Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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May 29th, 2022
Credit: China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The next step in China’s in-construction space station is being readied for liftoff.
The Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket have been transferred to the launching area — the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China — the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced Sunday.
Shenzhou-14 will send a trio of astronauts to China’s space station core module Tianhe in June [reportedly June 5] for a six-month mission.
Since the successful landing of the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft in April, the personnel at the launch site have been busy with upcoming missions.
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Busy schedule
With Shenzhou-14 atop its booster, the combination slowly left the final assembly test building and approached the launch tower after traveling 1.5 kilometers on seamless rail especially built to prevent vibration.
After traveling about one and a half hours, the combo moved closer to the launch tower, and the rotary platform slowly closed.
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
From the launch of the Tianhe core module of China’s space station in April 2021, China will have completed the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, four cargo spacecraft and four manned spaceships by the end of 2022 to complete the construction of the country’s space station.
At China’s Wenchang Space Launch Center, south China’s Hainan Province, the Long March 5B Y3 carrier rocket has arrived. It will loft the Wentian (Quest for the Heavens) lab, scheduled to take place in July.
Vertical transfer
“To guarantee a safe vertical transfer, we need to set limits on both the wind speed and transfer speed. For instance, the speed of wind at the 100 meters level above the ground must not exceed 11 meters per second, and the launching platform must be moved at a speed no more than 30 meters per minute,” Zheng Yonghuang, chief engineer of the launcher center, told China Central Television (CCTV).
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
While astronauts were stationed at the Tiangong space station, the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and the Long March-2F Y14 carrier rocket was on standby as a backup in a vertical position on the ground. Since being rolled into the launch center last August, the rocket had remained on its post for more than 280 days.
Launch drills
Pre-launch checks and joint tests will now be carried out.
“We will close the rotary platform to provide a good testing environment for the rocket-spaceship combination. Then we will conduct functionality checks on the combination as well as whole-system pre-launch drills with the participation of the astronauts to ensure that the system is in the best condition. Finally we will fuel the rocket in preparation for the pre-launch procedures,” Zheng told CCTV.
In a related development, a Long March-5B Y3 rocket, which will be used to launch the Wentian lab module of the Chinese space station, arrived at its launch site in south China’s Hainan Province on Sunday, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
Meanwhile, China’s space tracking ship Yuanwang-3 set sail last Thursday for its first voyage this year from a port in east China’s Jiangsu Province. The vessel will carry out its 100th maritime mission during this voyage.
Yuanwang-3 has undertaken more than 90 maritime tracking and monitoring tasks for spacecraft, including Shenzhou spaceships, Chang’e lunar probes, and BeiDou satellites.
Go to these newly issued videos showcasing the rollout of Shenzhou-14 and the Long March-2F booster at:
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Stratolaunch’s Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0.
Credit: Domenic Moen/Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch has unveiled details of its Talon-A test vehicle, TA-0.
This first version of Talon-A will not be powered in flight. Future iterations will be rocket-powered, autonomous, reusable testbeds carrying customizable payloads at speeds above Mach 5.
TA-0 will continue functional and integration testing in the coming months, culminating in a captive carry and vehicle flight later this year, according to a company statement.
Stratolaunch completed its fifth test flight of Roc, on May 4, 2022. The flight debuted a new pylon that was integrated to the aircraft center wing. The pylon will be used to carry and release Talon hypersonic vehicles.
Credit: Stratolaunch
Flying launch pad
Earlier this month, Stratolaunch performed the successful completion of its fifth flight test of Roc, the world’s largest flying aircraft – a vehicle that sports a 95-foot center wingspan. On that May 4 flight, the pylon was attached to the giant aircraft. That pylon will be used to carry and release Talon-A hypersonic vehicles from the Roc flying launch pad.
Stratolaunch’s Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0, mated to Roc carrier aircraft for the first time.
Credit: Stratolaunch
After completing TA-0 separation testing, the company will transition to flying its first hypersonic test vehicle, TA-1. The team has also started fabrication of a third vehicle, TA-2, the first fully reusable hypersonic test vehicle.
For more information on Stratolaunch, go to: https://www.stratolaunch.com/
Credit: Big Ear Observatory
In SETI circles, the famed “Wow!” signal appears to be a still-standing indication of detecting other starfolk.
The signal was a strong narrowband radio signal received on August 15, 1977 by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope.
Astronomer Jerry Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data – writing on the computer printout “Wow!” He also circled the string 6EQUJ5 representing the signal’s intensity variation over time. The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72-second window during which Big Ear was able to pick the signal up.
Big Ear Observatory courtesy of North American Astrophysical Observatory. In late 1997, after almost 40 years of operation, the Big Ear radio ceased operation. The telescope was destroyed in early 1998.
Signal source
New detective work by space devotee Alberto Caballero has been published online in the International Journal of Astrobiology by Cambridge University Press: “An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal.”
Caballero analyzed which of the thousands of stars in the WOW! Signal region could have the highest chance of being the real source of the signal, providing that it came from a star system similar to ours.
A total of 66 G and K-type stars are sampled by Caballero, but only one of them is identified as a potential Sun-like star considering the available information in the Gaia Archive.
2MASS 19281982-2640123, the star with the temperature, radius, and luminosity most similar to the Sun found in the WOW! Signal region, based on data from the Gaia Archive. Source: PanSTARRS/DR1
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia Archive provides astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy of more than 1000 million stars in the Milky Way. Gaia, the Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, is an ESA observatory spacecraft mission.
Ideal target
“This candidate source, which is named 2MASS 19281982-2640123, therefore becomes an ideal target to conduct observations in the search for techno-signatures,” Caballero explains in his paper.
“Despite this star is located too far for sending any reply in the form of a radio or light transmission, it could be a great target to make observations searching for techno-signatures such as artificial light or satellite transits,” Caballero adds.
To read the research paper — “An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal” – go to:
Work underway atop the Harvard College Observatory.
Credit: Galileo Project/Avi Loeb
Work is underway at Harvard University to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures to a new level of systematic scientific research – and that “level” has reached a rooftop.
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, an effort that is complementary to traditional Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence efforts, in that it searches for physical objects, but not electromagnetic signals, associated with extraterrestrial technological equipment.
The intent of the Galileo Project is to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations from accidental or anecdotal observations and legends to the mainstream of transparent, validated and systematic scientific research.
Shown at recent Congressional hearing, Video 1 2021 flyby movie showing a purported UAP.
Credit: Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Fishing expedition
Meanwhile, back to the rooftop.
Members of the Galileo Project are busily working on the roof of the Harvard College Observatory and assembling the first telescope system for what Loeb tags as a “fishing expedition.”
“The next step is assembly of the instruments — optical, infrared, radio and audio sensors — in June and then starting to collect data in July and analyzing it with artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) algorithms,” Loeb told Inside Outer Space.
“If everything works to our satisfaction, we will deploy the system at a better observing site and start making copies of it for other locations. The number of copies will depend on the level of funding we have,” Loeb said. That better site and other locations, “to be decided,” he said.
GIMBAL/“Tic Tac”
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Search for anomalous characteristics
As one tall pole in how to search for life as we don’t know it, there’s the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) observed in the atmosphere whose characteristics and behavior cannot be readily explained in terms of well-known objects and physical processes, explains the Galileo Project website. “That is, all known explanations of aerial, atmospheric, or related phenomena, or even our current knowledge of technological advances, do not adequately explain why these phenomena have been observed.”
To examine the possibility of extraterrestrial origin for UAP, the website adds, “by making observations of objects in and near Earth’s atmosphere, filtering out identifiable objects using AI deep learning algorithms trained on rigorous classification of known objects, and then examining the nature of the remaining data for anomalous characteristics.”
GOFAST
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Mixed bag
According to Loeb, UAP are most likely a mixed bag. Many may have mundane explanations.
“From a scientific perspective, it makes most sense to focus effort on developing new instrumentation and monitoring objects in a quest for the best possible data. Instead of relying on pilots, the government could use ground-based instruments of higher quality than available in fighter jets or analyze the best satellite data at its possession. I hope they are doing that. We employ a much smaller budget to follow this goal within the Galileo Project,” Loeb told Space.com earlier.
The question is whether there is even one object for which human-made or natural origins can be excluded, Loeb notes. In particular, do we have materials from any of them?
“If some data has no national security implications, it should be analyzed by top scientists. I would love to help interpret the highest quality data if shared openly,” Loeb explains.
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3483. Distance driven at that sol: 17.39 miles/27.98 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3485 tasks.
Mars researchers have been savoring imagery from the rover, “greeted with a beautiful vista, with well preserved layering and amazing outcrops, and a reminder of just how stunning the planet Mars is,” reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Curiosity Mastcam image showing some of the rover’s surroundings. Image taken on Sol 3478, May 19, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“Mastcam takes a 360 degree image on a regular basis, and our last one was fairly recently, on sol 3474, but given the stunning views from here, it was suggested that we take another here if we could fit it in,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3483, May 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Gnarly-looking nodules
At the robot’s exploration site, the bedrock is rough, with larger “gnarly” looking nodules or lumps of material, and smaller exposures of nodular free, laminated bedrock. A smooth spot was identified that was just large enough to brush on the laminated material, so the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) was set to analyze the brushed surface at “Bamboo Creek” and the unbrushed surface at “Maple Creek.”
Curiosity’s Dust Removal Tool taken by Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right on Sol 3483, May 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“Pairing targets like this is very beneficial to APXS, allowing us to compare adjacent compositions and to determine if compositional trends are ‘real’ or if dust buildup is obscuring some of the more subtle trends,” O’Connell-Cooper explains.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image taken on Sol 3481, May 22, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Long distance imaging
The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) was slated to use its Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument to look at the chemistry of Bamboo Creek, and Mastcam is scheduled to use multispectral imaging to look at the brushed spot.
An investigation of the nodular-rich bedrock was to be performed.
The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is on tap to take a suite of images on one of the largest features “Apoteri,” whilst ChemCam and Mastcam take aim at “El Gato.” ChemCam will use the long distance imaging (RMI) to look at some possible Prow-like material in the distance, O’Connell-Cooper reports.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image acquired on Sol 3483, May 25, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Full list of activities
Mastcam has a full list of activities, looking at more possible Prow-like lens material (at “Sierra Maigualida”) in the distance, and characterizing sedimentary structures near the rover (at “Ampa,”) in addition to imaging of Mirador butte and the cliffs to the east of Mirador.
“There is also a special Mastcam multispectral sunset image, timed to document the brightness of the sky when the sun is at a low angle,” O’Connell-Cooper concludes. “But despite this heavy load, the views were just too good to pass up, so Mastcam will get that 360 image here too – keep your eyes peeled for that image!”
Starliner artwork depicts airbag-assisted landing in New Mexico.
Credit: Boeing
With the intravehicular activity (IVA) hatch closed and leak checks now complete, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner is in a good configuration to return home today.
After several days docked at the International Space Station, Starliner is ready to complete its physical separation.
Approximately one hour before undocking, mission operations teams will conduct a landing zone weather briefing. At 45 minutes before undocking, they will conduct the “go/no go” poll to proceed with undocking operations.
Starliner reentry path.
Credit: Boeing
If a go is given, Starliner will then commence its outbound flyaround maneuver, moving above, around and then behind the ISS before conducting a departure burn and exiting the approach ellipsoid (AE).
Return cargo
Starliner will then start deorbit and landing operations, targeting a touchdown at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 6:49 p.m. ET. Flight controllers are keeping a close eye on winds at the New Mexico landing site.
Credit: Boeing
The Boeing-built Starliner is loaded with 600 pounds of return cargo, including three Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System (NORS) tanks and hardware supporting tissue engineering research.
For mission updates from Boeing, go to:
Coverage of undocking and landing will start at 2:00 p.m. ET on NASA TV and at nasa.gov/live.
White Sands Missile Range will also be sharing the live-stream on Facebook at:
Credit: ISS/NASA
A new study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the Moon may be a waterlogged world, far more than scientists once thought.
This prospective finding stems from work done by University of Colorado, Boulder researchers that suggests lunar volcanoes may have left another lasting impact on the Moon’s surface: sheets of ice that dot the Moon’s poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even hundreds of feet thick.
“We envision it as a frost on the Moon that built up over time,” said Andrew Wilcoski, lead author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder.
Wilcoski and his colleagues — Paul Hayne and Margaret Landis — published their findings this month in The Planetary Science Journal.
Credit: Andrew X. Wilcoski et al 2022 Planet. Sci. J. 3 99
Short-lived, collisional atmospheres
“Our work suggests that the volcanically active period of the early Moon would have been punctuated by short-lived, collisional atmospheres that enabled the efficient sequestration of large quantities (8.2 × 1015 kg) of water ice at the poles and the temporary diurnal availability of water ice and vapor at all latitudes,” states the research paper.
“It’s possible that 5 or 10 meters below the surface, you have big sheets of ice,” added Hayne, assistant professor in APS and LASP in a university press statement.
At its peak, the Moon is estimated to have experienced one eruption every 22,000 years, on average. The research team used computer modeling to track how volcanic gases may have swirled around the Moon, escaping into space over time. The result: conditions may have gotten icy; roughly 41% of the water from volcanoes may have condensed onto the Moon as ice, estimated the scientists.
Maximum surface temperatures measured by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment and adjusted to account for ∼25% lower solar luminosity at ∼3.5 Ga from ±60° latitude to the poles in the south (left) and the north (right).
Credit: Andrew X. Wilcoski et al 2022 Planet. Sci. J. 3 99
Subsurface burial grounds
As an input, the model uses maximum temperature maps from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on board the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Ice distribution and thickness after a complete 2 Gyr model run. (a, b) Maps from ±60° latitude to the poles in (a) the south and (b) the north. (c, d) Maps from ±80° latitude to the poles in (c) the south and (d) the north. (e, f) Ice deposits remaining after 4 Gyr of sublimation to space.
Credit: Andrew X. Wilcoski et al 2022 Planet. Sci. J. 3 99
The group calculated that about 18 quadrillion pounds of volcanic water could have condensed as ice during that period. That’s more water than currently sits in Lake Michigan. And the research suggests that much of that lunar water may still be present today, but buried under several feet of lunar dust, or regolith, explains the university press statement.
To get down to this ice reservoir, that means drill, baby drill.
Next step
But first, what next?
“One of the next steps for this particular project will be determining what other substances may have condensed out of these volcanic atmospheres and how much of these substances we might expect to find mixed in with volcanically sourced ice,” Wilcoski told Inside Outer Space.
For example, various sulfur species were likely released during volcanic eruptions on the Moon and many may have ended up mixed in with the water ice, Wilcoski said. “It’s important to nail down how much sulfur we’d expect to find in these ice deposits because if we one day drill into this ice and find sulfur then we will be able to tell how much of that ice came from volcanism as opposed to other sources. Additionally, if this ice is one day used as a resource by humans, it’s important to know what else is mixed in with the water.”
Wilcoski added that a longer-term next step that goes beyond just he and his colleagues work is to one day go drill for this ice on the Moon.
“With our work, we’ve shown that it’s possible that volcanism left a significant amount of ice at the lunar poles. If we can find the remnants of these deposits on the Moon today, they will tell a fascinating story of the history of water on the Moon and in our solar system,” Wilcoski concluded.
To access the research paper – “Polar Ice Accumulation from Volcanically Induced Transient Atmospheres on the Moon” – go to:
White Sands Missile Range personnel supporting NASA and Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) landing and recovery of the Starliner spacecraft participated in a Mission Dress Rehearsal on May 18, 2022 at White Sands Space Harbor.
Credit: Anne Marie Chadima, White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs
All is ready for receiving the uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, making its touchdown at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The Boeing-built spacecraft departed on May 19 from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida to successfully link up with the International Space Station.
The anticipated landing is on May 25 at White Sands Missile Range.
A Starliner Mission Dress Rehearsal was held on May 18 at White Sands Space Harbor, a spaceport that was formerly used as a Space Shuttle runway, a test site for rocket research, and the primary training area used by NASA for Space Shuttle pilots practicing approaches and landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft and T-38 Talon aircraft.
Credit: Anne Marie Chadima, White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs
White Sands Missile Range provides Army, Navy, Air Force, DoD, and other customers with services for experimentation, test, research, assessment, development, and training.
Weather: significant factor
Karla James works for the Materiel Test Directorate as the Air and Space Branch Test Officer at White Sands Missile Range, WSMR for short.
James noted that they will determine the capsule’s trajectory on the day of the anticipated landing, with weather playing a significant factor. The WSMR Meteorology Branch is providing weather data utilizing weather balloon releases. If the weather or any other factor causes the module to shift from the agreed-upon landing sites between WSMR and Boeing, the crew module will need to land at an alternate site or delay the spacecraft’s return.
White Sands Missile Range personnel supporting NASA and Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) landing and recovery of the Starliner spacecraft participated in a Mission Dress Rehearsal on May 18, 2022 at White Sands Space Harbor.
Credit: Anne Marie Chadima, White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs
Since there are two potential landing sites on the installation, the entire WSMR team, Boeing, NASA, and all other personnel need to be prepared for the landing and recovery to happen at either location. They also have alternate landing plans that are executable within a few hours if the flight tests or missions need to return earlier than originally planned.
Ground recovery operations
According to Vanessa Flores of White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs, for the Starliner landing, a “Counter Drone” is to video an aerial view of ground recovery, expected to show various vehicles en route to the capsule after it lands.
Also, the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range Garrison Fire Department has received training on their part in the landing and recovery process. In the future, they will also receive training on what to do when astronauts are present within the capsule.
Credit: Boeing
On capsule landing, Boeing has a requirement to ensure it is safe to approach the capsule and open the hatch. Boeing personnel in protective suits with hydrazine monitors and, depending on the wind, are to determine where to set up the staging area.
“Up-wind or down-wind plays a key part in the location,” James said.
Landing sequence
This is the second landing of the Starliner spacecraft on the Army installation. The first landing was in December 2019, with the unpiloted capsule completing the first land touchdown of a human-rated capsule in U.S. history.
In November of 2019, the Boeing Pad Abort Test also landed successfully at White Sands Missile Range.
Credit: Boeing
According to Boeing, on landing day, the parachute sequence begins around 30,000 feet (9 km) above the ground, when Starliner jettisons the forward heat shield that protects the parachutes during reentry. Two drogue parachutes begin slowing Starliner down, then detach. The three main parachutes are then deployed and inflated, and about 3,000 feet (0.9 km) off the ground, the airbags inflate. On touchdown, those airbags absorb the initial forces of landing.
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is seen after it landed in White Sands, New Mexico on December 22, 2019. The landing completed an abbreviated Orbital Flight Test for the company.
Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Credit: Prime Video
The first episode of a new sci-fi drama series has been beamed into space, available to anyone open to receiving satellite signals.
Prime Video, Amazon Web Services (AWS), satellite services providers SES and Intelsat “beamed” the first episode of the new sci-fi drama series Night Sky from Legendary Television into outer space, “marking the first-ever intergalactic premiere for a TV series,” stated a Prime Video press statement.
Night Sky follows Irene (Sissy Spacek) and Franklin York (J.K. Simmons), a couple who, years ago, discovered a chamber buried in their backyard which inexplicably leads to a strange, deserted planet.
Credit: Prime Video
Space streaming
Intelsat and SES leveraged AWS modernized cloud infrastructures to securely receive a pre-release of the first episode of Night Sky. Using ground stations and geostationary satellite fleets, a 360-degree broadcast was performed of the show’s first episode into space.
“This marks not only the farthest distance that a TV series has been intentionally distributed, but also makes Prime Video the first streamer to distribute its content directly into space,” adds the press statement.
For more information on Night sky, go to:
https://press.amazonstudios.com/us/en/original-series/night-sky/1
Credit: NOVA
Noted asteroid expert, Clark Chapman, a senior scientist (retired) from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, has assessed a recent NOVA broadcast that had Sir David Attenborough guiding viewers on a search for clues that could provide an unprecedented snapshot of what happened in the dinosaurs’ final moments on Earth.
The evening of 5/11/2022 “Nova” (WGBH) broadcast a two-hour special, narrated by David Attenborough, telling a “Just So” story about the “last day” of the Cretaceous period. This was first published in the March 29, 2019 issue of The New Yorker. An introduction had been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but the promised follow-on peer-reviewed articles with actual evidence have not been published yet, so far as I can tell. (A “Scientific Reports” article published this past December tries to deduce the season of the impact (spring), but shies away from demonstrating any paleontological evidence about what happened on the “last day.”) Despite lack of peer-reviewed focus on the “last day,” this didn’t stop the BBC and now PBS from giving a high profile to this story (e.g. front-page story in a recent Washington Post story).
Amateur paleontologists to credible professionals
The first hour of Nova doesn’t even get to the day that Chicxulub was formed. Although there are brief segments showing an artist’s poor conception of an asteroid heading toward Earth, it doesn’t arrive until the second hour. When asteroid astronomy is briefly mentioned, it is done badly. The graphics have it first nearly hitting Mars, which is pure fiction. Most of the words and all of the graphics show that Near-Earth Asteroids are bumped into Earth-approaching orbits when they collide with each other, although Jupiter’s gravity is briefly mentioned.
European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake took this image from the International Space Station of the Yucatan Peninsula – site of the Chicxulub impact crater.
Credit: Tim Peake/ESA/NASA
The first hour is devoted to paleontological work in the Hell Creek formation in North Dakota, where dinosaur fossils have been discovered for over a century. It shows Robert DePalma and associates scraping away in the mud and finding petrified animal bones and skin. Meanwhile, Attenborough narrates fancy graphics showing dinosaurs walking around in a rain-forest landscape. DePalma was an amateur paleontologist, who became a belated graduate student during most of his studies. There are about a dozen other commentators during the two-hours, ranging from another amateur paleontologist to credible professionals in several fields, most of them sticking to their areas of expertise without explicitly endorsing the “last day” story.
For instance, Cathy Plesko of Los Alamos Natl. Lab talks about results of her numerical modeling of giant impacts. There are limits to what can be gleaned from paleontological studies and Attenborough’s script strays far into the realm of speculation. We are told that certain male dinosaurs were “loners”, that some probably dug in sandy soils for roots, and that another species generally laid two eggs at once (despite an earlier explanation that the number of fossilized dinosaur eggs found worldwide number little more than half-a-dozen). Some paleontologists and archaeologists love to speculate on stories beyond what can be robustly proved by analysis of their excavations, and that was the tone of the first hour’s script.
Minimal evidence
The last half of the second hour was all about the general worldwide environmental horrors during the minutes, days, and months following the impact. There were extravagant graphics and videos depicting scenarios that have been discussed for decades…little was new here, though there was an unusual emphasis on the far-flung effects of seismicity.
It was the first half of the second hour where the focus was on “the last day,” and purported evidence (and dramatic artistic videos) of what might have happened to individual animals that wound up dying on that day and later fossilized.
One wishes that the evidence would be published in a scientific journal, because one cannot expect a popularized documentary to go into the necessary detail. But it struck me as being minimal evidence and extremely unlikely to be true. The chief evidence seems to be some tiny spherules caught in a petrified fish’s gills. Of course, the Cretaceous–Paleogene( K/Pg) boundary layer is made up of such spherules, but they also result from meteorite falls all the time. And spherules are produced by volcanic and industrial processes, among others. The proponents of “the last day” hypothesis are clearly hoping to find a dinosaur that died on the day of the impact. They find a plausible specimen, they think, but finally conclude that it probably died weeks or months earlier. Given that dating of the K/Pg event has an uncertainty of tens of thousands of years (as one commentator on the program mentions), there’s no reason to think that the particular dinosaur didn’t die 30,000 weeks before the final day.
Credit: NASA/Don Davis
One spherule contains a tiny inclusion that is rich in iron and nickel. It is offered as proof that the spherule contains an unmelted particle from the asteroid that struck on that day. Earlier in the program, it is stated that a carbonaceous asteroid created Chicxulub, and carbonaceous chondrites typically contain only a few percent of siderophile material. Regardless, while iron-rich material is consistent with many meteorite compositions, it is hardly proof of extraterrestrial origin. A diagram is briefly shown that suggests that spherules in Hell Creek have the same compositions as known K/Pg spherules. The context and origin of the diagram aren’t shown, but it is hardly surprising that such spherules are in Hell Creek. One video actually shows a small animal (a contemporary mouse?) crawling out of an exposure of the K/Pg boundary layer in Hell Creek.
Public fascination
All of this may not be important, despite public fascination with “the last day.” For sure there was a last day, even though it can’t be timed within tens-of-thousands of years. And it isn’t known what fraction of animals and plants were killed on that day worldwide (or in North Dakota), nor how many weeks or decades it took for whole species to be rendered extinct.There may have been a tsunami or otherwise turbulent waters in North Dakota that day, to account for evidence of “tumbled” fossils, but then there are many large thunderstorms every year, and many giant floods every century (like the Red River Flood in 1997), in North Dakota. I consider the “Just So” story to be “possible” but extremely unlikely. I have to admit that editors of Attenborough’s script seem to have ensured that nothing about the “last day” is said to be a certain fact. Attenborough often uses words like “possible”, “likely”, “might have”, and so on. And one commentator repeatedly cautions the viewers that science has “uncertainties.” But the impression the viewer is left with, after the two hours of being awed by all the Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) of dinosaurs, is that the whole “last day” story has a fifty-fifty, or similar, chance of being true, whereas it seems to me to have an extremely tiny probability of being true from the evidence so far presented.
— Review by Clark Chapman
