Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory is up and running, and it just spotted a nearby asteroid

It was bigger than anyone thought. When astronomers captured high-resolution images of the near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon earlier this month, one of the first things they noticed was that it outstripped previous estimates for the rocky object’s size, expanding its girth from 3 miles to 3.6 miles.

The images were captured using a powerful planetary radar system at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, hit hard by Hurricane Maria in September. While the observatory's generators meant its radio telescope observations were back just days after the storm, getting the radar up and running took more time.

The radar system required enormous amounts of diesel to run, and fuel on the island was in short supply after Maria. Instead, the observatory became a staging groundfor relief flying into the surrounding area.

Months later, as power slowly returned to the island, the Observatory was able to turn on its radar again to get these shots of Phaethon as it passed near the Earth. The images have a resolution of about 250 feet per pixel—pretty impressive for a beauty shot taken from millions of miles away.

"These new observations of Phaethon show it may be similar in shape to asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, but more than 1,000 Bennus could fit inside of Phaethon," Patrick Taylor, group leader for Planetary Radar at Arecibo Observatory, said in a statement. "The dark feature could be a crater or some other topographic depression that did not reflect the radar beam back to Earth."

Like many objects floating around our solar system, Phaethon takes its name from mythology. Near-Earth objects tend to be given names from myths around the world, but not myths that involve creation tales or the underworld—those are reserved for objects in other parts of the solar system.

In this case, Phaethon takes its name from Greek mythology. Phaethon was the son of the sun god Helios, and asked his dad for a chance to drive the sun-carrying chariot across the sky. Phaethon wasn’t great at driving, almost burning up the Earth. Zeus shot him out of the sky to avoid disaster, killing the foolish flier in the process.

Luckily, there’s no need to worry about this Phaethon scorching the planet anytime soon. Though it is large and classified as ‘potentially hazardous’, it made its closest pass by Earth on December 16, at a distance of 6.4 million miles. That’s 27 times farther away than the moon. Researchers discovered Phaethon in 1989, and think that it did come closer to Earth in the past, getting as near as 3.2 million miles back in 1931. It’s not expected to come ‘close’ to Earth again until 2093.

Observatories like Arecibo, which has the most powerful radar system on the planet, keep an eye on Phaethon and others like it for us. Asteroids larger than one kilometer could have a disastrous effect should they actually collide with Earth, potentially causing mass extinctions, or shifting the global climate. Asteroids larger than 100 meters (328 feet) could have devastating local impacts. While researchers estimate that they’ve found 90 percent of near-Earth objects (NEOs) with a diameter larger than 1 km (0.6 miles), the goal now is to find 90 percent of all NEOs larger than 140 meters. There are an estimated 17,000 of these objects still awaiting discovery.

The 54-year-old observatory recently faced down fears of a forced retirement, but in November the government granted Arecibo another year of funding.

Images of near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon taken by the Arecibo Observatory.

Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF

The observatory was battered by Hurricane Maria earlier this year.

By Mary Beth Griggs
Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory is up and running, and it just spotted a nearby asteroid

Isaac Newton 'Graffiti' Discovered in Historic English Manor

Towering thinker Sir Isaac Newton carved a now-barely visible doodle of a windmill into a stone wall in his childhood home, according to a news release from the National Trust.

The drawing was discovered at Woolsthorpe Manor, the Lincolnshire, England,home where Newton was born in 1642, said the National Trust,which protects the house and other heritage sites in the United Kingdom.

Newton is famous for his laws of motion, theory of universal gravitationand an experiment that involved shooting sunlight through a prism to create a rainbow effect (and inspire a very famous Pink Floyd album cover). But before Newton was a Sir, he was a boy — and apparently that boy had a thing for drawing on walls. [The Mysterious Physics of 7 Everyday Things]

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Chris Pickup, an independent conservator and doctoral candidate at Nottingham Trent University in England made the discovery while investigating the manor. Pickup used a photographic technique called reflectance transformation imaging (RTI). By bathing the interior walls of the manor in light coming from multiple different directions, Pickup was able to capture details of the surfaces that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye, including the faded outlines of Newton's alleged doodle.

"It's amazing to be using light, which Newton understood better than anyone before him, to discover more about his time at Woolsthorpe," Pickup said in the news release. "I hope that by using this technique, we're able to find out more about Newton as man and boy and shine a light on how his extraordinary mind worked."

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New light technology has revealed graffiti thought to have been drawn by a young Isaac Newton on the walls @NTWoolsthorpe: http://ow.ly/fiXg30h33vn 

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Young Newton

Newton was born at the manor on Christmas Day, 1642, and spent the first few years of his life at the house. Decades later, in 1665, Newton returned to Woolsthorpe when the University of Cambridge, where he was studying, closed due to an outbreak of the plague. It was at Woolsthorpe that Newton performed many of his experiments involving light and optics, including the famous work with prisms that led him to conclude white light contains all other colors in combination. An apple tree still standing in the nearby orchard is said to be the very tree that inspired Newton to develop his law of universal gravitation, after watching an apple drop from the branches to the grass below.

The newly identified drawing is thought to have been inspired by a mill that was built near the manor during Newton's childhood. The construction of any mechanical object would have likely stoked the boy's curiosity, the National Trust said.

"The young Newton was fascinated by mechanical objects and the forces that made them work," Jim Grevatte, a program manager for the Illuminating Newton series at Woolsthorpe Manor, said in the release."Paper was expensive, and the walls of the house would have been re-painted regularly, so using them as a sketch pad as he explored the world around him would have made sense."

Newton-era drawings were previously discovered on the manor walls in the 1920s and 1930s, after various farmhouse tenants peeled away the old wallpaper. In 1752, Newton's friend and biographer William Stukeley wrote that the walls and ceilings of Newton's home were "full of drawings, which he [Newton] had made with charcole. There were birds, beasts, men, ships, plants, mathematical figures, circles & triangles."

There was "scarce a board in the partitions about the room" that Newton hadn't scrawled upon, Stukeley wrote.

Originally published on Live Science.

By Brandon Specktor
Isaac Newton 'Graffiti' Discovered in Historic English Manor

Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory Will Stay Open, Despite Funding Concerns

Two months since Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico, most of the island is still recovering from the disaster — including the Arecibo Observatory, home of the world's second-largest radio telescope. This week, the dozens of astronomers and other staff at the facility have some good news to celebrate: The Arecibo Observatory will remain open after years of being on the chopping block.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds approximately two-thirds of the observatory's annual budget of $12 million, announced on Thursday (Nov. 16) that it will not shut down the Arecibo Observatory. This decision comes after more than a decade of discussions about the future of the 54-year-old observatory.

However, this good news comes with one drawback: The NSF still plans to withdraw much of the funding it gives to the observatory, reducing its annual contribution from $8.2 million to $2 million over the next five years, the journal Nature reports. But instead of leaving the observatory high and dry, the NSF is working to secure new partnerships with other institutions that can take over the burden of funding and managing the facility. [Arecibo Observatory: Puerto Rico's Giant Radio Telescope in Photos] 

"This is very good news for the Arecibo Observatory and a huge win for the scientific community in general," Francisco Córdova, the observatory's director, told Nature. "There is definitely a sense of relief in the air."

The announcement brought a much-needed sigh of relief to the people who operate the observatory as well as many other members of the local community who found shelter and solace at the facility after losing their homes in Hurricane Maria.

While the Arecibo Observatory fared pretty well during hurricane compared to much of the rest of the island, it did sustain some minor damages. With the NSF already working on plans to reduce funding and potentially close the observatory, costly damages could have been the last straw. However, the damage turned out to be minimal. The NSF estimates that repairs should cost somewhere between $4 million and $8 million. 

 

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"NSF remains deeply concerned about the impacts from recent hurricanes on Arecibo Observatory staff, the facility and all citizens of Puerto Rico," NSF officials said in a statement, adding that the decision "arrives at a challenging time, but is necessary for the agency to secure a future for the observatory. It will allow negotiations to begin with potential collaborators who may take over management and operations as NSF funding for the observatory is reduced. 

"We were quite surprised by how little damage there was," John Kelly, an investigator with SRI International, which helps to operate the observatory, told Space.com. "The reflector itself sustained minor damage when a couple of minor feed antennas broke and fell into the dish, damaging 15 or 20 of the panels. There are thousands of panels that make up that reflector, and only about 15 or 20 have been damaged. And they're replaceable … I don't think the damage is anywhere near what would be considered a justifiable reason for decommissioning the facility at this point," Kelly said.

In addition to the NSF, SRI International and other research institutions, the Arecibo Observatory also receives funding from NASA to look for near-Earth asteroids that could pose a danger to the planet. Astronomers also use the facility to look for potentially habitable exoplanets and signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Credit: Arecibo Observatory/NSF

By Hanneke Weitering
Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory Will Stay Open, Despite Funding Concerns

Puerto Rico ‘Data Jam’ lets students put their spin on scientific data

Data is the currency of scientific discovery, but when packaged in complex spreadsheets or figures with obscure unit measurements, many can find it intimidating to interpret.

Breaking down those obstacles and making scientific data accessible is the goal of the Data Jam, an event to be held on Monday, May 15, in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest. There, local middle and high school students will present their creative interpretations of environmental data collected from the surrounding tropical forest by Penn researchers and others.

El Yunque is home to the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), one of a network of nine National Science Foundation-supported research stations where multidisciplinary teams of scientists study the area’s biology, geology, and chemistry from bedrock to the top of the tree canopy. Several faculty members and students from Penn’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science, led by associate professor Alain Plante, are involved in research at the Luquillo CZO, the only tropical ecosystem represented in the network.

Miguel Leon, the information manager of the Luquillo CZO who is based at Penn, pushed for a Data Jam as a way of sharing the work done in Puerto Rico with a larger—and younger—audience. Steven McGee from Northwestern University, a LCZO collaborator who has led many of the education and outreach efforts, partnered with Penn staff and faculty to develop the learning activity.

“Part of the impetus was to have a space where the CZO scientists could interact with the local students,” Leon says.

The first Data Jam was held last spring in conjunction with a Luquillo CZO scientific meeting and poster presentation at El Yunque’s visitor center. Students from local middle and high schools presented their projects, which ranged from formal scientific posters to less-traditional creations, such as a diorama depicting the forest’s stream systems and a rap song about global warming and drought.

This year, Leon has again been working with the University of Puerto Rico’s Noelia Báez, McGee, and other partners to prepare a dataset for students to interpret, using information collected by scientists affiliated with the CZO as well as the NSF-sponsored Luquillo Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) program. The CZO and LTER teams also held a workshop in Puerto Rico last fall for 20 science teachers, helping to get them comfortable with datasets reflecting measurements such as stream flow, rainfall, and soil moisture taken during both droughts and storm events. These teachers were then able to incorporate data analysis activities in their own classrooms. Some of the results will be on display at this month’s Data Jam. 

The CZO team is looking forward to more good outcomes this year, with 20 students from nine different schools expected to participate.

“I think it’s a unique opportunity for students to work with data that is real and answer some interesting questions about it,” says Elizabeth Coward, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science who studies soil carbon in the Luquillo CZO and attended last year’s presentation. “These are students from the local areas who have probably been to the park, and now they get to learn firsthand about the science that’s happening there.”

At the Data Jam, middle and high school students will present their creative interpretations of environmental data collected by Penn researchers and others. Photo by Noelia Báez Rodríguez

On Monday, May 15, Penn researchers will help put on a Data Jam in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest, with the goal of making scientific data more accessible.
by Katherine Unger Baillie
Puerto Rico ‘Data Jam’ lets students put their spin on scientific data

Future of giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico in limbo

The future of one of the world's largest single-dish radio telescopes is in question after the U.S. National Science Foundation announced Wednesday it was accepting proposals from those interested in assuming operations at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

The announcement comes as the federal agency runs out of funds to support the observatory, which features a 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish used in part to search for gravitational waves and track asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth.

Officials with the foundation stressed in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press that the agency prefers that the observatory remain open with the help of collaborators that would provide a funding boost.

"Our (community reviews) have recognized that Arecibo does great science and will continue to do great science," said Ralph Gaume, acting division director for the foundation's Division of Astronomical Sciences.

However, he warned it's possible none of the proposals that have to be submitted by late April will be chosen. This would leave the foundation with alternatives including suspending operations at the observatory, turning it into an educational center or shutting it down.

The first hint that the 53-year-old observatory was at risk came a decade ago, when a panel of experts recommended it be shut down unless other institutions could help the foundation. The agency finances two-thirds of the observatory's $12 million annual budget, and officials said it could provide some $20 million over a five-year period to a potential new operator.

Scientists use the observatory in part to detect radio emissions emitted by objects including stars and galaxies, and it has been featured in the Jodie Foster film "Contact" and the James Bond movie "GoldenEye." It attracts about 90,000 visitors and some 200 scientists a year that use the observatory for free to do research, said observatory director Francisco Cordova.

However, he told the AP that could change depending on the type of proposals submitted.

"Perhaps in the future, scientists might have to pay to use it," he said, adding that the observatory still plays a key role in research including the study of solar eruptions capable of disrupting electronic equipment.

The observatory has been threatened in recent years by bigger, more powerful telescopes in places like Chile and China, where officials recently unveiled the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST.

The foundation said it expects to make a decision by late 2017 as it awaits completion of a final environmental impact statement, which will outline all alternatives for the observatory's future.

Future of giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico in limbo