Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 123

A team of astronomers has combed through a data pool sourced by NASA's planet-hunting satellite and have found a mysterious object.

A new study published in The Astronomical Journal details a team of astronomers using machine-learning-based computational tools to search through the observed behaviors of hundreds of thousands of objects that NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has measured. The study details the discovery of object TIC 400799224 that became of interest when astronomers noted its rapid drop in brightness by nearly 25% over just a few hours.

Additionally, astronomers noted that TIC 400799224 was also showcasing several brightness variations that may have been evidence of an eclipse. The astronomers continued to monitor TIC 400799224 with TESS and other observational tools and found that the object is likely a binary star system that harbors a star that pulsates every 19.77 days. The astronomers suspect that the pulsating is likely a result of an orbiting body that emits dust that shrouds the stars.

Following up on yesterday's announcement by NASA, the space agency has dropped a new update for its James Webb Space Telescope.

Yesterday the space agency announced that the first three layers of the five-layer sunshield were successfully deployed and tightened. The tightening of the remaining two layers was scheduled for today, and according to NASA's most recent update, those remaining two layers have successfully been tensioned, marking the completion of the sunshield deployment and a critical milestone in the process of preparing Webb for operational use.

For those wondering why the sunshield is so important, the tennis court-sized multi-layered shield shaped like a kite is designed to protect Webb's delicate instruments from any harmful rays from the Sun. Additionally, the shield keeps Webb's instruments in the shade, which allows them to be able to detect extremely faint infrared signals from very distant corners of the universe. Now, NASA is moving on to deploying Webb's mirrors, scheduled for tomorrow.

2022 will be a big year for space exploration as NASA moves to continue its exploration of the planet Mars and revisit the moon.

James Webb Space Telescope launch.

Space exploration is exponentially heating up as many countries around the world begin to see viable options and incentives for generating a deeper understanding of our solar system. Launched on Christmas Day, the most advanced space telescope ever created, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is poised to see further back in time than ever before and will start its observations in 2022.

NASA and other space agencies around the world are aspiring to construct a base on the moon, and whether that happens in the next ten years or later, there will be a few problems that need to be overcome.

Ian Whitaker, a Senior Lecturer in Physics at Nottingham Trent University, has outlined a few of these problems that engineers and scientists will need to overcome to achieve a viable base on the moon. Whittaker wrote in The Conversation that most of these problems are currently being worked on by people around the world, and some are closer to being solved than others.

Whittaker writes that the Saturn V rocket used to take astronauts to the moon is no longer in production, which means the US doesn't currently have a rocket capable of taking astronauts back to the moon. However, this problem is close to being solved as SpaceX is nearing the end of the development of Starship, a new rocket designed for trips further than the moon. Whittaker's additional problems can be found below, with the solutions in the development stages provided in brackets.

A recently released video showcases NASA's Parker Solar Probe getting up close and personal with the Sun.

The video shows what is called "coronal streamers" flying past the Parker Solar Probe as it made its extremely close approach with the Sun, passing into our star's corona back in April. This is the first time these mysterious objects have been seen from up close, and when looking at the footage provided by the probe, it can be seen how they look similar to when a hyperdrive is engaged by a spacecraft in Star Wars.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe isn't done gathering information about the Sun, as the space agency plans on sending the probe deeper into the solar atmosphere to gather more data about how the Sun works and how solar wind is generated. Space.com reports that the next flyby of the Sun for the Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to happen later this month.

Two weeks after launching, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission has already sent back its first images.

NASA launched its DART mission back at the end of November, and two weeks after the launch, the spacecraft destined to collide with an asteroid opened its "eye" called Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) to snap images of its journey. The images have been shared by NASA, and according to the space agency, the above image showcases about a dozen stars near the constellation Perseus, Aries and Taurus intersect.

The first image was taken about 2 million miles away from Earth, which is still described as "very close, astronomically speaking". Additionally, NASA explains that the DART team used the images of the stars to see how precisely DRACO was orientated, giving the team the first data points for the accuracy of the camera direction relative to the spacecraft. On December 10 the team captured an image of the Starfish Cluster located 4,200 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Auriga.

A hunter has claimed that he has caught a "naked alien" on camera running past a trial that he was walking down in a notorious area for paranormal sightings.

The hunter Donald Bromley was roaming the remote area of Redgate, Montana, in the United States when he snapped a picture of what he describes as a creature with a "bulbous head". Bromley said that at first, he believed it was a human, but the more he inspected the image, he believed what he had photographed was extraterrestrial.

According to the hunter, this sighting is just one of many that have occurred in the area, with it being "very rich" in the "paranormal field" such as UFOs and "unexplainable things". Bromley added that residents in the area have been reporting seeing mysterious objects flying in the sky. These new sightings have come after the Pentagon confirmed that some objects detected in the US airspace have an unknown origin and that extraterrestrials aren't ruled out as a possibility.

Reports and NASA's own database indicate that a large asteroid will soon be approaching Earth at ridiculous speeds.

According to Latestly.com that cites NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office that records and tracks Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), an asteroid that is twice the size of the Empire State Building will be approaching Earth at the end of the month. The report states that the asteroid is set to safely fly past Earth at 0.01325 astronomical units (AU), or 1,231,664 miles - 5 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

NASA's database states that the closest approach for the asteroid dubbed 7482 (1994 PC1) will be on January 18. It should be noted that this asteroid won't be the only asteroid to approach Earth, as NASA's database indicates there is a selection of much smaller asteroids scheduled to fly past Earth in the days leading up to the 1994 PC1 fly-by. If you are interested in learning more about asteroids, check out the below link.

A new study by the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT) at ETH Zurich shows how electric bikes and scooters might not be as good for the climate as we thought.

Researchers considered more than the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the production, operation, and maintenance of these devices throughout their lifecycle, but also how the pattern of use substitutes other modes of transport.

A new study published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A describes the novel compound used to achieve the breakthrough.

Researchers from the Oregon State University developed a new metal-organic framework (MOF), capable of catalyzing the production of cyclic carbonates from carbon dioxide scrubbed from factory flue gases. The MOF can also be used with biogas, a mixture of carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases arising from organic matter decomposition, to produce cyclic carbonates.

Cyclic carbonates are used in a large variety of industrial applications, able to be used as polar solvents, used in the production of pharmaceuticals, lithium battery electrolytes, and precursors for various materials or chemical reactions. These applications provide an economic incentive for companies to implement this kind of technology to benefit from reducing harmful emissions.

A new paper published in the Angewandte Chemie details the new soft robot.

Materials scientists from the Southeast University in China have developed a new material capable of mimicking the camouflage capabilities of marine animals like starfish. The soft material is made from a liquid crystal elastomer, which changes phases with temperature. As it is heated up, the oriented liquid crystal molecules in the elastomer become more disordered, and consequently, the material shrinks.

The research team incorporated the shrinking ability into a starfish-shaped soft robot to allow it to crawl. One of the starfish tentacles had an infrared-sensitive dye added, allowing it to expand and contract from near-infrared exposure, moving the robot along a surface similar to a caterpillar.

China's Tianwen 1 satellite orbiting Mars has captured some awesome new selfies.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) published new images showing the satellite over Mars' north pole. The Tianwen 1 was able to take the photo by jettisoning a small camera outside of the orbiter, which took the images and transmitted them back to the satellite over Wi-Fi.

The satellite has been orbiting Mars since February 2021, after delivering the Zhurong rover to the planet and releasing it to land on the surface. On its way to Mars, the Tianwen 1 took similar photos as it traveled through space, capturing images of itself with the Zhurong rover still accompanying it.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just posted a video of some space-goers enjoying some downtime to their YouTube channel.

Matthias Maurer, an ESA astronaut, challenged his Expedition-66 crewmates and recent Japanese space tourists Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano to a game of badminton. The pair flew to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 12-day stay on December 8th, 2021, and were accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

While the astronauts living aboard the ISS are there to work and conduct science, they also need to enjoy a healthy work-life balance by relaxing and participating in recreational activities with other nations' astronauts, fostering intercultural exchange and team building. Matthias is part-way through a six-month stint living aboard the ISS in an ESA mission known as the Cosmic Kiss.

A new report has revealed that China's "artificial Sun" has hit a new milestone in its journey towards achieving almost limitless clean energy.

A new report from Xinhua details researchers at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) setting a new world record for nuclear fusion, on top of another record that was previously set back in May 2021.

The nuclear fusion experiment that is designed to mimic the Sun, hence the name "artificial Sun", set the previous record at 101 seconds at a temperature of 216 million Fahrenheit back in May and has now set another record on Thursday by running for 1,056 seconds at high plasma temperature. Xinhua reports it's, "the longest duration for an experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) fusion energy reactor".

A newly published study has put forward some stark details about future hurricanes and the dangers that of them roaming further around the planet.

The new study published in Nature Geoscience by researchers from Yale suggests that tropical cyclones - hurricanes and typhoons - will begin roaming further in their respective hemispheres than they have for the last 3 million years. The researchers write that hurricanes and typhoons located in the mid-latitude ranges of Earth will begin to expand as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Researchers suspect after looking at multiple lines of evidence that in the 21st century, we could see an increase in tropical cyclones, which increases the risk for major cities located in the mid-latitude regions of Earth such as New York, Boston, Beijing, and Tokyo. According to the first author behind the study, Joshua Studholme, the research predicts that the wider range of latitudes that tropical cyclones will occur in the 21st century hasn't happened on Earth for the last 3 million years.

Jim Green, one of NASA's top scientists, has retired after more than forty years at the agency, and on his way out, he has said that humans can transform Mars into a habitable planet.

Green joined NASA in 1980, and over the last forty years, Green has served as the director of NASA's planetary science division, and in the last three years, as the agency's chief scientist. During Green's time at NASA, he has molded the agency's scientific division while also contributing to numerous scientific papers across various topics. Last Saturday, Green departed the agency, but before the chief scientist left, he answered some burning questions by The New York Times.

The publication asked Green if he still thinks humans can transform Mars into a habitable planet and referenced Green's past suggestion of constructing a giant magnetic shield that would be positioned between Mars and the Sun. This magnetic shield would essentially be a sunblock that would allow Mars to retain more of its atmosphere, allowing the plane to keep in more heat and warm its cold climate.

NASA launched the next-gen James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas Day 2021, and an amateur astrophotographer has captured a key moment in the legacy of the new space telescope.

Ethan Gone, an amateur astrophotographer, had a goal of photographing the North American Nebula and Rosette Nebula, but while he was viewing the region for the photographs, he wondered if his equipment was able to take images of the James Webb Space Telescope on its way to its destination.

After making some adjustments, Gone was able to capture NASA's newest space telescope and noticed that it was moving locations between frames, which birthed Gone's idea of making the above timelapse video. At the time the images were taken, the James Webb Space Telescope was flying across a nebula that's located close to the brightest star of Orion's Belt - Alnilam.

Researchers have discovered footprints that date back 200 million years to dinosaurs that roamed the land during the Triassic period.

A new study published in Geological Magazine on December 29 details the discovery of 1.6 foot-long footprints on a beach in Wales. The researchers behind the study suggest that the footprints are from dinosaurs that date back to the Triassic period around 200 million years ago.

According to the National History Museum, the tracks were created by some kind of large dinosaur, possibly a kind of a biped sauropodomorph, a long-necked herbivorous dinosaur. In a press release from the National History Museum, Paul Barrett, a palaeobiology researcher at the museum, wrote that recently discovered tracks add to a "fairly small" stack of records on dinosaurs from the Triassic period.

NASA is pumping out updates about the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope that was recently launched.

Yesterday the space agency dropped an update about how it would be approaching the extremely complex and fragile unfolding process of the next-generation space telescope, and now NASA has provided the public with an update on the sunshield unfolding process. The tennis court-size sunshield will protect the observatory from harmful rays from the Sun.

The space agency recently reported on Twitter that the Webb team has completed tightening the first three of five layers of the sunshield, writing "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers." And so does our sunshield!". NASA wrote on its blog that these first three layers of the sunshield are the closest to the Sun and that tensioning the final two layers is currently scheduled for tomorrow.

For all of 2021, NASA published short videos on its YouTube channel answering some of the most popular questions in science and space.

The video series titled "We Asked a NASA Expert" is by far one of the best series' the space agency has done as it provides viewers with easily digestible valuable information from experts in their respective fields in a concise format. The series covers a range of questions to "When was the last time an asteroid hit Earth?", "Do aliens exist?", and "Will an asteroid ever hit Earth?".

So far, NASA has produced twenty of these "We Asked a NASA Expert" videos, and above, you will find a short video showcasing some of the biggest questions that have been answered. Below you will find several videos from the series that have been my personal favorites. Hopefully, NASA will continue these incredible videos throughout 2022 as they provide a wealth of knowledge to people that don't have a lot of time to pursue in-depth explanations.