Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 161

A new report has revealed that Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has lost at least 17 top staffers after NASA awarded SpaceX with the lunar lander contract.

Following up on the report of a top engineer from Blue Origin switching jerseys over to SpaceX, CNBC has reported that at least 17 top staffers that were working on Blue Origin's lunar lander project have left the company. The reported departure of the staffers has come after NASA awarded SpaceX with the $2.9 billion lunar lander contract that is for getting humans back on the moon by 2024.

CNBC also reports that among the staffers that left were key leaders and top engineers and that they left in the weeks after Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos took his spaceflight. Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, who were previously engineers at Blue Origin, have now announced work at Elon Musk's SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace. If you are interested in reading who departed the company, check out the list below.

The Hubble Space Telescope is no stranger to capturing incredible images of the cosmos and all of the stranger phenomena that lie within it.

So, what has Hubble captured this time? A phenomenon that is dubbed gravitational lensing, which was actually previously predicted by Albert Einstein. Gravitational lensing occurs when a large amount of matter is present, creating a gravitational field that then magnifies and distorts light that is coming from behind it. Essentially, the phenomenon is much like looking through a cosmic magnifying glass.

Hubble has captured an image of gravitational lensing in action with the above image showcasing the distorted light rays caused by two galaxies. The European Space Agency said, "Hubble data also indicates that there is a seventh spot of light in the very center, which is a rare fifth image of the distant quasar. This rare phenomenon is caused by the presence of two galaxies in the foreground that act as a lens." If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

Astronomers are constantly learning new and wonderful things about the planets in our solar system, and Saturn is in today's spotlight.

Researchers used data acquired by NASA and the ESA's Cassini mission that orbited Saturn between 2004 and 2017. With the data, researchers set out to study the core of the planet and found that it may not have been as solid as astronomers previously estimated. The team of astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) found that the core is better described as a "diffuse soup of ice, rock, and metallic fluids".

Jim Fuller, assistant professor of theoretical astrophysics at Caltech and co-author on the study, said, "We used Saturn's rings like a giant seismograph to measure oscillations inside the planet. This is the first time we've been able to seismically probe the structure of a gas giant planet, and the results were pretty surprising."

In an article published in The Conversation by Emily Ury, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University, it's outlined that "ghost forests" are appearing along the Atlantic coast.

Ury is an ecologist that is studying the response of sea levels rising and the impact it has on the wetlands. An example of this would be climate change impacting the occurrence of floods and landscapes along coasts, which as a result then impacts environmental changes for wildlife, ecosystems, and businesses. Ury worked on a study in North Carolina that aimed at inspecting the effect salt levels have on plants and soil in wetlands.

Ury found after analyzing the salt levels in the soil for two years with her research team that rising sea levels are causing salt water to slowly seep into the coastal wetlands, which are causing trees that aren't tolerant to salt to die. The team of researchers also used NASA's Earth Observing System to get a birds-eye view of forest conditions and found, "We found that more than 10% of forested wetland within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge was lost over the past 35 years. This is federally protected land, with no other human activity that could be killing off the forest", wrote Ury.

Space junk will increasingly become a larger issue as humans continue to launch more objects into space.

One of the main components to reducing the amount of space debris floating around our planet is to ensure that satellites already positioned in orbit don't collide with each other. According to Hugh Lewis, the head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton, U.K, SpaceX's Starlink satellites are responsible for half of all encounters between two space crafts.

Lewis also says that Starlink satellites are involved in around 1,600 close encounters per week. A "close encounter" is defined by two spacecrafts passing each other within 0.6 miles. Lewis is also the leading expert on space debris in Europe and said, "I have looked at the data going back to May 2019 when Starlink was first launched to understand the burden of these megaconstellations. Since then, the number of encounters picked up by the Socrates database has more than doubled and now we are in a situation where Starlink accounts for half of all encounters."

NASA is going to attempt to deflect an asteroid with something the space agency has been working on for more than two years.

NASA calls it the "Double Asteroid Redirection Test," or DART for short, and the mission involves NASA launching a spacecraft that will rocket towards the Didymos binary asteroid and collide with it. NASA wants to test if the impact of the spacecraft colliding with the asteroid will be enough to alter its course. It should be noted that the asteroid doesn't currently pose any threat to Earth and that NASA is purely conducting this mission for research purposes.

According to NASA's latest update on DART, the spacecraft recently received solar arrays that will be a core component to getting the spacecraft all the way to the Didmos asteroid system. The spacecraft will travel for ten months to reach the asteroid system and will launch aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket this November. When the spacecraft collides with the asteroid, it will be traveling at around 15,000 mph, and NASA will have Earth-based telescopes aimed at the asteroid for clear observation.

Over the weekend, you will be able to look up into the night sky and see one of the rarest full moons of the entire year.

So, what is a Blue Moon? The name "Blue Moon" was given to the moon for how extra full it looks in the sky during a certain period of time during the year. As for an official definition, a moon is deemed a "Calendrical Blue Moon" when there's a second full moon within the same month. Additionally, there is a "Seasonal Blue Moon", which is when there is a second full moon within an astronomical season, such as the Fall Equinox, the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox, and the Summer Solstice.

As for August's Blue Moon, it will be at its peak on Sunday, August 22, at at 8:02 a.m. Eastern, however, it will still be visible on the night of August 21 for those that wish to stay up late rather than getting up early on August 22. It should also be noted that the moon won't actually appear a blue color, which is no doubt disappointing for some excited people. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

A woman has conducted a news conference in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, where she said that she has met aliens at their base in the United States.

Angelia Lynn Johnston, who is going by the alias Anjali, held a news conference in front of the Lincoln Memorial where she explained that she has been in contact with aliens at their base located in the Mojave Desert. Johnston also claimed that she will be bringing astronauts and scientists to the secret base to meet with the "higher beings".

Johnston also claims that she is a retired defense intelligence officer who met two strangers who showed her the tunnels to the alien base. Upon entering the tunnels, Johnston says she met two alien life forms from two separate races who communicated with her telepathically (via her consciousness). The news conference was produced by TT Products, who will be following up with Johnston on her story.

Elon Musk hosted his new Tesla AI Day today, and the huge multi-hour show is worth a watch and has some incredible technology that was teased -- but one of them is that Tesla is building its own robot, the Tesla Bot.

The new Tesla Bot is 5'8" and weighs 125 pounds, it is built from "lightweight materials" and has "human-level hands". There are 40 electromechanical actuators through the arms, neck, torso, hands, and legs which will make the Tesla Bot the most human-looking and moving robot yet.

Inside, there's next-gen AI inside with Tesla's FSD (Full-Self Driving) computer inside of the Tesla Bot, with autopilot cameras feeding into neural networks with neural net planning allowing the robot to be the most advanced robot on Earth. Musk said that they wanted to build a robot that would navigate the world that was built for humans, but they made it small enough and weak enough that you'll be able to overpower it or outrun it -- probably.

A top engineer that was working on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin lunar lander project has changed team over to Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The news of the lead engineer for Blue Origin's lunar lander leaving to join SpaceX comes after Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin had its protest denied by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to overturn NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX for the construction of a new lunar lander. The lead engineer is named Nitin Arora and announced his transition to SpaceX via a LinkedIn post, where he said, "Friday (August 13th) was my last day at Blue Origin."

Adding, "It was one hell of a ride working on the lunar program. Really honored that I got a chance to work with and lead incredibly smart, passionate people over last three years ... Next stop, SpaceX!" After the decision the GAO made, Blue Origin has been swinging at SpaceX's proposed plan to get humans back on the moon by posting infographics that compare its own methods to SpaceX's. If you want to read more about the rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin, check out this link here.

This weekend an asteroid that NASA deems as potentially dangerous will make an approach relatively close to Earth.

On August 21 at around 11:10 a.m EDT, the asteroid named 2016 AJ193 that is estimated to be approximately 4,500 feet in diameter, will fly past Earth at more than 58,000 miles per hour. NASA has classified the asteroid as potentially hazardous. However, the asteroid will actually pass by Earth at around nine times the distance between Earth and the moon.

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has classified more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids, as of August 15. CNEOS says that around 1,000 of these near-Earth asteroids are larger than 3,280 in diameter. As for 2016 AJ193, its orbit calculates to a fly-by Earth around every six years. CNEOS states on its website that "the threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters and a variety of other problems is much higher than the threat from NEOs (Near Earth Objects)."

NASA has discovered something that they have overlooked about the Milky Way galaxy, the galaxy we live in.

Due to Earth's position in the Milky Way galaxy, researchers have a difficult time discovering new things about the galaxy, but that doesn't mean it never happens. According to a new study published by NASA, the Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy, and one of its spiral arms has a "break" in it, much like a splinter protruding from a piece of wood.

NASA researchers used data acquired from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission and found that the broken arm spans around 3,000 light-years. The location of the break in the spiral arm contains some of our galaxy's most incredible spectacles, such as the Pillars of Creation, Omega, Lagoon, and Trifid nebulae. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

Researchers have uncovered an ancient tomb in Pompeii, revealing what is now considered the best-preserved human remains from the tragic disaster.

In 79 A.D, the Roman city of Pompeii was covered in volcanic ash, and the air was polluted with toxic gas as the neighboring volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted. The entire city was buried under ash from the eruption, preserving many parts of it for thousands of years. Now, archaeologists have turned it into a large archaeological site. According to reports, one recently conducted dig uncovered human remains from inside a tomb within the Porta Sarno necropolis.

The preserved human was a man named Marcus Venerius Secundio, and his skeleton was clearly in remarkable shape as the skull still has some strands of white hair as well as an intact ear. The location of where the tomb was found holds significance as it was in what was once considered a prestigious part of the city, the main eastern entrance.

Researchers are getting better and better at spotting exoplanets, and now according to Brazilian researchers, an instrument is on the verge of discovering an Earth "twin".

The study was published in the Astronomical Journal and explored how a new spectrograph called Espresso that was installed Very Large Telescope located in Chile could discover exoplanets that have a similar mass to Earth and are orbiting a star similar to how Earth is orbiting the Sun. The group of researchers observed a star named HIP 11915 for 60 nights. The star is located 175 light-years from Earth, and the reason the researchers chose this star is because it has a planet that is analogous to Jupiter.

The researchers were able to acquire reliable measurements of the radial velocity. However, to confirm their findings, the researchers need to observe the exoplanet complete one full orbit around its local star. By measuring the radio velocity of exoplanets, researchers are able to determine the inclination of the planet's orbit around its local star, which then allows them to determine the mass of the planet.

The largest planet in our solar system will appear as a bright light in the night sky this week, and you'll be able to see it with or without a telescope.

The largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter, and this week you will be able to see the planet reach opposition in its orbit. The term "opposition" means that Jupiter is opposite the sun from the perspective of Earth, and officially the planet will reach opposition on August 19. However, this space event isn't just for one night, as Jupiter will be clearly visible in the night sky for the remainder of August.

It's recommended that if you have an old telescope to laying around to take this opportunity to check out the largest planet in our solar system. As AccuWeather reports, most telescopes are powerful enough to be able to show Jupiters four largest moons; Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto. If you are interested in reading more about space news, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently captured an image of a space "furnace", check that out here.

Around 2 billion years ago, a massive meteor struck South Africa, causing what is now known as the Vredefort impact crater, the largest impact structure on Earth.

Researchers who are interested in discovering more about the impact crater and the meteor that caused it have found impact ejecta, which are sediments that were launched from the impact zone, around 120 miles to the west of the crater. The researchers managed to find sediments dated between 1.9 billion to 2.2 billion years old. The sediments had telltale signs of experiencing either a volcanic eruption or a meteorite impact.

Elmar Buchner, a geologist at the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences in Neu-Ulm, Germany, who wasn't involved in the study, said "There's no doubt that it is impact ejecta" and that the features found in the sample are "unequivocal evidence" of impact material. Matthew S. Huber, a geologist at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, and lead researcher on the study, said, "These grains were subjected to a shock wave."

Astronomers have managed to capture some of the highest detailed images of galaxies, which could allow researchers to develop a deeper understanding of how galaxies work.

The team of astronomers used more than 70,000 small antennae across nine European counties to drastically increase the resolution of the images. Additionally, over six years the team created a completely new way of collecting the signals from each of the antennas, interpreting the data, and then combining it together to eventually form the image.

Dr Leah Morabito from Durham University, the UK, who spearheaded the achievement, spoke to BBC and said, "To work on the data for so long, and then to finally get such images and be able be the first person to see what it looks like is just incredible. I walked around with a huge smile on my face for the rest of the day, because I felt so proud that I was able to make these images and be able to see something nobody had ever seen before".

In a new study, researchers have reported findings on a massive lair that contains bones from at least fourteen different kinds of animals and humans.

The cave is located in a volcanic field in Saudi Arabia called Harrat Khaybar. The cave is called Umm Jirsan, and according to researchers, it is more accurately referred to as a lava tube rather than a cave. According to zooarchaeologist Mathew Stewart from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany, "This 1.5 km long lava tube is chock-a-block with hundreds of thousands of beautifully preserved animal remains".

What brought all of these bones here? Researchers believe that the cave was home to a pack of striped hyenas, as the remains of striped hyenas were also found in the cave. Additionally, the researchers explained that striped hyenas are avid collectors of bones, and it's not unusual to find a horde of bones in a hyena den. However, this lava tube discovery is different as the horde has been accumulated over the last 7,000 years.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope still manages to shock onlookers with its images of the cosmos 31 years after its launch.

This time around, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to peer at a glorious spiral universe 68 million light-years away from Earth officially named NGC 1385. The spiral galaxy resides in the constellation Fornax, which is the Latin term for furnace. The constellation's name was coined by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, a French astronomer born in 1713, who was also responsible for the names of fourteen other constellations out of the total 88.

Researchers used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to capture the image, which is one of the main cameras that is used on Hubble. Considering its age, Hubble's WFC3 can still produce absolutely incredible images of the cosmos, which really makes you think how mind-blowing the images will be of the coming James Webb Space Telescope that is slated to be Hubble's replacement. More on that coming telescope launch can be found here.

Unfortunately, NASA has said that due to delays, the space agency won't be able to land humans on the moon by 2024.

The news comes from an audit from NASA's Inspector General, who said that due to delays caused by the dispute with the lunar lander between Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and space suit development, the launch will now be delayed. The audit states, "These delays - attributable to funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and technical challenges - have left no schedule margin for delivery of the two flight-ready xEMUs. Given the integration requirements, the suits would not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest".

In response to the news posted to CNBC's Space Reporter Michael Sheetz's Twitter account, Elon Musk said that he has a solution to the problem, stating that "SpaceX could do it if need be", referring to the spacesuit development. Additionally, Musk was asked if SpaceX would have Starship ready to land humans on the moon by 2024 (despite other delays), Musk said, "Probably sooner".