There's been a blistering heatwave in the U.K. recently, so the discovery of a body of water that's ice cold (-68c) is a great relief - unfortunately, however, it's buried beneath the South Pole of Mars.
The logistics involved in travelling 34 million miles to get there, then drilling down through over a kilometre of ice are challenging, but already hordes of excited people are jumping for joy - liquid water on Mars !
Not that I want to rain on the parade, but the other unknown is just how much water there is - it may be a large, shallow, puddle...
Closer to home, but staying with the idea of frozen discoveries, scientists have re-awakened nematodes from a 40, 000 year slumber in Siberian permafrost.
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| Revived roundworm ! Doklady Biological Sciences |
Attempts are already underway to discover the mechanism that allows the ancient nematodes to ' de-activate' for so long. The feat itself is impressive (previous record for re-animation* is thirty years )
and has implications for cryogenic freezing and possibly generational travel.Speaking of spacecraft*, the ISS has a live 'webcam' feed, as part of an ongoing experiment . I find it quite relaxing to watch, almost like meditation...
Recent activity in the heavens included the 'blood moon' , the longest lunar eclipse of this century, lasting over an hour and forty minutes, and by all accounts from around the world, pretty special (he says through gritted teeth) - yes, our long run of clear skies in the u.k. was briefly ended by cloud cover , just in time for this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
Sighs, shrugs
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| The 'blood' moon, visible from most places - except here. |
From the moon to the Sun, we learn of the new date for the Parker Solar Probe (now scheduled for launch sometime around August 11th 2018). The ' touching the sun' hype is a tad wrong, given that the probe will get no closer than four million miles or so - but don't forget that part of the Parker Probes purpose is to solve the mystery of 'coronal heating', attempting to find out why the outlying coronal area is 200 times hotter than the surface of the sun itself . When I read of the coronal temperature ( 2 million degrees Farenheit ), I just thought - good luck, little probe...
G
Thanks to you for being there, thanks to Glenn for the heads up on nematodes, and cheery bye , but hopefully not so long this time till next - did I tell you about my creative endeavours, no ?
Another time, then...
* Tardigrades were used ...I'm wary of the term ' re-animation', actually...I blame Herbert West...
* Tenuous link , but times are hard...
