NEWS DIGEST Len Tannas

NEWS DIGEST	Selected items of interest
Pioneer 10 Progress - as of March 2002 it's over 7.4 billion miles away. Pioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). Aldeberan is about 68 light years away, and it will take Pioneer over 2 million years to reach it. Download a model of Pioneer 10 here. It's still sending crystal clear pictures to Earth and it has a interstellar message for any "aliens" that may happen to encounter it someday in the future. Are we the only ones in the entire limitless infinite universe? This gives one something to think about and get a major migraine over.

Bob Moffett discovers mastodon femur in his yard - he and his family were erecting a log house cabin on an abandoned farm lot - bulldozers uncovered in a bog a "one-in-a-million rock"...a monstrous molar - 15 centimetres long, 13 centimetres high and 8 centimetres wide - with continued digging, they uncovered 20% of the animal's remains - and it was 3 meters high at the shoulder and 4.5 meters long.
	World Trade Center Web Cam - this is a live web cam showing in time-lapse the work at the World Trade Center in the last 6 months, from September 11, 2001 to March 6, 2002. Here's a link to web cams around the world: World Cam. The clean up of the Trade Center site continued till the end of April 2002. The world has not been the same since September 11. As of today (June 1, 2002) American and Canadian ground troops are in Afghanistan trying to destroy the last vestiges of the Taliban and al-Qaeda terror networks; there's no sign of Osama Bin Laden who is the mind behind all this terrorism.
Recent archaeological finds in Iraq considered better than the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. Wednesday, March 13, 2002, Edmonton Journal. Iraqi archaeologists presented detailed evidence of a spectacular find of ancient Assyrian jewels and gold funereal artifacts that rival the Tutankhamen treasures...announced in the British Museum today. The treasure comprises hundreds of solid gold objects - earrings, rings, necklaces, toe rings, diadems, plates, bowls and flasks. Many are exquisitely engraved and set with semi-precious stones or enamel. . One of the most spectacular pieces is an elaborate headdress made up of dozens of small linked pieces of solid gold and decorated with filigree work. The objects date from the 8th and 9th centuries BC and were discovered in 4 tombs containing possible remains of the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal 11 at Nimrud in northern Iraq. One gold piece weighed 30 kg.
May 18, 2002, Edmonton Journal Scientists at the Royal Tyrrel Museum will soon unwrap the fully intact skull of what could be a brand-new species of dinosaur, unearthed last week at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie....a northern Alberta cousin to the pachyrhinosaur - looks like a triceratops...the most robust most complete skull of the this genus ever found...5 foot 360 kilogram skull removed intact....originally discovered last October. Mastodon Finds
The best thing to see lately in the western sky occupies an area of only 2.5 degrees on the sky's dome. That is, Venus is now only 2.5 degrees from Jupiter in the western twilight sky. These are the two brightest planets visible from Earth. Venus is bright partly because it's nearby, only about 11 light-minutes away this evening -- and partly because the surface of Venus is covered with highly reflective clouds. Jupiter is bright for a different reason. It's a bit farther away, about 50 light-minutes away tonight -- still a neighbour of Earth's in contrast to the stars, which are all light-YEARS away. Jupiter is more distant than Venus, but it is almost as bright because Jupiter is a giant world. It's the biggest world in our solar system. Venus is about the same size as Earth, but 11 planet Earth's could fit side by side in front of Jupiter. These two brilliant worlds -- Venus and Jupiter -- are close together tonight. And they'll be even closer together on June 3...