NASA Space Assets Detect Ocean Inside Saturn Moon

Gravity measurements by NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network suggest that Saturn's moon Enceladus, which has jets of water vapor and ice gushing from its south pole, also harbors a large interior ocean beneath an ice shell, as this illustration depicts. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

April 03, 2014

NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence #Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes.

Researchers theorized the presence of an interior reservoir of water in 2005 when Cassini discovered water vapor and ice spewing from vents near the moon's south pole. The new data provide the first geophysical measurements of the internal structure of Enceladus, consistent with the existence of a hidden ocean inside the moon. Findings from the gravity measurements are in the Friday, April 4 edition of the journal Science.

"The way we deduce gravity variations is a concept in physics called the Doppler Effect, the same principle used with a speed-measuring radar gun," said Sami Asmar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a coauthor of the paper. "As the spacecraft flies by Enceladus, its velocity is perturbed by an amount that depends on variations in the gravity field that we're trying to measure. We see the change in velocity as a change in radio frequency, received at our ground stations here all the way across the solar system."

The gravity measurements suggest a large, possibly regional, ocean about 6 miles (10 kilometers) deep, beneath an ice shell about 19 to 25 miles (30 to 40 kilometers) thick. The subsurface ocean evidence supports the inclusion of Enceladus among the most likely places in our solar system to host microbial life. Before Cassini reached Saturn in July 2004, no version of that short list included this icy moon, barely 300 miles (500 kilometers) in diameter.

"This then provides one possible story to explain why water is gushing out of these fractures we see at the south pole," said David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, one of the paper's co-authors.

Cassini has flown near Enceladus 19 times. Three flybys, from 2010 to 2012, yielded precise trajectory measurements. The gravitational tug of a planetary body, such as Enceladus, alters a spacecraft's flight path. Variations in the gravity field, such as those caused by mountains on the surface or differences in underground composition, can be detected as changes in the spacecraft's velocity, measured from Earth.

The technique of analyzing a radio signal between Cassini and the Deep Space Network can detect changes in velocity as small as less than one foot per hour (90 microns per second). With this precision, the flyby data yielded evidence of a zone inside the southern end of the moon with higher density than other portions of the interior.

The south pole area has a surface depression that causes a dip in the local tug of gravity. However, the magnitude of the dip is less than expected given the size of the depression, leading researchers to conclude the depression's effect is partially offset by a high-density feature in the region, beneath the surface.

"The Cassini gravity measurements show a negative gravity anomaly at the south pole that however is not as large as expected from the deep depression detected by the onboard camera," said the paper's lead author, Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome. "Hence the conclusion that there must be a denser material at depth that compensates the missing mass: very likely liquid water, which is seven percent denser than ice. The magnitude of the anomaly gave us the size of the water reservoir."

There is no certainty the subsurface ocean supplies the water plume spraying out of surface fractures near the south pole of Enceladus, however, scientists reason it is a real possibility. The fractures may lead down to a part of the moon that is tidally heated by the moon's repeated flexing, as it follows an eccentric orbit around Saturn.

Much of the excitement about the Cassini mission's discovery of the Enceladus water plume stems from the possibility that it originates from a wet environment that could be a favorable environment for microbial life.

"Material from Enceladus' south polar jets contains salty water and organic molecules, the basic chemical ingredients for life," said Linda Spilker, Cassini's project scientist at JPL. "Their discovery expanded our view of the 'habitable zone' within our solar system and in planetary systems of other stars. This new validation that an ocean of water underlies the jets furthers understanding about this intriguing environment."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Cassini, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini  and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Obama Ties with Putin as Leader

EPA/ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/RIA NOVOSTI/KREMLIN POOL

A new Quinnipiac University national poll released today shows that the American public is divided whether President Barack Obama or Russian president Vladimir Putin is the stronger leader.

“It’s a tossup on who is a tougher leader President Barack Obama or President Vladimir Putin, as Americans weigh the heavyweight standoff over Ukraine,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll that conducts research in several states, in a release.

The poll—which surveyed 1,578 registered U.S. voters nationwide between March 26 to 31—gave Obama low marks for his handling of foreign policy issues, with 55 percent saying they disapproved and 39 percent saying they approved of his actions. Particularly regarding the situation in the Ukraine, 47 percent of Americans disapproved of Obama’s actions while 41 percent supported him.

In an Economist/YouGov poll last month of 1,000 adults, three out of four Americans said Putin is a strong leader, but less than half regarded Obama as one.

Approximately 80 percent of those surveyed in the new Quinnipiac poll said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” that the Ukraine situation could lead to a larger crisis that would require U.S. military action, the poll noted.

On the economic front, the poll found that most Americans (55 percent) still oppose the President’s signature health care law, known as Obamacare. Roughly 58 percent of those surveyed said they don’t approve of Obama’s handling of health care while 39 percent supported him.

This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.

Color Explosion

click on image above to view in lightbox

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena." But to us, it's everything. The place where we live, love, work and play. The place where we are born and where we die. From space, Earth is big, blue and beautiful; fragile and inspiring. It's the only planet we've ever been to, and the only home we've ever known. 

This image, captured by the Landsat-8 satellite, shows the view over Western Australia on May 12, 2013. The image shows rich sediment and nutrient patterns in a tropical estuary area and complex patterns and conditions in vegetated areas. 

The image is enhanced and involved masking, separately enhancing and then reassembling water and land portions of the image. The water patterns are the result of an RGB display of Landsat-8’s red, blue, and ultra-blue bands. Land is shown using short-wavelength-infrared, near-infrared and green. 

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NASA/USGS Landsat; Geoscience Australia. Source: Landsat gallery.

Harmone Disrupting Chemicals - in Colorado River

The Colorado River flows through the town of Rifle in Garfield County, Colorado. Photo (taken 1972) by David Hiser, courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Flickr/Creative Commons.

This week, more evidence came in that hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) poses potentially serious risks to drinking water quality and human health.

A team of researchers from the University of Missouri found evidence of hormone-disrupting activity in water located near fracking sites – including samples taken from the Colorado River near a dense drilling region of western Colorado.

The Colorado River is a source of drinking water for more than 30 million people.

The peer-reviewed study was published this week in the journal Endocrinology.

Fracking is the controversial process of blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure so as to fracture rock and release the oil and gas it holds. It has made previously inaccessible fossil fuel reserves economical to tap, and drilling operations have spread rapidly across the country.

The University of Missouri team found that 11 chemicals commonly used in the fracking process are “endocrine disrupters” – compounds that can affect the human #hormonal system and have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and infertility.

“More than 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process, and many of them disturb hormone function,” said Dr. Susan Nagel, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and women’s health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and a co-author of the study, in a news release.

“With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure.”

The research team collected samples from ground water and surface water from sites in Garfield County, Colorado, where fracking fluids had accidentally spilled, as well as from the nearby Colorado River, into which local streams and groundwater drain. They also took samples from other areas of Garfield County where little drilling has taken place, as well as from a county in Missouri where there had been no drilling at all.

They found that the samples from the spill site had moderate-to-high levels of #endocrine-disrupting activity, and the Colorado River samples had moderate levels.  The other two samples, taken from areas with little or no drilling activity, showed low levels of endocrine-disrupting activity.

The new findings add urgency to calls for moratoriums on fracking until the risks have been fully assessed and regulations and monitoring put in place to safeguard water supplies and public health.

Due to the so-called “Halliburton loophole,” the oil and gas industry is exempt from important requirements under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and states have been slow to fill the regulatory gap.

Colorado, in particular, should exercise the utmost caution.

According to a report by Ceres, a Boston-based non-profit organization that educates investors about corporate environmental risks, 92 percent of Colorado’s shale gas and oil wells are located in “extremely high” water stress regions, defined as areas in which cities, industries and farms are already using 80 percent or more of available water.

Adding contamination risks to the high volume of water fracking wells require – typically 4-6 million gallons per well – argues strongly for a precautionary approach to future development and a pause in existing production until the full range of environmental health risks can be assessed.

But Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has sais the state will sue any city that bans fracking within its borders.  Indeed, in July 2012, the statesued the front-range town of Longmont, which had issued such a ban.

A statement about the new findings of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in waters near fracking sites issued by Concerned Health Professionals of New York, and posted, concludes with this warning:

“These results, which are based on validated cell cultures, demonstrate that public health concerns about fracking are well-founded and extend to our hormone systems. The stakes could not be higher. Exposure to #EDCs has been variously linked to breast cancer, infertility, birth defects, and learning disabilities. Scientists have identified no safe threshold of exposure for EDCs, especially for pregnant women, infants, and children.”

And environmental health expert Sandra Steingraber writes in a letter posted at the same site:

“[I]t seems to me, the ethical response on the part of the environmental health community is to reissue a call that many have made already:  hit the pause button via a national moratorium on high volume, horizontal drilling and fracking and commence a comprehensive Health Impact Assessment with full public participation.”

The world's last Sumatran Rhinoceroses died - devastating blow

One of the world's last Sumatran rhinoceroses died Sunday at the Cincinnati Zoo, marking a "devastating blow" to her rapidly dwindling species, zoo officials said.

Suci, as she was known, hailed from the rarest of all rhino species. The Sumatran Rhino numbers no more than a hundred animals in the wild, almost all of them on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra, and is possibly the most endangered large mammal on Earth.

Loss of habitat due to logging and palm oil agriculture, as well as poaching for its horn for use in traditional Asian medicines, have led to the animal's demise.

The Cincinnati Zoo was the first facility to successfully breed the critically endangered species in captivity. The zoo has been working with Indonesian organizations for 25 years in its efforts to bring the species back from the edge of extinction. 

After the death of Suci at age 10, only nine Sumatran rhinos are left in captivity worldwide. Sumatran rhinos in captivity live an average of 35 to 40 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund. 

The zoo had been treating Suci for hemochromatosis-a genetic disease that causes too much iron to accumulate in the body-for several months, but her condition rapidly deteriorated over the weekend. Suci's mother, Emi, died from the same illness in 2009.

"Suci was a symbol of hope for her entire species, one that is quickly losing ground in the wild, and her absence will leave a great hole in our hearts," said Terri Roth, director of the zoo's Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife.

"The international community has a great challenge on its hands," she said. "If we don't act quickly, and boldly, the loss of this magnificent animal will be among the great tragedies of our time."

"This Is How Extinction Happens"

National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, who had photographed the 10-year-old animal since she was a baby, called the news "heartbreaking."

"This is how extinction happens," he said. "The animal is down to so few that each loss is so devastating.

"The Cincinnati Zoo has done a fantastic job with keeping this species going with little to work with in terms of number of animals," said Sartore, who shot the above photo.

He said that Suci's death shows that "you can't protect the animals from everything."

The photographer remembers Suci as a "charming animal" that was docile and good-natured.

"As long as the food held out," he said, "she was there for you."

The King of Planets

As springtime winds begin to blow, a giant celestial kite sets sail, riding high in the night sky. For sky-watchers, another delightful week is ahead for observing the heavens, with the moon waxing after an early absence and taking a starring role in the celestial encounters ahead.

Springtime kite. With the moon missing for most of the night on Monday, March 31, sky-watchers can track down the distinctive constellation Bootes, the Herdsman, and its red giant star.

A good stargazing trick that will aid observers in finding this bright constellation is to start off at the Big Dipper, now high in the northeastern sky in the late evenings. Appearing to hang upside down, the handle of the Big Dipper offers up three stars that point in an imaginary line down toward the horizon. Follow the line until you hit the next brightest star. Voila, you have found Arcturus, the brightest star of Bootes (see sky map below).

While the remaining five stars that make up the kite shape are quite faint to the naked eye, Arcturus will knock your eyes out.

This sky chart shows the early evening sky looking toward the northeast, where the Big Dipper handle points directly toward Arcturus, the lead star in the constellation Bootes.

That’s because Arcturus is one of the closest stars to us at 37.5 light-years away. It is also considered the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky, and is a real giant at some 20 million miles (32,186,880 kilometers) wide—25 times wider than our sun. If our puny sun were replaced by this behemoth, the outer edge of the star would reach as far as the orbit of Mars, and Earth would be swallowed up by its atmosphere.

Moon and the Bull. After nightfall on Wednesday, April 2, look for the thin crescent moon hanging below the gems of the constellation Taurus, the Bull, low in the western sky.

Nearly straight above the moon is the jewel-like star cluster known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. To the naked eye, the 400 light-year-distant, deep-sky treasure trove resembles a fuzzy group of stars. But binoculars and small telescopes bring into the Pleiades stunning focus.

Meanwhile, to the upper left of the moon will be the orange-hued, dying stellar giant Aldebaran, and the distinctively V-shaped Hyades star cluster.

Hyades eclipse. By the next evening, Thursday, April 3, the waxing crescent moon will slide in front of the Hyades cluster. The moon will appear to sit just to the lower right of 65 light-year-distant Aldebaran, which marks the left top of the V-shaped Hyades. Aldebaran may look like part of the cluster, but in reality it is about half as far away as the cluster members are. On Monday, lucky sky-watchers in much of North America will glimpse (through their backyard telescopes) up to three of the Hyades’ fainter members as they are eclipsed, or occulted, by the moon when its unlit portion passes in front of them.

Moon and Jupiter. For those who love planet-watching, Jupiter is easy to find on Saturday, April 6, thanks to the silvery moon pointing the way in the southwestern evening sky. The pair together will make for a spectacular sky sight, even with unaided eyes from brightly lit urban locations.

This sky chart shows Jupiter and the moon together in the constellation Gemini on the evening of April 6.

A near quarter-moon pays a visit to Jupiter, passing only 5 degrees south of the king of planets. Don’t forget to point your binoculars at Jupiter and watch its four largest moons beside it. Even the smallest of telescopes will reveal dark cloud belts and the Great Red Spot, a Jovian hurricane three times the size of Earth.

Cesar Chavez Day - Civil Right Activist

Cesar Chavez was an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. (later United Farm Workers  Union).

The following is a compilation of American federal holidays, federal observances, state holidays and other common patriotic and national observances and commemorations that apply to the United States during Monday, 2014-03-31: 

Cesar Chavez Day is an official state holiday in the U.S. states of California, Colorado and Texas. The day is commemorated to promote service to the community in honor of Cesar Chavez's life and work. Many, but not all, state government offices, community colleges, and libraries are closed. Many public schools in the state are also closed. It is an optional holiday in Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Texas Legal reference: Senate Bill 107, 76th Legislature Regular Session. Chapter 521 Approved June 18, 1999 and Effective September 1, 1999.  

This is a State Holiday in the State of California.

This is a Legal Holiday in the State of California.

This is a State Holiday in the State of Texas.State offices are scheduled to be open on partial staffing holidays and optional holidays. Please call ahead to confirm hours. Offices will not be closed on another day when designated holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday. An employee is entitled to observe optional holidays in lieu of any partial staffing holiday on which state offices are required to be open to conduct public business.