Friday 22 September 2017

Trilobites: Sputnik for Sale, if You’ll Settle for a Beeping Replica

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Just ahead of the 60th anniversary of the first Earth launch of a satellite, an auction house will take bids on a replica of the shiny Soviet spacecraft.
via New York Times

NASA'S OSIRIS-REx spacecraft slingshots past Earth

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NASA's asteroid sample return spacecraft successfully used Earth's gravity on Friday to slingshot itself on a path toward the asteroid Bennu, for a rendezvous next August.
via Science Daily
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Positive, negative or neutral, it all matters: NASA explains space radiation

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Charged particles may be small, but they matter to astronauts. NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) is investigating these particles to solve one of its biggest challenges for a human journey to Mars: space radiation and its effects on the human body.
via Science Daily
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Enhancing the sensing capabilities of diamonds with quantum properties

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When a nitrogen atom is next to the space vacated by a carbon atom, it forms what is called a nitrogen-vacancy center. Now, researchers have shown how they can create more NV centers, which makes sensing magnetic fields easier, using a relatively simple method that can be done in many labs.
via Science Daily

Solar Eclipse Solargraph

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Today is the September equinox. Heading south, the Sun's path through the sky will cross the celestial equator at 20:02 UT. Of course the equinox date results in (mostly) equal night and day all over planet Earth. But on August 21 the Sun's path through the sky found a little extra-night for some. Made with a drink can pinhole camera and light-sensitive paper, this creative solargraph follows the Sun's path on that date. An all-day exposure, it traces the Sun's arc still rising high in northern skies, aligned with a panoramic snapshot of the local landscape at the bottom. The gap in the arc represents the duration of the partial and total phases of the solar eclipse in clear skies over Lowman, Idaho, USA. There, the extra-night (totality) lasted for about 2 minutes. The broad gap in the Sun's arc also covers the loss of sunlight during the more extended partial eclipse phases.

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To 20 Tesla and beyond: the high-temperature superconductors