural thing," Giles said about voting and protesting injustice within her community. She said she now is bringing up voting with others struggling with homelessness.

"Now I don't have to be alone. There are people I can share it with and people I can talk to about it who are listening," she said.


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New remote sensing technique could bring key planetary mineral into focus

BROWN UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: A MOUNTAIN PEAK AT THE CENTER OF THE MOON'S COPERNICUS CRATER HAS AN ABUNDANCE OF OLIVINE, A MINERAL THAT CAN HELP SCIENTISTS UNDERSTAND THE INTERNAL EVOLUTION OF PLANETARY BODIES. A... view more 

CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Planetary scientists from Brown University have developed a new remote sensing method for studying olivine, a mineral that could help scientists understand the early evolution of the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies.

"Olivine is understood to be a major component in the interiors of rocky planets," said Christopher Kremer, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and lead author of a new paper describing the work. "It's a primary constituent of Earth's mantle, and it's been detected on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars in volcanic deposits or in impact craters that bring up material from the subsurface."

Current remote sensing techniques are good at spotting olivine from orbit, Kremer says, but scientists would like to do more than just spot it. They'd like to be able to learn more about its chemical makeup. All olivines have silicon and oxygen, but some are rich in iron while others have lots of magnesium.

"The composition tells us something about the environment in which the minerals formed, particularly the temperature," Kremer said. "Higher temperatures during formation yield more magnesium, while lower temperatures yield more iron. Being able to tease out those compositions could tell us something about how the interiors of these planetary bodies have evolved since their formation."

To find out if there might be a way to see that composition using remote sensing, Kremer worked with Brown professors Carlé Pieters and Jack Mustard, as well as mountains of data from the Keck/NASA Reflectance Experiment Laboratory (RELAB), which is housed at Brown.

One method researchers use to study rocks on other planetary bodies is spectroscopy. Particular elements or compounds reflect or absorb different wavelengths of light to various degrees. By looking at the light spectra rocks reflect, scientists can get an idea of what compounds are present. RELAB makes high-precision spectral measurements of samples for which the composition is already determined using other laboratory techniques. By doing that, the lab provides a ground truth for interpreting spectral measurements taken by spacecraft looking at other planetary bodies.

In poring through data from olivine samples examined over the years at RELAB, Kremer found something interesting hiding in a small swath of wavelengths that's overlooked by the kinds of spectroscopes that fly on orbital spacecraft.

"Over the past few decades, there's been a lot of interest in near infrared spectroscopy and middle infrared spectroscopy," Kremer said. "But there's a small range of wavelengths between those two that's left out, and those are the wavelengths I was looking at."

Kremer found that those wavelengths, a band between 4 and 8 microns, could predict the amount of magnesium or iron in an olivine sample to within about 10% of the actual content. That's far better than can be done when those wavelengths are ignored.

"With the instruments we have now, we could say maybe we have a little bit of this or a little bit of that," Mustard said. "But with this we're able to really put a number on it, which is a big step forward."

The researchers hope that this study, which is published in Geophysical Research Letters, might provide the impetus to build and fly a spectrometer that captures these previously overlooked wavelengths. Such an instrument could pay immediate dividends in understanding the nature of olivine deposits on the Moon's surface, Kremer says.

"The olivine samples brought back during the Apollo program that we've been able to study here on Earth vary widely in magnesium composition," Kremer said. "But we don't know how those differing compositions are distributed on the Moon itself, because we can't see those compositions spectroscopically. That's where this new technique comes in. If we could figure out a pattern to how those deposits are distributed, it could tell us something about the early evolution of the Moon."

There's the potential for other discoveries as well. The airplane-based SOFIA telescope is one of the few non-lab instruments that can look in this forgotten frequency range. The instrument's recent detection of water molecules in sunlit lunar surfaces made use of those frequencies.

"That makes the idea of space-borne spectrometers that can see this range much more attractive, both for water and for rocky material like olivine," Kremer said.

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The research was supported through NASA SSERVI (NNA14AB01A) and a NASA FINESST grant.