Researchers working together from MIT and Sweden have developed a new robotic textile that can be woven into clothing. The textile can sense stretching and compression, giving immediate tactile feedback via pressure, lateral stretch, or vibration. Researchers believe the fabric could be used to make garments that singers and athletes can use to improve breath control.
Not long ago, Virgin Galactic celebrated the completion of its first flight sending a civilian crew into orbit. However, there were problems with that flight when the spacecraft ventured outside its designated airspace, causing the FAA to ground Virgin Galactic until an investigation was completed. Eventually, the company was cleared to resume operations, but another delay has now hit Virgin Galactic.
Our solar system has a lot of interesting planets and moons. One of the most interesting objects in the solar system is a moon orbiting the gas giant Jupiter, called Europa. Previously, the Hubble Space Telescope found water vapor in the atmosphere of one of Jupiter's moons called Ganymede. Now Hubble has discovered persistent water vapor in the atmosphere of another moon orbiting Jupiter, this time Europa.
Though nearly 3,000 years have passed, a new study on ancient fossils reveals that Iron Age miners had a relatable dietary habit: the consumption of beer and cheese. The discovery was made by analyzing well-preserved fossilized feces found in Iron Age salt mines; the presence of certain fungi commonly used to make beer and bleu cheese were found in abundance.
China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has been used to detect over 1600 independent Fast Radio Burst (FRB) transmissions. Chinese astronomers detected a huge number of signals over 47 days from FRB 121102. In all, Chinese radio astronomers detected 1652 independent bursts over 47 days beginning on August 29, 2019.
Stanford University researchers have constructed a cane that could be of significant use to the blind or visually impaired. The cane costs about $400 and is augmented with the ability to self navigate. Researchers leveraged technology designed for autonomous vehicles in the design to guide the visually impaired safely and efficiently through the environment.
Our sun will run out of fuel in the distant future and become a white dwarf after going through a red giant phase. Astronomers at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have discovered a distant planetary system that resembles the future fate of our solar system. The star system has a Jupiter-like gas giant that orbits at a distance from its star similar to Jupiter.
Star Trek actor William Shatner is now the world's oldest man to go to space, courtesy of Blue Origin. Amazon creator Jeff Bezos (owner of Blue Origin) was present to greet the crew of this flight as they landed back in the Texas desert on October 13, 2021.
Our solar system is filled with asteroids of all shapes and sizes. Many of them live in the asteroid belt, but some have spent their lives in other areas. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has shared an image of 42 of the largest asteroids in the solar system. The asteroids were all imaged using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and represent the largest objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
A group of researchers from around the world have performed what they call the most precise measurement of the lifetime of a neutron in the world. The feat could shed light on questions scientists have concerning the early universe. The international team of physicists on the project was led by researchers from Indiana University Bloomington.
NASA is preparing to launch the James Webb Space Telescope into orbit to begin exploring the universe. Recently, NASA announced that the telescope had arrived in French Guiana, where its launch site is located. The journey from the NASA facility to French Guiana was accomplished by ship spending 16 days at sea.
NASA's Perseverance rover has been on the surface of Mars for just about eight months now, and in that time, it has taken samples of Martian rock to determine what secrets may be contained within. Perseverance, however, is not going to analyze these samples itself on the surface of Mars, but rather NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working on a multi-mission schedule to bring those samples back to Earth for analysis later this decade.