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

Now, jumping robot to facilitate search and rescue

Scientists have designed a soft jumping robot that can leap as much as a foot in the air, a technique that will help it avoid obstacles during search and rescue operations.

“Initially, our soft robot systems used pneumatic pressure to actuate,” said Robert Shepherd, first author of the study, and former postdoctoral researcher in the Whitesides Research Group at Harvard.

“While that system worked, it was rather slow – it took on the order of a second. Using combustion, however, allows us to actuate the robots very fast. We were able to measure the speed of the robot’s jump at 4 meters per second,” Shepherd said in a statement.

Just as with other soft robots, the three-legged jumping system begins life as a mold created by a 3-D printer. The robots are molded using soft silicone that allows them to stretch and flex.

But where pneumatic robots are connected to tubing that pumps air, the jumping robots are connected to tubes that deliver a precisely controlled mix of methane and oxygen, according to the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Using high-voltage wires embedded in each leg of the robot, researchers deliver a spark to ignite the gases, causing a small explosion that sends the robot into the air.

Among the key design innovations that allowed the combustion system to work, Shepherd said, was the incorporation of a simple valve into each leg of the robot.

“We flow fuel and oxygen into the channels, and ignite it. The heat expands the gas, causing the flap to close, pressurising the channel and causing it to actuate.

“As the gas cools, the flap opens and we push the exhaust out by flowing more gas in. So we don’t need to use complex valve systems, all because we chose to mold a soft flap into the robot from the beginning,” Shepherd said.

“It’s a lot more powerful, but the question we had to answer was whether it was compatible – were the temperatures compatible – with this system,” Shepherd said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/now-jumping-robot-to-facilitate-search-and-rescue/1074164/0

Space laser could help detect counterfeit food post life on Mars

The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed that a laser device developed to measure carbon on Mars could soon be used here on Earth to detect counterfeit food.

Today’s equipment is large, bulky and stationary. Samples of, say, polluted soil must be collected in the field, put in a flask and brought to the lab for testing – clearly unsuitable for space testing. But the new laser ‘isotope ratio-meter’ from RAL Space could change that.

Thanks to its small, lightweight, robust, highly accurate lasers, the device could be sent into space to look for trace amounts of gas in very small samples. “You take a laser, whose optical frequency or ‘colour’ can be continuously adjusted, beam it at a gas sample, and detect the level passing through the gas,” explained Dr Damien Weidmann, Laser Spectroscopy Team Leader at RAL Space.

As the laser colour changes, the light passes straight through the sample until it reaches a particular frequency, specific to the isotopic gas, that is partially blocked. “Each molecule, and each of its isotopic forms, has a unique fingerprint spectrum. If, on the other hand, you know what you are looking for, you can simply set the laser to the appropriate frequency.”

Through an ESA program, Weidmann and his colleagues have been able to demonstrate that the laser can quickly root out counterfeit food. Fake honey made using sugar, for example, would be detected by the laser by scanning the carbon dioxide released from burning only a few milligrams of the product. Likewise, counterfeit olive oil and chocolate could also be detected.

Though Weidmann said it was important for his project to attract interest from industry, sending the laser to Mars is his real goal. “I wanted to develop this to help gather evidence as to whether or not there was life on Mars,” said Weidmann.

Weidmann stated that using the laser to measure carbon isotopic ratios in methane on Mars could help determine where the hydrocarbon came from. “If it’s bacterial in origin, it would mean a form of life occurred on Mars,” he added.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/space-laser-could-help-detect-counterfeit-food-post-life-on-mars/1073539/0

India working on Agni-VI missile, to be in world’s elite nuclear club

India today said it is developing a long-range nuclear-capable Agni-VI ballistic missile that would carry multiple warheads allowing one weapon system to take out several targets at a time.

“Agni-V is a major strategic defence weapon. Now we want to make Agni-VI which would be a force multiplier,” DRDO chief V K Saraswat said here.

Refusing to divulge the range of the new under-development missile, he said the force multiplier capability of the missile would be because of its Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) capability.

The Agni-5 ballistic missile, which was test-fired in April last year, has a range of upto 5,500 kms and it is believed that the Agni-6 would have a range longer than its

predecessor.

“It will have force multiplier capability by the MIRV approach which would enable us to deliver many payloads at the same time using only one missile. Work is on in this area and designs have been completed. We are now in the hardware realisation phase,” he said.

DRDO officials said once the Agni-6 is developed, it would propel India into the elite club of nations with such a capability including the US and Russia.

The DRDO chief said his organisation was also working towards developing a cruise missile defence programme which would enable the armed forces to defend against low-flying cruise missiles and enemy aircraft.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-working-on-agnivi-missile-to-be-in-worlds-elite-nuclear-club/1071407/

NASA’s new mission to estimate impact of asteroids on Earth

NASA plans to launch a new mission in 2016 to find potentially hazardous asteroids and predict their impact threat to Earth.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission will arrive at RQ36 in 2018 and orbit the asteroid until 2021. By communicating continuously with a spacecraft in orbit around RQ36, the team will get a much better idea of the asteroid’s orbit.

“We expect OSIRIS-REx will enable us to make an estimate of the Yarkovsky force on RQ36 at least twice as precise as what’s available now,” says Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

The Yarkovsky effect happens simply because it takes time for things to heat up and cool down. Objects tend to be coldest just before dawn and warmest at mid-afternoon, after hours of illumination by the high Sun.

The team will use what it learns about the Yarkovsky effect on RQ36 to help estimate the effects on other asteroids, NASA said in a statement.

The key to all these strategies is to discover the asteroid well in advance of its impact date and attempt to deflect it early, according to Edward Beshore of the University of Arizona, Tucson, deputy principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.

One of the first things that would be done if an asteroid appeared to be on a collision course with Earth is to send a probe to the asteroid that might look very much like OSIRIS-REx, said Beshore.

OSIRIS-REx will determine if RQ36 is actually a rubble pile by orbiting it and revealing the subtle effects on the orbit from the gravity of any large and dense lumps within the asteroid.

A probe like OSIRIS-REx could map the internal structure of an asteroid this way, providing valuable information on where to target the deflection mechanism.

OSIRIS-REx will also determine the composition of RQ36 using remote measurements from both visible light and infrared spectrometers, and by collecting a sample of material from the asteroid’s surface and returning it to Earth for study.

Since the Yarkovsky effect may vary depending on the type of material and its distribution, a probe with OSIRIS-REx’s capability to map the surface composition will enable a more precise estimate of the effect on the asteroid’s orbit.

The mission will also provide critical experience navigating around asteroids.

According to NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) programme, there are more than 1,300 “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids” (PHAs) ¿ objects at least 150 yards across with a very small chance of impacting us someday because their orbital paths take them close to Earth’s orbit.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nasas-new-mission-to-estimate-impact-of-asteroids-on-earth/1071471/0

Review: iPhone Google Maps lags Android version

Every time my husband and I drive the 677 miles (1,100 kilometers) from New York to my parents\’ house in Michigan, we dread the long stretch of Interstate 80 through the hills of rural Pennsylvania. It\’s beautiful, but lonely, without a lot of places to stop.

On this trip, with a little help from Google and Apple, I was determined to stay caffeinated and maybe find somewhere else to eat besides McDonald\’s and truck stops.

We had two iPhones and two Android phones between us, allowing me to test Google Maps on both the iPhone and Android and Apple\’s own mapping app for the iPhone. (There\’s no Apple app on Android.) These apps all have turn-by-turn voice navigation and will nag you with new directions if you make a wrong turn or try to go off-course.

I tested out the Google and Apple mapping apps before, but focused on how their walking and public-transportation functions worked in New York City. I wanted to see how they performed for driving and outside of the comfort of a major metropolitan area.

But mainly, I wanted to see how Google Maps fared compared with Apple\’s Maps, which kicked Google Maps off the iPhone in September. That meant Google had no mapping app on the iPhone until it released a replacement in December. Google Maps with voice navigation has been on Android phones since 2009. I also wanted to see if the Android and iPhone versions have all the same bells and whistles. (Spoiler alert: They don\’t).

We set off from New York with our easily bored 3-year-old daughter strapped in the back seat. I fired up the phones and set courses for my parents\’ home in Haslett, Michigan (just outside Lansing, for those too lazy to Google it).

The two versions of Google Maps and the Apple software pretty much gave me the same directions and time estimate _ just over 10 hours, though we were planning on 12 with stops.

We usually take a break at a Panera Bread bakery about an hour into Pennsylvania, but our daughter was napping and we weren\’t really hungry. So we threw ourselves at the mercy of Google and Apple and hoped that they would find us something in an hour or two.

As we wound through the hills, with my husband driving, I watched the little blue arrows on my phones move across the state and checked out the different features each mapping program offered.

The Android version of Google Maps has the most toys and the most beautiful graphics. The bars and dry cleaners visible on its street maps of New York get replaced by the names of rivers and small-town roads in the distance.

By comparison, both iPhone apps seem bare bones, which isn\’t too surprising as the Android app had a head start of three years. Apple\’s fancy 3-D graphics largely melt away when you get out of the city.

The Android version allows me to select “layers\’\’ for my map showing such things as traffic and nearby businesses.

The restaurant layer proved very helpful when my daughter started getting cranky and we needed to make an unplanned stop.

The traffic layer, which lights up in red, yellow and green depending on the amount of traffic, also was particularly helpful on the way back to New York. It warned us of a monster backup on the George Washington Bridge and estimated how long that would delay us in case we wanted to take an alternate route. We took our chances with the bridge. While the delay wasn\’t quite as bad as we feared it would be, it was definitely helpful to know about it ahead of time.

The iPhone version of Google Maps doesn\’t offer layers at all. And while the Apple software does offer some traffic information, you can\’t see it in the form of a layer when you\’re in navigation mode as you can with the Android version.

The Android version also allows you to set a final destination and search for places along your route, while Google\’s iPhone app doesn\’t.

Apple lets me do this by using the Siri voice assistant on my iPhone. By hitting the home button and saying “Starbucks,\’\’ I got the closest locations.

That\’s what we did a few hours into Pennsylvania when our caffeine withdrawal headaches started to kick in and our daughter was getting antsy.

To my surprise, both Siri and the Android phones located a Starbucks in a small town just a few miles (kilometers) off the freeway. We easily got there, but found it was on the campus of Bloomsburg University, which appeared closed for the holidays.

So, we got back on the highway and headed to the next location, in Williamsport. Unfortunately, we never made it to that Starbucks either. Apple and Google both took us to a residential section of a small town, with no Starbucks in sight.

I still don\’t know if I did something wrong or if there was an error in the mapping software. Considering that both sent me to a store whose existence I later verified, I\’m more inclined to blame my caffeine-deprived brain than the phones.

We never did find a Starbucks before leaving Pennsylvania or a cute mom-and-pop restaurant to eat at. But when we finally caved to our daughter\’s demands and decided to stop at the next exit, I did use the restaurants layer on one of the Android phones to locate an Arby\’s. Not exactly haute cuisine, but it\’s a guilty pleasure from childhood of mine, and all three of us got the break we needed.

I also used the feature on the trip back to New York to find a Mexican restaurant that we had eaten at a few years ago outside of Youngstown, Ohio. Unfortunately, it had yet to open for the day, so I used the software to locate and read online reviews about another Mexican place down the road. We ended up having a nice meal there.

It\’s worth mentioning that this is one of those times smartphones with larger screens help. The Samsung Galaxy Note II I was using let me easily look at what businesses are available off exits far down the road. Even if my iPhone had been able to show me these things, it would have been tough to view them on its comparatively tiny screen (3.5 inches, or 9 centimeters, diagonally on my older Apple 4S, compared with the Note\’s 5.5 inches, or 14 centimeters).

Another nice feature available on the Android, but not Google\’s iPhone app or Apple\’s software, is that the phone\’s screen enters a night mode when you\’re driving at night. The background turns dark, so it\’s not as distracting.

One drawback with Android phones: They have a hard time finding enough juice, even when plugged into the car\’s charger. In fact, the HTC Droid DNA I was using gave me two warnings that my energy usage was outpacing the power going into my phone. A colleague had a similar problem using two other Android phones. By contrast, the iPhone seems to stay fully charged if you plug it in.

Of course, I could shut one Android phone down while I use another, but this probably isn\’t an option for most people.

After we got to Michigan, the phones also proved useful for quick little trips in town. That included a last-minute trip to a Toys `R Us that I couldn\’t quite remember the location of. I also got to a restaurant that was slightly off the beaten path.

Bottom line is that when you\’re on the road, all three programs will probably get you where you\’re going. They offer clear maps and audible instructions that are easy to understand. They give you the directions you need with plenty of time to make turns and get in the appropriate lane of traffic. And when you inevitably do miss a turn or highway exit, they are quick to recalculate your route.

But for those who want an experience and information that rivals those provided by a vehicle GPS system, Google Maps for Android is the way to go. Just don\’t forget your car charger.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/review-iphone-google-maps-lags-android-version/1070740/0

Apple store gives ‘porn-laced’ Twitter Vine app ‘adult rating’

Twitter’s new video sharing app Vine has been given adult rating on Apple’s store.

Vine has had its age rating increased to 17+ on Apple”s store, the highest option.

The software had previously been rated suitable for 12-year-olds.

The move comes in the wake of complaints that some of its six-second segments were pornographic.

According to the BBC, Vine is not yet available for Android, but Google Play rates its 500px app as having a “high maturity” content rating, while Tumblr is marked as “low maturity”.

The app had previously made headlines after one of its Editor”s Pick showed a couple engaged in a sexual act.

Shortly after the clip”s selection it entered the app”s “popular now” list, signalling it was one of the product”s most viewed videos.

Twitter later apologised, blaming “human error”.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/apple-store-gives-pornlaced-twitter-vine-app-adult-rating/1070742/

ESA plans to build 3D printed Moon base

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to set up a base on Moon by using a 3D printer to build it from lunar materials, scientists say.

Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to test the feasibility of 3D printing using lunar soil, the space agency said.

“Terrestrial 3D printing technology has produced entire structures. Our industrial team investigated if it could similarly be employed to build a lunar habitat,” said Laurent Pambaguian, who heads the project for ESA.

Foster + Partners devised a weight-bearing “catenary” dome design with a cellular structured wall to shield against micro-meteoroids and space radiation, incorporating a pressurised inflatable to shelter astronauts. A hollow closed-cell structure – reminiscent of bird bones – provides a good combination of strength and weight. The base’s design was guided in turn by the properties of 3D-printed lunar soil, with a 1.5 tonne building block produced as a demonstration.

“3D printing offers a potential means of facilitating lunar settlement with reduced logistics from Earth,” added Scott Hovland of ESA’s human spaceflight team.

“The new possibilities this work opens up can then be considered by international space agencies as part of the current development of a common exploration strategy.

“As a practice, we are used to designing for extreme climates on Earth and exploiting the environmental benefits of using local, sustainable materials,” said Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group.

“Our lunar habitation follows a similar logic,” he said in a ESA Statement.

The UK’s Monolite supplied the D-Shape printer, with a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 m frame to spray a binding solution onto a sand-like building material.

3D “printouts” are built up layer by layer ¿ the company more typically uses its printer to create sculptures and is working on artificial coral reefs to help preserve beaches from energetic sea waves.

“First, we needed to mix the simulated lunar material with magnesium oxide. This turns it into “paper” we can print with,” said Monolite founder Enrico Dini.

“Then for our structural ‘ink’ we apply a binding salt which converts material to a stone-like solid.

“Our current printer builds at a rate of around 2 m per hour, while our next-generation design should attain 3.5 m per hour, completing an entire building in a week,” said Dini.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/esa-plans-to-build-3d-printed-moon-base/1067991/0

Somalia militants’ Twitter account down after hostage threat

A Twitter account run by Somali militant group al Shabaab was unavailable on Friday, days after the al Qaeda-aligned rebels used the social media site to boast about killing a French agent and threatened to kill several Kenyan hostages.

Al Shabaab often used its Twitter account to claim responsibility for attacks on African Union and Somali government troops, as well as senior officials in the Horn of Africa nation and other bombings in the region.

But the militant group’s official Twitter account, which had thousands of followers, was offline on Friday with a message saying “Sorry, that user is suspended”.

It was not immediately clear why the account, which was created in 2011 under the HSM PRESS Twitter handle, was suspended. The account was still unavailable as of 0930 GMT.

Twitter said it does not comment on individual accounts and the Kenyan government denied it had filed any request for the account to be taken down.

“It’s an emphatic no. We would not try to negotiate or have anything to do with the Al Shabaab. We didn’t even know the account was suspended,” said government spokesman Muthui Kariuki.

Al Shabaab posted on the account on Wednesday a link to a video of two Kenyan civil servants held hostage in Somalia, telling the Kenyan government their lives were in danger unless it released all Muslims held on “so-called terrorism charges” in the country.

“Kenyan government has three weeks, starting midnight 24/01/2013 to respond to the demands of HSM if the prisoners are to remain alive,” the group said.

Last week the rebel group said on its Twitter account that it had executed French agent Dennis Allex, who was held hostage since 2009, after a French commando mission to rescue him failed.

Al Shabaab wants to impose their strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, across Somalia. However, it has lost significant territory in the southern and central parts of the country in the face of an offensive by African Union troops. (Reporting by Drazen Jorgic and George Obulutsa; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/somalia-insurgents-twitter-idINDEE90O06D20130125

IBM says it has tool to kill deadly drug-resistant superbugs

Hospital-acquired infections have become a major killer in the United States, mainly because the drug-resistant “superbugs” that cause them have proven nearly impossible to stop.

But now IBM and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology say they have come up with what they’re calling an antimicrobial hydrogel that can successfully fight the superbugs that are behind killers like MRSA.

In an announcement today, IBM Research and its partner on the project said that their antimicrobial hydrogel was designed to cut through diseased biofilms and almost instantly kill off drug-resistant bacteria. The collaborators on the project said that the the synthetic drug is meant for combating the growing infection problems plaguing American hospitals, because it is non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable.

Normally, IBM said in its announcement, antimicrobials are used in standard household cleaners like alcohol and bleach. But those substances haven’t proved effective in fighting deadly skin infections like MRSA because antibiotics are becoming less effective and standard disinfectants aren’t meant for biological situations.

But the new hydrogel was created to be used in creams and other therapeutics that are meant for healing. The hydrogel can be applied to contaminated surfaces, and its positive charge instantly attracts the microbial membranes’ negative charge. The bacteria is then meant to be killed by what IBM termed membrane disruption, a step that staves off any kind of resistance to the hydrogel.

Although it’s not yet clear how this advancement will make its way into actual hospital and other relevant settings, research like this is meant to jump-start the commercial development of actual drugs and other therapies.

 

Source : http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57565551-76/ibm-says-it-has-tool-to-kill-deadly-drug-resistant-superbugs/