JPL Fires Up Voyager 1 Thrusters after 37 Year Rest
Imagine you’ve discovered a rare gem of a car that’s been tucked away in a barn for the last 37 years.
The barn’s owner says it’s yours if you can drive it away.
But if you’ve ever tried to start a motor vehicle and keep it running after sitting idle for so many years, you’ll find it isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Now, imagine having to do this with a vehicle nearly 21 billion kilometers away
Voyager 1 mission engineers and technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory did just that recently by successfully firing four of its thrusters for the first time since 1980.
An official with the Voyager mission says the successful firing of the thrusters will make it possible to extend the life of NASA’s farthest and fastest spacecraft.
Voyage 1 is the only human-made object that’s in interstellar space (the space between star systems).
Shalane Flanagan crosses the finish line first in the women’s division of the New York City Marathon in New York, Nov. 5, 2017. (AP
Have Humans Peaked?
French scientists say that we humans, as a species, have peaked and reached the maximum limits for height, lifespan, and physical performance.
The researchers say their findings suggest humans have biological limitations that cannot be exceeded.
The scientists, who published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, say that despite increasing scientific, medical and nutritional progress, these biological traits will no longer increase.
Furthermore, the researchers also found that environmental changes caused by human activity, such as climate change could have a harmful impact on these biological limitations.
To reach their findings, the scientists say they reviewed 120 years-worth of historical and included the effects of various genetic and environmental factors.
According to the researchers, signs that indicate we have reached the end of our biological limits will include fewer sports records being broken and that more people will not live beyond current life expectancy.
This artist’s concept shows the most distant supermassive black hole ever discovered. It is part of a quasar from just 690 million years after the Big Bang. (Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science)
Most Distant Supermassive Black Hole Found
A new study outlines the discovery of the most distant supermassive black hole to date.
The monster black hole has been calculated to be roughly 13 billion light years from Earth.
This means that it was formed a mere 690 million years after the big bang.
An international group of scientists calculated the mass of the black hole to be 800 million times that of our Sun.
Study co-author, Daniel Stern of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the discovery of the distant supermassive black hole challenges current theories about how black holes form.
The scientists found that the giant black hole is gobbling matter so quickly that it powers a quasar, which is among the brightest known celestial objects in the universe.
Supermassive black holes are found in the center of large galaxies.
The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole is called Sagittarius A* and has the mass of 4.1 million suns.
Infant stars, like those recently identified near the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, are surrounded by a swirling disk of dust and gas. In this artist’s conception of an infant solar system, the young star pulls material from its surroundings into a rotating disk (right) and generates outflowing jets of material (left). ( Bill Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF))
Sun-Like Stars Found Forming Near Supermassive Black Hole
Speaking of Sagittarius A* – Located nearby the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, is a region of space that scientists say is rocked by powerful tidal forces and immersed in powerful ultraviolet light and X-ray radiation.
Astronomers figure that this environment really shouldn’t be an ideal location for stars to form, especially low-mass stars like our sun.
But new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array reveals clues of eleven low-mass stars forming within only three light-years to the supermassive black hole.
Scientists theorize that the existence of these young protostars suggests ideal conditions to form low-mass stars can not only be found in one of the most turbulent regions of our galaxy and perhaps may even in other similar locations throughout the universe.
Fluorescent microscopic view of bone cancer cells (© ESA-Yassen Abbas)
Cancer Cells Killed By Chemotherapy Found to Boost Tumor Growth
A new study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center finds that dying or dead cancer cells as a result of chemotherapy can continue cause harm to the cancer patient.
The study finds that debris from cells killed or are being killed by chemotherapy produces a kind of inflammation that stimulates aggressive tumor growth.
The researchers say that their findings show similar effects that coincide with decades-old studies on radiation-generated cancer cell debris.
To stop this recurring loop of destroying cancer cells that go on to encourage rapid tumor growth, the researchers found that resolvins, a class of naturally produced molecules can stop the inflammation and encourage the digestion of the dead cancer cell debris.
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