Japanese Space Capsule Carrying Pristine Asteroid Samples Lands in Australia

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December 07, 2020

Dear Reader, As Trump's presidency nears its end, his unwavering views on immigration are directly contradicted by a growing body of criminology research. Studies overwhelmingly find no evidence that U.S. immigrants, including those who are undocumented, commit more crimes than native-born Americans. Next, climate change is drying out the climate in Southern California, scientists say. That means less rain in the winter, leading to dry vegetation—fuel for wildfires—later in the season. Also, for the second time ever, humanity has brought asteroid samples down to Earth. Our lead story has the details.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Space Japanese Space Capsule Carrying Pristine Asteroid Samples Lands in Australia Gathered by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, the material from asteroid Ryugu will deepen scientists' knowledge of early solar system history By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Space Fresh Data from Gaia Galaxy Survey Gives Best Map Ever of the Milky Way The European Space Agency telescope is allowing our Milky Way to be studied like never before By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Policy & Ethics Undocumented Immigrants Are Half as Likely to Be Arrested for Violent Crimes as U.S.-Born Citizens Some of the most solid evidence to date shows that President Trump's cornerstone immigration policy was built on a wholly false premise By Melinda Wenner Moyer

Natural Disasters Why Winter Wildfires May Get Worse Climate change exacerbates hot, dry weather and could drive changes to the fire-fueling Santa Ana winds By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Mental Health Managing Emotional Polarization This Holiday Season This time of year tends to be a roller-coaster of ups and downs, but 2020, unsurprisingly, poses unique challenges By David H. Rosmarin

Public Health How to Fix COVID Contact Tracing Apps and human tracers both have pros and cons; to be effective, they have to work together By Elissa Redmiles

Behavior & Society The Secret Sauce in Opinion Polling Can Also Be a Source of Spoilage Even a small departure from randomness in your sample can skew the results By Xiao-Li Meng

Medical & Biotech Hand Transplants Demonstrate the Nervous System's Amazing Adaptability A radical procedure restores touch and grasping in former amputees By Scott H. Frey

Computing Lack of Sleep Could Be a Problem for AIs Some types of artificial intelligence could start to hallucinate if they don't get enough rest, just as humans do By Garrett Kenyon

Space Staring at Nothing Science in meter and verse By Wyatt Townley

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FROM THE ARCHIVE In Search of Life's Origins, Japan's Hayabusa 2 Spacecraft Lands on an Asteroid The mission to Asteroid Ryugu could return samples of the space rock to Earth in 2020 By Jonathan O'Callaghan | February 2019

QUOTE OF THE DAY "The materials that formed the Earth, its oceans and life were present in the primordial cloud from which our solar system formed. In the early solar system, these materials were in contact and able to chemically interact within the same parent objects. These interactions are retained even today in primitive bodies (C-type asteroids), so returning samples from these bodies for analysis will elucidate the origins and evolution of the solar system and the building blocks of life." Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency officials

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