Environmental Graffiti

Image: Punta Gorda Police Department via NWS

While we here at Environmental Graffiti do not claim to be scientists, we do think we’ve seen enough cool stuff to give you the run down on certain subjects. Awesome insects, peculiar clouds, even the occasional entry involving quantum physics. That’s just something we do, and something we hope you come here for.

Today’s cool stuff just happens to be non-supercell tornadoes. Limited research suggests the common person (and the common Environmental Graffiti writer, consequently) has no idea what on earth a non-supercell tornado is.

A non-supercell tornado comes in many flavors: dust devils, dust tubes, and waterspouts, to name just a few. The basic difference is that these type of vortexes are not born of a larger storm system and appear only sporadically. Also, as is apparent in this photo, they do not seem to pose any real danger as there should be more arm flailing and/or opposite direction running.

Image via: Burning Man gallery

What follows is a list of the most incredible non-supercell tornadoes we could find on the web.

Dust Devil

Image: NASA

We’ve all done it; running headlong in a spring field, bumbling over knee-high grass to catch a small swirling cloud that dissipates just before you reach it. Well, maybe not all of us, but for some, this is a springtime childhood memory that is just as ingrained as watermelons or ant extermination via magnifying glass.

Image: Jeff T. Alu

Dust devils normally form on warm days and with clear skies.

Martian Dust Devil

Image: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

What makes this dust devil so amazing isn’t so much the vortex itself, but its extraterrestrial location. While Mars has a relatively thin atmosphere, it is still dense enough to have the occasional dust devil.

Mars Rover Spirit snaps a shot of a dust devil on Mars
Image: NASA/JPL

These dust devils also have the peculiar ability to excite NASA scientists into peeing their collective pants. The dust devil’s high gusts occasionally sweep over the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, cleaning the collected dirt off their solar panels and extending their life span far beyond expectations.

Landspout or Dust Tube Tornado

Image: Steve Breuer via NWS

Landspout or dust tube tornadoes are weaker versions of supercell tornadoes. Essentially, they are waterspouts over land. They dissipate quickly and are less destructive.

It is difficult for the untrained to really tell the difference between a landspout and supercell tornado, but witnessing one or the other would probably spur even the hardiest Environmental Graffiti writer into squatting under his or her cheap IKEA desk.

Waterspouts

Image: Punta Gorda Police Department via NWS

Waterspouts are basically nonsupercell tornadoes that appear over water. They are normally much smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes and dissipate quickly. Amazingly, waterspouts have been known to suck whole schools of fish into the air and hurl them at unsuspecting bystanders. This activity, we believe, is absolute proof that the waterspout is the funniest natural phenomenon on the planet.

The waterspout above was spotted in Punta Gorda (translated “fat woman point?”) Florida in 2005. Pretty. The wimpier ones below are from a beach near The Hague in the Netherlands.

Image: Photographer unknown via Skatebiker

Fire Whirl

Image via: The Blog of Josh Lane

Amazingly, this swirling braid of fire is not the business end of the Balrog of Moria’s whip (first and last Lord of the Rings reference, we promise). The vortex is a phenomenon known as a fire whirl. While not a tornado per se, this type of vortex was too amazing to leave out. Air currents inside blazing infernos sometimes swirl about, creating this awe-inspiring, pants-crapping effect.

Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Sources: 1, 2, 3

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Image: Mike Harefield via The Telegraph

Few doubt the brilliance of bird nest design, but it seems our feathered friends are just as ingenious when it comes to picking locations for their future homes. They need to be, when you consider the rate at which we’re gobbling up space on our planet. Yet looking at some of the bizarre spots birds mark out as prime real estate, anyone would think this business tells you something about each bird’s taste and character.

Don’t get any peace

Image: barnoid

This collared dove isn’t going to be getting any peace and quiet nested in amongst the nuts and bolts fixings of some traffic lights at a very busy junction.

Bright lights big city

Image via: virginmedia

This thrush and its young family have gone a step further by nesting inside the traffic light itself in Leeds city centre, seemingly oblivious to the constant traffic.

Light and airy

Image: Pascual De Ruvo

How a bird’s nest complete with chirping chicks came to be in a kitchen lamp inside a house is anyone’s guess. The human residents must have been away on vacation for quite a long time.

Just hanging out

Image via The Telegraph

The RSPB has warned people to be aware of the more unusual places in their homes that birds might use for nesting and rearing their young. Hanging baskets are a particular favourite of wrens.

Handyman about the house

Image: Mike Harefield via The Telegraph

Other garden birds opt for even more obscure nooks and crannies – like this robin, found nesting in a tool tidy. Perhaps it fancies itself as a bit of a DIY expert.

Check out my wheels

Image via: Arbroath

These nesting blackbirds were found in the wheel arch of a 4×4 police patrol car. In accordance with conservation laws, the young birds had to be left alone until they had flown the coup.

That’s just grate

Image: Benjamin J

Blackbirds have also been found nesting in other unusual garden locations like the mouths of wall-mounted lions’ heads. This one has plumped for an elevated grate.

Sculptural style

Image: Jim McCausland in Sunset Magazine

Snapped in San Diego, these hummingbirds have built their nest on top of some wind chimes right outside the front door of a house in its garden courtyard. Stylish.

Ready to make a fast exit

Image via The Telegraph

It’s a sign of the times that objects like these are used by our feathered friends as bases on which to build their nests.

Staying connected

Image: Piotrus

It’s actually not uncommon for storks to construct their stick nests close to human habitation and on man-made objects, and because they are seen as birds of good luck, they tend not to be persecuted.

Easy to contact

Image: Sara & Joachim

Weaver birds create the most elaborately woven nests of any birds, and when trees are scarce as they are in desert regions, telephone poles make equally good alternatives.

Morbid fascination

Image: informatique

Whatever bird decided to place its nest here must have a pretty grave sense of humour.

Prickly temperament

Image: Adventurous Wench

OK, so maybe a spiny cactus isn’t that unusual a location for a bird’s nest, but the avian ones inhabiting this particular homestead in Arizona had still best watch where they flap their wings.

That’s just rubbish

Image: Phil Holden

Here it’s not so much the location of the nest as what it’s made out of. Found in an Amsterdam canal, this mother bird has clearly adapted to the ridiculous amounts of waste we so wantonly dispose of.

Om nom nom nom nom nom nom

Image: stu spivack

This final pic is perhaps the most bizarre place of all for a bird’s nest to end up. Bird’s nest soup or “yan wo” is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Cave swifts are known for building the saliva nests used to make the unique texture of this soup. The nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, and are believed to be not only highly nutritious but to have a range of other benefits. Obviously not for the birds.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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Image: Randy

How anything so prickly and uninviting as a cactus can produce something as delicate and beautiful as a cactus flower seems a miracle. But then again, don’t we all hide our most sensitive qualities under a prickly exterior sometimes?

Many cactus flowers are night blooming as they get pollinated by nocturnal insects like moths or small animals like bats. Depending on the cactus species, the flower shapes can be tube-like, bell-like or wheel-shaped. Sizes range from one fifth of a centimetre to 15-30 cm.

Except for the Rhipsalis baccifera cactus species that can be found across the tropics of the world, cacti are prevalent in the Americas but with their growing popularity, have been imported all over the world. Among the most common and well-known are Prickly Pears, Barrel cacti, Saguaro cacti (featuring in most Western films), Aztekium cacti, and Echinopsis a.k.a. the hedgehog cactus that can be found as houseplants on many window sills.

Cacti showing their (almost) true colours at Huntington Gardens in San Marino, CA:

Image: Randy

What do you think, cactus face or cactus pizza?

Image: Michael Seljos

Tiny miracle – a beautiful pink cactus flower with ants crawling over it for good measure:

Image: Ana Cotta

Beautiful small pink and orange flowers, captured in Sacramento, CA:

Image: star5112

A field of cacti or cactus soldiers?

Image: Sonic TK

A bit of yellow in a sea of cactus “wool” – a true winner, taken in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 4,000 m:
Image: Alvaro Castañón Seoane

Cactus cupcakes, anyone?

Image via Cactus Serrano

A shining star among the cactus flowers:

Image: recoverling

The many flowers of this barrel cactus have matured into fruits that themselves seem to form a flower again:

Image: Andrew Larsen

Source: 1, 2

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Cat’s Eye Nebula / X-ray & optical emissions
Photo ­ NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ] / X-ray: Y. Chu (UIUC [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/ ]) et al., Optical: J. P. Harrington, K. J. Borkowski (UMD [ http://www.astro.umd.edu ]), Composite: Z. Levay (STScI [ http://www.ststci.edu/ ])

The Cats Eye

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is 3300 light years away in the constellation of Draco, the Dragon and was discovered by the famous English astronomer William Herschel on February 15, 1781. Situated in the direction of the North Ecliptic Pole, it is easily observed from Earth’s northern hemisphere. This gorgeous photograph shows X-ray emissions in blue-purple and optical wavelengths as red and green. But ease of observation does not automatically translate to ease of understanding. The Cat’s Eye Nebula is one of the most complex nebula known and observational data still generate complexities that defy quick explanation. This cat’s eye hides a Russian doll, a lovely phrase that conveys the mysteries not yet solved in this nebula.

The term ‘planetary nebula’ was applied to many nebula that earlier astronomers believed contained the first stages of planetary formation around a star. We now understand that the dying stars eject vast amounts of gas to form ‘planetary nebula’, long after their planet formation has been completed. Our sun will not die with the formation of a planetary nebula for 5 billion years.

Cat’s Eye Nebula / extended halo
Photo ­ R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group [ http://www.ing.iac.es/ ]), D. Goncalves (Inst. Astrofisica de Canarias

The bright central region of the Cat’s Eye Nebula is small, only 20 arc seconds in diameter. The faint extended halo has a 3 million light year diameter and, as expected, is less dense and much cooler. It was ejected by the central star long ago when the young star was perhaps 5 solar masses; it is now slightly more than one solar mass. The central star of NGC 6543 is an O-type star, whose radius is two-thirds that of the sun and whose temperature is 80,000 K, about 10,000 X the sun’s luminosity.

The star of NGC 6543 ejected its mass in 1500 year intervals that created dust shells. About 1000 years ago, this ejection of mass stopped. The dying star created a poetic, ethereal sculpture of gas and dust. Changes in the increasing expansion have been recorded in Hubble Space Telescope images starting in 1994. This star is currently losing mass to a fast solar wind at 20 trillion tons a second with a velocity of 1900 km/s. Nebular expansion allows us to estimate age and assuming a constant rate of expansion, NGC 6543 is quite young, only about 243 years old.

The ratio of Carbon: Nitrogen: Oxygen is typical for a planetary nebular and larger than that for the Sun. This star’s atmosphere was enriched with heavy elements before ejection as a planetary nebula.

Russian Dolls in the Cat’s Eye Nebula
Photo ­ Russian Dolls in the Cat’s Eye / NASA

Complexities in the Russian Doll

Much of the energetic activity at the center of NGC 6543 could be explained by a binary star and an accretion disk created by transfer of matter between the two stars which often gives rise to high velocity, polar jets.

The structure of the very bright portion of the nebula is caused by the high velocity stellar wind emitted by the central star with older material ejected when the nebula was formed. X-ray emission is thereby created. “The stellar wind has ‘hollowed out’ the inner bubble of the nebula and appears to have burst the bubble at both ends.” (Source #1). This structure resembles an antique Russian doll.

Cat’s Eye Nebula / Hubble ACS – September 18, 1994
Photo ­ HST / NASA

Outside the small bright inner portion of the nebula, there are a series of regularly spaced, concentric rings. These were likely ejected before the formation of the planetary nebula less than three centuries ago. The extended halo is much older still. In this 1994 Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys photograph of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, abovem it is possible to discern at least 11 concentric rings (‘shells’), each of which is the edge of a spherical bubble projected onto the sky. Hence the bright outer edge and a view that resembles an onion cut in half where each layer of ‘skin’ is discernible. The entirety has the appearance of a Russian Doll. In this composite photograph, red indicates hydrogen-alpha, neutral oxygen is blue, and ionized nitrogen is green.

Cat’s Eye Nebula / extended halo
Photo ­ Nordic Optical Telescope / Romano Corradi

Questions With No Clear Answers

Several models have been proposed to explain the present structure and formation of NGC NGC 6543: cycles of magnetic activity, action of a companion star that orbited the dying star and stellar pulsations. Perhaps material was ejected smoothly and the rings were created later.

The suspected, but not yet found binary system, could explain the high velocity jets of gas that lie at right angles to the equatorial ring. In many binary systems, the two stars are of very unequal mass and gravitational field. One companion star would then pull material into itself from its smaller partner and jets of gas would be given off along this much larger star’s rotation axis. Such jets would compress gas ahead of them, creating the curlicue features and bright arcs that are photographed at the outer edge of the gas lobes. However, the twin jets are now pointing in different directions than this model requires, which indicates that they are wobbling and turning off and on in an episodic pattern. Some of these features were first seen in the 1994 composite photograph made from images taken by the Hubble’s ACS.

To date, no mechanism is understood that could have created the extreme regularity of the concentric rings. Thermal pulsations that create planetary nebular have intervals of tens of thousands of years. Small surface pulsations of the star would have a periodicity of only years to decades. A model for the timing of the formation of the concentric rings eludes us because it requires pulsation at 1500 year intervals. Calculations of the element abundance from spectral emission and ‘excited lines’ are 3X too high using assumptions that have been confirmed elsewhere for many decades.

It is 2009 and while we can observe, photograph, record spectral emission and map out the structure of NGC 6543, we really do not understand the Russian Doll in the Cat’s Eye. It is more than fitting, and perhaps ironic, that the Cat’s Eye Nebula looks like the eye of the disembodied sorcerer ‘Sauron’ in the film ‘Lord of the Rings”. This post is a contribution to the EG series that presents extraordinary astronomy photographs wherein we can marvel at the beauty of the universe as we delve into important science data.
__________

Videos of the Cat’s Eye Nebula

ESA Videos of the Cat’s Eye Nebula are in Quick Time format only 6 to 31 seconds long, which is small for media files. These are links to pages at the ESA where you choose when to play the video; they do not automatically load.

1. Zooming in on the Cat’s Eye Nebula – 31s
2. Creation of the Cat’s Eye – 35s
3. Creation of the Russian Doll in the Cat’s Eye – 21s
4. Expansion of the Russian Doll in the Cat’s Eye (Close-up) – 6s
5. Expansion of the Russian Doll in the Cat’s Eye (Overview) – 6s
6. Expansion of the Russian Doll in the Cat’s Eye (Medium View) – 6s

Sources -
1, 2

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Image: thrillseekr

Given that caterpillars are not themselves a species but just the in-between stage from butterfly or moth egg to pupa and then finally adult, they have made quite a name for themselves, especially as pests. Some of them are also so alien looking that one wonders where in the world they have come from.

Caterpillars belong to the Lepidoptera order, the insect order that is made up of butterflies and moths. Though the appearance and colouring of caterpillars can vary widely, common to most are their tubular, segmented bodies with three pairs of true legs and ten abdominal segments. They can have up to four pairs of prolegs (fleshy, stubby little structures coming out from the middle of the abdomen), making them quite the creepy crawlies.

Not all caterpillars look alien or even cute. As a rule of thumb – the more colourful and fuzzy a caterpillar is, the more likely it is to sting if touched. So, if in doubt, hands off!

The caterpillar of the Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda), common in England and Wales, is usually greenish-yellow with ample tufts of hair.

Mugshot of a truly alien-looking critter:

Image: Waugsberg

The saddleback caterpillar is one of the most common slug caterpillars and its sting is the severest, so watch out for this critter! Good that its distinct shape and markings make it hard to miss, though it is only about 1 inch long. Both ends of the caterpillar’s body are dark brown with brown “horns” that bear numerous spines. The middle of the body is green with a whitish margin and an oval spot in the middle, giving it the appearance of a saddle or blanket and therefore its name.

Giddy up if you dare!

Image: Otto Phokus

Butterflies and moths are at their most vulnerable stage as caterpillars because they can’t just fly away and escape. Therefore, they have developed some interesting, one might even say bizarre, defenses. These include blending in with the environment, false faces with bright eye spots, mimicking other insects, and bright colouring that warns potential predators not only that they taste bad but could also be poisonous.

This green alien is a native of the Philippines and seems to have taken the fake eye spots to an extreme, making its “face” quite large and scary. Normally, a caterpillar’s face is much smaller and not on the second abdominal segment.

Scaring potential predators – extraterrestrial ones?

Image: thrillseekr

Speaking of caterpillar faces, the next one seems to have used a full make-up kit. This fact and its four little striped “goatees” make this caterpillar a truly bizarre specimen.

Yo, what’s up in the hood?

Image: Unknown photographer via Pixdaus

Stinging rose caterpillars (Parasa indetermina), also called rose slug caterpillars, are truly colourful characters that can be found in the forests of the eastern United States. Apart from orange, white and purple lines, the caterpillars also don bright yellow, spined tubercles, all warning potential predators: Stay away, I’m poisonous! This is also true for humans who might give picking up the less than one-inch-long critter a second thought as their sting is as severe as that of the saddleback caterpillar.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the brightest of them all?

Image via entymology.uark.edu

The caterpillar of the Great Orange Tip butterfly (Hebomoea glaucippe) can be found in Asia and Australasia. The specimen below is trying to look spiky and stern. The blue-black eyes and raised head give it an almost snake-like appearance.

Snakecharmer, anyone?

Image: School of Ecology and Conservation, UAS Bangalore, India

The next example shows that fuzzy does not equal poisonous and non-fuzzy safe, oh no!

The caterpillar of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly is an interesting fellow because it feeds on plants of the Pipevine family that are poisonous to most other insects and animals. This caterpillar not only eats the plant without being harmed but also stores its poison inside and becomes poisonous itself the more it eats. Fully grown caterpillars are about two inches long and black with red spines.

Not an adult yet but positively poisonous looking!

Image: Anthony

The caterpillar of the Red-tailed moth (Dasychira pudibunda) is truly a fuzzy and funny looking critter, if not really an alien in the West in that it can be found throughout Europe and North America. Its nickname is ‘hop dog’ because hop pickers used to frequently find it among the crops.

Hop doggy dog:

Image: Malgorzata Tomkowicz

The home of the Evening Brown butterfly caterpillar (Melanitis leda bankia) is the Brisbane area in Australia. Its body is green with white spots and its head is of a darker geen shade with black horns. The specimen below sports dark red horns.

Grab the caterpillar by the horns:

Image: Richard Seaman

The caterpillar of the Flannel moth (Megalopyge) is more or less exactly that – a very fuzzy fur ball.

The very fuzzy caterpillar:

Image: Artour A.

Among the non-stinging and therefore harmless caterpillars, the larva of the Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis) probably looks the scariest with its green, fuzzy body and yellow horns, arms and, er, butt. The caterpillar is between 3-4 inches long and a native of the southern United States.

Doesn’t this specimen look like a tiny Chinese dragon?

Image: ag.auburn.edu

Red, white, blue and spiky – a patriotic French caterpillar:

Image: Iron Chris

As readers of EG’s article of Moths with Multiple Personalities will know, the Cobra moth (Attacus atlas) is not only one of the largest moth out there, but also uses wingtips that look like cobra heads to scare away predators. No wonder then that this master of disguise also shows up as a pretty impressive caterpillar: It is bluish-green with bluish and yellow spines and covered with a fine white powder.

Peaceful as long as there’s enough food around:

Image: .Clo

The most striking feature of the Tailed Emperor caterpillar (Polyura pyrrhus) is its four-horned head, which makes it look truly alien. Like the Evening Brown Butterfly, it also calls the area around Brisbane in Australia its home. Click here for more scary mugshots of this unusual caterpillar.

Not your average caterpillar:

Image via Brisbane Insects

The caterpillar of the Dryas iulia butterfly can be found from Brazil to Texas, in the summer even as far north as Nebraska. It has an orange underside and is black on top with long, spiky spines, daring predators to bite into it.

Is it Halloween yet again?

Image: Dead Eye Arrow

And finally, a caterpillar that is no caterpillar. This fuzzy branch is part of a willow caught at North Creek Park in Snohomish County, WA.

Do caterpillars grow on shrubs?

Image: pfly

Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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All images courtesy of Clark Little

There is something so special about the barrel of a wave; the fact that water can even sustain such a shape is astounding in itself. Viewed from any angle, barrelling waves are a breathtaking sight, but observing them from within literally opens up a whole new perspective on the ocean. Thank photographer and Waimea Bay shorebreak surfing pioneer Clark Little for offering us this scarcely seen point of view.

Armed with a heavy, trigger-activated camera in water housing gear that shoots ten frames a second, Little braves waves with faces up to 15 feet high. Bobbing in surging swell or crouched facing breakers crashing into the shoreline, he often gets sucked up inside the tubes he is trying to photograph, and can be flown onto the beach as far as 30 feet through the air. It’s a good thing Little is a hugely experienced surfer as needless to say it takes a big set of lungs to do what he does.

Little’s brainstorm was born out of good husbandy when in 2007 his wife decided she wanted a piece of art to decorate the house. According to Little, he “grabbed a camera, jumped in the water, and starting snapping away, capturing the beauty and power of monstrous Hawaiian waves from the inside out.”

Little loves being in the ocean and is stoked to be able to share what he captures on his camera with a wider audience. It’s cool that this passion shines through so amazingly in his photography – and cooler still that we can enjoy it from the safety of our armchairs.

Orange Crush

Flashlight

Sandy Clouds

Frothy Pit

Shadow

Dark Night

With special thanks to Clark Little for permission to use his incredible shots; visit his website for many more.

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Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Astronaut Feustel using Remote Arm
Photo – NASA

Completed on May 24, 2009, Hubble’s last Service Mission was an astounding success. Instruments and insulation blanket were repaired and upgraded, and new capability was added to this truly exceptional orbiting observatory. Hubble Space Telescope (HST), whose importance rivals that of the first optical telescope made by Galileo, will continue to probe the mysteries of the universe through 2013. Strap yourself in for a blow-by-blow account of Service Mission 4 and what it achieved.

Service Mission 4

Service Mission 4 (SM 4) was deemed ‘dangerous’ from the outset. Initially scrapped after the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, it was revived only after long and careful study. Space debris is common in Hubble’s low orbit trajectory. Small pieces of space trash could damage the Space Shuttle Atlantis and render it unable to return to earth. Atlantis could not reach the International Space Station which is in a very different orbit than the HST.

Recognizing this worst case scenario, the space shuttle Endeavor joined the mission as a stand by rescue shuttle in case an emergency put astronaut lives in danger. Endeavor was on a launching pad ’3 days from liftoff’ until the Atlantis was safely back on Earth. Atlantis had a 25 day supply of air but long before that was used up, Endeavor could lock onto the Atlantis with its space arm and the astronauts in their space suits would gently float to the Endeavor. If you watch videos about SM 4 at the NASA web site (Source #2), the tense, frightened faces on many personnel are unmistakable.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Cargo Bay: Excellent photo showing the HST secured, attached to the shuttle grappling arm on Service Mission 1
Photo – NASA

Since launch in 1990, the Hubble telescope’s five Service Missions have employed 16 astronauts who have performed a total of 23 spacewalks. Nevertheless, preparation for Service Mission 4 was unprecedented and included the invention of new specialised tools so that repair tasks never previously imagined could be accomplished. A mini-power tool of new design was developed for this mission that features small size, high speed and very low torque. Unique Fastener Capture Plates were used several times to retrieve hundreds of tiny screws whose manipulation with heavy gloves would have been near impossible. Training time in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory water tank provided the best simulation possible for working in an antigravity environment.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Module / Practice in Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
Photo – NASA

The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for Hubble on May 11, 2009 for its 11 day mission, to which two days were added when bad weather in Florida delayed the return to Earth. 28 hours after the Atlantis launch, commands closed Hubble’s aperture door to protect its extraordinary observational instruments. Other adjustments were made, such as repositioning the solar panels, so that the grappling arm of the Atlantis could best do its work. Work on Hubble began when the robotic arm of Atlantis positioned the HST in the shuttle’s payload bay. Instruments that were never designed to be repaired in space would be upgraded on Service Mission 4, and new instruments were installed that provide Hubble’s final years with exceptional capability. Securely attached to the Atlantis, the space shuttle provided all electric power to the HST during the mission.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Wide Field Camera 3
Diagram – NASA/ ESA

Wide Field Camera

SM 4 Day One saw the installation of a new Wide Field (WF) Camera along with a new Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit (SICDH). Wide Field Camera 3 was constructed at Goddard Space Flight Center and Ball Aerospace in the USA, with some components built by contractors in the UK. WF 3 is a bridge to the advanced infrared observations that will be carried out by Hubble’s successor, the James Web Space Telescope.

The Wide Field Camera is Hubble’s only panoramic instrument; it can ‘see’ over a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. WFC 3 provides a 15-30X increase in capability over its predecessors, depending upon the specific region in the electromagnetic spectrum under investigation. The Wide Field Camera is enhanced by an interface with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which increased the observation power of the Wide Field Cameras by 10X. A short circuit ended ACS operation in January 2007 and SM 4 installed a new ACS power supply and replaced four circuit boards.

Hubble Space Telescope (SM 4) / Cosmic Origins Spectrograph – connector
Photo – NASA

Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is a new instrument for Hubble that replaces the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph was built at Ball Aerospace and it studies the universe in near and far ultraviolet with an efficiency 30X greater than that of the all purpose STIS spectrograph. The photograph below, taken on August 12, 2008, shows the installation of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph into its protective enclosure at the Kennedy Space Center.

COS studies how elements that are essential for life, particularly carbon and iron, evolved and increased throughout the history of the universe. COS also looks at the ‘cosmic web’, long narrow regions of galaxies and intergalactic gas that are separated by huge, almost empty voids.

Hubble Space Telescope (SM 4) / Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
Art – NASA

Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) was installed during Service Mission 2 in 1997 and it performed superbly until a power supply failure in 2004. STIS received a replacement low voltage power supply during SM 4. This repair was one of several tasks during SM 4, where the special screw capture plate was used to capture more than 100 small attachment screws and thereby not force the astronauts to do such a task using bulky gloves. The replacement panel is secured by only two lever-like latches.

The STIS has already confirmed that supermassive black holes exist at the center of many galaxies, and are much more common than previously believed. STIS also made the first chemical analysis of the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Advanced Camera for Surveys
Art – NASA

Advanced Camera for Surveys

Advanced Camera for Surveys was Hubble’s workhorse until power failures reduced its capability. By 2006, only the ultraviolet camera channel was still operative. A blown fuse in 2007 mandated that an on site repair be formulated and added to Service Mission 4. The screw capture plate used in the STIS repair was again called into action and an efficient bypass solution to restoring power was implemented. A side benefit is that power demand dropped by more than 2X and ‘noise’ level of the UV detectors was reduced.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Practice for Battery Installation at Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
Art – NASA / JSC

Batteries

“No Juice, No Go.” The six 125 lb, Nickel Cadmium batteries that power Hubble during nighttime were still good after 18 years, which is 13 years longer than their designed orbital lifetime. Exceptional design and power management from Electrical Power System engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center deserve the credit for this superlative record. Nonetheless, power degradation was detectable in 2008 and replacement of all batteries was overdue. The new batteries were manufactured using a ‘wet slurry’ process that makes them stronger than the originals that were made via the dry sinter process. The new batteries are also ‘dead face’, meaning there is no electrical power present at connectors when batteries are ‘off’.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 3B) / EVA – Gyroscope Installation
Art – ESA

Gyroscopes

Gyroscopes are the bottom line along with battery juice. They keep Hubble balanced and point her to chosen targets. Six gyroscopes are packaged in pairs with three Rate Sensor Units. When SM 4 began, the original six gyro were still going strong but nearing the end of their designed lifetimes. HST instrument activity only needs three gyros to be active at any one time and the system is made 100% redundant. As of 2005, it became clear that Hubble’s instruments could run on only two gyroscopes, but nevertheless doing so without backup creates a fragile situation. SM 4 replaced all six gyroscopes, whose lifetimes are expected to last through 2013.

Hubble Space Telescope – Pointing and Control System
Diagram – NASA, ESA, A. Feild and K. Cordes (STScI), and Lockheed Martin

Fine Guidance Sensors

The Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) are the other major component of Hubble’s pointing and control system. The FGSs produce extraordinary stability that is equivalent to holding a laser beam on a dime that is 350 miles away. Past service missions have replaced FGSs one at a time. A rehabbed FGS unit from SM 1 will replace FGS 2 on SM4. Two FGS units must always be active, while the other units provide additional targeting efficiency and redundancy.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Damage to Outer Blanket Layer
Photo – Wikipedia / NASA

New Outer Blanket Layer

A New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL) was installed as the ‘skin’ of the HST. The NOBL is made from specially coated stainless steel foil and it gives the HST a beautiful metallic sheet. It slows down the accumulation of damage from the continual impact of charged particles and radiation.

Hubble Space Telescope (Service Mission 4) / Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Installed into Scientific Instrument Protective Enclosure
Photo – NASA

SCM, RNS, IMAX, Carriers

Important and fragile instruments have protected enclosures. The photograph directly above, taken on August 12, 2008, shows the COS being installed into its protective enclosure at the Kennedy Space Center. SM 4 also installed a Soft Capture Mechanism (SCM) and Relative Navigation System (RNS) which facilitates future rendezvous, capture and safe disposal of the telescope when Hubble is finally no longer able to study the universe. IMAX is making a new movie about Hubble with release scheduled for 2010. Unlike past service missions, the SM 4 crew is not taking pictures with an IMAX camera. This mission’s IMAX pictures will be taken by a camera on the ORUC carrier. The Flight Support System (FSS) is essential for proper containment and support of Hubble instruments.

SM 4 Returns Safely to Earth

With all repairs and upgrade finished, the Atlantis gently let the HST go back into independent orbit and the shuttle and observatory slowed drifted apart. The Flight Operations Team on Earth sent commands that instructed Hubble to open its aperture door and release the telescope. After orbital verification, the high gain antenna was deployed. Atlantis descended to a lower altitude to inspect damage from micro-meteoroids. Torrential rain storms in Florida delayed the mission’s finish and Atlantis returned to Earth on Sunday May 24, landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Hubble Space Telescope / M84 – Black Hole Revealed”
Spectra photographs – NASA

Hubble’s Legacy

There are many awesome examples of Hubble’s legacy. The photograph above taken in 1997 provided the first strong confirmation that supermassive black holes exist in the center of some galaxies, perhaps in the center of almost all galaxies. M84 is 60 million light years from Earth and a member of the well known Virgo cluster of galaxies. M84 is the 84th object in Messier’s Catalog of astronomical objects. He discovered it on the night of March 18, 1781. The left hand photograph is M84’s center as seen in visible light. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph captured a colorful zig-zag patterned spectrum which is the black hole’s signature. Particle velocity of 880,000 mph within 26 light years of the galactic center reveals that the black hole is supermassive and contains at least 1.5 billion solar masses.

M84 – composite photograph
Spectral Imaging – X-ray (NASA/CXC/MPE/A.Finoguenov et al.); Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/ESO/R.A.Laing et al); Optical (SDSS)

Building upon this exceptional data from Hubble, later studies provided a more complete picture of M84. This spectral composite image of M84 was compiled from photographs taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 2000. Hot gas is shown as blue, a radio image from the Very Large Array is revealed in red, and a background image from the Sloan Digital Survey is yellow. White Bubbles of gas blown outward by relativistic particles generated by super massive black holes have the form of a two sided jet. Nested bubbles are evidence for repeated outbursts from the central massive black hole. Multiple outbursts suppress the formation of new stars. The top bubble is bursting and the relativistic gas (red) is spilling out and heating the surrounding gas.

Hubble has an importance equal to the first optical telescope made by Galileo. Hubble’s discoveries impact philosophy as much as astronomical science, and it has changed our view of the universe forever. If the HST never takes another photograph or spectrum, its accomplishments remain exceptional. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we know that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and nearly all galaxies may have super massive black holes at their center. Hubble has also a) added greatly to our knowledge of planet formation; b) detected molecular constituents in the atmosphere of an exoplanet; c) revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating; and d) told us much more about the early and very distant universe.

James Webb Space Telescope diagram
Photo – Wikipedia / NASA

Hubble’s legacy will be carried on by the James Webb Space Observatory scheduled for launch in 2013. Smaller than the HST, the JWST will be placed in orbit by an unmanned rocket and cannot be maintained by astronauts sent up from Earth. JWST will observe only in the infrared wavelengths but Hubble has taught us that in those wavelengths lie the most important clues to how the universe came into being. We will continue to discover what did God on those six days before Sunday brunch.

Sources –
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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Image: skye underwater

This image featuring a whale shark, a school of stingrays and another school of unidentified yellow fish almost appears more like a painting than a photo, so fortuitously full of life does it seem. Yet for all the majesty and beauty of the other creatures in this shot, it is the rays that take centre stage. Gliding through the depths, wing-like pectoral fins outspread as they ride the ocean currents, rays are the free birds of the blue, swimming with a grace that is difficult to fathom.

Rays resplendent: A shoal of stingrays overhead

Image: sundancekid

The incandescent shimmer at the water’s surface in this shot creates a fantastic effect as a half-shadowy shoal of stingrays flies over our heads. Stingrays have a reputation for being dangerous fish to encounter, particularly after the death of TV personality, wildlife expert and conservationist Steve Irwin, who was killed by a stingray barb through the heart. However, stingrays are normally docile and only certain larger species should be approached with caution.

Rays on parade: Stingrays swim gracefully by, Grand Cayman

Image: GANDALF GREY

Stingrays are not usually visible to swimmers because they tend to keep to the murky bottom, where care should be taken to slide one’s feet through the water so that the rays sense this and swim away. Divers and snorkelers may find them in shallow sandy waters, especially when the water is warm. In the Cayman Islands there are several dive sites where it is possible to swim with large southern stingrays and even watch while scuba instructors feed them by hand.

Face to face: A diver encounters a manta ray

Image via: pixdaus

The largest ray of all is the manta ray, a truly magnificent beast of the deep. It is remarkably curious around humans and fond of swimming with scuba divers – as in this next shot of the rocky ocean bed with a manta ray swooping overhead. The biggest known manta ray specimen measured more than 25 ft (7.6m) across and weighed about 5,000 lb (2,300kg). Yet despite their great size, mantas are among the most docile of the ocean’s creatures, gentle giants that feed on plankton.

Mark of beauty: A manta ray at Hin Daeng

Image: jon hanson

Although manta rays like this stunning specimen snapped at Hin Daeng off the coast of Thailand will not behave threateningly when they approach humans, if touched they can can cause lesions and infections on the skin. Nevertheless, mantas have long held a special place in our hearts. These beautiful beasts – which also have the largest brain for their size of any of the sharks and rays – were worshipped some two thousand years ago by the Moche people of ancient Peru.

Diamonds are forever: A fleet of rays

Image: mind’s eye

Silhouetted against the light, the diamond shape of rays strikes the gaze more clearly than ever, offering occasion to marvel at the miracle of nature’s design. Rays are distinguished from other fish by their enlarged pectoral fins, which reach as far forward as the sides of the head and make them supremely aerodynamic. Their bodies are flattened, with the eyes located on its upper surface and the gill slits on the underside.

What lies beneath: A shoal of rays crowd forward

Image: Coral Leather via The Telegraph

Rays have flattened, crushing teeth, and tend to be carnivorous – though as noted manta rays are filter feeders. Eagle rays, for example, feed on snails, mussels and crustaceans, crushing their shells with their exceptionally sharp teeth before digesting the succulent parts of their prey’s bodies. Like all rays, eagle rays are also excellent swimmers and are even able to jump several metres above the surface of the water.

Where eagles dare: A school of ten eagle rays

Image: laszlo-photo

This beautiful shot of ten eagle rays passing overhead, silhouetted by the early morning sun in Coiba National Park in Panama, seems a fitting image on which to bring the curtain down on this post – leaving these otherworldly creatures of the deep to wing their way through our dreams.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

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”Tikopia” of the Lapita Voyage Project / Rabaul (Papua New Guinea)
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project

Earliest Polynesian People / Lapita Culture Moves East

Polynesian history has fascinated the western world since Pacific cultures were first contacted by European explorers in the late 18th century. Where did this extraordinary culture originate, and how did it travel the vast Pacific Ocean to establish settlements on nearly every island that could support a self sufficient community? These are ‘big’ historical questions and only recently have some answers emerged. Let us travel thousands of miles, from island to island in Oceania, all the while looking down on the ground for unusual pottery fragments with human faces.

Polynesians peoples are united by common language, culture and distinctive genetics. Polynesians emerged from an ancient Austronesian culture that took to seafaring by 3,000 B.C. Austronesians in turn, are descended from indigenous peoples on Taiwan who derive from Chinese mainland tribals who first crossed to Taiwan by ~5,000 B.C. These indigenous tribes of Taiwain were immediately on the move and traveled to the western islands of Oceania and Melanesia. Mitochondrial DNA studies have recently confirmed the ancestral relationship between aboriginal peoples on Taiwan and Polynesians.

Lapita / Fiji – earliest pot shards > c.1900 B.C.
Photo – Fiji Museum

The Lapita Culture is sometimes identified as the earliest ancestral Polynesian culture. Lapita is believed to have originated on the islands of South East Asia, perhaps in the Moluccas and Indonesia as some archeology indicates. One of the earliest, securely dated sites with Lapita Pottery is dated to 1650 B.C and is on Nissan in the Bismark Archipelago. The earliest detectable migrations of the Lapita are on the islands of the Bismark Archipelago in Near Oceania which were settled c. 1500 B.C.

Remote_Oceania Map
Map – Lapita Voyage Project

Moving rapidly in small groups, the Lapita people penetrated Remote Oceania, then traveled to Fiji and West Polynesia from Melanesia between 1200 and 1,000 B.C. Their ocean voyaging traversed remarkable mileage. In no more than 10 generations, they reached Tonga and Samoa by 1,000 B.C.

This is the ‘express train’ model for Polynesian origins and their first expansion into Western Polynesia. There is no evidence that overcrowding was the motivation for these voyages and the establishment of new settlements. Communities on different islands remained in contact. Lapita lived in villages on islands larger than 1,000 sq km or on the coasts of larger islands. There is evidence throughout Polynesian history that clans might be forced into exile if a) they lost a regional war and the victors were inclined to be magnanimous; or b) the chiefs ruling the island made a harsh decision to balance population with food supply derived from agriculture, hunting and fishing. In this circumstance, a clan might voluntarily agree to leave the island or be forced into exile.

Lapita pottery fragments with human face / Main Reef Island, NW Solomon Islands, c.1100 B.C.
Photo – Depart. Anthropology Photographic Archive, University of Auckland

Lapita Culture, the Human Face and the Green Turtle

The rapid movement of the Lapita people eastward, with short residency times on each of the island locations they reached (until migration stopped in the region of the most eastward of the Solomon Islands), is known as the ‘express train hypothesis’. It is currently favored by anthropologists over the alternative which proposes a leisurely move eastward with long resident times on each new island before a group decided to once again ‘go over the horizon’. In this model, completion of Lapita eastward expansion would take a much longer period of time than that proposed by express train model, and the timeline does not fit the archeological evidence as well.

Lapita agriculture included taro, yam, breadfruit, banana, and coconut. Domestic animals raised for food were chickens, dogs and pigs, although their remains are not common in Lapita archeological excavations. If there is a distinctive Polynesian chicken, its origins lie with the Lapita people. The Lapita were accomplished fishermen and hunters who extinguished several endemic island species of flightless birds and large reptiles.

Lapita Bowl/Face – Tarawa Atoll / Kiribati
Photo – John Terrell / Lapita Gallery

Lapita Culture is distinctive, first and foremost because of the pottery style that emerged in the Bismark Archipelago that is like no other of the time and region. Lapita pots are low temperature earthenware which in addition to the expected functional jars and bowls, included highly decorated bowls with pedestal feet and flat-bottomed dishes and jars with flaring rims. Stylized faces are easily recognized and remarkable. Incised and sculpted designs included abstractions of the human face, eyes, nose, arms and fingers. Pots with complex designs may have been used in ritual exchanges between clans.

Green Turtle at Coral Reef / Hawaii
Photo – Mila Zinkova & Keta / Wikipedia

Lapita faces on pottery are usually taken to be human faces that might indicate ancestor worship, but there is another interpretation that is possible. John Terrell of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has found striking similarities between the design elements in Lapita decorative motifs, and anatomical features of the Green Sea Turtle such as the carapace and markings behind the eye. Terrell and colleagues propose that a creation myth has been recorded within this Lapita iconography, although identification of who did what, and when, eludes us.

We may never recover the specific metaphysics and mythic adventures. However, consistent symbolism and iconography within their very distinctive art style allows us to identify the Lapita over an island realm spanning more than 4,000 km. Later Polynesian peoples were not potters because wood had become the preferred material for bowls and jars. Lapita iconography survived, nonetheless, in ritual decoration on bark cloth (tapa) and in tattoo design.

Lapita Voyage Project / November 2008 – March 2009 Route
Map – Lapita Voyage Project

The Lapita Pottery Trail

The principals of the Lapita Voyage Project are Klaus Hympendahl, a German author, explorer and sailorn James Wharram, a ship architect specializing in sailing catamarans, and Hanneke Boon who is Wharram’s design partner. As archeologists follow Lapita pottery eastward from the Philippines, they follow the migration of the Lapita Culture until it reached the eastern margin of Remote Oceania and beyond to Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia.

The Lapita Voyage Project was created with two objectives to fulfill. 1. Build two Polynesian, double hulled canoes that would be true to ancient Solomon Island Polynesian canoe design. These canoes would not be designed according to strict historical standards because there is no Solomon Island ship builder now alive who can build a large, ocean going canoe according to traditional designs. 2. Sail these canoes along a 4,000 mile route that is a good approximation to that believed used by the Lapita Culture during their period of rapid expansion.

These canoes would incorporate design principles from the Solomon Islands of Anuta and Tikopia where traditional Polynesian canoe design survived untouched by western influence into the 1970s with small fishing canoes. Large ocean going canoes were built until about 1940. Examples of both survive for close study. Tikopia, and its smaller sister island of Anuta, are two of the most isolated islands in the world and are good representatives for target islands at the eastern margin of Lapita expansion in the first millennium B.C.

Anuta Island (March 2009) / Solomon Islands
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project

Anuta

Anuta is a small volcanic island with a coral reef fringe that is only 750 meters wide. The highest point on the ancient, eroded volcano remnant of Anuta is 213’ above sea level. Anuta has a permanent population of 232 (2006) of which 200 live in the village of Mau. There is a small, uninhabited island 36 miles distant that is used for agriculture. Unlike most people of the Solomon Islands, the people of Anuta are Polynesians and their language belongs to the Samoan group of Polynesian languages.

The western world first contacted Anuta in 1791 and Christianity arrived in 1916 with Anglican missionaries. The only scheduled contact with the outside world in the 21st century is the irregular visits of a supply ship maintained by the government of the Solomon Islands that visits the outer islands. In addition, regional cargo and fishing ships and private yachts occasionally visit. Men will leave the island to become wager earners elsewhere in the Solomon Islands, often for long periods of time.

The Anuta are well aware of their country and much of Polynesia beyond the Solomon Islands. Their individual, family and community ethical system is something the larger world would do well to emulate. “Concern for others is the backbone of Anutan philosophy. ‘Aropa’ is a concept for giving and sharing, roughly translated as compassion, love and affection.” (Source #4)

Lapita “Anuta” arrives at Anuta Island, March 2009
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project Archives

A natural spring provides high quality fresh water. Anuta agriculture grows taro, manioc and bananas with a thorough understanding of the need for intensive crop rotation. Gardens are often situated on hill tops. Coconut palm, turmeric and sugar cane are also grown and tended. Anuta do not now raise domestic animals. Assuredly pigs, chickens and dogs were embedded in the food economy of their Lapita ancestors but the very small size of Anuta precluded the ‘luxury’ of growing food for domestic animals, even if they were to be consumed.

December 28-29, 2002, record-setting Category 5 Cyclone Zoe with winds gusting to 340 km/hr passed over the eastern Solomon Islands and hit Anuta and Tikopia. There were no fatalities on either island. On Anuta, 29/75 houses were damaged, but only four suffered serious damage. (What does this tell us about Polynesian house construction ?!) Most swamp taro ‘fields’ were destroyed and perhaps 70% of all agriculture was mangled. No one starved because a reserve food supply made from manioc was regularly buried in maa pits as insurance food that was only to be used when a catastrophe happened.

Fishing Boat Fleet on Anuta Island
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project Archives

Much old tradition has survived on Anuta but no large ocean going canoes have been built since the 1970s, and the boat building expertise to do so may have been lost. The scarcity of large logs may have been the critical deficit. Small canoes used for fishing offshore are built with an ancient traditional design no longer found elsewhere in Polynesia. The small Anuta community has 70 fishing canoes and, as expected, the Anuta are expert fisherman.

Tikopia / Lake Te Roto / crater lake
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project Archives

Tikopia

Eighty-three miles southwest of Anuta lies the larger sister island of Tikopia, which is also Polynesian in culture and language. (Most Solomon Islands are Melanesian.) Tikopia is larger than Anuta with an area of 5 km2 (1.8 m2). The summit of the extinct volcano – Mt. Reani – is 380 meters (1247 ft) above sea level. Lake Te Roto near the coast fills an old volcanic crater to a depth of 80 meters. the population of Tikopia is about 1200 and there are at least 20 villages along the coast. The nearest island is Anuta, 85 miles distant. Several islands in Vanuatu and the Solomons are 100 to 140 miles away. As with Anutan, Tikopian belongs to the Samoan branch of Polynesian languages.

Tikopia Canoes 1933
Photo – Templeton Crocker Expedition, 1933

The first settler on Tikopia found a forested island, 72% the size of today’s Tikopia. The crater lake was open to the sea and its reef was rich with food fish. The offshore coral reef was large. This first Tikopian culture is known as Kiki and it practiced slash and burn agriculture which decimated the forest. Birds, fish and shallow ocean food animals were hunted intensively. Pigs, chickens, perhaps dogs and accidentally the Polynesian rat were also introduced.

The earliest pottery on Tikopia is Lapita. Ancient trade networks and ocean travel are revealed by the presence of stone adzes and chert from the main Solomon Islands, obsidian from the Bismark Archipelago of Papua New Guinea, and volcanic glass from the Banks Islands in Vanuatu.

About 0 A.D. the Kiki Culture was replaced by the dramatically different Sinapupu Culture. A new style of pottery called Mangaasi is imported from Vanuatu, probably from the island of Santo. Turtles, sharks and rays disappear from the menu, likely because of a new tabu. There is a widespread disappearance of Lapita pottery in the western Pacific at this time on Santa Cruz and the Reef Islands, Tonga, Samoa, and Futuna. Invasive Mangasi is documented not only on Tikopia and Vanikoro, but also in New Caledonia. In other areas of the western Pacific, pottery making stops altogether.

Lapita Type B pot / Malo Island, New Hebrides
Photo – janesoceania

On Tikopia, the Mangasi lasts about 1,000 years during which there is an increasing reliance on domestic pigs. Erosion and forest clearance are dramatic; sand dunes enlarge and add to the island area. What is impossible to determine is the relationship between the Mangaasi pottery style and people. Was this a new pottery style adopted by the resident population with little if any genetic input from new arrivals because they were so few in number? Or, does this transition represent a quiet invasion and residency in large numbers by a new people with their new cultural forms?

About 1200 A.D., the Tuakamali culture phase emerges and the distinctive Tikopian Mangaasi culture will soon appear. Tuakamali appears to be the culture of colonists from the western Pacific. Mangaasi pottery ceases to be made in Vanuatu and therefore ceases to be traded and imported into Tikopia.

Tikopia / Huts at Crater Lake / Swamp Taro / Before Cyclone Zoe
Photo – HYOA / Tikopia Relief

Stone architecture and tools from western Polynesia can be identified, as can volcanic glass from Vanuatu and the occasional pig from the nearest Solomon Islands. Lineages on Tikopia now trace their origins to Uvea (Wallis), Samoa and Tonga.

Tikopian villages and population increased. The land area of the island increased, and the salt water bay in the crater was cut off from the sea and transformed into a brackish lake. Villages nearby would have suffered from a serious loss in shallow ocean fish and shellfish. Major (resource?) wars occurred on the island. There is one historical record of clan extinction, and another of a clan driven off island and into exile.

Turtles, sharks and rays are back in the diet, but spiny puffer fish and moray eels are now tabu for eating. Slash and burn agriculture is gone and replaced with the forest gardens we see today that resemble those of New Guinea. The first contact of Tikopia with Europeans was the 1606 Quiros Expedition from Spain which had no discernible influence. European tools began to penetrate in the early 1800s.

Tikopia / Craftsman Using Adz
Photo – Lapita Voyage Project Archives

Around 1600 A.D, the Tikopia decided to slaughter all pigs and no longer raise them because the damage they did to food gardens had become unacceptable. Likely early attempts to accommodate chickens and dogs into the food economy had to be abandoned for the basic reason that survival on this small island did not allow for the luxury of growing food that was fed to animals. The people of Tikopia learned long ago that for their population to be in ecological balance with the island environment, it had to be limited to ~1200. When natural death, war and occasional emigration did not suffice to limit numbers, widespread infanticide was practiced.

Tikopia Chiefs Receive Officers of the “Astrolabe” (France) / 1833
Print – 1st Art Gallery

The chiefs of the four clans on Tikopia rule the island, make decisions for the common good and oversee the canoes. Christianity reached Tikopia with the Melanesian Anglican Mission in 1858, but a mission teacher was not allowed to live on Tikopia until 1907. The chiefs decided upon which Christian sect would be welcome on the island, and the Anglican Church has proved tolerant of tribal tradition. The chiefs do not allow money, shops, alcohol, electricity or electric motors on the island. Medicine and kerosene are among the supplies brought in by the infrequent visits of the government supply ship. There is no air strip for a small plane to land on, and only the largest of military helicopters could reach the island. A nurse lives permanently on Tikopia and there are two beds for patients.

Tikopia / Crater Lake Maximum Breach Damage
Photo – HYOA / Tikopia Relief

Category 5 Cyclone Hits Anuta and Tikopia

Cyclone Zoe in December 2002 did much more damage on Tikopia than on Anuta. There was no loss of human life because villagers hid safely in caves. A village at one edge of the crater lake was leveled and more than 200 houses were destroyed. One of two gravity fed water supply systems suffered serious damage to its dam, large water tank and the loss of all pipeline. Agricultural capacity was brought to a standstill and a layer of topsoil was blown away.

The only food source that survived Zoe was the reef fish. The stone barrier that kept sea water from infiltrating the lake in the old volcanic crater was broken down and proved very difficult to repair; that work was not completed until September 2006. Permanent contamination of this fresh water lagoon would have threatened all the sago palms on the island. Their extinction might have forced a permanent evacuation of all islanders but luck, hard work, generosity from around the world and the gods said otherwise.

Government, private funds and volunteer workers included many yacht crews who had known the island as a good harbor in past years. Upon hearing that Cyclone Zoe made a direct hit on Anuta and Tikopia, yachtsmen from around the world who had visited Tikopia sprung into action and provided major relief funds and supplies.

Tikopia / Crater Lake Barrier Wall Repaired
Photo – HYOA / Tikopia Relief

These most isolated islands would soon have another experience that was unique in their history and one whose consequences would be entirely positive. The second article in this two part series joins the Lapita Voyage Project that followed the Lapita pottery trail upon the Pacific ocean. The voyage replicated a 4,000 mile journey of exploration and settlement. The Lapita Voyage Project would bring a priceless gift to Anuta and Tokipia, a renewed capacity to undertake open ocean voyages and resume canoe travel to neighboring islands.

Sources -
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Image: Jitze Couperus

Alcatraz, the Bay Bridge, Coit Tower, downtown, Fisherman’s Wharf… the sights of San Francisco are numerous. All the more fun is spotting them from above because they tend to look oh-so-different from a bird’s eye perspective. But see for youself and join us on our musical tour of “I Spy….” San Francisco.

San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, and the whole of the San Francisco Bay Area is home to more than seven million people. During the gold rush of the 19th century, the city was literally a “Golden Gate” for many adventurous fortune seekers. Though its old name Yerba Buena (from the Spanish hierba buena, the “good herb”) was changed in 1847 after the Mexican-American war, the term still has a valid (yet different) meaning for many today.

San Francisco is located at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is framed by the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. Characteristics of the cityscape are the grid-like structure of the city blocks, the many parks and green areas, bridges and islands belonging to the city.

The northern tip of San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background and the Bay Bridge in the foreground.

Hello, San Francisco

Image: Roy Tennant

Here’s a view of the southwestern end of San Francisco with Lake Merced in the foreground and the city skyline in the background.

California Dreamin’

Image: Phil Whitehouse

Moving further north, here’s the Pacific Ocean and Lake Merced in the foreground and the Golden Gate Park and the Presidio on the horizon.

San Francisco on the Water

Image: Roy Tennant

A beautiful panoramic shot of the city with the Sutro Tower on the left, the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County in the distance.

Welcome 2 Da Bay

Image: Roy Tennant

The Golden Gate Park stretching from east (top) to west (bottom). The symmetry of the city grid is mind-boggling, making the photograph look like an abstract piece of art. Absolut San Francisco, anyone?

My Side of the City

Image: Roy Tennant

A close-up of Golden Gate Park with the De Young Museum (on the left) and the California Academy of the Sciences (above, right).

Beautiful Day

Image: Roy Tennant

The Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio park clearly visible and the city grid shining through thin layers of clouds.

Hazy SF

Image: Carol Schaffer

The Golden Gate Bridge with golden sunset rays.

Golden Gate Bridge

Image: Unknown photographer via Pixdaus

The northeastern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and Marin County in the background.

California Sun

Image: Roy Tennant

Pier 41 and Fisherman’s Wharf in front of the city skyline and the Bay Bridge faint in the background (top left).

San Francisco on the Water

Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Alcatraz Island, the Bay Bridge, downtown and Fisherman’s Wharf on a clear day.

San Francisco

Image: Gunther Hagleitner

Alcatraz Island was first discovered and named by the Spanish in 1775. “La Isla de los Alcatraces” means “Island of the Pelicans.” Today, the island is mainly home to cormorants, Western Gulls and egrets. After being a lighthouse, a military fort and prison and a federal prison until 1963, Alcatraz today is a national recreational area that features popularly in movies and on TV.

Holiday on Alcatraz Island

Image: druchoy

Here’s a view of the Bay Bridge on the left and the city skyline and the typical street grid, making it look a bit like downtown New York.

Frisco Town

Image: Roy Tennant

The Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena Island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland. A small piece of Treasure Island can be seen at the very top of the picture.

Journey to the End of the East Bay

Image: moppet65535

A shot of the Financial District in the foreground and the peninsula stretching from east (bottom) to west (top) with the Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park and the Presidion in the background (left to right).

The Chapter in Your Life Entitled San Francisco

Image: Roy Tennant

The eastern part of San Francisco with Pacific Bell Park in the foreground stretching to the Sutro Tower and everything west of it disappearing under a thick layer of clouds.

Clouds over California

Image: Roy Tennant

An almost surreal picture of San Francisco’s financial district emerging from the clouds and the Bay Bridge connecting to Yerba Buena Island, with Treasure Island on the right.

California Sun

Image: Jitze Couperus

The corner of Columbus and Grant Avenue with North Beach, Alcatraz and Marin County straight ahead and the Coit Tower on the right.

San Francisco, Here I Come

Image: Khaosaming

San Francisco International Airport, located 13 miles south of downtown, is a major gateway to Asia, Australasia and Europe.

San Francisco, Here I Go

Image: Roy Tennant

Source: 1, 2, 3

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