Science

A US Marine Osprey Crashes During Drills In Australia, Killing 3 And Injuring 20, Some Critically

Published

9 months ago

2023-08-28

CANBERRA, Australia – During a multinational training exercise, officials said a US Marine Corps plane carrying 23 Marines crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and badly injuring at least five.

The Marines said three people were confirmed killed on Melville Island, and five were transported in serious condition to the mainland capital of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey plane crashed about 9:30 a.m.

“Recovery efforts are ongoing,” the statement stated, adding that the crash’s cause was being investigated.

Aircraft had been dispatched from Darwin to recover survivors from the isolated site, but no further information on the fate of the remaining 15 Marines on board had been given hours later.

According to an audio recording of the exchange published by Nine News television, a U.S. military official reported a “significant fire in the vicinity of the crash site to Australian air traffic controllers.”

Shane Murphy, of Melville, was fishing from a beach when the Osprey crashed, and he saw a “big mushroom of black smoke” emerge from the wreckage, according to the ABC.

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy stated that no one on board was injured.

Around six hours after the incident, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles stated one of the injured was receiving surgery at the Royal Darwin Hospital.

US Marine Corps plane carrying 23 Marines crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and badly injuring at least five.

“We acknowledge that this is a terrible incident,” added Fyles. “The Northern Territory government stands ready to assist in any way that is required.”

According to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, only Americans were harmed in the incident, which involved the United States, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor militarily.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the three U.S. service personnel who lost their lives, those who have been injured, the rest of the crew, and indeed the entire United States armed forces,” Albanese said in a statement.

“Australia will continue to provide assistance to our friends for as long as it is required,” he added.

Around 150 US Marines are stationed in Darwin, with up to 2,500 passing each year. They are part of an Asia-Pacific force realignment to counter an increasingly assertive China.

The 12-day exercise is set to end on September 7. It entails troops on land, at sea, and in the air. Since the crash, the exercise has been halted.

US Marine Corps plane carrying 23 Marines crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and badly injuring at least five.

The Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster, like an airplane during flight. The United States Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force use the aircraft.

Before Sunday, there had been five deadly Marine Osprey crashes since 2012, resulting in 16 deaths.

The most recent incident occurred in June 2022, when five Marines were killed in a horrific crash in a remote area of California east of San Diego. According to an accident investigation report released this month, the tragedy was triggered by a mechanical breakdown involving a clutch.

The investigation discovered 16 such clutch failures with Marine Ospreys in flight since 2012. However, issues had remained the same since February, when the Marine Corps began replacing an equipment component on the aircraft, according to the report.

Melville is part of the Tiwi Islands, which, along with Darwin, are the focus of the 2,500-strong exercise. It is largely covered by tropical woodland and is controlled by indigenous peoples. Its population is about 1,000 people, most of whom are Indigenous.

According to Murphy, the police commissioner, the Osprey that crashed was one of two that flew from Darwin to Melville on Sunday.

With a population of 150,000, Darwin is a sizable city by the standards of Australia’s sparsely populated tropical north. However, several casualty incidents might put its large hospital’s resources to the test. The hospital has been placed on the highest level of emergency alert, which implies that treatment of less urgent medical cases may be impacted, according to Fyles.

In July, four Australian servicemen were killed in an army MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash off the northeast Australian coast when the U.S. military was also participating in a multinational military exercise.

SOURCE – (AP)

Science

Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

Published

9 hours ago

2024-05-18

Kiara Grace

AP News - VOR News Image

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The Webb Space Telescope discovered the earliest known merger of black holes.

These two massive holes and their galaxies formed only 740 million years after the universe-creating Big Bang. Scientists claimed Thursday that they have made the furthest distant detection of merging holes ever.

New Atlas – VOR News Image

Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

A black hole is 50 million times bigger than our sun. The other is estimated to be similar in size but buried in dense gas, making it difficult to measure.

Until today, astronomers didn’t know how supermassive black holes got so huge.

Daily Sabah – VOR News Image

Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

The current findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, imply that mergers explain how holes can expand quickly — “even at cosmic dawn,” according to lead author Hannah Ubler of the University of Cambridge.

“Massive holes have been shaping the evolution of galaxies from the very beginning,” Ubler stated.

AP – VOR News Image

Webb Telescope Uncovers Merger Of Two Massive Black Holes From Early Universe

Webb, the largest and most powerful observatory ever launched into space, will be the successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope when it launches in 2021. The infrared observatory, a joint US-European initiative, scans the universe from one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

SOURCE – (AP)

Science

Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

Published

1 week ago

2024-05-10

Kiara Grace

CAPE Florida’s Cape Coral — This weekend, a very powerful solar storm approaching Earth may cause communications outages and cause the northern lights to appear in the United States.

For the first time in almost 20 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare geomagnetic storm watch. The entire weekend is under scrutiny, beginning on Friday.

VOR News Image

Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

According to NOAA, the sun started to create powerful solar flares on Wednesday, which led to five plasma explosions that might have disrupted Earth’s power infrastructures and satellites in orbit. A coronal mass ejection, or eruption, can produce billions of tons of solar plasma.

The flares appear to be connected to a sunspot that is 16 times the diameter of Earth, which is why NOAA is classifying this as an uncommon occurrence. In 2003, a strong geomagnetic storm destroyed power transformers in South Africa and knocked out power in Sweden.

VOR News Image

Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

According to NOAA, the most recent storm may cause northern lights as far south as Alabama and Northern California in the United States.

An amazing natural occurrence is the aurora borealis, sometimes known as the northern lights. The night sky in Earth’s polar regions is home to these vibrant, dancing lights. When charged solar particles clash with atmospheric gasses, these lights are created.

VOR News Image

Strong Solar Storm Could Disrupt Communications And Produce Northern Lights In US

Though the lights are usually observed in green, pink, and violet hues, they can occasionally be seen in other colors as well. Countless people travel to locations like Alaska, Canada, and Scandinavia every year to see this amazing show in person since it is such a stunning sight.

SOURCE – (AP)

News

China Launches Long March-5 to the “Dark Side of Moon”

Published

2 weeks ago

2024-05-04

Geoff Thomas

China Launches Long March-5 Spacecraft: Getty Images

China has launched an unmanned spacecraft on a nearly two-month journey to gather rocks and soil from the moon’s far side, becoming the first country to undertake such an ambitious task.

China’s heaviest rocket, the Long March-5, lifted off at 5:27 p.m. Beijing time (0927 GMT) from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, carrying the Chang’e-6 probe weighing more than 8 metric tons.

China’s Chang’e-6 is entrusted with landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s far side, which is continuously facing away from Earth, and retrieving and returning samples.

The launch is another significant milestone in China’s lunar and space exploration mission.

“It is a bit of a mystery to us how China has been able to develop such an ambitious and successful programme in such a short time,” said Pierre-Yves Meslin, a French researcher working on one of the Chang’e-6 mission’s scientific objectives.

In 2018, Chang’e-4 made China’s first unmanned moon landing on the far side. Chang’e-5 returned lunar samples for the first time in 44 years in 2020, and Chang’e-6 has the potential to make China the first country to retrieve samples from the moon’s “hidden” side.

Scientists, diplomats, and space agency officials from France, Italy, Pakistan, and the European Space Agency all attended the launch, which carried moon-study payloads on Chang’e-6.

However, no US groups requested for a payload place, according to Ge Ping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Lunar Exploration and Space Program.

U.S. law prohibits China from collaborating with the United States’ space agency, NASA.

The Dark Side of the Moon

The far side of the moon, also known as the “dark side of the moon” despite receiving sunlight, is the hemisphere that always faces away from Earth. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft made the first observation of this strange region in 1959.

Unlike the near side, the far side lacks enormous, dark basins known as marias. Instead, hundreds of craters produced by asteroid collisions over billions of years blanket it.

The South Pole-Aitken Basin, an immense crater more than 1,500 miles wide and several miles deep, is one of the most visible landforms on the far side. This ancient impact basin is among the largest known crater formations in our solar system. The far side likewise has many mountains, ridges, and other harsh topography formed by cosmic collisions.

Studying the far side provides insights into the moon’s genesis and early history because it maintains impact records from the solar system’s turbulent childhood.

Scientists also intend to investigate it for potential resources and future lunar bases. With no atmosphere or magnetic field, the far side displays the wounds of endless meteor bombardments, exposing information about Earth’s only natural satellite that the near side lacks.

Source: Reuters