Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 132

A study on the atom laser titled "Continuous Bose-Einstein condensation" has been published in the journal Nature.

Conventional lasers produce a coherent wave of light, meaning all of the light vibrates in a synchronized fashion. As described by the wave-particle duality from quantum mechanics, the behavior of particles like atoms can be described with the classical understanding of both particles and waves. Therefore, lasers can also be built from atoms, naturally dubbed 'atom lasers.'

A Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is when matter particles, like atoms, condense into a coherent wave, synchronized like a light in a typical laser. However, this can typically only occur at temperatures roughly a millionth of a degree warmer than absolute zero, making most BECs short-lived. Now, physicists from the University of Amsterdam have devised a process to sustain BECs, and produce a continual atom laser.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has committed to sharing information regarding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) with the United States.

Larry Maguire, a member of parliament (MP) in Canada, questioned Canada's Natural Resources department during a meeting, about the safety of Canada's nuclear facilities and the potential threat posed by UAP, also known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Maguire later received a letter from the Natural Resources department informing him of their commitment to sharing information on UAP issues with its United States counterpart.

"Given the shared priority for nuclear safety and security of nuclear facilities, and the growing interest in UAPs in both Canada and the United States, the CNSC is committed to raising the issue with its United States counterpart and sharing any related information going forward," wrote Deputy Minister of Natural Resources John Hannaford in a letter dated June 6th, 2022.

A study on the black hole titled "Discovery of the most luminous quasar of the last 9 Gyr" has been submitted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

An international team led by astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) has discovered a black hole growing faster than any other black hole in the last nine billion years. This black hole consumes an amount of mass equivalent to one Earth per second.

The black hole has a mass equivalent to three billion times that of our Sun and shines with 7,000 times more light than all of the light coming from the Milky Way, resulting in an apparent magnitude of 14.5, which measures how bright an object appears to an observer on Earth. Similarly sized black holes have been observed to stop growing at such fast rates billions of years ago.

Voyager 1 and 2 were launched into space on September 5th, 1977, and August 20th, 1977, respectively.

Both Voyager spacecraft have identical designs, and both have reached interstellar space, the first human-made objects to do so. Almost 45 years later, they are still in service, returning data to Earth from beyond the solar system. This makes the Voyager spacecraft the longest-lasting spacecraft in history after initially only being designed for a four-year mission.

"The amount of software on these instruments is slim to none. There are no microprocessors-they didn't exist! On the whole. I think the mission lasted so long because almost everything was hardwired. Today's engineers don't know how to do this. I don't know if it's even possible to build such a simple spacecraft [now]. Voyager is the last of its kind," said Stamatios Krimigis, who designed the Voyager's Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) detector system.

The new Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) has been developed by Estonian company Milrem Robotics and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

The autonomous, robotic tank was first unveiled in June 2021 and has now completed the first test firing of its Protector Remote Turret. It is equipped with a Bushmaster 30 mm cannon, one of the many payloads the Type-X can use, such as 50 mm cannons, anti-tank missiles, and even a tethered drone. The tank can reach a top speed of 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) per hour on sealed roads,

Milrem and Kongsberg have partnered to develop the Nordic Robotic Wingman (NRW), which Type-X will serve as the base platform for creating RCVs for supporting larger, manned tanks and infantry vehicles. The artificial intelligence system governing the Type-X has multiple functions, including following, waypoint navigation, and obstacle detection.

A study on the asteroid titled "The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche" has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

The 16 Psyche asteroid is scheduled to be visited by a NASA probe that will launch later in 2022. The spacecraft will visit the asteroid belt occupying the region between Mars and Jupiter, comprising remnants from the solar system's formation. One such remnant is the 16 Psyche asteroid, thought to be the core of an ancient planet, which contains a large number of valuable metals, producing an estimated value of as high as $700 quintillion.

Before the NASA probe is launched and reaches the asteroid to begin an almost two-year-long mission orbiting and analyzing it, researchers from MIT have mapped 16 Psyche in the highest resolution yet, coming in at roughly 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) per pixel. They combined signals from radio antennas at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile before running hundreds of simulations to determine the surface composition.

A senior official from NASA has told Reuters it is concerned about damage to its launch infrastructure.

The primary home for Starship is at SpaceX's Starbase facility, located in Boca Chica, Texas. Both Starship and the facility have been the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) environmental assessment that was recently finalized. While the assessment was underway for the first half of 2022 and earlier, SpaceX constructed an orbital launchpad for Starship in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

At the same facilities in Cape Canaveral exists Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. From here, SpaceX launches its Crew Dragon capsule, which ferries astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. As it is the only launchpad approved for Crew Dragon, NASA wants SpaceX that Starship poses no risk to the pad as a result of some catastrophic incident such as an explosion.

The Boring Company has just received approval from the City of Las Vegas, so that the Elon Musk-led company can extend its tunnel network underneath the city, to downtown Las Vegas.

Clark County Commissioners first approved the Vegas Loop, which was planned as a 29-mile tunnel network that was connected to 51 stations. But with the expansion approval, it will boost up to a bigger 34-mile tunnel network with 4 more stations: 55 in total, with connections to Harry Reid International Airport and the Allegiant Stadium.

If you forgot how the Boring Company tunnel network works, the Vegas Loop will see passengers get into a human-driven Tesla Model X or Model Y electric vehicle -- underground, in a series of networked tunnels -- and boosted off to their destination with much, much more time to spare than driving on the roads.

NASA's upcoming Artemis I mission will fly over three million people's names around the Moon.

Artemis I is the first mission in NASA's Artemis program, which is set to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon, hoping to establish a more permanent presence from which NASA can stage missions to Mars for its Moon to Mars initiative. Artemis I will comprise an uncrewed test flight around the Moon using the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Aboard this flight will be a flash drive containing over three million names collected by NASA, and will be placed inside the Orion spacecraft. Before NASA stopped accepting further submissions, 3,390,384 "boarding passes" were claimed using NASA's website.

A study on the extra chromosomes titled "Detection and characterization of male sex chromosome abnormalities in the UK Biobank study" has been published in the journal Genetics in Medicine.

Data from over 207,000 men included in the UK Biobank has revealed that an extra sex chromosome, either an X or Y, may be prevalent in as many as 1 in 500 men. Typically, men are born with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, however, in the dataset, were 213 men with an extra X chromosome, resulting in the XXY genotype, and 143 men with an extra Y chromosome, resulting in the XYY genotype.

Also referred to as 47,XXY and 47,XYY, the genotypes are called Klinefelter syndrome and Jacobs syndrome, respectively. Only 23% of those with Klinefelter syndrome had a known diagnosis, while only 0.7% of those with Jacobs syndrome were diagnosed. However, the latter has much more subtle characteristics that could contribute to a lower diagnosis rate.