Polarized light is a familiar phenomenon because the scattering or reflection of light results in one of its two components being preferentially absorbed. The majority of sunlight on Earth, for example, is preferentially polarized due to scattering in the atmosphere (this helps make polarized sunglasses effective). Electromagnetic radiation from astrophysical sources can also be polarized, typically because of scattering from elongated…
Tag: grains
Electric dust could be erasing signs of life from the surface of Mars
Dust grains rubbing together on Mars can generate electric charges and kick-start chemical reactions that could destroy possible signs of life on the surface Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2246587-electric-dust-could-be-erasing-signs-of-life-from-the-surface-of-mars/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Scientists Find Way To Pollinate Plants With Soap Bubbles As Bees Decline
Researchers have found that soap bubbles can carry pollen grains and deposit them on flowers. CNET reports: “It sounds somewhat like fantasy, but the functional soap bubble allows effective pollination and assures that the quality of fruits is the same as with conventional hand pollination,” said Eijiro Miyako, associate professor at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and lead…
Ancient micrometeoroids carried specks of stardust, water to asteroid 4 Vesta
The formation of our solar system was a messy affair. Most of the material that existed before its formation—material formed around other, long-dead stars—was vaporized, then recondensed into new materials. But some grains of that material, formed before the sun’s birth, still persist. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-ancient-micrometeoroids-specks-stardust-asteroid.html…
Born in June? Here’s your birthstone
Happy birthday June babies! Your month has 3 birthstones – pearl, moonstone, and alexandrite. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/june-birthstone-pearl-moonstone-alexandrite…
Breathing Habits Are Related To Physical and Mental Health
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal, written by James Nestor: Breathing is a missing pillar of health, and our attention to it is long overdue. Most of us misunderstand breathing. We see it as passive, something that we just do. Breathe, live; stop breathing, die. But breathing is not that simple and binary. How we breathe…
Is Mars still volcanically active? New study says maybe
Scientists studying the ancient Martian Tissint meteorite say they’ve found new evidence that Mars was volcanically active a few hundred million years ago … and may still be today. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/is-mars-still-volcanically-active-tissint-meteorite…
A famous Mars meteorite, now with nitrogen
For the first time, nitrogen-containing organic molecules have been discovered in a Martian meteorite. The famous meteorite – Allan Hills 84001 – was picked up in Antarctica in 1984. The discovery provides more clues about habitable conditions on early Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-meteorite-alh-84001-1st-discovery-fixed-nitrogen…
Touching the asteroid Ryugu
It’s a spectacular achievement to rendezvous with an asteroid as it’s whizzing around the sun. It’s even more amazing to collect a sample. That’s what the Hayabusa2 spacecraft did in February 2019. Here’s what researchers learned. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-ryugu-hayabusa2-findings…
Will Dragonfly find dust devils on Titan?
Earth and Mars both are known to have swirling dust devils moving along their surfaces. Saturn’s large moon Titan might have them, too, according to a new study. If so, NASA’s planned Dragonfly mission will be able to find them. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/saturn-moon-titan-dust-devils-dragonfly…