Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 173

Researchers are currently on the hunt to better understand the relationship between black holes and galaxies.

It's widely considered that most, if not all, galaxies contain a black hole at their center, but the reasoning behind it is still not fully understood by astronomers. However, a new study published in the online in Astrophysical Journal may reveal some new information, which could pave the way for astronomers to have a deeper understanding.

Researchers suspect that black holes and galaxies evolve together through what is described as galactic "winds". The winds are produced by a black hole's ability to swallow anything that is close to it. As objects are pulled closer, the black hole's gravitation pull accelerates the objects, which results in an energy release that ejects the drawn-in objects outwards.

Elon Musk has been great at totally disrupting entire industries with his companies, like PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla just to name a few.

SpaceX is currently building out its next-gen Starship launch vehicle system, with Elon teasing an upcoming test flight of the new platform. SpaceX will be using Starlink to blast off into space, onto the Moon, and onwards to Mars -- but what about the benefits of the hypersonic rocket technology here on Earth?

That's where SpaceX could revolutionize the airline industry with a hypersonic rocket blasting passengers across the world at speeds simply impossible right now. Back in 2017, SpaceX teased that its Starship vehicle could deliver 100 tons to Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) between LA and New York in just 25 minutes... compared to 5 hours and 25 hours with a commercial airline.

NASA astronaut and European Space Agency astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet have completed a second spacewalk to install an ISS solar array.

The completed spacewalk marked the second spacewalk in four days. Both missions were to install a new solar array the International Space Station (ISS) is being equipped with. The astronauts were required to install a 60-foot-long and 10-foot-wide solar array that will be upgrading the ISS's satellite power systems. As with most interesting things aboard the ISS, NASA recorded the entire spacewalk and published a timelapse video showing the process.

A NASA report explained that both of the astronauts successfully completed bolting in the solar array and connecting it to the station's power supply. The solar array installations won't stop here as NASA is planning on equipping another solar array very soon. Kimbrough and Pesquet are scheduled for another spacewalk to begin the progress of the second solar arrays installation on June 25. In total, NASA plans on equipping the ISS with six new solar arrays, which are all being transported to the floating laboratory via SpaceX's Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

Most people have experienced hiccups at some point in their life, and in some cases, they can be quite discomforting, depending on how long the experience goes on for.

What if researchers told you they had developed a new straw that cures hiccups instantaneously? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, that straw has been invented, and according to recent tests, 92% of people were cured of their hiccups after using the straw. The new straw has been patented as HiccAway and is called "the forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool" or FISST for short.

So what is it? The design of the straw is fairly standard, it's an L-shaped device that features a mouthpiece located at one end and a pressure valve at the other end. The straw is also equipped with an adjustable cap that goes into the end of the straw. As for the science behind it, the straw activates two nerves that are responsible for hiccups occurring, the phrenic nerve responsible for the activation of the diaphragm and the vague nerve for the swallowing action.

A team of paleontologists has discovered fossils of what they claim to be the largest mammal to have ever lived on Earth.

The discovery leads scientists to believe that the animal was actually a new breed of rhinoceros, but this one, in particular, was a giant rhinoceros dubbed Paraceratherium linxiaense (Linxia Giant Rhino). The skull of the Linxia Giant Rhino measured in at a whopping length of three feet, and if the rhino were alive today, it would be taller than 23 feet, weighing approximately 24 tons.

Using genetic analysis, the researchers were able to find out that the rhino would have lived around 31 million years ago in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Additionally, the researchers mention that the Linxia Giant Rhino is related to the rhinos that are living in Pakistan, and for the rhino to be discovered in Linxia, it would have had to cross the Tibetan plateau, leading researchers to believe the plateau was much lower in the past than it currently is.

Since June 13, NASA has been attempting to get its Hubble Space Telescope back online after a problem caused the telescope to enter safe mode.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in service for more than 30 years, and to say that the technology inside Hubble is old is an understatement. Now that old technology is beginning to show its age as NASA attempts to fix a glitch in Hubble's payload computer. NASA either tried to restart the computer on June 14 or to switch the telescope to its backup memory module. Both attempts failed on June 14 and June 17.

This isn't the first time Hubble has experienced an issue like this before. Back in March, NASA had to deal with getting Hubble back online after an error was spotted in the telescope's main flight computer. The payload system used in Hubble was created in the 1980s, and if failing such as the one that NASA is experiencing now continues, we could see a much greater need to get the telescope's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, up into space.

Approximately 85% of the known universe is dark matter, or at least that is what scientists believed until a new galaxy was discovered.

Previously it was difficult to believe that galaxies being conceived without any dark matter would be impossible, or at least incredible rare. But, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make a discovery of a galaxy that lacks dark matter, confusing scientists more about how galaxies are exactly born.

Zili Shen and Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Shany Danieli, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, was the team behind the study, and according to the study, the team measured the distance of NGC1052-DF2 (DF2) and found that it was 22.1 +/-1.2 megaparsecs. The results indicated that the galaxy lacked dark matter. Additionally, results from another study published back in 2019 found that a neighboring galaxy called NGC1052-DF4 (DF4) also lacked dark matter.

The United States Postal Service are issuing a new collection of stamps that feature NASA imagery of our Sun.

The new collection that will be released on June 18 are called "Sun Science", and all of the ten stamps feature imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The stamps were released in celebration of the study of heliophysics, and showcase the Sun at different wavelengths.

All of the stamps were designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcala, and the stamps showcase some of the most common events on the Sun such as solar flares, coronal magnetic ejections, sun spots and more. USPS explains on its website, "The Sun is the only star that humans are able to observe in great detail, making it a vital source of information about the universe. The Solar Dynamics Observatory lets us see the sun in wavelengths of ultraviolet light that would otherwise be invisible to our eyes. Each black-and-white image is colorized to the bright hues seen here."

Many people expect a massive unclassified report on UFOs or UAP's as personal military calls them to be presented to the Senate in the coming days.

We have been covering this story extensively, and the first journalist to break the story in The New York Times was Ralph Blumenthal, who has recently appeared on the Fade to Black radio show with Jimmy Church ahead of the report. According to Blumenthal, "Congressional committees were briefed on the issue of materials recovery", and that the "Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee" were briefed with slides that referenced "off-planet vehicles."

Some members of the Congressional committees that have been a part of this briefing have said that the information contained in the report isn't very exciting but does raise big concerns for national security. As I have outlined in a previous post, it seems the report will heavily lean towards emphasizing that these sightings of UAP's are a national security risk and that government bodies more so consider them to be constructed by some other nation rather than confirming extraterrestrial life existence prematurely.

Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos will be leaving Earth on July 20 in his New Shepard rocket, marking the first tourist trip with his spaceflight services company Blue Origin.

Bezos will be joined with his brother Mark Bezos and another person who bid $28 million to acquire the seat on the New Shepard rocket and has also kept their identity anonymous. While this launch will be a monumental achievement for Blue Origin, many people have signed petitions showing their support for Bezos to simply not return back to Earth.

One petition featured on Change.org has gathered more than 30,000 signatures and is still quickly growing. The petition's description reads as follows; "Billionaire's should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there." Another petition that is basically the same as the first one that was created states has nearly reached 20,000 signatures and states, "Earth don't want people like Jeff, Bill [Gates], Elon [Musk] and other such billionaires."

The third-largest diamond in the world has just been discovered in Botswana, with the stone presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The diamond was found by Debswana -- a mining company that is jointly joined by the country's government and the De Beers Group -- with proceeds from the sale of the diamond to be used to "advance national development".

De Beers Group said in a statement: "Debswana will work with the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers to value and sell the diamond to ensure it returns maximum benefit for the people of Botswana. And will communicate further plans to bring this unique treasure to market in due course".

Amazon founder and space enthusiast -- and soon space explorer -- Jeff Bezos and his startup have backed a pilot nuclear fusion power plant that will be built in the UK by 2025.

Canadian energy startup General Fusion has said it wants to smash atoms together at temperatures 10x hotter than the sun, whereas traditional fission will split atoms. This means that the nuclear fusion plant will generate great amounts of carbon-free energy, without the worry of nuclear waste.

Christofer Mowry, the chief executive of General Fusion, explains: "Coming to Culham gives us the opportunity to benefit from UKAEA's expertise. By locating at this campus, General Fusion expands our market presence beyond North America into Europe, broadening our global network of government, institutional, and industrial partners".

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope experienced a malfunction and shut down, according to a press release by the US space agency.

The press release found on the NASA website states that the issue has something to do with Hubble's payload computer, and on June 13, it shut down. NASA's team of researchers analyzed the data and are now investigating if the issue can be attributed to a "degrading memory module". Preparations are currently being made for a memory module switch to occur on June 16, and after the switch has been made and tests are run for around one day, the telescope will resume its normal duties.

NASA explains, "The purpose of the payload computer is to control and coordinate the science instruments onboard the spacecraft. After the halt occurred on Sunday, the main computer stopped receiving a "keep-alive" signal, which is a standard handshake between the payload and main spacecraft computers to indicate all is well."

Unidentified flying objects (UFO) have been a topic that has stigma attached to it for quite a long time, but now a new report headed for the US Senate may shine some light on the topic.

The US Senate will be receiving a detailed report on UFOs, or what the government calls them unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), on June 25, and it's expected that some unclassified information will be released that will explain some recently released videos. People have been waiting for this report for many months now, and before it's released, there are some videos/pieces of information you should know.

Politicians that have already been briefed on the report have said that the information the report contains isn't very exciting, but it did raise some serious concerns for national security. In a comment to the NY Post, D-NY Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said that the main issue is the safety and security of US military personal, and knowing the capabilities of the object.

Anduril Industries has just raised $450 million in Series D funding, with founder Palmer Luckey tweeting out the news and teasing the future of warfighting technology.

The Oculus VR founder tweeted that his company raised $450 million in funding, and that it would be used to "turn American and allied warfighters into invincible technomancers who wield the power of autonomous systems to safely accomplish their mission. Our future roadmap is going to blow you away, stay tuned!"

Anduril's huge $450 million funding round was led by Elad Gil, who was an early investor in the company, with the $450 million injection of funding also coming from Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and D1 Capital Partners.

A group of scientists, for the very first time, has happened the gigantic protective bubble that is located near the edge of our solar system.

This gigantic protective bubble is called the heliosphere, and according to the new study published in the Astrophysics Journal, the researchers used data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite that is designed to observe and collect data regarding the interactions between solar winds from our Sun and interstellar wind.

The group of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory used the data from IBEX to create a map of the heliosphere. Dan Reisenfeld, the lead author on the paper, explained, "Just as bats send out sonar pulses in every direction and use the return signal to create a mental map of their surroundings, we used the Sun's solar wind, which goes out in all directions, to create a map of the heliosphere." The creation of the map marks the very first three-dimensional map of the heliosphere, which is the boundary of interstellar space.

A newly published study has claimed to have found evidence that life on Mars exists, but it's not in the form of a small green martian alien.

The study claims that the "evidence" of life that was discovered was actually mushroom-like life-forms growing on the surface of Mars. According to Space.com, these mushroom-like life-forms aren't life-forms at all but are actually small spherical-shaped pieces of the mineral called hematite.

Hematite is a combination of iron and oxygen, and scientists believe that the rocks could have formed from volcanic activity or accumulating in slowly evaporating water environments. The exact origin of the material is yet to be confirmed by scientists as it's still being debated. However, the suggestion that these "mushrooms" are life-forms is incorrect, as researchers have spotted them around Opportunity's landing site as well as underground, and even between rocks. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Back in late 2019 and early 2020, astronomers were puzzled at the star Betelgeuse mysteriously dimming, but now the answer has been uncovered.

The Great Dimming of Betelgeuse stumped the astronomy community for some time, with some researchers even saying that the star could go supernova relatively soon. However, as with most space phenomena, there is a logical and boring explanation that explains the occurrence, and in the instance of Betelgeuse's dimming, researchers found that a cloud of dust covered the star.

Miguel Montarges and his team used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) to examine Betelgeuse and found that the star had changed brightness. The team published a new study in Nature, which details that the Betelgeuse dimmed due to a veil of dust around the star that caused its temperature to drop. The team says that Betelgeuse released a large gas bubble from a patch of its surface that then floated away from it. That patch on its surface then cooled down, causing the gas bubble to condense into dust.

In an effort to stop Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos from ever putting two feet on the ground again, thousands have signed a petition to deny him entry back Earth.

For those that don't know, Bezos will be taking the first tourist flight on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket to the outer edges of Earth's atmosphere (62 miles above average sea level). Bezos announced on June 7 that he would be taking the flight with his brother Mark and one other person. Bezos also owns Blue Origin, and when the flight occurs on July 20, it will mark the first human space trip for the company.

The petition was created on Change.org by Jose Ortiz, who wrote, "Jeff Bezos is actually Lex Luthor, disguised as the supposed owner of a super successful online retail store. However, he's actually an evil overlord hellbent on global domination." The petition received nearly 7,000 signatures, with the target being 7,500. The other person that will be on the space flight with Bezos bid $28 million for the seat next to the Amazon billionaire. However, the identity of the individual is still a mystery.

Humans will soon be sending the world's first wooden satellite to space in an effort to test a special type of plywood.

A Finnish company called Arctic Astronautics is behind the project and will be sending the WISA Woodsat, a nanosatellite that only measures in at 4 by 4 by 4 inches, and only weighs 2.2lbs. The researchers behind the project plan on testing the durability of specially coated plywood panels in extreme space environments. The results of the mission will determine if these types of panels can be sustainable for future missions.

The tiny satellite will be equipped with two cameras, one will be attached to a selfie stick that will allow for researchers on the ground to observe the panels and their condition. Researchers behind the small satellite have coated the plywood with aluminum oxide, which Woodsat chief engineer Samuli Nymanm, who is also the Arctic Astronautics co-founder, said should stop the plywood from releasing any gas in space as well as protects it against corrosive atomic oxygen.