SciByte

HD 106906 b

throws a wrench in planet formation theories

no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see

It is thought that planets close to their stars, like Earth, coalesce from small asteroid-like bodies born in the primordial disk of dust and gas that surrounds a forming star

this process acts too slowly to grow giant planets far from their star

Another proposed mechanism is that giant planets can form from a fast, direct collapse of disk material

primordial disks rarely contain enough mass in their outer reaches to allow a planet like HD 106906 b to form

Several alternative hypotheses have been put forward, including formation like a mini binary star system

binary star system can be formed when two adjacent clumps of gas collapse more or less independently to form stars, and these stars are close enough to each other to exert a mutual gravitation attraction and bind them together in an orb

It is possible that in the case of the HD 106906 system the star and planet collapsed independently from clumps of gas, but for some reason the planet's progenitor clump was starved for material and never grew large enough to ignite and become a star

one problem with this scenario is that the mass ratio of the two stars in a binary system is typically no more than 10-to-1.

the mass ratio is more than 100-to-1,

extreme mass ratio is not predicted from binary star formation theories – just like planet formation theory predicts that we cannot form planets so far from the host star

is also of

interest because researchers can still detect the remnant "debris disk" of material left over from planet and star formation.

potential to help us disentangle the various formation models

Future observations of the planet's orbital motion and the primary star's debris disk may help answer that question

At only 13 million years old, this young planet still glows from the residual heat of its formation

Because at 2,700 Fahrenheit (about 1,500 degrees Celsius) the planet is much cooler than its host star

it emits most of its energy as infrared rather than visible light

Earth

formed 4.5 billion years ago

about 350 times older than HD 106906 b.

Direct imaging observations require exquisitely sharp images, akin to those delivered by the Hubble Space Telescope

To reach this resolution from the ground requires a technology called Adaptive Optics, or AO

The team used the new Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) system and Clio2 thermal infrared camera

mounted on the 6.5 meter-diameter Magellan telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile to take the discovery image

MagAO was able to utilize its special Adaptive Secondary Mirror

585 actuators, each moving 1,000 times a second, to remove the blurring of the atmosphere

optimized for thermal infrared wavelengths, where giant planets are brightest compared to their host stars

planets are most easily imaged at these wavelengths

The team was able to confirm that the planet is moving together with its host star by examining Hubble Space Telescope data taken eight years prior for another research program

This planet discovery is particularly exciting because it is in orbit so far from its parent star. This leads to many

questions about its formation history and composition

could help researchers provide earlier warnings

During their study

scientists underwent a 50-day expedition on the Japanese drilling vessel Chikyu

They then drilled three holes in the Japan Trench area in order to study the rupture zone of the 2011 earthquake

a fault in the ocean floor where two of Earth's major tectonic plates meet deep beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

The conventional view among geologists

has been that deep beneath the seafloor, where rocks are strong, movements of the plates can generate a lot of elastic rebound

Closer to the surface of the seafloor, where rocks are softer and less compressed, this rebound effect was thought to taper off

In fact

the largest displacement of plates before the 2011 tsunami occurred in 1960 off the coast of Chile

That's when a powerful earthquake displaced seafloor plates by an average of 20 meters

The Tohoku earthquake, in contrast, displaced its own plates by 30 to 50 meters.

So what caused this unexpectedly violent slip

the fault itself is very thin--less than five meters thick in the area sampled.

makes it the thinnest plate boundary on Earth.

In addition, clay deposits that fill the narrow fault are made of extremely fine sediment, which makes it extremely slippery

these findings don't just show researchers a bit more about the past; they also have implications for the future

Other subduction zones in the northwest Pacific where this type of clay is present--from Russia's Kamchatka peninsula to the Aleutian Islands--may also be capable of generating similar, huge earthquakes

at a distance of 13 feet, 3 inches (4.04 meters) from the laser and telescope on rover's mast

Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam) uses the infrared laser to excite material in a pinhead-size spot on the target into a glowing, ionized gas, called plasma.

ChemCam observes that spark with the telescope and analyzes the spectrum of light to identify elements in the target

As of the start of December, ChemCam has fired its laser on Mars more than 102,000 times, at more than 420 rock or soil targets

The instrument has also returned more than 1,600 images taken by its remote micro-imager camera

Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second

The technique used by ChemCam, called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, has been used to assess composition of targets in other extreme environments, such as inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor

It seems likely that the ocean has something to do with the chaos terrain, especially given the presence of salt there

To figure that out, however, we’d have to know something about how water circulates in that ocean

Circulation in the ocean would be driven by the heat from Europa’s interior

It’s been thought that the big-picture pattern might look something like the atmosphere of Jupiter, with alternating bands of eastward or westward flow.

difficulty of studying Europa’s

Chang’e 3 is due to make a powered descent to the Moon’s surface on Dec. 14, firing the landing thrusters at an altitude of 15 km (9 mi) for a soft landing in a preselected area called the Bay of Rainbows or Sinus Iridum region.

The Bay of Rainbows is a lava filled crater located in the upper left portion of the moon as seen from Earth.

The ancient fresh water lake at the Yellowknife Bay area inside the Gale Crater landing site explored earlier this year

existed for periods spanning perhaps millions to tens of millions of years in length

before eventually evaporating completely after Mars lost its thick atmosphere.

the lake may have existed until as recently as 3.7 Billion years ago, much later than researchers expected

which means that life had a longer and better chance

before it was transformed into its current cold, arid state.

Researchers also announced that they are shifting the missions focus from searching for habitable environments to searching for organic molecules – the building blocks of all life as we know it.

the team believes they have found a way to increase the chance of finding organics preserved in the sedimentary rock layers

a mission that is now dedicated to the search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon

the ancient lake at Yellowknife Bay was likely about 30 miles long and 3 miles wide.

The shallow ancient lake may have been about 30 miles long by 3 miles wide (50 by 5 kilometers

the research team estimates that the lake existed for at least tens of thousands of years — and perhaps much longer, albeit on a possibly on-and-off basis

for times when the lake might have been dry, the groundwater's still there

The lack of weathering on Gale Crater's rim suggests that the area was cold when the lake existed

raising the possibility that a layer of ice covered the lake on a permanent or occasional basis

These are entirely viable habitable environments for chemolithoautotrophs

Curiosity was not designed to hunt for signs of life on Mars

Located off Australia, China, North America and South Africa, the newly discovered fresh water reserves can be used to supply water to coastal cities

this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900

groundwater scientists were very well aware of the presence of the freshwater reserves beneath the seafloor, but have assumed it to occur during unusual and extraordinary situations

this latest study reveals that the fresh and brackish aquifers under the seabed are a common phenomena

formed hundreds to thousands of years ago when the sea level was lower than what it is currently

rainwater penetrated into the ground and filled up the water tables in regions that are currently under sea

Nearly 20,000 years ago, the sea levels rose, the ice caps began melting and the areas were covered by oceans

Most of the aquifers today are protected from seawater by blankets of clay and sediments that are piled on top

These aquifers are not different from those found below land. Their salinity is low due to which they can be easily converted into drinking water

researchers propose two ways to gain access to these freshwater reserves

either be by constructing a platform and drilling into the seabed, which is expensive

Or drill from the mainland that is at a closer distance from the aquifer

Freshwater under the seabed is much less salty than seawater

it can be converted to drinking water with less energy than seawater desalination

also leave us with a lot less hyper-saline water

freshwater offshore should remember is that the water reserves are non-renewable and should be used carefully

and how it can learn very similar tasks without interference between them.

The key

is that neurons are constantly changing their connections with other neurons

not all of the changes are functionally relevant - they simply allow the brain to explore many possible ways to execute a certain skill, such as a new tennis stroke

As the brain learns a new motor skill, neurons form circuits that can produce the desired output

according to this theory

As the brain explores different solutions, neurons can become specialized for specific tasks

brain is always trying to find the configurations that balance everything so you can do two tasks, or three tasks, or however many you're learning

Perfection is usually not achieved on the first try, so feedback from each effort helps the brain to find better solutions

complications arise when the brain is trying to learn many different skills at once

Because the same distributed network controls related motor tasks, new modifications to existing patterns can interfere with previously learned skills.

particularly tricky when you're learning very similar things

such as two different tennis strokes

computer chip,

instructions for each task would be stored in a different location on the chip.

the brain is not organized like a computer chip. Instead, it is massively parallel and highly connected - each neuron connects to, on average, about 10,000 other neurons

That connectivity offers an advantage, however, because it allows the brain to test out so many possible solutions to achieve combinations of tasks

neurons

have a very low signal to noise ratio, meaning that they receive about as much useless information as useful input from their neighbors

The constant changes in these connections,

researchers call hyperplasticity

balanced by another inherent trait of

Most models of neural activity don't include noise, but the MIT team says noise is a critical element of the brain's learning ability

This model helps to explain how the brain can learn new things without unlearning previously acquired skills

the paper shows is that, counterintuitively, if you have neural networks and they have a high level of random noise, that actually helps instead of hindering the stability problem

Without noise, the brain's hyperplasticity would overwrite existing memories too easily

low plasticity would not allow any new skills to be learned, because the tiny changes in connectivity would be drowned out by all of the inherent noise

The constantly changing connections explain why skills can be forgotten unless they are practiced often, especially if they overlap with other routinely performed tasks

skills such as riding a bicycle, which is not very similar to other common skills, are retained more easily

Once you've learned something, if it doesn't overlap or intersect with other skills, you will forget it but so slowly that it's essentially permanent

researchers are now investigating whether this type of model could also explain how the brain forms memories of events, as well as motor skills

it may require that astronauts go outside the International Space Station at some point to replace the pump module with a spare unit.

The mission's timetable has been pushed back by two years. The satellite was originally supposed to launch in 2016, with humans arriving by 2023. Now, Mars One is aiming for a 2025 colonization date. 

suspect a flow control valve actually inside the pump module itself might not be functioning correctly

At no time was the crew or the station itself in any danger

ground teams did work to move certain electrical systems over to the second loop

Some non-critical systems have been powered down inside the Harmony node, the Kibo laboratory and the Columbus laboratory

Mission managers have deferred the decision on whether to proceed with or postpone the launch of the Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus commercial cargo craft until more is known about the flow control valve issue

Cygnus is currently scheduled to launch Dec. 18 from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and rendezvous with the station on Dec. 21

Wednesday, the first of two reboosts of the station took place to raise the station’s orbit and set up

for Russian vehicle launches and dockings in 2014

also places the station in position for the arrival of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus commercial cargo vehicle this month

e 7-minute, 41-second firing

Expedition 38 crew members also tackled a variety of other tasks Thursday, including maintenance work and scientific research

work on the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, or ARED, which allows the crew to perform a wide range of weightlifting exercises in the weightless environment of the station

installed a jumper in the Quest airlock to provide contingency power to the airlock’s secondary shell heaters

prepared the U.S. spacesuits for some upcoming scheduled maintenance

deployed eight bubble detectors for the RaDI-N experiment, which seeks to characterize the neutron radiation environment of the station

removed and stowed a NanoRacks platform. NanoRacks provides lower-cost microgravity research facilities for small payloads utilizing a standardized “plug-and-play” interface

spoke with students in Kyoto, Japan, via the amateur radio aboard the station

unloading cargo from the Progress 53 cargo vehicle that docked to the station on Nov. 29

collected micro-accelerometer data for the Identification experiment, which examines the station’s dynamic loads during events such as dockings and reboosts

continued the replacement of fans in the Zvezda service module with low-noise units and used a sound level meter to measure the results.

conducted routine maintenance on the life support systems in the Zvezda service module