A team of astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea has found the most distant -- and therefore oldest -- black hole so far discovered in the universe.
The team announced their find yesterday at the annual conference of the Canadian Astronomical Society in Ontario.
The black hole is nearly 13 billion light-years away from Earth, meaning its light has been traveling almost since the birth of the universe about 13.7 billion years ago.
Science & Technology
With a 4-inch gap in the space shuttle's heat-protecting blanket not appearing to be an urgent problem, the crew of Atlantis yesterday readied itself for what NASA called a delicate ballet with the international space station.
Then the shuttle today will begin a weeklong docking with the orbital outpost.
Atlantis's seven astronauts spent much of yesterday on a mandatory inspection of the shuttle's delicate heat tiles, outer edges, and blankets for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident in 2003. No glaring problems were reported.
But late Friday and early yesterday, the crew spent extra time using a robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches, is the result of an unusual fold in the blanket, not a debris hit -- which caused Columbia's fatal problem, NASA spokeswoman Lynette Madison said.
Then the shuttle today will begin a weeklong docking with the orbital outpost.
Atlantis's seven astronauts spent much of yesterday on a mandatory inspection of the shuttle's delicate heat tiles, outer edges, and blankets for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident in 2003. No glaring problems were reported.
But late Friday and early yesterday, the crew spent extra time using a robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches, is the result of an unusual fold in the blanket, not a debris hit -- which caused Columbia's fatal problem, NASA spokeswoman Lynette Madison said.
Sargassum seaweed, famous in nautical lore for entangling ships in its dense floating vegetation, has been detected from space for the first time thanks to an instrument aboard ESA's environmental satellite, Envisat. The ability to monitor Sargassum globally will allow researchers to understand better the primary productivity of the ocean and better predict climate change.
Using optical radiance data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) aboard Envisat, Dr Jim Gower and Stephanie King of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Sciences and Dr Chuamin Hu of the US University of South Florida were able to identify extensive lines of floating Sargassum in the western Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2005.
"This appears to be the first report of a satellite image of Sargassum," Gower said. "It is usually associated with the area of the North Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea after the Sargassum encountered there by early explorers. Our observations of Sargassum lines extending over large areas of the Gulf show that in this area and season it represents a significant fraction of marine primary productivity."
Using optical radiance data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) aboard Envisat, Dr Jim Gower and Stephanie King of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Sciences and Dr Chuamin Hu of the US University of South Florida were able to identify extensive lines of floating Sargassum in the western Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2005.
"This appears to be the first report of a satellite image of Sargassum," Gower said. "It is usually associated with the area of the North Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea after the Sargassum encountered there by early explorers. Our observations of Sargassum lines extending over large areas of the Gulf show that in this area and season it represents a significant fraction of marine primary productivity."
The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield.
The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.
The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.
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| ©Vecna Technologies Inc. |
Scientists have called for almost a third of the world's oceans to be turned into protected areas for marine wildlife - to maintain food supplies and stop damage to underwater habitats and wildlife.
More than 250 scientists from around Europe signed a declaration yesterday to coincide with World Oceans Day.
More than 250 scientists from around Europe signed a declaration yesterday to coincide with World Oceans Day.
A headless skeleton found in a Peruvian tomb is adding new wrinkles to the debate over human sacrifice in the ancient Andes.
The decapitated body was found in the Nasca region, named for the ancient civilization that thrived in southern Peru from A.D. 1 to 750.
The decapitated body was found in the Nasca region, named for the ancient civilization that thrived in southern Peru from A.D. 1 to 750.
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| ©Christina Conlee |
| Archaeologists working in southern Peru discovered this headless skeleton in a seated position next to a "head jar" (inset) likely meant to serve as a substitute for the missing skull. |
Can ESP help you win the lottery? Most developed countries have had public lotteries for many years -- in the case of nations like France and Spain, for centuries. It was not, however, until 1989 that anyone realised that public numerical lotteries provide an unparalleled opportunity to test for the existence of paranormal abilities. Russian astrophysicist Mark Zilberman realised that the historical results of public lotteries provide a colossal statistical base that is completely independent of the observer and that relates to just one goal -- attempting to predict the outcome of a random process.
International Business Machines Corp. said on Friday it is releasing software that can predict the spread of infectious diseases among countries.
Robert Todd Carroll is one of a growing band of non-scientists (he teaches philosophy) who believe they are qualified to tell us what we should and shouldn't believe, scientifically. That he has no scientific qualifications, or training, or professional experience, does not deter Carroll from his conviction that he is an authority on this subject and, in The Skeptic's Dictionary, he sets out to tell us ordinary people what we may and may not legitimately think.
This bogus-guru stance should be warning enough of what is to follow but, once he warms to his subject, Carroll's inhibitions disappear completely and he veers from the dogmatic to the preposterous in a hilarious display of scientific ignorance and prejudice. From a mountain of mistakes and misunderstandings, here are a few of his more entertaining errors.
This bogus-guru stance should be warning enough of what is to follow but, once he warms to his subject, Carroll's inhibitions disappear completely and he veers from the dogmatic to the preposterous in a hilarious display of scientific ignorance and prejudice. From a mountain of mistakes and misunderstandings, here are a few of his more entertaining errors.
Physicists in the US have shown that the Casimir force -- a mysterious quantum phenomenon that draws nearby mirrors together -- can exist in a fluid. The researchers found that two gold-plated surfaces submerged in ethanol experienced the attraction when brought within 200 nm of each other, albeit two times weaker than the force that would be found in a vacuum. This could, they say, lead to a new "quantum floatation" effect, which could be used to design better sensors.
First predicted by Hendrik Casimir in 1948, the Casmir force arises when two facing mirrors are brought towards each other in a vacuum. According to quantum mechanics, any electromagnetic fields bouncing back and forth between the mirrors should constantly fluctuate in strength. At very small mirror separations these fields exert a radiation pressure on the surfaces that is, on average, stronger on the outer than the inner surfaces. This causes an overall Casimir force that draws the surfaces together.
First predicted by Hendrik Casimir in 1948, the Casmir force arises when two facing mirrors are brought towards each other in a vacuum. According to quantum mechanics, any electromagnetic fields bouncing back and forth between the mirrors should constantly fluctuate in strength. At very small mirror separations these fields exert a radiation pressure on the surfaces that is, on average, stronger on the outer than the inner surfaces. This causes an overall Casimir force that draws the surfaces together.
