Much of Brazil is packed full of dense rain forests that are critical to our planet's environment. Many feel like the clearing of the Amazonian rain forests are a detriment to the entire world, and efforts are being made to protect them. Brazil is set to launch its first homemade satellite known as Amazonia-1, and the entire satellite was developed within the country.
When it comes to satellite launches, we typically think of SpaceX. It's not the only company putting satellites into space for NASA and other agencies and companies. A satellite launch company called Astra based in Alameda has announced that it secured a contract to delivered six cube satellites into orbit for NASA. The launch contract is worth $7.95 million once fulfilled.
A new study was published this week that found a critical current system in the Atlantic Ocean that helps to redistribute heat around the planet is extremely weak. The current is called the Gulf Stream, and according to the researchers on the study, it's moving more slowly now than it has in the last 1600 years. Interestingly, a similar study made the same claim back in 2018.
There are multiple spacecraft in orbit around Mars, including the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. ExoMars recently snapped an image from its orbital perch of the aftermath of the Perseverance Rover's landing showing the rover as a speck on the Martian surface along with discarded components from the landing. The image shows what the Red Planet's surface now looks like, with another rover cruising its surface.
A study released this week shows how the tyrannosaurus consumed different resources at multiple stages of growth. Modern meat-eating mammals can easily be arranged in a chart showing average adult size - each of these animals have a unique effect on their own ecosystem. Given the average size of adult dinosaurs, there appeared to be a massive gap in the middle of the chart from smallest to largest.
Are you one of those people who wear shorts in the dead of winter, goes swimming when everyone else is still wearing jackets, and who finds they can handle winter camping more comfortably than their friends? If so, you may be one of the many people who has a genetic mutation linked to increased cold resilience, a benefit in cold climates, but one that may come with a sacrifice in sports performance.
Seismologists at Caltech have worked with optics experts from Google to develop a new method to detect earthquakes in the ocean. Together, the team developed a method that allows the use of existing underwater telecommunications cables to detect earthquakes. They believe the new technique could lead to improved earthquake and tsunami warnings around the world.
Scientists often look to the natural world for inspiration and ideas when creating synthetic materials. Plants and animals can rapidly respond to changes in the environment. An example is the way a Venus flytrap can close quickly when touched by an insect. Researchers have printed liquid metal circuits onto a single piece of soft polymer to create an intelligent material that can curl under pressure or mechanical strain and expand when stretched.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin say they believe they have definitively closed the case of what killed off the dinosaurs. The team definitively linked the extinction of the dinosaurs to an asteroid that impacted the earth 66 million years ago. The link came when the team found a key piece of evidence in the form of asteroid dust inside the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
Astronomers published new research this week, discovering that small satellite galaxies contain less molecular gas in their centers. The team says that large galaxies are known to strip away gas occupying the space between the stars of smaller satellite galaxies. They now know that the larger galaxies can strip away molecular gas at the center of the smaller galaxies, which is the type of gas the smaller galaxies that need to create new stars.
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has spied a comet-like object known as a Centaur that has settled near a group of captured ancient asteroids called Trojans orbiting alongside Jupiter. NASA says this is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the ancient Trojan population. The Centaur name classifies icy bodies in the space between Jupiter and Neptune that become active for the first time when heated as they approach the sun.
After losing out on a Space Force contract, private space company Blue Origin has announced that its New Glenn maiden flight will be bumped to the fourth quarter of 2022. The company says that it hopes it will be able to launch National Security Space Launch (NSSL) payloads in the future in addition to civil contracts, among other things.