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Mars Base

Driverless Taxis in European Cities from 2014 - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...-european-cities-from-2014.htm

scibyte117

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Driverless taxis will be carrying passengers during demonstration projects in five European cities as of February 2014.
  • cybercars, by the EU-funded CityMobil2 project, is one of a number of research initiatives that are testing out specially designed self-driving road vehicles as the technology required to navigate them becomes cheaper and more reliable.
  • Cybercars have traditionally sensed the world through expensive gyroscopes, microwaves and laser beams
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • cheap cameras and fast image-recognition algorithms has led to a new technique known as visual odometry
  • a computer analyses images to determine the position and orientation of the vehicle.
  • researchers have better access to the technology required for automated vehicles
  • e V-Charge project, a consortium of companies and universities which is working on fully automated low-speed driving in cities using only cameras and other low-cost sensors mounted on standard cars
  • . The consortium is working to produce detailed maps and a perception system that allows a vehicle to recognize its location and identify nearby pedestrians and vehicles, all using only stereoscopic or fisheye cameras.
  • team has taken this a step further, pioneering a guidance system that works economically by using a single camera.
  • car manufacturers are already making automated piloting features of their own – radar-based cruise control, anti-braking systems (ABS) and lane-control assistance
  • cables and hydraulic pressure valves which previously linked the controls of the vehicle to its working parts are gradually being replaced with electronic circuits
  • While companies such as Google see autonomous cars in a couple of decades
  • CityMobil2 project
  • thinks that they could be hitting the road sooner than that
  • The challenge lies in their environment
  • believes that, in addition to teaching cars to respond autonomously to traffic conditions, traffic should be adapted to automated cars
  • In their current state of development, cybercars could already drive safely in pedestrian areas and designated lanes
  • , investors are at present deterred by their high initial investment and perceived risks.
  • why they are being implemented in small stages
  • The first CityMobil project shuttled passengers across the car park of London Heathrow airport in a fleet of driverless pods
  • CityMobil2, now brings specially designed automated vehicles to designated roads inside the city centre
  • The project plans to procure two sets of automated vehicles which will tour five cities in a series of demonstration projects each lasting six to eight months
  • CityMobil2 is bringing together experts from ministries in each member state to agree on technical requirements by the time the project concludes in 2016 that could feed into a future European directive on the issue
Mars Base

Russia May Land Probe on Jupiter's Moon Ganymede with Europe's JUICE Mission | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/sia-europe-jupiter-probes.html

scibyte99

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A Russian probe being designed to land on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, could launch toward the gas giant with a European spacecraft being developed to explore Jupiter's icy ocean-covered satellites, according to European space officials.
  • more Earthly concerns, such as government finances and the realities of technical developments, could thwart the proposal
  • JUICE is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, entering orbit around the huge planet and making repeated flybys of three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet
  • Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede
  • Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander
  • Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede
  • After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission
  • advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa
  • The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter
  • this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE
  • Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing
  • If Russia becomes a full partner in Europe's JUICE mission, the development of the lander will need to be accelerated to launch in 2022, if managers want the Russian craft to ride to Jupiter as a piggyback payload.
Mars Base

NASA aims to send another rover to Mars in 2020 - 0 views

phys.org/...2-12-nasa-aims-rover-mars.html

scibyte74 mars

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • announced plans to launch another mega-rover to the red planet in 2020 that will be modeled after
  • Curiosity
  • To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, recycle spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing gear
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times
  • many other details still need to be worked out, including where the rover will land and the types of tools it will carry to the surface
  • the science goals remain fuzzy
  • at the very least should kickstart a campaign to return Martian soil and rocks to Earth
  • a team of experts will debate whether the new rover should have the ability to drill into rocks and store pieces for a future pickup
  • under orders by the White House to send astronauts to circle Mars in the 2030s followed by a landing
  • Curiosity
  • ran over schedule and over budget
  • the engineering hurdles have been fixed and he expected the new rover to cost less than Curiosity
  • One independent estimate put the mission at $1.5 billion, though NASA is working on its own figure
  • Next year, NASA plans to launch an orbiter to study the atmosphere
  • After NASA pulled out of a partnership with the Europeans in 2016 and 2018, it announced plans to fly a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to probe the interior
  • since said it will contribute to the European missions, but in a minor role
Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

Never-Before-Seen Alien Planet Imaged Directly in New Photo | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/alien-planet-direct-image.html

scibyte96 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A newly discovered gaseous planet has been directly photographed orbiting a star about 300 light-years from Earth
  • this world may be the least massive planet directly observed outside of the solar system,
  • released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO)
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • June 3) depicts the suspected gas giant (called HD 95086 b) circling its young star (named HD 95086) in infrared light
  • HD 95086 b was sighted by ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Based on the planet's brightness, scientists estimate that it is only about four or five times more massive than Jupiter
  • Only a few planets have been directly observed so far
  • The blue circle in the photo represents the distance between the sun and Neptune.
  • The planet orbits its star at about twice the distance from the sun to Neptune and about 56 times the distance between Earth and the sun
  • is relatively young star at only 10 million to 17 million years old, making the formation of the exoplanet and the dusty disc surrounding the star potentially intriguing to researchers
  • It either grew by assembling the rocks that form the solid core and then slowly accumulated gas from the environment to form the heavy atmosphere
  • started forming from a gaseous clump that arose from gravitational instabilities in the disc
  • Interactions between the planet and the disc itself or with other planets may have also moved the planet from where it was born
Mars Base

Crowdsourcing the Hunt for Potentially Dangerous Asteroids - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...otentially-dangerous-asteroids

scibyte47 Asteroid crowdsourcing

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • new partnership between the European Space Agency and the Faulkes Telescope Project, which will encourage amateur astronomers to look for asteroids
  • providing educational opportunities that will allow students to discover potentially dangerous space rocks, too.
  • ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program is part of an international effort to be on the lookout for space hazards – not only asteroids but disruptive space weather and space debris objects in Earth orbit
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • asteroids pose a problem
  • hard to see because they can be very dark
  • can approach rather too close before anyone sees them
  • often spotted only once and then disappear before the discovery can be confirmed.
  • ESA is turning to schools and amateur astronomers to help as part of Europe’s contribution to the global asteroid hunt
  • UK’s Faulkes Telescope Project will become the latest team to formally support the SSA program
  • Spain’s La Sagra Sky Survey, operated by the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca, began helping SSA earlier this year
  • The Faulkes project has two telescopes where you can sign up for observing online: Haleakala, Hawaii
  • and Siding Spring, Australia
  • For European students, collaborating on exciting ESA activities and possibly detecting new NEOs is very appealing, as its engagement with one of the world’s great space agencies doing critical scientific work.”
  • While the Faulkes project focuses on schools
  • amateurs will be able to freely access the data archives
  • archives are also open to all, and they work
  • Since starting their SSA-sponsored survey work in January 2010, the TOTAS amateur astronomers have identified hundreds of asteroid candidates, over 20 of which have been confirmed and named.
Mars Base

CERN - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/CERN

scibyte130 LookingBackMay CERN

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 14 - Cached
  • The acronym CERN originally stood in French for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), which was a provisional council for setting up the laboratory, established by 12 European governments in 1952
  • The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the provisional council was dissolved, even though the name changed
  • This NeXT Computer used by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • This Cisco Systems router at CERN was probably one of the first IP routers deployed in Europe
  • Soon after the laboratory's establishment, its work went beyond the study of the atomic nucleus into higher-energy physics
Mars Base

May 17 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on May 17th, died, and events - 0 views

todayinsci.com/5_17.htm

scibyte130 LookingBackMay

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 14 - No Cached
  • CERN groundbreaking
  • In 1954, official ground-breaking took place at the Meyrin site of the new CERN Laboratory in Geneva. A recommendation had been adopted 12 Dec 1949 at the European Cultural Conference for a European Institute of Nuclear Physics. By 1952, the third session of its provisional Council decided to locate in Switzerland. In Jun 1953, the host community, the canton of Geneva, gave strong approval in a referendum passing with 16539 votes to 7332. On 29 Sep 1954, twelve founding Member States ratified CERN (Centre Européenne de Recherche Nucléaire): Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.
Mars Base

European Satellite, Out of Fuel, Will Plunge to Earth Next Month | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/goce-satellite-fall-earth.html

scibyte107

shared by Mars Base on 24 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • A European gravity-mapping satellite has run out of fuel and will likely die a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere
  • Oct. 21
  • The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE for short, exhausted its supply of xenon fuel on
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • most of the satellite will disintegrate in the atmosphere, some smaller parts are expected to reach Earth’s surface
  • GOCE satellite launched in March 2009 on a planned two-year mission to map the variations in Earth's gravity field.
  • The spacecraft consumed fuel at a much lower rate than expected, however, allowing GOCE to continue gathering data far beyond its expected lifespan
  • the most accurate gravity data ever available to scientists
Chris Fisher

U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners - ... - 1 views

www.propublica.org/...as-it-rolled-out-airport-x-ray

cancer government scibyte19

shared by Chris Fisher on 01 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Research suggests that anywhere from six to 100 U.S. airline passengers each year could get cancer from the machines.
  • Because of a regulatory Catch-22, the airport X-ray scanners have escaped the oversight required for X-ray machines used in doctors’ offices and hospitals. The reason is that the scanners do not have a medical purpose, so the FDA cannot subject them to the rigorous evaluation it applies to medical devices.
  • FDA has limited authority to oversee some non-medical products and can set mandatory safety regulations. But the agency let the scanners fall under voluntary standards set by a nonprofit group heavily influenced by industry.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • As for the TSA, it skipped a public comment period required before deploying the scanners. Then, in defending them, it relied on a small body of unpublished research to insist the machines were safe, and ignored contrary opinions from U.S. and European authorities that recommended precautions, especially for pregnant women.
  • Both the FDA and TSA say due diligence has been done to assure the scanners’ safety.
  • ProVision, made by defense contractor L-3 Communications, a passenger enters a chamber that looks like a round phone booth and is scanned with millimeter waves, a form of low-energy radio waves, which have not been shown to strip electrons from atoms or cause cancer.
  • In July, the European Parliament passed a resolution that security “scanners using ionizing radiation should be prohibited” because of health risks.
  • Some scientists argue the danger is exaggerated. They claim low levels stimulate the repair mechanism in cells, meaning that a little radiation might actually be good for the body.
  • But in the authoritative report on low doses of ionizing radiation, published in 2006, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the research and concluded that the preponderance of research supported the linear link. It found “no compelling evidence” that there is any level of radiation at which the risk of cancer is zero.
  • Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, estimated that the backscatters would lead to only six cancers over the course of a lifetime among the approximately 100 million people who fly every year. David Brenner, director of Columbia University’s Center for Radiological Research, reached a higher number — potentially 100 additional cancers every year.
  • The government used to have 500 people examining the safety of electronic products emitting radiation. It now has about 20 people.
  • But in 1982, the FDA merged the radiological health bureau into its medical-device unit. “I was concerned that if they were to combine the two centers into one, it would probably mean the ending of the radiation program because the demands for medical-device regulation were becoming increasingly great,” said Villforth, who was put in charge of the new Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “As I sort of guessed, the radiation program took a big hit.”
  • the same 100 million people would develop 40 million cancers over the course of their lifetimes. In this sea of cancer cases, it would be impossible to identify the patients whose cancer is linked to the backscatter machines.
  • the FDA has not set a mandatory safety standard for an electronic product since 1985.
  • As a result, there is an FDA safety regulation for X-rays scanning baggage — but none for X-rays scanning people at airports.
  • The U.S. Customs Service deployed backscatter machines for several years but in limited fashion and with strict supervision. Travelers suspected of carrying contraband had to sign a consent form, and Customs policy prohibited the scanning of pregnant women.
  • In July, a federal appeals court ruled that the agency failed to follow rule-making procedures and solicit public comment before installing body scanners at airports across the country
  • Federal Aviation Administration’s medical institute has advised pregnant pilots and flight attendants that the machine, coupled with their time in the air, could put them over their occupational limit for radiation exposure
  • It was made up of 15 people, including six representatives of manufacturers of X-ray body scanners and five from U.S. Customs and the California prison system. There were few government regulators and no independent scientists.
  • The FDA delegated the task of establishing the voluntary standards to the American National Standards Institute.
  • “Establishing a mandatory standard takes an enormous amount of resources and could take a decade to publish,” said Dan Kassiday, a longtime radiation safety engineer at the FDA.
  • and before 9/11, many states also had the authority to randomly inspect machines in airports. But that ended when the TSA took over security checkpoints from the airlines.
  • Last year, in reaction to public anger from members of Congress, passengers and advocates, the TSA contracted with the Army Public Health Command to do independent radiation surveys. But email messages obtained in a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group, raise questions about the independence of the Army surveys.
  • One email sent by TSA health and safety director Jill Segraves shows that local TSA officials were given advance notice and allowed to “pick and choose” which systems the Army could check.
  • The TSA considered the scanners again after two Chechen women blew up Russian airliners in
  • 2004.
  • Facing a continued outcry over privacy, the TSA instead moved forward with a machine known as a “puffer” because it released several bursts of air on the passengers’ clothes and analyzed the dislodged particles for explosives. But after discovering the machines were ineffective in the field and difficult to maintain, the TSA canceled the program in 2006.
  • Around that time, Rapiscan began to beef up its lobbying on Capitol Hill. It opened a Washington, D.C., office and, according to required disclosures, more than tripled its lobbying expenditures in two years, from less than $130,000 in 2006 to nearly $420,000 in 2008. It hired former legislative aides to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., then chairman of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee, and to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.
  • It started a political action committee and began contributing heavily to Price; Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., then head of the homeland security committee; Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., also on that committee; and Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the top Republican on the Senate appropriations committee.
  • In addition, it opened a new North Carolina plant in Price’s district and expanded its operations in Ocean Springs, Miss., and at its headquarters in Torrance, Calif., in Harman’s district.
  • “Less than a month after U.S. Senator Trent Lott and other local leaders helped officially open Rapiscan Systems’ new Ocean Springs factory,” Lott’s office announced in a news release in late 2006, “the company has won a $9.1 million Department of Defense contract.”
  • in 2007, with new privacy filters in place, the TSA began a trial of millimeter-wave and backscatter machines at several major airports, after which the agency opted to go with the millimeter-wave machines. The agency said health concerns weren’t a factor.
  • But with the 2009 federal stimulus package, which provided $300 million for checkpoint security machines, the TSA began deploying backscatters as well. Rapiscan won a $173 million, multiyear contract for the backscatters, with an initial $25 million order for 150 systems to be made in Mississippi.        
  • Chris Fisher on 01 Nov 11
     
    I'm not really sure this is a SciByte story. But it was a good example of a story, with lots of great bits to capture.
Mars Base

Universe is a teeny bit older than thought | Matter & Energy | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...a_teeny_bit_older_than_thought

scibyte87 PlanckConstant

shared by Mars Base on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Launched by the European Space Agency in 2009, the Planck satellite scans the sky for the cosmic microwave background, radiation that dates back to about 380,000 years after the Big Bang
  • Planck is essentially a supersensitive thermometer that can probe the temperature of this radiation to millionths of a degree
  • The red spots in the map are about 1 part in 100,000 hotter than the average temperature, while the blue spots are slightly colder
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the theory of inflation, which posits that, around 10-30 seconds after the Big Bang, the universe briefly expanded faster than the speed of light.
  • Researchers who analyzed the telescope’s data announced that the universe is about 13.81 billion years old, or 80 million years older than previously thought
  • The telescope is still making observations, and in about a year researchers will add
  • data t
Mars Base

After Higgs Boson, scientists prepare for next quantum leap - 0 views

phys.org/...-boson-scientists-quantum.html

scibyte82 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 16 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Seven months after its scientists made a landmark discovery that may explain the mysteries of mass, Europe's top physics lab will take a break from smashing invisible particles to recharge for the next leap
  • From Thursday, the cutting-edge facilities at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) will begin winding down, then go offline on Saturday for an 18-month upgrade
  • scientists said they were 99.9 percent certain they had found the elusive Higgs Boson,
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The upgrade will boost the LHC's energy capacity, essential for CERN to confirm definitively that its boson is the Higgs, and allow it to probe new dimensions such as supersymmetry and dark matter
  • We need to increase the energy to look at more physics.
  • Over the past three years, CERN has slammed protons together more than six million billion times
  • espite the shutdown, CERN's researchers won't be taking a breather, as they must trawl through a vast mound of data
  • think a year from now, we'll have more information on the data accumulated over the past three years
  • Last year, the LHC achieved a collision energy level of eight teraelectron volts, an energy measure used in particle physics—up from seven in 2011
  • After it comes back online in 2015, the goal is to take that level to 13 or even 14, with the LHC expected to run for three or four years before another shutdown.
Mars Base

Europe OKs Funding for Mars Mission with Russia | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-mars-mission-funding.html

scibyte39 mars

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • European Space Agency (ESA
  • agreed to continue funding a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission for launch in 2016
  • Russian Proton rocket donated by the Russian space agency
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • ExoMars is a two-mission project that is considered as a single program at ESA
  • council decision removes an immediate problem for ExoMars, it does not solve the longer-term funding issue that has dogged the project for years
  • ESA wants to have a high-resolution imager on their 2016 mission, but the hitch is they need a commitment from NASA
  • ESA official said that with ExoMars now taking on more scientific instruments, many provided by Russia
Mars Base

A planetary system from the early Universe - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-planetary-early-universe.html

scibyte40 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A group of European astronomers has discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets, which have orbital periods of 290 and 7 days, respectively. Whereas planets usually form within clouds that include heavier chemical elements, the star HIP 11952 contains very little other than hydrogen and helium. The system promises to shed light on planet formation in the early universe – under conditions quite different from those of later planetary systems, such as our own
  • widely accepted that planets are formed in disks of gas and dust that swirl around young stars
  • many open questions remain
  • ...25 more annotations...
  • what it actually takes to make a planet
  • With a sample of, by now, more than 750 confirmed planets
  • astronomers have some idea of the diversity among planetary systems
  • certain trends have emerged
  • Statistically, a star that contains more “metals” - in astronomical parlance, the term includes all chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium – is more likely to have planets.
  • suggests a key question
  • Originally, the universe contained almost no chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium
  • what about planet formation under conditions like those of the very early universe
  • ? If metal-rich stars are more likely to form planets
  • stars with a metal content so low that they cannot form planets at all
  • then when
  • should we expect the very first planets to form
  • a group of astronomers
  • has discovered a planetary system that could help provide answers to those questions
  • part of a survey targeting especially metal-poor stars
  • identified two giant planets around a star known by its catalogue number as HIP 11952
  • at a distance of about 375 light-years from Earth
  • these planets
  • are not unusual
  • What is unusual is the fact that they orbit such an extremely metal-poor and, in particular, such a very old star!
  • planets around such a star should be extremely rare
  • Compared to other exoplanetary systems
  • not only one that is extremely metal-poor
  • at an estimated age of 12.8 billion years, also one of the oldest systems known so far.
  • In 2010 we found the first example of such a metal-poor system, HIP 13044. Back then, we thought it might be a unique case; now, it seems as if there might be more planets around metal-poor stars than expected
Mars Base

Understanding what's up with the Higgs boson - 0 views

phys.org/...2012-06-higgs-boson.html

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 29 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, will hold a seminar early in the morning on July 4 to announce the latest results from ATLAS and CMS, two major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that are searching for the Higgs boson
Mars Base

CERN physicists report strong evidence of Higgs boson (w/ live video from CERN) - 0 views

phys.org/...-strong-evidence-particle.html

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Joe Incandela, leader of one of the teams known as CMS, told scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, that his team of 2,100 scientists has "observed" a new particle that is a boson
  • data as consistent with the elusive Higgs boson
  • stopped short of definitively declaring discovery of the Higgs boson.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • they have discovered a new particle that is consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson
  • which is believed to give all matter in the universe size and shape
  • We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV
  • it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found
  • A more complete picture of today’s observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.
  • The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle
  • LHC will continue running until the end of this year, and is expected to deliver twice as much data as we have so far
  • After that, it will be upgraded, and will be able to run at higher energy, which will help with the measurements.
  • . In the Standard Model (the simplest theory which describes the fundamental subatomic particles and the forces between them) it is hypothesized that there is only one Higgs Boson
  • in the Supersymmetric Model (which, unlike the Standard Model, incorporates the physics of dark energy and the full theory of gravitation) there could be up to five Higgs Boson
  • how will they know if it is one of many?
  • detailed decay properties of a supersymmetric Higgs Boson are different from those of the Standard Model version. Therefore, with sufficiently precise data we will be able to tell the difference
  • Supersymmetry is an extension of the Standard Model, rather than a replacement
  • The Standard Model will always remain as an excellent description of Nature at energies below those explored at the LHC
  • similar to the way in which Einstein’s General Relativity is the best description of very strong gravitational fields, but Newton’s gravity works perfectly well for almost all normal situations.
Mars Base

Scientist: Russia's Failed Mars Moon Probe Worth a Second Try | Russia Phobos-Grunt Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/bos-grunt-spacecraft-life.html

Phobos-Grunt

shared by Mars Base on 09 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • 08 December 2011
  • European Space Agency to resume tracking Phobos-Grunt this week, after calling off tracking last Friday (Dec. 2),
  • the probe was said to have shown signs of uncontrolled tumbling, yet reports in recent days suggest that its attitude control may now be working
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • unless Phobos-Grunt not only can be contacted, but can be made to accept commands to boost its orbit, the spacecraft will reenter the atmosphere in early January.
  • it is possible that the vibrations and tumbling that will set in as the speeding craft begins interacting significantly with mesospheric air will dislodge the vehicle's most famous component — the return capsule that was to carry a 200-gram sample from the Phobosian surface back to Earth —  sparing it a fiery death
  • the capsule might make a survivable reentry trajectory, miss the oceans, and come down on land, just as it was designed to do
Chris Fisher

Russia wants to build manned base on moon - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - ... - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/...technology_and_science-space

russia base moon

shared by Chris Fisher on 22 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Russia is talking to NASA and the European Space Agency about building manned research colonies on the moon, according to Russian news reports.
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