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Oct- 2021 -28 OctoberNASA
NASA’s New $10 Billion Webb Space Telescope Will Reveal the Supermassive Black Hole at the Heart of the Milky Way
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Webb will tackle the challenge of the supermassive black hole’s puzzling flares, which have proved both intriguing and frustrating for astronomers. In its first year of operations, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will join forces with a global collaborative effort to create an image of the area directly surrounding the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is famous for its first image of the “shadow” of the black hole at the core of galaxy M87, and…
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28 OctoberNeuroscience
How Does Our Brain Navigates Cities? Choosing the “Pointiest” Path, Not the Shortest
We seem to be wired to calculate not the shortest path but the “pointiest” one, facing us toward our destination as much as possible. Everyone knows the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, when you’re walking along city streets, a straight line may not be possible. How do you decide which way to go? A new MIT study suggests that our brains are actually not optimized to calculate the so-called “shortest path” when navigating on foot. Based on a dataset of more than 14,000 people going about their daily lives, the MIT team found that instead,…
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28 OctoberEnvironment
When a Massive Wildfire Tears Through a Landscape, What Happens to the Wildlife?
Lead Image: Black-tailed deer appear on a wildlife camera on July 24, 2018, several days before flames from the Mendocino Complex Fire torched this landscape, burning more than half of the University of California’s Hopland Research and Extension Center. Credit: Brashares Lab, UC Berkeley After massive California wildfire, deer returned home while trees were “still smouldering.” While many animals have adapted to live with wildfires of the past — which were smaller, more frequent and kept ecosystems in balance across the West — it’s unclear to scientists how animals are coping with today’s unprecedented megafires. More than a century of…
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28 OctoberSecurity
An Introduction to Browser Hijacking and How to Deal with It
Malicious intrusion into users’ browsers is a common problem affecting an increasing number of people. With perpetrators producing new malware types each year, it is not surprising that the number of malware variants was almost 678 million in 2020. Browser hijacking malware has been one of the most widespread, so it makes sense to examine this technology in detail to know how to protect one’s computer. Browser Hijacking Definition and Threats Let’s begin by defining browser hijacking. This term refers to a form of hacking in which unwanted software changes the web browser settings without the user’s consent. Once…
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27 OctoberSpace - Asteroids
Planetary Defense: Nuclear Explosion Can Disrupt Hazardous Asteroid To Protect the Earth
Lead Image: The hydro simulation in Spheral that provided the basis for the analysis: 1 Megaton at a few meters standoff distance from a 100-meter diameter asteroid (with Bennu shape). Colors denote velocities. The legend is cm/us, which is equivalent to 10 km/s. Credit: LLNL If an asteroid is determined to be on an Earth-impacting trajectory, scientists typically want to stage a deflection, where the asteroid is gently nudged by a relatively small change in velocity, while keeping the bulk of the asteroid together. A kinetic impactor or a standoff nuclear explosion can achieve a deflection. However, if the warning…
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