Search for Fossil on Mars

After four decades running, now Mars mission enters new phase. Exploration is initially much struggling in water searches, are now widespread in the search for signs of life on the red planet.
"We will enter the transition from mission to mission in search of water looking for signs of life," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the panel discussion at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington last week.
New phase of Mars exploration began in line with the launch of NASA spacecraft, Curiosity. Spacecraft is different from the Spirit and Opportunity, launched earlier because of smaller size.
However, this does not mean less sophisticated aircraft. Curiosity will be charged more complex instruments. In addition, this spacecraft will be equipped with a chemical laboratory on board.
Curiosity will also be equipped with "chemical camera." McCuistion said, the tool can shoot the laser at the rock and create a plasma that can he analyzes so that it can identify the sample.
In a sign of life was finding mission, the search for organic compounds become important agenda done. Compounds that could be indicative of or had any life on Mars.
"One of the key questions that we ask is, where the organic compounds that exist," said Jennifer Eigenbrode, scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, USA.
Answer it, researchers reveal the logic of that life which may never be able to leave the organic compounds. Just as animals leave fossils, microorganisms can also leave traces of their existence.
Eigenbrode said, "Under certain conditions, organic compounds (which are formed on the carbon bond) could be preserved. It's called molecular fossils." For example, there is in the form of microorganisms that preserved the cell membrane.
Curiosity will be equipped with equipment that can detect these molecular fossils. So, Curiosity can find microorganisms as small life forms that exist on Mars.
Although equipped with advanced equipment, barriers still exist in the study. Not primarily in terms of inadequate equipment, but on limited knowledge or concepts mastered.
One of them about organic compounds. If later is found, this compound is not necessarily a sign there life on Mars. Therefore, it could have come from meteorites compounds formed through geological processes or Mars.
Second is the notion of life. For example, currently understood that living beings are always in need of water. But, whether it is true? Is there no other compounds, such as methane, which can support life?
Related to this last, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA in 2016 will work together carrying out a mission to Mars. The goal is to find methane, digging the surface of Mars to find life forms that may exist.

Biggest Black Hole in Universe was found

 

The biggest black hole in the universe have been found with heavy 6.8 billion times the mass of the Sun. So big, the hole is said to be able to swallow the Earth and its entire contents of the solar system.

With the size of the horizon, it is estimated the entire contents of the solar system can not run away from the edge of this, including even light. For comparison, the magnitude can reach four times the orbit of the planet Neptune.

The black hole is located in M87. So far, he is the biggest galaxy closest to the Milky Way. The distance is estimated about 50 million light years from Earth and is still not known when the 'monster' was born.

Given the size is very huge, some scientists think the hole was created by hundreds of black holes merge into one in the past.

"He could swallow our solar system," said Karl Gebhardt, a scientist from the University of Texas, Austin-USA, as quoted from All Voices, Sunday, January 16, 2011.

A special telescope in Hawaii used by scientists to observe an object which is estimated to have weighed more than double the previous. With these telescopes, Gebhardt and his team are able to observe space objects up to a distance of 500 km.

"And, this giant black hole is a black hole and Accurate termasif we've ever found,"said astronomer George Djorgovski of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Farthest galaxy clusters has been found

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and international team of astronomers found the farthest galaxy clusters in the universe. Clusters are named Cosmos-Aztec3 12.6 million years away from Earth and is the youngest galaxy clusters ever found.
Aged more than 12 billion years, the cluster was formed 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
- Bahram Mobasher

Professor Bahram Mobasher of the University of California who are involved in the study said, the cluster is a cluster of galaxies that are in the process of formation, called proto-clusters.
This galaxy cluster is described as a collection of small towns. At one point, the small galaxies will coalesce to form larger galaxies, such as a small town that grew into a metropolitan. Or it could be called a primitive galaxy clusters that will evolve into modern galaxies.

Cosmos-Aztec3 was discovered and characterized by a variety of telescopes, ranging from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the James Clerk Maxwell, until Japan's Subaru telescope and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer. Each telescope is used for characterization of different purposes.

The discovery of this cluster is quite surprising because observations with Chandra X-ray found a black hole is 3 million times more massive than the sun. It was not commonly found in clusters of galaxies that are still young as Cosmos-Aztec3.

Another surprising thing is, the whole object in a cluster that has a mass of more than 400 billion sun. Clusters of galaxies are also very active, rich in cold gas, grow with significant speed, and able to form a star 4000 each year.

Cosmos-Aztec3 known to lie in the constellation Sextans. His name was taken from a search mission, namely Cosmos (Cosmic Evolution Survey). Meanwhile, the Aztec is the name of the camera located at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at Manua Kea, Hawaii.

The findings are published in the latest edition of the journal Nature. The team of researchers involved in this research was also present at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held this week in Seattle, the United States.

Internal Structure of the Moon

 

Apollo Data Revealed Moon's Internal Structure

NASA deployed the frist seismographs on the moon as part of the Apollo Mission in 1969. These seismographs collected data and enabled researchers to determine that the moon's structure consisted of a thin crust of about 65 kilometers, a mantle about 100 kilometers thick and a core with a radius of about 500 kilometers. At that time seismic data processing was not advanced enough to determine the characteristics of the core.

NASA researchers have recently applied state-of-the-art seismological techniques applied to the Apollo-era data and discovered that the moon probably has a core that is very similar to earth's.

Moon's Formation and Magnetic Field

Uncovering details about the lunar core is critical for developing accurate models of the moon's formation. The data sheds light on the evolution of a lunar dynamo -- a natural process by which our moon may have generated and maintained its own strong magnetic field.

The team's findings suggest the moon possesses a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles. Where it differs from Earth is a partially molten boundary layer around the core estimated to have a radius of nearly 300 miles. The research indicates the core contains a small percentage of light elements such as sulfur, echoing new seismology research on Earth that suggests the presence of light elements -- such as sulfur and oxygen -- in a layer around our own core. 

Data from Apollo-Era Seismometers

The researchers used extensive data gathered during the Apollo-era moon missions. The Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment consisted of four seismometers deployed between 1969 and 1972, which recorded continuous lunar seismic activity until late-1977.

"We applied tried and true methodologies from terrestrial seismology to this legacy data set to present the first-ever direct detection of the moon's core," said Renee Weber, lead researcher and space scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The team also analyzed Apollo lunar seismograms using array processing, techniques that identify and distinguish signal sources of moonquakes and other seismic activity. The researchers identified how and where seismic waves passed through or were reflected by elements of the moon's interior, signifying the composition and state of layer interfaces at varying depths.

Comparison with Apollo-Era Results

Although sophisticated satellite imaging missions to the moon made significant contributions to the study of its history and topography, the deep interior of Earth's sole natural satellite remained a subject of speculation and conjecture since the Apollo era. Researchers previously had inferred the existence of a core, based on indirect estimates of the moon's interior properties, but many disagreed about its radius, state and composition.

A primary limitation to past lunar seismic studies was the wash of "noise" caused by overlapping signals bouncing repeatedly off structures in the moon's fractionated crust. To mitigate this challenge, Weber and the team employed an approach called seismogram stacking, or the digital partitioning of signals. Stacking improved the signal-to-noise ratio and enabled the researchers to more clearly track the path and behavior of each unique signal as it passed through the lunar interior.

"We hope to continue working with the Apollo seismic data to further refine our estimates of core properties and characterize lunar signals as clearly as possible to aid in the interpretation of data returned from future missions," Weber said. 

New Data From the GRAIL Mission

Future NASA missions will help gather more detailed data. The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, is a NASA Discovery-class mission set to launch this year. The mission consists of twin spacecraft that will enter tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure the gravity field in unprecedented detail. The mission also will answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon and provide scientists a better understanding of the satellite from crust to core, revealing subsurface structures and, indirectly, its thermal history.

The Research Team

In addition to Weber, the team consisted of scientists from Marshall; Arizona State University; the University of California at Santa Cruz; and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France. Their findings are published in the online edition of the journal Science.

NASA and other space agencies have been studying concepts to establish an International Lunar Network -- a robotic set of geophysical monitoring stations on the moon -- as part of efforts to coordinate international missions during the coming decade.

press release by NASA

Star Guide the Evolution of the Universe

 

For years, astronomers do not know anything about what happened during the "dark period" of the universe. That period is a period between the predicted big bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago with the creation of the first stars in the universe.

However, now a little enlightenment comes from the findings of scientists at Cambridge University, England, and California Institute of Technology, USA. They found the remains of the first stars that created the explosion of a star along with evidence in the form of clouds of gas.

Professor Max Pettini of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy are involved in the research said, "We have effectively track what happens in 'the darkness' by using the light that emitted a kuasar."

He continued, "We found a small number of elements in the residual gas cloud explosion of one of the first stars were present in very different proportions with the relative proportions that are found in stars today."

Pettini said, the ratio of carbon and iron contained in the gas cloud 35 times larger than that contained in the sun. Meanwhile, it also shows that the gas cloud caused by the explosion of a star that size 25 is larger than the sun.

Pettini who is a researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Astronomy explained, "These (gas clouds) is a fossil that can tell us trace the missing in the early formation of the universe."

He said the first star that provides the key to how the universe evolved from an environment rich in hydrogen and helium into oxygen-rich environment elements, carbon, and iron.

Facts About Space Travel

 

You aspire to become an astronaut? Or dreamed want to take a walk into space? Do not merely think of beautiful things beautiful. As quoted from the Discovery, there are several facts that "interesting" about the trip out of Earth's.

- Living Wreck
Research and space exploration have sacrificed a life of living beings, especially animals. If you think the expense of monkeys and dogs in the laboratory testing the name of science on Earth, is bad enough, imagine this.
A number of early space missions involving the procedure of re-entry into Earth. Unfortunately, not all succeed the space shuttle. It is estimated that, now more carcasses of dogs and simian, monkey species similar to humans, which has become a mummy continue to orbit the Earth until now.
- Air Leakage
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first walk in space in 1965 then. Unfortunately he was experiencing air leakage and experiencing stiff fabric that is not anticipated.
Material rigidity costume he attempted to force back into the capsule with difficulty. He was forced to reduce pressure inside the costume with a material risk that squash her into the costume.
Not finished there, Voskhod, which he rode the plane missed the point and landed near the Ural mountains. He was forced to remain inside the space capsule was inside until help arrives. Outside, the hungry wolf is waiting.
- Toilet
On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard prefers to pee in my pants on the plane Freedom 7 that he was traveling. Andrew Chaikin, author describing the special outer space, travel in orbits so horrible.
He wrote that the toilet in space is shaped like a hat with a layer of packing tape on the edges. Astronauts need to apply or provide anti-bacterial coating after he was shitting.
Advice for the astronauts who had to meet the call of nature is: naked, prepare about one hour, and bring lots of Kleenex. Do it as soon as possible before the urine froze.
- Sudden decompression
Three of the astronauts Soyuz 11 died when the plane took off when air pressure will go back into the atmosphere. In 1965, a technician from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, USA managed to live and tell the similar experience.
When he was in a vacuum chamber, an accident happens and by accident, space costumes that he used to lose pressure. Before he lost consciousness, which he felt was the sensation he feels moist on the tongue feels like a boil.

Alien not a threat to Religion

 

Evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials (aliens), who delivered many experts, is no longer surprising people. No longer a man to panic. Why? The answer is that technology advances so quickly.

Leading psychologist, Dr Albert Harrison of the University of California Davis asserts that in 1961, the U.S. government has warned that evidence of the existence of aliens would create public panic.

But now the warning is no longer relevant. Modern man, says Harrison, it was happy or even the existence of aliens do not care if it's been proven. Advances in technology make the news about the alien is no longer scary.

"The discovery of ETI (extra-terrestrial intelligence) is not so surprising for a generation accustomed to the word-processing machines, electronic calculators, avatar and mobile phones," said Harrison as published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Generation technologies, he added, "Unlike the generation that grew accompanied typewriter, rulers, slide rules, a public phone."

He added, people are already accustomed to the idea of ET since Alien seekers organization, the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), claiming to hear an alien radio signals 50 years ago.

So terbisanya with aliens, half the population of the United States and Europe believe aliens do exist, and some even believe UFO sightings are reported to have anything to do with aliens coming to Earth.

The second article in the same journal written by Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran theologian Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

In his article, Peters said, the discovery of aliens is not a threat to the world's religions.

This is based on a 1300 survey of different faiths around the world. "Clearly, the majority of religious adherents, regardless of what their religion, do not see contacts with space aliens as a threat to their beliefs."

Evolution expert Professor Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge University believes should. According to him, the possibility of human-like intelligent beings in outer space is very small.

If evolution occurs in every part of the universe, there can be no sky explorers who came from the older part of the universe.

"That does not happen, and will not happen. We never visited by aliens, and did not bother to make a welcoming committee for them." "They do not exist, and our own."