Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 8

A network of four telescopes identified an asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere on October 22, and just two hours later, it plummeted over the Pacific Ocean.

The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey located in Hawaii is a network of telescopes dedicated to identifying asteroids that have a trajectory that lines up with Earth. The system scans the sky for any moving objects and maps their trajectory, marking those that are going to collide with the planet. As for last month's asteroid, the detection system didn't spot the space rock due to its position near the edge of two adjacent viewing fields.

The position of the asteroid resulted in it being marked as a moving object rather than an "imminent impactor" which is what it should have been categorized as. Notably, this is the third "imminent impactor" detected only hours before collision this year, with the two others being 2024 BX1, approximately 3.3 feet wide, and burnt up over Berlin, and the other, 2024 RW1, which exploded over the Philippines.

A former Pentagon official has testified to Congress that the US government has evidence that "we are not alone in the cosmos" and that a government "cabal" is hiding the evidence from the American people, and the world.

Luiz Elizondo was the former head of the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and was tasked with investigating Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs). Elizondo was joined by other witness and UFO whistleblowers that testified before the House Oversight Committee.

Elizondo said: "Excessive secrecy has lead to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel and the public, all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos" after which he referred to the group as a "cabal".

In May 2023, an "alien signal" was beamed at Earth from Mars, and it contained a coded message that has now been finally deciphered.

The "alien signal" was beamed at Earth by the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Mars probe as part of a partnership between the ESA and Daniela de Paulis, the current Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. The project is an art piece called "A Sign in Space," but it has real experimental value as its been used to test how long it would take for a real alien signal detected on Earth to be deciphered.

After more than a year of deciphering, father and daughter team Ken and Keli Chaffin have decoded the message, and according to a statement from the ESA, the team was able to decode the signal by following their "intuition and running simulations for hours and days on end." Before the signal could be decoded, it needed to be extracted from the raw radio signal data, which took 10 days and a group of more than 5,000 citizen scientists.

The CEO of Telegram has offered women free IVF treatment if they are willing to use his sperm for the procedure, in what he says is an effort to help couples struggling with infertility.

It was only back in early September that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced that he has more than 100 biological kids, and that he plans to open-source his DNA so it's easier for his biological children to find each other. Durov explained the initiative was born when a friend struggling with infertility approached him for his sperm, which Durov said resulted in the boss of the sperm clinic informing him there is a shortage of "high quality donor material".

Now, a new partnership with Durov and the AltraVita IVF clinic, based in Moscow, Russia, is offering women free IVF fertilization if they choose to use Durov's sperm. According to the AltraVita website, it's the exclusive source for Durov's sperm, and the Telegram CEO is willing to "finance all the IVF protocols that use his sperm". For those couples struggling immensely with pregnancy, IVF can be a prosperous route. However, it doesn't always work, and in some cases, depending on the region, it can result in thousands of dollars spent with no luck.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has conducted its first-ever reboost of the International Space Station (ISS), the floating laboratory approximately 250 miles above the surface of Earth that's home to astronauts from around the world.

NASA has taken to its website to announce that it and SpaceX monitored the operations of the Dragon spacecraft during its boost, and according to the blog post, this is Dragon's "first demonstration of reboost capabilities for the International Space Station". The reboost was conducted at 12:50 p.m. EST on Friday and involved the Dragon spacecraft engaging its boosters for approximately 12 minutes and 30 seconds, which adjusted the orbit of the ISS by 7/100 of a mile at apogee and 7/10 of a mile at perigee.

The demonstration proved SpaceX's Dragon capsule could be used as a means of adjusting the ISS when necessary, which is something the ISS requires regularly as the floating laboratory is constantly losing altitude. Up until now, vehicles from the European Space Agency and Northrop Grumman were used to maintain the ISS's orbit. However, NASA wants more options for obvious reasons such as emergencies, forward planning, etc.

SpaceX has teased "Marslink" as a new high-speed internet connection between Mars and Earth, with Elon Musk's startup using an adaption of its Starlink satellite network to pump internet connectivity to Mars.

SpaceX presented Marslink to NASA with the aim of establishing a high-speed data relay system -- something capable of transmitting 4Mbps or more -- across 1.5 astronomical units (AUs), which is the distance between Earth and Mars. The Marslink concept sees multiple satellites in Mars' orbit, using Starlink's advanced laser communications technology to maintain a constant, near-instantaneous data flow between planets.

Elon Musk was recently at now President-elect Trump's rally wearing his iconic "Occupy Mars" t-shirt, and then days later we're seeing Marslink unveiled to the world... which would serve perfectly into future missions to Mars, allowing real-time images and data streams blasted from Mars to Earth. Into the deeper (hopefully not too deep) future, Marslink will assist in ground operations and Mars' orbit assets.

A new study has outlined how a specific protein within a genetic sequence can, if altered, extend the life of a species by up to 30%.

The new study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications has identified a protein within the cytoskeleton of a cell sourced from a fruit fly. The cytoskeleton is the structure that helps maintain the shape of the cell and is comprised of a network of interlinking protein filaments. The researchers were able to identify a protein called F-actin as the catalyst for extending life and looked at the relationship between F-actin and how it accumulates in the brain as the aging process continues.

The researchers found that as F-actin builds up in the brain, it slows down the cellular-level self-cleaning process, which ultimately leads to a build-up of cellular waste within the brain. The researchers tweaked the genetic sequence of the F-actin within a group of fruit flies and found that because the F-actin wasn't accumulating in the brains of the flies, hindering the cellular clean-up process, the flies' lifespan increased by up to 30%. Additionally, the researchers state the reduction in F-actin in the brain led to the flies displaying increased overall health benefits and signs of other organs improving.

China space officials recently unveiled a new rocket design that is strangely close to SpaceX's design for the recently successful Starship rocket.

The similarities between the two rockets were pointed out in a recent article by Ars Technica, which states the design for its Long March 9 rocket, an ultra-heavy launch vehicle that is designed to transport the first Chinese astronauts to the surface of the Moon sometime in the 2030s. However, the new design appears to be heavily inspired or directly ripped off from SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle, as the new Long March 9 rocket has the same two-stage, fully reusable configuration as SpaceX's rocket, the same aerodynamic flaps to assist in landing, and more.

Notably, and as Ars Technica points out, this isn't the first time Chinese officials have copied designs from SpaceX, as it was only last week a Chinese space launch company called Cosmoleap published a promotional video that copied SpaceX's Mechazilla tower and its two chopstick arms. Additionally, a separate Chinese space startup called Space Pioneer announced its plans to develop a new rocket with a design suspiciously similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

A group of researchers have discovered a submerged temple that is believed to be more than 2,000 years old and built by Arabian immigrants.

The discovery was detailed in a new article by the Cambridge University Press that states the 2,000-year-old temple was discovered off the Phlaegrean coast near Naples, Italy. The city was discovered off the coast of the Pozzuoli, a town near Campi Flegrei, located approximately 10 miles east of Naples. The article states the city was called Puteoli during its Roman-era occupation, and by mapping the seabed, the researchers were able to discover a collection of walls that measured 32 feet by 15 feet.

The article states they appear to make up two large rooms, and along with this discovery was the finding of two white marble altars, each of which were leaning against the wall of one of the rooms. The temple was reportedly built by Arabian immigrants from the Nabataean culture, and the location was once a popular harbor that conducted maritime trade, which the study states was primarily in grain. Due to the popularity of the trading location, the port was outfitted with a series of warehouses, the foundations of which can be identified in the above image.

NASA has confirmed it has received a message from an interstellar traveler that is more than 15 billion miles away from Earth, and the message was good news.

That interstellar traveler is none other than NASA's Voyager 1, which used its backup radio transmitter, which hasn't been activated since 1981, to send a message back to Earth. The message came after Voyager 1 experienced an issue that temporarily paused communications, as the spacecraft put itself into a protective power state to preserve the health of its instruments and to converse power. The power state and the severing of communications were caused by instructions NASA sent via its Deep Space Network on October 16 that told Voyager 1 to turn off one of its heaters.

On October 18, NASA realized that one of the spacecraft's antennas, which was its primary X-band radio transmitter, was inactive. NASA believes the spacecraft's fault protection system triggered two more times, resulting in Voyager switching to its S-band radio transmitter, which hadn't been used since 1981. At this point NASA was metaphorically sweating as the S-band frequency is much harder to detect due to its fainter signal.

Beijing has claimed it has discovered "underwater lighthouses" and other devices that are allegedly being used for surveillance purposes by China's adversaries.

China's Ministry of State Security took to WeChat to make the accusations, explaining Chinese authorities discovered several devices that were all designed to gather information on their surrounding area, which was in the ocean. More specifically, China explained that it found drifting devices capable of "detecting and grasping the real-time situation in the sea area," with others that acted as "underwater 'lighthouses' to show the direction of submarines of other countries that have intruded into China's waters."

Beijing said the discovered devices were designed with the purpose of "covertly collecting marine hydrological information and data on the activities of various ships around them and serving the preset of the battlefield environment." Additionally, China alleged it discovered a base embedded into the seafloor, which is reminiscent of an allegation the nation made back in May of this year where it said it discovered "maritime espionage" within its waters when a fishermen allegedly said he found the above device.

Water is something we interact with every day, but where does it come from and how is it formed? Researchers have captured the event of a water molecule forming on the nanoscale, showcasing hydrogen and oxygen fusing together to form H20.

Researchers from Northwestern University penned a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and a press release on the Northwestern website discussing the scientific achievement in more natural language. According to the press release, this is the first time researchers have witnessed the formation of tiny water bubbles in real-time or the evolutionary process of two hydrogen atoms merging with an oxygen atom to form H20 or water.

The team was able to do this through the use of a rare metallic element called palladium, which catalyzes the gaseous reaction to form the water molecule. Here's what happened. Using a special ultra-thin glassy membrane that can contain the molecules and be attached to a high-vacuum electron microscope, the researchers were able to see the two hydrogen atoms enter the palladium element, expanding its material structure. Shortly after, a water bubble formed on the surface of the palladium.

Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink has some new competition as a company whose founding members were previously at Neuralink announced a new eye implant capable of enabling blind people to read once again.

Former President of Neuralink and now current CEO of California-based brain-computer interface company Science Corporation, Max Hodak, acquired the new technology from Pixium Vision earlier this year, and according to reports the specific implant is referred to as the Prima. Notably, the implant doesn't stimulate the retina, but instead bypasses it and directly communicates with the brain through electrical signals.

Here's how it works. The Prima is placed under the retina in the backmost part of the eye over just an 80-minute procedure. The patient wears a pair of glasses that capture visual information and then convert that information into patterns of infrared light that are processed on the tiny implanted 2 mm chip. The implant has 378 light-powered pixels, and once the chip has converted the infrared light pattern into electrical signals, they are sent to the brain. The electrical pulses from the chip mimic natural sight electrical pulses, and as a result, the user can achieve "form vision," or the perception of shapes, patterns, and objects.

As technology advances and becomes more sophisticated, researchers are able to view the world differently, revealing aspects of it that have previously gone unnoticed.

An example of that is the recent discovery of a 250-year-old lost city within Brazil's Amazon rainforest, which Brazil's Metropoles publication has detailed in a recent report. According to the news site the team of archaeologist was led by University of Sao Paulo archaeologist Eduardo Neves, and the discover was made possible through the use of advanced sensing technology called Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR.

This form of remote sensing uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges. The light is fired by a laser within the instrument and then it measures the time it takes for the reflected light to return back to the receiver. With these measurements, researchers are able to produce a high-resolution 3D image or map of the targeted area. The researchers took advantage of Brazil's National Space Researchers Institute's LiDAR equipment and flew over a swath of the Amazon rainforest, scanning as they went.

A team of international researchers has discovered that the vast majority of the asteroids that collide with Earth come from just three families of asteroids, which can all be traced back to a cataclysmic event approximately 40 million years ago.

A new paper that has been published in the scientific journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, along with two other papers recently published in Nature, outlines that 70% of all known meteorites, asteroids that make it to the surface of Earth, come from the following asteroid families: Karin, Koronos, and Massalia. These families were formed approximately at different times, such as Karin five million years ago, Koronos at seven million, and Massalia at forty million. Notably, Massalia was the source for 37% of all known meteorites.

These asteroid families formed in our solar system's main asteroid belt, which is located some 700 million miles from Earth. As for the meteorites discovered on Earth, cataclysmic events caused by collisions with other asteroids within the asteroid belt resulted in fragments of asteroids being scattered into the solar system. Researchers used simulations to rewind the clock on some of the discovered meteorites and found the source of their origin.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk celebrated the successful launch and catch of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, by sharing some extremely high-detail footage captured with an expensive camera lens.

The footage was captured by Andrew McCarthy, an astrophotographer who captures incredibly detailed images of astronomical objects from his backyard in Arizona. McCarthy posts the photos and videos to his Instagram account "cosmic_background," which has gained more than 1.6 million followers as of the time of reporting. As for Starship, McCarthy explained via X that he rented a $17,000 lens to capture SpaceX's milestone rocket launch and catch. The results simply speak for themselves.

McCarthy explains in captions within the video that each frame seen is hand-tracked and hand-stabilized. Additionally, the astrophotographer was able to track Starship all the way to orbit at 50 miles altitude, and capture the stage separation moment when Super Heavy disconnected from Starship to make its descent journey back down to Earth and eventual landing on the launch pad it took off from.

For the first time, a team of researchers successfully used lasers to generate sound waves on the surface of a microchip, opening the door for completely new microchip design considerations that abandon electricity.

In a new study published in the APL Photonics journal of the American Institute of Physics, a team of researchers details the process of generating sound waves on a microchip and the benefits of the new technology. According to the press release about the study, the team used a technique called stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), which is created through a feedback loop between photons (light) and phonons (sound). More specifically, as light moves around the chip or an optical fiber it creates sound vibrations.

Notably, researchers initially believed these sound vibrations to be an obstacle, but after further consideration, it was realized they could be coupled with light waves, which enhances the vibration. Moreover, the team discovered this vibration could be used as a new way to transport and process information.

Amazon is investing big in nuclear energy as the company believes that growing energy demands caused by expanding data centers will be need to be met with small nuclear reactors.

It was only last week that Google announced it was pursuing nuclear power to support the growing demand for data centers, and now Amazon is following suit. The exponentially growing energy demand is undoubtedly caused by the increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence data centers that require immense amounts of energy to operate. Amazon explains in the above video it has signed three agreements to support the development of small nuclear reactors called "Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)".

Amazon names Energy Northwest, which will develop four advanced SMRs that will be able to generate approximately 320 megawatts of capacity or enough to power 770,000 US homes. Additionally, Amazon has tapped X-energy, a company specializing in SMR reactors and fuel. X-energy's advanced SMR reactor design will be used in the Energy Northwest project. Additionally, Amazon has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy to implement an SMR project near Dominion's existing North Anna nuclear power station, which will have the goal of adding an additional 300 megawatts of power to the Virginia region.

Google has signed the world's first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMR) to be developed by Kairos Power.

The company says that the initial phase of work will bring Kairos Power's first SMR online quickly and safely by 2030, followed by additional reactor deployments through 2035. Overall, this deal will enable up to 500MW of new 24/7 carbon-free power to US electricity grids, with Google adding that this will "help more communities benefit from clean and affordable nuclear power".

Google explains why the company is supporting new advanced nuclear energy: "This agreement is part of our efforts to develop and commercialize a broad portfolio of advanced clean electricity technologies to power our global data centers and offices. This approach will complement our use of variable renewables, like solar and wind, and help us reach our ambitious 24/7 carbon-free energy and net-zero goals".

NASA has taken to its blog to confirm the Sun has now reached the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, meaning we can expect a lot more activity out of our local star.

The space agency informed reporters on Tuesday, along with representatives from the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that the Sun has entered its solar maximum period, which can continue throughout next year. NASA explains that during the Sun's solar maximum, the Sun's magnetic activity is at its highest, which increases the number of sunspots that lead to solar eruptions that can and have impacted Earth.

Solar activity can affect critical infrastructure on Earth, such as communications systems, satellites, and power grids, which can all be disrupted during intense geomagnetic storms caused by solar blasts. On the positive side, increased solar activity means the frequency of auroras have increased. An example of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle paying off in the form of impressive auroras only occurred in May this year when Earth was hit with a barrage of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or blasts of charged particles that created the strongest geomagnetic storm Earth has experienced in the last two decades.