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(meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 127/2000 - 6 December 2000"
------- Forwarded Message
From: Peiser Benny <B.J.Peiser@livjm.acdot uk>
To: cambridge-conference <cambridge-conference@livjm.acdot uk>
Subject: CCNet, 6 December 2000
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 11:25:58 -0000
CCNet 127/2000 - 6 December 2000
--------------------------------
[...]
(3) MICROBES IN ANTARTIC ICE COULD POINT TO LIFE IN SPACE
The Columbus Dispatch, 5 December 2000
(4) COMETS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF BSE?
The Times, 5 December 2000
(5) VISITOR FROM SPACE BLAMED IN FIELD FIRE
Ron Baalke <baalke@jpl.nasadot gov>
(6) EXTREME EVENTS UNDER SCIENTIFIC SCRUTINY
Jacqueline Mitton <aco01@dial.pipex.com>
[...]
(10) ALL THAT GLITTERS IT NOT COMETARY .....
Neil Bone <bafb4@central.susx.acdot uk>
===============
(3) MICROBES IN ANTARTIC ICE COULD POINT TO LIFE IN SPACE
>From The Columbus Dispatch, 5 December 2000
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/dec00/519691.html
Microbes in Antarctic ice could point to life in space OSU researcher ready
to study on cold continent
David Lore
Dispatch Science Reporter
Brent Christner is packing for Antarctica as part of an Ohio State
University study of life forms that survive even when seemingly frozen
solid.
The research is for his doctoral thesis, OSU's first on the biological basis
for thinking there might be life on other planets.
"I always thought, even before I came to Ohio State, that Antarctica would
be a neat place to go to,'' said Christner, 30, a graduate student in the
Department of Microbiology.
He soon discovered that most of the scientists the National Science
Foundation sponsors on the cold continent are there to study rocks and ice
formations rather than microbes.
"But that's about to change,'' Christner said. "The work people are doing
down there shows this isn't just a frozen, dormant area. It's a place where
life exists -- life is there -- and the search for other places where life
exists in our solar system is now driving this kind of research.''
The road to space goes through Antarctica because conditions there are the
closest on Earth to conditions on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa, two
celestial bodies that might have enough liquid water to support life.
Since 1997, Christner and microbiology Chairman John N. Reeve have been
consulting with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on a
sample-gathering mission to Europa sometime after 2008.
"They want our experience in terms of melting ice in a way that retains any
biological activity,'' Reeve said.
Since the Europa mission would most likely be a one-way, five-year trip,
NASA is designing a probe to pierce the planet's thick ice, sample its
contents and then radio findings back to Earth.
Astrobiology -- the study of life in the universe -- is now considered solid
science rather than science fiction, Reeve said.
"That reflects a change in its general acceptance. A decade ago, if you
asked most microbiologists about the prospects for extraterrestrial life,
they wouldn't have taken you seriously.''
Christner will be working out of the U.S. McMurdo scientific station during
January and February, collecting and analyzing ice samples for evidence of
life forms such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi. He will be one of 24 students
from across the nation at McMurdo for a workshop on biological diversity.
Since coming to Ohio State from the University of Dayton in 1997, Christner
has worked with Reeve, his academic adviser, to identify life forms in core
samples recovered by other scientists from Antarctica and mountain glaciers.
After graduation, Christner plans to return to Antarctica in 2002 with a
core-drilling team being organized to explore a subglacial lake near the
South Pole.
The cores analyzed so far, including some 750,000-year-old Chinese ice
drilled by OSU glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, were found to contain
still-living bacteria capable of being revived in the laboratory.
NASA scientists announced in October that they had revived bacteria that had
been dormant in salt crystals for more than 250 million years.
"In solid ice, no life processes are possible, but solid ice is not that
solid,'' Christner explained. There are always fractures and pockets in the
ice where liquid water -- and inevitably bacteria -- collect.
"Most of the things we find are very tough bacteria,'' usually blown onto
the ice by the winds, he said. "They're highly resistant to all kinds of
environmental stress.''
The OSU study is being financed from a four-year, $340,000 National Science
Foundation grant.
Copyright 2000, The Columbus Dispatch
=======
(4) COMETS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF BSE?
>From The Times, 5 December 2000
http://www.thetimes.codot uk/article/0,,46244,00.html
Comets a possible source of BSE?
Letter to the Editor
FROM PROFESSOR CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE AND PROFESSOR SIR FRED HOYLE, FRS
Sir, Diseases of plants and animals have a long history of mysterious
appearances without any satisfactory explanation being offered of where they
have come from. An example some years ago was the lethal respiratory disease
that hit grey seals in the remote Siberian Lake Baikal.
Life on Earth is far too intricate to have evolved here in isolation from
the rest of the Universe. Recent studies have shown that much of the
material escaping from comets is in the form of organic particles that
cannot be distinguished from biomaterial. The input to the Earth is
estimated to be several tens of tonnes of cometary material per day,
sufficient, if it was all in the form of bacteria, to give a daily incidence
of several hundred thousand bacteria per square metre of area. For the most
part the material simply washes away. But, in rare cases, a connection may
occur and if this escalates a new disease can be born.
Small particles of bacterial and viral sizes descend through the Earth's
stratosphere mostly during the winter months, and we believe that the nearly
unique English and Welsh practice of out-wintering cattle explains why BSE
hit English and Welsh farms more severely than elsewhere. English and Welsh
farmers move cattle frequently from field to field, maximising their chance
of picking up any pathogen that may fall during the winter months from the
air onto the grass. Once a causative agent (genetic fragment or piece of
infective protein) got into a few cattle man took a hand, by grinding up
infected animals and including them in feed for more cattle.
We live nowadays in a blame culture, but in our view there was no culprit,
not unless blame be equated with ignorance. Indeed the political
authorities, by banning the inclusion of infected portions of cattle in
cattle feed, may be said to have acted both quickly and responsibly.
Whether they should also have banned any use of cattle products in medical
vaccines remains another question with disturbing possibilities.
Yours faithfully,
CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE,
FRED HOYLE,
24 Llwynypia Road,
Lisvane, Cardiff CF14 0SY.
December 1.
================
(5) VISITOR FROM SPACE BLAMED IN FIELD FIRE
>From Ron Baalke <baalke@jpl.nasadot gov>
>From Concord Monitor Online, 5 December 2000
http://www.concordmonitor.com/stories/front0400/newmeteorite.shtml
Visitor from space blamed in field fire
Residents say meteorite landed in yard
Tuesday, December 5, 2000
By STEPHANIE HANES
Monitor staff
SALISBURY - The scene was quiet by the time Salisbury firefighters got
there. Neighbors had doused the backyard fire that had prompted the call,
and the meteorite that had started the ground fire had stopped blazing.
Yes, a meteorite.
At least that's what residents report.
Salisbury's extraterrestrial visitor slammed into the backyard of 129
Hensmith Road a little after 5 p.m. yesterday, according to witnesses,
burying itself in the ground and starting a small fire.
Stunned residents described the falling ball of fire to Fire Chief Edwin
Bowne.
"When we got there they told me they saw this meteorite come in," Bowne
said. "I've been doing this for 30 years. I've never seen anything like it
before."
He said the falling rock had started a flame that burned about an 18-inch
area, and that the ground was muddy from residents pouring buckets of water
on the small fire.
"It's there," he said. "Buried in the mud."
The New England Meteoritical Services reports that the recovered mass of
meteorites is some of the scarcest material on Earth, much sought after by
researchers and collectors.
So, it's not so surprising that this was a first for New Hampshire fire
personnel.
"It's a little weird for my book," said the fire dispatcher who dealt with
the call. "I've never had anything drop out of the sky on my watch."
He said the National Weather Service, which he called for advice, didn't
know what to do about the meteoritic visitor either.
"They said, 'We just predict the weather; we don't predict stuff falling out
of the sky.' "
According to the New England Meteoritical Services, meteorites are
essentially shooting stars that make it to the ground. The majority, it
reports on its Web site, originate from asteroids that have shattered. A
smaller number come from the moon, comets or the planet Mars.
"It's so weird," the dispatcher said. "That's all I can say."
The owner of the landing site could not be reached for comment last night.
Other residents on the street said they had heard or seen the fire trucks,
but did not get a glimpse of the meteorite itself. And given their
inexperience with visits from outer space, some of these residents may have
been just a teensy bit skeptical.
"I know we're a good place to land in," said Peter Merkes, a Hensmith
resident.
As for the meteoritic cause of the fire?
"Sounds like a great excuse," said resident Jerry Lorden with a laugh.
Copyright 2000, Concord Monitor
========
(10) ALL THAT GLITTERS IT NOT COMETARY .....
>From Neil Bone <bafb4@central.susx.acdot uk>
The CCNet essay by Palmer and Palmer is interesting in producing numerous
accounts of celestial phenomena circa AD 850. Surely, however, great caution
must be exercised in interpreting these - far from all are necessarily
cometary in nature. Indeed, a majority seem more likely to
have been naive accounts of auroral displays, this being a time of already
documented high solar activity.
For example, in AD 836 "strange rays of light appeared from east to west
iun the night sky" reads more like a reasonable description of an auroral
arc or band spanning the northern sky, than the tails of a comet (even De
Chesaux!).
Descriptions from AD 837 of "dragons" are also consistent with some auroral
forms - twisting bands have been described in some literature as serpents or
dragons.
The AD 838-839 (and later) accounts of "army of fiery red and other
colours..,. in the sky" also echo a common theme in auroral descriptions
from the time. The fiery red colour (excited oxygen around 400 km altitude)
is common in active aurorae reaching lower latitudes - eg 1991 Nov 8-9, 2000
Apr 6-7 - and has frequently figured in medieval writings about batles in
the sky, swords dripping blood, and so forth. The Scottish astronomical
historian Dr David Gavine has unearthed large numbers of such writings from
this period. Some of his examples are given in my book 'The Aurora:
Sun-Earth Interactions' (Wiley/Praxis, 1996, 2nd Ed).
The AD 841 rings of light are nothing more exotic than routine atmospheric
halos, produced when cirrus cloud passes in front of the Sun - about as far
as one can get from cometary phenomena!
Basically, there's no need to interpret everything seen in the sky in terms
of a catastrophic near-Earth comet.; less exotic - but still interesting -
and more plausible explanations are available for many of the events
described!
Neil Bone
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