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Mars has a moment: 3 missions to the red planet reignite debate – CTV Toronto

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CALGARY, ALTA. —
It’s the stuff of both cheesy sci-fi movies, and high-brow academic research…Is there (or was there) life on Mars?  A trio of Martian missions arriving at the red planet this month will likely reignite the debate.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Amal orbiter has already arrived, and is orbiting Mars, as has the Chinese Tianwen-1 combination orbiter which is carrying a landing module as well.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on the surface of Mars on Feb. 18.

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All three missions are examining Mars to further our understanding of what is considered he only other possibly habitable planet in the solar system.

“Isn’t that one of the big questions..’ Is life unique to our planet?’ asks Don Hladiuk, a life member of the Royal Astronomical Society.  “This is one of the big questions, least to me, and to humanity: did life start elsewhere? And it’d be huge if we could show that life just didn’t start on our planet, it’s able to start in other worlds.”

Why 3 Mars missions all at once?

Why there are three missions to the fourth rock from the sun is more about timing than teamwork.  

“The Earth goes around the sun and Mars(also) goes around the sun on these gigantic orbits, and there are times when the planets are close together. And those are the opportune times to fire a rocket over there and get something in orbit or land something on the surfaceai,” said Phil Langill, University of Calgary professor,  and director of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory  “It’s all about the timing and the orientation of the planets. When the time is right, then different countries, and more and more countries are getting involved.”

UAE Amal mission

The UAE’s Amal marks the Arab world’s first-ever foray into interplanetary research.  It will spend the next two years studying the martial atmosphere from orbit.  Scientists will be looking for answers to questions about how Mars changed from having a fairly earth-like environment to what it is now; a cold, dry, planet with a thin atmosphere.

“Everything that we’ve learned from past spacecraft orbiters and rovers, is that early on in Mars’s history, it was warm and wet, very similar to Earth,” said Cassandra Marion, science advisor at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum “ Then at some point, and we’re not exactly sure exactly when that happened, or why it happened,  Mars started losing its magnetic field, it cooled down. And now, because of the very low pressure on the surface of the planet, liquid water is no longer stable.  so now it’s gone from its history of wet and warm to now dry, and  like a desert, a  dry and arid planet.”

Mars

China’s Tianwen-1 mission

China’s mission, named Tianwen-1,  will send a rover to the surface looking for  evidence of ice underground. This is considered one of the key questions which needs answering before sending manned missions to the red planet  as a manned Mars mission will be unable to transport all the required supplies meaning the crew will  need to harvest some of their own supplies, like water, from the Martian surface.

“These are stepping stones for future colonization,” said Hladiuk “By going interplanetary, by colonizing another world, like Mars, we give our species a better chance, rather than having all our eggs in one basket, We might have a colony and another world.”

Tianwen-1’s rover  will be landing on Mars in a the same location where NASA first touched down on Mars in 1976  – a wide open plain known as Utopia Planitia.

NASA Perseverance mission: “Seven minutes of Terror’

The normally stoic NASA engineers have dubbed the period between entry in the Martian atmosphere to landing “the seven minutes of terror.”

Mars mission

That’s because the one-way time it takes for radio signals to travel from Earth to Mars is about 10.5 minutes, which means the seven minutes it takes from entry to the Martian atmosphere to touching down on the planet will happen without any help from earth-based scientists and engineers.

Here’s what has to happen in that 7 minutes

Here on earth NASA scientists give the command for the  spacecraft to begin its entry, descent and landing procedure (EDL).  From this point on it’s ‘hands-off’ as the computerized systems take over, in a complex set of maneuvers.

Travelling almost 20,000 km/h,  the spacecraft hits the Martian atmosphere.  It has seven minutes to slow to zero and make a soft landing.  Within seconds of entering the atmosphere it will heat up to 1300 degrees Celsius.

The spacecraft’s heat shield will endure peak heating of 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit, 75 seconds after entering the atmosphere.

It helps if you think of Perseverance as the world’s most sophisticated self-driving vehicle. Using two separate systems – a range trigger, and  terrain relative navigation – its aim is to maneuver the lander to a safe spot amidst the boulders and craters on this section of  Mars.

The range trigger determines when Perseverance should trigger its 21.5 metre parachute . At around this point the heat shields will detach.

But Mars’ thin atmosphere and the high speed of the spacecraft means a parachute alone can’t slow the descent enough for a safe touchdown.

Mars mission

“So then it releases the parachute and the top of the capsule. And then it’s basically a rover attached to a jetpack,” says Marion “They call it the descent, vehicle, but it’s basically a jetpack.  It fires these retro rockets towards the surface to slow it down more, and then as it’s coming in, at once it’s a certain distance from  the surface.  It’s basically on this hazard detecting autopilot so if it sees a  boulder, it can actually divert around it all by itself, and to land in a safe spot.

“Then,” Marion says, continuing, “it drops the rover down on these nylon cables, which is the crane part. And then once the rover touches the ground, it senses that and then the vehicle releases the rover and flies off so that it doesn’t crash into the rover. It’s pretty crazy.”

The ‘sky crane maneuver’ has been tested before. It was used to successfully land the Curiosity rover on Mars.

Lucky Peanuts

During the seven minutes of terror, NASA engineers will be chowing down on peanuts.   It’s a somewhat bizarre superstition considering mission control is considered a bastion of science and logic.

In 1964  during launch of the Ranger 7 mission, following six mission failures, one of  the engineers passed around peanuts giving the  crew something to manage their anxiety.  The mission was a success, and ever since peanuts have been part of the countdown checklist for mission control.

Mars mission

Perseverance’s Mission

Once it lands Perseverance will  take samples from the soil and set them aside.  A decade from now another rover will head to Mars to retrieve, and return them. They would be the first soil samples of another planet ever returned to earth. 

Childhood dream come true for Canadian scientist

Chris Herd, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta, is one 15 Return Sample Scientists selected by NASA to coordinate the return of the Martian soil and test the samples once back on earth.  

“I was 13, when I said I want to be there when the samples come back from Mars. So that would be that would be literally a dream come true for me,” said Herd  “My whole role on the Mars  mission is to help the mission, decide where to stop and take samples and make sure we have documentation of all those samples that we do take. The potential is huge for discoveries that we just can’t even conceive of now.”

On-Board Drone-Helicopter

Named Ingenuity a 1.8 kilogram drone will be the first vehicle from earth to ever achieve powered flight over the surface of another planet.    For the techies, or drone pilots reading it is a quadcopter  with four blades over two rotors, which spin in opposing directions at approximately  2,400 rpm. That’s much faster than is needed for drones to fly on earth , and is a result of Mar’s much thinner atmosphere.

The solar powered drone “Ingenuity” is really a demo model, a proof of concept of sorts, in advance of a more comprehensive drone expected to arrive on a future mission.

 

Mars mission

Ingenuity is only scheduled to take a few short flights in the first month of the mission

After those flights it will attempt to fly higher to help guide the Perseverance rover. Like most earth-bound drones it has a high resolution camera, which will hopefully help Perseverance capture a few selfies as it cruises the surface of Mars. 

Water  – yes , but is there life on Mars?

David Bowie famously asked it in song. Perseverance may now answer  the question; “is there life on Mars?” or perhaps ‘was there once life on Mars?’.

Mars’ polar regions are covered in ice. There is evidence of water lurking beneath those ice caps, and beneath Martian soil.   Because water and life go hand in hand, scientists believe studying water on Mars will lead to a better understanding whether life ever existed on the red planet..

“This mission is going to land in a new spot, with new opportunities,” said Marion. “ It’s going to look at this ancient crater that used to be filled by a lake, there’s a river used to run into it,  we’ve got evidence from the morphology of the landscape, that it was once a river and a delta. And these are places on earth that you would look to, you know, these, these environments on Earth are teeming with life. And so if we’re going to find ancient life, perhaps this would be a good place to look.”

Don’t expect dinosaur  fossils

“They’re not looking for a fish or a fossil” says Langill.  “They’re looking for microbial evidence of a metabolic process that may have occurred in a cell millions of years ago. That’s the kind of detail there they are after”

Stepping stones for future colonization

Mapping Martian water is also key to humans travelling to the planet in future missions.  

“These are stepping stones for future colonization, As settlers when we came when our ancestors came to Canada, they couldn’t bring all the materials to survive in their towns or in their villages. They had to live off the land and that’s what we’re trying to learn from Mars is start to live off the land because when we go there, we will not be able to bring all the oxygen, or all the water. That’s why they need to find ice as well water ice as well,” said Hladiuk.

“The  Perseverance also has an experiment called ‘Moxie’. It’s trying to live off the land. So they’re going to pump in CO2 from the atmosphere, and strip out the oxygen because we need oxygen to breathe. So  they’re starting to take those stepping stones for surviving or starting the first colonize colonies on Mars.”

Like so many others around the world, Hladiuk will be tuned in.

Dan Hladiuk

“I’ve got my  peanuts. I’ll have my Mars 2020 shirt on,  my EDL socks, I’ll be all geared up.  I’ll have one computer looking at NASA Deep Space Network to make sure signals are coming in. “ said Hladiuk “Watching a live entry is fantastic. It is.  I get excited just thinking about it.”

Hladiuk also recommends people take time Thursday night to go outside and look at Mars in the sky.  It will be sitting about four degrees above the crescent moon.  To determine four degrees hold your hand out at arms length and extend three fingers.  That’s usually about five degrees of the sky, so it will be just beneath your topmost finger. 

For Langill, the Mars landing also presents another opportunity; a chance to reignite the imagination of a new generation of space enthusiasts.

“From the human perspective, it seems like there’s an awful long time when nothing happens and you kind of forget about space exploration, and then something like this comes along and people get really re-energized and the topic comes back to life, and it’s almost like we we never left.”

Where to watch

Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars shortly before 2 p.m. MST on Thursday, Feb. 18.   NASA hopes the world tunes in for the landing  and is broadcasting the live feed  starting Thursday at 12:15 p.m. MT.  it is available on NASA’s public TV channel, its website, and  app, as well as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, and Daily Motion.

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The total solar eclipse in North America could shed light on a persistent puzzle about the sun – Phys.org

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The total solar eclipse in North America could shed light on a persistent puzzle about the sun

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The path of eclipse totality passes through Mexico, the US and Canada. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

A total solar eclipse takes place on April 8 across North America. These events occur when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, completely blocking the sun’s face. This plunges observers into a darkness similar to dawn or dusk.

During the upcoming eclipse, the path of totality, where observers experience the darkest part of the moon’s shadow (the umbra), crosses Mexico, arcing north-east through Texas, the Midwest and briefly entering Canada before ending in Maine.

Total solar eclipses occur roughly every 18 months at some location on Earth. The last that crossed the US took place on August 21 2017.

An international team of scientists, led by Aberystwyth University, will be conducting experiments from near Dallas, at a location in the path of totality. The team consists of Ph.D. students and researchers from Aberystwyth University, Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena.

There is valuable science to be done during eclipses that is comparable to or better than what we can achieve via space-based missions. Our experiments may also shed light on a longstanding puzzle about the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere—its corona.

The sun’s intense light is blocked by the moon during a total solar eclipse. This means that we can observe the sun’s faint corona with incredible clarity, from distances very close to the sun, out to several solar radii. One radius is the distance equivalent to half the sun’s diameter, about 696,000km (432,000 miles).

Measuring the corona is extremely difficult without an eclipse. It requires a special telescope called a coronagraph that is designed to block out direct light from the sun. This allows fainter light from the corona to be resolved. The clarity of eclipse measurements surpasses even coronagraphs based in space.

We can also observe the corona on a relatively small budget, compared to, for example, spacecraft missions. A persistent puzzle about the corona is the observation that it is much hotter than the photosphere (the visible surface of the sun). As we move away from a hot object, the surrounding temperature should decrease, not increase. How the corona is heated to such high temperatures is one question we will investigate.

We have two main scientific instruments. The first of these is Cip (coronal imaging polarimeter). Cip is also the Welsh word for “glance,” or “quick look.” The instrument takes images of the sun’s corona with a polariser.

The light we want to measure from the corona is highly polarized, which means it is made up of waves that vibrate in a single geometric plane. A polarizer is a filter that lets light with a particular polarization pass through it, while blocking light with other polarizations.

The Cip images will allow us to measure fundamental properties of the corona, such as its density. It will also shed light on phenomena such as the solar wind. This is a stream of sub-atomic particles in the form of plasma—superheated matter—flowing continuously outward from the sun. Cip could help us identify sources in the sun’s atmosphere for certain solar wind streams.

Direct measurements of the magnetic field in the sun’s atmosphere are difficult. But the eclipse data should allow us to study its fine-scale structure and trace the field’s direction. We’ll be able to see how far magnetic structures called large “closed” magnetic loops extend from the sun. This in turn will give us information about large-scale magnetic conditions in the corona.

The second instrument is Chils (coronal high-resolution line spectrometer). It collects high-resolution spectra, where light is separated into its component colors. Here, we are looking for a particular spectral signature of iron emitted from the corona.

It comprises three , where light is emitted or absorbed in a narrow frequency range. These are each generated at a different range of temperatures (in the millions of degrees), so their relative brightness tells us about the coronal temperature in different regions.

Mapping the ‘s temperature informs advanced, computer-based models of its behavior. These models must include mechanisms for how the coronal plasma is heated to such high temperatures. Such mechanisms might include the conversion of magnetic waves to thermal plasma energy, for example. If we show that some regions are hotter than others, this can be replicated in models.

This year’s eclipse also occurs during a time of heightened solar activity, so we could observe a coronal mass ejection (CME). These are huge clouds of magnetized plasma that are ejected from the sun’s atmosphere into space. They can affect infrastructure near Earth, causing problems for vital satellites.

Many aspects of CMEs are poorly understood, including their early evolution near the sun. Spectral information on CMEs will allow us to gain information on their thermodynamics, and their velocity and expansion near the sun.

Our eclipse instruments have recently been proposed for a space mission called moon-enabled solar occultation mission (Mesom). The plan is to orbit the moon to gain more frequent and extended eclipse observations. It is being planned as a UK Space Agency mission involving several countries, but led by University College London, the University of Surrey and Aberystwyth University.

We will also have an advanced commercial 360-degree camera to collect video of the April 8 eclipse and the observing site. The video is valuable for public outreach events, where we highlight the work we do, and helps to generate public interest in our local star, the sun.

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The total solar eclipse in North America could shed light on a persistent puzzle about the sun (2024, March 28)
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How the 2024 total solar eclipse is different than the 2017 eclipse



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Mar 30: An Australian Atlantis and other lost landscapes, and more… – CBC.ca

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Quirks and Quarks54:00An Australian Atlantis and other lost landscapes, and more…


On this week’s episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald: 

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Archaeologists identify a medieval war-horse graveyard near Buckingham Palace 

Quirks and Quarks9:04Archaeologists identify a medieval war-horse graveyard near Buckingham Palace

We know knights in shining armour rode powerful horses, but remains of those horses are rare. Now, researchers studying equine remains from a site near Buckingham Palace have built a case, based on evidence from their bones, that these animals were likely used in jousting tournaments and battle. Archaeologist Katherine Kanne says the bone analysis also revealed a complex, continent-crossing medieval horse trading network that supplied the British elite with sturdy stallions. This paper was published in Science Advances.

University of Exeter researchers analyzed horse skeletons found near Buckingham Palace and conducted isotope tests on teeth to find out more about the animals’ origins. (University of Exeter)

In an ice-free Arctic, polar bears are dining on duck eggs — and gulls are taking advantage

Quirks and Quarks9:22In an ice-free Arctic, Polar bears are dining on duck eggs — and gulls are taking advantage

Researchers using drones to study ground-nesting birds in the Arctic have observed entire colonies being devastated by marauding polar bears that would normally be out on the ice hunting seals, except the ice isn’t there. What’s more, now they’re enabling a second predator — hungry gulls that raid the nests in the bears’ wake. Andrew Barnas made the observations of this “gull tornado” by following around polar bears in East Bay Island in Nunavut. The research was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Aerial video of a polar bear on grassy, rocky terrain with white birds circling nearby.
A polar bear storms eider duck nests on East Bay island in Nunavut, while herring gulls follow closely behind to snack on any remaining eggs. (Submitted by Andrew Barnas)

A NASA mission might have the tools to detect life on Europa from space

Quirks and Quarks8:05A NASA mission might have the tools to detect life on Europa from space

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, due to launch this fall, is set to explore the jewel of our solar system: Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The mission’s focus is to determine if the icy moon, thought to harbour an ocean with more water than all of the water on Earth, is amenable to life. However, postdoctoral researcher Fabian Klenner, now at the University of Washington, demonstrated how the spacecraft may be able to detect fragments of bacterial life in a single grain of ice ejected from the surface of the moon. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

The silhouette of the spacecraft is flying over a brightly pink, blue and orange tinted moon with lots of darker coloured veins underneath with a slightly eclipsed Jupiter looming in the backdrop.
Scientists think under Europa’s icy shell, there is a global, saltwater ocean with twice the volume of Earth’s oceans combined. (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech)

Pollution is preventing pollinators from recognizing floral plants by scent

Quirks and Quarks7:50Pollution is preventing pollinators from finding plants by scent

Our polluted air is transforming floral scents so pollinators that spread their pollen can no longer recognize them. In a new study in the journal Science, researchers found that a certain compound in air pollution reacts with the flower’s scent molecules so pollinators — like the hummingbird hawk-moths that pollinate at night — fail to recognize them. Jeremy Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples, said the change in scent made the flowers smell “less fruity and less fresh.”

A huge insect that looks like a hummingbird hovers over a vibrant pink flower with its long antenna inside one of the blooms.
Scientists found that a hummingbird hawk-moth’s ability to recognize the smell of flowers is hampered by air pollution. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images)

An Australian Atlantis and underwater archeological remains in the Baltic 

Quirks and Quarks17:14An Australian Atlantis and underwater archeological remains in the Baltic

During the last ice age, sea levels were more than 100 metres lower than they are today, which means vast tracts of what are currently coastal seafloor were dry land back then. Geologists and archaeologists are searching for these lost landscapes to identify places prehistoric humans might have occupied. These included a country-sized area of Australia that could have been home to half a million people. Archaeologist Kasih Norman and her colleagues published their study of this now-drowned landscape in Quaternary Science Reviews

Another example is an undersea wall off the coast of Northern Germany that preserves an underwater reindeer hunting ground, described in research led by Jacob Geersen, published in the journal PNAS.

a black-and-white depiction of a small group of caribou walking between a low stone wall and an ocean coastline.
An artist’s representation of caribou being directed by a hunters’ stone wall, as it would have appeared 8-11,000 years ago, before rising sea levels left it 20m below the surface of the Baltic Sea. (Michał Grabowski)

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Solar eclipse April 8 – South Grey News

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March 28, 2024

Graphic: Appalachian Mtn Club

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Grey Bruce Public Health is urging residents to resist the temptation to look directly at the sun during the upcoming solar eclipse and take steps to safeguard their visual health during this relatively rare celestial event.

On April 8, 2024, parts of southern and eastern Ontario will experience a total solar eclipse for the first time since 1925. Grey-Bruce will be outside of the so-called Path of Totality — a narrow area where the moon will completely block out the sun — but will still experience a partial eclipse.

The eclipse is expected to begin at about 2 pm and continue until 4:30 pm The eclipse will peak around 3:20 pm.

It is never safe to stare directly at the sun, but it may be tempting to do so during a solar eclipse.

Looking directly at the sun during an eclipse can cause retinal burns, blurred vision, and/or temporary or permanent loss of visual function, according to the Ontario Association of Optometrists. Damage to the eyes can occur without any sensation of pain.

Grey Bruce Public Health advises the following:

  • Do not look directly at the sun without proper eye protection during the solar eclipse. Looking at even a small sliver of the sun before or after the eclipse without proper eye protection can harm vision.
  • Keep a close eye on children and other vulnerable family members during the eclipse to ensure they do not inadvertently look up at the sun without proper eye protection.
  • To safely view the eclipse, ISO-certified eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard must be worn. Ensure these glasses are in good condition, without any wrinkles or scratches, and that they fully cover the entire field of vision. Put on the glasses when looking away from the sun, then look at the eclipse. Look away from the sun before taking the glasses off.
  • Regular sunglasses or homemade filters will not protect the eyes.
  • It is not safe to view the eclipse through a camera/phone lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device.

Other ways to safely experience the solar eclipse include watching a livestream of the event or creating and using an eclipse box or pinhole projector.

Anyone experiencing temporary vision loss or blurred vision during or after the eclipse should speak with their eye care professional or healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Anyone experiencing blindness (immediate or delayed) after viewing the eclipse must seek emergency care immediately.

More information on the upcoming eclipse is available on the GBPH website.


At South Grey News, we endeavour to bring you truthful and factual, up-to-date local community news in a quick and easy-to-digest format that’s free of political bias. We believe this service is more important today than ever before, as social media has given rise to misinformation, largely unchecked by big corporations who put profits ahead of their responsibilities.

South Grey News does not have the resources of a big corporation. We are a small, locally owned-and-operated organization. Research, analysis and physical attendance at public meetings and community events requires considerable effort. But contributions from readers and advertisers, however big or small, go a long way to helping us deliver positive, open and honest journalism for this community.

Please consider supporting South Grey News with a donation in lieu of a subscription fee and let us know that our efforts are appreciated. Thank you.

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