Science

“Strange things happen in the bog.” – Redux

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[Image from RTÉ report] Prehistoric human remains found partially buried in a leather bag in a bog near Portlaoise, County Laois, by Bord na Móna workers yesterday are believed to be the over 2,000 year-old body of a sacrificial victim, possibly a young woman.  Here’s a 2007 National Geographic article on Iron Age Europe’s bog bodies.  And from today’s Irish Times report Mr [Eamonn] Kelly [keeper at the National Museum’s Irish antiquities division] said the body would initially have been buried at a considerable depth. …

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Opportunity at Endeavour

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Last seen, on Slugger, at the edge of the football-field sized crater Santa Maria, Nasa’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has arrived at its next destination – the 22km wide crater Endeavour.  3 years and 13 miles from its first destination, Victoria crater. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU] A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater — with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) — is more …

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“these could be the first known Martian locations with liquid water”

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A BBC report notes the fascinating interpretation being made of some more wondrous images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  MRO image gallery here.    From JPLnews Here’s an animated gif showing the features of interest. This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today. Evidence for that possible interpretation is presented in a report by McEwen et al. in the Aug. 5, 2011, edition of Science. These images come …

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Journey to Jupiter

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As the BBC reports, and the Guardian notes, Nasa’s Juno Mission to our friend and lord, Jupiter, is scheduled to launch this afternoon on an Atlas V rocket.  There’s an impressive Juno mission website too.  Lift-off at 15:34 UT [4.34pm BST].  Here’s a short overview of the mission.  Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. And, if you have time, here’s the full science briefing via NasaTV. You can also watch the launch live via NasaTV.  Or, indeed, here! Update2  I’ve replaced the live Ustream video with …

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Vesta’s dark side [and possibly a colourful one]

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As the BBC spaceman, Jonathon Amos, notes Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft has taken a close look at the 530 km wide giant asteroid Vesta’s northern hemisphere– to add to all those earlier images.  This image was taken on 23 July, at a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers) away from the proto planet Vesta.  Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.   And in a short while, 1700 UT [6pm BST], Nasa will be holding a press conference to present the latest findings.  Which may include some colour …

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Have they found that elusive goddamn particle?

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Well, maybe…  As was the case with Tevatron’s false alarm, it’s far too soon to say that the search for “that damned elusive [Higgs] particle” is over.  But there is a difference this time. I thought something was up when I read the Guardian’s tame particle physicist Jon Butterworth’s post on Thursday. I’m writing this on the plane home from CERN. I would have loved to post more about ATLAS preparations for the European Physical Society meeting in Grenoble, but …

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Space Shuttle Time Lapse

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Stunning time lapse footage from orbit with the Space Shuttles Discovery and Atlantis foregrounding a magnificent view.  Via the NasaExplorer channel.   Segment 1: NASA’s Shuttle Discovery (STS131), while docked to the ISS, captured these images on April 12, 2010 as it moved from the night side of the Earth to the daytime. In the process the Aurora Borealis can be seen on the Earth’s limb. A solar panel from the ISS and a docked Soyuz module can be seen in …

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Hubble spots fourth moon of Pluto

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  The Hubble Space Telescope has been looking at the twin dwarf planet system of Pluto and Charon ahead of Nasa’s New Horizons mission expected arrival in the neighbourhood in 2015.  They’ve already mapped the surface of Pluto, to an extent, and now they’ve spotted a fourth moon in the system– if you count the dwarf planet Charon as a moon of Pluto, that is.  The new moon has been designated “S/2011 P1” or “P4” until a permanent name is chosen.  [All …

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Vesta: “arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the Solar System”

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With Dawn now safely in orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta, Nasa have released the first close-up image of the ancient protoplanet. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA] From the accompanying text July 18, 2011 – PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 17, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles (15,000 kilometers) away from the protoplanet Vesta. Each pixel in the image corresponds to roughly 0.88 miles (1.4 kilometers). And from the …

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A religious view of tablets (the computing kind)

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Other than space, we don’t get a lot of technology on Slugger. Time to redress that balance. A local blogger who found himself at the top of a viewing tower in Tokyo when the earthquake hit turned his attention to tablet computers in a recent post on Destroy All Onions. Umberto Eco famously wrote that fountain pens were protestant, and ballpoints were catholic, because of the universality of ballpoints versus the maintenance and finickiness of fountain pens. That got extended …

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Dawn: Up close and personal with Vesta

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As I may have mentioned, early tomorrow morning, 9am [BST] 16 July, Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft is expected to be captured into orbit by the 530km-wide giant asteroid Vesta.  They won’t know for sure until a scheduled communications pass at 8.30am [BST] on Sunday 17 July.  Here’s the latest image of Vesta taken by Dawn on 9 July at a distance of about 26,000 miles (41,000 km).    NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 9, …

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Ireland, the UK, evolution, wealth and belief

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There was a good graph out this morning on belief in evolution versus GDP in various nations, interesting how the US is the biggest outlier in the data set by a significant margin. Also interesting is the UK compared with Ireland; the UK is pretty much bang on the trend line and Ireland shows a significantly higher degree of scepticism at about 10% lower in terms of evolutionary belief, now what does that tell you? Niall Fealty

Dawn’s final approach

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Next weekend (on 16 July), barring any further unforeseen problems, Nasa’s Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta and begin its year-long observation of the 530km wide proto-planet. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA] From the JPL press release (23 June) After Dawn enters Vesta’s orbit, engineers will need a few days to determine the exact time of capture. Unlike other missions where a dramatic, nail-biting propulsive burn results in orbit insertion around a planet, Dawn has been using its placid ion propulsion …

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Space Shuttle’s Final Launch

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If the weather clears, and currently the weather is a “go”, Nasa’s Space Shuttle Atlantis will launch from the Kennedy Space Centre at 4.26pm [BST].  It’s the end of the Space Shuttle era.  Follow events at Nasa’s launch blog, or via the BBC online, as well as the usual NasaTV coverage. Or, even, here! Broadcasting Live with Ustream Pete Baker

The end of the Space Shuttle era

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Atlantis is scheduled to launch on Nasa’s final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, on Friday at 4.26pm [BST] to bring to an end the 30-year-long Space Shuttle era – weather permitting.  In fact, there’s currently only a 30% chance that the weather will be suitable for launch.  While you’re waiting you can check out Nasa’s Space Shuttle Era website.  Or read the BBC’s Spaceman, Jonathan Amos, on one of the private companies taking over the role played by the Shuttle – Orbital Sciences Corporation.  …

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Spectacular Solar Eruption Close-up

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Nasa have released more stunning footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of the spectacular solar eruption on June 7.  As LittleSDOHMI notes – “This video uses the full-resolution 4096 x 4096 pixel images at a one minute time cadence to provide the highest quality, finest detail version possible.”  With music! Pete Baker

Most distant “angry monster” brightest in early Universe

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[Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser] The BBC reports on the discovery of the most distant quasar yet seen, ULAS J1120+0641.  An “angry monster” 12.9 billion light-years away – a mere 770 million years after the Big Bang.  Before the process of re-ionization was completed.  As the BBC report notes The light from ULAS J1120+0641 displays the characteristic signature of neutral gas, indicating that, at 770 million years after the Big Bang, the process of re-ionization had some way to go before the process was …

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Voyager: “It’s bubbly out there.”

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The Guardian’s GrrlScientist picked up on the 30-something Voyager probes’ latest scientific discovery on humanity’s farthest journey.  New view of the heliosheath. Red and blue spirals are the gracefully curving magnetic field lines of orthodox models. New data from Voyager add a magnetic froth to the mix. Image: NASA Here’s the YouTube version of the ScienceatNasa video posted at the Guardian. And if that explanation was a little too pink and fluffy for you, try this different version of the same …

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“this is probably the biggest known asteroid to have come this close.”

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As spotted by SpaceWeather.  At about 1700 UT (6pm BST) today Asteroid 2011MD will fly past only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth’s surface.  [Image credit NASA/JPL] As the diagram shows, that’s close enough to be affected by Earth’s gravity. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers …

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