LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - Le gingembre, une plante médicinale ancienne

Le gingembre est une plante originaire d'Inde. En cuisine, on apprécie son rhizome pour son goût poivré et citronné. Délicieusement piquant aussi. Le gingembre sec apparaissant plus corsé et exhalant des arômes plus chauds.

Le gingembre est bien sûr très connu pour ses vertus aphrodisiaques. Mais il figure aussi parmi les plus anciennes plantes médicinales. On lui prête ainsi des propriétés anti-inflammatoires. Il aiderait aussi à soulager les nausées, le mal des transports et les douleurs dentaires. Il favoriserait enfin la digestion. 

© Luis Echeverri Urrea, Fotolia ; 019ATAZLAN, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

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ASTRONOMY - Camera Orion Rising

 2024 January 31

Camera Orion Rising
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcin Ślipko

Explanation: What does Orion rising look like to a camera? During this time of the year, the famous constellation is visible to the southeast just after sunset. From most Earthly locations, Orion's familiar star pattern, highlighted by the three-stars-in-a-row belt stars, rises sideways. An entire section of the night sky that includes Orion was photographed rising above Śnieżka, a mountain on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. The long duration exposure sequence brings up many faint features including the Orion and Flame Nebulas, both encompassed by the curving Barnard's Loop. The featured wide-angle camera composite also captured night sky icons including the blue Pleiades star cluster at the image top and the red Rosette Nebula to the left of Orion. Famous stars in the frame include Sirius, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Aldebaran. Orion will appear successively higher in the sky at sunset during the coming months.

ASTRONOMY - SLIM Lands on the Moon

 2024 January 30

SLIM Lands on the Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, Takara Tomy, Sony Co., Doshisha U.

Explanation: New landers are on the Moon. Nearly two weeks ago, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) released two rovers as it descended, before its main lander touched down itself. The larger of the two rovers can hop like a frog, while the smaller rover is about the size of a baseball and can move after pulling itself apart like a transformer. The main lander, nicknamed Moon Sniper, is seen in the featured image taken by the smaller rover. Inspection of the image shows that Moon Sniper's thrusters are facing up, meaning that the lander is upside down from its descent configuration and on its side from its intended landing configuration. One result is that Moon Sniper's solar panels are not in the expected orientation, so that powering the lander had to be curtailed and adapted. SLIM's lander has already succeeded as a technology demonstration, its main mission, but was not designed to withstand the lunar night -- which starts tomorrow.

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - La fève de Tonka, l'épice riche en arôme

La fève de Tonka est la graine noire et ridée -- après séchage -- que l'on extrait du noyau du fruit d'un arbre tropical. Cette fève est notamment riche en coumarine, qui lui donne son goût de foin frais. Mais on peut aussi y déceler des saveurs chaudes de chocolat, de caramel, de vanille ou de musc. Une richesse aromatique qui la rend intéressante -- même si un peu cher -- en cuisine tout autant qu'en parfumerie. C'est sur elle que repose la renommée du fameux Shalimar, de Guerlain.

La fève de Tonka s'avère être un bon antioxydant. Elle présente aussi des vertus antispasmodiques et détoxifiantes. Mais attention, car à fortes doses, elle devient toxique, pouvant provoquer des lésions au foie et au cœur.

© Mecredis, Fred Benenson, Wikipedia, GFDL ; Michael Boy, Fotolia

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - The Pleiades: Seven Dusty Sisters

 2024 January 29

The Pleiades: Seven Dusty Sisters
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Stocks

Explanation: The well-known Pleiades star cluster is slowly destroying part of a passing cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades is the brightest open cluster of stars on Earth's sky and can be seen from almost any northerly location with the unaided eye. Over the past 100,000 years, a field of gas and dust is moving by chance right through the Pleiades star cluster and is causing a strong reaction between the stars and dust. The passing cloud might be part of the Radcliffe wave, a newly discovered structure of gas and dust connecting several regions of star formation in the nearby part of our Milky Way galaxy. Pressure from the stars' light significantly repels the dust in the surrounding blue reflection nebula, with smaller dust particles being repelled more strongly. A short-term result is that parts of the dust cloud have become filamentary and stratified. The featured deep image incorporates nearly 9 hours of exposure and was captured from Utah Desert Remote Observatory in Utah, USA, last year.

ASTRONOMY - Pluto in True Color

 2024 January 28

Pluto in True Color
Image Credit: NASA, JHU APL, SwRI; Processing: Alex Parker

Explanation: What color is Pluto, really? It took some effort to figure out. Even given all of the images sent back to Earth when the robotic New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto in 2015, processing these multi-spectral frames to approximate what the human eye would see was challenging. The result featured here, released three years after the raw data was acquired by New Horizons, is the highest resolution true color image of Pluto ever taken. Visible in the image is the light-colored, heart-shaped, Tombaugh Regio, with the unexpectedly smooth Sputnik Planitia, made of frozen nitrogen, filling its western lobe. New Horizons found the dwarf planet to have a surprisingly complex surface composed of many regions having perceptibly different hues. In total, though, Pluto is mostly brown, with much of its muted color originating from small amounts of surface methane energized by ultraviolet light from the Sun.

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - Versatilidade - Carro voador

O primeiro carro voador do mundo destaca-se pela sua alta versatilidade. Este carro não se limita a ser um veículo de uso privado. O carro voador também poderá servir para transporte, segurança e forças de defesa.

Robert Dingemanse defendeu ainda que estuda aplicações do veículo na área de encomendas privadas. Existe já uma parceria estabelecida com a Sky Angels Air Ambulance. Trata-se de uma fornecedora de transporte médico de emergência no Reino Unido.

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LE MERVEILLEUX JARDIN DES EPICES - Le curcuma, l'épice qui colore nos assiettes

Le curcuma est une épice qui nous vient de l'Inde. C'est l'ingrédient principal du curry. Sa belle couleur jaune met du soleil dans nos assiettes. Et son parfum poivré, musqué et subtilement âcre donne indéniablement à nos plats un goût d'ailleurs.

Riche en curcumine, le curcuma est l'objet de nombreuses attentions scientifiques. Car il pourrait aider à protéger contre les maladies liées au stress oxydatif telles que les maladies cardiovasculaires ou la maladie d'Alzheimer. Il pourrait aussi permettre de prévenir la survenue de certains cancers. Et présenter des propriétés anti-inflammatoires intéressantes.

© Simon A. Eugster, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0 ; H. Zell, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0 ; magdal3na, Fotolia

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Full Observatory Moon

 2024 January 27

Full Observatory Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: A popular name for January's full moon in the northern hemisphere is the Full Wolf Moon. As the new year's first full moon, it rises over Las Campanas Observatory in this dramatic Earth-and-moonscape. Peering from the foreground like astronomical eyes are the observatory's twin 6.5 meter diameter Magellan telescopes. The snapshot was captured with telephoto lens across rugged terrain in the Chilean Atacama Desert, taken at a distance of about 9 miles from the observatory and about 240,000 miles from the lunar surface. Of course the first full moon of the lunar new year, known to some as the Full Snow Moon, will rise on February 24.

ASTRONOMY - Epsilon Tauri: Star with Planet

 2024 January 26

Epsilon Tauri: Star with Planet
Image Credit & Copyright: Reg Pratt

Explanation: Epsilon Tauri lies 146 light-years away. A K-type red giant star, epsilon Tau is cooler than the Sun, but with about 13 times the solar radius it has nearly 100 times the solar luminosity. A member of the Hyades open star cluster the giant star is known by the proper name Ain, and along with brighter giant star Aldebaran, forms the eyes of Taurus the Bull. Surrounded by dusty, dark clouds in Taurus, epsilon Tau is also known to have a planet. Discovered by radial velocity measurements in 2006, Epsilon Tauri b is a gas giant planet larger than Jupiter with an orbital period of 1.6 years. And though the exoplanet can't be seen directly, on a dark night its parent star epsilon Tauri is easily visible to the unaided eye.

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - Sustentabilidade do Pal-V Liberty Pioneer Edition

O uso de combustível sustentável é algo que torna o PAL-V mais atrativo. Este carro foi pensado para ser sustentável. A tecnologia usada no carro voador permitiu o recurso a combustível híbrido. Ele tem por base a utilização de combustíveis eletrónicos. Essa opção contribui para tornar o carro mais verde ao minimizar os impactos ambientais, como a emissão de gás carbónico.

O carro voador já é um sucesso, contando com diversas unidades já vendidas. Robert Dingemanse afirmou que tem 90 unidades já vendidas para clientes da Europa e da América do Norte.

O Liberty PAL-V encontra-se disponível para compra por valores a partir de US$ 316.000 (aproximadamente 288 411,62€). Portanto, ainda não é um veículo para as massas.

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LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - Le fenouil et ses vertus digestives

Le fenouil est une plante originaire du bassin méditerranéen. D'aspect, il ressemble à s'y méprendre à l'aneth. Mais de goût, c'est l'anis qu'il rappelle. Sans toutefois que sa saveur soit aussi sucrée. Le fenouil peut se consommer cru ou cuit. Et ses graines, tout particulièrement, sont appréciées en tant qu'épice.

Les graines de fenouil sont notamment reconnues pour leur efficacité à lutter contre les troubles digestifs. Il semblerait en effet que leur consommation stimule les muscles de l'intestin. En tisane, par exemple, les graines de fenouil aident aussi à neutraliser l'acidité gastrique. Après un repas un peu trop riche, notamment.

© Isidre blanc, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 4.0 ; Cozine, Fotolia

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Jyväskylä in the Sky

 2024 January 25

Jyväskylä in the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Harri Kiiskinen

Explanation: You might not immediately recognize this street map of a neighborhood in Jyväskylä, Finland, planet Earth. But that's probably because the map was projected into the night sky and captured with an allsky camera on January 16. The temperature recorded on that northern winter night was around minus 20 degrees Celsius. As ice crystals formed in the atmosphere overhead, street lights spilling illumination into the sky above produced visible light pillars, their ethereal appearance due to specular reflections from the fluttering crystals' flat surfaces. Of course, the projected light pillars trace a map of the brightly lit local streets, though reversed right to left in the upward looking camera's view. This light pillar street map was seen to hover for hours in the Jyväskylä night.

ASTRONOMY - Earth and Moon from Beyond

 2024 January 24

Earth and Moon from Beyond
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis I; Processing: Andy Saunders

Explanation: What do the Earth and Moon look like from beyond the Moon? Although frequently photographed together, the familiar duo was captured with this unusual perspective in late 2022 by the robotic Orion spacecraft of NASA's Artemis I mission as it looped around Earth's most massive satellite and looked back toward its home world. Since our Earth is about four times the diameter of the Moon, the satellite’s seemingly large size was caused by the capsule being closer to the smaller body. Artemis II, the next launch in NASA’s Artemis series, is currently scheduled to take people around the Moon in 2025, while Artemis III is planned to return humans to lunar surface in late 2026. Last week, JAXA's robotic SLIM spacecraft, launched from Japan, landed on the Moon and released two hopping rovers.

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - Características do carro voador

Ora, tendo em conta que o carro voador conjuga o automóvel com o helicóptero, será um Helicarro ou um Carrocoptero? Na verdade, o carro voador da PAL-V realiza o seu funcionamento com recurso a pequenas asas fixas e a uma hélice traseira que o empurra para a frente.

Por isso, a iniciativa de tornar este veículo uma realidade permitiu conjugar as funcionalidades de 3 veículos: um carro, helicóptero e um avião. O carro voador requer um campo de aviação para poder descolar. Ele conta com um motor de 200 cavalos para realizar essa tarefa na perfeição.

Segundo o CEO da empresa da Holanda, Robert: “O Liberty marcará o início da era dos carros voadores. Ao usar a infraestrutura e os regulamentos existentes, já podemos começar a utilizar o Liberty no próximo ano. No futuro, continuaremos a desenvolver produtos inovadores de mobilidade aérea”.

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LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - La coriandre, l’épice des pharaons

Le goût de la coriandre ne laisse généralement pas indifférent. On l'aime ou on ne l'aime pas. Ses graines -- qui peuvent faire penser à des graines de poivre et constitue le fruit de la coriandre -- exhalent une saveur orangée.

La légende veut que les archéologues aient trouvé des graines de coriandre jusque dans les tombeaux des pharaons. Et dans le plus célèbre d'entre eux, celui de Toutankhamon. Il faut dire que la coriandre figure alors dans la liste des plantes médicinales. Car les graines de coriandre pourraient aider à lutter contre le diabète et présenter des propriétés antibactériennes. Elles aideraient aussi à la digestion et auraient des vertus aphrodisiaques.

© PDPics, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commons ; H. Zell, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California

 2024 January 23

Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California
Image Credit & Copyright: Alistair Symon

Explanation: How well do you know the night sky? OK, but how well can you identify famous sky objects in a very deep image? Either way, here is a test: see if you can find some well-known night-sky icons in a deep image filled with faint nebulosity. This image contains the Pleiades star cluster, Barnard's Loop, Horsehead Nebula, Orion Nebula, Rosette Nebula, Cone Nebula, Rigel, Jellyfish Nebula, Monkey Head Nebula, Flaming Star Nebula, Tadpole Nebula, Aldebaran, Simeis 147, Seagull Nebula and the California Nebula. To find their real locations, here is an annotated image version. The reason this task might be difficult is similar to the reason it is initially hard to identify familiar constellations in a very dark sky: the tapestry of our night sky has an extremely deep hidden complexity. The featured composite reveals some of this complexity in a mosaic of 28 images taken over 800 hours from dark skies over Arizona, USA.

ASTRONOMY - Shadows of Mountain and Moon

 2024 January 22

Shadows of Mountain and Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Enzo Massa Micon

Explanation: Can the Moon and a mountain really cast similar shadows? Yes, but the division between light and dark does not have to be aligned. Pictured, a quarter moon was captured above the mountain Grivola in Italy in early October of 2022. The Sun is to the right of the featured picturesque landscape, illuminating the right side of the Moon in a similar way that it illuminates the right side of the mountain. This lunar phase is called "quarter" because the lit fraction visible from Earth is one quarter of the entire lunar surface. Digital post-processing of this single exposure gave both gigantic objects more prominence. Capturing the terminator of this quarter moon in close alignment with nearly vertical mountain ridge required careful timing because the Earth rotates once a day.

BIOMIMETISME - Innovations inspirées par la Nature - La soie super-résistante des araignées

La soie produite par les araignées est connue depuis longtemps pour sa résistance. On dit qu'elle est 5 fois plus résistante que l'acier, tout en étant plus légère et plus élastique. De telles propriétés ont forcément intéressé l'armée pour en faire des gilets pare-balles, ou pour renforcer les ceintures de sécurité dans les voitures. Mais produire suffisamment de soie d'araignée est un véritable challenge. Il faut plusieurs milliers d'araignées pour obtenir à peine 500 grammes de soie ; de ce côté-là, les vers à soie sont plus rentables.

C'est pour cela que des fibres artificielles inspirées de la soie d'araignée sont en développement dans de nombreux domaines, comme la création de fils chirurgicaux, de textiles balistiques ou encore à mémoire de forme. Malgré tout, la création de ces fibres reste onéreuse.

© Fir0002, Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2

FuturaSciences

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - Le cumin une épice forte en goût

Le cumin est une épice de la famille du persil. Il est originaire du Proche-Orient et il est utilisé en cuisine depuis plusieurs milliers d'années. Le goût du cumin est puissant, un peu terreux. Parfois légèrement poivré. Une combinaison de notes chaudes qui relèvent un plat, mais dont il ne faut pas abuser.

Et si le cumin est apprécié depuis si longtemps, c'est aussi pour ses vertus digestives et sa capacité à soulager tant les infections intestinales que les maux d'estomac. Il se dit également qu'il aiderait à soulager les règles douloureuses.

Les Romains, quant à eux, avaient pour coutume d'accrocher des sachets de cumin au-dessus de leur lit afin de chasser les mauvais rêves.

© Dionisvera, Fotolia ; avoferten, Fotolia

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - The Upper Michigan Blizzard of 1938

2024 January 21

The Upper Michigan Blizzard of 1938
Image Credit: Bill Brinkman; Courtesy: Paula Rocco

Explanation: Yes, but can your blizzard do this? In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan's Storm of the Century in 1938, some snow drifts reached the level of utility poles. Nearly a meter of new and unexpected snow fell over two days in a storm that started 86 years ago this week. As snow fell and gale-force winds piled snow to surreal heights, many roads became not only impassable but unplowable; people became stranded, cars, school buses and a train became mired, and even a dangerous fire raged. Two people were killed and some students were forced to spend several consecutive days at school. The featured image was taken by a local resident soon after the storm. Although all of this snow eventually melted, repeated snow storms like this help build lasting glaciers in snowy regions of our planet Earth. 

MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE - Massenet - La vierge

"La vierge"

ASTRONOMY - Falcon Heavy Boostback Burn

 2024 January 20

Falcon Heavy Boostback Burn
Image Credit & Copyright: Dennis Huff

Explanation: The December 28 night launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida marked the fifth launch for the rocket's reusable side boosters. About 2 minutes 20 seconds into the flight, the two side boosters separated from the rocket's core stage. Starting just after booster separation, this three minute long exposure captures the pair's remarkable boostback burns, maneuvers executed prior to their return to landing zones on planet Earth. While no attempt was made to recover the Falcon Heavy's core stage, both side boosters landed successfully and can be flown again. The four previous flights for these side boosters included last October's launch of NASA's asteroid-bound Psyche mission.

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - O carro voador - Pal-V Liberty Pioneer Edition

Esta formação ajudará os novos donos a obterem as suas licenças de piloto particular. Este compromisso que a empresa tem com a segurança e a capacitação revela-se uma parte fundamental da divisão da empresa de tornar a mobilidade aérea acessível a todos os interessados.

Este veículo permite que se façam grandes deslocações a uma boa velocidade. Além de conseguir atingir os 160 km/h (velocidade máxima) em deslocações por terra, ele tem alcance de voo de 480 km, com alcance terrestre de 1200 km. O carro pode voar a uma altitude de 11 mil pés (3.350 metros).

Portanto, é possível percorrer uma quantia significativa de território. Para se compreender ainda mais o seu alcance, importa dizer que basta uma única paragem para reabastecimento. Isso é suficiente para dobrar o potencial de exploração.

A sua circulação em vias públicas foi autorizada. No entanto, atualmente, a empresa encontra-se a aguardar a certificação de aviação. Segundo Robert Dingemanse, que é CEO e fundador da startup holandesa: “Os carros voadores não são mais um sonho distante, eles estão aqui, são reais e estão prontos para revolucionar a forma como viajamos”.

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BIOMIMETISME - Innovations inspirées par la Nature - La cape d'invisibilité des seiches inspire les roboticiens

La cape d'invisibilité d'Harry Potter semble bien pratique. Peut-être que l'auteure, J.K Rowling, s'est inspirée des seiches pour l'inventer. Si les seiches ne disparaissent pas, elles sont capables de se fondre dans leur environnement, tout comme les pieuvres, pour devenir pratiquement invisibles. Cela est possible grâce à leur peau qui est constituée comme un feuillet de trois couches de cellules pigmentaires : les leucophores qui prennent une teinte blanche, les iridophores qui réfléchissent la lumière et prennent un aspect iridescent, et enfin, une dernière couche de chromatophores qui peuvent changer de couleur rapidement.

Cette peau de « caméléon » a inspiré les scientifiques du milieu de la robotique : en 2017, une équipe a conçu une cape d'invisibilité en s'inspirant de la peau des seiches. La peau synthétique en silicone peut être programmée pour réaliser des formes et des motifs complexes.

© Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 4.0

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Jupiter over 2 Hours and 30 Minutes

 2024 January 19

Jupiter over 2 Hours and 30 Minutes
Image Credit & License: Aurélien Genin

Explanation: Jupiter, our Solar System's ruling gas giant, is also the fastest spinning planet, rotating once in less than 10 hours. The gas giant doesn't rotate like a solid body though. A day on Jupiter is about 9 hours and 56 minutes long at the poles, decreasing to 9 hours and 50 minutes near the equator. The giant planet's fast rotation creates strong jet streams, separating its clouds into planet girdling bands of dark belts and bright zones. You can easily follow Jupiter's rapid rotation in this sharp sequence of images from the night of January 15, all taken with a camera and small telescope outside of Paris, France. Located just south of the equator, the giant planet's giant storm system, also known as the Great Red Spot, can be seen moving left to right with the planet's rotation. From lower left to upper right, the sequence spans about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

ASTRONOMY - Northern Lights from the Stratosphere

 2024 January 18

Northern Lights from the Stratosphere
Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Explanation: Northern lights shine in this night skyview from planet Earth's stratosphere, captured on January 15. The single, 5 second exposure was made with a hand-held camera on board an aircraft above Winnipeg, Canada. During the exposure, terrestrial lights below leave colorful trails along the direction of motion of the speeding aircraft. Above the more distant horizon, energetic particles accelerated along Earth's magnetic field at the planet's polar regions excite atomic oxygen to create the shimmering display of Aurora Borealis. The aurora's characteristic greenish hue is generated at altitudes of 100-300 kilometers and red at even higher altitudes and lower atmospheric densities. The luminous glow of faint stars along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy arcs through the night, while the Andromeda galaxy extends this northern skyview to extragalactic space. A diffuse hint of Andromeda, the closest large spiral to the Milky Way, can just be seen to the upper left.

MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE - Hans Zimmer - Time

"Time"

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - Le carvi - l'épice efficace pour la digestion

Les graines de carvi ressemblent à s'y méprendre à des graines de cumin. C'est d'ailleurs pour cela qu'on appelle aussi le carvi, le cumin des prés. C'est une épice très ancienne. Son existence est attestée depuis la préhistoire. Son goût, en revanche, subtilement amer et anisé, ne rappelle en rien celui du cumin. Et il est particulièrement exploité par les cuisines allemandes et d'Europe du nord ou de l'est.

Parmi les propriétés notoires du carvi, citons ses vertus carminatives. Il aide en effet à lutter contre les ballonnements en favorisant l'expulsion des gaz intestinaux. Le carvi serait aussi vermifuge et antispasmodique ainsi que diurétique. Bref, une épice excellente pour la digestion.

© 12019, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commone ; Robert Flogaus-Faust, Wikimedia Commons, CC by 4.0

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - America and the Sea of Serenity

2024 January 17

America and the Sea of Serenity
Image Credit & Copyright: Gene Cernan, Apollo 17, NASA; Anaglyph by Patrick Vantuyne

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit before descending to land on the Moon. The stereo anaglyph was assembled from two photographs (AS17-147-22465, AS17-147-22466) captured from his vantage point on board the Lunar Module Challenger as he and Dr. Harrison Schmitt flew over Apollo 17's landing site in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The broad, sunlit face of the mountain dubbed South Massif rises near the center of the frame, above the dark floor of Taurus-Littrow to its left. Piloted by Ron Evans, the Command Module America is visible in orbit in the foreground against the South Massif's peak. Beyond the mountains, toward the lunar limb, lies the Moon's Mare Serenitatis. Four astronauts will venture around the Moon and back again on the Artemis II mission, scheduled for launch no earlier than September 2025. 

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - O carro voador - Pal-V Liberty Pioneer Edition

O Pal-V Liberty Pioneer Edition consiste num veículo pessoal, aéreo e terrestre. O carro voador é movido com recurso a combustíveis eletrónicos. Este carro encontra-se equipado com tecnologias de combustível híbrido. O carro voador permite o transporte de duas pessoas.

O Pal-V Liberty não é apenas um veículo. Revela-se simultaneamente uma experiência. Para assegurar que os proprietários aproveitem esta inovação ao máximo, a Pal-V oferece uma “escola de pilotagem” de 5 dias.

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ASTRONOMY - The Orion You Can Almost See

 2024 January 16

The Orion You Can Almost See
Image Credit & Copyright: Michele Guzzini

Explanation: Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see -- an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital camera imaging and post- processing. Here the cool red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left. Orion's hot blue stars are numerous, with supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and Bellatrix at the upper right. Lined up in Orion's belt are three stars all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation's well-studied interstellar clouds. Just below Orion's belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also look familiar -- the stellar nursery known as Orion's Nebula. Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here is Barnard's Loop -- a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion's Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer E. E. Barnard.

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - La cardamome - épice à consommer avec modération

La cardamome est une épice de la famille du gingembre. Elle semble originaire de l'Inde. Son goût est puissant. Il rappelle un peu celui de la sève de pin qu'exhalent de célèbres bonbons en forme de sapin. À la fois frais et légèrement sucré, poivré et délicatement mentholé.

La cardamome reste donc à consommer avec modération. D'autant qu'en grande quantité, elle peut provoquer l'apparition de troubles, mineurs la plupart du temps (maux de tête, nausées, etc.), mais plus importants chez les personnes souffrant de problèmes cardiaques ou hépatiques. Ces précautions prises, la cardamome serait efficace contre les troubles digestifs et jouirait de propriétés anti-inflammatoires et analgésiques.

© scym, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commons ; Reji Jacob, Wikimedia, CC0 Creative Commons

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb

 2024 January 15

Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and K. Luhman (Penn State U.) and C. Alves de Oliveira (ESA)

Explanation: Sometimes, it's the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and winding dust appears pink in this recently released infrared image from the Webb Space Telescope. In visible light, this dust reflects mostly blue light, giving the surrounding material the familiar blue hue of a reflection nebula. Besides bright stars, several cool objects have been located in IC 348, visible because they glow brighter in infrared light. These objects are hypothesized to be low mass brown dwarfs. Evidence for this includes the detection of an unidentified atmospheric chemical, likely a hydrocarbon, seen previously in the atmosphere of Saturn. These objects appear to have masses slightly greater than known planets, only a few times greater than Jupiter. Together, these indicate that this young star cluster contains something noteworthy -- young planet-mass brown dwarfs that float free, not orbiting any other star.

ASTRONOMY - Dragon Aurora over Iceland

 2024 January 14

Dragon Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang & Wang Zheng

Explanation: Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don't exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019. The aurora was caused by a hole in the Sun's corona that expelled charged particles into a solar wind that followed a changing interplanetary magnetic field to Earth's magnetosphere. As some of those particles then struck Earth's atmosphere, they excited atoms which subsequently emitted light: aurora. This iconic display was so enthralling that the photographer's mother ran out to see it and was captured in the foreground. Our active Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences, filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum approaches in 2025.

BIOMIMETISME - Innovations inspirées par la Nature - De la peau de requin sur des avions

La peau des requins est aussi une source d'inspiration. Si cela ne saute pas yeux, elle est en réalité recouverte de millions de petites « dents » appelées denticules cutanées. Grâce à cela, le requin améliore sa glisse dans l'eau et cette peau permet à certaines espèces, comme le requin mako, de faire des pointes de vitesse à environ 60 km/h.

Les équipementiers sportifs se sont inspirés de la peau des squales pour concevoir une combinaison de natation pour les nageurs professionnels. La collection Fastskin de Speedo, notamment, copie la peau des requins mako. Airbus a aussi recouvert certains de ses avions de revêtement strié qui imite les denticules cutanées.

© Stevelaycock21, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 4.0

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LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - La cannelle, l’une des plus anciennes épices

Le parfum de la cannelle, c'est celui de l'enfance. Celui des soirées d'hiver passées au coin du feu. Celui des fêtes de Noël. Un parfum doux, chaleureux et réconfortant.

La cannelle, c'est aussi et avant tout, une écorce de couleur ocre. Celle d'un arbre que l'on trouve dans les régions tropicales d'Asie, le cannelier. Et la plus reconnue pour sa saveur parfumée se nomme Cinnamomum verum. Elle est extraite du cannelier de Ceylan.

La cannelle figure parmi les plus anciennes épices connues. Elle est appréciée pour son goût. Mais dans les médecines traditionnelles, on lui attribue aussi des qualités médicinales. Elle est ainsi réputée faciliter la digestion ou aider à lutter contre les maux de l'hiver tels que le rhume ou la toux. Elle figure enfin parmi les antioxydants les plus puissants.

© nipaporn, Fotolia ; Augustus Binu, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - Circling the Sun

2024 January 13

Circling the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Radoslav Zboran

Explanation: Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year, perihelion was on January 2 at 01:00 UTC, with the Earth about 3 million miles closer to the Sun than it was at aphelion (last July 6), the farthest point in its elliptical orbit. Of course, distance from the Sun doesn't determine the seasons, and it doesn't the determine size of Sun halos. Easier to see with the Sun hidden behind a tall tree trunk, this beautiful ice halo forms a 22 degree-wide circle around the Sun, recorded while strolling through the countryside near Heroldstatt, Germany. The Sun halo's 22 degree angular diameter is determined by the six-sided geometry of water ice crystals drifting high in planet Earth's atmosphere. 

ASTRONOMY - Good Morning Moon

 2024 January 12

Good Morning Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Luy, Trier Observatory, TWAN

Explanation: Yesterday, the Moon was New. But on January 9, early morning risers around planet Earth were treated to the sight of an old Moon, low in the east as the sky grew bright before dawn. Above the city of Saarburg in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, this simple snapshot found the waning Moon's sunlit crescent just before sunrise. But also never wandering far from the Sun in Earth's sky, inner planets Venus and Mercury shared the cold morning skyview. In the foreground are the historic city's tower and castle with ruins from the 10th century.

BIOMIMETISME - Innovations inspirées par la Nature - Des éoliennes imaginées à partir des nageoires des baleines

Leur taille n'empêche pas les baleines à bosse d'être agiles et gracieuses. Leurs nageoires pectorales, qui peuvent atteindre près d'un tiers de leur taille, leur permettent de réaliser d'impressionnants sauts au-dessus de la surface. Outre leur taille, les nageoires des baleines possèdent une autre caractéristique qui est intéressante en biomimétique : des protubérances, ou bosses, sur toute sa longueur.

Cette particularité anatomique a été utilisée pour concevoir des pales d'éoliennes afin de limiter le risque du décrochage, ce moment où l'angle de la pale n'est plus optimal et où la portance diminue drastiquement et donc ses performances aérodynamiques. Grâce à l'ajout de protubérances, les pales inspirées des baleines ont une meilleure résistance au décrochage, supérieure de 40 % par rapport aux pales classiques. La société canadienne WhalePower a conçu des éoliennes selon ce principe.

© Whit Welles, Wikimedia Commons, CC by-sa 3.0

FuturaSciences

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - O carro voador chegou (2)

O carro voador mistura elementos importantes de dois veículos bastante úteis: o automóvel e o helicóptero. Este veículo singular realiza uma transformação incrível, passando de veículo terrestre para veículo de voo. Bastam cerca de 5 minutos para o veículo possibilitar essa grande vantagem, voar.

Tendo em conta essa prerrogativa, a transformação é bastante rápida. Ora, tendo em conta as constantes evoluções na tecnologia, futuramente esse tempo ainda será encurtado nos próximos anos.

NCultura

ASTRONOMY - Quadrantids of the North

 2024 January 11

Quadrantids of the North
Image Credit & Copyright: 염범석 Yeom Beom-seok

Explanation: Named for a forgotten constellation, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies within the old, astronomically obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis. That location is not far from the Big Dipper asterism, known to some as the Plough, at the boundaries of the modern constellations Bootes and Draco. In fact the Big Dipper "handle" stars are near the upper right corner in this frame, with the meteor shower radiant just below. North star Polaris is toward the top left. Pointing back toward the radiant, Quadrantid meteors streak through the night in this skyscape from Jangsu, South Korea. The composite image was recorded in the hours around the shower's peak on January 4, 2024. A likely source of the dust stream that produces Quadrantid meteors was identified in 2003 as an asteroid.

ASTRONOMY - The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty

 2024 January 10

The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
Image Credit & Copyright: Gábor Galambos

Explanation: This colorful skyscape spans about three full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation Cepheus. Near the edge of the region's massive molecular cloud some 2,400 light-years away, bright reddish emission region Sharpless (Sh)2-155 is at the center of the frame, also known as the Cave Nebula. About 10 light-years across the cosmic cave's bright walls of gas are ionized by ultraviolet light from the hot young stars around it. Dusty bluish reflection nebulae, like vdB 155 at the left, and dense obscuring clouds of dust also abound on the interstellar canvas. Astronomical explorations have revealed other dramatic signs of star formation, including the bright reddish fleck of Herbig-Haro (HH) 168. At the upper left in the frame, the Herbig-Haro object emission is generated by energetic jets from a newborn star.

O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - O carro voador chegou (1)

Antigamente, era impensável as pessoas andarem com um objeto na mão que serve para tudo, mas o telemóvel tornou-se indispensável. É um escritório, uma máquina fotográfica, uma agenda…

Este ano poderá representar o início de uma revolução na área dos veículos. Ter um carro a voar parece coisa de ficção científica, mas é para lá que se caminha.

A imagem que se cria do futuro começa com os sonhos de hoje. O carro voador da Holanda chegou a ser um sonho longínquo, mas o seu desenvolvimento foi algo bem real. Mais recentemente, este veículo singular já se encontrava a encantar nas presenças que realizava em showrooms.

Contudo, será já em 2024 que ele começará a ser vendido. O carro voador começou a ser fabricado por uma startup da Holanda. Este veículo gerou logo interesse, após deixar muitas pessoas boquiabertas. Será já este ano que o carro voador começará a ser entregue aos clientes. Portanto, no futuro, pode não haver filas de espera; pode não haver perda de horas de trânsito infernal.

NCultura

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - Le macis, cousin de la noix de muscade

Le macis est une épice peu connue. Il s'agit en réalité tout simplement de l'enveloppe qui entoure la noix de muscade. Sa saveur est pourtant plus généreuse et raffinée. Avec une petite note d'amertume tout de même. Pour le plaisir des yeux, il prend une belle couleur rouge vif lorsqu'il est frais. Plus orangée et même ambrée, lorsqu'il est séché.

Sachez que le macis fait partie des ingrédients de l'hypocras, la célèbre boisson médiévale. Et on lui prête quelques vertus digestives notamment. Il aiderait ainsi à lutter contre les nausées et les diarrhées. Mais à forte dose, il présente des effets hallucinogènes, voire toxiques.

© emuck/vaitekune, Fotolia ; charlesricardo, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commons

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