Solar Eclipse Ring Falling On May 20

The first solar eclipse in 2012 will decorate the skies on May 20 this weekend. This eclipse will occur when the Moon passes in front of the sun and displays a form of "ring of fire".

Proclaimed NASA sites, Wednesday (16/05/2012), this event is known as ring solar eclipse (annular solar eclipse). At the time of the day, the Moon will cover approximately 94 percent of the sun so that only appear as a luminous ring.

Hundreds of millions of people will be able to witness this event. This time the eclipse zone stretching from Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean to the western region of North America.

Path of the eclipse the ring just as wide as 200 miles only, but across many parts of the dense population in the world. These places are Tokyo in Japan, Medford, Oregon, Chico, California, Reno, Nevada, Alburquerque, New Mexico and Lubbock in Texas. In place of the eclipse will be seen About a four and a half minutes.

"The ring at the time of the eclipse of the sun ring is a very bright light. Although most of the sun will be covered, you still need to wear a sun filter or some kind of specific protection to be able to see," said Fred Espenak of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Frozen Mammoth Found in Siberia

A Mammoth, dubbed "Yuka," was found buried in ice in the Arctic Ocean near the coast and showed signs of ever cleaved by ancient people.

Proclaimed Live Science, Friday (04/06/2012), frozen carcasses are preserved so well was discovered in Siberia in a BBC Discovery Channel expedition. Believed to be approximately 10,000 years old or older than that.

"This is the first relatively complete mammoth carcass is the body with its soft tissue and show evidence of interaction with humans," said Daniel Fisher, curator and director at the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan.

Although currently still in the process of carbon dating, the researchers believe Yuka off at least 10,000 years ago, but probably much older. Animal is approximately 2.5 years old when he died.

The Best Sky Phenomenon in 2011

1. "Supermoon"
This is the most interesting phenomena of the heavens public attention in 2011. Supermoon is the phenomenon when the moon appears larger than usual. Precisely, seven percent greater. Supermoon occurred on Saturday (19/03/2011) night and Sunday (3/20/2011) morning.

2. Total lunar eclipse
There are two total lunar eclipse that occurred in 2011, on Thursday (6/16/2011) with 100 minutes of totality at 2:22 to 4:02 pm and Saturday (12/10/2011) with a totality of 50 minutes at 21:07 to 21:57 pm .

3. Jupiter moon
Not only can full moon. Jupiter can also reach the moon looks full of aliases and a little bigger. Full moon occurs when the planet Jupiter is located at a distance of closest to the Earth, which is 629 million kilometers. Earth, Jupiter, and Sun are on a straight line.

4. Blue moon
This is a rare phenomenon. Blue moon is actually defined as the second full moon in the same month, it does not mean the moon did look blue. However, this year, the Moon actually looked bluish.

5. Two meteor showers
Ramadan full of blessings, and this time his blessing are two meteor showers. Each is meteor showers Perseids and the Delta Aquarids which peak on August 13, 2011.

Kepler -22b Earth Like Planet

A possible Earth twin has been confirmed orbiting a sunlike star 600 light-years away—and the new planet may be in just the right spot for supporting life, NASA announced.

Discovered by the Kepler space mission, the new planet—dubbed Kepler-22b—is the first world smaller than Neptune to be found in middle of its star's habitable zone.

Also called the Goldilocks zone, the habitable zone is the region around a star where a planet's surface is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water—and thus life as we know it—to exist.

In fact, only two known planets fit this description so far—Gliese 581d and HD 85512—and both worlds orbit at the very edges of their stars' habitable zones, making them more akin to Venus and Mars than to Earth.

"It's also orbiting a star that's almost a twin of our sun, whereas the other two detections are orbiting significantly cooler stars."

The Kepler mission finds new worlds by simultaneously monitoring 150,000 stars for dips in brightness, which are indicative of planets passing in front of—or transiting—their stars.

Kepler-22b was among the 54 roughly Earth-size planet candidates announced by the Kepler team in February. But the spacecraft needs to watch at least three transits to confirm that a signal is a planet.

The new planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth, but scientists don't yet know its composition, because they are still missing a crucial piece of information: Kepler-22b's mass.

Nocturnum Bulbophyllum, orchid that blooms at night

Bulbophyllum nocturnum, new orchid species are found on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. This species is the only orchid that blooms at night.

Kew Garden London discovered a new species of orchids in the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The new species of orchid Bulbophyllum nocturnum named, is the only one among the 25,000 species of orchids that have been described that blooms at night. Uniquely, the orchid's also only bloom overnight.

So far, the reason why orchids that bloom at night is not known. However, it is alleged orchid pollinated by animals such as mosquitoes and gnats are active at night. Many other species of orchids are pollinated by moths at night, but still bloom in the daytime. So, everything is uncertain.

Source

Giant Ancient Crocodile Found in Colombia

A new species of ancient crocodile, measuring approximately 20 feet long, was discovered by researchers from the University of Florida in a coal mine in Colombia.

As quoted by Fox News on Monday (3/10/2011), the research is led by Jonathan Bloch, a paleontologist from the Florida Museum of Natural History and Carlos Jaramillo, an expert from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute paleobotanist.

Alex Hastings, Ph.D. student from the University of Florida will collect fossils of these animals as a comparison to the new giants of ancient crocodile found it. Crocodile Acherontisuchus Guajiraensis the manifold, the most recent prehistoric reptile found in Cerrejon coal mine, Colombia.

Acherontisuchus Guajiraensis a 'distant cousin' of today's modern crocodile, and not a direct ancestor of the crocodile. This species is estimated to live approximately 60 million years ago. Previously the species was believed extinct due to mass extinction along with the dinosaurs.

"One big question: how do they survive? Excess of what they have?" Hastings said.

"In addition, the invention also is a proof that this giant crocodile lives in fresh water areas. It was previously thought that only Acherontisuchus Guajiraensis baby crocodiles that live in fresh water, because the adults are more likely to prefer living in areas near the sea," he added.

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks to Lowest Level on Record

The seasonal shrinking of the sea ice over the North Pole is one of the most visible symptoms of the gradual warming of the planet. Over the last several years—as temperatures in the Arctic have warmed even faster than they have throughout the rest of the planet—ice has been melting quickly.

In September 2007 the Arctic sea ice hit a minimum of 1.608 million sq. mi.—an all-time low since record-keeping began more than 50 years ago. So much sea ice had melted that the fabled Northwest Passage—an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—briefly opened up for the first time in human memory.

On September 15 scientists at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the 2011 Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million sq. mi., the second-lowest level on record. 

source: time

First Photo of Earth 45 Years Ago

The world's first view of Earth taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of the moon. The photo was transmitted to Earth by the United States Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA tracking station near Madrid. This crescent of the Earth was photographed August 23, 1966 when the spacecraft was on its 16th orbit and just about to pass behind the moon.

CREDIT: NASA

Source: livescience.com

Devil Bat Species Found

Three new species of bat found in tropical forests south of Indochina. One bat species that are found named Satan, and has a scientific name Murina Beelzebub. This type of bat is only found in Vietnam.

"We chose the name of Beelzebub as cruel black color which is owned by this new species, as well as self-protective behaviors are looked fierce when encountered in the field," said Gabir Csorba, Hungarian National History researcher, as quoted by Wired, Friday (09/02/2011) .

The discovery of a new kind of bat was the result of collaboration between biologists and conservation experts from the Hungarian Natural History Museum and the Flora and Fauna International. The discovery, published in the August issue of the Journal of Mammalogy 2011.

Paul Racey, a bat expert and the Vice Chairman of Flora Fauna International said mammal with a bat represents the most variation in Southeast Asia. Number of bat species is estimated to double the number found at this time based on genetic research.

Devil bats and two other newly discovered types included in the tube-nosed bat. The bat's life depends entirely on the existence of tropical forests. They are now threatened by forest destruction activities.

Source: Kompas

'Oldest' Rhino Fossil Found

A woolly rhino fossil dug up on the Tibetan Plateau is believed to be the oldest specimen of its kind yet found. The creature lived some 3.6 million years ago - long before similar beasts roamed northern Asia and Europe in the ice ages that gripped those regions.

The discovery team says the existence of this ancient rhino supports the idea that the frosty Tibetan foothills of the Himalayas were the evolutionary cradle for these later animals. The report appears in Science journal. It has been put in a new species classification - Coelodonta thibetana.

Dr Wang and colleagues say it displays some very primitive features compared with its counterparts that lived through the later great glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch. Skull and lower jaw The Tibetan woolly rhino fossil is in generally good condition, if a little misshapen

Judging from marks on the skull, the creature's horn, which has not survived, would likely have been quite flat in construction and leaning forward. This might have allowed the animal more easily to sweep snow out of the way to get at vegetation, a useful behaviour for survival in the harsh Tibetan climate, the team says.

"We think it would have used its horn like a paddle to sweep the snow away," Dr Wang explained.

Although the extinction of the Pleistocene beasts, such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, great sloths and sabre-tooth cats, has been intensively studied in recent years, much less is known about where these giants came from and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment.

The Los Angeles-based researcher concedes that many more fossil finds will be required to underpin the Tibetan hypothesis.

Ancient Sea Monster Fossil 85 Million Years Old, Found

The oldest fossil sea monster 85 million years old found in Antarctica. Monstrer invention, which is actually a type of ancient marine reptiles Plesiosaur, makes scientists think that reptiles are there in Antarctica 15 million years before the predicted time.

"Fragments that we find are not included in the group has ever encountered before, so it indicates a Plesiosaur greater diversity than expected," said Alexander Keliner from the National Museum of Brazil at the University of Rio de Janeiro, as quoted by National Geographic, Wednesday (24 / 8 / 2011).

Fragments of the spine, head, fins indicate that the Plesiosaur that was found to have a length of about 6-7 meters. Unfortunately, the bones were found did not allow scientists to identify species of Plesiosaur this.

Plesiosaur spread around the Earth at the time between 205-65 million years ago, and reached the southern hemisphere in mid-Jurassic era.

These animals have diverse characteristics, but most have a small head, long neck and big body. Fossil specimens in this study are found in between 2.5 tons of fossils and rock samples collected in the Antarctic expedition in Rhose Island throughout the year from 2006 to 2007.

Most of the specimens stored in museums, including the fossilized tree seera with Plesiosaur. "The tree shows that there are forests in Antarctica at that time. We believe that these animals live in an environment very different from now," Kellner added. The results published in the journal Polar, June.

How the turtle survived from meteor disaster

Boremys turtles that survived the meteor impact that eliminating the dinosaurs seemed completely unaffected by the catastrophe that. According to a study reported in the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

According to Walter Joyce of the University of Tubingen, turtles are able to survive because of natural ability to survive in severe conditions. "When the temperature is too cold, they do hibernate. When it is too hot or dry, they will dig holes in the mud and wait through the drought," explains Joyce. "Apparently, that ability is also useful when a meteor impact 65 million years ago," added Joyce.

Based on the fossils found in Hell Creek and Fort Union in southwestern North Dakota and eastern Montana, scientists guess Boremys live 80 to 42 million years ago. Species they found like swampland around the tropical river.

Boremys eat soft plants, small mollusks, insects and fish. Boremys smallest has a length of 25 centimeters, while the largest can reach 80 centimeters.

Boremys not have a close relationship with modern turtles. "But, they have similar habits to modern turtles," explains the researcher.

When a meteor crashed into Earth 65 million years ago, most species of extinct dinosaurs. Others experience a loss of individuals in a very large number. While some other types, such as turtles Boremys, able to survive.

"The animals of the die by the thousands. Meanwhile amphibians, like frogs and salamanders, as well as reptiles, can still survive because they have techniques that help them live in difficult conditions," said Joyce.

Joyce also added, the animals that survived still had to face the problem. "They are not always able to survive from predators," he said.

Modern turtles currently face any problem. "Ironic, animals that have been around 220 million years ago is now almost extinct due to human activity. They survived the asteroid, but no survivors of our species," said James Parham, researchers from the Field Museum of Natural History. (National Geographic Indonesia / Alex Pangestu) kompas.com

Humans Can See Magnetic Field

Without realizing it, people can actually see the Earth's magnetic field due to a compound in the eye. There is a possibility, our ancestors used to have such capabilities.

A study shows that there is a possibility of a protein called cryptochrome appears on the retina. Proteins are widely found in animals and plants so that some species could use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate.

Electrons in cryptochrome molecules interlinked. Earth's magnetic field causes the electrons are swaying. Chemical reaction in response to rocking of the electron makes the bird can see the field in a colorful maget.

Researchers previously thought lost cryptochrome does not have many advantages for humans so it can not recognize the magnetic field as a bird. Therefore, humans need a benchmark or a GPS device to find directions.

This suspicion is likely to be changed after the neurologist from the University of Massachusetts doing research. They took the cryptochrome from humans and give it to fruit flies that lost the ability to see magnetic fields. The result, as reported by Wired Science, fruit fly again have the ability to see magnetic fields.

Sayangya in humans, the workings of cryptochrome is not like the flies. "We do not know whether the work is the same molecule in the human retina. But that possibility exists," says Steven Reppert, a neurologist from the University of Massachusetts. Today scientists know that cryptochrome in humans serves as a molecular clock, not as a compass.

But the researchers suspect that our ancestors helped by the presence of these proteins to determine the direction. If at any time the researchers managed to restore this capability ... goodbye GPS device. (National Geographic Indonesia / Alex Pangestu)

Papua Shark

More than 1,000 species found in research in Papua and Papua New Guinea during the years 1998-2008. One of the most astonishing is the discovery of a freshwater shark which was given the scientific name Glyphis garricki. The new type of shark was discovered in 2008 by experts from New Zealand fish, Jack Garrick.

At that time, Garrick found two new individuals born in the Port Romilly, Gulf District, Papua New Guinea. WWF published a report this year states, freshwater shark are found in many major Asian rivers such as Ganges.

Glyphis garricki is one of six species in the genus Glyphis described. Since then its discovery until now, only 16 individuals freshwater shark are found in the range of Papua to Australia.

The biggest specimen is called Northern River Shark, measuring 2.5 meters long. At least individuals who are found to make Glyphis garricki rare. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) put this fish in the category of "Endangered" in his Red List.

Freshwater shark is one of the 71 fish species found in Papua and Papua New Guinea in the time period mentioned above. Cymatilis Chrysiptera fish species are also found in Côte Milne, Papua New Guinea. Another special type of fish that is Cirrhilabrus of paradise, bird's head was found in the territory of Papua. Of these fish have color patterns are so beautiful that males use to attract females when they wanted to marry.

As with other animals, many fish in Papua and Papua New Guinea are threatened by habitat destruction activity. Catching fish is not environmentally friendly is also a threat.

Lunar Eclipse Live Video

Thank goodness for the Internet! Tonight's total lunar eclipse -- the first of 2011, and the longest in nearly 11 years -- isn't visible in North America, but the video below from Sky Watchers Association Of North Bengal (SWAN) is live streaming the entire spectacle.

According to NASA, the lunar eclipse begins at 1:24 p.m. EDT, though the 100-minute long totality (when the Earth's shadow completely covers the moon) will happen from 3:22 p.m. EDT until 5:02 p.m. EDT.

SWAN isn't the only group documenting the rare spectacle and sharing it with the world. Google announced that a live stream of the lunar eclipse can be watched on their YouTube channel (also embedded below) or by using the Sky layer in Google Earth. The feed comes from the Slooh Space Camera, and they have a live interface to let users take part in the lunar eclipse, as well.

Source: Huffingtonpost

Six facts about Gagarin's historic mission

How long was Gagarin up there?

The total mission lasted just 108 minutes, and the trip once around the Earth at 17,500 mph (most of the way) took less than an hour and a half.

In that time, Vostok 1 completed one not-quite-circular orbit, at a maximum altitude of 203 miles, before slowing down to the point that the capsule was pulled back into the atmosphere for ballistic re-entry.

What kind of vessel was the Vostok 1?

The Vostok was a spherical capsule, designed to eliminate changes in center of gravity. In that way, the craft could assure comfort for its one-man crew no matter its orientation. What it wasn't designed to do was land with a human still on board.

Unlike later Russian space vehicles, such as the modern Soyuz capsule, Vostok 1 was not outfitted with thrusters to help slow it down as it headed back toward Earth, so Gagarin had to eject before reaching ground, at an altitude of around 4 miles.

But since the achievement would not have been regarded as the first successful manned mission to space unless it included a manned landing, the Russians kept this little detail out of official press releases. [How the First Human Spaceflight Worked]

What prevented earlier missions from reaching orbit?

In a word: speed.

In order to escape Earth's gravitational pull, a ship needs to hit 17,500 mph, or about 5 miles per second. Before the Vostok 1 mission, no rocket was powerful enough to get a vessel going that fast. The Vostok capsule's cannonball shape helped the rocket and spacecraft reach the necessary velocity.

How did they test the Vostok before Gagarin’s mission?

A few weeks prior, a prototype of Gagarin's craft, the Vostok 3KA-2, completed one low-Earth orbit carrying a life-size dummy named Ivan Ivanovich and a dog called Zvezdochk.

Ivan was sold in a Sotheby's auction in 1993.

Who was Yuri Gagarin?

Yuri Gagarin was a 27-year-old Soviet Air Force pilot when he made his first and only trip into space. Upon his triumphant return he instantly became a national treasure, too valuable to send on such a dangerous mission again.

It's a sad irony, then, that when Gagarin was finally scheduled to ascend to the cosmos once more, he died in a crash during a routine training exercise. Gagarin remained a hero after the fall of the Soviet Union; statues of him were preserved while monuments to Russia's Communist leaders were torn down.

Modern cosmonauts still observe a sacred launch-day tradition based on Gagarin's preflight preparations in 1961. On the way to the launch pad, the bus carrying the crew stops so that the members can hop out and "take a leak," just as Gagarin did the morning he made history.

Launch pad still in use

One lasting legacy of Gagarin's historic spaceflight is the mission's launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch pad is still in use today – with the latest crew of the International Space Station blasting off from the site last week on April 5 local time (late April 4 EDT).

Baikonur Cosmodrome is one of several launching sites used by Russia's Federal Space Agency (also known as Roscosmos), but it is not in Russia. The launch site is in Kazakhstan, a country that was part of the Soviet Union during the Cold War but is now a separate nation.

Cosmonauts continued launching from Gagarin's Vostok 1 pad throughout the Cold War, and the tradition continues to this day.

Foxnews

The archaeologists Found Monalisa bones

The archaeologists have started to remove the bones of Lisa Gherardini, the woman who inspired Leonardo da Vinci believed when painting the Mona Lisa.

"Preliminary analysis of the cranium and pelvis showed that the bones belong to adult women," said Giorgio Gruppioni, anthropologists from the University of Bologna. However, Gruppioni confessed to spend the whole bone, which is found on the floor of an ancient church known as St. Orsola, prior to determine the sex of the owner of these bones. All the bones will be tested by radiocarbon dating, analysis of histology, and DNA testing.

To ensure that the bones belonged to Gherardini, scientists will compare DNA from the bones with DNA from the children Gherardini, Bartolomeo and Piero, who was buried in the church Santissima Annunziata in Florence.

The identity of the Mona Lisa itself is still speculation: some say the painting was inspired by the artist's mother, a woman of nobility, tunasusila women, even really a man. However, most scientists believe that the Mona Lisa is a member of the royal family who come from inland, who married a rich merchant Francesco del Giocondo. "He's right there, live like us," said Giuseppe Pallanti that no excavation involved.

Pallanti Gherardini has researched a long time. According to him, Gherardini was born on June 15, 1479 and died at the age of 63 years, 4 years after her husband died. "Lisa in Francesco Del Giocindo died on July 15, 1542,"he stated in a document known as the "Death Books" Pallantini found in church archives.

The project itself aims to find a bone Gherardini and reconstruct her face to ensure similarity with the Mona Lisa painting that hung in the Louvre Museum, Paris. (Source: Discovery News/National Geographic)

Telescopes record the collision between the galaxies

Spitzer Space Telescope and Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft (GALEX) managed to capture the image of the collision antargalaksi from start to finish. Researchers at Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who make this observation, Lauranne Lanz, presenting the image in the American Society Meeting in Boston, Wednesday (05/25/2011).

Two adalan colliding galaxies NGC 935 and IC 1801. The observations of astronomers shows that when two galaxies collide and form larger galaxies, the destruction spurred the formation of clouds of gas and dust. Furthermore, the accident will spur the formation of more stars.

"This image is the first step to know the story of how galaxies form, grow and evolve," said Lanz. According to him, this image gives a better understanding of what might happen when the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies collide 5 billion next year.

In taking the images, GALEX role emit ultraviolet light to image the young stars in blue. Meanwhile, the Spitzer telescope that emit infrared light illuminates a heated dust in red. Paired two tools that generate rich data.

Lanz said, in each collision of galaxies, the resulting number of stars will vary. Now, he is researching the factors that influence those variations. Lanz also worked hard to test their understanding. "Our understanding will be really tested 5 billion years when the Milky Way in a collision," said Lanz.

NASA Will Take Sample Of Asteroid

a NASA spacecraft will move towards an asteroid, take samples, and, sending it to the earth. This is expressed by the United States space agency (USA) is on Thursday (26 / 5).

Unmanned aircraft will not land on the asteroid but it will only fly close to the surface of the asteroid and issued a robotic hand to take 2.27 pounds of dust and other organic material. The samples will then be stored in a capsule for the trip home.

Asteroids seen as a remnant from the formation of the solar system at 4.5 billion years ago. Studying these samples is expected to provide information about how life arose in the solar system.

The mission of U.S. $ 1 billion (around Rp 8, 6 trillion) is planned to be held in 2016 and will take four years to reach the asteroid and begin sampling. Sample capsule is expected to arrive on Earth in 2023.

The purpose of this mission is an asteroid named 1999RQ36 based on years of discovery. Because the asteroid is five times the size of a football field is only changed slightly over time so the scientists believe could learn about the solar system.

One of the scientists who took part in the study Michael Drake of the University of Arizona described the asteroid sbagai time capsule containing the life-forming materials.

Bacterial Source of Future Electricity

For the first time revealed that the molecular structure of proteins allows the bacterium to transfer electrical charge. This is revealed in the report of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States on Monday (23 / 5).

The scientists used a technique called x-ray crystallography to determine the structure of protein molecules that act like 'wires' of atoms and produce electricity.

"This is an interesting leap in our understanding of several species of bacteria can deliver electrons from inside to outside the cell," said lead author Tom Clarke of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

He said, this discovery means we can now begin to develop an efficient biobaterai as a viable energy source in the future. But, to get to where it can take maybe a decade.

Well, the use of bacteria that is now a performance of 100 or 1,000 times more efficient.

The discovery also can speed up the development of microbial technology that can help clean up oil or uranium pollution.

Microbes may in future be registered to clean up nuclear accidents like in Fukushima Daiichi in Japan.