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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Planet Nine Hypothesis supported by new evidence

    July 13, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Will another planet be added to the list of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in our Solar System? Credit: NASA

    Will another planet be added to the list of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in our Solar System? Credit: NASA

    Last year, the existence of an unknown planet in our Solar system was announced. However, this hypothesis was subsequently called into question as biases in the observational data were detected. Now Spanish astronomers have used a novel technique to analyse the orbits of the so-called extreme trans-Neptunian objects and, once again, they point out that there is something perturbing them: a planet located at a distance between 300 to 400 times the Earth-Sun separation.
     
    Scientists continue to argue about the existence of a ninth planet within our Solar System...
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    Tracking the Birth of a ‘Super-Earth’

    July 12, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri, a million-year-old sunlike star located approximately 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus, dwarfs our solar system (right). Taken by the ALMA array, this image reveals a series of concentric and bright rings, separated by gaps — features astronomers have struggled to explain until now. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

    The protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri, a million-year-old sunlike star located approximately 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus, dwarfs our solar system (right). Taken by the ALMA array, this image reveals a series of concentric and bright rings, separated by gaps — features astronomers have struggled to explain until now. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

     
    ‘Synthetic observations’ simulating nascent planetary systems could help explain a puzzle that has vexed astronomers for a long time...
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    Studying fungi to keep space travelers safe on new worlds

    July 12, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    Dominant fungal population and succession patterns observed in 30-day occupation period of the ILMAH system. The OTUs presented in the bar graph are the most abundant. T20 surface samples show different fungal profile when compared to other time points. T30 samples show increase in fungal diversity when compared to other time point

    Dominant fungal population and succession patterns observed in 30-day occupation period of the ILMAH system. The OTUs presented in the bar graph are the most abundant. T20 surface samples show different fungal profile when compared to other time points. T30 samples show increase in fungal diversity when compared to other time point

    Human presence in closed habitats that may one day be used to explore other planets is associated with changes in the composition of the fungal community – the mycobiome – that grows on surfaces inside the habitat, according to a study published in the open access journal Microbiome.
     
    Dr Kasthuri Venkateswaran, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, and corresponding author of the study said: “Our study is the firs...
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    World’s 1st Demonstration of Space Quantum Communication using a Microsatellite

    July 11, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    Fig. 2. Outline of the microsatellite SOCRATES and the NICT optical ground station located in Koganei city.

    Outline of the microsatellite SOCRATES and the NICT optical ground station located in Koganei city. a. Picture of the lasercom terminal SOTA. b. Polarization states that encode the bits of the transmitted information. c. Optical ground station. d. Configuration diagram of the quantum receiver.

    Big step toward building a truly-secure global communication network. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D.) developed the world’s smallest and lightest quantum-communication transmitter (SOTA) onboard the microsatellite SOCRATES...

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