In 2005, black vultures congregated in huge flocks in Dutch Gap, a wilderness area south of Richmond, Virginia next door to the most polluting power plant in Virginia, operated by Dominion Virginia Power. They defecated on vehicles, causing massive cleanup jobs and in some cases damage to cars, and they defecated on parts of the Virginia Power facility. So the USDA, Chesterfield County, and Virginia Power collaborated to kill 400 of the vultures, by trapping them and then shooting them, thus causing the Great Black Vulture Massacre of 2005.
Now I hear they are going to do it again, and now we are going to have the Great Black Vulture Massacre of 2007. I got this communication from Dawn Wilson of Henrico County:
As of this morning, there is a baited trap currently set up at Dutch gap. I don't know exactly when it was set up, but it is being utilized to attract the vultures as i write this, to get them "comfortable" and "familiar" in heading into the trap. In 2005, it was baited with deer carcasses, so I would assume the same methods are being employed. Once the operators decide to "spring" the trap, each bird therein will be shot and killed with a .22 rifle. Then they'll empty it and start again the next day and the next and... Until their "harvest" goal has been met (it was previously 400 birds).
What particularly irks me about this massacre is the goal that has to be made. It reminds me of goals or quotas for police in catching speeders. What if there aren't 400 birds? Are they going to kill every one of them? And does this solve the problem? Evidently the 2005 Massacre didn't. It's a case of doing something the same way, and you get the same results. Isn't there a better way of solving the problem? Is killing wildlife the only way that the defecation problem can be solved? Are we going to have the Great Black Vulture Massacre of 2009?
I think that the USDA, Chesterfield County, and Virginia should reconsider this killing. Why are the black vultures there? There must be food from something. Maybe stricter regulations about cleaning up after you use the Dutch Gap facility is what's called for. Maybe some other animals are dying, producing carcasses which attract the vultures. If so, why are they dying? Is it due to emissions from the power plant? There are a lot of issues to be considered here, and I call upon these three agencies to postpone their killing until a better strategy for dealing with the problem is found.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Lunar Eclipse
On 2007 March 3, a lunar eclipse occurred. Here in central Virginia, it rose eclipsed and then gradually got out of it. An eclipsewatch was held at the Science Museum of Virginia, and a huge throng of people came out to see it.
On 2007 August 28, another lunar eclipse occurred. Here in central Virginia, it was low in the sky when the Moon entered Earth's shadow, and it set totally eclipsed, with dawn drowning it out. But this time there were no big crowds of people at a museum. The Science Museum did not host a skywatch at 5 o'clock in the morning. People did not want to get up that early, although they did for the transit of Venus in 2004. Instead, I walked out onto my street and found the Moon was setting above my street, so that trees were not in the way. However, a low deck of altocumulus clouds came and blotted out the Moon much of the time, so after about 15 minutes, I went back in the house again.
They say another one will occur in February. On 2008 February 20 from about 8 pm to midnight, the Moon will enter the Earth's shadow. This looks like a good one. I hope to see it and take pictures of it.
On 2007 August 28, another lunar eclipse occurred. Here in central Virginia, it was low in the sky when the Moon entered Earth's shadow, and it set totally eclipsed, with dawn drowning it out. But this time there were no big crowds of people at a museum. The Science Museum did not host a skywatch at 5 o'clock in the morning. People did not want to get up that early, although they did for the transit of Venus in 2004. Instead, I walked out onto my street and found the Moon was setting above my street, so that trees were not in the way. However, a low deck of altocumulus clouds came and blotted out the Moon much of the time, so after about 15 minutes, I went back in the house again.
They say another one will occur in February. On 2008 February 20 from about 8 pm to midnight, the Moon will enter the Earth's shadow. This looks like a good one. I hope to see it and take pictures of it.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Largest Comet ever Discovered
What is the largest comet? There have been some large ones in history, such as Comet Hale-Bopp, which was 60 miles in diameter. It was a brilliant comet, the biggest one in my lifetime that I have seen. However, it was clear across the Solar System. If it had been near us, like Comet Hyakutake in 1996 at 9 million miles, it would have been an incredible sight.
The asteroid Chiron is about the same size, and it has shown signs of developing a coma. If so, then Chiron is another comet. But it is also a straggler Kuiper Belt object (KBO), which makes one think of the other KBOs. They are icy worlds, and if one were placed in the inner solar system, the ices off the world would stream off to produce a comet. So does that mean that all KBOs are comets? Here we go with Pluto again. The International Astronomical Union has ruled that it is not a planet, but rather a KBO and a "dwarf planet". Could it really be a comet? If Pluto got into the inner Solar System, it would be one big whopper of a comet, perhaps. The same holds for Eris, too, and the other large KBOs. But this leads to the question: what is a comet anyway?
To me a comet is any body that produces a bright center and a faint to bright tail trailing it, and lasting at least an hour (to exclude meteors). The bodies that produce the traditional comets we observe are much like small asteroids or KBOs. They are solid bodies. The comets differ in that they have icy surfaces, unlike the rocky surfaces of Mars-Jupiter asteroids. So to me anything that is capable of producing such a brilliant tail in the sky is a comet. That makes Eris and Pluto comets. So is Eris the largest comet?
No. Recently Astronomy magazine reported an even larger comet. This one is larger than Jupiter. That's correct, larger than Jupiter. They reported that a large body, TrES-4, orbits the star GSC 02620-00648 in Hercules. This body is considerably bigger than Jupiter, maybe twice as big. But it is less massive. Bodies that are between 1 and 80 Jupiters in mass are all of about the same size, with the difference being their density. But this one is considerably larger. It must be a puffball of a planet, with gases on the surface that are heated up by the central star and blown away by the stellar wind, to produce an enormous tail. To me, TrES-4, although it is a gas-giant planet, is also a comet. A really huge comet! But is this the largest comet? No.
There is one much larger than that one, and this object has been known since the 1600s. It is a favorite with amateur astronomers. It is Mira, the wonderful variable star in Cetus. This star varies in magnitude from 2.5 (about the same as Phecda in the Big Dipper) to 10 (a faint dot in an 8-inch telescope), over an irregular period that averages 331 days. It has long been known to be a red giant star about 1.2 times as massive as the Sun, and as large as Mars' orbit. The maxima and minima have been studiously observed since the 1600s. Astronomers have discovered something new with Mira. It is producing a tail in ultraviolet light that makes it look like a comet. If it looks like a comet, then it is one. To me this star qualifies as a comet, as it consists of a bright object with a long tail behind it. The tail is certainly long. Instead of 100 million miles (typical of a Solar System comet), it is 13 light years long! The star is moving fast, and it is ejecting gas, which is forming this tail. So this is a comet, in a planetary system where the central star is itself a comet.
This certainly has to be the largest comet ever discovered.
The asteroid Chiron is about the same size, and it has shown signs of developing a coma. If so, then Chiron is another comet. But it is also a straggler Kuiper Belt object (KBO), which makes one think of the other KBOs. They are icy worlds, and if one were placed in the inner solar system, the ices off the world would stream off to produce a comet. So does that mean that all KBOs are comets? Here we go with Pluto again. The International Astronomical Union has ruled that it is not a planet, but rather a KBO and a "dwarf planet". Could it really be a comet? If Pluto got into the inner Solar System, it would be one big whopper of a comet, perhaps. The same holds for Eris, too, and the other large KBOs. But this leads to the question: what is a comet anyway?
To me a comet is any body that produces a bright center and a faint to bright tail trailing it, and lasting at least an hour (to exclude meteors). The bodies that produce the traditional comets we observe are much like small asteroids or KBOs. They are solid bodies. The comets differ in that they have icy surfaces, unlike the rocky surfaces of Mars-Jupiter asteroids. So to me anything that is capable of producing such a brilliant tail in the sky is a comet. That makes Eris and Pluto comets. So is Eris the largest comet?
No. Recently Astronomy magazine reported an even larger comet. This one is larger than Jupiter. That's correct, larger than Jupiter. They reported that a large body, TrES-4, orbits the star GSC 02620-00648 in Hercules. This body is considerably bigger than Jupiter, maybe twice as big. But it is less massive. Bodies that are between 1 and 80 Jupiters in mass are all of about the same size, with the difference being their density. But this one is considerably larger. It must be a puffball of a planet, with gases on the surface that are heated up by the central star and blown away by the stellar wind, to produce an enormous tail. To me, TrES-4, although it is a gas-giant planet, is also a comet. A really huge comet! But is this the largest comet? No.
There is one much larger than that one, and this object has been known since the 1600s. It is a favorite with amateur astronomers. It is Mira, the wonderful variable star in Cetus. This star varies in magnitude from 2.5 (about the same as Phecda in the Big Dipper) to 10 (a faint dot in an 8-inch telescope), over an irregular period that averages 331 days. It has long been known to be a red giant star about 1.2 times as massive as the Sun, and as large as Mars' orbit. The maxima and minima have been studiously observed since the 1600s. Astronomers have discovered something new with Mira. It is producing a tail in ultraviolet light that makes it look like a comet. If it looks like a comet, then it is one. To me this star qualifies as a comet, as it consists of a bright object with a long tail behind it. The tail is certainly long. Instead of 100 million miles (typical of a Solar System comet), it is 13 light years long! The star is moving fast, and it is ejecting gas, which is forming this tail. So this is a comet, in a planetary system where the central star is itself a comet.
This certainly has to be the largest comet ever discovered.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Are we ready for Mars?
On today, 2007 February 6, a disaster hit NASA, possibly even worse than the Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia disasters. One of NASA's astronauts was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder as a result of a love triangle. Today Lisa Nowak drove 900 miles in diapers from Houston to Orlando to pepper spray her amor's other girlfriend, and the equipment she had suggested that she may have been attempting to murder her - a knife, trash bags, rubber tubing.
To me love triangles are among the most irrational of human behavior. It happens when someone is in love with someone and that love finds someone else to go with instead. It seems that people get really irrational when that happens. The jilted lover will take all kinds of revenge against the amour, or even against the other person. If someone's stereo set were stolen, normally we don't go out and get revenge against the robber. We instead call the police and let them handle it, and consult our insurance company. So why do people go off the handle like Lisa did when it is a lover that is "stolen"? Maybe it is because of the loss of a loved one. In any case, people simply go cuckoo when they see that there is another lover, or when someone's spouse is found to have an affair. And the popular song and myth culture does not help any, not when Hera takes it out on Callisto because her husband Zeus has an affair with her, and not with songs that say that if you go away, they might as well take the Sun away.
NASA selects its astronauts carefully. They go through physical and psychological testing to ensure that each astronaut has "the right stuff" as the movie says. But apparently love triangle violence trumps the right stuff. How did this happen? Is the training too severe for them? Do they break down?
To me what it means is that we are not ready for Mars. President Bush called on us to get people on Mars in about 20 years or so. But if astronauts try to kill each other, how can this happen? We are decades away from a successful Mars mission, maybe centuries. If astronauts can't live with each other on our big wide wonderful planet, what will they do when they are cooped up in a tiny space vehicle for over a year and a half? Before we can send a Mars mission, we must learn to reject love triangles and learn to love each other for real.
To me love triangles are among the most irrational of human behavior. It happens when someone is in love with someone and that love finds someone else to go with instead. It seems that people get really irrational when that happens. The jilted lover will take all kinds of revenge against the amour, or even against the other person. If someone's stereo set were stolen, normally we don't go out and get revenge against the robber. We instead call the police and let them handle it, and consult our insurance company. So why do people go off the handle like Lisa did when it is a lover that is "stolen"? Maybe it is because of the loss of a loved one. In any case, people simply go cuckoo when they see that there is another lover, or when someone's spouse is found to have an affair. And the popular song and myth culture does not help any, not when Hera takes it out on Callisto because her husband Zeus has an affair with her, and not with songs that say that if you go away, they might as well take the Sun away.
NASA selects its astronauts carefully. They go through physical and psychological testing to ensure that each astronaut has "the right stuff" as the movie says. But apparently love triangle violence trumps the right stuff. How did this happen? Is the training too severe for them? Do they break down?
To me what it means is that we are not ready for Mars. President Bush called on us to get people on Mars in about 20 years or so. But if astronauts try to kill each other, how can this happen? We are decades away from a successful Mars mission, maybe centuries. If astronauts can't live with each other on our big wide wonderful planet, what will they do when they are cooped up in a tiny space vehicle for over a year and a half? Before we can send a Mars mission, we must learn to reject love triangles and learn to love each other for real.
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