\n<\/p>\n
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American\u2019s Science Quickly, I\u2019m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. You\u2019re listening to our weekly science news roundup.<\/p>\n
Last week NASA\u2019s Artemis II moon mission was delayed by at least a month. After the agency\u2019s so-called wet dress rehearsal revealed hydrogen fuel leaks in the launch vehicle, among other problems.<\/p>\n
Here to give us the latest is Scientific American\u2019s breaking news chief, Claire Cameron. Hi, Claire. Thanks for joining us today.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n
Claire Cameron: No problem! Glad to be here.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: First up, what exactly is Artemis II?<\/p>\n
Cameron: Artemis II is a planned mission to send four astronauts in a giant loop around the moon. It\u2019ll take them 10 days, and they\u2019re not actually gonna land on the moon. Instead, they\u2019re going on this big journey around the moon. They\u2019re gonna do some observations and then land back on Earth. And it\u2019s essentially a test flight for future moon missions that will see astronauts actually land on the moon\u2014if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: My understanding is, is that there are a number of potential launch dates for this year, and the most recent one was slated for February. And they did a\u2014what is it\u2014a wet launch, a wet test?<\/p>\n
Cameron: So before every launch with crew, certainly, they do what\u2019s called a \u201cwet dress rehearsal.\u201d The \u201cwet\u201d part of it is referring to the fact that they load the rocket up with liquid fuel. So in this case it\u2019s liquid hydrogen and oxygen that they load the rocket up, make sure that it can be fueled properly, and then they drain all the fuel at the end. And they essentially do a simulated launch, so they do the countdown as if they\u2019re about to launch the rocket up into space, but then they stop right before anything gets ignited.<\/p>\n
And so this test allows NASA engineers to see if there\u2019s anything wrong with the rocket or the capsule or anything that needs to be sorted out before they actually launch any people on top of the rocket. And in this case they held the wet dress rehearsal on February 2, and they did find issues with both the rocket and the capsule that is going to house the crew on their journey around the moon.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: Beginning with the rocket, what was the problem that they found with the rocket?<\/p>\n
Cameron: It leaks, so the fuel started leaking out. Specifically, at first, it was the liquid hydrogen that started leaking out. And this was actually a problem with the predecessor to Artemis II, Artemis I\u2014the rocket leaked hydrogen during their tests as well.<\/p>\n
Eventually, they managed to get it under enough control to be able to launch that rocket, but it did set back the launch date for it by months as they tried to get rid of the problem. And so I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very frustrating for all the engineers that [roughly] three years later they are dealing with the same problem despite having come up with fixes for it in the past.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: Can you talk about the issues with the capsule? And what is the capsule? That\u2019s where the astronauts actually go, right?<\/p>\n
Cameron: Yeah, so the capsule sits on top of the rocket; it looks like a sort of little cone. And it will house the four astronauts on their journey. It\u2019s quite spacious, comparatively. So the capsules that go up to the International Space Station, it\u2019s kind of like sitting in a plane seat; you don\u2019t really do very much in there. Whereas the capsule that these astronauts for Artemis II will go up\u2014it\u2019s called the Orion capsule\u2014it is relatively more spacious. It has some space for sleeping, for doing scientific work, for observations, and a bathroom, which is also critical if you\u2019re up in space for 10 days.<\/p>\n
And so the problem with the capsule arose when they were trying to close the hatches on the capsule to simulate getting ready for launch and [a valve] malfunctioned. And so [that] required tweaking in order to get [it] to function again.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: What are potential new dates for the launch?<\/p>\n
Cameron: So right now NASA is targeting March. That will depend on what analysis and what they learn from the results of the wet dress rehearsal. So what they\u2019ll do is that could take days; it could take weeks. We will get another wet dress rehearsal, so they\u2019ll do it again to make sure that everything\u2019s working optimally. With Artemis I it ended up being a monthslong delay from the first wet dress rehearsal to the actual launch.<\/p>\n
Right now NASA is targeting March. They haven\u2019t released a specific date, but NASA has a document basically showing where the launch windows are for March and April. For March it\u2019s between March 6 to the 9 and then March 11, so it could be any of those days.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: That\u2019s fair, and this is really interesting and something we\u2019ll definitely keep an eye on. Thank you so much for taking the time to walk us through this.<\/p>\n
Cameron: Of course!<\/p>\n
Pierre-Louis: Continuing with space news on February 1 the sun unleashed one of its strongest solar flares in decades.<\/p>\n
A solar flare is a large burst of electromagnetic radiation that is released by the sun. They can last anywhere from minutes to hours. Last week\u2019s show included dozens of smaller outbursts and four of what NASA calls X-class solar flares\u2014the most intense type. One of these X-class flares was among the 20 brightest that\u2019s been observed in the last 30 years, according to SpaceWeatherLive.<\/p>\n
These flares can cause radiation storms and disrupt satellite operations, but they can also trigger the beautiful shifting colors of the auroras. When the charged particles released during solar flares reach Earth they collide with the oxygen and nitrogen in our planet\u2019s atmosphere. As the particles move to shed this increased energy they glow in brilliant colors, which are visible in the night sky\u2014at least in lucky instances when there\u2019s no cloud cover.<\/p>\n
Speaking of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere do you remember the hole in the ozone layer? Well, here\u2019s a quick refresher. In 1985 British Antarctic Survey scientists made a startling discovery over the Halley and Faraday research stations. The researchers realized that the ozone layer\u2014the atmospheric layer that acts as the Earth\u2019s sunscreen, filtering out ultraviolet B rays\u2014had been thinning since the mid-1970s. Each spring, when the sun returned to Antarctica after months of darkness, ozone levels became dangerously low there. This spot became known as the hole in the ozone layer.<\/p>\n
So what was the culprit? Scientists placed the blame on certain chemical compounds, including chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were used as refrigerants and propellants in hair spray. And while Antarctica was perhaps most dramatically affected, ozone depletion was popping up in areas across all seven continents. The thinning of the ozone layer came with a number of potential risks for animal, plant and marine life\u2014for example, more skin-cancer cases among humans. But in 1987, just two years after researchers first sounded the alarm, every single member country of the United Nations signed onto the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty pledging to phase out the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. In the four decades since the ozone layer has begun to heal.<\/p>\n
And yet, a study published last Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letterssuggests that as we phased out ozone-depleting chemicals we replaced them, in part, with another potentially toxic chemical. The paper estimates that between 2000 and 2022 nearly 370,000 tons of trifluoracetic acid entered the atmosphere because of its use as a CFC substitute. The researchers made this determination using a chemical transport model, a type of computer model which mimics how chemicals move around the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Triflouracetic acid, or TFA, is part of a group of thousands of chemicals known as PFAS. They\u2019re often called forever chemicals because they don\u2019t easily break down in the environment; they can stick around for more than a thousand years. These chemicals have been under increasing scrutiny in recent years as a growing body of research suggests that exposure to them can be linked to health issues. Studies have connected PFAS exposure to immune system and hormonal dysfunction, along with certain cancers. When it comes to TFA specifically, research in mammals has found connections between the chemical and negative reproductive outcomes as well as impacts on liver function. These chemicals are also ubiquitous: U.S. government data suggests that roughly half the nation\u2019s households have some level of PFAS in their drinking-water supply, while last year York University researchers found traces of TFA in 31 of the 32 U.K. rivers they sampled.<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s end with some adorable news. You may think you don\u2019t have rhythm, but a new study published last Thursday in the journal PLOS Biology suggests that babies are actually hardwired to find the beat.<\/p>\n
In what has to be one of the cutest studies ever European researchers connected 49 newborns to an electroencephalogram, or EEG, machine, which measures the brain\u2019s electrical activity through electrodes on the scalp. Their goal was to test the babies\u2019 musical comprehension.<\/p>\n
With the electrodes in place the scientists played the wee babes songs by composer Johann Sebastian Bach\u2014but there was a catch. Some of the songs were played as intended while others were scrambled to alter pitch and timing. It turns out that the babies were able to anticipate rhythm\u2014essentially, the timing and duration of the sounds in the songs\u2014despite having never heard them before.<\/p>\n
The researchers came to this conclusion because the babies\u2019 brainwaves on the EEG indicated that they were surprised when the rhythm changed in the scrambled songs. Interestingly, the little ones\u2019 brains did not show indications of surprise when there were changes to the melody, or a song\u2019s sequence of pitches, implying that they didn\u2019t yet recognize this element of music. Together these findings suggest that we\u2019re born with rhythm, but our understanding of melody develops with exposure over time.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it! That\u2019s our show. Tune in on Wednesday, when we\u2019ll dig into the role that linguistics plays in a very popular\u2014and steamy\u2014hockey TV show.<\/p>\n
Science Quickly is produced by me, Kendra Pierre-Louis, along with Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.<\/p>\n
For Scientific American, this is Kendra Pierre-Louis. Have a great week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American\u2019s Science Quickly, I\u2019m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. You\u2019re listening to our weekly science news roundup. Last week NASA\u2019s Artemis II moon mission was delayed by at least a month. After the agency\u2019s so-called wet dress rehearsal revealed hydrogen fuel leaks in the launch vehicle, among other problems. Here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[7387,733,5173,543,2395,18526,1883,22878,1887,2229],"class_list":{"0":"post-44153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-babies","10":"tag-born","11":"tag-delays","12":"tag-faces","13":"tag-flares","14":"tag-nasas","15":"tag-rhythm","16":"tag-solar","17":"tag-surge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}