Science & TechnologyS


Mars

NASA orbiter discovers seasonal patterns of Martian dust storms


RT
Tue, 14 Jun 2016 04:10 UTC
mars dust storm
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSThis graphic presents Martian atmospheric temperature data as curtains over an image of Mars taken during a regional dust storm. The temperature profiles extend from the surface to about 50 miles up. Temperatures are color coded, from minus 243 degrees Fahrenheit (purple) to minus 9 F (red).
When it comes to putting people on Mars, timing can't be taken for granted. Now, thanks to nearly two decades of work, NASA's Red Planet orbiters have determined three distinct annual patterns for dust storms that bring about great weather shifts.

At about the same time each Martian year, or approximately every two Earthling years, dust storms cover large areas of Mars. After observing the temperature records of six recent Martian years, it has become easier to predict the formation of those dust storms than when they were merely observed in images.

"When we look at the temperature structure instead of the visible dust, we finally see some regularity in the large dust storms," said David Kass of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US. "Recognizing a pattern in the occurrence of regional dust storms is a step toward understanding the fundamental atmospheric properties controlling them."
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Galaxy

Monster black hole caught feeding on clumpy, cloudy 'rain'

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 13:45 UTC
Black hole swallows clouds
© NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry/SkyWorks; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)This artist's concept shows condensing clouds of cold molecular gas being accreted by the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds condense out of the hot, ionized gas that suffuses the space between among the galaxies in this cluster, according to a statement from the European Southern Observatory.
A giant, hungry black hole appears to be chowing down on cold, clumpy clouds at the center of a nearby galaxy, a new study finds. The black hole's dining habits are shedding light on how black holes throughout the universe may grow.

At the heart of nearly every galaxy is a supermassive black hole millions to billions of times the mass of Earth's sun, most astrophysicists agree. These black holes grow by gobbling up gas, dust and anything else that falls on them (scientists call this process "accreting"). The energy released by this accreting gas can in turn influence the formation of stars across the black hole's galaxy.

Much remains unknown about the gaseous fuel that powers black hole growth. Scientific models of black hole eating habits are usually simplified to show a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. However, recent theory and computer simulations have predicted that black hole accretion of gas is instead dominated by the random accumulation of very cold, clumpy clouds of molecules, the same material that gives rise to stars. However, researchers have lacked unambiguous evidence for this prediction, but the new study offers a concrete example.


Comment: See also:

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Info

Solar system may have more than ten planets

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 13 Jun 2016 18:33 UTC
Planet Nine
© Caltech An artist's impression of Planet Nine.
The Solar System may hold 10 or 11 planets, scientists have predicted after running new computer models on the data which led to the announcement of Planet Nine.

In January, astronomers Professor Konstantin Batygin and Professor Mike Brown from California Institute of Technology predicted the existence of a ninth planet after discovering that 13 objects in the Kuiper Belt - an area beyond Neptune - were all moving together as if 'lassooed' by the gravity of a huge object.

Now scientists from Cambridge University and Spain have discovered that the paths of the dwarf planets are not as stable as they thought, meaning they could be falling under the influence of more planets further out.

Sverre Aarseth from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and brothers Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, two freelance Spanish astronomers, said that the orbit of Planet Nine would have to change to allow the dwarf planet to maintain stability for a long time.

Otherwise more planets would need to be involved.

"We believe that in addition to a Planet Nine, there could also be a Planet Ten and even more," said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos.
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Info

Birds forebrain have more neurons than primates, says study


EurekAlert
Mon, 13 Jun 2016 21:37 UTC
Bird Brains
© Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Vanderbilt UniversityThe collection of avian brains that the scientists analyzed. For each species, the total number of neurons (in millions) in their brains is shown in yellow, the number of neurons (in millions) in their forebrains (pallium) is shown in blue and their brain mass (in grams) is shown in red. The scale bar in the lower right is 10 mm.
The macaw has a brain the size of an unshelled walnut, while the macaque monkey has a brain about the size of a lemon. Nevertheless, the macaw has more neurons in its forebrain - the portion of the brain associated with intelligent behavior - than the macaque.

That is one of the surprising results of the first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the brains of more than two dozen species of birds ranging in size from the tiny zebra finch to the six-foot-tall emu, which found that they consistently have more neurons packed into their small brains than are stuffed into mammalian or even primate brains of the same mass.

The study results were published online in a paper titled "Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early edition on the week of June 13.

"For a long time having a 'bird brain' was considered to be a bad thing: Now it turns out that it should be a compliment," said Vanderbilt University neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, senior author of the paper with Pavel Němec
at the Charles University in Prague.

The study provides a straightforward answer to a puzzle that comparative neuroanatomists have been wrestling with for more than a decade: how can birds with their small brains perform complicated cognitive behaviors?
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Magnify

New fossil species found in South Africa

Brett Tingley
Mysterious Universe
Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:20 UTC
Fossil
© Unknown
A construction project in Grahamstown, South Africa has turned up a collection of fossils dating back 360 million years, some of which represent previously unknown species. The South African National Roads Agency, who was overseeing the construction, made the announcement in June 2016 after the fossils had been carefully excavated from other rock which was being cut with explosives.
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Better Earth

Mason bees: Hardworking, gentle and solitary bees that can help save the food supply

Dave Hunter, Jill Lightner
Alternet
Thu, 02 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
mason bees
© Dave Hunter/Crown BeesGentle mason bees will readily crawl on your finger before the sun comes out to warm them up.
The following is an excerpt from the new book Mason Bee Revolution: How the Hardest Working Bee Can Save the World One Backyard at a Time by Dave Hunter and Jill Lightner (Mountaineers Books, 2016)

Why Keep Gentle Bees?

When people hear "beekeeping," the image they picture is almost always of honey bee keepers in white, helmeted spacesuits fretting over their hives for hours at a time and purchasing fairly heavy-duty equipment just to get started. But the options for home beekeeping are far more interesting than that image evokes, and many are much, much simpler.

Social vs. Solitary

There are thousands of species of bees around the world, about 4,000 of them native to North America. A casual observer might divide them into four basic categories: honey bees, the ones in such headline-grabbing peril and requiring those goofy spacesuits for their keepers; wasps, the ones that are nearly universally loathed; hornets, who bother us all too frequently at our picnics; and bumblebees, the cartoonishly cute teddy bears of the bee world. All these flying bugs, excepting a few species of wasp, are social insects that live in families of anywhere from 50 to a few thousand members, and work together to build and maintain their home, collect and store food, and protect their queen.

The big surprise for that casual observer is that these social bee species make up only about 10 percent of all North American bees, while the remaining enormous majority are of a completely different type. These other thousands are called "solitary bees."
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Galaxy

Ancient Greek 'computer' deemed a celestial guide for philosophers


RT
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 20:14 UTC
Antikythera Mechanism
© Alkis Konstantinidis / ReutersFragments of ancient Antikythera Mechanism
A breakthrough in the study of a mysterious Hellenistic clockwork device which was found at the bottom of the Aegean Sea more than a century ago has led researchers to conclude it was designed for philosophers to peer into the future. Dubbed the 'Antikythera mechanism', after sponge divers hauled the bronze mechanism from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island in 1900, the machine has been described as an ancient computer because of its advanced technological design. Today, the device is split up into 82 pieces, some of which are inscribed with faded ancient text.

While the metal and wood mechanism is without the wires one might expect in a modern day computer, experts had long believed it was a calculator used to point to astronomical changes.

In 2005 a group of researchers joined to form the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, comprising academic minds from around the world, to crack the mystery of ancient Greek box. For more than a decade the team have used advanced three-dimensional x-ray technology, provided by the likes of Hewlett Packard and X-Tek Systems, to uncover the meaning of the damaged lettering, according to the project website. One of the X-rays known as the 'Bladerunner' is described as having the ability to pick up microscopic details unseen by the naked eye.

A study published in the Nature academic journal in 2006 described the 2nd century tool as "technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards."

Led by the research project's Tony Freeth, the study stated that the Antikythera Mechanism had been used to predict "lunar and solar eclipses on the basis of Babylonian arithmetic-progression cycles." Now an update on the inscriptions has been put forward at a presentation organised by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation in the Greek port city of Piraeus appears to back that up.

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Bulb

Company invents edible six-pack rings to prevent harm to sea animals


CS Globe
Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:29 UTC
six pack turtle
Remember that poor sea turtle who was trapped in a six-pack ring and had its shell growing around it for years, which gave her an odd peanut shape?

This is one of the millions of sad examples of what plastic pollution is doing to the marine ecosystems.

According to the estimates, this pollution harms approximately 1 million ocean animals each year, including 100,000 sea turtles and marine mammals.
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Music

Scientists detect musical sounds emanating from oldest Milky Way stars

Jessica F.
Nature World News
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 03:45 UTC
Stars
© NASA/ESA via Getty ImagesResearchers from the University of Birmingham found a way to listen to "stellar music" or the resonant acoustic oscillation of the galaxies oldest stars which are 13 billion years old. The sound detected can help scientists in studying the oldest stars in the universe.
Do celestial bodies emit sounds? Apparently, they do.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham detected some "acoustic oscillations" or sounds emanating from a cluster of the oldest Milky Way stars about 13 billion years old. The researchers used a technique called asteroseismology to listen to the "stellar music" from the stars.

"These oscillations lead to miniscule changes or pulses in brightness, and are caused by sound trapped inside the stars," said the University of Birmingham in a press release. The sounds, although not as musical at it could be, were considered ominous. And according to the researchers, listening to the sound of the oldest stars is like immersing oneself in the galaxy's early history.

The research published in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society detected resonant acoustic oscillations of the 'M4' stars, the oldest known cluster in the galaxy. Researchers analyzed the data obtained by the Kepler telescope and NASA's K2 Mission.

The oscillation happens when pulses in brightness were trapped inside the stars. This process can possibly determine the age of stars and identify the older ones, just like how ancient artifacts are helping archaeologists study the past on Earth.


Comment: The Milky Way does the Wave

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Bizarro Earth

Light pollution: The Milky Way is but a faded memory to one-third of humanity


Phys.org
Fri, 10 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
light pollution
© Falchi et al, Science Advances; Jakob Grothe/National Park Service, Matthew Price/CIRES/CU-Boulder. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-06-milky-hidden-one-third-humanity.html#jCpLight pollution now blots out the Milky Way for eight in 10 Americans. Bright areas in this map show where the sky glow from artificial lighting blots out the stars and constellations. An international team of researchers has released the new World Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness, in a paper published in Science Advances today.
The Milky Way, the brilliant river of stars that has dominated the night sky and human imaginations since time immemorial, is but a faded memory to one third of humanity and 80 percent of Americans, according to a new global atlas of light pollution produced by Italian and American scientists.

Light pollution is one of the most pervasive forms of environmental alteration. In most developed countries, the ubiquitous presence of artificial lights creates a luminous fog that swamps the stars and constellations of the night sky.

"We've got whole generations of people in the United States who have never seen the Milky Way," said Chris Elvidge, a scientist with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information in Boulder, Colorado. "It's a big part of our connection to the cosmos—and it's been lost."

Elvidge, along with Kimberly Baugh of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, is part of a team that just updated a global atlas of light pollution published today in the journal Science Advances. Using high-resolution satellite data and precision sky brightness measurements, their study produced the most accurate assessment yet of the global impact of light pollution.

"I hope that this atlas will finally open the eyes of people to light pollution," said lead author Fabio Falchi from the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy.

Comment: Research has shown that light pollution can impact the natural environment in complex ways having widespread ecological and human health impacts:

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