Tag: science news

Patagonia Condor Resettlement Campaign Faces Wind Farm Threat

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It was a sunny morning when about 200 people walked up a hill in Argentina’s southern Patagonia on a unique mission: to free two captive-bred Andean condors. Emotions were in the air as conservationists prepared for the moment so much had worked for months ago. But the happy moment was also bittersweet. Initial plans for a massive wind farm that could be located on the Somoncura Plateau to fuel a green hydrogen project are jeopardizing a three-decade effort to repopulate Patagonia’s Atlantic coast with a bird classified as critically endangered…

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How NASA plans to return an asteroid sample to Earth

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OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s first spacecraft designed to return an asteroid sample, began its two-year journey to Earth in 2021 and is now on track to deliver a sample of asteroid Bennu to our planet on Sept. 24, 2023. Here is how NASA plans to carry out a “drop- parcels” to the ground. Minute re-entry In order to make the delivery, OSIRIS-REx must approach our planet with an accurate speed and direction that will allow it to safely return the sample capsule back to Earth. “If the capsule is at a very…

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Stars issue warnings when they are about to explode in a supernova

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Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and the University of Montpellier have created an “early warning” system that can alert astronomers when a massive star is about to end its life in a supernova explosion. In the final stage of their lives, these massive “red giant” stars will become about a hundred times fainter. This happens because matter suddenly accumulates around the star, blocking our view of it. For the first time, researchers have simulated how such massive stars appear to fade and disappear as they enter their pre-explosion…

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Space News Weekly Recap: Mars microbes, black hole ‘burps’, and more

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According to research published in Nature Astronomy, ancient Mars would have had an environment capable of harboring microscopic organisms underground. Elsewhere, astronomers say they witnessed a “never before” event where a black hole “burped” from stellar matter three years after consuming a star. Read about all of that and more in our weekly Space News Feed. Martian subterranean microbes Microbes that consume hydrogen and produce methane may have thrived directly beneath the surface of Mars ages ago. Although Mars may have had the conditions to harbor life once upon a…

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‘Never before’: Black hole violently ripping stars apart and ‘burping’ after years

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In 2018, scientists noticed a black hole about 650 million light-years away tearing a star to shreds because it got too close. This was on par with the trajectory as far as black holes go. But three years later, the black hole lit itself up and released matter, not swallowing anything in between. “This totally surprised us—nobody had seen anything like this before,” Yvette Sendez, a research assistant at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a press release. Astrophysical Journal. The researchers reported that the black hole…

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Research shows that we speak to children similarly across languages

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When you’re with a baby, you’ve probably noticed that you’re talking to him that’s loud, slow-paced, and animated. You probably already know that other people also speak in a similar way, but recent research shows that this “baby talk” displays similarities across many languages. In scientific research, this “baby talk” is referred to as child-directed speech, or IDS. This intuitive, spontaneous and semi-automatic way of talking to children has been studied for decades to understand why it is used to communicate with children and what that says about a child’s…

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Underground microbes may have overrun ancient Mars

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French scientists said Monday that ancient Mars may have had an environment capable of harboring an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms. The researchers concluded that if they existed, these simple life forms would have altered the atmosphere so profoundly that it unleashed the Martian ice age and annihilated itself. The results offer a bleak view of the ways in the universe. Life – even life as simple as microbes – “may in fact commonly cause its own demise,” said the study’s lead author, Boris Souteri, now a postdoctoral researcher…

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New plastic recycling technology can reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to 3 million cars

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Researchers have developed an advanced recycling process that could help convert polyethylene (PE) – the world’s most widely used plastic – into polypropylene, one of the world’s 5 most common plastics. “Today, unfortunately, much of the polyethylene is not recycled and accumulates in landfills. The part that is collected as energy is recycled through combustion. This recycling approach is not truly sustainable.” Geronent is Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-lead author of Research article published in Journal of the American Chemical…

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Unrecoverable Mars Orbiter, Mangalyaan mission over, ISRO confirms

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The Indian Space Research Organization on Monday confirmed that the Mars Orbiter has lost contact with the ground station, is unrecoverable, and that the Mangalyaan mission has reached the end of its life. ISRO has provided an update to the Mars Orbiter Mission and National Meeting held on September 27 to commemorate MOM, should its eight years in Mars orbit be completed. It was also discussed that despite being designed for six months as a technology demonstrator, MOM has lived for nearly eight years in Mars orbit with a whole…

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NASA, SpaceX Crew-5: science experiments on board the six-month mission

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NASA and SpaceX have postponed the launch of the Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) due to Hurricane Ian, and now the mission is scheduled to launch no later than 9.53pm PST on October 4. Crew members include NASA astronauts Josh Casada and Nicole Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kekina. Here are some of the science experiments that will be conducted aboard the International Space Station during the six-month mission. A Canadian astronaut wears a Bio Monitor shirt during a previous mission. (Image…

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