NASA Scientists Say Images From The Webb Telescope Nearly Brought Them To Tears

The images are being taken right now," said Thomas Zurbuchen, who leads NASA's scientific programs, during a news conference on Wednesday. "There is already some amazing science in the can, and some others are yet to be taken as we go forward. We are in the middle of getting the history-making data down."

NASA said it plans to release several images beginning at 14:30 UTC on July 12, the result of Webb's "first light" observations.

On Wednesday, space agency officials said the images and other data would include the deepest-field image of the universe ever taken—looking further into the cosmos than humans ever have before—as well as the spectrum of an atmosphere around an exoplanet.

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The Last Human – A Glimpse Into The Far Future

The future of humanity seems insecure. Rapid climate change, political division, our greed and failings make it hard to look at our species with a lot of optimism and so many people think our end is in sight. But humans always thought they lived in the end times. Every generation assumes they’re important enough to witness the apocalypse and then life just goes on.

This is a problem because it leads to short term thinking and prevents us from creating the best world for ourselves and our descendants. What makes this worse is that we actually may live at an extremely critical moment in human history. To understand why, let us look at the temporal window of humanity and ask:

When will the last human be born and how many people will there ever be?

Video (Kurzgesagt)
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BINARY DREAMS: How A.I. Sees the Universe

What happens when machines begin to question their origins?

In this short film created with generative art, we explore how artificial intelligence sees the universe, its creators, and its potential futures. We believe the emergence of artistic A.I. has touched off a new era for art that could be as profound as the first cave paintings, 50,000 years ago. If these artistic capabilities are possible after only a few decades of A.I., research, what will the next 50,000 years hold? What will we become?

Stream in 4K
Video (Melodysheep)
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Large Hadron Collider Finds Evidence of 3 Never-Before-Seen Particles

Physicists say they've found evidence in data from Europe's Large Hadron Collider for three never-before-seen combinations of quarks

The three exotic types of particles – which include two four-quark combinations, known as tetraquarks, plus a five-quark unit called a pentaquark – are totally consistent with the Standard Model, the decades-old theory that describes the structure of atoms.

In contrast, scientists hope that the LHC's current run will turn up evidence of physics that goes beyond the Standard Model to explain the nature of mysterious phenomena such as dark matter. Such evidence could point to new arrays of subatomic particles, or even extra dimensions in our Universe.

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NASA: Contact lost with spacecraft on way to test moon orbit

After one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday, the space agency said it could no longer communicate with the spacecraft called Capstone. Engineers are trying to find the cause of the communications drop-off and are optimistic they can fix it, NASA spokesperson Sarah Frazier said Tuesday.

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NASA CAPSTONE Update:
Communications Re-Established

Mission operators have re-established contact with NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft. Additional updates will be provided.

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Aphantasia Makes It Harder to Visualize Your Past And Future, Study Shows

A rare condition that makes people unable to visualize images in their imagination could have further-reaching effects on the mind than we knew, scientists report.

Aphantasia, sometimes referred to as being 'blind in the mind', has been known about since the 19th century, but has only attracted significant scientific attention in recent years.

Although we can't yet estimate the extent of the impact, the researchers say it's clear the ability to generate visual imagery is important for the mental construction of events, whether reconstructing real-life memories, or imagining scenarios that haven't taken place.

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Mathematical calculations show that quantum communication across interstellar space should be possible

A team of physicists at the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy has used mathematical calculations to show that quantum communications across interstellar space should be possible. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review D, the group describes their calculations and also the possibility of extraterrestrial beings attempting to communicate with us using such signaling.

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CAPSTONE had a successful trajectory correction maneuver today at 9:30 am MT. The “burn” confirms the spacecraft remains on its path to the Moon with scheduled arrival on November 13th.

More details to come.
Source: @AdvancedSpace