March 26, 2012

Good Morning,

An exciting development arises as U.S. automakers announce the arrival of 3 cylinder engine cars. These cars harbor what some are calling the "game changer" of the automotive world. Check out the last article for all the exciting details and when you can expect to purchase these 3 cylinder engine cars.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Scientists tell of 'runaway' planets

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - U.S. scientists studying "runaway" stars tossed out of our galaxy at great velocities say they've confirmed the same thing can happen to planets. The first runaway star was discovered seven years ago, heading out of the Milky Way at 1.5 million mph, and new research says planets must be doing the same thing -- at speeds up to 30 million mph, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reported Thursday. "These warp-speed planets would be some of the fastest objects in our galaxy," astrophysicist Avi Loeb said. "If you lived on one of them, you'd be in for a wild ride from the center of the galaxy to the universe at large." So-called hypervelocity planets are produced in the same way as hypervelocity stars, researchers said. A double-star system wanders too close to the supermassive black hole at the galactic center, where strong gravitational forces rip the stars from each other, sending one away at high speed while the other is captured into orbit around
the black hole. The researchers modeled what would happen if each star had an orbiting planet or two and found the star ejected outward could carry its planets along for the ride, while a star captured by the black hole could have its planets torn away and flung into interstellar space at tremendous speeds. "Other than subatomic particles, I don't know of anything leaving our galaxy as fast as these runaway planets," study lead author Idan Ginsburg of Dartmouth College said.


Self-powered robot mimics jellyfish

BLACKSBURG, Va. - U.S. researchers say their robotic jelly-fish, named Robojelly, could -- theoretically at least -- never run out of energy because it's fueled by hydrogen. Scientists at Virginia Tech say Robojelly can mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in water, powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface. "To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source," lead study author Yonas Tadesse said. Robojelly, constructed from smart materials that have the ability to change shape or size in response to a stimulus, exhibits characteristics ideal for use in underwater search and rescue operations, a release from the Institute of Physics reported Wednesday. A jellyfish moves by contracting circular muscles located on the inside of the bell -- the main part of its body, shaped like the top of an umbrella -- closing the bell in on itself and ejecting water to propel itself. Robojelly is made of shape memory alloys -- smart materials that "remember" their original shape -- and powered by heat-producing chemical reactions between the oxygen and hydrogen in water and platinum that coats the robot's surface. The heat of reactions is transferred to the artificial muscles of the robot, causing them to transform into different shapes, mimicking the jellyfish's method of movement.


Odd landforms on Mars intrigue scientists

SEATTLE - Odd landforms observed on the Martian surface are unlike anything previously seen and could be clues to the planet's geological history, U.S. scientists say. Geologists at the University of Washington in Seattle have dubbed the strange formation periodic bedrock ridges, saying they look like sand dunes but are in fact rock. "These bedforms look for all the world like sand dunes but they are carved into hard rock by wind," said David Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, said in a release Thursday. "It is something there are not many analogs for on Earth." Montgomery said he believes the ridges are composed of a softer, more erodible material than typical bedrock and were formed by an unusual form of wind erosion. High surface winds on Mars may be deflected into the air by a land formation, he said, and erode the bedrock where they settle back to the surface. Spacing between ridges is determined by the strength of the wind, the size of the deflection and the density of the atmosphere, he said. The eroded rocks could be revealing some of the past geological history of Mars, Montgomery said. "You could actually go back and look at some earlier eras in Martian history, and the wind would have done us the favor of exposing the layers that would have that history within it," he said. "There are some areas of the Martian surface, potentially large areas, that up until now we've thought you couldn't really get very far back into Mars history geologically."


Three-cylinder cars coming to U.S.

LOS ANGELES - U.S. automakers say new cars with three-cylinder engines can give better gas mileage with the same power as the four-cylinder compact sedans Americans buy now. The cars can get 40 miles per gallon in traffic and 50 on the highway, and they're not expensive hybrids nor do they need any special fuels, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Ford Motor Co. said it will have a three-cylinder Focus or Fiesta for sale in the United States by the middle of next year. "This engine is a game-changer," Steve Cropley of the British publication Autocar said of the three-cylinder Focus that just went on sale in Europe. "You barely hear the thing start, and it idles so smoothly you'd swear it had stalled." Japanese makers Mitsubishi and Nissan and Germany's BMW and Volkswagen are all said to be working on three-cylinder designs. Any vehicles with such small engines must be sure "not to compromise performance or fuel economy," to attract U.S. buyers, Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Automotive, said. Manufacturers have been encouraged by how quickly Americans have been willing to move from large power plants down to four-cylinder models. Forty-seven percent of the cars sold last year had four cylinders, auto survey company Edmunds.com said. "Three cylinders shouldn't be much of a stretch," Dave Sullivan of automotive consulting firm AutoPacific Inc., said.

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