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Science

The North Star Closer Than We Thought

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Well this is embarrassing, but researchers using Russia’s 6-Meter Telescope have found that the North Star (Polaris) is actually much closer than we had previously thought. Originally it was believed that Polaris was approximately 434 light-years away from Earth but now it is believed that the star is more like 323 light-years away. That’s a big difference!

Polaris

What makes this discovery even more significant is that we have been using our North Star to help us with measuring other distant objects in space, so now we may have to recalculate the actual distances of many other celestial objects. We have long used the North Star to aid in navigation as it never seems to move from it’s position in the sky. The main reason behind Polaris keeping it’s position is that it is aligned with Earth’s North axis.

Get more details on this new discovery at National Geographic News.

Massive Iceberg Breaks Off, Largest Caught on Video

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An absolutely massive iceberg almost two miles wide breaks off from a glacier and it’s all caught on video. This is the largest glacial break off ever recorded on video and it’s a stunning site. It’s almost difficult to put the size of these ice chunks into perspective, the filmmakers mention it would be like watching the buildings in Manhattan just fall apart and then hit the ground.

This break up occurred on the Ilulissat glacier in Greenland and was being filmed as part of Chasing Ice, a film that’s trying to convey the reality of climate change to the masses by bringing us up close and personal with areas of the world where climate change is having a dramatic effect. There’s no doubt that our climate is changing but many debate the reasons why. Some believe humans are the root cause while others believe it’s part of a natural cycle that we have yet to understand.

 

 

A Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 3 Miles Wide To Pass Earth Tonight

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A potentially hazardous asteroid named “Asteroid 4179 Toutatis”,  is about 3 miles wide  and will be flying by Earth in a cosmic “near-miss”. The asteroid will be about 4.4 million miles away from Earth at it’s closest approach, that’s about 18x the distance of the Moon. Fortunately, the asteroid will be just passing by but if it were to collide with Earth, it would most certainly be catastrophic.

Toutatis Asteroid
Toutatis Asteroid (Source:NASA)

This isn’t the only asteroid getting up close and personal with Earth as another smaller asteroid (about 2.1 miles wide) named 2012 XE54 just squeezed between Earth and the Moon earlier today at a distance of just 141,000 miles from Earth. This pass was much much closer, close enough for Earth to be able to cast it’s shadow on the asteroid.

Video of Asteroid Toutatis Orbit 2012 – courtesy NASA JPL

This is a live feed of the 4179 Toutatis event, you get more detailed information information including the abillity to switch channels at www.slooh.com.

Hot Flash? It could be the Future of Memory

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We are beginning to realize the power of flash memory. Flash memory is fast, efficient, compact, and now it’s becoming more affordable than it has ever been before, but it has a few limitations that we need to get past if we are going to continue to use it for our primary data storage solution.

One of the major issues with flash memory is it’s relatively short lifespan. A typical flash device can only handle, at best, 1 million cycles before it begins to stop functioning correctly. Microchip

This is a big problem especially if you are depending solely on flash memory to hold your data. Even if you don’t completely rely on flash you still want to maximize the lifespan of anything you buy. Fortunately, there is progress being made as we speak on this very problem.

Engineers at the Taiwan based company Macronix, have found that applying extreme heat to memory cells within NAND flash devices can bring previously unusable cells back to life. Temperatures used are around 800˚C  (1472˚F) and could be applied in short bursts to “jolt” the life back into the cells. Current efforts have seen the flash cells surpass 100 million cycles! The engineers at Macronix are hoping to show off this “self-healing” flash memory at the next IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), but it’s going to be some time before consumers will be able to get their hands on this new technology.

 

More information on this can be found here.

Big NASA Discovery On Mars? Not So Much

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About a week ago we received news that NASA was possibly on the brink of a major discovery, in fact it was mentioned that it could be for the “History Books”. Well, unfortunately it doesn’t seem like were going to get that kind of news from Mars anytime soon.

This discovery that apparently never happened is being described as a “big misunderstanding”. Here is the original report that I read from NPR. Planet Mars Viewed From Space

“Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good.”

“Grotzinger can see the pained look on my face as I wait, hoping he’ll tell me what the heck he’s found, but he’s not providing any more information.”

This was from an interview between science correspondent Joe Palca and scientist John Grotzinger. Apparently, what were being told now is that John meant to say that the mission in it’s entirety is historical and that in the next couple of years we expect to make great discoveries.

Something sound a bit strange here? This was big news that made it’s way quickly around the world and that means NASA had to have heard it too. The big question here is if NASA did hear this report earlier then why didn’t they try to correct this earlier?

They were still sampling soil at the time of the interview and were anxiously waiting for results, but apparently they weren’t “History Worthy”. Either way you look at this, it’s still a bit of let down. I guess we will just have to keep our hopes up for future discoveries on Mars.