Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 295

A landmass that once connected Britain to the continent of Europe has been pieced together by a team of archaeologists.

The landmass that was swallowed by a tsunami more than 8,200 years ago is called Doggerland, and now a team of archaeologists inspecting the area along the Dutch coastline has gathered enough data to piece together what Doggerland looked it.

According to a report from The Guardian, more than 200 objects from Doggerland were discovered by archaeologists, and those objects included things such as a deer bone that had an arrowhead embedded in it, fossils, mammoth molars, and a skull fragment from a young Neanderthal.

Astronomers find peculiar-looking things in the cosmos all the time, even to the point where a collection of the most strange wonders of the cosmos is compiled into a book for viewing pleasure.

The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a catalog by Halton Arp, and it's comprised of a collection of all of the strangest galaxies found. The Atlas was assembled in the early 1960s, and since then, astronomers have been finding more and more of these weird and wonderful galaxies. Our window to the universe, or more commonly named the Hubble Space Telescope, has been snapping images of these galaxies for the past 31 years.

Above is an image that was taken by Hubble, and it's of the galaxy Arp 195. As you can see, the galaxy is all warped and distorted, but why? Arp 195 is caught, literally, in a cosmic game of gravitational tug-of-war. Arp 195 isn't a single galaxy - it's actually a trio of galaxies all slowly colliding with each other. This slow collision and the gravity from each of the galaxies is causing what would be normal-looking spiral galaxies to become distorted.

A national park in Alaska has posted a very cool video of a "flying saucer" hovering above the water in a picturesque landscape.

The video was posted to the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Facebook page, and if you are already jumping to conclusions about it beings aliens or extraterrestrial origin, you would be wrong as this "sighting" can be easily explained. The Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Facebook page post explains that what is caught on video here is called Fata Morgana, an optical illusion that is seen within a narrow band on Earth's horizon.

The Facebook page explains, "Islands in glacier bay turn to UFOs or the flying Dutchman with a little imagination and a pinch of cool science! When air of different densities meet, the air in Earth's atmosphere acts as a refracting lens, creating the mirage effect we see. Cool, calm air often forms at the water's surface- then, if warm dense air pushes down on the cool air at the surface, a lens is created. This phenomenon occurred on a warm day (70F+) in Glacier Bay, but is not exclusive to summer months."

A massive meteor is slated to pass dangerously close to Earth this month, and according to researchers, you will be able to spot it if you have the right equipment.

The asteroid is named 2016 AJ193, and according to reports, it's estimated to be just under a mile in diameter and is traveling at a ridiculous 58,538 miles per hour. NASA has dubbed the asteroid "possibly dangerous". However, EarthSky has said that the asteroid won't impact Earth. 2016 AJ193 was identified back in 2016 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.

2016 AJ193 barely completes one orbit of the sun every six years, and according to NatureWorldNews, the asteroid won't pass by Earth for another 65 years. If you are interested in checking out the asteroid for yourself, you will need an amateur-level telescope and be stationed outside on August 23 around 11:10 a.m. If you are interested in reading more about this asteroid, check out this link here.

Researchers have found a fundamental link between the Moon, Earth's rotation speed, and global oxygen levels.

A new study published in Nature Geoscience has explored a connection between the Moon, Earth's day/night cycle, and the amount of oxygen that is being produced globally. Researchers connected the Moon's gravitational impact on Earth, which is causing the planet to slow down, to the rate of microbes use photosynthesis to produce oxygen.

Due to the days of Earth growing longer, around 1.8 milliseconds every century, these microbes were experiencing more sunlight overall and thus producing more oxygen. Based on fossil records, researchers know that Earth days were half an hour shorter 70 million years ago and only 18 hours in total 1.4 billion years ago. Since the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, the days will grow much longer with enough time, resulting in these cyanobacteria microorganisms having a larger window to photosynthesize and produce oxygen.

A new paper published in Nature Communications has explored the amount of energy Earth has absorbed from the sun and emitted into space.

The entire planets climate depends on many factors, but the main is the sun and how much energy it emits towards Earth. Earth also emits energy back out into space and this process of absorbing energy from the sun, and how much energy Earth is putting back out into space, has been measured by Princeton University researchers in an effort to explore the planet's future climate.

The researchers found that carbon dioxide emissions, methane and other greenhouse gases linked to human activities are responsible for the atmosphere containing too much heat, which leads the planet to absorbing infrared radiation that would have otherwise been released out into space. This atmospheric oven results in changes in cloud cover, sea ice melting and other environmental impacts.

Tesla and Neoen fired up their Victorian Big Battery at Geelong last Friday... but the Tesla Megapack battery caught fire during the test, and took 4 entire days to extinguish.

The fire itself started quickly after the test started, with fire crews attending and containing the blaze at first... but they weren't able to completely extinguish it, so there's no way of knowing what started it. The fire itself was contained to just two battery packs, and while the fire was contained there would be sparks that would re-ignite the blaze... for multiple days.

Tesla has of course not responded, with French renewable energy company Neoen responding to media requests. Louis de Sambucy, managing director of Neoen Australia said: "As previously advised, there were no injuries, the site was disconnected from the grid and there has been no impact to electricity supply. Investigation preparations are under way and physical inspections will commence once the CFA have completed their procedures".

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters explored the star labeled as LP 40-365, a unique fast-moving star.

So, what is LP 40-365, and why is it moving towards the edge of the Milky Way galaxy at such speeds? The fast-moving star is actually shrapnel from a larger star exploding in a supernova. JJ Hermes, Boston University College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of astronomy, said, "This star is moving so fast that it's almost certainly leaving the galaxy...[it's] moving almost two million miles an hour."

The researchers behind the paper say that observing LP 40-365 gives astronomers more knowledge on stars that have undergone a similar fate. The fast-moving star is described as "star shrapnel", and it's primarily comprised of metals, and while being some of the fastest stars ever detected, they are also some of the most metal-rich stars ever observed. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Blue Origin issued an official protest against NASA's decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract to construct a new lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis mission.

NASA told SpaceX to pause the construction of the new lunar lander until the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a decision on the protest. That decision was announced by the GAO on Friday, and the "congressional watchdog" stated that "NASA did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award," which was Blue Origin's entire defense in protesting the initial decision.

The GAO stated, "The announcement reserved the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award at all. In reaching its award decision, NASA concluded that it only had sufficient funding for one contract award. As a result, GAO denied the protest arguments that NASA acted improperly in making a single award to SpaceX."

A video of what appears to be a "shape-shifting UFO" has been filmed near a plane, but is it actually a UFO?

The video was uploaded to the YouTube channel Disclose Screen The Grimreefar, and the narrator of the video insinuates that the strange object seen in the video is a "shape-shifting UFO" or a "plasma-based alien lifeform" living in the upper atmosphere. The problem with this video is the assumptions made about the object that doesn't consider any established science.

Plasma is matter that is superheated to temperatures, so hot electrons are stripped away, turning into an ionizing gas. It cannot support carbon-based life as there is no atomic structure. Assumptions such as these and that any object that a viewer can't identify is an "alien UFO" may lead to people rejecting authentic videos due to how many fake videos they have seen. UFO videos need to be taken with a healthy amount of skepticism and the appropriate scientific method to establish authentic evidence.