“Dust plumes off Western Africa and Cape Verde Islands” by Jeff Schmaltz, NASA, 2009. Wikimedia commons, public domain. Included with appreciation.
Dust – it’s something we may not think about until we swipe a finger across a windowsill or squint an eye on a windy hike. But did you know that dust comes in different colors? Minerals in the land, when they become dust, have various reflective properties according to their composition. Those colors have an effect on climate. White dust helps to reflect solar radiation away from the earth; red or darker dust absorbs radiation, warming the planet.
Sand dust from the Sahara blows to the Amazon where it helps to nourish the rainforest. Image: “Merzouga Dunes,” by photographer Bjorn Christian Tørrissen, 2011. Wikimedia creative commons 3.0. Included with appreciation.
Not all dust is a problem. In fact, dust helps to cross-nurture the Earth. Sand from the Sahara Desert actually nourishes the Amazon forest, blowing across the globe in ever-circulating winds that carry dust and its various mineral nutrients to feed far-away soils. But, like many foods, too much is a problem. As the Earth warms, the United Nations warns that we’ll be seeing more dust storms – and more respiratory conditions such as asthma. So, both for climate change and for public health, we need to know more about dust.
EMIT operates from the International Space Station, measuring Earth’s dust (and methane). Image: “International Space Station orbiting Earth,” NASA 2006. Image ID: STS116-301-028. Wikimedia, public domain. Included with appreciation.
Up until now, dust was studied on a local level. Farmers knew their soil, observed when it became dry, saw effects of drought or burned plants after wildfires. But now, with the guidance of Cornell professor Natalie M. Mahowald, NASA has developed an instrument to measure global dust. The imaging spectrometer is called the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation or EMIT. It’s on the International Space Station, observing the Earth as a whole system, taking data snapshots of the globe 16 times every day. The result will be a mineral map of the Earth, with every dust variety shown in a color related to its light wavelengths. In addition to measuring dust, EMIT also monitors emissions of methane.
Mahowald, N., D. Ward, S. Doney, P. Hess, J. Randerson. “Are the impacts of land use on warming underestimated in climate policy?” Environmental Research Letters, V12, No. 9, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa836d.
“Lievre de l’astrologie chinoise,” by Alice-astro (image) and Miuki (character), 2013. Wikimedia CC3.0. Included with appreciation.
Welcome, Year of the Water Rabbit. Seasons may give us the year, but the moon tells us when the year is new. Amidst feasts and fireworks, this year’s water rabbit may also bring scientific good tidings. Did you know that Chinese tradition places a rabbit on the moon? And now that rabbit may have discovered lunar water.
“Chane’e, The Moon Goddess,” Late Yuan or early Ming Dynasty. Courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago, ARTIC artwork ID: 1108 23. Public Domain. Included with appreciation.
An ancient myth tells of Chang’e spirited from Earth to the Moon in a lovers’ tangled tale. She became the Moon goddess. But even a goddess can become lonely, so she was allowed to have a pet: a rabbit. Chang’e and her pet rabbit Yutu entered space lore when NASA’s Apollo 11 crew exchanged banter with Houston Mission Control just before the lunar landing in 1969, as the astronauts promised to look for the two lunar mythic figures. When China sent its first lunar probe to the moon in 2007, it was named Chang’e-1: its little robotic rover was name Yutu – Jade Rabbit. Chang’e was just getting started: in 2022, Chang’e-5 and its rover Yutu discovered evidence of water on the moon.
“Chang-e-5 orbiter ascender separation” by China News Service, 2020. Creative commons 4.0. Included with appreciation.
Water on the moon is a big discovery. Water is necessary for human habitation: carrying needed water into space would severely limit stays. Water could encourage space agriculture: one can consume, and carry, only so much tubular food. Finally, water – yielding hydrogen – might provide rocket fuel. Processing lunar water will be a technical challenge, but having water to start with is essential. Thanks to Chang’e – moon goddess – and Yutu, the Water Rabbit (among other space missions globally), human exploration may open wider, and longer, horizons.
“Water detected at high latitudes on the Moon.” graphic image by NASA, 2008. Public domain image. Included with appreciation.
Back on Earth, Year of the Water Rabbit opens a holiday with a long tradition. In China, as early as the 14th century bce, astronomers began to track solar longitude and lunar phases, forming the basis for a scientific yearly cycle. In China, around the time when the Grand Canal began to take shape, the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 bce) initiated the tradition of honoring the new year. The following Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 bce) continued the custom, now turning its purpose to wishes for a good harvest in the soon-to-come spring. But it was not until the Han Dynasty (202 bce – 220 ce) that a method for determining the date was added, and families began to plan gatherings to feast and celebrate. The ancient lunar calendar was replaced in 1912 by the common, so-called Gregorian, calendar, but by 1949, popular practice prevailed and a public holiday period was renamed “Spring Festival” but is still called by many, Lunar New Year. Across Asia, and around the world, festivities feature feasting by sharing “longevity noodles.”
Noodles are a Lunar New Year culinary tradition. “New Year Prosperity Toss,” by photographer Jayden Teo, 2020. Creative commons 4.0. Included with appreciation.
How did the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival tradition become associated with animals? The origins of the practice are shrouded in ancient history, but some folk legends exist. Naming years after animals is surely more poetic and interesting than sequential numbering. Around the first century ce, the zodiac menagerie was grafted onto a 12-year cycle repeating within a 60-year system. Within that system, animals dance through the elements of water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. Behold 2023: Year of the Water Rabbit.
Find the rabbit above. “Chinese Zodiac” by RootOfAllLight, 2018. Wikimedia Creative Commons, 4.0 Included with appreciation.
Liu, J. et al., “Evidence of water on the lunar surface from Chang’e-5 in-situ spectra and returned samples. Nat Commun 13, 3119 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5
“Apollo and Artemis,” by Brygos. Courtesy of Louvre Museum.” Image: wikimedia, public domain. Included with appreciation.
Apollo and Artemis are celebrating. It was 50 years ago that humanity last touched down upon the moon, in a series beginning with Nasa’s Apollo 11 in 1969 when Neil Armstrong took “One step for a human, one giant leap for humankind,” culminating when Apollo 17 in 1972 took the iconic “Blue Marble” photo.
“The Blue Marble” photo by Apollo 17 NASA crew, 1972. Image: wikimedia, public domain. Included with appreciation.
Celebrating the family golden anniversary, Artemis (Apollo’s sister, in Greek mythology) again circled the moon, preparing to land soon for a permanent home. Artemis mission partners Nasa and Esa plan to establish a base: “to live, to work, to invent, to create.” (Nasa: Nelson, 2022) A permanent lunar base may provide opportunity to support expeditions to Mars – and beyond.
“Mars” photo by ESA, 2008. Wikimedia commons 3.0. Included with appreciation.
December 11, 2o22 was a fly-by, orbiting and testing Orion equipment including a new heat-shield that proved successful as the space vehicle entered the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 meters per hour) – speed as blistering as the heat of 5,432 Fahrenheit (3,000 Celsius). Next flight is planned for 2024-2025.
“Guadalupe Island” photo by crew of International Space Station, 2014. Public Domain, wikimedia. Included with appreciation.
Artemis and Apollo may now be celebrating in México: the mission capsule landed safely in the sea near Guadalupe Island, on the same weekend marking the 1531 sacred apparition and visitation of the patron saint of Mexico City- the feast of Guadalupe.
“Earth” Image by NASA, 2020. Public Domain. Included with appreciaiton.
When President John F. Kennedy challenged humanity, in 1961, to send humans to the moon within a decade, we beat the deadline. On 20 July 1969, NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke these words: “That’s one step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” upon setting foot on the lunar surface. The achievement has come to be known as the “Moonshot.” The phrase indicates both a “longshot” and the power of human innovation to overcome odds to achieve what was formerly thought impossible.
Now, we have a new, and urgent, challenge: Earthshot. Launched in 2020 by The Royal Foundation, Prince William, and Sir David Attenborough, the Earthshot Prize recognizes the world’s best ideas to save the Earth from climate disaster. From 2020 to 2030, prizes will be awarded in five areas:
Image: earthshotprize.org. Included with appreciation.
Protect and Restore Nature
Clean Our Air
Revive Our Oceans
Build a Waste-Free World
Fix Our Climate
This year’s awards were announced in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Foundation, paying homage to the challenge and achievement of the Moonshot, and giving this decade a new challenge, one powered by imagination, innovation, and urgent optimism. To see this year’s winners, and perhaps get ideas for your own Earthshot project, you can watch the awards ceremony here.
Earthshot Prize. https://earthshotprize.org
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Un
The electrical charge from a bee’s flight can help identify a flower with ample pollen. Image: “Bee-Apis” by Maciej A. Czyzewski, CC 4.0. Included with appreciation.
In an era when we seek to electrify many aspects of modern life, some of the most ancient life forms may teach us a thing or two. Bees, and other aerial insects, create an electrical charge. When a bee flutters its wings, the movement generates a positive electrical charge; you might compare this to the spark that can be raised by rubbing your stockinged feet across a carpet or a balloon on your arm. For bees, that electrical charge stays on their body and helps to pull pollen from a visited flower. An “echo” of the electrical signal is left behind, so the next bee hovering nearby can sense whether the flower has been recently visited and savored, or may offer a fresh serving of pollen.
What is the electrical effect of a swarm? Image: “Optical illusion disc with birds, butterflies, and person jumping.” 1833. Library of Congress: 00651165. Public Domain. Included with appreciation.
If one bee or butterfly can generate electricity, what’s the effect of a swarm or a group migration? Scientists have discovered that Earth’s atmosphere holds several kinds of electrical charges; these energy fields influence things like aerosols and dust. Recent studies have confirmed that insect swarms contribute to atmospheric electricity; the more dense a swarm, the more electricity enters the atmosphere. There’s a measurement protocol ranging from picocoulombs to nanocoulombs (one coulomb equals the quantity of electrical charge that passes a point in an electric circuit in one second by a steady current of one ampere. The term is named after Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806), physicist credited with discoveries in electricity and magnetism).
“A plague of locusts.” by SCIRO, Science Image 2007. CC3.0. wikimedia. Included with appreciation.
Honeybees, butterflies, and locusts are among aerial insects that produce significant atmospheric electrical charges. If a swarm is large enough (think Biblical descriptions of plagues of locusts), the insects’ electrical charge can equal that from weather events like storms. In current climate models, and observations by weather satellites by NASA and ESA, insect swarms are rarely included when assessing atmospheric dust, or interaction of radiation and particulate matter. Should we count insect swarms along with thunderstorms?
“Lightening Storm” by Jan Bambach, 2015. Wikimedia 3.0. Included with appreciation.
‘Save the honey bee’ campaigns rightly champion preserving pollinators on the ground; now there is evidence of influence a bit higher up. It’s one more way we are realizing that Earth’s climate is an interconnected system.
Hunting, E.R. et al., “Observed electric charge of insect swarms and their contribution to atmospheric electricity.” 24 October 222. Cell. iScience. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.1052
Flying cars have long been a dream: this one’s from 1947. But new models are coming to a sky near you, soon, Image: “Convair Model 118” from 1947. Wikimedia, public domain, Included with appreciation.
If the car changed history, even more so: the airplane. Now these common modes of transport must, themselves, change. Transport contributes 25% to CO2 emissions, from the burning of fossil fuels. We are seeing adoption of electric vehicles, encouraged by automobile manufacturers’ new vehicles and installation of charging networks. Air travel has not made the transition to zero-carbon as easily: aircraft are simply too heavy to run on batteries. But what if cars could fly? And do so on electricity?
“Back to the Future” starring Michael J. Fox featured a flying car. Image: wikimedia. Included with appreciation.
Alef, in California, has invented a flying car that drives on regular roads, and then transforms into a biplane. For the sum of $300,000 you can go “Back to the Future.” And, it’s electric. Pal-V, made in the Netherlands, will cost $599,000; or $399,000 for a sports edition: both models include training in the price. AirCar is a hybrid car/plane that runs on a BMW engine using gasoline: it can fly 600 miles once it morphs from car to aircraft.
“Cormorant” from Israel Defense Forces, built by Tactical Robotics LTD, Image by Timus Saban, 2016. Creative Commons 4.0. Included with appreciation.
What’s the market for flying cars? Morgan Stanley estimates it will be worth $1.5 trillion in 2040. Some Tesla investors have expressed support, and technologies like AirCar, Pal-V gyrocopter, and Alef might interest the military, like the above Cormorant flying vehicle used by the Israel Defense Forces, or NASA where vehicles roaming planets need to travel by land and by air. Since Daedalus, innovative humans have found inspiration from Nature where birds strut the ground, then fly through the sky. Will we soon join them?
“Seagull in flight,” by Mark Buckawiki, 2017. Wikimedia Creative Commons 1.0 Donated into the public domain by the author, and included with appreciation.
“DART’s Trajectory” animation based on NASA’s HORIZONS System by Phoenix7777. CC4.0. Included with appreciation.
Because there was a hit, there will be a miss, In baseball, that’s bad: in asteroid defense, that’s good. In a historic success, NASA, sent the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to asteroid Dimorphos. It’s a small target: the relatively tiny asteroid is just 530 feet (180 meters) in diameter. And it’s a distance achievement: Dimorphos is 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) away. And it’s a fast shot: DART crashed into the asteroid at 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) per hour.
“Asteroid Dimorphos seconds before DART impact.” by Doug Ellison and NASA, 26 September 2022. Public Domain. Included with appreciation to Doug Ellison and NASA.
An asteroid that might someday impact the Earth could destroy life on our shared planet, as it did with dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The impact of a six-mile-wide asteroid, called Chicxulub by today’s scientists, hit just off Mexico and killed 75% of Earth’s species.
“Depiction of Spinosaurus” from exhibit at Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum, Bangalore, India, by VITM 2018. CC 4.0. Included with appreciation.
While a similar disaster is not imminent, preparation is. In an illustration of cooperation in our orbital commons, NASA worked in partnership with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube. In four years, the European Space Agency (ESA) Hera mission will conduct surveys of Dimorphos to examine the crater left by DART’s direct hit. Both are part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration.
There are between 1.1 to 1.9 million asteroids within the asteroid belt, pictured here as the white “donut” ring. Illustration by Mdf, Wikimedia/creative commons, public domain donation. Included with appreciation.
Meanwhile, the hit was deemed a success, knocking Dimorphos into a different orbit. The test proves we have capability to deflect an oncoming asteroid or comet, such as that depicted in the recent film “Don’t Look Up.” Want to see a video of the final moments before DART crashed into Dimorphos? Click here.
If our civilization is able to cooperate, and succeed, in something so distant, is there hope for similar cooperation and success a bit closer to home?
Can space cooperation bring the dawn of peace? “Pink Sky Peace,” by Pink Sherbet Photography, Creative Commons 2.0. Included with appreciation, and hope.
Mars appears to have had significant volcanic and seismic activity. Magma rising during eruptions could have melted ice near the surface, providing conditions for microbial life. Image: “Mars Seismic Wave Simulation,” NASA. Public Domain. Included with appreciation.
Perseverance rover has collected some samples that may reveal if life on Mars is speculation, fantasy, or history. Jezero Crater once held a lake whose delta may have harbored lifeforms yet unknown to us. Jezero Crator is sizable: 28 miles (45 kilometers).
Jezero Crater seen from Perseverance. NASA.gov, public domain. Included with appreciation.
Recently, Perseverance explored a delta mount nicknamed “Wildcat Ridge” by NASA scientists. The rover found and scooped up high concentrations of organic matter. We know the organic nature of the rocks because samples are pre-scanned by a rover instrument called SHERLOC, or Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals.
Mars Sample Return Mission. Illustration by NASA. Public domain. Included with appreciation.
The Mars Sample Return Mission will bring the ultimate rock collection back to Earth’s awaiting laboratories in the next decade. While life forms did not greet the rover, discovery of the their possible past may reveal not just history but organic components that may help to determine our future – there, and here.
“Webb’s First Deep Field image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.” 9 July 2022. Image from NASA, public domain. Included with appreciation to NASA and Webb team.
July 1969, humans first set foot on the moon. James Webb led NASA through the decade of the 1960s, preparing rockets, orbital spacecraft, and lunar landers that would deliver Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (with Mike Collins flying the spacecraft that would circle while the two explored) and bring the whole crew back to Earth. The James Webb telescope, Hubble’s successor launched in December 2021, features 18 mirror segments and multiple scientific instruments that are able to coordinate views of the universe into one high resolution image. One of the most important instruments is MIRI (Mid-Infrared) that has a camera and a spectrograph that can see light in the mid-range infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum wavelength of 5-28 microns. That range allows Webb to see red-shifting light of new stars, distant galaxies, and even the edge of the Kuiper Belt of the outer Solar System, just beyond Neptune. Watch NASA’s event, revealing the first Webb views of the universe, here:
“Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Shows Sun’s Rainbow of Wavelengths.” NASA, 2013. Image based on SDO data. Wikimedia. Public Domain. Included with appreciation to NASA.
It’s summer, season of the sun. On June 29, 2022, Nasa‘s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), usually monitoring the sun for signs of solar radiation that affect Earth, saw something new. A solar eclipse cloaked 67% of the orb, backlighting mountains on the moon. The sun is a central part of our system, both on Earth and in space: hence the name (from Latin for sun, “sol”) solar system.
“Solar energetic particles” by NASA STEREO. Creative Commons 4.0. Included with appreciation to NASA.
Space weather affects Earth in many ways. One example is the impact on satellites, or even terrestrial power lines, when the sun’s corona releases charged particles. As we send more satellites into orbit, the sun’s particle emissions and radiation will become increasingly important.
“Aurora Australis From ISS.” Aurora Borealis and Australis can be seen from the International Space Station (ISS). This image was taken by ISS crew on 21 June 2010. Image: wikimedia, public domain. With appreciation to ISS.
On a more aesthetic note, these are the same particles that cause the Northern Lights.
