Is Pluto back?

New suggestions for defining a planet would put Pluto and many other objects back on the list.

Ask planetary scientist Mark Sykes where NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is headed, and he will say it is on its way to the largest asteroid and the smallest planet.A planet in the solar system, the IAU says, must:-

orbit the sun; have enough gravity to make it nearly round; and have gobbled up or sent packing any objects found in its orbit. 

A dwarf planet, under IAU rules, is not a planet. The IAU says a dwarf planet orbits the sun, is not a satellite, has enough mass to make itself nearly round and has not booted objects from its orbit.

But how can a dwarf of something not be considered one of that thing? Sykes asked.

That sentiment was expressed again and again by many scientists at the conference. “It is grammatically and logically weird that a dwarf planet is not a planet. That rule is unacceptable and violates laws of logic and grammar,” said planetary scientist David Morrison of the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. And that is what Sykes is doing, he said — at least partially. He is selecting the part of the IAU definition that he finds useful, arguing that a planet is anything that orbits a star, doesn’t fuse elements in its core and has enough internal gravity to be nearly round.

Those criteria would make Ceres a planet. It would remake Pluto one too. There would be at least 13 planets in the solar system with many more, possibly thousands to come, he said. 

The thousands would lie in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of planet-like chunks of rock and ice in Pluto’s neighborhoodStern countered by saying that his concept of a definition — one “based on the physical, the intrinsic properties of a planet” — is how he defines a planet. It also pushes the bounds of what a planet is. When, or if, there is ever a consensus, he thinks the definition of planet should fall between his “radical” definition and the more restrictive, dynamics-based IAU definition.

At any rate, when Dawn gets to Vesta and then Ceres, and NASA’s New Horizon mission gets to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects in the 2010s, the information gathered is going to be important, whether or not the objects are planets, said planetary scientist Hal Levison of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder,Colo.

Martian soil may contain toxic compounds harmful to life: NASA

Martian soil could contain a toxic substance that would make it less likely that life formed there, data gathered by NASA's Phoenix lander on the red planet has revealed.

Earlier NASA said Phoenix analysers detected water in the soil, which suggested that Mars could have the conditions for life. However, if the presence of perchlorate were confirmed, the probability of detecting living organisms there would be reduced.

'The Phoenix team has been waiting for complementary results from the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyser, or TEGA, which also is capable of detecting perchlorate. TEGA is a series of ovens and analyses that 'sniff' vapours released from substances in a sample,' NASA said on its website.

Whatever it be there is still a slight chance of finding life on Mars since water has already been found there . And what may be poisonous for us may not be poisonous for them.

Finally Ice on Mars found!!!

There have been lot of speculation on whether ice is present on Mars or not,many people choosing to disagree. But finally the verdict is out.The Phoenix Mars Lander has finally “tasted” and “touched” water ice, mission scientists reported. Detecting the water ice in this latest sample was a surprise, said Phoenix scientist William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson during a July 31 mission press briefing. The Phoenix team has been trying to analyze a sample from a hard layer beneath the topsoil, but delivering such a sample to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA, instrument has proven difficult for the past month. The TEGA ovens are designed to bake samples, identifying components primarily by their melting points as a way to directly detect the presence of certain compounds, such as water ice. When the oven heated the soil, some of the sample melted at 0° Celsius, the melting point of ice, and the TEGA also detected water vapor during the analysis, Boynton noted. Satellites orbiting Mars had given scientists their first clues that water ice might exist in the Martian polar regions. But TEGA’s ability to “sniff” out the water ice is the first test that gives direct confirmation that the water ice exists.

“Now, we have finally touched and tasted ice on Mars,” Boynton said, “and I can say it tastes very fine.”

So finally scientists instead of searching water on Mars can concentrate more on finding life on Mars.

Dressing in red could make you win!

It has been found in a study that in a close game,team dressed in red was more likely to win.British anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham that conclusion by studying the outcomes of one-on-one boxing, taekwondo, Greco-Roman-wresting, and freestyle-wrestling matches at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.In each event,the olympic staff randomly assigned blue or red dresses to competitors.It was found that when there was a large point difference presumably because one opponent was superiour to other,the colour of the clothes did not matter but in close contests the player having red dress was more likely to win. In equally matched bouts, the preponderance of red wins was great enough that it could not be attributed to chance, the anthropologists say.Of 441 bouts the reds won 242 and in all four sports the reds won more contests.In close encounters 62 percent of red garbed competitors won.
Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar from the University of Liverpool speculates that primate eyes may be sensitive to the colour red.Such effects could be due to instinctive behaviour says Barton.In animal displays red in particular seems to vary with dominance and testosterone levels.Human competitors may feel a testosterone surge while wearing red or may feel submissive when facing a scarlet opponent.

Sharks Beware!!!

Humans always have found new ways to keep various pests away from them.But they have not been successful with the sharks so far.
A lot of sunscreens and lotions have been experimented with but hardly have been effective.Then, in 2005, scientists accidently discovered something far simpler -- something that sent sharks swimming away from it like people running from a burning building.They found that sharks did not attack fish which had magnets tied to their bodies .

The interaction of salt water and charged metals produces a weak electrical field. When a shark comes close to that field, the field seems to disrupt the sharks' special sixth sense which they use to 'smell ' the fish from a far distance.There has been a lot of research in this which has led to the conclusion that magnetic filed deters sharks upto a foot(0.3 metres) away.That is if you are going swimming you could wear special Lanthanide belts whose magnetic field would keep those dangerous sharks off you.

Sleep

What is sleep? How does this thing gets indispensable in your life?
According to definition Sleep is a state in which our body cells undergo repair from the wear and tear of day-to-day activities.Hence sleep is necessary in order to be healthy.
According to scientists lack of sleep may cause serious brain damages,make you obese or even cause a heart-attack.
Also during sleep the nerve-receptors rest and hence if we don't sleep enough we may feel giddy and we may have problems doing simple tasks.


But sleep is not just that,during sleep we also dream and scientists have shown that everybody dreams so dreams must have a special significance.Dreams enable us to set our priorities.This gets seriously affected if we don't have adequate sleep.It has been found that college students who sleep more have higher grades than those who sleep less.

Newborn babies have it made -- they sleep 16 to 18 hours every day. An adult needs about 8 hours a day of sleep.

Militaries of several countries, including the US, the UK, Pakistan and France, have been exploring the use of a drug called modafinil (sold as the brand Provigil in the United States), which has prevented negative effects of sleep deprivation. Although modafinil is not a typical stimulant, it eliminates fatigue, promotes wakefulness, and improves alertness; it was initially developed for sufferers of narcolepsy.

But beware of over-sleeping.Those who average more than nine hours of sleep per night are twice as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as those who get six hours or less [source: The New York Times].
So sleep for the right amount of time to be healthy.

Bizarre Science facts

Did you know?

1) Do you know what colour is the sky on Mars?
Ans-The sky on Mars is pinkish-orange. Mars is covered with a layer of orange dust called iron oxide. Wind catches the dust, forming during dust storms, and the dust colors the Martian sky.

2)Why do some potato chips have green edges?
Ans-Potatoes, like most other plants, contain a chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll helps plants turn sunlight into energy and makes them green. Usually potatoes grow underground, but sometimes they can grow near the top of the soil. If the sun shines on a potato, it will begin to produce chlorophyll and turn a little green.

3)What rock floats in water?
Ans-Pumice, a rock that comes from volcanoes. Pumice can float because it is full of holes that hold air and make the rock buoyant.


4)What's the coolest place on Earth?
Ans-Plateau station, Antarctica—which holds the record as the coldest place on the planet. The average annual temperature there is minus -89°C.

5) What's the hottest place on Earth?
Ans-Dallol, Ethiopia holds the record for the hottest place on Earth. The average annual temperature there is 34.4°C. That's almost human body temperature!

6)Which resource can you live without longer—food or sleep?
Ans-Food. You can live for only about ten days without sleep, but you can survive for several weeks without food.

7)Which animal sleeps for most of its life?
Ans-The Western European hedgehog loves to sleep. In the summer it sleeps about 18 hours a day, waking only at night to eat. During the winter it sleeps constantly, curling into a prickly ball to protect itself from curious animals.

8)What is the oldest living thing on Earth?
Ans-The oldest living thing is a bristlecone pine tree that is more than 4,600 years old. It lives in the White Mountains of California.

9)What kind of bird can fly upside down?
Ans-The tiny bird called a hummingbird can fly forward, backward, and even upside down! Hummingbirds are the smallest kind of bird, and they eat nectar from flowers. Their wings move so quickly that they can hardly been seen, and the fast flapping makes a soft noise like a hum.

10) What kind of bird can fly when it is asleep?
Ans-The albatross can fly while it sleeps. These large birds spend a lot of time flying over the ocean looking for food. If an albatross cannot find land or a ship where it can stop to rest when tired, the bird can sleep while it flies at about 40 kilometers per hour.