January 30, 2014

The Jade Rabbit, China’s troubled moon rover, is facing its possible demise with comforting messages sent to well-wishers using social media. Thousands of Chinese, in turn, have sent encouragements to the little robot as it struggles to continue its mission after suffering a potentially crippling mechanical problem. The six-wheeled rover, which was deployed soon after the Chinese Chang’e-3 spacecraft touched down on the surface of the moon on December 16, 2013, was supposed to study the geology of the lunar surface and search for minerals and other natural resources for three months. On January 25, 2014, however, Chinese authorities reported that the rover had experienced a “mechanical control abnormality” as it prepared for the lunar night. Although Chinese scientists are working to solve the problem, they realize that the problem may doom the mission, and the Jade Rabbit (Yutin in the Mandarin Chinese language).

The Jade Rabbit rover is powered by solar energy during the day and by batteries at night. To survive the bitterly cold temperatures of the lunar night, which can be as low as or -290 ° F (-180° C), the rover is supposed to go into a hibernation mode. The rover’s camera and antenna retract, and a solar panel folds over to cover the rover like a blanket. A battery-power heater keeps the rover warm through the lunar night, which lasts 14 Earth days. Another solar panel is positioned to catch rays from the sun when it rises again.

As the rover was preparing for the lunar night, a malfunction prevented the rover from successfully reaching hibernation mode. Scientists have not described the exact nature of the mechanical problem, but they have indicated that the rover may not survive until the lunar sunrise. For now, the rover is dormant.

The Chinese rover Jade Rabbit appears on the surface of the moon in a photograph taken by the Chang’e lander. (CCTV.com English)

China’s state-run Xinhua news is covering the status of the Jade Rabbit in first-person reports via social media. In one message, the Jade Rabbit said, “Although I should’ve gone to bed this morning, my masters discovered something abnormal with my mechanical control system…. My masters are staying up all night working for a solution….  Nevertheless, I’m aware that I might not survive this lunar night.”

The Jade Rabbit appears to be facing its possible fate with the stoicism and grace characteristic of the most intrepid explorers.  Chinese news reports quoted the rover saying, “This is space exploration…. the danger comes with its beauty. I am but a tiny dot in the vast picture of mankind’s adventure in space. The sun has fallen, and the temperature is dropping so quickly… to tell you all a secret, I don’t feel that sad. I was just in my own adventure story–and like every hero, I encountered a small problem.”

Chinese scientists must wait until February 8 to learn the fate of the brave Jade Rabbit.

Additional World Book articles:

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Space exploration (2012) (a Back in Time article)
• Space exploration (2008) (a Back in Time article)
• Space exploration (2003) (a Back in Time article)

December 16, 2013

With the touchdown of the Chang’e-3 spacecraft, China has become the third country to “soft land” an unpiloted spacecraft on the moon. In a soft landing, the craft and its equipment are not damaged during the landing and so can be used for observation and scientific experiments. The last unpiloted soft landing on the lunar surface was made in 1976 by a craft launched by the former Soviet Union (now Russia). The Soviet Union also became the first country to soft-land a probe on the moon, in 1966. Surveyor 1, the first soft-lander from the United States, touched down later in 1966. The success of the Change’e mission not only advances Chinese efforts to explore the moon but also efforts to eventually land taikonauts (astronauts) on the lunar surface.

The Chinese rover Jade Rabbit appears on the surface of the moon in a photograph taken by the Chang'e lander. (CCTV.com English)

Several hours after landing, Chang’e-3 released a rover named Jade Rabbit (Yutin in the Mandarin Chinese language). In Chinese mythology, Chang’e is a moon goddess who is accompanied by a jade rabbit. The six-wheeled rover, which weighs about 300 pounds (135 kilograms), is powered by solar energy during the day and batteries at night. It is scheduled to study the geology of the lunar surface and search for minerals and other natural resources for three months. The landing craft is expected to conduct experiments and observations from its touchdown site in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) for a year.

Additional World Book articles:

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Space exploration
• Space exploration (2012) (a Back in Time article)
• Space exploration (2008) (a Back in Time article)
• Space exploration (2003) (a Back in Time article)

June 6, 2013

An international team of scientists have announced the discovery of a fossil that is the oldest known primate. Found in what is now central China’s Hubei Province, Archicebus achilles represents both a new genus and a new species in the primate family tree. The fossil’s genus name,  Archicebus, translates to “ancient monkey.” The species name, achilles, relates to the ancient Greek warrior Achilles and refers to the primate’s ankle and heel bones.

The beginning of the Eocene Epoch marks a split in the primate family tree. A new fossil, Archicebus achilles, dates to soon after that time and may help scientists to better understand primate evolution. (World Book illustration)

Archicebus also represents a missing link in the primate fossil record. The mouse-sized primate fossil is approximately 55 million years old, from the Paleogene Period.  That places Archicebus near the beginning of the Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago), at a critical juncture in primate evolution, when tarsiers and anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans) branched off in development.

The newly discovered tiny primate would have been an agile animal that lived in trees, feeding on insects. Its hands and feet indicate it would have leaped and grasped to move from branch to branch. Archicebus was around 2.7 inches (7 centimeters) in length and would have weighed less than 1 ounce.  (Scientists  estimated a weight of between 20 to 30 grams.) Archicebus and another early primate, the 4-inch- (10-centimeter-) long Eosimias centennicus, announced in 2000 and also found in China, puts Asia at the center of early primate evolution.

Additional World Book Articles:

• Emergence of the Primates (a Special Report)
• Paleontology 2000 (a Back in Time article)

May 30, 2013

A newly described 160 million-year-old fossil from China is now the leading contender for the title of the world’s earliest bird. The fossil, given the scientific name Aurornis xui (meaning dawn bird), was described in the online edition of the journal Nature by a team led by paleontologist Pascal Godefroit of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, Belgium. The scientists claim not only that Aurornis is the world’s oldest bird, but also that their discovery ends the debate about whether another famous fossil, the feathered Archaeopteryx, shared a perch on the bird family tree.

The remains of feathers and birdlike wings are clearly visible in the fossil of Archaeopteryx. This animal had a crow-sized body and lived about 150 million years ago, near the end of the Jurassic Period. (© Sally A. Morgan, Ecoscene/Corbis)

The nearly complete Aurornis fossil, encased in sedimentary (layered) rock, was unearthed by a farmer in the Liaoning Province of northeastern China some time ago. A local fossil dealer sold the specimen to the nearby Yizhou Fossil and Geology Park museum, where it was stored. In 2012, Godefroit and his team examine the specimen. They were able to confirm that the fossil came from the Tiaojishan Formation, a region famous for having produced many fossils of feathered dinosaurs and early birds. They dated the sedimentary rock that encased the fossil to about 160 million years ago. Clear impressions of downy feathers along the tail, arms, legs, neck, and chest of Aurornis suggested the creature was capable of gliding but lacked larger feathers necessary for true flight.

During the Jurassic Period, from about 200 million to 145 million years ago, some meat-eating dinosaurs began evolving birdlike skeletons and sprouting feathers on their bodies. One group of these creatures eventually split off to become birds, although researchers have long debated which one it was and when it actually happened.

Godefroit and his team compared almost 1,000 anatomical features of Aurornis with those of about 100 other dinosaurs and birds. These comparisons allowed them to construct a computer-generated cladogram, a kind of family tree illustrating how the species are related to one another. The resulting cladogram placed Aurornis at the very base of the family tree of modern birds. Combined with the early date for this fossil, the analysis makes Aurornis the oldest known bird by a margin of about 10 million years.

Scientists have long regarded Archaeopteryx, a feathered animal that lived about 150 million years ago near the end of the Jurassic Period, as the oldest example of a bird in the fossil record. First discovered in the Solnhofen limestone beds in Bavaria, Germany, in 1861, this crow-sized creature had a skeleton closely resembling that of a small dinosaur. However, it also had fully developed feathers and birdlike wings. As a result, Archaeopteryx has traditionally been classified as a bird. However, some paleontologists disagree with that conclusion. They argue that Archaeopteryx and similar fossils belonged to a side branch of feathered dinosaurs that separated from the main line leading to birds. However, this new analysis of Aurornis places Archaeopteryx firmly back on the bird line.

Additional World Book articles:

• Prehistoric animal
• Paleontology 2011 (a Back in Time article)

April 5, 2013

The festival of Qingming (Pure Brightness), in which people in China perform services to honor their dead relatives, was celebrated yesterday.  The festival was banned by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, but it was reinstated as a national holiday in 2008. The New York Times reports that the festival has shown a resurgence since 2008. The number of people visiting cemeteries and tombs to honor the dead rose from 420 million in 2011 to 520 million in 2012.

On Qingming, Chinese people sweep and clean the tombs of dead relatives. They also burn incense and symbolic money made of paper. The paper money is an offering that is believed to allow dead relatives a way to purchase what they need in the afterlife. People may burn paper showing images of jewelry, cars, and houses. People also leave flowers and favorite foods of the dead as an offering. Honoring family members who have died and the family into which one was born is very important for the Chinese. It is also an important part of the philosophy of Confucianism, which is deeply embedded in Chinese culture.

During Qingming, Chinese people traditionally eat only cold food. Kites are flown during the evening of the festival, with tiny lanterns tied to the kite strings. Some Chinese people believe that cutting a kite’s string and letting it go free on Qingming brings good luck and protects against illness. People also place willow branches on gates and front doors at Qingming. These branches are meant to ward off evil spirits.

Additional World Book articles:

• Ancestor worship
• China
• Funeral customs

January 15, 2012

Air pollution in China’s capital, Beijing, has for the past week greatly surpassed levels considered hazardous by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, the density of a kind of particle pollution known as PM2.5 soared to 700 micrograms per cubic meter in many parts of the city on January 12, a level considered extremely dangerous. An unofficial reading from a monitor at the United States embassy in Beijing registered levels of more than 800 micrograms per cubic meter. According to WHO standards, levels above 25 micrograms are considered unsafe. Yesterday, levels dropped to about 350 micrograms on the Beijing government scale, still dangerously high.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, particle pollution, also known as particulate matter (PM), is a mixture of microscopic solids and liquid droplets suspended in air. PM includes such acids as nitrates and sulfates, organic chemicals, metals, soil or dust particles, and such allergens as fragments of pollen or mold spores. PM exists in a wide range of sizes. Particle pollution that is less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter–1/30th the diameter of a human hair–is known as PM2.5. Such pollution can penetrate deep into the lungs. Numerous health studies have linked PM to premature death from heart or lung disease, according to the EPA. The Beijing Shijitan Hospital reported a marked increase in the number of patients seeking treatment for asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other respiratory illnesses associated with exposure to PM2.5.

Beijing can easily be seen in a satellite image of northeastern China made on January 3, 2013. (NASA)

Extremely heavy pollution obscures Beijing and surrounding areas in a second satellite image, made on January 14, when pollution levels were 15 times greater than the level considered “safe” by the World Health Organization. (NASA)

Fuel combustion–the burning of fossil fuels and biomass–is a major source of PM2.5. Sulfate particles form when sulfur dioxide emitted from electric power and industrial plants reacts with sunlight and water vapor in the air. Nitrate particles form in the same way from nitrogen oxides emitted by electric power plants and automobiles and other forms of combustion.

Rapid industrialization, a reliance on coal for power, and the explosive growth in car ownership has made air pollution a major problem in China. Weather conditions and the burning of coal for heating generally make conditions worse in winter. When coal, a carbon-based mineral, is burned, sulfur and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. In 2010, China was dependent on coal for nearly 80 percent of its energy and electric power output, according to the International Energy Agency.

Additional World Book articles:

• Smog
• Advances in Understanding Asthma (a special report)
• The Case for Renewables (a special report)
• China’s Global Awakening (a special report)

October 11, 2012

Chinese author Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in literature. In its announcement, the Nobel Prize committee said, “Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition.”

Mo Yan’s best-known novel in the West is Red Sorghum (1987). The narrative stretches across three generations, describing Chinese peasants fighting both Japanese invaders and each other during the 1930’s. The story is told through a series of flashbacks that depict events of great violence and brutality set against a landscape of delicate beauty.

Mo Yan’s fiction has made him a controversial personality in China and attracted the frequent disapproval of the Chinese government. His novel The Garlic Ballads (1988) portrays Communist Party officials as corrupt and cruel. The government reacted by refusing to allow the author to leave the country for a time. Mo Yan also faced government disapproval for his novel The Republic of Wine (1992), a satirical tale of corruption in Chinese society.

The narrator of the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips (1996) is obsessed with women’s breasts. Some critics praised the narrator as one of Mo Yan’s most fascinating characters, but others attacked the novel as a humiliating attack on Chinese women, especially mothers. His many short stories have been published in such collections as Explosions and Other Stories (1991) and You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh (2001).

Mo Yan was born Guan Moye on February 17, 1955, though some sources give his birth year as 1956 or 1962. He was born in Shandong province and has set many of his stories near his hometown of Northeast Gaomi Township. Mo Yan joined the People’s Liberation Army at age 20 and began writing while he was a soldier. His first novel was Falling Rain on a Spring Night (1981). He chose the pen name Mo Yan, which means don’t speak, while writing the novel. He said he chose the name as a reminder to himself not to speak too much, a reference to the frank style that has aroused opposition from the authorities.

Additional World Book articles:

• China
• Mao Zedong
• Nanking Massacre
• Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945
  

July 23, 2012

A torrential 10-hour downpour on July 21 and 22 in Beijing left 77 people dead. According to local meteorologists, the storm was the greatest single deluge in Beijing since record keeping was begun in 1951. Approximately 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) of rain fell in some parts of the Chinese capital, and as much as 18 inches (45.7 centimeters) fell in some suburban districts. Floodwater in some streets rose to as high as 20 feet (6 meters). Flooding at electric power generating plants led to blackouts in parts of the city. Fierce thunderstorms forced the cancellation of 500 flights at Beijing International Airport, stranding some 80,000 passengers overnight.

Downtown Beijing has many modern skyscrapers, hotels, shopping centers, and office buildings. Some structures in the city, such as the pavilion in the foreground, feature elements of traditional Chinese architecture. (© Art Directors)

The number of deaths and the widespread destruction triggered criticism of the poor quality of the city’s infrastructure and of the government’s feeble response to natural disasters. Despite the billions of dollars spent to upgrade Beijing’s infrastructure, rainwater quickly overwhelmed the city’s sewage system. One Beijing newspaper published an article stating that the downpour “exposes holes in the modernization drive. . . . In recent years, floods caused by rain storms have repeatedly occurred in Chinese cities. And the latest downpour in Beijing has stirred up a new round of skepticism on the quality of infrastructure amid rapid urbanization.” Another newspaper openly criticized the government for not deploying an emergency broadcast system, not setting up special emergency hotlines, and not opening government shelters.

June 11, 2012

The Great Wall of China is more than twice as long as originally believed, China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) recently announced. According to the first definitive archaeological survey of the ancient structure, the wall is 13,170.6956 miles (21,196.18 kilometers) long. A preliminary SACH estimate released in 2009 set the length at 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers). The survey, begun in 2007, mapped every trace of the wall across 15 Chinese provinces. In his report, SACH deputy chief Tongo Mingkang noted that some 43,700 heritage sites were identified during the survey, “including stretches of the wall, defense works and passes, as well as other related Great Wall facilities and ruins.”

The Great Wall of China stretches about 13,170 miles (21,000 kilometers) across northern China. It was originally built to keep out invaders. (© Susan Zheng from Peter Arnold, Inc.)

The Great Wall–originally contracted of stone, bricks, and packed earth–is the world’s largest structure constructed by people. Begun some 2,500 years ago, it was designed to protect China’s northern border from marauding tribes from what is now Mongolia. Although work continued on the wall for centuries, the majority of the existing structure was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Only 8.2 percent of the Ming wall remains intact. The survey crew found that in many places the wall has collapsed; in other sections, only the foundations remain.

UNESCO listed the Great Wall as a world heritage site in 1987. UNESCO is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that fosters peace and security through cooperation in the areas of education, science, and culture.