Where to Watch NASA’s InSight Mars Lander Launch from the California Coast [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Where to Watch NASA’s InSight Mars Lander Launch from the California Coast [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

NASA’s next Mars mission will be the first Red Planet spacecraft to lift off from the West Coast. The InSight Mars lander is scheduled to launch on Saturday (May 5) at no earlier than 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT/1105 GMT). Here’s how you can watch it in person, or online at Space.com or other locations.

InSight will provide an interior snapshot of Mars to learn more about how rocky planets are formed. A heat probe will dig under the surface to look at the temperature of the interior. A seismometer will measure marsquakes and meteorite hits. In addition, a radio science instrument will transmit InSight’s position to Earth as the planet wobbles in its orbit around the sun. The wobble provides information about the composition and size of the Martian core.

InSight will touch down on Mars’ Elysium Planitia on Nov. 26, 2018, and take measurements for at least one Martian year, which is approximately two Earth years. But first, the mission will lift off from Earth aboard an Atlas V-401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex-3. The complex is 2.5 hours northwest of Los Angeles; the nearest urban area to Vandenberg is Lompoc, California. If the skies are clear, viewers should be able to see the InSight launch across the West Coast, from as far north as Bakersfield, California, to as far south as Rosarito, Mexico (a resort area just south of San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico). [In Pictures: NASA’s InSight Lander to Probe Heart of Mars]

“If you live in Southern California and the weather is right, you’ll probably have a better view of the launch than I will,” Tom Hoffman, project manager for NASA’s InSight mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. “I’ll be stuck inside a control room looking at monitors — which is not the best way to enjoy an Atlas V on its way to Mars.”

Where to watch in person

There will be no public access to Vandenberg, but NASA has two official sites from which the public can watch the launch along with NASA/InSight mission team members. There are also are several informal sites where you can gather with local residents to see InSight launch. The agency warns people to be careful of fog and cold in all viewing areas. 

“InSight is scheduled to launch in the pre-dawn hours, while it is still dark. Dress in layers and be careful while it is still dark. Dense fog is common during InSight’s launch window May 5 through June 8, 2018,” JPL stated on a web page explaining how to view the launch in person. InSight’s daily launch window lasts for 2 hours, until about 6:05 a.m. PDT (9:05 a.m. EDT/1305 GMT).

Lompoc City Airport will open its tarmac to the public no earlier than 2:30 a.m. PDT, with launch commentary starting at 3:30 a.m. PDT. The address is 1801 North H St., and the entrance to the airport is off O Street, near West Central Avenue. City officials will be available to talk with the public at this location.

Alternatively, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church will welcome visitors no earlier than 2:30 a.m. PDT, with launch commentary starting at 3:30 a.m. PDT. Its address is 2800 Harris Grade Rd., Lompoc.

If staying in Los Angeles or Southern California is a better option for you, JPL said the launch will likely be visible from there, based on a launch last year of the NROL-42 spy satellite. “The most recent previous nighttime launch of an Atlas V from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in September 2017, was bright enough and high enough in the western sky to be clearly visible from back yards, streets, hills and beaches throughout the Los Angeles area and much of Southern California,” JPL stated. [360-Degree View: In the Lab with NASA’s InSight Mars Lander]

JPL also listed several informal viewing sites:

• In the city of Lompoc, people often view launches from West Ocean Avenue, near Renwick Avenue. “This road is near the launch site, but closes at some point as you near the base. Many people pull off to a safe spot on the side of the road to watch,” NASA officials said on the website.
• Another possibility is a park at Providence Landing and Harris Grade (a mountain road) in the Lompoc area, which sometimes is high enough to avoid local fog.
• To the south of Lompoc, there are several beaches that may be open to the public, but NASA advises to check with the local beach to ensure it will be available for the launch. For example, Jalama Beach and Ocean Beach Park, which are next to Vandenberg, generally close for launches.
• A more faraway location is Figueroa Mountain in the Los Padres National Forest and West Camino Cielo Road, off Highway 154 at San Marcos Pass.
• Residents of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties may see the launch when the rocket goes overhead.

Here’s a handy Google map from NASA to see the Insight Mars launch viewing locations:

What to expect

JPL also published a video explaining what viewers can expect to see from a few of the more faraway locations from Vandenberg. “To a viewer on the ground, the rocket will appear as a bright speck moving quickly across the sky,” JPL wrote in a caption during animations of the rocket’s trajectory. (You can view the video to get a more exact idea about where to look during the launch.)

In Santa Barbara, JPL says rocket-watchers should face west, where they’ll see the rocket streaking into the sky from about the southwest. At Griffith Observatory in nearby downtown Los Angeles, the rocket will be visible in the northwest. Viewers can also view InSight from the San Diego Air & Space Museum, moving from the northwest to the south.

How to watch online

If you can’t make it to California, there are several ways to watch InSight fly online, too. Space.com will stream the launch and NASA commentary live from our home page. Alternatively, news briefings and launch commentary will be streamed on NASA TV and JPL’s live video feed. (An archive of the launch will also be available on these pages, in case you aren’t able to watch it live.) 

NASA Television viewers can also access the channel through digital C-band signals, carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation on satellite Galaxy-13. You will require a digital video broadcast compliant integrated receiver decoder to see the launch with this method. More technical details are available here.

Editor’s note: If you capture a stunning photo or video of NASA’s InSight Mars lander launch and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com. 

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Year to Abort: NASA Preps Orion Capsule for 2019 Ascent Abort-2 Test [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

How Would Humanity React If We Really Found Aliens? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

How Would Humanity React If We Really Found Aliens? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

If aliens reach out to us, what would happen first?

It’s a question that has puzzled science fiction fans and scientists alike for decades, and we already may have a hint of how people will react. On Oct. 30, 1938, a dramatized version of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel “War of the Worlds” played on the CBS Radio system across the United States. The story details how Martians attacked Earth. 

The radio broadcast caused a reaction when people mistook it for a real radio report, but accounts vary as to how much of a reaction. Some accounts describe nationwide panic, while others say not very many people actually listened to the broadcast. The promise of alien life stars in Episode 1 of “AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction,” which debuts on AMC tonight. Still, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) researcher Duncan Forgan told Space.com the “War of the Worlds” broadcast may be instructive to think about as SETI scientists worldwide update their “first contact” protocols. [E.T. Etiquette: How Should Humanity Interact with Alien Life?]

“If you pick the right science fiction — the hard science fiction — it’s placed in the best possible educated guesses about what will happen,” said Forgan, who is a research fellow at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He explained that “hard” science fiction refers to science fiction that emphasizes accuracy (think the 2015 movie “The Martian,” for example). 

If researchers find a signal today, Forgan said, one of the things they will have to manage is a public used to getting constant news updates on Twitter and other forms of social media. It’s something Forgan and his colleagues are already working on. The International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Committee created a post-detection protocol in 1989 that was slightly updated in 2010; a new update is starting soon and should be finished in a few years, Forgan said.

Scientific work

For the most part, scientists assume alien contact would happen through a signal purposely sent toward Earth. The “acid test” is to make sure the signal is verified by multiple observatories, said SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak. “It would take a while to verify, and then the people who like to think about these matters say you would have a press conference and announce this to the world,” he said, but he added that wouldn’t work unless everyone in the project were sworn to secrecy. In this era of news leaks, he said that situation is very unlikely to hold.

So, scientists try instead to stick to a protocol that includes informing the public. The 2010 IAA protocol only runs to two pages and covers facets such as searching for a signal, handling evidence and what to do in the case of a confirmed detection. 

If the evidence gets out to the public while the scientists are still analyzing the signal, Forgan said they could manage the public’s expectations by using something called the Rio Scale. It’s essentially a numeric value that represents the degree of likelihood that an alien contact is “real.” (Forgan added that the Rio Scale is also undergoing an update, and more should be coming out about it in May.)

If the aliens did arrive here, “first contact” protocols likely would be useless, because if they’re smart enough to show up physically, they could probably do anything else they like, according to Shostak. “Personally, I would leave town,” Shostak quipped. “I would get a rocket and get out of the way. I have no idea what they are here for.”

But there’s little need to worry. An “Independence Day” scenario of aliens blowing up important national buildings such as the White House is extremely unlikely, Forgan said, because interstellar travel is difficult. (This feeds into something called the Drake Equation, which considers where the aliens could be and helps show why we haven’t heard anything from them yet.) [The Father of SETI: Q&A with Astronomer Frank Drake]

Early SETI work

To find a signal, first we have to be listening for it. SETI “listening” is going on all over the world, and in fact, this has been happening for many decades. The first modern SETI experiment took place in 1960. Under Project Ozma, Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope (located at Green Bank, West Virginia) at two stars called Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. He scanned at a frequency astronomers nickname “the water hole,” which is close to the frequency of light that’s given off by hydrogen and hydroxyl (one hydrogen atom bonded to one oxygen). [13 Ways to Find Intelligent Aliens]

In 1977, The Ohio State University SETI’s program made international headlines after a project volunteer, Jerry Ehman, wrote, “Wow!” beside a strong signal a telescope there received. The Aug. 15, 1977, “Wow” signal was never repeated, however.

There have been many, many projects since then. As a taste: The SETI Institute was founded in 1984; while it may be the most famous of the SETI projects, there are many other independent SETIs at universities and institutions worldwide that have done work over the decades. One of the center’s major initiatives was Project Phoenix, which scanned nearby, sun-like stars. Currently, the SETI Institute, in collaboration with other institutes, is working on a concept called the Allen Telescope Array, which has dozens of radio dishes in northern California.

In 2015, the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking and many other researchers launched Breakthrough Listen, a project that will scan 1 million Milky Way stars and 100 nearby galaxies for extraterrestrial life.

Space-based SETI

While searches of alien messages aren’t ongoing in space, there have been efforts at communicating with any beings that may come across our spacecraft.

The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes flew by Jupiter (and in Pioneer 11’s case, Saturn) to eventually make their way out of the solar system. Before their launches in 1972 and 1973, respectively, a Pioneer plaque was mounted on board each spacecraft. It shows the form of the human body and where the Earth is located in the galaxy.

The twin Voyager probes launched in 1977 to examine the outer solar system. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2012, while Voyager 1 is still at the edge of the solar system. Each of the spacecraft includes two golden records with sounds recorded on Earth, ranging from whale calls to music to the word “hello” in many languages. The record also has diagrams of the human body and where our solar system is located.

Scientists also transmitted a radio message from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974. The so-called Arecibo Message includes such things as the numbers 1 through 10; the atomic numbers of elements such as hydrogen and oxygen; information about DNA; and diagrams of a human body, the Earth and our solar system.

In a related field, the study of exoplanets has accelerated in recent years with the Kepler mission, which has found more than 2,000 confirmed exoplanets alone, as well as other observatories on the ground and in space. Scientists are now trying to characterize which of these planets may be the most habitable. Atmospheric studies and more detailed looks at star activity will be some of the activities scientists undertake with future telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch in 2020.

This story was inspired by Episode 1 of “AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction,” which airs tonight at 10 p.m. EDT/PDT (9 p.m. CDT). A companion book is available on Amazon.com.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. 

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Blue Origin Launches New Shepard Space Capsule on Highest Test Flight Yet [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Nigella Lawson weight loss: TV cook used THIS diet trick to achieve incredible slim figure [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Nigella Lawson weight loss: TV cook used THIS diet trick to achieve incredible slim figure [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Nigella Lawson is as famous for her hearty meals as her voluptuous figure, and the cook has lost weight in recent months.

The 58 year old recently finished her book tour promoting her latest cookbook ‘At My Table’, where she shared her delicious recipes for steak slices, roquamole (Nigella’s take on guacamole) and quesadillas.

The mum-of-two does not comment on her diet and exercise routine but admits her weight regularly fluctuates.

Speaking to Good Housekeeping last year, she said: “It’s certainly true that my weight went up – that happens in life sometimes.

“I wouldn’t want a life where I lived on chia seed pudding, just as I wouldn’t want to live where I lived on eggs Benedict or steak and chips.”

The food writer has a healthy relationship with food and tends not to follow food trends.

“Also, you can guarantee that what people think will be good for you this year, they won’t next year.

“I love kale and I’m an avocado obsessive. But life is about balance, it’s not about being smug. You don’t eat things because you think they’re good for you.”

The author admitted in an interview with The Telegraph in 2015 that her double bunion removal operation had led her to lose weight suddenly.

“I couldn’t walk to the fridge afterwards, and, actually it’s quite a good diet.

“Not because I stopped eating but because you can say to someone, ‘Can you get me a slice of cake?’ but it’s kind of embarrassing to say, ‘And now could you get me a second slice?’

Since then, Nigella’s new lifestyle has seen the TV chef take up light exercise.

“I have never been on a diet to try to lose weight. I feel like I haven’t lost weight, but I’m possible in better shape. I am doing a rather slow form of yoga now called lyengar.”

Nigella is not the first TV chef who has picked a healthier lifestyle with Tom Kerridge, Gordon Ramsey and James Martin having successfully shed the pounds.

Tom Kerridge dropped a whopping 12st by going teetotal and cutting down on carbs.

The chef, who currently presents Top of the Shop with Tom Kerridge, has changed his mindset and switched to a healthier lifestyle.

Tom, 44, went from 30 stone to a current weight of 18 stone changing his eating habits and making swimming part of his daily routine.

He admitted he reached his larger weight due to his chef profession, Tom told The Sun.

“In our business it becomes an obsession to party, play hard, drink hard, eat rubbish food.

“You start drinking after the last bill’s been paid and then it will go right through until two or three in the morning. It’s a release from the pressures of working hard. But there’s a point where you get fed up.”

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https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/953105/Nigella-Lawson-weight-loss-secret Nigella Lawson weight loss: TV cook used THIS diet trick to achieve incredible slim figure

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Weight loss: Woman lost over SIX stone by making THIS easy change anyone can do [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Weight loss: Woman lost over SIX stone by making THIS easy change anyone can do [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Weight loss is never easy, but one woman certainly made it look like that in before and after photos posted on social media.

Her six stone weight loss and transition from overweight to slim and muscular is inspiring.

Photos show she has lost weight from every part of her body, including her arms, waist, face and torso.

Imgur user ak12, who also posts on Instagram as @commencefitness, posts a lot photos for those who want to lose weight.

Posting a before and after photo on Imgur last month, she explained how much her body had changed.

The photo was captioned: Before and after photo. 90 pounds lost, approx 4 years time frame.”

So how did she achieve the incredible weight loss transformation?

It is believed she changed up her exercise routine, switching cardio like running to weight lifting.

In the comments section below her post, she wrote that “more exercise” had helped her.

“More exercise and more nutritional knowledge was what helped me most.

“Incorporating more lifting and less cardio helped with fat loss.”

She also revealed that she had looked at her “macros” – which means she monitored her levels of food groups such as proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

“Macros also helped with nutrition-didn’t have to “diet” anymore.”

Chef Tom Kerridge’s weight loss journey saw him drop 12 stone in an incredible body transformation.

The Michelin-starred chef, who is married to Beth Kerridge, a sculptor, has achieved an incredible weight loss while in the public eye.

He had now shed an eye-watering 12 stone off his frame over the years, after changing his lifestyle for the better.

He went from 30 stone at his largest to a present weight of 18 stone, and now looks nothing like his formerly obese self.

Tom’s new programme, Top of the Shop, shows food producers test out their products on local customers. But what food did he cut out to lose the weight?

The chef previously revealed he reduced his intake of carbohydrates and cut out alcohol in order to achieve the drastic slimming.

He had reached his larger than life weight due to the pressures of his chef profession, Tom told The Sun.

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Jamie Oliver weight loss: Naked Chef dropped TWO stone ‘quickly’ by eating MORE [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Jamie Oliver weight loss: Naked Chef dropped TWO stone ‘quickly’ by eating MORE [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Jamie Oliver, 42, is a British celebrity chef who rose to fame with his BBC show The Naked Chef.

Today he appeared on Sunday Brunch alongside chefs Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy.

It is known Jamie achieved a weight loss of 27 pounds – almost two stone – in recent years.

So how did he do it? It is believed he changed his diet in order to lose weight.

He told This Morning presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in 2015 that he ate “more” than before.

“I lost 12 kilos quite quickly and I didn’t do it through not eating. I ate a lot, more than I was used to,” he said.

His weight loss strategy included swapping meat-heavy meals for an extra serving of vegetables.

He also exercised more regularly and got more sleep, which is known to help slimmers achieve their goals.

“I pushed meat down, pushed veggie up, got more sleep and more movement.”

In an interview with Radio Times, Jamie also admitted he had stopped drinking alcohol during week days.

“Your average Brit drinks booze. I’m not telling you what to do, but my rhythm now is only to drink at the weekend.

“It’s about a consciousness and knowing you’re doing something and being more mindful.”

While meat was a main protein source for Jamie before his weight loss, he switched in up with nuts.

A handful of nuts a day will qualify you for three extra years on the planet!

“And they make you half as likely to have a heart attack. Feed them to your kids as well.”

He also said he sometimes swapped meat for eggs in a meal, too.

“Eggs are great and you can have them every day. Just don’t go bonkers. Swap them for meat in a meal.”

Another chef who is an shining example to slimmers is Gordon Ramsay’s weight loss.

He slimmed down by changing up his breakfast menu. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said he ate: “Almond milk with Weetabix for breakfast. Smoothie with frozen berries, yogurts.”

In fact, Gordon credits cutting down on dairy as the key to his weight loss. He continued: “No milk. Just because it’s sluggish. Dropping milk and cheese has made a massive difference.”

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https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/952681/jamie-oliver-weight-loss-diet Jamie Oliver weight loss: Naked Chef dropped TWO stone ‘quickly’ by eating MORE

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Oily fish diet ‘can delay menopause for up to 3 years’ study reveals [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Oily fish diet ‘can delay menopause for up to 3 years’ study reveals [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

The average age for a woman in the UK to reach the menopause is 51, but for one in 100, it occurs before the age of 40.

Early onset menopause is linked with lower bone density, osteoporosis and increased risk of heart disease.

The team from the University of Leeds examined the links between diet and the onset of menopause in over 14,150 British women.

The results showed that a high intake of oily fish and fresh legumes such as peas and green beans, were associated with a later onset of menopause, while a high intake of refined white pasta and rice was associated with an earlier start.

The study, published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, used data from UK women between the ages of 40 and 65.

Along with a detailed diet questionnaire, they were quizzed on their reproductive history and health.

After a follow-up survey four years later, researchers were able to assess the diets of the women who had experienced the onset of menopause during that time.

By the time the follow-up survey was conducted, more than 900 women had started the menopause naturally – meaning it had not been triggered by other factors such as cancer, surgery or drug treatments.

An analysis of their diets showed those who ate a lot of oily fish, such as salmon and mackerel, started the menopause nearly three years later than those who did not.

In contrast, for women who ate a lot of refined white pasta and rice, the results showed that menopause was more likely to occur 1 1/2 years earlier than average.

The study’s co-author Professor Janet Cade said: “A clear understanding of how diet affects the start of natural menopause will be very beneficial to those who may already be at risk or have a family history of certain complications related to menopause.”

Study lead author Yashvee Dunneram said: “There are a number of causes that have been considered for the relationship between age and start of menopause, such as genetic factors or behavioural and environmental exposures.

“But there are fewer studies that look at the impact of diet.

“This study is the first to investigate the links between individual nutrients and a wide variety of food groups in a large cohort of British women.”

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[bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]Oily fish diet ‘can delay menopause for up to 3 years’ study reveals

Commercial Space Office Gets a Boost in FAA Reauthorization Bill [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

‘Jessica Jones’ Pilot Director in Talks for ‘Star Trek 4’: Report [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

‘Jessica Jones’ Pilot Director in Talks for ‘Star Trek 4’: Report [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

S.J. Clarkson is in talks to direct Paramount Pictures’ “Star Trek 4,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The studio reportedly wants a female director for the position.

J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have already completed the film’s script, according to the Hollywood trade. The movie would be seperate from Quentin Tarantino’s potential “Star Trek” movie, which reportedly will be a different timeline that the current movie series.

One potential stumbling block in a future “Star Trek” film with the current movie cast is that all of the principal actors are no longer under contract with the studio.

“Star Trek 4” was originally announced just days before “Star Trek Beyond’s” 2016 release, with a story of Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk crossing paths with dead father, played by the returning Chris Hemsworth.

No release date for “Star Trek 4” has been announced.

Originally published on Newsarama.

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Swiss Scientists Perform Massive Test of 80-Year-Old, ‘Spooky’ Quantum Paradox [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Swiss Scientists Perform Massive Test of 80-Year-Old, ‘Spooky’ Quantum Paradox [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

A team of Swiss scientists has performed a massive test of one of the strangest paradoxes in quantum mechanics, a huge example of the sort of behavior Albert Einstein skeptically called “spooky action at a distance.”

The story begins more than 80 years ago. Way back in 1935, Einstein and physicists Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen found something strange. They entangled two particles — let’s call them Alice and Bob — so that their physical properties were linked even across wide distances, and anything you did to one particle would impact the other. Intuitively, you’d think that if you had access to Alice, you’d know way more about her than you would about Bob, who’s a distance away. This is also what you’d expect given Einstein’s relativistic laws of physics at large scales. But the physicist trio discovered something odd, now called the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox: By studying Alice, you actually learn much more about Bob than you do about Alice.

Later experiments using individual particles proved the physicists correct on this point. But this new experiment, published today (April 26) in the journal Science, shows that the effect still occurs using even a clump of nearly 600 supercooled particles.

It’s not surprising, exactly, that a paradox originally framed in terms of two particles also occurs for clumps of hundreds of particles. The same physics at work in a very small system should also work in much larger systems. But scientists perform these ever-more-complex tests because they help confirm old theories and narrow down the ways in which those theories might be wrong. And they also demonstrate the capability of modern technology to put into action ideas that Einstein and his colleagues could think about only in abstract terms. [The Five States of Matter]

To pull off this experiment, the researchers cooled about 590 rubidium atoms (give or take 30 atoms) to the bleeding edge of absolute zero.

At that temperature, the atoms formed a state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate, which, as Live Science has previously reported, is a state of matter in which a large group of atoms become so entangled that they start to blur and overlap with one another; they begin to behave more like one large particle than lots of separate ones. Quantum physicists love to experiment with Bose-Einstein condensates because this kind of matter tends to demonstrate the weird physics of the quantum world at a large enough scale for the scientists to observe it directly.

In this experiment, they used high-resolution imaging to measure the spins of different chunks within the soup of rubidium atoms. The atoms in the condensate were so entangled that the physicists were able to predict the behavior of the second chunk by studying only the first. Both chunks of atoms, they showed, were so entangled that the behavior of the second chunk was in fact more knowable when only the first was observed, and vice versa.

The EPR paradox had come to life, on a relatively massive scale for the quantum world.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Gordon Ramsay weight loss: Chef lost four stone by eating THIS for breakfast [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Gordon Ramsay weight loss: Chef lost four stone by eating THIS for breakfast [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Gordon Ramsay, 51, weighed 18 stone in 2000 but has gone on to lost over four stone since then.

The famed chef and cookbook author now weighs just 13st 10lb, putting him in the healthy weight category according the NHS.

The dad-of-four regularly shares fitness updates with his four million Instagram followers, showing him skiing or undertaking triathlons.

So how has chef Ramsay lost the weight? He has discussed his diet and fitness regimes in the past.

And it seems Gordon was careful to start his day healthily to ensure diet success.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said he ate: “Almond milk with Weetabix for breakfast. Smoothie with frozen berries, yogurts.”

In fact, Gordon credits cutting down on dairy as the key to his weight loss.

He continued: “No milk. Just because it’s sluggish. Dropping milk and cheese has made a massive difference.”

Filling up on water was another trick he used to curb hunger pangs.

“Take a couple of glasses before you eat,” he recommended.

“It just stops you eating a third more. You feel better but eat less.”

But it isn’t also restrictive, and he admitted to enjoying post-gym treats like Dairy Milk to help him stick to his plan.

Fitness has been key for Gordon to achieve his sculpted physique, and he started competing in Ironman endurance events in 2012.

The competitions involve a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run.

Gordon worked with trainer Will Usher to help him get competition fit.

As one of the most successful chefs in the world, Gordon has a large fortune.

He was awarded the O.B.E in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List for services to the culinary arts.

But it is not just behind the scenes where the fiery chef has built a reputation.

He has starred and produced in a countless TV shows, including MasterChef, Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen.

But what is Gordon Ramsay’s net worth? The amount may surprise you.

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https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/951952/gordon-ramsay-weight-loss-diet Gordon Ramsay weight loss: Chef lost four stone by eating THIS for breakfast

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House Passes Commercial Space Regulatory Bill [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

House Passes Commercial Space Regulatory Bill [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives approved legislation April 24 that would reform commercial remote sensing regulation and create a licensing regime for “non-traditional” commercial space activities.

The House approved on a voice vote H.R. 2809, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, after about 25 minutes of debate on the House floor during which no members spoke in opposition to the bill.

The bill, which cleared the House Science Committee last June, is intended to both streamline the existing regulations for licensing of commercial remote sensing systems and provide a minimalistic licensing system for other commercial space activities not already regulated by other agencies in order to comply with the “authorization and continuing supervision” requirements of the Outer Space Treaty.

“Today we give space exploration a booster rocket in the form of H.R. 2809,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, said on the House floor. The bill, he claimed, removed uncertainty regarding who would regulate emerging commercial space applications, ranging from satellite servicing to lunar landers, that don’t clearly fall into areas already overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which today license launches, satellite communications and commercial remote sensing, respectively. [In Pictures: The Rockets and Spaceships of SpaceX]

“This uncertainty has cramped capital formation and innovation, and has driven American companies overseas,” he argued. “The Space Commerce Act remedies this situation by establishing a new, novel legal and policy framework that unleashes American free enterprise and business, assures conformity with Outer Space Treaty obligations and guarantees that the U.S. will lead the world in commercial space activities throughout the 21st century.”

The bill gives the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce  the authority to issue “certifications” for space objects not otherwise licensed by the FAA or the FCC. Companies would provide basic information about their spacecraft, including an attestation that it is not a weapon of mass destruction, and the office would have 90 days to review the application.

The bill also reforms commercial remote sensing regulations, moving licensing of those spacecraft from NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office to the Office of Space Commerce. It requires a 90-day review of license applications, versus the 120 days under current regulations, with automatic approval of applications should the office not make a determination at the end of that 90-day period.

While NOAA has, in recent years, worked to decrease the average commercial remote sensing licensing review time, companies have complained about long delays on individual applications and a lack of insight into the license review process, issues the bill seeks to address. The bill “ensures U.S. industry receives a timely and transparent determination on applications,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House space subcommittee.

Concerns about the ability of national security agencies to weigh in on remote sensing applications led to some changes in the bill after its markup last June. One provision added to the bill allows the president to extend the 90-day review period for such applications by 60 days “to further evaluate the national security implications of the application,” provided the president notifies relevant congressional committees. The bill allows for only one such 60-day extension.

“Since the markup, I was pleased to see additions to the bill which ensure the proper balance with the defense community to ensure the Department of Defense has the proper input into remote sensing applications,” said Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) during the debate on the House floor.

While the bill easily cleared the House, its future is less certain. The Senate has been working on its own commercial space bill, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate space subcommittee. That bill is not expected to be identical in scope or content to the House bill.

The National Space Council also approved a set of recommendations for commercial space regulation at its Feb. 21 meeting. While they include changes similar to that in the House bill, like consolidating regulation within the Office of Space Commerce and giving that office oversight of non-traditional commercial space activities, it also calls on the department to develop its own legislative proposal for enacting those changes.

“There are elements of the existing legislation on the Hill that the administration is supportive of,” said James Uthmeier, senior advisor to the Secretary of Commerce, during an April 3 meeting of NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing. “There are things with that proposed legislation that pretty much everybody in this room would admit needs some work.”

Some House members, while backing this bill, said they hoped to see changes in it should it works its way through the Senate. “There are several aspects of H.R. 2809 that deserve further discussion,” said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), ranking member of the space subcommittee. Those aspects, he said, include adequate reviews by government agencies of license applications and adherence to planetary protection guidelines by commercial ventures where relevant.

Bera and Perlmutter also wanted to review whether the Office of Space Commerce, which has only a few staff members, was the right home for the licensing authority granted in the bill. “I hope this discussion continues and we reach a consensus as we continue through the legislative process with the Senate,” Perlmutter said.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

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Softer Side of Space Science: Cotton Experiments Will Head to Orbit [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

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What Is the Fermi Paradox? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

What Is the Fermi Paradox? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

The Fermi Paradox seeks to answer the question of where the aliens are. Given that our star and Earth are part of a young planetary system compared to the rest of the universe — and that interstellar travel might be fairly easy to achieve — the theory says that Earth should have been visited by aliens already.

As the story goes, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, most famous for creating the first nuclear reactor, came up with the theory with a casual lunchtime remark in 1950. The implications, however, have had extraterrestrial researchers scratching their heads in the decades since.

“Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire galaxy,” the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California, said on its website. “Within ten million years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire. Ten million years may sound long, but in fact it’s quite short compared with the age of the galaxy, which is roughly ten thousand million years. Colonization of the Milky Way should be a quick exercise.”

Fermi reportedly made the initial remark, but he died in 1954. Publication fell to other people, such as Michael Hart, who wrote an article titled “An Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth” in the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) Quarterly Journal in 1975. (Some say this is the first such paper to explore the Fermi paradox, although this claim is a bit hard to prove.)

“We observe that no intelligent beings from outer space are now present on Earth,” Hart wrote in the abstract. “It is suggested that this fact can best be explained by the hypothesis that there are no other advanced civilizations in our galaxy.” He noted, however, that more research in biochemistry, planetary formation and atmospheres was needed to better narrow down the answer.

While Hart was more of the opinion that we were the only advanced civilization in the galaxy (he argued that in Earth’s history, somebody could have visited us already unless they started their journey less than two million years ago), he outlined four arguments exploring the paradox:

1) Aliens never came because of a physical difficulty “that makes space travel infeasible,” which could be related to astronomy, biology or engineering.

2) Aliens chose never to come to Earth.

3) Advanced civilizations arose too recently for aliens to reach us.

4) Aliens have visited Earth in the past, but we have not observed them.

The argument has been challenged on many grounds. “Maybe star travel is not feasible, or maybe nobody chooses to colonize the galaxy, or maybe we were visited long ago and the evidence is buried with the dinosaurs — but the idea has become entrenched in thinking about alien civilizations,” wrote Fermi paradox researcher Robert H. Gray in a 2016 Scientific American blog post.

Frank Tipler, a professor of physics at Tulane University, followed up on the argument in 1980 with a paper titled “Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist,” also published in the RAS Quarterly Journal. The bulk of his paper dealt with how to get resources for interstellar travel, which he suggested could be achieved by having some kind of self-replicating artificial intelligence moving from star system to star system and create copies using materials there. 

Since these beings aren’t on Earth, Tipler argued we are likely the only intelligence out there. He also said that those who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence are similar those who think about UFOs, because both camps believe “we are going to be saved from ourselves by some miraculous interstellar intervention.”

Today, the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence is a popular one, with several papers appearing every year from different researchers. It’s also been fueled by the discovery of exoplanets.

Plentiful planets

The universe is incredibly vast and old. One estimate says the universe spans 92 billion light-years in diameter (while growing faster and faster). Separate measurements indicate it is about 13.82 billion light-years old. At first blush, this would give alien civilizations plenty of time to propagate, but then they would have a cosmic distance barrier to cross before getting too far into space.

Fermi first formed his theory long before scientists found planets outside of our solar system. There are now more than 3,000 confirmed planets, with more being found frequently. The sheer number of planets that we have found outside of our solar system indicates that life could be plentiful.

Over time, with more advanced telescopes, scientists will be able to probe the chemical compositions of their atmospheres. The eventual goal is to understand how often rocky planets form in the habitable regions of their stars, which is traditionally defined as the zone in which water can exist on the surface. Habitability, however, isn’t just about water. Other factors must be considered, such as how active the star is, and what is the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

A November 2013 study using data from the Kepler Space Telescope suggested that one in five sun-like stars has an Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable region of its star. That zone is not necessarily an indication of life, as other factors, such as the planet’s atmosphere, come into play. Further, “life” could encompass anything from bacteria to starship-sailing extraterrestrials.

A few months later, Kepler scientists released a “planet bonanza” of 715 newly discovered worlds, pioneering a new technique called “verification by multiplicity.” The theory essentially postulates that a star that appears to have multiple objects crossing its face or tugging at it would have planets, as opposed to stars. (A multiple star system at such close proximity would destabilize over time, the technique postulates.) Using this will accelerate the pace of exoplanet discovery, NASA said in 2014.

Researchers previously focused on red dwarf stars as a possible host for habitable planets, but as the years of study continued, limitations arose. It was exciting to find nearby planets such as Proxima Centauri b and the seven rocky planets of TRAPPIST-1 in the regions of their stars where liquid water could exist on the planets’ surface. The trouble is, red dwarfs are volatile and could send several forms of life-killing radiation towards the surface. More study is required to better understand these stars.

More exoplanet-hunting spacecraft are coming online in the next few years. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched successfully in April 2018 to study nearby stars. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, expected to launch in 2020, will examine planets for the chemical makeup of their atmospheres. The European Space Agency’s PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is expected to launch in 2026. And larger ground-based observatories are also being envisioned, such as the European Extremely Large Telescope that should see first light around 2024.

Our understanding of astrobiology (life in the universe) is just at a beginning, however. One challenge is these exoplanets are so far away that it is next to impossible for us to send a probe out to look at them. Another obstacle is even within our own solar system, we haven’t eliminated all the possible locations for life. We know from looking at Earth that microbes can survive in extreme temperatures and environments, giving rise to theories that we could find microbe-like life on Mars, the icy Jovian moon Europa, or perhaps Saturn’s Enceladus or Titan.

All of this together means that even within our own Milky Way Galaxy — the equivalent of the cosmic neighborhood — there should be many Earth-size planets in habitable zones that could host life. But what are the odds of these worlds having starfarers in their bounds? [Countdown: 13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]

Life: plentiful, or rare?

The odds of intelligent life are estimated in the Drake Equation, which seeks to figure out the number of civilizations in the Milky Way that seek to communicate with each other. In the words of SETI, the equation (written as N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L) has the following variables:

N = The number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.

R* = The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.

fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.

ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.

fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.

fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.

fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.

L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

None of these values are known with any certainty right now, which makes predictions difficult for astrobiologists and extraterrestrial communicators alike.

There is another possibility that would dampen the search for radio signals or alien spacecraft, however: that there is no life in the universe besides our own. While SETI’s Frank Drake and others suggested there could be 10,000 civilizations seeking communications in the galaxy, a 2011 study later published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that Earth could be a rare bird among planets.

It took at least 3.5 billion years for intelligent life to evolve, the theory by Princeton University researchers David Spiegel and Edwin Turner said, which indicates it takes a lot of time and luck for this to happen.

Other explanations for the Fermi paradox include extraterrestrials “spying” on Earth, ignoring it altogether, visiting it before civilization arose, or visiting it in a way that we can’t detect.

Recent Fermi paradox discussion

While the Fermi Paradox question has baffled scientists for decades, there are some new insights that could help researchers better understand why aliens have been so hard to find.

In 2015, a study looked at the likelihood of a world evolving with a habitable environment, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Kepler Space Telescope. It suggests Earth was an early bloomer. Even though the study excluded intelligent life, the study suggests that our planet’s birth came very early in the universe’s history. When Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago, the study said, only “8 percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed.” In other words, most of the material available to form habitable planets is still around — giving lots of time for alien civilizations to form. 

Or perhaps life may be too fragile to survive for long. A 2016 study suggests that the early part of a rocky planet’s history can be very conducive to life, as life could emerge after about 500 million years after the planet cools down and water is available. However, after that point the planet’s climate could easily wipe life out. Look at Venus (which has a runaway greenhouse effect) or Mars (which lost most of its atmosphere to space). The study was led by Aditya Chopra, who was then with the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. 

In 2017, Space.com republished a RealClearScience article with 12 reasons why we cannot find aliens, ranging from intelligent life self-destructing to nobody being willing to transmit their whereabouts. 

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New Star Wars Animated Series Centered on Resistance Pilots Coming This Fall [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

New Star Wars Animated Series Centered on Resistance Pilots Coming This Fall [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

An “anime-inspired” Star Wars Resistance animated series will debut on the Disney Channel this fall. Set in the months before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Resistance will follow a newly-recruited Resistance pilot named Kazuda Xiono who is tasked to spy on the First Order.

“The idea for Star Wars Resistance came out of my interest in World War II aircraft and fighter pilots,” said Star Wars animation vet Dave Filoni, who created the show. “My grandfather was a pilot and my uncle flew and restored planes, so that’s been a big influence on me. There’s a long history of high-speed racing in Star Wars, and I think we’ve captured that sense of excitement in an anime-inspired style, which is something the entire team has been wanting to do for a long time.”

The voice actor behind Kazuda Xiono is unknown, however Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie plan to reprise their live-action roles of Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma, respectively, for this new animated series. Additional voice actors include Bobby Moynihan, Donald Faison, Christopher Sean, Suzie McGrath, Scott Lawrence, Myrna Velasco, Josh Brener, Jim Rash, and Rachel Butera.

Star Wars Resistance will premiere this fall on the Disney Channel, then segue to airing regularly on Disney XD.

Originally published on Newsarama.

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Scientists Peer Across the Universe and Find an Ancient Galactic Collision [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Liftoff! Europe’s Newest ‘Sentinel’ Satellite Will Study Earth’s Seas, Land and Air [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Liftoff! Europe’s Newest ‘Sentinel’ Satellite Will Study Earth’s Seas, Land and Air [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Europe’s Sentinel-3B Earth-observation satellite rode to orbit today atop a Rockot rocket, which lifted off from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 1:57 p.m. EDT. https://www.space.com/40408-earth-observation-satellite-launches-sentinel-3b.html Liftoff! Europe's Newest 'Sentinel' Satellite Will Study Earth's Seas, Land and Air

[bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]Liftoff! Europe’s Newest ‘Sentinel’ Satellite Will Study Earth’s Seas, Land and Air

Master Replicas Group Taps NASA Data to Shape ‘Space Terrains’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Canadian Space Agency: Facts & Information [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

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Tom Kerridge weight loss: Chef lost jaw dropping 12 STONE cutting out THIS fatty food [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Tom Kerridge weight loss: Chef lost jaw dropping 12 STONE cutting out THIS fatty food [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Tom Kerridge, 44, is an English professional chef who has appeared on programmes such as Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight For Good.

The Michelin-starred chef, who is married to Beth Kerridge, a sculptor, has achieved an incredible weight loss while in the public eye.

He had now shed an eye-watering 12 stone off his frame over the years, after changing his lifestyle for the better.

He went from 30 stone at his largest to a present weight of 18 stone, and now looks nothing like his formerly obese self.

Tom’s new programme, Top of the Shop, shows food producers test out their products on local customers. But what food did he cut out to lose the weight?

The chef previously revealed he reduced his intake of carbohydrates and cut out alcohol in order to achieve the drastic slimming.

He had reached his larger than life weight due to the pressures of his chef profession, Tom told The Sun.

“In our business it becomes an obsession to party, play hard, drink hard, eat rubbish food.

“You start drinking after the last bill’s been paid and then it will go right through until two or three in the morning.

“It’s a release from the pressures of working hard. But there’s a point where you get fed up.

“You think, ‘I’ve got to make a change’,” he added.

Tom previously told The Sunday Times that he was “mortified” by how he used to look.

He explained: “Say we live to 80. Well, I thought, I’m halfway there.

“And then, I thought … I’m not going to get there. If I’m like this, I’m not going to make it.”

Tom has also written number of diet books including recipe for slimmers: Tom Kerridge’s Dopamine Diet and Lose Weight For Good.

Another chef who has lost a substantial amount of weight through dieting is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s weight loss.

It is clear from photographs that Hugh – who is married to Marie Derome, his wife since 2001 – has gone from somewhat chubby to slimmed down and sleek in recent years.

But how has he transformed his body, so that he now looks a whole new man?

He has previously said he followed an intermittent fasting regime to lose eight pounds in less than a week.

This is a regime, also known as the Fast Diet or 5 2 Diet, whereby slimmers eat less on two days of the week.

Hugh initially piled on the pounds during a tricky Christmas period, he told Daily Mail in 2013.

“At the turn of the year, like so many, I consumed way too much meat, cheese, cream, sugar and alcohol.

“And despite a garden bursting with Brussel sprouts, kale and winter salads, and a weekly delivery of organic apples, oranges, clementines and bananas, I know I didn’t eat nearly enough fruit and veg to offset the gluttony.”

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How Would We Know If Intelligent Life Existed on Earth Before Humans? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

How Would We Know If Intelligent Life Existed on Earth Before Humans? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Reptilian menaces called Silurians evolved on Earth before humankind — at least in the “Doctor Who” rendition of the universe. But science fiction aside, how would we know if some advanced civilization existed on our home planet millions of years before brainy humans showed up?

This is a serious question, and serious scientists are speculating about what traces these potential predecessors might have left behind. And they’re calling this possibility the Silurian hypothesis.

When it comes to the hunt for advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that might exist across the cosmos, one must reckon with the knowledge that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. In contrast, complex life has existed on Earth’s surface for only about 400 million years, and humans have only developed industrial civilizations in the last 300 years. This raises the possibility that industrial civilizations might have been around long before human ones ever existed — not just around other stars, but even on Earth itself. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us]

“Now, I don’t believe an industrial civilization existed on Earth before our own — I don’t think there was a dinosaur civilization or a giant tree sloth civilization,” said study co-author Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester in New York. “But the question of what one would look like if it did [exist] is important. How do you know there hasn’t been one? The whole point of science is to ask a question and see where it leads. That’s the essence of what makes science so exciting.”

Artifacts of human or other industrial civilizations are unlikely to be found on a planet’s surface after about 4 million years, said Frank and study co-author Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. For instance, they noted that urban areas currently take up less than 1 percent of Earth’s surface, and that complex items, even from early human technology, are very rarely found.  A machine as complex as the Antikythera mechanism — which is considered to be the world’s first computer from ancient Greece — remained unknown until the development of elaborate clocks in RenaissanceEurope.

One may also find it difficult to unearth fossils of any beings who might have lived in industrial civilizations, the scientists added. The fraction of life that gets fossilized is always extremely small: Of all the many dinosaurs that ever lived, for example, only a few thousand nearly complete fossil specimens of the “terrible lizards” have been discovered. Given that the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens are only about 300,000 years old, there is no certainty that our species might even appear in the fossil record in the long run, they added. [In Images: The Oldest Fossils on Earth]

Instead, the researchers suggested looking for more subtle evidence of industrial civilizations in the geological records of Earth or other planets. The scientists focused on looking at the signs of civilization that humans might create during the Anthropocene, the geological age characterized by humans’ influence on the planet.

“After a few million years, any physical reminder of your civilization may be gone, so you have to look for sedimentary anomalies, things like different chemical balances that just look wacky,” Frank said.

One sign of industrial civilization may have to do with isotopes of elements such as carbon. (Isotopes of an element vary in how many neutrons they possess in their atomic nuclei — for example, carbon-12 has six neutrons, while carbon-13 has seven.)

For instance, humans living in industrial civilizations have burned an extraordinary amount of fossil fuels, releasing more than 500 billion tons of carbon from coal, oil and natural gas into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels ultimately derive from plant life, which preferentially absorb more of the lighter isotope carbon-12 than the heavier isotope carbon-13. When fossil fuels get burned, they alter the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 normally found in the atmosphere, ocean and soils — an effect that could later be detected in sediments as hints of an industrial civilization.

In addition, human industrial civilizations have also discovered ways to artificially “fix nitrogen” — that is, to break the powerful chemical bonds that hold nitrogen atoms together in pairs in the atmosphere, using the resulting single nitrogen atoms to create biologically useful molecules. The large-scale application of nitrogenous fertilizers generated via nitrogen fixing is already detectable in sediments remote from civilization, the scientists noted.

The Anthropocene is also triggering a mass extinction of a wide variety of species that’s likely visible in the fossil record. Human industrial activity may also prove to be visible in the geological record in the form of long-lived synthetic molecules from plastics and other products, or radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons.

One wild idea the Silurian hypothesis raises is that the end of one civilization could sow the seeds for another. Industrial civilizations may trigger dead zones in oceans, causing organic material (from the corpses of organisms in the zones) to get buried that could, down the line, become fossil fuels that could support a new industrial civilization. “You could end up seeing these cycles in the geological record,” Frank said.

All in all, thinking about the impact that a previous civilization has on Earth “could help us think about what effects one might see on other planets, or about what is happening now on Earth,” Frank said.

Schmidt and Frank detailed their findings online April 10 in a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal International Journal of Astrobiology.

Original article on Live Science.

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Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall weight loss: Chef lost half a stone in SIX days doing THIS [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall weight loss: Chef lost half a stone in SIX days doing THIS [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, 53, is a British celebrity chef best known for hosting the River Cottage television series.

Tonight his new series, Britain’s Fat Fight, starts on BBC One. But how did the chef lose weight himself?

It is clear from photographs that Hugh – who is married to Marie Derome, his wife since 2001 – has gone from somewhat chubby to slimmed down and sleek in recent years.

But how has he transformed his body, so that he now looks a whole new man?

He has previously said he followed an intermittent fasting regime to lose eight pounds in less than a week.

This is a regime, also known as the Fast Diet or 5 2 Diet, whereby slimmers eat less on two days of the week.

For instance, they eat normally for five days, but reduce their calories to 600 for a man (500 for a woman) on two days.

Hugh initially piled on the pounds during a tricky Christmas period, he told Daily Mail in 2013.

“At the turn of the year, like so many, I consumed way too much meat, cheese, cream, sugar and alcohol.

“And despite a garden bursting with brussel sprouts, kale and winter salads, and a weekly delivery of organic apples, oranges, clementines and bananas, I know I didn’t eat nearly enough fruit and veg to offset the gluttony.”

He found changing his body “exhilarating”, he told the publication.

“I’ve lost eight pounds already, and I find the whole thing rather exhilarating.

“I feel I might just be part of a health revolution,” he added.

On his new three part documentary, Britain’s Fat Fight, Hugh will be exploring Britain’s status at the most obese country in Western Europe.

He will investigate what is causing this obesity and the associated health problems.

Another celebrity chef who has lost a significant amount of weight is Gordon Ramsay’s weight loss.

Gordon Ramsay, 51, achieved a weight loss of more than four stone after tipping the scales at 18st in 2000.

The 6ft 2 British celebrity chef and author of Fit Food now weighs just 13st 10lb.

But how did Gordon lose the weight? He is said to have limited a common food group in order to do it.

Asked how he dropped the stones, he said: “No milk. Just because it’s sluggish.”

“Dropping milk and cheese has made a massive difference,” he said, speaking to the Daily Mail.

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You ‘Knead’ to See Garlic Bread Fly into the Stratosphere, Then Get Eaten! (Video) [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

You ‘Knead’ to See Garlic Bread Fly into the Stratosphere, Then Get Eaten! (Video) [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

This tasty stratosphere experiment really goes against the (whole) grain.

YouTube personality Tom Scott published a video Monday (April 23) in which a weather balloon rises 22.2 miles (35.8 kilometers) above Earth’s surface and parachutes down, carrying a half loaf of buttery, Parmesan-topped garlic bread. The full trip was filmed by a camera attached to the balloon contraption. “Loads of people have launched loads of things on balloons, usually as publicity stunts but … those objects haven’t been launched into space,” Scott said about his inspiration for the flight.

According to Scott, the balloon essentially does travel to the edge of space because “the atmosphere is so thin up there — about 1 percent of the pressure at ground level — that it’s close enough.” The Kármán line is the officially recognized boundary between Earth and space, and at 62 miles (100 km) from Earth’s surface, it is much higher than what Scott’s balloon traveled. Nevertheless, the footage is awesome. [Flying Pizzas in Space! Astronauts Get Creative with Cosmic Pie Creations]

One half of the garlic bread loaf (which was selected as a payload “because it’s delicious,” Scott said) stayed on Earth as a taste control for when the team finally bit into the sky-rising bread. The team collaborators include Steve Randall from Random Aerospace, whose contraption flew in the video, and Barry Lewis, of the “My Virgin Kitchen” YouTube channel, who baked the payload the team would later sink their teeth into.

To make sure nothing went “a-rye” as the bread fell back to Earth, Randall installed a spring system inside the open box that held the garlic bread payload. With GPS and an automatic device called a servomechanism, the box closed shut “a thousand meters [3,281 feet] above the ground,” according to Randall.

To learn more about the bread behind the experiment, visit Lewis’ YouTube page, where he tests different rolls for the job.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Proton: Russian Rocket Family [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Teaches Spaceflight Essentials in New MasterClass Series [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

A Google Street View Car Drove Right Through the Path of the 2017 Solar Eclipse [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Dark Photons Probably Don’t Exist, and If They Did, They’d Be Super Weird [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Dark Photons Probably Don’t Exist, and If They Did, They’d Be Super Weird [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

A new, ultraprecise measurement of a fundamental physical constant has so far found no hint of mysterious particles known as dark photons.

If they existed, these hypothetical shadowy twins of ordinary light particles would be one way to explain the presence of dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that emits no light yet exerts a gravitational pull.

But the most precise measurement yet of the fine structure constant — which determines how strongly electrons and photons interact, or “couple” — has eliminated the possibility of dark photons at a large range of masses and coupling strengths. If they did exist, they would have to be much heavier than previously predicted, scientists wrote in a new paper describing the work.

“Our measurement rules out these dark photons very strongly,” said University of California, Berkeley physicist Holger Müller, one of the co-authors of the new paper.

By mixing with regular photons, dark photons could theoretically be detected, because the mixing would have an effect on the fine structure constant. But in this new, exact measurement of the constant, evidence of the dark photon was nowhere to be found.

Measuring the fine structure constant

Physicists use the Standard Model, which describes the physics of subatomic particles such as electrons and photons, to predict the value of the fine structure constant. First, however, they need to know a physical property of the electron: its magnetic moment. Previous measurements of the constant have used indirect prediction by combining Standard Model predictions with experiments that measure this magnetic moment. The new study takes a more direct approach.

To do this, the researchers made a tiny “atomic fountain” of cesium atoms. Atoms were launched upward in a single stream and then were hit with lasers to force them into a quantum superposition, in which each cesium atom was in two places at the same time. This made two streams, paradoxically made of the same atoms. When the two streams of cesium atoms were recombined, the atoms interfered with themselves in just the right way for scientists to calculate the atoms’ velocity when they were hit by the photons in the laser. Because the speed reveals how much force these atoms were hit with, and thereby how strongly photons and electrons “couple,” the fine structure constant could be calculated to unparalleled precision, the researchers reported April 13 in the journal Science. [Strange Quarks and Muons, Oh My! Nature’s Tiniest Particles Dissected]

But what does this have to do with dark photons?

Dark photons

If the dark photon exists, it would be an electromagnetic force carrier, like the photon. But instead of working between charged particles of regular matter, like a photon does, the dark photon would enable electromagnetic interactions between particles of dark matter. [The World’s Most Beautiful Equations]

Dark photons don’t fit into the Standard Model. So, if they really exist, real-life measurements wouldn’t match up with predictions made by the Standard Model. Specifically, the direct measurement of the fine structure constant should differ from the previous values derived from indirect measurements andthe Standard Model, said Müller.

The new research did find a different value of the fine structure constant than the Standard Model predicts, which might suggest that dark photons exist. But there’s a catch.

The disagreement they found “is in the opposite direction of what you’d expect if the dark photon exists,” Müller told Live Science. “It’s disagreement, but it’s the wrong way.”

However, there’s still a narrow escape path, through which theoretical dark photons could escape the dustbin of discarded physics theories. The field of particle physics has a general standard for measuring the significance of results: Typically, a truly significant resultmust have less than a 1-in-3.5-million probability of being due to random chance, which is a “5-sigma” level of significance. In this case, the difference between this measurement and the previous most-precise measurement is only a “2.5-sigma” level of significance, or a 1-in-200 probability of being due to random chance — far too likelyto meet thestrong standard of the field.

“It’s too far off to call it agreement, but not far enough to call it significant disagreement,” Müller said, calling it “almost a gray area.”

But at this point, it may not matter. If the measurements agree, that severely limits the possibilities for dark photons. If the measurements disagree, the disagreement is in the wrong direction — and that, Müller said, is also powerful evidence against them.

“It’s like you think someone stole your money, and then when you look in your wallet, you find you have more money than you did before,” Müller said.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Space Industry Expresses Support for Bridenstine’s Confirmation as NASA Chief [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Space Industry Expresses Support for Bridenstine’s Confirmation as NASA Chief [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

WASHINGTON — NASA’s next administrator, Jim Bridenstine, was sworn into office April 23 as the space industry breathes a sigh of relief that his extended confirmation process is finally over.

NASA announced late April 20 that Bridenstine would be sworn in as NASA’s 13th administrator in an April 23 ceremony at NASA Headquarters. Vice President Mike Pence officiated the proceedings, and the two will also spoke with the three NASA astronauts currently on the International Space Station.

Bridenstine was confirmed by the Senate on a party-line 50–49 vote April 19, more than seven and a half months after the administration nominated him to the position. The vote, which came only after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) decided to end his opposition to the nomination because of the impending retirement of Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, ended the most contentious confirmation process in the agency’s nearly 60-year history. [Presidential Visions for Space Exploration: From Ike to Trump]

That long-awaited confirmation has been warmly received by companies and industry groups who had supported Bridenstine’s nomination, in large part because of his track record in Congress. Bridenstine, first elected to the House as a Republican from Oklahoma in 2012, quickly became a leading figure in space policy through such legislative efforts as the American Space Renaissance Act.

“Bridenstine has been a champion of civil, commercial and military space policy during his time in Congress,” said Jim Maser, president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in an April 19 statement. “AIAA looks forward to supporting him in his new role as we strive to maintain our nation’s leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery.”

“Bridenstine is one of a growing group in Congress that fully appreciates the importance of space commerce and space resources to the human future,” said Bruce Pittman, senior vice president of the National Space Society, a space advocacy group, in a statement. “We look forward with great anticipation to working with Administrator Bridenstine to lead America back to the moon and to develop a thriving economy in space.”

Both established and entrepreneurial sectors of the space industry said they were pleased Bridenstine was confirmed. “The Coalition and its member companies stand ready to support Administrator Bridenstine as we take the next steps in the exploration of deep space, returning to the moon and going on to Mars,” said Mary Lynne Dittmar, president and chief executive of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, a group that represents companies involved in NASA’s human space exploration programs.

“Since he was elected to Congress, Rep. Bridenstine has been a constant champion and advocate for the space industry,” said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “His knowledge and passion for space, science and technology will serve him well in the position of administrator.”

Other advocacy groups also weighed in. “We look forward to working with him to explore space, advance space science and search for life on other worlds,” said Bill Nye, chief executive of The Planetary Society. Nye attended the State of the Union address Jan. 30 as the guest of Bridenstine.

“The Mars Society offers you its full support in any effort you make to give the American people a purpose-driven space program that is really going somewhere,” said Robert Zubrin, president of The Mars Society.

While Bridenstine has won support from much of the space industry, others criticized his confirmation as NASA administrator. Those critics include those who are worried about Bridenstine’s views on climate change, views that Bridenstine said at his November confirmation hearing have changed over time.

“Scientific integrity matters at NASA. I hope the new administrator begins to listen to career employees rather than engage in political grandstanding,” said RL Miller, political director of Climate Hawks Vote, a climate change advocacy group, after Bridenstine was confirmed. “I hope he doesn’t follow through on his bill, written as a member of Congress, to end NASA’s Earth science research.”

That comment appears to be a reference to language in one version of his American Space Renaissance Act that would amend the objectives of NASA in federal law to no longer explicitly include the “expansion of human knowledge of the Earth.” As administrator, Bridenstine would not have the ability to unilaterally end Earth science research at the agency.

Democratic senators, who voted as a bloc against Bridenstine, also expressed concern about Bridenstine’s experience and positions on science issues. “While this nomination is problematic due to Congressman Bridenstine’s lack of relevant qualifications and the importance of this position to our nation, I am deeply concerned that his nomination is further evidence of a deeper problem,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a speech on the Senate floor prior to the April 19 vote. “I am concerned that this Administration does not respect science, especially science in government institutions.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said that Bridenstine was unqualified to run the agency, expressing particular concern over his judgement in his role to provide “final launch authority” for a mission. “Remember the part in the astronaut movie when the unqualified former member of Congress running NASA saves the day by making the right decision regarding a launch? Me neither,” he tweeted as the Senate voted to confirm Bridenstine.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was one of the strongest critics of Bridenstine’s nomination because of his qualifications. In comments on the Senate floor April 18, he reiterated his opposition to Bridenstine, but also took a more conciliatory tone.

“I hold nothing against him personally. He’s a very likable fellow. My decision is not politically motivated,” he said, adding that he backed the nomination of Jeff DeWit as NASA’s chief financial officer in March. “And, of course, if Congressman Bridenstine is, in fact, confirmed, I will work with him for the good of our nation’s space program.”

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

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What Is Earth’s Average Temperature? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

What Is Earth’s Average Temperature? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Earth is the only planet we know of that can support life. The planet is not too close or too far away from the sun. It lies in a “Goldilocks zone” that is just right — not too hot, not too cold.

The distance from Earth to the sun is one of the most important factors in making Earth habitable. The next closest planet to the sun, Venus, for example, is the hottest planet in the solar system. Temperatures there reach more than 750 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius), while the average temperature on Mars is minus 80 F (minus 60 C).

Earth’s atmosphere also plays a vital role in regulating the temperature by providing a blanket of gases that not only protects us from excessive heat and harmful radiation from the sun, but also traps heat rising from the Earth’s interior, keeping us warm.

Open to interpretation

Absolute estimates of the global average temperature are difficult to compile. Global temperature data comes from thousands of observation stations around the world, but in some regions, such as deserts and mountaintops, stations are rare. Also, different groups, analyzing the same data, use different methods for calculating the global average. These differences in methodology sometimes produce slightly different results.

Data from the observation stations are compared to historical data from a long-term period (and different groups use different time spans). The differences in temperatures, called anomalies, are plotted on a grid. Some grids may be empty because there were no observations recorded. Gaps in data are treated differently by different groups.

For example, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) assumes that temperature anomalies are about the same up to about 1,200 kilometers from a station. That way, they can estimate temperatures using a smaller number of stations, especially in the polar regions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on the other hand, fills in fewer of the gaps, and produces a more conservative estimate.

The NOAA tracks anomalies relative to temperatures between 1901 and 2000. According to the NOAA’s data, anomalies calculated for 2017 were 1.5 degrees F (0.83 C) higher than the average temperatures for all the years in the 20th century.

GISS measures the change in global surface temperatures relative to average temperatures from 1951 to 1980. GISS data show global average temperatures in 2017 rose 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) above the 1951-1980 mean. According to GISS, the global mean surface air temperature for that period was estimated to be 57 F (14 C). That would put the planet’s average surface temperature in 2017 at 58.62 F (14.9 C).

Temperature extremes

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the coldest place on Earth is Vostok Station in Antarctica, where it reached minus 128.6 F (minus 89.2 C) on July 21, 1983. The coldest inhabited place is Oymyakon, Russia, a small village in Siberia, where it dips down to an average of minus 49 F (minus 45 C) and once hit a low of minus 96.16 F (minus 71 C).

Which location holds the record as the hottest place on Earth is a matter of some contention. El Azizia, Libya, held the top hot spot for 90 years. Temperatures allegedly climbed to 136.4 F (58 C) on Sept. 13, 1922. But the World Meteorological Organization stripped the town southwest of Tripoli of that distinction in 2012. A committee of climate experts from nine countries concluded that the temperature had been documented in error by an inexperienced observer.

So the “new” hottest place on Earth is Greenland Ranch (Furnace Creek) in Death Valley, Calif., where it reached 134 F (56.7 C) on July 10, 1913. But even that distinction depends on what is being measured. Death Valley’s record is for the highest air temperature. A higher surface temperature of 159.3 F (70.7 C) was recorded by a Landsat satellite in 2004 and 2005 in the Lut Desert in Iran.

Highest and lowest temperatures by continent

Continent	Temperature	Date	Location
North America	High: 134 F (56.7 C)	July 10, 1913	Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, Calif.
	Low: -81.4 F (-63 C)	Feb. 3, 1947	Snag, Yukon Territory, Canada
South America	High: 120 F (48.9 C)	Dec. 11, 1905	Rivadavia, Argentina
	Low: -27 F (-32.8 C)	June 1, 1907	Sarmiento, Argentina
Europe	High: 118.4 F (48 C)	July 10, 1977	Athens and Elefsina, Greece
	Low: -72.6 F (-58.1 C)	Dec. 31, 1978	Ust ‘Schugor, Russia
Asia	High: 129.2 F (54 C)	June 21, 1942	Tirat Zevi, Israel
	Low: -90 F (-67.8 C)	1) Feb. 5, 1892 2) Feb. 6, 1933	1) Verkhoyansk, Russia 2) Oymyakon, Russia
Africa	High: 131 F (55 C)	July 7, 1931	Kebili, Tunisia
	Low: -11 F (-23.9 C)	Feb. 11, 1935	Ifrane, Morocco
Australia	High: 123 F (50.7 C)	Jan. 2, 1960	Oodnadatta, South Australia
	Low: -9.4 F (-23 C)	July 21, 1983	Charlotte Pass, New South Wales
Antarctica	High: 67.6 F (19.8 C)	Jan. 30, 1982	Signy Research Station, Antarctica
	Low: -129 F (-89.2 C)	July 21, 1983	Vostok Station, Antarctica

Source: World Meteorological Organization

Rising temps, rising seas

There is considerable uncertainty about how warm Earth will get in the coming decades, as climate change is complex. It depends on a variety of factors, including how quickly the ice melts in the Arctic and Antarctic, how the ocean will respond to warmer temperatures, and how the atmosphere will shift wind directions. Even little changes in solar activity affect Earth’s temperature — but climate change is by far the more pressing problem.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says average surface temperatures on Earth rose 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit (0.95 degrees Celsius) between 1880 and 2016, and that change is accelerating in recent years. In 2017, 159 nations ratified the Paris Agreement to try to halt the warming at 2.7 degrees F (1.5 degrees C) above Earth’s average temperature before the Industrial Age. Given industry’s and transportation’s reliance on fossil fuels, many studies say that agreement will be difficult to keep to.

For example, a 2017 study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters suggests that Earth’s climate will be 1.5 degrees higher as early as 2026. This would happen if the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) fluctuates back to a warm period, instead of its current cool period. (IPO changes similarly to El Niño and La Niña in the Pacific).

In early 2018, the U.S. National Academies released a report called “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space.” The report focused on the importance of satellite observations in gaining information about Earth’s climate in the coming years. Some of its suggestions include observatories that can help with forecasting air quality and weather, and others that can look at metrics such as biodiversity change, extreme weather and the ocean’s ability to store heat. [10 Climate Change Myths Busted]

— Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howell, Space.com contributor

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Space Calendar 2018: Launches, Sky Events & More [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Space Calendar 2018: Launches, Sky Events & More [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

LAST UPDATED April 23: These dates are subject to change, and will be updated throughout the year as firmer dates arise. Please DO NOT schedule travel based on a date you see here. Launch dates collected from NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, Spaceflight Now and others. 

Watch NASA webcasts and other live launch coverage on our Watch Live page, and see our night sky webcasts here. (You can also watch NASA TV live via nasa.gov or YouTube.)

Find out what’s up in the night sky this month with our visible planets guide and skywatching forecast. Spot the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites in the sky above with this satellite tracker. 

April

April 25: A Eurockot Rockot vehicle will launch with the Sentinel 3B Earth observation satellite for the European Space Agency and the European Commission from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia.  

April 25: NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold will host an in-flight educational event at the International Space Station with the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Coral Gables, Florida. NASA TV will air the discussion live at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT).

April 26: A Chinese Long March 11 rocket will launch several Zhuhai 1 Earth-observing satellites from Jiuquan, China. 

Also slated to launch in April (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Rocket Lab Electron rocket will launch on its third flight, titled “It’s Business Time,” from the Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island. The launch window opens at 8:30 p.m. EDT on April 19 and closes at 12:30 a.m. EDT on April 20 (0030-0430 GMT on April 20). 

May

May 2: SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft (CRS-14) will depart the International Space Station at 10:33 a.m. EDT (1433 GMT) and return to Earth. NASA TV will provide live coverage of the Dragon’s departure beginning at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). [Watch Live] 

May 4: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida with the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite at 4:00-6:25 p.m. EDT (2000-2225 GMT). 

May 5: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch NASA’s InSight Mars lander from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT).

May 6: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak early in the morning (before dawn) on Sunday, May 6. Meteors from this shower will be visible from mid-April to the end of May. 

May 6: A Chinese Long March 3B rocket will launch the Apstar 6C communications satellite from Xichang, China.

May 15: Two Expedition 56 crewmembers will take a 6.5-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station. 

May 19: NASA will launch its GRACE-FO (Follow-On) mission to track Earth’s gravty and water movement. It is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the Iridium Next 51-55 commercial satellite launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 at 4:03 p.m. EDT (2003 GMT).

May 20: An Orbital ATK Antares rocket will launch a Cygnus cargo spacecraft (OA-9) to the International Space Station from Wallops Island, Virginia.

May 24: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SES 12 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

May 25: Arianespace will use an Ariane 5 ECA rocket to launch the Azerspace 2/Intelsat 38 and GSAT 11 communications satellites from Kourou, French Guiana at 4:41-5:55 p.m. EDT (2041-2155 GMT). 

Also slated to launch in May (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Chinese Long March 4C rocket will launch a relay satellite toward the Earth-moon L2 Lagrange point to enable communications between Earth and the Chang’e 4 lunar lander and rover on the far side of the moon. Two Chinese microsatellites will launch with the Chang’e 4 relay mission to conduct astronomical observations from deep space. 

June

June 1: Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will reach the asteroid Ryugu, where it will attempt to collect a sample and return it to Earth in 2020. 

June 3: NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Norishege Kanai will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station and land in Kazakhstan after spending nearly six months in space.

June 6: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the crewed Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with members of the Expedition 56/57 crew: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopev. 

June 11: A Japanese H-2A rocket will launch an Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) with a radar reconnaissance payload from the Tanegashima Space Center. The 2-hour launch window opens at 12 p.m. EDT (0400 GMT).

June 13: An air-launched Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket will send NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite into orbit from Kwajalein, Marshall Islands. 

June 21: Summer solstice. In the nothern hemisphere, this is the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. In the southern hemisphere, June 21 is the winter solstice, or the first day of winter, and the shortest day of the year. 

June 28: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon cargo spacecraft (CRS-15) from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT). 

Also slated to launch in June (from Spaceflight Now):

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Telstar 19V communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 
• India‘s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 3 (GSLV Mk.3) will launch the GSAT 29 communications satellite from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. 
• A Chinese Long March 3A rocket will launch the Fengyun 2H geostationary weather satellite from Xichang, China. 
• A Chinese Long March 2C rocket will launch the Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS 1) from Taiyuan, China.  

July

July 10: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 70th Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

July 13: A partial solar eclipse will be visible from southern Australia, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. [Solar Eclipse Guide 2018: When, Where & How to See Them]

July 25: Arianespace will use an Ariane 5 ES rocket to launch four Galileo satellites for Europe’s Galileo navigation constellation. The rocket will launch from Kourou, French Guiana.

July 27/28: A total lunar eclipse, also known as a “blood moon,” will be visible from Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and Antarctica. [Lunar Eclipse 2018 Guide: When, Where & How to See It]

July 29/30: The southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower will peak overnight on Sunday, July 29 into the early morning hours of Monday, July 30. Meteors from this shower will be visible from mid-July to the end of August.

July 31: A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will launch NASA’s Parker Solar Probe from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4:15-6:15 a.m. EDT (0815-1015 GMT).

Also slated to launch in July (from Spaceflight Now):

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch Spaceflight’s SSO-A rideshare mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 
• A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program-2 mission sometime during Q3 (July-Sept.). 

August

Aug. 11: A partial solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Europe, Asia, Canada, Greenland, the Atlantic and the Arctic. [Solar Eclipse Guide 2018: When, Where & How to See Them]

Aug. 13: The Perseid meteor shower will peak before dawn in the early morning hours of Monday, Aug. 13.

Aug. 16: A Japanese H-2B rocket will launch the seventh H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-7) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The uncrewed cargo vehicle will deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station.

Aug. 21: An Arianespace Vega rocket will launch from Kourou, French Guiana with the European Space Agency’s Aeolus wind-mapping satellite. 

Aug. 27: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch Boeing’s first CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on an unpiloted Orbital Test Flight to the International Space Station. The capsule will dock with the space station, then return to Earth to landing in the Western United States after an orbital shakedown cruise ahead of a two-person Crew Test Flight (which could happen in 2019).

Also slated to launch in August (from Spaceflight Now):

• SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station. 
• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 Iridium Next satellites (66-75) from Vandenberg Air Foce Base in California. 

September

Sept. 12: A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket will launch NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite to measure ice sheet elevation and ice sheet thickness changes linked to climate change, along with measurements of Earth’s vegetation biomass. It will lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 8:46-11:20 a.m. EDT (1246-1520 GMT).

Sept. 14: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the crewed Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with members of the Expedition 57/58 crew: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Nikolay Tikhonov. 

Sept. 18/19: An Arianespace Soyuz rocket will launch the European Space Agency’s MetOp C polar-orbiting weather satellite from the Guiana Space Center in Sinnamary, French Guiana at 8:46 p.m. EDT (0046 GMT on Sept. 19). 

Sept. 26: A United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket will launch a classified spy satellite (NROL-71) for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Also slated to launch in September (from Spaceflight Now):

• A Chinese Long March 2C rocket will launch the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) from Jiuquan, China. 
• An Arianespace Vega rocket will launch with the Aeolus satellite for the European Space Agency. ADM-Aeolus will be the first ever satellite to deliver wind profiles on a global scale and on a daily basis.
• A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket will launch the U.S. Air Force’s first third-generation navigation satellite for the Global Positioning System (GPS 3-01).

October

Oct. 5:Arianespace will use an Ariane 5 ECA rocket to launch the BepiColombo mission for the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. BepiColombo will begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.

Oct. 9: The Draconid meter shower will peak before dawn on Tuesday, Oct. 9.

Oct. 11: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 71st Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. 

Oct. 18: The U.S. military will launch its fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket provided by the United Launch Alliance. It will launch from pad SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

Also slated to launch in October (from Spaceflight Now):

• India will launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. 

November

Nov. 1: A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket will launch the 10th Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft, formerly known as the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite. 

Nov. 10: An Orbital ATK Antares rocket will launch a Cygnus cargo spacecraft from Wallops Island, Virginia for a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. 

Nov. 15: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch a crewed Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with members of the next Expedition crew. 

Nov. 16: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a Dragon cargo spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida for a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. 

Also slated to launch in November (from Spaceflight Now):

• An Arianespace Vega rocket will launch the Italian space agency’s PRISMA satellite from Kourou, French Guiana. 

Also coming in 2018…

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Telkom 4 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 
• A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the Arabsat 6A communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A. 
• A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 Iridium Next satellites (56-65) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  
• A Chinese Long March 3B rocket will launch the Chang’e 4 mission to attempt the first robotic landing on the far side of the moon. 
• A Chinese Long March 5 rocket will launch the Chang’e 5 mission to return samples from the moon. It will be the first lunar sample return mission attempted since 1976.
• A Chinese Long March 2C rocket will launch the China-France Oceanography Satellite, or CFOSat from Jiuquan, China. CFOSat will study ocean surface winds and waves. 

Please send any corrections, updates or suggested calendar additions to hweitering@space.com. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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https://www.space.com/32286-space-calendar.html Space Calendar 2018: Launches, Sky Events & More

[bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]Space Calendar 2018: Launches, Sky Events & More