Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 194

NASA has taken to its Perseverance Twitter account to post an image of a rock that was recently sampled by the Mars rover.

At the end of last month, NASA explained that its Mars rover named Perseverance was "constipated" with nasty martian pebbles causing numerous problems for collecting new samples. After some time, the Perseverance team decided it would perform rotational tests of the carousel to dislodge the rocks, and those rotational tests were a success. Additionally, the space agency also emptied the contents of Sample Tube 261.

Now that those hurdles have been overcome, Perseverance is back at the same location where the hurdles arose. As NASA writes in the above Twitter post, "this rock almost looked surprised that I was coming back!", referring to discarded contents of Sample Tube 261. Perseverance has successfully collected a sample from what could be one of the oldest rocks that the rover samples. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

NASA has taken to its blog to provide an update for the world's most powerful space telescope - the James Webb Space Telescope.

In a recent statement from the space agency, now that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has arrived at its destination of Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a specific point in space that keeps the Earth in between the Sun and the telescope at all times, the months-long process of getting all of JWST's instruments up and running can begin.

NASA writes that the JWST team is currently preparing to turn off its heaters that have been keeping its extremely sensitive instruments nice and warm throughout its journey. JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument has an operating temperature of -449 Fahrenheit, as its designed to observe the middle of the infrared spectrum. If an object is warm on JWST, it may interfere with the observations made by the telescope, hence the operating temperature being so low.

Officials reported that a big sunspot group erupted on January 30, causing a long-duration M1-class solar and a coronal mass ejection to be hurled towards Earth.

SpaceWeather.com reports that the eruption happened during the early hours of Saturday morning and caused a large explosion on the surface of the Sun. It should be noted that the M1-class solar flare is a medium-sized solar flare and isn't going to wipe out the human race. However, flares of this power can cause communications issues for satellites as well as radio blackouts on Earth.

The solar flare came from sunspot group AR2936, and the burst lasted four hours, hence the name "long-duration". As for the coronal mass ejection (CME) - charged particles ejected from the Sun's corona - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict that the blast will hit Earth on Wednesday, February 2, and may cause G2-class geomagnetic storms which are "low hazard". On a more positive note, the CME from the Sun could cause auroras to appear in the sky from the Arctic Circle to the northern United States.

A new study published in Nature Climate Change has modeled the future of floods in the United States.

Researchers have estimated that the annual cost of flood damage in the U.S. will increase by 26.4 percent by 2050. The average annual flood losses amount to about $32 billion and are estimated to increase to $40.6 billion in 2050, based on 2021 dollar values. Their research emphasizes that the brunt of this financial hit will fall on disadvantaged communities.

"Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger and the financial implications are staggering. The mapping clearly indicates Black communities will be disproportionately affected in a warming world, in addition to the poorer White communities which predominantly bear the historical risk," said lead author Oliver Wing of the University of Bath's Cabot Institute for the Environment.

The missile launched was the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

North Korea conducted the launch on January 30th, and South Korean and Japanese officials estimated it reached a maximum altitude of about 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers). It flew for roughly 30 minutes, flying over Japan and landing in the Pacific Ocean to the east as it completed an approximately 500 mile (800 kilometers) journey.

"It was conducted by the highest-angle launch system from the northwestern part of the country toward the waters of the East Sea of Korea in consideration of the security of neighboring countries. The Academy made public the earth image data taken from space by a camera installed at the missile warhead," wrote the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun on January 31st.

A paper by the European Space Agency (ESA) has investigated the potential for hibernation in Mars-bound journeys.

Engineers have to account for about two years worth of food and water to keep an astronaut crew alive on a mission bound for Mars and back. Animals typically enter a state of torpor during hibernation, reducing their metabolic rate and conserving energy. With a 25% reduction in metabolic rate, engineers could reduce the size of a spacecraft carrying the crew and the number of supplies necessary considerably.

"We are talking about 30 kg per astronaut per day, and on top of that we need to consider radiation as well as mental and physiological challenges. Where there is life, there is stress. The strategy would minimise boredom, loneliness and aggression levels linked to the confinement in a spacecraft," said Jennifer Ngo-Anh, ESA research and payload coordinator of Human and Robotic Exploration and one of the authors of the paper.

A study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes the new estimate.

More than a hundred scientists have used global forestry datasets from the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative and TREECHANGE to estimate that there are approximately 73,724 tree species on Earth. This number is roughly 14% higher than the current number of known tree species in these datasets, which amounts to 64,100 documented species.

The researchers estimate that there are about 9,200 currently undiscovered species', roughly 40% of which they believe are found in South America. The undiscovered species' are likely rare, with small populations and restricted to relatively confined regions, making these trees particularly vulnerable to human disruptions such as deforestation or climate change.

A newly published study in the journal Matter describes the RNA pill.

A research team from MIT has developed a capsule containing RNA to administer vaccines, hoping to bypass the need for injections such vaccines usually require. They were able to deliver up to 150 micrograms of RNA into the stomach of pigs, an amount greater than the 30 to 100 micrograms of mRNA found in COVID-19 vaccines.

"Nucleic acids, in particular RNA, can be extremely sensitive to degradation particularly in the digestive tract. Overcoming this challenge opens up multiple approaches to therapy, including potential vaccination through the oral route," says Giovanni Traverso, the Karl van Tassel Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Actor Tom Cruise has sat down with NASA astronaut Victor Glover to talk about the experiences of being an astronaut and what it's like to spend extended periods of time aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Cruise is interviewing Glover ahead of his scheduled time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to film a movie. Glover was a part of the first operational crew mission to the ISS in November 2020 that used SpaceX's, now frequently used, Crew Dragon spacecraft. Cruise and Glover discussed what it's like to experience the g-forces created by the rocket launch, as well as what it's like to sleep aboard the floating laboratory.

Another topic discussed was the smell of the International Space Station, where Glover says that the ISS smells very much like a hospital, with it similarities being that it smells like a sterile, antiseptic, germ-free environment. Additionally, the NASA astronaut says that the smells are localized, but the module on the space station that houses all of the workout equipment as well as the bathroom smells like a "locker room".

China's space agency has released a stunning video of its first Mars probe orbiting the Red Planet in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The China National Space Administration has released the footage of the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter making its journey around the Red Planet. The video is a selfie of the spacecraft and displays its body, engines, solar array as well as some of the surface of Mars making an appearance in the background.

After launching from China in July 2020 and arriving at Mars in February 2021, the Tianwen-1 probe has been observing the Red Planet for a whole year along with its lander and rover counterparts that are exploring the Martian surface.