In 2013, researchers spotted the coldest spot on Earth somewhere in the eastern part of Antarctica. Five years later, they performed some new observations in the area and made some distressing discoveries. A few sites in this region have dropped their temperatures even lower than before, challenging the rules of thermodynamics.

New data readings indicate a lower temperature for the coldest spot on Earth

In 2013, researchers identified the coldest spot on Earth on the East Antarctic Plateau, a high area covered in snow that stretches over a big part of the continent. In this region, they recorded temperatures of minus 93 degrees Celsius/minus 144 degrees Fahrenheit, marking an all-time low.

However, researchers decided to return with their studies and analyze the region better. This way, they discovered something quite distressing. Certain points in the region had actually reached even lower temperatures between 2004 and 2016. More precisely, the record was of minus 98 degrees Celsius/minus 144 degrees Fahrenheit.

For these new measurements, researchers used the same data as in 2013. However, this time, they took into account more factors regarding the weather. This way, they could perform an accurate assessment of the temperatures in the coldest spot on Earth.

Researchers identified the conditions necessary for Earth to get so cold

The previous readings were quite flawed, as researchers now discovered differences of 5 degrees Celsius and 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, researchers decided to measure the temperature in the tiny hollows, which are small holes on the ice surface where the air can get incredibly cold.

Researchers were also able to identify the conditions necessary for the coldest spot on Earth to get so cold. First of all, the area needs a clear sky without any strong winds. Then, the new results suggested the air needs to be extremely dry as well. If it’s humid, it traps heat in the water vapor in the atmosphere, so this is understandable. In the end, all of these conditions need to persist for at least a few days.

Therefore, researchers have discovered the coldest spot on Earth is a lot colder than they thought. Since it’s such a low record, they assumed this is the coldest our planet can get. As mentioned above, some atmospheric conditions are necessary for such temperatures, and it takes time for these conditions to change.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

This week, a new photo of Jupiter has just surfaced on the internet, blowing everyone’s mind. With the help of its Juno spacecraft, NASA took a colored picture of the clouds gathered above the northern hemisphere of the gas giant. After applying the color, the photo turned into a true work of art, as it really resembles famous paintings.

Two citizen scientists colored the new Jupiter photo

On May 23^rd, Juno went on its 13^th flyby close to the planet, thus producing the new photo of Jupiter. Initially, the image had no color, but NASA wanted to turn it into something remarkable. For this, it needed the help of two citizen scientists, Seán Doran and Gerald Eichstädt.

They took the non-processed image from the JunoCam and then applied color on top of it. This way, the combination between the swirling clouds and the nice shades created the effect of an oil painting in the new Jupiter photo. In fact, NASA encourages everyone to do this.

On its website, the space administration posts many of these JunoCam images without any processing. All these images are free to download, so anyone can take them and make any kind of adjustments they like. NASA encourages creativity and wants to see what people can make out of these photos.

The photo displays the swirling clouds in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere

When Juno took the new Jupiter photo, it was flying at about 9,600 miles from the clouds of the gas giant. In the northern hemisphere of Jupiter, at 56 degrees latitude, there is an area full of moving clouds that create all kinds of swirls. Those areas colored in light blue are the actual clouds, while the dark blue comes from cloud material that lies deeper in the atmosphere.

NASA launched Juno in space in August 2011, but it reached Jupiter only in July 2016. The main purpose of this spacecraft is to look at the Jovian atmosphere, as well as the magnetic and gravitational fields around it. Therefore, we might soon see more images resembling the new Jupiter photo with the painted clouds.

Image source: Flickr

One of the most annoying sounds in the world is, most definitely, the dripping sound. Before you can fix the source of dripping, the noise lingers and is there to get on your nerves. Given this immense source of frustration, researchers have decided to find out what actually causes a faucet to drip and find a solution to this nuisance.

Where does the dripping sound come from?

The first time when people spotted these droplets falling from faucets was in 1908, when the first dripping photographs were made public. Since then, people have been extremely curious about this dripping sound.

Certain studies compared this sound with the noise produced by a bigger object hitting a wall. However, others got more sophisticated and blamed the origin of the annoyance on a sound field coming from underwater. When this field reached the surface, it starts propagating, producing the annoying noise. Unfortunately, the experiments couldn’t support any of these theories.

Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge tried an experiment that turned out to be scientifically true. On top of that, they even managed to find a way to deal with the problem and stop the nuisance. Interestingly enough, researchers came up with the idea while being kept awake by the dripping sound coming from a leaking roof.

The research also offered a solution to fix the annoying dripping sound

To find out where it came from, they installed high-speed cameras and recorded the droplets as they were falling. Apart the visual part, they also recorded the sound of the droplets. This way, they finally discovered where the sound came from.

It turns out a droplet hides a tiny bubble of air underneath its surface. This air bubble performs a small movement up and down within the droplet, and the dripping sounds actually comes from this movement. In fact, the bubble causes the water surface to vibrate, and the vibration is similar to other annoying sounds.

If you cannot fix the leaking faucet too quickly, there’s something more you can do. The droplets must fall into a recipient, be it a sink or a different kind of bowl. To stop the sound from propagating, you can add some water in the recipient, and then mix it with some dishwashing soap. The study on the annoying dripping sound was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Image source: Pixabay

We never know when an asteroid appears from nowhere and hits our planet, causing great damages. It might be impossible to avoid such a collision, but we can at least minimize the disaster. Since we should always be ready for such an event, NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) devised a plan to stay safe from asteroids.

NASA devised a strategy and goals to stay safe from asteroids

Asteroid impacts are quite unlikely, but we still need a plan to follow in case something like this happens. This week, NASA presented its strategy to stay safe from asteroids, including five main goals that should protect our planet. The plan in question is titled “National Near-Earth-Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan”.

These goals start with improving the asteroid detection system and, then, being able to predict the exact point they would hit. Afterwards, there’s still something left to do to keep Earth safe from asteroids. NASA needs to improve our technologies against near-Earth objects, so that we might avoid or at least minimize the damage.

The danger is small, but it still exists

If asteroids of big proportions hit Earth, they can inflict a huge damage on our planet. However, the situation isn’t that bad. Since they are so big, NASA can detect them a lot more easily. It turns out it has already tracked all the potentially dangerous near-Earth objects, and none of them is even close to our planet at the moment.

However, this doesn’t mean it’s all over. Even smaller asteroids might produce a lot of damage, as previous events have showed us. From this category, there are more than 300,000 such small objects that might cause serious trouble. Since there are so many, it might be hard for NASA to spot all of them in time. Therefore, this plan is more than necessary to stay safe from asteroids for real.

Image source: NASA

On June 1^st, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dust storm getting dangerously close to the Red Planet. After getting bigger and bigger, the storm has come to encompass the whole planet, disturbing the activity of the rovers. Now, whenever researchers are using their telescopes to look at Mars, they cannot see it because of the massive layers of dust around it.

The dust storm quickly expanded all over the planet

When the dust storm hit Mars, it had already reached a considerable size and, since then, it only kept expanding. Only a week after that, the formation was already as big as North America. Shortly afterwards, it had already gotten double.

Since then, it only kept growing until it became a global event. Therefore, the dust storm now surrounds the entire planet of Mars, just like it happened in 2001 and 2007. However, back then, these phenomena didn’t disturb any other activity on the planet, since there were no rovers on its surface.

Curiosity might help researchers unveil the mystery of Martian dust storms

Meanwhile, two important rovers appeared on the Martian surface. One of them is the renowned Curiosity, while the second is the less popular Opportunity. However, the latter is quite in a serious situation right now, as its location has been one of the first victims of the dust storm.

The layer of dust covering the atmosphere is so thick that no sunlight reaches Opportunity. The rover is solar powered, so this means it cannot function until the dust storm is over. Fortunately, Curiosity doesn’t have such struggles. It uses nuclear power, so it means it can continue its observations. The conditions are unfriendly for it as well, but it can still work.

Researchers are seeing the best part of this dust storm. Since Curiosity is still functional, it can help them find out more about such storms on Mars. They are quite common on the planet, but only few get so big that they encompass the whole planet. By using the rover’s observations, they might find out why this happens.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

All planets spin on an orbit around the sun at different rotation speeds. Of course, these vary from one planet to another, but they might vary even when it comes to the same cosmic body. Researchers have discovered the Venus spin is quite odd, as it occurs at a variable rate. It turns out the atmosphere is to blame, as it spins at a bigger speed than the planet and pushes against its mountains.

The Venus spin moves the planet forward in time

Researchers have noticed the Venus spin does not act like it should, so they decided to investigate. They performed computer simulations of its rotation, as well as of the movements of the atmosphere. The latter moves around the planet at speeds of 100 meters per second.

Apparently, this movement is enough to disrupt the entire rotation spin of the planet. Given its speed, the atmosphere affects the planet by pushing it on the mountainous side and pulling it on the opposite site. This, of course, ends up affecting the general Venus spin by increasing its rotation rate. Every day, the overall rotation rate gains two minutes.

The phenomenon is the result of the atmosphere’s rotation speed

While it sounds like a major change, it’s not so much of a disruption. To understand this, we can compare it with Earth. One complete Venus rotation coincides to 243 Earth days, while its atmosphere performs a rotation in four days on Earth.

Researchers have performed various measurements of the rotation, obtaining varying results by about seven minutes. However, this is easy to explain as well. This continuous effect of the atmosphere must have pushed the planet forward in time, while a gravitational pull from the sun brought it backwards.

The first time researchers noticed the strange Venus spin was in 2015. Back then, they identified a wave across the atmosphere of the planet measuring 10,000 kilometers. Such waves are present on Earth as well, whenever wind is flowing near mountains. Here, the waves can easily break. However, the huge speed of Venus’ atmosphere keeps the wave intact while affecting the planet’s rotation.

The study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Image source: Pixabay

Photosynthesis is the process that uses energy from light to produce oxygen. Now, researchers managed to achieve a landmark discovery of a different type of low energy photosynthesis powered by infrared light. If such a process can successfully produce oxygen, then researchers might have found a way to populate planet Mars.

There are two types of photosynthesis

Plants make up a big part of life on Earth, who are essential for life as they produce oxygen. However, they need sunlight to survive and to perform photosynthesis, the process necessary for oxygen production. Since sunlight is not so accessible on a planet like Mars, researchers concluded it couldn’t have sustained vegetal life.

However, a team of researchers made a huge discovery that might shift the understanding of life on other planets. Apparently, there is also a type of low energy photosynthesis. To produce oxygen, this process only needs infrared power. This process occurs in great ocean depths, as regular sunlight doesn’t reach the plants living at the bottom.

Low energy photosynthesis might fuel Mars with oxygen

The organisms that perform this type of photosynthesis are cyanobacteria. They populate the bottom of the oceans and have existed on Earth for more than 2.5 billion years. Since they are so accessible, researchers decided to take advantage of this and try to produce oxygen in hostile places.

A planet like Mars cannot allow regular photosynthesis, since it’s much too far away from the Sun. This means the sunlight that does reach the planet is not enough to produce oxygen for a larger colony of inhabitants. However, low energy photosynthesis might be possible there.

Cyanobacteria are used to growing in tough conditions, so they might be able to survive on the surface of the Red Planet. In fact, researchers have found cyanobacteria traces on the ISS, so living on Mars won’t be so hard. Therefore, by harvesting the bacteria on the planet and having them perform photosynthesis, researchers might create a friendly environment for human colonists.

The study on this experiment was published in the journal Science.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Researchers have discovered some interesting interstellar particles present in our planet’s atmosphere that might have a tremendous age. These particles most likely come from comets that passed close to the sun and, most likely, are older than it. As these particles travel to the solar system, they eventually reach our atmosphere.

The interstellar particles are brought to our atmosphere by comets

There are many substances that make up the atmosphere, but interstellar particles sound the most unlikely. However, researchers identified such strange formations they later called GEMS. They are far from being actual gems, since the acronym comes from glass with embedded metal and sulfides.

This combination sounds extremely unlikely on Earth, as well as anywhere in our solar system. Therefore, researchers concluded they must make up interstellar particles coming from comets. As they enter our solar system, these formations pass next to the sun. The force pushes the particles away from the comets until they reach our atmosphere.

The interstellar particles in question are older than the sun

Silicate, as well as carbon and, to a certain extent, ice, must have formed the primordial solar system. As it evolved, the particles came together to form the planets. However, they all came into being after the sun. Comets, on the other hand, still preserve material that existed even before the sun, namely these interstellar particles.

In fact, the sun formed as a result of interstellar dust and gas. When the whole process occurred, all the interstellar particles around got destroyed. However, there was still time for the comets to come and pick up some of these materials before the formation of the sun.

Since they couldn’t have survived the birth of the sun, they must be older than it. Also, their composition says they must have formed in a cooler area, just like the dust cloud around the pre-sun. Therefore, all this evidence points to the ancient origin of the GEMS. The study on the matter was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image source: Pixabay

A woman from Kansas has just issued a lawsuit against NASA to prevent the space agency from taking her moondust. She claims this has been a gift from Neil Armstrong and will do anything to keep the sample from going into NASA’s possession. Even if the space agency hasn’t tried to get it yet, she wants to make sure this won’t happen.

The woman wants to stop NASA from taking her moondust

Laura Murray Cicco currently owns a small sample of moondust she claims is a gift from Neil Armstrong himself. It turns out Armstrong and her father, Tom Murray, were friends while the former was a professor of aerospace engineering of the Cincinnati Space University. Along with the lunar dust, Armstrong also gave the woman a note reading “To Laura Ann Murray – best of luck”.

NASA has always been claiming that any moondust sample belongs to the government. However, the space agency hasn’t yet tried to take the object from her, but this didn’t convince her. Just to make sure such a thing won’t happen, Cicco issued a lawsuit against NASA. In the lawsuit, she argues that Armstrong gave her the object and it’s hers to keep.

This lawsuit might really be successful

However, there might be a reason why NASA didn’t fight to get the moondust sample. A company from Massachusetts, the Bruker Corporation, performed X-ray tests on the object and obtained conflicting results. The X-ray diffraction test identified similarities with real lunar material, while the X-ray fluorescence test showed a different composition.

In case the moondust is genuine, the lawsuit might really prove successful for Cicco. A similar situation occurred in December 2016, when a woman from Illinois got to keep the pouch Armstrong used during the Apollo 11 mission. The government put this pouch on sale at an auction by mistake, and the woman bought it for $900. After bringing the matter into court, the judges agreed with her.

Image source: Max Pixel

The renowned Jovian lightning has always been a fascination for scientists, who have been dead-curious of its nature. While at first the phenomenon seemed strikingly different than what we see on Earth, more recent observations proved the contrary. The recent findings of the Juno mission have showed these lightnings actually have a lot in common with thunderstorms on Earth.

Researchers couldn’t pick up radio signals from Jovian lightning

For many centuries, scientists have been assuming thunderstorms occurred on Jupiter, so they nicknamed the phenomena Jovian lightning. Their findings were proven true by the Voyager 1 mission in 1979. However, the first impression was that this lightning didn’t resemble the one on Earth at all.

Meanwhile, other spacecrafts and missions went to explore the Solar System, bringing remarkable findings. Juno is one of them, which came with an entirely new perspective on Jupiter. It discovered that Jovian lightning is actually really similar to what we can see here on Earth. Apparently, lightnings on all planets transmit radio waves across the sky.

Before the Juno mission, researchers couldn’t pick up any radio waves coming from Jupiter. They were only able to see this Jovian lightning, and the radio signals they picked up were on a kilohertz scale. For them to be like those on Earth, they needed to be on a megahertz scale.

Lightning on Earth and on Jupiter display all kinds of similarities

However, Juno got close enough to the planet for its equipment to pick up all kinds of signals. During the first encounter between the spacecraft and Jupiter, the former faced 377 electrical discharges. All of them exhibited signals on a megahertz scale, proving Jovian lightning is just like the one on Earth.

The lightnings on the two planets weren’t only alike. Researchers also discovered Jovian lightning occurred at similar rates to Earth thunderstorms. This way, they produced the biggest database of radio signals picked up from lightnings on the gas giant. However, the two phenomena aren’t entirely identical. They still sport some differences given by the way heat is distributed on the planets.

The study on Jovian lightning was published in the journal Nature.

Image source: NASA