Galactic Merger Leaves Pale Rose in The Sky

Posted: 22 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT Recently, as the Hubble Space Telescope performed a sweep of space, it picked up on an image that astronomers said looked like a “pale rose in the sky”. On closer inspection, it looked as though the pale rose could be the bloom of a galactic merger. The galaxy which has been dubbed PGC 6240 is nestled in the water snake constellation known as Hyrdrus. The structure of the galaxy itself is quite strange, with a bright center and then spiraling shells of stars circling it. Some of the stars appear to be compact whereas others are so far apart that they barely seem to be connected to PGC 6240 at all. Surrounding the galaxy in nearby space there are the star clusters that are expected around any galaxy. Our own galaxy has such clusters surrounding it. Clues In The Clusters Under normal circumstances, clusters of stars will have been created at the same time as the galaxy. This means that the stars within the clusters and the clusters will all be a similar age to the galaxy that they surround. However, in the case of the ‘pale rose’, astronomers have found that the compact groups of stars differ from the norm. In this case, the star clusters are made up of stars which vary in age. This very fact points towards a galactic merger. If two galaxies collide with each other, a galaxy would definitely have a noticeable alteration in its structure. Also, the collision would cause an increase in the formation of stars, hence the younger stars being mingled in with the older stars. The Hubble Space Telescope is the brainchild of NASA and the European Space Agency. The 23 year old telescope orbits the earth at an average altitude of 569km (353 miles) every 97 minutes. Thanks to the continued success of the Hubble telescope, we are able to pick up on galactic occurrences like PGC 6240. [Image via Hubble Space Telescope] The post Galactic Merger Leaves Pale Rose in The Sky appeared first on TechBeat.

Facebook Eases Up On Posting Restrictions For Teens Posted: 22 Oct 2013 05:00 AM PDT Yesterday, the world seemingly came to a standstill when Facebook went down for a little bit. Some people probably took advantage of the downtime to experience life offline. I honestly did not check Facebook during that time, so I did not experience it firsthand. One thing is for sure: the reaction of users to the downtime is a testament to the social networking giant’s place in our lives today. Then again, Pew Research found out earlier this year that teens think Facebook is passé. According to the research, teens now prefer Twitter, as Facebook is too full of drama and having to manage their online reputation (via Facebook) is proving to be too much of a hassle. The result? More teens have been turning to Twitter. Facebook  has been busy doing all sorts of things – trying to entice teens being one of them. In a move which can only be seen as reaching out to the younger crowd, Facebook has lifted some posting restrictions for teenagers. Before this latest change, Facebook users aged 13 to 17 were not allowed to create public posts. Of course, if you’re older than 17, you might not have known of this issue. If you’re ultra careful about your posting settings, you probably wouldn’t find this an issue as well. There is some use to being able to create public posts, though, and not having to add people just so they can see your posts. That’s exactly what Facebook has allowed with this most recent change for teenagers’ accounts. The idea is to allow everyone to broadcast posts freely. Just.like.Twitter. Whether this will make Facebook cool for teens again, we are yet to find out. In other Facebook-related news, the social network is now allowing gory videos on our newsfeeds – again. This feature was disallowed by Facebook earlier this year, thanks to the advice of watchdogs. Facebook has reverted to its original stance, though: they want users to have the freedom to see (or report) such content. What do you think about these changes? [Image via SCMP] The post Facebook Eases Up On Posting Restrictions For Teens appeared first on TechBeat.

Pandora Says, ‘We’re Better Than iTunes Radio’ Posted: 22 Oct 2013 04:00 AM PDT Pandora’s market share price took a large dive when Apple launched its new iTunes Radio service; but Pandora is still on top. Pandora chief financial officer, Mike Herring, recently stated in an interview that while Apple might have hype and reach on its side, Pandora is still the superior streaming radio service. Herring acknowledged that Apple and some other streaming music providers are threats to Pandora that should be taken very seriously, but he is also confident that Pandora is “better than anybody else” when it comes to streaming radio services, such as iTunes Radio. “It’s not that [iTunes Radio] isn’t a threat to Pandora. Don’t get us wrong, we take them very seriously and do see them as a credible threat,” Herring said in the interview. “Keep in mind there have been lots of credible threats over the years, from startups to Microsoft to Google, to Apple and Twitter this year. We absolutely see iTunes as a competitive option out there, but we think we are a great service that does this better than anybody else.” The chief finance officer continued, “The most recent entrants have all been large, well-funded companies that have agendas outside a really awesome music experience. They have other reasons, selling cell phones or downloads. We sell downloads, but the priority isn’t to sell as many downloads as possible. It’s emblematic of the difference.” Apple may have the upper hand when it comes to reach (since iTunes Radio was integrated into iOS 7 it was installed on more than 200 million devices after less than a week of availability) but Pandora must be doing something right as the Pandora app is to date, number 3 on the App Store’s top grossing chart (in North America). [Image via bgr] SOURCE: http://bgr.com/2013/10/15/pandora-vs-itunes-radio-interview/ The post Pandora Says, ‘We’re Better Than iTunes Radio’ appeared first on TechBeat.

Elon Musk To Transform The 007 Lotus Esprit “Submarine Car” Posted: 22 Oct 2013 03:00 AM PDT The iconic Lotus Esprit submarine car that featured in the 1977 Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, has been snatched up by no other than Tesla’s Elon Musk. News has surfaced that Musk won the auction for the car with a bid of $866,000. What is even more interesting is Musk’s plan for the said vehicle. Through Jalopnik he said: “It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater. I was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform. What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.” Elon Musk has quite a job on his hands, as making an electric submarine that can also drive on land is no mean feat. The engineer team will need to find a way of making the car safely transform from a land car to a sea vessel capable of dealing with salt water. Another challenge will be overcoming the natural downforce created by the Lotus’ bodywork, which sends the vehicle sinking to the sea floor. However, seeing as this is Elon Musk we’re talking about, aka Tony Stark, perhaps it’s not such a difficult task after all. [Image via digital trends] SOURCE: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/elon-musk-buys-007-submarine-car/ The post Elon Musk To Transform The 007 Lotus Esprit “Submarine Car” appeared first on TechBeat.

First Time Rocket Engine Technique Is Used Outside NASA Posted: 22 Oct 2013 02:00 AM PDT Students at the University of California San Diego (USCD) have tested a liquid fueled, 3D printed rocket engine using a technique that has never been used to build a rocket before anywhere in the World aside from NASA. The students have built and successfully test fired a rocket that uses kerosene and liquid oxygen for the $6,800 which was suggested and partly funded by NASA as part of the Marshall Space Flight Center. The test was devised to see whether or not 3D printed parts could actually be used for a rocket. The injector used a fuel-oxidizer-oxidizer-fuel intel arrangement. The cooling jacket was able to keep heat compartmentalized so that the chamber walls were kept as cool as possible. The engine itself (DMLS). During this process, thin layers of chromium cobalt are repeatedly spread and fused to the component and the excess powder is removed. The final piece has all temporary supports removed before being hardened, then polished and built. The result is an extremely quick and cheap way to build rocket parts. By using 3D printing, build time for parts can be reduced from weeks to hours. The fire test which took place during the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch was designed to see if the engines could power the third stage of a Nanosat launcher. These are only required to launch smaller satellites weighing less than 1.33kg. As a result, the team came up with a rocket engine that is 7 inches (17.7cm) long with a weight of only 200lbs (90.7kg). NASA provided $5000 of the total build costs with students raising the remaining money by organizing various fundraising activities. The rocket engine, labelled Tri-D has proven that printed engine parts can indeed be used. This could mean the speedier manufacture of rockets at a vastly reduced cost. [Image via USCD Jacobs]