Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 68

The aurora borealis may make an appearance in select locations across the United States, according to weather officials.

Activity on the surface of the Sun was recorded by space weather officials from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and according to the officials' warnings, there was a series of intense solar eruptions that launched what is called a coronal mass ejection (CME) at Earth. Officials recorded two CMEs heading towards Earth, accompanied by high levels of solar wind that can be traced back to a corona, or a hole, in the surface of the Sun.

The charged particles from the Sun are expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Thursday, August 18, which may result in auroras appearing in the night sky at much lower geographical locations than they usually do. Space Weather Prediction Center, which is a branch of the National Weather Service, writes that there is a possibility for auroras to appear as far south as New York, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday night.

A man has flown a drone over an active volcano that is currently going off in Iceland, and during the flyover, the drone was struck by lava, but lived to tell the tale.

A content creator named Parker Sheppard has taken his small drone to what seems to be the Fagradalsfjall volcano that recently became active after a series of earthquakes struck the area. The Fagradalsfjall volcano became active on August 3, sparking a heavy amount of tourism to the area as individuals can get extremely close to the action. Sheppard took his drone and flew it around the erupting volcanic fissure, capturing absolutely stunning footage of the bubbling lava with his GoPro.

Throughout the flight, Sheppard moved too close to the unpredictable eruptions, and the drone flew straight through a spray of hot lava. The lava immediately stuck to the drone, and in the above footage, you can hear the damage that it caused despite such a small amount. In the below video, you can hear Sheppard saying, "oh my god, I just went straight through so much lava. I think my camera is messed up, I can't see anything it's so blurry".

A study on Messier 87's black hole titled "The Photon Ring in M87*" has been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo have taken the data used to create the historic first-ever photo of a black hole, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, known as M87*, and render its photon ring. It was initially predicted that behind the orange blur that was first imaged, should be a thin, bright ring around the black hole, created by photons of light being cast around the black hole by its gravity.

The research team stripped away elements of the original imagery taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to "remaster" what was first seen, revealing "the environment around the black hole." The data collected to produce the first photo of M87* was collected in 2017 and computed using algorithms to produce the final image, which blends much of the data.

A study on the cancer vaccine titled "Lipid nanoparticle-mediated lymph node-targeting delivery of mRNA cancer vaccine elicits robust CD8 + T cell response" has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers from Tufts University have created a new targeted cancer vaccine, more effective than the many that have come before it from different institutions. They used their vaccine in mice to eliminate tumors and prevent them from returning, and they function similarly to mRNA vaccines developed for use against Covid-19.

The cancer vaccine delivers mRNA inside small bubbles of fat that enter immune cells, allowing the cell to read the mRNA within. The mRNA codes for antigens found on cancer cells identified within the body that the immune cells can then produce.

Another robot dog emulating the design of Boston Dynamics' iconic Spot robot has been shown off while equipped with high powered weaponry.

At the International Military Technical Forum "Army 2022" military expo in Kubinka, near Moscow, Russia, a robot dog was seen sporting an all-black outfit resembling that of a ninja, with only its eyes showing. Though its apparel makes it difficult to glean much about the robot itself, Twitter users pointed out that its eyes appear to resemble that of a robotic dog available on Amazon for about $3,730 on AliExpress.

Russia's state-owned news agency RIA Novosti shared footage of the robot dog, dubbed the M-81 by its creators. On the robot's back is an RPG-26 rocket launcher that is longer than the robot itself, similar to a recent example of an AliExpress robot dog equipped with a submachine gun in Moscow. According to the M-81's developers, the robot is a "sample of the M-81 robotic system, capable of conducting aimed shooting and transporting weapons," and though non-combat related applications involve use "in the emergency zone for reconnaissance, passage through rubble and delivery of medicines."

A study on the asteroids titled "A pristine record of outer Solar System materials from asteroid Ryugu's returned sample" has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Researchers are beginning to publish findings relating to the Ryugu asteroid, sampled by the Japanese Hayabusa-2 space probe during a six-year mission. The probe launched in December 2014, traveling approximately 300 million kilometers (186 million miles) to reach Ryugu. It collected 5.4 grams (0.2 ounces) of rocks and dust from Ryugu by firing an "impactor" into the asteroid's surface after landing on it in April 2019.

Hayabusa-2 returned to Earth in 2020, bringing evidence that key molecules essential for life on Earth may have first formed in space, before being brought to Earth. These include organic materials like amino acids as well as water. According to a recent study by Japanese researchers, "volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth's water."

The Ameca robot was first revealed at the end of 2021, and publicly viewable at CES 2022.

The robot was created by Engineered Arts, which displayed it at CES earlier this year. Since then, Ameca has been upgraded with twelve additional actuators in its face, to allow it to realistically recreate more facial expressions than ever before, and fluidly shift between them. Facial expressions for the first generation that was ready in January 2022 include putting on a large smile, appearing thoughtful, angry, or surprised.

It has also been programmed with to pair gestures with various facial expressions to emulate a yawn, shrugging, pointing, waving, being gobsmacked, shushing someone, or indicating they want someone to repeat themselves more loudly. Ameca's construction includes sensors that can track movement throughout a room, cameras in both of its eyes, and a high-resoltuion camera mounted on its chest.

It was only a few days ago that officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned how dire the situation is around the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar.

Competing reports have put the blame for missiles being fired at the nuclear power plant on both sides, with Russians claiming that the Ukrainian military is firing on the plant, and Ukraine officials claiming Russia is firing on the plant. Speaking to Russian media on Tuesday, Vladimir Rogov, local government member in Energodar, said that the Ukrainian military fired "several dozen" heavy projectiles at the plant, with some of them being guided misses that hit "just ten meters from the barrels with spent nuclear fuel".

Rogov warned that if nuclear waste storage is hit, it would contaminate the entire area with hundreds of pounds of nuclear waste, that would be "like a dirty bomb". RT reports that the nuclear reactor at the plant can't be destroyed with typical missiles, and full destruction would require a tactical nuclear weapon. However, the coolant systems and nuclear waste storage are still vulnerable to attacks. Russia has called upon IAEA officials to inspect the facility, but the movement was denied by the UN after Ukraine was unable to guarantee the officials' safety.

Recent reports that cited Elon Musk writing on Twitter that he is looking to purchase the Manchester United soccer team have now been put to bed, with Musk clearing up the confusion.

It's hard to know when Musk is joking on Twitter, with the Tesla CEO constantly putting out new tweets that are both informational and humorous. Musk recently appeared on the Full Send Podcast, where he discussed what he believed to be the most-liked tweet on Twitter at 4.8 million likes, where he said he was going to be purchasing Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in.

Notably, this isn't the most-liked tweet, as the most-liked tweet is from the Chadwick Boseman Twitter account that announced the actor's death and his long battle with bowel cancer. Regarding Musk's Tweets, the SpaceX CEO recently wrote that he was going to be purchasing Manchester United, which was followed up by replied from Musk that cleared the speculative air on the matter. Musk wrote that he wouldn't be purchasing any sports team and that he also wouldn't be buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in despite the extreme popularity of such a move.

The US Air Force has shown off its military capabilities with a successful test of its Minuteman III ICBM, demonstrating just how ready American nuclear forces are for a response.

The test was conducted by the Global Strike Command of the Air Force and at 12:49 am Pacific Time on August 16, 2022, the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base located in California. According to Col. Chris Cruise the 576th Flight Test Squadron Commander, this test was "demonstrative of how our nation's ICBM fleet illustrates our readiness and reliability of the weapon system."

Col Cruise added that scheduled tests such as this one also showcase the expertise and skill of strategic weapons maintenance personnel along with missile crews. As for the missile itself, the reentry vehicle of the ICBM managed to travel 4,200 miles to its designated location in the Marshall Islands' Kwajalein Atoll. The success of the launch confirms the US has reliable ICBM weapons systems that are prepared for a response, which is the nation's nuclear deterrent for other nuclear weapon-wielding countries that are considering pushing that big red button.

A new essay written by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has detailed the billionaire's plans to get the human race to a new level of existence.

The essay was published for China Cyberspace magazine, which is run by China's central internet censor, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which, according to BusinessInsider, controls and oversees large swaths of data for several companies while also acting as digital security. Musk wrote in the essay that he is pushing for humans to become a multi-planetary species, and to do that, there must be a reduction in the cost of space travel.

Musk writes that SpaceX was created to solve the problem of space travel and bring the cost down to an affordable price while also solving the problem of humans only being on a single planet. Musk details that human civilization is a "faint little candle" or a "shimmering light in the void" that needs to reach another planet to ensure its survival. More specifically, the SpaceX CEO wrote that the "greatest hope" for humans is to create a large self-sustaining colony on Mars.

Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to share an insight into his busy life running both Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk wears many business hats, with two of his biggest hats being putting out logistical fires at Tesla to keep the production line rolling across multiple factories and working on SpaceX's development of the Starship launch vehicle that's currently approaching its first orbital test flight. Musk recently stated during a podcast that he is spending most of his time on Starship, which was followed by SpaceX conducting multiple static fire tests in preparation for the first orbital test flight that is expected between one and twelve months from now.

Now, Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to reveal that he has some spare time left over out of his busy day to have a side-hustle, that being standup comedy. As with most of Musk's tweets that have a hint of humor, we can assume that Musk doesn't actually mean he is going to spend his valuable time pursuing standup comedy and that he is most likely referring to his multiple memes posted across his Twitter account.

Many residents across a US state were shocked when their morning coffee was interrupted by a loud boom sound heard from overhead.

Reports from The Desert News indicate that this loud boom was heard at approximately 8:32 am local time across Utah, with quick seismograph reports indicating that no earthquake had occurred. The National Weather Service Salt Lake City issued an update and revealed that there were two red flashes seen in the morning sky.

The debating was quickly put to bed when home security footage sent into officials revealed that there was meteorite had entered Earth's atmosphere, streaking across the morning sky and then exploding - scattering fragments across the landscape. At the moment, there has been no reports of any of these fragments being recovered. However, a NASA volunteer spoke to KSLTV radio and said that its likely fragments could be found in the two areas indicated below.

Google Research has teamed with Everyday Robots to create a new robotics algorithm called PaLm-SayCan, which is helping robots better understand humans through language, whether it's through voice or text.

The joint effort uses Google Pathways Language Model (PaLm) while a helper robot from Everyday Robots is on the physical side, with Google saying the effort is the first implementation that uses a large-scale language model to plan for a real robot.

The new robotics program will help people communicate with robots through voice or text easier than before, while the robots themselves will perform complex tasks thanks to the improved understating of our written and spoken languages.

A paper on radiation and Mars titled "Crewed Missions to Mars: Modeling the Impact of Astrophysical Charged Particles on Astronauts and Assessing Health Effects" has been uploaded to the preprint server arXiv.

The new paper was authored by researchers from an assortment of international universities and institutes, though it has yet to be peer-reviewed. It considers the impact of ionizing radiation originating from the sun and from outside the solar system on the health of astronauts that intend to journey to Mars in the future. Ionizing radiation is one of the main impedances to astronaut health for such a trip, and a spaceship would provide little protection over the estimated 300 days one way.

Planned missions to Mars are expected to have astronauts undergo much longer missions than they currently do to the International Space Station (ISS) or the Moon, the former of which has its astronauts much more protected from radiation thanks to Earth's magnetosphere. Once on Mars, the significantly less substantial atmosphere compared to Earth would provide little protection to astronauts from continued radiation exposure. This risks exposing astronauts to "Acute Radiation Syndrome, damage to the nervous system, and increased cancer risk."

Three new studies have been published on the world record fusion energy achievement in the journals Physical Review Letters and Physical Review E.

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) National Ignition Facility (NIF) yielded over 1.3 megajoules (MJ) of energy on August 8th, 2021, setting a new world record for energy yield for a nuclear fusion experiment. The experiment also marked the first time fusion ignition has been achieved, the point at which a nuclear fusion reaction can sustain itself, generating more heat than it loses.

Read more: World's largest laser sets huge fusion record with 'burning' plasma

A new world record for the strongest steady magnetic field has been set at the Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF) in Hefei, China.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences set a new record on August 12, 2022, of 45.22 teslas (T, the standard unit of magnetic flux density) using a hybrid magnet. This achievement broke the previous 45 tesla T record set using a hybrid magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the United States in 1999. The 45.22 T hybrid magnet comprises a resistive insert housed within a superconducting outer ring with a bore of 32 millimeters (1.3 inches).

The Hefei scientists first developed the hybrid magnet in 2016 and generated a central magnetic field of 40 T, making it the second magnet in the world to pass the 40 T threshold. The hybrid magnet is one of ten magnets operated by the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CHMFL), where SHMFF is located.

A study on a potential nuclear winter titled "Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection" has been published in the journal Nature Food.

Researchers from Rutgers University have estimated that following a full-scale nuclear war between various nations, over 5 billion people would die globally due to hunger. Their study examines the effects of matter that nuclear weapons being detonated would throw into the atmosphere, blocking out sunlight and affecting crop growth. They analyzed six scenarios, with the smallest-scale nuclear war involving Pakistan and India, scaling up to the largest involving the United States and Russia.

In the smallest nuclear scenario, the global average caloric production would decrease by 7% within five years of the conflict. This figure would increase to 90% within three to four years following the largest-scale nuclear war. Mid-high latitude nations would suffer from the most severe declines in crop generation, including nations like Russia and the U.S., which export large amounts. This would likely lead to export restrictions, severely impacting countries reliant on imports in Africa and the Middle East.

Space is the final frontier that humans are yet to explore, and with companies and government space agency's around the world working on getting humans out into space and on to other worlds, there are going to be many dangers they will have to be mindful of.

#1 - Comets.

Space is home to many dangers, but the most terrifying can simply be categorized by their potential to wipe out Earth. Luckily, there are only a few different ways Earth can be completely destroyed by a space event, and one of those is a very large comet's trajectory lining up with Earth's orbit and impacting the surface of our planet. More luckily, NASA confirms that it hasn't found an object of this caliber and that it won't happen for at least the next 100 years.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is 30 years old, and while it's a relic compared to NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, it can still produce some incredible photographs.

The European Space Agency (ESA) released the new image, which has focused on the Orion Nebula, a colorful nebula that residents within the constellation of Orion and only being about 25 light-years from Earth. The Orion Nebula is so close to Earth that it's visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude 4.0.

As for the image, Hubble has honed in a colorful region of the Orion Nebula that is home to the Herbig-Haro object HH 505, which are luminous regions around newborn stars that form when stellar streams of the star's wind or jets collide with nearby gas and dust. The ESA states that this image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys by astronomers that were looking to study the properties of outflows and protoplanetary discs, which makes the Orion Nebula a worthy candidate as it has plenty of bright young stars.