Category: space – Page 740
Mystery gas discovered near center of Milky Way
An international team of researchers have discovered a dense, cold gas that’s been shot out from the center of the Milky Way “like bullets”.
Exactly how the gas has been ejected is still a mystery, but the research team, including Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths from The Australian National University (ANU), say their findings could have important implications for the future of our galaxy.
“Galaxies can be really good at shooting themselves in the foot,” Professor McClure-Griffiths said.
Follow me on my journey to Mars with NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System
The web app provides you with the precise location of my whereabouts in real-time, using real data. I’m learning space is a big place and I’m delighted to have you see how my team and I navigate it. http://go.nasa.gov/2YmfBz5
Final Flight: 08/21/2020
This week on #SpaceToGround: a JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) cargo spacecraft leaves the International Space Station.
U.S. military eyes a role in the great power competition for lunar resources
WASHINGTON — The competition for the moon between the Unites States and China is being closely watched by the Defense Department as the military expects to play a role protecting U.S. access to cislunar space.
One concern for the Pentagon is the possibility that China establishes a presence on the moon before the United States and tries to set the international rules of behavior in space, said Brig. Gen. Steven Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit.
DIU is a Defense Department organization based in Silicon Valley that works with commercial vendors developing technologies relevant to national security.
Deep learning will help future Mars rovers go farther, faster, and do more science
NASA’s Mars rovers have been one of the great scientific and space successes of the past two decades.
Four generations of rovers have traversed the red planet gathering scientific data, sending back evocative photographs, and surviving incredibly harsh conditions—all using on-board computers less powerful than an iPhone 1. The latest rover, Perseverance, was launched on July 30, 2020, and engineers are already dreaming of a future generation of rovers.
While a major achievement, these missions have only scratched the surface (literally and figuratively) of the planet and its geology, geography, and atmosphere.
Scientists Discovered an Unexplained ‘Heartbeat’ of Bright Energy in Space
Another potential explanation is that the heartbeat is illuminated by more diffuse and unstructured outflows of gas and particles generated by the disk’s precession. These outflows are not as concentrated and luminous as the jets, but they could potentially ripple out to Fermi J1913+0515 and light it up in this unique way.
The team is in the midst of collecting follow-up observations with the IRAM 30m millimeter radio telescope in Spain that might constrain the origins of the strange gamma ray heartbeat.
“We discovered the source, and discovered its periodicity, but we do not know what it means or how it is produced, so we need more observations to continue the study,” Li said.
Biomorphic batteries could provide 72x more energy for robots
This approach to increasing capacity will be particularly important as robots shrink to the microscale and below—scales at which current stand-alone batteries are too big and inefficient.
“Robot designs are restricted by the need for batteries that often occupy 20% or more of the available space inside a robot, or account for a similar proportion of the robot’s weight,” said Nicholas Kotov, the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professor of Engineering, who led the research.
Applications for mobile robots are exploding, from delivery drones and bike-lane take-out bots to robotic nurses and warehouse robots. On the micro side, researchers are exploring swarm robots that can self-assemble into larger devices. Multifunctional structural batteries can potentially free up space and reduce weight, but until now they could only supplement the main battery.