We take a look at marijuana\’s effect on the brain, an \”Earth-like\” exoplanet, the brains distraction controls, a possible new moon for Saturn, 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:

Marijuana’s and Changes to the Brain

• Young adults who used marijuana only recreationally showed significant abnormalities in two key brain regions that are important in emotion and motivation
• The Study
• This is the first study to show casual use of marijuana is related to major brain changes
• Through different methods of neuroimaging, scientists examined the brains of young adults ages 18 to 25, from Boston-area colleges; 20 who smoked marijuana and 20 who didn\’t. Each group had nine males and 11 females
• The users underwent a psychiatric interview to confirm they were not dependent on marijuana
• The changes in brain structures indicate the marijuana users\’ brains are adapting to low-level exposure to marijuana
• Results
• The degree of brain abnormalities in these regions is directly related to the number of joints a person smoked per week, the more joints a person smoked, the more abnormal the shape, volume and density of the brain regions
• Some of these people only used marijuana to get high once or twice a week thinking a little recreational use shouldn\’t cause a problem; however, data directly says this is not the case
• Scientists examined the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala-key regions for emotion and motivation, and associated with addiction-in the brains of casual marijuana users and non-users
• Researchers analyzed three measures: volume, shape and density of grey matter to obtain a comprehensive view of how each region was affected.
• Both these regions in recreational pot users were abnormally altered for at least two of these structural measures and the degree of those alterations was directly related to how much marijuana the subjects used
• What is Means
• The study results fit with animal studies that show when rats are given tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) their brains rewire and form many new connections. THC is the mind-altering ingredient found in marijuana
• Think when people are in the process of becoming addicted, their brains from these new connections
• In animals, these new connections indicate the brain is adapting to the unnatural level of reward and stimulation from marijuana. These connections make other natural rewards less satisfying
• The brain changes suggest that structural changes to the brain are an important early result of casual drug use
• Researchers did not know the THC content of the marijuana, which can range from 5 to 9 percent or even higher, the THC content is much higher today than the marijuana during the 1960s and 1970s, which was often about 1 to 3 percent
• Further Reading / In the News
  • Casual marijuana use linked to brain abnormalities in students | MedicalXPress

— NEWS BYTE —

Another Earth-sized Exo-Planet

• The first Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of another star has been confirmed by observations with both the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini Observatory
• The initial discovery, made by NASA\’s Kepler Space Telescope, is one of a handful of smaller planets found by Kepler and verified using large ground-based telescopes
• The System
• The host star, Kepler-186, is an M1-type dwarf star relatively close to our solar system, at about 500 light years and is in the constellation of Cygnus
• The star is very dim, being over half a million times fainter than the faintest stars we can see with the naked eye and is cooler than the Sun
• Five small planets have been found orbiting this star, four of which are in very short-period orbits and are very hot
• This Earth-sized planet, one of five orbiting this star, which is cooler than the Sun, resides in a temperate region where water could exist in liquid form
• Observations
• Neither Kepler (nor any telescope) is currently able to directly spot an exoplanet of this size and proximity to its host star all they can do is eliminate essentially all other possibilities so that the validity of these planets is really the only viable option
• With such a small host star, the team employed a technique that eliminated the possibility that either a background star or a stellar companion could be mimicking what Kepler detected
• Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI)
• The team obtained extremely high spatial resolution observations from the eight-meter Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii using a technique called speckle imaging, as well as adaptive optics (AO) observations from the ten-meter Keck II telescope
• The Gemini \”speckle\” data directly imaged the system to within about 400 million miles (about 4 AU, approximately equal to the orbit of Jupiter in our solar system) of the host star and confirmed that there were no other stellar size objects orbiting within this radius from the star
• It works on a principle that utilizes multiple short exposures of an object to capture and remove the noise introduced by atmospheric turbulence producing images with extreme detail
• The System
• Kenny MacLeod ‏@siabost9deas
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Kepler-186f : First Earth-size Planet Discovered in the Habitable Zone of Another Star [HD] | The Mars Underground
• Further Reading / In the News
• First potentially habitable Earth-sized planet confirmed: It may have liquid water | Phys.org

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

The Brains Distraction Control

• A new study to reveals that our brains rely on an active suppression mechanism to avoid being distracted by salient irrelevant information when we want to focus on a particular item or task
• This discovery opens up the possibility that environmental and/or genetic factors may hinder or suppress a specific brain activity that the researchers have identified as helping us prevent distraction.
• These results show clearly that this is only one part of the equation and that active suppression of the irrelevant objects is another important part
• Psychologists say their discovery could help scientists and health care professionals better treat individuals with distraction-related attentional deficits
• Distraction is a leading cause of injury and death in driving and other high-stakes environments
• Disorders associated with attention deficits, such as ADHD and schizophrenia, may turn out to be due to difficulties in suppressing irrelevant objects rather than difficulty selecting relevant ones
• Researchers are now turning their attention to understanding how we deal with distraction and why we can\’t suppress potentially distracting objects, whether some of us are better at doing so and why that is the case.
• Further Reading / In the News
• ADHD: Scientists discover brain\’s anti-distraction system | ScienceDaily

A New Moon for Saturn?

• A bright clump spotted orbiting Saturn at the outermost edge of its A ring may be a brand new moon in the process of being born
• The effects of this now 1,200-kilometer-long, 10-kilometer-wide arc of icy material were first seen in May 2012 traveling along the edge of the A ring
• The arc is thought to be the result of gravitational perturbations caused by an as-yet unseen embedded object about a kilometer wide – possibly a miniature moon in the process of formation
• The half-mile-wide object has been unofficially named “Peggy,” eventually it may coalesce into a slightly larger moon and move outward, establishing its own orbital path around Saturn
• This is how many of Saturn’s other moons are thought to have formed much further back in the planet’s history
• While it is possible that the bright perturbation is the result of an object’s breakup rather than formation, researchers are still looking forward to finding out more about its evolution.
• Further Reading / In the News
• Is Saturn Making a New Moon? | UniverseToday.com
• NASA Cassini Images May Reveal Birth of New Saturn Moon | NASA.gov
• NASA Cassini Missiom Page

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

SpaceX Dragon Delivery Mission

• Last Time on SciByte …
• SciByte 126 | Paraplegic Therapy & Exomoon – International Space Station (ISS) Glitch | April 15, 2014
• Latest Delivery
• The SpaceX 3 Dragon commercial cargo freighter successfully arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Easter Sunday morning, April 20
• The mission is the company’s third cargo delivery flight to the station and is loaded with nearly 2.5 tons of science experiments, it will remain attached to the station until May 18
• There are over 150 science experiments loaded aboard the Dragon capsule for research to be conducted by the crews of ISS Expeditions 39 and 40
• CRS-3 mission will deliver some 5000 pounds of science experiments, a high definition Earth observing imaging camera suite (HDEV), a pair of hi tech legs for Robonaut 2, a laser optical communications experiment (OPALS) and essential gear, the VEGGIE lettuce growing experiment, spare parts, crew provisions, food, clothing and supplies to the six person crews
• Included in this delivery is equipment needed for the repair of the Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM) that controls a robotics mobile transporter, but also radiators and a joint to move the station’s solar arrays, among other things.
• Multimedia
• YouTube | U.S. SpaceX Dragon Ship Arrives at the International Space Station with Important cargo | NASA
• Further Reading / In the News
• Easter Sunday Space Station Rendezvous and Berthing for SpaceX Dragon Freighter Succeessful | UnivrseToday.com

New Horizons and Questions About Pluto

• Compositional Model Theories
• Two space researchers have published a paper where they describe three possible interior models of the former planet Pluto
• The possibilities include: an undifferentiated rock/ice mixture, a differentiated rock/ice mixture, and an ocean covered with ice, the third possibility suggests the likelihood, they claim, of tectonic action on the dwarf planet
• Scientists believe that Pluto came to exist as it does today, in part due to a collision billions of years ago that led also to the formation of its moon Charon
• When celestial bodies collide, not only do they knock each other around, they produce heat—heat, the researchers suggest that could still be evident today
• A theory that suggests that shortly after impact, Pluto and Charon were much closer together where the gravity attraction between them would have caused both to be egg shaped.
• As time passed, melted ice from the impact would have created an icy crust on top of an ocean on Pluto
• As Charon moved farther away, the attractive pull would have diminished, causing ice plates to form and crack against one another, a form of tectonics.
• If that were the case, the two add, then in all likelihood, when New Horizons begins sending back images, they should see evidence of such tectonic action—plate edges thrust into the air
• Pluto circles the sun in an elliptical orbit, thus sometimes it\’s much closer to the sun than other times, when near, it has a defined atmosphere, when far away however, its atmosphere actually freezes to its surface
• Something that could hide ridges in the ice and thus evidence of both tectonic activity and an ocean beneath the crust of ice
• New Horizons will arrive during a time when its atmosphere is frozen to the surface, it might be difficult to determine which of the three proposed models actually describes the relationship between its exterior and interior
• Further Reading / In the News
• Research pair offer three possible models of Pluto ahead of New Horizons visit | Phys.org
• New Horizons | NASA

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• New Science Location
• Scientists using NASA\’s Curiosity Mars rover are eyeing a rock layer surrounding the base of a small butte, called \”Mount Remarkable,\” as a target for investigating with tools on the rover\’s robotic arm
• The butte stands about 16 feet (5 meters) high. Curiosity\’s science team refers to the rock layer surrounding the base of Mount Remarkable as the \”middle unit\” because its location is intermediate between rocks that form buttes in the area and lower-lying rocks that show a pattern of striations
• Depending on what the mission scientists learn from a close-up look at the rock and identification of chemical elements in it, a site on this middle unit may become the third rock that Curiosity samples with its drill
• Multimedia
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA Mars Orbiter Spies Rover Near Martian Butte | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• April 25, 1990 : 24 years ago : Hubble Space Telescope : In 1990, the $2.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope was deployed in space from the Space Shuttle Discovery into an orbit 381 miles above Earth. It was the first major orbiting observatory, named in honour of American astronomer, Edwin Powell Hubble. It was seven years behind schedule and nearly $2 billion over budget. In orbit, the 94.5-in primary mirror was found to be flawed, giving blurred images and reduced ability to see distant stars. However, correcting optics were successfully installed in 25 Dec 1993. The telescope 43-ft x 14-ft telescope now provides images with a clarity otherwise impossible due to the effect of the earth\’s atmosphere. Instrument packages capture across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Looking up this week

• Solar Eclipse
• On April 29th, an annular solar eclipse occurs over a small D-shaped 500 kilometre wide region of Antarctica
• 2014 has the minimum number of eclipses possible in one year, with four: two partial solars and two total lunars
• This month’s solar eclipse is also a rarity in that it’s a non-central eclipse with one limit, where the center of the Moon’s shadow – known as the antumbra during an annular eclipse – will juuuust miss the Earth and instead pass scant kilometres above the Antarctic continent
• Out of 3,956 annular eclipses occurring from 2000 BCE to 3000 AD, only 68 (1.7%) are of the non-central variety
• An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is too distant to cover the disk of the Sun, resulting in a bright “annulus” or “ring-of-fire” eclipse
• Several southern Indian Ocean islands and all of Australia will still witness a fine partial solar eclipse from this event, a scattering of islands in the southern Indian Ocean will see a 55% eclipsed Sun.
• In Australia, Perth will see a 55% eclipsed Sun and Sydney will be able to see a 50% partial eclipse low to the horizon in west at sunset
• Don\’t Forget to Use Safe Viewing Practices
• The safest way | Pinhole camera/projector and telescope — pinhole projector
• Optical Filters | Eclipse glasses, welder\’s goggles rated at 14
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Safely See the Sun — Build a Shoebox Pinhole Camera | VideoFromSpace
• YouTube | The April 29th, 2014 Annular Eclipse: Sims from Space | astroguyz
• Further Reading / In the News

• Our Guide to the Bizzare April 29th Solar Eclipse UniverseToday.com

• Keep an eye out for …

• Fri, April 25 | Dawn | The thin crescent Moon is low in the E and left of Venus
• Planets
• Venus | \”Morning Star\” | Look to the E-SE as daylight approached
• Mars | Just past opposition you can see it most of the night. In the evening is is in the SW with Spica below it, both will be at their highest point around local 12pm DST moving towards the NE as dawn approaches
• Jupiter | Twilight | High in the SW sinking towards the W horizon as the night progresses

• Saturn | End of Twilight | Highest in the S around 2am

• 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 Marijuana & “Exo-Earth” | SciByte 127 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at sad news for the Kepler space telescope, wireless brain imaging, remote ancient water, cancer genes, sound imaging, viewer feedback, spacecraft updates, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Kepler\’s Last Dance?

• NASA’s Kepler telescope lost its ability to precisely point toward stars when one of the reaction wheels –devices which enable the spacecraft to aim in different directions without firing thrusters – has failed
• Launched in 2009, the Kepler mission completed its 3.5-year planned run last year.it monitors some 150,000 sunlike stars in search of transiting planets
• Reaction Wheels
• Reaction wheels try to balance the forces from the solar pressure, that’s what forces a wheel to run
• Last year reaction wheel #2 failed, and now #4 has failed
• In July 2012 reaction wheel #2 failed, then earlier this year elevated friction was detected in reaction wheel #4, they saw some movement on the wheel but it went back quickly
• Extending Fuel Supplies
• They are currently using thrusters to stabilize the spacecraft, and in its current mode, the onboard fuel will last for several months
• They could extend the fuel to last a period of several years in a “Point Rest State,” where we can park the vehicle
• Point Rest State is a loosely-pointed, thruster-controlled state that minimizes fuels usage while providing a continuous X-band communication downlink
• The software to execute that state was loaded to the spacecraft last week
• There is the possibility of the wheel running in the opposite direction, but running the wheel backward would mean they would need to use more thruster fuel
• What Lies Ahead
• The spacecraft needs at least three reaction wheels to be able to point precisely enough to hunt for planets orbiting distant stars, but it might be possible to use the telescope for another purpose that does not require such precise pointing abilities
• They will continue to analyze the situation to try and get the telescope back online
• Even if the Kepler spacecraft is unable to make more observations, there are still terabytes of data to pore over with two years of data that has yet to be searched through
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Kepler Update on This Week @NASA | NASATelevision
• Further Reading / In the News
• Kepler mission may be over | Atom & Cosmos | Science News
• Planet-Hunting Kepler Spacecraft Suffers Major Failure, NASA Says | Space.com
• Kepler spacecraft\’s planet-hunting days may be over | Phys.org
• Malfunction Could Mark the End of NASA\’s Kepler Mission – ScienceInsider | ScienceMag.org
• Kepler Planet-Hunting Mission in Jeopardy | UniverseToday.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Wireless Brain Imaging

• A new technology is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnosis of brain swelling or bleeding.
• The device analyzes data from low energy, electromagnetic waves, similar to the kind used to transmit radio and mobile signals
• It could potentially become a cost-effective tool for medical diagnostics and to triage injuries in areas where access to medical care, especially medical imaging, is limited
• The Prototype
• Engineers fashioned two coils into a helmet-like device, fitted over the heads of the study participants
• One coil acts as a radio emitter and the other serves as the receiver. Electromagnetic signals are broadcast through the brain from the emitter to the receiver
• The waves are extremely weak, and are comparable to standing in a room with the radio or television turned on
• The device\’s diagnoses for the brain trauma patients in the study matched the results obtained from conventional computerized tomography (CT) scans
• Researchers take advantage of the characteristic changes in tissue composition and structure in brain injuries
• For brain edema, swelling results from an increase in fluid in the tissue and for brain hematomas, internal bleeding causes the buildup of blood in certain regions of the brain.
• Because fluid conducts electricity differently than brain tissue, it is possible to measure changes in electromagnetic properties.
• Then computer algorithms interpret the changes to determine the likelihood of injury.
• Prototype Testing
• The researchers tested a prototype in a small-scale pilot study of healthy adults and brain trauma patients admitted to a military hospital for the Mexican Army
• The study involved 46 healthy adults, ages 18 to 48, and eight patients with brain damage, ages 27 to 70.
• The results from the healthy patients were clearly distinguishable from those with brain damage, and data for bleeding was distinct from those for swelling
• Why is it Important?
• Symptoms of serious head injuries and brain damage are not always immediately obvious, and for treatment, time is of the essence.
• Further Reading / In the News
• Wireless signals could transform brain trauma diagnostics | MedicalXPress.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Ancient Water Story

• A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life
• Before this finding, the only water of this age was found trapped in tiny bubbles in rock and is incapable of supporting life
• The Water
• The crystalline rocks surrounding the water are thought to be around 2.7 billion years old. But no-one thought the water could be the same age, until now
• Using ground-breaking techniques researchers show that the fluid is at least 1.5 billion years old, but could be significantly older.
• The interconnected fluid system in the deep Canadian crystalline basement that is billions of years old, and capable of supporting life
• Scientists say the water found in the Canadian mine pours from the rock at a rate of nearly two litres per minute yet don\’t yet know if the underground system in Canada sustains life
• Hydrogen, Methane, and Life
• Researchers have analysed water pouring out of boreholes from a mine 2.4 kilometres beneath Ontario, Canada
• They have found that the water is rich in dissolved gases like hydrogen, methane and different forms – called isotopes – of noble gases such as helium, neon, argon and xenon
• The amount of hydrogen in the water is similar to that around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean, where microbial life has been found
• The hydrogen and methane come from the interaction between the rock and water, as well as natural radioactive elements in the rock reacting with the water
• These gases could provide energy for microbes that may not have been exposed to the sun for billions of years.
• What This Means On a Larger Scale
• The similarity between the rocks that trapped it and those on Mars raises the hope that comparable life-sustaining water could lie buried beneath the red planet\’s surface
• Further Reading / In the News
• Billion-year-old water could hold clues to life on Earth and Mars | Phys.org

Flipping Genes for Cancer

• Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites
• The work shows for the first time that switching this gene off in aggressive cancer cells dramatically changes their appearance and behavior
• The team applied the same techniques to several strains of human breast cancer cells in the laboratory, including the so-called triple negative cells
• Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
• Triple-negative breast cancer cells tend to behave aggressively and do not respond to many of our most effective breast cancer therapies
• Cells with suppressed HMGA1 grow very slowly and fail to migrate or invade new territory
• The team then implanted tumor cells into mice, the tumors with HMGA1 grew and spread to other areas, such as the lungs, while those with blocked HMGA1 did not grow well in the breast tissue or spread to distant sites.
• Further Reading / In the News
• Making cancer less cancerous: Blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive | MedicalXpress.com

Sound Pictures of Your Car

• Researchers have created a camera that creates a heat map-like view of machinery, or anything else
• 30 digital microphones and a high-res camera pick up on what\’s making noise, and an image shows the different levels of noise, organized by a color gradient with blue meaning a little noise, and red is the most extreme level.
• While this is not the first sound camera, at about 4 pounds it is one of the most portable
• Further Reading / In the News
• This Sound Camera Could Help You Fix Your Car | Popular Science

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Space Station Patch

• Peter Daintree / \”Korlus\” – Check This Out!
• Space Station ammonia Leak and Fix
• Answer
• Expedition 35 Flight Engineers inspected and replaced a pump controller box on the International Space Station’s far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant
• Coolant Pump
• The device contains the mechanical systems that drive the cooling functions for the port truss.
• The ammonia cools the 2B power channel, one of eight power channels that control the all the various power-using systems at the ISS
• While the coolant is vital to the operation of the ISS for the electricity-supplying systems, the crew was not in any danger
• The Fix
• The spacewalk is the 168th in support of the assembly and maintenance of the space
• While astronauts on the station prepared in space, Astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center used the Neutral Buoyancy lab – a 12- meter (40 ft.) deep swimming pool with mockups of the space station that simulates the zero-gravity conditions in space – going through the entire expected EVA
• A little more than 2 1/2 hours into the spacewalk removed the 260-pound pump controller box from the P6 truss and replaced it with a spare that had been stowed nearby
• What Happened in the \”Down Time\”
• All the systems that use power from the 2B channel, the problem area, were transferred throughout the day to another channel
• The 2B channel will eventually shut down when the coolant is depleted, and the power is being diverted in order to keep everything up and running on the station
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Station Ammonia Leak Prompts Spacewalk Preps | ReelNASA
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA – Astronauts Complete Spacewalk to Repair Ammonia Leak, Station Changes Command | NASA.gov
• Emergency Spacewalk Likely for ‘Serious’ ISS Coolant Leak | UniverseToday.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

Opportunity’s Driving Marathon

• Last Time on SciByte
• SciByte 79 | Multitasking & Tractor Beams – Opportunity rover still on the move [29 Jan, 2013]
• Marathon Driving
• Over the course of three days in December 1972 Apollo 17 astronauts drove their mission\’s Lunar Roving Vehicle 22.21 mi [19 nautical mi / 35.74 kilometers] holding the record for the farthest travelled NASA vehicle until recently
• Opportunity rover drove 263 feet (80 meters) on May 15, bringing its total odometry on the Red Planet to 22.22 miles [35.768 km], beating Apollo 17\’s record
• The Mission
• The golf-cart-sized Opportunity and it\’s twin Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 on three-month missions to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet
• Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in 2010 and was declared dead a year later
• In the meantime Opportunity has been working at a section of the rim dubbed \”Cape York\” since the middle of 2011
• Now it has began trekking toward an area called Solander Point, which lies 1.4 miles (2.2 km) away
• The Future
• Opportunity still trails another robot for the international distance record, the Soviet Union\’s remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover traveled 23 miles (37 km) on the moon in 1973.
• Although Opportunity\’s handlers have said they\’d like to add this milestone to the rover\’s resume as well, though science remains the mission\’s top priority
• Multimedia
• IMAGE | Comparisons among the distances driven by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of Earth\’s moon and Mars | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
• Further Reading / In the News
• Nine-Year-Old Mars Rover Passes 40-Year-Old Record – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | JPL.NASA.gov
• Mars Rover Breaks U.S. Record for Off-Planet Driving | Scientific American
• Mars Rover Opportunity Breaks US Record for Off-Planet Driving | Space.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Second Drilling Location
• The first drilling location was at a target called \”John Klein\” three months ago
• The new target Cumberland resembles John Klein and lies about nine feet (2.75 meters) farther west
• On May 19th Curiosity drilled a hole into Cumberland about an 0.6 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter and about 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters) deep
• Preliminary findings from analysis of the first site, \”John Klein,\” indicate that the location long ago had environmental conditions favorable for microbial life
• The science team expects to use analysis of the new material from Cumberland to check against those results
• ”Blinking Image”
• Before-and-After Blink of \’Cumberland\’ Drilling | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
• This pair of images from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA\’s Mars rover Curiosity shows the rock target \”Cumberland\” before and after Curiosity drilled into it to collect a sample for analysis
• The \”before\” image was taken during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity\’s work on Mars (May 15, 2013).
• Curiosity drilled into Cumberland on Sol 279 (May 19, 2013) and took the second image later that same sol.
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Curiosity Rover Report (May 16, 2013): Rover Readies for Second Drilling | JPLNews
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Mars Science Laboratory: NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Drills Second Rock Target | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• May 27, 1931 : 82 years ago : Balloon Record : In 1931, Auguste Piccard and Charles Knipfer took man\’s first trip into the stratosphere when they rode their balloon to an altitude of 51,800 feet (nearly 10 miles above the earth). This required the use of a pressurized cabin, which Piccard had designed. On-board experiments included the use of an electroscope to investigate cosmic rays

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Saturn | Twilight | In the SE with the blue giant star Spica to it\’s upper right
• Venus | Twilight | In the W-NW to the lower right of Jupiter
• Jupiter | Twilight | In the W-NW it is appearing lower and lower each day
• The Conjunction | When objects in the sky appear to be close from our perspective | As seen in the video, Jupiter and Venus are getting closer and closer in the W-NW about 40 min after sunset. They will be at their closest point May 28th, when they will only be 1 degree apart, or about the width of your pinky finger held at arms length

• YouTube | Conjunction Video | SkyandTelescope

• 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 Kepler & Ancient Water | SciByte 94 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at hint of dark matter, reading your dreams, blackhole snacks, 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:

Hints of Dark Matter

• After two years a cosmic ray detector (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, AMS) on the International Space Station has found the first tantalizing evidence of the cosmic footprints that may have been left by dark matter
• Dark Matter
• A type of matter hypothesized to account for 26.8% of the total mass in the universe
• Its existence and properties are inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, radiation, and the large-scale structure of the universe
• First theorized in 1932, the existence of dark matter for 80 years but has never actually observed it directly
• Accelerators smashing particles together at high speed deep underground with special detectors have had no luck finding them, you can also look in space for the results of rare dark matter collisions
• Unraveling the mystery of dark matter could help scientists better understand the composition of our universe and, more particularly, what holds galaxies together
• Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer | AMS
• The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, AMS, is a 7-ton detector with a 3-foot magnet ring at its core was sent into space in 2011, transmitting its data to CERN, where it is being analyzed
• Since its installation on 19 May 2011 it has measured over 30 billion cosmic rays at energies up to trillions of electron volts
• Its permanent magnet and array of precision particle detectors collect and identify charged cosmic rays passing through AMS from the far reaches of space
• Over its long duration mission on the ISS, AMS will record signals from 16 billion cosmic rays every year and transmit them to Earth for analysis by the AMS Collaboration.
• Data
• Currently, the total number of positrons identified by AMS, in excess of 400,000, is the largest number of energetic antimatter particles directly measured and analyzed from space
• In the initial 18 month period of space operations, from 19 May 2011 to 10 December 2012, AMS analyzed 25 billion primary cosmic ray events
• Of these, 6.8 million, were unambiguously identified as electrons and their antimatter counterpart, positrons.
• If particles of dark matter crash and annihilate each other, they should leave a footprint of positrons-the anti-matter version of electrons-at high energy levels
• The results show evidence that could be dark matter or could be energy could also originate from pulsars
• By measuring the ratio between positrons and electrons and by studying the behavior of any excess across the energy spectrum, a better understanding of the origin of dark matter and other physics phenomena can be obtained
• The curve of the plot of those positrons will be a clue as to what these results are, if the curve is one shape, it points to dark matter, while if it\’s another, it points to pulsars
• While the results aren\’t enough to declare the case closed they expect a more definitive answer in a matter of months
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Installing the AMS | Space Station Live: First Findings from the AMS | ReelNASA
• YouTube | Anouncement | Space Station Instrument Finds Excess Antimatter | NASAtelevision
• YouTube | Animated Look inside the AMS | Sifting Through the Cosmic Sands for Dark Matter | VideoFromSpace
• Further Reading / In the News
• Scientists report hint of dark matter in first results from $2 billion cosmic ray detector (Update 4) | Phys.org
• Cosmic ray detector confirms hints of dark matter | Matter & Energy | Science News
• Dark Matter Possibly Found by $2 Billion Space Station Experiment | AMS | Space.com
• Potential Dark Matter Discovery a Win for Space Station Science | Space.com

— NEWS BYTE —

Peering Into Your Dreams

• A recent study shows that it may be possible to use brain activity patterns to understand something about what a person is dreaming about
• The Study
• Researchers recorded brain activity in three adult male volunteers during the early stages of sleep
• Researchers chose to awaken the subjects in light sleep rather than in deeper \”rapid eye movement\” (REM) sleep solely to make the research easier to do
• It takes at least an hour to reach first REM stage, it would be difficult to get sleep and dream data from multiple participants
• Right after being awakened from the early stages of sleep, the researchers asked for detailed reports on what they had seen while sleeping
• After gathering at least 200 such reports from the three men, the researchers used a lexical database to group the dreamed objects in coarse categories, such as street, furniture and girl
• They used functional MRI to monitor brain activity of the participants and polysomnography to record the physical changes that occur during sleep
• Then researchers compared evidence of brain activity when participants were awake and looking at real images to the brain activity they saw when participants were dreaming
• Computer algorithms sorted through the patterns of brain activity, linking particular patterns with objects
• On average, the computer could pick which of two objects had appeared in a dream 70 percent of the time
• What the Results Could Mean
• The study bolsters the notion that the vivid imagery of dreams, no matter how fantastic, is as real as waking life, from the brain’s perspective
• Visual experiences you have when dreaming are detectable by the same type of brain activity that occurs when looking at actual images when you\’re awake
• However it might be hard to remember a dream minutes after waking up, because particular neurotransmitters or brain regions involved in memory are not active during sleep
• There is also evidence suggesting that the pattern of spontaneous brain activity is relevant to health issues
• Caution Belief
• The current approach requires the data of image viewing and sleep within the same person, but methods are being developed for aligning brain patterns across people
• One expert said the results are intriguing, he was cautious that previous disappointments relating brain activity to complex visual experience and would like to see this replicated
• Multimedia
• YouTube | This is your brain on dreams | Digtal Carlisle
• Further Reading / In the News
• Dream contents deciphered by computer | Body & Brain | Science News
• Could scientists peek into your dreams? | MedicalXPress

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Blackhole Snacks on a Planet

• Astronomers using the Integral space observatory were able to watch as the planet was eaten by a blackhole that had been inactive for decades
• The Galaxy
• Astronomers were using Integral to study a different galaxy when they noticed a bright X-ray flare coming from another location in the same wide field-of-view
• The origin was confirmed as NGC 4845, 47 million light-years away, a galaxy never before detected at high energies
• The blackhole in the center of NGC 4845 is estimated to have a mass of around 300,000 times that of our own Sun
• The \’Eaten\’ Object
• The halo of material suggest that the object was approximately 14–30 Jupiter masses, and so the astronomers say the object was either a super-Jupiter or a brown dwarf
• It is believed that it was a ‘wandering’ planet, which would fit the description of recent studies
• Astronomers estimate that only the external layers, ~10% total mass, were eaten by the blackhole, and that a denser core has been left orbiting the blackhole
• The Emissions
• The emission was traced from its maximum in January 2011, when the galaxy brightened by a factor of a thousand, and then as it subsided over the course of the year
• Emissions brightened and decayed with a delay of 2–3 months between the object being disrupted and the heating of the debris in the vicinity of the blackhole.
• By analyzing the characteristics of the flare astronomers were able to determine the source of the emission
• This data came from a halo of material around the galaxy’s central blackhole as it tore apart and fed on the object
• Of Note
• This is the first time where we have seen the disruption of a substellar object by a blackhole
• This \’event\’ might be similar to what is expected to happen with the supermassive blackhole at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy
• Estimates are that events like these may be detectable every few years in galaxies around us
• Multimedia
• YouTube | blackhole Snacks On A Super-Jupiter | Animation | VideoFromSpace
• Further Reading / In the News
• Astronomers Watch as a blackhole Eats a Rogue Planet | UniverseToday.com

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Eyeing Europa

• **Paul Hill @P_H_9_3 | Check This Out! **
• Jupiter Europa Mission Funding
• A resolution was recently passed by the House and Senate outlining the extent of government funding (75,000,000) for pre-formulation and/or formulation activities for a mission that meets the science goals outlined for the Jupiter Europa mission
• Data recently uncovered the presence of magnesium sulfate salt, Epsom salt, on Europa’s surface which is suggestive of a cycling of Europa’s salty ocean with the surface.
• Although this is good news, it’s also a reminder that potentially habitable moons don’t only orbit Jupiter, Enceladus the Saturnian moon is known to possess salty liquid water beneath its surface, plus an internal heat source, that generates Enceladus’ famous geysers
• Europa In Other News
• According to research Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Europa has hydrogen peroxide across much of the surface of its leading hemisphere, which could potentially provide energy for life if it has found its way into the moon’s subsurface ocean.
• The availability of oxidants like peroxide on Earth was a critical part of the rise of complex, multicellular life
• The highest concentration of peroxide found was on the side of Europa that always leads in its orbit around Jupiter,roughly 20 times more diluted than \’off the shelf\’ hydrogen peroxide, then drops off to nearly zero on the hemisphere of Europa that faces backward in its orbit.
• The concentration of Hydrogen peroxide was first detected on Europa by NASA’s Galileo mission, which explored the Jupiter system from 1995 to 2003
• Galileo observations were of a limited region. The new Keck data show that peroxide is widespread across much of the surface of Europa, and the highest concentrations are reached in regions where Europa’s ice is nearly pure water with very little sulfur contamination
• Scientists think hydrogen peroxide is an important factor for the habitability of the global liquid water ocean under Europa’s icy crust because hydrogen peroxide decays to oxygen when mixed into liquid water
• With high enough levels of compounds like peroxide could help to satisfy the chemical energy requirement needed for life within the ocean, if the peroxide is mixed into the ocean
• Further Reading / In the News
• Will the Europa Clipper Cruise to Jupiter\’s Moon? | Discovery News
• Hydrogen Peroxide Could Feed Life on Europa | UniverseToday.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

Reviewing SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft Glitch

• Last Time on SciByte
• SciByte 84 (March 5, 2013)| HIV & SpaceX Troubles – SpaceX – Dragon Space Station Resupply Mission Glitch
• March 1, 2013 Launch Glitch
• Barely 11 minutes after the March 1 blastoff of the Dragon atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida contact had been lost
• Right after spacecraft separation in low Earth orbit, a sudden and unexpected failure of the Dragon’s critical thrust pods had prevented three out of four from initializing and firing
• What Happened
• The oxidizer pressure was low in three tanks, which is required to orient the craft for two way communication and to propel the Dragon to the orbiting lab complex
• The problem was that three of the check valves had a small design change to the check valves by the supplier that would have needed a magnifying glass to see the difference, because of the tiny change they got stuck
• SpaceX had run the new check valves through a series of low pressurization systems tests and they worked well and didn’t get stuck, but SpaceX did not run the functional tests at higher pressures
• Solution
• The team was able to write some new software in real time to build pressure upstream of the check valves and then released that pressure
• SpaceX had difficulty communicating with the spacecraft because it was in free drift in orbit
• They worked closely with the Air Force to get higher intensity, more powerful dishes to communicate with the spacecraft and upload the software
• The solution got the valves unstuck and then they worked well
• In the meantime SpaceX will revert to the old check valves and run tests to make sure this failure doesn’t happen again
• Multimedia
• YouTube SpaceX Dragon Carrying NASA Cargo Arrives at International Space Station | NASATelevision
• Further Reading / In the News
  • How the Air Force and SpaceX Saved Dragon from Doom | UniverseToday.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Parachute
• An animation of seven images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a “flapping” of the parachute that allowed the Curiosity rover to descend safely through Mars atmosphere images
• The images were acquired by HiRISE between August 12, 2012 and January 13, 2013
• The different images show distinct changes in the parachute, which is attached to the backshell that encompassed the rover during launch, flight and descent
• This type of motion may kick off dust and keep parachutes on the surface bright, to help explain why the parachute from Viking 1 (landed in 1976) remains detectable
• Argon Readings
• Curiosity\’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument analyzed an atmosphere sample that found that the Martian atmosphere has about four times as much of a lighter stable isotope (argon-36) compared to a heavier one (argon-38)
• This data is what we would expect to see with the theory that Mars lost much of its original atmosphere by a process of gas escaping from the top of the atmosphere
• The results provided the the clearest and most precise measurements ever made of isotopes of argon in the Martian atmosphere, isotopes are variants of the same element with different atomic weights
• The ratio is much lower than the solar system\’s original ratio, as estimated from argon-isotope measurements of the sun and Jupiter which points to a process at Mars that favored preferential loss of the lighter isotope over the heavier one
• The data also removes previous uncertainty about the ratio in the Martian atmosphere from 1976 measurements from NASA\’s Viking project and from small volumes of argon extracted from Martian meteorites
• Daily Atmospheric Measurements
• Curiosity measures several variables with the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), daily air temperature
• While temperature measurements have climbed steadily since the measurements began eight months ago and is not strongly tied to the rover\’s location, the humidity has differed significantly at different places along the rover\’s route
• In addition the REMS sensors detected many whirlwind patterns during the first hundred Martian days of the mission, though not as many as detected in the same length of time by earlier missions although no trails of dust devils have not been seen inside Gale Crater
• Upcoming
• For the rest of April, Curiosity will carry out daily activities for which commands were sent in March, using DAN, REMS and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD).
• Curiosity will be drilling into another rock where the rover is now, but that target has not yet been selected. The science team will discuss this over the conjunction period
• Multimedia
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Watch Curiosity’s Parachute Flap in the Martian Breeze | UniverseToday.com
• Remaining Martian Atmosphere Still Dynamic | mars.jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• April 13, 2000 : 13 years ago : Oldest mouse Born : The mouse Yoda was born, and became the world\’s oldest mouse on his fourth birthday in 2004 (which at 1,462-days-old compares to about 136 in human-years). A dwarf mouse, Yoda lives with a larger female cage mate (Princess Leia) to provide him with protective body warmth. The life span of the average laboratory mouse is slightly over two years. Yoda lives in the laboratory of Dr Richard A. Miller, a professor of pathology in the Geriatrics Center of the University of Michigan Medical School, an expert on the genetics and cell biology of aging. For his studies, he has developed strains of mice, derived from wild mice captured in Idaho, that live longer, stay smaller and age more slowly than ordinary mice
• World\’s Oldest Mouse Reaches Milestone Birthday, Teaches Scientists About Human Aging (Apr 13, 2004) | ScienceDaily

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Wed, Apr 10 | 10 pm and later | The \”Summer Star\” Vega rises in the NE
• Wed, Apr 10 | New Moon
• Sat, Apr 13 | ~ 1 hour after sunset | The crescent Moon is in the West with Jupiter to it\’s upper left.
• Sat, Apr 13 | ~ 1 hour after sunset | The Crescent Moon is also between the Pleiades star cluster to its right and slightly below and the red giant star Aldebaran to it\’s upper left.
• Saturn | Rises in the E-SE at the end of twilight,

• Jupiter | After Sunset it is seen high in the W sky, dropping closer to the horizon as the evening goes on, climbing to it\’s highest point in the S around 2am DST

• 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 Dark Matter & Reading Dreams | SciByte 89 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at stomach microbe changes, a new type of tiny supernovae, tracking a swarm of bugs, spacecraft and story 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:

Microbes and Weight Loss

• Previous studies of people and rats have found that the natural mix of microbes in the intestines changes after gastric bypass, with some groups growing more prominent and others diminishing in number
• No one knew whether the altered microbial composition was merely a side effect of the surgery, or whether shifting bacterial populations could help people lose weight.
• The Study
• To find out researchers fattened up mice then performed either bypass or a sham surgery on the animals
• They performed a Roux-en-Y, the most common technique for gastric bypass, which diverts food around most of the stomach and upper small intestine
• Because it bypasses part of the stomach and small intestine, the surgery alters the intestinal environment, changing elements such as pH and bile concentrations
• Mice in the bypass group lost about 29 percent of their body weight within three weeks of the procedure
• Even before the mice dropped weight, those in the bypass group already had an altered mix of intestinal bacteria
• Compared with the sham operation group, the bypass mice had more of certain types of microbes
• Some species of those microbes are pathogens, but others help prevent inflammation and maintain intestinal health
• The bypass mice also had more bacteria, which can feed on mucus lining the intestines, particularly when the host is cutting calories
• Then the researchers transplanted bacteria from the intestines of bypass mice into mice that had been raised without any bacteria
• The formerly germ-free mice slimmed down, trimming about 5 percent of their body weight, even though they started out lean
• The germ-free mice that received bacteria from the guts of sham surgery mice actually packed on a bit of fat
• Of Interest
• By colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight, about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery
• Researchers speculate that the microbes somehow trigger fat-burning changes in the host’s metabolism
• Even with these positive results the results were somewhat biased against weight loss
• The mice used in the study hadn\’t been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand
• There is some question whether a stronger effect might have been seen if they were on a different diet
• In many people with type 2 diabetes, the disease vanishes almost immediately after surgery, too quickly to be explained by the gradual weight loss that happens later
• Patients also describe not being as hungry, or craving foods like salad that they hadn\’t liked much before
• Figuring Out What is Going On
• While the specific microbes found at higher abundance after surgery, are good targets for beginning to understand what\’s taking place, there is a major gap in knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss
• For instance, in addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids
• Other studies have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.
• The ultimate answer as to what is going on may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.
• It may be years before this research could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn\’t be viewed as a way to lose weight without going to the gym
• The Future
• More research is needed to learn more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population is changed by gastric bypass exert its effects,
• Then we need to learn if we can produce these effects, either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes, without surgery
• Another question is whether the transplants will have the same effect in animals who weren\’t raised in a sterile environment and who already have their own gut microbiome, which would more closely mimic people undergoing gastric bypass surgery
• This technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.
• Future studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Gastric Bypass Surgery | TangstarScience
• Further Reading / In the News
• Microbes May Slim Us Down After Gastric Bypass – ScienceNOW | news.ScienceMag.org
• Gut microbes may be behind weight loss after gastric bypass | Genes & Cells | Science News
• A new way to lose weight? Study shows that changes to gut microbiota may play role in weight loss | MedicalXPress.com

— NEWS BYTE —

New Tiny Supernova\’s

• Supernovae
• Until now, supernovae have come in two main versions
• In Type II supernovae a huge star, 10 to 100 times more massive as our Sun, collapses causing a colossal stellar explosion
• Type Ia supernovae, occurs when material from a parent star streams onto the surface of a white dwarf. Over time, so much material falls onto the white dwarf that it raises the core temperature igniting carbon and causing a runaway fusion reaction. This event completely disrupts the white dwarf and results in a colossal stellar explosion
• Now astronomers have found a third type that is fainter and less energetic than a Type Ia, called a Type Iax supernova, essentially a mini supernova only about one-hundredth as bright as their supernova siblings
• Type Iax Supernova
• The data gathered suggest that, like a Type Ia supernova, a Type Iax supernova comes from a binary star system containing a white dwarf and a companion star
• In Type Iax supernovas, the companion star has apparently already lost its outer hydrogen, leaving it dominated by helium
• The white dwarfs then go on to accumulate helium from their companion stars.
• What happens from there is unclear
• One explanation involves the ignition of the outer helium layer from the companion star. The resulting shock wave slams into the white dwarf and disrupts it, causing the explosion.
• Alternately, the white dwarf might ignite first due to the density and pressure from the overlying helium shell it has collected from the companion star, forcing carbon, oxygen and maybe helium within the star to fuse, triggering an explosion
• It also appears that in many cases the white dwarf survives the explosion unlike in a Type Ia supernova where the white dwarf is completely destroyed
• No Type Iax supernovae have been seen so far in elliptical galaxies, which are filled with old stars suggesting that Type Iax supernovae come from young star systems
• Why Haven\’t We Seen Them Before?
• Astronomers likely have discovered so few type Iax supernovae only because they are faint, releasing somewhere between 1% and 50% the energy of a type Ia supernova
• The team has identified 25 examples of this new type of supernova, and there are estimates that for every 100 type Ia supernovae explosions that occur, there are about 31 type Iax supernovae, or roughly a third
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Type IA Supernovae | yoonoose
• Further Reading / In the News
• New Type of Star Explosion Discovered | Type Iax Supernovas | Space.com
• ScienceShot: A New Class of Supernova – ScienceNOW | news.ScienceMag.org
• New Kind of “Runt” Supernovae Could be Lurking Unseen | UniverseToday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

What’s the Buzz?

• Magicicada is a genus of cicada with either a 13- or a 17-year lifespan, depending on species
• It ranges from the Virginia/North Carolina border up through the northern end of the New York City suburbs
• Brood II, also known as the \”East Coast Brood,\” is a 17-year cicada due for emergence this summer
• Brood II
• The Magicicada larvae live underground for nearly their entire lives, feeding on fluids from tree roots in the northeast United States
• They then emerge with only a few weeks life in their lives to molt into adults, mate, lay eggs, and die.
• It\’s not really known why they use this life cycle strategy
• One theory is that such a long period between broods could fool predators, who likely won\’t have been alive (or won\’t remember) the previous emergence.
• Tracking with Radiolab
• The radio shows/podcast Radiolab has come up with a cicada tracker to pinpoint exactly when Brood II will begin \”swarmageddon.\”
• When the soil eight inches below the surface reaches a steady temperature of 64 degrees F, the cicadas will begin their transformation
• Radiolab will monitor the soil temperature using crowdsourcing data collection, you can report your findings to Radiolab, starting at the latest in mid-April
• The interactive map they are putting together will help people track just when they\’ll emerge
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Amazing Cicada life cycle – Sir David Attenborough\’s Life in the Undergrowth | BBCWorldwide
• Further Reading / In the News
• Magicicada/org
• Cicada Tracker | Radiolab
• Radiolab Wants Your Help To Track The Once-Every-17-Year Cicada \”Swarmageddon\” | Popular Science

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Space and Television Entertainment

• Scott Quinlan
• Scott Quinlan seems a bit worried about the lack of space ships, real or science fiction
• Answer
• An edited version of “We Are The Explorers,” a video highlighting the past successes and future goals of the space administration — created by NASA and featuring an inspiring narration by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen — will be screened in several major U.S. cities during the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness thanks to an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.com.
• Aerospace Industries Association of America) will use any funds donated during the next 29 days to reach its next target: getting the ad in at least one theater in every state in America for two weeks. In order for that to happen, a grand total of $94,000 will need to be reached
• Announced on April 2nd, the project is now being conducted in partnership with Challenger Center for Space Science Education to further enhance and grow the crowdfund campaign
• YouTube | We Are the Explorers | ReelNASA
• YouTube | \”Our next destination awaits\” | We Are the Explorers | ReelNASA
• Further Reading / In the News
• WE ARE THE EXPLORERS: A movie trailer for our space program | indiegogo
• NASA Trailer Achieves Crowdfunding Goal to Run Before Star Trek: Into Darkness | UniverseToday

— Updates —

Fossil Feather Color

• New research shows that past reconstructions of the original colors of feathers in some fossil birds and dinosaurs may be flawed
• There is evidence for the colors of feathers-especially melanin-based colors-can be altered during fossilization
• The New Study
• In modern birds, black, brown, and some reddish-brown colors are produced by tiny granules of the pigment melanin
• These features-called melanosomes-are preserved in many fossil feathers, and their precise size and shape have been used to reconstruct the original colors of fossil feathers.
• Scientists had no idea whether melanosomes could survive the fossilisation process intact, now experiments show that this is not the case.
• Results from this study cast questions on studies of fossil feather color and suggest that some previous reconstructions of the original plumage colors of fossils may not be accurate
• Experimental technique pioneered in the group\’s recent study on the colors of fossil insects simulated high pressures and temperatures that are found deep under the Earth\’s surface
• The team then used feathers of different colors and from different species, but the geometry of the melanosomes in all feathers changed during the experiments
• This study will lead to better interpretations of the original plumage colors of diverse feathered dinosaurs and fossil birds
• Multimedia
• YouTube | True Colors of Fossil Feathers in Doubt | LabEquipment
• Further Reading / In the News
• True colors of some fossil feathers now in doubt | Phys.org

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

Quick Trip to the Space Station

• In the past, Soyuz manned capsules and Progress supply ships were launched on trajectories that required about two days, or 34 orbits, to reach the ISS.
• A new abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous with the ISS uses a modified launch and docking profile for the Russian ships arriving in just 5 hours and 45 minutes after launch
• The New Configuration
• It has been tried successfully with three Progress resupply vehicles, but this is the first time it has been used on a human flight.
• The new fast-track trajectory has the rocket launching shortly after the ISS passes overhead
• Then, additional firings of the vehicle’s thrusters early in its mission expedites the time required for a Russian vehicle to reach the Station
• The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft launched at 2:43 a.m. Friday local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (4:43 p.m. EDT, 20:43 UTC on March 28), with a crew of Pavel Vinogradov, Aleksandr Misurkin and Chris Cassidy
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Space Craft approach | Spacecraft Docks to ISS | NASAtelevision
• YouTube | Spacecraft Docks to ISS | NASAtelevision
• YouTube | New Space Travelers Get Warm Welcome | NASAtelevision
• Further Reading / In the News
• Soyuz Makes Record-Breaking ‘Fast Track’ to Space Station | UniverseToday.com
• Space Station Crew Captures Soyuz Launch, As Seen from Orbit | UniverseToday.com
• New US-Russian Crew Docks at Space Station After Super-Fast Flight | Space.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• Curiosity controllers plan to suspend commanding from April 4 to May 1.
• NASA\’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will send no commands between April 9 and April 26
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will go into a record-only mode on April 4 until around May 1.
• April, the Month of Rest
• The positions of the planets in April will mean diminished communications between Earth and NASA\’s spacecraft at Mars as Mars will be passing almost directly behind the sun, from Earth\’s perspective. The sun can easily disrupt radio transmissions between the two planets during that near-alignment
• To prevent an impaired command from reaching an orbiter or rover, mission controllers at NASA\’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are preparing to suspend sending any commands to spacecraft at Mars for weeks in April
• The travels of Earth and Mars around the sun set up this arrangement, called a Mars solar conjunction, about once every 26 months, Mars solar conjunctions are not identical to each other. They can differ in exactly how close to directly behind the sun Mars gets, and they can differ in how active the sun is
• Multimedia
• YouTube | Mars in a Minute: What Happens When the Sun Blocks our Signal? | JPLnews
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• April 6, 1938 : 75 years ago : Teflon : Du Pont researcher Roy J. Plunkett and his technician Jack Rebok accidentally discovered the chemical compound polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), later marketed as Teflon. Plunkett was researching chemical reactions of the gas perfluoroethylene in order to synthesize new types of refrigerant gases. Rebok found an apparently defective cylinder of this gas, since no pressure was found when the valve was opened, even though the cylinder weight was the same as full cylinders. Rebok suggested sawing it open to investigate. Inside was a slippery white powder. Plunkett found it had unusual properties, a wonderful solid lubricant in powdered form, was chemically inert and had a very high melting point. He realized it was formed by an unexpected polymerization. It was patented on 4 Feb 1941.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …
• Saturn | ~30 after twilight it rises in the E-SE, also in the E-SE lies Spica to the high upper right

• Jupiter | After sunset it lies high in the W, moving towards the horizon during the night with the orange star Aldebaran to the lower left, and the Pleiades star cluster to the lower right

• 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 Weight Loss Microbes & Supernovae | SciByte 88 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at a HIV-infected infant that is \”Functionally Cured,\” a really old star, one big Antarctic meteorite, renaming a NASA center, an update on a private Mars mission and the Dragon space station supply mission, Curiosity news, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes:

\”Functional Cure\” in an HIV-Infected Infant

• A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins Children\’s Center has described the first case of a so-called \”functional cure\” in an HIV-infected infant
• The infant described in the report underwent remission of HIV infection after receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) within 30 hours of birth
• Natural Viral Suppression
• Natural viral suppression without treatment is an exceedingly rare phenomenon observed in less than half a percent of HIV-infected adults
• HIV experts have long sought a way to help all HIV patients achieve elite-controller status
• \”Elite controllers,\” whose immune systems are able to rein in viral replication and keep the virus at clinically undetectable levels
• Functionally Cured
• \”Functionally cured,\” a condition that occurs when a patient achieves and maintains long-term viral remission without lifelong treatment and standard clinical tests fail to detect HIV replication in the blood
• A functional cure occurs when viral presence is so minimal, it remains undetectable by standard clinical tests, yet discernible by ultrasensitive methods
• Sterilizing Cure
• A sterilizing cure-a complete eradication of all viral traces from the body
• A single case of sterilizing cure has been reported so far in an HIV-positive man treated with a bone marrow transplant for leukemia.
• The bone marrow cells came from a donor with a rare genetic mutation of the white blood cells that renders some people resistant to HIV
• Such a complex treatment approach, however, HIV experts agree, is neither feasible nor practical for the 33 million people worldwide infected with HIV
• Medical Details
• The child described was born to an HIV-infected mother and received combination antiretroviral treatment beginning 30 hours after birth.
• A series of tests showed progressively diminishing viral presence in the infant\’s blood, until it reached undetectable levels 29 days after birth
• The infant remained on antivirals until 18 months of age, at which point the child was lost to follow-up for a while
• Ten months after discontinuation of treatment, the child underwent repeated standard blood tests, none of which detected HIV presence in the blood
• Test for HIV-specific antibodies-the standard clinical indicator of HIV infection-also remained negative
• Antiviral Treatment
• Investigators say the prompt administration of antiviral treatment likely led to this infant\’s cure by halting the formation of hard-to-treat viral reservoirs
• Prompt antiviral therapy in newborns that begins within days of exposure may help infants clear the virus and achieve long-term remission without lifelong treatment by preventing such viral hideouts from forming in the first place
• Dormant cells are responsible for re-igniting the infection in most HIV patients within weeks of stopping therapy
• Researchers say they believe this is precisely what happened in the child described in the report
• What This Means
• Currently, high-risk newborns-those born to mothers with poorly controlled infections or whose mothers\’ HIV status is discovered around the time of delivery-receive a combination of antivirals at prophylactic doses to prevent infection for six weeks and start therapeutic doses if and once infection is diagnosed
• This particular case may change the current practice because it highlights the curative potential of very early ART
• Investigators caution they don\’t have enough data to recommend change right now to the current practice of treating high-risk infants
• This infant\’s case provides the rationale to start proof-of-principle studies in all high-risk newborns
• The next step is to find out if this is a highly unusual response to very early antiretroviral therapy or something we can actually replicate in other high-risk newborns
• Researchers say preventing mother-to-child transmission remains the primary goal as they already have proven strategies that can prevent 98 percent of newborn infections by identifying and treating HIV-positive pregnant women
• Multimedia
• Image Scanning electromicrograph of an HIV-infected T cell. (Credit: NIAID) | ScienceDaily.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Researchers describe first \’functional HIV cure\’ in an infant | MedicalXpress
• Synthesized compound flushes out latent HIV | MedicalXpress
• Researchers Describe First \’Functional HIV Cure\’ in an Infant | ScienceDaily.com

— NEWS BYTE —

A Star That’s Almost as Old as the Universe

• Results from a new study show that a metal-poor star located merely 190 light-years from the Sun is 14.46+-0.80 billion years old, which implies that the star is nearly as old as the Universe
• Such metal-poor stars are important to astronomers because they set an independent lower limit for the age of the Universe and can be used to corroborate age estimates inferred by other means
• Amount of Metal vs Age of Star
• Metal-poor stars can be used to constrain the age of the Universe because metal-content is typically a proxy for age
• Heavier metals are generally formed in supernova explosions, which pollute the surrounding interstellar medium.
• Stars subsequently born from that medium are more enriched with metals than their predecessors with each successive generation becoming increasingly enriched
• The reliability of the age determined is likewise contingent on accurately determining the sample’s metal content, and is likewise contingent on the availability of a reliable distance
• Analyses of globular clusters and the Hubble constant yielded vastly different ages, by billions of years, for the Universe, the discrepant ages stemmed partly from uncertainties in the cosmic distance scale
• HD 140283
• HD 140283 exhibits less than 1% the iron content of the Sun, which provides an indication of its sizable age.
• Based on the microwave background and the Hubble constant, it must have formed soon after the big bang
• This star had been used previously to constrain the age of the Universe, but uncertainties tied to its estimated distance (at that time) made the age determination somewhat imprecise
• Scientists were recently also to obtain a new and improved distance for HD 140283 using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), namely via the trigonometric parallax approach
• From that data the distance uncertainty for HD 140283 was significantly reduced by comparison to existing estimates, thus resulting in a more precise age estimate for the star
• The age of HD 140283 does not conflict with the age of the Universe, 13.77 ± 0.06 billion years, within the errors
• This study reaffirms that there are old stars roaming the solar neighborhood which can be used to constrain the age of the Universe
• Multimedia
• Image A new age estimate for the star HD 140283 implies that it was among the first few generations of stars created in the Universe | NASA, ESA, A. Felid (STScI) | UniverseToday.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Nearby Ancient Star is Almost as Old as the Universe | UniverseToday.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Antarctic Meteorite Season Findings

• Finding Meteorites in the Antarctic\”
• Motion of the ice sheet tends to concentrate the meteorites and wind erosion brings them to the surface
• The first meteorites were found in 1912
• Now teams drive through areas looking for meteorites on snowmobiles
• The charred black crust of meteorites stands out in the snow
• The cold, dry climate helps preserve any organic chemicals inside the rocks
• Latest Belgian and Japanese Expedition
• The expedition collected 425 meteorites in 40 days, with a total weight of 165 pounds (75 kg).
• Among the discoveries they may have found one Mars meteorite and one piece of the asteroid Vesta among the many discoveries.
• A 40-pound (18 kilogram) meteorite
• A 40-pound (18 kilogram) meteorite was discovered in East Antarctica
• Only 0.08% of all meteorites found in the Antarctic have been bigger
• It is the fifth largest meteorite ever found in East Antarctica and the largest found in East Antarctica for 25 years
• Initial tests show it is an ordinary chondrite, the most common type of meteorite found on Earth
• The Russian meteor that burst into fragments above the Chelyabinsk region on Feb. 15 is also an ordinary chondrite
• Multimedia
• Image Gallery Big Meteorite Found in Antarctica (Photo Gallery) | Space.com
• The fifth largest meteorite ever found in East Antarctica | CREDIT: International Polar Foundation
  
• Meteorites concentrate in locations due to ice flows Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica | Goolge
• The movement of the ice and the wind creates easily visible meteorite plains Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica | Goolge
• Drive around on snowmobiles and look for rocks Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica | Goolge
• There are places where natural rocks \’pops through\’ the ice so not everything seen in a meteorite Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica | Goolge
• Further Reading / In the News
• Big Meteorite Discovered in Antarctica | Meteorites & Antarctica | Space.com
• 18kg: Scientists find one of Antartica\’s largest meteorites | Phys.org

Voting to rename NASA Dryden after Neil Armstrong

• Renaming NASA\’s Dryden Flight Research
• The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to rename NASA\’s Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.
• This is at least the third time since 2007 that the House of Representatives has tried to rename the NASA center after Armstrong,
• This time it was approved unanimously in the House and will be referred on to the Senate for consideration
• The bill would also renames the surrounding Western Aeronautical Test Range after Hugh L. Dryden to continue honoring the aeronautical engineer
• Dryden and Armstrong
• Dryden was the visionary behind NASA\’s X-15 rocket plane and the Apollo program. Neil Armstrong was the one who flew the spacecraft Dryden envisioned
• He also recommended to President John F. Kennedy that the goal of putting a man on the moon within 10 years was achievable and something the American people could rally behind
• Unfortunately Dryden died in 1965 before that dream came true
• Multimedia
• Aerial view of NASA\’s Dryden Flight Research Facility | CREDIT: NASA
• YouTube Rep. Calvert Remarks in Support of Armstrong Flight Research Center Bill | RepKenCalvert
• YouTube Rep. McCarthy Speaks in Support of H.R. 6612, Honoring Two Kern County Space | RepKevinMcCarthy
• Further Reading / In the News
• Lawmakers Vote to Rename NASA Dryden After Neil Armstrong | Space.com

— SPACECRAFT UPDATE—

SpaceX – Dragon Space Station Resupply Mission Glitch

• The Glitch
• The problem cropped up immediately following Dragon\’s separation from the rocket upper stage, nine minutes into the flight.
• Three of the four sets of thrusters on the company\’s unmanned Dragon capsule did not immediately kick in, delaying the release of the solar panels.
• The problem may have been caused by a stuck valve or a line blockage
• Dragon\’s twin solar wings swung open two hours later than planned, an hour later, the Dragon was raised with the thrusters to a safe altitude.
• Working Towards the Solution
• SpaceX worked to bring up the idled thrusters and keep the capsule on track
• The Dragon is equipped with 18 thrusters, divided into four sets, and can maneuver adequately even with some unavailable.
• The capsule is designed to return to Earth with just two good sets of thrusters and, in \”a super worst case situation,\” conceivably just one although it would be \”a bit of a wobbly trip.\”
• If SpaceX and NASA had determined that more time was needed to gain confidence that Dragon could safely carry out an attempt the Dragon could have stayed in orbit for several additional months if needed
• By late Saturday afternoon sufficient recovery work had been accomplished to warrant NASA, ISS and SpaceX managers to give the go-ahead for the Dragon to rendezvous with the station early Sunday morning, March 3.
• Capture
• The capsule was captured 5:31 am EST (1031 GMT) on Sunday, March 3
• More than 1 ton of space station supplies aboard this Dragon, which included some much-needed equipment for air purifiers
• It is scheduled to spend more than three weeks at the space station before being cut loose by the crew
• Despite the one-day docking delay, the Dragon unberthing and parachute assisted return to Earth will still be the same day as originally planned on March 25.
• History
• This has been the first serious trouble to strike a Dragon in orbit, none of the four previous unmanned flights had any thruster issues
• On the previous flight in October, one of nine first-stage engines on the Falcon rocket shut down too soon, on this flight it performed \”really perfectly\” and that the thruster problem was isolated to the Dragon
• Future Re-Supply Missions
• SpaceX plans to launch its next Dragon to the station in late fall.
• SpaceX says it has 50 launches planned-both NASA missions and commercial flights-totaling about $4 billion in contracts
• NASA also has a $1.9 billion resupply contract for the station with Orbital Sciences Corporation, which will launch the first test flight of its Antares rocket from a base in Virginia in the coming weeks
• Multimedia
• YouTube SpaceX Dragon Carrying NASA Cargo Arrives at International Space Station | NASATelevision
• Further Reading / In the News
• SpaceX\’s capsule arrives at ISS | phys.org
• SpaceX\’s capsule nears ISS for rendezvous on Sunday (Update) | Phys.org
• SpaceX Dragon Recovers from Frightening Propulsion System Failure – Sunday Docking Set | UniverseToday.com
• SpaceX rocket launched, but problem with thrusters (Update 3)
• SpaceX working to fix Dragon capsule\’s thrusters (Update 2) | phys.org
• SpaceX company fixes Dragon capsule problem | phys.org
• Dragon Spacecraft Glitch Was \’Frightening,\’ SpaceX Chief Elon Musk Says | Space.com

— UPDATES—

Russian Meteorite Chunk Found

• New Fragment Found
• More than 100 fragments have been found so far that appear to be from the space rock
• Fragments of the meteorite have been found along a 50 kilometer (30 mile) trail under the meteorite’s flight path
• Small meteorites have also been found in an eight-meter (25 feet) wide crater in the region’s Lake Chebarkul
• Now scientists have discovered the biggest chunk so far, a meteorite fragment weighing more than one kilogram (2.2 lbs)
• They believes there are more to be found, including a possible biggest chunk that he says may lie at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul. It could be up to 60cm in diameter
• Multimedia
• Image Lecturer at Ural Federal University’s Institute of Physics and Technology Viktor Grokhovsky with meteorite fragment | Credit: RIA Novosti / Pavel Lysizin
• Meteorite crash in Russia: Video of meteor explosion that stirred panic in Ura | RussiaToday
• Further Reading / In the News
• Big Meteorite Chunk Found in Russia’s Ural Mountains | UniverseToday.com

Dennis Tito\’s Honeymoon Suite to Mars

• The Couple of Tomorrow?
• The nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation announced on Feb. 27 that it aims to launch two people on a 501-day Mars flyby mission in January 2018
• The main goals are to generate excitement about space travel and test out technologies that will be needed to put boots on Mars in the future
• The mission would combine a commercial space capsule and inflatable module into a single spacecraft that will carry a man and a woman, possibly a married couple, to Mars and back.
• Multimedia
• Inspiration Mars Introductory News Conference | SpaceRef Rep
• Infographic | Dennis Tito\’s 2018 Human Mars Flyby Mission Explained | Space.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Inspiration Mars Foundation
• Private Groups Set Sights on Deep Space | Mars, the Moon & Asteroids | Space.com

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

• The \’Glitch\’
• The spacecraft remained in communications at all scheduled communication windows on Wednesday, but it did not send recorded data, only current status information.
• Status information revealed that the computer had not switched to the usual daily \”sleep\” mode when planned
• On Thurs, Feb 28, the ground team for NASA\’s Mars rover Curiosity switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active
• Flash Memory
• The condition is related to a glitch in flash memory linked to the other, now-inactive, computer.
• Diagnostic work in a testing simulation at JPL indicates the situation involved corrupted memory at an A-side memory location used for addressing memory files
• It appears to have caused the computer to get stuck in an endless loop.
• Protections and History
• Curiosity has protections against such high-energy disruptions, but the problem was compounded by what appears to have been the location of the strike-in the directory, or \”table of contents,\” of the computer\’s memory
• Similar problems were caused by high-energy solar and cosmic ray strikes on other space missions
• Previous rovers experienced many so-called \”anomalies\” during the early part of their treks
• Like many spacecraft Curiosity carries a pair of redundant main computers in order to have a backup available if one fails
• Each of the computers, A-side and B-side, also has other redundant subsystems linked to just that computer
• Operations
• Curiosity is now operating on its B-side, as it did during part of the flight from Earth to Mars. It operated on its A-side from before the August 2012 landing through Wednesday.
• Although scientific investigations by the rover were suspended the team hopes that Curiosity would resume science work in about a week.
• While resuming operations on the B-side, they are also working to determine the best way to restore the A-side as a viable backup
• What Happens Next
• Even if the rover is fully operational again in a week, the amount of science it can perform is limited.
• The sun comes between Mars and the Earth in early April, partially blocking the path for radio commands for an entire month
• The Curiosity team had planned to send back science data from Mars during that period-called \”solar conjunction,\” but had decided not to send up any commands.
• Multimedia
• Image Galleries at JPL and Curiosity Mulimedia
• Image This artist concept features NASA\’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover | mars.jpl.NASA.gov
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Curiosity Rover Has Computer Problems | UniverseToday.com
• Mars Rover Curiosity Has First Big Malfunction news.NationalGeographic.com
• Mars Science Laboratory: Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover | mars.jpl.NASA.gov
• Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory | jpl.nasa.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• March 10, 1797: 216 years ago : Thomas Jefferson on paleontology : Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) presented a paper on the megalonyx to the American Philosophical Society. It was published as \”A Memoir on the Discovery of Certain Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Kind in the Western Parts of Virginia,\” Transactions of American Philosophical Society 4:255-256, along with an account by Caspar Wistar (1761-1818). This is arguably the first American publication in paleontology, but the only paleontology paper written by Jefferson. In 1822, this huge extinct sloth was named Megalonyx jeffersoni by a French naturalist. (Megalonyx Gr. large claw). It was a bear-sized ground sloth, over 2 meters tall, widespread in North America during the last Ice Age

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …

• Mercury, Venus, Mars | Now hidden in the Sun\’s glare

• Jupiter | High in the S-SW after sunset, moving to the W/SW later in the evening

• Saturn | ~10-11 pm | Rises in the E-SE moving to high in the Southern skies by dawn

• Where to Find Comet PanSTARRS
  

• 10* is about the width of your fist held at arm\’s length.
• This diagram is drawn for a viewer near 40* north latitude (Denver, New York, Madrid) 30 minutes after sunset.
• If you\’re south of there, the comet will be a little higher above your horizon early in the month than shown here.
• North of 40°, it will be a little lower early in March than shown here.
• SkyandTelescope.com/panstarrs

Daylight Savings Time

• Sunday, March 10

• ‘Spring Ahead’ and lose an hour

• 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 HIV & SpaceX Troubles | SciByte 84 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at analyzing your breath, large structures on a universal scale, inflatable space station modules, spacecraft update, Curiosity news and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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