Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 205

A new study details the discovery of water vapor being present in the atmosphere of a planet that's a little bigger than Neptune.

The study comes from a team of astronomers at the University of Kansas, and according to the researchers, the exoplanet that has become of high interest to researchers is a gas giant called TOI-674 b. This exoplanet is believed to be 1.3 times the size of Neptune and has a close orbit with its host star. Due to the planet's orbit being so close to its star, completing a full circle of the star in just two days, researchers don't believe the planet is harboring any life.

However, researchers believe that analyzing the chemical makeup of an exoplanet's atmosphere can assist astronomers and fellow researchers in figuring out how planets form and how distant planets compare to planets located closer to home. Notably, this isn't the first time that water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere of another planet, as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapor on a faraway planet called K2-18b in 2019.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos may have a new competitor when it comes to who holds the crown for the world's richest individual.

Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the co-founder and CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has just jumped some places on the world's wealthiest individuals list. According to a report from Bloomberg, Zhao's latest net worth valuation is $96 billion, which places him under some prominent figures such as Oracle founder Larry Ellison at $109 billion and Steve Ballmer, LA Clippers owner, and former Microsoft CEO, at $112 billion.

Notably, Bloomberg writes that Zhao's $96 billion net worth is likely far higher as the valuation didn't include the earnings or Zhao's current cryptocurrency holdings. Binance gave a statement to Bloomberg that explained that due to the constantly changing dynamic in the cryptocurrency space, it's difficult to give an accurate estimation. Anyone involved in the cryptocurrency space understands this volatility that Binance is mentioning.

Reports out of China indicate that the nation is looking towards creating its own base on the moon that will rival plans set out by the United States.

A new report from the South China Morning Post states that the nation is moving towards building its own "artificial moon" that will simulate a low-gravity environment. According to the report, the artificial moon will be built in just a few months and will be used by researchers to test out any equipment or tools that may perform differently in a low-gravity environment.

Notably, the artificial moon will measure in at just 60 centimeters in diameter, and while that is very small compared to the actual moon, it will still provide researchers and engineers a suitable testing environment. The artificial moon and the low gravity on it are slated to be created by placing the moon in a vacuum chamber that simulates space. The gravity will be simulated with a strong magnetic field.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is responsible for the new map.

DESI was installed on the Mayall telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the Sonoran Desert and aims to achieve a better understanding of dark energy, the force hypothesized to drive the universe's expansion. Using a two-dimensional map of the universe released in January 2021, the DESI team prepared DESI to conduct its three-dimensional survey of the universe.

DESI's survey has created a map that contains over 7.5 million galaxies, far exceeding the approximately 930,000 galaxies comprising the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from 2008. DESI will expand this map, and the team expects the survey to be completed by 2026 after observing an estimated 35 million galaxies.

The World Economic Forum has released The Global Risks Report 2022 , with one of its seven chapters dedicated to space, entitled "Crowding and Competition in Space."

The report cites concerns such as Kessler Syndrome, which could arise from ever-increasing satellite numbers in orbit around Earth. The situation could get dramatically worse a lot sooner as military or defense-oriented presence increases. Another potential issue is how the governments and private companies may violate the United Nations' Outer Space Treaty, as some are concerned the Artemis Accords will.

The report also addresses the lack of effective governance tools for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the governing body for space-based activity, to manage the evolving reality of space affairs. It states the pressing need for an authority that governs satellite launches and servicing and can control space traffic, enforcing various aspects of space travel.

A world-first study on the problem has been published in Nature Medicine.

Fourteen astronauts were studied over their six-month space missions, having direct measurements of their red blood cells taken. The study found that the astronauts lost 54% more red blood cells in space than they would otherwise on Earth, about 3 million per second being created and destroyed compared to only 2 million on Earth. The same result was observed for both female and male astronauts.

"Space anemia has consistently been reported when astronauts returned to Earth since the first space missions, but we didn't know why. Our study shows that upon arriving in space, more red blood cells are destroyed, and this continues for the entire duration of the astronaut's mission," said lead author Dr. Guy Trudel, a rehabilitation physician and researcher at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa.

The sweltering record temperature was recorded in the town of Onslow in Western Australia.

Reaching a temperature of 50.7 degrees Celsius (123.26 degrees Fahrenheit) according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the temperature equals Australia's hottest day on record. It is the hottest recorded temperature for Western Australia.

The temperature was last recorded on January 2nd, 1960, at Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia. The country's Climate Council warms these temperatures could become commonplace as global warming continues, with Dr. Martin Rice stating the record cones as "part of a long-term warming trend driven by the burning of coal, oil, and gas."

The new study discussing the threat was published in the journal Biological Reviews.

Five major extinction events have been identified in the history of life on Earth. The five events are the Ordovician-Silurian, Late Devonian, Permian-Triassic, Triassic-Jurassic, and the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction events. Scientists suggest a sixth, Holocene extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is now underway, threatening global biodiversity.

Biologists from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, extrapolated land snail and slug estimates to determine that between 7.5% and 13% of the two million identified species on Earth could already be extinct. The extinction rates are not equal across all ecosystems, with marine species somewhat less affected despite their own significant threats.

LG has just announced that its launched the world's first commercial service robot, with the introduction of its CLOi ServeBot robot for the US market. The video below is from CES 2021, check it out:

The new semi-autonomous robot will be perfect for restaurants, retail stores, hotels, and more with LG building it for "complex commercial environments". LG's new CLOi ServeBot robot stands at 53 inches tall, has 11 hours of operation on a single charge, and handles up to 66-pound loads. It won't be chasing you down because your credit card was declined, as the CLOi ServeBot has a top speed of just 2.2 mph.

LG's new CLOi ServeBot robot can be tweaked to work on a number of floors, with LG saying "enabling precise multi-point deliveries ranging from densely packed restaurants to sprawling office complexes". There are a bunch of sensors and cameras on the CLOi ServeBot that stops the robot from hitting walls, staff, and customers.

As a resident of South Australia and a big fan of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, the news that they're building a black box just south of me in Tasmania is both awesome, and alarming.

What we will know as Earth's Black Box will be a huge 10m x 4m x 3m steel monolith that Kubrick would be proud of, and will be built on a remote outcrop on the west coast of Tasmania. Earth's Black Box will be made from 7.5cm thick steel, cantilevered off granite, according to co-founder of artistic collective the Glue Society, Jonathan Kneebone.

As for what data it will be collecting: "It will collect measurements of land and sea temperatures, ocean acidification, atmospheric CO2, species extinction, land-use changes, as well as things like human population, military spending and energy consumption. And it will collect contextual data such as newspaper headlines, social media posts, and news from key events like Conference of the Parties (COP) climate change meetings".