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 Post subject: Death Zone of the Rosette Nebula -A Galaxy Classic
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:58 am 
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We"ve known for a while that large astronomical events can spell bad news for life:  supernovae unleash unimaginable levels radiation, asteroids can kick up climate-killing clouds, and black holes can suck things out of existence altogether.  Now it seems that simply wandering too close to big star can evaporate a planet before it even forms.

University of Arizona astronomers have surveyed a thousand stars in the
Rosette Nebula - that might sound like a song lyric, but we assure you
it"s real scientific study.  They found that those that most of those
which ventured too close to O Stars were barren, stripped of even the
potential of forming planets.




"O Stars" are the brightest and hottest of the main sequence stars.
Gigantic surface temperatures of 30,000 Kelvin upward puts them at the
blue end of the spectrum.  They can be a hundred times the size and
over a thousand times brighter than the friendly little G Star we call
"The Sun".




The recent work shows that the massive solar winds and radiation output
from these hyper-bright lights in the night can strip away the dust
disk that surrounds young stars, the raw material that could otherwise
go into planet formation.  To get some idea of the scale of the
radiation involved, the danger zone extends 1.6 light years from the O
star.  That"s six trillion miles, otherwise known as "stay the hell
away from those things".




The scientists say that an already-extant planet could possibly survive
a dalliance with these Death Stars, but I think they misunderstand our
concerns.  We aren"t actually concerned about the dainty little
zettaton ball of rock; anything capable of beating up on a baby planet
will certainly vaporize anything carelessly making a living on the
surface.  So our space searches for interesting planets can safely
ignore anything within those danger zones.




Don"t worry though, there aren"t any O Stars within sixteen light years
of Earth.  As you can tell by the fact that you"re actually reading
this.



Posted by Luke McKinney.



Source:



http://www.livescience.com/space/070418_star_dangerzone.html


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 Post subject: Space Travel Beyond the Solar System -Is It Possible? VIDEO
PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:59 am 
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SETI Astronomer Seth Shostak talked to the New York Times about going to other planets, and why we wimpy fleshbags weren"t ever going to manage it.  Though this attitude may be influenced by a career of holding still and waiting for signals to arrive, he still makes some good points - and when a guy who watches the entire universe the way you"d watch your inbox talks, it"s a good idea to listen.



The main obstacle to manned exploration of other planets is the truly mind-melting distances involved - measured in light years, basically "the fastest speed in the universe multiplied by a really long time", meaning that even the closest planets are lifetimes away at any conventional speed.

Shostak"s solution is an army of intelligent robots, and we have to say that as solutions go it"s hard to find a problem that wouldn"t solve.  Robots can be accelerated far faster than fussy humans, who are all "I"m hungry" and "I"m thirsty" and "I need oxygen to survive" about interstellar travel.  An armada of intelligent probes could map entire worlds for us, perhaps even bootstrapping their own factories and tools on arrival, sending back enormous amounts of data without us ever having to set foot outside our gravity well.

We will anyway, of course, and that"s where we and Dr Shostak disagree.  He paints a penned-in picture of humanity cut off from the rest of the universe by enormous distances, viewing alien worlds as interactive TV programming at best.  But humanity"s entire history has been that of moving out as far as they can and living there as well, with little things like "is it possible to survive" taking second place to the need to explore.  The only thing that"ll could stop us colonising the solar system is if we wipe ourselves out first, and once the eight-or-whatever planets are full (with entire nations in the asteroid belts) we"ll set our sights further afield.

Limitations on interstellar exploration tend to say things like "according to current scientific knowledge" or "would require more energy than we can produce", which are reasonable until you realize they could equally apply to any other point in history.  Getting to the moon would have required more horses than available to mankind in the 1700s, but that doesn"t mean there wasn"t another way to propel a craft.

Cryosleep, generational ships, downloading our dinky selves into silicon hooked up to a growth-vat and a sample of skin: whatever it takes to get out of the solar system, some distant day an awesome group of individuals will do it.

Posted by Luke McKinney

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 Post subject: Super-Fleet of Observatories Finds Most Massive Galaxies Ever to Exist
PostPosted: Fri May 01, 2009 8:03 pm 
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Hubble Massive Galaxies The biggest things in the universe are invisible (but that doesn"t matter, because if your wimpy human eye was even out there to see them it would be too busy freezing, suffocating, or freaking out over how the hell far away from home it is anyway).  Scientists have used a super-network of the world"s most awesome observatories to look at the most massive galaxies ever to exist.



These megamassive star collections are so far away that their light has been shifted out of the visible spectrum, just by the doppler effect of the expanding universe.  In an awesome Voltron-like combination, which is presumably also keeping its incredibly eye out for Galactus, the ESA"s XMM X-Ray Observatory hooked up with NASA"s Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer satellites to create a super-sensor survey able to observe the immense galaxies.

By immense, we mean ten times the size of the Milky Way immense.  Ten quadrillion septillion tons immense, aka "Utterly makes a mockery of our language"s ability to describe the concept of"-immense.  English is only designed up to the scale of fat people, maybe elephants.  By the time you get to these galaxies you have to wave around numbers no-one"s even heard of, or say "1.2E46 kg" for the few with scientific notation skills.

The study not only found these fantasti-vast things, we now know how they happened.  You don"t get to be a big star (collection) by just believing in yourself - you get there by eating other galaxies, which may be why Disney just sticks with the "believing in yourself" bit.  Each of these gargantuan galaxies results from at least two mergers, sub-stupidly-large galaxies ramming each other in an event like a thousand Micheal Bay clones in a fireworks factory the size of space itself.

So the next time you hear about a big corporate merger, remember it"s like two hydrogen atoms talking about maybe making a molecule.  There"s big stuff out there, and some people are cool enough to look for it.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Survey reveals Universe"s First Big Galaxies


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 Post subject: Mar"s Missing Magnetic Field: Was It KO"d from Space? (VIDEO)
PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2009 12:35 pm 
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Googlemars If you"ve seen The Core then you that the only thing between us and instant space-death is a magnetic field.  You also know that"s the only thing that"s even heard of real science in the entire movie, but it"s a pretty important one - and could explain why the otherwise eminently habitable Mars is such a barren wasteland.  Scientists think the Martian magnetic field might have been hammered into submission by strikes from space.



Planetary magnetic fields are created by massive molten metal currents within the planet"s core.  A flowing current creates a magnetic field, even when the current is massive volumes of charged liquid metal moving under the influence of temperature gradients (convection) - in fact, especially then.  But magnetic analysis of Martian sites by Berkeley researchers show that the red planet"s protective field was switched off half a billion years ago, and now some scientists say they know why.

John Hopkins University scientists have calculated that a period of massive asteroid impacts, known to have happened around the same time, could not only have massively impacted on the surface Deep Impact-style (with all the atmospheric alteration and great-big-crater-making that entails) but added enough energy to the planet to heat up the outer layers of the planet.

Without the huge temperature difference between the core and mantle, the mega-magnetic dynamo convection currents would be switched off - and unable to start up again when things cooled down.  Remember, planetary core behavior is still carrying on from when the planets first formed - as far as they"re concerned the whole "crust" thing and all life as we know it is just a cooling scum on the surface.  If you break something from back then you just don"t have the juice to start it up again.

Without the magnetic field Mars is defenseless against the radiation that constantly pours in from space (never mind the Fantastic Four, the only superpower cosmic rays"ll give you is decomposition).  Earth is thought to have survived the same space-bombing because of our superior size, with our dynamo maybe stuttering a little but - very importantly - not stopping.

As you can maybe tell by they way you exist.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Did Mars" Magnetic Field End With A Bang Or A Whimper?





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 Post subject: How to Fly a Space Shuttle
PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2009 8:03 pm 
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ABC News reporter gets lessons from an astronaut.





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 Post subject: Mystery Star Speeding Through Milky Way at 3 Million MPH -A Galaxy Classic
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 8:26 pm 
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Neutron_star_rx_j08224300_2 One of the the fastest-moving stars ever discovered in the Milky Way has challenged theories about why it"s moving so fast.



The object is a piece of the Puppis A supernova remnant created when a massive
star ended its life in a supernova explosion about 3,700 years ago,
forming an incredibly dense object called a neutron star.



Puppis_labeled_200_2
Astronomers used five years of NASA"s Chandra X-ray Observatory images
to show that the rogue star, poetically dubbed RX J0822-4300 (shown in
image moving from point A in 1999 to point B in 2005), is careening
away from what"s left of a star that exploded about 3,700 years ago.
The neutron star is exiting the Milky Way at about 3 million mph (4.8
million kph). Other hypervelocity stars known to be exiting the Milky
Way move at
speeds about one-third as great - believed to be hurled toward
interstellar
space by an aggressive, supermassive black hole at our galaxy"s center.



"Just after it was born, this neutron star got a one-way ticket out
of the galaxy," said co-author Robert Petre, an astronomer at NASA"s
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Astronomers have seen
other stars being flung out of the Milky Way, but few as fast as this."



In the case of RX J0822-4300, a tremendous lopsided supernova
explosion launched the neutron star to its blinding speed. It has
traveled 20 light-years thus far, and will take millions of years to
escape the clutches of the Milky Way. Despite using advanced computer
models to simulate how such a stellar rocket could form, astronomers
have no concrete explanation.





Posted by Casey Kazan.















Related Galaxy posts:

Mystery Neutron Star Discovered
Andromeda Galaxy & Its Mystery Core: Destined to Merge With the Milky Way?
Neutron Stars & The Physics of Star Trek
New, Revised Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy
A Single Oxygen Atom"s Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond

The Big Crash: Satellites Reveal a New “Super-Galactic” Collision and How it May Effect Our Understanding of the Universe



Link:



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/29/content_7167962.htm

   
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 Post subject: Dwarf Galaxies Orbiting The Milky Way Nix Newton
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:22 pm 
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CircinusGalaxyBlackHole It turns out that we don"t know everything about the universe.  Shocking, we know, but you"d be surprised how often science writers, politicians, or intelligent design idiots confuse "non-omniscience" with "everything is WRONG!"   Now some are saying that Newton screwed up, but at least their evidence is awesome: dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way!




First off, Newton was never "wrong" - he was "right as far as it was humanly possible to be in the seventeenth century."  You have to remember that he defined all the motion he ever saw with a pencil, and when he discovered the math didn"t exist he just spent a chunk of his life inventing it - meanwhile, you use a supercomputer system to watch cats falling out of trees.

There wasn"t a lot of near-light-speed motion at the time, nor any neutrinos, and it"s important to remember that the people who build bridges don"t go with general relativity or quantum mechanics - it"s all the three laws of force, baby.  You only find you need further theorios when you look outside, and Professor Pavel Kroupa of the University of Bonn and colleagues have looked as outside as you can reasonably get:  analyzing the motions of dwarf galaxies, thousands of starts orbiting the entire Milky Way.  There they"ve found some fascinating contradictions.

Instead of being uniformly distributed around the Milky Way, the dwarf galaxies orbit in a plane - almost like a set of planets.  The group"s calculations show that these galaxettes can"t contain any dark matter - but then, observations of the orbital speed of the same shows that they MUST contain dark matter, as the extant material isn"t enough to explain their velocities.

Clearly, something is wrong.  There"s always a chance that the human calculations are the problem - after all, you can"t accuse the universe of being "wrong" when it"s already there, doing things, and doing them a quadrillion times bigger than you can even imagine.  Basing calculations on something you"ve never seen is always going to be tricky (try "divide by a unicorn"), but that"s the entire point.

In any other field, highlighting how wrong you are is the worst thing you can do - in science, it"s all about helping us find out new things.  And if you know something you thought you knew is wrong, that"s even better - there"s something new in a place we already looked!

Posted by Luke McKinney. Related Galaxy posts:

Harvard-Smithsonian Center Reports Massive Black Holes Roaming the Milky Way (VIDEO)
18 Billion Suns -A Galaxy Classic: Biggest Black Hole in Universe Discovered—and it’s BIG
Neutron Stars: New Discovery Proves Einstein"s Space-Time Predictions
Mystery Neutron Star Discovered
Andromeda Galaxy & Its Mystery Core: Destined to Merge With the Milky Way?
Neutron Stars & The Physics of Star Trek
New, Revised Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy
Black Holes Key to Mapping the Evolution of the Universe

Newton Wrong?


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 Post subject: Astronauts Face Toughest Hubble Repair Yet
PostPosted: Sat May 16, 2009 3:59 pm 
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spacewalking astronauts floated outdoors to give the Hubble Space Telescope a better view of the cosmos by installing a new high-tech science instrument and fixing a broken camera.




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 Post subject: Reboot Your Brain? Science Says It"s Possible -A Galaxy Insight
PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:16 pm 
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Human_brain_receptors_2_2
Contrary to popular belief, recent studies have found that there are probably ways to regenerate brain matter.



Animal studies conducted at the National Institute on Aging Gerontology Research Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for example, have shown that both calorie restriction and intermittent fasting along with vitamin and mineral intake, increase resistance to disease, extend lifespan, and stimulate production of neurons from stem cells.

In addition, fasting has been shown to enhance synaptic elasticity,
possibly increasing the ability for successful re-wiring following
brain injury. These benefits appear to result from a cellular stress
response, similar in concept to the greater muscular regeneration that
results from the stress of regular exercise.




Additional research suggests that increasing time intervals between
meals might be a better choice than chronic calorie restriction,
because the resultant decline in sex hormones may adversely affect both
sexual and brain performance. Sex steroid hormones testosterone and
estrogen are positively impacted by an abundant food supply. In other
words, you might get smarter that way, but it might adversely affect
your fun in the bedroom, among other drawbacks.




But if your not keen on starving yourself, there are other options.
Another recent finding, stemming from the Burnham Institute for Medical
Research and Iwate University in Japan, reports that the herb rosemary
contains an ingredient that fights off free radical damage in the
brain. The active ingredient, known as carnosic acid (CA), can protect
the brain from stroke and neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer’s and
from the effects of normal aging.




Although researchers are patenting more potent forms of isolated
compounds in this herb, unlike most new drugs, simply using the
rosemary in its natural state may be the most safe and clinically
tolerated because it is known to get into the brain and has been
consumed by people for over a thousand years. The herb was used in
European folk medicine to help the nervous system.




Another brain booster that Bruce N. Ames, Ph.D., a professor of
biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California,
Berkeley, swears by his daily 800 mg of alpha-lipoic acid and 2,000 mg
of acetyl-L-carnitine, chemicals which boost the energy output of
mitochondria that power our cells. Mitochondrial decay is a major
factor in aging and diseases such as Alzheimer"s and diabetes. Elderly
rats on these supplements had more energy and ran mazes better.




Omega-3s fatty acids DHA and EPA found in walnuts and fatty fish (such
as salmon, sardines, and lake trout) are thought to help ward off
Alzheimer"s disease. (In addition, they likely help prevent depression
and have been shown to help prevent sudden death from heart attack).




Turmeric, typically found in curry, contains curcumin, a chemical with
potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In India, it is
even used as a salve to help heal wounds. East Asians also eat it,
which might explain their lower rates (compared to the United States)
of Parkinson"s disease and Alzheimer"s disease, in addition to various
cancers. If curry isn’t part of your favorite cuisines, you might try a
daily curcumin supplement of 500 to 1,000 mg.




Physical exercise may also have beneficial effects on neuron
regeneration by stimulating regeneration of brain and muscle cells via
activation of stress proteins and the production of growth factors. But
again, additional research suggests that not all exercise is equal.
Interestingly, some researchers found that exercise considered drudgery
was not beneficial in neuronal regeneration, but physical activity that
was engaged in purely for fun, even if equal time was spent and equal
calories were burned, resulted in neuronal regeneration.




Exercise can also help reduce stress, but any stress-reducing activity,
such as meditation and lifestyle changes, can help the brain. There is
some evidence that chronic stress shrinks the parts of the brain
involved in learning, memory, and mood. (It also delays wound healing,
promotes atherosclerosis, and increases blood pressure.)




It should go without saying that short-term cognitive and physical
performance is not boosted by fasting, due to metabolic changes
including decrease in body temperature, decreased heart rate and blood
pressure and decreased glucose and insulin levels, so you’re better off
not planning a marathon or a demanding work session during a fasting
period.




As part of a healthy lifestyle the prescription of moderating food
intake, exercising, and eating anti-oxidant rich foods is what we’ve
long known will boost longevity, but it’s good to know that we can
bring our brains along with us as we make it into those golden years
without being the 1 in 7 who suffers from dementia. Keep your fingers
crossed and eat some rosemary chicken.




Posted by Rebecca Sato




Related Galaxy post:









Does the Human Brain Possess Latent “Super Powers”?
The Importance of Being Forgetful
"Power Shift" -How to Enhance Your Memory
The Big Brain & the Pursuit of Happiness
The "Organic" Brain -How Smart You Are May Depend On When You’re Conceived
Food for Thought! -Boost Your Memory & Brain Function




References:

Anson, R. M., Guo, Z, de Cabo, R., Iyun, T., Rios, M., Hagepanos, A.,
Ingram, D. K., Lane, M. A.  & Mattson, M. P. (2003, April 30).
Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary
restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury
from calorie intake. National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.

Duan, W., Guo, Z., Jaing, H., Ware, M., Li, X-J., & Mattson, M. P.
(2003). Dietary Restriction Normalizes Glucose Metabolism and
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Levels, Slows Disease Progression and
Increases Survival in Huntington Mutant Mice. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.




Jaret, P., & Martin, A. (2003). Miss a meal, add years to your life. Health, 17(9), 41-44.




Von Bubnoff, A., & Lloyd, J. (2006). Prevention"s anti-aging guide:
How to take off 10 years or more. Prevention, 58(9), 166-213.


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 Post subject: Human Cell Electric Fields Are As Powerful as Lighting Bolts -A Galaxy Classic
PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:16 pm 
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333pxlightning_over_oradea_romani_2
Using newly developed voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, researchers have found that the previously unknown electric fields inside of cells are as strong, or stronger, as those produced in lightning bolts. Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells, so scientists didn"t even know cells had an internal electric field.

This discovery is a surprising twist for cell researchers. Scientists
don"t know what causes these incredibly strong fields or why they" are
there. But now using new nanotools, such as voltage-sensitive dyes,
they can start to measure them at least. Researchers believe they may
be able to learn more about disease states, such as cancer, by studying
these minute, but powerful electric fields.



University of Michigan researchers led by chemistry professor Raoul
Kopelman encapsulated voltage-sensitive dyes in polymer spheres just 30
nanometers in diameter. Testing these nanoparticles in the internal
fluid of brain-cancer cells, Kopelman found electric fields as strong
as 15 million volts per meter, up to five times stronger than the field
found in a lightning bolt. However, this discovery goes beyond being
incredibly interesting; the finding will likely change the way
researchers look at disease.




"They have developed a tool that allows you to look at cellular changes
on a very local level," said Piotr Grodzinski, director of the National
Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer in Technology
Review. Grodzinski believes many developments in cancer research, for
example, over the past few years have been "reactive" rather than
proactive. Despite how far cancer treatments have come, the way that
cancer, and other diseases, progresses at the cellular level in the
first place is still not well understood. With a better understanding,
researchers could improve diagnostics and care. "This development
represents an attempt to start using nanoscale tools to understand how
disease develops," said Grodzinski.




Kopelman has developed encapsulated voltage-sensitive dyes that aren"t
hydrophobic and can operate anywhere in the cell, rather than just in
membranes. Because it"s possible to place his encapsulated dyes in a
cell with a greater degree of control, Kopelman likens them to
voltmeters. "Nano voltmeters do not perturb [the cellular] environment,
and you can control where you put them," he says.




The existence of strong electric fields across cellular membranes is
accepted as a basic fact of cell biology. The fact that cells have
internal electric fields as well, however, is a whole new revelation.
Scientists previously did not know of the existence of internal
cellular energy fields, and are just in the earliest stages of
understand the phenomenon. Kopelman presented his results at the annual
meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology this month. "There has
been no skepticism as to the measurements," says Kopelman. "But we
don"t have an interpretation."




Daniel Chu of the University of Washington in Seattle agrees that
Kopelman"s work provides proof of concept that cells have internal
electric fields. "It"s bound to be important, but nobody has looked at
it yet," Chu says.




Posted by Rebecca Sato




Related Galaxy posts:




Scientists Create A Cancer-proof Mouse
New Stem-Cell Breakthrough Rewrites the Ethical Debate
"X" Cells! Five Super-powered Single Celled Organisms
The "Dying Gasp" of A Single Cell Now Audible



Links:

http://www.umich.edu/~koplab/research2.html

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19841

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2007/12/mysterious_intracellular_energy.html


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