SpaceCast Archive: SpaceCast Notes 6/17/2017

SpaceCast - 6/10/2017

Links

Upgrade planned to Svalbard seed vault (related to the last topic we did on the vault)

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Global Seed Vault on the island of Svalbard stores seeds for thousands of food and other crops to maintain biodiversity in the event of an environmental disaster
Recently, extreme warm weather resulted in permafrost melt which flooded the access tunnel (see the cast from a few weeks ago)
Now, a group is investigating potential solutions to counter warming climates

One option is to rebuild the access tunnel so it slopes up instead of down - $1.6 million will be spent investigating how to improve the tunnel in 2018
Other improvements include moving a heat-producing transformer station, digging drainage systems into the mountainside, and constructing a waterproof wall inside the access tunnel

The vault is intended to be self-sufficient, meaning the tunnel will have to be revamped to prevent buildup of water which would prevent future access to the seed vault

New evidence points to all stars being born in pairs

New analysis from physicists at UC Berkeley & Harvard indicate that all sunlike stars were born as twins
Many stars are in binary or trinary groupings (e.g. the Alpha Centauri system), and astronomers have even searched for the sun’s possible twin (dubbed ‘Nemesis’ as it may have produced the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs)
The new theory is based on radio data from a giant molecular cloud in Perseus (a stellar nursery) and a mathematical model which can explain the radio observations only if all sunlike stars are born as twins

The model predicts that all stars form in wide binaries (separated by 500+ AU), and the systems then either shrink or break apart within 1 million years (relatively short time)
Under this model, Nemesis likely escaped to mix with other stars in our region of the galaxy

Obviously, the model will need to be checked in other star-forming regions and molecular clouds to fully validate it

Scientific Targets of the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA recently announced a handful of the first targets of the James Webb Space Telescope
The massive satellite will launch aboard an ESA Ariane 5 rocket to the L2 point between the Earth and the Sun
The list was announced under NASA’s Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) program

This program allows scientists involved in the JWST’s development to select some of the initial targets

Machine-learning algorithm could combat identity theft

Identity theft often involves multiple steps to acquire someone’s personal info - in the 2015 data breach of the IRS, this involved thwarting security questions
Recent research demonstrated a system that could identify when responses were fake

Some respondents were asked to answer personal security questions truthfully, but some were given fake identities which they had to memorize and use
The last question on the quiz was designed to throw the fakers off, leading to uncertainty in responses