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Meet Mittens, a hunk of ice and rock about 2,000 feet wide orbiting Saturn in the planet’s F ring—and the name of a deceased cat who belonged to planetary scientist Larry Esposito's daughter. Mittens has company: About 60 similar clumps scattered throughout the F ring. Not all of these features have nicknames, but those that do honor cats beloved by Saturn scientists—and more will likely be discovered in Cassini’s last data. The very fact that these features have nicknames means that they’re scientifically interesting—their fluffy titles act as references so scientists can talk about individual lumps easily and without confusion. The naming scheme was the brainchild of Esposito, a professor at the University of Colorado, and his grad students. "I just gave them nicknames so I could keep them straight," he told Newsweek. Esposito has spent 40 years studying Saturn’s rings—in fact, he’s the person who discovered the F ring in the first place. "The rings are beautiful, one of the most beautiful sights in the solar system," he says, but there’s more meat here than that. "As scientists, we're interested in what they can tell us about the history of the planet and the history of planetary formation." But as he and his students were analyzing these clumps, first spotted in 2005, they needed a way to refer to them. Enter Mittens. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now Since the clumps are transient, Esposito said, "I thought they had multiple lives," like cats and their notorious nine lives. He also wanted to avoid stepping on the toes of the International Astronomical Union, which is in charge of approving official names for features in space. "If we're going to have nicknames for this, I don't want to be too serious, I want to be playful," Esposito said. Fluffy nickname aside, Mittens and its Saturnine feline friends could help scientists answer a few stumpers about our solar system. First, cataloging them will help scientists make their estimate of the total mass of Saturn’s rings more accurate—and that has implications for their age; they can only be old if they’re massive. And Mittens may even hold the clues to the origins of our own planet. That’s because before the planets of our solar system had formed, they were small clumps of rock strewn throughout a disk—not so different from kittens in Saturn’s rings. That means understanding how kittens form and fall apart could tell us how Earth and our neighbors formed too, Esposito says. Mittens is too small to actually see in a photograph, but this is what the star occultation that discovered it would have looked like. NASA/JPL/University of Colorado His theory is that while Mittens won’t be around forever, but there will always be a certain number of Mittens-like features. Esposito compares it to the way real cats like to hang out on the ruins of the Roman Forum. "The cats of course come and go, but there's always some cats in the Roman Forum, sitting on this ancient structure." The kittens are particularly dynamic near the two moons closest to the ring, Prometheus and Pandora, which to Esposito suggests that the phenomena are connected. He says that models accounting for all of the physics at play are too large and complicated for computers to process, but that he’s developed a simplified model inspired by the boom-and-bust cycles seen in population ecology and economics. "The moons stir up the rings, the rings respond by clumping up, the clumps stir up the rings, that erodes the clumps and they disperse, so it's all cyclic," Esposito says. That’s still a theory. "I definitely have an ax I'm grinding here, an idea I have in my head," he is quick to add. "Maybe most people wouldn't agree with that simple solution." But the only way to know for sure is to keep looking for kittens. And how do you spot a kitten in outer space? The clumps are too small to show up in photographs. Watch a star pass behind the ring and look for dips in its brightness where the clump blocks its light. That’s a process called a star occultation, which Esposito and his colleagues on Cassini’s Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph instrument managed to do more than 150 times before the spacecraft’s mission ended earlier this month. And Esposito says he expects the instrument likely spotted more kittens during its grand finale dance through the rings, although he doesn’t have that data yet—so stay tuned for more of Mittens' kin. Tags:low-cost LTE router, low-cost M2M router, compact industrial router, low-cost cellular router , cellular router |
What Makes Irma a Category 5 Hurricane? Potential Impact of the Monster Storm Barreling Toward Florida |
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At 8 a.m. Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center declared that Hurricane Irma had become a Category 5 storm. That's the strongest storm classification the National Weather Service designates. But what does "Category 5" even mean? Hurricanes are classified based on their peak wind speeds using a system called the Saffir-Simpson scale. (This is why Hurricane Harvey's devastation wasn't reflected in its Category 4 designation at landfall—the scale doesn't factor in a storm's potential rainfall.) In order to be classified as a hurricane at all, a storm has to maintain wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour. That's strong enough to damage homes and break tree branches. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now For comparison, the National Hurricane Center as of 11 a.m. Tuesday is estimating Hurricane Irma is currently maintaining wind speeds of about 178 miles per hour, more than double the minimum speed for a hurricane—and in fact the strongest hurricane the center has ever watched in the Atlantic Ocean proper, rather than the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico. Those winds are well above the minimum for a Category 5 storm, which is 157 miles per hour. At those speeds, winds cause what the weather service classifies as "catastrophic damage," including destroying houses outright and causing power outages that can last more than a month. A satellite image of Hurricane Irma taken on September 1. NASA/NOAA/UWM-CIMSS, William Straka III Irma is the first Category 5 storm of the year in the Atlantic, although Hurricane Matthew in 2016 reached the same designation. Before Matthew, the U.S. had gone more than a decade without a Category 5 hurricane—since 2005, when Hurricanes Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma all spent time as Category 5 storms. Although wind speeds aren't everything when it comes to a hurricane's impact, a storm's category does give a good sense of what to expect. Meteorologists generally estimate that each category increase leads to about four times as much storm damage. Category 1 storms can sustain winds of between 74 and 95 miles per hour and Category 2 between 96 and 110 miles per hour—these are considered very real storms that can damage homes and trees and cause widespread power outages. Hurricanes of Categories 3, 4, and 5 are classified as major storms, with winds between 111 and 129 miles per hour for Category 3, between 130 and 156 miles per hour for Category 4, and above 157 miles per hour for Category 5. Some meteorologists have proposed a "Category 6" classification for particularly strong storms like Irma, but that's not recognized by the National Hurricane Center. It's easy to take these wind speeds for granted as just a bunch of numbers. But it's truly valuable information that informs the National Hurricane Center's forecasts and directions to the public. And in order to take these measurements, specially trained pilots fly directly into the heart of the storm. |
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French tennis player Maxime Hamou has been kicked out of the French Open for repeatedly kissing and groping a female reporter on camera. Related: ESPN's '100 Most Famous Athletes' list omits baseball During a post-match interview, the 21-year-old Hamou, ranked 287th in the world, put his arm around Eurosport reporter Maly Thomas and, over the course of about 35 seconds, repeatedly kissed her as she attempted to interview him. Thomas tried to wriggle away from Hamou, but his grip on her shoulder remained firm. Toward the end of the interview, he moved his hand closer to her neck and, ultimately, across the front of her blouse before she flung it away and escaped. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now The French Federation of Tennis called it a "reprehensible act." Also reprehensible was the response from studio host Henri Leconte, a former tennis pro who laughs and claps heartily as Hamou assaults Thomas. Though the interview came after Hamou lost in straight sets to Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in the tournament's first round, the Open still felt the need to publicly ban the Frenchman from the rest of the tournament. “The management of the tournament has decided to revoke Maxime Hamou’s accreditation following his reprehensible behavior with a journalist yesterday,” the French Tennis Federation said in statement provided to The Telegraph. Thomas smiles throughout the interview before throwing Hamou's arm off of her chest, but don't be mistaken: “If I hadn’t been live on air, I would have punched him," she told Huffington Post France. Hamou on Tuesday released an apology via his Instagram account (translation via Deadspin):
Thomas's network, Eurosport, issued a statement provided to Retuers on Tuesday. "We sincerely regret the incident that occurred during yesterday evening’s interview between Maly Thomas and Maxime Hamou. The behavior of the interviewee was highly inappropriate and we do not condone such conduct in any way. Maly is a highly respected journalist and we are pleased that a full apology is being offered." The French Tennis Federation has said that it will continue to investigate the incident. Tags:M2M IoT router, industrial wireless router, industrial M2M router, industrial LTE router, Industrial VPN router |