Science & TechnologyS


Rose

Bees use shark 'supersense' to help find food

Anthony King
Horizon Magazine
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 12:00 UTC
bees
© Unsplash/George Hiles, licenced under Unsplash licenceFine hairs on bees' bodies can sense tiny changes in electrostatic fields, enabling them to sense whether another bee has visited a flower before them.
Flying insects such as bees and moths have secret senses that allow them to 'feel' nearby flowers and navigate over long distances, according to new research.

Armed with sensitive antennae and wide-angled compound eyes, bees have a sophisticated set of senses to help them search out pollen and nectar as they buzz from flower to flower.

But new research is revealing that bumblebees may employ another hidden sense that lets them detect when a flower was last visited by another insect.

Comment: See also:

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Cassiopaea

Betelgeuse's mysterious dimming due to a traumatic outburst - NASA


NASA
Thu, 13 Aug 2020 21:26 UTC
Betelgeuse
© NASA, ESA, and E. Wheatley (STScI)This four-panel graphic illustrates how the southern region of the rapidly evolving, bright, red supergiant star Betelgeuse may have suddenly become fainter for several months during late 2019 and early 2020. In the first two panels, as seen in ultraviolet light with the Hubble Space Telescope, a bright, hot blob of plasma is ejected from the emergence of a huge convection cell on the star's surface. In panel three, the outflowing, expelled gas rapidly expands outward. It cools to form an enormous cloud of obscuring dust grains. The final panel reveals the huge dust cloud blocking the light (as seen from Earth) from a quarter of the star's surface.
Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are showing that the unexpected dimming of the supergiant star Betelgeuse was most likely caused by an immense amount of hot material ejected into space, forming a dust cloud that blocked starlight coming from Betelgeuse's surface.

Hubble researchers suggest that the dust cloud formed when superhot plasma unleashed from an upwelling of a large convection cell on the star's surface passed through the hot atmosphere to the colder outer layers, where it cooled and formed dust grains. The resulting dust cloud blocked light from about a quarter of the star's surface, beginning in late 2019. By April 2020, the star returned to normal brightness.

Betelgeuse is an aging, red supergiant star that has swelled in size due to complex, evolving changes in its nuclear fusion furnace at the core. The star is so huge now that if it replaced the Sun at the center of our solar system, its outer surface would extend past the orbit of Jupiter.

Comment: Notably it isn't only Betelgeuse that's displaying unusual behaviour out in Space: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Syringe

Russia's approval of a COVID-19 vaccine is less than meets the press release

Jon Cohen
Science
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 05:15 UTC
Russian vaccine
© MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATIONAn experimental COVID-19 vaccine made by a Russian research institute.
In a startling and confusing move, Russia claimed today it had approved the world's first COVID-19 vaccine, as the nation's Ministry of Health issued what's called a registration certificate for a vaccine candidate that has been tested in just 76 people. The certificate allows the vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, to be given to "a small number of citizens from vulnerable groups," including medical staff and the elderly, a Ministry of Health spokesperson tells ScienceInsider. But the certificate stipulates that the vaccine cannot be used widely until 1 January 2021, presumably after larger clinical trials have been completed.

Scientists around the world immediately denounced the certification as premature and inappropriate, as the Gamaleya vaccine has yet to complete a trial that convincingly shows it is safe and effective in a large group of people. Even some within Russia challenged the move. "It's ridiculous," says Svetlana Zavidova, a lawyer who heads the Association of Clinical Research Organizations in Russia. "I feel only shame for our country." Zavidova, who has worked on clinical trials for 20 years and anticipated the approval, yesterday sent an appeal to the Ministry of Health to postpone registering the vaccine until proper efficacy trials are completed. "Accelerated registration will no longer make Russia a leader in this race, it will only expose end users of the vaccine, citizens of the country of the Russian Federation, to unnecessary danger," she wrote on behalf of the clinical research group.
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Sun

Massive sunspot turning towards Earth could be bad news as we enter new solar cycle 25


Indian Express
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:20 UTC
sunspots
© NASASolar flares are the result of changes in magnetic fields on the sunspots that cause a huge explosion
If you think the year 2020 is through with its share of bad news, there is a massive sunspot on the Sun that will be turning towards our planet which could result in major strong flares. According to a report by spaceweather.com, the sunspot AR2770, which was deducted earlier this week is expected to grow in size. Few minor space flares have been emitted by this particular sunspot already which has not caused anything major other than "minor waves of ionization to ripple through Earth's upper atmosphere".

However, if this sunspot which can be up to 50,000 kilometres in diameter may release a huge amount of energy which in turn will lead to solar flares. These eruptions may lead to solar flares and storms. This phenomenon is called Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). These flares can have a major effect on affect radio communications, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) connectivity, power grids, and satellites.

Comment: Space Weather reports:
SOLAR CYCLE 25 ACTIVE REGIONS

The sun's southern hemisphere is undergoing an outbreak of Solar Cycle 25 active regions. Take a look at this Aug. 12th magnetic map of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
sun spot august 2020
Each patch of yellow and green is a place where magnetic fields are intensifying, creating islands of magnetism on the sun's surface. In one case (AR2771), the fields have intensified enough to form a cluster of dark sunspots. The other two are still weakly-organized regions of magnetic froth. They might turn into sunspots, but haven't yet.

We know that all of these regions belong to Solar Cycle 25 because of their +/- polarity. See Hale's Law for details. Their emergence is yet another sign that Solar Cycle 25 is coming to life.
While it remains to be seen what happens with the sun spot, what is clear is that due to the decreasing strength in Earth's electro-magnetic field solar activity is being felt with an increased intensity, and it's in the transition between cycles that we see an increase in potentially disruptive solar events: 'Terminator' events on the Sun trigger plasma tsunamis and new solar cycles - Expect them next year

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Telescope

Modelling Main Belt asteroid Psyche's impact crater formations aids in planning exploratory mission


PhysOrg
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 16:37 UTC
asteroid psyche artist conception
© Peter Rubin and Arizona State UniversityArtist's conception of asteroid Psyche, whose composition has been proposed as a porous metallic body hurtling through space, thanks to computer modeling of its largest crater.
New 2-D and 3-D computer modeling of impacts on the asteroid Psyche, the largest Main Belt asteroid, indicate it is probably metallic and porous in composition, something like a flying cosmic rubble pile. Knowing this will be critical to NASA's forthcoming asteroid mission, Psyche: Journey to a Metal World, that launches in 2022.

"This mission will be the first to visit a metallic asteroid, and the more we, the scientific community, know about Psyche prior to launch, the more likely the mission will have the most appropriate tools for examining Psyche and collecting data," said Wendy K. Caldwell, Los Alamos National Laboratory Chick Keller Postdoctoral Fellow and lead author on a paper published recently in the journal Icarus. "Psyche is an interesting body to study because it is likely the remnant of a planetary core that was disrupted during the accretion stage, and we can learn a lot about planetary formation from Psyche if it is indeed primarily metallic."

Modeling impact structures on Psyche contributes to our understanding of metallic bodies and how cratering processes on large metal objects differ from those on rocky and icy bodies, she noted.
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Telescope

Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world: study

Patrick Galey
phys.org
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 22:48 UTC
Ceres
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has its own gravity
The dwarf planet Ceres — long believed to be a barren space rock — is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission showed Monday.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, enabling the NASA Dawn spacecraft to capture high-resolution images of its surface.

Now a team of scientists from the United States and Europe have analysed images relayed from the orbiter, captured around 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the asteroid.

They focused on the 20-million-year-old Occator crater and determined that there is an "extensive reservoir" of brine beneath its surface.
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Better Earth

X-rays indicate that water can behave like a liquid crystal


Stockholm University
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 21:02 UTC
water molecules
© Stockholm UniversityThe schematic of the experiment used to capture the alignment of water molecules by the laser light. By using X-ray lasers, scientists have seen that the water molecules can be aligned for a very short time, forming a liquid crystal. Water molecules that are in a low-density liquid (LDL – blue regions) are easier to align that those in a high density liquid (HDL – yellow regions).
Scientists at Stockholm University have discovered that water can exhibit a similar behavior to that of a liquid crystal when illuminated with laser light. This effect originates by the alignment of water molecules, which exhibit a mixture of low- and high-density domains that are more or less prone to alignment. The results, reported in Physics Review Letters, are based on a combination of experimental studies using X-ray lasers and molecular simulations.

Liquid crystals were considered a mere scientific curiosity when they were first discovered in 1888. Over 100 years later, they are one of the most widely used technologies, present in digital displays (LCDs) of watches, TVs and computer screens. Liquid crystals work by applying an electric field, which makes the neighboring molecules of a liquid align, in a way that resembles a crystal. Water too can be distorted towards a liquid crystal, when illuminated with laser light. It is known that the electric field of the laser can align the water molecules for less than a billionth of a second. Can this discovery have future technological applications?

Comment: Further demonstrating that there are likely many other mysterious properties of water that are yet to be revealed:

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Seismograph

Geologists confirm strange 'boomerang' earthquake deep beneath Atlantic Ocean

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 18:24 UTC
Romanche fracture zone atlantic ocean earthquake boomerang
© Hicks et al., Nature Geoscience, 2020Reconstructed image of the Romanche fracture zone.
Earthquakes come and go, often leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. What they don't usually do, thankfully, is turn around immediately and come back for another pass. Except... it looks like they can, in exceedingly rare circumstances.

In a new study, scientists have found evidence of an unusual and virtually unprecedented 'boomerang' earthquake that shook the deep seabed underneath the Atlantic Ocean in 2016.

This earthquake - termed a "back-propagating supershear rupture" - took place along the Romanche fracture zone, which lies near the equator, roughly mid-way between the east coast of Brazil and the west coast of Africa.
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Seismograph

USGS issues warning: San Andreas swarm could put California at risk of big earthquakes for over a week

Hannah Osborne
Newsweek
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 16:59 UTC
salton sea san andreas fault
© istockThe Salton Sea. An earthquake swarm hit along the San Andreas fault on August 10.
An earthquake swarm on the San Andreas Fault may mean parts of California are at risk of a big earthquake for the next week. Swarms recorded over the last 20 years have lasted between one and 20 days, with an average of a week, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said in a statement.

The earthquake swarm hit on a southern section of the fault, beneath the Salton Sea. The largest quake recorded was a magnitude 4.6, which hit at 8.56 a.m. local time on August 10.

This part of San Andreas is capable of producing earthquakes that are magnitude 7 and above. The USGS said the last time an earthquake of this size hit this section was over 300 years ago.

Comment: Not only would California be at risk, but a strong enough quake could trigger the faultline running down into Mexico:



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Fireball 2

Two meteorites found in Madura, US, in just two weeks


Curtin University
Thu, 30 Jul 2020 12:00 UTC
Devillepoix
Curtin's Dr Hadrien Devillepoix pointing to the meteorite found near Madura
Both falls were captured by The Desert Fireball Network (DFN) team which uses cameras across Australia to observe shooting stars and predict where meteorites land.

The team, who usually search from March to October, was postponed due to COVID-19, but as restrictions lifted it observed another meteorite fall just south of the Eyre Highway near Madura.

Astronomer Dr Hadrien Devillepoix and planetary geologist Dr Anthony Lagain originally went on a reconnaissance mission to assess the latest fall site near Madura, taking drone imagery of the area.

Comment: See also: And to watch the spectacular uptick of fireballs in real time, check out SOTT's monthly documentary Earth Changes Summary - July 2020: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs



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