Black Hole Caught in Act of Swallowing Star

For the first time, a black hole has been caught in the act of tearing apart and swallowing a star that got too close.

Scientists, who until now had witnessed only the aftermath of such events, say the observation is shedding light on “relativistic jets,” bursts of matter that shoot out at nearly the speed of light.

At the centers of virtually all large galaxies are supermassive black holes. These monsters, which are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun, can rip apart passers-by, gravitationally pulling at stars in gigantic versions of how our moon tugs on Earth’s oceans to generate tides. …

via Black Hole Caught in Act of Swallowing Star | Black Holes, Stars & Galaxies | How Black Holes Form & Supermassive Black Holes | Space.com.

Snow White and the Frozen Dwarfs

On August 24, 2006 the International Astronomical Union adopted fixed definitions for various objects in the Solar System.

“Snow White,” otherwise known as 2007 OR10, is a dwarf planet about 13 billion kilometers from the Sun. Its orbit, canted by almost 31 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, is so large that it was closest to the Sun in 1856 and will not reach its farthest point until 2130, taking more than 550 years to revolve.

Snow White joins many other icy worlds so far from the Sun that it would be hard to pick out that luminary from the star field. It is in a similar orbit with its sister dwarf Eris (2003 UB313) within a region occupied by so-called “Trans-Neptunian Objects” (TNO) or “Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO).”

Astronomers Kenneth Edgeworth and Gerard Kuiper proposed a Kuiper Belt theory in 1951. In 1992, the as yet unnamed 1992 QB1 was discovered, confirming the idea that a group of frigid objects beyond Neptune was in orbit around the Sun.

Dwarf planets are also part of the TNO designation, although they are in a subclass by themselves. In 2006, a controversial vote was cast at a meeting of astronomers in Prague that provided a way to classify various celestial bodies. …

According to the vote, a “planet” is a celestial body that orbits the Sun, has a nearly round shape, and has “cleared” its orbit of extraneous debris. Another classification was added to the terms used by astronomers: “dwarf planet.” A dwarf planet is essentially something that looks like a planet but is not a planet. Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, as is the asteroid Ceres. Along with the aforementioned Eris and Snow White, Haumea, Makemake, Sedna, Quaoar, and Orcus are also likely to be dwarf planets. Pluto’s moon Charon would also fit if it were not a moon. There are dozens more that await further investigation. …

via Snow White and the Frozen Dwarfs.

At the average human walking speed of 3.1 miles per hour (mph), could a person in a space suit hike all the way around Pluto (4493.75 mile circumference) in 60 days?

 

Signed Beatles single Please Please Me fetches $14,730

A copy of the Beatles hit single Please Please Me signed on both sides by all four members of the band has fetched £9,000 at auction in Liverpool.

The 1963 record was sold by a Liverpool woman who asked the group to sign it after listening to them at the city’s Cavern venue as a youngster.

The “very, very rare” item was among 322 lots at the annual Beatles memorabilia auction.

Among other highlights was a cap owned by John Lennon which sold for £3,200. …

via BBC News – Signed Beatles single Please Please Me fetches £9,000.

Electric ice a shock to the solar system

ELECTRIC ice may pervade space. This strange form of water is more persistent than was previously thought, and the discovery could change our understanding of how the solar system formed. It might even give ice a new role in the emergence of the complex organic molecules needed for life.

In a single molecule of water – H2O – there is a charge separation. That’s because the two positively charged hydrogen atoms cluster at one end, away from the single negatively charged oxygen.

However, the charges get mixed up when ordinary ice, known as ice Ih, forms. While the oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a repeating pattern, the pairs of hydrogen atoms that extend from them don’t. Instead, they randomly take one of a number of positions (see graphic).

Cool ice to about 60 kelvin (-213.15 °C), though, and the hydrogens rearrange themselves so they are aligned. In the resulting, perfectly regular crystal, called ice XI, there are distinct regions of positive and negative charge.

That polarisation makes ice XI clump together much more readily than ordinary ice 1h, in the same way that dust particles are drawn together by static electricity. If the early solar system contained a lot of the stuff, it could mean that planets formed much more quickly than current models assume. Electric ice could also attract organic compounds, possibly accelerating the emergence of complex molecules and eventually life.

While claims that ice XI may exist naturally in Antarctica have yet to be verified, astronomers have long suspected that it hangs out in the outer solar system. They haven’t directly detected it there, however.

In 2006, Masashi Arakawa, now at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and colleagues produced ice XI in the lab between 57K and 66K. This is about the temperature found on Uranus and its moons, but too narrow a range for ice XI to be a major player in planet formation.

But ice XI turns out to be hard to kill. Tiny flecks of the stuff embedded in ordinary ice can help convert all of it to electric ice, a little like the ice dreamed up by Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Cat’s Cradle, a single crystal of which could freeze the world’s oceans. Crucially, the conversion of ice Ih to ice XI occurs at higher temperatures than if ice XI forms from scratch.

Arakawa’s team cooled disordered, run-of-the-mill snowflake ice until it transformed into ice XI at 60 K. Then they warmed it to 100 K so that it reverted to ordinary ice. When they turned the thermostat back down, ice XI returned at a higher temperature than before: 72 K. Yet cooling regular ice to 72 K did not change its structure (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2011GL048217).

The researchers think that nanoscale regions of ice XI survive the heat, providing a template for neighbouring regions, which then seem to “remember” how to become ice XI. “There are little seeds of XI inside the Ih,” says astrochemist Rachel Mastrapa of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, who was not involved in the work. “Given the right conditions, those seeds can grow.”

via Electric ice a shock to the solar system – space – 25 August 2011 – New Scientist.

Simple way to grow muscle tissue with real muscle structure

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have found a simple way to grow muscle tissue with real muscle structure in the laboratory. They found that the muscle cells automatically align themselves if they are subjected to tension in one direction — this is essential for the ability of the muscle cells to exert a force. The endothelial (blood vessel) cells in the culture also automatically grouped themselves to form new blood vessels. This finding is a step forward towards the engineering of thicker muscle tissue that can for example be implanted in restoration operations.

The results were published in the scientific journal Tissue Engineering Part A.

Another important aspect of the finding is that it was not necessary to add any biochemical growth factors to initiate the process. These substances are normally required for processes of this kind, but their action is difficult to control, according to TU/e researcher Dr. Daisy van der Schaft.

via Simple way to grow muscle tissue with real muscle structure.

Dino-era Mammal the “Jurassic Mother” of Us All?

National Geographic – A tiny, shrew-like creature of the dinosaur era might have been, in a sense, the mother of us all.

Named the “Jurassic mother from China” (Juramaia sinensis), the newfound fossil species is the earliest known ancestor of placental mammals—animals, such as humans, that give birth to relatively mature, live young—according to a new study.

The 160-million-year-old specimen pushes back fossil evidence for the evolutionary split between the placental and marsupial lineages by 35 million years. Although it’s unclear if the creature is a direct ancestor of modern placentals, it’s “either a great grand-aunt or a great grandmother,” the study authors say.

Placentals—including creatures from mice to whales—are all that remain of the so-called eutherian mammals, of which J. sinensis is the oldest known specimen.

The first eutherians evolved from the ancestors of marsupials, which have pouches and give birth to comparatively immature offspring. (A third type of mammal, the monotremes, includes platypuses and lays eggs.)

(See “Platypus Genome Reveals Secrets of Mammal Evolution.”)

With forepaws adapted to climbing trees, the newfound eutherian scurried about temperate Jurassic forests feasting on insects under the cover of darkness. This diet allowed J. sinensis to tip the scales at around half an ounce (15 grams), making the creature lighter than a chipmunk.

“The great evolutionary lineage that includes us had a very humble beginning, in terms of body mass,” said Zhe-Xi Luo, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who led the team that discovered the fossil. …

via Dino-era Mammal the “Jurassic Mother” of Us All?.

Steve Jobs Talks About Life And Death – Stanford Speech

Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer sets sail from Clyde

The latest hi-tech warship built for the Royal Navy has left the Clyde to be handed over to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Type 45 destroyer, Dragon, is the fourth ship of its kind built by BAE Systems in Glasgow.

A joint team from the shipbuilder and the Royal Navy has taken charge of the vessel for its journey to Portsmouth.

As HMS Dragon, the vessel will be one of six of its type, equipped with Sea Viper anti-air missiles.

Each will be able to carry 60 troops and has a large flight deck, able to accommodate a helicopter the size of a Chinook.

In removing civilians from an emergency situation, 700 people can be taken on board.

Commanding officer Darren Houston said: “Dragon is in top condition for the rigours of the next stage of her sea trials and the challenges ahead.

“The Royal Navy and BAE Systems have worked in close partnership to make Dragon the best of her class, ready to fight and win.” …

via BBC News – Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer sets sail from Clyde.

Rhino horn raiders steal replicas from Tring museum

Thieves who broke into a museum to rip two rhino horns from taxidermy displays were foiled by staff who had replaced horns worth £240,000 with replicas.

The Natural History Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire, said the resin horns were fitted on to two specimens three months ago and had no resale value.

Rhino horn can fetch £60,000 per kg in the far east where it is prized for its supposed medicinal qualities.

Many museums have removed rhino horns from displays as thefts increase.

Police are investigating after the raiders smashed through the museum’s front doors at 04:30 BST.

It is believed they removed the horns from the animals using a large hammer.

The museum, which had 299 rare bird skins stolen in 2009, was closed on Saturday and is expected to reopen on Sunday.

Manager Paul Kitching said: “We’re deeply saddened by this pointless theft. …

via BBC News – Rhino horn raiders steal replicas from Tring museum.

… In China, traditionally rhino horn powder was used to treat fever, but a modern myth has sprung up – that has no basis in science – that it can cure cancer. In Vietnam they are prized by the rich to display in their homes, pushing demand even higher.

Globally, the campaign to stop the trade in rhino horns has been very successful and any loopholes in the law that allowed the legal trade of antique horns have now been closed. This makes their availability scarce but, with demand from Asia high, the prices have soared. On the black market rhino horns sell for around £50,000 per kilo, making them more valuable than gold, diamonds and cocaine.

Mr Thomas said: “Organised crime steps in anywhere where there’s quick and easy money to be made, and rhino horns have hit their radar. They’re easy to conceal and therefore easy to smuggle.”…

via BBC

Rhino horns are only valuable because people are stupid.

Brazil Scientists Find Signs of Underground “River”

A huge underground river appears to be flowing thousands of feet beneath the Amazon River, Brazilian scientists said Thursday.

Valiya Hamza of Brazil’s National Observatory said researchers found indications the subterranean river is 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) long, about the same length as the Amazon on the surface.

Hamza said the discovery of the possible underground river came from studying temperature variations at 241 inactive oil wells drilled in the 1970s and 1980s by Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras.

He said the “thermal information” provided by Petrobras allowed his team of researchers to identify the movement of water 13,100 feet (4,000 meters) under the Amazon River.

Their findings were presented last week in Rio de Janeiro at a meeting of the Brazilian Geophysical Society.

The apparent underground river has been named after Hamza, honoring him as the head of the research team that found the signs of the flowing water.

He said the existence of an underground river that also flows west to east would mean that the Amazon rain forest has two drainage systems — the Amazon and Hamza rivers.

Hamza stressed that the studies indicating the underground river were still in their preliminary stage but added that he expected to confirm the subterranean flow by the end of 2014.

via Brazil Scientists Find Signs of Underground River – ABC News.

A subterranean river said to be flowing beneath the Amazon region of Brazil is not a river in the conventional sense, even if its existence is confirmed.

The “river” has been widely reported, after a study on it was presented to a Brazilian science meeting last week.

But the researchers involved told BBC News that water was moving through porous rock at speeds measured in cm, or inches, per year – not flowing. …

via BBC