Science Sunday: Jupiter Slammed (Again) + Life on Titan? + Revived Soviet Rover + Real Trek Hyposrpay + more

Welcome back to (belated) Science Sunday! This week, watch video of an impact into Jupiter’s atmosphere, ponder life on Titan, set the hypersonic flight record, and put an old soviet moon rover to good use. Also, watch some amazing volcanic eruptions. All this and more plus our gadget of the week: P.L.E.A.S.E. – how to deliver medication with lasers!

Impact into Jupiter’s Atmosphere Caught on Film, Again
It looks like a case of looking in the right place at the right time, again for Anthony Wesley, an Australian amateur astronomer. You may remember Wesley from last year when he was the first to spot a massive impact into Jupiter’s atmosphere leaving a scar the size of the Pacific Ocean. Now, he’s done it again by witnessing another large impact into the atmosphere of the gas giant. This observation happened the same day that the Hubble findings were released from the 2009 impact. Serendipitous, indeed. Check out the video of the large impact below! And here’s a link to info about Wesley’s 2009 observations: http://jupiter.samba.org.

Possible Life on Titan?
Two potential signatures for life on Saturn’s moon Titan have been discovered by the Cassini spacecraft. Scientists are quick to point out, however, that these are not necessarily indicators of life, but could be caused by non-biological chemical reactions. Still, the findings are an interesting possibility for the existence of life on a world with liquid methane lakes, and rivers. Scientists have already posited the possible existence of life in Titan’s methane lakes, but no evidence has been taken to support this theory. In 2005, Chris McKay of the NASA Ames Research Center proposed that such microbes could survive by breathing in hydrogen gas and eating the organic molecule acetylene, creating methane in the process. This would result in a lack of acetylene on Titan and a depletion of hydrogen close to the moon’s surface, where the microbes would live, they said. Now, measurements from the Cassini spacecraft have observed these predictions, hinting that life may be present. This is not to say that life has been discovered, but the findings are consistent with the observations we would make should life exist there. For more about the discovery, see the article in New Scientist.

Titan’s methane lakes could be home to microbes

Scramjet Sets Hypersonic Flight Record
An experimental aircraft has set a new record for the longest hypersonic flight after streaking across the sky Wednesday for more than three minutes while flying at Mach 5 — five times the speed of sound. The vehicle, called the X-51A Waverider, dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress mother ship while flying over the Pacific Ocean just off the southern California coast. It successfully ignited an air-breathing scramjet engine than accelerated up to Mach 5, Air Force officials said. Check out the video below!

How Scientists Are Using an Old Soviet Moon Rover
A Soviet robot lost on the dusty plains of the Moon for the past 40 years has been found again, and it is returning surprisingly strong laser pulses to Earth. “We shined a laser on Lunokhod 1’s position, and we were stunned by the power of the reflection,” says Tom Murphy of UC San Diego, who leads the research team that’s putting the old robot back to work. “Lunokhod 1 is talking to us loudly and clearly.” Almost forgotten in the lore of the Apollo-era space race, Lunokhod 1 was one of the greatest successes of the old Soviet lunar exploration program. On April 22, Murphy and his team sent pulses of laser light from the 3.5 meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, zeroing in on the target coordinates provided by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. A laser retroreflector on Lunokhod 1 intercepted the pulses and sent a clear signal back to Earth. “We got about 2,000 photons from Lunokhod 1 on our first try. After almost 40 years of silence, this rover a lot to say,” notes Murphy. (via NASA Science News)

Old Soviet rover being put to good use

Gadget of the Week: P.L.E.A.S.E. – How to Deliver Drugs With Lasers!
Pantec Biosolutions AG has created a device it calls the Painless Laser Epidermal System, or P.L.E.A.S.E., a means to deliver drugs via laser, effectively blasting tiny holes in your skin through which the medication is absorbed. The process is, apparently, completely painless both for the recipient and the deliverer too, thanks to a fancy touchscreen UI. The device has received marketing authorization, meaning it’s able to be sold in Europe, but there is naturally no price or availability listed, so for now you’ll just have to take your medicine the old fashioned way. (via engadget)

The P.L.E.A.S.E. – Click image to watch video at engadget

Video of the Week: Eruptions and Shock Waves at Tungurahua Volcano
French volcano enthusiast Benjamin has been posting some amazing videos recently from eruptions at Tungurahua Volcano located in Ecuador. The video below shows two eruptions along with the shockwaves that these explosive volcanoes create. Benjamin notes that the second eruption is a double eruption due to the geometry of the volcanic vent, and it produces a double shock wave. Check out the video below and see for yourself! And be sure to check out tons more awesome videos and pictures (along with explanations) from Ben’s website here: http://bigbenber.over-blog.com

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#FollowFriday
If you are on Twitter, you know there are plenty of amazing people out there tweeting away. And, many of them are scientists! Every Friday I’ll be bringing you a new list of great scientists and techies to follow on Twitter. This week…

• @JHoffman6: Movies Editor of UGO, sci-fi & arthouse enthusiast. Licensed NYC tourguide. Sensualist. (Even if you’re not on Twitter, just go check out his page for the background image alone!)
• @BPGlobalPR: A spoof Twitter account from fake BP CEO’s tweeting about the oil spill.
• @Afar_Rift: The Afar Rift Consortium. Watching Africa splitting apart! – we are an international geoscience research group monitoring earthquakes and volcanoes in the Afar desert, Ethiopia

Science Quickies
Not enough science for you? Here’s a warp-speed look at some more science tid-bits that are worth a look.

• Fun with Science! Coke and Mentos Rocket Car! [VIDEO]
• Images from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 test flight
• Bird washers hard at work as Gulf spill toll grows

TrekMovie’s Science Friday is an homage the the great NPR radio show Science Friday. Science Friday® is a registered service mark of ScienceFriday Inc.