World’s most sensitive astronomical camera developed

A team of scientists has developed the world’s most sensitive astronomical camera.

The camera was developed by a team of Universite de Montreal researchers In Canada, led by physics PhD student Olivier Daigle.

Marketed by Photon etc., a young Quebec firm, the camera will be used by the Mont-Megantic Observatory and NASA, which purchased the first unit.

The camera is made up of a CCD controller for counting photons; a digital imagery device that amplifies photons observed by astronomical cameras or by other instruments used in situations of very low luminosity.

The controller produces 25 gigabytes of data per second.

Electric signals used to pilot the imagery chip are 500 times more precise than those of a conventional controller.

This increased precision helps reduce noise that interferes with the weak signals coming from astronomical objects in the night sky.

The controller allows to substantially increase the sensitivity of detectors, which can be compared to the mirror of the Mont-Mégantic telescope doubling its diameter.

“The first astronomical results are astounding and highlight the increased sensitivity acquired by the new controller,” said Daigle.

“The clarity of the images brings us so much closer to the stars that we are attempting to understand,” he added.

A thriving Quebec company Photon etc. developed a commercial version of the controller devised by Daigle and his team and integrated it in complete cameras.

NASA was first to place an order for one of these cameras and was soon followed by a research group from the University of Sao Paulo, and by a European-Canadian consortium equipping a telescope in Chili.

ANI

Moon can help explore other planets

The discovery of hydrogen and oxygen molecules, the components of water, on Moon by India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 can help build a rocket refuelling station up there and thereby expedite the exploration of other planets such as Mars, a media report said today.

At present, a space ship taking off from the Earth expends so much fuel that there is little to spare for inter-planetary exploration.

But a report in 'Daily Mail' quoting a planetary scientist says that a 'service station' on the moon can allow the rocket to re-fuel and help expedite the exploration of planets like Mars, where water has also been detected within the last few weeks.

"Space ships use up to 85 per cent of their fuel getting to the moon -- but this (water) will allow the moon to be a gas station in the sky," said Professor Larry Taylor, a planetary scientist at the University of Tennessee.

"This means missions will be able to load up on hydrogen and oxygen and the moon can act as a stepping stone to other planets such as Mars."

The report added that researchers in US are now working out ways of extracting water from the moon, like using sifting tools to extract metal oxide particles, which can further be heated to produce oxygen and then be combined with equally- plentiful hydrogen particles to make water.

Bureau Report

Life Size Illusions

Meteor Shower

A meteor shower (intense or unusual manifestations of which are known as "meteor outbursts" and "meteor storms) is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed on parallel trajectories. Most are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all meteoroids disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Fragments which do contact Earth's surface are called meteorites.

Fishermen Caught A Monster Greenland Shark

The Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, also known as the sleeper shark, gurry shark, ground shark, grey shark, or by the Inuit Eqalussuaq, is a large shark native to the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland and Iceland.

These sharks live further north than any other shark species. They are closely related to the Pacific sleeper shark. This is one of the largest species of shark, of dimensions comparable to those of the Great White Shark. Large Greenland Sharks grow to 6.4 meters (21 feet) and 1000 kg (2200 lbs), and possibly up to 7.3 meters (24 feet).

It rivals the Pacific sleeper shark (possibly up to 7 meters or 23 feet long) as the largest species in the Somniosidae family.

Text: Wikipedia

Water on Moon brings colonisation dream nearer

Discovery of water on the moon by India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 may bolster US space agency NASA's long-held goal of setting up an outpost there, a US researcher says.

One ton of the moon's surface - in which the water's ingredients are held - could yield as much as 32 ounces of water, according to three reports from research teams who studied data from three spacecraft, including Chandrayaan.

Although that amount isn't large, geological sciences professor Jack Mustard said, the findings show "there are ways you could convert these amounts of water into higher amounts" that could support human activity.

The water was discovered in rocky environments and in craters, Mustard said. "It's in more places and in different places than were inferred previously," he said.

Mustard was on a team led by Carle Pieters, principal investigator for NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, carried into space on Oct 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

The mapper was a "state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer" that provided the first map of the entire lunar surface at high resolution, revealing the minerals of which it is made.

Examining data from Chandrayaan-1, Pieters' team found signs of water at the moon's frigid poles. The researchers believe it might have migrated from elsewhere on the moon's surface, attracted by the cold, they said.

Their overall findings also were confirmed by data from a high-tech spectrometer on the Cassini spacecraft - which also found evidence of water at lower latitudes away from the poles - and from infrared mapping done by the Deep Impact spacecrafts - which found trace amounts over much of the moon's surface.

Reports on those findings came from teams led by Roger Clark of the US Geological Survey and Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland.

This most recent information is far more precise than any previous data, Mustard said. Previous measurements were "the size of Texas, say, and now are the size of Providence".

"We find it (water) distributed more broadly," he added.

In the late 1990s, scientists found pockets of hydrogen on the moon, and inferred that its molecules could bond with oxygen to make water, the professor said. He called the older information much coarser.

This time, researchers are reassured that the components are on the moon to make water because of the presence of hydroxyl - produced when hydrogen and oxygen also bond with a mineral structure.

The researchers said the results also suggest that the molecules are continually being created on the lunar surface, perhaps as a result of the solar wind - the stream of ionized particles ejected by the sun.

IANS

Amateur astronomer photographs UFO hovering over Devon

Betts took this photograph with the help of his telescope

from his bedroom window Photo: APEX

A Brit amateur astronomer has managed to photograph what he claims to be a UFO hovering over Devon.

Lee Betts, 29, spotted the glowing red shape hovering 1,000ft up in the night sky from his bedroom window, and then moving across the sky for more than an hour on September 21 before shooting off into the distance.

Betts, of Newton St Cyres near Exeter, said he watched the unidentified object through a telescope before taking the pictures at 9pm.

“I couldn’t believe it at first. The shape was about 100ft long and there were four lights coming from it initially,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“The shape moved slowly and it seemed to pivot on a central axis. Then, without warning, a sudden flash of light like a shooting star went across the sky.

“It was very strange. I have been an amateur astronomer for the past three years and I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s unexplained,” he added.

A police spokesman said they had not received any reports of a UFO sighting in Devon.

ANI

Scientists confirm existence of superheavy element 114

Researchers in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division and UC Berkeley have made a step forward in the quest to achieve an ‘Island of Stability’ among notoriously short-lived artificial elements, by confirming the production of the superheavy element 114.

The announcement comes ten years after a group in Russia at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna first claimed to have made the element.

Heino Nitsche, head of the Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group in Berkeley Lab’s Nuclear Science Division (NSD) and a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, and Ken Gregorich, a senior staff scientist in NSD, led the team that independently confirmed the production of the new element, which was first published by the Dubna Gas Filled Recoil Separator group.

Using an instrument called the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator (BGS) at Berkeley Lab’s 88-Inch Cyclotron, the researchers were able to confirm the creation of two individual nuclei of element 114, each a separate isotope having 114 protons but different numbers of neutrons, and each decaying by a separate pathway.

“By verifying the production of element 114, we have removed any doubts about the validity of the Dubna group’s claims,” said Nitsche. “This proves that the most interesting superheavy elements can in fact be made in the laboratory,” he added.

To create a superheavy nucleus requires shooting one kind of atom at a target made of another kind; the total protons in both projectile and target nuclei must at least equal that of the quarry.

Confirming the Dubna results meant aiming a beam of 48Ca ions – calcium whose nuclei have 20 protons and 28 neutrons – at a target containing 242Pu, the plutonium isotope with 94 protons and 148 neutrons.

The 88-Inch Cyclotron’s versatile Advanced Electron Cyclotron Resonance ion source readily created a beam of highly charged calcium ions, atoms lacking 11 electrons, which the 88-Inch Cyclotron then accelerated to the desired energy.

According to Gregorich, “The high beam intensities from the 88-Inch Cyclotron, together with the efficient background suppression of the BGS, allow us to look for nuclear reaction products with very small cross-sections – that is, very low probabilities of being produced. In the case of element 114, that turned out to be just two nuclei in eight days of running the experiment almost continuously.”

ANI

Whales increase their ‘singing’ to cope with ships' noise

A new research by scientists has determined that blue whales have had to increase their ‘singing’ to cope with noise pollution from ships.

Man-made noise such as ships’ engines has caused hearing loss in whales.

It has also caused other behavioural changes, including forcing the creatures to strand on beaches because they are unable to navigate.

The endangered blue whale uses sonar to navigate, locate prey, avoid predators and communicate.

However, in recent years, the increasing use of hi-tech sonar by ships, the noise of propellers, seismic surveys, sea-floor drilling, and low-frequency radio transmissions have made oceans noisier.

According to a report in the Telegraph, new research has shown that the whales are having to ‘chatter’ more often and for longer periods to communicate the location of prey and to mate.

Zoologist Lucia Di Iorio, of the University of Zurich, analysed the song of blue whales recorded by microphones during seismic explorations in the St Lawrence estuary off Canada’s north east coast over an eleven day period in August 2004.

“We found that blue whales called consistently more on seismic exploration days than on non-exploration days as well as during periods within a seismic survey day when the sparker was operating,” she said.

“This increase was observed for the discrete, audible calls that are emitted during social encounters and feeding,” she added.

The study provides the first evidence that blue whales change their calling behaviour when exposed to sounds from seismic surveys.

“This study suggests careful reconsideration of the potential behavioural impacts of even low source level seismic survey sounds on large whales. This is particularly relevant when the species is at high risk of extinction as is the blue whale,” added Dr Di Iorio.

ANI

Why evolution is irreversible?

By resurrecting ancient proteins, University of Oregon researchers have found that evolution is irreversible, and can only go forward.

The University of Oregon research team found that evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked.

The team used computational reconstruction of ancestral gene sequences, DNA synthesis, protein engineering and X-ray crystallography to resurrect and manipulate the gene for a key hormone receptor as it existed in our earliest vertebrate ancestors more than 400 million years ago.

They found that over a rapid period of time, five random mutations made subtle modifications in the protein’s structure that were utterly incompatible with the receptor’s primordial form.

According to Joe Thornton, a professor in the UO’s Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, “Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by whether evolution can go backwards, but the issue has remained unresolved because we seldom know exactly what features our ancestors had, or the mechanisms by which they evolved into their modern forms.”

“We solved those problems by studying the problem at the molecular level, where we can resurrect ancestral proteins as they existed long ago and use molecular manipulations to dissect the evolutionary process in both forward and reverse directions,” he said.

Thornton’s team focused on the evolution of a protein called the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which binds the hormone cortisol and regulates the stress response, immunity, metabolism and behavior in humans and other vertebrates.

In previous work, Thornton’s group showed that the first GR evolved more than 400 millions ago from an ancestral protein that was also sensitive to the hormone aldosterone.

They then identified seven ancient mutations that together caused the receptor to evolve its new specificity for cortisol.

Once Thornton’s team knew how the GR’s modern function evolved, they wondered if it could be returned to its ancestral function.

So, they resurrected the GR as it existed soon after cortisol specificity first evolved -- in the common ancestor of humans and all other vertebrates with bones - and then reversed the seven key mutations by manipulating its DNA sequence.

“We expected to get a promiscuous receptor just like the GR’s ancestor, but instead we got a completely dead, non-functional protein,” Thornton said.

“Apparently other mutations that occurred during early GR evolution acted as a sort of evolutionary ratchet, rendering the protein unable to tolerate the ancestral features that had existed just a short time earlier,” he added.

ANI

‘Smell of space’ strong, metallic and unique

NASA astronauts aboard the US space shuttle Discovery have said that the smell of space, which is regarded as the final frontier, is strong, metallic and unique.

“There is one smell up here that is really unique though and that is the smell, we just call it ‘the smell of space’,” said NASA engineer and astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who is on board US space shuttle Discovery.

“I haven’t had a chance to do a spacewalk yet, but when the other guys did and they came back in, there’s this really, really strong metallic smell,” he added.

For rookie astronaut Kevin Ford, Discovery’s pilot, both the sounds and smells of space have surprised him.

“It’s like something I haven’t ever smelled before, but I’ll never forget it,” he said. “You know how those things stick with you,” he added.

Chamitoff and Ford are among 13 astronauts on board the International Space Station and US space shuttle Discovery.

Astronauts from Discovery have concluded a third and final spacewalk, installing new equipment on the International Space Station (ISS), though failing to connect some of the cables.

The spacewalkers deployed a new payload attachment system, replaced a failed gyro assembly, installed two GPS antennae and did some work to prepare for the installation of the Node 3 “Tranquility” module next year.

Built in Italy by the European Space Agency, Node 3 “Tranquility” is scheduled to be flown to the ISS next February.

It contains the most advanced life support systems designed to recycle waste water and generate oxygen.

ANI

Water Found on the Moon

Since man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called "unambiguous evidence" of water across the surface of the moon.

The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA's LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.

The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said.

"If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are — even a fraction of them — they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters," said planetary geologist Carle Pieters of Brown University in Rhode Island, who led one of the three studies in Science on the lunar find, in a statement. "This opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research], but we have to understand the physics of it to utilize it."

Finding water on the moon would be a boon to possible future lunar bases, acting as a potential source of drinking water and fuel.

Apollo turns up dry

When Apollo astronauts returned from the moon 40 years ago, they brought back several samples of lunar rocks.

The moon rocks were analyzed for signs of water bound to minerals present in the rocks; while trace amounts of water were detected, these were assumed to be contamination from Earth, because the containers the rocks came back in had leaked.

"The isotopes of oxygen that exist on the moon are the same as those that exist on Earth, so it was difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between water from the moon and water from Earth," said Larry Taylor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who is a member of one of the NASA-built instrument teams for India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite and has studied the moon since the Apollo missions.

While scientists continued to suspect that water ice deposits could be found in the coldest spots of south pole craters that never saw sunlight, the consensus became that the rest of the moon was bone dry.

But new observations of the lunar surface made with Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and NASA's Deep Impact probe, are calling that consensus into question, with multiple detections of the spectral signal of either water or the hydroxyl group (an oxygen and hydrogen chemically bonded).

Three spacecraft

Chandrayaan-1, India's first-ever moon probe, was aimed at mapping the lunar surface and determining its mineral composition (the orbiter's mission ended 14 months prematurely in August after an abrupt malfunction). While the probe was still active, its NASA-built Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) detected wavelengths of light reflected off the surface that indicated the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen — the telltale sign of either water or hydroxyl.

Because M3 can only penetrate the top few millimeters of lunar regolith, the newly observed water seems to be at or near the lunar surface. M3's observations also showed that the water signal got stronger toward the polar regions. Pieters is the lead investigator for the M3 instrument on Chandrayaan-1.

Cassini, which passed by the moon in 1999 on its way to Saturn, provides confirmation of this signal with its own slightly stronger detection of the water/hydroxyl signal. The water would have to be absorbed or trapped in the glass and minerals at the lunar surface, wrote Roger Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey in the study detailing Cassini's findings.

The Cassini data shows a global distribution of the water signal, though it also appears stronger near the poles (and low in the lunar maria).

Finally, the Deep Impact spacecraft, as part of its extended EPOXI mission and at the request of the M3 team, made infrared detections of water and hydroxyl as part of a calibration exercise during several close approaches of the Earth-Moon system en route to its planned flyby of comet 103P/Hartley 2 in November 2010.

Deep Impact detected the signal at all latitudes above 10 degrees N, though once again, the poles showed the strongest signals. With its multiple passes, Deep Impact was able to observe the same regions at different times of the lunar day. At noon, when the sun's rays were strongest, the water feature was lowest, while in the morning, the feature was stronger.

"The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only unequivocally confirm the presence of [water/hydroxyl] on the lunar surface, but also reveal that the entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day," the authors wrote in their study.

The findings of all three spacecraft "provide unambiguous evidence for the presence of hydroxyl or water," said Paul Lacey of the University of Hawaii in an opinion essay accompanying the three studies. Lacey was not involved in any of the missions.

The new data "prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the moon is dry. It is not," Lacey wrote.

Where the water comes from

Combined, the findings show that not only is the moon hydrated, the process that makes it so is a dynamic one that is driven by the daily changes in solar radiation hitting any given spot on the surface.

The sun might also have something to do with how the water got there.

There are potentially two types of water on the moon: that brought from outside sources, such as water-bearing comets striking the surface, or that that originates on the moon.

This second, endogenic, source is thought to possibly come from the interaction of the solar wind with moon rocks and soils.

The rocks and regolith that make up the lunar surface are about 45 percent oxygen (combined with other elements as mostly silicate minerals). The solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun — are mostly protons, or positively charged hydrogen atoms.

If the charged hydrogens, which are traveling at one-third the speed of light, hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials, Taylor, the M3 team member suspects. Where free oxygen and hydrogen exist, there is a high chance that trace amounts of water will form.

The various study researchers also suggest that the daily dehydration and rehydration of the trace water across the surface could lead to the migration of hydroxyl and hydrogen towards the poles where it can accumulate in the cold traps of the permanently shadowed regions.

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‘Nazca Lines’ discovered in Kazakhstan

Media outlets as well as the official government website in Kazakhstan are reporting the surprise discovery of local geoglyphs or ‘Nazca Lines’. Geoglyphs are drawings created on the ground by arranging stones or removing the top layers of earth. These designs typically cover large areas. The most famous geoglyphs are those found in the Nazca desert in Peru. These show hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, llamas, and lizards.

The Kazakhstan Geoglyphs (photo above, thanks to photojournalist N. Dorogov) appear to depict a humanoid figure wedged between two unusual structures. The drawings are located in the remote Karatau Mountains in South Kazakhstan.

Geoglyphs are of interest to UFO researchers, some of whom believe they might be messages or markers created by ancient people for the benefit of visiting extraterrestrials. It is alleged by these UFO scholars that in times of distress these were a way of asking ‘Star Gods’ to return and Assist these early societies, however this hypothesis has not been proven.

It is expected that some scholars of extraterrestrial matters will claim that the being shown in the drawing might well depict an alien that once visited the area and interacted with the locals.
Kazhakstan is an area of intense UFO sightings and activity. Recently the Kazakhstan Government toyed with the idea of creating a UFO landing field and an alien embassy.

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'Quiet' Sun can also hit Earth with wild winds

The Sun can lash the Earth with powerful winds that can disrupt communications, aviation and power lines even when it is in the quiet phase of its 11-year solar cycle, US scientists say.

Observers have traditionally used the number of sunspots on the surface of the Sun to measure its activity. The number of sunspots reaches a peak at what is called the solar maximum, then declines to reach a minimum during a cycle.

At the peak, intense solar flares and geomagnetic storms eject vast amounts of energy into space, crashing into the Earth's protective magnetic fields, knocking out satellites, disrupting communications and causing colourful aura.

But scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States and the University of Michigan found that the Earth was bombarded with intense solar winds last year despite an unusually quiet phase for the Sun.

"The Sun continues to surprise us," said Sarah Gibson of the center's High Altitude Observatory and lead author of the study. "The solar wind can hit Earth like a fire hose even when there are virtually no sunspots."

Scientists previously thought the streams of energy largely disappeared as the solar cycle approached the minimum.

Gibson and the team, which also included scientists from NOAA and NASA, compared measurements from the current solar minimum interval, taken in 2008, with measurements of the last solar minimum in 1996.

Although the current solar minimum has fewer sunspots than any minimum in 75 years, the Sun's effect on Earth's outer radiation belt was more than three times greater last year than in 1996.

The research, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, found that the prevalence of high-speed streams during the solar minimum in 2008 appeared to be related to the current structure of the Sun.

As the number of sunspots fell over the past few years, large holes lingered in the surface of the Sun near its equator. The high-speed streams that blow out of those holes engulfed Earth during 55 percent of the study period in 2008, compared to 31 percent of the study period in 1996.

A single stream of charged particles can last for as long as 7 to 10 days, the study says.

"The new observations from last year are changing our understanding of how solar quiet intervals affect the Earth and how and why this might change from cycle to cycle," said co-author Janet Kozyra of the University of Michigan.

IANS

Flamingos stand on one leg to 'preserve body heat'

Ever wondered why flamingos are often seen standing on one leg? Well, scientists believe that the posture might be used by the birds to conserve body heat.

Lead researcher Matthew Anderson, a psychologist at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, said scientists have suggested that one-legged posture helped reduce muscle fatigue and that it was important to thermoregulation, or the maintenance of body temperature went on to test the ideas.

During the study, Anderson and his colleagues observed a captive flock at the Philadelphia Zoo.

They looked at the flamingos and timed how long it took for them to start moving from both unipedal and bipedal resting positions.

He said if the theory was correct, the birds should take their first steps faster coming from the unipedal position, but birds were faster off the block when they had been standing on both legs, ruling out that theory.

While testing for thermoregulation to the test, the team noted the temperature and weather conditions when the flamingos were resting.

They found that when it was warmer, more birds would stand on two feet, while in cooler weather, more favored the one-legged stance.

Anderson said flamingos spend most of their time in the water, and water causes them to lose body heat more rapidly.

"The water just pulls away the body heat really, really quickly," Anderson said.

"So [the flamingo] really needs as much heat saving as it can possibly get," he added. He said the study shows that thermoregulation is a key reason behind the iconic flamingo stance.

ANI

A mammoth sensation in Serbia - no matter how old

Wading through the swamps that hundreds of thousands of years later would become eastern Serbia, Vika became stuck, never managing to pull herself free, and eventually died. Now Vika, a mammoth whose skeleton was found perfectly preserved in a crouched position, has been hailed as a "sensational" find despite disputes over her age, species and even sex.

In the millennia since the animal's death, 27 metres of earth were deposited on her until May when a digger in the Kostolac mine pit, 60 km east of Belgrade, exposed her skeleton.

Fortunately, no damage was done during the surprise discovery and now Vika's remains, preserved at the site by a climatised tent, have been made accessible to scientific visitors.

"Our geologists dated Vika's age at 4.8 million years, based on the age of the surrounding stratum," said the director of the Belgrade Natural Museum, Zoran Markovic.

If Serbian experts are correct, Markovic says, the mammoth remains are "the oldest ever found in Europe".

Serbian scientists say that Vika was a "southern mammoth" (Mammuthus meridionalis), standing four metres tall and weighing seven tonnes, with 2.5 metre long tusks.

Dutch mammoth expert Dick Mol however disputes these claims. After visiting Vika in August, he insists the specimen isn't a female southern mammoth but a male "steppe mammoth" (Mammuthus trogontherii), herds of which roamed between 300,000 and a million years ago. Mol points to skeletal characteristics and massive grinding teeth.

But even if the find is less spectacular than what the Serbs claim, the discovery of Vika is "clearly a sensation, a treasure for science", says Mol, who has taken part in the excavation of mammoth remains in Siberia, Western Europe and Canada.

In Mol's opinion, the remains of Vika represent the first unearthed complete skeleton of a steppe mammoth.

Yet, Germany's Sangerhausen mammoth was thought to be a male steppe mammoth when it was first discovered in the early 1930s, but then it turned out to be a female southern mammoth.

There are exceptionally well-preserved mammoth remains throughout Western Europe, but these are mostly "woolly mammoths" (Mammuthus primigenius), which lived until as recently as 8,000 years ago. Many of these have been discovered in Siberia and North America.

Serbian scientists decided to leave Vika exactly where she (or he) was and in the crouched position in which she was found. This was due to one last posthumous event. Shortly after she died in the mud of Kostolac, Serbian experts say, her stomach literally exploded, breaking her spine and scattering a few ribs.

Leaving the ancient skeleton as it was found allows scientists to continue arguing over her age, species and gender, while also allowing tourists to create their own picture of Vika's final days long ago.

IANS

UK’s UFO sightings more than triple this year

UK has witnessed more than triple number of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings this year.

According to the country’s Ministry of Defence documents, 394 sightings were reported from January until the end of last month.

Most claims alleged spotting UFOs at night time and describe seeing strange lights in the sky. Some others were seen during the day, reports the Telegraph.

Gary Heseltine, a British Transport Police officer and UFO expert, said: "There has certainly been a big increase in sightings in Britain over the last 12 months.

"We are in the midst of a flap. The sightings reported to the MoD will give an indication, but the actual numbers of sightings will be much higher, because many will not contact officials, for fear of ridicule.”

ANI

How elephants 'talk' to each other through the ground

The American Physical Society (APS), in the latest podcast of 'Life Lines', has explained how elephant vocalizations travel through the ground for great distances, and how other elephants can understand them, just as they understand acoustic sound, which travels through the air.

Research that led to the development of the content of the podcast was done by Dr Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, who is the author of 'The Elephant's Secret Sense'.

Early in her research, Dr. O'Connell-Rodwell noticed behavior that indicates elephants are listening to acoustic (airborne) sounds by putting their ears out and orienting toward the sound's source.

At other times, she also noticed a more puzzling behavior: Several elephants would freeze simultaneously, sometimes in mid-stride, and would press their front feet into the ground.

They might also roll a foot forward so that only their toes touched the ground. At other times, they would lift a front leg.

The behavior reminded the researcher of the behavior she saw in insects that communicate seismically.

She began a series of experiments that eventually found that:

Low-frequency elephant vocalizations, which are below the threshold of human hearing, travel through the ground in the same waveform as they do in the air.

The ground vocalization can travel faster or more slowly than acoustic sound, depending on soil conditions, but has the potential of travelling further as there is no outer limit to how far sounds can travel through the earth.

When she played a recorded elephant vocalization through the ground only, other elephants detected the vocalization.

Elephants understood the ground-borne vocalizations.

For example, they responded appropriately to an alarm call from another elephant by assuming their defensive posture of bunching and freezing.

They also responded only to alarm calls of elephants living in the area rather than those made from elephants elsewhere.

Elephants also have anatomical adaptations to help them 'hear' these ground-borne vocalizations.

They have an enlarged malleus, a middle ear bone that plays an important role in hearing.

Animals that communicate seismically often have an enlarged malleus as it also facilitates bone conducted detection of vibrations.

Elephants can close their middle ear canal, forming a closed acoustic tube which enhances bone conduction and blocks out acoustic sound, helping the elephant focus on the vibration pathway.

They have an acoustically designed foot, with a thick fat pad that perhaps helps in the transmission or conduction of vibrations.

ANI

NASA concludes tests for prototype Moon rovers

NASA has concluded two weeks of technology development tests on two of the agency’s prototype lunar rovers.

“These tests provide us with crucial information about how our cutting edge vehicles perform in field situations approximating the moon,” said Rob Ambrose, Human Robotic Systems project lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“We learn from them, then go back home to refine the technology and plan the next focus of our research,” he added.

The annual studies featured an intensive, simulated 14-day mission.

Two crew members, an astronaut and a geologist, lived for more than 300 hours inside NASA’s prototype Lunar Electric Rover.

The explorers scouted the area for features of geological interest, then donned spacesuits and conducted simulated moonwalks to collect samples.

The crew also docked to a simulated habitat, drove the rover across difficult terrain, performed a rescue mission and made a four-day traverse across the lava.

Throughout the test, the crew provided updates via Twitter and posted pictures and video online.

Prior to the test, NASA’s K10 scout robot identified areas of interest for the crew to explore. NASA’s heavy-lift rover Tri-ATHLETE - or All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer - carried a habitat mockup to which the rover docked.

ANI

China picks first female astronaut candidates

China's military-backed space program has selected 45 astronaut candidates, including its first women hopefuls, for a training program less than a year after the country completed its first spacewalk.

The 30 male and 15 female candidates are part of a program to pick five men and two women astronauts to participate in three more manned missions planned before 2012. The missions are to prepare for the rendezvous and docking tasks required for constructing a space station, a news agency reported on Thursday.

In 2003, China become the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. It followed last year with its first spacewalk, putting the country closer to building a space station and landing a man on the moon.

Like previous astronauts, all 45 candidates are air force pilots between the ages of 27 and 34, the report said. They will undergo a series of rigorous psychological and physical tests as part of the selection process.

China announced last year that it would send scientists on future manned missions as demands for technical expertise rises.

China has said it wants to launch a manned mission by 2020 to experiment with technologies that will enable astronauts to take care of spacecraft for longer periods of time.

The Chinese program is backed by the country's secretive military. While Beijing says it is committed to a peaceful program, analysts point to numerous potential applications for its technology, such as when it used a land-based missile to blast apart an old satellite in 2007, the first such test ever conducted by a nation.

Bureau Report