Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 1

Scientists using ultraviolet photography have made an intriguing discovery in the field of biblical studies.

They have found an ancient version of a chapter from the Bible that had been hidden beneath another section of text for over 1,500 years. Historian Grigory Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences unveiled this groundbreaking finding in an article published in the prestigious journal New Testament Studies.

According to Kessel, "The manuscript offers a 'unique gateway' for researchers to understand the earliest phases of the Bible's textual evolution. It shows some differences from modern translations of the text." Kessel used ultraviolet photography to reveal the earlier text concealed beneath three layers of words on a palimpsest, an ancient manuscript that was often reused.

NASA's JunoCam spacecraft has traveled 510 million miles around Jupiter and its moons, documenting as much as possible and relaying valuable scientific images back to Earth.

Captured on March 1, 2023 during JunoCam's closest approach to Io at about 32,000 miles

NASA's Juno spacecraft has completed its 51st close flyby of Jupiter, capturing breathtaking images of the gas giant's volcanic moon, Io. The flyby on May 16 brought Juno closer to Io than ever before, at a distance of approximately 22,060 miles (35,500 kilometers). The detailed images captured by Juno's visible light imager JunoCam reveal Io's scarred, red-hued surface, showcasing the moon's intense volcanic activity.

An infrared view obtained by Juno's Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) prior to the flyby reveals multiple hotspots of volcanic activity across Io's surface. Io, slightly larger than Earth's moon, is known as the most volcanically active world in the solar system. It hosts hundreds of actively erupting volcanoes, blasting lava dozens of miles into its thin, water-less atmosphere.

Astronomers have looked at large swaths of asteroid data collected by NASA and found the likelihood of Earth being hit by a large asteroid over the next 1,000 years.

Astronomers concluded in a recent study, which was published in The Astronomical Journal, Earth is unlikely to be struck by large asteroids for at least the next 1,000 years. While this brings a sense of relief, it's important to note that the study focused on asteroids larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) and does not eliminate the possibility of smaller yet still hazardous asteroids impacting our planet.

The research team, led by scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, analyzed the positions and orbits of known near-Earth objects (NEOs) cataloged by the NASA-funded Minor Planet Center. Their goal was to assess the risk of asteroid impacts over an extended time frame compared to previous analyses.

A team of researchers is one step closer to understanding the geological mysteries surrounding the evolution of the Red Planet.

A new paper published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters outlines an analysis of data obtained by NASA's InSight lander. The team looked at the InSight lander's data when it recorded the strongest Marsquake throughout its mission. This Marsquake was so severe that it bounced around the planet three times, giving researchers a lot of interesting data to work with. From that data, scientists were able to determine the thickness of Mars' crust, with current estimations putting it anywhere between 26 and 35 miles thick.

Doyeon Kim, a seismologist at the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich and lead author of the paper, said that Mars' crust is much thicker than Earth's and that the team was also able to find the density of Mars' crust. According to the paper's results, the team was able to prove the density of the crust in the northern Martian lowlands and the southern highlands were similar, putting to bed a long-standing debate in the scientific community about the origin and structure of Martian crust.

Titanic, the world's most famous shipwreck, which lies at approximately 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, has now been scanned in 3D for the first time.

The luxury cruise liner sank to the bottom of the ocean in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, taking 1,500 lives as it sunk and starting one of the most interesting shipwreck stories ever. Despite how long it has been since the Titanic sank, many questions still need answering.

Parks Stephenson, executive director of the USS Kidd Veterans Museum and Titanic analyst, said to the BBC, "There are still questions, basic questions, that need to be answered about the ship," and this new 3D model is "one of the first major steps to driving the Titanic story towards evidence-based research - and not speculation."

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has eyed large groups of young stars grouped together in a spherical shape and found a monstrous star lurking in the background.

Hubble Space Telescope image of a globular cluster

These groupings of young stars are called globular clusters and can contain millions of stars born around the same time. Evidence of globular clusters births go back as much as 440 million years after the Big Bang, and despite being born in relatively close proximity to each other, stars within globular clusters have a composition that is confusingly diverse. Astronomers are still attempting to explain why stars born in a globular cluster have varying levels of sodium, aluminum, oxygen, and many other elements.

One theory that has been suggested by astronomers is undiscovered supermassive stars are polluting these infant stars with chemical elements. Now, Webb's incredible observations have given that theory some credit, as astronomers have announced in a new report that Webb has provided the very first evidence of supermassive stars lurking within globular clusters. So, what's a supermassive star?

It was only a few months ago that the title for the planet with the most moons in the solar system shifted to Jupiter, and now that title may be switching again.

In early February, a team of astronomers discovered that Jupiter has many more moons than was officially recorded, with the team reporting the biggest planet in the solar system having an additional twelve moons. These twelve moons were discovered using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, and after follow-up observations, their sizes and orbits were determined. The official list was updated by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, putting Jupiter at 92 confirmed moons, beating Saturn's 83 confirmed moons.

However, that second-place trophy seems to be going back to Jupiter as astronomers have discovered an astonishing 62 additional moons orbiting Saturn, which would put Saturn at a total count of 145 moons. Currently, these new observations of Saturn's additional moons need to be verified, and if you thought that any of these moons are similar to Earth's moon, you would be wrong. The twelve moons that astronomers found orbiting Jupiter in early February measured between 0.6 miles and 2 miles in diameter.

Last week a family living in Hopewell, New Jersey, was interviewed by local authorities about an object that crashed through their ceiling. Initial suspicions were the object was a meteorite, and now the origin has been confirmed.

CBS News spoke to Suzie Kop, the daughter of the homeowner where the object broke through the ceiling. According to Kop, the object smashed its way through a bedroom ceiling, ricocheted off the ground leaving significant damage, hit the roof in another location, and eventually stopped on the floor. Kop initially thought someone threw a rock but quickly changed her suspicions to the object being a meteorite after she picked it up and noticed it was still warm. Notably, no one was home at the time of impact, so there were no injuries.

Local authorities weren't able to confirm or deny if the object was a meteorite, and it was quickly shipped off to The College of New Jersey, where it underwent analysis. According to a recent post on Facebook by The College of New Jersey, physics professor Nate Magee has confirmed the object is from outer space. The post explains the meteorite underwent visual examinations, density measurements, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Additionally, retired meteorite expert Jerry Delaney from Rutgers University/The American Museum of Natural History consulted on the object.

Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology in Silicon Valley at the moment, and while we have seen impressive applications of the new technology in the form of chatbots such as ChatGPT, we are now starting to see the power of artificial intelligence applied to large scientific datasets.

A team of NASA scientists has trained an AI model with data from satellites designed to monitor the activity of the Sun, measuring each of its solar outbursts, how they travel through space and sparingly collide with Earth. When the Sun has a solar outburst, it releases a wave of charged particles that can cause a geomagnetic or a solar storm on Earth if our planet manages to be caught in the blast's trajectory.

These solar storms can impact satellite communications, electricity grids, or in the most severe cases, such as the Carrington event 150 years ago, can completely destroy communication and electrical infrastructure. For these reasons, scientists have been monitoring the Sun's activities for quite some time and learned much about accurately identifying dangerous outbursts.

Hopewell Township, New Jersey, Police are reporting that a resident reported a metallic object, possibly a meteorite, plummeting through their roof on Monday.

The family lives on Old Washington Crossing Pennington Road and reported just after 1 pm, a metallic object crashed right through their roof. The object measures 4 inches by 6 inches and has an oblong shape, according to local authorities. According to the report, the family called the non-emergency line and attempted to convey their story to the authorities, which would have seemed bizarre.

The family reported no injuries and said that they initially believed that someone threw a rock onto their roof, but after they saw the object, they realized it could be a meteorite. Suzie Kop, the daughter of the homeowner, said she discovered the hole in her father's bedroom and noticed that the floor beneath the hole was also damaged. Additionally, Kopf directs CBS news reporters to another hole in the ceiling, saying, "It ricocheted up to this part of the ceiling and then finally rested on the floor there".