Discovery Archives - Page 35 of 36

Rare solar eclipse greets thousands of sky gazers at Arctic islands

March 21, 2015 By Stephanie James

Thousands of sky gazers were greeted by a thrilling view of a solar eclipse on remote Arctic islands on Friday, but clouds played a spoil spirit for some space lovers as they were deprived of an unusual partly viewed celestial show.

The incredible and rare celestial event was partly visible in Africa, Asia, Europe, Russia and glanced parts of MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) for millions of adventure enthusiasts who clapped and cheered the solar eclipse.

During Friday’s celestial event, the Earth’s satellite moon had covered the sun for nearly 2.5 minutes under clear skies at Svalbard’s Norwegian islands, where travel advisory has issued for the tourists over the risks of polar bears and frostbite following an attack on Thursday.

But all was not well for the tourists as clouds enveloped the sky over the Faroe Islands capital Torshavn towards further south, which was the only other place where a total sun eclipse was visible from land due to the shadow of the moon that skimmed across the Atlantic.

Expressing his disappointment over being unable to witness the event, Hungarian tourist Gabor Lantos, said “It was overcast, there was rain and wind. You could see nothing. It was discouragement for everybody. Few tourists were so irritated that they entered into an argument with tour operators, demanding their money back.”

Another visitor Michael Tonks, fromAustralian, said, “It was worth coming here from Australia, probably not as good as the 2012 eclipse we saw in Cairns, but still worth coming.”

On Friday, the small audience contrasted with millions of space lovers who had witnessed the last major eclipse in the year 1999 in Europe.

Mirco-blogging site Twitter was flooded with the tweets and images of the solar eclipse. The solar event was the seventh topic which was among the top 10 trending terms on Twitter which was associated with the sun and moon in Germany.

LHC is now ready to discover dark matter particle

March 21, 2015 By Kyle Mills

Now it’s time to reboot the world largest particle collider LHC for a new set of experiments. By the end of the march it is going to be restated by an international team of physicists.

The new experiment is to find out what is dark matter.

It was the Hubble telescope which for the first time discovered dark matter and dark energy. It further enlightened that noticeable matter is just 5 percent of the universe and 70 percent of the universe is dark energy and the remaining 25 percent is dark matter.

What is dark matter? This is the stuff that pulls gravitationally on matter around it, it is invisible because it does not interact with light and this makes it hard to detect.

The scientist has never come across a particle which exhibits such properties, and they are eagerly waiting that they could find the particle responsible for dark matter from the debris of the LHC collision.

What is LHC? LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider which is in Geneva. It is the most powerful particle accelerator in the world which is built by CERN or the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

This machine has long, oval shape tunnel where the subatomic particles like the protons, neutrons move at the speed of light. These two beams of particles are pointed against each other so that they can make a head on collision. This collision generates hot cloud of debris reaching temperatures which is 1,000,000 times hotter than the center of the sun and this debris may contain some never seen particles.

Back in 2008, just nine days into its first run of experiments, there was a significant incident at the Large Hadron Collider which has damaged some parts of it and was sent for repair.

After the collider coped, on July 4th 2012, there was another experiment performed at the LHC. There were two experiments conducted one at LHC and other at CMS and ATLAS. The result of the experiment was the biggest findings ever. They discovered a new invisible particle called the Higgs Boson. This is the particle which gives mass to everything and holds the universe together.

The LHC was shut down for maintenance and after two years, now the scientists are going to conduct a new experiment.

Supernova explosion produces cosmic dust

March 20, 2015 By Dave Smith

Cosmic dust in the center of our Milky Way galaxy resulted from supernova have finally been observed using the infrared telescope.

“Dust itself is very important because it’s the stuff that forms stars and planets, like the sun and Earth, respectively, so to know where it comes from is an important question” said Ryan Lau of Cornell University, lead author of the study.

There was so evidence that supernova produces the cosmic dust.

What is supernova? A supernova is an explosion of a massive supergiant star.

When the astronomers were examining the Milky Way they observed the ancient intersteller dust cloud known as Supernova Remnant Sagittarius A East.

“There have been no direct observations of any dust surviving the environment of the supernova remnant … until now, and that’s why our observations of an ‘old’ supernova are so important,” said Lau.

The astronomers have found details about the supernova remnant near the center of Milky Way galaxy by using an instrument called FORCAST (the Faint Object Infrared Camera Telescope) on board SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), which is a joint project between German Aerospace Center, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association.

Previously it was thought that when the star dies after running out of fuel it explodes and no remnants are left. But it turns out that supernova which contains mineral enriched material like silicon, carbon and iron produces star dust as they explode. And this dust again forms the next generation of stars and planets.

Glowing mushroom secret revealed

March 20, 2015 By Dave Smith

A new study has provided an explanation to a long wondered phenomenon “why mushrooms are bioluminescent”.

Researchers has studied ‘flor de coco’ a mushroom which grows underneath young palm trees among decaying leaves in Brazil. It has been found that the big, yellow mushrooms attract insects with their bioluminescence characteristic during night time which helps spread its spores to different areas of the forest.

‘Flor de coco’ means coconut flower.

The first asked question in print ‘Why do fungi make light?’ by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago was answer by their research team.

“The answer appears to be that fungi make light so they are noticed by insects that can help the fungus colonize new habitats.” said biochemist Cassius Stevani of Brazil’s Instituto de Química-Universidade de São Paulo.

“Bioluminescence has independently developed in various different life forms, including fungi, fish and insects” said Jay Dunlap, a geneticist and molecular biologist at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine.

There are total 100,000 identified species of fungi, among them 71 are bioluminescent. And Flor de coco is one of the biggest and brightest of them.

Big Crocodile ruled over the world before dinosaurs

March 20, 2015 By Carrie Davis

A new species of crocodile which is considered to one of the oldest and the largest of its kind were found in North Carolina.

Researches described that dinosaurs were ruling our continent and ruled the scene. Carnufex carolinensis translates as “Carolina Butcher”. This crocodile have been a fierce predator 230 million years ago. It is 09 feet long and walks on hind legs.

This deadly crocodile was sitting in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The fossil of this crocodile has been discovered a decade ago.

“When we got the bones out and prepared them, we found out that it was actually a really cool species, It was one of the oldest and largest members of crocodylomorph — the same group that crocodiles belong to — that we’ve ever seen. And that size was really surprising.” said Lindsay Zanno, assistant professor at North Carolina State University and lead author of the new research paper.

The other crocodile relatives were lower in the food chain and smaller in size. But the Carnufex carolinensis was the one of the fiercest animal around though they were many with same size.

“It was clearly a top predator, that’s a niche we didn’t know animals like this were filling.” said Assistant professor Zanno.

“We knew that there were too many top performers on the proverbial stage in the Late Triassic Period… Yet, until we deciphered the story behind Carnufex, it wasn’t clear that early crocodile ancestors were among those vying for top predator roles prior to the reign of dinosaurs in North America.”

Parasite responsible to turn animals into canibals

March 20, 2015 By Carrie Davis

According to the study published in Journal Royal Society Open Science, parasites may be responsible to turn animals into cannibals. Cannibalism means feeding on their kind. One such example of cannibal is spider.

The shrimp is turned into a cannibal after it is infected by the parasite.

The parasite is Pleistophora mulleri when infecting the fresh water shrimp the chances of it feeding on the young ones increased than the other adults. Shrimp occasional feed on their young ones but with the parasite affecting the shrimp the probability of cannibalism has significantly increased, said Researchers at University of Leeds, Stellenbosch University, and Queen’s University Belfast.

“Although the parasite is tiny – similar in size to a human red blood cell – there are millions of them in the host muscle and they all rely on the host for food. This increased demand for food by the parasites may drive the host to be more cannibalistic,” said Mandy Bunke of the University of Leeds said in a press release.

The parasite occupying most of the area of muscle it makes the shrimp look chalky and not transparent.

The parasite weakens the shrimp and cannibalism is the only way for the shrimps to survive, these parasites damage the muscles of the shrimp making it very difficult to hunt for its prey and in such condition these weak shrimps feed on young ones.

It might be possible that cannibalism can drive down the population of shrimp.

Rare Dalmatian pelican under the care of San Diego Zoo

March 20, 2015 By Stephen Kenwright

Two Dalmatian pelicans chicks were born at the San Diego Zoo, they were brought from the Safari park and will be taken care by the Zoo staff until they are stronger enough to join their flock.

The Dalmatian species is the rarest of all the pelican species, this species is also the one which grows the largest, the fully grown Dalmatian pelican is around 30 pounds in weight, six feet in length has a wingspan of 12 feet.

Being very rare species they were included in the first breeding program in North America, to reduce its vulnerability. This program began in 2006 and since then 34 chicks bred in San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

These two chicks age 2 and 11 days old. These chicks were taken to San Diego Zoo Avian Propagation Center after it was determined that their parents will be unable to raise them after the eggs are hatched. They will be hand raised for atleast two months and once they are strong enough, the chicks will be sent back to the Safari Park to join its flock.

Native to Asia and Europe, the Dalmatian pelican nest in wetland and freshwater rivers. However, due to the loss of their habitat, Dalmatian has gone extinct in several regions. Commercial fishing can be considered as the strongest reason for their extinct, as they interfere in their breeding and feeding habitats. With less food for them, sometimes they had to compete for fishes. They may either have been driven out or couldn’t survive with insufficient food. Sometimes Dalmatian are hunted for food, while their bills are prized by herders and used for combing horses.

The global aim of the San Diego Zoo is to bring back all the flora and fauna back from extinction using wildlife conservative efforts. Institute for conservation Research, Safari Park cooperating with the programs this seems an achievable task.

Ceres bright spots are icy volcanoes?

March 19, 2015 By Kyle Mills

Bright spots are discovered on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, according to scientist, these bright spots may be volcanoes of ice. The volcanoes of ice seemed to be spouting hot water vapors off into the space.

These images are sent by NASA spacecraft’s Dawn, it is a space probe launched in 2007. Its mission is to study two protoplanets of the asteroid belt Vesta and Ceres. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies. It is currently orbiting its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres. It has traveled 3.1 billion miles.

Scientist are waiting when Dawn emerges from Ceres’ dark side and deliver ever-sharper images as it moves to lower orbits around the planet.

At the lunar and planetary science conference held outside of Houston, the theory that there is a possible volcano in Ceres was presented.

11 years ago, Hubble telescope caught images of water ice on Ceres. Last year Herschel space observatory also found the evidence of water vapor in Ceres.

The images show the spots at changing angles as the asteroid rotates and it is amazing to see the spots visible even when the craters rim would block the spacecraft view of the crater floor. That implies that whatever is reflecting is above the craters surface scientists said at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Andreas Nathues, lead researcher for Dawn’s framing camera said “We believe we could be seeing outgassing, but we need higher resolution (images) to confirm this,”

At dawn the spots appear bright and by dusk they fade, that could mean sunlight plays an important role by heating up ice beneath the surface and causing it blast off in plumes.

Scientist believes that interior of Ceres is rocky and wet, with a layer of water or ice. With such low density, Ceres has a potential for ice volcanoes or ice may be sublimating or transitioning from solid t gas, as it happens on comets.

“The big question is whether Ceres has an active surface region — or more than one,” he said.

NASA’s MAVEN spots rare dust cloud, bright ultraviolet aurora on Mars

March 19, 2015 By Dave Smith

US space agency NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is exploring Mars, has spotted two very strange phenomena in the Martian atmosphere.

The two unusual phenomena include: a mysterious dust cloud and a bright ultraviolet aurora.

Cloud of Dust

The NASA spacecraft has detected the cloud of dust at orbital altitudes lying in the zone that is located between 150 kilometres (93 miles) and 300 kilometres (190 miles) from the Martian surface. The dust cloud has baffled scientists as they are clueless about from where it came and how it got there.

According to the scientists, the dust cloud has been present at the Martian surface for approximately the same time duration as long as MAVEN has existed in orbit around the Red Planet since September 2014.

Scientists say as it has been just six months of MAVEN orbiting Mars, it can’t be determined whether the dust cloud is a permanent feature or only a temporary event.

The thin cloud dust was detected by a MAVEN’s instrument called the Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument, which analyses the properties of Mars’ ionosphere.

Laila Andersson, of the Laboratory for Atmospherics and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, said, “If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere.”

Ultraviolet Aurora

The glowing ultraviolet aurora lit up the northern hemisphere of Mars for five days just ahead of Christmas in 2014. Hence, the phenomenon has been nicknamed as “Christmas lights”.

The incredible aurora was imaged by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph of MAVEN.

Alike Earth’s aurora, Mars’ was created by the charged particles like electrons and protons entering the atmosphere from above and causing ionisation, making the atmosphere glow.

Solar storm lights up the sky

March 19, 2015 By Kyle Mills

Earth is being bombarded by a severe solar storm with a big geomagnetic jolt on Tuesday, disrupting electric power grids, power to homes and GPS tracking while pushing the colorful northern lights farther south.

Solar storm or solar flare is the result of explosion, flash of brightness on the sun’s surface that threw coronal mass ejections, globs-a billions tons of the suns plasma along the magnetic clouds of charged atomic particles like electron, ions in the direction of Earth and the storm may take one or two days to reach earth.

From Europe to Northern Ireland to Alaska and as far south as North Carolina, the lights exploded into the night sky dancing and glowing shades of greens and pinks, purples and reds.

This event is caused by severe geomagnetic storm said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A news conference was held on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the storm and its effects, the storm will likely subside by Wednesday.

It is said that is the strongest so far in this solar cycle, which occurs about every 11 years

Thomas Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado said there were two blasts of magnetic plasma which combined and arrived on Earth about 15 hours earlier.

“It’s significantly stronger than expected,” Berger said. Forecasters had predicted a glancing blow instead of dead-on hit. Another theory is that the combination of the two storms made it worse, but it’s too early to tell if that’s so, he said.

Geomagnetic storms are rated on their intensity from one to five. This week event is rated as G4 a severe storm.

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