Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 63

NASA has released the first set of images taken by the DART spacecraft of its target asteroid its set to collide spectacularly into.

NASA has taken to its blog on its website to provide an update on its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), with the space agency revealing the very first batch of images snapped by DART's onboard camera named DRACO, or more accurately, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation. The above image is a composite of 243 images snapped by DRACO on July 27, 2022, and at the time of their capture, the spacecraft was about 20 million away from its target asteroid.

The space agency explains that, as the image shows, the Didymos asteroid system is still very faint, but after combining all of the images and enhancing them, researchers were able to pinpoint the asteroid system's location. While the quality of these images could be achieved using ground-based telescopes on Earth, this first set of images is being used as a test to prove the imaging capabilities of DRACO are working as intended.

Twitter and Elon Musk are currently engaged in a lawsuit over Musk's decision to pull out of his $44 billion acquisition to purchase the world's second-largest social media company.

The lawsuit has arrived in front of Chancery Court Judge Kathleen St. J. McCormick in a Delaware court earlier in the week, as Elon Musk's legal team and Twitter's legal team attended to discuss several points of the case. During the hearing, McCormick fired some shots at Elon Musk's legal team over their work to produce information on who Musk spoke to about the deal to purchase Twitter, saying that Musk's lawyers' efforts "bothered [her] a lot".

Adding, "I ordered you to do the job, you had two custodians. Have you heard the saying: 'You had one job?". These comments from the judge came after Twitter's legal team argued that Musk's lawyers were intentionally withholding vital information on who Musk spoke to about the deal, which impedes Twitter's attempts at issuing subpoenas to individuals that are involved in the acquisition. Insider reports that more than 100 subpoenas have been issued, with more likely on the way.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured an exoplanet relatively close to Earth that's approximately twenty times the size of the largest planet in our solar system.

The space agency's newest and most advanced observatory has focused its incredible instruments on an exoplanet called VHS 1256 b, which orbits two small red dwarf stars approximately 72 light-years from Earth within the constellation Corvus. The exoplanet was originally discovered back in 2016 and became of particular interest to astronomers as it glowed red in observations. Webb has now confirmed previous theories about the reddish glow, which were that VHS 1256 b was being obscured by a thick blanket of dust.

Using the space telescopes instruments, astronomers were able to determine that VHS 1256 b is nearly twenty times the size of Jupiter and that its atmosphere contains water, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sodium, and potassium. Additionally, Webb's observations confirmed that VHS 1256 b is wrapped in smoke-like silicate grain clouds that have the some consistency as sand.

NASA has announced its selected the company to construct its next-generation spacesuits that will be used by the next Americans to walk on the Moon.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce it has tapped Axiom Space to develop a moonwalking system for its Artemis 3 mission, which will be the first time that Americans set foot on the Moon in over 50 years. NASA explains it has awarded Axiom Space under its Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services contract valued at $228.5 million, and the company will be responsible for the design, development, qualification, certification, and production of the new spacesuits.

The space agency explains that with its more than 50 years of space experience, it has designed the technical and safety requirements for the new spacesuits, which Axiom Space will be required to meet. The award comes under a new "task order" from NASA, which the space agency explains won't be the last as it plans on issuing future task orders under the contract for various scientific activities such as lunar landings, International Space Station missions, and special studies.

Chinese company CanSino Biologics has produced an inhalable version of a COVID-19 vaccine, which has been approved for use this week as a booster dose in China.

Over a hundred oral or nasal vaccines are currently in development worldwide in hopes of creating alternative means of vaccination for people to avoid using injections with needles. An additional theorized benefit of nasal inhalation of a COVID-19 vaccine is the priming of immune cells found in the thin mucous membranes lining the nose and mouth, where SARS-CoV-2 particles first enter the body, allowing them to respond quickly to stop the virus from spreading.

So-called 'mucosal' vaccines have the potential to provide what's known as sterilizing immunity, preventing mild cases of illness and transmission to other people. Evidence in animals has shown that sterilizing immunity can be achieved against COVID-19, but there is little data regarding humans. Researchers believe that mucosal vaccines may provide better protection against mild illness and stop transmission, whereas traditional injected vaccines are better suited to reducing disease severity and preventing hospitalization.

A study on Thwaites Glacier titled "Rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in the pre-satellite era" has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Researchers led by the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science (USF CMS) have created the first-ever high-resolution map of the seafloor in front of the Thwaites Glacier of West Antarctica, also known as the Doomsday Glacier. The glacier is roughly the size of Florida and is quickly retreating as it loses ice to the ocean. It would bring an expected sea level rise of between three to ten feet (0.91 to 3.05 meters) if the glacier and surrounding icy basins were to melt into the ocean entirely.

When viewed on geological timescales, the rate the glacier is retreating shows it is effectively collapsing. Mapping the ocean floor revealed a collection of over 160 parallel ridges, created as the leading edge of the glacier retreated, shifting up and down slightly with the tide. The researchers found that the current rate of retreat is slower than previously unknown periods where the rate of the retreat was much faster.

A Michigan-based atmospheric photographer has captured an astonishing image of a strange phenomenon that occurs when charged particles from the Sun impact Earth's magnetic field.

The phenomenon captured by Isaac Diener is called STEVE, and it stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, which is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that produces purple or green light in a straight ribbon-like fashion in the sky. The phenomenon was first dubbed STEVE in 2016 by aurora watchers from Alberta, Canada, and according to reports, it can appear farther away from Earth's poles than an aurora and is much less frequent.

Diener, a photographer that has been observing auroras for seven years, said that STEVE appeared out of nowhere, and that it would be impossible to predict. Diener wasn't the only photographer to spot auroras, as SpaceWeather reports that several individuals witnessed auroras as a result of the recent ejection of charged particles from the Sun. Charged particles released from the Sun that impact Earth trigger geomagnetic storms in Earth's upper atmosphere. The interaction between the solar particles, Earth's upper atmosphere, and the magnetic field create the spectacles we call auroras.

NASA has demonstrated the difference between the famous Hubble Space Telescope and the impressive James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that recently became operational.

Astronomers have pointed Webb's advanced instruments at a stellar nursery called the Tarantula Nebula that's located only 161,000 light-years away from Earth within the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. NASA writes on its blog found on its website that the Tarantula Nebula is home to the brightest star-forming region in the Local Group, which is the group of galaxies that are closest to our Milky Way. Additionally, the Tarantula Nebula is home to the hottest and largest stars observed so far.

Researchers have pointed three of Webb's advanced instruments at the stellar nursery and with Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) produced the below image, which depicts a tarantula's spider burrow lined with silk. The NIRCam image showcases a gap in the center, or as NASA writes, a "cavity", which is caused by a cluster of massive young stars that are producing high amounts of stellar wind and radiation that erodes the nebula. The stars NASA references on its blog shine a pale light blue in the below image.

National news TV has showcased an extremely detailed image of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) that appeared shortly before a storm.

Mexico's national news TV interviewed UFO witness Juan Manuel Sanchez who claims that he spouted the object while he was trying to take photos of an approaching storm that was rolling into his area. Sanchez says he noticed a black sauce-shaped object in the images that appeared in the foreground, which led to him taking zooming in on the object to snap more photographs. The sighting occurred outside of Sanchez's home in Valle Hermoso on August 17 and was reported on by Mexican television station RDTV.

Backing up Sanchez's story is his wife and his mechanic co-workers, that claim they also saw the object before it suddenly vanished toward space. Sanchez described the moment of realization by saying he was "in shock" and that it wasn't fear that overcame him but "something like astonishment". The car mechanic acknowledges that he should have taken a video of the object, but he said he quickly snapped the images before it disappeared.

China's in-development Tiangong space station has been the home of various experiments since its first module, Tianhe, launched on April 29th, 2021.

The space station's second module, Wentian, was launched to join the burgeoning station on July 24th, 2022, bringing eight new experiments to be conducted in the microgravity environment of space. One of the experiments included a rice experiment, which began on July 29th and sought to cultivate two varieties of rice; one tall shoot rice and one dwarf rice variety.

The former has grown to about 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) tall, and the latter has grown to about 5 centimeters (1.97 inches). Both are "growing very well," according to Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Seedlings for Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant from the mustard family, were also included in the experiment and are often grown by scientists to study mutations.

A study on the remote-controlled cockroach titled "Integration of body-mounted ultrasoft organic solar cell on cyborg insects with intact mobility" has been published in the journal npj Flexible Electronics.

An international research team led by the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan has created a system that allows them to make 'remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches,' that comprises a small, wireless control module, a rechargeable battery, and a solar cell. The cockroach can still move unencumbered by the electronics, as they are relatively thin and flexible. The particular cockroaches used were Madagascar cockroaches, measuring approximately 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) long.

The team's device brings cyborg insects (part insect, part machine) closer to becoming a practical reality, which scientists have been trying to design for applications like inspecting hazardous areas and monitoring the environment. To make a cyborg insect viable, the insect must be remotely controllable for significant lengths of time, meaning its electronics must be able to remain charged for as long.

A study on the prototype device titled "Hydrogen production from the air" has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne have created a new system that utilizes direct air electrolysis (DAE) to produce hydrogen fuel directly from the moisture in the air. The researchers believe that 'green hydrogen' created cleanly, such as by splitting water (H₂O) into hydrogen gas (H₂), "is the most promising energy carrier of the low-carbon economy."

One of the hurdles for producing green hydrogen is the crossover between areas with renewable energy sources and freshwater availability. The researchers sought to overcome this with their prototype DAE module, which had a stable performance with 95% efficiency as it operated for 12 consecutive days. Notably, another of their devices was left to run on its own for eight months.

A study on the diamond formation titled 'Retrospective analysis of somatic mutations and clonal hematopoiesis in astronauts' has been published in the journal Communications Biology.

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have completed a first-of-its-kind study that assessed blood samples collected from astronauts that flew for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) between 1998 and 2001. The astronauts flew on space shuttle missions, and the blood samples from all 14 astronauts revealed DNA mutations that lend themselves to an increased risk of developing cancer and heart disease and are potentially linked to spaceflight

The mutations are known as somatic mutations and are found in the astronauts' hematopoietic stem cells, which comprise part of the blood-forming system and can become any kind of blood cell. Somatic mutations occur after a person is conceived and affect cells that are neither sperm nor eggs, so they cannot be passed on. The astronauts were found to have clonal hematopoiesis (CH), meaning the overrepresentation of blood cells made from a single clone.

T-Mobile CEO and President Mike Sievert and SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk have joined forces in a recent live event at SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas to announce Coverage Above and Beyond.

The Coverage Above and Beyond plan is a collaboration between the companies that intends to bring cell phone coverage to the entire United States. This will include remote locations that traditional cell signals have trouble reaching through leveraging SpaceX's Starlink constellation, which utilizes satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to enable access to the Internet.

Cellular connectivity is unavailable from any provider in over half a million square miles of the United States, leaving people disconnected or resorting to expensive satellite phones. To solve this issue, T-Mobile and SpaceX will create a new network broadcast from Starlink satellites using T-Mobile's mid-band spectrum, already in use nationwide, to provide a satellite-to-cellular service accessible from 'almost anywhere a customer can see the sky.'

Researchers have detected a large sunspot on the far side of the Sun that's changing the way our star vibrates.

A sunspot is a phenomenon that appears on the surface of the Sun as black blotches, these regions of the Sun's surface are darker because they are colder than the surrounding area. Sunspots present themselves in areas with strong magnetic fields as these fields prevent convection from occurring, or more simply, the heat from inside of the star reaching the surface.

As the sunspot continues to grow, it can cause events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME), both of which are closely associated and, when directed at Earth, can have negative effects on the planet. When Earth is slapped with a solar flare or a CME, a geomagnetic storm is caused that disrupts communication services such as radio and GPS.

NASA recently had to call off the launch of the world's most powerful rocket after malfunctions presented themselves that couldn't be remedied in time.

The Space Launch System (SLS) carrying NASA's Orion spacecraft rocket was scheduled to launch on September 3, but the space agency had to scrub the launch after it detected a liquid hydrogen leak that was traced back to a fuel line. Reports indicate that engineers tried on three separate occasions to reseal the fuel feed line but weren't able to achieve success.

After NASA officially called off the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the rocket's next launch window will take place in early October, with the space agency putting all its effort into getting Artemis 1 off the ground, Nelson said it would be aiming for a date somewhere in the middle of the month. Artemis 1 is the first step NASA will take on getting humans back on the surface of the Moon as the SLS rocket will transport the Orion capsule on a reconnaissance journey around the Moon and back to Earth.

The skeletal remains of a "female vampire" have been uncovered in the village of Pien, Poland.

Researchers from the nearby Nicholas Copernicus University were conducting archaeological work at a seventeenth-century cemetery in the village when they uncovered the human remains, buried with a sickle and padlock. The researchers also found the skull adorning a silk cap, indicating the woman once held high social status. The sickle was laid over the throat, while one of the big toes was padlocked to supposedly 'prevent her returning from the dead.'

Professor Polinski said that the padlocked toe was likely symbolic of 'the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning.' While he noted that the burial was unusual, similar burial sites have been found throughout the region, with bodies either having sickles placed similarly or skulls impaled with stakes or metal rods, under the belief that this would stop anyone returning from the dead.

A study on the diamond formation titled 'Diamond formation kinetics in shock-compressed C─H─O samples recorded by small-angle x-ray scattering and x-ray diffraction' has been published in the journal Science Advances.

An international team of researchers led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) laboratory, the University of Rostock, and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France, have completed an experiment in which they were able to create tiny diamonds from PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. Their investigation was conducted to elucidate what happens inside icy giant planets like Neptune and Uranus, where it is believed it "rains diamonds."

Using a high-powered X-ray laser, the team heated a thin film of PET plastic to 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,832 degrees Fahrenheit) while simultaneously generating a shock wave that compressed the material with pressures exceeding a million times atmospheric pressure over a few nanoseconds. These conditions simulate those found in the interior of planets like Neptune and Uranus, as does the presence of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in PET plastic, simulating the distribution of such elements found inside the planets.

A coronal mass ejection, or CME, has hit the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar Orbiter, originating from the Sun, containing highly energetic particles like protons and electrons at extremely high speed.

The spacecraft was due to fly past Venus on Sunday, September 4th, using the planet for a gravity-assist maneuver to alter its orbit and help it come closer to the Sun. Days earlier, on August 30th, the Sun shot out a CME in the satellite's direction. The ESA has reported no negative effects on the spacecraft from the CME, as it has been designed to withstand them.

However, the same cannot be said for Venus, whose atmosphere is usually eroded somewhat as the CME passes through it, stripping away the gases within. The Solar Orbiter's orbital path around the Sun was chosen to bring it close to Venus every few times it orbits around the Sun, allowing it to take advantage of its gravity to tilt or otherwise adjust its orbit.

NASA recently announced its selection of potential landing sites on the lunar south pole for its Artemis 3 mission that will put humans back on the surface of the Moon.

The thirteen potential landing locations are spread across various regions of the Moon's south pole, and the problem that has presented itself is that China's space agency has also selected many of the landing locations. The overlapping of landing locations has raised important questions about how the competing space agencies/nations will coordinate their respective missions along with resource division.

The reason for the overlap is that both space agencies are selecting locations that have high elevation, good lighting conditions for mission activities by humans, and their relatively close location to permanently shadowed craters that are believed to contain water ice. Christopher Newman, professor of space law and policy at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, spoke to SpaceNews and said that the overlapping of lunar landing sites presents a genuine opportunity for collaboration between China and the US, which would demonstrate that space exploration is more than geopolitical in nature.