Origin of gold found in rare neutron-star collisions

Posted: Sunday, July 21, 2013 8:00 am

By Joel Achenbach The Washington Post



Gold, the most widely beloved of the precious metals, might have its origin in extremely rare and violent explosions in the far reaches of outer space. The bling apparently begins with a blam.

For many years, scientists had theorized that the heavy elements of the periodic table, such as gold, platinum, lead and uranium, had their origin in supernova explosions. But the source, scientists have announced, might be even more exotic: the collision of two ultra-dense objects called neutron stars.

The elements on Earth are all of cosmic origin. Carbon and oxygen atoms in our bodies, for example, come from the interior of stars, where they were formed under high pressure and heat. They were later spewed into the universe in supernova explosions. But what hasn’t been known is whether these supernova events could account for the heaviest of the elements. A heavy element such as gold has 79 protons, 79 electrons and 118 neutrons. That’s a lot of mass for one atom. Most of the elements are simpler; gold and the other heavy elements are cosmically extravagant.

The neutron stars might provide the explanation.

Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of stars that have exploded in a supernova. A neutron star might be roughly the diameter of Washington but contain as much mass as our sun, all of it crammed together by the force of gravity, until even the atoms have collapsed, leaving the object with the density of an atomic nucleus.

Most of these cosmic fruitcakes are solitary wanderers, but some are paired up, as remnants of binary stars. They will orbit a common point in space and gradually drift closer and closer. One day, they will collide.

Astronomers are fortunate in that the universe is so vast, containing many billions of galaxies, that any all-sky survey might possibly see something even as rare as a neutron-star collision. So it was that on June 3, NASA’s Swift space telescope observed a flash of light, called a short gamma-ray burst (GRB), in an extremely distant galaxy in the constellation Leo.

Astronomers scrambled to reobserve that tiny patch of space with a powerful telescope in Chile and with the Hubble Space Telescope.

They saw something glowing where they’d earlier seen the GRB. After comparing their observations with theoretical models, the astronomers concluded that they were seeing the radioactive afterglow from a huge quantity of heavy metals formed by a neutron-star smashup.

This observation potentially explains this type of short-duration GRB. These flashes of light can briefly outshine an entire galaxy.

“When they make contact, several exciting things happen very quickly,” said Edo Berger, an astronomer who led the research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Berger said. “Most of the material actually collapses to form a black hole. Some of the material then gets sucked into the black hole. That is the event that causes the gamma-ray burst. Some of the material gets spewed out into space. That material, since it came from neutron stars, is very rich in neutrons, and is very efficient at forming these heavy elements, including gold.”

Berger said the neutron-star collisions produce essentially everything up and down the periodic table.

The gold is basically dust in the wind, atomized, until it winds up in a cloud of material that can coalesce, through the force of gravity, into a solar system of planets with a star at the center.

Then the gold atoms have to find one another and become concentrated.

From: http://www.sentinelsource.com/features/technology/origin-of-gold-found-in-rare-neutron-star-collisions/article_d43d48c5-eacd-5a5f-aac3-fbd144f4c033.html

Is sending humans to Mars actually feasible?

"The challenge ahead is epic, but historic," says Buzz Aldrin. "We are on a pathway to homestead the Red Planet."
By The Week Staff | 10:00am EST


The next hot location for homesteaders                                      NASA/Pat Rawlings/SAIC

Why go to Mars?

The idea of a manned journey to Mars has animated science fiction for more than a century, and since the dawn of the space age, plans have been proposed for how it might be done. But for decades, any real momentum toward that dream seemed lost. In 1989, a plan advanced by President George H.W. Bush to send a manned mission to the Red Planet was shelved when its costs were estimated at more than $500 billion. In recent years, however, the prospects of a Martian voyage have been looking up. In 2010, the Obama administration called on NASA to set "far-reaching exploration milestones," including sending astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s. But NASA still has no budget for a manned mission, let alone the technology to land humans there safely and then bring them back. Several commercial spaceflight companies are working on plans to send people to Mars in about a decade. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin believes it's possible. "The challenge ahead is epic, but historic," he says. "We are on a pathway to homestead the Red Planet."

What would such a mission take?

Just getting humans to Mars would require new solutions to some stiff challenges. At the closest points of their orbits, Earth and Mars are 34 million miles apart, and astro-engineers figure it would take a manned spacecraft five to 10 months to reach Mars. That is a long time for astronauts to be in interplanetary space, where they'd need much tougher protection against cancer-inducing space radiation than they do in Earth's orbit. A trip to Mars would require vast quantities of equipment, food, and fuel. Some have suggested sending supplies separately to allow astronauts to travel in a lighter — and faster — vessel. But even if a manned mission reached Mars' orbit in good order, landing there safely poses other daunting problems. Mars' atmospheric pressure is less than 1 percent of Earth's, making it difficult to slow a spaceship hurtling toward the surface at an estimated speed of 13,000 miles per hour. Unmanned rovers have cushioned their descents with heat shields, parachutes, and rockets, but current technology is insufficient for landing a much larger manned spacecraft, even if supplies were sent separately. "We're talking about landing perhaps a two-story house, and then another two-story house with fuel and supplies right next to it," said former NASA technologist Bobby Braun. "That's a fantastic challenge."

How far have plans progressed?

NASA teams are working on experimental projects with an eye to a possible mission to Mars and back about 25 years hence. But some in the private sector don't want to wait that long. Multimillionaire space tourist Dennis Tito has hatched a low-budget, $128 million plan to send a 50-ish married couple on a 501-day flyby that would zoom past Mars in 2018 and then use the planet's gravity to slingshot the spacecraft back to Earth. More ambitiously, the Dutch nonprofit Mars One wants to start colonizing Mars within a decade, and has already collected more than 78,000 applications from civilians willing to take a one-way trip to Mars. The group plans to select six teams of four with the necessary "intelligence, resourcefulness, courage, determination, and skill, as well as psychological stability." They would then undergo seven years of training and testing, including time in mock Mars colonies — all to be chronicled in a revenue-yielding Survivor-style television series — to make the final cut.

Would living on Mars be dangerous?

Scientists have serious concerns about the health risks of long-term exposure to radiation, reduced gravity, longer days, and extraterrestrial atmospheric conditions. Astronauts are known to experience bone degradation, muscle loss, and swollen optic nerves from spending too much time in zero gravity. A Russian-sponsored experiment called Mars 500, in which six men were confined for 500 days under conditions meant to emulate a Mars mission, showed that Mars travelers could face severe sleep disturbances, lethargy, and depression. Scientists also worry about the Martian surface's ultra-fine dust, which contains highly chlorinated salts called perchlorates that can cause respiratory problems and thyroid damage. And there's a chance, however slim, that Mars harbors potentially virulent microbes.

What would daily life on Mars be like?

Martian colonists would need a base large enough to contain comfortable, long-term living quarters and a vast array of life-support systems and supplies. They would have to construct their pressurized, air-tight habitat in phases, much the way the International Space Station was built. A secure, long-term food supply would be crucial. One company is working on 3-D printers that would combine powders and concentrates to create foods that replicate the textures, flavors, and smells of natural foods. Eventually, Martian farmers could grow food in pressurized greenhouses, using genetically modified crops to compensate for the planet's high radiation and low sunlight. Volunteers for the commercial missions say that the trade-offs in quality of life would be worth it. "I've had a deep need to explore the universe since I was a kid," said Peter Greaves, a self-employed technologist. "I envision life on Mars to be stunning, frightening, lonely, quite cramped, and busy. But my experience would be so [different] from all 6 to 7 billion human beings. That, by itself, would make up for the factors I left behind."

An insurance policy for human survival

"Single-planet species don't survive," says former astronaut John Grunsfeld. He is among the researchers, astronauts, and space exploration firms who see establishing an outpost on the Red Planet not just as a scientific challenge, but as essential to mankind's survival. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking thinks so, too. "The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," he says. Should nuclear proliferation, shrinking resources, a growing population, climate change, or a visit by hostile aliens threaten humankind on Earth, a colony on Mars could serve as a lifeboat to keep the species going. "I believe that we will eventually establish self-sustaining colonies on Mars and other bodies in the solar system," Hawking says. But he figures it won't happen "within the next 100 years."

From: http://theweek.com/article/index/247045/is-sending-humans-to-mars-actually-feasible

Evidence for Ancient Ocean on Mars Identfied

By Tamarra Kemsley
Jul 18, 2013 10:34 AM EDT

A possible delta on Mars where a mighty river may have once flowed into a vast ocean has been discovered by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). (Photo : NASA)


A possible delta where a mighty river may have once flowed into a vast ocean on Mars has been discovered by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

This ocean, if it existed, could have covered much of Mars' northern hemisphere - stretching over as much as a third of the planet, according to the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. At the very least, the researchers say, the water would have covered the entire Aerolis Dorsa region, which spans about 100,000 square kilometers (60,000 square kilometers).

"Scientists have long hypothesized that the northern lowlands of Mars are a dried-up ocean bottom, but no one yet has found the smoking gun," Mike Lamb, an assistant professor of geology at Caltech and a coauthor of the paper, said in a press release.

While the new findings may not be "proof" per se of the existence of an ancient ocean, they provide some of the strongest support yet of one, according Roman DiBiase, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and lead author of the paper.

In order to come to their conclusion regarding the delta, the Caltech team used new high-resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to study a 100-square-kilometer area located on the possible former coastline.

Previous satellite images have shown that this area is covered in ridge-like features called inverted channels that form when coarse material, like gravel and cobbles, are carried along a river and deposited at the bottom.

After the river dries up, the finer materials erode away, leaving behind the coarser remains. This sediment then appears as today's ridge-like features, tracing the former river system.

When looked at from above, the inverted channels appear to fan out, a configuration that suggests a number of origins.

First, the channels could have once been a drainage system in which streams and creeks flowed down a mountain and converged to form a larger river.

Second, the water could have flowed in the opposite direction, creating an alluvial fan, in which a single river channel branches into multiple smaller streams and creeks.

Finally, the channels could be part of a delta, which is similar to an alluvial fan except that the smaller streams and creeks empty into a larger body of water.

To figure out which of these scenarios was most plausible, the researchers turned to satellite images taken by the HiRISE camera on the MRO.

By taking pictures from different points in its orbit, the spacecraft was able to make stereo images that allowed the scientists to determine the topography of the Martian surface. Furthermore, the HiRISE camera can pick out features as tiny as 25 centimeters long and the topographic data can distinguish changes in elevation at a resolution of 1 meter.

Using this information, the Caltech researchers analyzed the stratigraphic layers of the inverted channels, piecing together the history of how sediments were deposited along these ancient rivers and streams.

In addition, the team was able to determine the slopes of the channels back when water was still coursing through them, which in turn can reveal the direction of water flow. By doing so, they were able to narrow their options down to an alluvial fan or delta since, in this case, the water was spreading out instead of converging.

Next, the researchers were able to remove alluvial fans from their choices after they found evidence for an abrupt increase in slope of the sedimentary beds near the downstream end of the channels, suggesting that it once emptied into a large body of water.

Thus, the scientists were left with a delta as their most likely answer.

Should this be the case, it would not mark the first time scientists have discovered Martian deltas; however, most are found inside a geological boundary, like a crater. Water therefore would have most likely flowed into a lake enclosed by such a boundary and so did not provide evidence for an ocean.

This new delta, on the other hand, isn't located near any confining boundary, which suggests that the water likely emptied into a large body of water such as an ocean.

"This is probably one of the most convincing pieces of evidence of a delta in an unconfined region - and a delta points to the existence of a large body of water in the northern hemisphere of Mars," DiBiase says.

Other plausible explanations remain, such as a large confining boundary that has since been erased. For this reason, the researchers plan to continue exploring the boundary between the southern highlands and northern lowlands - the hypothetical ocean coastline - and analyze other sedimentary deposits in order to determine if they yield more evidence of an ocean.

"In our work and that of others - including the Curiosity rover - scientists are finding a rich sedimentary record on Mars that is revealing its past environments, which include rain, flowing water, rivers, deltas, and potentially oceans," Lamb says. "Both the ancient environments on Mars and the planet's sedimentary archive of these environments are turning out to be surprisingly Earth-like."

From: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/3022/20130718/evidence-ancient-ocean-mars-identfied.htm

Gold on Earth formed in collision of exotic stars

Dan Vergano @dvergano , USA TODAY7:41 p.m. EDT July 17, 2013

There's gold in them thar neutron stars! That's right, astronomers claim Earth's gold, the stuff of wedding bands and pricey speaker wires, originated in cataclysmic collisions of exotic stars.



(Photo: Dana Berry)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A distant "gamma ray burst" spotted in June offers clues to where gold originates in the cosmos
Such high-energy bursts are thought to result from the rare collision of two exotic neutron stars
The glow left from the burst seems to confirm the production of gold occurs in the collision's aftermath

SHARECONNECT 204TWEETCOMMENTEMAILMORE

The gold glinting on your wedding band was likely born in a cataclysmic merger of two exceedingly exotic stars, astronomers report Wednesday.

Dying stars billions of years ago cooked up most of the lighter elements in the universe, the oxygen in the air and calcium of our bones, and blasted it across the cosmos in their final explosive moments.We are stardust, as the singer Joni Mitchell put it.

But some of the heaviest atoms, including gold, defied this explanation, requiring an even more exotic origin.

A team led by Harvard astronomer Edo Berger nowreports that gold is likely created as an aftereffect of the collision of two "neutron" stars. Neutron stars are themselves the collapsed remains of imploded stars, incredibly dense stellar objects that weigh at least 1.4 times as much as the sun but which are thought to be less than 10 miles wide.

While ordinary stars explode about once every century in our galaxy, Berger says, explosive collisions of two neutron stars happen only about once every 10,000 years. And it appears they spew out gold and other heavy elements in the week after their merger.

"Call it the golden glow," Berger says. "In this case, we were able to observe it for the first time and see how the merger seems to be producing (the) heavy elements."

The team bases its finding on observations of a high-energy flash of gamma rays, a "gamma ray burst" called GRB 130603B that was detected in June by NASA's Swift X-ray telescope satellite. The burst is seen as a signature of the explosive union of two neutron stars, in this case ones some 3.9 billion light-years away (one light year is about 5.9 trillion miles) the team reports in an Astrophysical Journal Letters report.

Observation of the cloudy aftereffects of the burst suggest that each merger of two neutron stars produces several moons worth of gold by weight. "At today's prices, that amount of gold would be worth 10 octillion dollars," says Berger. (That's $10,000 trillion-trillion or $10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, for anyone counting.)

Overall about 1% of the mass of the two neutron stars was likely converted into exotic minerals by the merger, only a small part of it gold. In the collision, sub-atomic particles blasted out of the neutron stars fuse together to form heavy elements, escaping a black hole that forms afterward from the merger. Such are the likely origins for the gold that accumulated in Earth's crust some 4.54 billion years ago, swept up from space at the birth of the solar system, and now seen in jewelry store windows.

"This means (that) the Harvard team might have discovered the 'smoking gun' for unraveling the long-standing mystery which objects in the universe are responsible for the production of gold and platinum and other heavy elements," says astrophysicist Hans-Thomas Janka of Germany's Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics."One gets even more platinum in the same events, so even more material for mankind's jewelry!"

Janka cautioned that the gamma ray burst result represents only one observation and that astronomers will need to observe more such blasts in coming years to feel fully confident about the finding.

"It really seems that the gold in jewelry that people are wearing is the result of one of the most violent explosions in the universe: a gamma-ray burst that is produced when two neutron stars merge with each other," says astrophysicist Stephen Rosswog of Germany's Jacobs University Bremen, who first suggested the golden glow effect in 1999. "These are very difficult observations, but if this turns out to be true, this would be truly very exciting news."

The news out Wednesday says the collision of neutron stars probably generated the rare minerals such as gold that spread across the universe. An artist's depiction shows a neutron star, the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel and collapsed under its own weight. NASA

From: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/07/17/gold-neutron-star/2521311/

Robots will compete against one another in disaster scenarios

A new series of robots could usher in a new era of robotics.



Photo credit:

Science Recorder | Drew Adams | Wednesday, July 17, 2013



A group of robots will be competing in a series of physical trials this December in an effort to gauge whether or not they might one day replace humans in hazardous situations.

What once was considered a favored staple of science fiction is now on the way to becoming a reality as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, spearheads its Robotics Challenge from December 20 – 21. The competition consists of various obstacle courses that will test the limits of the robotic representatives via disaster response operations. The winning team will receive $2 million.

The Robotics Challenge website claims that “The goal of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) is to generate groundbreaking research and development so that future robotics can perform the most hazardous activities in future disaster response operations, in tandem with their human counterparts, in order to reduce casualties, avoid further destruction, and save lives.”

Six Track A customized robots will compete in the trials, including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Rainbow Co. developed HUBO. The current version of the humanoid machine, DRC-HUBO, will be operated by a team led by Drexel University. The other competing bots include CHIMP (Carnegie-Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center), RoboSimian (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab), T.H.O.R. (Virginia Tech), Valkyrie (NASA’s Johnson Space Center), and a HRP-2 based robot from Japan’s SCHAFT Inc.

July 11 unveiled the Atlas robot as well, a 6-foot-2, 330 pound humanoid machine that will be used by seven Track B/C teams as they train for the December trials. Atlas was developed by Boston Dynamics and is considered one of the most advanced humanoid robots to date. It consists of a hydraulic powering system and two sets of hands that were developed by both Sandia National Labs and iRobot.

The seven Track B/C teams won the use of Atlas by progressing through DARPA’s Virtual Robotics Challenge in June. The challenge, which was the first part of DARA’s overall initiative, consisted of groups directing a virtual avatar of Atlas through computer simulated environments.

“[T]he software algorithms that were successfully employed by teams in the VRC should transfer with minor tuning to the ATLAS hardware,” stated a press release from DARPA.

Program manager for the challenge Gill Pratt elaborated further: “The Virtual Robotics Challenge was a proving ground for teams’ ability to create software to control a robot in a hypothetical scenario. The DRC Simulator tasks were fairly accurate representations of real world causes and effects, but the experience wasn’t quite the same as handling an actual, physical robot.”

A fourth track will be open to an unspecified, unfunded number of robot competitors. The event will be open to the public.

Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/robots-will-compete-against-one-another-in-disaster-scenarios/#ixzz2ZLm4Wd6p

Nasa's Hubble telescope discovers new Neptune moon

15 July 2013 Last updated at 23:30 GMT

Voyager failed to spot the tiny moon during its 1989 fly-pass


The Hubble space telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting Neptune, Nasa has confirmed.

Designated S/2004 N 1, this is the 14th known moon to circle the giant planet.

It also appears to be the smallest moon in the Neptunian system, measuring just 20 km (12 miles) across, completing one revolution around Neptune every 23 hours.

US astronomer Mark Showalter spotted the tiny dot while studying segments of rings around Neptune.

Nasa said the moon was roughly 100 million times dimmer than the faintest star visible to the naked eye.

It is so small that the Voyager spacecraft failed to spot it in 1989 when it passed close by Neptune and surveyed the planet's system of moons and rings.

Mr Showalter's method of discovery involved tracking the movement of a white fleck appearing over and over again in more than 150 photographs taken of Neptune by Hubble between 2004 and 2009.

"The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system," Mr Showalter explained.

"It's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete - the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs."

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23318301

Chemical reaction levitated by sound

16 July 2013 Last updated at 14:02 GMT

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23332358

The water droplet and sodium particle appear to dance between the platforms



Scientists in Switzerland have designed an acoustic levitator capable of mixing substances as they hover.

The device is built of two sound-emitting platforms that trap the substances between them.

Sound waves move upward until they are reflected by the platform above. The upward- and downward-moving waves overlap, reinforcing each other in places and cancelling out in others. This traps materials in place.

The development is described in PNAS.
The researchers managed to levitate a toothpick on their acoustic squares

To demonstrate its capabilities, the researchers used it to mix a single drop of water with a single coffee grain and to bring together a minuscule grain of sodium metal with a drop of water, causing a tiny but explosive reaction. They even managed the levitate a toothpick.

Their device though needs to use very powerful sound waves to levitate even these very small droplets and particles.

Lead researcher Daniele Foresti from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, explained that to "cancel out gravity" in this way required 160 decibels of sound - higher than the 120 decibels you would hear if you stood a metre (3ft) away from a rocket launch.

"That's why we use ultrasound," Dr Foresti said.

"[Using frequencies beyond those that human ears can detect] means we won't hear it, so we can work with without any ear protection."Rocket launch

Acoustic levitators were invented in the 1980s by Nasa scientists looking for ways to simulate weightlessness. But this diminutive device is the first to be able to move and control the material it levitates.

"We have total control of the acoustic field inside," Dr Foresti said.

By making the acoustic platform of many tiny squares - each 15mm x 15mm square being its own sound-emitting device - the researchers are able to "pass" a ball of material from one of these platforms to another.

The main benefit of this remotely controlled chemical reaction is that it is contactless, meaning chemical tests could be carried out without any possibility of contamination.

"One of the tests we would like to perform is DNA transfection," said Dr Foresti.

This is the process of introducing DNA into a cell, which is a medically useful process but one that is very sensitive to contamination.

"Some of the transfection agents [chemical substances needed to carry DNA into cells] can be rendered ineffective even by plastics," said Dr Foresti,

"So this could be a way to overcome that problem."

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23332358

NASA scientists see the heart of space weather in action

Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines come together, break apart, and then exchange partners, snapping into place with a bolt of energy



Photo credit: NASA/SDO/RHESSI/Goddard


Science Recorder | Ellen Miller | Tuesday, July 16, 2013


Two spacecraft have captured a video of a magnificent explosion on the Sun called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection lies at the heart of explosions that occur on the surface of the Sun, a press release from NASA explains.

Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines come together, break apart, and then exchange partners, snapping into place with a bolt of energy. Scientists at space research agencies such as NASA are seeking to better understand phenomena like magnetic reconnection because they hope that it will aide them in understanding and predicting space weather, which can affect satellites and radio communication. Because magnetic fields are invisible, it can be difficult to observe them in action.

Yang Su, a solar scientist at the University of Graz in Austria, explains that scientists are specifically seeking to understand how magnetic reconnection can cause solar flares. Scientists use computer modeling and a few observations about magnetic reconnection to try to understand this concept, but thanks to new video from two spacecraft, they will be able to take a more in-depth look at magnetic reconnection. Su discovered direct images of magnetic reconnection while looking through data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. While a few images have been discovered before, this is the first comprehensive set that will really aide scientists in understanding what is happening when magnetic reconnection occurs and how it impacts solar and space weather.

While magnetic field lines are invisible, they force charged particles of plasma along their lengths, making them visible in images. Space telescopes pick up the lines as they arch and move along the frame of the lens. Su observed two bundles of lines move towards each other and then disconnect and reconnect.

The video offers scientists an entirely new resource since it allows them to see the phenomena in recorded time and animated, as opposed to simple photos that only offer an indication of what is happening. The team, led by Su, turned to the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, known as RHESSI, to confirm that they were actually observing magnetic reconnection in action. RHESSI shows where hot pockets are, indicating where space weather is occurring. By combining the data, scientists were able to describe the entire process of magnetic reconnection, confirming many theories about the process as well as learning new information that they were able to observe for the first time.

Magnetic reconnection does not only occur on the surface of the sun, it also occurs near stars and within Earth’s own magnetic field, making it a key player in space weather patterns.

Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasa-scientists-see-the-heart-of-space-weather-in-action/#ixzz2ZDyV86sf

Mars Rover Curiosity's Long Drive Shifts Into High Gear

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | July 15, 2013 05:24pm ET

Lower slopes of Mount Sharp appear at the top of this image taken by the right Navigation Camera (Navcam) of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity at the end of a drive of about 135 feet (41 meters) during the 329th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (July 9, 2013). 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is pressing forward with an epic Red Planet road trip, a long-distance drive aimed at the central mountain of the robot's landing site.

Curiosity began its long Martian driveon July 4 and completed three separate trips in the days that followed. On the third leg of the 5-mile (8- kilometer) trek, the car-sized rover covered a distance of about 135 feet (41 meters), NASA officials said in a status update.

The Curiosity rover is currently driving toward Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that rises 3.4 miles (5.5 km) high in the middle of the rover's Gale Crater landing site. The journey will slow and long for the rover, which has a top speed across flat ground is only 0.09 mph (0.14 km/h). Since its arrival on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity has remained rather close to its landing site, traveling a total of just 0.51 miles (0.95 km), mission managers said. [See the Curiosity rover's latest photos of Mars]

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE


Curiosity is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission. It finished work at its first major science destination, an area known as Glenelg, last week. The rover is now headed southwest for the foothills of Mount Sharp. Once there, scientists hope the 1-ton robot will find clues about how Mars' ancient environment changed and evolved.

Curiosity kicked off its long drive kicked on July 4 with a 59-foot (18 m) trip, which was followed by a July 7 haul that sent the rover 131 feet (40 m) closer to Mount Sharp. The third drive, on July 9, brought Curiosity's odometer reading to about 325 feet (99 meters) since completing the Glenelg investigations, according to NASA.

Though Curiosity is not bound to a strict timeline for its trek, mission officials have estimated that it will take about a year to complete. The progress of the drive will depend on what Curiosity finds along the way, rover mission managers said.

Curiosity already has accomplished the main objective of its mission, to find out if Mars is, or once was, suitable for life. At targets in the Glenelg area, the robot drilled samples of Martian rocks that helped scientists determine thatMars could have supported microbial life in the ancient past.

NASA's Curiosity rover mission is expected to spend at least two years exploring Gale Crater, with scientists planning to eventually send the rover on a trip up Mount Sharp.

From: http://www.space.com/21966-mars-rover-curiosity-long-drive-update.html

Sun Researchers May Crack 70 Year Old Mystery

Why Is The Sun's Corona Hotter Than The Sun Itself?

Added by Georgina Pijttersen on July 13, 2013.
Saved under Georgina Pijttersen, Science



Tsunami are not limited to earth, this phenomenon has now also been sighted on the Sun, of all places. The tsunami consists of heightened magnetic field and hot, ionized gases which race across the Sun at about 400km per second. These tsunami also help cause the release matter into space, and therefore might be causing the corona surrounding the sun to be hotter than the sun surface. Therefore the researchers involved in the analysis of the data from the satellites which captured this phenomenon might have cracked a 70 year old mystery. In addition studying the effects of the sun tsunami, the matter they release into the sun’s corona and the sun orbit itself, might be an invaluable source for understanding how this all will affect Earth, and crack it’s mysterious effects on our planet.

The satellites can’t just take photographs in a regular way because this would not capture everything that is going on with the Sun. The satellites have instruments which notice, and can analyse ultraviolet light which the sun emits. Humans can’t register these colors but the satellites can. This ultraviolet light gives us information about the chemical makeup and extreme physical conditions of the Sun.

David Long of University College London and teammates spotted the waves coming from the tsunami and going into the Sun’s corona. Therefore making them the Sun’s researchers who may crack the 70 year old mystery surrounding the Sun’s corona, and why it’s hotter than the rest of the sun. The waves coming off the tsunami and going into the corona are called EIT. David said to the BBC: ”These EIT waves are quite tricky – they’re very random and they’re relatively rare,” he added, “We need to be in the right place at the right time; this has been a long time coming. This tells us a lot about the nature of the Sun and what goes on in the atmosphere,” Dr Long went on to explain. “These waves are quite important because they’re associated with CMEs that fire plasma out into the heliosphere, toward the Earth. Generally we see them when there’s a CME coming straight at us – but when it’s coming straight at us then it’s quite difficult to measure how fast it’s coming at us or how strong it is,” Long stated, ”So by looking at these waves, we should be able to infer how powerful these CMEs are going to be.”

The research hasn’t been completed yet. The researchers haven’t been able to totally crack the 70 year old mystery into why the Sun’s corona is hotter than the core temperature. It is said that the Sun’s core is some 15,000,000C, but the Sun’s surface is below 6,000C. Meanwhile the corona is known to be at a temperature in excess of 1,000,000C. Which is very odd indeed. It does seem that they are on the right track and that we will soon be able to report that indeed the Sun tsunami are responsible for changing the temperature of the Sun’s corona.

By Georgina Pijttersen

From: http://guardianlv.com/2013/07/sun-researchers-may-crack-70-year-old-mystery/

Test of new magnet is an atom-smashing success

Tia GhoseLiveScience

July 12, 2013 at 1:35 PM ET

CERN / ATLAS
This track is an example of simulated data modeled for the ATLAS detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The Higgs boson is produced in the collision of two protons at 14 TeV and quickly decays into four muon, a type of heavy electron that is not absorbed by the detector. The tracks of the muons are shown in yellow.

A powerful new magnet to replace existing ones in the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, just passed its first test with flying colors.


The magnet, which allows the massive particle collider to study two to three times more proton collisions, could help unveil the mysterious properties of the newly discovered Higgs boson, an elementary particle that is thought to explain how all other particles get their mass.

The Large Hadron Collider(LHC) between Switzerland and France sends two proton beams barreling at near light-speed around a 17-mile (27 kilometers) underground ring until they smash into each other, creating myriad subatomic particles in the process. [Beyond Higgs: 5 Elusive Particles that May Lurk in the Universe]

The new magnet produces a much larger magnetic field to focus the proton beams into an even more minuscule area, thereby ensuring that more protons crash into each other.

Focused beams
Right now, the Large Hadron Collider uses a magnet to focus the proton beams before they smash into each other. The farther the protons deviate off course, the stronger the magnet pulls them toward the center of the beam that's just a few thousandths of an inch wide. Though hundreds of billions of protons make up each beam, there are still relatively big empty spaces between them, meaning the odds of a collision are relatively small.


The current magnet is made of a superconductor called niobium titanium, which, when cooled to near absolute zero, allows large amounts of current to flow without overheating.

Niobium titanium was fine for simply discovering the Higgs boson, but revealing the properties of the Higgs boson requires more collisions than the LHC currently allows.

LBL / Fermilab
A powerful new magnet will let the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest atom smasher, study two to three times more proton collisions. These collisions create myriad subatomic particles such as the Higgs boson.

"The LHC is already designed at the limit of the technology," said GianLuca Sabbi, an accelerator physicist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory who helped design the new magnet. "So how do you make it better?"


Brittle material
The answer, it turns out, was to find a better superconductor.


One of the top candidates was niobium tin, which can produce a higher magnetic field and more current at higher temperatures.

But superconducting coils made of niobium tin are more brittle and therefore prone to moving in response to the huge forces generated as the magnet turns on. That, in turn, could release energy in the form of heat and cause the magnet to lose its superconductivity.

Higher-power magnets also cause more radiation of subatomic particles during collisions, which can damage the magnet more quickly.

To solve these problems, the team built a thick aluminum shell to support the niobium tin superconductor and prevent its displacement.

The new magnet and its housing can produce magnetic fields 50 percent stronger than the LHC's current magnet. That extra strength translates to two or three times the number of collisions, Sabbi said.

But the LHC has a bigger goal: Over 10 years, researchers plan to revamp the entire system to achieve 10 times as many collisions.

"The magnets are just one element of many changes that are going to be made in the machines," Sabbi told LiveScience.

From: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/test-new-magnet-atom-smashing-success-6C10618722

Dramatic solar tsunamis reveal magnetic secrets in sun's corona

This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the "quiet corona" and upper transition region of the sun. A study tracking solar tsunamis through the sun's plasma shows that the quiet corona may not be so quiet after all. (Solar Dynamics Observatory / NASA)


By Amina Khan
July 12, 2013, 3:50 p.m.



If tsunamis on Earth don’t seem terrifying enough, imagine the power of such a monstrous wave on the sun -- bigger, faster and made of searing plasma. Scientists have spotted two solar tsunamis that have allowed them to accurately measure the sun's magnetic field. The results, published by the journal Solar Physics, should help researchers better understand the makeup of the sun’s "quiet corona" and help predict when coronal mass ejections threaten Earth.


Solar tsunamis, spotted initially in 1997, are caused when a coronal mass ejection is hurled from the sun out into space. The eruption of charged matter pushes the surrounding plasma outward, sending out a circular wave that can travel 620 miles per second and cover half the sun’s surface in an hour, said study lead author David Long, a solar physicist at University College London.

Using NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Japanese Hinode spacecraft, the researchers managed to capture two solar tsunamis in action, rising about 43,500 miles high and speeding along at roughly 250 miles per second. Having data from both spacecraft was key. Using NASA’s spacecraft, they tracked the tsunami by watching the ultraviolet light given off as the wave progressed. Using data from the Japanese spacecraft, they determined the density of the matter it was traveling through.

“In both of these events we were just in the right place — wasn’t too close, wasn’t too far away,” Long said.

That’s because as the tsunami spreads outward somewhat like a ripple, it gets distorted by the material it passes through. It will travel faster in denser areas and slower in less dense ones, Long said, because in dense areas the molecules are tightly packed together and can quickly relay the wave along. In sparser areas there might be a slight delay before one molecule runs into the next. The resulting raggedy circles showed that the wave was running through patchy star stuff rather than a smooth, homogeneous medium.

Together, this information allowed the scientists to determine what the density, and the magnetic field, looked like in the less active areas of the sun’s atmosphere known as the quiet corona.

"The fact that it gets deformed means that there are variations in the magnetic field of the solar atmosphere, which was very interesting," Long said. "There’s a lot more going on there than we originally thought."

Understanding a solar tsunami could also help scientists better predict the arrival of a coronal mass ejection. If such a burst of charged particles reaches Earth, it can wreak havoc on the globe’s power, electronics and navigation systems.

"If a coronal mass ejection is coming straight at you, it’s very difficult to measure its speed; it’s very difficult to measure how powerful it is," Long said. "So we are hoping that by looking at these waves, we’d be able to tell something about coronal mass ejections, which would be very useful for space weather forecasting."

From: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-solar-tsunami-magnetic-coronal-mass-ejection-20130712,0,280618.story

The Explosive, Beautiful Death of a Star

JUL 12, 2013 12:00 PM ET // BY JASON MAJOR



The death of a Sun-like star as seen by the Chandra and Hubble space telescopes (click to enlarge).
X-RAY: NASA/CXC/IAA-CSIC/N.RUIZ ET AL, OPTICAL: NASA/STSCI



Although they may shine for many billions of years, stars like our sun don't last forever and when it's time for them to fizzle away into the night they most certainly don't go gently -- but the result can be quite beautiful.

PHOTOS: Hubble's Latest Mind Blowing Cosmic Pictures

The image above, a composite of optical data from Hubble and x-ray observations from NASA's Chandra observatory, shows the brilliant structure of planetary nebula NGC 2392 -- a.k.a. the "Eskimo nebula."

Named for their supposed resemblance to planetary disks in early telescopes, planetary nebulae are created when stars up to about 8 times the mass of our sun run out of fuel during the final stages of their natural lives. Powerful gravitational convulsions within a failing star blast its outermost layers into space, and when the outwardly-expanding shells of material are then impacted by the star’s radiation they become ionized, causing them to glow.

PHOTOS: Ten Cosmic Stunners to Point Your New Telescope At

The comet-shaped structures surrounding NGC 2392 are created by faster wind and radiation from the central star interacting with cooler shells of dust and gas that have already been ejected.

While not achieving the dramatic level of true supernova remnants, planetary nebulae like NGC 2392 are nonetheless fascinating targets for observation, not only for their unique beauty but also for the insight they can provide as to the eventual end of our own home star, the sun.

From: http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/hubble-chandra-death-star-eskimo-nebula-130712.htm

DARPA Unveils Atlas Humanoid Robot

By Adario Strange
July 12, 2013 09:28am EST




Some critics of military drones have called for a re-examination of how aerial robots are used in human conflicts. But it turns out that there's actually another kind of military robot on the horizon that may be far more threatening in terms of future human-robot encounters: the Atlas humanoid robot.

Developed by Boston Dynamics for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the 6'2", 330-pound Atlas is the most advanced robot created by the organization to date. Evoking images of James Cameron's sci-fi human hunter known as the Terminator, the human-scale proportions of Atlas give it the appearance of a mechanism simply waiting for a coating of artificial skin to be layered on.

The robot, an update of the previous PETMAN model, features two fully working hands with four fingers, including opposable thumbs, 28 hydraulically actuated joints, a "head" with LIDAR and stereo sensors, automatic crash protection, and an on-board, real-time control computer. In a demonstration video (see below), the robot is shown easily avoiding obstacles, maintaining a steady gait despite unexpected changes to the terrain, and even maintaining its balance when struck by a large object.

DARPA Wants Robotics to Rise to the Challenge of Disasters




VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN GALLERY

While the hardware of Atlas is impressive, the end goal is to make the robot available to teams involved in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) focused on developing innovative software to control the robot's functions. Last month, DARPA awarded funds and an Atlas robot to more than a half dozen teams who competed in a software challenge leading up to the first leg of the Robotics Challenge, which kicks off in December.

According to the project website, the goal of the DARPA Robotics Challenge is to create robotic systems that can work "in tandem with their human counterparts, in order to reduce casualties, avoid further destruction, and save lives."

Right now, the robots used by the military or by disaster response teams "tend to be pretty small machines, they have treads on them in most cases, and they're mostly used for inspection," Gill Pratt, DRC program manager, said last month. "They help to give situational awareness for first responders, but they don't do anything to really affect the disaster."

In the future, it would be helpful to have robots that can navigate more urban terrains - go through doors and navigate stairs or rubble and rough terrain after an explosion, he said.

From: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421687,00.asp

First images of our solar system’s tail revealed

National Monitor, Lance Tillson | July 11, 2013

Photo credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center


NASA’s IBEX utilizes two new ENA cameras to take pictures of and map the heliosphere’s global interaction.

The first images of our solar system’s tail have been revealed. According to a news releasefrom the Southwest Research Institute, the space agency’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft, also known as IBEX, recently obtained the first images of the solar system’s downwind region, showing a unique and rather surprising structure.

Astronomers have long though that, like a comet, a “tail” trails the heliosphere, the large bubble in which our solar system lives, as the heliosphere travels through interstellar space. The first IBEX images revealed in 2009 displayed an unexpected ribbon of exceptionally high energetic neutral atom emissions circling the upwind side of the solar system.

With the accumulation of more ENAs over the first year of observations, a structured dictated by lower energy ENAs came forth, which was initially described as the heliotail. However, astronomers noted that is was very small and looked to be offset from the downwind direction, possibly due to the interactions from the galaxy’s external magnetic field.

Over the next two years, additional IBEX data helped fill in the observational gap in the downwind direction. As the data came in, researchers discovered a second tail region to the side of the previously located one. The IBEX team reshuffled the IBEX maps and two similar, low-energy ENA structures became visible straddling the downwind direction of the heliosphere, showing structures that look more like “lobes” than a single unified tail.

According to Dave McComas, IBEX principal investigator, “it may well be that these are separate structures bent back toward the downwind direction. However, we can’t say that for certain with the data we have today.”

The news release notes that the astronomers started using the terms port and starboard to differentiate the lobes, as the heliosphere is the “ship” that moves our solar system throughout the galaxy.

IBEX data reveals that the Sun’s slow solar wind flows down the tail in the port and starboard lobes at low- and mid-latitudes and the fast solar wind heads down it at high northern and southern latitudes.

“We’re seeing a heliotail that’s much flatter and broader than expected, with a slight tilt,” notes McComas. “Imagine sitting on a beach ball. The ball gets flattened by the external forces and its cross section is oval instead of circular. That’s the effect the external magnetic field appears to be having on the heliotail.”

NASA’s IBEX utilizes two new ENA cameras to take pictures of and map the heliosphere’s global interaction.

From: http://natmonitor.com/2013/07/11/first-images-of-our-solar-systems-tail-revealed/

Scientists Determine Blue Is Color of Distant Planet

U.S. NEWS
July 11, 2013, 10:16 a.m. ET

Astronomers Reach Conclusion by Analyzing Light Spectrum

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ

AFP/Getty Images

A photo released on July 10, 2013 shows an illustration depicting HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star HD 189733.

For the first time, astronomers have discovered the true color of an alien planet orbiting another star—a deep azure blue like Earth seen from space—an international research team said Thursday.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the researchers analyzed the spectrum of visible light from a planet known officially as HD 189733b, which orbits a faint star about 63 light years away. This immense blue world—among the closest and most well-studied of the hundreds of exoplanets discovered in recent years—is a hazy hothouse swept by blow-torch winds where it regularly rains molten glass.

For their analysis, the scientists used the Hubble's imaging spectrograph to measure visible light from the star and planet together, and then measured the light from the system when the planet passed behind the star and was hidden from observers on Earth. To isolate the planet's light, they subtracted one from the other.

The wavelength of the missing light corresponds to a visible shade of blue, and that is the color of the light reflected by the planet, the astronomers reported in the upcoming August issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"We inferred the color," said astrophysicist Tom Evans at the U.K.'s University of Oxford, who led the study. By knowing the wavelength, "we can imagine the color the planet would have if we could look at it with our own eyes."

As viewed from space, the planet Earth is itself a vibrant blue because of its oceans, which absorb red and green wavelengths more strongly than blue ones. Some blue wavelengths of sunlight also are selectively scattered by oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air. Mars, in turn, appears red to the eye because its rusty surface is rich in iron oxide that absorbs the blue and green wavelengths of the light spectrum while reflecting the red wavelengths.

But the blue color of HD 189733b arises solely from the interplay of light in its super-heated atmosphere. Based on earlier measurements, scientists believe that the planet's exotic air is laced with grains of silicate, a common component of beach sand, whipped up in high clouds by winds that average more than 4,000 miles an hour.

In an atmosphere where the temperature appears to hover at 1,000 degrees Celsius, these silicate particles melt to make "raindrops" of glass that scatter visible blue light more than red light, the scientists reported. Consequently, the orb would appear blue because of its reflected light, but the planet is too far away for its hue to be seen directly with existing telescopes.

"We are really pushing the limits of what we can measure," said Mr. Evans.

From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324425204578599542790673404.html

Gigantic Chunk of Iceberg Eight Times the Size of Manhattan Breaks off from Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier

Benita Matilda
First Posted: Jul 11, 2013 09:24 AM EDT

A massive ice shelf that is eight times the size of Mangattan separated itself from the Pine Island Glacier in the Antarctica on July 8, 2013. The gigantic ice shelf is currently floating in the Amundsen Sea in the form a very large iceberg (Photo : Alfred Wegener Institute)

A massive ice shelf that is eight times the size of Manhattan separated itself from the Pine Island Glacier in the Antarctica on July 8, 2013. The gigantic ice shelf is currently floating in the Amundsen Sea in the form of a very large iceberg.

It was on October 14, 2011 that a group of scientist from the American Space Agency NASA identified the first crack in the glacier tongue. The then emerging crack was some 24 kilometers long and 50 meters wide. The second crack was noticed on May 11, 2012. It produced a 30 square kilometer iceberg that was enclosed by another bigger iceberg.

"As a result of these cracks, one giant iceberg broke away from the glacier tongue. It measures 720 square kilometres and is therefore almost as large as the city of Hamburg", Prof. Angelika Humbert, ice researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute, said in a press release.

Since then a team of scientists from Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research , have been following the cracks with the help of TerraSAR-X, an earth observation satellite from the German Space Agency. They have documented the changes in several single images and this data is believed to solve the secrecy of 'calving'.

In order to get a deep understanding of the physical processes involved in glacier movements and also to observe the progress of the two cracks spotted earlier, the team worked with the high resolution radar images of the DLR earth observation satellite TerraSAR-X. With this they managed to approximately measure the width of the cracks and measure the speed at which the ice was flowing.

"Above the large crack, the glacier last flowed at a speed of twelve metres per day", said Dr. Dana Floricioiu from DLR. And Nina Wilkens, PhD graduate in Prof. Humbert's team. "Using the images we have been able to follow how the larger crack on the Pine Island glacier extended initially to a length of 28 kilometres. Shortly before the "birth" of the iceberg, the gap then widened bit by bit so that it measured around 540 metres at its widest point."

The team used the data provided by TerraSAR-X satellite in computer simulation by which they can model the mechanism of the ice masses when they break and flow. These simulation results were compared with current satellite data.

According to Humbert, the Pine Island glacier, which flows from Hudson Mountains to Amundsen, is the fastest flowing glacier in Western Antarctic and flows at the speed of 4 kilometers per year. This speed is not affected by the rising air temperature but the wind directions.

A faster flow of the Pine Island glacier for the Western Antarctic ice shelf would lead to serious consequences.

From: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/8081/20130711/gigantic-chunk-of-iceberg-eight-times-the-size-of-manhattan-breaks-off-from-antarctica-s-pine-island-glacier.htm

Astronomers Discover Baby ‘Monster’ Star Developing In A Dark Cloud [PHOTO]

By Charles Poladianon July 10 2013 9:21 AM

Astronomers have discovered a massive star developing in a dark cloud 11,000 light-years away. The so-called monster star could grow up to be a giant with a mass 100 times that of the sun, they say.



Astronomers discovered the massive star developing in a dark cloud 11,000 light-years from Earth. ALMA (ESO/NRAJ/NRAO)/NASA/Spitzer/JPL-Caltech/GLIMPSE

Led by Nicolas Peretto, from the CEA/AIM Paris-Saclay Cardiff University in the UK, the team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter array, or ALMA, to observe the massive star that is currently growing in the Spitzer Dark Cloud, SDC, 335.579-0.292. ALMA is a network of highly sensitive radio telescopes in Chile that can be used to observe the birth of stars and planet formation.

Massive stars are classified as those having a mass of at least 10 times that of the sun, notes the European Southern Observatory, but the classification has nothing to do with the actual size of the star. A dark cloud is a dense pocket of gas and dust that provides plenty of material for the formation of massive stars. According to ESO, astronomers believe that massive stars develop in these dark clouds by two possible methods. The first method involves smaller cores of dust and gas created within the cloud that collapse and create new stars in the process. The second method involves the collapse of the dark cloud, which can form massive stars as all the dust and gas merge at the center.

The core or "womb" of this new star developing in SDC 335.579-0.292 has a mass 500 times that of the sun, which means there is plenty of material to create one massive star. Pretto, speaking about the discovery using ALMA, said in a statement, “We wanted to see how monster stars form and grow, and we certainly achieved our aim! One of the sources we have found is an absolute giant — the largest protostellar core ever spotted in the Milky Way.” The protostellar core is the very beginning of star formation; after it gains enough mass, it will become a protostar.

The ALMA observations indicated the developing star is still collecting material within the dark cloud, notes ESO. Pretto notes SDC 335.579-0.292, through previous research, was a likely region to find a developing massive star, but he was still surprised to see a star that massive. “This object is expected to form a star that is up to 100 times more massive than the sun. Only about one in 10,000 of all the stars in the Milky Way reach that kind of mass!”

The developing massive star as observed in different wavelength.s ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/NASA/JPL-Caltech/GLIMPSE

Gary Fuller, from the University of Manchester and part of the team that discovered the massive star, said the discovery was important because a star develops rather quickly and observing a star in its infancy is rare. The observation of the developing massive star gives further credit to the second theory of massive star formation within a dark cloud. Material, gas and dust are flowing inward to the center of the dark cloud, indicating its collapse, reports ESO.

From: http://www.ibtimes.com/astronomers-discover-baby-monster-star-developing-dark-cloud-photo-1339851

NASA’s New Polar Rover Passes Greenland Test; Can Operate in Layers of Snow and Ice

By Julie S | Jul 08, 2013 10:38 PM EDT

The researchers brought the GROVER at the highest spot of Greenland between May 6 and June 8 to test if it can withstand the harshest weather condition. This test is the robot’s first polar experience in which it was able to perform commands sent over an Iridium satellite connection despite its far distance. (Photo : NASA)

Gusts and freezing temperatures are conditions that the NASA’s new polar rover can repel as proven by a test conducted in Greenland.

The GROVER-- Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research—is a robot designed by students during an engineering training in 2010 and 2011. Its purpose was to analyze layers of snow and ice.

The researchers brought the GROVER at the highest spot of Greenland between May 6 and June 8 to test if it can withstand the harshest weather condition. This test is the robot’s first polar experience in which it was able to perform commands sent over an Iridium satellite connection despite its far distance.

"When we saw it moving and travelling to the locations our professor had keyed in from Boise, we knew all of our hard work had paid off," said Gabriel Trisca, a graduate student from Boise State University who has been involved in the GROVER project from its start. "GROVER has grown to be a fully-autonomous, GPS-guided and satellite-linked platform for scientific research." Trisca accompanied the robot to Greenland.

The GROVER stayed in Greenland for five weeks gathering and storing radar data found in ice. It had travelled a total of 18 miles and was able to send the data real-time. Its battery life lasted for 12 hours before the researchers recharge it.

This is considered a breakthrough for science explorations in extremely cold places such as the Greenland which has temperatures going as low as 22 Fahrenheit and has gusts with speed that can reach 30 mph. Humans couldn’t stand these weather conditions so it would be a smart idea to deploy robots instead.

The researchers admitted that the GROVER is not yet a perfect research tool as it showed some problems during the tests such as the batteries draining faster than expected, rebooting issues, and being stuck in the snow. They are planning to change some of its components to address these issues before they run another test.

This was first reported in a press release in Science.

From: http://www.hngn.com/articles/7220/20130708/nasa-new-polar-rover-passes-greenland-test-operate-layers-snow.htm

Optical lattice atomic clock could 'redefine the second'

By Rebecca Morelle

Science reporter, BBC World Service

The optical lattice clock shines lasers on atoms to measure time


Scientists say they have found a more accurate way to measure time.

We currently use atomic clocks to count the seconds, but tests on an alternative atomic timekeeper have revealed that it is more precise.

The devices, called optical lattice clocks, lost just one second every 300 million years - making them three times as accurate as current atomic clocks.

Writing in Nature Communications, the team said they offered a better system for defining the second.

Laser show

We once used the Earth's rotation to measure time, where one spin equates to a day.

But because our planet wobbles on its axis as it rotates, some days can be shorter or longer than others.

The atomic clock has proved to be a far more accurate method of keeping the world on time and since the 1960s has been used to define a second in the International System of Units (SI units).

But now scientists say the optical lattice clock could improve the precision.

Just as a grandfather clock uses the swing of a pendulum to measure intervals of time, an atomic clock uses the very regular "vibrations" of atoms.

Our current systems, called caesium fountains, expose clouds of caesium atoms to microwaves to get them to oscillate. But the the new ones use light to excite strontium atoms.

Dr Jerome Lodewyck, from the Paris Observatory, said: "In our clocks we use laser beams. Laser beams oscillate much faster than microwave radiation, and in a sense we divide time in much shorter intervals so we can measure time more precisely."

The researchers believe the new clock could be used as a standard for the world's time

The optical clocks are three times as accurate as caesium fountains, which are accurate to one second every 100 million years.

As well as comparing the optical lattice clocks with our current atomic timekeepers, the researchers compared two optical clocks with each other. They found that they kept time in agreement, and were also very stable.

"For instance, if you have your wristwatch, and one day you are one second late, and one day one second early, then your clock is not stable. But it could still have good accuracy if over a million days the time is correct," Dr Lodewyck explained.

It is important to measure both accuracy and stability, he added.

Many technologies such as telecommunications, satellite navigation and the stock markets rely on ever-better time measurements. The researchers said the new clocks could one day help to redefine the second.

Another clock is also undergoing development - an ion clock. This clock loses just one second every few billion years, but because it relies on a single ion, it is not yet deemed to be stable enough for widespread use.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23231206