Science & Technology

Earth's Moon Formed in 'Moonlet' Mash-Up After Many Earth Impacts

Hanneke Weitering
Live Science
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 22:00 UTC

© Hagai Perets; real images of Mars and Ganymede and an artist’s image of a planet courtesy of NASA were used in the picture construction
An artistic depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies that will form a new moon, while a pre-existing moon already orbits the proto-Earth

Earth's moon may be the product of many small moonlets that merged after multiple objects as big as Mars collided with Earth, leaving disks of planetary debris orbiting the planet, a new study suggests.

This idea that multiple impacts led to the moon's birth challenges the most prevalent theory of lunar formation, which suggests that one giant impact led to the formation of the moon.

The new, multiple-impact hypothesis suggests that about 20 moon- to Mars-size objects struck the Earth, flinging debris from the planet into orbit. There, the debris formed disks around the Earth that looked somewhat like Saturn's rings. Over centuries, debris in several disks accreted to form moonlets that migrated farther and farther from the Earth due to tidal interactions. Eventually, the moonlets settled at a distance known as the Hill radius, coalescing to form one big moon.

Comment: See also:

Amazon's 'Mothership': Retailer Gets Patent for Mega-Drone

Mindy Weisberger
Live Science
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 20:10 UTC

What happens when you connect a flock of flying drones? You get a "collective unmanned aerial vehicle" that's capable of lifting heavier burdens and flying greater distances than smaller drones can, according to a patent recently granted to online retailer Amazon.

The Amazon Technologies Inc. patent describes a large and robust flying drone made up of numerous smaller drones, designed to make long-distance flights or to carry heavy packages.

According to the patent, filed Feb. 19, 2015, and granted Dec. 29, 2016, individual modules could detach from the collective drone body once they were no longer required, and operate independently to deliver smaller burdens.

Researchers create bio-compatible synthetic spider silk that could be used in regenerative medicine

Phys.org
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC

Supple, light and biodegradable but stronger than steel: researchers said Monday they have succeeded in producing synthetic spider silk, one of nature's strongest materials.

Refined through the long process of evolution, the silk threads spun by spiders are 30 times thinner than a human hair and stronger even than Kevlar, a synthetic fibre used in making bullet-proof vests.

Scientists have long strived to copy the unique properties of the threads—essentially long chains of linked protein molecules.

When spinning, the spider secretes a protein solution through a narrow duct, along which the acidity changes and pressure increases, causing the molecules to link up and form chains.

But spiders are notoriously difficult to farm—producing small quantities of silk, and with a propensity for eating each other.

Now a team from Sweden said they have managed to copy the spider's feat using proteins in E.coli bacteria and a "spinning apparatus" which mimics the pH changes that spiders use to make silk.

Comment: Mother Nature's bio-superlens: Scientists achieve world first by using spider silk to view previously 'invisible' structures

SpaceX delays first Falcon 9 launch since explosion

RT
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 18:29 UTC

SpaceX has pushed back the latest Falcon 9 launch to January 14. Originally scheduled for January 8, the launch is its first since a rocket exploded in September 2016, destroying US$200 million worth of communication satellites in the process. SpaceX is blaming bad weather at the California launch site for the delay, with high winds and rain forecast at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in the coming days.

Iridium Corporate, whose satellites are being carried on board the Falcon 9, also tweeted about the delay. Ten satellites from Iridium are scheduled to be launched on Falcon 9 rockets by the end of 2017. On September 1 last year the Falcon 9 exploded during its launch in Florida, destroying a $200 million Amos-6 satellite belonging to Israeli company Spacecom.

An investigation found that a failed canister of helium inside one of the rockets' oxygen tanks exploded upon launch. In a statement SpaceX said changes would be made to the canisters' design to prevent future issues. A launch rehearsal was completed without problems on January 5. SpaceX is scheduled to deliver payloads on the Falcon 9 in the coming months, including a delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 8.

Liquid iron - Clenched by iron bands

Stephen Smith
The Thunderbolts Project
Mon, 02 Jan 2017 18:17 UTC

Is it liquid metal that circulates below the surface?

On November 23, 2013 the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Swarm mission satellites from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Swarm consists of three identical orbiters, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie, placed in two different orbital planes. Alpha and Bravo fly side-by-side in an 87.4º inclination at an altitude of 450 kilometers (which will slowly decay to 300 kilometers), while Charlie was placed in an 88º inclination at 530 kilometers. All three are in a polar orbit. Propellant on the three satellites is expected to last about five and a half years. They will then burn up in the atmosphere.

Among other instruments, each satellite is equipped with a vector field magnetometer and electric field sensor, so that Swarm can measure variations in the electromagnetic fields generated by Earth's oceans and lithosphere. Since Earth's magnetic field is thought to be created by an "electric dynamo" thousands of kilometers below the surface, there is no way to "see" what is taking place there except indirectly.

Swarm mission manager, Rune Floberghagen wrote:

"We have very few ways of probing deep into the structure of our planet, but Swarm is making extremely valuable contributions to understanding Earth's interior..."

Earth's electromagnetic field does not originate from a single source. Instead different areas generate greater or lesser fluctuating electromagnetism—exactly how it changes is not known. Swarm analyzes differences in the time signatures among the satellites, as well as electromagnetic flux density surrounding Earth's fields, in order to determine what factors influence those changing fields.

US Air Force petitions for laser-based jet fighter weapons

Brian Wang
Next Big Future
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 16:26 UTC

The US Air Force (USAF) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) related to its efforts to field a laser-based self-protection system for its tactical combat aircraft.

The laser will be housed in a supersonic flight-capable pod to be developed under the Laser Pod Research and Development (LPRD) contract.

The RFP, posted by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, Laser Division (AFRL/RDL) on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website on 5 January, seeks research proposals for the service's Laser Advancements for Next-generation Compact Environments (LANCE) project, which is geared at integrating a defensive laser weapon aboard current and future fighter-sized aircraft.

Comment: See also:

Spectacular collision of suns will create new star in night sky in 2022

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Thu, 05 Jan 2017 03:37 UTC

The star will appear in the constellation Cygnus, also know as the Northern Cross

At the beginning of the 3rd century civil war raged in Britain as the Roman emperor Septimius Severus sought to quell unrest in the north.

But unknown to the fighting cohorts and Caledonian tribes, high above their heads two stars were coming together in a huge cataclysmic explosion.

Now 1800 years later the light from that collision will finally arrive on Earth creating a new star in the night sky - dubbed the 'Boom Star - in an incredibly rare event which is usually only spotted through telescopes.

Before their meeting the two stars were too dim to be seen by the naked eye, but in 2022, the newly formed Red Nova will burn so brightly in the constellation Cygnus that everyone will be able to to see it.

"For the first time in history, parents will be able to point to a dark spot in the sky and say, 'Watch, kids, there's a star hiding in there, but soon it's going to light up," said Dr Matt Walhout, dean for research and scholarship at Calvin College, Michigan, where the prediction was made.

How getting hit by lightning changed a woman's synesthesia

Sarah Zhang
The Atlantic
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 15:42 UTC

Head trauma made her see strange colors, even ones that are "not even real."

By age 20, AB had suffered four concussions, gotten viral meningitis, and been struck by lightning. "She's unofficially the unluckiest girl alive," says Kevin Mitchell, a neurogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin, who published a recent case study on AB, a pseudonymous subject. Her series of unfortunate events also ended up producing a scientific puzzle.

Because before all this, ever since she was a child, AB had been able to see colors with musical notes and perceive unique auras around people, the study reports. This mixing of senses is a little-understood phenomenon known as synesthesia. Synesthesia can come in many different forms, including colors that evoke sounds, words that evoke tastes, or even sounds that evoke touch. For AB, each insult to her brain—the concussions, the meningitis, the lightning—altered her synesthesia in different ways, both subtle and dramatic. Her synesthesia eventually returns exactly the same as before it went away.

Comment:
6 intriguing types of synesthesia: Tasting words, seeing sounds, hearing colours and more

NASA: Huge planet hurling comets to their doom in nearby solar system

RT
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 15:37 UTC

Graphic of comets plunging into a nearby star

The Hubble telescope has detected signs of several doomed comets plunging right for the heart of a nearby star. Astronomers says a Jupiter-like planet likely 'slingshot' the comets to their doom.

The star in question, roughly 23 million years old, is HD 172555, found in a nearby 'teenage' solar system 95-light years from Earth.

Astronomers believe such comets may hold the key to several long-running theories about the makeup of nearby star systems and how life-forming elements find their way onto planets.

"In fact, these star-grazing comets may make life possible, because they carry water and other life-forming elements, such as carbon, to terrestrial planets,"said Carol Grady of NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is leading the study of the data.

Dystopian future now a reality as car-makers install 'emotional' AI's into vehicles

James Vincent
The Verge
Sat, 07 Jan 2017 02:28 UTC

Bad idea installing 'emotions' in cars

Honda has teased the first image of what looks to be an ambitious new concept car — an experimental vehicle dubbed the NeuV. The automaker will be showcasing the car at CES on January 5th and says it will be automated, electric, designed for commuters, and will come equipped with artificial intelligence in the form of something called an "emotion engine."

Details are vague on what this all means, but Honda describes the emotion engine as a set of technologies that will "enable machines to artificially generate their own emotions." Will that mean some sort of in-car assistant that's cheery or grouchy depending on how much fuel there is in the tank? Or perhaps some sort of animated dashboard that gives you the stink eye when you cut someone off in traffic?

Comment: Or perhaps all that and more. Writing a computer program is one thing, but once you introduce artificial intelligence, it has the capacity to think, grow and learn beyond it's original programming - which means what AI can and will do, will eventually become unpredictable and out of human expectation and control.

Comment: It's foolish and naive to not be the least bit concerned when introducing artificial intelligence into society. Current technology is growing exponentially, beyond most people's ability to keep up with, meanwhile there is no concomitant emotional and spiritual development among people in society to balance out their growing reliance and addiction to technology. With the 'millennial' generation showing themselves to potentially being the most technologically dependent, inept and incapable generation of our time, what makes anyone think introducing AI will be of any benefit - and who is thinking of the long-term implications? Dystopian futures have been shown in a number of books and movies throughout the years, and it's well-worth paying attention to and watching them again but with a different outlook, realizing that something like that might just be around the corner. For further reading:

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“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” -O’Brien in Orwell’s 1984

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Science & Technology

Earth's Moon Formed in 'Moonlet' Mash-Up After Many Earth Impacts

Amazon's 'Mothership': Retailer Gets Patent for Mega-Drone

Researchers create bio-compatible synthetic spider silk that could be used in regenerative medicine

SpaceX delays first Falcon 9 launch since explosion

Liquid iron - Clenched by iron bands

US Air Force petitions for laser-based jet fighter weapons

Spectacular collision of suns will create new star in night sky in 2022

How getting hit by lightning changed a woman's synesthesia

NASA: Huge planet hurling comets to their doom in nearby solar system

Dystopian future now a reality as car-makers install 'emotional' AI's into vehicles

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