Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 129

In a new study led by the University of Washington, researchers have demonstrated artificial intelligence's ability to improve lightning forecasts.

Lightning strikes led to the devastating California Lightning Complex fires of 2020, but the strikes are still relatively hard to predict. With more accurate forecasts, firefighters could potentially mitigate wildfires by getting the chance to stop smaller fires caused by strikes before they grow out of control, as well as helping to forecast severe weather systems like thunderstorms.

Researchers trained the machine learning system with lightning data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), spanning 2010 to 2016. The system could discover the relationships between weather variables and lightning strokes using the data. They then made predictions for strikes spanning 2017 to 2019 using the machine learning model and an existing physics-based method, both of which were compared against the actual observations.

The American Geophysical Union's (AGU) 2021 Fall Meeting will host talks discussing the new missions, including the TROPICS, EMIT, NOAA's JPSS-2, and SWOT missions, launching in 2022.

The TROPICS mission will monitor tropical cyclones using six small satellites. As frequently as every fifty minutes, the satellites will make microwave observations of a storm's precipitation, temperature, and humidity to understand the mechanics driving the storm's intensity and make forecasts more accurate.

The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) will be installed aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It will use an imaging spectrometer to trace the origin and composition of mineral dust that makes its way into the atmosphere. This dust can affect the climate through radiative forcing (changing the amount of solar energy entering and leaving the atmosphere) and impact various ecosystems and air quality.

Since 1915 when Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity, scientists have worked on testing its limits, and with the results of this 16-year test, it still holds up.

Professor Michael Kramer from the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, led an international team to complete this test, which included using Murriyang, Australia's radio telescope at CSIRO's Parkes Observatory. The theory of general relativity describes how gravity works at large scales across the universe, but it becomes unreliable at the atomic scale, where quantum mechanics are referred to instead.

Pulsars are rapidly rotating compact stars that emit radio waves and create powerful gravitational fields. The first pulsar rotates 45 times a second, while the second rotates only 2.8 times per second. The pulsars are predicted to collide 85 million years from now as they lose energy and slow down.

A team from the University of Central Florida (UCF) has developed the world's first optical oscilloscope, capable of measuring the electric field of light.

An oscilloscope is an instrument that graphically displays electrical signals and shows how they change over time regarding voltage, amplitude, frequency, and other factors. This new device converts light oscillations into electrical signals, then displayed on the oscilloscope.

Light oscillates significantly faster than electric fields in current technology, which oscillates at gigahertz frequencies corresponding to the radio and microwave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The increased frequency of light waves allows them to transmit a significantly higher density of information but has also been the source of the difficulty in reading its electric field.

The 2022 World Inequality Report states that one space flight emits more carbon dioxide than the lifetimes of one billion people.

The newly released report outlines the carbon costs of launching a rocket to space and compares that amount of carbon per tonne to the amount of carbon created by one billion of the world's poorest individuals over their lifetimes. The passage also mentions that the carbon footprint of the spaceflight that is being compared to the carbon footprint of the individuals is over an 11-minute space ride.

According to the report, around one billion individuals emit less than one tonne of carbon per person per year. Over a lifetime, this group of one billion individuals "does not emit more than 75 tonnes of carbon per person". This report, and specifically the comparison between the carbon footprint of a single 11-minute spaceflight and the carbon footprint of one billion of the world's poorest individuals, puts a spotlight on the unequal distribution between the carbon footprint of wealthy individuals compared to poor individuals.

Comet Leonard will be passing safely by Earth at a distance of 21 million miles, and it's currently at its closest point to Earth before it makes its way closer to the Sun.

Astrophotographer Chris Schur.

What is expected to be the brightest comet of 2021, Come Leonard, or Comet C/2021, is currently at its closest point to Earth at a safe distance of 21 million miles. The comet was first discovered by Gregory J. Leonard in January 2021, and after observing the comet more, the researchers discovered it has an extremely elliptical orbit around the Sun that takes around 80,000 years to complete. After Leonard passes Earth, it will be ejected out of the solar system for millions of years.

A galactic jet has been ejected from the only black hole that humans have ever taken an image of, and researchers believe it's shaped like a helix.

Messier 87 galactic jet helix structure.

According to a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the black hole is located 55 million light-years from Earth at the center of the elliptical galaxy called Messier 87, which is the same and only black hole ever to be photographed. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory states it operated the Very Large Array and found that the jet is shaped by a corkscrew-shaped magnetic field that stretches from the center of the black hole out at a distance close to 3,300 light-years.

The annual Germinid meteor shower is happening right now as Earth's orbit takes it through a debris field left by an asteroid.

If you are living in an area that has unfortunate viewing conditions such as cloud cover, or dust, you will be glad to know that you can still participate in the viewing of the Germinid meteor shower online via NASA's livestream. NASA is live streaming the Germinid meteor shower from a camera located at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The meteor shower is expected to have anywhere between 100 and 150 meteors per hour.

While there are many meteors expected to be seen, NASA warns that the Moon will be about 80% full and may reduce visibility due to its brightness, bringing down the expected amount of meteors per hour to 30 or 40. However, the Moon is expected to set at around 2:00 am on December 14. After 2:00 am is what is being considered as the best viewing opportunity.

NASA has posted a new image on its blog that showcases a stunning spiral galaxy located 250 million years from Earth.

NASA has posted the images on its social channels and explains that the spiral galaxy is named UGC 11537 and is located in the constellation Aquilla. The Hubble Space Telescope has pointed its Wide Field Camera 3 at the galaxy and has captured the large spiral arms, as well as two prominent stars located in the foreground of the image.

NASA notes that the spikes seen on each of the stars are a result of the starlight interacting with Hubble's camera - defined as "diffraction spikes". Additionally, the space agency explains that the image showcases large amounts of dark dust clouds. This image of UGC 11537 comes from a set of observations designed to assist astronomers in measuring supermassive black holes that are located at the center of galaxies such as UGC 11537.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced to his nearly 70 million Twitter followers plans on developing technology that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Elon Musk took to his Twitter account to announce that SpaceX is currently developing a program that will focus on removing CO2 from Earth's atmosphere and converting it into fuel that will be used to power rockets. Musk ended the Tweet by asking the public to "join" if they are interested, which I can only imagine everyone will be, as there has been quite a lot of focus put on the environmental impact, or carbon footprint of rocket launches.

Musk also added that this new technology would be necessary to colonize Mars, saying this "will also be important for Mars". For those that don't know, Mars' atmosphere consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, with traces of oxygen and other gases. Having technology capable of converting CO2 into rocket fuel would provide massive utility to colonists on the surface, as they would be able to perform multiple launches at a cost-efficient price.

One of the best meteor showers of 2021 is scheduled to happen later today, as Earth's orbit passes through debris from an asteroid.

In a recent video posted to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube channel, the space agency explains that the meteor shower viewing is highly dependant on the brightness of the Moon, and this year the Moon will be at 80% full during the peak on December 13 - 14. However, at 2 am the Moon will set, leaving some hours for meteor showering viewing before sunrise. If you are planning on seeing some meteors, you will need to look out towards the

The Geminid meteor shower is an annual meteor shower that happens in December when Earth's orbit passes into a debris field created by an asteroid called Phaethon. NASA says that Phaethon is stretching the definitions of what a comet and an asteroid are, as it was discovered that Phaethon emits fizzing sodium that plays the same role as vaporizing ice on a comet. Below you will find some advice from NASA on viewing meteor showers.

A team of researchers observed a galaxy for forty hours and didn't detect any trace of dark matter being present, breaking current theories.

A team of researchers published the results of the study on the pre-print server arXiv, and it's expected to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, details the galaxy named AGC 114905, located around 250 million light-years from Earth. For some time, dark matter has been one of the main mysteries of the universe, and while researchers can directly see it, they can detect it by measuring the interaction between celestial objects.

If an object behaves in a way that normal matter can't explain, researchers infer that dark matter is present. As Science Alert reports, an example of this would be stars spinning at velocities higher that can't be explained with normal matter. According to the researchers behind the recent paper, previous measurements of AGC 114905 suggested that the galaxy didn't contain any dark matter, which their forty-hour observation only confirmed, only deepening the mystery of dark matter.

NASA space probe sent to investigate the planet Jupiter has relayed back some incredible images of gigantic storms.

NASA's Juno mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 5 August 2011 and arrived at its destination in 2016. Recently, Juno sent back a batch of images to Earth that it snapped using its visible-light camera called JunoCam. The images showcase storms so massive they are difficult to comprehend. The SETI Institute, a not-for-profit research organization founded by Carl Sagan, explained that Earth could likely fit in the white storm located in the bottom left-hand corner of the image.

Universe Today reports that citizen scientists behave as the JunoCam's virtual imaging team by making suggestions for what area of the planet the camera should be pointed at and doing post-processing image work. If you are interested in checking out the images in full resolution, head on over to the JunoCam website, where you will find a gallery of images showcasing Jupiter's regions from a range of different angles.

Researchers have penned a study that surveyed centuries of planet literature and found that the decision to demote Pluto should be reversed.

Researchers from the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida (UCF) published the study in the astronomy journal Icarus, and it details an examination of hundreds of years of planet literature that revealed a timeline of events that led up to the demotion of Pluto. According to the researchers under definitions created by Galileo, widely considered the "father" of observational astronomy, Pluto would have been defined as a planet between 1600 and 1900 as it had geological activity.

The researchers write that the definition began to change when there was a decline in planetary science papers and an increase in the printing of almanacs. Futurism reports that the Galilean definitions changed due to astrology requiring a set number of planets in the solar system in order to make predictions, as well as "astrologically-derived weather forecasts of almanacs". Under the Galilean definitions, many moons and asteroids could be considered planets, as they would be geologically active.

A new sleeping bag has been developed that may prevent one of the most serious medical issues that come from prolonged stays in zero gravity.

A study published in 2011 in the journal American Academy of Ophthalmology detailed that astronauts who had prolonged stays of six months or more could risk having their vision impacted with flattened eyeballs, swollen optic nerves, and a general decrease in eyesight quality. The study details that a lack of gravity causes a build-up of fluid pressure around the brain, which can put pressure on the eyeballs and results in a medical condition called neuro-ocular syndrome.

As a way to solve this problem, researchers have developed a sleeping bag that is essentially a large vacuum. In a new study published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, researchers detail testing on a dozen participants over three days with and without the sleeping bag, and according to the study's results, the new hi-tech sleeping bags were found to prevent the body fluids from building up and changing shape of eyeballs.

Sky-watchers around the world will be able to see Comet Leonard safely pass by Earth in a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event.

Comet Leonard or C/2021 A1 was first discovered in January 2021 by astronomer and research specialist Gregory J. Leonard. The comet has been making a 35,000-year journey towards the Sun and will soon be making its closest approach to Earth on December 13. After Leonard makes passes Earth, it will make its closest approach with Venus on December 18.

During the two aforementioned dates is the best time to view Leonard, which will be found just below the Bigger Dipper constellation and the star Arcturus. It's recommended that if you are planning on viewing Leonard, to come equipped with a decent pair of binoculars as the comet will be difficult to locate depending on weather conditions and visibility from your location. The below images were captured by photographers based in the UK and Texas.

A comet that no one currently alive will ever see again will soon be passing by Earth, with it being brightest over the weekend and following days.

For the last 35,000 years comet Leonard has been traveling towards the Sun at a ridiculous speed of 158,084 miles per hour, and as it makes its way closer it will begin to appear brighter to observers as the crust on the large ice ball increasingly vaporizes. After it passes the Sun it will be ejected from our solar system for millions of years, making this viewing opportunity a truly once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event.

The comet will make its closest approach with Earth on December 12, and on December 18 it will make its closest approach with Venus. If you are interested in viewing the rare comet, looking just below the Bigger Dipper constellation and the star Arcturus. It's also recommended to have a pair of binoculars (10x50 preferably), as viewing Leonard with the unaided eye may be difficult depending on your location and weather. Comet Leonard is renowned as the best comet for 2021, but something is "wrong" with it.

Erdal Yigit of the George Mason University has published a recent paper in the journal Science, suggesting loss of surface water on Mars is due to more than just solar wind inter

The paper suggests three other factors to consider: gravity waves, convection, and dust storms. Planetary scientists have concluded that Mars' surface used to have lots of water, but it was slowly lost to space as hydrogen over billions of years.

Some prior research suggests that sunlight through the lower Martian atmosphere separated water molecules, leading to hydrogen dissipating away into space. Yigit has suggested there is insufficient evidence for such a straightforward answer.

Researchers from the Oregon State University (OSU) have shown potential for new catalysts to help cleanly produce hydrogen with greater efficiency and lower cost than currently available catalysts.

Electrochemical catalytic processes like water electrolysis can produce hydrogen more cleanly and more sustainably than other processes such as methane-steam reforming, which produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

In this latest study, researchers have produced a new catalyst to facilitate hydrogen production. Catalysts are substances that increase the rate of chemical reactions without themselves undergoing any permanent chemical change. However, catalysts often undergo structural changes, whether reversible or irreversible, that can lead to a loss of catalytic activity and a subsequent reduction in reaction efficiency.

Using heavy elements, researchers from Florida State University have discovered the potential for a new family of chemical compounds.

Ligands are molecule groups that bind to others to form more complex compounds with metals. The researchers discovered unexpected results when designing ligands from molecules typically used in solar cell technologies and bonding them with radioactive elements. Pairing the ligand with berkelium, the 97th element on the periodic table, shifted the electron density of the compound significantly.

The ligand was also tested with cerium, which had a strong polarization effect but was not as significant as with berkelium. With proof of concept, the researchers could systematically test the interactions of such ligands with various metals to achieve differing levels of polarity and bond strength. An exciting application of the work is using the compounds to recycle nuclear material by separating component elements with specific ligand and metal combinations.