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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