Utah is America in the Western version. Vast expanses of desert, large national parks, pickup trucks racing along ten-lane highways, against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. There is an unexpected curiosity in this decor of wide open spaces: thousands of young Americans speak French here every day.

«It was a shock to me», – recalls Claire Tokaven, a Frenchwoman who has lived in Salt Lake City, the state capital, for five years. «I just arrived, chatted with a neighbor, and she says to me: “My son speaks French!” A 7-year-old child comes, starts a conversation with me, with a good accent!»

The mystery was quickly solved. Since 2008, «bilingual immersion» classes have been developed in public schools and colleges in Utah. The method is radical: starting with KP, students spend half of the day in a foreign language (Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese) – in most cases with a native teacher, and the other half – in English, with a second teacher.

«The result is outstanding», – said Judge Sophie Claire, a schoolteacher who came to Utah in 2021. Students acquire comprehension skills and fluency of speech from an early age. The training focuses on participation, the use of French between children, repetition, games, manipulation of objects, awards and songs.

That morning, at West Jordan Public School in a residential suburb of Salt Lake City, third grade (CE2) students begin a science lesson. «And why did these little water droplets evaporate?» – Elise Brunet, their favorite, a thirty—year-old woman who left Grenoble for Utah in 2021, asks. Not a word in English, all 8-year-olds play this game. «My students always think that I don’t understand a word of English, – breathes Elise Brunet. – The other day there was one who was annoyed, he came to watch me cry, he cried in French!»

In the USA, the model of «immersion in two languages» began to develop in the 1980s in California with Spanish to meet the demand of the immigrant population, and in Louisiana with French. Since the 2010s, the movement has been gaining momentum, in particular, thanks to Utah, which has increased the number of open classes and formalized teaching methods adopted elsewhere, becoming a benchmark. In this state, almost 65,000 young people from a wide variety of social strata receive immersion education in two languages, including 9,000 in French. «The results of such a program are amazing!» – teachers share.

The announcement comes on the heels of a high-profile visit by President Xi Jinping to Renmin University on April 25. He said at the time that «China is a country with a unique history, a distinct culture and a special national context» and that «we cannot blindly follow others or just copy foreign standards and models when we build world-class universities».

In his eyes, «in order to chart a new path for world-class universities with Chinese characteristics, we must remain faithful to the party leadership and the orientation of Marxism and serve the cause of the party and the people». In the evening, television had shown Xi Jinping leaving the university to the applause of a crowd chanting: «We will remain loyal to the party and live up to the people’s trust».

For now, Western observers remain cautious. «We don’t know if it’s just propaganda or a real substantive movement that will affect university relations», – says a diplomat in Beijing. However, Xi Jinping has been preparing such a move for several years. In May 2014, visiting Peking University, he said: «There will never be a second Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT or Cambridge, but there will always be a first Peking University, Tsinghua, Zhejiang, Fudan and Nanjing».

On September 22, 2020, he held a meeting at which he instructed the leaders of the educational and cultural world to «implement the master plan for evaluating education in a new era», the plan of which will be published in a few days.

A weather radar in the Florida Keys has captured an image of Hitchcockian proportions – a huge swarm of migrating birds from South America.

“Key West radar has had a busy night, but not because of weather!” the National Weather Service announced on Twitter early Monday.

“The most impressive display of migratory birds so far this year occurred overnight. This product shows biological targets in green/yellow flying north over the Keys. Showers/rain are depicted in darker blues.”

Meteorologists said the flock’s radius was at least 90 miles long, according to the Tampa Bay Times, but the size of the migration could have been much larger.

More than 118 species of birds begin their journey back to North America at this time of year in flocks that can exceed a million after wintering in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, according to the newspaper.

They fly at night, using the moon and the stars to navigate, and often go undetected – but optimal atmospheric conditions allowed to radar to pick up the creatures in a sea of green and yellow, with rain depicted in blue.

“There was kind of a stable layer of air above us that was deflecting the radar beam closer to the surface,” Weather Service meteorologist Kate Lenninger in Key West told the news outlet. “So, we were able to pick up more low level objects.”

The birds that lit up the radar started in Cuba a day earlier, passed over the Keys and landed in Florida before sunrise Monday.

“Some birds might be hanging out on the Yucatan or in Cuba waiting for tailwinds to pick them up,” Gina Kent, a conservation scientist with the Avian Research and Conservation institute, told the paper.

“On a good wind, more birds that might not otherwise be ready could jump on it,” she added.

Its State of the UK Climate report shows that 2014 remains the warmest year in a temperature sequence now dating back to 1884.

Despite last summer’s blistering heat, 2018 only places as the seventh warmest year on record – as the statistic is based on temperatures all year round.

When it comes to the coldest years, the most recent in the top 10 was in 1963.

The patterns of warm and cold years in Britain are a clear signal of climate change, say scientists.

It comes after the Met Office confirmed this week that the UK’s hottest temperature ever – 38.7C (101.7F) – was recorded on Thursday in Cambridge.

The Met Office scientist who compiled the new analysis says that the clustering of all the warmest years in the first two decades of the 21st Century is what would be expected in a changing climate.

“It’s certainly what we’d expect to see. Our climate in the UK has warmed at a very similar amount to the global temperature rise, so just under 1C for the UK,” said Dr Mark McCarthy.

“Under that warming climate, we would expect that the hot extremes would tend to cluster in more recent times and the colder extremes are further back in time.

“Although we do still experience colder extremes like ‘the beast from the east’ last spring, generally speaking the story we have is that overall it’s the warmer events and these higher temperatures that are dominating.”

This is the fifth such report published by the Met Office and, thanks to a project to digitise historic weather records, it has now been extended to cover the years back to 1884.

Previous versions only stretched back to 1910.

This has not made any difference to the record of the UK’s warmest years, but it has significantly changed the record of the coldest years, with five of the 10 chilliest occurring in the 1880s or 1890s.

There is a significant difference between the coldest year in the sequence and the hottest – with the average temperature for 1892 just over 7C, while the average for the warmest saw an average approaching 10C.

Colder years have been in short supply since the turn of the millennium, with 2010 being the chilliest, and that only ranks at 22nd on the cold list.

Again it is not a measure of the most severe winters but of the lowest average temperature, based on levels measured all year round.

“We expect that extremely cold years nowadays like 2010 aren’t as extreme as the cold years in the past, but the warm years are more extreme than the equivalent from 50-100 years ago,” Dr McCarthy told BBC News.

2018 was the third sunniest year on record in a series dating back to 1929.

Despite this, and the very hot summer weather that tied the record for the warmest three-month period, the overall temperature for the year only placed it in seventh place in the list of the top 10 hottest.

One big factor dragging the year down was the so-called beast from the east, when a record low temperature was recorded on 1 March.

Another may have been the snow, with the UK recording the most significant snowfall since 2010.

When it comes to rain, six of the 10 wettest years in the UK have occurred since 1998.

Over the last decade, our hot and cold seasons have been getting wetter than the long-term average with the summers seeing 13% more rain while the winters going up by 12%.

“It is also interesting that a high number of the wettest years in the UK occurred recently, showing that climate change starts to show up even in highly variable aspects of weather such as rainfall,” said Prof Gabi Hegerl from the University of Edinburgh who wasn’t involved with the study.

“Climate change already matters to the UK and makes a difference.”

Despite the UK breaking the record for its warmest day last week, the Met Office researchers are reluctant to speculate on where 2019 might end up in the hottest years list.

“It’s been something of a mixed bag so far this year. On balance, it’s too early to say where we will end up in 2019 because just a few extreme months can make a significant difference,” said Dr McCarthy.

Follow Matt on Twitter @MattMcGrathBBC.

Mr Youabd said that this is not the first time that these cloud insemination operations have been carried out, but that they start each year from 1 November to 30 April under the Al Ghait Program.

A document addressed to ALM by the National Meteorological Directorate underlines that this program has been operational in Morocco since 1996. It is headed by a High National Steering Committee coordinated by General of the Army Corps Mr. Hosni Benslimane.

According to the same source, the operations of the Al-Ghaït Program are carried out using aircraft in three modes: by the top of the cloud, inside the cloud or by the base of the cloud.

Thus, the top cloud mode takes place in the case of isolated cumulative cloud cells by introducing ejectable pyrotechnic cartridges based on silver Iodide carried by an Alpha-Jet type fighter aircraft. National meteorology.

For the second mode, a King-Air 200 laboratory equipped with cartridges of glaze-burning types intervenes inside the cloud. This mode is used in the case of large-scale cold clouds within the temperature range between -5 ° C and -12 ° C where the activation of the chemical agent, in particular Silver Iodide, is The most effective.
Concerning the mode by the base of the cloud, one intervenes by generators to the soils using Silver Iodide in the case of the cold clouds to great extent.

Under these conditions, a King Air 200 laboratory aircraft equipped with hygroscopic cartridges for hot clouds explains the direction of the national meteorology.

In terms of target areas, according to management, this artificial weather modification concerns the Oum Errabia Watershed, the El Hajeb region for the terrestrial vector and the entire national territory for the aerial vector.

It should be noted that the impact of this technique on water quality was measured. In this regard, management assures that “chemical analyzes relating to the quality of precipitation have been drafted and show the characteristics of a very soft water, which is not mini- mally loaded and comparable to distilled water”.

This was told Tass representative of the Military Historical Society Pavel Filin.
“One of the unrealized pre-project developments that we discovered suggested moving the mouth of the Ob River from Obskaya to Baidaratskaya Bay, the Amur was planned to be returned to its old (much more southern) channel, both projects were supposed to mitigate the climate: to improve the ice situation in the Kara Sea and lead to a warming of the Chukotka region, “- he said.

Melt the ice of the Kara Sea
The project with the transfer of the mouth of the Ob River suggested the construction of a dam across the Ob Bay, which would cause the water to rise and redirect the flow of the river to Baidaratskaya Bay, located west of the Ob River.
“This project was intended to improve the ice situation in the Kara Sea due to the warm flow of the Ob River,” the researcher explained. Development to the mid 30s.

Redirect Kuroshio
The project on the transfer of the Amur channel was aimed at causing warming in the Soviet Far East and Chukotka.
“It is known that the Amur River changed its current even twice, both times shifting the place of its confluence into the Sea of ​​Japan to the north.” The project suggested the return of the river to the historical southern channel, “said Filin .- As a result of the fact that the powerful river carried its waters in sufficient Narrow Tatar Strait, it became shallow and could not pass through one of the sleeves of the Pacific warm Kuroshio Current as before.The project, which applied to the early post-war period – by 1945, assumed to restore the former situation, to open the Cupid along the ancient southern channel and yzvat warming in the Far East and Chukotka. ”

Hybrids
Among the projects discovered in the archives were also the wonders of technology – “ice-cross-country vehicle, walkers, a project to obtain energy from the cold.” “Figures of some of these hybrids were published in scientific and technical journals, we photograph and study them,” said Filin.
Filin decided to generalize and present all the ambitious projects of the past in the archives of the Arctic to the Arctic with his two colleagues in the publication “The Arctic on the Brink of Fiction”, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the world’s first drifting station “North Pole-1” headed by Ivan Papanin.
“The USSR had a phenomenal experience in the management of the Arctic territories.We were convinced that it was an interdisciplinary organization, as it were said today, which managed to remove all departmental barriers, in fact the state in the state.” The Arctic was mastering the complex transport, cultural, economic development Went simultaneously, but already in the 50’s it was lost, emphasis was laid on the development of the transport component, “the researcher believes.
The book will also deal with the history of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, which turns 85 this year. The department was established in 1932 under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, its leader was the Soviet mathematician, geographer, geophysicist, astronomer Otto Schmidt.
Exit the book is scheduled for the end of the year.

According to NASA experts, the so-called solar minimum lasts for several weeks, if the situation does not change, the planet will enter a new phase of development that will turn into a small ice age.

As explained by astronomers, the Sun should constantly experience bursts of magnetic waves and activity, but now this does not happen. At the same time, scientists can not determine how long the solar minimum will last.

A system of seven planets the size of the Earth, three of which could harbor oceans of liquid water and therefore potentially life, was discovered by astronomers around a dwarf star, revealed a study Published on Wednesday in the journal Nature .

“This is a great news, a step further in a research that began almost 20 years ago ,” reacted Thursday 23 February on franceinfo Vincent Coudé du Foresto, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris. “We do not know if they are accompanied by an atmosphere, but hope remains.”

Franceinfo: Systems with several planets have already been discovered. What’s new this time?

Vincent Coudé: What’s special about this one is that the star around which these planets rotate is particularly small. If she had been a little bit smaller, she would not have been a “star” anymore, but would become a “brown dwarf”. These stars are called “red dwarfs” and are very common in the galaxy.

What is the characteristic of “red dwarfs”?

The small stars are much less warm than the Sun and much less bright than the sun. To be in the comfort zone, you have to get close to it. The zone of comfort around the Sun corresponds to orbits of one year. There, we have orbits of a few days, which makes the detection of planets much easier.

How were these planets discovered?

It is thanks to the technique of transits: we see the planet passing the star, which occult a little the light of the star. Its brightness decreases slightly and it reproduces itself very regularly, as the planets pass by. There are many reasons that can cause a star to see its shine diminish a little. But if this happens in an extremely regular way, we really have strong indicators of the presence of planets. Then there’s a whole bunch of tests to check that out.

Can three of these planets house life?

We will have to do additional investigations to find out. What we know is that they are in a place where it is possible. We have no idea what these planets look like. It is not known if they are accompanied by an atmosphere, but hope remains.

The capsule was then only 1.2 km from the station.
This is one tenth of these missions. SpaceX is developing a new Dragon capsule that could transport astronauts into space before the end of the decade.

Business resumes for SpaceX. More than five months after a Falcon 9 launcher hit the ground and a month after the January 14th flight (and the deployment of the first ten Iridium Next satellites ), SpaceX resumed launches to the Space Station The international community . Originally scheduled for Saturday, the shot had been canceled only 13 seconds before the engines fired . Finally, the launcher took off Sunday at 15:38. The mooring of the Dragon is scheduled Wednesday, February 22. The capsule will be captured by the Canadarm 2 robotic arm , piloted by astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough.
The main stage of the launcher was again recovered. It landed on shore , on Landing Zone 1 , located on the base of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . This is the seventh time SpaceX manages to perform this maneuver (four times at sea and three times on the ground), which can be described as controlled. The next step is the return to flight of a recovered stage to be held in April with the launch of SES-10.

7 mn 33 s after take-off of the Falcon 9, the main stage of the launcher returned to land. He landed on Landing Zone 1 , a few kilometers from where he had taken off. © Nasa, SpaceX
The historic 39A firing point will be used by the astronauts of the Dragon V2 capsules
For this mission, the Dragon capsule carries 2.2 tons of food and equipment including the NASA Sgae III instrument ( Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment ). Jean-Pierre Pommereau, director of research emeritus at the CNRS involved in the mission, had explained to us its functioning and interest. This instrument uses the Hexapod Pointing System, produced by Thales Alenia Space on behalf of ESA . The capsule also includes (among others) two experiments to study how certain bacteria become resistant to treatments and how it can be remedied.
The pitcher took off from a firing point that may seem familiar to some. Indeed, the Falcon 9 took off from pitch 39A, launch pad 39 of the Kennedy Space Center! Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and space shuttles from 1981 to 2011 were launched. This is the first time this range has been reused since the last flight of A shuttle in July 2011. It is from there, too, that astronauts will be launched aboard a Dragon capsule in its inhabited version (Dragon V2 or Crew Dragon) from mid-2018.

More than 100 million different wastes would be in orbit around the Earth, including pieces of old satellites and rockets, posing a risk to the future of space exploration.

Shipped last December, an International Space Station (ISS) refueling vessel was equipped with a 700 meter lanyard that was to be deployed during the completion of the tanker’s mission to carry out a test.

In practice, this electrodynamic rod, consisting of steel and aluminum wires, had to move debris through electromagnetic effects. In fact, they were slowing them down into orbits closer and closer to the Earth so that they finally unhook and burn in the atmosphere.

“We believe that the lanyard has not deployed,” said researcher Koichi Inoue, who is in charge of the project. “It is, of course, disappointing that we have completed the mission without achieving one of its main objectives,” he said.

This experiment was to serve as a basis for the subsequent constitution of a much larger rope (5000 to 10 000 meters) deemed necessary to efficiently clean up the space.

The Japanese space exploration agency (Jaxa), which carried out very different missions, had to give up last year to a satellite, Astro / Hitomi, suddenly silent and whose situation in space had been judged desperate. More recently, she attempted a shot from an experimental mini-rocket, but the craft also suddenly stopped communicating and the mission was interrupted along the way.

Beyond their genetic heritage, twins Scott and Mark Kelly share their passion for space. The brothers have both stayed there. Mark, for 54 days, and Scott, about ten times more. It must be said that he spent 340 days in space during his last mission to the ISS, March 25, 2015 March 1, 2016.

With a brother identical to the ground, it was the perfect opportunity for NASA researchers to see the effects on the DNA of a space voyage. While scientists already knew that Scott Kelly grew up during his extended stay on the ISS, the first analyzes of the data collected on its DNA are particularly surprising: he does not exactly share the same gene pool as his twin stayed ashore.

Genetic modifications

Before, during and after the mission, the astronauts were subjected “to the same medical testing program”, as explained by the French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy site Pourquoidocteur. A protocol to allow scientists to observe the impact of the environment on the DNA of twins. They found that the telomeres of the twins were not the same length.

These zones, located at the end of our chromosomes, are known to decrease during aging. Scott Kelly having been exposed to space radiation for nearly 18 minutes, researchers did not expect to see that his telomeres had lengthened in comparison to his brother’s. The scientists even asked for a second analysis from an independent laboratory that confirmed the results.

Moreover, since the return of Scott Kelly from space, the twins are also different on the epigenetic level, that is to say on the reading and decoding of their genome. In short, the molecules supposed to help decrypt certain portions of their DNA are no longer present in the same proportion, nor in the same place.

The limits of experimentation

What conclusions drawn from these first comparative analyzes of twins, one of which lived 11 months in space and the other remained on Earth? Scientists still prefer to remain cautious. First because it is the first experience of the genre, then because it was only carried out with only two individuals, and finally because when NASA presented its first results, analyzes, at a convention in Galveston (United States), they were still very fresh, “just out of the sequencing machines” reports quoted a geneticist USAinformations.

Finally, because the right to privacy, the Kelly brothers may object to the publication of certain results of the analyzes carried out on their DNA, reports the journal Nature . These data could indeed reveal things they do not want to share with the world. The scientific community is pleased to know that such an experiment has been possible.

A beautiful coat, healthy teeth, an imposing size … What will be the criteria of Samboja, 11 year old female orangutan who will be able to choose her partner from photographs on tablet? Hoping to increase the chances of reproduction of these primates, Dutch zoo Apenheul threw for four years an experiment entitled “Tinder for orangutans” so Samboja and his comrades themselves choose the partner of their dreams, reports The Guardian Tuesday, January 31.

The objective of this study is to see what criteria are based choices of female orangutans, says Thomas Bionda, a behavioral biologist zoo . The male can come from far away, the park seeks to save time by bringing the perfect “date”. ” Often, the animals must be returned in their original zoo without there being anything between them, says Thomas Bionda. Things do not always go well when a male and female meet .”

Bonobos reactive to coitus photos
More broadly, this experiment is part of a larger research program on the role of emotions in relationships animal . According to the local newspaper Tubantia quoted by The Guardian , tests have been carried out previously on bonobos. The attention of these monkeys to the shelves was increased when the pictures showed other bonobos in full coitus or making each other’s toilet. But before Samboja finds his partner, the first challenge will be to ensure that the tablets are not destroyed by the sudden gestures of the orangutans!

Who could have imagined that our grandfather was like this? Despite its nightmarish appearance with its bag-shaped body pierced with eight holes, without anus but with an enormous mouth, this microscopic marine creature (it measured less than 1 mm) could well be the first of the deuterostomists, the biological group to which the Vertebrates and therefore humans.

“This group is enormously diverse, with starfish, sea-worms and sea urchins,” says Simon Conway Morris, a professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and co-author of the study Published in the journal Nature.

A remarkable level of organic complexity

Fossils of the Saccorhytus coronaries have been found “incredibly well preserved” in China. “With the naked eye, the fossils we studied resembled small black grains, but under the microscope, the level of detail was staggering, to make us unhook the jaw,” marveled Professor Conway Morris, Who noted “a remarkable level of organic complexity at such an early stage in animal evolution”.

Complex, this little beast was: it was probably feeding by engulfing organic particles and various creatures, when the eight openings in the shape of a cone distributed along the body. They would have allowed her to evacuate the water she was swallowing, for she did not seem to have anus.

The study of Saccorhytus coronaries “brings us important information on the very early stages of the evolution of a group that led to the appearance of humans,” assures the University of Cambridge on its website.

The cliché was taken in November 2016 by the MRO, a powerful telescope that revolved around Mars for ten years. Normally, its integrated device called HiRise takes images close to the Martian soil with its dunes, its craters, its mysterious dry rivers (water has sunk one day?). It is only rarely that HiRise turns its back on the red planet to photograph the immensity of space.

It was necessary to assemble six photographs, made for the purpose of technical calibration, to compose this result. Each photo was first processed electronically, in particular to lighten the Moon, which “would hardly be visible if it was on the same scale of luminosity as the Earth”, NASA explains on its site.

Antarctica is located on the lower left, the island in the center is Australia, and the red part at the top is Southeast Asia. The Earth and the Moon appear closer than they really are, for the cliché was taken when the natural satellite was almost directly behind the Earth, seen since Mars.

Before interested in poachers, cheetahs were present in practically all of Africa and many specimens also lived in the southwestern Asian continent. Now subspecies Acinonyx jubatus whose common name is simply Asiatic cheetah is present in Iran. Its population would contain fewer than 50 individuals. For this reason, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has placed it in the category “In critically endangered” . It is likely that this subspecies disappear in the coming decades … so that the whole species does not suffer the same fate, the research team asked that Acinonyx jubatus, now considered a species “Vulnerable “By the NGO, is now placed in the category” In Danger “. This would increase the means to ensure the conservation of the fastest land animal in the world.

“Maybe next year ?” Vera Rubin will no longer hear this phrase with every disclosure of the Nobel prize list. For the American astrophysicist, died December 25, 2016 at the age of 88, was one of the great forgotten Jury Stockholm, which could be expected that one day recognize the vital role it had in the Confirmation of the hypothesis of a dark matter. Dark matter? This is the invisible mass of the Universe, which acts by its force of gravity. As we explained in a cover feature on the “mystery of dark matter” in the writings of our journalist Azar Khalatbari ( Science and Future 816, February 2015 ), the phenomenon of dark matter was discovered in 1933 by Fritz Zwicky (died in 1974). The Swiss astrophysicist studied the cluster of galaxies in Berenice’s hair. He observes that the speed of the galaxies is so high that the cluster should have dislocated. This irregularity is not explained. Hence the idea of ​​a dark matter, which would be at the origin of it. This hypothesis is thus confirmed in 1970 by the American Vera Rubin.

Vera Rubin on the trace of dark matter

By studying the rotation of the Andromeda galaxy, she finds that the velocity of the peripheral stars is such that they should have escaped from the galaxy. If they are in solidarity, it is because an “invisible mass” holds them back, she concludes. Consequently, and even if the existence of this “invisible mass” is debated, the measurement is confirmed on many galaxies. The hypothesis that 90% of the mass of galaxies is missing begins to be accepted: we begin to seek, from the 1980s, this “dark matter”. But the discussion is always warm on the reality of the existence of a dark matter. Thus, today, more and more voices are raised to say that there are none. Thus, astrophysicists have robbed data from the US satellite Spitzer (he works in the infrared) to estimate the mass of the stars of 153 galaxies . They then evaluated the rotational speed of these galaxies and showed, with more than 3000 measurement points, that the visible mass of gas and stars of each galaxy ?? Would explain by itself these speeds, without it being necessary to resort to the famous dark matter … On this subject, you also propose to watch the video presented below and shot in July 2016 with the astrophysicist CEA David Elbaz.

He is there, behind a large curtain in an ice shed Aéropole Payerne: SolarStratos , the solar airplane that will go flirt with the stars flying in the stratosphere about 24 kilometers above our heads. “Time” was able to discover this unique aircraft in the world before its official presentation to the public on Wednesday, 7 December.

With its 24-meter wingspan and its slender line, SolarStratos has the look of a condor and exudes an impression of lightness. “It weighs about 350 kg empty,” says Raphaël Domjan, who will lead this beautiful toy two-seater to 5 million francs. A crossing of the United States from east to west aboard a solar car in 2008, before the first round the world on a solar boat, PlanetSolar, in 2012: eco-adventurer connects the first in fuel in the sun. And first, will be discussed with the plane: Raphaël Domjan aims to beat the altitude record for a manned solar aircraft, held since 2010 by the Solar Impulse André Borschberg with 9235 meters . Good player, it has slipped to “Time” that “all efforts are useful for (…) promote [new technologies for the aerospace sector], I welcome the work of the team of Raphael Domjan” .

But before snatch a medal in his illustrious big brother, SolarStratos still some details to polish. A test phase to start in February 2017 will determine whether this prototype manufactured by the German company PC-Aero is indeed capable of operating in the stratosphere, the second layer of the atmosphere in which the laws of physics can play tricks.

In the stratosphere, “it is certain death”
At about three times the height of Mount Everest, it’s cold: -60 ° C on average. And atmospheric pressure therein is not more than 5% of its value at the sea. Pressurize the cabin? “No, it would increase too much the plane,” said Raphaël Domjan, which will result in a spacesuit specially designed to provide heat and oxygen. Better to have confidence in his equipment to humans, get outside “beyond 19,000 meters is certain death,” he warns.

The pilot will be equipped with a space suit for heat and oxygen supply.
SolarStratos
Another component that will be scrutinized in the coming months, the batteries will need to be reliable. We do not know how they will behave in the stratosphere. SolarStratos teams work with their Austrian provider to ensure proper function in low pressure. Same for all the electronics: “It is certified to operate down to -40 ° C, but not at -60 ° C. What will happen at that temperature? “Asks the driver.

20 kilos of solar panels
But technology SolarStratos queen, it is of course its solar panels. These commercial units of the American company Sunpower, which have an efficiency of around 24%. “They are assembled and sandwiched-between different materials to achieve very light and very reliable modules,” says Christophe Ballif, director of the photovoltaic sector in Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchâtel. These cells are so light that “everything SolarStratos embarks less than 20 kilos of solar panels,” notes Raphael Domjan. If similar signs to those used in the building had been used, it would have to multiply that weight by a factor of 12.

The plane could also help to better understand the physical phenomena that are played in the stratosphere.
SolarStratos
The collaboration between CSEM and SolarStratos has been close since the encapsulation of cells and their integration in the wings were entrusted to the Neuchâtel institution. “We tested the operation of our modules for temperature ranges of -60 to + 90 ° C, said Christophe Ballif and their resistance to high UV radiation doses.”

The stratosphere, this new frontier
If all goes as planned, the stratospheric maiden flight could take place in 2018. Record or not, it would open the second phase of Raphael Domjan offer solar commercial flights at high altitude. But not with that aircraft, which is “a demonstration project” in the words of the adventurer. Are there really a market? The idea divides. Never mind, Raphael Domjan has the sequence of ideas: if human spaceflight do not, there is always the possibility of developing stratospheric solar drones.

Plans are in both study at Facebook, who would distribute Internet through such devices as the side of the Solar Impulse team. These could capitalize on their experience to develop solar drones loaded replace or support some lower-cost satellites. “The stratosphere is the next frontier for aeronautics,” says another source working in the industry.

Raphaël Domjan can also count on the support of Bertrand Piccard, the initiator of the Solar Impulse project. “Raphael is a friend for years. We always support in our respective projects. We both know that cleantech can accomplish incredible things. I am confident that by the age of 10, there will be electric aircraft capable of carrying 50 passengers for short haul flights means. And then all we are doing now look normal. I look forward to this moment. ”

In one part of the hangar in Payerne, a photo exhibition traces the adventure of solar, pioneers of the 1960s to the recent exploits of Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. No doubt Raphaël Domjan could see himself writing a new chapter in this story.

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Switzerland attracts better educated people belonging to the elite of the increasing flow of Russians exiled. This new “brain drain” coincides with the third term of Vladimir Putin, marked by an ultra-conservative shift. Between 120 and 150 000 Russians annually left their homeland since 2013, notes Alexander Grebeniouk, co-author of a study on the emigration of Russia, published by the Citizen Initiatives Committee last October. According Grebeniouk, those who choose Switzerland are mostly scientists, or are part of the elite. They remain invisible in official Russian statistics because they do not do anything to the authorities.

Annexation of the Crimea and political repression
The Times spoke with three candidates to the profile characteristic of those who seek to emigrate to Switzerland. Pavel (24), Inna (28) and Taras (43) each intended to take the plunge in the coming months. They display all three repulsion for the Russian political system and feel that the situation is blocked for long.

“I thought for many years to leave Russia says Taras, entrepreneur in the information technology. But it is the annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and the political repression that ensued made me decide. I participated in major events [opposition] in 2012 and I think have been very lucky not to have been arrested because several friends were. Today, Russian society is demoralized and amorphous. For me it is clear that the situation will get worse. “The economic crisis contributes to discourage the contractor. “Part of our customers went bankrupt and it cost us a very important contract,” says Taras.

“I do not believe that change is possible here”
Recognized professional in the world of public relations, Inna has never campaigned in opposition but personally knows many of its leaders. “I admire them but I do not believe that change is possible here, she says. Power is delighted to see from people like me, who have a European mentality and come with a critical mind. ”

Defining itself as “apolitical”, Pavel, feels otherwise repression, “I’m gay and I do not want to live my whole life hiding, nor be afraid every time I go out to a gay club. My family will never accept me as I am so I prefer to breathe a different air. ”

The choice of Switzerland
But why choose Switzerland? Coming from a very privileged background, Pavel has traveled extensively and Switzerland combines luxury, the area where he works. “I earn a good living in Moscow but I know I can find a job paid equally to Geneva, where I have many relationships, and thus maintain my lifestyle, he said in a French accent-free . The Geneva mentality for me and the quality of life is great. ”

Conversely, Taras has never set foot in Switzerland and does not speak French. “I chose Switzerland because my two partners and I were looking to install aids our start-up in Europe. We searched several cantons Vaud and one of us has testified interest. They have a program to attract IT sector companies. We have already worked with the University of Lausanne. ”

“I think we will have no problem to integrate us”
One of Taras partners are already installed in Lausanne last year, with a wife and children. “It took less than a year to get all the necessary papers, although he does not speak French. My wife, who works as a designer at the Bolshoi, speaks and I think we will have no problem to integrate us. “The man speaks fluent English and has traveled throughout Europe, where many of his friends are already installed. “None of them regrets having taken the plunge,” he notes, before adding: “Our third partner will keep him in Russia and our 15 employees.”

Not all seduced
Through the information he gleaned and the testimony of his partner already installed in Lausanne, Taras has built a very positive image of the canton of Vaud. “Life is much more comfortable than in Moscow, if he imagined. The infrastructure is in better condition. Ecology, health services, lack of crime and corruption offer ideal conditions for life and business. ”

All Russian immigrants are not seduced by Switzerland. Inna, 28, actually follows her banker husband transferred to Zurich. “We will settle permanently in Zurich, and it hardly enchants me. I would have preferred Geneva says this elegant brunette with lanky silhouette. I find boring and Zürich’m not sure I can adapt to the local mentality, especially as I do not speak German. I love to party, and I feel that Moscow will miss you! “

John Glenn was married, had two children and two grandchildren.

Shortly after the announcement of his death many personalities have praised his memory.

“John has always been the best, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond,” said President Obama in a statement.

In February 1962 he became the first American to reach Earth orbit aboard the tiny Mercury capsule named Friendship 7 .

Mr. Glenn has recurred in 1998 at the age of 77, becoming the oldest person in space.

President Obama was awarded in 2012 the Presidential Medal of Freedom, highest civilian award in the United States, describing it as a “hero in every sense of the term.”

President Obama was awarded in 2012 the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

NASA had honored him in 1999 by renaming his name his Cleveland Research Center, Ohio State where he was senator from 1974 to 1999.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my years on this planet, this is the most happy and fulfilled people I have met are those who dedicated themselves to something greater and more deeper than their own personal interests, “he told the twilight of his career.

The first space mission of John Glenn, who completed three orbits around the planet lasted a little less than five hours, but the American was able to pride in the United States, after a first jump of chip space his compatriot Alan Shepard.

A peaceful progressive

It was then the Cold War, and Glenn and joined the Soviet Yuri Gagarin, who had first achieved this April 12, 1961.

“The Cold War was real, the USSR was expanding and it has technological superiority was unthinkable for the United States, had to catch up,” explained John Glenn.

Former Marine fighter pilot during World War II and during the Korean War, and test pilot, he left NASA in 1964, mortified that President John F. Kennedy, fearing an accident, has ordered that no returns more space this prestigious astronaut.

He worked in private practice for ten years before becoming a senator from Ohio in 1974. Enjoying a popularity unequaled, he was elected by winning all the 88 counties of the state.

He was reelected in 1980 with a historic margin, the largest in the history of Ohio, and retained his seat in 1986 and 1992.

During his Senate career, this progressive has been dedicated to the fight against arms and disposal of nuclear waste. He also made a failed attempt for the White House in 1984.

He was still a senator when he went back a second time into space in 1998. Also in great physical and mental shape 77 years, Senator Glenn flew October 29, 1998 from Kennedy Space Center aboard the shuttle Discovery space for a nine-day orbital mission designed to study the effects of aging in weightlessness.

With the disappearance of John Glenn on Thursday at the age of 95, the first seven American astronauts chosen for the pioneer space program in 1959 are now all dead, ending a glorious chapter in American history.

These seven drivers, many of whom were portrayed in the film The Fabric heroes , proved that space flights were possible and paved the way for the next generation of astronauts who set foot on the moon.

Alan Shepard

First American in space, Alan Shepard took off May 5, 1961 aboard the capsule Freedom 7 for a suborbital flight to 186 km altitude, before landing back on Earth.

He later commanded Apollo 14 in 1971 for the third lunar landing, and became the fifth man to set foot on the moon.

He died in 1998 at age 74 of leukemia.

John Glenn

First American to turn in orbit around the Earth, it has made three rotations around the planet 20 February 1962 for a flight that lasted just under five hours.

He was later elected senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999, but was able to Regout the joys of space, at the age of 77, during a nine-day mission in 1998 aboard the shuttle Discovery .

He died Thursday at age 95. His health had declined in recent years and had especially suffered a heart operation in 2014.

Virgil “Gus” Grissom

He was the first man to be sent into space twice. He first flew on the second suborbital flight in 1961, after Alan Shepard, before driving the Gemini first mission in 1965, which was the first to change his initial flight plan.

Gus Grissom and two other astronauts died in 1967 in a fire in a space capsule during a test ground before Apollo 1, he should order.

Scott Carpenter

It was the replacement for John Glenn in case it could not fly in February 1962 and became the second American to turn in orbit around the Earth three months later, in May 1962.

After three rotations around the Earth in the capsule Aurora 7 , he missed his landing zone about 400 km.

He then left NASA and participated in a Navy program on underwater exploration.

He died in 2013 of a heart attack at the age of 88.

Gordon Cooper

He flew in 1963 on the last Mercury mission and became the last American to fly solo in space. His capsule Faith 7 turned 22 times around the Earth, a mission that lasted more than a day.

Her second space flight in 1965 aboard Gemini 5 lasted eight days, setting a record for longevity in the space for the time. Gordon Cooper has become the first American to sleep … in space.

He died in 2004 of heart failure at age 77.

Walter Schirra

He became the first man to fly over the initial three types of American spacecraft, Mercury , Gemini and Apollo .

He was commander and pilot of Gemini 6 in 1965 for the first orbital rendezvous, managing to get close to a few feet of Gemini 7 .

He also commanded Apollo 7 in 1968.

He died of a heart attack while he was treated for abdominal cancer in 2007, aged 84.

Donald Slayton

He was selected first for the first Mercury mission, but he could not fly in 1962 due to a cardiac arrhythmia. He became director of flight crew for NASA before finally receiving permission to fly 10 years later.

In 1975 he was aboard the first joint space mission with the Soviet Union Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Test Project, the first docking of US and Russian vessels in space.

He died in 1993 of a cancerous tumor in 69 years.

Services Google are heavily used by Internet users. And behind them are giant data centers. Whose energy needs are sometimes equivalent to those of medium-sized cities.

“Our engineers have spent years perfecting Google’s data centers, which makes them 50% more energy efficient than the industry average, recalls Urs Hölzle , Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure at Google ( source: Blog Google ) . But we still need a lot of energy to power the products and services our users depend. ”

Since 2010, Google began to sign agreements to purchase renewable energy. The first agreement signed then was about 114 megawatts of wind power. It is now 2.6 gigawatts of green energy that is acquired by Google. What almost cover all its needs.

“I am delighted to announce that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for all of its activities, including its data center and its office” , announced Urs Hölzle. The firm now wants the biggest market green power purchaser . Evidence to support this table with data taken from Bloomberg . ” And we are focused on creating new energy from renewable sources. So we buy only from projects that are funded by our purchases. ”

Good for the economy
Displease in the future government Trump, the fight against global warming can lead to business (and profits) for businesses. Purchases of green power by Google resulted in investment in infrastructure over $ 3.5 billion , says the firm. Two thirds spent in the United States.

Solar and wind farms are generating revenue … and taxes for the state. This choice also seems to bear fruit for Google. The Company recognized a decrease in wind and solar prices of respectively 60% and 80% over the past six years. “This shows that renewable energies are becoming increasingly more affordable option,” says Urs Hölzle.

Next step, always focus more on short circuits of energy supply . So that renewable energy purchases can be directly consumed by data centers of Google.

Of course, data centers Google does not consume renewable energy because the wind is not blowing round the clock and the sun does not shine at night. Buy green energy will therefore not always tell the drink yourself. To meet this challenge, the firm has diversified to maximize its sources of supply in order to limit the use of traditional energy sources.

PICTURE 1

Picture of Akhtala monastery complex in Armenia
This picture depicts two triangles that form a six-pointed star. This symbol is also a part of Tehenyats monastery ‘s decor. In all likelihood, the triangles represent two Universes, which are closely linked, but can never unite in one Universe. Symbolic image of the Universe Antiuniverse pair with triangles is not chosen by chance. In all likelihood , the three sides of the triangles represent three-dimensions of both Universes. If you take a close look at the image of triangles, you can see the difference between them. In one triangle, the three sides (three dimensions) are firmly linked by intertwined cords that are likely to correspond to the processes in the Universe, going in one direction. Most likely – it is our Universe. In the other triangle there are three squiggls,one on each side, symbolizing that the processes in the galaxy are different. All six corners of triangles are symbolically secured by semicircles , most likely,it is an indication that the two universes are stationary systems.
Thus, the question of keeping the symmetry in the universe was solved by creating a pair of Universe- Antiuniverse. And due to that ,all issues related to the different amount of matter and antimatter in our Universe were solved too. In Antiuniverse ,on the contrary, there is much more antimatter than the matter. Antiuniverse- Universe pair is a classic example of keeping the symmetry. They are mirrored images of each other with the replacement of all the charges of particles , which they are composed of, with the opposite charges.
In Chinese mythology and philosophy , one of the triangles represents the masculine positive energy -Yang, and the other triangle is female negative energy Yin. Yin-Yang – is a symbol of the creative unity of opposites in the Universe. It is depicted as a circle – the image of infinity, and divided by a wavy line in two halves – dark and bright. You can see Yin Yang symbol below. In all likelihood, white and dark spots represent the full symmetry of the Universe and Antiuniverse by replacement of elementary particles and nucleons with the opposite charges .

PICTURE 2

Yin Yang symbol of ancient Chinese mythology.
Initially, Yin and Yang meant the shadowy and the sunny slopes of a mountain, not converging each other, without being different from each other. Probably, thereby rendering the image of the Universe and Antiuniverse, whith one difference that one of them is composed of matter and the other of antimatter. They function in the same way, but can never meet, because there will occur a complete annihilation. Under the weight of thousands of years it was gradually forgotten about the true meaning of the symbol of two interlaced triangles and its connection with astrophysical science studing the functioning of the Universe. All other interpretations of this symbol, made afterwards in different parts of the Earth are common fiction.
Of course, the symbol of two interlaced triangles was brought to Earth by people from other stellar systems, 8-16 thousands years ago. These men possessed the scientific knowledge and technology that are not available to modern scholars. Most likely, they knew perfectly well that the Universe consists of two interrelated parts – the Universe and Antiuniverse.
Modern scientists do not know much on that issue, and continue to develop the theory of the big bang which is nonexistent. When representatives of CERN start telling Earthlings that they recreated a situation by the Large Hadron Collider,which was immediately after the big bang , it creates an impression that these scientists can not figure out the experiment results and try to adjust them to their fabrications of the big bang .
In the next article we will focus on fragments of Tehenyats monastery Decor in Armenia.
20. 02. 2016, the city of Chernigov.

In this article, we will focus on the origin of water on asteroids, planets and their moons in the solar system. When we drink the water from a well or spring, you do not think about where it came from in the world. And it’s very hard to imagine that almost all the water that is present in the solar system, the sun made and delivered to the orbit mainly after the destruction of his hard dark crust 4.6 milliard years ago.
In order to better absorb the material in this article is desirable to get acquainted with the theory of life cycles of stars and galaxies, which is set out in the scientific work of the author and the book under the title “Alive organіsm of the Universe” also scientific article of author posted on the Internet: “What is a galaxy?”, “The formation of planets in the solar systems of all the Universe,” “His Majesty Jupiter” and many others.
According to this theory, the Sun, like all the other stars in our galaxy was formed from neutrons, which, in turn, materialized out of the electromagnetic radiation of the quasar. In this electromagnetic radiation has become a huge black hole, which was located in the center of our galaxy about 20 milliard years ago. After that, the neutron star of our sun began to form proton shell. In a few milliards years it has begun nuclear fusion, and the sun was disposed of the matter of his bowels into orbit and into interstellar space. The distribution of matter in orbits occurred under the law mass distribution. Lighter elements and gases can take a higher orbit. And from this matter were formed primary planets and asteroids. At a late stage of formation of the solid dark crust formed the Sun not only elements of the periodic table, but the chemical compounds that are also thrown into orbit according to the law mass distribution. Water could reach orbits, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. And just as rare exception could reach the orbit of Jupiter and Saturn. One might ask – how water gets into interstellar space, where its presence in large quantities? Mass of neutron stars of the Universe can not be as high as 27 mass of our Sun. If the mass of the neutron star is more than this value, it will become invisible, because it will be a black hole, too, almost one hundred percent made up of neutrons. With the destruction of the solid crust of very massive stars tremendous amount of water enters into interstellar space.
Thus, the primary planet and asteroids were formed of elements and chemical compounds that have reached their orbits. All primary planet, starting on Mars and ending Mercury and Pluto, which is before the destruction of the crust of the Sun as well as Sedna and Eris was moving in an orbit of smaller radius than the radius of the orbit of Mercury, had large amount of water.
4.6 milliard years ago, after the destruction of the solid dark crust of the sun cloud of dust and gas, which moved away from the Sun, re-delivered to the orbit of the same matter as before, according to the law of mass distribution. This matter had a huge amount of water.
Primary massive asteroids, which were located close to the Sun, were torn from their orbits by blow gas-dust cloud, and formed the so-called Kuiper Belt. A light asteroids that could be located at higher orbits, have very elongated orbits and become meteorites.
More massive primary planets of “terrestrial group” weathered blow gas- dust cloud, but they increased a little eccentricities of their orbits. They are again collected matter from their orbits, including water and formed planet and which function is currently. Thus, several milliards years ago, all the major space objects of “terrestrial group” and even a very large Kuiper Belt planetoids had a huge amount of water that covered their surface.
After the destruction of the crust and the flash of the Sun appeared a huge number of meteorites that bombarded large space objects of the solar system. Particularly strong were bombed space objects “terrestrial group” for obvious reasons – the closer to the Sun, the more the flux density of meteorites. Flying up to the Sun, they reduce the radii of their orbits.
Due to such attacks cosmic objects whose masses are equal to or less than the mass of Mars and are not moving in orbits above Mars, could not keep the water on its surface, and she left these space objects. The fact that the Moon, Mars and other cosmic objects in the solar system before there was water, the author said in the aforementioned scientific work eleven years ago, and explained where it came from and where it disappeared. And then, finally, NASA scientists have confirmed that the Moon and Mars before it was really a lot of water and that on the Moon and Earth, it has the same origin. But soon it will be proved that Mars had the same water as on Earth. Water will find on Mars in the deep, very narrow hollows and under the surface.
But one might ask – why Jupiter’s moon Europe and some Saturn’s moons, covered with a thick layer of ice? In theory author it’s there drifted in minima amounts. These satellites before the outbreak of the Sun was moving in orbits located between Mercury and Venus. After hitting the gas and dust cloud that moved from the Sun, they got a very elongated orbit. The impact was not as strong enough to throw them into the Kuiper Belt. In all likelihood, when this satellites were in the aphelion, they moved higher of the Saturn relative to the Sun. In the course of milliards of years, while moving in their orbits they were captured by Jupiter and Saturn on its orbit, but when the meteorite bombardment in decline. Mass of Europe almost three and a half times is larger than the mass of Pluto. In all probability, before the outbreak of the Sun and Europe, and Pluto were formed very close to the Sun in the neighboring orbits. But Europe has been massive and has not departed so far as Pluto.
As for Venus, in the period when the Sun to function, creating a solid dark crust, its primary planet was covered with a thick layer of ice. Following the outbreak of the Sun fell on it in addition a huge amount of water vapor. But according to the law of mass distribution on this planet has got a lot more carbon dioxide than the Earth. Because of the very high temperature, the steam held in the atmosphere over the carbon dioxide. Meteorites can pluck water vapor from the atmosphere of Venus during bombardments very easy. Besides bombing was more intense than on Earth, and the mass of the planet is smaller almost 20 per cent compared with the Earth. In all probability, a weak magnetic field of Venus did not play role in this process.
According to the law of mass distribution Venus got more heavy elements than the Earth. Its specific gravity should have been more specific density of the Earth. Rather, in Venus are large concentrations of gases and water vapor, including, under great pressure. Furthermore, the smaller the mass of the object space, the smaller the gravitational forces acting during its formation.
Thus, all the water, found in space objects solar system, was produced in the proton shell of the Sun, and then delivered to their orbits by him. The relatively small amount of water is sometimes entered into the solar system space objects from other star systems, which are located at higher orbits with respect to the center of the galaxy.
Modern astrophysical science falsely assumes that the planets and other massive cosmic objects of solar system water is stored meteorites, asteroids and comets that come flying out of the mythical Oort cloud. Oort cloud does not exist. This was discussed in the article, the author of “Nemesis and mythical Oort cloud”, which is available on the Internet. If on the surface of Jupiter, Saturn and other planets fall asteroids and comets contain water, they really gets a relatively small amount of water, but the water was also made on the Sun.
The theory cycles of life of stars and galaxies, developed by the author, gave an exhaustive answer to the question – where did the water in the solar system and other star systems. All space objects stellar systems are formed from matter ejected by the stars orbit the same star systems. Only in rare cases, in these processes may be involved matter entering the star system from other star systems located at higher orbits in the galaxy. Stars are not formed from interstellar gas-dust matter.

13. 07, 2013, Ukraine, Chernigov.

The inclusion of a property on the endangered sites list should help mobilize support from the international community for protection.

At its 40th Session in July 2016 in Turkey, the World Heritage Committee has classified as “at risk” sites in Mali and Uzbekistan. The five heritage Libyan assets have been added to the list given the damage already suffered damage and even feared because of the conflict in the countries of North Africa.

INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
Armed conflict and war, earthquakes and other natural disasters pose major problems to World Heritage sites. It also adds pollution, poaching, uncontrolled urbanization and unchecked tourist development.

According to Unesco, endangered sites may be experiencing “ascertained danger” when it comes to specific and proven imminent threats, or in a situation of “endangerment” when they are faced with threats which could have adverse effects on their World Heritage values.

The inscription of a site on the List of World Heritage in Danger allows the Committee to provide immediately to the endangered assistance under the World Heritage Fund. It also alerts the international community in the hope that it mobilizes to save the site concerned. It allows conservation specialists to effectively meet specific needs.

EXAMPLES OF SITES “AT RISK”
– AFGHANISTAN : Archaeological remains of Jam (2002) and the Bamiyan Valley (2003).

– IRAQ: Ashur (2003), Hatra (2015), Samarra Archaeological City (2007).

– JERUSALEM: Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (1982).

– MALI: Tomb of Askia (2012), Timbuktu (2012), old Town of Djenne (2016).

– NIGER: Aïr and Ténéré National Nature Reserve (1992).

– SYRIA: Old city of Aleppo (2013), Bosra (2013) and Damascus (2013), Krak knights and Qalaat Salah el-Din (2013), Palmyra (2013) and ancient cities of the North (2013).

– YEMEN: Ancient city of Shibam and its city wall (2015), Old City of Sanaa (2015) and Historic Town of Zabid (2000).

Many national parks are classified as “at risk”, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic or Senegal.

A video in which they welcomed the cooperation between training centers astronaut of the European Space Agency and the Chinese agency, but also culinary exchanges among space travelers.

For his birthday, Jin Haipeng has indeed received a cheesecake crafted by French chef Alain Ducasse for Thomas Pesquet. In friendly elevator reference, Jin Haipeng Chen Dong and presented to Thomas Pesquet their best wishes for his mission on the ISS.

Thomas Pesquet is the tenth French to have this opportunity, and this had not happened in eight years: Thursday, November 17 at 21:20 French time, the 38-year astronaut flew aboard a Soyuz spacecraft since Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Destination: the International Space Station (ISS) where it will remain little more than six months, his return is scheduled in May 2017.

The Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) Saturday, November 19 at 22:01 GMT.

For this extraordinary adventure, the 38 year old French was accompanied by American Peggy Whitson and Russian Oleg Novitsky.

Born in Rouen February 27, 1978, Thomas Pesquet tells a child, he was “a fan of space, quite naively like many little boys.” He played in a space shuttle crafted by his father with cardboard, is buying specialized magazines. “Unconsciously,” Over the years, Thomas Pesquet has built a complete profile of astronaut by its successive choices. To the point that at the time of the selection, “I could tick all the boxes,” said he explained to AFP.

“A good ambassador of space”

For Norman, aeronautical engineer and also an airline pilot, this departure for the ISS will be the culmination of over seven years of training. The saptionaute was selected in May 2009 to enter the body of European astronauts. About 8413 candidates, the European Space Agency has selected six of which Pesquet Thomas, the last to fly.

“Thomas is a remarkable boy” and “cool”, told AFP Jean-Jacques Dordain, the former Director General of ESA, which has made the final selection when there were only ten candidates. “It brings an interesting professional curriculum, important human qualities that allow it to be comfortable with everyone, and finally the passion.” “That makes him a good ambassador of space.”

In addition to English, Spanish and German, Thomas Pesquet -indispensable learned Russian Soyuz for the flight. He also started the Chinese. Astronaut stresses that he was lucky to have “an extremely stable childhood” in Normandy. “My parents gave me roots and wings.”

Despite its agenda, Thomas Pesquet tried to save a few moments to see his wife Anne, who works in Rome for the UN. At takeoff, she was there with Thomas’s parents, his brother and friends. But they could not see the astronaut, medical quarantine, as through glass.

Although not the moon of the century, there will be an “extra super Moon”. To understand the phenomenon that will not happen before November 25, 2034, it is first necessary to examine the circumstances that lead to super moon “classic.” It is the combination of a full moon phase and a time when the moon is practically at its perigee, the location of its orbit closest to Earth. Because the orbit of the Moon, which revolves around our planet in less than 28 days is not circular, but elliptical; so that it moves away from Earth between about 356,000 kilometers (perigee) and 406 700 km (apogee).

“This phenomenon of super moon, astronomers call perigee Moon is relatively common: it occurs on average every year and forty-eight days,” says Pascal Descamps of the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris calculation to L Paris Observatory. But why this Super Moon will she next – and therefore bigger appearance – as so many others? “Because the moon’s orbit is more complex and more disturbed. It deforms constantly and significantly over very short periods. What’s also making it very difficult to study. Like other parameters, the lunar perigee is changing: its distance from Earth varies, “says the astronomer. This is the result of a set of gravitational perturbations related to the Sun, the planets, but also to the fact that the Earth is not perfectly spherical …

Raise your eyes to 18 h 30
Monday, November 14, at 12 h 21 French time, the Moon will therefore reach its perigee at a distance of 356,509 kilometers from Earth (against 356,461 kilometers in 1948 and 356,445 in 2034). Two hours and thirty one minutes later, it will enter full moon phase at 14 h 52. Here, in France mainland, it will of course not up yet and it will take 17 h 42 in order to start the observe if, and only if weather conditions permit. According to the Observatory of Paris, will be even better to wait until 18 h30. To revel in the spectacle, no equipment will be necessary, although it must be said, the human eye alone is not able to grasp the difference in apparent size between the super moon and another … And if the clouds come to spoil the party? You can always preview the live show through pictures released (below) by the specialized site Slooh, space for everyone .

Measuring 70 cm in length, including the tail, “Tongtianlong” belongs to the family of oviraptorosaures, relatives of birds theropod that lived in North America and Asia. PHOTO AFP – PHOTATU NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP – Ahao CHUANF Measuring 70 cm in length, including the tail, “Tongtianlong” belongs to the family of oviraptorosaures, relatives of birds theropod that lived in North America and Asia. PHOTO AFP –
In measuring 70 cm long , including the tail, “Tongtianlong” belongs to the family of oviraptorosaures, relatives of birds theropod that lived in North America and Asia.

With a size ranging from turkey elephant, these feathered dinosaurs had little or no teeth and probably ate eggs, shellfish, plants or hazelnuts … In total, more than 35 species have already been referenced.

The researchers found the youngest in a curious position: lying on his stomach with his legs apart on four sides, with outstretched neck and head up. Hence its name. “Tongtian” meaning “the way to heaven” . The animal was unearthed on a building site by a farmer and workers Since no statement was made at the time of excavation, it is now difficult to know why he died in that position Bambi sliding on the ice.

The fossilized remains, well preserved and dating from the late Cretaceous (72 million years), are from a Chinese region where five other oviraptorosaures species have been discovered in the past five years. According to the research team led by Lü Junchang of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the discovery of “Tongtianlong” shows the great diversity of oviraptorosaures in Asia at the end of the Cretaceous and helps to build a more complete picture of the last dinosaurs that populated the planet.

Extraordinary observation or hype? The Super Moon of Monday, November 14, 2016 is announced as an extraordinary event. That day, as every month, the moon will be full, but as she is particularly close to Earth, it may seem more imposing and brighter than usual. While that date is presented as exceptional specialists relativize the importance of the phenomenon noting that according to light pollution and cloud cover, this super moon might not seem different from a conventional full moon. Explanations.

Moon close to Earth
The media seems to rejoice in this event, which should offer a sumptuous spectacle for French who like to have eyes in the stars, and head in the clouds. If the full moon of Monday, November 14, 2016, dubbed “Super Moon” will be special, it is because it is closest to Earth, only 356 511 kilometers from us, precisely at 8:52. “The last time the perigee (minimum distance to the Earth, Ed) was also low (356,462 km), it was January 26, 1948. And for the next perigee too low, it will take 25 November 2034 ( Earth-Moon distance will be 356 447 km), “says Sciences et Avenir . Yet it may well be that no one notices the difference between this super moon ( “Super Moon” in English and “perigee-syzygy” among astronomers), which occurs 4-6 times per year, and a full classic Moon if the show can be sumptuous (the moon will be bigger, brighter), it could be ruined by the weather:

Note, however, that the show be offered by the moon is less dependent on its distance from Earth as the weather conditions observation evening. If the sky is cloudy or if you are in an area where light pollution is too large, you will notice not in doubt not much difference with a full moon “classical” says Sciences et Avenir .
Moon November 14, 2016 will be almost perfectly aligned with the Sun and Earth, and enlightened face of our star. But this Super Moon is it so good? Experts moderate the general enthusiasm. This cosmic happening could disappoint many.

The Super Moon of the century. True or false?
Viral information panics net, with more than five million entries on the search engines. Why this sudden panic for a full Moon Science and Life is amused by this media frenzy and restores the truth:

All amateur astronomers, all those who contemplate the sky at night, know that the nights of full moon are very clear, the stars disappear in the blue sky, the landscape photographs seem taken in daylight, and the Moon itself, indeed, is almost blinding. View the telescope, it may even be embarrassing to watch, even painful, in a very large telescope … But that’s true every month, every full moon. That of 14 will be a little larger, a little brighter, but the effect, to the naked eye, will be practically insensible person, on the amateur astronomy sites, is not interested in this “super Moon “…
The evening of the 14th, when it will rise on the horizon, the moon will appear “huge” and bright. “It will be, as every month, an optical illusion, a trick of the brain. In the sky, in the absence of benchmarks, the Moon appears small on the horizon, compared to distant buildings, mountains, forests, it appears huge, “says the article in Science et Vie , entitled The Great Moon November 14, between reality and delusions . Tip: watch the sky and the stars regularly, and do not expect a super Moon for sunning yourself at the spectacle of nature.