NASA and SpaceX are now targeting Friday, February 28, for the launch of the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions, with liftoff scheduled no earlier than 10:09 p.m. EST
EST is an abbreviation for Eastern Standard Time, the time zone for the eastern coast of the United States and Canada when observing standard time (autumn/winter). It is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and the Kennedy Space Center are in the Eastern Time Zone (ET).
Imagine a world stretched along a single, endless river inside a colossal space megastructure. Explore the fascinating concept of the Topopolis, a futuristic habitat billions of miles long, where humanity might thrive in a sprawling civilization bound by physics, engineering, and imagination.
Watch my exclusive video Big Alien Theory https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30. Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 Reddit: / isaacarthur Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Topopolis: The Eternal River Episode 487a; February 23, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Graphics: Apogii.uk, Ken York YD Visual, Steve Bowers, Udo Scroeter Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator. Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur. Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30. Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net. Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur. Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur. Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264 Reddit: / isaacarthur. Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord. Credits: Topopolis: The Eternal River. Episode 487a; February 23, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur. Graphics: Apogii.uk, Ken York YD Visual, Steve Bowers, Udo Scroeter. Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images. Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Searching for life in alien oceans may be more difficult than scientists previously thought, even when we can sample these extraterrestrial waters directly.
A new study focusing on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that sprays its ocean water into space through cracks in its icy surface, shows that the physics of alien oceans could prevent evidence of deep-sea life from reaching places where we can detect it.
Published today (Thursday, 6 February 2025) in Communications Earth and Environment, the study shows how Enceladus’s ocean forms distinct layers that dramatically slow the movement of material from the ocean floor to the surface.
An interesting glimpse into the adventurous world of neutrino research in Antarctica!
At McMurdo, Karle must wait for the weather to permit the final leg of the trip. “It is not uncommon to spend several days in McMurdo,” he says. (Karle’s record is 10.) When it’s time, he takes a 3.5-hour flight on a ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft to reach the South Pole. Anyone or anything else that goes to the South Pole must take a similarly tedious route.
There’s a reason scientists have endured the challenges of the climate, the commute and the cost for over half a century—since members of the US Navy completed the original Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in 1957. Despite all the trouble it takes to get there, the South Pole is an unparalleled environment for scientific research, from climate science and glaciology to particle physics and astrophysics.
This sentiment was echoed by the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel in its 2023 report, a decadal plan for the future of particle physics research in the United States. Under its recommendation to “Construct a portfolio of major projects that collectively study nearly all fundamental constituents of our universe and their interactions,” the report prioritized support for five specific projects—two of which are located at the South Pole: cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4, the top priority, and neutrino experiment IceCube-Gen2, recommended fifth. Because of the high scientific priority of these projects, the report also urged maintenance of the South Pole site.
“Retrocausality” by Antonella Vannini and Ulisse Di Corpo Book Link: https://amzn.to/3X6UGhx. “Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious” by Eric Wargo Book Link: https://amzn.to/4bdmWVV “Psychology and Retrocausality: How the Future Determines Love, Memory, Evolution, Learning, Depression, Death, and What It Means to Be Human” by Mark Hatala Book Link: https://amzn.to/4k7kdBj.
The exploration of retrocausality challenges classical views of time and causality, suggesting that effects can precede their causes, influencing our understanding of quantum mechanics, consciousness, and free will. Retro causality offers potential resolutions to issues like non-locality in quantum physics by allowing communication between particles to travel backward in time, which could eliminate the need for higher dimensional configuration spaces and reconcile quantum theory with special relativity. Experimental investigations into retro-causality involve analyzing subtle effects, such as heart rate variations, and require careful methodologies to distinguish genuine retrocausal phenomena from experimental artifacts, while theoretical frameworks explore how retrocausality might address paradoxes and be compatible with concepts like time symmetry. Thinkers in physics and philosophy are increasingly considering retrocausality as a potential framework to address foundational issues, including the measurement problem and the reconciliation of quantum mechanics with general relativity, potentially impacting our comprehension of time, causality, and the nature of reality itself. Discussions around retrocausality extend into areas like decision theory, existential risk, and the nature of consciousness, with some researchers exploring goal-oriented approaches and the potential for retrocausality to enhance artificial intelligence and our understanding of human cognition. Some notable scientists involved: • Roger Penrose is noted for his views aligning with retrocausal concepts and his work on the science of consciousness with Stuart Hameroff. • Yakir Aharonov is cited regarding time in quantum mechanics and weak value amplification. • Ruth Kastner is mentioned in the context of retrocausality and the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics. • Hu Price’s work is at the center of the study of existential risk. • Ken Wharton is a professor of physics and astronomy working on time-symmetric and causally neutral models of physics. • Matthew Leifer is mentioned regarding block universe ontological models and frameworks for theories with retrocausality. • Daniel Rohrlich is mentioned for his work on fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics and his views on retrocausality. • Richard Feynman is mentioned in the context of interaction with the absorber as the mechanism of radiation. • Simon Shnoll is mentioned for his work showing that the assumption of normal distribution is only mathematical, and that in life sciences and also in physics it is false. • David Lucas is mentioned in the context of trapped-ion processing modules.
Astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of an exoplanet’satmosphere for the first time, revealing powerful winds that transport elements like iron and titanium. Using all four telescope units of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), researchers uncovered complex weather patterns shaping the planet’s skies. This breakthrough paves the way for more detailed studies of atmospheric composition and climate on distant worlds.
“What we found was surprising: a jet stream rotates material around the planet’s equator, while a separate flow at lower levels of the atmosphere moves gas from the hot side to the cooler side,” said Dr. Julia Victoria Seidel.
What can a 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere teach scientists about its weather patterns? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as an international team of researchers successfully produced the first 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere, which is a groundbreaking achievement and will help scientists gain new insights into the formation and evolution of exoplanet atmospheres throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) to observe WASP-121b, nicknamed Tylos, which is designated as an ultra-hot Jupiter that orbits its parent star in only 1.3 days (30 hours) and is located approximately 880 light-years from Earth. Due to its extremely close orbit, Tylos is tidally locked to its parent star, meaning one side is always facing it, resulting in searing temperatures on the sunlit side and incredibly cold temperatures on the far side.
In the end, the researchers successfully produced a 3D map of Tylos’ atmosphere, revealing weather patterns that include high-velocity winds carrying titanium and iron around the exoplanet, which becomes even more turbulent as the winds cross from the far side to the day side of Tylos. Additionally, this also marks the first time astronomers have produced a 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
Neptune and Uranus are the seventh and eighth planets from the sun, and as such share a lot of the same characteristics. Though they are different colors (Neptune is bluer than Uranus’ cyan hue) and have different numbers of rings and moons, both planets are ice giants that are similar sizes at just over 30,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) wide each. They also weigh about the same, with Neptune coming in at 1.024 × 1026 kg (about 17 times the mass of Earth) and Uranus weighing 8.682 × 1025 kg (about 14 times the mass of Earth). What’s more, both planets have upper atmospheres made up of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane. Put simply, then, the characteristics of Neptune and those of Uranus are very similar despite their different colors.
Now, it seems the two worlds could have yet another thing in common, and this one is particularly intriguing when compared with Earth. Neptune and Uranus might be home to some incredibly deep oceans that make our own look like puddles.
Earth’s own oceans are already mysterious enough. They cover roughly 70% of the planet’s surface, yet only a small portion of our ocean has been explored, with the Nippon Foundation-Gebco stating that as of June 2024, just 26.1% of the entire seafloor had been mapped. The deepest trench in the ocean, known as the Challenger Deep, sits beneath the western Pacific Ocean, southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam, and is roughly 35,876 feet deep. Just what life is like at such depths remains somewhat of a mystery, with the deep ocean already proving to be home to prehistoric sea animals that are, frankly, nothing short of nightmare fuel. But the deepest ocean trenches on Earth are absolutely nothing compared to the depths of the oceans that might well exist on Neptune and Uranus.
As civilizations advance, they may need to migrate across the galaxy, and some researchers speculate they could use their own stars as massive engines.
New research explores the possibility of a binary stellar engine, particularly spider pulsars, as potential propulsion systems. By carefully manipulating these systems, a highly advanced extraterrestrial species.
A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.
