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    Exoplanets can be made Less Habitable by Stars’ Flares

    December 19, 2019, Categories  Uncategorized

    3D render of unreal Trappist-1 exoplanets system
    A researcher at NYUAD has discovered that exoplanets lacking sufficient shielding can be impacted by high radiation bursts from the star, known as ‘flares’

    Astronomers found that not all exoplanets in habitable zones will be able to maintain hospitable conditions for life. Exoplanets in close proximity to stars are subject to radiation bursts which can disrupt habitable conditions unless the exoplanet has significant atmospheric or magnetic shielding.

    The discovery of terrestrial exoplanets, planets that orbit stars outside the solar system, has been one of the most significant developments in modern astronomy...

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    Deadly ‘Superbugs’ Destroyed by Molecular Drills

    December 15, 2019, Categories  Uncategorized

    An illustration shows how motorized nanomachines triggered by light drill into bacteria, making a path for antibiotics. Experiments showed the bacteria became susceptible again to the antibiotic meropenem, to which it had developed resistance. Illustration by Don Thushara Galbadage

    Molecular drills have gained the ability to target and destroy deadly bacteria that have evolved resistance to nearly all antibiotics. In some cases, the drills make the antibiotics effective once again.

    Researchers at Rice University, Texas A&M University, Biola University and Durham (U.K.) University showed that motorized molecules developed in the Rice lab of chemist James Tour are effective at killing antibiotic-resistant microbes within minutes.

    “These superbugs could kill 10 million people a ye...

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    NASA’s Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars

    December 15, 2019, Categories  Uncategorized

    This rainbow-colored map shows underground water ice on Mars. Cool colors represent less than one foot (30 centimeters) below the surface; warm colors are over two feet (60 centimeters) deep. Sprawling black zones on the map represent areas where a landing spacecraft would sink into fine dust. The outlined box represents the ideal region to send astronauts for them to be able to dig up water ice.

    NASA has big plans for returning astronauts to the Moon in 2024, a stepping stone on the path to sending humans to Mars. But where should the first people on the Red Planet land?

    A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters will help by providing a map of water ice believed to be as little as an inch (2.5 centimeters) below the surface.

    Water ice will be a key consideration fo...

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    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission explains Asteroid Bennu’s mysterious particle events

    December 8, 2019, Categories  Uncategorized

    This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on January 6 was created by combining two images taken by the NavCam 1 imager onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft: a short exposure image (1.4 ms), which shows the asteroid clearly, and a long exposure image (5 sec), which shows the particles clearly. Other image processing techniques were also applied, such as cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast of each layer.
    Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

    Shortly after NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at asteroid Bennu, an unexpected discovery by the mission’s science team revealed that the asteroid could be active, or consistently discharging particles into space...

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