Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 154

NASA has posted a new video to its YouTube channel as a part of its "We Asked A NASA Scientist" series.

This time around, NASA has posed a simple to a NASA asteroid expert, but probably a burning question on everyone's mind - "Does NASA Know About All the Asteroids?" Most people are aware that asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere and break up before ever causing any damage. But on the odd occasion, some of the larger asteroids end up reaching Earth's surface, and sometimes they can cause devastating destruction. But are we really in any danger?

According to NASA asteroid expert Dr. Amy Mainzer, the short answer is "No", NASA has not identified all of the asteroids. However, Manizer says that the space agency has identified more than 90% of the large ones that come close to Earth. The asteroid expert adds that it's unlikely a large asteroid will impact Earth during our lifetimes and that NASA is constantly scouring the vastness of space for any asteroids that would pose a threat to our planet.

Over the next few days, the United States, particularly states along the east coast, are at risk of experiencing new tropical storms that could eventuate into hurricanes.

Official warnings have been announced by the National Hurricane Center for three tropical storms approaching the United States. These dangerous weather systems pose a threat to Texas, Florida, and other states located on the eastern seaboard. As you have probably already imagined, these storms could bring torrential rainfall, strong winds, and thunder/lightning.

Meteorologists are saying that the storms are coming from the Atlantic Ocean and have the potential to be the next tropical storms that are named under the 2021 hurricane season. If officials decide to name the storms, they will be named Odette and Peter. For those living in these potentially affected areas, be sure to regularly check official information for any updates regarding the storms, as they can change trajectory at the drop of a hat.

SpaceX recently launched four ordinary people into space without any professional astronauts on board. The mission is called Inspiration4.

Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Dr. Sian Proctor took off from Cape Canaveral on September 16, marking a milestone moment in the space tourism industry as the first all-civilian mission to space. The launch was an all-round success, and the crew aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule has already traveled "5.5 times around Earth, completed their first round of scientific research, and enjoyed a couple of meals", per SpaceX.

The goal of the mission is to raise $200 million for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital and funding research that explores the effects of deep space on astronauts' bodies. According to the SpaceX website, the Dragon capsule is at 357 miles from the Earth, which is higher than the Hubble Space Telescope at 335 miles and the International Space Station (ISS) at 260 miles. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A team of researchers has run a simulation on nuclear war eruption regionally and globally, and they found that if nuclear war broke out at either level, it would cause climate change.

The new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmosphere explains that nuclear weapons cause large plumes of smoke and toxic gas, which impact the ozone layer. In the new study, researchers used a climate model to predict the effects of nuclear war erupting regionally between India and Pakistan and globally between the United States and Russia.

What the researchers found was that regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan would generate five megatons of soot, which would reduce the global column ozone by 25%, increasing the amount of ultraviolet light Earth's surface is exposed to, which endangers human health and food supplies. On a global scale, the researchers estimated that war between the US and Russia would generate 150 megatons, resulting in a 75% loss in the ozone column for around 15 years.

A team of researchers from the University of Washington has scanned the outer solar system for six years using the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and here's what they found.

The new paper has been published on the preprint server arXiv details the discovery of 815 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which is a classification for minor bodies located beyond Neptune. Of the 815 objects identified with DES, 416 were found for the first time. Additionally, the DES was very good at spotting "extreme TNOs", which are objects located 150 times farther from the Sun than Earth. DES managed to spot nine new extreme TNOs.

Recently, objects outside of our solar system have been a subject of debate as researchers have identified that some objects, especially Kuiper belt objects (KBOs), are experiencing gravitational tugging, which causes them to cluster no matter their specific classification. Some researchers have suggested that the gravitational anomaly is being caused by a massive celestial body that has a mass of five Earth's and is around 10 times the distance between Neptune and the Sun.

NASA is planning the next flight for its Mars helicopter, and according to the Chief Pilot of Ingenuity, the next flight will push boundaries of what NASA scientists know Ingenuity is capable of.

Harvard Grip has written a new NASA status update and has detailed what will be the fourteenth flight for Ingenuity. The title of the status update is "Flying on Mars Is Getting Harder and Harder", and Grip goes on to explain that the atmospheric density of Mars is changing to levels that helicopter wasn't designed to fly in. As a solution to this problem, NASA says it will spin the rotor blades faster than it ever has before as a way of testing Ingenuity's flight capabilities in lower atmospheric densities.

NASA will attempt to increase Ingenuity's rotor speed to 2,800 rpm, which is more than a 10% increase on NASA's previous rpm record of 2,537 rpm. Grip explains that at a rotor speed of 2,800 rpm Ingenuity's blades will be approaching the speed of sound on Mars, which is about 3/4 of what the speed of sound is here on Earth. Grip says, "A rotor speed of 2,800 rpm, in combination with wind and helicopter motion, could cause the tips of the rotor blades to encounter the air at nearly 0.8 Mach - that is, 80% of the speed of sound on Mars."

NASA's Chief Pilot for its Mars helicopter named Ingenuity has said that flights on the Red Planet are getting harder and harder.

Chief Pilot Havard Grip has written on NASA's website about the recent difficulties the Ingenuity team is facing with launches. Grip explains that due to Mars' seasonal variations drop, researchers are recording a drop in atmospheric density in the Jezero Crater where Ingenuity is located. While the drop seems significant when looking at in terms of numbers, Grip says that it has a major impact on Ingenuity's ability to fly.

Don't rule out NASA scientists just yet, as they do have a plan to combat this issue of atmospheric density. Grip says, "We will begin by performing a high-speed spin of the rotor without leaving the ground, reaching a peak rotor speed of 2,800 rpm (more than a 10% increase relative to our prior Mars experience of 2,537 rpm). If all goes well, we will follow this with a short test flight at a slightly lower rotor speed of 2,700 rpm. This would be our 14th flight."

SpaceX recently successfully launched the first all-civilian mission into space called "Inspiration4", and despite the debates between Blue Origin, SpaceX and NASA, Jeff Bezos has congratulated Elon Musk.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, has said congratulations to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk via his Twitter account, saying that the success of the Inspiration4 mission is another step towards space tourism becoming accessible to all humans. The sentiments from Bezos come after Blue Origin moved to sue NASA over its decision to award SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract for the construction and development of a new lunar lander as a part of its Artemis program that will put US astronauts back on the moon.

As for the recent Inspiration4 launch by SpaceX, the space transportation company took four ordinary people to lower-Earth orbit, where they will remain for three days. The mission didn't include any professional astronauts, and the bathroom aboard the Crew Dragon capsule probably has the best view anyone can see while relieving themselves.

Egyptian scientists have published a new study claiming that whales weren't always exclusively aquatic animals - they once walked on land.

The new study has been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B and details the discovery of a fossil that was uncovered from the dirt in 2008. The fossil was found in the Western Desert, and since its discovery, researchers have assembled a team and begun their examination. Their findings were published in the aforementioned journal just last month.

According to the team's leading paleontologist, Hesham Sallam, "This is the first time in the history of Egyptian vertebrate paleontology to have an Egyptian team leading a documentation of a new genus and species of four-legged whale." The researchers say the creature lived 43 million years ago, and has expanded human knowledge on the evolution of whales and how the species went from herbivore land mammals into the carnivorous giants of the ocean we know today.

Researchers have uncovered a fossil of a "dragon" in Chile, turning out to be a first in the paleontology science world.

The announcement has come from Chilean scientists, per Phys.org, who said on September 11 that they had discovered the remains of the first-ever southern hemisphere "winged lizard", dubbed a pterosaur. The researchers state that the new species lived in what is now the Atacama desert during the Jurassic Period 160 million years ago.

The researchers from the University of Chile confirmed that the remains are of a rhamphorhynchine pterosaur. The significance of this find shouldn't go understated, as Reuters reports that the discovery of the possible indicates that migration occurred when Earth now separated landmasses were just one supercontinent named Gondwana. Additionally, pterosaur fossils have only been found in the Northern Hemisphere until now.

There are some things on Earth that are yet to receive an explanation, and the Al-Naslaa, located in the Tayma Oasis in Saudi Arabia, is one of them.

The Al-Naslaa Rock dates back to more than 4,000 years ago and has puzzled historians, geologists, and tourists for many years, as onlookers attempt to try and figure out how the rocks have seemingly formed with this laser precision. The entire formation features two pieces of sandstone balancing on two naturally forming pedestals. Each of the pieces of sandstone is unique but has been perfectly split in the middle.

The split that is featured down the middle seemingly looks like extraterrestrials have cut the stone with a laser, but as you can imagine, there is no significant evidence to back up that claim. In addition to having a mysterious split down the middle, the Al Naslaa also featured petroglyphs on its surfacing as the location of the rock was once occupied by ancient civilizations.

An amateur astronomer from Brazil has captured an awesome moment on video while viewing Jupiter in the night sky.

The astronomer is named Jose Luis Pereira, and on the night of September 13, Pereira set up his viewing equipment for a night of observing the solar system's largest planet. Pereira set up his equipment in Sao Caetano do Sul, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. Pereira's goal was to take photos and videos of Jupiter for the DeTeCt program that focuses on capturing impacts on Jupiter. Pereira was lucky enough to capture one of these moments on video.

Pereira took twenty-five videos of Jupiter over the course of the night, and the following morning the monitoring program notified Pereira that an impact had been detected in the first video that was taken. After sending the footage through the DeTeCt program, which said there was a high chance that what the footage shows is a space rock impact, Pereira then sent the data to Marc Delcroix of the French Astronomical Society, who later confirmed the impact.

SpaceX has recently sent four ordinary civilians off into lower-Earth orbit without any professional astronauts on board.

SpaceX has just solidified itself, once again, in the private space industry history books as the first company to launch a spacecraft into lower-Earth orbit that only has civilian passengers on aboard. On Wednesday night, the space transportation company launched its Falcon 9 rocket with a modified Crew Dragon capsule on board, carrying four private citizens; Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Dr. Sian Proctor.

The launch was a success, and Dragon is currently located in lower-Earth orbit and will remain there for three days. The launch mission titled "Inspiration4" was entirely paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman who is promoting the flight for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for cancer research. Isaacman also donated $100 million to the charity before the launch. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new study has examined a topological map of Mars and has suggested that the Red Planet was once subjected to thousands of "supervolcano" eruptions over the course of millions of years.

The study was recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters back in July 2021, and details that large volcanoes, or more accurately referred to as "supervolcanoes", when erupting, can produce very large amounts of toxic gasses, dust, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide that can change the climate of the planet. These eruptions are described as "super-eruptions", and even an individual one can have a large impact on the planet's climate.

According to Patrick Whelley, a geologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and the lead researcher on the analysis of Mars' Arabia Terra seen above, "Each one of these eruptions would have had a significant climate impact-maybe the released gas made the atmosphere thicker or blocked the Sun and made the atmosphere colder."

SpaceX just took four ordinary civilians to space via its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, and the view the passengers will have will be incredible.

The launch for the mission titled Inspiration4 happened only a matter of hours ago, and we saw the four passengers Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Dr. Sian Proctor, all of which aren't trained astronauts. The Inspiration4 launch marked a milestone in the space tourism industry as the first successful launch of an all-civilian mission into space.

SpaceX has outfitted the Dragon capsule with a glass dome on its nose, replacing the docking port that is usually there when astronauts are transported to the International Space Station. The glass dome is for viewing purposes and is called a cupola. Passengers aboard the Dragon capsule will be able to stick their heads inside the dome for a full 360-degree viewing experience.

SpaceX will be making history in less than an hour as the Inspiration4 crew awaits lift off from the Kennedy Space Center.

Today is a historic moment in the space tourism industry as Elon Musk's SpaceX will be taking the first all-civilian mission into lower-Earth orbit. The Inspiration4 crew consists of Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski, all of which are people just like you and me. The crew will stay in orbit for a span three days.

SpaceX will be using the Falcon 9 rocket to take all of the civlians into Earth's orbit, and the civilians will be used stations in a modified Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX states in the YouTube video description that after spending three days in orbit the Dragon spacecraft and the Inspiration4 crew will splash down at one of several locations off the Florida coast. Check out the above video to tune into the launch!

NASA has just dished out some new awards to companies for new lunar lander concepts as apart of its Artemis program that will take humans back to the moon.

The space agency has awarded the following five companies contracts for the new concepts of a lunar lander; SpaceX, Blue Origin, Dynetics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. NASA awarded the contracts to the aforementioned companies under the NextSTEP-2 (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships) Appendix N: Sustainable Human Landing System Studies and Risk Reduction.

The objective of the contracts is "to engage with potential commercial partners for concept studies, sustaining HLS concept of operations (ground and flight) development, and risk reduction activities." Under these contracts that NASA has handed out companies will create designs of lunar landers and carry out tests to ensure consistent performance, safety, versatility, and any other requirements that are outlined in the contract.

Tune in for the countdown to SpaceX's milestone launch that will be taking place in just a matter of hours. Join Netflix's virtual party!

SpaceX will be launching its Inspiration4 mission, which will be a world's first as four civilians will be sent into orbit for three days - the first all-civilian mission into Earth's orbit. The launch will be from Kennedy Space Center, and Netflix will be taking viewers of the countdown for an all-access behind the scenes of the historic mission.

The Inspiration4 mission will take Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski on the three-day adventure aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle scheduled for launch no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT Sept. 16). According to Netflix's YouTube page, "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space" will be a 90-minute live show that will start at 8 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT Sept. 16). If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

Astronauts aboard the new Chinese space station module have snapped some absolutely gorgeous images of Earth.

China launched the Tianhe space station module on April 29, 2021, and its the first module of the Tiangong space station. Aboard the Tianhe module is three astronauts that arrived on June 17, and one of the astronauts named Tang Hongbo has taken some incredible images of Earth from the module that is currently located in lower-Earth orbit.

The images released by China's space agency showcase thousands of lights on the North African continent, as well as a portion of South Africa, and the Peruvian cost. As for the newest batch of images that were released on September 8, the images are of; Lake Urmia in Iran, China's Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, Lake Van in Turkey, the Armenian highlands, and South Africa. All of the images were taken by Hongbo, but the equipment that was used to capture the images wasn't specified.

Humans are now looking towards Mars as our next planet to colonize, but it isn't just a matter of getting in some rockets and touching down. There are significant challenges ahead of us.

It's far expensive, not to mention time-consuming, to transport all of the items needed for a sustainable human outpost on Mars. As a solution, NASA officials suggest that researchers need to devise ways astronauts will be able to construct a viable outpost on Mars using the environment around them. A new study has explored how astronauts could piece together a building and what material the structure could be made out of.

The researchers detailed in the study that bricks of concrete could be made using Martian dirt combined with a protein that is found in human blood and a compound called urea, which can be sourced from astronaut sweat, tears, or urine.