Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 795
Feb 2, 2019
Cluster of ‘super-Earths’ found hiding in dust
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
Astronomers spotted gaps in the dusty discs around stars that can only be filled by planets.
Feb 2, 2019
The Moon might actually be made out of the same material as our home planet
Posted by Michael Lance in categories: materials, space
Samples collected nearly 50 years ago during Apollo, combined with experimental studies that mirror the conditions inside planetary bodies provide compelling evidence.
Feb 1, 2019
Astronomers Accidentally Discover a Hidden Galaxy Right Next Door
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
While inspecting a known globular cluster, a team of astronomers began to notice that some of its stars didn’t seem to belong. Investigating further, they realized the anomalous stars were part of a nearby galaxy—one previously unknown to us.
Science works in mysterious ways.
One moment you’re investigating a globular cluster, and the next you’re unexpectedly writing a research paper about something else entirely, namely the discovery of previously unknown dwarf spheroidal galaxy. But that’s how it goes sometimes, and the authors of the new study, published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, couldn’t be happier.
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Feb 1, 2019
The future of in-space manufacturing
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: futurism, space
Hoisting heavy machinery into space is cumbersome and expensive. Soon, however, it won’t be a problem. Cathal O’Connell reports.
Jan 31, 2019
Why NASA blasts half a million gallons of water during rocket launches
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
The following is a transcript of the video
Alex Appolonia: This is almost half a million gallons of water being blasted a hundred feet into the air.
The most impressive part? It was all done in just 60 seconds.
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Jan 31, 2019
Earth’s Lack Of Carbon May Have Saved It From Venus-Like Fate, Says Prize-Winning Astrochemist
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
Astrochemists are chemically tracking our solar system’s building blocks of life back to interstellar space.
Jan 30, 2019
Human waste could power plastic-making in space
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: energy, space
Someday recycled urine and exhaled breath could feed specially engineered yeast to make plastics and other useful chemicals on long space missions.
Jan 30, 2019
New Metamaterial Transmits Light With No Energy Loss
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: computing, mobile phones, space
Very soon we might be able to say good riddance to the overheating laptops, phones and tablets that we deal with every day. Electrons carry information around circuits but lose energy as heat during transmission. Electrons are the best thing we have right now for computing, but in the near future we could wave goodbye to electronics and welcome photon, or light, communication that will be both faster and cooler. There are still few hurdles before we can get this technology in every home and every pocket, but one of its limitations was just solved by the development of a new metamaterial.
A metamaterial is a substance that has properties not observed in nature. In this case, the special property is its refractive index, a value that describes how light propagates through a medium. Take water or glass, for example, which cause light rays to bend as they travel through them. This is why pools always look shallower than they actually are.
The new metamaterial has a refractive index of zero, which means that the light phase in the material can travel infinitely fast. This doesn’t mean that relativity is violated by this material, though. Light has a “group velocity,” the velocity at which the wave propagates into space, and a “phase velocity,” the velocity at which the peaks of the waves move with respect to the wave.
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Jan 30, 2019
Tardigrades, Frozen for 30 Years, Spring Back to Life
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: life extension, space
You can freeze them, burn them, dry them out or even blast them into space, but humble tardigrades can survive it all.
As a demonstration of tardigrade power, a new experiment has shown that even locking the critters in a block of ice for three decades fails to deliver the ultimate knockout.
Japanese researchers successfully brought two tardigrades — often called “water bears” for their claws and head shape — back to life after being frozen for 30 years. A separate team of Japanese researchers with the 24th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition discovered the eight-legged, microscopic pair of animals back in 1983 in a frozen sample of moss, which was kept below freezing to the present day.
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