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Nov 18, 2018

Minnesota Researcher Maintains Telescope In Antarctica

Posted by in category: space

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An astrophysicist from the University of Minnesota who has spent 14 winters in Antarctica tending to a telescope plans to step away from his research after the instrument is replaced.

Minnesota Public Radio reports that the university will begin the replacing the telescope and mount at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station this month.

University astrophysicist Robert Schwarz says he’ll stay through the replacement process but doesn’t plan to return. He’s overseen the telescope maintenance, trekking out in temperatures as low as minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit to check on the instrument.

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Nov 18, 2018

A New Discovery by the LHC Hints at Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Posted by in category: physics

A weird behavior challenges what we thought we knew.

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Nov 18, 2018

Surprising Study: Orangutans Are Only Non-Human Primates Who Can ‘Talk’ About the Past

Posted by in category: futurism

We already know that orangutans are some of the smartest land animals on Earth. Now, researchers have found evidence that these amazing apes can communicate about past events—the first time this trait has been observed in a non-human primate.

A new study published in the journal Science Advances revealed that when wild Sumatran orangutan mothers spotted a predator, they suppressed their alarm calls to others until the threat was no longer there.

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Nov 18, 2018

What is String Theory And Why Humanity Absolutely Needs It

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

String theory is a complex theory that describes our reality with superstrings as the most basic and fundamental piece of all matter Theoretical particle physicist Daniele Amati supposedly said that string theory was 21st century physics that fell by chance into the 20th century.

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Nov 18, 2018

How the InSight Mission to Mars Will Confirm Its Landing to NASA

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA’s InSight mission aims to send a lander to Mars to study the crust, mantle, and core of the red planet. Launched in May this year, InSight is now nearly at its destination and will soon be touching down on the surface of Mars.

NASA has shared details on how it will monitor the touching down of the lander at the end of its 91 million mile journey. The first tools it will use are radio telescopes, which can pick up simple radio signals. As the lander descends into the Mars atmosphere, it will send out radio signals that researchers back home at NASA can pick up. Two locations will be listening out for the signal: one at the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia and one at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy’s facility at Effelsberg, Germany. These radio signals cannot give data about what the lander finds, but they can be used to work out basic information like what at speed the lander is descending thanks to the Doppler effect in which the frequency of a sound wave is affected by the movement of the source relative to the observer.

More detailed information about the lander will be gathered using two small spacecraft called Mars Cube One (MarCO). The MarCOs are each about the size of a briefcase and are an experimental technology that should fly behind the InSight lander and relay data back to Earth in real-time. They may even be able to capture an image of the surface of Mars as soon as the lander touches down.

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Nov 18, 2018

Rich, Ancient City Is Unearthed in Greece

Posted by in category: futurism

Archaeologists unearthed Tenea, which is thought to have been founded by Trojans. They also found tombs, coins and urns, among other items, in and around the city.

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Nov 18, 2018

Days Away From Mars, NASA Awaits ‘The Seven Minutes Of Terror’

Posted by in category: space travel

The InSight spacecraft is ready to rumble.

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Nov 18, 2018

How Europe Will Save Space Travel

Posted by in category: futurism

Europe is leading one of the most important space travel efforts of this century.

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Nov 18, 2018

Genetics Start-Up Wants to Sequence People’s Genomes for Free

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, privacy

The new service lets consumers contribute to medical research, but still poses privacy concerns.

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Nov 18, 2018

Imagine avoiding ground traffic and riding in one of these air taxis

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, supercomputing, transportation

NASA engineers are using some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world to design rotary wing vehicles that combine both piloted and autonomous operations. Urban Air Mobility is a safe and efficient system that can transport a small number of passengers and cargo, without the need for long runways. Check it out: https://go.nasa.gov/2FvGPfH

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