Previously, astronomers had been under the impression that the heavy elements—gold, platinum, lead, uranium, etc.—came from supernova explosions. But now, scientists have announced a new theory for these highly valuable elements, this one involving two ultra-dense neutron stars and one spectacularly violent, grossly expensive collision.
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NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will soon bring a much-needed data link speed increase between satellites, spacecraft and Earth using laser beams, according to Nature. ESA will get the ball rolling on July 25th when it launches the Alphasat, which will communicate at 300 Mbps with the German Tandem-X satellite over an experimental optical communication terminal. NASA’s LADEE Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (which launches September 5th) will take a different tack, however. That mission will communicate directly with the Earth all the way from the moon’s orbit, thanks to an atmosphere-penetrating AM-style modulated infrared laser beam and eight ground telescopes. The use of lasers helps both missions avoid radio interference in space and on earth, while bringing six times greater speed from the moon than a radio-based system. Just to be on the safe side, though, NASA does have a backup radio link for LADEE — as good as lasers are, they can’t cut through a solid cloud layer.
Filed under: Science, Internet, Alt
Via: The Register
Source: Nature
Researchers at Boston Dynamics have designed one of the most advanced humanoids ever
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ISS Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano are set to commence a spacewalk on the ISS today starting at 8:10 ET. The pair will undertake the final installation of bypass jumpers, providing essential power redundancy to critical components. Other tasks to be completed on the walk include replacing a video camera, relocating wireless television kit and performing vital checks on component door covers. This will be the fifth spacewalk performed on the ISS this year, and the 171st in support of the station overall. You can watch the preliminaries right now, or head back at 8:10 to catch the action.
Update: As those watching will be aware, the spacewalk wound up being cut considerably short due to a water leak in astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet that required him to be assisted back inside the space station.
Source: NASA
A baker’s dozen worth of moons might already sound like too many for us Earthlings, but Neptune has just had its count bumped to 14. Though the extra luna appeared as a white dot in over 150 photos taken by NASA’s Hubble telescope between 2004 and 2009, it took SETI’s Mark Showalter to discover it after poring over images of faint rings around the planet. Dubbed S/2004 N 1, the satellite is no more than 12 miles across and completes its orbit every 23 hours. Hoping to spot it in the night sky? You’re better off hitting the second source link for more pictures, as it’s 100 million times dimmer than the faintest star viewable with the naked eye, and it escaped Voyager 2, to boot.
[Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)]
Source: NASA, HubbleSite
In about a billion years the Sun will be too hot and bright for water to exist on Earth. We will probably mosey on at that point or perish. But if we’re still alive and somewhere in the neighborhood when the Sun runs out of hydrogen and becomes a red giant we can observe it looking something like this.
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When it comes to planetary accessories, we’ve got our moon, but lovely as it is, it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the flashier bits of flair out there. I’m talking about rings. Here’s where they come from.
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In the latest of 3D-printed hardware, NASA has completed a series of test firings of the agency’s first rocket engine part made entirely from 3D printing. The component in question is the rocket engine’s injector, and it went through several hot-fire tests using a mix of liquid-oxygen and gaseous hydrogen.
However, NASA didn’t use ABS plastic that most 3D-printers use. Instead, the agency used custom 3D printers to spray layers of metallic powder using lasers. The lasers spray the powder in a specific pattern in order to come up with the desired shape for an object. In this case: a rocket engine injector.
The testing was done at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the project is in partnership with Aerojet Rocketdyne. The company designed the injector and used 3D printing to make the component a reality. If they were to make the injector using traditional manufacturing processes, it would take over a year to make.
With 3D printing now an option, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne are able to make the same component in just a matter of four months or less. Costs are a huge factor too, and the 3D-printed reduces costsby up to 70% compared to traditional methods and materials. This could lead to more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing of rocket engines.
NASA didn’t say what was next for the 3D-printed injector as far as testing goes, nor do they have a timeline for when they expect to officially implement the new technology in future rocket engines. We can only expect them to implement it sooner rather than later, but it could take several more years until it can be fully operational and on its way into space.
SOURCE: NASA
NASA 3D-printed rocket injector undergoes first test firing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
DARPA and Boston Dynamics seem bent on engineering the robot revolution, and it’s while wearing a suspicious smile that they introduce us to Atlas, their latest humanoid creation. Inorganically evolved from Petman and an intermediate prototype, Atlas will compete in DARPA’s Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials in December, where it will be challenged with “tasks similar to what might be required in a disaster response scenario.” The seven teams that made it through the Virtual Robotics Challenge stage, held in a simulated environment, will massage their code into the real 6′ 2″ robot, which sports a host of sensors and 28 “hydraulically actuated joints.” Also competing for a spot in the 2014 DRC finals are six “Track A” teams, including a couple of crews from NASA, which’ve built their own monstrous spawn. Head past the break for Atlas’ video debut, as well as an introduction to the Track A teams and their contributions to Judgement Day.
Filed under: Robots
Source: DARPA
NASA‘s Hubble space telescope has identified the true color of a planet 63 light years away from Earth, a distant blue marble that, unlike our own planet, has torrential rainstorms of glass. HD 189733b, orbiting star HD 189733, would be seen by human eyes as a striking cobalt blue, the Hubble team says, ostensibly similar to Earth when viewed from space. However, in actual fact the exoplanet is one of a bizarre collection of “hot Jupiters” where temperatures can reach almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (over 1,000 degrees Celcius).
It’s that extreme temperature – caused by the planet’s very close orbit to the star – that gives HD 189733b what’s perhaps its most unusual feature: its storms of glass. The atmosphere is filled with silicate particles, NASA explains, and when they condense in the tremendously furious heat, they could rain down as tiny droplets of glass.
In fact, the potential glass storms could rage at up to 4,500 mph. It’s the silicate that gives the planet its distinctive color, with the droplets scattering more blue light than red in the visible spectrum.
Scientists have known about HD 189733b since it was first spotted in 2005, when the exoplanet’s unusual orbit was identified. Around 2.9m miles from its star, it is gravitationally locked and as such one side of the planet always faces it; the roughly 500 degree Fahrenheit difference between the bright and dark sides are what cause the violent winds.
HD 189733b is, unsurprisingly, not a candidate for supporting human life. However, the team responsible for figuring out its color believes that the same technique could be used again to spot planets more hospitable.
Frederic Pont, of the University of Exeter team in the UK who deduced the color, measured the changes in light before the planet passed behind the star, during that time, and then afterwards. “We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden” Pont said. “This means that the object that disappeared was blue.”
The same system could help identify planets similar to Earth, however, with the blue color being used as a useful telltale for water and atmospheric conditions, Pont says. NASA plans to deploy the TESS telescope in 2017 to further that search.
Blue planet with 2,000-degree glass rainstorms could help find new Earth is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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