Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 148

A study on the magnetic reversal titled "A radio, optical, UV and X-ray view of the enigmatic changing look Active Galactic Nucleus 1ES~1927+654 from its pre- to post-flare states" has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers observed a rare, enigmatic outburst from the 1ES 1927+654 galaxy 236 million light-years away. The unusual characteristics of the eruption indicate that it may have been produced as a result of a magnetic reversal, where the magnetic field surrounding the central black hole of the galaxy spontaneously flips.

The eruption began near the end of 2017 and, by March 2018, had caused the galaxy's visible light to brighten by nearly 100 times. NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory noticed UV emissions were 12 times higher than normal in May 2018 and declining, indicating an earlier, unobserved peak. In June 2018, higher-energy X-ray emissions disappeared from the galaxy.

Rangers from the National Parks Service (NPS) have received reports of human remains found in Nevada's Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

An ongoing drought has resulted in all-time low water levels, resulting in human remains turning up on two separate occasions in the last two weeks. On May 1st, a body was found inside a barrel that appeared as the lake dried up. On May 7th, around 2 p.m. EST, a second body was found, potentially the victim of a Las Vegas mob murder.

"The water level has dropped so much over the last 30 to 40 years that, where the person was located, if a person were to drop the barrel in the water and it sinks, you are never going to find it unless the water level drops. The water level has dropped and made the barrel visible. The barrel did not move. It was not like the barrel washed up," said Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

The now 17-year-old Benjamin Choi began working on the project in 2020 as a tenth-grader at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With lots of free time owing to the pandemic and inspiration from a 60 Minutes documentary on mind-controlled prostheses he watched in third grade, Choi set to work on a less-invasive version of a prosthetic arm than he had originally seen.

"I was really, really amazed at the time because this technology was so impressive. But I was also alarmed that they require this really risky open brain surgery. And they're so inaccessible, costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Choi.

SpinLaunch has completed another test on April 22nd, 2022, of its unconventional alternative to traditional rocket launches.

New footage from the company's eighth flight test shows an optical camera payload being launched from its Suborbital Accelerator Launch System at over 1,000 (1,609 kilometers) miles per hour. The payload is a 3-meter (9.8 feet) long flight test vehicle, equipped for the first time with an onboard camera to provide a unique perspective.

The Suborbital Accelerator Launch System contains a large, rotating carbon fiber arm within a steel vacuum chamber 300 feet (91.4 meters) in diameter. The arm is used to accelerate the payload-carrying launch vehicle to up to 5,000 miles (8046 kilometers) per hour, faster than six times the speed of sound (Mach 6).

A team of marine scientists have discovered fascinating geological formations while diving at Lili uokalani ridge in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the Pacific Ocean.

The team of researchers was studying seamounts, underwater mountains, or geologic landforms that were formed by extinct volcanoes rising abruptly. The team was inspecting the summit of Nootka Seamount with the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus and discovered a "dried lake bed" formation that featured hyaloclastite rock.

The geological formation was described as a "yellow brick road" that leads to the mythical city of Atlantis and is a prime example of ancient volcanic geology. The 90-degree brick-like fractures were likely caused by sharp heating and cooling stress from multiple eruptions. The PNMM is located north of the Hawaiian islands and spans a whopping 583,000 square miles of ocean, making it one of the largest marine conversation areas on Earth.

NASA's asteroid detection system recorded an asteroid making its closest approach to Earth on Monday, May 9.

Data from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory detailed the asteroid named 2006 JF42, which passed safely by Earth at a distance of 3.5 million miles, or about 14 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. The asteroid is estimated to have a diameter of 1,247 feet to 2,822 feet, and poses no future threat to Earth, according to current measurements of its orbit.

NASA has previously stated that while many asteroids are categorized as "potentially hazardous," it doesn't necessarily mean that Earth is in danger by them. Two factors determine an asteroid being categorized as potentially dangerous; its diameter and if its orbit comes within a certain distance of Earth. Previously NASA researchers have stated that the agency doesn't know of any asteroid 500+ feet in diameter that has a chance of impacting Earth within the next 100 years.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that there was a communications dropout between its Ingenuity helicopter and the Perseverance Mars rover.

On NASA's website, the space agency states that the Mars helicopter named Ingenuity missed planned communications with the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity uses Perseverance as a base station to receive new commands from Earth. Alerted to the drop in communications, NASA began to perform tests to see what had gone wrong.

According to the space agency, Ingenuity failed to communicate with the rover on May 3, which was due to the helicopter entering a "low-power state" that NASA says may be due to the "seasonal increase in the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere and lower temperatures as winter approaches". Essentially, the increase in martian dust is reducing the amount of sunlight Ingenuity's solar array can acquire, limiting the total amount of charge the helicopter can contain.

Just like Earth, Mars gets smacked with a nice selection of meteors that vary in size and contents. Some of these space rocks make it to the surface.

With images and data acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), researchers believe they have discovered a new crater on the martian surface. The above image was taken by MRO on July 24, 2020, and when compared to an image of the same location taken in 2018, the crater isn't there, meaning an impact happened sometime between 2018 and 2020.

The MRO launched in 2005 and has been in operation since 2006, gathering data on Mars. Over this extensive period of data collection, researchers have been able to estimate that Mars gets smacked by about 200 meteors every year. The HiRISE camera used to snap these images has injected the image with "false" color that allows researchers to more easily distinguish between different materials and textures within the image. The crater would look very different if the human viewing it was standing next to it.

Elon Musk has copped some criticism online over a short private jet trip that took him just 31 miles, or nine minutes of flight time.

The outrage was sparked when the ElonJet Twitter bot account, which Musk has attempted to bribe to be shut down in the past over people using it to meet him at his landing locations, published a post that revealed Musk's jet took off from San Joe, California, US and landed in San Francisco. Many Twitter users were quick to point to the carbon emissions caused by Musk's private jet flight and his overall public message of reducing the reliance on fossil fuels.

Notably, text messages between Musk and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revealed that Gates holds a $500 million short position against Tesla. Gates was attempting to meet with Musk to discuss climate philanthropy prospects. Musk replied by saying, "Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change."

Have you ever wondered what a bullet from a 9mm would look like flying through an egg? The Slow Motion Guys have captured that in staggering amounts of frames per second.

In a new video released to The Slow Mo Guys YouTube channel, Gav and Dan revisit a video that was uploaded to the channel 11 years ago where Gav demonstrated the difference in frames rates by writing on the mugs and shooting at the respective numbers. The highest frame rate in that 11 year old video was 10,000, and is where the egg shooting video begins with the maximum recorded frame rate being 1 million frames per second (FPS).

The eggs are positioned in the same location and a 9mm bullet is fired. The slow motion camera records the impact and each level of frame rate showed revealed different aspects of the collision. At the higher frame rates the bullets wobble from piercing through the egg can be more clearly seen, and moving into the 100,000's of FPS smaller pieces of shell can be seen as well as the shadow from the shockwave of air.