World

Human-Generated Seismic Noise Quiets During Quarantine

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AGU News:

Decrease of seismic noise level, after reduction of traffic due to the COVID‐19 pandemia, has been observed worldwide.

The possibility of using seismic noise as another proxy to estimate social isolation was tested with a station within Rio de Janeiro. Researchers used the isolation index measured from smart‐phone movement to calibrate the seismic noise levels and estimated an Isolation Seismic Index, ISI (% of the population at home), using the seismic noise energy.

Noise levels best correlate with isolation measures in the frequency range 4‐8Hz. Small differences between Read More

Los Alamos Historical Society Continues Its Mission

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Los Alamos Historical Society Executive Director Elizabeth Martineau in the Victory Garden behind the Hans Bethe House on Bathtub Row. Enterprise Bank’s support helped create this garden open daily to the public. Photo by Gordon McDonough 

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By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com

Despite the global pandemic and state health emergency mandates, Los Alamos Historical Society continues to meet its mission. 

“While we look forward to opening the museum when allowed to do so safely, in the meantime our Lecture Series will continue this Read More

Elon Musk SpaceX To Launch Kleos Space Satellite Cluster

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Scouting Mission (Red) and Polar Vigilance Mission (Yellow) Single Orbit Plots. Courtesy/KLEOS

SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. Courtesy/KLEOS

KLEOS SPACE News:

Kleos Space (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a-service company, announces that it has signed a contract with Spaceflight Inc. to carry and launch a cluster of Kleos satellites on the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch scheduled for mid 2021.

This launch will be the second cluster launched by Kleos, following the expected launch of the Kleos Scouting Mission aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Read More

Reilly: Noteworthy Events Between July 16 And Aug. 15, 1945

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By Dr. T. DOUGLAS REILLY
Los Alamos

Several noteworthy events occurred between July 16 and Aug. 15, 1945; these include the Trinity Test in southern New Mexico, the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, the bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, and Japan’s surrender on Aug.15.
 
President Truman had no choice but to approve the bombings. As vice president, it was considered unnecessary for him to know about the Manhattan Project. When FDR died, Truman took the oath of office. Then Secretary of War Harold Stimson told him of the Manhattan Project; he also told him of the estimated fatalities from Operation
Read More

AGU: Researchers Capture Rarely Heard Narwhal Vocals

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An Inuit hunter near Bowdoin Fjord in Greenland during a whale hunt in 2019. Photo by Evgeny Podolskiy

Dubbed the unicorns of the sea, narwhals can have tusks up to 10 feet long protruding from their head, weigh up to 4,200 pounds and grow to 17 feet in length. Source: worldwildlife.org. Courtesy/worldwildlife.org

AGU News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the help of Inuit hunters, geophysicists recently recorded the various calls, buzzes, clicks and whistles of narwhals as they summered in a Greenland fjord.

The recordings help scientists better understand the soundscape of Arctic glacial fjords Read More

Megaripple Migration Offers Insights Into Martian Atmosphere

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Large, bright-toned ripples in the sand within Proctor Crater on Mars. Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

AGU News:

Scientists show for the first time that large sand ripples known as megaripples are migrating on Mars, according to a new study. The findings suggest Mars’s dusty surface might be much more active than previously suspected, offering clues about the Red Planet’s poorly understood atmosphere.

Sand dunes and ripples are typical features of deserts on both Earth and Mars. Megaripples are distinguished from smaller ripples by the coarser sand grains that gather Read More

Take Guided ‘Tour’ Of SuperCam On New Mars Rover

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Mars Technica podcast gives listeners a virtual peek inside the most versatile instrument aboard the Perseverance rover. Courtesy/LANL
LANL News:
  • Mars Technica is a new, limited- series podcast where experts talk about the science behind the Mars Perseverance mission.
NASA’s new Perseverance rover, which just started its seven-month journey to Mars, carries on board what is likely the most versatile instrument ever created to understand the planet’s past habitability: SuperCam—and a new podcast will tell listeners all about it.
“SuperCam sits on the rover’s mast and has a laser that
Read More

Santa Fe Activist Shares Hiroshima Day Recollections

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Photograph of Hiroshima shortly after the dropping of the atomic bomb. Photo by Shiegeo Hayashi

Stephen Fox

By BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb  on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton Read More

Moment Caught On Film Becomes Historic Photo

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A moment in history: In 1992, LANL Director Siegfried Hecker and VNIIEF Scientific Director Yuli Khariton shake hands on an airfield in Russia. Photograph by Vladimir Shmakov

Vladimir Shmakov, photographer of the historic photograph. Courtesy photo.

By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society

In 2018, Russian scientist Vladimir Shmakov walked past the doors of the library for the Physics and Mathematics department at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center for Technical Physics (VNIITF). A display of new books caught his attention. It included a two-volume set of Doomed to Cooperate, Read More