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Extra-solar Planets

• The low down
• Since Feb Kepler has located 1,094 planetary candidates, bringing to total to 2,326. So far, only 29 of these have been confirmed.
• Of the planet candidates, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, 1,181 are Neptune-size, 203 are Jupiter-size and 55 are larger than Jupiter
• Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.
• Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive.
• It often takes years for a planet to orbit, and a number of observations are needed to confirm that a planet is there
• Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars
• *– In the Goldilocks Zone!– *
• NASA’s Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
• This is NOT the first planet seen in the habitable zone of another star, but it is the first confirmed one seen by Kepler, and the first world smaller than Neptune to be found in middle of its star’s habitable zone.
• The first transit was captured just three days after the spacecraft operationally ready
• Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler–22b is the first to be confirmed.
• Kepler–22b is located 600 light-years away
• The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth
• Its orbit of 290 days
• The planet’s host star belongs to the same class as our sun, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.
• If the greenhouse warming were similar on this planet, and has a surface, it would be about 70F/21C
• Scientists don’t yet know if Kepler–22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition
• * Of Note*
• The transit detection method yields only a width and orbit time for planets, instead of a weight.
• Gravitational wobbles induced the star by the planet indicate only that Kepler 22b cannot weigh more than 36 times more than Earth, the world would weigh about 14 times as much as Earth if it is built the same way
• The mass of Kepler–22b could be calculated with the help of a new ground-based instrument in the Spanish Canary Islands that will begin observations next spring.
• The new telescope is capable of measuring with high precision a planet’s doppler velocity, scientists could calculate the mass and density
• *– Jupiter-size planets around massive stars– *
• Researchers surveyed about 300 stars using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and instruments in Texas and Arizona
• They focused on stars that are at least 1.5 times more massive than our own sun just beyond the main stage of life , these stars balloon out to become what’s known as subgiant stars
• They found 18 new alien planets, all of them Jupiter-size gas giants , and they all orbit at least 0.7 times the span from Earth to the sun
• Not only do we find Jupiter-like planets more frequently around massive stars, but we find them in wider orbits
• * Of Note*
• The new finds lend support to one of two theories that attempt to explain the formation and evolution of planets
• One theory, called gravitational collapse, holds that planets form when big clouds of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into clumps that become planets
• According to this idea, stellar mass should have little impact on planet size, number and other characteristics
• Core accretion, posits that planets grow as gas and dust glom onto seed particles in a protoplanetary disk and depend strongly on the mass of the star
• It seems that stellar mass does in fact play an important role leading credence to the Core accretion theory
• Multimedia
• VIDEO : @ YouTube – NASA’s Kepler Mission Announces Latest Planetary Discovery
• VIDEO : @ YouTube – Kepler 22b: Earth-like planet discovered
• IMAGE : Closer to Finding an Earth @ NASA
• Infographic : Planets Large and Small Populate Our Galaxy @ Space.com
• IMAGE : Kepler–22b – Comfortably Circling within the Habitable Zone
• VIDEO : What does it take to find a planet 63 light years from Earth?
  @ DiscoveryNews
• Social Media
• NASA Kepler @NASAKepler
• Caltech @caltech
• Further Reading / In the News
• Planets & Brains | SciByte 18
• Neutrinos & Tatooine | SciByte 17
• NASA’s Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star @ NASA
• Kepler Mission Page @ NASA
• Potentially Habitable Planet Is Christmas Present for Kepler Astronomers @ ScienceNOW
• Kepler Finds Its First Planet in the Habitable Zone @ Scientific American
• Kepler confirms first planet found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star! @ DiscoverMagazine
• Kepler finds planet in the habitable zone @ AstronomyNOW Online
• Earthlike Planet Found Orbiting at Right Distance for Life @ National Geographic
• Kepler Confirms First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-Like Star @ UniverseToday
• Alien Planet Could Host Life @ Discovery News
• Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star @ Reuters
• Caltech-Led Team of Astronomers Finds 18 New Planets
• New Batch of Giant Alien Worlds Found @ DiscoveryNews
• Astronomers Discover 18 Huge New Alien Planets @ Space.com

Flinging Chimps

• The low down
• Chimps are the only other species besides humans that regularly throw things with a clear target in mind
• Researchers studying such behavior have come to the conclusion that throwing feces, or any object really, is actually a sign of high ordered behavior
• Watching chimps in action for several years and comparing their actions with scans of their brains to see if there were any correlations between those chimps that threw a lot and those that didn’t or whether they’re accuracy held any deeper meaning.
• Chimps that both threw more and were more likely to hit their targets showed heightened development in the motor cortex
• Better throwing chimps didn’t appear to posses any more physical prowess than other chimps
• Significance
• Language processing occurs in the left side, which also controls our right hands; and most people use their right hands to throw, as do chimpanzees.
• Such findings led the term to suggest that the ability to throw is, a precursor to speech development.
• Those chimps that could throw better appeared to be better communicators within their group
• Why did these chimps learn to throw in a captive context? The chimp learns is as a form of communication.
• Throwing stuff at someone else became a form of self expression
• * Of Note*
• While throwing at first might not seem demanding, coordinating it requires intensive, on-the-fly calculations.
• An equation for throwing a ball, for example, would include the distance to a target, the ball’s heaviness and the thrower’s strength. A moving target makes it even harder
• Social Media
• Emory University @EmoryUniversity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Researches find poop-throwing by chimps is a sign of intelligence @ PhysOrg.com
• Poop-Throwing Chimps Provide Hints of Human Origins @ WiredScience.com
• Philosophical Transactions
• Emory University

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Supernova warning signs?

• The low down
• A Ohio State University team was undertaking a survey of 25 galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways
• Their goal was to find a star just before it ended its life
• One binary star system (consisting of both a blue and red star) located in M51 produced just the results they were looking for
• One star dropped amplitude just a short period of time before the other exploded
• It’s likely that they didn’t get any direct observations of the star that exploded – only its much brighter partner.
• The team speculates that as many as one supernova per year could emerge from their data set
• Significance
• The researchers saw one star in this particular binary system dim noticeably before the other one exploded in a supernova during the summer of 2011.
• The astronomers surmise the red star was the one that dimmed about 10% over the three-year period while the blue one blew its top
• It’s likely that they didn’t get any direct observations of the star before the supernova, only its much brighter partner.
• Their survey provides clues about how stars look and behave before they explode, allowing researchers to identify likely supernova candidates in advance.
• * Of Note*
• Researchers surmise the red star may have actually survived the supernova
• After the light from the explosion fades away, we should be able to see the companion that did not explode
• On the other hand …
• Maybe stars give off a clear signal of impending doom, maybe they don’t, so far we only have one instance.
• We’ll learn something new about dying stars no matter the outcome
• Social Media
• OhioState @OhioState
• Further Reading / In the News
• In a Star’s Final Days, Astronomers Hunt ‘Signal of Impending Doom’ @ ScienceDaily)
• Astronomers Closing in on Stars About to Explode @ Space.com
• In a star’s final days, astronomers hunt ‘signal of impending doom’ @ PhysOrg.com
• Supernova Candidate Stars May Signal “Impending Doom” @ UniverseToday
• Astronomers Closing in on Stars About to Explode @ LiveScience
• In a star’s final days, astronomers hunt “signal of impending doom” @ Astronomy
• Published in The Astrophysical Journal
• Principal Investigator Christopher S. Kochanek
• Co Author Krzystof Stanek
• Postdoctoral researcher Dorota Szczygiel
• Research team from Department of Astronomy – Ohio State University
• Ohio State

Alzheimer’s Research

• The low down
• One of the earliest known impairments caused by Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of sense of smell
• There is currently no effective treatment or cure for the disease
• Since the 1970s, loss of sense of smell has been identified as an early sign of this disease
• Smell loss can be caused by a number of ailments, exposures or injuries
• Significance
• Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have confirmed that the protein, called amyloid beta, causes the loss of sense of smell
• Amyloid beta plaque accumulated first in parts of the brain associated with smell, well before accumulating in areas associated with cognition and coordination
• Just a tiny amount of amyloid beta – too little to be seen on today’s brain scans – start this process
• While losses in the olfactory system occurred, the rest of the mouse model brain, including the hippocampus, which is a center for memory, continued to act normally early in the disease stage
• Mice were given a synthetic liver x-receptor agonist, a drug that clears amyloid beta from the brain
• The sense of smell an be restored by removing a plaque-forming protein in a mouse model of the disease
• After two weeks on the drug, the mice could process smells normally
• After withdrawal of the drug for one week, impairments returned
• Team are now following-up on these discoveries to determine how amyloid spreads throughout the brain, to learn methods to slow disease progression
• * Of Note*
• We could use the sense of smell to determine if someone may get Alzheimer’s disease
• Use changes in sense of smell to begin treatments, instead of waiting until someone has issues learning and remembering
• We can also use smell to see if therapies are working
• Further Reading / In the News
• Reversing Early Sign of Alzheimer’s – Animal Experiment Successful, For A While @ Medical News Today
• Early sign of Alzheimer’s reversed in lab @ Medical Xpress
• Published in The Journal of Neuroscience
• Research by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Martian Glaciers

• The low down
• High resolution stereo imaging from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, we’re able to detect a feature called ‘lobate debris aprons’.
• Lobate debris aprons could indeed signal the presence of ice – perhaps only 20 meter below the surface
• The gently rolling series of hills, at 30 to 50 deg N, have been probed by radar and are a normal feature for mountains found for those latitudes.
• Significance
• Scientist have surmised these low mountain ranges are not volcanic in origin, but created through tectonic forces and may conceal a copious supply of frozen water or glaciers.
• Nearby impact craters also show signs of recent glaciation
• Ridges formed inside these ancient holes from snowfall, and then slid down the slopes with time, it compacted to form a glacier structure
• * Of Note*
• One of the greatest needs future astronauts will face is water
• A one time, Mars’ polar axis was quite different than it is today, it created different climatic conditions and mid-latitude glaciers may have developed at different times over the last several hundred million years
• Earlier studies of the debris aprons show the material has slid down the mountain slopes with time – a feature shared with Earth’s glaciers
• This area on the red planet may yield large quantities of sub-surface ice
• Multimedia
• IMAGE : A wider contextual image of the region surrounding Phlegra Montes. @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : Flow patterns attributable to water are widely visible across the image. @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : Elevation data from the DTM is colour coded @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : Phlegra Montes is a range of gently curving mountains and ridges on Mars. @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : This perspective view has been calculated from the Digital Terrain Model derived from the stereo channels. @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : This second perspective view has been calculated from the Digital Terrain Model derived from the stereo channels. @ ESA.int
• IMAGE : The image combines data from the nadir channel and one stereo channel to produce this 3D image. @ ESA.int
• Social Media
• Twitter Account for [#ESA](https://twitter.com/#!/ESA)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Mountains and buried ice on Mars @ ESA
• Mars Express Reveals Possible Martian Glaciers @ UniverseToday
• Mountains and buried ice on Mars @ MarsToday.com
• European Space Agency @ ESA.int
• Mars Express Orbiter @ ESA.int
• Mars Express @ Wiki

Spandex Cables

• The low down
• Japanese company Asahi Kasei Fibers, originally designed the elastic cable material, called Roboden, for wiring the soft, flexible skin of humanoid robots.
• The new cable can stretch by a factor of 1.5
• The cable material is made of an outer elastic shell with spiraled internal wiring that unspirals when pulled.
• Multimedia
• VIDEO @ YouTube – Worlds First Elastic Electric/Data/USB Cables – Roboden #DigInfo
• Further Reading / In the News
• Spandex manufacturer makes elastic electrical cable (w/ video) @ PhysOrg](https://www.physorg.com/news/2011–12-spandex-elastic-electrical-cable-video.html)
• Stretchable Cables, Designed for Robots, Handy for Humans @ Wired.com](https://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/stretchable-cables-designed-for-robots-handy-for-humans/)

New Horizons (Pluto spacecraft) – Update

• The low down
• New Horizons space craft was launch January 19, 2006
• Speeding toward Pluto at around 34,500 mph (55,500 km/hr).
• Passed Uranus’s orbit on 18 March 2011
• Significance
• On December 2, 2011, 2,143 days after launch New Horizons became the closest spacecraft ever to Pluto and will be for quite some time
• Previous record held by Voyager 1, which came within 983 million miles (1.58 billion km) of the dwarf planet on January 29, 1986
• * Of Note*
• New Horizons will pass by Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015 (SciByte 212)
• Multimedia
• IMAGE : New Horizons Spacecraft
• IMAGE : Pluto from Earth
• Rough location in reference to Uranus and Pluto
• Social Media
• NewHorizons2015 @NewHorizons2015
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA’s Pluto Probe Marks a New Milestone @ UniverseToday
• New Horizons Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Approach Pluto @ NewHorizons
• New Horizons @ NASA
• New Horizons Mission Page
• Where is New Horizons Now?
• NASA Pluto Probe Passes Orbit of Uranus @ Space.com

Voyager 1 – Update

• The low down
• Launched : Sep 05, 1977
• Speed : 10.5 mi/s [17 km/s]
• Significance
• NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge
• It has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space
• Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, it is not yet in interstellar space.
• The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.
• Social Media
• Voyager 1 @NASAVoyager1
• Further Reading / In the News
• Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22
• NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge @ JPL.NASA

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• Dec 11, 1911 – 100 years ago – Marie Curie’s second Nobel Prize : Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel prize. She had isolated radium by electrolyzing molten radium chloride. This second prize was for her individual achievements in Chemistry, whereas her first prize (1903) was a collaborative effort with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel in Physics for her contributions in the discovery of radium and polonium.
• *Dec 7–11 1972 – 39 years ago – Last moon mission *: On Dec 7th Apollo 17, the sixth and last U.S. moon mission, blasted off from Cape Canaveral. On Dec 11th astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon for a three-day exploration, while Ronald E. Evans remained in orbit. Flight Commander Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon. Typically the backup crew for an Appolo mission was to serve as the main crew 3 missions later, but with Appolo 17 scheduled as the last Moon mission there was heavy pressure to put a geologist to the crew (Schmitt.)
• Dec 10, 1984 – 27 years ago – First Extrasolar Planet Discovery Announcement: The National Science Foundation reported the discovery of the first planet outside our solar system, orbiting a star 21 million light years from Earth. The object was found orbiting Van Biesbroeck 8, an extremely faint star about 21 light years from Earth. However, it seemed to abruptly vanish when later attempts to observe its gravitational pull on Van Biesbroeck 8 failed. It is currently unknown whether the object ever existed.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …

• Wednesday, Dec 7 : As darkness falls, Jupiter is to the upper right of the Moon.
  

• –Saturday Dec 10 – Total Eclipse of the Moon–

• The Moon is totally within the umbra of Earth’s shadow for 52 minutes. The partial stages before and after totality each last more than an hour.

• At the instant of greatest eclipse (14:32 UT) the Moon lies at the zenith in the Pacific Ocean near Guam.

• The exact hue (anything from bright orange to blood red is possible) depends on the unpredictable state of the atmosphere at the time of the eclipse. As Jack Horkheimer (1938–2010) of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium loved to say, “Only the shadow knows.”

• Timeline

• Partial Eclipse Begins – 4:45am PST / 12:45 GMT

• Total Eclipse Begins – 6:45am PST / 14:06 GMT

• Total Eclipse Maximum – 6:32am PST / 14:32 GMT

• Total Eclipse Ends – 6:14am PST / 14:57 GMT

• Partial Eclipse Ends – 8:17am PST / 16:17 GMT

• What you can see

• NASA

• ShadowAndSubstance

• United States & Canada : The western United States and Canada will witness a total lunar eclipse. The action begins around 4:45am PST when the red shadow of Earth first falls across the lunar disk. By 6:05am PST, the Moon will be fully engulfed in red light.

• Europe : Seen as rising over eastern Europe

• Asia and Australia : Visible from all of Asia and Australia

• Austrailia and Japan : The eclipsed Moon hangs high in middle of the night

• South America & Antarctica : Not able to see the eclipse

• More on whats in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope

• AstronomyNow

• SpaceWeather.com

• HeavensAbove

• StarDate.org