Sunday, October 20, 2013

How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?

As the world waited for today's close flyby of the asteroid 2012 DA14, a small asteroid broke up over Chelyabinsk Russia this morning, blasting in city windows with its sonic boom and injuring hundreds. Meanwhile, NASA's Near-Earth Object Program has revised the odds of asteroid 2011 AG5 hitting the Earth in 2040 to 1 in 500. Just how serious does the risk have to be, before we should do something about it?
The answer is not as straightforward as you might think.
When you assess the potential risks posed by a nearby asteroid, you need to consider a whole host of factors, including the probability of impact (which is complicated by our constantly changing estimates), the size of the asteroid (which determines the scope of damage), and the estimated date of collision (the farther away in time, the less we have to worry right now).
But there's yet another factor, one that's a bit tougher to quantify: How do we assess a catastrophic risk based on sheer probability? And more to the point, given that we will soon have the means to do something about asteroids, under what circumstances should we not act?
The Torino Impact Hazard Scale
Thankfully, NASA's NEO program is in place to help us evaluate these sorts of threats and alert us to when we might need to respond. This group keeps a regularly updated list of all current threats spanning the next one hundred years.
How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?Expand
To make their assessments, NASA uses a system called the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. Each asteroid is assigned a number from zero to 10, where zero indicates a negligibly small chance of collision with Earth (or that the object will burn-up on entry), and a ten represents an inevitable impact from a large asteroid that poses a major threat to our survival. When NASA scientists assign a numerical value to an asteroid, they look at more than just sheer probability. They also consider the kinetic energy of the possible collision (expressed in megatons of TNT), and they only evaluate threats that are less than 100 years away.
Back in 2005, NASA had to change the description of Level 1 asteroids from "events meriting careful monitoring" to "normal". They felt that the press was exaggerating the risks posed by a Level 1, so they changed the language. It's worth noting, however, that a "normal" Level 1 object could hit us — but the odds are ridiculously low. So NASA believes these impacts are so unlikely, we shouldn't worry about them.
How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?Expand
It isn't until an object gets assigned a Level 3 that other astronomers get alerted to a potential risk. A threat of this sort has a 1% or greater chance of a collision that's capable of localized destruction. Level 3s will demand the attention of public officials if the encounter is less than a decade away. Level 4s are essentially the same, but the potential damage caused by the NEO is greater.
Once we get to Level 5 the category switches from "needs attention" to "threatening." Impacts from these NEOs are still not a certainty, but they would give us pause for thought. A Level 5 would inflict regional damage, while Level 6 and 7 are global in scale. At this point, NASA would start to alert the government that contingency planning may be warranted depending on the timescales involved.
At Level 8 and above, things are starting to look very grim. These threats have been assessed as "certain collisions". A Level 8 is a once per every 50 years event, likely on a local scale, whereas a Level 9 is a once per 10,000 to 100,000 year event, that would cause unprecedented multi-regional devastation. And a Level 10 is the Big One, the kind of impact that happens every 100,000 years or so – a collision that would likely mean the end of life on Earth as we know it.
To date, no object has ever been rated above level 4. Of the thousands of asteroids detected, there are only two that still have a rating above zero on the Torino scale — and they're both at Level 1. Those are 2011 AG5 (year range 2040-2047, impact probability of 1 in 500) and 2007 VK184 (year range 2048-2057, impact probability of 1 in 3,030). 99942 Apophis is no longer considered a threat, and has been downgraded to a zero on the scale.
Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale
The Torino scale is primarily meant to help the public and the media to get an uncomplicated and quick sense of what's going on. The specialists, however, use the Palermo Technical Impact Scale to quantify the threats in more detail.
The Palermo Scale looks at all NEOs in the Earth's vicinity and prioritizes them according to the degree that scientists feel they deserve our attention (i.e. the call for frequent observations and analysis). And like the Torino Scale, it looks at an object's potential impact energy and estimated date of collision. Comets or asteroids that pose no threat are given a negative value, while the more dangerous ones are assigned a number greater than zero.
The problem of probability
How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?Expand
As already noted, AG5 has a 1 in 500 chance of hitting the Earth in 2040, a threat NASA describes as "slight". If it were to hit us, it would unleash 100 megatons of energy and devastate a region 100 miles wide. So that means it'd likely be promoted to Level 8 status, if we determine that an impact is inevitable.
So, what does a 1 in 500 chance actually mean? We can look at this figure a number of different ways.
AG5 has a 0.2% chance of hitting the Earth, or a 99.8% chance of missing. Are you a cup-half-full kind of person, or cup-half-empty?
How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?
Or consider this: In 2011, computer simulations gave the St. Louis Cardinals 1 in 500 odds to make the playoffs. And not only did they make it to the post-season, they won the World Series as well.
In other words, it's very far from impossible that the Earth won't get smuckered by this thing in 2040. A case can be made that, given the potential damage that AG5 could wreak, we should very seriously think about doing something about it. Yes, there's a chance that it could land in an uninhabited part of the world, but if it were to hit a populated area, the damage would be unspeakable.
To act or not to act?
A question that emerges at this point is, given the extreme damage that can be caused by NEOs, and assuming that we will soon have the technology to steer an NEO away, at what point do we dismiss a risk and choose not to act? Is it 1 in 1,000? How about 1 in 10,000? If we're talking about the potential for total human extinction, can the odds ever be slim enough?
How serious does an asteroid threat have to be before we take action?Expand
Perhaps a good rule of thumb to follow would be that, if it's logistically and economically viable to remove a significant threat, we should do it — regardless of the odds.
But perhaps this is overly paranoid. Some would argue that there are other more pressing risks to attend to, mostly of our own creation. And it's quite possible that we've already detected the most threatening asteroids. That means, in turn, that all these NEO concerns could be overstated.
At the same time, humans are notorious for not being able to properly comprehend probabilities, particularly as they apply to assessing risks. We'll just have to wait until 2023 when further observations of AG5 will provide a clearer picture.
Image via Shutterstock.com/Hunor Focze. Inset images via NASA, Universe Today, eZone, Discovery.

The orbits of all potentially hazardous asteroids in one map


NASA has put together an image showing the orbits of all known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) currently threatening Earth. That's 1,400 in total — making this map uncomfortably busy.
To qualify as a PHA, an asteroid needs to be fairly large — at least 460 feet (140 meters) in size — and follow orbits that pass close to the Earth's orbit — within 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers).
But a PHA is not necessarily on a collision course with Earth. And in fact, none of these PHAs is considered a threat for the next 100 years. But by continuing to observe and track these asteroids, NASA hopes to refine their orbits so that they can make more precise predictions in the future.
The orbits of all potentially hazardous asteroids in one map
To keep track of the most dangerous near Earth objects (NEOs), NASA has set up a Sentry Risk Table that works according to the Torino Scale. The most dangerous object that we know of is 2007 VK184, which gets a designation of 1 on the scale (out of 10); a Torino scale rating of 1 is a routine discovery in which an NEO will pass near the Earth but poses no unusual level of danger.
In regards to the new map, David Szondy of GizMag makes a good observation:
An interesting point about the orbits is how so many of them are tucked inside the orbit of Jupiter, with only a few shooting beyond to the outer Solar System. That makes Jupiter a bit of a two-faced friend. On the one hand, having a giant planet in the neighborhood is great because in the early days of the Solar System it swept up all the cosmic debris that could have made life on Earth very unpleasant and very short. Unfortunately, its gravitational pull also has a habit of knocking asteroids out of the asteroid belt or hooking comets into the inner Solar System like a carnival visitor shying balls at milk bottles.
Image: NASA / JPL.

Astronomers discover a massive asteroid that could hit us in 2032

 
Mark August 26th, 2032 on your calendar, folks. Ukrainian astronomers have just detected a 1,350-foot-wide (410 meter) minor planet that’s headed our way. The impact risk is minimal, but it’s now the most serious near-term celestial threat to face our planet.
I tend to shrug off this sort of stuff when I encounter it, but the sheer size of this asteroid, along with its near-term potential, made me curious. So I headed over to NASA’S Near Earth Object Program website to see if it was added it to its Torino Scale — a regularly updated chart that designates asteroid impact risk by category.
Not only was it there, it was at the top of the recently observed list — and all lit up in green, indicating that it's something we should probably keep our eye on.
Astronomers discover a massive asteroid that could hit us in 2032
And indeed, the asteroid, which was initially discovered by astronomers working at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in southern Ukraine, has now been confirmed by other scientists in Italy, Spain, the UK, and Russia’s Siberian republic of Buryatia.
A Torino Scale rating of 1 (out of 10), which is shown in green, indicates an event that "merits careful monitoring." It's described as
A routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger. Current calculations show the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern. New telescopic observations very likely will lead to re-assignment to Level 0.
But it is considered potentially hazardous because its orbit will bring it closer than 7.5 million km from Earth’s orbit. In this case, TV135 could come as close as 1.7 million km. Size also matters when it comes to risk assessment. If it were to hit us, it would unleash 2,500 megatons of TNT — 50 times greater than the biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated.
The newly discovered asteroid, named 2013 TV135, now joins 2007 VK184 as the only Torino Scale 1 objects known to astronomers. Asteroid VK184, which is 603 feet (184 meters) in diameter, has a 1 in 1,750 chance of hitting the Earth between 2048 to 2075.
Astronomers discover a massive asteroid that could hit us in 2032Expand
Thankfully, the risk posed by TV135 is extremely low — but not impossibly low. Current best estimates show that it has a 1 in 63,000 chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. That means it has a 99.9984% chance of missing the Earth. This number could either go up or down as new measurements are made over the coming years.
Asteroid defense system, anyone?
[ Source: Ria Novosti | Top image: Artistic impression of an unrelated asteroid via Getty]

Saturday, October 19, 2013

IS CHEATING JUSTIFIABLE?

Economist says human wants are limitless but again would we now credit this theory to the rate of cheating in relationship,public offices and religious homes  in recent times?
or would we credit it to the rate at which poverty has taken hold on our economy?
or would we credit it to the rate at which our norms,culture and tradition are been eroded by westernization?
these and many more crept my mind as i write.lets pick on these three point
Human wants
Economic poverty
Westernization
Human wants are limitless,yes we know that but do we now say because wants are limitless then engage in cheating to satisfy our limitless wants?
Economic poverty:the economic situation of a country before all her citizens,not even the rich is exempted.i know some persons might stroke what i just said but believe me,the rich also cries!nothing is absolutely perfect,not even the earth is completely round
Westernization: our norms,cultures and traditions are gradually fallen before our eyes,our people no longer see wrongs in their act of cheating and other forms that goes with it,hence they now see it as a ''normal thing'',a style and a way of life  to them.some call it emancipation,some call it freedom or free will.call it whatsoever name you want but i say its a culture of impunity and waste.i call it EVIL!
what has happened to SELF ESTEEM,DIGNITY,PRIDE,TRUST and TRUTH?
i weep most times when i see the depth at which this EVIL has crept  into our culture,am sure God and our ancestors weeps too at the rate which this evil is going.
have we ever asked ourselves these question...
What legacy are we going to pass to our future generation?
if we cheat this bad,how will next generation and others after it look like?
what about karma and retributive justice laws?
these and many more thoughts flood my mind as none is exempted.the old cheats,the young too,so also in relationships and marriages,boys cheat,girls cheats,even ''virgins'' kpakpa cheats too.who will believe this?
Talking about virgins cheating,let me tell you a short true life story.i once dated a virgin for 5yrs hoping to marry her when she finishes school this year.though there were rough and bad times but we sailed through.recently last year November,i noticed when i went to see her in school,someone mentioned a guy's name.the conversation was like this...''who is this?we don't know any other person apart from '...''a name was called,of which it wasn't mine.we laughed over it but i dint end it there,i kept my ears to the ground until around February 17 ,something suspiciously happened.i got an insider and the truth was revealed.she has been seeing someone in her department by that same name mentioned earlier but i couldn't believe it so i decided to play on and show her more love,hoping with time i will find out it was all lies but her attitude worsened and a second person verified her cheating.this time i couldn't take it anymore as i was disappointed,i backed out.
All these while,i kept thinking,trying to see reasons why a so called virgin would cheat...OK lets try and justify her this way,maybe she wanted a caring loving tall sexy fine and rich guy...at-list lets not add ''good in bed'' because she still a virgin and promise to keep it till marriage[reported speech]. i compared all these,i saw that i and the guy weren't  mate,i was so far ahead.about being rich,although am not yet working with oil companies but I've got something nice doing that can fend for her compare to a departmental date.
 Back from the story,u will find out that everyone has a story to tell on this evil ravaging our culture,economy,public offices,religious homes and all facets of life.leaders involve in mass cheat as public funds are been diverted into personal gains,the list is endless.why don't we try something more challenging by loving ourselves and treat each other the way we want to be treated?that's a million dollar question that will echoes through eternity.....I see greed in their eyes.i see lies,deceit in their lips.i see lust in their heart.i see desperation in their veins.i see cheats in their blood and i see karma befallen them.
In all of these,cheating is no way justifiable neither will human want,economic poverty nor westernization justify any act of cheating.it crumbles a nation.it divides homes,friendship and communal living.it kills economic development and the will to fight for a better world
                                                                                                                                     written by: mercury

Friday, October 18, 2013

Mysterious Ancient Human Crossed Wallace's Line

 

Oct. 17, 2013 — Scientists have proposed that the most recently discovered ancient human relatives -- the Denisovans - somehow managed to cross one of the world's most prominent marine barriers in Indonesia, and later interbred with modern humans moving through the area on the way to Australia and New Guinea.
Three years ago the genetic analysis of a little finger bone from Denisova cave in the Altai Mountains in northern Asia led to a complete genome sequence of a new line of the human family tree -- the Denisovans. Since then, genetic evidence pointing to their hybridisation with modern human populations has been detected, but only in Indigenous populations in Australia, New Guinea and surrounding areas. In contrast, Denisovan DNA appears to be absent or at very low levels in current populations on mainland Asia, even though this is where the fossil was found.
Published today in a Science opinion article, scientists Professor Alan Cooper of the University of Adelaide in Australia and Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in the UK say that this pattern can be explained if the Denisovans had succeeded in crossing the famous Wallace's Line, one of the world's biggest biogeographic barriers which is formed by a powerful marine current along the east coast of Borneo. Wallace's Line marks the division between European and Asian mammals to the west from marsupial-dominated Australasia to the east.
"In mainland Asia, neither ancient human specimens, nor geographically isolated modern Indigenous populations have Denisovan DNA of any note, indicating that there has never been a genetic signal of Denisovan interbreeding in the area," says Professor Cooper, Director of the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. "The only place where such a genetic signal exists appears to be in areas east of Wallace's Line and that is where we think interbreeding took place -- even though it means that the Denisovans must have somehow made that marine crossing."
"The recent discovery of another enigmatic ancient human species Homo floresiensis, the so-called Hobbits, in Flores, Indonesia, confirms that the diversity of archaic human relatives in this area was much higher than we'd thought," says Professor Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins, Natural History Museum, in London. "The morphology of the Hobbits shows they are different from the Denisovans, meaning we now have at least two, and potentially more, unexpected groups in the area.
"The conclusions we've drawn are very important for our knowledge of early human evolution and culture. Knowing that the Denisovans spread beyond this significant sea barrier opens up all sorts of questions about the behaviours and capabilities of this group, and how far they could have spread."
"The key questions now are where and when the ancestors of current humans, who were on their way to colonise New Guinea and Australia around 50,000 years ago, met and interacted with the Denisovans," says Professor Cooper.
"Intriguingly, the genetic data suggest that male Denisovans interbred with modern human females, indicating the potential nature of the interactions as small numbers of modern humans first crossed Wallace's Line and entered Denisovan territory."

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

New Theory to Explain Seeds of Life in Asteroids


A new look at the early solar system introduces an alternative to a long-taught, but largely discredited, theory that seeks to explain how biomolecules were once able to form inside of asteroids. In place of the outdated theory, researchers propose a new theory -- based on a richer, more accurate image of magnetic fields and solar winds in the early solar system, and a mechanism known as multi-fluid magneto-hydrodynamics -- to explain the ancient heating of the asteroid belt. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Oct. 1, 2013 — A new look at the early solar system introduces an alternative to a long-taught, but largely discredited, theory that seeks to explain how biomolecules were once able to form inside of asteroids. In place of the outdated theory, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute propose a new theory -- based on a richer, more accurate image of magnetic fields and solar winds in the early solar system, and a mechanism known as multi-fluid magneto-hydrodynamics -- to explain the ancient heating of the asteroid belt.
Although today the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is cold and dry, scientists have long known that warm, wet conditions, suitable to formation of some biomolecules, the building blocks of life, once prevailed. Traces of bio-molecules found inside meteorites -- which originated in the asteroid belt -could only have formed in the presence of warmth and moisture. One theory of the origin of life proposes that some of the biomolecules that formed on asteroids may have reached the surfaces of planets, and contributed to the origin of life as we know it.
"The early sun was actually dimmer than the sun today, so in terms of sunlight, the asteroid belt would have been even colder than it is now. And yet we know that some asteroids were heated to the temperature of liquid water, the 'goldilocks zone,' which enabled some of these interesting biomolecules to form," said Wayne Roberge, a professor of physics within the School of Science at Rensselaer, and member of the New York Center for Astrobiology, who co-authored a paper on the subject with Ray Menzel, a graduate student in physics. "Here's the question: How could that have happened? How could that environment have existed inside an asteroid?"
In the paper, titled "Reexamination of Induction Heating of Primitive Bodies in Protoplanetary Disks" and published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Menzel and Roberge revisit and refute one of two theories proposed decades ago to explain how asteroids could have been heated in the early solar system. Both of the established theories -- one involving the same radioactive process that heats the interior of Earth, and the other involving the interaction of plasma (super-heated gases that behave somewhat like fluids) and a magnetic field -- are still taught to students of astrobiology. Although radioactive heating of asteroids was undoubtedly important, current models of radioactive heating make some predictions about temperatures in the asteroid belt that are inconsistent with observations.
Motivated by this, Roberge and Menzel reviewed the second of the two theories, which is based on an early assessment of the young sun and the premise that an object moving through a magnetic field will experience an electric field. According to this theory, as an asteroid moves through the magnetic field of the solar system, it will experience an electric field, which will in turn push electrical currents through the asteroid, heating the asteroid in the same way that electrical currents heat the wires in a toaster.
"It's a very clever idea, and the mechanism is viable, but the problem is that they made a subtle error in how it should be applied, and that's what we correct in this paper," said Roberge. "In our work, we correct the physics, and also apply it to a more modern understanding of the young solar system."
Menzel said the researchers have now definitively refuted the established theory.
"The mechanism requires some extreme assumptions about the young solar system," Menzel said. "They assumed some things about what the young sun was doing which are just not believed to be true today. For example, the young sun would have had to produce a powerful solar wind which blew past the asteroids, and that's just no longer believed to be true."
The solar wind, and the plasma stream it produced, was not as powerful as early theorists assumed, and the researchers have corrected those calculations based on the current understanding of the young sun. Roberge said the early theorists also incorrectly calculated the position of the electric field asteroids would have experienced. Roberge said that, in reality, an electric field would have permeated the asteroid and the space around it, a mistake very few researchers would have realized.
"We've calculated the electric field everywhere, including the interior of the asteroid," Roberge said. "How that electric field comes about is a very specialized thing; about 10 people in the world study that kind of physics. Fortunately, two of them are here at RPI working together."
What emerges, Menzel and Roberge said, is a new possibility, based on the corrected understanding of the electric fields the asteroids would have experienced, the solar wind and plasma conditions that would have prevailed, and a mechanism known as multi-fluid magneto-hydrodynamics.
Magneto-hydrodynamics is the study of how charged fluids -- including plasmas -- interact with magnetic fields. The magnetic fields can influence the motion of the charged fluid, or plasma, and vice versa. Magneto-hydrodynamics had a moment of fame as the propulsion system for an experimental nuclear submarine in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October.
Multi-fluid magneto-hydrodynamics are an even more specialized variation of the mechanism that apply in situations where the plasma is very weakly ionized, and the neutral particles behave distinctly from the charged particles.
"The neutral particles interact with the charged particles by friction," Menzel said. "So this creates a complex problem of treating the dynamics of the neutral gas and allowing for the presence of the small number of charged particles interacting with the magnetic field."
Menzel and Roberge said their new theory is promising, but it raises many questions that merit further exploration.
"We're just at the beginning of this. It would be wrong to assert that we've solved this problem," Roberge said. "What we've done is to introduce a new idea. But through observations and theoretical work, we know have a pretty good paradigm."
And much as Menzel and Roberge benefited from recent progress in understanding the physical conditions in an emerging planetary system, they hope their own work will advance the field of astrophysics.
"There are a lot of byproducts of this work because, in the course of doing this, we had to really zero in on how an asteroid interacts with the plasma of the young solar system," said Roberge. "There are a lot of physical processes that we had to consider that have not been considered in this context before

Plastics found in space

Photo: Plastic in space?

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical used to make food-storage containers, car bumpers and other consumer products, on Saturn’s moon Titan.

This is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth. Here's the story: http://bit.ly/16DmGNj
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, a chemical used to make food-storage containers, car bumpers and other consumer products, on Saturn’s moon Titan.
This is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN0SbMeOGIA&feature=player_embedded#t=0
A small amount of propylene was identified in Titan’s lower atmosphere by Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). This instrument measures the infrared light, or heat radiation, emitted from Saturn and its moons in much the same way our hands feel the warmth of a fire.
Propylene is the first molecule to be discovered on Titan using CIRS. By isolating the same signal at various altitudes within the lower atmosphere, researchers identified the chemical with a high degree of confidence. Details are presented in a paper in the Sept. 30 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene,” said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and lead author of the paper. “That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code 5 on the bottom — that’s polypropylene.”
CIRS can identify a particular gas glowing in the lower layers of the atmosphere from its unique thermal fingerprint. The challenge is to isolate this one signature from the signals of all other gases around it.
The detection of the chemical fills in a mysterious gap in Titan observations that dates back to NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft and the first-ever close flyby of this moon in 1980.
Voyager identified many of the gases in Titan’s hazy brownish atmosphere as hydrocarbons, the chemicals that primarily make up petroleum and other fossil fuels on Earth.
On Titan, hydrocarbons form after sunlight breaks apart methane, the second-most plentiful gas in that atmosphere. The newly freed fragments can link up to form chains with two, three or more carbons. The family of chemicals with two carbons includes the flammable gas ethane. Propane, a common fuel for portable stoves, belongs to the three-carbon family.
Voyager detected all members of the one- and two-carbon families in Titan’s atmosphere. From the three-carbon family, the spacecraft found propane, the heaviest member, and propyne, one of the lightest members. But the middle chemicals, one of which is propylene, were missing.
As researchers continued to discover more and more chemicals in Titan’s atmosphere using ground- and space-based instruments, propylene was one that remained elusive. It was finally found as a result of more detailed analysis of the CIRS data.
“This measurement was very difficult to make because propylene’s weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals,” said Michael Flasar, Goddard scientist and principal investigator for CIRS. “This success boosts our confidence that we will find still more chemicals long hidden in Titan’s atmosphere.”
Cassini’s mass spectrometer, a device that looks at the composition of Titan’s atmosphere, had hinted earlier that propylene might be present in the upper atmosphere. However, a positive identification had not been made.
“I am always excited when scientists discover a molecule that has never been observed before in an atmosphere,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “This new piece of the puzzle will provide an additional test of how well we understand the chemical zoo that makes up Titan’s atmosphere.”
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The CIRS team is based at Goddard.

HOW DID WE GET HERE!

HOW DID WE GET HERE!
Dealing with a psychopathic political class can be so nightmarish.
the masses are fast becoming like flies caught up in the web of hopelessness.
There use to be a weird saying ''if you cant beat them,you join them but that of our country has been modified to ''if you cant beat them then you cant join them.
A country where you don't get caught for stealing,you only get punish for not belonging to the class of those legalize to steal.
The political class are so galvanize, they quarrel but they don't hit themselves.they fight but they don't punch themselves.
A class where a governor was seen mocking a female teacher who couldn't read her affidavit  but has forgotten to mock the system that produce her and her result.

How did we get here??????
The fear of a political cataclysm is anchored on a culture of waste,impunity, cruelness and vagary.
The ruling class are seen celebrating birthdays for days,weeks and months but has completely forgotten the reason,essence of his birth.a vast wastage indeed!
The President was seen expressing hopelessness on his speech while declaring open the 54th annual conference of the Nigerian Economic Society in Abuja on Tuesday 17th sept.

The President  said “ When you talk about corruption, the private sector is involved; the public sector is involved; even  individuals. But I wouldn’t want to mention names so that I will not be attacked..''

if Mr president,the commander in chief of all arm forces,a man that has sworn to uphold the law,a man whom we all hope on for a better Nigerian has shy away from truth,justice,equity and he is scared of being attack...hmm i wonder what the common masses will do! #thinking
When those in power grant pardon to economic offenders, when our courts(judiciary) settle corrupt cases through plea-bargain, etc, does it not also amount to celebrating Corruption? what is actually going on in this country? whom are we  deceiving? why have we sold shame in the market place? How come Integrity has eloped  this country??
The political leaders feeds fat at the detriment of its followers,to whom do we now seek refuge??
The RELIGIOUS LEADER?
these set of people are vicious  fundamentalist with unbridled ambition.they accumulate wealth from sheep whom come seeking safe heaven.they hold series of  meetings, and all sort of jamborees even in working days to further en-mass their greed. the latest is purchasing of private jets and expensive cars,they say its to make Gods work easier but i believe its a means to an end.
all these are indices of a failed nation.
i think its high time Nigerians tell themselves the truth today as we mark our 53th yr of independence,
In times of war,truth is an expensive commodity cascaded by honey of lies,thus...the abyss of destruction is  inevitable.
God bless you,God bless the federal republic of Nigeria!