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Mars Base

Students: Asteroid 1999 RQ36 Needs a New Name! - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...oid-1999-rq36-needs-a-new-name

scibyte62 Asteroid

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • NASA and the Planetary Society are giving students worldwide the opportunity to name an asteroid
  • an upcoming NASA mission will return samples of this asteroid to Earth
  • Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will be heading to an asteroid, currently named (101955) 1999 RQ36
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Scheduled to launch in 2016
  • NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025
  • competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world
  • Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long
  • must include a short explanation and rationale for the name
  • Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012
  • sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington; and the University of Arizona in Tucson
  • A panel will review proposed asteroid names. First prize will be awarded to the student who recommends a name that is approved by the International Astronomical Union Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature
  • asteroid was discovered in 1999
  • received its designation of (101955) 1999 RQ36 from the Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Mars Base

Disintegrating Alien Planet Has Comet-Like Tail | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/n-planet-dust-tail-kepler.html

scibyte62 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Astronomers have found a dusty tail streaming off a faraway alien planet, suggesting that the tiny, scorching-hot world is indeed falling apart.
  • In May, researchers announced the detection of a possibly distintegrating exoplanet, a roughly Mercury-size world being boiled away by the intense heat of its parent star
  • a different team has found strong evidence in support of the find
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Both studies used observations from NASA's Kepler space telescope
  • completing an orbit every 15 hours
  • surface temperatures estimated to be around 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,982 degrees Celsius).
  • predicted that the planet is likely surrounded by a huge veil of dust and gas
  • In the new study, a different team
  • affirms the existence of this planetary dust tail
  • found clear signals that
  • light is being scattered and absorbed by large amounts of dust.
  • Further work with different instruments could help nail down just what the planet is made of
  • By observing the dust clouds in different colors, something Kepler cannot do, we will be able to determine the amount and the composition of the dust and estimate its lifetime
  • "As the evaporation peels the planet like an onion, we can now see what used to be the inside of a planet."
Mars Base

Humans and Tigers Can Timeshare Territory - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...and-tigers-can-timeshare-.html

scibyte62 Tiger

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • A field study of tigers in Nepal suggests that, in some cases, people and animals can coexist by "timesharing" the same territory
  • Nepal's Chitwan National Park, established in 1973, covers about 1000 square kilometers and is one of only 28 reserves in the world that can support more than 25 breeding female tigers—likely the smallest number needed to maintain genetic diversity
  • Local residents
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • collect firewood, soldiers patrol forest roads to deter poachers and other criminals, and a growing number of ecotourists visit the area each year
  • conducted their research from January through May—during the dry season before the monsoon rains began—in both 2010 and 2011, each year deploying at least 75 camera traps spaced no more than 1 kilometer apart.
  • And overall tiger numbers in the park didn't drop when more humans were around: In 2010, the team estimates, the area hosted about 4.4 tigers per 100 square kilometers. The next year, that number jumped by about 40%—even though the number of humans measured by the “camera traps” rose by 55%.
  • analyses show that tigers were more likely to be found at sites away from human settlemen
  • also found that the tigers in and around Chitwan park were much more likely to be active at night than tigers living elsewher
  • Timesharing the environment might not work well with many threatened species or in many areas
  • the notion of humans and endangered animals sharing the same terrain by shifting their behavior—and particularly by shifting when each species uses the habitat—should be incorporated into conservation plans when it makes sense
Mars Base

Study: Tigers take the night shift to coexist with people - 0 views

phys.org/...ight-shift-coexist-people.html

scibyte62 Tiger

shared by Mars Base on 04 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Tigers
  • a new study indicates that the feared and revered carnivores in and around a world-renowned park in Nepal are taking the night shift to better coexist with their human neighbors.
  • Conventional conservation wisdom is that tigers need lots of people-free space, which often leads to people being relocated or their access to resources compromised to make way for tigers
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • home to about 121 tigers. People live on the park's borders
  • analysis of the thousands of images show that people and tigers are walking the same paths, albeit at different times
  • Tigers typically move around at all times of the day and night
  • discovered that the tigers had become creatures of the night.
  • camera's infrared lights document a pronounced shift toward nocturnal activity
  • People in Nepal generally avoid the forests at night
  • it appears tiger population numbers are holding steady despite an increase in human population size
  • Tigers need to use the same space as people if they are to have a viable long-term future. What we're learning in Chitwan is that tigers seem to be adapting to make it work."
  • There appears to be a middle ground where you might actually be able to protect the species at high densities and give people access to forest goods they need to live
Mars Base

NASA's Voyager 1 Spacecraft May Not Be Near Edge of Solar System After All | Observatio... - 0 views

blogs.scientificamerican.com/...edge-of-solar-system-after-all

scibyte62 Voyager1

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Nearly eight years ago, the spacecraft crossed into the heliosheath, the outer region of the solar system where the solar wind (plasma from the sun) begins to slow due to pushback from interstellar plasma
  • in 2010, the velocity of the solar wind at Voyager 1’s back unexpectedly dropped all the way to zero
  • Researchers expected that
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • No one knows the thickness of the heliosheath, so no one knows how soon Voyager 1 might reach its outer edg
  • “Whether these very new data are another feature of the broad transition region that Voyager 1 has been in for the past two years, or a new region or boundary of the heliosphere, remains to be seen.”
Mars Base

Video: Cheetah Robot Sets a New Land Speed Record | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...bot-sets-new-land-speed-record

scibyte62 BosonDynamics

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Boston Dynamics' Cheetah
  • fastest a robot had ever run
  • was coursing along at 18 miles per hour
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • that up to a frightening 28.3 MPH.
  • Usain Bolt's peak speed during the 100-meter dash was 27.78 MPH
  • Cheetah, for now, is tethered to an external power supply, and runs on an indoor treadmill.
  • Next year, however, Boston Dynamics plans to unleash Wildcat (pictured above), a Cheetah that's designed to run untethered.
Mars Base

Video: A Ball of Metal Bounces Off a Thin Sheet of Super-Tough Hydrogel | Popular Science - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...ts-ball-metal-without-breaking

scibyte62 Hydrogel

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers
  • , have already tried to make them autonomous self-healers, ready to repair themselves when they break
  • hydrogels
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • what if they just didn't break at all under strain
  • Toughness is a major plus for hydrogels
  • , created the gel from two polymers: alginate and polyacrylamide
  • The ionic bonds of the alginate molecules break and reform under pressure, spreading the energy of an impact over a wider area
  • protects the covalent bonds in the polyacrylamide molecules, which hold the gel together
  • A hydrogel as tough as rubber that can stretch 20 times its normal length
Mars Base

Endeavour to Take to the Skies One Last Time - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ake-to-the-skies-one-last-time

scibyte62 shuttle

shared by Mars Base on 08 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Endeavour, mounted atop NASA’s modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), will become the last Space Shuttle orbiter to soar aloft when it departs Monday, Sept. 17, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a three-day flight to Los Angeles International Airport.
  • In cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, the SCA is scheduled to conduct low-level flyovers at about 1,500 feet above many locations along the planned flight path, including Cape Canaveral, Stennis Space Center, New Orleans and stopovers in both Houston and Edwards Air Force Base in California
  • also planned before landing at LAX on the 20th
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Flyovers of Sacramento and San Francisco ar
  • The orbiter then will travel through Inglewood and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to the California Science Center, arriving on the evening of Oct. 13
  • Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on permanent display in the science center’s Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion
  • Endeavour (OV-105) was the last shuttle orbiter to be constructed for NASA. Endeavour completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit, and orbited Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles.
  • s #spottheshuttle and #OV105
Mars Base

Treatment with fungi makes a modern violin sound like a Stradiavarius - 0 views

phys.org/...dern-violin-stradiavarius.html

scibyte62 Violin Stradivarius

shared by Mars Base on 08 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Low density, high speed of sound and a high modulus of elasticity – these qualities are essential for ideal violin tone wood.
  • In the late 17th and early 18th century the famous violin maker Antonio Stradivari used a special wood that had grown in the cold period between 1645 and 1715
  • long winters and the cool summers, the wood grew especially slowly and evenly, creating low density and a high modulus of elasticity
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • A good violin depends not only on the expertise of the violin maker, but also on the quality of the wood that is used.
  • Swiss wood researcher
  • has succeeded in modifying the wood for a violin through treatment with special fungi
  • making it sound indistinguishably similar to a Stradivarius
  • discovered two species of fungi
  • which decay Norway spruce and sycamore – the two important kinds of wood used for violin making – to such an extent that their tonal quality is improved
  • Normally fungi reduce the density of the wood, but at the same time they unfortunately reduce the speed with which the sound waves travel through the wood
  • unique feature of these fungi is that they gradually degrade the cell walls, thus inducing a thinning of the walls
  • , a stiff scaffold structure remains via which the sound waves can still travel directly
  • the wood remains just as resistant to strain as before the fungal treatment
  • Before the wood is further processed to a violin, it is treated with ethylene oxide gas. "No fungus can survive that
  • mycowood (wood treated with wood decay fungi
  • on September 7, 2012 in
  • reported on his research and gave a preview of what his wood treatment method could mean, particularly for young violinists
  • In 2009 the violins were played in a blind, behind-the-curtain test versus a genuine Stradivarius from 1711
  • Both the jury of experts and the majority of the audience thought that the mycowood violin that Schwarze had treated with fungi for nine months was the actual Strad
  • Currently Professor Schwarze is working on an interdisciplinary project to develop a quality-controlled treatment for violin wood, with successful, reliable and reproducible results
  • cessful implementation of biotechnological methods for treating soundboard wood could in the future give young musicians the opportunity to play on a violin with the sound quality of an expensive – and for most musicians unaffordable – Stradivarius
Mars Base

Higgs boson: landmark announcement clears key hurdle - 0 views

phys.org/...boson-landmark-key-hurdle.html

scibyte62 scibyte63 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 10 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • The announcement two months ago that physicists have discovered a particle consistent with the famous Higgs boson cleared a formal hurdle on Monday with publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
  • Although CERN's announcement was never doubted, it still had to be vetted by peers and then published in an established journal to meet benchmarks of accuracy and openness.
  • Further work is being carried out to confirm whether the new particle is the famous Higgs
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