175420705
submission
Tablizer writes:
The case is growing that a Neptune-sized planet – Planet 9 – hides deep in the outskirts of our solar system. Researchers from Caltech, Universite Cote d'Azur and Southwest Research Institute shared a pre-print paper on April 17, 2024. In it, they argue that a group of little bodies beyond Neptune bunch together due to Planet 9’s gravitational influence.
These distant solar system bodies aren’t spread equally in their orbit like the rocky boulders of the asteroid belt. Instead, they form clumpy groups. So, the researchers think that a larger, more distant, object is gravitationally herding them into this pattern. And, in fact, that’s how planet eight – Neptune – was discovered. Neptune was yanking on Uranus’ orbit.
Two of the four authors on the new paper, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of Caltech, are the originators of the theory of Planet 9. In fact, Mike Brown wrote a book about his life and research in the far edges of our solar system, including the re-classification of Pluto. The book is titled How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. But these researchers believe there’s an object much larger than Pluto farther out in our solar neighborhood. This planet would be the size of five Earths (about the size of Neptune) and lie 400 to 800 times farther from the sun than Earth.
175293829
submission
Tablizer writes:
"They" can control the weather, and the proof is in the patents, said Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
On Oct. 7, Greene posted a viral meme showing a line drawing of an angry person saying, "They can’t control the weather!!!" Beneath that, a figure gestured to a list of what the meme described as "weather modification patents."
Not all the listed patents were legible, but the earliest dated back to 1891 and the most recent was from 2001. They included a 1914 patent for a balloon "rain maker" that expired in 1931; a 1917 patent on an idea to burn highly combustible fuel as a means of "protecting from poisonous gas in warfare"; and a 1968 patent for an "automatically adjustable airfoil spray system with pump" that could be used to spray herbicide from planes.
Greene’s weather control sentiment — which she has repeated multiple times since Oct. 3 — drew criticism as hurricanes have battered the southeast United States...
Meteorologists and atmospheric science experts told PolitiFact that they knew of no technology that allows anyone to control the weather or create a hurricane. The patents listed in Greene’s meme do not prove that anyone can control the weather, they said.
"These are silly, frivolous patents," said James Fleming, an emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Colby College and author of "Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control."
Furthermore, securing a patent does not prove an invention is practical, can be applied or will work. Our review of some of the patents found that not only do they not prove humans could control weather features such as hurricanes, but some appeared to have no direct connection to weather technology.
175016639
submission
Tablizer writes:
Using a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, it might be possible to use the sun as a gigantic telescope to peer deep into space...
Astronomers already use this effect, called gravitational lensing, to study the most distant galaxies in the universe. When light from those galaxies passes near a giant cluster of galaxies, the mass of that cluster amplifies and magnifies the background image, allowing us to see much farther than we normally could...
Of course, there are challenges with using the solar gravitational lens as a natural telescope. The focal point of all this light bending sits 542 times greater than the distance between Earth and the sun. It's 11 times the distance to Pluto, and three times the distance achieved by humanity's most far-flung spacecraft, Voyager 1, which launched in 1977.
So not only would we have to send a spacecraft farther than we ever have before, but it would have to have enough fuel to stay there and move around. The images created by the solar gravitational lens would be spread out over tens of kilometers of space, so the spacecraft would have to scan the entire field to build up a complete mosaic image...
While it may seem outlandish, the concept isn't too far from reality. And what would we get with this kind of supertelescope? If it were aimed at Proxima b, the nearest known exoplanet, for example, it would deliver a 1-kilometer resolution...it's capable of delivering an exquisite portrait of the detailed surface features of any exoplanet within 100 light-years, let alone all the other astronomical observations it could achieve.
174733302
submission
Tablizer writes:
BBC News: Scientists have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars — deep in the rocky outer crust of the planet. The findings come from a new analysis of data from Nasa’s Mars Insight Lander, which touched down on the planet back in 2018.
The lander carried a seismometer, which recorded four years' of vibrations — Mars quakes — from deep inside the Red Planet. Analyzing those quakes — and exactly how the planet moves — revealed "seismic signals" of liquid water...
The Insight probe was only able to record directly from the crust beneath its feet, but the researchers expect that there will be similar reservoirs across the planet. If that is the case, they estimate that there is enough liquid water on Mars to form a layer across the surface that would be more than half a mile deep.
However, they point out, the location of this Martian groundwater is not good news for billionaires with Mars colonization plans who might want to tap into it. "It's sequestered 10-20km deep in the crust," explained Prof Manga. "Drilling a hole 10km deep on Mars — even for [Elon] Musk — would be difficult," he told BBC News.
171938751
submission
Tablizer writes:
"In a solar system called TRAPPIST-1, 40 light years from the sun, seven Earth-sized planets revolve around a cold star.
Astronomers obtained new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on TRAPPIST-1 b, the planet in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system closest to its star. These new observations offer insights into how its star can affect observations of exoplanets in the habitable zone of cool stars. In the habitable zone, liquid water can still exist on the orbiting planet's surface.
The team, which included University of Michigan astronomer and NASA Sagan Fellow Ryan MacDonald, published its study in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"Our observations did not see signs of an atmosphere around TRAPPIST-1 b. This tells us the planet could be a bare rock, have clouds high in the atmosphere or have a very heavy molecule like carbon dioxide that makes the atmosphere too small to detect," MacDonald said. "But what we do see is that the star is absolutely the biggest effect dominating our observations, and this will do the exact same thing to other planets in the system."
171906969
submission
Tablizer writes:
Chrome's spell checker doesn't list the proper option for "devine" or "preditor". Soundex would match them and is relatively simple to implement, but most browsers allegedly use the Hunspell algorithm. However, Hunspell doesn't handle incorrect vowels well. Browsers could offer a "More spelling options" menu item to bring up a wider dialog using alternative algorithms, such as Soundex. Until then, can anyone recommend good spelling plug-ins?
170543011
submission
Tablizer writes:
Over the past few years I've asked many colleagues what "microservices" are, and get gazillion different answers. "Independent deploy-ability" has been an issue as old as the IBM hills. Don't make anything "too big" nor "too small"; be it functions, files, apps, name-spaces, tables, databases, etc.
Overly large X's didn't need special terms, such as "monofunction". We'd just call it "poorly partitioned/sized/factored". (Picking the right size requires skill and experience, both in technology and the domain.)
Dynamic languages are usually "independently deployable" at the file level, so what is a PHP "monolith", for example? Puzzles like this abound when trying to use the Socratic Method to tease out specific-ness. Socrates would quit and become a goat herder, as such discussions often turn sour and personal. Here's a recent Slashdot sub-thread debating the term.
167099003
submission
Tablizer writes:
CNN: The hunt for planets that could harbor life may have just narrowed dramatically.
Scientists had long hoped and theorized that the most common type of star in our universe — called an M dwarf — could host nearby planets with atmospheres, potentially rich with carbon and perfect for the creation of life. But in a new study of a world orbiting an M dwarf 66 light-years from Earth, researchers found no indication such a planet could hold onto an atmosphere at all.
Without a carbon-rich atmosphere, it’s unlikely a planet would be hospitable to living things. Carbon molecules are, after all, considered the building blocks of life. And the findings don’t bode well for other types of planets orbiting M dwarfs, said study coauthor Michelle Hill, a planetary scientist and a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside.
“The pressure from the star’s radiation is immense, enough to blow a planet’s atmosphere away,” Hill said in a post on the university’s website...
They pored over the data produced by Spitzer, searching for emission signatures, or signs that a gaseous bubble could encase the planet. The telescope captured the planet as it passed behind its home star, allowing researchers to “look at the starlight as it’s passing through the atmosphere of the planet,” giving a “spectral signature of the atmosphere” — or lack thereof, Hill said.
Hill added that she wasn’t shocked to find no signs of an atmosphere, but she was disappointed. She’s looking for moons and planets in “habitable zones,” and the results made looking at worlds circling the ubiquitous M dwarf stars slightly less interesting.
164342782
submission
Tablizer writes:
A micrometeoroid struck the James Webb Space Telescope between May 22 and 24, impacting one of the observatory's 18 hexagonal golden mirrors. NASA had disclosed the micrometeoroid strike in June and noted that the debris was more sizeable than pre-launch modeling had accounted for. Now, scientists on the mission have shared an image that drives home the severity of the blow in a report(opens in new tab) released July 12 describing what scientists on the mission learned about using the observatory during its first six months in space.
Happily, in this case the overall effect on Webb was small...
[The] first six strikes met pre-launch expectations of rate as they came in at a rate of once per month, the report stated. Moreover, some of the resulting deformations are correctable through mirror realignments. But it's the magnitude of one of these six strikes that caused more concern, the paper noted, as it caused a significant blemish to a segment known as C3. The strike in late May "caused significant uncorrectable change in the overall figure of that segment," the report stated.
In this case, however, the overall impact to the mission is small "because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected." Seventeen [of 18] mirror segments remain unblemished and engineers were able to realign Webb's segments to account for most of the damage.
164233426
submission
Tablizer writes:
This Github bloglet by Steve Springett suggests disabling WASM (Web Assembly) in browsers for security purposes unless you need it often, and includes commands for switching it off in the common browsers. WASM potentially has some of the same risks that Java Applets and Flash did. What's Slashdotters view of this?
Browsers should have a way to easily disable it, including whitelisting. For example, if you need it for specific gaming site, you can whitelist just that site and not have WASM exposed for other sites.
121118718
submission
Tablizer writes:
Microsoft still dominates cubicle-land. Google is making a push into that domain, but it's unclear how far or how fast they can go. Most "serious" applications still run on only Windows and that doesn't seem to be changing much. What's keeping others out? Do we need new desktop-oriented cross-platform standards? It seems everyone "went web" and forgot about the desktop niche, but it's a big niche still.
114696222
submission
Tablizer writes:
SFGate: "Visitors to Disney's new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction, can choose from more than 1,000 unique items to take home as souvenirs.
But if they plan on flying home, they'll have to leave at least one behind — a specially designed "thermal detonator" Coca-Cola bottle the company made especially for the new attraction.
TSA has told fans that the bottle, which retails for $5, looks too much like a replica explosive and therefore won't be allowed in carry-on or checked baggage. Fans, not surprisingly are not pleased with the decision."
I hope they don't take away my lightsaber.
113200852
submission
Tablizer writes:
SpaceFlightNow reported: "With the drill feed mechanism no longer reliably working, managers decided to keep the drill bit in its extended position. That raised concerns over the stability of the drill while in use because the prong-like extensions on each side of the bit will no longer be in contact with the rock.
“We had to do a big pivot in the mission thinking about how we could drill without the feed motor,” said Ashwin Vasavada, the Curiosity mission’s project scientist at JPL, in a presentation to the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group in April.
Controllers devised a way to use force applied by the robotic arm to null out forces generated by the drill, a role the arm was never designed to fill.
Engineers used a replica of the Curiosity rover at JPL’s “Mars Yard” to test out the new drilling techniques, and the rover drilled a test hole in a rock on Mars in February. That test did not produce a scientifically useful rock sample — it used only the drill’s rotary mechanism, not its hammer-like percussion capability — but yielded important data for engineers to continue refining the updated drilling technique...
105430488
submission
Tablizer writes:
"The new images — taken from as close as 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) on approach — revealed Ultima Thule as a "contact binary," consisting of two connected spheres. End to end, the world measures 19 miles (31 kilometers) in length. The team has dubbed the larger sphere "Ultima" (12 miles/19 kilometers across) and the smaller sphere "Thule" (9 miles/14 kilometers across).
The team says that the two spheres likely joined as early as 99 percent of the way back to the formation of the solar system, colliding no faster than two cars in a fender-bender...
Data from the New Year's Day flyby will continue to arrive over the next weeks and months, with much higher resolution images yet to come.
95049545
submission
Tablizer writes:
The Chrome team "broke the web" to make Chrome perform better. There’s a widely-used piece of DOM API called "addEventListener"...Google came along and decided that this API is not extensible enough...This was not backward compatible change by any means. All websites and web apps that did any sort of draggable UI...were affected and essentially broken by this change.
