Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 205

NASA has got the results back from their Parker Solar Probe flyby, and they have shined a new light on how space weather works.

Surprisingly, the results contradicted some expectations that scientists had regarding how solar winds behave. According to the results, there are flips in the Sun's magnetic field direction called "switchbacks", which can sometimes even point the winds back at the Sun. At the moment, the cause of these "switchbacks" is still unknown to scientists, but through the understanding of them, we could learn a deeper understanding of how stars are born.

Scientists were again shocked at the discovery of solar winds traveling at speeds that are "nearly ten times larger than predicted by the standard models", said Justin Kasper, principal investigator at the University of Michigan. Scientists also discovered that the Sun's radiation vaporizes dust particles at about 3.5 million miles around itself. The Parker Probe is at the moment suffering in terribly hot conditions, but scientists say the information that it is providing them is revolutionary.

SpaceX and NASA like to send some funny things to the International Space Station, but what's more amusing than a 'Robot Hotel' hitching a ride on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket?

NASA has announced that SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will be transporting NASA's 'robot hotel', or more formally known as the "Robotic Tool Stowage" unit. So what is this 'hotel'? The unit is designed to protect robots that will be working on the International Space Station when they aren't in use. Basically, this 'hotel' or more like a glorified garage for space robots.

Two robots have already got accommodation booked in NASA's space robot hotel. Both guests are called Robotic External Leak Locators or RELL for short. The name explains exactly what they are used for -- finding leaks on the external hull of the International Space Station. The robots have been previously used and stored inside the ISS, but since space inside the ship is the most optimal spot for storing, its better for work-flow and ease of storing to have them outside the station.

A comet called 2I/Borisov entered our solar system from a distant realm, and as it makes its way through our neighborhood astronomers have snapped some good photos of it.

A team of astronomers from Yale University located in Connecticut managed to capture some photos of Comet 2I/Borisov on Sunday, November 24. These photos were taken with the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and revealed to onlookers that the comet's tail measured in at about 100,000 miles long. To put this distance into perspective, that same distance is more than 40% the distance to the moon.

With a tail being that long, you'd imagine the size of the comet to be substantially large -- alas it isn't. Astronomers estimate 2I/Borisov's nucleus (center) to be just 1 mile in diameter. On December 8th, 2I/Borisov will make its closest pass to our Sun, then three weeks after that it will safely glide past Earth. Yale astronomy professor Greg Laughlin said, "Astronomers are taking advantage of Borisov's visit, using telescopes such as Keck to obtain information about the building blocks of planets in systems other than our own".

Astronomers have stumbled across a black hole that is so damn large that they are perplexed at how it even exists.

Just this past Thursday, astronomers managed to find a black hole that is so big that it challenges our current models of black holes. The black hole called LB-1 is 15,000 light-years from Earth and measures in at a mass of 70 times greater than the Sun. Astronomers have said that this black hole is twice as massive as anything scientists thought to be possible.

According to Liu Jifeng, a National Astronomical Observatory of China professor who led the research, "Black holes of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy, according to most of the current models of stellar evolution". Generally, scientists and astronomers believe there are two types of black holes. First, of which are stellar black holes, these are more common, up to 20 times more massive than the Sun and form when a star collapses in on itself.

Scientists have managed to create the first-ever device that can program either photons or electrons with information.

Harish Bhaskaran's Advanced Nanoscale Engineering research group at the University of Oxford, partnered with other research universities, has conceived the first-of-a-kind electro-optical device. This device paves the way forward for achieving faster and more energy-efficient memories and processors. For some time, humans have been toying with the idea of being able to transfer information at the speed of light, now that idea is within reach.

This device uses light to encode as well as transfer information, which means that the speed of which the information is traveling is that of -- light. So how did the researchers do this? Originally there was a compatibility issue between photons and electrons being used for data storage. So, the researchers reduced the size of the light down into nanoscopic dimensions and combined that with an increase in energy density. For a more detailed explanation, visit this link here.

If you are aboard the International Space Station (ISS) the last thing you want to have to do is to wear an adult diaper to relieve yourself. Unfortunately, that's what astronauts are going to have to do in the near future.

According to the Sputnik Insight Twitter account which tracks all news regarding the ISS, that "All toilets are out of order on the ISS" and that astronauts will soon have to be forced into using diapers in the near future. According to the Sputniknews website, there are two toilets aboard the ISS, both of which are Russian made.

The first toilet is located in the US module, while the second is located in the Russian one. ISS commander Luca Parmitano is reportedly informing NASA that the US toilet is singling that its out of order and not working, while the Russian one is reportedly filled to the maximum. NASA has since said that the US module toilet is 'operational', but we are yet to confirm if this is true or not. This situation seems sh*tty, hopefully it's worked out soon.

When you go and think about places in public that would be coated in everyone's germs, what's the first place you think of? I think of public bathroom door handles.

I'm probably not alone in doing this, but when I'm at a public bathroom, I will try to completely avoid touching the entrance and exit door handle, as I know it's covered in everybody's germs. Luckily, my problem could soon be solved as two students out of China have managed to create a self-cleaning door handle.

The door handle uses ultraviolet light to keep itself germ-free. It has aluminum handles at either end and a thin layer of titanium dioxide covering the glass. When the ultraviolet light is enabled, it triggers a chemical reaction that kills off 99.8% of the germs present. How does the UV light turn on? Easy. The two graduate students thought of that and equipped the door handle with a small generator that uses the kinetic energy of the door opening and closing to power itself. What an incredible invention!

Colonization of other planets may have just hit a speed bump, as a new study has indicated that humans in microgravity environments have their gut severely affected.

According to a new study by biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside, humans that are induced in simulated microgravity, such as spaceflights, have been found to have disrupted the functioning of their epithelial barrier. The epithelial barrier is a bunch of cells that line our intestines and stop any bacteria, fungi, or viruses from spreading throughout our body.

Declan McCole, a professor of biomedical sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, who led the study, said "Our findings have implications for our understanding of the effects of space travel on intestinal function of astronauts in space, as well as their capability to withstand the effects of agents that compromise intestinal epithelial barrier function following their return to Earth."

Originally, astronomers believed that the galaxy NGC 6240 was a result of two galaxies merging together. Recently that theory has been thwarted with newly discovered information.

Astronomers are observing NGC 6240, which is located about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. For quite some time, astronomers have been confused by this galaxy, but recently a new study has been conducted using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT,) along with the advanced 3D MUSE Spectrograph. This study has shone a new light on NGC 6240, revealing to researchers that the galaxy isn't a result of two colliding galaxies, but instead three.

The most surprising part is that originally, astronomers believed there to be two black holes located at the heart of NGC 6240 (the two galaxies). But after the recent study was finished, astronomers have now discovered that there are three supermassive black holes there, marking the first time ever that astronomers have discovered such a large concentration of them. Dr Peter Weilbacher of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) said, "Up until now, such a concentration of three supermassive black holes had never been discovered in the universe. The present case provides evidence of a simultaneous merging process of three galaxies along with their central black holes."

The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad is playing around with using robot dogs in the line of fire, leasing out the autonomous Spot robot from Boston Dynamics in some new trials.

Radio station WBUR and the ALCU are reporting that the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad borrowed Boston Dynamics' Spot robot dog, using the AI-driven bot between August and November. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad won't exactly explain what they used Spot for, but did note it was used as a "mobile remote observation device" that kept an eye on devices and specific locations.

Could we see a gun-toting robot dog in the future, given that the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad are testing Boston Dynamics scarily good technology? No. Boston Dynamics have a specific license in place that restricts Spot from being used for any task or job where it would "harm or intimidate people". As an AI-powered quick-moving surveillance and diagnostics device? Perfect.

A new technique of saving lives has been successfully implemented on a patient; the technique involves almost freezing the patient to give surgeons more time to operate.

This new medical technique is called emergency preservation and resuscitation or (EPR) for short. At the moment its being applied at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore to patients who are arriving in critical conditions. Examples of patients who are receiving the treatment are those who have suffered gunshot or stab wounds and arrive in a cardiac arrest state. ERP is introduced to these patients if their situation indicates they only have minutes to live and need an immediate operation.

Here's how it works. EPR replaces a patient's blood with ice-cold saline cooling their body temperature to anywhere between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. After these temperatures are reached, the patient is then unplugged from the system and quickly moved to the operating table, giving doctors and surgeons 2 hours to work on the patient before his/her body reheats. How come this works? Since the body and the brain are cooled down, all chemical reactions are brought to a near-stop, meaning the brain requires less oxygen to survive, giving the surgeons more time to operate without brain damage occurring.

Back in July, China's Longjiang-2 satellite was launched to the Moon, unfortunately, we now believe that that satellite has created a new impact crater on the surface of the Moon.

China launched the Longjiang-2, which is designed to work with its counter-part Longjiang-1 to confirm low-frequency radio astronomy observations. Now, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or LRO for short, has identified a new impact crater on the moons surface, its believed that this impact crater is from China's satellite.

According to Mark Robinson, the leader of the LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) located at Arizona State University, a new lunar crater has been found within the Van Gent crater. The researchers were able to determine this by careful comparisons of old LROC images of the surface of the Moon in the same area versus the new ones. According to Robinson's measurements, "we are fairly confident that this new crater formed as a result of the Longjiang-2 impact". For those wondering how big the crater is, it's estimated that it measures in at 13 feet by 16 feet in diameter.

For quite some time, physicists have been basing their theories off four fundamental forces of nature, but what if we are on the verge of adding one more force of nature into the mix?

Scientists are currently collating evidence to support the theory that there is, in fact, a fifth force of nature that has yet to be detected and that this new force of nature could help explain the extremely mysterious dark matter. This new force of nature dates back to 2016 when the first study was published where findings supported the claim that there is a fifth force. The team behind this study were looking for "dark photons" which are believed to be "carrying" dark matter. To try and see these "dark photons" the researchers used a particle accelerator to shoot particles through a vacuum and observed the reaction.

The researchers closely monitored beryllium-8, an unstable isotope, and found unexpected light emissions that were against the law of conservation of energy. Researchers out of the University of California, Irvine, said that this unknown particle was not a dark photon but instead a boson. A boson is a particle in quantum mechanics that acts as the "glue" that holds matter together. Bosons are present with each of the four fundamental forces of nature, meaning that if researchers suggest that this unknown particle is a boson -- we have a new fifth force of nature.

Everyone wants to know if we are alone in the universe, or if there was some form of life outside of our moderately-sized blue planet. Perhaps there was, and we already have the photos.

Entomologist, William Romoser gave an extensive presentation on his analysis of NASA's Mars rover images this past Tuesday. Romoser claimed throughout the presentation that through his analysis of the images, he can provide evidence to support that life was once and still is present on our red neighbor. Looking at the above image, Romoser says, "Once a clear image of a given form was identified and described, it was useful in facilitating recognition of other less clear, but none-the-less valid, images of the same basic form."

Romoser claims from the images that reptiles and other insect-like forms of life were once on the red planet, and that NASA's rover images are evidence of that. Romoser also says, "There has been and still is life on Mars. There is apparent diversity among the Martian insect-like fauna which display many features similar to Terran insects that are interpreted as advanced groups - for example, the presence of wings, wing flexion, agile gliding/flight, and variously structured leg elements."

Soft Robotics just took a step forward into the future with a new advancement that sees the development of stretchable skin-like robots.

This new technology has been published in Soft Robotics and has come out of the University of Bristol. The difference between 'soft robots' and normal robots is that soft robots can adapt to their environment by stretching and shifting design, while normal robots are much more ridged. Up until now, researchers have had to choose between the soft robots' ability to move and its ability to be able to grip onto surfaces.

Now, researchers from the University of Bristol have taken large inspiration from biological life such as slugs and snails and developed a new robotic skin that can do both. This new robotic skin can crawl across surfaces by the new artificial muscles that researchers have developed for it and grips to surfaces using electrical charges. The new invention has been titled ElectroSkin, and it's so stretchable that it can be compressed down a normal pants pocket.

SpaceX is currently in the midst of testing its prototype Starship Mk1 vehicle, and with every good prototype you are bound to run into some complications.

During the Starship's max pressure testing that occurred yesterday in Texas, the next-gen spacecraft blew its top and erupted huge plumes of gas into the sky. Some pieces of the craft busted off the ship and scattered around the testing site. A spokesperson for SpaceX told The Verge that "The purpose of today's test was to pressurize systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected."

The spokesperson also said that "There were no injuries, nor is this a serious setback." While the above video might seem like its a massive problem, SpaceX is assuring the public that this is no set back and is routine testing procedure. Instead of repairing Mk1 and continuing ahead with that design, SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk has said on Twitter that they will instead move towards a new and more up-to-date design that the company had on the shelf.

NASA has said that the Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a look at the location of the most powerful gamma-ray burst ever recorded.

According to the post on the official NASA website, in January this year, a gamma-ray burst was detected by many of NASA's telescopes, and since then further study has been made by Hubble and astronomers. This gamma-ray burst was a trillion times more powerful than visible light, and just within the few seconds of the blast happening, it emitted more energy than the sun has provided over its 10 billion year life.

Andrew Levan of the Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics Department of Astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands said, "Hubble's observations suggest that this particular burst was sitting in a very dense environment, right in the middle of a bright galaxy 5 billion light years away. This is really unusual, and suggests that this concentrated location might be why it produced this exceptionally powerful light".

You might not have heard about Heliogen before, but you will soon if their new technology continues breaking barriers -- the Bill Gates-backed energy startup has successfully concentrated solar energy at "breakthrough" temperatures breaching 1000C (1832F), making it hot enough that it could replace fossil fuels in industrial tasks like producing cement and steel.

Heliogen is tapping AI in the form of computer vision to precisely align a bunch of mirrors to reflect sunlight on a single target, therefore concentrating all of the sun's energy into one point. Until now, this wasn't exactly possible and it's what Heliogen has done differently - and successfully.

At their commercial facility in Lancaster, California, Heliogen experienced what is just our first taste at the realms of replacing fossil fuels by using carbon-free, ultra-high temperature heat from the sun, transforming that sunlight into fuels. Before now, commercial concentration of sunlight have only reached 565C (1049F) -- but Heliogen's work here saw them hit 1000C (1832F). These temperatures are normally only reached by burning fossil fuels, making this a big breakthrough.

SpaceX seems to have just breathed life into its biggest rocket yet, the full-size Starship Mk1 vehicle. Are we ready to take off yet?

Perhaps not just yet, but the preliminary testing before take-off is underway. According to onlookers of the Starship testing at SpaceX's facilities near South Texas town Boca Chica, the Starship prototype entered a pressure testing phase. Above, we have a video from the NASASpaceflight YouTube Channel, who captured SpaceX employees working on Starship and then it's first-ever vent test.

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has said that the Starship Mk1 will be companies deep-space transportation vehicles and that the rockets used aboard the ship will be reusable to minimalize flight costs. Starship is 165-feet tall and uses SpaceX's biggest rocket yet, the Super Heavy. SpaceX recently got selected by NASA to work on the Artemis lunar program to design a lunar lander, check out that article here.

Since humans could see there were other planets nearby, we have always wanted to pursue these distant worlds, but what are the risks of traveling there?

NASA has recently conducted a new study on astronauts that spent some time on the International Space Station (ISS) and returned back to Earth. The study showed evidence of the human being affected by low-gravity, and more specifically, in the astronaut's upper body. The study looked at eleven astronauts, nine men and two women who spent an average of six months aboard the ISS.

NASA used ultrasounds on the astronauts and found that by the 50th day aboard the floating lab that seven of the eleven astronauts had a lack of blood flowing through their internal jugular vein. The study also found that the blood sometimes even went in reverse. For those that don't know what the internal jugular vein is, it's a vital vein located on the side of your neck that collects blood from the brain and face. NASA also found that one of the astronauts developed clotting in the vein while still in flight back to Earth.