Science Saturday 02/16

February 16, 2019

Welcome to another Science Saturday. Here’s the scoop from this week.

The Cluttered Desk: Opportunity (is that allowed?)

This week, NASA pulled the plug on Opportunity, The project that operated a rover on the surface of Mars for 14 years. If you missed my post about it yesterday, follow the link above.

ScienceNews: LIGO Goes Quantum

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detects gravitational disturbances that travel across the universe from distant cosmic calamities. Now, a $35 million upgrade will allow it to detect disturbances on a quantum scale, giving the device the capability to pick up waves that result from much smaller cosmic events.

Scientists working on upgrades to LIGO, which will allow the observatory to use quantum methods.

Astronomy Magazine: Impact Crater under Greenland

Glacialogist Joe MacGregor, working with NASA’s Icebridge project, has discovered another massive impact crater underneath the Greenland ice sheet. The crater is 22 miles (36 km) in diameter and is buried under 1.2 miles (2 km) of ice. It’s located close to the Hiawatha impact crater, which was discovered at the end of 2018.

ScienceDaily: Mountains in the Mantle

Geophysicists used data from an enormous earthquake in Bolivia to find mountains at the base of the mantle’s transition zone, located 660 kilometers below our feet. Their statistical model didn’t allow for precise height measurements, but these mountains may be bigger than anything on the surface of the Earth. The researchers also examined the top of the transition zone (410 km down) and did not find similar roughness.

LiveScience: Magnetic Boom

You may not be able to hear it, but Earth’s magnetic shield booms like a drum when it’s bombarded by strong impulses, including those from solar wind, a new study finds. The artist’s rendition below shows a plasma jet impact (yellow) which generates standing waves at the magnetopause boundary (blue) and in the magnetosphere (green). The outer group of four THEMIS probes recorded the flapping of the magnetopause over each satellite in succession.