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Thursday, June 23, 2011

NASA’s Cassini–Huygens spacecraft has discovered evidence for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft’s direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon. The study has been published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.

Data from Cassini’s cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and usually low in salt far away from the moon. Closer to the moon’s surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an “ocean-like” composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt-water. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind.

Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectrograph also recently obtained complementary results that support the presence of a subsurface ocean. A team of Cassini researchers led by Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, measured gas shooting out of distinct jets originating in the moon’s south polar region at five to eight times the speed of sound, several times faster than previously measured. These observations of distinct jets, from a 2010 flyby, are consistent with results showing a difference in composition of ice grains close to the moon’s surface and those that made it out to the E ring, the outermost ring that gets its material primarily from Enceladean jets. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.

“There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus’s icy surface,” said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

The data suggests a layer of water between the moon’s rocky core and its icy mantle, possibly as deep as about 50 miles (80 kilometers) beneath the surface. As this water washes against the rocks, it dissolves salt compounds and rises through fractures in the overlying ice to form reserves nearer the surface. If the outermost layer cracks open, the decrease in pressure from these reserves to space causes a plume to shoot out. Roughly 400 pounds (200 kilograms) of water vapor is lost every second in the plumes, with smaller amounts being lost as ice grains. The team calculates the water reserves must have large evaporating surfaces, or they would freeze easily and stop the plumes.

“We imagine that between the ice and the ice core there is an ocean of depth and this is somehow connected to the surface reservoir,” added Postberg.

The Cassini mission discovered Enceladus’ water-vapor and ice jets in 2005. In 2009, scientists working with the cosmic dust analyzer examined some sodium salts found in ice grains of Saturn’s E ring but the link to subsurface salt water was not definitive. The new paper analyzes three Enceladus flybys in 2008 and 2009 with the same instrument, focusing on the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. In 2008, Cassini discovered a high “density of volatile gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials, some 20 times denser than expected” in geysers erupting from the moon. The icy particles hit the detector target at speeds between 15,000 and 39,000 MPH (23,000 and 63,000 KPH), vaporizing instantly. Electrical fields inside the cosmic dust analyzer separated the various constituents of the impact cloud.

“Enceladus has got warmth, water and organic chemicals, some of the essential building blocks needed for life,” said Dennis Matson in 2008, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“This finding is a crucial new piece of evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life can be sustained on icy bodies orbiting gas giant planets,” said Nicolas Altobelli, the European Space Agency’s project scientist for Cassini.

“If there is water in such an unexpected place, it leaves possibility for the rest of the universe,” said Postberg.

Saturday, July 9, 2005

Today The Walt Disney Company issued a joint statement with business partners Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold to the media, as a show of reunion between the two camps after nearly three years of hostility.

Roy E. Disney, son of company co-founder Roy O. Disney and nephew of the company namesake Walt Disney, had resigned from his job as chairman of Feature Animation at the company after experiencing difficulty with the company’s board of directors, many of whom were biased towards company CEO Michael Eisner‘s view of what direction the company should take.

Eisner is due to retire from the company this September, and the talks with Disney and Gold are believed to have been led by Eisner’s successor, Bob Iger, who is currently President and COO of the company. Iger has shown great interest in building relationships back up with many companies who have refused to work with Disney until Eisner leaves, such as Pixar Animation and George Lucas.

Large scores of Disney fans had hoped Roy would read the Disneyland Dedication Speech on the theme park’s fiftieth birthday next week, which was originally read by Walt on the park’s opening day, but Roy had already entered an annual sailing race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Friday, July 8, 2005

Amid news of a drop of the Philippine peso for a sixth straight week, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday asked all members of the cabinet to resign, preparing the road for change in the administration.

In the past month the peso has fallen 3.1 percent due in part to accusations that Arroyo cheated in last year’s elections, as well as accusations that her family members have been taking kickbacks from illegal gambling operations.

The central bank may move to buy the peso in an attempt to stem the decline and raise lenders’ reserve requirements so they have less money to bet against the currency.

While Arroyo was asking for the resignations, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and other officials, including Tax Commissioner Guillermo Parayno, Customs Commissioner Bert Lina, Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin and Trade Secretary Juan Santos, called for Arroyo’s resignation. The text of their statement is available here.

However, Arroyo refused, and while addressing the nation via radio she said “I am not resigning my office. To do so under circumstances that connote an Edsa 3 (the third people’s revolution) would condemn any successor to the possibility of an Edsa 4, then an Edsa 5, and so on and so on, unless our political system were first reformed to make it more responsive to the people’s will, such that changes in leadership come about in an orderly and stable manner…”

Arroyo said that the time had come to face the fact that the political system had degenerated so much that partisan agenda is coming before national interest.

She pointed to the huge emigration from the country as an indication of the large problems within, while endless scandals and conflict seem to plague the southeast Asian nation.

The President ended her address by promising to bring a resolution to all that has plagued the country.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Torbjorn Zetterlund is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Willowdale riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Group of 20 (G20) of the world’s leading developed and developing countries’ finance ministers agreed on Saturday to pursue a plan that would avoid dangerous currency devaluations and would also would attempt to reduce trade imbalances. The plan was introduced by the United States, and the G20 meeting was held in South Korea.

The plan was announced amid rising worries of a “currency war” that would lead to devalued currencies in order to get an export advantage and would damage the global economy. “Our cooperation is essential. We are all committed to play our part in achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth in a collaborative and coordinated way,” a statement released by the G20 said.

On the topic of trade imbalances, the G-20 stated that “excessive imbalances” would be “assessed against indicative guidelines to be agreed.” This statement was weaker than a commitment proposed by United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, which would keep trade imbalances “below a specified share” of GDP for the next few years. This proposal was met with strong opposition from export-based economies such as Japan, whose Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda argued that specific targets were “unrealistic”, but approved of unspecific “guidelines”. He added: “There are many perspectives on the current account issue. Every country has a different situation when it comes to surpluses and deficits. So we need to study this carefully.”

The United States said that they will continue to push for numerical targets and specific time frames at next month’s South Korean summit, where the heads of state of the G20 will convene. “If the world is going to be able to grow at a strong, sustainable pace in the future . . . then we need to work to achieve more balance in the pattern of global growth as we recover from the crisis,” US Treasury Secretary Geithner declared. The finance ministers also set China on the track to floating its currency more, and overhauling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give more representation to developing powers such as China and India.

The G20 was created in 1999, includes both developed and developing countries, and represents 85% of the world’s economy. The G20’s heads of state will meet in Seoul, South Korea, next month.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Bruce, Canberra — In an exclusive interview with Wikinews, Australian Paralympians Evan O’Hanlon and Scott Reardon discussed the increased professionalism of their sport, and the challenges elite athletes now face in securing sponsorship deals.

O’Hanlon, with the support of his Australian teammates, is on a mission to professionalise Paralympic athletics. He is leading a charge to encourage runners to cover the logos on shoes they wear to training and in competition because he believes that many people who see him in pictures when he wins world records think his shoes are paid for by sponsors; they are not.

Paralympic athletic competitors must buy their own shoes; while Australian Paralympic competitors receive support from the government, they still must pay for things their abled-bodied counterparts would not. O’Hanlon and Reardon believe unless competitors organise as a group and act together, they will not change the sponsorship landscape for Paralympic athletes.

Teammate Michelle Errichiello didn’t tape over the logos on her shoes, while O’Hanlon told Wikinews that he had taped over the logos on a pair of practice sprint shoes which he wouldn’t normally cover due to photographers being present at the athletics track. They intentionally choose the flesh colour of the tape to make it more noticed by spectators, highlighting their cause and raising its profile.

O’Hanlon told Wikinews reporters that additional information about these sponsorship issues could be found on his website.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Conservative Party leader David Cameron was last night a victim of crime following the theft of his bicycle.

The Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom was out shopping in West London when the incident happened at around 6:30 last night. He was said to have chained the bike to a short bollard while he picked up some groceries in Tesco on Portobello Road. When he came out, the bike along with its chain had vanished.

He stated that he “would very much like it back” and that to him “it was absolutely priceless”. He is also said to have reported the theft on the Scotland Yard online reporting website, but was pessimistic about it being returned. The thieves are said to be a group of teenagers.

Around 19,000 bicycles are reported stolen every year in London alone.

Cameron’s spokesperson said he had owned the bike for five years, and used it regularly to cycle to work. She stated he was “pretty hacked off” by the theft.