Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 419

Astronomers have located three Earth-sized planets which are orbiting a neighboring star that is about 12 light-years away.

The scientists estimate that all three of the discovered planets are to be at least 1.4 to 1.8 times the mass of Earth, and that they orbit their star every three to 13 days. To give a digestable example of how short this is, in our solar system, Mercury has the shortest orbit of our Sun at just 88 days. The most interesting part of this three planet discovery is the planet that has been titled as 'planet d', scientists are most interested in this planet because it falls within the star's habitable zone with the possible chance of water existing on the surface.

Ignasi Ribas, a co-author on the new paper and a researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain said "We are now one step closer [to] getting a census of rocky planets in the solar neighborhood". It is extremely difficult to determine if 'planet d' harbors the requirements for life to exist, as scientists need to account for the past of the star its orbiting. It could be possible that the star has ejected large amount of radiation at 'planet d', essentially ruining any possible chance of the planet having a habitable atmosphere.

A team of researchers have made a break-through discovery in quantum internet networking, announcing they have developed the first quantum internet protocol.

To understand the achievement that has been made here you must first understand current internet protocols. In classical computing and everyday use of the internet, a collection of software layers which are reffered to as a network stack enables devices to communicate with eachother, an example of this is HTTP. Professor Stephanie Wehner from the research team QuTech describes this by saying "All of us use classical link layer protocols in everyday life. One example is Wi-Fi, which allows an unreliable radio signal-suffering from interruptions and interference-to be used to transmit data reliably between compatible devices."

Quantum networking uses the same premise as traditional computing, but is still very different. Due to the differences between classical computing and quantum, the team developed a new "quantum network stack" that is the "world's first link-layer protocol". Since a quantum network uses quantum bits, or qubits to transfer information, a new network protocol had to be developed due to quantum bits not retaining data reliably. This newly developed protocol overcomes those hurdles that quantum level software development was encountering.

While wide-spread pollution free energy might sound like pipe dream when thinking about how many facets of the world economy uses fossil fuels, we might not actually be that far away from it.

A Canadian group of engineers recently published a new paper detailing a method humans could extract hydrogen from oil sands and fields. This new method could enable a large-scale adoption that would ultimately cause a domino effect into energy market, making it extremely cheap to capture hydrogen instead of expensive. The researchers inject oxygen into the oil fields which then raises the temperature and liberates the hydrogen, filters are then used to separate the hydrogen from the other gases that are present.

The commercialization of this new method is already taking place and, Grant Strem, CEO of Proton Technologies has given a statement regarding the discovery "This technique can draw up huge quantities of hydrogen while leaving the carbon in the ground. When working at production level, we anticipate we will be able to use the existing infrastructure and distribution chains to produce H2 for between 10 and 50 cents per kilo. This means it potentially costs a fraction of gasoline for equivalent output".

Elon Musk has announced that in six states residents will be able to rent solar panels from Tesla for an extremely low cost. Say goodbye to high-level electricity bills.

Musk announced via Twitter over the weekend that Tesla would be re-opening its solar arm for residents in select states. Residents will be able to choose from three different solar panel variabitities and will even have the option of renting setups from Tesla at extremely low costs.

Depending on your state, Tesla will rent solar panels to you for as low as just $50 a month ($65 a month in California), this would of course be for the lowest package they offer. It is also detailed on their website that those who sign up can cancel at anytime but a $1500 removal fee will be slid your way to restore the roof back to its previous state. The states that are currently ready for this are: California, Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Mexico.

The Hubble Space telescope is nothing short of incredible, and today we have another breath taking image of two distant galaxies bound for a collision of beautiful cosmic doom.

The image was released by NASA on their Hubble Twitter account and it showcases an amazing display of two galaxies engaging in a cosmic level dance that will eventually result in their impending doom. Scientists have titled the collision UGC 2369, and we know that they will unfortunately collide due to the gravitational distortion of their shape and the bridge of gas that can be seen transferring from one to the other.

The galaxies are about 424 million light-years away, and according to the European Space Agency (ESA), "Interaction with others is a common event in the history of most galaxies. For larger galaxies like the Milky Way, the majority of these interactions involve significantly smaller so-called dwarf galaxies. But every few billion years, a more momentous event can occur." Take our galaxy for example, The Milky Way, at the moment we are currently on a 4 billion year collision course with our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda.

Remember when Elon Musk launched a car into space? Well, that Tesla Roadster and its driver 'Starman' have just completed their first lap around the Sun.

When checking out the 'Where is Roadster' website we can see that the cosmic driver has finally managed to complete his first orbit around the Sun. Starman took to the skies 557 days ago when SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy rocket aimed for orbiting the Sun, and according to the travel data the car has clocked 762 million miles.

Since the car has traveled 762 million miles, it means that it has exceeded its original 36,000-mile warranty over 21,000 times. If you were hoping to spot the roadster from Earth, you unfortunately won't be able to since Earth is currently positioned on the opposite side of the Sun.

The future of treating depression might not be therapy and medication, but rather a headset that you strap on and stimulates your brain in the right ways. Medical technology company Flow out of Sweden is on the forefront of this new wave of technology.

Flow started back in 2016 with Daniel Mansson, CEO of Flow and a clinical psychologist, founded the company after writing his master's thesis on brain stimulation. Mansson also spent years skating between psychology and software, and thus Flow was born. A new hardware product is now being sold as a medication-free treatment to depression.

TechRadar spoke with Mansson, with some hands-on time with the Flow headset. They report that it "looks a bit like a miniature VR headset", sitting on your forehead wiht a band that goes over the top of your head to keep it still. There are two big suction pads that connect to your forehead, with Flow providing single-use cloth pads that sit between your skin and the suction pads.

Elon Musk must've tipped a few back over the weekend as the SpaceX founder and CEO teased the idea of nuking Mars again... but this time, he has t-shirts. Musk took to Twitter over the weekend with a simple tweet:

This isn't the first time Musk has talked about nuking the red planet, where four years ago he went on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and talked about detonating nuclear bombs over the poles of Mars. Musk said this was one of the strategies of making Mars more livable. The interview with Stephen Colbert is below:

Better yet, the official Twitter account for DOOM tweets out that they want Musk to use their BFG 10000:

Researchers have managed to create a new endoscope design that is capable of self-calibrating and taking images of objects smaller than a single cell.

For those that don't know, endoscopes are tiny instruments that are used to view the internals of the body. Traditional endoscopes use camera and light to capture images, while researchers that have developed this new endoscope have achieved 3D image capturing without the use of any optical, electrical or mechanical components. This new endoscope measures in at just 200 microns across, which is approximately the size of a needle.

This new endoscope will have widespread medical application and since its tiny, and doesn't feature any bulky components, it's expected that it will be especially useful in optogenetics. Juergen W. Czarske, Director and C4-Professor at TU Dresden, Germany and lead author on the paper gave a statement regarding the endoscope, saying "The lensless fiber endoscope is approximately the size of a needle, allowing it to have minimally invasive access and high-contrast imaging as well as stimulation with a robust calibration against bending or twisting of the fiber."

While our eyes cannot see high-energy radiant called gamma rays, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope certainly can and it has produced incredible images of the cosmic rays hitting the Moon.

Above we have some progression images of the Moon's gamma ray exposure, and according to Mario Nicola Mazziotta and Francesco Loparco from Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Bari, these images give us a better understanding of how fast-moving particles called cosmic rays interact with the Moon. The particles we are seeing are electrically charged and since the Moon has no magnetic field these charged particles make it to the surface.

When the particles hit the Moon's surface they produce a gamma-ray emission, while the Moon does absorb most of the particles some escape its clutches. Since NASA are planning on returning humans to the Moon by 2024, these findings of gamma exposure on the Moon emphasize the importance of NASA equipping our astronauts with gamma-protection suits so they aren't doused in these cosmic rays. For a more in-depth analysis, check out this article here.