Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 984
Dec 3, 2015
Junk-Eating Rocket Engine Could Clear Space Debris
Posted by Andreas Matt in category: space
The risks associated with space debris are rising. An efficient way to clear the skies of junk is desperately needed, and a team of Chinese engineers think they have the answer.
Dec 1, 2015
How to encrypt a message in the afterglow of the big bang
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: encryption, physics, space
Physicists have come up with a way to make secret codes based on the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the birth of the universe.
Nov 30, 2015
Missing link found between turbulence in collapsing star and hypernova, gamma-ray burst
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: space, supercomputing
A supercomputer simulation of a mere 10 milliseconds in the collapse of a massive star into a neutron star proves that these catastrophic events, often called hypernovae, can generate the enormous magnetic fields needed to explode the star and fire off bursts of gamma rays visible halfway across the universe.
The results of the simulation, published online Nov. 30 in advance of publication in the journal Nature, demonstrate that as a rotating star collapses, the star and its attached magnetic field spin faster and faster, forming a dynamo that revs the magnetic field to a million billion times the magnetic field of Earth.
A field this strong is sufficient to focus and accelerate gas along the rotation axis of the star, creating two jets that ultimately can produce oppositely directed blasts of highly energetic gamma rays.
Nov 30, 2015
NASA — The Fusion Driven Rocket: Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: nuclear energy, space
Nov 30, 2015
Researchers find new phase of carbon, make diamond at room temperature
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: engineering, materials, space
Researchers from North Carolina State University have discovered a new phase of solid carbon, called Q-carbon, which is distinct from the known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air.
Phases are distinct forms of the same material. Graphite is one of the solid phases of carbon; diamond is another.
“We’ve now created a third solid phase of carbon,” says Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and lead author of three papers describing the work. “The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets.”
Nov 27, 2015
NASA Digs This Idea for Robots to Build Igloos on Mars
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: robotics/AI, space
The double-walled, translucent space igloos feature a “contemplative yard” meant to feel like the outdoors.
Nov 26, 2015
New study finds that teaching is not essential for people to learn to make effective tools
Posted by Matthew Holt in categories: education, engineering, space
Well if we do have a major SHTF event even though we don’t have many skilled tool makers any more. Then at least the remains of society should be able to teach itself tool making.
A new study from the University of Exeter has found that teaching is not essential for people to learn to make effective tools. The results counter established views about how human tools and technologies come to improve from generation to generation and point to an explanation for the extraordinary success of humans as a species. The study reveals that although teaching is useful, it is not essential for cultural progress because people can use reasoning and reverse engineering of existing items to work out how to make tools.
The capacity to improve the efficacy of tools and technologies from generation to generation, known as cumulative culture, is unique to humans and has driven our ecological success. It has enabled us to inhabit the coldest and most remote regions on Earth and even have a permanent base in space. The way in which our cumulative culture has boomed compared to other species however remains a mystery.
Nov 26, 2015
New Generation Gamma-Ray Spectroscope Can Detect Hidden Minerals in Asteroids
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: innovation, space
This breakthrough technology is great for both asteroid mining and determining whether an asteroid poses a threat to our planet.
Nov 25, 2015
The tardigrade genome has been sequenced, and it has the most foreign DNA of any animal
Posted by Matthew White in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension, space
Scientists have sequenced the entire genome of the tardigrade, AKA the water bear, for the first time. And it turns out that this weird little creature has the most foreign genes of any animal studied so far – or to put it another way, roughly one-sixth of the tardigrade’s genome was stolen from other species. We have to admit, we’re kinda not surprised.
A little background here for those who aren’t familiar with the strangeness that is the tardigrade – the microscopic water creature grows to just over 1 mm on average, and is the only animal that can survive in the harsh environment of space. It can also withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, can cope with ridiculous amounts of pressure and radiation, and can live for more than 10 years without food or water. Basically, it’s nearly impossible to kill, and now scientists have shown that its DNA is just as bizarre as it is.
So what’s foreign DNA and why does it matter that tardigrades have so much of it? The term refers to genes that have come from another organism via a process known as horizontal gene transfer, as opposed to being passed down through traditional reproduction.
