Month: November 2011

“Curiosity” robot begins journey in search of answers about life on Mars

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Jorge a. Bañales

Washington, 26 nov (EFE) – “Curiosity”, the robot best equipped to date for the space exploration today began a journey of 9,65 millions of miles in the next eight months and a half for answers about life in Marte.

An Atlas V rocket upright on the platform 41 Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida (United States).(UU.), ignited its powerful engines at the time 15.02 GMT, passed through the blanket of clouds and propelled the capsule within which travels “Curiosity” to more than 24,000 kilometres an hour.

If everything works fine, in August 2012 a platform equipped with four rocket propellant will be close to Mars Gale crater and through pulleys, deposited with the robot from a ton of weight and three meters in length.

The task “Curiosity” take place then it could revolutionize human on knowledge Marte.

“It is absolutely, a feat of engineering and bring us scientific knowledge that we cannot even imagine,” according to Doug McCuistion, director of the program of Mars exploration in the American space agency NASA.

The “Curiosity” is the vehicle of the laboratory of Sciences Martian (MSL, for its acronym in English), equipped to answer questions about whether there was or persist on Mars organic life, components, and how much liquid water contained the planet in the past.

The tasks of the set of instruments for the analysis of samples from Mars (SAM) include the search for organic compounds, that is, molecules based on carbon that are the elements that forms of life as we know are constructed.

The robot Explorer MSL will use a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph, and tunable laser spectrometer to analyze the samples of air, soil and rocks.

When SAM data are combined with the other instruments of the MSL scientists will be able to determine not only whether a molecule is organic, but also if it came from a source with life or without life.

The components have been falling on Mars from meteorites, comets, and interplanetary over 4.5 billion years dust particles and the mission scientists believe that Mars probably has its organic indigenous, connected or not with forms of life.

The laboratory of Sciences Martian can investigate these habitable environments that could preserve, also, the components organic.

However, the preservation of organic in the land component is very uneven, so if they are not found in the crater Gale, where will drop “Curiosity”, that does not necessarily indicate the absence in other parts of the geologic Marte. record

System of environmental observation of “Curiosity” will measure the temperatures of the air and soil, speed and direction of the winds, atmospheric pressure, humidity and radiation ultraviolet around the device Explorer.

This information will help scientists to understand how they interact the soil and the atmosphere of the planet, which could give ideas about whether Marte could sustain microscopic forms of life under the thin layers of sales on its surface.

El “Curiosity” is five times heavier than its predecessors, the “Spirit” and “Opportunity” explorers who came to Mars in January 2004 looking for traces of water. EFE

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ESA does not establish contact with the uncontrolled station Russian Phobos Grunt

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Paris, 25 nov (EFE).-experts from the Australian Observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) have failed to establish contact this evening with the Russian interplanetary station Phobos-Grunt, which orbits uncontrolled around the Earth instead of moving towards their destination Marte.

Between the GMT 20.12 yesterday and the GMT 04.04 today scientists have a window of 6 to 8 minutes to establish contact from a 15 m diameter antenna located in Perth, Australia, reported today that the.

It’s the same observation point from which experts have Yes managed to receive information by telemetry on two occasions, once by a failure still not dodge the past day 8, the ship remained in Earth orbit rather than tack to Marte.

“The Perth station was prepared for the same techniques and settings that worked before.” “But fail to return radio signal from the spacecraft,” said the head of the ESA for the Phobos-Grunt, Wolfgang Hell.

Although it’s bad news, the European Space Agency is something “positive”, longer than the “from Earth observations indicate that the orbit of the Phobos-Grunt has become more stable,”.

“This could mean that the altitude of the spacecraft, or orientation, are also stable, which could contribute to resume contact because we have been able to predict towards where it aimed its two antennas,” said the head of missions and operations of ESA’s Space Center German from Darmstadt, Manfred Warhaut.

The next window of communication from the Australian point of observation with the Phobos-Grunt will be on November 28, he added ESA.

Furthermore, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said that you there is time until the end of the month to try to revive the Phobos-Grunt and put it on its way to its destination: Phobos, one of the two moons of Marte

The Phobos-Grunt must fulfil a mission of 34 months which included the flight to Phobos, the decrease in the surface and, finally, return to Earth in a capsule with samples of the soil of the Martian satellite.

The project, at a cost of 5 billion rubles (about 170 million dollars), was intended to study the original matter in the solar system and help explain the origin of Phobos and Deimos, the second Martian moon, as well as other natural satellites in the solar system. EFE

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Discovered in France a new more virulent strain of the HIV

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Strain, which belongs to the Group N of HIV is much more similar to the type of virus found in chimpanzees which strains circulating in humans.

Diagnosed in France patients had recently traveled to Togo in West Africa, as reported scientists at the National Institute of health and medical research (INSERM) and the national centre of reference of HIV France.

The details of the case, that published in the medical journal The Lancet, reveal that this virus is now circulating in other countries.

“The discovery is very interesting,” informed the BBC World Professor Rafael Nájera, virologist expert in HIV and Professor Emeritus at the Carlos III Health Institute of Spain. “Find a new strain of HIV at this moment is little relevant, but the case is important because it indicates that the virus already left the country of origin and is necessary to have a better epidemiological surveillance”.

Groups

El HIV is divided into several groups. Most of the variants that affect humans belong to the Group M or, less commonly, to the group or. However, in 1998 documented the first case of infection from a virus in the Group N – linked to the virus of apes – a woman who lived in Cameroon.

Only 12 cases of this variant, including two couples infected with the same strains, all in that country have been identified since then. And in 2009 found a four group of HIV, designated group P, in a woman originally from Cameroon who lived in Paris

The diagnosed individual who lives in France had recently travelled to Togo and had sexual contact with a person tongolesa. Scientists describe the symptoms of the individual as “severe”, which included inflammation of glands, fever, rash and ulcers.

“

As explained Professor Nájera, though it is a rare strain appears to be much more virulent than other variants, which is important for severe symptoms showed the patient.””This virus seems to have a very high pathogenicity because quickly in a few weeks it could impair the patient’s immune system” says the expert. “And analyses showed the presence of the virus from the first moment.” “Which reveals that he has important pathogenic characteristics”.

The patient, however, responded positively to the antiretroviral treatment that it was supplied as soon as the doctors diagnosed with HIV. Therapy, report researchers, showed “a good initial effectiveness”.

According to Professor Rafael Nájera, the case is important because it indicates that this rare virus is now circulating outside of Cameroon. “Most relevant here is that it has detected in a patient coming from Togo who does not belong to the well-known group of Cameroon, explains the expert to BBC world.

“This means that the virus has circulated to other countries.” “And although only 12 cases in Cameroon have been documented it is possible that there is now more cases in that country and has spread to other African countries.” “So now need to be explored is the transmission mechanism and what their pathogenic potential”, said the expert.

“And must also keep an eye on the possible development of resistance and sensitivity of this virus to different antiretroviral drugs” concluded.

Source: BBC News

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Princes come on Paranal and a field of science and Spanish industry

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Fuencis Rausell

Paranal (Chile), 24 nov (EFE).-the Princes of Asturias today highlighted the involvement of Spain in projects developed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and saw in him a field that can be very fertile for science and industry Spanish.

On the last day of his official visit of three days at Chile, don Felipe and doña Letizia toured the facilities that it owns in cerro Paranal, in the North of Chile, accompanied by the Spanish science and innovation, Minister Cristina Garmendia.

Paranal is one of the three observatories which operates in Chile that, the Organization Intergovernmental astronomer most important in Europe, created in 1962 and made up of fourteen European countries, among them Spain, and which recently joined Brazil.

“For Spain, joining in 2006 was a big push in the publications in the field of astronomy,” said the heir to the Spanish Crown in a speech at the end of your visit.

He said, Spain performs more than 7% of productions scientific in this branch.

In addition, many Spanish scientists carried out observations that complement those made in the Gran Telescopio Canarias, located on the Islands Spanish of the same name, off the coast on Paranal African.

In total, in 2010 Spanish scientists published 140 articles with information on facilities that, where currently working 32 Spanish, researchers ten of them in Chile.

Over 20 years Spain has gone from number thirty in scientific production to 9th place in the world.

In addition, the scientific potential, the Prince stressed the industrial and economic side of astronomy.

In fact, according to sources that, since the incorporation of Spain that have been awarded contracts to Spanish industry amounting to 17 million euros.

Spain also wants to obtain new orders. “The Spanish industry is present in the construction of new facilities that,” stressed the Prince.

Among them is the gigantic project soul, in which it collaborates with its partners American and Asian to install, also in the North of Chile, 66 antennas of radio telescope.

In this case, the Spanish companies were awarded contracts worth EUR 13 million for a system of power generation and the antenna of the radio telescope, among other tasks.

Another great project emblematic of this folder is the European Extremely Large Telescope (European extremely large telescope or E-ELT), which will be lifted in the cerro Armazones, near Panaral.

This was the place chosen in 2010 so to build facilities, for whose site were also candidates the Canary Islands.

When the E-ELT comes into operation at the beginning of the next decade, will it become the largest optical telescope and infrared in the world thanks to its mirror primary 39.3 metres in diameter.

Although the Spain Canary Islands finally not host this facility, two Spanish companies have managed to be in charge of the preliminary design of the dome and the E-ELT mirror cell.

In this regard, the Spanish science and innovation, Cristina Garmendia, Minister admitted the “scientific reasons” to choose Chile as the location.

“We respect with sportsmanship and we assume that Spain has to be present in this great project,” noted.

To the Minister, the development of a new industry of science could become “in one of the axes of the recovery” of the Spanish economy, plunged into a serious crisis.

Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno, highlighted that Paranal enjoys 330 days cleared a year and that, due to the climatic conditions in the North of the country, Chile owns 40% of the surface of the mirrors used in astronomy around the world.

On this visit, the Princes of Asturias knew the workings of one of the four telescopes of 8.2 meters, along with other four 1.8 m, constituting the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the optical largest telescope in the world.

One of the giant telescopes viewing 4 billion times more than an eye, but if used together as an interferometer, the resolution is multiplied by 25, to the extent that you can see a screw 400 km of distance.

Don Felipe and doña Letizia walked today by the platform located at the top of Paranal accompanied by the director general that, Tim Zeew, and its representative in Chile, Massimo Tarenghi.

From there, in the Atacama desert, they were able to observe the cerro Armazones, located 20 kilometers away, that today in day is nothing more than a barren mountain, but that within a decade will become one of the leaders of the astronomy world.

After his visit to Paranal, the Princes will return today same to Spain, with which he will be term his visit to Chile, which met with the President, Sebastián Piñera, opened a business forum and met with the Spanish community in this country. EFE

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The ESA does not establishes contact with the uncontrolled station Russian Phobos Grunt.

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Paris, 25 nov (EFE).-experts from the Australian Observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) have failed to establish contact this evening with the Russian interplanetary station Phobos-Grunt, which orbits uncontrolled around the Earth instead of moving towards their destination Marte.

Between the GMT 20.12 yesterday and the GMT 04.04 today scientists have a window of 6 to 8 minutes to establish contact from a 15 m diameter antenna located in Perth, Australia, reported today that the.

It’s the same observation point from which experts have Yes managed to receive information by telemetry on two occasions, once by a failure still not dodge the past day 8, the ship remained in Earth orbit rather than tack to Marte.

“The Perth station was prepared for the same techniques and settings that worked before.” “But fail to return radio signal from the spacecraft,” said the head of the ESA for the Phobos-Grunt, Wolfgang Hell.

Although it’s bad news, the European Space Agency is something “positive”, longer than the “from Earth observations indicate that the orbit of the Phobos-Grunt has become more stable,”.

“This could mean that the altitude of the spacecraft, or orientation, are also stable, which could contribute to resume contact because we have been able to predict towards where it aimed its two antennas,” said the head of missions and operations of ESA’s Space Center German from Darmstadt, Manfred Warhaut.

The next window of communication from the Australian point of observation with the Phobos-Grunt will be on November 28, he added ESA.

Furthermore, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said that you there is time until the end of the month to try to revive the Phobos-Grunt and put it on its way to its destination: Phobos, one of the two moons of Marte

The Phobos-Grunt should fulfil a mission of 34 months that included the flight to Phobos, the decline in its surface and, finally, the return to the land of a capsule with samples of el soil of Al satellite Martian.

.

The project, at a cost of 5 billion rubles (about 170 million dollars), was intended to study the original matter in the solar system and help explain the origin of Phobos and Deimos, the second Martian moon, as well as other natural satellites in the solar system. EFE

jaf/ih

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Surah Al-Rehman – The Ultimate Free Remedy for Incurable Diseases

(By Listening Only- 20 Minutes Only)

Kindly download the Surah “AL-REHMAN” (recited by Qari Abdul Basit without translation) from here.


Treatment Plan

Just Listen to it three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for seven consecutive days using following procedure:-


    Before listening:

  • Close your eyes
  • Feel your self in front of ALLAH Almighty/ God
  • Then listen to it with greater concentration and closed eyes

    When the recitation/ AUDIO is finished:

  • Open your eyes and take half glass of water
  • Close your eyes again and say “ALLAH” three times in your heart with deep affection/ love
  • Then drink the water with closed eyes in three sips

Surah Al-Rehman – The Ultimate Free Remedy for Incurable Diseases

(By Listening Only- 20 Minutes Only)

Kindly download the Surah “AL-REHMAN” (recited by Qari Abdul Basit without translation) from here.


Treatment Plan

Just Listen to it three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for seven consecutive days using following procedure:-


    Before listening:

  • Close your eyes
  • Feel your self in front of ALLAH Almighty/ God
  • Then listen to it with greater concentration and closed eyes

    When the recitation/ AUDIO is finished:

  • Open your eyes and take half glass of water
  • Close your eyes again and say “ALLAH” three times in your heart with deep affection/ love
  • Then drink the water with closed eyes in three sips