Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is to be decommissioned

Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is to be decommissioned

Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is lost
By Meghan Bartels, SpaceCom, November 2020
https://www.space.com/arecibo-observatory-radio-telescope-to-be-destroyed

Planetary Society Reacts to Loss of Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope
By Jason Davis, Planetary Society, November 24, 2020
https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-society-arecibo-reaction

Yours,

Paul H.

Ancient zircons recovered from Martian meteorite

Ancient zircons recovered from Martian meteorite

Ancient zircon minerals from Mars reveal the elusive internal structure of the red planet, 

University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, November 17, 2020
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201117113057.htm

Big Think article by Robby Berman, November 19, 2020
https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/mars-zircon

The paper is:

Maria M. Costa, Ninna K. Jensen, Laura C. Bouvier, James N. Connelly, Takashi Mikouchi, Matthew S. A. Horstwood, Jussi-Petteri Suuronen, Frédéric Moynier, Zhengbin Deng, Arnaud Agranier, Laure A. J. Martin, Tim E. Johnson, Alexander A. Nemchin, Martin Bizzarro. 

The internal structure and geodynamics of Mars inferred from a 4.2-Gyr zircon record. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020;
202016326 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2016326117
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/10/2016326117

Yours,

Paul H.

Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is to be decommissioned

Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is to be decommissioned

Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is lost
By Meghan Bartels, SpaceCom, November 2020
https://www.space.com/arecibo-observatory-radio-telescope-to-be-destroyed

Planetary Society Reacts to Loss of Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope
By Jason Davis, Planetary Society, November 24, 2020
https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-society-arecibo-reaction

Yours,

Paul H.

Scientists Discover Outer Space Isn't Pitch Black After All

Scientists Discover Outer Space Isn't Pitch Black After All

Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News, November 18, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936219170/scientists-discover-outer-space-isnt-pitch-black-after-all

The paper is:
Lauer, T.R., Postman, M., Weaver, H.A., Spencer, J.R., Stern, S.A., Buie, M.W., Durda, D.D., Lisse, C.M., Poppe,A.R., Binzel, R.P. and Britt, D.T., 2020. New Horizons

Observations of the Cosmic Optical Background. arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.03052.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.03052

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.03052

Yours,

Paul H.

Houston Gem and Mineral Society's (Virtual) Annual Show Tomorrow

Houston Gem and Mineral Society's (Virtual) Annual Show Tomorrow

Saturday November 14 is the start of HGMS's annual show. This year, due to the pandemic, their annual show has gone virtual. Those who want to who want to attended click the link below and participate in the virtual show. Please check it out and tell your friends.
https://mailchi.mp/hgms/hgms-annual-show-is-virtual-for-2020-note-the-new-date-2891638

https://hgms.org/2020-virtual-annual-show/

Yours,

Paul H

What Is This Thing? Mystery Rock or Meteorwrong?

What Is This Thing? Mystery Rock or Meteorwrong?

On Reddit, there is an item (rock?) labeled "AN/TCS-62" that many people are guessing is either a meteorite or Moon rock at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/jr62jh/my_grandpa_gave_this_to_me_before_he_died_does/

Although I disagree with either identification, the members of this list might have fun making their guesses as to what this mystery specimen is.

Have fun,

Paul H.

Second cable breaks at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo telescope

Second cable breaks at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo telescope

Arecibo Observatory suffers more damage as second cable fails It's the second cable snap for Arecibo in just three months.
By Meghan Bartels, SpaeCom, November 9, 2020
https://www.space.com/arecibo-telescope-suffers-more-damage-cable-failure

Second cable breaks at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo telescope
By Daniel Clery, Science News, November 9, 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/second-cable-breaks-puerto-rico-s-arecibo-telescope

Yours,

Paul H.

The Hamburg, Michigan H4 chondrite

The Hamburg, Michigan H4 chondrite

Scientists: 2018 Michigan meteorite filled with organic compounds., Dan Robitzski, Futurism
https://futurism.com/the-byte/pristine-meteorite-organic-compounds

The open acccess paper is:
Heck, P.R., Greer, J., and others, 2020. The fall, recovery, classification, and initial characterization
of the Hamburg, Michigan H4 chondrite. Meteoritics & Planetary Science. Early View.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.13584

Yours,

Paul H.

NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid

NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid
https://observer.com/2020/10/nasa-discover-asteroid-pysche-metal-10-quadrillion/

The open access paper is:
Becker, T.M., Cunningham, N., and others, 2020.
HST UV Observations of Asteroid (16) Psyche.
The Planetary Science Journal. vol. 1, no. 3
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abb67e

Yours,

Paul H.

Clovis range predates and postdates hypothetical Younger Dryas Event

Clovis range predates and postdates hypothetical Younger Dryas Event

Clovis people: Narrow window of tool-making
Tools made by some of North America's earliest
inhabitants were made only during a 300-year period
Texas A&M University, PhysOrg, October 23, 2020
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201023123104.htm

Clovis range is ~13,050 to 12,750 cal yr B.P.
according to Figure 2 of below paper. Thus, this
interpretation has Clovis culture unaffected by
whatever happened at the Younger Dryas Boundary.

The Open Access paper is:
Michael R. Waters, Thomas W. Stafford, David L.
Carlson. The age of Clovis—13,050 to 12,750 cal yr
B.P.. Science Advances, 2020; 6 (43): eaaz0455
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/43/eaaz0455

Yours,
Paul H.

Spectacular meteor seen in Pennsylvania and Ohio 04OCT2020

 Spectacular meteor seen in Pennsylvania and Ohio

Spectacular meteor seen from 15

states this morning, David Pescovitz,

KDKA-TX, Pennsylvania and Ohio

https://boingboing.net/2020/10/01/spectacular-meteor-spotted-in-15-states-this-morning.html

Bright flash in sky early Wednesday

morning identified as meteor

WKBN, Channel 27, Oct 1, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f58zhlf2dqo

Yorus,

Paul H.

Diamonds Found in Ureilites Formed During Gigantic Planetary Collisions 30SEP2020

 Diamonds Found in Ureilites Formed During Gigantic Planetary Collisions

Largest Extraterrestrial Diamonds Ever Discovered:

Cosmic Diamonds Formed During Gigantic Planetary Collisions

Goethe University, Frankfurt, September 29, 2020

https://scitechdaily.com/largest-extraterrestrial-diamonds-ever-discovered-cosmic-diamonds-formed-during-gigantic-planetary-collisions/

The paper is:

Nestola, F., Goodrich, C.A., Morana, M. Barbaro, A.,

Jakubek, R.S., Christ, O., Brenker, F.E., Domeneghetti,

M.C., Dalconi, M.C., Alvaro, M., Fioretti, A.M., Litasov,

K.D., Fries, M.D., Leoni, M., Casati, N.P.M., Jenniskens,

P., and Shaddad, M.H., 2020. Impact shock origin of

diamonds in ureilite meteorites. PNS, Sept 19, 2020.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/22/1919067117

Yorus,

Paul H.

Giant crystals of orthopyroxene from Shakla meteorite 20SEP2020

 Giant crystals of orthopyroxene from Shakla meteorite

Giant crystals of orthopyroxene from Shalka meteorite

https://twitter.com/TimCosmos/status/1238049722197295104

https://www.reddit.com/r/geology/comments/fheny5/giant_crystals_of_orthopyroxene_comprise_the/

https://www.mindat.org/loc-260347.html

An unrelated  article about technique used

in dating impact events,

Researchers unlock secrets of the past with

new international carbon dating standard

University of Sheffield, August 12, 2020

https://news.arizona.edu/story/researchers-unlock-secrets-past-new-international-carbon-dating-standard

"Radiocarbon dating is set to become more

accurate than ever after an international team

of scientists improved the technique for

assessing the age of historical objects."

Various open access papers about IntCal 20

can be found at:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/calibrations/intcal-20

Yours,

Paul H.

Meteorite 'gold rush' after meteor falls over Prescott, Arizona 20SEP2020

 Meteorite 'gold rush' after meteor falls over Prescott, Arizona

Meteorite 'gold rush' after meteor falls over Prescott

By: Chloe Mar, Northern Arizona News, Feb 17, 2020

https://www.abc15.com/news/region-northern-az/prescott/meteorite-gold-rush-after-meteor-falls-over-prescott

Expert in Prescott describes Sunday meteor event in northern Arizona

Joey Carrera, AZFamilyNews, Feb 16, 2020

https://www.azfamily.com/news/expert-in-prescott-describes-sunday-meteor-event-in-northern-arizona/article_282bfc50-5140-11ea-8249-aff2ac03c70c.html

Yours,

Paul H.

So, uh, is there a black hole at the center of the Earth? - One of Five Retracted Papers 16OCT2020

 So, uh, is there a black hole at the center of the Earth? - One of Five Retracted Papers

13 Scientists Say in a Real Journal There's a Black

Hole at the Center of Earth, Caroline Delbert, Sept. 28, 2020

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a34166354/black-hole-center-of-earth-fake-study/

Retraction: A Black Hole at the Center of Earth Plays the

Role of the Biggest System of Telecommunication for

Connecting DNAs, Dark DNAs and Molecules of Water

on 4+N- Dimensional Manifold

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6910781/

Retraction: Five papers from Open Access Maced

J Med Sci. Vol. 7 No. 18 (2019): Sep 30 (Global Dermatology)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6910781/citedby/

Yours,

Paul H.

Colonisation and alteration of stony meteorites by microorganisms 09SEP2020

Colonisation and alteration of stony meteorites by microorganisms

Tait, A.W., 2017. On the colonisation and alteration
of stony meteorites by microorganisms from the
Nullarbor Plain, Australia: Applications for future
astrobiology exploration on Mars (Doctoral dissertation,
Monash University).
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/On_the_colonisation_and_alteration_of_stony_meteorites_by_microorganisms_from_the_Nullarbor_Plain_Australia_Applications_for_future_astrobiology_exploration_on_Mars/5120314/1

Tait, A.W., Gagen, E.J., Wilson, S.A., Tomkins, A.G.
and Southam, G., 2020. Eukaryotic Colonization
of Micrometer-Scale Cracks in Rocks: A “Microfluidics”
Experiment Using Naturally Weathered
Meteorites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia.
Astrobiology, 20(3), pp.364-374.
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2019.2077

Tait, A.W., Gagen, E.J., Wilson, S.A., Tomkins, A.G.
and Southam, G., 2017. Microbial populations of
stony meteorites: substrate controls on first colonizers.
Frontiers in microbiology, 8, p.1227.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01227/full

Yours,

Paul H.

Meteorite strikes may create unexpected form of silica 05SEP2020

 Meteorite strikes may create unexpected form of silica

Meteorite strikes may create unexpected form of silica

Carnegie Institution for Science, August 26, 2020

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826151306.htm

The paper is:

Sally June Tracy, Stefan J. Turneaure, Thomas S. Duffy.

Structural response of ??-quartz under plate-impact

shock compression. Science Advances, 2020; 6 (35):

eabb3913 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb3913

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/35/eabb3913

Yours,

Paul H.

Antarctic meteorite might explain mystery of life's weird asymmetry 24AUG2020

 Antarctic meteorite might explain mystery of life's weird asymmetry

Astonishingly old Antarctic space rock could

explain mystery of life's weird asymmetry

By Meghan Bartels, SpaceCom, August 21, 2020

https://www.space.com/pristine-antarctic-meteorite-amino-acid-chirality.html

Pristine Space Rock Offers NASA Scientists

Peek at Evolution of Life’s Building Blocks

By Lonnie Shekhtman, NASA’s Goddard Space

Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., August 21, 2020

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/pristine-space-rock-offers-nasa-scientists-peek-at-evolution-of-life-s-building-blocks

The paper is:

Daniel P. Glavin Hannah L. McLain Jason P.

Dworkin Eric T. Parker and others, 2020

Abundant extraterrestrial amino acids in the

primitive CM carbonaceous chondrite Asuka

12236 First published: 20 August 2020

https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13560

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/maps.13560

Yours,

Paul H.

Supernova triggers for end-Devonian extinctions 21AUG2020

 Supernova triggers for end-Devonian extinctions

Exploding stars may have caused mass extinction on Earth,

study shows, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 18, 2020

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200818142104.htm

"Killer cosmic rays from nearby supernovae could be the

culprit behind at least one mass extinction event, researchers

said, and finding certain radioactive isotopes in Earth's

 rock record could confirm this scenario."

The open access paper is:

Brian D. Fields, Adrian L. Melott, John Ellis, Adrienne F.

Ertel, Brian J. Fry, Bruce S. Lieberman, Zhenghai Liu,

Jesse A. Miller, Brian C. Thomas. Supernova triggers for

end-Devonian extinctions. Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, 2020; 202013774

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/08/17/2013774117

Yours

Paul H.

Falling Fireballs Crashed in Chile Last Week. They Weren't Meteorites 15AUG2020

 Falling Fireballs Crashed in Chile Last Week. They Weren't Meteorites

Falling Fireballs Crashed in Chile Last Week.

They Weren't Meteorites, Experts Say.

By Nicoletta Lanese October 10, 2019

https://www.livescience.com/fireballs-fall-on-chile.html

https://www.space.com/fireballs-fall-on-chile.html

https://www.sciencealert.com/whatever-fell-from-the-sky-and-sparked-fires-in-chile-forget-meteorites

Chilean officials are investigating a curious

collection of burning objects that fell

onto parts of the country last week

Yours,

Paul H.