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I’ve always longed to go to Zion National Park in Utah, as it’s renowned for its beauty. My friend Phil Ward and I drove there for most of the day yesterday. First, a bit about its geology from Wikipedia:

The nine known exposed geologic formations in Zion National Park are part of a super-sequence of rock units called the Grand Staircase. Together, these formations represent about 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation in that part of North America. The formations exposed in the Zion area were deposited as sediment in very different environments:

• The warm, shallow (sometimes advancing or retreating) sea of the Kaibab and Moenkopi formations
• Streams, ponds, and lakes of the Chinle, Moenave, and Kayenta formations
• The vast desert of the Navajo and Temple Cap formations
• The dry near-shore environment of the Carmel Formation

Uplift affected the entire region, known as the Colorado Plateaus, by slowly raising these formations more than 10,000 feet (3,000 m) higher than where they were deposited.[54] This steepened the stream gradient of the ancestral Virgin and other rivers on the plateau.

Click the photos to enlarge them. You will find that there are more pictures of chipmunks and people feeding them than there are of the landscapes. Shoot me–I love chipmunks (and all animals).

First, I affirm my credentials as a Zionist. I’m wearing a hat that someone gave me, and it reads, à la the Larry David show, “Curb Your Antisemitism”:

The landscape is stunning, so let’s just look at some photos.

Sandstone cliffs, red but topped with some white sediments:

Even though it’s dry here, plants and even trees manage to eke out a living on the bare rock:

Some of the cliffs are topped with plateaus:

A panoramic view. Definitely click once or several times to enlarge:

There are all kinds of wave patterns in the sedimentary layers:

We had a mild hike up Canyon Overlook Trail (1 mile long) to get to this stunning viewpoint looking down into Zion Canyon.

Below, my friend Phil Ward at the overlook. He’s a Professor of Entomology at the University of California at Davis, and I’ve known him since he arrived there in the early 1980s.  His speciality is ants, and although one is not allowed to collect in National Parks without a permit (I used to get one to collect flies in Death Valley), he never leaves home without his ant-collecting kit, which includes ant bait, and that includes cookie crumbs.  It turns out that although we couldn’t collect ants, we used the bait to collect chipmunks (see below).

There were at least four species of flowers along the trail. This one is a California fuchsia (Epilobium canum):

Life is ubiquitous and tenacious, even in environments as dry and hostile as Zion.  Where water seeps through the rocks, plants and mosses about, and I think this is maidenhair fern (Adiantun pedatum aleuticum).

A great treat awaited us at the overlook. Because many tourists linger there for the view, the local chipmunks have learned to hang out there to beg for noms. They are lovely, tame, as fast as quicksilver, and will even dive into your backpack if you leave it open.  Phil gave me some ant bait (crumbled cookies), and, sure enough, the chipmunks went all over me to get them. (This reminds me of the Botany Pond Squirrels climbing up m leg for nuts.)

There are three species of chipmunk in Zion; I believe this one is the Uinta chipmunk (Neotamias umbrinus). It’s related to the East’s common Eastern chipmunk  (Tamias striatus), and used to be considered the same species, but now it’s been placed in a different genus.

The visitors were entranced by these rodents (they are as light as a feather, and when they climb upon you, it’s barely detectable). And so people pulled out their hiking food and gave some to the ‘munks. Sometimes three or four chipmunks would climb on a person at once. This woman is obviously delighted.

I love people being happy when interacting with animals.

A close-up of a nomming chipmunk:

This woman was part of a group of visiting British tourists. Since chipmunks are exclusively North American, it’s likely that this is her first close encounter with one. Like everyone, she was delighted when they took food. (And yes, I know you’re not supposed to feed the wildlife, but seriously, how can you resist?)

A two-fisted feed:

Look how happy she is! (And, I’m sure, so were the chipmunks.)

A closeup.  Phil and I discussed the evolutionary significance of the striping pattern; Phil thought it may be camouflage, but it seemed to me to not yield a very cryptic pattern. Perhaps, I thought, it was for members of the species to recognize each other, but I’ve always been wary of “species recognition” traits because it’s hard to see how they’d evolve (the trait and recognition of the trait must evolve simultaniously). In the end, we decided, “Well, we’re evolutionary biologists, and we could make up a hundred explanations, but how would we test them?”

Look at these little beauties, with their racing stripes, fluffy tails, and huge black eyes!

And a top view. As I said, they are so light—Uitna chipmunks weigh about 67 g, or 2.4 ounces—that you can barely feel them when they climb on you. And, like squirrels, when they take a tidbit from your hand you can feel their tiny claws.

Today, we go to Bryce Canyon National Park, famous for its geological “hoodoes“, tall and thin pillars of rock very different from what you see in Zion. Here’s a picture from Wikipedia:

Attribution: I, Luca Galuzzi; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Peaks in appetite and metabolism driven by our body's inbuilt clocks mean that eating at the wrong time can have consequences for our health and waistline

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is preoccupied:

A: Can you have a look at this article?
Hili: Not now.

Ja: Czy możesz spojrzeć na ten artykuł?
Hili: Nie teraz

Seven creepy stories from seven listeners, and seven guesses by me.

In May 2023, the ESA’s Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), currently in orbit around Mars, sent a signal to Earth to simulate a possible extraterrestrial transmission. As part of the multidisciplinary art project “A Sign in Space,” the purpose was to engage citizen scientists in helping to decode it. The campaign was inspired by Cosmicomics by Italian writer/journalist Italo Calvino, a series of short stories exploring various scientific principles. The project is partnered with the SETI Institute, the Green Bank Observatory, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF).

After three radio astronomy observatories on Earth intercepted the message, the challenge was to extract the message from the raw data of the radio signal and then decode it. After ten days, more than 5000 citizen scientists worldwide gathered online and used their combined resources to extract the signal. After a year of attempts, two U.S. citizens – the father-daughter team of Ken and Keli Chaffin – managed to crack the code after days of simulations. They discovered that the message consisted of five clusters of white dots and lattices against a black background, suggesting cellular formation and life!

The project was founded by Daniela de Paulis, a media artist and licensed radio operator currently serving as the Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory. Daniela and a small group of astronomers and computer scientists crafted the message with support from the ESA, the SETI Institute, and the Green Bank Observatory. On June 7th, 2024, she received the decoded image, which depicted five amino acids—the very building blocks of life—in a retro-like format.

Ken Chaffin included the following message with the solution he and his daughter submitted:

“My decoded message is a simple image with 5 amino acids displayed in a universal (hopefully) organic molecular diagram notation and a few single pixel points that appear between the clusters and molecular diagrams. I used a Margolus reversible 2×2 block cellular automata (BCA) with the simplest reversible rule, which is called ‘single point (CCW) rotation,’ acting only on 2×2 cells that contain only a single point or pixel per the header instructions, conserving pixel or point count, 625 pixels in and 625 out. The starmap image appears to have the molecular forms encoded in a 3D local degree of freedom set of basis vectors (also shown in the header).

“The CA effectively transforms and projects this 3D info onto a 2D plane. I can run my Unity game engine based simulator forwards (CCW rotation) and backwards (CW rotation) in time and transform the starmap representation to the amino acid diagrams in 6625 generations and reverse the rotation process to transform the amino acid diagrams back to the starmap image in 6625 generations. I say starmap but I really read from the binary message file each run. The decoded image is only visible for 1 frame lasting about 1/10th of a second, but I can pause and manually step as well as reverse my CA engine…Here is a screen capture of my decoded image [see below].

“The ‘blocks’ have 1, 6, 7, or 8 ‘pixels’ representing the atomic number of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Single and double bonds are designated as single and double lines. C-H bond angle is indicated with a caret ^ sign. These signs were produced by the CA. I have not edited the image in any way. It’s absolutely obvious to me what this is, as well as to my chemist friend I ran this by. It is amazing to watch all of the CA gliders or spaceships carry the binary bits of the message all over the ‘galaxy’ and then suddenly come together in coherence and meaning…”

The image shows the Chaffis solution. Credit: A Sign in Space

Now that the tasks of extracting and decoding the message are complete, Daniela and her colleagues are taking a step back to observe how citizen scientists are shaping the challenge. The next step is to interpret the message and determine what it was meant to convey, a task that currently remains open. According to the project team, there are several ways for the public to engage, which include using the description and solution provided by the Chaffins to conduct independent analysis and post the results on the project’s Discord channel.

Participants must include a description of the method they used so that their approach can be replicated and verified. The possibilities are endless, ranging from an attempt at communication, cultural exchange, or a threat of invasion. Ultimately, this exercise aims to determine whether or not humanity is ready to make first contact with an alien civilization.

Further Reading: ESA

The post Remember that “Alien Signal” Sent by the ExoMars Orbiter Last Year? It’s Just Been Decoded appeared first on Universe Today.

China's carbon emissions may have peaked in 2023, as figures suggest its output has plateaued so far in 2024

Inspired by large language models, researchers developed a training technique that pools diverse data to teach robots new skills.

Inspired by large language models, researchers developed a training technique that pools diverse data to teach robots new skills.

Researchers have studied how well doctors used GPT-4 -- an artificial intelligence (AI) large language model system -- for diagnosing patients.

The transition to renewable energy requires efficient methods for storing large amounts of electricity. Researchers have developed a new method that could extend the lifespan of aqueous zinc-ion batteries by several orders of magnitude. Instead of lasting just a few thousand cycles, they could now endure several hundred thousand charge and discharge cycles.

Researchers have invented a new solvent-free polymer for digital light printing (DLP), a type of 3D printing that essentially pulls solid objects out of a shallow pool of resin one layer at a time. Besides eliminating a well-known issue of finished objects shrinking after printing, the lack of solvent also results in improved mechanical properties of the part while maintaining the ability to degrade in the body.

Researchers have invented a new solvent-free polymer for digital light printing (DLP), a type of 3D printing that essentially pulls solid objects out of a shallow pool of resin one layer at a time. Besides eliminating a well-known issue of finished objects shrinking after printing, the lack of solvent also results in improved mechanical properties of the part while maintaining the ability to degrade in the body.

A range of different age checks are needed to protect children -- but also to ensure they can take advantages of positive opportunities online -- a new study says.

Materials scientists are exploring the physical properties of MXenes, a fast-growing family of two-dimensional materials with potential for many nanotechnology applications.

Engineers found a way to help airplanes avoid stall with lightweight plastic flaps that flutter with pressure changes. The flaps mimick a class of feathers that are key to birds' most daring aerial maneuvers.

Wearable electronic devices are potential tools to monitor blood glucose levels (BGLs) among people with diabetes, but their limited size and power lead to noticeable measurement errors. In a recent study, researchers developed a screening technique that can filter out low-quality data in a preprocessing step, enhancing the accuracy of BGL estimations. Their findings could pave the way to convenient glucose monitoring using consumer electronics, eliminating the need for finger pricks.

Though there are no firm plans for a crewed mission to Mars, we all know one’s coming. Astronauts routinely spend months at a time on the ISS, and we’ve learned a lot about the hazards astronauts face on long missions. However, Mars missions can take years, which presents a whole host of problems, including astronaut nutrition.

Nutrition can help astronauts manage spaceflight risks in the ISS, but long-duration missions to Mars are different. There can be no resupply.

In physiological terms, low gravity and radiation exposure are the two chronic hazards astronauts face on the ISS. Low gravity can lead to muscle loss and bone density loss, and radiation exposure increases the risk of developing cancer and other degenerative diseases. When astronauts make the trip to Mars, each leg of the journey can take 6 or 7 months, and they may stay on Mars for 500 days.

This dwarfs the eight days that the Apollo 11 astronauts spent in space. These long trips will tax astronauts’ health and NASA is working to understand what role nutrition can play in helping astronauts stay healthy and manage the risks.

Their current work on astronaut nutrition is a freely available PDF book titled “Human Adaptation to Spaceflight: The Role of Food and Nutrition—2nd Edition.” Its four authors are all researchers working in nutrition, biochemistry, biomedical research, space food systems, and preventative health.

“The importance of nutrition in exploration has been documented repeatedly throughout history, on voyages across oceans, on expeditions across polar ice, and on treks across unexplored continents,” the authors write.

Scientists have learned a lot about nutrition since the age of sailing and exploration, but the authors write that “a key difference between past journeys and space exploration is that astronauts are not likely to find food along the way.” This means that understanding astronaut nutritional requirements and food system requirements on long journeys is “as critical to crew safety and mission success as any of the mechanical systems of the spacecraft itself.”

The book examines the unique challenges astronauts face and presents data from multiple studies that are analogous to those challenges. For example, nutrition research from Antarctica duplicates the isolation and lack of sunlight astronauts can face on long missions, and head-down tilt-bed rest duplicates the musculoskeletal disuse they must endure.

This figure shows how HDT bed rest is used as an analogue for astronauts during long-duration microgravity spaceflight. Image Credit: Hargens AR et al. 2016.

Astronauts face a long list of health risks on long-duration spaceflights. Radiation exposure and its cancer risk and microgravity and its effect on muscle and bone are the most well-known risks. But there are other lesser-known risks, too.

Astronauts can suffer from neuro-ocular syndrome, their immune systems can be weakened, and their gut biota can change. All of these conditions are linked with nutrition. While scientists don’t have a complete understanding of how everything works, it’s clear that nutrition plays a role. The book outlines the types of research being done and what the current understanding is. But the authors are clear about one thing: the system of providing astronauts with proper nutrition needs work.

ISS astronauts, except for Russians, get part of their food in Crew Specific Menu (CSM) containers that each astronaut orders. They provide between 10% and 20% of their food. They also receive a small supply of fresh foods and limited shelf-life foods on each re-supply mission. This has increased the variety of foods for astronauts and helped with nutrition, but astronauts still say they’d like more CSM and fresh foods.

Here in the developed world on Earth, it’s fairly straightforward to meet nutritional needs. Most of us have access to supermarkets and/or farmer’s markets where we can buy fresh produce and other healthy foods. That same variety simply isn’t available in space. ISS astronauts have done some experimental “farming” and have successfully grown a few food plants like lettuce, kale, and cabbage. However, that’s a long way away from growing enough food to help with nutrition, especially on a Mars mission, where presumable space and payload will be at a premium.

Crops successfully grown in Veggie include lettuce, Swiss chard, radishes, Chinese cabbage and peas. Image Credit: NASA

One obvious question about astronaut nutrition is whether supplements can replace nutritious food. The authors present evidence that discredits that idea. “Many previous studies have shown that the complex synergistic benefits provided by whole foods cannot be replicated by supplements,” they write. In fact, in some instances, supplements can be dangerous. “Recent studies have also found that supplementation with certain antioxidants such as vitamin E and vitamin A can increase risks of cancer and all-cause mortality,” the authors explain.

The need for a space food system goes beyond nutrition. There are social and well-being benefits, too. Knowing that you have access to a variety of healthy foods keeps morale up. The ability to share or trade high-value food items with your fellow astronauts can create goodwill and a desire to cooperate. Think of sharing a meal with friends or family and all the social connection it provides.

According to the authors, there’s currently no solution to the nutrition roadblock for Mars missions. In fact, there’s currently no system designed to supply astronauts with the needed nutrition for any long-duration spaceflight. “Currently, no food system exists to meet the nutrition, acceptability, safety, and resource challenges of extended exploration missions, such as a mission to Mars,” the authors write.

However, the researchers say it’s critical that we develop one. Without it, long-duration missions and the astronauts who crew them will suffer and possibly face catastrophic failure.

“A space food system, developed and provisioned to deliver all the defined nutritional requirements, should be available on every human mission as an essential countermeasure to health and performance decrements,” the authors write.

The post Add Astronaut Nutrition to the List of Barriers to Long-Duration Spaceflight appeared first on Universe Today.

A typically fragile quantum superposition has been made to last exceptionally long, and could eventually be used as a probe for discovering new physics

Computer simulations of how influenza A moves through human mucus found it is ideally configured to slide through the sticky stuff on its way to infecting cells

In 1181, Japanese and Chinese astronomers saw a bright light appear in the constellation Cassiopeia. It shone for six months, and those ancient observers couldn’t have known it was an exploding star. To them, it looked like some type of temporary star that shone for 185 days.

In the modern astronomical age, we’ve learned a lot more about the object. It was a supernova called SN 1181 AD, and we know that it left behind a remnant “zombie” star. New research examines the supernova’s aftermath and the strange filaments of gas it left behind.

Though it was seen almost 850 years ago, only modern astronomers have been able to explain SN 1181. For a long time, it was an orphan. While astronomers were able to identify the modern remnants of many other historical supernovae, SN 1181 was stubborn. Finally, in 2013, amateur astronomer Dana Patchick discovered a nebula with a central star and named it Pa 30. Research in 2021 showed that Pa 30 is the remnant of SN 1181. The SN exploded when two white dwarfs merged and created a Type 1ax supernova.

SN 1181 is unusual. When supernovae explode, there’s usually only a black hole or a neutron star left as a remnant. But SN 1181 left part of a white dwarf behind, an intriguing object astronomers like to call a zombie star. Strange filaments resembling dandelion petals extend from this strange star, adding to the object’s mystery.

Researchers have gotten a new, close-up look at Pa 30 and published their results in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The research is titled “Expansion Properties of the Young Supernova Type Iax Remnant Pa 30 Revealed.” The lead author is Tim Cunningham, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.

“The recently discovered Pa 30 nebula, the putative type Iax supernova remnant associated with the historical supernova of 1181 AD, shows puzzling characteristics that make it unique among known supernova remnants,” the authors write. Pa 30 has a complex morphology, including a “unique radial and filamentary structure.”

The hot stellar remnant at Pa 30’s center is also unique. Its presence, as well as the lack of hydrogen and helium in its filaments, indicates that it’s the result of a rare Type1ax supernova. Since hydrogen and helium make up 90% of the chemicals in the Universe, objects without either of them are immediately interesting.

In this research, the astronomers used the Keck Cosmic Imager Spectrograph (KCIS) to examine the 3D structure and the velocities of the filaments. The KCIS was built to observe the cosmic web, the intricate arrangement of gas, dust, and dark matter that makes up the large-scale structure of the Universe. The gas and dust are extremely dim, and the KCIS was made to perform spectroscopy on these types of low surface brightness phenomena. That makes it a powerful tool for observing the strange filaments coming from Pa 30.

KCIS is a powerful spectrograph that can capture spectral information for each pixel in an image. It can also measure the redshift and blueshift of objects it observes, meaning it can determine their velocity and direction of movement. The researchers were able to show that material in the filaments travelled ballistically at approximately 1,000 kilometres per second.

These three panels from the research are velocity maps of ionized sulphide emissions in Pa 30’s filaments. The upper panel shows the detected redshift and the middle panel shows the blueshift. The bottom panel is a combined velocity map for all the filaments. Image Credit: Cunningham et al. 2024.

“This means that the ejected material has not been slowed down, or sped up, since the explosion,” said lead author Cunningham. “Thus, from the measured velocities, looking back in time allowed us to pinpoint the explosion to almost exactly the year 1181.”

Pa 30 has some unusual features. It’s unusually asymmetrical, while most SN remnants are more spherical. Its filamentary structure displays significant variation in ejecta distribution along the line of sight. Some filaments are more prominent than others and extend further, creating an irregular and lopsided appearance. Some parts of the nebula are travelling at different speeds and in different directions. Elements in the nebula are also distributed unevenly. Iron, for example, is far more concentrated in some regions than others. All of these features suggest that the initial explosion mechanism was asymmetric and that the ejecta in the filaments stem from the initial explosion observed in 1181. Pa 30 also has a very sharp inner edge with an inner gap that surrounds the zombie star.

Two Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) images of Pa 30. The one on the right has the filaments overlain. The inner nebula is compact and surrounds the massive, hot, white dwarf zombie star. The outer nebula is characterized by the wispy filaments that extend out from the central region. Image Credit: Cunningham et al. 2024.

Many of Pa 30’s features suggest an asymmetric explosion as the cause. “The ejecta show a strong asymmetry in flux along the line of sight, which may hint at an asymmetric explosion,” the authors explain. The researchers found that the total flux from redshifted filaments is 40% higher than from blueshifted filaments. “This is tantalizing evidence for asymmetry in the explosion,” they write.

An asymmetric supernova explosion suggests that the underlying physics are complex. Rotation, complex magnetic fields, and the presence of a stellar companion can all contribute to asymmetry. Coupled with the unusually hot white dwarf left behind and its high-velocity stellar wind, the evidence suggests that it was a Type 1ax supernova.

That means the zombie star is likely the remnant of a failed thermonuclear explosion in a white dwarf. The white dwarf could have been just below the Chandrasekhar mass and not exploded completely. Or it could’ve been one of the theoretically possible but elusive super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs. These objects are of great interest because they could be the cause of unusually bright supernovae. If Pa 30’s progenitor was a super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf, it could explain some of the remnant’s unusual characteristics.

“Our first detailed 3D characterization of the velocity and spatial structure of a supernova remnant tells us a lot about a unique cosmic event that our ancestors observed centuries ago. But it also raises new questions and sets new challenges for astronomers to tackle next,” said co-author Ilaria Caiazzo.

Some of the questions could be answered with more Keck Cosmic Imager Spectrograph IFU observations.

“Further IFU spectroscopic observations with wider coverage of the nebula will confirm if there exists a global asymmetry in the nebula ejecta, providing important constraints on dynamical models of the ejecta,” the authors conclude.

The post This Ancient Supernova Remnant Looks Like a Stellar Dandelion appeared first on Universe Today.