Science Cosmos

  Illustration of an exaggerated meteor shower.   (Image credit: 4khz via Getty Images) A Japanese firm has decided to relaunch its project to produce fake meteor showers.   Tokyo-based ALE (Astro Live Experiences) had originally intended to use its ALE-2 satellite, which launched in December 2019 on a Rocket Lab Electron booster, to produce artificial shooting stars in 2020.   However, when technical difficulties hampered the endeavor, ALE promised at the time that it would start a new meteor effort in 2023. Even though the business has returned with a new project that relies on crowdsourcing, there is no set date for when the shooting stars will start to appear because that rest on the unveiling of a new satellite. Through a brand-new Sky Canvas Community Club that will offer non-fungible tokens (NFT) linked to privileged advantages for members, ALE is pleading with the public for support. However, the bitcoin community, which supports "alternative currencies" out

    (Image credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images) Venus, despite being lethal, has a lot to teach us. Since both planetary entities are roughly the same size and mass, the planet Venus is frequently referred to as "Earth's twin." However, Venus has been observed to be far less hospitable and somewhat of a hellscape than Earth, which is teeming with all forms of life, both big and small. This is a result of its crushing surface pressures of 90 times that of the Earth and its scorching surface temps of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit (482 degrees Celsius). Venus displays a phenomenon known as a runaway greenhouse effect, in which solar radiation that reaches the surface is confined and gradually raises pressure and temperature. But why is it crucial to understand how Venus and Earth diverged, and how did Venus' climate get so out of control and hostile? In a recent study, a group of scientists headed by the University of California, Riverside (UC Ri

  Artist's impression of TRAPPIST-1b.   (NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted/STScI, T. P. Greene/NASA Ames, T. Bell/BAERI, E. Ducrot & P. Lagage/CEA) It is unlikely that an exoplanet the size of Earth in the possibly most hopeful extraterrestrial system for the presence of life could support modern life.   New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show that the innermost world of the TRAPPIST-1 system, an exoplanet known as TRAPPIST-1b, reaches a scorching 230 degrees Celsius (446 degrees Fahrenheit) and is unlikely to have an atmosphere wrapped around its rocky body. TRAPPIST-1b is 1.4 times the mass and 1.1 times the radius of Earth. This is not a surprise because TRAPPIST-1b rotates around its host star in just 1.5 days and receives four times as much stellar radiation as Earth does; however, this is the first time we have been able to make these measurements for a world this small and cool—the closest to Earth yet.   Naturally, the knowledge will also aid resear

  The Moon's lunar cycle is becoming better understood. Image credit: taffpixture/Shutterstock.com We are aware that the Moon contains water. It has been demonstrated by several expeditions over the last few decades that our natural satellite is not as dry as once believed. Water evaporates from the soil during the long lunar day, with the exception of the area in perpetual shade. This implies that the earth contains sufficient water to maintain this cycle. Researchers are now sure that they have identified it as glass. Not just any glass, but glass created by meteorite strikes. Although this theory has been around for a while, the Chang'e 5 expedition provides compelling supporting data. The Chinese mission, which was the nation's first lunar sample-return journey, returned to Earth about 1.7 kilogrammes (3.7 pounds) of lunar material, including some that had been dug up from a depth of three feet (one metre) below the surface of the moon.   These samples' analys

  A view of Uranus taken by Voyager 2.   (NASA/JPL) Around Uranus, there might be some undiscovered seas.   One or more of the gas giant's 27 known moons may contain liquid oceans beneath their crusty ice and rock surfaces, according to new findings. Miranda and Ariel, one or both of which may be erupting with ocean plumes, are the potential perpetrators for seeding the space around Uranus with plasma. The data, which came from the Voyager 2 mission, the only spacecraft to have ever done so and fly past the planet on its way to space nearly 40 years ago, provides a compelling argument for sending another probe to Uranus.   Astronomer Ian Cohen of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory says, "We've been making this case for a few years now that energetic particle and electromagnetic field measurements are important not just for understanding the space environment but also for contributing to the larger planetary science investigation. It appears that this

  Image: Pixabay Understanding the history of life on Earth and its origins requires the search for extrasolar biosignatures. Such signatures may be discovered through astronomical observations of exoplanets, but it is challenging and impossible to assert that exoplanet atmosphere remote sensing has reliably detected life. In a recent research, Professor Tomonori Totani of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo suggested an alternative strategy: space dust may hold direct or indirect signs of life from the hosting world, such as microorganism fossils. "I suggest we look for possible signs of life in well-preserved grains ejected from other worlds," Prof. Totani said. The typical approach to finding extraterrestrial life involves looking for communication, which would suggest intelligent life but rule out any pre-technological life. Alternatively, scientists may be looking for atmospheric traces of life, but even in the absence of direct evidence, there may

  (Eduard Muzhevskyi/Science Photo Library/Getty Images) The historic Voyager 1 probe took 35 years to complete the task, but a recently proposed propulsion system has the potential to beam a heavy spacecraft to the edge of our Solar System in less than 5 years. An early-stage US$175,000 NASA grant for further research of the "pellet-beam" propulsion concept was given earlier this year.   To be clear, the concept presently only consists of calculations on paper, so we shouldn't get overly optimistic just yet.   However, it has drawn interest not only for its potential to send humans into interstellar space within a human lifetime, which is something that conventional, chemical-fueled rockets cannot do, but also for its assertion that it can do so with much bigger craft. The proposal's main researcher, aerospace engineer Artur Davoyan from the University of California, Los Angeles, says it "examines a new propulsion architecture for fast transit of hea

  Credit: Unsplash For plants to survive in a variety of geographical environments and a global climate that is constantly changing, phenotypic plasticity in reaction to temperature changes is essential. The term thermomorphogenesis refers to the dramatic adaptive reactions in plant development, growth, metabolism, and immunity that can be induced by a mild rise in ambient temperature of just a few degrees. Researchers from UC Riverside have made significant progress in the race to manage how plants react to temperature on a world that is quickly warming. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which have a variety of functions in plant growth, are crucial to this discovery, but it is unclear whether and how miRNAs are involved in thermomorphogenesis.   Meng Chen, a professor of botany at UCR and a co-author of the research, said: "We discovered that plants lack miRNA, which prevents them from growing even at higher temperatures and in the presence of additional growth hormones. "MiRNA i

  This illustration conceptualises the swirling clouds identified by the James Webb Space Telescope in the atmosphere of the exoplanet VHS 1256 b. The planet is about 40 light-years away and orbits two stars that are locked in their own tight rotation. Its clouds, which are filled with silicate dust, are constantly rising, mixing, and moving during its 22-hour day. [Image Description: Illustration of a planet. The background is black, darkest at the left edge, with light streaming from a small pair of stars at right. The planet is at left in deep orange and contains several stripes. The brightest stripes lie in the top and bottom thirds. A small circular oval representing a large storm appears toward the top left. The right edge of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is largely in shadow.] Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI) Silicate cloud features in the atmosphere of a faraway planet have been identified by scientists using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb

  (Mark Garlic/Science Photo Library/Getty Images) Our world effectively conceals its wounds. Actually, it's a pity because information about earlier asteroid impacts could have aided in better planning for the upcoming catastrophic impact.   In reality, James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, believes we may have been misreading signs of some of the more severe asteroid strikes that have happened in the last million years. If he is correct, the likelihood of being affected negatively may be greater than current predictions.   It would be in the realm of serious crap occurring, as Garvin so eloquently stated during his presentation at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.   The dinosaur-killing smash that ruptured the crust off of what is now the Yucatan peninsula some 66 million years ago is the most well-known meteorite impact and sticks out for its destruction of life on Earth. It was a behemoth about 10 kilometers (a