Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 53

An asteroid approximately the size of the one that finished off the dinosaurs collided with the surface of Mars, causing a massive tsunami that changed hundreds of thousands of square miles.

The new study describes the great tidal waves as megatsunamis, with previous research attributing two megatsunami events triggered by two asteroid impacts that happened approximately 3.4 billion years ago. In an older study, researchers pointed to a 75-mile-wide crater called the Lomonosov Crater for the location of an asteroid impact that caused one of these massive waves.

Scientists estimated that the asteroid that created the Lomonosov Crater created a tsunami that covered 309,000 square miles of land. Newer research is indicating that a second megatsunami that covered 386,000 miles of land was caused by an asteroid that carved a 69-mile-wide Pohl Crater. The massive diameter of the Pohl Crater leads researchers to believe that the asteroid that created it was about the same size as the 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The US Air Force has unveiled a new stealth bomber that is being described as the "most advanced military aircraft ever built".

The United States Air Force has unveiled its first new bomber in more than 30 years, the B-21 Raider, developed by Northrop Grumman, is a stealth bomber that was recently showcased at an invite-only event. An Air Force spokesperson informed Air Force Magazine of the unveiling and said that the aircraft isn't expected to take to the skies until next year.

Notably, Northrop Grumman will be conducting its own unveiling of the aircraft on December 2, and the event was streamed to YouTube. During the presentation, Northrop Grumman claimed that the B-21 Raider is the "world's first sixth-generation aircraft", putting it far beyond any other current aircraft in terms of capabilities than what is known to the public.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope still continues to impress the public with its incredible images of the cosmos, as the space telescope has focused its highly advanced instruments on the Pillars of Creation once again.

The new image was posted to the European Space Agency (ESA) website on December 1 and reveals the most-detailed image of the iconic Pillars of Creation taken so far. Located between 6,500 to 7,000 light-years away from Earth, the Pillars of Creation are an iconic location in the cosmos as it was famously captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. NASA's Webb is now performing follow-up observations, comparing new photos to Hubble's to show the difference in observational capabilities.

The Pillars of Creation has already been imaged by Webb twice, the first image released by NASA was snapped with Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and can be found below. The second time was on October 30 for Halloween, when NASA and the ESA published an image snapped with Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Both of the images highlighted different aspects of the Pillars of Creation, showcasing its beauty in different wavelengths of light.

SpaceX is making progress toward the first orbital launch of its Starship launch vehicle, as the company recently conducted a successful static fire test.

SpaceX took to its Twitter account to announce that Booster 7 has completed a long-duration static fire test that featured eleven Raptor 2 engines. The static fire test was successful and a step forward in SpaceX's journey to getting Starship to orbit, and it may very well be the second to last static fire test the company conducts before the orbital test launch.

SpaceX started the test at 2:42 pm on November 30, blasting 11 Raptor 2 engines for just 13 seconds. This latest test featured fewer Raptor 2 engines than SpaceX's previous static fire test on November 14, which featured 14 Raptor 2 engines. Notably, Booster 7 has a total of 33 Raptor 2 engines, which SpaceX is yet to test all at once. Presumably, Elon Musk's company will test all 33 of the next-generation engines before attempting the first orbital test flight for Starship.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has said during a Neuralink demo that he could have a brain implant now, and no one would even know.

During a Neuralink conference on Wednesday, the Twitter owner took to the stage to deliver several updates on brain implant-company Neuralink, and what it expects to achieve in the near future. Musk, a founder of the brain chip company, said that Neuralink is planning on beginning human trials within the next six months and that the company is currently in conversation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to receive regulatory approval.

Musk wrote on Twitter that internal testing at Neuralink has pushed the technology to the point where the team is confident the "Neuralink device is ready for humans". While on stage, the Tesla CEO said that he could have a Neuralink brain implant installed into his head "right now" and "you couldn't even know. I mean, hypothetically." Musk added that for one of Neuralink's future demos, he will have one installed and reveal it on stage, making an open pledge to be one of the first adopters of the experimental technology.

Neuralink announced at its event in California on Wednesday that it's preparing to implant its brain chip into human patients.

Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded brain-computer interface company, recently conducted a "show and tell" event this past Wednesday where the company gave an update on its status and its plans for the future. Musk appeared on stage to present the overall summary of the event, giving the goal of the product, what Neuralink wants to solve in the future, and where it expects to be within the next six months.

According to Musk, who wrote on Twitter, Neuralink has reached a level in internal testing that the team is confident that "the Neuralink device is ready for humans", and that the company is currently engaged in discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to get regulatory approval. Now, Neuralink has set a target of the first human trials beginning within the next six months.

NASA's Orion spacecraft is currently conducting extremely valuable scientific operations while orbiting the Moon, and while it was at its further point from Earth, it snapped a photograph of our pale blue dot.

NASA writes on its blog that the Artemis 1 mission is proceeding as expected, with the team recently pushing the "go" button for Orion to exit its distant retrograde orbit, where it has been since November 25, to begin its journey back to Earth. Throughout its time orbiting the Moon, teams back at NASA were and still are collecting valuable flight test data that will be used to reduce the risk of danger for future crewed flights.

Additionally, teams on-ground monitoring Orion are learning how the spacecraft operates and performs while doing what it was designed to do. While Orion was at its furthest point from Earth, at a distance of 268,563 miles, which broke the record for the furthest spacecraft built for humans has traveled, it snapped several photographs of Earth and the Moon. In one of the images, it appears the Moon is eclipsing Earth.

Scientists have analyzed a meteorite that fell to Earth in 2020, and it's been discovered that it contains two minerals that aren't found on Earth.

Meteorites fall to Earth everyday, but since the majority of the planet is covered in water, most of the space rock fragments fall into the ocean, and the remaining fragments that are lucky enough to make it to the surface are rarely found. However, in 2020 a meteorite fell in Somalia and was handed over to researchers for analysis.

According to a press release, the meteorite weighing about 2.5 ounces, was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, which was later concluded to be an Iron IAB complex meteorite, which is a space rock composed of meteoritic iron and silicate inclusions. Typically it takes quite some time for scientists to confirm a new mineral, but the process was sped up as the two new minerals identified in the meteorite had already been synthetically created on Earth before.

NASA has taken to its social media and its blog to share an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the globular star cluster Pismis 26.

Pismis 26 is a globular star cluster, which is a region of space that contains a stable, tightly bound cluster of anywhere between tens of thousands to millions of stars. Pismis 26 is approximately 23,000 light-years from Earth and resides within the constellation Scorpius near the galactic bulge. Notably, the globular star cluster was first discovered in 1959 at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico.

Furthermore, the location of Pismis 26 features a high density of dust that results in a process called "reddening" to occur. NASA explains that dust scatters short wavelengths of blue light, allowing longer wavelength red light to pass through, causing the image to be distorted with a reddening effect.

Officials report the world's largest active volcano Mauna Loa, located on the Big Island of Hawaii, has erupted, marking the very first eruption in the last 38 years.

The US Geological Survey has issued a warning to 200,000 residents that they must prepare for the worst-case scenario as volcanic eruptions can change extremely quickly, "and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly". Officials have issued warnings to residents that they need to prepare to evacuate from the region if reports indicate that lava flows are heading in their direction.

As for the eruption itself, the US Geological Survey said the eruption was first detected on Sunday, with the lead scientist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory explaining that air quality across the Big Island may deteriorate over the course of two weeks if the volcano's historical patterns are anything to follow.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that it lost communication with the Orion capsule on November 23, but everything seems to still be in working order.

According to the announcement made on NASA's social media channels as well as its blog on its website, NASA's Mission Control Center located at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston lost communication with the Orion capsule for 47 minutes as officials were unable to send or receive data from the spacecraft.

The space agency writes that teams have conducted a reconfiguration of the communication link between the Deep Space Network and Orion, with NASA writing that these repairs were "successful", and that an investigation has been launched into what caused the issue. Additionally, NASA explains that teams are currently sifting through data from the communication outage event to assist in finding the root cause, and add to the overall assessment.

NASA launched the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, and as Orion is heading on a journey around the Moon, officials have inspected the launch pad for any potential damage caused by the rocket's lift off.

The successful launch made the SLS rocket the world's most powerful rocket, with nearly 9 million pounds of thrust. On November 16, the SLS pushed the Orion spacecraft on its reconnaissance journey around the Moon, marking the first stage of NASA's Artemis missions, which will put US citizens back on the surface of Earth's neighbor. NASA declared the launch a success, and is now inspecting the launch pad to see how it can minimize any damage for future launches.

NASA's Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, in a press conference with reporters on Monday, November 21, said the damage caused by Artemis 1's liftoff is isolated to just a few different areas of the launch pad, and that the vital parts of the launch pad weren't damaged. Sarafin said that while Artemis 1 used water suppression to reduce the sound, as well as the damage from the rocket's launch, the force generated by the rocket peeled the paint off the launch pad.

A top secret US military plane has passed a record number of days in Earth's orbit while on its mysterious mission.

The X-37B space plane took off from Earth on May 17, 2020, and according to reports, the US military's top-secret vehicle successfully landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, November 12, completing a record 908 days in orbit. The vehicle named Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6) is an unnamed space plane that is operated by the US Space Force, which placed several classified experiments aboard the vehicle as well as some that are known to the public.

One of those experiments is the Naval Research Laboratory's Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module, which is an experiment designed to harness solar rays outside of Earth's atmosphere and transmit power back down to Earth's surface in radio frequency microwave energy. This experiment was proven successful. Another publicly known experiment is the US Air Force Academy's FalconSat-8, which was deployed by OTV-6 in October 2021 and is still available for use today.

NASA has taken to its blog and social channels to share yet another phenomenal image snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

This time around, NASA's newest and most-powerful space telescope has honed its sensitive instruments on a protostar shrouded in a dark cloud - L1527. Webb's infrared instruments, capable of peering through the thick interstellar clouds, revealed new details to astronomers, giving insight into the early formation of stars and the strange shapes that they make during their formation. Above is a protostar shrouded within a dark cloud of material feeding the young star's growth.

The incredible colors seen above and below the star, which is at the "neck" of the hourglass, are a result of celestial "burps" from the star consuming the surrounding cloud material, and ejecting it out. The blue dust represents an area where the dust is the thinnest, while the red color represents an area where the dust is the thickest.

NASA's Artemis 1 rocket has launched the Orion capsule on its nearly a month-long mission around the Moon and back to Earth.

The Space Launch System's rocket lifted off from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, carrying the Orion capsule up in Earth's atmosphere and eventually splitting off, so the spacecraft was able to put itself in place for its long journey around the Moon. Shortly after the rocket launch, Orion performed several maneuvers to put it on track to orbit the Moon, and some of those maneuvers were raising its orbit as well as orientating itself correctly.

Orion is now on a 25-day journey around the Moon, where it will travel more than 250,000 miles to reach Earth's closest neighbor, slingshot itself around the rock, and return back to Earth at extremely high speeds. Within 10 hours after launch, the Orion spacecraft had already covered 57,000 miles as its, traveling at about 5,460 miles per hour. When it was approximately 58,000 miles away from Earth, the small spacecraft used its cameras located on its solar panels and inside the cabin to snap some photographs.

The rollercoaster continues with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter, as the billionaire has recently given an ultimatum to all employees.

Musk has sent out a company-wide email to all employees of the social media platform that gave employees a choice between accepting that they will be working long hours at high intensity with only "exceptional performance" constituting a "passing grade". The email also outlined what Musk deems as building "Twitter 2.0," and that engineers will have more of a say at the company over Design and Product positions as Musk believes that at its hear, Twitter is a "software and servers company".

The email was sent out on November 15 and states that anyone who doesn't accept these new working conditions by clicking the link provided in the email by 5 pm on November 17 will receive three months of severance. Musk titled the email "A Fork in the Road" and recently announced that Twitter will be relaunching the divisive Twitter Blue subscription service that caused the platform to be littered with accounts appearing official through the new paid-for verification badge, essentially impersonating public figures, celebrities, companies and more.

Only moments ago the Artemis 1 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, marking the official launch of NASA's milestone effort to get humans back to the Moon.

At the time of reporting, its been six minutes since Artemis 1 lifted off from its launch pad, and so far, NASA has reported nothing but healthy news for Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Listening to the livestream on NASA's YouTube channel, NASA's commentator is reporting that Artemis 1 is appearing "nominal" with the Space Launch System's core stage main engine cutoff is complete and the core stage has separated from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage as well as the Orion spacecraft.

NASA reports that the next major milestone will be reached 18 minutes after the initial launch, which will be the deployment of Orion's solar arrays. For those that don't know, the Artemis 1 mission will include Orion, which was aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, traveling 280,000 miles from Earth as well as 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. Artemis 1 is NASA's first mission in its journey to get the US back on the Moon, and the mission is essentially reconnaissance-based and is an overall demonstration that NASA can safely make the journey.

A new article published in Nature has revealed that new models from the United Nations (UN) indicate that on November 15, the world population reached 8 billion people.

The article published on November 15 states that it was just twelve years ago that Earth's population was sitting at 7 billion people, and less than 100 years ago, the population was at just 2 billion people. With the release of the new models, the UN also released its updated predictions for what it thinks Earth's population will be by 2100, and according to its updated chart, as seen above, the UN believes that by 2100 Earth will support 10.4 billion people but around 2075 there will begin a plateau that will eventuate into shrinking.

Notably, officials such as Patrick Gerland, who leads demographic work at the UN Population Division in New York City, have said that while it may be a grim thought or a "crude approximation" that Earth's population growth will begin to slow, it's more a "symbolic finding", while simultaneously admitting that there is no way to know for sure that November 15 was the day that Earth officially passed 8 billion people, as some locations around the world are blind spots the UN struggle to get reliable data from. Those locations are countries such as Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.

NASA has given an update ahead of its highly anticipated Artemis 1 launch that was scheduled in for this week.

It was only a few days ago that NASA gave an update on the scheduled launch date for the Artemis 1 rocket as well as its health status update after it survived the chaotic winds of Hurricane Nicole. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with the Orion capsule were left out on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and according to NASA reports the rocket endured the storm and no significant damage was caused.

NASA determined that its initial two-hour launch window beginning at 1:04 a.m. EST, Wednesday, November 16 was still feasible, and on a November 14 update the space agency remains confidnet with it writing in a new blog post that Artemis 1 managers have convened on Monday and decided to give a "go" ahead to proceed to toward launch on November 16. This updated decision by managers came after engineers scoured the SLS rocket for any damage while other teams tested engines, conducted risk assessment tests, and much more.

Hawaii has fire ant infestations, and now officials are saying that it's becoming so bad that it's changing the way of life for residents.

Fire ants were first detected in Hawaii in 1999, and according to reports from SFGATE, officials on Kauai are asking the public to check their properties as the island suffers through its biggest infestation to date following the discovery of millions of fire ants at Wailua River State Park. According to Heather Forester, who works for Hawaii Ant Lab, "They're changing the way of life for our residents here in Hawaii. You used to be able to go out hiking and go to the beach. They can rain down on people and sting them."

Forester spoke to SFGATE and said that the Ant Lab is getting lots of reports of stinging occurring while people sleep are asleep in their beds. "We have a lot of reports of them stinging people while they sleep in their beds," she said. Fire ant stings can cause red, swollen welts that can be extremely itchy and cause a burning sensation. BusinessInsider reports that depending on the severity of the bite, fire ant stings can also cause sore pus-filled lesions that can last "for weeks".