Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 24 SepteMber 2018

Researchers say they’re closing in on Captain Cook’s ship

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT toric 1768-1771 voyage. been ruling out ones that
Associated Press Vice Adm. Michael Noon- could not be Cook’s ship. It
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — an, chief of the Royal Aus- announced this week that
Researchers are explor- tralian Navy, said he dove it had narrowed the search
ing whether a shipwreck at the Rhode Island site for Endeavour to one, or
off the coast of Rhode Is- with researchers. possibly two, archaeologi-
land could be the vessel He measured one of the cal sites. “We’ve been at
that 18th-century explorer cannons so the dimensions this 25 years and this is the
Capt. James Cook used to can be compared to histor- first time we’ve been re-
sail around the world. ical records, and they took ally willing to say we think
The Rhode Island Marine Ar- samples of the wood. He’s we’re closing in on having
chaeology Project, which is hopeful the wreck is the the Endeavour,” project
leading the search effort, Endeavour. “Certainly it’s director Kathy Abbass said
and the Australian National a very exciting discovery at a news conference Fri-
Maritime Museum identi- in absolute terms,” he said day. “This is science. It’s
fied the vessel. It’s one of 13 Friday. “They’re very, very not a documentary. It’s not
shipwrecks that have been confident that the Endeav- something that will be over
known for years to be in our is in the site.” in 50 minutes. And we’ve
the harbor near Newport, The Endeavour was also got a lot more work to do.”
Rhode Island. part of the fleet of 13 ships They’re hoping to exca-
Archaeologists met Friday the British scuttled during vate the most likely site in
in Newport to talk about the Revolutionary War in time for the 250th anniver-
their recent fieldwork. 1778 to blockade Newport sary celebrations of Cook
“Early indications are that Harbor from the French. It claiming of Australia, which
the team has narrowed the was listed in the records un- is in 2020.
possible site for the wreck In this Nov. 15, 1999, file photo, people watch as a replica of the der a different name, the “We will be celebrating the
of HMB Endeavour to one HMB Endeavour leaves Honolulu, as it embarked on a four-year, Lord Sandwich. arrival of Cook and Aus-
site, which is very promis- around-the-world cruise. The nonprofit Rhode Island tralia in 2020. Finding the
ing,” said Kevin Sumption, Associated Press Marine Archaeology Proj- wreck of the Endeavour at
director and CEO of the lot more work and money vour, an awkward little ves- ect located documents this point in time and being
Australian National Mari- to identify it. sel that improbably helped in London identifying the able to authenticate that is
time Museum. Nearly 250 years ago, Cook him become the first Euro- groups of ships in that an extraordinary achieve-
The Rhode Island Marine ran aground on Australia’s pean to chart Australia’s fleet and where each was ment, said Peter Dexter
Archaeology Project de- Great Barrier Reef during a east coast. He used the En- scuttled. It has been study- of the Australian National
scribed the site as promis- voyage to the South Pacif- deavour to claim Australia ing the wrecks in Newport Maritime Museum. “That’d
ing but said it’ll still take a ic. His ship was the Endea- for the British during his his- Harbor since 1993, and has be fabulous.”q

Tossed net captures space junk

in orbit-cleanup experiment

By MARCIA DUNN Guglielmo Aglietti said out of orbit together and
AP Aerospace Writer Thursday the target was burn up.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) spinning faster than ex- A harpoon, meanwhile, will
— A tossed net has man- pected, but that made the be tested in a similar man-
aged to capture space test even more realistic. The ner in February, according
junk in a demonstration of objective is to show ways to Aglietti.
ways to clean up debris in of removing debris from or- The experiment was de-
orbit. bit, which is cluttered with ployed into orbit from the
In the British-led experi- old rocket and spacecraft space station in June, two
ment, a big net was cast parts. months after it arrived.
from a mini satellite Sun- This debris poses a hazard ___
In this September 2018 image made from video provided by day. The net successfully not only to the International The Associated Press
the University of Surrey, a net is launched from the International wrapped around its target, Space Station and its crew, Health & Science Depart-
Space Station to catch a test object. an inflated structure that but to the Hubble Space ment receives support from
Associated Press had just been deployed Telescope and other satel- the Howard Hughes Medi-
as part of the test. The dis- lites. cal Institute’s Department
tance covered nearly 20 The net — about 16 feet of Science Education. The
feet (6 meters). (5 meters) across — and AP is solely responsible for
Black-and-white video its target will eventually fall all content.q
showed the catch.
“This is not sci-fi. We re-
peat, not sci-fi,” tweeted
the Texas-based company
NanoRacks, which devel-
oped the space station’s
microsatellite deployer.
The University of Surrey’s