Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 341

NASA astronaut and European Space Agency astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet have completed a second spacewalk to install an ISS solar array.

The completed spacewalk marked the second spacewalk in four days. Both missions were to install a new solar array the International Space Station (ISS) is being equipped with. The astronauts were required to install a 60-foot-long and 10-foot-wide solar array that will be upgrading the ISS's satellite power systems. As with most interesting things aboard the ISS, NASA recorded the entire spacewalk and published a timelapse video showing the process.

A NASA report explained that both of the astronauts successfully completed bolting in the solar array and connecting it to the station's power supply. The solar array installations won't stop here as NASA is planning on equipping another solar array very soon. Kimbrough and Pesquet are scheduled for another spacewalk to begin the progress of the second solar arrays installation on June 25. In total, NASA plans on equipping the ISS with six new solar arrays, which are all being transported to the floating laboratory via SpaceX's Cargo Dragon spacecraft.

Most people have experienced hiccups at some point in their life, and in some cases, they can be quite discomforting, depending on how long the experience goes on for.

What if researchers told you they had developed a new straw that cures hiccups instantaneously? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, that straw has been invented, and according to recent tests, 92% of people were cured of their hiccups after using the straw. The new straw has been patented as HiccAway and is called "the forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool" or FISST for short.

So what is it? The design of the straw is fairly standard, it's an L-shaped device that features a mouthpiece located at one end and a pressure valve at the other end. The straw is also equipped with an adjustable cap that goes into the end of the straw. As for the science behind it, the straw activates two nerves that are responsible for hiccups occurring, the phrenic nerve responsible for the activation of the diaphragm and the vague nerve for the swallowing action.

A team of paleontologists has discovered fossils of what they claim to be the largest mammal to have ever lived on Earth.

The discovery leads scientists to believe that the animal was actually a new breed of rhinoceros, but this one, in particular, was a giant rhinoceros dubbed Paraceratherium linxiaense (Linxia Giant Rhino). The skull of the Linxia Giant Rhino measured in at a whopping length of three feet, and if the rhino were alive today, it would be taller than 23 feet, weighing approximately 24 tons.

Using genetic analysis, the researchers were able to find out that the rhino would have lived around 31 million years ago in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Additionally, the researchers mention that the Linxia Giant Rhino is related to the rhinos that are living in Pakistan, and for the rhino to be discovered in Linxia, it would have had to cross the Tibetan plateau, leading researchers to believe the plateau was much lower in the past than it currently is.

Since June 13, NASA has been attempting to get its Hubble Space Telescope back online after a problem caused the telescope to enter safe mode.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in service for more than 30 years, and to say that the technology inside Hubble is old is an understatement. Now that old technology is beginning to show its age as NASA attempts to fix a glitch in Hubble's payload computer. NASA either tried to restart the computer on June 14 or to switch the telescope to its backup memory module. Both attempts failed on June 14 and June 17.

This isn't the first time Hubble has experienced an issue like this before. Back in March, NASA had to deal with getting Hubble back online after an error was spotted in the telescope's main flight computer. The payload system used in Hubble was created in the 1980s, and if failing such as the one that NASA is experiencing now continues, we could see a much greater need to get the telescope's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, up into space.

Approximately 85% of the known universe is dark matter, or at least that is what scientists believed until a new galaxy was discovered.

Previously it was difficult to believe that galaxies being conceived without any dark matter would be impossible, or at least incredible rare. But, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make a discovery of a galaxy that lacks dark matter, confusing scientists more about how galaxies are exactly born.

Zili Shen and Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University and Shany Danieli, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, was the team behind the study, and according to the study, the team measured the distance of NGC1052-DF2 (DF2) and found that it was 22.1 +/-1.2 megaparsecs. The results indicated that the galaxy lacked dark matter. Additionally, results from another study published back in 2019 found that a neighboring galaxy called NGC1052-DF4 (DF4) also lacked dark matter.

The United States Postal Service are issuing a new collection of stamps that feature NASA imagery of our Sun.

The new collection that will be released on June 18 are called "Sun Science", and all of the ten stamps feature imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The stamps were released in celebration of the study of heliophysics, and showcase the Sun at different wavelengths.

All of the stamps were designed by USPS art director Antonio Alcala, and the stamps showcase some of the most common events on the Sun such as solar flares, coronal magnetic ejections, sun spots and more. USPS explains on its website, "The Sun is the only star that humans are able to observe in great detail, making it a vital source of information about the universe. The Solar Dynamics Observatory lets us see the sun in wavelengths of ultraviolet light that would otherwise be invisible to our eyes. Each black-and-white image is colorized to the bright hues seen here."

Many people expect a massive unclassified report on UFOs or UAP's as personal military calls them to be presented to the Senate in the coming days.

We have been covering this story extensively, and the first journalist to break the story in The New York Times was Ralph Blumenthal, who has recently appeared on the Fade to Black radio show with Jimmy Church ahead of the report. According to Blumenthal, "Congressional committees were briefed on the issue of materials recovery", and that the "Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee" were briefed with slides that referenced "off-planet vehicles."

Some members of the Congressional committees that have been a part of this briefing have said that the information contained in the report isn't very exciting but does raise big concerns for national security. As I have outlined in a previous post, it seems the report will heavily lean towards emphasizing that these sightings of UAP's are a national security risk and that government bodies more so consider them to be constructed by some other nation rather than confirming extraterrestrial life existence prematurely.

Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos will be leaving Earth on July 20 in his New Shepard rocket, marking the first tourist trip with his spaceflight services company Blue Origin.

Bezos will be joined with his brother Mark Bezos and another person who bid $28 million to acquire the seat on the New Shepard rocket and has also kept their identity anonymous. While this launch will be a monumental achievement for Blue Origin, many people have signed petitions showing their support for Bezos to simply not return back to Earth.

One petition featured on Change.org has gathered more than 30,000 signatures and is still quickly growing. The petition's description reads as follows; "Billionaire's should not exist...on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there." Another petition that is basically the same as the first one that was created states has nearly reached 20,000 signatures and states, "Earth don't want people like Jeff, Bill [Gates], Elon [Musk] and other such billionaires."

The third-largest diamond in the world has just been discovered in Botswana, with the stone presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The diamond was found by Debswana -- a mining company that is jointly joined by the country's government and the De Beers Group -- with proceeds from the sale of the diamond to be used to "advance national development".

De Beers Group said in a statement: "Debswana will work with the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers to value and sell the diamond to ensure it returns maximum benefit for the people of Botswana. And will communicate further plans to bring this unique treasure to market in due course".

Amazon founder and space enthusiast -- and soon space explorer -- Jeff Bezos and his startup have backed a pilot nuclear fusion power plant that will be built in the UK by 2025.

Canadian energy startup General Fusion has said it wants to smash atoms together at temperatures 10x hotter than the sun, whereas traditional fission will split atoms. This means that the nuclear fusion plant will generate great amounts of carbon-free energy, without the worry of nuclear waste.

Christofer Mowry, the chief executive of General Fusion, explains: "Coming to Culham gives us the opportunity to benefit from UKAEA's expertise. By locating at this campus, General Fusion expands our market presence beyond North America into Europe, broadening our global network of government, institutional, and industrial partners".