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An ‘ancient warrior statue’, a ‘dragon’, a ‘snakelike creature’ and a ‘secret
doorway built by aliens’ are just a few of the weird things people think they’ve
seen on Mars. A doughnut can now be added to that list.

A huge one at that, judging by the pictures Nasa’s Perseverance rover snapped
last week.

However, the round, grey object with a large hole through the middle is more
than just a pastry lookalike – it could be a meteorite that crashed to the
ground at some point in the Red Planet’s 4.6billion year history.

Writing on Twitter, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence said:
‘@NASAPersevere took a picture using the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager on 23 June
2023 of a donut-shaped [sic] rock off in the distance, which could be a large
meteorite alongside smaller pieces.’

Meteorites are the name given to meteoroids – space rocks ranging in size from
grains of dust to small asteroids – that survive the fiery passage through a
planet’s atmosphere and hit the ground. The atmosphere on Mars is more than 100
times thinner than on Earth, meaning meteoroids have a better chance of
survival.




Since its arrival on Mars in 2021, Perseverance has made a number of important
discoveries, including evidence of past organic matter and signs of a rushing
river that have prompted scientists to rethink the planet’s past environment.




Shortly after it landed, Perseverance found a much smaller meteorite which it
‘zapped’ with a laser to learn more.

A post on the rover’s Twitter account read: ‘While the helicopter is getting
ready, I can’t help checking out nearby rocks. This odd one has my science team
trading lots of hypotheses.’

The helicopter in question is Perseverance’s mission partner Ingenuity, which
became the first human made aircraft to fly on Mars when it first took off on
April 19, 2021. It has since completed more than 50 flights, helping scientists
learn more about the planet and helping find sites of interest for Perseverance
to explore.




Earlier this year another Nasa rover, Curiosity, found a large iron-nickel
meteorite nicknamed ‘Cacao’.

Last week, it sent back a spectacular time-lapse image capturing an entire day
on Mars.

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On August 14, 1945, Americans received the news that Japanese Emperor Hirohito
announced his country’s surrender. By August 30, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was in
Tokyo, and the American occupation of Japan had begun. On the morning of Sunday,
Sept. 2, 1945, a small delegation of Japanese officials boarded the massive
battleship USS Missouri to formally sign the instrument of surrender.

The descriptions of the two sides at the official surrender ceremony are
important. Looking at photographs of the event, the Japanese appear incredibly
small in comparison to the massive American and Allied officers, their ships,
and their crews. It was probably a humbling spectacle for the Japanese, and in
all likelihood, it was meant to be.

There were many opportunities to sign a formal surrender elsewhere. Emperor
Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Imperial Japanese military on August
17, and two days later, representatives of Japan met with MacArthur in the
Philippine capital of Manila to discuss the general’s plans for the occupation
of the country. The document might have been signed there.




Within days, MacArthur was on his way to Tokyo and Marines were landing on the
Japanese home islands for occupation duty. Still, many preparations were made
for the formal surrender aboard the Missouri, including color filming of the
event and meticulous seating arrangements. The United States even had a special
flag flown in for the ceremony, the same flag used by Commodore Matthew Perry
when he forcibly opened Japan to trade in 1853.

Since a naval vessel is considered sovereign territory, forcing the Japanese to
sail through a fleet of other nations’ ships in the middle of their own capital
city as thousands of enemy sailors looked on was itself a message: Japan had
been defeated and there was no getting around it. Furthermore, as customs might
have dictated, none of the Japanese representatives were saluted when they came
aboard.




Japanese culture is centered around “saving face,” the outward appearance of
respect. Everything involved in the formal surrender ceremony, from the size of
the desk to the differences between the two copies of the surrender documents –
the Allies, leatherbound, the Japanese, bound in canvas – was meant to humiliate
the Japanese government and military in front of the Japanese people.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, MacArthur was firm but even-handed. He forbade Allied
personnel from eating the Japanese food, because it was in short supply due to
Allied war efforts (a famine would occur the next year). He also forbade anyone
from flying the Japanese “rising sun” flag. Shortly after the formal signing
ceremony, he initiated investigations into Japanese war crimes.




MacArthur’s immediate post-signing concerns included what to do with Hirohito
himself. Some in the US government believed that Japanese militarism would only
die if Hirohito were forced to abdicate. Others believe Hirohito’s continued
rule was essential to the Japanese surrender. Moreover, many in Japan believed
American intentions were to wipe out Japanese culture, and that Hirohito’s
removal was part of that cleansing.



MacArthur and the U.S. Army command had the perfect answer to this tightrope of
diplomacy that could reignite the war. The Army made the emperor subordinate to
the occupation commander.

MacArthur, either implicitly or unaware, protected the royal family from war
crimes tribunals. His plan was to use the emperor as a wedge in the minds of
Japanese people: the emperor had been betrayed by the military and now the
emperor was going to lead the people out of the horrible aftermath – for better
or for worse.

The post Why the US made Japan surrender on the deck of a massive battleship
appeared first on We Are The Mighty.




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