Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 77

China's Tianwen-1 satellite orbiting Mars has finished photographing the entire surface of the Red Planet.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) launched Tianwen-1, which translates to "quest for heavenly truth," on July 23rd, 2020, consisting of six separate spacecraft: an orbiting satellite, two deployable cameras, a lander, a remote camera, and the Zhurong rover. The orbiter circled Mars 1,344 times to complete its primary mission of imaging the planet, contributing to the 1,040 gigabytes of raw scientific data it has captured so far.

The data collected by the Tianwen-1 orbiter has been processed by scientists back on Earth and is now in the hands of researchers for further analysis. Tianwen-1 marks the third successful attempt in history to send an orbiter to Mars and to have a rover land on the planet in the same mission, the first two being NASA's Viking 1 and 2 missions in 1975. The Zhurong rover's successful operation on Mars also makes it the third nation to land working spacecraft on the planet.

Astronomers are keeping an eye on an 11-mile-wide comet called Comet C/2017, or K2, as it makes its closest approach to Earth on July 14.

The comet was originally found back in 2017 when it was approximately 1.5 billion miles away from the Sun, between the planets Saturn and Uranus, and now the mysterious icy body is moving toward the inner solar system where it will make an approach to Earth. At first, researchers believed that K2 was 99 miles wide, but after follow-up observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, it was established that K2 is approximately 11 miles wide.

Notably, most comets are 0.62 - 1.86 miles in diameter, which means K2 is still an extremely large comet, approximately two Mount Everest's stacked on top of each other . As for the mystery behind K2, researchers are still perplexed at how the comet has remained "active" throughout its long journey through cold space. For those that don't know, when a comet is "active," it's producing a halo or coma, which is the iconic tail and glow. Comet's typically become more active as they approach the Sun as the heat from our local star heats up the frozen exterior producing a gas.

NASA recently released the first batch of colored images snapped by the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Webb's extremely powerful instruments are already giving researchers more insight into star formation, galaxies, and more. NASA recently took to its blog to shine a spotlight on Webb's first scientific operation images, and the next-generation space telescope certainly didn't disappoint as NASA states Webb has already produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date.

If you have been keeping up with the news surrounding Webb, it's likely you have already seen the first set of colored images. However, there is one more image you may not have seen as it was published inside the JWST commissioning report, a document detailing all of the tests carried out on Webb's scientific instruments. The image shows Jupiter, and according to New Scientist, our solar system's biggest planet was a target for Webb's calibration to make sure the observatory was capable of tracking fast-moving objects.

A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) related to the weedkiller has been published on the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) website.

The CDC analyzed glyphosate, a widespread herbicide. Two thousand three hundred ten urine samples were analyzed from individuals representative of the broader U.S. population, and 1,885 had detectable levels of the toxic chemical in them - about 81%. Of these, 650 samples were from children, where detectable levels of glyphosate were found in 87% of samples.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans," after analyzing almost a thousand peer-reviewed, published studies on its potential carcinogenicity. Glyphosate was invented by Monsanto, which continued to market it until 2018 when Bayer bought the company for $63 billion, simultaneously inheriting the 125,000 liability claims by people claimed their products gave them cancer. In 2021, Bayer announced glyphosate would no longer be sold for consumer use in the U.S. by 2023.

A study on lithium mining titled "Relic Groundwater and Prolonged Drought Confound Interpretations of Water Sustainability and Lithium Extraction in Arid Lands" has been published in the journal Earth's Future.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) have completed a significantly more comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of lithium mining and extraction from brine water. Lithium is the backbone of many renewable energy technologies, as it is used for lithium-ion batteries that can store energy produced by renewable sources, so it is important to understand the impact of obtaining it.

Lithium is a highly reactive metallic element and does not prefer to exist in solid form. Instead, it often leaches into groundwater and reacts with the water to form a briny mixture. This dense mixture settles beneath a layer of fresh water, which is lighter. Over 40% of lithium deposits are found in Salar de Atacama, Chile's largest salt flat, where these freshwater layers host diverse and fragile ecosystems containing unique wildlife.

A study on the precursor molecules titled "Molecular Precursors of the RNA-World in Space: New Nitriles in the G+0.693−0.027 Molecular Cloud" has been published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

Spanish researchers have observed the center of the Milky Way galaxy and found a host of different organic molecules called nitriles. These are used in building prebiotic molecules (precursors to molecules associated with life) that are commonly associated with RNA, a similar molecule to DNA used to carry genetic information.

The team found evidence of nitriles, including cyanic acid, cyanoallene, propargyl cyanide, and cyanopropyne, in the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud. The cloud is located inside the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at the center of the Milky Way, where many prebiotic molecules have been found.

A New Zealand patient has volunteered to be the first person to receive a gene-editing treatment to lower their blood cholesterol.

The patient is part of a clinical trial by Verve Therapeutics, a U.S. biotechnology company. The patient suffers from heart disease and inherited the risk for excessively high cholesterol, which lends itself to an increased risk of heart attacks and heart disease. The patient's treatment involved an injection of a version of the CRISPR gene-editing tool designed to modify the DNA in the patient's liver cells slightly.

The gene-edit targets a single letter in the DNA code for the PCSK9 gene and aims to lower levels of LDL cholesterol, the so-called "bad" form of cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is a fatty molecule that can clog arteries and cause them to harden, leading to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. The most widely prescribed medicines in the U.S. are statins, which can half LDL levels in patients, but comes with side effects that can be too much for some.

A new report from the United Nations has revealed what intergovernmental organization estimates the world population will be before 2022 is finished.

According to the report titled "World Population Prospects", the world's population is expected to reach 8 billion by mid-November, according to the UN's estimations. By 2030 the UN predicts that the planet will hold a total of 8.5 billion people, and by 2050 there will be 9.7 billion people. Notably, the UN predicts the world's population will reach a peak of approximately 10.4 billion people around 2080.

Furthermore, the UN writes that these sharp increases in population will come from less than ten countries, and those countries are; Congo, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, the Philippines, and Tanzania. Other notable predictions from the report are that there will be as many women in the world as men by 2050, with current metrics indicating that as of 2022, the world's population is about 50.3% male.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is fired up for scientific operations, and the space agency has released a beautiful image of a star-forming region.

NASA has shared a new image snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope's infrared instrument that focuses on the star-forming region NGC 3324, or the Carina Nebula. According to NASA's recent blog post, the region is called the Cosmic Cliffs, and after looking at the image, you can understand why. The agency explains the space mountains consist of cosmic dust, but Webb's extremely sensitive instruments are capable of peering through that veil at the young stars behind it.

NASA notes that the ultraviolet radiation that is being released from the young stars is influencing the mountain's edge, while the mist that is seen above the mountain top is actually hot ionized gas and dust that is being forced away from the nebula by star radiation. Furthermore, the tallest "mountain" seen in the above image is estimated to be 7 light-years tall.

NASA has released a selection of colored images snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These images are the first colored images taken by the JWST.

NASA has taken to its blog to showcase a planetary nebula called NGC 3132, which is also called the Southern Ring Nebula, located approximately 2,500 light-years from Earth. NASA explains that the above observations of the nebula have been taken almost face-on to the subject and that if you were to look at the nebula from side-on, it would look like two bowls placed together pointing outwards with their bases touching.

Notably, NGC 3132 consists of two stars that orbit each other very closely. This orbit between the two stellar objects stirs the nebula's dust and gas, causing asymmetrical patterns to be produced. Furthermore, Webb's Mid-infrared camera revealed for the first time that the second star is surrounded by dust, with the brighter star next to it being in the earlier stages of star evolution, hence its difference in color.

NASA has released a set of incredible images taken by the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

NASA has taken to its blog to finally released the first colored images snapped by the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, and showcased above is the galaxy group "Stephan's Quintet". According to the space agency, Stephan's Quintet has been photographed in never-before-seen detail. The above image is actually a mosaic piece made up of 1,000 separate images.

Notably, NASA states that the collection of images flattened into one image consists of more than 150 million pixels and reveals previously unknown details such as the sparkling clusters of a million or more stars and how gas and dust are being pulled into different directions by the gravity of certain objects. Furthermore, NASA states in its blog that this is the largest image to date, and is approximately the same size as one-fifth of the Moon's diameter.

NASA recently released the first set of images taken by the $10 billion next-generation space telescope - the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope from Earth on December 25 and since then it has travelled to its destination approximately 1 million miles from Earth, and prepared all its next-generation instruments for scientific operations. It has been many months of Webb calibrating, but now NASA has released the first set of images ever captured by Webb and they are nothing short of amazing.

The first image, seen below, is the deepest and sharpest image of the universe ever taken. According to NASA the image is of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 and it contains thousands of galaxies as well as the faintest objects ever observed in infrared light. Following the release of the first image, and the now first set of images, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to his personal Twitter account to show his support for NASA's most powerful telescope.

A meteor was spotted in the sky over Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand's North Island and South Island, during the daytime hours on July 7th, 2022.

Witnesses described the meteor as a "giant bright orange fireball" that produced a "trail of smoke that hung around for a few minutes." The fireball is presumed to have been caused by a small meteor, up to a few meters wide, that fragmented in the atmosphere, producing a sonic boom as it exploded with the power of 1,800 metric tonnes of TNT.

The shock wave generated by the fragmented meteor was detected by GeoNet, a network seismometers used to detect earthquakes, which recorded sound waves produced as a result. The event also produced a bright flash of light that was recorded by satellites used to detect lightning globally. The meteor likely fragmented over the ocean, and fragments of it will therefore be unrecoverable.

Kyoto University and Kajima Corporation have presented concept plans for Moon and Mars bases.

The major downside of the ambitious plans is that the bases are only expected to become feasible to implement in the 22nd century at the earliest. The "artificial gravity living facilities" will provide a safe habitat for humans on both the Moon and Mars and will create artificial gravity by harnessing centrifugal forces created by rotating the entire base.

Gravity on the Moon is one-sixth the strength of that on Earth, and Mars' gravity is one-third the strength of Earth's. The researchers claim that the facilities will improve the health of people living in them by reducing the impact that low-gravity environments can have on individuals' health, as shown in astronauts returning to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

A study on the modified worm titled "Nematode surface functionalization with hydrogel sheaths tailored in situ has been published in the journal Materials Today Bio.

Researchers from Osaka University have found a new use for a type of nematode, which are microscopic unsegmented roundworms, particularly the Anisakis simplex species. The Japanese researchers equipped the worms with "hydrogel sheaths," allowing them to be loaded up with cargo. A. simplex is usually found in marine environments, but if ingested, they can colonize inside humans, where they have been shown to develop a taste for cancer cells.

The researchers dipped the nematodes in various hydrogel solutions to coat them with chemicals that bind together to form the gel-like sheath all over their bodies, creating a 0.01-millimeter thick layer in about 20 minutes custom-fitted to the nematode. After testing their viability, the sheaths were loaded with anti-cancer agents, which the nematodes could transport to cancer cells in vitro, killing them.

A study on the Earth's formation titled "Stochastic accretion of the Earth" has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have used a new modeling approach to determine a likely pathway through which Earth came to be. The prevailing theory until now suggested that Earth formed from chondritic asteroids gradually conglomerating. However, according to planetologist Paolo Sossi of ETH Zurich in Switzerland, "the problem with this theory is that no mixture of these chondrites can explain the exact composition of the Earth, which is much poorer in light, volatile elements such as hydrogen and helium than we would have expected."

When stars form, leftover dust and gas surrounding the star make up a protoplanetary disk, which gradually aggregates into concentrated pockets. In what's known as the accretion model, matter clumps together, held in place by electrostatic forces, and then gravitational forces begin to hold matter together as larger objects form, such as planetesimals, which can go on to become a planet.

SpaceX is currently testing a prototype of its Super Heavy rocket booster that is expected to be what gets the company's massive Starship off the ground and into space.

Elon Musk's pioneering company was testing Super Heavy Booster 7 prototype on Monday, July 11, with engine firing beginning at 5:20 pm at Starbase, SpaceX's South Texas facility. Shortly after firing up the engines, an explosion shook the entire SpaceX facility, which was followed by an eruption of flames that licked up the sides of the massive 165-foot-tall Starship.

One Twitter user asked Musk if this explosion was intentional, Musk quickly replied and said, "Yes. Booster engine testing." However, the SpaceX CEO then deleted that tweet and followed up with a reply to a video of the incident by NASASpaceflight where he said, "yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage". Notably, Musk explained that cryogenic fuel is a "challenge", "as it evaporates to create fuel-air explosion risk in a partially oxygen atmosphere like Earth." Furthermore, Musk said that he would give updates later.

A TikTok teen has taken approximately 1.4 million of frog spawn and decided to breed them to create a frog army.

The TikTok user goes by the name "ThinFrog" and created a series of taking the large quantity of frog spawn and breeding them in a backyard pool. In recent videos posted to the TikTok page the UK-based teen reveals that the frogs had hatched into tadpoles, and then eventually into small frogs. According to the video, one of the surrounding neighbors had left due to the immense amount of frogs.

Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity has said that the release of more than a million frogs into an environment for a stunt "makes me cringe", as it actually hurts the animals that they are releasing and can have wider impacts on animals living in the surrounding environment. "Instead of helping, [These TikTok users] are actually hurting the animals they're releasing and all the animals in the environment that they're releasing them into - it's creating a vector for disease and invasive species," said Curry.

Following Elon Musk's legal team sending a letter to Twitter's board of directors indicating that Musk wants to back out of the $44 billion acquisition deal, Musk has fired off a couple of trolling tweets.

Musk has been engaged in a deal to purchase Twitter for a few months now, and leading up to the present date, the Tesla CEO said that the deal was "on hold" until Twitter could prove that its number of bot/spam accounts was below the stated 5% of total Twitter users. Twitter provided the "full pipe" of data to Musk's team, which was unable to prove that Twitter's estimation was incorrect.

Now, reports have come out that Twitter is moving to pursue legal action against Musk that may force him into purchasing the company for the locked-in $44 billion. Notably, Twitter's market capitalization is currently at $28 billion, nearly half of Musk's offer. Musk has recently posted a meme to his Twitter account that pokes fun at the bot account situation. The meme states that Twitter didn't want Musk to buy the company in the first place, and when he went to purchase it and asked for "bot info," the company didn't disclose the correct information. Lastly, "now they have to disclose the bot info in court".

NASA has been teasing that its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful space telescope in the world, will soon be releasing its first colored images.

Webb launched from Earth on Christmas Day, 2021, and since then, the $10 billion+ observatory has been gearing up for scientific operations with NASA engineers on Earth running it through numerous checks to prepare its highly advanced instruments. Now, Webb is beginning science operations, and NASA has already taken to its social channels to release the first colored image taken by Webb.

Above is the first image colored image taken by NASA's JWST, and according to NASA's website its, the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever taken. The image showcases galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which contains thousands of galaxies and the faintest objects ever observed in infrared. Furthermore, NASA explains that this image and all of the galaxies contained within it covers a patch of sky equivalent to the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length.