Japan Radioactive Melt-Down: Robot to theRescue

As we have heard of Japan catastrophic earthquake and tsunami few weeks ago, the similar tragedy seems not yet stop. The calamity is still continued and now it happen around northern part of the country. Around the world is covered by a lot of sadness and sorrow as it occurred to the country that we are always love most. Recent Fukushima nuclear crisis is now being handle by autonomous vehicles and robots, majorly supplied by US government and companies. How can we ever imagine? Its happen just like in the movies and it is happening. This make us remind words from Einstein, imagination is more than knowledge, or at least appreciate it...

Robots supplies by iRobot, US (see more here)

Radio Signal from Saturn

Recently, NASA has spotted difference of natural radio wave signals transmitted by northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn. This new finding has open a huge discussion among scientists of how big is the planet really is. Currently, researchers approximately measure a planet based on the radio wave emitted by the particular planet. In Jupiter, for instance, the wave is measured straight to the point as there is no abnormal behavior there. However, the rotation rate of Saturn has become weird lately which may affecting its radio wave, called Saturn Kilometric Radiation (SKR). Previous exploration by NASA's Voyage ship on 1980s suggested that the measurement given by SKR indicated that the planet had 10.66 hour for a day. On the other hand, present study, collected by NASA-European Space Agency Ulysses probe and Cassini, reports that the wave burst varied by seconds to minutes. The study also suggests that the emission of the wave is actually originated at two points, which make the issue more complicated. This lead the researchers to review on previous Saturn observations. It is proven that similar pattern found in the Voyager data from 1980s and Ulysses data between 1993 - 2000. In both cases, the radio emission variations differed from one hemisphere to the other. And both times, the odd radio wave behavior came within a year of Saturnian equinoxes. This provide a new hypothesis that the the planet is actually rotating at different rate on different hemispheres (study conducted by Don Gurnett, University of Iowa, see more here).

The Sun Looks Shiner this week!

We're going to witness another biggest solar flare since 2006 this week. The flare is caused due to unexpected burst of magnetic energy kept in the Sun's atmosphere. This eruption, which is part of a series of solar flares directed right on Earth occurred lately, may be affecting our magnetic shield. So, this rare phenomenon may interrupt electrical stuffs including power grids, communication devices and even satellites. Despite of the effect to our hardware, the eruption also gives us opportunity to witness a rare wonderful view of panorama. People in northern UK can see northern light or Aurora Borealis as it will come to appear till further south. This result the sky to shine into glistening displays of red, green and purple.

Picture taken from The Washington Post.



This photo taken from the International Space Station in May 2010 shows an aurora over the southern Indian Ocean (The Christian Science Monitor)



The northern lights could be seen further south than is normal (James Pugsley/Astronomy North: picture taken from CBC News)