SciByte

local time was early Monday morning.

Soyuz crew was in good health and spirits

He and his Russian crewmates signed their Soyuz spacecraft, which is destined for a Russian museum

125-day spaceflight began in mid-May and included three spacewalks and several robotic cargo ship arrivals.

. The three spaceflyers were originally slated to blast off in March, but a pressure test incident cracked their first Soyuz capsule, causing a six-week delay while another spacecraft was readied.

launched on May 14 and arrived at the $100 billion orbiting lab May 17. Just eight days later, SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule docked with the station on a historic demonstration mission, becoming the first private vehicle ever to do so.

on Sept. 5, crewmates Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide performed an extra spacewalk — the third for the mission — to replace a vital power unit on the station's backbone-like truss. Using improvised tools such as spare parts and a toothbrush

a stuck bolt that had delayed the fix a week earlier

Expedition 33

will have the station to themselves until mid-October, when three more astronauts will float through the hatch and bring the expedition up to its full complement of six crewmembers.

Curiosity has nearly finished robotic arm tests. Once complete, the rover will be able to touch and examine its first Mars rock

about to drive some more and try to find the right rock to begin doing contact science with the arm

At first

the formations appear similar to so-called Martian "blueberries" — iron-rich spherical formations first seen by Opportunity in 2004 — but they actually differ in several key ways, scientist said

This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission

Kirkwood is chock full of a dense accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries, but this is something different

never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock outcrop on Mars."

The new photo by Opportunity is actually a mosaic of four images taken by a microscope-like imager on its robotic arm

Opportunity is currently exploring a location known as Cape York along the western rim of a giant Martian crater called Endeavour

Despite its advanced age, Opportunity is still pumping out new discoveries after more than eight years on Mars.

first spotted Martian blueberries soon after its landing in 2004

blueberries are actually concretions created by minerals in water that settled into sedimentary rock.

Opportunity has seen Martian blueberries at many of its science site

bumpy, spherical formations on the Kirkwood rock represent something new

. In Opportunity's new photo, many of the strange features are broken, revealing odd concentric circles inside

seem to be crunchy on the outside, and softer in the middle

different in concentration. They are different in structure. They are different in composition. They are different in distribution

science team have several theories, but none that truly stand out as the best explanation

Kirkwood outcrop is just one science pit stop at Cape York for Opportunity. Mission scientists have already picked out another interesting rock outcrop nearby, a pale patch that may contain tantalizing clay minerals, for possibly study after Opportunity completes its current analysis.

spring equinox is approaching on Mars, ensuring increasing levels of sunshine for Opportunity's solar arrays

"Energy production levels are comparable to what they were a full Martian year ago

are constructed with dark materials

"Because dark pavements absorb almost all of the sun's energy, the pavement surface heats up, which in turn also warms the local air

Berkeley Lab scientists have been studying "cool pavement" technologies

Like cool roofs, which are lighter-colored roofs that keep the air both inside and outside the building cooler by reflecting more of the sun's energy

pavements reflect as much as 30 to 50 percent of the sun's energy, compared to only 5 percent for new asphalt (and 10 to 20 percent for aged asphalt)

Heat Island Group has converted a portion of a new temporary parking lot at Berkeley Lab into a cool pavement exhibit that will also allow them to evaluate the products over time

provides an opportunity to feature cool pavement coatings that are applied directly to existing paved surfaces

the exhibit features six coatings donated by two manufacturers

Emerald Cities Cool Pavement and StreetBond.

Cool pavements can either be made from traditional pavement materials that are lighter in color

such as cement concrete

or can consist of cool-colored coatings or surface treatments for asphalt surfaces

An ideal design goal would be a pavement with solar reflectance of at least 35 percent

Sealcoats are a common maintenance practice for parking lots and schoolyards since the asphalt pavement structure degrades over tim

asphalt

can be used in lieu of a sealcoat, and are a good strategy for cities looking to introduce cool pavement technologies

Cool pavements come in different hues, including green, blue and yellow, and their solar reflectance value depends on both color and material

some colors that look dark but are actually more reflective in the near infrared spectrum

scientists will be collecting data to see how the coatings fare over time

At some point they will reach an equilibrium at which the solar reflectance won't degrade much anymore

very interested to see what happens when it rains, which may help the coatings self-clean and restore higher reflectance

"Across an entire city, small changes in air temperature could be a huge benefit as it can slow the formation of smog

Just a couple of degrees can also reduce peak power demand, by reducing the energy load from air-conditioning

Chicago has reported energy savings from using solar-reflective pavements in its alleys

more reflective parking lots could allow building owners and cities to save on energy needed to illuminate streets and parking lots

field studies are needed to verify and quantify the results.

many of these benefits have been confirmed by scientific models

leading a study

will closely monitor the solar reflectance values and temperatures of 20 x 24 square-foot pavement sections of six different materials on a residential street on the UC Davis campu

scientists hope to better understand how changes in solar reflectance over time affect heat transfer throughout the pavement structure

may assist policymakers and pavement professionals in making informed decisions regarding cool pavement requirements for building codes and project specifications

may also help sell cool pavement coatings since they tend to be more expensive than traditional sealants

hurdle is that the benefits of cool pavements are more for the public rather than the building owner

benefits are less immediately tangible than for cool roofs

initial cost premium can potentially be offset over the lifespan of the product with increased durability and less need for ongoing maintenance

schoolyards are a particular target because of the negative health implications of hot blacktops for schoolchildren

water near the sphere became vapor that got trapped in the valleys on the sphere’s surface. Eventually this sheet of vapor slipped off and a new one formed

Treating the surface of another sphere to make it water-loving had the opposite effect, locking the water in the violent bubbling phase

Manipulating this phase-chemistry could lead to tricks for reducing drag on ships or preventing forceful bubbling explosions in labs or kitchens

ow there’s another suggestion: Crystallizing lava may have contained tiny pockets where water could react with other chemicals to make small amounts of iron- and magnesium-rich clay. No additional water flowing on the surface or belowground would be needed. So early Mars could have been a largely cold, dry world

not saying all clays on Mars formed by this process

“if most clays formed by a magmatic process, it says maybe water wasn’t so available on early Mars

researchers investigated the cooling-lava scenario because some Martian clays don’t appear to fit with previous explanations

Some Martian meteorites contain clay minerals with hydrogen isotope compositions characteristic of water coming from Mars’ mantle and carried in lava — not from the atmosphere or surface — suggesting water-rich lava has produced some Martian clay.

The researchers also looked at clay deposits from French Polynesia’s Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean that formed from cooling lava

This clay reflects the same wavelengths of infrared light as Martian deposits

suggesting that both have similar mineralogical properties and thus probably formed in the same way.

team says cooling lava can account for the most geographically abundant Noachian clay minerals

that doesn’t mean water didn’t flow on the surface during brief episodes

evidenced by the planet’s ancient river valleys, says coauthor

Ehlmann says scientists need to find a spot on Mars where Noachian-aged clay is found so that all three proposed clay-forming mechanisms can be tested

where NASA’s Curiosity landed is not a good test location because the clays there are slightly younger and are clearly part of a sedimentary

Endeavour will be hoisted off the ground by crane

then be lowered onto the SCA's back and secured for flight

Coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration, the SCA will perform low flyovers — as low as 1,500 feet (457 meters) — as it passes NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

low passes over areas around Houston, Clear Lake and Galveston in Texas before making a landing at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Weather permitting, the SCA and Endeavour will remain at Ellington for the remainder of the day and all day on Sept. 18, providing Johnson employees and the Houston public an ample opportunity to see the shuttle.

take to the air again at sunrise on Sept. 19, and after a brief refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas

low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, N.M., and Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California

morning of Sept. 20

Finally on the morning of Sept. 20, Endeavour, still on top of the SCA, will take off one last time, departing Dryden to fly over Northern California, passing above NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field and various landmarks in multiple cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento, the state's capitol

The carrier aircraft will fly near

, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena before performing flyovers over many Los Angeles landmarks on its way to a landing at LAX

According to NASA, some of the flyovers or layovers that are planned could be delayed or cancelled as a result

flies over seven states and eight of NASA's facilities

snow on Mars fell from clouds around the planet's south pole during the Martian winter spanning 2006 and 2007

The Martian south pole hosts a frozen carbon dioxide — or "dry ice" — cap year-round

new discovery may help explain how it formed and persists, researchers

the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds

"We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide — flakes of Martian air — and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface.

find means Mars hosts two different kinds of snowfall

In 2008, NASA's Phoenix lander observed water-ice snow

near the Red Planet's north pole

studied data gathered by MRO's Mars Climate Sounder instrument during the Red Planet's southern winter in 2006-2007

instrument measures brightness in nine different wavelengths of visible and infrared light, allowing scientists to learn key characteristics of the particles and gases in the Martian atmosphere, such as their sizes and concentrations.

one behemoth 300 miles (500 kilometers) wide

One line of evidence for snow is that the carbon-dioxide ice particles in the clouds are large enough to fall to the ground during the lifespan of the clouds

Another comes from observations when the instrument is pointed toward the horizon

"The infrared spectra signature of the clouds viewed from this angle is clearly carbon-dioxide ice particles, and they extend to the surface

"The finding of snowfall could mean that the type of deposition — snow or frost — is somehow linked to the year-to-year preservation of the residual ca

Dry ice requires temperatures of about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 Celsius) to fall, reinforcing just how cold the Martian surface is.

Astronomers still aren't entirely sure how the dry ice sustaining Mars' south polar cap — the only place where frozen carbon dioxide exists year-round on the planet's surface — is deposited. It could come from snowfall, or the stuff may freeze out of the air at ground level, researchers said.

even forced parts of the island's surface to rise upward and outward by 3 to 5.5 inches (8 to 14 centimeters).

volcano has been quiet for 60 years

recent events don't indicate an imminent eruption

the earthquake activity and the rate of bulging have both slowed right down in the last few months, it doesn't look as though the volcano is about to start to erupt, and it is quite likely that it could remain quiet for another few years or decades.

don't know enough about the lifecycle of large volcanoes in between eruptions to be certain

beginning in the January 2011 data, more than a thousand small quakes, most of them imperceptible

confirmed a subtle rise in Santorini's surface level with satellite radar images and GPS receivers

Catastrophic eruptions on Santorini, which produce mostly pumice rather than lava, appear to occur here about 20,000 years apart

The last one, in 1950, oozed enough lava to cover a few tennis courts

Despite its relative quiet, Santorini is an ideal location to learn more about processes like the magma chamber's rapid inflation

While satellite evidence of swelling magma chambers has rarely been available for an active volcano, the processes the data represent may not be all that unusual

some large volcanoes like Santorini and Yellowstone spend hundreds or thousands of years in a state of what you'd call dormancy

they'll often have these little restless patches

These types of phenomena are likely to be common, but you need the right instruments and technology to detect what are usually rather small changes in behavior."

we aren't any closer to knowing if, or when, the next lava eruption might happen

likening the recent swelling to someone blowing a big breath into an invisible balloon.

don't know how small or big the balloon is, and we don't know whether just one more breath will be enough for it to pop or not

Let's ignore, for example, the homeopathic notion that illness is caused by a disturbance in an individual's "vital force" rather than something external, like a bacterium or virus

Another thing homeopathy has in common with Western medicine is its strict attention to how treatments are dosed

All homeopathic remedies are available in a huge range of concentrations

those concentrations are really small

homeopaths think of a large dose as a high dilution, instead of a high concentration.

idea that a lower dose of a drug has a bigger effect than a high dose runs contrary to what western medicine has found