Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: August 2016

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Trilobites: A ‘Ring of Fire’ Eclipse Starts Thursday

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Thursday’s event will be visible from Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.
via New York Times

Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico

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'Helix-to-tube' a simple strategy to synthesize covalent organic nanotubes

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Organic nanotubes (ONTs) are tubular nanostructures composed of organic molecules that have unique properties and have found various applications, such as electro-conductive materials and organic photovoltaics. A group of scientists have now developed a simple and effective method for the formation of robust covalent ONTs from simple molecules. This method is expected to be useful in generating a range of nanotube-based materials with desirable properties.
via Science Daily

The rise and fall of galaxy formation

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Astronomers have charted the rise and fall of galaxies over 90 percent of cosmic history. The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey has built a multicolored photo album of galaxies as they grow from their faint beginnings into mature and majestic giants. They did so by measuring distances and brightnesses for more than 70,000 galaxies spanning more than 12 billion years of cosmic time, revealing the breadth of galactic diversity.
via Science Daily
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Anomalous grooves on Martian moon Phobos explained by impacts

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Some of the mysterious grooves on the surface of Mars' moon Phobos are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface to form linear chains of craters, according to a new study. One set of grooves on Phobos are thought to be stress fractures resulting from the tidal pull of Mars. The new study addresses another set of grooves that do not fit that explanation.
via Science Daily
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NASA team probes peculiar age-defying star

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For years, astronomers have puzzled over a massive star lodged deep in the Milky Way that shows conflicting signs of being extremely old and extremely young. Researchers initially classified the star as elderly, perhaps a red supergiant. But a new study by a NASA-led team of researchers suggests that the object, labeled IRAS 19312+1950, might be something quite different -- a protostar, a star still in the making.
via Science Daily
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Proxima b is in host star's habitable zone, but could it really be habitable?

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The world's attention is now on Proxima Centauri b, a possibly Earth-like planet orbiting the closest star, 4.22 light-years away. The planet's orbit is just right to allow liquid water on its surface, needed for life. But could it in fact be habitable? If so, the planet evolved very differently than Earth, say researchers say astronomers, geophysicists, climatologists, evolutionary biologists and others who study how distant planets might host life.
via Science Daily
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Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Aurora over Icelandic Fault

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Milky Way had a blowout bash 6 million years ago

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The center of the Milky Way galaxy is currently a quiet place where a supermassive black hole slumbers, only occasionally slurping small sips of hydrogen gas. But it wasn't always this way. A new study shows that 6 million years ago, when the first human ancestors known as hominins walked the Earth, our galaxy's core blazed forth furiously. The evidence for this active phase came from a search for the galaxy's missing mass.
via Science Daily
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Hunt for ninth planet reveals new extremely distant solar system objects

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In the race to discover a proposed ninth planet in our Solar System, researchers have observed several never-before-seen objects at extreme distances from the Sun in our Solar System.
via Science Daily
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Graphene key to growing two-dimensional semiconductor with extraordinary properties

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The first-ever growth of two-dimensional gallium nitride using graphene encapsulation could lead to applications in deep ultraviolet lasers, next-generation electronics and sensors.
via Science Daily

A device to control 'color' of electrons in graphene provides path to future electronics

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A device made of bilayer graphene is one step forward in a new field of physics called valleytronics.
via Science Daily

Monday, 29 August 2016

Trilobites: A NASA Satellite Ends the Silent Treatment

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The signal from STEREO-B, one of twin crafts put in orbit to study the sun, was lost for almost two years before it was heard from last week.
via New York Times

Young Suns of NGC 7129

Young suns still lie within dusty NGC 7129, some 3,000 light-years away toward the royal constellation Cepheus. While these stars are at a relatively tender age, only a few million years old, it is likely that our own Sun formed in a similar stellar nursery some five billion years ago. Most noticeable in the sharp image are the lovely bluish dust clouds that reflect the youthful starlight. But the compact, deep red crescent shapes are also markers of energetic, young stellar objects. Known as Herbig-Haro objects, their shape and color is characteristic of glowing hydrogen gas shocked by jets streaming away from newborn stars. Paler, extended filaments of reddish emission mingling with the bluish clouds are caused by dust grains effectively converting the invisible ultraviolet starlight to visible red light through photoluminesence. Ultimately the natal gas and dust in the region will be dispersed, the stars drifting apart as the loose cluster orbits the center of the Galaxy. The processing of this remarkable composite image has revealed the faint red strands of emission at the upper right. They are recently recognized as a likely supernova remnant and are currently being analyzed by Bo Reipurth (Univ. Hawaii) who obtained the image data at the Subaru telescope. At the estimated distance of NGC 7129, this telescopic view spans over 40 light-years. Photo Gallery: Jupiter & Venus Conjunction of 2016 August
Tomorrow's picture: open space

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Sunday, 28 August 2016

Abell 370: Galaxy Cluster Gravitational Lens

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Interface engineering for stable perovskite solar cells

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The lifetime of perovskite solar cells is significantly enhanced by using few-layer MoS2 flakes as an active buffer interface layer. Researchers show that interface engineering with layered materials is important for boosting solar cell performance.
via Science Daily

Saturday, 27 August 2016

Lunar Orbiter Earthset

August 10th was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Lunar Orbiter 1. It was the first of five Lunar Orbiters intended to photograph the Moon's surface to aid in the selection of future landing sites. That spacecraft's camera captured the data used in this restored, high-resolution version of its historic first image of Earth from the Moon on August 23, 1966 while on its 16th lunar orbit. Hanging almost stationary in the sky when viewed from the lunar surface, Earth appears to be setting beyond the rugged lunar horizon from the perspective of the orbiting spacecraft. Two years later, the Apollo 8 crew would record a more famous scene in color: Earthrise from lunar orbit. Tomorrow's picture: galaxies everywhere

Graphene under pressure

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Small balloons made from one-atom-thick material graphene can withstand enormous pressures, much higher than those at the bottom of the deepest ocean, scientists at the report.
via Science Daily

Rosetta captures comet outburst

In unprecedented observations made earlier this year, Rosetta unexpectedly captured a dramatic comet outburst that may have been triggered by a landslide.

via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_captures_comet_outburst

Scientists discover a ‘dark’ milky way

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Using the world's most powerful telescopes, an international team of astronomers has found a massive galaxy that consists almost entirely of dark matter.
via Science Daily
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Friday, 26 August 2016

The Milky Way Sets

Under dark skies the setting of the Milky Way can be a dramatic sight. Stretching nearly parallel to the horizon, this rich, edge-on vista of our galaxy above the dusty Namibian desert stretches from bright, southern Centaurus (left) to Cepheus in the north (right). From early August, the digitally stitched, panoramic night skyscape captures the Milky Way's congeries of stars and rivers of cosmic dust, along with colors of nebulae not readily seen with the eye. Mars, Saturn, and Antares, visible even in more luminous night skies, form the the bright celestial triangle just touching the trees below the galaxy's central bulge. Of course, our own galaxy is not the only galaxy in the scene. Two other major members of our local group, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, lie near the right edge of the frame, beyond the arc of the setting Milky Way. Tomorrow's picture: when planet Earth sets

Thursday, 25 August 2016

Promising route to the scalable production of highly crystalline graphene films

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Researchers discovered a procedure to restore defective graphene oxide structures that cause the material to display low carrier mobility. By applying a high-temperature reduction treatment in an ethanol environment, defective structures were restored, leading to the formation of a highly crystalline graphene film with excellent band-like transport. These findings are expected to come into use in scalable production techniques of highly crystalline graphene films.
via Science Daily

Op-Ed Contributor: What’s So Special About Another Earth?

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We’re excited about the latest exoplanet because of what it says about our own celestial home.
via New York Times

Closest Star has Potentially Habitable Planet

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Can one cosmic enigma help solve another?

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Astrophysicists have proposed a clever new way to shed light on the mystery of dark matter, believed to make up most of the universe. The irony is they want to try to pin down the nature of this unexplained phenomenon by using another, an obscure cosmic emanation known as 'fast radio bursts.'
via Science Daily
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35 years on, Voyager's legacy continues at Saturn

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Saturn, with its alluring rings and numerous moons, has long fascinated stargazers and scientists. After an initial flyby of Pioneer 11 in 1979, humanity got a second, much closer look at this complex planetary system in the early 1980s through the eyes of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft.
via Science Daily
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NASA's WISE, Fermi missions reveal a surprising blazar connection

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Astronomers using observations from NASA's WISE and Fermi missions have confirmed a connection between the infrared and gamma-ray light emitted by blazars, a class of distant galaxies powered by monster black holes.
via Science Daily
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Cosmic neighbors inhibit star formation, even in the early universe

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Researchers have discovered four of the most distant clusters of galaxies ever found, as they appeared when the universe was only 4 billion years old. This sample is now providing the best measurement yet of when and how fast galaxy clusters stop forming stars in the early universe.
via Science Daily
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Planet found in habitable zone around nearest star

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Astronomers have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us -- and it may also be the closest possible abode for life outside the Solar System.
via Science Daily
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Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Curiosity at Murray Buttes on Mars

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Test for damp ground at Mars' seasonal streaks finds none

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Seasonal dark streaks on Mars that have become one of the hottest topics in interplanetary research don't hold much water, according to the latest findings from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars.
via Science Daily
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NASA establishes contact with STEREO mission

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NASA has reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft, after communications were lost on Oct. 1, 2014. Over 22 months, the STEREO team has worked to attempt contact with the spacecraft. Most recently, they have attempted a monthly recovery operation using NASA's Deep Space Network, which tracks and communicates with missions throughout space.
via Science Daily
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Fossilized rivers suggest warm, wet ancient Mars

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Extensive systems of fossilized riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 billion years ago, according to new research.
via Science Daily
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Nanofiber scaffolds demonstrate new features in the behavior of stem and cancer cells

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A discovery in the field of biomaterials may open new frontiers in stem and cancer cell manipulation and associated advanced therapy development. Novel scaffolds are shown enabling cells to behave in a different but controlled way in vitro due to the presence of aligned, self-assembled ceramic nanofibers of an ultra-high anisotropy ratio augmented into graphene shells.
via Science Daily

Stretchy supercapacitors power wearable electronics

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A future of soft robots or smart T-shirts may depend on the development of stretchy power sources. But traditional batteries are thick and rigid -- not ideal properties for materials that would be used in tiny malleable devices. In a step toward wearable electronics, a team of researchers has produced a stretchy micro-supercapacitor using ribbons of graphene.
via Science Daily

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Gigantic Jet Lightning over China

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Internaut Day and the World Wide Web

Monday, 22 August 2016

'Artificial atom' created in graphene

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When they are confined to a small space, the behavior of electrons can only be explained by quantum physics. Much like electrons in an atom, they are forced into discrete quantum states. These states can be used for quantum information technologies.
via Science Daily

Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma

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Sunday, 21 August 2016

Map of Total Solar Eclipse Path in 2017 August

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Saturday, 20 August 2016

Gamma-rays and Comet Dust

Gamma-rays and dust from periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle plowed through planet Earth's atmosphere on the night of August 11/12. Impacting at about 60 kilometers per second the grains of comet dust produced this year's remarkably active Perseid meteor shower. This composite wide-angle image of aligned shower meteors covers a 4.5 hour period on that Perseid night. In it the flashing meteor streaks can be traced back to the shower's origin on the sky. Alongside the Milky Way in the constellation Perseus, the radiant marks the direction along the perodic comet's orbit. Traveling at the speed of light, cosmic gamma-rays impacting Earth's atmosphere generated showers too, showers of high energy particles. Just as the meteor streaks point back to their origin, the even briefer flashes of light from the particles can be used to reconstruct the direction of the particle shower, to point back to the origin on the sky of the incoming gamma-ray. Unlike the meteors, the incredibly fast particle shower flashes can't be followed by eye. But both can be followed by the high speed cameras on the multi-mirrored dishes in the foreground. Of course, the dishes are MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes, an Earth-based gamma-ray observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma. Tomorrow's picture: a path of darkness

The comet that disappeared: What happened to Ison?

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Comet ISON, a bright ball of frozen matter from the earliest days of the universe, was inbound from the Oort Cloud at the edge of the solar system and expected to pierce the Sun's corona on November 28. Scientists were expecting quite a show. A new study suggests the comet actually broke up before reaching the sun.
via Science Daily
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A new Goldilocks for habitable planets

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The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second 'Goldilocks,' according to a researcher. A new study suggests that simply being in the habitable zone isn't sufficient to support life. A planet also must start with an internal temperature that is just right.
via Science Daily
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Friday, 19 August 2016

Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater

On the night of August 12, this bright Perseid meteor flashed above volcanic Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona, USA, planet Earth. Streaking along the summer Milky Way, its initial color is likely due to the shower meteor's characteristically high speed. Entering at 60 kilometers per second, Perseid meteors are capable of exciting green emission from oxygen atoms while passing through the tenuous atmosphere at high altitudes. Also characteristic of bright meteors, this Perseid left a visibly glowing persistent train. Its evolution is seen over a three minute sequence (left to right) spanning the bottom of the frame. The camera ultimately captured a dramatic timelapse video of the twisting, drifting train. Tomorrow's picture: meteors by magic

LHC pushes limits of performance

Harriet Jarlett

The LHC tunnel is surpassing all performance expectations (Image: Jacques Fichet/ CERN)

The Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) performance continued to surpass expectations, when this week it achieved 2220 proton bunches in each of its counter-rotating beams – the most it will achieve this year.

This is not the maximum the machine is capable of holding (at full intensity the beam will have nearly 2800 bunches) but it is currently limited by a technical issue in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS).

“Performance is excellent, given this limitation,” says Mike Lamont, head of the Operations team. “We’re 10% above design luminosity (which we surpassed in June), we have these really long fills (where the beam is circulating for up to 20 hours or so) and very good collision rates. 2220 bunches is just us squeezing as much in as we can, given the restrictions, to maximize delivery to the experiments.”

As an example of the machine’s brilliant performance, with almost two months left in this year’s run it has already reached an integrated luminosity of 22fb^-1 – very close to the goal for 2016 of 25fb^-1 (up from 4fb^-1 last year). 22fb^-1 is equivalent to 2.2 thousand billion collisions.

Luminosity is an essential indicator of the performance of an accelerator, measuring the potential number of collisions that can occur in a given amount of time, and integrated luminosity (measured in inverse femtobarns, fb^-1) is the accumulated number of potential collisions. At its peak, the LHC’s proton-proton collision rate reaches about 1 billion collisions per second giving a chance that even the rarest processes at the highest energy could occur.

The SPS is currently experiencing a small fault that could be exacerbated by high beam intensity – hence the number of proton bunches sent to the LHC per injection is limited to 96, compared to the normal 288.

“Once this issue is fixed in the coming year-end technical stop, we’ll be able to push up the number of bunches even further. Next year we should be able to go to new record levels,” says Lamont with a wry grin.

via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/08/lhc-pushes-limits-performance

Thursday, 18 August 2016

Venus-like exoplanet might have oxygen atmosphere, but not life

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The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. But would that atmosphere be thick and soupy or thin and wispy? New research suggests the latter is much more likely.
via Science Daily
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Perseid Night at Yosemite

The 2016 Perseid meteor shower performed well on the night of August 11/12. The sky on that memorable evening was recorded from a perch overlooking Yosemite Valley, planet Earth, in this scene composed of 25 separate images selected from an all-night set of sequential exposures. Each image contains a single meteor and was placed in alignment using the background stars. The digital manipulation accounts for the Earth's rotation throughout the night and allows the explosion of colorful trails to be viewed in perspective toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Perseus. The fading alpenglow gently lights the west face of El Capitan just after sunset. Just before sunrise, a faint band zodiacal light, or the false dawn, shines upward from the east, left of Half Dome at the valley's far horizon. Car lights illuminate the valley road. Of course, the image is filled with other celestial sights from that Perseid night, including the Milky Way and the Pleiades star cluster. Tomorrow's picture: Meteor at Sunset Crater

NASA prepares to launch first U.S. Asteroid sample return mission

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NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.
via Science Daily
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NASA asteroid redirect mission completes design milestone

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Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission's robotic segment. ARM is a two-part mission that will integrate robotic and crewed spacecraft operations in the proving ground of deep space to demonstrate key capabilities needed for NASA's journey to Mars.
via Science Daily
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How we escaped the Big Bang: New theory on moving through time

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A physicist is challenging the conventional view of space and time to show how the world advances through time. In her new research, she argues that T violation, or a violation of time reversal (T) symmetry, is forcing the universe and us in it, into the future.
via Science Daily
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Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Meteor before Galaxy

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'Sniffer plasmons' could detect explosives

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Scientists have proposed a graphene-based spaser that can 'sniff out' a single molecule, which could be used to detect even small amounts of various substances, including explosives.
via Science Daily

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Monday, 29 August 2016

Sunday, 28 August 2016

Saturday, 27 August 2016

Friday, 26 August 2016

Thursday, 25 August 2016

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Monday, 22 August 2016

Sunday, 21 August 2016

Saturday, 20 August 2016

Friday, 19 August 2016

Thursday, 18 August 2016

Wednesday, 17 August 2016

Tuesday, 16 August 2016