ucresearch:

There’s a lot of debris floating around in space, and researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab are using supercomputers, optical sensors and other technology to track even small objects that could damage important satellites.

John Henderson, a space scientist at LLNL, explains:

“Everybody uses GPS to get from here to there. We have satellite television, we have weather reports, farmers use satellite data for monitoring crops. If you have a piece of satellite debris whacking into a satellite, in the worst case you now lose that capability.  In February of 2009, that actually happened where there was an Iridium communications satellite that collided with a dead Russian Kosmos satellite and so that basically took out a $100 million dollar satellite.

There’s somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 pieces of debris that we would like to be tracking. And so the supercomputing capabilities that we have here at Livermore are one way to keep track of that.”

Watch the video here→

ucresearch:

Piano playing cats

An Animal Planet segment ponders how and why this cat seems to be playing the piano.  Animal behaviorist and UC Davis alumna Dr. Sophia Lin says that cats can hear and understand different tones played on instruments such as the piano.  Additionally these animals are born imitators and so this cat could very well be trying to communicate to her piano teacher owner.

Sophia researches animal behavior as a way for humans to better understand their pets:

“Pets don’t understand spoken language, they rely on body language plus desired or undesired consequences in order to learn. This means that humans must be aware of their movement and actions because every move they make while interacting with the pet influences the animal’s behavior and perception of them.”

Read more on her blog→

ikenbot:

Gemini Missions

On May 25, 1961, three weeks after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space, President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.

To facilitate this goal, NASA expanded the existing manned space flight program in December 1961 to include the development of a two-man spacecraft. The program was officially designated Gemini on January 3, 1962.

More Content: Amazing Archive of High-Res Photos from NASA’s Gemini Missions

artfave:

Alkali metals reaction with water

swuu:

Sun Shoots Out Two Coronal Mass Ejections (23 Jan 2013)

Original video captured by the joint ESA/NASA mission at the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), 7pm EST Jan 22 — 5:30pm Jan 23.
Credit: ESA, NASA/SOHO/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:

On Jan. 23, 2013, at 9:55 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 375 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs.

Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.

Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with the outside of the Earth’s magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time. In the past, CMEs of this speed have not caused substantial geomagnetic storms. They sometimes cause auroras near the poles but are unlikely to affect electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.

A slightly slower CME that was not Earth-directed, also erupted earlier in the day.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

wetwareontologies:

Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery.

theworstmathematician:

When two bodies orbit around each other in space, we know exactly what happens. The bodies trace out conic sections, they do so in accordance with Kepler’s laws, and that’s it, more or less.

When three or more bodies orbit around each other in space, things can be more complicated. In the general case, no explicit formula for the orbits exists, and we have to rely on numerical simulations. As the first two animations illustrate, these can get messy. (These animations by my friend poulenque.)

Among all these possible orbits, though, there exist some which repeat after some time.  These are called n-body choreographies (with n = the number of bodies), small islands of order in a large chaotic space of ways-things-can-be. That’s what all those other animations are. (These animations are by Chris Moore, from here, where he has some others too.)

Most of these are completely unstable, in that the slightest nudge or imbalance in their masses will get amplified until they go flying. However, the one that traces out a figure 8 above is only somewhat unstable, in that (apparently) it will resist small nudges or variations in mass. It is estimated that between 1 and 100 naturally-occurring such figure 8 configurations exist in the entire observable universe.

In all of the animations above except for the second, the masses of all the objects are the same. This is important if you want to wonder about them.

.‿.

(via twocubes)

thesciencellama:

Velvet Worm - Slime Guns

The velvet worm - among the phylum, Onychophora - hunts by shooting fast drying adhesive at its prey and yes, I know what you’re thinking. The segmented worm-like organism can range from 0.5 to 20cm long and slime glands are located in the center region of the body making up about 11% of the total body weight in slime which is made mostly of water and some proteins.

In order to detect prey it senses slight changes in air currents with bumps on its skin and chemical sensors on its antennae to let them essentially taste something to determine if its food. When a prey item is eventually encountered, the slime is forcefully squirted through oral papillae near the head and launched up to 30cm in a sort of spray-and-pray manner. Once the slime contacts the victim, it quickly dries ensnaring it, where now the worm then seeks to eat the organism by injecting its saliva and digestive enzymes turning the innards into a slurpee. Mmm delicious.

The velvet worm are primarily nocturnal ambush predators and their senses and locomotion allow them to hunt. They move silently and fluidly with pneumatically inflated sets of valves to inflate/deflate their legs, meaning they don’t really rely on muscles for movement and is why it looks so cool as they glide along the ground. Another awesome thing about them is they have a tubular heart that extends almost the entire length of the body creating an open circulatory system.

Here is a diagram of the velvet worm anatomy

Video source

It’s like the pokemon move ‘water gun’ except with slime, coool!

(via the-science-llama)

gardant:

Rotational CT Scan of Skull

beyond cool