Week of science June 26, 2015 (updated daily)

June 29 Even stars older than 11 billion years have Earth-like planets
Retreating sea ice could affect European climate, study shows
June 30 Update- solar plane to make its way across Pacific

Week of science June 22(daily update)

June 27 Watch an exoplanet transit a star in real time
Why June 30 will get an extra second; Earth slowing down
June 26 Messier 87, giant galaxy, still growing, swallowing galaxy whole
Spiral arms cradle baby terrestrial planets (discovery on how rocky planets escaped the sun)
June 25 Earth's daily rotation period encoded in an atomic-level protein structure
Unexpectedly little black-hole monsters rapidly suck up surrounding matter
Supercomputer model shows planet making waves in nearby debris disk
June 24 robots & mind control
June 22 Light beams & eletrcical discharges

How did this happen!? This is devastating to the blog. Unfortunately...

Part 2 of what was going to be about exoplanet discussion, cannot be retrieved from the hard drive, at least not in a way that I know of. That's really unfortunate, as I already had thousands & thousands of words typed down. Today I selected paste & to my dismay, only a link showed up. That would have been quite fascinating stuff if I had a way of retrieving the text, which careful attention went into. I had so many ideas which I'm sure many, many, people would find fascinating. If you can help with this problem, please do. Otherwise, wish me luck.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I don't recount turning off my computer & when I got to it today it was asleep. All I did was copy the text, & was going to paste it, but as luck would have it, that's not how it worked out. I'm not sure if I should spoil what the info was going to be about, but I guess there's time to thing about that too hehe.

Exoplanet discussion- Part 1: atmosphere

Let's talk about exoplanets. There is a multitude of questions that may come up when it comes down to it.  Let's assume we're talking about an earthlike planet
1) What if gasses are distributed or concentrated differently?
The atmosphere may have higher or lower amounts of gasses than here on Earth. For example, there may be twice as much oxygen, or 25% of the carbon as compared to Earth. Then we could also explore other gasses such as nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, methane, etc.
A planet with twice as much oxygen as Earth would likely have life that's larger than here one Earth. We have evidence for this. In prehistoric times, Earth went through a period of time in which our atmosphere contained large amounts of oxygen. This then caused animals' lungs to grow larger to contain more oxygen, which is pretty interesting since you may have thought otherwise. Obviously, a planet with less oxygen than Earth would have smaller animals. You may be wondering how humans from Earth arriving there would be effected. That depends on how low or high the oxygen levels are compared to Earth. With less oxygen, of course it would have adverse effects and may even cause brain damage in extreme cases. With more oxygen, the less obvious effects may occur. One of these include abnormally high red blood cells. Another, yet interesting, effect that may occur is that the high oxygen levels may have positive effects for people with breathing problems. How about effects on the ecosystem? One example of such an effect would be on animal life, which may be more abundant. Also, if there are any bodies of water, there may be more fish if the water has more oxygen. A planet with more carbon could have adverse effects if we landed there. Rain would be more acidic, but that doesn't have to mean aquatic life would suffer. In fact, here on Earth aquatic life including coral reefs have been found to thrive just as well under acidic water. Of course, more carbon= an atmosphere that insulates heat better, which may make a world habitable, or not. Supposedly, excess amounts of CO2 may cause plants to deteriorate. So the debate on climate change here on Earth helps to gather such interesting information.
More Methane on a planet would be like carbon. Like carbon, Methane is a greenhouse gas. Scientists think it may have contributed Earth's past climate. Interestingly, if you had a planet just like Earth but much hotter, & this planet had an ice age, the role of methane and/or carbon would come in handy. Methane has the ability to trap ten times as much heat as CO2, which traps a few times as much heat as oxygen. Methane is a very abundant gas on Europa, which features geography much like Earth. Unfortunately, Europa isn't suited for life. However, it is believed that Europa may have geysers. If that's the case, there may be hotspots where life could cling on. Exoplanets will turn out to be much more interesting than one would likely expect.
High amounts of gasses, especially CO2 & methane, could be a problem when it comes to humans industrializing a world, as a warming atmosphere fills up with pollutants more easily as opposed to a cool atmosphere. Ironically, Carbon itself is known to be an air purifier.

Week of June 15, 2015 in science (daily update)

• June 19 Species rapidly vanishing, according to biologists
• Using lasers & sound to see into the human body
• June 18 Moon's puzzling dust cloud finally yields an answer
• How musicians hear & see may solve mystery of human brain
• Scientists film shockwaves in diamonds Researchers have used ultra-short pulses of X-rays to film shock waves in diamonds. The study opens up new possibilities for studying the properties of materials. Thanks to the extremely bright and short X-ray flashes, the researchers were able to follow the rapid, dynamic changes taking place in the shock wave with a high spatial as well as a high temporal resolution.
• Wondering what would happen to our galaxy if Andromeda collided? Here's a hint
• DIY Carbon nanoparticles from honey
• Nearby galaxy's magnetic structure helps scientists determine formation processes 
• Fascinating scientific discovery about human brain! More info                    
• June 17 Are we about to discover theoretical first generation stars?
• cellulose in wood can be printed in 3-d
• June 16 Black holes: New research in theoretical physics shows that black holes aren't the ruthless killers we've made them out to be, but instead benign--if imperfect--hologram generators. The world could have been captured by a black hole, and we wouldn't even notice,ACCORDING to a new theoretical perspective.
• June 15  The ongoing search for more subatomic, exotic particles
• Rosetta awakes from hibernation, sends 1st message after landing in shade on comet for quite a while
• Camouflaging smart materials mimic squids
• Rheumatoid arthritis, giant cell arteritis linked to solar cycles
• Self-awareness in animals
• Turning a thermostat into a money maker
• In order to save lives, self-driving cars might kill you

Mysteries of human vision

So, as you may know, this blog isn't necessarily "out of this world". Sometimes I write about things that are more "down to Earth". So, let's explore the mysteries of forbidden colors- what are they? You can read quite a lot about this mystery here.

What's interesting that I've once read about is this girl who has a really good talent in painting. She doesn't paint in forbidden colors, however, she paints with intriguing combinations of colors. The scene doesn't look the same to a regular person as it does in the paintings. The paintings are more vivid. It's thought that she sees more colors than a regular person. In other words perhaps, she doesn't see purple as we see it, but actually has purple receptors.

Blite (Black-white)

You heard right. I've had such a vision. This one, however, is one where you can forget about eye tracking. I close one of my eyes & with enough experience, the view from the other eye starts to get filled in with static. I'm unsure if this is exactly Black-white, but I'm sure it's quite close.

Seeing into the future

Could we someday be able to create goggles that let us see other stuff too. For example, goggles could let us see temperature, or sound? So maybe here on Earth such technology wouldn't offer us much, but now imagine looking at the night sky.

You most likely can't see UV light

A normal human being doesn't have the ability to see UV. However, when it comes to people, there are some, yet rare, exceptions. Some individuals are able to detect UV-A light. In the past, & perhaps in today's world as well, when people would go into cataract surgery, mistakes were quite possible. Sometimes the portion of the eye that protects against UV light would be damaged. So, the patient might then see the world slightly differently than others. This ability has been used in the past in the military. People with this ability would be used on ships. Ships would issue light signals using UV light so enemies wouldn't be able to notice, & the observer would signal others as to what the signal's message was. The effect of such vision on an artist, for example, would be that a painting would be more blue than what a normal artist would recreate. 

A summary of this weeks science articles 6/1

• June 5 Researchers design the most precise quantum thermometer to date temp regions as small as the inside of a cell
• stretchable ceramic (tin oxide)
• June 4 Tuning friction to the point where it disappears may boost development of nanomachines "Physicists have developed an experimental technique to simulate friction at the nanoscale. Using their technique, the researchers are able to directly observe individual atoms at the interface of two surfaces and manipulate their arrangement, tuning the amount of friction between the surfaces. By changing the spacing of atoms on one surface, they observed a point at which friction disappears." (sciencedaily)
• 
  

The Oort star

The "Oort Star" -- Did a Rogue Star Pass Through Our Solar System?A group of astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system's distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close - five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. While the close flyby of Scholz's star likely had little impact on the Oort Cloud, "other dynamically important Oort Cloud perturbers may be lurking among nearby stars." Currently, Scholz's star is a small, dim red dwarf in the constellation of Monoceros, about 20 light years away. However, at the closest point in its flyby of the solar system, Scholz's star would have been a 10th magnitude star - about 50 times fainter than can normally be seen with the naked eye at night. Info

Mysteries of the universe

Fermi bubbles, antimatter

Fermi bubbles are giant features of a galaxy, including our own galaxy, that stretch for roughly 35,000 light years, about half the diameter of the Milky Way. What makes them extremely interesting is that they emit gamma rays, the most dangerous form of radiation. The edge of the bubbles emit the most energetic gamma rays. You may ponder this question: could this be a key to the mystery of dark matter? Interesting how gravitational lensing is round. Another fascinating aspect of the universe is named the Fermi Paradox. If you're looking for  a website with fascinating articles, you'll really like www.waitbutwhy.com. This is where you'll find more info about the paradox.

Antimatter presents an intriguing scientific mystery. As it turns out, the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe should've been equal, cancelling out each other. However, this was not the case and significant amount of matter remained. Antimatter is the opposite of matter. As it turns out, it's been theorized by engineers that antimatter may someday be harnessed for space travel. If it were true, then this form of energy would allow a spaceship to travel to Mars in five days. Antimatter contains an enormous amount of energy. Just one tenth of a gram could likely cause as much destruction as an apocalyptic, if not, near apocalyptic, asteroid. Scientists have so far been able to make anti-hydrogen, which has been found to destroy hydrogen. The problem with antimatter as a fuel source is that it takes enormous amounts of energy to produce. It is estimated that to produce approximately 1 gram of it, it would take thousands of years of electricity production to go into the process. In fact, it may even take over a million years just to obtain that much antimatter. Then again, such a small amount would contain an enormous amount of energy. Until quite recently, a new form of antimatter has been discovered in near Earth orbit by ISS astronauts. This form of antimatter is called a positron, the antimatter equivalent of an electron. It is thought that the antimatter belt surrounding Earth can be used as a fuel source. One particle of say, anti-helium, would likely be able to destroy many millions of helium atoms, kind of like aerosols destroy ozone. Since matter still remains in the universe, it seems as though there is more than there is antimatter. The reason for this remains unclear. Perhaps there is a mysterious, yet misunderstood, relationship between antimatter & dark energy or antimatter & dark matter.

Mysteries of the universe

Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Expansion

Dark matter is a relatvely recent discovery. Scientists theorize its existence due to at least four other discoveries:
1. Galaxies apparently spin faster than light
2. The Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards Milky Way
3. Gravitational lensing
4. The universe has much more mass than expected, but when scientists measure the mass of galaxies, including Andromeda, they find that it's greater than it should be.
How is it created? It's unclear how it's created. Scientists theorize that it comes from planets, & what makes the dark matter's creation possible is thought to be due to inequalities in planetary gravity. Interesting once you know about Andromeda, since many other galaxies are moving away from the Milky Way. On the other hand, there's another discovery that is the exact OPPOSITE of dark matter. That is what scientists call dark energy. This dark energy is thought to be the reason for why galaxies are moving away from each other at baffling speeds. Now, let's go back to Andromeda. In this case, dark matter, which is thought to exist in Andromeda, is thought to overpower dark energy.
So, what do I think is really going on?
Well, I theorize that there may be another possibility to Andromeda's approach. Roughly one month ago, there was an article posted on ScienceDaily about Andromeda. Besides dark matter, there is another, literally enormous discovery regarding the galaxy. To be more specific, Andromeda has been observed to have a massive dust cloud surrounding it. The dust cloud has been found to be at least six times as large, and roughly 1000 times as massive as previous measurements. Could this be the key to solving the mystery of dark matter? Dark matter, as well as dark energy, are thought to take up large quantities of space as compared to normal matter. This would make sense, especially with dark energy, since dark energy is what is thought to keep the universe from staying still, let alone collapsing in on itself. Apparently the balance between gravity & dark energy is such that dark energy overpowers gravity. What's fascinating about the expansion of the universe is that although we observers have noticed galaxies moving away from each other quicker near the edge of space, the galaxies in these places are literally being observed many years in the past, during which perhaps the laws of physics may have been different, allowing for matter to exceed the speed of light. Is such a theory even possible? Perhaps not. However, since galaxies are observed so far away & traveling at such speed, could the unimaginable distances & speeds involved somehow cause observations to be flawed? Could something be causing us to perceive things way out there to travel beyond the speed of light? Well, I guess we're not sure. However, here's some food for thought. First of all, I had once pondered what would happen if a spaceship was going at say, 1 mph less than the speed of light, & turned on its headlights. The light would still be going at the same speed and... BINGO! This may perhaps be a key to solving the riddle of expansion. The galaxies aren't going at light speed. Instead, they may be going this fast relative to Earth, if Earth is going in the right direction. This may not seem to explain well enough. However, our Earth is not just orbiting the sun, but also the center of the Milky Way, and this may be the kind of knowledge that is needed in order to answer the riddle. Try to go from here, and see whether you'll end up with a conclusion. The elusive culprit behind expansion

A summary of this week's most recent science articles

• June 13 First room temp. Skyrmion bubbles Researchers have just announced a new method for creating magnetic skyrmion bubbles at room temperature. The bubbles, a physics phenomenon thought to be an option for more energy-efficient and compactELECTRONICS, can be created with simple equipment and common materials
• June 11 Planet atmosphere acts as sunscreen on blazing hot planet
• Scientists have developed a way of making soft materials, using a 3-D printer, with surface textures that can then be modified at will to be perfectly smooth, or rigid or bumpy, or even to have complex patterns that could be used to guide fluids.
• Saturns giant rings, created by collisions on the moon Phoebe are seen here in an artists's rendition showing how the dark rings appear in infrared
• As New Horizons approaches Pluto, it's moons are found to be tumbling chaotically
• Strange patterns discovered on Mercury include cliffs & ridges, defy explanation 
• June 10 Galaxy seems to not belong to galaxy cluster
• Ultracold molecules Experimental physicists have successfully cooled molecules in a gas of sodium potassium to a temperature of 500 nanokelvins -- just a hair above absolute zero, and over a million times colder than interstellar space. The researchers found that the ultracold molecules were relatively long-lived and stable, resisting reactive collisions with other molecules. The molecules also exhibited very strong dipole moments -- strong imbalances in electric charge within molecules that mediate magnet-like forces between molecules over large distances.
• Diseases linked to birth month
• June 9 Just add water: Engineers develop computer that operates on water droplets "Their goal is to design a new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter." (Sciencedaily)
• June 8 Nano materials may replace ink, allow for printing logos only visible under electron microscope
• "Planets with volcanic activity are considered better candidates for life than worlds without such heated internal goings-on. Researchers have found a way to detect volcanic activity in the atmospheres of exoplanets when they transit, or pass in front of their host stars." (Sciencedaily)
• Most detailed view ever of star formation in distant universe "The new observations are far more detailed than those made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and reveal star-forming clumps in the galaxy equivalent to giant versions of the Orion Nebula." (Sciencedaily)
• Ancient algae found on tropical ice cap

Astronomy this month

June 1 strawberry moon
June 19-20 Jupiter forms a triangle w/Venus & the crescent moon
June 30 Jupiter & Venus near miss during sunset

What does MKultra mean, & does it actually exist? Leave comments below

A fascinating new feature of Earth discovered

Magnetic loops converge together during an increase in solar activity

It's been around since the eruption of Krakatoa, but why is it still here?