Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 258

A team of physicists has managed to break the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded, and they did it with a quantum gas experiment.

For context, the coldest temperature that can be measured on the thermodynamics scale is -459.67 F, and for an object to reach that temperature, it needs to be stripped of all atomic motion and kinetic energy, which is currently impossible for scientists.

However, that doesn't mean researchers can't come close to absolute zero, as researchers aboard the International Space Station were able to record a temperature of 100 nanoKelvin or 100 millionths of a degree above absolute zero, per Interesting Engineering. The team, which now holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded, managed to reach a temperature of 38 picoKelvin or 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.

Scientists have uncovered a fossil of what has now been deemed as a new sub-species of ancient sea life that was alive around half a billion years ago.

The new study was published in the Royal Society Open Science journal and details a large predatory arthropod recently dubbed Titanokorys. The new sub-species measured at 19.7 inches, which was considered very large when considering that most of the life in the ocean at that time was about the size of a pea. Researchers uncovered the fossils of Titanokorys from the Kootenay Nation Park located in the Canadian Rockies.

According to co-author on the paper and evolutionary biology Ph. D. student Joe Moysiuk from the University of Toronto, "Titanokorys is part of a subgroup of radiodonts, called hurdiids, characterized by an incredibly long head covered by a three-part carapace that took on myriad shapes. The head is so long relative to the body that these animals are really little more than swimming heads."

Elon Musk's space transportation and communications company SpaceX will be deploying its Starlink satellites between Earth and Mars.

Musk was asked on Twitter if "Is Starlink going to be deployed between earth and Mars to improve communication for starship?", to which the billionaire replied, "yeah". So, what does this mean exactly? SpaceX will be deploying Starlink satellites between Earth and Mars to provide broadband internet connection that will improve communication capabilities with the world's tallest rocket, Starship.

Starship is poised to be the transportation that will one day take humans to Mars. However, before Starship transports humans to Mars, it will first be used to take humans back to the Moon. Musk has said that once all testing is complete for Starship, it's expected that it will be used to take humans back to the Moon "probably" before 2024. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Researchers are constantly searching the cosmos for star systems that have exoplanets that are similar to Earth, and now they may have found one.

Using the advanced Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers were able to identify signals from the planetary system called L 98-59. The star system is located just 35 light-years from Earth, which is relatively close in terms of space travel. The star system has intrigued researchers as its believed to contain new worlds that have similar characteristics and compositions to Earth.

According to Diana Dragomir, an exoplanetologist at the University of New Mexico, "There was quite some detective work involved, and the right people were there at the right time." Adding, "But we were lucky, and we caught the signals, and they were really clear." The observation has marked a milestone for TESS.

NASA's Perseverance rover has been exploring the Jezero Crater since it landed there in February, but now the rover has successfully taken its first two samples.

NASA's main goal is to discover any signs of ancient life once existing on the Red Planet, and the Perseverance rover is there to find it. To find signs of ancient life, Perseverance must take core samples from rocks, and from those samples, researchers will derive the history of the environment and whether or not it may have once had the right conditions for life.

According to Ken Farley of Caltech and a project scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated in a press release shared by NASA, "It looks like our first rocks reveal a potentially habitable sustained environment." NASA states that there were salt minerals found in the core samples and that these rock cores may have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water.

SpaceX will soon be taking a gallery's worth of digital art and one of the Kings of Leon's songs as an NFT to space.

The news comes from the Inspiration4 website, which states that payload aboard the Crew Dragon capsule will feature a Kings of Leon NFT. The song "Time in Disguise" will be played throughout the mission and will be the first minted NFT to ever be played in orbit. Additionally, there will be 50 other NFTs also aboard the Crew Dragon, all of which will be digital artwork of the band.

As for the Inspiration4 mission, SpaceX will be taking the Crew Dragon capsule into orbit for a three-day trip. The team that will be going up is Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. Kings of Leon said, "We're honored to participate in this historic journey in an effort to raise money for St. Jude, and we're sending all our best to the crew of Inspiration4." For more information on this story, check out this link here.

A new study available on the pre-print server arXiv has suggested that researchers have detected mysterious radio signals coming from a galaxy's center.

The galaxy is called ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and according to the astronomers behind the paper, the object that is causing the radio signals is "a highly-polarized, variable radio source located near the Galactic Center and with no clear multi-wavelength counterpart." At the moment, researchers aren't sure what is causing the radio signals that are being detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).

However, researchers do know that radio signals aren't consistent as the object emits radio bursts for up to weeks at a time before stopping all radio signals for up to three months. While the origin of the radio signals is yet to be uncovered, researchers write that "increasing the survey cadence and comparing the results of this search to other regions will help [them] understand how truly unique ASKAP J173608.2-321635 is and whether it is related to the Galactic plane, which should ultimately help us deduce its nature."

Researchers have observed for the first time a star consuming either a black hole or a neutron star, causing a supernova explosion.

Researchers performed a survey with the Very Large Array Sky Survey and noticed that there was a bright source of radio emissions coming from a star-forming galaxy located 480 million light-years away. Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author on a paper, said, "Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we've actually seen such an event."

Researchers believe that a star killed itself in a fiery supernova explosion, leaving behind either a neutron star or a black hole. As the years went on, a neighboring star was pulled closer and closer to the black hole or neutron star, eventually becoming consumed by either. The star being consumed was violent as all of its material was thrown out into the space around it, eventually reaching the core of the star. With no more fuel to burn, the star went supernova, shooting out a flash of X-rays that researchers detected.

Most people are sick of hearing about viruses after the events of 2020 and the current events of 2021. But, viruses may play a pivotal role in humans colonizing new planets.

NASA and other private companies are striving towards making the human race a two-planet species, with the end goal being to colonize Mars. That goal is not easily achieved as Mars is a baron wasteland that has an extremely harsh atmosphere, making it very difficult for humans to grow food, store water, and produce breathable oxygen.

Another factor that NASA and other private companies may not have considered is viruses' role in the web of life. According to Professor Paul Davies from Arizona State University's Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, "Viruses actually form part of the web of life. I would expect that if you've got microbial life on another planet, you're bound to have - if it's going to be sustainable and sustained - the full complexity and robustness that will go with being able to exchange genetic information."

The US Department of Defense has tweeted out a new video showing that its unmanned ship, the USV Ranger, firing an SM-6 missile successfully during a recent test. Check it out:

Back in 2017, the US Department of Defense kick-started its new program of getting at least two robot ships that the US Navy could use autonomously. The US Navy worked with the Department of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office, and became part of the "Ghost Fleet Overlord" program, giving me some Skynet vibes.

With a regular ship, there is a chain of command before the rocket leaves the ship for its intended target -- but for an autonomous Terminator-style warship, things are a little different. Human sailors in the US Navy (and other Navy fleets) must follow the Law of the Sea Convention -- the United Nations and its list of rules and practices countries agree on.