WISE Discovers Galactic Hot DOGs
When NASA launched a wide-field, infrared telescope named WISE to survey the cosmos, scientists figured it would unearth some new objects. They didn't, however, expect to find a whole new type of galaxy.
WISE scientists are calling their find "hot DOG," for hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxy, which is an apt description, considering the galaxies are twice as hot as similar objects and difficult to find since most of their radiation is blocked by shrouds of dust. But WISE ferreted out about 1,000 hot DOGS, each of which can put out more than 1,000 times the energy of the Milky Way, thus earning themselves top billing on the list of most luminous objects in the universe. |  |
ULA’s Atlas V Celebrates Success x 2! Sends NASA’s Twin Probes Soaring
Most spacecraft try to avoid the Van Allen Belts, two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth filled with "killer electrons." This morning a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first twin-spacecraft for NASA, lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral at 4:05 a.m. EDT today.
NASA’s two heavily-shielded spacecraft were launched directly into the belts. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are on a two-year mission to study the Van Allen Belts and to unravel the mystery of their unpredictability. This is ULA’s 7th launch of the year, the 32nd Atlas V launch and marked the 63rd launch since ULA was formed in December 2006. |  |
Genome of Mysterious Extinct Human Reveals Brown-Eyed Girl
The genome of a recently discovered branch of extinct humans known as the Denisovans that once interbred with us has been sequenced, scientists said today (Aug. 30).
Genetic analysis of the fossil revealed it apparently belonged to a little girl with dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes, researchers said. All in all, the scientists discovered about 100,000 recent changes in our genome that occurred after the split from the Denisovans. A number of these changes influence genes linked with brain function and nervous system development, leading to speculation that we may think differently from the Denisovans. |  |
Sugar Found In Space: A Sign of Life?
Astronomers have made a sweet discovery: simple sugar molecules floating in the gas around a star some 400 light-years away, suggesting the possibility of life on other planets.
The discovery doesn't prove that life has developed elsewhere in the universe—but it implies that there is no reason it could not. It shows that the carbon-rich molecules that are the building blocks of life can be present even before planets have begun forming. Scientists use the term "sugar" to loosely refer to organic molecules known as carbohydrates, which are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. |  |
Triassic amber yields 'ancient mites'
Some of the earliest fossils of pre-historic arthropods - dating to about 230 million years ago - have been discovered entombed in amber, PNAS journal reports.
Arthropods - a highly diverse family of invertebrates, which includes insects, arachnids and crustacea - constitute more than 90% of the entire species within the animal kingdom. The previous earliest records of arthropod-containing amber dated back to the Cretaceous period, around 135 million years ago. |  |
World record as message in bottle found after 98 years near Shetland
A Scottish skipper has set a new world record after finding a message in a bottle 98 years after it was released.
Andrew Leaper's discovery beat the previous record for the longest time a bottle has been adrift at sea by more than five years. And he found the bottle while skippering the same fishing boat which had set the previous record, the Shetland-based vessel Copious. Mr Leaper said: "It was an amazing coincidence.". |  |
For sleep’s sake have a screen break before bed
Researchers at the Lighting Research Centre, which is part of New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have discovered that two or more hours of exposure to backlit devices, such as a smartphone or tablet, suppresses melatonin.
This suppression can lead to trouble sleeping at night, especially in teenagers. Mariana Figueiro, director of the LRC’s Light and Health Program, who led the team on this piece of research, said: “Our study shows that a two-hour exposure to light from self-luminous electronic displays can suppress melatonin by about 22 per cent. |  |
A desolate vision of the future of Mars exploration
In the wake of Curiosity's landing on Mars, artist Kelly Richardson's depictions of a post-apocalyptic Red Planet are a call for us to save our own planet
IT'S 200 years from now, and the sun beats down on a barren landscape of red rock scattered with smashed satellites and dilapidated robots. NASA's battered old Curiosity rover lies wedged on a mound of dirt, its wheels whirring intermittently in futile effort, like an exhausted beetle stuck on its back.
IT'S 200 years from now, and the sun beats down on a barren landscape of red rock scattered with smashed satellites and dilapidated robots. NASA's battered old Curiosity rover lies wedged on a mound of dirt, its wheels whirring intermittently in futile effort, like an exhausted beetle stuck on its back.
Play Gustav Holst on Mars? Nah, let's have Will.i.am
The film Alien popularised the phrase "In space no one can hear you scream", and with that logic, no one can hear music either. But that hasn't stopped various attempts at playing tunes in a galaxy far, far away.
When Will.i.am's new single "Reach for the Stars" was broadcast via the Curiosity rover currently stationed on Mars earlier this week, and beamed back to Earth, the rapper became the latest musical act to greet extraterrestrial life.
When Will.i.am's new single "Reach for the Stars" was broadcast via the Curiosity rover currently stationed on Mars earlier this week, and beamed back to Earth, the rapper became the latest musical act to greet extraterrestrial life.
Solar powered robotic sunfish grooves to the Grateful Dead
A proof-of-concept solar-powered robot modeled after the giant ocean sunfish could one day serve as biological sensor capable of keeping tabs on the environment.
A video released this week by the robot’s maker, senior scientist Tom Zambrano at AeroVironment, shows it swimming in Pacific Ocean as it grooves to the Grateful Dead’s Bird Song.
The delightfully chill viewing experience provides a few details about the robot, called Mola, which is derived from the scientific name of the giant ocean sunfish, Mola mola.
A video released this week by the robot’s maker, senior scientist Tom Zambrano at AeroVironment, shows it swimming in Pacific Ocean as it grooves to the Grateful Dead’s Bird Song.
The delightfully chill viewing experience provides a few details about the robot, called Mola, which is derived from the scientific name of the giant ocean sunfish, Mola mola.
Experimental Low-Calorie Diet Gets Puzzling Results in Monkeys
The science of calorie restriction just got a lot more complicated.
Rhesus monkeys fed experimental low-calorie diets didn’t live any longer than their high-calorie brethren, a result that conflicts with a 2009 report of long-lived, extra-low-calorie monkeys. That had been the first demonstration of extended lifespans in primates, not just lab rodents, and raised hopes of the diet being a dinner-plate fountain of youth. The new findings seem to challenge that notion, though they’re far from conclusive. More fundamentally, the findings pop the lid on a roiling scientific back-and-forth over calorie restriction’s effects and mechanisms, a matter of vigorous contention that’s belied by popular notions of the diet as a simple, straightforward longevity hack. |  |
A DIY Space Suit for the 99 Percent
Taking a balloon up into the lower stratosphere may seem crazy, but to Cameron M. Smith it’s an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream. The 45-year-old Portland State University anthropologist couldn’t join NASA’s aviation program because of his poor eyesight. Lacking the funds to buy a ticket on a private space flight, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
|  |
Gravity waves spotted from white-dwarf pair
Researchers have spotted visible-light evidence for one of astronomy's most elusive targets - gravity waves - in the orbit of a pair of dead stars.
Until now, these ripples in space-time, first predicted by Einstein, have only been inferred from radio-wave sources. But a change in the orbits of two white dwarf stars orbiting one another 3,000 light-years away is further proof of the waves that can literally be seen. |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment