Friday, October 20
Elusive Planet Nine
An artist's impression of what Planet Nine might look like at the edge of the solar system. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
The elusive Planet Nine, which is theorized to be lurking somewhere in the outer reaches of the solar system, may not be a planet after all, a new study suggests. Instead, what we assumed to be a massive object could be evidence that gravity doesn't work like we thought it does. But the new theory doesn't sit well with everyone.
The Planet Nine hypothesis, first proposed in 2016, argues that the unusual orbits of objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune, which seem to be being pulled away from the sun, can be explained by the presence of an undiscovered ninth planet up to 10 times more massive than Earth. Astronomers have been looking for Planet Nine ever since. However, despite searching almost half of the night sky, they have so far come up empty-handed.
In the new study, published Sept. 22 in The Astronomical Journal, researchers proposed another explanation for the gravitational anomalies observed in the outer solar system — that there aren't any anomalies. Instead, the team shows that the inconsistencies disappear completely when applying an alternative concept of gravity known as modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). READ MORE...
Thursday, October 19
Solid State EV Batteries Go 932 Miles
Toyota has struck a deal with fellow Japanese company Idemitsu Kosan to mass produce ultra-high-range EVs with solid-state batteries.
It's the first major update on the company's plans to be the first to offer these next-gen batteries. Toyota says the new technology will eventually enable EVs to go 932 miles on a single charge and power up in just 10 minutes, due to the higher energy density.
Idemitsu Kosan, Japan's second-largest oil refiner, may seem like an unlikely partner for the EV space. But Toyota says Idemitsu has been working on developing the "elemental technologies" for the batteries since 2001, five years before Toyota began pursuing them in 2006.
Specifically, Idemitsu has been working on developing a new material to go in the batteries, a solid sulfide electrolyte. With the partnership, Toyota aims to combine Idemitsu's material expertise with its own production prowess to make solid-state batteries a reality for consumers."This collaboration focuses on sulfide solid electrolytes, which are seen as a promising material to achieve high capacity and output for BEVs [battery electric vehicles]," Toyota says. "Sulfide solid electrolytes are characterized by softness and adhesiveness to other materials, which is suitable for battery mass production."
Toyota laid out a three-phase plan toward a goal of commercializing solid-state batteries by 2027-2028. However, that doesn't mean solid-state EVs will be widely available at that time, as "full-scale mass production" will begin after. It also remains to be seen what markets Toyota would launch them in, and how much they would cost. They are likely to be more expensive, and remain that way for years, Reuters predicts. READ MORE...
Pet Peeve
I started watching FOX News about 8 years ago. Before FOX, I was a faithful follower of CNN and CBS. What happened was this: my insurance company offers me a free gym membership at participating gyms.
One of those gyms was about two miles from the house. I would go there about 5/10:00 am and work out for about an hour on the treadmill, the stationary bike, the rowing machine, and a few strength building machines.
While walking on the treadmill (and there were 8 or so of them) I would watch whatever was playing on the four monitors mounted on the wall. Most of the time, FOX News was on one or more of them.
What I discovered and quite by accident was that CNN and CBS did not air the same news that FOX News was broadcasting. In fact, further investigation showed me that most news that was not favorable to the Democratic party was not being broadcasted.
NEEDLESS TO SAY THAT PISSED ME OFF...
I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat nor an Independent... but I hate when any organization decides to keep me from knowing all the news. That is censorship and violates my first amendment rights. I want to be aware of all the news and then I will decide what I want to believe and what I do not. And when I say what I want to believe, it is done based upon further research of the FACTS.
While FOX News was airing broadcasts about Hunter Biden, CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC had made the decision NOT TO AIR THIS NEWS... instead, they wanted to fill all their air time with news that was against DONALD TRUMP.
I remember talking with my sister about Hunter Biden and she said she had not seen anything about him on the stations she was watching.
BUT THAT IS NOT MY PET PEEVE...
My Pet Peeve is this...
For the last week solid, FOX News has been spending 99% of its air time about what is happening in Israel with Hamas. And while that is necessary to share, it should not be the only news they talk about.
They did the same thing with hurricane coverage in Florida and the coronation of the new King of England.
Granted I want to hear about that, but I also want to hear about other news as well... and I know that there is other news about which to talk.
I have not checked out the other stations, but I would assume that they are doing to same thing, so that one station does not out-shine another.
When this happens on FOX News, I just watch for about 30 minutes and turn the damn TV off.
An Ocean of Water Under An Ocean of Water
Ancient volcanic rocks were eroded and stored a sea's worth of water in Earth's crust as they became buried. (Image credit: James O'Neil via Getty Images)
Porous rock that formed during one of Earth's biggest volcanic eruptions absorbed so much water as it eroded that it created a huge reservoir over the eons, now buried deep in Earth's crust.
A massive water reservoir is hidden deep beneath the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand — and it may explain why the region experiences slow-motion earthquakes, scientists have found.
A sea's worth of water became locked inside volcanic rocks that formed 120 million to 125 million years ago during the early Cretaceous, when a lava plume the size of the U.S. burst through Earth's crust and solidified into a vast plateau, researchers said in a statement. Thick layers of sediment have since blanketed these rocks and buried any trace of their explosive past 2 miles (3 kilometers) below the Pacific Ocean seabed.
The researchers mapped a fault line along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island and found that these ancient rocks were abnormally "wet," with water making up nearly half the volume of cores drilled up from the ocean floor.
"Normal ocean crust, once it gets to be about seven or 10 million years old, should contain much less water," study lead author Andrew Gase, a marine geophysicist and seismologist who conducted the research while at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), said in the statement.
Shallow seas that surrounded the ancient volcanic plateau may have eroded the rocks into a porous honeycomb, which sponged up water and stored it like an aquifer, according to the statement. This water-logged terrain slowly transformed over the eons, absorbing more water as the rocks were ground into clay and became buried. READ MORE...
Wednesday, October 18
Fusion Energy - TOKAMAK
(Bloomberg) -- The executive in charge of the world’s biggest fusion-energy experiment is trying to rehire retired engineers, who possess knowledge that’s critical to advancing an unfinished reactor in southern France.
The 35-nation International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, is seeking to reboot the fusion project after its supply chains were disrupted by war and pandemic. Delays mean ITER’s efforts to harness the mechanics of the Sun’s clean energy on Earth could be overtaken by more nimble startups.
“What it takes to integrate a facility like ITER and design it from scratch has been lost,” said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER’s director general. “The knowledge is available somewhere but it is not consolidated. We have to get some retired people on board again.”
ITER revealed the knowledge gap Monday at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in London, where hundreds of scientists and engineers are convening to assess the state of an industry drawing investment from billionaires including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
It’s likely to pile more pressure on the star-crossed government project, now facing competition from dozens of privately funded startups. READ MORE...
Where is President Biden?
Crime and Violence is increasing every day in our larger cities and the current administration is more concerned about green energy than saving lives. What is strange is that most Americans will never be able to afford the EVs that they are being forced to buy.
Russia and China, and Iran and most of the countries in the Middle East HATE AMERICANS and want us defeated and subordinate to them and our President Joe Biden is more concerned with green energy than with our place in the world
BRICS and 14 other countries want to stop using the AMERICAN DOLLAR to conduct trade in order to hurt the American Economy and our President Joe Biden is more concerned about the rights of transsexuals.
The Democratic Party wants to completely silence the conservative voice and reprogram all of those who disagree with them. With only one party, we will no longer have a Democracy. Where is our President Joe Biden? Isn't the President of the USA supposed to defend the Constitution and Democracy?
Searching for the Multiverse
What lies beyond the edges of the observable universe? Is it possible that our universe is just one of many in a much larger multiverse?
Movies can’t get enough of exploring these questions. From Oscar winners like Everything Everywhere All at Once to superhero blockbusters like Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, science fiction stories are full of creative interactions between alternate realities. And depending on which cosmologist you ask, the concept of a multiverse is more than pure fantasy or a handy storytelling device.
Humanity’s ideas about alternate realities are ancient and varied—in 1848 Edgar Allan Poe even wrote a prose poem in which he fancied the existence of “a limitless succession of Universes.” But the multiverse concept really took off when modern scientific theories attempting to explain the properties of our universe predicted the existence of other universes where events take place outside our reality.
“Our understanding of reality is not complete, by far,” says Stanford University physicist Andrei Linde. “Reality exists independently of us.”
If they exist, those universes are separated from ours, unreachable and undetectable by any direct measurement (at least so far). And that makes some experts question whether the search for a multiverse can ever be truly scientific.
Will scientists ever know whether our universe is the only one? We break down the different theories about a possible multiverse—including other universes with their own laws of physics—and whether many versions of you could exist out there.
What is a multiverse?
The multiverse is a term that scientists use to describe the idea that beyond the observable universe, other universes may exist as well. Multiverses are predicted by several scientific theories that describe different possible scenarios—from regions of space in different planes than our universe, to separate bubble universes that are constantly springing into existence. READ MORE...
Tuesday, October 17
NASA Considering Budget Cuts
WASHINGTON — NASA is considering cutting the budget of two of its biggest space telescopes as it faces broader spending reductions for its astrophysics programs.
In an Oct. 13 presentation to the National Academies’ Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mark Clampin, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said he was studying unspecified cuts in the operating budgets of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope to preserve funding for other priorities in the division.
The potential cuts, he said, are driven by the expectation that his division will not receive the full request of nearly $1.56 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2024 because of legislation passed in June that caps non-defense discretionary spending for 2024 at 2023 levels, with only a 1% increase for 2025.
“We’re working with the expectation that FY24 budgets stay at the ’23 levels,” he said. “That means that we have decided to reduce the budget for missions in extended operations, and that is Chandra and Hubble.”
Clampin declined to say how much the budgets of those two observatories would be cut, or specific impacts on them because of the cuts. He indicated the proposed cuts are still being studied, noting that he was able to make a “positive adjustment” for Chandra just in the last week.
Chandra and Hubble are the two most expensive NASA astrophysics missions to operate after the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA requested $93.3 million for Hubble and $68.7 million for Chandra in its fiscal year 2024 budget proposal, in line with past years’ budgets. Combined, they represent a little more than 10% of the fiscal year 2024 budget request for NASA astrophysics.
They are also among the two oldest NASA missions, with Hubble launched in 1990 and Chandra in 1999. Clampin suggested that was a reason for reducing their budgets. “Chandra has a number of issues right now. It’s becoming increasing difficult to operate,” he said. Insulation on the spacecraft’s exterior is degrading, warming the spacecraft and making operations increasing difficult.
“While Hubble doesn’t have those issues,” he added, “it has been operating for a long time and it is a large piece of the astrophysics budget.” READ MORE...
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