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TwitterIt was a natural phenomenon that would have tested the limits of even Mr Muscle.Scientists in Japan have found that clouds generated by a massive dust storm in China’s Taklimakan desert in 2007 completed more than one full circle around the planet in just 13 days.And measuring around 1.9 miles vertically and up to 1,242 miles horizontally, the dust cloud – which formed in the northwestern region of Xinjiang – stayed in that formation the whole way.Phenomenal: An enormous dust cyclone swirls over northeastern ChinaWhen it reached the Pacific Ocean the second time around, it descended and deposited some of its dust into the sea.’Asian dust is usually deposited near the Yellow Sea, around the Japan area, while Sahara dust ends up around the Atlantic Ocean and coast of Africa,’ said Itsushi Uno of Kyushu University’s Research Institute for Applied Mechanics.’But this study shows that China dust can be deposited into the (Pacific Ocean). Dust clouds contain 5 per cent iron, that is important for the ocean.’In a report published in Nature Geoscience, scientists described how they used a NASA satellite and mathematical modelling to track and measure the movement of the dust cloud, which formed after the storm between May 8 and 9 in 2007.The researchers found that the dust clouds were lifted 5-6 miles above the earth’s surface before racing around the earth.’The most important achievement is that we tracked this through one full circuit round the globe – nobody has done this before,’ said Mr Uno.Full circle: Asian dust usually deposits near Japan but this cloud dropped the dust on its second tour of the Pacific, as pictured here’After half a circuit, usually the dust concentration gets very low and you can’t track it.’This means that dust concentration, dust lifetime is very long, more than two weeks.’The reason why the cloud structure was very well maintained was because the dust was uplifted – where the atmosphere is very stable.’Researchers believe dust particles trigger the formation of high-altitude cirrus clouds, although experts have no idea whether such clouds warm or cool the earth.
Posts Tagged ‘Nasa’
Made in China: The monster dust cloud that completed a full circle of the globe in just thirteen days
July 22nd, 2009 
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Posted in Discoveries 
Tags: Asian Dust, Cloud Structure, Dust Cloud, Dust Clouds, Dust Concentration, Japan Area, Kyushu, Kyushu University, Massive Dust Storm, Mathematical Modelling, Mr Muscle, Nasa, Nasa Satellite, Natural Phenomenon, Northeastern China, Northwestern Region, Swirls, Taklimakan Desert, Thirteen Days, Yellow Sea 
No Comments »The Best NASA Satellite Photos from the Last 50 Years
May 12th, 2009 admin On August 14, 1959, a U.S. satellite snapped the first pictures of Earth. Since then, many far more sophisticated imaging satellites have gone up, providing scientists with a wealth of information.When Winds and Islands CollideThis image shows Von Karman vortices, a row of eddies that alternate in their direction of rotation.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Aleutian Islands, Eddies, Gulf Of Mexico, Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone, Hypoxic, Landsat 7, Mississippi River, Mississippi River Delta, Nasa, Nasa Photos, Nasa Satellite Photos, Nutrient Concentrations, Nutrient Rich Waters, Ocean Currents, Reflection Radiometer, Satellite Sensors, Terra Satellite, Thermal Emission, Toxic Imports, Von Karman No Comments »Astronomers spot most distant object in the Universe
April 28th, 2009 admin Astronomers have spotted the most distant object yet confirmed in the universe, which is a self-destructing star that exploded 13.1 billion light years from Earth.According to a report in New Scientist, it detonated just 640 million years after the big bang, around the end of the cosmic “dark ages”, when the first stars and galaxies were lighting up space. The object is a gamma-ray burst (GRB) – the brightest type of stellar explosion. GRBs occur when massive, spinning stars collapse to form black holes and spew out jets of gas at nearly the speed of light. These jets send gamma rays our way, along with “afterglows” at other wavelengths, which are produced when the jet heats up surrounding gas. The burst, dubbed GRB 090423 for the date of its discovery on April 23, was originally spotted by NASA’s Swift satellite at 0755 GMT. Within an hour, astronomers began training ground-based telescopes on the same patch of sky to study the burst’s infrared afterglow. Some of the first observations were made on Mauna Kea in Hawaii with the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the Gemini North telescope. Other telescopes later measured the spectrum of the afterglow, revealing that the burst detonated about 13.1 billion light years from Earth. “It’s the most distance gamma-ray burst, but it’s also the most distant object in the universe overall,” said Edo Berger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a member of the team that observed the afterglow with Gemini North. This burst lies at a redshift of 8.2, more distant than the previous GRB record holder, which lay at a redshift of 6.7. Other astronomers have claimed to find galaxies at even greater distances – at redshifts of 10 and 9, but those findings are still ambiguous, according to Joshua Bloom of the University of California, Berkeley, who observed the afterglow using the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Until now, the record holder for the farthest galaxy had a spectroscopically confirmed redshift of 6.96. The burst’s immense distance makes the now-dead star the earliest object to be discovered from an era called ‘reionisation’, which occurred within the first billion years after the big bang. At that time, an obscuring fog of neutral hydrogen atoms was being burned off by radiation from the first stars and galaxies, and possibly also from the annihilation of dark matter particles. “For astronomy, this is a watershed event,” Bloom told New Scientist. “This is the beginning of the study of the universe as it was before most of the structure that we know about today came into being,” he added.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Black Holes, Burst Grb, Distant Object, Gamma Ray Burst, Gamma Rays, Gemini North Telescope, Harvard Smithsonian Center, Harvard Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, Infrared Afterglow, Infrared Telescope, Light Years, Mauna Kea, Nasa, New Scientist, Redshift, Redshifts, Stars And Galaxies, Stellar Explosion, Swift Satellite, University Of California Berkeley No Comments »How solar panels in space could be used to beam renewable energy back to Earth
April 18th, 2009 admin It is perhaps one of the more outlandish solutions to solving the problem of Earth’s dwindling energy supplies.An American power company plans to send solar panels into space to harvest energy from the sun and transmit it back to Earth using radio waves.Pacific Gas and Electric, which serves San Francisco and northern California, is to seek approval to buy 200 megawatts of energy from solar power firm Solaren.Within seven years, Solaren plans to send a satellite equipped with solar panels around 22,000 miles into space on board a conventional rocket.Unfurled in space, the panels would bask in near-constant sunshine – uninterrupted by clouds or bad weather – and provide a steady flow of electricity day and night.An artist’s impression of the planned solar array which will be launched into space on a rocket and will transmit solar power back to Earth in radio wavesThe orbiting solar ‘farm’ would collect energy from the sun and then convert it into radio waves which would beam the power back to antennae in California.The radio transmissions would then be converted into usable electricity and fed back into the conventional power grid.Sunlight in space is at least ten times more powerful than that on Earth, making orbiting solar panels far more efficient than those which are land-based.Solaren believes the technology could provide enough clean electricity to power at least 150,000 Californian homes.The theory behind transmitting solar energy via radio waves was proved by Nasa in 2008 when solar power was beamed 90 miles between two Hawaiian islands.Rows of solar panels cover acres of land in the desert in CaliforniaLand-based solar arrays can only generate power during the day and require huge expanses of land before they become efficient.But even though the solar array would unfurl on its own, the costs of sending the satellite into space are extremely high and repairs on the panels would be impossible.If the Pacific Gas and Electric is given the go-ahead then Solaren will have to privately raise billions of dollars to design, launch and operate a satellite as well as the energy-receiving ground station.Despite fears that the beam of energy would resemble a science-fiction ‘death-ray’, experts insist it would be completely safe.And Solaren’s founder, Gary Sprinak, aircraft passing through the radio beam would not be affected in any way.Swiss-based firm Space Energy also intends to use space-based solar power to create clean electricity and plans to send a prototype satellite into space within the next year.Space Energy’s solar array would be able to generate one gigawatt of power almost continuously, about the same output as a large nuclear plant.A spokesman for PG&E said: ‘We’re convinced it’s a very serious possibility that they can make this work.’It’s staggering how much power is potentially available in space.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Antennae, Bad Weather, California Land, Californian, Conventional Power, Conventional Rocket, Energy From The Sun, Flow Of Electricity, Hawaiian Islands, Megawatts, Nasa, Power Grid, Radio Transmissions, Radio Waves, Solar Array, Solar Arrays, Solar Energy, Solar Panels, Solar Power, Steady Flow No Comments »Stowaway bat discovered on-board US space shuttle Discovery
March 19th, 2009 admin A stowaway bat was discovered on-board the US space shuttle Discovery as it rocketed into outer space earlier this week.The seven astronauts spotted the critter as they inspected pictures of the aircraft during take-off from the Kennedy Space Center, the US space agency NASA said.The free tail bat’s current whereabouts is not known, but NASA believes his space adventure was short-lived and he would have been killed.”Lift-off imagery analysis confirmed that he held on until at least the vehicle cleared the tower before we lost sight of him,” a NASA memo obtained by Space.com said. “He did change the direction he was pointing from time to time throughout countdown, but ultimately never flew away.”Infrared imagery shows he was alive and not frozen like many would think.”While glued to the tank – containing two million litres of liquid hydrogen rocket fuel – animal experts believe the bat would also had to have contended with a broken left wing and a sore right shoulder, or wrist. ”The animal likely perished quickly during Discovery’s climb into orbit,” a NASA official said.The bat was not the first of its species to attempt space travel. Another bat was seen gripping the external tank of the Endeavour in 1996 and one briefly clung to the Columbia space shuttle in 1998 but flew off before lift-off.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Animal Experts, Astronauts, Columbia Space Shuttle, Endeavour, External Tank, Imagery Analysis, Infrared Imagery, Kennedy Space Center, Left Wing, Liquid Hydrogen, Nasa, Nasa Official, Nasa Space, Outer Space, Rocket Fuel, Space Adventure, Space Nasa, Space Shuttle Discovery, Us Space Agency, Us Space Shuttle No Comments »10 Amazing High Tech Crimes (Which Mostly Failed)
March 12th, 2009 admin If crime didn’t pay, there wouldn’t be any criminals. Throughout history, the successful criminals have used technology to stay above and beyond the law, developing new techniques to hedge their bets and avoid arrest. While some tech masterminds have escaped the long arm of the law, most have still failed.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Accomplices, Anarchy, Casino Reports, Cohorts, Earpiece, Galileo Spacecraft, High Tech Gadgets, Lam, Laser Scanners, Long Arm Of The Law, Masterminds, Nasa, New Scientist, Physicist, Playing Poker, Protesters, Random Messages, Roulette Players, Slow Motion, Vibes No Comments »Destroyed Satellite’s Debris Falling into Atmosphere
March 11th, 2009 admin Junk created by the collision of two satellites last month is poised to fall into Earth’s atmosphere this week.When the U.S. Iridium 33 communications satellite and the defunct Russian military communications satellite Cosmos 2251 collided and were destroyed, the smashup left a fresh sea of fragments orbiting at various angles.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Altitude, Angles, Centimeter, Collisions, Daniel Deak, Debris, Earth Atmosphere, Earth S Atmosphere, Fragment, Fragments, International Space Station, Iridium Satellite, Military Communications Satellite, Nasa, Plunge, Siberia, Space Shuttle Discovery, Strategic Command, Two Satellites, Wednesday Night No Comments »5 Ridiculously Heavy Towing Jobs
March 7th, 2009 admin Man’s strength and ingenuity never cease to amaze. How in the world ancient builders transported and assembled the monuments of Stonehenge, for instance, mystifies modern generations. How today’s experts move or tow the modern world’s most massive structures can be even more amazing. Were war, famine or plague to wipe out civilization, perhaps surviving generations would look with wonder on some of our artifacts, too.For us non-professionals, the most we’ll ever have to tow is fifth-wheel trailers or maybe a few tons of cargo.
Posted in Tech News Tags: Atmospheric Reentry, Fifth Wheel, Fifth Wheel Trailers, First Job, Hitch A Ride, Ingenuity, Intense Heat, Launch, Marvels, Massive Structures, Metric Tons, Nasa, Nasa Space Shuttle, Offshore Rigs, Orbiter, Reusable Vehicle, Shuttle Down, Space Shuttles, Stonehenge, Tracked Vehicle No Comments »