Hasta La Gadget!

NASA’s Hubble space telescope has caught a glimpse of a fast moving comet, one of the brightest examples in decades, as it prepares to skim the surface of the sun later this year. Comet (C/2012 S1) ISON was first identified in September last year, with later observations leading astronomers to predict that the hurtling chunk of rock and ice could be the brightest sighted in fifty years. Now, a new photograph shows the comet already active.

When the photo was captured, on April 10, ISON was still 386m miles from the sun (and slightly further away than that from Earth). However, the comet was already active, NASA’s scientists say, with the top layer of frozen volatiles warming up and releasing strong, jet-blasting dust particles.

With some false color added – NASA has put in the blue hue artificially, though the photo was captured using visible light – the effect is already clear. That has scientists impressed, too, since the core nucleus of the comet is believed to be relatively small for the amount of activity it’s showing, around 3-4 miles in diameter. However, the dusty coma – the smudge at the head – is already around 3,1000 miles across.

Both dwindle in comparison to the dust tail left behind, however. NASA says that extends in excess of 57,000 miles, and is in fact so long that Hubble’s frame of view can’t encompass it all. ISON is expected to skim an astronomically-tiny 700,000 miles above the sun’s surface on November 28 2013, though scientists are still crunching data from observations like these to figure out what the effect will be.

Whatever’s left will then continue on, coming within 39.9m miles of Earth before the year is out.

NASA snaps ISON comet as it hurtles super-bright to the sun is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A floor mat is unfortunately a must-have accessory if you don’t want your office chair trampling down carpet, or tearing up a wooden floor. But thankfully you no longer have to just opt for a boring sheet of plastic. Underfoot Media creates chair mats printed with stunning images of the universe, so rolling over to get a printout feels like soaring across the galaxy. More »

Science has a long history of making breakthroughs accidentally. The number of breakthroughs in the scientific world that came about from scientists and researchers trying to accomplish some unrelated task is surprising. A group of Japanese scientists were attempting to scan fruit fly larva using an electron microscope.

The problem with scanning fruit fly larva using an electron microscope is that the larva had to be placed into a space-like vacuum. Once in that vacuum, the fruit fly larvae quickly dehydrated and died within minutes. To be able to study the larva, the scientists had to come up with some way to protect the tiny bugs from the vacuum. The resulting quest led to the scientists developing a type of nano-suit that enveloped the fruit fly larva’s body.

According to the scientists, not only did this incredibly thin nano-suit protect the larva from the vacuum, the suit also withstood physical touches. The researchers say that the nano-suit is only 50 to 100-billionths of a meter thick and was flexible enough to allow the larva to move. While this should allow the larva to move, it was strong enough to keep gasses and liquids from escaping.

This breakthrough has some potential beyond the world of studying insect larva and could in the future lead to incredibly thin spacesuits for astronauts. The nano suit is so thin it’s almost like wearing nothing. The scientists created the artificial nano-suits by dunking mosquito larvae into a pool of water mixed with a chemical called Tween 20. The chemical is non-toxic and is commonly found in detergents, cosmetics, and hard candy. Once dipped in the chemical, the larva were showered with plasma allowing the Tween 20 to polymerize and become a nano-suit. Once enveloped in the nano-suit, the scientists say that the mosquito larvae can withstand vacuum for about 30 min.

[via ScienceMag]

Nano-suit research could lead to spacesuits that are barely there is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Since the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been has been shooting continuous photos of the sun, once every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The results are gorgeous. More »

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has this week returned a request from a couple of high school science students to perform a simple experiment aboard the International Space Station: wringing out water from a wet washcloth. It’s shown first that a washcloth on the ISS is stored in a sort of hockey puck form, smashed down to its smallest physical form to avoid taking up any unnecessary space aboard the space station. From there it’s a lengthy task just unfolding the piece of material for basic use.

The washcloth itself is made wet offscreen as the task appears to spoil the surprise for the viewer. The viewers, mind you, are part of the brand new NFB Space School just revealed this week. This program is housed by the National Film Board in Canada and will continue to make use of the efforts of Chris Hadfield aboard the ISS as well as other Canadians willing to join in on the education.

Once water is released into the station, you’ll see it take on a blob-like form. Once it is (seemingly) inside the cloth, it travels with the cloth. This is similar to what would happen if Hadfield were much closer to the surface of our planet, but were the cloth this wet and he were standing on the Earth’s ground, gravity would have the water dripping down from the cloth.

Because of the surface tension of the materials included here and the extremely low gravity present on the ISS, the water stays together – for the most part – even when the cloth wrings it out. You’ll see the “tube of water” promised to you in the title of this article about 2 minutes in to the demonstration video.

The NFB Space School has been launched today as well – this being an online resource for science enthusiasts and everyday learners online. This program appears at the moment to be prepared for students across the world, provided by Canada’s NFB in support of space exploration and the expansion of scientific knowledge in general. Have a peek at SlashGear’s International Space Station tag portal for more news from our high-flying astronaut friends!

[via NFB Space School]

ISS experiment confirms state of wrung-out wet towel in space is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.