PETA protest against NASA's plans to irradiate Squirrel monkeys

NASA plans to to continue with plans to subject squirrel monkeys to gamma-ray radiation to learn how long space trips might affect humans.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has obtained documents discussing a controversial NASA-funded project that would expose squirrel monkeys to radiation.

PETA obtained the documents, which include a draft "Decision regarding the disposition of the NSRL Proposal N-249," through a Freedom of Information Act request; however, the documents do not resolve the future of the space radiation experiment, which would take place at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Citing an exemption under the federal law, the U.S. Department of Energy redacted essentially all of the content of the emails and the draft decision it forwarded to PETA.

A statement on PETA's website read: "Unfortunately, before the government sent us these documents, it blacked out Brookhaven's decision, so we don't know if plans to hurt these animals are moving forward or not."

A decision is pending, a spokesman for Brookhaven National Laboratory reported but the time frame was not available.

Full story on PETA's website

April Evans, a NASA aerospace engineer working on the International Space Station as a team lead, has quit her job over NASA's decision to irradiate non-human primates after 30 peaceful years without any space-related experiments on monkeys.

Evans, a NASA Space Flight Awareness Honoree, wrote to Brookhaven director Samuel Aronson, explaining, "After much deliberation, I resigned from NASA because I could not support the scientific justification for this monkey radiobiology experiment."

In the letter, Evans also encouraged the agency to develop better space radiation shielding to protect astronauts—instead of tormenting animals.

It’s also interesting to know that although NASA defends its use of radiation on primates, the European Space Agency does not conduct research on these creatures and has no plans or interest to.

In a letter dated April 1 formally stating the position of the European agency, director Jean-Jacques Dordain said, “there is absolutely no research interest or planning for experiments with primates.”

NASA Hubble Image: NGC 6210 Hercules constellation

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of the curious planetary nebula NGC 6210, which is located about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

A star's last gasp at the final stage of its life has been frozen for all time in a new photo by the Hubble Space Telescope.

In the photo, Hubble took a deep look at NGC 6210, a curious planetary nebula located about 6,500 light-years away, in the constellation of Hercules.

At the heart of NGC 6210 is a star slightly less massive than our sun that is in the last fitful stage of its life cycle.

The star's death spasms have kicked off multiple shells of material with different degrees of symmetry, giving the NGC 6210 nebula its odd, bulbous shape.

The new Hubble image shows the inner region of the planetary nebula in unprecedented detail, where the central star is surrounded by a thin, bluish bubble that reveals a delicate filamentary structure.

The glowing bubble appears to be intertwined with an asymmetric, reddish gas formation where holes, filaments and pillars are clearly visible.

Planetary nebulas are shells of gas and dust expelled by stars near the end of their lives. They are typically seen around stars comparable or smaller in size than the sun. Planetary nebulas are not related to planets as their name suggests, but instead earned the moniker because they resembled giant planets when viewed through early telescopes.

A star's life ends when it runs out of fuel for its thermonuclear engine. The estimated lifetime for a sun-like star is about 10 billion years.

NASA - Sun Crackling with Solar Flares

Fast-growing sunspot 1112 is crackling with solar flares. So far, none of the blasts has hurled a substantial CME, or coronal mass ejection, toward Earth.

In addition, a vast filament of magnetism is cutting across the sun's southern hemisphere.

This filament is so large it spans a distance greater than the separation of Earth and the moon.

A bright 'hot spot' just north of the filament's midpoint is UV radiation from sunspot 1112.

The proximity is no coincidence; the filament appears to be rooted in the sunspot below. If the sunspot flares, it could cause the entire structure to erupt. Thus far, none of the flares has destabilised the filament.

Image Credit: NASA

Bigelow Inflatable Space Station

Boeing capsule pulls up to Bigelow Orbital Space Complex. Credit: Bigelow Aerospace 

Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, chief of Bigelow Aerospace, has been busy marketing his private space modules, an outreach effort leading to six deals being signed with clients this year.

The deals, in the form of memorandums of understanding, involve Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.

"These are countries that do not want to be hostage to just what the International Space Station may or may not deliver," Bigelow reports.

Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999, headquartered in Las Vegas, drawing upon his construction, real estate, and hotel savvy to forge the use of expandable space structures. To date, he has spent more than $200 million to hammer out his business plan for space.

Habitable Planets and Exo-Planets

This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth.

The large planet in the foreground is the newly discovered GJ 581g, which has a 37-day orbit right in the middle of the star's habitable zone and is only three to four times the mass of Earth, with a diameter 1.2 to 1.4 times that of Earth. Credit: Lynette Cook

The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system. The Gliese 581 star has about 30 percent the mass of our sun, and the outermost planet is closer to its star than we are to the sun.

The 4th planet, G, is a planet that could sustain life. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

This image depicts the 3,000 light-year target area for NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Jon Lomberg

Astronomers have detected close to 500 distant alien worlds so far — one of which is the right distance from its star to sustain liquid water and possibly even life — and new advances are yielding more planet discoveries faster than researchers can verify them.

These kind of breakthroughs are now revolutionizing what scientists now know of these distant planets, and could in upcoming decades be capable of finding signs of life.

Neutron Stars Are Doomed if Vacuum Energy goes out of control

Artist's illustration of an "isolated neutron star"--a neutron star that does not have an associated supernova remnant, binary companion or radio pulsations. Credit: Casey Reed/Penn State University.

A mind-bogglingly huge buildup of "vacuum energy," which would occur in just milliseconds, could lead the stellar remnants known as neutron stars to instantly collapse or explode, scientists now suggest.

What is often thought of as the empty vacuum of space is actually filled with ghostly energy and virtual particles wavering in and out of existence, a bizarre prediction of quantum theory that numerous experiments have proven true.

This "vacuum energy," as scientists call it, is usually thought of as extremely weak at best. But theoretical physicists in Brazil suggest that the immensely powerful gravitational fields of neutron stars could "awaken the vacuum," causing its energy to build up exponentially very quickly.

First All-Digital Science Textbook Will Be Free

Science textbooks are born as clunky, out-of-date tomes the moment they roll off the printing press. Research simply moves too fast for the publishing industry to keep up. Digital texts could end this cycle.

Textbooks designed to be all-digital and interactive from the start (as opposed to simply converting print books) could bring not only salvation to schools because they’re easily updated, but also a revolution in how students learn science. Yet publishers are comfortable with a $5 billion-per-year college textbook industry that has recently seen price increases outpace inflation by more than 250 percent, and 99 percent of the market is tied to paper.

One not-for-profit organization is done waiting for the digital textbook revolution.


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