2012
[ News Blog of Survive2012 ]2012 [ News Blog of Survive2012 ] |
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2012, February 24, 2002 at 1:34:59 PM AEDT
Cosmic Rays destroy data There are "growing concerns about soft errors, which are caused by alpha particles and cosmic rays that bombard the earth. Energy from these particles can cause memory bits to change status, resulting in operational error of devices...SRAM soft error rates are now actually getting worse by about an order of magnitude every generation" "But cosmic rays are almost impossible to stop - They'll go through 5 feet of concrete without any trouble...As they pass through they can separate junction current flow for 5 ps [and cause a bit to flip]." "A memory misfire in a PC or cell phone, applications responsible for about half of last year's SRAM sales, often goes unnoticed by a user. However, such a glitch in networking equipment, which accounted for about 24% of the 2001 SRAM market, can send information packets, such as money transfers, to the wrong address." "IBM has discovered that SRAM tested at 10,000 feet above sea level will record SERs that are 14 times the rate tested at sea level, due to higher exposure to cosmic rays. Although alpha particles can be controlled with improved packaging, such as a plastic coating over the die, cosmic rays can never be completely blocked out...It's more or less a fact of life" Articles on new ways to reduce the problem are at EETimes, Silicon Strategies, and EBN. Full study at IBM link me 2012, February 24, 2002 at 12:15:21 AM AEDT Mars mania! Scientists have produced the most detailed atlas of Mars ever compiled, and it is freely available on the internet. It is based on the accurate images sent back from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), which has been in orbit around Mars since 1997, the BBC reports. ALSO: Mars flooded recently - a 600 cubic kilometre flood happened just 10 million years ago, following a volcanic eruption which melted underground ice. Reports at Astronomy.com and Ananova link me 2012, February 22, 2002 at 11:51:54 AM AEDT Black Hole releases energy NOTE: Story is from Oct 2001
"It corresponds to a theory proposed over 25 years ago by two Cambridge University astronomers. Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek had suggested that rotational energy could escape from a black hole when it is in a strong magnetic field which exerts a braking effect. This theory fits the physical laws of thermodynamics which state that energy released should be absorbed by the surrounding gas." Also at NASA link me 2012, February 13, 2002 at 9:22:37 PM AEDT Mysterious Force slows Pioneer 10 As it moves further away from our solar system, pioneer 10 is slowing down. A mysterious force is reducing its speed by 6 mph per century. Not much, but baffling when you consider that effects like gravity and solar radiation decrease rapidly with distance. Other possibilities have also been ruled out. Also at the Guardian. Problem solved - In brief, the anomalous acceleration may arise from radiation of waste heat by the on-board spacecraft RTG power generator. link me 2012, February 6, 2002 at 8:30:24 PM AEDT Milky Way - as seen from another galaxy 
The full story is that by analysing half a billion stars (measured by the Two Micron All Sky Survey) computers have worked out that this is how we look! link me 2012, February 1, 2002 at 8:44:12 PM AEDT Black Hole simulated Advanced supercomputers have simulated extremely powerful energy jets squirted out by black holes, confirming that they are powered by the black hole's rotation, reports NASA 
"The jets contain energy equivalent to the power of the Sun, multiplied ten billion times and then increased another one billion times." link me 2012, January 31, 2002 at 6:15:33 PM AEDT Astrology and Solar maximums Dr. Percy Seymour has come closer than anyone to proving the reality of astrological forces - it's an excellent, in-depth, referenced and glossarised article. His theory includes a proposal that the regular magnetic reversal of the Sun's field, which occurs roughly every eleven years, is due to the tidal effects of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Sun itself actually moves about the common center of mass of the solar system with a period of just over ten years, and this is mainly due to the pull of Jupiter and Saturn. By violently tugging on the common center of the mass of the solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune cause the little eddy currents that generate the Sun's magnetic field to reverse or flip over from being in one direction to being in another direction. link me 2012, January 29, 2002 at 6:19:19 PM AEDT Solar Maximum not so simple The maximum activity in the 11-year cycle of the Sun appears to be twin-peaked. The most recent "Solar Max" peaked in mid-2000. However, sunspot activity has been increasing again, and at least one scientist who watches sunspots said the cycle may have more than one high point link me 2012, January 27, 2002 at 7:47:12 PM AEDT Black Holes don't exist? University of South Carolina scientists think that they might be gravastars instead - cold, dense shells supported by a springy, weird space inside, that look like black holes from the outside. Using the idea of quantum gravity, they show that gravastars fit all of Einstein's equations just as good as black holes, but in a simpler and more elegant way. link me 2012, January 25, 2002 at 10:40:19 PM AEDT Old stars jet too! NASA have discovered that stars blasting high-speed gas jets from their poles can be older than 100,000 years - this new one is 4 million years old. If they find a star like our sun (same age, same size) with jets, will they tell us? 
link me 2012, January 20, 2002 at 3:16:59 PM AEDT Gamma-ray bursts disrupt Earth New Scientist 15 Dec 2001, page 10 "...life on Earth may have been repeatedly disrupted by bursts of gamma rays from space. The bursts would have disturbed the Earth's atmosphere, exposing organisms to high levels of mutagenic radiation" The scientists believe the bursts only reach Earth once every 5 million years (it was previously thought never) and degrade the atmosphere, exposing organisms to UV radiation (and cosmic rays, I presume, which the atmosphere also protects us from). "The impact of gamma-ray bursts has not been widely discussed, nor do biologists, including myself, have much information about their frequency or exposure levels" - admits scientist Mitch Sogin. Similar research reported at Space Daily link me 2012, January 14, 2002 at 11:21:51 PM AEDT More cosmic ray evidence This article at Nature.com presents tree ring and ice core evidence from Sweden that our planet was bombarded by cosmic rays 10,300 years ago. There was a large increase in the amount of beryllium-10 trapped in Greenland ice cores of that period. This radioactive form of beryllium is produced when cosmic rays from space collide with nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. link me 2012, January 14, 2002 at 9:46:37 AM AEDT Nearby Supernova Wreaked Havoc "An exploding star may have destroyed part of Earth's protective ozone layer 2 million years ago, devastating some forms of ancient marine life, according to a new theory presented at this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society." Catastrophism is alive and kicking, as well as an acknowledgment of the dangers of cosmic rays - read this press release and watch the skies anxiously... Also at News Factor and Nature.com link me 2012, January 11, 2002 at 11:12:05 AM AEDT Crowded Galactic Centre Chandra has snapped some X-Ray pics of our Galactic Centre, showing that it is overflowing with white dwarf stars, neutron stars and stellar black holes. Full story at Yahoo link me 2012, January 9, 2002 at 8:42:49 AM AEDT Whew! - close call for Planet Earth A disturbing report of how an immense asteroid, dubbed 2001 YB5, passed us by at only twice the distance of the moon. At a size of 1000ft it could have taken out a country the size of France... According to the Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) it is orbiting our sun every 1321 days, meaning 3 more orbits from now it will pass on Nov 14, 2012. Not exactly the solstice, but perhaps the cause of a cataclysm in 2012?? More at NZ Herald and SlashDot link me 2012, January 6, 2002 at 12:22:33 PM AEDT Our Sun: Another CME There are some pics, movies and info at NASA of this little understood event. If a Mass Coronal Ejection of enough magnitude came in the direction of Earth, it could do substantial damage. If this kind of stuff interests you, then you should definitely visit SpaceWeather.com link me 2012, December 27, 2001 at 8:58:24 PM AEDT Galaxy explodes See a picture of a galaxy-sized shock wave that is racing outward from the center of NGC 4636 at 435 miles (700 kilometers) per second. This has come from an explosion in its galactic center with an energy equivalent to several hundred thousand supernovas. More info at NASA link me 2012, December 27, 2001 at 8:49:10 PM AEDT Spacecraft detect energy burst The Earth-orbiting satellite BeppoSAX, the solar-spying Ulysses, and NASA's Mars Odyssey combined to detect a brief yet intense gamma ray burst. Gamma rays are so powerful that if generated nearby, they would penetrate steel and irradiate everything to extinction. Luckily, the newly observed burst came from more than 4 billion light-years away. That's the closest gamma-ray burst ever detected, researchers said. More at Space.com link me |
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"Black holes may be worse monsters than we thought. Not only do they inexorably devour matter around them, but they may also be able to steadily belch out energy. This is the of