Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 166

A study on the new message titled "A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects" published in the journal Galaxies.

The new message is a successor to the famous Arecibo Message, a METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) signal broadcast on November 16th, 1974. Researchers have devised a new signal dubbed the Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) message, which combines elements of the Arecibo Message and other METI attempts.

The BITG message consists of 13 parts, adding up to approximately 204,000 effective binary digits, or 25,500 bytes. Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China and the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array in northern California, the research team chose a target to broadcast the signal to situated 4 kiloparsecs (~13,000 light-years) from the galactic center.

A study on the use of UV titled "A UV-LED module that is highly effective at inactivating human coronaviruses and HIV-1" has been published in the Virology Journal.

Researchers from the University of Toronto Scarborough found that UV-LED lights that can alternate between emitting white and ultraviolet (UV) light, of the same form factors used in offices and public spaces, could effectively decontaminate surfaces. The lights can be cheaply retrofitted, allowing easy implementation to make areas safer and help curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic more quickly.

"We're at a critical time where we need to use every single possible stop to get us out of this pandemic. Every mitigation strategy that can be easily implemented should be used," said Christina Guzzo, senior author of the study.

A pre-print study on the Venus experiment titled "Cloud Continents: Terraforming Venus Efficiently by Means of a Floating Artificial Surface" has been accepted for publication in The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.

NASA researcher Alex R. Howe has proposed a terraforming method for Venus to make it habitable, covering the entire planet's atmosphere in a plan the Daily Beast described as "absolutely bonkers." The project would likely take at least 200 years and centers on Venus as a terraforming target owing to its similar bulk properties to Earth, such as size, mass, and composition.

Howe's proposal suggests creating an artificial surface in the upper regions of the planet's atmosphere, where the temperature and pressure are more similar to Earth's. Previous proposals to terraform Venus have considered removing its carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and replacing it with a more habitable environment.

A ceremony aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on March 29th saw the change of command between Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronauts.

Livestreamed on the NASA Live website and elsewhere, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov handed NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn "the keys" to the ISS. The physical key is a symbol in possession of the current commander of the ISS. Shkaplerov is returning to Earth on March 30th alongside the cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

"Tom [Marshburn], I know you well, you are a professional and you will be a professional ISS commander. People have problems on earth. On orbit, we are one crew. I think ISS is a symbol of the friendship and cooperation, like symbol of the future exploration of space," said Shkaplerov.

NASA's database indicates that a space rock will be approaching Earth in the coming days, and it is traveling nearly 30,000 mph.

The space rock is the asteroid labeled as 2007 FF1, and according to astronomers that have been tracking the asteroid, it's estimated to be between 360 and 656 feet in diameter. On March 24, the Virtual Telescope Project snapped an image of the asteroid when it was 7.2 million miles away from Earth, and with that image, astronomers were able to confirm that 2007 FF1 was going to make its closest approach with Earth yet.

The asteroid is officially classified by NASA as "potentially hazardous" because its diameter is 500 feet or greater, and its orbit brings it within 4.6 million miles of Earth, or about 19.5 times the distance to the moon. 2007 FF1 was first discovered back in 2007, and its last closest approach with Earth was in August 2020, when it came within 10.8 million of Earth. The next time 2007 FF1 is scheduled for its closest approach is on April 2, 2037, when it will come within 927,000 miles of Earth.

Individuals have been left shocked at the remains of a what is being described as an "alien-like" creature washing up on a beach in Australia.

Alex Tan found the remains of the unidentified creature on Maroochydore Beach, on the Sunshine Coast, located about 63 miles from Brisbane. Tan took to Instagram to post a video of the creature saying into the camera that "he has found something weird" and describing what he found as "one of those things you see when people claim they've found aliens." From the images and the video, all that can be depicted so far is that the creature features four limbs, a tail, and has a reptile-like skull.

At first, Tan thought what he found was a possum, but after a closer inspection, he ruled doesn't believe that to be the case. "It was just after we had all that stuff washed up on beaches from the floods. Its hands were really weird. I'm just calling it an alien," said Tan.

In the solar system, there are thousands of near-Earth asteroids, and sometimes one will have a close approach with Earth.

Krisztian Sarneczky, a Hungarian astronomer at the Konkoly Observatory, managed to identify an asteroid just hours before it was due to make its closest approach with Earth during the night on March 24/25. The asteroid, now labeled as Sar2594, soared past Earth at a safe distance of about 5,400 miles from the surface, which, to put into perspective, the International Space Station's altitude is about 250 miles, and the moon is about 238,900 miles away.

During its approach with Earth, the asteroid sped past at a ridiculous speed of 40,265 miles per hour. It was estimated to have a diameter of anywhere between 6.6 to 14 feet, making it a contender for the smallest asteroid ever found, which is approximately 6 feet in diameter. Due to its close approach with Earth, Sar2594's orbit has now changed forever, as showcased by Sarneczky in the below tweet.

A physics undergraduate and talented astrophotographer, Vincent Ledvina, has taken a stunning 8K video of the northern lights.

Ledvina recently went on a camping adventure to Fort Yukon, Alaska, where he spent three weeks above the arctic circle capturing auroras across several clear-skied nights. The astrophotographer is currently majoring in physics at the University of North Dakota with plans on becoming a space weather forecaster.

During Ledvina's time at the Fort Yukon Long Range Radar Site, his mission was to test a theory on how pulsating or flashing auroras are created. "The design of the mission was to have the sounding rocket launch into the aurora from the city of Fairbanks on a northward trajectory while high-speed cameras captured the pulsating aurora in two locations, Venetie and Fort Yukon," Ledvina explains.

NASA has observed multiple solar eruptions on the surface of the Sun, which have resulted in coronal mass ejections being sent toward Earth.

The solar flares are coming from the sunspot AR2975, which has been extremely active within the past two days by releasing at least 17 solar eruptions since March 28. The flares have sent coronal mass ejections (CME) in multiple directions, with some of the charged particles due to impact Earth and cause moderate to low geomagnetic storms.

According to both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are at least two CMEs heading towards Earth, with there being a possibility of a third on the way as well. Reports from SpaceWeather.com indicate that the first CME is due to arrive on Thursday, March 31, and the second on Friday, April 1. As previously mentioned, officials expect that the Sun blasts will cause G2/G3 geomagnetic storms that result in an increased chance of auroras.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents from 1963 and 1964 have been released for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Government Attic website.

The request resulted in three CIA reports investigating the Soviet Union's apparent usage of extra-sensory perception (ESP) and attempts to develop "cybernetic telepathy." The reports describe conversations between a CIA agent and Soviet cybernetics researcher, and a visiting foreign exchange student.

D.A. Kerminov, the Soviet scientist, told the agent about an experiment where researchers recorded the central nervous signals of a person playing piano and broadcast those signals to another person who had never played the piano. According to Kerminov, "that person would then be enabled to play difficult music, but also would retain some of this skill as permanent learning."