Science & TechnologyS


Meteor

Two asteroids to pass extremely close to Earth

Duncan Alfreds
News24
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 13:25 UTC
asteroid 2019 MB4
© CNEOS
Two large asteroids will make extremely close passes of Earth over the next couple of days.

While a number of asteroids - classed as Near Earth Objects (NEOs) - pass the Earth on a regular basis, these two will make an exceptionally close flyby.

On Tuesday, an object dubbed 2019 MB4 will pass at just 315 000km from Earth, a closer distance than the moon, which averages 385 000km away from the planet.

"This object is about the same size as Chelyabinsk asteroid of February 15, 2013. A larger asteroid, it was first observed at Pan-STARRS, Haleakala observatory in Hawaii on June 29 and its estimated diameter is between 17m and 38m (55 - 124 feet). Its closest approach to Earth is expected at 07:20 UTC on July 9 at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 7.17km/s," SAAO Science Engagement Astronomer Dr Daniel Cunnama told News24.

This asteroid is estimated to be 22m long - around half the length of an Airbus A380-800 - the biggest passenger plane in the world.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory data revealed that 2019 NN3 will pass Earth on Wednesday at a distance of just 320 000km. That asteroid is estimated to be between 35m to 77m in length.

Comment: Expecting an asteroid? Proposed budget for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office suddenly increased three-fold

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Blue Planet

Interbreeding between Archaic Humans and Homo Sapiens in China is suggested by analysis of an Ancient molar

New York University
phys.org
Tue, 09 Jul 2019 03:16 UTC
An analysis of a 160,000-year-old archaic human molar fossil discovered in China offers the first morphological evidence of interbreeding between archaic humans and Homo sapiens in Asia.
Molar comparison
© Christen LeeThe three-rooted lower molar anomaly in a recent Asian individual. Left: tooth sockets showing position of accessory root; right: three-rooted lower first molar tooth. Credit: Christine Lee
The study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, centers on a three-rooted lower molar — a rare trait primarily found in modern Asians — that was previously thought to have evolved after H. sapiens dispersed from Africa.

The new research points to a different evolutionary path.

Comment: See more

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Info

Humans perform as well or better when exposed to high vs low CO2 concentrations says new study

Kenneth Richard
NoTricksZone
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 19:51 UTC
A new paper finds the performance of test-taking (cognitive, decision-making) "astronaut-like" subjects exposed to 5000 ppm CO2 was "similar to or exceeded" the performance of those exposed to baseline (600 ppm). This study follows up on a 2018 paper that determined submariners exposed to 15000 ppm CO2 performed just as well as subjects exposed to 600 ppm.

Those of us who own CO2 monitors know that indoor (bedroom) CO2 concentrations typically vary between about 600 ppm during the day and 1000 ppm overnight - the latter earning a frowny face air quality rating.
CO2 Monitors
© NoTricksZone
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Info

Does the universe spin too?

Mara Johnson-Groh
Live Science
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 13:25 UTC
Spinning Universe
© ShutterstockIs the universe a spinner?
If you look around space, you'll notice a lot of things — the planets, stars, moons, even the galaxy itself — have one thing in common: they're spinning. So, is the universe spinning, too?

This mystery is one that cosmologists have been acutely studying, because it's one that can tell us about the fundamental nature of the universe.

"It's a very abstract question, as is most of cosmology, but those of us who study cosmology think it's a way to study fundamental physics," said Tess Jaffe, an astrophysicist at the University of Maryland and an assistant research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "There are certain things we cannot test in a laboratory on Earth, so we use the universe and the geometry of the universe, which could tell us something about fundamental physics."

Scientists, in thinking about the universe's fundamental nature, started out by assuming that the universe is not rotating and is isotropic, meaning it looks the same in all directions. This assumption is consistent with Einstein's equations, but isn't required by them. From this thinking, scientists built a standard of cosmological model that describes the universe.

"This [assumption] is really encoded in the way we carry out our calculations, the way we analyze our data, in the way we do a lot of things," Daniela Saadeh, a research fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, told Live Science. "But you have to test it. You can't just hope for the best."
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Mars

China's Mars rover will launch in 2020, seeks signs of life and potential for livable human conditions

Zhang Han
Global Times
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:30 UTC
A mock astronaut walks in the Gobi Desert
© VCGA mock astronaut walks in the Gobi Desert near the C-Space Project Mars simulation base outside Jinchang, Northwest China's Gansu Province, in April, 2018.
Mission shows country has 'innovative spirit' to overcome challenges

Chinese scientists on Sunday announced that China will launch its first mission to Mars in 2020 and the construction of its rover has been completed.

The mission includes orbiting, landing and roving the Martian surface, an unprecedented achievement that shows China's innovative spirit in space exploration and courage to face great challenges, according to Chinese space experts.

The probe's primary mission is to detect signs of life on Mars, Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's lunar exploration plan, said at a conference on satellite and space, held in Rizhao, East China's Shandong Province from Friday to Sunday.

The mission will also examine whether the planet has the potential to be transformed in some way in the future to make it livable for humans, the 21st Century Business Herald, reported on Sunday quoted Ouyang as saying.

The Chinese rover will examine the Red Planet's atmosphere, landscape, geological and magnetic characteristics, which could provide clues to the origin and evolution of Mars and the solar system, the newspaper reported.
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Frog

Evolution, mutations, and "fooling the laymen": New episode of 'Science Uprising'


Evolution News
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 16:20 UTC
Michael Behe
© Evoluton News/screenshotMichael Behe in Science Uprising, Episode 6, "Mutations: Failure to Invent."
In a lecture, Phillip Johnson cited physicist Richard Feynman on a scientist's obligation to be honest — not only with himself or in other scientific contexts but, not one bit less, when speaking to the lay public. "You should not fool the laymen when you're talking as a scientist." That such a thing would need to be said is itself revealing. What's more, Feynman insisted, you should "bend over backwards to show how you may be wrong."

The comments are taken from a Commencement address by Feynman in 1974 at Caltech. Johnson, a founding father of modern intelligent design theory, was so moved by this that he said "I wish it could be set to music."

As far as I know it hasn't been set to music. But the idea is a major theme in the new Science Uprising series. Scientists fool themselves and they fool non-scientists, not about dry technical details with no special significance, but about matters that bear on huge, life-altering world picture issues. One example is the role of mutations in evolution. That is the topic of Episode 6 of Science Uprising, "Mutations: Failure to Invent." It's out now; see it here:

Comment: Michael Behe has been a proponent of intelligent design since 1996 with the publication of Darwin's Black Box, in which he outlines his journey from a supporter of evolution as is is taught in the mainstream, to confronting the evidence that logically refute it.

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Satellite

Russia's future Moon base will use 'local resources' & 3D-printing - Roscosmos


RT
Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
View of Earth from Moon
© NASA
Russia's future compound on the Moon will operate on "local resources" and feature 3D-printed facilities allowing large standing crews to be housed and supported, Roscosmos space agency revealed.

Russia's ambitions to set up a base on the Moon are no secret, but little is known about what the facilities would look like. On Sunday, Roscosmos shed some light on the issue, saying that lunar construction projects will start after a series of shorter manned missions.

"Large-size compounds will be installed using local resources and additive technologies," the space agency said, referring to one of the newest 3D-printing methods.

Comment: See also:

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Bulb

Part-matter, part-light: Newly discovered 'hybrid particles' open doors to exciting new tech

Louise Lerner
Phys.org
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 18:21 UTC
light
© Globallookpress.com
Every type of atom in the universe has a unique fingerprint: It only absorbs or emits light at the particular energies that match the allowed orbits of its electrons. That fingerprint enables scientists to identify an atom wherever it is found. A hydrogen atom in outer space absorbs light at the same energies as one on Earth.

While physicists have learned how electric and magnetic fields can manipulate this fingerprint, the number of features that make it up usually remains constant. In work published July 3 in the journal Nature, University of Chicago researchers challenged this paradigm by shaking electrons with lasers to create "doppelganger" features at new energies — a breakthrough that lets scientists create hybrid particles which are part-atom and part-light, with a wide variety of new behaviors.

The research is part of a greater effort in Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Simon's lab to break down the walls between matter and light, in order to investigate their fundamental properties. In addition to learning about how materials behave at the quantum level, this work could one day help create more powerful computers or virtually "unhackable" quantum communications.
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Cloud Precipitation

Winter monsoons became stronger during geomagnetic reversal 780,000 years ago

Kobe University
Science Daily
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 10:53 UTC
monsoon changes
© Owen Shieh, University of HawaiiNew evidence suggests that high-energy particles from space known as galactic cosmic rays affect the Earth's climate by increasing cloud cover, causing an "umbrella effect."
When galactic cosmic rays increased during the Earth's last geomagnetic reversal transition 780,000 years ago, the umbrella effect of low-cloud cover led to high atmospheric pressure in Siberia, causing the East Asian winter monsoon to become stronger. This is evidence that galactic cosmic rays influence changes in the Earth's climate. The findings were made by a research team led by Professor Masayuki Hyodo (Research Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University) and published on June 28 in the online edition of Scientific Reports.

The Svensmark Effect is a hypothesis that galactic cosmic rays induce low cloud formation and influence the Earth's climate. Tests based on recent meteorological observation data only show minute changes in the amounts of galactic cosmic rays and cloud cover, making it hard to prove this theory. However, during the last geomagnetic reversal transition, when the amount of galactic cosmic rays increased dramatically, there was also a large increase in cloud cover, so it should be possible to detect the impact of cosmic rays on climate at a higher sensitivity.

Comment: With the wandering poles, a significant weakening of Earth's magnetic field and cosmic rays rising for the fourth consecutive year, scientists are predicting that a geomagnetic shift is in process, at the same time we're seeing more extreme weather events, as well as an overall drop in temperatures around the globe, along with a variety of other unusual phenomena. Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

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Galaxy

Another mysterious deep space signal traced to the other side of the universe

Eric Mack
Cnet
Tue, 02 Jul 2019 17:28 UTC
Owens Valley Array
© Caltech/OVRO/G. HallinanThe Owens Valley Array in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
Since 2007, astronomers have been finding very brief, powerful signals from across the cosmos in observations gathered by radio telescopes. In the past week, researchers pinpointed the location of a non-repeating signal for the first time, and two days later, another group announced they'd discovered nine more. The sources of these so-called "fast radio bursts" remains a mystery, but recently researchers have been honing their ability to locate their origins.

On Tuesday, a team using CalTech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California, reported that it managed to capture a new, non-repeating signal dubbed FRB 190523 and trace it back to a galaxy nearly 8 billion light-years away.

A number of possible explanations for what causes FRBs have been proposed, ranging from powerful neutron stars to extraterrestrial intelligence.

An accelerated article preview of the OVRO discovery was published online in the journal Nature, less than a week after an Australian team working with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder announced it had also traced a non-repeating burst back to its source galaxy, some 4 billion light-years away.

Comment: So what's with the sudden surge in activity? It's notable that there has been an uptick in various kinds of activity throughout our own solar system: Cosmic climate change: Is the cause of all this extreme weather to be found in outer space?

See also:

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