Lifeboat Foundation

A multidisciplinary team is teaching dog-like robots to navigate the moon’s craters and other challenging planetary surfaces.

As part of the research funded by NASA, researchers from various universities and NASA Johnson Space Center tested a quadruped named Spirit at Palmer Glacier on Oregon’s Mount Hood.

Continue reading “Robot dogs train at 6,000ft in snow-clad mountains for moon missions” »

Kyushu University researchers have shed new light into a critical question on how baby stars develop. Using the ALMA radio telescope in Chile, the team found that in its infancy, the protostellar disk that surrounds a baby star discharges plumes of dust, gas, and electromagnetic energy.

These “sneezes,” as the researchers describe them, release the magnetic flux within the protostellar disk, and may be a vital part of star formation. Their findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Stars, including our sun, all develop from what are called stellar nurseries, large concentrations of gas and dust that eventually condense to form a stellar core, a baby star. During this process, gas and dust form a ring around the baby star called the protostellar disk.

Do you know what they’ve discovered? This is the proton engine that Einstein predicted decades ago and that, for the first time, they’ve managed to materialize. The best part? It challenges even the laws of physics and the universe, and it’s going to decarbonize transportation.

Nuclear fusion has long been a sought-after but elusive goal for science. It involves joining atomic nuclei to release energy, the same process that occurs in the Sun and other stars. In fact, it’s a process similar to what we saw two weeks ago with the plasma engine.

Unlike nuclear fission used in current nuclear power plants—which, remember, we are highly critical of due to its lack of being an eco-friendly or renewable option—fusion offers the promise of a virtually inexhaustible and clean energy source.

‘‘The reason why no such glory has ever been observed outside our solar system is that this phenomenon requires very specific conditions, said Dr. Olivier Demangeon.

A recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics examines rainbow-like light patterns known as “glories” between the dayside and nightside of the exoplanet, WASP-76b, which occurs from the interactions between the parent star’s light and perfectly uniform droplets within a planet’s atmosphere. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand exoplanet characteristics, as this marks the first time these “glory” patterns have been observed outside of our solar system.

Artist’s rendition of a “glory” on WASP-76b. (Credit: © ESA, work performed by ATG under contract for ESA. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Continue reading “New Insights into WASP-76b: The Ultra-Hot Giant Exoplanet” »

Jupiter and a slim crescent moon are the stand-out night sky sight in the evening sky right now.

In a new shocking project unveiled by the US, they are planning to build a new train network on the moon to revolutionize the lunar transport.

“We need to accelerate and intensify efforts to recover Antarctic meteorites,” said Dr. Harry Zekollari. “The loss of Antarctic meteorites is much like the loss of data that scientists glean from ice cores collected from vanishing glaciers – once they disappear, so do some of the secrets of the universe.”

How can climate change effect the search for meteorites in Antarctica? This is what a recent study published in Nature Climate Change hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how melting snow and ice could prevent successful identification of meteorites, of which approximately 60 percent of all meteorites retrieved on Earth have been found in Antarctica. This study holds the potential to help scientists, climate change activists, and legislators better understand the impacts of climate change on science, as meteorites are crucial for gaining greater insight into the formation and evolution of the solar system and beyond.

With a combination of climate models, satellite observations, and artificial intelligence, the researchers estimate that at current rates, they will lose the ability to identify approximately 5,000 meteorites annually, with approximately 24 percent being lost by 2050 and potentially 76 percent by 2100.

Continue reading “Sinking Stars: Climate-Induced Loss of Antarctic Meteorites” »

See the historic images of North America’s total solar eclipse from space that capture the moon’s umbral shadow move across the Earth’s surface.

“For the first time we have physical evidence showing us what was happening in the moon’s interior during this critical stage in its evolution, and that’s really exciting,” said Dr. Jeff Andrews-Hanna.

Our Moon has long been hypothesized to have formed from a planet-sized object colliding with the Earth. But, what happened after and how can its unique geologic exterior and interior be explained? This is what a recent study published in Nature Geoscience hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona used a combination of spacecraft data and computer models to investigate the geologic processes that led to heavier elements being present on the nearside of the Moon, which is constantly facing Earth due to being tidally locked with our planet. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the geologic mechanisms behind planetary formation and could lead to gaining greater insight into how rocky planets like Earth and Mars formed.

For the study, the researchers used data from NASA’s GRAIL mission, which was used to map gravitational anomalies on the Moon, and computer models to determine the distribution of ilmenite, a combination of titanium and iron, across the Moon’s nearside and how much sunk into the Moon’s interior during the Moon’s formation and evolution. It has been previously hypothesized that while ilmenite sunk to the Moon’s interior early on, portions of it returned to the surface from volcanism, and the mechanisms behind these events have led scientists puzzled.

Continue reading “The Moon’s Origin Story: A Tale of Collision and Reconstruction” »