Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday, 18 April 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:56 PM PDT
Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has found an Earth-sized planet within the habitable zone of the star it orbits, the space agency announced Thursday.
The planet, which NASA calls Kepler-186f, is located in the constellation Cygnus, about 500 light-years from Earth. Kepler-186f orbits the star Kepler-186 once every 130 days and receives one-third of the energy from that star than Earth does from the sun, NASA said in a statement. The amount of energy Kepler-186f receives at noon is similar to what Earth receives an hour before sunset, which places the newly discovered planet at the outer edge of the habitable zone.
NASA defines the habitable zone as “the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet.” Being in the habitable zone, however, does not guarantee that life is possible, just that it could be.
“We know of just one planet where life exists, Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth,” Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published in the journal Science, said in the NASA statement. “Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward.”
Kepler-186 is located near the bright star Deneb, which is one of the defining stars of the Cygnus constellation, according to the French blog Around the Sky. It is classified as an M dwarf (also known as a red dwarf) star, which means it is smaller and dimmer than the sun, NASA said. This particular star is about half the size and mass of Earth’s sun. M dwarfs make up approximately 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way.

“The host star, Kepler 186, is an M1-type dwarf star which means it will burn hydrogen forever, so there is ample opportunity to develop life around this particular star and because it has just the right orbital period water may exist in a liquid phase on this planet,” said Notre Dame astrophysicist Justin R. Crepp in Science Codex.
There is much that is unknown about the Kepler-186f planet, including its mass and composition, though the researches posit that the planet is likely to be rocky. NASA does know that the planet is less than ten percent larger than Earth.
“The Kepler space telescope infers the existence of a planet by the amount of starlight blocked when it passes in front of its star. From these data, a planet’s radius, orbital period and the amount of energy [received] from the host star can be determined,” NASA said.
“Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has,” Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames and co-author of the paper, said in the NASA press release. “Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth.”
The Kepler telescope launched in 2009 with the goal of searching about 150,000 target stars for planets transiting (passing by) the telescope at least three times over the course of up to three years, Reuters reports. Researchers pore through archived data from Kepler to find planets that could be in the habitable zone, which is nicknamed the “Goldilocks Zone.”
“It’s very challenging to find Earth analogs,” Barclay said to Reuters. “Most candidates don’t pan out, but things change as we get more measurements.”
NASA says the next step is to look for true Earth-twins and to measure their chemical compositions. Kepler-186f will also be a target for future telescopes in the hopes of measuring its chemical composition, Reuters reports.
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Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:44 PM PDT

More than five weeks after the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner the Kuala Lumpur government says it is going to launch an international expert panel to probe the plane’s mystery.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Thursday that the Malaysian cabinet would discuss forming the panel to look into the incident.
“We are forming a panel of inquiry consisting of experts from around the world…who are respected, credible and who will make decisions and investigate without fear or favor,” media outlets quoted the minister as saying.
The Malaysian government has already started investigating civil aviation and military authorities over their confused initial response to Flight MH370.
Tensions mount between civilian and military authorities over who bears most responsibility for the initial confusion. The uncertainty and mistakes also led to a week-long search in the wrong place.
Meanwhile, a mini-submarine searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has completed its first full mission at the third attempt. The search to spot the remains of the plane has been futile so far.
The Malaysian transport minister also told reporters that the team is expected to further narrow the search area based on the latest clues. He said the focus will now be on enhanced underwater search.
There is growing frustration among the family members of the missing passengers as search operations drag on.
The minister added that Malaysia and Australia are making preparations to send the passengers’ families to the search zone near the Australian city of Perth.
Flight MH370 with hundreds onboard was on its way from Kuala Lampur to Beijing when it suddenly disappeared from air traffic control radar on March 8. No debris from the plane has been found yet.
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Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:40 PM PDT

A new law will come into effect in Sweden after Christmas 2014, that will allow people to be prosecuted for criticizing immigration or politician’s unwillingness to tackle the issue.
The Constitutional Committee’s report has been voted for in parliament, seen in a letter from the Parliamentary Offices.
Member of Parliament Andrew Norlén, member of the Constitutional Committee, has been pushing the issue and he says it will rapidly become a deterrent.
“I do not think it takes very many prosecutions before a signal is transmitted in the community that the internet is not a lawless country, the sheriff is back in town” Norlén said during a one-sided ‘debate’ on the issue in Swedish parliament.
This new law is meant to stop Swedish people from complaining about their country being turned into a third world nation.
Without freedom of speech there can be no democracy. If you are not allowed to say certain things then parties that support your ideas cannot exist and Sweden is at high risk of turning into a communist USSR-like country.
        
Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:12 PM PDT

Google is working on a modular Android smartphone, which enables users to upgrade the device themselves and promises a lengthy lifespan.
Dubbed Project Ara, the hardware is the brainchild of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP).
The device is meant as an infinitely customizable phone, for which people could shop around for additional hardware. The modules will be encased in covers that will be produced on demand using a new generation of 3D printers designed by 3D Systems.
Project head Paul Eremenko has said, “Let the consumer make…changes over their own life and their own evolution.”
“Our vision for the software architecture is a set of generic class drivers analogous to the way USB is treated today,” he said.
The modules are held together within a frame with the help of magnets and the device will not fall apart if dropped.
The first version of the phone, which could be used for five to six years, will likely be available in early 2015, costing between USD 50 and USD 500 to manufacture.
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Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:23 PM PDT

Russian Communists are planning a mass campaign promoting a voluntary boycott of all American goods as proof that Russians cannot be intimidated by sanctions.
The head of the Communist Party’s legal department, Vladimir Solovyov said that his comrades intend to set an example in the campaign, at least in its first stages. He also promised that the politicians will find suitable replacements for all US products and share this information with anyone who wishes to join in.
“If our citizens stop buying their goods and our businessmen stop buying them, the Americans are going to lose our market. I would also not exclude that dollar circulation would stop, as there are replacements for it, like the euro,” Solovyov said in an interview with Izvestia daily. “It is really easy to find replacements for everything American with the market we currently have,” the top Communist functionary added.
Another top Communist, lower house MP Sergey Obukhov agreed with the idea, but said that a universal boycott might prove to be too complicated and suggested pinpoint action instead. It is important that specialists in statistics establish groups of goods the rejection of which by Russians would deal the heaviest blow to the US economy, the politician said.
Deputy chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Committee Valery Rashkin also supported the initiative, but said that the boycott should be strictly voluntary.
“I myself hold that we should give priority to the goods that are produced in Russia. They are of high quality and they are cheap. But it is categorically unadvisable to ban everything else,” Rashkin told reporters.
According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, American exports to Russia amounted to $10.7 billion in 2012. Russia’s exports to the US in 2012 was $29.3 billion.
Earlier this month, a group of Russian MPs headed by a representative of the populist nationalist party LDPR suggested Russian oil and gas producers and traders stop using the US dollar as this, in their opinion, was sharing profits with the USA, and making Russia vulnerable to western sanctions.
The idea was welcomed and promoted, by the head of the major state-owned VTB bank, among others.
LDPR also drafted a bill restricting US dollar circulation in Russia, but it was soon withdrawn for rewriting.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 09:10