Plus space telescopes, deep-sea critters, an unlikely location for a wooly mammoth, high voltage science, and more!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Explore and Observe! I hope you all had an excellent New Year and are ready for a 2022 full of exploration and adventure. You won't notice any huge changes to this newsletter, but I am going to try to keep the length capped at five sections so this project remains sustainable for me in the future. A reminder that if there is anything you'd like to hear more (or less) of or you have other feedback you can always reply to any of these emails.

If you're confused about why you're receiving this message you may have signed up after hearing about Explore and Observe from the Future Crunch or Todayland newsletters. A big thanks to Gus and Tane from the former, and Peter and Keeley from the latter for the mentions! 

-Evan 

#01 BIG TELESCOPES

+ The image above was the last time anyone will ever see the James Webb Space Telescope, but if all goes well pictures sent back from 8 billion dollar spacecraft will revolutionize our knowledge of the universe. Since its launch on Christmas day, Webb has deployed a massively complex sunshield the size of a tennis court, positioned a small secondary mirror, and unfolded its primary mirror segments to form a single 21 foot diameter surface. The smooth sailing has operators and astronomers on the ground breathing a huge sigh of relief now that a large amount of technical risk has been retired. There is still plenty more to keep folks on edge though. The 18 mirror segments need to be precisely aligned to each other and the whole thing will be cooled down to near absolute zero. It'll take at least a few months before the observatory is fully operational and sending back pictures. You can follow along with the commissioning activities using a neat real-time dashboard here.

+ If you can't wait that long, an X-ray telescope named IXPE is ready to start collecting science data after getting lofted into orbit in early December.  

#02 GREAT CIVILIZATIONS

+ “We don’t learn from the past as much as we should... Here is a place that was occupied by people who were heavily invested in production, who developed regional links, who were also interacting with other parts of the world—and they built a place with such strength and resilience.” Much of Africa is overlooked in the archeological annals of the world and Shadreck Chirikure, a Zimbabwean archaeologist, is on a mission to change that through his exploration of a pre-colonial African state known as Great Zimbabwe. This article includes an eye-opening 3D walkthrough of one of the civilization's central sites, the Great Enclosure, and is well worth checking out.

+ An entire Roman town is slowly being excavated in the UK thanks to extensive digging needed to build a new high-speed rail line. "Among the rare finds were a large Roman road, coins, jewelry, glass vessels, highly decorative pottery and even evidence of ancient makeup."

#03 MEANWHILE ON MARS

+ Perseverance continues to collect samples on Mars for eventual return to Earth, but recently had a hiccup when some debris got in the way of a robotic mechanism. The good news is that this was a known risk so the engineers on the ground were prepared for it, and are working to clear the debris.

+ The little helicopter that could completed its 19th flight on Mars. 

+ Operations of the solar-powered Insight lander are being affected by a regional dust storm on Mars. The panels are already coated in a thick layer of dust and are having trouble collecting enough power to keep the spacecraft going.

#04 BUT I JUST WANTED A GOLDFISH

+ Although aquariums tend to focus on crowd pleasing animals like sharks and dolphins, the deep ocean is largely populated by small fragile creatures that often defy our understanding of what it even means to be alive. You can't just catch one on a fishing line either, so to capture some for study and exhibition on land, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute had to get creative.

+ Another group of researchers from Monterey Bay found a mammoth tusk 10,000 feet underwater off the coast of California. The tusk is at least 100,000 years old and is exquisitely preserved thanks to the unique cold, high-pressure environment in the deep ocean. As to how the tusk ended up out there, they are still trying to figure that little detail out.

#05 CLOUDED OUT

+ We've been trying to learn more about lightning ever since Ben Franklin flew a kite into a lightning storm, yet the underlying mechanisms that cause lightning to spark remain elusive. After all, you can't exactly see into a cloud and find out, right? Not quite. Researchers in the Netherlands used a radio telescope network to image the very beginnings of lightning bolts with unprecedented resolution. What I love about this story is that the radio network used normally looks into deep space at distant stars and galaxies but is essentially useless for that purpose when lightning is in the area. The fact that they repurposed the antennas to study the very thing that causes issues for one group is a wonderful example of collaboration and cross-pollination in science.

That's all for this week! To tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, suggest a story, or otherwise get in touch, you can simply respond to this email. If you particularly enjoyed it please forward to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann