Science & TechnologyS


Blue Planet

Astronaut captures image of orange light enveloping Earth during rare airglow

Laura Geggel
Live Science
Wed, 07 Nov 2018 09:34 UTC
airglow enveloping Earth
© NASAAstronaut aboard the International Space Station captures image of orange airglow enveloping Earth
An eerie, marmalade-colored light show made Earth look like a gigantic orange lollipop, prompting an astronaut aboard the International Space Station to snap a photo of it on Oct. 7. And yesterday, NASA shared the glorious shot with Earthlings down below.

The enveloping orange hue is known as airglow - a mesmerizing luminescence caused by chemical reactions high in Earth's atmosphere, NASA reported. This ghostly glow usually happens when ultraviolet radiation from sunlight energizes molecules of nitrogen, oxygen, sodium and ozone in the atmosphere. These energized molecules then bump into each other and lose energy as they collide, resulting in a faint but spectacular afterglow, NASA said.

Airglow is best seen at night, as it's 1 billion times fainter than sunlight, NASA said. This particular photo was taken at an altitude of more than 250 miles (about 400 kilometers) above Australia.

The radiating blush, also known as chemiluminescence, is comparable to glowing chemical reactions here on Earth, including those seen in children's toys such as glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark silly putty, NASA added.
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Meteor

Three asteroids to pass Earth within hours of each other on Saturday, November 10

Sebastian Kettley
Express
Wed, 07 Nov 2018 16:21 UTC
NASA asteroid warning
© GETTYNASA asteroid warning: The closest of the three will approach closer than the Moon
THREE giant asteroids will barrel past the planet this weekend on a so-called Close Earth Approach, NASA has warned.

The asteroids will zip past our home world within hours of each other on Saturday, November 10.

NASA predicts the first asteroid, dubbed Asteroid 2018 VS1, will pass the Earth around 2.03pm GT (UTC).

The asteroid's passage will mark the first Earth flyby of the space rock in five years.

Astronomers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California estimate Asteroid VS1 measures anywhere between 42ft and 91.86ft (13m and 28m).

At the upper end of the estimate, the imposing asteroid measures more than 2.5-times the length of a London double-decker bus.

An asteroid impact of this size could potentially injure thousands of people.

NASA's trajectory estimates suggest the asteroid will come as close as 0.00927 astronomical units (au) or 3.62 Lunar Distances (LD) of Earth.

One astronomical unit is the equivalent of the stance between the Earth and the Sun, meaning Asteroid VS1 will come as close as 861,700 miles (1.38 million km) of the planet.

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

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UFO

'Large uncertainties': Scientists dismiss Harvard paper's 'alien spacecraft' theory


RT
Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:36 UTC
Oumuama
© AFP / European Southern Observatory / M. KornmesserAn artist's impression of Oumuama, the first interstellar object known to enter our solar system
Recent claims by Harvard University researchers that an interstellar rock, zooming through our solar system, might have been sent by aliens has been dubbed an "outlandish idea" by astrophysicists.

The research letter, by two Harvard astronomers, admitted that while it was an "exotic scenario", the cigar-shaped rock named 'Oumuamua' "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization."

Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to enter our solar system, is 1,300 feet long (400 meters) long and about 130 feet wide. First observed by space telescopes in October 2017, the pointy space rock picked up speed when passing the Sun - making the researchers think it may run on sunlight. They say this "unexplained phenomena" means it would have to have a "very large surface and be very thin", which they say is "not encountered in nature".

Their paper is due to be published in 'Astrophysical Journal Letters' on November 12.
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Satellite

China unveils new 'Heavenly Palace' space station as ISS days numbered

Ludovic Ehret
Phys.org
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 06:39 UTC
China space station
China unveiled a partial model of its manned space station at an aerospace fair in Zhuhai
China unveiled on Tuesday a replica of its first permanently crewed space station, which would replace the international community's orbiting laboratory and symbolises the country's major ambitions beyond Earth.

The 17-metre (55-foot) core module was a star attraction at the biennial Airshow China in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, the country's main aerospace industry exhibition.

Outside, China's J-10 fighter jet and J-20 stealth fighter wowed spectators as they zoomed across Zhuhai's sky. Back inside, the country displayed its fleet of drones and other military hardware.

Crowds gathered around the cylindrical space station module representing the living and working quarters of the Tiangong-or "Heavenly Palace"-which will also have two other modules for scientific experiments and will be equipped with solar panels.

Three astronauts will be permanently stationed in the 60-tonne orbiting lab, which will enable the crew to conduct biological and microgravity research.

Assembly is expected to be completed around 2022 and the station would have a lifespan of around 10 years.

The International Space Station-a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan-has been in operation since 1998 but is due to be retired in 2024.

China will then have the only space station in orbit, though it will be much smaller than the ISS which weighs 400 tonnes and is as large as a football pitch.
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Blue Planet

The struggle to visualize climate when most people impose flat Earth conceptions into a three-dimensional atmosphere

Dr. Tim Ball
Watts Up With That?
Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
flat earth
In a recent article, I used an illustration of 1200 km circles around a weather station to illustrate the extent the IPCC considered it represented. A comment about the article asked if I was aware of the map distortion and its effect on the circle of coverage. It was an arcane but important observation. He was pointing to the distortion created by using a Mercator projection map.

I am very aware of the distortion. My entire career involved working with maps. This included flying in the Air Force; teaching courses and running labs about maps and map reading; studying climate weather maps; the movement and migration of people driven by climate change; and teaching a course in political geography. I provided major research for a book on the search for the Northwest Passage on the Pacific west coast written by Sam Bawlf titled, "The Secret Voyages of Sir Francis Drake." Dr. John Dee, science advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, gave Drake his sailing and scientific instructions. This included accurately determining the longitude of the west coast of North America. This research resulted in Drake visiting the Dutch map maker Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) after his return. Two months after Drake's visit Ortelius produced a new world map with the coast shifted 60° of longitude to its proper position.

Dee drew a map for Elizabeth I that illustrates his spatial awareness of the world (Figure 1). It is a unique perspective, even for today's space-age citizen because it is looking down on the North Pole. Our view of the world and spatial relationships were distorted by the Mercator map introduced in 1569. Its specific purpose was to make navigating a three-dimensional world using a two-dimensional map easier.
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Ladybug

Orphan genes, and the problem they pose for evolution

Ann Gauger
Evolution News
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 17:05 UTC
Leafcutter ants
© Pjt56 / Wikimedia CommonsLeafcutter ants in the Wilhelma Zoo, Germany
Orphan genes - genes that are present in only one species, or a group of closely related species - are of particular interest to advocates of intelligent design. The reason for this has to do with the assumptions of evolutionary biology.

The main evolutionary assumption is common descent, that all life is descended from one or a few ancestors. Following from this, and taken as evidence for this, is the assumption that all life shares DNA in common. Prior to the advent of widespread genome sequencing, it was assumed that living things shared genes, that there was a set of shared housekeeping genes, and a set of genes specific to a taxonomic group, though these would be few in number. It was assumed that the vast majority of genes would be found multiple places in the genomes of living things. The reason? It was assumed that getting new genes was hard, and once a workable solution was found it would be preserved in the descendants that followed. The bulk of genes would have been invented early in evolution, and thus would be broadly shared.
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Moon

Russia plans to set up lunar base inhabited by 'avatar robots' controlled from earth


RT
Tue, 06 Nov 2018 12:19 UTC
russia moon base avatar robots
The base will be chiefly managed by “robotized systems, avatars that will be executing tasks on the moon’s surface,” he said, noting that whole project will be larger than the US ‘Apollo’ program of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
After unveiling an ambitious plan to install a permanent base on the moon, Russia's space boss Dmitry Rogozin has now added a truly sci-fi-esque detail: humans will control it from Earth through sophisticated 'avatar robotics.'

"We're talking about creating a long-term base, not constantly manned, but visitable," Rogozin, who leads Russia's national space agency, 'Roscosmos' told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

The base will be chiefly managed by "robotized systems, avatars that will be executing tasks on the moon's surface," he said, noting that whole project will be larger than the US 'Apollo' program of the '60s and '70s.

Rogozin didn't go into details of the ambitious plan leaving many to wonder how the lunar 'avatars' will look and function. The choice of words hints that he was inspired by James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi blockbuster. The box office hit told the story of the distant jungle planet called Pandora. Since its air wasn't breathable for humans, they roamed the planet by mentally 'logging' into 'avatars,' which mimicked the bodies of local humanoid race, the Na'vi.
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Dig

New giant dinosaur species discovered in Argentina


RT
Sun, 04 Nov 2018 14:46 UTC
Dinosaur
© AFP / Agencia CTYS
Three well-preserved specimens of a new gigantic dinosaur species, named Lavocatisaurus agrioensis, have been discovered by a multinational team of scientists in the Argentine province of Neuquén.

The remains, an adult and two juveniles reptiles which roamed the Earth some 110 million years ago, were unearthed by a team of Argentine and Spanish paleontologists. The new species, which the discoverers named Lavocatisaurus agrioensis, were herbivorous and belonged to Sauropods saurischian clade of dinosaurs with very long necks, long tails, and a small head.

In addition to parts of the neck, tail and back, the team found "most" of the cranial bones, including the snout, the jaws, and teeth, making it possible to create an "almost complete reconstruction," noted Jose Luis Carballido, a researcher at the Egidio Feruglio museum and the national council of scientific investigations.
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Comet 2

Czech Mate - Confirmation of the Younger Dryas impact event


The Cosmic Tusk
Thu, 04 Oct 2018 01:17 UTC
Gunther Kleteschka
© The Cosmic Tusk
See another blockbuster confirmation of the Younger Dryas cosmic impact below. I keep a pretty close eye on our subject but had no idea such intricate, original and thorough work was underway in the Czech Republic. Gunther Kleteschka has appeared on several YDB papers, but has clearly been busy in his own laboratory collecting entirely new, informative and well dated expressions of the YDB boundary in lake sediments. His work and that of his local colleagues is clearly exciting and in keeping with the predictions made by the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis.

Cosmic-Impact Event in Lake Sediments from Central Europe Postdates the Laacher See Eruption and Marks Onset of the Younger Dryas

Gunther Kletetschka,1,2,3,* Daniel Vondrák,4 Jolana Hruba,2 Vaclav Prochazka,2 Ladislav Nabelek,1,2 Helena Svitavská-Svobodová,5 Premysl Bobek,5 Zuzana Horicka,6,7 Jaroslav Kadlec,8 Marian Takac,2 and Evzen Stuchlik7

Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ-252 43 Průhonice 770, Czech Republic; 2. Institute of Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Applied Geophysics, Charles University, Albertov 6, CZ-128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic; 3. Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 903 North Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7320, USA; 4. Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01 Prague 2, Czech Republic; 5. Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Zámek 1, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic; 6. Branch of Applied Ecology, T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, Podbabská 30, CZ-160 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic; 7. Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Sádkách 7, CZ-370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; 8. Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Boční II 1401, CZ-141 31 Prague 4, Czech Republic

Comment: Of Flash Frozen Mammoths and Cosmic Catastrophes

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Cassiopaea

Overnight sensation Cow supernova reveals "central engine"

Davide Castelvecchi
Nature
Sat, 03 Nov 2018 21:09 UTC
Supernova Cow 'AT2018cow'
© The ATLAS teamThe mysterious stellar explosion, known as Cow.
For many astronomers, 2018 will be remembered as the Year of the Cow - after the nickname of a spectacular stellar explosion that has kept them busy for months.

The unusual event has offered an unprecedented window on to the collapse of a star, two teams of researchers suggest in papers submitted to the arXiv preprint server on 25 October1,2.

Contrary to the slow ramp-up of a typical supernova, Cow became stupendously bright essentially overnight, leaving astronomers perplexed.

"It popped up out of nowhere," says Stephen Smartt, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast, UK, who first discovered the explosion, and who named it according to an alphabetical protocol that just happened to spell out the word 'cow'.

Comment: While it's true that technology is enabling scientists to see more than ever before, there is also increasing evidence for an uptick in activity on earth and throughout space:

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