Making of a Planet

 

An international team of astronomers have spotted what they believe is a formation of a new planet in another solar system in the our Milky Way galaxy.

 

Dr. Quanz and colleagues had pointed a telescope located in Chile's Atacama Desert towards a young star, HD 100546. This star is about 2.5-times the size of our sun and its comparatively very new, so it is being studied by the scientists to understand the formation of solar systems. Based on their observations by a high-resolution infrared camera linked to the telescope, they observed that the disk of materials around the star showed certain asymmetries. "It's a good indication that something might be hiding or forming in the disk," said Dr. Quanz.

 

The Wall Street Journal quoted that, "The infrared imagery revealed a little bright blob in the disk, suggesting an entity emitting radiation. When the picture of the blob was laid over an image of the asymmetry, they coincided perfectly. This suggests that the blob was an object embedded in the material around the star, suggesting a nascent planet."

 

This composite image shows a view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and from the NACO system on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (right) of the gas and dust around the young star HD 100546. Image released Feb 28, 2013. (ESO/NASA/ESA/Ardila et al.)

 

The star HD 100546, which lies 335 light-years from Earth, was already thought to host another giant planet that orbits it about six times farther out than the Earth is from the Sun. The new potential planet or protoplanet lies even farther, about 10 times the distance of its sibling, at roughly 70 times the stretch between the Earth and the Sun. This distance is not much in cosmic terms as Milky Way is itself 100,000 light years away. The protoplanet has a mass that appears to be at least the size of Jupiter, and perhaps two to three times its size.

 

The protoplanet would take tens of thousands of years to grow up but if it holds up, the latest finding would be one of the first direct observations of the very early stages of a planet's birth. Dr. Quanz said, "If our discovery is indeed a forming planet, then for the first time scientists will be able to study the planet formation process and the interaction of a forming planet and its natal environment empirically at a very early stage."

 

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Science fact - 10

Immortal Jellyfish!

Researchers have documented the first immortal animal, a jellyfish species called Turritopsis nutricula. The species has been seen to reverse its aging and revert to its its earlier polyp stage, periodically restarting its lifecycle.

Most biologists attribute aging process in humans and other animals to “telomeres”, which are tiny caps on the ends of each chromosome. Telomeres protect DNA from being corrupted and destroyed, but during every repetition of the cell cycle, they become incrementally shorter. Eventually the telomeres become so short that cells cannot divide at all, a point known as the Hayflick Limit.

All evidence suggests that Turritopsis can repeat this process indefinitely, meaning that it will never die as a consequence of aging, ever. Researchers suggested that studying the Turritopsis could lead to breakthroughs in reversing the human aging process.

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Science fact - 9

Jellyfish evaporates in sunlight as it is made of 98% water!

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Meteor Shower Hits Russia!

A meteor exploded in the sky above Russia's Urals region at about 7.25 am Moscow time. The meteor exploded above Chelyabinsk blasting out countless windows. 

The Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor - estimated to be about 10 tons - entered the Earth's atmosphere going at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph). It shattered about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above the ground, releasing several kilotons of energy above the Ural Mountains. Around 1000 people have been injured during the event. Chelyabinsk health chief Marina Moskvicheva, said Friday that 985 people in her city had asked for medical assistance. 

Below is the video of the meteor shower:

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Swine Flu takes its toll!

Delhi recorded the highest number of swine flu cases on Monday when the number of fresh cases reached 27. This includes the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the swine flu detection centre at RML Hospital, along with a junior doctor. The Delhi government has identified 17 government and 5 private hospitals for isolation care and treatment facilities for H1N1 cases which include Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital etc among others.

According to health authorities, throughout India, close to 495 cases and nearly 95 deaths related to swine flu have been reported since January. At present, however, officials said that only 13 cases have swine flu have been reported in Hyderabad since January.

In January, the virus claimed 62 lives while 13 have died of it in February so far, the official said. Rajasthan has recorded the highest number of swine flu deaths in the past two months. The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune have sequenced the swine flu genetic code and the results revealed that the strain has not mutated since 2009, the time of its first attack.  Thus, the virus is still susceptible to Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) tablets.

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China leading in air pollution, India not far behind!

The reports about China's air pollution problem is flooding the newspapers. "National Environmental Analysis", a report prepared by the Asian Developmental Bank has observed that out of the world's 10 most polluted cities, 7 are in China. They are Taiyuan, Beijing, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Jinan and Shijiazhuang. While in Shanghai, air quality index, a new air quality reporting system that monitors sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, PM10 and PM2.5, reached 254 on Wednesday. The figure, highest in last two months, indicates that the air had reached the level of heavy pollution. Shanghai's hourly density of PM2.5, air particles smaller than 2.5 microns, also reached 250 micrograms per cubic meter by 10 am today, while the reading was only 60 micrograms per cubic meter early Tuesday morning! On the other hand, NASA images showed thick cloud covers over Beijing. According to their report, people in China are breathing air three times more toxic than what's hazardous to humans! Below is the comparison of the images prepared by NASA. 

(Click on the image for full-size image)

The image in the left (January 3, 2013) shows clear skies with lingering smog and haze on the ground whereas in the right image (January 14, 2013), we can observe dense cloud cover filled with the yellow/ gray tint of air pollution.

While China is in headlines these days, but reports suggest that India is not very far behind! In fact, a report by Tel Aviv University reports that Indian megacities are seeing a double-digit increase in pollution than the cities in the classic environmental villain to the east, China. It states that from 2002 to 2010, Bangalore saw the second highest increase in air-pollution levels in the world at 34%, and Indian cities including Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and Ahemdabad, are not very far behind. In Delhi, it is reported many times that the PM 2.5 rose above 500mg/cu whereas the normal levels should be only 60 to 80 mg/cu as per Indian national quality standards.

It is an upcoming issue and needs to given priority as according to World Heath Organisation, more than 2 million people die every year due to air pollution. A study showed that 3.2 million people died from air pollution in 2010, compared to 8,00,000 in 2000. The annual Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report ranked air pollution in the world's top 10 list of killer disease for the first time. It reported 1.2 million deaths a year in east Asia and China, and 712,000 in south Asia, including India. We do not have medicines or drugs to cure air pollution except for the controlling the emissions from anthropogenic activities! Hope we can control our own activities and solve the problems!

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SpaceX's Grasshopper successfully takes a leap towards reusability!

SpaceX’s dreams of creating a fully reusable launch vehicle is getting closer to fulfillment via the third test of their test vehicle - Grasshopper. The third and the most ambitious test of the vehicle took place on December 17,2012 when the Grasshopper took a 40 meter leap into the skies at their test facility in Texas – followed by a stable hover and smooth landing – was conducted without a hitch. The first two tests were conducted in September when the Grasshopper flew to 1.8 meters (6 feet), and in November, when it flew to 5.4 meters (17.7 feet/2 stories) including a brief hover.  

Grasshopper, SpaceX's vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTVL), rose 131 feet (40 meters), hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. The total test duration was 29 seconds. There are the videos:

Single Camera Grasshopper Test flight video 17/12/2012: 

Multi- Angle Grasshopper Test flight video 17/12/2012:

The Grasshopper – consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. The plan revolves around a modified version of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle design, creating a version of the flyback booster concept – one where all of the vehicle’s components return back to Earth for reuse. SpaceX founder and chief executive, Elan Musk talked about these plans, "This is a very difficult thing to do. Even for an expendable launch vehicle, where you don’t attempt any recovery, you only get maybe two to three percent of your lift-off weight to orbit. That’s not a lot of room for error. Now you say ‘OK, now let’s make it reusable’. You have to strengthen the stages, add a lot of weight, a lot of thermal protection – a lot of things that add weight to that vehicle – and still have a useful payload to orbit. You’ve got to add all that’s necessary to bring the stages back to the launch pad to be able to re-fly them and still have useful payload to orbit."

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