The chaotic crash-landing of a robotic spacecraft called Philae has yielded serendipitous insights into the softness of comets, according to a report in Nature.

In 2014, the European Space Agency’s pioneering lander touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, after a 10-year journey aboard its mothership, Rosetta. But rather than fix itself to the surface, Philae bounced twice and ended up on its side under a shady overhang, cutting its mission short.

After a meticulous search, an ESA team has now discovered the previously unknown site of Philae’s second touchdown — and with it an imprint that the craft left in comet ice that is billions of years old.

The imprint has allowed the researchers to measure the strength of ice beneath the comet’s surface — and they discovered that it is exceptionally soft. “It’s softer than the lightest snow, the froth on your cappuccino or even the bubbles in your bubble bath,” says Laurence O’Rourke, an ESA scientist at the European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, who led a search to locate the wayward lander, which was found in 2016, the report said.

This is “a wonderful piece of detective work”, according to Jessica Sunshine, who studies comets at the University of Maryland in College Park, and was not involved in the work. The study is important, she says, because some previous data from Philae had suggested that 67P’s surface could be very hard — which might hinder future attempts to retrieve samples of comet ice. The latest result provides evidence that the ice is weak and compressible. “I’m very excited to have proof that we can get back out there and get a sample of 4.5-billion-year-old ice,” says Sunshine. The findings were published1 in Nature on 28 October.

ESA scientists knew that Philae bounced on landing and clipped a cliff edge. It then tumbled towards a mystery location, before coming to rest. The landing would not have been violent: in the comet’s low gravity, the 100-kilogram probe would have weighed one gram and taken 10 seconds to drift one metre, says O’Rourke.

To hunt for the second touchdown site, O’Rourke’s team analysed images around the lander taken by Rosetta. After spotting tell-tale signs of bright, artificially cut ice around 30 metres away from the probe’s resting place, the researchers used images taken from all angles to build a 3D model of the area, which they nicknamed skull-top ridge because of the boulders’ shape. The team compared the landscape before and after Philae’s passage and analysed internal data from the probe to reconstruct the craft’s likely trajectory through the ridge.

They think that Philae touched the surface at four points over two minutes: it slid down a slope, cart-wheeled through a crevice and hit a boulder, then bounced on its head before departing for its resting place. The third impact was the most revealing. The top of the craft made a 25-centimetre-deep imprint in boulder ice. By comparing this depth with the time taken to make the imprint — which it gleaned from how long Philae’s magnetic sensor was displaced — the researchers calculated the material’s compressive strength to be just 12 pascals. That’s softer than freshly fallen snow, they say.

Although Philae’s tilted final position meant the drill on its underside never reached the comet’s surface, the instrument’s housing, a tower on the craft’s surface, ended up penetrating the ice far enough to make some similar measurements. “We’ve been able to probe the interior of the comet and understand what it’s made of, all because of Philae’s movements, rather than a dedicated instrument on board,” says O’Rourke. “This is the icing on the cake.”

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The new draft Environment Impact Assessment (2020) notification of India is widely criticised for its controversial changes in rules. Experts believe most of the provisions in the new draft EIA prove to be a regressive departure from the earlier version. EIA is aimed at the protection of the environment but this draft does not seem to be concerned about sustainable development. This is a pressing issue and it needs everybody’s attention.

Environmental activists, young Indians, political leaders, celebrities and YouTube stars are coming forward voicing their opinions against the precarious draft.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday lashed out at the Centre over the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification 2020, saying that it must be withdrawn to stop “environmental destruction”. Gandhi alleged that the aim of the EIA 2020 draft notification was clear “loot of the nation”.

Actor Karthi Sivakumar is one of the first few celebrities to raise his voice against the EIA 2020 draft. The actor, in a press release published in July has said that the proposed EIA 2020 Draft has instilled new fears in the minds of the common man and experts.

Parvathy Thiruvothu is also one among the many who urged the public to raise their voice against the draft.

Eco diversity as collateral

1. Violates Freedom of Speech and Expression

The duration to raise public opinion has been reduced from 30 days to 20 days. Moreover, the draft was put out at a time when public hearing was least possible due to the nation-wide lockdown owing to COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart from this, the new draft has not been translated into all regional languages/22 official languages of India, which directly shuts out the voice of half of the Indian population.

2. Strategic projects

Any project that is related to National Security and Defence are considered strategic but according to the new draft, any development on coastal areas, expansion of roads and so on, will fall under the category of “Strategic Project, and hence the details of such projects will not be disclosed to people.

3. Ecologically Sensitive Areas

According to the existing EIA (2006), wetlands, grasslands, and marshlands are considered as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA). These areas are home to various species of animals, birds, plants and indigenous people and therefore, no industry/business can exist here. But the new draft removes these lands from the ESA category. This will definitely shoot the economic development but at the cost of the environment

4. Allows Post-Facto Approval

It simply allows huge projects to start operations without having a clearance certificate. Thus, the 2020 draft paves way for banned industries to function legally. These include 40 ‘Big Projects’ like coal mining extraction of metals and minerals etc.

Earlier, an exemption was given to projects that occupy less than five acres (20,000 sq.mts) to start their business without approval. But the 2020 draft increases the threshold to 40 acres (1.5lakh sq.mts)

EIA has been amended over 12 times since 1994 and each time changes were made favouring the corporates.

People can send their objection mail to: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in . Augut 11 is the last date to submit feedback against draft EIA 2020 notification.

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Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, was the first individual in the world to commence the trial of a Phase III inactivated vaccine for COVID-19. Acting Undersecretary of the Department Dr. Jamal Al Kaabi was the second volunteer to try the vaccine showcasing the commitment of the UAE Government and the Health Authorities to find a cure for humanity’s biggest challenge of the 21st century.

The world’s first Phase III trial is the result of a cooperation partnership between Abu Dhabi based G42 Healthcare, currently at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 in the UAE, and Sinopharm CNBG, the world’s sixth largest vaccine manufacturer, ranked 169th on the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018.

The trials are being operated by health practitioners from Abu Dhabi Health Services, SEHA, who are providing facilities at five of their clinics in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in addition to a mobile clinic to ensure the trials are readily accessible to volunteers participating in the programme.

Over the past few months, G42 Healthcare meanwhile, has established a massive throughput laboratory to speed up the detection of the disease; manufactured essential Personal Protective Equipment; conducted research into new vaccines and drug therapies, and used its advanced AI capabilities to map and predict trends in the outbreak, virus mutations and help combat the disease.

The UAE was the preferred choice for the cooperation partnership to conduct the Phase III trials for the inactive vaccine as the nation is home to over 200 nationalities, allowing for robust research across multiple ethnicities and increasing its feasibility for global application on the success of the trials.

The UAE Health Authorities have recently issued a permit for up to 15,000 volunteers to take part in the trials. G42 Healthcare and SEHA are working towards achieving a minimum of 5,000 participants in the first stage of the programme to ensure the robustness of the results.

Today’s clinical trial commencement is the start of a series of national initiatives to both foster population health and to enhance the UAE’s medical research and development capabilities, including the local capacity to manufacture the vaccine.

Trial formally began in the presence of Chinese Ambassador to the UAE Ni Jian; senior health department officials and G42 Healthcare and Sinopharm CNBG representatives. The first group of volunteers including UAE nationals and expatriates received the vaccine at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

The clinical trials are being conducted under the strict guidance and supervision of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi and SEHA – the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company. The trials follow all international guidelines stipulated by the WHO and the United States Food and Drug Administration, FDA.

The study, if successful, will be approved and accredited by the Ethics Committee for Scientific Research in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Commenting on the start of the programme, Dr. Nawal Ahmed Alkaabi, UAE Principle Investigator Sheikh Khalifa Medical City CMO, and Chairperson of the National COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee, said, “Our participation in this trial enables us to make a major contribution in the global fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a matter of national pride that we are able to help facilitate the trial process that could have a worldwide impact and help people around the world to benefit from research and – if successful – the manufacture of a vaccine to fight back against this disease.”

The phase III clinical trial follows the success of the phase I and phase II trials conducted by Sinopharm in China, which resulted in 100 percent of the volunteers generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days. The phase III trials will be open to individual volunteers aged between 18 and 60 living in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and will last for 42 days.

A key factor for COVID-19 vaccine is the urgency around global implementation. Computing power, data processing and diagnostic analysis are G42 Healthcare’s global competitive advantage to support the successful delivery of the world’s first phase III trials of inactivated vaccine.

G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy said, “We are enormously proud that Sinopharm CNBG has partnered G42 Healthcare in this groundbreaking phase III clinical trial in the UAE. Using our AI solutions, super-computer, advanced diagnostics solutions for COVID-19, G42 Healthcare is uniquely postured to conduct these trials. G42 Healthcare will be responsible for running clinical operations for this trial. We will be leveraging our group’s technical and our own business capabilities to compute, correlate and provide fast and synthesized insights by deploying multiple AI models on the data generated during the trials to accelerate the much awaiting results.

“G42 Healthcare will be mobilizing the logistical management of the trials taking in learnings from its proven capabilities in CRO management, clinical sites initiations and other E2E programme management activities.”

Jingjin Zhu, President, Biological products, Sinopharm CNBG added, “The United Arab Emirates is a nation of innovation and tolerance, that is home to individuals from every part of the world and ethnic background. We will work closely with our partner to complete this clinical trials successfully, and make this vaccine available to the people in need worldwide. With the full support of local authorities, cutting-edge technologies provided by our partner G42 Healthcare, and high-quality services and supports from the medical and clinical entities, we will jointly contribute to the battle against COVID-19 worldwide.”

Now that the trials have officially commenced, G42 Healthcare and the UAE Health Authorities will shortly launch a public awareness campaign to encourage UAE residents to participate in this critical to humanity clinical trial programme.

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