Page 28 - aruba-today-20190909

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 9 SepteMber 2019

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) employees react
as they listen to an announcement by organizations’s chief
Kailasavadivoo Sivan at its Telemetry, Tracking and Command
Network facility in Bangalore, India, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019.
Associated Press
India locates

lander lost on final In this Sept. 14, 2017, file photo, salmon circle just below the surface inside a lock where they
joined boats heading from salt water Shilshole Bay into fresh water Salmon Bay at the Ballard
approach to moon Locks in Seattle. Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — The The space agency said Scientists monitoring new marine

lander module from India’s Saturday that the lander’s
moon mission was located descent was normal until 2 heat wave off West Coast
on the lunar surface on kilometers (1.2 miles) from
Sunday, one day after it the lunar surface. By GENE JOHNSON Chris Harvey, a research Fisheries’ Southwest Fisher-
lost contact with the space The roughly $140 million Associated Press scientist at the Northwest ies Science Center in La
station, and efforts are un- mission, known as Chan- SEATTLE (AP) — Federal Fisheries Science Center. Jolla, California, who de-
derway to try to establish drayaan-2, was intended scientists said Thursday NOAA Fisheries said the veloped a way to use sat-
contact with it, the head of to study permanently shad- they are monitoring a new water has reached tem- ellite data to track marine
the nation’s space agency owed moon craters that ocean heat wave off the peratures more than 5 de- heat waves in the Pacific.
said. are thought to contain wa- U.S. West Coast, a devel- grees Fahrenheit above Among the causes is a per-
The Press Trust of India news ter deposits that were con- opment that could badly average. sistent low-pressure weath-
agency cited Indian Space firmed by the Chandray- disrupt marine life includ- It remains to be seen er pattern between Hawaii
and Research Organiza- aan-1 mission in 2008. ing salmon, whales and whether this heat wave dis- and Alaska that has weak-
tion chairman K. Sivan as The latest mission lifted off sea lions. sipates more quickly than ened winds that otherwise
saying cameras from the on July 22 from the Satish The expanse of unusu- the last one, the agency might mix and cool surface
moon mission’s orbiter had Dhawan space center in ally warm water stretches said. waters across much of the
located the lander. Sriharikota, an island off the from Alaska to California, If it lingers, it could be disas- North Pacific, said Nathan
“It must have been a hard coast of the southern Indian researchers with the Na- trous for the Pacific North- Mantua, a NOAA research
landing,” PTI quoted Sivan state of Andhra Pradesh. tional Oceanic and Atmo- west’s endangered orcas, scientist.
as saying. ISRO officials After its launch, Chandray- spheric Administration said which largely depend on What’s causing that, he
could not be reached for aan-2 spent several weeks Thursday . It resembles a chinook salmon. The warm- said, is unclear: It might
comment. making its way toward the similar heat wave about er waters can weaken the simply reflect the normal
The space agency said it moon, ultimately entering five years ago that was food web that sustain the chaotic motion of the at-
lost touch with the Vikram lunar orbit on Aug. 20. blamed for poorer survival salmon and bring preda- mosphere, or it might be re-
lunar lander on Saturday as The Vikram lander sepa- rates for young salmon, tors of young salmon, in- lated to the warming of the
it made its final approach rated from the mission’s or- more humpback whales cluding seabirds, closer to oceans and other effects
to the moon’s south pole biter on Sept. 2 and began becoming entangled in shore, further reducing their of human-made climate
to deploy a rover to search a series of braking maneu- fishing gear as they hunted abundance. Chinook re- change.
for signs of water. vers to lower its orbit and closer to shore, and an al- turns have been extremely The agency said it will pro-
A successful landing would ready itself for landing. gae bloom that shut down low in recent years follow- vide fisheries managers
have made India just the Only three nations — the crabbing and clamming. ing the last heat wave, with information on how
fourth country to land a United States, the former “Given the magnitude of which scientists dubbed the unusually warm condi-
vessel on the lunar surface, Soviet Union and China — what we saw last time, we “the blob.” tions could affect the ma-
and only the third to oper- have landed a spacecraft want to know if this evolves The new heat wave has rine ecosystem and fish
ate a robotic rover there. on the moon.q on a similar path,” said emerged over the last few stocks.
months, growing in a similar The last heat wave spanned
pattern in the same area. 2014 and 2015 and resulted
After “the blob,” it’s the in several declared fisheries
second-most widespread disasters.
heat wave in the northern Among the other effects,
Pacific Ocean in the last 40 thousands of young sea
years — as far back as the lions were stranded on
relevant data goes. beaches after their moth-
“It’s on a trajectory to be as ers were forced to forage
strong as the prior event,” further from their rookeries
said Andrew Leising, a re- in the Channel Islands off
search scientist at NOAA Southern California.q