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Evidence for carbon-rich surface on Ceres
Source: Southwest Research Institute
A team led by Southwest Research Institute has concluded that the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in organic matter. Data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft indicate that Ceres’ surface may contain several times the concentration of carbon than is present in the most carbon-rich, primitive meteorites found on Earth.

“Ceres is like a chemical factory,” said SwRI’s Dr. Simone Marchi, a principal scientist who was the lead author of research published in Nature Astronomy today. “Among inner solar system bodies, Ceres has a unique mineralogy, which appears to contain up to 20 percent carbon by mass in its near surface. Our analysis shows that carbon-rich compounds are intimately mixed with products of rock-water interactions, such as clays.”

Ceres is believed to have originated about 4.6 billion years ago at the dawn of our solar system. Dawn data previously revealed the presence of water and other volatiles, such as ammonium derived from ammonia, and now a high concentration of carbon. This chemistry suggests Ceres formed in a cold environment, perhaps outside the orbit of Jupiter. An ensuing shake-up in the orbits of the large planets would have pushed Ceres to its current location in the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

“With these findings, Ceres has gained a pivotal role in assessing the origin, evolution and distribution of organic species across the inner solar system,” Marchi said. “One has to wonder about how this world may have driven organic chemistry pathways, and how these processes may have affected the make-up of larger planets like the Earth.”

Geophysical, compositional and collisional models based on Dawn data revealed that Ceres’ partially differentiated interior has been altered by fluid processes. Dawn’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer has shown that the overall low albedo of Ceres’ surface is a combination of rock-water interaction products such as phyllosilicates and carbonates and a significant amount of spectrally neutral darkening agents, such as an iron oxide called magnetite.

Because Dawn’s Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector limits magnetite to only a few percent by mass, the data point to the presence of an additional darkening agent, probably amorphous carbon, a carbon-rich organic material. Interestingly, specific organic compounds have also been detected near a 31-mile-wide impact crater named Ernutet, giving further support to the widespread presence of organics in Ceres’ shallow subsurface.

The new study also finds that 50-60 percent of Ceres’ upper crust may have a composition similar to primitive carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. This material is compatible with contamination from infalling carbonaceous asteroids, a possibility supported by Ceres’ battered surface.

“Our results imply that either Ceres accreted ultra-carbon-rich materials or that carbon was concentrated in its crust,” Marchi said. “Both potential scenarios are important, because Ceres’ mineralogical composition indicates a global-scale event of rock-water alteration, which could provide conditions favourable to organic chemistry.”

The paper “An aqueously altered carbon-rich Ceres” was published on December 10 in Nature Astronomy. The Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate’s Discovery Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. JPL is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Northrop Grumman in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Centre, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.

Journal Reference:
S. Marchi, A. Raponi, T. H. Prettyman, M. C. De Sanctis, J. Castillo-Rogez, C. A. Raymond, E. Ammannito, T. Bowling, M. Ciarniello, H. Kaplan, E. Palomba, C. T. Russell, V. Vinogradoff, N. Yamashita. An aqueously altered carbon-rich Ceres. Nature Astronomy, 2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0656-0

Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret

"But it is easy to share information without realizing it. Of the 17 apps that The Times saw sending precise location data, just three on iOS and one on Android told users in a prompt during the permission process that the information could be used for advertising. Only one app, GasBuddy, which identifies nearby gas stations, indicated that data could also be shared to “analyze industry trends.”

https://nyti.ms/2G4rjaG

There are about two trillion galaxies approximately in our entire Universe. From colliding galaxy to interacting galaxy, here is a list of 10 most amazing galaxies in the universe.

https://rxscience.org/10-most-amazing-galaxies-in-the-universe/

"Google Translate learns from hundreds of millions of already-translated examples from the web. Historically, it has provided only one translation for a query, even if the translation could have either a feminine or masculine form. So when the model produced one translation, it inadvertently replicated gender biases that already existed."

"Now you'll get both a feminine and masculine translation for a single word -- like 'surgeon' -- when translating from English into French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish. You'll also get both translations when translating phrases and sentences from Turkish to English. For example, if you type 'o bir doktor' in Turkish, you'll now get 'she is a doctor' and 'he is a doctor' as the gender-specific translations."

7 useful Gmail settings you’ll wish to knew sooner #google #gmail #news #tips

Tracking Down JoAnn Morgan, a Semi-Hidden Figure of U.S. Space History http://vntyfr.com/iJgM6iC

A new analysis of data gathered by the Apollo missions confirms that tidal stress – the gravitational pull of the moon on the Earth and of the Earth on the moon – is responsible for causing deep moonquakes, the lunar equivalent of earthquakes.

https://thetechinside.com/deep-moonquakes-are-likely-to-be-caused-due-to-tidal-stress-of-the-moon/

“Earlier this year we paused investment in Allo and brought some of its most-loved features—like Smart Reply, GIFs and desktop support—into Messages. Given Messages’ continued momentum, we’ve decided to stop supporting Allo to focus on Messages.”

Sharon Bush wasn’t invited to George H.W. Bush’s funeral https://nyp.st/2RNT3BV

ZTE nubia Red Magic Mars Specifications, Features and Price

#zte #cellphones

As Google+ is shutting down, you may find this useful if you want to export your feed to other places...
https://blog.friendsplus.me/export-google-plus-feeds-45926c925891
#noshare

Your liver not only acts as a filter for your blood, but it also produces hormones, stores energy, and makes compounds that allow your gut to digest food. And those are just a few of its many essential duties. There are also a handful of common symptoms associated with liver disease. If you experience any of these, get yourself to a doctor on the double.

https://health-zone.org/6-signs-your-liver-might-be-failing/

An intense reaction occurs after water is injected into molten rock.

Samsung may be in trouble...

13 Best Android Apps of 2018

Fill up your phone or tablet with the best Android apps around now with 13 to pick from!

https://todaysintech.com/the-best-android-apps-of-2018/

#Trump's willingness to constantly repeat false claims has posed a unique challenge to fact checkers. Most politicians quickly drop a Four- #Pinocchio claim, either out of a duty to be accurate or concern that spreading #falseinformation could be politically damaging. Not Trump. The President keeps going long after the facts are clear, in what appears to be a deliberate effort to replace the truth with his own, far more favourable, version of it. To accurately reflect this phenomenon, The Washington Post's Fact Checker is introducing a new category - the #BottomlessPinocchio.

The President's most-repeated #falsehoods fall into a handful of broad categories - claiming credit for promises he has not fulfilled; false assertions that provide a rationale for his agenda; and political weaponry against perceived enemies such as Democrats or special counsel Robert Mueller. Some of Trump's regular deceptions date from the start of his administration, such as his claim that the United States has spent US$7tn in the Middle East (36 times) or that the United States pays for most of the cost of NATO (87 times). Another campaign claim that has carried into his presidency is the assertion that Democrats colluded with Russia during the election (48 times).


#GlobalEconomy #AmericanPolitics #POTUS #Politics #AmericanPoliticians #America #GOP #Republicans #TrumpAdministration #Fake
Bottomless Pinocchio: The false claim repeated over and over by Trump
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/bottomless-pinocchio-the-false-claim-repeated-over-and-over-by-trump-20181211-p50le8.html

NVIDIA SHIELD TV $139 – Amazon 12 Days of Deals 2018 #android #deals #shopping #holidays #shoppingdeals #dealsdealsdeals #dealsoftheday

The #Trumpadministration slapped sanctions on three North Koreans Monday (Dec 10) in response to Pyongyang's ongoing human rights abuses and censorship. The sanctions announcement comes as President Donald #Trump floats the idea of a second summit with North Korean leader #KimJongUn. And it immediately follows a failed US attempt to hold a UN meeting on Pyongyang's human rights record, a setback that illustrates the Trump administration's struggle to maintain international support for its maximum pressure campaign to push #NorthKorea toward denuclearization.

Both Trump and Secretary of State #MikePompeo are now emphasizing that they aren't putting a deadline on talks and that progress will take time. And both men have insisted that in the meantime, the US will continue to exert "maximum pressure" on North Korea through sanctions. But US officials, including US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, have signaled that efforts to maintain unified international pressure on Pyongyang may be faltering.


#GlobalEconomy #Economy #Geopolitics #Diplomacy #Politics #ForeignPolicy #InternationalRelations #ForeignRelations #KoreanPeninsula #DPRK #UnitedStates
US sanctions North Korea on human rights as Trump floats second summit
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/10/politics/us-north-korea-sanctions-human-rights/index.html

Samsung Galaxy S9 gets another Android Pie beta update in the U.S., here is what's new - If you own a Galaxy S9 and decided to enroll in the Samsung beta program, you should now see a new Android Pie update on your phone. If you're just waiting for the South Korean company to release the final version, we'll let you know how's the update progressing and whether or not Samsung is addressing all the issues reported by Galaxy S9 users. Now, this is would be the third Android Pie beta update th...

Hmm...🤔 interesting! Are Aliens secretly waiting for the Universe to cool off before they reappear? That’s the basis for an insane new theory. Welcome to the Aestivation Hypothesis – which is totally out there even for an alien theory!  The Fermi paradox states that the Universe is a vast space, full of billions of stars that are similar to our Sun and a high probability that these stars will have Earth-like planets where life could develop—many of which are billions of years older than our own. Even at a slow pace of interstellar travel, the Milky Way galaxy could be traversed in just a few million years—so where are the aliens?

The latest attempt to answer this question comes from a trio of researchers, who suggest that advanced alien civilizations have gone into a self-imposed ‘hibernation.’ These extraterrestrial beings, they argue, are waiting for a future where the Universe is far colder than it is now.

The new paper, written by Oxford neuroscientist Anders Sandberg and AI expert Stuart Armstrong, together with Milan Cirkovic, argues that civilizations more advanced than our own could have already explored the Universe—and are now simply waiting for a better time to coexist.

Cosmic Background Radiation

“Right now, the cosmic background radiation makes nearly everything in the Universe hotter than 3 Kelvin, but as the Universe expands, this background temperature will decline exponentially,” Sandberg and Cirkovic write on their blog. “So if you want to do as much information processing as possible with the energy you have, it makes sense to wait. It becomes exponentially better.”

The researchers are obviously open to doubt, as there is no way to actually ‘prove’ any of this. But they do argue that this train of thought rules out many possibilities related to the Fermi paradox and gives us more information about the potential future of the Universe.