Elon Musk has announced a new venture called xAI that plans to “understand the true nature of the universe”. Here’s what we know so far.
Category: space – Page 295
Spectacular New Einstein Cross Discovered Warping Space-Time
A massive galaxy has created a rare distortion in the path of light that has traveled billions of years to reach us from a more distant galaxy.
It’s called an Einstein cross – when the curvature of space-time around a massive foreground object splits the light behind it into four, like the points of a cross. Its confirmation and analysis adds to a slowly growing catalog of these rare alignments, which can help us better understand the more distant reaches of the Universe.
A paper detailing the system has been accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and is available on preprint resource arXiv.
Meet Rollin‘ Justin, the human-like robot that astronauts control from space
Robot Rollin’ Justin is a pioneer in testing how astronauts can control a machine on another world. He just finished a test on simulated sands of a Mars-like world.
A Giant Planet Seems to Be Lurking Unseen in Our Solar System
Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets, and asteroids. And each year we’re discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home.
Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn’t stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years, we’ve found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as.
The discovery of some of these dwarf planets has given us reason to believe something else might be lurking in the outskirts of the Solar System.
Hubble Sees Evaporating Planet Getting the Hiccups
A youthful planet has been exhibiting unpredictable alterations in its atmosphere during each revolution around its parent star.
A young planet, situated approximately 32 light-years from Earth, has been exhibiting dynamic changes in its atmosphere during each revolution around its parent star. The Hubble Space Telescope made this fascinating discovery as it observed the planet orbiting AU Microscopii (AU Mic), a remarkably active red dwarf star.
During one of Hubble’s initial observations, it was noted that the planet appeared to be retaining its atmosphere steadily. However, there was a twist to this finding. Approximately a year and a half later, Hubble’s follow-up observations brought to… More.
A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit.
NASA astronaut controls Earth robots while flying 17,150 mph aboard ISS
The test is part of NASA and ESA’s future plans for controlling robots on the Moon’s surface from the lunar Gateway station.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio recently controlled a small team of robots on Earth while flying aboard the International Space Station (ISS), a blog post from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveals.
The test was carried out in order to demonstrate and investigate the capacity for using remote-controlled robots for future lunar exploration.
Destination Psyche: NASA Spacecraft Prepares for Epic 2.5-Billion-Mile Voyage
Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for October 5.
With less than 100 days remaining before its October 5 launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working diligently, essentially around the clock, to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.
The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.
Giant Swirling Plasma Waves Detected at The Edge of Jupiter’s Magnetosphere
Giant waves have been found swirling in the plasma at the boundary of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, scientists have found.
Data from Juno suggests the Jupiter probe regularly dips through these waves, invisible to the naked eye, as it orbits the giant planet. The discovery helps astronomers understand how mass and energy is transferred from the solar wind to the Jovian planetary environment.
Actually, such waves are not unknown in the Solar System. They’re known as Kelvin-Helmhotz waves, and they occur when there’s a difference in velocity at the boundary between two fluids. They can commonly be seen where wind blows across the surface of lakes and oceans, between currents in water, or even among bands of clouds in a planet’s atmosphere.
