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7/29/2019 Current Event Final

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Current Event #10

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50167267/#50167267

Nightly News | Aired on December 12, 2012

Toutatis asteroid to whiz by Earth

A giant asteroid about three miles wide is set to pass by Earth Tuesday night. Its closest approach will

occur Wednesday morning, when it passes within 4.3 million miles from our planet. NBCs Brian

Williams reports.

As we have been studying extraterrestrial impacts, I see this article, which contains a video, as very

relevant. Toutatis is roughly 3 miles wide and is set to pass by Earth and the moon soon. Close to theearth is still 4.3 million miles away from our planet. The death and destruction of such a great asteroid

would be catastrophic to the earth. If hit by the asteroid, the earth would surely enter another ice age from

the debris blocking out the sun from entering our atmosphere. It would result in an extinction event for

most life on earth. This is similar to what is thought to be the cause of the dinosaurs extinction.


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Current Event #11

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-sci-martian-meteorite-20121010,0,7715849.story

By Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times

October 12, 2012

Blasted into space by a collision with an asteroid, the jagged hunk of Mars rocktumbled silently through the solar system for 7,000 centuries.

Finally, on July 18, 2011, the rock's long journey ended as violently as it had begun: Itplunged to Earth as a fireball that illuminated the Moroccan night, awakening soldiersand nomads with a sonic boom. One eyewitness said it turned from yellow to green

before it finally split in two and vanished from view.

Such was the dramatic arrival of the so-called Tissint meteorite, named for a villagewhere pieces fell. The unusually pristine specimen is one of only five Martianprojectiles that have been observed entering Earth's atmosphere and then recoveredfor study.

It turns out the meteorite has a great deal in common with other rocks that have madethe trip from Mars to Earth, according to a report published online Thursday by the

journal Science.

An international team of researchers examined its molecular structure anddetermined that Tissint was probably ejected from Mars by the same impact thatlaunched another group of meteorites that also landed on Earth, many in Antarctica,after a shorter journey through the solar system.

They determined this by calculating the meteorite's exposure to cosmic rays.

As the Mars rocks traveled through space, they endured constant bombardment bycosmic rays high-energy protons that would penetrate the rocks and sometimes

knock out protons and neutrons from their atoms. The process created rare isotopesthat scientists use to determine how long it took the rocks to make their journeys.

Tissint has a cosmic ray exposure age of 700,000 years, give or take 300,000, authorswrote. This was consistent with the meteorites that arrived earlier, "suggesting thatthey were ejected from Mars during the same event."

Roughly 15 pounds of scorched and shattered rock was plucked from the Moroccandesert by meteor hunters in the months after Tissint landed last summer. Its relativelyswift collection made it largely free of the earthly contamination that's typical of mostMartian meteorites.

"Most other samples were collected long after their arrival on Earth and thus haveexperienced variable degrees of terrestrial weathering," wrote lead author Hasnaa

Chennaoui Aoudjehane, a geochemist at Hassan II University of Casablanca. "Even thefew Martian meteorites that were collected shortly after their observed fall to Earthhave been exposed to organic and other potential contaminants during storage."

While the sample is not as pristine as those now being mined byNASA'sCuriosityMars rover, they are among the few pieces of alien planet that scientists can hold intheir hands and study in the comfort of their laboratories.

The largest Tissint samples were covered with a shiny black fusion crust the result ofits super-heated entry into Earth's atmosphere. Inside, the rocks were pale gray and
http://www.latimes.com/topic/science-technology/space-programs/nasa-ORGOV000098.topichttp://www.latimes.com/topic/science-technology/space-programs/nasa-ORGOV000098.topichttp://www.latimes.com/topic/science-technology/space-programs/nasa-ORGOV000098.topichttp://www.latimes.com/topic/science-technology/space-programs/nasa-ORGOV000098.topic


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studded with pale yellow olivine crystals. Researchers also observed small pockets andtiny veins of black glass.

Among other conclusions, the study authors wrote that the rock appeared to containtraces of the Red Planet's surface and atmosphere. The elements appeared to betrapped in particles of black glass and melted rock that were formed during the heatand shock of impact on Mars. The authors also suggested that the rock was weathered

by acidic fluids before departing Mars.

These qualities and others made the meteor similar to a number of its predecessors.

"Frankly, Tissint is much like numerous other Martian meteorites,"saidUCLAgeophysicist and meteor expert Paul Warren, who was not involved in thestudy.

"The publicity it is getting for having been seen to fall is deserved," he said. "Whetherit rates as profoundly new and different, I am not sure."

Although numerous Martian meteorites have landed on Earth, it wasn't until the 1980sthat scientists were able to determine their planetary origin. Using mass spectrometry,they found that certain meteorites contained strikingly similar gases and isotope

ratios as samples obtained by the Viking landers, which visited Mars in 1976.

[email protected]

Copyright 2012,Los Angeles Times

It is possible for asteroids to collide with planets, sending chunks of themselves into space in an

never-ending journey through universes. But this asteroid, one that is thought to have collided with Mars

and landed in Morocco is a great way to experiment with the planets rock without having to send robots

that would take years to return. It is thought that this meteor took 7,000 centuries to reach land. On July

18, 2011 it impacted, waking soldiers and townsfolk. It is only one of five meteors with rock from Mars

to impact earth that have been discovered. According to scientists, this is not an unique rock and it iswhat is to be expected when looking at any meteor from Mars. No new discoveries were made from this

meteor, only a constant reminder a larger one could impact at any time and cause much greater damage.
http://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topichttp://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topichttp://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topicmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.latimes.com/http://www.latimes.com/http://www.latimes.com/http://www.latimes.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topic


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Current Event #12

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/alma.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

December 3, 2012

ALMA: Seeing the Universe in a Whole New LightNew telescope can detect hidden gases that might hold the key to star and planetary

formation

At first glance, the bone-dry landscape of the Atacama Desert in Chile might seem inhospitable.

But, it's prime real estate for astronomers. This desert is now home to the largest ground-basedradio telescope in the world!

The telescope is called the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or "ALMA for short.And, it's allowing us to see the universe like we never have before," says Kartik Sheth, an

astronomer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Va.

"ALMA will be a telescope made up of 66 antennas, at 16,500 feet, in the desert of Atacama, inChile," he explains.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Sheth is part of a team of astronomersputting this new array to work. "Together, these telescopes work as a single telescope that canbe as large as 10 miles in diameter. And, it will be 10-to-100 times more powerful than anyexisting telescope that we have," says Sheth.

"ALMA realizes a decades-long dream of many astronomers and engineers, and is a testament tothe tremendous skill of a large team at the NRAO and of our international partners," says PhilPuxley, NSF's program director for ALMA and NRAO.

From its perch in the high desert, ALMA sits above 40 percent of the Earth's atmosphere andvirtually all of the world's water vapor. ALMA is designed to peer into a slice of theelectromagnetic spectrum at millimeter wavelengths--light that is closer to a radio wave than tothe optical light that is seen by the human eye.

"We're pushing the boundaries of technology in every aspect with ALMA. We have state-of-the-art antennas that are so accurately machined that they deviate from perfect parabolic shapes byless than the width of a human hair across the entire 40-foot surface," explains Sheth. "ALMA

has the ability to map the dust and gas in galaxies with the same power, the same sensitivity andresolution from the nearest galaxies to the most distant ones, which are also the youngest ones."

That's critical for him because Sheth studies the evolution of galaxies, and ALMA can look whereoptical telescopes can't look. "ALMA can see where the dust is located. And, we're now able tounderstand how much gas there must be, and how much fuel there is for a black hole," he adds.

Sheth says ALMA can detect hidden gases inside galaxies--gases that might hold the key to starand planetary formation. ALMA might even detect the building blocks of life.

"Understanding the different types of galaxies, how they formed, and how they change over time

is really giving us a key piece of the jigsaw puzzle in understanding how the universe formed,and ultimately how planets formed and how we came to be here today," he says.


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Miles O'Brien, Science Nation CorrespondentJon Baime, Science Nation Producer

Used in the research of extraterrestrial impacts, telescopes have opened the doors for new

discovery about or solar system and its inhabitants. The largest telescope on Earth that can reach the

farthest depths of the universe to date is now running in Chile. Its name is ALMA (Atacama Large

Millimeter/submillimeter Array). Scientists say they will now be able to understand and detect things in

different galaxies. These discoveries, they say, may be the keys to unlocking the secrets of how are

universe and our earth was born. Also, if there may be life out there after all.
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