Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Chelyabinsk meteorite is 'as old as the solar system', say Russian scientists


The Siberian Times
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:45 UTC
Image
© Marat Akhmetaleyev'The speed of a meteorite's vertical drift is typical of surface nuclear explosions, which makes appropriate the comparison with a nuclear explosion'.
Scientists conclude that the asteroid explosion over the Ural Mountains in the early morning of 15 February - which injured 1,500 people - had the force of a nuclear bomb. They have also dated the meteorite to be as old as time itself.

'An analysis of Chelyabinsk meteorite fragments shows that its age practically coincides with that of the solar system, 4.56 billion years,' said Mikhail Marov, deputy head of the planetary research and space chemistry department of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geo-Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry. 'In fact, we possess a rock from the time of genesis'.

The explosion was recorded in dramatic photographs by observers, a fact which has aided scientists in understanding the phenomenon. Marov also confirmed earlier speculation that the rock may have had an earlier collision some 290 million years ago as it sped around the universe.

'This is just a theory, we cannot say for certain yet that this event has actually taken place,' he said.
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Airplane

Airport noise linked to higher cardiovascular disease and stroke risk

Brett Smith
RedOrbit
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:51 UTC
Airport Noise
© Thinkstock
A pair of new studies in the British Medical Journal indicate that individuals who live near a major airport run a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. In one study, scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health discovered that American zip codes with 10-decibel higher aircraft noise averaged a 3.5-percent higher cardiovascular hospital admission rate for adults aged 65 and older.

In the other study, a team of British scientists looked at the effects of aircraft noise around London's Heathrow airport and found that risks of hospital admissions and deaths due to stroke, heart and circulatory disease were approximately 10 to 20 percent higher in areas with the highest levels of airplane noise compared with the quietest areas.

Previous studies have found a connection between living in a loud environment and risk of high blood pressure, but not many have looked specifically at the risk of cardiovascular disease.

"These findings suggest a possible link between high levels of aircraft noise and risk of heart disease and stroke," said Anna Hansell, lead author of the UK study and a researcher at Imperial College London's School of Public Health.

"The exact role that noise exposure may play in ill health is not well established. However, it is plausible that it might be contributing, for example by raising blood pressure or by disturbing people's sleep," she added.

"The relative importance of daytime and night-time noise also needs to be investigated further."
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Info

Lonely planet without a star discovered wandering our galaxy


UPI
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:34 UTC
PSO J318.5-22
© MPIA/V. Ch. Quetz Artist's impression of free-floating planet PSO J318.5-22.
Honolulu -- An exotic young planet free-floating through the Milky Way galaxy rather than orbiting any star is practically a newborn in cosmic terms, astronomers say.

Dubbed PSO J318.5-22, the planet without a host star is 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. It formed a mere 12 million years ago, researchers said -- a newborn in planet lifetimes.

It was identified from its faint, unique heat signature by telescopes in Hawaii, and found to have properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars.
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Info

Researchers find that 'peanut butter' test can help diagnose Alzheimer's disease

Marilee Griffin
University of Florida
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:51 UTC

Gainsville, Florida - A dollop of peanut butter and a ruler can be used to confirm a diagnosis of early stage Alzheimer's disease, University of Florida Health researchers have found.

Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student in the UF McKnight Brain Institute Center for Smell and Taste, and her colleagues reported the findings of a small pilot study in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

Stamps came up with the idea of using peanut butter to test for smell sensitivity while she was working with Dr. Kenneth Heilman, the James E. Rooks distinguished professor of neurology and health psychology in the UF College of Medicine's department of neurology.
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Comet 2

New Data: Will Comet ISON survive its close perihelion passage?

David Dickinson
Universe Today
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:21 UTC
Comet ISON_1
© NASA/ESA J.-Y. Li of the Planetary Science Institute and the Hubble ISON Imaging Science TeamAn enhanced analysis of the dust coma of Comet ISON, showing the evaporation of ice particles (in red).
It's the question on every astronomer's mind this season, both backyard and professional: will Comet C/2012 S1 ISON survive perihelion?

Now, new studies released today at the American Astronomical Society's 45th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences meeting being held this week in Denver suggests that ISON may have the "right stuff" to make it through its close perihelion passage near the Sun. This is good news, as Comet ISON is expected to be the most active and put on its best showing post-perihelion... if it survives.

Researchers Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory and Research Scientist Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary Science Institute both presented a compelling portrait of the characteristics and unique opportunities presented by the approach of comet ISON to the inner solar system.
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Comet

Could a comet have caused the Great Chicago Fire of 1871?

Weather Girl
ChicagoNow
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 15:04 UTC
Great Chicago Fire 1871
© Chicago Now
Could a comet have caused the Great Chicago Fire of 1871? For three days, October 8-10, 1871, Chicago was burning. It was a rain of fire and terror as the wood buildings burned to the ground.

Ironically, the O'Leary house (Mrs. O'Leary of the famous cow and lantern theory) was left standing on DeKoven Street. The Water Tower also remained. Most of what was then Chicago was in ruins.

At the same time, there were fires burning in other parts of llinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Great Peshtigo Fire (in Peshtigo, Wisconsin) is still considered one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

There were also fires in Urbana, Illinois and Holland, Michigan.

Comment: See also:

The Comet and the Chicago Fire

Comet Biela and Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

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Bizarro Earth

Weird shift of Earth's magnetic field explained

Nola Taylor Redd
SPACE.com
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 13:01 UTC
Earth's magnetic field_1
© ESA/AOES MedialabEarth's magnetic field is generated by interactions in its molten outer core. As the flowing iron generates electric currents, the electromagnetic field is constantly changing.
Earth's magnetic field shields the planet from charged particles streaming from the sun, keeping it from becoming a barren, Mars-like rock. For more than 300 years, scientists have recorded a westward-drifting feature in the field that models have been unable to explain.

By relying on insights gleaned from previous work, as well as data collected over nearly four centuries, an international team of scientists has been able to provide a model that accounts for the western drift of the magnetic field on one side of the planet.

"People have tried various configurations regarding the state of the core-mantle alignment," lead author Julien Aubert, of the Université Paris Diderot in France, told SPACE.com in an email."The ingredients were here, but they were never put in the right configuration, in particular for reproducing the geomagnetic westward drift."
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Satellite

Experts stumped by spacecraft's speed variations during Earth flyby

Elizabeth Howell
Universe Today
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 13:10 UTC
Juno
© NASAArtist’s conception of Juno coming near Earth on a planned flyby Oct. 9, 2013.
Every so often, engineers send a spacecraft in Earth's general direction to pick up a speed boost before heading elsewhere. But sometimes, something strange happens - the spacecraft's speed varies in an unexpected way. Even stranger, this variation happens only during some Earth flybys.

"We detected the flyby anomaly during Rosetta's first Earth visit in March 2005," stated Trevor Morley, a flight dynamics specialist at the European Space Agency's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

"Frustratingly, no anomaly was seen during Rosetta's subsequent Earth flybys in 2007 and 2011. This is a real cosmic mystery that no one has yet figured out."
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Cell Phone

CMU researchers claim to have created messaging app even NSA can't crack

Jon Delano
CBS Pittsburgh
Tue, 08 Oct 2013 19:28 UTC
Image
© Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Carnegie Mellon University researchers claim they have created a smartphone messaging app with security that not even the National Security Agency can break.

The app is called SafeSlinger, and is free on the iTunes store, and Google play store for Android phones.

Researchers say the app uses a passphrase which only the user, and the other party can know.They claim messages cannot be read by a cellular carrier, internet-provider, employer, or anyone else.

The setup takes a few minutes, with the user answering security questions generated by the app that help it generate encryption and authorization credentials.

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Robot

Soon, Drones may be able to make lethal decisions on their own

Joshua Foust
National Journal
Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:49 UTC
NASA Global Hawk
© SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty ImagesA NASA Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone aircraft, takes off during a Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, mission at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, on September 10, 2013
Scientists, engineers and policymakers are all figuring out ways drones can be used better and more smartly, more precise and less damaging to civilians, with longer range and better staying power. One method under development is by increasing autonomy on the drone itself.

Eventually, drones may have the technical ability to make even lethal decisions autonomously: to respond to a programmed set of inputs, select a target and fire their weapons without a human reviewing or checking the result. Yet the idea of the U.S. military deploying a lethal autonomous robot, or LAR, is sparking controversy. Though autonomy might address some of the current downsides of how drones are used, they introduce new downsides policymakers are only just learning to grapple with.
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