First space tourist planning historic trip to Mars in 2018

A multi-millionaire investment tycoon and space travel enthusiast is planning a privately funded 501-day round trip mission to Mars in 2018.

Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, led by millionaire Dennis Tito – the world’s first space tourist ¿ will hold a news conference next week to announce the mission, for a January 2018 launch.

“This ‘Mission for America’ will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration,” Inspiration Mars officials wrote in a media advisory.

Some people and media reports speculate that given the speakers’ backgrounds and the lofty goals articulated in the media advisory, Inspiration Mars is planning a manned mission to the Red Planet, ‘SPACE.com’ reported.

According to the NewSpace Journal, Tito’s paper discusses “a crewed free-return Mars mission that would fly by Mars, but not go into orbit around the planet or land on it. This 501-day mission would launch in January 2018, using a modified SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon Heavy rocket.”

The Journal writes: “According to the paper, existing environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) technologies would allow such a spacecraft to support two people for the mission, although in Spartan condition.”

It added the mission would be privately financed and cheaper than previous estimates for manned Mars efforts, though no overall cost is given.

A 501-day mission would pose potentially serious physiological and psychological issues for astronauts, experts say.

Tito made history in 2001, plunking down a reported USD 20 million for an eight-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/first-space-tourist-planning-historic-trip-to-mars-in-2018/1078136/

Milky Way grew by ‘cannibalising’ other smaller galaxies

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered tantalising evidence for the possible existence of a shell of stars that are a relic of the Milky Way’s past cannibalism of other galaxies.

Peering deep into the vast stellar halo that envelops our Milky Way galaxy, a team of astronomers led by Alis Deason, from UC Santa Cruz, used Hubble observations to precisely measure, for the first time ever, the sideways motions of a small sample of stars located far from the galaxy’s center.

Their unusual lateral motion is circumstantial evidence that the stars may be the remnants of a shredded galaxy that was gravitationally ripped apart by the Milky Way billions of years ago. These stars support the idea that the Milky Way grew through the accretion of smaller galaxies.

“Hubble’s unique capabilities are allowing astronomers to uncover clues to the galaxy’s remote past,” said coauthor Roeland van der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore.

“The more distant regions of the galaxy have evolved more slowly than the inner sections. Objects in the outer regions still bear the signatures of events that happened long ago,” Marel said in a statement.

They also offer a new opportunity for measuring the “hidden” mass of our galaxy, which is in the form of dark matter — an invisible form of matter that does not emit or reflect radiation.

“Our ability now to measure the motions of these stars opens up a whole new territory we haven’t explored yet,” Deason said.

Deason and her team plucked the outer halo stars out of seven years’ worth of archival Hubble telescope observations of our neighbouring Andromeda galaxy.

In those observations, Hubble peered through the Milky Way’s halo to study the Andromeda stars, which are more than 20 times farther away.

The Milky Way’s halo stars were in the foreground and considered as clutter for the study of Andromeda. But to Deason’s study they were pure gold.

The observations offered a unique opportunity to look at the motion of Milky Way halo stars.

“We knew these stars were there, because for the Andromeda study we had to separate the stars in Andromeda from the stars in the Milky Way,” said co-author Puragra Guhathakurta, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Researchers said finding the stars was meticulous work. Each Hubble image contained more than 100,000 stars.

“We had to somehow find those few stars that actually belonged to the Milky Way halo. It was like finding needles in a haystack,” Marel said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/milky-way-grew-by-cannibalising-other-smaller-galaxies/1078215/0

Ankesh Shahra receives CSR Award (Ruchi Soya)

Ankesh Shahra who manages the international businesses of Ruchi Soya and participates in the CSR activities of the Company was honoured with the felicitation at a glittering event in Mumbai.

Ruchi Soya Industries Limited (Ruchi Soya) has been felicitated with the CSR Award for Community Development during the World CSR Congress.  Ankesh Shahra who manages the international businesses of Ruchi Soya and participates in the CSR activities of the Company was honoured with the felicitation at a glittering event in Mumbai.

Dr. Christoph Stueckelberger, Executive Director and Founder of Globethics and Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs handed over the trophy and citation to  Ankesh Shahra.

Commenting on the occasion,  Ankesh Shahra stated, “I am very grateful to the World CSR Congress for honouring Ruchi Soya with the award for Community Development. Ruchi believes in sharing its growth with every stakeholder and giving back to the society in a sustainable and transparent manner.

A big congratulations to the team.” Featuring among the top five FMCG players in India, Ruchi Soya is India’s number one cooking oil maker and marketer through popular brands like Nutrela, Ruchi Gold, Mahakosh and Sunrich.

Ruchi Soya is working closely with the communities around its plants in Patalganga and Nagpur in Maharashtra. Ruchi Soya believes in the concept of ‘Giving back to the Society’. The corporate social initiatives of Ruchi Group are executed through Shri Mahadeo Shahra Sukrat Trust with the focus on three core areas of Health, Education and Women Empowerment.

An Integrated player from farm to fork, Ruchi Soya has secured access to oil palm plantations in India and other important parts of the world. Besides being a leading manufacturer of high quality edible oils, soya foods, vanaspati, and bakery fats, Ruchi Soya is also the highest exporter of soya meal, lecithin and other food ingredients from India. Ruchi Soya is committed to renewable energy and exploring suitable opportunities in the sector.

Source:  http://newsaboutruchigroup.wordpress.com/

Tiniest planet ever discovered outside our solar system

NASA has discovered the smallest known planet outside our solar system which is slightly larger than the Moon and orbits its Sun like host star every 13 days.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope detected the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to the Sun in a new planetary system. The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.

The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our Moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. It is smaller than Mercury, which made its detection a challenge.

The Moon-size planet and its two companion planets were found by scientists with NASA’s Kepler mission to find Earth-sized planets in or near the “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet.

However, while the star in Kepler-37 may be similar to our Sun, the system appears quite unlike the solar system in which we live.

Astronomers think Kepler-37b does not have an atmosphere and cannot support life as we know it. The tiny planet almost certainly is rocky in composition.

Kepler-37c, the closer neighbouring planet, is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring almost three-quarters the size of Earth. Kepler-37d, the farther planet, is twice the size of Earth.

“Even Kepler can only detect such a tiny world around the brightest stars it observes,” said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

“The fact we’ve discovered tiny Kepler-37b suggests such little planets are common, and more planetary wonders await as we continue to gather and analyse additional data,” said Lissauer in a NASA statement.

Kepler-37’s host star belongs to the same class as our Sun, although it is slightly cooler and smaller. All three planets orbit the star at less than the distance Mercury is to the Sun, suggesting they are very hot, inhospitable worlds.

The estimated surface temperature of this smoldering planet, at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit, would be hot enough to melt the zinc in a penny. Kepler-37c and Kepler-37d, orbit every 21 days and 40 days, respectively.

We uncovered a planet smaller than any in our solar system orbiting one of the few stars that is both bright and quiet, where signal detection was possible,” said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Sonoma, California, and lead author of the new study published in the journal Nature.

“This discovery shows close-in planets can be smaller, aswell as much larger, than planets orbiting our Sun,” he said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tiniest-planet-ever-discovered-outside-our-solar-system/1077692/0

NASA rover Curiosity grabs first Martian rock sample

In a hunt for discovering life on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has beamed back pictures confirming the first ever sample collected from the interiors of a rock on another planet.

No rover has ever drilled into a rock on any other planet and collected a sample from its interior, NASA said. Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible for the first time in images received yesterday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the rock,” said JPL’s Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for Curiosity.

“Many of us have been working toward this day for years. Getting final confirmation of successful drilling is incredibly gratifying,” McCloskey said in a statement. The drill on Curiosity’s robotic arm took in the powder as it bored a 2.5-inch hole into a target on flat Martian bedrock on February 8. The rover team plans to have Curiosity sieve the sample and deliver portions of it to analytical instruments inside the rover. The scoop now holding the precious sample is part of Curiosity’s Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device.

During the next steps of processing, the powder will be enclosed inside CHIMRA and shaken once or twice over a sieve that screens out particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 microns) across. Small portions of the sieved sample later will be delivered through inlet ports on top of the rover deck into the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.

The sample comes from a fine-grained, veiny sedimentary rock called “John Klein,” named in memory of a Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011. The rock was selected for the first sample drilling because it may hold evidence of wet environmental conditions long ago. The rover’s laboratory analysis of the powder may provide information about those conditions.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Project is using the Curiosity rover with its 10 science instruments to investigate whether an area within Mars’ Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favourable for microbial life.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nasa-rover-curiosity-grabs-first-martian-rock-sample/1077627/0

Facebook, Google launch $15 mn prize for scientists who cure deadly diseases

The founders of Google, Facebook and other tech giants have announced a new multi-million-dollar prize for scientists who are working to cure the world’s most devastating diseases. Mark Zuckerberg, his partner Priscilla Chan, Google co-founder Sergei Brin, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki and Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner will launch 15 million dollars annual Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in hopes of curing cancer and other diseases

Five scientists will be given three million dollars for ‘recognizing excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life,” the New York post reports. Zuckerberg said in a statement that he believes the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, so people everywhere have an opportunity at a better future.

According to the paper, the inaugural year of the prize, however, has gone to 11 scientists who will each receive three million dollars to further their scientific research. Among this years winners were Charles L. Sawyer, who the committee singled out for his work on cancer genes, and Shinya Yamanaka, whose research focuses on stem cells. Art Levinson, chairman of the board of Apple and Chairman and former CEO of Genentech, will serve as the Chairman of the Board of Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation, which will distribute the prize money each year, the report said.

The first 11 recipients of the Breakthrough Prize are:

– Cornelia I Bargmann

– David Botstein

– Lewis C. Cantley

– Hans Clevers

– Napoleone Ferrara

– Titia de Lange

– Eric S. Lander

– Charles L. Sawyers

– Bert Vogelstein

– Robert A. Weinberg

– Shinya Yamanaka

All prize winners have agreed to serve on the Selection Committee of the Foundation to choose recipients of future prizes.

“We are thrilled to support scientists who think big, take risks and have made a significant impact on our lives. These scientists should be household names and heroes in society,” said Anne Wojcicki. “Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown,” said Sergey Brin. “Priscilla and I are honored to be part of this,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “We believe the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, so people everywhere have an opportunity at a better future.” “Solving the enormous complexity of human diseases calls for a much bigger effort compared to fundamental physics and therefore requires multiple sponsors to reward outstanding achievements,” said Yuri Milner.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/facebook-google-launch–15-mn-prize-for-scientists-who-cure-deadly-diseases/1077600/0

Nature follows a number pattern called Fibonacci

What do pine cones and paintings have in common? A 13th century Italian mathematician named Leonardo of Pisa.Better known by his pen name, Fibonacci, he came up with a number sequence that keeps popping up throughout the plant kingdom, and the art world too.

A fibonacci sequence is simple enough to generate: Starting with the number one, you merely add the previous two numbers in the sequence to generate the next one. So the sequence, early on, is 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and so on.

NUMBERS AND PLANTS

To see how it works in nature, go outside and find an intact pine cone (or any other cone). Look carefully and you’ll notice that the bracts that make up the cone are arranged in a spiral. Actually two spirals, running in opposite directions, with one rising steeply and the other gradually from the cone’s base to its tip.

Count the number of spirals in each direction a job made easier by dabbing the bracts along one line of each spiral with a colored marker. The number of spirals in either direction is a fibonacci number.

I just counted 5 parallel spirals going in one direction and 8 parallel spirals going in the opposite direction on a Norway spruce cone.Or you might examine a pineapple. Focus on one of the hexagonal scales near the fruit’s midriff and you can pick out three spirals, each aligned to a different pair of opposing sides of the hexagon. One set rises gradually, another moderately and the third steeply. Count the number of spirals and you’ll find eight gradual, 13 moderate and 21 steeply rising ones. Fibonacci numbers again.

Scales and bracts are modified leaves, and the spiral arrangements in pine cones and pineapples reflect the spiral growth habit of stems. To confirm this, bring in a leafless stem from some tree or shrub and look at its buds, where leaves were attached.

The buds range up the stem in a spiral pattern, which kept each leaf out of the shadow of leaves just above it. The amount of spiraling varies from plant to plant, with new leaves developing in some fraction _ such as 2/5, 3/5, 3/8 or 8/13 _ of a spiral. Eureka, the numbers in those fractions are fibonacci numbers!

You can determine the fraction on your dormant stem by finding a bud directly above another one, then counting the number of full circles the stem went through to get there while generating buds in between.

So if the stems made three full circles to get a bud back where it started and generated eight buds getting there, the fraction is 3/8, with each bud 3/8 of a turn off its neighbor upstairs or downstairs. Different plants have favored fractions, but they evidently don’t read the books because I just computed fractions of 1/3 and 3/8 on a single apple stem, which is supposed to have a fraction of 2/5. All are fractions with fibonacci numbers, at least.

NUMBERS AND ART

I haven’t forgotten about the artists. It turns out there are certain proportions we humans generally find pleasing: the rectangular proportions of a painting, for example, or the placement of a focal point in a painting.

In a painting, for example, the Golden Cut states that the ratio of the distance of the focal point from the closer side to the farther side of a painting is the same as the ratio of the distance from the farther side to the painting’s whole width. A pleasing ratio, it turns out, is 0.618… or, if you want to use the inverse, 1.618… . Enter fibonacci: Divide any fibonacci number by the fibonacci number before or after it and you get 0.618… or 1.618…, not exactly at first, but closer and closer the higher the fibonacci number you start with. Try it.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nature-follows-a-number-pattern-called-fibonacci/1076960/0

Scientists discover water on Moon’s oldest rocks

Researchers have detected traces of water within the crystalline structure of one of the oldest rocks obtained from the Apollo missions on Moon. The new findings indicate that the early Moon was wet and that water there was not substantially lost during the Moon’s formation.

The lunar highlands are thought to represent the original crust, crystallised from a magma ocean on a mostly molten early Moon, according to a University of Michigan study.Researchers used Infrared spectroscopy to analyse the water content in grain of plagioclase feldspar from lunar anorthosites – highland rocks composed of more than 90 per cent plagioclase. The bright-coloured highlands rocks are thought to have formed early in the Moon’s history when plagioclase crystallised from a magma ocean and floated to the surface. The infrared spectroscopy work detected about 6 parts per million of water in the lunar anorthosites. “The surprise discovery of this work is that in lunar rocks, even in nominally water-free minerals such as plagioclase feldspar, the water content can be detected.

“It’s not ‘liquid’ water that was measured during these studies but hydroxyl groups distributed within the mineral grain,” researcher Youxue Zhang said in a statement.

“We are able to detect those hydroxyl groups in the crystalline structure of the Apollo samples,” said study’s first author Hejiu Hui from the University of Notre Dame.

The hydroxyl groups the team detected are evidence that the lunar interior contained significant water during the Moon’s early molten state, before the crust solidified, and may have played a key role in the development of lunar basalts.The results also contradict the predominant lunar formation theory that the Moon was formed from debris generated during a giant impact between Earth and another planetary body, approximately the size of Mars.”Because these are some of the oldest rocks from the Moon, the water is inferred to have been in the Moon when it formed,” Zhang said.”That is somewhat difficult to explain with the current popular moon-formation model, in which the Moon formed by collecting the hot ejecta as the result of a super-giant impact of a martian-size body with the proto-Earth.

“Under that model, the hot ejecta should have been degassed almost completely, eliminating all water,” Zhang said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/scientists-discover-water-on-moons-oldest-rocks/1075845/0

“Meteorite rush” begins as Russian scientists find fragments

A meteor that exploded over Russia’s Ural mountains and sent fireballs blazing to earth has set off a rush to find fragments of the space rock which hunters hope could fetch thousands of dollars a piece. Friday’s blast and ensuing shockwave shattered windows, injured almost 1,200 people and caused about $33 million worth of damage, said local authorities. It also started a ” meteor ite rush” around the industrial city of Chelyabinsk, 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow, where groups of people have started combing through the snow and ice. One amateur space enthusiast estimated chunks could be worth anything up to 66,000 roubles ($2,200) per gramme – more than 40 times the current cost of gold.

“The price is hard to say yet … The fewer meteor ites that are recovered, the higher their price,” said Dmitry Kachkalin, a member of the Russian Society of Amateur Meteor ite Lovers. Meteor ites are parts of a meteor that have fallen to earth. Scientists at the Urals Federal University were the first to announce a significant find – 53 small, stony, black objects around Lake Chebarkul, near Chelyabinsk, which tests confirmed were small meteor ites. The fragments were only 0.5 to 1 cm (0.2 to 0.4 inches) across but the scientists said larger pieces may have crashed into the lake, where a crater in the ice about eight metres (26 feet) wide opened up after Friday’s explosion.

“We just completed tests and confirm that the pieces of matter found by our experts around Lake Chebarkul are really meteor ites,” said Viktor Grokhovsky, a scientist with the Urals Federal University and the Russian Academy of Sciences. “These are classified as ordinary chondrites, or stony meteor ites, with an iron content of about 10 percent,” he told RIA news agency. He did not say whether the fragments had told his team anything about the origins of the meteor , which the U.S. space agency NASA estimated was 55 feet (17 metres) across before entering Earth’s atmosphere and weighed about 10,000 tons. The main fireball streaked across the sky at a speed of about 30 km (19 miles) per second, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, before crashing into the snowy wastes.

Treasure Hunters

More than 20,000 people took part in search and clean-up operations at the weekend in and around Chelyabinsk, which is in the heart of a region packed with industrial military plants. Many other people were in the area just hoping to find a meteor ite after what was described by scientists as a once-in-a-century event.

Residents of a village near Chelyabinsk searched the snowy streets, collecting stones they hoped would prove to be the real thing. But not all were ready to sell. “I will keep it. Why sell it? I didn’t have a rich lifestyle before, so why start now?” a woman in a pink woollen hat and winter jacket, clutching a small black pebble, told state television Rossiya-24.

The Internet filled quickly with advertisements from eager hunters hoping to sell what they said were meteor ites – some for as little as 1,000 roubles ($33.18). The authenticity of the items was hard to ascertain. One seller of a large, silver-hued rock wrote in an advertisement on the portal Avito.ru: “Selling an unusual rock. It may be a piece of meteor ite, it may be a bit of a UFO, it may be a piece of a rocket!”

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/meteorite-rush-begins-as-russian-scientists-find-fragments/1075932/0

Asteroid, large enough to destroy a city, to whiz past Earth today

Over 700 people, including 159 children, were injured on Friday in a freak incident when a meteor weighing about 10 tonnes streaked across the sky above Russia’s Ural Mountains, creating panic as shockwaves blasted windows and rocked buildings.

According to officials, 725 people have sought medical attention in the disaster area, 112 of whom have been hospitalised. Among the injured there are 159 children.

Most of those hurt suffered minor cuts and bruises but some received head injuries, Russian officials said.

Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in the Chelyabinsk region as a safety precaution and some 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged, a media report said.

A fireball was seen streaking through the clear morning sky above the city of Yekaterinburg, followed by loud bangs, but much of the impact was felt in the city of Chelyabinsk, some 200 km south of Yekaterinburg.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

Putin also promised “immediate” aid for people affected, saying kindergartens and schools had been damaged, and work disrupted at industrial enterprises.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite. They said in a statement, “According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/second.”

Asteroids are small bodies that orbit the Sun as the Earth does. Larger asteroids are called planetoids or minor planets and smaller ones are called meteoroids.

The Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that the meteor weighed about 10 tonnes and entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kmph.

It would have shattered about 30-50 km above ground, with most of the meteor burning up.

Russian Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 km further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/asteroid-large-enough-to-destroy-a-city-to-whiz-past-earth-today/1074841/0

Over 700 people, including 159 children, were injured on Friday in a freak incident when a meteor weighing about 10 tonnes streaked across the sky above Russia’s Ural Mountains, creating panic as shockwaves blasted windows and rocked buildings.

According to officials, 725 people have sought medical attention in the disaster area, 112 of whom have been hospitalised. Among the injured there are 159 children.

Most of those hurt suffered minor cuts and bruises but some received head injuries, Russian officials said.

Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in the Chelyabinsk region as a safety precaution and some 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged, a media report said.

A fireball was seen streaking through the clear morning sky above the city of Yekaterinburg, followed by loud bangs, but much of the impact was felt in the city of Chelyabinsk, some 200 km south of Yekaterinburg.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

Putin also promised “immediate” aid for people affected, saying kindergartens and schools had been damaged, and work disrupted at industrial enterprises.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite. They said in a statement, “According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/second.”

Asteroids are small bodies that orbit the Sun as the Earth does. Larger asteroids are called planetoids or minor planets and smaller ones are called meteoroids.

The Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that the meteor weighed about 10 tonnes and entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kmph.

It would have shattered about 30-50 km above ground, with most of the meteor burning up.

Russian Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 km further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust.