The NASA-ISRO NISAR satellite has launched to orbit Earth and scan it with dual radars, unlocking new data about natural disasters, environmental changes, and even infrastructure stability.
Category: space – Page 64
The battery-powered Starlink Mini is here
Starlink is a life-changing Internet service that connects people and villages too remote for towers and cables to reach. My own Starlink Mini has been critical in helping me pursue life as a digital nomad from almost anywhere in Europe. And right now, Starlink’s the only game in town for relatively cheap and fast consumer internet that can be quickly deployed into data dead spots.
My overriding thought after using the PeakDo LinkPower for the last few weeks is this: why doesn’t SpaceX make one of these?
Mysterious object found dancing with Neptune
Astronomers have discovered a bizarre object in the outer solar system, 2020 VN40, that dances to Neptune’s gravitational beat in a never-before-seen rhythm. It’s the first of its kind, orbiting the Sun once for every ten orbits of Neptune, and could reshape how we understand the movement and evolution of distant cosmic bodies.
New long-period radio transient discovered
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new long-period radio transient, which received the designation ASKAP J144834−685644 (ASKAP J1448−6856 for short). The newfound transient is a crucial addition to the still short list of sources of this type. The finding was detailed in a paper published July 17 on the arXiv preprint pre-print server.
Long-period radio transients (LPTs) are an emerging class of periodic radio emitters, with ultralong rotation periods (ranging from minutes to hours) and strong magnetic fields. Although some observations have suggested that these transients may originate from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields (magnetars) or magnetic white dwarfs, their true nature still baffles astronomers.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a 36-dish radio-interferometer in Australia, operating at 700 to 1,800 MHz. One of its scientific goals is the characterization of radio transient sky through the detection and monitoring of transient and variable sources.
Before These Clouds Form Stars, They Form A Complex Network of Filaments
Researchers working with China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) have revealed some of the complexity in a type of cloud in the ISM. They’ve detected a network of filaments in one Very High Velocity Cloud (VHVC). The observations hint at the complexity that can evolve in these clouds, all without the influence of gravity.
Lunar soil could support life on the Moon, say scientists
Scientists have developed a technology that may help humans survive on the moon. In a study published in the journal Joule, researchers extracted water from lunar soil and used it to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and chemicals for fuel—potentially opening new doors for future deep space exploration by mitigating the need to transport essential resources like water and fuel all the way from Earth.
“We never fully imagined the ‘magic’ that the lunar soil possessed,” said Lu Wang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
“The biggest surprise for us was the tangible success of this integrated approach. The one-step integration of lunar H2O extraction and photothermal CO2 catalysis could enhance energy utilization efficiency and decrease the cost and complexity of infrastructure development.”
Study finds cell cytoskeleton mimics critical phenomena seen in earthquakes and metals
Prof. Michael Murrell’s group (lead author Zachary Gao Sun, graduate student in physics) in collaboration with Prof. Garegin Papoian’s group from the University of Maryland at College Park has found critical phenomena (self-organized criticality) that are reminiscent of the earthquakes and avalanches inside the cell cytoskeleton through self-organization of purified protein components.
In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers have found that the cell’s cytoskeleton—the mechanical machinery of the cell—behaves much like Earth’s crust, constantly regulating how it dissipates energy and transmits information. This self-regulating behavior enables cells to carry out complex processes such as migration and division with remarkable precision.
Even more striking, the study draws parallels between the behavior of microscopic cellular structures and massive celestial bodies, suggesting that the principles of criticality—where systems naturally tune themselves to the brink of transformation—may be universal across vastly different scales of nature.
NASA unveils incredibly precise new satellite tool that anyone can use: ‘You can zoom in to your country, your state, your city block’
NASA launched an incredible new web portal that reveals ground movements across North America with astonishing precision.