Science & TechnologyS


Moon

Did Earth steal its moon from Venus?

Ellie Zolfagharifard
The Daily Mail
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:53 UTC
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.
Image
© 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.
Read More...
Fireball

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


AstronomersTelegram.org
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:22 UTC
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.
Read More...
Fireball

Full view of Asteroid Vesta


NASA.gov
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 11:39 UTC
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.
Image
© 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.
Read More...
Telescope

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

revolutionloveevolve
Youtube
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:48 UTC
Image
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

Read More...
Network

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

Samuel Gibbs
The Guardian
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 05:14 UTC
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.
Read More...
Comet 2

New Comet: P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PanSTARRS)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 14:02 UTC
Discovery Date: September 15, 2013

Magnitude: 18.0 mag, 20.5 mag

Discoverer: R. E. Hill (Catalina Sky Survey), Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)
Comet P/2013 R3
© Aerith NetMagnitudes Graph
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2013-S53.
Read More...
Evil Rays

New electronic beam weapon could end police car chases

iwishart
InvestigateDaily
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 23:57 UTC
Norwegian scientists working on a defensive system to stop car suicide bombers may inadvertently have stumbled on the ultimate Big Brother solution to police pursuits everywhere.

Thousands of people die each year as a result of crashes during police car chases. The solution appears to lie in electro-magnetic pulse technology. During World War 2 and its aftermath, one of the things defence scientists quickly discovered is that nuclear explosions created massive electromagnetic pulses capable of stopping anything running on electricity in its tracks. A pulse could overload car ignitions or even aircraft in flight.

The Norwegians have been working on a scaled-down version of EMP technology to create a focused beam weapon capable of bringing cars to a stop, as this clip from NATO TV illustrates:

Read More...
Info

Scientists discover potential cause of motor neurone disease


ABC News, Australia
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 23:28 UTC

Australian scientists have helped discover what could be one of the only known causes of motor neurone disease.

The researchers were involved in discovering how a toxin in blue-green algae can contaminate food and cause problems in the central nervous system.

The cause of more than 90 per cent of motor neurone disease cases remains unknown.

Researchers are hoping the link found between motor neurone disease and blue-green algae could help treat the condition.
Read More...
Megaphone

Sonar blamed for mass stranding of melon-headed whales

Megan Gannon
Livescience
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:23 UTC
Dead whale
© Antsohihy resident 2008A local vet inspects one of the whales that stranded in northwest Madagascar in 2008.
Four years ago, about 100 melon-headed whales mysteriously entered a shallow lagoon system in northwest Madagascar and became stranded. Now scientists say the creatures' demise was likely brought on by sonar used to map the ocean floor for ExxonMobil.

Previous research has suggested that sonar can be harmful to marine mammals. The underwater noise can mask the calls of dolphins and whales and scare them away from their feeding grounds. Naval exercises using sonar have been linked to a 2008 stranding of at least 60 dolphins along the coast of Cornwall, England.

But researchers say the new findings from Madagascar mark the first time a marine mammal mass stranding has been closely tied to high-frequency sonar mapping.

From May to June 2008, about 100 melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) swam into Madagascar's shallow, tidal Loza Lagoon system, a highly unusually environment for the toothed whales, which usually stick to the open ocean.
Read More...
Info

Genetic study reveals Aetas may have come from India 20,000 years ago

Kim Luces
GMA News
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 18:00 UTC
Aeta Tribe
© Aetainfo WikispacesAeta tribe.
A genetic link between Indians and two Aeta populations were unveiled in a study whose proponents include Frederick Delfin, university research associate at the DNA Analysis Laboratory in the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

According to Delfin, it is commonly accepted that the Asia-Pacific - including the Philippines - was peopled by human migration that passed through the coast of South Asia.

But the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Indian-Philippine genetic link that Delfin and his team found "can be a signal of shared ancestry that actually originated from India".

Two mtDNA sets, M52'58 and M52a, that both originate from Indian populations were found in the Aetas of Zambales and the Agtas of Iriga in the Philippines.

These shared common haplogroups show a link between the populations of India and the Philippines that is about 5,000 to 20,000 years old.

This suggests that these migratory groups from India arrived before the Austronesian people landed in Philippine shores and populated the prehistoric Philippine archipelago.
Read More...