Winter Solstice: History and Significance

December 21 Marks the Beginning of Winter

• Winter in the Northern Hemisphere begins December 21, 2024.
• The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year.
• Residents of the Southern Hemisphere celebrate the summer solstice on the same day.
• Seasons are a result of Earth's orbit and the 23.5-degree tilt of its axis.
• During the December solstice, the Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest from the Sun, receiving less sunlight.

Significance for Ancient Cultures

• Ancient cultures attributed great significance to the winter solstice.
• Longer days following the solstice symbolized the Sun's return.
• People marked the Sun's rebirth with elaborate rituals.

Stonehenge

• Located in Wiltshire, England and likely built for solstice ceremonies.
• Its stone circle aligns with the Sun's movement during solstices.
• Every year, hundreds of people gather there to commemorate Yule.
• It is one of the oldest known solstice celebrations.

Newgrange in Boyne Valley, Ireland

• A popular, 5,200-year-old stone structure receives a beam of light into its central chamber at sunrise during the five days surrounding the winter solstice.
• The light illuminates the intricate carvings inside the structure for about 17 minutes.
• Dawn admission is limited to a few dozen people selected by lottery from December 19th to 23rd.
• Visitors without tickets are allowed to enter in groups of 20.

Winter Solstice Traditions in the United States

• Many cities have started their own winter solstice traditions.
• San Francisco celebrates with a bonfire on Ocean Beach.
• Anchorage, Alaska, enjoys the over-18-hour night with activities like sleigh riding and admiring the northern lights.

NASA's Europa Clipper Mission

• NASA launched a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.
• The Europa Clipper launched from the Kennedy Space Center on October 14, 2024.
• The mission seeks to uncover the secrets of the distant moon.
• The spacecraft entered orbit about an hour and 10 minutes after launch.
• Aftershock II deployed its massive solar arrays to power it during its journey.
• The goal is for the Europa Clipper team to begin the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth.

Europa as a Candidate for Alien Life

• Europa is considered a prime candidate for alien life.
• The key ingredients for life are liquid water, energy, and the right chemical elements.
• Scientists think a large saltwater ocean lies under Europa's icy crust.
• The ocean may contain twice as much water as Earth's oceans.
• The icy moon's energy source comes from how Jupiter's gravity pulls on it stretching and squeezing Europa's interior, creating heat.
• Heat prevents Europa's underground ocean from freezing and may support certain forms of life.
• Europa's surface may have key elements for life for microbial life, such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.

Getting to Europa

• Jupiter is about 480 million miles (772 million km) from Earth.
• The Europa Clipper will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion km).
• The journey will take over 5.5 years to reach its destination.
• The spacecraft uses "gravity assist" maneuvers to gain speed.
• It will fly past Mars in February 2025 for its first boost.
• In December 2025, it will swing by Earth for a final push toward Europa.

The Mission

• If all goes according to plan, the Europa Clipper will enter Jupiter's orbit in April 2030.
• It will spend about a year preparing for its first flyby of the moon.
• Over three years, the spacecraft will fly over Europa 49 times.
• Each pass will be over a different area to map the entire moon.
• The spacecraft will get as close as 16 miles (25 km) to Europa's surface.
• Nine instruments will collect data and Scientists will estimate the thickness of Europa's icy shell and better understand the ocean beneath it.
• Scientists will also learn more about the composition of the water.
• The mission's goal is to determine if there are areas below Europa's icy moon surface that could support life.
• The massive spacecraft will deliberately crash into the surface of Ganymede upon completion.
• Ganymede also known as Jupiter's largest moon and the biggest moon in our solar system.
• The aim is to understand whether there is the potential for life beyond our Sun.

Metal Detectorists Unearth Ancient Silver Coins

• In January 2019, Adam Staples and friends found a trove of silver coins in Chew Valley, Somerset, England, using a metal detector.
• The find, called the Chew Valley Hoard, contained 2,584 silver pennies dating back to the 11th century.
• On October 23, 2024, The South West Heritage Trust bought the coins for $5.5 million, making it Britain's most valuable treasure find.
• Staples and friends received half the money, or about $400,000 each.
• The landowner received the other half of the money, or about $2.8 million.
• The coins date from 1066 to 1068 and minted at 46 different locations in England.
• The coins representing a turning point in England's history after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
• The coins mark the defeat and death of King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king, at the hands of William I.
• Roughly half the coins bear King Harold's image; the other half shows William I, who ruled England until 1087.
• Experts think the coins were buried for safekeeping.
• Some coins are cut in half, a practice used to create smaller units of money.
• The Chew Valley Hoard will tour museums across the UK, starting with the British Museum in London in November 2024.
• It will then be permanently housed at the South West Museum of Somerset.

November's Beaver Moon

• A full moon on November 15, 2024, will be the last of four consecutive supermoons
• The previous supermoons happened in August (Blue Moon), September (Harvest Moon) and October (Hunter Moon).
• The next supermoon after November 15, 2024 will occur on October 7, 2025.
• Supermoons can be 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the average full moon.
• They occur when a full moon coincides with the Moon's closest point to Earth in orbit.
• On November 15, 2024, the Moon will be about 224,853 miles (361,866 km) from Earth.
• It will be a few thousand miles farther than the 2016 supermoon (farthest seen in history).
• The Moon's elliptical orbit causes the distance between the Moon and Earth to vary.
• The farthest point in this orbit is known as the apogee, or the Moon at a distance of about 253,000 miles (407,164 km) from Earth.
• In contrast, at perigee, the Moon's distance from Earth is on average 226,000 miles (363,711 km) from Earth.
• November's full moon is called the Beaver Moon.
• The name refers to beavers taking shelter in their lodges for the long winter ahead.
• During North America's fur trade era, it was the season to trap for their thick, winter-ready coats.
• The November full moon is also known as the Frost Moon, the Freezing Moon, and the Digging Moon.
• Some people believe that a supermoon's proximity to Earth can cause earthquakes or tidal waves.
• Scientists have found no evidence to support this claim.

Student-Built Rocket Breaks Record

• A rocket built by students at USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (RPL) broke a 20-year altitude record.
• Aftershock II launched from Nevada's Black Rock Desert on October 20, 2024.
• Aftershock II reached an altitude of 470,000 feet (143.3 km), breaking the previous amateur rocket altitude record of 380,000 feet (115.8 km) from 2004.
• The 14-foot Aftershock II broke the sound barrier within two seconds of launch.
• It reached a max speed of 3,600 mph (5,800 km/h), 5.5 times the speed of sound, just 19 seconds after launch.
• The engine burned out soon after launch, Aftershock II continued its ascent to left Earth's atmosphere in about 85 seconds after launch and reached its peak altitude in 92 seconds after it's nose cone detatched and deployed its parachute for landing.
• The Aftershock II's success is due to technological innovations developed by the 100-person team at RPL, including titanium-coated fins and heat-resistant paint to endure temperatures at high speeds.
• RPL was founded in 2005 to launch student-designed and built rockets into space.
• In 2019, Traveler IV became the first student-built rocket to cross the Kármán line.
• The Kármán line is an imaginary line 328,083 feet (100 km) above Earth's surface that marks the internationally recognized edge of space.
• RPL's next goal is to develop "sounding" rockets designed to carry scientific instruments into space for research purposes.
• The team wants to use a sounding rocket to gather data for whoever wants it.

World's First Wooden Satellite

• LignoSat, the world's first satellite made mostly from wood, reached the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX cargo capsule on November 5, 2024.
• The palm-sized satellite, named after the Latin word for "wood.", will be launched from the ISS into Earth's orbit later this month.
• The mission of LignoSat is to determine if wood can withstand the harsh conditions of space.
• Success of LignoSat could pave the way for more environmentally friendly spacecraft designs.
• The LignoSat Space Wood Project is a collaboration between Japan's Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry.
• In 2022, reseachers began a small panel sent to the ISS containing three different wood samples which was returned to Earth in 2023.
• Afte analyzing the results, the team picked wood from magnolia trees for the satellite.
• Professor Koji Murata of Kyoto University says in the past, engineers thought wood was old technology and couldn't be applied to cutting-edge technology.
• The main reason for testing a wooden satellite is to reduce space junk.
• Current satellites largely use aluminum.
• Aluminum reacts with oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, releasing aluminum oxide particles that damage the ozone layer.
• Wooden satellites release only H20 and CO2.
• Wood could withstand harsh space conditions which could lead to Researchers possibly growing trees on the Moon and Mars.
• LignoSat will orbit Earth for six months to gather valuable data for Murata and his team to design more advanced wooden satellites and devices.

Fruit Bat Migration

• Kasanka National Park in Zambia, Africa; location of an unlikely natural event, the world's largest mammal migration.
• From October to December, millions of straw-colored fruit bats from Africa converge on this evergreen swamp forest.
• The nocturnal mammals spend their nights feasting on fruit in the farmlands and rest in the forest during the day.
• A daily migration cycle occurs before bats disperse and return to respective habitats across the continent in January.
• Researchers are unsure why the bats choose Kasanka for their annual habitat even though breeding does not occur in Zambia.
• Migration routes and habits of migrating bats are a mystery and it is difficult to track habits long term as GPS tracking batteries are not strong enough.
• The ecological importance stems from seed dispersal that these migrating bats cause, aiding in the maintenance and diversity of ecosystems.
• Dechmann of Germany's Max Planck Institute highlights that bats do not leave the protection of the forest canopy and so they are more effective dispersers.
• Found across sub-Saharan Africa, straw-colored fruit bats are species with wingspans that can reach up to 30 inches (76 cm).
• Straw-colored fruit bats face threats to habitat and hunting, a decline in their population could impact both wildlife and human communities that depend on scattering of seeds- conservation efforts.

Amur Tigers

• Boris and Svetlaya, rescued Amur tigers that have reunited as mates in Siberia, Russia after being separated and now live more than 100 miles apart.
• The tigers first were put in at the conservation center in 2014.
• They were brought to the center as cubs rescued between three and five months where they were raised with minimal care and live prey.
• At 18 months old, the two were released back into their natural habitat in the Sikhote-Alin mountain where they were placed over 100 miles (160 km) apart.
• After tracking them, WCF researchers noticed the movement of Boris.
• Svetlaya delivered litter healthy cubs.
• Zolushka ("Cinderella" in Russian) is about conservation center and also released into the wild where she too had cubs
• Miquelle led tiger conservation efforts.
• Amur tigers, or Siberian tigers, are the largest of all tiger subspecies, they are native to Russia and China.
• They are known for their Coats with dark stripes, these big cats blend into snowy landscapes and survive temperatures.
• They are solitary, known to preye on deer and boar
• Amur tigers have been reduced due to poaching and habitat loss.
• Conservation efforts are under way.

President Jimmy Carter

• The 39th President of the US, Jimmy Carter, died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100 on October 1, 2024
• Carter was the longest-living president in US history.
• Carter will be laid to rest at the family's residence on January 9, 2025.
• He will be buried with Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at age 96.
• In honor, President Joe Biden has declared January 9 a federal holiday.
• Carter grew up in Archery and Plains, Georgia and was a sailor.
• Rosalynn Smith was his wifr.
• he swiftly rose through naval ranks, Carter's plans changed when his father was impacted by cancer in 1953 and left to manage his peanut farm.
• Carter became a senator and governor with election to Democratic Party
• On December 12, 1974, Carter announced candidacy for Presidency and gained notoriety
• Carter served as President and the admin focused on foreign policies that declined the approval rating
• He aided the Egypt and Israel peace deal.
• Post Presidental tasks includied humantarian causes such has humanitarian The Elders and Carter Center
• These efforts were award with a nobel peace price.
• After a political career including controversy, Carter's impacts on the world are well known.

Ceasefire

• Israel and Hamas' signed a ceasefire and marked the first step in ending their issues of conflict in Gaza
• The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas took over.
• Yahya Sinwar was the leader of the violence
• A ceasefire means nations have agreed to stop their war for a period.
• During this, peace deals can be talked about for around 42 days.
• 55 living hostages were exchanged from haama with Israel while 1,900 palestinian prisoner were set free. In return Hamas released 33 hostages.
• Stage 2 will last 16 days from stage 1 and this meant they would have open talk that could solve conflict completely, exchange the hostages
• final final stage officially bring an end to military action, return 35 deceased hostage bodies, come together and fund post-war efforts
• Since the 15 of january they have released 7 female hostages, this meant 4 soldiers and 3 normal being held captive. Israel will release 290 prisoners
• 200 Trucks carrying aid were able to move to gaza as of January 22

Wildfires Cause Widespread Destruction In Los Angeles

• Since January 2025, numerous wildfires have erupted in and around Los Angeles (LA), California damaging trees and structures.
• As of Jan 15, 2025 around 12'000 places, structures, housing and business. 100'0000 were evacuate and people died.
• These fires were due to severe drought.
• Downtown LA has seen record lowest rainfall in the past and even Santa Ana winds,
• The Palisades Fire (began January 7 (2025) is recorded as most damaging- and largest as of the moment.
• The Eaton Fire(also starting January 7 (2025) has hurt LA communities in the north
• Damage and finances have been high (275 billion max estimate)- Joe biden said financial aide is coming soon