[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.
• D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.
• Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.
• Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.
• Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)
• JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.
• Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.
• Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.
• Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people’s language.

[NEWS] Five science links: He Jiankui clones, submoons, ayahuasca, planetary nebulas, black holes

• Chinese scientist He Jiankui, responsible for genetically engineering babies, is along with his team facing serious legal consequences from the Chinese government. SCMP reports.
• A new paper suggests that submoons, moons of a world that is itself a moon, is not only theoretically possible but imaginable in orbit of known worlds including the Moon, Callisto, and Titan. Where are these?
• Is ayahuasca becoming a drug of widespread and legitimate mainstream usage? VICE reports.
• Planetary nebulas, Universe Today reports, are visible for only ten thousand years before their beautiful gases dissipate.
• The interiors of black holes apparently continue to grow indefinitely. (The physics is complicated, as one might expect.) Nautilus has the article.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• ‘Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen links to a giveaway of paranormal LGBT fiction.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares some stunning photos of Jupiter provided by Juno.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly looks at the desperate, multi-state strike of teachers in the United States. American education deserves to have its needs, and its practitioners’ needs, met.
• Centauri Dreams looks at PROCSIMA, a strategy for improving beamed propulsion techniques.
• Crooked Timber looks at the history of the concept of the uncanny valley. How did the concept get translated in the 1970s from Japan to the wider world?
• Dangerous Minds shares a 1980s BBC interview with William Burroughs.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper tracing the origin of the Dravidian language family to a point in time 4500 years ago.
• JSTOR Daily notes Phyllis Wheatley, a freed slave who became the first African-American author in the 18th century but who died in poverty.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
• Language Log looks at the forms used by Chinese to express the concepts of NIMBY and NIMBYism.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional importance of the Persian language in early modern South Asia.
• The NYR Daily notes that, if the United States junks the nuclear deal with Iran, nothing external to Iran could realistically prevent the country’s nuclearization.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest findings from the Jupiter system, from that planet’s planet-sized moons.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes that many Rohingya, driven from their homeland, have been forced to work as mules in the illegal drug trade.
• Starts With A Bang considers how early, based on elemental abundances, life could have arisen after the Big Bang. A date only 1 to 1.5 billion years after the formation of the universe is surprisingly early.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs notes how the centre of population of different tree populations in the United States has been shifting west as the climate has changed.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little takes a look at mechanisms and causal explanations.
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative’s Frances Woolley takes a look at an ECON 1000 test from the 1950s. What biases, what gaps in knowledge, are revealed by it?

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Centauri Dreams links to archival video painstakingly collected from the Voyager missions.
• Citizen Science Salon notes ways ordinary people can use satellite imagery for archaeological purposes.
• Good news: Asian carp can’t find a fin-hold in Lake Michigan. Bad news: The lake is so food-deprived nothing lives there. The Crux reports.
• D-Brief notes that, once every second, a fast radio burst occurs somewhere in the universe.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the psychedelic retro-futurism of Swedish artist Kilian Eng.
• Dead Things notes the recovery of ancient human DNA from some African sites, and what this could mean for study.
• Cody Delistraty reconsiders the idea of the “coming of age” narrative. Does this make sense now that we have abandoned the idea of a unitary self?
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining the evolution of icy bodies around different post-main sequence stars.
• The Great Grey Bridge’s Philip Turner notes anti-Putin dissident Alexei Navalny.
• Hornet Stories notes reports of anti-gay persecution in Azerbaijan.
• Language Log takes a look at the dialectal variations of southern Ohio.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money starts a discussion about what effective disaster relief for Puerto Rico would look like.
• The LRB Blog looks at the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Mexico, and the story of the buried girl who was not there.
• Marginal Revolution notes that Toronto real estate companies, in light of rent control, are switching rental units over to condos.
• Naked Anthropologist Laura Agustín takes a look at the origins and stories of migrant sex workers.
• The NYR Daily talks about the supposedly unthinkable idea of nuclear war in the age of Trump.
• Drew Rowsome gives a strongly positive–and deserved review to the Minmar Gaslight show The Seat Next to the King, a Fringe triumph now playing at the Theatre Centre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how so many outer-system icy worlds have liquid water.
• Towleroad features Jim Parsons’ exploration of how important is for him, as a gay man, to be married.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Russian language policy limiting minority languages in education could backfire, and wonders if Islamization one way people in an urbanizing North Caucasus are trying to remain connected to community.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.
• D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans’ habitability.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.
• Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.
• Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, “My Immortal”, has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.
• Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)
• Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.
• At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.
• Livejournal’s pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry’s Auroville Café.
• Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.
• Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.

[LINK] “ESA, Airbus Formalize Jupiter Icy Moons Contract”

The Dragon’s Tales linked to Space News’ report showing that the ESA is set to join NASA in the ranks of deep-space explorers.

The European Space Agency on Dec. 9 signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the construction of ESA’s Juice – Jupiter Icy Moons – orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2022 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket.

The contract had been expected since ESA’s July decision to approve a contract valued at 350.8 million euros ($374 million) with Airbus after a competition with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy and OHB SE of Germany, which had submitted a joint bid.

Francois Auque, head of Airbus Space Systems, said Juice hardware will be produced as early as mid-2016, with the full contracting team from 60 companies lined up by 2017. Some 150 people will be working on the prime contractor’s project team at the program’s peak in 2017-2018, he said.

Juice will spend 7.5 years after launch making its way to the Jupiter system, where it will investigate the Europa, Ganymede and Callisto moons. Its mission is expected to last 3.5 years.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO explains why there is no Terminal 2 at Pearson.
• Crooked Timber notes the very strong case against coal and new coal mines.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper speculating that the solar system had five large planets.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the Russian war in Syria, updates readers on the Ukrainian war, and suggests Russia is starting to run out of money.
• Joe. My. God. notes Wil Wheaton’s refusal to let the Huffington Post use his material for free.
• Language Log notes the complexities of Chinese language stop signs in Hong Kong.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how elements of climate change like water shortages can make things worse.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw, among other things, notes that Australia’s approach to asylum cannot work in Europe.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes new proposals for exploring the Jovian system.
• Spacing Toronto looks at an old murder on the Toronto Islands in the Second World War.
• Supernova Condensate shares a Tumblr image set noting the need to not discourage women from being interested in science.
• Window on Eurasia notes the awkward position of Crimean Tatar institutions and notes some Belarusians want a Russian military base because they want the income.

[LINK] On why the Galilean moons, unlike Titan, lack atmospheres

The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper, “The formation of the Galilean moons and Titan in the Grand Tack scenario”, that provides an explanation for why Galilean moons like Ganymede and Callisto lack atmospheres despite being as massive as densely-shrouded Titan. Migration in the early solar system explains this.

In the “Grand Tack” (GT) scenario for the young solar system, Jupiter formed beyond 3.5 AU from the Sun and migrated as close as 1.5 AU until it encountered an orbital resonance with Saturn. Both planets then supposedly migrated outward for several 105 yr, with Jupiter ending up at ~5 AU. The initial conditions of the GT and the timing between Jupiter’s migration and the formation of the Galilean satellites remain unexplored. We study the formation of Ganymede and Callisto, both of which consist of ~50% water and rock, respectively, in the GT scenario. We examine why they lack dense atmospheres, while Titan is surrounded by a thick nitrogen envelope. We model an axially symmetric circumplanetary disk (CPD) in hydrostatic equilibrium around Jupiter. The CPD is warmed by viscous heating, Jupiter’s luminosity, accretional heating, and the Sun. The position of the water ice line in the CPD, which is crucial for the formation of massive moons, is computed at various solar distances. We assess the loss of Galilean atmospheres due to high-energy radiation from the young Sun. Ganymede and Callisto cannot have accreted their water during Jupiter’s supposed GT, because its CPD (if still active) was too warm to host ices and much smaller than Ganymede’s contemporary orbit. From a thermal perspective, the Galilean moons might have had significant atmospheres, but these would probably have been eroded during the GT in < 105 yr by solar XUV radiation. Jupiter and the Galilean moons formed beyond 4.5 (+/-0.5) AU and prior to the proposed GT. Thereafter, Jupiter's CPD would have been dry, and delayed accretion of planetesimals should have created water-rich Io and Europa. While Galilean atmospheres would have been lost during the GT, Titan would have formed after Saturn's own tack, because Saturn still accreted substantially for ~106 yr after its closest solar approach, ending up at about 7 AU.

[LINK] “JUICE: Europe’s next mission to Jupiter?”

The Planetary Society Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla noted earlier that JUICE, the proposed European Space Agency unmanned mission to Jupiter and its icy moons that I blogged about last December, has been officially selected and will likely be adopted. This is certainly of note, not only because JUICE is a major expedition that’s the European Space Agency’s attempt to salvage its part of a joint NASA-ESA mission canceled by the American agency, but because this is the first ESA mission into the outer solar system, to this point an exclusive preserve of NASA.

The Twitterverse is buzzing this morning with news that the Science Programme Committee of the European Space Agency has recommended that the next large European mission be JUICE, a mission to explore the three icy Galilean satellites and eventually to orbit Ganymede. The recommendation is not binding; it must be voted upon (a simple majority vote, according to BBC News), at a meeting of the Science Programme Committee, consisting of representatives of all 19 ESA member states, on May 2. The committee is likely to green-light this recommendation, but it shouldn’t be taken as a certain decision just yet.

JUICE is being recommended over ATHENA (an x-ray observatory) and NGO (a gravitational wave observatory). It would launch in June 2022, enter Jupiter orbit in January 2030, and end in Ganymede orbit in June 2033. It is a concept that has been modified from JGO, the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter, originally conceived as Europe’s half of a US-Europe two-spacecraft mission to Jupiter, where NASA had originally proposed to provide a Jupiter Europa Orbiter. NASA canceled its plans to participate in that mission just as it canceled its participation in ExoMars more recently, and as with ExoMars, ESA appears ready to go forward without the USA. In fact, ESA has modified the originally proposed JGO mission to incorporate some of the science goals that would have been accomplished by NASA’s Europa mission.

Here’s the mission description and profile from the ESA document:

Science goals

The JUICE mission will visit the Jupiter system concentrating on the characterization of Ganymede, Europa and Callisto as planetary objects and potential habitats and on the exploration of the Jupiter system considered as an archetype for gas giants in the solar system and elsewhere. The focus of JUICE is to characterize the conditions that may have led to the emergence of habitable environments among the Jovian icy satellites, with special emphasis on the three ocean-bearing worlds, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. The mission will also focus on characterizing the diversity of processes in the Jupiter system which may be required in order to provide a stable environment at Ganymede, Europa and Callisto on geologic time scales, including gravitational coupling between the Galilean satellites and their long term tidal influence on the system as a whole.

Mission profile

The mission will be launched in June 2022 by an Ariane 5 ECA and will perform a 7.5 yr cruise toward Jupiter based on an Earth-Venus-Earth-Earth gravitational assist. The Jupiter orbit insertion will be performed in January 2030, and will be followed by a tour of the Jupiter system, comprising a transfer to Callisto (11 months), a phase studying Europa (with 2 flybys) and Callisto (with 3 flybys) lasting one month, a “Jupiter high-latitude phase” that includes 9 Callisto flybys (lasting 9 months) and the transfer to Ganymede (lasting 11 months). In September 2032 the spacecraft is inserted into orbit around Ganymede, starting with elliptical and high altitude circular orbits (for 5 months) followed by a phase in a medium altitude (500 km) circular orbit (3 months) and by a final phase in low altitude (200 km) circular orbit (1 month). The end of the nominal mission is foreseen in June 2033.

[. . .]

This selection — if it is accepted — represents a big win for planetary science and a big loss for space-based astrophysics in Europe. Which is, one can’t help but notice, opposite to what the currently-proposed NASA budget represents.

I’m pretty ignorant of the internal and external politics involved in these decisions, and also of the relative merits of JUICE, ATHENA, and NGO, so while I admit I’m happy the planetary mission got selected, I don’t feel qualified to comment on whether it should have or shouldn’t have been the one that ESA picked. But, as a member of the American public, I can’t help but see this decision as Europe stepping in to the sucking vacuum left by NASA in the exploration of the outer planets. NASA’s inability to follow up on decades of spectacular successes in outer solar system exploration with any mission beyond Cassini’s end in 2017 leaves an opportunity for Europe to take over the leadership of Earth’s exploration of the solar system beyond the asteroid belt. It remains a challenge that Europe doesn’t currently have the capability to produce radioisotope power sources for spacecraft; limited to solar power at present, that means Europe can’t get beyond Jupiter. But Jupiter is far enough, for now.

The outer planets science community is a small and international one, so for sure there will be American participation in the science team, and probably also in the payload; the ESA document says specifically that “NASA has expressed an interest in contributing to the payload.” Science instruments on ESA missions work differently from NASA. They aren’t paid for by ESA; ESA builds and pays for the spacecraft, but different member states propose, build, and operate the science instruments using their own funds. ESA estimates that the spacecraft will cost €830 million and that ESA member states will spend an estimated €241 million to build instruments. NASA may contribute up to €68 million toward the payload. I hope it contributes the full amount; it’d be hard to imagine a way to get more bang for one’s bucks than to pay for a couple of instruments and 10 or 20 scientists to work on a mission being built, developed, launched, and operated by someone else.

[LINK] “JUICE: Europe’s next mission to Jupiter?”

The Planetary Society Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla noted earlier that JUICE, the proposed European Space Agency unmanned mission to Jupiter and its icy moons that I blogged about last December, has been officially selected and will likely be adopted. This is certainly of note, not only because JUICE is a major expedition that’s the European Space Agency’s attempt to salvage its part of a joint NASA-ESA mission canceled by the American agency, but because this is the first ESA mission into the outer solar system, to this point an exclusive preserve of NASA.

The Twitterverse is buzzing this morning with news that the Science Programme Committee of the European Space Agency has recommended that the next large European mission be JUICE, a mission to explore the three icy Galilean satellites and eventually to orbit Ganymede. The recommendation is not binding; it must be voted upon (a simple majority vote, according to BBC News), at a meeting of the Science Programme Committee, consisting of representatives of all 19 ESA member states, on May 2. The committee is likely to green-light this recommendation, but it shouldn’t be taken as a certain decision just yet.

JUICE is being recommended over ATHENA (an x-ray observatory) and NGO (a gravitational wave observatory). It would launch in June 2022, enter Jupiter orbit in January 2030, and end in Ganymede orbit in June 2033. It is a concept that has been modified from JGO, the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter, originally conceived as Europe’s half of a US-Europe two-spacecraft mission to Jupiter, where NASA had originally proposed to provide a Jupiter Europa Orbiter. NASA canceled its plans to participate in that mission just as it canceled its participation in ExoMars more recently, and as with ExoMars, ESA appears ready to go forward without the USA. In fact, ESA has modified the originally proposed JGO mission to incorporate some of the science goals that would have been accomplished by NASA’s Europa mission.

Here’s the mission description and profile from the ESA document:

Science goals

The JUICE mission will visit the Jupiter system concentrating on the characterization of Ganymede, Europa and Callisto as planetary objects and potential habitats and on the exploration of the Jupiter system considered as an archetype for gas giants in the solar system and elsewhere. The focus of JUICE is to characterize the conditions that may have led to the emergence of habitable environments among the Jovian icy satellites, with special emphasis on the three ocean-bearing worlds, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. The mission will also focus on characterizing the diversity of processes in the Jupiter system which may be required in order to provide a stable environment at Ganymede, Europa and Callisto on geologic time scales, including gravitational coupling between the Galilean satellites and their long term tidal influence on the system as a whole.

Mission profile

The mission will be launched in June 2022 by an Ariane 5 ECA and will perform a 7.5 yr cruise toward Jupiter based on an Earth-Venus-Earth-Earth gravitational assist. The Jupiter orbit insertion will be performed in January 2030, and will be followed by a tour of the Jupiter system, comprising a transfer to Callisto (11 months), a phase studying Europa (with 2 flybys) and Callisto (with 3 flybys) lasting one month, a “Jupiter high-latitude phase” that includes 9 Callisto flybys (lasting 9 months) and the transfer to Ganymede (lasting 11 months). In September 2032 the spacecraft is inserted into orbit around Ganymede, starting with elliptical and high altitude circular orbits (for 5 months) followed by a phase in a medium altitude (500 km) circular orbit (3 months) and by a final phase in low altitude (200 km) circular orbit (1 month). The end of the nominal mission is foreseen in June 2033.

[. . .]

This selection — if it is accepted — represents a big win for planetary science and a big loss for space-based astrophysics in Europe. Which is, one can’t help but notice, opposite to what the currently-proposed NASA budget represents.

I’m pretty ignorant of the internal and external politics involved in these decisions, and also of the relative merits of JUICE, ATHENA, and NGO, so while I admit I’m happy the planetary mission got selected, I don’t feel qualified to comment on whether it should have or shouldn’t have been the one that ESA picked. But, as a member of the American public, I can’t help but see this decision as Europe stepping in to the sucking vacuum left by NASA in the exploration of the outer planets. NASA’s inability to follow up on decades of spectacular successes in outer solar system exploration with any mission beyond Cassini’s end in 2017 leaves an opportunity for Europe to take over the leadership of Earth’s exploration of the solar system beyond the asteroid belt. It remains a challenge that Europe doesn’t currently have the capability to produce radioisotope power sources for spacecraft; limited to solar power at present, that means Europe can’t get beyond Jupiter. But Jupiter is far enough, for now.

The outer planets science community is a small and international one, so for sure there will be American participation in the science team, and probably also in the payload; the ESA document says specifically that “NASA has expressed an interest in contributing to the payload.” Science instruments on ESA missions work differently from NASA. They aren’t paid for by ESA; ESA builds and pays for the spacecraft, but different member states propose, build, and operate the science instruments using their own funds. ESA estimates that the spacecraft will cost €830 million and that ESA member states will spend an estimated €241 million to build instruments. NASA may contribute up to €68 million toward the payload. I hope it contributes the full amount; it’d be hard to imagine a way to get more bang for one’s bucks than to pay for a couple of instruments and 10 or 20 scientists to work on a mission being built, developed, launched, and operated by someone else.