Reasons Supporting Netanyahu Is The US’ Big Middle Eastern Mistake – OpEd

 September 28, 2024 

By Fair Observer

By Juan Cole

At least one thing is now obvious in the Middle East: The Biden administration has failed abjectly in its objectives there, leaving the region in dangerous disarray. Its primary foreign policy goal has been to rally its regional partners to cooperate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government. Simultaneously, it would uphold a “rules-based” international order and block Iran and its allies in their policies. Clearly, such goals have had all the coherence of a chimera and have failed for one obvious reason.

US President Joe Biden’s Achilles’ heel has been his “bear hug” of Netanyahu, who allied himself with the Israeli equivalent of neo-Nazis and launched a ruinous total war on the people of Gaza. He did this in the wake of the horrific October 7 Hamas terrorist attack Israel suffered in 2023.

Biden also signed on to the Abraham Accords, a project initiated in 2020 by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and special Middle East envoy of then-President Donald Trump. Through them the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco all agreed to recognize Israel’s statehood. In return, Israel granted them investment and trade opportunities, as well as access to American weaponry and a US security umbrella.

Washington, however, failed to incorporate Saudi Arabia into that framework. It has also faced increasing difficulty keeping the accords themselves in place, given the region’s increasing anger and revulsion over the ongoing civilian death toll in Gaza. Typically, just the docking of an Israeli ship at the Moroccan port of Tangier this summer set off popular protests that spread to dozens of cities in that country. And that was just a taste of what could be coming.

Breathtaking hypocrisy

Washington’s efforts in the Middle East have been profoundly undermined by its breathtaking hypocrisy. After all, the Biden team has gone blue in the face decrying the Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine and its violations of international humanitarian law in killing so many innocent civilians there. In contrast, the administration let Netanyahu’s government completely disregard international law when it comes to its treatment of the Palestinians.

This summer, the International Court of Justice ruled that the entire Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal in international law. In response, the US and Israel both thumbed their noses at the finding. In part as a response to Washington’s Israeli policy, no country in the Middle East and very few nations in the global South have joined its attempt to ostracize President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Worse yet for the Biden administration, the most significant divide in the Arab world between secular nationalist governments and those that favor political Islam has begun to heal in the face of the perceived Israeli threat. Turkey and Egypt have long had their daggers drawnover their differing views of the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist movement that briefly came to power in Cairo in 2012–2013. Now they have begun repairing their relationship, specifically citing the menace posed by Israeli expansionism.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been persistently pressing Saudi Arabia, a key US security partner, to recognize Israel’s statehood at a moment when the Arab public is boiling over what they see as a genocide campaign in Gaza. This is the closest thing since the Trump administration to pure idiocracy. Washington’s pressure on Riyadh elicited the pitiful plea from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that he fears being assassinated were he to normalize relations with Tel Aviv now. And consider that ironic given his own past role in ordering the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In short, the ongoing inside-the-Beltway ambition to secure further Arab recognition of Israel amid the annihilation of Gaza has the US’s security partners wondering if Washington is trying to get them killed. This is anything but a promising basis for a long-term alliance.

Global delegitimization

The science-fiction-style nature of US policy in the Middle East is starkly revealed when you consider the position of Jordan, which has a peace treaty with Israel. In early September, its foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, issued a warning: Any attempt by the Israeli military or its squatter-settlers to expel indigenous West Bank Palestinians to Jordan would be considered an “act of war.” Such anxieties might once have seemed overblown, but the recent stunning (and stunningly destructive) Israeli military campaign on the Palestinian West Bank, including bombings of populated areas by fighter jets, has tactically begun to resemble the campaign in Gaza. And keep in mind that, as August ended, Foreign Minister Israel Katz even urged the Israeli army to compel Palestinians to engage in a “voluntary evacuation” of the northern West Bank.

Not only is the expulsion of Palestinians now the stated policy of cabinet members like Jewish Power extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir; it’s the preference of 65% of Israelis polled. When Israel and Jordan begin talking about war, you know something serious is going on — the last time those two countries actively fought was in the 1973 October War, during the administration of US President Richard Nixon.

In short, Netanyahu and his extremist companions are in the process of undoing all the diplomatic progress their country achieved in the past half-century. Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s domestic Shin Bet intelligence agency, warned in August that the brutal policies the extremists in the government were pursuing are “a stain on Judaism” and will lead to “global delegitimization, even among our greatest allies.”

Turkey, a NATO ally with which the US has mutual defense obligations, has become vociferous in its discontent with Biden’s Middle Eastern policy. Although Turkey recognized Israel in 1949, under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the pro-Islam Justice and Development Party, interactions had grown rocky even before the Gaza nightmare. Until then, their trade and military ties had survived occasional shouting matches between their politicians. The Gaza genocide, however, has changed all that. Erdogan even compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and then went further still, claiming that, in the Rafah offensive in southern Gaza in May, “Netanyahu has reached a level with his genocidal methods that would make Hitler jealous.”

Worse yet, the Turkish president, referred to by friend and foe as the “sultan” because of his vast power, has now gone beyond angry words. Since last October, he’s used Turkey’s position in NATO to prohibit that organization from cooperating in any way with Israel. This is on the grounds that it’s violating the NATO principle that harm to civilians in war must be carefully minimized. The Justice and Development Party leader also imposed an economic boycott on Israel. It has interrupted bilateral trade that previously reached $7 billion a year and sent the price of produce in Israel soaring, while leading to a shortage of automobiles on the Israeli market.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party represents the country’s small towns, rural areas, Muslim businesses and entrepreneurs, constituencies that care deeply about the fate of Muslim Palestinians in Gaza. And while Erdogan’s high dudgeon has undoubtedly been sincere, he’s also pleasing his party’s stalwarts in the face of an increasing domestic challenge from the secular Republican People’s Party. Additionally, he’s long played to a larger Arab public, which is apoplectic over the unending carnage in Gaza.

The alliance of Muslim countries

Although it was undoubtedly mere bluster, Erdogan even threatened a direct intervention on behalf of the beleaguered Palestinians. In early August, he said, “Just as we intervened in Karabakh [disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia], just as we intervened in Libya, we will do the same to them.” In early September, the Turkish president called for an Islamic alliance in the region to counter what he characterized as Israeli expansionism:

“Yesterday, one of our own children, [Turkish-American human rights advocate] Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, was vilely slaughtered [on the West Bank]. Israel will not stop in Gaza. After occupying Ramallah [the de facto capital of that territory], they will look around elsewhere. They’ll fix their eyes on our homeland. They openly proclaim it with a map. We say Hamas is resisting for the Muslims. Standing against Israel’s state terror is an issue of importance to the nation and the country. Islamic countries must wake up as soon as possible and increase their cooperation. The only step that can be taken against Israel’s genocide is the alliance of Muslim countries.”

In fact, the present nightmare in Gaza and the West Bank may indeed be changing political relationships in the region. After all, the Turkish president pointed to his rapprochement with Egypt as a building block in a new security edifice he envisions. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made his first visit to Ankara on September 4, following an Erdogan trip to Cairo in February. And those visits represented the end of a more than decade-long cold war in the Sunni Muslim world over al-Sisi’s 2013 coup against elected Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, whom Erdogan had backed.

Despite its apparent embrace of democratic norms in 2012–2013, some Middle Eastern rulers charged the Brotherhood with having covert autocratic ambitions throughout the region and sought to crush it. For the moment, the Muslim Brotherhood and other forms of Sunni political Islam have been roundly defeated in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and the Persian Gulf region. Erdogan, a pragmatist despite his support for the Brotherhood and its offshoot Hamas, had been in the process of getting his country the best possible deal, given such a regional defeat, even before the Israelis struck Gaza.

Netanyahu’s forever war in Gaza

For his part, Egypt’s al-Sisi is eager for greater leverage against Netanyahu’s apparent plan for a forever war in Gaza. The Gaza campaign has already inflicted substantial damage on Egypt’s economy, since Yemen’s Houthis have supported the Gazans with attacks on container ships and oil tankers in the Red Sea. In turn, that has diverted traffic away from it and from the Suez Canal, whose tolls normally earn significant foreign exchange for Egypt. In the first half of 2024, however, it took in only half the canal receipts of the previous year. Although tourism has held up reasonably well, any widening of the war could devastate that industry, too.

Egyptians are also reportedly furious over Netanyahu’s occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor south of the city of Rafah in Gaza. They also despise his blithe disregard of Cairo’s prerogatives to patrol that corridor, granted under the Camp David agreement. The al-Sisi government, along with Qatar’s rulers and the Biden administration, has been heavily involved in hosting (so far fruitless) peace negotiations between Hamas and Israel. The Egyptian government seems to be at the end of its tether, increasingly angered at the way the Israeli prime minister has constantly tacked new conditions onto any agreements being discussed, which have caused the talks to fail.

For months, Cairo has also been seething over Netanyahu’s charge that Egypt allowed tunnels to be built under that corridor to supply Hamas with weaponry. Cairo insists that the Egyptian army had diligently destroyed 1,500 such tunnels over the past decade. Egypt’s position was recently supported by Nadav Argaman, a former head of the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency, who said, “There is no connection between the weaponry found in Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor.” Of Netanyahu, he added, “He knows very well that no smuggling takes place over the Philadelphi Corridor. So, we are now relegated to living with this imaginary figment.”

In the Turkish capital of Ankara, al-Sisi insisted that he wanted to work with Erdogan to address “the humanitarian tragedy that our Palestinian brothers in Gaza are facing in an unprecedented disaster that has been going on for nearly a year.” He underscored that there was no daylight between Egypt and Turkey “regarding the demand for an immediate ceasefire, the rejection of the current Israeli escalation in the West Bank, and the call to start down a path that achieves the aspirations of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” He also pointed out that such positions are in accord with United Nations Security Council resolutions. Al-Sisi pledged to work with Turkey to ensure that humanitarian aid was delivered to Gaza despite “the ongoing obstacles imposed by Israel.”

To sum up, the ligaments of US influence in the Middle East are now dissolving before our very eyes. Washington’s closest allies, like the Jordanian and Saudi royal families, are terrified that Biden’s bear hug of Netanyahu’s war crimes, coupled with the fury of their own people, could destabilize their rule. Countries that not so long ago had correct, if not warm, relations with Israel like Egypt and Turkey are increasingly denouncing that country and its policies.

The alliance of US partners in the region with Israel against Iran that Washington has long worked for seems to be coming apart at the seams. Countries like Egypt and Turkey are instead exploring the possibility of forming a regional Sunni Muslim alliance against Netanyahu’s geopolitics of Jewish power that might, in the end, actually reduce tensions with Tehran.

That things have come to such a pass in the Middle East is distinctly the fault of the Biden administration and its position — or lack thereof — on Israel’s nightmare in Gaza (and now the West Bank). Today, sadly, that administration is wearing the same kind of blinkers regarding the war in Gaza that US President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top officials once sported when it came to the Vietnam War.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

• About the author: Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is “Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires” (Nation Books, 2018), and he is the author of “Engaging the Muslim World” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and “Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Cole has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has commented extensively on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the Iraq War, the politics of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Iranian domestic struggles and foreign affairs.
• Source: This article was published by Fair Observer and TomDispatch first published this article.

Fair Observer

Fair Observer is an independent, nonprofit media organization that engages in citizen journalism and civic education. Fair Observer's digital media platform has 2,500 contributors from 90 countries, cutting across borders, backgrounds and beliefs. With fact-checking and a rigorous editorial process, Fair Observer provides diversity and quality in an era of echo chambers and fake news. Fair Observer's education arm runs training programs on subjects such as digital media, writing and more. In particular, Fair Observer inspires young people around the world to be more engaged citizens and to participate in a global discourse.

America Eats Its Young

Racist lies against Haitians and the suppression of history are devouring our youth.


AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Neighborhood kids gather to sell Kool-Aid and chips on September 17, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio

by Jesse Hagopian
September 27, 2024

“Since last year, my kids are facing a lot of problems at school, like they were bullied by other kids,” says Marc, a Haitian immigrant with two young children living in Springfield, Ohio. He was too frightened by recent events there to give his full name to the media. “I had to move to another neighborhood because I was scared for them, and they were very traumatized, especially after all these things they’re saying in social media, that we’re eating dogs . . . . Even local officers say there’s no evidence.”

Marc’s experience—and the trauma his children have endured due to racist disinformation—is the direct result of lies spread by former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, who falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating local pets. This narrative was designed to stoke fear and division, and its consequences have been devastating. Since these rumors began circulating, Springfield schools have faced more than thirty bomb threats, leading to evacuations, closures, and immense psychological harm to students and their families. In response, the leader of The Haitian Bridge Alliance, an Ohio nonprofit, has brought legal charges against Trump and Vance for “disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing, and complicity.”

Rose-Thamar Joseph, the operations director at the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, explains, “Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life.” The trauma is particularly profound for children.

Mia Perez, a Haitian mother in Springfield, describes how her daughter was evacuated from school twice in one week and asked by classmates, “How does the dog taste? How does the cat taste?”

“This is a conversation that I was not ready to have with my daughter. I felt disrespected of our culture,” she says.

Neo-Nazi groups like Blood Tribe have proudly taken credit for amplifying these lies and inciting hatred against Haitian immigrants. Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of Blood Tribe, boasted on his Telegram channel that they had “pushed Springfield into the public consciousness,” and the group even organized an “anti-Haitian immigration march” in the city.

Members of Blood Tribe celebrated Trump’s lies as a victory, with one member posting on the far-right platform Gab, “The President is talking about it now. This is what real power looks like.” This is certainly what white supremacist power looks like: lies, bomb threats, demonization of immigrants, Black children afraid to attend school, and far-right extremists working in lockstep with figures like Trump and Vance to fuel fear and division.

Attacks like those in Springfield take root because of the deliberate suppression of historical truth. This suppression happens in routine ways all around the country, such as through whitewashed textbooks that hide the contributions of African Americans and erase Black history. The right has championed laws that ban the teaching of systemic racism, social justice movements, and stories of resistance to make it difficult for young people to understand how systems of oppression have been built, maintained, and challenged.

Astoundingly, nearly half of all public school students around the country today go to a school where their teachers are not allowed to discuss the history of racism and resistance with their students. When students aren’t taught about the Haitian Revolution, the Black freedom struggle, or how marginalized communities have resisted exploitation, they are vulnerable to fear-based narratives that target immigrants like Marc’s family.

The assault on honest education about racism and history has taken a specific toll in Ohio, where the state board of education has been directly implicated in these debates. After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the board initially passed a resolution condemning racism and promoting equity in education. However, by 2021, the board succumbed to white supremacist backlash and repealed the anti-racism resolution. The replacement resolution stated that the board rejects critical race theory (CRT), and the state legislature has introduced several bills attempting to prohibit teaching about systemic racism.

By denying access to these essential histories, rightwing forces create fertile ground for disinformation to thrive. This is the context that allows fascist groups like Blood Tribe to manipulate public opinion and incite hate toward Haitian immigrants and other marginalized groups. Without the foundation of historical memory, communities are left vulnerable to manipulation, as the current wave of racist disinformation in Springfield demonstrates.

Widespread ignorance surrounding Haiti’s revolutionary history is one of the most glaring examples of knowledge suppression in the United States. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was the only successful revolt of enslaved people who freed themselves and built their own country. Enslaved Africans overthrew French colonial rule—while also successfully defeating the armies of the English and Spanish empires—and established the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Yet, this monumental act of resistance is often excluded or glossed over in American schools.

While the United States was still fully devoted to the barbaric practice of slavery, Haiti had established a constitution declaring all citizens equal under the law, regardless of race. For decades, the United States refused to recognize Haiti’s independence, deliberately isolating the country economically and politically. The United States and other Western powers were terrified of Haiti’s revolution, fearing it would inspire enslaved people throughout the Americas to demand freedom. As it turns out, that fear was justified. In 1811, Charles Deslonde, a leader of the largest slave revolt in U.S. history, was inspired by the Haitian Revolution to lead a rebellion in Louisiana. In addition, as historian Kellie Carter Jackson argued, “South America has Haiti to thank for its freedom in a lot of ways.” She pointed out that the island nation provided Simón Bolívar’s rebels with arms and soldiers to overthrow colonialism in Latin America on the condition that they abolish slavery.

Students are also seldom taught about the U.S. military occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934, during which the United States rewrote Haiti’s constitution to allow foreign land ownership and imposed forced labor on Haitian citizens. Thousands were killed during this brutal occupation, which was part of a broader pattern of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and Latin America, all under the guise of promoting stability. Ever since, the United States has worked to install and support dictators and illegitimate regimes in Haiti to serve the interests of U.S. corporations.

In the 1980s, Haitians faced another wave of dehumanization during the AIDS crisis when they were falsely labeled as one of the four “risk groups” for the disease, despite no scientific evidence supporting this claim. The stigma reinforced racist stereotypes and led to many Haitians being detained indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay in inhumane conditions.

The erasure of history allows figures like Trump and Vance to shift the blame for systemic failures onto immigrant communities, distracting from the real sources of inequality and injustice in the Americas. By hiding these truths from young people, policymakers deprive them of the knowledge needed to recognize patterns of exploitation, racism, and imperialism.

While Trump and Vance spread lies about Haitians eating pets, the true barbarity is that, as the legendary band Funkadelic famously titled their 1972 album, “America eats its young.”

The real savagery in the United States today is that gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens, with more than 3,500 children’s lives lost to gun-related injuries in 2022 alone. Despite this horrifying reality, politicians remain beholden to the powerful gun lobby and refuse to prioritize children’s safety. Young people are also burdened by $1.7 trillion in student loan debt, trapping millions in a cycle of financial hardship as they enter the workforce with low wages and inadequate social supports. Meanwhile, child poverty surged to 12.4 percent in 2022, meaning nearly nine million children are living in households struggling to meet basic needs. Moreover, the U.S. incarcerates nearly 60,000 children—disproportionately Black, brown, and Indigenous—in youth jails on any given day.

Both the bomb threats made against schools in Springfield and the erasure of history in Ohio and beyond are a continuation of the devouring of youth in America—serving the same goal: to create a culture of ignorance and division. As Vance himself admitted of the claims he made about Haitians in Springfield, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” His words lay bare the cynical strategy of the attacks on immigrants, and also of the strategy for outlawing honest history: Keep people in fear by making up stories and then exploit their fears to gain power.

Haiti’s unrelenting resistance to oppression has much to teach us all. If we are ever going to achieve a society based on solidarity and equality—one that nourishes our young people, rather than consuming them—we must demand an education that dispels the racist lies about Haitians and teaches the truth about the hope and inspiration that Haiti has long offered people around the world in pursuit of freedom.

Toussaint L’Ouverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution, spoke these words in 1802 after being abducted by the French, which resonate with today’s attacks on Haitian immigrants and the growing resistance: “You have cut only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again for its roots are numerous and deep!”

Jesse Hagopian
Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher and on the staff of the Zinn Education Project where he helps to lead the Teaching for Black Lives campaign based on the book he co-edited with the same name. He is also a member of Black for Palestine.Read more by Jesse Hagopian

September 27, 2024

California Students Must Now Learn About the History of Mistreatment of Native Americans


California Assemblyman James C. Ramos (Photo/File photo)

By Levi Rickert September 29, 2024

A measure signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday now requires California K-12 students to be taught about the impact on California Native Americans during the Spanish Colonization and Gold Rush Eras in California public schools.

The legislation (AB 1821) was authored by the first and only California Native American elected to the legislature, Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino).

It was one of seven tribal-related measures Newsom approved today on California Native American Day.


“I am pleased that Gov. Newsom approved AB 1821; it is another step forward in the path toward writing a new chapter in the state’s relationship to California tribes. For far too long California’s First People and their history have been ignored or misrepresented. Classroom instruction about Spanish Colonization and Gold Rush periods fails to include the loss of life, enslavement, starvation, illness and violence inflicted upon California Native Americans.” Ramos said.

Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Chairman Isaiah Vivanco said, “We thank Assemblymember Ramos for authoring AB 1821 to ensure that a more complete and accurate history of our state is taught. Any teaching of the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush eras should include the impact on California’s Native Americans. During those devastating periods, Native Americans endured great loss of life, enslavement, and other perils. Those truths are often absent from instruction about California’s history and the nation’s westward expansion. Omitting this history erases the truth of Native Americans’ presence on this land and through silence perpetuates the injustices of those eras. That is why AB 1821 is an important step in the telling of our state’s history and its First People.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond stated, “I am proud to have co-sponsored AB 1821 by Assembly Ramos, and to see this important legislation become law. This legislation will help ensure curriculum on California’s Spanish Mission and Gold Rush eras accurately captures the treatment and impact of Native Americans during these significant eras in state history. This initiative supports California’s diverse students to be seen, heard, and understood in their instructional materials, and to foster a deeper appreciation for our Native communities’ history and cultures.”

Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians stated, “ AB 1821 will create a more relevant and accurate curriculum when students learn about the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush periods in California’s history. We are thankful Governor Newsom has signed this bill into law so that California students can learn the true history and culture of tribes during those periods. ”

Late last year, a poll released by the Institute of Governmental Studies showed strong support to require California schools to incorporate teaching about Native American tribes’ history and culture. An overwhelming 80% of respondents were in support of a requirement such as AB 1821.

 SPACE/COSMOLOGY

NASA detects traces of carbon dioxide on surface of Pluto’s largest moon

1 October 2024

Pluto Moon. Picture: PA

Both Pluto and Charon are more than three billion miles from the sun.

Nasa’s Webb Space Telescope has identified new clues about the surface of Pluto’s largest moon.

It detected for the first time traces of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon, which is about half of Pluto’s size.

Previous research, including a fly-by from Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, revealed that the moon’s surface was coated by water ice.

But scientists could not sense chemicals lurking at certain infrared wavelengths until the Webb telescope came around to fill in the gaps.

“There’s a lot of fingerprints of chemicals that we otherwise wouldn’t get to see,” said Carly Howett, a New Horizons scientist who was not involved with the new study.

The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Pluto, a dwarf planet, and its moons are in the far fringes of our solar system in a zone known as the Kuiper Belt.

Besides water ice, ammonia and organic materials were previously detected on Charon. Both Pluto and Charon are more than three billion miles from the sun and are likely too chilly to support life.

Scientists think the hydrogen peroxide may have sprung from radiation pinging off water molecules on Charon’s surface.

The carbon dioxide might spew to the surface after impacts, said study co-author Silvia Protopapa from the Southwest Research Institute.

The latest detection is key to studying how Charon came to be and may help scientists tease out the makeup of other faraway moons and planets.

By Press Association

NASA Flags Cracks in International Space Station Tunnel

By Rudy Blalock

September 27, 2024

The International Space Station (ISS) photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking on Oct. 4, 2018. (NASA/Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters)

NASA’s inspector general is warning of growing cracks and leaks in the more than 25-year-old International Space Station’s (ISS) Service Module Transfer Tunnel, which connects the station’s Russian segment to a docking port.

The station serves as the world’s preeminent orbiting microgravity research and development laboratory, with components of the station first placed into space in 1998 by NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos. Since then, multiple space agencies have added their own elements to the station, enhancing its capabilities.

Now, according to a Sept. 26 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General, the station faces new challenges to stay in operation until its planned de-orbit in 2031, including supply chain challenges and growing cracks and leaks.

“On-going cracks and air leaks in the Service Module Transfer Tunnel are a top safety risk,” the report reads. “NASA and Roscosmos are collaborating to investigate and mitigate the cracks and leaks, determine the root cause, and monitor the Station for new leaks.”

First discovered in Sept. 2019, the leak was releasing 1.2 pounds of atmosphere per day. More recently, the leak peaked at 2.4 pounds of atmosphere per day in February 2024 before reaching a new high in April of 3.7 pounds per day.

The root cause for the leak is currently unknown, according to officials.

Attempting to minimize air loss, the tunnel has been kept closed when not in use as researchers look for a cause, including examining metals and welds.

“Both agencies are collaborating to investigate and mitigate the cracks and leaks; determine the root cause, which includes sharing sample metals, welds, and Roscosmos investigation reports,” according to the report.

When the tunnel was last inspected in June 2024, no other leaks were found, but neither agency has determined where to draw the line if the leak worsens, potentially resulting in a permanent closure of the tunnel.

The leaking tunnel is one of four service modules used to transport cargo. If closed, cargo delivery would be impacted, and additional propellant would be needed to maintain the space station’s altitude, according to the report.

Between the 2019 and 2023 fiscal years, the station has cost NASA a steady $1 billion per year for system operations and maintenance, but officials say costs are expected to rise. Total costs for related operations and research total $4.1 billion per year.

Since the station is expected to be decommissioned in 2030, some suppliers have or plan to decrease or cease production of needed parts, which further complicates keeping the station alive, and aging repairs and upgrades are needed.

However, in preparation, NASA and Boeing plan for future operational needs in a five-year operational needs assessment, including procuring expected parts needed ahead of time, according to the report.

Oughton collecting data on space weather events

Grant and Award Announcement

George Mason University

Edward Oughton, Assistant Professor, Geography and Geoinformation Science, College of Science, received funding for the project: “RAPID: Collecting Perishable Critical Infrastructure Operational Data for May 2024 Space Weather Events.”

Oughton will use this funding to gather perishable operational decision data from critical infrastructure operators. He is taking this step to allow future generations of scientists and engineers to better understand how to model space weather hazards.

Oughton received $84,999 from the National Science Foundation for this project. Funding began in Aug. 2024 and will end in late July 2025.

###

Munshi conducting comprehensive study of low surface brightness galaxy formation & evolution

George Mason University

Ferah Munshi, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, is studying the formation of Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies. Galaxies are observed to come in many sizes and luminosities. Of particular interest are galaxies that, for their mass, are large and dim, called Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies. These galaxies are everywhere, making up nearly 50 percent of the universe, and scientists still do not understand why they are as dim and as large as they are. 

This proposal will help Munshi and her collaborators understand why LSBs look the way they do, including understanding the mysterious matter we can’t see: dark matter. As a tool, this research will use large-scale supercomputer simulations which are able to model the universe from the big bang to present day. 

Munshi and her collaborators intend to identify formation channel(s) of LSB galaxies, explain their evolution, and understand their dark matter (DM) content and distribution in the context of Cold Dark Matter (CDM). CDM is a specific type of dark matter that moves very slowly compared to the speed of light and does not interact with normal matter outside of gravity. 

The researchers will statistically study the formation of LSB galaxies as a function of their mass and environment using an existing simulation volume and then will create their own LSB galaxies by running zoom-in simulations capable of resolving the interplay between the matter we can see (stars and gas) and the underlying invisible dark matter distribution. 

Finally, they will use the Genetic Modification Technique (GM) to tweak the simulations and study how small changes in the initial conditions of the simulation might change the appearance of the LSB. This work could solve the mystery of LSB formation as well as constrain the nature of dark matter. 

This proposal will also support George Mason’s Women Leaders in STEM (WLIS) by funding expert education and STEM speakers to be hosted on campus for events. This will support the WLIS’s efforts to support undergraduate students through their STEM journeys, by providing professional development, networking strategies, study skills, and future job resources.

Munshi received $322,295 from the National Science Foundation for this project. Funding began in Sept. 2024 and will end in late Aug. 2027.

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What is the moon's true origin story?

The Earth may have captured the rocky satellite from space, rather than forming it from collision particles during planetary formation, researchers report

Penn State

 

image: 

New research by Darren Williams, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State Behrend, pictured here, and Michael Zugger, a senior research engineer at the Applied Research Lab at Penn State, offers a new possibility for how the moon formed: a binary-exchange capture as two objects passed near a much-younger Earth. 

view more 

Credit: Penn State Behrend

ERIE, Pa. — Over six missions to the moon, from 1969 to 1972, Apollo astronauts collected more than 800 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Chemical and isotopic analysis of that material showed that it was similar to the rock and soil on Earth: calcium-rich, basaltic and dating to about 60 million years after the solar system formed.

Using that data, the planetary scientists who gathered at the Kona Conference in Hawaii in 1984 came to the consensus that the moon formed from debris after a collision on the young Earth.

But that might not be the moon’s true origin story, according to two Penn State researchers. New research published in The Planetary Science Journal by Darren Williams, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State Behrend, and Michael Zugger, a senior research engineer at the Applied Research Lab at Penn State, offers another possibility: That the moon was captured during a close encounter between a young Earth and a terrestrial binary — the moon and another rocky object.

“The Kona Conference set the narrative for 40 years,” Williams said. But questions still lingered. For example, a moon that forms from a planetary collision, taking shape as debris clumps together in a ring, should orbit above the planet’s equator. Earth’s moon orbits in a different plane.

“The moon is more in line with the sun than it is with the Earth’s equator,” Williams said.

In the alternative binary-exchange capture theory, the researchers said, Earth’s gravity separated the binary, snagging one of the objects — the moon — and making it a satellite that orbits in its current plane.

There is evidence of this happening elsewhere in the solar system, Williams said, pointing to Triton, the largest of Neptune’s moons. The reigning hypothesis in the field is that Triton was pulled into orbit from the Kuiper Belt, where one of every 10 objects is thought to be a binary. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit, moving in the opposite direction of the planet’s rotation. Its orbit is also significantly tilted, angled 67 degrees from Neptune’s equator.

Williams and Zugger determined that Earth could have captured a satellite even larger than the moon — an object the size of Mercury or even Mars — but the resulting orbit might not have been stable.

The problem is that the "capture" orbit — the one the moon follows — began as an elongated ellipse, rather than a circle. Over time, influenced by extreme tides, the shape of the orbit changed.

“Today, the Earth tide is ahead of the moon,” Williams said. “High tide accelerates the orbit. It gives it a pulse, a little bit of boost. Over time, the moon drifts a bit farther away.”

The effect is reversed if the moon is closer to Earth, as it would have been immediately after capture. By calculating tidal changes and the orbit’s size and shape, the researchers determined that the moon’s initial elliptical orbit contracted over a timescale of thousands of years. The orbit also became more circular, rounding its path until the lunar spin locked into its orbit around the Earth, as it is today.

At that point, Williams said, the tidal evolution likely reversed, and the moon began to gradually drift away.

Every year, he said, the moon moves 3 centimeters farther from Earth. At its current distance from Earth — 239,000 miles — the moon now feels a significant tug from the sun’s gravity.

“The moon is now so far away that both the sun and Earth are competing for its attention,” Williams said. “Both are pulling on it.”

His calculations show that, mathematically, a binary-exchange captured satellite could behave as Earth's moon does. But he's not certain that's how the moon came to be.

“No one knows how the moon was formed,” he said. “For the last four decades, we have had one possibility for how it got there. Now, we have two. This opens a treasure trove of new questions and opportunities for further study.”

The Penn State Consortium for Planetary and Exoplanetary Science and Technology supported this research.

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Journal

The Planetary Science Journal

DOI

10.3847/PSJ/ad5a9a 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Forming Massive Terrestrial Satellites through Binary-exchange Capture

Giant Magellan Telescope launches Universo Expansivo program to enhance accessibility in astronomy education

New education program provides multisensory learning experiences across Chile and the United States

GMTO Corporation

 

image: 

Students interact with a multisensory model of the solar system from Universo Expansivo’s ‘Astronomy for All Senses’ tactile kit. 

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Credit: Carnegie Science, Las Campanas Observatory

PASADENA, CA — September 30, 2024 — The Giant Magellan Telescope today announced the launch of Universo Expansivo, a new education program designed to increase accessibility in astronomy education, particularly for students with vision loss, through tactile astronomy kits and accompanying lesson plans. Materials for Universo Expansivo were developed in collaboration with Parque Explora in Colombia and Red Aprender in Chile, and is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Chile and its network of 14 “American Spaces.” Following a successful pilot phase with six community organizations across Chile and the United States, the Giant Magellan now welcomes interested educators and members of the public to utilize the initiative’s free resources in both countries.

“Universo Expansivo reflects both the Giant Magellan’s priority in making astronomy more accessible, and our commitment to working with partner organizations to co-develop and implement equity-driven initiatives,” said Valerie Hirschberg, Education and Outreach Manager for the Giant Magellan Telescope. “We are incredibly grateful for our collaborators who have helped make Universo Expansivo a reality throughout Chile and the United States.”

Universo Expansivo was developed in both English and Spanish for flexible use across various educational settings, including both formal and informal learning environments. The tactile kit, designed by Parque Explora with the support of the International Astronomical Union, empowers students to explore astronomy concepts in our Universe — such as the scale and relative distances of celestial bodies — through tactile materials. The complementary manual of lesson plans, designed by Red Aprender, engages students in learning about astronomical phenomenon — such as eclipses — through auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, and multisensory activities.

“We are excited and proud to have created the teaching manual for Universo Expansivo,” said Francisca Schweitzer, Executive Director of Red Aprender. “In the process, we spoke with many people and learned a great deal about both astronomy and the importance of inclusion and accessibility. We believe in highlighting diverse abilities. Everyone needs adaptations — there is no ‘average’ human being. Embracing the creation of diverse learning experiences opens new mental pathways, making it a journey that fosters learning and sparks curiosity in everyone.”

The accessible multisensory approach of Universo Expansivo was successfully piloted earlier this year in workshops at the Braille Institute of America, California Science Center, Fundación Mustakis, Las Campanas Observatory, Museo Interactivo Mirador, and in several schools across the Pasadena Unified School District. Workshops involved more than 100 participants in the Chilean communities of Santiago and the Coquimbo region surrounding the Giant Magellan site, and California communities in Los Angeles County near the Giant Magellan’s headquarters.

“The hands-on space exploration piqued students’ curiosities and creatively expanded their understanding of space. What a memorable program for our students!” said Madeleine Hernandez, Manager of National and Youth Programs for the Braille Institute of America.

“Universo Expansivo exemplifies the Giant Magellan Telescope’s commitment to promote science education and open opportunities to engage with astronomy to everyone. The students not only receive valuable learning experiences, but the curiosity fostered extends far beyond the classroom,” said Oscar Contreras-Villarroel, Vice President and Representative in Chile for the Giant Magellan Telescope. “With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Chile and its 14 ‘American Spaces’ around the country, the alliance strengthens Chilean STEM education through Universo Expansivo.”

Universo Expansivo is now ready for broader implementation in Chile and the United States, featuring free tactile kits, teacher workshops and lesson plans, as well as free public educational resources available for download. The Giant Magellan Telescope welcomes new partners and communities interested in engaging with Universo Expansivo at universoexpansivo.org.

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About Giant Magellan Telescope
The Giant Magellan Telescope is the future of space exploration from Earth. Using seven of the world’s largest mirrors, the 25.4-meter telescope will produce the most detailed images ever taken of our Universe. It will uncover the cosmic mysteries of dark matter, investigate the origins of the chemical elements, and search for signs of life on distant planets. The Giant Magellan Telescope is the work of the GMTO Corporation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and international consortium of 14 universities and research institutions from the United States, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan. The telescope is being built in America and will be reassembled and completed in Chile by the early 2030s. The Universe Awaits at giantmagellan.org.

Magnetized magma intrusions being sources of two lunar magnetic anomalies revealed by 3D inversion

Beijing Zhongke Journal Publising Co. Ltd.

 

image: 

 In the first row, from left to right, the four panels show the distribution of magnetization in the profiles of depth versus latitude at 302°E related to depth constraints of the inversion region at 30, 60, 90, and 120 km. In the second row, the distribution of magnetization in profiles of depth versus longitude at 7.4°N are shown. The horizontal slices of magnetization at the depth related to maximum magnetization are shown in the third row. The bottom row shows the forward-calculated surface anomalies related to the four depth constraints. The dashed white contours denote 20% of the maximum magnetization.

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Credit: Beijing Zhongke Journal Publising Co. Ltd.

This work is led by Professor Shuo Yao from China University of Geosciences (Beijing), and her doctoral student Hongyi Wang. The authors have applied a 3D amplitude inversion technique from geophysical survey to study the origin of lunar magnetic carriers. This inversion technique was originally proposed and developed at the University of British Columbia’s Geophysical Inversion Facility (UBC-GIF). After careful checks for validity and stability, the authors believed that the amplitude inversion technique is well-suited for the Moon where the direction of the magnetic anomaly is complex, the Curie depth is unknown, and the grid spacing of surface magnetic anomaly is much larger than that on the earth. Assuming the magnetized body being spherical and using the related depth weighting function, the 3D distribution of magnetization could be reconstructed. The boundary of the reconstructed 3D distribution of magnetization can reveal the depth to the bottom of the magnetic carriers. The depth to the bottom is key evidence to determine the origin of the magnetized materials and the Curie temperature.

 

This work studied a weak magnetic anomaly in Mare Tranquillitatis and a strong famous one called Reiner Gamma in Oceanus Procellarum. The surface magnetic anomaly model is calculated from the orbit measurements of Lunar Prospector and Kaguya spacecraft. The surface ages of the two studied areas are 3.6 and 3.3 billion years just on either side of the famous intensity drop of the ancient magnetic field. According to the results from model test, the boundary of spherical magnetized body could be estimated by the contour at 20% of the maximum magnetization reconstructed by inversion. From the boundary, the authors derived the depths to the bottom and the thickness of the magnetized body. The depth to the bottom of the magnetic carriers under Mare Tranquillitatis is about 50 km, and that under Reiner Gamma is about 30 km. The results indicated that magnetized magma intrusion rather than impact melt layer is the source of the magnetic carriers in lunar crust. The maximum magnetization reconstructed by inversion is about 3.0 A/m under Reiner Gamma. Since the magnetized materials under Reiner Gamma may be older than the surface materials, the intensity of ancient magnetic field deduced by the magnetization is about some microteslas 3.3 billion years ago.

 

See the article:

Magnetized magma intrusions being sources of a weak and a strong lunar magnetic anomaly revealed by 3D distribution of magnetization

https://doi.org/10.26464/epp2024040

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Journal

Earth and Planetary Physics

DOI

10.26464/epp2024040 

Article Title

Magnetized magma intrusions being sources of a weak and a strong lunar magnetic anomaly revealed by 3D distribution of magnetization