Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 82

Being the world's richest person comes with many benefits and shortcomings, but if there is one thing that Elon Musk hasn't lost on his ride to the top is his sense of humor.

Musk, is known for his CEO position at both Tesla and SpaceX, is known for his public wit, which is mostly said on his personal Twitter account. In April, Musk shared a meme, that was likely created by him, that poked fun at Bill Gates, and it showcased Gates next to the "pregnant man" emoji with Musk's caption "in case u need to lose a boner fast". Musk followed up to that tweet with a "shadow ban council reviewing tweet".

Now, Musk is at it again by taking to Twitter to announce that he will be changing the default Wi-Fi name for Starlink to "Stinky", in an effort to get people to change their Wi-Fi names. The tweets from Musk have seemed to cause a large selection of Starlink users to change their Wi-Fi names to some obscure names. In other Elon Musk news, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO may have caused stargazers to be confused as a spiral formation of lights streaked across the night sky.

NASA's famous Hubble Space Telescope used its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys to snap the large galaxy cluster Abell 1351.

Hubble snapped the above image of this galaxy cluster that resides in the constellation Ursa Major within the northern hemisphere. As detailed by the the European Space Agency (ESA) in its "image of the week", Abell 1351 features streaks of light that are caused by gravitational lensing, which is a phenomenon that is caused when a large celestial body warps spacetime.

These massive celestial bodies such as galaxies warp light that is being seen by telescopes, and essentially act as a magnifying glass. The image of Abell 1351 is a part of an astronomical album that is a collection of the largest galaxy clusters ever observed, which clearly demonstrate the phenomenon of gravitational lensing.

Some residents that were lucky enough to see the event were left confused and some even scared at the whirlpool that appeared in the night sky over New Zealand.

Stargazers and anyone that was happening to look up at the night sky over the weekend at around 7:25 pm witnessed a spiral of light formations appearing in the night sky. The spiral of light streaked across the night sky and according to Alasdair Burns, who witnessed the event and spoke to The Guardian, "it looked like an enormous spiral galaxy" that was "slowly just drifting across". Notably, Burns said that many residents of his neighborhood banded together to watch the light show.

So, what was thousands of people witnessing? According to Professor Richard Easther, a physicist at Auckland University, the phenomenon isn't aliens, or anything sci-fi, but can be simply answered. The physicist explains that when a rocket is carrying a satellite into space its expelling propellant out its back, which mostly consists of water and carbon dioxide that form a cloud. This cloud is then illuminated by the sun.

One of the world's most valuable shipwrecks has been photographed, and a collection of images have been released by the Colombian military.

The shipwreck is Spain's San Jose Galleon that sunk with a large collection of now extremely valuable treasure. British navy sunk the vessel in 1708 throughout the War of the Spanish Succession. According to reports, the ship was and still is, carrying a large amount of treasure that includes gold coins, silver, emeralds, crockery, pots, cannons, and glass bottles. Previously the treasure was estimated to be worth $1 billion, but according to ScienceAlert, it's now estimated to be worth $17 billion.

The San Jose Galleon sunk with 600 souls on board, and on June 6, footage of the wreck was revealed by the Colombian military, with Colombian President Ivan Duque saying in a press conference, "The idea is to recover it and to have sustainable financing mechanisms for future extractions. In this way, we protect the treasure, the patrimony of the San Jose galleon." Notably, Colombia has claimed that the sunken vessel is its property, but Spain has also thrown its hat in the ring by stating that the ship was their property, claiming that the ship and its treasure fall under World Heritage Site guidelines.

Russia blew up its own satellite late last year in an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test, generating a large amount of space debris.

The destroyed satellite was the Kosmos 1408 satellite, which was blown up by a Russian ASAT missile on November 15th, 2021. The ASAT test generated 1,500 trackable pieces of space debris, along with estimated hundreds of thousands of pieces too small to track.

The debris has spread between 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) and 1,000 kilometers (621.3 miles) above Earth, endangering low-Earth orbit satellites, including the International Space Station (ISS) and Tiangong, China's space station.

A study on the atom laser titled "Continuous Bose-Einstein condensation" has been published in the journal Nature.

Conventional lasers produce a coherent wave of light, meaning all of the light vibrates in a synchronized fashion. As described by the wave-particle duality from quantum mechanics, the behavior of particles like atoms can be described with the classical understanding of both particles and waves. Therefore, lasers can also be built from atoms, naturally dubbed 'atom lasers.'

A Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is when matter particles, like atoms, condense into a coherent wave, synchronized like a light in a typical laser. However, this can typically only occur at temperatures roughly a millionth of a degree warmer than absolute zero, making most BECs short-lived. Now, physicists from the University of Amsterdam have devised a process to sustain BECs, and produce a continual atom laser.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has committed to sharing information regarding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) with the United States.

Larry Maguire, a member of parliament (MP) in Canada, questioned Canada's Natural Resources department during a meeting, about the safety of Canada's nuclear facilities and the potential threat posed by UAP, also known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Maguire later received a letter from the Natural Resources department informing him of their commitment to sharing information on UAP issues with its United States counterpart.

A study on the black hole titled "Discovery of the most luminous quasar of the last 9 Gyr" has been submitted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

An international team led by astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) has discovered a black hole growing faster than any other black hole in the last nine billion years. This black hole consumes an amount of mass equivalent to one Earth per second.

The black hole has a mass equivalent to three billion times that of our Sun and shines with 7,000 times more light than all of the light coming from the Milky Way, resulting in an apparent magnitude of 14.5, which measures how bright an object appears to an observer on Earth. Similarly sized black holes have been observed to stop growing at such fast rates billions of years ago.

Voyager 1 and 2 were launched into space on September 5th, 1977, and August 20th, 1977, respectively.

Both Voyager spacecraft have identical designs, and both have reached interstellar space, the first human-made objects to do so. Almost 45 years later, they are still in service, returning data to Earth from beyond the solar system. This makes the Voyager spacecraft the longest-lasting spacecraft in history after initially only being designed for a four-year mission.

The new Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) has been developed by Estonian company Milrem Robotics and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

The autonomous, robotic tank was first unveiled in June 2021 and has now completed the first test firing of its Protector Remote Turret. It is equipped with a Bushmaster 30 mm cannon, one of the many payloads the Type-X can use, such as 50 mm cannons, anti-tank missiles, and even a tethered drone. The tank can reach a top speed of 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) per hour on sealed roads,

Milrem and Kongsberg have partnered to develop the Nordic Robotic Wingman (NRW), which Type-X will serve as the base platform for creating RCVs for supporting larger, manned tanks and infantry vehicles. The artificial intelligence system governing the Type-X has multiple functions, including following, waypoint navigation, and obstacle detection.

A study on the asteroid titled "The Heterogeneous Surface of Asteroid (16) Psyche" has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

The 16 Psyche asteroid is scheduled to be visited by a NASA probe that will launch later in 2022. The spacecraft will visit the asteroid belt occupying the region between Mars and Jupiter, comprising remnants from the solar system's formation. One such remnant is the 16 Psyche asteroid, thought to be the core of an ancient planet, which contains a large number of valuable metals, producing an estimated value of as high as $700 quintillion.

Before the NASA probe is launched and reaches the asteroid to begin an almost two-year-long mission orbiting and analyzing it, researchers from MIT have mapped 16 Psyche in the highest resolution yet, coming in at roughly 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) per pixel. They combined signals from radio antennas at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile before running hundreds of simulations to determine the surface composition.

A senior official from NASA has told Reuters it is concerned about damage to its launch infrastructure.

The primary home for Starship is at SpaceX's Starbase facility, located in Boca Chica, Texas. Both Starship and the facility have been the subject of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) environmental assessment that was recently finalized. While the assessment was underway for the first half of 2022 and earlier, SpaceX constructed an orbital launchpad for Starship in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

At the same facilities in Cape Canaveral exists Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. From here, SpaceX launches its Crew Dragon capsule, which ferries astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. As it is the only launchpad approved for Crew Dragon, NASA wants SpaceX that Starship poses no risk to the pad as a result of some catastrophic incident such as an explosion.

The Boring Company has just received approval from the City of Las Vegas, so that the Elon Musk-led company can extend its tunnel network underneath the city, to downtown Las Vegas.

Clark County Commissioners first approved the Vegas Loop, which was planned as a 29-mile tunnel network that was connected to 51 stations. But with the expansion approval, it will boost up to a bigger 34-mile tunnel network with 4 more stations: 55 in total, with connections to Harry Reid International Airport and the Allegiant Stadium.

If you forgot how the Boring Company tunnel network works, the Vegas Loop will see passengers get into a human-driven Tesla Model X or Model Y electric vehicle -- underground, in a series of networked tunnels -- and boosted off to their destination with much, much more time to spare than driving on the roads.

NASA's upcoming Artemis I mission will fly over three million people's names around the Moon.

Artemis I is the first mission in NASA's Artemis program, which is set to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon, hoping to establish a more permanent presence from which NASA can stage missions to Mars for its Moon to Mars initiative. Artemis I will comprise an uncrewed test flight around the Moon using the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Aboard this flight will be a flash drive containing over three million names collected by NASA, and will be placed inside the Orion spacecraft. Before NASA stopped accepting further submissions, 3,390,384 "boarding passes" were claimed using NASA's website.

A study on the extra chromosomes titled "Detection and characterization of male sex chromosome abnormalities in the UK Biobank study" has been published in the journal Genetics in Medicine.

Data from over 207,000 men included in the UK Biobank has revealed that an extra sex chromosome, either an X or Y, may be prevalent in as many as 1 in 500 men. Typically, men are born with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, however, in the dataset, were 213 men with an extra X chromosome, resulting in the XXY genotype, and 143 men with an extra Y chromosome, resulting in the XYY genotype.

Also referred to as 47,XXY and 47,XYY, the genotypes are called Klinefelter syndrome and Jacobs syndrome, respectively. Only 23% of those with Klinefelter syndrome had a known diagnosis, while only 0.7% of those with Jacobs syndrome were diagnosed. However, the latter has much more subtle characteristics that could contribute to a lower diagnosis rate.

Satellites from Maxar Technologies spotted preparations for rocket launches in Iran on Tuesday, June 14th.

The launch preparations are underway at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport for the Islamic Republic of Iran's new Zuljanah three-stage rocket for carrying satellites to orbit. The rocket is slated to be launched two more times after a previous launch at the same site where numerous failed attempts to launch satellites to orbit have occurred.

Satellite imagery captured a rocket on a transporter at the site, and later that day, a rocket was lifted onto the launch tower. Reporters questioned Ned Price, the spokesperson United States Department of State, about the launch preparations, who said, "Iran has consistently chosen to escalate tensions. It is Iran that has consistently chosen to take provocative actions."

Chinese researchers have published a new study in Nature Communications that confirms a major Moon discovery.

According to the researchers, China's Chang'e 5 lander has collected lunar rocks and confirmed via onboard analysis with its instruments that the rock samples contain water. Notably, Chinese researchers were able to estimate the amount of water molecules within some types of moon rocks - 120 parts per million and 180 parts per million (ppm) in other rocks.

The rocks were then studied by a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Earth and found that the mineral apatite was 179 ppm, which was close to the earlier estimates from Chang-e 5. For quite some time, astronomers and researchers have suspected that lunar soil contains some degree of water molecules, but now we have a much better idea of the specific amount of water contained in some soil samples.

A group of astronomers have discovered a new multiplanet system that resides within our galactic neighborhood and maybe the closest known multiplanet system to Earth.

The astronomers, some of which are from MIT, initially used NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to discover the multiplanet system, which contains a small and cool M-dwarf star now named HD 260655. Additionally, the researchers found two terrestrial Earth-sized planets, which are believed to be rock worlds that have relatively tight orbits around HD 260655.

Due to the orbits of both of the rocky planets being relatively tight, the researchers believe that it's likely the Earth-sized planets aren't habitable as the planets would be exposed to the extreme temperatures of their local star. Despite the planets likely not being suitable for life, astronomers and researchers are still excited about the discovery as the planets are prime prospects for atmospheric study.

NASA's Perseverance rover is currently scouring the surface of the Red Planet looking for past signs of ancient life that may have inhabited the planet long ago.

Throughout its adventures, Perseverance has encountered many things that are both interesting and unexpected, and now NASA researchers can add another event to their "unexpected" list as Perseverance has located a piece of trash. Taking to Perseverance's official Twitter account, NASA explains that the rover discovered the trash jammed in a jagged rock and was later able to identify that the trash is a thermal blanket that was used to protect the rover from Mars' harsh atmosphere as it descended to the surface.

The Twitter account states that "it's a surprise finding this here" as the descent stage crashed approximately 1.24 miles away from the location of the thermal blanket. Questions have now been put forth as to whether the thermal material landed in this location or was blown there by martian wind. Now that Perseverance and NASA's team have enjoyed discovering some long-lost landing equipment, the rover will be directed to get back to its main task - exploring the Jezero Crater.

An image of a mysterious creature has recently gone viral, causing thousands of individuals to speculate online what species it could be.

The image comes from the City of Amarillo Twitter account that shared a screenshot from security camera footage taken at the Amarillo Zoo. The Twitter account explains that in the early hours of May 21, 2022, a mysterious creature was caught on film at approximately 1:25 AM. The Twitter account speculates that the creature could possibly be a person with a strange hat on or a "chupacabra," which is a legendary creature in folklore that feeds on livestock by drinking their blood.

The City of Amarillo described the creature as an "Unidentified Amarillo Object", and palmed the question off to the public to try and find out what it could be. As you can probably imagine, many people were happy to provide theories, some rational and possible, and some just claimed that the image was doctored and fake.