We had a visitor on Oct. 17, 2017. It was a stranger. It had no name, and there is no record of it being here before. It was a traveler. Where it came from and where it was going are unknown. We do know it was traveling for a long time, possibly thousands of years, and that it was moving fast, upwards of 200,000 miles-per-hour — so fast that it entered our solar system and passed through unaffected by the sun's gravity. It wasn't a comet or an asteroid.
Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk spotted it while reviewing a series of images captured by the Pan STARRS1 telescope atop Haleakala, a 10,000-foot peak on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The telescope comes with a high-definition camera that scans the night sky looking for near earth objects. Weryk christened the object "Oumuamua" meaning "scout" in Hawaiian — or, more prosaically, "11/2017U" in the listings of the International Astronomical Union.
Other things to check out:
Mars: how scientists prevent Earth's microbes from contaminating other planets
Thomas Cheney is affiliated with the Centre for a Spacefaring Civilization. AstrobiologyOU has received funding from Research England (Expanding Excellence in England).
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The good thing is, we have policies and laws to prevent this from happening. In fact, there's an entire section of space law, called planetary protection, designed to prevent planets, moons, comets and asteroids from being contaminated.
For 50 years, governmental organisations have stuck to the generally accepted rules and laws. But they are no longer the only players in the game. An increasing number of commercial space missions are taking off.
Journeywork of the Stars - Scientific American
This article was originally published with the title "Journeywork of the Stars" in SA Space & Physics 4, 1, (February 2021)
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Scientific American Space & Physics is a roundup of the most important stories about the universe and beyond
Salma Hayek didn't see The Eternals script before signing her Marvel contract | People |
The 54-year-old actress admitted she found it "very unsettling" signing her contract without knowing what she was in for.
Salma, who also had to keep tight-lipped about the movie, told Variety's 'Just for Variety' podcast: "My agents were like, 'A Marvel franchise!' I'm like, 'Oh, my God. I'm working with Chloé [Zhao]!' and so I was starstruck when she was talking to me on Zoom. That was very exciting.'"
The 'Grown Ups' star also had concerns about her superhero costume because she is "claustrophobic", while she spilled that 'The Eternals' is shot in a "completely different way" to other Marvel films and is mostly done in post-production.
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Walter Tevis wrote 'The Queen's Gambit' along with these great books - The
Profoundly, cosmically alone, Newton discovers a modicum of solace in wine, then gin. As he drinks more and more, he feels himself losing his sense of purpose, sinking to the level of the creatures he now dwells among. And then disaster strikes in the form of the FBI.
Along with these two novels about acquiring or losing self-mastery, Tevis published 19 short stories between 1954 and 1963, many of them clever "what if?" tales, sometimes ending with an ironic Twilight Zone twist. He could type one in an evening, revise it the next night and send it off. He never did any research .
The key to social change, free will on trial, and an astrophysicist on a visit from
Philosophers have debated whether free will exists for centuries; scientists since the arrival of quantum theory a century ago. This vigorous discussion of punishment, morality, choice and more offers three exchanges between philosophers Daniel Dennett and Gregg Caruso. Caruso agrees with Albert Einstein's 1929 comment: "I do not believe in free will … My own career was undoubtedly determined … I claim credit for nothing.
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'Stream mitigation banking' lets US developers damage water ecosystems in exchange for buying credits to restore a comparable habitat. Geographer Rebecca Lave and hydrologist Martin Doyle discuss the arrangement's questionable operation from 1998 to 2018 in their nuanced study for river scientists, ecological and environmental economists, and advocacy groups.
Square Kilometre Array: 'Lift-off' for world's biggest telescope - BBC News
The first council meeting of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory has actioned plans that will lead to the biggest telescope on Earth being assembled over the coming decade.
Member states approved a thousand pages of documents covering everything from the power to open a bank account to engaging with industrial contractors.
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The array's resolution and sensitivity, allied to prodigious computing support, will enable astronomers to address some of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics today.
Briefly Noted Book Reviews | The New Yorker
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