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Mars Base

NASA - NASA Researchers Discover Ancient Microbes in Antarctic Lake - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...12-408_Lake_Vida_Microbes.html

scibyte73 AntarcticLake

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • In one of the most remote lakes of Antarctica, nearly 65 feet beneath the icy surface, scientists
  • , have uncovered a community of bacteria
  • one of Earth's darkest, saltiest and coldest habitats
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • increase our limited knowledge of how life can sustain itself in these extreme environments on our own planet and beyond.
  • Lake Vida, the largest of several unique lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen, is mostly frozen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth
  • approximately six times saltier than seawater
  • average temperature is minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit
  • the brine harbors a surprisingly diverse and abundant variety of bacteria that survive without a current source of energy from the sun
  • Previous studies of Lake Vida dating back to 1996 indicate the brine and its inhabitants have been isolated from outside influences for more than 3,000 years.
  • the best analog we have for possible ecosystems in the subsurface waters of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa
  • collaborators
  • developed stringent protocols and specialized equipment for their 2005 and 2010 field campaigns to sample from the lake brine while avoiding contaminating the pristine ecosystem
  • expands our knowledge of environmental limits for life and helps define new niches of habitability
  • To sample unique environments such as this, researchers must work under secure, sterile tents on the lake's surface
  • The tents kept the site and equipment clean as researchers drilled ice cores, collected samples of the salty brine residing in the lake ice and assessed the chemical qualities of the water and its potential for harboring and sustaining life
  • analyses suggest chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying iron-rich sediments generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen
  • may provide the energy needed to support the brine's diverse microbial life.
  • Additional research is under way to analyze the abiotic, chemical interactions between the Lake Vida brine and its sediment
  • investigating the microbial community by using different genome sequencing approaches
Mars Base

Auditory test predicts coma awakening | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...y_test_predicts_coma_awakening

scibyte73 coma

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • A coma patient’s chances of surviving and waking up could be predicted by changes in the brain’s ability to discriminate sounds, new research suggests
  • Recovery from coma has been linked to auditory function before, but it wasn’t clear whether function depended on the time of assessment
  • previous studies tested patients several days or weeks after comas set in
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • new study looks at the critical phase during the first 48 hours
  • At early stages, comatose brains can still distinguish between different sound patterns
  • this ability progresses over time can predict whether a coma patient will survive and ultimately awaken
  • very promising tool for prognosis
  • am led by neuroscientist
  • of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied 30 coma patients who had experienced heart attacks that deprived their brains of oxygen
  • All the patients underwent therapeutic hypothermia, a standard treatment to minimize brain damage, in which their bodies were cooled to 33° Celsius for 24 hours
  • played sounds for the patients and recorded their brain activity using scalp electrodes
  • once in hypothermic conditions during the first 24 hours of coma
  • again a day later at normal body temperature
  • sounds were a series of pure tones interspersed with sounds of different pitch, duration or location
  • brain signals revealed how well patients could discriminate the sounds, compared with five healthy subjects
  • After three months, the coma patients had either died or awoken
  • . All the patients whose discrimination improved by the second day of testing survived and awoke from their comas
  • many of those whose sound discrimination deteriorated by the second day did not survive
  • all of the patients showed signs of auditory discrimination
  • suggests that residual auditory function itself does not predict recovery
  • rather, it’s the progression of function over time that is predictive.
  • The study couldn’t distinguish whether auditory function initially was preserved due to the hypothermia treatment or was related merely to the early stage of coma
  • scientists speculate that distracting neural jabber may have been reduced during the hypothermia, making it easier for the patients’ brains to separate sounds
  • now running a follow-up study with 120 coma patients
  • whether the results can be replicated in a bigger population
  • s test could give information about patients who will survive during the first two days of coma
Mars Base

Water Ice Found at Mercury's North Pole | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/r-ice-messenger-discovery.html

scibyte73 mercury

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Confirming decades of suspicion, a NASA spacecraft has spotted vast deposits of water ice on the planet closest to the sun
  • Temperatures on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius
  • around the north pole, in areas permanently shielded from the sun's heat
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Messenger spacecraft found a mix of frozen water and possible organic materials
  • Evidence of big pockets of ice is visible from a latitude of 85 degrees north up to the pole
  • smaller deposits scattered as far away as 65 degrees north.
  • NASA will direct Messenger's observation toward that area in the coming months — when the angle of the sun allows — to get a better look
  • Researchers also believe the south pole has ice, but Messenger's orbit has not allowed them to obtain extensive measurements of that region yet
  • Messenger will spiral closer to the planet in 2014 and 2015 as it runs out of fuel
  • Speculation about water ice on Mercury dates back more than 20 years
  • In 1991, Earth-bound astronomers fired radar signals to Mercury and received results showing there could be ice at both poles
  • reinforced by 1999 measurements using the more powerful Arecibo Observatorymicrowave beam in Puerto Rico
  • Radar pictures beamed back to New Mexico's Very Large Array showed white areas that researchers suspected was water ice.
  • The laser is weak — about the strength of a flashlight — but just powerful enough to distinguish bright icy areas from the darker, surrounding Mercury regolith
  • Messenger's neutron spectrometer spotted hydrogen, which is a large component of water ice. But the temperature profile unexpectedly showed that dark, volatile materials – consistent with climes in which organics survive – are mixing in with the ice
  • Organic materials are life's ingredients, though they do not necessarily lead to life itself
  • the presence of organics is also suspected on airless, distant worlds such as Pluto
  • suspect Mercury's water ice is coated with a 4-inch (10 centimeters) blanket of "thermally insulating material
Mars Base

No Huge Discovery by Mars Rover Curiosity Yet | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/uriosity-discovery-rumors.html

scibyte73 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Contrary to rampant speculation, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has not made an earth-shaking find
  • many people assumed that Curiosity had detected organic compounds in the Martian soil.
  • that's not the case, officials said.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • At this point in the mission, the instruments on the rover have not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics
  • The news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil,
  • While no huge news is apparently in the offing on Monday, NASA has high hopes for Curiosity and its mission.
Mars Base

NASA - Wind and Radiation on Mars - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...curiosity20121115.html

scibyte72 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • pictures haven't turned up any dust devils.
  • With Thanksgiving coming up we've been preparing a few days worth of commands to send up to the rover to keep it busy while people here take some much needed time off
Mars Base

DARPA Wants Amateur Help Tracking Space Junk | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/k-darpa-amateur-astronomy.html

scibyte72 Darpa

shared by Mars Base on 21 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • The U.S. military is launching a far-out neighborhood watch. But instead of warding off burglars, these  amateur watchdogs are tracking orbital debris and possible satellite collisions in Earth orbit.
  • The sky-monitoring project, called SpaceView, is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program that enrolls the talents of amateur astronomers
  • SpaceView should provide more diverse data from different geographic locations
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  • SpaceView is envisioned as a long-term partnership. This could potentially include time-sharing on telescopes, upgraded hardware at the astronomer’s site or financial compensation
  • SpaceView hopes to engage amateur astronomers by purchasing remote access to an already in-use telescope or by providing a telescope to selected astronomers
  • Telescopes used for astrophotography, asteroid hunting or simply high-quality astronomy are well suited for SpaceView’s needs
  • this new program provides the means to upgrade a skywatcher’s site to a state-of-the-art fully automated obser
  • in late 2013, the process will start to select the first dozen members of the project
Mars Base

LHC Experiment Yields No Insight into Post-Higgs Physics | Observations, Scientific Ame... - 0 views

blogs.scientificamerican.com/...nsight-into-post-higgs-physics

scibyte72 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • the Standard Model has survived another test
  • the new data limit the possibilities for many hypothesized extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics, including the concept of supersymmetry
  • observed a new kind of particle behavior
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • supersymmetry—the proposal that every elementary particle has a heavier, as-yet-unseen cousin
  • The LHC has yet to find any evidence for supersymmetric particles of any kind
  • Supersymmetry is not ruled out by our measurement, but it is strongly constrained
  • only certain flavors of supersymmetry jibe with the new data
  • Failure to find one variant of a theory is not evidence against other variants,”
  • If you’re looking for your lost keys, failing to find them in the kitchen, living room and bedroom is not evidence against their being somewhere else in the house
  • ry rare decay of a strange beauty particle
  • into two particles called muons. (A muon is a charged particle akin to a heavyweight electron
  • The rarity of the decay makes it difficult to observe
  • the reigning theory of subatomic particles and forces, the Standard Model of particle physics, predicts just how often the effect should occur
  • The LHCb data (pdf) match up well with the Standard Model predictions
Mars Base

Astronauts Could Survive Mars Radiation, Curiosity Rover Finds | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/osity-astronaut-radiation.html

scibyte72 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Radiation levels at the Martian surface appear to be roughly similar to those experienced by astronauts in low-Earth orbit
  • add more support
  • that astronauts can indeed function on the Red Planet for limited stretches of time.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • findings demonstrate that Mars' atmosphere, though just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth, does provide a significant amount of shielding
  • lacks a magnetic field, which gives our planet another layer of protection.)
  • Radiation at the Martian surface is about half as high as the levels Curiosity experienced during its nine-month cruise through deep space
  • findings are preliminary, as Curiosity is just three months into a planned two-year prime mission
  • team have not yet put hard numbers on the Martian radiation levels
  • hoping to release that at the
  • American Geophysical Union's huge conference in San Francisco
  • from Dec. 3-7. "
  • One key to understanding the big picture will be documenting the effects of big solar storms, which can blast huge clouds of charged particles into space
  • Curiosity flew through one such cloud on its way to Mars but has yet to experience one on the surface
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover Preparing for Thanksgiving Activities - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte72 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • drove for the first time after spending several weeks in soil-scooping activities at one location
  • On Friday, Nov. 16, the rover drove 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) to get within arm's reach of a rock called "Rocknest 3."
  • touched that rock with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on its arm, and took two 10-minute APXS readings of data about the chemical elements in the rock
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  • Then Curiosity stowed its arm and drove 83 feet (25.3 meters) eastward toward a target called "Point Lake
  • this is
  • first 'touch-and-go' on the same day
  • good sign that the rover team is getting comfortable with more complex operational planning
  • During a Thanksgiving break, the team will use Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) from Point Lake to examine possible routes and targets to the east
  • priority is to choose a rock for the first use of the rover's hammering drill, which will collect samples of powder from rock interiors
  • the sample-handling mechanism on the rover's arm is still holding some soil from the fifth and final scoop collected at Rocknest
  • so it can be available for analysis by instruments within the rover if scientists choose that option in coming days.
Mars Base

Curiosity providing new weather and radiation data about Mars - 0 views

phys.org/...11-curiosity-weather-mars.html

scibyte72 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 16 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • might
  • During the first 12 weeks after Curiosity landed
  • researchers analyzed data from more than 20 atmospheric events with at least one characteristic of a whirlwind recorded
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • can include a brief dip in air pressure, a change in wind direction, a change in wind speed, a rise in air temperature or a dip in ultraviolet light reaching the rover
  • Two of the events included all five characteristics.
  • dust-devil tracks and shadows have been seen from orbit, but those visual clues have not been seen in Gale Crater
  • possibility is that vortex whirlwinds arise at Gale without lifting as much dust as they do elsewhere
  • The rover is just north of a mountain called Mount Sharp
  • air movement up and down the mountain's slope governed wind direction, dominant winds generally would be north-south
  • east-west winds appear to predominate. The rim of Gale Crater may be a factor
  • If we don't see a change in wind patterns as Curiosity heads up the slope of Mount Sharp—that would be a surprise."
  • may be seeing more of the wind blowing along the depression in between the two slopes, rather than up and down the slope of Mount Sharp
  • The atmosphere provides a level of shielding, and so charged-particle radiation is less when the atmosphere is thicker. Overall, Mars' atmosphere reduces the radiation dose compared to what we saw during the flight to Mars
Mars Base

New Rogue Planet Found, Closest to our Solar System - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...nd-closest-to-our-solar-system

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • its comparative proximity, along with the absence of a bright star very close to it, has allowed the team to study its atmosphere in great detail
  • CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 (CFBDSIR2149 for short
  • alling the object a rogue planet candidate for now, as they want to study it further to confirm its free-floating status
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • This is the first isolated planetary mass object ever identified in a moving group
  • Looking for planets around their stars is akin to studying a firefly sitting one centimetre away from a distant, powerful car headlight
  • If CFBDSIR2149 is not associated with the AB Doradus Moving Group, the astronomers say it is trickier to be sure of its nature and properties, and it may instead be characterized as a small brown dwarf
Mars Base

'Orphan' Alien Planet Found Nearby Without Parent Star | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ue-alien-planet-discovery.html

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • The free-floating object
  • is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter,
  • Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • And if the discovery team is right about CFBDSIR2149's age, the body is likely a planet, with an average temperature of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius), researchers said
  • There's still a slight chance that CFBDSIR2149 is a brown dwarf 
  • Additional observations should help decide the matter.
  • With a good distance measurement and a more accurate proper motion, we will be able to increase (or decrease) the probability that it is indeed a planet
  • One 2011 study, for example, estimated that rogue worlds outnumber "normal" planets with obvious host stars by at least 50 percent throughout the Milky Way
  • The discovery of a starless alien planet would not be shocking
  • In the last year or so, astronomers have spotted a number of such orphan worlds
Mars Base

Astronomers find 'homeless' planet wandering through space - 0 views

phys.org/...ers-homeless-planet-space.html

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Over the past few years, several objects of this type have been identified, but their existence could not be established without scientific confirmation of their age
  • appears to be part of a group of very young stars known as the AB Doradus Moving Group
  • This group is unique in that it is made up of around thirty starts that all have the same age, have the same composition and that move together through space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • the link between the planet and AB Doradus that enabled us to deduce its age and classify it as a planet
  • the researchers obtained a series of infrared images
  • to deduce its mass, its temperature, and of particular note, its age
  • found to be between 50 and 120 millions years old, with a temperature of approximately 400 degrees celsius, and a mass four to seven times that of Jupiter
  • Objects more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter are not considered to be planets but rather Brown dwarfs, as it is this is the minimum amount of mass required for the deuterium at the heart of a star to achieve fusion
  • This object was discovered during a scan that covered the equivalent of 1000 times the surface of the full moon
  • observed hundreds of millions of stars and planets, but we only found one homeless planet in our neighbourhood
Mars Base

Kepler wraps prime mission, begins extension - 0 views

phys.org/...r-prime-mission-extension.html

scibyte72 Kepler

shared by Mars Base on 15 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • NASA is marking two milestones in the search for planets like Earth; the successful completion of the Kepler Space Telescope's three-and-a-half-year prime mission and the beginning of an extended mission that could last as long as four years.
  • identify more than 2,300 planet candidates and confirm more than 100 planets
  • hundreds of Earth-size planet candidates have been found
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Highlights from the prime mission
  • confirmed the discovery of the first planetary system with more than one planet transiting the same star
  • the discovery of the first unquestionably rocky planet outside the solar system
  • 1.4 times the size of Earth
  • confirmed the existence of a world with a double sunset
  • discoveries of six additional worlds orbiting double stars further demonstrated planets can form and persist in the environs of a double-star system
  • first planet in a habitable zone
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • February 2012
  • transiting planet candidates
  • total of 2,321
  • Recently
  • The joint effort of amateur astronomers and scientists led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double star
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