Spanish general election tipped to put the far right back in office for the first time since Franco

Associated Press
Updated Sat, July 22, 2023 

A supporter of VOX far right party wrapped in a Spanish flag attends an election campaign event in Guadalajara, Spain, Saturday, July 15, 2023. Spain's general election Sunday, July 23 could make the country the latest European Union member to shift to the political right. Most polls put the right-wing Popular Party ahead of the Socialists but likely needing the support of the extreme right Vox party to form a government. 

(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)


MADRID (AP) — Voters in Spain go to the polls Sunday in an election that could make the country the latest European Union member to swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government.

Here's what you need to know about the vote.

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WHAT IS AT STAKE?

Opinion polls indicate the political right has the edge going into the election, and that raises the possibility a neo-fascist party will be part of Spain's next government. The extreme right has not been in power in Spain since the transition to democracy following the death of former dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

With no party expected to win an absolute majority, the choice for voters is basically between another leftist governing coalition or one between the right and the far right.

The right-of-center Popular Party, the front-runner in the polls, and the extreme right Vox party are on one side. They portray the vote as a chance to end “Sanchismo” — a term the PP uses to sum up what it contends are the dictatorial ways of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the left’s radical ideology and numerous lies by the government.

In the other corner are the Socialists and a new movement called Sumar that brings together 15 small leftist parties for the first time. They warn that putting the right in power will threaten Spain's post-Franco changes.

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WHY WERE EARLY ELECTIONS CALLED?

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election a day after his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its small far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos (United We Can), took a hammering in local and regional elections May 28.

Prior to that, Sánchez had insisted he would ride out his four-year term, indicating that an election would be held in December. But after the May defeat, he said it was only fair for Spaniards to decide the country’s political future without delay.

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WHAT HAPPENED SINCE MAY 28?

The Popular Party emerged from the local and regional elections as the most-voted party by far, giving it the right to take office in all but a handful of towns and one or two regions.

Since then, the PP and Vox have agreed to govern together in some 140 cities and towns as well as to add two more regions to the one where they already co-governed.

The Socialists and other leftist parties lost political clout across the country, but after weathering the initial shock, they have regrouped and recovered some ground, leaving the vote outcome Sunday still an unknown.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR EUROPE?

A PP-Vox government would mean another EU member has moved firmly to the right, a trend seen recently in Sweden, Finland and Italy. Countries such as Germany and France are concerned by what such a shift would portend for EU immigration and climate policies.

Spain’s two main leftist parties are pro-EU participation. On the right, the PP is also in favor of the EU, but Vox is not.

The election comes as Spain holds the EU’s rotating presidency Sánchez had hoped to use the six-month term to showcase the advances his government had made. An election defeat for Sánchez could see the PP taking over the EU presidency reins.

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WHAT ARE THE CAMPAIGN THEMES?

The campaign has been dominated by mudslinging from all sides, with both the left and right accusing each other of lying about their policies and past records.

The PP has managed to put Sánchez’s honorability in question by highlighting the many U-turns he has made and his alliances with small regional secessionist parties, something that alienates even some left-wing voters.

The left has sought to convince voters that there is little difference between the two right-wing parties and that a victory for them would set Spain back decades in terms of social progress.

Nearly every poll has put the PP firmly ahead of the Socialists and Vox ahead of Sumar for third place. But 30% of the electorate is said to be undecided.

With the election taking place at the height of summer, millions of citizens are likely to be vacationing away from their regular polling places. But postal voting requests have soared, and officials are estimating a 70% election turnout.

___

IS THERE ANY CHANCE FOR A SURPRISE?

A surprise factor that could upset poll predictions is Sumar: the brand new, broad-based movement of 15 small left-wing parties, including Podemos and prominent social figures.

Sumar is headed by highly popular Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, who is also the second deputy vice president and the only woman among the leaders of the four main parties.

This is the first time small left parties have ever come together on a joint ticket in Spain. Their earlier fragmentation was blamed for many of the town and regional losses in the May election, and they hope that joined together they can make a bigger showing.

Sumar's big goal is to beat out Vox for the potential king-making third place finish. That would allow Sumar to give valuable support for another leftist coalition government. Surveys consistently suggested during the campaign that an absolute majority for Popular Party and Vox is very possible.

An asteroid loaded with $10 quintillion worth of metals edges closer to US reach

Filip De Mott
Updated Fri, July 21, 2023 

An asteroid loaded with $10 quintillion worth of metals edges closer to US reach

The asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, is thought to be made up of $10 quintillion worth of gold, iron, and nickel.NASA

NASA says it's under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft to study a valuable asteroid.


The asteroid is thought to be made up of $10 quintillion worth of gold, iron, and nickel.


A SpaceX rocket is set to launch the spacecraft to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

NASA announced Tuesday that it was under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft designed to study an asteroid potentially worth $10 quintillion.

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab said it had recently completed a comprehensive test of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft. That cleared a key hurdle that caused the probe to miss its original 2022 launch date.

The 173-mile-wide asteroid is known as 16 Psyche and is thought to be made up of gold, iron, and nickel. The ore on the asteroid has been estimated to be worth about $10 quintillion. NASA announced in 2020 that it would collaborate with Elon Musk's SpaceX to reach the metal-rich body.

The 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act gives companies the legal right to the materials mined from celestial bodies. And firms have already sprung up to test technology that could theoretically make this work.

Meanwhile, NASA's mission is scientific and geared toward learning more about planetary cores and how planets form. The spacecraft is set to launch in October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket before heading on a six-year trek to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The satellite would then orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying and photographing the body to learn its history and mineral composition.

While NASA focuses on 16 Psyche, the agency previously said that the belt it resided in was full of ore-rich asteroids worth $700 quintillion. The most valuable asteroid in the belt, Davida, is thought to be worth $27 quintillion.

Though a potentially lucrative business for the future, the inflow of valuable minerals from space may not actually produce a bunch of billionaires. That's because a sudden supply glut would drive metal prices down.

B.C. professor pushing plan to protect marbled murrelet habitat in old growth

The Canadian Press
Sun, July 23, 2023 


It is only a little bird, weighing a few ounces, but the marbled murrelet is known for its remarkable ability to fly far out to sea to catch fish before returning in the darkness of night to inland treetop nests on mossy limbs.

It also inspires outsized devotion among those who want to study and protect it.

Royann Petrell of Courtenay on Vancouver Island has been an avid bird watcher since childhood, but in retirement she has taken up the cause of protecting the marbled murrelet's habitat.

The seabird has been listed as "threatened" for decades as habitat loss on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border adds to its precarious existence.

Petrell's birding activities have even landed her in court, fighting a logging company that put up gates in the contentious Fairy Creek area where protests over old-growth logging landed hundreds in handcuffs.

Petrell, who’s a retired associate professor at the University of B.C. in the faculty of applied science, claimed the gates prevented her from collecting data on the murrelet and its habitat.

The data, she said, is crucial to her proposal for the provincial government to create additional wildlife habitat areas to protect the murrelets' nesting grounds because continued logging will mean the bird's eventual loss.

"The forestry company said in its own forestry management plan that the forest will be gone in 15 years. They will cut it all down except for these few wildlife habitat areas," Petrell said. "It's not going to last. It's not sustainable."

In the last two decades, Petrell and her fellow birders calculated that a quarter of the murrelet's prime nesting habitat has been lost in what's known as Tree Farm License area 46, currently held by the Teal Jones Group.

Petrell belongs to The Old Growth Birders and BioBlitzers, a group of citizen scientists who have proposed to the provincial government the creation of more protected areas for the birds in Fairy Creek. Petrell said the group found discrepancies in government pledges to protect habitat versus the actual amount of land set aside.

In a December 2022 letter to the province, Petrell urged the creation of new designated habit areas that "will protect two of the best remaining sizable remnants of B.C.’s old-growth forests on Vancouver Island."

In a response letter from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the provincial government thanked Petrell for her efforts.

"We welcome the public’s constructive identification of potential areas for a WHA (wildlife habitat area) and as noted regional staff will review the proposal," an April 2023 response letter said.

Her work has since received endorsement from researchers in the United States, who are urging Premier David Eby to adopt the proposal.

Martin Raphael, a retired U.S. Forest Service research scientist in Washington state, said protecting marbled murrelet habitat is crucial to the species' survival.

Raphael's work goes back decades, documenting the bird's migration from the U.S. to nesting areas in the Fairy Creek watershed using radio tags to track the bird's long flights out to sea back to inland nesting grounds.

"Protection of nesting habitat is really the key driver in trying to recover the species, and so when this proposal came along to try to conserve habitat, protect it from logging and other losses, I knew that would be important," he said.

Raphael had never seen a marbled murrelet before he began researching and surveying the birds in the 1990s, but they eventually became the focus of his work for 20 years.

His fascination grew, he said, out of admiration for how they fly far out to sea to forage for fish "and find the exact limb on a tree in the middle of the forest that it's nesting on."

"The fact that they do that at night when there's no visibility, it just amazes me," he said.

In Washington state, the birds' habitat enjoys federal protection on public lands, but private forest lands are still fair game for logging, leading to habitat loss and population decline, he said.

For Petrell, her love of bird watching stems from her mother's sadness after the loss of her father when Petrell was just two years old.

"The one thing that made her happy was bird watching," she said.

One excursion stands out for Petrell, when she and a group of fellow birders were awoken early one morning by the shrieking calls of murrelets flying above their tents.

Recent research, she said, indicates the birds communicate about suitable nesting areas as they make their way back to their forested homes.

"We were just totally blown away," she said. "You hear them flying right over your tent, up the watershed, right into the forest, and that's the same forest that we would like to make sure that it turns into a wildlife habitat area."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2023.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

'Nature has the answer': Yukon University student says unwelcome weeds could support mine remediation


CBC
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Taylor Belansky, a research student at Yukon University, is studying how to support the growth of bacteria that converts nitrate, often found at mine sites, into nitrogen.

 (Lilian Fridfinnson/CBC - image credit)

The battle to manage the invasion of nuisance plants in the North is ongoing, but one Yukon University master's student may have found a purpose for some pesky and resilient weeds.

Taylor Belansky, with the university's Northern Mine Remediation team, studies how to mitigate the environmental impacts of mining. Her thesis research aims to find a way to support the growth of bacteria that converts nitrate, often found at mine sites, into nitrogen.

She says feeding that bacteria is one way to filter mine-impacted water. With the support of her research advisor, Guillaume Nielsen, Belansky tested carbon sources including wood chips, compost, grains from Yukon Brewing, molasses and invasive plants such as foxtail barley and white sweet clover. The student researcher was amazed by the results, finding white sweet clover, a usually undesired weed, was the most effective food source.

"It's really cool that we tried it because the white sweet clover is readily found at mine sites," she said. "Nature has the answer to these contaminants that we're putting into the environment. We just have to find out how best to help those natural processes along."

Belansky says mine blasts often results in incomplete combustion of blasting fuel, leaving behind high concentrations of nitrate residue that can leech into waterways and harm aquatic ecosystems. A process called eutrophication causes algae blooms and poses a risk to the health of fish, as it can suffocate them.

"Nitrate is naturally occurring. The poison is in the dose. So, nitrate is naturally out there, but when it's in low concentrations, the plants are using it," Belansky explained. "It's when we're putting in too much that it overwhelms the system, especially aquatics systems."

Sweet clover is the most common invasive plant species in the Yukon.
Sweet clover is the most common invasive plant species in the Yukon. Belansky found it was also the most effective food source for the nitrogen-creating bacteria. (

Yukon Invasive Species Council)

Lori Fox, the summer outreach coordinator with the Yukon Invasive Species Council, says white sweet clover is unyielding, popping up through soil and gravel to colonize. Initially transported to the Yukon for agriculture purposes, Fox says it chokes out native plant species due to its nitrogen-fixing nature, as many of Yukon's native plants prefer a lower-nitrogen environment.

"It wasn't originally supposed to escape," Fox said during an interview with CBC's Yukon Morning host, Elyn Jones. "But like many invasive species, it did and you see it all over the place."

The issue with sweet clover and other invasive species is that they alter biodiversity and change where animals can find their food, says Fox.

"It has the potential to really alter the landscape," Fox said. "Even if we can't stop what is in place…in many cases that's impossible, we have a responsibility to mitigate."

Tyler Obediah, natural resource coordinator with Carcross/Tagish First Nation, says the changing landscape is illustrated by decreasing fireweed populations.

Fireweed in the Yukon.
Fireweed is being crowded out by sweet clover in some parts of the Yukon. (Paul Tukker/CBC)

Fireweed is native to the North and used traditionally by First Nations communities as a food source for its richness in vitamins A and C. Obediah says the purple plant, often found in the same dusty and disturbed soil as white sweet clover, is often cooked in butter, eaten raw or pickled. Given its medicinal properties, fireweed is also often used to make salves, lotions, and tea.

"For a lot of First Nations it's important to maintain that relationship with the plants," he said. "It's a deep cultural connection to the earth and to everything that's around us. It's very important in a lot of ways."

Despite its myriad of uses, Obediah says fireweed is becoming increasingly difficult to find, as the white clover crowds out the native plant.

Tyler Obediah is the natural resource coordinator with Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Yukon.

'For a lot of First Nations it's important to maintain that relationship with the plants,' said Tyler Obediah, natural resource coordinator with Carcross/Tagish First Nation. (Submitted by Tyler Obediah)

Given its unwelcome habitation, Belansky says she's pleased to find a purpose for the vexing weed.

"We're killing two birds with one stone here," she said. "We're not intentionally letting it grow. We don't want it to further invade the mine site. We actually want to remove it from the mine site and put it to use."

The next step in Belansky's research will take her findings outside the lab to the Minto mine site in central Yukon. She says she will use "bioreactors" — 55-gallon drums — to filter mine-impacted water and see how the bacteria, fed with white sweet clover, cope with changing water chemistry, conditions and temperatures.

Belansky expects to complete her research and publish her findings in December and is eager to see what her research yields.

"Knowing the impact mining has had on the environment, I just wanted to be a part of more solutions."

'You've got to move fast': Science learns to quickly link extreme weather and climate

The Canadian Press
Sat, July 22, 2023 



As firefighters and other first responders battle an unprecedented summer of fires, floods, tornadoes and heat waves around the country, a group of Canadian scientists are asking why they're happening in the first place.

"May and June were record hot months in Canada and we've got the record wildfire season as well," said Nathan Gillett of Environment and Climate Change Canada. "Yes, it has been busy."

Gillett heads the Rapid Extreme Event Attribution Project, a new federal program that uses the growing field of attribution science to promptly establish to what extent — if any — a specific flood in British Columbia or wildfire in Quebec is due to climate change.

"The idea is to be able to make rapid extreme event attribution days or weeks after the extreme events occur," he said.

Twenty years ago, if you'd asked a scientist if climate change was linked to days of torrential rain or months of desiccating drought, you'd probably get an answer along the lines of "We can't say for sure but this event is consistent with the modelling."

But in 2003, a paper was published suggesting science could do better. Myles Allen of Oxford University borrowed a concept from epidemiology.

"You can say that smoking increases your risk of lung cancer by a certain amount," Gillett said. "In the same way, you can say human-induced climate change increased the risk of a certain event by a certain amount."

Since then, hundreds of attribution papers have been peer-reviewed and published. As well as Canada, governments including the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, South Korea, Japan and the United States are using attribution science.

Attribution science works by comparing climate models. One set of models will use data drawn from actual records while another, otherwise identical, set will be constructed with the influence of greenhouse gases removed.

Simulations will be run using those two sets and the difference in the results reveals the impact of climate change. It allows scientists to say to what extent the presence of greenhouse gases increased the likelihood of the event in question.

"It's probabilistic," Gillett said.

The process is now established enough, with peer-reviewed protocols and standards, that the calculations can be done quickly.

"Once you've got the method in place and it's validated, you really just have to get the observations from that event and you can provide a result," said Gillett.

Some events are easier to study than others. Gillett said his group hopes to be able to come to conclusions on heat waves in about a week, but wildfires, which involve more variables, will take longer.

Speed matters, said Clair Barnes, a researcher with the World Weather Attribution group in the U.K., which has studied the role of climate change since 2015 in more than 50 events around the world — including the finding that the heat wave preceding the fire that levelled Lytton, B.C., was made 150 times more likely by climate change.

"Our aim is to look at high-impact events that are in the news," she said. "There was an appetite in the public and the media for more information about what's really happening now."

Promptly assessing the role of climate change after extreme events brings actual insight and information to the discussion, Barnes said.

"If you spend three years thinking about it, the media has already decided it was climate change or it wasn't climate change and has moved on. If you want to be involved in that discussion and bring some science to that discussion, you've got to move quickly."

But attribution science has more uses than just shaping public debate. Governments are using it inform their adaptation strategies. Financial institutions are using it to assess risk. It's come up in hundreds of court cases around the world attempting to attribute climate liability.

It does have its limitations.

Attribution science can only work where there's enough historical weather data to build an accurate climate model. That leaves out much of the global south, where some of the worst human impacts are occurring. As well, extremely local events are often beyond its resolving power.

"You do have to be careful to communicate the uncertainties," said Gillett. "We shouldn't be overconfident."

There's certainly no shortage of work. Barnes said her group has had to establish a strict protocol that weighs the magnitude of the event, the amount of damage it inflicts and its effect on human lives to weed out which events merit study.

"There are so many events that we just don't have the time to look at them all."

But World Weather Attribution has found the time to consider Canada's wildfires. It's a complex one, so results aren't expected for another month or so.

By then, chances are there will be a new extreme event to consider. When Barnes joined World Weather Awareness, she assumed winter and summer — the times of peak temperature highs and lows — would be the busiest. Not so.

"We've had temperature records set for the last few months and it's not even the peak of boreal summer," she said. "It's just been non-stop."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2023.

Bob weber, The Canadian Press

Memorial for fallen B.C. wildfire fighter held in Revelstoke

The Canadian Press
Sat, July 22, 2023 



REVELSTOKE, B.C. — Family, friends and fellow firefighters paid tribute today to the 19-year-old woman killed while battling wildfires in British Columbia earlier this month.

Devyn Gale died on July 13 after being struck by a falling tree while fighting a wildfire near Revelstoke, B.C.

Gale’s brother and sister, Nolan and Kayln, who are also firefighters, gave emotional speeches about their sister at a public memorial in Revelstoke, calling her compassionate, wise and nurturing.

Casey Robinson of the B.C. Wildfire Service, who interviewed and trained Gale, said he was impressed by her "smarts, her energy and her ability to work hard."

He says Gale was an "excellent firefighter" and encouraged all those in the same field to continue her legacy of "being welcoming, conscientious and open hearted to anyone who joins" their crews.

The service followed a memorial procession that included Gale's BC Wildfire Service colleagues, a Colour Party, Honour Guard and representatives from various first-responder agencies. Community members lined city streets in Revelstoke to watch the march.

Gale is one of three Canadian firefighters who have died battling the hundreds of blazes that are burning across the country.

Adam Yeadon, 25, died last Saturday while fighting a wildfire near his home in Fort Liard, N.W.T.

A 41-year-old helicopter pilot from Whitecourt, Alta., died after his aircraft crashed Wednesday during firefighting operations in that province's northwest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Trinity Nuclear Test’s Fallout Reached 46 States, Canada and Mexico, Study Finds

Lesley M.M. Blume
Fri, July 21, 2023 

An undated photo provided by the National Archives and Records Administration of contaminated film scans that were sent from Rochester, N.Y. to Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the leader of the Manhattan Project, an early indicator that the fallout from the Trinity nuclear test was spreading nationwide. (National Archives and Records Administration via The New York Times)

In July 1945, as J. Robert Oppenheimer and the other researchers of the Manhattan Project prepared to test their brand-new atomic bomb in a New Mexico desert, they knew relatively little about how that mega-weapon would behave.

On July 16, when the plutonium-implosion device was set off atop a 100-foot metal tower in a test code-named “Trinity,” the resultant blast was much stronger than anticipated. The irradiated mushroom cloud also went many times higher into the atmosphere than expected: some 50,000 to 70,000 feet. Where it would ultimately go was anyone’s guess.

A new study, released Thursday before submission to a scientific journal for peer review, shows that the cloud and its fallout went farther than anyone in the Manhattan Project had imagined in 1945. Using state-of-the-art modeling software and recently uncovered historical weather data, the study’s authors say that radioactive fallout from the Trinity test reached 46 states, Canada and Mexico within 10 days of detonation.

“It’s a huge finding and, at the same time, it shouldn’t surprise anyone,” said the study’s lead author, Sébastien Philippe, a researcher and scientist at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security.

The study also reanalyzed fallout from all 93 aboveground U.S. atomic tests in Nevada and created a map depicting composite deposition of radioactive material across the contiguous U.S. (The team also hopes to study U.S. tests over the Pacific Ocean in the future).

How much of Trinity’s fallout still remains at original deposition sites across the country is difficult to calculate, said Susan Alzner, an author of the study and the co-founder of shift7, an organization that coordinated the study’s research. The study documents deposition as it originally hit the ground in 1945.

“It’s a frozen-in-time image,” she said.

The findings could be cited by advocates aiming to increase the number of people eligible for compensation by the federal government for potential exposure to radiation from atmospheric nuclear explosions.

The drift of the Trinity cloud was monitored by Manhattan Project physicists and doctors, but they underestimated its reach.

“They were aware that there were radioactive hazards, but they were thinking about acute risk in the areas around the immediate detonation site,” Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, said. They had little understanding, he said, about how the radioactive materials could embed in ecosystems, near and far. “They were not really thinking about effects of low doses on large populations, which is exactly what the fallout problem is.”

At the time, Dr. Stafford L. Warren, a Manhattan Project physician specializing in nuclear medicine, reported to Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project, that the Trinity cloud “remained towering over the northeast corner of the site for several hours.” Soon, he added, “various levels were seen to move in different directions.” Warren assured Groves that an assessment of the fallout’s reach could be undertaken later on horseback.

In the decades that followed, a lack of crucial data bedeviled assessments and attempted studies of the Trinity test’s fallout. The U.S. had no national monitoring stations in place in 1945 to track the fallout, Philippe said. Plus, essential historical weather and atmospheric data was available only from 1948 onward. Remodeling fallout from tests in Nevada — starting in 1951 — was easier, but Trinity remained frustratingly difficult to reanalyze.

“The data sets for the Nevada tests and the available data that we could possibly find for Trinity were not comparable,” Alzner said. “You couldn’t put them on the same map. We decided to keep pushing.”

Determined to fill in the gaps, the team started the study about 18 months ago. Philippe has extensive background in modeling fallout and was an author of a similar project in 2021 that documented the effects from French nuclear tests.

A breakthrough came in March, when Alzner and Megan Smith, another co-founder of shift7 and a former U.S. chief technology officer in the Obama administration, contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There, Gilbert P. Compo, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado and the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, told the team the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts had only a week earlier released historical data that charted weather patterns extending 30,000 feet or higher above Earth’s surface.

“For the first time, we had the most accurate hourly reconstruction of the weather back to 1940, around the world,” said Compo, who became a co-author on the study. “Every single event that puts something in the air, no matter what it is, can now be tracked, by the hour.”

Using the new data and software built by NOAA, Philippe then reanalyzed Trinity’s fallout. And while the study’s authors acknowledge limitations and uncertainties within their calculations, they maintain that “our estimates likely remain conservatively low.”

“It’s a very comprehensive, well-executed study,” said M.V. Ramana, professor and Simons chair in disarmament, global and human security at the University of British Columbia, who was not involved in the study. Ramana was unsurprised by the study’s findings about Trinity. “I expected that the old estimates were understating what was actually deposited,” he said.

The results show that New Mexico was heavily affected by Trinity’s fallout. Computations by Philippe and his colleagues show the cloud’s trajectory primarily spreading up over northeast New Mexico and a part of the cloud circling to the south and west of ground zero over the next few days. The researchers wrote that there are “locations in New Mexico where radionuclide deposition reached levels on par with Nevada.”

Trinity’s fallout, Philippe says, accounts for 87% of total deposition found across New Mexico, which also received deposition from Nevada’s aboveground tests. The study also found that Socorro County — where the Trinity test took place — has the fifth highest deposition per county of all counties in the United States.

Trinity test “downwinders” — a term describing people who have lived near nuclear test sites and may have been exposed to deadly radioactive fallout — have never been eligible for compensation under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). It has provided over $2.5 billion in payments to nuclear workers in much of the Western U.S. and to downwinders who were located near the Nevada test site and may have developed cancer or other diseases as a result of radiation exposure.

“Despite the Trinity test taking place in New Mexico, many New Mexicans were left out of the original RECA legislation and nobody has ever been able to explain why,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. He has helped lead efforts in Congress to expand and extend the legislation, due to sunset in 2024.

Census data from 1940 shows that as many as 500,000 people were living within a 150-mile radius of the test site. Some families lived as close as 12 miles away, according to the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Yet no civilians were warned about the test ahead of time, and they weren’t evacuated before or after the test.

“This new information about the Trinity bomb is monumental and a long time coming,” Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the consortium, said. “We’ve been waiting for an affirmation of the histories told by generations of people from Tularosa who witnessed the Trinity bomb and talked about how the ash fell from the sky for days afterward.”

The study also documents significant deposition in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho, as well as dozens of federally-recognized tribal lands, potentially strengthening the case for people seeking expanded compensation in those areas.

Although Wellerstein said that he approaches such reanalyses of historical fallout with a certain amount of uncertainty, partly because of the age of the data, he said there is value in such studies by keeping nuclear history and its legacy in the public discourse.

“The extent to which America nuked itself is not completely appreciated still, to this day, by most Americans, especially younger Americans,” he said.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

SPACE NEWS

Supernova Alert: We Will Soon See an Exploding Star in the Night Sky

 

SpaceVerse

Jul 21, 2023  #interstellar #astrophysics #universe

Get ready to witness a breathtaking celestial event as we unveil an extraordinary revelation in the night sky! Brace yourself for the imminent explosion of a massive star, a phenomenon known as a supernova. In this captivating video, we bring you the ultimate cosmic experience as we unravel the secrets and beauty behind this awe-inspiring celestial occurrence.

Prepare to marvel at the sheer magnitude of the imminent supernova in the night sky. Our knowledgeable astronomy experts have researched and scrutinized the celestial patterns, allowing them to predict this mesmerizing display of cosmic fireworks. As the universe constantly evolves, we are fortunate to be part of this rare moment that will forever etch itself into the tapestry of our memories.

Join us as we venture into the depths of outer space, where grandeur meets mystery. This awe-inspiring video not only promises a visual feast for stargazers and astronomers alike but also delves into the fascinating science and symbolism behind supernovae eruptions. Gain a deeper understanding of the cataclysmic forces at play, as we explore the birth, life, and death of these colossal stars.

Immerse yourself in the ethereal beauty of the celestial canopy as it unveils the grand spectacle of a supernova explosion. Witness how the dying star, under immense gravitational pressure, culminates in a glorious burst of light and energy, illuminating vast stretches of the universe. Prepare to be captivated as we unveil the intricate dance of particles and the cosmic aftermath that follows such an extraordinary event.

Stay tuned for this groundbreaking revelation that promises to leave stargazers awestruck. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity to witness a supernova in all its magnificence. Subscribe to our channel and hit the notification bell to receive updates as we navigate the celestial wonders and deliver unparalleled cosmic adventures straight to your screen.

https://www.tor.com/2018/03/29/destruction-and-renewal-nova-by-samuel-r-delany

Destruction and Renewal: Nova by Samuel R. Delany - Tor.co 

Mar 29, 2018 ... In Nova, he created a novel that works on many levels, including myth and legend, unfolding against a solidly-researched science fiction 

In new space race, scientists propose geoarchaeology can aid in preserving space heritage

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

LAWRENCE, KANSAS — As a new space race heats up, two researchers from the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas and their colleagues have proposed a new scientific subfield: planetary geoarchaeology, the study of how cultural and natural processes on Earth’s moon, on Mars and across the solar system may be altering, preserving or destroying the material record of space exploration.

“Until recently, we might consider the material left behind during the space race of the mid-20th century as relatively safe,” said Justin Holcomb, postdoctoral researcher at the Kansas Geological Survey, based at the University of Kansas, and lead author on a new paper introducing the concept of planetary geoarchaeology in the journal Geoarchaeology. “However, the material record that currently exists on the moon is rapidly becoming at risk of being destroyed if proper attention isn’t paid during the new space era.”

Since the advent of space exploration, humans have launched more than 6,700 satellites and spacecraft from countries around the globe, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The United States alone accounts for more than 4,500 civil, commercial, governmental and military satellites.

“We’re trying to draw attention to the preservation, study and documentation of space heritage because I do think there’s a risk to this heritage on the moon,” Holcomb said. “The United States is trying to get boots on the moon again, and China is as well. We’ve already had at least four countries accidentally crash into the moon recently. There are a lot of accidental crashes and not a lot of protections right now.”

Holcomb began considering the idea of planetary geoarchaeology during the COVID-19 lockdown. Applying geoarchaeological tools and methods to the movement of people into space and the solar system is a natural extension of the study of human migration on Earth, the focus of the ODYSSEY Archaeological Research Program housed at KGS and directed by Holcomb’s co-author, Rolfe Mandel, KGS senior scientist and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology.

“Human migration out of Africa may have occurred as early as 150,000 years ago, and space travel represents the latest stage of that journey,” Mandel said. “Although the ODYSSEY program is focused on documenting the earliest evidence of people in the Americas, the next frontier for similar research will be in space.”

How planetary geoarchaeologists will determine whether an item is worth preserving is an open question.

“We feel that all material currently existing on extraterrestrial surfaces is space heritage and worthy of protection,” Holcomb said. “However, some sites, such as the very first footprints on the moon at Tranquility Base or the first lander on Mars, Viking 1, represent the material footprint of a long history of migration.”

Beyond those “firsts,” sifting through the hundreds of thousands of bits of material currently in orbit or strewn across the surfaces of the moon and Mars — what many call “trash” but Holcomb and his colleagues regard as heritage — will require case-by-case decision making.

“We have to make those decisions all the time with archaeological sites today,” Holcomb said. “The moon has such a limited record now that it’s totally possible to protect all of it. Certainly, we need to protect space heritage related to the Apollo missions, but other countries, too, deserve to have their records protected.”

With resources for protecting space heritage limited, Holcomb and his colleagues advocate for developing systems to track materials left in space.

“We should begin tracking our material record as it continues to expand, both to preserve the earliest record but also to keep a check on our impact on extraterrestrial environments,” he said. “It’s our job as anthropologists and archaeologists to bring issues of heritage to the forefront.”

Beyond the moon, Holcomb wants to see planetary geoarchaeology extend to issues related to exploration and migration to Mars. He points to NASA’s Spirit Rover as an example. The rover became stuck in Martian sand in 2008 and now risks being completely covered by encroaching sand dunes.

“As planetary geoarchaeologists, we can predict when the rover will be buried, talk about what will happen when it’s buried and make sure it’s well documented before it’s lost,” he said. “Planetary scientists are rightfully interested in successful missions, but they seldom think about the material left behind. That’s the way we can work with them.”

Holcomb believes geoarchaeologists should be included in future NASA missions to ensure the protection and safety of space heritage. Meanwhile, geoarchaeologists on Earth can lay the foundation for that work, including advocating for laws to protect and preserve space heritage, studying the effects extraterrestrial ecosystems have on items space missions leave behind and conducting international discussions regarding space heritage preservation and protection issues.

As for being part of a space mission himself?

“I’ll leave that to other geoarchaeologists,” Holcomb said. “There’s plenty to do down here, but I do hope to see an archaeologist in space before it’s all over.”

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JOURNAL

Geoarchaeology

DOI

10.1002/gea.21966 

ARTICLE TITLE

Planetary geoarchaeology as a new frontier in archaeological science: Evaluating site formation processes on Earth's Moon

Two planets sharing same orbit around their 

star? Astronomers find strongest evidence yet

Wed, July 19, 2023 



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers reported Wednesday the discovery of what could be two planets sharing the same orbit around their star.

They said it’s the strongest evidence yet of this bizarre cosmic pairing, long suspected but never proven.

Using a telescope in Chile, the Spanish-led team spotted a cloud of debris in the same orbit as an already confirmed planet circling this star, 370 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. They suspect it’s either a planet in formation or remnants of a planet that once was.

Asteroids are known to accompany planets around their star — for example, Jupiter and its so-called Trojan asteroids. But planets in the same orbit “have so far been like unicorns,” noted study co-author Jorge Lillo-Box of Madrid’s Center for Astrobiology.

“They are allowed to exist by theory, but no one has ever detected them,” he said in a statement.

The scientists said they will need to wait until 2026 in order to properly track the two objects around the star known as PDS 70.

The confirmed planet with the suspected tagalong takes 119 years to complete a lap. A gas giant, it’s three times the size of Jupiter. Another gas giant is known to circle this star, albeit from a much greater distance.

Lead author Olga Balsalobre-Ruza of the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid, said the findings, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, are “the first evidence” that such double worlds might exist.

“We can imagine that a planet can share its orbit with thousands of asteroids as in the case of Jupiter, but it is mind-blowing to me that planets could share the same orbit," she said in a statement.

___

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.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

To stick or to bounce: Size determines the stickiness of cosmic dust aggregates

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MICROMETER-SCALE DUST PARTICLES FROM PROTOPLANETARY DISKS, OR SITES AROUND STARS WITH PARTICLES AND HYDROGEN AND/OR OTHER GASSES, AGGREGATE TO FORM PLANETESIMALS, OR KILOMETER-SCALE BUILDING BLOCKS OF PLANETS. PLANETESIMALS, IN TURN, MERGE DUE TO MUTUAL GRAVITY. view more 

CREDIT: JAMSTEC

Microparticle dust aggregates, which are thought to play a role in the formation of new planets, are less likely to stick together after a collision when the aggregates are larger.

Current evidence suggests that microparticles of cosmic dust collide and stick together to form larger dust aggregates that may eventually combine and develop into planets. Numerical models that accurately characterize the conditions required for colliding microparticle aggregates to stick together, rather than bounce apart, are therefore paramount to understanding the evolution of planets. Recent modeling suggests that dust aggregates are less likely to stick together after a collision as the size of the aggregates increases.

A team of astrophysicists performed numerical simulations of dust aggregate collisions, with equal-mass aggregates varying between 10,000 and 140,000 microns (one to 14 cm) in size, using soft-sphere discrete element methods. The discrete modeling system accounted for each particle within the aggregate rather than treating the aggregate as a single entity, and soft-sphere simulation assumed the rigidity of each particle of the aggregate but allowed for deformations that may occur during collision. Their modeling indicated that increasing the radius of microparticle dust aggregates decreased the sticking probability, or likelihood that two aggregates would stick together and form a larger aggregate after collision.

The team published the results of their study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"The formation process of kilometer-sized bodies, planetesimals, from cosmic dust, which is the initial stage of planet formation, has been one of the biggest problems in the theory of planet formation," said Hidekazu Tanaka, one of the authors of the study and professor at the Astronomical Institute in the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. "The present study showed that the dust clumps that are the material for planets stop growing when they grow to a certain size, as large clumps are difficult to adhere to each other. Our results made the problem of planetesimal formation even more difficult. The adhesive growth of dust clumps is a key process in the planet-formation process."

The simulations suggest that collisional bouncing between large microparticle aggregates would decrease the formation of planetesimals, or the building blocks of planets. Kilometer-scale planetesimals form planets through collisional merging via mutual gravity.

Earlier modeling simulations and laboratory experiments characterizing the threshold for the sticking/bouncing barrier of dust aggregate collisions often produced conflicting results, which the research team and others hypothesized was due to varying sizes of aggregates. The results of the current study support this hypothesis.

It is currently unclear why the size of aggregates affects the sticking probability during a collision. Future studies aimed at dissecting the packing structure of aggregates over time may help scientists understand how aggregates can approach the scale of planetesimals. Studies of the contact sites between aggregates, where most energy is dissipated, after a collision may also unveil how larger aggregates eventually stick together.

Additionally, the simulations performed by the research team suggest that the sticking probability of particle aggregates may also be affected by the size of the individual particles that make up the aggregate and not just the radius of the entire aggregate.

The team acknowledges that the simulations they have performed in this study are far from comprehensive. Simulations that include aggregates that can be prepared by realistic procedures and that address acceleration will be performed, and laboratory experiments that will fine-tune the model are also planned.

Beyond these simulations, the team has their sights set on larger aggregates, which may fundamentally change current theories of planet development. "We will use a supercomputer to perform large-scale numerical simulations of collisions between even larger dust clumps in order to investigate how difficult it is for large dust clumps to attach to each other. This will help to settle the question of whether the formation of planetesimals is possible through the adhesion of dust clumps or not," said Tanaka.

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JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/acdb5f 

Hubble images a starstruck galaxy

Reports and Proceedings

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

 

IMAGE: THE IRREGULAR GALAXY ARP 263 LURKS IN THE BACKGROUND OF THIS IMAGE FROM THE NASA/ESA HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, BUT THE VIEW IS DOMINATED BY A STELLAR PHOTOBOMBER, THE BRIGHT STAR BD+17 2217. ARP 263 – ALSO KNOWN AS NGC 3239 – IS A PATCHY, IRREGULAR GALAXY STUDDED WITH REGIONS OF RECENT STAR FORMATION, AND ASTRONOMERS BELIEVE THAT ITS RAGGED APPEARANCE IS DUE TO ITS HAVING FORMED FROM THE MERGER OF TWO GALAXIES. IT LIES AROUND 25 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS AWAY IN THE CONSTELLATION LEO. TWO DIFFERENT HUBBLE INVESTIGATIONS INTO ARP 263, USING TWO OF HUBBLE’S INSTRUMENTS, CONTRIBUTED DATA TO THIS IMAGE. THE FIRST INVESTIGATION WAS PART OF AN EFFORT TO OBSERVE THE SITES OF RECENT SUPERNOVAE, SUCH AS THE SUPERNOVA SN 2012A THAT WAS DETECTED JUST OVER A DECADE AGO IN ARP 263. ASTRONOMERS USED HUBBLE’S POWERFUL WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 TO SEARCH FOR LINGERING REMNANTS OF THE COLOSSAL STELLAR EXPLOSION. THE SECOND INVESTIGATION IS PART OF A CAMPAIGN USING HUBBLE’S ADVANCED CAMERA FOR SURVEYS TO IMAGE ALL THE PREVIOUSLY UNOBSERVED PECULIAR GALAXIES IN THE ARP CATALOG, INCLUDING ARP 263, IN ORDER TO FIND PROMISING SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY USING THE NASA/ESA/CSA JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE. THE INTERLOPING FOREGROUND STAR, BD+17 2217, IS ADORNED WITH TWO SETS OF CRISSCROSSING DIFFRACTION SPIKES. THE INTERACTION OF LIGHT WITH HUBBLE’S INTERNAL STRUCTURE MEANS THAT CONCENTRATED BRIGHT OBJECTS, SUCH AS STARS, ARE SURROUNDED BY FOUR PROMINENT SPIKES. SINCE THIS IMAGE OF BD+17 2217 WAS CREATED USING TWO SETS OF HUBBLE DATA, THE SPIKES FROM BOTH IMAGES SURROUND THIS STELLAR PHOTOBOMBER. THE SPIKES ARE AT DIFFERENT ANGLES BECAUSE HUBBLE WAS AT DIFFERENT ORIENTATIONS WHEN IT COLLECTED THE TWO DATASETS. view more 

CREDIT: TEXT CREDIT: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/HUBBLE & NASA, J. DALCANTON, A. FILIPPENKO

Space telescope detects supernova blast so bright instruments couldn’t keep up

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Wed, July 19, 2023

The explosion was so bright instruments struggled to keep up (University of Alabama in Huntsville)

A space telescope has detected a gamma ray burst (GRBs) so bright instruments couldn’t keep up with it, triggered by the collapse of a massive, distant star.

Gamma ray bursts are hugely energetic explosions – and this is believed to be the brightest ever observed.

It was accompanied by a huge supernova explosion, leaving behind a black hole.

Dr Peter Veres, an assistant professor with CSPAR, said: "During a GRB, we see the death of a massive star, approximately 30 times more massive than the sun, and the formation of a black hole."

"The black hole launches a very fast jet close to the speed of light, and the jet will produce the gamma-ray burst. At later times, GRBs are visible at other wavelengths as well, from radio, or optical through very high-energy gamma-rays, which is called the afterglow of the GRB.

"This GRB was so bright, the afterglow showed up in the gamma ray burst monitor, which is very uncommon, and we could follow it for almost three hours.”

Read more: Mysterious “rogue planet” could be even weirder than we thought

The explosion came from 2.4 billion light-years away in the constellation Sagitta.

GRB 221009A is also one of the nearest and possibly most energetic GRBs ever found, as detailed in a paper on the arXiv preprint server, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The GBM is an instrument in low-Earth orbit aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope that can see the entire gamma-ray sky not blocked by the Earth and hunts for GRBs as part of its main programme.

Read more: Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth

"This gamma-ray burst was extremely bright. We expect to see one like this only every 10,000 years or so," says Dr Veres.

"We routinely detect GRBs at a rate of about five per week and keep an eye out if any of the GRBs are special in some way.

“This one was so bright, the instrument couldn't keep up with the large number of incoming photons. Most of the work, led by Stephen Lesage, was to figure out how to reconstruct the lost counts."

When the gamma rays enter these detectors, they interact with crystals in the instrument. The more energetic the gamma ray, the more light is produced.

By seeing which crystals light up, the GBM can tell the direction of the bursts. In all, the Fermi instrument has discovered over 3,500 GRBs, and 221009A is by far the brightest ever detected.