Recent reports from NASA claim that their scientists are currently hard at work on a new kind of submarine fit to cross the oceans of liquid methane on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

Scientists Trying to Build a Submarine to Use in Space

 

Given its great distance from Earth, any mission to Titan is still several decades away. Even so, scientists are planning ahead as they attempt to build a submarine that could survive in liquid methane on the moon’s surface.

In addition to its necessity to withstand the methane itself, any submarine that would be of actual use to astronauts would have to be able to withstand temperatures that regularly reached as low as -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

NASA is developing the submarine in conjunction with a team from Washington State University. Together, they will attempt to recreate the conditions a sub would need to endure in space at home, here on Earth. They are doing so in the hopes of eliminating as many risks as possible before any mission to Titan itself.

For many years, this moon remained one of the most interesting yet elusive subjects of interest to astronomers. With an atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen, its conditions are startlingly close to those here on our planet. This makes it the most Earth-like body in our solar system.

However, liquids on Titan seem to be composed primarily of methane rather than water. As such, this makes it unlikely for humans ever to be able to live there.

Even so, scientists believe a closer look at the moon could teach us a lot about our planet. Currently, NASA estimates that a submarine mission would not be ready until around 2038 at the earliest.

Still, nothing is set in stone for the time being. Until then, scientists are working hard to work out as many kinks as possible before a launch.

Image Source: NASA

Since its discovery in 1912, the Voynich manuscript has proved to be a challenge for historians and cryptographers alike. Carbon dated to the 15^th century, the manuscript has yet to be deciphered, but progress is being made as a team of scientists from the University of Alberta announced that applying AI-based algorithms has proved fruitful.

Could Machine Learning Decipher the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript?

A team of researchers from Canada’s University of Alberta might be on the right track to discover the meaning of the seemingly ambiguous writings contained by the 15^thcentury Voynich manuscript. Using AI-based cryptography algorithms, the scientists started by addressing the manuscript’s language of origin.

Although many have speculated that the scroll might have been written in ancient Arabic, the AI analysis revealed that it’s actually ancient Hebrew. Greg Kondrak, a University of Alberta professor and one of the members involved in the recent attempt to decrypt the Voynich manuscript, declared that the AI cross-referenced the writing on the 240-page long manuscript with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contains a database of 400 languages.

Upon feeding in the data into the AI, Kondrak and his colleagues discovered that approximately 80 percent of the words were in ancient Hebrew. To test out this new assumption, the researchers called in ancient Hebrew specialists and also tried running the processed text through Google Translate.

Baffling enough, the sentence processed by Google Translate was grammatically sound and could be further interpreted. It might not be much, the professor added, but this is definitely a great starting point.

According to Kondrak, the sentence that came out of Google Translate read:

She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and the people.

Conclusion

At the moment, the team is working on improving the algorithm’s recognition rate and perhaps apply it to other ancient manuscripts.

Image source: Wikipedia

A 55-year-old West Midlands resident had the shock of his life when he discovered a deadly Brazilian spider in the banana pack he bought from the supermarket. The critter was picked up by the RSPCA agents and donated to the Bristol Zoo. No one was hurt during the incident.

Deadly Brazilian Spider Pops Out of Banana Pack

Neil Langley is a 55-year-old West Midlands resident who’s been working for some time at the Department of Work and Pensions. The man recalled going to the local Asda supermarket for some groceries and picked up some bananas for his lunch pack.

While at work, the man reached into the pack in order to get banana but stopped for a second when he noticed that something was out of place. Upon taking a closer look, what looked like a foul fruit was actually an adult Brazilian wandering spider, one of the most venomous arachnids known to South America.

According to the RSPCA agents, Langley’s encounter with the little red-jawed critter could have ended badly. In most cases, the spider’s bit can cause priapism in men, a painful sexual dysfunction that causes the penis to stay erect for several hours.

Other symptoms associated with the Brazilian wandering spider’s bite include convulsions, blurred vision, nausea, generalized pain, sweating, and vertigo. Doctors declared that small children present a high risk when exposed to the spider’s venom, death occurring in just a few hours.

Fortunately, the RSPCA agents arrived on time and were successful in capturing and containing the deadly Brazilian spider. Langley, who declared that he’s somewhat of an arachnid lover, declared that, under these circumstances, he was a bit unnerved to find himself so close to one as dangerous as the Brazilian wandering spider.

The Brazilian stowaway was later donated to the Bristol Zoo. Langley said that he was in a meeting when the RSPCA agents came.

Image source: Wikipedia

Although the effects of global warming and climate change seem to be getting worse from day to day, we also have good news. After performing a research at the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA researchers have discovered the ozone layer hole has started recovering. This has been possible thanks to the lower levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere, which destroyed the ozone.

The ozone layer hole is not growing anymore

NASA performed a series of measurements in the atmosphere, and discovered the chlorine levels significantly decreased. This means the global efforts haven’t been in vain, after the authorities have banned the production of manmade chlorine products. After comparing the 2005 measurements with the ones in 2016, researchers noticed a decrease of 20 percent of these chemicals.

When researchers discovered the presence of the ozone layer hole, they also spotted chlorine molecules around it. Even if they measured few of them, they still found a way to detect its presence. Once the ozone was destroyed, this chlorine underwent a chemical reaction with methane, producing hydrochloric acid. This gas is easier to measure, and also offers a clear image of the state of chlorine in the atmosphere.

This is given by the lower chlorine levels in the atmosphere

Nitrous oxide also played an important role in these measurements. By looking at the CFC levels and at those of nitrous oxide, researchers could also obtain a clear image of the chlorine situation. Therefore, by comparing all these parameters, they could predict the chlorine levels. They assumed the levels of the chemical must have decreased by 0.8 percent every year.

The decline of the ozone layer hole is a reality, and researchers assume it is given by the shortage of chlorine in the atmosphere. This means the global efforts have been worth it, and encourage environmentalists to continue fighting against the toxic chemicals.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Image Source: Flickr

NASA wants to know when a space object is threateningly approaching our planet, so that it can get ready for a possibly disastrous effect. For this, it launched the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which should detect any approaching asteroid or comet as early as possible. However, this doesn’t always happen, and a recent event is the best example for it. Although it was carefully tracked, an asteroid was detected only three days before it reached the closest point to our planet.

The asteroid was spotted when it had already got extremely close to Earth

The asteroid in question was called 2017 YZ4, which came close to Earth this week, on Thursday morning. It travelled only 138,500 miles away from our planet, which is about 58 percent of the distance between Earth and the moon. Although it was getting extremely close, PCDO managed to spot it approaching only on Christmas day.

This is a bit unusual, since NASA kept a close eye on the 2017 YZ4 asteroid since it was first discovered. However, they couldn’t tell if it posed a real collision danger. As it was spotted approaching Earth, NASA could take some measurements and discovered it was actually smaller than PCDO’s objects of study. It only measured 15 meters across, while the asteroids of interest for PCDO had to be at least 30 meters across.

NASA pays more attention to bigger asteroid which are usually more dangerous

NASA chooses to concentrate on bigger objects since they are more likely to survive a journey through Earth’s atmosphere and cause significant damage. For instance, the popular meteor which exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013 only measured 20 meters across. In fact, it didn’t even make it to the ground in one piece, otherwise the damage would have been a lot bigger. Also, the speed of the asteroid can influence how destructive it gets.
Image Source: Pixabay

After a lengthy quest to find water on Mars, astronomers finally managed to identify some evidence that the Red Planet was once a lot wetter than now. However, plenty of mysteries remained unsolved. They wanted to see where all the water had disappeared, so they kept investigating, and discovered that lava-produced crusts were the culprits. These basaltic formations had probably absorbed all the water.

Where did all the water on Mars go?

At first, astronomers came up with all kinds of crazy theories to explain the disappearance of water on Mars. They first blamed the solar winds for blowing it all away, or said the disruptions in the magnetic field might have caused everything. Then, they said the only water on Mars was still preserved in the ice layers from within the planet’s core.

However, after many studies and investigations, researchers suggested that the Red Planet’s geology must have influenced the disappearance of water. They actually thought about all the liquid being absorbed during a simple interaction between the rocks, but they have never tested it until now.

Iron-rich silicates in the crust absorbed all the water on Mars

They identified some palpable evidence that this process took place. However, for this to have happened, some other reaction must have occurred, and it involved iron. The Martian surface is rich in silicates, which contain a lot of iron. This means that, similar to a rusting process, all these compounds were able to interact with water and produce minerals.

To understand how everything must have occurred, researchers used our own planet as a comparison. They looked at the composition of different rocks from our planet, and tried to establish how much water similar rocks on Mars could have sucked up. Also, after a close geological analysis of all the rocks on Mars, they found the only place where water could have gone was within the minerals on the crust.

The study was published in the journal Nature.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

It’s no secret that the climate of our planet has lately got warmer. This, of course, cannot happen without causing some serious changes in the environment. Some of the effects of global warming have already become visible, while others are lurking from the shadow. Researchers have decided to explore what our planet might suffer, and discovered some worrying possibilities. The ice layers at the poles is quickly shrinking, which might lead to a sudden increase in the sea level.

The most stable ice sheet in Antarctica wasn’t actually so stable

A big surface of the ice layers present both at the North and the South Pole has already started melting, contributing to a certain increase of the sea level. However, this has happened gradually and hasn’t had such a big impact on the environment yet. Researchers had good news as well, as they regarded a big surface of ice, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, as incredibly stable and not affected by the higher temperatures.

Unfortunately, the situation might not be as good as they thought. They continued monitoring the ice layers, and discovered that this region wasn’t really protected from global warming. After the analysis of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, they discovered certain portions of it which were sensitive to any changes in the climate.

Many coastal cities are threatened by the melting of the ice layers

This icy sheet holds the biggest quantity of water ever contained by any ice layers. If it starts melting, the global sea level will increase by 53 meters. This is precisely as bad as it sounds, as many cities from the coast are doomed if this happens.

The analyses revealed the history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. This region wasn’t stable at all and, instead, it gradually switched from an expanding to a shrinking state. In other words, it kept contributing to the sea level increase for a long period of time. If global temperatures keep growing, all ice layers of Antarctica are threatened.
Image Source: Flickr

NASA has sent a series of spacecraft to orbit different planets and cosmic bodies and collect images of their surface and atmosphere. Dawn is responsible with monitoring the dwarf planet Ceres, and revealed some interesting discoveries about it. The spacecraft identified around 300 bright spots in its surface, which appeared significantly brighter than the rest. To settle the debates which could have arisen after the discovery, NASA decided to record a video with an explanation for the phenomenon.

Ceres has plenty of bright spots on its surface

Dawn keeps orbiting Ceres since March 2015, and observed how the spots came into being and evolved. Contrary to many expectations, they point out to how active Ceres actually is. The bright areas indicate the dwarf planet has a subsurface ocean, proving it’s definitely not a dead world. This ocean keeps plenty of geological processes active, which might continue shaping the surface of the dwarf planet.

Researchers have counted 300 shiny formations on the surface of Ceres, and they can all be gathered in three groups. The first one is made up of an extremely reflective material. This is located mainly on crater floors, with the Occator hiding the brightest formations. The material is rich in salts, which give it its reflective properties.

The bright formations contain salt and several other substances

The second group is a little higher from the crater bottom, and is placed on the rims. They came into being as the deeper material burst from the bottom. During the formation of the craters, some more material was expulsed as well, forming the bright areas from the third category.

The base substance in the spots is salt, which interacted with different other materials and, then, the brightness resulted. One of the main factors which created them was the intense fluid activity in the subsurface, as well as gas and vapor.

Image Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

In October, astronomers spotted a weird asteroid in the form of a cigar, which they called Oumuamua. They couldn’t tell where the mysterious object came from, so they decided to investigate and look for traces on alien technology present on its surface. To do it, they will make use of one of the biggest telescopes in the world, Green Bank in West Virginia.

Oumuamua doesn’t look like a regular asteroid

Oumuamua is the most unusual asteroid ever spotted, as it doesn’t look like a regular object of its type. Therefore, they decided to explore the possibility of it being an alien object. Through the project called Breakthrough Listen, they will use the advanced telescope to search possible alien radio signals.

As they took the first look at Oumuamua, they discovered it was unusual. The object had different properties than the regular asteroids they scientists usually spot, and they could quickly tell it came from outside our galaxy. However, they wanted to find out if the object could have been sent from other intelligent beings in the universe.

Astronomers want to check it for alien radio transmissions

Researchers say the object gets stranger the more time they spend studying it. Therefore, they couldn’t exclude the hypothesis that it was created artificially by aliens. As it was traveling through our solar system, it remained quite close to our planet, at twice the distance between Earth and the Sun.

In about a minute or even less, the telescope can pick up radio signals sent by a mobile phone. Therefore, they are convinced they can find out if Oumuamua sends radio signals as well. Astronomers say the space rock is most probably natural, but they still want to check it for signs of any kind of artificial origins.

Today is the day when they start the observations with the Green Bank telescope. The first phase is scheduled to last 10 hours, and will check four typical radio transmission bands. Even if they don’t find any radio signals, they can still find out more about the composition of Oumuamua.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons