Lifeboat Foundation

“What this new result does is provide a clearer picture of how our local universe has come together — it is telling us that at least in one of the large galaxies, there has been this sporadic feeding of small galaxies,” Lewis said in a press release.

Globular clusters are at the center of this research. They’re older associations of stars that have lower metallicity. There are at least 150 in the Milky Way, likely more. They play a role in the galactic evolution, but the role isn’t clearly understood. Globulars, as they’re known, are more prevalent in a galaxy’s halo, while their counterparts, open clusters, are found in the galactic disks.

The researchers behind this work identified a population of globulars in Andromeda’s inner halo that all have the same metallicity. Metallicity refers to the elemental makeup of stars, with elements heavier than hydrogen and helium referred to as metals in astronomy. The globulars have lower metallicity than most stars in the same region, meaning they came from elsewhere, not from Andromeda itself. It also means they’re older since there were fewer heavy elements in the early Universe than there are now. Lewis named the collection of globulars the Dulai Structure, which means black stream in Welsh.

LIDAR is to autonomous vehicles, as echolocation and sonar are to bats and dolphins.

Third-generation (L3) LIDAR provides Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) with datasets and imaging to support full autonomy.

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A desert at Guelmim Oued Noun in central Morocco will primarily play host to the Morocco-UK Power Project, which aims to develop 10.5GW of renewable energy from solar and wind power, of which 3.6GW would be supplied to the UK, for an average of 20+ hours a day.

The artificial intelligence tool, known as FRAN, can make someone look a different age in five seconds.

Researchers at Disney have built an artificial intelligence tool that can make it easier for an actor to appear a different age on screen. Although digital artists can still make necessary modifications to make the effects in a scene look as realistic as possible, the artificial intelligence system can handle most of the aging effects.

Continue reading “Disney’s innovative AI can quickly make actors appear younger or older” »

The ambitious proposal could help realize Elon Musk’s vision of SpaceX’s Starship as a “futuristic Noah’s Ark”.

A botanist and ecologist has crafted a detailed proposal for a flourishing green space on the barren, desolate surface of Mars, a report from CNET

Dreaming of an Earth-like environment on Mars.

Continue reading “A ‘forest bubble’ on Mars? Scientist proposes ambitious plan for sending wildlife to Mars” »

Humans will launch aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft for Artemis II, which is currently slated for a 2024 launch.

Incredible new footage from NASA’s moon mission Artemis I looks straight out of a Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic.

Lockheed Martin, the company that built the Orion spacecraft, shared the launch footage on its Twitter page, allowing viewers to imagine what it will be like for astronauts aboard NASA’s crewed Artemis II mission.

Continue reading “Incredible Orion footage shows what astronauts will experience during NASA’s Artemis II mission” »

A new chatbot from the guys who brought us DALL-E has caused something of a Twitter storm with its amusing responses to users’ queries.

A recently released AI-powered chatbot called ChatGPT launched this week to a mixture of praise and concern. Developed by OpenAI, the chatbot can teach users various things, like setting up a website, but it has also allegedly proven problematic at the same time.

The chatbot was built from the ground up to be as natural as possible when talking to people in what is called “a conversational style.”

The future of laser communications looks bright and boundless.

In groundbreaking news, MIT announced on November 30 that engineers at the Lincoln Laboratory had broken the record for the fastest laser link from space with its TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system.

The TBIRD payload, launched into orbit in May 2022, has sent down data at a speed of up to 100 gigabits per second through an optical communication link to a ground receiver in California. The new record is around 1,000 times faster than traditional methods. This means that sending information to and from space will see tremendous improvement with this new technology.

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The discovery adds critical data to current models, which could lead to improved predictions for the next large eruption.