NASA to celebrate ISS’s 25th anniversary on December 6th.
Category: space – Page 287
Elon Musk’s AI startup — X.AI — files to raise $1 billion in fresh capital
X.AI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering. The company has raised nearly $135 million from four investors, with the first sale occurring on Nov. 29, according to the filing. The AI startup, which Musk announced in July,…
X.AI, an artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.
The company has already brought in nearly $135 million from four investors, with the first sale occurring on Nov. 29, and has a “binding and enforceable agreement” for the purchase of the remaining shares, the filing says.
The AI startup, which Musk announced in July, seeks to “understand the true nature of the universe,” according to its website. Last month, X.AI released a chatbot called Grok, which the company says is modeled after “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The chatbot debuted with two months of training and has real-time knowledge of the internet, the company claims.
Hydrogen Detected in Lunar Samples, points to Resource Availability for Space Exploration
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have discovered solar-wind hydrogen in lunar samples, which indicates that water on the surface of the Moon may provide a vital resource for future lunar bases and longer-range space exploration. Space-based resource identification is a key factor in planning for civilian-and government-led space exploration.
“Hydrogen has the potential to be a resource that can be used directly on the lunar surface when there are more regular or permanent installations there,” said Dr. Katherine D. Burgess, geologist in NRL’s Materials Science and Technology Division.
“Locating resources and understanding how to collect them prior to getting to the Moon is going to be incredibly valuable for space exploration.”
Scientists Find Evidence for Large Unknown Objects in Distant Solar System
The potential detection of objects lying beyond the Kuiper Belt’s limits may upend our understanding of what encircles our solar system.
Massive Planet Challenges Current Planet Formation Theories
“This discovery really drives home the point of just how little we know about the universe,” said Dr. Suvrath Mahadevan. “We wouldn’t expect a planet this heavy around such a low-mass star to exist.”
A recent study published in Science examines exoplanet LHS 3154b that orbits its parent star in just 3.7 days but is 13.2 times as massive as the Earth wit | Space.
Zhurong rover detects mysterious polygons beneath the surface of Mars
China’s Zhurong rover was equipped with a ground-penetrating radar system, allowing it to peer beneath Mars’s surface. Researchers have announced new results from the scans of Zhurong’s landing site in Utopia Planitia, saying they identified irregular polygonal wedges located at a depth of about 35 meters all along the robot’s journey.
The objects measure from centimeters to tens of meters across. The scientists believe the buried polygons resulted from freeze-thaw cycles on Mars billions of years ago, but they could also be volcanic, from cooling lava flows.
The Zhurong rover landed on Mars on May 15, 2021, making China the second country ever to successfully land a rover on Mars. The cute rover, named after a Chinese god of fire, explored its landing site, sent back pictures—including a selfie with its lander, taken by a remote camera—studied the topography of Mars, and conducted measurements with its ground penetrating radar (GPR) instrument.