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  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.
Cosmonaut Vladimir N. Dezhurov, Expedition Three flight engineer, prepares the Russian Orlan space suit for an upcoming space walk from the Pirs Docking Compartment on the International Space Station (ISS).
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA

A Walk in Space - Preparing to Leave the ISS
News story originally written on November 10, 2001

Expedition Three's stay onboard the International Space Station (ISS) is coming to a close. Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin have been onboard the space station since mid-August. Expedition Four, comprised of team members Daniel W. Bursch, Yuri I. Onufrienko and Carl E. Walz, will arrive to take their place onboard the space station in December 2001.

Before Expedition Three departs from the ISS, preparations are being made for Expedition Three's third and final space walk. The space walkers will be Culbertson and Dezhurov and the space walk is slated for November 12, 2001. The object of this space walk, as it was with the previous two space walks, is to make electrical connections between Pirs and the Zvezda Service Module and to install equipment outside of the station. Pirs is the newly-arrived Russian Docking Compartment.

November 2, 2001, marked one year of continuous human presence aboard the ISS. During this year, 14 spacecraft have visited the ISS and 18 space walks have been made. Also during this year, the station has increased in size with the addition of the Destiny Laboratory, the U.S. solar arrays, the Quest Airlock, Canadarm2 and the Pirs Docking Compartment.

Last modified November 9, 2001 by Jennifer Bergman.

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