Lifeboat Foundation

Structures in our galaxy’s outer disk have been identified as likely fossil spiral arms, remnants disrupted by encounters with the gravity of nearby dwarf galaxies.

The Gaia Space Observatory has revealed the motion of millions of stars in exquisite detail, allowing astronomers to identify patterns, with stars’ similar movements revealing shared origins or histories. This has created a science of galactic archaeology, which has identified smaller galaxies absorbed into the Milky Way so thoroughly their identities were previously invisible.

Dr Chervin Laporte of the University of Barcelona has used Gaia’s observations to study an often neglected part of the galaxy, the area opposite the galactic center as seen from Earth. In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Laporte and co-authors describe structures they propose were part of the Milky Way from the beginning, but have been so distorted by external influences they can hardly be identified.

SEOUL, South Korea — Malaysia is developing a national space blueprint to drive the growth of its space sector, particularly the manufacturing of remote-sensing satellites, satellite components and data-driven downstream services.

During a Dec. 13 parliamentary hearing, a deputy minister shared the latest update on the “Malaysia Space Exploration 2030” blueprint being fleshed out by Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The deputy minister overseeing the effort, Datuk Ahmad Amzad Hashim, said the blueprint outlines a 10-year strategy in line with Malaysia’s National Space Policy 2030. The policy, adopted in 2017, recognizes the importance of space technologies for the country’s economic growth and national security.

Early drafts of the Solar System are messy.

Just what did early drafts of the Solar System look like? A review paper found that our system once had one or more rocky planets ejected in the early chaos.

A vast system of canyons that dramatically scars the face of Mars could be harboring reserves of hidden water.

An unusually high quantity of hydrogen has been detected in the heart of the 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) of canyons known as Valles Marineris, nicknamed the Grand Canyon of Mars. We know this thanks to new data from the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s FREND instrument.

The finding suggests that, at depths up to a meter (three feet) below the surface, the soil in the region is rich in water, either bound up in minerals or as subsurface water ice, potentially offering a new way of locating the precious stuff on the apparently extremely arid world.

In recent years, engineers have been trying to develop more effective sensors and tools to monitor indoor environments. Serving as the foundation of these tools, indoor positioning systems automatically determine the position of objects with high accuracy and low latency, enabling emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, such as robots, autonomous driving, VR/AR, etc.

A team of researchers recently created CurveLight, an accurate and efficient light positioning system. Their technology, described in a paper presented at ACM’s SenSys 2021 Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, could be used to enhance the performance of autonomous vehicles, robots and other advanced technologies.

“In CurveLight, the signal transmitter includes an infrared LED, covered by a hemispherical and rotatable shade,” Zhimeng Yin, one of the researchers who developed the system at City University of Hong Kong, told TechXplore. “The receiver detects the light signals with a photosensitive diode. When the shade is rotating, the transmitter generates a unique sequence of light signals for each point in the covered space.”

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It turns out that “nothing” is one of the most interesting somethings in all of physics. Signup for your free trial to The Great Courses Plus here: http://ow.ly/OOOp30beNyt.

Continue reading “The Nature of Nothing | Space Time” »

Elon Musk has announced a new timeframe for his massive Mars project, and it is a lot closer than you would believe.

In an article published Monday, Musk said, ‘I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years.

Musk, the 50-year-old SpaceX founder and CEO who was selected Time’s Person of the Year, has grandiose ambitions for Mars: a self-sustaining metropolis with solar-powered hydroponic fields where people may live indefinitely, 34 million miles from Earth.

Engineers are developing the crucial hardware needed for a series of daring space missions that will be carried out in the coming decade.

Testing has already begun on what would be the most sophisticated endeavor ever attempted at the Red Planet: bringing rock and sediment samples from Mars.

Continue reading “NASA Begins Testing Robotics for Daring Space Mission To Bring First Samples Back From Mars” »

This is the closest encounter between our species and the Sun ever.

NASA announced that the Parker Solar Probe went into the Sun’s atmosphere, the closest encounter with our home star.