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Telescope

Supernova Blast Wave Could Shape Galaxy Evolution

Denise Chow
Space.com
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:53 UTC
Image
© NASA/Peter Challis
Time-series images made by cameras onboard the Hubble Space Telescope show the evolution of the inner remnant of Supernova 1987A
Hubble Space Telescope observations of the aftermath of a giant star explosion are offering a new glimpse into the events that follow the collapse of a massive dying star.

This well-known supernova remnant in a neighboring galaxy has been studied for more than 10 years, but the recent observations could glean new knowledge of how such stellar debris helps shape the evolution of galaxies.

The new study, led by Kevin France, a research associate at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy at the University of Colorado in Boulder, targeted the remnants of star SN1987A, which was first discovered in 1987.

Stars like this that have at least eight times the mass of our sun are considered "massive" stars, France said, and they speed toward death very quickly. Unable to support their weight any longer, these stars end their lives by collapsing in spectacular supernova explosions.
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Eye 1

Iranians discover blindness gene


Press TV
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:02 UTC
DNA
© Unknown
For the first time in the world, Iranian scientists have succeeded in discovering the gene responsible for a common type of blindness, prevalent in North Eastern parts of the country.

Latest figures have revealed that one in every family living in Esfarayen, in North Khorasan province, are blind, indicating that the blindness gene runs in these families. Scientists and officials had long considered climate and environmental factors as the main cause contributing to the condition.

According to Normohammad Ghiasvand, a genetic professor in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, the high prevalence of a certain gene accounts for the considerably high number of blind people in this area.
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Satellite

Russian Firestorm: Finding a Fire Cloud from Space


Earth Observatory
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:32 UTC
Image
© NASA image by Jesse Allen using OMI data
The Ozone Monitoring Instrument detected particles (aerosols) high in the atmosphere over northern Russia on August 1, 2010.
Thick, choking smoke hung over Russia on August 1, 2010, adding to the misery of a stifling summer heat wave. Thousands of people were fleeing nearly 700 fires burning in the drought-dried forests and peat bogs of western Russia, while those not directly threatened were struggling to see through and breathe the smoky air.

It was perhaps not too surprising, then, when the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite recorded high concentrations of aerosols over far northern Russia on August 1. Smoke from forest fires contains tiny particles (aerosols) produced when a fire incompletely burns through trees and other carbon-based fuel. These aerosols usually linger in the lower part of the atmosphere before falling out. On this day, OMI measured aerosols above the top of high clouds.

A decade ago, a scientist trying to trace the source of those aerosols would have looked for an erupting volcano. A volcanic eruption, it was thought, was the only force powerful enough to loft aerosols twelve kilometers or more into the atmosphere.

But in 2010, meteorologist Michael Fromm saw another suspect far closer to northern Russia. Working at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., Fromm had spent the last decade studying how fires inject smoke into the upper atmosphere. His experience told him that at least one of the hundreds of fires burning in western Russia had probably generated a powerful, dangerous firestorm.
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Sun

Solar Probe+ to Plunge Directly into Sun's Atmosphere

Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:56 UTC
Image
© NASA
Solar Probe+ passes Venus en route to the sun.
NASA's daring plan to visit the sun took a giant leap forward today with the selection of five key science investigations for the Solar Probe+ spacecraft.

Slated to launch no later than 2018, the smart car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the atmosphere of the sun, aiming to solve some of the biggest mysteries of solar physics. Today's announcement means that researchers can begin building sensors for unprecedented in situ measurements of the solar system's innermost frontier.

"Solar Probe+ is going where no spacecraft has gone before," says Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe+ program scientist at NASA HQ. "For the first time, we'll be able to 'touch, taste and smell' the sun."

Animations for Probe
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Sun

Limb Explosion on the Sun


Space Weather
Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:25 UTC
On Sept. 4th around 1600 UT, a magnetic filament erupted and hurled a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) off the sun's northwestern limb. Click on the image to view a close-up movie of the blast from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:


Another movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows the CME billowing into space. The cloud is not heading toward Earth, and no geomagnetic storms are expected from this blast.
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People

How To Tell Who Is Influencing Whom in a Group Discussion


Technology Review
Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:36 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A computer model that detects who is influencing whom in a group discussion, can accurately predict who is likely to speak next

One fascinating question that occupies social scientists concerns groups discussions. The problem is to determine the nature of the interaction between individuals and in particular, who influences whom.

Various breakthroughs in network theory and agent-based modelling have revolutionised researchers' understanding of these processes. One approach for analysing online discussions is to look for the set of keywords that define a topic of discussion, record the various instances in which these words appear and then study the links between the sites that use them: which came first, who links to whom and so on. This data can then be used to construct a network of influence.

While this has been hugely useful, it's hard to escape the sense that it fails to capture the true dynamics of influence, the way the balance of power and influence within a group shifts from moment to moment as a discussion evolves. If you've ever participated in a face to face group discussion, you'll know what I mean. (And if you haven't, where have you been?)
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Laptop

Human Unconscious is Transferred to Virtual Characters


ScienceDaily
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00 UTC
Image
© Groenegress et al
Human unconscious is transferred to virtual characters.
Virtual characters can behave according to actions carried out unconsciously by humans. Researchers at the University of Barcelona have created a system which measures human physiological parameters, such as respiration or heart rate, and introduces them into computer designed characters in real time.

"The ultimate aim is to develop a method which allows humans to unconsciously relate with some parts of the virtual environment more intensely than with others, and that they are encouraged only by their own physiological responses to the virtual reality shown," Christoph Groenegress, co-author of the work and researcher at the University of Barcelona explained.

The system, the details of which were recently published in the journal The Visual Computer, uses sensors and wireless devices to measure three physiological parameters in real time: heart rate, respiration, and the galvanic (electric) skin response. Immediately, the data is processed with a software programme that is used to control the behavior of a virtual character who is sitting in a waiting room.
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Meteor

University of Colorado students crash land a NASA satellite

John Brownlee
Geek.Com
Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:55 UTC
Image
© Getty Images

Talk about a dream project: a group of Colorado University students were hand-picked by NASA to help them on a space mission. What was that mission? To crash the hurtling, flaming debris of an out-of-control space aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean.

The satellite was one of NASA's own and known as ICESat, or Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite. For the past seven years, it had been blooping happily above the skin of the Earth, gathering data on ice sheets that could be fed into climate change models. But then, as often happens, it just stopped working and became another bit of space junk, twinkling in the sky above.

Failing to restart the satellite, NASA scientists decided to outsource the task of crashing it into the ocean to some plucky Colorado University students, who competed on their off hours over the course of many long nights and holidays to earn the job.
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Info

Physicists Solve The Mystery Behind a 1997 Soccer Miracle

Amina Khan
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:20 UTC

Forget about bending it like Beckham -- can you curve it like Carlos?

All right, so this is a little beyond the normal health boundaries, but for more of our active, sporty, specifically soccer-loving readers, a new study in the New Journal of Physics solves the longstanding mystery of whether a dramatic goal in an international match more than a decade ago was due to athletic skill or dumb luck.

The French researchers looked at a famous free kick goal (video above) made by Brazilian player Roberto Carlos against the French team in the 1997 Tournoi de France. When observed straight on, the ball makes a dramatic zigzag, flying far to the right of the goalpost before shooting back in.

Some had attributed it to accuracy; others called it a fluke. But the physicists say that from that distance, at the speed the ball was travelling, the goal was practically inevitable.

Study coauthor Christophe Clanet, a physicist at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseu, France, said at first, the study didn't pique his interest: After all, it was well known that a spinning ball will have a curved trajectory, a phenomenon known as the Magnus effect.
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Magnify

Oak tracks at 10th century road site leave archaeologists puzzled

Eoghan MacConnell
The Irish Times
Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:36 UTC
Image
© Dylan Vaughan
Jane Whitaker of Archaeological Development Services and Charles Mount of Bord na Móna delve into the site of the late Bronze Age wooden road in the Longford Pass bog in Co Tipperary yesterday.
Archaeologists are puzzled as to the exact purpose of an ancient oak road unearthed on a Bord na Móna bog in Co Tipperary.

Operations manager and site director with Archaeological Development Services (ADS) Jane Whitaker believes the track, which runs parallel to a modern road, may have formed part of an ancient road network.

The road, discovered by ADS during a walking survey, is constructed from oak planks laid across oak beams and gravel. Mortise holes have been bored into the planks to facilitate wooden pegs. All of the materials were brought to the site from other locations.
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