Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 187

It can be very challenging for astronomers to determine the specific distance of an object in space accurately, and an example of that is the red supergiant Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse has been in the news recently as astronomers have said that this red supergiant will erupt into a supernova. Now, according to an international team of scientists, led by researchers from The Australian National University and The University of Tokyo, the distance of Betelgeuse from Earth may have been more accurately determined.

Since size and distance play a pivotal role in determining the specifications of an object (the further an object is away, the smaller it appears), previous estimations for Betelgeuse's size and distance have now been thrown into question. Dr. Laszlo Molnar, a co-author of the study, said in a statement, "The actual physical size of Betelgeuse has been a bit of a mystery-earlier studies suggested it could be bigger than the orbit of Jupiter. Our results say Betelgeuse only extends out to two-thirds of that, with a radius 750 times the radius of the sun."

The news has been rocketing upwards reporting on someone flying around LAX in a jetpack, something that was confirmed by a China Airlines pilot to air traffic controllers.

It's not the first time, either -- with the unidentified jetpack-wearing person spotted at around 1:45PM local time in LA, explains the US Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. 6 weeks ago the rocket man (or woman, or alien, or robot, or Qanon) was spotted flying around in their jetpack around LAX.

The FAA told CNN: "A China Airlines crew reported seeing what appeared to be someone in a jetpack at an approximate altitude of 6,000 feet, about seven miles northwest of Los Angeles International Airport".

It turns out you may be showering incorrectly, or at least according to doctors that recently talked to The Daily Mail.

According to the doctors a massive factor in showering correctly comes from how hot the water is, and if you are one of the potentially millions of people out there who love a near-boiling hot shower - you might want to stop doing that. The researchers say that its important to wash your face in lukewarm or almost cold water as hot water can dry out the skin on your face.

Additionally, the researchers say that hot water can lead to short and long-term damage that includes broken or dilated blood vessels. On top of that, washing your face with hot water can strip your face from natural oils that are healthy for your skin. The experts recommend to save your face washing for when you are out of the shower, and make sure to rinse your face with a gentle cleanser.

An announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) has been made about what is called "pandemic fatigue".

According to WHO Europe director Dr. Hans Kluge, European countries have been warned about "pandemic fatigue", which it says poses a threat to how the continent is going to battle the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO head says that this statement is based on "aggregated survey data from countries across the region", and that "In such circumstances it is easy and natural to feel apathetic and demotivated, to experience fatigue."

Additionally, Kluge says that European health authorities should listen to the public and work with them to implement "new and innovative ways" to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Notably, the WHO pointed towards Turkey employing social media polls in an attempt to understand the public's thoughts surrounding the pandemic. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

NASA is already two steps ahead, as the space agency has a plan for how astronauts aboard the International Space Station will vote in the elections.

There is quite a lot of controversy surrounding the topic of how votes will be casted, as many people are questioning the legitimacy of mail-in ballots. CNN has reported that while many people are going to be mailing in their ballots, one ballot will be "mailed-in" from 200 miles above the Earth. That vote will come from flight engineer Kate Rubins, who is going to the ISS to research "the use of laser-cooled atoms for future quantum sensors", as well as perform cardiovascular experiments.

This won't mark the first time Rubins has casted a vote from space as the astronaut voted in the 2016 presidential election from the space station. Here's how astronauts cast votes from space, as described by NASA, "A secure electronic ballot, generated by the Harris and Brazoria County Clerk's office, is uplinked by NASA's Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center. An e-mail with crew member-specific credentials is sent from the County Clerk to the crew member. These credentials allow the crew member to access the secure ballot."

I can't imagine driving or walking down the street and looking out the window to see Boston Dynamics' AI-powered Spot robot dog. Check it out:

Spot was seen in North Ontario, Canada taking an evening stroll and was shown in the above video posted to Twitter. Boston Dynamics got in on the fun, tweeting that "one of our Spot robots was recently filmed while out for an evening stroll with its handler, who is one of our commercial customers".

Boston Dynamics continued, explaining that the customer was "conducting routine mobility tests of the robot and kept it away from people, as required by our terms of use. We are excited about the peaceful, productive and well-supervised users of our robots for commercial applications such as power generation, construction and process manufacturing".

Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman are scheduled to leave Earth next year aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX is no stranger to the idea of doing private tourist missions for the extremely wealthy, and I suppose that is why this mission has been dubbed a "tourist mission". According to Space Shuttle Almanac, Tom Cruise, director Doug Liman, and most likely one other as one seat has yet to be filled, will be leaving Earth in October 2021 to arrive at the International Space Station.

At the moment, the purpose of the mission is officially unknown, but we can assume that actor Tom Cruise and director Dough Liman are either discussing filming possibilities or are doing some kind of filming for a future movie. One thing is certain; the launch is more than a year away, which means there is plenty of time for plans to change, such as cancellation or the other passenger's announcement.

Space is a strange and beautiful place, and we are yet to discover many of the hidden beauties that are floating around out there in its vastness.

But, every now again, we come across something that we have never seen before. In this instance, we have come across a comet that has its own "Northern Lights". As described by NASA in a recent blog post, data from the Rosetta mission conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have revealed a new comet titled 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that has its own far-ultraviolet aurora.

For those that don't know what the Northern or Southern Lights are, NASA explains that these phenomena happen when charged particles from the Sun hit the upper atmosphere. This interaction between the charged particles and the upper atmosphere creates the beautiful shimmers of color we see. These auroras are known to happen in other locations in space such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and even Mars.

In the United States, people have continuously poked fun at specific states for having certain levels of intelligence.

Some states get a much worse wrap than others, and through this fun-poking, some stereotypes are generated. The thing about stereotypes, or at least some of them - is that many of them have veins of truth running through them. So, which states are smarter than others? A nationwide ranking of IQ scores combined with SAT and ACT scores has shown us a ranking.

It should be noted that while the results do draw metaphorical lines in the sand between states, no one should genuinely demonize any citizens from states that are "dumber". In every state in the US, there are brilliant people from all walks of life, and everyone should assume that they have something new to learn from someone when they meet them - no matter where they come from.

If you happened to miss the news, it was only yesterday I reported about scientists finding traces in a planet's atmosphere that indicates life could be present.

That planet is Venus, and according to a study recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists researching Venus have found traces of phosphine gas, which is a life signature sign. The researchers believe that phosphine gas is an indicator of life because microbes that live in animals have been found to produce the gas in the intestines. An author of the study said that the researchers couldn't find any other reason than possible life for the detection of phosphine gas.

Now, NASA is considering approving two planetary science missions to uncover the truth of the gas. At the moment, there are four possible missions under review by NASA, and one of those is called DAVINCI+, which would launch a probe into Venus' atmosphere to perform testing. David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist working on the DAVINCI+ proposal, told Reuters on Tuesday, "Davinci is the logical one to choose if you're motivated in part by wanting to follow this up - because the way to follow this up is to actually go there and see what's going on in the atmosphere".

Scientists and researchers have constantly been searching for life outside of Earth since the venture was possible, and now researchers believe life could be closer than previously anticipated.

According to a recent article by Axios, scientists have found traces of a gas in Venus' clouds that may indicate the planet could harbor some form of life. According to a study recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists detected phosphine gas in Venus' atmosphere, which is a possible signature of life.

The reason researchers believe phosphine could be an indicator of life being on Venus is because researchers have found the gas is produced by some microbes that live in animal intestines. It should be noted that scientists don't believe the detection of this gas is 100% proof of life, but they are yet to find a better explanation as to why there is such an abundance in Venus' atmosphere.

Researchers from the Arizona State University and the University of Chicago have proven through experimentation that it's possible there are planets that could mostly be made out of diamonds.

There are several factors to the recipe of space creating a diamond exoplanet, and one of those is if the planet is orbiting a star that is rich in carbon - a necessary ingredient in a diamond's composition. Another component is water, followed by pressure and heat. Gravity could have caused the necessary pressure, which has left scientists thinking that there could possibly be many planets out there already in this correct kind of environment.

The researchers decided to put the theory to the test, and took a silicon carbide and placed it in a very high-pressure situation. Adding water, compression with diamond "anvils", and heat from a laser to try and replicate the conditions of a cabron-rich planet, they were able to successfully create diamonds and silica. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here for more information.

If you are above the age of 21 or even a little bit younger, than you probably know the effects of what a hangover feels like.

But what if I could tell you scientists have concluded what supplements can be taken to reduce the effects of a hangover? A new study has been published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, and the focus of the study was to find out if the amino acid L-cysteine has the ability to significantly reduce hangover symptoms such as headaches, lethargy, anxiety, and nausea/vomiting.

The researchers write, "Alcohol-related hangover symptoms: nausea, headache, stress and anxiety cause globally considerable amount of health problems and economic losses. Many of these harmful effects are produced by alcohol and its metabolite, acetaldehyde, which also is a common ingredient in alcohol beverages. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of the amino acid L-cysteine on the alcohol/acetaldehyde related aftereffects."

We're about to get some big camera upgrades on the Red Planet, with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and broadcaster NHK teaming on making new 4K and 8K cameras.

These new 4K and 8K cameras will be sent to capture images of Mars and its moons (both Phobos and Deimos) for the future Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) missions. Unlike Intel's multimedia instruction set, this version of MMX will take pictures and send them back to Earth to "create a smooth image".

The originals, however, will be stored on the capsule that will return to our pale blue dot. Japan is expected to have its MMX spacecraft liftoff in 2024, reaching Mars by 2025 -- then add another year for the capsule with the original pictures taken to arrive back home.

As apart of the Artemis program that will be sending the first woman and the next man to Moon's surface, NASA has announced it's looking for private companies to acquire some lunar dirt.

The announcement was made on the NASA website, and says that the space agency will pay private companies to "collect a small amount of Moon 'dirt' or rocks from the lunar surface". According to the NASA website, private companies will be required to put in a proposal with the space agency, as well as provide imagery of the collection and collected materials, and location data.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, "We are putting our policies into practice to fuel a new era of exploration and discovery that will benefit all of humanity". The goal of collecting lunar surface samples is to expand our knowledge of the Moon's surface, which will then benefit all of humanity as the knowledge will be relevant in the future years to come with the Artemis program. If you are interested in reading the blog post for yourself, check out this link here.

If you are like me, you really like high detail images of the beauties of space, and what object to capture in glorious high-detail than our Sun?

Above, we have an image of a sunspot, which is created by pockets of magnetic activity on the Sun's surface. These magnetic fields then trap stellar plasma and create a cool region located in the center. These spots can result in a coronal mass ejection (CME), or solar flares.

Researchers used the GREGOR telescope located at the Teide Observatory in the Canary Islands to capture this stunning image of a sunspot. While the spot itself may seem small, it should be noted that they can be thousands of kilometers wide, essentially meaning that the spot we are looking at could potentially swallow the entire Earth. If you want more information on this topic, check out this link here.

If you are like me, and you love to see the beauty of space, then you are in the right place because NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is at it again.

So, what are we looking at? According to the Hubble Space Telescope website, the above image is of a globular cluster called NGC 1805. We are looking at a tight group of thousands of stars located near the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy 163,000 light-years away from the Milky Way. NASA describes the image to be similar to a how a beehive works.

Here's what NASA stated, "The stars orbit closely to one another, like bees swarming around a hive. In the dense centre of one of these clusters, stars are 100 to 1000 times closer together than the nearest stars are to our Sun, making planetary systems around them unlikely." The reason we are seeing two different types of star colors is because blue stars are shining brightest in near-ultraviolet light, and red stars are near-infrared. If you are interested in learning more about this gorgeous globular cluster, check out this link here.

You might not have heard about NuScale, but I think you will over the next few years -- as the nuclear energy startup has just crossed a milestone for its modular nuclear reactor design.

NuScale has become the first American modular design to get to this point, reports Popular Mechanics. NuScale's new design uses a classic nuclear fission water reactor technology, but in a super-small footprint, versus the gigantic sizes of nuclear power plants worldwide.

Marc Nichol, senior director of new reactors at the Nuclear Energy Institute explains: "The approval of NuScale's small modular reactor design is not only a monumental milestone for NuScale but is a crucial step for the future of the industry. As the first U.S. small modular reactor design to be issued a [Final Safety Evaluation Report], NuScale is pioneering the way for additional innovative advanced nuclear technologies under development".

One of the common ways NASA decommissions an out-of-use satellite is to direct it straight at Earth's atmosphere.

That process has now been recently used on one of NASA's most old school satellites, the OGO-1. If you have never heard of this satellite, don't stress, because it was launched all the way back in 1964. The satellites mission has long since been completed, but now the space agency has officially removed the satellite from orbit by directing straight towards Earth's atmosphere.

The OGO-1 was designed to observe Earth from outside Earth's atmosphere, and more specifically, as NASA explains, was designed to study the planet's magnetosphere - "the region of space surrounding Earth that is controlled by Earth's magnetic field." NASA says that the satellite was relaying scientific data for five years, and in 1969 it was placed in standby mode when the satellite was unable to relay said data. In 1971 the satellite mission was officially terminated, and now on August 29th, 2020, it erupted into a fireball upon entry into Earth's atmosphere.

NASA has taken to its Twitter account to remind everyone of the power of deep space telescopes, and the sheer accomplishment of humans successfully having them observe deep space.

Above is NASA's recent post, and as you can see, the image seems like some sort of veil draped across the sky, but what is it exactly? According to NASA, what we are looking at here is actually the remnants of a star that once sat in the northern constellation of Cygnus. The image, which has been captured with the power of the Hubble Space Telescope, shows us what is left of that supernova blast located 2,400 light-years away.

The star is that exploded is far larger than our Sun, in fact, its 20 times larger, and the explosion itself is estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. Since the initial explosion, the remains of the star have stretched more than 60 light-years from its center. If you are interested in more information about this image, check out NASA's blog post here.