The Enlightening Science Thread

As much as half the water on Earth is older than the sun

Earth is a very wet planet — the abundance of water is what sets our planet apart and makes life possible, but where did it all come from? A new study makes the claim that 30% to 50% of the water we’re drinking is older than the Sun itself. It kind of boggles the mind, but the models are consistent with what we know of the early solar system and how stars form.

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A Guy

Crystal invented that can store, release, and replenish oxygen on command

In what sounds like the most efficient weapon that an alien race can threaten the human populace with, scientists at the University of Southern Denmark have invented a crystal that pulls oxygen from a room and even water. According to the researchers, only a bucket full of the crystalline material is needed for the effect to take place.

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A Guy

Incredible ‘cloud waves’ could be first new cloud type in 60 years

The International Cloud Atlas is exactly what it sounds like – a visual guide to the world’s many and varied cloud formations. The last time it received a major new addition that did not star Tom Hanks was in 1951, with the introduction of cirrus intortus, but after all that time a new challenger has appeared: undulatus asperatus (or just asperatus). The name literally means “agitated waves,” and as that phrase implies, this cloud formation is terrifying and visually spectacular.

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A Guy

Tomorrow night's total lunar eclipse will reveal a glorious reddish Moon, cloud permitting

A beginner's guide to the Moon › Science Features (ABC Science)

Beautiful Cloud formation Bill! I've seen similar here especially the inverted funnel and mamatus formations.




Thanks for the heads up Colin, been so busy I forgot about it. I might get to see some of it, sky cover forecast here is 70% covered at start, and drops to 50% near end.

Updated look: Wake Up to a Total Lunar Eclipse on October 8, 2014 | Sky & Telescope

Background posts:
#217 in March: A Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses

#356 in September: Autumn's Equinox and October's Eclipse

Olivia Solon said:

liquid hard drive containing a suspension of nanoparticles could be used to store impressive amounts of data: 1 terabyte per tablespoon.

Researchers from the University of Michigan and New York University have been simulating wet information storage techniques which uses clusters of nanoparticles suspended in liquid. These clusters of particles can store more data than conventional computer bits which have just two storage states: 0 and 1. The clusters of particles work a bit like Rubik's Cubes to reconfigure in different ways to represent different storage states. A 12-particle memory cluster connected to a central sphere can have almost eight million unique states, which is equivalent to 2.86 bytes of data.

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Evidence for Young Lunar Volcanism

Oct 13, 2014: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has provided researchers strong evidence the moon’s volcanic activity slowed gradually instead of stopping abruptly a billion years ago. Scores of distinctive rock deposits observed by LRO are estimated to be less than 100 million years old. This time period corresponds to Earth’s Cretaceous period, the heyday of dinosaurs. Some areas may be less than 50 million years old.

“This finding is the kind of science that is literally going to make geologists rewrite the textbooks about the moon,” said John Keller, LRO project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

More: Evidence for Young Lunar Volcanism - NASA Science

On October 19, a comet that has travelled many billions of miles will come within about 87,000 miles of Mars - about one-third of the distance of the Moon from Earth. Comet Siding Spring comes from the Oort Cloud, material left over from the formation of the solar system. "This comet is coming into the solar system straight from the Oort Cloud. It's likely this is its first time this close to the sun," said space scientist David Humm, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Source: CRISM Prepares For Mars-grazing Comet Siding Spring

Scientist are preparing the Mars fleet by parking the numerous spacecraft on the side of Mars away from the comet during closest approach.

The period of greatest risk to orbiting spacecraft will start about 90 minutes after the closest approach of the comet's nucleus and will last about 20 minutes, when Mars will come closest to the center of the widening trail of dust flying from the nucleus.

Source: NASA Prepares its Science Fleet for Oct. 19 Mars Comet Encounter - Mars Exploration Program

Video showing satellite repositioning at top of main source page: Comets: Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) - Mars Exploration Program

Hurricane Gonzalo as viewed from the International Space Station