Roxanne Briean

On the Hunt for the Most Eccentric Planets

March 21, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

An eccentric planet in scientific terms doesn’t quite mean the same thing one would expect in most other topics of discussion. When talking about space objects that move around their parent star, an eccentric planet refers to a perfectly circular orbit. In that case, we say that the eccentricity of said planet is zero while higher values will describe a more elliptical orbit.

In our solar system, the best example of an eccentric planet would be Pluto: not only does the orbit rest at an approximate 17-degree angle from what is usually considered horizontal, but its orbit – which takes 248 Earth years to complete – comes as close as 29 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, and 49 AU when furthest away, scoring the highest planet orbit deviation in our solar system.

Because of the unnatural way in which they orbit their parent stars as well as their effects on the objects that they move around, scientists have long manifested a huge interest in them. As a result, they are constantly scouting out the nearest solar systems from the Milky Way for such planets using a variety of observers and telescopes – airborne or on land.

Their quest for locating these peculiar objects in space has recently elicited results as researchers may have just found one of the ‘most eccentric’ planets we have ever witnessed. And it’s not even that far away from friendly land: 117 light years away from planet Earth. On a cosmic level, that is pretty much next door. The exoplanet, named HD 20782, scores an orbital eccentricity of 0.96 and it comes at its closest point in its orbit only once every 597 Earth days.

Even though the planet comes close in mass to Jupiter, its movements around the binary star system make it resemble a comet more than it does a planet as it slows down when it comes close to the parent star – at a staggering distance of 0.06 AU, or 9 million kilometers – then slingshots away into what appears to be an almost flat orbit.

But that is not the only feature of interest regarding HD 20782. On top of the peculiar system that it resides in, scientists have also managed to get a glimpse of the planet’s atmospheric composition when it reflected the star’s light. Researchers speculate that the flash was a result of its atmosphere being suddenly heated by stellar wind when it came at the lowest of its orbit. The findings have been officially published in the online Astrophysical Journal on February 28^th.

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One Day PlayStation and Xbox May Truly Coexist

March 17, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

One factor that game developers and hardware manufacturers have yet to achieve in the world of video games has been cross-platform gaming. While it was planned multiple times by various companies, very few titles that were capable of that ever truly came to fruition. One sadly failed example of cross-platform gaming was Microsoft’s Fable Legends that was supposed to be released along with Lionhead Studios for PC and Xbox One this year; the announcement that the game development had been cancelled came this month.

Meanwhile, a popular title of casual online play, Rocket League, is rising like a tidal wave and not only preparing cross-platform play, but also scheduled to make a retail release sometime later this year. Similarly, a couple of other examples have waded their way out of the platform-exclusive trap and became available via multiple means – Tom Clancy’s The Division and Street Fighter V.

Regardless, this is an abysmally low number of titles in a world where every year brings hundreds of new games, and only very few exclusives to one particular platform (e.g. Bloodborne was released for PlayStation 4 only). So while plenty of titles out there have a well-designed multiplayer system and mechanics, many may end up being squandered over the lack of cross-play between PC, Xbox and PlayStation.

A recent discussion with Sony Executive Adam Boyes at the Game Developers Conference reveals some of the plans and possibilities in this regard. When asked about this, Boyes first brought up the already existent examples such as Dust 514 and the aforementioned Street Fighter V, along with the way Diablo 3 and Grand Theft Auto V players may import character from Xbox 360 onto the PlayStation 4.

Boyes mentioned that in what Sony’s PSN is concerned, they have always been open about making it a possibility. However, it would appear that the main barrier in making this happen at the current time are not Sony and Microsoft, respectively, when it comes to consoles. Instead, Boyes said that it falls down to the support that game developers are willing to offer in this direction.

According to him, if game developers decide to throw a bone in the cross-platform multiplayer capability direction, both PSN and Xbox Live would most likely support it, as there’s little to no technical difficulty in making this happen. Similarly, Xbox indie developer director Chris Charla announced earlier this week that Xbox One is also opening its doors towards the cross-platform multiplayer prospect.

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Secrets of the Shifting Bright Spots of Ceres

March 17, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

While a large portion of the focus of NASA is currently going towards the ‘Journey to Mars’ mission and its prerequisites, the space objects beyond the Red Planet remain an intriguing study topic as well. One such fascinating subject of discussion for scientists is the dwarf planet Ceres that lies just between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is considered the largest object in the asteroid belt.

At only 945 kilometers in diameter, Ceres could appear a very dull dwarf planet, displaying nothing more than a battered gray surface, with dozens of craters left by impacts with various meteorites. But on a closer inspection of some of the craters left by such impacts, one can notice that the small planet displays some bright spots inside these craters that were not that visible until the Dawn probe managed to capture a few ‘close-ups’ of the planet’s surface.

Ceres is believed to have a rocky core and icy mantle, as well as what is suspected to be an internal ocean of liquid water. Previous to the Dawn probe’s arrival close enough to the dwarf planet in order to study it, it fell down onto the Hubble Space Telescope to study its surface. But given the long distance and the very small size of Ceres, not much was achieved other than detecting a variation on the surface. Surprisingly, this variation was detected right where the Dawn probe later spotted the bright spots.

It was eventually concluded, thanks to the images that the Dawn probe was able to capture, that the spots are most likely made of hydrated magnesium sulfates. In earthlier terms, these are very similar to bath salts. Prolonged study of these bright spots revealed that the icy materials in and around the shiny, bright spots may be turning straight into vapor when they are hit and heated by sunlight.

This is a discovery that was made by comparing the different reflectivity levels displayed. Vapor will reflect sunlight differently than solid ice does. The two bright spots located in the 80-kilometer-wide crater called Occator were revealed to be a conglomerate of what appears to be as many as ten different spots. Scientists believe that these spots freeze at night and evaporate within direct sunlight, but certain differences and a lack of perfect cyclicity of this process does anything but confirm this hypothesis.

Researchers are currently devising a method of continuing their study on these bright spots of Ceres through means that can be employed from the surface of the Earth.

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The Slow Trek of Humanity Towards Planet Mars

March 14, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

It appears that NASA is quick on its toes with planning and delivering its envisioned mission to Mars. Even if it was only recent that they announced their plans to have manned missions leaving for the Red Planet by the year 2030 the very latest, preparations are already on the way. And while funding the mission, calculating the best time for the mission, building the necessary space craft, gathering the resources necessary and so on are the very basic steps of such a mission alone, preparation entails a little more than that.

In order to send human beings to the surface of the much sought after red planet, humanity must rely on the capabilities of landers and probes that will perform detailed surveys of landing sites, climate conditions, geological information and other facts such as these. One of such landers is NASA’s InSight Mars Lander that is preparing to be sent out by May 2018.

Originally, the InSight Mars Lander was scheduled to be launched from the surface of Earth and sent towards its trek to the red planet this year – next month, in fact – but certain technical issues prevented it from doing so and postponed the mission by a considerable amount of time. To be more exact, a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument convinced NASA to postpone the mission, with scientists having the certainty that they will be able to rework the seismometer’s system and have it finished by 2017.

After that, preparations will once again begin until May 5^th, when the launch is believed to be possible. If everything goes according to plan and the lander is successfully launched into outer space on the calculated date, it should arrive on Martial surface by November 26^th, 2018, six months and three weeks after its departure.

InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport and is specialized in understanding how planets’ geology formed while also collecting seismology and climate data from both above and below Mars’ surface.

NASA’s InSight is not the only spacecraft planning to depart and study the workings of the currently inhabitable Mars. However, the craft has an entire team made of researchers and engineers from across the globe, uniting their efforts to ensure humanity delivers some of its representatives to the red planet as the next step in our long-term exploratory mission.

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Google Chrome Music Lab Offers Musical Education

March 10, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The tech giant is unmistakably attempting to tackle dozens of projects simultaneously, as another one dubbed Chrome Music Lab just hit the news feed this morning. According to Google, this is a feature that comes to help out in things such as educations – whether we’re talking academic or personal – by employing a series of experiments that allow the users to explore various musical pieces and understand how they work.

But this is not a feature that comes for no reason whatsoever. It has been created as a way to celebrate this year’s Music in Our Schools Month. As a result, Chrome Music Lab was made available and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. The feature was also made to be particularly easy to use and user-friendly, regardless of the age of the user. Very young children, mid-schoolers and adults alike can easily explore the workings of music using a variety of platforms: desktops, tablets and smartphones alike are compatible with the website that hosts the Music Lab.

The Chrome Music Lab consists of 12 different ‘experiments’ that you can play around with, each one depicting a different aspect of music, which you can pretty much figure out from the title of the experiment. The listings so far include Rhythm, Spectrogram, Chords, Sound waves, Arpeggios, Kandinsky, Melody Maker, Voice Spinner, Harmonics, Piano Roll, Oscillators and Strings.

All of the above are made thanks to the collaboration of coders and musicians that made use of the Web Audio API and open source code. The API permits creating and editing music within the browser, while the open source quality offers anyone experienced and willing the freedom to experiment and create their own version of experiments in the Music Lab, for example.

All of the previously submitted experiments make use of colorful animations, clear sounds and very easy to understand illustrations of how sound from various instruments work, how chords work, and even giving you a little freedom in creating some accidental songs while playing with it. Every one of the 12 currently present on the website are cleverly made and intuitive in making the experience as pleasant for the user as possible as it doesn’t let things get too hectic.

This is a great method that teachers and educators could apply in schools to not only give children an easier way of understanding the workings of music but also nurture their creative spirit.

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The Uncanny Employment That Google Made

March 8, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Google recently made a move that raised a huge question mark above the head of various members of the public – the employment of 4chan founder Chris Poole. Poole is a notorious presence in the online community, especially when it comes to bringing people together; or rather set them up for a method of freely expressing themselves under the anonymity of the internet.

In other words, Chris “Moot” Poole is the face of the very controversial website 4chan that he founded back in 2003, originally intended as an image-sharing hub for those interested in and fans of Japanese anime. An unquestionably innocent project, you would think, but given the website’s lack of censorship, 4chan soon became a rather controversial place to be in, at times becoming downright offensive to groups and individuals and the birthplace of the concept that we nowadays call ‘memes’.

However, Poole sold its website to the founder of the popular Japanese message board 2channel – the very inspiration of 4chan, before it went off track into an entirely different direction that nobody saw coming.

But while you cannot place the blame of an entire rather gigantic community on the name of one person, the public reacted with the least enthusiasm when they heard that tech giant Google had actually hired Poole in their company, for an unknown position. While no official information has been provided on the nature of Poole’s role in Google, rumors hint that he may be placed in charge of the failing Google Plus social platform.

According to Poole’s blog in a post he made right after the announcement that Google was picking him up, whatever position he will be occupying within Google will be making use of his experience of working for a dozen years in building online communities. While this isn’t the only likely option that Poole has at Google, it is most likely that Google+ will fall into his responsibility.

Google Plus has had an abysmally low rate of success with its users, who almost always chose the more popular alternatives when it came to social platforms. Despite numerous efforts that Google made to make up for the failings of its social platform, attempting to appeal to a different group of targeted users and whatnot, Google+ is currently still slowly advancing towards its imminent death.

Is Poole’s employment a sign that Google is giving its social platform another chance, or will the former 4chan founder play a completely different role within the company?

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Fifth Time May Be a Charm for Falcon 9

March 3, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The SpaceX manufactured Falcon 9 has already had its launch delayed no less than four times, with the next attempt being scheduled to take place on March 4^th, 2016. The mission that is supposed to carry out an SES-9 communications satellite up into outer space has not had the best run so far, with the launch continually being delayed due to both technical issues and unfavorable weather conditions.

This time around, the engineers and scientists in charge of the Falcon 9 launch believe that, given the already fixed technical issues, the rocket could finally be sent into outer space tomorrow. The last two attempts were postponed due to uncertainty and a lack of a good window to do it in. The launch had been possible on Tuesday in a window starting with 6:35 PM and ending with 8:05 PM but was unfortunately not gone through with due to physical and technical limitations. Prior to that, the Wednesday last week, fuel temperatures got into the way, and Friday was a no-go due to unfavorable winds.

The Falcon 9 rocket is a SpaceX construction, currently located at the Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral and carries the SES-9 satellite, weighting 11,600 pounds. While the mission is not of a staggering magnitude, the launch seems to have been hindered by a multitude of factors and the scientists do not wish to risk failure.

The rocket will be sent out using cryogenic propellant, a type of fuel that does not leave room for anything but perfection in execution. Because of the need that the fuel is kept at a low temperature in order to maintain its density, it becomes vital for everything to be kept in check and under control to avoid irregularities and malfunction.

The SES-9 satellite is planned to operate in geostationary orbit around the Earth, positioning itself in the orbital slot at 108.2 degrees’ east longitude and will be able to provide communication services to the Asia-Pacific region. That sums up video, commercial, government, and mobile communication for about 20 different countries.

Many improvements have already been made to the rocket’s systems, according to all the data gathered from the previous attempts. As long as the wind conditions on Friday are favorable for a launch, March 4^th may just be the day when it finally takes place.

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Humanity Proves That It Trusts Its Creations Too Much

March 1, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

A recent study performed by engineers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute resulted in shocking conclusions that proves that human beings are amazingly trusting of robots and other man-made contraptions that are supposedly made to exceed human capability. What was even more shocking than that was the fact that the subjects that were part of the experiment seemed to be even more prone to heeding the advice of the robot when put in an emergency situation.

The researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute decided on this experiment to see if humans would trust the robot at all and they were proven the polar opposite, when the subject followed the intentionally faulty robot despite their better judgement and the obvious signs that it was wrong. The experiment involved a number of 42 volunteers, most of which were college students or other young individuals.

The way the experiment unfolded was that the group was asked to follow a robot that was supposed to be in charge of them and led them around the premises. The robot led the group to a conference room and asked them to complete a survey about robots and read a magazine article as the introduction of the experiment. What the subjects didn’t know was part of the experiment however, was the second series of events. A mock building fire was simulated, including artificial smoke, alarms and so on, making the subjects believe they were actually in danger.

Possibly because they were told that the robot was an Emergency Guide Robot, the group seemed to feel the need to follow it, even when it showed erratic behavior or its actions became illogical. Strangely enough, even when the subjects were told that the robot broke down, they still felt like following it or fits instructions, a fact that baffled the researchers.

The subjects followed the robot when it pointed to a door in the back of the building instead of the doorway marked with an ‘Exit’ sign when it told them to, and even followed it when it tried to shelter them from the fire in a room that had furniture piled in the center of it.

The conclusion of the study was of a different nature than technological. Scientists theorized that the subjects chose to follow the robot to no end because it had been established as an authority figure, opposed to how things had been in a previous, realistic emergency scenario.

This is only one of many experiments that will be undergone regarding human-robot interaction.

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Windows Phone and BlackBerry Are Saying Goodbye to WhatsApp

February 29, 2016 By Roxanne Briean 2 Comments

It has been recently announced by the developer that Windows Phone and BlackBerry are saying goodbye to WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging service that has been released nearly 9 years ago. And it’s not even just that as older Android versions such as 2.2 and beyond as well as Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60 operating systems will also be affected by the change.

This was a decision made by the company when they stated that although back when the app first came out, more than 70 percent of the devices that it ran on were either Nokia or BlackBerry, the current state of affairs does not allow the instant messaging application to expand their list of features on said platforms.

Naturally this only means that the support offered for the application will be discontinued starting with the end of the year 2016. The application will still exist on said mobile operating systems, but will not be receiving any new updates any longer. While it’s not unusual for apps to stop development for older platforms, it came as a surprise when BlackBerry OS 10 was part of the latest announcement.

Hardly an old platform, the decision to stop support for WhatsApp on BlackBerry 10 comes as what is probably the most questionable of all. The reason behind it may be unrelated to the instant messaging app, and instead have something to do with the fact that BlackBerry seems to have been putting a focus on Android as an operating system. Chances are that BlackBerry will no longer be using their native operating system in the phones that they make any longer.

This is bound to create some further problems for BlackBerry as a company, as their decline may continue. Seven years ago, BlackBerry phones represented roughly 70% of the market. Once smartphones started taking over the scene, BlackBerry alternatives lost ground to the point at which now it only holds 1% of the market.

The announcement is a little more problematic for areas of the globe where BlackBerry and other older phone models of the likes are the regular and once support ends for them, it will draw a decrease in WhatsApp users upon itself. South Africa is the best example of the situation: in South Africa, there are 4 million BlackBerry users and the instant messaging application has about 10 million users – most of which are using older phones. And considering that WhatsApp is the most popular application of its kind, the repercussions may be notable to say the least.

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Google Docs Just Got Ten Times Better

February 25, 2016 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The less and less overlooked document editor, Google Docs, just got ten times better overnight, after Google decided to give it a twist. The twist in question is nothing else than allowing its users to type, edit and format documents – all via voice commands. So basically, anything that you previously thought you needed at least a keyboard for in terms of work may very well become a lot easier than ever believed to be before.

This is a move that completes the change that first came to Google Docs back in September 2015. At this point Google decided to add voice typing to their Google Docs service that would allow users to compose and edit documents a lot faster than before. However, this change felt somewhat incomplete as it would literally only allow you to dictate text and nothing more. Anything other, such as editing, formatting, copy pasting and so on would still require a keyboard and a mouse most of the time.

However, the new version of Google Docs is crazily useful for anyone who wishes to compose a document and have it all edited, formatted and ready to go without ever needing to touch a keyboard in order to achieve that.

The new update is pretty large in terms of capability. It can now follow a vast series of commands that the program itself is capable of. Things such as align center, go to end of line, select all, copy, paste, highlight, bold, insert table and everything else in between can be spoken instead of selected using a keyboard and/or mouse. Even more than that, saying ‘voice commands help’ while in Google Docs will make a window pop up, listing every single command that the program is capable of.

Even more than that, because the biggest problem with voice commands in other technology’s case is trying to make yourself understood by the device, people have expressed concern regarding its ability to not misunderstand what it’s being told. In response to that, Google mentioned that the voice typing feature also supports the newer English ‘dialects’, giving you a fair reading of what you’re saying without you having to struggle to sound differently than you normally do.

This new feature can be used by anyone right away, as long as you have either an internal microphone or a normal headset to help you out dictate text to your computer and you turn the feature on.

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