Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Twin Fireballs May Have Come From Comet Hartley 2

Tariq Malik
SPACE.com
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:07 UTC
Image
© UWO/NASA/Bill CookeThese two fireballs with orbits similar to the comet Hartley 2 were observed on Oct. 16. 2010 by cameras in western Ontario (left) and the southeastern USA (right). The fireballs may have been caused by meteors from the comet.
Astronomers have recorded two magnificent fireballs that may have come from a nearby comet that made its closest pass by Earth in 24 years this month, prompting speculation on whether the icy cosmic visitor may be offering a meteor shower show.

The fireballs were spotted on Oct. 16, just four days before of the close pass by Comet Hartley 2 and a few weeks ahead of a Nov. 4 visit to the comet by a NASA spacecraft. It is possible the fireballs are related to the comet, but it may also be a coincidence, NASA scientists said.

Before the fireballs were observed, NASA scientists were skeptical of any substantial meteor display from Comet Hartley 2. "Probably not," said astronomer Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, "but the other night we saw something that makes me wonder."

Cooke was speaking, of course, of the twin fireballs. They were spotted five hours apart on the night of Oct. 16 by skywatching cameras in Canada and the United States.

Comment: For an interesting article on comets, read the SOTT Focus Disclosure and Comets.

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Meteor

66-Foot Waves Hit New York in Ancient Asteroid Splashdown

Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:29 UTC
A cosmic impact two millennia ago may have sent tsunamis deluging what is now the Big Apple, scientists suggest.

Many of the giant sea waves known as tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes and volcanoes - for example, the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by a quake off the northwestern coast of Sumatra. Still, the causes of nearly 10 percent of all tsunamis nowadays remain uncertain.

Cosmic impacts have been known to cause tsunamis in the past. For instance, scientists have found evidence that the Chicxulub impact in Mexico, which may have ended the age of dinosaurs, triggered gigantic waves.
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Meteor

Asteroid Strike Could Force Humans into Twilight Existence

Jeremy Hsu
LiveScience
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:20 UTC
An asteroid splashdown in one of Earth's oceans could trigger a destructive chemical cycle that would wipe out half the ozone layer, according to a new study. The massive loss of protection against the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation would likely force humans into a vampire-style existence of staying indoors during daylight hours.

The worst scenario based on an asteroid 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) wide would re-create the hole in the ozone layer, which appeared over Antarctica during the 1990s, except this would be worldwide. UV levels in the study's simulation soared beyond anything measured so far on Earth by the UV Index's daily forecasts of overexposure to UV radiation, and remained that way for as long as two years.
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Info

Modern humans emerged far earlier than previously thought


Washington Unversity in St. Louis
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:52 UTC
Image
© UnknownTrinkaus
An international team of researchers, including a physical anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered well-dated human fossils in southern China that markedly change anthropologists perceptions of the emergence of modern humans in the eastern Old World.

The research, based at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, was published Oct. 25 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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War Whore

New pocket-sized smartbomb - just for killer robots

Lewis Page
The Register
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:50 UTC
Thermos-sized weapon ideal for CIA assassin droids

US weaponry megacorp Raytheon says it has successfully tested a new, pocket-sized smartbomb specifically designed for use by killer robots.

The weapon has been rather prosaically dubbedd Small Tactical Munition (STM). STM is a 13-pound guided bomb that is approximately 2 feet long, according to Raytheon. Two of the little smartbombs have now been successfully trialled at the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. According to a company statement, both used GPS-INS combo satnav'n' inertial guidance to get themselves to where they could see their targets: then homed in on a laser pointer dot for the final part of their descent.

According to Raytheon, this dual-mode guidance enables the STM minibombs to "enable the weapon to engage both fixed and moving targets around-the-clock, regardless of weather conditions".
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Bulb

Chandra: What Lies Beneath? Magnetar Enigma Deepens


NASA
Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:32 UTC
Image
© CXC/M. Weiss An artist's rendering of SGR 0418+5729, a slowly rotating neutron star with a very weak magnetic field at its surface. Observations from several telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, have revealed that the star is giving off bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. This discovery may indicate the presence of an internal magnetic field much more intense than the surface magnetic field, with implications for how the most powerful magnets in the cosmos evolve.
Observations with NASA's Chandra, Swift and Rossi X-ray observatories, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ESA's XMM-Newton have revealed that a slowly rotating neutron star with an ordinary surface magnetic field is giving off bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. This discovery may indicate the presence of an internal magnetic field much more intense than the surface magnetic field, with implications for how the most powerful magnets in the cosmos evolve.

The neutron star, SGR 0418+5729, was discovered on June 5, 2009, when the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected bursts of gamma-rays from this object. Follow-up observations four days later with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) showed that, in addition to sporadic X-ray bursts, the neutron star exhibits persistent X-ray emission with regular pulsations that indicate that the star has a rotational period of 9.1 seconds. RXTE was able to monitor this activity for about 100 days. This behavior is similar to a class of neutron stars called magnetars, which have strong to extreme magnetic fields 20 to 1000 times above the average of the galactic radio pulsars.
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Pumpkin

Royal Blood May Be Hidden Inside Decorated Gourd

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:43 UTC
Decorated Gourd
© Carles Lalueza-FoxThe gourd, originally used to store gunpowder, was extensively decorated on the outside with a flame tool. Burned into its surface is the text: "Maximilien Bourdaloue on January 21st, dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his beheading."
Carved pumpkins abound this Halloween season, but a decorated gourd dated to 1793 may be the spookiest of them all. New research determines it may contain the blood of Louis XVI, who was executed by guillotine that same year.

The research, accepted for publication in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, shows how genetic analysis can provide new historical evidence independent of other traditional sources of information.

The gourd, originally used to store gunpowder, was extensively decorated on the outside with a flame tool. Burned into its surface is the text: "Maximilien Bourdaloue on January 21st, dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his beheading."
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Compass

Asian Neanderthals and Humans Mated

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:58 UTC
Neanderthals and Humans
© AP Photo/Martin MeissnerTwo reconstructions of Neanderthals are shown in at the Neanderthal museum in Mettmann, Germany. A newly found fossil suggests modern humans and Neanderthals mixed sexually in Asia.
Early modern humans mated with Neanderthals and possibly other archaic hominid species from Asia at least 100,000 years ago, according to a new study that describes human remains from that period in South China.

The remains are the oldest modern human fossils in East Asia and predate, by over 60,000 years, the oldest previously known modern human remains in the region.

The fossils - a chin and related teeth - belonged to a modern human that also featured more robust Neanderthal-type characteristics, indicates the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Co-author Erik Trinkaus, who is one of the world's leading experts on Neanderthals, told Discovery News that the new findings mean "there was mating between these 'archaic' and 'modern' groups across Asia, and not just in Europe and the remainder of Africa."

Comment: What if - just as a speculative guess - the humans emerged from both Africa and Asia? Is this necessarily an outlandish proposition?

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Robot

DARPA fashions miracle robotic attachment from balloon, coffee

Lewis Page
The Register
Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:17 UTC
Sucking makes rubber-clad appendage go hard

Topflight robotics boffins in the States have developed a nifty new accessory that no droid should be without - a squashy "gripper" manipulator which can be fashioned out of ground coffee and a party balloon.



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War Whore

US raygun jumbo fluffs another test missile-blast attempt

Lewis Page
The Register
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:08 UTC
Blaster-biggun in Nork shot splash cockup

The United States' enormous jumbo-jet-mounted raygun, the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB), has suffered another embarrassing test failure. During an attempt to beam down a target missile off the Californian coast last week, a technical hitch saw the 747's blaster cannon fail to fire up.

RayGun
© The RegisterIt was all going to be so cool ...
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