Astronomers unveil stark new evidence that shows galaxies'energy is half what it was two billion years ago The universe is confirmed slowly dying
astronomers studying 200,000 galaxies. Energy generated by the galaxies is only half what it was two billion years ago
-and fading steadily, according to the results of a survey using seven of the world's most powerful telescopes.
It is happening across all light wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared.''The universe is fated to decline from here on in,
'said lead scientist Professor Simon Driver, from the International Centre for Radio astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western australia.'
'The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) study, released on Monday, is the largest multi wavelength research to date.
Researchers collated data from the world most powerful telescopes, including the VIST and the VST at Chile Paranal Observatory, Nasa GALEX, WISE and a European space agency Herschel telescope.
In an unprecedented collection of data, they aimed to map and model all of the energy generated in the universe today.
All the energy in the universe was created in the Big bang that created the cosmos with some of it locked up as mass.
Stars shine by converting their mass into energy, as described by Albert Einstein's famous equation E=MC squared.
additional energy is constantly being released by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together.'
either by dust as it travels through the host galaxy, or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something such as another star, planet,
or very occasionally a telescope mirror.''The fact that the universe is slowly fading has been known
since the late 1990s but the new work is the most accurate and prolific study to date.
#Perseids meteor shower will show hundreds of shooting stars across Europe Stargazers across Britain were treated to a stunning lightshow overnight as hundreds of shooting stars filled the sky as the annual Perseids meteor shower neared its peak.
and the north of England as limited cloud cover allowed the hotly-anticipated meteor shower to light up the sky.
with the Perseids offering one of the greatest displays of the past seven years as the meteor shower coincides with a new moon for the first time since 2007.
Tonight's show will also be enhanced by the International space station which orbits earth every 90 minutes and will be visible for four minutes from 10. 28pm.
Scroll down for videolast night's dazzling display was just the beginning of this year's Perseids meteor shower,
with experts eagerly awaiting further stunning offerings tonight. Occurring yearly between July 17 and August 24, the Perseids reach their peak tonight with more than 100 meteors an hour expected to be produced.
A similar show will occur on Thursday. Professor Mark Bailey, director of Armagh Observatory in Northern ireland, called the Perseids the'best and most reliable meteor shower of the year'.
'Mr Bailey added that the Perseids may produce an outburst of activity around 7. 40pm tonight
with keen astronomer John Downing, 71, saying the'moon will be the biggest factor'.'He said:'
'If it is a full moon then you can't see much but this year we've got a clear sky.
We could be lucky and being able to see the ISS is added an bonus.'Robin Scagell,
vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said:''The thing about shooting stars is they're a wonderful free spectacle we can all enjoy, assuming clear skies.'
these meteors are bright enough for a few to be visible.''The moon is out of the way
which makes a lot of difference because the sky will be much darker all night. For every bright shooting star you see there are always fainter ones,
and this will make it easier to see the fainter meteors and ring up the numbers.''The Perseids are usually fairly bright.
You can see the train hanging there glowing in the sky for a few seconds-sometimes for several minutes-after the meteor has gone.'
'He also urged people to keep a special eye out for the International space station.''It will move from the west below the bright star Arcturus
and then move towards the south, fading out as it passes into the Earth's shadow at 10. 32pm,
'he said.''And it will be the brightest thing in the sky, apart from aircraft. It'll be in mid sky from southern England
'Meteors are the result of particles as small as a grain of sand entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed
'The Perseid's radiant is in the northeast constellation of Perseus. The Perseids make an August appearance each year as the Earth passes through debris shed by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
The streaks in the sky, sometimes known as shooting stars, are grains of dust and ice shed by the comet that enter the atmosphere at 37 miles per second (60 km/s). As they hit the atmosphere,
friction causes them to burn up as they heat the air around them, causing the trails seen from the ground.
The meteor show is named after the constellation Perseus as when viewed from the ground the shower seems to come from a focal point, known as a radiant, in the constellation.
Exceptionally dark skies will provide the best possible conditions for viewing the shooting stars this week due to an invisible new moon.
This is the first time since 2007 that the shower has coincided with a new moon, offering the best visibility of the light show.
The shower is active from around 17 july to 24 august but peaks between late evening on Wednesday and Thursday morning. i
Space elevator in a tower 12 miles high could one day give astronauts a leg-up into the cosmos
While Nasa is busy testing its biggest ever rocket in the hope it will propel mankind to Mars,
one company is planning a rather different approach to usher in a new era of space travel.
Canadian space firm Thoth has outlined plans for an elevator to space, potentially saving huge amounts of fuel and money that form part of the vast cost of launching rockets into orbit.
reaching 12 miles (20 km) above the planet's surface. The space tower would be more than 20 times the height of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
President and chief executive of Thoth Caroline Roberts claims the space tower will also include self-landing rocket technologies to herald a new era of space transportation.
Referring to the powered landing system being developed by Space X, she said:''Landing on a barge at sea level is a great demonstration,
but landing at 12 miles (20 km) above sea level will make space flight more like taking a passenger jet.'
'As well as tourism, the elevator could also be used for wind energy generation and communications. The mastermind behind the project is inventor Dr Brendan Quine.
'Astronauts would ascent to 12 miles (20km) by electrical elevator.''From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit,
returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight.''While other designs for space elevators have involved complex designs using graphene or carbon nanotubes,
the Thoth design reportedly uses inflatable sections and flywheels to provide dynamic stability. This is not the first time a space elevator has been proposed,
with many engineers considering it as a possibility since it was suggested first by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.
-and applied it to the concept of an elevator that takes humans into space. When building any tall structure-from gothic cathedrals to skyscrapers
and eventually a space elevator-the sturdiness and balance comes from its centre of gravity. By creating strong, far-reaching foundations deep into the Earth,
the centre of gravity is shifted from above the ground, to below it. The second part of Mr Debney's plan is to place a satellite in geostationary orbit,
and lower a cable from it to the ground. But as soon as the cable lowers, it changes the centre of gravity of the satellite,
placing it at a lower orbit and causing it to move relative to the ground.
To keep the whole thing in orbit a cable would then also need to be extended up at the same time,
to keep the system balanced. Because this would make a nonlinear system, the cable would need to extend out almost twice as far as it is brought down.
such as a suitably sized asteroid, beyond geostationary orbit to balance the cable and save the excessive length.
The design by Thoth seeks to get around the complication of geostationary orbit by limiting its height to just 12 miles (20km) instead of the full 62 milles (100 km) considered the end of our atmosphere and the beginning of space e
choosing to spend more time in open, brightly lit spaces than normal mice, which preferred dark, enclosed spaces.
#The moon has a NEON atmosphere: Ladee spacecraft confirms presence of the gas for the first time The presence of neon in the moon atmosphere has been a subject of speculation for decades.
Now, for the first time, scientists have confirmed the gas is not only present, but abundant on the moon. The discovery was made by analysing data sent back from Nasa Lunar Atmosphere and Dust environment Explorer,
known as Ladee. he presence of neon in the exosphere of the moon has been a subject of speculation since the Apollo missions,
but no credible detections were made, said Mehdi Benna of Nasa's Goddard Space flight Centre in Greenbelt,
Maryland and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. e were pleased very to not only finally confirm its presence,
but to show that it is relatively abundant. Readings from the spacecraft Neutral Mass spectrometer (NMS) instrument published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,
show there is not enough neon to make the moon glow, but its thin atmophere is made up of mostly, helium, argon and neon.
While the gas is used in electric signs On earth, there is not enough neon to make the moon glow visibly,
because the moon's atmosphere is about 100 trillion times less dense that the Earth at sea level.
The moon atmosphere is referred technically to as an exosphere because it so thin. Exospheres are the most common type of atmosphere in our solar system,
so scientists are keen to learn more about them. t's critical to learn about the lunar exosphere before sustained human exploration substantially alters it,
Dr Benna said. Since the moon's atmosphere is so thin, rocket exhaust from spacecraft could easily change its composition.
Most of the moon's exosphere comes from the solar wind, which is a thin stream of electrically conducting gas blown from the surface of the sun into space at around a million miles per hour.
Most of the solar wind is hydrogen and helium but it contains many other elements in small quantities,
including neon. All these elements impact the moon, but only helium, neon, and argon are volatile enough to be returned back to space.
The rest of the elements will stick indefinitely to the moon surface. Ladee NMS instrument confirmed the moon exosphere is made up of mostly helium, argon, and neon.
The make-up of the mixture changes depending on the time of day, with argon peaking at sunrise, neon at 4am and helium at 1am.
The instrument conducted measurements of the gases for seven months, which allowed the team to understand how they are supplied to the exosphere,
and how they are lost ultimately. While most of the lunar exosphere comes from the solar wind,
the readings showed that some gas comes from lunar rocks. For example, Argon-40 comes from the decay of naturally occurring radioactive potassium-40,
found in the rocks of all the terrestrial planets as a leftover from their formation. e were surprised also to find that argon-40 creates a local bulge above an unusual part of the moon's surface,
the region containing Mare Imbrium and Oceanus Procellarum, Dr Benna said. The scientists found that argon-40 creates a local bulge above an unusual part of the moon's surface
the region containing Mare Imbrium (shown)+ 6 The scientists found that argon-40 creates a local bulge above an unusual part of the moon's surface,
the region containing Mare Imbrium (shown) Although the reason for this local enhancement is understood not yet,
ne could not help to notice that this region happens to be the place where potassium-40 is most abundant on the surface. o there may be a connection between the atmospheric argon, the surface potassium and deep interior sources,
he explained. The team also noted that a second surprising behaviour of argon that the overall amount in the lunar exosphere was not constant over time.
In fact it increased and decreased by about 25 per cent during the course of the Ladee mission.
Dr Benna believes this transient source of argon may be the result of enhanced outgassing-the release of a gas that was dissolved,
trapped, frozen or absorbed in some material-from the surface that is triggered by tidal stress on the moon.
Ladee readings also revealed an unexpected source of some of the helium in the lunar exosphere. bout 20 percent of the helium is coming from the moon itself, most likely as the result from the decay of radioactive thorium and uranium
The spacecraft entered its science orbit around the moon's equator in Mid-november and its mission was extended.
However, the craft lacked fuel to maintain a long-term lunar orbit or continue science operations and was sent intentionally into the lunar surface,
but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud. ur data make clear that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one,
and reveal for the first time that individuals occupying a space can emit their own distinct personal microbial cloud.
including communications between Earth and spacecraft. Quantum teleportation depends on a phenomenon called quantum entanglement. This allows connections to be made between atoms,
and with engineers at Nasa to improve techniques for collecting a person's vital signs,
which look remarkably similar to the star of 1986 film Short circuit, could be used to carry casualties to safety while under fire.
With caterpillar-style tracks and a head on top of a flexible neck, they look remarkably like Johnny Five-the malfunctioning mechanical star of the Short circuit films.
Both Google and Nasa have been developing a quantum computer as part of their artificial intelligence work. However their D-Wave quantum computer needs to be kept at temperatures of around-273°C(-459°F). The latest research by Professor Dzurak and his colleagues,
and safeguard entire species. Researchers claim to have worked out how to accurately predict the eruption of'supervolcanoes'that blanket the earth in giant ash clouds triggering a'nuclear winter'.
Repeatedly throughout Earth's history, when they become a super-eruption, the resulting gigantic volcanic outbursts that throw 100 times more superheated gas,
'said Guilherme Gualda, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University, who directed the project.'
The movement and structure of these waves could then be used to map the earth beneath.
Liquid-oxygen or kerosene rockets would be fired to enable the plane to rapidly climb higher in the sky
Nasa explains. It's predicted scramjets could reach 15 times the speed of sound. Bombardier Skreemr's sleek design, with four wings and two large rockets on the rear, is intended to be used as a commercial aircraft to carry 75 passengers in luxury.
While Bombardier came up with the idea Mattison, from Design Eye-Q in Minnesota, created the renderings of the concept.
A rocket motor would take it to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,000 metres. The wing-mounted ramjets would then take control to push the jet to its final speed.
#MIT refreshes fusion reactor with modern superconductors Rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconducting tapes could mean earlier practical fusion reactors, according to MIT.
The technology, funded by the National Science Foundation, allows for natural clays found readily all over the planet to be turned into reliable masonry products and offers a sustainable alternative to traditional concrete masonry,
They also believe the unique water-repelling nature of the material could be used in paint applied to airplanes and satellites or as part of electromagnetic shields for such things as unmanned aerial vehicles.
Tao likens the process to techniques used to discover exoplanets--new planets beyond our solar system.
evidence of their presence can be inferred from fluctuations in starlight due to gravitational effects caused by the unseen exoplanets.
"Xylochemistry could represent an important alternative to the climate-damaging use of the earth's finite resources of natural oil and gas in the production of chemicals."
"explains Sara Munk Jensen, Ph d. student at both the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (Nordcee), Department of biology and the Department of physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
and highly portable so that it requires almost no lab space.""This type of cutting-edge work puts UCONN at the forefront of technology development
the contractor that renovated the lab space for more information about the lights.""I've never had a client
meaning light no longer behaves as a moving wave, traveling through space in a series of crests and troughs.
not space. This uniform phase allows the light to be stretched or squished, twisted or turned, without losing energy.
the contractor that renovated the lab space for more information about the lights.""I've never had a client
night-vision goggles and smoke detectors to surveillance systems and satellites--that rely on electronic light sensors. Integrated into a digital camera lens, for example, it could reduce bulkiness and boost both the acquisition speed and quality of video or still photos.
#'Magic'plant discovery could lead to growing food in space QUT scientists have discovered the gene that will open the door for space-based food production.
--and space was an intriguing option.""So the recent film The Martian, which involved an astronaut stranded on Mars growing potatoes
while living in an artificial habitat, had a bit more science fact than fiction than people might think,
and innovate in this space. And we are also contributing back by releasing our 3-D printer designs under an open-source license
What important is that there is some space between the yolk and the shell (where the metaphorical hitewould go),
but rather the shrinking of that core to a olkwith the all-important internal space. Though the team had meant not to create that unintentional chemical product,
#Self-healing material could patch up damaged spacecraft in under a second Space is big and mostly empty,
but it the small part that isn empty that ends up being an issue for space exploration.
Even a tiny piece of debris from a derelict satellite or ancient bit of space rock can cause damage to a spacecraft,
and that damage can expose your fragile atmosphere-loving body to the harsh vacuum of space in a real hurry.
Researchers from the University of Michigan working with NASA have developed a material that might add an extra layer of protection from space debris
The International space station is the most heavily shielded craft ever built, a necessary distinction as it designed to operate for years in orbit.
The current design relies on a series of impact shields known as Whipple bumpers or Whipple shields.
the air inside a spacecraft will be sucked out quickly. The air on the inside of the ship reacts with the resin as it leaks out,
While space is the main application the researchers also say it could be useful in automotive and building technology
is one of the most important questions for early universe cosmology today. That why it so surprising that an American particle collider called the Relativistic Heavy ion Collider (RHIC) was able to create it with very little actual mass.
#The first satellite powered entirely by ion engines is online Getting a satellite into orbit is only the first step in making it a useful piece of equipment.
It also needs to arrive in the correct orbit and stay there, known as station-keeping.
but more modern satellites have relied upon a mix of chemical and electric propulsion. Now Boeing has announced the first all-electric ion propulsion satellite is fully operational.
The satellite in question doesn have a snappy name it a communications satellite called ABS-3a 702sp.
It was launched last March aboard a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket. It has just recently been handed over to its owner
Bermuda-based telecommunications company ABS. Because ABS-3a is a communications satellite, it needs to remain in a geosynchronous orbit.
Thus, station-keeping is essential. When it can no longer maintain its orbit, it will cease being useful.
Ion thrusters make a lot of sense in this scenario. Ion engines operate on the same basic principles of physics that chemical thrusters do expel mass from a nozzle to push a craft in the opposite direction.
Instead of the combustion of volatile chemicals, ion engines operate with chemically inert xenon gas. Using an electrostatic field,
This is the same type of thruster technology used on NASA Dawn spacecraft, which is currently studying the dwarf planet Ceres. Ion thrusters are considerably more efficient than conventional rocket motors.
In this case, Boeing claims the Xenon Ion Propulsion system (XIPS) designs used for ABS-3a is ten times more efficient than liquid fueled rockets.
ABS-3a needs only 11 pounds (5kg) of xenon gas per year to maintain station-keeping,
meaning it can remain operational much longer than a similar satellite with conventional thrusters. ABS expects the satellite to remain active for about 15 years.
Ion thrusters are also considerably lighter than chemical engines making launches cheaper. The drawback is the very low thrust of an ion engine.
That why past satellites have carried conventional thrusters as well. Upon delivery to orbit, ABS-3a used its ion thrusters to reach a geosynchronous orbit at 3 degrees west longitude.
After being tested by Boeing, the satellite was turned over to ABS on August 31st. Now that the design has proven itself viable,
Boeing is forging ahead with a second satellite for ABS using the same XIPS engines.
This one will be blasted into space sometime next year x
#uper-antennacould let Mars rover talk directly with Earth Right now, Mars rovers like Curiosity get roughly 15 minutes to talk to scientists back On earth, twice per day.
If a scientist wants to issue a complex set of orders, or download a whole bunch of new information,
it has to all fit into these 15-minute windows. For scientists on the ground, the necessity of bouncing signals through multiple orbiting satellites means that rover missions progress as a series of quick snapshots, with tense waits in between.
Now, they have a prototype for a new and improved type of rover antenna one that could turn those minutes into hours,
and those orbiters into space junk. The idea comes from a group working on advanced antenna technology at UCLA, in combination with NASA Jet propulsion laboratory.
The idea is basically to use an array of 256 antenna elements (a 16 x 16 square) all working together to make a uper-antennacapable of directly communicating with Earth.
Having fewer moving bodies to worry about keeping in alignment, this system could give a rover up to several hours of communication time with operators back On earth, every day.
The reason it works is not just that the array of mini-antennas creates a more powerful signal
This has the effect of keeping the signal coherent as it travels through the Martian atmosphere once a signal gets into the vacuum of space with good signal strength intact,
getting the rest of the way to an orbiter around the Earth isn hard at all.
Amazingly, this huge increase in signal strength will still run within the power limitations of NASA upcoming Mars 2020 rover:
For that power commitment, it will purportedly be able to maintain a signal with a satellite around Earth, 225 million kilometers away.
The 2020 mission may well be NASA major precursor to the start of a manned mission,
if it can serve as a proof of concept for direct communications between the Earth
and Mars. The additive characteristics of its compound antenna actually work in both directions; not only will it be able to create more powerful signals to transmit back to Earth,
but it will be able to pick up more powerful signals as well. This will give it a better ability to download information from the Earth,
widening the lines of communication for both scientists and their rover. The Mars 2020 rover won have the luxury of twisting around to make sure it pointing at the Earth at every moment,
and so the antenna is planned to be mounted on a gimbal arm that can lift the antenna and orient it in any direction.
There has been some promising research in this field it not to be confused with the much more preliminary work on using quantum entanglement to transfer information in such a way that it literally does not traverse the intervening space.
too much sun can be worse than too little. The fact that chlorophyll absorption spectrum makes things surprisingly green reflects the compromises inherent in being able to capture every photon possible
A device operating to multiplex/demultiplex between directional free-space beams and a single-mode waveguide is extremely appealing for real-world communication applications Furthermore, one of the advantages to the approach,
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