Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 53

The Blue Marble photograph, taken by the Apollo 17 spacecraft on December 7, 1972, is an iconic and inspiring image.

The photograph shows the Earth in all its beauty and majesty, with the deep blue of the oceans, the white of the clouds, and the browns, greens, and whites of the continents all visible. The photograph was taken during the final moon mission of the Apollo program, as the spacecraft was departing from the moon's orbit. As the spacecraft flew around the far side of the moon, the astronauts were able to capture the first-ever photograph of the Earth that showed the entire planet.

The Blue Marble photograph has been credited with helping to spark the modern environmental movement. Seeing the Earth from space, with no political boundaries or other distinctions visible, gives a sense of the planet's fragility and interconnectedness. This has inspired many people to work towards protecting the environment and preserving the planet for future generations.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is more than 30 years old but is still producing jaw-dropping images of the cosmos.

NASA has taken to its website to showcase an image of star cluster NGC 2002, located 160,00 light years from Earth, within the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The space agency explains that NGC 2002 is approximately 30 light-years in diameter and is relatively young at just 18 million years old.

NGC 2002 contains about 1,100 stars, and according to NASA, the star cluster is an "open star cluster", which means that it has "low star density" and features an irregular shape as a result of the overall low gravitational attraction from the stars within the region. The opposite of an open star cluster is a globular cluster, which is when all of the stars are clumped tightly together, making it sometimes impossible for astronomers to observe individual stars.

NASA has taken to its social channels and website to provide an update on its Orion spacecraft, which is currently preparing for its last maneuver before heading back home to Earth.

The space agency has explained in its Artemis 1 Flight Day 19 update via its website that on December 4 the Orion spacecraft performed a trajectory correction burn that put the spacecraft on-route to make its closest approach to the Moon before it began its long journey back to Earth. According to NASA, the Orion spacecraft will come within just 79.2 miles of the surface of the Moon, with the space agency posting a video to its Artemis Twitter account showing Orion on its way to making its closest approach yet.

NASA continues to explain that on the same day, Orion will perform a powered fly burn at 10:43 am CST, which will last 3 minutes and 27 seconds. This burn will change the velocity of the spacecraft by approximately 655 mph (961 feet per second) and will be the maneuver of the mission before Orion heads back to Earth. NASA writes that on its way back, Orion will make slight trajectory adjustments, but nothing major.

Researchers are testing the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS), and according to a recent press release, the new scientific instrument has peered into the heart of a distant galaxy and captured its center in mesmerizing detail.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument is a 27-foot infrared space telescope that's installed on the ESO's Very Large Telescope located in northern Chile and a part of its first set of test observations, which were completed back in February of this year, ERIS has imaged a distant galaxy called NGC 1097, located approximately 45 million light-years from Earth.

NGC 1097 is located within the constellation Fornax, and ERIS was able to capture the inner ring of the galaxy, revealing the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. The large inner ring features stellar nurseries, represented by the bright spots located along its edge. The ESO writes that NGC 1097's supermassive black hole is feeding off its surroundings.

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.