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Cassini takes first plunge
NASA/JPL/CALTECH/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
UPFRONT
Cassini takes first plunge WE’RE getting up close and personal with Saturn, thanks to Cassini. The NASA spacecraft has made the first of its 22 planned dives between Saturn’s rings, taking it closer to the gas giant than any probe before. These Grand Finale orbits, each taking only six days, will yield a wealth of information about Saturn. The image on the left shows the rings as Cassini rocketed through at more than 100,000 kilometres an hour. The picture appears as it was received from the spacecraft. In the coming days and weeks, researchers will process each set of images, sharpening them and adding colour using data from Cassini itself. Before swooping down toward the planet, Cassini flew high over its north pole, snapping images of the pole and
rings. Cassini also took images of Saturn’s tiny icy moon, Enceladus, as well as storms in Saturn’s atmosphere. It will map the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields, giving scientists a window into the planet’s interior. As Cassini travels between the planet and its rings, it will sample the particles drifting from the rings into the atmosphere, measuring how much dust and ice the rings really have. The end of the Grand Finale mission in September will also be the end of the Cassini spacecraft. Low on fuel, it will crash into Saturn in order to protect the planet’s moons from contamination by any Earth microbes that may have hitched a ride all these years.
UK’s pollution woes
made a last-minute application to delay publication until after the general election on 8 June, claiming it would violate election rules should plans be unveiled earlier. Its application was largely rejected on 27 April. The judge ruled the plans might affect local elections being held on 4 May, but said the draft plans must be published by 9 May. The government has said it will comply with the ruling. ClientEarth is also threatening to take the UK to court for failing to slash its greenhouse emissions.
–Rings in the raw–
Heart infection risk
It was thought that the microbe, called Mycobacterium chimaera and common in soil and water, was present in only a certain brand of blood-cooling machine. But doctors are now reporting that other machines are affected too, and there is no known way of decontaminating them. The problem is causing alarm among doctors worldwide, because M. chimaera infection is difficult to treat. There are 110 known cases of this happening in heart patients so far, and half of those infected have died.
PEOPLE undergoing heart surgery may be getting infected with a deadly strain of bacteria, spread by machines used to cool blood. The design of blood-cooling machines is flawed, Daniel
Diekema at the University of Iowa told the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Vienna, Austria, last week. “This was an infection risk that was hiding in plain sight for decades,” Diekema said. The problem arises during open-heart surgery to insert a device, such as a valve or bloodvessel graft. This process requires a machine to cool and later warm up the blood. During the operation, machines contaminated by the bacteria can blow them out into the operating room, where they can land on the devices to be implanted. 6 | NewScientist | 6 May 2017
ASTRID RIECKEN/GETTY
“Blood-cooling machines are an infection risk that has been hiding in plain sight for decades”
THE UK government has lost yet another court case over its failure to tackle air pollution. The UK was supposed to unveil the latest plans to tackle nitrogen dioxide pollution on 24 April. In many towns nitrogen dioxide often exceeds legal limits that came into effect in 2010 as part of EU regulations. The government was told to produce plans for reducing it after losing two court cases brought by campaign group ClientEarth. But on 21 April, the government
Climate march ANOTHER weekend, another march. The People’s Climate March on 29 April brought an estimated 200,000 people to Washington DC. Sister marches also took place around the world. The main march began at the US Capitol and ended at the White House, where demonstrators held a sit-in and rally while President Trump was inside. The event was held on his 100th day in office and –Message to Trump– billed as a way to push back on the
UPFRONT
Cassini takes first plunge WE’RE getting up close and personal with Saturn, thanks to Cassini. The NASA spacecraft has made the first of its 22 planned dives between Saturn’s rings, taking it closer to the gas giant than any probe before. These Grand Finale orbits, each taking only six days, will yield a wealth of information about Saturn. The image on the left shows the rings as Cassini rocketed through at more than 100,000 kilometres an hour. The picture appears as it was received from the spacecraft. In the coming days and weeks, researchers will process each set of images, sharpening them and adding colour using data from Cassini itself. Before swooping down toward the planet, Cassini flew high over its north pole, snapping images of the pole and
rings. Cassini also took images of Saturn’s tiny icy moon, Enceladus, as well as storms in Saturn’s atmosphere. It will map the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields, giving scientists a window into the planet’s interior. As Cassini travels between the planet and its rings, it will sample the particles drifting from the rings into the atmosphere, measuring how much dust and ice the rings really have. The end of the Grand Finale mission in September will also be the end of the Cassini spacecraft. Low on fuel, it will crash into Saturn in order to protect the planet’s moons from contamination by any Earth microbes that may have hitched a ride all these years.
UK’s pollution woes
made a last-minute application to delay publication until after the general election on 8 June, claiming it would violate election rules should plans be unveiled earlier. Its application was largely rejected on 27 April. The judge ruled the plans might affect local elections being held on 4 May, but said the draft plans must be published by 9 May. The government has said it will comply with the ruling. ClientEarth is also threatening to take the UK to court for failing to slash its greenhouse emissions.
–Rings in the raw–
Heart infection risk
It was thought that the microbe, called Mycobacterium chimaera and common in soil and water, was present in only a certain brand of blood-cooling machine. But doctors are now reporting that other machines are affected too, and there is no known way of decontaminating them. The problem is causing alarm among doctors worldwide, because M. chimaera infection is difficult to treat. There are 110 known cases of this happening in heart patients so far, and half of those infected have died.
PEOPLE undergoing heart surgery may be getting infected with a deadly strain of bacteria, spread by machines used to cool blood. The design of blood-cooling machines is flawed, Daniel
Diekema at the University of Iowa told the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Vienna, Austria, last week. “This was an infection risk that was hiding in plain sight for decades,” Diekema said. The problem arises during open-heart surgery to insert a device, such as a valve or bloodvessel graft. This process requires a machine to cool and later warm up the blood. During the operation, machines contaminated by the bacteria can blow them out into the operating room, where they can land on the devices to be implanted. 6 | NewScientist | 6 May 2017
ASTRID RIECKEN/GETTY
“Blood-cooling machines are an infection risk that has been hiding in plain sight for decades”
THE UK government has lost yet another court case over its failure to tackle air pollution. The UK was supposed to unveil the latest plans to tackle nitrogen dioxide pollution on 24 April. In many towns nitrogen dioxide often exceeds legal limits that came into effect in 2010 as part of EU regulations. The government was told to produce plans for reducing it after losing two court cases brought by campaign group ClientEarth. But on 21 April, the government
Climate march ANOTHER weekend, another march. The People’s Climate March on 29 April brought an estimated 200,000 people to Washington DC. Sister marches also took place around the world. The main march began at the US Capitol and ended at the White House, where demonstrators held a sit-in and rally while President Trump was inside. The event was held on his 100th day in office and –Message to Trump– billed as a way to push back on the