The Time Period, Blog Post 3.10

The controversy over Earth's water has had repercussions around the world the past few years. The two largest space agencies in the world: NASA and the European Space Agency, are committed to researching it. As well, researchers in the U.S as a whole were and are still trying to look into the controversy. However, on a local scene, there might not have been as much to write about.

The time period for this current controversy overall has been from the present day back to the discovery of water ice on comet Hartley 2 back in late 2011.

Local News Stories:

UA News, Anticipation builds for OSIRIS-REx Launch.

AZ Daily Star, UA-built cameras ready for space adventure.

National:
Washington Post, Rosetta's comet displays rarely seen water ice on its surface.

Huntington Post, Hartley 2 Comet Leaks Water, NASA Photograph Shows.

International:
BBC News, Rosetta Results: Comets 'did not bring water to Earth'.

Al Jazeera, Rosetta space probe poised for comet landing. 


One of the major moments in the controversy I selected was the Rosetta mission discovery that ice water on comet 67P was not similar to Earth water. This was a major find that put the Comet stakeholder group on its heels. That story broke in late 2014. In that same year, Russia annexed Crimea, a Malaysian airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine, Islamic State was starting to make international headlines, the FIFA World Cup was held in Brazil, Israel and Hamas fought in the Gaza Strip, the Ebola Scare struck the world, and the midterm elections in the U.S brought the House and Senate in to Republican control.


Local news summary:

Both stories touch mostly on the University of Arizona's partnership with NASA and the missions being planned. One of the major NASA-UA missions is OSIRIS-REx. The purpose of this mission will be to collect a small sample of rock from an asteroid in the Solar System and return the sample to Earth. This story could have major repercussions for the controversy that I am studying. If data comes back that asteroids contain water very similar to Earths, that data could tip the scale in favor of the Asteroid stakeholders.

National:

The Wash Post article reported on recent discoveries on the comet 67P. These discoveries included finding water ice on the surface of the comet.

The Huff Po article is from the Hartley 2 discovery in 2011. As stated in earlier blog posts, this discovery led more and more scientists to believe that Earth's water may have come from comets.

International:

The BBC article reported on the Rosetta mission and its discovery of water that was very different chemically from Earth's water. This story led scientists to believe that water may have come from other sources; such as asteroids.

The Al Jazeera article reported on Rosetta as well. However, it talked about the preparation for landing the probe on the comet itself.

GotCredit. News. March 16th, 2015 via Flickr. Attribution License.