Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 9

All the latest Science, Space, Health & Robotics news with plenty of coverage on space launches, discoveries, rockets & plenty more - Page 9.

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Scientists claim they've discovered Amelia Earhart's plane wreckage

Jak Connor | Jan 30, 2024 9:25 AM CST

An ocean exploration company from South Carolina announced on Saturday that it has sonar images that may be evidence of famed aviator Amelia Earhart's plane wreckage.

Scientists claim they've discovered Amelia Earhart's plane wreckage

According to reports from NPR and the Wall Street Journal, the team behind the sonar images is Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company that says it made the discovery using an unmanned underwater drone paired with a 16-person crew that both scoured more than 5,200 square miles of ocean floor between Australia and Hawaii.

Notably, the team detected an airplane-shaped object on the seafloor approximately 100 miles off Howland Island, which is where Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were scheduled to refuel but never arrived. Reports indicate that the images do resemble Earhart's aircraft, a Lockheed Electra, in not only shape but also size and tail. The famed disappearance of the aviator happened in 1937 while she was attempting to circumnavigate the globe, which would have made her the first female pilot to have flown around the world.

Continue reading: Scientists claim they've discovered Amelia Earhart's plane wreckage (full post)

NASA telescope photographs a cosmic bridge linking two galaxies

Jak Connor | Jan 30, 2024 9:03 AM CST

NASA has released an incredible new Hubble Space Telescope image that showcases a cosmic bridge linking two galaxies.

NASA telescope photographs a cosmic bridge linking two galaxies

The galaxy seen above is part of a galactic group called Arp 295, and what can be seen in the image is an incredible 250,000 light-year-long bridge of stars and gas that stretches between two galaxies, Arp 295a to Arp 295b. The galactic cluster imaged above is located 210 million light years from Earth and gives astronomers a peak into the future of our own Milky Way galaxy as it is anticipated that it will collide with the closest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, in approximately 4 billion years.

So, how did this cosmic bridge form? Reports indicate that following the collision of the two Arp galaxies, they began to circle each other, with each's gravitational pull eventually drawing in the other and removing gas, dust, and stars. This process can take billions of years, and eventually, the galaxies merge, which forms an overall new shape for the now singular galaxy.

Continue reading: NASA telescope photographs a cosmic bridge linking two galaxies (full post)

NASA drops treasure trove of epic images snapped by world's most powerful space telescope

Jak Connor | Jan 30, 2024 8:34 AM CST

NASA has released a collection of images snapped by the incredibly impressive James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the world's most powerful space telescope that cost more than $10 billion.

NASA drops treasure trove of epic images snapped by world's most powerful space telescope

From its distant vantage point in space, NASA's Webb has honed its extremely sensitive instruments on a selection of spiral galaxies, revealing them in unprecedented detail for the world to see. The above image is a mosaic of all of the spiral galaxies Webb has imaged, and while many of these galaxies, if not all of them, have been previously studied by astronomers, many are still enthralled by the level of detail Webb can achieve as the observatory's images show parts of the spiral galaxies that have never been seen before.

One of the sought-after aspects of these images is the capture of millions of newborn stars, which populate the spiral arms of these galaxies.

Continue reading: NASA drops treasure trove of epic images snapped by world's most powerful space telescope (full post)

Extremely rare 'green flash' coming from Venus captured by a lucky photographer

Jak Connor | Jan 30, 2024 12:02 AM CST

A very lucky photographer has captured a rare phenomenon that occurs when light passes through Earth's atmosphere.

Extremely rare 'green flash' coming from Venus captured by a lucky photographer

The green flash was captured by photographer Peter Rosén who pointed his camera at one of Earth's closest neighbors - Venus. The footage was snapped in the early hours on January 8 as Rosén was watching Venus rise above the horizon. So, what is this green flash, as shown above? Firstly, visible light contains many different wavelengths of colored light, and when this light shines through Earth's atmosphere, these individual wavelengths begin to be refracted through the molecules in Earth's atmosphere.

The green flash is light bouncing off Venus and making its way through Earth's atmosphere, specifically Earth's low atmosphere, where it travels through more of the atmosphere and eventually reaches the observer. As light passes through Earth's atmosphere, a prism effect takes place, as the light is split into RGB colors, which can also be affected by temperature. When this event is taking place, it's possible that only green wavelengths of light make it to the observer, with all other wavelengths either being scattered or absorbed by Earth's molecules.

Continue reading: Extremely rare 'green flash' coming from Venus captured by a lucky photographer (full post)

Elon Musk confirms the first human has received a Neuralink brain implant

Jak Connor | Jan 29, 2024 10:21 PM CST

The time has finally come, and while many people, including myself, may have thought brain implants were many years away, Elon Musk has announced that the first human has received a Neuralink implant.

Elon Musk confirms the first human has received a Neuralink brain implant

In December, Neuralink announced at its event that it was preparing to implant its brain chip into human patients and needed participants. It seems some people put up their hands as the first human has received the implant. Notably, the human trials began after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the company approval for human testing, which is part of a wider study designed to assess the functionality of the brain-computer interface.

Now, Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink, has announced via his personal X account the first human has received a Neuralink brain implant and is "recovering well". Additionally, Musk wrote, "Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," which can be translated to brain neuron activity. According to the National Institute of Health, cells use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and body. These signals appear as spikes when fired by the neuron.

Continue reading: Elon Musk confirms the first human has received a Neuralink brain implant (full post)

NASA wants to put a massive telescope on the dark side of the moon

Jak Connor | Jan 29, 2024 4:52 AM CST

NASA has big plans for its return to the moon under the space agency's Artemis Program, and now a new proposal has surfaced under NASA's Innovative Advance Concepts (NIAC) Program that could, if approved, put a massive telescope on the dark side of the moon.

NASA wants to put a massive telescope on the dark side of the moon

The new proposal written by Kenneth Carpenter and his colleagues at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) details a Long-Baseline Optical Imaging Interferometer (LBI) designed for the dark side of the moon, and would be called the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI). The telescope would consist of an array of smaller telescopes designed to image objects and regions of space in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths.

The proposal states there is massive potential for having an observatory on the lunar surface due to the "radio quiet" nature of the environment and prolonged periods of darkness. For those that don't know, the moon is tidally locked to Earth, meaning one of the sides of the moon is always facing toward Earth, hence the name description "dark side of the moon". Due to this gravitational phenomenon, two weeks on the lunar surface consists of one Earth day, which means the dark side of the moon will be in total darkness for two weeks at a time.

Continue reading: NASA wants to put a massive telescope on the dark side of the moon (full post)

Scientists discover a hidden new type of star deep within our Milky Way galaxy

Jak Connor | Jan 29, 2024 3:30 AM CST

Authors of a series of papers published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society detail the discovery of a new type of star that was found by analyzing a decade-long collection of data collected by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA).

Scientists discover a hidden new type of star deep within our Milky Way galaxy

The team behind the study focused on approximately 200 stars in a specific region of space that had seemingly dramatic shifts in brightness. More specifically, the team was searching for any signs of protostars or young baby stars that are very early in their life. Of the 200 selected stars, the team discovered 32 protostars; each of these was in the process of becoming a fully-fledged fusion monster star, meaning they were constantly outbursting.

Notably, among these young protostars were 21 red giants deep within the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and according to reports and the studies cited by the reports, these red giants are a new type of red giant called old smokers. The inner regions of the Milky Way is rich with heavy elements, meaning the stars located within these regions also have high metallicity.

Continue reading: Scientists discover a hidden new type of star deep within our Milky Way galaxy (full post)

NASA telescope makes 'landmark discovery' in finding Earth-like worlds

Jak Connor | Jan 29, 2024 3:02 AM CST

NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope has been used by researchers to identify an exoplanet lurking outside of our solar system that has been described as a "landmark discovery".

NASA telescope makes 'landmark discovery' in finding Earth-like worlds

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA posted to their websites announcing the discovery of an exoplanet located 97 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. The exoplanet is called GJ 9827d and was first discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope in 2017, but now astronomers have pointed Hubble's instruments at exoplanet and detected water vapor.

While this isn't the first exoplanet that astronomers have detected water vapor, it is the smallest at only approximately twice Earth's diameter. Prior to this discovery, water vapor had gone undetected on small planets, and NASA believes that GJ 9827d could be an example of water-rich planets being present elsewhere in our galaxy.

Continue reading: NASA telescope makes 'landmark discovery' in finding Earth-like worlds (full post)

Scientists discovered an asteroid just hours before it exploded over Germany

Jak Connor | Jan 26, 2024 12:32 AM CST

A few days ago, an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded over Berlin, Germany, shocking many onlookers who were lucky enough to see the fiery entry.

Scientists discovered an asteroid just hours before it exploded over Germany

Small asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere and explode every day, but due to Earth's surface mostly being covered by water, humans don't typically get to witness these awesome cosmic events. Researchers dedicated to tracking these space rocks are quite good at predicting when they will enter Earth's atmosphere, but every now and again, one small asteroid sneaks past detection or is only detected just hours before impact.

The asteroid that exploded over Berlin is officially called 2024 BXI and was first discovered by Krisztián Sárneczky, an astronomer at the Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory in Hungary. 2024 BXI was only discovered hours before it entered Earth's atmosphere, but before it arrived, NASA issued a warning for residents in West Berlin. "Heads Up: A tiny asteroid will disintegrate as a harmless fireball west of Berlin near Nennhausen shortly at 1:32 am CET. Overseers will see it if it's clear!" wrote NASA Asteroid Watch

Continue reading: Scientists discovered an asteroid just hours before it exploded over Germany (full post)

NASA officially announces its Mars helicopter Ingenuity has died

Jak Connor | Jan 26, 2024 12:17 AM CST

It's a sad day in the science community as researchers and engineers worldwide salute NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity as the space agency has announced the helicopter's mission has ended.

NASA officially announces its Mars helicopter Ingenuity has died

NASA administrator Bill Nelson has announced that Ingenuity's efforts on the surface of the Red Planet have come to an end after the small helicopter sustained damage to at least one or more of its rotor blades during the landing of its last flight. Ingenuity landed in the Jezero Crater on the Red Planet in February 2018 with NASA's Perseverance rover.

The primary mission of the helicopter was to demonstrate that flight was capable on another planet, and once that was achieved, Ingenuity essentially turned into a reconnaissance device for NASA as it would fly ahead of Perseverance, capturing the terrain and surrounding area with its onboard cameras.

Continue reading: NASA officially announces its Mars helicopter Ingenuity has died (full post)