Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 333

Dashcam footage can be pretty useful as it can prove your case in the event of a car crash or even capture a meteor streaking across the sky.

Ian Dryhurst was driving his family in Jersey and was lucky enough to capture the latter. Ian and his wife and two sons noticed a "bright light" appearing in the sky, and then it streaked over the Channel Islands at 2.45 pm this past Saturday. Multiple people spotted the meteor and reported hearing an explosion-like sound. This 'explosion-like sound' is the sound of an object breaking the speed of sound.

Oxford University physicist Simon Proud took to Twitter to share satellite images of the meteor streaking across the UK sky. Additionally, Jeresey's harbourmaster confirmed that the sonic boom came from the meteor, and to back that up, the British Geological survey tweeted there was "no evidence of any seismic event" along with the Ministry of Defense saying the sonic boom wasn't caused by an RAF aircraft. For more information on this story, or if you would like to see the video, check out this link here.

Do you think you are on your phone too much? Well, if you do, this might be the best excuse yet for you to take a break for 24-hours.

A company called Reviews.org will be paying select volunteers who participate in the company's 24-hour digital detox challenge. According to the company's website, people who enter into the 24-hour digital detox challenge can be paid up to $2,400, but the challenge isn't as easy as just turning your phone off for 24-hours.

Participants will be required to not only abandon their phone for a day, but also televisions, gaming devices, computers, smartwatches, and smart home devices such as Alexa. The participants of the challenge will be given a safe to store all of their electronics in for 24-hours and a $200 Amazon gift card, so they put together a "survival kit" for the time without electronics. If you want to sign up, or read more about this challenge, check out this link here.

Many people would love to take a spacecraft to the Moon for a quick holiday, but with that trip comes significant cost, especially if you own a lunar home.

According to an article by Money.co.uk, financial experts factored every aspect of what it would cost to build a home on the Moon. The experts looked at energy costs and food costs and communicated with experts to get the most accurate idea about how much it would to own a home on the Moon. They found that a lunar mortgage will cost a buyer around $326,000 per month for 25 years, bringing the total cost of the loan to be over $62 million.

The financial experts say that the lunar mortgage loan price would fall considerably after the first lunar home is built due to the knowledge gained on how to build more lunar homes effectively. This would bring the lunar mortgage loan down from $62 million to $52 million. As far as land prices go, the Moon is incredibly cheap due to there being absolutely nothing there. Land prices cost roughly $20, according to recent price estimates. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

On Tuesday, a team of archaeologists announced the discovery of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments that date back to a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.

The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a desert cave near the Dead Sea located in Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s. According to the researchers, the scrolls date from the third century B.C to the first century A.D and include readings of some of the oldest biblical texts and documents that outline the Jewish sect's beliefs. As for the newly found fragments, they were found in the desert south of Jerusalem at Cave of Horror in the Judean Desert reserve of Nahal Hever.

Researchers believe that the fragments of the scrolls were placed there during the Bar Kochba Revolt, which was an uprising of Jewish people that armed themselves against Rome between the dates of 132 and 136 A.D. The archaeologists also found rare coins that dated back approximately 2,000 and a 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child that was mummified and what may be the oldest surviving basket made out of woven reeds in the world.

Most people don't really notice insects until they are being bothered by them, but many states across the US will soon become very familiar with this particular species of insect.

A new report from Science Alert has revealed that billions of one of the largest broods of 17-year cicadas will soon emerge from underground in a dozen states ranging from New York west to Illinois to south and northern Georgia. The cicadas will emerge from underground, and then for about four weeks, many people will begin to notice how annoying insects can really be with these bugs constantly whistling mating calls.

After the cicadas mate, the female cicada will lay hundreds of eggs in a small tree branch, then the eggs will hatch, and the cicada nymphs will fall to the ground, where they will then burrow underground to start the entire cycle all over again. According to Science Alert, the cicadas will begin to emerge from underground sometime between April and May. For more information about cicadas, and the coming storm of them, check out this link here.

Most people are aware that our time on Earth is limited, as the Sun will eventually run out of fuel and destroy itself.

Researchers have discovered through stimulation that Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere will expire before the Sun destroys itself. According to researchers from the Toho University and NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, there is evidence that Earth will lose it's oxygen-rich atmosphere in approximately 1 billion years.

The researchers published the paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, and according to Kazumi Ozaki, "We find that the Earth's oxygenated atmosphere will not be a permanent feature". However, Earth's atmosphere will have high levels of oxygen for quite some time before it begins to drop off to levels similar to that of the Great Oxidation Event that occurred around 2.4 billion years ago.

A meteor coursed through the sky over Vermont on March 7th, causing a series of Earth-shaking booms as it burned up by entering the atmosphere.

According to NASA Meteor Watch, the meteor flew through the atmosphere at speeds of about 42,000 mph, and appeared as giant bright fireball. As the meteor was entering our atmosphere it released the equivalent of 440 pounds of TNT, which suggests that the meteor was around 10 pounds in weight, and 6 inches in diameter.

A local news station reported that people were calling in, saying that they heard a "loud boom and body-rattling vibration" as the meteor passed. Chris Hrotic, a commenter on NASA's initial post about the event said, "I was fortunate to hear and see it by the Missisquoi River at the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, VT, just before sunset. No loud boom as reported by others, but a rushing sound that made me look up at just the right moment. It was extremely bright and absolutely spectacular!"

The militarization of space is ramping up with France starting its very first military exercises in space, ensuring it can protect its satellites in orbit from attack.

France recently announced its new Space Command, with Michel Friedling as its head, who said the space-based military exercise is a "stress test of our systems" and that the exercise "were a first for the French army and even a first in Europe". He also told reporters in Toulouse in southwest France at Space Command HQ: "A series of events appear and create crisis situations or threats against our space infrastructure, but not only this".

The military exercises in space started this Monday, and will run all week through to Friday. As for France's own Space Command, the space-based arm of its military was announced in 2019 and is said to have staff topping 500 by 2025. Defence Minster Florence Parly said at the time of announcing Space Command: "Our allies and adversaries are militarising space... we need to act".

Scientists have been left "speechless" after a man discovered something "mind-blowingly" rare scattered on his driveway.

A man from the UK heard a "rattling noise" outside of his house, and when he woke up the next morning and went outside, he was surprised to see meteorite fragments all over his driveway. Being the kind samaritan he is, the man picked up all of the pieces of meteorite and took them to the Natural History Museum for researchers to look at them.

Professor Sara Russell, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, said she was "speechless with excitement" and, "There are about 65,000 known meteorites in the entire world, and of those only 51 of them are carbonaceous chondrites that have been seen to fall like this one." Another researcher, Dr. Ashley King, said the man did a "fantastic job" collecting the fragments considering he had no idea what it actually was at the time.

Researchers and scientists have issued a warning for an infectious disease that they say is currently on the rise.

The infectious disease is called diphtheria and was previously thought to nearly be vanquished, but it is now making a return as new cases have been increasing over the years. The infectious disease is caused by strains of the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheriae and is spread much like COVID-19 by respiratory droplets, and in some cases, skin contact.

Symptoms of diphtheria include a sore throat and mild fever. However, within a few days, the toxins that the bacteria produces can kill off many cells in the infected person's throat, which can cause a buildup that makes it difficult for the person to breathe. Additionally, people infected with diphtheria can develop a swollen "bull neck" due to the swollen lymph nodes. Most shockingly, if the infection is left untreated the toxin can make its way into the bloodstream, causing significant internal damage that kills about half of people that are infected.