The most recent lunar eclipse on 20 January 2019 included the sighting of a meteor crashing into the disk of the full moon. The flash of the purported crash was captured by Jose Maria Madiedo, a Spanish astronomer who filmed the eclipse. After he reported it others verified a similar sighting.
On June 18, 1178 a similar sight was seen on a crescent moon. That event was recorded by Gervase of Canterbury, “the upper horn of the new moon seemed to split in two and a flame shot from it. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals, and sparks.” The description has been thought to have been the creation of the crater Giordano-Bruno. But that crater is estimated to be at least a million years old. The event seen by the monks is now thought to have been an earthly meteor that happened to be juxtaposed over the moon as it flashed through the sky.
In both these instances an “on-the-moon” survey would answer the question. In either case viewing the moon is a worthwhile past time in summer or winter.
As interesting as these events are, an important aspect of the history of science is caught in the web of the craters of the moon. Giordano-Bruno was an outspoken Italian philosopher in the second half of the 1500s. He was a proponent of an infinite universe (1584) which was at odds with the teaching of the powerful universities and church movements of the time. For his trouble to shake the minds of the youth into new paths of thought he was burned at the stake on February 17, 1600.
In December of last year Science News reported on the discovery of
a crater under the ice in Greenland. It is thought to have been caused by a meteorite
nearly a mile wide. It was discovered during a scan of the thickness of the ice
in the polar regions. The researchers were drawn to look more closely at the
area due to the rounded edge of the ice over the crater.
In 2001 I was taking a commercial flight from California to the
east coast. As I often do I took out the airline magazine from the seat back pocket
and looked at the map of all the airline’s routes. As my trip took me via
Dallas, I realized that the route would take us over Winslow, Arizona. This meant
we might be flying over America’s most accessible meteor crater. I asked the
flight attendant if she would ask the pilot to let us know if the crater could
be seen from the airplane. About half an hour later the pilot announced that if
we were to look out the windows on the right side of the plane we could see the
crater.
There far below us with a clearly raised edge was an obvious
crater in the Arizona desert. It was by no means tiny even at our perspective
from thirty-some thousand feet. It was roundish, with a particularly squared-off
shape. You could clearly see that it was a depression in the Earth.
Years before I had been there to see the crater, and had taken the
opportunity to walk down to the crater’s floor. In 1971 I was driving to
California for a stint in the Navy. My route west took me along I-40 which passes
the Meteor Crater. I needed a break from the highway, and I was curious about
what the crater looked like. It was summer, and it was hot. When I entered the
visitors’ center and was purchasing a ticket the man at the counter asked if I
was in the military and when I showed him my military ID card he waved me on
through. I asked him if I could hike down into the crater. He said that if I
wanted to I would have to hurry because it was at least an hour’s hike down and
back. As I walked towards the door to the outside he called out to me, “Take
plenty of water. And look out for snakes.” Good advice to a down-east boy on
his first trip to the desert. The path was over a quarter mile long and rocky
and steep. When I finally reached the bottom, I stood on the crater floor and
looked up at the rim towering 500 feet above me. It had been windy and hot when
I stood on the rim. On the crater floor there was no wind, and it was hotter. I
don’t remember as much of the hike down into the crater as much as I remember the
hike back out. I didn’t see any snakes, but I kept thinking that I should have
carried more water. The path up was a scramble in the loose sand and rocks that
easily gave way under my feet. When I reached the rim, I was hot, tired, and thirsty.
But it was a good hike – if only that I could say that I had done
it. It’s not something they allow visitors to do anymore and probably with good
reason. The crater can be a trap. It was simple to get down into it, but not so
easy to get out of.
At over a half mile wide the Arizona crater is impressive in size
but it doesn’t even crack the top ten of known impact craters on the surface of
the earth. But most of the known craters are not as visible or accessible as
the one in Arizona. They are hidden by millennia of erosion or they may be under
water. The largest known impact crater is Vredefort crater
in South Africa. It is 118 miles across and was created by an impacting celestial
body that was approximately 3 to 6 miles across approximately 2 billion years
ago. This crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater which is theorized to have been the finishing blow to the
reign of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The recently discovered but
undated crater under the Greenland ice sheet is 19 miles wide. Another crater
in Greenland reported in 2012 in Space.com is estimated to be three billion
years old and the oldest known impact site on Earth.
But back to Arizona. In the early 1900’s attempts were made to
find the meteorite that crashed in to what is now the Painted Desert of Arizona.
The object is estimated to have been up to 300,000 tons. The mass of the meteor
and its speed likely caused the meteor to vaporize in its explosive impact. When
you are on the rim of the crater its not hard to look up and imagine what the
object might have looked like as it streaked across the sky and then exploded
just before impact, carving out the crater. Soil and plants and rocks and
rubble were heaved upward and outwards.
In 1994 I was again standing on the rim of the Arizona crater. I could
look up and imagine the bright light that suddenly appeared in the sky and with
a thunderous roar exploded in front of me. Of course if I had been standing there
50,000-some years ago I would have been vaporized as well. What is a safe distance
from such a blast? Miles and miles I am sure. And even if I was at such a
distance to only feel the earth tremble and to see the blinding flash on the
horizon and to have been knocked to my knees by the pressure wave from the
explosion, I am sure that it would have left a searing mark on my memory. The
mark I carry now is one of looking up from the crater floor towards the rim and
realizing that the best path for me to take was upward and out before the night
fell. And I was wishing I had brought more water.
Information on the craters mentioned above may be found at:
“The world is changed.” – opening narrative, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”
The international kilogram mass, or Le Grand K, will no longer the world’s standard. There will no longer be a physical object protected from human touch and wayward air currents under triple bell jars. Now the standard mass for the kilogram will be defined as something ethereal.
I think the first time I heard about “Le Grand K I was in 3rd grade. An article in my Weekly Reader spoke of a weight stored in a vault outside of Paris. I was fascinated! Since the time I was small, I had seen weights used on scales at feed stores and general stores in old rural North Carolina. They were handled by hardy men and women as they talked about the weather and their families. They moved them onto and off the scale-balance with careless ease as they weighted out feed or flour or nails. But this weight in Paris was completely different. This was a piece of metal that had been carefully made and even more carefully protected. It defined, for all other weights in the world, what a true kilogram actually was. It was handled not with bare, sweaty hands but only with gloved hands. It was covered in a glass bell jar. That bell jar was covered by another, larger glass bell jar. And that bell jar was covered by a larger, third bell jar. Le Grand K did not hang on a nail on the wall next to the scale. It was in a vault, kept behind closed and locked doors.
But over the years corrosion and dust and decay have affected the weight of this world standard. There had to be a better way. So now, all these years later, the old metal standard is just a museum piece. Perhaps if I wander far enough I may find it in a flea market in some distant corner of Europe. It is now detritus of a past age.
There is no longer a physical presence of a defining
Kilogram. There is no more tactile experience of grasping the bell jar and
lifting it away, being careful not to hit the precious mass. There is no more grasping
the mass with gloved hands or padded tongs and feeling the weight of that mass pulling
against bone and sinew and muscle of the hand and arm. Now it is ghostly. Now
there is an ethereal determination of the pull of something that we cannot
readily see as we would the weight.
The device now used to determine the mass of the test
object measures electricity. For the test object, the question, “How much does
this weigh?” is answered in a vacuum with the soft vibrations of electrical current
and the resistance and magnetism of a conductor. There are two forces to be measured.
The first is a measurement of value of an applied electrical current in a
conductive coil in a Watt-Balance. The second is a measurement of induced voltage
in the coil while moving through a stationary magnetic field.
Each of the measurements can be converted into the units of power (watts) by a known and proven mathematical formula, hence the name of the device, the Watt-Balance. The mass to be measured is placed in a pan which pulls down against the stiffness of a conductive, metal coil. A current is applied to the coil. This current stiffens the coil until the upward force in the coil balances the downward pull of the mass being measured. The value of the current required to balance the mass is recorded. The current is then turned off, the subject mass is removed, and the coil is now tested. The coil, a conductor of electric current, is passed through a magnetic field of known strength at carefully controlled, constant velocity. The value of the induced voltage in the coil is recorded. Based on the values of the measured current from the first stage and the value of the induced voltage from the second stage, two mathematical equations can be compared. Through this process the mass of the item being measured can be established with an extremely high degree of accuracy.
On Tuesday January 15, 2019 the China News Agency, Xinhua, reported that the Chnag’e-4 experiment of growing plants on the moon had ended. Seeds of cotton, rape seed, and potato cuttings as well as eggs of the fruit fly had been carried to the moon in the recent landing of Chang’e-4. They were part of an experiment to see if terrestrial plants could be coaxed to grow in an enclosed and protected environment on the surface of the moon. The experiment was enclosed in a heated canister. Sunlight to stimulate plant growth was directed into the canister through a tube. Cameras were included in the canister to record the plant growth. Within days of the landing on the far side of the moon, the world was excited to learn that one of the cotton seeds had sprouted and its small stalk was the first plant to be cultivated on the moon’s surface. However, it was the only plant in the experiment to germinate and grow. The plant did not fully develop. Now that the lunar night, during which the dark side will not receive sunlight, has begun in the current phase of the moon, the experiment has been terminated.
Have you ever seen the Chesapeake Bay? If not, you need to. It is the
largest of the several major salt water estuaries on the east coast of the United
States. Others include Narraganset Bay in Rhode Island, and the Pamlico Sound
in North Carolina. If you take out a map of the United Sates and look at the
east coast, these estuaries look like large lakes attached to the Atlantic
Ocean. This is of course what makes an estuary an estuary. There is a continual
water exchange between the ocean and the bay or sound. The lower reaches of the
bay or sound are tidal as is the ocean. And the upper reaches of these bodies
of water may show some tidal rise and fall, but the rise and fall of water on
the shoreline is just as often due to wind. However, looking at these waters on
such a large-scale map is not the best to way to view them. You need to get up close.
When you look at the Pamlico sound closely you can see that it is fed by
rivers that flow from the inland areas of North Carolina and Virginia. The
Trent River, the Neuse River, the Tar River, the Pamlico River originate far up-state
and pass through towns and farms as the deliver water to the Sound. This is an
important aspect of all estuaries. Even though they are salty and brackish from
their exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean, and even though they support
fishes that travel back and forth from the ocean in their life-cycle, their
sources of water are the streams, and creeks, and rivers that flow down from
areas deep inland. The streams that flow into each of these rivers, together
with the land they drain, are the river’s watershed. The Chesapeake Bay is fed
by several major rivers. They include the Potomac flowing through Virginia and
Maryland, the Susquehanna whose watershed is in Pennsylvania and New York and
Maryland, the Patuxent in Maryland, the Choptank through Delaware and Maryland,
and the Rappahannock River and the James River in Virginia. Again, these rivers
flow through towns and farms and in the case of the Chesapeake though major
urban and industrial areas.
These watersheds not only carry water to their estuary from the land, but
they also carry pollutants. The land that is drained by the streams and rivers
of the watershed is the source of the pollution. The pollution, whether debris
from erosion or chemical pollutants, degrade the productivity of the estuary. The
estuaries have a major role in the success of the fishing industries that
depend on their waters for the fish and crabs they harvest. The estuaries
provide a habitat for the life-cycle of some of our favorite sea-foods. But
don’t look at the center of the bay or sound for this, look at the edges. Get
up close to the seagrass beds and the marshes that line the banks of the
estuaries – or use to line the banks of the estuaries. In these shallow waters that
you can wade into, tiny crabs and fish hide and grow until they are ready to
move out into deeper waters of the estuary.
It’s the clarity of the water that is important. The clarity allows for
the development and success of seagrass beds. These seagrasses which use to
thrive in vast meadows in the Chesapeake Bay collapsed in the 1950s through the
1970s. These fields of underwater grasses which grew near the shore were the
home to many of the creatures on the lower end of the food chain and the
nursery for the important recreational and cash fisheries that the Bay
supported at one time. The much loved Chesapeake Blue Crab and the famed striped
bass (rock fish) started their lives here. Without these beds of seagrass the
fisheries were disappearing. What caused the grasses to disappear? Uncontrolled
development. Development on the share of the Chesapeake but also and more
importantly development throughout the watersheds that fed the Chesapeake. From
the lawns and farms that were fertilized and on which weed killer was sprayed
came the pollutants that were leading to the failure of the seagrass. Weed
killers worked against the seagrass, and so did the fertilizers that washed off
the lawns which encouraged the growth of algae in the water. The algae blocked
the light that the seagrass needed to grow, causing the seagrass meadows to disappear.
Individuals and communities, as well as the states that border the
Chesapeake Bay, began to take actions to clean up the problem. One of the actions
that was taken was the imposition by the State of Maryland of a stormwater fee,
also called the “rain tax”. This was in response to an action by the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Water Act to develop methods and
funding to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and to protect the Bay from further damage.
The law required the states that have watersheds that drain into the Bay to
develop local measures to protect the Bay. This included Pennsylvania, Delaware,
New York, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Only Maryland established
a stormwater fee program. Under the program land owners were assessed a fee
based on the impervious, i.e., paved, hard surfaces, that did not allow water
to seep into the ground. Rather the rain ran off the hard surfaces and into the
streams of watersheds that fed the Bay.
The basic question is does the Bay still need protection. The basic answer
is yes.
The Bay showed improvements based on an annual rating. The water quality
had improved. Clarity improved and seagrass beds were improving. Other important
factors had also been showing improvement over the last decade. However, in 2018 the Bay fell to a grade of D-plus.
This was the first decline in quality in the last several years. The decline was
blamed on the amounts of heavy rain that had fallen on the east coast watersheds
that year. More pollutants including particulates (soil and debris) had been
washed from the watersheds into the Bay. There the pollutants will again effect
the clarity and productivity of the Bay.
So – again – does the Bay still need protection? Yes!
The picture of the Blue Crab is derived from a photograph taken from the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation website. Credit for the photograph is Jay Fleming/iLCP.
New Year’s Day for me was not 1 January; it was 6 January. I consider New Year’s Day a movable feast. It’s the day after the turn of the year on which in the morning I can get out to one of the places I like to hike and there to imagine the world. While walking in the beauty of a sun-lit field I reflect on the past year and ponder the future. I imagine the future as a world with clear skies and balance.
When I imagine the future, I see it as an expanding microcosm with me at the center. Why am I at the center? It is not an over-blown ego, rather it is because I am the actor; I am the person, the entity, that has the power of imagining my place in the future and then taking steps to make it happen. I do not have power over nature or over other people, only some over myself. Perhaps I might have some influence on others. I can ask the most important question of all, “How can I help?” As the world moves to a population of Eight Billion, it will be in motion. There will be more migrant caravans, there will be changes in patterns of weather and wildlife, there will be changes to the average temperature, and the harvest and the sea will change. There may be multiple causes, but all will drive the movement of the burgeoning world populations as they seek safety and food and a meaningful life. How can I help?
A hawk rose from the stubble of the mown field and slowly
flew to the distant trees. It perched high to catch the warming rays of the
rising sun. I saw a quick flight in the tall grass and then a burst of energy
to the high branches of a nearby tree. Eastern Bluebirds were searching for
insects in the grass and then flew to the tops of trees where the morning sun
was energizing creeping and flying insects that are around this time of year. Even
though it was just after the turn of the year, it was like summer. The weather
was cold, below freezing. But as the sun came up, it brought light to infuse everything
with a brightness, causing the sky and the morning frost to sparkle.
A flock of blue Jays, oddly silent, flew around the chestnut
trees, racing each other from tree to tree. They would drop to the ground to
investigate something and then return to the lower branches to watch me and the
hawk and the Bluebirds. A balance of movement and light and quietness.
This is why I come to these places. I come to see what the
world is doing. I come to reflect on my place in the world and in the family of
humanity. I come to think on what I can do/should do to help improve what I can,
and try to improve even what I can’t. Reinhold Niebuhr spoke to knowing the
difference between what a person can accomplish and what they can’t. There is serenity
in that, and wisdom, but to fulfill my place I need to act, even when I know that
I may not reach my goal. Today the sky was clear and bright; tomorrow it may be
cloudy. But the purpose on which I act is a constant source of light. I need to rise to it.
I see one of the Bluebirds fly up and settle in the branches near the top of a china berry tree. The little bird’s red breast is turned to the morning sun. It sits quietly and perhaps reflects on its own purpose. And perhaps it has a knowledge of whether it is possible. It suddenly launches and flies to another tree.
The serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr can be found at https://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/protestant/addiction/serenity-prayer.aspx
The picture of the child is based on a photograph at wallpaperbetter.com.
China has landed the fourth in a series of lunar
explorers named Chang’e on the far side of the moon. The name is for the Chang’e,
the mythological goddess of the moon. The far side, also know has the dark side,
has been relatively unexplored. This is the first soft landing on the dark side
of the moon, and it includes the rover, Yutu, (“jade rabbit”) to explore the
surface which for nearly all of human history has been hidden from view.
The first three missions of China’s lunar exploration tested their ability to attain orbit and achieve a soft landing on the moon. An additional mission placed the satellite Queqiao (magpie Bridge) (That beautiful story will deserve an article of its own.) at LaGrange point L2 to enable communications with Chang’e 4 and the lunar rover.
Lunar Incognita has become Lunar Sciamus, the moon that we know. This is a very rudimentary translation. This rough translation is in the plural tense because it is all of humanity that will be able to know the moon and to understand its formation and its promise. The landing site of Chang’e 4 is a large plain known as the Von Karman crater which is located within the South Pole Aitken (SPA) Basin. The rover will study the surface of the far side which is thought to be significantly different from the surface of the near side, the side that can be seen from the Earth. According to a BBC article on the mission and landing, the SPA crater is one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system and the largest on the moon. The Chinese science team wants to study the massive sheet of melted rock that filled the crater.
In 1969 when astronauts first stepped on the moon, we
memorialized the event. There was a plaque attached to the lunar lander descent
stage that was left on the moon. It reads “Here men from the planet Earth first
set foot upon the moon. We came in Peace for all mankind.”
And now what was hidden is being revealed. And the hope is that all of humanity will benefit from what is discovered. Is it worldly riches? Perhaps, it will likely become a stepping stone to creating a forward location – like a base camp at the foot of Everest – for humanity’s new stage of exploration of our solar system and beyond.
China has made a great leap in helping humanity
establish this wider presence. The lunar rover rolled off the lander two days
after Chang’e 4 had successfully reached the moon’s surface. Future planned missions will collect and return
samples of the moon’s surface.
This success is part of a broader achievement that continues to look forward into the future. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program is quoted in China’s news agency as saying, “We (humanity) have a responsibility to explore and understand [the moon]. Exploration of the moon will also deepen our understanding of Earth and ourselves.”
There is, perhaps, a future of people living and
working and spending their lives on the moon or on other planets and moons of
the solar system. Each of them will have a role in bringing a bright and strong
future to all of humanity.
Our highest congratulations to our friends in China
for an extraordinary achievement.
Information in this article is based on:
China News Agency article by Xinhua writers Yu Fei, Quan Xiaoshu, and Xie Jiao,
I first saw it in the night. A large shape laying in the trough of the waves of the retreating tide. It was windy, and the sea was running high. The troughs of the waves were deep. The large, black shape lay in the water about 50 yards off shore. It looked big.
I was star gazing off the deck of the rented cottage on Bogue Banks, North Carolina. I looked up at Orion and his nebula. I watched Canopus, the navigator, rise and then set on the southern horizon. The moon was full and reflected off the face of the running waves. I turned my glasses to the waves to see what might be out there. I was startled when I saw a black mass rise above the surface of the water and then submerge. It was truly big. I estimated it to be no less than eight-feet long above the water with what appeared to be a humped back. Was it a shark? But there was no fin. A dolphin perhaps? But again no fin. What creature could have this shape? But it did not seem to move. It lay in the water and let the waves pass over it seeming to rise in the trough and to disappear as the crest of the wave passed over it. My mind imagined all sort of creatures, mythological as well as real. But what would venture into the surf and lay there?
The next morning when the tide was high I went out to the
beach to see if anything with fins or limbs had washed up in the night. There was
nothing there. And there was nothing to be seen in the surf. The next low tide
was in the early afternoon. We were having cousins over for lunch, and I
planned to ask them what they might have heard about something in the water,
whether creature or fish tale, since they were familiar with the goings on in
the area. I planned to broach the subject privately with one or two of my
cousins rather than ask the entire group. Before I had a chance to ask, I heard
someone say, “Look, there’s a turtle in the surf.” We all went out onto the
deck to get a glimpse. We could see a dark shape about 100 yards away. It would
appear in the troughs of the waves and then submerge as the wave crest passed. Was
this the creature that I had seen in the night? Was this the mystery solved?
But we all noticed that what first appeared to be motion was the wake of the
passing water. This shape did not move.
Then the thought struck me. The question was not what it
was. The question was where was I?
I did a little research and realized that the deck I stood
on was on the location of the old Iron Steamer Pier at Bogue Banks. Just offshore
was the grave of the Confederate ship SS Pevensey, an iron-clad blockade
runner. She had been chased inshore by the Union vessel SS New Berne in June
1864. The Pevensey broke and sank there. Parts of her boilers and machinery
remain on the bottom about 150 yards off-shore. The Iron Steamer Pier had been
built over the site of the wreck since the sunken ship made a good artificial reef
which attracted fish. The pier and adjacent motel lasted through storms and hurricanes
for more than 50 years. The pier was finally broken by the surf and wind of a
hurricane and then closed for good in 2004. Since then the land was developed,
and beach cottages, similar to the many that line the Banks, were built on the
site. The old sea wall from the pier forms the sea wall for the properties.
The edges of the submerged ruin were exposed by the falling
tide and appeared as a dark shape that would rise and fall as the wave trough
passed over its resting place.
So it was not a creature or a myth that lay and rose and fell in the troughs of the waves at low tide, but the ruins and ghosts of a broken ship.
