Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 36

Two miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a team of researchers discovered a mysterious golden orb embedded into a sea structure.

A new report from The Miami Herald discusses a recent discovery by National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) researchers who were exploring an underwater volcano two miles below the surface off the coast of Alaska. While mapping the ocean floor with a remote-controlled vehicle, the team found a mysterious golden orb, and during the livestream, you can hear the scientists begin to speculate what it could be.

Additionally, and probably the most shocking aspect of the discovery was the observation that a hole was present in the orb, leading researchers to speculate that something tried to get in or tried to get out. After many jokes about what the orb could be, the team decided to take a DNA sample to take back to the laboratory and hopefully determine the orb's origin. As the robotic arm from the vehicle was moving closer to the orb, a scientist could be heard saying, "I just hope when we poke it, something doesn't decide to come out."

The four astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that are scheduled to return to Earth will need to wait at least one more day before they make the trip back to our planet's surface.

Announcements from both NASA and SpaceX have revealed that the Crew Dragon capsule currently docked at the International Space Station will remain there until at least September 3, as bad weather conditions prevented its departure with the four astronauts. The delay means the scheduled splashdown of the four astronauts will be just after midnight on Monday morning instead of the original departure on Saturday.

NASA took to its blog on its official website to explain that unfavorable weather conditions just off the coast of Florida are a result of the delay and that the next undocking opportunity is no earlier than 7:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday, September 3, with a splashdown no earlier than 12:07 a.m. on Monday, September 4. However, the aforementioned estimates are dependent on the weather conditions at the time and may be subject to further delays. For more information on the return flight, check out NASA's official website here, or SpaceX's X account.

China has recently pieced together its new three-module space station called the Tiangong space station, and now a company has shown the public how it was constructed.

HEO Robotics, an Australian-based company that focusses on using space-based sensors to image objects of interest within Earth's orbit has pointed those sensors at China's newly constructed Tiangong space station. The firm released a collection of images that were turned into a short video that showcases how each of the individual modules came together to form the new floating laboratory.

The Pentagon has launched a website that's designed for government personnel to report UFO sightings and inform the public of the findings.

The website was unveiled on August 30 by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and according to the office's director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, government and military personnel will be able to use the website to lodge UFO, or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) sightings that will then be analysed and depending on their validity, added to the overall historical record of UFO sightings.

The James Webb Space Telescope has aimed its extremely powerful instruments at Supernova 1987A, or more specifically SN 1987A.

The supernova is located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and over the course of 40 years since its discovery, the supernova has been a target of intense observation. Hubble originally spotted the cosmic structure in 1987, and now, with Webb's new observations, NASA has published what it's calling the "most clear & detailed look yet".

According to a new blog post on NASA's website, the image reveals a central structure like a "keyhole", which is jam-packed with clumps of gas and dust that has been ejected by the supernova explosion. Notably, the dust at the center of the image is so dense that even Webb's infrared instruments are unable to pierce it, which is what they are designed to do.

A group of scientists from multiple countries around the world have penned a new study detailing a catastrophic event that occurred 800,000 years ago that nearly wiped out all of our human ancestors that were walking the planet.

According to a new study published in the journal Science, written a group of researchers from the United States, Italy, and China, 98.7% of population of human ancestors was wiped out between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago. This dramatic drop in population count was discovered through a fast infinitesimal time coalescent process (FitCoal), or the analysis of human genomic sequences from 3,154 people.

The researchers discovered what is called a "severe bottleneck" in human diversity, which indicates a drop in population reproduction. According to the study, the massive population drop is due to a variety of different factors, but mostly from severe changes in climate. Global temperatures were changing drastically during this period, with widespread droughts killing not only human ancestors but many other species as well, such as mammoths, mastodons and giant sloths.

While the moon is a dead rock floating in space, there is much more that's interesting, at least to researchers, than meets the eye.

At first glance, the Earth's closest neighbor may seem boring, but underneath the surface, researchers have found something quite interesting. China's China's Chang'e-4 rover became the first spacecraft to land on the dark side of the moon when it touched down in 2019, and since then, it has been conducting valuable research, in particular, with an instrument called the Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR).

Researchers have taken the data acquired by the LPR and published findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, where they outline hidden structures beneath the lunar surface. According to the researchers, the first 130 feet beneath the surface of the moon is comprised of various layers of soil, dust, and broken rocks. Beneath those layers are volcanic rocks that are believed to have been created by meteor and asteroid impacts that caused lava flows.

NASA and the European Space Agency's (ESA) James Webb Space Telescope have released a new gorgeous image of a distant galaxy.

The Webb telescope has pointed its powerful instruments at the grand spiral galaxy called M51, or officially called NGC 5194, which is located 27 million light years away from Earth within the constellation Canes Venatici. M51 is known for its disrupted spiral arms, which can be partly attributed to its relationship with its close neighbour, a dwarf galaxy known as NGC 5195.

The gravity of this dwarf planet is believed to have influenced the size and prominence of M51's spiral arms. So, what does the image actually show? Red regions in the image represent reprocessed light from complex molecules that are forming on dust grains. Orange and yellow regions represent ionised gas that was recently formed by star clusters. For more information on this image, check out this link here.

New research from scientists from NASA and Japan's Osaka University has explored the idea that there are rogue planets wandering interstellar space waiting to be discovered by lucky astronomers.

The study, which NASA writes is expected to appear in a future issue of The Astronomical Journal, used data from a near-year survey conducted at the Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand. According to a NASA press release, the team estimates that there are 20 times more rogue planets than stars within the Milky Way galaxy. Rogue planets are worlds that aren't gravitationally tethered to a local star, and are just wandering through interstellar space completely alone.

Using microlensing techniques, which is the process of observing stars for any change in brightness levels. If an object passes directly between the star and the observer's line of sit, the gravity of that object warps space-time and creates a natural lens. This lens briefly amplifies the brightness of the star, giving a clue to astronomers about the nature of the intersecting object.

India made space history on August 23 by becoming the fourth country to successfully land on the surface of the moon and deploy a rover.

Since the landing, the Chandrayaan-3 mission has deployed its rover named Pragyan, and as shown in the above video, we can see Pragyan gliding across the surface of the moon to begin its scientific operations. The rover has already imaged its surroundings, even dodging a nasty hazardous crater that could have been catastrophic for the future of the mission.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has been posting constant updates on the Chandrayaan-3 mission on its X account, with an August 27 post detailing the results of Pragyan checking the surface temperature of the moon in its location near the moon's south pole, or what the ISRO officially now call the Shiv Shakti Point.

SpaceX has ferried four astronauts to the International Space Station on the back of its Falcon 9 rocket that was recently launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The launch took place on August 26 and is officially called the Crew-7 mission, as it's SpaceX's 7th flight to the ISS featuring astronauts. The astronauts took the Dragon capsule Endurance to the ISS, which is a journey that took approximately 30 hours to complete. SpaceX took to its official X account to share incredible footage of the Dragon capsule docking with the ISS. After arriving, the four astronauts will begin a 6-month stint of science-focussed investigations that are combined with typical ISS maintenance tasks.

Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA radioed to SpaceX mission control following the successful docking with the floating laboratory, saying, "Thank you so much. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a dream." Crew-7 pilot Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency (ESA) said to SpaceX that the first step of the journey has now been completed, and "the real mission begins now". Adding, "Aboard the International Space Station, we have a lot of work ahead of us that we look forward to."

NASA and CalTech's director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has commented on the recent UFO hearings and asked if she has seen any spacecraft made from outside of this world.

Laurie Leshin, the director of NASA and CalTech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has sat down for an interview with a reporter from Fox 10 to answer some questions regarding space travel and the recent events surrounding UFOs. Leshin was asked directly if she had ever seen a spacecraft that was made from outside of this world, to which she replied, "Absolutely not". The reporter followed up by asking if anyone had ever spoken to her about that with her, to which she replied, "No".

Furthermore, the reporter asked what Leshin makes of the recent UFO hearings that revealed some key details about purported secret government programs regarding crashed UFOs and backward engineering of alien technology. Leshin recognized that there is clearly a lot of interest in these topics, and that NASA JPL is more so focussed on following the scientific evidence when looking for life elsewhere.

US health authorities have confirmed that five people have died due to a rare, flesh-eating bacteria they contracted.

The reports come from Florida health, which has identified the rare bacteria as Vibrio vulnificus, a type of bacteria that is typically found in warm, brackish seawater that requires salt, according to WFLA. Notably, there have been 25 cases of infection and five deaths since January 2023, with two confirmed deaths in Hillsborough County, one death in Sarasota County, one in Polk County, and one in Pasco County.

By comparison, there were 74 total cases and 17 deaths in 2022, with the majority of the deaths and cases being a result of Hurricane Ian flooding communities. So, how does one become infected with Vibrio vulnificus?

Russia's first mission to the moon in 47 years has ended horribly, with reports indicating that the spacecraft crashed into the surface of the closest neighbor.

Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent of NASA, announced on August 19 that the Lunar-25 lander experienced an orbital maneuver malfunction, sending the spacecraft into an unpredictable orbit. According to Roscosmos, which wrote in a Telegram update on August 19, communications with the spacecraft were severed, and efforts to re-establish a connection were underway on August 19/20.

However, communications were never re-established as Roscosmos wrote in an update that the failed orbital maneuver resulted in an unexpected trajectory that ended in the spacecraft colliding with the lunar surface. Luna--25 was expected to touch down near the south pole of the moon, where the lunar lander would spend approximately one Earth year exploring the surface in search for water ice.

A team of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) have designed a humanoid robot designed to fly planes.

The newly designed robot is called Pibot, and according to its creators, the robot is able to respond to emergency situations much faster than a human pilot. However, this claim has yet to be independently tested. The humanoid robot pilot stands at just over five feet tall and uses large language models to memorize the flight manual of an aircraft. Notably, large language models are the unpinning technology powering artificial intelligence tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.

According to David Shim, an associate professor of electrical engineering at KAIST, who spoke to Euronews, Pibot is able to manipulate the controls within the cockpit of a plane "just like a human", meaning the robot cockpit won't have to be specifically designed for Pibot compatibility. The robot is equipped with external cameras that, according to its creators, ensure that all aircraft vitals are kept at operational levels.

The International Space Station (ISS) provides Earth with a unique birds-eye view of the planet from its vantage point of 250 miles above Earth's surface.

This vantage point comes in handy for tracking weather patterns, natural disasters, and other events taking place on the planet's surface. On August 12, the ISS flew over Hawaii and pointed its cameras at the Hawaiian island Maui, which is currently being engulfed in wildfires.

The floating laboratory was able to capture images of the smoke caused by the wildfires, illustrating the sheer size and impact they have had on the island and its residents.

NASA has released new footage captured by the rover Perseverance of the iconic Mars helicopter taking off from the surface of the Red Planet.

The space agency has taken to its Mars Exploration blog to share the footage of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity taking off from the surface of Mars in what was its 54th flight. Perseverance was stationed approximately 180 feet from the reconnaissance helicopter, and using its Mastcam-Z imager, it recorded Ingenuity taking off, hovering, and rotating at an altitude of 16 feet. The objective of the flight was to test the helicopter's navigation system.

The testing of Ingenuity's navigation system comes after the helicopter experienced a flight anomaly that caused it to promptly land back on the surface of the Red Planet. NASA officials are going through all of the routine checks to ensure that Ingenuity is meeting operational standards before re-engaging in its scientific objectives.

A group of researchers has published a new study detailing the extraction of a Pink Floyd song from someone's brain.

The new study was published in the journal PLOS Biology and details work conducted by neurologists at New York Albany Medical Center that involved 29 participants that were hooked up to 2,600 intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) nodes.

The participants listened to the Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1" and the nodes were placed over the part of the brain known as the superior temporal gyrus, or the part of the brain that is responsible for auditory processes.

Harvard professor and known alien hunter Avi Loeb has sat down with Fox News to discuss potential advanced civilizations.

Loeb is a trained physicist who was awarded his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at just the age of 24, and during the Fox News interview, Loeb emphasized that it's an egregious thought to think humans are alone in the universe. Loeb said it would be "arrogant of us to think that we are alone, that we don't have a neighbor out there." Adding, "There are tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone and hundreds of billions of galaxies like the Milky Way in the observable volume of the universe."

The Harvard physicist went on to say that if humans were to discover an alien species, it could be the "wake-up call" that unites the human race. Additionally, Loeb said that there could be alien races that are far more advanced than humanity, and that discovering them could be an opportunity for humans to learn and put themselves in a much better position for the future.

A photographer taking a group on a storm tour with the intention of catching epic photographs of storms rolling in has photographed a rare atmospheric phenomenon.

That atmospheric phenomenon is called sprites, and in this case, red sprites, which are pictured above. So, what are sprites, and what makes them rare? Sprites are upper atmospheric discharges from lighting and typically occur around 50 miles above thunderstorms and, more specifically, appear right after a lightning strike.

The photographer behind these incredible photos is Greg McCown, who spoke to PetaPixel and said, "A large storm moved clear down in Mexico about 150 miles south of our position at Windy Point, lining up perfectly with the Milky Way core." Adding, "After some instruction on how to photograph sprites, most in our group were able to catch these elusive gems."