NASA Ready for Asteroid Sample

 The sample from OSIRIS-REx will touch down on September 24. Yesterday, NASA did a dress rehearsal, sending a helicopter up to drop a replica sample so that their teams could practice recovering it. They did this just outside Salt Lake City.

The 250 grams of material should give us insights into planetary formation and the origins of the solar system. After dropping off the capsule, if all goes well, OSIRIS-REx will head off to rendezvous with Apophis.

Their worst fear, of course, is that the sample will crash.

Stem Cells Just Got Better

 Scientists have now discovered how to completely wipe a cell's memory clean so it can be reprogrammed better.

Stem cells are used to treat a variety of diseases and in the lab have been used to create organoids (small replicas of organs) for study. The new cells don't have the epigenetics associated with the organism, and thus will be easier to reprogram with fewer abnormalities. Lab grown organs may just have become a lot easier.

What is an Alice Ring?

 It's a quantum phenomenon...and yes, it's named after that Alice. When a quantum monopole decays, it produces a ring-like vortex that flips any other monopoles passing through the center.

It lasts milliseconds, no more...but it actually lasts longer than the monopole's lifespan. The charge of the Alice ring might also flip.

What does this mean for us? We don't know yet...but could it have something to do with dark matter?

Transparent Squid?

So, some scientists have made thumb-sized squid transparent. Apparently it's hard to find them in the aquarium now. But the point is to observe their biology while they get to live their little squid lives. Technically, they're albino squid, but because of the way cephalopods work...

One of the key study areas is the brain. Squid have pretty large brains, which is why I stopped eating calamari. Injecting fluorescent dye into the brain causes areas of it to light up. For example, they inject fluorescent die into the squid's visual cortex then show it pictures. 

We're hoping this will give us knowledge about how all brains work, including ours.

What is the solar wind?

 Our sun (and other stars) produces something we call the solar wind. These are streams of charged particles that could theoretically be used to power spacecraft through solar sails.

We now know how those winds are produced. They're made by tiny little picoflare jets...very, very small solar flares...that are produced by coronal holes (darker/colder regions of the sun). This might help us understand more about how auroras happen.

What Makes a Male?

A man is a completely different matter, of course.

But scientists have now completely mapped the human Y chromosome. (Which also means we have sequenced all 24 chromosomes).

The Y chromosome proved to be really complicated. It's small, it's faster evolving, it's highly repetitive. This should allow us to identify genes involved in sperm production, which could help with male factor infertility.

The size varies tremendously between individuals, and this may tell us why some males are more fertile than others. 

Touchdown!

 In contrast to the unfortunate Russian effort, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully touched down close to the lunar south pole.

This makes India the fourth country to land on the moon. The landing was apparently textbook, and includes a rover, a lunar seisometer, and instruments to look for water ice.

The planned mission life of the spacecraft is only two weeks, but if we're lucky we'll get more out of it.

Now I wish somewhere in my neighborhood sold good Indian food...

Watch the sky on Thursday...

 ...and you'll see Antares disappear. The timing is between 10:30 and 11:30pm EDT. Why will this happen?

The new moon will be passing between us and Antares, which is called an occultation, and it's really cool. And no, you won't need a telescope to see it.

Russia makes new crater on moon

Unfortunately, the Luna 25 lunar lander is a complete failure. The spacecraft crashed into the moon after losing touch with mission control.

This was supposed to be Russia's first lunar landing in 47 years. The mission parameters were to study soil and atmosphere at the moon's pole. The craft raced past India's Chandrayaan-3 lander, which is heading for the same region.

Did they rush? Apparently not, but the root cause of the failure could be: The war in Ukraine.

This led ESA to pull out of working on the Luna 25 project, and likely resulted in the loss of important expertise.

(I have mixed feelings...I ain't exactly a fan of Russia right now but I *am* a fan of science).

What is with the question mark?

 Check out this picture:

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA

Yes, that's a question mark. Nor is it a hoax. It's not April 1. But it's also a bit more than normal human pattern finding. The universe is giving out side quests now?

What it most likely is is a galaxy merger, with two or more galaxies colliding. The upper part looks like a distorted spiral galaxy and to me I see spiral patterns around the dot too. And it just so happened that we are at the *perfect* angle to see the question mark...

...I have to say.

The universe IS giving out side quests.

Getting Multiple Vaccines This Fall?

 Getting flu and COVID? Maybe you're older and have opted for RSV.

A new study shows you should try and get all your vaccines in the same arm. Why? Because it's the same lymph nodes.

This is even more important for multiple dose vaccines, such as Shingrix. Which I also have to get. That one's not going to be fun.

Re-Analyzing the Iceman

 He wasn't blonde and light skinned. New analysis of his DNA indicates that he was going bald, had dark skin, and is closely related to other individuals in...Turkey. Meaning he went a long way to get murdered in that pass.

We thought mummification had darkened his skin, but nope, he was actually that dark. This was before whiteness became dominant in Europe, which was associated with dietary changes from switching to farming over hunting.

It's become even more fascinating!

Archaeology Close to Home

Generally, students have to travel a good distance to find something cool.

But anthropology and archaeology students at Michigan State got to do a dig on their own campus after their professor located the foundations of the university's original observatory, built in around 1881. The observatory was replaced in the 1960s and everyone forgot it was there until construction workers hit "a large rock."

That makes me excited as a former archaeology student. They can learn a lot from comparing their finds to the historical record and images.

(Working on something with good records teaches good methodology)

Sea Monster!

 Don't worry, the Antarctic strawberry feather star, Promachocrinus fragarius, is at most 8 inches long. It's not exactly a face hugger.

But it does have 20 arms coming from its strawberry-shaped body. Feather stars typically have 10. There's as yet no explanation for the excessive number of arms, or rather tentacles.

https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/antarctic-strawberry-feather-star-discovered-2663713226

It's definitely a little baby cosmic horror, am I right?

Not guilty!

 The terrible fires on Maui were not caused by Jewish space lasers.

Or by any other lasers. Conspiracy theorists are apparently showing pictures of rocket launches and claiming that plane-mounted lasers were used to intentionally start fires on Maui. Like...what?

They haven't blamed the Jews yet, but you know it's only a matter of time.

Joining the 250-mile high club?

...wear a condom.

If we ever colonize space we're going to have to take steps to improve radiation shielding. Earth's atmosphere protects us well from radiation. Our current spaceships, not so much.

And some people are concerned about space tourists trying zero-G sex. Zero-G sex might not result in conception, but if it does, the cosmic radiation could cause birth defects. Attempts to develop mouse embryos in space have not gone well, microgravity decreases testosterone levels and sperm production in male rats, and female rats mated during spaceflight have had early pregnancy loss.

In other words, wear a condom. We don't know exactly what might happen, with the most likely consequence of space conception being miscarriage. But...well.

Wear a condom. Take precautions. And if you don't feel like sex up there, it's the gravity, baby.

Granite on the moon

 There's a huge chunk of granite on the moon. On the dark side. It's 50km wide and it doesn't make any sense.

Granite requires one of two things to form: Plate tectonics or a lot of water. The moon has neither. So, where did this granite come from? Or is it something else...we're guessing granite based on a 9 degree Celsius hotspot likely caused by radiation. (Yes, granite is radioactive, that's why places with lots of it have radon problems).

The lead theory is that there was a mantle plume under it a long time ago that, without plate tectonics, just sat there making more granite.

But to find out, we're going to have to send a robot there to take an actual look.

Pretty, pretty...corpse...

 ...of a star, that is. JWST has imaged the Ring Nebula, the remnant of a sun-like star, in incredible detail.

Check them out here: https://www.inverse.com/science/stunning-new-jwst-images-shed-new-light-on-the-iconic-ring-nebula

The images will now be combined with the Hubble image to do even more science! The two telescopes see the universe differently and complement one another.

Did we find yet another human lineage?

 A skull found in China resembles a combination of Homo erectus, modern man and Denisovans. We think it might be another branch of our family tree.

The skull was that of a teenaged child, and it complicates the path. In fact, the mosaic supports the existence of moderns, Denisovans, and a third lineage at the same time, likely mating with each other.

I'm starting to think that our ancestors really didn't care if they were another species as long as they were hot...

Incoming Solar Storm

 A minor solar storm is expected to hit at about midnight tonight.

It may be bad enough to disrupt mobile and internet communications and there is a *tiny* risk of a power surge that could damage your computer.

May want to turn your computer off overnight and not leave your phone on charge, just in case. It's a very small risk, though. And if you're taking the redeye tonight, it might be a little delayed.

Skymetal!

 Meteoric iron was used by Bronze Age cultures and may have eventually sparked the idea of smelting terrestrial iron.

Now an unassuming arrowhead found in Morigen, Switzerland in the 19th century turns out to be made from a meteorite...

...one which fell 1,500 miles away. It's 3,000 years old or so and it appears that the value of the metal was recognized such that arrowheads made from it (or the metal itself, but more likely the arrowheads) were being traded long distances.

Iron is superior to bronze, these arrowheads would have lasted longer and it's not surprising. Without metallic meteorites...

New dinosaur dropped

 Or rather, a new dinosaur ancestor dropped. It's an archosaur that has qualities of both dinosaurs and pterosaurs, specifically bony deposits lining the spine. These deposits would have supported armor.

It's an archosaur, which left two groups of descendants...crocodilians and birds...surviving today. The bony deposits are rare in dinosaurs and unknown in birds, where they would be too heavy, but were seen in stegosaurus and a few others.

But it had something else too.

Feathers.

Feathers. The characteristic was lost and then showed back up in the avemetatarsalian group, which is a fancy way of saying dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and birds. Crocodiles, of course, do not have feathers.

This is showing that traits can be "hidden" for generations and then reactivated when an organism needs them, which I've long suspected.

What could be hiding in our DNA? Plot bunny right there...

You've Heard Some Variant...

 ...on the joke that the zoo animal is the guy in a costume. I heard a National Park version of it recently, where a guy was hired to give guaranteed moose sightings.

A Chinese zoo has had to deny actually doing that. The sun bear, named Angela, was standing up on her hind legs and really did look kind of like a guy in a fursuit. (There's a video here).

The zoo released a statement in which Angela assured us all she is, yes, a sun bear, and not a human (or a dog, or a black bear).

Sun bears are the smallest species of bear, so the size of a small person, and they are part time bipeds. The females even hold their cubs like women and walk on their hind legs. Oh, and they're adorable.

But definitely not a person in a bear suit!