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Jul 19, 2023

Astronomers may have found two exoplanets sharing the same orbit

Posted by in category: space

We may have the first concrete evidence of ‘mind-blowing’ Trojan exoplanets.

An international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to find what they believe is a ‘sibling’ alien world to an exoplanet orbiting a distant star.

The team detected a cloud of debris that may be sharing the planet’s orbit and could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one in the process of forming a press statement reveals.

Jul 19, 2023

Three UAH researchers operating Gamma-ray Burst Monitor discover brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

“This gamma-ray burst was extremely bright. We expect to see one like this only every 10,000 years or so.”

A team of astronomers led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville has detected the brightest gamma-ray burst.

These bursts are thought to be among the most luminous explosions in the universe and created during the birth of black holes. GRBs generally last from less than a second to several minutes.

Continue reading “Three UAH researchers operating Gamma-ray Burst Monitor discover brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected” »

Jul 19, 2023

US startup claims ‘commercial scale’ geothermal energy production after 30-day demo

Posted by in categories: computing, solar power, sustainability

The energy generation site will be connected to the grid and power Google’s data centers in Nevada.

Houston-based US startup Fervo Energy has claimed that it has achieved “commercial scale” geothermal energy production from its Project Red demonstration site in northern Nevada. The site recently completed a 30-day well test, a standard for geothermal energy installations, a company press release said.

Geothermal energy is one of the sources of renewable power being explored as the world moves away from fossil fuels. Unlike wind and solar power plants, geothermal energy can be sourced around the clock and on demand to cater to increased energy needs.

Jul 19, 2023

Scientists use protons to develop super efficient memory devices

Posted by in category: materials

KAUST

This is according to a press release by the institution published on Sunday.

Jul 19, 2023

Washington University surgeons perform first-ever robotic liver transplant in the US

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

“The transplant was a success: The operation went smoothly, the new liver started working right away, and the patient recovered without any surgical complications.”

Doctors in the United States have successfully performed a robotic liver transplant procedure, marking a significant advancement in the field of medical surgery.

In May 2023, the inaugural transplantation of this kind was carried out by a surgical team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The significant procedure occurred at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Jul 19, 2023

Using dragonfly wings to redesign a Boeing 777 to be lighter, stronger and more sustainable

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Throughout history, humans have observed and sought inspiration from many aspects of nature to improve flight efficiency, maneuverability, and stability. And since the days of Leonardo da Vinci, nature-inspired design, also known as biomimicry or bio-inspired design, has played and continues to play a significant role in the development of aviation.

Now, in a paper published in Advanced Science, Masoud Akbarzadeh of the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and his former Ph.D. student Hao Zheng build upon the principles of biomimicry by drawing inspiration from the wing of a dragonfly to redesign that of a Boeing 777.

“Nature’s a great teacher in telling us how to optimize systems,” Akbarzadeh says. “And when you look at a dragonfly, you see wings that have evolved over millions of years into an incredibly lightweight, efficient, and strong structure.”

Jul 19, 2023

PandaX sets new constraints on the search for light dark matter via ionization signals

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

Teams of physicists worldwide have been trying to detect dark matter, an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light. Due to its lack of interactions with electromagnetic forces, this matter is very difficult to observe directly, thus most researchers are instead searching for signals originating from its interactions with other particles in its surroundings.

The PandaX experiment is a research effort dedicated to the search of dark matter using data collected by the Particle and Astrophysical xenon detector, situated at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) in Sichuan, in China. In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, the researchers involved in this large-scale experiment published the results of their most recent search for light dark matter (i.e., weakly interacting massive particles with masses below 1 GeV).

“Currently, strong constraints exist for heavy mass derived from null results in direct detection experiments using xenon detectors,” Yue Meng, Qing Lin and Ning Zhou told Tech Xplore, on behalf of the PandaX collaboration. “However, traditional searches are not sensitive to light mass dark matter (less than GeV/c2) due to the detection energy threshold. Using an ionization-only signal (S2-only) to search for light mass dark matter can reduce the energy threshold from ~1 keV to 0.1 keV. Previous S2-only data analyses in xenon detectors were unable to model the background, which prevented effective and sensitive searches for light mass dark matter.”

Jul 19, 2023

Air-Taxis Seen Zooming Through US Skies by 2028 in FAA Proposal

Posted by in category: transportation

Urban air-taxis can begin service over US cities as soon as 2028 by largely adhering to existing flight rules for helicopters and other low-altitude aircraft, according to federal regulators.

Jul 19, 2023

Nvidia’s New GeForce Driver Claims to Fix DPC Latency Issues

Posted by in category: futurism

Nvidia says its new GeForce driver fixes long-running DPC latency issues, as well as adding support for a handful of new games and the GeForce RTX 4,060 Ti 16GB.

Jul 19, 2023

See Ten Dazzling Space Images From the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards

Posted by in category: space

From comets to nebulas to the Milky Way, the shots shortlisted in the annual competition capture the beauty of the cosmos from Earth.