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.

Article
@EverythingScience

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.

Article
@EverythingScience

🚀 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
@SpaceX
@EverythingScience

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.

Article
@EverythingScience

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.

Article
@EverythingScience

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.

Article
@EverythingScience

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
@EverythingScience

Elon Musk says SpaceX might refly Starship after historic landing

CEO Elon Musk says that SpaceX “might try to refly SN15 soon” after it became the first Starship to ace a high-altitude launch and survive the landing. In other words, SpaceX might be about to kick off what’s bound to be a long and fruitful future of Starship reusability.

Article
@EverythingScience

Young Adults Who've Had COVID-19 Show Signs of Lasting Cardiovascular Damage
Article | #Covid19
@EverythingScience

There's Evidence Volcanoes Are Active on Mars, Raising Chances of Recent Habitability

A new, close study of volcanic features on the surface of the red planet has found that a lava deposit on the Elysium Planitia appears to be very recent indeed - as in, within the last 50,000 years.

On geological timescales, that's shockingly short. And it could mean that Mars was potentially habitable just as recently, with parts of it similar to regions of volcanic activity in glacial areas such as Iceland, where various forms of extremophile bacteria thrive.

Article
@EverythingScience

‘It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit.’ Nuclear reactions are smoldering again at Chernobyl

Thirty-five years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded in the world’s worst nuclear accident, fission reactions are smoldering again in uranium fuel masses buried deep inside a mangled reactor hall. “It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit,” says Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield. Now, Ukrainian scientists are scrambling to determine whether the reactions will wink out on their own—or require extraordinary interventions to avert another accident.

Article
@EverythingScience

Uncontrolled Rocket Segment Finally Re-Entered Earth's Atmosphere

A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday, the Chinese space agency said, following fevered speculation over where the 18-tonne object would come down.

Article
@EverythingScience

Voyager 1 Is Detecting a 'Hum' of Plasma Waves in The Void of Interstellar Space

Voyager 1 has left the Solar System - and it's finding that the void of space is not quite so void-like, after all.

In the latest analysis of data from the intrepid probe, from a distance of nearly 23 billion kilometers (over 14 billion miles), astronomers have discovered, from 2017 onwards, a constant hum from plasma waves in the interstellar medium, the diffuse gas that lurks between the stars.

Article
@EverythingScience

Potentially Deadly 'Black Fungus' Keeps Showing Up in COVID-19 Patients in India
Article | #Covid19
@EverythingScience

TRUE Limits Of Humanity – The Final Border We Will Never Cross

Is there a border we will never cross? Are there places we will never reach, no matter how hard we try? It turns out, there are. Even with sci-fi technology, we are trapped in a limited pocket of the Universe and the finite stuff within it. How much universe is there for us and how far can we go?

Video (Kurzgesagt) | Stream on YouTube
@EverythingScience

NASA's Probe With Its Precious Bennu Sample Is Finally Returning to Earth!

A spacecraft carrying around 56.70g of dust from the surface of an asteroid is on its way back to Earth.

The spacecraft, called OSIRIS-REx, launched its thrusters for 7 minutes on Monday to leave the asteroid Bennu.

NASA expects the sample will land in the desert in Utah on September 24, 2023.

Article
@EverythingScience