We take a look at a solar sibling, mapping neurons with crowdsourcing, comets, an exoskeleton to help a paralyzed teen walk, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

The Suns Long-Lost brother

• A team of researchers has identified the first \”sibling\” of the Sun — a star that was almost certainly born from the same cloud of gas and dust as our star
• The Suns \”Sibling\” | HD 162826
• The solar sibling the team identified is a star called HD 162826, a star 15 percent more massive than the Sun, located 110 light-years away in the constellation Hercules
• The star is not visible to the unaided eye, but easily can be seen with low-power binoculars, not far from the bright star Vega.
• Data in the Data
• By coincidence this star has been studied by the McDonald Observatory Planet Search team for more than 15 years
• Combining the data from those studies, together with new calculations has ruled out any \”hot Jupiters\” — massive planets orbiting close to the star
• The studies indicate that it\’s unlikely that a Jupiter analog orbits the star, either, but they do not rule out the presence of smaller terrestrial planets.
• **Identifying***
• The team identified HD 162826 as the Sun\’s sibling by following up on 30 possible candidates found by several groups around the world looking for solar siblings.
• All of these observations used high-resolution spectroscopy to get a deep understanding of the stars\’ chemical make-up.
• Several factors are needed to really pin down a solar sibling, in addition to chemical analysis, his team also included information about the stars\’ orbits, where they had been and where they are going in their paths around the center of the Milky Way galaxy
• Combining information on both chemical make-up and dynamics of the candidates narrowed the field down to one: HD 162826.
• Narrowing Down the Suspects
• Even with information on more stars to work with, it\’s not straightforwards to identify potential stellar siblings
• What the researchers are looking at is spectrographic analysis, certain key chemical elements that are going to be very useful
• Elements are ones that vary greatly among stars which otherwise have very similar chemical compositions, but the team has identified the elements barium and yttrium as particularly useful for differentiating star of interest
• Project Goals
• The project has a larger purpose: to create a road map for how to identify solar siblings
• \”The idea is that the Sun was born in a cluster with a thousand or a hundred thousand stars. This cluster, which formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, has since broken up,\” | Ivan Ramirez, McDonald Observatory
• The member stars have broken off into their own orbits around the galactic center, taking them to different parts of the Milky Way today. A few, like HD 162826, are still nearby. Others are much farther
• Learning More About the Sun
• The newly developed methods for locating the Sun\’s \’siblings\’ will help other astronomers find other \”solar siblings,\” work that could lead to an understanding of how and where our Sun formed, and how our solar system became hospitable for life
• To reach that goal, the dynamics specialists will make models that run the orbits of all known solar siblings backward in time, to find where they intersect: their birthplace.
• Further Reading / In the News
• Astronomers find sun\’s \’long-lost brother,\’ pave way for family reunion | ScienceDaily

— NEWS BYTE —

Gaming for Science | Eyewire

• A team of researchers working at MIT has used data supplied by gamers on EyeWire to help explain how it is that the retina is able to process motion detection
• The team describes how they worked with gamers at EyeWire and then used the resulting mapped neural networks to propose a new theory to describe how it is the eye is able to understand what happens when something moves in front of it.
• What We Know
• Scientists have known for quite some time that light enters the eye and strikes the back of the eyeball where photoreceptors respond
• Those photoreceptors send information they receive to another type of neural cell known as bipolar cells
• They in turn convert received signals to another signal format which is then sent to what are known as starburst amacrine cells (SACs)
• Signals from the SAC are sent via the optic nerve to the brain
• Scientists believe they have a pretty good idea about how the whole process works for static images, they have not been able to get a handle on what happens when images sent to the eyeball have information about things that are moving
• New Research
• The problem with figuring out how nerve cells work in the eye, of either mice or humans, is the inability to watch what happens in action-everything is too tiny and intricate
  +To get around that problem, researchers have been building three dimensional models on computers, but even that gets untenable when considering the complexity and numbers of nerves involved
• In this new effort, the researchers sought to do just that-via assistance from thousands of gamers on the EyeWire game playing site
• That\’s where the EyeWire gamers came in, a game was created that involved gamers creating mouse neural networks-the better they were at it the more points they got
• EyeWire
• In EyeWire you are given a cube to analyze, they have a basic idea of the shape of the Neuron they are looking for
• That shape comes from sequential slices where the computer tries to fill in layer by layer how the neuron moves from slide to slide creating a basic shape
• From that shape the user can scroll up and down the cube going slice by slice to visually correct anything that is not filled in or is filled in too much by the program
• By using ‘crowdsourcing’ the speed in which it moves forward is increased based on the number of people playing
• In addition to helping the scientists directly, they are also using the results to teach the program so that it’s processing ability also increases as the projects goes forward
• The result was the creation of a model that the researchers believe is an accurate representation of the cells involved in processing vision, and the networks that are made up of them
• Results So Far
• They noted that in the model, there were different types of bipolar cells connecting to SACs-some connected to dendrites close to the cells center, and others connected to dendrites that were farther away
• Prior research had shown that some bipolar cells take longer to process information than others
• The researchers believe that the bipolar cells that connect closer to the center are of the type that take longer to process signals
• This, they contend, could set up a scenario where the center of the SAC receives information from both types of bipolar cells at the same time-and that, they suggest, could be how the SAC comes to understand that motion-in one direction-is occurring
• The researchers suggest their theory can be real-world tested in the lab, and expect other teams will likely do so
• If they are right, the mystery of how our eyes detect motion will finally be solved.
• Multimedia
• YouTube | How To Play EyeWire | EyeWire
• YouTube | Gamers Help Solve Neuroscience Mystery | EyeWire
• Further Reading / In the News
• About EyeWire, A Game to Map the Brain
• EyeWire gamers help researchers understand retina\’s motion detection wiring | MedicalXPress.com

Old ‘Asteroid’ Now Comet

• On October 23, 2013, astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey picked up a very faint asteroid with an unusual orbit more like a that of a comet than an asteroid
• At the time 2013 UQ4 was little more than a stellar point with no evidence of a hazy coma or tail that would tag it as a comet
• The Comet C/2013 UQ4, Formally Known As The Asteroid 2013 UQ4
• On May 7 a remote telescope located in Siding Spring, Australia to take photos of 2013 UQ4 shortly before dawn in the constellation Cetus and they noticed that the asteroid had grown a little fuzz, making the move to comethood
• Assuming the now renamed C/2013 UQ4 continues to spout dust and water vapor, it should brighten to magnitude +11 by month’s end as it moves northward across Pisces and into a dark morning sky
• It currently displays a substantial coma or atmosphere, but no tail is visible yet
• Studies of the comet/asteroid’s light indicate that it is a very dark but rather large object some 4-9 miles (7-15 km) across.
• It’s estimated that it takes at least 500 years to make one spin around the sun
• C/2013 UQ4, belongs to a special category of asteroids called damocloids
• Damocloids
• Damocloids are thought to be comets that have lost \”all their fizz\”
• Their volatile ices spent from previous trips around the sun, they stop growing comas and tails and appear identical to asteroids
• They have orbits resembling the Halley-family comets with long periods, fairly steep inclinations and highly eccentric orbits (elongated shapes)
• Occasionally, one comes back to life. It’s happened in at least four other cases and appears to be happening with C/2013 UQ4 as well.
• Observing
• Perihelion occurs on June 5 with the comet reaching magnitude +8-9 by month’s end
• Peak brightness of 7th magnitude is expected during its close approach of Earth on July 10 at 29 million miles (46.7 million km).
• It’s still bright enough to see in a 12-inch telescope under dark skies
• This should be a great summer comet, plainly visible in binoculars from a dark sky
• It is moving at a very quick pace, at the rate of some 7 degrees per night!
• That’s 1/3 of a degree per hour or fast enough to see movement through a telescope in a matter of minutes when the comet is nearest Earth
• Multimedia
• YouTube | An Unusual Asteroid | NormalLifeIsNotReal
• Further Reading / In the News
• Asteroid 2013 UQ4 Suddenly Becomes a Dark Comet with a Bright Future | UniverseToday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton

• The World Cup opening ceremony on June 12 a mind-controlled exoskeleton designed to enable a paralyzed person to walk is to make its debut.
• Opening Ceremony
• A BBC report provided the latest developments in the robotic suit. \”If all goes as planned,\” wrote Alejandra Martins, \”the robotic suit will spring to life in front of almost 70,000 spectators and a global audience of billions of people.\”
• The (DiVE) website talks about the day when \”the first ceremonial kick in the World Cup game may be made \”by a paralyzed teenager, who, flanked by the two contending soccer teams, will saunter onto the pitch clad in a robotic body suit.\”
• According to the BBC, since November, Nicolelis has been training eight patients at a lab in Sao Paulo, amidst \”media speculation that one of them will stand up from his or her wheelchair and deliver the first kick of this year\’s World Cup.\”
• The Exoskeleton
• The exoskeleton was developed by an international team of scientists, part of the Walk Again Project, and described by the BBC report as a \”culmination\” of over 10 years of work
• The exoskeleton is being controlled by brain activity and it is relaying feedback signals to the patient.
• The patient wears a cap which picks up brain signals and relays them to a computer in the backpack, decoding the signals and sending them to the legs.
• A battery in the backpack allows for around two hours\’ use. The robotic suit is powered by hydraulics.
• Many different companies helped to build the skeleton\’s components
• They used a lot of 3-D printing technology for purposes of both speed and achieving strong but light materials, along with using standard aluminum parts
• \”When the foot of the exoskeleton touches the ground there is pressure, so the sensor senses the pressure and before the foot touches the ground we are also doing pre-contact sensing. It\’s a new way of doing skin sensing for robots\” | Dr Gordon Cheng, at the Technical University of Munich
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Paralysed teen in exoskeleton to kick off World Cup | Truthloader
• Further Reading / In the News
• Demo of mind-controlled exoskeleton planned for World Cup | Phys.org

— Updates —

Comet Siding Spring

• This October, a comet will brush by Mars giving scientists a chance to study how it possibly interacts with a planetary atmosphere
• An impact of the comet on the surface of the Red Planet has long been ruled out; however, there is now an interesting possibility of possible interactions of the coma of A1 Siding Spring and the tenuous atmosphere of Mars
• Last Time on SciByte …
• SciByte 117 | Asteroid Belt Water | January 29, 2014
• SciByte 90 | Alzheimer’s & Mars Missions | April 16, 2013
  • The Discovery
• The comet C/2013 A1 was discovered in the beginning of 2013 by comet-hunter Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia
• When the discovery was initially made, astronomers looked back over their observations to find “pre recovery” images of the comet dating back to Dec. 8, 2012.
• These observations placed the orbital trajectory of comet C/2013 A1 right through Mars orbit on Oct. 19, 2014
• Spacecraft Safety
• Orbiters are designed with the risk of space-dust collisions in mind
• Over a five-year span for a Mars orbiter, NASA figures on a few percent chance of significant damage to a spacecraft from the background level of impacts from such particles, called meteoroids
• If managers choose to position orbiters behind Mars during the peak risk, the further in advance any orbit-adjustment maneuvers can be made, the less fuel will be consumed
• Mars “Fly-By”
• With a nominal passage of 138,000 km [85,750 mi] from Mars, that is about one third the distance from Earth to the Moon, and 17 times closer than the nearest recorded passage of a comet to the Earth, Comet D/1770 L1 Lexell in 1780.
• Although the nucleus will safely pass Mars, the brush with its extended atmosphere might just be detectable by the fleet of spacecraft and rovers in service around Mars
• Spacecraft Involved
• NEOWISE (The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) and Hubble are already monitoring the comet for enhanced activity
• Currently on Mars, Curiosity rover is continuing science, the Opportunity rover is also still functioning, and Mars Odyssey and ESA’s Mars Express are still in orbit around the Red Planet and sending back data
• India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s MAVEN orbiter arrive just before the comet.
• MAVEN was designed to study the upper atmosphere of Mars, and carries an ion-neutral mass spectrometer (NGIMS) which could yield information on the interaction of the coma with the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
• Other, Earth Based Observations
• Proposals for using Earth-based assets for further observations of the comet prior to the event in October are still pending
• Amateur observers will be able to follow the approach telescopically
• It’s also interesting to consider the potential for interactions of the coma with the surfaces of the moons of Mars as well, though the net amount of water vapor expected to be deposited will not be large
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) near Mars | SpaceObs
• Further Reading / In the News
• Interesting Prospects for Comet A1 Siding Spring Versus the Martian Atmosphere | UniverseToday.com

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Methane Life

• + Twitter | Kenny MacLeod ‏@siabost9deas
• \”Probing the Depths of the Methane World\” Implications for life on worlds like Titan?
• The Low Down
• In 2011, Jennifer Glass joined a scientific cruise to study a methane seep off of Oregon\’s coast
• In these cold, dark depths, microbes buried in the sediment feast on methane that seeps through the seafloor
• The Eco-System
• A product of their metabolism, bicarbonate, reacts with calcium in seawater to form tall rocky deposits
• The chemical energy these organisms extract from methane supports a vibrant underworld
• The group found evidence of a new microbial enzyme that seems to use the trace metal tungsten instead of molybdenum, the metal more commonly found in cold seep environments
• Previously, tungsten had only been found in microbes living at high temperatures, such as the boiling waters of hydrothermal vents
• \”It\’s a very unique chemical environment, with a lot of sulfur,\” \”We think that tungsten might just be more bioavailable in these highly sulfidic conditions.\” | Jennifer Glass
• These systems don\’t depend on oxygen, so the microbe-methane relationship likely developed early in Earth\’s history before the rise of oxygen
• What This Means for Exobiology
• They could also serve as analogues for worlds beyond our Earth.
• Methane has been detected in the atmosphere of other planets. Methane lakes have also been spotted on Titan, Saturn\’s largest moon, making it an intriguing candidate for life elsewhere.
• Further Reading / In the News
• Probing the Depths of the Methane World | AstroBio.net

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Third Drilling Event
• The full-depth hole for sample collection is close to a shallower test hole drilled last week in the same rock, which gave researchers a preview of the interior material as tailings around the hole
• \”The drill tailings from this rock are darker-toned and less red than we saw at the two previous drill sites,\” said Jim Bell
  , deputy principal investigator for Curiosity\’s Mast Camera (Mastcam)
• \”This suggests that the detailed chemical and mineral analysis that will be coming from Curiosity\’s other instruments could reveal different materials than we\’ve seen before.
• Sample material from Windjana will be sieved, then delivered to onboard laboratories for determining the mineral and chemical composition
• One motive for the team\’s selection of Windjana for drilling is to analyze the cementing material that holds together sand-size grains in this sandstone.
• Multimedia
• YouTube Curiosity Rover Report JPLnews
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• May 17, 1954 : 60 years ago : CERN Groundbreaking : The official ground-breaking took place at the Meyrin site of the new CERN Laboratory in Geneva. A recommendation had been adopted 12 Dec 1949 at the European Cultural Conference for a European Institute of Nuclear Physics. By 1952, the third session of its provisional Council decided to locate in Switzerland. In Jun 1953, the host community, the canton of Geneva, gave strong approval in a referendum passing with 16539 votes to 7332. On 29 Sep 1954, twelve founding Member States ratified CERN (Centre Européenne de Recherche Nucléaire): Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.
• The acronym CERN originally stood in French for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), which was a provisional council for setting up the laboratory, established by 12 European governments in 1952
• The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the provisional council was dissolved, even though the name changed
• Soon after the laboratory\’s establishment, its work went beyond the study of the atomic nucleus into higher-energy physics
• The NeXT Computer used by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server, and a Cisco Systems router at CERN was probably one of the first IP routers deployed in Europe

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Wed, May 14 | Full Moon (exact at 3:16 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.) Look for Saturn to its upper right
• Fri, May 16 | Twilight | Look for Mercury low in the west-northwest, far to the lower right of Jupiter
• Planets
• Mercury | Twilight | Is starting to become visible in evening twilight low in the W-NW to the far lower right of Jupiter about 40-60 min after sunset
• Venus | \”Morning Star\” | Is low in the E during dawn
• Mars | Just after dark | Highest in the S with Spica to the far lower left
• Jupiter | Twilight | High in the W at twilight sinking towards the horizon and setting around midnight

• Saturn | Opposition was on May 10 | At rises at sunset in the SE, is highest in the S around 12-1 am and setting at morning in the W

• Further Reading and Resources

• Sky&Telescope
• SpaceWeather.com
• StarDate.org
• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au
• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz
• AstronomyNow
• HeavensAbove

The post Solar Sibling & Comets | SciByte 130 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at a possible new Multiple Sclerosis treatment, an ancient comet strike, a reality show that might win you a trip to space, an update on the meteorite that hit Ruia last year, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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— Show Notes —

New Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

• Scientists have identified a set of compounds that may be used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) in a new way
• The newly identified compounds, a Parkinson\’s disease drug called benztropine, was highly effective in treating a standard model of MS in mice, both alone and in combination with existing MS therapies
• The compounds boost a population of progenitor cells that can in turn repair MS-damaged nerve fibers
• Another Study SciByte Recently Looked At
• In trial, a MS patients\’ own specially processed white blood cells were used to stealthily deliver billions of myelin antigens into their bodies so their immune systems would recognize them as harmless and develop tolerance to them
• SciByte 97 | CoQ10 & Smart LEGO – Multiple Sclerosis Treatment | June 11, 2013
• SciByte Does Not Approve Self Medicating
• Benztropine is a drug with dose-related adverse side effects, and has yet to be proven effective at a safe dose in human MS patients
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• MS currently affects more than half a million people in North America and Europe, and more than two million worldwide
• The precise cause isunknown, but certain infections and a lack of vitamin D are thought to be risk factors
• In MS, immune cells known as T cells infiltrate the upper spinal cord and brain, which causes inflammation and ultimately the loss of an insulating coating called myelin on some nerve fibers
• As nerve fibers lose this myelin coating, they lose their ability to transmit signals efficiently, and in time may begin to degenerate
• Current therapies aim to suppress the immune attack that demyelinated nerve fibers. But they are only partially effective and are apt to have significant adverse side effects
• The New Study
• Aims at restoring a population of progenitor cells called oligodendrocytes
• These cells normally keep the myelin sheaths of nerve fibers in good repair and in principle could fix these coatings after MS damages them
• In MS oligodendrocyte decline sharply in number, due to a still-mysterious problem with the stem-like precursor cells that produce them
• The team screened a library of about 100,000 diverse compounds for any that could potently induce OPCs to mature or \”differentiate.\”
• Several compounds scored well but benztropine, had already been well characterized and was already FDA-approved for treating Parkinson\’s disease
• Tests show benztropine had a powerful ability to prevent autoimmune disease and also was effective in treating it after symptoms had arisen
• Benztropine on its own worked about as well as existing treatments, it also showed a remarkable ability to complement these existing treatments
• In Conjunction With Current Therapies
• The two first-line immunosuppressive therapies are interferon-beta and fingolimod
• Adding even a suboptimal level of benztropine allowed to cut the dose of fingolimod by 90% for the same effect as a normal dose
• The reduction could translate into a big reduction in potentially serious side effects
• The Test
• Researchers confirmed that benztropine works against disease in this mouse model by boosting the population of mature oligodendrocytes
• This allowed the oligodendrocytes to restore the myelin sheaths of damaged nerves even while the immune continues to attack
• The benztropine-treated mice showed no change in the usual signs of inflammation, yet their myelin was mostly intact, suggesting that it was probably being repaired as rapidly as it was being destroyed
• Researchers hope to learn more about how its molecular structure might be optimized for this purpose
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Multiple Sclerosis | AsapSCIENCE
• Further Reading / In the News
• New strategy to treat multiple sclerosis shows promise in mice
• Multiple sclerosis breakthrough: Trial safely resets patients\’ immune systems and reduces attack on myelin protein| MedicalXPress.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Ancient Comet Strike Evidence

• Comet fragments have not been found on Earth before except as microscopic sized dust particles in the upper atmosphere and some carbon-rich dust in the Antarctic ice.
• Now the first ever evidence of a comet entering Earth\’s atmosphere and exploding, raining down a shock wave of fire which obliterated every life form in its path, has been discovered
• Comet Strike?
• The comet entered Earth\’s atmosphere above Egypt about 28 million years ago
• As it entered the atmosphere, it exploded, heating up the sand beneath it to a temperature of about 2,000C [3,632F]
• That resulted in the formation of a huge amount of yellow silica glass which lies scattered over a 6,000 sq km [2,316 sq mi] area in the Sahara
• One specimen of the glass, polished by ancient jewellers, is in Tutankhamun\’s brooch with its striking yellow-brown scarab
• Impact Produced Microscopic Diamonds
• The impact of the explosion also produced microscopic diamonds
• A mysterious black pebble found years earlier by an Egyptian geologist in the area of the silica glass
• After conducting highly sophisticated chemical analyses on this pebble it was concluded that it represented the very first known hand specimen of a comet nucleus
• The team have named the diamond-bearing pebble \”Hypatia\” in honour of the first well known female mathematician, astronomer and philosopher, Hypatia of Alexandria
• Further Reading / In the News
• First ever evidence of a comet striking Earth | Phys.org

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Reality TV Meets Space!?!?!?

• The executive producer behind Survivor is planning to host another reality competition that will land the winner a rocket trip to space
• What?
• A press release simply promises a “groundbreaking, elimination competition series where everyday people compete for the ultimate prize”
• It doesn\’t say what might competitors might have to do to win the competition
• It\’s Important To Know
• This is just an agreement so far and nothing firm has been decided
• Virgin says its first spaceflight with SpaceShipTwo will be in 2014, and soon after it will open the manifest to the more than 600 folks who have purchased tickets.
• In 2000, Burnett announced another deal with NBC to host a space reality show (Destination Mir), with the winner visiting the Russian space station Mir
• That idea fell apart when the Russian Federal Space Agency elected to deorbit the aging station in 2001
• Multimedia
• Virgin Galactic YouTube Channel
• YouTube Virgin Galactic\’s Second Rocket Powered Test Flight | Virgin Galactic
• Further Reading / In the News
• NBC ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE SERIES WITH SIR RICHARD BRANSON\’S VIRGIN GALACTIC AND MARK BURNETT\’S ONE THREE MEDIA | virgingalactic.com
• Virgin Galactic Ticket To Space Promised In New Reality Show Deal | UniverseToday.com

— Updates —

Russian Meteor

• Russian scientists appear to have pulled up a half-ton charred meteorite from the bottom of a murky Siberian lake originating from the meteor that exploded in the skies above the southern Urals in February.
• As Seen On …
• SciByte 82 | Meteorites & Asteroids – 2013 Russian Meteorite Strike | February 19, 2013
• SciByte 83 |
  Tiny Exo-planet & Medical Glue – Russian Meteorite Orbital Calculations | February 26, 2013
• SciByte 84 |
  HIV & SpaceX Troubles – Russian Meteorite Chunk Found | March 5, 2013
• When It Happened
• On February 15, 2013 at 9:20 am (0320 GMT), an object was observed above Chelyabinsk which flew by at great speed and left a trail behind. Within two minutes there were two bangs,” regional emergencies official said
• It traveled through the atmosphere for about 30 seconds before breaking apart and producing violent airburst ‘explosion’ about 20-14 km (12-15 miles) above Earth’s surface
• Meteor Details
• The Russian meteor, officially named 2011 EO40, exploded about 25 miles (40 kilometers) above the city of Chelyabinsk
• It entered the atmosphere at speeds up to 31,000 miles per hour (50,000 kilometers per hour).
• The power of the explosion was estimated to be at least 20 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945
• The resulting air blast damaged buildings and injured some 1,600 people.
• The New Recovered Piece
• A piece of meteor recovered this week weighs at least 1,257 pounds (570 kilograms).
• It is only a fragment of the original impactor that is estimated to have been about 17 meters (54 feet) across, with a mass of about 10,000 metric tons before it shattered
• Locals directed scientists to Lake Chebarkul-45 miles west of the city of Chelyabinsk-to a 25-foot (8-meter) hole punctured in the ice by the meteor
• The fragment was so large it broke into three pieces during removal and broke the scale scientists used to weigh it, once the scale reached the 570-kilogram mark.
• Now What
• It is now being transferred to a local natural history museum, so perhaps it\’ll go on display soon.
• The dive seems to be part of an ongoing effort to pull meteorite pieces out of the lake for study
• Divers previously recovered 12 rocks from the lake, but scientists confirmed only five of those were actually meteorite fragments
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Divers recover chunk of Russian meteorite | deutschewelleenglish
• YouTube | The video from Revolutionary Square in Chelyabinsk
• YouTube Russian meteor explosion: Spectacular dash cam video of meteorite fireball falling in Urals| RussiaToday
• YouTube | Preliminary Orbit of the Chelyabinsk Meteoroid.mp4 | Jorge Zuluaga
• YouTube | Multi Video Compilation | Meteorite crash in Russia: Video of meteorite explosion that stirred panic in Urals region
• YouTube Clip Meteorite blast wave blows out doors, window, and loading bay door| RussiaToday
• Further Reading / In the News
• Giant Chunk of Russian Meteor Recovered | News Watch National Geographic
• Half-Ton Fragment Of Russian Meteorite Recovered From Lake | Popular Science

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Examination of the Martian atmosphere by NASA\’s Curiosity Mars rover confirms that some meteorites that have dropped to Earth really are from the Red Planet
• Exact Measurements
• A key new measurement of the inert gas argon in Mars\’ atmosphere by Curiosity\’s laboratory provides the most definitive evidence yet of the origin of Mars meteorites while at the same time providing a way to rule out Martian origin of other meteorites
• The new measurement is a high-precision count of two forms of argon — argon-36 and argon-38 — accomplished by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument inside the rover.
• These lighter and heavier forms, or isotopes, of argon exist naturally throughout the solar system
• On Mars the ratio of light to heavy argon is skewed because much of that planet\’s original atmosphere was lost to space
• The lighter form of argon was taken away more readily because it rises to the top of the atmosphere more easily and requires less energy to escape
• That left the Martian atmosphere relatively enriched in the heavier isotope, argon-38
• Past analyses by Earth-bound scientists of gas bubbles trapped inside Martian meteorites had already narrowed the Martian argon ratio to between 3.6 and 4.5
• Measurements by NASA\’s Viking landers in the 1970s put the Martian atmospheric ratio in the range of four to seven
• The new SAM direct measurement on Mars now pins down the correct argon ratio at 4.2
• What\’s Next?
• The Curiosity measurements do not directly measure the current rate of atmospheric escape
• NASA\’s next mission to Mars, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), is designed to do so, which is being prepared for a launch-opportunity period that begins on Nov. 18
• Multimedia
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite | NASA
• Mars Science Laboratory: NASA Rover Confirms Mars Origin of Some Meteorites | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• October 27, 1780 : 233 years ago : First U.S. astronomy expedition views eclipse : The first U.S. astronomical expedition to record an eclipse of the sun observed the event which lasted from 11:11 am to 1:50 pm. The observers left about three weeks earlier, on 9 Oct from Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., for Penobscot Bay, led by Samuel Williams. A boat was supplied by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the four professors and six students. Although the U.S. was at war with Britain, the British officer in charge of Penobscot Bay permitted the expedition to land and set up equipment to observe the predicted total eclipse of the sun. The expedition was shocked to find itself outside the path of totality. They saw a thin arc of the sun instead of its complete obscuration by the moon

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Thursday, Oct 24 | 10-11 pm | Jupiter will be to the left / lower left of the rising Moon
• Planets
• Venus | SW at Dusk | It will be moving gradually higher over the next few weeks
• Mars | rises 2-3am local | It is still near the blue star Regulus, and both will be high in the Eastern sky by dawn. Mars and Regulus are now starting to separate, on Oct 26 they will be 6.5* apart (5* ~ your three middle fingers at arms length)
• Comet ISON | Near Mars but still only a dim telescope object

• Jupiter | 11pm local | Rises in he E-NE, and rises high in the S sky by dawn. After it rises about 8* to it\’s left are the stars Castor and Pollux (orange) of the constellation Gemini

• Further Reading and Resources

• Sky&Telescope
• SpaceWeather.com
• StarDate.org
• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au
• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz
• AstronomyNow
• HeavensAbove

The post Multiple Sclerosis & Ancient Comet | SciByte 106 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at exoplanetary clouds, updating atomic weights, plastic on Saturn\’s moon, viewer feedback, story and spacecraft updates, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | Torrent | YouTube

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— Show Notes —

Exoplanet Clouds

• Astronomers using data from NASA\’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet known as Kepler-7b
• Kepler-7b
• One of the first five planets to be confirmed by NASA\’s Kepler spacecraft, and was confirmed in the first 33.5 days of Kepler\’s science operations
• Kepler-7b is a hot Jupiter that is about half the mass of Jupiter, but is nearly 1.5 times its size, and orbits its star every five days
• Previous observations of Kepler-7b revealed that it could float on water
• Temperature and Light Data
• Kepler\’s visible-light observations of Kepler-7b\’s moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere
• That data was not enough on its own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat
• Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet\’s atmosphere
• Spitzer\’s ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b\’s temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin).
• What the Temperature and Lights Measurements Mean
• Those measurements are relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star, within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun)
• The measurements are also too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed.
• Astronomers don\’t expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but they do detected a clear, reflective signature that they interpreted as clouds
• What it All Means
• By observing Kepler-7b with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, scientists were able to produce a very low-resolution \’map\’ of this giant, gaseous planet
• Astronomers determined that light from the planet\’s star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet.
• The patterns on this planet do not seem to change much over time, indicating it has a remarkably stable climate
• The Future
• Combining Spitzer and Kepler data together offers scientists with a multi-wavelength tool for getting a good look at exoplanets
• This is bringing advancements to exoplanet science, moving beyond just detecting exoplanets, and into the exciting science of understanding them
• 3D Visualization Tool
• A fully rendered tool, available for download at eyes.nasa.gov/exoplanets
• The program is updated daily with the latest findings from NASA\’s Kepler mission and ground-based observatories around the world as they search for planets
• Also Pointed Out By
• Paul Hill ‏@P_H_9_3 on Twitter
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA Space Telescopes Find Patchy Clouds on Exotic World – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | jpl.nasa.gov
• Clouds On Alien Planet Mapped for 1st Time | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Updating Atomic Weights

• The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, has changed the official atomic weights of 19 elements
• Atomic Weights
• Every atom of an element, silver for example, has the same number of protons
• Silver has 47, but not every atom of an element necessarily has the same number of neutrons
• Different versions of an element\’s atoms are called isotopes, Silver occurs as silver-109 and silver-107
• Chemists calculate the atomic weight of an element that you see on the periodic table from the masses of its isotopes, giving more common isotopes more weight than less common isotopes
• This doesn\’t necessarily mean every sample of silver on Earth has an atomic weight of exactly
• Samples of elements vary from place to place, and the differences play an important role in many sciences
• The differences help chemists trace the origin of different materials and help date archaeological findings
• Not a Big a Deal, But Why Do It?
• The latest atomic weights measurements differ too little from their predecessors to really change science
• The changes in weights mostly come from continuing improvements in atomic mass measurements thanks to advances in the technology behind mass spectrometers
• They can also change how they view the number of isotopes an element has
• For example, the IUPAC had previously thought that thorium-230 was too rare to include in atomic weight calculations, they now recognize it
• The last time international chemistry really altered the periodic table was in 2009, when IUPAC decided to list the atomic weights of some elements as ranges, instead of single numbers
• The Changes
• Atomic weights are relative, so they don\’t have units
• Molybdenum, Losing 0.0122
• Thorium, Losing 0.000322
• Yttrium and Niobium, Tied, Losing 0.00001
• Selenium, Gaining 0.0088
• Cadmium, Gaining 0.0026
• Holmium, Thulium and Praseodymium, all Gaining 0.00001
• Further Reading / In the News
• Chemistry\’s Biggest Loser: Official Atomic Weights Change For 19 Elements | Popular Science
• Periodic Table of the Elements | chemistry.about.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 | Nobelprize.org
• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to Francois Englert and Peter W. Higgs \”for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN\’s Large Hadron Collider\”
• Last Time on SciByte
• SciByte53 | Higgs Boson July 10, 2012
• SciByte 76 | Resolutions & Martian Meteorite | January 8, 2013

Plastic in Titan’s Clouds?

• An essential chemical used in the creation of plastic on Earth has been found in Saturn\’s largest moon, Titan
• Scientists used Cassini\’s composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, which measures infrared light given off by Saturn and its moon, made the discovery
• Cassini Measures Propylene
• NASA\’s Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn, found that the atmosphere of Titan contains propylene
• Propylene is a key ingredient of plastic containers, car bumpers and other everyday items on Earth
• Strung together in long chains it can form a plastic called polypropylene
• Helps Explain Voyager 1 Data
• This helps answer a decades old question
• When Voyager 1 conducted the first close flyby of the moon in 1980, it recognized gasses in the moon\’s brown atmosphere as hydrocarbons.
• Those measurement were very difficult to make because propylene weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals
• Multimedia
• YouTube Clip | Plastic Moon: Propylene Detected On Titan | VideoFromSpace
• Further Reading / In the News
• [NASA Finds Ingredient for Plastic on Saturn\’s Moon Titan | Space.com](NASA Finds Ingredient for Plastic on Saturn\’s Moon Titan | Space.com)

Now There Are Robots Who Run …

• Last Time on SciByte …
• SciByte 62 | Stradivarius & Tigers – Boston-Dynamics Robot’s | September 11, 2012
• Boston Dynamics | The Wildcat
• The WildCat is a brand new robot created to run fast on all types of terrain, and so far its top speed has been about 16 mph on flat terrain using both bounding and galloping gaits.
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Introducing WildCat | BostonDynamics
• YouTube | Cheetah Robot runs 28.3 mph; a bit faster than Usain Bolt | BostonDynamics
• Further Reading / In the News
• This Video of a Cyborg Quadriped Will Have You Gasping in Terror | Universetoday.com

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Ice Cap Growing/Shrinking?

• Nogal
• In the chat room I brought up the fact that the ice caps have been growing, yet everyone called me a nut
• Sorry, Staying Away From Hot Button Issues
• First SciByte will neither agree or disagree with a highly hot button issue
• Some studies can be made to agree in either direction you feel
• There are studies that say the area of the Antarctic polar cap is expanding while the Arctic is decreasing
• There are also studies arguing about the thickness of both polar sheets
• Adding to the confusion and arguments is an article from National Snow and Ice Data Center showing significant shrinking of the area of the polar cap actually had an error
• In addition there are arguments about global heating/cooling/climate change over what time span and comparing to historical data
• For issues such as this it is important to find data from as impartial sources as you can, and to also look at the data that argues against how you feel

Food Science

• Matt
• Have you ever considered doing an episode on some of Chris\’ beliefs about nutrition and food?
• Sorry, Staying Away From Some Food Health Science
• While I might talk about what science is saying about how food interacts with the human body I’m not a dietician or a medical doctor so I’m going to stay away from dietary issue
• Studies that talk about how one specific thing affects how interacts with your well being and health I view as somewhat bordering on fuzzy science
• There are so many things that can affect your health it is hard to say anything specific about the general population
• There are also many people with restrictive diets because of allergies or sensitivities that restrict diets that only affect specific portions of the population

— Updates —

Comet ISON

• Viewer Feedback – Nogal
• Any updates for Comet ISON?
• High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have released their first observations of the incoming Comet ISON
• Last Time on SciByte
• SciByte 103 [September 24, 2013] | Martian Methane & Deep Impact – End to the Deep Impact/EPOXI Mission
• SciByte 65 [October 2, 2012] | Chocolate & Black Holes – Comet ISON, 2013
• Seeing Comet ISON Now
• You will need a telescope in the 8-12 inch diameter range, a dark sky, and magnification of at least 200 to 300 power
• A comet appears as an \”extended\” object with the light inside the comet\’s head spread out over a larger area of space
• You will likely have much better success by looking off to one side of its position rather than staring right at it, called averted vision
• Averted vision works because there are no rods (cells which detect dim light in black and white) in the small area in the center of the eye
• Since the density of the rod cells usually reaches a maximum around 20 degrees off the center of vision you’ll be able to better detect its faint and fuzzy image
• Is is Breaking Up?
• A professor compared the similar photometric signals of comet ISON and comets that have disintegrated before
• Even with this comparative data there is no theoretical model that is capable of explaining all the details of comets
• Things May Not Be So Bad
• The comet will reach perihelion very near the Sun which is calculated to reach 2,700* C, 4,892*F, high enough to melt iron and lead
• It will also be passing the Roche limit, where it will experience solar tides that may tear apart the nucleus of the comet
• This combination of events may be too much for the once promising comet
• Even with those obstacles, some members of NASA’s Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) remain optimistic of it’s surviving it’s pass by the Sun
• The Future
• While it may not be the ‘comet of the century’ that we once thought it could be, it may yet still be the comet of the year, or fizzle to nothing
• The following few weeks will reveal the real fate of weird Comet ISON.
• Multimedia
• YouTube | NASA | Chasing Comet ISON | NASAexplorer
• Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery
• Further Reading / In the News
• Comet ISON is doing just fine! | Comet ISON Observing Campaign | isoncampaign.org
• [Latest Images of Comet ISON Show it is ‘Doing Just Fine’ | UniverseToday.com](https://www.universetoday.com/105440/latest-images-of-comet-ison-show-it-is-doing-just-fine/7:51 PM 10/11/2013)
• Mars Orbiter Spies Lackluster Comet ISON | Discovery News
• Comet ISON Buzzing Mars Now: A Telescope Viewing Guide | Space.com
• Comet ISON and Mars Imaged Together During Close Approach | UniverseToday.com
• Comet ISON: 5 Things You Should Know | Discovery News
• Is comet ISON disintegrating? | Phys.org

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

Private Space Travel – Orbital Science & SpaceX

• Orbital Science – Cygnus Spacecraft
• The Cygnus spacecraft initial docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch
• After docking, the hatches to Cygnus opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks
• Cygnus delivers about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew
• SpaceX
• Also on Sept 29 the Next Generation commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had its demonstration test flight
• SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
• They deployed Canada’s 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.
• Private Space Travel
• Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX
• With Orbital science\’s successful delivery there are now two commercial partner\’s with the ability to deliver supplies to the ISS
• Multimedia
• YouTube Clip Cygnus Spacecraft Captured By Space Station | videoFromSpace
• YouTube | [SpaceX] Launch of Inaugural Falcon 9 v1.1 Rocket with Cassiope! | SpaceVidsNet
• Further Reading / In the News
• Doubly Historic Day for Private Space: Cygnus docks at Station & Next Gen Falcon 9 Soars | UniverseToday.com

Opportunity

• Planning the Path to Prepare for Winter
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently succeeded in collecting “really interesting” new high resolution survey scans of Solander Point
• The new CRISM spectrometer survey from Mars orbit will vastly improve the spectral resolution – from 18 meters per pixel down to 5 meters per pixel
• It will take some time, a few weeks, to review and interpret the new spectral data from the MRO and decide on a course of action
• The new MRO data are crucial for targeting the rover’s driving in coming months.
• Solander Point
• Opportunity rover has begun the ascent of Solander Point, the first mountain she will ever climb
• Solander Point is an eroded ridge located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater where Opportunity is currently located
• Another important point about ‘Solander Point’ is that it also offers northerly tilted slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity’s six month winter
• Recent Science
• The rover recently investigated an outcrop target called ‘Poverty Bush’.
• The 3 foot long (1 meter) robotic arm was deployed and the rover collected photos with the Microscopic Imager (MI)
• They collected several days of spectral measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
• What is interesting about this location is that there are several geologic units that are overlapping and Opportunity is sitting on the contact
• The east side of the contact are rocks maybe a billion years older than those on the west side of the contact
• Further Reading / In the News
• Opportunity Scaling Solander Mountain Searching for Science and Sun | UniverseToday.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• More Autonomy
• Curiosity has now used a new technique, in placement of the tool-bearing turret on its robotic arm
• The technique, called proximity placement, uses the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) as if it were a radar for assessing how close the instrument is to a soil or rock surface
• The rover can then interpret the data and autonomously move the turret closer if it is not yet close enough
• This will enable placement of the instrument much closer to soil targets than would have been feasible without risk of touching the sensor head to loose soil
• It will also save extra days of having team members check the data and command arm movement in response
• Multimedia
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Mars Science Laboratory: Images | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• October, 18 1989 : 24 years ago : Jupiter orbiter Galileo launched
  : The Galileo space orbiter was released from the STS 34 flight of the Atlantis orbiter. Then the orbiter\’s inertial upper stage rocket pushed it into a course through the inner solar system. The craft gained speed from gravity assists in encounters with Venus and Earth before heading outward to Jupiter. During its six year journey to Jupiter, Galileo\’s instruments made interplanetary studies, using its dust detector, magnetometer, and various plasma and particles detectors. It also made close-up studies of two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida in the asteroid belt. The Galileo orbiter\’s primary mission was to study Jupiter, its satellites, and its magnetosphere for two years. It released an atmospheric probe into Jupiter\’s atmosphere on 7 Dec 1995.
• Galileo Spacecraft Website | NASA

Looking up this week

<img src=\”https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/ISON_Comet_captured_by_HST%2C_April_10-11%2C_2013.jpg/250px-ISON_Comet_captured_by_HST%2C_April_10-11%2C_2013.jpg” width=250 align=right>

• Keep an eye out for …
• Friday, Oct 18 | Evening | Full moon, with a slight penumbral eclipse Image you might be able to see it at it\’s max in the S-SE side
• North America maximum -> ~7:30pm EDT
• Europe/Africa -> ~23:00 GMT
• Planets
• Venus | Dusk | In the SW, moving slowly higher over the next few weeks
• Mars | ~3am local | Moving to the high E close to the star Regulus (blue-white)
• Jupiter | ~11-midnight local | Rises in the E-NE and moves to the upper S sky by dawn
• Comet ISON
• Is near Mars this week, but needs a telescope to view it
• Further Reading and Resources
• Sky&Telescope
• SpaceWeather.com
• StarDate.org
• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au
• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz
• AstronomyNow
• HeavensAbove

The post Exoplanet Clouds & Updates | SciByte 105 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at Martian methane, robotic bees, familiar formations on Mercury, viewer feedback, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | Torrent | YouTube

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— Show Notes: —

Martian Methane

• NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover can’t find any sign of methane on the red planet, but the agency emphasized that methane would be only one indicator of possible life
• No Methane, No Life?
• Methane only addresses one type of microbial metabolism
• So while this data reduces the probability of current methane-producing Martian microbes, there are many types of terrestrial microbes that don’t generate methane
• The Data
• Curiosity sniffed the atmosphere six times for methane between October 2012 and June 2013
  and didn’t see any sign of the molecule
• The instrument used would be able to detect minute concentrations
• Scientists today estimate methane on Mars must be 1.3 parts per billion at the most, which is only one-sixth as much as earlier estimates
• These results are intriguing given that other teams have spotted methane on Mars as far back as 1999
• The Mars Global Surveyor, which was working for more than 10 years, charted the evolution of Martian methane over three years
• NASA Earth-bound observations using spectroscopic measurements reported even greater amounts, as high as 45 parts per billion, in the Martian atmosphere
• The reports of the highest concentrations of Mars methane came from Earth-based observatories, which might imply that peering through Earth’s atmosphere may have distorted the measurements
• Further Reading / In the News
• Curiosity Rover Finds No Methane On Mars. What’s Happening? | UniverseToday.com
• Mars rover fails to find methane | Planetary Science | Science News
• Mars Mystery Deepens: Curiosity Rover Finds No Sign of Methane | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

“Robo-Bees”

• The Low Down
• Something is killing off up to half of America\’s bees, and fewer bees not only means less honey, it means less food
• Researchers at Harvard are working on tiny drones the size of bees
• These flying robots are designed to be small enough to pollinate a flower (80 milligrams)
• The wings mimic those of a fly, are also designed to hover, giving them plenty of time to transfer pollen
• The drone is so small that there is no room for gears, so the researchers are utilizing piezoelectricity
• Using a special ceramic that contracts when stimulated by electricity they can move the wings
• The robo-bees\” aren\’t ready at this time yet as they are too tiny for a battery pack for power, and will also need some sort of computer so they can guide themselves in flight
• Colony collapse disorder (CCD) Also Seen On
• Unfilter 8 | Meet Monsanto [July 6, 2012]
• Multimedia
• YouTube | RoboBees to the Rescue | NOVA PBS
• Further Reading / In the News
• Colony collapse disorder (CCD) | Wikipedia.org
• How Robo-Bees Could Save America\’s Crops | Popular Science

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Pictures From Mercury

• What the Formation Is
• A portion of the terrain surrounding the northern margin of the Caloris basin
• In that area there is an elevated block in the shape of a certain carbonite-encased smuggler who can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs
• This block may be part of the original surface that predates the formation of Caloris, which was shaped by material ejected during the basin-forming event
• Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data
• Multimedia
• Image | On Mercury | messenger.jhuapl.edu
• Image | Han Solo in Carbonite | starwars.wikia.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Colony collapse disorder (CCD) | Wikipedia.org
• How Robo-Bees Could Save America\’s Crops | Popular Science

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

End to the Deep Impact/EPOXI Mission

• Check This Out!
• Jupiter Broadcasting Allan, from BSD Now and TechSNAP
• Deep Impact/EPOXI Mission
• After almost 9 years in space NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI mission has officially been brought to a close.
• The team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has reluctantly pronounced the mission at an end after being unable to communicate with the spacecraft since Aug. 8
• Comet Temple 1
• Orbits the sun every 5.5 years
• Discovered on April 3, 1867 by Wilhelm Tempel, an astronomer working in Marseille
• Photographic attempts during 1898 and 1905 failed to recover the comet, it\’s orbit had been changed by Jupiter
• It was rediscovered in 1967 after British astronomer Brian G. Marsden performed precise calculations of the comet\’s orbit that took into account Jupiter\’s perturbations
• The Mission
• Launched in January 2005
• On July 3, 2005, the spacecraft deployed a coffee table-sized impactor into the path of comet Temple 1’s nucleus on July 4, 2005
• The impact caused material from below the comet’s surface to be blasted out into space
• The debris blasted off the nucleus was examined by the telescopes and instrumentation of the flyby spacecraft
• Sixteen days after that comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly back past Earth in late December 2007
• That flyby meant it was able to to put it on course to encounter another comet, Hartley 2 in November 2010
• Extended Mission
• The spacecraft’s extended mission included a successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010
• It also observed six different stars to confirm the motion of planets orbiting them and took images and data of the Earth, the Moon and Mars
• Some of the data taken helped to confirm the existence of water on the Moon, and attempted to confirm the methane signature in the atmosphere of Mars
• This year in June, it took images of comet ISON this year and collected early images of comet ISON
• The Deep Impact mission returned around 500,000 images during it\’s total of about 7.58 billion km [4.7 billion mi] traveled
• What Happened?
• Mission control spent a couple of weeks trying to uplink commands and reactivate its onboard systems after losing contact
• The exact cause of the loss is not known for certain; however, analysis has uncovered a potential problem with computer time tagging that could have led to loss of control for Deep Impact’s orientation.
• The fault protection software might not have been able to read any date after August 11, 2013
• That would then affect the positioning of its radio antennas, making communication difficult
• In addition its solar arrays would not be able to point them correctly, which would in turn prevent the spacecraft from getting power
• It would allow cold temperatures to ruin onboard equipment, essentially freezing its battery and propulsion systems.
• Multimedia
• Animated .gif | View from Impacter | Wikipedia
• Animated .gif | View of Impacter from Spacecraft | Wikipedia
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA.gov
• NASA – NASA\’s Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet ISON | NASA.gov
• NASA\’s Deep Impact Produced Deep Results | NASA.gov
• Deep Impact (spacecraft) | Wikipedia
• Temple 1 comet

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Autonomous Driving
• For the past year, Curiosity has been driving on Mars following instructions from human rover planners called “Autonomous navigation
• This new capability that’s coming online will let Curiosity drive herself on Mars
• Humans will still tell her where to go, Curiosity is going to decide how to get there
• Curiosity takes pictures from the navigation cameras, with the hazard cameras, and it’s able to combine that information, put it all together to define a safe way to get to where we ask her to go
• The Drive
• While moving the nav camera\’s to look around it was able to drive about 10 meters [30 feet] at an average speed of about 3 meters/min [10 feet/min]
• The rover even curved a little bit to the right to avoid some of the small rocks that were directly in front of her.
• Visual Odometry
• Visual odometry uses images from the mast cameras to look at the terrain before and after a small drive step.
• Curiosity will see a few hundred features and see how they move across the step
• By tracking those features she can know exactly how far she moved, whether she slipped or twisted a little bit during the drive
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Curiosity Rover Report (Sept. 19, 2013): Leave the Driving to Autonav | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Transcript | Curiosity Rover Report (Sept. 19, 2013): Leave the Driving to Autonav

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• September 25, 1878: 135 years ago : Tobacco Warning : Warning against the use of tobacco, the senior physician to the Metropolitan Free Hospital wrote in The Times newspaper in Britain. Dr. Charles Drysdale pointed to “the enormous consumption of tobacco in all European states.” He estimated that £15,000,000 was spent annually in Great Britain on tobacco. He concluded “that the use of tobacco is one of the most evident of all the retrograde influences of our time.” Years earlier, in 1864, he had published in Med. Circular results of excessive use, such as cases of jaundice in healthy young men smoking 3/4-oz daily, and a young man who smoked 1/2-oz daily having “most distressing palpitation of the heart.” In 1875, he wrote a booklet, Tobacco and the Diseases It Produces.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Thursday | Sept 26 | The Last-quarter Moon will rise around 11 – midnight local time, with Jupiter to its lower left and Orion to it\’s farther right
• Saturday | Sept 28 | Now Jupiter is much closer to the Moon and is now to it\’s upper left
• Saturday | Sept 28 | The W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia is about halfway up in the NE sky
• Sunday | Sep 29 | Now Jupiter sits above the moon in the E
• Planets
• Mercury | ~20 min after sunset | It\’s about 22* to the lower right of Jupiter, very close to the fainter star Spica. Tuesday evening Mercury and Spica are only 3/4* apart
• Venus and Saturn | Twilight | Low in the W-SW, with Saturn moving farther to the right of Venus as the week progresses
• Mars | ~3am local | Moving to the E as dawn begins, it is to the far lower left of Jupiter. Below Mars is Regulus (actually two binary star pairs.) They are both similar brightness and will be getting closer together as the week moves on.

• Jupiter | ~5am local | Both the Moon and Jupiter will be high in the Eastern sky. On Thursday it will be far to the lower left of the moon, on Friday the Moon will be closer.

• Further Reading and Resources

• Sky&Telescope
• SpaceWeather.com
• StarDate.org
• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au
• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz
• AstronomyNow
• HeavensAbove

The post Martian Methane & Deep Impact | SciByte 103 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at new satellites orbiting the moon, bugged bugs, unicycles, a comet that survived it’s brush with the sun, 15 minutes of science fame, another update on the poor Phobos-Grunt satellite and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Download | Ogg Download | YouTube

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Show Notes: