Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 146

Researchers have analyzed limestone samples and have discovered that Earth tipped millions of years ago while dinosaurs were still walking around.

The new study has been published in Nature Communications and details an analysis of limestone samples from Italy that date back 65.5 to 100.5 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. The researchers were looking for evidence of a shift in Earth's magnetic record that would indicate True Polar Wander (TPW), which can cause whole planets and moons to tilt.

According to the study results, the researchers were able to identify evidence of a tilt occurring with bacteria fossils trapped within the limestone. These bacteria fossils provide evidence that during the aforementioned periods, the Earth's surface, which is made up of mantle and crust, tipped by 12 degrees around 84 million years ago and then corrected itself within about 5 million years.

A group of researchers has proposed a new method of planetary defense that would explode a potentially life-threatening asteroid that was on track to impact Earth.

The technical paper has been published in the journal Advances in Space Research on the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Experimental Cosmology Group website and details what are described as "penetrator rods". These rods would be launched on the back of the rocket and directed straight for the asteroid that was on its way towards Earth.

The rods are between 6 and 10 feet long and equipped with explosives that could potentially be nuclear. The idea behind this strategy is that the rods would enter the asteroid surface and explode, which would cause the asteroid to shatter into small pieces. The researchers state in the paper that the damage caused by the smaller pieces of the asteroid wouldn't even be close to the amount of damage a larger asteroid would do.

NASA recently launched its spacecraft that is scheduled to inspect ancient asteroids located near the largest planet in our solar system - Jupiter.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft took off on Saturday, October 16, aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, and while the launch was deemed an overall success, the space agency has announced the spacecraft has experienced a slight problem with one of its solar panels. The two solar panels Lucy is equipped with are crucial components of the spacecraft's very ambitious mission to visit the ancient Trojan asteroids as they give the spacecraft power.

According to the announcement from NASA's associate administrator for science who wrote on Twitter, Lucy is "safe and stable". However, "The two solar arrays have deployed, but one may not be fully latched." Adding, "The team is analyzing data to determine next steps. This team has overcome many challenges already and I am confident they will prevail here as well." NASA gave its own statement on the matter, saying, "Lucy's two solar arrays have deployed, and both are producing power and the battery is charging. While one of the arrays has latched, indications are that the second array may not be fully latched."

Astronomers used one of NASA's satellites to observe a white dwarf star seemingly switching "on and off" for the first time.

The research has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy. It details a first-time discovery of astronomers from Durham University, UK, using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to look at a white dwarf star around 1,400 light-years. The astronomers' new observations detail the white dwarf losing brightness in just 30 minutes, which is something that was only previously observed over a period of several days to months.

So, why did this happen? According to Phys.org, the brightness of a white dwarf star is affected by the amount of material surrounding it that it can potentially feed on. When the white dwarf is bright, it's feeding off the accretion disk of its companion star, and when dull, it's not "eating" as much. From the results, the researchers suspect that there was an interference of some sort with the star's food supply which led to the dramatic rise and fall of its brightness.

NASA has recorded what it sounds like on Mars with two microphones aboard its Perseverance rover that's currently exploring the Red Planet.

In a new video released on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube channel, NASA imaging scientist Justin Maka at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Nina Lanza, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), explain how the Perseverance rover captured the sounds of Mars and the importance of being able to hear what it's like on the Red Planet.

The two microphones that Perseverance is equipped with are two commercial off-the-shelf microphones. Having microphones on Perseverance allows researchers to understand how sound works in Mars' atmosphere, such as the Red Planet's atmosphere is vastly different compared to Earth's. Additionally, researchers can listen to the rover performing analysis as well as the sounds the rover makes, which allows engineers to better understand the current health of the rover better. To listen to the sounds of Mars, check out the above video.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have an incredible vantage point to see Earth and some of its strange, yet beautiful phenomena.

The International Space Station (ISS) is orbiting Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles, and from that height astronauts aboard the floating laboratory are able to capture stunning images of Earth. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough recently took to his personal Twitter account to post an image of a beautiful green aurora appearing in Earth's atmosphere. Here's what he said, "I caught this aurora just as orbital sunrise was beginning. Breathtaking!"

An aurora occurs when charged particles from the Sun collide with Earth's atmosphere. These charged particles are called solar wind and come from solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field lines creates the beautiful auroras we see in the sky. The Sun is entering in a new solar cycle which means we can expect more solar activity such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections to take place.

McDonald's is rolling out its new plant-based burger in 8 restaurants across the US starting on November 3, with the limited-time trial testing the taste buds of customers to see if it is a success or not.

The company is using a patty made using plant-based meat from Beyond Meat, which has been working with other companies on plant-based meat. But the deal between Beyond Meat and McDonald's is different because McDonald's co-developed the plant-based meat used in the McPlant with Beyond Meat, instead of Beyond Meat providing the plant-based meat to other fast-food chains.

McDonald's first announced its plant-based burger back in November 2020, where at the time McDonald's international president Ian Borden explained during an investor meeting: "In the future, McPlant could extend across a line of plant-based products including burgers, chicken-substitutes and breakfast sandwiches". McDonald's added that the McPlant burger "delivers our iconic taste in a sink-your-teeth-in (and wipe-your-mouth) kind of sandwich. It's made with a juicy, plant-based patty and served on a warm, sesame seed bun with all the classic toppings".

NASA has explained via a press release that a new study is exploring how possible it is to build a Wi-Fi network on the lunar surface.

NASA's Compass Lab conducted the study, and researchers behind it compared the inadequate internet access in some areas in Cleveland to the lunar surface in an effort to solve two problems; giving those people in areas without a connection a sustained connection and the construction of a Wi-Fi network on the Moon. According to the National Digital Alliance, around 31% of Cleveland households aren't connected to the internet.

The researchers behind the study compared the lunar surface area with an area around Cleveland to discover technical challenges within the local area. The study found that if Wi-Fi routers were attached to around 20,000 lampposts or other poles around Cleveland, all residents in the local area would have an available connection at any given time. With routers placed no more than 100 yards apart, the researchers estimated that a family of four would be able to get a 7.5 megabits per second download speed.

The first film crew to ever shoot footage that will be used in a feature film has safely returned back down to Earth, marking a milestone moment in the world film industry.

After training for just four months, filmmaker Klim Shipenko, actress Yulia Peresild, and cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station for twelve days. The space film crew shot scenes for an upcoming movie about a doctor that is sent into orbit to perform surgery on a cosmonaut that is in need of medical attention.

The space film crew safely touched down in the Kazakhstan steppes, and right after leaving the capsule, the landing site quickly became a film set for one of the film's closing scenes. Actress Yulia Peresild is the first actress in space and described her experience to RT, saying, "While you're in low gravity, you feel like a feather, so everything's very heavy now - my head's very heavy, my arms, my legs... Everything's a little dizzy." The mission was a joint effort between Russia's television Channel 1 and the Russian Space Agency.

For the first time, researchers have captured the sounds of a solar storm from the Sun impacting Earth's magnetic field.

The sounds were released by the European Space Agency (ESA) back in 2019, and according to the press release, the song comes from waves that are generated in Earth's magnetic field when charged particles from the Sun slammed into it. Lucile Turc, a former ESA research fellow, led a team on the research and used data from the Cluster Science Archive, which consists of four spacecrafts that orbit Earth-observing our planet's magnetic field.

The orbit of these spacecrafts takes them through what is known as "foreshock", which is the first layer of Earth's magnetic field. Between 2001 and 2005, the spacecrafts flew through six solar storm collisions and recorded the waves of the impact. Researchers then converted these frequencies to audio, and the result is somewhat eerie sci-fi sound that is commonly used in movies. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

NASA's asteroid trackers are indicating that multiple asteroids will approach Earth in the next few weeks, some close to the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza located in Egypt.

For reference, the Great Pyramid of Giza has a diameter of 756 feet, and according to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, Asteroid 2021 SM3 with a diameter of 525 feet passed by Earth just this Friday at a distance of 3.5 million miles. This asteroid was only first discovered a few weeks ago, according to CBS News. For those that don't know, a near-Earth object (NEO) are comets and asteroids that have been pushed into Earth's neighborhood by the gravity of other large-mass celestial body's such as nearby planets.

NASA researchers believe that NEOs hold the secrets for the evolution of our solar system as they formed from untouched debris when the solar system was first developing 4.6 billion years ago. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said, "If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process - the comets and asteroids."

NASA has released a new image captured by its Mars rover named Perseverance, showing off an incredible view of an area in the Jezero Crater.

The image is a brand new panorama of the South Seitah area located in the Jezero Crater, where Perseverance is currently exploring. Researchers selected the Jezero Crater for its potential to contain evidence of past life on the planet as well as its geological potential as it contains some of the oldest rocks that will allow researchers to understand more about Mars' past when studied.

The image is a mosaic piece that is comprised of 84 separate images that were taken with Perseverance's Mastcam-Z instrument. According to NASA, the images were taken on September 12 when Perseverance was parked on an elevated overlook that is located just outside of its entry point into South Seitah. To view a full resolution version of the panoramic image, check out this link here.

Astronomers have been observing Jupiter and its most notable attraction - the Great Red Spot for hundreds of years.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is the largest storm in the solar system, stretching at one point 25,000 miles in diameter, or three times the diameter of Earth. The storm is located 22 degrees south of Jupiter's equator and is producing wind speeds of up to 268 miles per hour. Astronomers have been using NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Telescope to observe Jupiter's main attraction for more than a decade and have discovered that the wind speed on the outer edges of the Great Red Spot is increasing.

Between 2009 and 2020, the wind speed of the outer edges, described by researchers as the high-speed ring, has increased its speed by eight percent. According to Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis, "When I initially saw the results, I asked, 'Does this make sense?' No one has ever seen this before. But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble's longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible."

A volcano on one of Spain's islands is spewing rivers of lava out in all directions. Shocking footage has captured the lava coating the surface of the island.

The volcano is Spain's Cumbre Vieja volcano located on La Palma island. The volcano began erupting on September 19 and has continued erupting for four weeks. NBC News reports that authorities expect the lava flow to advance northwest beyond the designated evacuation zone. Authorities have stated that the temperature of the lava can reach up to 2,264 degrees Fahrenheit and that there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

Residents in the area have evacuated the affected area, but the lava is moving very quickly, covering between 1,640 to 2,300 feet per hour. So far, the eruption and the rivers of lava have destroyed more than 1,186 buildings in the area and have covered around two square miles of land. Many videos of the rivers of lava have been captured by the press, researchers, and residents in the area. If you are interested in watching a video for yourself, check out this link here.

Astronomers back in 1974 decided to sketch what they thought the lunar mountain named Mons "Pico" would look like if they were standing in front of it.

Mons Pico is a solitary lunar mountain that is located in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin. The mountain is very reflective and is known as a bright lunar object. The peak comes in at the height of 7,874 feet, and when blasted with sunlight, it can cause massive shadows across the lunar surface. Astronomers in 1874 were able to view the mountain but weren't able to get an idea of what it looked like if they were standing on the lunar surface looking at it.

So, they decided to draw it. Above is a sketch of Pico, with the caption stating, "An ideal sketch of "Pico," an isolated lunar mountain 8,000 feet high, as it would probably appear if seen by a spectator located on the Moon." Unfortunately, to the astronomers/artists that drew this sketch, their assumptions about the mountain weren't accurate. Below is an image of what Pico looks like today, and as you can see, the two images are very different. While the sketch from 1874 isn't accurate, the measurement for the height of the mountain is, which is certainly something to commend for the times it was estimated.

Last week, a large amount of solar material erupted from our star's surface, which then traveled through space, reaching Earth a few days later.

For those that are unaware of this event, the eruption happened on October 9, 2021, causing a coronal mass ejection (CME) blast to hit Earth on October 12. So, what does this mean exactly? Researchers measure the disturbance in Earth's magnetic field by solar wind using the Kp index metric. The levels range from 0, which is considered "quiet," to 9, which is regarded as "intense". The CME that arrived last week elevated the Kp index to a 6, which is considered mild-moderate.

The CME blast was associated with a solar flare that happened from Active Region 2882 that peaked on October 9 at 6:38 UTC. The solar flare was categorized as an M-class, and much like the Richter scale used to measure earthquakes, M-class solar flares are a tenth the size and intensity of the X-class flares. For example, M2 flares are twice as powerful as an M1. NASA's space instruments measured the speed of the solar wind from the eruption to be 610 miles per second, according to NASA's Moon to Mars Space Weather Operations Office.

A distinguished Harvard professor has speculated that the Milky Way universe could have been created in a lab by an advanced alien species.

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is a best-selling author and former head of Harvard's astronomy department and is known for theories such as alien civilizations not being able to reply to our messages for 3,000 years and Oumuamua possibly being an alien spacecraft. Loeb is more than qualified to speculate these wild theories, and recently he published an op-ed in Scientific American that explores the possibility of the universe merely being a lab experiment by an "advanced technological civilization."

According to Loeb, "Since our universe has a flat geometry with a zero net energy, an advanced civilization could have developed a technology that created a baby universe out of nothing through quantum tunneling." Adding, "This possible origin story unifies the religious notion of a creator with the secular notion of quantum gravity. We do not possess a predictive theory that combines the two pillars of modern physics: quantum mechanics and gravity. But a more advanced civilization might have accomplished this feat and mastered the technology of creating baby universes."

A new study has detailed the possible discovery of four new alien worlds located 160 light-years from Earth.

The new study explains that researchers detected shimmering radio flashes of auroras in each of those planets' atmospheres. So what is an aurora? An aurora occurs when solar wind, which is charged particles from the Sun, collides with a planet's magnetic shield. Earth experiences auroras at its poles and in other locations when it's blasted with solar wind.

The researchers behind the study detected bright flashes of radio signals from the auroras on the supposed planets' atmospheres, which could confirm the existence of four new planets with more research. The astronomers discovered these radio signals using the Low Frequency Array radio telescope located in the Netherlands while observing Red Dwarf stars. Out of the nineteen Red Dwarf stars that were observed, four of them seemed strange as they shined bright with radio signals.

Solar eclipses are a thing of beauty that every human should witness at least once during their life as it's one of the many spectacles that the universe we live in offers.

Back in 2017, the Great American Eclipse occurred over North America, leaving millions of onlookers in awe as the Moon completely blocked out the Sun for a small period of time. So, when is the next one going to happen? According to AccuWeather, the next solar eclipse will happen on October 14, 2023, but it won't be a total solar eclipse.

The difference between a total solar eclipse and an annular solar eclipse is that the Moon doesn't completely block out the Sun on an annular solar eclipse, it leaves a "ring" around the outside of the Moon, hence the recently adopted name "ring of fire" eclipse. AccuWeather reports that the solar eclipse in 2023 will be an "appetizer" for the main event that will occur on April 8, 2024, when the Moon will completely black out the Sun - a total solar eclipse.

Since late September, the La Palma volcano has been erupting and judging by reports, the rivers of lava don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

The eruption began on September 19, and since then, lava has been spewing out of the volcano, causing residents in the area to evacuate. The temperature of the lava is up to 2,264 degrees Fahrenheit and is destroying everything in its path. At the moment, officials are saying that the lava is moving at 1,640 feet to 2,300 feet per hour, and so far, it has destroyed more than 1,186 buildings in the area - covering nearly two square miles of land.

On Sunday, the northern region of the conical crater collapsed, causing new lava streams to form downhill towards the ocean. The volcanic company Involcan posted a video of the lava moving through the industrial park on October 10. The video shows a beautiful yet haunting example of how the lava is moving through parts of the island, destroying everything in its path. If you are interested in reading more about the La Palma volcano eruption, check out the links below.