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Green meteorite NWA 7325 linked to Mercury

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Apr 032013

A strange green meteorite that is unlike anything found on Earth might be linked to Mercury!

Green-colored meteorite NWA 7325 that was found in 2012 in Morocco might come from Mercury ( Stefan Ralew/sr-meteorites.de)

A green stone, discovered in Morocco a year ago could be the first known meteorite originating from planet Mercury, the cosmic body closest to our Sun.

That’s is the opinion of Anthony Irving, a specialist at Washington University who studied the space rock before presenting his findings at the 44th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas, U.S.

Extensive research suggests that the unique meteorite, named NWA 7325, would have split from Mercury, and not Mars or an asteroid.

NWA 7325 is in fact a bunch of 35 fragments of meteorites found in Morocco in 2012. They appear to be very old as Irving and his team dated the rock fragments and attributed them an age of about 4.56 billion years.

“It could be a rock sample from Mercury, or a smaller celestial body with similar composition as Mercury” said Anthony Irving during his presentation. “A strong impact could have thrown NWA 7325 off Mercury to Earth.”

“NWA 7325 is different from anything that has been previously discovered on Earth,” added Irving.

Meteorites coming from the Red Planet show traces of Martian atmosphere, which makes them relatively easy to identify. Meteorites from Vesta, one of the biggest asteroids in the solar system are also chemically distinct. Instead, NWA 7325 is unlike any other space rock sample studied till now.

Irving believes that the space junk formed and ejected from a planet or other celestial body that showed lava flows on the surface, at some moment during its geological history. There are indications that the green rock would have formed from the “foam” that floated on the surface of molten magma.

NWA 7325 has a weak magnetic intensity – magnetism induced into a rock by the magnetic field of a celestial body – lower than any rocks known so far. Data from Messenger space probe (NASA) which orbits Mercury, reveals that planet’s weak magnetism resemble that of NWA 7325. Moreover, NWA 7325 has a very low iron content, as well as the planet Mercury, which suggests that the origin of the meteorite would be solar system’s innermost planet or a similar celestial body.
Source: Livescience

Samsung shows first images of Galaxy S4 just 2 days before official release

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Mar 122013

There are only two days left before the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in New York, U.S. In an attempt to boost the excitement, the South Korean mobile company presented the first official teaser images (scroll down for photos and video).

Samsung Galaxy S IV is set for official release on March 14 in New York

Although clear detail are not seen, it is obvious that the top edge of the terminal is almost identical to Galaxy SIII.

As expected, there are also skeptics who argue that it is possible for Samsung to intentionally fool the public, and present in fact a totally redesigned smartphone.

A series of pictures with a Samsung Android smartphone appeared yesterday on the internet where many voices claim that would be the dual SIM version of the the much awaited Galaxy S4.

South Korean company Samsung is going to launch Galaxy S IV on March 14, 2013 in New York.

Samsung unveiled its first Galaxy S in the U.S. in 2010, followed by the Galaxy S II in Spain in 2011 and Galaxy S III in the UK last year.

Samsung to tease the tech world with mysterious image of Galaxy S4 (Facebook Samsung Mobile USA)

Samsung Galaxy S IV is ready to hit the market on Thursday in New York City

Video: Samsung Galaxy S4 first ever presentation China Unicom Ver.

NASA: Curiosity’s rock analysis show that Mars had supported life

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Mar 122013

Analysis of rock samples collected by NASA’s rover Curiosity show that Mars could support microbial life in the past, announced the American space agency in a press conference on Tuesday.

Martian rock samples discovered and analyzed by Opportuniy (left) and Curiosity (right)
Photo: NASA

Scientists have identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon – some of the key chemical elements for life – in sedimentary rock powder analyzed by Curiosity on the Red Planet.

“A fundamental question behind the mission is whether Mars could sustain a habitable environment. From what we know so far, the answer is yes,” said scientist Michael Meyer who takes part of NASA’s Mars exploration program.

Such environmental cues come from data provided by the instruments Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) şi Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin). The data show that Yellowknife Bay area which is currently explored by the rover was at the end of an ancient river network or a lake that would have provided favorable conditions for microbes.

The rock is composed of a very fine mudstone containing clay minerals, mineral sulfur and other chemicals. This ancient and humid environment was not too oxidant, acid or extremely salty than other areas of Mars.

The region where Curiosity made the first drill for rock samples features an old network of channels, remnant of rivers descending from the crater Gale. The land contains fine grained mudstone and shows evidence of wet conditions.

“Clay minerals make up about 20% of the composition of the rock samples analyzed,” said David Blake, principal investigator of CheMon instrument at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

These clay minerals are the outcome of the fresh water reaction with volcanic minerals such as olivine, also present in the sediment. Presence of calcium sulphate along with clay suggests that the soil is neutral or slightly alkaline.

Researchers were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized chemicals, easily oxidized or non-oxidized, which usually provide energy necessary for microbes -like those on Earth- to survive. This partial oxidation was also indicated by the rock drilling which left traces that were gray colored and not red.
Another rock sample, picked from same place, will be analyzed to confirm the results.

“We have characterized a very ancient Mars, but in a ‘gray’ way, where conditions were favorable for life,” said John Grotzinger, project scientist at the Mars Science Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

“Curiosity is a mission of discovery and exploration and we feel that there are a lot of things to find in the months and years ahead,” added Grotzinger.

Curiosity rover is set to perform work in the Yellowknife Bay for a few more weeks before starting a long journey to Mount Sharp located at the center of Gale crater. There, the rover will investigate the sedimentary layers in search of other information about life on Mars.

Unique Video Reveals Fetal Brain Formation

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Feb 262013

Scientists used fMRI imaging techniques to create a video showing how the brain develops during the fetal stage. Specifically the video shows how connections are formed in the brain of a fetus inside the womb, and experts say such research could lead to treatments of autism or schizophrenia.

Fetal brain making up neural connections was captured by fMRI technique (newscientist.com)

The revolutionary images were captured by Moriah Thomason at Wayne State University in Detroit. Alonside a team of researchers, Thomason used functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to scan the brains of 25 fetuses aged between 24 and 38 weeks of intrauterine life. Each scan took on average 10 minutes and scientists used for video editing only images snapped when the fetuses were motionless.

Brain scans were carried out in order provide information on two well-understood characteristics of a developing brain: the distance between neuronal connections and the kick-off time of their development. As expected, the two halves of the fetal brain connections formed denser and more numerous connections with the time. The earliest connections tend to occur in the middle of the brain, and later they expand as the brain grows.

Thomason’s team are currently working on a project that aims at scanning the brains of 100 fetuses at different stages of development, in order to see the differences between individuals.

Video: MRI movie show evolution of fetal brain neural wiring

Chelyabinsk meteorite fragment found in the Urals

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Feb 262013

The largest fragment of a meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk region on February 15, 2013 was found by researchers from Ural’s Federal University during an exploration trip in the mountains, announced on Monday the head of the expedition Viktor Gorohovski, cited by RIA Novosti.

A 1-kg piece from the meteorite that fell in Russia on Feb. 15 was found in Ural mountains (astronomia.fr)

According to the experts, the fragment in question weighs over a kilogram. In total, more than 100 remains from the space rock were found in the searched area.

“We covered a distance of 50 km along the crash path of the meteorite”, indicated Gorohovski, adding that no other expedition is expected to take place in the near future.

On February 15, a meteor disintegrated in the airspace above Southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan, causing minor injury to persons and damage to properties in Tyumen, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg.

In all, over 1,500 people were affected by the sonic boom emerged after the explosion of the meteorite.

According to the Interior Ministry of the Chelyabinsk region, the meteor broke into seven fragments, of which one fell into the lake Cebarkul, leaving an 8-meter diameter in the frozen surface of the lake.

Grim warning: Comet C/2013 A1 on possible collision course with Mars

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Feb 262013

A cosmic cataclysm could take place soon in the neighborhood of Earth as comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), discovered earlier this year, has chances to collide with Mars in October 2014, Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin announced on Monday on the site of the ISON-NM Observatory (New Mexico).

Comet C/2013A1 (Siding Spring) shows odds of catastrophic impact with Mars (wakeuptiger.blogspot.com)

According to the scientist, the nominal minimum distance between Mars and the comet could only be 0.00073 astronomical units, or about 109,200 kilometers.

C/2013 A1 is a hyperbolic comet moving on a retrograde orbit and its speed upon meeting Mars could be very high, reaching nearly 56 km/s.

Current simulation estimates claim that the diameter of comet’s core is greater than 50 km. “Energy released from a possible collision could amount to an amazing figure of 20 billion megatons,” said Zelenin.

Leonid Elenin is a Russian amateur astronomer working with the ISON-NM observatory. (wikipedia)

Such a catastrophic event is capable of leaving on Mars a crater with a diameter of 500 km and a depth of about 2 km. The effects seem to surpass even the well-known July 9, 1994 bombing of Jupiter by the disintegrated comet Shoemaker-Levy whose diameter was 15 km.

Previously, astronomer Leonid Vladimirovich Elenin discovered comets such as C/2010 X1 (Elenin) and NOR1 P/2011 NO1, as well as a number of asteroids.

Regarding the biographical aspects, Leonid Elenin was born on August 10, 1981 and is currently working with the ISON-NM observatory (H15) via the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON), which is the 1st Russian remote observatory in the West.

Elenin collaborates also with the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics and lives in Lyubertsy, near Moscow, Russia.

Three different methods for diverting near-Earth asteroids

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Feb 172013

Europeans, Russians and Americans are working on their own to find the best way to avoid a collision between Earth and an asteroid and deflect any threatening celestial body such as that which might have caused the extinction of dinosaurs.

Worldwide scientists work on developing ways of deviating near Earth space rocks: Three options/ideas are considered viable so far

“Nobody is thinking to destroy an asteroid by setting off an explosion because here is not about a Hollywood movie. The solution of a blast might be unfortunate, because splitting of celestial objects enhances the risks”, said Erwan Kervendal, Director of Astrium (group EADS), the European leader in the field of space research.

Given that the 45-meter asteroid 2012 DA 14 has just passed close to Earth Friday night – at a distance of nearly 27,000 km – “three worthy options can be considered in order to deflect a threatening space rock away from Earth” explained Kervendal.

The first deflection option relies on “a high speed object (~ 30,000 km/h) which aims at hitting the celestial rock near the center of gravity with an accuracy of 1 meter under a specific angle to be able to divert its path.”

Europeans are working on this scenario, among them being also Kervendal, leader of an Astrium project called “kinetic impactor”.

In turn, Americans count on the attraction properties exerted by a spacecraft which works as “gravity tractor” as it flies near the asteroid for a long time.

Russians are considering a third option – deviation of asteroid trajectory by blow effect associated with a blast occurring near the asteroid.

Scientists and business people are due to share their research findings and conclusions in Brussels in March.

“This is the first annual review of the European Union program called NEO-Shield (shield against Near Earth Objects) which was launched in early 2012 for a three-year period,” said Erwan Kervendal. “Everyone works separately on their own method, but we will bring together our knowledge and mathematical models. It is not a competition, but a collaboration between teams”.

Once “the most effective and industrially feasible” concept is chosen in mid 2015, the mankind will need several more years before having an operational solution.

“If the EU accepts the proposal, in 2020 we will launch a demonstrator to validate our choice and show that we can target a space rock located at about 36,000 kilometers, the distance to the geostationary telecommunication satellites. Depending on the interest of our countries’ leaders and the proof that our device works, we can then start to the financing and development of the operational technology,” added Kervendal.

Scientists believe it is premature to provide more details on the studies of three research teams, which “are not pressed by the time, because there is no real risk of collision before a century” as the risk of an impact with fearful asteroid Apophis in 2036 was cancelled.

Representatives of company Astrium were “very confident” about their ability to accomplish this mission. “We have launchers, we know how to launch interplanetary probes, we have experience in connecting cargo-type vehicles such as ATV to the International Space Station at high speed with an accuracy of a few centimeters. It is also required to hold the artificial intelligence on board the future vehicle in order to control and hit the asteroid with great precision”, Astrium researcher said.

Asteroid 2012 DA 14 passed close by Earth on Friday evening. If it crashed on our planet, would have generated damage comparable to those produced by the mysterious asteroid which fell in central Siberia in 1908 destroying all forest within a radius of 20 kilometers in Tunguska region and causing a shock wave several hundred times stronger than that caused by the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

A meteorite believed to have crashed in Yucatan 66 million years ago causing the extinction of the dinosaurs would have had a diameter of 10 km.

Asteroid to Cause End of the World Over 93 years. YQ1 2012 to hit Earth in 2106

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Feb 122013

There are only 93 years left to the real end of the world, say two Russian astronomers who announced that an newly discovered asteroid called YQ1 2012 will hit Earth in 2106.

Astronomers Andrey Oreshko and Timur Kryachko, were studying unregistered asteroids by means of telescope “Elena”, located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, when they discovered YQ1, a potential cause for “next” Apocalypse

According to the two experts,the space rock has a diameter of 230 meters and an orbital period of 1040 days.
Using telescope “Elena”, the most technologically advanced at this time, Oreshko and Kryachko could calculate the estimated time of a possible collision: January 2106.

Kryachko claims that if the asteroid’s trajectory is affected by a random collision with another celestial body or any similar unpredictable event, then in January 2106 the rock will pass extremely close to Earth, and our planet’s gravity would change asteroid’s trajectory by pulling it closer.

Scientists estimate that an impact would be equivalent to the energy released by about 25,000 atomic bombs detonated simultaneously.

According to NASA, YQ1 is the 17th most dangerous asteroid ever discovered

Asteroid 2012 DA14 to threaten Earth on 15 February as it passes by very close

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Feb 032013

Asteroid DA14 is set to pass near Earth on February 15, 2013 at just 30,000 kilometers and that’s quite close!!!

Small scale asteroid 2012 DA14 is about to make a big news on Feb. 15, 2013 as it passes by near Earth

Mankind has just recovered from grim rumors related to the 2012 Doomsday, but now a new concern pops up: on February 15, 2013, at 7:25 p.m. GMT asteroid DA14 will zip past our planet. According to scientists, DA14 is gonna flyby at 30,000 km from Earth, a range shorter that the distance to the orbit of geostationary satellites. Celestial bodies of such size have not flown so close before.

2012 DA14 weighs about 130,000 tons and is 45 meters in size. Such asteroids fly by our planet several times a year, said Sergey Barabanov, Head of Zvenigorod Observatory of the Institute of Astronomy RAS near Moscow.

“DA14 is a small asteroid, but the evaluation of its orbit and physical parameters is not entirely accurate.

The expert says that the full attention of Russian astronomers is currently focused on another dangerous space rock: the asteroid Apophis. In 2029, it will pass by at a distance of 36,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface and seven years later, at only a few thousand kilometer. But that does not threaten the humans with a catastrophe, assures the Russian specialist.

According to experts, in order to make a final prediction, detailed studies and accurate calculations of the asteroid’s orbit are needed.

2 billion-year-old Martian meteorite found in Sahara Desert, contains water

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Jan 042013

A 300 grams meteorite that has been age-dated to about two billion years, was discovered in the Sahara desert. After a long testing period, researchers concluded that it came from Mars when the planet had active volcanoes and water.

Martian meteorite found in Sahara contains high levels of water. Photo:Science Magazine

Although not the only Martian meteorite found on Earth, this one is different. It seems that the black stone originates from a volcano and contains 10 times more water than other rocks discovered so far. Black colored and weighing 320 grams, Mars’ rock was nicknamed “Black Beauty”. Researchers got into its possession after receiving it as donation from a collector who bought it in 2011 in Morocco. Such meteorites are sometimes sold at exchange of real fortunes as they are used as gemstones in jewelry industry.

An article published in Science Magazine, confirms many similarities with other meteorites from Red Planet, however the amount of water contained in Sahara’s martian rock is much higher. Although the stone looks “dry”, scientists have discovered that it came into contact with water when it formed 2.1 billion years ago. Furthermore researchers found evidence that water does not come from earth, after comparing isotopes of meteorite’s oxygen atoms with oxygen atoms present in terrestrial water.

The “Black Beauty”: Mars’s water rich asteroid to date from 2 billion years ago. (Science Magazine)

This discovery will help people learn more information about the history of Mars and the existence of liquid water on the red planet.

There are more than 100 Martian meteorites discovered on Earth, with most of them retrieved from Antarctica and Sahara desert. The oldest meteorite dates from 4.5 billion years ago when Mars formed.

How these space rocks got to Earth remains a mystery. It is suspected that an asteroid struck Mars, launching debris into space. Some fell to Earth as meteorites, while others landed on Moon or still float through space.

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