Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 201

If only North Korea had this new anti-solar panel technology that generates power in the dark when they made their historic trip to land on the Sun... but the country has been beaten to the punch by scientists at the University of California.

ACS Photonics says researchers at the University of California have made something they're calling an "anti-solar panel" which works in the reverse way a normal solar panel does -- it generates power in the dark, versus a normal solar panel generating power from the sun.

The researchers explain: "In order to produce electrical power after the sun has set, we consider an alternative photovoltaic concept that uses the earth as a heat source and the night sky as a heat sink, resulting in a "nighttime photovoltaic cell" that employs thermoradiative photovoltaics and concepts from the advancing field of radiative cooling".

A new paper has been published revealing that researchers have created a new way that beams of light can communicate with each other.

This discovery has led researchers to explore a brand new way of computing. So, how does it work? In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, an associate professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster says that using light beams and hydrogel developed by the Harvard team, the researchers were able to successfully prove the gel is "intelligent".

The hydrogels composition is composed of light-responsive molecules whose structures are altered once light is shone through it. This change in the gel gives it the capabilities of being able to contain light beams without 'bleeding' and the ability to transmit information from one source to another. Usually, as a beam of light travels, it broadens, but the gel is able to contain it into an almost tube-like structure.

Stem-cell research is pushing the boundaries into what is ethical and what is not. Questions have been raised as to whether or not human-animal hybrids should be approved under the guise of 'research'.

Back in late July 2019, Japan lifted the ban on the controversial stem-cell research enabling the University of Tokyo to conduct the first human-animal hybrid research. The research attempted to grow human call in rat and mouse embryos before it was brought to full term in a surrogate animal.

So why would scientists want to do this? Eventually, scientists and researchers would like to take stem-cell research to the point where they can grow human organs inside other animals. If this was achieved, then humans that require organ transplants will be able to receive those organs much faster than waiting for a human source.

NASA is moving full steam ahead into creating a lunar base that would essentially act as a launchpad for future expeditions to Mars.

The U.S. House of Representatives has recently proposed a new bipartisan bill that would limit NASA's experiments that can be conducted on the Moon's surface. This new bill states, "Any lunar in-situ resource utilization activities and shall not be included in the Moon to Mars Program and shall be budgeted separately from the Moon to Mars Program." What this means is that any Moon-specific research experiments that aren't directly linked to achieving humans on Mars could be considered not worth it.

This bill, called H.R. 5666, has stirred scientists raising their concerns towards its context and general goal. A group of scientists, engineers, resource management experts from 12 different states all signed an open letter sent to NASA that explains how this bill would be impeding the goal of making Mars habitable. Here's a small paragraph from the letter, "The integration of lunar (and Martian) resource utilization is vital for the sustainable and cost-effective human space exploration program beyond Earth orbit, as it is critical that we learn to "live off the land" beyond the Earth."

Today is the very first day in an astounding 909 years that is a palindrome. If you don't know what that word means, don't worry, you aren't alone -- I was exactly the same until I Googled it.

So what is a palindrome? Google says, "a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards". Examples of this would include madam or nurses. So, now that we know what a palindrome is, today being February 2nd is the first day in 909 years that is a palindrome as the date reads in month, date, year: 02/02/2020, Date, month, year: 02/02/2020 and finally year, month date: 2020/02/02.

The last day that was a palindrome day was 11/11/1111, and the next palindrome day won't be happening for another 101 years. If today's date already wasn't enough number satisfaction for you -- today is also the 33rd day of the year, and there are 333 days to go. I don't know what celebrations happen for this day (besides the Super Bowl), but I'd imagine it would have something to do with zero's and two's. Happy palindrome day!

NASA has today announced that they would be officially saying goodbye to the Spitzer Space Telescope. As a new telescope is on the brink of completion, Splitzer's time is unfortunately up.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched back in 2003 and has provided scientists, astronomers and researchers alike with some of the most influential discoveries to date. Spitzer is an infrared telescope that gave researchers discoveries such as finding some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, as well as being able to detect the light reflected off distant exoplanets.

The Spitzer Space Telescope worked hand-in-hand with the Hubble Space Telescope as Spitzer was able to detect light rays from distant objects, then Hubble was able to capture glorious images of them. This gave scientists and astronomers a better understanding on what is out there in the abyss of space. As the James Webb Space Telescope nears its delayed completion, NASA decided it's time to decommission the Spitzer Space Telescope, read more on that here.

A new solar telescope has done its job better than expected, as it has released the most detailed images ever of the Sun's surface.

National Science Foundation's Inouye Solar Telescope has revealed an incredibly high detailed image of the Sun's surface. Above, you can see what seems to be like a messy yellow jigsaw puzzle. Instead, it's the highest resolution image of the Sun's surface humans have ever captured. The image shows the activity that is currently occurring on the Sun's surface, and it appears to be pattern-like, but it's actually "boiling" plasma in motion.

Each of the cells you can see above is about the size of Texas, and move extremely violently, much like a pot of water that has been brought the boiling point. Each of these cells rises and falls as heat from the inner core of the Sun expands outwards, eventuating into the solar weather that we experience here on Earth. The new Inouye Solar Telescope will be able to give scientists a new understanding of the Sun, as the telescope will be able to map its magnetics and ultimately allow us to predict solar storms better.

You would have to be living under a rock right now to not be hearing about the coronavirus outbreak in China that is slowly spreading throughout the world, but it is now affecting Apple.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the on-going coronavirus outbreak in China is affecting Apple's operations in the country, so it has restricted employee travel and even closed an Apple Store in China over the outbreak. Tim Cook explained to CNBC: "We're restricting travel to business critical travel. For employees that are in the Wuhan area, we are providing care kits and supplying them across our employee population in China as well".

The company has "some suppliers" in the Wuhan area according to Cook, who told Apple investors on Tuesday that some of its manufacturing facilities in China will be closed until February 10. The Chinese government has put forward these recommendations, with Cook also adding that some of its channel partners have closed their retail stores which will have a (small) impact on sales. Cook added: "Retail traffic has also been impacted outside of the city over the last few days".

Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the most famous astrophysicists alive, has taken to his personal Twitter account to give everyone a friendly reminder about our solar system.

In the above Tweet, we can see an image of what appears to be our solar system, but something is strangely inaccurate. Earth appears to be a flat disk instead of a sphere like the rest of the planets? This is a depiction of what flat earth conspiracy theorists believe is the proper shape of Earth, instead of what established scientists have confirmed for years -- a sphere.

Tyson states that flat Earthers (flat earth conspiracy theorists) biggest fear is the "sphere itself". Here's the full statement: "It's well known: What flat-Earthers fear most is Sphere itself". Of course, this is just a friendly poke at a group of people's beliefs, but there is a string of truth to it. If the Earth happened to be flat, it would contradict all knowledge that we have of other planets being spherical shape. It would also put a lot established physics into question as well.

The telescope we are talking about here is none other than the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is expected to launch in March next year.

According to the latest report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which does audits on government-funded programs, the JWST only has a 12% chance of hitting its March 2021 launch date. The GAO did an analysis back in October on those participants who are working on the project, they evaluated the current progress and came to the conclusion that NASA should figure out a new release date in Spring this year.

Here's a little history about the JWST. The telescope idea was first created back in the 1990's and was originally estimated to cost anywhere between $1 billion and $3.5 billion. Back then, scientists expected that it would have been completed and launched between 2007 and 2010. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, and costs have gone up exponentially (95%), and the launch date has moved further down the yearly timeline.

NASA has announced via a new press release that Axiom Space out of Houston will be the first company to provide NASA with a commercial destination module for the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA is fast approaching its goal to commercialize the ISS and enable private astronauts to visit the floating laboratory in low-Earth orbit. The press release reveals that NASA has selected Axiom Space as the first company to provide NASA with a module that will attach to the ISS's Node 2 forward port. This is an important milestone for both NASA and the coming low-Earth orbit economy.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, said "Axiom's work to develop a commercial destination in space is a critical step for NASA to meet its long-term needs for astronaut training, scientific research, and technology demonstrations in low-Earth orbit. We are transforming the way NASA works with industry to benefit the global economy and advance space exploration. It is a similar partnership that this year will return the capability of American astronauts to launch to the space station on American rockets from American soil."

SpaceX is in full preparation to launch 60 more Starlink satellites into Earth's atmosphere. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, the launch has been delayed.

SpaceX took to their official Twitter account on January 27 to announced that the weather for today's launch is "50% favorable". The space exploration company was planning on live streaming the whole event, but unfortunately, due to "strong upper-level winds" SpaceX is "standing down today" and will re-schedule the launch to Wednesday, January 29, at 9:06 a.m., 14:06 UTC. Tune into the live stream here.

Back in November, 2019 SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites in its effort to establish a global internet connection. Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and founder expects to have established at least an early version of a global internet connect by late 2020. Musk and SpaceX eventually want to have 42,000 Starlink satellites in Earth's orbit.

The International Space Station is a floating mechanical laboratory, and with almost everything mechanical, sometimes things fall apart. It's just the way things are.

Since things sometimes fall apart, they need to be fixed by humans so they can then be used again. This is exactly what happened on the ISS, as astronauts Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano were given the job of going on a spacewalk to fix the coolant pumps on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. The cosmic ray detection instrument was out of commission due to the cooling system failing, but since this past Saturday's spacewalk, the instrument might just be ready for use.

After the initial spacewalk, both astronauts decided to double-check the coolant system to make sure their work was 100%. To their surprise, there was actually a leak found in the cooling system, and after discovering this, the leak was repaired. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is valued at around $2 billion dollars and is designed to shine some light on what dark matter actually is and how it works. NASA believes that since the repairs have been successful that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer should work until the end of the ISS's lifespan.

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission rover has relayed some brand new images of the dark side of the Moon. These images are also high-resolution for viewers' pleasure.

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission recently completed its first year on the lunar surface, and also earned the achievement of being the first rover to travel the longest distance on the dark side of the Moon. China's lunar rover is called Yutu 2, and it recently relayed a new data set back to officials on the ground. Within this data set was a bunch of new high-resolution images that let us take a great look at the surface of the dark side of the Moon.

The date was released online by the Ground Research and Application System (GRAS) on Monday, January 20th. Some of the locations the rover managed to take pictures of including the Von Karman Crater, which is the same spot the rover soft landed on last year. Doug Ellison, who is the engineering camera team lead for NASA's Curiosity rover mission on Mars, tweeted about the data drop, saying, "Oh my god - the data drop is incredible :O". Ellison created galley of the images, that can be found here.

President Trump has just unveiled the logo for the Six Branch of the US military, with the new United State Space Force logo unveiled below -- and it seems it has had some serious influence from Star Trek, and that's OK with me.

Trump tweeted out "After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!" It has been a promise from Trump since 2018 and now we have the US Space Force created and its new logo finally unveiled.

Here's the new US Space Force logo next to the Starfleet logo from Star Trek.

NASA has encountered a slight problem with their Mars rover called Curiosity. The problem isn't a very good one either because Curiosity is refusing to move.

NASA has released a new report that reveals that Curiosity has temporarily stopped moving. So why did this happen? Curiosity is equipped with a series of safety regulations that have been implemented into the rover to ensure its safety when traversing the dangerous landscape of Mars. Curiosity measures the surroundings relative to its body before making a move, and some of these measurements are the current altitude, surrounding rock formation, slope steepness, etc.

Before any movement is made by Curiosity, all of these measurements have to be evaluated and deemed 'safe'. If one of these safety checks are calculated to be 'not safe' then Curiosity won't turn on its motor and remain still, which is exactly what the rover has just done. In the report, NASA says that "Curiosity lost its orientation" because "Some knowledge of its attitude was not quite right, so it couldn't make the essential safety evaluation". Curiosity relayed this information back to NASA, and NASA began forming a plan to inform Curiosity of its surroundings correctly.

DirecTV is now racing to remove a satellite from Earth's orbit because if the company waits too long the satellite could explode and turn into dangerous space junk.

In a report from Space News, DirecTV has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a temporary rules waiver so the company can bring down the Spaceway-1 satellite. In the FCC filing from DirecTV, the company explains why the spacecraft needs to be taken down immediately, here's a snippet of what was said; "In December, Spaceway-1 suffered a major anomaly that resulted in significant and irreversible thermal damage to its batteries.

The report continued, "Boeing, the spacecraft manufacturer, concluded based on all available data that the batteries' cells cannot be guaranteed to withstand the pressures needed to support safe operation of the spacecraft in eclipse operations; rather, there is a significant risk that these battery cells could burst. The risk of a catastrophic battery failure makes it urgent that Spaceway-1 be fully de-orbited and decommissioned prior to the February 25th start of eclipse season."

The Wuhan virus that is currently sweeping the news has been subjected to a bit of controversy surrounding the topic of what animals caused this virus to spread to humans.

The virus, which is called 2019-nCoV, is a coronavirus, and just yesterday, I reported on a research paper that claimed that the virus' most likely origin was snakes. Now, other scientists have said that the research team has no proof to make the claim that the virus' origin comes from snakes; instead, it should only be able to infect mammals and birds. David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, UK, says, "Nothing supports snakes being involved".

Paulo Eduardo Brandao, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo is currently investigating whether snakes can contract coronavirus says, "They have no evidence snakes can be infected by this new coronavirus and serve as a host for it. There's no consistent evidence of coronaviruses in hosts other than mammals and Aves (birds)." It seems that there is a lot of confusion towards what animal has caused this outbreak, and at the moment, no one really knows which animal it is. Only time will tell. For more information on this topic, check out this article from Nature here.

Google has helped out Janelia Research Campus with its recently released breakthrough in being able to map the brain.

Above is now the largest and most highest-resolution map of brain connectivity we as humans. The video was published on the Janelia website, and showcases a 3D model of 25,000 fruit fly neurons on a range of different cellular structures in various parts of its brain. So how was this done? The research team sliced the fruit fly's brain into extremely thin pieces and imaged those slices using electron streams from an electron microscope.

The team then stitched the image back together and created a brain map of the fruit fly. While this achievement might sound minuscule because the map is of a fruit fly and not a human - the achievement still harbors high levels of recognition as this is still a large step towards understanding the brain. Scientists can now trace individual neurons back to their source of functionality. It should be noted that a fruit fly has 100,000 neurons in its entire brain, while 25,000 is still small when compared to the total, it's still a big step forward.

China is currently under threat by a never-before-seen coronavirus, and as the virus is spreading around the globe, researchers think they have figured out what animal it has come from.

The virus, which is currently spreading in China, is called 2019-nCoV, and its a coronavirus. The virus broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the South China Seafood Wholesale Market. Researchers were quick to understand that the virus came from animals and then was being transferred 'human-to-human'. What they didn't know until now was what animal it came from.

In a new study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, researchers conducted a detailed genetic analysis of the virus and compared it to other known viruses, their origins, and their host species. What was concluded is that 2019-nCoV is a combination of coronavirus found in bats and another coronavirus of unknown origin. The researchers also found that the virus was most likely found in snakes before it made contact with humans.