Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : A Cold River to Orion

2018 November 30
A Cold River to Orion 
Image Credit & Copyright: Juris Sennikovs

Explanation: Ice is forming on the river Lielupe as it flows through the landscape in this winter's night scene. Even in motion the frigid water still reflects a starry sky, though. The well planned, Orion-centered panorama looks toward the south, taken in three exposures from a bridge near the village of Stalgene, Latvia, planet Earth. Drifting pancakes of ice leave streaks in the long exposures, while familiar stars of Orion and the northern winter night appear above and below the horizon. Village lights along the horizon include skyward beams from the local community church. This image was a first place winner in the 2018 StarSpace astrophotography competition.

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula

2019 November 25
NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis

Explanation: Do you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), the Bat Nebula, NGC 6995, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through broad and narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen and nitrogen atoms shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula.

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : Orion Rising

2019 November 22
Orion Rising 
Image Credit & Copyright: Vitalij Kopa

Explanation: Looking toward the east in the early hours of a September morning this single exposure made with tripod and camera captured a simple visual experience. Rising above the tree-lined slope are familiar stars in planet Earth's northern night and the constellation Orion the Hunter. Brighter stars marking the celestial Hunter's shoulder (Betelgeuse), foot (Rigel), belt, and sword are clearly reflected in the calm waters from northern Latvia's Vitrupe river. Of course, winter is coming to planet Earth's northern hemisphere. By then Orion and this beautiful starry vista will be seen rising in early evening skies.

Ciência & Tecnologia - Saude/Medecina : Fornos de microondas, perigo ?

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : Arp 273: Battling Galaxies from Hubble

2019 November 20
Arp 273: Battling Galaxies from Hubble 
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Rudy Pohl

Explanation: What's happening to these spiral galaxies? Although details remain uncertain, there sure seems to be a titanic battle going on. The upper galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partners is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of the UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. The blue color of the outer ring at the top is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner part of the upper galaxy -- itself an older spiral galaxy -- appears redder and threaded with cool filamentary dust. A few bright stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to colliding galaxies, while several far-distant galaxies are visible in the background. Arp 273 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will devour its galactic sidekicks over the next billion years and settle into a classic spiral form.

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : Milky Way over Uruguayan Lighthouse

2019 November 19
Milky Way over Uruguayan Lighthouse 
Image Credit & Copyright: Mauricio Salazar

Explanation: Can a lighthouse illuminate a galaxy? No, but in the featured image, gaps in light emanating from the Jose Ignacio Lighthouse in Uruguay appear to match up nicely, although only momentarily and coincidently, with dark dust lanes of our Milky Way Galaxy. The bright dot on the right is the planet Jupiter. The central band of the Milky Way Galaxy is actually the central spiral disk seen from within the disk. The Milky Way band is not easily visiblethrough city lights but can be quite spectacular to see in dark skies. The featured picture is actually the addition of ten consecutive images taken by the same camera from the same location. The images were well planned to exclude direct light from the famous lighthouse.

Ciência e Tecnologia - Saude/Medecina : "Canabis, bom para a saude ?"

Investigadores da Universidade de Western Ontário, no Canadá, realizaram um estudo com vista a perceber os diferentes efeitos psicológicos que a canábis provoca nos consumidores. Publicado este mês na revista Scientific Reports, o estudo representa um grande avanço na compreensão dos efeitos da droga no cérebro humano.

A pergunta de partida para a investigação era há muito uma grande dúvida dos cientistas e da população em geral: qual o motivo de algumas pessoas terem emoções positivas como reação ao consumo de canábis e outras demonstrarem emoções negativas.

Segundo Steven Laviolette, um dos autores do estudo, a premissa levou os investigadores para um campo ainda pouco explorado. “Sabemos muito sobre os efeitos a longo e a curto prazo, mas há muito pouco conhecimento sobre as áreas específicas do cérebro que são responsáveis pelo controlo desses efeitos”.

E a resposta pode ter a ver com as diferentes partes do cérebro, em particular, qual das partes é mais sensível ao tetraidrocanabinol (THC), substância psicoativa libertada pela canábis. Em algumas pessoas, a parte do cérebro mais sensível é a frontal e, nesse caso, provoca sentimentos de conforto, tranquilidade e felicidade. Se a parte mais sensível à substância for a região posterior do cérebro, a droga fará a pessoa sentir medo e alguma paranoia infundada.

Esta investigação foi realizada em ratos de laboratório, mas os cientistas acreditam estar muito mais perto da verdade sobre os efeitos da canábis nos seres humanos. O próximo passo passará sobretudo pela experiência relatada por aqueles que consomem.

Visão - Portugal

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud

2019 November 17
Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud 
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, WISE

Explanation: How do stars form? To help find out, astronomers created this tantalizing false-color composition of dust clouds and embedded newborn stars in infrared wavelengths with WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The cosmic canvas features one of the closest star forming regions, part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex some 400 light-years distant near the southern edge of the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus. After forming along a large cloud of cold molecular hydrogen gas, young stars heat the surrounding dust to produce the infrared glow. Stars in the process of formation, called young stellar objects or YSOs, are embedded in the compact pinkish nebulae seen here, but are otherwise hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes. An exploration of the region in penetrating infrared light has detected emerging and newly formed stars whose average age is estimated to be a mere 300,000 years. That's extremely young compared to the Sun's age of 5 billion years. The prominent reddish nebula at the lower right surrounding the star Sigma Scorpii is a reflection nebula produced by dust scattering starlight. This view from WISE, released in 2012, spans almost 2 degrees and covers about 14 light-years at the estimated distance of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud.

Science & Technology - Astronomy picture of the day : The Star Streams of NGC 5907

2019 November 16
The Star Streams of NGC 5907 
Image Credit & Copyright: R Jay Gabany (Blackbird Observatory) - collaboration; D.Martinez-Delgado(IAC, MPIA),
J.Penarrubia (U.Victoria) I. Trujillo (IAC) S.Majewski (U.Virginia), M.Pohlen (Cardiff)

Explanation: Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907. The arcing structures form tenuous loops extending more than 150,000 light-years from the narrow, edge-on spiral, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy. Recorded only in very deep exposures, the streams likely represent the ghostly trail of a dwarf galaxy - debris left along the orbit of a smaller satellite galaxy that was gradually torn apart and merged with NGC 5907 over four billion years ago. Ultimately this remarkable discovery image, from a small robotic observatory in New Mexico, supports the cosmological scenario in which large spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, were formed by the accretion of smaller ones. NGC 5907 lies about 40 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco.

Music - Live - Video -Copernicus Chamber Orchestra & Horst Sohm - (Haendel) : "The Sarabande in D minor "

"The Sarabande in D minor "