A day after his passing, a petition is asking NASA to change the name of the coming "Lunar Gateway" to the "Collins Lunar Gateway"

The Lunar Gateway will be a space station in orbit around the Moon that will provide staging for all future lunar astronauts in the Artemis Program. Before they descend to the surface of the Moon, they will all pass through the Gateway.

Michael Collins was one of the three astronauts aboard Apollo 11, the mission that landed the first men on the Moon. However, Michael Collins did not descend to the surface. He remained alone in orbit for the entirety of his fellow astronauts' trip to the surface. He orbited the Moon for nearly 21 and a half hours by himself.

It is, for this reason, why we believe the Lunar Gateway should be renamed after him. He watched as his fellow astronauts descended onto the surface, just as many astronauts will do from the Gateway in the future.

>> Sign the petition <<

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Scientists Discover Psychedelic-Like Drug That Doesn't Cause Hallucinations

Scientists have discovered a psychedelic-like drug that can produce rapid, long-lasting antidepressant effects in mice without the effect of hallucinations.

The molecule, called AAZ-A-154, acts on the same serotonin receptors in the brain as antipsychotic drugs (like clozapine) and psychedelics (like LSD), promoting neuronal growth and producing beneficial behaviors in rodents for weeks after a single dose.

Researchers say the treatment is comparable to the fast-acting nature of ketamine, which has recently emerged as a promising drug for conditions like depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Sea Level Rise From Antarctic Melt Could Be 30% Higher Than We Thought

As global temperatures continue to rise due to anthropogenic climate breakdown, water currently locked in the form of Antarctic ice will melt into the oceans, raising sea levels to a point that will have a significant impact on coastal communities, even in the next few decades.

Over the next 1,000 years, our best predictions have put this rise at 3.2 meters (10.5 feet), but new research suggests that even this worrying figure might be a little too optimistic. According to a revised prediction, the rise over the next millennium could be a meter higher still, resulting in up to 30 percent additional increase.

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Are antimatter stars firing bullets of antihelium at Earth?

Fourteen possible antimatter stars (“antistars”) have been flagged up by astronomers searching for the origin of puzzling amounts of antihelium nuclei detected coming from deep space by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) on the International Space Station.

Antihelium-4 was created for the first time in 2011, in particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. At the time, scientists stated that if antihelium-4 were detected coming from space, then it would definitely have to come from the fusion process inside an antistar.

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Lightning Has Powerful Air Cleaning Properties, Surprising Analysis Reveals

Lightning could be a much more important atmospheric cleanser than previously thought, according to a new analysis of historical measurements gathered from a storm-chasing airplane back in 2012 – data which were originally thought to be inaccurate.

While some of the air-scrubbing qualities of lightning bolts are already well understood – in particular the creation of nitric oxide and hydroxide that can flush out various greenhouse gases from the sky – there's a lot more going on here, according to the new research.

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Venus Flyby Reveals Low-Frequency Radio Signal Detected in The Planet's Atmosphere

During a close flyby of the planet Venus in July 2020, NASA's Parker Solar Probe detected something odd.

As it dipped just 833 kilometers above the Venusian surface, the probe's instruments recorded a low-frequency radio signal - a telltale sign that Parker had skimmed through the ionosphere, a layer of the planet's upper atmosphere.

This was the first time an instrument had been able to record direct in situ measurements of Venus' upper atmosphere in nearly three decades, and the data recorded gives us a new understanding of how Venus changes in response to cyclic changes in the Sun.

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🚀 SN15 Launch

On May 5th SpaceX launched SN15 on a 10km test flight at Boca Chica, Texas. It successfully launched, reached the correct altitude, bellyflopped, flipped, and finally landed in one piece! (And didn't explode after)

SN15 has vehicle improvements across structures, avionics and software, and the engines that will allow more speed and efficiency throughout production and flight: specifically, a new enhanced avionics suite, updated propellant architecture in the aft skirt, and a new Raptor engine design and configuration.

» Video of landing «
Stay tuned for more higher quality videos of the flight and landing.

Source
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The First Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Have Just Been Released in The US

The biotech firm Oxitec has released its genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, with the goal of suppressing wild, disease-carrying mosquito populations in the region. This is the first time genetically modified mosquitoes have been released in the US.

Oxitec previously released its modified Aedes aegyptimosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia, and the company reported that local A. aegypti populations fell by at least 90 percent in those locations, Live Science previously reported. 

A. aegypti can carry diseases such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever, and releasing modified mosquitoes offers a way to control the population without using pesticides.

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US Space Command Has an ETA For When That Uncontrolled Rocket Will Crash Down

As of now, it does not know where the debris will land. The exact point where the rocket will enter the atmosphere will be known only within "hours" of its reentry, the US Space Command said.

The core of the rocket, which China launched April 29, has been predicted to come back to Earth "around May 8". Its exact trajectory is still unclear.

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Sharks Navigate Using Earth's Magnetic Fields Like a Compass, New Research Shows

Sharks are known for their long-distance migrations – across thousands of kilometers – but what's not clear is exactly how they navigate. An interesting new experiment involving swimming pools and magnetic fields may give us some big hints, however.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Hears Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight

On April 30, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover made history as the first spacecraft to record sounds from another spacecraft on another planet. During Ingenuity’s fourth flight, a microphone included with the SuperCam instrument aboard Perseverance captured the humming sound of the blades and the din of wind.

The audio is recorded in mono. Scientists made it easier to hear by isolating the 84 hertz helicopter blade sound, reducing the frequencies below 80 hertz and above 90 hertz, and increasing the volume of the remaining signal. Some frequencies were clipped to bring out the helicopter’s hum, which is loudest when the helicopter passes through the field of view of the camera.

Video (NASA) | #Mars2020
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