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Category: space – Page 977

USA Today story:

As co-writer for USA TODAY’S “For the Record,” I’ve been writing about the campaigns of Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Green presidential candidates since the newsletter’s launch last summer. But the first presidential candidate to reach out to me was Zoltan Istvan, the Mill Valley, California-based Transhumanist Party candidate who foresees the merger of humans and technology in the very near future. I spoke by phone with Istvan last week.

Big promises are the hallmark of presidential campaigns.

Four years ago, Newt Gingrich said he’d make the moon the 51st state by 2020. Bernie Sanders has proposed free college education for every American. Donald Trump has promised to build a 1,900-mile wall on the border with Mexico.

Continue reading “Zoltan Istvan 2016: Let’s make Americans immortal” | >

Scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center found something very unexpected in a Martian crater.

Using the Curiosity Rover, the scientists detected a mineral called tridymite that, until now, they thought could only be created in extremely hot temperatures.

The discovery of this tridymite might rewrite the history of the planet, suggesting that it might once have been hotter than we previously thought, and home to monstrous volcanoes.

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Mind = BLOWN

A jaw-dropping new photo shows a probable alien planet orbiting a star that lies 1,200 light-years from Earth.

The potential planet appears as a brownish dot to the left of the bright bluish-white star CVSO 30 in the newly released image, which was captured by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

To appreciate just how fantastic it is to have a direct image of this candidate world, consider that CVSO 30 is about 280 times farther away from Earth than is Alpha Centauri, the star system nearest to our own. [Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?].

Continue reading “Amazing Photo Shows Likely Alien Planet 1,200 Light-Years Away” | >

Very cool.

According to NASA’s statement on the agreement, it included a formal “Implementing Arrangement” that outlines Mars exploration as the first field of cooperation between the agencies and establishes a steering committee to identify areas of mutual interest.

NASA was contacted for further comment clarifying the nature of the UAE agreement, but had not responded at the time of this writing. The agreement also entails working as a team on education, technology, safety and mission assurance as well as aeronautics and other areas in which the countries can potentially benefit.

Additionally, the two countries will aim to collaborate on education and public outreach programs and joint workshops, with the goal of facilitating the exchange of scientific data, scientists, engineers, and views and experiences on relevant regulatory frameworks and standards.

Continue reading “U.S. and UAE Agree to Collaborate on Outer Space, Mars” | >

Gerard K. O’Neill’s name might not ring a bell for many of us, but he certainly is one of the most significant names in the world of physics and space sciences. Gerard was an American physicist whose ideologies resonated with the concept of Space Manufacturing and Space Colonization as early as 1969.

He visualized establishment of a space manufacturing facility that would product end products for use in the outer space. Located in a very high orbit as compared to Earth, or on any celestial body, he claimed that the manufacturing facility would be self-sufficient and would be built entirely using materials available on celestial surfaces like lunar soil. When O’Neill presented his novel idea using research papers at different forums, he faced rejection and disapproval as every other world-changing idea did.

Related: Bringing Back Space Culture

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Discovered in an ancient shipwreck near Crete in 1901, the freakishly advanced Antikythera Mechanism has been called the world’s first computer. A decades-long investigation into the 2,000 year-old-device is shedding new light onto this mysterious device, including the revelation that it may have been used for more than just astronomy.

The Antikythera Mechanism is one of the most fascinating and important archaeological discoveries ever made, one that reveals the remarkable technological and engineering capacities of the ancient Greeks as well as their excellent grasp of astronomy. This clock-like assembly of bronze gears and displays was used to predict lunar and solar eclipses, along with the positions of the sun, moon, and planets. It wasn’t programmable in the modern sense, but it’s considered the world’s first analog computer. Dating to around 60 BC, nothing quite like it would appear for another millennium.

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Check this out!

UChicago hasthis been able for the first time conduct an experiment shows the behavior of quantum materials in curved space. In their own words, “We are beginning to make our photons interact with each other. This opens up many possibilities, such as making crystalline or exotic quantum liquid states of light. We can then see how they respond to spatial curvature.”

Interplay of light, matter is of potential technological interestQuantum Hall state

These false-color images represent the quantum Hall state that UChicago physicists created by shining infrared laser light at specially configured mirrors. Achieving this state with light instead of matter was an important step in developing computing and other applications from quantum phenomena. Courtesy of Nathan Schine, Albert Ryou, Andrey Gromov, Ariel Sommer, and Jonathan Simon.

Continue reading “UChicago Physicists First to See Behavior of Quantum Materials in Curved Space” | >