Japan Just Revealed The First Image of Ryugu's Asteroid Dust to The World

 

Black sandy dust found during a capsule delivered to Earth by a Japanese guided missile is from the distant asteroid Ryugu, scientists confirmed after opening it on Monday.

The discovery comes per week after the Hayabusa-2 probe dropped off its capsule, which entered the atmosphere in an exceeding streak of sunshine before landing within the desert then being transported to Japan.

The Japanese space agency (JAXA) released an image of a little deposit of sooty material inside the metal box - a primary glimpse at the results of an unprecedented six-year mission for the uncrewed probe.

(JAXA)

The dust was found within the capsule's outer shell, agency officials said, with more substantial samples expected to be found once they open the inner container, a fragile task.

"JAXA has confirmed that samples derived from the asteroid Ryugu are inside the sample container," the agency said.

"We were ready to confirm black, sand-like particles which are believed to be derived from the asteroid Ryugu."

The sample container inside the re-entry capsule was opened on December 14, and that we confirmed black grains thought to be from Ryugu were inside. this can be outside the most chambers, and sure particles attached to the sample catcher entrance. (English release available tomorrow) https://t.co/NAw1R1cjvy pic.twitter.com/5BfXxfH29h

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) December 14, 2020

Hayabusa-2 traveled about 300 million kilometers (200 million miles) from Earth to gather the samples, which scientists hope could help shed light on the origin of life and also the formation of the universe.

The probe collected both surface dust and pristine material from below the surface that was excited by firing an "impactor" into the asteroid.

"We will continue our work to open the sample-catcher within the sample container. Extraction of the sample and analysis of it'll be applied," JAXA said.

Hayabusa2 probe as it landed in Australia. (JAXA/Twitter)

Half of Hayabusa-2's samples are going to be shared between JAXA, US space agency NASA and other international organizations, and also the rest kept for future study as advances are made in analytic technology.

But work isn't over for the probe, which is able to now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.

There's a Human-Made Barrier in Space, Surrounding The Entire Earth

 In 2017, NASA space probes detected a large, human-made 'barrier' surrounding Earth.

And tests have confirmed that it's actually having sway on space weather far beyond our planet's atmosphere.

That means we're not just changing Earth so severely, scientists are calling for an entirely new geological epoch to be named after us - our activities are changing space too.

But the great news is that unlike our influence on the world itself, that humungous bubble we created come in space is truly working in our favor.

Back in 2012, NASA launched two space probes to figure in tandem with one another as they whizzed through Earth's James Alfred Van Allen Belts at speeds of around 3,200 km/h (2,000 mph). 

Our planet is surrounded by two such radiation belts (and a short-lived third one) - the inner belt stretches from around 640 to 9,600 km (400 to six,000 miles) above Earth's surface, while the outer belt occupies an altitude of roughly 13,500 to 58,000 km (8,400 to 36,000 miles).

In 2017, the James Alfred Van Allen Probes detected something strange as they monitored the activity of charged particles caught within Earth's magnetic flux - these dangerous solar discharges were being kept cornered by some reasonably low-frequency barrier.

When researchers investigated, they found that this barrier had been actively pushing the Van Allen Belts faraway from Earth over the past few decades, and now the lower limits of the radiation streams are literally further faraway from us than they were within the 1960s.

So what's changed? 

A certain style of transmission called very low frequency (VLF) radio communications, became way more common now than within the 60s, and also the team at NASA confirmed that they'll influence how and where certain particles in space move about.

In other words, due to VLF, we now have anthropogenic (or human-made) space weather.

"A number of experiments and observations have found out that, under the proper conditions, radio communications signals within the VLF frequency range can, of course, affect the properties of the high-energy radiation environment around the Earth," said one amongst the team, Phil Erickson from the MIT Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts, back in 2017.

Most people won't have much to try and do with VLF signals in our daily life, but they are a mainstay in many engineering, scientific, and military operations.

With frequencies between 3 and 30 kilohertz, they're far too weak to hold audio transmissions, but they're perfect for broadcasting coded messages across long-distances or deep underwater.

One of the foremost common uses of VLF signals is to speak with deep-sea submarines, but because their large wavelengths can diffract around large obstacles like mountain ranges, they're also accustomed achieve transmissions across tricky terrain.

It was never the intention for VLF signals to travel anywhere aside from on Earth, but it seems they have been leaking into the space surrounding our planet, and have lingered long enough to make a large protective bubble.

When the James Alfred Van Allen Probes compared the situation of the VLF bubble to the bounds of Earth's radiation belts, they found what initially gave the impression of a remarkable coincidence - "The outward extent of the VLF bubble corresponds almost exactly to the inner fringe of the Van Allen radiation belts," said NASA.

But once they realized that VLF signals can actually influence the movement of the charged particles within these radiation belts, they realized that our unintentional human-made barrier has been progressively pushing them back.

One of the team, Dan Baker, from the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, stated this because of the "impenetrable barrier".

While our protective VLF bubble is maybe the simplest influence we humans have made on the space surrounding our planet, it's on no account the sole one - we've been making our mark on space since the 19th century, and particularly over the past 50 years, when nuclear explosions were all the fad.

"These explosions created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to many satellites," the NASA team explained.

"Other anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release experiments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and therefore the interaction of VLF waves with the radiation belts."

Astronomer Carl Sagan once wanted to search out unequivocal indications of life on Earth from up in space - seems, there are a bunch of them if you recognize where to appear.

Astronomers Admit: We Were Wrong—100 Billion Habitable Earth-Like Planets In Our Galaxy Alone

 Estimates by astronomers indicate that there could be more than 100 BILLION Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way that could be home to life. Think that’s a big number? According to astronomers,  there are roughly 500 billion galaxies in the known universe, which means there are around 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×1022) habitable planets. That’s of course if there’s just ONE universe.

In fact, just inside our own Milky Way Galaxy experts now believe are some 400 BILLION STARS, but this number may seem small as some astrophysicists believe that stars in our galaxy could figure the TRILLION. This means that the Milky Way alone could be home to more than 100 BILLION planets.

However, since astronomers aren’t able to see our galaxy from the outside, they can’t really know for sure the number of planets the Milky Way is home to. They can only provide estimates.

To do this, experts calculate our galaxy’s mass and calculate how much of that mass is composed of stars. Based on these calculations scientists believe our galaxy is home to at least 400 billion stars, but as I mentioned above, this number could drastically rise.

There are some calculations that suggest that the Milky Way is home on an average between 800 billion and 3.2 trillion planets, but there are some experts who believe the number could be as high as eight trillion.

Furthermore, if we take a look at what NASA has to say, well find out how the space agency believes there are at least 1,500 planets located within 50 light-years from Earth. These conclusions are based on observations taken over a period of six years by the PLANET—Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork—collaboration, founded in 1995. The study concluded that there are way more Earth-sized planets than Jupiter-sized worlds.

Scientists Think They've Discovered a New Species of Beaked Whale

Scientists may have discovered a large-toothed mammal off the western coast of Mexico that they say looks and sounds unlike anything else on Earth.

Researchers collected environmental genetic samples of this strange creature that are still being analyzed, but the images and acoustic recordings have researchers "highly confident" it is a never-before-described species of toothed whale.

"We saw something new. Something that was not expected in this area, something that doesn't match, either visually or acoustically, anything that is known to exist," announced Jay Barlow, a marine mammal researcher who worked with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization, during the expedition.

"It just sends chills up and down my spine when I think that we might have accomplished what most people would say was truly impossible – finding a large mammal that exists on this earth that is totally unknown to science."

A snapshot of the possibly new species. (Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd)

It all started in 2018 when a strange sound was picked up in the waters around Mexico's San Benito Islands (and, before that, off the coast of California). Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are all known to have their own unique calls, but this sound, known as BW43, was harder to place. It didn't really fit in anywhere.

At the time, scientists suspected it might belong to an elusive species of deep-diving beaked whale – a kind that had never before been observed alive. In fact, Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini), as it is known, was only identified as its own species after five corpses washed up on California's beaches between 1975 and 1997. Before that, it was lumped in with Hector's beaked whale (Mesoplodon hectori), which looks similar.

This year, while searching for the source of BW42 a hundred kilometers off the coast of Mexico, an expedition from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ended up finding what they think may be a different species entirely.

Researchers say the images taken don't resemble Perrin's toothed whale or the other member of the Hyperoodontidae family. Nor do its acoustics, picked up on an underwater microphone, sound like any other known cetacean.

As such, the team of beaked whale experts thinks it must be a newly discovered species, although verification is still needed.

"The discovery of a new species of beaked whale proves how much mystery there is left to discover in the oceans that our captains, crews, and research partners fight to defend," says Peter Hammarstedt, the campaign director for Sea Shepherd.

 

Beaked whales are one of the least well-known groups of mammals in the world, largely because of their preference for the deep sea, spending the vast majority of their time thousands of meters below the waves.

For instance, just last month, Cuvier's toothed whale (Ziphius cavirostris) set a record for the longest drive ever recorded during a marine mammal, spending nearly four hours underwater without a breath.

Hundreds of years after naming the primary toothed whale, scientists are still finding new species of this massive, deep-diving mammal. At first, scientists thought there were only two species. Now, we've identified a minimum of 23, a number of which haven't been seen alive. Only a couple are studied in any detail.

Some, like True's toothed whale (Mesoplodon mirus) can weigh thousands of pounds, and yet even then, only a couple of individuals have ever seen them swimming within the wild.

In 2016, DNA analysis confirmed a replacement toothed whale species had washed abreast of the coast of Japan and Alaska with a rare black coloring. After several genetic lines of evidence, the creature was officially named Berardius minimus, or Sato's toothed whale, in 2019.

Now, a year later, it looks like we've found yet another. But this time, they were alive and singing.

Two individuals of a possible newly discovered whale species. (Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd)

Describing a new species of animal requires several lines of evidence and an independent review. The expedition was able to take photographs, record acoustic recordings, and collect environmental genetic sampling.

"We're literally taking water samples from where the whale's dove, so right where they were," Elizabeth Henderson, a bioacoustics scientist at the Naval IW Center Pacific and another research on the Sea Shepherd expedition, tells Mongabay.

"The hope is that there's some genetic material left in the water, whether that's sloughed skin, whether it's some remnants of fecal matter."

Distinguishing between species is difficult enough, but for the beaked whale, it's especially challenging. The sheer lack of data on each species makes it hard to match them without proper genetic samples.

In many cases, we will not even find out their conservation status. Without knowing their population numbers, whether or not they migrate, and what their habitats are like, it's hard to mention how beaked whales are coping during a rapidly changing world.

"Sea Shepherd strongly believes in the critical role that scientific research plays in supporting strong conservation action," says Hammarstedt.

"To properly protect something, you have to love it; and you cannot love that which you do not know."

Gruesome 'Tower of Skulls' Discovery in Mexico Unearths Over 100 Aztec Sacrifices

 Mexican archaeologists said Friday that they had found remains of 119 more people, including women and a number of other children, during a centuries-old Aztec "tower of skulls" within the heart of the capital.

The new discovery was announced after an eastern section of the Huei Tzompantli was uncovered along with the outer facade, five years after the northeastern side was found.

Archaeologists believe that a lot of the skulls belonged to captured enemy warriors which the tower was intended as a warning to rivals of the Aztec empire, which was overthrown by Spanish conquistadors in 1521.

Some of the remains might be of individuals who were killed in ritual sacrifices to appease the gods, consistent with experts quoted during a statement released by the National Anthropology and History Institute.

"Although we cannot determine how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives set aside for sacrificial ceremonies," archaeologist Barrera Rodriguez said.

The tower, 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) in diameter, is assumed to possess been built around the end of the 15th century.

It is located within the area of the Templo Mayor, one among the most temples of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan within the historic district of modern-day Mexico City.

In total, more than 600 skulls have now been found at the site, which Mexican authorities have described as one of the country's most important archaeological discoveries in years.

"At every step, the Templo Mayor continues to surprise us," Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto said in a statement.

"The Huei Tzompantli is, without a doubt, one among the foremost impressive archaeological finds in our country in recent years."

The statement noted that in Mesoamerica human sacrifice was seen as a way of ensuring the continued existence of the universe.

For that reason, experts consider the tower to be "a building of life instead of death," it said.

Scientists Just Set a New World Record in Solar Cell Efficiency

 Improving the efficiency of solar cells can make a huge difference to the amount of energy produced from the same surface area and the same amount of sunshine, and another world record has been beaten in the push for better yields.

Researchers have now hit efficiency of 29.15 percent in the perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell category, which is just one of several different types of cells. There are currently a variety of different technologies in use to convert solar energy into electricity.

For this type of panel, the long-term target of more than 30 percent is now tantalizingly within reach. The latest lab tests edge ahead of the maximum 28 percent efficiency that perovskite/silicon cells have managed up to this point.

The layers of the tandem solar cell. (Eike Köhnen/HZB)

"Tandem solar cells that pair silicon with a metal halide perovskite are a promising option for surpassing the single-cell efficiency limit," write the researchers in their published paper. "We report a monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem with a certified power conversion efficiency of 29.15 percent."

Perovskite and silicon have actually been developed separately as semiconductor materials for solar panel use: silicon cells have been around for longer, and are currently the standard in solar farms around the world.

Perovskite is the up and coming new challenger, which scientists think could eventually eclipse silicon in terms of usefulness.

That's why scientists have long been experimenting with different perovskite compound combinations and adding other materials – silicon, in this case. The so-called tandem cell uses two semiconductors that can capture two different parts of the light spectrum, extending beyond infrared light (captured by silicon) into visible light too (captured by the perovskite compounds).

More good news is that putting perovskite and silicon together doesn't substantially add to the cost of making the panels. Keeping the price down is important for getting solar technology rolled out as far and as quickly as possible.

In this new research, the 29.15 percent efficiency record was managed with a 1 cm x 1 cm (0.4-inch x 0.4 inch) panel, so some serious scaling up will be required. The team says that should be possible, however. After 300 hours of simulated use, the tandem cell retained 95 percent of its original efficiency, which is another promising sign.

The new record was actually first reported earlier this year, though the peer-reviewed paper detailing the feat has just been published. The scientists used specially tweaked layer compositions for both connecting the electrode layer and keeping the two types of cells together in order to reach their new record.

It's another moment to celebrate, but the scientists aren't stopping: previous research suggests that tandem solar cell technology should be able to reach efficiency rates of well above 30 percent, and the team says "initial ideas for this are already under discussion".

Scientists Capture Incredibly Rare Footage of Deep-Sea Fish Devouring a Whole Shark

 Feasts are rare on the barren landscape of the ocean depths. So researchers couldn't believe their luck after they chanced on a feeding frenzy of deep-sea sharks chowing down on a fallen swordfish off the US coast in July 2019.

But they never imagined they might also capture footage of 1 of these sharks becoming the prey for an additional deep-sea creature.

With their rover hovering nearby, a late arrival took advantage of the submersible's shadow. Nobody might blame a wary fish for holding back while ravenous sharks feed, but this heavyweight had plans to show one amongst the diners into its dinner.

A video posted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the aftermath of the ambush by a hungry wreckfish. you'll watch it for yourself within the clip below, with shark lunch being served at around 1:42.

The action materialized at a depth of about 450 metres (roughly 1,480 ft) near an increase within the seafloor 130 kilometres (80 miles) off the coast of South Carolina.

While scouting for the wreck of the tanker SS Bloody Marsh, NOAA's remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer chanced upon the remains of a 2.5 metre (8 ft) long swordfish being chewed on by nearly a dozen deep-sea sharks.

"The reason behind the death of this majestic animal is unclear, perhaps as a result of age, disease, or another injury," says marine scientist Peter J. Auster from the University of Connecticut.

"There was no visible hook or trail of cord suggesting this was a lost catch. However, any variety of injury would are masked by the huge damage caused by many shark bites."

The sharks were two species of slow-moving, deep-sea dogfish commonly spoken as sleeper sharks. Two of the larger individuals were likely to be rough skin dogfish (Centroscymnus owstonii).

Others belonged to a comparatively newly discovered animal: Genie's dogfish (Squalus clarkae), named in honour of Mote Marine Laboratory founder Eugenie 'Shark Lady' Clark in 2018.

Both of the sleeper shark species are commonly found at these types of depths, sluggishly cruising about until some morsel happens by. Or, as during this case, happens to precipitate like manna from heaven somewhere within the area.

Sniffing out food on the currents, or perhaps detecting the vibrations of earlier arrivals, it's believed they might have journeyed from far just to stock up on the food drop.

Whatever attracted the scavengers, it wasn't long before what looks to be a solitary trouble Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) also homed in on the scene for a simple meal.

These massive fish also are named as sea bass and bass gropers. they will exceed 2 metres (about 7 feet) long and typically hang around trouble caves and shipwrecks.

Whether it came for the daily special but stayed for the party isn't clear. But because the feast continued, the wreckfish emerged from the glare of the Deep Discover's lights to wrap its lips around one amongst the sharks.

"This rare and startling event leaves us with more questions than answers, but such is that the nature of scientific exploration," says Auster.