Show Notes: linuxunplugged.com/396

The post How Linux Got to Mars | LINUX Unplugged 396 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Show Notes: coder.show/383

The post Java Justice | Coder Radio 383 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

Show Notes/Links: https://www.bsdnow.tv/327

The post ZFS Rename Repo | BSD Now 327 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We’re away at MeetBSD this week, but we’ve still got a great show for you. We’ll be joined by Pawel Dawidek, who’s done quite a lot of things in FreeBSD over the years, including the initial ZFS port. We’ll get to hear how that came about, what he’s up to now and a whole lot more. We’ll be back next week with a normal episode of BSD Now – the place to B.. SD.

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– Show Notes: –

Interview – Pawel Jakub Dawidek – pjd@freebsd.org

Porting ZFS, GEOM, GELI, Capsicum, various topics

• All the tutorials are posted in their entirety at bsdnow.tv
• Send questions, comments, show ideas/topics, or stories you want mentioned on the show to feedback@bsdnow.tv – if you write any blog posts about BSD, send ’em our way
• Usually, you can watch live Wednesdays at 2:00PM Eastern (19:00 UTC)
• We’ll be back with a regular episode next week, and maybe even some new interviews

The post Gift from the Sun | BSD Now 62 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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

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The Suns Long-Lost brother

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

— NEWS BYTE —

Gaming for Science | Eyewire

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

Old ‘Asteroid’ Now Comet

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

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton

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

— Updates —

Comet Siding Spring

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

— VIEWER FEEDBACK —

Methane Life

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

— CURIOSITY UPDATE —

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

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

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

Looking up this week

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

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

• Further Reading and Resources

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

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

We chat with Warren Block to discuss BSD documentation efforts and future plans. If you\’ve ever wondered about the scary world of mailing lists, today\’s tutorial will show you the basics of how to get help and contribute back. There\’s lots to get to today, so sit back and enjoy some BSD Now – the place to B.. SD.

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– Show Notes: –

Headlines

OpenBSD on a Sun T5120

• Our buddy Ted Unangst got himself a cool Sun box
• Of course he had to write a post about installing and running OpenBSD on it
• The post goes through some of the quirks and steps to go through in case you\’re interested in one of these fine SPARC machines
• He\’s also got another post about OpenBSD on a Dell CS24-SC server

Bhyvecon 2014 videos are up

• Like we mentioned last week, Bhyvecon was an almost-impromptu conference before AsiaBSDCon
• The talks have apparently already been uploaded!
• Subjects include Bhyve\’s past, present and future, OSv on Bhyve, a general introduction to the tool, migrating those last few pesky Linux boxes to virtualization
• Lots more detail in the videos, so check \’em all out

Building a FreeBSD wireless access point

• We\’ve got a new blog post about creating a wireless access point with FreeBSD
• After all the recent news of consumer routers being pwned like candy, it\’s time for people to start building BSD routers
• The author goes through a lot of the process of getting one set up using good ol\’ FreeBSD
• Using hostapd, he\’s able to share his wireless card in hostap mode and offer DHCP to all the clients
• Plenty of config files and more messy details in the post

Switching from Synology to FreeNAS

• The author has been considering getting a NAS for quite a while and documents his research
• He was faced with the compromise of convenience vs. flexibility – prebuilt or DIY
• After seeing the potential security issues with proprietary NAS devices, and dealing with frustration with trying to get bugs fixed, he makes the right choice
• The post also goes into some detail about his setup, all the things he needed a NAS to do as well as all the advantages an open source solution would give
• Speaking of FreeNAS…

This episode was brought to you by

Interview – Warren Block – wblock@freebsd.org

FreeBSD\’s documentation project, igor, doceng

Tutorial

The world of BSD mailing lists

News Roundup

HAMMER2 work and notes

• Matthew Dillon has posted some updated notes about the development of the new HAMMER version
• The start of a cluster API was committed to the tree
• There are also links to design document, a freemap design document, that should be signed with a digital signing software from the
  sodapdf esign site

BSD Breaking Barriers

• Our friend MWL gave a talk at NYCBSDCon about BSD \”breaking barriers\”
• \”What makes the BSD operating systems special? Why should you deploy your applications on BSD? Why does the BSD community keep growing, and why do Linux sites like DistroWatch say that BSD is where the interesting development work is happening? We\’ll cover the not-so-obvious reasons why BSD still stands tall after almost 40 years.\”
• He also has another upcoming talk, (or \”webcast\”) called \”Beyond Security: Getting to Know OpenBSD\’s Real Purpose\”
• \”OpenBSD is frequently billed as a high-security operating system. That\’s true, but security isn\’t the OpenBSD Project\’s main goal. This webcast will introduce systems administrators to OpenBSD, explain the project\’s mission, and discuss the features and benefits.\”
• It\’s on May 27th and will hopefully be recorded

FreeBSD in a chroot

• Finch, \”FreeBSD running IN a CHroot,\” is a new project
• It\’s a way to extend the functionality of restricted USB-based FreeBSD systems (FreeNAS, etc.)
• All the details and some interesting use cases are on the github page
• He really needs to change the project name though

PCBSD weekly digest

• Lots of bugfixes for PCBSD coming down the tubes
• LZ4 compression is now enabled by default on the whole pool
• The latest 10-STABLE has been imported and builds are going
• Also the latest GNOME and Cinnamon builds have been imported and much more

Feedback/Questions

• Bostjan writes in (IRC suggests md5deep)
• Don writes in
• kaltheat writes in (We use R0DE Podcast microphones and Logitech C920 HD webcams)
• Harri writes in

• All the tutorials are posted in their entirety at bsdnow.tv
• Send questions, comments, show ideas/topics, or stories you want mentioned on the show to feedback@bsdnow.tv
• Watch live Wednesdays at 2:00PM Eastern (18:00 UTC)
• We wanted to give the Bay Area FreeBSD Users Group a special mention, if you\’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, there\’s a very healthy BSD community there and they regularly have meet-ups
• If you listened to the audio-only version of this week\’s episode, you\’re really missing out on Warren\’s fun animations in the interview!

The post Documentation is King | BSD Now 30 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

We take a look at how the Egyptians are helping astronomical models today, a star being eaten, strange smog contributors, the upcoming Venus transit, viewer feedback, SpaceX spacecraft update, and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Egyptian Astronomy helping further today’s models

_{Credit: astro.physics.uiowa.edu | Credit: nightskyinfo.com}

• The low down
• Algol is a triple-star system, with a third star, Algol C, located a bit further out from the main pair, with a larger orbit.
• The brightening/dimming period of 2.867 days was first described by John Goodricke in 1783, although he did not know it was from one of the binary stars passing in front of the other
• Significance
• Egyptians were very nearly obsessive about studying the stars, apparently believing that doing so could help predict future events.
• A document known as the Cairo Calendar, shows that not only did the Egyptians know about Algol, but that their observations can be used to further explain the erratic behavior of the binary seen today
• Pulling the pattern from the calendar required a feat of statistical endurance. Eventually, the researchers uncovered two oscillations: a 29.6-day cycle, and a 2.85-day cycle
• The longer cycle is probably lunar. But at first, scientists weren’t sure what could have produced the shorter frequency.
• They found their match in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars
• * Of Note*
• The Cairo Calendar describes the binary period as 2.85 days; ever so slightly less than the 2.867 days now observed
• However, the team doesn’t believe this difference is due to error, they think it’s because the period has changed over time
• The three star system, could have slowed down a bit over the past three millennia because of magnetic interactions, stellar winds, or mass exchange
• Calculating the behavior of a three-body system with only 300 years of data, is problematic
• This new data Cairo Calendar could provide valuable data of the periodicity of the system from 3000 years ago, helping astronomers further refine current models
• Multimedia
• IMAGE : Eclipsing star .gif animation | astro.physics.uiowa.edu
• IMAGE : Star Chat location of Algol | nightskyinfo.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Ancient Egyptians Tracked Eclipsing Binary Star Algol | Discovery News
• Did the ancient egyptians record the period of the eclipsing binary Algol – the Raging one? | Cornel Univsersity Library
• [Cairo Calendar shows Egyptians discovered binary Algol first | Phys.org](+ [Cairo Calendar shows Egyptians discovered binary Algol first | Phys.org)
• Ancient scribes may have banked on blinking binary | ScienceNews.org

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Black hole munching on stars

_{Image Credit: NASA, S. Gezari, A. Rest, and R. Chornock}

• The low down
• In June 2010, the researchers spotted a bright flare from the previously dormant black hole at the center of a galaxy approximately 2.7 billion light-years away.
• Over the next few months, the flare continued increasing in brightness a month after it was detected, then slowly faded over the next 12 months
• Significance
• Analyzing the spectrum of the ejected gas — that is, the specific colors making up its light the gas revealed it was mostly helium.
• The fact there was mostly helium and very little hydrogen in the gas suggests "the slaughtered star had to have been the helium-rich core of a stripped star
• This likely happened when the star went through the red giant phase, where it expanded to 100 times its original radius
• When it puffed up like that, it became vulnerable to the gravitational tidal forces of the black hole, and it would have been very easy to strip off the tenuous hydrogen envelope
• The star then had to approach much closer, 100 times closer in, before it was completely disrupted by the black hole
• * Of Note*
• Scientists now suggest that the light show was evidence of the black hole PS1–10jh shredding a star that wandered too close
• The black hole, weighing about 3 million solar masses, had probably already snacked on the star’s outer layers during a previous close encounter
• It also flung some of the stellar material into space
• Some of the partially ejected materials, eventually dumped back into the black hole, producing the observed, months-long flare.
• By measuring the rise of the flare’s brightness, the scientists calculated the rate at which the star’s gas was getting sucked into the black hole
• Those calculations helped reveal at what point and time the black hole had begun disrupting the star, revealing how powerful its gravitational field was and thus its mass, now estimated to be 3 million suns
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO :Black Hole Devours Star – 139 Days of Stellar Devastation | VideoFromSpace
• IMAGE : Computer-simulated image shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole [CREDIT: NASA, S. Gezari (The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.), A. Rest (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.), and R. Chornock (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Ma.)]
• Further Reading / In the News
• A star is torn | ScienceNews.org
• Monster Black Hole Caught Swallowing Unlucky Star | Space.com

See smog, think cows

_{Credit: NASA | Credit : USDA.gov}

• The low down
• People typically blame Southern California’s smog on automobiles, a new study suggests that cows may be just as responsible, if not more so
• A large fraction of the region’s smog, especially the particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, is ammonium nitrate
• Ammonia is generated by cars with certain types of catalytic converters and by bacteria that consume cattle waste
• When the ammonia reacts with nitrogen oxides that are produced in large quantities in automobile emissions
• Significance
• Data gathered during low-altitude flights in and around the Los Angeles basin in May 2010 suggest that the region’s 9.9 million autos generate about 62 metric tons of ammonia each day
• White ammonia emissions from dairy farms in the eastern portion of the basin—home to about 298,000 cattle—range between 33 and 176 metric tons per day
• * Of Note*
• In addition ammonia emissions from the dairy farms are concentrated, boosting atmospheric levels of the gas to more than 100 times background levels
• So efforts to curb the farms’ emissions (perhaps by feeding the animals different diets) might reduce smog more than those targeting cars.
• Also theorized to contribute are vapors from paint, fumes from outdoor barbecues, and even the fresh scent emitted by trees
• Multimedia
• California Smog | NASA.gov
• Cow | USDA.gov [Photo by N. Wade Snyder]
• Further Reading / In the News
• Smog: It’s Not All Cars’ Fault | Science Magazine
• ScienceShot: There’s Cow in Your Smog | news.sciencemag.org

*— TWO-BYTE NEWS — *

Venus Transit Upcoming on June 5th / 6th

• * Last time on SciByte*
• 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), it 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
• 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
• 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
• * Of Note*
• You can start preparations now to view the transit of Venus
• Many retailers, like amazon, are are carrying special eclipse/transit viewing glasses and lenses
• Make sure all glasses are sealed and that no sunlight can enter
• Binoculars and telescopes require special lenses, if you have those you might want to practice before the event
• Start thinking about what time it will occur in your area
• Even the Hubble space telescope is getting in on the transit action by looking away from the Sun, more information on that in the SciByte near the transit.
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : NE Live – Transit of Venus Promo for Sun-Earth Day 2012 | SunEarthDay
• Further Reading / In the News
• Sun Earth Day
• 2012 Venus Transit – The Countdown Is On! | UniverseToday.com

*— VIEWER FEEDBACK — *

• SOFTWARE : MetalFreak
• “Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go."
• Screenshots
• On stellarium.org you can download in Linux, Mac, or Windows
• [on cnet](https://download.cnet.com/Stellarium/3000–2054_4–10072276.html
• on Softpedia

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

SpaceX Dragon flight delay

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Mining Asteroids & Shuttle Discovery | SciByte 44 – SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket [May 1, 2012]](https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/19186/mining-asteroids-shuttle-discovery-scibyte–44/)
• Solar Storms & Private Space Flight | SciByte 30 – SpaceX Space Station resupply mission resceduled [January 24, 2012]](https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/16276/solar-storms-private-space-flight-scibyte–30/)
• The low down
• On May 2nd it was announced that the launch will likely shift to a later date, possibly May 10
• A SpaceX spokesperson said that “SpaceX is continuing to work through the software assurance process with NASA. We will issue a statement as soon as a new launch target is set.”
• The flight was previously delayed from an April 30 launch date to allow more time for tests of Dragon’s flight software. The new delay is also meant to allow for further checkouts.
• Social Media
• SpaceX @SpaceX
• Further Reading / In the News
• SpaceX
• SpaceX Says Delay Likely for 1st Private Launch to Space Station | Space.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• May 9, 1893 : 119 years ago : First motion picture
  : The first motion picture exhibition was given by Thomas Alva Edison in Brooklyn, New York to an audience of 400 people at the Dept of Physics, Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. using Edision’s Kinetograph. An optical lantern projector showed moving images of a blacksmith and his two helpers passing a bottle and forging a piece of iron. Each filmstrip had 700 images, each image being shown for 1/92 sec. The event was reported in the Scientific American of 20 May 1893.
• May 9, 1962 : 50 years ago : Moon reached by laser light : A laser beam was bounced off the moon from earth by MIT scientists. The area of the light beam on the surface was estimated at a diameter of 4 miles.

Looking up this week

• You may have seen …
• Supermoon pics from around the world, and Seattle

• Keep an eye out for …

• Wednesday May 9, 2012 : The Moon rises around midnight (5:40 GMT) tonight and stands due south at first light tomorrow. Scientists bounced a laser beam off the illuminated portion 50 years ago tonight.

• Friday, May 11 : Venus has been dropping lower in the west-northwest every evening.

• Saturday, May 12 : Last-quarter Moon rises in the middle of the night ( 5:47 EDT, 10:47 GMT)

• For deep sky objects this week check out universetoday.com

• Further Reading and Resources

• More on whats 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 Egyptian Astronomy & Smog | SciByte 45 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/18136/meteorites-lasers-scibyte-38/ Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:43:26 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=18136 We take a look at more Lego’s into space and near space, Venus transit, a meteorite that crashed through a cabin, guiding lightning with lasers, and more!

The post Meteorites & Lasers | SciByte 38 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]>

We take a look at more Lego’s into space and near space, Venus transit, a meteorite that crashed through a cabin, guiding lightning with lasers, updates on Encyclopedia Britannica, near-orbital skydiving, check in on the latest news on Neutrinos and solar storms and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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MP3 Download | Ogg Download | HD Video | Mobile Video | YouTube

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MP3 Feed | Ogg Feed | iTunes Feed | HD Feed | Mobile Feed | Tablet Feed

Support the Show:

Purchase anything at Amazon.com Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link Grab the SciByte Audible.com pick [11-22-63: A Novel]

   

Show Notes:

Legoooo’s in Spaaaace … again

• *The shuttle *
• Raul Oaidia from Romania launched a Lego space shuttle into the stratosphere on the back of a weather balloon
• Lego space shuttle model (set number 3367!) and a video camera to capture the voyage
• Originally he was looking for someone to support project, found a businessman on twitter, who after discussing options decided that a launching something on a weather balloon
• Launching in Romania required problematic flight clearance and waiting times, while Germany where his father worked had much looser regulations
• He and his father traveled to Germany to launch the balloon, since that country’s regulations on this sort of project are more relaxed than those in Romania
• The balloon lofted Lego shuttle flew to an altitude of about 114,800 ft [35,000 m]
• Lego’s to Jupiter
• Specially-constructed LEGO mini-figures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and “father of science” Galileo Galilei.
• Jupiter (who was the equivalent of “Zeus” to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. While Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature
• Galileo Galilei first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter – named the Galilean moons in his honor.
• Juno and the mini-figures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
• Made out of space-grade aluminum the figures, basically the size of the normal LEGO figures, were prepared in a very special way
• * Lego Station*
• While the actual Space Station (ISS) took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours, at least in LEGO form
• The Lego station would not be able to bear it’s own weight under gravity
• The Lego station was used as a demonstration for a series of recorded videos aimed at engaging and educating children about living and working in space
• Building Lego’s in space are much harder to put together in space, to keep the bricks contained it had to be put together inside a glove box
• Because of the difficulty of putting it together in a glove box, some pieces of the model were launched partially-preassembled
• In space you have to worry about the little pieces getting loose and becoming either lost or potentially getting jammed in equipment or even becoming a flammability hazard
• There are flammability concerns about the Lego’s; due to the flammability hazards, the toy bricks could only be exposed to the open cabin air for two hours
• Other building brick sets that were launched last year, the LEGO space station was part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Lego Space Shuttle
• Further Reading / In the News
• Lego Space Shuttle Takes Flight, Returns to Earth Undamaged @ PCWorld.com
• Astronaut Builds LEGO Space Station Inside Real-Life Space Station
• What would you like to see in space? @ microblade.blogspot.com

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Venus Transit

• The low down
• Transits of Venus are when it passes in between the Earth and the sun and are among the rarest of planetary alignments
• 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
• Only six Venus transits have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874
• The last transit occurred in 2004
• Observations
• Your location north or south on Earth slightly affects the apparent path you see Venus taking south or north across the Sun
• The transit this year will last about 6.5 hours and will be visible from more than half of the Earth’s surface; northwestern North America, Hawaii, the western Pacific, northern Asia, Japan, Korea, eastern China, Philippines, eastern Australia, and New Zealand.
• 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.
• Significance
• Edmund Halley first realized that transits of Venus could be used to measure the Sun’s distance which established the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler’s third law
• Accurately timing the transit from the surface of the Earth past a certain degree of accuracy due to atmospheric conditions and diffraction
• The Venus transits in 1761 and 1769 were still able to give Astronomers their first good value for the Sun’s distance.
• * Of Note*
• The next pair of Venus transits occur over a century from now on 2117 Dec 11 and 2125 Dec 08.
• Mercury, the other planet with an orbit between the sun and Earth undergoes transits about 13 or 14 transits of Mercury each century, and fall within several days of 8 May and 10 November
• Multimedia
• IMAGE : 2012 Venus Transit Map @ skyandtelescope.com
• IMAGE : A line plotted of the transit as seen from Earth’s center, with Universal Times @ skyandtelescope.com
• Further Reading / In the News
• Transit of Venus: June 5–6, 2012 @ skyandtelescope.com
• 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus @ nasa.gov

The sky, well a meteorite, fell in Norway right into a cabin

• The low down
• Norwegian family arrived at their holiday cabin in Oslo recently for the first time all winter, to discover that a meteorite had apparently fallen through their roof
• Significance
• No one is sure when the meteorite actually crashed through the cabin’s roof, because the cabin had been closed during the winter.
• Although it is thought is may have fallen during a wave of meteor sightings over Norway on March 1
• The 1.3 pound [585 gram] meteorite was found split in two
• Cross-section’s of the meteorite show that it contains bits of many different particles that are compressed together
• Identified as a rare type of breccia meteorite, which is a conglomerate of smaller fragments of minerals
• These type of meteorites indicates that another, larger meteorite smashed rock on another planet before being propelled into outer space
• * Of Note*
• Meteorites rarely fall in populated areas
• According to Views and News from Norway, only 14 meteorites have been found in the Scandinavian country since 1848
• Photos and Video of the meteorite in local news site
• Further Reading / In the News
• Meteorite smashed through Oslo roof @ newsinenglish.no
• Norwegian Family Finds Meteorite Crashed Through Their Roof
• Fikk meteorittstein gjennom taket i kolonihagen @ vg.no

Directing lightning with lasers

• The low down
• New research has shown that brief bursts of intense laser light can redirect lightning
• Significance
• Researchers in France have successfully directed coaxed laboratory-generated lightning into striking the same place, not just twice, but over and over
• The researchers pulses of laser light, femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) long to create a virtual lightning rod out of a column of ionized gas
• It has also been confirmed with other experiments that a femtosecond laser could produce an ultra-short filaments of ionized gas that act like electrical guide
• Further studies revealed that these filaments could function over long distances, potentially greater than 164ft [50 m]
• The research team sent a laser beam skimming past a spherical electrode to an oppositely charged planar electrode
• The laser then stripped away the outer electrons from the atoms along its path
• The resulting plasma filament channeled an electrical discharge from the planar electrode to the spherical one
• The researchers then added a longer, pointed electrode to their experiment
• With no laser the discharge obeyed normal rules and always struck the taller, pointed electrode
• Then researchers used the later the discharge was redirected, following the filaments and striking the spherical electrode instead, even when they turned it on after the initial path of the discharge began to form
• Multimedia
• An illustration of how lightning occurs when two streamers meet. @ Wikipedia
• Further Reading / In the News
• Laser lightning rod: Guiding bursts of electricity with a flash of light @ physorg.com

*— TWO-BYTE NEWS — *

Encyclopaedia Britannica, in print no more

• The low down
• Encyclopaedia Britannica has been in print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768.
• Significance
• It was announced on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 that after 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print, instead focusing on its online encyclopedia
• The President of Encyclopaedia Britannica said “This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people.”
• The final hardcover encyclopedia set is available for sale at Britannica’s website for $1,395.
• * Of Note*
• The top year for the printed encyclopedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold
• just six years later in 1996, that number fell to 40,000
• The company started exploring digital publishing in the 1970s.
• The first CD-ROM edition was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994.
• They made the contents of the website available for one week
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Totally Digital: The Encyclopaedia Britannica Now
• Social Media
• Encyclo. Britannica@Britannica
• Further Reading / In the News
• Last entry for Encyclopaedia Britannica book form

Skydiving at the orbital extreme

• The low down
• On March 15, 2012, Austria’s Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a space capsule as the Red Bull Stratos project moved forward into the manned flight stage in New Mexico.
• He jumped at 71,581 feet – 13.6 miles – and landed safely eight minutes and eight seconds later, he reached speeds of up to 364.4 mph and was in free fall for three minutes and 43 seconds
• The project is to see Baumgartner attempt a record-breaking freefall from 120,000 feet this summer where he’ll potentially become the first man to go supersonic without the support of a vehicle
• Baumgartner expects to be in free fall for five minutes, 35 seconds, and achieve Mach 1, or 690 mph. All told, the descent should take 15 to 20 minutes.
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Felix Baumgartner’s Test Jump Teaser
• YouTube VIDEO :Jump testing in Roswell New Mexico – Red Bull Stratos
• YouTube VIDEO : The Capsule – Red Bull Stratos 2012
• Social Media
• Red Bull Stratos @RedBullStratos
• Further Reading / In the News
• Video: Watch Felix Baumgartner’s Test Jump @ universetoday.com
• Skydiver aims to jump from 23 miles, go supersonic (Update 2) @ physorg.com
• Capsule and skydiver ready for record-setting freefall @ physorg.com
• Skydiver Baumgartner Takes Test Jump from 21,000 Meters @ universetoday.com
• Video: Watch Felix Baumgartner’s Test Jump @ universetoday.com
• Capsule and Skydiver Ready for Record-Setting Freefall @ universetoday.com
• Infographic: The Anatomy of a Supersonic Freefall @ universetoday.com

*— Updates — *

Neutrinos loop back around again

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Neutrinos & Leap Year | SciByte 35 (Feb 28,2012)
• Neutrinos & Tatooine | SciByte 17 (Oct 18, 2011) – Faster than light Neutrinos
• Spacecraft Updates | SciByte 23 [November 30, 2011] – Faster than light Neutrinos : Update
• The low down
• Neutrinos do not go faster than light, according to fresh measurements of a test last year
• The new measurements were made by a team working independently
• Evidence is beginning to point towards the OPERA result being an artifact of the measurement
• Further Reading / In the News
• ‘Faster-than-light’ particles fade after cross-check @ physorg.com
• Neutrinos Obey The Speed Limit, After All @ universetoday.com

The Sun will not sit quietly

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37(Mar 13, 2012)
• More solar flares
• Sun unleashed a new solar flare March 13 from the same region that has been actively over the last week
• It was not headed towards the Earth
• Sounds of the Sun
• This sonification of the recent solar storm activity turns data from two spacecraft into sound
• Sonification is the process of translating information into sound. ( like in Geiger counters)
• Benefits of sonifying data. You can zip through days’ worth of information in an instant
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Listening to Solar Storms
• Further Reading / In the News
• Listen to solar storm activity in new sonification video @ physorg.com
• Busy Sunspot Unleashes Another Strong Solar Flare @ space.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• March 26, 1859: 153 years ago : Vulcan Discovered? : In 1859, Lescarbault, a French medical doctor and amateur astronomer reported sighting a new planet in an orbit inside that of Mercury which he named Vulcan. He had seen a round black spot on the Sun with a transit time across the solar disk 4 hours 30 minutes. He sent this information and his calculations on the planet’s movements to Jean LeVerrier, France’s most famous astronomer. Le Verrier had already noticed that Mercury had deviated from its orbit. A gravitational pull from Vulcan would fit in nicely with what he was looking for. However, it was not consistently seen again and it is now believed to have been a “rogue asteroid” making a one-time pass close to the sun. [Or this is the non-prime universe and it was destroyed, que Bryan crying out in anguish]
• March 25, 1970: 42 years ago : Concorde Flew : In 1970, the prototype British-built airplane Concorde 002 made its first supersonic flight (700 mph; 1,127 kph). A few months earlier, the French prototype, Concorde 001, had broken the sound barrier on 1 Oct 1969. Mach 2 was achieved by Concorde 001 on 4 Nov 1970, and by Concorde 002, a few days later on 12 Nov 1970. The combined number of supersonic flights by the two aircraft reached 100 by January of the following year, 1971.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …

• March 22 : New Moon

• Fri, March 23 : Over the next few days, keep an eye out to the West for Venus, and Jupiter and a very thin crescent Moon

• March 26: Saturn will rise mid evening, close and to the left of Spica
  

• Further Reading and Resources

• More on whats 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 Meteorites & Lasers | SciByte 38 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/17947/solar-storms-higgs-boson-scibyte-37/ Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:00:54 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=17947 We take a look at recent solar activity, new ideas and imaging of the Titantic, Higgs Boson particles, Dinosaur feathers, dust devils on Mars, and more!

The post Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]>

We take a look at recent solar activity, new ideas and imaging of the Titantic, Higgs Boson particles, Dinosaur feathers, transparent electrodes, dust devils on Mars, viewer feeedback and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Download | Ogg Download | HD Video | Mobile Video | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | Ogg Feed | iTunes Feed | HD Feed | Mobile Feed | Tablet Feed

Support the Show:

Purchase anything at Amazon.com Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link Grab the SciByte Audible.com pick [11-22-63: A Novel]

   

Show Notes:

The power of the Sun

• The low down
• There are five categories of CME’s : A, B, C, M and X. The A-class flares are the weakest sun storms, while the X-class events are the most powerful solar flares
• The subsets, go from 1 to 9, to pinpoint a solar flare’s strength. Only X-class solar flares have subcategories that go higher than 9.
• With the most powerful solar flare on record occurred in 2003 and was estimated to be an X28 on the solar
• A large X5.4 solar flare that erupted on the Sun on March 7, 2012 at 00:28 UT, (7:28 PM EST )
• About an hour later, the same region let loose an X1.3 class flare, which was but 5 times smaller than the first
• Significance
• High-definition views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory show the subsequent solar tsunami that rippled across the Sun
• Such waves move at over a million miles per hour [1.6 million km], travelling from one side of the Sun to the other in about an hour
• Typical CMEs contain about 10 billion tons of solar plasma and material
• The CME only delivered a glancing blow to the Earth, even so early predictions said this event could trigger a geomagnetic storm on Earth
• The effects of the storm were milder than originally predicted due to the orientation of the magnetic field of the CME
• Coronal Mass Ejections are clouds of particles but there is also a magnetic field structure
• If an ejection if oriented more to the south a stronger storm is expected, this storm appears to be Northern oriented
• It ended up gaining some extra “oomph” once the magnetic fields lined up right… enough to ignite some amazing displays of Aurora
• Two more M-class solar flares, and exploded from the surface of the Saturday
• The recent solar storm had a dramatic effect on MESSENGER images of Mercury. In the image above, you can see bright streaks and speckles, with Mercury’s surface faintly visible behind them. These streaks are energetic particles from the Sun hitting the camera’s CCD
• * Of Note*
• The radiation from the intense storm temporarily blinded the European spacecraft Venus Express currently orbiting Venus
• The on board star tracker and it’s backup became blinded by the radiation, the star tracker is used to measure position and orientation
• Similar events have happened between 5–10 times, while unusual the longest time the instruments have been down is 32 hours.
• Until they come back online, the spacecraft will fall back on manually operations
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : NASA | Massive Solar Flare gets HD Close Up
• [The massive sunspot region AR1429 has been particularly active since it emerged on March 2, 2012. @ Space.com](https://i.space.com/images/i/15647/i02/sunspot-region–1429.jpg?1330970091
  CREDIT: NASA/SDO)
• Social Media
• Twitter NASA SDO @NASA_SDO
• Further Reading / In the News
• The Solar Storm, at Mercury @ https://messenger.jhuapl.edu
• Two More Solar Flares Erupt on Active Sun Saturday @ Space.com
• Active Region Is Still Active! @ Space.com
• Strong Solar Flares Still Shooting Out from Active Sun @ UnioverseToday.com
• Raging Solar Storm ‘Blinds’ Venus Spacecraft @ Space.com
• [Big Solar Storm Packs Small Punch, But Not Over Yet @ Space.com](
  https://www.space.com/14842-biggest-solar-storm-earth-effects.html)
• Biggest Solar Storm in Years Is Bombarding Earth Now @ Space.com
• Huge Solar Flare’s Magnetic Storm May Disrupt Satellites, Power Grids @ Space.com
• A Close-up Look at the Massive Solar Storm that Shook the Sun @ UnioverseToday.com
• Sun Fires Off 2 Huge Solar Flares in One-Two Punch @ Space.com
• Sun Releases a Powerful X5 Flare @ UniverseToday.com

*— NEWS BYTE — *

How the moon might have affected the Titanic

• The low down
• There is some evidence that and unusually close approach by the moon on Jan. 4, 1912, may have caused abnormally high tides
• An uncommon event occurred on that Jan. 4 when the moon and sun lined up in such a way their gravitational pulls enhanced each other, well-known as a “spring tide"
• Significance
• Researchers looked to see if configuration maximized the moon’s tide-raising forces on Earth’s oceans enhanced tides caused increased glacial calving to reach the shipping lanes by April
• Normally, icebergs can not move southward until they’ve melted enough to re-float or a high enough tide frees them a process that can take several years
• However the unusually high tide in Jan. 1912 would have been enough to dislodge many of those icebergs and move them back into the southbound ocean currents
• The high tide would have allowed them to travel southward much faster than typical, could explain the abundant icebergs in April of 1912
• * Of Note*
• Researchers have recently assembled what’s believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by–5-mile Titanic debris field
• Sonar imaging and more than 100,000 photos taken from underwater robots have been assembled to create the map
• The mapping took place in the summer of 2010 during an expedition to the Titanic led by RMS Titanic Inc., the legal custodian of the wreck who was joined by other groups, as well as the cable History channel
• Details on the new findings have not being revealed yet, the network will air them in a two-hour documentary on April 15, exactly 100 years after the Titanic sank
• Further Reading / In the News
• Full Titanic site mapped for 1st time @ physorg.com
• The iceberg’s accomplice: Did the moon sink the Titanic? @ physorg.com

HiggsBoson

• Last time on SciByte
• Higgs Bosons & Tough Materials | SciByte 25 (Dec 13, 2011) – Higgs-Boson confirmation just around the corner?
• Neutrinos & Leap Year | SciByte 35 (Feb 28, 2012) – Neutrino News
• The low down
• Two independent experiments have new measurements indicate that the elusive Higgs boson may nearly be cornered
• The collaborations has found excesses in their data that might be interpreted as coming from a Higgs boson with a mass in the region of 115 to 135 GeV.
• Significance
• This is consistent with the December 2011 announcement of excesses seen in that range by LHC experiments, which searched for the Higgs in different decay patterns
• The two teams independently combed through hundreds of trillions of proton-antiproton collisions recorded by their experiments to arrive at this exciting result
• * Of Note*
• An official claim can only happen if the chance that the data could be due to a statistical fluctuation is less than 1 in 740
• Further Reading / In the News
• World’s best measurement of W boson mass tests Standard Model, Higgs boson limits @ physorg.com
• Tevatron experiments report latest results in search for Higgs boson @ physorg.com
• LHC to narrow search for Higgs boson @ physorg.com

*— TWO-BYTE NEWS — *

More Dinosaur feathers get color

• * You might Recall *
• Feedback & Space Lego’s | SciByte 31 (Jan 31, 2012) – Dinosaur feather colors
• The low down
• A team of American and Chinese researchers have uncovered the color and detailed feather pattern for the Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 130 million years ago
• Four-winged dinosaur’s feathers were black with iridescent sheen
• The fossilized plumage, which had hues of black and blue like a crow, it the earliest record of iridescent feather color
• Significance
• Feather color is produced partially by arrays of pigment-bearing organelles called melanosomes, melanosome’s structure is constant for a given color
• Using the power of scanning electron microscopes, paleontologists have begun to analyze the shape of the fossilized melanosemos and compating then to living birds.
• Paleontologists have also made predictions about the purpose of the dinosaur’s tail
• Once thought to be teardrop-shaped used in flight is actually much narrower with two elongate feathers
• Researchers not believe it to be ornamental, and used in social interactions like courtship
• * Of Note*
• Although its anatomy is very similar to birds, Mircroraptor is considered a non-avian dinosaur placed in the group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs that includes Velociraptor
• Previously the Microraptor was considered a nocturnal animal, but glossy plumage is not a trait found in modern day birds.
• Further Reading / In the News
• ScienceShot: Flashy Feathers @ Sciencemag.org
• Four-winged dinosaur’s feathers were black with iridescent sheen @ physorg.com

Transparent Electrodes

• The low down
• Scientists have shown that ultra-thin sheets of an exotic material remain transparent and highly conductive even after being deeply flexed 1,000 times and folded and creased like a piece of paper.
• The basic structural is a five-layer sandwich made up of alternating single-atom sheets of selenium and bismuth stacked on top of each other as thicker samples are made
• Selenium-selenium bonds between the units are weak which provides an overall material to flex durably without being damaged
• Significance
• Experiments also showed that bismuth selenide does not degrade significantly in humid environments or when exposed to oxygen treatments that are common in manufacturing
• This material will solve the problem modern transparent electrodes on the surfaces of most cells as they are either too fragile or not transparent or conducting enough,
• In solar cells roughly half the solar energy that hits the Earth comes in the form of infrared light, and few of today’s solar cells are able to collect it
• It may also be useful in communications devices, by improving infrared sensors common in scientific equipment and aerospace systems.”
• * Of Note*
• The combination has been testing with sheets of bismuth and selenium, each just one atom thick, to form five-layer units.
• The bonds between the units are weak, allowing the overall material to flex while retaining its durability
• The material itself conducts electricity only on its surface while its interior remains insulating and is as good as gold as an electrical conductor
• Further Reading / In the News
• Exotic material shows promise as flexible, transparent electrode @ physorg.com

Martian Dust Devil

• The low down
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six science instruments since 2006
• Mars orbiters, rovers and landers have all captured devils in action before
• A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in an image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging
• Significance
• Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day
• The ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground, heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it and the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right.
• It lofted a twisting column of dust more than half a mile [800 meters] high, and had approximately a 90ft [30 yards] radius Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• * Of Note*
• Like on Earth, winds on Mars are powered by solar heating
• Mars is now farthest from the Sun, and exposure to the Sun’s rays is now less, the dust devils are still moving dust around on Mars’ surface
• This mission has returned more data about Mars than all other orbital and surface missions combined and can reveal features as small as a desk
• More than 21,700 images taken by HiRISE are available for viewing on the instrument team’s website
• Twitter : HiRISE@HiRISE
• Further Reading / In the News
• Huge Dust Devil on Mars Captured in Action @ UniverseToday.com
• Mars orbiter catches twister in action @ PhysOrg.com
• Photo from NASA Mars orbiter shows wind’s handiwork (Jan 2012) @ PhysOrg.com

Fossilized circle of life

• The low down
• A fossil has been found that shows a flying pterosaur, with a 6-foot wingspan, that has a fish in it’s throat, and had just been caught itself by a large fish itself.
• Jurassic fail: fish accidentally snags pterosaur, and both die @ blogs.discovermagazine.com
• Pterosaurs Were on the Menu For Ancient Fish and Dinosaurs @ DiscoverMagazine.com

Accurate Clock

• The low down
• Atomic Clock – A precision clock that depends for its operation on an electrical oscillator regulated by the natural vibration frequencies of an atomic system
• A new time-keeping device is tied to the orbiting of a neutron around a nucleus of an atom
• The clock would remain accurate to within 1/20th of a second over 14billion years, making it nearly 100 times more accurate than the best atomic clocks we have now
• You might ask or note that ‘Neutrons’ do not ‘orbit’, that the orbiting items are electrons
• Scientists are proposing to use lasers to orient the electrons in a specific way, then observing the neutrons as they rotate around the nucleus
• Because the neutron is so close to the center of the atom the oscillation rate is nearly unaffected by external perturbations compared to the electron
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Atom Animation
• Further Reading / In the News
• Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the Universe @ spacedaily.com
• Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the Universe @ physorg.com

SPACECRAFT UPDATE – GRAIL Moon Probes Ebb and Flow

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Revisiting the Moon | SciByte 27 9 (Jan 5, 2012) | Moon meets GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory)
• Exoplanets & Social Media | SciByte 29 (Jan 17, 2012) – GRAIL moon probes names finally named
• Habitable Planets & Plant Power | SciByte 32 (Feb 7, 2012) – First video of the far side of the moon
• Recall
• Launch : Sep 10, 2011
• Nearly identical spacecraft both about the size of a washing machine, only differentiated by the needs for one spacecraft to lead while the other follows
• Formation-flying spacecraft will make detailed science measurements from lunar orbit with unparalleled precision to within 1 micron – the width of a human red blood cell
• There is still a lot we don’t know about the Moon says Zuber, like why the near side is flooded with magma and smooth and the back side is not smooth and completely different.
• * Of Note*
• Twin GRAIL Moon Probes Ebb and Flow Start Lunar Gravity Science Mission have just begun their science mission and will use a precision formation-flying technique to map Lunar Gravity.
• Science mapping phase officially began Tues, March 6
• MoonKAMs on both Ebb and Flow were turned on Monday, March 5, and all appears well with the first images a week after science operations begin
• Multimedia
• IMAGE GALLERY: GRAIL mission @ NASA
• YouTube VIDEO : Grail “Go” for Launch Poll
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Launch
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Spacecraft Separation
• YouTube VIDEO : Post Launch Interview WIth Launch Director Tim Dunn
• YouTube VIDEO : GRAIL Spacecraft and Vehicle Flow
• Further Reading
• NASA GRAIL Mission Page
• Twin NASA Science Probes Start Lunar Gravity Mapping @ universetoday.com
• Twin NASA Moon Probes Begin Mapping Lunar Gravity @ space.com

*— VIEWER FEEDBACK — *

Archeology in Space

• Indy from the chatroom pointed out a few stories/books about Space archaeology
• The Lunar low down
• The total area that Armstrong and Aldrin explored at the Apollo 11 landing site could fit in the infield of a baseball diamond
• Apollo 12 was the only mission to successfully visit the site of a previous spacecraft’s landing, and it also saw the placement of the first Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), which included a seismometer and various instruments to measure the lunar environment
• The US flag planted by Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean isn’t itself visible, the shadow cast by it is.
• Apollo 12 and 14, which allowed for more time on the surface and Apollo 15, 16, and 17, which had the benefit of a Lunar Roving Vehicle
• * On the Moon *
• Recently the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) orbit dropped to only 13mi [21km] allowing the best imaging of the Apollo landing sites ever.
• Image of the Apollo 11 landing site captured from 15mi [24 km] above the surface provides LRO’s best look yet at humanity’s first venture to another world
• The lower orbit imaging was able to get 6in [15cm] to every pixel
• An image from an altitude of only 15 miles [24km] offers the highest-resolutions yes of Apollo 11
• The Apollo 11 image shows the Lunar Module’s descent stage, a seismic experiment monitor, a laser ranging reflector (LRRR, still used today to measure distances between Earth and the Moon) and its cover, and a camera can be discerned in the overhead image
• Visible around all Apollo landing sights are dark trails where astronauts or lunar rovers went.
• An often asked questions is if you can see if the flags are still there, given the heat/cold cycle and UV environment will degrade the nylon,
• * On Mars *
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), has taken pictures of the dead Phoenix Lander, the landing platform that delivered the Spirit rover,
• Images of the Phoenix Lander in 2008 show clear signs of the bright and clean circular solar panels, in 2010 a shadow of the rover and one panel can be seen with one panel completely missing
• On Mars, satellite imagery has been used in conjunction with the rover missions to track out future paths
• Also to keep an eye on retired missions like the Phoenix lander
• In addition imagery is looking for locations of failed missions inside the estimated landing/crash area
• Looking for Mars missions is more difficult due to the atmosphere and weather which can cover lander in dust and remove traces of tracks
• Multimedia
• NASA Spacecraft Images Offer Sharper Views of Apollo Landing Sites @ NASA.gov
• Apollo Landing Sites Revisited Image Gallery
• Hunting for Mars Polar Lander with HiRISE @ Plaetary Society
• Further Reading / In the News
• Apollo 12: Pinpoint Landing on the Ocean of Storms @ NASA.gov
• Look, It’s a Moon Buggy! LRO’s Best Look Ever at the Apollo 15 Landing Site @ UniverseToday.com
• NASA Releases Closer Looks at Apollo Landing Sites from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter @ UniverseToday.com
• Apollo 11: ‘A stark beauty all its own’ @ UniverseToday.com
• Best Views Yet of Historic Apollo Landing Sites @ UniverseToday.com
• Dead Spacecraft on Mars Spotted in New Photos @ space.com
• Phoenix Lander Still Visible in New HiRISE Images from Mars @ UniverseToday.com
• Spirit Lander – 1st Color Image from Mars Orbit @ UniverseToday.com
• New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers @ jpl.nasa.gov
• Opportunity Photographed from Mars Orbit at Crater Precipice @ UniverseToday.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• March 19 1800 : 212 years ago : Electric eels : Electric eels were captured by Alexander von Humoldt with Aimé Bonpland. They were on a five-year expedition in the jungles of South America, on the way to the Orinoco river, where at Calabozo they discovered swamps crowded with electric eels, Electrophorus electricus. During their scientific investigation of the behaviour of the eels, the scientists received massive electric shocks. Humboldt reported a severe lack of feeling in his joints for the better part of a day after standing directly on an electric eel. They learned that horses had been killed by them. Humboldt published an article Observation on the Electric Eel of the New World in 1808
• March 16, 1926 : 86 years ago : Goddard Rocket : The first US liquid-fuel rocket flight was launched by Robert Goddard in a field in Auburn, Mass. He thought stable flight could be obtained by mounting the rocket ahead of the fuel tank. The tank was shielded from the flame by a metal cone and was pulled behind the rocket by the lines for gasoline fuel and oxygen. The design worked, but did not produce the hoped-for stability. The rocket burned about 20 seconds before reaching sufficient thrust (or sufficiently lightening the fuel tank) for taking off. During that time it melted part of the nozzle. It took off to a height of 41-ft, leveled off and within 2.5 seconds hit the ground 184 feet away, averaging about 60 mph. The camera ran out of film, so no photographic record of that flight remains.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …

• Fri, Mar 16 : Jupiter and Venus have separated a bit to appear 4 degrees apart now

• Planet Byte

• Mercury is still about the same height in the western horizon at twilight, far below or lower right of Venus and Jupiter, and fading

• Jupiter and Venus are now starting to get farther away from each other after thier spectacular conjunction, they are also visible from the Southern Hemisphere right now

• The fiery orange Mars shines low in the east during twilight

• Further Reading and Resources

• More on whats 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 Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/17493/neutrinos-leap-year-scibyte-35/ Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:24:58 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=17493 We take a look at the “are they / aren’t they travelling faster than the speed of light” Neutrino’s, the science of leap year, and more!

The post Neutrinos & Leap Year | SciByte 35 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]>

We take a look at the “are they / aren’t they travelling faster than the speed of light” Neutrino’s, a Legged Squad support robot that is both awesome and frightening, the science of leap year, tornadoes on the sun, space craft updates and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Purchase anything at Amazon.com Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link

   

Show Notes:

*— UPDATE — *

Neutrino News

• Last Time on SciByte
• Neutrinos & Tatooine | SciByte 17 (Oct 18, 2011) - Faster than light Neutrinos
• Spacecraft Updates | SciByte 23 [November 30, 2011] - Faster than light Neutrinos : Update
• The low down
• An experiment that nearly weightless particles called neutrinos were apparently traveling faster than the speed of light.
• Though the physicists felt confident in their experimental setup, they and the rest of the scientific community suspected that the shocking result was probably due to some error, considering that light as the universe’s speed limit is a central tenet of Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
• During a second run of the experiment in November, neutrinos again appeared to arrive in Italy 60 nanoseconds earlier than light
• Also in November, another group of physicists also working at Gran Sasso Laboratory demonstrated that the neutrinos in question could not possibly have been traveling faster than light, because if they had, they would have given off a telltale type of radiation, which was not detected.
• Significance
• Faulty wiring has been proposed as the glitch that caused a European physics experiment to clock particles flying faster than light.
• A bad connection with a cable that relays satellite GPS signals to keep the experiment’s clocks in sync could have made each particle’s trip seem to take less time than it actually did.
• Tightening the connection changed the time it took for data to travel the length of the fiber by 60 nanoseconds
• The OPERA team will tighten its cables and repeat the experiment
• * Of Note*
• Another glitch could have caused the experiment to underestimate the particles’ speed correcting for an error in this device would actually increase the anomaly in neutrino velocity, making the particles even speedier than the earlier measurements seemed to show
• The two effects will get a new round of tests in May, when the two labs are scheduled to make velocity measurements with short-pulsed beams designed to give readings much more precise than scientists have achieved so far.
• New data, however, will be needed to confirm this hypothesis.
• Multimedia
• IMAGE: Universal Speed Limit?
• IMAGE - The Neutrino’s Path ‘Side Vies’
• IMAGE - The Neutrino’s Path ‘Top View’
• IMAGE - Global Gravity model
• VIDEO - Global Gravity model
• VIDEO - New results from OPERA on neutrino properties @ CERN
• CERNtv @ youtube.com
• IMAGE - Cern test ‘breaks speed of light’ @ bbc.co.uk
• IMAGE - Global Gravity model
• VIDEO - Global Gravity model
• VIDEO - New results from OPERA on neutrino properties @ CERN
• CERNtv @ youtube.com
• Social Media
• Twitter account for CERN @CERN
• Twitter Results for [#]()
• Further Reading / In the News
• 
  Neutrino experiment repeat at Cern finds same result @ BBC News
• Loose cable blamed for speedy neutrinos @ ScienceNews.com
• Loose Cable Explains Faulty ‘Faster-than-light’ Neutrino Result @ Space.com
• BREAKING NEWS: Error Undoes Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Results @ ScienceMag.org
• Official Word on Superluminal Neutrinos Leaves Warp-Drive Fans a Shred of Hope—Barely @ ScienceMag.org
• [Faster than light neutrinos? More like faulty wiring @ PhysOrg.com](https://www.physorg.com/news/2012–02-faster-neutrinos-faulty-wiring.html
• Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos: OPERA Confirms and Submits Results, But Unease Remains
• Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light, According to One Experiment @ news.sciencemag.org
• Tiny Neutrinos May Have Broken Cosmic Speed Limit @ NYtimes.com
• Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern @ bbc.co.uk
• Faster-than-light neutrinos face time trial @ Nature.com
• Special Relativity May Answer Faster-than-Light Neutrino Mystery
• Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam @ Cornell University Library
• The OPERA neutrino velocity result and the synchronisation of clocks @ Cornell University Library
• A simple explanation of OPERA results without strange physics @ Cornell University Library
• Findings that showed faster-than-light travel were released to the public too soon @ PhysOrg.com
• OPREA - Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus
• Critics take aim at fast neutrinos

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Legged Squad Support System (LS3)

• The low down
• Today’s soldiers can carry more than 100 pounds of gear
• Increasing the weight of individual equipment has a negative impact on warfighter readiness
• To combat these issues DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] is developing semi-autonomous, highly mobile
• Significance
• It is designed to carry up to 400 lbs of gear and enough fuel for missions covering 20 miles and lasting 24 hours
• It can use its ‘eyes’ to follow a leader and can travel to designated GPS coordinates and sensors that allow the robot to distinguish between trees, rocks, terrain obstacles and people.
• At the end of an 18-month proving period, LS3 will embed with Marines conducting field exercises to see how it gets along in real maneuvers.
• It could also be used as a mobile power source to recharge batteries for radios or handheld devices
• * Upcoming *
• They are planning to add auditory technology so that it would be able to take spoken commands such as ‘stop’, ‘sit’, or ‘come here’
• Leader-follower tight where it will attempt to follow as close as possible to the path its leader takes
• Leader-follower corridor, where it would stick to the leader but with freedom to make local path decisions, so the leader doesn’t need to think about LS3’s mobility capabilities
• Go-to-waypoint where it uses its local perception to avoid obstacles on its way to a designated GPS coordinate
• Multimedia
• YouTube CHANNEL : DARPA Channel
• YouTube VIDEO : DARPA Legged Squad Support System (LS3)
• YouTube VIDEO : BigDog Evolution
• YouTube VIDEO : BigDog Overview (Updated March 2010)
• YouTube VIDEO : BigDog Beach’n
• YouTube VIDEO : BigDog robot
• Social Media
• DARPA @DARPA_News
• Further Reading / In the News
• LS3 / BigDog @ Boston Dynamics
• Legged Squad Support System (LS3) @ DARPA
• Darpa’s Legged Squad Support System (LS3) to lighten troops’ load @ PhysOrg.com
• Video: DARPA’s Legged Squad Support System (a.k.a. Big Dog) Goes Outside to Play @ PopSci
• DARPA Gives $32 Million For A Bigger Big Dog From Boston Dynamics @ PopSci
• BullDog: A Bigger, Scarier Version of BigDog Gets Closer to the Battlefield @ PopSci
• Video: Watch BigDog, PopSci’s Favorite Quadruped Bot, Romp and Grow Through the Years @ PopSci

*— TWO-BYTE NEWS — *

Science of Leap Year

• The low down
• A day, defined by how long it takes for a star to appear in the same place again, is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
• During that time the Earth has moved forward one day in it’s orbit of the sun in order to keep up with this so that the Sun appears the in same place you have to add about 3min 56 seconds, and that’s where 24 hours comes from.
• Earths orbit is not precisely circular, it is actually a eccentric circle
• Average Year is 365.242374 days long, that’s 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 12 seconds
• Significance
• Adding a day every fours years makes the average 365.25, which gets closer than the calenders 365
• Leap year are there to keep the calender aligned so that roughly noon on Dec 21 (solstice) the same point on the Earth is tilted towards the sun.
• To get even closer every 100 years is not a leap year but every 400 years is a leap year.
• * Of Note*
• Related to the Year 2000 computer program, many programs would have calculated leap year incorrectly
• For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. Similarly, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900 and 3000 will not be leap years, but 2400 and 2800 will be.
• Multimedia
• IMAGE : Gregorian Calendarleap solstice @ Wikipedia
• Social Media
• Twitter Results for [#LeapYear](https://twitter.com/#!/search/leapyear)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Earth’s Orbit Creates More Than A Leap Year: Orbital Behaviors Also Drive Climate Changes, Ice Ages @ ScienceDaily
• How could the year 2000 be a leap year when 1900 was not? @ HowStuffWorks.

Solar Tornado

• The low down
• Not a tornado in the sense they are on Earth powered by winds, the suns are streams of plasma
• The particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces. They are tracking along strands of magnetic field lines
• Significance
• Video shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8.
• The bright backdrop is an active region rotating into view that provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma
• * Of Note*
• This particular ‘tornado’ is about the size of the Earth
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : NASA SDO - Plasma Indirection
• YouTube Channel : Solar Dynamic Observatory
• Social Media
• NASA SDO @NASA_SDO
• Further Reading / In the News
• Solar Dynamics Observatory Website @ NASA.gov
• Solar Tornadoes Dance Across Sun’s Surface in NASA Video@ Space.com
• Watch an Earth-sized “tornado” gyrate across the surface of the sun @ io9.com

SPACECRAFT UPDATE - Solar Dynamics Observatory

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Solar Storms & Private Space Flight | SciByte 30 (Jan 24, 2012) - You might have seen meets ‘Breaking’ Science with Coronal Mass Ejection
• Asteroids and Black Holes | SciByte 20 (Nov 08, 2011) - Largest Sunspot in Years Observed on the Sun
• Solar Storms | SciByte 7 (July 13, 2011)
• Recall
• Orbiting the Earth at a distance of 36,000 kilometers in geosynchronous orbit, the SDO usually has a spectacular, uninterrupted view of our nearest star.
• The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is where the animated gif’s that are sometimes in the shownotes come from when Coronal Mass Ejections happen
• Significance
• On Feb. 21, of a partial eclipse that was visible only from space.
• The sharp edge of the lunar limb helps researchers measure the in-orbit characteristics of the telescope, how light diffracts around the telescope’s optics and filter support grids
• Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen the images even more than before
• In addition during its travels, the moon briefly blocked sunspot AR1422, an active region that is blasting strong ultraviolet emissions into space.
• This caused a dip in the EVE [extreme ultraviolet] output and may allow scientists to calibrate the energy emitted by the active region
• This eclipse can bring the lunar landscape into focus – mountains and valleys on the moon show up as a raggedy edge when viewed at high resolution.
• * Of Note*
• The next partial solar eclipse visible from Earth will occur May 20. Skywatchers in much of Asia, the Pacific and western North America will be able to see it
• A total solar eclipse will take place Nov. 13, but it will be visible only from parts of northern Australia and the South Pacific. However,
  skywatchers in much of Australia, New Zealand and southern South America will be able to see a partial eclipse on that day
• Social Media
• NASA SDO @NASA_SDO
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : NASA SDO - Plasma Indirection
• YouTube Channel : Solar Dynamic Observatory
• Further Reading
• Moon Eats a Chunk Out Of The Sun: Big Pic @ Discovery.com
• NASA’s sun-watching telescope sees solar eclipse @ SpaceFlightNow.com
• ‘Pac-Man Sun’: NASA Probe Sees Solar Eclipse in Space @ Space.com

* SPACECRAFT UPDATE - Opportunity*

• * Last time on SciByte*
• Solar Storms & Private Space Flight | SciByte 30 (Jan 24, 2012) - Opportunity Rover
• Moons Here & There | SciByte 28 (Jan 10, 2012) - Opportunity Rover gets ready for hibernation
• Recall
• Analyzing the signals from Mars scientists will be able to more precise measurements of the planets rotational speed
• Analyzing how Mars’ spin and spin access has changed since the Viking missions in the mid–70’s should allow scientists to get a better handle on the interior of the planet
• By measuring the minute variations of the planets rotation could reveal weather Mars has a solid or liquid core.
• After about three-to-six months researchers should have enough data to get an in-depth picture of the Martian interior
• * Of Note*
• Because Opportunity is covered with a thicker film of dust compared to her prior four Martian winters, the rover team was forced to employ the same “tilting” strategy they successfully used to keep her twin sister Spirit
• This is the first winter that Opportunity did not have sufficient power to continue roving across the surface.
• Opportunity has nearly finished snapping the 13 filter, 360 degree stereo Greeley
• Social Media
• Twitter for Spirit and Oppy @MarsRovers
• Multimedia
• Universe Today article with pictures
• Opportunity Rover - Raw Images Gallery @ NASA.gov
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Rover Multimedia Gallery: @ NASA.gov
• Mars Rover Missions Page - Multimedia Gallery: @ NASA.gov
• Further Reading
• Opportunity Phones Home Dusty Self-Portraits and Ground Breaking Science @ UniverseToday.com
• Opportunity phones home dusty self-portraits and ground breaking science @ PhysOrg.com
• Mars Exploration Program
• 8 Years on Mars: ‘Amazing’ NASA Rover Still Going Strong @ Space.com
• NASA Rover Spends Martian Winter Probing Inside Red Planet @ Space.com
• New App Downlinks Mars Rover Images Straight to Your Smartphone @ popsci.com
• Opportunity arrives at Greeley Haven – 5th Winter Haven Worksite on Mars @ UniverseToday.com
• ‘Greeley Haven’ is Winter Workplace for Mars Rover @ NASA.gov’
• OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Positioned at Candidate Site for Winter @ NASA
• Mars Rovers home @ NASA
• NASA Picks Mars Winter Rest Stop for Long-Lived Rover @ Space.com
• Opportunity Well Positioned For Another Winter On Mars @ MarsDaily.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• Mar 06, 1869 : 143 years ago : Periodic Table : Dmitry Mendeleev published his first version of the periodic table of the elements. He was a Russian chemist who developed the periodic classification of the elements. In his final version of the periodic table (1871) he left gaps, foretelling that they would be filled by elements not then known and predicting the properties of three of those elements. The Periodic Table | SciByte 10 (Aug 3, 2011)
• Mar 06, 1950 : 62 years ago : Silly Putty : Silly Putty was introduced as a toy by Peter Hodgson, a marketing consultant, who packaged one-ounce portions of the rubber-like material in plastic eggs. It could be stretched, rolled into a bouncing ball, or used to transfer colored ink from newsprint. The original discovery was made in 1943 by James Wright who combined silicone oil and boric acid at the laboratories of General Electric. He was researching methods of making synthetic rubber, but at the time no significant application existed for the material. However, it was passed around as a curiosity. Hodgson saw a sample and realized its potential simply for entertainment and coined its name for marketing it as a toy. Its popularity made him a millionaire.

Looking up this week

• Keep an eye out for …

• Feb 29 : First Quarter Moon

• Mar 01 : Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are in a line to the W-SW about an hour after sunset, with Jupiter on top

• Mar 03 : Tonight Mars is at opposition, when the Earth is between the planet and the sun, and will be in the East during twilight

• Mercury is in the dimming sunset in the W to the lower right of Venus

• Jupiter and Venus remain in the SW to W after dusk, they continue to get closer narrowing to about one fist width held at arms length,10 degrees, with Jupiter still on top

• Further Reading and Resources

• More on whats 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 Neutrinos & Leap Year | SciByte 35 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/15092/planets-feedback-scibyte-26/ Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:22:37 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=15092 We answer questions concerning the sun, solar cells, and even Space Camp. We also look at the news about some new extra-solar planets, black holes and more!

The post Planets & Feedback | SciByte 26 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]>

We take a look at some of your feedback and questions concerning the sun, solar cells, and even Space Camp. We will also look at the news about some new extra-solar planets, black holes and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

Direct Download:

MP3 Download | Ogg Download | YouTube

RSS Feeds:

MP3 Feed | Ogg Feed | iTunes Feed

Show Notes:

Support the Show:

[asa default]B0067G55XS[/asa]
[asa default]B001CWXAP2[/asa]

• Grab the SciByte Audible.com pick: The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
• Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link

*— FEEDBACK — *

Questions about the sun

• If the sun can’t fuse gold and such why are they there?
• Do scientists take these into account with calculating life of the sun?
• Do they account for them with the weight of the sun?
• Should we look to Mercury Venus for heavier elements?
• Formation of the Solar System
• Throughout the galaxy there are dust clouds containing mostly Hydrogen and heavier elements
• The heavier elements are from the cores of Type II super nova, when they explode they seed the surrounding areas with those heavier elements
• The cloud will start contracting, eventually forming a star with a surrounding dust cloud
• The Sun
• The sun is 4.5 billion year old main sequence star
• It has converted about half of the hydrogen in its core into helium, so it still has about 5 billion years before the hydrogen runs out.
• Each second, more than four million metric tons of matter are converted into energy within the Sun’s core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation
• The sun manufactures elements from lighter ones in the process of nuclear fusion. Helium is a byproduct of nuclear fusion, and beryllium, lithium, boron, and other atoms are part of the ordinary fusion process.
• Planets
• The inner Solar System, the region of the Solar System inside 4 AU, was too warm for volatile molecules like water and methane to condense, so the planetesimals that formed there could only form from compounds with high metals (like iron, nickel, and aluminium) and rocky silicates.
• These compounds are quite rare in the universe, comprising only 0.6% of the mass of the nebula, so the terrestrial planets could not grow very large
• The composition of the inner planets are very similar, as are the compositions of the asteroids in the asteroid belt
• * Of Note*
• Mining other inner planets for metals might be feasible if we were able to safely travel there and back, and for less money that would require to aquire it on Earth
• Another reason to mine other inner planets would be to increase the supplies of rare metals on Earth
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO :Naked Science: Birth of the Solar System
• YouTube VIDEO : Moon Formation Annimation
• VIDEO : The Composition of the Sun @ NASA.gov
• IMAGE : Hubble image of protoplanetary discs
• Further Reading / In the News
• Hubble Confirms Abundance of Protoplanetary Disks around Newborn Stars @ https://hubblesite.org
• Formation of the Solar System @ universetoday.com

From Twitter : First Solar Cell to break the rules?

• A Twitter follower pointed out this story
• The low down
• Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum.
• Quantum efficiency for photocurrent, usually expressed as a percentage, is the number of electrons flowing per second in the external circuit of a solar cell divided by the number of photons per second of a specific energy (or wavelength) that enter the solar cell
• Significance
• The company’s tiny solar cells, each a dot the size of a ballpoint pen tip, have been validated to convert 41 percent of solar energy to electricity
• They can grow a tiny semiconductor on a substrate and then a machine transfers those cells to a wafer.
• Additional layers are automatically added to the wafer so that a very efficient, triple-junction solar cell is constructed
• Quantum dots, by confining charge carriers within their tiny volumes, can harvest excess energy that otherwise would be lost as heat – and therefore greatly increase the efficiency of converting photons into usable free energy.
• The semiconductor printing technique can be used for many applications, including improving LED lighting performance, better hard drives, or sensors for medical device.
• The company that was chosen to build concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) collector that uses lenses to concentrate light 1,000 times onto its tiny solar cells.
• The mechanism for producing a quantum efficiency above 100 percent with solar photons is based on a process called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG)
• Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) is where a single absorbed photon of appropriately high energy can produce more than one electron-hole pair per absorbed photon.
• The first built concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) collector that uses lenses to concentrate light 1,000 times onto its tiny solar cells
• Photons of different colors have different amounts of energy. In the visible spectrum, reds and oranges have less energy, while blues, violets, and ultraviolet photons carry progressively more.
• When high-energy photons hit a semiconducting material in a solar cell, they give up this energy to the semiconductor’s electrons, exciting them from a static position so that they are able to conduct.
• In many cases, high-energy photons—violets and ultraviolets—carry far more energy than is needed to give electrons the nudge to conduct. But this excess energy is lost as heat.
• These solar cells captures some of the excess energy in sunlight normally lost as heat.
• * Of Note*
• The key in making the device, Nozik says, was coming up with a recipe for chemically synthesizing and then processing quantum dots.
• When synthesized, the dots—which are clusters of lead and selenium about 5 nanometers in diameter—end up decorated with long organic molecules that prevent separate dots from clumping together.
• The company’s target to build a system that generates electricity at under 10 cents per kilowatt hour
• Further Reading / In the News
• Peak External Photocurrent Quantum Efficiency Exceeding 100% via MEG in a Quantum Dot Solar Cell Abstract @ sciencemag.org
• Scientists report first solar cell producing more electrons in photocurrent than solar photons entering cell @ physorg.com
• Tiny solar cell dots printed for powerful array @ news.cnet.com
• Solar Cells Capture Lost Energy @ news.sciencemag.orgSolar Cells Capture Lost Energy @ news.sciencemag.org
• Tiny solar cell could make a big difference @ physorg.com
• NREL Scientists Report First Solar Cell Producing More Electrons In Photocurrent Than Solar Photons Entering Cell @ nrel.gov

Space Camp, only for the cool kids

• From a 4th grade listener
• Space Camp Website
• Space camp is 6 days of training
• There are different programs for various ages, and family groups : Space Camp for ages 12–14, Space Academy for ages 15–18, Adult Programs, Family Programs, Educators Programs
• There are also programs for those more interested in high performance flying : Mach I for ages 9–11, Mach II for ages 12–14, Mach III for ages 15–18, Adult Programs, Family Programs
• As alternative, I suggest taking a look at the Challenger Center if there is one near you

*— THE NEWS — *

Earth sized planets discovered!

• The low down
• Prior to this discovery, the smallest known planet orbiting a sun-like star was Kepler–10b with a radius of 1.42 that of Earth, which translates to 2.9 times the volume.
• The star with the new planetary discoveries is a G8 yellow star a little less hot than the Sun and located 950 light-years from Earth.
  +The system has five planets, all circling within a distance roughly equivalent to Mercury’s orbit in our solar system.
• The ordering of the letters in the planet names reflects the time at which the planets were initially discovered.
• Significance
• Both planets discovered are most likely rocky planets much like Earth but have scorching temperares.
• Kepler–20e has an orbital period of 6.1 days and is slightly smaller than Venus, 0.87 times the radius of Earth. The surface temperature is more tha 1,400F [760C] and could melt glass.
• Kepler–20f has an orbital period of 19.6 days and is a bit larger than Earth, 1.03 times the radius of Earth. The temperature at the surface of the planet is about 800F [426C], similar to Mercury.
• * Of Note*
• Kepler–22b discovered earlier this year in the habital zone has the right temperature, but it is too big.
• These planets are the right size but are to hot.
• Normally ground based observations in minute changes in the spectrum of a star are used to determine it’s wobble caused by the planet orbiting.
• These planets are too small to detect a wobble, so a software called Blender was developed by nearly 30 collaborators to run millions of simulations to rule out other sources of stellar dimming.
• The analysis found that Kepler 20-e is 3,400 times more likely to be a planet than a false positive; the ratio for Kepler 20-f is 1,370.
• The Kepler space telescope images 150,000 stars every 30 minutes.
• You too can help sieve through data taken by the NASA Kepler space mission
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : Kepler Discovers First Earth-Sized Planets Outside Solar System
• Kepler Galleries
• Social Media
• Twitter : NASA Kepler @NASAKepler
• Further Reading / In the News
• Kepler Discoveries Page
• Kepler–20 system: 5 planets including two that are Earth-size @ kepler.nasa.gov
• NASA Discovers First Earth-size Planets Beyond Our Solar @ nasa.gov System
• NASA: First Earth-Size Planets Found Outside Our Solar System @ pcmag.com
• What Exoplanets Might Really Look Like @ wired.com
• First Earth-Sized Planets Orbit Distant Star @ news.discovery.com
• Discovered: The First Earth-Sized Worlds Outside Our Solar System @ popsci.com
• It’s a Small World: Kepler Spacecraft Discovers First Known Earth-Size Exoplanets @ scientificamerican.com
• How Did Astronomers Find the New Earth-Size Planets? @ space.com
• First True ‘Alien Earth’ May Be Found in 2012 @ space.com
• Kepler Team Confirms Two Hot Earths @ skyandtelescope.com
• Found! 2 Earth-Size Alien Planets, the Smallest Exoplanets Yet @ space.com
• Kepler finds first earth-size planets beyond our solar system @ physorg.com
• [First Earth-sized planets netted @ sciencenews.org](https://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337052/title/First_Earth-sized_planets_netted

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Smallest Black hole

• The low down
• Black holes reside at the centres of galaxies and swallow everything that falls into their gravitational clutches such that nothing, not even light, can escape.
• The largest supermassive black holes, capable of swallowing our Solar System whole several times over, were reported just last week
• Significance
• Scientists have now found a black hole that could represent the lower boundary for a black hole’s mass at just three solar masses.
• The distinct pattern of X-ray emission, which resembles the pattern printed on an electrocardiogram in response to a heartbeat
• * Of Note*
• That there are only two possibilities to explain the differences: either the new source is farther away or its mass is lower
• There is a limit to how distant it could be as it would be very unlikely to have it lying outside our Galaxy.
• In addition the fact that its ‘heart’ beats faster is compatible with a lower mass
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : NASA | RXTE Detects ‘Heartbeat’ Of Smallest Black Hole Candidate
• Further Reading / In the News
• NASA’s RXTE Detects ‘Heartbeat’ of Smallest Black Hole Candidate @ nasa.gov
• Smallest black hole just a heartbeat @ astronomynow.com

Plant-eating dinosaur discovered in Antarctica

• The low down
• For the first time, the presence of large bodied herbivorous dinosaurs, Sauropoda, in Antarctica has been recorded.
• Sauropoda is the second most diverse group of dinosaurs, with more than 150 recognized species.
• Significance
• The team’s identification of the remains of the sauropod dinosaur suggests that advanced titanosaurs (plant-eating, sauropod dinosaurs) achieved a global distribution at least by the Late Cretaceous
• The Cretaceous Period spanned 99.6–65.5 million years ago, and ended with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
• A detailed description of an incomplete middle-tail vertebra its distinctive ball and socket articulations, lead the authors to identify it as an advanced titanosaur.
• * Of Note*
• Until now, remains of sauropoda had been recovered from all continental landmasses, except Antarctica.
• Other important dinosaur discoveries have been made in Antarctica in the last two decades.
• Multimedia
• [IMAGE : Pictures and drawings of what was found @ sciencedaily.com(https://images.sciencedaily.com/2011/12/111219102054-large.jpg)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Plant-eating dinosaur discovered in Antarctica @ physorg.com
• Plant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered in Antarctica @ sciencedaily.com

Comet Lovejoy survives it close encounter with the sun

• The low down
• Lovejoy is a sun-grazing (not sun-colliding) comet. That simply means that it makes a very close pass as it goes around the sun. . It’s often close enough to destroy a comet.
• Multimedia
• YouTube VIDEO : The End of Comet Lovejoy – Live on the NASA SDO Website
• YouTube VIDEO : Comet Lovejoy
• Further Reading / In the News
• Details on the expected demise of Comet Lovejoy tonight @ geeked.gsfc.nasa.gov
• Lovejoy survived! 2 geeked.gsfc.nasa.gov

SPACECRAFT UPDATE

• * Last time on SciByte*
• SciByte 22-Nov 22
• SciByte 23-Nov 30
• The low down
• Launch Date: Nov. 26, 2011
• On Earth it weights roughly 1,982 lbs [899 kg]
• On Mars is will weight roughly 743 lbs [337 kg]
• Mars it will weigh 3/8 that due to the lower gravity)
• That first of six planned course adjustments had originally been scheduled for Nov. 26. The correction maneuver will not be performed until later in December or possibly January.
• Landing scheduled for : Aug 6, 2012
• * Of Note*
• Already 32 million miles from Earth on its interplanetary trek to Mars, the Curiosity rover has begun collecting useful scientific data about the radiation conditions that astronauts would encounter on the way to the red planet.
• The Radiation Assessment Detector, an instrument mounted the rover, has begun obtaining measurements on energetic particles penetrating the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft.
• The device, about the size of a coffee can and weighing 3.8 pounds, was powered up and started gathering data on Dec. 6, some two weeks ahead of schedule. It will downlink data every 24 hours.
• Scientists are seeing, even inside the spacecraft, about four times higher doses of radiation than the baseline we measured on the launch pad.
• RAD was designed for the science mission to characterize radiation levels on the surface of Mars, but an important secondary objective is measuring the radiation on the almost nine-month journey through interplanetary space, to prepare for future human exploration
• Social Media
• Facebook page for NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover
• Twitter for Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading
• Where in the solar system is Curiosity? @ nasa.gov
• Mars Science Laboratory rover page @ nasa.gov
• • Mars Science Laboratory rover interactive page @ nasa.gov
• Course Excellent, Adjustment Postponed @ nasa.gov
• NASA Launches Most Capable and Robust Rover to Mars @ nasa.gov

Of Note

• Fill that Ebook Reader with free books from NASA in three formats

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• Dec 25 1758 – 253 years ago – predicted return of Halley’s comet : Clear records of the comet’s appearances were made by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers dating back to 240 BC. It was not until 1705 that Edmund Halley hypothesized that a number of the observation were the same comet. He predicted it would return in 75.5 years and in 1758 it was first sighted by German farmer and amateur astronomer, Johann Georg Palitzsch. Halley’s orbital period over the last three centuries has been between 75 and 76 years, though it has varied between 74 and 79 years. It also has a retrograde orbit, orbiting in the opposite direction of the planets. It’s shape if vaguely resembles a peanut and measures 9.3 x 4.9 x 4.9 mi [15x8x8 km]. Halley’s comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid–2061.
• Dec 22 1938 – 73 years ago – First coelacanth (re)discovered : Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator of the museum of East London, South Africa, discovered the fish among the catch of a local fisherman. She spotted an unusual 5-ft fish in his “trash” fish pile, believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period (145.5 to 65.5 million years) The coelacanth was pale mauvy-blue with iridescent silver markings, and they can grow up to 5.9 ft [1.8 m.] The heart of the coelacanth is shaped differently than most modern fish and its structure is that of a straight tube. The coelacanth braincase is 98.5% filled with fat; only 1.5% of the braincase actually contains any brain.Since 1938, Latimeria chalumnae have been found in the Comoros, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, and in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa. YouTUBE Video
• Dec 23 1986 – 25 years ago – Voyager – first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling : It was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on December 14, 1986. It flew easterly 24,986 mi [40,211 lm] in a little over 9 days, 3 minutes and on Dec 23 in completed the first non-stop, round- the- world flight without refueling. A cockpit was only roughly the size of a phone booth, which complicated the flight and sleep rotation of the pilots. It returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California after travelling 24,986 miles in 216 hours, at an average speed of 115.8 mph.This has since been accomplished only one other time, by Steve Fossett in the Global Flyer. YouTube VIDEO

Looking up this week

• You might have seen …
  Commander of the International Space Station, sends holiday greetings to folks back on Earth
• Spacecraft Monumental Moments of 2011

• Keep an eye out for …

• Wed, Dec 21 : Marks the longest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere).

• Thurs and Fri Dec 22–23 : The Ursids meteor shower peak on the Moon-free nights and despite low rates of 10–15 meteors per hour should make for good observations

• Sat, Dec 24 : New moon.

• Sat, Dec 24 : Go out around 8pm and you can spot Orion in the SE, look down for the bright star Sirius, which often twinkles vigorously with vivid, flashing colors.

• More on whats in the sky this week
• Sky&Telescope
• AstronomyNow
• SpaceWeather.com
• HeavensAbove
• StarDate.org

The post Planets & Feedback | SciByte 26 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/10216/solar-storms-scibyte-7/ Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:04:41 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=10216 We take a look at Solar weather; what it is and how we view it. We also take a look at how all that solar weather affects us here on Earth.

The post Solar Storms | SciByte 7 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]>

This week on SciByte …
We take a look at Solar weather; what it is and how we view it. We also take a look at how all that solar weather affects us here on Earth.

All that and more, on SciByte!

Direct Download Links: HD Video | Large Video | Mobile Video | MP3 Audio | YouTube

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Show Notes:

The Sun

• Average Star – informally designated as a yellow dwarf, because its visible radiation is most intense in the yellow-green portion of the spectrum and although its color is white, from the surface of the Earth it may appear yellow because of atmospheric scattering of blue light
• About one million Earths could fit inside the sun.
• Diameter :  ~865,000 mi / ~1,392,000 km / 109 x Earth
• Mass : 4.38×10^30 lb / 1.99×10^30  kg / 333,000 × Earth
• Consists of 99.86% of mass of Solar System
• Chemically : ~3/4 of the mass is Hydrogen, rest mostly Helium
  • Less than 2% consist of heavier elements [Oxygen, Carbon, Neon, Iron, ect]

SAFETY

• DO NOT look directly at the Sun with naked eye,with binoculars or a telescope
  • there are Solar scopes, but if your not sure you are gambling with your vision!
• Looking at the sun causes temporary partial blindness
• Delivers ~4miliwatts of sunlight to the retina, slightly heating it and potentially causing damage in eyes that cannot respond properly to the brightness

UV Exposure

• Eyes : Cataracts – gradually yellows the lens of the eye over a period of years and is thought to contribute to the formation of cataracts
• Eyes : UV Exposure can actually give you sunburn like lesions on your retina [~90sec]
• Can mutate DNA by causing adjacent bases bond with each other, instead of across the “ladder.” This makes a bulge, and the distorted DNA molecule does not function properly. [PIC]
• Skin : Sunburn – a reaction of the body to the direct DNA damage, which can result from the excitation of DNA by UV-B light. This damage is mainly the formation of a thymine [one of four chemical bases in DNA] dimer. The damage is recognized by the body, which then triggers several defense mechanisms, including DNA repair to revert the damage and increased melanin production to prevent future damage. Melanin transforms UV-photons quickly into harmless amounts of heat without generating free radicals, and is therefore an excellent photoprotectant against direct and indirect DNA damage. [ Video ]
• Skin : Ultraviolet (UV) radiation bears responsibility for 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers, which will afflict one out of every five Americans, and 65 percent of melanoma cases, which kill about 8,700 people a year.
• Sunblock – absorbs or reflects some of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn [made of Organic and inorganic particulates that reflect, scatter, and absorb UV light]
• Sunblock : come off the skin (particularly when exposed to water or toweled off) but their chemical components break down over time. To preserve the efficiency of sunscreens, the products should be stored in a cool, dry place and replaced every year. In addition, they should be reapplied at least every two hours or more frequently if exposed to water or rubbed off.
  • FDA Regulation changes : Broad Spectrum : Under the new rules, only products that protect skin from both UVA and UVB sun rays can be marked “broad spectrum,” and sunscreen that does not meet the broad spectrum requirements, or that has a sun protection factor (SPF) of less than 15, must carry a warning that the product does not diminish the risk of skin cancer or prevent premature skin aging.
  • FDA Regulation Change : Water resistance : Under the new regulations, water-resistant formulas must say on the label how long the product will protect skin before needing to be reapplied, either 40 or 80 minutes.
  • FDA Regulation Change : “Water/sweat Proof” : Manufacturers cannot label sunscreens as “waterproof” or “sweatproof,” or identify their products as “sunblocks,” because these claims overstate their effectiveness.
  • FDA Regulation Change : SPF #’s : FDA proposed a rule that would cap advertised SPF at “50 +”, because the evidence that more expensive, higher-SPF products provide more skin protection is lacking. Many who wear high-SPF sunscreen spend more time in the sun and reapply less frequently than those whose sunscreen has a lower SPF.

Solar Cycle

• Solar magnetic activity cycle, periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the sun that is experienced on Earth. It has a period of about 11 years
• The cycle is observed by counting the frequency and placement of sunspots visible on the Sun.
• Most of the Suns variations are related to the solar magnetic field, which is caused by the moving plasma inside the rotating Sun, which make a dynamo (another name for an electrical generator)

Solar Flare

• Occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.
• Radiation is emitted across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves at the long wavelength end, through optical emission to x-rays and gamma rays at the short wavelength end.
• The amount of energy released is the equivalent of millions of 100-megaton hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time!
• They occur near sunspots, usually along the dividing line (neutral line) between areas of oppositely directed magnetic fields.

Solar Prominence

• A large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface, often in a loop shape [Video] [Video] [Video] [Pic] [Pic]
• Some can sometimes last for many months, during which lengthy observations can be carried out by observatories.
• Some prominences break apart and give rise to coronal mass ejections.

Coronal Mass Ejections [CME]

• A massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space
• At solar minimum we observe about one CME a week. Near solar maximum we observe an average of 2 to 3 CMEs per day

Solar Energetic Particles (SEP)

• high-energy particles coming from the Sun, consist of protons, electrons and heavy ions.  These can endanger life in outer space. [Reach ~80% the speed of light]
• originate from two processes: energetization at a solar flare site or by about 1% of shock waves associated with Coronal Mass Ejection
• They do however provide a good sample of solar material. By studying the isotopic composition of SEPs, scientists can obtain an indirect measurement of the material which formed the solar system, and thus learn about its origins.

Aurora

• Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, above 80 km (50 miles)
  • solar wind, a rarefied flow of hot plasma (gas of free electrons and positive ions) emitted by the Sun in all directions
  • Usually reaches Earth with a velocity around (250mi/s | 400 km/s) During magnetic storms flows can be several times faster
  • Earth’s magnetosphere is formed by the impact of the solar wind on the Earth’s magnetic field. It forms an obstacle to the solar wind, diverting it  [Video]
  • The magnetosphere is full of trapped plasma as the solar wind passes the Earth.
  • The flow of plasma into the magnetosphere increases with increases in solar wind density and speed
  • Magnetospheric electrons which are accelerated downward by field-aligned electric fields are responsible for the bright aurora features. The un-accelerated electrons and ions are responsible for the dim glow of the diffuse aurora. [Video] [Pic from ISS]
• The rotation of the Sun skews them (at Earth) by about 45 degrees, so that field lines passing Earth may actually start near the western edge (“limb”) of the visible Sun

• Oxygen Emissions : Green/Brownish-Red
• Nitrogen emissions : Blue or red. Blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized. Red if returning to ground state from an excited state.
• It can take three quarters of a second to emit green light and up to two minutes to emit red. Collisions with other atoms or molecules will absorb the excitation energy and prevent emission. Because the very top of the atmosphere has a higher percentage of oxygen and is sparsely distributed such collisions are rare enough to allow time for oxygen to emit red.
• Green is the most common of all auroras. Behind it is pink, a mixture of light green and red, followed by pure red, yellow (a mixture of red and green), and lastly pure blue.
• Viewing Aurora

Geomagnetic Storms on Earth

• A temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere

• Caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field which interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field.
• The increase in the solar wind pressure initially compresses the magnetosphere and the solar wind magnetic field will interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and transfer an increased amount of energy into the magnetosphere.
• Both interactions cause an increase in movement of plasma through the magnetosphere (driven by increased electric fields inside the magnetosphere) and an increase in electric current in the magnetosphere and ionosphere.
• Heats Earth’s upper atmosphere, causing it to expand. The heated air rises, and the density at the orbit of satellites increases significantly. This results in increased drag on satellites in space, causing them to slow and change orbit slightly.
• When magnetic fields move about in the vicinity of a conductor such as a wire, a geomagnetically induced current is produced in the conductor.

Geomagnetic Storm of 1989

• The result of a coronal mass ejection on March 9, 1989.
• The aurora could be seen as far south as Texas
• As this occurred during the Cold War, many worried that a nuclear first-strike might be in progress
• Some satellites in polar orbits lost control for several hours.

• Some weather satellite communications were interrupted causing weather images to be lost.
• A NASA communication satellite recorded over 250 anomalies caused by the increased particles flowing into its sensitive electronics.
• Space Shuttle Discovery : A sensor on one of the tanks supplying hydrogen to a fuel cell was showing unusually high pressure readings on March 13. The problem went away after the solar storm subsided. [Launch Video]

Geomagnetic Storm of 1989 – March 13, 1989 Power Outtage

• In Québec, as well as across parts of the northeastern U.S., the electrical supply was cut off to over 6 million people for 9 hours due to a huge geomagnetic storm.
• The variations in the earth’s magnetic field also tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec’s power grid.

• The utility’s very long transmission lines and the fact that most of Quebec sits on a large rock shield prevented current flowing through the earth, finding a less resistant path along the power lines.
• The James Bay network went offline in less than 90 seconds
• The company implemented various mitigation strategies, including raising the trip level, installing series compensation on ultra high voltage lines and upgrading various monitoring and operational procedures. Other utilities in North America, the UK, Northern Europe and elsewhere implemented programs to reduce the risks associated with geomagnetically induced currents

Geomagnetic Storm of 1859

• Produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm
• September 1, English astronomer Richard C. Carrington was sketching a curious group of sunspots—curious on account of the dark areas’ enormous size
• Auroras could be seen overhead from Maine to the tip of Florida
• Cubans saw the auroras directly overhead; ships’ logs near the equator described crimson lights reaching halfway to the zenith
• People could read the newspaper by their crimson and green light. Gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up and ate breakfast at 1 a.m., thinking the sun had risen on a cloudy day. Telegraph systems became unusable across Europe and North America.

Sunspots

• Cooler than the other parts of the sun [ ~2000-2500* C / ~3600-4500*F ]
• Occur in banded areas, the latitude changes dependent upon the solar cycle

• Caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature. Like magnets, they also have two poles.
• Although they are at temperatures of roughly 3000–4500 K (2727–4227 °C/ 4940-7640 *F), the contrast with the surrounding material at about 5,780 K (5506*C/9944*F) leaves them clearly visible as dark spots, as the intensity is a function of temperature to the fourth power.
• If the sunspot were isolated from the surrounding photosphere it would be brighter than an electric arc.
• Possible Similar Phenomenon have been observed (Starspots) on other stars as cooler and warmer spots on stars [ HD12545 ]

Solar Tsunami

• Solar tsunamis were discovered in 1997 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
• When first witnessed, solar physicists doubted what they were seeing
• Rise higher than the Earth, and ripple out from a central point in a circular pattern millions of kilometers in circumference
• Video of Solar Tsunami from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

Satellites / Instruments

• There are a number missions involved with studying the Sun

STEREO / Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory

• Spoke about this in J@N “Spotlight on NASA | J@N [ 2.28.11 ]”
• Two Year Mission to employ two nearly identical space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind – to provide the first-ever stereoscopic measurements to study the Sun and the nature of its coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

• Launched on Oct. 25, 2006; the two systems started to give three-dimensional images of our Sun in April 2007.
• Has four instrument packages are mounted on each of the two STEREO spacecraft: details below
• Mass: 1,364 pounds (620 kilograms)
• Dimensions:  3.75ft x 4.00ft x
  • 3.75 feet (1.14 meters)
  • 4.00 feet (1.22 meters) wide (launch configuration)
  • 21.24 feet (6.47 meters) wide (solar arrays deployed)
  • 6.67 feet (2.03 meters) deep
• Power consumption: 475 watts
• Data downlink: 720 kilobits per second
• Memory: 1 gigabyte

STEREO | Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI)

• Comprised of four instruments:
  • SECCHI EUVI: Extreme UltraViolet Imager (LMSAL)
  • SECCHI COR1: Inner Coronagraph (GSFC)
  • SECCHI COR2: Outer Coronagraph (NRL)
  • SECCHI HI: Heliospheric Imager
• These instruments study the 3-D evolution of CME’s from birth at the Sun’s surface through the corona and interplanetary medium to its eventual impact at Earth.
  • Takes remote images of the CME as it erupts from the Sun and travels into space
  • By studying the evolution of CME’s, we can better predict when they will occur and which ones will likely impact the Earth, and how they will affect the Earths magnetosphere. Earlier detection and warning could give us time to shut down power grids (ect.) or to take precautions that might protect what technology we can.  It also gives us time for any astronauts in orbit to get to the safest place they can.

STEREO | STEREO/WAVES (SWAVES)

• SWAVES is an interplanetary radio burst tracker that traces the generation and evolution of traveling radio disturbances from the Sun to the orbit of Earth.
  • Detects the traveling shock ahead of the CME through radio bursts
  • Remember : Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic radiation, and therefore travel at the speed of light
  • This instrument allows us to detect the coronal and interplanetary (IP) shock of the most powerful CMEs, providing a radial profile through spectral imaging, determining the radial velocity

• • Also allows us to detect and measure the density and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Learning how they interact with the Suns magnetic field lines and the Inter-planatery Magnetics will allow us to better understand and predict how they travel through the inter-planetary medium.

STEREO | In-situ Measurements of Particles and CME Transients (IMPACT)

• Samples the 3-D distribution and provide plasma characteristics of solar energetic particles and the local vector magnetic field.
  • measures its electrons, embedded magnetic fields, and more energetic particles of the solar wind
  • We know Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) are dangerous so modeling where they originate will give us a better ability to predict them.

STEREO | PLAsma and SupraThermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC)

• Provides plasma characteristics of protons, alpha particles and heavy ions. This experiment will provide key diagnostic measurements of the form of mass and charge state composition of heavy ions and characterize the CME plasma from ambient coronal plasma.
  • measures the density, speed, flow, and material of the solar wind
  • samples the solar wind and suprathermal particles, providing measurements of kinetic properties and composition

Additional Information

• spaceweather.com
• SpaceWeather
• Solar cycle
• NASA : Having a Solar Blast – UPDATE
• NASA : Mystery of the Solar Tsunami—Solved
• Space.com : Huge Sun Eruption of June 7, 2011
• Space.com : Powerful Solar Flare May Charge Up Northern Lights Thursday
• Space.com : Amazing New Sun Photos from Space
• Discovery : Epic Solar Flare Pops Sun’s Magnetic Cork
• Universe Today : More Eye-Popping Video from the June 7 Solar Explosion
• Universe Today : Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun
• Live Science : Sun Unleashes ‘Spectacular’ & Powerful Eruption
• National Geographic : Solar Flare Sparks Biggest Eruption Ever Seen on Sun
• Scientific American : Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm
• Scientific American : Full Exposure: How Will the FDA’s Sunscreen Regulations Help Prevent Skin Cancer?
• FDA announces new requirements for over-the-counter (OTC) sunscreen products marketed in the U.S.
• Press Release : Smallest KPNO Telescope Discovers Biggest Starspots
• News Articles on Google Search for June 7 Coronal MAss Ejection
• WIKI : The  Sun
• WIKI : Coronal Mass Ejections
• WIKI : Solar Cycle
• WIKI : Geomagnetic Storms
• WIKI : Solar Prominence
• WIKI : March 1989 geomagnetic storm
• WIKI : Corona
• WIKI : Sun Observation and effects

Social Media

• Twitter : SpaceWeather
• Twitter : SunSpotAlert
• Twitter : SolarStormWatch
• Twitter : TheSunToday
• Facebook : Solar Dynamics Observatory
• YouTube : Solar Dynamics Observatory

 

The post Solar Storms | SciByte 7 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/1650/the-computer-action-show-s02e04/ Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:40:38 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=1650 News Update: Google Buzz, 1gbps Internet Services, Sun CEO resigns via Haiku, and more!

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This week on The Computer Action Show!

News Update: Google Buzz, 1gbps Internet Services, Sun CEO resigns via Haiku, and more!

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All this week on, THE COMPUTER ACTION SHOW!

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Grab The Computer Action Show! App for your iPhone or iPod touch here!

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]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/1072/the-linux-action-show-season-10-episode-3/ Sun, 10 May 2009 11:00:28 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=1072 We give you our review of the new Ubuntu Release

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This Week on, The Linux Action Show!

We give you our review of the new Ubuntu Release, have a quick chat with the CEO of CodeWeavers, the big Oracle news BLOWS our minds and we tell you ALL ABOUT IT!

PLUS SO MUCH MORE!

All This Week On, The Linux Action Show!

This Week’s Links:

The Tesla Haptic Entertainment And Navigation System, Runs Linux

Ubuntu 9.04 officially released

CrossOver’s Steady march to 8.0; builds for OpenSolaris and FreeBSD

Oracle Buys Sun for $5.6 BILLLLLLLION

Chris Fisher LIVE – Chris’ Live Stream Page

Bryan’s Blog Where You Can Catch His Live Sream

• You can grab The Linux Action Show MP3 Feed Here
• You can grab The Linux Action Show OGG Feed Here
• You can grab Jupiter Broadcasting Video Feed Here

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