Last week, we talked about Tropical Cyclone FYTIA crossing the waist of Madagascar from West to East, and causing 15 fatalities and affecting 85000 people. Hot on its heels comes Tropical Cyclone GEZANI, this one crossing the waist of Madagascar from East to West, and first announced by GDACS on Saturday the 7th as “unnamed no 10”. Maximum wind speeds of 230km/h were predicted, and over 2 million people were in the firing line of winds of at least 120km/h. It was expected to make landfall in the province of Toamasina, on Tuesday the 10th.
On Thursday, bbc.com reported that at least 40 people died after the cyclone struck Madagascar, says the disaster authority in the Indian Ocean Island, with GDACS reporting 427 injured people, 16300 displaced, 18700 houses destroyed, and 51700 damaged, as well as 269400 people affected in one way or another. The Cyclone made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos” – reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.
Neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off.
As many as 250,000 people are “affected or displaced”, Environment Minister Max Fontaine Andonirina told BBC Newsday on Thursday. Huge challenges include “disruptions to food-supply chains, to the fuel transport, and to medical access, because most of the major roads are cut”, he added.
“What happened is a disaster, nearly 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, told the AFP news agency. “The current situation exceeds Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.
The cyclone’s landfall is likely to have been one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to the CMRS cyclone forecaster on France’s Reunion island, AFP reports.
GEZANI emerged over the Mozambique Channel on the night of the 11th, and was expected to approach the southeastern coast of Mozambique between Friday and Saturday.
For the first time, scientists have detected a molecule critical to life in interstellar space. Writing for UniverseToday, Matthew Williams says that The chemical is known as Thiepine, a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions. When examining a star-forming region about 27,000 light-years from Earth near the centre of the Milky Way, astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and the CSIC-INTA Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) detected this complex molecule in space for the first time. This detection represents the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever detected beyond Earth, with significant implications for the study of the cosmic origins of life.
By combining astronomical observations with laboratory experiments, they confirmed the presence of this six-membered, 13-atom molecule in a region of space similar to the cloud of gas and dust (nebula) from which new star systems form. The team synthesized the molecule in the laboratory by subjecting liquid thiophenol, a related hydrocarbon, to a 1,000-volt electrical discharge and then examining the results using a custom-built spectrometer. This enabled them to measure the precise radio-frequency emission from the resulting thiepine molecules.
They then compared this spectral signature to data obtained by CAB astronomers using the IRAM 30-meter and the Yebes 40-meter radio telescopes in Spain. Until now, astronomers had only detected small sulfur compounds of six atoms or fewer in interstellar space, which play an essential role in proteins and enzymes. Meanwhile, larger sulfur-bearing molecules like thiepine remained elusive, so the gap between the types of organics found in meteorites and the chemistry observed in space persisted. The newly discovered thiepine molecule is structurally related to molecules found in meteorite samples.
This demonstrates, for the first time, a connection between Astrochemistry and life on Earth. “This is the first unambiguous detection of a complex, ring-shaped sulfur-containing molecule in interstellar space—and a crucial step toward understanding the chemical link between space and the building blocks of life”, said lead author Mitsunori Araki, a researcher at MPE. “Our results show that a 13-atom molecule structurally similar to those in comets already exists in a young, starless molecular cloud. This proves that the chemical groundwork for life begins long before stars form”, added co-author Valerio Lattanzi, a scientist at MPE.
The discovery suggests that many more complex sulfur-bearing molecules likely remain undetected in interstellar space. The results also bolster recent findings from Aarhus University and the Institute for Nuclear Research that showed how peptides, another crucial ingredient for life, can form in interstellar space spontaneously. These and other findings indicate that the origins of life reside in space, and are far more plentiful than previously thought!
Thank you to universetoday.com for this article.
Ian Bradley ZS1BR sent me, hot off the press, a report on the Porterville Car Rally held yesterday the 14th, supported by hams from round and about the Western Cape. He writes:
“The 2026 rally season got off to a cracking start in Porterville this year with 19 vehicles competing for the top spot.
“Control was established at Porterville Showgrounds at 08:45, and operators dispatched to the start and end of stages. Although it was sunny, the weather remained fairly cool for a change, with temperatures peaking at 28°C and a cool breeze throughout the day.
“We received a bit of a curve ball when the Piketberg repeater (145.625) dropped out at 11:30 and stopped responding to any input. Fortunately we had a backup plan in place and quickly switched to the Hawequa repeater (145.650) for the remainder of the day. Both were easily accessible with a handheld, but the windy conditions did make communications challenging at times.
“The competitors suffered all manner of mechanical failures, and one vehicle even finished a stage with only 3 wheels attached! Thankfully no serious incidents occurred and the medical teams were not called upon. The final stage finished at 15:30 and we were able to relieve all of their duties and send them on their way.
“Special thanks to ZS1JM, ZS1LAM, ZS1ES, ZR1JL, ZS1PJG, ZS1JFK, ZS1ATX (and of course ZS1BR) for lending their expertise and making it a very successful outing.
“We encourage you to volunteer and practice your emergency communication skills, as well as test your equipment at the next rally.”
Thank you Ian, for sending me the report so soon after the event.
This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, hoping to get lots more reports like this one from divisions around the country, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.