Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 60

The official landfall confirmation comes from the National Hurricane Center Twitter account that posted at 3:05 pm EDT that Hurricane Ian has made landfall in Florida.

Shortly after the announcement from the National Hurricane Center, which stated that the "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane had made landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida, NASA switched on its live stream to showcase the event from space. Officials reported Hurricane Ian brought wind speeds of 150 mph to the area it made landfall and that over the coming days, it's expected to move over central Florida, with forecasts estimating it will emerge over the western Atlantic by late Thursday.

NASA's video stream showcased just how large-scale a major storm can be, with the incredible views being captured by the cameras and astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In the days leading up to Hurricane Ian making landfall, astronauts aboard the ISS snapped photos of the major storm rolling into the region as it was gaining strength just south of Cuba. Officials warned Florida residents in the days before landfall was made to evacuate as Ian will cause rain, flooding, and destruction.

Reports surfaced on September 27 that a key gas pipeline between Russia and Germany had sprung a leak resulting in methane gas spilling into the Baltic Sea.

The two pipelines in question are called Nord Stream 1, and Nord Stream 2, and both run underwater in the Baltic Sea, providing gas to Germany from Russia. Sweden and Denmark have reported that a new major leak has been found, bringing the total number of identified leaks to four as of September 29. European leaders have accused Russia of sabotaging its own gas pipeline in an attempt to use gas resources as a weapon against the West.

BBC reports that European leaders have come together to agree that if any deliberate attack was discovered on either of the gas pipelines, it would be met with the "strongest possible response". San Francisco company Planet operates approximately two-hundred Dove satellites, which are small shoebox-sized Earth-facing satellites used to capture images of the Earth's surface. One of the Dove satellites captured the above image showcasing methane gas spilling into the Baltic Sea from the breached pipelines.

NASA has pulled off a world's first by successfully colliding a man-made spacecraft into a distant asteroid with the goal of altering its orbit.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) recently struck the binary asteroid system Didymos-Dimorphos, located approximately seven million miles from Earth. The DART spacecraft impacted the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, which orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos. NASA's goal was to prove that a spacecraft approximately the size of a vending machine, when traveling at extremely high speeds, is capable of changing the orbit of an asteroid - the world's first planetary defense demonstration.

Astronomers on Earth gazed up at the asteroid system on the day of the impact, looking for any changes in the asteroid. Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi live-streamed his observations via the Virtual Telescope project, which showcased Dimorphos gaining in brightness following the impact of the DART spacecraft. The above GIF showcases the increasing brightness, which, according to Masi, completely exceeded his expectations for the event.

Researchers from Oregon State University want to find out if robots can improve the mental and physical wellbeing of veterans. The university is working with the Edward C. Allworth Veterans' Home in Oregon on a project with federal funding from the National Science Foundation's National Robotics Initiative.

During the initial phase of research, OSU engineers want to analyze physical therapy programs and cognitive exercise for veterans, which can be led by robots. Assuming the robot is streamlined and easy to operate, they tend to be extremely more immersive than something on a laptop, tablet, or a virtual reality system.

Robots have a certain appeal both in the home and in a veterans' home, where it can be used in group sessions - and alleviate nurse and worker burnout. The staff and residents of the veterans' home will be interviewed to figure out what specific needs they have which can be assisted by OSU researchers and their robotic research.

Amazon, the biggest online retailer and No. 2 US private sector employer, continues to expand interest in robots as part of its warehouse automation.

Tasks such as searching the cabinet for the right plate or glass, grabbing it, and successfully retrieving it might not be a big deal for humans - but it's still extremely difficult for robots to complete. However, Amazon researchers are working on robotic pinch grasp, an important aspect of item-specific manipulation.

Here is what Aaron Parness, senior manager for applied science at Amazon Robotics AI, said in a press statement:

Global logistics company DHL has expanded its partnership with Locus Robotics, a company specializing in manufacturing autonomous mobile robots used in warehouses. Wider adoption of AMR technology from Locus will ensure DHL fulfillment centers are able to meet increasing volume - including seasonal shopping demands - as we quickly approach the Christmas holiday shopping season.

The DHL Supply Chain has worked to develop and adopt digitization as the supply chain and logistics industry has undergone continued change. Besides growing orders among shoppers, there is increased pressure for same-day and next-day delivery, which opens the door to logistical headaches. The AMR devices can be deployed based on demand changes or potential staff shortages at each fulfillment location.

DHL announced last year it would bring 2,000 Locus robots to its warehouses throughout 2022 - the autonomous resources help improve employee productivity, reduce employee walking time, and improve worker ergonomics. This relationship initially began in 2017, when Locus Robotics strengthened DHL's piece picking order fulfillment behavior inside of warehouses.

A study on the flooding of Mars titled "Layered subsurface in Utopia Basin of Mars revealed by Zhurong rover radar" has been published in the journal Nature.

China's Mars rover, Zhurong, has used its radar imager to detect evidence of two major floods that likely shaped the Utopia Planitia region the rover has been exploring since it landed on the Red Planet on May 14th, 2021. Its radar imager can see up to 100 meters (328 feet) below Mars' surface using low-frequency radar waves or between 3 and 10 meters (9.8 to 32.8 feet) below the surface with high-frequency radar waves.

Radar signals reflect off subsurface materials, and the radar data reveals the size and ability of the materials to hold electric charges, with stronger radar signals correlating with larger objects. A layer between 10 and 30 meters below the surface likely contains large boulders near the bottom, with smaller rocks that settled on top, as the reflecting signals were stronger the deeper they went.

A research paper on the emergence of life on Earth-like planets titled "Abiogenesis: the Carter argument reconsidered" has been published in the journal International Journal of Astrobiology.

Daniel Whitmire, a retired astrophysicist and current mathematics teacher at the University of Arkansas, has challenged a long-accepted argument by astrophysicist Brandon Carter. Carter argued that the existence of life on Earth is, at best, of neutral value regarding the possibility of life on similar, Earth-like planets elsewhere. In other words, because our awareness of Earth and the life on it hasn't come about by selecting it at random from the collection of all Earth-like planets, Earth and its life can't be considered typical.

However, Whitmire's new theory suggests this is faulty logic. Whitmire used what he calls the conception analogy to show that abiogenesis, the emergence of life from inorganic matter, is likely quite possible on Earth-like planets. Whitmire explained that "one could argue, like Carter, that I exist regardless of whether my conception was hard or easy, and so nothing can be inferred about whether my conception was hard or easy from my existence alone." In this analogy, hard and easy refer to the use or lack of contraception, and both are assigned values in his calculations.

A study on the underground ocean titled "Hydrous peridotitic fragments of Earth's mantle 660 km discontinuity sampled by a diamond" has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Researchers from the Goethe University in Frankfurt have analyzed a rare diamond that formed 660 kilometers (410.1 miles) below the Earth's surface and was sourced from Botswana, Africa. At this depth is the boundary between the lower mantle and the transition zone, the area between Earth's lower and upper mantle. Diamonds from this depth are extremely rare, and the one they found contained numerous inclusions of ringwoodite, the most common mineral at this depth.

The ringwoodite inclusions have high water content and provide evidence that the planet's water cycle includes the interior of the Earth, as slabs of the mantle shift and allow deep-sea sediments to work their way deeper into the Earth, taking water with them. The mineral content of the transition zone indicates it is capable of absorbing six times the amount of water found in the oceans above, but it wasn't known until now if it did actually store any of that water.

NASA recently announced its successfully collided its DART spacecraft into a target asteroid and right before the collision the spacecraft sent back these images.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has been deemed a success in terms of achieving collision with an asteroid located about seven million miles from Earth with a human-made spacecraft. The DART mission is the world's very first planetary defense mission with the goal of demonstrating that an asteroid can be deflected with a spacecraft using a kinetic technique. Dimorphos, the target asteroid, is actually a moonlet, which is the smaller of the two that make up the binary asteroid system.

Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid Didymos and NASA's goal with DART was to show that Dimorphos' orbit can be changed. The DART spacecraft was equipped with the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation, or DRACO, which recorded the entire journey to the asteroid, including the final moments before impact. It should be noted that DART was traveling at a ridiculous speed of 14,000 mph when it collided into the surface of Dimorphos, which resulted in the final image seen below failing to fully send back to Earth before the spacecraft was destroyed.

NASA has taken to its social channels to announce that the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope teamed up for a galactic group project.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has posted to its website detailing the group project that has honed in on the spiral galaxy known as IC 5332, which resides approximately 29 million light years away from Earth within the constellation Sculptor. As explained by the ESA, the above image was captured with Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), showcasing the spiral galaxies' symmetry due to it appearing face-on to Earth.

It should be noted that the MIRI instrument operates only 7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature, and that MIRI does require this to capture the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. An example of this requirement is Hubble's inability to observe the mid-infrared spectrum as its mirrors aren't cool enough. If researchers attempted to view that spectrum, their observations would be dominated by radiation from the mirrors themselves, hence MIRI's extremely low operating temperature.

Picking up sustained wind speeds of 120 mph, Hurricane Ian pounded the western tip of Cuba with incredibly strong winds and is now making its way toward Florida.

According to reports from AccuWeather, Hurricane Ian has already become the strongest storm to make landfall in Cuba since 2017, and now the major hurricane has picked up intensity growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 4 that is currently traveling over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Meteorologists expect Ian to make landfall along the west coast of Florida on Wednesday during the late afternoon, hence the warnings that have already been sent out to residents in the danger-zone area that stretches from Tampa to Fort Myers.

Reports indicate that Ian will lose some intensity after breaking into a Category 4 storm as it will experience wind shear, which will disrupt the wind speed. However, AccuWeather forecasters still recommend Florida residents that are deciding to stay within the evacuation zone to prepare for a full-force major hurricane that will bring flooding, rain, high-speed winds, and likely coastal waters rising.

A US intelligence agency has pulled down its newly updated logo as it realized it contained a depiction of a UFO, or more accurately, an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP).

As reported by CyberScoop, the US intelligence agency is the main aviation component and is called the National Intelligence Manager for the Air Domain, which serves under the Director of National Intelligence as its principal adviser on air domain issues. The US intelligence agency, also called NIM-Aviation, is the leading intelligence community in the analysis, identification, and integration of intelligence within the air domain. The report revealed that NIM-Aviation changed its official seal to an image that showcased a Russian fighter jet and a UFO.

When the public caught wind of this change, many believed it was a joke of some kind, that was until a spokesperson for the National Intelligence Manager for the Air Domain informed Cyberscoop that it had mistakenly posted an unofficial and incorrect logo. It's not known when the logo was first updated but reports indicate that it may have been posted as early as Saturday night as ufologist Jeremy Corbell tweeted out, "Not a bad new logo for the National Intelligence Manager for Aviation. A Lazar UFO in the official seal? Hahahhahaha. Radical. I still can't believe they did this".

In a seemingly never-ending story of delays and postponing, NASA has rolled back its Artemis 1 rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that its team decided to roll back the Artemis 1 Space Launch System rocket along with the Orion spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, September 26, ahead of approaching Hurricane Ian that's expected to make landfall on September 29.

The decision by NASA came after the latest weather predictions were taken into account about the official expectations of Hurricane Ian and how the hurricane was going to affect the weather conditions in the Kennedy area. Furthermore, NASA writes on its blog that the decision to roll back the SLS rocket was to protect the rocket itself from the hurricane while also allowing employees time to address the needs of their families.

After more than half a million images of Jupiter were taken, an astrophotographer from Arizona combined them to create his sharpest image of the largest planet in our solar system.

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy revealed his creation on September 17, taking to his Instagram page Cosmic Background, that's dedicated to his astrophotography ventures. McCarthy explains in his post on Twitter that he took the opportunity of Jupiter being the closest to Earth than it has been in the last 59 years to snap around 600,000 photos of the planet over one night. Taking those images, McCarthy combined them using software designed to stack images.

A team of archaeologists has discovered a sealed cave that dates back 3,300 years to a time during the reign of Ramesses II.

The announcement comes from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and according to the statement, a team of archaeologists has discovered a cave sealed by ancient Egyptians 3,300 years ago that lived in the now-Israel. During that period of time, Ramesses II, which was commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1279 B.C to 1213 B.C.

During Ramesses the Great's reign, Egypt was at its most powerful with a kingdom that stretched from current-day Sudan all the way to Syria. The cave was discovered when a mechanical digger was being used to excavate dirt in the Palmahim Beach National Park when the digger accidentally penetrated the roof of the cave revealing its contents to the workers. The IAA was quickly called, and a mission was formed to descend into the cave.

NASA has successfully conducted the world's first planetary defense mission, where the space agency launched a small spacecraft and hit a distant asteroid.

NASA has announced that its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has completed its objective of impacting a distant asteroid with its DART spacecraft. The space agency has taken to its social channels to share the final moments of the spacecraft approaching the large binary asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos, both of which currently poses no threat to Earth at all. NASA's goal was to send the DART spacecraft to collide directly with Dimorphos, with the overall goal being to change the asteroid's orbit.

NASA launched the DART spacecraft in November 2021, and since then, the small spacecraft has been traveling millions of miles away from Earth toward its target. On its way to Dimorphos the spacecraft's Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation, or DRACO, snapped several images of a distant Jupiter. DRACO was also used by researchers to take thousands of pictures of stars, and with these images, researchers were able to make sure DART's trajectory lined up cleanly with Dimorphos. An effort that seems to have paid off.

After declaring that it was perfectly on track to collide with a distant asteroid, NASA announced a successful collision by its DART spacecraft.

In celebration of the mission, NASA has teamed up with Google to bring an interactive Google search query to the public. By simply Googling "nasa dart" in any browser, the user will get a simple demonstration of what NASA has just pulled off. As shown in the above GIF posted to Twitter on the official NASA Twitter account, users can Google "nasa dart" and see the DART spacecraft fly across the browser window and collide into the background, causing the browser to tip slightly.

The simple demonstration is a small representation of NASA's success with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the very first planetary defense mission that one day may be extremely valuable if a dangerous asteroid is discovered that has a trajectory that lines up with Earth. For those that don't know, NASA launched its small DART spacecraft in November 2021, and since then, it has been traveling at 14,000 mph towards a binary asteroid system that isn't a threat to Earth.

What do you think about robots taking your order, cooking your food, and delivering food to you while you dine at a restaurant? There are some roles that are easily replaced with robots, while other positions should remain safe for human workers... for now.

Currently, chef robots are extremely limited in their capable tasks, such as mixing beverages or operating deep fryers, so certain roles are likely safe. For example, chefs, managers, and waitstaff might be irreplaceable, but there definitely is room for automation and robotics to augment human staff in restaurants.

However, front-of-house jobs might be most likely to be disrupted by automation, with cashiers, drive-through operators, baristas, and hosts might be under pressure. Humans currently employed in these roles may one day have to expand their work skillset in the restaurant to avoid being replaced by their robot counterparts.

NASA postponed the launch of Artemis 1, scheduled for September 27, because of Tropical Storm Ian's path off Florida's Atlantic coast.

The National Hurricane Center expects Ian to be upgraded to a hurricane on Monday, with it reaching normal hurricane strength the day after - when Artemis 1 was expected to launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

As of Sunday evening, NASA still hasn't ordered a rollback of the Orion spacecraft or Artemis uncrewed space launch system rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers will monitor the weather situation overnight, then make a final decision tomorrow - but are hesitant to put the Artemis or Orion in danger.