Research to calculate amount of ‘space grease’ in the Milky Way found enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter.
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent.
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Humans aren’t the only ones who have harnessed the power of electricity. Some bacteria do this, too, by producing structures that extend from their surface like wires to transfer electrons over distances. Now, scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley are exploring this phenomenon to see if they can make use of these special microbes to perform essential functions on future space missions — from generating electricity to treating wastewater or producing medicines. With an experiment launching to the International Space Station, researchers will see whether the microbes work the same in space as they do on Earth.
To appreciate the rare abilities of the bacterium in question, called Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, you have to know what moving electrons around has to do with life. The transfer of electrons from one molecule to another is essential to all organisms, because it allows for the production of energy they need to survive. One reason that humans depend on oxygen is that this energy-producing chain reaction inside our cells is powered by transferring electrons to molecules of oxygen. The same goes for anything else that breathes oxygen, including Shewanella. But what makes this microorganism special is that it also has a back-up system that kicks in when the environment is low on oxygen. Shewanella keeps calm and carries on producing energy by using metals, like iron and manganese, instead.
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*Gives jar a shake* Photo
Posted in futurism
ELON MUSK wants to plump humans on Mars by 2024 and the first batch of settlers could live in 3D-printed home pods that pack hologram computers.
You’ll be able to tour the Red Planet habitat in virtual reality and view a scale model of the sci-fi living space at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next month.
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Ever wish you could visit other planets in our solar system without launching on a deep-space mission? Now you can embark on an interplanetary adventure right from the palm of your hand, thanks to gorgeous, 3D-printed planet models and an augmented-reality (AR) app.
Brought to you by AstroReality, the same company that created the “Lunar” AR moon model and its new Earth counterpart, this set includes miniature models of all eight planets and one model of the dwarf planet Pluto. Each model is 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) in diameter and color-printed with a resolution of 0.1 millimeter per pixel.
Without the AR app, you can admire detailed features such as Pluto’s “heart” and Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. But the real extraterrestrial adventure begins when you open the AstroReality app (available for iOS and Android) on your mobile device and point the camera at any of the nine models. [Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets].
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Friday morning at 5:24 am (0924 GMT), a rocket owned by the US company SpaceX will blast off from Florida carrying two and a half tons of gear from NASA, only to dock three days later and 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth at the International Space Station.
The rocket itself is not new. It launched a NASA satellite into orbit two months ago, then landed back on Earth—upright—on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Canaveral.
Even the Dragon capsule, carrying the cargo and affixed to the top of the rocket was used before, having flown a mission to the ISS in 2016.
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After nearly four years of traveling through space, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully rendezvoused with the Ryugu asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed Wednesday. Let the next stage of this historic sampling-and-return mission begin!
Earlier today, mission controllers at JAXA triggered Hayabusa2’s chemical propulsion thrusters, bringing the spacecraft into orbit around Ryugu, an asteroid that’s just shy of one kilometer (0.6 miles) wide. Confirmation of the rendezvous was made at 9:35 am Japan Standard Time (JST). JAXA says Hayabusa2’s thrusters worked normally, and that the spacecraft is maintaining a constant distance from Ryugu.
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Researchers have made a shocking discovery under the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica — an active volcanic heat source, which they say has played a “critical role” in the movement and melting of the glacier.
The scientists were looking at the role the ocean plays in causing glaciers to weaken when the discovery was made.
“We were looking to better understand the role of the ocean in melting the ice shelf,” Assistant Professor Brice Loose of Newport, R.I., a chemical oceanographer and lead author of the paper, said in a statement.
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