Science & TechnologyS


Blackbox

Strange super-Earth planet has 'plasma' water atmosphere

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Artist's rendition
A nearby alien planet six times the size of the Earth is covered with a water-rich atmosphere that includes a strange "plasma form" of water, scientists say. Astronomers have determined that the atmosphere of super-Earth Gliese 1214 b is likely water-rich. However, this
exoplanet is no Earth twin. The high temperature and density of the planet give it an atmosphere that differs dramatically from Earth.

"As the temperature and pressure are so high, water is not in a usual form (vapor, liquid, or solid), but in an ionic or plasma form at the bottom the atmosphere - namely the interior - of Gliese 1214 b," principle investigator Norio Narita of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan told SPACE.com by email. [The Strangest Alien Planets (Gallery)]

Using two instruments on the Subaru Telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, scientists studied the scattering of light from the planet. Combining their results with previous observations led the astronomers to conclude that the atmosphere contained significant amounts of water.

Sun

Sun's galactic journey linked to mass extinctions

Galactic Journey
© Fredrik/WikiMedia"You're more likely to have a collision when you're in a galactic arm and the increased density sends a comet towards Earth".
The timing of some major extinction events on Earth coincides with the solar system's journey through Milky Way's spiral arms, suggests a new study. The research, published on the pre-press website ArXiv.org, supports the idea that mass extinction events were not always random.

The Sun spends 50 to 60 per cent of its 220-million-year journey around the galaxy passing through its spiral arms, says study co-author Dr Jonti Horner of the University of New South Wales.

"These are regions of higher than average density, where there are more stars and molecular gas and dust clouds," says Horner.

"It could be argued that the increase in the number of stars encountered as the Sun moves through a galactic arm, can trigger gravitational perturbations, sending comets from the Oort cloud towards the inner solar system, where the Earth is."

The Oort cloud is a hypothetical reservoir of comets and other icy bodies half way to the Sun's nearest stellar neighbour. Together with vast volcanic outpourings of flood basalt magmas, such as the Deccan and Siberian Traps, and snowball Earth periods of global glaciation, asteroid or cometary impacts are considered a likely cause of mass extinction events on Earth.

According to Horner, the Earth impact database currently lists 182 large craters caused by asteroid and comet collisions, and these only represent a tiny fraction of Earth's true impact history, the rest being erased by weathering and geological events.

He says the far more heavily scarred lunar surface, provides a better indication of the true level of major impact events.

V

McAfee reveals $100 device to foil NSA spying and make Internet 'hack-proof'

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© YouTubeJohn McAfee speaks at C2SV Technology Conference + Music Festival.
A security company mogul revealed an idea for a device that would help users thwart online surveillance, like that conducted by the National Security Agency, and also make the Internet "hack-proof."

John McAfee, founder of McAfee Inc., sat in cargo pants, a black hoodie and Nikes at the C2SV Technology Conference + Music Festival in San Jose over the weekend, talking about a pocket-size device that would cost less than $100. He said it would create a mobile, encrypted network that makes it impossible to tell "who is doing what, when or where."

McAfee said he has been thinking about the product called D-Central made through his new company Future Tense Central for years.

"I can't get out of security," he said. "For some reason, it's part of my brain, part of my thinking. And we don't have much anymore, certainly not in the online world.

"The NSA helped create every single encryption algorithm that we use," McAfee alleged, "therefore, they can get access to whatever they want."

The way McAfee explained it, the D-Central hardware device and app would not only protect against spying from government agencies but hackers as well.

"We live in a very insecure world with a very insecure communication platform," he continued.

Info

A new programming language to build synthetic DNA - University of Washington students

Programming Language
© Pentagon PostUW engineers build programming language to build synthetic DNA.
Just like the programs which are written in a computer, the human DNA also works in the same way creating proteins on the basis of its codes.

Chemists will be able to make the DNA work according to their wish by using a set of codes or instructions to program the DNA accordingly. Scientists will be able to make the DNA interact or work in a test tube.

A crack team of researchers from the University of Washington are trying to perfect a programming language which can guide the outcome or the mechanism of chemical reaction mixtures somewhat akin to the way programming in an electronic chip guide the automobiles, robots, aircrafts etc.

Such a system will have immense use in medicine where for the first time a dosage regimen can be programmed based on different symptom parameters.

The finding was published online this week in Nature Nanotechnology.

Sun

Breaking the quiet in spectacular fashion - Sun releases a magnetic filament eruption and a magnificent CME

Breaking the quiet in spectacular fashion, a magnetic filament erupted from the sun's northern hemisphere at approximately 2145 UT on Sept. 29th. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the blast. Another movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory zooms in to show the filament ripping through the sun's atmosphere and leaving behind a "canyon of fire." The glowing "canyon" traces the channel where magnetic forces held the filament aloft before the explosion.

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This event also hurled a magnificent CME into space: movie (Credit: SOHO). The magnetized cloud, which left the sun traveling approximately 900 km/s (2 million mph), was not aimed toward Earth. Nevertheless, our planet's magnetosphere might receive a glancing blow on Oct. 2-3. Polar geomagnetic storms and auroras are possible when the CME arrives. Stay tuned for updates. Geomagnetic storm alerts: text, voice.

Moon

Did Earth steal its moon from Venus?

Earth has one moon, Uranus has 27 and and Saturn has over 50. Venus, however, has none.

A wild new theory presented at a Royal Society conference is claiming that Earth may have stolen its only moon from Venus.

The theory, put forward by a Caltech University professor, suggests that Earth pulled Venus's moon out of Venus' orbit and into our own.
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© UnknownEarth may have stolen its only moon from Venus, according a wild new theory presented at the Royal Society
Dave Stevenson, professor of planetary science at Caltech, told the Origin of the Moon conference in London that the moon's size shows that this could have been possible.

He noted that our moon is much larger compared to our planet than other satellites are to their planets.

Fireball

MASTER detection of Near-Earth Object 9 hours before the very close fly-by

Credential Certification: Vladimir Lipunov (lipunov2007@gmail.com)

Subjects: Optical, Asteroid, Near-Earth Object

During the observations of flaring blazar 3C 454.3 in two polarization filters, MASTER-Tunka robotic telescope (double 0.40-m f2.5 reflector + 4kx4k CCD, filed of view 2.1x2.1 deg) has serendipitously detected the Fast Moving Object of 16m visible in both tubes. The object was located near the edge of FOV, about 1 deg south of 3C 454.3. First it was detected on the set of ten 30-sec exposures from 13:20 to 13:37 UT with limiting magnitudes 17.3-17.5. Another set of ten 60-sec exposures was then obtained from 13:44 to 14:05 UT with the limits 18.1-18.2 in both tubes.

The animation of ten 60-sec exposures from the Eastern tube is uploaded here.

The object was moving at the rate of 6.2" per minute in positional angle 71. Astrometry from 8 images was reported to Minor Planet Center using the designation MASD91. Using Find_Orb orbit determination software by Bill Gray (www.projectpluto.com) we have obtained the following orbital elements:
Epoch 2013 Sep 28.0 TT = JDT 2456563.5 Earth MOID: 0.0000 Ve: 0.0772 M 343.67888 (2000.0) Ma: 0.0016 n 0.36126837 Peri. 252.01974 0.22930384 -0.97326783 a 1.95246273 Node 184.78142 0.94166328 0.22520304 e 0.6228503 Incl. 8.98491 0.24635343 0.04509218 P 2.73/996.47d H 27.7 G 0.15 q 0.73637071 Q 3.16855475 From 8 observations 2013 Sept. 27 (44.4 min); mean residual 0".295.

Fireball

Full view of Asteroid Vesta

As NASA's Dawn spacecraft travels to its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The towering mountain at the south pole - more than twice the height of Mount Everest - is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the "snowman" can be seen at the top left.
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© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA
These images are the last in Dawn's Image of the Day series during the cruise to Dawn's second destination, Ceres. A full set of Dawn data is being archived here.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

Telescope

Best of the Web: Rupert Sheldrake, 'The Science Delusion': Banned TED Talk

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Scientist Dr Rupert Sheldrake gave a TED Talk on the dogmas of scientific materialism. TED didn't like it too much and removed it from its Youtube channel. Thankfully it has been re-uploaded...


Follow this link for TED's statement on the matter and Dr. Sheldrake's response.

Comment: See also:

Rupert Sheldrake: the 'heretic' at odds with scientific dogma

Sadly, with the Big Lie about 'man-made global warming' more entrenched than ever, we see no signs that Science is breaking free from the clutches of Power.

The Global Situation Has Taken a Turn For the Worse: Recovery Unlikely

From 'Hiding the Decline' to 'Burying the Pause': Man-made Global Warming is still a lie


Network

Google introduces new 'Hummingbird': The biggest algorithm change in three years

google's 'Hummingbird'
© Stephen Lam/Reuters Google's latest 'Hummingbird' update aims to make Google smarter at understanding conversational search questions.
New 'Hummingbird' algorithm will make core search better at answering longer, more complex and spoken queries

Marking Google's 15th birthday, Hummingbird is the biggest change to the inner workings of the world's most popular search engine since Google's "Caffeine" update in 2010, which sped up Google's indexing of sites and delivery of search results.

The Hummingbird update focuses more on Google's Knowledge Graph - an encyclopaedia of about 570m concepts and relationships that allows Google to anticipate facts and figures you might want to know about your search term.

New engine with old parts

Hummingbird isn't an overhaul that Google search users will instantly notice, however.