PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet 76/2001 - 5 June 2001
---------------------------
"Astronomers announced today what they say is the first
solid
evidence for solid rocks orbiting another star, an asteroid belt
that
might be similar to the one surrounding our own Sun between Mars
and
Jupiter. If true, the research points to the possibility of
potential
Earth-like planets in the making, or planets that have been
destroyed, or
possibly even a giant planet like Jupiter that, though unseen,
orchestrates
the chaos of collisions that created the debris."
--Robert Roy Britt, Space.com, 4 June 2001
"Young stars, once thought to evolve slowly and steadily
toward
maturity, apparently suffer occasional catastrophes caused by
nearby
sibling stars," said Bo Reipurth. "There is a popular
misconception that
most stars have planets, and that solar systems abound in the
universe,"
said John Bally. "The reality seems to be that Earth's solar
system is a
special place, and that we are lucky to be here."
--University of Colorado-Boulder, 4 June 2001
"Elizabeth Teissier is well known in France as the weekly
horoscope
columnist for a popular television guide, the author of a
half-dozen
books on astrology, and the astrologer to the French president
François
Mitterrand. But Ms. Teissier, 63, has recently found herself on
the
front page of French newspapers for something that hundreds of
people do
every year: defending her dissertation. A Ph.D. candidate in
sociology,
Ms. Teissier spent almost 10 years completing a 900- page thesis
on
astrology and in April received a passing grade at the Sorbonne
for her
efforts."
--The New York Times, 2 June 2001
"A debate has broken out recently in India over astrology
after the
education minister said it would be made a university
course."
--BBC, 4 June 2001
(1) EVIDENCE OF ASTEROID BELT AROUND NEARBY STAR
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(2) ASTEROID BELT LIKE OURS SPOTTED AROUND ANOTHER STAR
Space.com, 4 June 2001
(3) PLANET FORMATION MAY BE RARE IN UNIVERSE
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(4) SEEKING FOR OCEANS ON JUPITER'S MOON
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(5) LARGE METEORS DETECTED EXPLODING ABOVE THE PACIFIC
Environmental News Network, 4 June 2001
(6) MAPS SPECIAL SERIES - NEAR SHOEMAKER MISSION
Meteoritics and Planetary Science <meteor@uark.edu>
(7) 34 ASTROBIOLOGY POSITIONS IN SPAIN
Duncan Steel <D.I.Steel@salford.ac.uk>
(8) CONFERENCE REPORT AND ACTIVITY SUMMARY
Andy Smith <astrosafe@yahoo.com>
(9) AND FINALLY: WELCOME TO THE DARK AGES: ASTROLOGY'S RETURN TO
EUROPEAN
AND INDIAN UNIVERSITIES
The New York Times, 2 June 2001
============
(1) EVIDENCE OF ASTEROID BELT AROUND NEARBY STAR
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
University of California-Los Angeles
Contact:
Harlan Lebo, hlebo@college.ucla.edu,
310- 0
FOR RELEASE: 9:20 a.m. PDT, June 4, 2001
UCLA Astronomers Identify Evidence of Asteroid Belt Around Nearby
Star;
Findings Indicate Potential for Planet or Asteroid Formation
Identifying what may be a galactic replay of how our own solar
system was
formed, UCLA astronomers have found evidence of a massive
asteroid belt
around a nearby star -- findings that could indicate that planets
are
forming there or have already formed.
The observations, reported June 4 at the annual meeting of the
American
Astronomical Society by UCLA graduate student Christine Chen and
her
advisor, Michael Jura, reveal that a star identified as zeta
Leporis (HR
1998) is enveloped by swirling dust in quantities and at
temperatures that
indicate a massive asteroid belt could surround the star.
"Because of the conditions we identified near zeta Leporis,
we believe that
the dust around this star may contain asteroids that appear to be
colliding
violently with each other," said Jura, a professor in UCLA's
Department of
Physics and Astronomy. "Zeta Leporis is a relatively young
star --
approximately the age of our sun when the Earth was forming. The
system we
observed around zeta Leporis is similar to what we think occurred
in the
early years of our own solar system when planets and asteroids
were
created."
Zeta Leporis is located in the constellation Lepus (the Hare)
about 70 light
years from our sun. About twice as massive as our sun, zeta
Leporis is young
in astronomical terms -- about 100 million years old, compared to
our sun,
which is approximately 4.5 billion years old.
"Our current findings may be just the tip of the iceberg of
what we may
ultimately learn about the objects surrounding zeta
Leporis," Chen said.
"In simplest terms, our planets formed when smaller objects
smashed
together," she said. "Dust that surrounds a star will
eventually either fall
into the star, or collide with itself and create bigger
particles. The
particles we can identify around zeta Leporis may be forming
chunks of rock
or larger objects; asteroids or even planets may be forming or
have already
formed around zeta Leporis."
Orbiting dust around hydrogen-burning stars such as Vega, beta
Pictoris and
zeta Leporis was first discovered in 1983 with the Infrared
Astronomy
satellite (IRAS). The orbiting dust absorbs optical light from
the central
star and is emitted as infrared. The presence of this dust around
zeta
Leporis indicates that material similar to that found in our own
solar
system surrounds this star.
In February Chen and Jura observed zeta Leporis with Long
Wavelength
Spectrometer, an infrared camera on the 10-meter telescope at the
Keck
Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Chen and Jura found
infrared-emitting dust
confined to a region smaller than 12.2 astronomical units in
diameter, a
region similar in size -- in astronomical scales -- to the
asteroid belt in
our solar system, which is about 5.4 astronomical units in
diameter.
By observing at two infrared wavelengths, Chen and Jura estimate
that the
average temperature of the dust around zeta Leporis is about 340
Kelvins
(150 F), a relatively high temperature for such material. Given
this high
temperature, the grains may be as close as 2.5 astronomical units
to the
star.
"There must be objects larger than dust around zeta Leporis,
which may
resemble asteroids in our own solar system, that are creating the
infrared-
emitting dust by violently colliding with each other," Jura
said.
The discovery that the dust around zeta Leporis is unusually warm
was first
published in 1991 by astronomers Hartmut Aumann and Ronald
Probst.
Chen and Jura plan to confirm their findings with additional
infrared
observations of zeta Leporis.
"We hope to obtain infrared spectra of the emission from
zeta Leporis," Chen
said. "We want to know if the asteroids around this star are
similar in
composition to objects in our solar system, and we want to learn
if the
processes we now see unfolding on zeta Leporis can help us
understand how
the planets in our own solar system formed."
"The next step is to get an infrared spectrum of this area,
which would give
us an indication of their composition."
The research by Chen and Jura is supported by funding from NASA.
For More Information:
Ms. Christine Chen, 310-825-3172, cchen@astro.ucla.edu
Professor Michael Jura, 310-825-4302, jura@astro.ucla.edu
For illustrations of this research, go to:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~cchen/images/solarsystem.gif
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~cchen/images/asteroidbelt.gif
=============
(2) ASTEROID BELT LIKE OURS SPOTTED AROUND ANOTHER STAR
From Space.com, 4 June 2001
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/aas_solarsystems_010604.html
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers announced today what they say is
the first
solid evidence for solid rocks orbiting another star, an asteroid
belt that
might be similar to the one surrounding our own Sun between Mars
and
Jupiter.
If true, the research points to the possibility of potential
Earth-like
planets in the making, or planets that have been destroyed, or
possibly even
a giant planet like Jupiter that, though unseen, orchestrates the
chaos of
collisions that created the debris.
UCLA graduate student Christine Chen and her advisor, astronomy
professor
Michael Jura, announced the findings here today at the annual
meeting of the
American Astronomical Society.
"We believe we see either the remnants of planet formation
or material that
may become planets," Chen said.
The scientists have not actually seen any asteroids around Zeta
Leporis, a
young star twice as massive as the Sun and 60 to 70 light-years
away.
Instead they have studied the temperature and position of the
star's
swirling mass of debris, which they say shows evidence of chaotic
collisions
among rocks that creates the dust needed to sustain such a disk.
It is a scenario similar to what is thought to have occurred
during the
birth of our solar system and, to a lesser extent, continues
today.
Zeta Leporis, also called HR 1998, is between 50 million and 400
million
years old, compared to our middle-aged Sun, which is about 4.5
billion years
old. Along with some other young stars, it was found in the 1980s
to have a
ring of dusty debris. And in 1991 astronomers learned that this
debris ring
was unusually warm and close to its parent star, unlike other
disks that are
farther out, and hence colder.
This dust, given its known properties, should spiral into a star
within
20,000 years, according to current theories of physics and star
formation,
scientists say. But this star is much older.
"This tells us that these dust grains that we observe now
were not there
when this star first formed, so they must be generated through
some
secondary process such as collisions between larger
objects," Chen said.
These presumed asteroids could be the size of small or large
boulders,
"which collide together, and grind down, and form
micron-sized grains."
The new study, funded by NASA, used the Keck Observatory in
Hawaii to
examine how much light is reflected by the ring of debris, which
absorbs
visible light from the star and emits it in the infrared
wavelength. Similar
techniques allow scientists to estimate the composition of
asteroids closer
to home. Chen and Jura determined the debris around Zeta Leporis
to be, on
average, about 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius, or 340
Kelvins),
and they estimate the mass of the material to be about 1,000
times what is
found in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Chen then calculated that the ring of debris must be confined to
region
between 2.5 and 12.2 astronomical units from the star. One AU is
the
distance from Earth to the Sun, and the Asteroid Belt sits
between Mars and
Jupiter, 1.5 and 5.2 AU from the Sun, respectively.
Echoes of our solar system
Leading models of solar system formation hold that as the Sun
gathered
itself together out of a cloud of gas and dust, the leftovers
settled into a
vast disk that rotated around the newborn star and gradually
flattened out.
In the early years of our solar system, dust grains collided and
coalesced,
and the seeds of asteroids, comets and planets were formed. The
gravity of
some of the more distant protoplanets attracted gas, and Jupiter
and the
other gas giants developed. These giant planets swept much of the
dust disk
clean. Most of the rest of the debris spiraled in and was
swallowed by the
Sun or was driven out of the solar system. But collisions still
generate
some dust.
Research reported in the journal Nature in 1999 showed that these
dust disks
tend to disappear when a star is about 400 million years old --
the upper
end of the age estimate for Zeta Leporis. Previously, another
star was found
to have a gap in its ring of debris, hinting at planet formation.
Hinting at a planet
Dozens of planets have been found around other stars, but so far
all are
giant gaseous planets very close to their host stars, leaving
open the
question of how common solar systems like ours -- the habitable
kind --
might be.
Mark Sykes, a Steward Observatory researcher who has studied how
dust
behaves in our Asteroid Belt, speculated that the debris disk
around Zeta
Leporis might have been caused by a Jupiter-sized planet that has
so far
gone undetected. Such a planet would have kicked asteroids that
were in
circular orbits into more elliptical ones.
Once that happens, collisions between two asteroids are no longer
sideswipes
between two objects on a similar path, but instead more like cars
slamming
together at an intersection.
Sykes said that the study therefore provides a possible detection
method to
be used in the ongoing hunt for extrasolar planets. "In a
way it's a
minor-planet and a major-planet detection system as well,"
he said.
Jura warned that while there could be a rocky planet, perhaps
even one like
Earth, embedded in the dust, it could be a decade before any
detection
techniques would be able to pick it out.
The researchers also plan to learn whether the potential
asteroids around
Zeta Leporis are made up of the same stuff as the asteroids in
our solar
system. If so, then the fledgling solar system around that star
could serve
as an even better window to the formation of our own.
Copyright 2001, Space.com
============
(3) PLANET FORMATION MAY BE RARE IN UNIVERSE
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
Office of News Services
University of Colorado-Boulder
3100 Marine Street, 5th Floor
584 UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0584
(303) 492-6431
Contact:
John Bally, (303) 492-5786, bally@casa.colorado.edu
Bo Reipurth, (303) 735-2640, Reipurth@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, (303) 492-3114
Note to Editors: Contents embargoed until Monday, June 4, at 9
a.m. PDT.
The AAS Press Room telephone numbers are (626) 844-6037, -6038
and -6039.
NEW CU-BOULDER ASTRONOMY STUDY INDICATES PLANET FORMATION MAY BE
RARE IN
UNIVERSE
The vast majority of wannabe planets in the universe are likely
destroyed by
cosmic forces long before they have a chance to evolve from dusty
disks
circling their parent stars, according to University of Colorado
at Boulder
researchers.
Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that
prolific
planet-forming environments like the nearby Orion Nebula are
fraught with
peril, said CU-Boulder Professor John Bally. Orion, a giant
stellar nursery
thought to have spawned roughly 20,000 low-mass stars like the
sun in the
last 10 million years, also harbors a handful of massive type O
and B stars
that emit blowtorch-like radiation, destroying most pre-planetary
disks in
their vicinity.
Astronomers estimate only about 10 percent of young stars are
born in
environments shielded from such radiation, said Bally of
CU-Boulder's
astrophysical and planetary sciences department. "Most stars
appear to form
in rich clusters in Orion-like environments where their
planet-forming disks
are eroded by the intense light."
To further complicate matters, nearly 90 percent of all young
stars are
thought to have companion siblings at birth as part of binary or
multiple
star systems, he said.
CU-Boulder Senior Research Associate Bo Reipurth of the APS
department, who
collaborates with Bally on several star formation projects, said
such
systems can contain one, two or three companion stars to the
primary star,
much like human twins, triplets and quadruplets. Even in the
Orion Nebula,
which has a star density about 1 million times that of so-called
"field
stars" like our sun, an estimated 60 percent of the young
stars belong to
binary or multiple star systems.
In such young systems, the stars orbit each other in elongated,
eccentric
and unstable circuits, occasionally passing very near each other.
Such
"orbital entanglements" can disturb circumstellar disks
around young stars,
cause the ejection of lower-mass sister stars from the region and
even
produce spectacular gaseous jets that shoot from the young stars,
Reipurth
said.
Every 10,000 years or so when binary stars become very close to
each other,
their circumstellar disk material is shaken up, triggering the
accretion of
more material and the production of gaseous jets by one of the
stars, said
Reipurth.
"Young stars, once thought to evolve slowly and steadily
toward maturity,
apparently suffer occasional catastrophes caused by nearby
sibling stars,"
said Reipurth.
"There is a popular misconception that most stars have
planets, and that
solar systems abound in the universe," said Bally. "The
reality seems to be
that Earth's solar system is a special place, and that we are
lucky to be
here."
The massive stars scattered throughout Orion-like star-forming
systems not
only destroy most circumstellar disks before they have a chance
to evolve
into rocky planets, but also strip hydrogen and helium from the
system
needed to form large gaseous planets, said Bally. "This
implies our solar
system may have formed far away from massive stars," said
Bally. "Planetary
systems like ours may be relatively rare."
To date, astronomers have found more than 60 giant planets around
about 50
stars, he said. But these numbers indicate that fewer than 5
percent of the
stars surveyed are orbited by giant planets.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is thought to
shield Earth
from comets and asteroids by sweeping them away with its massive
gravity.
Such giant planets may be a prerequisite for the existence of
safe planetary
environments suitable for the evolution of life, said Bally.
The successful formation of large, gaseous planets remains a
mystery, he
said. "In order for giant planets to form in Orion-like
regions, they must
be assembled promptly by gravity," Bally said. "Such
planets must accrete
hydrogen and helium from their surroundings before the gases are
removed."
This process must be completed in less than a few hundred
thousand years in
order to avoid the blowtorch destruction of pre-planetary matter
by massive
nearby stars, he said.
The bottom line is that we are finding a number of formidable
constraints to
building planets and planetary systems in the universe,"
Bally said.
===========
(4) SEEKING FOR OCEANS ON JUPITER'S MOON
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
CONTACT:
Deborah Halber, MIT News Office
(617) 258-9276, dhalber@mit.edu
JUNE 4, 2001
MIT researchers seek ocean on Jupiter's moon through its sounds
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Acoustic techniques used by Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology researchers to explore the Arctic Ocean may help
determine
whether there is a vast liquid ocean under the ice blanketing
Jupiter's
moon, Europa.
MIT researchers report June 5 at the Chicago meeting of the
Acoustical
Society of America that they may be able to use a technique
similar to
ultrasound or the sonar navigation used by bats and dolphins to
gather
information about Europa.
MIT ocean engineering professor Nicholas C. Makris said that
implanting
soda-can-sized sensors in Europa's icy exterior could provide
researchers
with information on the temperature and structure of the planet.
Current
sensor technology makes it possible to detect even tiny motions,
and there
is evidence that massive ice fractures on Europa's surface occur
daily.
While such an experiment may be a decade or more away, this
unconventional
approach to planetary exploration would have to begin to be
developed now,
Makris said. An array of geophones on the icy surface could
simultaneously
localize discrete events such as fractures and determine the
moon's
ice-layer thickness as well as the thickness of a potential ocean
layer.
SEARCHING FOR WATER
Europa may be the only entity in our solar system besides Earth
that
contains a great deal of water, researchers say, and this mission
would
represent the first time ocean scientists have been involved in
planetary
exploration.
Gravity and magnetic data collected by the NASA Galileo Orbiter
over the
past five years have provided increasing evidence that an ocean
exists
underneath Europa's uniform, 10- to 100-kilometer thick coat of
ice. The
possible ocean on Europa may contain more liquid water than all
the oceans
on Earth combined.
Magnetic studies have indicated that there must be a conducting
layer in
Europa. A salty ocean would fit the bill. Researchers hope to
discover
whether Europa is made up entirely of mushy ice or if it contains
an ocean.
Where there is water, there may be life.
USING SOUND TO "SEE"
Pictures of the planet show odd, cusp-shaped cracks in the
surface. Europa's
numerous fractures and ridges are believed to have formed in
response to
tidal deformations generated by the moon's slightly eccentric
85-hour orbit
around Jupiter.
Inspired by evidence for these regularly occurring ice fractures,
the MIT
researchers propose probing Europa's interior by deploying an
array of
surface microphones that listen to naturally occurring sound.
Knowledge of
ice mechanics suggests that these propagating fractures would
generate
significant acoustic energy in the frequency range 0.1-100 Hz.
Studying the ice sounds would allow researchers to see if there
was a
connection between the moon's orbital period and the ice
fractures, which
occur on Europa once every 30 seconds. Meteors impact Europa
about once a
month and these also could be used as sound sources.
AN ARCTIC EXPLORATION
MIT researchers led by Makris, Doherty Professor of Ocean
Utilization in
MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering, have used sound-based
techniques to
explore the Arctic Ocean. By inserting vibration-sensitive
hydrophones in
the water, researchers used ambient sound to listen for changes
in noise
levels. They found that noise levels increased when winds and
currents put
stresses on the ice.
"Noise levels are like a thermometer for stress on the
ice," Makris said.
"The ice is very sensitive and conducive to sound."
Sound waves made by
large fractures go through the ice and penetrate into the ocean.
These low-frequency sound waves, akin to those created by whales,
get
trapped and can propagate hundreds of kilometers through the
water. Even if
they can't be heard, instruments can pick up their vibrations
from a
distance.
In addition to Makris, the research team includes ocean
engineering
postdoctorate associates Aaron M. Thode and Michele Zanolin and
graduate
students Sunwoong Lee, Purnima Ratilal and Joshua Wilson.
This work is funded by the Office of Naval Research. Makris is
the Secretary
of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Scholar of Oceanographic
Sciences.
=========
(5) LARGE METEORS DETECTED EXPLODING ABOVE THE PACIFIC
From Environmental News Network, 4 June 2001
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/06/06042001/nuketests_43826.asp
Barringer Meteor Crater is a 0.8 mile diameter, 570 foot deep
hole in the
desert located 18.6 miles west of Winslow, Arizona. Since the
1890s,
geologic studies here have played a leading role in developing an
understanding of impact processes on the Earth, the Moon and
elsewhere in
the solar system.
Two large meteors entered the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean
during the
past nine months, said researchers at the Department of Energy's
Los Alamos
National Laboratory who, at the time, were monitoring an
infrasound system
set up to detect covert nuclear weapons tests.
Hundreds of miles from the entry points, Los Alamos researchers
Rod
Whitaker, Doug ReVelle and Peter Brown heard the two meteors
entering the
atmosphere - one on April 23 of this year and the other on August
25, 2000.
The meteors were very large, measuring about six and ten feet in
diameter.
They appeared as huge fireballs in the sky. Such large, fiery
meteors are
called bolides, or fireballs.
The April 23 meteor plunged into the atmosphere above the Pacific
Ocean
several hundred miles west of the northern Baja California region
of Mexico.
The August 2000 meteor entered the atmosphere off the coast of
Acapulco,
Mexico.
Based on the energy and speed of the bolides, ReVelle and
Whitaker estimate
the first was six feet in diameter. The second meteor probably
was at least
twice as large.
"Had anyone seen the April 23 event, they would have seen
quite a show,"
ReVelle said. "That meteor was one of the five brightest
meteors that have
ever been recorded. It was a very large bolide."
Bolides produce their brilliant light shows miles above Earth's
surface.
Most meteors explode into thousands of tiny pieces or burn up
completely
before they hit the surface.
When they do hit the ground, their destructive power is
unmistakable. The
remains of a very large bolide collision with Earth can be seen
at the
Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona.
An enormous bolide fell to Earth about 35 million years ago on
the Atlantic
coast of North America near the Delmarva Peninsula. It carved a
roughly
circular crater twice the size of the state of Rhode Island, and
nearly as
deep as the Grand Canyon. Researchers believe the impact crater
determined
the present day location of Chesapeake Bay.
When a bolide enters the atmosphere - or when a large explosion
such as a
nuclear test is detonated - it creates a sound, or pressure wave,
that at
long range is below the levels of human hearing.
This infrasonic wave travels through the atmosphere and can be
detected by
special microphones that are configured in an array. Los Alamos
operates
four arrays located throughout the United States. Sandia National
Laboratory, another U.S. Department of Energy lab, monitors five
arrays
located in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.
By looking at the arrival time of the sounds at different array
stations and
at the frequency of the infrasonic signal, researchers can
pinpoint the
location of the source and determine the amount of energy that
created it.
The Los Alamos researchers were using listening stations designed
to alert
international authorities to clandestine nuclear weapons tests
that may be
conducted by rogue groups or nations that do not abide by
international
nuclear non-proliferation agreements.
Data from orbiting space platforms confirmed their observations.
Infrared
sensors aboard U.S. Department of Defense satellites detected the
bolide's
impact over the Pacific Ocean on April 23. The object was
observed at an
altitude of 17.6 miles above the Earth's surface.
Its impact was simultaneously detected by space-based visible
wavelength
sensors operated by the U.S. Department of Energy and by the Los
Alamos
researchers monitoring their infrasound system. A similar set of
observations confirmed the entry of a meteor last August 25.
Each year a number of large meteors enter the atmosphere and are
detected by
the Los Alamos arrays which operate in addition to satellite
detection
systems. "Infrasound is very simple, inexpensive and easy to
operate as a
backup system," said Whitaker.
ReVelle said that at least 10 meteors that are six feet or
greater in
diameter enter the atmosphere each year. Larger bolides entering
the
atmosphere occur less frequently, but they do occur nevertheless.
The meteors of April and August played an important role in
improving the
accuracy of nuclear non-proliferation technology.
"Because those two events were detected by our four arrays
and by five other
arrays operated by the International Monitoring System, we are
able to use
the space platform data to calibrate our instruments, and
analyses, to make
them better able to pinpoint the exact location where these
events
occurred," Whitaker said. "Every time we hear a bolide,
we learn something
about this technology and are better able to fine-tune it."
Whitaker said, "Infrasound arrays are listening 24 hours a
day, seven days a
week. Sometimes other technologies miss events that infrasound
arrays
detect. Consequently, infrasound is inexpensive insurance for
cost effective
monitoring, and it is something that's available to the entire
international
community - which isn't the case with some other
technologies."
Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of
California
for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security
Administration. The Los Alamos team waited until the space
platform data
were released publicly last week before releasing their own data.
Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
All Rights Reserved
======
(6) MAPS SPECIAL SERIES - NEAR SHOEMAKER MISSION
From: Meteoritics and Planetary Science < meteor@uark.edu
>
ANNOUNCEMENT
Special series in Meteoritics & Planetary Science for
2001/2002
The NEAR Shoemaker mission
2001 November
http://www.uark.edu/meteor/NEAR.htm
Meteoritics & Planetary Science is pleased to announce an
upcoming series on
the findings of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendevous (NEAR)
mission to Eros.
The series is scheduled to appear in the November 2001 issue of
the journal.
Submission of papers is open to all authors, both mission
investigators as well as those not affiliated with the mission.
The target date for submission of papers for inclusion in this
series is
2001 July 15. Authors should indicate, in their cover letter,
that the paper
is to be considered for the series. Papers may be submitted
electronically
or as hard copy. Details of journal submission and review
procedures can be found on the MAPS web site at http://www.uark.edu/meteor.
For further information, please contact Dr. Tim McCoy
(McCoy.Tim@nmnh.si.edu),
Dr. Jacob Trombka (jacob.trombka@gsfc.nasa.gov),
or
Dr. Derek Sears, Editor, Meteoritics & Planetary Science,
Chemistry
Building, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 727021,
USA
(meteor@uark.edu).
=========
(7) 34 ASTROBIOLOGY POSITIONS IN SPAIN
From Duncan Steel <D.I.Steel@salford.ac.uk>
Hi Benny.
This was sent on to me by someone else. Perhaps some CCNet
readers would be
interested to hear of these 34 (!) astrobiology positions in
Madrid.
Cheers,
Duncan
======================================================================
Dear Madam/Sir,
thank you very much for your interest in our 34 Post-Doctoral
tenure-Track
positions at Centro de Astrobiologia.
Enclosed you will find one document describing the offer we are
making, and
another one describing the steps to be followed. Read both
carefully and act
quickly because the timelines are very short. From the time when
you submit
your documents to CAB (deadline June 10th) to the time when you
submit to
the Ministry of Science and Technology, you should spend your
time
finilizing the FULL research project that you propose. Note that
in June
10th you are requested to send to ryc.cab@inta.es ONLY the
letters of
recommendation (in the format provided at one the web addresses
we give
you), your vitae and the 300 word SUMMARY of your project.
All relevant web addresses are given in the advertisement, which
is a
Microsoft Word document (sorry!).
We apologize for the short times available, but that is beyond
our
control.
We wish you very good luck and thank you very much for your
interest in our
Center, in working with us and in pursuing an Astrobiology
career.
Sincerely,
Juan Perez-Mercader
P.s.: Use the e-mail address <ryc.cab@inta.es>
for any correspondence with
CAB on this matter.
Post Doctoral Tenure-track Positions
in the framework of the "Ramón y Cajal Program" of
the Ministerio de
Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain
The Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) invites applications by
qualified
candidates for 5 year tenure-track positions in Astrobiology.
These 34
positions are new and the successful candidates will have to join
CAB from
the late Fall of 2001 to early Winter of 2002. The positions are
at the
Centro de Astrobiología, in its brand new facility in the Campus
of INTA,
Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, and will be granted together with
some seed money
to allow beginning of research activities immediately upon
filling the
position. These positions are part of the "Ramón y Cajal
Program" of the
Ministry of Science and Technology of Spain (www.
mcyt.es/cajal/default.htm).
We are looking for enthusiastic persons with postdoctoral
experience, highly
motivated and interested in working within a multidisciplinary
scientific
environment. Successful candidates will be expected to engage in
existing
research programs as well as in new collaborative research
carried out at
the Center and within the framework of our association to the
NASA
Astrobiology Institute of which the CAB is, at present, the only
international Associate Member.
The areas of specialization of the applicant include the
following:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Planetary Geology and Earth Sciences,
Physical
Chemistry and Cosmogeochemistry, Molecular Evolution, Genomics
and
Proteomics, Paleobiology, Extremophiles, Complexity and
Non-linear Science,
Numerical Simulation and Supercomputation, Robotics and Advanced
Internet
Communications, and Instrumentation for Astrobiology.
Details about the "Ramon y Cajal Program" at Centro de
Astrobiología are
available at www.cab.inta.es
Those interested are invited to contact the CAB by e-mail at
ryc.cab@inta.es, telephone
(34-91-520-1111) or fax (34-91-520-1621).
The deadline for presentation of application materials at CAB is
June 15th,
2001, and at the Ministry of Science and Technology June 23rd,
2001. Both
steps are mandatory.
Committed to Equal Opportunities for All
============================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR *
============================
(8) CONFERENCE REPORT AND ACTIVITY SUMMARY
From Andy Smith <astrosafe@yahoo.com>
Hello Benny and CCNet,
We had an excellent Asteroid/Comet (AC) Workshop at the
International Space
Development Conference, here (Albuquerque), last week. The
meeting was the
annual meeting of the U. S. National Space Society (SNN). It was
co-sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautices and
Astronautics
(AIAA).
Both of these organizations have large memberships (20,000 plus,
each). The
NSS membership includes both space development and operational
experts and
the public (including many retired specialists, students, etc.).
The AIAA is
the long-standing professional society for aerospace engineers
and it was
responsible for the landmark position paper, in 1990, which
expressed strong
concern regarding the need for asteroid/comet preparedness. This
position
paper, and the one generated in 1995, are available on the AIAA
Web
home-page.
We had three sessions (half-day each) of presentations covering
impact
effects, early-warning, defense, civil emergency preparedness and
mining.
Systems and other topics discussed included:
(1) The Deep-Impact Spacecraft and Mission (projected launch in
2004 - talk
by Alan Delamere, Ball Aerospace). This comet mission will launch
an
impacting payload and it is a good first-step toward an
interception/deflection capability . They have a good Web page.
(2) The LINEAR asteroid hunting program (Jennifer Evans, Air
Force/MIT
Lincoln Lab.)- our leading NEO finders (another good Web page -
WP).
(3) The very impressive new Japanese Bisei asteroid hunting
program (Syuzo
Isobe, Japan Spaceguard and National Astronomy Observatory)(WP).
(4) Mark Boslough (Sandia National Lab) discussed his theory of
asteroid
induced climatic change, resulting from the formation of
earth-rings. He
also summarized the Tunguska data provided by our colleague,
Vadim
Nemtchinov (Russia). Mark and Dave Crawford have some impressive
impact
graphics on the Web.
(5) Jack Hills (Los Alamos National Lab), an asteroid tsunami
pioneer,
talked about effects scaling and tsunami modeling.
(6) Alan Hale, our neighbor (Cloud Croft, NM),the co-discoverer
of the
celebrated comet, gave us an update and talked about his
asteroid/comet
hunting activities.
(7) Pat Dasch, the Executive Director of the NSS, talked about
her 1998
preparedness advocacy statement to the U.S.Congressional Space
Science
Sub-Committee and about the NSS support for planetary defense.
The hearings
are on the Web.
(8) Louis Scuderi, of the University of New Mexico Geography
Department,
discussed some of his recent tree-ring and ice-core findings,
regarding a
possible impact event in the 10th century. This fits our CCNet
discussions
and we are planning more work on this.
(9) Rhian Jones, of the University of New Mexico Institute of
Meteoritics,
discussed the things we can learn about asteroid properties from
the study
of meteorites. She is the curator of our Meteorite Museum (UNM)
and you can
visit it whenever you are in town.
(10) Elvidio Diniz (Resource Technology, Inc.) discussed
the structural
response of tall buildings to debris-loaded tsunami forces. He is
using
valuable lessons he has learned from analyses of dam failures. We
are trying
to develop some building code recommendations, as part of our
civil
preparednessresearch activity.
(11) David Kuck (mining consultant and researcher) introduced an
interesting
concept for using a small metal asteroid to fuel an electrical
propulsion
system.
(12) Timothy Roberts, a Colorado planning specialist, outlined an
emergency
preparedness program.
In addition to our workshop, there were a number of very
interesting
presentations concerning the need for ACE preparedness. These
included:
(1) A plenary presentation by Air Force Brig. Gen. Pete Worden, a
key leader
in the development and conduct of the outstanding Clementine
photographic
mission to the Moon and a strong advocate for planetary defense
(PD),
(2) Many remarks and comments, concerning PD, by our Honorary
General
Chairman, former astronaut and U.S. Senator Harrison (Jack)
Schmitt. Jack is
a geologist and was a close associate of Gene Shoemaker. He made
the
memorable scientific trip to and on the Moon (Apollo 17), which
explored
several of the craters. Jack also helped to organize the
conference
Astrogeology Symposium and chaired a special session on Helium-3
Fusion.
(3)The Astrogeology Symposium included presentations by Donald
Brownlee
(Columbia) on Comets and Joseph Veverka (Cornell) on Asteroids.
Jim Benson
also gave an excellent plenary address and talked a lot about
reducing the
cost of space missions. We hope SpaceDev will help us find ways
to reduce
the time required to respond to an emergency asteroid/comet
threat.
It is clear that we need more open public discussions of this
vital issue.
We will have another AC Workshop, here, at the AIAA SPACE2001
conference,
this August and we will host two more, next year. This is the
most important
technical challenge in history and we have a very long way to go
to reach
the needed level of global preparedness. The stakes are the
highest and the
risks are very disturbing (in light of the consequences).
We encourage everyone to promote such dialogue and one of our
goals, in the
International Planetary Preparedness Alliance (IPPA), is to
promote openness
and support for the critical programs.
LARGE TELESCOPE NEED
Our present global asteroid search capability is limited to the
larger
asteroids and these make-up a relatively small percentage of the
threat
population. To quickly find the rest we need to add a large
telescope
capability. Good arguments for this can be found as part of the
Dark Matter
Telescope proposal (Web) and the U.S. National Research Council
Report (last
year)on the major future astronomy equipment needs(Web).
The addition of an 6 to 8 meter, wide-angle reflector, to the
search, could
reduce the time required to identify the 100,000 or so NEO, from
about 300
years to a single decade. That buys us 290 years of relative
safety and
peace-of-mind. We must do it.
To be effective, this instrument, of course, must be largely
dedicated to
the hunt for the dacade or so that it will take.
We are planning some experiments, in the near-future, to examine
the
effectiveness of a 3 meter spotter, in the hunt, and we invite
all who want
to join in this experiment to contact us. We plan a test and will
need
follow-up and reporting sites. We will be looking for magnitude
20 and
smaller, fast-moving objects.
We encourage anyone who has the capability, to invite and involve
large
telescopes in the hunt, to try to get them involved. We are also
trying to
get some help from the SLOAN DSS and the CFH telescope teams.
AN INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY CONDITION EXISTS
We view our situation as an international emergency - somewhat
similar to a
super bomb-scare. If a bomb was thought to be in a building; an
emergency
would be declared, the building would be evacuated and the bomb
would be
located and disposed-of.
Our planet is the building. There are about 100,000 bombs in the
area. This
is an emergency and we should do everything possible to locate
the dangerous
bombs and eliminate them, if at all possible. There is no time to
waste. We
urge everyone to support the recognition of this emergency and
the need for
crisis priorities and crisis prevention management.
GOOD FEATURE
The Sky and Telescope Magazine has done an excellent job of
providing good
public information on the asteroid/comet danger and on asteroid
hunting.
Professor Richard Binzel (MIT) has done an excellent feature, in
the July
issue, titled, "A New Century For Asteroids" (Page 44).
We enjoyed it.
We appreciate the coverage given to our Conference, in the CCNet,
yesterday.
Leonard David (Space.Com) did an excellent job of summarizing
things. Many
thanks to Space.Com and CCNet.
We're all passengers on the same luxury space liner and it is
great to see
us working togeather to find the ice and rock bergs.
Cheers
Andy Smith
===========
(9) AND FINALLY: WELCOME TO THE DARK AGES: ASTROLOGY'S RETURN TO
EUROPEAN
AND INDIAN UNIVERSITIES
From The New York Times, 2 June 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/02/arts/02ASTR.html?searchpv=day03
Star Wars: Is Astrology Sociology?
By EMILY EAKIN
Elizabeth Teissier is well known in France as the weekly
horoscope columnist
for a popular television guide, the author of a half-dozen books
on
astrology, and the astrologer to the French president François
Mitterrand.
But Ms. Teissier, 63, has recently found herself on the front
page of French
newspapers for something that hundreds of people do every year:
defending
her dissertation.
A Ph.D. candidate in sociology, Ms. Teissier spent almost 10
years
completing a 900- page thesis on astrology and in April received
a passing
grade at the Sorbonne for her efforts.
On the personal Web site where she lists her accomplishments -
which include
predicting the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, the 1987
stock
market crash and the fall of the Berlin Wall - Ms. Teissier has
mounted a
photograph of herself in scholar's cap and gown accompanied by
the words:
"She would like to create a chair in astrology at the
Sorbonne."
An account of Ms. Teissier's thesis defense ran on the front page
of Le
Monde, France's most important daily newspaper. Suggesting that
at least
parts of the manuscript (cumbersomely titled "The
Epistemological Situation
of Astrology in Relation to the Ambivalent Fascination/Rejection
of
Postmodern Societies") read more like the justification of a
true believer
than a scholarly analysis by a skeptical scientist, the article
set off a
storm of protest.
Over the last few weeks, fueled by fresh revelations - like Ms.
Teissier's
having referred to Max Weber, one of sociology's founders, as a
"pragmatic
Taurus" - the debate has only gathered steam, pitting
sociologists who
insist that the case concerns a thesis that fails to meet minimum
academic
standards against those who argue that the real target isn't Ms.
Teissier
but a maverick strain of sociology that has failed to win
establishment
approval.
By now, most of the major French newspapers have published
opinion pieces.
More than 400 sociologists have signed a petition asking the
president of
the Sorbonne to make an independent evaluation of the case. And
the French
Association of Scientific Information has assigned a group of
scientists and
social scientists to review the thesis. They hope to release
their report
within the next two weeks. On the advice of her academic
advisers, Ms.
Teissier has decided not to speak to reporters, at least until
she receives
her diploma later this summer. But her supporters contend that
her thesis,
whatever its faults, is the casualty of a larger conflict within
the
discipline over methodology. The real debate, they say, is
between the
followers of Émile Durkheim and followers of Weber. Or, to put
it another
way, between positivists who rely on quantitative techniques and
objective
measures when assessing social life and phenomenologists who
attach greater
importance to subjective experience and emotion.
Writing in Le Figaro earlier this week, Judith Lazar, a lecturer
in
sociology at a University of Paris branch campus, complained that
Ms.
Teissier was the victim of a witch hunt. Noting that most of her
critics
hadn't even read the thesis, Ms. Lazar said: "Wouldn't it be
braver to admit
that what we're really after isn't the author of this thesis
(because what
harm can this woman do to sociology?) but her adviser, Michel
Maffesoli?
Indeed, on many occasions, this professor has expressed his
differences with
a discipline mired in old-fashioned academicism and has not
hesitated to
defend original subjects in order to bring a little fresh air
into a
moribund sociology."
There is no question that Mr. Maffesoli's scholarship falls at
the extreme
end of the phenomenological camp. "What I do is a very
Weberian sociology,
which is not well represented in France because of the Durkheim
current that
insists all must be explained by reason," said Mr.
Maffesoli. His books
include studies of contemporary hedonism and New Age practices as
well as a
treatise on "ordinary knowledge," which he sees as
rooted in everyday life
and encompassing the irrational, illogical and emotional aspects
of human
experience.
In the view of many sociologists, this work lacks methodological
rigor.
Writing in Le Monde in April, for example, Christian Baudelot and
Roger
Establet, sociologists at the École Normale Superieure at the
University of
Aix-en-Provence, accused Mr. Maffesoli of promoting a social
science that
favors "lived experience, groundless interpretation and
off-the-cuff
analysis" over reason and objectivity.
Despite these jabs, however, Mr. Maffesoli's critics insist that
their
objections to Ms. Teissier's thesis have nothing to do with
methodological
disputes. "There is an opposition between Weber and
Durkheim, but it has
nothing to do with Elizabeth Teissier," said Alain Touraine,
a sociologist
at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris,
pointing out
that Weber stressed the need to back up all assertions with
objective
evidence.
According to her critics, Ms. Teissier's thesis is simply not
social
science. "I've read the whole thing," said Dominique
Desjeux, a sociologist
at the Sorbonne. "It's the testimony of somebody who is a
well-known
astrologer and writes about her experiences. She cites letters
from ordinary
people as well as testimony from Mitterrand. There is no
sociology."
Bernard Lahire, a sociologist at the École Normale Supérieure
de Lettres et
Sciences Humaines in Lyon and director of the group charged with
reviewing
the thesis, agreed. "There is no trace of empirical fact or
research
method," he wrote via e-mail. "The idea hammered home
from beginning to end
of the document is that astrology is the victim of domination.
That science,
which is renamed `official science' or `monolithic thought,'
oppresses
astrology."
It is extremely unlikely that Ms. Teissier's degree will be
revoked, he
said. He added: "I personally consider this defense a blow
to our discipline
and an insult to those who do their work properly. It's not an
accident that
Elizabeth Teissier is using sociology to legitimate astrological
discourse.
Our discipline is all too often a haven for people who are not
rigorous and
who are sometimes antirationalist."
In a letter published in Le Monde, Ms. Teissier reminded readers
that a
doctoral degree could not be obtained on the basis of
"notoriety and the
production of 300 or more pages" alone. Like other students,
she noted, she
has completed all the course and examination requirements for a
sociology
Ph.D. She signed the letter "Astrally yours."
Copyright 2001, The New York Times
SEE ALSO:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1369000/1369375.stm
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