Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 58

Samsung phones such as the S20 Ultra come with the "space zoom" feature that allows the user to capture dazzling shots of the moon, but are they really real?

The space zoom feature debuted with the S20 Ultra back in 2020 and unlocked 100x zoom that allowed users to hone in on the moon and capture images never before achieved with a mobile device. The images were certainly impressive, and since then, there have been suspicions that they fake, similar to what Huawei has been accused of in the past. A Redditor has put together a thread that has gained a large amount of attention as they claim they have proven that Samsung is faking each space zoom moon shot, or at least isn't telling the whole truth about the capabilities of the feature.

The thread explains a user downloaded a high-resolution image of the moon and reduced it down to 170x170 pixels, then applied a gaussian blur. The blur removed any detail from the image and then the image was blown up on their monitor. The Redditor continues to explain they then moved to the other side of their room and snapped a photo of the blurry moon on the monitor using space zoom. The captured image showcased a large increase in the detail of the moon, leading the Redditor to conclude that Samsung is using an AI neural network that has been fed 100s, potentially thousands of images of the moon to add in detail where there is none.

Marcelo Saba, a researcher at Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), and Ph.D. candidate Diego Rhamon managed to snap an incredibly unique shot of lightning rods doing what they do best.

The image was published as the cover photo for the December 28, 2022, issue of Geophysical Research Letters, and reports explain that a camera capable of capturing 40,000 individual frames per second was used to shoot it. Notably, Saba was the first author on that biweekly release of the scientific journal and explained the image was taken on a summer evening in Sao Jose dos Campos and shows a negatively charged bolt heading toward the ground at nearly 230 miles (370 km) per second.

Several feet before it reaches the ground, the tops of buildings and lightning rods produce a positive upward discharge that competes with the downward strike of the lightning. The above image was taken from a video that was played back in slow motion and was captured at 25 thousandths of a second right before the lightning was about to one of the buildings. The area contains more than 30 lightning rods on the top of the buildings, and the image showcases the importance of having a lightning rod protection system correctly installed.

Researchers have a few different theories on how water became an abundant resource on Earth. A large portion of scientists point to icy comets or asteroids colliding with Earth's surface and melting, but how did those objects first obtain water?

Astronomers have identified a water cloud floating through deep space at an approximate distance of 1,300 light-years from Earth within the constellation Orion. According to reports, it's expected to teach scientists about star formation, the origin of water in the solar system, and by extension, how water arrived on Earth. A new paper published in Nature states that the water in the cloud is the same as the water on Earth, but it also contains heavy water.

Heavy water is 10.6% denser than regular water and has a very similar chemical formula. Regular water, H20, contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, while heavy water, D20, contains two atoms of deuterium and one oxygen. The reason for it being "heavy" can be attributed to the deuterium containing one neutron and a proton in its nucleus, which only contains one proton.

NASA has published a new image captured by its famous Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in service for more than 30 years.

Hubble has honed its sensitive instruments on what NASA calls NGC-6530, which is an open cluster that contains several hundred thousand stars. This open cluster is approximately 4350 light-years away from Earth and resides in the constellation Sagittarius. Notably, the image showcases just a portion of NGC-6530, which is sitting within an even larger nebula called the Lagoon Nebula.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which joint-operates Hubble with NASA, explains the Lagoon Nebula is a large interstellar cloud that is made up of gas and dust. The discovery of NGC-6530 came while astronomers were searching the Lagoon Nebula for proplyds, which is a type of protoplanetary disk that forms around a newborn star. Furthermore, newborn stars begin as a convergence of gas and dust that eventually collapses inwards after forming a somewhat of a blob shape.

The International Space Station was potentially on route for a collision course with an Earth-observing satellite, confirms NASA in a new blog post.

The space agency took to its website to give an update on the happenings of the International Space Station (ISS), and according to NASA, there was a risk of collision between the floating laboratory and an Earth-observing satellite. Officials were required to engage thrusters on the Progress 83 resupply vessel at approximately 7:42 am to raise the orbit of the entire outpost in order to prevent any chance for a collision.

NASA writes in its blog post that thrusters were engaged for just over six minutes and that the maneuver won't impact the upcoming departure of the Crew-5 mission. So, whose satellite almost smacked into the ISS? According to reports, the satellite that the ISS had to dodge appears to be an Argentinian Earth-observation satellite that was launched back in 2020. This factoid comes from Sandra Jones of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Elon Musk finalized his acquisition of Twitter in late October last year, and shortly after Musk became the official owner of Twitter, an internal crisis presented itself.

As previously stated, Musk took over the company in late October, and in the few months that followed, changes to the platform were rolled out that caused many of Twitter's advertisers to either pause or completely pull out their advertising expenditure with the platform. This is notable as 90% of Twitter's revenue was made up of advertiser spending before Musk took control of the company.

According to a newly published report by The Wall Street Journal, which explored Twitter's recent update to investors, more than 70% of Twitter's top advertisers have paused spending with the platform, leading to an immense 40% decline in earnings year-over-year. So, why did this happen? Leading up to the purchase of Twitter, Musk expressed what he wished to do with the platform if he ever gained control of it. The Tesla CEO said that he would open up the platform and support the right to freedom of speech and roll back some of the platform's then-stringent content moderation policies.

Speaking to Newsweek, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett revealed that he believes the US government is already reverse engineering UFO technology.

Burchett revealed to the publication that he believes alien UFO technology may be "being reverse-engineered right now", but engineers "just don't understand" how it functions. The Congressman goes on to say that the US "recovered a craft at some point, and possible beings." These claims from Burchett come on the heels of four objects being shot down in North American skies in February.

The first object was identified as a Chinese spy balloon, the three remaining as yet to be recovered but are also believed to be types of commercial or research entities, likely balloons of different configurations. The remaining three objects were brought down by US fighter jets over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron, Michigan. None of the remaining objects have been officially identified, but officials are inclined to lead with the aforementioned explanation of various man-made research balloons.

Elon Musk has commented on a movie currently in development about his life, business ventures, and eventual takeover of Twitter.

According to a new article published by Variety, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney will be behind the camera on a new documentary that focuses on the life of Elon Musk. The new movie, which has been in production for a number of months, was announced on Monday by Gibney, and according to the director, it will provide a "definitive and unvarnished examination of multi-billionaire tech entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter". The movie is being produced by Jigsaw Productions, Closer Media, Anonymous Content, and Double Agent.

Musk took to Twitter to comment on the announcement of the new documentary, writing under a post by DogeDesigner, "It's a hit piece". Musk fans quickly rushed to the comment section to propose titles for the documentary, with some suggesting "The Irony Man", a reference to Elon Musk being the real-life Tony Stark, or Iron Man.

Japan's counterpart to NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), launched its new H3 rocket on Monday, and it could have gone better.

The new H3 rocket was stationed on the launch pad at Tanegashima Space Center before it began lifting off on Monday, March 6, at 8:37 p.m. EST. Only 5 minutes and 27 seconds into the rocket's flight, officials were heard over the livestream of the launch informing viewers and listeners that commands had been sent to the rocket to instruct it to separate its stage and ignite its second stage. Unfortunately, 7 minutes into the rocket's flight, officials are heard confirming the second stage failed ignition and that the rocket's velocity was steadily declining.

Since the launch of the rocket failed, and the separation/ignition commands were carried out, the rocket began to freefall back down to the surface of Earth. This prompted JAXA officials to announce that they'd sent a "destruct command" to the rocket as there was no hope of achieving mission success. Notably, this isn't the first time Japan's H3 rocket has attempted a launch. On February 13, officials had to abort the launch after an issue with the rocket's electrical system that supplies power to the rocket's LE-9 engines presented itself.

NASA's Curiosity rover has achieved yet another scientific milestone achievement by capturing the first images of Sun rays seeping through Martian clouds.

NASA has taken to its Mars Exploration-dedicated website to explain that Curiosity captured a "uniquely moody" Martian sunset on February 2. The space agency details that rays of sunlight broke through a bank of clouds, illuminating them and creating what NASA calls "crepuscular rays", which is the Latin word for "twilight". Notably, these images of the sun's rays are the first time they have been so clearly viewed from the surface of Mars.

The blog post explains that most Martian clouds are at an altitude of no more than 37 miles above the surface of the Red Planet and that these clouds are mostly composed of water ice. However, the recent photographs snapped by Curiosity show a group of martian clouds at a much higher altitude where it is much colder, leading researchers to believe that their composition is carbon dioxide or dry ice.