Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 171

New evidence supporting the theory that Mars once had conditions to support life has been published in a study.

An international team of researchers has published a new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, and according to the paper, the team of researchers found evidence of glauconitic-like clay on Mars. While it may seem boring to everyday people, the discovery of clay is quite a big deal. Glauconite, an iron potassium phyllosilicate mineral, can only form in stable conditions over thousands of years.

Through their analysis, the researchers also found that the temperatures of Mars when the clay formed were between -3 (26 F) to 15 degrees Celsius (59 F). Additionally, the analysis revealed that the pH levels in the water that is believed to be in the Gale Crater were neutral. While all of this evidence points towards the right conditions for Mars to support life billions of years ago, it remains unclear how long that life would have lasted over time. Given that life was even there in the first place.

Right now, Hubble is fighting for its life as NASA engineers are working around the clock to bring the famous space telescope back online.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990. Since then, it has been at the forefront of space imagery, providing researchers and everyday people with incredible pictures of the cosmos. According to NASA, Hubble is still one of the space agency's most important missions and, from the scientific community's perspective, "the most powerful telescope available" despite its age.

Now, NASA is attempting to figure out the glitch that has taken the space telescope offline. So far, NASA has attempted to bring it back online four times - each attempt being a failure. If the problem cannot be solved, Hubble should be able to switch to its backup computer. However, if the switch to its backup computer happens, more problems could present themselves since the space telescope hasn't been serviced since 2009. Below you will find just some of the incredible images Hubble has snapped of the cosmos.

Sir Richard Branson is making big moves with his company Virgin Orbit as the company has performed its second successful satellite test.

According to Virgin Orbit's CEO Dan Hart, the company has successfully completed its second satellite mission for 2021 this past Wednesday. Hart has said that the company is now ready to begin "ramping up" and expanding its operations to a global scale. Here's what Hart said, "We're on a really good trajectory to have another flight this year, and then double that cadence and have six flights next year and then increase from there."

For those that don't know, Virgin Orbit is taking a different approach to rocket launches, as it launches its rockets on the back of a modified 747 aircraft named "Cosmic Gift" instead of from the ground like many of its competitors. Branson has said that the company's approach to rocket launches is "completely and utterly unique". Currently, Virgin Orbit is working on getting agreements in place to fly out/in from. Hart also revealed, "We can turn any airport into a spaceport".

It's very common for a person to think that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, but now new evidence has suggested the asteroid wasn't the only factor at play with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

66 million years ago, a space rock collided with Earth, causing mile-high tsunamis, fires, clouds of dust and sulfur that covered the sun, and more. The climate on Earth certainly changed after the impact of the asteroid, and it's currently believed by many researchers that the changed climate is what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. However, new research is breaking that current theory as it suggests that the dinosaurs were already on their way out and the asteroid impact was what just finished them off.

The researchers examined 1,600 fossils from 247 different species of dinosaurs and compiled those dinosaurs into six families. The researchers then measured how the species of dinosaurs in those six families diversified over time and found that across all six of the groups, the number of species of dinosaurs was declining 10 million years prior to the asteroid impact.

Back-to-back heat waves have added to the already dry soil and vegetation across 91% of the western US states.

The Western half of the United States has been in a drought since June 22, and on the horizon are heatwaves arriving earlier than usual which will only increase dryness and the chance of wildfires. Additionally, reports indicate that water levels in Lake Mead are the lowest they have been since 1930, as well as California's reservoirs, are down by 50% than they usually are for this time of year.

The western US has been experiencing a 22-year-long drought, and this coming summer is certainly going to be a part of that. Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that this coming summer will likely be the worst drought of the last 20 years. Here's what Cook said, "Even in the context of those last 20 years of drought, this year really stands out. For the Southwest, it's very likely to be the worst single year of drought since 2002."

NASA has been combating a glitch on the Hubble Space Telescope for many days, and now a recent discovery may solidify its unfortunate demise.

The problem arose on June 13 with an issue with Hubble's payload computer, which resulted in the telescope putting all of its instruments into safe mode. NASA researchers then performed tests on June 23 and June 24, but weren't able to bring the telescope back online. Engineers also attempted to use the backup computer to get around the problem, but the backup computer was experiencing the same error.

Currently, NASA's teams are working on resolving the problem through alternative routes such as the telescopes power regulator. NASA recently stated, "A power regulator ensures a steady constant voltage supply," said the agency in the Friday update." If the voltage is out of limits, it could cause the problems observed." Hubble has been in service for 31 years, and throughout its lifetime, it has contributed to some of the most significant scientific discoveries of our cosmos.

An astrophysicist has explored the idea that there may be a link between the interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua and UFO sightings.

Back in 2017 'Oumuamua was discovered and astrophysicists inferred that the object was large, flat, came from interstellar space and appeared to have been pushed away by our Sun as if it were a light sail. The origin and nature of the object are still yet unknown, however, astrophysicist Avi Loeb has calculated the population of interstellar objects such as 'Oumuamua by taking into account what we know about the solar system and assuming that the objects came from natural planetary systems.

What Loeb found was "there should be a quadrillion 'Oumuamua-like objects within the solar system at any given time, if they are distributed on random trajectories with equal probability of moving in all direction," as written in an opinion piece by Loeb in Scientific American. This result lead Loeb to consider the thought that 'Oumuamua may be an artificial object that is designed to collect information, and perhaps its receiving information from probes (UFOs/UAPs) that its already scattered over Earth.

A new report published on the NASA website reveals the space agency's small helicopter has completed another flight.

According to the post, the helicopter stationed on Mars named Ingenuity has completed its 8th flight and traveled for 78 seconds for a total of 525 feet. The completion of the flight has marked the third flight in the Operations Demonstration Phase of Ingenuity which consists of operators pushing the helicopter to its limits to understand better how aircraft operate on Mars.

NASA operations lead Teddy Tzanetos shared details, saying, "This marks the third flight in the Operations Demonstration Phase of Ingenuity, in which the team will continue to push the flight envelope of the aircraft while learning valuable operational lessons. Up next for the Ingenuity team is to tackle the only remaining flight software update, which will update a large portion of the Ingenuity's navigation-computer software."

While it may look like the astronauts are just rocking out with some awesome low-gravity dance moves, the "dance" actually has significance other than looking groovy.

The latest spacewalk aboard the International Space Station (ISS) happened on June 25 where Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Shane Kimbrough of NASA stepped outside of the ISS to install more solar arrays. The astronauts have installed six new solar arrays in an effort to upgrade the ISS's power station.

Before the spacewalk can commence, the astronauts must perform what is described by Pesquet as the "spacewalk dance". Pesquet then backed up his play-on-words with a more specific explanation of what the "spacewalk dance" is and why it's necessary before a walk is initiated. Here's what he said, "We were not really dancing but purging our bodies of nitrogen. We breathe pure oxygen and slowly all the nitrogen in our bodies is replaced by oxygen, which is safer when going from high pressure (Space Station) to low pressure (spacesuit). Mild exercise makes us breathe more oxygen and gets rid of the nitrogen quicker."

A team of MIT researchers has managed to train a neural network to understand what action a human is performing on a piece of carpet.

The "intelligent carpet" is made out of 9,000 sensors, specially designed pressure-sensitive film, and conductive threads. The researchers specifically didn't include any cameras in the design due to the apparent growing concern for cameras invading privacy. The MIT team then synchronized the visual feed and the electric signal data, and with this synchronization, they then trained a neural network to be able to identify human actions performed on the carpet.

Yunzhu Li, a Ph.D. student a co-author of the paper, suggested that the carpet could be used for "workout purposes" as users could form workout actions on the carpet and then receive information such as calories burned, reps performed, etc. The carpet does have limitations as most of the pressure information provided is sourced from the lower body. Additionally, the researchers want to be able to provide accurate detection for two people using the mat as well as the height and weight of users.

Astronomers believe they have found the largest comet ever, with estimates putting it 1,000 times bigger than a typical comet.

Comets are different from asteroids, as comets have a clear tail that can be seen. Additionally, comets commonly consist of ice, dust, and organic compounds, while asteroids are made of metals and rocky material. Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein of the University of Pennsylvania found what is believed to be the largest comet ever discovered, measuring in anywhere between 60 and 120 miles in diameter. It should be noted that the typical diameter for a comet is 6 miles.

Bernstein said, "We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen - or at least larger than any well-studied one - and caught it early enough for people to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up. It has not visited the Solar System in more than 3 million years." Astronomers were able to spot the comet 20 astronomical units away from Earth due to how much sunlight it was reflecting, a testament to its immense size.

The very first sounds and video footage from China's recently landed Mars rover named Zhurong have been released by the CNSA.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released the first video footage showing the landing of the rover and the opening of its parachute that lowered it safely to the surface of Mars. The landing occurred on May 15, and the Zhurong rover is stationed in the Utopia Planitia. The black and white video features the first sounds recorded, which was an objective of the mission taking place.

The videos also show a wireless camera being used as we can see the Zhurong rover driving away from the camera, making for some quite spectacular footage. According to the CNSA, Zhurong is expected to last for at least 90 days, and so far, it was driven a total of 232 meters collecting information as it goes. The CNSA received the video and sounds from the Zhurong rover through its Tianwen-1 satellite that is orbiting Mars, and in the future, we can no doubt expect more of this awesome footage to be relayed back to Earth.

In the history of the Earth, many comets have struck its surface, and some of those comets have caused absolute devastation.

One object that is probably the most famous for striking Earth is the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, dubbed Chicxulub. Now, researchers have penned a new study that explores if a comet that impacted Earth 13,000 years ago could have changed the fundamental way human civilization operated. The comet that struck Earth was the most second-most catastrophic impact since Chicxulub.

Martin Sweatman, a scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and his team found that the comet's time of impact correlated with significant changes in human societies. The study pointed towards preceding the Neolithic period, where humans were moving from hunter-gatherer societies to settlements where they developed agriculture, architecture, and the skills to work with stone tools.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will soon be turning 50 (June 28), but what he wants for his birthday is somewhat out of reach.

As you can imagine, having the wealth that Musk has, there isn't much that he couldn't buy for a birthday present to himself. Unfortunately, the thing that Musk desires most for his birthday he won't be able to get, or at least for a couple of weeks. Musk was asked by a Twitter user what he wants for his birthday, and Musk replied simply, "Starship Super Heavy".

Musk seems to be referring to an orbital flight of Starship Super Heavy and not actually having an extremely large rocket being shipped to his address because that would be ridiculous? Right? If he is referring to an orbital flight of Starship Super Heavy, he will have to wait a few more weeks, as SpaceX is aiming for an orbital test for July, according to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell. If this is the present Musk is after, it will have to be a belated one, but a fantastic one nonetheless!

The highly-anticipated report on UFOs or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) by the Office of The Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has been released online for public viewing.

The report by the ODNI explores the possibility that these nearly 150 sightings of UAPs by U.S. government personnel (USG) are a threat to national security and what the Department of Defense plans on doing to understand the threat. According to the report, there is very limited high-quality data on UAPs, which has led the report to be inconclusive on their origin or intent.

However, the report states how the U.S. government will make moves to understand UAPs better and, therefore, be able to explain them. According to the report, there needs to be standardized reporting implemented for sightings and consolidation of data, allowing for a deeper analysis. "As the dataset increases, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) ability to employ data analytics to detect trends will also improve. The initial focus will be to employ artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms to cluster and recognize similarities and patterns in features of the data points", the report reads.

The report provided by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence investigates the potential threat of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

There are many interesting points to bring up in the 9-page document, but for the purpose of this article we will concentrate purely on why the US government didn't confirm the existence of aliens. After reading through the document you can understand that the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) simply doesn't have enough data to confirm or rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

The UAPTF mainly concentrated on reports from military aviators and found that the data provided to them had large variability, with minimal patterns. Essentially the dataset was too small. The patterns that were noticed regarded the size of a UAP, shape, and particularly its method for propulsion. The document goes on to state that there are probably multiple explanations for these UAPs, as not all of them are the same which means they require different explanations.

The highly anticipated report from the Office of The Director of National Intelligence regarding UFO sightings by military personel has been released.

June 25 has arrived and the Pentagon report ordered to be presented to the Senate regarding UFOs, or as outlined in the document, UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). The document has been unclassified and free for public viewing here. Under a section in the document states that there are 18 incidents described in 21 reports that a UAP performed unusual movement patterns of flight characteristics that may have demonstrated the use of advanced technology.

The report reads, "Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernable means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings." The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) currently holds a small amount of data that isn't enough to confirm if its valid or not, rendering the reporting largely inclusive, according to the report.

A new space race may have just begun as China has announced they will be sending the first humans to land on Mars.

The ambitious plans were announced by Wang Xiaojun, the head of the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). Xiaojun made the announcement at the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021) where he gave a speech called "The Space Transportation System of Human Mars Exploration". China has its eyes set on Mars, and the nation plans on getting humans there in three stages.

The first stage will see the country send robots to the surface of the Red Planet to collect samples and then return back to Earth. These robots would also be tasked with finding a suitable base site for when humans land. The second stage will feature humans being sent there to build a permanent settlement. The last state includes large-scale Mars to Earth cargo trips that will include cargo from Earth being shipped to Mars and cargo from Mars being shipped back to Earth.

When NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is online and working it can produce some shocking images of the cosmos, and this is no exception.

The image seen above taken by Hubble is of NGC 1052-DF2, or DF2. This galaxy, in particular, continues to perplex astronomers as estimates show that it lacks any dark matter, which is an "invisible form of matter that provides the gravitational glue to hold galaxies together" according to NASA. The team behind the discovery has published their findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The researchers found that DF2 is actually 72 million light-years which is more than most astronomers previously estimated at 42 million light-years. Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University says that DF2 is a cosmic cotton ball that is a "see-through galaxy" that features stars spread out. The diameter of DF2 is almost as large as our galaxy, but DF2 only contains 1/200th of the amount of stars as the Milky Way.

The scenario proposed sounds impossible, but it's actually quite real. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has the images to prove it.

So, what are we exactly looking at here? The above image clearly shows a "hand", but it's not a galactic being of any kind, it's the remnants of a massive star dying in a supernova explosion. What appears in the image in the shape of a hand is what is known as a pulsar, an extremely dense corpse of what was once a large star.

The pulsar in the image named MSH 15-52 has many energetic particles surrounding it, and those energetic particles combined with the debris left over from the explosion have created the glorious image of a hand reaching for something. That "something" is an enormous gas cloud called RCW 89. The ghostly "hand" is located 17,000 light-years away from Earth, and according to astronomers, the light emitted from the supernova explosion would have reached Earth around 1,700 years ago, making MSH 15-52 one of the youngest supernova explosions we have found in the Milky Way galaxy.