LOS ANGELES, Oct 24: Astronomers have created the first global thermal map of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa by using images taken with the ALMA observatory in Chile.
The new series of four images of Europa have a resolution of about 200 kilometers, sufficient to study the relationship between surface thermal variations and the moon’s major geologic features.
The research, published in the Astronomical Journal, compared the new observations of Europa by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to a thermal model based on observations from the Galileo spacecraft.
This comparison allowed researchers to analyse the temperature changes in the data and construct the first-ever global map of Europa’s thermal characteristics.
The new data also revealed an enigmatic cold spot on Europa’s northern hemisphere.
“These ALMA images are really interesting because they provide the first global map of Europa’s thermal emission,” said Samantha Trumbo, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in the US.
“Since Europa is an ocean world with potential geologic activity, its surface temperatures are of great interest because they may constrain the locations and extents of any such activity,” Trumbo said.
Europa has a chaotic surface terrain that is fractured and cracked, suggesting a long-standing history of geologic activity.
Evidence strongly suggests that beneath its thin veneer of ice, Europa has an ocean of briny water in contact with a rocky core.
Europa also has a comparatively young surface, only about 20 to 180 million years old, indicating that there are as-yet-unidentified thermal or geologic processes at work.
Unlike optical telescopes, which can only detect sunlight reflected by planetary bodies, radio and millimeter-wave telescopes like ALMA can detect the thermal “glow” naturally emitted by even relatively cold object in our Solar System, including comets, asteroids, and moons.
At its warmest, Europa’s surface temperature never rises above minus 160 degrees Celsius, researchers said.
“Studying Europa’s thermal properties provides a unique means of understanding its surface,” said Bryan Butler, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. (AGENCIES)
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ARTS-KATRINA AAMIR-TOH
Katrina, Aamir to dance on ‘Suraiyya’
in ‘Thugs of Hindostan’
NEW DELHI, Oct 24:
Katrina Kaif will cast her spell on Firangi (Aamir Khan) with her sizzling looks and hot dance moves in ‘Thugs of Hindostan’s new song ‘Suraiyya’.
The film promises to present Katrina in her hottest desi avatar to date, as she plays the role of an outrageously beautiful performer named Suraiyya.
She is the most gorgeous girl in British India who makes every man go weak in their knees.
Prabhudheva, who always sets a benchmark in innovative choreography, has worked tirelessly to design this song that combines old Indian dance forms with intricate contemporary moves.
The song will see Aamir, dressed as a British captain, having the guts to woo Katrina in front of a room filled with British officers. It is a peppy, humorous song which shows off their fun and teasing chemistry.
The song has been composed by the renowned duo Ajay-Atul while Amitabh Bhattacharya has penned its lyrics.
Shreya Ghoshal and Vishal Dadlani have sung this song that will surely become a chart-buster. Director Vijay Krishna Acharya said, ”Suraiyya is a song that gives a sneak peek into the flirtatious relationship between Firangi and Suraiyya.
While she is Hindostan’s most famous performer of India, Firangi is an equally cunning man of the country whom Suraiyya doesn’t trust at all. They have a fun chemistry, they are an odd pair and they are both Thugs in their own right.
Prabhudheva has done a sensational job in creating steps that only Katrina Kaif could pull off. I’m sure audiences will love it.”
Yash Raj Films ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ is the biggest visual spectacle hitting the big screen this Diwali.
It boasts of a larger than life, never seen before action extravaganza and an incredible casting coup that brings together two of the biggest legends of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan on screen for the first time. It also stars Fatima Sana Shaikh in a pivotal role.
‘Thugs of Hindostan’ is set to release on November 8 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. (AGENCIES)
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RESEARCH-WINE-TASTE
Wine’s origin may affect price more than taste: Study
WASHINGTON, Oct 24:
A wine’s origin, rather than its taste, may play a larger role in determining how much a person is willng to pay for the drink, a study has found.
Researchers from Washington State University in the US found through a series blind taste tests that ‘nontaste-related factors’ may play a larger role in how much consumers are willing to pay for wine in Hong Kong, compared with their western counterparts.
The test was administered in three stages. First, there was a purely blind tasting test, in which participants received no information about the wine.
The participants were then provided with the wine’s country of origin prior to the tasting.
In the third stage, full information on the wines, including attributes such as grape variety, region and winery of origin, were provided before tasting.
During each tasting, participants were asked to taste and rate each wine according to selected attributes and assign their “willingness-to-pay” for that particular wine.
Six wines — three reds and three whites, with similar price points, from five different countries and six different regions — were served in each stage. “Most of the wines did fairly well in the first treatment, when all of the individuals were completely blind to the wine details,” said Byron Marlowe, a clinical assistant professor at Washington State University.
“But they do worse when revealed that the wines are from regions that they are not as familiar with or with varietals that they aren’t familiar with,” said Marlowe.
Researchers found that revealing the country and region of origin of the wines from Iowa and Wisconsin had a negative effect on how much participants were willing to pay per bottle.
Customers indicated they would be willing to pay an average of USD 2.70 to 4.80 less per bottle than the designated stated retail price for the wines.
Marlowe said this is probably because those regions are not widely known as wine grape-growing regions, and also not for wine production.
“All of a sudden, when participants know they’re drinking a wine from the Midwest, where cold and hardy varietals are grown, their immediate response is to rate it lower than wine from a more well-known region,” he said.
Similar results were shown for the wines from Germany and Argentina, although further analysis found the two countries to be less effected by perception of region.
Female participants in the study seemed to have higher willingness to pay than males. Younger consumers also appeared to have higher willingness to pay than older consumers, researchers said.
“Novice drinkers” or those who had wine rarely or less than once a month, relied mainly on country of origin information in their wine evaluations, as compared to “expert consumers” or those who drink wine more than once a week and who relied more on sensory quality or taste, according to results of the study. (AGENCIES)
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