Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 150

The Hubble Space Telescope is at it again with another jaw-dropping image. This time the space telescope has snapped a photo of a celestial "eye".

The image is of a spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 5728 that's located around 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra. NGC 5728 is a Seyfert galaxy, which means it has an active nucleus at its center. According to Space.com, at the center of this galaxy, there is a black hole that has lots of gas and dust surrounding it, causing it to be bright.

The image was released by the European Space Agency, which co-operates the Hubble Space Telescope with NASA. According to European Space Agency, "As this image shows, NGC 5728 is clearly observable, and at optical and infrared wavelengths it looks quite normal. It is fascinating to know that the galaxy's centre is emitting vast amounts of light in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that WFC3 [Wide Field Camera 3] just isn't sensitive to!"

A mystery that has spanned almost half a century has just been answered, according to a team of researchers.

The mystery involved the above image, which is a trace fossil. A trace fossil shows the activity of an animal rather than the animal themselves, and these types of fossils provide really valuable information to researchers looking to understand the evolution of complex life on Earth. The quartzite rock was discovered in Mount Barren in southwestern Australia, and the tracks embedded in it appear to have been made by crustaceans that burrow into the sand.

The only problem is, "quartzite is as hard as concrete and impossible for burrowing animals to penetrate. The traces would therefore have had to be made while the sand was still loose. But the sand was deposited 1.7 billion years ago - a billion years prior to the appearance of the first animals in the fossil record, and its transformation to quartzite occurred more than 1.2 billion years ago, much earlier than the oldest animal fossils, which are less than 0.6 billion years old," said paleontologist Bruce Runnegar from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In a bombshell report from CBS Mornings, current and former Blue Origin employees have signed an essay that accuses Blue Origin of prioritizing speed over safety.

The report occurred on October 1st, and according to Alexandra Abrams, a former head of employee communications at Blue Origin, the company pushes employees to sign brutal nondisclosure agreements that infringe on rights, doesn't listen to any feedback, and disregards safety warnings provided by employees. On top of that, the essay, which was published on the website Lioness, details that the workplace environment at Blue Origin was "toxic" and an uncomfortable sexist climate for women.

Now, NASA has fired back at Blue Origin, saying that the company is threatening to destroy the "once-in-a-generation momentum" because it gambled on its original proposal for a new lunar lander and lost. NASA's lawyers stated in legal documents obtained by The Verge through the Freedom of Information Act that "Blue Origin made a bet, and it lost." Due to the legal battle between NASA and Blue Origin the construction of a new lunar lander has been put on hold which throws the 2024 date of the next Moon landing into jeopardy.

Yellowstone National Park, located mostly in Wyoming, is a 3,500 square-mile volcanic hotspot that is home to the world's largest active geyser.

The geyser named Steamboat Geyser has been observed for a number of years, along with the rest of the park, as researchers fear that one day the supervolcano located underneath the surface will erupt. Monitoring the geysers and the overall park will give researchers the data they need to be able to predict if an eruption is likely, which in turn will help save lives if an evacuation is needed.

As for Steamboat, onlookers of this active geyser will see water being shot out of the northern vent at heights of 300 feet to 400 feet. As with all geysers, Steamboat's eruptions go through cycles, and depending on what stage of the cycle the geyser is in will determine how active it is. In the past three years, there have been over 110 eruptions, leading some researchers to believe that Steamboat is slightly more active than what it usually is.

A team of researchers has achieved a world first by capturing the first footage of inside a Category 4 hurricane.

The footage has been released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and it shows the terrifying inside of Hurricane Sam that is currently causing havoc in the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers used a robotic surfboard that is called a Saildrone to capture the footage. In the below image, you can see that Saildrone has a thick surfboard as a base, a sail, and a camera arm.

The ocean craft measures at just 23 feet in length and features a "hurricane wing" that is designed to withstand the force of the elements. Saildrone is powered by solar and is designed to record important data such as wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, temperature, salinity, humidity, and more. According to NOAA scientist Greg Foltz, "We expect to improve forecast models that predict rapid intensification of hurricanes."

More than 20 people have signed an essay that describes Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin as a "toxic" workplace.

The essay was published Thursday on Lioness.co, and according to Alexandra Abrams, a former head of employee communications at Blue Origin, the company pushes employees to sign harsh nondisclosure agreements that infringe on rights, doesn't listen to internal feedback, disregards safety concerns despite numerous warnings and creates an uncomfortable sexist environment for women.

Abrams appeared on CBS Mornings to discuss the essay and said that 13 of 21 signees are engineers and that in 2018 a team of employees documented "more than 1,000 problem reports related to the engines that power Blue Origin's rockets, which had never been addressed." Additionally, CBS spoke to 5 of the co-authors of the essay that decided to remain anonymous out of fear of job security. According to CBS, these authors said that the private space race impacted safety concerns.

Officials have warned that a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun is on its way to hit Earth, and it will be here very soon.

The Space Weather Prediction Center, along with the National Weather Service, rolled back the Geomagnetic Storm Watch they had in place for September 28 and September 29 but have dropped a new warning about October 1. According to reports, a sunspot called AR2871 erupted, causing two explosive blasts of particles to be shot out from the surface of the star.

Officials have cautioned that a G2-level geomagnetic storm is expected to hit Earth on Friday, October 1. This CME is minor, and as a result of that, its impact on Earth will also be minor. But what can a solar storm cause? Small solar storms such as this one may cause auroras in the sky, interruptions in communications, and satellite issues. Overall, this is a minor space weather event, but the Sun is about to enter the most dangerous part of its cycle. To read more on that, check out this link here.

SpaceX, along with Spaceflight Inc and depot start-up OrbitFab has revealed via a press release that the first orbit propellant depot will be shot into space relatively soon.

OrbitFab announced the news via a press release that details the development of a propellant tanker dubbed "Tanker-002" and how and why it will be the first propellant tanker to reach geostationary orbit. The tanker uses OrbitFab's "robust RAFTI (Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface) system" that was designed to refuel US Department of Defense and Intelligence Community assets in geostationary orbit. Tanker-002, along with Spaceflight's Sherpa-ES orbital transfer vehicle, will go around the back of the Moon to gain a gravitational assist.

For those that don't know what geostationary orbit is - it's when an object is stationed 22,236 miles in altitude and orbits Earth at the same speed Earth rotates. If an object is in geostationary orbit, its orbital period will be the same as Earth's single-day period - 23 hours and 56 minutes. It should also be noted that if an object, or in this instance Tanker-002, is in geostationary orbit, an observer on Earth would see the object remain stationary in the sky.

A former Google executive has dropped a warning that not many people want to hear, as what is being created may pose a serious threat to humanity.

According to Mo Gawdat, the Chief Business Officer for Google's moonshot organization called Google X, artificial general intelligence (AGI) poses a genuine threat to humanity. Gawdat dropped this warning in an interview with The Times and explained when he made the revelation that AGI was actually dangerous. Gawdat said he observed Google researchers build robot arms that were trained to grab objects such as balls and toys as a human would.

Gawdat said that he passed these robots fumbling with the objects for weeks, but one day one of the robot arms did something that shook the former Google X executive. Gawdat said that he observed one robot arm pick up the ball and then hold it up towards the researchers as if it was showing off what it had achieved. Gawdat said, "And I suddenly realized this is really scary. It completely froze me." Adding, "The reality is we're creating God."

Humans have always wondered if we are alone in this vast universe we call home and the discovery of Earth-like planets that are some of the best places to look to answer that question.

While it may seem as simple as pointing a large telescope into the void of space to find one of these planets, it's certainly not as easy as it sounds. In fact, it may be much harder than researchers have anticipated. According to a new study out of Cornell University, researchers lay out evidence that next-generation telescopes that will be used to observe exo-planets may confuse planets that are Earth-like with other types of planets that are similar and reside in the same solar system.

Dmitry Savransky, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and co-author on the new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, explains, "Once we have the capability of imaging Earth-like planets, we're actually going to have to worry about confusing them with completely different types of planets. The future telescopes that will enable these observations will be so huge, expensive, and difficult to build and launch that we can't afford to waste a single second of time on them, which is why it is so important to think through all of these potential issues ahead of time."

A team of astronomers has identified a mystery that is yet to be solved, and it specifically has to do with a star system located in the constellation of Orion.

According to a press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society reveals evidence that a star system titled GW Ori, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, has a disk that is divided into two. A good way to think about this is to picture Saturn and imagine that its rings were torn apart. While the mental image of this is easy to achieve, astronomers are struggling to explain why.

The study authors say that a possible reason why GW Ori has a split disk is that a large gassy planet estimated to be the size of Jupiter is present between the rings. However, that planet is yet to be found. Another theory for the split in the rings is the gravitational pull of three stars. The ESO press release explained, "Their simulations showed that the misalignment in the orbits of the three stars could cause the disc around them to break into distinct rings, which is exactly what they see in their observations. The observed shape of the inner ring also matches predictions from numerical simulations on how the disc would tear."

In a new video that has appeared on its official YouTube channel, NASA has explained how important Trojan asteroids are in understanding the formation of our solar system.

The new video has been published as part of NASA's "We Asked A NASA Scientist" series that answers some of sciences most burning questions. The question posed in this specific video is "What Are the Trojan Asteroid?", and it was answered by NASA Trojan asteroid expert Audrey Martin who says that billions of years ago, the solar system just consisted of small rocky and icy objects that eventually came together to form the planets that we see today.

However, not all of the early solar systems objects were used up to form the planets, as some of them are described a "pristine asteroids" that now orbit on the same orbital plane as Jupiter. These asteroids orbit in two massive swarms on either side of Jupiter and are called Trojan asteroids. Martin says that these asteroids are mysterious and could have possibly come from outside of our solar system.

A team of researchers have uncovered the decapitated head of an ancient Byzantine warrior and found that the jaw was threaded with gold.

The decapitated head of the Byzantine warrior was found at the Polystylon fort, an archaeological site in Western Thrace, Greece, in 1991. Anagnostis Agelarakis, an anthropology professor in the Department of History at Adelphi University in New York, studied the burial of the warrior and penned a study that was published back in 2017.

Now, Agelarakis has penned a new study that focuses on the warriors healed jaw, which states that "The jaw was shattered into two pieces" but was mended together by a medical professional that seemed to have followed the advice from the famous Greek physician Hippocrates who wrote much about jaw injuries 1,800 years before the warrior experienced his injury. The researchers found that the warrior died between the ages of 35 and 40 years old and that the jaw injury was endured 10 years before he died.

The Sun is nearing the most intense part of its 11-year cycle, and as it approaches the time-frame of intensity, the chances of Earth feeling its power increase.

For those that don't know, the Sun goes through an 11-year-cycle in which its magnetic poles flip, and throughout 2020 the Sun's magnetic poles were at the lowest point in the cycle, meaning that solar activity and solar storms will be on the increase until July 2025. A solar storm is when the Sun spews a large amount of charged particles out into space. Sometimes these particles line up with Earth and then collide with our magnetic field.

The collision between the Sun's charged particles and Earth's atmosphere can impact all of us, especially as the world becomes more dependent on the digital sphere. Solar storms can affect things such as communication channels, internet facilities, electricity, and more. Solar storms have hit Earth in the past, the first recorded one being in 1859. If you are interested in reading more about space, check out this link here.

More than 100 people have seen a fireball streak across the night sky over North Carolina, and NASA has confirmed its existence.

According to NASA Meteor Watch, the fireball appeared to be "exceptionally bright" as it skimmed across the night coast at around 7:40 pm. The meteor became visible to the eye at around 48 miles above sea level, and according to the American Meteor Society, the fireball was seen by more than 100 people as it traveled through the sky at 32,000 mph.

The fireball didn't cause any damage, and throughout its descent, it disintegrated, "28 miles above Morehead City, after traveling 26 miles through Earth's upper atmosphere", per NASA. The video that is seen above was taken 15 miles south of Raleigh and was posted by the American Meteor Society. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

New information has surfaced about Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin moving to sue NASA over the space agency's decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX the $2.9 billion lunar lander contract.

Legal documents obtained by The Verge with the Freedom of Information Act reveal the basis of some of the arguments made by Blue Origin. While the legal documents are some hundred or so pages in total, some of the main points that can be derived are what Blue Origin considers to be the basis of its argument. Blue Origin argues that it was treated unfairly through the selection process for the $2.9 billion award and that NASA didn't give it an opportunity to renegotiate the price of its proposal.

During the time of the selection process, Blue Origin was aware that Congress wasn't giving NASA all of its requested funding, essentially forcing the space agency into a tighter budget. Blue Origin gave its $5.9 billion proposal to NASA for its Artemis program, to which NASA declined the offer and selected SpaceX's proposal that was nearly half the price. In response to NASA's decision to go with SpaceX, Blue Origin argues that it wasn't given the opportunity to renegotiate the price of its proposal like SpaceX was.

The rovers that are currently stationed on the Red Planet will be forced into "safe mode" in the coming days.

NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will have no choice but to turn its Martian vehicles into "safe mode" and temporarily put a pause on ongoing research. Why? Well, the Sun is going to be getting in the way, and I mean that quite literally. Earth and Mars are about to be directly opposite each other in their orbits, and right in the middle of both of the planets will be the Sun.

Researchers will lose line-of-sight with Mars from October 2 to October 16, and during this time, the space agencies won't be able to communicate with any of their vehicles stationed on the Red Planet, hence the decision to put all vehicles into "safe mode". It should be noted that the rovers won't be completely inactive, they just won't be communicating with Earth. Curiosity and Perseverance will continue observing and recording Mars' weather. The same goes for the InSight lander that is monitoring Marsquakes.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently replaced Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, according to Forbes.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO took the opportunity to throw a little bit of shade at the Amazon founder after becoming the third person in the world to reach a net worth of $200 billion. Musk wrote in an email to Forbes that he will be sending a giant statue of the digit "2" to Jeff Bezos along with a silver medal. Here's what Musk wrote, "I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal."

Musk is no stranger to throwing comments at Bezos. Even just yesterday, the SpaceX CEO said that Bezos couldn't "sue his way to orbit", which is in reference to the recent moves made by Bezos' space company Blue Origin to sue NASA over its decision to award SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract. If you are interested in reading more about that story, check out this link here.

In an interview with NASA's climate advisor, Gavin Schmidt warns that researchers are seeing things that have never happened before.

ABC's lead meteorologist, Ginger Zee, spoke to NASA's Senior Climate Advisor, Gavin Schmidt, who said that what he and his team are seeing is "unprecedented in many millennia". Schmidt goes on to say that this is happening because of what humans are doing to the planet through the use of burning fossil fuels and the increases in greenhouse gases.

NASA lead climate advisor continues to explain that researchers have observed the global mean changes "decade by decade", and found that there is "unequivocal warming of the planet". The warming of the planet impacts weather events such as fires, storms, hurricanes, floods, etc. Schmidt says that global warming amplifies these events. An example of this is heat waves becoming more frequent and greater in magnitude. If you are interested in reading more about climate change, check out NASA's latest satellite launch here.

NASA's Landsat program has been taking images of Earth from space for more than 50 years, and now the space agency has sent out its brand new satellite - Landsat 9.

The achievements from the Landsat program cannot go understated as it holds the longest continuous space-based record of Earth in existence. The satellites have been taking square images around 112 miles by 115 miles of all of the landmass on Earth, and with the data, researchers can interpret and understand what is shaping our planet.

The data acquired from the Landsat satellites are used to monitor climate change, landmass movement, take images of natural disasters, and even used to influence political decisions. With all that in mind, NASA has recently launched Landsat 9, which is equipped with many improvements when compared to its sister satellite that is currently in orbit, Landsat 8. NASA's newest Landsat satellite will work in tandem with Landsat 8, and with both satellites taking images of the Earth, NASA expects it will only take eight days to acquire a complete image of Earth.