#01

"The land south of Egypt, beyond the first cataract of the Nile, was known to the ancient world by many names: Ta-Seti, or Land of the Bow, so named because the inhabitants were expert archers; Ta-Nehesi, or Land of Copper; Ethiopia, or Land of Burnt Faces, from the Greek; Nubia, possibly derived from an ancient Egyptian word for gold, which was plentiful; and Kush, the kingdom that dominated the region between roughly 2500 B.C. and A.D. 300." For thousands of years, a distinct civilization flourished south of Egypt along the Nile, yet it has largely been long ignored by western archeologists. What have we been missing?

#02

If you're tired of the same old view from your apartment this week, consider tuning into The Woods Hole Oceanic Institute's live-streamed mission to explore the undersea life and maritime heritage of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The region is home to dozens of shipwrecks including the target of this expedition: the steamship Portland which sunk in the late 1800s. By revisiting the wreck scientists hope to document changes that have occurred since its discovery, investigate the local sea creatures, and gather insight into why the ship sank in the first place. The link above contains a schedule of events and opportunities to participate at various times from Tuesday, August 25th through Thursday the 27th.

Oceanic exploration has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic due to canceled and delayed research expeditions. Learn how the Monterey Bay Research Institute has been adapting to the changes with a heavy emphasis on autonomous technologies.

#03

Ceres is an unassuming world. The dwarf planet resides in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has a diameter of only 590 miles, one-quarter the size of the moon. Since it was discovered in 1801 scientists have mostly assumed that it was a barren and battered object much like the rest of the asteroid belt, and probably one of the least likely places in the solar system to find active geology and liquid water. That was until the Dawn spacecraft showed up in 2015 and gathered evidence for ice volcanos and ancient oceans. A flurry of papers released recently "confirm the presence of a subsurface reservoir of brine - salt-enriched water - remnants of a vast subsurface ocean that has been gradually freezing." Ceres now joins the growing list of small bodies in the solar system that may contain liquid water including Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's moon Enceladus, Neptune's moon Triton, and even Pluto. Considering liquid water is essential to life on Earth, all the evidence for it elsewhere means its possible we aren't as alone in the solar system as we think. 

#04

The Perseverance Mars Rover is on the way to the red planet and in good health after a successful launch in July. The spacecraft recently performed the first trajectory correction maneuver of its interplanetary cruise. This means the onboard thrusters were fired to keep the spacecraft headed on the correct course. Up to four more similar maneuvers are planned before Perseverance arrives at Mars in February.

#05

NASA and SpaceX have announced that the next launch of astronauts to the Space Station using SpaceX's Dragon capsule will occur no earlier than October 23rd. While SpaceX has already flown two astronauts to the space station, this next launch will be the first of regular missions to the station for SpaceX after certification from NASA. Put another way, SpaceX is officially open for business.

#06

Sometimes if you want new land to explore you have to create it yourself. Twenty years ago the Fresh Kills Dump was the largest in the world and featured all the lovely sights and smells that go with the distinction. Today, the former dumpsite is actually a pleasant place to be and is about to reopen to the public as Freshkills Park. See how Freshkills became a poster child for ecological restoration through burying trash, planting grass, and a whole lot of patience.

#07

Turns out that making homemade soap has been a profitable enterprise since long before the pandemic. "A 1,200-year-old soap-making workshop unearthed near Rahat in the Negev Desert is the oldest found in Israel to date." The facility was located in what would have been a large and luxurious home and the family's wealth was likely accrued through making and selling soap. The secret recipe: olive oil and the ashes from saltwort plants. Interestingly, it's unclear if the soap was actually used for its personal hygiene benefits. Romans of the time period would have anointed their skin with oil and scraped excess grease and dirt away with a tool known as a strigil.

#08

At a recent event marking World Elephant Day, Kenya's wildlife service announced that with an elephant baby boom of 170 calves, the number of elephants in the country has doubled from 16,000 to 32,000 since 1989.

In another conservation success story,  the population of red kites, a distinctive bird of prey in Europe, has rebounded significantly in the UK since the population on the island dropped to only a few breeding pairs in the 1980s. Thirteen birds were brought from Spain in 1990 and today there are an estimated 1,800 breeding pairs on the island.

The Bookshelf

If John Muir were a tattoed hipster he might have published something like Obi Kaufmann's The California Field Atlas. The 600-page volume is full of watercolored maps augmented by landscapes, plants, and animals, all handmade by the author. The maps are not cartographically precise and illustrations are not necessarily biologically exact. Metropolises are the same size as backpacking campgrounds and major highways are often less prominent than hiking trails. You can't navigate by these illustrations, but through hand-drawn curves and fuzzy boundaries they, to paraphrase a Terry Pratchet quote, depict California not as it looks like, but as it is. With artistic talent, Kaufmann has reimagined what maps should look like and how to communicate information about "living patterns and ancient processes," and I am grateful for the fresh take.

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This newsletter was produced as a private venture and not in the author's capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology or of Griffith Observatory. Any views and opinions expressed herein or on exploreandobserve.com are his own and not those of his employers.

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