Aspergillus tubingensis
2-Apr-2017: Plastic eating fungus identified
Scientists have identified a soil fungus, which uses enzymes to rapidly break down plastic materials. It could help deal with waste problem that threatens our environment.
Attempts to deal with plastic waste through burying, recycling, incineration or other methods are variously unsustainable, costly and can result in toxic by-products, which are hazardous to human health. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found the plastic-eating fungus living in a rubbish tip in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The researchers took samples of soil and various pieces of rubbish in hopes of finding an organism that could feed on plastic waste in the same way that other fungi feed on dead plant or animal material.
Aspergillus tubingensis is a fungus, which ordinarily lives in the soil. In laboratory trials, the researchers found that it also grows on the surface of plastics. It secretes enzymes onto the surface of the plastic, and these break the chemical bonds between the plastic molecules, or polymers.
Using advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, the team found that the fungus also uses the physical strength of its mycelia — the network of root—like filaments grown by fungi — to help break apart the polymers.
Titan(Saturn's largest moon)
28-Mar-2017: Sands of Titan are electrically charged
An experiment showed that, particles covering the surface of Titan are “electrically charged”. It explains an odd phenomenon, prevailing winds on Titan blow from east to west across the moon’s surface, but sandy dunes nearly 300 feet tall seem to form in the opposite direction.
Electrostatic forces increase frictional thresholds and makes the grains so sticky and cohesive that only heavy winds can move them. The prevailing winds aren’t strong enough to shape the dunes.
The non-silicate, granular materials can hold their electrostatic charges for days, weeks or months at a time under low-gravity conditions.
Titan’s atmosphere is composed of 98 per cent nitrogen.
The Earth sand does pick up electrical charge when it is moved, but the charges are smaller and dissipate quickly. That is one reason why you need water to keep sand together when building a sand castle. Not so with Titan, according to the experiment results.
Europa Clipper
10-Mar-2017: Europa Clipper mission to investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa
The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around the globe.
In the grand tradition of these classic ships, the Europa Clipper spacecraft would sail past Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks, providing many opportunities to investigate the moon up close. The prime mission plan includes 40 to 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon's icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.
Europa has long been a high priority for exploration because it holds a salty liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust. The ultimate aim of Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa is habitable, possessing all three of the ingredients necessary for life: liquid water, chemical ingredients, and energy sources sufficient to enable biology.
During each orbit, the spacecraft will spend only a short time within the challenging radiation environment near Europa. It speeds past, gathers a huge amount of science data, then sails on out of there.
The mission is being planned for launch in the 2020s, arriving in the Jupiter system after a journey of several years.