Science & TechnologyS

Cassiopaea

'Largest impact structure' in solar system discovered on Jupiter's moon Ganymede


Kobe University
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 11:02 UTC
ganymede
© Tsunehiko Kato, 4D2U Project, NAOJ
Researchers from Kobe University and the National Institute of Technology, Oshima College have conducted a detailed reanalysis of image data from Voyager 1, 2 and Galileo spacecraft in order to investigate the orientation and distribution of the ancient tectonic troughs found on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. They discovered that these troughs are concentrically distributed across almost the entire surface of the satellite. This global distribution indicates that these troughs may be actually part of one giant crater covering Ganymede.

Based on the results of a computer simulation conducted using the "PC Cluster" computers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), it is speculated that this giant crater could have resulted from the impact of an asteroid with a radius of 150km. If so, the structure is the largest impact structure identified in the solar system so far.

Comment: See also:

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Info

First electrically injected laser developed by researchers

Matt McGowan
University of Arkansas
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 17:25 UTC
Germanium Laser
© University of Arkansas
Materials science researchers, led by electrical engineering professor Shui-Qing "Fisher" Yu, have demonstrated the first electrically injected laser made with germanium tin. Used as a semiconducting material for circuits on electronic devices, the diode laser could improve micro-processing speed and efficiency at much lower costs.

In tests, the laser operated in pulsed conditions up to 100 kelvins, or 279 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

"Our results are a major advance for group-IV-based lasers," Yu said. "They could serve as the promising route for laser integration on silicon and a major step toward significantly improving circuits for electronics devices."
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Meteor

NASA warns of upcoming close shave with asteroid as doomsday preacher predicts 'apocalyptic fireball'


RT
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 17:20 UTC
asteroid
© Pixabay/ illustration
Two asteroids are set to dart past Earth in the coming days, while NASA has warned about an impending close shave with an airplane-sized space rock. A doomsday preacher has also issued a dire warning about the upcoming encounter.

Greatly enhanced detection techniques have allowed astronomers to witness an ever-increasing number of asteroid flybys in recent years. The latest installment will see two space rocks skim past Earth this week. Both of the rocks were only spotted in recent days, a reminder of the threat that undetected asteroids potentially pose to our planet.

Thankfully, both of the rocks will pass at a safe distance of more than 1.5 million kilometers (932,056 miles). However, on September 1 we're set for a far closer encounter, when a 28-meter space rock, officially known as 2011 ES4, will skim past Earth at only one third of the distance between our planet and the moon.
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Telescope

Helium structures in Sun's atmosphere found by NASA's sounding rocket


NASA.gov
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 12:00 UTC
helium sun
© NASAA composite image of the Sun showing the hydrogen (left) and helium (center and right) in the low corona. The helium at depletion near the equatorial regions is evident.
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But scientists aren't sure just how much there actually is in the Sun's atmosphere, where it is hard to measure. Knowing the amount of helium in the solar atmosphere is important to understanding the origin and acceleration of the solar wind - the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun.

In 2009, NASA launched a sounding rocket investigation to measure helium in the extended solar atmosphere - the first time we've gathered a full global map. The results, recently published in Nature Astronomy, are helping us better understand our space environment.

Previously, when measuring ratios of helium to hydrogen in the solar wind as it reaches Earth, observations have found much lower ratios than expected. Scientists suspected the missing helium might have been left behind in the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer - the corona - or perhaps in a deeper layer. Discovering how this happens is key to understanding how the solar wind is accelerated.

Comment: It may be that these findings lend further support to the work of numerous independent researchers who have demonstrated the possible plasma properties of space and the bodies therein rather than the model of stars as purported by mainstream science. Pierre Lescaudron explores these concepts in his book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection:
Birkeland noticed that before the discharge circle divided, discharges were mostly localized in the equatorial and polar regions of the electrodes, as indicated in the picture below. This strongly suggests that most of the current injected into the electrode at the level of the polar regions escaped through the equatorial region. This is consistent with observations of the Sun, which shows a predominant glow and faster rate of rotation1 around the equatorial region.
Birkeland
© Sott.netBirkeland's terrella experiment.
Reasoning by analogy and applying the principles of the homopolar motor to celestial bodies like stars and planets, we find that the 'internal' magnet of the celestial body plays the role of the cylindrical magnet of the motor. The external power source of the celestial body plays the role of the battery. The partial vacuum generated in the lab plays the role of the partial vacuum that constitutes outer space. And the Birkeland current crossing the plasma that surrounds the celestial body plays the role of the electric wire which closes the circuit by connecting the battery to the magnet.

If a celestial body is a conductor crossed by an electric current and an electromagnetic field, it will also be subjected to the Lorentz force. In this sense, stars and planets are giant homopolar motors, hence their spin. Therefore, when electric current or magnetic field decreases in strength, the rate of rotation decreases as well.

Note that the Moon doesn't spin. As explained above, the Moon hasn't developed a Double Layer (DL) of its own. It has no plasmasphere because its electric potential is equal to that of its surrounding space. Electric potentials being equal, the Moon is not subjected to any electric current, so no Lorentz force can be generated, hence the absence of spinning2.

For plasma cosmologists the driving force of spinning stars is indeed electricity:
within the visible universe we find magnetic fields linking galaxies, showing that the galaxies are 'threaded like beads on a string', along cosmic power lines. The galaxies and stars within them are driven to rotate like the very simplest of electric motors, known as the 'homopolar' or Faraday motor. The ubiquitous spiral arms of galaxies trace the current paths between the galactic nucleus and the periphery ๏‚ผFrom an electrical standpoint we make the simple observation that increasing electric current input to stars results in increasing maximum rotational speeds.3
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Chalkboard

Human engineers can't top these biological intelligent designs


Evolution News
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 17:55 UTC
humpback whale
© Whit Welles Wwelles14A humpback whale
Amid the often-depressing news of Darwin censorship and dogmatism, with its ongoing ill effects on society like eugenics and racism, it is good to take a break and see what intelligent design science is accomplishing, whether it calls itself that or not. That is what biomimetics is all about: a focus on design, to understand it and imitate it. Here are just a few examples of what is being reported on a weekly basis from labs and universities around the world.

Making Better Surfboards

The Surf Engineering Association is studying HUMPBACK WHALE flippers to improve surfboards. Does it help? "We found using RW ['real whale'] fins allowed a skilled surfer to improve their surfing performance relative to a professionally ranked surfer." (PLoS One).

The fluid motion of a humble SEA SLUG in water gave engineers at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, inspiration for "A robot made from gel bends in response to light, allowing for a wide variety of motions." (Nature).

Cephalopods have amazed scientists at the University of California at Irvine with their transparency, which they can turn on and off at will. By adjusting their leucophores containing reflectin proteins, SQUID can become opaque or transparent. The team engineered human cells with a similar trick. It might help with microscopy and with medicine, allowing surgeons to mark cells with light. Question: is there money in biomimetics?
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Rose

Why are plants green? To reduce the noise in photosynthesis

Rodrigo Pรฉrez Ortega
Quanta Magazine
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 23:44 UTC
green leaves photosynthesis
© Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine
Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis.

Land plants are green because their photosynthetic pigments reflect green light, even though those wavelengths hold the most energy. Scientists finally understand why.

From large trees in the Amazon jungle to houseplants to seaweed in the ocean, green is the color that reigns over the plant kingdom. Why green, and not blue or magenta or gray? The simple answer is that although plants absorb almost all the photons in the red and blue regions of the light spectrum, they absorb only about 90% of the green photons. If they absorbed more, they would look black to our eyes. Plants are green because the small amount of light they reflect is that color.

But that seems unsatisfyingly wasteful because most of the energy that the sun radiates is in the green part of the spectrum. When pressed to explain further, biologists have sometimes suggested that the green light might be too powerful for plants to use without harm, but the reason why hasn't been clear. Even after decades of molecular research on the light-harvesting machinery in plants, scientists could not establish a detailed rationale for plants' color.
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2 + 2 = 4

Explaining the obvious, because apparently it's necessary right now: 2+2 never equals 5

James Lindsay
New Discourses
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:40 UTC
orwell 225
"Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2=4. If that is granted, all else follows" -George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four

Occasionally in the course of human events it becomes necessary to have explain something no one would ever have expected to have to defend. In the present moment, we find that circumstance to be the case and that thing to be that two and two do, in fact, make four. Further, it must be reasserted, against all reasonable expectation, that this claim about the sum of two and two being four is not merely some subjective determination or, more insidiously, an assertion of hegemonic power. So it is that such a need might arise in such a time in which irrational subjectivity becomes so desperate to defend and assert itself that no truth, no matter how simple or basic, can be considered safe from the ravages of people who have a vested ideological interest in its being wrong.

I have to confess responsibility for this bizarre moment, which in some sense might be one of the greater achievements of my life thus far. There's an excellent case to be made that I have led a significant number of professionals who definitely should know otherwise โ€” as effectively every six-year-old in a community with a school does โ€” to dig deeply into tortured defenses of the proposition that two and two do not make four.
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Satellite

Amazon lines up $10 billion for satellite-based Internet project Kupier

Anusuya Datta
Geospatial World
Tue, 04 Aug 2020 06:42 UTC
satellite
© Getty Images / SCIEPRO
Amazon is getting serious about space business. Coming shortly after Amazon Web Service's announcement last month to set up a new business unit dedicated to accelerating innovation in the global aerospace and satellite industry, it has now announced its intention to invest $10 billion for launching a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation called Project Kupier to eliminate Internet dark spots, specifically in the US.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week unanimously voted in favor of Amazon's application to deploy and operate its constellation of 3,236 satellites.

Bezos vs Musk

With this announcement, Jeff Bezos is seen directly taking on Elon Musk in an effort to beam high-speed internet from networks of thousands of satellites in the LEO. Starlink is Musk's pet project to deliver high speed broadband Internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. It has so far sent 500+ satellites in orbit with the latest batch of 60 launched in April this year, and 12,000 planned in the long run. Starlink, which is estimated to cost SpaceX $10 billion, is targeting service in the Northern US and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near global coverage of the populated world by 2021. In February this year, SpaceX President Gwen Shotwell had talked about spinning off Starlink into a separet company and go the IPO route in the coming years.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Volcanic or cosmic impact origin for the Younger Dryas mini ice-age?

Dr.Martin Sweatman
Prehistory Decoded
Thu, 06 Aug 2020 22:40 UTC
On July 31st 2020, Sun et al. published a paper in Science Advances [1] that suggests the Younger Dryas cooling event nearly 13000 years ago was triggered by the Laacher See volcanic eruption rather than a cosmic impact, the usual explanation. Until now, over 60 primary peer-reviewed journal papers together with dozens of supporting responses all agree the Younger Dryas event was caused by Earth's collision with debris from a disintegrating comet. Only one paper has previously suggested it was caused by the Laacher See volcanic explosion - and that paper was thoroughly refuted only a year later.

In their new paper, Sun et al. focus on platinum group elemental abundances, and especially osmium isotope abundances and ratios, found in the sediment of Hall's Cave, Texas. The sediment in this cave, many meters deep, has accumulated over tens of thousands of years, providing a convenient record of environmental conditions near the cave over this time (see photo below). An easily visible transition in the colour of the sediment at a depth around 1.51 m signifies a dramatic change in climate, and has been suggested to indicate the onset of the Younger Dryas climate anomaly when the Northern Hemisphere experienced a sudden return to near ice-age conditions for over 1000 years. This view is supported by the discovery in this boundary layer of the same kinds of microscopic impact debris found at many other Younger Dryas boundary sites across four continents [2]. So, it appears that Hall's Cave is yet another record of this most dramatic and important cosmic impact event, thought to have reset human Cultures and extinguished many species of large animal across the globe. An event that is probably remembered by numerous extant religions, and might even have helped trigger the rise of our own civilisation [3].
Hall's Cave, Texas
© Nan Sun, University
However, the platinum group metal abundances in the sediment around the Younger Dryas boundary layer at Hall's Cave have not previously been investigated. If the prevailing view is correct, we should find anomalies in them very close to this layer, since cosmic impacts generally produce enhancements in several of these elements. For example, the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impactor was particularly rich in iridium, and coated Earth in an iridium-rich layer of dust and debris. However, we know from analysis of the GISP2 ice core in Greenland, that the Younger Dryas impactor was instead rich in platinum.[4] Since that discovery peaks in platinum concentration within sediments have been used to locate the Younger Dryas boundary accurately at many other sites [5].
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Microscope 2

Next phase of ENCODE finds MORE functional information in genome 'junk'


Evolution News
Tue, 04 Aug 2020 20:06 UTC
brain dna darpa
The first publications from the ENCODE project (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) made a big splash at Evolution News in 2013, and around the world, because it undermined the "junk DNA" myth and simultaneously fulfilled an ID prediction: that non-coding parts of the genome would prove functional. Junk-DNA proponents like Dan Graur were upset at the time, admitting as Jonathan Wells reported, "If ENCODE is right, evolution is wrong."

Well, ModENCODE (ENCODE for model organisms) found "unprecedented complexity" in the fruit fly genome in 2014, then "ENCODE 2" followed up with more discoveries of function. Now, ENCODE 3 has just finished submitting its reports, with record numbers of DNA annotations listed, and ENCODE 4 is gearing up. Nothing like a little overkill to drive the point home: "... then evolution is wrong." Look at how much constructive science is being done with the assumption that DNA elements are there for a purpose.

History and Purposes

Before introducing the latest results, Nature provides an overview, "Perspectives on ENCODE," that recounts the history and purposes of the project:
The ENCODE Project was launched in 2003, as the first nearly complete human genome sequence was reported. At that time, our understanding of the human genome was limited. For example, although 5% of the genome was known to be under purifying selection in placental mammals, our knowledge of specific elements, particularly with regards to non-protein coding genes and regulatory regions, was restricted to a few well-studied loci.

ENCODE commenced as an ambitious effort to comprehensively annotate the elements in the human genome, such as genes, control elements, and transcript isoforms, and was later expanded to annotate the genomes of several model organisms. Mapping assays identified biochemical activities and thus candidate regulatory elements. [Emphasis added.]
Annotations are like labels or comments on things. For instance, if you have a stereo system with a lot of cables, you might affix tags on them to indicate where the TV plugs in, or where each speaker wire goes. In computer programming, wise programmers add comments in English to explain what a section of code does. Comments do not affect the function of the code, but help the next programmer follow the logic.
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