© University of Western Ontario
"Visual rates could be as high as 20 per hour," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, "although glare from the nearly full Moon will make the fainter meteors difficult to see."
Science & Technology
The University of Western Ontario meteor radar is picking up strong returns from the Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower, which peaks on July 28th and 29th. Sky watchers (particularly in the southern hemisphere) should be alert for meteors between about 10 pm and dawn.
"Visual rates could be as high as 20 per hour," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, "although glare from the nearly full Moon will make the fainter meteors difficult to see."
"Visual rates could be as high as 20 per hour," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, "although glare from the nearly full Moon will make the fainter meteors difficult to see."
On Monday morning, July 26th, John Stetson woke up early to watch the sunrise over Casco Bay in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He expected a pretty view. What he got was pretty strange:
"The island appeared to be floating above the water," Stetson reports. "And the sun was as flat as a pancake!"
Atmospheric optics expert explains what happened: "Overnight the air above the ocean was abnormally cooled producing a temperature inversion, cool air below warmer. At sunrise the almost horizontal sun's rays were bent (refracted) as they passed between the different temperature layers to give us a mock mirage. The island was also miraged. The sea was not really choppy, that is the uneven edge of the mirage."
"At sunset the ocean sometimes produces a warmer air above it to give another type of mirage - an Etruscan vase," he adds. "Watch sunrise and sunset for magical effects!"
© John Stetson
"The island appeared to be floating above the water," Stetson reports. "And the sun was as flat as a pancake!"
Atmospheric optics expert explains what happened: "Overnight the air above the ocean was abnormally cooled producing a temperature inversion, cool air below warmer. At sunrise the almost horizontal sun's rays were bent (refracted) as they passed between the different temperature layers to give us a mock mirage. The island was also miraged. The sea was not really choppy, that is the uneven edge of the mirage."
"At sunset the ocean sometimes produces a warmer air above it to give another type of mirage - an Etruscan vase," he adds. "Watch sunrise and sunset for magical effects!"
Readers with solar telescopes, train your optics on the sun's northeastern limb. A big sunspot with an active magnetic canopy is emerging there. And that's not all...
Today around 1200 UT, magnetic fields looping over the sun's southeastern limb became unstable and erupted. The blast produced a towering prominence dozens of times taller than Earth itself:
David Evans took the picture from his backyard observatory in Coleshill, North Warwickshire, UK. "This was a huge event," he says. "It just goes to show how the sun can surprise observers even at this 'low' phase of the solar cycle."
Today around 1200 UT, magnetic fields looping over the sun's southeastern limb became unstable and erupted. The blast produced a towering prominence dozens of times taller than Earth itself:
© David Evans
Rumbles without sound
Auroras rain down
Magnetic fields shake
Beware the spacequake
Click to launch a computer-simulated movie created by Walt Feimer of Goddard's Scientific Visualization Lab.Researchers using NASA's fleet of five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a form of space weather that packs the punch of an earthquake and plays a key role in sparking bright Northern Lights. They call it "the spacequake."
A spacequake is a temblor in Earth's magnetic field. It is felt most strongly in Earth orbit, but is not exclusive to space. The effects can reach all the way down to the surface of Earth itself.
"Magnetic reverberations have been detected at ground stations all around the globe, much like seismic detectors measure a large earthquake," says THEMIS principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA.
It's an apt analogy because "the total energy in a spacequake can rival that of a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake," according to Evgeny Panov of the Space Research Institute in Austria. Panov is first author of a paper reporting the results in the April 2010 issue of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
Auroras rain down
Magnetic fields shake
Beware the spacequake
Click to launch a computer-simulated movie created by Walt Feimer of Goddard's Scientific Visualization Lab.
A spacequake is a temblor in Earth's magnetic field. It is felt most strongly in Earth orbit, but is not exclusive to space. The effects can reach all the way down to the surface of Earth itself.
"Magnetic reverberations have been detected at ground stations all around the globe, much like seismic detectors measure a large earthquake," says THEMIS principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA.
It's an apt analogy because "the total energy in a spacequake can rival that of a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake," according to Evgeny Panov of the Space Research Institute in Austria. Panov is first author of a paper reporting the results in the April 2010 issue of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
Tsukuba, Japan (Kyodo) -- Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science have found that an iron compound become superconductive, where electrical resistance disappears in a substance, if they are dipped in wine, sake or beer, the institute said Tuesday.
"It is still not known what it is in sake that is the cause (of the phenomenon) but it will provide a clue to the development of new superconductive materials," said Yoshihiko Takano, leader of the Nano Frontier Materials Group at the institute.
The researchers said they first produced an iron telluride compound, which has a similar structure to a superconductive substance. It did not show signs of superconductivity immediately but was found to when it was re-examined after being left on a desk for about one week.
Assuming that the change was due to moisture in the air, the researchers experimented with water, ethanol and other substances at different temperatures and in varying concentrations but could not attain results showing high conductivity.
"It is still not known what it is in sake that is the cause (of the phenomenon) but it will provide a clue to the development of new superconductive materials," said Yoshihiko Takano, leader of the Nano Frontier Materials Group at the institute.
The researchers said they first produced an iron telluride compound, which has a similar structure to a superconductive substance. It did not show signs of superconductivity immediately but was found to when it was re-examined after being left on a desk for about one week.
Assuming that the change was due to moisture in the air, the researchers experimented with water, ethanol and other substances at different temperatures and in varying concentrations but could not attain results showing high conductivity.
© Unknown
The discovered complex is located near the village of Arzanfud, 25 kilometres southeast of the provincial capital-city of Hamedan, the Hamedan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (HCHTHD) announced Saturday in a press release.
The complex is believed to have been used by habitants as a shelter during wars.
The entrance to the subterranean complex which is hidden or disguised yet to be discovered, but at the moment it is accessible through an original ventilation shaft, widened by HCHTHD's experts for access.
© Unknown
To break the terabyte barrier for the Indy Minute Sort, the computer science researchers built a system made up of 52 computer nodes. Each node is a commodity server with two quad-core processors, 24 gigabytes (GB) memory and sixteen 500 GB disks – all inter-connected by a Cisco Nexus 5020 switch. Cisco donated the switches as a part of their research engagement with the UC San Diego Center for Networked Systems. The compute cluster is hosted at Calit2
To break the terabyte barrier for the Indy Minute Sort, the computer science researchers built a system made up of 52 computer nodes. Each node is a commodity server with two quad-core processors, 24 gigabytes (GB) memory and sixteen 500 GB disks – all inter-connected by a Cisco Nexus 5020 switch. Cisco donated the switches as a part of their research engagement with the UC San Diego Center for Networked Systems. The compute cluster is hosted at Calit2
The infamously difficult process of truly getting a Facebook account deleted may be a thing of the past if a new Facebook test goes well. The social network is testing a feature that will permanently delete an account with just a few clicks.
Odyssey view offers plenty of detail, but no roadsigns
NASA has unveiled "the most accurate global Martian map ever" - a 21,000 image mosaic from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard its Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
According to the agency, the snaps have been "smoothed, matched, blended and cartographically controlled" to produce the final result, which at full zoom dishes up details as small as 100 meters.
Philip Christensen, principal investigator for THEMIS and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility, explained: "We've tied the images to the cartographic control grid provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, which also modeled the THEMIS camera's optics. This approach lets us remove all instrument distortion, so features on the ground are correctly located to within a few pixels and provide the best global map of Mars to date."
NASA has unveiled "the most accurate global Martian map ever" - a 21,000 image mosaic from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard its Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
According to the agency, the snaps have been "smoothed, matched, blended and cartographically controlled" to produce the final result, which at full zoom dishes up details as small as 100 meters.
Philip Christensen, principal investigator for THEMIS and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility, explained: "We've tied the images to the cartographic control grid provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, which also modeled the THEMIS camera's optics. This approach lets us remove all instrument distortion, so features on the ground are correctly located to within a few pixels and provide the best global map of Mars to date."
DNA tests: new century, new snake oil
Companies selling DNA kits have been deceiving customers with "fictitious" and "misleading" medical advice, an undercover sting operation by Congressional watchdog the GAO has discovered. One of the companies, 23andMe, was co-founded by Mrs Sergey Brin - Anne Wojowcki - and boasts veteran Silicon Valley socialite Esther Dyson as a director. All the companies investigated have been referred to the Food and Drugs Administration and the Federal Trade Commission for "appropriate action".
The GAO investigation [summary - text] titled Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests: Misleading Test Results Are Further Complicated by Deceptive Marketing and Other Questionable Practices sent DNA samples to four companies, and followed up with undercover calls for medical advice.
Companies selling DNA kits have been deceiving customers with "fictitious" and "misleading" medical advice, an undercover sting operation by Congressional watchdog the GAO has discovered. One of the companies, 23andMe, was co-founded by Mrs Sergey Brin - Anne Wojowcki - and boasts veteran Silicon Valley socialite Esther Dyson as a director. All the companies investigated have been referred to the Food and Drugs Administration and the Federal Trade Commission for "appropriate action".
The GAO investigation [summary - text] titled Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests: Misleading Test Results Are Further Complicated by Deceptive Marketing and Other Questionable Practices sent DNA samples to four companies, and followed up with undercover calls for medical advice.
