The Guardian today: New leak of Brexit papers reveals fissures between Britain and EU

View in browser

the guardian today Thursday 07 Sep 2017 Headlines More » Hurricane Irma: path of devastation in Caribbean as Florida orders evacuations – live Most powerful hurricane ever recorded over Atlantic Ocean batters Caribbean islands as it moves west with category 5 winds and rains India army chief: we must prepare for simultaneous war with China and Pakistan Jacindamania spreads as Jeremy Corbyn urges New Zealand's Ardern to 'do it for us' At £4.40, Surrey becomes most expensive place in UK to buy a pint One in eight workers struggle to afford food, finds TUC survey 'It's outrageous': 15 states challenge Trump's Daca decision in court Brexit immigration blueprint More » New leak of Brexit papers reveals fissures between Britain and EU • Second tranche of documents is revealed to Guardian • Irish border and customs rules threaten fresh deadlock Most viewed in last 24 hours More » MP stopped at border over daughter's name urges passport reform Tulip Siddiq, who kept her maiden name after marriage, says children's passports should feature both parents' names Roger Federer v Juan Martin del Potro: US Open quarter-final – live! EU citizens in disbelief over UK's leaked Brexit proposals Jacob Rees-Mogg isn't old-fashioned, he's a thoroughly modern bigot | Suzanne Moore Should you wash your pyjamas every day? Catalonia to hold independence vote despite anger in Madrid Sport More » London 2012 team insist bid for right to host Olympics was clean England's Joe Root concentrates on West Indies not Lord's pitch fungus Vuelta: Chris Froome loses ground to Vincenzo Nibali on gruelling 17th stage Comment is free More » Britain can control immigration. What drives this debate is nasty politics | Simon Jenkins Bell Pottinger has toxified political debate in South Africa | Justice Malala What has Kim Jong-un done for us? Made nuclear bunkers relevant again | Deborah Orr Culture More » Classic FM's 25th anniversary: The sweet sound of success Glen Luchford's best photograph: Amber Valletta modelling Prada in a sinking boat Follies review – Sondheim's showbiz stunner returns in breathtaking style Business More » Government asks big companies to sign letter backing Brexit strategy Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation Technology More » Hackers attacking US and European energy firms could sabotage power grids Apple, Facebook and Microsoft lead fightback against Trump over Daca Travel More » Knocking on Devon's doors: an art-inspired break around Dartmoor Send us a tip on outdoor activities in Colorado – and win a £200 hotel voucher Life and style More » Kitchen gadgets review: Zerowater – it's so full of itself, I'm not sure where to put the water Owner of python found in Southend toilet lost snake two months ago Football Comment is free Environment

Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396

Secret X-37B Military Mini-Shuttle Set for SpaceX Blastoff/Landing Sept. 7 as Cat 5 Hurricane Irma Forces Florida State of Emergency – Watch Live

New post on Universe Today Secret X-37B Military Mini-Shuttle Set for SpaceX Blastoff/Landing Sept. 7 as Cat 5 Hurricane Irma Forces Florida State of Emergency – Watch Live by Ken Kremer SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rolls horizontally up incline at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 6 Sept. 2017. The rocket is being processed for liftoff of the X-37B OTV-5 mini-shuttle mission scheduled for Sept. 7, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Although its far from sunny in the so called 'Sunshine State' the secret X-37B military mini-shuttle is set for a SpaceX blastoff and booster landing combo Thursday, Sept. 7 - even as the looming threat from Cat 5 Hurricane Irma forced Florida's Governor to declare a statewide 'State of Energency.' Launch preparations were in full swing today on Florida's Space Coast for liftoff of the hi tech USAF X-37B reusable spaceplane- hoping to escape to orbit for the first time atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and just in the nick of time tomorrow, before the impending threat of monster storm Irma potentially lashes the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in the center of the states long peninsula. I witnessed the entire SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and payload being rolled horizontally up the incline to the top of Launch Complex 39A late this afternoon, Sept. 6, during our media visit for up-close camera setup. Rather remarkably the relatively dismal weather forecast has brightened considerably in the final hours leading to Thursday's scheduled launch and the forecast heavy rain showers and thunder have dissipated in the time remaining between now and liftoff. The X-37B reusable mini-shuttle is a secretive technology testing spaceplane flying on its fifth mission overall. The path to launch was cleared following the successful engine test firing of the Falcon 9 first stage I witnessed late last week, Thursday afternoon, Aug. 30. During the hold down static fire test all nine Merlin 9 stage engine were ignited and fired up to full throttle for several seconds. See my static fire story here. SpaceX conducts successful static fire test of the Falcon 9 first stage rocket at 4:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 31, 2017 on Launch Complex 39A on NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fl., as seen from nearby Playalinda causeway. Liftoff of the USAF X-37B OTV-5 mini-shuttle mission is scheduled for Sept. 7, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com Although the exact launch time remains a closely guarded U.S. Air Force secret, liftoff of the X-37B is slated to occur sometime during a 5 hour long window. The launch window for the X-37B on the OTV-5 mission opens at 9:50 a.m. EDT and spans until 2:55 p.m. EDT Sept. 7 from seaside Launch Complex 39A on NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX will offer their own live webcast beginning approximately 15 minutes before launch starting at about 9:35 a.m. EDT. You can watch the launch live at NASA TV at the SpaceX hosted Webcast at - spacex.com/webcast In the event of delay for any reason, the next launch opportunity is Friday, Sept 8 at approximately the same time and window. However amidst the heavy duty Hurricane Irma preparations all around, nothing is certain. Local area schools in Brevard County have closed and local residents are preparing their homes and apartments to hunker down, buying food and essentials putting up storm shutters, topping off gas and energy supplies and more. The weather forecast overall is about 50% chance of favorable conditions at launch time according to U.S. Air Force meteorologists with the 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base. But the opportunity varies within the window and the exact launch time is currently classified. The primary concerns on Aug. 14 are cumulus clouds and the potential for precipitation in the flight path. The odds remain at 70% favorable for the 24 hour scrub turnaround day on Aug. 15. Everything is currently on track for Thursday's launch of the 230 foot tall SpaceX Falcon 9 on the X-37B OTV-5 mission. "The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is undergoing final launch preparations for the fifth mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle [OTV]," the Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs announced. "The OTV is scheduled to launch on Sept. 7, 2017, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The X-37B will be launched for the fifth time on the OTV-5 mission atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Sept. 7 from Launch Complex 39A on the Kennedy Space Center Florida into low Earth orbit. The Boeing-built X-37B is processed for flight at KSC using refurbished NASA space shuttle processing facilities now dedicated to the reusable mini-shuttle, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV). It launches vertically like a satellite but lands horizontally like an airplane and functions as a reliable and reusable space test platform for the U.S. Air Force. The OTV-5 mission marks the first launch of an X-37B spaceplane by SpaceX. All four prior OTV missions launched on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V and ended with runway landings in either California of Florida. "The many firsts on this mission make the upcoming OTV launch a milestone for the program," said Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. "It is our goal to continue advancing the X-37B OTV so it can more fully support the growing space community." Watch for Ken's continuing onsite X-37B OTV-5 and NASA mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer Ken Kremer | September 6, 2017 at 11:45 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p1CHIY-zEW Comment    See all comments Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:  https://www.universetoday.com/137078/secret-x-37b-military-mini-shuttle-set-for-spacex-blastofflanding-sep-7-as-cat-5-hurricane-irma-threat-forces-florida-state-of-emergency-watch-live/

The Orbit of Earth will be Hiding Earth 2.0

New post on Universe Today The Orbit of Earth will be Hiding Earth 2.0 by Matt Williams In the hunt for extra-solar planets, astronomers and enthusiasts can be forgiven for being a bit optimistic. In the course of discovering thousands of rocky planets, gas giants, and other celestial bodies, is it too much to hope that we might someday find a genuine Earth-analog? Not just an "Earth-like" planet (which implies a rocky body of comparable size) but an actual Earth 2.0? This has certainly been one of the goals of exoplanet-hunters, who are searching nearby star systems for planets that are not only rocky, but orbit within their star's habitable zone, show signs of an atmosphere and have water on their surfaces. But according to a new study by Alexey G. Butkevich - a astrophysicist from the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg, Russia - our attempts to discover Earth 2.0 could be hindered by Earth itself! Butkevich's study, titled "Astrometric Exoplanet Detectability and the Earth Orbital Motion", was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. For the sake of his study, Dr. Butkevich examined how changes in the Earth's own orbital position could make it more difficult to conduct measurements of a star's motion around its system's barycenter. Artist's impression of how an Earth-like planet might look from space. Credit: ESO. This method of exoplanet detection, where the motion of a star around the star system's center of mass (barycenter), is known as the Astrometic Method. Essentially, astronomers attempt to determine if the presence of gravitational fields around a star (i.e. planets) are causing the star to wobble back and forth. This is certainly true of the Solar System, where our Sun is pulled back and forth around a common center by the pull of all its planets. In the past, this technique has been used to identify binary stars with a high degree of precision. In recent decades, it has been considered as a viable method for exoplanet hunting. This is no easy task since the wobbles are rather difficult to detect at the distances involved. And until recently, the level of precision required to detect these shifts was at the very edge of instrument sensitivity. This is rapidly changing, thanks to improved instruments that allow for accuracy down to the microarcsecond. A good example of this is the ESA's Gaia spacecraft, which was deployed in 2013 to catalog and measure the relative motions of billions of stars in our galaxy. Given that it can conduct measurements at 10 microarcseconds, it is believed that this mission could conduct astrometric measurements for the sake of finding exoplanets. But as Butkevich explained, there are other problems when it comes to this method. "The standard astrometric model is based on the assumption that stars move uniformly relative to the solar system barycentre," he states. But as he goes on to explain, when examining the effects of Earth's orbital motion on astrometric detection, there is a correlation between the Earth's orbit and the position of a star relative to its system barycenter. Kepler-22b, an exoplanet with an Earth-like radius that was discovery within the habitable zone of its host star. Credit: NASA To put it another way, Dr. Butkevich examined whether or not the motion of our planet around the Sun, and the Sun's motion around its center of mass, could have a cancelling effect on parallax measurements of other stars. This would effectively make any measurements of a star's motion, designed to see if there were any planets orbiting it, effectively useless. Or as Dr. Butkevich stated in his study: "It is clear from simple geometrical considerations that in such systems the orbital motion of the host star, under certain conditions, may be observationally close to the parallactic effect or even indistinguishable from it. It means that the orbital motion may be partially or fully absorbed by the parallax parameters." This would be especially true of systems where the orbital period of a planet was one year, and which had an orbit that placed it close to the Sun's ecliptic - i.e. like Earth's own orbit! So basically, astronomers would not be able to detect Earth 2.0 using astrometric measurements, because Earth's own orbit and the Sun's own wobble would make detection close to impossible. As Dr. Butkevich states in his conclusions: "We present an analysis of effects of the Earth orbital motion on astrometric detectability of exoplanetary systems. We demonstrated that, if period of a planet is close to one year and its orbital plane is nearly parallel to the ecliptic, orbital motion of the host may be entirely or partially absorbed by the parallax parameter. If full absorption occurs, the planet is astrometrically undetectable." Future surveys for exoplanets could be complicated by the Sun's own motion around its barycenter. Credit: NASA Luckily, exoplanet-hunters have a myriad of other methods too choose from, including direct and indirect measurements. And when it comes to spotting planets around neighboring stars, two of the most effective involve measuring Doppler shifts in stars (aka. the Radial Velocity Method) and dips in a star's brightness (aka. the Transit Method). Nevertheless, these methods suffer from their own share of drawbacks, and knowing their limitations is the first step in refining them. In that respect, Dr. Butkevich's study has echoes of heliocentrism and relativity, where we are reminded that our own reference point is not fixed in space, and can influence our observations. The hunt for exoplanets is also expected to benefit greatly from deployment of next-generation instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and others. Further Reading: arXiv Matt Williams | September 6, 2017 at 10:37 pm | Tags: astrometric, Featured, Gaia spacecraft | URL: http://wp.me/p1CHIY-zEL Comment    See all comments Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:  https://www.universetoday.com/137067/orbit-earth-will-hiding-earth-2-0/

Congress.gov: Senate Floor Today Update

S.Res.160 A resolution honoring the service to United States Armed Forces provided by military working dogs and contract working dogs, also known as "war dogs". (09/06/2017 legislative day) S.652 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2017 (09/06/2017 legislative day) S.849 SMASH Act (09/06/2017 legislative day) S.920 National Clinical Care Commission Act (09/06/2017 legislative day) H.R.624 Social Security Number Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 (09/06/2017 legislative day) S.1359 John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization Act of 2017 (09/06/2017 legislative day) This service is provided by the Library of Congress at www.LOC.gov. Follow us: Blog | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram | Pinterest| Twitter | YouTube   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Library of Congress · 101 Independence Ave, SE · Washington, DC 20540 · 202-707-5000