World’s first CO2 storage service soon ready in Norway


By AFP
September 25, 2024


Wildfires in Canada have generated record CO2 emissions

 - Copyright Nova Scotia Government/AFP/File Handout

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES

Norway is set to inaugurate Thursday the gateway to a massive undersea vault for carbon dioxide, a crucial step before opening what its operator calls the first commercial service offering CO2 transport and storage.

The Northern Lights project plans to take CO2 emissions captured at factory smokestacks in Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs under the seabed.

The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change.

On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone will be marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, its shiny storage tanks rising up against the sky.

It is here that the liquified CO2 will be transported by boat, then injected through a long pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles), for permanent storage.

The facility, a joint venture grouping oil giants Equinor of Norway, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies of France, is expected to bury its first CO2 deliveries in 2025.

It will have an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, before being ramped up to five million tonnes in a second phase if there is enough demand.

“Our first purpose is to demonstrate that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain is feasible,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn told AFP.

“It can make a real impact on the CO2 balance and help achieve climate targets,” he said.



– Prohibitive cost –



CCS technology is complex and costly but has been advocated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to decarbonise.

The world’s overall capture capacity is currently just 50.5 million tonnes, according to the IEA, or barely 0.1 percent of the world’s annual total emissions.

In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, CCS would have to prevent at least one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2030, the IEA says.

The technology is still in the early stages, and has been slow to develop because of prohibitive costs — compared to the price companies have to pay for CO2 emission quotas, for example.

It therefore depends heavily on subsidies.

“Public support was and will be crucial to help such innovative projects to advance, especially as CCS costs are still higher than the costs of CO2 emissions in Europe,” said Daniela Peta, public affairs director at the Global CCS Institute.

The Norwegian government has financed 80 percent of the cost of Northern Lights, which has been kept confidential.

The Scandinavian country is Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer.

The North Sea, with its depleted oil and gas fields and its vast network of pipelines, is an ideal region to bury unwanted greenhouse gases.

– Greenwashing? –

Northern Lights is part of an ambitious 30-billion-kroner ($2.9 billion) scheme dubbed “Longship” — after the Viking ships — of which the state has provided 20 billion kroner.

The plan initially included the creation of two CO2 capture sites in Norway.

While the Heidelberg Materials cement factory in Brevik is expected to begin shipping its captured emissions to the site next year, snowballing costs have forced the waste-to-energy plant Hafslund Celsio in Oslo to review its plans.

In addition, Northern Lights has also secured cross-border deals with Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara and energy group Orsted to bury CO2 from an ammonia plant in the Netherlands and two biomass power stations in Denmark.

Some environmentalists worry the technology could provide an excuse to prolong the use of fossil fuels and divert funds needed for renewable energies.

They have also raised concerns about the risk of leaks.

“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” said the head of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the project was run by oil companies.

“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are used by the oil industry in a cynical way to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.

City that could have been: Untold story of Russia’s Vologda

If fate had played out differently, Russian city of Vologda might have been crowned capital of Russia

Elena Teslova |17.09.2024 - TRT/AA



MOSCOW

Far in the northwest of Russia lies Vologda, a city nestled in one of the country’s most authentically Russian regions and known for its developed industries and beautiful nature.

If fate had turned out differently, it might have been crowned the capital of Russia.

Vologda is as old as Moscow itself, with both cities born in 1147, according to ancient manuscripts. Throughout the turbulent centuries, as foreign invaders swept across the land, Vologda's geographical embrace shielded it from destruction.

By the 16th century, it had blossomed into one of the most vital hubs for Russia’s trade with England, Holland and other Western lands. In 1555, the British, drawn by its promise, opened their trading office in Vologda, and the first Russian ambassador to England, Osip Nepea, hailed from this storied city.

But the winds of history took a dramatic turn in 1564. Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, found himself beleaguered by both foreign invasions and the threat of rebellion. With turmoil brewing in Moscow, the tsar sought refuge in Vologda. Accompanied by his family, the royal treasury, priceless icons and symbols of power, he made his way to this northern city with dreams of forging a new capital.

Vologda, strategically positioned at the gateway of the Northern Sea Route, held immense promise. Its coat of arms, adorned with an open gate, symbolized an invitation to Europe, a pathway to the world beyond. The tsar envisioned fleets sailing from its shores, and in moments of peril, he imagined Vologda as a safe haven from which he could retreat.

"Without hesitation, Ivan IV set his grand plans into motion. He commanded the construction of a magnificent cathedral and a mighty kremlin, a fortress to rival even Moscow's Kremlin. Noble families, drawn by the tsar's vision, began to buy land and build their lives in Vologda's embrace," Larisa Gulneva, head of the Excursion and Educational Department of the Vologda Museum, said in an interview with Anadolu.

In the tsar’s grand design, the new fortress was to be twice the size of the Moscow Kremlin, which today stands as the largest active fortress in Europe. Vologda also became the spiritual heart of a new diocese, elevating the city to a place of religious significance, she said.

"Yet, as fate would have it, destiny had other plans. In 1571, as Ivan IV personally oversaw the construction of the grand Saint Sophia Cathedral, a mysterious omen appeared. A brick, or perhaps a piece of plaster, fell from the cathedral and struck the tsar. According to the chronicler Ivan Slobodsky, the tsar interpreted this as a sign — a rejection by the very ground on which he stood," she noted.

In Russian folklore, such signs were powerful, Gulneva emphasized, adding: "Holy places were believed to possess great spiritual energy, and for one to be rejected by such a place was an ill omen indeed, fraught with dire consequences. Whether it was superstition, paranoia or a deep-seated fear that drove him, Ivan IV decided that Vologda was not meant to be his capital. Mounting his horse, he left the city, never to return."

But Vologda’s story did not end there. The city thrived, bolstered by the tsar’s investment and vision, she said.

"In 1918, following the Great Russian Revolution, Vologda briefly became the "diplomatic capital of Russia," hosting embassies, consulates and missions as diplomats sought refuge from the advancing German troops. Though the diplomats eventually left, Vologda’s legacy remained," she added.

Today, the Vologda region is a beacon of prosperity, with thriving industries, rich agriculture and historic treasures. Its educational and sports centers are strong, and its people, the region's greatest asset, continue to shape its future.

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, Vologda stands as the most mono-national city in Russia. Over 96% of its residents are Russian, their features reflecting the global image of the Russian people—blonde hair, blue eyes and freckled faces.

The region's nature is also quintessentially Russian, painted in soft hues of green, white, blue and violet, a serene palette that soothes the soul.

Vologda may not have claimed the title of Russia's capital, but its spirit remains indomitable. Its story is one of resilience and quiet strength, where the past and present weave together to create a city like no other. As head of the region Georgy Filimonov declares, Vologda’s success is a testament to its people — the true treasure of this northern land.

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

HERITAGE: IN SEARCH OF MELUHHA

Ali Bhutto

DAWN

Published September 8, 2024

The archaeological site of Nahuto, in Umerkot district, where artefacts dating back to the Hakra Ware Phase and the Mature Harappan Phase have been found | Photos by the writer


The bangles cover Radha Kohli’s arms from wrist till shoulder and resemble a coat of armour. Radha, who says her name means “God’s wife,” is the only midwife for miles in the area surrounding the village of Nahuto. This western periphery of the Thar Desert is referred to in the local dialect as ‘Mohrano’, or the beginning, where the dunes gradually give way to the fertile plain of the River Indus.

Radha is known as the village doctor and turns up when called, even if at midnight, in the villages that lie in the vicinity. Trained by her mother-in-law, it took her thirty years to master the art of delivering babies. “Of the nine women in the house, she chose me,” she tells Eos.

In the Thar Desert, bangles signify marital status. Jheeni Kohli, who says her name means “soft-spoken”, discarded her bangles the day her husband died. Like most women in the village, her palms bear the rope-marks of years spent drawing water from wells.

THE LOST CITY OF NAHUTO


Local lore has it that the perennial Hakra River once flowed half a mile from Nahuto. The story goes that the area was a trading post of nine-hundred huts — or shops — and it is from here that the village gets its name — pronounced Nau-hut-o — according to Faqir Irshad Kunbhar, a local resident. One of the defining characteristics of the lost city was the large number of washermen that could be seen washing clothes along the banks of the Hakra.

Within sight of the village, amidst shrubs of euphorbia, lies a mound littered with shards of pottery, bricks and occasionally, bones. It is locally referred to as Nahutojo Bhiro. The word bhiro is the Thari equivalent for daro, or mound, and the name translates into the Mound of Nahuto.

Hoth Khashkeli, a resident of the neighbouring village of Mohobat Ali Shah, was among the locals hired by the provincial department of archaeology to help excavate the site in 2018. Hoth points to the exact spots on the north-eastern side of the mounds, where trenches were dug and then refilled with earth to preserve the ruins.


Despite being among the most advanced of the ancient civilisations, little is known about the Indus Valley Civilisation to this day. Ali Bhutto examines its various aspects, including evidence that hints at a strong matriarchal element, and a lesser-known archaeological site on the peripheries of the Thar Desert…

The excavations lasted three months and were conducted by Qasid Mallah, the chairman of the archaeology department at the Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur, and a six-member team. “They said the site was around five-thousand years old,” Hoth tells Eos.

Hoth’s eyes light up when he talks about the skeleton of a large fish that was unearthed here, in the middle of the desert. He also recalls seeing an ornament that depicted the head of a crocodile. (In the winter of 1926-27, a 2.5-inch crocodile head made of shell had been found by the archaeologist Daya Ram Sahni in Mohenjo Daro).

Muhammad Hassan Khashkeli, another local who was among the excavators at Nahuto, says that beads and figurines had also been found. The Sindhi word he uses to describe the latter is “goodi.”

Mallah tells Eos that the site dates back to the Hakra Ware phase (3500 to 3000 BC). The most common find was Hakra pottery, which is handmade, but there was also material dating to the period between 2600 and 1900 BC, when cities like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa were flourishing.

Based on the evidence collected, he believes that this too was once a large city. The artefacts found included human figurines, jewellery and the skeleton of a fish that, when living, would have weighed around 10 kilogrammes, according to him.

“Nahuto was the gateway to Gujarat [in modern-day India],” says Mallah. It served as an ancient junction of sorts. Caravans travelling from the area that is currently Gujarat would have passed through here to get to the cities of Mohenjo Daro, Chahunjo Daro and Lakhanjo Daro, according to him. Similarly, the spot would have been central to journeys made in the opposite direction.

Asma Ibrahim, an archaeologist who is also the founding director of the State Bank of Pakistan Museum and Art Gallery, believes that there was constant intermingling between the people of the Indus Civilisation and those of the wider region, including Central Asia.

Ibrahim, who has done a post-doctorate in archaeological chemistry and whose area of focus is ancient human bones, tells Eos that there was a continuous influx of people across the Kirthar Range, throughout the third millennium BC and earlier. She describes it as a slow migration.

“We have evidence that, during the winters, they were coming down to this area and then they were mixing up, and intermarriages were happening,” she says. “It was a very common thing.”

Figurines from Mehrgarh depicted with elaborate hairdos, on display at the National Museum in Karachi

‘THE BLACK LAND’ OF ANCIENT TEXTS

A Sumerian mythological text from the third millennium BC, titled Enki and the World Order, refers to an exotic land called Meluhha. It is described as a place of abundance and an exporter of luxury goods. The text sings the praises of Meluhha, and mentions, among other things, that it is home to the peacock — a bird indigenous to South and Southeast Asia.

In this text, and a later one, titled The Curse of Agade, dating back to the beginning of the second millennium BC, Meluhha is referred to as “the black land.” The reason behind this is unclear, but some scholars attribute it to the black soil of its cotton fields.

A report of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), for the year 1926-27, provides an interesting clue. “The Babylonian and Greek names for cotton (sindhu and sindon, respectively) have always pointed to the Indus Valley as the home of cotton growing,” writes John Marshall, the director-general of the ASI. He had found pieces of finely woven cotton and evidence of cotton weaving at Mohenjo Daro.

According to Mallah, “the black land” might refer to parts of Gujarat — where black soil, formed from volcanic rocks, occurs naturally. Similarly, black soil can also be found in the Deccan Plateau.

Nilofar Shaikh, an archaeologist and chairperson of the Centre for Documentation and Conservation of the Heritage of Sindh — located at the Endowment Fund Trust’s office in Jamshoro — tells Eos that all the items mentioned in the Sumerian texts as coming from Meluhha, have been found at Indus sites such as Mohenjo Daro.

On the basis of archaeological evidence, Meluhha is believed to be the Indus Civilisation, according to Shaikh. It covered an area that includes Sindh, Punjab, southern and eastern Balochistan, Gujarat, Haryana, and pockets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Indian Punjab, northern Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh and southern Jammu and Kashmir.

Marco Madella, an environmental archaeologist and professor at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, who has surveyed Sindh for potential archaeological sites, describes it as a very international civilisation. “It had connection with many parts of the world. And to think that was 5,000 years ago, that’s something incredible,” he observes.

One of the statues found by KN Dikshit in Mohenjo Daro, on display at the National Museum in Karachi. Archaeologists believe the statues were a reflection of how women of the Indus cities dressed

ECHOES OF THE PRESENT

Kaleemullah Lashari, who heads the Technical Consultative Committee for National Funds for Mohenjo Daro, believes that using the translation of certain words might result in people missing the context, while referring to terms such as Meluhha and the black land.

“It is often said that Meluhha may have been an area that included Makran, Sindh and parts of Gujarat, or it may have been an area within this larger region,” Lashari tells Eos. There were reasons why specific words were used and they often had connotations that were very different to what they are translated into, according to him.

“Of all the artefacts found at Indus sites, we have mainly jewellery more than anything else,” observes Tasleem Abro, who is the director of the Archaeology and Anthropology Museum at the Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur. “We have found women’s finger impressions on pottery,” she says, adding that even back then, they were “working women.”

The custom of wearing bangles on the entire length of the arm was widespread among women in Sindh up until about 200 years ago, after which it reduced significantly, according to historian and scholar Badar Abro. “Thar is the living museum of Mohenjo Daro,” he says.

“One thing we have to be careful [about] is not to try to connect things in a direct way, because, at the end of the day, if you want to use some adornment on your arms, what do you have? Bracelets,” says Madella. “The same object, when we move it from one society to another, can have radically different meanings,” he adds.

While conducting excavations at Mohenjo Daro in the winter of 1924-25, the archaeologist Kashinath Dikshit found a seven-inch statue of a female adorned with jewellery and an elaborate headdress. He would, over the course of that season, unearth 200 human figurines, mostly female.

Dikshit associated these with the cult of the Mother Goddess and noted in his report that “the female energy, or ‘mother principle’” were central to some of the earliest forms of worship in the ancient world. He believed, as do some archaeologists today, that the sculptures are a reflection of how the women of the Indus Civilisation dressed.

Over the next two years, Dikshit recovered two hoards of ancient jewellery in gold, semi-precious stones and ivory. The items included bangles, ear ornaments, hair clasps, combs, hairpins and a necklace.

In the excavation season of 1925-26, another archaeologist, Madho Vats, found a copper statuette of what “appears to be a dancing girl,” according to his colleague Sahni’s report for that year. This label seems to have stuck, as it was used in the reports that followed and is applied till this day.

In the following year, Sahni would find another “naked dancing girl.” He noted that one of its arms was “covered with bangles from the shoulder to the wrist.” Similarly, in 1930-31, a third statue, also referred to as a dancing girl, was found by British archaeologist Ernest Mackay.

It emerges from these early reports that the ‘Priest King’ label, like that of the dancing girl, was a result of an attempt to describe and make sense of an artefact. When the male bust was found by Dikshit in 1924-25, Mackay wrote in the report for that year, “It seems probable that this head is that of a priest, for priestly statues have been found in Babylonia, wearing garments very similarly decorated with trefoils”.

Ancient jewellery in gold and semi-precious stones on display at the Harappa Museum



THE MATRIARCHS OF THE INDUS

Among the numerous seals that surfaced in Mohenjo Daro, there were some that depicted a human figure wearing a horned headdress, seated in what Mackay describes in his report for the year 1928-29, as “a yoga attitude.” The figure’s arms, Mackay writes, are “adorned with bracelets.”

Indian archaeologists Madhukar Dhavalikar and Shubhangana Atre believe that the figure in the seal is a female. In a research paper published in 1989, they refer to it as “Lady of the Beasts,” or the goddess of fertility.

According to Dhavalikar and Atre, two other seals, found in Mohenjo Daro showing a religious ritual, contain depictions of female devotees and a high priestess. In the seals, the devotees are shown with long braids, while the high priestess wears a horned headdress.

“Women had a very high place in that society,” says Asma Ibrahim, adding, “We have come to know that women were the head of the house.”

A stroll through Mohenjo Daro’s residential neighbourhood reveals that its inhabitants enjoyed better standards of living than most people of the area do today.

In the late eighties, a group of physical anthropologists conducted studies on skeletons in a cemetery at Harappa and found that the women buried there were closely related to one another, while the men weren’t related to each other, or to the women (Pakistan Archaeology, 1993).

Indus figurines on display at the Harappa Museum

On the basis of these findings, American archaeologist Mark Kenoyer, who was in charge of the excavations, writes in Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, that “a woman was buried near her mother and grandmother, and a man was buried near his wife’s ancestors rather than his own.”

It seemed to suggest that it was the husband who was entering the wife’s family, rather than the other way round. Kenoyer goes on to mention that further studies are needed to confirm this theory.

“Genetic studies from the Indus are problematic, because there are not many cemeteries in general,” says Madella. The other problem, he tells Eos, is that the climate of the region is not conducive to the preservation of organic material, such as DNA or collagen, in skeletons. There is, therefore, “very little preservation of the molecules that would have been used for doing this kind of analysis,” he notes.

Lashari tells Eos that the matriarchal element grows stronger the further back one goes, to settlements in the Greater Indus Region, such as Mehrgarh, a site in Balochistan, believed to date back to the 8th millennium BC.

“The radiocarbon chronology of Mehrgarh is a complete disaster and it is absolutely unreliable,” Italian Paolo Biagi, an archaeologist and senior researcher at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, tells Eos via email.

“They made just a few dates, which are very obsolete and the results do not follow the suggested techno-typological sequence,” Biagi says. The only way to know the real chronology of Mehrgarh is to date as many of the human bone remains as possible, he adds.

Mehrgarh figurines dating back to the end of the fourth millennium BC are described in the Mehrgarh Field Reports 1974-1985 as having “heavy pendulous breasts” and a “hooked nose.” Figurines from this period, and the ones from the middle of the third millennium BC, have elaborate, even glamorous hairstyles, setting them apart from those found at Indus sites like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.

According to Asma Ibrahim, a study needs to be conducted on who was making these complex hairdos during that period and the specialised skills involved. “They have more than five-hundred hairstyles in Mehrgarh,” she says, referring to the figurines.

“If you look at the comparison between the Early Indus period [3300-2600 BC] and the Mature period [2600-1900 BC], there’s a lot of change,” says Nilofar Shaikh. “There is continuity — we have evidence here, but suddenly we have these cities rising up on the banks of the rivers,” she adds.

During this period, there is another change: items in ivory, gold and silver, are being produced on a large scale in Indus cities, whereas in the earlier period, there are only one or two odd cases of gold or silver being found, according to Shaikh.

She says that studies need to be carried out on what triggered these changes. The transfer of technology“ and ‘the exchange of knowledge’ were a result of constant contact with the wider region, including Mesopotamia and Sistan (Iran), according to her.

“Until and unless our own script is deciphered — of the Indus — we cannot say much,” she says.

The writer is a Karachi-based journalist who has written for local and international publications.

His work can be found at alibhutto.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 8th, 2024

 SPACE

 

Gigantic asteroid impact shifted the axis of Solar System's biggest moon

Kobe University

 

image: 

Kobe University HIRATA Naoyuki was the first to realize that the location of an asteroid impact on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is almost precisely on the meridian farthest away from Jupiter. This implied that Ganymede had undergone a reorientation of its rotational axis and allowed Hirata to calculate what kind of impact could have caused this to happen.

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Credit: HIRATA Naoyuki

Around 4 billion years ago, an asteroid hit the Jupiter moon Ganymede. Now, a Kobe University researcher realized that the Solar System's biggest moon's axis has shifted as a result of the impact, which confirmed that the asteroid was around 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth, and caused one of the biggest impacts with clear traces in the Solar System.

Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, bigger even than the planet Mercury, and is also interesting for the liquid water oceans beneath its icy surface. Like the Earth’s moon, it is tidally locked, meaning that it always shows the same side to the planet it is orbiting and thus also has a far side. On large parts of its surface, the moon is covered by furrows that form concentric circles around one specific spot, which led researchers in the 1980s to conclude that they are the results of a major impact event. “The Jupiter moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto all have interesting individual characteristics, but the one that caught my attention was these furrows on Ganymede,” says the Kobe University planetologist HIRATA Naoyuki. He continues, “We know that this feature was created by an asteroid impact about 4 billion years ago, but we were unsure how big this impact was and what effect it had on the moon.”

Data from the remote object is scarce making research very difficult, and so Hirata was the first to realize that the purported location of the impact is almost precisely on the meridian farthest away from Jupiter. Drawing from similarities with an impact event on Pluto that caused the dwarf planet’s rotational axis to shift and that we learned about through the New Horizons space probe, this implied that Ganymede, too, had undergone such a reorientation. Hirata is a specialist in simulating impact events on moons and asteroids, so this realization allowed him to calculate what kind of impact could have caused this reorientation to happen.

In the journal Scientific Reports, the Kobe University researcher now published that the asteroid probably had a diameter of around 300 kilometers, about 20 times as large as the one that hit the Earth 65 million years ago and ended the age of the dinosaurs, and created a transient crater between 1,400 and 1,600 kilometers in diameter. (Transient craters, widely used in lab and computational simulations, are the cavities produced directly after the crater excavation and before material settles in and around the crater.) According to his simulations, only an impact of this size would make it likely that the change in the distribution of mass could cause the moon’s rotational axis to shift into its current position. This result holds true irrespective of where on the surface the impact occurred.

“I want to understand the origin and evolution of Ganymede and other Jupiter moons. The giant impact must have had a significant impact on the early evolution of Ganymede, but the thermal and structural effects of the impact on the interior of Ganymede have not yet been investigated at all. I believe that further research applying the internal evolution of ice moons could be carried out next,” explains Hirata.

Interesting for its subsurface oceans, Ganymede is the final destination of ESA’s JUICE space probe. If everything goes well, the spacecraft will enter orbit around the moon in 2034 and will make observations for six months, sending back a wealth of data that will help answer Hirata’s questions.

This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grants 20K14538 and 20H04614) and the Hyogo Science and Technology Association.

Kobe University is a national university with roots dating back to the Kobe Commercial School founded in 1902. It is now one of Japan’s leading comprehensive research universities with nearly 16,000 students and nearly 1,700 faculty in 10 faculties and schools and 15 graduate schools. Combining the social and natural sciences to cultivate leaders with an interdisciplinary perspective, Kobe University creates knowledge and fosters innovation to address society’s challenges.

240903-Hirata-Ganymede-

On large parts of its surface, the Jupiter moon Ganymede is covered by furrows (right) that form concentric circles around one specific spot (left, red cross), which led researchers in the 1980s to conclude that they are the results of a major impact event.

240903-Hirata-Ganymede-Topography 

Distribution of furrows and the location of the center of the furrow system shown in the hemisphere that always faces away from Jupiter (top) and the cylindrical projection map of Ganymede (bottom). The gray regions represent geologically young terrain without furrows. Furrows (green lines) exist only on geologically old terrains (black regions).

Credit

HIRATA Naoyuki

---

Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-69914-2 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Giant impact on early Ganymede and its subsequent reorientation

Article Publication Date

3-Sep-2024

Sulfurous acid H2SO3 - and it does exist

World's first proof under atmospheric conditions calls textbook opinion into question

Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)

 

image: 

The team that achieved the world's first detection of sulfurous acid (H2SO3) under atmospheric conditions in the TROPOS laboratory: Dr Erik H. Hoffmann, Dr Torsten Berndt and Dr Andreas Tilgner (from left to right).

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Credit: Ricarda Graefe, TROPOS

 

Leipzig. Once again, the atmosphere amazes us with its diverse chemical processes. For the first time, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig have demonstrated the existence of sulfurous acid (H2SO3) under atmospheric conditions in the gas phase. The results were published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

 

 

In contrast to the well-known sulfuric acid (H2SO4), sulfurous acid (H2SO3) is considered as compound that is difficult or impossible to access (produce). Textbooks suggest the possible formation of H2SO3 in aqueous sulfur dioxide (SO2) solution, although its existence in isolated form is considered impossible. However, despite great efforts using various spectroscopic methods, the experimental detection of H2SO3 in aqueous SO2 solution has so far been unsuccessful. Only the corresponding bases bisulphite HSO3- and sulphite SO32- were detectable.

 

The only experimental detection of H2SO3 to date was achieved by Helmut Schwarz's team at TU Berlin in 1988 using in-situ generation in a mass spectrometer. An extremely short lifetime under vacuum conditions in the range of 10 microseconds and more was estimated.

 

Theoretical calculations suggested the formation of H2SO3 as a possible reaction product of the gas-phase reaction of OH radicals, which are formed in the troposphere primarily from ozone and water molecules in the presence of UV radiation, with dimethyl sulfide (DMS). DMS is mainly produced by biological processes in the sea and is the largest biogenic sulfur source for the atmosphere, producing around 30 million tonnes annually.

The possible reaction pathway to H2SO3 starting from the DMS was investigated experimentally in the laboratory at TROPOS in Leipzig. The formation of H2SO3 in the gas phase was clearly demonstrated in flow reactors for atmospheric conditions. Under the experimental conditions, the sulfurous acid remained stable for half a minute regardless of the humidity. Longer residence times could not yet be investigated with the existing experimental setup. Therefore, H2SO3 could also exist sufficiently long enough in the atmosphere and have an influence on the chemical processes. The observed yield was even somewhat greater than theoretically assumed. "It was very impressive to see the clear H2SO3 signals in the spectrometer for a compound that had been assumed to be possibly "non-existent"," says Dr Torsten Berndt from TROPOS, who came up with the idea and carried out the experiments.

 

The new reaction pathway was then implemented in a global chemistry-climate model. The associated model simulations showed that around 8 million tons of H2SO3 are formed globally every year. "This pathway produces about 200 times more mass of H2SO3 than the direct formation of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) from dimethyl sulfide in the atmosphere. The new results can contribute to a better understanding of the atmospheric sulfur cycle," add the scientists responsible for global modelling, Dr Andreas Tilgner and Dr Erik Hoffmann.

As with many research findings, many new interesting questions arise here too: Once formed in the gas phase, sulfurous acid appears to have at least a certain stability. However, the lifetime with regard to the reaction with trace gases in the atmosphere is still completely unclear. The reaction with water vapour has also not yet been satisfactorily clarified. "Much more research is needed in further optimised experiments in order to sufficiently clarify the significance of H2SO3," adds Dr Torsten Berndt.

 

The detection of H2SO3 is another example of the discovery of new reaction pathways and the experimental proof of compounds that were previously only theoretically proposed or difficult to access. This is made possible by the interplay of optimised reaction control combined with highly sensitive detection methods. For example, a mass spectrometer with a detection limit of 104 molecules of a product per cubic centimetre at atmospheric pressure was used in this study, i.e. it is possible to detect a specific molecule in a mixture of 1015 molecules (1 quadrillion molecules). Ever-improving methods will allow an even deeper insight into reaction processes and thus contribute to an even better understanding of atmospheric chemistry and all other areas of chemistry.

 

 

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Journal

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI

10.1002/anie.202405572 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Gas-Phase Formation of Sulfurous Acid (H2SO3) in the Atmosphere.

NASA's mini BurstCube mission detects mega blast

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

 

image: 

BurstCube, trailed by another CubeSat named SNOOPI (Signals of Opportunity P-band Investigation), emerges from the International Space Station on April 18, 2024.

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Credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick

The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months.

“We’re excited to collect science data,” said Sean Semper, BurstCube’s lead engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s an important milestone for the team and for the many early career engineers and scientists that have been part of the mission.”

The event, called GRB 240629A, occurred on June 29 in the southern constellation Microscopium. The team announced the discovery in a GCN (General Coordinates Network) circular on August 29.

BurstCube deployed into orbit April 18 from the International Space Station, following a March 21 launch.

The mission was designed to detect, locate, and study short gamma-ray bursts, brief flashes of high-energy light created when superdense objects like neutron stars collide. These collisions also produce heavy elements like gold and iodine, an essential ingredient for life as we know it. 

BurstCube is the first CubeSat to use NASA’s TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, a constellation of specialized communications spacecraft. Data relayed by TDRS (pronounced “tee-driss”) help coordinate rapid follow-up measurements by other observatories in space and on the ground through NASA’s GCN.

BurstCube also regularly beams data back to Earth using the Direct to Earth system — both it and TDRS are part of NASA’s Near Space Network.

After BurstCube deployed from the space station, the team discovered that one of the two solar panels failed to fully extend. It obscures the view of the mission’s star tracker, which hinders orienting the spacecraft in a way that minimizes drag. The team originally hoped to operate BurstCube for 12-18 months, but now estimates the increased drag will cause the satellite to re-enter the atmosphere in September. 

“I’m proud of how the team responded to the situation and is making the best use of the time we have in orbit,” said Jeremy Perkins, BurstCube’s principal investigator at Goddard. “Small missions like BurstCube not only provide an opportunity to do great science and test new technologies, like our mission’s gamma-ray detector, but also important learning opportunities for the up-and-coming members of the astrophysics community.”

BurstCube is led by Goddard. It’s funded by the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. The BurstCube collaboration includes: the University of Alabama in Huntsville; the University of Maryland, College Park; the Universities Space Research Association in Washington; the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington; and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

How bright is the universe’s glow? Study offers best measurement yet

University of Colorado at Boulder

Scientists have traveled to the edges of the solar system, virtually, at least, to capture the most accurate measurements to date of the faint glow that permeates the universe—a phenomenon known as the cosmic optical background. 

The new study, published Aug. 28 in The Astrophysical Journal, draws on observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which whizzed past Pluto in 2015 and is now nearly 5.5 billion miles from Earth. The research seeks to answer a deceptively simple question, said co-author Michael Shull, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Is the sky really dark?” said Shull, professor emeritus in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences.

Space may look black to human eyes, but scientists believe that it’s not completely dark. Since the dawn of the cosmos, trillions of galaxies containing countless stars have formed and died, leaving behind an imperceptibly faint light. Think of it as the night light in space. 

Shull and the team, led by Marc Postman at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, calculated just how bright that glow is. Their findings suggest that the cosmic optical background is roughly 100 billion times fainter than the sunlight that reaches Earth’s surface¬—far too faint for humans to see with the naked eye.

The results could help scientists shine a light on the history of the universe since the Big Bang.

“We’re kind of like cosmic accountants, adding up every source of light we can account for in the universe,” Shull said.

Into the dark

It’s a type of number crunching that has captured the imagination of scientists for nearly 50 years, he added.

Shull explained that, after decades of research, astrophysicists think they have a pretty good idea of how the cosmos evolved. The first galaxies formed during an epoch known as the Cosmic Dawn several hundred million years after the Big Bang. The starlight from galaxies in the distant universe reached its brightest point about 10 billion years ago and has been dimming ever since. 

Precise measurements of the cosmic optical background could help scientists confirm whether this picture of the cosmos makes sense—or if there are mysterious, as-of-yet-undiscovered objects casting light into space.

Taking those kinds of measurements, however, isn’t easy, especially not from Earth.

Earth’s neighborhood is teeming with tiny grains of dust and other debris. Sunlight glints off this mess, washing out any signals that might be coming from the cosmic optical background. 

“A metaphor I use is if you want to see the stars, you need to get out of Denver,” Shull said. “You have to go way out, right to the northeast corner of Colorado where all you have ahead of you are South Dakota and Nebraska.”

New Horizons has given scientists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something similar in space.

Cosmic accounting

The mission has uniquely Colorado origins. Alan Stern, who studied as a graduate student at CU Boulder under Shull and former Senior Research Associate Jack Brandt, leads the New Horizons mission. He’s currently based at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The spacecraft also carries the Student Dust Counter, an instrument designed and built by students at CU Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Over the course of several weeks in summer 2023, the researchers pointed New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 25 patches of sky.

Even at the edge of the solar system, the team still had a lot of extra light to contend with. The Milky Way Galaxy, for example, sits within a halo that, like our solar system, gathers dust.

“You can’t get away from dust,” Shull said. “It’s everywhere.”

He and his colleagues estimated how much light that halo could generate, then subtracted it from what they were viewing with LORRI. After getting rid of additional sources of light, the team was left with the cosmic optical background.

In scientific terms, that background amounts to about 11 nanowatts per square meter per steradian. (A steradian is a patch of sky with a width about 130 times the diameter of the moon).

Shull said that this value lines up well with how many galaxies scientists believe should have formed since the Big Bang. Put differently, there don’t seem to be any strange objects, such as exotic kinds of particles, out there in space producing a lot of light. But the researchers can’t rule out such anomalies completely.

The team’s measurements are likely to be the best estimates of the universe’s glow for a long time. New Horizons is using its remaining fuel supplies to pursue other scientific priorities, and no other missions are currently heading toward those cold and dark corners of space. 

“If they put a camera on a future mission, and we all wait a couple of decades for it to get out there, we could see a more exact measurement,” Shull said.

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Other co-authors of the new study include SWRI’s Alan Stern and Tod Lauer at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Virginia also participated.

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Journal

The Astrophysical Journal

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ad5ffc 

Article Title

New Synoptic Observations of the Cosmic Optical Background with New Horizons

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2024

Representatives from NASA, ESA, JAXA, ASI, KASA meet during COSPAR 2024 to reinforce cooperation and coordination for future missions to the asteroid Apophis

International Science Council Committee on Space Research

Each agency representative presented the status of their current involvement in current and future planning for missions to Apophis (including extended mission for OSIRIS-REx, renamed OSIRIS-APEX, for NASA and the RAMSES mission for ESA) as well as the existing partnerships and mutual involvement in other agency’s missions, e.g. the infrared camera provided by JAXA in ESA’s mission Hera. Concepts to fly to Apophis, as well as reuse of existing payloads, spare parts and hardware, coordination of arrival time at Apophis of the different spacecraft, techniques to be demonstrated, science to be performed, and integration of scientific databases were also discussed during the meeting.

Although all risks of impacting the Earth have been ruled out for the April 2029 encounter, the asteroid Apophis will make its closest approach to Earth on Friday 13 April 2029, at an unprecedented distance. It will come closer to the Earth than the human-made geostationary satellites. It will even be visible to the naked eye speeding across the evening sky for an estimated 2 billion people spanning Western Europe and northern Africa. Apophis is one of the remnants of the bricks that formed planets and contain the record of the original composition of the solar nebula in which planets in our solar system formed. This once-per-7500-year opportunity to investigate the gravitational influence of the Earth on an asteroid should not be missed. Five years is short to develop and carry out the required investigations.

The agency representatives reaffirmed their strong desire to strengthen cooperation and coordination on such an important goal for humankind: both increasing our knowledge of the formation and history of the solar system and developing stronger capabilities in planetary defence.

The representatives stressed again the need for agencies to work jointly to prepare for this endeavour. This encounter offers a unique opportunity to inform the public at large about asteroids in particular and space research in general, and generate public outreach events and support material in the coming five years.

COSPAR is particularly proud to have been the initiator of this historic gathering, and stands ready to continue supporting this five-year effort as required.

Issued by COSPAR Communications:

Ms Leigh FERGUS-SWAN leigh.fergus@cosparhq.cnes.fr

https://cospar.world

Note to Editors

COSPAR, the largest international scientific society dedicated to promoting global cooperation in space research, was established in 1958. It serves as a neutral platform for scientific dialogue among scientists from around the world. Today, COSPAR comprises 46 national scientific institutions and 13 international scientific unions, with 13,000 space scientists actively participating in its activities, including attending assemblies, contributing to panels and roadmaps, and publishing in its journals.

COSPAR’s core mission is to facilitate dialogue and encourage international collaboration among space stakeholders across the globe. It operates through scientific commissions, panels and task groups that encompass all disciplines of space science, from Earth and atmospheric sciences to planetary science, astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and life and microgravity sciences.

A recent focus has been on strengthening ties between science and industry. This was achieved by forming the Committee on Industry Relations, which includes 18 leading aerospace companies worldwide. The Committee advises COSPAR on integrating industry capabilities into its activities, ensuring mutual benefits for both science and industry.

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About NASA

NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. For more than 65 years, NASA has made the seemingly impossible, possible. At its 20 centers and facilities across the country and with U.S. commercial companies and international partners, NASA leads studying Earth science, including climate, our Sun, solar system, and the larger universe. NASA conducts cutting-edge research to advance technology and aeronautics. NASA operates the world’s leading space laboratory, the International Space Station, and plans to establish a sustainable and strong exploration presence on the Moon this decade through the Artemis campaign. In 2016, NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) to manage the agency's ongoing mission of finding, tracking, and better understanding asteroids and comets that could pose an impact hazard to Earth. PDCO leads activities for protecting Earth from Near Earth Object impacts.

About ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are Associate Members. ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement. By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

About JAXA

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), was established as an Independent Administrative Agency in 2003, merging three aerospace organizations, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the National Aerospace Laboratory, and the National Space Development Agency of Japan. JAXA is now positioned as a “National Research and Development Agency” as well as a “Core Implementing Agency” to support the Japanese Government in aerospace activities. JAXA has conducted asteroid explorations including Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 and provided the infrared camera in ESA’s mission Hera. The Agency executes ground observation including asteroids from Bisei Spaceguard Center.

About ASI

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) was established in 1988 with the task of preparing and implementing the Italian space policy in accordance with the Government guidelines. ASI is recognized as one of the most important global stakeholders in all space domains from human and robotic exploration to space science, propulsion, earth observation, navigation and telecommunications, thanks to and a continuous cooperation with the scientific community and Italian manufacturers and to fruitful international collaborations. The Agency coordinates the Italian participation in the European Space Agency (ESA), where Italy is the third largest contributor, and in the European Union programs and maintains international relations with numerous space partners and international organizations.

About KASA

The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) was established on 27th May 2024, and announced its policy directions on 30th May, including asteroid exploration as one of the highest priorities. KASA is responsible for developing the national space strategy, implementing research and development projects, supporting the aerospace sector and promoting international cooperation.