Day: September 26, 2022

A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.

The galactic slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 9.6 million kilometers away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the space rock at 22,500 kph. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit.

“We have impact!” Mission Control’s Elena Adams announced, jumping up and down and thrusting her arms skyward.

Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious — Dart’s radio signal abruptly ceased — it will take days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid’s path has changed.

The $325 million mission was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.

“We’re embarking on a new era of humankind,” said NASA’s Lori Glaze, planetary science division director.

Earlier in the day, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson reminded people via Twitter that, “No, this is not a movie plot.” He added in a prerecorded video: “We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high.”

Monday’s target: a 160-meter asteroid named Dimorphos. It’s actually a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid five times bigger that flung off the material that formed the junior partner.

The pair have been orbiting the sun for eons without threatening Earth, making them ideal save-the-world test candidates.

Launched last November, the vending machine-size Dart — short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — navigated to its target using new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission manager.

Dart’s onboard camera, a key part of this smart navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour before impact.

“Woo-hoo!” exclaimed Adams, a mission systems engineer at Johns Hopkins. “We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”

With an image beaming back to Earth every second, Adams and other ground controllers in Laurel, Maryland, watched with growing excitement as Dimorphos loomed larger and larger in the field of view alongside its bigger companion. Within minutes, Dimorphos was alone in the pictures; it looked like a giant gray lemon with boulders and rubble on the surface. The last image froze on the screen as the radio transmission ended.

Flight controllers cheered, hugged one another and exchanged high fives.

A mini satellite followed a few minutes behind to take photos of the impact. The Italian Cubesat was released from Dart two weeks ago.
Scientists insisted Dart would not shatter Dimorphos. The spacecraft packed a scant 570 kilograms, compared with the asteroid’s 5 billion kilograms. But that should be plenty to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.

The impact should pare 10 minutes off that, but telescopes will need anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The anticipated orbital shift of 1% might not sound like much, scientists noted. But they stressed that over years, it would amount to a significant change.

Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given enough lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth. Multiple impactors might be needed for big space rocks or a combination of impactors and so-called gravity tractors, not-yet-invented devices that would use their own gravity to pull an asteroid into a safer orbit.

“The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program to help them know what was coming, but we do,” NASA’s senior climate adviser Katherine Calvin said, referring to the mass extinction 66 million years ago believed to have been caused by a major asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or both.

The nonprofit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, has been pushing for impact tests like Dart since its founding by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago. Monday’s feat aside, the world must do a better job of identifying the countless space rocks lurking out there, warned the foundation’s executive director, Ed Lu, a former astronaut.

Significantly less than half of the estimated 25,000 near-Earth objects in the deadly 140-meter range have been discovered, according to NASA. And fewer than 1% of the millions of smaller asteroids, capable of widespread injuries, are known.

The Vera Rubin Observatory, nearing completion in Chile by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Energy Department, promises to revolutionize the field of asteroid discovery, Lu noted.

Finding and tracking asteroids, “That’s still the name of the game here. That’s the thing that has to happen in order to protect the Earth,” he said.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

 

Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge is spurring young athletes to follow in his footsteps after breaking his own world record Sunday in Berlin.

Cheers erupted from the crowd Sunday at Nairobi’s Karura Forest as they watched Kipchoge race on TV. The watch party followed an amateur marathon organized by the Friends of Karura Forest to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

Karanja Njoroge, a past chairman of the conservation group who serves on its board, called Kipchoge’s win “absolutely magnificent.”

“Everybody went wild,” Njoroge said of the crowd at the watch party. “Seeing the guy was way ahead. Everybody felt so elated by the efforts of our king of athletics, Eliud Kipchoge.”

Kipchoge’s new record, 30 seconds faster than his previous world record set in Berlin in 2018, is now two hours, one minute and nine seconds. Njoroge called it an inspiration.

“I think it encourages people. Gives people hope. And even those who would never compete begin to believe, because this guy is 37 years old and he’s breaking world records,” Njoroge said.

Barnabas Korir, an executive member of Athletics Kenya, the governing body for track and field sports, agreed.

“He’s inspired the youth, but not only the youth but particularly all the athletes from Kenya,” Korir said. “You know Kipchoge is one of the few athletes who is completely determined. He’s also very focused.”

Korir, who is also chairman of youth development at Athletics Kenya, said camps have been set up nationwide to encourage sports.

“We got the support from the government to do that and in the last 3 years, Eliud Kipchoge talk to the athletes when they were in the camps,” Korir said. “So, this is an opportunity for us now to give our athletes a symbol that they can do well if they remain focused, if they work hard.”

Kipchoge has won 15 out of his 17 career marathons, including two Olympic gold medals.

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Luanda – Angolan small forward Yanick Moreira recently signed a contract valid until May 2023 for the senior men’s basketball team of Kolossos Rhodes, from the first league of the Greek championship.

The team of Greece currently occupies the third position, with 39 points.

31 years old and 2.11 meters tall, Yanick Moreira played for Petro de Luanda last season, with whom he broke his relationship due to lack of agreement.

Speaking to the local press, the athlete guaranteed that he is ready to return to the field, after the recovery he made in Portugal to his right knee.

At the service of Petro de Luanda, Yanick Moreira won, for the first time in his career, a National Championship, an Angola Cup, a Super-cup, as well as second place in the African League.

The athlete has already played for AEK of Greece, Paok Salonica (2018/19) and Peristeria (2019/20), both clubs in the first division of that European country.

In addition to 1º de Agosto, where he started his career, he also played for Rouen Metropoli (France), UCAN Murcia (Spain), Segafredo Virtus Bologna (Italy), Parma Basket (Russia) and Raptors 905 (USA/D-League).

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – Angolan bodybuilder Sina Teresa won the regional championship in the category “Women’s Wellness (up to 1.63 cm high), and Champion wellness overall held in Pretoria, South Africa, sponsored by the regional show ICandy Classic.

The win allowed the athlete to qualified for the second amateur competition, due to take place in December this year.

Sina Teresa started competing in 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal, when the Wellness category was inaugurated at the IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) National Championship.

It was through César Carlos Pimente, a former bodybuilding athlete of the 1980s.

Former athletics of 1º de Agosto, from junior to senior levels, she was part of the Angola national team, from 2001 to 2016.

Sina Teresa became national runner-up in 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2017 Carlos Rebolo Trophy winner, in the same European country.

The list includes the Arnold classic brazil top 8, 2018 national champion, Arnold classic Africa top 3, 201 World, 2019 Arnold classic Africa, as well as this year, as champion up to 1.63 cm, and overall Regional Show Icandyclassic.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – Angola’s Vice President Esperança da Costa appointed Monday in Luanda the staff of her Office: director, advisors and consultants, the Vice President’s Press Office has announced.

The Vice President appointed Claudete Miguel do Sacramento e Sousa Office director, Domingos de Alegria Econgo legal adviser, António Manuel Moisés Pinto economic adviser, and Elsa Bárber do Espírito Santo social adviser.

The list includes names such as Faustino Simão, who was appointed  ceremonial director and the advisors Marcelino Joel Cerca Pinto, Gabriel Luís Miguel and Joffrana Dynamene Xavier de Oliveira.

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

 

Luanda –Angola defended this Monday in New York, United States of America (USA), the importance of multilateralism and international mutually beneficial cooperation.

During the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, the head of the Angolan delegation, Maria de Jesus Ferreira, said that it is related to cooperation with benefits in the relationship between states.

 

“We believe that in this way we can contribute effectively to the search for consensual solutions in the resolution of political, economic, social and cultural crises”, said the diplomat.

 

Maria de Jesus Ferreira, who is also the Permanent Representative of the Angola Mission to the UN, revealed that the country continues developing efforts in order to contribute to peace and stability in the African continent and particularly in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

 

She added that Angola, as the Chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), has spared no effort in contributing to peace and stability in the region.

 

As an example, Maria de Jesus Ferreira pointed to Angola´s efforts, especially in pacifying the conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) and in resolving the border conflict between Rwanda and the DRC, as well as between Uganda and Rwanda.

 

The ambassador of Angola to UN expressed Angola´s commitment to continual work with the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) in the pacification and search for consensus, in order to settle conflicts.

 

Maria de Jesus Ferreira pointed that there is a consensus focused on obtaining a culture of peace, security and stability at SADC, Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and at (ICGLR), as well in the Gulf of Guinea and in other regional organizations.

 

Lifting of embargoes

 

The Head of the Angolan delegation called for the lifting of the arms embargo to the Central African Republic (CAR), economic embargo to Cuba, as well as advocated the need for reform on the UN Security Council.

 

“In general, Angola defends the lifting of all Unilateral Sanctions or coercive measures imposed against the populations of Zimbabwe, Venezuela and others without a mandate from the Security Council”, she said.

 

Regarding the Sustainable Development Agenda including African Union 2063 Agenda on Environment, the diplomat highlighted that Angola is aligned with the international consensus on the matter.

 

Framed in this strategy, she informed that Angola approved the National Strategy on climate change and environmental education and plans to reach the target of 70% energy coming from non-polluting sources until 2025.

 

In the presence of the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, the Angolan ambassador announced the holding of the 10th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), to be held from 6 to 19 December 2022.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency