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Science

New Mars Rover soon to explore Mount Sharp

Saturday, 31 March 2012 00:00
Written by Navid Iqbal
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Curiosity- the newest Mars Rover from NASA is set to explore a mountain huge in size and also in potential after it lands on Mars, the Red Planet.

NASA’s team behind Mars Rover Curiosity has come up with a name for the much talked about mountain. The name is ‘Mount Sharp’.

Named after late Robert Sharp (1911-2004), geologist, a legend in his field and an honorable teacher and mentor of many of the genius minds leading this field today. He was also a member of NASA’s very first Mars mission team.

One of Sharp’s former students is Michael Malin running ‘Malin Space Systems’ and also a principal investigator of Curiosity considers Sharp as one of the best in the world. According to him origin of the mountain is still not clear enough. But, a plan is set to explore and research. They aim to find out about the possibility of microbial life in the area.

The 1 ton weighing Curiosity is the crown jewel of NASA’s ‘Mars Science Laboratory’ mission (MSL). The rover was launched last November and is set to touch down on August 5th at night. The scientists have decided Gale Crater as the convenient landing spot.

At the center of Gale Crater the mountain rises, and then it goes looming for 3 miles above the terrain. Scientists believe that the rocks on Mount Sharp hold the record of the climate change taken place on the planet.

Water born minerals have been detected by Mars orbiters. This discovery suggests possibility of the existence of water in the Gale Crater. The lower layers in the area feature sign of water and the higher layer suggests the transformation of Mars to a dry land from a wet condition.

John Grotzinger, Caltech professor and MSL’s chief scientist said that right now only Mount Sharp is accessible to run studies on above mentioned transition.

Mount Sharp is moderately sloppy and the surface is not so rough in nature. So, the rover should not face any major trouble during the expedition.

The Mars Rover’s ostensible operation life is 2 years in earth time. But, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Curiosity keeps walking beyond the given time limit. Another Mars Rover of NASA had an estimated operation life of 90 days. But it’s still kicking on after 8 years since it made its landing.

 

SEPA fines ExxonMobil ‘record’ £2.8m over carbon emissions

Thursday, 23 February 2012 22:07
Written by Navid Iqbal
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The energy giant was slapped with a massive fine of £2.8m due to the failure to report co2 emissions from one of its chemical plants in Fife by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). A “sharp mistake of breath” turned out to be a costly one for the oil giant. The fine is now the largest financial penalty enforced for an environmental wrongdoing in the history of Britain.

SEPA says the fine was imposed under ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations’ and it was an obligatory penalty for breaking ‘EU Emissions Trading Scheme’.

In 2008 in a report SEPA said that the company failed to mention emissions of about 33,000 tones of carbon dioxide from its chemical plant in Mosmorran and the fine was issued by SEPA in 2011.

SEPA spokesman said that the ExxonMobil case was charged for a reporting mistake, and the punishment was a compulsory consequence of breaking the ‘EU Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations’. He also stated the fact this wasn’t a prosecution case as no direct harm was caused to environment by ExxonMobil’s error. And that’s why SEPA did not launch a thorough investigation. 

ExxonMobil regretted for their misconduct and took full responsibility. Spokesman for ExxonMobil said that the company deeply regretted the mistakes made related to the reports of co2 emissions under the ‘European Union Emissions Trading System’.

ExxonMobil considers the alarming increasing rate of greenhouse gas emission as a serious threat to mankind and also worthy of taking take action against.

Director of WWF Scotland’s, Richard Dixon said that it’s awfully embarrassing for a highly resourced company like ExxonMobil to admit their incapability to fill up a simple form and get fined almost £3 million for the mistake.

He also said that in the past there had been other examples of companies under-reporting their involvement in climate changing. ‘European Trading Scheme’ was created to limit the pollution from industries and bring companies in a leash. So it’s quite right that the fine should be high for breaking the law. 

He hoped that from now on ExxonMobil will be careful reporting the right data and this huge fine would be a message to other companies.

Details of this incident were only published in an enforcement report of SEPA, later uncovered by an environmental journal. Environmental groups said that this large scaled fine should have been broadcasted more widely to reveal the negligence of the oil companies.

The fine money has been given to the government of Scotland

and it will be spent for several environment projects.

New View of Stellar Nursery: The NGC 3324A

Friday, 03 February 2012 10:38
Written by Navid Iqbal
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A latest view shows the stellar nursery which is called NGC 3324. This was taken by using the well known Wide Field Imager in telescope with measure of MPG/ESO 2.2-metre in Chile at La Silla Observatory. Strong ultraviolet radiation from the several of the NGC 3324's hot adolescent stars causes gas cloud for glowing with the rich colors as well as has also carved out the cavity in surrounding gas plus dust. However, the NGC 3324 is actually located in southern constellation in Carina roughly the 7500 light-year from our Earth. This is on exact northern outskirt of chaotic environment at Carina Nebula, what has been then sculpted by a lot of other pocket of the star formation -eso0905. The affluent deposit of the gas as well as the dust in this NGC 3324 area fuelled the burst of the starbirth there more than a few millions of years before in addition to led to creation of quite a lot of hefty as well as very hot stars what are the prominent in that new picture.

The Stellar winds as well as the intense radiation from all these young stars already have blown unlock a hollow into that surrounding gas along with the dust. It is the most in the evidence since wall of the material seen into the middle right of that image. Moreover, that ultraviolet radiation just from that hot young star knocks the electron out of the hydrogen atoms, what are then immediately recaptured, leading direct to a the trait crimson-colored glow since the electrons cascade throughout energy levels, viewing the level of the limited diffuse gas. Moreover, other colors come from the other elements, along with the trait glow from the doubly ionized oxygen creating the middle parts appear the greenish-yellow.

By the way, as with the clouds in the sky of the Earth, observers of the nebulae can easily find the likenesses within all those cosmic clouds. There is one nickname selected for this NGC 3324 region and that is known as Gabriela Mistral Nebula, just after the name of the Nobel Prize-winning poet of Chile. The border of that wall of the gas and the dust at right bears such strong similarity to the human face directly in the profile, along with "bump" right in the middle corresponding to the nose. The command of Wide Field Imager in that telescope at the “ESO's La Silla Observatory” reveals also a lot of dark textures in the NGC 3324.

The Mystery of Volcano

Sunday, 09 October 2011 11:28
Written by Navid Iqbal
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The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, the name of a god of fire in Roman mythology. It is one of the most important natural disasters in any planet. Volcanoes have played an important part in the development of earth and affecting the geography by providing water, atmospheric gas, and other essential materials/nutrients to the environment.

 

At the time of the formation of any planet it had huge amount hot material called magma. From time to time the upper site of that magma became hard and made the surface but in the deep of the planet there is still magma. Magma, rising from the deep of the planet gathers in a weak portion of the rock called. It is called the magma chamber. When a strong earthquake occurs, the mantle plume a bubble of material which rises to the surface layers from the deep interior of the planet increasing the temperature and pushes the magma gathered in the weak magma chamber on to the surface.

This erupting magma creates the volcano. When magma is erupted onto the surface in the form of lava, it becomes silicate rock. On instance the eruptions of the volcano, magma leaves the chamber composed of slightly different chemicals. Volcanoes are classified into many categories according to their trait. Volcanoes are hazardous to wildlife and humans beings.

Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 caused a heavy ash fall. On that ash fall most of the area was covered with the poisonous ash of the volcano. Without ashes volcano also emit poisonous gases like sulfur- dioxide, which mixes with the water vapor and creates the sulfuric acid. The next result of this is the acid rain. Ashes only emit in the time of eruption but the emission of gases stay alive after the volcano.

These poisonous gases emit from the cracks of the planet. Among these Lava is the deadliest part of any volcano. The flows of mud, rock, and water travel down to the flank. They move down at a high speed of 20 mph to 40 mph. Some of the most extreme cases have lahars with a consistency of wet concrete flowing up to 50 miles. They destroy houses, trees, and huge boulders like a flood. Volcanoes are useful too. The soil around the volcano is very fertile due to the materials from the lava flowing down the volcano. It also brings out valuable materials from the deep of the earth. Though volcano has many advantage and disadvantage, scientists are still craving for finding out the mystery of volcano.

 

The Artificial Leaf

Sunday, 09 October 2011 05:18
Written by Julius
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The "artificial leaf" was made by researchers from MIT, led by professor Daniel Nocera, using a silicon solar cell with new catalyst materials bonded to its two sides. In the video below this artificial solar leaf is shown in a glass container full of water with applied light (simulating sunlight). Because of the light a flow of electricity is generated and this in turn causes the water molecules(with the help of the catalysts) to split into hydrogen and oxygen. The molecules then bubble up from the two surfaces.

 

The artificial solar leaf came to life right after a major breakthrough was announced this summer by researchers from MIT.

According to a paper published in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal Science, Nocera and his colleagues have successfully used the device to turn sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source.

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