NASA – Opinions

Feb. 27, Krista Lynne Smith, an observational astrophysicist and assistant professor at SMU Dallas specializing in star formation in distant galaxies, for a commentary explaining how the proliferation of satellites in space threatens our ability to stargaze or conduct research. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading What if we couldn’t see the stars anymore?: https://bit.ly/3tdWnKx

If you live in the heart of North Texas or any large metropolitan area, you are probably familiar with a light-polluted sky. Even at midnight, the sky glows a dark blue, fading to dusky yellow near the horizon. At most, you can see a handful of the brightest stars reduced to dim pinpricks.

However, if you drive just a few hours outside of town, you can experience a breathtaking sight: a night sky filled with glittering stars, the shimmering swath of the Milky Way arcing overhead, and if you’re lucky, a few bright planets like steady jewels among them.

Such a sight is viscerally awe-inspiring in its natural wonder, hearkening back to our ancestors looking up and asking the kind of questions that led to all of human endeavor. Our species has since learned to read the secrets of the universe in the light we receive from the heavens. We have built technological marvels: observatories with instruments sensitive enough to collect the photons, little individual packets of light, sent to us from distant stars, galaxies and planets around other suns.

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Jan. 3, Yuankun Xu and Zhong Lu, geophysicists within the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at SMU Dallas, for a piece about their groundbreaking research on mapping West Coast landslides in order to forewarn emergency services agencies about looming death and destruction. Published in Inside Sources under the heading New Technology Mapping Landslides Can Save Lives, Mitigate Damage: https://bit.ly/3EXf9tk

It’s that time of year on the West Coast when emergency managers prepare for a host of catastrophic weather events — everything from Pineapple Express systems that dump intense rains on the regions to the flooding and landslides that often follow.

Landslides are a near-constant threat to the safety of communities and infrastructure in this part of the U.S. Once an unstable slope gives away, the formed debris flow could travel at a speed exceeding 35 mph, leaving limited time to evacuate people along the flow path and often leading to devastating consequences. Some other landslides, though not evolving into deadly flows, result in constant damages to highways, houses and underground infrastructure.

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