A Short Film on Hubble's Deep Field Experiment

A fan of the program sent in this link from Flixxy.com.  The link concerned the Ultra Deep Field project that astronomers performed with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope.   I have one of these photos hanging above my work area.   Every time I look at it, I am again amazed and stunned.  The incredible density of galaxies is hard to believe even when looking at the proof.

Check out the Flixxy video below:

BMU #422 Isaac Asimov - Michael Juby - quantum computers - closest supernova in ages - Killer Robots

This week's episode (422) of Beam Me Up, my opening comments contain information on odd happenings with cube sat launches as well as near passes of a just discovered asteroid.

I end the the opening section with the opening theme music from the anime series Durarara!!

The first story of the afternoon is Phillippe and His Rather Boring  Time Travel (pt1) by Michael Juby.

This week from the Beam Me Up - 

Google wants to create sentient robots and to that end are working on quantum computer chips.
Chandra observes one of the closest 1a supernovas in decades. 
Spitzer space telescope has observed a large asteroid collision.
Will Robots of the future be mercy killers?

The final story this week is part two (ch 2+3) of Isaac Asimov's The Last Question.

Google Wants to Create Robots That Think

 

 Google says it is working on a "quantum" computer chip.  The goal, stated Google researchers, is to, one day, have machines think like humans.

Researcher John Martinis and his team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has begun to work with the Quantum Artificial Intelligence team at Google.

Thise new pairing is part of Google's "hardware initiative" to design and build chips operating on sub-atomic levels in ways making them exponentially faster than processors currently used in computers today.

Now with an integrated hardware team, the blended Quantum AI team will now make it possible to implement and test new designs.

Recently, Google's artificial intelligence lab, partnered with NASA space agency on quantum computing research.

The complete Business insider article is HERE

Chandra Sees Closest Super-Nova in Decades

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory glimpsed one of the closest supernovas witnessed in decades. The telescope was able collect data on a the type 1a explosion that took place January 21 2014.

 This is one of the closest supernovas (located in the nearby Messier 82 galaxy) witnessed in decades.

The data gathered from the explosion allowed scientists to rule out one possible cause.

The type 1a supernovas is thought that the explosion may be triggered when a white dwarf takes on too much mass from its companion star, immersing it in a cloud of gas that produces a significant source of X-rays after the explosion.

Using NASA's Swift and Chandra telescopes, Astronomers searched the location of the explosion, for such an X-ray source. However, no source was found.

It is possible that this supernova, SN 2014J, could have been caused by the merger of two white dwarf stars, which would result in little or no X-rays after the explosion.

Read the rest of the article HERE on the NASA page

Spitzer Notices Cosmic Smash-up

Scientists studying star NGC 2547-ID8 witnessed a  huge amount of new dust between  August 2012 and January 2013.  Speculation has it that two very large asteroids collided in that system. 

While asteroid collisions have been observed by Spitzer before, this is the first time scientists have collected data before and after a smashup - offering a glimpse into the process of making planets like ours.

Check out the NASA site for the complete article HERE