03 Sep Weird Worlds? Yes — by the Trillion

NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, the search for planets and life beyond our solar system.

A trip down the list of exoplanets found so far is a wild ride. These planets beyond our solar system, whether orbiting other stars or floating freely between them, can make the planets closer to home look tame by comparison. “Hot Jupiters” are star-hugging, infernal worlds. “Super Earths” are super mysterious. Frozen planets, gas giants that make Jupiter look puny, or small, rocky planets in Earth’s size range but in tight orbits around red dwarf stars – the catalog keeps growing, and soon, that growth will become exponential.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: exoplanets.nasa.gov

31 Aug Silk Spun by Graphene-Fed Spiders Is One of the Strongest Materials on Earth

Spider webs are already strong enough to restrain small insects unlucky enough to fly into them, and soon, they may be capable of carrying the weight of a person.

In a new study published in 2D Materials, Nicola Pugno at the University of Trento in Italy and his team detail how they cranked arachnids’ already impressive metabolic process up to 11 by adding graphene and carbon nanotubes to a spider’s drinking water. Afterward, the spider produced silk as it normally would, but the silk was five times stronger, putting it on par with the likes of pure carbon fibers and Kevlar — the strongest materials on Earth.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: futurism.com

30 Aug The Curiosity Rover Is Taking a Break | Mars Solar Conjunction

The sun is positioned between Earth and Mars from August 28 to September 7, 2019. That means NASA has to break communication with the Red Planet.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.popularmechanics.com

27 Aug The Neuroscience of Reality

• The reality we perceive is not a direct reflection of the external objective world.
• Instead it is the product of the brain’s predictions about the causes of incoming sensory signals.
• The property of realness that accompanies our perceptions may serve to guide our behavior so that we respond appropriately to the sources of sensory signals.

The Neuroscience of Reality

Anil Seth

Scientific American

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.scientificamerican.com

27 Aug There’s no doubt that Brazil’s fires are caused by deforestation, scientists say

Number of blazes has almost doubled compared with last year, satellite data show

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.sciencemag.org

27 Aug Japanese Company ispace Now Targeting 2021 Moon Landing for 1st Mission | Space

A Japanese company that aims to help humanity settle the moon has adjusted the timeline of its first two missions.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.space.com

27 Aug Unpiloted Soyuz Capsule With Humanoid Robot On Board Finally Reaches Space Station | Space

For the first time in history, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the International Space Station without a human in the driver’s seat. And it brought a robot friend.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.space.com

23 Aug Researchers build a heat shield just 10 atoms thick to protect electronic devices

Excess heat given off by smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices can be annoying, but beyond that it contributes to malfunctions and, in extreme cases, can even cause lithium batteries to explode.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

21 Aug Dark matter may be older than the big bang, new study suggests

Mathematical model suggests dark matter may have been produced before the big bang during cosmic inflation, when space was expanding rapidly

Researchers believe dark matter makes up about 80% of the universe’s mass, but its origins and composition remain among the most elusive mysteries in modern physics. A new Johns Hopkins University study suggests dark matter may have existed before the big bang. The study, published in Physical Review Letters, presents a new idea of how dark matter was created and how it might be identified during astronomical observations.

"The study revealed a new connection between particle physics and astronomy," says Tommi Tenkanen, a postdoctoral fellow in JHU’sDepartment of Physics and Astronomy and the study’s author. "If dark matter consists of new particles that were born before the big bang, they affect the way galaxies are distributed in the sky in a unique way. This connection may be used to reveal their identity and make conclusions about the times before the big bang, too."

Sourced through Scoop.it from: hub.jhu.edu

21 Aug A family tree for all the world’s small bird families

An international research team in which Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) are participating has for the first time reconstructed the tree of life for all the world’s approximately 140 passerine families. The passerines include more than 6,000 species, making it the largest bird group by far. The family includes all small birds, such as chickadees, thrushes and finches as well as corvids.

The study is based on a large amount of DNA data from one to four species per family and has used these DNA sequences in combination with fossil data to estimate the age of the different branches of the tree. The tree confirms many of the relationships between the families obtained in previous studies, but it also reveals a number of new forks in branches of the tree.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.uu.se