The sun continuously blasts charged, magnetic field-carrying particles, or plasma, in all directions. This solar wind interacts with the magnetic fields and atmospheres of several of our solar system’s planets and other bodies, sculpting long magnetic tails of charged particles—magnetotails—that stretch into space behind them.
Magnetotails contain thin layers of electric current-carrying plasma sheets, which sometimes “flap” in an up-and-down waving motion. Spacecraft observations have revealed that flapping in Earth’s magnetotail can be driven by a process called magnetic reconnection, in which magnetic field lines rapidly break and then snap together in a new configuration, releasing stored energy. However, whether reconnection plays this same role beyond Earth has thus far been a mystery.
Yuanzheng Wen and colleagues report the first evidence that magnetic reconnection may also trigger magnetotail flapping at Mars. Their findings are published in the journal AGU Advances.
There’s one particular challenge facing the crewed missions of the near future that scares mission planners more than almost any other: fire.
A new paper from researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Johnson Space Center and Case Western Reserve University details a planned mission to test the flammability of materials on the Moon’s surface – where they expect flame to act much differently than it does here on Earth.
On Earth, gravity causes hot gases to rise, drawing fresh, cool oxygen to the base of the flame. In some cases where the material is marginally flammable, this can result in a phenomenon called “blowoff”, which actually extinguishes the fire.
A long time ago I became friends with a guy named Frank White. He was working with president Reagan’s National Commission on Space, and my friend Dave Brody and I were shooting a documentary where we were interviewing some of the Commission members. We hit it off immediately. Fellow O’Neillians all. Since then Frank has become a close buddy and ally in the cause of the Space Revolution. Our styles couldn’t be more different I am the Charge the enemy! guy and he is a gentle, quiet human being. Along the way to the Frontier, he coined the term OverView Effect, as a means of expressing what happens to people when they fly above the MotherWorld and gaze back at her. He nailed it with that one. Dude’s got himself a real-live “meme”! And I couldn’t be happier. So now it’s time to get the man up there so he can get “Effected” himself! The team at MoonDAO are raising funds right now to send this beautiful human into space. You can help! They’ve already raised over $150k! So join in right now and let’s do this thing! Send Frank to Space! Right now! Make a donation! UP!
Want to go to space? Join Frank White and bring the Overview Effect to Earth to help unite humanity.
NASA cleanrooms exist to keep spacecraft free of fungus and bacteria that could unknowingly hitch a ride to another world. But what if these procedures aren’t sufficient? This is what a recent study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated if decontamination strategies outlined by NASA’s planetary protection office are sufficient in preventing fungus and bacteria on Earth from contaminating other worlds.
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of experimental simulations to ascertain the survival probabilities of several microorganisms and whether they would survive on Mars and during the journey to the Red Planet. The primary goal of this study was to address a knowledge gap with planetary protection, specifically whether current protocols are sufficient in preventing bacteria and other microorganisms from hitching a ride on spacecraft to other worlds.
In the end, the researchers found that a known fungus called Aspergillus calidoustus (A. calidoustus) was found to survive sterilization procedures, contrary to rigorous cleaning. Additionally, the researchers found that A. calidoustus would not only survive the trip to Mars, but it could also survive on the surface of Mars despite the extreme radiation and temperatures. However, the team did find that A. calidoustus met its end when exposed to a combination of radiation and the extreme cold of the Martian surface.
Luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) are among the universe’s brightest and fastest explosions but their origin is not completely understood. A new study takes a closer look at the galaxies they occur in, offering two important clues about their nature. A paper outlining these results was uploaded to the preprint server arXiv on March 24.
LFBOTs are called cow-like events, nicknamed after the first member of this class—AT2018cow—discovered in 2018. They are extremely bright explosions whose brightness peaks within a week and fades to half its peak value in the following week. Their peak brightness is typically greater than 1043 erg per second at optical wavelengths. This is comparable with that of superluminous supernovae, which take a few weeks to months to peak and are generally 10 to 100 times brighter than normal supernovae.
Moreover, LFBOTs’ light curve—a graph that shows changes in their brightness over time—cannot be explained by the decay of nickel-56, which is a common energy source for normal and core-collapse supernovae. There are several theories for their origins; however, there is a lack of consensus.
Life of leonard susskind;leonard susskind physics.
*Description:* Can scientists really simulate a full human brain now? In this video, we explore the latest study claiming that supercomputers may soon be powerful enough to simulate the human brain. We break down how this new method works, why previous brain simulation projects failed, what makes this new research different, and the big ethical questions that come with it. Is this the future of neuroscience and artificial intelligence, or are we still far from creating a true digital human mind? Watch till the end to understand the science in simple words.
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For this episode, I’m joined by Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and one of the most influential figures in the commercial space industry.
In this episode, we slice the conversation into four categories: the social history of the space movement and how we got here; the business of space and the astropolitics shaping who controls the final frontier; the genetics and ethics of humanity becoming a multi-planetary species; and the deeper philosophy of why leaving Earth isn’t just raw and blind ambition but something closer to destiny (for some people).
Timestamps: 0:00 Social History. 30:19 Business and Astropolitics. 45:20 Genetics and Ethics. 56:02 Philosophical.
