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Overnight News Digest Science: 2023-2024 Looking Ahead, Looking Back [1]
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Date: 2023-12-30
Saturdays for the Overnight News Digest are generally focused on science happenings. On the last Saturday of the year we are looking back at 2023 and looking ahead to 2024. This is an open thread, so feel free to leave comments below.
The biggest event for citizen science this coming year is perhaps the total solar eclipse that will cut across the United States. A couple of articles, beginning with this from space.com:
The best places in the US to experience totality during the April 2024 solar eclipse By Jamie Carter On April 8, 2024, the U.S. will experience its second total solar eclipse in seven years, but only parts of 15 U.S. states will experience totality. On April 8, 2024, the U.S. will witness a total solar eclipse , when the moon moves in front of the sun to cause daytime darkness and a chance to see the sun's corona. The last time that happened in the U.S. was on August 21, 2017, and memories are fresh. Seven years ago, the path of totality was relatively remote. This time, it will pass by some vast cities and metropolitan areas, ranging northeast from Texas through Maine. Only from within this path will it be possible to witness totality for up to 4 minutes and 26 seconds.
From NASA:
NASA Funds 3 Citizen Science Projects to Study 2024 U.S. Solar Eclipse Abbey Interrante NASA has awarded funding for three science teams to conduct citizen science investigations as a total solar eclipse sweeps across North America on April 8, 2024. In these experiments, volunteers will help study the Sun and its ethereal outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is revealed when the Moon completely covers the Sun’s bright disk. “During next year’s total eclipse, hundreds of volunteers will capture images of the Sun and its corona to help answer real science question about our star and how it affects us,” said program scientist and eclipse lead at NASA Headquarters, Kelly Korreck.
From Lonely Planet:
Stargazing in 2024: where to celebrate meteor showers, solstices and eclipses John Garry In the new year, get ready to turn your eyes to the skies. Between sparkling meteor showers, annual equinox celebrations and one total solar eclipse, 2024 promises to be sensational for stargazers. You might consider planning a trip to view celestial events at a certified Dark Sky Place, a designation the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) awards to locations unspoiled by light pollution. Yet armchair astronomers can still admire plenty of stars, planets and meteors from their backyards.
The space stories to come. From the BBC:
Nasa mission lines up to 'touch the Sun' By Jonathan Amos It promises to be a remarkable moment in the history of space exploration. A year from now, on 24 December, Nasa's Parker Solar Probe will race past the Sun at the astonishing speed of 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph. No human-made object will have moved so fast nor, indeed, got so close to our star - just 6.1 million km, or 3.8 million miles from the Sun's "surface".
From space.com:
10 exhilarating spaceflight missions to watch in 2024 By Samantha Mathewson From long-awaited rocket launches and lunar landers to crewed flights around the moon, here are a few exciting spaceflight missions to look forward to in 2024. International Space Station resupply spacecraft. With that in mind, here are a few particular missions we're looking forward to in 2024. Next year is bound to be packed with exciting spaceflight missions, from long-awaited rocket launches to incredible moon missions — including some that'll dabble in lunar landers and crewed flights — a new Jupiter probe headed to the beyond and even a demonstration flight of a newresupply spacecraft. With that in mind, here are a few particular missions we're looking forward to in 2024.
2023 in retrospect includes a lot of top 10 (or more) lists. From Heritage Daily:
Top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2023 The field of archaeology has been continuously evolving in 2023, making significant strides in uncovering new historical findings, preserving cultural heritage, and employing innovative technologies to study the past.
From artnews:
There are also stories about finds in Anatolia (Turkey) and China, among others.
From Science:
Science editors pick their most memorable stories of 2023 In-depth investigations, fascinating findings, and writers’ field reports from around the world—these are the stories that stuck with our news editors BY CHRISTIE WILCOXEmail This year, in late June, Science launched our first editorial newsletter: ScienceAdviser. Every weekday for the past 6 months, newsletter subscribers have received an email packed with the most interesting and important updates from Science and science writ large, including exclusive reporting and analysis. (You can sign up for free.) In the giving spirit of the holidays, I—your friendly, neighborhood newsletter editor—let my colleagues take the helm for a day. The editors of News from Science selected their favorite stories from the past year, explaining their selections with a brief note. From the personal side of science—as told from a writer’s own unique perspective—to in-depth investigations and fascinating findings, these stories showcase the talents of Science’s journalists. It would be a shame if only newsletter subscribers could enjoy these selections. So read on!
From Salon:
These 8 mind-bending moments in science made us question reality in 2023 From dark stars to new laws of evolution, the year was full of mind-blowing scientific research By RAE HODGE The world of scientific research was a bonanza for brain-bending discoveries in 2023, with experts from the fields of astronomy, cosmology, neuroscience and chemical engineering left us questioning the very nature of our reality with eye-popping new data. The outer worlds of our so-called reality were especially shaken as the James Webb Space Telescope brought us closer to proof of an unseen universe, a mysterious hum was discovered pervading the galaxy and a groundbreaking journalistic investigation revealed the possibility of aircrafts designed by non-human intelligence.
Looking ahead, with IFLS:
Will 2024 Be The Year Of The Anthropocene? Scientific bodies from across the world will meet to decide whether we are officially living in a new geological epoch, one defined by human impacts on the planet. DR. RUSSELL MOUL As we approach the end of the year, we may not only be saying goodbye to 2023, but also the geochronologic unit of time we have been living in to date. In 2024, scientists will be making a decision on whether we have entered the Anthropocene, a new epoch marked by human impact on the planet. Broadly speaking, the Anthropocene (derived from the Greek words anthropo, meaning “man” and cene for “new”) represents a time of planetary change that has come as a direct result of human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and increased deforestation. The idea was first made popular in 2000, by the late meteorologist Paul Crutzen.
From Science Focus:
Why new climate breakthroughs mean you should have (some) hope in 2024 Forget the disheartening headlines, 2023 has seen stories of true hope for the planet's future. Victoria Gill Bad news this year has, at times, felt relentless. And towards the end of 2023, we were reminded, by the latest UN climate talks in Dubai, that global efforts to overcome the worst effects of climate change are progressing much slower than the pace of global warming. But please don’t sigh and lose all hope. There was a genuine breakthrough at that COP28 meeting. For the first time, countries agreed to "transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. Whatever you think of these COP meetings, and they are far from perfect, for once the world came together and said: “We want to move away from fossil fuels.”
From inews (not all science):
40 reasons to be optimistic about 2024, from science to culture From health breakthroughs to wildlife success stories, literary festivals to wellbeing schemes, there are plenty of reasons to raise a glass to the year ahead Anna Bonet By Young people will get free access to RSPB nature reserves “Anyone aged 16 to 24 will get free entry to RSPB nature reserves in 2024, simply by showing a valid photo ID,” says the charity’s campaigns director, Alice Hardiman. It is part of a push to encourage more young people to engage with wildlife and wild places. “Young people face barriers accessing nature on a daily basis. By removing entry charges, we hope more will come to explore these wonderfully wild spaces and connect with the great outdoors in new ways.”
From the Business Standard (India):
Science packed 2024: Human spaceflight tests, deep ocean exploration The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to begin the new year with the launch of XPoSat. After the momentous landing on the moon's south pole, India has now set its sights on more challenging missions -- sending humans to space and getting samples from the lunar surface back to earth. Test flights for both the projects are scheduled in the new year. For Indian scientists it is just not about the moon and beyond. Furthering deep ocean exploration, the country is scheduled to send aquanauts on board the "Samudrayaan", first to a depth of 500 metres in March, and later, achieve its targeted depth of up to 6,000 metres.
From Scientific American (originally published in Ensia):
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