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Saturday, July 18, 2015

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Mysterious Ice Plains Spotted on Pluto (Video)

Not far from a range of giant ice mountains on Pluto lies a vast stretch of icy plains whose surface is broken into giant cell-like blocks by snaking troughs, new photos by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal. The engimatic region — which the mission team is calling "Sputnik Planum," after the satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 — also features isolated hills of uncertain height, mysterious pitted terrain and dark streaks of material that may have been deposited by Plutonian winds. You can fly over Sputnik Planum in this amazing video, which NASA released today (July 17).

NASA scientist Claudia Alexander, last Galileo project manager, dies at 56

NASA scientist Claudia Alexander, who was a project manager for the Galileo spacecraft mission to Jupiter and worked on the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet chaser, has died at age 56. Alexander died on July 11 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer, NASA said on its website this week.

Dawn Probe Back in Action at Dwarf Planet Ceres After Glitch

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has resumed its trek to a new orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, more than two weeks after a glitch halted the probe in its tracks. Dawn began spiraling down to its third Ceres science orbit on June 30 but experienced a problem almost immediately and went into a protective "safe mode." After an investigation, the mission team has now determined what happened and cleared Dawn to return to work. Dawn has three ion engines and uses only one at a time," NASA officials wrote in an update today (July 17).

Seattle's long-broken tunnel-boring machine set to resume Nov. 23

The world's largest-diameter tunneling machine could resume drilling under downtown Seattle in late November after repairs are completed, allowing a central part of a years-delayed highway project to go forward, Washington state officials said on Friday. The broken machine, known as Bertha, stopped working in December 2013 after digging just 10 percent of a planned tunnel to replace an aging waterfront highway. It was stuck for more than a year underneath downtown Seattle.

NASA scientist Claudia Alexander, last Galileo project manager, dies at 56

Scientists puzzle over Pluto's polygons

By Irene Klotz NEW YORK (Reuters) - New pictures relayed by the first spacecraft to visit distant Pluto show odd polygon-shaped features and smooth hills in an crater-free plain, indications that the icy world is geologically active, New Horizons scientists said on Friday. "We had no idea that Pluto would have a geologically young surface," said lead researcher Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "It's a wonderful surprise." The goal of the $720 million New Horizons mission is to map the surfaces of Pluto and its primary moon Charon, assess what materials they contain and study Pluto's atmosphere.

Missing 'Vampire' Director's Skull: Why People Snatch Bodies

The loss of the head of F.W. Murnau, the director of the 1922 silent vampire film "Nosferatu," has authorities flummoxed, though it's not the first time the director's tomb has been disturbed. Indeed, Murnau is hardly the only victim of body snatching. Until the mid-1800s and into the early 1900s, doctors experiencing a shortage of anatomical specimens often engaged in shady deals with "resurrectionists." These resurrectionists made their money by selling purloined bodies, often snatched from fresh graves.

Complex Cirrus Clouds Seen in 3D from Space

The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) on the ISS scans the planet with lasers and records the light that bounces back, according to NASA Earth Observatory. On April 2, CATS took measurements (seen at the bottom of the image) of the clouds over the South Pacific.

Destroyed Iraqi Holy Sites Find New Life Online

Researchers are embarking on an ambitious project to bring part of Iraq's destroyed heritage back to life. Over the past few years the world has watched as the Islamic State has destroyed historical monuments and committed acts of genocide in Iraq and Syria. However, thanks to the Iraq travels of Amir Harrak, a professor at the University of Toronto, researchers have a chance to bring a bit of this destroyed heritage back online.

Asteroid Mining Company's 1st Satellite Launches from Space Station

A private spaceflight company took one small step for asteroid mining this week with the launch of its first spacecraft to test technology that may one day help tap into the riches of the solar system. The Arkyd 3 Reflight spacecraft, a small satellite built by the space-mining company Planetary Resources, launched from the International Space Station on Thursday (July 16), beginning a 90-day mission to test the avionics, control systems and software needed to make asteroid mining possible. Planetary Resources first tried to launch a version of the satellite into orbit last October, but that spacecraft was lost when the commercial Antares rocket carrying it and supplies for the space station exploded shortly after liftoff.

Nix Pix Sizes Up Pluto's Middle Child Moon

The middle child of Pluto's moon family, Nix, has been given its close up by the New Horizons space probe. The first close-up image of Nix snapped by the New Horizons probe seems a little fuzzy compared with the stunning photos of Pluto and Charon, but that's because Nix is only 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide — and, in fact, the measurement of its diameter is one of the major pieces of information that the spacecraft science team has managed to glean from the new portraits of the satellite. While the new image may appear to be rather low resolution, past observations of Nix have shown little more than a speck of light around Pluto.

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Friday, July 17, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Aiyeeeee! Human screams jolt brain's fear-response center

Researchers who explored how the brain handles a scream said on Thursday the loud, high-pitched sound targets a deep brain structure called the amygdala that plays a major role in danger processing and fear learning. "We knew pretty well what frequencies are used by speech signals and the brain regions involved in speech processing: the auditory cortex and higher order regions such as Broca's area, for instance," said University of Geneva neuroscientist Luc Arnal, whose research appears in the journal Current Biology.

Research: Polar bears can't conserve energy during fasting

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A study of an Alaska polar bear population in summer concludes the bear's biology will not help stave off starvation in the face of global warming.

Forbidden Love: Don't Kiss Your Chickens, CDC Says

A number of people around the United States have become sick with Salmonella after bringing backyard chickens indoors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of June 29, at least 181 people have come down with Salmonella during 2015, in four separate outbreaks spanning 40 states. Of the ill people who researchers reached for interviews, 86 percent reported having contact with baby chicks, ducklings or other live poultry.

'Very Light' Smoking Common Among Young Women

Young American women commonly smoke, but only very lightly, or they smoke on some days but not others, a new study finds. Overall, about 30 percent of the women were current smokers, whereas 28 percent were former smokers and 41 percent had never smoked. Most of the current smokers were "very light smokers," who smoked five or fewer cigarettes per day.

Depressed? Your Smartphone May Tell

The participants also completed a questionnaire intended to measure their symptoms of depression. About half of the participants had no symptoms of depression, while the other half had symptoms ranging from mild to severe. The researchers found that by using only the data from the participants' phones, they could identify which participants had symptoms of depression with 87 percent accuracy.

Revealed by New Horizons, Pluto's 'Heart' Named for Planet's Discoverer

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by and beyond Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), it carried with it the ashes of the American astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet in 1930. Now, the mission's science team has further memorialized Clyde Tombaugh by giving Pluto's prominent heart-shaped feature his name.

See Double Crescents of Venus and the Moon with Binoculars

On the evening of Saturday (July 18) the crescent moon, as it moves eastward across the sky, will appear to pass directly below the crescent planet Venus, which itself is moving westward across the sky. To the naked eye, Venus appears like a brilliant pinpoint of light. Turn your binoculars on it, and that slight additional magnification will allow you to see that Venus is also a narrow crescent.

Dying for a Selfie? Why People Risk Their Lives For Self-Photos

Selfies seem to be everywhere these days: on the campaign trail, at the Oscars, even at funerals. Officials in Russia recently launched a campaign warning of the dangers of selfies after a number of selfie-related injuries and deaths occurred in the country. But why have selfies become so popular, to the point that people are willing to risk their lives to take the perfect snapshot of themselves?

Chimps Can Spot Faces Like Humans Do

Chimpanzees can quickly identify the faces of other chimps, as well as those of human adults and babies. These new findings could shed light on human and chimp evolution, scientists say.

Screaming Triggers Alarm Bells in the Brain

In the 1959 film "The Tingler," obsessed scientist Vincent Price battled a centipedelike creature that only human screams could kill. "If you ask a person on the street what's special about screams, they'll say that they're loud or have a higher pitch," said study senior author David Poeppel, who heads a speech and language-processing lab at New York University.

Apollo-Soyuz Spawned 1st Handshake in Space by US-Soviet Crews 40 Years Ago

The Cold War experienced a bit of a thaw 40 years ago today (July 17), thanks to some off-Earth cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The historic Apollo-Soyuz Test Project meetup showed that two different space vehicles could dock in orbit, but it had far-reaching diplomatic consequences as well.

NASA Unveiling New Pluto Flyby Photos Today: How to Watch Live

NASA will reveal more of the New Horizons spacecraft's up-close photos of Pluto and its moons today (July 17), and you can watch the unveiling live. The new images, which New Horizons captured during its historic flyby of Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), will be released and discussed at a news conference that starts today at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You can follow it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

Renowned scientist who helped lead mission to Jupiter dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Claudia Alexander, a brilliant, pioneering scientist who helped direct NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and the international Rosetta space-exploration project, has died at age 56.

Ghostly Particle with No Mass Finally Created in the Lab

The mysterious particle, called a Weyl fermion, emerged from a crystal of a material called a semi-metal. By bombarding the crystal with photons, the team produced a stream of electrons that collectively behaved like the elusive subatomic particles. The new discovery not only sheds light on the behavior of one of the most elusive fundamental particles, it could pave the way for ultra-low-power electronics, said study co-author Su-Yang Xu, a physicist at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Bendy Liquid Metal Coils Could Make Stretchable Loudspeakers

Coils of liquid metal could be used to make stretchable loudspeakers and microphones, potentially leading to new kinds of hearing aids, heart monitors, and wearable and implantable devices, researchers say. Now, scientists in Korea have created a stretchable acoustic device by replacing this rigid coil with a deformable, liquid metal coil. The scientists operated the device by electrically charging the liquid metal coil, turning it into an electromagnet that could push back and forth off the neodymium magnet to either detect or emit sound.

Finally, Bacon-Flavored Health Food Has Arrived

Bacon-flavored seaweed is the new kale. Dulse is usually harvested in the wild, dried out and then sold for up to $90 a pound, according to researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, who developed the domesticated strain of the plant. The OSU researchers are working on making dulse more affordable and more widely available.

Scientists puzzle over Pluto's polygons

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