official science and technology thread

FreeSpiritCat · Post by **FreeSpiritCat** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 9:08 pm

[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/sNhhvQGsMEc[/youtube]

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:08 am

Fermi paradox is bs in my opinion. It's like searching 1 square mile or the ocean and saying you didn't see a shark..And then saying well the sharks didn't present themselves...must not be sharks!

Post by **UAdevil** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:43 am

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/ ... -1.2275019

Comet Philae landed on could be home to alien life
European space craft Rosetta also said to have picked up strange ‘clusters’

Mon, Jul 6, 2015, 08:45

The comet which spacecraft Philae has landed on may be teeming with alien microbial life, according to two leading astronomers.

Distinct features of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, such as its organic-rich black crust, are best explained by the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface, they claim.

Rosetta, the European space craft orbiting the comet, is also said to have picked up strange “clusters” of organic material that look suspiciously like viral particles.

But neither Rosetta nor its lander are equipped to search for direct evidence of life after a proposal to include this in the mission was allegedly laughed out of court.

Astronomer and astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, who was involved in the mission planning 15 years ago, said: “I wanted to include a very inexpensive life-detection experiment. At the time it was thought this was a bizarre proposition.”

He and colleague Dr Max Wallis, from the University of Cardiff, believe 67P and other comets like it could provide homes for living microbes similar to the “extremophiles” that inhabit the most inhospitable regions of the Earth.

Comets may have helped to sow the seeds of life on Earth and possibly other planets such as Mars early in the life of the solar system, they argue.

The astronomers present their case for life on 67P at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales.

Philae made history last November after detaching from its Rosetta mothership and bouncing down on to the surface of the comet, coming to rest close to a cliff or crater wall.

After being forced into hibernation by the lack of sunlight reaching its solar panels, the probe has delighted scientists by “waking up” as the comet races towards the sun.

The comet, described as looking like a “rubber duck”, has two lobes joined by a thinner neck and measures around 4km) across. Currently it is about 176.7 million miles from Earth and travelling at more than 117,000km/hr.

Prof Wickramasinghe and Dr Wallis have carried out computer simulations that suggest microbes could inhabit watery regions of the comet. Organisms containing anti-freeze salts could be active at temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees, their research shows.

The comet has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy “seas”, and flat-bottomed craters containing “lakes” of re-frozen water overlain with organic debris.

Prof Wickramasinghe said: “What we’re saying is that data coming from the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures, the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface.

“These are not easily explained in terms of pre-biotic chemistry.

“The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off by heat from the sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific rate.”

He said several cracks in the ice had been shown to be “spewing out material” that is falling on to the surface.

“I think the microbiotic activity just under the surface results in gas which builds up to the point where the overlaying layers of ice can’t withstand the stresses,” said the professor.

Biological mechanisms were the likely explanation for the large quantities of organic gases that had been observed around comets, along with water, he maintained.

Philae had confirmed the presence of “ring and linear chain” organic molecules on the surface of 67P that were more complex than simple hydrocarbons such as methane, said Prof Wickramasinghe. However it was impossible to say if these represented amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

One tantalising find was the discovery of organic “particle clusters” by Rosetta in the gases surrounding the comet, which resembled viral particles collected from the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

“They might be viral particles,” said Prof Wickramasinghe.

As the comet reaches its closest point to the sun – a distance of 195 million kilometres – its family of micro-organisms is likely to become more active, say the scientists.

Prof Wickramasinghe, director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, believes it is time for a complete shift of thinking about the possibility of alien life.

He said: “The current estimate for the number of extra-solar planets in the galaxy is 140 billion plus. Planets that can harbour life are really quite abundant in the galaxy, and the next neighbouring system to us is only spitting distance away. I think it’s inevitable that life is going to be a cosmic phenomenon.

“Five hundred years ago it was a struggle to have people accept that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. After that revolution our thinking has remained Earth-centred in relation to life and biology. It’s deeply ingrained in our scientific culture and it will take a lot of evidence to kick it over.”

He pointed out that when proof of organic molecules in space emerged in the 1970s “the rebuttals were fierce” from the scientific establishment.

Future missions to 67P and other comets should include life-seeking instruments, he said. But space agencies appeared reluctant to engage in a serious quest for life that risked challenging “a long established paradigm”.

Dr Wallis said: “Rosetta has already shown that the comet is not to be seen as a deep-frozen inactive body, but supports geological processes and could be more hospitable to micro-life than our Arctic and Antarctic regions.”

Post by **UAdevil** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:58 am

http://www.tssbulletproof.com/optically ... rotection/

Optically Clear Aluminum Provides Bulletproof Protection

Transparent aluminum?

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:08 am

Aluminum based ceramics and minerals are often transparent...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby

FreeSpiritCat · Post by **FreeSpiritCat** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 6:04 pm

[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/ZVYz7g-qLjs[/youtube]

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:10 am

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:47 am

FreeSpiritCat · Post by **FreeSpiritCat** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:39 pm

This is really scary. There is also a really good video on the car being hacked.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-re ... p-highway/

I WAS DRIVING 70 mph on the edge of downtown St. Louis when the exploit began to take hold.

Though I hadn’t touched the dashboard, the vents in the Jeep Cherokee started blasting cold air at the maximum setting, chilling the sweat on my back through the in-seat climate control system. Next the radio switched to the local hip hop station and began blaring Skee-lo at full volume. I spun the control knob left and hit the power button, to no avail. Then the windshield wipers turned on, and wiper fluid blurred the glass.

As I tried to cope with all this, a picture of the two hackers performing these stunts appeared on the car’s digital display: Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, wearing their trademark track suits. A nice touch, I thought.

The Jeep’s strange behavior wasn’t entirely unexpected. I’d come to St. Louis to be Miller and Valasek’s digital crash-test dummy, a willing subject on whom they could test the car-hacking research they’d been doing over the past year. The result of their work was a hacking technique—what the security industry calls a zero-day exploit—that can target Jeep Cherokees and give the attacker wireless control, via the Internet, to any of thousands of vehicles. Their code is an automaker’s nightmare: software that lets hackers send commands through the Jeep’s entertainment system to its dashboard functions, steering, brakes, and transmission, all from a laptop that may be across the country.

ASUCatFan · Post by **ASUCatFan** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:10 pm

To be fair, Jeep only makes one actual Jeep anymore. Anything with any sort of independent suspension system is not a Jeep.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:29 pm

Well, it was St. Louis

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:29 pm

Looks more like talc to me. . .

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:50 pm

ghostwhitehorse wrote:
Looks more like talc to me. . .

I say we snort it and find out once and for all.

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 8:54 am

Chicat wrote:
ghostwhitehorse wrote:
Looks more like talc to me. . .
I say we snort it and find out once and for all.

I volunteer Kieth Richards for the job.

FreeSpiritCat · Post by **FreeSpiritCat** » Sun Aug 09, 2015 5:12 pm

[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/wHJTZ7k0BXU[/youtube]

ghostwhitehorse · Post by **ghostwhitehorse** » Sun Aug 09, 2015 6:40 pm

Catintheheat wrote:[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/wHJTZ7k0BXU[/youtube]

I want this. And yet. . .I am horrified by this.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:57 am

Any new Pluto pics floating around?

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 7:41 am

Catintheheat wrote:[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/wHJTZ7k0BXU[/youtube]

Ever since The Jetsons people have been wondering when we were going to finally get flying cars...

The thing is, people can barely drive in two dimensions. Now you want to add a third?

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 1:42 pm

Interesting what goes into computer generated smoke & fire. From the UC Berkeley channel:

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 8:41 pm

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:45 am

That's fantastic.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:46 am

Bionic arms with thought:

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:52 am

Supermoon lunar eclipse coming this weekend.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /72790162/

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:00 pm

wow thats incredible Merk

PieceOfMeat · Post by **PieceOfMeat** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:00 pm

Chicat wrote:

This ^^

Merkin wrote:Bionic arms with thought:

And This ^^

are both just awesome. Here's hoping the science progresses as fast as possible.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:26 am

NASA announced today that there is strong evidence of flowing salty water on mars. Gif showing streaks on crater slopes that show liquid water slowly flowing on or just below the surface

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa ... ay-s-mars/

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:38 am

Amazing.

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:56 am

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:05 am

Hmmmm, seems to be passing a lot closer than 16 million miles in that rendering...

Longhorned · Post by **Longhorned** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:18 am

We should slow down and yield the right of way.

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:19 am

Is Bruce Willis available?

catgrad97 · Post by **catgrad97** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:42 am

Chicat wrote:Hmmmm, seems to be passing a lot closer than 16 million miles in that rendering...

To be fair, that Earth was the "special effect" from the credits for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

Daryl Zero · Post by **Daryl Zero** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 12:23 pm

Chicat wrote:Hmmmm, seems to be passing a lot closer than 16 million miles in that rendering...

Pic must be from Chaffetz' office.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 12:41 pm

azgreg wrote:

Maybe those Christians who predicted the end of the world which was suppose to happen yesterday were just a couple days off.

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:19 pm

Makes you wonder what countermeasures we have to make sure it doesn't get too close

Merkin wrote:Maybe those Christians who predicted the end of the world which was suppose to happen yesterday were just a couple days off.

And now NASA is trolling them

It should fly safely past earth on Saturday, but astronomers are keeping a close eye on 86666 (2000 FL10) which, according to NASA, will be one of the biggest to pass close to our planet in recent times.

scumdevils86 · Post by **scumdevils86** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:20 pm

Jefe wrote:Makes you wonder what countermeasures we have to make sure it doesn't get too close

gunz. moar. gunz.

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:06 pm

Researchers accidentally find industrial waste, orange peel material sucks mercury out of water

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:28 am

Lots of stuff absorbs mercury from water. The question is whether it will absorb a lot of mercury relative to its own mass, and those chemists didn't mention that. The quote from the environmental research organization was pretty bad: you're not going to suck mercury out of some contaminated biosolid with another polymeric solid without doing some heavy duty chemical reactions first. You'd start with contaminated biosolid, and you'd end with a lot of waste from the chemical process, a mercury contaminated polymer (which would have to be land filled), and then the biosolid which you could burn I suppose. They'd be better off just land filling the biosolid in the first place.

The color changing property could be interesting though, and if the polymer's binding properties were reversible, you could imagine using it in a process to concentrate the mercury to make it easier to dispose of or even to reuse.

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:28 pm

Fingerprint Testing Gets Major Australian Breakthrough

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 11:42 pm

Puerco wrote:Lots of stuff absorbs mercury from water. The question is whether it will absorb a lot of mercury relative to its own mass, and those chemists didn't mention that. The quote from the environmental research organization was pretty bad: you're not going to suck mercury out of some contaminated biosolid with another polymeric solid without doing some heavy duty chemical reactions first. You'd start with contaminated biosolid, and you'd end with a lot of waste from the chemical process, a mercury contaminated polymer (which would have to be land filled), and then the biosolid which you could burn I suppose. They'd be better off just land filling the biosolid in the first place.

The color changing property could be interesting though, and if the polymer's binding properties were reversible, you could imagine using it in a process to concentrate the mercury to make it easier to dispose of or even to reuse.

Sure, it might not work for some applications, like taking mercury out of contaminated solids. However, the suggested application is getting it out of liquids where there is not an easy to deploy solution. Building it into filters, contamination detectors, lining effluent pipes, or cleaning up after a spill.

Quote from the article:

The substance could be used to literally suck up mercury at sites where it is contaminating water.

"We also are thinking about using it as a coating to line pipes and other devices that are used to transport water or it could be used as part of a water filtration device," Dr Chalker said.

The substance changes colour when it comes into contact with and absorbs mercury, which means it could also be used to detect whether waterways are polluted.

And yes, I assume the used product has to be disposed of, probably in a land fill. But the stuff that went into making it is industrial waste with no other known uses at present, so it gets land filled already. Now, the fact that this stuff is now contaminated with mercury means you have to be careful how you land fill it, but the alternative is sequestering the mercury contaminated liquids (worse management issues than landfill) or just let it enter the food chain. I don't really see a down side here.

EDIT: Rereading the article, I don't see the problem you found from the quote from the "environmental research organization". Both quotes, one from a research center (Ng) and the other from a company that specializes in pollution remediation (Miller), said it was promising for applications with which they were concerned. The bio-solid reference was to the end product from sewage treatment plants. If the mercury is removed during sewerage processing BEFORE the end product, then it isn't contaminating that end product. Again, I don't see a down side.

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:29 am

I took it to mean that they could remove the mercury from the already-existing stockpiles of biosolids, which would be really difficult. No issues with the quote if I interpret it in your way.

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:02 am

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 93886.html" target="_blank

Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' orbiting star near the Milky Way

A star identified by the Kepler Space Telescope may harbour structures which could point to an advanced technological civilisation

A large cluster of objects in space look like something you would "expect an alien civilization to build", astronomers have said.

Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish a report on the “bizarre” star system - suggesting the objects could be a “swarm of megastructures”.

He told The Independent: "I can’t figure this thing out and that’s why it’s so interesting, so cool – it just doesn’t seem to make sense."

Speaking to The Atlantic, Mr Wright said: "Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilisation to build. I was fascinated by how crazy it looked."

The snappily named KIC 8462852 star lies just above the Milky Way, between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. It first attracted the attention of astronomers in 2009, when the Kepler Space Telescope identified it as a candidate for having orbiting Earth-like planets.

But KIC 8462852 was emitting a stranger light pattern than any of the other stars in Kepler’s search for habitable planets.

Kepler works by analysing light from distant places in the universe — looking for changes that take place when planets move in front of their stars. But the dip in starlight from KIC 8462852 does not seem to be the normal pattern for a planet.

Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale, told The Atlantic: “We’d never seen anything like this star. It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out.”

In 2011 the star was flagged up again by several members of Kepler’s “Planet Hunters” team – a group of ‘citizen scientists’ tasked with analysing the data from the 150,000 stars Kepler was watching.

The analysts tagged the star as “interesting “ and “bizarre” because it was surrounded by a mass of matter in tight formation.

This was consistent with the mass of debris that surrounds a young star just as it did with our sun before the planets formed. However this star was not young and the debris must have been deposited around it fairly recently or it would have been clumped together by gravity – or swallowed by the star itself.

Boyajian, who oversees the Planet Hunters project, recently published a paper looking at all the possible natural explanations for the objects and found all of them wanting except one – that another star had pulled a string of comets close to KIC 8462852. But he said even this would involve an incredibly improbable coincidence.

A this stage Mr Wright, the astronomer from Penn State University, and his colleague Andrew Siemion, the Director of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), got involved. Now the possibility the objects were created by intelligent creatures is being taken very seriously by the team.

As civilisations become more technologically advanced, they create new and better ways of collecting energy — with the end result being the harnessing of energy directly from their star. If the speculation about a megastructure being placed around the star system is correct, scientists say it could be a huge set of solar panels placed around the star.

The three astronomers want to point a radio dish at the star to look for wavelengths associated with technological civilisations. And the first observations could be ready to take place as early as January, with follow-up observations potentially coming even quicker.

“If things go really well, the follow-up could happen sooner,” Wright told The Atlantic. “If we saw something exciting… we’d be asking to go on right away.”

and another life ending asteroid will barely pass by Earth on Halloween morning. They just found it a week ago

https://earthsky.org/space/big-asteroid ... er-31-2015" target="_blank

NASA says 2015 TB145 is the biggest known asteroid to sweep near Earth until 2027. It’ll pass at 1.3 times the moon’s distance and be visible through telescopes!

A newly found asteroid of notable size will safely pass by Earth on October 31, 2015 and should be visible moving in front of the stars, with the help of a telescope, the night before. According to NASA, asteroid 2015 TB145 will be the biggest known asteroid to come near Earth until 2027. It was discovered just over a week ago, on October 10, from the Pan-STARRS I telescope in Hawaii. The Halloween asteroid’s closest approach will occur at 1:05 p.m. ET (17:05 UTC) on October 31, 2015.

However, observers trying to glimpse the space rock using telescopes will have to look late on the night of October 30, and before dawn on October 31. The huge asteroid will pass Earth at 310,000 miles (498,896 km) or 1.3 times the Earth-moon distance, which is a totally safe pass. It’ll come closer to the moon than to Earth, only 180,000 miles (280,000 km) from the moon.

The space rock’s brightness will be at an approximate magnitude of 10, which is fainter than the eye alone can see. But the asteroid should be easy to spot “slowly” moving across the field of stars if you know when and where to look. And, by the way, although the asteroid’s distance will make this moving object appear to move slowly, this speeding space rock is traveling at 78,000 miles (126,000 km) per hour!

On the night of October 30-31, the asteroid will be traveling across the well-known constellation of Orion.

Preliminary estimates indicate asteroid 2015 TB145 is about 1,542 feet (470 meters) in diameter (estimates range between 689 to 2,133 feet, or 210 to 650 meters). Because of its size, advanced amateur astronomers may be able to see the moving asteroid in telescopes of 8″ in diameter or larger.

If the size is correct, the new found asteroid is 28 times bigger than the Chelyabinsk meteor that penetrated the atmosphere over Russia in February, 2013.

Various space agencies are already working towards earlier asteroid detections, but more funding is always required.

NASA is also planning to catch an asteroid, move it closer to our moon’s orbit, and then send astronauts to study how we can change the space rock’s orbit.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 5:14 pm

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:50 am

ASUHATER! wrote:Fermi paradox is bs in my opinion. It's like searching 1 square mile or the ocean and saying you didn't see a shark..And then saying well the sharks didn't present themselves...must not be sharks!

You are misunderstanding the Fermi Paradox, which the cartoon explains pretty clearly. The paradox is why, when life should be so abundant in the universe, do we not see anything at all (yet). If we could (theoretically) colonize the entire galaxy in two million years, and the odds are that other civilizations have a few billion years jump on us, why aren't they here communicating with us. Those other civilizations would perforce be type II. As the cartoon says, type I (almost us) would be too primitive, type III would be too advanced (sufficiently advanced science is equivalent to magic, doncha know). Hundreds maybe thousands of type II civilizations should be right next door crowding in on us. Why aren't they? (or maybe they are already walking amongst us?)

Your shark example doesn't come close to being a simile. We have in fact seen plenty of sharks - they present themselves to us all the time.

A better simile would be if we examined your 1 square mile of the ocean and found NOTHING AT ALL, even though we know the conditions of the ocean should have produced abundant life in that locale, seaweed, coral, clown fish, SOMETHING. That would be a better equivalent of the Fermi Paradox - why do we not see anything at all, not why do we not see bipeds with stereoscopic eyes and opposing thumbs in particular.

The explanations are kind of similar for both instances too, maybe there are filters that we don't know about - like sea vents that poison the water or a supernatural glass barrier or something.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:53 am

Fermi paradox is still bs. Universe is so big and we've seen such a small amount of it. It's more like searching one cubic foot of the ocean and finding no intelligent life and giving up. My mile comparison was far too big. Such a dumb theory.

FreeSpiritCat · Post by **FreeSpiritCat** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:40 pm

Hedy Lamarr, one of the most beautiful women of her time and one of the most intelligent.

[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/NI8nOa9BvjY[/youtube]

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 7:57 pm

Catintheheat wrote:Hedy Lamarr, one of the most beautiful women of her time and one of the most intelligent.

[youtube]www.youtube.com/embed/NI8nOa9BvjY[/youtube]

Wonderful, smart, lady.

I own a copy of the film "Ecstasy" with her infamous nude scenes.

Shouldn't there a special edition of Hot/Not for Hedy?

Jefe · Post by **Jefe** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:43 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WT1190F" target="_blank

WT1190F is a small temporary satellite of the Earth, thought to be space junk,[3] that will impact the Earth on November 13, 2015. It was first discovered on February 18, 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey.[2][4] It was then lost, and reacquired on November 29, 2013. It was again discovered on October 3, 2015, and the object was soon identified to be the same as the two objects previously sighted by the team, who have been sharing their data through the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC).[5] An early orbit calculation showed that it was orbiting the Earth in an extremely elliptical orbit, taking it from within the geosynchronous satellite ring to nearly twice the distance of the Moon.[1] It is also probably the same object as 9U01FF6, another object on a similar orbit discovered on October 26, 2009.
WT1190F has been orbiting the Earth as a temporary satellite since mid 2009 (named as UWAIS), if not longer. While it has not been positively identified with any known artificial satellites, its estimated density of 0.1 g/cm³ is much lower than would be expected of a natural object. Hence, European Space Agency astronomers have concluded that the object is likely a fuel tank of some sort.[2][4]
After more observations, ESA astronomers have determined that the object will impact the Earth on November 13, 2015 at approximately 06:20 UTC (11:50 local time), south of Sri Lanka.[2][4] Due to its small size, it is expected that most or all of the object will burn up in the atmosphere before impacting, but will be visible as a bright daytime fireball.[2][4]

The International Astronomical Center (IAC) and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency will host an airborne observation campaign to study the entry of WT1190F. The IAC has chartered a Gulfstream 450 jet to bring researchers such as Peter Jenniskens to a location over the Indian Ocean south of Sri Lanka that should offer a view of the entry above the clouds and haze, but the event will be in broad daylight, so it will be a challenge to film for later study.[12] The Next TC3 Consortium Asteroid Detection and Early Warning team has narrowed the atmospheric entry time to ±8 seconds.[15]

Puerco · Post by **Puerco** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:26 am

Lying on the edge of our solar system, a new, rocky planet close to the size of Earth and named GJ 1132b, is the discovery that holds the most potential for finding new life to date, according to astronomers.

The scientists who discovered it it said its small size and proximity -- it's three times closer than any other similar object found orbiting a star -- "bodes well for studies of the planet's atmosphere," according to their report in the journal, Nature.

"GJ 1132b (is) arguably the most important planet ever found outside the solar system," Drake Deming, an astronomer at the University of Maryland said in an accompanying letter in the journal. He added that it's proximity will "allow astronomers to study the planet with unprecedented fidelity."

Found moving across a "red dwarf" star that is only a fifth of the size of the world's sun, the planet has a radius only 16% larger than Earth's, and has surface temperatures that reach 260 degrees Celsius. Although that's too hot to retain liquid water or sustain life as we know it, Tucker said it was cool enough to support some of the basic building blocks of life, and possibly support life forms like bacteria.

"We haven't even found anything close to this so far," he said. "It's more habitable, it's less harsh and this gives us a good strong chance of actually finding life or something as opposed to the other Earth-like planets found to date."

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/12/world ... index.html

I think 'Lying on the edge of our solar system,' is either a bit of hyperbole or is confusing this new planet find with the second half of the article which is about a newly discovered planetoid in the far reaches of the solar system.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:38 pm

This might just be the greatest headline in the history of the universe.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/spe ... ?tid=sm_fb" target="_blank

Login • Register