China's Chang'e-5 Moon mission probe touches down

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTCNSA

image captionArtwork: The mission hopes to pick up a couple of kilos of surface materials

China has successfully put another probe on the Moon.

Its robotic Chang'e-5 mission touched down a short while ago with the aim of collecting samples of rock and dust to bring back to Earth.

The venture has targeted Mons Rümker, a high volcanic complex in a nearside region known as Oceanus Procellarum.

The lander is expected to spend the next couple of days examining its surroundings and gathering up surface materials.

It has a number of instruments to facilitate this, including a camera, spectrometer, radar, a scoop and a drill.

The intention is to package about 2kg of "soil", or regolith, to send up to an orbiting vehicle that can then transport the samples to Earth.

It's 44 years since this was last achieved. That was the Soviet Luna 24 mission, which picked up just under 200g.

• Nasa's new 'megarocket' set for critical tests
• Water on the Moon could sustain a lunar base
• Artemis: To the Moon and Beyond

IMAGE COPYRIGHTCNSA

image captionThe probe casts its shadow on to the surface of the Moon

Unlike the launch of the mission a week ago, the landing was not covered live by Chinese TV channels.

Only after the touchdown was confirmed did they break into their programming to relay the news.

Images taken on the descent were quickly released with the final frame showing one of the probe's legs casting a shadow on to the dusty lunar surface.

The US space agency congratulated China. Nasa's top science official, Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, said he hoped the international research community would eventually get the chance to analyse any samples sent home.

"When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international science community," he tweeted.

CCTV-13 just ran this. #China #Moon #Change5 pic.twitter.com/gxXBNr7mz6

— Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) December 1, 2020

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

The 8.2-tonne Chang'e-5 spacecraft "stack" was launched from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China on 24 November (local time). It arrived above the Moon at the weekend and then set about circularising its orbit before splitting in two.

One half - a service vehicle and return module - stayed in orbit, while a lander-ascender segment was prepared for a touchdown attempt.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTCNSA

image captionAnother frame from Chang'e-5's camera on the descent

The Chinese space agency said this lander-ascender element put down at 15:11 GMT (23:11 China Standard Time). The precise position was reported as 51.8 degrees West longitude and 43.1 degrees North latitude.

Chang'e-5's success follows China's two previous Moon landings - those of Chang'e-3 in 2013 and Chang'e-4 last year. Both of these earlier missions incorporated a static lander and small rover.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTCNSA

image captionChina has previously put two static landers and rovers on the Moon

A total of just under 400kg of rock and soil were retrieved by American Apollo astronauts and the Soviets' robotic Luna programme - the vast majority of these materials coming back with the crewed missions.

But all these samples were very old - more than three billion years in age. The Mons Rümker materials, on the other hand, promise to be no more than 1.2 or 1.3 billion years old. And this should provide additional insights on the geological history of the Moon.

The samples will also allow scientists to more precisely calibrate the "chronometer" they use to age surfaces on the inner Solar System planets.

This is done by counting craters (the more craters, the older the surface), but it depends on having some definitive dating at a number of locations, and the Apollo and Soviet samples were key to this. Chang'e-5 would offer a further data point.

Congratulations to China on the successful landing of Chang’e 5. This is no easy task. When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international science community. pic.twitter.com/2xoKouf3dq

— Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) December 1, 2020

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Reports from China suggest the effort to retrieve surface samples may last no longer than a couple of days. Any retrieved materials will be blasted back into orbit on the ascent portion of the landing mechanism, and then transferred across to the service vehicle and placed in the return module.

The orbiter will shepherd the return module to the Earth's vicinity, jettisoning it to make an atmospheric entry and landing in the Siziwang Banner grasslands of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. This is where China's astronauts also return to Earth.

Sanna Marin: The feminist PM who says trans people have a 'right to self-identify'

 

A year will soon have passed since Finland's new coalition government headed by five women started work. It has dealt efficiently with the coronavirus pandemic, while drafting an ambitious Equality Programme - a programme that states, among other things, that everyone has the right to determine their own gender identity.

It's a walk of less than 200m from the prime minister's office to the House of Estates, where Prime Minister Sanna Marin is about to chair a meeting on her government's signature Equality Programme.

She's not in the mood for small talk, but who would be on their first week back to work after a honeymoon? The short break at an undisclosed location in Finland followed a surprise August wedding, quickly arranged against the backdrop of a global pandemic, to the father of her toddler.

A photo of Sanna Marin, in her long-sleeved Finnish couture satin wedding dress, embracing husband Markus Raikkonen, a former professional footballer and her partner of 16 years, was an unexpected post on her active, and very personal, Instagram account. She'd previously shared a photo of herself breastfeeding her daughter Emma.

The couple stood with arms around each other, smiling broadly, in the picturesque grounds of Kesaranta, the official prime ministerial Helsinki residence, an ornate wooden villa on the banks of the Baltic Sea.

It was rapidly shared by political editors and fashion bloggers, podcasters and high-school students - the second photo of Sanna Marin in less than a year to make an instant impact.

A dozen or so reporters are waiting on the steps of Finland's House of Estates, a Renaissance building where the coalition government meets behind closed doors.

"I don't prepare what I say to them," Sanna Marin says as she approaches them, her female bodyguard walking behind. "They'll ask me anything and I'll answer honestly."

There'll be a lot more questions about her personal life this week perhaps?

"No. They want to know about the issues, we have a lot going on," she replies firmly. "Maybe they'll ask at the end."

Some of the reporters are wearing masks, a few are holding extendable boom mics. All snap to attention as she walks up the other side of the cordoned steps to face them.

She's the first politician to arrive at the meeting, and she's right - the Finnish media asks her about the issues.

And four hours later, after the meeting, she stops outside to talk to them again.

She is the last politician to leave.

The first photo of Sanna Marin that went viral was taken more than 200 days earlier, in December 2019, on the first day of her new job. As Finland's new and youngest-ever prime minister, the then 34-year-old Sanna Marin stood smiling broadly, next to the other politicians who would be leading her centre-left coalition government.

They were all women. At the time the photo was released, only one leader of the five-party coalition was over the age of 34.

Standing at the podium with her cabinet, she told a sea of photographers that she represented a younger generation and that she welcomed the international media attention. It was an opportunity to show the world "who we Finns are".

The message reached those outside traditional political circles.

Guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine posted a photo of the coalition on his Instagram page, outing Sanna Marin as a fan of his American rock band. She confirmed the sentiment in a millennial manner, by liking his post.

Qatar 'identifies parents of baby abandoned at Doha airport'

 

media captionQatar passenger thought plane was ‘hijacked’

Qatar says it has identified the parents of a baby who was abandoned last month in a bin at Doha's airport.

A woman from "an Asian country" fled abroad after dumping the infant, public prosecutors said, adding that efforts were under way to extradite her.

A DNA test confirmed that an Asian man was the father, they added.

The prosecutors said officials had also been charged over the invasive exams carried out on women passengers during the initial search for the mother.

There was international outrage after a group of women flying to Sydney - including citizens of Australia, the UK and New Zealand - complained that they were checked for evidence that they had recently given birth.

• Qatar to prosecute over 'invasive exams' of women
• Qatar to investigate 'invasive exams' of women
• 'Grossly disturbing' strip-searches anger Australia

Qatar's government said the incident began after a newborn baby girl was found in a plastic bag in a rubbish bin at Hamad International Airport's departures lounge on 2 October. The discovery triggered an immediate search for the parents, including on 10 planes in the vicinity.

Several women on board a Sydney-bound Qatar Airways flight said they were ordered to disembark, taken to ambulances on the tarmac, and told to remove their underwear for an examination.

The women said they were given no information by officials and that they did not have an opportunity to provide informed consent.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the incident as "appalling" and "unacceptable".

His Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, said standard procedures were violated and expressed his "sincerest apology for what some female travellers went through".

IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS

image captionFemale passengers were forced to disembark a Sydney-bound Qatar Airways flight

On Monday, public prosecutors in Qatar announced that they had filed criminal charges against a number of employees working in the airport security department.

The officers had broken the law "by summoning female medical staff to conduct external examinations of some female passengers", and faced up to three years in prison if convicted, a statement said.

The prosecutors said they had also charged the mother of the child - who survived the ordeal - with attempted murder, and that they were "taking the appropriate legal action within the international judicial co-operation to arrest the fugitive".

She faces up to 15 years in prison if she is extradited and convicted.

"Investigations revealed that the infant's mother, who holds the nationality of an Asian country, had a relationship with another person of the nationality of one of the Asian countries," the statement said.

"The father of the infant admitted he had a relationship with the infant's mother, and that she had sent him a message and a photo of the newborn infant immediately after her birth," it added.

"The letter included her saying that she had [abandoned] the infant she had given birth to and fled to her country."

It is understood that the father is still in Qatar. It is not clear whether he faces any charges.

The baby is being taken care of by Qatari authorities.

French rugby legend Dominici dies in park tragedy

 

IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS

image captionDominici played 67 times for France and in recent years had become a familiar figure on TV and radio

Ex-France rugby international Christophe Dominici has been found dead in tragic circumstances in a park.

Dominici, 48, was best known for helping France knock out the New Zealand All Blacks in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

A witness saw him climb the roof of a disused building at Saint-Cloud park near Paris on Tuesday before falling, officials say.

Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into the cause of his death.

Dominici played 67 times for his country and won the French championship five times with Stade Français before retiring in 2008. In recent years he had worked as a rugby pundit for French radio and TV.

His 1999 World Cup semi-final performance spurred France to a sensational comeback, as he darted down the left of the pitch and seized the ball ahead of two New Zealand defenders to score a try. The All Blacks were leading the game at the time and had the brilliant Jonah Lomu in their line-up.

Known as Domi, he earned a reputation for weaving runs that could change the course of a match. He played in four Six Nations-winning teams and won two Grand Slams.

• Dominici quits international game

His death has stunned French rugby.

In a 2009 Le Monde interview, he said rugby "let me understand many things - respect for life, people and oneself, along with the values of humility and combat. I was aggressive and put that to collective use. Now I have far more wisdom and maturity."