A Massive Star Revealed

Giant stellar nursery surrounding the new star NGC 3603

A team of astrophysicists, under the leadership of Paul Crowther, has revealed to the world, two young cluster of stars, NGC 3603 and RMC 136a. The twins are found fit to be called the "Super-heavy weight champions" of the observable parts of the Universe.


The crew of astronomers has used European Southern Observatory(ESO)'s Very Large Telescope(VLT) as well as archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to analyse the different parameters of the newly discovered stars. The statistically verified data put forth by the crew about the masses and luminous intensity, surprises the astronomers all over the world.

Out of the two, the star NGC 3603 seems to be a cosmic factory from where a cluster of stars frantically emanate, from the nebula's extended clould of gas and dust, located 22,000 light years from the Sun.

The Massive star clusters on Large Megallanic Cloud.

It's counter-part RMC 136a(fondly called R136) is found to be another cluster of hot and massive stars, well located inside the Tarantula Nebula, in the large Megallanic Cloud, at a distance of 165,000 light years from the sun. It is also noteworth that this Megallanic Cloud, is one of the neighboring galaxies of our Milky way.

The team has also put forth a sum-up data of the images captured by the ESO's VLT which reveal that these stars weigh 265 times the mass of the sun. This data has traumatized several scientists and astronomers who reckoned that the most massive of all stars would not weigh more than 150 solar masses.

To their surprise, the birth masses of these two stars, estimated by the crew is close to 320 solar masses.

"Unlike humans, these stars are born heavy and lose weight as they age" says, Dr.Paul Crowther, Astrophysicist. Yup. It makes a point, though seems to be funny.

"Being a little over a million years old, the most extreme star R136a1 is already 'middle-aged' and has undergone an intense weight loss programme, shedding a fifth of its initial mass over that time, or more than fifty solar masses", added Dr.Paul Crowther.

What if such a massive star be taking the place of our sun?? Mind-blowing, isn't it??

"Its high mass would reduce the length of the Earth's year to three weeks, and it would bathe the Earth in incredibly intense ultraviolet radiation, rendering life on our planet impossible," says Rapheal Hirschi from Keele University, who was one among the crew members.

Not just this discovery, but the team has also predicted how massive a star could be, withing this cluster. "The smallest stars are limited to more than about eighty times more than Jupiter, below which they are ‘failed stars’ or brown dwarfs," says Olivier Schnurr, from the Astrophysikalisches Institut Postdam.

As the Indian Astrophysicist Dr.Subrahmaniyan Chandrasekhar quoted, less massive stars, having their masses less than 8 solar masses would shed enough mass, eventually become white dwarf. He has also added that more massive star of masses close to 150 solar masses would ultimately become either neutron-star or a black-hole. This theory is well known to the world as "Chandrasekhar's limit". Now the question is about the stability and existence of these lately discovered stars which weigh almost 300 solar masses. This fact poses the previous theory, a contradiction, which would be solved soon, I guess.

But the sad part about these stars is that they will "die soon". Yup. But don't panic. In astronomy, 3 million years is really short. And that could be the clue. Small life-span of these stars could be the reason why such massive stars are not being witnessed then and there. These are rare and are found only on densest clusters of the Universe. 

But, what is the use of these stars being several times luminous than the sun?? People of this generation never show any interest in comprehending  these kind of stars. Instead, they show a huge craze on cine-stars and pop-stars. Cheers. \m/

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Image and data courtesy: European Southern Observatory(ESO) 

Spiderman - No more a fiction

Have you ever wondered that you would climb up walls? Have you ever tried grabbing the roof? It's not that tougher as you think. Just give it a try.Yes. Professor Paul Steen and Michael Vogel of Cornell University have paved way for a new world where people climb up walls like lizards! They have invented a new palm-sized device that adheres on all surfaces through electro-osmosis flow process.

They say that they were inspired of Florida beetle which can grab a leaf firmly with a force of 33 mN which is about 60 times its own body weight, yet can detach at any instant.

Thanks to the beetle and another forerunner who's given us a great concept of adhesion to walls and roof. She's none other than Gecko(lizard) which can climb up the walls and stay upright grabbing the roof throughout its life. But there is difference between the adhesion mechanisms followed by the lizards and the beetle. Geckos(lizards) possess millions of minute hair like structures called setae. And each setae contains numerous micro-fibrils which use van der waal's forces to cling to various surfaces.

In 2006, Stanford researchers developed a robot with synthetic setae which enabled it to climb up walls and even to walk on the roof.

But beetles use liquid mechanism to gain the control over adhesion and instantaneous detachment. They use the surface tension and capillarity phenomena of the tiny droplets on their legs to stay attached to leaves for longer time.

Having studied the various mechanisms that enables these creatures to stay grabbed lead the researchers devise a new palm-size instrument that creates a similar effect.

The device consists of flat plate with numerous holes, each of size few micrometer. A bottom plate serves as a fluid reservoir and there is a porous plate in the middle. An electric field is applied by a common nine-volt battery which pumps water through the device causing the water droplets to squeeze through the top layer.

The surface tension of the water droplets enables the device to stick on various surfaces. 

The prototype model with 1000 holes each of 300 microns grabbed 30 gram which is more than 70 paper clips.

This is the same principle why two wet glass plates stick together. But the magnitude of the force is increased in this by increasing the number of pores and decreasing the size of each pore on the plate. For instance, one square inch device with millions of 1 micron holes can hold more than 15 pounds. 

To turn adhesion off, the electric field is simply reversed thereby pulling the water droplets again to the reservoir.

The device can be of great use in the future, where people climb up buildings to reduce on street pedestrian traffic. Also, this can technology can be coupled with robots and other machines which need high rigidity and grabbing capacity. These devices can also be fabricated on shoes and gloves for better performance.

Note: Goal keepers are not to try this on their gloves during their sessions! Strictly!

A boon to Paraplegics

Shankar is a 12 years old boy. Having got much interest in the field of computer technology, he used to participate various competitions involving computer presentations and software program designing. He wins the competition every-time he participates, leaving his parents to wonder how he had learned those programming languages. He used to learn everything about technology from the net through his PC. One day, he was riding on his motor-cycle at break-neck speed. It was a bad weather for him and his parents. Unfortunately, he got stuck beneath a container lorry which smashed both of his hands and caused severe other complications. Also, he lost his speech. Even after recovering from the serious injury, he felt like hell as he could not operate his computer, which bagged him good conduct, appreciations and knowledge. But he never lose hope. Now, he operates his computer well again, not by his hands, but by his eyes. Thanks to Wolfgang Beinhauer and Fabian Herman of Fraunhofer Institute of Industrial Research, IAO, Stuttgart.

Yes. Those researchers have developed a new technology that enables one to access the computer menus through eye movements. A sensor device tracks the eye movements from 1 to 1.5 metre and transmits the co-ordinates of the area viewed to the mouse pointer of the monitor. The sensor device comprises IR-LEDs(Infra-red Light Emitting Diodes) and a micro CCD CAM(Charge Coupled Device Camera) which sends the tracked information to a computer through wires.

"Calculating the motion was comparatively easy while clicking presented a real challenge", says the developer.

In order to click any button one need to stare at the button for half a second.

A special software was designed by Fabian Herman which makes certain areas sensitive such that it can be activated by fixing the eyes on them for a certain length of time. The Graphical User Interface(GUI) measures this interval and decides whether the user wants to click the button or the user is just reading the menu text. Also, there's a drawback that if one takes more than half a second to read a text, the software decides it as a click.

To improvise this, the button changes color twice before it goes, "click". 

But still, there was a drawback. Our eyes make miniature jerky movements called microsacchades. While this involuntary jerky movements happen, the pointer dashes around all over the monitor. But this is overcame by using micro-filter software which suppresses theses micro-sacchades and then determines the main direction of movements.

This system is a great boon for differently-abled persons as it satisfies the cyber-thrist of such people without any hurdles. Soon we'll have an entirely different eye-controlled world!

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(Thanks to Fraunhofer press release)

An Indian boy proves Hawking's theory wrong!

It's been a good weather for India, especially in the field of fundamental sciences and technology, I suppose. One after the other, India has been unveiling its milestone on the hall of flame. Soon after our Venki Ramakrishnan gained the world's attention for his discovery of ribosomal structure, an Indian boy Midhun Namboothiri proved that India has got the world's best brains for that he disputed Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Theory.

The world is stunned at the extravaganza of this young genius who is just a second semester B.Sc. Physics student, who hails from the Majilis Arts and Science College at Puramannur in Valanchery. Midhun has formulated his own theory gaining world attention and leaving his parents Vallaban Namboothiri, a temple priest and Sreedevi, a school teacher to wonder about his immense knowledge in fundamental science.

The high energy particle beam collision experiments which are being performed at CERN are intended to create "miniature black-holes" and to roll back to the conditions of Big Bang. Large Hadron Collider(LHC) which is the world's biggest particle accelerator performs several experiments on high energy particle beam collision especially the collision of high energy proton beam(7 TeV) to reveal the most fundamental laws of nature, based on Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Theory. After having made several analyses upon the Gamma ray emissions, Hawking suggested that after Big Bang, primordial "mini-black holes" were formed. According to his repeated observations and calculations, Stephen Hawking stated that Black holes should thermally create and radiate  sub-atomic particles which is known as "Bekenstein-Hawking Radiation". They radiate until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.

Midhun, through his substantial hope and good scientific skill, however proved that high energy particle beam collision could never produce mini-black holes, giving a good shake to the present scientific belief. He made his point by comparing the energy of the cosmic-rays from particle collisions(artificial) with that of the natural cosmic ray that emanated from the sun. He found that the energy of the cosmic ray that arose from the sun is several times greater than than of cosmic rays produced from particle beam collision.Further he justifies that there is no black hole in the sun and so it is unlikely that there will be a black hole when high energy sub-atomic particle beams collide inside the circular accelerator at CERN.

Initially he presented his theory to the Indian Institute of Science, IISc at Bengaluru. The officials redirected his theories to CERN. Having got inspired by his new idea, the CERN authorities inducted him into the LHC experiment and made him a part of ATLAS collaboration which is one of the six particle detector experiments of the LHC. 

As a crowning appreciation, he has been given online access to the experiments performed by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) by the world's biggest brains who considered the "relativity theories" put forth by him. Midhun, now performs experiments through Internet from his home in Naduvattam.

(Thanks to "The Hindu" for the picture)

The Magic "Bloom-box"

Several thousand years ago, the city of Syracuse rejoiced the discovery of Archimedes. No sooner he stepped into the bath tub, than he shouted "Eureka!!!(I have found it)." But this Indian born American scientist makes a difference, as he never comes out to reveal the secrets of his Invention, so called "Bloom-box"- an alternate power source that will lower your electricity bills~!

Dr. K.R. Sridhar, the founder and CEO of Bloom Energy Server technologies in Silicon Valley is the talk of town, today in every nook and corner of the world. He unveils a new fuel cell system that can run on a variety of fuels. The new invention can cut off carbon-dioxide emissions in half compared to the emissions produced by the conventional power sources.


He developed this idea while working in NASA to find a way of producing oxygen for the astronauts who were making their voyage to Mars. This innovation took 8 years to complete perfectly(2002-2010).Cheers!


So, How exactly it works?? Let's see.
Bloom box is just a "planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)" which uses a common "sand" like powder to produce clean electricity with neither dirty combustion nor corrosive acids. It is made up of a large number of ceramic plates stacked atop each other that can be assembled into a unit of any size.
Each cell is an alloy plate between two ceramic layers and has the dimension 100 mm x 100 mm. Each side is coated with special "inks" that can act as anode and cathode respectively. The green side represents the anode and is coated with Nickel-oxide based ink, whereas the black side (cathode?...yes it is.) is coated with Lanthanum Stronium manganite(probably). 
They use Samarium doped Ceria/Yttria stabilized Zirconia(Zirconium dioxide) electrolyte, catalysed by nickel or Ruthenium-Platinum-Tungsten alloy(PtRuW). 
Each cell produces a power of 25 watt
The scientist has given us the liberty of choosing our own fuel. But gasoline(petrol), bio-fuel and  natural gas are most preferable.(What? Ah!Strictly No Pizzas, No French fries!)
The input bulk can be stored in a talk adjacent to the unit, where the hydrocarbon fuel is to be stored. Oxide ion transfer takes place between air and fuel which pushes electrons into the external circuit, like every electrochemical cell.
The 100 kilowatt module with multiple stacks and components for converting DC power produced in the stacks into AC power to be used domestically, is alone about the size of a parking lot. This module can power a mini-supermarket, says the sources. But this is sufficient to power 1000 homes for a day.


Soft-corners of this "Bloom-box" :
1) It is "green".(Here, I didn't mean the color, ok?) The best feature is that it can hold carbon-dioxide emissions within the limit. Hydrogen is the by-product which is eco-friendly.
2) It eliminates the necessity of grids to distribute electricity. This is one of the significant features of "Bloom-box". Each industry can hire their own unit and reduce the cost of construction and maintenance of electricity grids. 
3) Durability matters! Sridhar tells the media that each unit can live up to a maximum of 10 years.
4) The unit produces no nuisance. It is clean, dry and devoid of corrosive acids. They say it produces no noise, no smell and even doesn't vibrate! Claps!! (Terribly tired of the noise here)
5) I eliminates various energy losses that reduce the efficiency of rotating turbines.
So, this seems to be a good machine, yeah? Err...Let's consider some of the drawbacks to be improvised to have a perfect finish up.


Points to be considered: 
1) High cost of installation. Each 100 kW unit costs $700,000. The fuel cost adds fuel to the fire! Roughly each kWh costs 16 cents. $700,000 is not an easy joke!
2) The efficiency is roughly 52% => 48% of input energy takes the other forms of energy(mainly heat). 
3) High temperature of around 700 degree centigrade is produced. High temperature is required to initiate the electrochemical reaction, which is then sustained by the components.
Using Platinum catalyst lowers the working temperature-range than using nickel, but the cost of platinum must also be considered. 
Such an high temperature may not be amicable. But, an arrangement for fast pyrolysis can be installed adjacent to the unit which converts bio-mass into electric power, as the operating range is close to 700 degree centigrade.


Trivia about this magical "Bloom-box": 
The name "Bloom" was credited to Sridhar's 9 years old son who believed that jobs, lives and environment would bloom. So, this creates a good opinion on the emotional qualities of the Indian-clan scientist.
As Wilson said, "As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it", Sridhar stands a good solicitor with a good kind of "cost-account" play.
Companies like Google, Walmart and ebay have bought this plan and in few months, these cells will be set into their operation. Other companies include Bank of America, Coca-cola, FedEx, Cox Enterprises and Staples. 
400 kW system powers a building at Google that contains a experimental data center. Walmart has installed Bloom modules at two locations where they generate between 60 to 80 percent of the electricity for the stores.

Watch the CEO's views on Bloom energy server.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVZAT3U_Jls

I hope, the technology shall cross the ocean soon and reach our holy land!