Elon Musk – Jupiter Broadcasting

Facts About SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket — Musk first announced a bigger rocket — the Falcon Heavy — in 2011. At the time, he said the rocket would carry 117,000 lbs. (53,000 kilograms) of cargo to orbit — twice the capacity of the space shuttle. Musk also predicted the first Falcon Heavy flight would come in 2013.
Fresh off Falcon Heavy, Elon Musk launches broadband test satellites – ABC News — On Thursday, SpaceX on Thursday launched a pair of prototype satellites intended to form the basis for Starlink, a constellation of about 11,000 satellites that are designed to beam broadband internet down to Earth.
Amazon plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go stores this year — New futuristic convenience stores could appear in Seattle and Los Angeles.
Since October, Apple Made Around 1,600 Accidental 911 Calls — “We’ve been seeing these calls for the last four months from Apple,” said police dispatcher Jamie Hudso
Using a laser to wirelessly charge a smartphone safely across a room — The beam charges the smartphone via a power cell mounted on the back of the phone. A narrow beam can deliver a steady 2W of power to 15 square-inch area from a distance of up to 4.3 meters, or about 14 feet.
Kitchen Robot with Multi-Zone Cooking & Refrigeration by Suvie — Gourmet meals from fresh, raw ingredients ready when you come home; designed by former Apple engineer, appliance expert & gourmet chef.
Google plans deeper Assistant integration with phones and wireless carriers — The other two announcements being made today will arrive throughout the year: deeper integration between the Assistant and both smartphones and carriers.

The post The Launch | T3 261 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Fake Noah | User Error 14

chris — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 22:30:15 +0000

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Voyager 1 & SpaceX | SciByte 136

chris — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:45:40 +0000

Hello everyone and welcome back to SciByte!

We take a look at Voyager 1 reading a tsunami wave from the sun, SpaceX launching satellites into space and testing new reusable systems, story and 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:

Book Pick:

The Martian Audiobook | Andy Weir | Audible.com

Voyager 1 Sees Another Interstellar Tsunami

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a new “tsunami wave” from the sun as it sails through interstellar space
Such waves are what led scientists to the conclusion, in the fall of 2013, that Voyager had indeed left our sun’s bubble, entering a new frontier
Interstellar Tsunami
“Normally, interstellar space is like a quiet lake,But when our sun has a burst, it sends a shock wave outward that reaches Voyager about a year later. The wave causes the plasma surrounding the spacecraft to sing.” | Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology
Data from this newest tsunami wave generated by our sun confirm that Voyager is in interstellar space
Coronal Mass Ejection
Our sun goes through periods of increased activity, where it explosively ejects material from its surface, flinging it outward
These events, called coronal mass ejections, generate shock, or pressure, waves.
Three such waves have reached Voyager 1 since it entered interstellar space in 2012
The first was too small to be noticed when it occurred and was only discovered later, but the second was clearly registered by the spacecraft’s cosmic ray instrument in March of 2013
In 2013, thanks to the second tsunami wave, the team acquired evidence that Voyager had been flying for more than a year through plasma that was 40 times denser than measured before – a telltale indicator of interstellar space
Now, the team has new readings from a third wave from the sun, first registered in March of this year
Frequency
The plasma wave instrument can detect oscillations of the plasma electrons
“The tsunami wave rings the plasma like a bell … While the plasma wave instrument lets us measure the frequency of this ringing, the cosmic ray instrument reveals what struck the bell – the shock wave from the sun.” | Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology
This ringing of the plasma bell is what led to the key evidence showing Voyager had entered interstellar space, denser plasma oscillates faster, the team was able to figure out the density of the plasma
Of Note
These data show that the density of the plasma is similar to what was measured previously, confirming the spacecraft is in interstellar space
The mission has not left the solar system, it has yet to reach a final halo of comets surrounding our sun, but it broke through the wind-blown bubble, or heliosphere, encasing our sun
Further Reading / In the News
Sun sends more ‘tsunami waves’ to Voyager 1 | Phys.org

— NEWS BYTE —

SpaceX Launches Telecom Satellites

SpaceX successfully launched six ORBCOMM advanced telecommunications satellites into orbit on Monday, July 14, to significantly upgrade the speed and capacity of their existing data relay network.
Testing the Rocket Booster Reentry
They also used this launch opportunity to try and test the reusability of the Falcon 9′s first stage and its landing system while splashing down in the ocean
However, the booster did not survive the splashdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported that the rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deployment worked well, the hull of the first stage “lost integrity right after splashdown
Musk tweeted. “Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam.”
SpaceX wanted to test the “flyback” ability to the rocket, slowing down the descent of the rocket with thrusters and deploying the landing legs for future launches so the first stage can be reused
The previous test of the landing system was successful, but the choppy seas destroyed the stage and prevented recovery
The Future
The six satellites launched are the first part of what the company hopes will be a 17-satellite constellation. They hope to have all 17 satellites in orbit by the end of the 2014
Multimedia
YouTube | Orbcomm OG2 | Falcon 9 Satellite Launch | Launch
YouTube | Orbcomm OG2 | Falcon 9 Satellite Launch | Seperation
YouTube | Orbcomm OG2 | Falcon 9 Satellite Launch | In Space
Further Reading / In the News
SpaceX Launches Six Commercial Satellites on Falcon 9; Landing Test Ends in “Kaboom” | UniverseToday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

How Many Scientists Publish Papers?

A new study finds that very few scientists – fewer than 1% manage to publish a paper every year.
But these scientists dominate the research journals, having their names on 41% of all papers.
They looked at papers published between 1996 and 2011 by 15 million scientists worldwide in many disciplines
This research, published on 9 July in PLOS ONE, was led by epidemiologist John Ioannidis of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with analysis of Elsevier’s Scopus database by colleagues Kevin Boyack and Richard Klavans at SciTech Strategies
By The Numbers
The ranks of scientists who repeatedly published more than one paper per year thin out dramatically
Two or more: 68,221
Three or more: 37,953
Four or more: 23,342
Five or more: 15,464
10 or more: 3269
How Does That Make Sense?
Many of these prolific scientists are likely the heads of laboratories or research groups; they bring in funding, supervise research, and add their names to the numerous papers that result
Others may be scientists with enough job security and time to do copious research themselves from highly productive labs
There is also a lot of grunt work behind these papers, for example doctoral students may be enrolled in high numbers, offering a cheap workforce
Those doctoral students might only get their name published on only one or a few papers and may spend years on research that yields
Further Reading / In the News
The 1% of scientific publishing | Science/AAAS | News

— Updates —

HIV Detected in ‘Cured’ ‘Mississippi Baby

Last Time on SciByte …
SciByte 84 | HIV & SpaceX Troubles | March 5, 2013
SciByte 123 | HIV Treatment & European Dinosaur | March 11, 2014](https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/53247/hiv-treatment-european-dinosaur-scibyte-123/
The child known as the ‘Mississippi baby’ — an infant seemingly cured of HIV that was reported as a case study of a prolonged remission of HIV infection now has detectable levels of HIV after more than two years of not taking antiretroviral therapy without evidence of virus
History
The child was born prematurely in a Mississippi clinic in 2010 to an HIV-infected mother who did not receive antiretroviral medication during pregnancy and was not diagnosed with HIV infection until the time of delivery
Because of the high risk of HIV exposure, the infant was started at 30 hours of age on liquid, triple-drug antiretroviral treatment.
Testing confirmed within several days that the baby had been infected with HIV. At two weeks of age, the baby was discharged from the hospital and continued on liquid antiretroviral therapy
The baby continued on antiretroviral treatment until 18 months of age, when the child was lost to follow up and no longer received treatment
When the child was again seen by medical staff five months later, blood samples revealed undetectable HIV levels (less than 20 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood (copies/mL)) and no HIV-specific antibodies
The child continued to do well in the absence of antiretroviral medicines and was free of detectable HIV for more than two years
Unfortunate New Findings
During a routine clinical care visit earlier this month, the child, now nearly 4 years of age, was found to have detectable HIV levels in the blood
Repeat viral load blood testing performed 72 hours later confirmed this finding
Additionally, the child had decreased levels of a key component of a normal immune system, and the presence of HIV antibodies — signals of an actively replicating pool of virus in the body.
Based on these results, the child was again started on antiretroviral therapy.
To date, the child is tolerating the medication with no side effects and treatment is decreasing virus levels
Genetic sequencing of the virus indicated that the child’s HIV infection was the same strain acquired from the mother
What This Means
In light of the new findings, researchers must now work to better understand what enabled the child to remain off treatment for more than two years without detectable virus or measurable immunologic response
Researchers are hoping to find out what might be done to extend the period of sustained HIV remission in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. Since typically, when treatment is stopped, HIV levels rebound within weeks, not years
“The prolonged lack of viral rebound, in the absence of HIV-specific immune responses, suggests that the very early therapy not only kept this child clinically well, but also restricted the number of cells harboring HIV infection,” said Katherine Luzuriaga, M.D., professor of molecular medicine, pediatrics and medicine at the University of Massachusetts
The results to indicate that early antiretroviral treatment in this HIV-infected infant did not completely eliminate the reservoir of HIV-infected cells that was established upon infection
The Clinical Trial
At the same time the results were announced in March, a clinical study was announced that would follow a similar treatment
The researchers planning the clinical trial will now need to take this new development into account, the case may have considerably limited its development and averted the need for antiretroviral medication over a considerable period
“Scientifically, this development reminds us that we still have much more to learn about the intricacies of HIV infection and where the virus hides in the body. The NIH remains committed to moving forward with research on a cure for HIV infection.” | NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Further Reading / In the News
‘Mississippi Baby’ now has detectable HIV, researchers find | ScienceDaily
Researchers Describe First ‘Functional HIV Cure’ in an Infant | ScienceDaily.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

ISEE3 Reboot Project

The Low Down
The previous ‘problems’ with the propulsion tanks were turned loose upon the internet looking for experts in various fields to help come up with ideas and solutions
One idea that came up was that that there would have been some ‘vapor lock’ where come fuel gasified in the lines
The team then used those experts to come up with a plan to heat and pulse the propulsion systems to hopefully clear the lines.
The current window of opportunity to test this is Wed, July 16
[Recently in ISEE-3 Reboot Project Category | SpaceCollege.org(https://spacecollege.org/isee3/)
Twitter | ISEE3 Reboot Project ‏@ISEE3Reboot
10 Jul 2014 | We have spent the day consulting with world class propulsion experts and have some solid plans for tackling our #ISEE3 propulsion issues.
11 Jul 2014 | Now focusing on more heating of hydrazine tanks & long sequences of thruster firing attempts to (possibly) clear #ISEE3 prop system
11 Jul 2014 | We did not have a successful #DSN ranging session today. DSN was unable to get a consistent lock on #ISEE3 – updates later today.
11 Jul 2014 | #ISEE3 is in Science Mode and is broadcasting telemetry which you can view in near real-time at https://www.amsat-dl.org
11 Jul 11 2014 | Our propulsion experts say it is unlikely that we’ve lost Nitrogen &/or Hydrazine reserves. Most likely some gas in the lines #ISEE3 1/2
11 Jul 2014 | Some additional heating and a few hundred thruster pulse firings might clear the lines. Working up a plan now for next week #ISEE3 2/2
12 Jun 2014 | the Voyager team reprogrammed both spacecraft billions of miles away. Nearby space plumbing on #ISEE3 is easy by comparison
12 Jun 2014 | we want to heat the fuel tanks and then fire the engines several hundred times to clear gas out of the lines. #ISEE3
13 Jul 2014| We’re focusing on heating hydrazine tanks & then making long series of thruster firing attempts to clear the lines. More info soon. #ISEE3
14 Jul 2014 | We’re putting final touches on #ISEE3 propulsion repair process to be implemented this week. We think there is still plenty of fuel for TCM
14 Jul 2014 | All we are waiting for now is a confirmed window from our friends at Arecibo & we’re ready to do some deep space plumbing repairs on #ISEE3
15 Jul 2014 | If you’ve ever had to clean out your car’s carburetor & fuel line then you have an idea of what our plan is to try & fix #ISEE3 tomorrow

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

Mission Info
Curiosity still has about another 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) to go to reach the entry way at a gap in the dunes at the foothills of Mount Sharp sometime later this year
To date, Curiosity’s odometer totals over 5.1 miles (8.4 kilometers) since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. She has taken over 162,000 images
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

July 17, 709 BC : 2723 years ago : Earliest Record Solar Eclipse. : In 709 BC, the earliest record of a confirmed total solar eclipse was written in China. From: Ch’un-ch’iu, book I: “Duke Huan, 3rd year, 7th month, day jen-ch’en, the first day (of the month). The Sun was eclipsed and it was total.” This is the earliest direct allusion to a complete obscuration of the Sun in any civilisation. The recorded date, when reduced to the Julian calendar, agrees exactly with that of a computed solar eclipse. Reference to the same eclipse appears in the Han-shu (‘History of the Former Han Dynasty’) (Chinese, 1st century AD): “…the eclipse threaded centrally through the Sun; above and below it was yellow.” Earlier Chinese writings that refer to an eclipse do so without noting totality.

Looking up this week

Keep an eye out for …
Fri, Jul, 18 | Last-Quarter Moon
Sat, Jul 19 | Mars is still less than 3* (two fingers widths at arms length) from Spica, but sinking lower in the SW at dusk
Planets
Mercury | Dawn | Low in the glow of sunrise, Mercury is just 7* to the lower left of Venus all week. (A little over the width of all your fingers held at arms length)
Venus | Dawn | Low in the E-NE
Mars | Dusk | High in the SW with Spica very near it. Although they will start to slowly drift apart now, on Sat Jul 19 they are still less than 3* apart.
Jupiter | Hidden in sunset
Saturn | Twilight | Highest during twilight in the S-SW to the left/upper left of Mars/Spica
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

— SciByte Summer Hiatus —

For Science and Show Updates
Heather / Mars_Base Twitter | @JB_Mars_Base
Chris Fisher @ChrisLAS

The post Voyager 1 & SpaceX | SciByte 136 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

“Hot-Earths” & New Species | SciByte 108

chris — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:09:20 +0000

We take a look at a strange exo-planet, SpaceX rocket testing, an Australian ‘lost world’, simulating dinosaurs walk, viewer feedback about human regeneration, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | Torrent | YouTube

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[asa]B00E8S2JZ4[/asa]

Hot Exoplanet is NOT a \’New Earth\’

A team of astronomers have discovered an earth-like blazing hot planet that shouldn\’t exist
No matter what the headlines say, just because an exoplanet has somewhat like Earth in density or size, it doesn\’t mean it\’s habitable.
The Star Kepler 78
A sun-like G-type star
It is located 400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus
Discovered using data from NASA\’s Kepler Space Telescope with follow up observations were made using W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii
Kepler 78-b
First known Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density
Diameter of 9,200 miles, 1.2 times the size of Earth
Mass is 1.7 times more than Earth
Composed of iron and rock
Orbit Length | 8.5 hours
Distance from star | 1.6 km / 1 mi
Kepler 78-b Mass Measurements
Two independent research teams have now confirmed the planet’s mass and density by measuring “wobbles” of its sun-like host star, seen as the exoplanet orbits around it
Generally it is difficult to measure the mass of planets that Kepler finds because it is hard for ground-based telescopes to spot the subtle wobble of the star
In the case of Kepler 78-b since it orbits so close to its star, the planet exerts a greater gravitational pull on the star that it would if it were as far as Earth is from our sun
Breaking The Rules
When this planetary system was forming, the young star was larger than it is now meaning that it would have been inside the swollen star
The planet couldn’t have formed farther out and migrated inward, because it should have been drawn straight into the star
One of the more exotic possibilities is that it is the remnant core of a disrupted gas giant
The extreme gravitational pull from its star will draw it ever closer in, ripping the entire planet apart in about three billion years
Multimedia
YouTube | Earth-like planet Kepler 78b | Nature Newsteam
Further Reading / In the News
+New Earth-Like Blazing Hot Planet ‘Kepler-78b’ Discovered | ScienceWorld.com
New-found Earth-size Exoplanet Doomed – News Watch | Newswatch.NationalGeographic.com
+Kepler Discovers Earth-Sized Mystery Planet – Popular Mechanics

— NEWS BYTE —

SpaceX Will Be Renting Test Space From NASA

SpaceX has signed a contract to research, develop and test Raptor methane rocket engines at the NASA Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi
Testing
SpaceX currently does most of its rocket testing in Texas
Now the plan is to use the E-2 test stand at Stennis, which is able to support both vertical and horizontal rocket engine tests
The E-2 stand is big enough for components, but SpaceX would need a bigger stand for the whole Raptor
Reportedly SpaceX is working out a Space Act agreement to establish user fees, amongst other things, once an agreement is finalized the testing can begin as early as next year
Used For?
There is little information on SpaceX’s website about what the Raptor engine is or specific development plans
Space News reports that it would be used for deep-space missions
There are multiple reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has mentioned the engine previously when talking about Mars missions
Raptor Rocket Engine, What We Know
Intended to power a higher performance upper stage for SpaceX launch vehicles, powered by methane and liquid oxygen (LOX)
Designed to produce more than 661,000 lbf (2,940 kN) thrust in vacuum, which is the space environment that the Raptor second-stage engine is designed for.
Multimedia
YouTube | Methane Rocket | Christopher Martinez
Further Reading / In the News
Stennis Space Center
SpaceX Signs Pact To Start Rocket Testing At NASA Stennis | UniverseToday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Australian \’Lost World\’

An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years
The Discovery
James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula
Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top
The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high
National Geographic, the team plans to return to Cape Melville within months to search for more new species, including snails, spiders, and perhaps even small mammals
What Was Found
Leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink-a type of lizard-and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives
A small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist. The tadpoles even develop within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out in the absence of water
Further Reading / In the News
\’Lost world\’ discovered in remote Australia | Phys.org
Leaf-tailed gecko, golden-coloured skink and boulder-dwelling frog: New species found in Australia\’s lost world | independent.co.uk
Spectacular New Species Found in \”Lost World\” | news.nationalgeographic.com

How Dinosaurs Walked

Researchers have managed to use an advanced computer model to recreate the walking and running movements of the vast Cretaceous Argentinosaurus dinosaur
Argentinosaurus
The dinosaur lived on the then-island continent of South America somewhere between 97 and 94 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous
Not much of Argentinosaurus has been recovered, but the proportions of the bones found and comparisons with other sauropod relatives allow paleontologists to estimate the its size
The dinosaur weighed about 80 tons, making it one of the largest known dinosaurs, and the model showed that it would have reached about 5 mph when it walked across the Earth
The Computer Model
To create this computer model, the researchers laser scanned a 40 meter-long skeleton of Argentinosaurus
The simulation used the equivalent of 30,000 desktop computers to allow the dinosaur to take its first steps in over 94 million years
The digitization of such vast dinosaur skeletons using laser scanners brings Walking with Dinosaurs to life…this is science not just animation
Currently, the researchers plan to use this same computer technique in order to model the steps of other dinosaurs, such as the Triceratops, Brachiosaurus and T. rex.
Multimedia
YouTube | Argentinosaurus dinosaur digital reconstruction The University of Manchester: Dr Bill Sellers | Alison Barbuti
YouTube | Argentinosaurus – Planet Dinosaur – Episode 5 | BBC
Further Reading / In the News
Scientists Digitally Reconstruct Movements of Largest Dinosaur in the World (Video) | Phys.org
Argentinosaurus | Wikipedia

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Human Regeneration … Soon-ish?

Michael Thalleen ‏@ThalleenM
Regrowing human body parts: The dream comes within reach | nbcnews.com
Sometime in the next few decades, humans may be able to regrow a finger, toe, or among the most promising targets, maybe even fresh patches of beating heart tissue
Research
A decade ago scientists demonstrated that zebrafish have the ability to repair a badly damaged heart, thanks to a particular protein that regulates the regenerative process
Young mice are able to regenerate toes, and the salamander can regrow a whole arm below the joint
In 2010, one lab showed it was possible to enhance that same regenerative response in adult mice
Researchers have been studying mouse toes to understand how a similar regrowth mechanism can be reactivated or imitated in adult humans
In Humans
Humans already have demonstrated some ability to regenerate body parts, very young children can fill out the tips of chopped off fingers and toes
In August researchers from the Gladstone Institutes showed that they could turn human scar tissue into electrically conductive tissue in a lab dish by fiddling with just a few key genes
Among the hurdles that lie ahead: taking that technique out of the lab and applying it to living human hearts
Researchers are still cautious about predicting how studies of animal regeneration will be applied to humans and it\’s dangerous to say, \’Yes, we expect to regenerate a limb\’ although the field is reaching a turning point

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

h
+ NASA\’s Mars rover Curiosity completed its first two-day autonomous drive Monday, Oct 28
+ During an autonomous drive the rover chooses a safe route to designated waypoints by using its onboard computer to analyze stereo images that it takes during pauses in the drive
+ The autonomous drive brought Curiosity to about 80m (262 ft) from \”Cooperstown,\” an outcrop bearing candidate targets for examination with instruments on the rover\’s arm.
+ Cooperstown is about one-third of the way along the route to Mount Sharp
+ Improvements
+ A key activity planned for this week, week of Nov. 4, is uploading a new version of onboard software the third such upgrade since landing
+ Include what information the rover can store overnight to resume autonomous driving the next day.
+ It also expands capabilities for using the robotic arm while parked on slopes
+ Multimedia
+ Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
+ Social Media
+ Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
+ Further Reading / In the News
+ Mars Science Laboratory: NASA\’s Curiosity Mars Rover Approaches \’Cooperstown\’ | mars.jlp.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

November 11, 1572 : 441 years ago : Tycho\’s Supernova / SN1572 : Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe began his meticulous observations of the supernova discovered in the W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia. (Brahe was at the beginning of his career in 1572, and it was this supernova that inspired him to devote his lifetime to making accurate measurements of the positions of the stars and planets.) First noted by Wolfgang Schuler*of Wittenberg, for two weeks it was brighter than any other star in the sky and visible in daytime. By month\’s end, it began to fade but it remained visible to the naked eye for about 16 months until Mar 1574. Thus 16th-century astronomers learned that the heavens were not immutable, as had been believed. Brahe\’s book on his observations, De Nova Stella, originated the word “nova.”
SN 1572 | Wikipedia

Looking up this week

Keep an eye out for …
Wed, Nov 6 | Evening | Venus and the crescent Moon are close in the SW sky
Sat, Nov 9 | First-quarter Moon to the SW
Planets
Venus | dusk | Is in the SW around dusk moving to set in the E-NE near the stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini
Mars | Rises around 1-2am standard | Moves E, opposite to the stars, moving farther away from Regulus (blue-white star) and by dawn both are high in the S sky
Comet ISON | Just before dawn | Below mars, but still only a telescopic object
Jupiter | 9-10am standard | Rises in the E-NE moving to the high Southern sky by dawn
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 “Hot-Earths” & New Species | SciByte 108 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Spinal Cord Injuries & Venus Transit | SciByte 49

chris — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:18:17 +0000

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

We take a look at new rehabilitation for spinal cord injuries, nanotech medical diagnosis, Guinness bubbles, tomato’s, a quiet room, tornado map, spacecraft updates and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Spinal Cord injury treatment

_{YouTube channel Sergeytule | Credit: Courtesy of EPFL}

The low down
Most spinal injuries in people do not sever the spinal cord completely
Spinal injuries cause paralysis because they sever or crush nerve fibers that connect the brain to neurons in the spinal cord that move muscles throughout the body
These fibers, or axons, are the long extensions that convey signals from one end of a neuron to another, and unfortunately, they don’t regrow in adults
Restoring axons’ ability to regrow using growth factors, stem cells, or other therapies has been a longstanding and elusive goal for researchers.
Significance
To approximate a spinal injury in rats, researchers made two surgical cuts in the spinal cord, severing all of the direct connections from the brain, but leaving some tissue intact in between the cuts (it wouldn’t work for a completely severed cord)
The rats then began a rehab regime intended to bypass the fractured freeway, as it were, by pushing more traffic onto neural back roads and building more of them
The physical therapy began about a week after the rats were injured, and lasted about 30 minutes a day
During each session, the researchers injected the animals with a cocktail of drugs to improve the function of rats’ neural circuits in the part of the spinal cord involved in leg movements
They then stimulated this area with electrodes to prime the spinal cord for action
A rat was then fitted into a harness attached to a robotic device that supported its weight and allowed it to walk forward on its hind legs to the extent that it was able
At first, the rats could not move their legs at all, after 2 or 3 weeks, the rodents began taking steps toward a piece of food after a gentle nudge from the robot
By 5 or 6 weeks, they were able to initiate movement on their own and walk to get the food
After a few additional weeks of intensified rehab, they were able to walk up rat-sized stairs and climb over a small barrier placed in their path
Rats suspended over a moving treadmill that elicited reflex-like stepping movement
The amount of recovery depending on making intentional movements, not just any movement
Additional experiments in the paper make a compelling case that the rats’ recovery is due to new neural connections forming to create a detour around the injury
This study suggests that all three components of the rehab strategy are needed; the drugs, the electrical stimulation, and the robot-assisted physical therapy
Of Note
A case study published last year reported some recovery of voluntary movements in a man paralyzed in a vehicle accident, after he underwent a combination of electrical stimulation and physical therapy
Two more patients are undergoing similar rehab now, and his group hopes to add drug therapy to enhance nerve repair in the future
For the rats they could only make voluntary movements while the electrical stimulation was turned on, and the same was mostly true of the human patient in case study
YouTube
Robotic Rehab Helps Paralyzed Rats Walk Again | Sergeytule
Further Reading / In the News
Robotic Rehab Helps Paralyzed Rats Walk Again | news.sciencemag.org

— NEWS BYTE —

Nanotechnology meets medical diagnosis

_{Credit: Stephen Chou/Analytical Chemistry}

The low down
A common biological test called immunoassay, mimics the action of the immune system to detect the presence of biomarkers
When biomarkers are present they produce a fluorescent glow (light) that can be measured in a laboratory
The greater the glow, the more of the biomarker is present; however, if the amount of biomarker is too small, the fluorescent light is too faint to be detected
Princeton researchers have tackled this limitation by using nanotechnology to greatly amplify the faint fluorescence
Significance
The key to the breakthrough lies in a new artificial nanomaterial called D2PA
The new material consists of a series of glass pillars in a layer of gold, speckled on their sides with gold dots and capped with a gold disk.
The sides of each pillar are speckled with even tinier gold dots about 10 to 15 nanometers in diameter Each pillar is just 60 nanometers in diameter, 1/1,000th the width of a human hair
The pillars are spaced 200 nanometers apart and capped with a disk of gold on each pillar
Using this material laboratory test used to detect disease and perform biological research could be made more than 3 million times more sensitive
Increased performance could greatly improve the early detection of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders by allowing doctors to detect far lower concentrations of telltale markers than was previously practical.
Of Note
When a sample such as blood, saliva or urine is added to small glass vials containing antibodies that are designed to “capture” or bind to biomarkers of interest in the sample
Another set of antibodies that have been labeled with a fluorescent molecule are then added to the mix
When biomarkers are not present in the vials the fluorescent detection antibodies do not attach to anything and are washed away
This new technology could play a significant role in other areas of chemistry and engineering, from light-emitting displays to solar energy harvesting
Further Reading / In the News
Nanotechnology breakthrough could dramatically improve medical tests

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

The rise and fall of Guinness bubbles

The low down
Why do the bubbles in a glass of stout beer such as Guinness sink while the beer is settling, even though the bubbles are lighter than the surrounding liquid?
Stout beers such as Guinness foam due to a combination of carbon dioxide and nitrogen bubbles, while other beers foam due only to carbon dioxide bubbles
In 2004 high-speed photography proved that bubbles do indeed sink
Significance
Simulations of the elongated vortices in a pint glass, where bubbles sink near the glass wall, and an anti-pint glass, where bubbles rise near the wall
A team of mathematicians from the University of Limerick has shown that the sinking bubbles result from the shape of a pint glass
As the glass narrows downwards and causes a circulation pattern that drives both fluid and bubbles downwards at the wall of the glass
It is not just the bubbles themselves that are sinking (in fact, they’re still trying to rise), but the entire fluid is sinking and pulling the bubbles down with it.
Of Note
Researchers are still uncertain of the specific mechanism responsible for reducing the bubble density near the wall for the pint geometry and increasing it for the anti-pint one.
The same flow pattern occurs with other types of beers, but the larger carbon dioxide bubbles are less subject to the downward drag than the smaller nitrogen bubbles in stout beers.
For a tilted straight-sided glass the side in the direction of the tilt represents the normal situation of a pint glass, while the opposite side is the “anti-pint” – and bubbles can be seen to both rise and fall in the same glass.
Further Reading / In the News
Irish mathematicians explain why Guinness bubbles sink | Phys.org
Falling stout bubbles explained | BBC News

You say tomato I say potato?

The low down
The genome of the tomato has been sequenced one from the “Heinz 1706” tomato as well as the sequence of a wild relative
Researchers report that tomatoes possess some 35,000 genes arranged on 12 chromosomes
Significance
The team has captured virtually all the genes for various characteristics, such as taste, natural pest resistance or nutritional content
Now that the genome sequence of one variety of tomato is known, it will also be easier and much less expensive for seed companies and plant breeders to sequence other varieties
The sequencing of the tomato genome has implications for other plant species such as Strawberries, apples, melons, bananas and many other fleshy fruits, share some characteristics with tomatoes
Information about the genes and pathways involved in fruit ripening can potentially be applied to them, helping to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs
Of Note
The gene sequencing confirms that the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable
The tomato shares 92% of its more than 34,000 protein-coding genes with its close relative, the recently sequenced potato
Further Reading / In the News
Tomato genome fully sequenced | phys.org
ScienceShot: Tapping the Tomato’s Secrets | news.sciencemag.org

Hear your own heart beat

_{Credit: Renee Jones Schneider / Minneapolis Star Tribune.}

Last time on SciByte
Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 [May 29, 2012] – Creative Noise
The low down
The room is surrounded by double walls of concrete and insulated steel covered by 3.3-foot-thick wedges of fiberglass and blocks out 99.99 percent sound
The room is so quiet that you are able to hear one’s own heart, stomach and even inner ear, or the sounds emitted by a cellphone’s display
The room is so quiet that it throws your sensed off balance, causing hallucinations in some people; and no one has lasted longer than 45 minutes
Further Reading / In the News
A room so quiet no one can stand it for more than 45 minutes

56 years of Tornado’s

_{Credit: John Nelson}

The low down
Using information from data.gov, tech blogger John Nelson has created this spectacular image of tornado paths in the US over a 56 year period
The storms are categorized by F-scale with the brighter neon lines representing more violent storms
The tracker shows straight lines, but it is only because the data used in this study only tracked start and stop points
Also provided are some stats on all the storms in the different categories
Further Reading / In the News
Stunning Visualization of 56 Years of Tornadoes in the US | UniverseToday.com
Data.gov

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo receives permit

_{Credit: VirginGalactic YouTube Channel | Credit: TSC}

The low down
Virgin Galactic’s flight system consists of two vehicles, SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft
SpaceShipTwo is designed to launch six passengers and two pilots into suborbital space and offer a few minutes of weightlessness, then return to Earth
Significance
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital space tourism vehicle has won U.S. regulatory approval to begin powered flight testing of the rocket-propelled craft later this year
The experimental launch permit from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorizes the Scaled Composites development team "to progress to the rocket-powered phase of test flight
Before the rocket-powered testing phase they will perform aerodynamic performance of the spacecraft with the full weight of the rocket motor system on board
Integration of key rocket motor components, already begun during a now-concluding period of downtime for routine maintenance, will continue in the autumn
Multimedia
YouTube Video : SS2 First Feather Flight, Mojave, May 2011)
Further Reading / In the News
FAA Clears Virgin Galactic to Begin SpaceShipTwo Rocket Test Flights | Space.com

GRAIL Moon mission extension

_{Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT}

Last Time on SciByte
Amazon & Martian Weather | SciByte 39 (March 27, 2012) – GRAIL First MoonKAM Image comes in from the Lunar Orbiters Ebb & Flow
Exoplanets & Social Media | SciByte 29 (Jan 17, 2012) – GRAIL moon probes names finally named
Revisiting the Moon | SciByte 27 (Jan 5, 27, 2012) – Moon meets GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory)
The low down
The team of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with twin probes named Ebb and Flow, is now preparing for extended science operations starting Aug. 30 and continuing through Dec. 3, 2012.
As of March 8, the spacecraft have operated around the clock for 89 days and had collected data covering the entire surface three times
GRAIL has delivered to Earth over 99.99 percent of the data that could have been collected
The extended mission goal is to take an even closer look at the moon’s gravity field.
GRAIL mission planners will halve their current operating altitude to the lowest altitude that can be safely maintained
The new orbit will be at an average altitude of 14 miles (23 kilometers) clearing some of the moon’s higher surface features by about 5 miles (8 kilometers),"
To date over 70,000 student images of the moon have been obtained.
Further Reading / In the News
NASA lunar spacecraft GRAIL complete prime mission ahead of schedule | Phys.org

Dragon SpaceCraft Splashdown

_{Credit: YouTube Channel ReelNASA}

Last time on SciByte
Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 (May 29, 2012)
SpaceX & Easter Island | SciByte 47 – VenSpaceX – Dragon shipment to ISS [May 22, 2012]
The low down
Released at 4:49am CT on May 31, 2012 after 5d, 16h and 5min attached to the space station
The Draco thruster firing lasted 9 minutes and 50 seconds and sent Dragon plummeting through the Earth’s atmosphere where it had to survive extreme temperatures exceeding 3000 degrees F (1600 degrees C) before landing.
The deorbit burn to drop Dragon out of orbit happened at 10:51 a.m. EDT (1451 GMT) with a nine minute, 50 second deorbit engine burn.
The dual drogue parachutes deployed at 45,000 feet to stabilize and slow the spacecraft
The drogue shoots helped to release the two main parachutes, each 116 feet in diameter, at about 10,000 feet
SpaceX Dragon capsule made a water landing off the coast of Baja California, Mexico about 560 miles southwest of Los Angeles at 11:42 a.m. EDT (1542 GMT)
It takes about two days to deliver the craft to the port of Los Angeles where the most critical cargo items will be removed for quick shipment to NASA
YouTube Video
Station Begins Dragon’s Release for Flight Home | ReelNASA
SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down | ReelNASA
Dragon Departs the Station | ReelNASA.gov
Images
Dragon just after splashdown (Credit: NASA/US Navy)
Dragon spacecraft lands in the Pacific (Credit: NASA/US Navy)
After Dragon’s splashdown, the dive team prepared it to lift onto barge (Credit: NASA/US Navy)
Dragon Spacecraft in the Water | twimg.com
Dragon on the Recovery ship | twimg.com
Dragon’s parachutes | twimg.com
Rough location of the Dragon splashdown location | maps.google.com
Social Media
SpaceX @SpaceX
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Further Reading / In the News
Dragon’s Ocean Splashdown Caps Historic Opening of New Space Era | UniverseToday.com
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Splashes Down in Pacific, Ending Historic Test Flight | Space.com
SpaceX signs 1st customer for big new rocket | Phys.org

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

June 09 1822 : 190 years ago : False teeth : Charles Graham received the first patent for false teeth. His were not the first false teeth in use, however. In the Colonial years, rotten teeth were considered the cause of many illnesses, and they would be extracted. Varied ways of replacing them were tried. For example, George Washington had at least four sets of false teeth (though none were wooden, despite a myth to that effect). Washington’s first dentures were made using human teeth inserted into carved ivory. In 1789, dentist John Greenwood of New York, made Washington another set from gold, hippo teeth, and hippo and elephant ivory. The one natural remaining tooth was a molar, and a hole was left for that.
June 08 1937 : 75 years ago : Titan Arum : A specimen of the world’s largest flower, first bloomed in the U.S. in the NY Botanical Garden. The giant Sumatran Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, measured 8½-ft high and 4-ft diam. Its putrid rotting-corpse fragrance repelled visitors. Native in Sumatran jungles of Indonesia, it is known there as the “corpse flower.” Dr. Odoardo Beccari, an Italian botanist, was the first western expert to find the Titan Arum in the Pading Province during 1878. Seeds he sent back to his patron, the Marchese Corsi Salviati were grown in Italy, and a few plants were at Beccari’s request sent to Kew Gardens in England in 1879. One of those seedlings flowered in June 1887. Another plant bloomed there in 1926, to wide attention.

Looking up this week : You May Have Seen

Venus Transit
In transit now. More image galleries next week!
Transit of Venus 2012 in Pictures (Gallery)

Looking up this week

Keep an eye out for …
Wed, June 6 : Saturn is in the Southwest evening sky, with Spica below it
Further Reading and Resources
More on what’s in the sky this week
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 Spinal Cord Injuries & Venus Transit | SciByte 49 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48

chris — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:29:24 +0000

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We take a look at the Venus transit next Tuesday, a rare rabbit, water in our solar system, creative noise, a dinosaur with tiny arms, a Dragon spacecraft update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Venus Transit

_{YouTube channels : extractorrr | ScienceAtNASA}

Last time on SciByte
Egyptian Astronomy & Smog | SciByte 45 – Venus Transit Upcoming on June 5th / 6th [May 8, 2012]
Meteorites & Lasers | SciByte 38 – Venus Transit [March 20, 2012]
Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22 – Science Calender [November 22, 2011]
The low down
On June 5 (June 6 in Australia and Asia), Venus will pass between the Earth and Sun… an event which only happens about twice and century and won’t happen again until the year 2117!
The transit this year will last about 6.5 hours and will be visible from more than half of the Earth’s surface
Between each occurrence is happens at uneven occurrences at 121.5, then 8 then 105.5, then 8 years again. So only four times every 243 years and only in early Dec or early June
The next pair of Venus transits occur over a century from now on 2117 Dec 11 and 2125 Dec 08
How to find the when and where
Find your Local transit times
Transit of Venus NASA/SunEarthDay Webcast information
The Sun will set while the transit is still in progress from most of North America, the Caribbean, and northwest South America
It will also already be in progress at sunrise for observers in central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and eastern Africa
No portion of the transit will be visible from Portugal or southern Spain, western Africa, and the southeastern 2/3 of South America
Hubble Space Telescope
Due to its delicate instruments the Hubble Space Telescope can not look directly at the sun, astronomers however are planning on using the event to get science
Astronomers are planning to point the telescope at the Earth’s moon, using it as a mirror to capture reflected sunlight
IMAGE : Hubble image of moon, preparing for the transit Credit: NASA/ESA/D. Ehrenreich
They will then isolate the small fraction of the light that passes through Venus’s atmosphere, to view the fingerprints of the planet’s atmospheric makeup
The technique of viewing atmospheric filtered light is already being used to sample the atmospheres of giant planets outside our solar system passing in front of their stars
Since astronomers already know the chemical makeup of Venus’s atmosphere they can test whether this technique will have a chance of detecting the very faint fingerprints of an Earth-like planet
Hubble will view the transit in a range of wavelengths, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.
use an arsenal of Hubble instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3, and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, to view the transit in a range of wavelengths, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. During the transit, Hubble will snap images and perform spectroscopy, dividing the sunlight into its constituent colors, which could yield information about the makeup of Venus’s atmosphere.
Hubble will need to be locked onto the same location on the moon for more than seven hours, roughly 40 minutes of each 96-minute orbit of Hubble around the Earth before, during, and after the transit
Such long observation are needed because astronomers are looking for extremely faint spectral signatures
Only 1/100,000th of the sunlight will filter through Venus’s atmosphere and be reflected off the moon.
Since the next shot at this observational opportunity is in 105 years astronomers have had to carefully plan how the study would be carried out
* Of Note*
During this transit, our sun will be displaying sunspots, which will allow comparing changing light patterns of suspected exoplanets with those that occur much closer to home
Both direct and indirect data taken from this transit can be used to calibrate and infer what kind of data we could get from exoplanet observations
Multimedia
YouTube VIDEO : Transit of Venus – June 8th, 2004 | SLOOHSpaceCamera
YouTube VIDEO : Fiske Planetarium: Using Binoculars to Safely View Eclipses | extractorrr
YouTube VIDEO : ScienceCasts: The 2012 Transit of Venus | SciencAtNASA
YouTube VIDEO : the Transit of Venus | transitvenus
YouTube VIDEO : Transit of Venus Part One | SunEarthDay
YouTube VIDEO : Transit of Venus Part Two | SunEarthDay
YouTube VIDEO : Predicting a Transit of Venus: The Two-Minute Explanation… | transitvenus
YouTube VIDEO : Fiske Planetarium: 2012 Solar Eclipse & Venus Transit | extractorrr
YouTube VIDEO : NE Live – Transit of Venus Promo for Sun-Earth Day 2012 | SunEarthDay
Social Media
Sun-Earth Day (NASA) @SunEarthDay
Further Reading / In the News
TransitOfVenus.org
Transit of Venus | SunEarthDay.NASA.gov
Transit of Venus blog | blogs.ESA.int
Evening star goes black in rare celestial event | ScienceNews.org
Scientists to Watch Historic Venus Transit of the Sun from Alaska | Space.com
Sun Earth Day
Astronomer urges researchers everywhere to study Venus transit | Phys.org
Venus Transit — There’s an App for That! | UniverseToday.com
Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit | NASA.gov
Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit | hubblesite.org
Using the Moon as a mirror — Hubble to watch transit of Venus in reflected light | SpaceTelescope.org
Transit of Venus Promotional Materials | SunEarthDay.nasa.gov
2012 Venus Transit – The Countdown Is On! | UniverseToday.com
2012 Venus Transit – The Countdown Is On! | UniverseToday.com
The transit of Venus | Phys.org

— NEWS BYTE—

Rare Rabbit

_{Credit: UnivDeleware Channel | Credit: Kyle McCarthy / World Wide Fund for Nature Japan}

The low down
A research group with the University of Delaware had cameras set up in Sumatra looking for medium- and small-sized wild cats, such as leopards
Inside their camera trap data they found captured images of, one of the world’s rarest species, a rabbit captured on film only three other times
Significance
The Sumatran striped rabbit, Nesolagus netscheri, was first photographed in Kerinci Seblat National Park in 1998 and has rarely been seen since.
They have captured 10 photographs on two occasions from areas 2,591 ft [790 meters] apart
The images that the group found of the rabbit constitutes the most data that anybody has compiled on these rabbits ever
Of Note
While the group plans on continuing their study of small cats, they are now including the rabbit in their focus
They have also reached out to the other groups on the island with photo traps (20–30 people) to increase coverage of the island
Multimedia
YouTube | Rare Rabbit Captured on Camera | UnivDelaware
Further Reading / In the News
Researchers film rare striped rabbit in Sumatra | phys.org
Extremely Rare Sumatran Striped Rabbit Captured on Camera | Sci-News.com
Using camera trap photos and direct sightings to identify possible refugia for the Vulnerable Sumatran striped rabbit Nesolagus netscheri | Oryx Journal

—TWO-BYTE NEWS—

Water in our solar system

_{Credit: Kevin Hand (JPL/Caltech), Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)}

Last time on SciByte
SciByte 42 – World Climate & Light Pollution [April 17, 2012]
The low down
If all the water on the surface of the Earth was in a ball, the radius of this ball would be only about 435 mi[700km]
Based on the Galileo probe data from 1995 to 2003, Europa possesses a deep, global ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice
The subsurface ocean of Europa and ice layer could range from 50–105 miles [80–170 kilometers]
If all the water on Europa was gathered into a ball, the radius would be 545 miles [877km] making it about 2–3 times the volume of Earth’s oceans
Multimedia
APOD: 2012 May 24 – All the Water on Europa
APOD: 2012 May 15 – All the Water on Planet Earth

Creative Noise

The low down
A professor of business administration at the University of Illinois has been studying how the level of ambient noise affects consumer sales
The research has shown that a moderate level of noise not only enhances creative problem-solving but also leads to a greater adoption of innovative products in certain settings
Significance
The study shows that noise levels equivalent to a passenger car traveling on a highway, about 70 decibels, enhances performance on creative tasks
Researchers also studied how a high level of noise, equivalent to traffic noise on a major road, 85 decibels, hurts creativity by reducing information processing.
The 70 decibel level is enough of a distraction that it helps you with abstract out-of-the-box thinking, allowing for increased creativity
A very high level of noise becomes a distraction that affects the thought process
Further Reading / In the News
Scientists Say Ambient Noise Affects Creativity | sci-news.com
Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition | Journal of Consumer Research

Dinosaur with tiny arms

The low down
Argentinian expert have discovered the near-complete remains of a new species of Jurassic-era dinosaur that stood on its rear legs and had tiny arms
The creature at 20 feet [6 meter] long looks like a smaller scale Tyrannosaurus rex, with smaller arms
The Eoabelisaurus mefi, is the oldest known member of the Abelisauri lineage by more than 40 million years
Multimedia
IMAGE : Handout drawing silhouette of “Eoabelisaurus mefi”
Further Reading / In the News
Dinosaur with tiny arms unearthed in Argentina | phys.org

–SPACECRAFT UPDATE–

Dragon Spacecraft

_{YouTube Channels : NASATelevision |}

Last time on SciByte
SpaceX & Easter Island | SciByte 47 – VenSpaceX – Dragon shipment to ISS [May 22, 2012]
The low down
Tuesday, 22 : Dragon launched
Friday, May 25 : Dragon docked with the station
Saturday, May 26 : The hatch between the Dragon and the station was opened
Memorial Day on the Space Station was used to start unloading the 1,014 pounds [460 kg] of cargo in the Dragon spacecraft
Unpacking will take about 25 hours
Thurs, May 31 : Dragon will detach and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast for retrieval
* Of Note*
SpaceX holds a contract with NASA to make 12 more summilar supply runs the first one launching as early as September
@ElonMusk “The President just called to say congrats. Caller ID was blocked, so at first I thought it was a telemarketer :)” post
YouTube Video’s
SpaceX Capsule Grappled, Berthed to ISS | NASATelevision
–> grabbed
–> lining it up
–> capture
Space Station Crew Welcomes World’s First Commercial Cargo Craft | ReelNASA
Images
International Space Station in 1999
Last view of the space station from a space shuttle, Atlantis in July 2011
Shace Shuttle Atlantis attached to the Space Station in May 2011
Social Media
SpaceX @SpaceX
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Further Reading / In the News
Docked Dragon viewed from the Cupola Observation Dome aboard ISS. NASA TV
Dragon grappled with Earth backdrop. NASA TV
Enter the Dragon: Astronauts Open 1st Private Capsule at Space Station | Space.com
SpaceX capsule has ‘new car’ smell, astronauts say (Update) | phys.org
Astronauts enter world’s 1st private supply ship | phys.org
Dragon makes history with space station docking | phys.org
Astronauts capture SpaceX’s Dragon for station dock | phys.org
Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st (Update 2) | phys.org
SpaceX readies space station rendezvous | phys.org
Spot the New Space Era as ISS & Dragon Streak Across the Sky – This Week Only ! | UniverseToday.com
Private Dragon Spacecraft Is ‘Golden Spike’ of Final Frontier, Astronaut Says | Space.com
Astronauts to Spend Memorial Day Unpacking Private Space Capsule | Space.com
SpaceX’s No. 1 Rule for Naming Private Spaceship Parts: Be Cool | Space.com

–SCIENCE CALENDAR–

Looking back

June 02,1889 : 123 years ago : Hydroelectricity : A hydroelectric power plant generated alternating current electricity which was for the first time made available to consumers at a significant distance from its origin. A 13 mile power line linked the Willamette Falls Electric Co. power plant to Portland, Ore. Two 300 h.p. Stilwell & Bierce waterwheels together drove a single phase, 720 kilowatt generator. It was not the first hydroelectric power plant, for one had been demonstrated in Appleton, Wisc., 30 Sep 1882 with a small dynamo. Rather, it is the use of alternating current that is significant, for this makes possible long-distance transmission that overcomes the problems of direct current. AC generators driven by steam power had been in use elsewhere since 1886.
June 01, 1947 : 65 years ago : Photosensitive glass : The development of photosensitive glass was announced publicly in Corning, N.Y. It had first been made by the Corning Glass Works in Nov 1937. The glass is crystal clear, but exposure to ultraviolet light followed by heat treatment forms submicroscopic metal particles creating an image within the glass. This is believed to be the most durable form of photographic medium, and to be as permanent as the glass itself.

–Looking up this week–

Spot the Dragon spacecraft attached to the Space Station!
NASA Human Spaceflight Sighting Opportunities
Heavens Above
Keep an eye out for …
Wed, May 30 : Saturn and Spica are to the left of the Moon in the evening, with Saturn being the higher of the two
Thurs, May 31 : Tonight Saturn, Spica and the Moon will form a line with Saturn being the highest, the straightness of the time depends on where you live. Each within a few degrees of each other, or about a finger’s width held at arm’s length
Fri, June 1 : Between 10–11 the Summer Triangle is in the East. Vega, brightest star in the eastern sky, is in the top corner. Deneb is the brightest star to Vega’s lower left. Altair is farther to Vega’s lower right.
Mon, June 4 : A partial lunar eclipse will take place just before Sunrise, with Earth’s shadow covering about a third of the Moon
Tues, June 5 : Venus Transit
Further Reading and Resources
More on what’s in the sky this week
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 Venus Transit & Dragon Spacecraft | SciByte 48 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.