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Was a Giant Comet Responsible for a North American Catastrophe in 11,000 BC?


ScienceDaily
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© NASA
05 Hubble Space Telescope image of the breakup of a comet (73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3).
Some 13,000 years ago the Earth was struck by thousands of Tunguska-sized cometary fragments over the course of an hour, leading to a dramatic cooling of the planet, according to astronomer Professor Bill Napier of the Cardiff University Astrobiology Centre.

He presents his new model in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The cooling, by as much as 8°C, interrupted the warming which was occurring at the end of the last ice age and caused glaciers to re-advance. Evidence has been found that this catastrophic change was associated with some extraordinary extraterrestrial event. The boundary is marked by the occurrence of a "black mat" layer a few centimetres thick found at many sites throughout the United States containing high levels of soot indicative of continental-scale wildfires, as well as microscopic hexagonal diamonds (nanodiamonds) which are produced by shocks and are only found in meteorites or impact craters. These findings led to the suggestion that the catastrophic changes of that time were caused by the impact of an asteroid or comet 4 km across on the Laurentide ice sheet, which at that time covered what would become Canada and the northern part of the United States.
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Control Panel

Geneva Atom Smasher Sets Collision Record

Alexander G. Higgins
The Associated Press
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:53 UTC
CERN event display
© AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus
An event display shows the activity during a high-energy collision at the CMS control room of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, at their headquarter outside Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, March 30, 2010. The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider directed two proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before, Tuesday, as part of its ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces.
The world's largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang, breaking its own record for high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other Tuesday at three times more force than ever before.

In a milestone for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, took high-tech photographs so they could study the disintegrating protons after they collided at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron volts.

The collisions herald a new era for researchers working on the machine in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

"That's it! They've had a collision," said Oliver Buchmueller from Imperial College in London as people closely watched monitors.
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Laptop

US: Ohio University researchers create the world's smallest electrical wire

Spencer Hunt
The Columbus Dispatch
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:51 UTC
World's smallest superconductor
© Unknown
The world's smallest electrical wire, called a superconductor, is four pairs of organic salt molecules.
Ohio University researchers have created the world's smallest electrical wire.

This wire, called a superconductor, actually is four pairs of organic salt molecules and is less than 1 nanometer wide.

That's so small that even electron microscopes can't see it. The newsprint this story is on is about 100,000 nanometers thick.

The discovery could help pave the way toward a new generation of miniature wiring that would further shrink the size and boost the power of cell phones, computers and other devices.

"You could have a laptop that's as powerful as a supercomputer," said Saw-Wai Hla, an associate professor of physics who helped create the supersmall wire. "From that point of view, it's really exciting."
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Star

Astronomers See Historical Supernova From a New Angle

David A. Aguilar
Harvard-Smithsonia Center For Astrophysics
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:27 UTC
Image
© NASA/CXC/MIT/UMass Amherst/M.D.Stage et al.
Cassiopeia A
Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A). The red, green, and blue regions in this X-ray image of Cas A show where the intensity of low, medium, and high-energy X-rays, respectively, is greatest. While this photo shows the remains of the exploded star, light echoes show us reflected light from the explosion itself.
Cambridge, Massachusetts -Since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky 400 years ago, a myriad of technological advances have allowed astronomers to look at very faint objects, very distant objects, and even light that's invisible to the human eye. Yet, one aspect usually remains out of reach - the benefit of a 3-D perspective.

Our telescopes show the Milky Way galaxy only as it appears from one vantage point: our solar system. Now, using a simple but powerful technique, a group of astronomers led by Armin Rest of Harvard University has seen an exploding star or supernova from several angles.
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Info

Publishers Bet Future on iPad They Haven't yet Seen

Yinka Adegoke and Georgina Prodhan
ABC News
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:36 UTC
Publishers are placing big bets that Apple Inc's iPad will kick-start a commercially viable transition to digital magazines and newspapers -- even though few executives have laid hands on the tablet ahead of launch.

In fact, many publishers likely will not announce their iPad applications until after the tablet hits U.S. stores on Saturday, due to the many constraints that Apple has placed on allowing its partners access to the device.

While media content is critical to the success of the iPad -- a 9.7-inch tablet that looks like a large iPhone and aims to bridge the gap between a smartphone and a laptop -- Apple has been typically secretive about its plans.

Media executives say they have had to test out the iPad in situ at Apple's Cupertino, California office, or agree to extremely restrictive security measures to get one off-site.
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No Entry

Nero's Domus Aurea Roof Collapses


Libero News
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:54 UTC
Situation 'of extreme alarm', commissioner says

Domus Aurea_Rome
© ANSA
Rome - Part of the ceiling of Roman Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea collapsed on Tuesday.

Some 60 square meters of the baths built on top of the Golden House by the emperor who succeeded Nero, Trajan, came down because of seepage from recent heavy rains, civil protection experts said.

The area where the collapse occurred, a tunnel that was once part of the baths, has been cordoned off because it is close to the entrance to public gardens above it, they said.

"Now we're trying to seal it off so no more rain will get into the hole," they said. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said he was "very worried" about the state of the structure, one of Rome's most celebrated tourist attractions.

The special commissioner for the site, Luciano Marchetti, said "more collapses were possible". The situation, he said, is "one of extreme alarm".
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Magnify

After Patent on Genes Is Invalidated, Taking Stock

Andrew Pollack
The New York Times
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:02 UTC
Many biotechnology stocks fell on Tuesday as investors struggled to understand the impact of a ruling that threw out parts of two gene patents and called into question thousands more.

Stock market losses were muted, with two major indexes that track the shares of the industry falling by less than 1 percent each. In part, that was because biotechnology executives hastened to reassure their investors that the ruling would not necessarily undermine their businesses, at least in the short run.

But the executives themselves were struggling on Tuesday to figure out what the long-term impact would be. Biotech companies spend billions every year trying to develop new tests and treatments based partly on genes they have isolated and patented.
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Meteor

Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores

Sid Perkins
Science News
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:44 UTC
Copious ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age

A new study cites spikes of ammonium in Greenland ice cores as evidence for a giant comet impact at the end of the last ice age, and suggests that the collision may have caused a brief, final cold snap before the climate warmed up for good.

In the April Geology, researchers describe finding chemical similarities in the cores between a layer corresponding to 1908, when a 50,000-metric-ton extraterrestrial object exploded over Tunguska, Siberia, and a deeper stratum dating to 12,900 years ago. They argue that the similarity is evidence that an object weighing as much as 50 billion metric tons triggered the Younger Dryas, a millennium-long cold spell that began just as the ice age was loosing its grip (SN: 6/2/07, p. 339).

Precipitation that fell on Greenland during the winter after Tunguska contains a strong, sharp spike in ammonium ions that can't be explained by other sources such as wildfires sparked by the fiery explosion, says study coauthor Adrian Melott, a physicist of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

The presence of ammonium suggests that the Tunguska object was most likely a comet, rather than asteroids or meteoroids, Melott says. Any object slung into the Earth's atmosphere from space typically moves fast enough to heat the surrounding air to about 100,000° Celsius, says Melott, so hot the nitrogen in the air splits and links up with oxygen to form nitrates. And indeed, nitrates are found in snow around the Tunguska blast. But ammonium, found along with the nitrates, contains hydrogen that most likely came from an incoming object rich in water - like an icy comet.

Comment: For an in-depth study, read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls.

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Telescope

Full "Worm" Moon


Space Weather
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:57 UTC
The first full Moon of northern Spring is putting on a beautiful show. Mohamad Soltanolkottabi sends this picture from Esfahan, Iran, where the lunar disk was bisected last night by the spire of the Sheikh Lutfullah mosque:

Image
© Mohamad Soltanolkottabi
According to folklore, this is the "Worm Moon." It signals the coming of northern spring, a thawing of the soil, and the first stirrings of earthworms in long-dormant gardens. "The 'Worm Moon' is much prettier than it sounds," says Soltanolkottabi.

Step outside tonight and see for yourself!
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Sun

Radioactive Sunspots


Space Weather
Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:53 UTC
Sunday in New Mexico, a startling roar issued from the loudspeaker of amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft's radio telescope. "It was sunspot 1057," he says. "All day long it had been producing small radio bursts around 21 MHz. Then, at 1813 UT, it let loose a big one. The burst only lasted a minute, but it saturated the radios." Click here to listen.

Image
© Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas
The sounds you just heard were a mix of Type III and Type V radio emissions. They're caused by beams of electrons shooting out of the sunspot into the sun's atmosphere overhead. Not all sunspots produce radio emissions, but AR1057 is definitely "radio-active." "I'll be listening for more bursts in the days ahead," says Ashcraft.
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