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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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.

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

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‘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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Incredible Images Reveal a Single Moment on Jupiter in Different Wavelengths of Light

We all know what Jupiter looks like, with its vanilla and butterscotch ice-cream bands of counter-rotating cloud, and the iconic red storm raging in the southern hemisphere.

But that's only how Jupiter looks in optical wavelengths, though. When imaged in wavelengths beyond the limits of human vision, Jupiter appears differently. In infrared, thermal emission glows brightly, with cooler regions duller red (a bit like lasagna); in ultraviolet, soft, cotton-candy pastels show us different altitudes...

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Ultra-Fast Air And Space Travel Just Got Closer With a Hypersonic Detonation Test

A never-ending detonation could be the key to hypersonic flight and space planes that can seamlessly fly from Earth into orbit. And now, researchers have recreated the explosive phenomenon in the lab that could make it possible.

Detonations are a particularly powerful kind of explosion that move outward faster than the speed of sound. Now, a team from the University of Central Florida has created an experimental setup that lets them sustain a detonation in a fixed position for several seconds, which the researchers say is a major step toward future hypersonic propulsion systems.

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