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Pregnancy due dates can vary by 5 weeks

Sheila M. Eldred
Discovery News
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 18:00 UTC
Pregnancy
© Getty Images
Forget setting your hopes on a single due date when you get pregnant: A new study suggests that pregnancies naturally vary by as much as five weeks.

Until now, due dates have been a source of guessing games at baby showers and inaccurate dates often take center stage in birth stories. But errors were attributed in large part to miscalculations. The study published today in the journal Human Reproduction suggests that even with incredibly accurate information, choosing a due date is largely a guessing game - something that surprised the researchers.

"We found that the average time from ovulation to birth was 268 days - 38 weeks and two days," Dr. Anne Marie Jukic of the National Institutes for Health, said in a press release. "Even after we had excluded six pre-term births, we found that the length of the pregnancies varied by as much as 37 days."

Pregnant women usually get a due date that's 280 days after the first day of their most recent menstrual period. Using that method, 4 percent of women deliver on their due dates.
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Fireball 4

Close approach of asteroid 2013 PJ10

Ernesto Guido & Nick Howes
Remanzacco Observatory
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:27 UTC
M.P.E.C. 2013-P39, issued on 2013 August 06, reports the discovery of the asteroid 2013 PJ10 (discovery magnitude 14.8) by La Sagra Sky Survey (MPC code J75) on images taken on August 04.9 with a 0.45-m f/2.8 reflector + CCD.

2013 PJ10 has an estimated size of 31 m - 70 m (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=24.6) and it had a close approach with Earth at about 1 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0025 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 0218 UT on 2013, August 04. This asteroid reached the peak magnitude ~13.0 on August 04.

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object on 2013, August 06.3, while it was still on the neocp, remotely from the H06 iTelescope network (New Mexico, Mayhill), through a 0.25-m f/3.4 reflector + CCD. Below you can see our image, stack of 6X15-second exposures, taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~15.3 and moving at ~ 19.0 "/min. At the moment of the close approach 2013 PJ10 was moving at ~ 218"/min. Click on the image below to see a bigger version. North is up, East is to the left
Asteroid 2013 PJ10
© Remanzacco Observatory
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Comet 2

New comet discovered: C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS)

Ernesto Guido & Nick Howes
Remanzacco Observatory
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:24 UTC
Cbet nr. 3621, issued on 2013, August 07, announces the discovery of an apparently asteroidal object (discovery magnitude ~19.5) by professional survey F51 Pan-STARRS 1 (Haleakala) on CCD images obtained with 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien on August 04, 2013 (pre-discovery Pan-STARRS1 observations from July 26 were found later by P. Veres).

After posting on the Minor Planet Center's NEOCP webpage, this apparently asteroidal object as been found to show cometary features by astrometric observers elsewhere (including our team). The new comet has been designated C/2013 P2 (PANSTARRS).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 30 R-filtered exposures, 40-sec each, obtained remotely from iTelescope network (MPC code H06, New Mexico) on 2013, August 06.3, through a 0.43-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer, shows that this object is a comet: coma about 5" in diameter elongated in PA 120.

Below you can see our image.
C/2013 P2
© Remanzacco Observatory
M.P.E.C. 2013-P42 assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2013 P2: T 2014 Feb. 17.50; e= 1.0; Peri. = 105.19; q = 2.83; Incl.= 125.54
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Comet

Comet dust veil: Stunning image of crescent Moon appearing through noctilucent clouds

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 13:35 UTC
Image
© NASA/ASI/ESA. Via Luca Parmitano on TwitterThe Moon rises surrounded by noctilucent clouds, as seen from the International Space Station.

Recently, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano spent a "night flight" in the Cupola of the International Space Station in hopes of capturing night-time images of his home country from space. But he saw so much more, including this incredible image of the crescent Moon rising among bright blue noctilucent clouds. These wispy and mysterious clouds appear in Earth's mesosphere - a region extending from 30 to 53 miles (48-85 km) high in the atmosphere - at twilight, usually in early summer. They can be seen from Earth's northern hemisphere and, obviously, are visible from space too.

You can read about Parmitano's night flight and see more of the images he took at his Volare blog. At the close of his image-taking night flight he says, "It's late, and tomorrow will be a long day. With those lights still filling my eyes, I slowly close the seven windows and cross the Station to return to my sleeping pod. Not even dreams could replace the beautiful reality that revolves, oblivious, beneath us."

Find out more about the science of noctilucent clouds here in our recent article by Bob King.
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Info

Neptune's strange new moon is first found in a decade

Lisa Grossman
New Scientist
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 22:57 UTC
New Moon
© NASA/ESA/M. Showalter/SETI InstituteHubble's composite picture of blue-hued Neptune, its rings and five of its 14 known moons.
Neptune has a new moon, and its existence is an enigma. The object, known for now as S/2004 N1, is the first Neptunian moon to be found in a decade. Its diminutive size raises questions as to how it survived the chaos thought to have created the giant planet's other moons.

The faint moon was discovered in archived images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, was poring over pictures of Neptune taken in 2009 to study segments of its rings.

The rings around our outermost planet are too faint to see without taking very long-exposure pictures. However, the rings orbit so fast that taking one long shot would smear them across the frame. Showalter and colleagues gathered multiple shorter-exposure images and developed a technique to digitally rewind the orbits to the same point in time. Then they could stack several images on top of each other to reveal details of the rings.

"I got nice pictures of the arcs, which was my main purpose, but I also got this little extra dot that I was not expecting to see," says Showalter.

Stacking eight to 10 images together allowed the moon to show up plain as day, he says. When he went back and repeated the process using Hubble pictures taken in 2004, the moon was still there and moving as expected.
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Meteor

Visitor from outer space to be hauled out of Russian lake


The Siberian Times
Sun, 04 Aug 2013 12:56 UTC
Image
© The Siberian TimesA large lump of meteorite - perhaps the biggest - is reported resting in silt some 50 metres from the spot it made an icy hole in the murky lake.
Now sizeable chunks of this cosmic guest are to be pulled out of Lake Chebarkul, in Chelyabinsk region, where they fell in February this year. They will give scientists a special insight into the space rock that so suddenly and dramatically struck Western Siberia.

A large lump of meteorite - perhaps the biggest - is reported resting in silt some 50 metres from the spot it made an icy hole in the murky lake.

'The operation will be held in the muddy waters of the lake in conditions of zero visibility,' reported Itar-Tass, citing Alexander Galich, the regional minister of radiation and ecological security.
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Sun

The sun is about to have a flipping magnetic field reversal

Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 03:13 UTC
We've been watching the progress on the WUWT solar reference page in this plot from Dr. Leif Svalgaard:

Sun Magnetic Reversal
© www.leif.orgSolar Polar Fields - Mt. Wilson and Wilcox Combined -1966 to Present.
Now, NASA has decided to call the flip (see video below). Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.

"It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."
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Galaxy

Back from the dead: Jupiter's gravitational pull breathes life into 'graveyard' of comets that burned out millions of years ago

Ellie Zolfagharifard
The Daily Mail
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:22 UTC
  • Scientists believe that they have discovered a region of formerly dead comets in the asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter
  • It is thought that Jupiter's gravitational pull brings dormant comets closer to the sun, which in turn reignites them and brings them 'back to life'
    • Image
    A number of comets in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter have come back to life after being dormant. The findings contradict the long-standing view that the main asteroid belt was once populated by thousands of comets which ultimately burned out as they aged
    A 'graveyard of comets' has been found by astronomers in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

    And, to the surprise of astronomers, a number of comets in this graveyard have come back to life after being dormant for what could have been thousands or even millions of years.

    The findings, by a Colombian team, contradict the long-standing view that the main asteroid belt was once populated by thousands of comets which ultimately burned out as they aged.
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    Info

    Huge deep-sea glow worm called the 'Unicorn of the Sea' grows to size of two double-decker buses


    The Daily Telegraph, Australia
    Mon, 05 Aug 2013 22:03 UTC
    Aussie divers have captured rare images of a creature dubbed the unicorn of the sea in the depths of the ocean.

    The Pyrostremma spinosum, or pyrosome, sea creature is so rare it was dubbed the unicorn and can grow up to 30 metres long - the equivalent of two double-decker buses laid end-to-end.

    Its hollow, translucent, cylindrical body is made up of thousands of tiny clones called zooids that pull water through its tubes and feed on plankton before pushing the filtered water back out.


    The zooids are each connected by tissue and move as one inside the pyrosome's tube structure and each zooid is a few millimetres in size.

    Also called a sea squirt, the pyrosomes are classed as pelagic, which means they are free-swimming and live in open water rather than near land.
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    Info

    Earth's core affects length of day


    Domain-B
    Mon, 05 Aug 2013 21:48 UTC
    Length of Day
    © Domain-BResearchers studied the variations and fluctuations in the length of day over a one to 10-year period between 1962 and 2012.

    Research at the University of Liverpool has found that variations in the length of day over periods of between one and 10 years are caused by processes in the Earth's core.

    The Earth rotates once per day, but the length of this day varies. A year, 300 million years ago, lasted about 450 days and a day would last about 21 hours.

    As a result of the slowing down of the Earth's rotation the length of day has increased.

    The rotation of the earth on its axis, however, is affected by a number of other factors - for example, the force of the wind against mountain ranges changes the length of the day by plus or minus a millisecond over a period of a year.

    Professor Richard Holme, from the School of Environmental Sciences, studied the variations and fluctuations in the length of day over a one to 10 year period between 1962 and 2012.

    The study took account of the effects on the Earth's rotation of atmospheric and oceanic processes to produce a model of the variations in the length of day on time scales longer than a year.
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