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Saturday, August 2
Aurora "Power Surges" Triggered by Magnetic Explosions—Brian Handwerk
by
RY Deshpande
on August 2, 2008 08:38AM (PDT)
For decades, sudden brightenings of auroras—also called the northern and southern lights—have puzzled scientists. Such events have been linked to so-called geomagnetic substorms, disturbances in the outer atmosphere that create "power surges" in the polar lights. But what triggers these substorms has remained a mystery. The research not only could help scientists predict dramatic sky shows, but also should prove a boon for the many technologies—from spacecraft to power grids—that are disrupted by substorms. Now new data show that powerful explosions in the "tail" of magnetic field lines streaming away from Earth release energy that dramatically brightens auroras… more »
Saturday, March 22
The knight of science fiction: Arthur C Clarke—by Anthony Tucker
by
RY Deshpande
on March 22, 2008 02:53AM (PDT)
Among the giants of the imaginative promotion of the ideas of interplanetary travel, the colonising by man of nearby planets and the urgent need for peaceful exploration of outer space, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who has died aged 90, was pre-eminent, because of his hard and accurate predictions of the detailed technologies of space flight and the use of near-Earth space for global communications. Yet, in spite of his deep seriousness, JB Priestley described him in the 1950s as the happiest writer he had ever known. Tallish, bespectacled, rather big-eared and thinning on top, Clarke tended to be described by friends as a beaming and highly articulate shambles of a chap, a man to whom convention meant very little. Yet his mind was like a razor. Unlike earlier writers on space travel, his imagination and creativity sprang, not from fantasy, but from sharp scientific and technical insight, unfettered by the arbitrary limitations of the perceptions of his time. His amazing career was possible largely because he was never, in any ordinary sense, quite a part of this world. Indeed, he chose to live in Sri Lanka, partly because it helped him neutralise the influence of western culture. As he approached 80, it seemed that he had done almost everything that was possible in a lifetime… more »
Thursday, March 20
First extra-solar organic molecule discovered
by
ronjon
on March 20, 2008 01:04PM (PDT)
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the first organic molecule on a planet that's not in our solar system. According to NASA, this breakthrough could be a major step toward discovering life on other planets. Scientists believe that the organic compound detected, methane, can be an integral part in the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it. ... more »
Wednesday, March 12
WMAP gives thumbs-up to cosmological model
by
ronjon
on March 12, 2008 01:27PM (PDT)
It’s easy to forget that until recently cosmology was largely a theoretical science. Thanks in particular to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which was launched by NASA in 2001 to study the cosmic microwave background, researchers are now able to talk about the first instants of the universe with the kind of certainty normally associated with a bench-top experiment.
With the analysis of two further years of WMAP data announced last week, that view of the early universe has just got even more detailed. As well as placing tighter constraints on parameters such as the age and content of the universe, the five-year WMAP data provide new, independent evidence for a cosmic neutrino background. The detection of such low-energy neutrinos, wrote Steven Weinberg in 1977 in his famous book The First Three Minutes, “would provide the most dramatic possible confirmation of the standard model of the early universe” — yet at the time no-one knew how to detect such a signal. more »
Tuesday, March 4
NASA Baffled by Unexplained Force Acting on Space Probes
by
ronjon
on March 4, 2008 02:00AM (PST)
Mysteriously, four spacecraft that flew past the Earth have each displayed unexpected anomalies in their motions. -- These newfound enigmas join the so-called "Pioneer anomaly" as hints that unexplained forces may appear to act on spacecraft.
A decade ago, after rigorous analyses, anomalies were seen with the identical Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft as they hurtled out of the solar system. Both seemed to experience a tiny but unexplained constant acceleration toward the sun. -- A host of explanations have been bandied about for the Pioneer anomaly. At times these are rooted in conventional science — perhaps leaks from the spacecraft have affected their trajectories. At times these are rooted in more speculative physics — maybe the law of gravity itself needs to be modified.
Now Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer John Anderson and his colleagues — who originally helped uncover the Pioneer anomaly — have discovered that four spacecraft each raced either a tiny bit faster or slower than expected when they flew past the Earth en route to other parts of the solar system. ... more »
Monday, March 3
First Avalanche Photographed on Mars by HiRISE exp. on NASA MRO
by
ronjon
on March 3, 2008 02:15PM (PST)
A NASA spacecraft has taken the first-ever image of an avalanche in action near Mars' north pole. -- The High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photograph Feb. 19. The image, released today, shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
The camera was tracking seasonal changes on Mars when it inadvertently caught the avalanche on film. -- HiRISE mission scientist Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona was the first person to notice the avalanche when sifting through images.
"It really surprised me," she said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years." ... more »
Friday, February 22
Google $20 million lunar challenge gets under way
by
ronjon
on February 22, 2008 10:22PM (PST)
...the X Prize Foundation announced the first 10 teams entered in the Google Lunar X Prize. Unveiled in September 2007, the Google Lunar X Prize requires contestants to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the moon, explore the terrain for at least 500 meters, and transmit results of the trip back to Earth. The grand prize is $20 million, with a second prize of $5 million and bonuses of $5 million. ... more »
Wednesday, February 20
Military Hopes to Bring Down [Potentially Dangerous] Satellite
by
ronjon
on February 20, 2008 04:39PM (PST)
The Pentagon counted down Wednesday toward an unprecedented effort to shoot down a dying and potentially deadly U.S. spy satellite, using a souped-up missile fired from a ship in the Pacific.
The timing was tricky. For the best chance to succeed, the military awaited a combination of favorable factors: steady seas around the Navy cruiser that would fire the missile, optimum positioning of the satellite as it passed in polar orbit and the readiness of an array of space- and ground-based sensors to help cue the missile and track the results.
The operation was so extraordinary, with such intense international publicity and political ramifications, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates — not a military commander — was to make the final decision to pull the trigger.
The government organized hazardous materials teams, under the code name "Burnt Frost," to be flown to the site of any dangerous or otherwise sensitive debris that might land in the United States or elsewhere. ... more »
Tuesday, February 19
Potentially Habitable Planets Are Common, Study Says
by
ronjon
on February 19, 2008 02:49PM (PST)
More than half of the sunlike stars in the galaxy could have terrestrial planets with the potential to harbor life, a new study suggests.
The research, announced yesterday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, Massachusetts, is just one of a set of recent findings that suggest the roster of potential life-harboring worlds is huge—even in our own solar system.
"Our observations suggest that between 20 percent and 60 percent of sunlike stars form rocky planets like our solar system's," said Michael Meyer, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, at a press briefing Sunday.
Meyer and his team used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to study heat from the dust around sunlike stars of various ages, much like looking at "the smoke you see rising from chimneys in Boston on a cold day." ... more »
Saturday, February 16
New frontiers in space propulsion sciences
by
ronjon
on February 16, 2008 02:00AM (PST)
Abstract
Mankind's destiny points toward a quest for the stars. Realistically, it is difficult to achieve this using current space propulsion science and develop the prerequisite technologies, which for the most part requires the use of massive amounts of propellant to be expelled from the system. Therefore, creative approaches are needed to reduce or eliminate the need for a propellant. Many researchers have identified several unusual approaches that represent immature theories based upon highly advanced concepts. These theories and concepts could lead to creating the enabling technologies and forward thinking necessary to eventually result in developing new directions in space propulsion science. In this paper, some of these theoretical and technological concepts are examined approaches based upon Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, spacetime curvature, superconductivity, and newer ideas where questions are raised regarding conservation theorems and if some of the governing laws of physics, as we know them, could be violated or are even valid. These conceptual ideas vary from traversable wormholes, Krasnikov tubes and Alcubierre's warpdrive to Electromagnetic (EM) field propulsion with possible hybrid systems that incorporate our current limited understanding of zero point fields and quantum mechanics. ... more »
Tuesday, February 5
Human DNA, the Ultimate Spot for Secret Messages (Are Some There Now?)
by
ronjon
on February 5, 2008 02:00AM (PST)
...a team of Japanese geneticists...announced that they had taught relativity to a bacterium, sort of.
Using the same code that computer keyboards use, the Japanese group, led by Masaru Tomita of Keio University, wrote four copies of Albert Einstein’s famous formula, E=mc2, along with “1905,” the date that the young Einstein derived it, into the bacterium’s genome, the 4.2-million-long string of A’s, G’s, T’s and C’s that determine everything the little bug is and everything it’s ever going to be.
The point was not to celebrate Einstein. The feat, they said in a paper published in the journal Biotechnology Progress, was a demonstration of DNA as the ultimate information storage material, able to withstand floods, terrorism, time and the changing fashions in technology, not to mention the ability to be imprinted with little unobtrusive trademark labels — little “Made by Monsanto” tags, say. ... more »
Monday, February 4
NASA to beam Beatles' song 'Across the Universe' to deep space on Feb.4,2008
by
ronjon
on February 4, 2008 02:00AM (PST)
...at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Feb. 4...NASA will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its first space mission — the launch of the Explorer 1 satellite — by using the system of huge antennas that usually listen for inbound signals from space to send one outbound instead: the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe,” which as it happens was mostly recorded exactly 40 years earlier, on Feb. 4, 1968.
Reception will be best in the general direction of Polaris, 431 lightyears away, which is where NASA is aiming the signal. (That would be the North Star to us laymen.) But it ought to be audible in plenty of places on Earth as well, at least by imitation: NASA is encouraging space fans and Beatle fans alike to play the song themselves at the same time.
NASA’s press release includes some perfectly in-character comments from Sir Paul McCartney (”Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.”) and from Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, the song’s main author (”I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe.”). ... more »
Chandrayaan: India’s Mission to the Moon
by
RY Deshpande
on February 4, 2008 01:07AM (PST)
The coming era in space exploration is proving to be one with increased interest in the Moon, with missions from ESA, China, Japan, India, and NASA. Perhaps the most international and most ambitious of these efforts is the Chandrayaan mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Chandrayaan-1 (literally "Moon" + "Craft" in Hindi, together meaning "trip to the moon") is India's first mission to the Moon. The ISRO, founded in 1969, launched its first satellite in 1975 but has not yet sent a satellite beyond Earth's orbit.
The goals of this mission are both to expand ISRO's capabilities and to help resolve longstanding questions about the Moon's history. Chandrayaan-1 will deploy a powerful suite of instruments to map the lunar surface and search for the presence of radioactive isotopes, which will help researchers determine the origins of the Moon. The mission will also build up ISRO's ground support systems, communications systems, and data reception and interpretation systems, as well as increase India's technical and scientific capabilities. more »
Tuesday, December 25
"Al-Kemi: A Memoir"
by
Kim
on December 25, 2007 08:59PM (PST)
Al-Kemi recounts the story of the eighteen months that Andrew VandenBroeck, a painter and writer, spent in daily contact with the remarkable French philosopher, hermetist, and Egyptologist, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887-1961). Structured like a mystery, and distilled in the crucible of memory for fifteen years, Al-Kemi provides a passionately felt, personal, and dramatic introduction to the startling world of this contemporary alchemist (from back cover).
... Before reaching these particulars, it must be known that de Lubicz held the traditional conception of an esoteric science and its transmission: true knowledge is inaccessible to the rational mind. This epistemological tenet caused his writings to be spiked with metaphor, innuendo, and at times, obscurity. He mistrusted the written word, disliked writing because truth was inevitably degraded when committed to paper through a profane language. This attitude most clearly ordinates the lineage along which he inscribes himself by his premises and his results. His low regard for “demotic” writing as a means of truth-communication made personal contact with him invaluable, for he had no such reservations concerning the spoken word, the word of gesture. Thus he actively believed in oral transmission of a kind of knowledge best called “gnosis,” [3] and in private, I always found him accessible to leisurely conversation on the most exalted topics. As our relationship soon proved more than casual, his information became increasingly direct, in contrast to his written expression which often presents problems of meaning and referent.
To such an epistemology, personal contact is the kingpin of communication, and I found out later to what extent his frame of reference was tailored to his correspondent. ...
more »
Friday, December 21
Asteroid on track for possible Mars hit on Jan. 30, 2008
by
ronjon
on December 21, 2007 10:56AM (PST)
An asteroid similar to the one that flattened forests in Siberia in 1908 could plow into Mars next month, scientists said Thursday. -- Researchers attached to NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, who sometimes jokingly call themselves the Solar System Defense Team, have been tracking the asteroid since its discovery in late November.
The scientists, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, put the chances that it will hit the Red Planet on Jan. 30 at about 1 in 75. -- A 1-in-75 shot is "wildly unusual," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near-Earth Object office, which routinely tracks about 5,000 objects in Earth's neighborhood.
"We're used to dealing with odds like one-in-a-million," Chesley said. "Something with a one-in-a-hundred chance makes us sit up straight in our chairs." ... more »
Monday, December 17
Hubble: The most amazing space photographs in the universe
by
RY Deshpande
on December 17, 2007 08:33PM (PST)
Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."... more »
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