Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 46

Researchers have honed the very sensitive instruments equipped to the James Webb Space Telescope on a planet in a distant star system, gathering data that informs researchers on the conditions of the planet.

The lucky planet to be a target of the highly advanced James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an exoplanet called VHS 1256 b, which researchers explain in a recent press release, is a massive brown dwarf planet that's located approximately 40 light-years away from Earth and orbits, not one, but two stars over a 10,000-year period. The researchers explain that VHS 1256 b orbits its stars four times further than Pluto orbits our Sun.

This aspect of VHS 1256 b makes it a prime target for Webb as the light from the planet isn't getting mixed up with the star it's orbiting, allowing Webb to gather a much more accurate reading. According to the press release, the higher altitudes of VHS 1256 b's atmosphere reach temperatures of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and within those clouds, Webb detected both large and small silicate dust grains. The smaller grains are comparable to the size of tiny particles that appear in smoke, and the larger grains are similar to extremely hot grains of sand.

NASA partner Axiom Space has revealed its next-generation spacesuit scheduled to be the safety barrier between the harsh lunar landscape and the NASA astronauts that will be walking on its surface.

NASA's Artemis 3 mission, scheduled to launch in December 2025, plans on sending the first astronauts back to the lunar surface in 50 years, and those astronauts will be wearing Axiom Space's Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU). This next-generation spacesuit was developed under NASA's Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services, or xEVAS, contract, which also includes Collins Aerospace, which will be developing its own spacesuit that'll replace the current suits used by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

As I explained in my previous article about these spacesuits, on March 15, Axiom Space revealed its first iteration of the new spacesuit design by having someone walk out on stage wearing it. The new suit comes with a range of improvements compared to Apollo spacesuits, which have been mostly the same for more than 40 years.

Scientists have discovered an asteroid that's anticipated to pass closer than the Moon is to Earth in the next few days.

A new article published in EarthSky details a member of the Apollo family of asteroids, 2023 DZ2, which researchers estimate to be approximately 210 feet in diameter. The article states that the asteroid doesn't pose any threat to Earth and will make its closest approach to our planet at around 3:51 p.m. EDT on March 25. The space rock was discovered by astronomers at the observatory La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain, on February 2023.

As previously stated, astronomers expect the 210-foot-wide asteroid, which is approximately the of an average skyscraper, will pass between Earth and the Moon, which, given the asteroid's close proximity, enables amateur astronomers to catch a viewing. Notably, 2023 DZ2 is classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO) and orbits the Sun every 3.16 years. In the past, the large asteroid was thought to pose a risk to Earth, with estimations putting Earth on a collision course with it on March 27, 2026. However, after further analysis, officials removed 2023 DZ2 from the Sentry Risk Table.

NASA's Mars helicopter has proved time and time again that flight on the Red Planet is possible, and now Ingenuity is closing in on a historic milestone.

Ingenuity landed on Mars with its companion rover, Perseverance, in February 2021, and just two months later, in April, the small aircraft became the very first machine to achieve powered flight in the skies of a planet that isn't Earth. NASA engineers sent Ingenuity to Mars as a technology demonstration. The objective was to see if an aircraft was able to fly on Mars, a planet that has an atmosphere very different from Earth. Notably, Mars' atmosphere is 1% as thick as Earth's, meaning to achieve flight, the aircraft would have to spin its blades much faster than a typical helicopter.

The problem of a thin atmosphere was anticipated by NASA engineers, and the appropriate design changes were made. Ingenuity features special counter-rotating blades that spin at approximately 2,500 revolutions per minute (RPM). For context, a typical helicopter spins its blade at just 400 to 500 RPM to maintain flight. This difference between RPM illustrates the severe difference in flight on Earth and flight on Mars.

An energy giant that manages the nuclear power plant in the city of Monticello, Minnesota, has confirmed that 400,000 gallons of contaminated water has leaked out of its nuclear power plant.

Reports indicate the leak was initially detected by the Monticello nuclear power plant four months ago, in November 2022, and was reported immediately to state and federal regulators. However, it wasn't until last week that the public was made aware of the situation. Xcel Energy, the energy giant that runs the Monticello nuclear power plant, issued a press release where it states that it took "swift action" to contain the leak to the plant site and that the contaminated water is "fully contained on-site".

Notably, the press release states the leak poses no health or safety risk to the local community or environment and hasn't been detected beyond the facility itself, which, according to Xcel Energy, means it hasn't been detected in any local drinking water. As for the water, Xcel Energy confirmed that the 400,000 gallons contained tritium, a naturally occurring form of hydrogen that emits a weak form of radiation. Tritium can't travel long distances in the air or penetrate the skin, according to officials with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Northern California skywatchers were shocked to see a group of fiery objects enter Earth's atmosphere and illuminate the night sky, but an explanation has been put forward about their origin.

Residents in the area, and as spotted by Aaron, who took to his personal Twitter account with the above video, saw the group of objects on Friday night when they began burning across the night sky. Aaron, like many of the residents that saw the event, was confused about its origin, suggesting that it could be a meteorite breaking up throughout its entry, aliens, or even China. None of these suggestions ended up being accurate, but they are warranted considering the slew of UFO detection in North American airspace over the past several weeks.

As you can probably imagine, between the time of the sighting and the explanation being posted online there was rampant speculation about the origin of the objects. Some individuals wrote that it was a meteor shower, while others suggested it was space debris, such as a defunct satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere. The latter was closer to the truth, as outlined by Jonathan McDowell, a renowned astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who took to Twitter with an in-depth explanation that points to space junk that was jettisoned from the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronomers from around the world have had their instruments pointed at the solar tornado that has been unfurling on the surface of the Sun for the past week.

The above gif showcases the scientifically popular solar tornado, which is a twisted filament of boiling hot plasma that is expanding further and further away from the surface of our star. For three days, the tornado continued to expand, with reports stating that it grew to an astonishing height of 75,000 miles, which is about the same as fourteen Earths stacked on top of each other.

According to astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, who took to Twitter on March 18, the day the solar tornado was at its highest, and said, "This 14-Earths-tall swirling column of plasma was raining moon-sized gobs of incandescent material on the sun". Furthermore, Apollo Lasky of Naperville, Illinois, who made the above gif using images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, said the solar tornado was occurring near the Sun's North Pole and grew for a total of three days before it came back down to the Sun's surface.

The United Kingdom is preparing to develop a Moon base that will enable humans to work and live on the lunar surface, and the UK government wants Rolls-Royce to power it.

A new press release from the UK Space Agency details a new injection of funding into the Micro-Reactor program run by Rolls-Royce. This program is aimed at developing technology that will enable a sustained presence on the surface of the Moon through the generation of nuclear power. According to the press release, nuclear power has the potential to extend Lunar missions and thus the scientific potential, hence the UK Space Agency announcing 2.9 million pounds ($3,555,124 USD) in new funding for the project.

Notably, the new round of funding received by the UK Space Agency is for the initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor, which is expected to be relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems. Furthermore, a small nuclear reactor that can ideally be carried around by a single human could act as a continuous power source regardless of the environmental conditions. Rolls-Royce will be joined by other collaborators on the project, such as engineers from the University of Oxford, University of Bangor, University of Brighton, University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), and Nuclear AMRC.

NASA has taken to its blog to share a new image captured by the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which honed its sensitive instruments on the globular star cluster known as Messier 55.

NASA took to its social channels to share the image and explained that Messier 55 (M55) is a loosely concentrated globular cluster that's located approximately 20,000 light years away from Earth within the constellation Sagittarius. The above image snapped by Hubble shows just a portion of M55, which stretches some 100 light years and contains an estimated 100,000 stars of 55 various types and brightness. The large collection of stars forms a spherical shape that can be traced back to the intense gravitational pull of each of the stars.

Notably, ground-based telescopes struggle to observe globular clusters such as M55 as they are hindered by light pollution. Hubble's safe position in low Earth orbit, above Earth's atmosphere, allows for the space telescope and, by extension, astronomers and scientists, to capture the globular cluster in all its glory, leading to a deeper understanding of the globular cluster itself and the stars that it contains. In particular, astronomers are interested in learning more about the evolution of stars by studying globular clusters, as the knowledge gained will translate to the star we call the Sun.

You've probably already seen that rather fancy new NASA EVA spacesuit that's been doing the rounds over the last couple of days. But did you know that you actually have Apple TV+ to thank for its design?

That's because the costume designer behind the excellent For All Mankind on Apple TV+ was involved in coming up with the design for that spacesuit. And we can probably all agree that they did a bang-up job with it, too.

Costume designer Esther Marquis was the person behind both For All Mankind's fictional spacesuits and this new, very real, NASA offering. The design consists of three main colors including black, blue, and orange, and doesn't quite look like anything out of the hit Apple TV+ show.

A photograph snapped by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, an astrophotographer located near Rafaela in Argentina has captured the moment a 60,000-mile-high wall of fire fell down on the surface of the Sun.

The above image of the event was captured on March 9 and required the use of specialized camera equipment. Speaking to Spaceweather.com, Poupeau explained that the wall of hot plasma rose approximately 62,000 miles, which, for context, would be the same height as Earth stacked on top of itself eight times, then fell back down to the surface of the Sun.

Notably, this event is officially called a polar crown prominence (PCP), which is essentially loops of plasma being ejected from the surface of the Sun by contortions in the Sun's magnetic field. Furthermore, since PCPs occur near the poles of the Sun, where there is a stronger magnetic field, these plasma ejections often are pulled back into the Sun. This process of ejection and then retraction has earned the nickname "plasma waterfalls".

A draft research report by the Pentagon and a distinguished Harvard University professor outlines the possibility of an alien mothership within the solar system.

A new report penned by Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and Abraham Loeb, chairman of Harvard University's astronomy department and theoretical physicist, was released on March 7 and focused on the possibility of an artificial interstellar object being present within the solar system and probing the planets within it.

According to the report, there is a possibility of an artificial interstellar object being a "parent craft" or a mothership that sends small probes down to planets, similar to a mission conducted by NASA and other space agencies. This mothership is suspected of being controlled by an artificial intelligence that has likely been dormant for many years as the craft traveled across the universe.

Axiom Space scored the NASA contract to construct the next generation of spacesuits that will be worn by astronauts returning to the lunar surface.

NASA astronauts will be touching down on the lunar surface as part of the space agency's Artemis 3 mission, and according to a recent press release, Axiom Space will be the company providing the new spacesuits that are expected to come with a variety of different improvements. Axiom Space's website details the new suit called the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), which a prototype was recently unveiled at Space Center Houston's Moon 2 Mars Festival on March 15.

Axiom Space announced that it will be able to provide NASA with a fleet of training spacesuits by the end of this coming summer, and these spacesuits accommodate a large variety of crew members. Notably, Axiom Space took NASA's traditional spacesuit design, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), and added increased flexibility, greater protection to withstand the harsh environment of the moon, and the ability to add scientific tools for astronauts to carry out scientific operations while on the surface of the moon.

Landing a plane is no walk in the park, it presents unique challenges that individuals must train rigorously for, but what if you wanted to land a plane on the world's shortest runway that's stationed atop one of the world's tallest buildings?

That is what pilot Luke Czepiela attempted this week as part of a stunt under the banner of Red Bull, which set up a small helipad on top of the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, a luxury hotel in Dubai. The above video showcases the small diameter of the landing runway, which only stretched 88 feet from one side to the other. Notably, the helipad was 695 feet above the ground, making Czepiela's room for error even smaller.

According to the pilot, the stunt was practiced approximately 650 times on a normal runway that had a circle painted on the tarmac with the same dimensions as the helipad. It wasn't just practice that needed to be done before the flight, as Czepiela's team was required to modify the plane in order for it to stop within 88 feet of the runway. Engineers removed any unnecessary weight from the planet, which introduced its own problems with wind speed and "precise speed".

NASA's Mars rover, which has been stationed on the Red Planet since February 2021, has captured an amazing video of the Ingenuity helicopter taking flight.

NASA has taken to its blog to provide an update on the recent flight conducted by its Ingenuity helicopter, and according to the space agency, the Mars helicopter has now successfully carried out its 47th flight, achieving a maximum altitude of 39 feet, a top speed of 11.9 mph and 1,444 feet traveled. The flight was captured by NASA's Perseverance rover, which was positioned 394 feet away from the helicopter. As shown by the above video, Perseverance captured Ingenuity taking off, causing a small martian dust cloud to form from its spinning rotors.

Notably, Perseverance captured this footage with its Mastcam-Z imager on March 9, 2023, and according to NASA, the goal of the flight was to reposition the helicopter while also scouting ahead for any viable scientific prospects that Perseverance would then further inspect. For those that don't know, NASA originally sent Ingenuity to Mars with one objective in mind - to see if it was possible to conduct one flight on the surface of the Red Planet. Ingenuity is a technology demonstration that has superseded expectations, with reports stating the helicopter remains in good health on its road to reaching its 50th flight.

It was only last week that I reported on the International Space Station (ISS) being forced to fire up its thrusters to dodge a potential collision with a satellite.

NASA confirmed the news of the ISS maneuver via its blog on March 6 and explained that the floating laboratory was at risk of colliding with a satellite that was later discovered to be a commercial Earth-imaging satellite. This maneuver required officials to engage the thrusters on the Progress 83 resupply vessel, raising the orbit of the entire outpost so the satellite could safely pass underneath. The ISS conducted these maneuvers successfully.

According to a report from Roscosmos, Russia's own version of NASA, the ISS had to perform a similar maneuver on March 14 involving the same resupply vessel, Progress 83. Russia's space agency writes that Progress 83 fired its thrusters for 183 seconds to raise the altitude of the ISS to an average of 230 miles above the surface of Earth. Notably, the maneuver that was performed on March 6 required the resupply vessel thrusters to be fired for approximately six minutes.

A Japanese astronomer was monitoring the moon in late February and caught the moment a meteorite collided with the moon's surface.

The Japanese astronomer is named Daichi Fujii and posted the footage onto his personal Twitter account, where he explained that the event took place February 23, 2023, and that the footage was taken from his home in Hiratsuka, Japan. The impact is quite difficult to see, but watching the bottom right side of the moon, a bright flash will appear for just over a second and then disappear.

Notably, since the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, meteorites on track to collide with the surface are invisible to observers on Earth. Ground observers see meteorites entering Earth's atmosphere from the friction build-up that turns them into a bright fireball that sometimes eventuates into an explosion. This friction is caused by Earth's dense atmosphere and the extreme speed the meteorite is traveling. The moon doesn't have an atmosphere, which is why we don't see bright streaks regularly appearing across the surface of the moon.

Samsung phones such as the S20 Ultra come with the "space zoom" feature that allows the user to capture dazzling shots of the moon, but are they really real?

The space zoom feature debuted with the S20 Ultra back in 2020 and unlocked 100x zoom that allowed users to hone in on the moon and capture images never before achieved with a mobile device. The images were certainly impressive, and since then, there have been suspicions that they fake, similar to what Huawei has been accused of in the past. A Redditor has put together a thread that has gained a large amount of attention as they claim they have proven that Samsung is faking each space zoom moon shot, or at least isn't telling the whole truth about the capabilities of the feature.

The thread explains a user downloaded a high-resolution image of the moon and reduced it down to 170x170 pixels, then applied a gaussian blur. The blur removed any detail from the image and then the image was blown up on their monitor. The Redditor continues to explain they then moved to the other side of their room and snapped a photo of the blurry moon on the monitor using space zoom. The captured image showcased a large increase in the detail of the moon, leading the Redditor to conclude that Samsung is using an AI neural network that has been fed 100s, potentially thousands of images of the moon to add in detail where there is none.

Marcelo Saba, a researcher at Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), and Ph.D. candidate Diego Rhamon managed to snap an incredibly unique shot of lightning rods doing what they do best.

The image was published as the cover photo for the December 28, 2022, issue of Geophysical Research Letters, and reports explain that a camera capable of capturing 40,000 individual frames per second was used to shoot it. Notably, Saba was the first author on that biweekly release of the scientific journal and explained the image was taken on a summer evening in Sao Jose dos Campos and shows a negatively charged bolt heading toward the ground at nearly 230 miles (370 km) per second.

Several feet before it reaches the ground, the tops of buildings and lightning rods produce a positive upward discharge that competes with the downward strike of the lightning. The above image was taken from a video that was played back in slow motion and was captured at 25 thousandths of a second right before the lightning was about to one of the buildings. The area contains more than 30 lightning rods on the top of the buildings, and the image showcases the importance of having a lightning rod protection system correctly installed.

Researchers have a few different theories on how water became an abundant resource on Earth. A large portion of scientists point to icy comets or asteroids colliding with Earth's surface and melting, but how did those objects first obtain water?

Astronomers have identified a water cloud floating through deep space at an approximate distance of 1,300 light-years from Earth within the constellation Orion. According to reports, it's expected to teach scientists about star formation, the origin of water in the solar system, and by extension, how water arrived on Earth. A new paper published in Nature states that the water in the cloud is the same as the water on Earth, but it also contains heavy water.

Heavy water is 10.6% denser than regular water and has a very similar chemical formula. Regular water, H20, contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, while heavy water, D20, contains two atoms of deuterium and one oxygen. The reason for it being "heavy" can be attributed to the deuterium containing one neutron and a proton in its nucleus, which only contains one proton.