Three Things for September 27
1. Crash test: NASA edition
NASA’s first planetary defense test occurred on Monday, Sept. 26, when a spacecraft crashed into an asteroid in an attempt to alter the asteroid’s course.
The spacecraft launched in November 2021, with the intent to determine whether it could change the orbit of an asteroid by 1%, but verification could take scientists up to a few months.
“We’re embarking on a new era of humankind,” NASA’s planetary science division director Lori Glaze said to the Associated Press.
The $325 million mission was NASA’s first test of planetary defense technology, with the goal of preparing for unprecedented cosmic threats.
“No, this is not a movie plot,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson tweeted. He added in a video statement preceding the impact: “We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high.”
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2. Trees for peace
During the week of Sept. 19, a peace tree ceremony was held in Oregon to celebrate the culmination of a four year-long effort to plant saplings that survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan.
Hideko Tamura Snider, the guest of honor, was 10 years old when the United States detonated a bomb over her city during World War II.
The campaign represents “ways to come together in peace, looking with great hope for the future of this world, rather than perishing in the God-awful nuclear explosion.” said Tamura Snider.
51 trees in total were planted in Oregon over the four year campaign, the largest amount of Hiroshima peace trees outside of Japan.
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3. Germany loses glacier
According to German scientists the Southern Schneeferner, an ice sheet in the Bavarian Alps, has lost its title as a glacier due to shrinking because of heat.
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences made the announcement on Monday, Sept. 26. The academy said “the Schneeferner's ice thickness shrank significantly in large swathes and in most places no longer measures even two meters (6 feet).”
The academy expects the ice sheet to completely melt within the next few years.
Germany now has four remaining glaciers, many of which could melt away in the upcoming decades according to Bavaria’s Environment Ministry. Experts pinpoint human contribution to climate change as the culprit.
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