DailyDirt: Nature Creates Some Cool Stuff

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Insect evolution is pretty amazing in general, but there are a few examples that are almost incredible. For example, people have discovered enormous ant colonies, wasps that can create zombies, and the ways that insects exhibit a collective intelligence that looks surprisingly smarter than any individual bug. Considering that insects, by weight and numbers, surpass humans by at least an order of magnitude, we might want to keep an eye on these invertebrates. Here are just a few more fascinating examples of awesome insect abilities.

• An insect known as Issus coleoptratus apparently beat humans to the invention of the mechanical gear. This bug uses its gear mechanism to lock its hind legs together so that it can jump straight forward, and this is the only known example of a naturally-occurring gear in nature. [url]
• The dung beetle, Scarabaeus satyrus, is an astronomer, using its vision of the entire Milky Way to help it navigate at night. Without a view of our galaxy in the sky, beetles would wander and seem lost in experiments that show that dung beetles use astronomy for navigation. [url]
• Goniurellia tridens is a fruit fly that evolved very detailed images of ants on its wings. When this fly flaps its wings, it confuses its predators -- but some observers say the images are of spiders (not ants) and trick spiders into thinking about mating (not eating). [url]

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Filed Under: ants, astronomy, biology, evolution, fruit fly, gear, insects, nature

DailyDirt: Solar System Factoids

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Every so often, it's good to take a look up into the sky and think about how small our troubles are -- compared to the size of the universe. Our little planet orbits a second (or maybe third) generation star, burning up heavier elements from previous stars that no longer exist. As Carl Sagan famously said, "We're made of star stuff." So as some of us take a couple days off to be thankful for the things we have, check out some of these links about our solar system.

• Jupiter's red spot has existed for centuries, but the reason why this vortex persists isn't immediately obvious. Apparently, three dimensional simulations are getting closer to explaining how the Great Red Spot (GRS) absorbs energy from both horizontal and vertical winds. (Also, it's interesting to note that Kepler predicted a red spot on Jupiter about 200 years before it was observed -- but only because he decoded a message from Galileo incorrectly.) [url]
• There are a lot of stars in the universe, but how many of them can you actually see with your own eyes at night? If the earth didn't block your view of half the sky, you might see around 5,000 stars, but since you're stuck on the ground, you only see about 2,500 stars. [url]
• You might remember that Pluto was discovered in 1930 as our solar system's ninth planet, and that it has been downgraded to the classification "dwarf planet" or a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) or a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO). But what you might not know is that Pluto hasn't yet completed a trip around the sun since people first named it because Pluto's year lasts 248 Earth years. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, dwarf planet, great red spot, grs, jupiter, kbo, kepler, pluto, solar system, space, stars, tno

DailyDirt: Playing With Asteroids

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The idea of mining asteroids has been around for quite some time, but only recently has it been considered a somewhat practical (and possibly profitable) venture. It's possible that private space companies could make it to an asteroid before NASA gets to one, and it'll be interesting to see what happens if asteroid mining operations succeed in bringing back significant quantities of valuable metals. But we're not quite there yet. Here are just a few links on the baby steps we might need to take to start playing with asteroids.

• Astronomers have identified about a dozen easily-captured asteroids (or Easily Retrievable Objects -- EROs) that could be nudged into an Earth orbit with existing rocket technologies. We could bring about 1,500 tons of space rock right to our front door for mining operations... as long as we don't miscalculate and cause a nuclear winter by turning them into meteorites. [url]
• Not that long ago, a 10,000 ton meteoroid landed near the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,500 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. Researchers have back-tracked the path of this space rock to its origin as an Apollo-class asteroid -- one of many objects near our planet that could come crashing down on us. Maybe we should focus more on preventing huge meteorites? [url]
• The Keck Institute for Space Studies has studied the feasibility of capturing a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) to a high lunar orbit by 2025. They estimated the cost of such a mission would be around $2.6 billion. [url]

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Filed Under: asteroid, astronomy, chelyabinsk, ero, meteorite, meteoroid, nea, orbit, rocket technology, satellite, space, space mining
Companies: nasa, planetary resources

DailyDirt: Space Telescopes Shutting Down...

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Artificial satellites are usually expensive instruments that have a limited useful life. Voyager 1 is still going, though, and it's just about to cross into interstellar space. But normally, spacecraft don't have missions that last over three decades. Here are a few space-based telescopes that have either retired recently or are about to wind down.

• NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (aka GALEX) has shut down after over a decade of observing galaxies in orbit around the Earth, and it was originally planned to have just a 29-month mission. This space telescope discovered a missing link in the evolution of galaxy evolution, and data from the instrument will continue to be analyzed for years to come. [url]
• The European Space Agency (ESA) turned off the Herschel infrared space telescope as scheduled because it ran out of its supply of liquid helium. After collecting over 25,000 hours of data, this satellite has been placed in a "disposal" orbit. In 2011, Herschel found the first confirmed evidence of oxygen molecules in space. [url]
• French Space Agency CNES has terminated its CoRoT satellite for exoplanet hunting. CoRoT was the first instrument to find an exoplanet using the transit method, but it suffered a computer failure and can no longer transmit useful data. [url]
• The Kepler space telescope has unexpectedly stopped functioning and isn't collecting data anymore. It's not officially dead because there's still a chance that it could recover. But if it doesn't come back, it still completed its mission of observing hundreds of exoplanets and has collected enough data to keep scientists busy for a long time. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, exoplanets, galaxy, galex, kepler, orbit, satellites, space, telescopes
Companies: cnes, esa, nasa

DailyDirt: Working The Crowd...

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Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing has been a popular area of experimentation for the last few years, but people still haven't quite figured out how best to work a crowd. Some projects are insanely successful. Other projects seem to fall far short of their goals. Here are just a few examples of projects that could use some help.

• A crowdfunded report on gun research might not get full funding on Microryza. The campaign ends soon, so if you want to see more independent research on gun statistics, pony up! [url]
• Galaxy Zoo is a crowdsourced astronomy project to classify the numerous newly-discovered galaxies seen by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Hubble Space Telescope. The project started in 2007, and over 150,000 volunteers have helped categorize millions of galaxies. [url]
• The Archon Genomics X Prize challenges teams to sequence 100 complete human genomes in 30 days. The genomes belong to centenarians, but it doesn't look like many teams want to compete for the prize. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, challenges, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, crowdwork, galaxy zoo, genomics, guns, science, x prize
Companies: microryza

DailyDirt: Life On Other Planets

We've discovered thousands of exoplanets beyond our solar system, and some of them are even in the "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could possibly exist. Some astronomers think life could be abundant in the universe, but there's not that much hard evidence (yet!). Here are just a few astronomical discoveries that might encourage researchers to look for signs of life a bit more carefully.

• Exoplanets have been discovered circling some extremely old, metal-poor stars, creating interesting curiosities that might expand the theories of how planets form. These exoplanets might not harbor any kind of life... or we may want to get a bit more creative about how we envision life on other worlds. [url]
• A free-floating planet named CFBDSIR2149 is not orbiting a star, and it's only one of about two dozen or so known examples of a starless planet. This rogue planet is relatively young compared to the Earth, and some spectroscopic measurements suggest this planet's temperature is about 430° Celsius -- a bit too warm for our tastes (but maybe not for aliens?). [url]
• Within our own solar system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected spurts of water from Saturn's moon Enceladus. This evidence leads to some speculation of a habitable zone on some icy moons where microbes might be able to survive. [url]

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Filed Under: alien, astrobiology, astronomy, biology, cfbdsir2149, enceladus, et, exoplanets, extraterrestrial, life
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Exoplanets Everywhere!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are about 700 confirmed exoplanets that astronomers have indirectly observed. The Kepler Space Telescope has gathered a vast amount of data, and it suggests that there are probably planets orbiting nearly every star. Now that we know about all these planets, it's fun to speculate about how much life could exist on them. So here are just a few links for those of you who want to know where our alien neighbors might be.

• In just our galaxy, there could be 10 billion other planets that are similar to our own Earth. Gas giant exoplanets the size of Jupiter are easier to find, but they might not be as common as small rocky planets like ours. [url]
• The Habitable Exoplanets Catalog has a list of 7 planets that might support life, and this list has only just started to be compiled. A lot of these exoplanets are "super-Earth" sized, and it's tough to know much about their atmospheres with current telescopes. [url]
• Tau Ceti is a star system just 12 light years away that seems to have similar characteristics to our solar system. Astronomers are guessing that there may be 5 rocky planets in orbit around Tau Ceti, and that star is about twice as old as our Sun, so there would have been plenty of time for life to arise (but also to perish). [url]
• ATLAST is a space-based telescope specifically designed to look for signs of life on other planets, but it's only in the concept stage -- with vague plans to launch sometime before 2032. Directly observing exoplanets and their atmospheres could tell us more about how unique our Earth is and how lonely we might be in the universe. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, atlast, et, exobiology, exoplanet, kepler space telescope, space, super-earth, tau ceti

DailyDirt: Cool Telescopes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Hubble space telescope isn't the only piece of equipment above our planet that can look deep into the universe at the direction of astronomers, but it's certainly the most famous. The next telescope that's expected to be as well-known as the Hubble is the James Webb Space Telescope, but it's not scheduled to launch until 2018. Here are just a few more telescopes that could be hovering above us and keeping astronomers busy.

• The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) donated a couple of huge space telescopes to NASA. Instead of spying on earthlings, these telescopes could be outfitted with equipment to look for ETs in distant star systems. [url]
• A starshade fitted to a helium blimp could help astronomers pick out exoplanets more easily. The starshade blocks light from a parent star so that its orbiting planets can be detected directly. [url]
• NuSTAR is an orbiting space telescope that's looking for sources of high-energy X-rays that potentially come from black holes or radioactive material in supernova remnants. This telescope is still calibrating, but it should start collecting some cool data soon. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, nro, nustar, starshade, telescopes
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Exploring Our Solar System

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Our solar system is a pretty big place, and we haven't really seen that much of it. But as we send out more and more probes and get fancier telescopes, we're learning about a ton of interesting phenomena that occur beyond our own planet. Here are just a few fascinating factoids and links on how we're exploring space without sending astronauts anywhere (yet).

• While the Earth and other rocky objects in our solar systems aren't perfectly round, our Sun is remarkably spherical... almost too spherical. The Sun isn't perfectly spherical, but it's actually one of the roundest objects humans have ever measured, and it's a bit puzzling why it should be so round. [url]
• NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered that Saturn's moon Titan could hold bodies of liquid water under its crust. This could mean there's yet another place in our solar system with water that could possibly sustain life. [url]
• A geochronometer is an instrument that could help determine how old various things in our solar system are. Portable geochronometers could be sent to other planets (like Mars) to improve our estimates of how long it takes for certain planetary features to develop. [url]

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Filed Under: astronomy, cassini, geochronometer, mars, saturn, solar system, space, sun, titan, water
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: The Rest Of The Universe

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There's a lot we don't know about the universe. Until relatively recently, we weren't even sure how big the universe is. Telescopes looking deep into space have gathered a lot of interesting information, and we're finding all sorts of strange phenomena and types of extra-solar planets. Here are just a few cool tidbits about planets from far, far away.

• Nomad planets could be floating around our galaxy without orbiting a star in surprisingly large numbers. Based on some new estimates, there might be 100,000 times more nomad planets in the Milky Way than stars. [url]
• The Hubble telescope has found a totally new class of planet that is made of an enormous amount of water. Given the density of this waterworld, GJ1214b has more water than Earth and much less rockiness. [url]
• The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered over a thousand planets outside our solar system, and a few other star systems have interesting planetary orbit patterns. One "Kepler Object of Interest" (KOI) is a system in which there are planets that share the same orbit. In another KOI, all the planets circle their star in under a week. Strange, new worlds, indeed. [url]
• To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: astronomy, exoplanets, hubble, kepler, koi, nomad planets, telescopes