Science & TechnologyS


Sun

Why NASA will fire three rockets at the solar eclipse

Jamie Carter
Forbes
Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:03 UTC
eclipse
NASA has announced it will fire three scientific sounding rockets into the moon's shadow on Monday, April 8 during a partial solar eclipse across North America.

In what will be a total solar eclipse for a 115 miles-wide path through parts of Mexico, 15 U.S. states and Canada and a partial solar eclipse for the entire Americas, the event will see a sudden drop in sunlight.

Serpent Deity

The space agency's project, Atmospheric Perturbations Around The Eclipse Path, will investigate how that drop in sunlight and temperature affects Earth's upper atmosphere. APEP is named after the serpent deity from ancient Egyptian mythology, nemesis of the sun deity Ra, according to NASA.

NASA's suborbital rockets won't launch into totality. Instead they'll go from Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, from where 81% of the sun will be blocked by the moon. That moment will happen at 15:33 EST, though the eclipse will take part between 14:06 and 16:33.


Comment: Three rockets at 3:33. NASA sure likes its occult symbolism!


Comment: Scientists will be firing up CERN at the same time.

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Magnify

Wild bird seen to gesture "after you"


The University of Tokyo
Mon, 25 Mar 2024 14:44 UTC
japanese tit gestures mate
© Suzuki and Sugita, 2024/ Current BiologyA Japanese tit bringing food to its nest
A small-bird species, the Japanese tit (Parus minor), uses wing movements as a gesture to convey the message "after you," according to new research at the University of Tokyo. When a mating pair arrives at their nest box with food, they will wait outside on perches. One will then often flutter its wings toward the other, apparently indicating for the latter to enter first. The researchers say that this discovery challenges the previous belief that gestural communication is prominent only in humans and great apes, significantly advancing our understanding of visual communication in birds.

A thumbs up, waving goodbye or pointing out a book on a shelf. These gestures and many more are an integral part of how we communicate. Such gestures were once thought to be used exclusively by humans, until closer observations of great apes, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, revealed that they too move their bodies to communicate nonverbally. In more recent years, studies on other animals, such as ravens and fish, have shown that they also use some simple gestures to, for example, point out objects or show something of interest, called deictic gesturing. However, symbolic gestures, such as showing an open hand to signal "after you," require complex cognitive skills, and there was no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of such abilities in animals other than humans.
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Bulb

Younger generations have larger brains, but is that healthier?

Carly Cassella
Science Alert
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:30 UTC
brain scan
© (feellife/Getty Images)
The size of the human brain may be gradually increasing over time, and that could reduce the risk of dementia in younger generations, according to new research.

The study imaged the brains of more than 3,000 Americans, between the ages of 55 and 65, and found that those born in the 1970s have a 6.6 percent greater overall brain volume than those born in the 1930s.

Members of Generation X also had a nearly 8 percent greater volume of white matter and an almost 15 percent greater volume of gray matter surface area than the members of the Silent Generation.

One specific part of the brain, called the hippocampus, which plays a major role in memory and learning, expanded by 5.7 percent in volume over the successive generations studied.
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Fireball

Rare asteroids showing strange 'activity' are challenging existing theories about solar system

Micah Hanks
The Debrief
Sat, 16 Mar 2024 17:27 UTC
comet tail
© Colin Orion Chandler/University of Washingtona comet tail coming from Asteroid 2015 VA108, one of the active asteroids spotted by volunteers from NASA’s “Active Asteroids” Citizen Science project.
Fifteen rare asteroids showcasing very unusual "active" properties have been detected as part of an ongoing international volunteer effort to unravel the mysteries of a peculiar variety of space objects.

The asteroids were spotted amid 430,000 images during an effort comprising more than 8000 volunteers who scoured images from the Dark Energy Camera, or DECam, on Chile's Victor M. Blanco telescope.

Founded by Colin Orion Chandler, Ph.D., a University of Washington and DiRAC Institute scientist, the Active Asteroids project continues to leverage the work of volunteers in its ongoing search for asteroids possessing these unusual properties.

What makes these "active" objects so rare is that they possess traits that blur the lines between asteroids and other kinds of celestial objects, as some of them possess tails like comets, while others are enveloped in pockets of dust or gas.

Since their first discovery in 1949, only a few dozen of the rare asteroids have ever been discovered.

According to NASA, the properties these objects display challenge our conventional ideas about objects in the solar system, and present opportunities for new insights about the behavior and origins of these rare "active" asteroids.

Comment: James McCanney's electric model may account for this strangeness:
As a comet's orbit becomes circular (due to tail drag), it stops moving through the differently charged areas around the Sun, remaining in one region of electrical equipotential, thus losing its visibly charged tail. In essence, it evolves into an asteroid or potential moon in a stable orbit, its fiery early years over.
In other words, asteroids are just "dead" comets.

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Bulb

Moonlight found to have a curious effect on coral reef activity

David Nield
Science Alert
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:30 UTC
coral reef
© (IBorisoff/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
The Moon influences life here on Earth more than you might realize - and that includes shifting the sounds coming from coral reefs, which indicates changes in ecosystem activity, according to a new study.

Every coral reef has its own soundscape, created by the activities of fish and other organisms as they move about the reef. Scientists can use this background hum to keep a check on what's happening around the coral.

Here, researchers from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), and the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) in the US, found that the underwater din changed rapidly as the Moon rose and set.

Comment: Interestingly, back in 2016, a study revealed that trees were found to 'rest' their branches at nighttime:
The drooping effect is probably caused by loss of internal water pressure within plant cells, a phenomenon called turgor pressure. "It means branches and leaf stems are less rigid, and more prone to drooping under their own weight," says Zlinszky.

The trees may also be "resting" their branches. During the day, branches and leaves are angled higher, allowing leaves to catch more sunlight, because there's less self-shading from leaves above. But this is energy-intensive and serves no purpose at night, when there's no light.

So is the drooping deliberate, dictated by an active sleep-night cycle, or passive, dictated by differences in the availability of water and light? "This remains to be decided," says Zlinszky.


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Evil Rays

'Havana syndrome' mystery deepens further after brain scan analysis

Rebecca Dyer
Science Alert
Sat, 23 Mar 2024 16:30 UTC
brain scan
© (mrtom-uk/iStock)
Two new studies on the mysterious 'Havana syndrome' found no physical cause, but they did suggest a possible link to mental health.

Since 2016, more than 1,000 US government personnel stationed internationally have reported hearing intrusive sounds and feeling pressure on their heads, followed by symptoms like intense headaches, dizziness, and cognitive dysfunction. Ever since federal employees stationed in Havana, Cuba, first reported these anomalous health incidents (AHIs), Havana syndrome has been the media's go-to term for the condition.

US researchers led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) now report they have found no significant differences in brain scans or other biological tests between people with Havana syndrome and healthy controls.

Comment: It's notable that they still don't even know what caused it: Havana Syndrome, Directed Energy Weapons, and the New Cold War

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Mars

Astronomers confirm a new 'Trojan' asteroid that shares an orbit with Mars


Phys Org
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:02 UTC
An artist's impression of an asteroid near Mars.
© Gabriel Pérez Díaz (SMM, IAC)An artist's impression of an asteroid near Mars.
Using observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) a study led from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) has confirmed that the asteroid 2023 FW14, discovered last year, is accompanying the red planet in its journey round the sun, ahead of Mars and in the same orbit.

With this new member, the group of Trojans that accompany Mars has increased in number to 17. But it shows differences in its orbit and chemical composition which may indicate that it is a captured asteroid, of a primitive type. The results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

A team from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) has observed and described for the first time the object 2023 FW14, a Trojan asteroid that shares its orbit with Mars. After Jupiter, the red planet has the largest number of known Trojans, totalling 17 with this new identification.

The Trojan asteroids are small bodies in the solar system that share the orbit of a planet, occupying one of the points of stable equilibrium called the Lagrange points, situated 60º in front of (L4) and 60º behind (L5) the planet.

Although the majority of the Martian asteroids seem to have accompanied the planet since the epoch of its formation, 2023 FW14 arrived at its Trojan trajectory around a million years ago, and it may leave it in some 10 million years, according to the numerical results obtained by the study.
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Galaxy

First-of-its-kind 'quantum tornado' achieves record-breaking black hole mimicry

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:40 UTC
quantum tornado mimic black hole physics
© Leonardo SolidoroQuantum vortex in superfluid helium experiment.
A superfluid vortex controlled in a lab is helping physicists learn more about the behavior of black holes.

A whirlpool generated in helium cooled to just a fraction above absolute zero mimics the gravitational environment of these objects to such high precision that it's giving unprecedented insight into how they drag and warp the space-time around them.

"Using superfluid helium has allowed us to study tiny surface waves in greater detail and accuracy than with our previous experiments in water," explains physicist Patrik Švančara of the University of Nottingham in the UK, who led the research.

"As the viscosity of superfluid helium is extremely small, we were able to meticulously investigate their interaction with the superfluid tornado and compare the findings with our own theoretical projections."
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Robot

Nvidia's Project GR00T will soon make the era of humanoid robots a reality

Krishi Chowdhary
Tech Report
Tue, 19 Mar 2024 05:10 UTC
project gr00t humanoid robot
Nvidia, the tech company that has been shattering stock market records for fun, has announced a new project that will bring the world a step closer to humanoid robots. The project is called GR00T (Generalist Robot 00 Technology).

At the Nvidia GTC 2024, the company announced that it will help create a new generation of robots that will be smarter and more efficient than ever.
What makes this an interesting venture is that the robots will learn from the humans - the way they move, talk and think will be learned by observing us.

Comment: And apparently Bezos is involved. There's an obvious interest for him to replace all those workers, with their pesky bathroom breaks and human rights, with uncomplaining efficient robots. But one can't help but wonder if this bold new future will more resemble the Jetsons or Blade Runner (or I Robot, or Terminator, or The Matrix...).

See also:

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Info

Giant ancient volcano discovered on Mars

Javier Barbuzano
Sky & Telescope
Tue, 19 Mar 2024 19:19 UTC
Ancient Volcano Mars
© Background: NASA / USGS; interpretation and annotations by Pascal Lee and Sourabh ShubhamThe newly discovered giant volcano on Mars is located just south of the planet’s equator, in eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, west of the Valles Marineris canyone system. The volcano sits on the eastern edge of a broad regional topographic rise called Tharsis, home to three other well-known giant volcanoes: Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons. Although more eroded and lower than these giants, the newly discovered volcano rivals the others in diameter (red dashed circle).
It's not every day that a giant volcano is discovered hiding in plain sight. By reviewing satellite imagery from many missions, scientists have spotted the remains of a colossal volcano on Mars. The volcano, provisionally named Noctis Mons, had been imaged repeatedly since the early 1970s, but extensive erosion had concealed it from view. Researchers have also spotted hints at an adjacent glacier buried underneath the volcanic slopes.

Noctis Mons is located near the Martian equator, in the eastern part of the Tharsis volcanic province, sandwiched between the vast canyons of Valles Marineris and the fractured maze-like terrain of Noctis Labyrinthus. "In fact, it is eastern Noctis Labyrinthus that is the volcano," says planetary scientist Pascal Lee (SETI Institute and the Mars Institute) who announced the finding during the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. The discovery adds yet another landmark to this intriguing region.
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