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Minotaur rocket to carry military weapon
More than 15 months after the first one failed, the Defense Department plans a second test of its super-fast weapon that will ride in a rocket scheduled to launch Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The Minotaur 4 Lite rocket, assembled by Orbital Sciences Corp. crews from retired Peacekeeper missile stages, is scheduled to blast off between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesday from Space Launch Complex-8 on South Base.
The rocket will carry the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle or HTV-2 for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Tactical Projects Office.
Weather for Wednesday morning remains suitable for blastoff, but not necessarily viewing. Launch weather officers say the marine layer and fog will be prevalent at the start of the window, but begin breaking up later in the morning. Visibility is expected to be one mile with mist falling.
Space weather could Read more…
MAJOR SOLAR FLARE: August 9th, 2011.
This morning at 0805 UT, sunspot 1263 produced a powerful X7-class solar flare. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the explosion’s extreme ultraviolet flash.
The solar flare was not Earth directed but a minor proton storm is in progress around our planet, which could affect satellites.
Radiation from the flare also briefly disrupted communications on some VLF and HF radio frequencies.
We may get a glancing blow from the flare. Read more…
Several Objects Inbound with Elenin. 2 Observatories Confirm —- Aug 2011
Japan tsunami broke huge icebergs off Antarctica
The massive March 11 Japan earthquake and its ensuing tsunami were so powerful that they broke off huge icebergs thousands of miles away in Antarctica, according to a new study.
The calving of icebergs (where a huge chunk of ice breaks off from a glacier or ice shelf) from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica was linked to the tsunami, which originated with the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of the Japanese island of Honshu, by satellite observations of the Antarctic coast immediately after the earthquake.
Icebergs have been reported to calve following earthquakes before, including after the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb 22. But the new finding marks the first direct observation of such a connection between tsunamis and iceberg calving.
Chemical spill fear after dike breached
Huge waves pound the coast of Yantai city, Shandong province, on Monday. [Photo / Xinhua]
Authorities say situation under control as sea defenses rebuilt
DALIAN, Liaoning – Towering waves whipped up by tropical storm Muifa breached sea defenses protecting a petrochemical plant near a northeastern coastal city on Monday, raising fears of a toxic spill, before the breaches were plugged with thousands of tons of rocks and concrete slabs.
At about 3:30 am, two sections of a dike, each at least 30 meters wide, were breached by waves up to 20 meters high at the Jinzhou Industrial Zone in Dalian city, Liaoning province, according to local authorities.
The breaches threatened toxic chemical tanks at the petrochemical plant, located about 30 kilometers from downtown Dalian.
The nearest tanks were located about 50 meters away from the dike.
As of Monday evening, authorities had yet to confirm or deny if leaks had occurred in any of the tanks.
The Fujia chemical plant produces Read more…
Collision With Huge Asteroid Caused 17 Kilometer Diameter Crater Found in Congo
Scientists have newly confirmed the Luizi impact structure, Democratic Republic of Congo– and provide insights into central uplift formation and post-impact erosion
Ludovic Ferriere of the Austria’s Natural History Museum and colleagues report on the large, ~17-km-diameter Luizi structure, located in the remote and politically tumultuous Democratic Republic of Congo.
Credit: 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science ConferencEarth’s Dirty Secret: Our Magnetic Field Traps Antimatter
Satellite confirms the existence of antimatter belts surrounding our planet, opens hopes for fuel use
The proton is a familiar figure for those who have taken high school physics. With a +1 charge it is a key constituent to most of the matter of the universe. But nature holds an outlandish vanishing twin — the antiproton. This exotic antimatter particle carries a -1 charge.
Fifty-six years after their first laboratory observation, a treasure trove of antiprotons — a component of antimatter (right) — has been discovered within the Earth’s magnetic field.
Now astrophysicists have discovered a treasure trove of antimatter hidden in the Earth’s magnetic field, which could hold the key to grand insights and new space travel possibilities.
I. What is Antimatter?
The antiproton was first predicted by luminary physicist Paul Dirac in his 1933 Nobel Prize lecture [PDF]. It would take physicists over two decades to prove Professor Dirac right. In 1955 Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain, research professors at the University of California, Berkley, Read more…
Dow plunges 635 points as downgrade fuels market turmoil
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 635 points Monday, dropping below 11,000 as the impact of an unprecedented downgrade to the U.S. credit rating reverberated through financial markets.
The downturn came on the heels of a brutal week for the market, capped off when the Dow lost 512 points on Thursday. That gave the blue-chip stock index two of its 10 biggest point losses in the last three trading days.
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ stock indices were both down nearly 7 percent at the close of Monday’s trading.
The dramatic point drops followed the first-ever downgrade of United States debt by Standard & Poor’s late Friday evening. The credit rating agency, citing increasing concern over the nation’s political infighting and the relatively small amount of deficit reduction included in the deal to raise the debt limit, knocked America down from its top rating for the first time, moving it down one notch to AA+.
In an ironic twist, the financial product that was downgraded reaped the Read more…
China starts 14th nuclear reactor and Canadian Uranium Producers Optimistic
1. The second unit at China’s Ling Ao II nuclear power plant entered commercial operation on 7 August, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co (CGNPC) announced. The 1080 MWe Chinese-designed CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) achieved first criticality on 25 February and was connected to the grid on 3 May. CGNPC said that the unit entered into commercial operation following 168 hours of successful test operation. It becomes China’s 14th operating nuclear power reactor.
17 other CPR-1000s already under construction. Work is planned to begin on at least five more during 2011.
2. Mid-year reports from two Canada-based uranium producers share an air of quiet optimism despite feeling the effects of events in Japan.
The first half of the year saw Denison produce 679,000 pounds U3O8 (261 tonnes U). Even before the events of 11 March, Denison had revised its uranium production forecast for 2011 downwards to 1.2 million pounds U3O8 (462 tU). This figure remains unchanged despite revisions to Denison’s ore processing plans for the remainder of the year subsequent to its acquisition of uranium exploration and development company White Canyon, including the Daneros mine in Utah.
Cameco’s first-half uranium production totalled Read more…
Texas drought will harm wildlife habitat for years
Turkey vultures drop in for a drink from one of the very few remaining watering sources on a private ranch that spans over 7,000 acres Saturday Aug. 6, 2011, near San Angelo, Texas. Randy Bolf, a fence contractor and rancher that leases the property for his cattle herd said that all of the rain and run-off watering tanks on the ranch that straddles Tom Green and Coke county have dried up and area wildlife and his cattle rely on the artificial watering sources he maintains on the property. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
(AP) — In a muddy pile of sand where a pond once flowed in the Texas Panhandle, dead fish, their flesh already decayed and feasted on by maggots, lie with their mouths open. Nearby, deer munch on the equivalent of vegetative junk food and wild turkeys nibble on red harvester ants – certainly not their first choice for lunch.
As the state struggles with the worst one-year drought in its history, entire ecosystems, from the smallest insects to the largest predators, are struggling for survival. The foundations of their habitats – rivers, springs, creeks, streams and lakes – have turned into dry sand, wet mud, trickling springs or, in the best case, large puddles.
“It has a compound effect on a multitude of species and organisms and habitat types because of the way that it’s chained and linked together,” said Jeff Bonner, a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Since January, Texas has only gotten about 6 inches of rain, compared to Read more…
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