PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet DIGEST, 23 July 1999
--------------------------
MODERATOR'S NOTE: I will be on holidays for the next three weeks
(until August 17). If you wish to keep up-to-date with
CCNet-related
issues, you may find NEO news and information on the following
websites:
Michael Paine's NEO News
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd.html#news
IAU's CBAT & MPC ASTRONOMICAL HEADLINES
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/HeadlinesNEA.html
JPL/NASA NEO News
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news.html
With best wishes for a relaxing and uneventful summer.
Benny J Peiser
------------------------
QUOTES OF THE DAY
The proper name is The Binzel Scale,
just like we have The Richter
Scale, because Richard Binzel conceived
it and answered critics
carefully, patiently for nearly a
decade, at meetings at various
places (Tom Gehrels, 22 July 1999).
The adoption of Richard Binzel's
"Torino Scale" is a great
development. My only comments are that a
Scale 8 incident is
likely to only be relevant AFTER the
event since we are unlikely
to see the impactor before it hits. My
point is that our inability
to predict a large proportion of these
"Scale 8" events should be
pointed out, otherwise the rest of the
system will lose
credibility if an unpredicted
"localized" event occurs.
(Michael Paine, 22 July 1999).
One of the field's most vocal skeptics,
Dr. Benny J. Peiser, said
the Torino Scale can't overcome the
scientific problems associated
with uncertainty regarding the risk of
asteroids. "Whether (the
scale) will be beneficial or not has to
be seen when applied to
real cases of potential impactors. The
experience of the last
twelve months, during which three
asteroids with a non-zero impact
risk were discovered, would suggest that
the scale might not
always provide the clarity many now
expect." (Robert Roy Britt,
Explorezone, 22 July 1999)
(1) GOLD RUSH IN SPACE?
BBC Online Network, 22 July 1999
(2) ASTEROID FOUND BY SPACEWATCH IS FASTEST SPINNING SOLAR SYSTEM
OBJECT
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(3) THE DAY THE SUN WENT OUT
CHANNEL 4 (London)
(4) THE BINZEL SCALE OF ASTEROID HAZARDS
Tom Gehrels <tgehrels@LPL.Arizona.EDU>
(5) TORINO SCALE MIGHT LOSE CREDIBILITY IF NOT REFINED
Michael Paine <mpaine@tpgi.com.au>
(6) AND NOW, THE ASTEROID FORECAST ...
ScienceNOW, 21 July 1999
(7) INTERNATIONAL GROUP TO WEIGH BENEFITS OF ASTEROID-HAZARD
SCALE
THE BOSTON GLOBE, 22 July 1999
(8) NEW TORINO SCALE MEASURES ASTEROID THREAT
EXPLOREZONE, 22 July 1999
(9) SPACEDEV SELLS RIDE TO ASTEROID
Jim Benson <jim@spacedev.com>
(10) CATASTROPHIC DRAINING OF HUGE LAKES TIED TO ANCIENT GLOBAL
COOLING
EVENT
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
================
(1) GOLD RUSH IN SPACE?
From the BBC Online Network, 22 July 1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_401000/401227.stm
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse
The most detailed study of an asteroid shows that it contains
precious
metals worth at least $20,000bn. The data were collected last
December
by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (Near) spacecraft which
passed close to the asteroid Eros.
It provided an unprecedented look at one of the mountains of rock
that
fly around the solar system. The first conclusions from that
encounter
are now published the journal Science.
FULL STORY at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_401000/401227.stm
=================
(2) ASTEROID FOUND BY SPACEWATCH IS FASTEST SPINNING SOLAR SYSTEM
OBJECT
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
News Services
University of Arizona
Contact(s):
James V. Scotti, 520-621-2717
July 22, 1999
Asteroid found by Spacewatch is fastest spinning solar system
object
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A unique near-Earth asteroid discovered last
year by
Spacewatch at the Univerity of Arizona in Tucson is the
fastest-spinning solar system object yet found, scientists report
in
tomorrow's issue (July 23) of Science.
Only 30 meters (100 feet) across, asteroid 1998 KY26 spins once
every
10.7 minutes. That's 10 times faster than the spin rate of any
other
object and almost 60 times faster than the average of all known
asteroid rotation periods, the scientists say.
Whirling at that speed and given its size, 1998 KY26 has to be a
strong, single chunk of rock that was sent reeling from its
parent
asteroid in some space collision, said James V. Scotti , a senior
research specialist at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
(LPL) and
a co-author of the Science paper.
LPL Professor Tom Gehrels, Spacewatch co-founder, discovered
asteroid
1998 KY26 on May 28, 1998, using the 0.9 meter (36-inch)
Spacewatch
telescope at Kitt Peak, Ariz. Six nights later Scotti, joined at
the
Spacewatch telescope by Dan Durda, took 111 images of the
asteroid,
measuring its minimum to maximum changes in brightness. Durda of
the
Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Co., was formerly with
LPL.
Astronomers at telescopes in the Czech Republic, Hawaii and
California
also made the same kind of photometric measurements from June 2
to 8.
This was when the asteroid made its closest swing by Earth at a
half
million miles, or twice the distance between the Earth and the
moon.
Between June 6 and 8, Steven J. Ostro headed a team from the NASA
Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that used the
Goldstone
X-band radar of NASA's Deep Space Network to track the asteroid.
Radar
echoes revealed the asteroid's rapid spin rate. Petr Pravec of
Ondrejov
Astronomy Institute in the Czech Republic combined data gathered
by the
different optical observing groups and constructed a light curve
to
determine the precise rotation rate.
The astronomers discovered the size and shape of 1998 KY26 from
the
radar echoes. This asteroid is unusual in that it is almost
spherical,
with a bare-rock surface pocked at least in part by meteoroid
bombardment, they report. Their optical and radar observations
show
this asteroid is similar to carbonaceous chondritic meteorites,
objects
that formed early in solar system history. These meteorites are
rich in
primordial complex organic compounds and water.
Asteroids in the 30-meter-diameter range survive between 10
million and
100 million years before being destroyed in space collisions.
Carbonaceous chondrites are weaker meteorites, so this asteroid
will be
smashed sooner than later, they add.
Information from recent asteroid flybys suggest that large
asteroids
are less dense than the meteorites recovered and measured on
Earth.
Scientists theorize that most larger asteroids are porous
"rubble
piles" rather than monolithic bodies, Scotti said. Current
theory says
that "these rubble piles are conglomerates of debris broken
apart by
multiple collisions and held together by their mutual gravity,
spinning
slowly enough so that they don't fall apart," he added.
Studying the detailed structure of these asteroids involves more
than
just scientific curiosity, Scotti said. There are two practical
reasons
for learning more about them: Asteroid minerals can provide raw
materials for future space construction, and knowing how
asteroids are
put together provides critical knowledge for deflecting large
ones
headed for Earth.
Each month, Spacewatch -- the world's first telescope dedicated
to
searching for near-Earth asteroids -- finds an average of
two-to-three
asteroids in our vicinity, and another 2,000 new ones in the
asteroid
belt. Spacewatch is funded by NASA, the University of Arizona and
private donors.
LINKS:
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/spacewatch/
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/
=================
(3) THE DAY THE SUN WENT OUT
From CHANNEL 4 (London)
http://www.channel4.com/listings/summary.cfm?program_id=301621
"1500 years ago the earth was rocked by a natural
catastrophe. The sky
went black for two years causing massive famine, drought and
disease.
New nations and religions emerged and the old order was swept
away.
Following over four years of research and a life-threatening
expedition
to Krakatoa, Secrets of the Dead's two-part Catastrophe reveals
new
scientific evidence on the birth of the modern world.
In 535AD, nature literally came to standstill. Winter
gripped the
earth for two years.
Startling new evidence shows that trees all over the world - from
Ireland to Siberia, California to Finland - stopped growing
during the
mid-sixth century.
Eyewitness accounts describe what we might now call a 'nuclear
winter.'
According to the Syrian Bishop, John of Ephesus "The
sun became dark
...Each day it shone for about four hours, and still this light
was
only a feeble shadow." An ancient chronicle from Southern
China states
that: "Yellow dust rained like snow. It could be scooped up
in
handfuls." Famine and plague followed, killing millions and
altering
the course of history.
What caused this climatic catastrophe? Did an asteroid or
meteorite hit
the earth or was there a massive volcanic eruption? Vital clues
lie in
ice core samples from Greenland. These detect changes in the
environment over thousands of years.
Author and historian, DAVID KEYS consulted over 80 experts on
drought,
famine, floods, cosmic and ecological disasters, epidemics and
ancient
wars during more than four years of research on the project. This
unique story of scientific detection is based on Keys' book
Catastrophe: an investigation into the Origin of the Modern
World
(Century, £16.99),
Part 1, Catastrophe: the Day the Sun Went Out, uncovers the cause
of
this global disaster that wiped millions of people from the face
of the
earth.
Part 2 Catastrophe: How the World Changed examines how the new
world order
which emerged from environmental chaos.
"The mid-sixth century catastrophe was the most important
date in the
history of the past 2,000 years," says Keys. "It really
did lay the
foundations of the world we live in today."
=======================
(4) THE BINZEL SCALE OF ASTEROID HAZARDS
From Tom Gehrels <tgehrels@LPL.Arizona.EDU>
Dear Benny,
The proper name is The Binzel Scale, just like we have The
Richter
Scale, because Richard Binzel conceived it and answered critics
carefully, patiently for nearly a decade, at meetings at various
places.
Cheers!
Tom Gehrels
=====================
(5) TORINO SCALE MIGHT LOSE CREDIBILITY IF NOT REFINED
From Michael Paine <mpaine@tpgi.com.au>
Dear Benny,
The adoption of Richard Binzel's "Torino Scale" is a
great development.
My only comments are that a Scale 8 incident ("A collision
capable of
causing localized destruction. Such events occur somewhere on
Earth
between once per 50 years and once per 1000 years") is
likely to only be
relevant AFTER the event since we are unlikely to see the
impactor
before it hits (assuming we are talking about NEOs with a
diameter less
than 200m - over a decade the full Spaceguard Survey will detect
about
20% of 200m NEAs, 2% of 100m NEAs and 0.5% of 50m NEAs). My point
is
that our inability to predict a large proportion of these
"Scale 8"
events should be pointed out, otherwise the rest of the system
will lose
credibility if an unpredicted "localized" event occurs.
Also it is a pity that the term "once in X years" has
been used. It
gives the public the perception that we have X years before the
next
impact. It would be better the express the risk as the chance in
any one
year or century, or at least say the event "occurs ON
AVERAGE once every
X years".
On another matter, I noticed that the Conference held in the UK
last
December intended to include the effects of impacts on ice, such
as
Antartica. This got me thinking... I understand that some 20,000
years
ago at the peak of the Ice Age about one third of the land
surface of
the Earth was covered by glaciers. This might be one of the
solutions to
my question "Where have all the craters gone?" (~1km
diameter craters
such as Meteor Crater are apparently not evident in the past
50,000
years). Not only would an impact onto a glacier have reduced the
possibility of a crater forming in the underlying land but, I
presume,
the advancing glaciers would have scoured away evidence of
craters
created between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. An impact onto a
glacier
might also have minimised environmental effects of the impact
because
water would have been ejected rather than (vaporised) rock.
Regards
Michael Paine
The Planetary Society Australian Volunteers
=====================
(6) AND NOW, THE ASTEROID FORECAST ...
From ScienceNOW, 21 July 1999
Astronomers have devised a scale to rate the danger posed by
asteroids
headed for Earth, comparable to the Richter scale of earthquake
fame.
The so-called Torino scale, which ranges from 0 (no collision) to
10
(certain collision causing Earth-wide devastation), was developed
by
Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
presented to colleagues during a June workshop in Turin (Torino),
Italy. The International Astronomical Union will endorse it in a
statement tomorrow.
The topic of asteroids is "prone to sensationalism,"
says Binzel; twice
in recent years a media hype erupted after astronomers discovered
a
rock that had a remote possibility of slamming into Earth within
50
years (ScienceNOW, 11 March 1998 and 20 April 1999). "It's
very hard to
communicate extremely low probabilities to the general
public," says
Binzel. "The new scale gives us a common lexicon."
The scale, which Binzel had been working on since 1994, takes
into
account the chances an asteroid will hit as well as the possible
collision's kinetic energy, which is determined by the asteroid's
size
and speed relative to Earth. Torino scale values of 8, 9, and 10
refer
to certain collisions, with local, regional, and global
consequences
respectively. Just as no Californian would be alarmed by the
prospect
of an earthquake registering 1 on the Richter scale, "the
average
citizen shouldn't be concerned about an asteroid with a Torino
value of
1," says Binzel. The two recently discovered asteroids both
would have
been rated 1 after they were first discovered, but subsequent
observations would have placed them firmly in the 0 category.
The scale hasn't been tested with the general public, but Binzel
says
he was advised by science writers Kelly Beatty of Sky &
Telescope and
David Chandler of The Boston Globe. "In formulating the
scale, we tried
to be sociologists as well as scientists," he says.
But will astronomers adopt the new scale? "This will have to
sink in a
little bit," says Tom Gehrels of the Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory of
the University of Arizona, who heads one of the projects
searching for
near-Earth objects. "I think we ought to use it," he
adds. Carl Pilcher of
NASA's Office of Space Science calls the Torino Scale "a
major advance in
our ability to explain the hazard posed by a particular
[object]." In the
end, Binzel hopes that it may also raise public awareness and
lead to more
funding for asteroid searches. "Already, we're beyond the
giggle factor."
--Govert Schilling
Copyright 1999, AAAS
=====================
(7) INTERNATIONAL GROUP TO WEIGH BENEFITS OF ASTEROID-HAZARD
SCALE
From THE BOSTON GLOBE, 22 July 1999
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/203/nation/International_group_to_weigh_benefits_of_asteroid_hazard_scale+.shtml
By David L. Chandler, Globe Staff, 07/22/99
Remember that asteroid last year that astronomers initially
thought had
a slight chance of striking Earth in 40 years? Well, that risk
would
have rated a 1 on a new 0-to-10 scale of impact risks being
unveiled
today by the International Astronomical Union.
On the 'Torino Scale,' developed by Massachusetts Institute of
Technology astronomer Richard Binzel, that asteroid was found
within a
day to have a true risk of zero, and thus would have quickly
reverted
to zero on the hazard scale as well.
But Binzel and other astronomers think many people may have been
unduly and unnecessarily alarmed by some of the initial media
reports
of the possibility of an impact with that asteroid, called 1997
XF 11,
which was first reported in March last year. The hazard scale is
an
attempt to provide perspective on announcements of this kind so
that people will better understand the remote nature of the risk.
The scale was presented last month at an astronomers' meeting on
the
risk of impacts from comets or asteroids, held in Torino, Italy.
Astronomers at the meeting endorsed the new system, which then
became
known as the Torino Scale.
While Binzel and others like to compare the new scale to the
well-known
Richter scale used for measuring the intensity of earthquakes, or
to
similar scales used for the force of hurricanes and tornadoes,
the
Torino scale is actually quite different. Unlike those scales,
which
measure intensity, the Torino scale attempts to combine both the
severity of an impact and the probability of its occurrence.
For example, if an object is ever discovered that is found to be
on a
definite collision course with Earth, its rating on the scale
would
then depend solely on its size, and thus the severity of the
expected
impact.
An object so small that it would simply shatter in the atmosphere
and
never strike the ground - something about the size of a house or
smaller - would be rated zero, even if it were certain to strike,
because it would have no discernible effect. But an object
heading
toward Earth that was a bit bigger, between 60 and 300 feet
across,
would have a rating of 8, because such an impact could be
devastating
to a city-size region. Objects from 300 feet to about 3,000 feet
across
would be rated 9, meaning they could devastate a large region of
the
planet, and objects larger than that - ones big enough to
threaten the
entire planet - would get the highest rating of 10.
"What I hope the scale will accomplish is to put in
perspective whether
an object merits concern," Binzel said.
All asteroids discovered so far fall safely within the
"zero" part of
the scale. But when a new asteroid is discovered there can
be a brief period during which the uncertainties about its orbit
make a
future collision possible, and thus push the number - temporarily
at
least - up into the "1" range or beyond.
Last year's report about asteroid 1997 XF 11, for example,
included the
possibility that there could be an impact in a few decades. Brian
Marsden, the astronomer who runs the international clearinghouse
in
Cambridge where all newly discovered asteroids and comets are
first
reported, calculated that based on what was known at the time of
the
initial report, the likelihood of an impact was about 1 in
100,000 or
greater.
This estimate would have placed the object somewhere between
categories
"1" and "2" on the scale - described as
"events meriting concern." But
thanks to the widespread interest generated by that report,
within a
day old photographs had been found that proved that the chance of
impact was nil.
Similarly, another asteroid discovered early this year, 1999 AN
10, was
first reported to have a possibility of impacting Earth in 2044,
and
over a few weeks that probability kept increasing as new
observations
were made - enough to raise it to a category 1 - "events
meriting
careful monitoring." But then old pictures were found that,
once again,
proved that the chance of impact - at least for the next 70 years
or so
- was nil.
Benny Peiser, an anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores
University in
England who circulates a daily newsletter of information about
the
hazards from asteroids and comets, said in an interview yesterday
he
thinks every tool helps to explain a fairly complex problem, and
so
was glad to see the new scale offered to help convey some
information.
Nevertheless, he said, "as we've seen in the last 12 months,
things
change so rapidly and so unexpectedly that we might see some
limitations of the scale."
In the case of 1999 AN 10, he pointed out, the calculated
probability
of impact changed, over a period of a few weeks, from one
in a billion to about 1 in 100,000, before suddenly going to
zero.
Tracking those rapidly changing numbers might not have been any
easier
with the scale than without it, except perhaps by reassuring
people
that even with the increases the object was never more than a
"1."
This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 07/22/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
=======================
(8) NEW TORINO SCALE MEASURES ASTEROID THREAT
From EXPLOREZONE, 22 July 1999
http://explorezone.com/archives/99_07/22_torino_scale.htm
By Robert Roy Britt, explorezone.com 07.22.99
Earthquakes have their Richter Scale. Tornadoes have the Fujita
Scale,
and hurricanes fall into neat little categories. Now asteroids
have a
measurement system all their own, one that estimates the threat
of
impact.
In an attempt to help scientists, the media and the public assess
the
potential danger of asteroids and comets, an MIT professor
created a
scale, which runs from zero to 10, to gauge the risk of a
collision
with Earth.
The Torino Scale, as it is called, was adopted earlier this year
at a
conference in Turin, Italy. It is supported by the International
Astronomical Union and will be announced today.
Though the scale will likely raise public interest in asteroids,
at
least initially, its creator -- Richard P. Binzel, professor of
Earth,
atmospheric and planetary sciences at MIT -- hopes the risk
labeling
system will ultimately assuage concerns about potential impacts.
Binzel
likened the system to an advance form of Richter Scale
monitoring.
"If you tell a Californian that an earthquake registering
one on the
Richter scale was going to hit tomorrow, he would say, 'So
what?'"
Binzel said. "If you were talking about a six, that would be
different."
Many asteroid researchers applauded the new system, but one
skeptic
said the scale will have to prove itself useful by overcoming the
uncertainties of science.
"The Torino scale is a major advance in our ability to
explain the
hazard posed by a particular NEO," said Carl Pilcher,
science director
for solar system exploration in the NASA Office of Space Science
in
Washington, D.C. "If we ever find an object with a greater
value than
one, the scale will be an effective way to communicate the
resulting
risk."
The risk of impact
Asteroids and comets orbit the Sun in varying shaped loops that
can
take anywhere from a few years to several hundred years to
complete.
Their paths sometimes cross the orbital path of Earth, and in
some
instances a close brush on one orbit can alter the object's
trajectory
and set it on a possible future collision course with our home
planet
-- at speeds up to 100,000 mph.
Collectively, these objects that are close to us at some point
during
their orbit are known as Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs. Researchers
estimate that only a handful of all NEOs have been found, and
efforts
are underway in several countries to increase the pace of
discovery.
Though firm estimates are not possible, researchers expect there
may be
as many as 2,000 NEOs that are a half-mile wide or bigger, which
is
large enough to possibly cause a global catastrophe on impact.
Objects
this size are thought to strike Earth only every once every
100,000 or
1 million years. Smaller objects, capable of destroying whole
cities,
hit more frequently. Even tinier chunks of rock and metal,
capable of
localized damage, crash down as frequently as every 50 years or
so.
There may be hundreds of thousands of these smaller asteroids out
there, researchers estimate, though most will never threaten
Earth.
Questioning the scale's capabilities
One of the field's most vocal skeptics, Dr. Benny J. Peiser, said
the
Torino Scale can't overcome the scientific problems associated
with
uncertainty regarding the risk of asteroids. Peiser's research at
Liverpool John Moores University focuses on neo-catastrophism,
and he
runs an electronic newsletter than serves as a clearinghouse for
information and opinions about all things related to impact
hazards.
"Whether (the scale) will be beneficial or not has to be
seen when
applied to real cases of potential impactors," Peiser told
explorezone.com. "The experience of the last twelve months,
during
which three asteroids with a non-zero impact risk were
discovered,
would suggest that the scale might not always provide the clarity
many
now expect."
How it works
To assign risk, the Torino Scale takes into account an object's
path
and speed, and the likelihood that it will hit Earth on any of
its
future passes through the inner solar system. The scale uses
colors and
numbers to assign risk. Zero or one means virtually no chance of
impact or damage; 10 means certain catastrophe. [See the scale]
There are currently no asteroids listed in that final category.
In
fact, researchers say, none identified to date has a scale value
greater than one, in which the "chance of collision is
extremely
unlikely" but the object "merits careful
monitoring."
The Torino Scale -- the name is a popular, international
derivation of
the Italian town Turin -- has been in the works since 1995, when
an
earlier version was presented at a United Nations conference. A
revised
version was layed out at the June 1999 international conference
on
Near-Earth Objects in Turin, where scientists voted to adopt it.
The International Astronomical Union, which oversees much of the
data
on NEOs, will announce today official endorsement of the Torino
Scale
at a United Nations conference on the exploration and peaceful
uses of
outer space, held in Vienna, Austria. ez
Copyright 1999, Explorezone
===================
(9) SPACEDEV SELLS RIDE TO ASTEROID
From Jim Benson <jim@spacedev.com>
July 20, 1999 (Poway, California) - SpaceDev, Inc. (OTC-BB:
SPDV) has
made its first commercial sale of a payload ride to deep space on
its
planned Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) spacecraft.
The company
has signed a contract with Dojin Limited in Tyler, Texas, to
deliver a
package from Earth to near-Earth asteroid Nereus.
The NEAP mission is one of a series of missions SpaceDev is
defining as
part of its long-range strategy of conducting commercial
deep-space
missions. NEAP is planned to be injected on a trajectory to
the
near-Earth asteroid Nereus in January 2002 and should rendezvous
with
the small, 1-km diameter body approximately four months later to
conduct a variety of characterizations and observations using
remote
sensing instruments and ejectable surface instrument packages.
Dojin announced this week its Cosmic Voyage 2000 (CV2K) program,
which
makes it possible for people to become "digital
passengers" aboard the
NEAP vehicle by integrating their digital presence -- image,
identity,
personal messages, etc. - on a CD-ROM to be launched and
preserved in
space. Dojin states that a portion of the proceeds from the
CV2K
program will be donated to charity or help promote the
commercialization of space, as directed by each paying customer.
"SpaceDev offers package delivery rides from our commercial
price list
which defines a variety of services for NEAP, and we are pleased
to
have this concept validated. NASA delivered astronauts to the
moon
thirty years ago, and now commercial companies can deliver
packages to
other planetary bodies," said Jim Benson, Chairman and CEO
of SpaceDev.
The $200,000 contract calls for SpaceDev to integrate the
Dojin-supplied CD-ROM package into the NEAP vehicle and to
successfully
launch it into space. Dojin and SpaceDev are considering
augmenting
this contract with additional low-mass payloads.
"This contract validates one of the several revenue
producing
approaches we are offering on the NEAP project," said
Benson.
NEAP will be the first mission to deliver payloads - not
necessarily
science payloads - beyond Earth orbit using ordinary commercial
business practices. In addition to rides for payloads
attached to
NEAP, SpaceDev also offers to deliver ejectable instruments or
technology test packages to the surface of Nereus. SpaceDev also
intends to deliver complete science-quality data sets generated
by
SpaceDev-supplied instruments back to investigators and
researchers on
Earth. SpaceDev previously announced a letter of intent
with the
University of Arizona to provide two such instruments onboard
NEAP - a
multi-band camera and a neutron spectrometer.
"We at Dojin Limited (www.cosmicvoyage2000.com)
are extremely excited
about this unique opportunity and feel very fortunate to be the
first
commercial participant in SpaceDev's historic deep space science
mission," said Rick Barrett, Dojin spokesperson.
SpaceDev (www.spacedev.com),
a two-year-old, 70-person company based in
Poway, in northern San Diego County, is the world's first
commercial
space exploration and development company. Co-located in
new Poway
facilities are SpaceDev's corporate offices, its wholly owned
subsidiary Integrated Space Systems (www.spaceinc.com) and the
firm's
Space Missions Division. The company's other wholly owned
subsidiary,
Space Innovations, Limited (www.sil.com),
is in Newbury, England.
The Space Missions Division recently completed a study of
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===============
(10) CATASTROPHIC DRAINING OF HUGE LAKES TIED TO ANCIENT GLOBAL
COOLING
EVENT
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
Office of Public Relations
University of Colorado-Boulder
354 Willard Administrative Center
Campus Box 9
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0009
(303) 492-6431
Contact:
Don Barber, (303)-492-7641
John Andrews, (303) 492-5183
Jim Scott (303) 492-3114
July 21, 1999
CATASTROPHIC DRAINING OF HUGE LAKES TIED TO ANCIENT GLOBAL
COOLING
EVENT
The catastrophic draining of two gigantic glacial lakes in
Canada's
Hudson Bay region some 8,200 years ago appears to have caused the
most
abrupt, widespread cold spell on Earth during the last 10,000
years,
according to a group of scientists.
Don Barber, a geological sciences doctoral student at the
University of
Colorado at Boulder, said the lakes, Agassiz and Ojibway,
contained
more water than all of the Great Lakes combined. Barber and his
colleagues estimated that when an ice dam from a remnant of the
Laurentide Ice Sheet collapsed, the flow of lake water rushing
through
the Hudson Strait and into the Labrador Sea was about 15 times
greater
than the present discharge of the Amazon River.
The fresh water probably gushed into the Labrador Sea in the
North
Atlantic for about a year, reducing sea-surface salinity and
altering
ocean circulation patterns at the time, said Barber, also a
researcher
at CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Ocean
circulation models suggest massive influxes of freshwater can
disrupt
heat transport in currents flowing from the tropics to temperate
regions.
Ice core data taken by scientists in Greenland show temperatures
dropped by as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit in central Greenland
and by
nearly 6 degrees F in Western Europe following the catastrophic
lake
drainage. "This was the coldest climate event in the last
10,000
years," Barber said.
A paper on the subject by Barber, published in the July 22 issue
of
Nature, was co-authored by INSTAAR's John Andrews, Anne Jennings,
Mike
Kerwin and Mark Morehead. Other co-authors include John Southon
of the
Lawrence Livermore National Lab in Livermore, Calif., Art Dyke
and
Roger McNeely of the Geological Survey of Canada, Claude
Hillaire-Marcel and Guy Bilodeau of the University of Quebec and
Jean-Marc Gagnon of the Canadian Museum of Nature.
The surface currents of the Atlantic act much like conveyor
belts,
carrying salty, warm water from the tropics to the temperate
regions.
The water cools in the temperate North Atlantic, then becomes
dense
enough to sink and send heat into the atmosphere, said Barber.
Under normal conditions, winds blowing from the west across the
Atlantic send air warmed by the sea toward Western Europe, said
Barber.
About one-third of the heat that warms Western Europe is
delivered by
the ocean, while the other two-thirds comes from the sun, he
said.
Although southern Greenland and northern Canada are at about the
same
latitude as Sweden and Norway, Greenland is almost uninhabitable
because of its colder temperatures and lack of viable
agricultural land
for crops and livestock.
But if an enormous amount of freshwater is suddenly infused into
the
temperate Atlantic waters as it apparently was 8,200 years ago,
Western
Europeans could suffer severely. The Laurentide lakes drainage
seems to
have halted the sinking of surface waters in the Labrador Sea,
temporarily crippling the water conveyor belt and causing the
Western
European cold snap to last for about 200 to 400 years, according
to
ice-core data.
"If the scenarios of extreme global warming in the future
come true, it
could lead to significant melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and
create
more precipitation at high latitudes," said CU-Boulder
geological
sciences Professor John Andrews. "Adding very large amounts
of
freshwater to large rivers could conceivably close down the
vertical
circulation system in the North Atlantic, leading to another
extreme
cooling event."
Evidence for the catastrophic Laurentide lakes drainage comes
from "red
bed" sediments underlying the ancient glacial lakes that
were carried
some 800 miles through the Hudson Strait by the massive
freshwater
plume, said Barber. In addition, fossil clams from the Labrador
seabed
corresponding to the freshwater flood were radiocarbon-dated to
about
8,200 years ago.
In addition, oxygen isotopes from the shells of tiny,
plankton-like
organisms from the same age of sediments showed the creatures
lived in
less salty water about 8,200 years ago, indicating the Laurentide
lake
drainage made the Labrador Sea significantly fresher.
At its peak about 20,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet that
covered much of North America dipped down south as far as Ohio,
and the
ice is estimated to have been a mile deep at present-day Detroit,
said
Barber. At the time of glacial lake draining, the Laurentide Ice
Sheet
probably had retreated by about 80 percent.
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