August 13, 2012

Good Morning,

Where does our solar system come from? How did it get here? These questions have been on the minds of astronomers since the solar system was conceived. Check out the first article for details on a current theory dealing with a shock wave.

Until Next Time,
Erin

Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments

P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
------------------------------------------------------------

Origins of our solar system probed

WASHINGTON - Our solar system may have been kick-started by a shock wave from an exploding star that rippled through a giant rotating cloud of gas, U.S. astronomers say. The solar system is thought to have coalesced from a cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula about 4.6 billion years ago, and scientists have long theorized a shock wave from a supernova explosion caused regions of the nebula to collapse and come together. The theory also holds that material from the shock wave would have been injected into the solar nebula, and scientists have found evidence of this material in meteorites. Astronomers have developed computer models of supernova shock waves and solar system formation to see if they match the pattern of this material seen in primitive meteorites from the solar system's early forming. "The evidence leads us to believe that a supernova was indeed the culprit," study lead author Alan Boss, an astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com. The 3D computer model showed the shock wave striking the solar nebula, compressing it and creating fingerlike indentations in the cloud's surface. These "fingers" injected short-lived radioactive isotopes from the supernova into the nebula -- the material detected in meteorites -- and less than 100,000 years later the cloud collapsed, triggering the birth of our solar system, the model suggests.


Reservoirs tagged as global warming source

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Reservoirs behind dams have been identified as new culprits in global warming, releasing greenhouse gases as water levels go up and down, U.S. researchers say. Researchers at Washington State University-Vancouver measured dissolved gases in the water column of a reservoir in Clark County and found methane emissions jumped 20-fold when the water level was drawn down, the school reported Wednesday. Methane can trap 25 times more heat in the Earth's atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the researchers said. "Reservoirs have typically been looked at as a green energy source," doctoral student Bridget Deemer said. "But their role in greenhouse gas emissions has been overlooked." While dams and the water behind them cover only a small portion of the earth's surface, researchers said, they harbor biological activity that can produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. There are some 80,000 dams in the United States, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams records. The research could lead to different ways of managing reservoir drawdowns, WSU earth and environmental science Professor John Harrison said. Emissions may be higher in summer months, he said, when warmer temperatures and low oxygen conditions in bottom waters stimulate the microbial activity that produces greenhouse gases. "We have the ability to manage the timing, magnitude and speed of reservoir drawdowns, which all could play a role in how much methane gets released to the atmosphere."


Mars Curiosity photo sparks debate

PASADENA, Calif. - A photo of Mars taken by Curiosity may have caught the rover's carrying craft crash-landing, although it would be an "insane" coincidence, NASA scientists say. Seconds after landing Sunday night, Curiosity took a handful of fuzzy black-and-white photographs. One, taken with a device on its rear known as a Hazcam, captured the pebble-strewn ground beneath the rover, one of its wheels -- and a faint but distinctive blotch on the horizon. Two hours Curiosity sent home a new batch of higher-resolution photos -- minus the blotch, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. That led to widespread speculation Curiosity may have captured the crash landing of the so-called sky crane that delivered the rover to the surface and then plummeted to the martian surface a safe distance away as planned. While the blotch did look like a billowing plume of some sort erupting from the martian horizon, capturing the crash "would be an insane coincidence," one engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said. JPL engineers subsequently received a new image of the landing zone, taken by another satellite, that showed Curiosity, pieces of the spacecraft jettisoned on the way to landing, and 2,000 yards away the wreckage of the "sky crane" -- in the direction Curiosity's Hazcam was facing when it took its first photos. The new photo also showed the crashing sky crane threw up a violent wave of dirt that marked the surface of Mars. So the "insane coincidence" may have happened after all, JPL scientists said. "I don't think you can rule it out," Curiosity mission manager Michael Watkins said Tuesday. "It bears looking into."


Fossil find shows other human cousins

NAIROBI, Kenya - Fossils show two additional species of our genus Homo lived alongside our direct ancestral species in Africa almost 2 million years ago, scientists say. The discovery near Lake Turkana in Kenya confirms that a fossil skull found 40 years ago was a different species of early Homo living alongside Homo erectus during the Pleistocene epoch. That skull, dubbed KNM-ER 1470, missing the teeth and lower jaw but distinguished by a large brain size and long flat face, started a longstanding debate about just how many different relatives of early man lived during that period. Two new fossils may have settled the debate, the National Geographic Society, which funded the research, said in a release Wednesday. "For the past 40 years we have looked long and hard in the vast expanse of sediments around Lake Turkana for fossils that confirm the unique features of 1470's face and show us what its teeth and lower jaw would have looked like," Meave Leakey, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, said. "At last we have some answers." The new fossils include a face, a remarkably complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw. "Combined, the three new fossils give a much clearer picture of what 1470 looked like," researcher Fred Spoor said. "As a result, it is now clear that two species of early Homo lived alongside Homo erectus. "The new fossils will greatly help in unraveling how our branch of human evolution first emerged and flourished almost 2 million years ago."

------------------------------------------------------------
Check out Viral Videos on the Net at EVTV1.com
http://www.evtv1.com/
EVTV1.com