Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 213

Scientists have observed a recent neutron star phenomenon and have deemed it a 'glitch'. It seems that computers and technology aren't the only things that can freak out for no apparent reason.

Researchers who published a paper in the Nature Astronomy journal observed a neutron star called Vela glitching out for a short period of time. For those that don't know, neutron stars a fast-spinning corpses of once giant stars, they harbor about 1.5 times the mass of the sun and are much smaller in diameter. These stars are known to "glitch" out every now and again, this 'glitching' causes the star to slow down its rotation speed, then speed it up and then return back to normal speed.

According to the paper, Vela's normal spin speed is 11 times per second but in 2016 it was caught speeding up. Researchers discovered that Vela's spin has three phases, the first being the slowing down of the spin speed, then the speeding up phase and then a return to its normal speed. Researchers have also tried to determine the components that cause these three phases to occur and ultimately the "glitch" to happen. The components are: a crust of ions connected in a lattice pattern, a roiling "soup" of neutrons inside the stars inner crust and a extremely dense core consisting of protons, neutrons and more particles.

For those that don't know, at the center of our Milky Way galaxy lies a black hole which we have named Sagittarius A. That black hole just had a strange anomaly that caused its brightness to spike 75 times more than normal.

The infrared flaring seen by astronomers is nothing like they have seen before, and astronomers have been observing Sagittarius A for about 20 years now. Astronomers used the Keck Telescope to observe the flaring and according to the scientists this flaring occurred for about 2.5 hours. At first, astronomers thought the flaring was caused by the neighboring star SO-2 which has an elliptical orbit close to the black hole, but that hasn't been confirmed.

An interview was held with ScienceAlert with astronomer Tuan Do, he said "The black hole was so bright I at first mistook it for the star S0-2, because I had never seen Sgr A* that bright. Over the next few frames, though, it was clear the source was variable and had to be the black hole. I knew almost right away there was probably something interesting going on with the black hole." At the moment scientists cannot pinpoint what has caused Sagittarius A to flare like this, further research will have to be conducted before a definitive answer can be provided. For more information and theories as to why the flaring occurred, visit this article here.

NASA scientists have finally captured the first viewings of something they have been searching for years, solar 'Interplanetary Shock'.

NASA launched their Magnetospheric Multiscale mission back in 2015, the goal of the mission was to observe and study how the Sun's solar winds impact the Earth's magnetic fields. In January 2018, NASA scientists managed to capture this space phenomenon using the four launched spacecrafts, this phenomenon was an interplanetary shock.

An interplanetary shock is the transferring of solar energy (solar wind), this phenomenon occurs when a faster patch of solar wind overtakes a slower patch, resulting in the previously mentioned energy transfer, or 'shock'. Since a first time recording of this transfer has now been captured and saved, scientists hope that with this new information that they will be able to develop a better understanding of how it all works, while also hoping to be able to capture other space phenomena.

Astronomers have stumbled across a brand new black hole discovery that has shocked and stunned scientists at the sheer size of what they have witnessing.

Astronomers have discovered a black hole sitting at the center of a super-giant elliptical galaxy called Holmberg 115A which is located about 700 million light years away. The black hole that is sitting at the center of this galaxy isn't the standard black hole, its actually about 40 billion times the mass of our Sun and has been observed by astronomers in Chile with the Very Large Telescope.

To put into perspective how big 40 billion times the mass of our Sun is, if this black hole was positioned where our Sun is now (at the center of our solar system) then its size would stretch out past Neptune and Pluto and into interstellar space. According to authors in the published paper, this black hole is "four to nine times larger than expected given the galaxy's bulge stellar mass and the galaxy's stellar velocity dispersion."

Jupiter is simply massive and due to its size and gravitational pull a meteor has collided with the planet and the explosion was so big it was viewed from Earth.

Since Jupiter is so big, it's gravitational pull captures a lot of space debris including meteors that are abundantly floating around space. Astronomer, Ethan Chappel going under the guise of Chappel Astro on Twitter viewed the impact of the meteor and said "Today has felt completely unreal to me. Hoping someone else also recorded the impact to seal the deal."

Another group of astronomers estimated the meteors size, saying that the object was 16.5 feet to 65 feet in diameter and that meteors of this calibre collide with Jupiter between one and five times a month. Above we have a gif of the collision and we can see the impact in the bottom left hand corner of the gif. If you happened to miss last weeks news regarding Jupiter, the Hubble Space Telescope took the best image we have of Jupiter now, check that out here.

Last week a video spread across social media of an explosion at a military facility, something that I saw myself but didn't have the time to sit down and write about it until now. First off, check out the video below which shows some pretty crazy stuff:

When I sat down to write this story I noticed it had been picked up by other media outlets, so I checked them all to see if they were showing the actual video of the explosion or simply reporting on it. Well, all I got were reports which make it seem much less severe than the video itself does. None of them have the video embedded.

Authorities have confirmed that the mysterious explosion at the Russian weapons testing range "involved radioactive materials". Rosatom, Russia's nuclear energy company, said in a statement on August 10 that five employees had died along with two military personnel.

NASA has released a brand new image from The Hubble Space Telescope showcasing what is now the best image we now have of the giant planet Jupiter.

From the image we can see Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot and the extremely chaotic atmostphere of the planet. The colors we can see on the planet showcase the different parts of Jupiter's atmosphere in action. From the distance we are at, we can see large bands covering the planets surface, these are ammonia ice cloud and the reason for them to be separated/different eachother is a result of various atmospheric pressures. Lighter bands have risen higher from the surface while the thicker bands represent more dense clouds.

The Great Red Spot we can see in the middle-right of the image is Jupiter's main attraction. Don't be fooled by the spots size, it may look small in the image but its diameter is actually larger than Earth's. The spot is actually a high-pressure wind system called an anticyclone and since the 1800's scientists have been watching it slowly downsize for an unknown reason. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is the largest anticyclonic storm in the entire solar system.

A brand new next-generation spacesuit prototype has been created and could be what astronauts wear when they are traveling back to the Moon or better yet, to Mars.

ILC Dover and Collins Aerospace have worked together to develop the next-generation spacesuit that could take astronauts far and wide in our solar system. The new suit is called 'Astro' and features upgrades across the board when compared to the spacesuit that astronauts used to land on the Moon. According to the announcement, 'Astro' was designed and built with future crewed space missions in mind, these include the planned lunar landing by 2024 and even the future Mars landing.

The new 'Astro' suit boasts a number of improvements for the user, including mobility, improved carbon dioxide-removal tech that allows for longer missions, improved motors, electronics, torso size/design and much more. The suit also comes with a "life-support backpack" that will regulate pressure while also providing oxygen and cooling for the user. 'Astro' can be used for both spacewalks and surface walks by simply switching its mobility configuration.

NASA's Curiosity rover is back at it again with another Mars discovery that could prove the existence of water on the Red Planet. This discovery is none other than a extremely good-looking rock.

While rocks are basically everywhere on Earth and us humans don't really pay much attention to them, NASA scientists are the complete opposite for rock discoveries on Mars. NASA's Curiosity rover is currently located in the Gale Crater and has recently discovered a new rock that could shed some light on whether or not the Red Planet harbored or still harbors water.

The rock has been nicknamed "Strathdon" and its features are scale-like which could suggest that Mars once had flowing water that eroded this rock at different periods of time. Each of the levels of scales have been estimated to be periods of time when Mars once went from wet to dry - forming a rocky layer that we can see above. Valerie Fox of Caltech has said "We're seeing an evolution in the ancient lake environment recorded in these rocks. It wasn't just a static lake. It's helping us move from a simplistic view of Mars going from wet to dry. Instead of a linear process, the history of water was more complicated."

NASA is currently in the midst of building their new rocket that will be taking some extremely lucky astronauts to the moon by 2024. That rocket is now having its final parts installed and the completion schedule is still on track by the end of the year.

A new announcement has come out of NASA, and this time NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine has invited US press to the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to view the rocket that will be powering NASA's upcoming Artemis 1 lunar mission. According to the announcement, engineers are currently equipping the Orion rocket with its final section to the core stage of the rocket.

This final section has been described by NASA as the most complex part of the building procedure and is actually the most complex core NASA has ever built. Regardless of its complexities, NASA says that they are still very much on schedule for it to be completed by the end of the year. The core's constitution is two liquid propellant tanks and four RS-25 engines, with this combination the rocket will produce more than two million pounds of thrust. NASA plan on landing the first women and the next man on the Moon by 2024.

If you thought by now we'd have flying cars, Moon bases and nanotechnology making us like Superman or something -- you know you're wrong. Your consolation prize? A robotic tail called the Arque.

Scientists from the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design have designed a robotic tail that makes us more of an animal-machine-human hybrid, and it could actually have a purpose in this world. The robotic tail was inspired by the grippy, curly end of a seahorse -- something instantly apparent.

The robotic tail uses spring-loaded joints that are connected to a vertebrae, packing pneumatic artificial muscles that run through the inside of it and allow for easy movement. An air compressor is used to actuate the muscles, which lets the robotic tail move in 8 different directions.

What is the universe? That question is currently being answered by numerous persons across the planet and a recent discovery of 39 ancient galaxies could add to the equation of answering that very question.

According to some researchers out of Institute of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo, a recent discovery has been made using The Hubble Space Telescope and has shed some light on some light on some pretty big questions in this scientific field. The astronomers have found 39 ancient galaxies that were around during the first 2 billion years of the universe forming. Even though The Hubble Space Telescope unlocked better vision into the cosmos, it cannot see everything and according to Professor Kotaro Kohno, "The light from these galaxies is very faint, with long wavelengths invisible to our eyes and undetectable by Hubble."

The discovery of these galaxies has led researchers to believe they will be able to get a better understanding of how dark matter is connected to the supermassive blackholes that are at the center of each of these galaxies. Researcher, Tao Wang said "This is the first time that such a large population of massive galaxies was confirmed during the first 2 billion years of the 13.7-billion-year life of the universe. These were previously invisible to us. This finding contravenes current models for that period of cosmic evolution, and will help to add some details, which have been missing until now."

NASA has used their Spitzer Space Telescope to capture an image of a distant galaxy, with this image scientists can now attempt to gather a better understanding of this galaxy works even though it will be challenging due to its angle.

The galaxy is called NGC 5866 and from the image that due to the way the galaxy is positioned we can only see its outer edge. This means we can only see a extremely small fraction of what the galaxy actually contains. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory new blog post, scientists are "Trying to learn about the history and shape of NGC 5866 is challenging due to its orientation. Our view of this galaxy is somewhat like our view of the Milky Way galaxy: Because Earth lies inside the Milky Way, we can see it only edge-on rather than face-on."

The blog post continues and says "But our proximity to the rest of the Milky Way has allowed astronomers to reconstruct what our galaxy would look like viewed face-on." A quick history lesson on the Spitzer Space Telescope: This space telescope has been in use for nearly 16 years now which is much longer than its initial mission time. According to NASA, they are planning on retiring the space telescope as it is only operational for a few hours a day since it requires huge amounts of time to recharge.

As humans we have no idea if there is life outside of our planet, but what we do know is that there is now at least some form of life on the Moon's surface and while it may not be alien, it certainly looks alien.

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed into the Moon during a failed landing attempt on April 11th, the cargo that Baresheet was carrying was human DNA samples and tardigrades. The lander was also carrying 30 million very small digitized pages of information about human society and culture.

If you don't know what a tardigrade is, it's a microscopic moss piglet that measure between 0.002 and 0.05 inches (0.05 to 1.2 millimeters) long. Not only are these little forms of life tiny, but they are almost indestructible as they can survive extreme temperatures of 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), and more than 300 F (149 C). They can also survive exposure to radiation and the vacuum of space.

Back in 2011, NASA launched their 'Curiosity' rover from Earth with the mission of landing it on Mars to scour the surface in search for new information. It now has been there seven years, and its still kicking about doing research.

The 'Curiosity' rover spent several months floating through space before safely landing Mars' surface on August 6th, 2012. NASA and Jet Proplusion Laboratory and giving 'Curiosity' a birthday celebration and by doing this we have learned where Curiosity is at the moment and what it is doing.

According to a new blog post, Curiosity is currently stationed in a spot known as the "clay-bearing unit" which is in inside the Gale Crater. The rover is currently using drills to get some of the soil, and with these samples scientists will be able to determine what the conditions of the crater were like long ago. Scientists know that Mars once had traces of what seems to be water, but it is still unclear if this water harbored any form of life whether it be microbial, or intelligent.

A new discovery has been made by astronomers scouring the observable universe, they have run into what has been called a 'time machine' that takes us back to some of the earliest stars when the universe formed.

According to a recent research that has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, astronomers from the Australian National University have discovered one of the first stars that formed after the universes Big Bang. Lead study author Thomas Nordlander, spoke out about this research saying, "We've found a time machine that takes us back to the universe's earliest stars."

Since the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, many of the stars that formed in the early days were gigantic in comparison to our sun. A bio-product of the stars being extremely big is that they are also short-lived. Once the stars decay to the point of their supernova explosion many of the elements are ejected into space, this is what astronomers search for and have recently found.

NASA has announced that they have received the first data dump from their solar probe they launched back in August 12th, 2018.

Since the Parker Solar Probe is designed to observe the sun and is currently caught in its immense gravitational pull, the probe can only send back data chunks at certain times. NASA has just received their first data dump from the probe and it's 50% bigger than what they expected. 20GB of data was downloaded from the first and second pass of the probe going around the sun.

Nickalaus Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager said "All of the expected science data collected through the first and second encounters is now on the ground. As we learned more about operating in this environment and these orbits, the team did a great job of increasing data downloads of the information gathered by the spacecraft's amazing instruments."

SpaceX is on the forefront of space technology and now they will be allowing for companies to hitch a ride on their prized Falcon 9 rocket for as low as $2 million.

SpaceX has announced a new idea "rocket rideshares" which allows for other companies satellites to hitch a ride with SpaceX's big rocket, the Falcon 9. According to the announcement, SpaceX is basically attempting to create an Uber service for satellites and will be charging patrons a low price of just $2.25 million for 150kg of mass.

SpaceX is planning on launching their ride share program sometime between November 2020 and March of 2021. After those initial flights are conducted, more flights will take to the skies on an annual basis - Q1 of 2022 and 2023.

Shaun The Sheep is one of the many childhood favorite characters of the 2000's, and recent news regarding our furry friend revolves around him completing his space training in preparation for a new coming movie.

The movie is called "Farmageddon" and its plot will center around an alien called Lu-La who has crash landed near Shaun's home at Moss Bottom Farm. Shaun recently completed his astronaut training last week in a special flight that simulates what micro-gravity would be like on Earth.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA) who assisted in the training of Shaun, "The flight was intended to prepare Shaun for his role as a space traveller in his new film. It offered him insight into the rigorous training that all astronauts have before their missions" In conclusion, Jan Worner, the director-general of the ESA said "We are very happy to have helped Shaun in his big space adventure". Shaun The Sheep will be launched in theaters in Germany on Sept 26th, Oct 16th in France and Oct 18th in the UK.

A new study on the impact craters found on Mars' surface has suggested that if the planet once harbored water, then it could have experienced a "mega-tsunami" that shaped the planet.

The new study has analyzed a meteor crater called Lomonosov, this crater is 75 miles deep and is the same height as the estimated depth of the ocean. This crater also strongly resembles similar marine impact sights on Earth, which has led scientists to believe that a specific impact site might of resulted in "mega-tsunami" that plowed across Mars' surface.

It should be noted that the scientists do caution that there is no definitive proof that Mars once contained water, or better yet, oceans much like ours billions of years ago. They say that more data would be required to be able to confirm that, but if that is true and the Lomonsov theory lines up with new found data, then scientists could truly be onto something in regards to the history of our neighboring red planet.