Ubuntu environment on Windows means new options for developers
Tech watchers’ eyes and ears have been on the Microsoft Build 2016 developer conference in the U.S. and one of the news items of special interest is this: Microsoft is bringing the Bash shell to Windows 10. “The announcement received an uproarious applause from the crowd,” wrote Chris Welch in The Verge.
http://techxplore.com/news/2016-04-ubuntu-environment-windows-options.html
Planet with triple-star system found
A team of researchers working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has announced the finding of a triple-star system—one that also as has a stable orbit planet in it. In their paper published in The Astronomical Journal, the team describes how they came to see that a binary system once thought to be a single star, was actually a pair of stars orbiting one another, and how that led to the revelation of the triple-star system.
Known planets with three stars appearing in their sky are rare, this new discovery is just the fourth, and it has caused excitement in the space community because it is the closest one yet, allowing for a better look than has been possible with the other finds. The main star is also brighter than the other stars that serve as suns for their planets, making it easier to study both the star and the planet.
The objects under study in the new system are KELT-4Ab, a gas giant planet, similar in size to Jupiter—it takes approximately three days to make its way around the star KELT-A, which serves as its sun. The other two stars, named KELT-B and C, are much farther away and orbit one another over the course of approximately 30 years. It takes the pair approximately four thousand years to orbit KELT-A. The researchers suggest that the view from KELT-4Ab would likely be one where its sun, KELT-A, would appear roughly forty times as big as our sun does to us due to its close proximity. The two other orbiting stars, on the other hand, would appear much dimmer due to their great distance, shining no brighter than our moon.
http://phys.org/news/2016-04-planet-triple-star.html#jCp
Hubble discovers moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake
Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet—after Pluto—in the Kuiper Belt.
The moon—provisionally designated S/2015 (136472) 1 and nicknamed MK 2—is more than 1,300 times fainter than Makemake. MK 2 was seen approximately 13,000 miles from the dwarf planet, and its diameter is estimated to be 100 miles across. Makemake is 870 miles wide. The dwarf planet, discovered in 2005, is named for a creation deity of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.
A moon’s discovery can provide valuable information on the dwarf-planet system. By measuring the moon’s orbit, astronomers can calculate a mass for the system and gain insight into its evolution.
http://phys.org/news/2016-04-hubble-moon-orbiting-dwarf-planet.html#jCp
Widespread loss of ocean oxygen to become noticeable in 2030s
A reduction in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans due to climate change is already discernible in some parts of the world and should be evident across large regions of the oceans between 2030 and 2040, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
Scientists know that a warming climate can be expected to gradually sap oceans of oxygen, leaving fish, crabs, squid, sea stars, and other marine life struggling to breathe. But it’s been difficult to determine whether this anticipated oxygen drain is already having a noticeable impact.
“Loss of oxygen in the ocean is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere, and a major threat to marine life,” said NCAR scientist Matthew Long, lead author of the study. “Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it’s been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change. This new study tells us when we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability.”
http://phys.org/news/2016-04-widespread-loss-ocean-oxygen-2030s.html#jCp
High-fat diet starves the brain
A high-fat diet of three days in mice leads to a reduction in the amount of glucose that reaches the brain. This finding was reported by a Research Group led by Jens Brüning, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne. The mouse brain restored its sugar uptake after four weeks, albeit at the cost of the rest of the body.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-high-fat-diet-starves-brain.html
