Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 336

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."