Atlantis – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com Open Source Entertainment, on Demand. Mon, 22 Feb 2016 02:47:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Atlantis – Jupiter Broadcasting https://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com 32 32 Habitable Exoplanets & Diabetes | SciByte 92 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/36836/habitable-exoplanets-diabetes-scibyte-92/ Tue, 07 May 2013 21:35:10 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=36836 We take a look at habitable zone exoplanets, diabetes treatment advances, water in Jupiter, living on Mars, and spacecraft updates.

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We take a look at habitable zone exoplanets, diabetes treatment advances, water in Jupiter, living on Mars, spacecraft updates, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

More Habitable Zone Exoplanets

  • Astronomers have announced that they have found three new, potentially rocky, planets in the habitable zone of their stars by analyzing nearly three years’ worth of data
  • Kepler Space Telescope
  • As of April 2013, Kepler data has uncovered more than 2,700 potential planets, with about 120 of them having been confirmed to date
  • Mission scientists expect that more than 90 percent of the planets detected are real and not illusions in the data
  • Until now planets in the habitable zone were discovered by what is known as the radial velocity method, which gives a lower limit for the planet’s mass, but no information about its radius
  • While a small radius (less than 2 Earth radii) is a strong indicator that a planet around is indeed rocky it is difficult to assess whether or not a planet is rocky, like the Earth.
  • Finding planets in the habitable zones of larger stars is harder because those planets have relatively long orbits and barely cast a shadow as they pass across the faces of their suns
  • Kepler-62
  • Kepler62 is a red dwarf star, about two-thirds the size of the sun and several hundred degrees Celsius cooler
  • It is only 20 percent as bright as the sun and is about 1,200 light years away and contains five planets currently identified
  • Two of the worlds, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are the smallest exoplanets yet found in a habitable zone, and they might both be covered in water or ice, depending on what kind of atmosphere they might have
  • Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy
  • The biggest uncertainty right now is about both planets composition, early evidence suggests that at least 62f is rocky
  • Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f would exhibit distinctly different colors and make our search for signatures of life easier on such planets in the near future
  • Kepler-62e
  • Orbit is 122 days
  • 1.6 times the diameter of Earth
  • Kepler-62e would have a bit more clouds than Earth according to computer models to sustain an ocean
  • An astronomer at the University of Washington not involved in the research says that Kepler-62e may be too close to its star – and therefore too hot – to sustain life
  • If 62e is a rocky planet, it’s almost certainly tidally locked with its star, half of its surface always facing the star, and the other always facing away
  • Kepler62-f
  • Orbit is 267 days
  • 1.4 times the diameter of Earth
  • Kepler-62f would need the greenhouse effect from plenty of carbon dioxide to warm it enough to host an ocean
  • Kepler-69 System
  • Kepler-36 is a sun-like star located 2,700 light-years away,
  • The Kepler-69 system contains one known planet in that star\’s habitable zone
  • Kepler-69c
  • 1.7 times bigger than Earth, sits on the inner edge of the habitable zone and is almost certainly a super-Venus rather than a super-Earth
  • Habitable Zone Types
  • The \”empirical habitable zone\” is where liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet if that planet has sufficient cloud cover
  • The \”narrow habitable zone\” is where liquid water can exist on the surface even without the presence of a cloud cover
  • Of Note
  • According to the Planetary Habitability Laboratory, there are now nine potential habitable worlds outside of our solar system, with 18 more potentially habitable planetary candidates found by Kepler waiting to be confirmed
  • Astronomers predict there are 25 potentially habitable exomoons
  • Kepler cannot search for signs of life on worlds like Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Kepler-69c, but the telescope is paving the way for future missions that should do just that
  • Next-generation missions like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which NASA approved earlier this month for launch in 2017, will take on the task of finding nearer planets that astronomers can study in depth
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | Animation of the Kepler 62 Planetary System | UniverseTodayVideos
  • YouTube | NASA\’s Kepler Discovers Its Smallest \’Habitable Zone\’ Planets to Date | NASASolarSystem
  • Infographic | 3 Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Planets Explained | Space.com
  • IMAGE | Diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-69 | Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech
  • IMAGE | Diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-62 | Image credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech
  • IMAGE | Current known potentially habitable exoplanets | Credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory/University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo.
  • IMAGE | The habitable zone for different types of stars | Image: L. Kaltenegger (MPIA)
  • YouTube | Full Anouncement | Kepler Makes Discoveries Inside the Habitable Zone | NASAtelevision
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Discovered! Most Earth-Like Alien Planet & 2 Other Possibly Habitable Worlds | Space.com
  • Most Earthlike planets yet seen bring Kepler closer to its holy grail | Atom & Cosmos | Science News
  • Habitable Worlds? New Kepler Planetary Systems in Images | UniverseToday.com
  • Kepler Team Finds System with Two Potentially Habitable Planets | UniverseToday.com

— NEWS BYTE —

New Possible Diabetes Treatment Option

  • Researchers have discovered a hormone that holds promise for a dramatically more effective treatment of type 2 diabetes and believe that the hormone might also have a role in treating type 1, or juvenile, diabetes
  • Type 1 Diabetes
  • While betatrophin primarily as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, it is believed it might play a role in the treatment of type 1 diabetes as well
  • Perhaps boosting the number of beta cells and slowing the progression of that autoimmune disease when it\’s first diagnosed
  • Type 2 Diabetes
  • Type 2 diabetes is usually caused by a combination of excess weight and lack of exercise and causes patients to slowly lose beta cells and the ability to produce adequate insulin
  • Provide this hormone, the type 2 diabetic will make more of their own insulin-producing cells, and this will slow down, if not stop, the progression of their diabetes
  • Betatrophin
  • The hormone, called betatrophin, causes mice to produce insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells at up to 30 times the normal rate
  • In addition the new beta cells only produce insulin when called for by the body, offering the potential for the natural regulation of insulin
  • The researchers know that the hormone exists in human plasma; betatrophin definitely exists in humans
  • The Research
  • The team wasn\’t just looking at what happens when an animal doesn\’t have enough insulin, they were able to find this a gene that had largely gone unnoticed before
  • Another hint came from studying what happens during pregnancy, when there are more beta cells needed, and it turns out that this hormone goes up
  • When a woman gets pregnant, her carbohydrate load, her call for insulin, can increase an enormous amount because of the weight and nutrition needs of the fetus
  • The Future
  • Betatrophin could be in human clinical trials within three to five years, an extremely short time in the normal course of drug discovery and development
  • If it works as they hope it will it could eventually mean that instead of taking insulin injections three times a day, you might take an injection of this hormone once a week or month, or even year
  • The researchers who discovered betatrophin caution that much work remains to be done before it could be used as a treatment in humans
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | Potential Diabetes Breakthrough | Harvard
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Potential diabetes breakthrough: Researchers discover new hormone spurring beta cell production | MedicalXPress.com

Soaking up Venom in Blood

  • A tiny sponge camouflaged as a red blood cell could soak up toxins ranging from anthrax to snake venom, new research suggests
  • Bacteria and Poisons
  • One of the mainstay strategies of bacteria and poison is to poke holes in cells, disrupting their internal chemical balance and causing them to burst
  • So far, researchers haven\’t had much success creating all-purpose treatments to exploit this vulnerability
  • Nanosponges
  • Researchers created a tiny spherical core of a lactic acid byproduct, which forms naturally during metabolism in the human body
  • To get the outer skin of red blood cells, they used a difference in particle concentration inside and outside the cells to cause them to burst, and then collected their outer membranes
  • They then wrapped the cores in the outer surface of the red blood cell
  • The nanoparticles, also called nanosponges, act as decoys that lure and inactivate the deadly compounds
  • The entire ensemble became a tiny nanosponge, which was about 85 nanometers in diameter, or 100 times smaller than a human hair
  • The sponges\’ tiny size means a small amount of blood, for camouflage, can be used to make an effective dose
  • In cell cultures, the camouflaged sponges act as decoys, luring the toxins from the bacteria that causes strep throat and bee venom
  • The toxins then bind to the structure the \”poisons\” normally use to poke through cells
  • When they stick onto the nanosponge, that particular damaging structure gets preoccupied, since the sponges are so small they can circulate freely through blood vessels, and then the body can digest the entire particle
  • Experiment
  • The team injected 18 mice with a lethal dose of a MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, toxin. Half the mice then got a dose of the nanosponges
  • Whereas all the mice in the control group died, all but one that received the treatment survived
  • When injected into mice, the tiny decoys protect mice against lethal doses of a toxin produced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
  • The Future
  • The researchers want to see whether the method works in human blood, and against other toxic chemicals, such as scorpion venom and anthrax, which use similar attack strategies
  • Because so many bacteria use the same pore-forming strategy, the nanosponges could be used as a universal treatment option when doctors don\’t know exactly what is causing an illness
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Tiny Sponge Soaks Up Venom in Blood | Scientific American

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Water in Jupiter\’s Clouds

  • How Did It Get There?
  • In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plowed into Jupiter leaving behind millions of gallons of water.
  • Water from the impact still makes up at least 95 percent of the water in the planet’s upper atmosphere
  • Telescopes had previously spotted water in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, some 100 kilometers above the planet’s ammonia cloud tops, but those surveys could not determine where the water came from
  • Now astronomers have created a high-resolution map of water vapor distribution throughout Jupiter’s atmosphere
  • They found that the concentration of water peaked in the planet’s southern hemisphere, right in the region where the comet struck
  • More water also appeared at higher altitudes around the planet, which supports the comet as its origin.
  • Water from other sources such as Jupiter’s icy moons would likely spread out more evenly around the planet and would gradually filter down to lower altitudes
  • Multimedia
  • Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 – How The Universe Works | DiscoveryTV
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • News in Brief: Comet\’s water still hanging around on Jupiter | Atom & Cosmos | Science News

MarsOne and Life on Mars and Science

  • Mars colony project will do its best to avoid disturbing potential Red Planet life rather than aggressively hunt it down
  • Science and Life
  • The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One opened its astronaut-selection process on April 22
  • They plan to land four people on the Red Planet in 2023 to make a permanent human colony on the Red Planet, with new crews arriving every two years thereafter
  • Human explorers will doubtless contaminate whatever site is chosen for the settlement, so the organization will try to pick a place unlikely to host indigenous life to localize the pollution
  • Mars One is working with experts to minimize the risks its colonization effort may pose to potential Red Planet lifeforms
  • While Mars One hasn\’t picked a precise location for its settlement yet, the organization is targeting a swath of the Red Planet between 40 and 45 degrees north latitude
  • Mars One astronauts will not necessarily be scientists
  • Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to apply, with the selection committee prizing traits such as intelligence, resourcefulness, determination and psychological stability over academic background
  • Science is not the main focus of what we are doing; although, crewmembers will take some scientific gear with them
  • Mars One officials won\’t dictate what the experiments should be, but there will be a budget for equipment that they want to take for scientific research
  • Multimedia
  • Mars 2023 – Inhabitants wanted | MarsOneProject
  • YouTube Channel | Mars One – Human Settlement of Mars
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Mars One
  • Private Mars Colony Won\’t Seek Martian Life | Mars One | Space.com

— VIEWER FEEDBACK—

Peter, AKA \”Korlus\” | Check This Out!

  • On April 4, 2012 he Fermi spacecraft almost ended it\’s mission to map the highest-energy light in the universe because of a collision with a dead Cold-War spy satellite
  • What Happened?
  • An automatically generated report arrived from NASA\’s Robotic Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team based at NASA\’s Goddard Space Flight Center was sent to the FERMI team just one week away from an unusually close encounter with Cosmos 1805, a defunct spy satellite dating back to the Cold War.
  • The two objects, speeding around Earth at thousands of miles an hour in nearly perpendicular orbits, were expected to miss each other by a mere 700 feet
  • An update days later indicated the satellites would occupy the same point in space within 30 milliseconds of each other
  • Using thrusters for use at the end of Fermi\’s operating life designed to take it out of orbit and allow it burn up in the atmosphere they were able to adjust the orbit just slightly enough to evade a collision
  • The U.S. Space Surveillance Network continues to keep tabs on every artificial object larger than 4 inches across in Earth orbit. Of the 17,000 objects currently tracked, only about 7 percent are active satellites
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube | Near Miss – Dead Russian Spy Satellite Forces NASA Probe Move | VideoFromSpace
  • YouTube | Animation of Earth with Near-Earth Orbital Debris [HD] | TheMarsUnderground
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Mars One
  • Private Mars Colony Won\’t Seek Martian Life | Mars One | Space.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

New Atlantis Exhibit Prep

  • The Space shuttle Atlantis is set to go on public display June 29 at NASA\’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida
  • Shuttle Reveal
  • It was revealed Friday, April 26 after workers spent two days peeling off its protective shrink-wrap cover of the past five months.
  • Workers began carefully cutting back the 16,000 square feet (1,486 square meters) of shrink wrap that protected Atlantis as its $100 million exhibition building was completed around it
  • By the end of the first day, the shuttle\’s nose, tail, aft engines and left wing were exposed, the workers completed the process the next day, revealing Atlantis\’ right wing and its 60-foot-long (18 meter) payload bay
  • Opening the payload bay is set to begin in May, will take about two weeks, as the doors are very slowly hoisted open, one by one.
  • Atlantis has been mounted. Thirty feet (9 meters) in the air, the space shuttle has been tilted 43.21 degrees, such that its left wing extends toward the ground.
  • Atlantis will appear to be back in space – an effect that will be enhanced by lighting and a mural-size digital screen that will project the Earth\’s horizon behind the shuttle
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Clip | Uncovering the Nose
  • YouTube Clip | Uncovering a Wing
  • YouTube Clip | Peeling Back the Layers
  • YouTube | Shuttle Atlantis Unwrapped & Revealed at Kennedy Visitor Center | SpaceVidsNet
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Atlantis Exposed: Space Shuttle Fully Unwrapped for NASA Exhibit | Kennedy Space Center | Space.com

SpaceShipTwo

Opportunity Rover Back Fron Glitch

  • Mars rover Opportunity has overcome a glitch that put the robot into standby mode late last month
  • What Happened?
  • Opportunity apparently put itself into standby auto mode, in which it maintains power balance but waits for instructions from the ground, on April 22, after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission officials said.
  • The rover\’s handlers didn\’t notice the problem until April 27, when Opportunity got back in touch after a nearly three-week communications moratorium
  • They then prepared a new set of commands on April 29 designed to get things back to normal, and the fix has apparently worked
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Mars Rover Opportunity Back in Action After Glitch | Mars Solar Conjunction | Space.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • May 01, 1958 : 55 years ago : Van Allen radiation belts : The discovery of the powerful Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth was published in the Washington Evening Star. The article covered the report made by their discoverer James. A. Van Allen to the joint symposium of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society in Washington DC. He used data from the Explorer I and Pioneer III space probes of the earth\’s magnetosphere region to reveal the existence of the radiation belts – concentrations of electrically charged particles. Van Allen (born 7 Sep 1914) was also featured on the cover of the 4 May 1959 Time magazine for this discovery. He was the principal investigator on 23 other space probes

Looking up this week

The post Habitable Exoplanets & Diabetes | SciByte 92 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> Painful Math & Canadian Rovers | SciByte 70 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/27201/painful-math-canadian-rovers-scibyte-70/ Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:54:38 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=27201 We take a look at Painful Math, Canadian robotic rovers, using the Kinect in science, updates on spacecraft, stories, and Curiosity!

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We take a look at Painful Math, Canadian robotic rovers, using the Kinect in science, updates on spacecraft, stories, and Curiosity, viewer feedback, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

Math Hurts

  • Mathematics anxiety can prompt a response in the brain similar to when a person experiences physical pain, according to new research
  • The low down
  • Using brain scans, scholars determined that the brain areas active when highly math-anxious people prepare to do math overlap with the same brain areas that register the threat of bodily harm
  • Anticipation of doing math prompts a similar brain reaction as when they experience pain
  • Significance
  • Researchers found it was the anticipation of having to do math, and not actually doing math itself, that looked like pain in the brain.
  • Brain activation does not happen during math performance, suggesting that it is not the math itself that hurts it is the anticipation of math is painful
  • Scholars worked with 14 adults who were shown to have math anxiety based on their responses to a series of questions about math
  • Additional tests showed that these individuals were not overly anxious in general; instead, their heightened sense of anxiety was specific to math-related situations.
  • Volunteers were tested in an fMRI machine, which allowed researchers to examine brain activity as they did math, they were given mathematical equations to verify like the validity of the following equation: (12 x 4) – 19 = 29
  • Subjects were also shown short word puzzles. For these puzzles, people saw a series of letters (for example: yrestym) and had to determine if reversing the order of the letters produced a correctly spelled English word.
  • fMRI scans showed that the anticipation of math caused a response in the brain similar to physical pain
  • The higher a person’s anxiety about math, the more anticipating math activated the posterior insula—a fold of tissue located deep inside the brain just above the ear that is associated with registering direct threats to the body as well as the experience of pain.
  • Math anxiety levels were not associated with brain activity in the insula or in any other neural region when volunteers were doing math.
  • For those with math anxiety, a painful sense of dread may begin long before a person sits down to take a math test.
  • Of Note
  • current work is also consistent with other research which showed that the mere anticipation of doing mathematics changes functioning in the brains of people with high levels of math anxiety
  • Mathematics anxiety can begin as early as first grade
  • The value of seeing math anxiety not just as a proxy for poor math ability, but as an indication there can be a real, negative psychological reaction to the prospect of doing math.
  • The reaction needs to be addressed like any other phobia rather than simply piling on math homework for students who are anxious about math, students need active help to become more comfortable with the subject
  • For instance, that writing about math anxieties before a test can reduce one’s worries and lead to better performance.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • When people worry about math, the brain feels the pain | MedicalXPress.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Canadian Robotic Rovers?

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Kinect in Science

  • Researchers in Scotland have devised a means of using a Microsoft Kinect sensing system to allow for hand control of holographic optical tweezers
  • The low down
  • Laser tweezers are laser based devices that allow for manipulation of very small objects; typically at the cellular level
  • A laser beam is projected towards a target, but before reaching it, is split into three separate beams
  • The three beams are broadcast onto the edges of the object to be manipulated and as the beams are moved the object is caused to move in lockstep
  • However fine tuning control of the laser to cause the movement of an object has been less than ideal and researchers to continue looking for alternative means
  • Significance
  • In this new research, the team connected a Microsoft Kinect device to the tweezers and then demonstrated an ability to move microscopic sized objects by moving their hands around in the air.
  • Connecting a Kinect device to their virtual tweezers, the researchers found that they were able to define the space in which they wished to work by using simple hand movements and then to connect, virtually to a particular tiny object
  • The Kinect is not precise enough to capture subtle movements however as it doesn’t allow for force-feedback, or the ability to feel the resistance of an object as its being moved
  • Of Note
  • HoloHands, is not sophisticated enough to allow for serious research work but it is being used as a tool for educational purposes, either as a tool, or implemented as a learning game.
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube HoloHands: Kinect control of holographic optical tweezers | dundeephysics
  • Kinect control of two trapped particles. | C. McDonald
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Physicists use Kinect to control holographic tweezers (w/ Video) | phys.org

– SPACECRAFT UPDATE –

Shuttles

— Updates —

Space-X’s Grasshopper

  • The low down
  • SpaceX is developing the “Grasshopper” reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket
  • In September, the 32-meter- (106-ft-) tall Grasshopper made a tiny hop – barely lifting off the pad just to test-fire its engines
  • The Grasshopper has now made a second, bigger hop
  • Phase 1 and 2
  • Reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket that would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again
  • The Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches at SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas
  • Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.
  • Phase 1 rocket would rise to not more than 240 feet [73 meters]
  • Phase 2 rocket would rise to not more than 670 feet [204 meters]
  • Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.
  • Phase 3
  • Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent speeds altitude test sequence likely would be 1,200 feet [366 meters]; 2,500 feet [762 meters]; 5,000 feet [1,524 meters]; 7,500 feet [2,286 meters]; and 11,500 feet [3,505 meters]
  • The maximum test duration of Phase 3 firings would be approximately 160 seconds. If all goes well the Grasshopper would land back on the launch pad
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Flight of 10 story tall Grasshopper rocket | Clark Lindsey
  • Social Media
  • SpaceX @SpaceX
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • SpaceX’s 10-Story Re-useable Grasshopper Rocket Takes a Bigger Hop | UniverseToday.com

Documentary : Chasing Atlantis

Fermi

  • Astronomers using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope were able to look at distant blazars to help measure the background light from all the stars that are shining now and ever
  • Last time on SciByte
  • Breast Cancer & Mayan Calender | SciByte 69 (October 30, 2012
  • The low down
  • This enabled the most accurate measurement of starlight throughout the universe, which in turn helps establish limits on the total number of stars that have ever shone.
  • The optical and ultraviolet light from stars continues to travel throughout the universe even after the stars cease to shine
  • Fossil radiation field we can explore using gamma rays from distant sources and also provide a stellar density in the cosmos of about 1.4 stars per 100 billion cubic light-years, which means the average distance between stars in the universe is about 4,150 light-years
  • Significance
  • Blazars, which are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. They are galaxies powered by extremely energetic black holes:
  • To gamma rays, the EBL functions as a kind of cosmic fog, but Fermi measured the amount of gamma-ray absorption in blazar spectra
  • Gamma rays produced in blazar jets travel across billions of light-years to Earth
  • Occasionally, a gamma ray collides with starlight and transforms into an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron
  • Once this occurs, the gamma ray light is lost much the same way as fog dims a distant lighthouse.
  • From studies of nearby blazars, scientists have determined how many gamma rays should be emitted at different energies
  • Which gives an upper and lower limit on the amount of stars that have formed
  • Previous estimates have only been an upper limit, this data shows that the upper and lower limits are very close to each other
  • Of Note
  • Measuring the extragalactic background light was one of the primary mission goals for Fermi
  • While Fermi is providing us with a shadow image of the first stars, whereas Webb will directly detect them
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube NASA | Fermi Explores the Early Universe
  • The locations of 150 blazars (green dots) used in the a new by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope. | NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Fermi Measures Light from All the Stars That Have Ever Existed | UniverseToday
  • Light From Universe’s First Stars Seen | Fermi Telescope | Space.com
  • Astronomers spot leftover light from ancient stars | Atom & Cosmos | Science News

— Viewer Feedback —

  • Educational Experience
  • Jusitn Luna asks about my Educational experience, in regards to school applications
  • Graduated with a BA in Physics, minoring in Astrophysics
  • Did all the volunteer work and internships I could both related and unrelated to school
  • Pay careful attention to all resume’s, mistakes creep in very easily, ask someone to look it over
  • What is pertinent to what you are applying for and check the details
  • If you have to do interviews practice
  • New ”Super-Earth” found
  • Michael Henriques pointed out a story about a new “Super Earth” found
  • That story is actually on the docket for next week

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –

  • Returning to Earth time
  • After three months working on “Mars time,” the team operating NASA Mars rover Curiosity has switched to a Earth schedule as planned
  • A Martian day, called a sol, is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, so the team’s start time for daily planning has been moving a few hours later each week
  • Telecommuting Teams Start
  • In addition more than 200 non-JPL scientists who have spent some time working at JPL since Curiosity’s landing will now continue participating regularly from their home institutions throughout North America and Europe
  • The team has been preparing in recent weeks to use dispersed participation teleconferences and Web connections.
  • X-Ray Analysis
  • Results of the first analysis of Martian soil by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on NASA’s Curiosity rover show the presence of crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material
  • This makes is similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii
  • NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii
  • The teams used its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) for quantitative results and new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars
  • Identification of minerals in rocks and soil is crucial for the mission’s goal to assess past environmental conditions and the mineral records the conditions under which it formed.
  • The composition of a rock provides only ambiguous mineralogical information, minerals diamond and graphite, which have the same chemical composition, but strikingly different structures and properties
  • CheMin uses X-ray diffraction, which provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method previously used on Mars it reads minerals’ internal structure by recording how their crystals distinctively interact with X-rays
  • The sample was processed through a sieve to exclude particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 micrometers), roughly the width of a human hair.
  • The soil material CheMin has analyzed is more representative of modern processes on Mars
  • So far materials Curiosity has analyzed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment
  • Multimedia
  • YouTube Curiosity Rover Report (Nov. 1, 2012): First CheMin Results | JPLNews
  • Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
  • Social Media
  • Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Curiosity rover finds clues to changes in Mars’ atmosphere | UniverseToday.com
  • NASA rover’s first soil studies help fingerprint Martian minerals | phys.org
  • Why Mars Life Hunt Targets Methane | Space.com
  • Curiosity rover finds clues to changes in Mars’ atmosphere | phys.org
  • Curiosity Finds Methane on Mars, or Not – ScienceNOW | ScienceMag.org
  • Curiosity team switches back to Earth time | phys.org

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • Nov 09, 1965 | 47 years ago | Blackout | The biggest electricity grid failure in U.S. history at the time caused a 13-hour blackout in northeast America and parts of Canada. The power lines from Niagara Falls to New York City were operating near their maximum capacity. At about 5:15 pm, a transmission line relay failed. Now there was insufficient line capacity for New York City. New England and New York are interconnected on a power grid, and the power that had been flowing toward New York City had to go elsewhere, instantly. Unable to handle this overload, generator operators shutdown to protect their equipment. Almost the entire grid failed, affecting 80,000 square miles, and 25 million people. In the subways of New York, 800,000 people were trapped

Looking up this week

Solar and Lunar Eclipses

  • Solar Eclipse
  • On Nov. 13, residents of northeastern Australia will get a ‘false-start’ sunrise
  • About an hour after the sun breaks the horizon in the coastal city of Cairns, it will be fully obscured by the moon, whose shadow will darken the sky and bring the stars back into view for 2 minutes there
  • The solar corona should take on a ‘wound up’ circular shape, with a high potential for tongues of pink nuclear fire leaping from the Sun’s edge
  • A three-man crew will be capturing and broadcasting the solar eclipse live with a telescope in northern Australia, which will be the only land area that will witness the total eclipse
  • Parts of New Zealand and Chile will see the sun partially obscured as the moon crosses the sky
  • Lunar Eclipse
  • A lunar eclipse that will take place on Nov. 28.
  • The penumbral lunar eclipse will manifest as a slight but noticeable darkening of the northern half of the moon; the dimming should be easily visible to the naked eye after most of the moon has dipped into the Earth’s penumbra
  • The Eastern United States will miss out on the lunar eclipse, as the moon will already have set there when the eclipse begins
  • The rest of the country can watch at least part of it, with the duration of visibility longest for people on the West Coast and in Alaska
  • Use THIS NASA GRAPHIC to check if you’ll be able to watch the lunar eclipse from their backyard.
  • Multimedia
  • Watch the Nov. 13 Solar Eclipse webcast for free starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time LIVE FEED
  • Lunar eclipse location graphic IMAGE
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Total Solar Eclipse and Minor Lunar Eclipse to Grace Nov. Skies | Space.com

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]]> Neil Armstrong & Dinosaur Footprints | SciByte 60 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/23826/neil-armstrong-dinosaur-footprints-scibyte-60/ Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:40:40 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=23826 We take a look at the life of Neil Armstrong, dinosaurs at NASA, a Hubble contest update, a Curiosity Rover update much more!

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We take a look at the life of Neil Armstrong, dinosaurs at NASA, musical training, an update on a Hubble contest, Curiosity update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes

Neil Armstrong



YouTube Channel NASAexplorer

  • For the famed astronaut’s funeral set on Friday, August 31, flags will be flown at half-staff as ordered by President Obama as “a mark of respect for the memory of Neil Armstrong”.
  • Before NASA
  • He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver’s license
  • Armstrong was active in the Boy Scouts and he eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout
  • Recognized with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award
  • July 18, 1969, while flying towards the Moon inside the Columbia, he greeted the Scouts: “I’d like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes”. Houston replied: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I’m sure that, if they didn’t hear that, they’ll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that
  • NASA
  • He became a test pilot with what evolved into NASA, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.
  • Gemini 8
  • Armstrong and pilot David Scott achieved the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, linking up with an unmanned Agena target vehicle
  • The mission was a near disaster, suffering the first critical in-space failure of a U.S. spacecraft after a stuck thruster set the Gemini spacecraft spinning
  • Armstrong ultimately regained control by using their re-entry system thrusters, steadying the spacecraft and forcing an early, but safe end to the mission
  • Apollo 11
  • Armstrong privately concluded that they had a 90 percent chance of returning safely to Earth but only a 50–50 chance of pulling off a successful landing.
  • It was crucial to land without any sideways motion, lest they risk tipping over at touchdown but the blast of the descent rocket was kicking up moon dust
  • Armstrong fixed his gaze on rocks sticking up through the blowing dust; using them as reference points and guided Eagle slowly downward, about as fast as an elevator
  • In those first few moments on the moon, Armstrong stopped in what he called “a tender moment” and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.
  • An estimated 600 million people [a fifth of the world’s population] watched and listened to the moon landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.
  • In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong’s parents where people were pulling grass out of their front yard.
  • After Apollo 11
  • Soon after returning from the moon, Armstrong announced he would not fly in space again.
  • Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
  • In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
  • Words of remembrance
  • Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 lunar module pilot and second man to walk on the moon | “Whenever I look at the moon it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago when I realized that even though we were farther away from Earth than two humans had ever been, we were not alone.”
  • Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins | “He was the best, and I will miss him terribly,”
  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden | “As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind’s first small step on a world beyond our own.”
  • NASA Administrator Charles Bolden | “As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind’s first small step on a world beyond our own. Besides being one of America’s greatest explorers, Neil carried himself with a grace and humility that was an example to us all. When President Kennedy challenged the nation to send a human to the moon, Neil Armstrong accepted without reservation.”
  • U.S. President Barack Obama | “Neil was among the greatest of American heroes – not just of his time, but of all time. When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable – that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible. And when Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time, he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.”
  • Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney | “Neil Armstrong today takes his place in the hall of heroes. The moon will miss its first son of Earth.”
  • House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) | “Neil Armstrong blazed trails not just for America, but for all of mankind. He inspired generations of boys and girls worldwide not just through his monumental feat, but with the humility and grace with which he carried himself to the end.”
  • In the words of Neil Armstrong
  • “[The moon was] simply magnificent, beyond any visual experience that I had ever been exposed to.”
  • “In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.”
  • “I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer,” “And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.”
  • “I can honestly say—and it’s a big surprise to me—that I have never had a dream about being on the moon”
  • The space race was “the ultimate peaceful competition: USA versus U.S.S.R. It did allow both sides to take the high road, with the objectives of science and learning and exploration.”
  • From his family
  • "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
  • Multimedia
  • Image Gallery Neil Armstrong – American Icon Remembered | Space.com
  • YouTube NASA | Highlight Reel of Partially Restored Apollo 11 Video | NASAexplorer
  • YouTube NASA | The 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 | NASAexplorer
  • YouTube NASA: Neil Armstrong Remarks from Congressional Gold Medal July 21, 2009 | tvspace
  • YouTube The Åpollo–11 Channel | TheApollo11Channel
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Neil Armstrong Info
  • Biography : Neil Armstrong | NASA.gov
  • The Apollo 11 Flight Journal | history.NASA.gov
  • Debunking myths about Neil Armstrong | NBCnews
  • For Neil Armstrong, the First Moon Walker, It Was All about Landing the Eagle | ScientificAmerican
  • Neil Armstrong, 1st man on the moon, dies at 82 (Update) | phys.org
  • Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dies at 82 | UniverseToday.com
  • Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon | Space,com
  • Neil Armstrong (1930–2012): NASA Remembers an American Icon | Space.com
  • Neil Armstrong Remembered: Tributes to 1st Man to Walk on the Moon | Space.com
  • Neil Armstrong, First Man to Walk on Moon, Dies at 82 | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

NASA and Dinosaurs?



Credit: NASA/GSFC/Rebecca Roth

  • The low down
  • Footprints of ankylosaur have been found on the property of a NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
  • Significance
  • Ankylosaur are members of the heavily-armored ankylosaur subgroup that lacked tail clubs but often sported prominent spike’s along their sides
  • At least two, possibly a mother and child tracks of two nodosaurs have been confirmed
  • A smaller print was discovered within the first, evidence that they were made around the same time and leading researchers to suggest it may have been a mother-and-child pair.
  • The track has started to erode, and may have been damaged by a lawnmower, the roughly 112-million-year-old track still shows four toe imprints
  • The tracks were found earlier this summer and recently NASA scientists were taken out to the site to see the fossil depression at that time
  • Researchers found several more possible dinosaur tracks, the NASA facility may have been founded on a Cretaceous dinosaur stomping ground.
  • Of Note
  • Officials are already moving to protect the fossil, and they plan to bring in paleontologists to look for other dinosaur tracks
  • What happens next will depend on the laws that regulate how fossils can be removed and curated.
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Multiple Dinosaur Tracks Confirmed at NASA Center | UniverseToday.com
  • NASA’s Nodosaur Track | Smithsonian.com

Musical training as a child has a life long affect

  • A little music training in childhood goes a long way in improving how the brain function
  • The low down
  • Researchers for the first time have directly examined what happens after children stop playing a musical instrument after only a few years
  • Compared to peers with no musical training, adults with one to five years of musical training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds
  • Making them more effective at pulling out the lowest frequency in sound crucial for speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex and noisy auditory environments.
  • Significance
  • For the study, young adults with varying amounts of past musical training were tested by measuring electrical signals from the auditory brainstem in response to eight complex sounds ranging in pitch
  • Forty-five adults were grouped into three matched groups based on histories of musical instruction
  • One group had no musical instruction, another had 1 to 5 years the others had to 6 to 11 years
  • Both musically trained groups began instrumental practice around age 9
  • Musical training during childhood led to more robust neural processing of sounds later in life
  • The study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning
  • Of Note
  • Prior research on highly trained musicians and early bilinguals revealed that enhanced brainstem responses to sound are associated with heightened auditory perception, executive function and auditory communication skills.
  • The team believes that a few years of music lessons also confer advantages in how one perceives and attends to sounds in everyday communication situations, such as noisy restaurants
  • Further Reading / In the News
  • Practicing music for only few years in childhood helps improve adult brain: research | MedicalXPress
  • Musical Training During Childhood Shapes Brains As Adults | medicalnewstoday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Documentary : Chasing Atlantis

— Updates —

Hubble’s Hidden Treasures

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –



Credit: JPLnews

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

  • August 1971 | 41 years ago | Neil Armstrong Retires from NASA

Looking up this week

The post Neil Armstrong & Dinosaur Footprints | SciByte 60 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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