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© AP Photo/NASA/Goddard Space Flight CenterThis undated image made available by NASA and the Goddard Space Flight Center shows an artist's rendition of the Van Allen Probes in orbit around Earth. The twin spacecraft have captured the clearest sounds yet from Earth's radiation belts - and they mimic the chirping of birds. NASA's Van Allen Probes have been exploring the hostile radiation belts surrounding Earth for just three months. But already, they've collected measurements of high-energy particles and radio waves in unprecedented detail. Scientists said Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 these waves can provide an energy boost to radiation belt particles, somewhat like ocean waves can propel a surfer on Earth.
NASA's Van Allen Probes have been exploring the hostile radiation belts surrounding Earth for just three months. But already, they've collected measurements of high-energy particles and radio waves in unprecedented detail.
Scientists said Tuesday these waves can provide an energy boost to radiation belt particles, somewhat like ocean waves can propel a surfer on Earth. What's more, these so-called chorus waves operate in the same frequency as human hearing so they can be heard.
University of Iowa physicist Craig Kletzing played a recording of these high-pitched radio waves at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
© sciencedaily.comNASA's MESSENGER
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has found further evidence supporting that water ice exists on Mercury.
The MESSENGER spacecraft, which entered Mercury's orbit last year, used its Mercury Dual Imaging System to take pictures throughout 2011 and 2012. NASA scientists have observed these photographs, and confirmed that certain radar-bright features at the north and south poles on Mercury lie within shadowed regions. This falls in line with the water ice hypothesis.
Scientists have long believed that Mercury has water ice in its polar craters, which are shadowed at all times. This belief stems from the fact that Mercury's tilt to almost zero on its rotational axis, meaning that there are certain areas that never see sunlight.
Venus from Earth
Most of the sulphur dioxide on Venus is hidden below the planet's dense upper cloud deck, because the gas is readily destroyed by sunlight.
That means any sulphur dioxide detected in Venus' upper atmosphere above the cloud deck must have been recently supplied from below.
Venus is covered in hundreds of volcanoes, but whether they remain active today is much debated, providing an important scientific goal for Venus Express.
© ESA/AOES Artist’s impression of an active volcano on Venus.
ESA officials explain that Venus's thick atmosphere contains more than a million times as much sulphur dioxide as Earth's, and offer that most of the pungent, toxic gas must be generated by volcanic eruptions. And most of the sulphur dioxide remains trapped below the dense upper clouds, where the sunlight cannot penetrate and dissolve the gas.
According to these observations, the Venus Express mission scientists believe that sulphur dioxide found in the upper atmosphere above the upper cloud deck must be supplied from below. But while scientists generally concur that Venus is littered with hundreds of volcanoes, it has remained unclear if any were still active today. The observations should help planetary scientists get a better understanding of what is going on beneath Venus's thick atmosphere.
The clues indicate that volcanism has been on the rise over the past few hundreds of thousands to millions of years. And a recent analysis of infrared radiation from the surface of Venus pointed to lava flows atop a volcano with composition distinct from those of their surroundings, suggesting that the volcano had erupted in the planet's recent past.
Down the years and across the universe, the heroes of science-fiction classics from Dan Dare to Star Wars and The Matrix have fought intergalactic battles with weapons that wipe out enemy electronics at the touch of a button. Now scientists have turned fantasy into reality by developing a missile that targets buildings with microwaves that disable computers but don't harm people. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing successfully tested the weapon on a one-hour flight during which it knocked out the computers of an entire military compound in the Utah desert.
Peeping into the vastness of our galaxy, NASA reported that the Herschel space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) took images of vast comet belts surrounding two planetary systems. "Herschel continues to reveal surprising information about the strange configuration of solar systems in the Milky Way," said NASA Herschel Project Scientist Paul Goldsmith.
The Herschel space telescope, officially named the Herschel Space Observatory, is known to have the largest single mirror for a space telescope at 3.5 meters in diameter. It can "collect long wavelength radiation from some of the the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe," according to the ESA. It was launched in 2009 and its mission is expected to end by 2013.
NASA also contributed to study for this mission. The Herschel Project Office is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.
The Herschel space telescope, officially named the Herschel Space Observatory, is known to have the largest single mirror for a space telescope at 3.5 meters in diameter. It can "collect long wavelength radiation from some of the the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe," according to the ESA. It was launched in 2009 and its mission is expected to end by 2013.
NASA also contributed to study for this mission. The Herschel Project Office is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth runs through a stream of debris from a strange object that some astronomers are calling a "rock comet."
The 2012 Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night of Dec. 13-14, The Geminids are a unique meteor shower in that their identified parent body is not a comet, but what seems to be an asteroid! Of the meteor showers with known parent bodies studied by meteor scientists, the Geminids are the only shower to have an asteroidal parent body; all others have a cometary origin.
3200 Phaethon measures 5.10 km in diameter which increases the 'unique' factor; considering the amount of debris we see, we would expect Phaethon to be a much larger body!
The 2012 Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night of Dec. 13-14, The Geminids are a unique meteor shower in that their identified parent body is not a comet, but what seems to be an asteroid! Of the meteor showers with known parent bodies studied by meteor scientists, the Geminids are the only shower to have an asteroidal parent body; all others have a cometary origin.
3200 Phaethon measures 5.10 km in diameter which increases the 'unique' factor; considering the amount of debris we see, we would expect Phaethon to be a much larger body!
© svenko.net
"We have proved scientifically that the forefathers of the European Roma Gypsies are the doma, a collective term for the ancient aboriginal populations of the Indian subcontinent, also known as Dalits," Dr Kumaraswamy Thangaraj from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad told The Pioneer. Dr Thangaraj led the team of scientists in the 30-month-long study.
The scientists were from CCMB, Estonian Biocentre, Tartu University, Estonia, University of Bern, Switzerland; University of Cambridge, UK and Stanford University, USA. The ancestry of European Roma Gypsies was always enmeshed in controversy though it was widely believed that they had their origins from north-west India. The exact parental population group and time of dispersal into various continents remained a mystery all these years. This is the first time a scientific research has proved that the Gypsies in Europe have an Indian Dalit origin.
The Roman Gypsies are spread all over Europe, the USA and South America. Dr Gyaneshwer Chaubey from Estonian Biocentre said the breakthrough was made by studying the Y chromosomes of the Gypsies with that of various ethnic groups in Indian subcontinent. "The Y chromosome is passed on from father to sons and grandsons. All males of a family or gotra evolved from a single founder male will possess the same Y chromosome," Dr Chaubey explained from Estonia through video-conferencing. He said the parental lineage of the Gypsies was traced based on the genetic signatures existing on Y chromosomes.
Discovery Date: November 7, 2012
Magnitude: 19.0
Discoverer: Rob Matson (SWAN/SOHO spacecraft images)
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2012-X02.
Magnitude: 19.0
Discoverer: Rob Matson (SWAN/SOHO spacecraft images)
© Aerith Net
Comment: Like dust veils in the past on Earth, they are presuming volcanoes are responsible, but what if we're witnessing comet-dust loading on Venus too?
Increased meteor smoke: Noctilucent clouds brightening and spreading south