Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 64

Many unknown objects have been popping up on US military radar systems over the weekend, with the US government authorizing the removal of three unknown objects.

US military detected an object on radar systems on Friday, the object popped up near Alaska, and the US military responded with a fighter jet being sent out first to inspect it and then later destroy it. The following day the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected an unknown object near Canadian airspace, which after deliberation between US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was also brought down.

The third object was detected over Lake Huron and, much like the two previous objects, was shot down by US fighter jets. So, why is the US military suddenly detecting these unknown objects within US airspace? According to Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command, these objects began appearing on radar systems when NORAD switched from searching for larger objects to much smaller objects.

A lawyer has been killed after sustaining major wounds from his own weapon after he entered a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

40-year-old lawyer Leandro Mathias de Novaes entered an MRI machine on January 16 and failed to mention that he had a concealed firearm on his person before getting into the machine. Unaware staff carried out the MRI procedure at Laboratorio Cura in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and were shocked when the gun reportedly fired, causing major injuries to the lawyer's abdomen, which he later succumbed to at Sao Luiz Morumbi Hospital on February 6.

Reports indicate that the magnetic field generated by the MRI machine caused the gun to fire and that the lawyer signed a document acknowledging the requirement to remove all metal objects from his body before entering the MRI room. Additionally, a spokesperson for the facility said that the lawyer didn't mention his gun at all and entered the MRI room on his own decision. So, why did this happen? Why does an MRI machine cause a gun to fire?

European skywatchers were stunned at a fireball entering Earth's atmosphere on February 13. Multiple video angles were captured from various locations.

Krisztian Sarneczky, an asteroid hunter working at the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary, discovered the asteroid only hours before it began its descent to Earth. According to reports, Sarneczky forwarded the appropriate information to the European Space Agency (ESA), which determined the asteroid measured 3.2 feet wide and was called SAR 2667. Sarneczky explained to Space.com that the small space rock was discovered during a routine Near-Earth Object (NEO) check.

The asteroid plummeted to Earth at 10 p.m. EST on February 12 (0300 GMT February 13), and there have been at least 61 sightings of its bright entry. From the above and below video footage captured by skywatchers, the space rock can be seen growing in brightness, completely lighting up the sky for a brief moment before disappearing into the darkness. The American Meteor Society confirmed the reports from residents, which spanned across England, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

Officials reported a major solar flare occurring on the sun on Saturday, February 11. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured video footage of the event.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the flare was a powerful X1.1-class flare that caused the administration to issue a warranted radio blackout warning. According to NOAA, the flare did cause a radio blackout for a few different regions around Earth, specifically South America being hit the hardest. Notably, the flare can be traced back to Active Region 3217, which is expected to produce more activity as it moves across the sun's surface, according to what NOAA has written on its website.

It should be noted that the sun can produce various solar flares ranging in power. The lowest-power solar flares are A-class, and the strongest are X-class flares. The most powerful solar flare ever recorded occurred in 2003 and registered as X28 before the instruments that were measuring it reached their total capabilities. While not always the case, a solar flare is closely associated with ejections of large quantities of solar plasma.

Reports are coming out from China about local authorities spotting an unknown object flying near a port city.

The news comes from Global Times and Sky News Asia Correspondent Brent O'Halloran, which both said Chinese authorities detected the object near the coastal city of Rizhao, located on the Yellow Sea. The Global Times Twitter post states that Chinese authorities reminded fishermen to be safe out on the water and that maritime authorities were preparing to shoot it down.

The claims of an unknown object appearing near China come after the nation claimed its weather balloon was purely for civilian use only, or more specifically, "meteorological research". China said the balloon was blown off course and criticized the US for shooting it down when it entered US airspace off the coast of South Carolina last week.

Another object has been detected in US airspace and has been brought down by the US Air Force, marking the fourth object removed from US skies in a little over a week.

The newest unknown object was detected over Lake Huron, near the Canadian border, and according to US Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who is responsible for protecting US airspace, the military is still not able to determine the identity of the object. Notably, this object is different from the object that was recently shot down in Canada on Saturday, which was reported to have been cylindrical shaped, and not another Chinese weather balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina a week prior.

VanHerck explained that officials are specifically calling these anomalies "objects" and "not balloons, for a reason." Furthermore, VanHerck, the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said he would not rule out extraterrestrial life or any other explanation for the origin of the objects. The General said, "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out."

Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to comment on the recent unknown objects showing up in American airspace.

Officials began having concerns about objects entering US airspace when a Chinese weather balloon made its way toward the US off the coast of South Carolina. China claimed the weather balloon was for civilian operations only and didn't have any intelligence capabilities. President Biden ordered the removal of the weather balloon, and it was promptly shot down by an F-22 aircraft. The wreckage was recovered, and according to the Pentagon, the balloon had many devices that were capable of geolocating communications.

A week later, officials detected an unknown object off the coast of Alaska, which resulted in military personnel dispatching fighter jets to inspect the radar anomaly. As with the spy weather balloon, Biden ordered the Alaskan object to be brought down and recovered. According to the Pentagon, the Alaskan object was much smaller than the Chinese weather balloon, and its shape was more similar to a car than a balloon. Additionally, the object was operating at approximately 40,000 feet and posed a risk to civilian air traffic, hence the decision to bring it down.

One of NASA's most-famous space telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope has fixed its sensitive optical cameras onto a distant star cluster and snapped a gorgeous photograph.

NASA published the above image on November 29, 2022 and explained that its a Hubble photograph of a distant dazzling star cluster that is called NGC 2660. The space agency states that NGC 2660 is an open star cluster that is located 8,617 light-years from Earth within the constellation Vela.

NASA explain that an open star cluster is a group of stars that can contain anywhere between ten to a few hundred stars and that these stars are loosely bound together by gravity. There is a chance that this group of stars may eventually disperse and spread out from each other as a result of the small gravitational pull. It should be noted that the bright red object that is located in the upper left-hand corner of the image is much closer to Earth than the stars in the background and is not part of the open star cluster.

Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA has reported on the nation's first-ever AI robot that can space Arabic and perform dances.

The robot is named Sara and was unveiled at the LEAP23 technology conference, where it was explained by engineers that the robot is able to recognize the differences between certain dialects within the Kingdom. Sara uses artificial intelligence to determine when people are standing in front of it and will begin listening when an individual prompts Sara with "Hello Sara".

Since Sara can detect different dialects and interpret what someone is saying, the robot can come up with an appropriate answer to many questions. These answers are sent in the form of text messages. LEAP explains via a video posted to its Twitter account that Sara is the very first Saudi human robot to be created and was born out of a partnership between Digital Government Authority and QSS. The creators behind the report explain that Sara has a long life cycle ahead of her and that she is designed to "serve humanity".

The US military announced on Saturday that it detected an unknown object on its radar system moving through airspace close to Montana, sparking officials to close a region of airspace above the state.

Recently released reports state that US military detected the object, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) sent a fighter aircraft to inspect the area. In response to this radar anomaly, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed the airspace for the Department of Defense to conduct activities. The closed airspace stretched 50 nautical miles around Harve, Montana, located near the Canadian border.

The FAA issued similar flight restrictions when the US military brought down a Chinese spy balloon that was detected off the coast of South Carolina. Recent reports state that the fighter jet inspected the area where the object was detected and found nothing. NORAD issued a statement and said its aircraft "did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation." Since no object was found, the FAA has reopened the airspace.