Radar image of asteroid Florence and one of its moons (small bright smudge above the main space rock) obtained on Sep. 1, 2017 using the 70-m antenna at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications complex. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The huge asteroid that cruised past Earth last week in a record-breaking flyby has two moons, radar images reveal.
On Sept. 1, the 2.8-mile-wide (4.5 kilometers) near-Earth asteroid 3122 Florence zoomed within 4.4 million miles (7 million km) of our planet — a mere 18 times the distance from Earth to the moon. No other space rock that big has come so close since NASA began tracking asteroids in earnest, agency officials have said.
The flyby therefore presented a rare scientific opportunity, and astronomers around the world trained a number of instruments on Florence as it approached. One such facility was NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, which captured some dramatic and informative views. [Famous Asteroid Rock Flybys and Close Calls (Infographic)]
For example, imagery obtained by the 230-foot (70 m) dish at Goldstone confirmed Florence's size and its 2.4-hour rotation period, values that scientists had already figured out thanks to previous observations. And Goldstone revealed that the asteroid is roughly spherical, with an equatorial ridge and at least one big crater, NASA researchers said.
Florence's shape was a mystery before last week's flyby. Also unknown was whether the space rock had any moons, but Goldstone's imagery revealed two.
"The sizes of the two moons are not yet well-known, but they are probably between 100-300 meters (300-1,000 feet) across," researchers Lance Benner, Shantanu Naidu, Marina Brozovic and Paul Chodas, of the Center for NEO (Near-Earth Object) Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, wrote in a Sept. 1 update.
"The times required for each moon to revolve around Florence are also not yet known precisely, but appear to be roughly 8 hours for the inner moon and 22 to 27 hours for the outer moon," the researchers added. "The inner moon of the Florence system has the shortest orbital period of any of the moons of the 60 near-Earth asteroids known to have moons. In the Goldstone radar images, which have a resolution of 75 m [250 feet], the moons are only a few pixels in extent and do not reveal any detail."
Florence is just the third "triple asteroid" known out of more than 16,400 rocks that have been discovered and tracked in near-Earth space. The last time two moons were spotted around one asteroid was in 2009, Benner and his colleagues wrote.
The scientists stitched some of the Goldstone images together, creating a movie that shows Florence completing more than two rotations, with the two moons seen moving around the huge space rock.
Additional radar views may reveal yet more detail; researchers aim to keep studying Florence using Goldstone and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico through Sept. 8, the NASA researchers said. But Hurricane Irma apparently thwarted part of this plan; Arecibo has ceased operations and will not resume them until the storm has moved on, observatory representatives announced Tuesday (Sept. 5).
There was never any risk that Florence would hit Earth during Friday's flyby, and the asteroid doesn't pose a threat to the planet for the foreseeable future, NASA officials have stressed.

Sedimentary rocks at Meishan, China. These rocks contain signatures of a disturbance in the carbon cycle immediately preceding Earth's greatest mass extinction. Credit: Shuzhong Shen

In the past 540 million years, the Earth has endured five mass extinction events, each involving processes that upended the normal cycling of carbon through the atmosphere and oceans. These globally fatal perturbations in carbon each unfolded over thousands to millions of years, and are coincident with the widespread extermination of marine species around the world.
The question for many scientists is whether the carbon cycle is now experiencing a significant jolt that could tip the planet toward a sixth mass extinction. In the modern era, carbon dioxide emissions have risen steadily since the 19th century, but deciphering whether this recent spike in carbon could lead to mass extinction has been challenging. That's mainly because it's difficult to relate ancient carbon anomalies, occurring over thousands to millions of years, to today's disruptions, which have taken place over just a little more than a century.
Now Daniel Rothman, professor of geophysics in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and co-director of MIT's Lorenz Center, has analyzed significant changes in the carbon cycle over the last 540 million years, including the five mass extinction events. He has identified "thresholds of catastrophe" in the carbon cycle that, if exceeded, would lead to an unstable environment, and ultimately, mass extinction.
In a paper published in Science Advances, he proposes that mass extinction occurs if one of two thresholds are crossed: For changes in the carbon cycle that occur over long timescales, extinctions will follow if those changes occur at rates faster than global ecosystems can adapt. For carbon perturbations that take place over shorter timescales, the pace of carbon-cycle changes will not matter; instead, the size or magnitude of the change will determine the likelihood of an extinction event.
Taking this reasoning forward in time, Rothman predicts that, given the recent rise in carbon dioxide emissions over a relatively short timescale, a sixth extinction will depend on whether a critical amount of carbon is added to the oceans. That amount, he calculates, is about 310 gigatons, which he estimates to be roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon that human activities will have added to the world's oceans by the year 2100.
Does this mean that mass extinction will soon follow at the turn of the century? Rothman says it would take some time—about 10,000 years—for such ecological disasters to play out. However, he says that by 2100 the world may have tipped into "unknown territory."
"This is not saying that disaster occurs the next day," Rothman says. "It's saying that, if left unchecked, the carbon cycle would move into a realm which would be no longer stable, and would behave in a way that would be difficult to predict. In the geologic past, this type of behavior is associated with mass extinction."
History follows theory
Rothman had previously done work on the end-Permian extinction, the most severe extinction in Earth's history, in which a massive pulse of carbon through the Earth's system was involved in wiping out more than 95 percent of marine species worldwide. Since then, conversations with colleagues spurred him to consider the likelihood of a sixth extinction, raising an essential question:
"How can you really compare these great events in the geologic past, which occur over such vast timescales, to what's going on today, which is centuries at the longest?" Rothman says. "So I sat down one summer day and tried to think about how one might go about this systematically."
He eventually derived a simple mathematical formula based on basic physical principles that relates the critical rate and magnitude of change in the carbon cycle to the timescale that separates fast from slow change. He hypothesized that t

The ancient (and now extinct) frog known as the Beelzebufo had powerful jaws, ones far more powerful than ordinary frogs that exist today, and it feasted on creatures that included small dinosaurs and crocodiles. Such information comes from a new study analyzing the jaw strength of this extinct frog, which lived about 68 million years ago.
Unfortunately (or perhaps very fortunately), these giant frogs no longer exist, and so researchers had to figure out their approximate bite force by looking at present-days frogs; specifically, the Pacman frog from the Ceratophrys genus. This frog is small but has a powerful jaw capable of bites with about 6.6lbs of force.
Knowing that, the researchers estimated that larger horned frogs found in South America — ones with a head size closer to 10 cm — can bite with a force of about 500 newtons. One research explained that as feeling like having 13 gallons of water placed on the tip of your finger. Still, that pales in comparison to the estimated bite force of the extinct giant frogs.
Using that scaled estimation and what is known about the size of the ancient frogs, researchers estimated that the Beelzebufo may have had a bite force at a much higher 2200 newtons of force, or about 73 times that of the simple Pacman frog. This puts the giant frog in the same category as major predators including wolves.
This means — assuming the estimation is correct — that the giant frog would have feasted on things far larger than small reptiles and insects, likely including young and small dinosaurs as well as crocodiles.

With American space agency NASA running out of fully functional spacesuits, astronauts might have to face a crunch in deep-space missions.
The spacesuits NASA astronauts currently in use on the International Space Station (ISS) – known as Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) – were developed more than 40 years ago and have far outlasted their original 15-year design life.
While each suit has been refurbished over the years, with new features like glove warmers, improved helmet cameras and lights added, they have suffered an increasing number of problems, such as water leaking inside the helmets.
Early this year, NASA revealed the new spacesuit designed for astronauts who will be heading into orbit aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which weighs about 20 pounds with all its accessories – about 10 pounds lighter than the launch-and-entry suits worn by space shuttle astronauts.
Now, however, SpaceX CEO Elon has unveiled the 'future of space travel' – the space company's in-house spacesuit.
This is the second photo shared by Musk of the new spacesuit design created by the company, and the first to feature the suit’s full-body look.
The first image was shared by Musk on Instagram in late August, which focused on the head and shoulders of the outfit, depicting the full tinted face mask of the helmet, and the angular shoulders and black and white design.
The new one – also shared on Instagram – shows off the firm's full spacesuit design for the first time, in front of the spacecraft it hopes will send NASA astronauts to the space station in 2018.
The spacesuit looks more comfortable and light-weight than the ones in use at present. However, These suits aren’t designed for extra-vehicular activity (EVA) after all – they’re created to protect the astronauts while they’re in the capsule, and when moving over to other vehicles (like the ISS) under pressurized conditions, rather than being exposed to vacuum, TechCrunch reported.
It features accents and lines that make it more stylish than current designs. According to the Daily Mail, it is believed the suit was designed by Marvel and DC movie legend Jose Fernandez and Musk has previously admitted that it is 'incredibly hard' to balance the look and its function.
SpaceX has been flying cargo capsules to the ISS for three years.
The company is due to launch its first crewed mission with NASA in June next year.

File photo: The spacecraft Cassini is pictured above Saturn's northern hemisphere prior to making one of its Grand Finale dives in this NASA handout illustration obtained by Reuters August 29, 2017. (NASA/Handout via REUTERS)
In less than 10 days, NASA's heroic Cassini orbiter will make its suicidal dive into the surface of Saturn, bringing an end to a truly historic mission that has surpassed all expectations. Here's what's going to happen when Cassini when it makes its final, fateful cruise into the planet it has been studying nearly all of its life.
Right now, the Cassini orbiter is preparing to make its final crossing of Saturn's rings. The spacecraft has already made 21 of these passes, and after it completes number 22 it will have accomplished the last of its planned trips through Saturn's iconic debris disc. That last dive will occur in roughly six days, but Cassini's journey will not have ended quite yet.
A little over three days later, Cassini will perform its very last act, diving for Saturn in a way that it has never done before. It will cruise into the planet's atmosphere, positioned such that its antenna will be pointed back towards Earth and away from the brunt of the friction the craft will experience as it gets closer and closer to Saturn. With its sensors up and running, it will shoot back as much scientific data as it can, even as its instruments begin to succumb to the intense heat.
At some point, the craft will cease to function, and it will completely burn up in Saturn's atmosphere, leaving nothing behind. The data sent back during this heroic endeavor could be some of the most important that Cassini has ever relayed, and NASA will surely be eager to sift through it for hints at new discoveries.
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That will be the end of Cassini, and after nearly 20 years of floating through space, it will have accomplished an astonishing amount of research, teaching humanity more about Saturn than we every could have dreamed.

A new research has found that an ethanol-based gel can cure cancer with 100 percent certainty when injected directly into squamous cell tumors.
According to the researchers at Duke University, they have achieved a 100 percent cure rate for squamous cell carcinoma merely injecting an ethanol-based gel directly into the tumors.
Scientists have known the effects of ethanol on cancer for some time now, but some limitations have kept the medicine industry from using it as a basic treatment.
However, the work of these researchers has outwitted everyone else. The ethanol-based gel, developed by the university researchers is a form of cancer therapy. While the gel base is being used to treat some types of liver and thyroid cancers, it is still limited due to the damage it could cause to its nearby tissue.
This limits the gel's effectiveness on tumors surrounded by a fibrous capsule, which is capable of containing ethanol.
The researchers are also trying to overcome that limitation of the treatment by blending it with ethyl cellulose which can create a get to contain the solution within the tumor or injection site.
Ethanol is a kind of alcohol used in making cocktails. Which means it is also cheap enough to drastically change the dynamic of cancer treatment. According to some reports, this treatment costs up to a mere five dollars per session and has an almost a perfect success rate.
Cancer treatment is expensive around the globe, however, in developing and underdeveloped countries, it's entirely unavailable. In these areas, the advanced technology required to treat cancer is in very short supply.
In these conditions, this low cost and easily administered cancer treatment could have a significant impact on the healthcare in these countries.

Octlantis is the name of the underwater site built by octopuses where they communicate with each other by posturing, chasing or colour changes.

Scientists from the University of Illinois in the US have discovered an underwater city off the east coast of Australia which belongs to octopuses.
Yes, you have heard it right.
Octlantis is the name of the underwater site built by octopuses, a home of upto 15 gloomy ones, where they communicate with each other by posturing, chasing or colour changes.
It is the second gloomy octopus settlement found in the area, and the discovery sheds light on the theory that octopuses are not necessarily loners.
The first gloomy octopus site was found in Jervis Bay off the east coast of Australia in 2009.
The new site is located just a few hundred meters away from the first site, and has been dubbed Octlantis.
The site is about 10 to 15 metres under the water's surface and is about 18 metres in length and four metres wide, researchers said.
It is composed of a few patches of exposed rock and beds of discarded shells from prey animals. A total of 13 occupied and 10 unoccupied octopus dens - holes excavated into sand or shell piles - were found at the site, they said.
Researchers placed four cameras at the new site to film for a day, recording 10 hours of footage that showed numerous social interactions among the inhabitants.
The number of octopuses observed at the site ranged from 10 to a high of 15.

Picture released by Australian Wildlife Conservancy on September 14, 2017 shows a feather from a "night parrot" which was found in South Australia, the first proof in more than a century that it lives there
A feather from one of the most elusive birds in the world has been found in South Australia, the first proof in more than a century that it lives there, wildlife experts said Thursday.
The "night parrot" ranks among the world's rarest avian species and was thought extinct until an intrepid Australian naturalist provided photo evidence of one in Queensland state in 2013.
It has since also been spotted in Western Australia.
The expert behind the Queensland sighting, John Young, and fellow ecologist Keith Bellchambers from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy have now shown it is also in South Australia.
The pair found a feather from the small, yellowish-green bird in the nest of a zebra finch around remote Lake Eyre while following up on blurry images from a camera trap in the area.
"Keith and I looked at many zebra finches' nests before finally an unmistakable small green feather appeared within the fresh base lining of one of the nests," said Young.
"People show excitement in many different ways, mine was to shake uncontrollably with numbing excitement and Keith's was sheer disbelief with his hands holding his head. An incredibly emotional time for both of us.
"In my eyes there was no doubt that this was the feather of a night parrot."
The freshness of the zebra finch nest indicates the feather may have been collected "within a few hundred metres in the past few weeks", Young added.
The curator of ornithology at the Western Australian Museum confirmed their find.
The next step is to map the distribution of the species, which was last recorded at Lake Eyre in 1883, and assess the population size using song meters and camera traps, said Young.
Researchers feared for decades that the nocturnal, desert-dwelling parrot was extinct, with no sightings between 1912 and 1979 and only a handful since, before the conclusive evidence in 2013.
In 2012, the Smithsonian Magazine rated it at number one among the world's five most mysterious birds.
Endemic to Australia, it is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which estimates there are about 50-250 in the wild and declining.

Scientists have determined that Arctic sea ice shrank to roughly 4.7 million square kilometers in September, making the sea ice extent in 2017 far below numbers from 1979 to 2006. Photo by Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Stefan Hendricks
Arctic sea ice shrank to roughly 4.7 million square kilometers in September, making the sea ice extent in 2017 far below numbers from 1979 to 2006.
Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Bremen and Universitat Hamburg reported Friday that the minimum sea ice extent for 2017 is average for the past 10 years, despite being far below average from previous decades.
The sea ice in the Arctic is considered a critical element in climate processes and a vital early-warning system for global warming. Researches point to the September minimum extent as an important indicator of climate change.
Sea ice covered area is measured using high-resolution microwave satellites, with data provided by the University of Bremen and Universitat Hamburg.
According to researchers, the amount of ice loss is massive even though the current extent of sea ice does not represent a new record low.
"This year's sea ice extent is again on a very low level: the observed September value of the past eleven years has consistently been lower than in any of the previous years," Marcel Nicolaus, a sea ice physicist from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, said in a press release.
The waters in the Arctic remained unusually warm this past winter and scientists found that sea ice coverage in March was lower than in any March before.
"Thanks to the relatively cold summer, the sea ice managed to bounce back somewhat, but this year's September minimum is by no means a good sign," said Lars Kaleschke, a researcher at Universität Hamburg's Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability. "Though the amount of sea ice is of course subject to natural fluctuations, the long-term decline is obvious."
The spatial distribution of sea-ice differed this year from the patterns in recent years, and from the long-term pattern, with less ice recorded in the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas than in 2016. Conversely, more ice was found north of Svalbard and in the Beaufort Sea.
"Despite the warm winter, the sea ice wasn't unusually thin," Nicholaus said. "Our explanation is that the small and thin ice coverage from the previous summer -- the second-smallest area ever recorded -- grew faster and thicker than in other years, since thin ice grows faster than thick ice."
After a significant increase, the researchers say the exact date and value of the minimum sea ice extent in 2017 can't be determined for several weeks, and that the monthly mean for September can't be determined until October.

Fossil fuels revolutionised the world, ushering in a new age of development, however, more than 100 years later, it's evident that the benefits fossil fuels come at a price. As the supply of fossil fuels continues to deplete at alarming levels, the harmful effects of using fossil fuels are damaging the environment, increasing pollution, and the greenhouse effect. Countries around the world are now searching for more sustainable and environment-friendly sources of energy, such as solar energy and wind energy and other types of renewable energy.
According to researchers at the Stanford University and the other US and European Universities, 139 nations have the possibility to transition into 100 percent renewable energy use by 2050. The combination of renewable sources used by the nations may vary, but a majority of all the energy needs (94.7 percent) are predicted to be met by wind and solar power, while other sources include tidal and wave energy.
The countries closest to achieving the 100 percent renewable energy target are: Tajikistan (76 percent), Paraguay (58.9 percent), Norway (35.8 percent), Sweden (20.7 percent), Costa Rica (19.1 percent), Switzerland (19 percent), Georgia (18.7 percent), Montenegro (18.4 percent), and Iceland (17.3 percent).
The study by the Solutions Project comes as a part of the campaign for 100 percent renewables launched by Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo in 2015. The goal of the study aims to remove reliance on fossil fuels entirely by switching completely to renewable sources of energy.
Transferring to renewable sources of energy would reportedly meet the Paris Climate Change Agreement goal as well of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees C. In addition, the nearly 4.6 million deaths per year due to air pollution could also be averted.
To reach the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy only, all vehicles would need to be electric and aircrafts to be fuelled by hydrogen. Apart from stopping the use of fossil fuels, even the use of nuclear power would need to be dropped as nuclear power requires the mining of uranium, but stopping the use of nuclear power itself would decrease the global energy demand by 12.65 percent.
Although a large number of nations are on the path of becoming 100 percent renewable energy based, since the largest economies of the nation have yet to take significant steps towards renewable energy sources, the desired result is still a way off.

It seems like every time we attempt to take a step toward better understanding our cosmos we are left with more questions than answers -- a regular Bonini's Paradox. Just a few years ago we didn't even know that the cosmic phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRB) -- rare, bright, and inexplicable signals from beyond our galaxy -- existed. And until recently, only one of these FRBs had been recorded on more than one occasion. However, last week, a team has recorded yet another repeating FRB.
The scientific community has been perplexed by these enigmatic signals for the past 10 years. Currently, the explanation behind these FRBs range from outbursts of neutron stars to some sort of propulsion system used by an alien civilization on the opposite side of the universe. Some have even suggested these signals are the result of dark matter -- another space thing we know very little about -- smacking into black holes.
In 2015, researchers once again "heard" an FRB known as FRB 121102 that was first observed in 2012. Just last week,UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Vishal Gajjar, found FRB 121102 blipping yet again. Gajjar used the SETIBreakthrough Listen program at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to make the discovery. Over the course of five hours of observation across the entire 4 to 8 GHz frequency band, Gajjar and the team uncovered 15 "new" pulses coming from FRB 121102. But what does it mean?
"The possible implications are two folds," Gajjar explained to CNET. "This detection at such a high frequency helps us scrutinize many (of FRB 121102's) origin models. The frequency structure we see across our total band of 4 to 8 GHz also allows us to understand the intervening medium between us and the source."
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According to Gajjar, the repetitive nature of this particular FRB and the series of hyperactivity may rule out the colliding black holes origin hypothesis. A more probable explanation could involvepulsars,however, what is exactly emitting these powerful signals is still largely a mystery.
"As the source is going into another active state means that the origin models associated with some sort of cataclysmic events are less likely to be the case of FRB 121102," explained Gajjar. "It should be noted that they can still be valid for other FRBs."
The SETI team has requested other researchers to take advantage of this current FRB 121102 heightened activity window. The latest findings on FRB 121102 and the more than 400 terabytes of data from the recent observation will be more throughly detailed in a forthcoming report. While the jury is still out FRBs, we're still patiently waiting for the response to the interstellar Arecibo Message radio signal we transmitted into the cosmos in 1974. Perhaps when the aliens on the other side of the universe receive that, they'll be equally as perplexed and intrigued…

Human urine is about 96 percent water and four percent waste products, but there are more than 3,000 compounds are found in the fluid. Army scientists are experimenting with producing hydrogen from urine. Credit: David McNally, ARL Public Affairs

Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory observed an unexpected result when combining urine with a newly engineered nano-powder based on aluminum. It instantly releases hydrogen from the urine at much higher rate than with ordinary water.
The research team announced earlier this summer that a nano-galvanic aluminum-based powder they were developing produced pure hydrogen when coming into contact with water. The researchers observed a similar reaction when adding their powder to any liquid containing water.
"What we do as Army scientists is develop materials and technology that will directly benefit the Soldier and enhance their capabilities," said Dr. Kristopher Darling, an ARL researcher. "We developed a new processing technique to synthesize a material, which spontaneously splits water into hydrogen."
Hydrogen, the most plentiful element in the universe, has the potential to power fuel cells and provide energy to future Soldiers.
Fuel cells generate electricity quietly, efficiently and without pollution. According to a Department of Energy's website, fuel cells are "more energy-efficient than combustion engines and the hydrogen used to power them can come from a variety of sources."
"We have calculated that one kilogram of aluminum powder can produce 220 kilowatts of energy in just three minutes," said Dr. Anit Giri, also an ARL researcher.
In space, astronauts recycle waste water and urine because drinking water is a precious commodity. For Soldiers in austere environments, there are many precious commodities. Power and energy is becoming increasingly important to run communications and electronics gear for away teams, which can't be resupplied.
Making use of urine as fuel source may result in tremendous benefits for Soldiers, officials said.
"When we demonstrated it with urine, we saw almost a factor of twofold increase in the reaction rates," Darling said. "We were very excited. As a group we have been pushing for the last few months on developing the efficiency and the reaction kinetics to try to get them faster."
The team is still investigating why urine causes a faster reaction, but it may have something to do with the electrolytes and the acidity of the liquid.

Army scientists and engineers found that a nano-galvanic aluminum-based powder they developed produces hydrogen when added to water or any liquid containing water. Credit: David McNally, ARL Public Affairs
"It's unique because the rate of the reaction is so efficient and extremely rapid from such a small volume of material," Darling said.
The team is working closely with other researchers at the laboratory, including the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, to discover how to harness the material as a potential energy source.
"It was a spontaneous finding," Darling said. "We weren't expecting to develop this material specifically for hydrogen production. It was a group effort. We came together as a team to understand the importance of the discovery. This has great potential for benefiting Soldiers."