O FUTURO NO PRESENTE - Showroom - O carro voador

O primeiro showroom do carro está a ser realizado na Alemanha, mais precisamente, em Munique. Este showroom de luxo em Munique irá apresentar as maravilhas do Pal-V Liberty.

Este evento foi projetado para oferecer uma experiência imersiva aos entusiastas de carros voadores. O showroom estará aberto a partir do final deste mês. Os visitantes do evento (e alguns clientes) terão a oportunidade de conhecer esta máquina de perto.

As primeiras unidades serão entregues até ao final do próximo ano. O carro voador irá levar a liberdade a novos patamares. A emoção de conduzir o carro voador será algo único. Algo que se pensava estar reservado apenas à ficção científica será realidade brevemente…

Pode ainda ver um vídeo que apresenta este carro PAL-V que prova que o futuro está bem mais perto do que se julga…

Ncultura

ASTRONOMY - Apollo 14: A View from Antares

 2024 February 3

Apollo 14: A View from Antares
Image Credit: Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, NASA; Mosaic - Eric M. Jones

Explanation: Apollo 14's Lunar Module Antares landed on the Moon on February 5, 1971. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed Mitchell snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while looking out a window, assembled into this detailed mosaic by Apollo Lunar Surface Journal editor Eric Jones. The view looks across the Fra Mauro highlands to the northwest of the landing site after the Apollo 14 astronauts had completed their second and final walk on the Moon. Prominent in the foreground is their Modular Equipment Transporter, a two-wheeled, rickshaw-like device used to carry tools and samples. Near the horizon at top center is a 1.5 meter wide boulder dubbed Turtle rock. In the shallow crater below Turtle rock is the long white handle of a sampling instrument, thrown there javelin-style by Mitchell. Mitchell's fellow moonwalker and first American in space, Alan Shepard, also used a makeshift six iron to hit two golf balls. One of Shepard's golf balls is just visible as a white spot below Mitchell's javelin.

ASTRONOMY - NGC 1893 and the Tadpoles of IC 410

 2024 February 2

NGC 1893 and the Tadpoles of IC 410
Image Credit & Copyright: Sander de Jong

Explanation: This cosmic view shows off an otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410, captured under clear Netherlands skies with telescope and narrowband filters. Above and right of center you can spot two remarkable inhabitants of the interstellar pond of gas and dust, known as the tadpoles of IC 410. Partly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds NGC 1893, a young galactic cluster of stars. Formed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the intensely hot, bright cluster stars energize the glowing gas. Globules composed of denser cooler gas and dust, the tadpoles are around 10 light-years long and are likely sites of ongoing star formation. Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation their heads are outlined by bright ridges of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central young stars. IC 410 and embedded NGC 1893 lie some 10,000 light-years away, toward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.

LE JARDIN MERVEILLEUX DES EPICES - La noix de muscade, l'épice au parfum envoûtant

Au Moyen-Âge, on disait que conserver une noix de muscade dans la poche pouvait préserver de la maladie. Aujourd'hui, on utilise cette épice râpée pour aromatiser les plats. Et quand approche Noël, ses saveurs de poivre et de cannelle, subtilement sucrées, nous enveloppent d'une chaude douceur.

Consommer de la noix de muscade aiderait à atténuer les troubles digestifs, à consolider la densité osseuse, à lutter contre le stress ou encore contre l'anémie. Elle soulagerait aussi les affections respiratoires. Mais comme son cousin, le macis, la noix de muscade, à fortes doses, a des effets psychotropes importants. 

© gokalpiscan/Frantisek_Krejci/Rmiss, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commons

FuturaSciences

ASTRONOMY - NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe

 2024 February 1

NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
Image Credit & Copyright: Processing - Jean-Baptiste Auroux, Data - Mike Selby

Explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the faint but heated constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax Cluster of galaxies. This sharp color image shows the intense, reddish star forming regions near the ends of the galaxy's central bar and along its spiral arms. Seen in fine detail, obscuring dust lanes cut across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole.

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

FuturaSciences

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.