Phoghat - Slashdot User

Submission + - Was a Fifth Giant Planet Expelled from Our Solar S (swri.org) 1

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Phoghat

on Friday November 11, 2011 @06:27AM

Phoghat writes: "Boulder, Colo. — Nov. 10, 2011 — Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters."

Submission + - November 9, Carl Sagan's Birthday (universetoday.com)

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Phoghat

on Thursday November 10, 2011 @08:04AM

Phoghat writes: "Today would have been Carl Sagan’s 77th birthday, and the past few years November 9th has been designated as “Carl Sagan Day” by people who appreciate Sagan’s influence — not only on science, but also the public’s understanding of it. We asked our readers to share their favorite Saganese: their most cherished quotes from the man who has inspired many. Here are our readers’ favorite quotes, images and videos:"

Submission + - Supercomputer Demolishes Own Speed Record (techie-buzz.com) 1

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Phoghat

on Saturday November 05, 2011 @02:12PM

Phoghat writes: "A Japanese supercomputer has just smashed its own processing speed record, becoming (and remaining) the world’s fastest supercomputer. Japan’s ‘K-computer’ held the record of 8 quadrillion (a quadrillion is a thousand trillion, a petaflop, if you prefer) calculations per second. It has a brain consisting of 88,000 processor microchips and now clocks in at a mind-boggling 10 quadrillion calculations a second, over its 8 quadrillion record at a stunning 93% accuracy. An ordinary desktop, having two or four microchips units, clocks in at about a gigaflop (one thousandth of a trillion), which is a million times lesser than a quadrillion. Ten petaflops is mindblowing! It will be interesting to see the giant solving real problems in the sciences in the near future."

Submission + - Or So They'd Have You Believe (techie-buzz.com)

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Phoghat

on Saturday September 17, 2011 @11:04AM

Phoghat writes: "A huge defunct satellite is soon to come crashing down to the Earth in a few days time, but NASA assures everyone that no one will get hurt! The satellite in question is the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS). The date for the crash is 24th September. The crash window, earlier announced to be between late September and early October, has now been curtailed to just three days."

Submission + - GRAIL and the Mystery of the Missing Moon - NASA S (nasa.gov)

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Phoghat

on Thursday September 08, 2011 @06:53AM

Phoghat writes: "Did our planet once have two moons? Some researchers say so. Moreover, the missing satellite might still be up there--splattered against the far side of the Moon. NASA's GRAIL mission, due to launch on Sept. 8th, could help confirm or refute the "two moon" hypothesis."

Submission + - "Aluminum-Celmet" could boost electric vehicle ran (autoblog.com)

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Phoghat

on Monday July 18, 2011 @10:33AM

Phoghat writes: "The fear that EV's will leave the vehicle's occupants stranded well short of their destination, remains one of, if not the main barrier to the widespread adoption of EVs. A new material developed by Japanese company Sumitomo Electric could help allay such fears by potentially improving the capacity of lithium-ion batteries by 1.5 to three times, and therefore extending the range of EVs by an extra 50 to 200 percent. That would give a Nissan Leaf a range of up to 109 to 219 miles (175 to 352 km) or a Tesla Roadster (which would be MY CHOICE a range of up to 366 to 732 miles (589 to 1,178 km) — enough to assuage the range anxiety of the most fretful drivers."

Submission + - Burt Rutanâ(TM)s Race To Space: A Primer For (universetoday.com)

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Phoghat

on Wednesday June 29, 2011 @04:51AM

Phoghat writes: "Voyager, Proteus and SpaceShipOne have become aerospace legends. As has the man who established them all – Burt Rutan. Zenith Press has released a chronicle of the man and his machines entitled ."Burt Rutan’s Race to Space: The Magician of Mojave and His Flying Innovations" The book provides a chronicle of all the air and spacecraft that have soared off of Rutan’s blueprints and into reality.
The book’s first main segment is a large section which is essentially a catalog of the numerous craft that Rutan has produced over the decades. Many of the flying machines have their unique characteristics highlighted within the 160 pages of this book. Fear not, this tome is wallpapered with images – most of which are color (175 color images to 55 black and white).
Some of the most interesting of these images are not the glossy stills of air or spacecraft in action but rather the simple drawings that are done by the man himself. These sketches, some little more than cartoons others just simplistic line-drawings, highlight the genius that is Rutan and provide an insight into how his mind works.
The nature of the book changes somewhat when one reaches the chapter entitled, “The Scaled Composites Years.” From this point on, the book’s focus narrows to concentrate on Rutan’s X-PRIZE efforts – and beyond.
The book was written by Dan Linehan and is his second detailing the efforts of Rutan and Scaled Composites (the first was "SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History " ). In short, the freelance writer is steeped in all things Rutan. Whereas his first work on the subject covered the history-making flight of SpaceShipOne, this effort is a general overview of Rutan and his legacy. But be forewarned, there are many projects that span the entire realm of aerospace that Rutan and company have been involved with that might surprise you."

Submission + - Space Junk Forces ISS Crew to Takes Shelter in Soy (universetoday.com)

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Phoghat

on Wednesday June 29, 2011 @04:27AM

Phoghat writes: "The six crewmembers on board the International Space Station were told to take shelter in the two Russian Soyuz spacecraft early Tuesday because Space Command predicted a piece of space junk could make a close approach to the station. Radar tracking indicated the debris would make its close pass at 8:08 a.m. EDT (12:08 UTC), coming within about 243 meters (800 feet) of the station and well within the “pizza box” -shaped area around the ISS, but when no impact was detected the crew was told they could reenter the station and resume normal operations."

Submission + - A Glitch in Pulsar J1718-3718 (universetoday.com)

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Phoghat

on Wednesday June 29, 2011 @04:21AM

Phoghat writes: "Pulsars are noted as being some of the universe’s best clocks. Their highly magnetized nature gives rise to beams of high energy radiation that sweep out across the universe. If these beams pass Earth, they can rival atomic clocks in precision. So precise are these timings, that the first extrasolar planet was discovered through the effects it had on this heartbeat. But in September of 2007, pulsar J1718-3719 appears to have had a seizure"

Submission + - Exomoons Could Be Excellent Incubators (universetoday.com)

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Phoghat

on Sunday June 19, 2011 @07:31AM

Phoghat writes: "Share With the arrival of the Cassini–Huygens mission in 2004 to Saturn’s satellite Titan, we terrestrials became acutely aware that similar moons could be orbiting similarly large planets in other solar systems besides our own. These extrasolar moons, or exomoons, might be incubators of extra solar life."

Submission + - Free Books From National Academies Press (nationalacademies.org)

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Phoghat

on Saturday June 04, 2011 @07:44AM

Phoghat writes: "As of today all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press will be downloadable to anyone free of charge. This includes a current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports produced by the Press. The mission of the National Academies Press (NAP) — publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council — is to disseminate the institutions' content as widely as possible while maintaining financial sustainability.
The free PDFs are available exclusively from the NAP's website and remain subject to copyright laws."

Submission + - Opportunity Surpasses 30 KM Driving ! (universetoday.com) 1

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Phoghat

on Saturday June 04, 2011 @07:24AM

Phoghat writes: "With her most recent drive of 482 feet (146.8 meters) on June 1, 2011 (Sol 2614), NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover has zoomed past the unimaginable 30 kilometer (18,64 miles) mark in total odometry since safely landing on Mars nearly seven and one half years ago on Jan 24, 2004. That’s 50 times beyond the roughly quarter mile of roving distance initially forseen.
And Opportunity is still going strong, in good health and has abundant solar power as she continues driving on her ambitious overland trek across the martian plains of Meridiani Planum. She is heading to the giant Endeavour crater, some 22 km (14 miles) in diameter."

Submission + - Dark Energy Confirmed By Australian WiggleZ Survey (techie-buzz.com)

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Phoghat

on Monday May 23, 2011 @08:21AM

Phoghat writes: "An Australian team of researchers scanned the sky using WiggleZ Dark Energy survey and found confirmatory evidence of presence of Dark Energy. Einstein is correct, as so far, usual. Swiss mail clerk my arse!"

Submission + - Cambridge Consultants - New design of through-wall (cambridgeconsultants.com)

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Phoghat

on Thursday May 05, 2011 @05:40AM

Phoghat writes: "Leading technology product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants has launched the latest evolution of its popular Prism through-wall radar product line. The Prism 200c is a lightweight and inconspicuous device that fits covertly inside a backpack. By simply placing the device against the outside wall of a room or building, the user is provided with intelligence on the location and movement of any people that might be inside that particular room."

Submission + - Another Milestone For Virgin Galactic (virgingalactic.com) 1

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Phoghat

on Thursday May 05, 2011 @05:21AM

Phoghat writes: "Early on Wednesday 4th May 2011, in the skies above Mojave Air and Spaceport CA, SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial spaceship, demonstrated its unique reentry ‘feather’ configuration for the first time. This test flight, the third in less than two weeks, marks another major milestone on the path to powered test flights and commercial operations.
SpaceShipTwo (SS2), named VSS Enterprise, has now flown solo seven times since its public roll-out in December 2009 and since the completion of its ground and captive -carry test program."

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