Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 337

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is moving closer and closer to finally being able to launch and reveal secrets of the universe.

According to Peter Rumler, the European Space Agency's (ESA) project manager for the JWST, the final mission analysis for the telescope has been conducted, and the telescope has passed. Rumler also says that the analysis confirmed that the telescope was fully compatible with the Ariane 5 rocket from Webb's launch service provider Arianespace.

"We are thrilled to have passed this important step towards the launch of Webb and to have received the green light from Arianespace and NASA", says Rumler. The Ariane 5 rocket will carry Webb out of Earth's atmosphere and disconnect itself from the telescope after it has successfully put in on its four-week journey to the second Lagrange point where it will be stationed. The second Lagrange point is located 932,056 miles away from Earth in the opposite direction to the Sun.

NASA has dropped another incredible image that was snapped with the Hubble Space Telescope, and this time we have an awesome display of the red, white, and blue.

The above image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, and is the open star cluster named NGC 330. This star cluster is around 180,000 light-years away from Earth and is situated in the Small Magellanic Cloud in the constellation Tucana.

As for the stars themselves, they are all roughly the same age, and due to the cluster featuring so many stars, astronomers are using NGC 330 to learn more about how stars form. Astronomers have observed clusters of stars forming differently when compared to stars located anywhere else, a phenomenon that was first discovered using Hubble.

Astronomers have announced that they have detected the very first merger of a black hole and a neutron star.

Due to humans not being able to see the merger happen with our naked eyes, a few videos have been published to show the public what happened visually. Firstly, a neutron star is an extremely dense object that is leftover remnants of a star that has gone supernova. As for a black hole, a black hole is also extremely dense, but they are a region of spacetime.

Black holes have such a strong gravitational pull that not a single thing can escape it - not even light. When a black hole consumes a neutron star, it gives off gravitational waves, which Albert Einstein discovered in 1916. In 2015, researchers in the United States identified the first gravitational waves using the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory when two black holes collided.

What is a white dwarf? Simply put, it's what stars such as our Sun become after they have expelled all of their nuclear energy.

Now, astronomers have located a white dwarf that has seemingly taken the cake for being the smallest yet most massive white dwarf ever observed by astronomers. The study was published in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature, and according to the study's lead author, Ilaria Caiazzo, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech, this white dwarf is "packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a body about the size of our Moon."

This white dwarf, like many other white dwarfs that have been discovered, was once like our Sun. The Sun will swell into what is called Red Giant in 5 billion years, and from there, it will begin to reduce in size and eventually compact down into a white dwarf. Phys.org reports that 97% of all stars become white dwarfs.

New evidence supporting the theory that Mars once had conditions to support life has been published in a study.

An international team of researchers has published a new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, and according to the paper, the team of researchers found evidence of glauconitic-like clay on Mars. While it may seem boring to everyday people, the discovery of clay is quite a big deal. Glauconite, an iron potassium phyllosilicate mineral, can only form in stable conditions over thousands of years.

Through their analysis, the researchers also found that the temperatures of Mars when the clay formed were between -3 (26 F) to 15 degrees Celsius (59 F). Additionally, the analysis revealed that the pH levels in the water that is believed to be in the Gale Crater were neutral. While all of this evidence points towards the right conditions for Mars to support life billions of years ago, it remains unclear how long that life would have lasted over time. Given that life was even there in the first place.

Right now, Hubble is fighting for its life as NASA engineers are working around the clock to bring the famous space telescope back online.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990. Since then, it has been at the forefront of space imagery, providing researchers and everyday people with incredible pictures of the cosmos. According to NASA, Hubble is still one of the space agency's most important missions and, from the scientific community's perspective, "the most powerful telescope available" despite its age.

Now, NASA is attempting to figure out the glitch that has taken the space telescope offline. So far, NASA has attempted to bring it back online four times - each attempt being a failure. If the problem cannot be solved, Hubble should be able to switch to its backup computer. However, if the switch to its backup computer happens, more problems could present themselves since the space telescope hasn't been serviced since 2009. Below you will find just some of the incredible images Hubble has snapped of the cosmos.

Sir Richard Branson is making big moves with his company Virgin Orbit as the company has performed its second successful satellite test.

According to Virgin Orbit's CEO Dan Hart, the company has successfully completed its second satellite mission for 2021 this past Wednesday. Hart has said that the company is now ready to begin "ramping up" and expanding its operations to a global scale. Here's what Hart said, "We're on a really good trajectory to have another flight this year, and then double that cadence and have six flights next year and then increase from there."

For those that don't know, Virgin Orbit is taking a different approach to rocket launches, as it launches its rockets on the back of a modified 747 aircraft named "Cosmic Gift" instead of from the ground like many of its competitors. Branson has said that the company's approach to rocket launches is "completely and utterly unique". Currently, Virgin Orbit is working on getting agreements in place to fly out/in from. Hart also revealed, "We can turn any airport into a spaceport".

It's very common for a person to think that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, but now new evidence has suggested the asteroid wasn't the only factor at play with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

66 million years ago, a space rock collided with Earth, causing mile-high tsunamis, fires, clouds of dust and sulfur that covered the sun, and more. The climate on Earth certainly changed after the impact of the asteroid, and it's currently believed by many researchers that the changed climate is what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. However, new research is breaking that current theory as it suggests that the dinosaurs were already on their way out and the asteroid impact was what just finished them off.

The researchers examined 1,600 fossils from 247 different species of dinosaurs and compiled those dinosaurs into six families. The researchers then measured how the species of dinosaurs in those six families diversified over time and found that across all six of the groups, the number of species of dinosaurs was declining 10 million years prior to the asteroid impact.

Back-to-back heat waves have added to the already dry soil and vegetation across 91% of the western US states.

The Western half of the United States has been in a drought since June 22, and on the horizon are heatwaves arriving earlier than usual which will only increase dryness and the chance of wildfires. Additionally, reports indicate that water levels in Lake Mead are the lowest they have been since 1930, as well as California's reservoirs, are down by 50% than they usually are for this time of year.

The western US has been experiencing a 22-year-long drought, and this coming summer is certainly going to be a part of that. Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that this coming summer will likely be the worst drought of the last 20 years. Here's what Cook said, "Even in the context of those last 20 years of drought, this year really stands out. For the Southwest, it's very likely to be the worst single year of drought since 2002."

NASA has been combating a glitch on the Hubble Space Telescope for many days, and now a recent discovery may solidify its unfortunate demise.

The problem arose on June 13 with an issue with Hubble's payload computer, which resulted in the telescope putting all of its instruments into safe mode. NASA researchers then performed tests on June 23 and June 24, but weren't able to bring the telescope back online. Engineers also attempted to use the backup computer to get around the problem, but the backup computer was experiencing the same error.

Currently, NASA's teams are working on resolving the problem through alternative routes such as the telescopes power regulator. NASA recently stated, "A power regulator ensures a steady constant voltage supply," said the agency in the Friday update." If the voltage is out of limits, it could cause the problems observed." Hubble has been in service for 31 years, and throughout its lifetime, it has contributed to some of the most significant scientific discoveries of our cosmos.