Lennon's Strawberry Field 'sanctuary' to open to public

The site was home to a Salvation Army children's home from 1936 until 2005

 The Beatles legend used to climb the wall to play in the garden of the Strawberry Field children's home in Woolton, Liverpool, when he was a boy.

Lennon's sister (centre) is honorary president of the Strawberry Field project

The Salvation Army is turning the site into a tourist attraction and youth training centre.

Lennon's sister said the grounds were a "sanctuary" to the legendary musician when he was young.

"I suppose as children we all have somewhere that's a bit ours, a bit special," said Julia Baird, who is honorary president of the project.

"It might be a little hidey-hole under the stairs or it might be up an oak tree but it's somewhere we take ourselves off and that's a special place.

"It seems from the song that this was John's special place."

Tens of thousands of Beatles fans already pose outside the red gates every year, with the Strawberry Field sign behind them, but now they will be able to go inside.

An exhibition tells the story of Lennon's early life

Replica gates have been installed but the originals are on show inside the grounds.

The site has been closed since the children's home shut in 2005.

The new centre will include an exhibition of Lennon's early life and provide training for 18-25-year-olds with learning disabilities.

The famous lyric "it doesn't matter much to me" is on the wall, while in the cafe the phrase "It matters to us" is displayed above videos showing the Salvation Army's work.

A virtual mellotron and a tape-replay keyboard will let visitors recreate the song's distinctive sound and a handwritten early draft of the lyrics is also on display.

Salvation Army territorial commander Commissioner Anthony Cotterill said: "John Lennon found sanctuary here as a child and that's exactly what we want to offer by opening the Strawberry Field gates for good.

The centre included a virtual mellotron to recreate the song's distinctive sound

The song was released in 1967 as a double-A side with Penny Lane and became a favourite with the era's psychedelic movement.

Explosions may be responsible for the bizarre lakes on Saturn’s Titan

saturn-titan

Scientists have learned a lot about Saturn’s moon Titan thanks to NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited the planet for well over a decade before NASA, and the ESA had to pull the plug in 2017. The mission was a massive success, and it’s still yielding new discoveries today.

Titan, which is the only other world that we know of in our solar system that supports liquid on its surface, is well known for its colossal lakes that are filled with hydrocarbons, but it’s the towering structures on the shores of those lakes that are the subject of a new research effort published in Nature Geoscience.

In contrast to most lakes here on Earth, many of the lakes found on Titan’s surface are surrounded by steep ridges stretching hundreds of feet into the sky. Exactly how those structures formed is a question scientists are eager to answer, a new model suggests a possible explanation.

Using radar data from Cassini, scientists have built computer simulations that show how explosions of warming nitrogen within Titan’s crust could have formed such basins. It’s possible, the researchers say, that liquid nitrogen, enduring periods of cooling and heating thanks to the greenhouse effect from Titan’s atmosphere, could have heated rapidly enough that, when it vaporized, it caused an explosion in the crust and formed craters.

In this hypothetical scenario, the craters became the perfect places for raining hydrocarbons to pool, laying the groundwork for the lakes we see covering the moon today.

“This is a completely different explanation for the steep rims around those small lakes, which has been a tremendous puzzle,” Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains. “As scientists continue to mine the treasure trove of Cassini data, we’ll keep putting more and more pieces of the puzzle together. Over the next decades, we will come to understand the Saturn system better and better.”

Vandals spray swastika at British WW2 graves in the Netherlands

A memorial has been targeted by vandals at the British World War Two cemetery

Vandals have sprayed graffiti at a British and Commonwealth World War Two cemetery in the Netherlands, with a large swastika seen daubed inside a chapel.

Letters have also been sprayed on headstones in the cemetery in Mierlo near Eindhoven in the south of the country.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) said it was "appalled" by the vandalism that had taken place at the site.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

The CWGC said in a statement: "It is distressing to see the damage on the headstones themselves, behind every one of those war graves is a human story of someone who gave their life while in service.

Dutch police have tweeted an appeal urging anyone who might be able to help identify the vandals to come forward.

The Mierlo War Cemetery is the final resting place of 664 Commonwealth soldiers and one Dutch soldier from World War Two.

Letters have been sprayed on headstones in the graveyard in Mierlo

Graffiti has emerged on the site in the lead up to the 75th anniversary of the allied forces landing in The Netherlands.

The Dutch news agency Omroep Brabant said a woman was seen crying as she observed the vandalism.

She said: "My heart is crying.

A swastika can be seen sprayed inside a chapel at the site

"Here are boys buried of 17, 18 years, who have freed us."

One grave is said to have "MH17 lie" daubed on it - a reference a Malaysia Airlines flight that was downed over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.

The disaster left 298 dead, with most of them coming from the Netherlands.

NASA snapped a new image of Saturn, and it’s a real stunner

Of all the planets in our solar system, most people would agree that Saturn is the most instantly recognisable. Its massive rings make it an unmistakable sight, but despite its celebrity status among us Earthlings, there’s still plenty we don’t know about it. Now, a new series of images captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is helping to shed light on the iconic planet.

As NASA explains in a new blog post, this new portrait reveals some interesting things about Saturn’s ring structure and even offers some clues about the planet’s intense weather.

First and foremost, the new portrait is absolutely gorgeous. It’s one of the sharpest, most perfect captures of the ringed planet NASA has ever produced, and it’s easy to lose yourself for a moment just staring at it.

However, as NASA is quick to point out in a new blog post, pointing Hubble’s lens at Saturn wasn’t just about capturing some new cosmic eye candy:

These images, however, are more than just beauty shots. They reveal a planet with a turbulent, dynamic atmosphere. This year’s Hubble offering, for example, shows that a large storm visible in the 2018 Hubble image in the north polar region has vanished. Smaller storms pop into view like popcorn kernels popping in a microwave oven before disappearing just as quickly. Even the planet’s banded structure reveals subtle changes in colour.

On the flip side, there are a few features that will remain immediately recognizable to astronomy fans, including the hexagonal shape persisting on Saturn’s north pole. The unique mechanics that drive its odd shape remain a mystery to scientists, but it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere so perhaps there’s still time to figure it out.

NASA routinely snaps new images of the gaseous planets in our solar system, so you can expect another updated image sometime next year. In the meantime, this one will do just fine.

Asteroid size of Empire State Building to pass Earth Saturday night

Bennu, seen in this Nov. 16, 2018, photo provided by NASA, is similar to another asteroid expected to pass by the Earth a little before 8 p.m. EDT on Saturday.

After an asteroid safely flew past Earth on Friday, another that's possibly larger than the Empire State building is expected to pass by Saturday night. 

2000 QW7, the skyscraper-sized asteroid, should whiz past Earth at 7:54 p.m. EST. NASA estimates the object to be 950 feet to 2,100 feet in size. For comparison, the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai is 2,717 feet tall, the Shanghai Tower is 2,073 feet tall and the Empire State Building stretches 1,454 feet into the Manhattan skyline.

Friday's asteroid, about 400 feet to 850 feet in size, safely passed Earth at 11:42 p.m. EST.

"These asteroids have been well observed — one since 2000 and the other since 2010 — and their orbits are very well known," Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer and program executive for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA, said in a statement. "Both of these asteroids are passing at about 14 lunar distances from the Earth, or about 3.5 million miles away, but small asteroids pass by Earth this close all the time."

NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program is monitoring 2000 QW7, but it's not expected to pose any threat to the planet.

"Large asteroids pass by Earth several times a year and only pose a threat if they are actually expected to make direct contact with our planet," Johnson previously told ABC News.

"We have objects, asteroids of this size, that pass within 5 million miles of the earth six, seven times out of the year," Johnson told ABC News in August, as 2006 QQ23 came within 5 million miles.

NASA said it's tracking more than 20,000 near-Earth objects -- a figure likely to grow. An average of 30 new objects are identified by NASA each week.

Earlier this week, new research showed that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was as powerful as 10 billion atomic bombs.

Trove of Neanderthal Footprints Provide an Unprecedented Glimpse Into Prehistoric Life

Primitive man walking on the grass on a background of the planet.

Scientists in France have discovered hundreds of fossilized footprints belonging to a single group of Neanderthals. At 80,000 years old, the prints chronicle a single, precious moment in the lives of these extinct hominins.

Meticulous excavations at the Le Rozel Site in Normandy, France, from 2012 to 2017 have revealed 257 fossilized Neanderthal footprints, an analysis of which is published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As many as 14 Neanderthal individuals were identified from the impressions, the vast majority of them adolescents and children. The prints, dated to 80,000 years ago, were initially laid down in muddy soil, and then quickly covered in sand, resulting in the excellent preservation, according to the researchers.

The lead author of the new paper, doctoral student Jérémy Duveau from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and his colleagues say it’s the largest single collection of archaic hominin footprints found at a single site. A mere nine Neanderthal footprints from four sites were known prior to this discovery.

Excavations at Le Rozel in Normandy, France.

The prints, because they were preserved quickly after being laid down, capture “a single life moment of a prehistoric group,” the authors wrote in the new study. Indeed, the trace fossils are an exceptionally rare snapshot into Neanderthal social organization, offering evidence not derived from traditional sources such as bones, tools, or DNA.

The 257 footprints were found below the Normandy shore in a former coastal creek bed. A total of five trackways, in which two to three successive prints were laid down by the same individual, were identified. Over 40 percent of the prints yielded robust scientific data, including full feet lengths, clear impressions of toes, rounded heel marks, and so on. Importantly, the 92-square-meter (990-square-foot) site was a former Neanderthal settlement, and not a trail or some other passageway.

No Neanderthal bones were unearthed at the site, but the prints were associated with “abundant archeological material,” according to the paper, including stone tools, evidence of animal butchery, fire pits, and areas used for flintknapping.

A fossilized Neanderthal footprint found at the Le Rozel site in Normandy, France.

By analyzing the impressions and comparing them to Neanderthal fossils found elsewhere, Duveau and his team were able to confirm the footprints as belonging to the extinct hominins. It’s important to point out that anatomically modern humans hadn’t yet arrived to Western Europe and wouldn’t for another 35,000 years. Also, the Denisovans—a early human group related to the Neanderthals—were nowhere near Western Europe at the time (as far as we know), living primarily in Asia. Neanderthals, based on the pre-existing archaeological evidence, were the only hominins in Western Europe at the time these prints were made.

Analysis of the shape of the feet also revealed insights into their respective owners. By measuring the length, width, and other features of the prints, the researchers were able to pick out individuals and also infer their approximate age and height. Approximately 10 to 14 individuals were identified in the new paper, most of them (90 percent) adolescents and children, including one estimated at 2 years old. Previous research suggests Neanderthals lived in groups of between 10 to 30 individuals. The new finding strengthens this estimate.

That said, the high proportion of children in the group was unexpected.

“Indeed it is a surprise,” said Duveau in an email to Gizmodo. “It is difficult to understand the cause, especially since very little data is available on the size and composition of Neanderthal groups. We can only make hypotheses: perhaps the adults had gone off-site, although this is unlikely since the individuals occupied the site seasonally—it is unlikely that adults were away for that long,” he said. “The high proportion of children and adolescents can also be explained by higher adult mortality. It is currently impossible to know the exact reason for such a composition.”

At the same time, it’s important not to read too much into this single scene. Untold factors and circumstances could have led to the unexpected observation. Perhaps, for example, the children were attracted to the muddy soil, while the adults wanted nothing to do with it, a possibility not entertained in the new paper.

Another surprising aspect of the study is that Neanderthals may have been taller than we thought. Conventional estimates place the average height of Neanderthals at around 166 centimeters (5 feet, 5 inches) for males and 154 cm (5 feet) for females, but measurements of the Le Rozel footprints suggests some Neanderthals were quite tall. Specifically, the researchers discovered relatively long footprints, possibly belonging to a male Neanderthal, that correspond to an individual between 175 cm (5 feet, 9 inches) to 190 cm (6 feet, 2.8 inches), with confidence leaning toward the shorter figure. Still, that would be “relatively large for a Neanderthal,” said Duveau.

Measurements of actual Neanderthal bones, rather than footprints—which are subject to geological distortions over time—are a more reliable indicator of height in the fossil record, however.

Taking all this into account, we can imagine the scene as it was 80,000 years ago: This site, now a beach, was once “surrounded by herbaceous plains and some wooded areas,” Duveau told Gizmodo, while the sea, which now borders the site, “was further away.” The site was (and still is) surrounded by a cliff, which protected the small community from bad weather. And in terms of the daily activities, the Neanderthals worked to build stone tools and cut up animal carcasses.

“Currently, we do not know the role of children in these activities,” said Duveau. “The distribution of activities according to the age of individuals will be the subject of our future research.”

The image of teens and children running around—making footprints in the mud while their parents toil away at their daily chores—is consistent with what we’re learning about Neanderthals and a far cry from the outdated image of them as unintelligent, violent brutes. These hominins were socially complex, fully capable of providing aid to members in need.

As to why the Neanderthals disappeared some 40,000 years ago remains a mystery, but we’re getting closer to the answer—even if it is one fossilized step at a time.

Telescope detects 100 mysterious radio signals from three billion light years away

A 500-metre (1,640-ft.) aperture spherical telescope (FAST) is seen at the final stage of construction, among the mountains in Pingtang county, Guizhou province, China, May 7, 2016

Astronomers could be close to unraveling one of the greatest mysteries of space after a 1,640ft telescope detected 100 mysterious radio pulses from three billion light years away.

The ‘fast radio bursts’ were detected by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope - also known as FAST - and are currently being analysed.

Fast radio bursts are bright pulses of radio emission mere milliseconds in duration, thought to originate from distant galaxies.

Theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars blasted by gas streams from a nearby supermassive black hole, to signatures of technology developed by an advanced civilizations.

The FAST team were studying a fast radio burst source known as FRB121102, first spotted in 2015.

The researchers detected more than 100 bursts from FRB121102 since late August, the largest number yet discovered.

Earlier this month, telescopes discovered a large number of repeating fast radio bursts’, and scientists hope to trace the origins of the mysterious blasts.

Results from the Canadian CHIME telescope were published on the arXiv preprint server, with eight repeaters discovered.

An Australian telescope, the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder also found one, the prestigious science journal Nature reported.

CHIME researcher Bryan Gaensler said, ‘In 25 years of astronomy research, this is unquestionably the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on.’