Details

Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 26 December 2020

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Upper Lake District Ranger Frank Aebly issued a communications use lease for the Big Signal Peak communication site project in Mendocino County on the Mendocino National Forest on Dec. 24.

This lease allows the installation of an additional wireless communications tower at an existing telecommunication site on National Forest System lands.

“This project will contribute to the existing telecommunications infrastructure on Big Signal that is an integral part of the agency’s goal of providing quality communication access to all Americans,” Forest Engineer Shannon Pozas said.

The project is located approximately 18 miles northeast of Willits and is adjacent to the Sanhedrin Wilderness.

The telecommunications services provided at this site will contribute to the safety of the surrounding communities.

The Mendocino National Forest worked in collaboration with Mendocino County Emergency Services to reach a solution to provide this communications site while not interfering with existing county emergency operations and maintenance.

Mendocino Forest Supervisor Ann Carlson added, “Issuing this lease will bring important internet services to rural communities, like Covelo and Laytonville, during a time when telework and distance learning for families is ever more important due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Project implementation may occur immediately.

Correction: The Forest Service has issued an update in which it said the project is to the northeast of Willits, not the southwest.

Details

Written by: Laurie Archbald-Pannone, University of Virginia; Kathleen C. Brown, University of Tennessee; Ryan Huerto, University of Michigan; Sue Mattison, Drake University, and Thomas A. Russo, University at Buffalo

Published: 26 December 2020

 

Earlier this fall, many of the nation’s restaurants opened their doors to patrons to eat inside, especially as the weather turned cold in places. Now, as COVID-19 cases surge across the country, some cities and towns have banned indoor dining while others have permitted it with restrictions. Still other geographies have no bans at all.

The restaurant and hospitality industry has reacted strongly, filing lawsuits challenging indoor dining bans and, in New York state, pointing to data that showed restaurants and bars accounted for only 1.4% of cases there – far lower compared with private gatherings.

We asked five health professionals if they would dine indoors at a restaurant. Four said no – and one had a surprising answer.

Not an option

Dr. Laurie Archbald-Pannone, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Virgina

No. March 12, 2020 was the last day I ate indoors at a restaurant. At the time, there was mild apprehension – but much changed that week. The COVID-19 pandemic altered many aspects of “normalcy,” and for me eating inside at a restaurant is one of those activities. I loved eating out and typically would eat out three times a week (sometimes more!). But understanding how the COVID-19 infection is transmitted, I feel that being inside without a mask on – even just to eat – is not an option for me. I strongly believe that we need to support our community through these challenging times, so we still get curbside pickup or delivery from our favorite local restaurants at least three times a week – sometimes more! – but it will be a while before I’m back inside. When I do return I’m definitely getting dessert.

Great risk

Dr. Thomas A. Russo, Chief of Infectious Disease Division, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo

No. And it’s been “no” right from the beginning.

We have a little more information now, but what I said in the spring hasn’t really changed. The greatest risk of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2 is being indoors with people who aren’t using masks at all times. The concern isn’t just big respiratory droplets when close to someone talking; it’s also the tiny aerosols that linger in the air.

Making it even riskier is the generally poor ventilation in many restaurants. The key differences between indoor dining and shopping in a big box store or grocery store are: 1) big stores have more ventilation and greater air space; 2) everyone can wear a mask at all times; 3) you’re not fixed in space, so if you see someone who just has a bandanna or their mask drops down below their nose, you can steer clear of them; and 4) it should take less time than dinner out. At a restaurant, you’re stuck at that table. If a party near you is having an animated conversation, they could be generating a lot of respiratory secretions.

Some interesting studies have looked at the airflow and air currents in restaurants in relation to where people became infected. In one, a person was 20 feet away from the source for only about 5 minutes, but the person was directly in the airflow and became infected. It’s a reminder of what we’ve been saying – there’s nothing magical about 6 feet. The high degree of community disease in the U.S. right now increases the likelihood that another diner in the restaurant is infected. If you are tired of cooking and need a break, takeout is the way to go.

Careful mixed with trust

Sue Mattison, Provost and Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Drake University

Yes. As an epidemiologist, my response may seem surprising or hypocritical: I do eat at local restaurants, but only because in April, like more than 17 million Americans since that time, I tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered. According to the latest evidence, I believe I have immunity for now, and perhaps longer. But I am not pushing my luck.

I have my own list of four restaurants where I eat. I trust these restaurants because each has drastically reduced their number of tables and spaced them at least 6 feet apart, and everyone inside is diligent about wearing a mask. My husband and I also order takeout a lot. It is important to reiterate, however, that evidence shows restaurants are a significant source of infection, and those who have not recovered from COVID-19 should refrain from eating at restaurants until the community gets a better handle on the spread of infection.

Short-term sacrifices

Dr. Ryan Huerto, Family Medicine Physician, Health Services Researcher and Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan

No. While I understand many factors contribute to indoor dining, such as the mental health toll of social isolation, the opportunity to support small businesses and cold weather, I strongly recommend against indoor dining.

The risk of contracting COVID-19 from indoor activities is far greater than from physically distanced outdoor activities. The recent spike in COVID-19 infections, deaths and ICU bed shortages is likely linked to indoor gatherings during Thanksgiving.

On Dec. 22, 201,674 infections and 3,239 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported. This death toll is equivalent to approximately 20 Boeing 737 aircrafts crashing in a single day.

Even with a COVID-19 vaccine approved, staying home, physically distancing, wearing a mask and good hand hygiene are as important as ever. Think of these as short-term sacrifices to help protect your friends, family, neighbors and essential workers.

Instead of dining in, please consider exponentially safer alternatives such as ordering delivery or curbside pickup.

Restaurants pose big risk

Kathleen C. Brown, Associate Professor of Practice and MPH Program Director, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, University of Tennessee

No. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that patients testing positive were twice as likely to have eaten in a restaurant than those testing negative in the 14 days preceding their test. I regularly get takeout but do not eat in restaurants.

What I cannot control poses a risk. I have very open and honest conversations with family and friends about where we have been and who we have been with. From there, our risk is pretty clear but still not at zero. The more people I come into contact with, the greater the risk.

In a restaurant, I am not able to assess the risk posed by other patrons or the staff. Each person in that restaurant has a network of others that, taken together, increases my risk of contracting COVID-19. Currently, Tennessee, where I live, is the second-leading state for cases per 100,000, which means community spread is high.

In plain language, that means there is an increased likelihood that I may come into contact with someone who is infectious – symptomatic or not – if I eat inside a restaurant. I will continue to pick up my takeout for now.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

Laurie Archbald-Pannone, Associate Professor Medicine, Geriatrics, University of Virginia; Kathleen C. Brown, Associate Professor of Practice and MPH Program Director, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, University of Tennessee; Ryan Huerto, Family Medicine Physician, Health Services Researcher and Clinical Lecturer, University of Michigan; Sue Mattison, Provost and Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences., Drake University, and Thomas A. Russo, Professor and Chief, Infectious Disease, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Details

Written by: Robert Sanders

Published: 26 December 2020

BERKELEY, Calif. – Astronomers are still searching for a hypothetical “Planet Nine” in the distant reaches of our solar system, but an exoplanet 336 light years from Earth is looking more and more like the Planet Nine of its star system.

Planet Nine, potentially 10 times the size of Earth and orbiting far beyond Neptune in a highly eccentric orbit about the sun, was proposed in 2012 to explain perturbations in the orbits of dwarf planets just beyond Neptune’s orbit, so-called detached Kuiper Belt objects. It has yet to be found, if it exists.

A similarly weird extrasolar planet was discovered far from the star HD 106906 in 2013, the only such wide-separation planet known. While much heavier than the predicted mass of Planet Nine — perhaps 11 times the mass of Jupiter, or 3,500 times the mass of Earth — it, too, was sitting in a very unexpected location, far above the dust plane of the planetary system and tilted at an angle of about 21 degrees.

The big question, until now, has been whether the planet, called HD 106906 b, is in an orbit perpetually bound to the binary star — which is a mere 15 million years old compared to the 4.5 billion-year age of our sun — or whether it’s on its way out of the planetary system, never to return.

In a paper appearing Dec. 10 in The Astronomical Journal, astronomers finally answer that question. By precisely tracking the planet’s position over 14 years, they determined that it is likely bound to the star in a 15,000-year, highly eccentric orbit, making it a distant cousin of Planet Nine.

If it is in a highly eccentric orbit around the binary, “This raises the question of how did these planets get out there to such large separations,” said Meiji Nguyen, a recent UC Berkeley graduate and first author of the paper. “Were they scattered from the inner solar system? Or, did they form out there?”

According to senior author Paul Kalas, University of California, Berkeley, adjunct professor of astronomy, the resemblance to the orbit of the proposed Planet Nine shows that such distant planets can really exist, and that they may form within the first tens of millions of years of a star’s life. And based on the team’s other recent discoveries about HD 106906, the planet seems to favor a scenario where passing stars also play a role.

“Something happens very early that starts kicking planets and comets outward, and then you have passing stars that stabilize their orbits,” he said. “We are slowly accumulating the evidence needed to understand the diversity of extrasolar planets and how that relates to the puzzling aspects of our own solar system.”

A young, dusty star with a weird planet

HD 106906 is a binary star system located in the direction of the constellation Crux. Astronomers have studied it extensively for the past 15 years because of its prominent disk of dust, which could be birthing planets. Our solar system may have looked like HD 106906 about 4.5 billion years ago as the planets formed in the swirling disk of debris left over from the formation of the sun.

Surprisingly, images of the star taken in 2013 by the Magellan Telescopes in Chile revealed a planet glowing from its own internal heat and sitting at an unusually large distance from the binary: 737 times farther from the binary than Earth is from the sun (737 astronomical units, or AU). That’s 25 times farther from the star than Neptune is from the sun.

Kalas, who searches for planets and dust disks around young stars, co-led a team that used the Gemini Planet Imager on the Gemini South Telescope to obtain the first images of the star’s debris disk. In 2015, these observations provided evidence that led theorists to propose that the planet formed close to the binary star and was kicked out because of gravitational interactions with the binary. The evidence: The stars’ outer dust disk and inner comet belt are lopsided, suggesting that something — the planet — perturbed their symmetry.

“The idea is that every time the planet comes to its closest approach to the binary star, it stirs up the material in the disk,” said team member Robert De Rosa of the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, Chile, who is a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow. "So, every time the planet comes through, it truncates the disk and pushes it up on one side. This scenario has been tested with simulations of this system with the planet on a similar orbit — this was before we knew what the orbit of the planet was.”

The problem, as pointed out by those simulating such planet interactions, is that a planet would normally be kicked out of the system entirely, becoming a rogue planet. Some other interaction, perhaps with a passing star, would be necessary to stabilize the orbit of an eccentric planet like HD 106906 b.

A similar scenario has been proposed for the formation of Planet Nine: that its interaction with our giant planets early in our solar system’s history kicked it out of the inner solar system, after which passing stars in our local cluster stabilized its orbit.

Kalas went looking for such a fly-by star for HD 106906 b, and last year he and De Rosa, then at Stanford University, reported finding several nearby stars that would have zipped by the planetary system 3 million years earlier, perhaps providing the nudge needed to stabilize the planet’s orbit.

Now, with precise measurements of the planet’s orbit between 2004 and 2018, Nguyen, de Rosa and Kalas present evidence that the planet is most likely in a stable, but very elliptical, orbit around its binary star.

“Though it's only been 14 years of observations, we were still able to, surprisingly, get a constraint on the orbit for the first time, confirming our suspicion that it was very misaligned and also that the planet is on an approximately 15,000-year orbit.” Nguyen said. “The fact that our results are consistent with predictions is, I think, a strong piece of evidence that this planet is, indeed, bound. In the future, a radial velocity measurement is needed to confirm our findings.”

The science team’s orbital measurements came from comparing astrometric data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory, which accurately maps the positions of billions of stars, and images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Because Hubble must obscure the glare from the binary star to see the dimmer debris disk, astronomers were unable to determine the exact position of the star relative to HD 106906 b. Gaia data allowed the team to determine the binary’s position more precisely, and thus chart the movement of the planet relative to the binary between 2004 and 2018, less than one-thousandth of its orbital period.

“We can harness the extremely precise astrometry from Gaia to infer where the primary star should be in our Hubble images, and then measuring the position of the companion is rather trivial,” Nguyen said.

In addition to confirming the planet’s 15,000-year orbit, the team found that the orbit is actually tilted much more severely to the plane of the disk: between 36 and 44 degrees. At its closest approach to the binary, its elliptical orbit would take it no closer than about 500 AU from the stars, implying that it has no effect on inner planets also suspected to be part of the system. That is also the case with Planet Nine, which has no observed effect on any of the sun’s eight planets.

“What I really think makes HD 106906 unique is that it is the only exoplanet that we know that is directly imaged, surrounded by a debris disk, misaligned relative to its system and is widely separated,” Nguyen said. “This is what makes it the sole candidate we have found thus far whose orbit is analogous to the hypothetical Planet Nine.”

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation (AST-1518332) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX15AC89G, NNX15AD95G, HST-GO-14670/NAS5-26555). This work benefited from NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.