Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 56

NASA has chosen 16 individuals that will take part in a nine-month study focused on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) sightings. A UAP is an aerial event unable to be classified as an aircraft or any form of natural phenomenon. The project is expected to cost less than $100,000.

Specifically, unclassified information from civilian and commercial entities will be used for researchers to analyze. This is the US space agency's first step towards being able to accurately identify unknown sightings in the skies above us. Hopefully, NASA will be able to create a roadmap for more streamlined UAP data analysis in the future.

Besides national security interests, NASA aims at keeping aircraft in space while in the air, especially with pilots reportedly seeing UFOs. Besides university astrophysicists exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the US government has slowly opened up information to the public. The Pentagon declassified some UAP videos and the US government released a UFO report.

During the Army Futures Command (AFC) Project Convergence, there was much excitement about the potential capability of autonomous Black Hawk helicopters. Following previous successful test flights, the US Army plans to continue towards a pilotless flight experience. There is a superior operational advantage to fly these helicopters autonomously in a variety of environments and military scenarios.

Here is what Lt. Gen Thomas Todd, chief innovation officer at Army Futures Command, told reporters during the Project Convergence conference: "My requirement was 'don't even bring it if it can't be flown fully autonomous. The point is that we have to take a step every year. We have to push ourselves to take steps."

Researchers want ALIAS to be able to carry out the entire flight mission, including take-offs and landings - and have the ability to overcome aircraft system failure or any other unforeseen contingency. There also is the potential of flying resupply missions into contested battlefields without posing risk to human pilots and flight crew.

NASA has taken some time to explain if climate change is influencing the power of hurricanes as well as coastal flooding.

The space agency has taken to its NASA Climate Twitter account to share a video that poses the question "Is hurricanes getting stronger?" to NASA climate scientist Mara Cordero-Fuentes, who explains that hurricanes won't reach Category 6 due to physics, but there will be an increased number of category 3/4/5 hurricanes across the Atlantic every season.

Cordero-Fuente explains that climate change, and in particular global warming, is influencing the rate of hurricanes because the warmer the water, the stronger the hurricane system will be, giving it more energy. In short, yes, hurricanes are getting stronger as officials are noticing more and more tropical cyclones reaching higher categories.

Astronomers have used the instruments aboard NASA and the European Space Agency's James Webb Space Telescope to peer into the early universe to make an exciting discovery.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken to its website to detail a new discovery by Webb, with astronomers identifying an extremely red quasar called SDSS J165202.64+172852.3 (SDSS) that existed in the early universe - approximately 11.5 billion years ago. The ESA explains that quasars are very rare and are the nucelli of an active galaxy. The above image showcases Webb's observations of the extremely red quasar SDSS and how a cluster of massive galaxies is forming around the quasar.

Previously astronomers speculated, based on the amount of energy outflows from the quasar, that its host galaxy was merging with some other partner. What they didn't expect, and what Webb revealed, was that the merger would feature at least three galaxies swirling around the quasar. The ESA writes that the observations allowed astronomers to map the motion of the surrounding material around the quasar to determine that SDSS was part of a dense knot of galaxy formation.

A former US Navy pilot has sat down for an interview with Joe Rogan and explained his experience with a UFO while being airborne.

The former Navy fighter pilot, Lt. Ryan Graves, explains that his squadron began seeing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or UFOs, to the best of his knowledge, in late 2013 or early 2014. Graves says that he began witnessing these objects when he and his squadron would fly out to the training area like any other day and that the upgraded radar system identified several different contacts, which immediately became an issue.

Graves explains that some of the objects coming up on his multiple radar systems were perfectly stationary in 130/140 mph wind and that these objects showed no signs of energy emittance in any direction. The former Navy fighter pilot said that the first time the radar detected these objects, he believed the radar was malfunctioning and showing objects that weren't really there. This was his belief until a fighter pilot managed to get close enough to one of the objects to confirm its existence and rule out any radar malfunction.

NASA has taken to its YouTube channel to release a phenomenal set of images that make up a twelve-year timelapse of the entire sky.

The space agency took to its NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) YouTube channel to share a video that details the many changes in the universe over a small period of time. The images were captured by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) space telescope, which was originally launched in 2009. NASA's NEOWISE space telescope was launched to study the universe beyond our Solar System, and the data it collected allowed researchers to create a fantastically valuable view of how objects beyond our solar system have moved and changed over the years.

NEOWISE has mapped the locations of hundreds of millions of objects across the cosmos and the amount of infrared light each of those objects is emitting. With this data, researchers are able to see how objects change with time as the amount of infrared light is reduced/increased. Notably, an entire sky's worth of data is acquired every six months by the telescope, and during its time mapping the entire sky NEOWISE gathered eighteen of these maps, which scientists then stitched together to create the incredible timelapse.

NASA's now 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope has been snapping photographs of the asteroid NASA recently collided its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into.

The new set of images has been released on NASA's social channels as well as its blog, where the space agency explains that Hubble has conducted repeated observations of the target asteroid Dimorphos over the last couple of weeks, and with these observations, researchers have been able to present a much more accurate picture of the debris caused by DART's impact. According to NASA, Hubble's observations showcase the debris declining in brightness and expanding out deeper into space, which was expected.

After the initial impact, Hubble has made eighteen observations of DART's aftermath, and from those observations, researchers identified something unexpected - a twin tail that formed between October 2 and October 8. NASA explains that the twin tail is made of ejected material following DART's impact and that similar behavior is iconic for active comets and asteroids, which Dimorphos is neither of. The space agency writes that the relationship between the comet-like tail and other features post-DART impact is still unknown and that teams are currently working on this to understand how the second tail formed.

German automaker Audi will work with Krajete, a company specializing in green technology, in an effort to filter CO2 out of ambient air. The modular design of the filtration unit ensures it can be expanded and is suitable for long-term scaling based on the facility's needs.

Both companies are working together at a plant in Austria, with an inorganic filter material used to help maximize the effectiveness of direct air capturing (DAC) technologies. The ambient air to be filtered typically doesn't need to undergo a pre-dry process, which greatly improves efficiency while reducing costs.

The Austrian plant can filter 500 tons of CO2 per year, though researchers plan to add another module before the end of the year - and that will drastically increase processing capabilities up to 1,000 tons of CO2 per year. The cost of sequestration is kept under control because both companies were able to identify an optimal flow rate - so the process runs at ambient pressure before the absorber materials and physical conditions were carefully monitored.

The accounts from the pilots come from former FBI agent and host of the Discovery+ show UFO Witness, Ben Hansen, who managed to get his hands-on new footage along with air traffic control recordings.

The accounts from the various pilots come from Southwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and others between the dates of August 6 and September 23. In one instance of a UFO sighting, a former F-18 pilot in the Marine Corps, Mark Hulsey, said that he was observing multiple aircraft flying above him, with the former military pilot first reporting seeing three objects while flying a charter jet off the Los Angeles coast. Hulsey then called back nearly 30 minutes later to report that there was now seven aircraft flying anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 feet above him.

The compiled accounts from the pilots detail strange lights being spotted, with some pilots reporting them as possible aircraft. Notably, these strange lights were spotted by "upwards of 15 different commercial flights. And at least six pilots are willing to go on record with their names and everything if asked to do so by any investigative agencies. In this case, we have a global phenomenon from as far west as Japan, to as far east as possibly Miami. Whatever it is, pilots are seeing it from halfway across the world," said Hansen.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has pointed its advanced instruments at the iconic Pillars of Creation.

In 1995, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with an image. The now 30-year-old space telescope revisited the Pillars of Creation back in 2014 to provide a sharper and wider view, which produced an image that may be recognizable. Now, Webb has visited the Pillars of Creation and imaged it in infrared red, showcasing an extremely detailed landscape of dense clouds of gas and dust. Located 6,500 light years away from Earth, the Pillars of Creation are a breeding ground for new stars which are forming within and around the pillars.

NASA explains on its blog that Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) was used to capture the incredible image, and by using infrared, NASA is able to identify many more newly formed stars, along with more precise estimations for the amount of gas and dust within the region. The space agency explains that newly formed stars steal the show in the below image, which can be identified by their diffraction spikes.

In September, researchers at Kyiv's Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) released a report that detailed multiple UFO sightings over Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv.

The report described a significant number of objects that the researchers say "nature is not clear", with the inclusion of "phantom" and "cosmic" UFOs. Phantom UFOs appeared completely black against the background sky, and cosmic UFOs were brighter than the background sky. According to the report, the researchers "see them everywhere", and they ranged in size from 10 to 40 feet wide. Additionally, the scientists recorded speeds of up to 33,000 mph, which is approximately twice as fast as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The report has sparked interest from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), which launched an investigation into the report from the MAO, and according to the panel behind the investigation, there were significant errors within the initial report when it came to interpreting distances and the processing of relevant data. Furthermore, the NASU panel concluded that the report didn't even meet the professional requirements for publication.

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has snapped a phenomenal image of two blue blobs of light hovering in Earth's atmosphere.

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth at an altitude of approximately 250 miles, giving the astronauts aboard the floating laboratory a fantastic vantage point to view Earth from. While passing over Southeast Asia, approximately near the Vietnamese coast and Thailand, an ISS astronaut snapped an image that showcases two unrelated natural phenomena happening to occur at the same time.

The blob of blue light seen at the bottom of the photograph is a very large lightning strike that happened over the Gulf of Thailand. Seeing lightning strikes happen from 250 miles up is typically quite difficult, but this lightning strike seemed to have occurred within a gap in the clouds that were also located fairly high up. The strike itself illuminated the clouds, which created the incredible blue color that is seen in the image.

A military aircraft has collided with a residential building in Russia, killing at least thirteen individuals and injuring many others.

According to multiple reports, some from Russian news agencies, the aircraft was confirmed to be a Russian military plane that experienced a malfunction with one of the engines, preventing it from gaining altitude. Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed the aircraft to be a Su-34 fighter-bomber, and the crash occurred shortly after the military jet took off from the Yuzhny airbase in southern Russia. Officials say the aircraft was performing a training flight and was carrying a payload that detonated shortly after it impacted the residential building.

Video's and images were promptly uploaded to social media on Monday, with one of the images showing a pilot of the aircraft safely ejecting before the plane hit the buildings. Notably, both pilots managed to safely eject the plane, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. Russian news agency Tass quoted the Russian Emergencies ministry, which said that several bodies were found under the buildings crumbling stories, three of which were children. The crash injured an additional nineteen people, per Russia's health ministry.

Heavy equipment manufacturer Bobcat is embracing autonomous technology in its effort to make next-generation products. Part of that effort included an investment in Greenzie, a company that just received $8M in corporate funding from Atlanta Ventures and Bobcat.

Greenzie specializes in autonomous software for outdoor robotics and understands its solutions could help reduce the burden of an ongoing labor shortage.

The company focuses specifically on software, so should be able to stretch its latest cash injection longer than if it had a physical product to manufacture, test, and ship. Bobcat can greatly benefit from a valued software partner uninterested in making its own hardware.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin campus will launch a five-year study surrounding the creation and safe operation of a robot network on campus. Spot from Boston Dynamics and a model from Unitree will be used as part of the project.

Once ready for testing, people on the UT Austin campus can use an app to order free supplies, which robots will deliver to designated spots on campus. Throughout each delivery journey, researchers are curious to see how pedestrians on campus react to the robots.

Between observations and interviews, researchers want to gain insight into how humans feel about the robots sharing the world alongside them. This type of insight will prove beneficial to robot designers working on public-facing products and services.

Autonomous aviation company Xwing will work with NASA to create an infrastructure to support autonomous aircraft safety systems. Most hear NASA and naturally think of space exploration, but the agency might be able to facilitate competing aviation companies to collaborate on certain projects.

Xwing ground and flight operations data will be shared in the US National Airspace System (NAS), which NASA will provide risk assessments for. The SWS project also has a concentrated focus on the changes in aviation that rely on digital and data-driven information - and NASA will keep aviation safety at the forefront during the digital transformation.

If autonomous flights become more common, ensuring the industry has pilot/operator certifications, a new infrastructure, and safety data are all super important considerations. Flight hazards such as vision-based landing and runway detection will be important for safe processes involving aircraft localization.

On October 9, astronomers' telescopes detected what is now considered to be the brightest flash of light ever observed.

Researchers say that the flash of light lasted for hundreds of seconds and was a burst of gamma rays likely caused by a collapsing star that transformed into a black hole. Notably, when a star explodes in a supernova, it can collapse into a black hole, and the leftover matter from the explosion then forms an accretion disk around the black hole. This matter eventually falls inside of the black hole and causes a large jet of energy to be shot out at speeds close to the speed of light. Some instances of this gamma-ray jet have reached 99.99% the speed of light.

Furthermore, the flash of light released photons that carried a record 18 teraelectronvolts of energy, which is 18 with 12 zeros behind it. Such power was even felt on Earth, with reports indicating that long-wave radio communications in Earth's ionosphere have been impacted by the flash. Astrophysicist Brendan O'Connor recently spoke to AFP and explained that he took observations of the event last Friday and found that the event itself occurred 2.4 billion light years away from Earth.

Russia announced its launch of a small military satellite on Saturday, October 15, which will be controlled by Russia's Ministry of Defense.

Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, which is the equivalent of NASA, took to Telegram to announce that an Angara rocket launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia Saturday at 3:55 p.m. The rocket was carrying a small satellite that the agency is calling EMKA-3, which was assigned the serial number Kosmos-2560. According to reports, the satellite is estimated to be approximately 330-pounds and is on its way to a sun-synchronous orbit of approximately 190 miles above Earth.

EverydayAstronaut has reported that not much is known about the EMKA series of satellites, with rumors indicating that they are optical reconnaissance spacecraft. However, that has hardly been confirmed by Roscosmos or Russia's Ministry of Defense, and it's likely to stay that way. Notably, Russia has now launched three of these EMKA satellites, the first was launched in 2018 but eventually fell back to Earth. Russia followed up by launching two more in September 2021 and April 2022. However, both of those reportedly fell back to Earth after a month of service.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has conducted yet another safe transportation of International Space Station astronauts back down to Earth.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronaut climbed aboard the Dragon spacecraft and safely touched back down on Earth last Friday, landing safely off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, wrapped up their nearly six-month stay aboard the ISS on October 12 when they climbed aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

The spacecraft successfully deployed its parachutes throughout its descent and splashed down in the ocean at 4:55 p.m. EDT. During the astronauts' time on the ISS, they traveled 72,168,935 miles, completing 170 days aboard the floating laboratory and 2,720 orbits around Earth. During their mission on the ISS, the astronauts completed various scientific and maintenance tests as well as technology demonstrations, some of which they brought back to Earth for further analysis.

NASA announced on September 27 that it had successfully collided a small spacecraft into a distant asteroid in the world's first planetary defense mission.

The success of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) marked the world's very first planetary defense mission, where the orbit of a planetary object was successfully altered, meaning Earth basically proved it has the capabilities of changing the orbit of distant objects. Famed astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on PBS NewsHour to discuss the mission and the implications of its success.

Tyson said that humans have known about the risk of asteroids for many years and that he is surprised that a mission such as DART has taken so long to happen, considering the overall risks asteroids pose toward Earth. However, Tyson says, "better late than never", and went on to explain that the DART team selected a small 500-foot-wide asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid, hence its definition of a moonlet. The smaller asteroid named Dimorphos has a very well-understood orbit, and after the DART collision, astronomers are able to check how much of that orbit has changed based on the impact.