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Monday, November 11, 2013

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Satellite likely incinerated after re-entering Earth's atmosphere: officials

By Irene Klotz ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A large science satellite that mapped Earth's gravity likely re-entered the atmosphere where most of it incinerated on Sunday, about three weeks after running out of fuel and beginning to lose altitude, officials said. Ground tracking stations' last contact with Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, was at 5:42 p.m. (2242 GMT) as it passed 75 miles above Antarctica, Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office, wrote in a status report posted on the European Space Agency's website. The official designation of space is the Karman line, 62 miles above Earth. About 25 percent of the car-sized satellite was expected to have survived re-entry, with debris most likely falling into the ocean, European Space Agency officials said.

International space crew returns Olympic torch to Earth

A Soyuz capsule carried an International Space Station crew of three back to Earth on Monday along with an Olympic torch that was displayed in open space as part of Russia's preparations for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Slowed by parachutes and braking rockets fired to soften the impact, the Soyuz TMA-09M hit the Kazakh steppe on schedule at about 8:49 a.m. (0249 GMT) after a more than three-hour descent from the space station, live footage on Russian and NASA TV showed. "The Olympic torch is home after a four-day journey," an announcer on NASA TV said after what he called a flawless descent. Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky had taken an unlit silver-and-grey torch, inspired by the Firebird of Russian folklore, on a spacewalk on Saturday, the first time an Olympic torch has been in open space.

Soyuz Spacecraft Carrying Olympic Torch, Crew of 3 Returns to Earth

A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan Sunday (Nov. 10), returning cosmonauts and two astronauts to Earth along with a one other precious item: the Olympic torch. The Soyuz spacecraft landed at 9:49 p.m. EST (0249 Nov. 11 GMT) under a clear blue sky in central Kazakhstan, where the local time was Monday morning. Frigid temperatures greeted the returning space travelers — cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano — after five and a half months in space. "The initial reports indicate a bull's eye landing for the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft and its crew," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the agency's televised landing commentary.[See more landing day photos for Soyuz crew]

1-ton European Satellite Falls to Earth in Fiery Death Dive

A European satellite met its fiery doom in Earth's atmosphere late Sunday (Nov. 10), succumbing to the same gravitational pull of the planet that it spent the last four years mapping like never before. The European Space Agency's GOCE satellite fell from space Sunday at 7 p.m. EST (0000 Nov. 11 GMT) while flying on a path that would take it over Siberia, the Western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica, ESA officials said.

Incredible Technology: How to Launch Superfast Trips to Mars

New propulsion technologies may blast astronauts through space at breakneck speeds in the coming decades, making manned Mars missions much faster and safer. Souped-up electric propulsion systems and rockets driven by nuclear fusion or fission could end up shortening travel times to the Red Planet dramatically, proponents say, potentially opening up a new era in manned space exploration. "Using existing rocket fuels, it's nearly impossible for humans to explore much beyond Earth," John Slough of the University of Washington, leader of a team developing a fusion-driven rocket, said in a statement earlier this year. Putting boots on the Red Planet is a chief ambition of NASA, which aims to send astronauts to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

From Space Cooking to Disaster Plans: Astronaut Chris Hadfield Reveals Cosmic Life Lessons (Video)

NEW YORK — You'd be hard-pressed to catch astronaut Chris Hadfield unprepared. Years earlier, during his grueling jet training to become a fighter pilot for the Canadian military, Hadfield would drive the desolate roads of Saskatchewan to familiarize himself with the landscape that he'd be flying over during critical tests — tests he knew might make or break his shot at becoming an astronaut, even though Canada didn't have a space program at the time.

Best Age for Woman's First Child? 25, Poll Finds

Most Americans think the best time for a woman to have her first child is at age 25 or younger, whereas most think first-time dads should be 26 or older, according to a new Gallup poll. The timing of life milestones such as marriage and parenthood has shifted over the years. There are biological reasons to have children earlier rather than later. Women are most fertile in their late teens and early 20s, and older dads confer increased risks for schizophrenia, autism and other mental health disorders onto their children, according to a 2011 study in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Veterans Bring the Whig Party Back

Though you may remember it from high-school history class, the Whig Party gave America some of the most utterly forgettable presidents of the 1800s. (If the names Millard Fillmore, Zachary Taylor and John Tyler fail to inspire much patriotic fervor in you, you're not alone.) Nonetheless, a new Whig Party — calling itself the Modern Whig Party, or MWP — has risen from the ashes of history and is poised for a comeback. Robert "Heshy" Bucholz, a card-carrying MWP member, was elected last week as an election judge in Philadelphia, making him the first Whig to win any elected office in the city since 1854, according to Philly.com.

Smuggled Chinese Artifacts Lead to Charges

A Florida art dealer is facing heavy fines and possible prison time in connection with an ancient artifact smuggling case. Francois B. Lorin, 74, of Winter Park, was hit with obstruction of justice charges after he forged documents in an attempt to legitimize an illegal shipment of ancient Chinese objects, federal authorizes allege. U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered the artifacts in Miami, Fla., in June 2011. They detained the shipment from Hong Kong "due to inconsistencies between the shipping documentation and physical examination," said a spokesperson with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Snakes Control Blood Flow to Boost Vision

At least for one snake species, when the slitherer feels threatened, it controls the blood flow to its eyes to ensure that its sight is unobstructed, a new study found. The research focused on the coachwhip snake (Masticophis flagellum), a thin, nonvenomous species that is found across the United States and Mexico and can range in color from brown to pink. While examining the eye of a coachwhip snake, study researcher Kevin van Doorn, of the University of Waterloo in Canada, said he noticed a network of blood vessels in this see-through layer of skin. He found that the blood vessels constricted and expanded in a consistent cycle while the snakes were resting so that blood cells wouldn't pool up in front of the animals' eyes and obscure their already limited vision.

By the Numbers: 5 Cultural Facts About Veterans

Today, Veterans Day, men and women in uniform are being honored for the service to the country. As the Civil War was winding down, President Abraham Lincoln called on Americans in his second inaugural address "to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan." While returning and fallen servicemembers have long been revered in the United States, Veterans Day was only established as a national holiday in 1919, though at the time it was called Armistice Day, celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War I. The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center aims to collect, preserve and make accessible veterans' personal stories from as far back as World War I to more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1.6 million female veterans in the nation in 2012.

Babies Named After Dads: Which States Have More (And Why)

Dale Earnhardt Jr., was one. So was Martin Luther King Jr. And who could forget Harry Connick Jr.? In the United States, southern and western states are strongly influenced by honor culture ethics, thanks to immigration by the Scotch-Irish, scientists say. "Sometimes culture plays a hidden or subtle role in the kinds of names we're attracted to," said study researcher Ryan Brown, a psychologist at the University of Oklahoma.

Electron Appears Spherical, Squashing Hopes for New Physics Theories

Job Interview Advice for Veterans: Practice

A new study from Military Benefit Association revealed that half of the veterans recently separated from the U.S. military and are currently unemployed have not had a full- or part-time job since leaving the military. Roy Gibson, a retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. and president of the Military Benefit Association, said one critical aspect to landing new work for veterans is ensuring they are well-prepared for the job search process, including any interviews they may go on. When going on an interview, it is important that veterans can accurately describe their skills and what they can bring to the table. Gibson said research shows that more than 70 percent of hiring managers find it difficult to ascertain recent veterans' skill sets based on their resume alone.

Cosmonauts Wore Special Space Patch for Olympic Torch Spacewalk

The two cosmonauts who took an Olympic torch on a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 9) carried out the symbolic relay wearing a surprise space mission patch depicting the icon of the 2014 Winter Games. Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos each donned Orlan spacesuits adorned with the previously unseen embroidered emblem, which, like the Olympic Games, came as the result of an international effort. "The patch is done in bold colors and in a bit of a 'comic book' style," wrote Dutch artist Luc van den Abeelen, who designed the patch together with space patch enthusiast Jacques van Oene, in an e-mail to collectSPACE.com. "It shows a cosmonaut on a spacewalk in heavy perspective, with the Olympic torch prominently sticking out toward the viewer." [Photos: See the 2014 Winter Olympic Torch in Space]

Catholic Education No Better Than Public Schooling, Study Suggests

Catholic schools don't provide a better education than public schools, at least when it comes to basics like math and reading, new research suggests. Children at Catholic schools don't improve their math or reading scores on standardized tests across elementary school and don't show better behavioral outcomes than public school children, according to the study, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Urban Economics. "Across many outcomes, both academic and behavioral, we don't find anything that seems to point to a real benefit of Catholic schools over public schools," study co-author Todd Elder, an economist at Michigan State University, said in a statement. Many an adult remembers sitting through classes taught by Catholic priests and nuns, and more than 2 million children are currently enrolled in one of 6,700 Catholic schools across the country, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.

US to Destroy 6 Tons of Ivory This Week

In a first, U.S. officials are going to destroy their massive stockpile of illegal ivory this week, hoping to send a zero-tolerance message to elephant poachers. On Thursday (Nov. 14), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will pulverize nearly 6 tons (5.4 tonnes) of illegal ivory items, from whole tusks to tiny trinkets, which have been seized over the past 25 years as a result of smuggling busts and criminal investigations. The ivory crush will take place at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo., just outside of Denver. After that, the objects can be used to educate the public and train law enforcement officials.

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Sunday, November 10, 2013

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Amazing Moon Rises Over City Hall in Sweden (Photo)

A giant moon rises over a sleepy city in Sweden, marking the last moments of summer. Astrophotographer Göran Strand sent SPACE.com this magnificent photo of the moon over Östersund's city hall on Oct. 28.

Scientists expect satellite crash next week

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency says its GOCE research satellite will crash to Earth on Sunday night or during the day on Monday, but debris is unlikely to cause any casualties.

Doomed European Satellite May Fall to Earth Tonight, But Where?

A European satellite at the end of its mission is expected to fall out of space tonight. According to European Space Agency predictions, the falling GOCE satellite could to Earth sometime Sunday night (Nov. 10) or early Monday. "The satellite is at an altitude of 147 km (91 miles), dropping at a rate of more than 1 km (0.6 miles) an hour," ESA's GOCE spacecraft operations manager Christoph Steiger wrote in a status update today, adding that the atmospheric drag on the satellite is too high to measure. ESA scientists expect 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite to survive the fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.

Space Station Crew and Olympic Torch Return to Earth Tonight: Watch Live

A Russian Soyuz space capsule will bring the Olympic torch and three residents of the International Space Station back to Earth tonight (Nov. 10) and you can watch the landing live online. The Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft is due to land on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia at 9:49 p.m. EST (0249 Nov. 11 GMT) to return NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin home after a 5 1/2-month mission in orbit. The trio will also return the Olympic torch to Earth ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics Games in Sochi, Russia. You can watch the Soyuz landing webcast live here, courtesy of NASA TV.

3 Tips for Getting into an Exercise Groove

Many everyday activities, such as home repairs and gardening may be as good as exercise, according to an October British Journal of Sports Medicine study. These are small actions, but they may give you the momentum you need to keep going.

New Laser Tech Could Detect and Destroy Brain Diseases

A new technology that uses only light could one day detect and annihilate disease-causing proteins in the brain, researchers say. The method involves using lasers to distinguish between normal brain tissue and the abnormal tissue found in people with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of mad cow disease). The laser technique — which has not yet been tested in animals — might one day be able to treat people with these diseases, researchers report. "Using just a source laser, we can distinguish between proteins in the amyloid structure and those functioning properly," said study researcher Piotr Hanczyc, a biophysicist at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Networking

Whether it's online through social media sites or offline at industry events, there's a good chance that anyone you connect with can either help you directly or put you in touch with someone else who can. Mike Muhney, CEO of mobile relationship management purveyor vipOrbit, warned that while social media is incredibly powerful and useful in networking, it can also hurt your ability to create professional and personal connections if you don't utilize it well.

Changing the Way You Think About Change

Chris Majer — founder and CEO of The Human Potential Project, a Washington State-based management and leadership consulting firm — thinks of change as a never-ending cycle of learning. Armed with this definition, Majer has helped corporate clients (AT&T, Microsoft, Intel) and various military agencies (Army, Navy, Marines) break down the barriers that keep change at bay, so that these organizations can achieve greater success. In the second-edition release of his book, "The Power to Transform: Passion, Power and Purpose in Daily Life" (Rodale Books, September 2013), Majer shares the methods that he has developed over several decades for bringing about meaningful changes in his clients' personal and professional lives. Chris Majer: Transformation is simply a rapid amount of change in a short amount of time.

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Saturday, November 9, 2013

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Pope Francis Kisses Man Covered in Tumors

Since assuming the papacy, Pope Francis has espoused a life of humility and compassion in the tradition of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, who adopted a life of poverty and service to the sick. There, Francis openly embraced and kissed an unidentified man covered with tumors caused by neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disease of the nervous system. Neurofibromatosis, or NF, causes tumors to grow on nerves and nerve endings. The condition can appear in childhood or during the teen years, depending on the type of NF;

Chasing a Solar Eclipse: Hitting the Bull's Eye at 44,000 Feet (First Person)

The airplane would attempt to view the few seconds of totality — the total phase of the solar eclipse — at the very beginning of the eclipse path, where the shadow, moving at nearly 8,000 mph (12,875 km/h) was just touching down on Earth. You can follow space photography Ben Cooper @LaunchPhoto or at LaunchPhotography.com.

European Satellite Is Falling from Space, But Where Will It Hit?

The fate of European Space Agency's falling GOCE satellite was sealed in October, when the spacecraft ran out of the fuel needed to keep it aloft in a very low orbit above Earth. Now that the satellite's mission is over, its handlers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are closely tracking its ever-descending orbit to determine where it might fall. The GOCE satellite team's best prediction so far is for "a re-entry on Sunday, with a possibility for it slipping into early Monday," Rune Floberghagen, ESA's GOCE mission manager, told The New York Times earlier this week. Most of the 1-ton (907 kilograms) spacecraft will disintegrate during reentry, but smaller fragments of GOCE will make it all the way to the planet's surface. The Times reported that 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite are expected to survive, with the largest as big as 200 lbs. (90 kg).

As Myth Marries Science, the Origin Story Matters (Op-Ed)

Roger Briggs is the author of "Journey to Civilization: The Science of How We Got Here" (Collins Foundation Press, 2013). The traditional view of history has been that prehistoric humans achieved civilization for the first time about 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, and was then followed by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and so on.

Can New Rules Finally End Pet-Treat Poisonings? (Op-Ed)

This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Today, the nutritional content and safety of pet food is a mainstream concern, given growing consciousness about nutrition and healthy foods and the view that pets are family members. The pet-food market has grown dramatically, with some pet food companies even marketing organic food for dogs and cats. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new proposed standards governing oversight over the pet-food industry, calling for makers of animal food sold in the United States to develop written plans to prevent food-borne illnesses, like salmonella. This much-needed upgrade of the regulatory framework comes as the FDA is still trying to determine the precise cause of a six-year spate of pet illnesses — involving more than 3,500 dogs, with nearly 600 known fatalities — apparently stemming from jerky-style pet treats.

To Cut Carbon, a Decade is Too Long to Wait (Op-Ed)

Jeffrey Rissman, policy analyst at Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. While there is a global consensus to cut greenhouse gasses, many approaches look to solve the crisis over decades — but, there are critical reasons that even ten years is too long to wait. First, delaying action allows natural carbon-dioxide (CO2) feedback loops — climate-altering processes that accelerate as more CO2 enters the atmosphere — to gather strength. and melting permafrost allows for the decomposition of peat bogs and the melting of methane hydrates, releasing methane into the atmosphere.

The Dog's Telltale Tail (Op-Ed)

Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Hunt Club Auctions Opportunity to Kill Endangered Rhino (Op-Ed)

Wayne Pacelle is the president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. At the very time that the world is rallying to save the last rhinos — who are being gunned down by poachers and terror groups taking advantage of the global demand for rhino horns — the Dallas Safari Club is planning on auctioning an opportunity to shoot a critically endangered black rhino.

Astronauts Improvise Olympic Torch Relay On Space Station

There are still months remaining before the 2014 Olympic Games kick off, but nine space travelers on the International Space Station are already getting into the Olympic spirit. Meanwhile, two cosmonauts will take the Olympic torch outside the space station on Saturday in a first-ever Olympic spacewalk. The red and silver aluminum torch for the 2014 game arrived at the station with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin (who carried it), NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata when their Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the orbiting outpost early Thursday (Nov. 7) morning. "Mikhail Tyurin was the first person that entered the International Space Station with the torch," Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin told reporters through a translator earlier today (Nov. 8) during a news conference.

Cosmonauts to Spacewalk with Olympic Torch Today: How to Watch Live

For the first time in history, an Olympic torch will be taken into the vacuum of space during a spacewalk and you can watch it live online. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Oleg Kotov will venture outside the International Space Station with the red and silver aluminum Olympic torch Saturday (Nov. 9), leaving from the station's Pirs docking compartment airlock at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT). This will be the first spacewalk for Ryazanskiy and the fourth for Kotov. You can watch the spacewalk on SPACE.com starting at 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) via NASA TV.

Mysterious Disease Turning Sea Stars to Goo May Disrupt Tidal Ecosystems

The disease — known as sea star wasting syndrome — begins as a small lesion, and eventually results in the loss of limbs and ultimate disintegration and death of the leggy animal. The syndrome has afflicted sea star populations on the West Coast in the past, and in those instances, populations eventually bounced back, Smithsonian invertebrate zoologist Christopher Mah told LiveScience.

Wearable Robotics: The Incredible Tech of Helping People Walk Again

Michael Gore tripped about 11 years ago and his life changed. The flexible and supportive Indego Exoskeleton is designed to help people rehabilitate after an injury or allow people with paralysis like Gore to walk again. Gore has been working with a version of the exoskeleton since 2010, when he was in rehab at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. "It feels great," Gore, a T10 (thoracic spinal nerve 10) complete paraplegic, told LiveScience of the exoskeleton.

3D-Printed Fossils & Rocks Could Transform Geology

Whether they're cracking open rocks or scanning tiny changes in topography, geologists already work in three dimensions. But one of the most popular attractions at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Denver last week was a 3D printer spitting out fossils, globes and fractured rocks. The 3D printer belonged to Franek Hasiuk, a geologist at Iowa State University and proprietor of the GeoFabLab, a hub for 3D geologic printing. "Humans are visual and tactile," Hasiuk told LiveScience.

New Coiled Fibers Could Heal Damaged Hearts

By growing heart cells in scaffolds made of coiled fibers, scientists could develop implants that could help people's hearts spring back into action after heart attacks. Its costs exceed $312 billion yearly, and are expected to exceed $1.5 trillion per year by 2030, according to the 2013 American Heart Association report. Heart disease often leads to heart attacks, which can cause a loss of blood flow to the heart tissue and lead to the death of heart muscle cells. With heart transplants scarce, half the people who live through a heart attack die within five years.

Cosmonauts take Sochi Olympic torch on spacewalk

By Alissa de Carbonnel BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts took an Olympic torch into open space for the first time in history on Saturday as part of the torch relay of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Gripping the unlit silver-and-red torch in the gloved fist of his spacesuit, Oleg Kotov crawled through a hatch and stepped outside the International Space Station some 200 miles above Earth, where he waved it triumphantly. He handed the torch to Sergei Ryazansky and they took turns posing with it, with the station, the blackness of outer space and the blue-and-white orb of Earth as backdrops. The footage, most taken from cameras mounted on the cosmonauts' spacesuit helmets, was broadcast live on U.S. space agency NASA's internet channel and Russian state television.

Sending Olympic Torch to Space, Russia Flaunts Inspiration Superiority (Op-Ed)

Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Chiao is the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University. Soyuz 11M roared into space just a few days ago, carrying the latest crew to the International Space Station. During the mission, two cosmonauts will take the torch out on a spacewalk, to further generate publicity for the games, and for human spaceflight.

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