LCROSS Impact to Prove Water is on the Moon

On October 9th, 2009, NASA will be hitting the Moon with a probe from its satellite called LCROSS. NASA is doing this to prove that there is water on the Moon. NASA is performing two impacts, so its data that it will be gathering should be decent and most likely correct. The site that was chosen for the impact of the probe is the crater Cabeus A. This crater is located on the Moon’s south pole. Scientists believe that there is ice located on the south pole of the Moon because the Moon is under permanent shadow in that region, which in turn acts as a refrigerator. Millions of years ago the Moon was hit will many comets and scientists believe that that is how the ice came to be on the Moon. The comet would eventually break down and deposit water. This water would settle into the crater that was left behind from the comet and freeze from the consent darkness.
The water is hard to detect on the Moon so that is why NASA is hitting the Moon with a probe. When the probe hits the Moon with its high impact, the ice will break and the water particles will then be able to be detected once they fly up into the air and past the lunar surface. The article states that it will be a spectacular view from Earth. However, it can only be seen if you have a telescope.
Hitting the Moon with a high speed probe is a good way for trying to figure out if there is water on the Moon. It is important to know if there is possible life or provisions for life on other planets and stars. However, is NASA positive that by doing this it will be able to prove that there is water on the Moon. By hitting the Moon, it may just throw off a bunch of debris that makes up the Moon and not actually the ice and water that they say is located on the Moon. NASA may be a few inches off and miss the impact of the crater Cabeus A and have to perform the impact again. To prevent this, NASA has to be extremely accurate with its measurements and calculations so that its impact is not wasted. NASA also has to gain the citizens trust in that this impact on the Moon will not do more harm than good and that it will benefit science and the people.

What we can do on campus to help with the climate change dilemma

For the past few decades our global community has seen how our climate is slowing changing. Pictures have shown the many different regions that have witnessed a decrease in the amount of snowfall over the years and the amount of glacial landscapes also has noticeably decreased. Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., is convinced that this is something that deserves our immediate attention and will eventually become an even more threatening problem then it is today. Although not an environmental professional, he still set out to help educate himself on the issue so he could be more aware and spread this knowledge to the rest of his students.

When he returned to teach at his college, he recalled back in history when the Vietnam War and the apartheid pulled college campuses together and got their communities aware of what was going on in the world around them. Using this as guidance, he set out to try and bring his college community together to put climate change front and center on American campuses. He felt that it would be the college students who in the future would have to start to prevent the various climate related concerns that we are currently faced with.

Campuses around the country have already started to come together and raise awareness about what might be coming in the future. Students and teachers from around 1,500 colleges around the country meet in New York City to discuss the current climate changes that are occurring. The result of this was very positive because when the students and teachers went back to their respective schools they spread the information on to more people and eventually greatly raised awareness.

Some may deny the theory of global warming but we all know that our world is obviously not how it was back hundreds of years ago. "Young people have the moral authority, this is not about us, my generation — this is about their future and that future is now.” There are a few things that we can do here in college to make some impact in reducing carbon emissions. Some of these areas include the electricity we use in our rooms, controlling the amount of waste we produce, and the transportation we choose to use around campus (Reducing carbon emissions).

Siena College is already realizing this problem and I have noticed some of the ways that they allow us to be more earth friendly. In our rooms Siena has provided us with recycling baskets, in Saga there is an option to use cups that were made from plants, and a lot of assignments have been given through the internet to help save paper. These small things go a long way towards helping our earth and preventing climate change.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1711450,00.html

Tsunami hits Samoa and the South Pacific Tuesday September 29

An earthquake caused a massive tsunami which included four waves 15 to 20 feet high in western Indonesia, including the island of American Somoa, Somoa and Tonga. Somoa is halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. A second and unrelated earthquake occurred Wednesday killing 75 people on Sumatra Island. The first quake measured 8.3 on the Richter scale and was the result of a shallow rapture in the earth’s crust.

The tsunami is blamed for over 100 deaths, which include tourists, and the death toll is expected to rise. Many people fled to higher ground but the short ten minute warning sent from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was not enough for many people caught in the waves. It is assumed because of the size of the tsunami that residents felt the quake for several seconds, which is a sign of an impending tsunami. The tsunami took roughly 20 minutes to reach the islands from the epicenter. The quake occurred 120 miles south of American Somoa, which has a population of 65,000. The waves flattened two Somoan villages. Among the countries sending relief supplies are the United States and New Zealand.

Tsunami waves are synonymous with death and destruction after the December 26 2004 tsunami that hit Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries in that region. It was the second largest earthquake recorded with waves over 100 feet high and registered 9.3 on the Richter scale. A total of 230,000 people died in that tsunami from 11 countries and $7 billion was donated worldwide in relief. It is one of the deadliest natural disasters recorded in history.