Via A Reader: Ocean Worlds-Cassini Mission Findings Video

April 13, 2017April 14, 2017 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Here’s my brief layperson’s summary after watching:

Both moons Enceladus (Saturn) and Europa (Jupiter) demonstrate evidence of huge oceans of liquid water protected by thick, icy crusts. The Cassini probe passed through water plumes emanating high above Enceladus’ icy crust. This water has been forced out of four long, deep cracks in the surface.

After analysis, the folks in the video above have discovered many chemicals within these Enceladus geysers (ammonia, carbon dioxide) but most importantly: Hydrogen they think might be coming from hydro-thermal vents on the rocky, ocean floor of Enceladus.

Or at least, with the current evidence and knowledge, this is a very plausible scenario.

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So, there’s life on Earth without sunlight, deep on the ocean floors, near hydro-thermal vents where this process produces energy enough to sustain weird life forms we didn’t know existed before very recently.

There’s water geysering out of Europa’s icy crust from its ocean floor below.

There’s potentially time + interesting life-sustaining geochemistry + energy + a protected environment on both of these ocean worlds…so…hey….

There may be something really worth finding down there.

Next up: Sending better instruments to cruise through Europa’s geysers:

What’s next for #OceanWorlds? The Clipper mission will investigate the habitability of Jupiter’s moon #Europa! https://t.co/05TgVgjyy0 pic.twitter.com/lEypJ93o1h

— NASA Europa Clipper (@NASAEuropa) April 13, 2017

The Great Ones-Some Links To Earthquakes On the Cascadia Subduction Zone

December 5, 2016December 6, 2016 / chr1 / Leave a comment

There was a good Kathryn Schulz piece at the New Yorker entitled: ‘The Really Big One,’published in July 2015, which Nick Zentner at Central Washington University uses as his jumping-off point for discussion.

The above hour-long talk is designed for lay-people and starts with the basics, catalogues the current evidence, and leads to current understanding:

On average, every 250-500 years or so, the Cascadia Subduction Zone can rip {partially or} at once, and can generate an earthquake (with tsunami) of potentially 9.0 or greater {if all at once}. The last big one is known to have occurred 316 years ago, on January 29th, 1700.

Oh boy…

-This timeline is not exactly reassuring…

-People are keeping track of these {local} things.

-Out on the coast, there are layers of rocks, sediment and mud indicating a momentous and terrible night.

-Monitor all current seismic activity here.

–Below the surface…

**Fun fact: There’s also a different fault right under Seattle (running roughly along I-90), that let loose around 900 A.D., and sunk a whole flank of Mercer Island, leaving a ghostly underwater forest.

Because Seattle was under a glacier not that long ago, it’s a long way down to bedrock, and this means bad news for transferring energy during earthquakes: A big bowl of mud and looser glacial deposits, drumlins and hills prone to landslide, ending abrubtly in water, does not a good recipe make.

Check it out:

From A CERN Press Release: ‘CERN Experiments Observe Particle Consistent With Long-Sought Higgs Boson’

July 4, 2012 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Full release here.

“The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found,” said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. “The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks.”

They’re still going over the 2012 data, but an apparent triumph for the Standard Model and the structure being built atop 20th century physics.

Tommaso Dorigo has more here.

Some links for non-scientists like myself: A commenter links here. CERN article here and background article here.

Related On This Site: Good video from University of California TV: What’s that huge machine for…how do you know it when you find it…how do you know when you don’t…how do you know what you don’t know?: From Youtube Via UCTV.com: “Hunting The Higgs”…From A Quantum Diaries Survivor: ‘Firm Evidence Of A Higgs Boson At Last!’…From Scientific Blogging: ‘Einstein On Steroids: Dirac, The Higgs, And Speeding Neutrinos’

NASA Via Youtube: ‘The Martians: Launching Curiosity To Mars’

January 29, 2012 / chr1 / Leave a comment

August 6th, 2012 is the scheduled landing date.

Opportunity is still going! NASA’s rover page with photos. Wikipedia’s page on the Martian climate. From an interested observer, thank you to everyone who has put so much into these missions.

From OregonLive.Com: ‘Big Earthquake Coming Sooner Than We Thought, Oregon Geologist Says

March 13, 2011March 13, 2011 / chr1 / Leave a comment

Full article here.

“The amount of devastation is going to be unbelievable,” says Rob Witter, coastal geologist with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. “People aren’t going to be ready for this. Even if they are prepared, they are going to be surprised by the level of devastation.”

The last big Cascadia subduction zone earthquake likely occurred on Jan 27th, 1700, at magnitude 9.0. The article suggests an occurence anywhere from 300-350 year intervals up to 400-600 year average intervals (new research suggests the former). It’s just over 311 years and counting.

USGS info here. Some earthquake preparedness FAQ’s also from the USGS.

Thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan. There may be at least 10,000 dead.