News

This is a Commission for Asteroid Day and B612 Foundation of the impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The pictures have been published around the world, including for Astronomy Magazine in the US and the BBC – with the photograph of the Yucatan Peninsula I asked astronaut Tim Peake to take from the International Space Station, while I was there!

The effort to drill into the Chicxulub Crater off the coast of Mexico has been declared an outstanding success.

A UK/US-led team has spent the past seven weeks coring into the deep bowl cut out of the Earth’s surface 66 million years ago by the asteroid that hastened the end of the dinosaurs.

Rocks nearly 1,300m below the Gulf seafloor have been pulled up.

The samples are expected to reveal new insights on the scale of the impact and its environmental effects.

The operations manager on the project, Dave Smith, said drilling would likely end at midnight on Wednesday.

“The core recovery, we’re all really chuffed about – the almost 100% core recovery and the quality of the cores we’ve been getting up.

“It’s been a remarkable success. We’ve got deeper than I thought we might do,” the British Geological Survey man said.

Co-lead scientists Jo Morgan (Imperial) and Sean Gulick (University of Texas) have exclusive access to the samples

The original target was to get down to 1,500m, cutting through a feature called the “peak ring” in the process.

This ring was created at the centre of the impact hole where the Earth rebounded after being hit by the city-sized space object.

In earlier geophysical surveys that were able to sense below the seabed, the feature looked like an arcing chain of mountains.

Rocks from the ring have certainly been sampled. And even if the 1,500m mark was not reached, the team believes it has more than enough material now to answer its key science questions.

If you would like to read the complete article, please visit this link on BBC News

Cathedral to tell the story of young carers

YMCA and The Children’s Society are to present a compelling portrait exhibition, called ‘ Hidden’, at Winchester Cathedral, next month. It tells the story of young carers – often invisible to society – who face huge responsibilities and unimaginably difficult choices. ‘Hidden’ reminds us that while the official figure of young carers in the UK is 166,000, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Peterborough young carers tell of Hidden lives in ground-breaking exhibition at cathedral

Two young carers from Peterborough are part of a nationwide, ground-breaking portrait exhibition called Hidden showing at Peterborough Cathedral from Monday May 16. Hidden captures, for the first time, the hidden lives and hardships – as well as hopes and resilience – faced by hundreds of thousands of young carers as young as seven, up and down the country.

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Our Photographer-in-residence, Max Alexander heads to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico to cover the drilling of the Chicxulub crater exclusively for Asteroid Day. Follow Max’s journey right here on our blog. We will post his photos along with videos and daily updates.

Photo Credit: “Max Alexander / B612 / Asteroid Day”

Geophysicists are returning to Earth’s most famous cosmic bullseye. Around 7 April, from a drill-ship off the coast of Yucatán, Mexico, they will start to penetrate the 200-kilometre-wide Chicxulub crater, which formed 66 million years ago when an enormous asteroid smashed into the planet. The aftermath of the impact obliterated most life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.

Read all the updates and take a look at all his photos in this link to Asteroidday.org blog

Exciting news! The British astronaut Tim Peake has Tweeted a photograph he took from the International Space Station of the Yucatan Peninsula – on my suggestion – while the scientific drilling is taking place. This would have required quite a bit of planning, for the ISS to pass over, and when Tim had some free time. He really scored a bullseye with the impact site smack in the middle of the picture – and the drilling platform 30 km offshore. You can really imagine an asteroid coming in from space in that picture, and creating a 180 km crater — which would be a big chunk of the peninsula.

As part of my work for the UK Space Agency, I have been photographing Tim for the past few years — training in Germany and Russia, and also for his visits to the UK. While Tim has been on the ISS I have been giving him general in-orbit photography training for his mission. Specifically I have suggested he photographs impact craters on the Earth, and I provided him with a list of those targets, with the help of Asteroid Day team members Alan Fitzsimmons and Mark Boslough, including the Yucatan Peninsula. This is part of the close relationship that Asteroid Day has with the European Space Agency, and their work with asteroids.

To mark 1 month till Asteroid Day 2016 (June 30), ESA astronaut Tim Peake sent two beautiful pictures back to Earth showing Canada’s 210 million year old Manicouagan impact crater. Thanks to our Photographer-in-Residence, Max Alexander, for helping Tim with the shots.

 “I am delighted that Tim Peake has tweeted pictures of another impact crater taken from the International Space Station, with a shout-out to Asteroid Day, and their partnership with the European Space Agency. The impact crater is outlined by Lake Manicouagan, and is a massive 100 km across – about the distance from London to Portsmouth. It may also have been a mass extinction event, like the impact at Chicxulub, Mexico.” Max Alexander

Author of this article: Andy McGowan

In the first week of Easter my young carers group, Centre 33, hosted the Hidden exhibition in Cambridgeshire. Hidden is the name of the exhibition which shows lots of pictures of different young carers with a small description of what they feel being a young carer is like and about. In the exhibition there are around about 21 different large photographs.

The photographer who took all of these amazing photos was a young carer and then got into photography. In the exhibition there are lots of children but also a few famous celebrities who you probably would have no idea about. One of these people is Richard McCourt more commonly known as the actor and presenter Dick from Dick and Dom. On his plaque with his photograph it reads ‘young carers need support and to try and continue living their own lives’. This is a really powerful thing to say and is very much true. Some young carers become so accustomed to caring for their family members that they end up putting everyone else first. With more support I think young carers will be able to go and live separate lives from their caring responsibilities. Another famous woman in the exhibition is radio and presenter Jo Whiley. On her plaque it reads ‘it’s normal to love the person you care for, but also feel cross with them’. I cannot begin to say how true this is. Many young carers feel ashamed of themselves when they lose their temper with the person they care for but they shouldn’t feel bad about it. They have to cope with so much stress and just with a little bit of support many young carers will be able to feel not so alone.

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This film was produced by young carers and young crew from The Reporters’ Academy. This NHS England event hosted in December 2015 was run to share good practise, and challenge professionals to ‘work together to make a difference’ to carers. This film asked young adult carers and professionals some of the following questions:

• What is a Carer?
• Why do we chose to care?
• How do professional services support carers?
• Is there enough recognition and support for young carers?
• What do you think when you hear ‘young adult carer’?
• What are the challenges that face carers?
• What would you do for Young Adult Carers if you had a magic wand?

Thanks to photographer Max Alexander and The Children Society for giving permission for our production team to feature his wonderful exhibit ‘Hidden’ which showcases young adult carers’ experiences.

Young Carer looking for support? Get in touch on NHS England’s dedicated email address ENGLAND.PEAdmin@nhs.net

Asteroid Day takes place annually on June 30 and was announced in London in December 2014 by Astronomer Royal Lord Martin Rees, film maker Grig Richters, and Queen guitarist Dr. Brian May.

It is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids, the impact hazard they may pose, and what we can do to protect our planet, families, communities, and future generations from future asteroid impacts. Asteroid Day is held each year on the anniversary of the largest impact in recent history, the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia.

I am proud to be Asteroid Day’s Photographer-in-residence and have been involved with this movement since its inception.

Festival origins

The idea originated several weeks beforehand, at the Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands. There, Richters, German-born and a resident of London, screened his film, which portrays events leading up to an asteroid impact in London, a film that was enthusiastically received and featured musical contributions by May. Richters also had the idea, along with his friend, photographer Max Alexander, to assemble a movement that would lead to Asteroid Day.

In terms of disclosure, I was a speaker at the Starmus Festival, sat in the front row to watch 51 Degrees North, and enjoyed it very much. I was even present at a dinner on the summit of La Palma, during the festival, when Richters and Alexander raised the issue of an Asteroid Day and began talking about it as a hypothetical event. And that made what was to come even more absorbing.

Read more about the asteroid threat, from Astronomy Magazine editor David Eicher, and why it should be taken seriously at: Astronomy.com

Campaigners say changes could make it possible for young people with caring responsibilities to continue their studies or train for a job

Original article at The Guardian – Author: Rachel Williams

Chloe, 16, doesn’t do days off. Or rather, she can’t afford them. Three days a week she’s at college, studying for a BTec in creative media production, the other four she’s working in retail, for £5.50 an hour. She needs the money for pricey course materials and the rent she gives her mother.

On college days, she’s up early to walk for an hour to get there (the bus is too expensive). She avoids eating in the canteen, where meals are “extremely expensive” and says she often goes without food for 12 hours. “I get tired, so it doesn’t really register if I’m hungry or not,” she explains.

But rest is not an option – after college she often has to go straight to work for an evening shift and doesn’t get home until 9pm. But she doesn’t get much downtime at home either – as a young carer, Chloe has to help her mother, who has bipolar disorder, a hernia and gastrointestinal problems, with cooking and cleaning, as well as dealing with the extreme behaviour of her three brothers – aged 21, 19 and 15 – all of whom have autistic spectrum conditions.

Such relentless schedules are not unusual for young adult carers like Surrey-based Chloe, who was recently also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. According to analysis by Carers UK, carers contribute £119bn a year to the economy. So the 310,000 carers aged 16 to 25 in England and Wales save the taxpayer at least £1bn a year by looking after parents, siblings and other relatives, but poverty, isolation and health problems – both physical and mental – are common. They are twice as likely to not be in education, employment or training, and for those who manage to stay in education, meeting the associated costs when their parents are unable to help out can make it a constant struggle to stay afloat financially.

Yet there are simple adjustments that could make things far easier, according to the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), which is campaigning for three changes to benefit rules to be made. “These young people give up hours and hours, weeks and weeks of their lives to be carers – making a huge contribution to society and a really significant cost saving, says Nicola Aylward, Niace’s head of learning for young people. “They have the right to a good education and in many cases they’re not getting it.”

The organisation wants carers to be made exempt from the so-called 21-hour rule, which means that if they’re learning for longer than that a week – a requirement of most further education courses – they lose their £62.10 a week carer’s allowance. “Many of these families are living in or on the edge of poverty,” Aylward says. “That £60 can be the factor that pushes them away from learning.”

Niace also wants traineeships and apprenticeships to be provided to carers on a flexible hours basis. Current guidance says apprenticeships should be at least 30 hours work a week, except in exceptional circumstances – but these aren’t defined, and as no data is collected it’s hard to know if or how they’re being used. Aylward suspects carers are being put off by the lack of clarity.

In addition, Niace is calling for the 16-19 bursary fund for vulnerable students to be extended to young carers. Those in care, care leavers, people on income support or disabled young people are all automatically entitled to the full annual award of £1,200 – but carers are excluded. A discretionary part of the fund is administered by individual colleges and learning providers according to their own criteria, and while some prioritise carers, Aylward says, this approach is far from universal. “For many young adult carers there are increased costs to being in learning as a result of being a carer,” she explains. “They need to be able to get home quickly in an emergency. They need access to a decent laptop because their caring responsibilities may mean they have to work from home. Entitlement to that £1,200 would help them stay in learning in many cases.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education says: “Thanks to the Care Act 2014, which has been backed with £100m of funding, carers now have equal rights to the people they care for, including assessment and support. Local authorities are also required to consider a carer’s wishes in respect of education and employment. In addition, the Care Act includes new provisions to support young carers in preparing for adulthood.”

Chloe, whose mother calls her a “mini mum”, says she was told at her college that it wasn’t worth trying to get a bursary, because the fact her stepfather had moved into the family home meant she wouldn’t be eligible. Her college and work hours mean she’s not eligible for carer’s allowance. Money has always been difficult: her brothers’ conditions meant her mum couldn’t work, because she needed to be on standby in case of problems at school. Chloe says she missed a lot of school, often feeling too sick or stressed to go in, or wanting to help around the house when her mother was tired.

Although she has been doing well at college and would like to go to university, she fears the cost will make that impossible. “I’ll probably end up working full time in retail,” she says.

If she didn’t have to worry so much about money, what would she do? “I wouldn’t have to work as much and I’d be able to have one of those days when you just have a day off, “ she replies. “That would be very, very refreshing.”

Chloe features in an exhibition by the Children’s Society, which will be touring nationally from July. The Hidden exhibition uses portraits and young carers’ own words to tell the story of children and teenagers who care for a loved one.

There are thousands of hidden young carers in England. Our exhibition with award winning photographer Max Alexander shone a spotlight of their lives.

Find out more: www.childrenssociety.org.uk/young-carers