Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 36

NASA's Perseverance rover touched down on the surface of the Red Planet in February 2021, and since then, the rover has been photographing anything of scientific interest on Mars while simultaneously looking for any evidence of ancient microbial life.

There are many peculiar-shaped objects on the surface of Mars, and while researchers have confirmed through landscape observations and soil samples that the Red Planet was once home to large swaths of water, scientists haven't confirmed that the planet had life. That is the purpose of the Perseverance rover - to find evidence of ancient microbial life. Now, the recently released images, despite their appearance, don't confirm life existed.

However, they are a testament to the human phenomenon known as pareidolia, which is the brain's tendency to perceive meaningful imagery where there is none. An example of this is the above image. The image on the left looks like a shark fin, while the image on the right resembles a crab claw.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that Starship is ready for its second orbital launch attempt, following the first orbital launch attempt that came to a fiery yet successful end.

Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, conducted its first orbital launch attempt on April 20, and while SpaceX deemed the first attempt a success as much knowledge was gained, the rocket didn't make it to orbit as it failed to separate its stages, resulting in the rocket tumbling, losing altitude and ultimately being exploded mid-air. Since then, SpaceX has been rebuilding Starship, implementing what it learned from the first orbital launch attempt while also conducting static fire tests on its newly constructed and now reinforced launch pad.

Now, SpaceX and the company's CEO Elon Musk has taken to X to announce that Starship is ready for its second launch attempt and that the only thing stopping SpaceX from pressing the launch button is approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the regulators of the skies. This is hardly surprising, as the FAA has long stood in front of launches by making sure SpaceX has dotted its i's and crossed all of its t's before a launch is approved. With this news from Musk, we can assume that SpaceX has completed the construction of Starship and is now just waiting for the FAA's stamp of approval.

A team of Australian scientists have discovered an incredible alternative to throwing out coffee grounds and adding to the exponential issue of organic waste.

A new study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production by a team of Australian scientists details a process utilizing coffee grounds that typically ends up in landfills around the world. Notably, 10 billion kilograms, or 10 million tonnes of coffee grounds, are disposed of each year, and the team behind the study proposes reducing the amount of natural sand extracted around the world that's meeting the exponential demand of the construction industry with organic waste such as coffee grounds.

The team took coffee ground and heated them to 660° F, as coffee ground by themselves can't be added to concrete mixture due to them leaking chemicals that make the structure weaker. However, after being baked at 660° F, the team was left with no organic moles and a carbon-rich substance called biochar. This is capable of being mixed with a cement matrix and produced a durable cement mixture that's strong and useable.

A new study published in the journal Communications Biology has detailed the discovery of an ancient ape skull in Turkey, thus challenging the widely held theory that humans originated in Africa.

The new study details the discovery of a part of an ape skull that was found by archaeologists in Cankiri, Turkey, and its significance is derived from its estimated age, which is 8.7 million years ago, along with its location. Notably, hominins, which include African apes and eventually humans, are dated to have appeared in Africa around 7 million years ago.

The ancient ape skull called Anadoluvius turkae now challenges the theory that human ancestors, African apes, came exclusively from Africa, even going as far as to suggest that hominins may have evolved in Europe first and then migrated to Africa. The researchers write that to prove this theory, additional fossils need to be found dating between the two aforementioned eras (seven and eight million years ago), and a link needs to be established.

A team of biologists was shocked when they discovered the longest-living vertebrae thousands of miles away from their natural habitat.

That vertebrae is none other than the Greenland shark, a species of shark that can live between 250 and 500 years, and its strange appearance was brought to biologists' attention when they were tagging tiger sharks off the coast of Belize. A line was set in Belize's protected Glover's Reef Atoll, and upon returning to the line, the biologists noticed it had moved several miles away into waters as deep as 2,000 feet.

The team photographed the extremely rare catch and determined that it was "most likely" a Greenland shark, describing its appearance as "very old" and "like something that would exist in prehistoric times." Notably, this species of shark typically lives thousands of feet below the surface, and typically thrives in Arctic waters where it's extremely cold. So, why was it in the Caribbean? The team speculates that since the reef has a sharp slope that stretches some 9,500 feet down, there is a prime environment for a Greenland shark to live.

The astronauts of Crew-6 have safely made it back to Earth, splashing down just off the coast of Florida after spending 6 months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Welcome home, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, left, NASA astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg, second from left, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi. All of the aforementioned astronauts spent 6 months aboard the International Space Station conducting various scientific experiments and now have safely splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.

The crew clocked in 79 million miles during their mission, and according to NASA, completed hundreds of scientific experiments "for the benefit of all humanity," writes NASA its press release. Notably, Bowden completed three spacewalks, who was joined by Hoburg for two, and Alenyadi for one, where they completed preparation and installed one International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays used to augment power generation for the floating laboratory. The crew returned to Earth in SpaceX's Dragon capsule, marking the fourth flight for the capsule named Endeavour.

NASA has revealed, or at least the space agency thinks it has found, the location where Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon.

On August 19, Roscosmos, Russia's equivalent of NASA, announced that it had lost communications with its Luna-25 spacecraft, which was scheduled to make a landing on the moon. The Russian space agency announced that the spacecraft failed to complete a critical orbital maneuver that resulted in it being thrown into an unpredictable orbit that eventually met with the surface of the moon. Russia has since acknowledged the failure of the mission and announced that it will still be continuing with future Luna missions.

Before there is another Russian space launch, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is used to capture periodic images of the surface of Earth's closest neighbor to document asteroid impacts, etc, was used to locate the Luna-25 crash site and NASA believes it has found it. Writing in a new blog post on NASA's official website, the space agency states the estimated impact location is close to a new impact crater, leading the LRO team to conclude that this impact crater is likely to be from the Luna-25 mission, rather than a natural impactor.

Russia's first lunar mission since 1976 ended in absolute failure when the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the surface of the moon, ending the mission.

The catastrophic event for Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, occurred on August 19 when the Luna-25 spacecraft failed to make a critical orbital maneuver that resulted in the spacecraft being sent into an unpredictable orbit and, eventually, into the surface of Earth's closest neighbor. At the time, Roscosmos took to Telegram to issue an update on the status of the Luna-25 mission, writing that communications with the spacecraft were severed and were never able to be reestablished.

Now, per a recent Reuters article, Roscomos spokesperson Dmitry Peskov discussed the failure of the mission, downplaying the severity of it while simultaneously announcing that Russia will continue its space program despite the unfavorable climate to do so. Peskov said in a call with reporters, "This is not a reason to despair, nor to tear our hair out. This is another reason to analyse the causes (of the failure) and eliminate them next time."

Two miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a team of researchers discovered a mysterious golden orb embedded into a sea structure.

A new report from The Miami Herald discusses a recent discovery by National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) researchers who were exploring an underwater volcano two miles below the surface off the coast of Alaska. While mapping the ocean floor with a remote-controlled vehicle, the team found a mysterious golden orb, and during the livestream, you can hear the scientists begin to speculate what it could be.

Additionally, and probably the most shocking aspect of the discovery was the observation that a hole was present in the orb, leading researchers to speculate that something tried to get in or tried to get out. After many jokes about what the orb could be, the team decided to take a DNA sample to take back to the laboratory and hopefully determine the orb's origin. As the robotic arm from the vehicle was moving closer to the orb, a scientist could be heard saying, "I just hope when we poke it, something doesn't decide to come out."

The four astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that are scheduled to return to Earth will need to wait at least one more day before they make the trip back to our planet's surface.

Announcements from both NASA and SpaceX have revealed that the Crew Dragon capsule currently docked at the International Space Station will remain there until at least September 3, as bad weather conditions prevented its departure with the four astronauts. The delay means the scheduled splashdown of the four astronauts will be just after midnight on Monday morning instead of the original departure on Saturday.

NASA took to its blog on its official website to explain that unfavorable weather conditions just off the coast of Florida are a result of the delay and that the next undocking opportunity is no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday, September 3, with a splashdown no earlier than 12:07 a.m. on Monday, September 4. However, the aforementioned estimates are dependent on the weather conditions at the time and may be subject to further delays. For more information on the return flight, check out NASA's official website here, or SpaceX's X account.