Hope to discover sure signs of life on Mars? New research says look for the element vanadium
The search for biology on neighbor planet Mars won’t play out like a Hollywood movie starring little green men. Rather, many scientists agree if there was life on the Red Planet, it probably will present itself as fossilized bacteria. To find it, astrobiologists likely will need to decode the chemical analysis of rock samples performed by a rover (like the one NASA plans to send to Mars in 2020). Only then might humankind know conclusively that life exists beyond Earth.
A new paper in the journal Astrobiology suggests NASA and others hunting for proof of Martian biology in the form of “microfossils” could use the element vanadium in combination with Raman spectroscopy on organic material as biosignatures to confirm traces of extraterrestrial life.
Viruses and nanoparticles can be assembled into processable superlattice wires according to scientists from Aalto University Finland
It has always been the Holy Grail of materials science to describe and control the material’s structure-function relationship. Nanoparticles are an attractive class of components to be used in functional materials because they exhibit size-dependent properties, such as superparamagnetism and plasmonic absorption of light. Furthermore, controlling the arrangement of nanoparticles can result in unforeseen properties, but such studies are hard to carry out due to limited efficient approaches to produce well-defined three-dimensional nanostructures.
According to scientists from the Biohybrid Materials Group of Aalto University Finland led by Prof. Mauri Kostiainen, nature’s own charged nanoparticles – protein cages and viruses – can be utilized to determine the structure of composite nanomaterials.
Viruses and proteins are ideal model particles to be used in materials science, as they are genetically encoded and have an atomically precise structure. These well-defined biological particles can be used to guide the arrangement of other nanoparticles in an aqueous solution. In the present study, the researchers show that combining native Tobacco Mosaic Virus with gold nanoparticles in a controlled manner leads to metal-protein superlattice wires.
Trilobite. Corn. Maze.Geoscientists, if you’re anywhere near the…
Trilobite. Corn. Maze.
Geoscientists, if you’re anywhere near the US State of Wisconsin; you have a corn maze to visit. In fact, based on the response of the family that owns the farm when I asked for an image, I think they almost insist we show up!
The trilobite Calymene celebra is the state fossil of Wisconsin and they are found in Cambrian and Ordovician rocks throughout the state. The maze also features cubic Galena – the state mineral of Wisconsin, a fossil ammonite and nautiloid, a microscope, a tool, an empty jar, and a couple insects.
The link to the maze’s website is below. Anyone who is there, do feel free to comment on this post while you’re lost inside!
mustdotravels Shifen Waterfall – One of the most scenic waterfalls in Taiwan in which the water flows in one direction and the rock is sloped in the opposite
As the rapid evolution of our knowledge in the field of meteoric astronomy progresses, the more it requires constant updates to the fundamental terms, to satisfactorily match the current state of the field. The definitions in meteoric astronomy adopted in 1961 by the IAU (International Astronomical Union) Commission 22 have recently undergone an update by its direct successor: the IAU Commission F1 on Meteors, Meteorites and Interplanetary Dust. Commission F1 has recently issued an explanatory text for the correct usage of fundamental terms related to meteor astronomy in scientific literature and among the general public. Below are the definitions and remarks approved by the majority of the IAU Commission F1 participating in the electronic voting completed on April 30, 2017.
Meteor
Meteor is the light and associated physical phenomena (heat, shock, ionization), which result from the high speed entry of a solid object from space into a gaseous atmosphere.
Remarks
The meteor phenomenon can be caused by a meteoroid, an asteroid, a comet or any solid matter with the appropriate combination of velocity, mass and
mean-free-path in a planetary atmosphere.
Meteors can occur on any planet or moon having a sufficiently dense atmosphere.
The radiation phenomenon accompanying a direct meteoroid hit of the surface of a body without an atmosphere is not called a meteor but an impact flash.
A meteor brighter than absolute visual magnitude (distance of 100 km) –4 is also termed a bolide or a fireball.
A meteor brighter than absolute visual magnitude –17 is also called a superbolide.
Meteor train is light or ionization left along the trajectory of the meteor after the meteor has passed.
Meteoroid
Meteoroid is a solid natural object of a size roughly between 30 micrometers and 1 meter moving in, or coming from, interplanetary space.
Remarks
“Roughly”, because the 1 meter size limit is not a physical boundary; it is set by agreement. There is a continuous population of bodies both smaller and
larger than 1 meter. Bodies larger than 1 meter tend to be dominated by asteroidal debris, rather than debris from comets.
“Roughly”, also because the 30 micrometer size limit is not a physical boundary; it is set by agreement. There is a continuous population of bodies
both smaller and larger than 30 micrometers. Bodies smaller than 30 micrometers, however, tend to radiate heat away well and not to vaporize during an atmospheric entry.
In the context of meteor observations, any object causing a meteor can be termed a meteoroid, irrespective of size.
Meteoroid stream is a group of meteoroids which have similar orbits and a common origin. Meteor shower is a group of meteors produced by meteoroids of the same meteoroid stream.
Interplanetary Dust
Dust (interplanetary) is finely divided solid matter, with particle sizes in general smaller than meteoroids, moving in, or coming from, interplanetary space.
Remarks
Dust in the solar system is observed e.g. as the zodiacal dust cloud, including zodiacal dust bands, and cometary dust tails. In such contexts the term “dust” is not reserved for solid matter smaller than about 30 micron; the zodiacal dust cloud and cometary dust trails contain larger particles that can also be called meteoroids.
Small dust particles do not give rise to the meteor phenomenon when they enter planetary atmospheres. Being heated below the melting point, they sediment to the ground more or less unaffected. When collected in the atmosphere, they are called interplanetary dust particles (IDP’s). When in interplanetary space, they are simply called dust particles. The term micrometeoroid is discouraged.
Small (typically micron-size) non-vaporized remnants of ablating meteoroids can be called meteoritic dust. They can be observed e.g. as dust trails in the atmosphere after the passage of a bolide.
Meteorite
Meteorite is any natural solid object that survived the meteor phase in a gaseous atmosphere without being completely vaporized.
Remarks
A meteoroid in the atmosphere becomes a meteorite after the ablation stops and the object continues on dark flight to the ground.
A meteorite smaller than 1 millimeter can be called a micrometeorite.
Micrometeorites do not have the typical structure of a fresh meteorite – unaffected interior and fusion crust.
Foreign objects on the surfaces of atmosphereless bodies are not called meteorites (i.e. there is no meteorite without a meteor). They can be called
impact debris.
Meteoric Smoke
Meteoric smoke is solid matter that has condensed in a gaseous atmosphere from material vaporized during the meteor phase.
Remarks
The size of meteoric smoke particles (MSP’s) is typically in the sub-100 nm range.
Victoria Falls from far above Astronaut Jack Fischer captured…
Victoria Falls from far above
Astronaut Jack Fischer captured this picture while zooming in on the Zambezi River from the International Space Station. His comment, from his daughter, stated that one side was his heartbeat before having coffee in the morning and the other side was afterwards.
Anyway, this is a great geological view. Victoria Falls pours over a plateau covered by at least 300 meters (and possibly in places up to 1000 meters) of basalt, the type of lava erupted at rift zone volcanoes like those in Iceland. These basalts formed 180 million years ago during the early Jurassic as the supercontinent Gondwanaland was breaking up. As the giant continent pulled apart, rift zones were created that allowed hot mantle to flow upwards, melt and produce magma that eventually erupted at the surface.
S Wave Shadow Zone From and early age, we are all taught that…
S Wave Shadow Zone
From and early age, we are all taught that the interior of the Earth can be divided into four distinct layers; a solid crust, a plastic mantle, liquid outer core, and solid inner core. But have you ever wondered how we know these layers exist? Obviously, nobody has every managed to drill down to the center of the Earth to check. The deepest hole drilled so far, the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, is just over 12 km deep, far shy of the 6, 371 km that would be required to reach the center of the Earth.
Lava tubes: Hidden sites for future human habitats on the Moon and Mars
Lava tubes, underground caves created by volcanic activity, could provide protected habitats large enough to house streets on Mars or even towns on the Moon, according to research presented at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2017 in Riga. A further study shows how the next generation of lunar orbiters will be able to use radar to locate these structures under the Moon’s surface.
Lava tubes can form in two ways: ‘overcrusted’ tubes form when low-viscosity lava flows fairly close to the surface, developing a hard crust that thickens to create a roof above the moving lava stream. When the eruptions end, the conduit is drained leaving a tunnel a few metres beneath the surface. ‘Inflated’ tubes are complex and deep structures that form when lava is injected into existing fissures between layers of rock or cavities from previous flows. The lava expands and leaves a huge network of connected galleries as it forces its way to the surface. Lava tubes are found in many volcanic areas on Earth, including Lanzarote, Hawaii, Iceland, North Queensland in Australia, Sicily and the Galapagos islands. Underground networks of tubes can reach up to 65 kilometres. Space missions have also observed chains of collapsed pits and ‘skylights’ on the Moon and Mars that have been interpreted as evidence of lava tubes. Recently the NASA GRAIL mission provided detailed gravity data for the Moon that suggested the presence of enormous subsurface voids related to lava tubes below the lunar ‘Maria’, plains of basalt formed in volcanic eruptions early in the Moon’s history.
Археологи планируют изучить курган Болгов III, в котором можно найти остатки материальной культуры бронзового века. Полевые исследования продлятся три недели. Их ведет отряд Северо-Кавказской экспедиции Института археологии РАН.
Как предполагают ученые, во время раскопок могут быть вскрыты захоронения бронзового века (вторая половина IV — первая половина II тысячелетий до н. э.). Возможно, археологи смогут исследовать и захоронения меотской культуры (конец I тысячелетия до н. э. — первые века н. э.), сообщили интернет-порталу «Кубань 24» в пресс-службе фонда «Вольное дело».
Все находки, сделанные во время раскопок, передают в фонды муниципального историко-краеведческого музея Усть-Лабинского района. http://kuban24.tv/item/v-ust-labinskom-rajone-arheologi-nachali-raskopki-kurgana-183595
На новых меотов выделят 128 млн. рублей Правительство...
На новых меотов выделят 128 млн. рублей На новых меотов выделят 128 млн. рублей Правительство области поощрит археологов бюджетными средствами в связи со строительством “Северного обхода” Ростова
На археологические раскопки в Мясниковском районе Ростовской области из бюджетных средств будет потрачено 128 миллионов рублей. Их проведение запланировано в связи со строительством дороги в Ростове “Северный обход”, пролегающую через территорию Родионово-Несветайской, Новошахтинска, Таганрог. О поиске подрядчика объявило Министерство транспорта Ростовской области на сайте госзакупок.
Раскопки будут проходить в районе курганных могильников «Воинский» и «Дачный», поселения «Красный Крым», участке дороги «Дон-Тузлов» , в кочевье «Сухочалтырское II».
Также компания-подрядчик должна выполнить работы по составлению генплана, а также мытья, шифровки и склеивания фрагментов найденных предметов.
Работы начнутся в ноябре этого года и должны быть завершены до 1 сентября 2018 года.
Напомним, что интерес власти к археологии усилился после уникальных находок, сделанных в ходе реконструкции улицы Станиславского в Ростове. В ходе раскопок здесь были обнаружен останки древних меотов и других обитателей донской столицы возрастом до 4 тысяч лет. http://www.panram.ru/news/society/128-millionov-rubley-iz-byudzheta-budet-potracheno-na-provedenie-arkheologicheskikh-raskopok-v-rosto/
