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Space

SPACE: New Animation Captures the Cyclones of Jupiter’s North Pole

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Jupiter Storms

Using data from NASA’s Juno mission, researchers created a 3D flyover of the gas giant’s north pole in infrared. It shows the turbulent dynamics of the pole, which is topped by a huge cyclone about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) across. Ringing this monster atmospheric storm are eight other cyclones with diameters ranging from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,700 km). The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, and entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016, flying as low as 2,200 miles (3,500 km) over the highest cloud tops of the planet, according to NASA. The goal of the … Read more

SCIENCE: Sperm in Outer Space

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sperm - pixabay

For the first time, err, officially, NASA will set loose human sperm in outer space. The Micro-11 mission, which made its way to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s Dragon resupply capsule, amounts to a bunch of containers of frozen human and bull sperm. Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), scientists will thaw the sperm, according to a NASA statement, and then study it to see how weightlessness affects its ability to move and prepare to fuse with an egg. “Previous experiments with sea urchin and bull sperm suggest that activating movement happens more quickly in microgravity,” NASA officials … Read more

SPACE: Did Medieval People Know About Planet Nine?

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Planet Nine

The far reaches of the outer solar system may be home to an icy giant — a hypothetical planet scientists have dubbed “Planet Nine.” Meanwhile, archives back on Earth are home to dozens of medieval records documenting the passage of comets through the heavens. Now, two researchers from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland are hoping to use these old scrolls and tapestries to solve the modern astronomical mystery of Planet Nine. “We have a wealth of historical records of comets in Old English, Old Irish, Latin and Russian which have been overlooked for a long time,” said university medievalist … Read more

SPACE: How Close Are We to a Starliner?

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boeing starliner

Picture this: A team of space travelers blasts off from Earth in a fully automated shuttle that carries them to an outpost orbiting around the moon, where they will embark on a voyage to Mars. Though it sounds like science fiction, this fantastic journey may be closer than you think: An automated spacecraft designed to transport people into low Earth orbit could be ready for its maiden (uncrewed) voyage as early as this summer. The new spacecraft, called the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner, is being developed in partnership with NASA by a private company generally associated with commercial airplanes: … Read more

SPACE: Most Distant Star Ever Seen – 9 Billion Light-Years Away

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Farthest Star

Astronomers have observed a star that’s so far away, its light took 9 billion years to reach us here on Earth — about 4.5 billion years before our solar system even existed. And while scientists have peered at even more distant galaxies, which are visible due to light from their billions of stars, this helium-burning orb, nicknamed Icarus, is the most distant ordinary individual star an Earthling has observed, according to a statement from the University of California, Berkeley. (An ordinary, or main-sequence, star is one that is still fusing hydrogen to create helium; about 90 percent of the stars … Read more

SCIENCE: The Bubble That Will Destroy the Universe

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Higgs Boson - Pixabay

Scientists say they know how the universe will end. It won’t be a cosmic collapse but rather a giant cosmic bubble that devours everything in its path. According to a recent paper, published on March 12 in the journal Physical Review D, the final moment for the universe will be triggered by a bizarre consequence of subatomic physics called an instanton. This instanton will create a tiny bubble that will expand at the speed of light, swallowing everything in its path. It’s only a matter of time. “At some point you will create one of these bubbles,” study lead author … Read more

SPACE: Make Your Reservation for the World’s First Luxury Space Hotel Now

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Luxury Space Hotel

A Houston-based company said this week it plans to open the “first luxury hotel in space” by late 2021. Orion Span’s compact Aurora Station – at 35ft-by-14ft its interior will be comparable to that of a Gulfstream jet, the company said – is projected to accommodate four travelers and two crew members for 12-day stays 200 miles above the earth. Guests will be charged $9.5m each, or about $791,666 a night. Refundable deposits of $80,000 can now be made online. The founder Frank Bunger – described by his own company as “a serial entrepreneur and technology start-up executive” – told … Read more

Stephen Hawking on Colonizing Alien Worlds

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Steven Hawking - Expedition New Earth

The computer-generated voice of the late physicist Stephen Hawking will address audiences once again from their television screens on March 25, during his appearance in one of the last TV projects of his life. In the Smithsonian Channel documentary “Leaving Earth: Or How to Colonize a Planet,” Hawking shares his long-held vision of humanity confronting an uncertain future on Earth by looking to the stars, and setting a course that will lead us to one day inhabit distant worlds beyond our own solar system. Where we would go, how we would get there and what it would take to make … Read more

SPACE: Wanna See the Earth From Orbit, But Don’t Have $20 Million?

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One Strange Rock

Looking down at the vast curve of planet Earth hundreds of miles below, I can see its white cloud cover stretching over expanses of blue ocean. This may be the closest I’ll ever get to outer space, but I haven’t left Midtown Manhattan. I’m peering at our distant world using a special “space” helmet that re-creates the dizzying sensation of hovering far above the planet. Displayed across my visor — and on those of my fellow “astronauts” in the seats of a small theater — were excerpts from “One Strange Rock,” a new documentary series from the National Geographic Channel … Read more

SPACE: Robot Bees on Mars

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Mars - robot bees

NASA has two teams of researchers working to design a robotic bee that can fly on Mars. The space agency announced the project on March 30. It’s in its early stages, but the idea is to replace modern rovers — which are slow, bulky and very expensive — with swarms of sensor-studded, fast-moving micro-bots that can cover much more ground at a relatively low cost. Literally called Marsbees, the little bots are “flapping wing flyers of a bumblebee size with cicada-sized wings,” NASA officials wrote. By Rafi Letzter – Full Story at SOURCE