SPACE - S0 - 20200229 - New "Official" Extreme Sun Science, Particle Mystery, Dragonfly

SPACE - S0 - 20200229 - New "Official" Extreme Sun Science, Particle Mystery, Dragonfly 

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

Happy LEAP Day!

Looks like that coronal hole stream finally arrived about midday yesterday, after a rise in particle density about six hours prior to that. Solar wind speeds ramped up to about 500 KPS and then slowed down a bit to the 400-420 KPS range. It looked like there was a cosmic ray spike on the detectors around 0400, but that seems to be an anomalous false reading. The KP Index remains well within the safe zone with KP-1s and KP-2s. A new equatorial coronal hole seems to be growing, about two days from the midpoint, so we'll keep an eye on that one. I was looking for a bit more action from the Northeast lim for bright spot activity, but they seem to have faded a bit. Still watching them to see what develops. The lithosphere was about the same as yesterday, with a Mag 5.3 NNW of the South Sandwich Islands, a Mag 5.0 NE of Aksu China, another hit off Tonga with a Mag 5.3, and a Mag 5.1 off New Caledonia.
   

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Defense - Israeli firm sells over 150 drones to European country

Israeli firm sells over 150 drones to European country

By Seth J. Frantzman,  Defense News, February 26,  2020

https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2020/02/26/israeli-firm-sells-over-150-drones-to-european-country/

Israeli company Bluebird Aero Systems makes the WanderB, shown, and the ThunderB, both of which are vertical-takeoff-and-landing UAVs. (Courtesy of Bluebird Aero Systems)

JERUSALEM — Bluebird Aero Systems has sold more than 150 vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones to an unnamed European country in a deal worth “tens of millions of euros,” the Israeli company announced Tuesday.

The company, which makes WanderB and ThunderB tactical VTOL drones, said the customer will incorporate the two UAV types into infantry, armored, artillery and special forces units.

The commander of the ground forces of the unnamed country provided a statement via Bluebird that said the government was impressed with the VTOL solution, as it will enable “high operational flexibility and provide invaluable real-time intelligence and situational awareness.”

The VTOL design has been tested in harsh environments and proved reliable. The recently sold drones are expected to be deployed to enhance the capabilities of units adjusting to modern fighting methods, providing “advanced and reliable intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities to address the modern battlefield’s challenges,” the commander said.

 the WanderB

The head of the country’s special forces brigade command agreed with the ground forces commander that the long range and endurance of the man-packable and tactical UAVs will aid in rapid deployment with small units. The special forces leader added that the UAV is a fit for day and night use.

Bluebird’s unmanned aircraft systems have been operational with the Israel Defense Forces since 2002 and in other countries since 2006, where they have logged a total of 52,000 sorties.

According to the recent edition of the Drone Databook at Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone, Bluebird UAVs are also used by India, Chile and Ethiopia. These countries use the 9.5-kilogram SpyLite, which has a range of 50 kilometers. In contrast the ThunderB, which was sold in this contract, weighs 32 kilograms and has a range of 150 kilometers. It can also carry a small cargo under each wing, which Bluebird says can be used to drop “essential material” with an accurate ballistic trajectory. The WanderB is man-packable at 13 kilograms and a 50-kilometer range. It can be used to relay real-time surveillance using electro-optical/infrared payloads. Bluebird says the ThunderB is ideal for long, covert intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions.

WanderB VTOL UAS - Operational Cycle

The Greek police have reportedly used SpyLite and ThunderB since 2014. And the WanderB has previously been offered to Spain.

Bluebird is confident the latest deal will lead to additional European contracts. This deal adds to an overall trend of growth for Israeli companies in Europe as well as the expansion of the small and mini-UAV market. Israel’s Elbit Systems sold more than 1,000 mini-drones in a $153 million deal last year to a southeast Asian country. More countries are seeking these smaller UAS solutions for tactical or special forces units in the field, including pairing drones with armored vehicles. This is especially the case as technology advances and units seek to modernize and network together fleets of drones.

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Science - Israeli research may help fish multiply, tackle world hunger

Israeli research may help fish multiply, tackle world hunger

As explained in an article recently published by 'Nature Microbiology,' the group managed to identify the functionality of fish's core microbiomes

By ROSSELLA TERCATIN, THE JERUSALEMPOST,    FEBRUARY 28, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-research-may-help-fish-multiply-tackle-world-hunger-618930

Picture of a Blue Tilapia (photo credit: Courtesy)

According to the United Nations, about two billion people in the world cannot count on regular access to safe and sufficient food, and in 2018 some 821 million people suffered from hunger or malnutrition. A key to tackle this challenge is the ability to develop sources of available and nutritious food even in challenging conditions.

Research led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientist Prof. Itzhak Mizrahi together with colleagues from the Agricultural Research Organization and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem might help expand the possibilities of carrying out aquaculture – growing fish in ponds – in harsh environments, providing an extraordinary alimentary resource.

As explained in a recent article in Nature Microbiology, the group identified the functionality of fish’s core microbiomes, an element that has a deep impact on living organisms and on how they survive and operate.

“It’s very little known, but microbiome communities live in the gut environment of multicellular organism from fish to human beings and they interact deeply with their hosts and with their well-being,” Mizrahi explained to The Jerusalem Post. “Fish have microbial communities in their guts, called gut microbiome, that we presume that they affect the fish’s ability to cope with a changing environment.”

Core microbes are those found in multiple fish species, the researcher pointed out. A key question explored by the study is what enables them to be maintained inside their host organism in such a persistent way, a question that so far has not been completely answered for any creature, humans included.

“We decided to tackle this issue for fish. We looked for core microbiomes and indeed we found eight microbes in the first two species we considered and in many others as well. Afterwards, we tried to identify which specific features enable them to persist in multiple species and gut environments,” Mizrahi said.

Indeed, what the scientists found out is that those microbes are more genetically viable than others. Looking at their interaction, they also discovered that the core microbes facilitate each other.

“Each one of them consumes different parts of the fish diet and by doing so they produce chemicals and they cross-feed each other, a feature that allow them to better survive in various conditions,” the professor said.

“Why is this important? Because this finding will really enable us, I hope in the near future, to better design such microbial communities to support the well-being of fish and their ability to survive in harsh environments also considering that these animals do not adapt very well since they are ectothermic organisms which cannot control their body temperature,” he explained, adding that based on a previous study. experts believed that microbiomes are also responsible for helping fish to maintain their temperature.

The expectation is that this study, whose main goal was to achieve results that could support aquaculture activities and increase their productivity, will also help to tackle the challenges posed by global warming, since sea temperatures are expected to rise dramatically in the coming years.

The study was conducted on tilapia, the most common species grown through aquaculture, and European bass, especially relevant to the Mediterranean area. According to a joint report by World Bank, FAO, and the International Food Policy, by 2030, it is estimated that over 60% of fish for food will come from aquaculture rather than wild catches.

“Our next step is to use what we discovered to actually engineer the microbiomes or their composition to support specific features of the host, for example swimming faster or surviving better in specific environments. Our hope is to synthetically design microbiomes specifically for aquaculture,” Mizrahi concluded.

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Space - NASA thinks alien life might be hiding in ancient caves on Mars

NASA thinks alien life might be hiding in ancient caves on Mars

By Charlotte Edwards, The Sun, February 24, 2020

https://nypost.com/2020/02/24/nasa-thinks-alien-life-might-be-hiding-underground-in-ancient-caves-on-mars/

An artist's impression of the InSight lander on Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists think if there is life on Mars it’s likely to be hidden in deep underground caves.

This theory is supported by Nasa experts and the US space agency will be sending a new rover to the red planet this summer.

According to Space.com, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory research scientist Vlada Stamenković explained the Martian underground life theory at a recent space event.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called "Buckskin" on lower Mount Sharp. AFP/Getty Images

Speaking at the Mars Extant Life conference, Stamenković reportedly said: “The surface of Mars is a very oxidizing, radiation-heavy environment where liquid water is not really stable for an extended amount of time.

“It’s the worst place to look for life-sites on Mars.

“Groundwater might be the only habitat for extant life on Mars, if it still exists today.”

The Mars 2020 Rover in the spacecraft assembly area clean room. AFP via Getty Images

The surface of Mars is cold, dry and there is lots of radiation.

Underground could be more habitable for life forms and may have some form of stable water supply.

Some scientists think that agile robots should be made that could try and explore the cave systems on Mars.

More than 1,000 potential cave entrances have been mapped on Mars by the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) Astrogeology Science Center.

Building nimble robots to enter all these potential caves would be costly and intricate.

The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Astrogeology Science Center has released the locations of more than 1,000 cave-entrance candidates on Mars

However, Stamenković has proposed that NASA could use a rover that could sense underground groundwater or chemicals associated with life from the surface.

This would make it easier to target specific areas that life is most likely to be found.

NASA intends to send its WED rover to Mars later this year.

The plan is for the 2,260-pound space probe to gather new events of life that’s alive or extinct and send Martian samples back to Earth.

NASA also has plans to send humans to Mars in the mid-2030s.

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Satellite almost on empty gets new life after space docking

FEB. 27, 2020, by Marcia Dunn

https://phys.org/news/2020-02-satellite-life-space-docking.html

This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, bottom right. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

A communication satellite almost out of fuel has gotten a new life after the first space docking of its kind.

Northrop Grumman and Intelsat announced the successful link-up nearly 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday. It's the first time two commercial satellites have joined in orbit like this.

The recently launched satellite—Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV-1—will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion.

Company officials called it a historic moment for space commerce, akin to the three-spacewalker capture of a wayward Intelsat satellite 28 years ago.

"We're pushing the boundaries of what many thought would be impossible," said Tom Wilson, president of SpaceLogistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. "The impossible is now a reality. Today is a great example of that."

The Northrup Grumman satellite was launched from Kazakhstan in October. On Tuesday, it closed in on the 19-year-old Intelsat 901 satellite and clamped onto it. The duo will remain attached for the next five years.

This novel rescue was carried out at a slightly higher orbit to avoid jeopardizing other satellites if something had gone wrong. The Intelsat satellite was never designed for this kind of docking; officials said everything went well.

Once maneuvered back down into its operational orbit, the Intelsat satellite should resume operations in another month or two. MEV-1 will move on to another satellite in need once its five-year hitch is over.

Jean-Luc Froeliger, a vice president for Intelsat, said the satellite had just months of fuel remaining. It ended service late last year and was sent into the slightly higher orbit for the docking.

Officials declined to say how much the operation cost or what future rescues might cost. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said "there was a solid business case" for undertaking the salvage attempt with five more years of operation ahead for the satellite.

It's reminiscent of another Intelsat rescue that unfolded closer to home.

Spacewalking astronauts captured the wayward Intelsat 603 satellite during Endeavour's maiden voyage in 1992. It took three men to grab the satellite with their gloved hands in perhaps the most dramatic shuttle mission of all time. An attached rocket motor ended up propelling the satellite from a low altitude to its proper orbit.

Northrop Grumman envisions satellite refueling and other robotic repairs in another five to 10 years. In the meantime, a second rescue satellite will be launched later this year.

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SPACE - S0 - 20200228 - Cloud Waves, Astrophysical Uh-Oh, Climate Crime

SPACE - S0 - 20200228 - Cloud Waves, Astrophysical Uh-Oh, Climate Crime 

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    
Solar winds were a bit unstable over the past 24 hours, but not dangerously so. They spiked to a high of around 380 KPS at midday, then dipped to a low of 320 KPS a few hours ago, jumped back up to 360 KPS and is currently hovering around 345 KPS. A bit of a lame roller coaster, which appears to be driven by continuing Phi-Angle shifting and instability. This hasn't had a negative effect on the KP Index, however, staying mostly in the KP-1 to KP-2 range. The larger of the two coronal holes just South of the equator has passed the midpoint, but there don't seem to be any new ones bringing up the rear. The hole at the South Pole, of course, is still pretty bodacious, which will have its maximum exposure to Earth come March 07. Some new bright spots just crossing the Northeast lim, should be interesting to see their magnetic complexity. As to the quake activity, the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge got a second hit yesterday morning at Mag 5.3, a medium-depth Mag 5.0 off Indonesia, a Mag 5.2 at the Southern East Pacific Rise, and a pretty hefty Mag 5.8 off Tonga.
   

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Science - Tel Aviv University researchers discover a non-breathing living animal

Tel Aviv University researchers discover a non-breathing living animal

"Living in an oxygen-free environment, it has shed unnecessary genes responsible for aerobic respiration and become an even simpler organism” – lead researcher Prof. Dorothee Huchon of TAU.

By ZACHARY KEYSER , JERUSALEM POST,   FEBRUARY 26, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tel-Aviv-University-researchers-discover-a-non-breathing-living-animal-618875

Henneguya genome (photo credit: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)

Life science researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have stumbled upon a non-breathing animal, challenging current understanding of the animal world, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The research, led by Prof. Dorothee Huchon of the School of Zoology at TAU’s Faculty of Life Sciences and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, detailed the 10-celled parasite organism called Henneguya salminicola that is found in the muscles of salmon. The research was supported by the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and conducted along with Prof. Paulyn Cartwright of the University of Kansas, and Prof. Jerri Bartholomew and Dr. Stephen Atkinson of Oregon State University.

"The parasite’s anaerobic nature was an accidental discovery," TAU said in a statement. "While assembling the Henneguya genome, Huchon found that it did not include a mitochondrial genome. The mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell where oxygen is captured to make energy, so its absence indicated that the animal was not breathing oxygen."

The animal itself, a "myxozoan relative" of jellyfish and corals, apparently gave up on breathing and consuming oxygen in order to produce energy, somewhere along its evolutionary track.

“Aerobic respiration was thought to be ubiquitous in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case,” Huchon explains. “Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions. Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this critical pathway.”

Fungi, amoebas or ciliate lineages living in oxygen-poor environments abandoned the need to consume fresh air quite some time ago, after their evolutionary trajectories followed an anaerobic path. The findings allude to the possibility that the same type of occurrence could happen to an animal if the conditions are right.

"Its genome was sequenced, along with those of other myxozoan fish parasites," TAU said in a statement.

Before the discovery, experts were unsure whether organisms within the animal kingdom could survive without oxygen, given that animals are "multicellular, highly developed organisms, which first appeared on Earth when oxygen levels rose." The findings are important for future evolutionary research.

“It’s not yet clear to us how the parasite generates energy," Huchon said. "It may be drawing it from the surrounding fish cells, or it may have a different type of respiration such as oxygen-free breathing, which typically characterizes anaerobic non-animal organisms. It is generally thought that during evolution, organisms become more and more complex, and that simple single-celled or few-celled organisms are the ancestors of complex organisms.

“But here, right before us, is an animal whose evolutionary process is the opposite. Living in an oxygen-free environment, it has shed unnecessary genes responsible for aerobic respiration and become an even simpler organism.”

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Space - Alien planet is on its way towards the ‘edge of destruction’

Alien planet is on its way towards the ‘edge of destruction’

By Chris Ciaccia, Fox News, February  21,  2020

https://nypost.com/2020/02/21/alien-planet-is-on-its-way-towards-the-edge-of-destruction/

NGTS-10b, is a “hot Jupiter,” a gas giant that orbits its star very closely. University of Warwick/Mark Garli

Experts have been intensely watching an exoplanet that is so close to its star, it may well be on the “edge of destruction.”

Known as NGTS-10b, this planet is a “hot Jupiter,” a gas giant that orbits its star very closely. So far, approximately 400 exoplanets have met the “hot Jupiter” definition, but this particular one has a year that only lasts 18 hours, making it “perilously close” to its star.

“Although in theory hot Jupiters with short orbital periods (less than 24 hours) are the easiest to detect due to their large size and frequent transits, they have proven to be extremely rare,” the study’s lead author, James McCormac, said in a statement. “Of the hundreds of hot Jupiters currently known there are only seven that have an orbital period of less than one day.”

The 18-hour orbit of NGTS-10b is the shortest discovered for a “hot Jupiter” to date.

NGTS-10b, which is believed to be roughly 10 billion years old, is not in the habitable zone — an area that could allow for liquid water to be on the surface.— and is 1,000 light-years from Earth. One light-year is the equivalent of 6 trillion miles.

The planet is likely tidally locked (one side of it always faces the star), meaning astronomers estimate its average temperature to be more than 1,000 degrees Celsius or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. NGTS-10b is believed to be 20 percent larger than Jupiter itself and more than twice its mass. It’s also believed that the star, NGTS-10, is 1,000 degrees cooler than the sun and is roughly 10 billion years old as well.

Planets of this size with exceptionally short orbits are believed to eventually tear themselves apart, the study’s co-author, David Brown said, with another co-author, Daniel Bayliss, adding it could happen in the next decade.

“Over the next 10 years, it might be possible to see this planet spiraling in,” Bayliss said. “We’ll be able to use NGTS to monitor this over a decade. If we could see the orbital period start to decrease and the planet start to spiral in, that would tell us a lot about the structure of the planet that we don’t know yet.”

“Either we are seeing it in the last stages of its life, or somehow it’s able to live here longer than it should,” Bayliss added.

The research was published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Earlier this month, another “hot Jupiter,” KELT-9b, was discovered. The planet has such extreme temperatures that it tears apart its hydrogen gas molecules on the dayside part of the planet, only to reform once they move around to the nightside part, NASA said.

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Defense - Inside America’s newly revealed nuclear ballistic missile warhead of the future

Inside America’s newly revealed nuclear ballistic missile warhead of the future

By Aaron Mehta , Defense News,  February 24, 2020

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/nuclear-arsenal/2020/02/24/inside-americas-newly-revealed-nuclear-ballistic-missile-warhead-of-the-future/

An unarmed Trident II D5 missile launches from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine Rhode Island off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla., on May 9, 2019. (John Kowalski/U.S. Navy)

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. — When the Trump administration’s budget request rolled out Feb. 10, eyebrows shot up within the nuclear community at the mention of a previously unknown warhead, listed in documents as the W93.

Now the Pentagon is revealing details about the weapon, what it will replace and when it might be deployed.

The labeling of the warhead as the W93 is important. Since the introduction of the W88 in the 1980s, all upgrades to warheads have been described as variants — for instance, the collapsing of several versions of the B61 gravity bomb into the B61-12. According to a senior defense official, the reason for the new designation comes from the reality that the warhead is largely a new design.

“The W93 doesn’t [currently] exist. And so this is not a simple life extension,” said the official, who spoke to Defense News on condition of anonymity while traveling to Minot Air Force Base last week.

Right now, there are two submarine-launched nuclear warheads in the arsenal: the W88 and the W76. The latter, which just completed a service life extension program, now comes in two varieties, the traditional W76-1 and a lower-yield W76-2. The W88, meanwhile, is in the early stages of a modernization effort.

However, each of those two systems will likely require additional modernization in 15-20 years, and their cores are increasingly older, even with efforts led by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Given that, the Pentagon believes now is the time to begin developing a future replacement.

“These things take time. And so now we’re beginning the normal process,” the official said. “We start now in a seven-phase process, from concept design to production and delivery. And we’re starting now.”

The goal for the W93 is to base it “on existing designs,” according to the official. But other than that, all options that will work with the Trident II submarine-launched missile are on the table. The Nuclear Weapons Council, which includes a number of Department of Defense principals, is leading the analysis of what the W93 may look like.

“You might move the secondary to where the primary was, move this around, you’ll have new conventional components, you’re going to make it safer,” the official said. “It's going to be based on currently tested designs and components that are already in the stockpile. But it'll be safer.”

The government’s goal is to have the new design, which in size would be somewhere between the two existing ballistic missile warheads, fielded by 2040.

The idea of a follow-on submarine launched warhead is not entirely new. In FY20 budget documents, the NNSA referred to a “Next Navy Warhead,” but estimated that the weapon would not need funding until 2023. Why the agency moved the timeline forward by two years is unclear, but it comes at a time that the NNSA received a major increase in its budget request, increasing almost 20 percent from FY20 levels.

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Digging into the far side of the moon: Chang'E-4 probes 40 meters into lunar surface

FEB. 26, 2020, by Chinese Academy of Sciences

https://phys.org/news/2020-02-side-moon-change-probes-meters.html

The subsurface stratigraphy seen by Yutu-2 radar on the farside of the moon. 

A little over a year after landing, China's spacecraft Chang'E-4 is continuing to unveil secrets from the far side of the Moon. The latest study, published on Feb. 26 in Science Advances, reveals what lurks below the surface.

Chang'E-4 (CE-4) landed on the eastern floor of the Van Kármán crater, near the Moon's south pole, on Jan. 3, 2019. The spacecraft immediately deployed its Yutu-2 rover, which uses Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) to investigate the underground it roams.

"We found that the signal penetration at the CE-4 site is much greater than that measured by the previous spacecraft, Chang'E-3, at its near-side landing site," said paper author Li Chunlai, a research professor and deputy director-general of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). "The subsurface at the CE-4 landing site is much more transparent to radio waves, and this qualitative observation suggests a totally different geological context for the two landing sites."

Li and his team used the LPR to send radio signals deep into the surface of the moon, reaching a depth of 40 meters by the high frequency channel of 500 MHz—more than three times the depth previously reached by CE-3. This data allowed the researchers to develop an approximate image of the subsurface stratigraphy.

"Despite the good quality of the radar image along the rover route at the distance of about 106 meters, the complexity of the spatial distribution and shape of the radar features make identification of the geological structures and events that generated such features quite difficult," said Su Yan, a corresponding author who is also affiliated with NAOC.

The researchers combined the radar image with tomographic data and quantitative analysis of the subsurface. They concluded that the subsurface is essentially made by highly porous granular materials embedding boulders of different sizes. The content is likely the result of a turbulent early galaxy, when meteors and other space debris frequently struck the Moon. The impact site would eject material to other areas, creating a cratered surface atop a subsurface with varying layers.

The results of the radar data collected by the LPR during the first 2 days of lunar operation provide the first electromagnetic image of the far side subsurface structure and the first 'ground truth' of the stratigraphic architecture of an ejecta deposit.

"The results illustrate, in an unprecedented way, the spatial distribution of the different products that contribute to from the ejecta sequence and their geometrical characteristics," Li said, referring to the material ejected at each impact. "This work shows the extensive use of the LPR could greatly improve our understanding of the history of lunar impact and volcanism and could shed new light on the comprehension of the geological evolution of the Moon's far side."

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