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    New Theory on how Earth’s Crust was Created

    May 6, 2017, Categories  Environment/Geology

    Don R. Baker et al, A metasomatic mechanism for the formation of Earth's earliest evolved crust, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.01.022

    Don R. Baker et al, A metasomatic mechanism for the formation of Earth’s earliest evolved crust, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.01.022

    More than 90% of Earth’s continental crust is made up of silica-rich minerals, eg, feldspar and quartz. But where did this silica-enriched material come from? And could it provide a clue in the search for life on other planets? Conventional theory holds that all of the early Earth’s crustal ingredients were formed by volcanic activity. Now, McGill University earth scientists Don Baker and Kassandra Sofonio have published a theory with a twist: some chemical components of this material settled onto Earth’s early surface from the steamy atmosphere that prevailed at the time.

    First, a bit of ancient geochemical history: Sc...

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    NASA Rover takes Samples from Active Linear Dune on Mars

    May 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows two scales of ripples, plus other textures, in an area where the mission examined a linear-shaped dune in the Bagnold dune field on lower Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows two scales of ripples, plus other textures, in an area where the mission examined a linear-shaped dune in the Bagnold dune field on lower Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    As it drives uphill from a band of rippled sand dunes, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is toting a fistful of dark sand for onboard analysis that will complete the rover’s investigation of those dunes. From early February to early April, the rover examined 4 sites near a linear dune for comparison with what it found in late 2015 and early 2016 during its investigation of crescent-shaped dunes. This two-phase campaign is the 1st close-up study of active dunes anywhere other than Earth...

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    Biggest Xray Laser in the world generates its first laser light

    May 5, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    1. First Laser Light at the European XFEL, recorded by an X-ray detector at the end of the tunnel. Credit: DESY 2. View into the 2.1-kilometre long accelerator tunnel of European XFEL with the yellow superconducting accelerator modules hanging from the ceiling (photo: DESY/D. Nölle) 3. The undulators gerenate the bright X-ray light. Credit: European XFEL/Heiner Müller-Elsner

    1. View into the 2.1-kilometre long accelerator tunnel of European XFEL with the yellow superconducting accelerator modules hanging from the ceiling (photo: DESY/D. Nölle) 2. First Laser Light at the European XFEL, recorded by an X-ray detector at the end of the tunnel. Credit: DESY 3. The undulators gerenate the bright X-ray light. Credit: European XFEL/Heiner Müller-Elsner

    European XFEL reaches the last big milestone before the official opening. The 3.4 km long facility, most of which is located in underground tunnels, has generated its first X-ray laser light. The X-ray light has a wavelength of 0.8 nm – about 500 times shorter than that of visible light. At first lasing, the laser had a repetition rate of one pulse per second, which will later increase to 2

    7,000 per second.

    Europe...

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    A lot of Galaxies need guarding

    May 5, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Like the quirky characters in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing galaxies across time and space. One stunning example is galaxy cluster Abell 370, which contains a vast assortment of several hundred galaxies tied together by the mutual pull of gravity. That's a lot of galaxies to be guarding, and just in this one cluster! Photographed in a combination of visible and near-infrared light with the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 in Sept. 2009 to Feb. 2015, the immense cluster is a rich mix of galaxy shapes. Entangled among the galaxies are mysterious-looking arcs of blue light. These are actually distorted images of remote galaxies behind the cluster. These far-flung galaxies are too faint for Hubble to see directly. Instead, the gravity of the cluster acts as a huge lens in space, magnifying and stretching images of background galaxies like a funhouse mirror. Abell 370 is located approximately 4 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster. It is the last of six galaxy clusters imaged in the recently concluded Frontier Fields project -- an ambitious, community-developed collaboration among NASA's Great Observatories and other telescopes that harnessed the power of massive galaxy clusters and probed the earliest stages of galaxy development. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI)

    Like the quirky characters in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing galaxies across time and space. One stunning example is galaxy cluster Abell 370, which contains a vast assortment of several hundred galaxies tied together by the mutual pull of gravity. That’s a lot of galaxies to be guarding, and just in this one cluster! Photographed in a combination of visible and near-infrared light with the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 in Sept. 2009 to Feb. 2015, the immense cluster is a rich mix of galaxy shapes. Entangled among the galaxies are mysterious-looking arcs of blue light. These are actually distorted images of remote galaxies behind the cluster...

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