News Feeds

From drunk worms to mammals that breath through their anuses, founder Marc Abrahams on the winners of this year's Ig Nobel prizes, for research that "makes people laugh, then think"

On Tuesday, September 10th, at 5:23 a.m. EST (03:23 p.m. PST), the Polaris Dawn mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying a crew of four to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This mission is the first of three that comprise the Polaris Program, a private spaceflight program organized by entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman and financed by SpaceX. Since launching, the Resilience Crew Dragon spacecraft has flown higher than any crewed mission since the Apollo Era and passed through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt.

Earlier today, the crew carried out the first private spacewalk in the history of spaceflight!

SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew have completed the first commercial spacewalk!

“SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.” — Mission Commander @rookisaacman during Dragon egress and seeing our planet from ~738 km pic.twitter.com/lRczSv5i4k

— Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024

Footage of the spacewalk was taken from Isaacman’s helmet camera and shared via the Polaris Program’s X account. The footage shows mission commander Jared Isaacman egressing from the spacecraft’s forward hatch. Then, amid the raucous cheers from the mission controllers, we see Isaacman looking down on planet Earth from an altitude of about 738 km (~460 mi). He can be heard in the video recording saying, “SpaceX, back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world.”

The footage then switched to the spacecraft’s nosecone camera, which shows Isaacman emerging from the forward hatch against the background of Earth.

In addition to Isaacman, the crew included mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired pilot from the United States Air Force (USAF); mission specialist and SpaceX senior space operations engineer Sarah Gillis; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, SpaceX’s lead space operations engineer and mission director. This was the first flight for all crewmembers, except for Isaacman, who is returning to space for a second time after the successful Inspiration4 mission – the first all-civilian space mission that flew from September 16th to 18th in 2021.

In addition to performing the first commercial spacewalk and testing the SpaceX-designed Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits – an upgraded version of the intravehicular (IVA) suit – the mission’s main objective is to better understand the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. To this end, the spacecraft is orbiting through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt while multiple sensors actively monitor the crew’s health. Upon their return, they will also submit biological samples, which will be analyzed and kept in a long-term Biobank.

The crew will also test Starlink’s laser-based communications in orbit to provide data for future space communications systems. All of this research is intended to advance our understanding of the hazards of long-duration spaceflight and develop the necessary technologies to enable extended missions to the Moon and Mars in the coming decades. The Polaris Dawn mission will return to Earth on September 15th after spending five days in space.

The post See a First-Person View of the First Private Spacewalk appeared first on Universe Today.

Experiments show that viewers can usually identify video deepfakes of famous politicians – but fake audio and text are harder to detect

Taking inspiration from enzymes, chemists have developed a catalyst to simplify the synthesis of ethers, key functional components of many drugs, foods, personal care items and other consumer goods. The catalyst puts the two chemical ingredients in just the right proximity and position to come together, bypassing the need for the steps and quantities required under standard synthesis protocols.

If you enjoyed this summer’s display of aurora borealis, thank the Sun’s corona. The corona is the Sun’s outer layer and is the source of most space weather, including aurorae. The aurora borealis are benign light shows, but not all space weather produces such harmless displays; some of it is dangerous and destructive.

In an effort to understand space weather and the solar corona, the National Science Foundation aimed the world’s most powerful solar telescope, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, at the corona to map its magnetic fields.

Space weather affects Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. It includes solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and the solar wind.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of electromagnetic energy that can damage satellites and disrupt radio communications and are frequently associated with sunspots. CMEs are ejections of plasma from the corona that collide with the magnetosphere, causing geomagnetic storms and aurorae and, when powerful enough, disrupting power grids. The solar wind is a constant stream of charged particles that streams from the solar corona and causes aurorae. Since the solar wind never stops, it can also change the orbit of satellites.

The solar corona is made of plasma, and though it’s quite dim, it’s very hot.

This image shows the Sun’s layers in false colour for clarity. Solar prominences are precursors to CMEs, though not all prominences escape the corona to become CMEs. Image Credit: By Kelvinsong – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23371669

Scientists know the large role the solar corona plays in space weather, but they don’t understand how the Sun’s magnetic fields drive it. However, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) has successfully mapped the corona’s magnetic field for the first time. Understanding the magnetic field is critical for understanding and predicting space weather.

The results are in a new paper titled “Mapping the Sun’s coronal magnetic field using the Zeeman effect.” It’s published in the journal Science Advances, and the lead author is Thomas Schad, an associate astronomer at the National Solar Observatory, the organization that operates the DKIST.

“This breakthrough promises to significantly enhance our understanding of the solar atmosphere and its influence on our solar system.”

Thomas Schad, NSO

Thomas Schad is the lead author of the new paper but has been working with the DKIST for several years. In a 2023 paper, Schad and his co-authors explained that “The possibility of measuring coronal magnetic fields from the Zeeman-effect-induced circular polarization has been a generational goal for understanding the Sun’s outer atmosphere.”

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is a four-meter solar telescope on the island of Maui, Hawai’i. It’s the largest solar telescope in the world. Image Credit: National Solar Observatory.

To do this, DKIST relies on one of its primary instruments, the Cryogenic Near-Infrared Spectropolarimeter (cryo-NIRSP). The Cryo-NIRSP is uniquely suited for polarimetric observations of the solar corona. In 2023, Schad and his co-authors explained that “One of the main Cryo-NIRSP goals is to routinely and sensitively measure coronal intensities, velocities, densities, and magnetic fields with unprecedented temporal, spatial, and polarimetric resolution.”

The Zeeman effect allows the DKIST to measure the fields by observing spectral line splitting. Spectral lines are like ‘fingerprints,’ and they result from either the absorption or emission of light by specific atoms or molecules. In the presence of a static magnetic field, spectral lines are split. The splitting gives researchers insight into the Sun’s magnetic properties.

Astronomers have attempted to study the Zeeman effect and spectral line splitting in the past, but the observations lacked detail and regularity. The DKIST has changed that.

The problem with observing the Sun’s corona is its faintness compared to the rest of the Sun. The corona is about one million times fainter than the solar disk, and the corona was only observable during a solar eclipse. The DKIST uses coronagraphy to create artificial eclipses, bringing the corona into view. That lets the telescope see the extremely faint polarized signals, which are a staggering one billion times fainter than the disk.

“The Inouye’s achievement in mapping the Sun’s coronal magnetic fields is a testament to the innovative design and capabilities of this trailblazing unique observatory,” said Schad. “This breakthrough promises to significantly enhance our understanding of the solar atmosphere and its influence on our solar system.”

This figure illustrates some of the research’s results. The top panel is a composite image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and its Atmospheric Image Assembly, and the bottom panel is from DKIST. The black dotted lines show solar radii. Together, the images show that polarization amplitude increases inside the dense coronal structures above the surface of the corona. ?B stands for Bohr magneton, a way of expressing the strength of a magnetic field in units. DN/s stands for Data Numbers per second, a way of measuring changes in solar activity over time. Image Credit: Schad et al. 2024.

Coronal Mass Ejections are the most dangerous type of space weather. Earth’s magnetosphere has a protective effect, but CMEs can slam into it and overwhelm it, creating a geomagnetic storm. The most powerful geomagnetic storm we know of is the Carrington Event of 1859. At that time, the USA’s telegraph was new, and the storm disabled parts of it. It also started fires and injured some people.

In our modern satellite age, a storm that powerful could be devastating. If we can predict them, we can harden our satellites and power grids and minimize the effects. By understanding how the Sun’s coronal magnetic fields work, scientists hope to be able to anticipate when a powerful CME is coming our way.

“Just as detailed maps of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere have enabled more accurate weather prediction, this thrillingly complete map of the magnetic fields in the sun’s corona will help us better predict solar storms and space weather,” said Dr. Carrie Black, NSF program director for the NSO. “The invisible yet phenomenally powerful forces captured in this map will propel solar physics through the next century and beyond.”

The overplotted lines in this figure from the research show the direction of linear polarization in the Sun’s corona. The scale on the right shows the percentage of polarized amplitudes of the magnetic lines. Image Credit: Schad et al. 2024.

“Reconstructing the 3D distribution of coronal plasma and its embedded magnetic stresses remains essential for understanding coronal energetics,” the authors explain in their research. “These first reported maps of the coronal Zeeman effect, made possible by DKIST, unveil the wealth of information that polarimetric diagnostics provide for the solar corona, particularly for its key driver: the magnetic field.”

These results go beyond just the Sun and local space weather. This detailed knowledge will build our understanding of stars in general.

“Mapping the strength of the magnetic field in the corona is a fundamental scientific breakthrough, not just for solar research, but for astronomy in general,” said NSO Director Christoph Keller. “This is the beginning of a new era where we will understand how the magnetic fields of stars affect planets, here in our own solar system and in the thousands of exoplanetary systems that we now know about.”

The post Groundbreaking New Maps of the Sun’s Coronal Magnetic Fields appeared first on Universe Today.

Extreme weather events lasting more than a decade could have killed off forests 250 million years ago, contributing to Earth's worst ever mass extinction

Seismologists were mystified by a strange signal that persisted for nine days in 2023 – now its source has been identified as a standing wave caused by a landslide in Greenland

Researchers have discovered why lithium-ion batteries, which power most electronic devices, lose capacity overtime. The findings could enable the development of electric vehicles that go far longer without needing a charge.

A newly discovered mechanism for the flow and freezing of ice sheet meltwater could improve estimates of sea level rise around the globe. Researchers have found a new mechanism that explains the process of how impermeable horizontal ice layers are formed below the surface, a process critical for determining the contribution of ice sheet meltwater to sea level rise.

Scientists have uncovered the detailed structure of the aluminum oxide surface, a challenge that has baffled researchers for decades.

Researchers have developed a groundbreaking smartphone app that measures blood pressure using a smartphone's built-in sensors, eliminating the need for traditional cuffs. This technology can make blood pressure monitoring more accessible and convenient, especially for underserved populations. By allowing users to measure their blood pressure anytime and anywhere, the app could revolutionize cardiovascular care and improve early detection of hypertension.

Researchers have created 'smart' microparticles that self-assemble in response to the addition of a specific molecule. This work can help explain the behavior of biomolecular complexes, as well as pave the way for novel polymers that respond to their environment.

Could invisibility cloaks become a reality? New research brings this science fiction concept a step closer, with a breakthrough software package that simulates how waves interact with complex materials.

Could invisibility cloaks become a reality? New research brings this science fiction concept a step closer, with a breakthrough software package that simulates how waves interact with complex materials.

Several fields of mathematics have developed in total isolation, using their own 'undecipherable' coded languages. Mathematicians now present 'big algebras,' a two-way mathematical 'dictionary' between symmetry, algebra, and geometry, that could strengthen the connection between the distant worlds of quantum physics and number theory.

A groundbreaking study takes advantage of advanced spectroscopic methods and theory to shed light on the intricate processes involved in converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable chemicals like ethylene and ethanol. This research holds significant promise for advancing sustainable practices in the chemical industry.

Scientists have developed an accessible software solution specifically designed for the analysis of complex medical health data. The open-source software called 'ehrapy' enables researchers to structure and systematically examine large, heterogeneous datasets. The software is available to the global scientific community to use and further develop.

Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory -- albeit only for the blink of an eye and in a tiny volume. So far, this has required the world's most powerful lasers, and the opportunities for experiments are correspondingly rare. A research team has now succeeded in creating and observing extreme conditions with a much smaller laser.

Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory -- albeit only for the blink of an eye and in a tiny volume. So far, this has required the world's most powerful lasers, and the opportunities for experiments are correspondingly rare. A research team has now succeeded in creating and observing extreme conditions with a much smaller laser.

A new study reveals how different synthesis methods can profoundly impact the structure and function of high entropy oxides, a class of materials with applications in everyday electronic devices.