[LINK] “NASA Announces Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded”

Andrew Fazekas of National Geographic‘s Starstruck blog notes this somewhat alarming news.

A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at the right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program.

Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed.

“We have seen a couple of others in the ‘wow’ category but not this bright,” said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The blast lasted only about a single second and shone like a 4th magnitude star—making it bright enough to see with just the unaided eye.

The NASA monitoring program’s 14-inch telescope was the first to snag an image of the lunar explosion. Analyzing the images, researchers estimate that the object probably weighed in at 40 kg (88 pounds) and was about 0.4 meters (1.4 feet) wide. It crashed into the moon at speeds of 56,000 miles (90,000 km) per hour, releasing as much energy as five tons of TNT.

[LINK] “Official Confirms NASA Plan to Capture an Asteroid”

Ooh. From Universe Today’s Nancy Atkinson.

Rumors have been leaking out for over a week, but now according to Alan Boyle at NBC News’ Cosmic Log, a senior Obama administration official has confirmed that $100 million is being sought for NASA’s budget request for the coming fiscal year for work to allow a robotic spaceship to capture a small asteroid and park it near the Moon for astronauts to explore. The spacecraft would capture a 500-ton, 7- meter (25-foot) asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would station-keep with the space rock in 2021 to allow for EVAs for exploration. This plan would accelerate NASA’s deep space missions with Orion and prepare crews for going to Mars.

NBC news quoted the official — who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the plan publicly — as saying the mission would “accomplish the president’s challenge of sending humans to visit an asteroid by 2025 in a more cost-effective and potentially quicker time frame than under other scenarios.”

[. . .]

Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program, was quoted that while there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy. And once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of “a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.”

A 7- meter (25-foot) asteroid is not a threat to Earth because asteroids of that size would burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The official quoted by NBC said the plan has been under discussion for months, but after February’s meteor blast over Russia, the plan gained traction. The asteroid’s entry into Earth’s atmosphere and subsequent airblast injured more than 1,000 people, and sparked discussions about asteroid threats, including a series of congressional hearings. Congressional officials said they would support more funding to counter asteroid threats.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster writes about the likely abundance of Earth-like planets in Earth-like orbits.
• Daniel Drezner writes (1, 2) about how ad hoc coalitions of world powers are able to deal relatively decisively in some matters of global affairs.
• At The Dragon’s Tales, Will Baird notes that Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes appear to have floating ice.
• Eastern Approaches notes the toxicity that disputes over war memorials in the Balkans, noting an Albanian memorial in southern Serbia.
• False Steps’ Paul Drye notes one rocket technology that, if adequately developed, could have let the Soviet Union reach the moon.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Alexander Harrowell notes that the United States does not want the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
• Marginal Revolution asks questions about the geographical, historical, and other factors that let free cities survive.
• The Signal’s Bill LeFurgy compares digital archivists’ work to that of paleontologists. Nice analogy.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alexander Harrowell notes that conservative British pundits in the United States are a much smaller and more unrepresentative minority than is often believed.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Soviet-era apologia for the deadly assault on the Vilnius radio station in 1991 is being used in modern Russia.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• James Bow comes out in support of today’s strike by Ontario teachers.
• Beyond the Beyond’s Bruce Sterling links to an article describing how NASA archivists tried to recover data from a 1960s lunar orbiter.
• Centauri Dreams has two posts on habitable exomoons, the first on gas giants in the habitable zones of other stars and the second on the requirements for moons to be habitable. (They would need to be roughly a quarter the mass of the Earth.)
• Daniel Drezner likes the idea of a United States-European Union transatlantic free trade agreement.
• Eastern Approaches notes the directions of Slovakia’s foreign policy.
• Norman Geras links to a blogger who suggests that, if Saddam Hussein stayed in power in Iraq, the Arab Spring in that country could have been bloody. (Look at Syria.)
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little takes a look at the idea that different generations have different experiences.
• Window on Eurasia reports on a Russian writer who notes that the North Caucasus and its population cotninues to identify as Russian, and shares in Russian experiences. No separatism there.

[BRIEF NOTE] On Chang’E 2′s imaging of asteroid 4179 Toutatis

Taken from Emily Lakdawalla’s Planetary Society blog, this picture shows the images of asteroid 4179 Toutatis taken on the 13th of December, 2012, by China’s Chang’E 2 probe.

A commenter at the blog translates the official commentary as follows.

China’s National defense industrial agency today announces a new breakthrough in China’s lunar and space exploration. CE-2 has successfully executed a close fly-by of the Toutatis asteroid at a distance of approximately 7 million km from earth; this is the first time any nation has made such close examination of the asteroid. This breakthrough also signifies that China is the fourth country, after the US, the ESA, and Japan, which has the capability to explore asteroids. At 1630 on December 13, CE-2 responded to commands and approached and made a close fly-by of the Toutatis asteroid. Relative speed was 10.73 km/s; closest distance was 3.2 km from the asteroid. CE-2 used its on-board star observation cameras to capture images from the asteroid. Chief lunar exploration engineer Wu Wei-Ren says “We completed our mission very well today; this is our first time exploring asteroid”. News anchor: “This is the world’s first close-distance image capture of the Toutatis asteroid. It not only proves Ce-2′s orbit design and navigation control but it also realizes China’s improvement in its reach for space going from 400,000 km (moon) out to 7 million km from earth”. Lunar exploration control project’s assistant chief engineer Zhou Jian-Liang says “Sending a lunar exploration space ship that has fulfilled its mission to such an orbit is very challenging.” “Our propulsion system was designed for long life; using x-band to send data back to earth from such a long distance is also difficult”, says CE-2′s assistant chief system engineer Wang xiao-Lei says. The completion of the extended mission by Ce-2 also means the satelite has successfully completed its overall mission. CE-2 was launched on October 1, 2010; After it successfully completed its six planned primary engineering and four scienctific missions at the moon; it flew to the L2 point about 1.5 million km from earth then to the Toutatis asteroid about 7 milliom km from earth. Exceeding at each station China’s lunar and deep space exploration achievement.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• BlogTO featured remarkable before and after photos of the booming South Core neighbourhood of Toronto, among the new condos on Bay Street by the harbour.
• Charlie Stross examines the basic thinking of environmentalism, and finds it lacking. As George Carlin said, the Earth doesn’t need saving; rather, we need saving from the Earth. Envirnomentalism as enlightened self-management works.
• Centauri Dreams discusses the sorts of environments where life might find refuge on a planet as its sun overheats, like our Earth in a billion years’ time or any number of exoplanets. (Deep ocean trenches, high lakes, and cave systems rank highly.)
• Eastern Approaches examines politics in Romania and Ukraine, finding much lacking.
• At False Steps, Paul Drye describes Soviet space planners’ preferred plan for sending cosmonauts to the Moon, and how it could have launched regardless (the Soviet leadership would have had to have seen space travel as non-propagandistic).
• As part of Geocurrents’ ongoing examination of the origins of the Indo-European language family, Martin Lewis argues that, based on what we know about the productive capabilities of early agricultural civilizations and actual patterns of language diversity, imagining that Indo-European developed in a vast area at once–even a largish one–is ridiculous.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen engages with the music documentary Searching for Sugar Man, about a minor Detroit-based artist who became a huge star in South Africa.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer doesn’t think that a court decision in the United States seizing Argentine government property against that country’s foreign debts will come to much in the end, since the general consensus of courts around the world–especially on appeal–has been that the property can’t be seized.
• Supernova Condensate links to a cool short film describing life at the bottom of a space elevator in the nearish future.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• BlogTO featured remarkable before and after photos of the booming South Core neighbourhood of Toronto, among the new condos on Bay Street by the harbour.
• Charlie Stross examines the basic thinking of environmentalism, and finds it lacking. As George Carlin said, the Earth doesn’t need saving; rather, we need saving from the Earth. Envirnomentalism as enlightened self-management works.
• Centauri Dreams discusses the sorts of environments where life might find refuge on a planet as its sun overheats, like our Earth in a billion years’ time or any number of exoplanets. (Deep ocean trenches, high lakes, and cave systems rank highly.)
• Eastern Approaches examines politics in Romania and Ukraine, finding much lacking.
• At False Steps, pauldrye describes Soviet space planners’ preferred plan for sending cosmonauts to the Moon, and how it could have launched regardless (the Soviet leadership would have had to have seen space travel as non-propagandistic).
• As part of Geocurrents’ ongoing examination of the origins of the Indo-European language family, Martin Lewis argues that, based on what we know about the productive capabilities of early agricultural civilizations and actual patterns of language diversity, imagining that Indo-European developed in a vast area at once–even a largish one–is ridiculous.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen engages with the music documentary Searching for Sugar Man, about a minor Detroit-based artist who became a huge star in South Africa.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer doesn’t think that a court decision in the United States seizing Argentine government property against that country’s foreign debts will come to much in the end, since the general consensus of courts around the world–especially on appeal–has been that the property can’t be seized.
• Supernova Condensate links to a cool short film describing life at the bottom of a space elevator in the nearish future.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster raises the possibility of bringing an asteroid into lunar orbit, for scientific and space-settlement purposes both.
• Daniel Drezner is pleasantly surprised that the situation of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng hasn’t led to anything like a breakdown of Sino-American relations.
• Eastern Approaches notes the Polish holiday of “Flag Day” on the 2nd of May, commemorating the substantial Polish participation in the conquest of Berlin in 1945.
• Far Outliers’ Joel discusses the Canary Islands and the role they played in the emerging imperium, both vis-a-vis Portugal and the later imperial strategies of unified Spain.
• Geocurrents describes the Sino-Soviet border disputes in eastern Siberia in 1969 that killed hundreds of people, nearly led to a Sino-Soviet war, and played a critical role in deciding the future of the world.
• Language Hat starts a discussion about the depressing plight of non-Russian languages inside Russia that quickly expands to include discussions of Turkish immigrants in Russia, the situation of Gaelic in Ireland, and Canada’s own language situation.
• Laywers, Guns and Money reviews a book describing how environmentalism in the Colorado ski resort of Aspen helps to legitimate anti-immigrant sentiment.
• At NewAPPSBlog, Mohan Matthen makes the contrarian argument–compelling, but I think ultimately incorrect–that a “Oui” outcome in the 1995 Québec referendum would have been good for Québec and rump Canada both.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alexander Harrowell discusses the consequences of Bo Xilai’s wiretapping of other officials in China, in the context of ubiquitous state surveillance generally.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster raises the possibility of bringing an asteroid into lunar orbit, for scientific and space-settlement purposes both.
• Daniel Drezner is pleasantly surprised that the situation of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng hasn’t led to anything like a breakdown of Sino-American relations.
• Eastern Approaches notes the Polish holiday of “Flag Day” on the 2nd of May, commemorating the substantial Polish participation in the conquest of Berlin in 1945.
• Far Outliers’ Joel discusses the Canary Islands and the role they played in the emerging imperium, both vis-a-vis Portugal and the later imperial strategies of unified Spain.
• Geocurrents describes the Sino-Soviet border disputes in eastern Siberia in 1969 that killed hundreds of people, nearly led to a Sino-Soviet war, and played a critical role in deciding the future of the world.
• Language Hat starts a discussion about the depressing plight of non-Russian languages inside Russia that quickly expands to include discussions of Turkish immigrants in Russia, the situation of Gaelic in Ireland, and Canada’s own language situation.
• Laywers, Guns and Money reviews a book describing how environmentalism in the Colorado ski resort of Aspen helps to legitimate anti-immigrant sentiment.
• At NewAPPSBlog, Mohan Matthen makes the contrarian argument–compelling, but I think ultimately incorrect–that a “Oui” outcome in the 1995 Québec referendum would have been good for Québec and rump Canada both.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alexander Harrowell discusses the consequences of Bo Xilai’s wiretapping of other officials in China, in the context of ubiquitous state surveillance generally.

[BRIEF NOTE] On Earth-like worlds and red dwarfs

I think that io9 may have overreached in titling a post. The post “Why we won’t find Earth-2 around a red dwarf star” links to a very interesting paper regarding unconsidered problems facing potentially Earth-like planets around red dwarf stars, “Tidal Venuses: Triggering a Climate Catastrophe via Tidal Heating” by Barnes, Mullins, et al., but the paper consider a specific known exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf–Gliese 667C c, covered by me back in February here–and concludes that it could be habitable after all.

What’s going on? It all has to do with the habitable zones around stars, the set of orbits in which a planet could plausibly support an Earth-like climate friendly to liquid water. Traditional calculations of a habitable zone have considered the radiant energy produced by a star. For red dwarfs–dim, low mass stars–a planet in the habitable zone would be closely bound by gravitation to its star, quite possibly with one side forever facing its sun in much the same way that one side of the Moon forever faces the Earth and the other forever faces away. This degree of tidal locking wouldn’t prevent such a planet from being habitable, as atmospheric models suggest that an atmosphere only slightly denser than Mars would be capable of transporting enough heat to prevent the planet’s atmosphere from freezing on the dark side. Other constraints, however, might exist. The authors identify the heat produced by the gravitational tides exerted by a star on such a close planet as a major source of heat.

As a planet moves from periastron, its closest approach to the star, to apoastron, the furthest point, and back again, the gravitational force changes, being inversely proportional to distance squared. This difference creates an oscillating strain on the planet that causes it to undergo periodic deformation. The rigidity of the planet resists the deformation, and friction generates heat. This energy production is called tidal heating.

Tidal heating is responsible for the volcanism on Io (Strom et al. 1979; Laver et al. 2007), which was predicted, using tidal theory, by Peale et al. (1979). Io is a small body orbiting Jupiter with an eccentricity of 0.0041, which is maintained by the gravitational perturbations of its fellow Galilean moons, that shows global volcanism which resurfaces the planet on a timescale of 100 – 105 years (Johnson et al. 4 1979; Blaney et al. 1995; McEwen et al. 2004). The masses of Jupiter and Io are orders of magnitude smaller than a star and terrestrial exoplanet, and thus the latter have a much larger reservoir of orbital and rotational energy available for tidal heating. Moreover, some exoplanets have been found with orbital eccentricities larger than 0.9 (Naef et al. 2001; Jones et al. 2006; Tamuz et al. 2008). Thus, the tidal heating of terrestrial exoplanets may be much more effective than on Io (Jackson et al. 2008c,a; Barnes et al. 2009a, 2010; Heller et al. 2011). This expectation led to the proposition that terrestrial exoplanets with surface heat fluxes as large or larger than Io’s should be classified as “Super-Ios”, rather than “Super-Earths” (Barnes et al. 2009b).

The authors go on to calculate that it’s quite possible for some planets closely orbiting red dwarf stars, especially worlds orbiting low-mass red dwarf stars (less than 20% the mass of our sun, perhaps) and worlds with very eccentric orbits, to be located within the “classical” habitable zone of their star but nonetheless be so heated by the tidal forces exerted by their star as to become “Tidal Venuses”, becoming superheated worlds which lose their water to evaporation in space in just hundreds of millions of years. The aforementioned Gliese 667C c is not likely to be such a planet, according to the team’s calculations, as its orbit is too distant. Other worlds, as yet undiscovered, may not be so lucky.