Latest news with #ResearchNotes
CairoScene
17-04-2025
- Science
- CairoScene
Ain Shams Researchers Turn Eggshell Waste Into Nile Water Purifier
A team from Ain Shams University has developed a low-cost water purification method using discarded eggshells. Apr 17, 2025 Researchers at Ain Shams University have developed a novel method for purifying Nile River water using powdered eggshells—a common food industry byproduct. According to a peer-reviewed study published in BMC Research Notes, this waste material can effectively remove harmful heavy metals and bacterial contaminants from raw river water. Conducted by a team at the Faculty of Agriculture, the study explored the potential of treated eggshell powder to act as a natural, low-cost filtration medium. Eggshells were collected from bakeries and powdered before being applied to water samples collected near Helwan, an industrial zone south of Cairo. In a controlled lab environment, the material demonstrated the ability to remove toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and iron, as well as dangerous microbes including E. coli. The research points to a sustainable and accessible water treatment solution, particularly in regions affected by high pollution levels and limited access to advanced purification infrastructure. The findings come at a time when Egypt's water resources are under significant strain. With the Nile providing over 95% of the country's freshwater supply, concerns about rising pollution, climate change, and population growth have sharpened focus on the need for innovative, low-cost water treatment solutions. The study also aligns with Egypt's broader push for sustainable environmental practices and circular economy initiatives.
Express Tribune
04-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Scientists say ‘city-killer' asteroid could strike Moon, not Earth
A picture provided by Nasa shows asteroid 2024 YR4 as observed by the Magdalena Ridge 2.4m telescope at the New Mexico Institute of Technology on 27 January 2025. Photograph: Nasa/Magdalena Ridge 2.4m telescope/New Mexico Institute of Technology/Ryan/AFP/Getty Images Listen to article A so-called 'city-killer' asteroid once feared to be on a collision course with Earth could instead crash into the Moon, according to updated observations by NASA scientists. Asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered last year, initially raised concerns with a projected 3% chance of striking Earth in December 2032. A collision of that magnitude could devastate areas up to 80 kilometres from the impact site. Further tracking and analysis have since ruled out an Earth impact, bringing the threat level down to near zero. However, new data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has placed the odds of a Moon impact at nearly 4%. 'At this writing, a 2032 impact with the Moon has not been ruled out,' wrote lead author Andy Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University in a study published in the Research Notes of the AAS journal. NASA noted that while the probability remains low, at over 96% chance of a miss, the scenario remains under observation. The next potential opportunity for close tracking will be in early 2026, researchers said. The revised estimate also updated the asteroid's size to between 53 and 67 metres—roughly equivalent to a 15-storey building—underscoring the potential scale of a lunar impact. Scientists say even a 1% chance of Earth impact would justify planning asteroid deflection missions. The current focus, however, is on using any Moon impact to refine planetary defence strategies. 'The possibility of getting a chance for an observation of a sizable Moon impact is indeed an interesting scenario from a scientific point of view,' said Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency's planetary defence office. Researchers believe such an impact could offer valuable data, helping scientists better prepare for future asteroid threats. NASA expects more potential impactors to be identified as advanced asteroid-tracking systems come online in the coming years.
Express Tribune
28-03-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Will Blaze Star erupt today? Astronomers say signs point to a 2025 nova
Astronomers are closely monitoring T Coronae Borealis — also known as the Blaze Star — for a rare nova event expected to occur in 2025. Originally anticipated for March 27, the eruption has yet to happen. New estimates by Jean Schneider of the Paris Observatory suggest the explosion could occur as late as November 10, based on orbital data and the system's past behavior. The Blaze Star is a binary system located in the constellation Corona Borealis, around 3,000 light-years from Earth. It consists of a red giant and a white dwarf — a dense, Earth-sized stellar remnant. The white dwarf steadily siphons material from its companion until a thermonuclear eruption occurs. While the explosion is dramatic, the white dwarf remains intact and begins accumulating matter again, restarting the decades-long cycle. Historical eruptions were recorded in 1866 and 1946 — 80 years apart — which led astronomers to expect a third in the mid-2020s. Schneider's projections, published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society (October 2024), aim to narrow the prediction to within a week or two, though he acknowledges that precise timing is still uncertain. Stargazers hoping to catch the celestial event should locate Corona Borealis in the night sky. The C-shaped constellation lies between the bright orange star Arcturus and the boxy shape of Hercules. When the nova occurs, the Blaze Star will briefly rival the constellation's brightest star, Alphecca, reaching an apparent magnitude of 2. Normally invisible to the naked eye, the Blaze Star will brighten by thousands of times over a few hours and fade after a few days. Skywatchers are advised to stay alert — the spectacle could begin at any time.
Observer
18-03-2025
- Science
- Observer
Saturn gains 128 new moons, bringing its total to 274
Astronomers say they have discovered more than 100 new moons around Saturn, possibly the result of cosmic smashups that left debris in the planet's orbit as recently as 100 million years ago. The gas giant planets of our solar system have many moons, which are defined as objects that orbit around planets or other bodies that are not stars. Jupiter has 95 moons, Uranus has 28 and Neptune has 16. The 128 in the latest haul around Saturn bring its total to 274. 'It's the largest batch of new moons,' said Mike Alexandersen at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an author of a paper announcing the discovery that will be published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. Many of these moons are rocks only a few miles across — small compared with our moon, which is 2,159 miles across. But as long as the rocks have trackable orbits around their parent body, the scientists who catalog objects in the solar system consider them to be moons. That is the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union, which ratified the 128 new moons of Saturn. The forthcoming paper's lead author, Edward Ashton of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, will have naming rights for the objects. The moons were discovered in 2023 using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii. — JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN This article originally appeared in
New York Times
11-03-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Saturn Gains 128 New Moons, Bringing Its Total to 274
Astronomers say they have discovered more than 100 new moons around Saturn, possibly the result of cosmic smashups that left debris in the planet's orbit as recently as 100 million years ago. The gas giant planets of our solar system have many moons, which are defined as objects that orbit around planets or other bodies that are not stars. Jupiter has 95 known moons, Uranus 28, and Neptune 16. The 128 in the latest haul around Saturn bring its total to 274. 'It's the largest batch of new moons,' said Mike Alexandersen at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an author of a paper announcing the discovery that will be published in the days ahead in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. Many of these moons are rocks only a few miles across — small compared with our moon, which is 2,159 miles across. But as long as they have trackable orbits around their parent body, the scientists who catalog objects in the solar system consider them to be moons. That is the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union, which ratified the 128 new moons of Saturn on Tuessday. The forthcoming paper's lead author, Edward Ashton of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, will have naming rights for the objects. 'Whoever discovers them gets the right to name them,' said Dr. Alexandersen, who works with the International Astronomical Union to confirm the existence of objects in the solar system. The current naming scheme for moons on Saturn is based on characters from Norse and other mythology. 'Maybe at some point they'll have to expand the naming scheme further,' Dr. Alexandersen said. The moons were discovered in 2023 using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Dr. Ashton and his colleagues observed patches of space near Saturn, and over time this allowed them to track the motion of previously unknown moons. 'You need to be able to prove that the object is in orbit around the planet,' said Dr. Ashton, who was also responsible for finding 62 new moons of Saturn two years ago. All the moons are irregular, meaning they are small, orbit at a highly angled slope relative to Saturn's equator, and often travel around the planet backward relative to the other major moons. Not much else can be gleaned about them because they are just faint dots of light in telescopic views. But they extend from about 6.5 million to nearly 18 million miles from the planet. For comparison, the planet's rings extend to just 175,000 miles, and its major moons — including Titan and Enceladus — are up to two million miles away. The existence of so many moons around Saturn hints at multiple dramatic collisions in space. Dr. Ashton and his team believe that the irregular moons were captured by Saturn at some point in its history. Some may be fragments of large objects that collided elsewhere in the solar system, while others may be further fragments of collisions between moons up to tens of miles in size that crashed together in Saturn's orbit. The team has grouped many of the moons, identifying potential families that may have come from the same collisions. 'You're trying to conclude what the great-great-grandparents were like, five generations later,' said Brett Gladman, an author of the paper at the University of British Columbia. A particularly interesting subgroup is named Mundilfari, after a deity of Norse mythology, and includes 47 of the 128 new moons. The team thinks this subgroup might be the result of a collision within Saturn's orbit as recent as 100 million years ago, which was not so long ago on cosmic time scales. The group's age could be a window into chaotic activity in the outer solar system, which has typically been assumed to be more calm in the past 100 million years. 'This is implying we could be having collisional events, and we're seeing the shrapnel in the population of tiny moons,' said Michele Bannister, an astronomer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, who was not involved in the paper. Learning more about these moons is difficult considering their small size, but astronomers might be able to study them with the James Webb Space Telescope, said Heidi Hammel, an astronomer at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. There may be even more moons around Saturn awaiting discovery, potentially in the thousands, Dr. Ashton said. But he may leave those discoveries to others. 'I'm a bit mooned out at the moment,' he said.
