Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 155

Astronomers have detailed that an asteroid that is "dog-boned" shaped is challenging human understanding of our solar system.

Astronomers recently used the European Space Agency's Very Large Telescope to take what is now considered as the best images of the dog-boned shaped asteroid named Kleopatra. Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute in California and the lead author of a new study on Kleopatra, has said that asteroids aren't just boring, useless pieces of rock floating around in space but are actually "complex mini-geological worlds."

Marchis goes on to say that "Kleopatra and other weird asteroids are natural laboratories to challenge our knowledge of the solar system and make us think outside the box." The strange-looking asteroid was first discovered back in 1880, but its weird shape was only discovered back in 2011 with the use of ground-based telescopes. Researchers estimate that Kleopatra measures is around 160 miles from one end to the other, and weighs a ridiculous 3,300 trillion tons.

One of the co-founders of Apple, Steve Wozniak, has announced that he will be joining the private space industry with a new company.

The Apple co-founder is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of the now-massive personal computing industry and now will be joining in on the booming private space industry with a new company named Privateer Space. Wozniak made the announcement on his personal Twitter account and linked a video that really doesn't reveal much about the company at all.

The only details we have on Privateer is that the company will be "unlike the others", which is seemingly in reference to the other space companies that are making headlines these days; SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. RT has speculated that Wozniak's new company will specialize in cleaning up space trash left behind by other companies' launches. All that is known for sure is that more details will be announced about Privateer Space at the AMOS Tech 2021 conference that'll get underway next Tuesday.

Paleontologists have found a new species of dinosaur that once ruled over the Tyrannosaurus Rex as the apex predator.

Tyrannosaurus Rex is widely believed to be the most famous and dangerous dinosaur, and this idea was largely popularized with iconic movie franchises such as Jurassic Park. While the T-Rex certainly was an apex predator during the peak of species' life, it wasn't always at the very top of the food chain. Paleontologists have found a new species of carnivore that was much larger than T-Rex and would have eaten it for lunch.

Introducing, Ulughbegasaurus, a large theropod dinosaur that walked the plains of North America and Asia around 90 million years ago. Fossil evidence indicates that Ulughbegasaurus was around 26 feet in length and just over a tonne in weight. During the time of its rein, a T-Rex would have only been 440 pounds, and according to paleontologist professor Darla Zelenitsky, the sheer existence of the Ulughbegasaurus would have suppressed the growth of the T-Rex.

Last month NASA updated its prediction for one of the most hazardous objects in our solar system colliding with Earth - asteroid Bennu.

The updated forecast, measured to extreme precision, detailed the chances of asteroid Bennu colliding with Earth are 1 in 1,750, which was slightly higher than previous estimations. For those that don't know, Bennu was originally discovered back in 1999, and is an asteroid estimated to be around the size of a regular building.

Updated predictions stated that there is a higher chance that Bennu will collide with Earth, but not a certainty. As previously stated, the chances of Bennu actually colliding with Earth are 1 in 1,750, and those odds will occur late in the twenty-second century. To put the odds of Bennu impacting Earth into perspective, the chances are the same as:

Regulators are asking cryptocurrency platforms and projects to register with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has said in a prepared statement at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs that the SEC was working with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to develop investor protection for cryptocurrency markets. On top of that, Gensler said, "We just don't have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending."

Adding, "Frankly, at this time, it's more like the Wild West or the old world of 'buyer beware' that existed before the securities laws were enacted. This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications. I've suggested that [crypto] platforms and projects come in and talk to us Many platforms have dozens or hundreds of tokens on them. While each token's legal status depends on its own facts and circumstances, the probability is quite remote that, with 50, 100, or 1,000 tokens, any given platform has zero securities."

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit 31 years ago, and despite its outdated technology, the space telescope can truly capture marvelous images of the cosmos.

An example of this is an image recently published by the European Space Agency that showcases a globular cluster of stars located around 20,000 light-years from Earth called NGC 6717. A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that are all tightly bound together by gravity and can be defined by the center of the cluster featuring a denser population of stars when compared to its edges.

The ESA explains that while the image showcases an amazing display of candy-colored stars, some of the stars seen in the image aren't actually a part of the NGC 6717 as they are much closer to Earth than they appear. These stars can be identified by the X running through the center of the star. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

The space industry is just starting to take its baby steps, and companies are already talking about gas stations being present in lower-Earth orbit.

The commercialization of lower-Earth orbit is taking place right now, but what we are seeing now is only just the beginning as more companies launch more satellites into space as society shifts more towards being digitally orientated. At the moment, there are around 4,000 operations satellites in lower-Earth orbit, and it's expected that within the end of this decade, that number will have increased to 100,000.

As a way to service these satellites and not leave them up in orbit to accumulate in an ever-growing junk pile, solutions have been proposed that would allow satellites to extend mission lengths which would prolong operational time for companies. An example of this is Orbit Fab's "Gas Stations in Space" refueling technology, which has just received investment from Lockheed Martin.

A company has received millions in funding to bring back to life a woolly mammoth in an effort to reduce the effects of climate change in certain locations.

The new company named Colossal is co-founded by geneticist George Church and Ben Lamm, the former CEO of Hypergiant, and has recently announced that it has received a $15 million seed round that's led by former CEO of Legendary Entertainment (Jurassic World and The Dark Knight), Thomas Tull. Colossal plans on using CRISPR to alter the genes of existing Asian elephants to convert them into a woolly mammoth-Asian elephant hybrid.

According to Colossal's press release, the reason it's necessary to bring back the woolly Mammoth is to reduce the effects of climate change. Here's what Lamm said, "Our goal is not to just bring back the Mammoth, that's a feat in itself. It's for the successful re-wilding of mammoths. If you take that toolkit, you have all the tools are your disposal to prevent extinction or to bring back critically endangered species."

Back on September 8, NASA officially delayed the James Webb Space telescope launch and locked in a new launch window.

The James Webb Space telescope is teed up to replace the Hubble Space Telescope and become, as NASA describes in its latest press release about the topic, "the premier deep space observatory for the next decade." NASA, along with its partners in the Webb project, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), have delayed the launch of Webb so another practice launch of the Ariane 5 rocket can take place.

The Ariane 5 rocket, provided by the European Space Agency, will take Webb to its destination out in space and successfully completed a practice launch back in July, which was the first launch of the Ariane 5 rocket since August 2020. It seems that NASA and its partners aren't taking any chances when it comes to Webb's launch, and for good reason, as the space telescope has been development for thirty years, had billions spent on it, and has faced numerous delays.

NASA researchers are showing off their excitement for the upcoming prospects that will take place in Mars' Jezero Crater after Perseverance recovered its second core sample.

In the above video that has been released onto the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube channel, NASA scientists explain the significance of Perseverance's second core sample collection and what it means for future exploration on Mars.

NASA predicted that the Jezero Crater was once a large lake that may have contained microbial life, and now NASA has confirmed that prediction was correct as the core sample nicknamed Rochette contained salts that likely formed as water evaporated from the environment. NASA said, "The salt minerals in these first two rock cores may also have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water. If present, they could serve as microscopic time capsules, offering clues about the ancient climate and habitability of Mars."

A team of physicists has managed to break the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded, and they did it with a quantum gas experiment.

For context, the coldest temperature that can be measured on the thermodynamics scale is -459.67 F, and for an object to reach that temperature, it needs to be stripped of all atomic motion and kinetic energy, which is currently impossible for scientists.

However, that doesn't mean researchers can't come close to absolute zero, as researchers aboard the International Space Station were able to record a temperature of 100 nanoKelvin or 100 millionths of a degree above absolute zero, per Interesting Engineering. The team, which now holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded, managed to reach a temperature of 38 picoKelvin or 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.

Scientists have uncovered a fossil of what has now been deemed as a new sub-species of ancient sea life that was alive around half a billion years ago.

The new study was published in the Royal Society Open Science journal and details a large predatory arthropod recently dubbed Titanokorys. The new sub-species measured at 19.7 inches, which was considered very large when considering that most of the life in the ocean at that time was about the size of a pea. Researchers uncovered the fossils of Titanokorys from the Kootenay Nation Park located in the Canadian Rockies.

According to co-author on the paper and evolutionary biology Ph. D. student Joe Moysiuk from the University of Toronto, "Titanokorys is part of a subgroup of radiodonts, called hurdiids, characterized by an incredibly long head covered by a three-part carapace that took on myriad shapes. The head is so long relative to the body that these animals are really little more than swimming heads."

Elon Musk's space transportation and communications company SpaceX will be deploying its Starlink satellites between Earth and Mars.

Musk was asked on Twitter if "Is Starlink going to be deployed between earth and Mars to improve communication for starship?", to which the billionaire replied, "yeah". So, what does this mean exactly? SpaceX will be deploying Starlink satellites between Earth and Mars to provide broadband internet connection that will improve communication capabilities with the world's tallest rocket, Starship.

Starship is poised to be the transportation that will one day take humans to Mars. However, before Starship transports humans to Mars, it will first be used to take humans back to the Moon. Musk has said that once all testing is complete for Starship, it's expected that it will be used to take humans back to the Moon "probably" before 2024. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Researchers are constantly searching the cosmos for star systems that have exoplanets that are similar to Earth, and now they may have found one.

Using the advanced Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers were able to identify signals from the planetary system called L 98-59. The star system is located just 35 light-years from Earth, which is relatively close in terms of space travel. The star system has intrigued researchers as its believed to contain new worlds that have similar characteristics and compositions to Earth.

According to Diana Dragomir, an exoplanetologist at the University of New Mexico, "There was quite some detective work involved, and the right people were there at the right time." Adding, "But we were lucky, and we caught the signals, and they were really clear." The observation has marked a milestone for TESS.

NASA's Perseverance rover has been exploring the Jezero Crater since it landed there in February, but now the rover has successfully taken its first two samples.

NASA's main goal is to discover any signs of ancient life once existing on the Red Planet, and the Perseverance rover is there to find it. To find signs of ancient life, Perseverance must take core samples from rocks, and from those samples, researchers will derive the history of the environment and whether or not it may have once had the right conditions for life.

According to Ken Farley of Caltech and a project scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated in a press release shared by NASA, "It looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment." NASA states that there were salt minerals found in the core samples and that these rock cores may have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water.

SpaceX will soon be taking a gallery's worth of digital art and one of the Kings of Leon's songs as an NFT to space.

The news comes from the Inspiration4 website, which states that payload aboard the Crew Dragon capsule will feature a Kings of Leon NFT. The song "Time in Disguise" will be played throughout the mission and will be the first minted NFT to ever be played in orbit. Additionally, there will be 50 other NFTs also aboard the Crew Dragon, all of which will be digital artwork of the band.

As for the Inspiration4 mission, SpaceX will be taking the Crew Dragon capsule into orbit for a three-day trip. The team that will be going up is Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. Kings of Leon said, "We're honored to participate in this historic journey in an effort to raise money for St. Jude, and we're sending all our best to the crew of Inspiration4." For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new study available on the pre-print server arXiv has suggested that researchers have detected mysterious radio signals coming from a galaxy's center.

The galaxy is called ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and according to the astronomers behind the paper, the object that is causing the radio signals is "a highly-polarized, variable radio source located near the Galactic Center and with no clear multi-wavelength counterpart." At the moment, researchers aren't sure what is causing the radio signals that are being detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).

However, researchers do know that radio signals aren't consistent as the object emits radio bursts for up to weeks at a time before stopping all radio signals for up to three months. While the origin of the radio signals is yet to be uncovered, researchers write that "increasing the survey cadence and comparing the results of this search to other regions will help [them] understand how truly unique ASKAP J173608.2-321635 is and whether it is related to the Galactic plane, which should ultimately help us deduce its nature."

Researchers have observed for the first time a star consuming either a black hole or a neutron star, causing a supernova explosion.

Researchers performed a survey with the Very Large Array Sky Survey and noticed that there was a bright source of radio emissions coming from a star-forming galaxy located 480 million light-years away. Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author on a paper, said, "Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we've actually seen such an event."

Researchers believe that a star killed itself in a fiery supernova explosion, leaving behind either a neutron star or a black hole. As the years went on, a neighboring star was pulled closer and closer to the black hole or neutron star, eventually becoming consumed by either. The star being consumed was violent as all of its material was thrown out into the space around it, eventually reaching the core of the star. With no more fuel to burn, the star went supernova, shooting out a flash of X-rays that researchers detected.

Most people are sick of hearing about viruses after the events of 2020 and the current events of 2021. But, viruses may play a pivotal role in humans colonizing new planets.

NASA and other private companies are striving towards making the human race a two-planet species, with the end goal being to colonize Mars. That goal is not easily achieved as Mars is a baron wasteland that has an extremely harsh atmosphere, making it very difficult for humans to grow food, store water, and produce breathable oxygen.

Another factor that NASA and other private companies may not have considered is viruses' role in the web of life. According to Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University's Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, "Viruses actually form part of the web of life. I would expect that if you've got microbial life on another planet, you're bound to have - if it's going to be sustainable and sustained - the full complexity and robustness that will go with being able to exchange genetic information."

The US Department of Defense has tweeted out a new video showing that its unmanned ship, the USV Ranger, firing an SM-6 missile successfully during a recent test. Check it out:

Back in 2017, the US Department of Defense kick-started its new program of getting at least two robot ships that the US Navy could use autonomously. The US Navy worked with the Department of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office, and became part of the "Ghost Fleet Overlord" program, giving me some Skynet vibes.

With a regular ship, there is a chain of command before the rocket leaves the ship for its intended target -- but for an autonomous Terminator-style warship, things are a little different. Human sailors in the US Navy (and other Navy fleets) must follow the Law of the Sea Convention -- the United Nations and its list of rules and practices countries agree on.