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Mars Base

Researchers at Harvard University and MIT discover previously unobserved state of matte... - 0 views

www.ctvnews.ca/...real-life-lightsaber-1.1473318

scibyte104 ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • The discovery
  • goes against what scientists previously understood of photons: that elementary light particles are massless loners that do not interact with each other.
  • Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless, and that they do not interact with each other
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • researchers fired a couple of photons into a cloud of rubidium – a chemical element belonging to the metal group – in a vacuum chamber cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero.
  • When the photons exited the other side of the cloud of atoms
  • were surprised to see the pair emerge as a single molecule.
  • special type of medium in which photons interact with each other
  • so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules
  • Rydberg blockade
  • states that when an atom has energy imparted to it, nearby atoms cannot be excited to the same degree
  • the pair of photons moved through the cloud of atoms, the first photon excited atoms, but had to move forward before the second photon could do the same.
  • the pair of photons pushed and pulled each other through the cloud
  • atomic interaction
  • makes these two photons behave like a molecule
  • team is hoping to use their newly discovered state of matter in the advancement of quantum computing
Mars Base

Doubly Historic Day for Private Space: Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...tation-next-gen-falcon-9-soars

scibyte105 PrivateSpaceTravel Cygnus SpacecraftUpdae

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Sept. 29
  • Cygnus commercial cargo ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS)
  • a few hours later the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to an elliptical earth orbit
  • Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX
  • docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch
  • The Cygnus spacecraft
  • Hatches to Cygnus
  • opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks
  • second commercial partner’s demonstration mission reaches the ISS
  • Cygnus delivers about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
  • deployed Canada’s 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.
Mars Base

Opportunity Scaling Solander Mountain Searching for Science and Sun - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-searching-for-science-and-sun

scibyte105 opportunity SpacecraftUpdae

shared by Mars Base on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Opportunity rover has begun
  • the ascent of Solander Point, the first mountain she will ever climb, after roving the Red Planet for nearly a decade
  • l Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • recently succeeded in collecting “really interesting” new high resolution survey scans of Solander Point
  • The new MRO data are crucial for targeting the rover’s driving in coming months.
  • Solander Point is an eroded ridge located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater where Opportunity is currently located
  • it will take some time to review and interpret the bountiful new spectral data and decide on a course of action
  • Expect that analysis to take a “couple of weeks”
  • The new CRISM survey from Mars orbit will vastly improve the spectral resolution – from 18 meters per pixel down to 5 meters per pixel
  • Another important point about ‘Solander Point’ is that it also offers northerly tilted slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity’s upcoming 6th Martian winter
  • winter’s last six full months
  • The rover recently investigated an outcrop target called ‘Poverty Bush’.
  • deployed her 3 foot long (1 meter) robotic arm and collected photos with the Microscopic Imager (MI)
  • collected several days of spectral measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
  • There are several geologic units that are overlapping
  • Opportunity is sitting on the contact
  • the east side of the contact are rocks maybe a billion years older than those on the west side of the contact
  • So far
  • has snapped over 184,500
  • images
  • total odometry stands at over 23.82 miles (38.34 kilometers) since touchdown on Jan. 24, 2004
Mars Base

Chemistry's Biggest Loser: Official Atomic Weights Change For 19 Elements | Popular Sci... - 0 views

www.popsci.com/...mic-weights-change-19-elements

scibyte105 Chemistry

shared by Mars Base on 01 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Improved measurements of different elements and their isotopes have changed the official atomic weights of 19 elements
  • The changes are relatively small, and they're part of a regular effort to update atomic weights
  • Every atom of an element
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • silver as an example
  • has the same number of protons
  • Silver has 47
  • not every atom of an element necessarily has the same number of neutrons
  • different versions of an element's atoms are called isotopes
  • Silver occurs as silver-109 and silver-107
  • Chemists calculate the atomic weight of an element that you see on the periodic table from the masses of its isotopes, giving more common isotopes more weight than less common isotopes
  • doesn't necessarily mean every sample of silver on Earth has an atomic weight of exactly
  • samples of elements vary from place to place
  • erences play an important role in many sciences
  • They help chemists trace the origin of different materials
  • and date archaeological findings
  • The latest atomic weights measurements differ too little from their predecessors to really change science
  • do it?"
  • If it's just small changes, why
  • should give the best numbers there are
  • some new idea will come up that needs more accurate data
  • Molybdenum, Losing 0.0122
  • Atomic weights are relative, so they don't have units
  • Thorium, Losing 0.000322
  • Yttrium and Niobium, Tied, Losing 0.00001
  • Selenium, Gaining 0.0088
  • Cadmium, Gaining 0.0026
  • Holmium, Thulium and Praseodymium, All Tied, Gaining 0.00001
  • The changes in weights mostly come from continuing improvements in atomic mass measurements
  • advances in the technology behind mass spectrometers
  • not all about measuring more accurately
  • thorium, the IUPAC decided to recognize an isotope, thorium-230, that it previously thought was too rare to include in atomic weight calculations
  • The last time international chemistry
  • really altered the periodic table was in 2009, when IUPAC decided to list the atomic weights of some elements as ranges, instead of single numbers
Mars Base

Comet ISON Buzzing Mars Now: A Telescope Viewing Guide | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/near-mars-telescope-guide.html

scibyte105 CometISON ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Seeing Comet ISON: A telescope guide
  • If you really want to try to see Comet ISON for yourself, you'll need two things
  • A dark sky.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • A moderately large telescope.
  • A comet's brightness
  • an "extended" object with the light inside the comet's head spread out over a larger area of space
  • (a dark sky) is absolutely necessary
  • telescope in the 8 to 12-inch range
  • magnification of at least 200 to 300 power
  • if you're trying to see the comet you’ll have much better success by looking off to one side of its position (averted vision) rather than staring right at it; in that way you’ll be able to better detect its faint and fuzzy image
  • if you're trying to see the comet you’ll have much better success by looking off to one side of its position (averted vision) rather than staring right at it; in that way you’ll be able to better detect its faint and fuzzy image
  • Tuesday, Oct. 15. 
  • the comet will appear 1.1 degrees above and to the left of Mars, while Mars itself is passing only 0.9 degrees above and to the left of the bluish 1st-magnitude star Regulus
  • Comet ISON continues to run roughly two magnitudes fainter than original projections
  • recent 'discovery' of a jet feature may be the key in understanding Comet ISON's behavior during the past 7 weeks
  • observers
  • have begun to notice a lengthening of Comet ISON's tail
  • might" be a sign that the sun's warmth has indeed begun to make the comet more active by way of sublimation
Mars Base

Mars Orbiter Spies Lackluster Comet ISON : Discovery News - 0 views

news.discovery.com/...met-ison-closing-in-131002.htm

scibyte105 CometISON ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 05 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have released their first observations of the incoming Comet ISON
  • the comet appears to be at the low end of the range of brightness predictions
  • as it falls deeper and deeper into the sun’s gravitational well, ISON will likely brighten
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • addition of gas and dust should cause the comet’s coma to increase in size.
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