Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 71

Researchers from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, have achieved what they believe is the world's first international holographic teleportation.

Also known as "holoportation," holographic teleportation means transporting the hologram of a person or object instantaneously to another location. On July 27th, 2022, a team from the Western Institute for Space Exploration holoported an individual from Huntsville, Alabama, to London, Ontario, and instantly holoport themselves to Huntsville.

In a recent interview with Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO revealed when he believes the largest flying object ever made will launch.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has been developing Starship for quite some time, and recently Musk sat down with the Full Send Podcast to discuss its timeline ahead of its expected first orbital launch. The SpaceX CEO says that he spends most of his day working on getting Starship to orbit, describing the process as "complicated" and "challenging" as Starship is "more than double the thrust of the Saturn V and twice the weight".

Musk further explains that the Saturn V is the largest rocket that has ever reached orbit and was the rocket that took the human race to the moon. Notably, Musk explains that there are numerous hurdles in Starship's development process, but the company is making progress on the "largest flying object ever made," with Musk estimating Starship's first orbital test launch to occur between "maybe 1 and 12 months from now".

A study on the brain after midnight titled "The Mind After Midnight: Nocturnal Wakefulness, Behavioral Dysregulation, and Psychopathology" has been published in the journal Frontiers in Network Psychology.

Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have published a new hypothesis, dubbed the "Mind After Midnight" hypothesis, suggesting that neurophysiological changes occur in the brain when people are awake after midnight. The absolute time these changes occur is relative to your Circadian rhythm but typically occur after midnight, impacting the brain's reward processing, impulse control, and information processing functions.

The researchers found people were more likely to view the world negatively and make impulsive decisions or engage in harmful behaviors without fully considering the consequences. Part of the biological basis for these effects is the circadian influence of positive affect and negative affect, the tendency to view information in a positive or negative light, respectively. Positive affect is highest in the morning after waking and falls to its lowest levels at night when the body is ready for sleep, and negative affect is at its lowest and highest at the opposite times.

Since humans could document anything, we have been recording the relationship between the Earth, the sun, and the moon.

The documentation of the Earth, the sun, and the moon goes back thousands of years and is present cross-culturally. However, there are gaps in our recorded history, with one gap standing out - the May of 1110, when the moon disappeared from view for an entire month. With little knowledge of the phenomenon, researchers set out to uncover the mystery, with one study published in 2020 providing an updated theory on its disappearance.

According to the study, the moon disappearing from the night sky was a result of the Hekla volcanic eruption that occurred in 1110. However, this theory was wholly completed as researchers sifted through numerous medieval documentation for references to a "dark lunar eclipse" or "black eclipse". Scientists concluded that it wasn't just the Helka eruption that blotted out the sun but a string of volcanic eruptions that happened in various locations.

Officials have confirmed that debris from one of Elon Musk's SpaceX missions have crash landed in a farmers paddock.

An Australian sheep farmer was stunned when he found a part of a space mission lying in his field. The object was found in Dalgety, located near Australia's Snowy Mountains, which is about a five-hour drive southwest of Sydney. The farmer described the discovery as "astounding". An Australian Space Agency spokesperson recently confirmed that the debris is from a SpaceX mission, and according to astrophysicist Brad Tucker, the debris is from a trunk jettisoned by the Crew-1 capsule that re-entered Earth in 2021.

The astrophysicist explains that the trunk had split up on re-entry as there were reports of more debris being found scattered in surrounding properties. Since the majority of the planet's surface area is water, most of the space debris that makes it to Earth's surface crash land into the ocean. However, with the space expansion only getting exponentially more real as more companies join in on the race and push to other worlds, debris crashing down into Earth is only going to get frequent.

Many individuals across a country have been onlookers at the many meteors that are entering Earth's atmosphere over their country.

On July 7, a large meteor entered Earth's atmosphere over New Zealand. The space rock streaked across the sky and eventually exploded above the ocean near Wellington. The explosion caused a sonic boom that was heard by residents living in various locations across the South Island. Following that event was another meteor seen above Canterbury just two weeks later.

Individuals have posed many questions to Fireballs Aotearoa, a group project run by astronomers and citizen scientists, with the most requested question being why the meteors turn the sky green and if the same green that is seen in auroras.

A study on the merger titled "The First Short GRB Millimeter Afterglow: The Wide-Angled Jet of the Extremely Energetic SGRB 211106A" has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Researchers led by Northwestern University and Radboud University have recorded one of the most high-energy, short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ever, exploding from the merger of a neutron star and another nearby star. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest radio telescope in the world, the researchers produced a time-lapse of the GRB produced by the merger, generating a large flash of light radiation.

A study on the synthetic embryos titled "Post-Gastrulation Synthetic Embryos Generated Ex Utero from Mouse Naïve ESCs" has been published in the journal Cell.

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science have grown synthetic mice embryos with only stem cells cultured in a petri dish. The process did not involve any sperm or eggs, the combination of which leads to the formation and growth of an embryo in nature. Allowing the stem cells to grow into an embryo and the organs that develop as the embryo grows paves the way toward using stem cells to grow tissues and organs using this model in the future.

Lake Mead, the United States' largest reservoir, has dropped to its lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built to contain it.

The levels are their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was still being filled for the first time after the Hoover Dam's construction was completed in 1936. As of July 31st, 2022, Lake Mead is only 27 percent full, with the level of water elevation at the Hoover Dam dropping to 1,040.92 feet (317.3 meters) above sea level, compared to 1199.97 feet (341 meters) near the end of July 2000.

The lake's elevation reaches 1,220 feet (372 meters) at maximum capacity, and to continue the operation of the hydropower turbines at the dam, the water level should stay above 1000 feet. The continually dropping water levels have revealed numerous surprises, however, such as the body of a murder victim inside a barrel on May 1st.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the first "astronaut" that will be flying aboard NASA's upcoming Artemis I mission.

The Artemis I mission marks the first part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon. The program will use the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, and Artemis I will fly without any living crew members as it makes its way around the Moon. Artemis II will make the same journey but with human passengers. The Orion spacecraft will house astronauts on Artemis missions, including Shaun the Sheep for the first.

The Orion spacecraft includes the European Service Module, which Shaun has been familiarised with as he has engaged in an astronaut training program since 2020 in preparation for Artemis I. The preparation has seen him visit various sites across Europe and the USA to explore different aspects of the Artemis mission, a process which was documented and will be shared by the ESA as Artemis I's launch draws nearer.

NASA has taken to its social channels to share an image snapped by its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that's tasked with mapping the Red Planet's geology.

NASA explains on its website that the above image is a martian ridge that researchers suspect was created from the erosion of the surrounding area that could be an indicator of an ancient fluvial channel. Notably, NASA states the ridge itself is made of much tougher material than what's surrounding it, as indicated by the craters on its flanks.

Furthermore, NASA explains that the erosion is still taking place, which is evident by the "fresh" boulders and sand dunes that are forming alongside the ridge and its outskirts. As previously stated, the image was snapped by NASA's $720 million Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched on August 12, 2005, and was designed to study the geology and climate of Mars while also providing a relay point for data acquired by rovers such as Curiosity and Perseverance.

Three individuals were caught in a car while a severe bought of hail fell from the sky, causing damage to multiple vehicles.

Gibran Marquez Cedillo and his two friends were stuck in a car when a severe weather system hit Alberta on August 1. Cedillo recorded the event on his phone, and the footage stands as a representation of what many residents in the area experienced as it shows softball-sized hailstones impacting several vehicles in the area and individuals ducking for cover.

According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, there were at least 34 vehicles that were damaged as a result of the hailstorm, with many of the owners reporting shattered windows and windshields. Cedillo's vehicle was damaged, and according to his statement to Storyful, the event lasted about 17 minutes. During that time, Cedillo and his two friends were "fearing for [their] lives". If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

A large sinkhole has just opened up and has caused officials to dispatch experts to the area to begin an investigation.

The sinkhole randomly appeared over the weekend in Chile, approximately 500 miles north of Santiago, according to the National Geology and Mining Service. Officials have already dispatched experts to the area to begin an investigation, and according to preliminary results, the diameter of the sinkhole stretches 104 feet, with current estimates putting its depth at about 200 or more feet.

As you can imagine, experts have fenced off the area by putting a 300-foot perimeter around the hole. Luckily, the appearance of the sinkhole didn't cause any damage to personnel, equipment, or infrastructure in the area. Furthermore, Canadian firm Lundin Mining, which operates the nearby Alcaparrosa mine, has said in a statement that its temporarily suspended mining operations.

A team of archaeologists has unearthed an ancient Egyptian cemetery for the pharaohs that dates back some 4,500 years.

Researchers believe there were six sun temples constructed to honor the ancient Egyptian god Ra, the god of the Sun, kings, and the sky. Only two of these temples were discovered, but now a team of Polish and Italian archaeologists has discovered a third during the excavation of the Abusir necropolis, the primary burial site for the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt existed between 2465 and 2323 BC, and according to the Egyptian Ministry, the temple was constructed using mud bricks and had a weighted limestone entrance. Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that archaeologists accessed the temple through a limestone entrance which has a paved floor of mud bricks with some being embedded with a weighted face.

Researchers are on their way to slow down the process of dying, or perhaps, more accurately, healing damaged organs.

A team of Yale researchers have successfully revived dead pig organ cells by mixing the animals' blood with artificial hemoglobin and OrganEx, which is a solution that contains anti-inflammatory medicine as well as nerve blockers. The researchers also added nutrients and drugs that are known to slow down the death of cells.

Notably, the results from the study don't directly correspond to human cell revival, as further testing is required on OragnEx without the presence of nerve blockers. Furthermore, the researchers wish to perform the tests on humans eventually, but it isn't yet clear when those tests will happen or if any ethical barriers would present themselves in the researchers' quest to slow down the dying process. If proven to be effective, OrganEx could extend the viability of organ transplants.

Last month NASA's Perseverance rover snapped an image of the martian surface that caused the internet to claw for answers at what was seen in the image.

Perseverance managed to capture a strange string-like object in the photograph on July 12, sparking viral internet debate about the origin of the object and if it came from Earth or was natural to Mars. Following the widespread speculation from many individuals on Twitter, and the numerous reports from publications, NASA has confirmed the origin of the string-like object, and the answer is unsurprisingly underwhelming.

Originally, NASA speculated that the object was likely some part of Perseverance's own landing gear, and the space agency wasn't too far off from its first guess as it has now confirmed in a statement on Monday that the origin of the string-like object is Dacron netting, which is commonly used in thermal blankets. Notably, NASA concluded that the above netting has undergone significant "unraveling/shredding, suggesting that it was subjected to strong forces".

The wave energy converter unit was created by Wave Swell Energy (WSE), and is called the UniWave200.

The UniWave200 was constructed in Launceston in Tasmania, Australia, and costs AUD 12 million (US 8.3 million). It was then towed to the nearby King Island and left in the rough ocean off Grassy Harbour. The unit generates 200 kilowatts (kW) of power directly from waves in the sea, acting like an "artificial blowhole."

A concrete chamber underwater allows water in, with the oscillating waves rising high inside and a valve above, letting out the air. As the tide recedes, the valve closes, and the vacuum created by the water level dropping sucks air from the atmosphere through a turbine above, which is connected to a generator.

A study on the dark matter titled "First Identification of a CMB Lensing Signal Produced by 1.5 Million Galaxies at z∼4: Constraints on Matter Density Fluctuations at High Redshift" has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

A collaboration led by researchers from Nagoya University have detected dark matter surrounding distants galaxies, so far away they appear as they did 12 billion years ago, less than two billion years after the Big Bang and the start of the universe. Previously, scientists have been limited to observing dark matter only as far back as 8 to 10 billion years ago. This is because dark matter does not emit light, so it is observed using the light of even more distant galaxies, whose light shine through the dark matter.

The light that reaches Earth is distorted by this dark matter, and greater amounts lead to greater distortion. However, past a certain point, the light from these distant galaxies is so faint that this technique for detecting dark matter becomes less effective. To overcome this problem, the researchers first found 1.5 million "lens" galaxies which are surrounded by the dark matter they are trying to detect. They then used microwaves from cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) left over from the Big Bang to observe the distortion caused by the dark matter surrounding the lens galaxies.

A study on the neurons titled "Nanosecond protonic programmable resistors for analog deep learning" has been published in the journal Science.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created new artificial "neurons" and "synapses" that exist within a new field of artificial intelligence called analog deep learning. Instead of using transistors like in digital processors, analog deep learning uses programmable resistors to "create a network of analog artificial 'neurons' and 'synapses'" that can exceed the performance of a digital neural network, while using a fraction of the energy.

The MIT team's artificial neurons and synapses are built using a new inorganic material in their fabrication process, boosting the performance of devices using them to one million times faster than previous iterations and one million times faster than the synapses found in the human brain. The new material can also be used with existing silicon fabrication techniques, meaning it can be used to create nanometer-scale devices and potentially integrate the technology with existing computing hardware to facilitate deep-learning applications.

NASA has released a new image snapped by the now-operational James Webb Space Telescope, and it hones in on a beautiful distant galaxy.

NASA explains on its website that Webb has looked into the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy that's located about 500 million light years away from Earth within the constellation Sculptor. At the center of the galaxy resides a black hole, and according to the space agency, the spectacle appearance is a result of a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy that isn't visible in the image.

The collision caused the cartwheel-like appearance, which has two rings - a bright inner ring and a colorful outer ring. Closer to the center of the galaxy is a core that contains large quantities of hot dust where very large young star clusters are forming. The outer ring has been expanding for approximately 440 million years, and as it continues to expand, the area is being activated for star formation.