Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 47

NASA has published a new image captured by its famous Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in service for more than 30 years.

Hubble has honed its sensitive instruments on what NASA calls NGC-6530, which is an open cluster that contains several hundred thousand stars. This open cluster is approximately 4350 light-years away from Earth and resides in the constellation Sagittarius. Notably, the image showcases just a portion of NGC-6530, which is sitting within an even larger nebula called the Lagoon Nebula.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which joint-operates Hubble with NASA, explains the Lagoon Nebula is a large interstellar cloud that is made up of gas and dust. The discovery of NGC-6530 came while astronomers were searching the Lagoon Nebula for proplyds, which is a type of protoplanetary disk that forms around a newborn star. Furthermore, newborn stars begin as a convergence of gas and dust that eventually collapses inwards after forming a somewhat of a blob shape.

The International Space Station was potentially on route for a collision course with an Earth-observing satellite, confirms NASA in a new blog post.

The space agency took to its website to give an update on the happenings of the International Space Station (ISS), and according to NASA, there was a risk of collision between the floating laboratory and an Earth-observing satellite. Officials were required to engage thrusters on the Progress 83 resupply vessel at approximately 7:42 am to raise the orbit of the entire outpost in order to prevent any chance for a collision.

NASA writes in its blog post that thrusters were engaged for just over six minutes and that the maneuver won't impact the upcoming departure of the Crew-5 mission. So, whose satellite almost smacked into the ISS? According to reports, the satellite that the ISS had to dodge appears to be an Argentinian Earth-observation satellite that was launched back in 2020. This factoid comes from Sandra Jones of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Elon Musk finalized his acquisition of Twitter in late October last year, and shortly after Musk became the official owner of Twitter, an internal crisis presented itself.

As previously stated, Musk took over the company in late October, and in the few months that followed, changes to the platform were rolled out that caused many of Twitter's advertisers to either pause or completely pull out their advertising expenditure with the platform. This is notable as 90% of Twitter's revenue was made up of advertiser spending before Musk took control of the company.

According to a newly published report by The Wall Street Journal, which explored Twitter's recent update to investors, more than 70% of Twitter's top advertisers have paused spending with the platform, leading to an immense 40% decline in earnings year-over-year. So, why did this happen? Leading up to the purchase of Twitter, Musk expressed what he wished to do with the platform if he ever gained control of it. The Tesla CEO said that he would open up the platform and support the right to freedom of speech and roll back some of the platform's then-stringent content moderation policies.

Speaking to Newsweek, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett revealed that he believes the US government is already reverse engineering UFO technology.

Burchett revealed to the publication that he believes alien UFO technology may be "being reverse-engineered right now", but engineers "just don't understand" how it functions. The Congressman goes on to say that the US "recovered a craft at some point, and possible beings." These claims from Burchett come on the heels of four objects being shot down in North American skies in February.

The first object was identified as a Chinese spy balloon, the three remaining as yet to be recovered but are also believed to be types of commercial or research entities, likely balloons of different configurations. The remaining three objects were brought down by US fighter jets over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron, Michigan. None of the remaining objects have been officially identified, but officials are inclined to lead with the aforementioned explanation of various man-made research balloons.

Elon Musk has commented on a movie currently in development about his life, business ventures, and eventual takeover of Twitter.

According to a new article published by Variety, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney will be behind the camera on a new documentary that focuses on the life of Elon Musk. The new movie, which has been in production for a number of months, was announced on Monday by Gibney, and according to the director, it will provide a "definitive and unvarnished examination of multi-billionaire tech entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter". The movie is being produced by Jigsaw Productions, Closer Media, Anonymous Content, and Double Agent.

Musk took to Twitter to comment on the announcement of the new documentary, writing under a post by DogeDesigner, "It's a hit piece". Musk fans quickly rushed to the comment section to propose titles for the documentary, with some suggesting "The Irony Man", a reference to Elon Musk being the real-life Tony Stark, or Iron Man.

Japan's counterpart to NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), launched its new H3 rocket on Monday, and it could have gone better.

The new H3 rocket was stationed on the launch pad at Tanegashima Space Center before it began lifting off on Monday, March 6, at 8:37 p.m. EST. Only 5 minutes and 27 seconds into the rocket's flight, officials were heard over the livestream of the launch informing viewers and listeners that commands had been sent to the rocket to instruct it to separate its stage and ignite its second stage. Unfortunately, 7 minutes into the rocket's flight, officials are heard confirming the second stage failed ignition and that the rocket's velocity was steadily declining.

Since the launch of the rocket failed, and the separation/ignition commands were carried out, the rocket began to freefall back down to the surface of Earth. This prompted JAXA officials to announce that they'd sent a "destruct command" to the rocket as there was no hope of achieving mission success. Notably, this isn't the first time Japan's H3 rocket has attempted a launch. On February 13, officials had to abort the launch after an issue with the rocket's electrical system that supplies power to the rocket's LE-9 engines presented itself.

NASA's Curiosity rover has achieved yet another scientific milestone achievement by capturing the first images of Sun rays seeping through Martian clouds.

NASA has taken to its Mars Exploration-dedicated website to explain that Curiosity captured a "uniquely moody" Martian sunset on February 2. The space agency details that rays of sunlight broke through a bank of clouds, illuminating them and creating what NASA calls "crepuscular rays", which is the Latin word for "twilight". Notably, these images of the sun's rays are the first time they have been so clearly viewed from the surface of Mars.

The blog post explains that most Martian clouds are at an altitude of no more than 37 miles above the surface of the Red Planet and that these clouds are mostly composed of water ice. However, the recent photographs snapped by Curiosity show a group of martian clouds at a much higher altitude where it is much colder, leading researchers to believe that their composition is carbon dioxide or dry ice.

NASA's Juno mission is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries surrounding Jupiter and its four Galilean moons.

The space agency launched its Juno space probe on August 5, 2011, as part of NASA's New Frontiers Program. Now, the space agency reports that its Juno spacecraft has conducted a fly-by of Jupiter's moon Io, the third-largest and innermost of the four Galilean moons. The space probe came within 32,030 miles of Io and snapped some of the best images ever acquired of the mysterious moon. Notably, these new images mark the best and closest view of Io since the New Horizons mission flew past the Jupiter system in 2006.

Above is an image captured by JunoCam, a camera instrument equipped to the Juno space probe. The image was snapped on March 1, 2023, when the space probe was making its closest approach to Io. From the image, we can see that Io has a variety of colors that range from yellows, reds, browns, blacks, and even oranges. Reports indicate that these colors can be attributed to the extreme volcanic activity across the moon. ScienceAlert reports that IO is the most volcanic moon in our entire solar system.

A team of researchers has said that China is planning on flooding low-Earth orbit with thousands of satellites under a new project codenamed "GW".

According to a team led by associate professor Xu Can with the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Space Engineering University located in Beijing, China, is planning on launching 12,992 satellites to form constellations similar to SpaceX's Starlink constellations.

China's satellites will be owned by China Satellite Network Group, and according to Xu's recent paper published in the Chinese journal Command Control and Simulation, China's new constellation is likely to be deployed before SpaceX can complete its FAA-approved 12,000 online Starlink satellites by 2027.

The emerging number of satellites entering into lower-Earth orbit is becoming an evermore prevalent issue for astronomy researchers.

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy on March 2, 2022, has looked at how the growing number of satellites in low-Earth orbit is impacting astronomical research, in particular, scientific work conducted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The team found that satellites such as SpaceX's Starlink constellations are regularly photobombing Hubble's images, and the frequency of these photobombs is only growing.

The above image shows a photobombed image. The white lines streaking across the image are a result of a satellite passing from one side of the frame to the other. In some instances, the photobombing is so bad that the image cannot be used for scientific research. In other instances, organizations are having to exponentially pay for images to be fixed and other means of mitigation. The study was led by Sandor Kruk, who looked at data acquired in 2021 to acquire the overall results.

A team of astronomers has penned a study currently published on a pre-print server arXiv that details the discovery of a not-so-distant exoplanet that's existence is being put into question.

The group of researchers sifted through data acquired from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and discovered the exoplanet that is now called TOI-5205b. This exoplanet is quite similar to Jupiter, being a gas giant, however, unlike Jupiter, which orbits the Sun every 12 years, TOI-5205b orbits its companion star every three days.

This particular aspect of TOI-5205b has astronomers scratching their heads as current models of gas giants suggest the exoplanet shouldn't even be able to form around a low-mass star such as the one it's currently orbiting. BGR reports the "forbidden planet" is located approximately 285 light-years from our solar system, and since its discovery doesn't fit current planetary models for gas giants, those models will now be updated to accommodate this new-found possibility.

Authorities have detained a delivery man that was carrying the mummified remains of what he called his "girlfriend".

Julio Cesar Bermejo, a 26-year-old former food delivery man, has been detained by police in Peru for the possession of mummified human remains that are estimated to be anywhere between 600 and 800 years old. The former food delivery driver explained to authorities that the mummified remains had been in his family for more than 30 years and that he "takes care of her". Bermejo told AFP news agency that the remains were named "Juanita", and she's "like my spiritual girlfriend".

"At home, she's in my room. She sleeps with me. I take care of her," he said in a video that has done the round on social media. The former food delivery driver added that his father brought the remains home almost 30 years ago, and they have been taken care of ever since. Notably, the mummified remains were discovered in the food delivery driver's isothermal bag placed in the fetal position. The same bag is used to deliver people's food to their homes.

In a move to reduce the risk of infection, a team of engineers has designed a new method of 3D printing biomaterial.

The researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, have posted their findings on the UNSW Newsroom website where they explain that they've developed a new prototype device capable of directly 3D printing living cells into internal organs. The engineers behind the device believe that it could potentially be used as an all-in-one endoscopic surgical tool.

The new tool is called F3DB and is a small, relatively soft robotic arm that can directly print biomaterial onto the surface of internal organs inside a living human body via skin incisions or natural orifices. Why is bioprinting important? The practice is typically performed by researchers that are developing new drugs and testing how they react to certain cells.

Despite Elon Musk's constant re-announcing of when human trials will begin for Neuralink, the billionaire has failed to mention how the FDA has rejected his company's application.

Neuralink was founded by Musk back in 2016, and since 2019 the Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX CEO has claimed that human trials are just around the corner. However, reports indicate that despite Musk's announcement of human trials starting soon, Neuralink didn't seek regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) until early 2022, according to a report from Reuters that cited seven current and former employees at Neuralink.

Additionally, the employees told the publication that the FDA rejected Neuralink's application to begin human trials, citing dozens of major problems with the brain chip design, such as the requirement of lithium-ion battery batteries being inserted into the skull, the potential of the device's wires beginning to migrate to other areas of the brain, how it can be removed without damaging any brain tissue and more.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has used its bird-eye vantage spot to take photos of the area where China landed its Mars rover named Zhurong on May 15, 2021.

China selected the region called Utopia Planitia as the destination for Zhurong, with the overall objective of searching for ice water suspected of being located underneath volcanic rock. Above is a selfie taken in its landing location on May 15, 2021; take note of the solar panels. NASA imagery shows the rover moved between March and September 2022, which was backed up by the state-owned publication South China Morning Post writing Zhurong entered hibernation mode in May 2022.

Chinese officials decided to put Zhurong in hibernation mode to wait out dropping temperatures and dangerous sandstorms. Putting rovers in hibernation is a strategy that is commonly used as it enables the rover to save energy when there is no sunlight available for solar panels to absorb. This is particularly a problem for rovers that only have solar power as a means of generating battery charge, as their panels can be coated in Martian dust, which prevents the panels from charging. The tragedy of death by dust has fallen upon several NASA missions, such as the InSight lander mission and the Opportunity rover in 2018.

NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, currently stationed on the ISS, has snapped a jaw-dropping image of auroras surrounding Earth.

The NASA astronaut took to their personal Twitter account on March 1 to share the image with the public, showcasing a beautiful shot of the planet and auroras from a vantage point of approximately 250 miles above the surface of Earth. The presence of the auroras can be traced back to solar events that occurred in the days before February 26 and 27, which was when Earth's magnetic field was hit by a stream of charged particles from the Sun.

Solar events such as coronal magnetic ejections (CME), which is a large wave of charged particles ejected from the Sun, or streams of solar wind that spew from our star's corona, can collide with Earth when the planet happens to be caught a solar event's 'danger zone'. The impact charges particles in the upper atmosphere, creating the phenomena of auroras that typically appear closer to Earth's poles. However, during a solar storm, auroras can appear closer to the equator, with the most recent one being spotted in California and photographed above Death Valley National Park.

Before the end of the week, five asteroids will be approaching Earth, and some of these asteroids are as big as a stadium.

According to NASA's weekly release of the five next asteroid approaches, posted to the agency's JPL website, five asteroids are making their way toward Earth, and each is different in size ranging from very small to very large. Starting at the smallest. NASA's website states that 2023 DJ1 is only 25 feet in diameter and will make its closest approach to Earth at 654,000 miles on March 1. The next biggest is 2023 DX, a 74-foot wide asteroid that will be at its closest point to Earth at 1,240,000 miles on March 3.

Next is 2017 BM123, measuring in at 190 feet in diameter, a comparable size to that of an airplane, and will make its closest approach to Earth at 2,970,000 miles on March 3. The largest of the five asteroids is 2007 ED125, which NASA states is approximately the same size as a stadium at 700 feet in diameter. This large asteroid will be at its closest point to Earth at 2,790,000 miles on March 3.

Four former US presidents will be hitching a ride on the coming Enterprise Flight that will put them on a journey into deep space.

Texas-based space burial company Celestis took to its blog to announce the news and explained that it will be honoring the legacy of the four former presidents by placing their DNA samples inside of memorial capsules that will be sent into a solar orbit 93 million miles to 186 million miles in deep space. Celestis explains that it intends to create the world's first true outpost of humanity in the cosmos and that the former presidents won't be the only DNA samples on board.

According to the blog post, the mission will contain 200 capsules containing cremated human remains and DNA, which is expected to launch on the Vulcan Centaur rocket created by the United Launch Alliance. The company intends to preserve the legacy of human existence with these capsules and explains that putting them on the Enterprise Flight will establish a precursor for future human missions that happen to find them while also perhaps informing whoever finds them of bygone American leaders, culture, or even an evolutionary "map" of how the US began.

Researchers from The Australian National University have penned a new study that has been published in Nature Communications and details the discovery of a new core inside of Earth's inner core.

The team of seismologists measured how seismic waves pass through each of Earth's most distinctive layers; the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The researchers found that seismic waves passed through each of the four layers at different speeds. However, the team claims they identified a distinctive fifth layer within Earth's inner core when they measured how seismic waves travel through Earth's center.

These seismic waves begin at the location of an earthquake, travel through Earth's core, and are then spat out on the opposite side of the planet from where the earthquake happened. The waves then make travel back to the source of the earthquake. This bouncing phenomenon is called the antipode, and typically, seismologists are only able to measure one antipodal bounce.

Officials at Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, dropped an update on two of the agency's spacecrafts currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS).

For two months, these Russian spacecrafts have been docked at the ISS, with officials announcing in December that the Soyuz crew capsule called MS-22 sprayed liquid from a severed cooling line. The same problem occurred earlier this month with Russia's second docked spacecraft called Progress MS-21. Initially, officials didn't know what caused the severing of the cooling line, but now Roscosmos is saying that two separate "external impact" caused the damage to the spacecrafts.

As noted by Ars Technica, the likelihood of an "external impact", or a micrometeoroid, damaging the same components on two separate spacecrafts is very low, leading some to speculate that Russia's spacecrafts actually experienced a manufacturing malfunction that the agency is covering up.