Science & TechnologyS


Galaxy

Milky Way headed towards catastrophic collision with Large Magellanic Cloud


Durham University
Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
galaxy
Hubble Space Telescope image representing a merger between two galaxies (M51a and M51b) similar in mass to the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The Milky Way is on a collision course with a neighbouring galaxy that could fling our Solar System into space.

The Large Magellanic Cloud could hit our galaxy in two billion years' time

This galactic collision would happen much sooner than the predicted impact between the Milky Way and another neighbour, Andromeda, which scientists say will hit our galaxy in eight billion years.

Active black hole

The coming together with the Large Magellanic Cloud could wake up our galaxy's dormant black hole, which would begin devouring surrounding gas and increase in size by up to ten times.

Comment: See also: Magnetic field detected between magellanic clouds

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Moon

Space exploration first: China's probe 'lands on dark side of the moon'


RT
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 05:18 UTC
China Rocket lunar probe
© ReutersRocket carrying Chinese lunar probe Chang'e 4 blasts off
The Chinese robotic probe Chang'e 4 has landed on the dark side of the moon, becoming the first manmade craft to alight on the unexplored surface, according to reports from Chinese state media.

The probe reportedly landed in the South Pole-Aitken basin, the oldest, largest, and deepest crater on the moon's surface. The moon's dark side remains largely unexplored because its position shields it from radio frequencies, preventing direct contact with the Earth. To solve that problem, China launched the relay satellite Queqiao earlier this year to transmit signals from the dark side.

The first photo relayed back to Earth by the probe shows a relatively flat, rocky surface pockmarked by a large crater.


Chang'e 4 will perform several experiments while on the moon, including testing whether plants will grow in the low gravity environment, exploring the poles to find water or other resources, observing the interaction between solar winds and the lunar surface, and conducting the first lunar low-frequency radio astronomy experiment.

"Since the far side of the Moon is shielded from electromagnetic interference from the Earth, it's an ideal place to research the space environment and solar bursts, and the probe can 'listen' to the deeper reaches of the cosmos," said Tongjie Liu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center at China's National Space Administration.

Comment: See also:

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Jupiter

NASA's Juno mission spots dramatic volcano eruption on Jupiter moon Io

Amanda Kooser
CNET
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 10:33 UTC
NASA's Juno team shared this look at Io and its volcanic plume.
© NASA/SwRI/MSSSNASA's Juno team shared this look at Io and its volcanic plume.
Mars might not be erupting, but it looks like Jupiter's moon Io sure is.

NASA's Juno spacecraft saw evidence of an eruption on what the space agency calls the "most volcanically active spot in the solar system" during a flyby in December.

NASA released an image on Monday showing Io half in shadow with a noticeable bright spot near its center.

The Juno team pointed four cameras at Io on Dec. 21. "No one expected we would get so lucky as to see an active volcanic plume shooting material off the moon's surface," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, who's with the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement.

While Io is small compared with gigantic Jupiter, it's slightly bigger than Earth's moon in size.

NASA released another image from Juno's star camera. A closer look at Io inside the circle shows the glowing activity of several volcanoes. The smaller circle highlights a plume.

The images aren't hyper-detailed since Juno was about 190,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) from Io at the time.

The plume stands out thanks to its size.
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Moon

China probe makes historic touchdown on 'dark side of the moon'

Kate Lyons
The Guardian
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 04:58 UTC
China’s Chang’e 4 lunar explorer after it landed on the far side of the moon.
© CNSAScreenshot of an image take by China’s Chang’e 4 lunar explorer after it landed on the far side of the moon.

Lander sends back first close-up shot of previously unexplored side of the moon

A Chinese spacecraft has become the first ever to land on the far side of the moon, according to state-run media, in a giant leap for human space exploration.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) landed the robotic probe Chang'e 4 in the unexplored South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest, oldest, deepest, crater on the moon's surface.

Early reports of a successful landing sparked confusion after state-run media China Daily and CGTN deleted tweets celebrating the mission. China Daily's tweet said: '"China's Chang'e 4 landed on the moon's far side, inaugurating a new chapter in mankind's lunar exploration history."

Official confirmation of the landing came two hours later via state broadcaster CCTV, which said the lunar explorer had touched down at 10.26am (2.26am GMT). The Communist party-owned Global Times also said the probe had "successfully made the first-ever soft landing" on the far side of the moon.
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Robot

Google wins U.S. approval for new radar-based motion sensor Project Soli

David Shepardson
Reuters
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 21:02 UTC
Minority Report
© Amblin Entertainment
Alphabet Inc's Google unit won approval from U.S. regulators to deploy a radar-based motion sensing device known as Project Soli.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in an order late on Monday that it would grant Google a waiver to operate the Soli sensors at higher power levels than currently allowed. The FCC said the sensors can also be operated aboard aircraft.

The FCC said the decision "will serve the public interest by providing for innovative device control features using touchless hand gesture technology."

A Google spokeswoman did not immediately comment on Wednesday.

Comment: Great. Google just added to the general electromagnetic pollution surrounding humanity.

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Comet 2

Groundbreaking flyby image of Ultima Thule by New Horizons on edge of our solar system


RT
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 10:32 UTC
Ultima thule
© NASA / James Tuttle KeaneLeft is a composite of two images taken by New Horizons. An artist's impression at right illustrates the direction of Ultima's spin axis.
In an incredible world-first, NASA has released an image from a historic flyby of Ultima Thule, a bowling pin-shaped celestial object at the edge of our solar system some 6 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) away.

The New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima from the Kuiper Belt in the early hours of New Year's Day, making it the "farthest exploration of any world in history - 4 billion miles from the Sun," said the project's principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"The data we have look fantastic and we're already learning about Ultima from up close. From here out the data will just get better and better," Stern added.

Comment: This is just the latest in a number of recent revelations from NASA's New Horizons mission:

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Brain

WAND: New 'brain pacemaker' offers help for epilepsy, Parkinsons


Timesnownews.com
Tue, 01 Jan 2019 13:45 UTC
head/brain
© Thinkstock
The neurostimulator, named the WAND, works like a "pacemaker for the brain," monitoring the brain's electrical activity and delivering electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss.

Scientists have developed a wireless device that can stimulate the brain with electric current, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's. The neurostimulator, named the WAND, works like a "pacemaker for the brain," monitoring the brain's electrical activity and delivering electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss, said researchers at the University of California, Berkeley in the US.

These devices can be extremely effective at preventing debilitating tremors or seizures in patients with a variety of neurological conditions, according to the study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Comment: See also: 'Pacemaker for the brain' being studied

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Meteor

Why is Earth missing a huge part of its crust?

Robin George Andrews
MSN
Tue, 01 Jan 2019 12:00 UTC
Antarctic Peninsula
© Mario Tama, GettyIce meets rock in the Antarctic Peninsula, in a picture taken by NASA's Operation IceBridge in October 2017. Millions of years ago, the entire planet may have resembled this polar scene during a phase called Snowball Earth.
The Grand Canyon is a gigantic geological library, with rocky layers that tell much of the story of Earth's history. Curiously though, a sizeable layer representing anywhere from 250 million years to 1.2 billion years is missing.

Known as the Great Unconformity, this massive temporal gap can be found not just in this famous crevasse, but in places all over the world. In one layer, you have the Cambrian period, which started roughly 540 million years ago and left behind sedimentary rocks packed with the fossils of complex, multicellular life. Directly below, you have fossil-free crystalline basement rock, which formed about a billion or more years ago.

So where did all the rock that belongs in between these time periods go? Using multiple lines of evidence, an international team of geoscientists reckons that the thief was Snowball Earth, a hypothesized time when much, if not all, of the planet, was covered in ice.

Comment: See also: 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

The mysterious expanse of the "unobservable Universe"

Jolene Creighton
Science Alert
Sun, 29 Dec 2019 12:00 UTC
universe
© (NASA/ESA/STScI)
At the outer reaches of the known Universe, entire galaxies - and all of the stars, planets, and alien species they may contain - are disappearing.

Of course, these objects aren't simply evaporating. They are being thrust out of the known Universe, forced into a mysterious expanse known as the "unobservable Universe."

However, in order to truly understand this fascinating sector of the cosmos, it's necessary to first understand two of the most startling scientific discoveries ever made.

An age-old question

Comment: Considering science still doesn't understand many aspects within the universe, such as how planets form or what gravity is, it would be too early to think we truly understand how the universe itself operates:

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Nuke

Low-dose radiation maybe good for you says new study

Ross Pomeroy
Real Clear science
Mon, 31 Dec 2018 05:06 UTC
Hiroshima Nuclear Blast
© Stanley Troutman/Pool Photo via AP
In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The unprecedented explosions and resulting radioactive fallout resulted in the tragic deaths of roughly 200,000 people.

High levels of ionizing radiation spawned by the detonations sentenced individuals who survived the initial blasts to various cancers. Strangely, however, survivors subjected to lower doses of radiation may actually have had elongated lifespans and reduced cancer mortality. Such is the finding of an article recently published to the journal Genes and Environment.

Researcher Shizuyo Sutou of Shujitsu Women's University is the author of the paper. Sutou examined data from the Life Span Study, which has followed 120,000 survivors of the atomic bomb blasts since 1950. His analysis showed that survivors exposed to between 0.005 and 0.5 Grays of radiation had lower relative mortality than control subjects not exposed to atomic bomb radiation.
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