Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 27

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope snapped an image of a Cosmic Christmas Bauble located 10,000 light years away from Earth.

The space agency has taken to its website to share the newly snapped image of the Cosmic Christmas Bauble, explaining that the astronomical object is more commonly referred to as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). NASA writes that Cas A is the remnants of a supernova explosion and is located in the constellation Cassiopeia.

This object is the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky and has been well-documented across the wavelength spectrum. However, despite previous observations, researchers are still discovering secrets within the star's remains.

A team of researchers at Northwestern University has developed tiny VR goggles for mice, which are designed to simulate overhead threats while mapping the brain activity of the rodent.

The researchers behind the project have put forward the goal of developing a virtual reality device that is capable of monitoring the brain activity of mice while they think they are under threat. The new virtual reality goggles are part of the quest to understand the brain activity of mice, both outward physical responses and inward responses through neural activity, to what is being displayed on the screen.

The results of the study were published in the journal Neuron on Friday and explain that, unlike conventional human-designed VR headsets where the entire device is worn, the team of researchers instead placed the Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (or iMRSIV) goggles right in front of the mouse while it was on a treadmill. The goggles take up the entire peripheral vision of the mouse and, according to the researchers, the mice involved in the study took to the method much more quickly than past attempts.

One of the most iconic stars in the night sky will vanish out of sight today, as astronomers have tracked an asteroid that will be passing right in between our line of sight of the star.

That star is Betelgeuse, and it's the 10th brightest star in the night sky. Reports indicate that Betelgeuse will vanish for 12 second in what is considered an "ultra rare eclipse" caused by the asteroid 319 Leona passing directly in front of it.

Notably, the eclipse will be seen from Earth, and according to The International Occultation Timing Association a ring of fire will appear through its main path across Asia and southern Europe. The event will only be visible for a short time, which means its recommended to plan your day if you desire catching it. For those that won't be able to see the ring of fire event by going out their back door, you can tune into the Virtual Telescope Project that will be hosting a livestream that begins at 8:00 p.m EST on December 11.

A group of scientists discovered a region of Earth that has previously gone undocumented, and within this region is a unique ecosystem that may be a window for researchers to look back 3.5 billion years to the state of life on Earth.

The previously undocumented region is located in a remote Argentina desert at an altitude of more than 12,000 feet. The team of researchers that discovered it caught glimpses of the terrain through satellite images and decided to pack up a car, drive as far as the road would take them, and then, when the road finished, walk to what now appears to be a prehistoric world of its own.

The researchers discovered a series of lagoons surrounded by salt flats that are home to microbial communities of stromatolites. These stromatolites are created by cyanobacteria, formerly known as blue-green algae, and a photosynthesizing bacteria that grows alongside minerals to create unusual rock formations over time. Researchers described this region in Argentina as the "best modern examples of the earliest signs of life on Earth".

A team of scientists has caught a giant deep sea creature on film that resides at a depth of the ocean where sunlight can't even reach.

The only natural light source at depths of 3,300 to 13,100 feet is bioluminescence or organisms that produce their own light source. While that just simply won't do for researchers, robots are equipped with torches to see in extreme darkness.

Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute took their remote-operated research vessel called Falkor to Costa Rican waters, where they descended to the "midnight zone" and captured rare footage of a giant phantom jelly - an animal scientists know very little about, per the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The Schmidt Ocean details the discovery in an X post where it states this giant phantom jelly has four tentacles that can grow up to 10 meters in length (33 ft) a 3.28-foot-long pulsing, umbrella-like bell.

The iconic Harry Potter invisibility cloak has been brought to life by a group of scientists who have unlocked a ground-breaking new level of optical technology.

According to several reports and the South China Morning Post, the new technology is called an InvisDefense Coat and is capable of hiding the human body day or night, specifically from security cameras that are being monitored by artificial intelligence. At a recent scientific event in Shanghai, China, Chu Junhao, a renowned physicist from Donghua University, took to the stage to demonstrate how certain materials can be invisible to the human eye, which generates an effect that is out of science fiction or fantasy.

The scientist explained that the new technology uses what are called convex cylindrical lenses, which are placed in a row across the sheet of paper seen in the above video. "Each vertical lens can shrink and thin objects parallel to it so that light can refract," Chu explained. Technology such as this has widespread application, and specifically in the military sector, as vehicles such as fighter jets could have the material placed on their belly, entire structures built out of it, and general stealth applications.

Rumors about the Nintendo Switch 2 continue to swirl around, as fans of the company are excited to see what the next console could entail.

There are a couple of rumors, and the first comes from a Korean News site, Chosun Biz, which has claimed that Nintendo is currently engaging in conversations about implementing "next-generation OLED panels" for the company's new devices. Unless Nintendo releases an entirely new device, it appears that the display upgrade is for the Nintendo Switch 2. The report claims that Nintendo is in talks with Samsung Display about supplying OLED panels on December 1, 2023.

An additional rumor comes from the known Samsung leaker @Tech_Reve (Revegnus) on X, which reports indicate has had a pretty good track record with accurate Samsung leaks. Revegnus took to his X account on December 4 and posted that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be coming out "early next year". Further rumors regarding Nintendo's new device include the adoption of an NVIDIA chip that enables DLSS support, 4K support, the company releasing a digital-only model that features an LCD screen, and a physical cartridge model with an OLED screen.

Elon Musk has officially started rolling out the new AI-powered chatbot Grok, developed by Musk's AI startup, xAI.

X has taken to its official X account on the platform to announce that Grok is now being rolled out to Premium+ subscribers across the United States. For those that don't know, Premium+ is the paid version of X, the social media platform formerly called Twitter, and it costs $16 a month, which gets you an ad-free experience on the platform, other features, and now Grok.

The new AI chatbot is powered by the generative model called Grok-1 and is trained on data acquired from the web that's as recent as Q3 2023. Additionally, Grok differentiates itself from other chatbots, such as OpenAI, as it also incorporates real-time data from X, which means the chatbot should be able to provide responses on posts occurring on X in real-time.

The future is upon us as a company is planning to open the very first mass-produced humanoid robot factory, designed to assist big companies with dangerous hauling, lifting, and moving.

The new facility will be the first of its kind in the United States and is slated to be constructed in Salem, Oregon. Agility Robotics is behind the project and recently sat down for an interview with Axios about the new facility dubbed "RoboFab". Agility Robotics is behind the humanoid robot called Digit, which is designed for warehouse work and is currently being tested out by Amazon. Ultimately, Agility Robotics has a goal of creating a "general purpose" Digit.

Notably, Agility Robotics has produced approximately 100 robots since it was founded in 2016, but it expects that once the new Oregon facility is completed, it will be able to eventually ramp up to 10,000 robots per year. So, how is Digit doing so far? Amazon is testing one in a laboratory in south Seattle and has said that Digit is able to move, grasp, handle items, move around the warehouse, and its size and shape are perfect for buildings designed for humans.

NASA has announced it is bringing back to life its iconic space telescope after it experienced a critical glitch with its gyroscope.

It was only a few days ago that the space agency announced that the Hubble Space Telescope had entered safe mode following the detection of a glitch with its gyroscope. The glitch resulted in Hubble sitting in safe mode for some days, and during this period, NASA officials on the ground analyzed the data and worked out the issue. Notably, the gyroscope on the space telescope measures the turn rates of the telescope, which plays a critical role in knowing which way Hubble is facing.

NASA has taken to its website to announce that Hubble's scientific operations are good to continue under "three-gyro control". Furthermore, NASA wrote in its blog post that ground teams performed several tests that led them to decide to operate the space telescope in a higher-precision mode when conducting scientific operations. Lastly, NASA writes that Hubble and its instruments remain stable and healthy.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that 25 years ago, on December 6, the first two modules of the International Space Station (ISS) connected, beginning the space station assembly era.

The space agency has taken to its website to give a brief summary of the events that took place to create what we call today the International Space Station. NASA explains that the two modules, Zarya and Unity, were mated during the STS-88 mission of the space shuttle Endeavour.

The space agency writes that Endeavour's Canadarm robotic arm grappled to Zarya, which had been in orbit for two weeks at that time, and connected it to Unity, which was stowed within Endeavor's payload.

At the end of October 2023, a new island appeared on the surface of the Pacific Seas off Japan, and now satellites have imaged its continuous growth.

The new island has been officially called Niijima, which translates to "new island" in Japanese. According to the University of Tokyo, the new island was caused by an underwater volcanic eruption that occurred on October 21, 2023, and then on October 30, magma interacted with the ocean water, producing a massive explosion. This interaction created massive rock chunks several feet long, with reports indicating some were hurled more than 160 feet into the air.

The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite snapped the below image of the new island on November 27, which shows the underwater volcanic activity is still proceeding. On November 27, the Japan Coast Guard took to X to share footage of the island being rocked by a following volcanic eruption, which is still ongoing. Notably, Japan Meteorological Agency's volcanic division expert Yuji Usui spoke to AP and said that the survival of Niijima may depend on its rock composition.

A new paper published on November 30 in the journal Science details the discovery of a planet that is more than 13 times as massive as Earth.

What is interesting about this planet's discovery is that it shouldn't exist, or at least according to the researchers from Penn State University that discovered it, as this massive planet is orbiting an "ultracool" star called LHS 3154, which is only one-ninth the size of our Sun. The mass ratio between the newly discovered massive planet and the star LHS 3154 is more than 100 times the mass ratio between Earth and the Sun.

The press release posted on the Penn State website states that the discovery of this planet orbiting the coolest and smallest star in the universe goes against current theories that would predict planet formation around small stars. Notably, this discovery marks the first time a planet with such a high mass has been discovered orbiting such a low-mass star.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a graph to his personal X account showcasing how far ahead SpaceX is compared to its competition on how much mass it has launched into orbit.

The graph was created by Bryce Tech, a mission-focused SETA contractor that applies analytics and engineering expertise to program management, and specifically, in this case, how much weight in kilograms has been launched to orbit and by whom. The graph shows SpaceX leading the pack by a country mile with 381,278 kg to orbit, or "upmass", with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) coming in second with 24,560 kg, Roscosmos with 17,475 kg and Northrop Grumman Space Systems with 8,051 kg.

The graph illustrates what Musk wrote in his caption on the initial X post, "SpaceX is tracking to launch over 80% of all Earth payload to orbit this year". Furthermore, the graph showcases that SpaceX is the global leader in transporting mass to orbit, and with bigger and better rockets on the way, such as the recently tested Starship launch vehicle, capable of launching 100 tons to orbit, the competition will find it very difficult to catch up.

Using data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, researchers have confirmed a massive, monstrous hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere, and it's spewing solar wind directly at Earth.

The surface of the Sun is constantly going through changes as the massive fireball powering life on Earth's magnetic field contorts, causing solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and coronal holes. Researchers discovered that a massive hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere starting on December 2, officially called a "coronal hole," and within 24 hours, it reached its maximum size of an astounding 497,000 miles wide.

Beginning on December 4, the massive coronal hole has been pointing directly at Earth, spewing fast radiation or solar wind in the direction of our planet. When the massive hole was discovered, space weather experts predicted it would cause geomagnetic storms in the Earth's upper atmosphere, which could potentially trigger radio blackouts and auroras closer to the equator. Initial predictions for the severity of the storm this coronal hole could cause were a moderate G2-level storm.

Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced it was hacked, and the personal data of 0.1% of its customers, or 14,000 people, were stolen.

However, that isn't the worst of the news, as the company has said that due to the hackers accessing those accounts, they were able to gain access to a "significant number of files containing profile information on other users' ancestry."

What was the number of "other users"? In an email sent to TechCrunch, 23andMe spokesperson Katie Watson confirmed the hackers were able to gain access to the personal information of 5.5 million people who chose to opt-in to 23andMe's DNA Relatives feature.

The world's most powerful space telescope, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, has honed its extremely sensitive instruments on a mysterious object millions of light years away from Earth.

The object in question is officially called AzTECC71, a dusty star-forming galaxy that dates back to the early stages of the universe, nearly 1 billion years after the occurrence of the Big Bang. Notably, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was unable to see the galaxy with its instruments, but follow-up observations from Webb has captured a faint image of the distant galaxy, revealing qualities that previously went unnoticed.

Webb has captured an image of one of the oldest objects in the known universe, and while that is exciting in itself, astronomers are more excited for the implications of such a discovery - stellar nurseries like AzTECC71 could be three to ten times more common than previously thought.

The project behind the world's biggest nuclear fusion reactor, which is a device that is designed to replicate the process that takes place within the fun, consists of a collaborative effort between 500 scientists and engineers, plus more than 70 different companies throughout Europe and Japan.

Achieving nuclear fusion is the process of combining two elements into one. The conditions on which to do this are tough and require a large six-story high machine that is capable of swirling plasma that is heated up to 2200 million degrees. Once the conditions reach the appropriate levels, fusion takes place between the elements, and heat and light are created as a result. Being able to replicate the process that takes place within the Sun would mean unlimited clean energy and would change the energy crisis globally.

However, it's extremely difficult to maintain the right conditions to make nuclear fusion take place, but researchers at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States achieved what is called "net energy gain," which means they were able to generate more energy than what it costs them to run the experiment. A critical step toward achieving a sustainable nuclear fusion reactor.

Meta has a problem with pedophiles on its platforms, as a new report from The Wall Street Journal has found instances where the algorithms powering the company's platforms have actually promoted pedophile accounts.

It was back in June that the WSJ and Stanford University worked together to find an underground pedophile network on Instagram. The June report revealed Instagram's algorithm was connecting a distribution network of underage sex content, which was promptly responded to by Meta, who formed a child-safety task force dedicated to solving underage sexual content on the platform. However, it isn't just Instagram that has problems.

The WSJ report found there are still entire Facebook groups that are dedicated to sharing content that sexualizes children, pedophile-related hashtags are abundant, and many other Facebook groups that are currently celebrating incest and sex with children. The WSJ report states it flagged these grounds to Meta, which responded to the publication by saying the groups weren't violating any of the platform's community standards.

A new study published in the journal Advanced Science details the creation of tiny biological robots that are designed to assist the growth of wounds and tissue and even help cure diseases.

The study details these micro-robots called "anthrobots," and according to the new paper, the researchers behind them have already been able to demonstrate their repair capabilities on damaged neurons. However, these tests were carried out in a petri dish and not within a human, where there are many factors at play.

While the demonstration has been limited to a petri dish, what the team has achieved is nonetheless impressive as the microbots were constructed out of human cells, meaning doctors will be able to take cells from a patient to make custom bots for that individual. Having the robots made out of the patient's cells reduces the chances of the body rejecting them.