The Future Is Wild –Episode Four Prairies of Amazonia

Today on Discovery Enterprise we are going to take a voyage five million years into the future and visit South America where the Amazon used to stand.

This episode features three species: (1) Carakiller, a descendant of the caracara which has evolved to replace land predators; (2) Babookari, a descendant of the uakari which lives like baboons and has discovered how to catch fish; (3) Rattleback, a descendant of the agouti which has developed tough armour and can live through quickly-passing grass fires.

This episode shows that due to the cooling of the planet, the Amazon rainforest has vanished and has been replaced by grassland. Most primates have died out but the Babookari has evolved to live on the plains. They have also become much cleverer and can now make nets out of twigs to catch fish. There is also the Rattleback, a heavily defended rodent which is somewhat fireproof and birdproof and lives on a diet of Carakiller eggs and grass stems and tubers. The episode also shows the biggest danger to these animals - fire. This also shows how Carakillers hunt in packs.

The narrator explains that the Amazon died out because the annual rains failed to fall because of the second ice age. All monkeys died out there except the uakari, A social monkey that goes on the ground and on the trees. It has evolved into the babookar, a complete ground monkey. It catches fish by weaving a basket of twigs and dipping it into the water. They teach the next generation this like chimpanzees. They are eaten by cara killers, descendants of the ground falcon the caracara. They hunt in packs. They lay eggs in one nest. The rattleback, descendant of the agouti eats these eggs. The carakillers powerful beak can't destroy the rattlebacks armor. A prairie fire sends the babookari's running, which the carakillers take advantage of. They chase down and kill them. Rhe rains come down and end the fire.

The Future Is Wild –Episode Four Prairies of Amazonia

Read More...

LCROSS confirms water on the Moon

It appears that the LCROSS  Moon bomber did confirm water at the Lunar pole:

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- Preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon.

The LCROSS spacecraft and a companion rocket stage made twin impacts in the Cabeus crater Oct. 9 that created a plume of material from the bottom of a crater that has not seen sunlight in billions of years. The plume traveled at a high angle beyond the rim of Cabeus and into sunlight, while an additional curtain of debris was ejected more laterally.

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and, by extension, the solar system," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The moon harbors many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding."

Scientists long have speculated about the source of significant quantities of hydrogen that have been observed at the lunar poles. The LCROSS findings are shedding new light on the question with the discovery of water, which could be more widespread and in greater quantity than previously suspected. If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Since the impacts, the LCROSS science team has been analyzing the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected. The team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the most definitive information about the presence of water. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.

"We are ecstatic," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water."

The team took the known near-infrared spectral signatures of water and other materials and compared them to the impact spectra the LCROSS near infrared spectrometer collected.

"We were able to match the spectra from LCROSS data only when we inserted the spectra for water," Colaprete said. "No other reasonable combination of other compounds that we tried matched the observations. The possibility of contamination from the Centaur also was ruled out."

Additional confirmation came from an emission in the ultraviolet spectrum that was attributed to hydroxyl, one product from the break-up of water by sunlight. When atoms and molecules are excited, they release energy at specific wavelengths that can be detected by the spectrometers. A similar process is used in neon signs. When electrified, a specific gas will produce a distinct color. Just after impact, the LCROSS ultraviolet visible spectrometer detected hydroxyl signatures that are consistent with a water vapor cloud in sunlight.

Data from the other LCROSS instruments are being analyzed for additional clues about the state and distribution of the material at the impact site. The LCROSS science team and colleagues are poring over the data to understand the entire impact event, from flash to crater. The goal is to understand the distribution of all materials within the soil at the impact site.

"The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich," Colaprete said. "Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years."

LCROSS was launched June 18 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the spent upper stage of its launch vehicle hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. PDT Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.

LRO observed the impact and continues to pass over the site to give the LCROSS team additional insight into the mechanics of the impact and its resulting craters. The LCROSS science team is working closely with scientists from LRO and other observatories that viewed the impact to analyze and understand the full scope of the LCROSS data.

<

Read More...

To Mars via Aquatica

Here's an interesting little story about NASA astronauts exploring the undersea to better explore space:

Pavilion Lake, in British Columbia, Canada, is home to a biological mystery. Microbialites, coral-like structures built by bacteria, in a variety of sizes and shapes, carpet the lakebed. That’s unusual for a freshwater lake like Pavilion. So unusual that researchers don’t know of any other freshwater lake in the world that has microbialites with some of the same strange shapes.

That explains why scientists have established the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) to study the lake. They want to understand what’s so unusual about seemingly normal Pavilion Lake, how the microbial structures manage to survive, why they aren’t destroyed by snails, worms and other grazing animals, as they are elsewhere.

What it doesn’t explain is why NASA’s MMAMA (Moon and Mars Analogue Missions Activities) program has funded the PRLP to continue its work for the next several years. Or why astronauts from NASA and CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) are participating in the project. After all, there are no lakes on the moon, and it’s been a long time since there were any on Mars.

Because of the logistical difficulty of doing comprehensive exploration in an underwater environment, however, lessons learned in the process of exploring Pavilion Lake are directly relevant to future human exploration of other worlds.

“We’re doing science in a setting where we have limited life support,” says Darlene Lim of NASA Ames Research Center, PLRP’s principal investigator. “I can’t just walk out and hang out with [an interesting] rock all day.” PLRP divers have been studying the lake for several years, but were able to survey only a small fraction of it. So in 2008, researchers began exploring in the lake in DeepWorkers, mini-submersibles just large enough for a pilot to squeeze inside. That’s when NASA and CSA sent astronauts to the scene. A second round of DeepWorker exploration took place in 2009.

The full article is here.

Read More...

December 21st, 2012: Doomsday Ain’t Happening

Today Friday November 13th, 2009 theatergoers the world over will be teleported via cinematic magic forward in time to the near future date of Friday December 21st, 2012 and a possible End Day that will signify the end of civilization as we know it. In view of the gravity of the situation, and believing that our blog site has a responsibility to serve in the public interest at all times, we are going to help set the record straight.

Let us assure you our dear readers of Discovery Enterprise that on Friday December 21st, 2012, in all probability “the Earth's magnetic poles will not flip, California will not break apart and slide into the sea, and a secret monster planet will not smash into Earth out of the invisible nowhere”. On Saturday December 22nd, 2012 we will be back to the old everyday concerns of work, school and family and making the last minute entries on our holiday gift list and debating whether or not we are going to get Uncle Bob another Paisley Tie again this Christmas.

"The world will not come to an end on December 21, 2012," says prominent astronomer and astro-historian E. C. Krupp, director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and a Sky & Telescope contributing editor. "The 2012 doomsday idea starts with a misinterpretation of the Maya calendar."

Dr. Krupp debunks the 2012 doomsday idea in the cover story of the November 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, which is now on sale at newsstands. The article explains what you need to know for your 2012 defense kit. Click here to download a copy of Dr. Krupp's informative article in Sky & Telescope.

So we can all sleep a lot more easily tonight. In the mean time if you are staying in tonight and not attending the premier of the theatrical release of this latest Hollywood disaster flick we at Discovery Enterprise will provide you with the next best thing – two episodes of the highly controversial and questionably accurate documentary series Decoding the Past. Namely: “Doomsday 2012 - The End of Days” and “Mayan Doomsday Prophecy”. So make some buttery mouth watering Popcorn and enjoy today’s video offering. Make sure you book your tickets to see John Cusack in 2012 tomorrow and sleep easy tonight with the knowledge that its just plain old make-believe.

Decoding the Past - Doomsday 2012 - The End Of Days




Decoding The Past - Mayan Doomsday Prophecy



'2012' Trailer HD

The end of the world is coming in 2012 or so goes the plot of this apocalyptic drama from the director of Independence Day. The movie, appropriately titled 2012, is about a group of people (led by John Cusack) trying to counteract and survive the disastrous events predicted by the Ancient Mayan calendar. Why do I get the feeling the Director Roland Emmerich has a thing for the end of the world judging from his past movies like Independence Day, Day After Tommorow, and Godzilla?? Take a look at this teaser trailer and see the destruction for yourself. Not a very long trailer but you get the idea. I assume there will be much more of the same for the whole 2 hours of this movie. Let us know what you think, does 2012 look like it could be another Independence Day?

Read More...

The Universe - Ten Ways to Destroy the Earth

Today on Discovery Enterprise in anticipation of this Friday’s release of the disaster film 2012 we are going to explore ten possible ways to destroy our home world – the Earth.

In this episode of the History Channel’s awe inspiring television series – The Universe, our experts cook up ten ways you could destroy the earth worthy of the upcoming Hollywood disaster flick 2012. Everything from: swallowing it with a microscopic black hole; blowing it up with anti-matter; hurling it into the Sun, and switching off gravity.

This is a fun way to explore the dangerous physics of the Universe and the properties of the planet we call home. So today we explore the ten possible scenarios scientists have dreamed up and that may be coming to a theatre near you with the next disaster flick depicting End Day whatever the date of the year maybe.

The Universe - Ten Ways to Destroy the Earth

Read More...

Buzz Aldrin: Fake rockets and a commercial solution

Buzz Aldrin was in fine form the other day in the Huffington Post. Here is what he has t say about the recent Ares-1 test:

Yes, the rocket that thundered aloft from NASA's Launch Pad 39B sure looked like an Ares 1. But that's where the resemblance stops. Turns out the solid booster was - literally - bought from the Space Shuttle program, since a five-segment booster being designed for Ares wasn't ready. So they put a fake can on top of the four-segmented motor to look like the real thing. Since the real Ares' upper stage rocket engine, called the J-2X wasn't ready either, they mounted a fake upper stage. No Orion capsule was ready, so - you guessed it - they mounted a fake capsule with a real-looking but fake escape rocket that wouldn't have worked if the booster had failed. Since the guidance system for Ares wasn't ready either they went and bought a unit from the Atlas rocket program and used it instead. Oh yes, the parachutes to recover the booster were the real thing -- and one of the three failed, causing the booster to slam into the ocean too fast and banging the thing up. So, why you might ask, if the whole machine was a bit of slight-of-hand rocketry did NASA bother to spend almost half a billion dollars (that's billion with a "b") in developing and launching the Ares 1-X?


The answer: politics.


Technical problems, the kind that follow every new rocket's development, have haunted the Ares like leftovers from Halloween. The rocket as currently designed shakes so much during launch that shock absorbers are needed beneath its capsule payload. All of this takes time to fix -- and money, money that NASA really doesn't have. To stave off critics, three years ago the Project Constellation managers conceived of the 1-X flight to supposedly show some progress. They could instrument the rocket with hundreds of sensors gathering information never before obtained during a booster use in a Shuttle mission. It would give the launch team some practice in the assembly of an Ares. And NASA would find out if something as ungainly as the Ares 1 design - a thicker top than the bottom booster - could survive during ascent through the Earth's atmosphere. Of course, all of the changes to the Shuttle launch pad to accommodate the Ares wouldn't be ready in time, so they decided to just leave all of the Shuttle hardware, such as the rotating tower that envelops the Shuttles there. A success might just buy more time for Ares to fix its problems.

Its not just an attack on the Ares either he does offer an alternative:

Here's my plan -- and yes, I am a rocket scientist -- cancel Ares 1 now and the version of the Orion capsule that is supposed to fly astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station. Instead, unleash the commercial sector by paying them for transportation services to the station. Could be capsules. Could be winged ships like the Space Shuttle, capable of flying back to a runway with its crews and cargoes, not splashing in the ocean like a cannonball. With the money saved, start developing a true heavy lifter worthy of the Saturn V's successor. Could be a side-mount rocket like the Shuttles, with a tank-and-booster set flanked by a payload pod jammed full of cargo-or a space capsule with astronauts in tow. Or new upper stages capable of deep space missions. Let's open 'er up to a true competition, with designs from inside -- and outside -- NASA. If we bypass a foolish Moon race and let the development of the Moon be an international affair, we will have time to refine the super booster to make sure it is compatible with our deep space goals, like missions flying by comets or asteroids -- or to the moons of Mars. Such a rocket would be ready when the time comes to colonize Mars. No more false starts and dead end rockets.

The whole article is worth reading and I like his proposal to commercialize manned space flight but I have more comments to make in my next post.

Read More...

The Universe - The Search for Cosmic Clusters

They are the one-stop-shopping places for learning all about the nature and variety of stars in the Universe. They're unique, because in clusters, all the stars were born at about the same time, from the same material and all are at the same approximate distance from Earth. This means we can be sure that any differences among them are due to their true natures and not distorted by different distances from Earth and other factors. In this episode, two kinds of star clusters in the galaxy are explored. "Open Clusters" are young, live in the spiral arms of the galaxy and give us insight into the birth and formation of stars. "Globular Clusters" are old, live in the outskirts of the galaxy and could be nearly as old as the Universe itself. In addition, explore Galaxy clusters to reveal the large-scale structure of the Universe, which is expanding so fast that eventually all other galaxies, except for our own, will literally disappear from our sight.

The Universe - The Search for Cosmic Clusters

Read More...

The Universe - Liquid Universe

On alien planets it rains from the sky as scalding iron. On distant moons, even at hundreds of degrees below zero, they slosh around in lakes of methane. They can cover planets in oceans of electrified hydrogen metal. They churn in dead stars and even our planet. They're so rare in the universe, they almost do not exist, but these are the liquids of our Liquid Universe.

The Universe - Liquid Universe

Read More...

Planet Earth – Ice Worlds

Today on Discovery Enterprise we will join host David Attenborough in the sixth episode of the reward winning documentary series Planet Earth. In today’s instalment we will join Dr.Snow petrels take their place on nunataks and begin to court, but are preyed on by South Polar skuas. During summer, a pod of humpback whales hunt krill by creating a spiralling net of bubbles. The onset of winter sees the journey of emperor penguins to their breeding grounds, 160 kilometres (99 mi) inland. Their eggs transferred to the males for safekeeping, the females return to the ocean while their partners huddle into large groups to endure the extreme cold. At the northern end of the planet, Arctic residents include musk oxen, who are hunted by Arctic foxes and wolves. A female polar bear and her two cubs head off across the ice to look for food. As the sun melts the ice, a glimpse of the Earth's potential future reveals a male polar bear that is unable to find a firm footing anywhere and has to resort to swimming — which it cannot do indefinitely. Its desperate need to eat brings it to a colony of walrus. Although it attacks repeatedly, the herd is successful in evading it by returning to the sea. Wounded and unable to feed, the bear will not survive. Meanwhile, back in Antarctica, the eggs of the emperor penguins finally hatch. Planet Earth Diaries tells of the battle with the elements to obtain the penguin footage and of unwelcome visits from polar bears. on an odyssey to the coldest and most inhospitable regions of our planet – the frigid wastelands of the Arctic and Antarctica. Yet, despite the fact that these regions are freezing and forbidding ice worlds, life manages to flourish here.

Snow petrels take their place on nunataks and begin to court, but are preyed on by South Polar skuas. During summer, a pod of humpback whales hunt krill by creating a spiralling net of bubbles. The onset of winter sees the journey of emperor penguins to their breeding grounds, 160 kilometres (99 mi) inland. Their eggs transferred to the males for safekeeping, the females return to the ocean while their partners huddle into large groups to endure the extreme cold. At the northern end of the planet, Arctic residents include musk oxen, who are hunted by Arctic foxes and wolves. A female polar bear and her two cubs head off across the ice to look for food. As the sun melts the ice, a glimpse of the Earth's potential future reveals a male polar bear that is unable to find a firm footing anywhere and has to resort to swimming — which it cannot do indefinitely. Its desperate need to eat brings it to a colony of walrus. Although it attacks repeatedly, the herd is successful in evading it by returning to the sea. Wounded and unable to feed, the bear will not survive. Meanwhile, back in Antarctica, the eggs of the emperor penguins finally hatch. Planet Earth Diaries tells of the battle with the elements to obtain the penguin footage and of unwelcome visits from polar bears.

Planet Earth - Ice Worlds

Read More...