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Tue, 19 Oct 2021
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Fireball 3

Japanese astronomers record possible impact event on Jupiter

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Mon, 18 Oct 2021 17:02 UTC
A group of Japanese astronomers just discovered a potential new impact at the planet Jupiter.
Impact Flash Jupiter
Get your scorecards out — Jupiter just took another interplanetary hit. If it's confirmed it would be the 11th observed comet or asteroid strike at the gas giant since the pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter in 1994.

A little more than a month after five amateurs independently recorded a similar flash, a team of astronomers, led by Ko Arimatsu of Kyoto University, filmed this most recent flare in Jupiter's cloud tops at 13:24 UT on Friday, October 15th.

The potential impact flash appears around the 12-second mark in this video of Jupiter made on Friday, October 15th.
Ko Arimatsu / Kyoto University
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Fireball 2

Swarm of near-Earth comets linked to recent ice giant Encke's breakup

James Romero
Discover Magazine
Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:31 UTC
comet swarm
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist's illustration showing a cloud of comet fragments
The longest-studied comets in our solar system have inspired ancient myths, religious fervor and modern scientific controversies. Now, the discovery of 88 asteroids and meteoroids orbitally aligned with one of them, Comet Encke, suggests that they all formed from the relatively recent breakup of an even bigger, icy comet. The findings are welcomed by those who believe Comet Encke and the other products of this astronomical event are responsible for many of Earth's most violent and consequential impacts over the last 20,000 years.

Earlier Evidence

Comet Encke was first observed in 1786 and later identified as the source of numerous annual meteor showers. Known collectively as the Taurids, these showers light up the skies of both the northern and southern hemispheres as Earth passes through a stream of debris created by the comet. (This year, look to the stars throughout November for a glimpse of your own.) In the 1980s, however, astronomer William Napier and astrophysicist Victor Clube suggested that objects larger than your average "shooting star" had arrived from a similar source as the comet.

Comment: Clube's and Napier's hypothesis is being borne out by the worrying increase in fireball counts year-over-year. SOTT's Fire in the Sky section attests to that.

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Comet

'Volcanic' comet 29P blows its top in superoutburst creating coma wider than Jupiter


Space Weather
Sun, 17 Oct 2021 22:33 UTC
Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
© Photographer's website: https://flic.kr/p/2mACGoh
The evolution of the coma of Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (centered) Initially observed as a compact bright object, the expanding coma is gradually becoming more transparent to the background stars. All images captured with iTelescope T11, with the initial outburst a 300 sec image due to rapidly changing clouds and only a single useable image, while the other images are a stacked total 720 sec with 120 sec subs. full resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mACGoh
So you think you know what a comet is? Think again. Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann is challenging old ideas. Astronomers call it a comet, but, really, "giant space volcano" might be a better description. It's a 60-km-wide ball of ice orbiting the Sun beyond Jupiter, and it appears to be one of the most volcanically active bodies in the entire Solar System.

Comet 29P just blew its top ... again. In late September 2021, 29P erupted four times in quick succession, blowing shells of "cryomagma" into space. Arizona amateur astronomer Eliot Herman has been monitoring the debris:

"Initially it looked like a bright compact object," says Herman. "Now the expanding cloud is 1.3 arcminutes wide (bigger than Jupiter) and sufficiently transparent for background stars to shine through."

Comment: Rather than the 'ice volcano' theory, Pierre Lescaudron explain in his book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection that it's more likely that we're witnessing an increase in the comets electrical activity:
The fundamental difference between asteroids and comets is not their chemical composition, i.e. dirty, fluffy icy comets vs. rocky asteroids. Rather, as has long been put forward by plasma theorists, what differentiates 'comets' from 'asteroids' is their electric activity.

When the electric potential difference between an asteroid and the surrounding plasma is not too high, the asteroid exhibits a dark discharge mode1 or no discharge at all. But when the potential difference is high enough, the asteroid switches to a glowing discharge mode.2 At this point the asteroid is a comet. From this perspective, a comet is simply a glowing asteroid and an asteroid is a non-glowing comet. Thus the very same body can, successively, be a comet, then an asteroid, then a comet, etc., depending on variation in the ambient electric field it is subjected to.3
2) An intense circulation of ions and electrons occurs between the asteroid and the surrounding space. The energy provided by this intense transfer 'excites' electrons which generate photons, hence the glow of the asteroid. See: Meichsner, J. Nonthermal Plasma Chemistry and Physics, p.117
Further, similar reports about "bright outburts" were made about comet 67P, but, in this instance, close up photographs were available, and there was no evidence of 'ice volcano' activity: Comet 67P surprises scientists with 'bright outbursts', collapsing cliffs and rolling boulders during Rosetta mission

See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Galaxy

Our solar system may be surrounded by magnetic tunnel-like structure


University of Toronto
Sun, 17 Oct 2021 14:28 UTC
Galaxy tunnel magnetic
© Haslam et al. (1982) with annotations by J. West.
The Galaxy seen in radio waves in the conventional view with the Galactic centre in the middle of the image.
A Dunlap Institute astronomer has discovered that our solar system may be surrounded by what she describes as a magnetic tunnel that can be seen in radio waves.

Dr. Jennifer West, Research Associate at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, is making a scientific case that two bright structures that are seen on opposite sides of the sky - previously considered to be separate - are actually connected and are made of rope-like filaments. This connection forms what looks like a tunnel around our solar system.

"If we were to look up in the sky," explains West, "we would see this tunnel-like structure in just about every direction we looked - that is, if we had eyes that could see radio light."

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Chalkboard

The mathematics of the amazing sandpile

Jordan Ellenberg
Nautilus
Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:00 UTC
mathematics sandpile domino theory self organization natue
To understand self-organization in nature, behold the sandpile.

Remember domino theory? One country going Communist was supposed to topple the next, and then the next, and the next. The metaphor drove much of United States foreign policy in the middle of the 20th century. But it had the wrong name. From a physical point of view, it should have been called the "sandpile theory."

Real-world political phase transitions tend to happen not in neat sequences, but in sudden coordinated fits, like the Arab Spring, or the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. These reflect quiet periods punctuated by crises — like a sandpile. You can add grains of sand to the top of a sandpile for a while, to no apparent effect. Then, all at once, an avalanche sweeps sand down from the top in an irregular pattern, possibly setting off little sub-avalanches as it goes.
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Beaker

Drug to calm cytokine storm: Life-saving Russian discovery could be key to stopping body's 'suicide attack' in severe Covid cases


RT
Tue, 12 Oct 2021 06:18 UTC
hospital crew
© Sputnik/Ilya Pitalev
Russian intensive care unit at work
A group of Russian scientists have created a drug that may potentially revolutionize the treatment of Covid-19 by defusing the most catastrophic reaction the disease causes in patients, while not destroying their immune response.

The drug, called Leitragin, was developed by the Biomedical Technology Research Center of the Russian Federal Medical and Biology Agency (FMBA), and is currently undergoing clinical trials in Russia. Although its base substance was previously known and used in ulcer treatment medicine by Soviet and Russian doctors, it was the FMBA team that discovered how to apply it for the treatment of severe cases of Covid-19 and, potentially, other deadly diseases that cause life-threatening lung inflammation.

The Russian scientists had tasked themselves with finding a substance that would act as an 'off switch' for the chain reaction that, after being triggered by the invading SARS-CoV-2 virus, actually causes potential organ failure and death. This reaction of the immune system, dubbed the "cytokine storm," has been variously described as our body's overreaction to the virus or a "suicide attack" against the invading pathogen, and even as an evolutionary mechanism to stop the spread of deadly infections with the death of the host.

Trying to stop this uncontrolled immune response while still preserving the body's ability to fight the virus without causing more damage is what scientists and medics in intensive care units across the world have been wrestling with during the Covid-19 pandemic. In that regard, Leitragin is being touted as a game-changer, since its novel mechanism acts in a targeted way, and is said to be completely safe for one's health.

RT interviewed the head of the Russian team of scientists behind Leitragin, and talked to an independent researcher studying cytokine storms, to learn more about the potential of the novel drug.
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Snowflake Cold

Scientists 'create' world's coldest temperature inside lab

Joanna Thompson
Live Science
Sat, 09 Oct 2021 17:51 UTC
snowflake cold
© Flickr / Alexey Kljatov
Researchers came closer than ever before to achieving absolute zero

Scientists just broke the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in a lab: They achieved the bone-chilling temperature of 38 trillionths of a degree above -273.15 Celsius by dropping magnetized gas 393 feet (120 meters) down a tower.

The team of German researchers was investigating the quantum properties of a so-called fifth state of matter: Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a derivative of gas that exists only under ultra-cold conditions. While in the BEC phase, matter itself begins to behave like one large atom, making it an especially appealing subject for quantum physicists who are interested in the mechanics of subatomic particles.
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Comet 2

The mega-comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein will get as close as Saturn in 2031

Nancy Atkinson
Universe Today
Thu, 14 Oct 2021 19:32 UTC
Comet Comparison
© Will Gater. Used by permission.
A graphic comparing the size of Comet 2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) to other solar system objects.
A mega-comet - potentially the largest ever discovered - is heading from the Oort Cloud towards our direction. Estimated to be 100-200 kilometers across, the unusual celestial wanderer will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031. However, the closest it will come to Earth is to the orbit of Saturn.

Astronomers say Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (C/2014 UN271) could be the largest member of the Oort Cloud ever detected, and it is the first comet on an incoming path to be detected so far away.

The graphic above, by astronomer Will Gater compares the size of the comet to other Solar System objects.

The comet was discovered Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein, from the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year. They were scouring through data from the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile. They found data of this object that was originally collected from 2014-2018, which did not show a typical comet tail, and the object was therefore thought to be a dwarf planet.

But within a day of the announcement of its discovery via the Minor Planet Center, astronomers using the Las Cumbres Observatory network took new images which revealed that it has grown a coma in the past 3 years, and that it was rapidly moving rapidly through the Oort Cloud. The object was then officially classified as a comet.
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Cell Phone

Android phones send device, user 'identifier' data to manufacturers & Big Tech firms offering 'pre-installed' apps, new study says


RT
Wed, 13 Oct 2021 11:57 UTC
android google
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Android mascot pictured in front of Google logo. July 9, 2017
Android OS devices transmit sensitive user data like handset serial numbers and app usage info to manufacturers like Samsung and third parties like Google, Microsoft and Facebook - even after consumers opt out, a new study shows.

According to the study, proprietary variants of Google's Android system developed by popular vendors like Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and Realme send "substantial amounts" of information to these manufacturers as well as third party firms whose apps come pre-installed in these devices.

In the study, which was published on Monday, researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh found that the data silently collected by these companies was linked to "long-lived identifiers" like the device's IMEI code (the unique number linked to a device's SIM card slot) and other hardware serial numbers. In some cases, the MAC address generated by the user's WiFi network was also transmitted.

Comment: Just because it was not "unexpected" doesn't make it OK! See also:

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Cassiopaea

Strange radio waves emerge from the direction of the galactic center

University of Sydney
Phys.org
Tue, 12 Oct 2021 12:00 UTC
ASKAP radio signal
© Sebastian Zentilomo/University of Sydney
Artist's impression of radio signal ASKAP J173608.2-321635 arriving at Earth.
Astronomers have discovered unusual signals coming from the direction of the Milky Way's center. The radio waves fit no currently understood pattern of variable radio source and could suggest a new class of stellar object.

"The strangest property of this new signal is that it is has a very high polarization. This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time," said Ziteng Wang, lead author of the new study and a Ph.D. student in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

"The brightness of the object also varies dramatically, by a factor of 100, and the signal switches on and off apparently at random. We've never seen anything like it."

Comment: It's starting to look like the number of 'mysterious' events being discovered in space cannot simply be explained by increased technological ability; this is particularly notable because on our own planet unusual phenomena also seems to be on the rise:

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