Energy Nasa California
7.4 Earthquake, Wildfire Smoke Alerts, and a Lunar Communications Deal
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Mexico's Chiapas coast Saturday morning, triggering Pacific tsunami warnings. Chiapas is one of Mexico's poorest states with limited emergency response infrastructure, raising concerns that the human impact could be severe even as international attention remains concentrated on conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's alerts extended to Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, though wave data was expected to clarify actual tsunami potential and allow downgrading of those warnings.
Canadian wildfire smoke forced Code Purple air quality alerts — the second-highest designation on the air quality index, at which even healthy adults are advised to avoid extended outdoor activity — across Richmond, Virginia this weekend. The scale of smoke transport affecting mid-Atlantic populations hundreds of miles from the source fires was described as a recurring summer condition that historical records show was relatively rare until recent years.
NASA selected SpaceX Starlink to provide communications for the Artemis III mission, the planned first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972, which targets the Moon's south pole. The contract extends Starlink's NASA relationship from crew launch services into mission communications for an extraordinarily high-stakes operation, deepening the agency's interdependence with Elon Musk's company at a moment when Musk's political relationships with the current administration are simultaneously a subject of public controversy.
A Stanford study found that blocking a specific receptor involved in cellular stress response slows aging markers in mice. Researchers cautioned that translation rates from mouse longevity studies to human interventions have historically been low, but the identification of a specific receptor creates a defined drug-development target if the pathway proves to exist in humans. The Dark Energy Camera, operated by the National Science Foundation at the Cerro Tololo observatory in Chile, captured an image of a nearby star nursery that researchers described as van Gogh-like in visual texture — providing data on stellar formation that helps astronomers model how the solar system formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
California Attorney General Bonta filed a second legal challenge to a $111 million Interior Department deal with a company called Invenergy to cancel an offshore wind lease off the Central California coast. The state argues the federal government cannot unilaterally cancel energy leases that California's clean energy transition depends on — a federalism dispute about offshore energy development authority with direct implications for the state's ability to meet its renewable energy targets.