Earth and Space News

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Orionid Meteor Shower: Late October Peak of Debris From Comet Halley

Summary: The Orionid meteor shower offers a late October peak of debris from Comet Halley, and a planetary quartet joins 2015's Oct. 21 to 22 shooting stars.

45 minute composite shot during Orionid meteor shower, with Jupiter as diffraction spiked star (center), in skies over Sussex, northwestern New Jersey; Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012: jason jenkins, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Peaking in 2015 in the early mornings of Oct. 21 and 22, the Orionid meteor shower serves as one of two yearly reminders of Halley’s Comet, the most famous comet in the skies over Earth.

As with spring’s Eta Aquarids, which peak around May 5 to 6, the autumnal Orionid shower of shooting stars is occasioned by Earth’s passage through debris released by Comet Halley, officially designated as 1P/Halley, during the short-period comet’s 75- to 76-year circuit around the sun.

Typical of most meteor showers, the Orionids provide best viewing, for all time zones, in the early hours after midnight and before dawn. The moon, which is finishing its first quarter phase at 47 to 58 percent visibility, offers no competition in the early hours of Oct. 21 and 22 by setting in the late evening or, at the latest in some time zones, within or near the midnight hour. Orionid visibility ranges from the 85 degrees north latitude, which passes through the Arctic Ocean, and the 75 degrees south latitude, which passes through northern coastal Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.

depiction of Orion the Hunter constellation in ca. 816 illuminated astronomical manuscript, Leiden Universiteitsbibliotheek VLQ 79, known as Leiden Aratea: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In addition to impeccable parent body lineage, the Orionid meteor shower claims the prominent constellation of Orion the Hunter as namesake radiant, or apparent point of origin. Although not actually streaming from the globally visible constellation, Orionid shooting stars appear, from the perspective of Earthlings, to radiate from Betelgeuse, the distinctly reddish star that establishes the hunter’s upraised right shoulder. Known in astronomy as Alpha Orionis (shortened to α Orionis or α Ori), Betelgeuse shines as Orion’s second brightest star and as the night sky’s ninth brightest star.

The Orionid meteor shower peaks with unpredictable maximum rates, ranging in activity from medium to high strength. Normal peaks produce a maximum of 20 to 25 shooting stars per hour while exceptional peaks, such as occurred from 2006 to 2009, compete with mid-August’s Perseids for busy rates of 50 to 75 shooting stars per hour.

As with sibling Eta Aquarids, the Orionids feature swift movement. Orionid shooting stars attain velocities of 42 miles per second (66.9 kilometers per second). Speedy meteoroids tend to explode as fireballs, with an apparent magnitude brighter than that of Venus, the sky’s third brightest object. Striking Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of over 150,000 miles per hour (241,401.6 kilometers per hour), Orionid meteors occasionally trail their fireballs with incandescent streams of debris framed with smoky filaments shaped intriguingly by upper atmospheric winds.

As the Orionid parent body, Comet Halley continues to shed fresh debris that eventually replenishes the meteor shower. Comet Halley’s last perihelion, or closest orbital point to Earth, occurred Feb. 9, 1986. Its first perihelion in the 21st century is predicted to be reached July 28, 2061. While Comet Halley is a naked-eye comet with possible appearance twice in a human lifetime, the famous comet that framed the birth and death of American humorist Mark Twain (Nov. 30, 1835-April 21, 1910) strikingly bestows biannual reminders with spring’s Eta Aquarids and autumn’s Orionids.

To appreciate Comet Halley’s fiery remnants and to discover whether 2015 is a year of fireballs and maximum rates, viewers only need to position themselves comfortably underneath the cooperatively darkened skies of the early morning hours on Oct. 21 and 22. In the Southern Hemisphere, observers look toward the northeast for Orion and the Orionid meteor shower. Northern Hemisphere viewers watch the east-southeastern skies.

Amid clear, dark skies, the Orionid meteor shower does not disappoint. As a bonus, Jupiter, as well as Mars, Mercury and Venus, will all keep visible company with the Orionids in the predawn hours of Oct. 21 and 22.

Orionid meteor shower's parent body, Halley's Comet, crossing the Milky Way, Tuesday, April 8/Wednesday, April 9, 1986; NASA photo taken from Kuiper Airborne Observatory, C141 aircraft, New Zealand Expedition: NASA, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

depiction of Orion the Hunter constellation in ca. 816 illuminated astronomical manuscript, Leiden Universiteitsbibliotheek VLQ 79, known as Leiden Aratea: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LeidenArateaFOlio48vOrion.jpg

Kronk, Gary W. “Observing the Eta Aquarids.” Meteor Showers Online.
Available @ http://meteorshowersonline.com/eta_aquarids.html

Marriner, Derdriu. “Eta Aquarids: Spring Meteor Showers Gift to Earth From Comet Halley.” Earth and Space News. Tuesday, May 5, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/05/eta-aquarids-spring-meteor-showers.html

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Navassa Island Lighthouse: Crumbling Landmark Deactivated Since 1996

Summary: Navassa Island Lighthouse stands as a crumbling landmark, deactivated since 1996, on a U.S. tear-shaped island in the Caribbean Sea's Jamaica Channel.

Navassa Island lighthouse and keeper/assistants' quarters in 1999: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Appropriations Act of 1913, passed in the 63rd Congress on Oct. 22, 1913, as H.R. (House of Representatives) 7898, contained among its provisions for “urgent deficiencies ... and for other purposes” an appropriation of $125,000 (=$3 million-plus in 2015 for 1913) for a light station on Navassa Island (ch. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 224). Final tally of funds expended to June 30, 1918, came in under budget at $116,159.40 ($1.8 million-plus in 2015 for 1918).

Construction began in January 1916, with the lighthouse put into commission Oct. 17, 1917. As a second order Fresnel lens, the original illuminating apparatus had a focal length of 750 millimeters. Sited near the island’s highest point, the lighthouse assured maritime visibility with a focal plane of 395 feet (120 meters). The entire station complex of a lighthouse and quarters for the light keeper and two assistants was completed in November 1917.

A keeper and two assistants were housed in a 58-foot square (5.388-meter square) reinforced-concrete building, now in ruins. The single-story quarters featured a patio in the center. The inward slope of the roof, from the outside walls toward the patio, facilitated collection of rain water for storage in a 22,000 gallon capacity cistern. The keeper’s side comprised five rooms and a storeroom with three pantries, one for each of the staff. On the other side, four rooms apiece were designated for each of the two assistants.

aerial, west-to-east view of ruins of lighthouse keeper and assistant quarters on Navassa Island: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Conversion to an automatic beacon in 1929 marked the end of lighthouse keeper tours of duty on Navassa Island. In 1980 a 190-millimeter, solar-powered optic was installed. The dismantling of the light by the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 29, 1996, signaled deactivation of the towering landmark, rendered redundant by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

As the tallest concrete lighthouse ever built by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Navassa’s lighthouse still rises to a height of 162 feet (49 meters). Stone makes up the lighthouse’s foundation, a block of 40-feet square (3.7-meter square) atop solid rock. The grey white tower is made of concrete, with sectional cast-iron plates bolted to the walls on the third, sixth, service, and watch-room floors. The tower’s cylindrical shaft measures a diameter of 15 feet (4.57 meters). The watch room has an overhanging gallery. A black, helical bar lantern room of cast iron surmounts the tower.

Although still discernible and intact, the lighthouse's architecture is crumbling from abandonment. The lack of upkeep guarantees eventual capitulation into oblivion as the lighthouse joins other overgrown, ruined remnants, such as railroad beds and mining structures, under nature's floral blanket.

aerial, west-to-east view of Navassa in 1999, during second, US Department of Interior-administered inventory of Navassa's natural resources; explorers, film crew and research vessel (R/V) with Australian adventure group/film production enterprise, The Quest, lent support to the expedition: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS

The U.S. unincorporated unorganized territory of Navassa Island lies in the Jamaica Channel between the islands of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Jamaica.

The tear-shaped island’s strategic location for shipping became apparent with the opening of the Panama Canal, the waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, on Aug. 15, 1914. Located on the southern approach to the Windward Passage, the strait between Cuba and Hispaniola connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, the microscopic island stands in the direct path of ships traveling between the Panama Canal and the east coast of the United States.

With a land area of around 2 square miles (5.2 square kilometers) and a ruggedly formidable coastline of almost 5 miles (8 kilometers), Navassa Island is a flat-to-undulating coral and limestone plateau. The island attains its highest elevation of 252.6 feet (77 meters) at Dunning Hill in the southwestern interior.

Dunning Hill’s nearest sea point measures 440 yards (400 meters) from the southwest coast. Dunning Hill is located 655 yards (600 meters) east of Lulu Town, the now uninhabited settlement on Lulu Bay that bustled during the phosphate mining heyday lasting from discovery of phosphate-rich guano in 1857 until cessation in 1901. Dunning Hill peaks about 110 yards (100 meters) south of the site chosen for the lighthouse necessitated by spiking traffic through the Windward Passage.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Navassa Island lighthouse and keeper/assistants' quarters in 1999: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NavassaLighthouse.jpg

aerial, west-to-east view of ruins of lighthouse keeper and assistant quarters on Navassa Island: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lighthouse_Keeper_Residence_Navassa_Island.jpg?uselang=de

Navassa's southwestern coast: terrain rises as plateau, with crumbling lighthouse and derelict staff quarters sited in southwestern interior: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NavassaCoastAerialUSGS.jpg

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Navassa Island: US Fish and Wildlife Service Uninhabited Caribbean Island." Earth and Space News. Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/10/navassa-island-us-fish-and-wildlife.html

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Navassa Island: US Fish and Wildlife Uninhabited Caribbean Island

Summary: Navassa Island is an uninhabited Caribbean island administered as an unincorporated unorganized U.S. territory via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

satellite image of Navassa Island: NASA (Johnson Space Center Photo ID ISS014-E-8889), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Navassa Island is administered through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an unincorporated unorganized territory of the United States.

The tiny, uninhabited island is located in the Jamaica Channel that, along with the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola, connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea. Navassa’s strategic location lies about 33 miles (54 kilometers) west of Haiti, 83 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of Jamaica, and 99 miles (160 kilometers) south of southeastern Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay (Bahía de Guantánamo).

Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus is credited with the island’s sighting in 1493 during his second voyage, from 1493 to 1496, to the New World’s Northern Hemisphere. While stranded on Jamaica’s north central coast for one year, from June 1503 to June 1504, during his fourth voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean, the determined navigator sent two dugouts with Arawak natives under the command of Diego Méndez de Segura and Bartolomé Flisco across the Jamaica Channel, beyond Navassa, to Hispaniola to secure ships in order to return to Spain.

Navassa is shaped as a flat-topped prominence, with a maximum elevation of 252.6 feet (77 meters) and an area of about 2 square miles (5.2 square kilometers). Apart from a small area of the north coast with steep, rocky, lightly sanded beaches, Navassa’s coast is defined primarily by limestone cliffs. An extensive coral reef prevents access to Navassa except at Lulu Bay on the southwestern coast.

Scatterings of cactus, primarily Mammillaria nivosa (known commonly as woolly nipple cactus), along with trees and undergrowth brush, cover the island’s terrain. Found elsewhere in the Caribbean as well as in Florida, Pseudopheonix sargentii var. navasana (soo-doh-FEH-niks sahr-jent’-ee) apparently survives on Navassa only as a single, living specimen, found during the island’s first natural resources inventory conducted for the U.S. Department of the Interior by the U.S. Geological Survey from July 24 to Aug. 5, 1998. Forests feature only four arboreal species: short-leaf fig (Ficus popuinea var. brevifolia), mastic (Sideroxylon foetidissimum), pigeon plum (Coccoloba diversifolia) and poisonwood (Metopium brownie).

Tiny Navassa is a disputed island, claimed by both Haiti and the United States. Haiti has claimed national sovereignty over Navassa since the island republic’s first constitution on July 8, 1801. The United States has claimed Navassa as a guano-rich, unaffiliated, unoccupied island under the Guano Islands Act of 1856 since the discovery of the island’s phosphate-rich bird droppings, valuable for fertilizer and gunpowder, by Baltimore sea captain Peter Duncan on July 1, 1857.

Two natural resources inventories of Navassa conducted for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs from July 24 to Aug. 5, 1998, and from April 29 to May 12, 1999, produced preliminary results of over 650 terrestrial species. Realization of the island’s rich biodiversity led to the establishment of the Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge on Dec. 3, 1999. Under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge encompasses a 12 nautical mile (13+ miles; 22-plus kilometers) radius of marine habitat around the island’s 1,344 acres.

Apart from transient Haitian fisherman who apparently camp on the island while fishing Navassa's waters, Navassa is unoccupied and is not open to the public. Special scientific and enhancement permits for monitors and researchers, especially of elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals, may be requested through the Caribbean Islands Refuge Complex headquarters at Boquerón, Puerto Rico.

Permit contact details:
Susan Silander, Project Leader
Caribbean Islands NWR Complex
Navassa National Wildlife Refuge
P.O. Box 510
Boguerón, Puerto Rico 00622

phone: (787) 851-7258
fax: (787) 255-6725
email: Caribbeanisland@fws.gov

Navassa Island's forbidding east coast: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

satellite image of Navassa Island: NASA (Johnson Space Center Photo ID ISS014-E-8889), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Navassa_ISS014.jpg

Navassa Island's forbidding east coast: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NavassaEastCoastAerialUSGS.jpg

For further information:

"Navassa Island." U.S. Department of the Interior > Office of Insular Affairs > Islands We Serve.
Available @ https://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/navassa

"Navassa Island: A Photographic Tour (1998-1999)." U.S. Geological Survey > Coastal and Marine Geology Program > St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.
Available @ https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/navassa/

Friday, October 9, 2015

Early October Draconid Meteor Shower Has Radiant in Draco the Dragon

Summary: The early October Draconid meteor shower has its radiant in Draco the Dragon and peaks in 2015 between Thursday, Oct. 8, and Friday, Oct. 9.

Draconid meteor shower viewed from Fornelos de Montes, southwestern Galicia, northwestern Spain, in 2011, an outburst year with a display of 600+ meteors per hour: Contando Estrelas, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

The Draconid meteor shower is predictable in its occurrence in the northwestern skies over Canada, the United States, Europe and northern Asia in early October, from the 6th to the 10th.

The shower’s unpredictability lies in its display. Known as an occasional shower, the Draconids either dazzle with a rare outburst of hundreds or thousands of meteors per hour or demand careful watching with sedate displays maximizing at languid rates of 1 to 20 per hour.

Peak viewing in 2015 is slated for the evening of Thursday, Oct. 8, and Friday, Oct. 9. The number of meteors flaring in an hour of peak activity, known as the zenithal hourly rate, is expected to maximize at about 10 per hour on the night of Oct. 8 and into the early morning hours of Oct. 9.

A waning crescent moon, with 18 percent visibility, yields a cooperative backdrop of sufficient darkness in clear skies for Thursday’s peaking shower. Friday’s crescent, waning at a slivery visibility of 11 percent, contends with cloudy, storming skies in the eastern United States while central and western states have clear skies for a slightly less dramatic continuation of Thursday’s peaks.

The Draconid meteor shower receives its name from its radiant, the point in the sky where the shower appears to originate. Draconids appear to radiate from the fiery mouth in the conspicuous asterism, or star pattern, of the four-star head of Draco the Dragon constellation. Draco's tail slithers between the Big Dipper, the seven-star asterism in Ursa Major ("Big Bear") constellation, and the Little Dipper, the seven-star asterism in Ursa Minor ("Little Bear") constellation.

Although a constellation of the far northern sky, Draco is viewable primarily in the Northern Hemisphere and minimally in the equatorial latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. As a northern circumpolar constellation, Draco remains above the horizon throughout the night for latitudes north of the 35th parallel north, which in the United States defines Tennessee’s southern border.

Draco’s apparent meteor shower is a trail of debris sprayed by its parent, short periodic comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. The Draconids are also known as the Giacobinids in honor of French astronomer Michel Giacobini, who discovered the shower’s parent body over Nice in southeastern France on Dec. 20, 1900. The comet, which has an orbital period of 6.52 years, was recovered next by German astronomer Ernst Zinner over Bamberg in southeastern Germany on Oct. 23, 1913.

With brightness as a factor of size and speed, the Draconids’ slow movement, at a languorous pace of 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) per second, accounts for the meteor shower’s faintness. The temperamental Draconids’ exuberantly conspicuous 20th-century outbursts in 1933, 1946 and 2011 were precipitated by Earth’s passage through a dense part of Comet Giacobini-Zinner’s tail.

Although no fireworks are anticipated for 2015, the Draconids are always worth the watch because viewers do not have to maintain a vigil into the wee hours after midnight. Unlike the after-midnight best visibility of most meteor showers, the Draconids offer best viewing between nightfall, when Draco is at its zenith, or highest point, and midnight.

The only way to know whether Draconid meteor showers will flare abundantly or streak sedately in 2015 is to go outside, breathe nightfall’s fresh air and look to the northwest.

Draco the Dragon coiling around Ursa Minor (Little Bear constellation); ca. 1824 depiction by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788–1831): Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Draco the Dragon coiling around Ursa Minor (Little Bear constellation); ca. 1824 illustraton by British cartographer and engraver Sidney Hall (1788–1831) in Urania's Mirror (1825), plate 1; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sidney_Hall_-_Urania's_Mirror_-_Draco_and_Ursa_Minor.jpg;
No known restrictions on publication in the U.S., via Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695394/

For further information:

“Draconid Meteor Shower Peaks October 8.” NASA Blogs > Watch the Skies. Oct. 8, 2015.
Available @ https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2015/10/08/draconid-meteor-shower-peaks-october-8/

Kronk, Gary W. “Draconids.” Meteor Shows Online > Showers.
Available @ http://meteorshowersonline.com/

McClure, Bruce, and Deborah Byrd. “EarthSky’s meteor shower guide for 2015.” EarthSky > Tonight > Astronomy Essentials > Space. Oct. 6, 2015.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

McClure, Bruce, and Deborah Byrd. “Everything you need to know: Draconid meteor shower.” EarthSky > Tonight > Astronomy Essentials. Oct. 9, 2015.
Available @ http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-draconid-meteor-shower

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Ailanthus Webworm Moths: Beneficial Insects and Garden Gate Icons

Summary: Ailanthus webworm moths, beneficial insects by March and Garden Gate icons in October, control the tree of heaven and pollinate wildflowers and woodies.

Ailanthus webworm moth (Atteva aurea) with giant ironweed (Vernonia gigantea) flowers, near Cincinnati, Hamilton County, southwestern Ohio; Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014, 14:26: Greg Hume, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Ailanthus webworm moths are beneficial insects of planned and wild ailanthus webworm moth gardens in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and Garden Gate icons in the magazine’s issue for October 2015.

Ailanthus webworm moths, beetle-like at rest and wasp-like in flight, benefit North American landscapes, March through October or November, by pollinating flowers while sipping tree nectars. Their larval, second stage as caterpillars contributes to healthy ecosystems by consuming edible bark, flowers, foliage, fruits and seeds on the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). Reliance of all four stages in the lepidopteran’s life cycle and natural history upon the invasive, non-native tree of heaven dates only to the mid-19th century.

Globally warmed climate change and tree of heaven naturalizations extend ailanthus webworm moth ranges ever eastward and northward of an imaginary line from the Rocky Mountains.

The thorny bushes Castela emoryi, Castela peninsularis and Castela polyandra function as native woody food- and shelter-friendly hosts in planned and wild ailanthus webworm moth gardens. The paradise trees Simarouba aurea of Costa Rica and Simarouba glauca of Mexico get similar responsibilities as food- and shelter-hosting woodies in native southern habitat niches. The six natives have air-cleansing, soil-holding, wildlife-sustaining niches in dry forests and semi-arid deserts while tree of heaven does likewise in whatever American ecosystem it invades.

The lepidopteran’s scientific classification is from Asa Fitch, entomologist and natural historian of Salem, New York, in 1856, year of ailanthus webworm moth appearances in Georgia. Tree of heaven expansions southward from introduction into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1784 to Texas by 1856 jumpstart ailanthus webworm moths migrating northward from the forty-eighth state.

New World native Ailanthus webworm moths have become closely associated with Ailanthus altissima, known commonly as tree of heaven, an Old World native that has been extensively introduced and naturalized in the Americas; Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009, 09:45: H. Zell, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Sustainability in disturbed, polluted, stressed environments keeps tree of heaven available for in-store and on-line purchase and present in planned and wild ailanthus webworm moth gardens. Every four weeks at dusk, from as early as March to as late as August, adult females lay white eggs from that day’s dawn mating sessions.

The caterpillars manage communal lifestyles by spinning silken webs over host leaf surfaces to sustain that year’s spring through summer series of eggs, larvae and pupae. Master gardener and master naturalist wildlife mappers note basic black or brown body colors for all larval instars, except for very light brown first, newborn instars.

All instars otherwise offer a light green-brown, wide line along the uppermost side, thin olive and white stripes along each side, and white bristles and dots.

Ailanthus webworm moth pupae position themselves into apostrophe or comma shapes whose black or brown colors depend upon whether respective ambient temperatures are falling or rising.

Final, flying stages quit looking moth-like when at rest since ailanthus webworm moths hold their fore- and hind-wings tightly in, alongside the body except in flight. Black-and-white-headed, black-and-white-legged, black-bodied, day-active adults reveal one pair of heavy-weight, orange forewings, each decorated with eight black-encased white dots, and one set of light-weight brown hindwings. They sip nectar from hostplants and from bee-brush (Eysenhardtia texana), black-root (Veronicastrum virginicum), frost-weed (Verbesina virginica), goldenrod (Solidago), inkberry (Phytolacca americana) and shrubby boneset (Ageratina havanensis).

Ailanthus webworm moths, as beneficial insects and Garden Gate icons in planned and wild ailanthus webworm moth gardens, turn rules about moths as night-active pests upside-down.

Crucifixion thorn (Castela emoryi) is a food- and shelter-friendly shrub for Ailanthus webworm moths; crucifixion thorn shrub southwest of Arlington, Maricopa County, south central Arizona; Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2008, 11:01: Mike, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

“075100 – 2401 – Atteva aurea – Ailanthus Webworm Moth – (Fitch, 1856).” North American Moth Photographers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University.
Available @ http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=2401

“Atteva aurea: Ailanthus Webworm Moth.” Encyclopedia of Life.
Available @ http://www.eol.org/pages/952311/overview

Barnes, Jeffrey K. 2 June 2005. “Ailanthus Webworm Moth.” University of Arkansas > Division of Agriculture > Department of Entomology > Arthropod Museum > Arthropod Museum Notes Number 35.
Available @ http://www.uark.edu/ua/arthmuse/ailamoth.html

Becker, Vitor O. September 2009. “A Review of the New World Atteva Walker Moths (Yponomeutidae, Attevinae).” Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 53(3): 349-355.
Available @ http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbent/v53n3/07.pdf

Wilson, John; Landry, Jean-François; Janzen, Daniel; Hallwachs, Winnie; Nazari, Vazrick; Hajibabaei, Mehrdad; and Hebert, Paul. 17 May 2010. “Identity of the Ailanthus Webworm Moth (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae), a Complex of Two Species: Evidence from DNA Barcoding, Morphology and Ecology.” ZooKeys Volume 46, pp. 41-60. Dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.46.406
Available via Pensoft @ http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=2199

Friday, October 2, 2015

Nereus Underwater Vehicle Imploded in Kermadec Trench on 10 May 2014

Summary: Nereus underwater vehicle is a hybrid, autonomously and remotely operated vehicle built by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for deep ocean missions.

recovery of Nereus underwater vehicle aboard RV Cape Hatteras during Mid-Cayman Rise expedition in October 2009; image credit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Nereus underwater vehicle was designed and built by engineers in the Deep Submergence Lab (DSL) at Cape Cod, Massachusetts’ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as a one-of-a-kind, portable Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle (HROV).

Nereus was given the capability of descending to depths of up to 36,089 feet (11,000 meters; 6.835 miles) in the hadal zone, the deepest part of the ocean. Nereus was also designed for withstanding crushing water pressures over 1,000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.

The unique hybrid-vehicle design allowed Nereus to switch between two modes. As a free-swimming, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), Nereus conducted wide-area mapping and surveying. As a tethered, remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Nereus engaged in close-up seafloor imaging and sampling of biological organisms and rocks.

Nereus’ innovative tether had the diameter of a human hair and a length of 25 miles (40.2 kilometers). The tether was adapted from fiber-optic technology by the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) for transmission of high-resolution images and data in real time.

In support of the development of the Nereus underwater vehicle, funds totaling $8,449,000 were provided by: National Science Foundation (NSF), at $6.3 million; Office of Naval Research (ONR), at $1.1 million; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at $549,000; and The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF), at $500,000.

Woods Hole’s rechargeable, lithium battery-operated underwater vehicle was known simply as Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle prior to a nationwide contest in 2006. The contest elicited 22 entries from junior high, high school and college student participants in Monterey, California’s Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center.

Selected at an awards banquet on Sunday, June 25, 2006, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the winning name of Nereus was submitted by a team of six sophomores, juniors and seniors, headed by Kelly Miller, chemistry and oceanography teacher at Monterey High School. As a shapeshifting god, with a man’s torso and a fish tail, in Greek mythology, Nereus (Ancient Greek: Νηρεύς), which rhymes with “serious,” exemplified the HROV’s shapeshifting modes.

First sea trials, which began in November 2007, were conducted in the Pacific Ocean near Oahu, Hawaii. Mobilization and demobilization of the successful trials took place aboard RV Kilo Moana. The small waterplane area twin hull oceanographic research vessel (SWATH RV) is owned by the Office of Naval Research and operated by the University of Hawaii as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) coordinated research vessel fleet.

On May 31, 2009, Nereus completed its first dive deep into the world’s deepest ocean trench, the western North Pacific’s Mariana Trench. Nereus descended to the hadal ocean depth of 35,770.99 feet (10,903 meters), at a site near the deepest known spot in Challenger Deep, the valley in the southeastern Mariana Trench with a depth recalibrated in 2012 at 36,069 feet (10,994 meters), plus or minus 131 feet (40 meters). The Challenger Deep has an extreme water pressure, at 8 tons per square inch, 1000 times stronger than standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. The dive lasted for 26 hours, with 8.5 hours for descent, 10.75 hours in the trench and 6.5 hours for autonomous ascent.

On Saturday, May 10, 2014, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution issued a sad news release announcing the loss of Nereus at 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Friday, May 9, in the seventh hour of a planned nine-hour dive into the deepest extent of the Kermadec Trench. The world’s fifth deepest ocean trench lies in the western South Pacific northeast of New Zealand’s North Island.

At the time of loss of contact with RV Thomas G. Thompson, Nereus had reached a depth of 32,775.59 feet (9,990 meters; 6.2 miles) and had logged 30 days of a 40-day, deep-ocean trench expedition. Timothy M. Shank, Assistant Scientist in WHOI’s Biology Department, was directing the expedition as chief scientist of Hadal Ecosystem Studies (HADES), a three-year project funded by the NSF.

Debris floating up to the sea surface from the dive site indicated that Nereus had suffered a catastrophic implosion, with the intense pressure from over six miles of water column as the likely cause.

Dr. Shank honored Nereus as a “one-of-a-kind vehicle” that provided “during its brief life ... amazing insights ...” into never before seen or explored ocean depths.

Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron movingly expressed feelings akin to the loss of a friend. He also shared his now impossible dream of a joint, hadal-depth dive of Nereus with Deepsea Challenger, the deep-diving submersible that he piloted to Challenger Deep on March 26, 2012.

While acknowledging the riskiness of extreme exploration and applauding the absence of human injury in the loss of Nereus, Laurence P. Madin, WHOI's Executive Vice President and Director of Research, affirmed the private research and higher education facility's ongoing commitment to the design, construction and operation of ever more advanced vehicles for oceanic exploration and understanding of the oceans' most extreme and remote depths.

The legacy of high achievements does not end with the loss of Nereus but instead continues to play out as WHOI marks over 8.5 decades of getting to know the world's oceans.

Nereus lost contact with RV Thomas G. Thompson at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Friday, May 9, 2014; RV Thomas G. Thompson over Maug caldera, Northern Mariana Islands, Thursday, April 8, 2004: NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), Public Domain, via NOAA Ocean Explorer

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Bowen, Andrew D., et al. Field Trials of the Nereus Hybrid Underwater Robotic Vehicle in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. Fort Belvoir VA: Defense Technical Information Center, June 2010.
Available @ http://dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a527831.pdf

"Five Deepest Ocean Trenches: Deep Plunges in Pacific Ocean Hadal Zone." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/10/five-deepest-ocean-trenches-deep.html

GeoBeat News. "Deep Water Vessel Implodes 6 Miles Down." YouTube. May 12, 2014.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phAwjokrxkQ

Kostel, Ken. “A sad day.”Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Blogs > Kermadec Trench Expedition 2014. May 10, 2014.
Available @ http://web.whoi.edu/hades/a-sad-day/

“Remembrances & Condolences for HROV Nereus.” Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution > About WHOI > History & Legacy > Legacy of Exploration. Last updated: Jan. 6, 2015.
Available @ http://www.whoi.edu/main/nereus/condolences

“Robotic Deep-Sea Vehicle Lost on Dive to 6-Mile Depth.” Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution > News & Multimedia > Press Room > News Releases. May 10, 2014.
Available @ http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/Nereus-Lost

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "Underwater Vehicle Nereus." YouTube. June 30, 2009.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwdF_2wMRfU

Saint Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers: Benedictine Abbey in Michigan

Summary: Saint Gregory's Benedictine Abbey has followed a simple lifestyle (work, study, prayer) on a bucolic site near Three Rivers, Michigan, for almost 7 decades.

St. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: S B Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey in southwestern Michigan traces its beginnings to a desire for reviving Benedictine monasticism by a group of seminarians and their professor of apologetics, Rolland Severance, from Nashotah House, a seminary of The Episcopal Church in the southeastern Wisconsin village of Nashotah.

Under the leadership of Canon Vivian A. Peterson, then rector of St. James Anglican Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio, funds were raised for sponsoring training in the Benedictine Rule at Nashdom Abbey, a small Anglican Benedictine community of monks just outside Burnham Beeches in South East England’s Buckinghamshire.

On Christmas Eve 1935 Father Severance began his postulancy at Nashdom (Russian: “Our House”). The country house originally had been built from 1905 to 1906 by English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (March 29, 1859–Jan. 1, 1944) for His Highness Prince Alexis Dolgorouki (March 16, 1846–June 25, 1915) of Michaelovka, South Russia, and his English heiress wife, Frances Fleetwood Wilson (Feb. 18, 1850–Aug. 23, 1919). Of six priests joining Father Severance between January 1936 and September 1937, three completed postulancy and joined Father Severance, now known as Paul, in a temporary, two-year profession of monastic vows.

Pre-World War II political turmoil, such as the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, suggested hastened departures from Nashdom by the American monks. In October 1938, Paul returned to the United States. He was dismayed to learn that John T. Dallas, Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire, had retracted permission for founding a priory in the unincorporated, southeastern community of Rye Beach.

Pursuant to an invitation from Campbell Gray, second Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, Paul, joined by the trio from Nashdom, opened St. Gregory’s House as a monastic house in Valparaiso on March 12, 1939. Opening day fell on the feast day of Pope Gregory I (ca. 540–March 12, 604), commonly known as St. Gregory the Great.

Upon the advice of Reginald Mallett, third Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Indiana, the small monastic community sought land in a more rural setting as conducive to attracting members and following the Benedictine vocation. In March 1946 St. Gregory’s Priory was established on a 126-acre farm with a small lake in the lake-riddled, rural landscape northwest of the small city of Three Rivers in southwestern Michigan. In 1969, the priory became an independent benedictine abbey.

In 2016 Saint Gregory’s will mark seven decades at the bucolic site outside of Three Rivers. Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey observes a daily schedule which emphasizes work, study and prayer, with prayer designated as chief activity.

With no fixed source of income, Saint Gregory’s receives support from various sources, such as donations, gifts and stipends from occasional outside engagements. The Abbey also earns income from sales of wall-size, 13-month calendars as well as of fiction and liturgical publications.

Two guesthouses, St. Anthony’s and St. Denys’, and one guest cottage, St. Benedict’s, are available for guest stays of two days to one week. Guests determine the rate for their stay, as the Abbey refrains from suggesting donations or setting fees and instead welcomes whatever amount is given by guests.

The simple style of living, with outdoor work seasonally attuned, at Saint Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey is centered on acts of worship and pervaded by commitment to the gradually unfolding journey to God. As the author of the Rule of Saint Benedict, a book of precepts, or instructions, for a community of monks living under the authority of an abbot, Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480–March 21, 547) emphasized devotion to God via a realistic lifestyle of moderate asceticism characterized by adequate, but not too much, food and sleep and with disinvolvement in solving social conflicts.

The beauty and peace that emanate from St. Gregory’s Benedictine Abbey offer hope and refuge from the busyness, complications and stresses that bombard lives lived outside of monastery grounds.

St. Gregory's Benedictine Abbey visitor information
address: 56500 Abbey Road, Three Rivers MI 49093-9595
direct mail to attention of: Guest Department
phone: 269-244-5893
hours: 9:30-11:15 a.m.; 2:30-4:15 p.m. Eastern Time
email: guestmaster@saintgregorysthreerivers.org
website: http://saintgregorysthreerivers.org/

marble cross in cemetery at Saint Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: Stephen B. Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

St. Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: S B Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Gregory's_Abbey,_Three_Rivers,_Michigan.jpg

marble cross in cemetery at Saint Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, south central Michigan; 1985: Stephen B. Calvert Clariosophic, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgia_Marble_Cross_in_Cemetery_at_St._Gregory's_Abbey,_Three_Rivers.jpg

For further information:

Bailey, Simon. A Tactful God: Gregory Dix, Priest, Monk and Scholar. Leominster UK: Gracewing, 1995.

Dunstan, Petà. The Labour of Obedience: The Benedictines of Pershore, Nashdom and Elmore, A History. Norwich UK: Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd., 2009.br />

StGregorysAbbey. "St. Gregory's Abbey - Benedictine Life." YouTube. Oct. 10, 2011.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn-0bUGsiu0

Mark H Kelley III ‏@HMarkhkelley 12 Mar 2015 More The Abbey Church this past Sunday, St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, MI." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/HMarkhkelley/status/575973131543777280

“St. Gregory’s Abbey and Benedictine Monasticism.” Saint Gregory’s Abbey > Articles.
Available @ http://saintgregorysthreerivers.org/sgabenmon.pdf

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Five Deepest Ocean Trenches: Deep Plunges in Pacific Ocean Hadal Zone

Summary: The world's five deepest ocean trenches all occur in the Pacific. All plunge to depths deeper than Earth's highest landform, Mount Everest, is high.

Pacific Ring of Fire includes world's five deepest ocean trenches: Gringer, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The five deepest ocean trenches all line the western reaches of the Pacific Ocean, the largest of the world’s oceanic divisions. Subdivided into North Pacific and South Pacific at the equator, the Pacific has a north-south stretch from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic, or Southern, Ocean and east-west boundaries of the Americas and of Asia to Australia, respectively. Three of the deepest trenches are found in the western North Pacific while two slash the floor of the western South Pacific.

Ocean trenches are formed as long, steep, V-shaped depressions by the subduction, or pushing down, of an older, denser piece of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle, known as a tectonic plate, by a lighter, younger plate. Comprising the deepest 45 percent of the world’s oceans, trenches occur in the hadal (pronunciation: haydl), or hadopelagic, zone, the layer of the ocean named after Hades (Ancient Greek: ᾍδης, Hāídēs), Greek god of the underworld.

The five deepest ocean trenches all plunge dramatically in the Pacific Ocean hadal zone. The deepest, the Mariana Trench in western North Pacific Ocean, has a maximum depth of 36,069 feet (10,994 meters), plus/minus 131 feet (40 meters). In second place, Tonga Trench in western South Pacific Ocean has a maximum depth of 35,702 feet (10,882 meters). Third-place Philippine Trench in western North Pacific Ocean has a maximum depth of 34,596 feet (10,545 meters). The fourth deepest oceanic trench, Kuril-Kamchatka Trench in western North Pacific Ocean, has a maximum depth of 34,587 feet (10,542 meters). In fifth place, Kermadec Trench in western South Pacific Ocean has a maximum depth of 32,963 feet (10,047 meters).

Known as Earth’s deepest abyss, Mariana Trench measures a depth that plunges 7,040 miles (2,146 meters) deeper into the seafloor than the soaring, 29,029-mile (8,848-meter) reaches into the atmosphere of the highest point on land, Mount Everest. The deepest part occurs in Challenger Deep, a small valley at Mariana Trench’s southern end. Mariana Islands, the trench’s nearby namesake, form an arc-shaped archipelago of 15 volcanic mountains on the eastern limit of the Philippine Sea.

Tonga Trench forms a north-northeast seafloor frame to its namesake 177-island archipelago, the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga, that marks about one-third of the distance between New Zealand and Hawaii. The trench’s deepest point, Horizon Deep, occurs in the central area, north of Tonga’s collision with the lengthy Louisville seamount chain and outmeasures Mount Everest by 6,673 feet (2,034 meters).

Philippine Trench trends with a northwest-southeast orientation from Luzon, northernmost island in the archipelagic Republic of the Philippines, southward to Indonesia’s northern Maluku island of Halmahera. The deepest point, Galathea Depth, occurs in the trench’s southern region and overshoots Mount Everest by 5,567 feet (1,697 meters).

Kuril-Kamchatka Trench slices the seafloor with a northeast-southwest orientation between its namesakes, Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands in Russia’s Far East. The trench’s greatest depth surpasses Mount Everest’s height by 5,558 feet (1,694 meters).

Kermadec Trench traces a southwest-northeast orientation in its run from near the northeastern tip of New Zealand’s North Island, along namesake Kermadec Islands, to its endpoint northeast of Monowai Seamount. The trench’s deepest point exceeds Mount Everest’s lofty heights by 3,934 feet (1,199 meters).

Far below the surface of the waters of the vast Pacific Ocean, Earth’s five deepest ocean trenches plummet to dizzying depths below the seafloor. Sinking to depths far deeper than Mount Everest’s height, the five deepest ocean trenches present rigorous, almost insurmountable challenges to exploration and shelter vast mysteries concerning life amid extreme conditions.

size comparison of Challenger Deep with Mount Everest: Nauman from Karachi, Pakistan (Nomi887), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Pacific Ring of Fire includes world's five deepest ocean trenches: Gringer, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Ring_of_Fire.svg

size comparison of Challenger Deep with Mount Everest: Nauman from Karachi, Pakistan (Nomi887), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Challenger_deep_size_comparison_Mt_Everest.JPG

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary to Protect 240K Square Miles of South Pacific." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/09/kermadec-ocean-sanctuary-to-protect.html