Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA launched Europa Clipper to see if <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oxygen-europa-life-surface-ocean-subsurface-earth-juno-mission-jupiter-2024-3">Jupiter's moon Europa</a> could host alien life.</li><li>Scientists think Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its surface.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA is serious about searching for alien life</a>, even within our own solar system.On Monday, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the agency launched a spacecraft toward Europa, a moon of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">Jupiter</a>.Scientists believe Europa contains a vast saltwater ocean deep beneath its icy crust, with twice as much water as Earth. It's perhaps the most promising place in our solar system for active <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">extraterrestrial life</a>.<div type="image" title="Europa" height="1700" width="2300" msid="114225773" hostid="261" sizebytes="181080"></div>The NASA mission, called Europa Clipper, aims to figure out whether <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-lava-from-moon-volcanoes-creates-jupiters-powerful-aurora-lights-2022-2">the Jupiter moon</a> and its ocean could support life. It's the largest interplanetary spacecraft NASA has ever built. The probe is about 16 feet tall and, when its vast wings of solar arrays are deployed, 100 feet wide. It weighs three-and-a-half tons.Clipper is undertaking the first targeted exploration of an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-underwater-rover-hunt-alien-life-on-ocean-worlds-2019-11">ocean world</a> beyond our planet.Even if there is no life on Europa, this mission is crucial in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">search for alien life</a>, since ocean worlds across the galaxy are prime candidates for life.Missions like Europa Clipper are "modern cathedrals" and "generational quests," said Laurie Leshin, the director of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-helicopter-pilot-what-job-is-like-advice-2023-1">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>, which built the spacecraft.<div type="image" title="giant spacecraft folded up between red Airbus panels with a large round foil-covered piece on the front with technicians in blue clean suits standing nearby in a giant white clearnroom" height="1280" width="1920" msid="114225774" hostid="261" sizebytes="132976"></div>"We scientists have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20 years. We've been working to build it for 10 years," she added in a briefing about the mission in September. "It's going to be another 10 years, because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-animation-planetary-scientist-huge-solar-system-2019-11">Jupiter's so far away</a>, until we have all the science in the bag."The spacecraft must travel 1.8 billion miles to get to Jupiter, getting a boost from Mars's gravity along the way. It's scheduled to arrive in April 2030.<h2 id="ccd765aa-2885-424c-ab06-309d5a9fdb77">A 7-body problem and unfathomable radiation</h2>Life exists without sunlight at the bottom of the ocean here on Earth. All it needs is an energy source, like hydrothermal vents which release heat from deep within the planet, and organic molecules containing essential elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen.Europa Clipper is carrying nine scientific instruments to look for the fingerprints of those molecules, measure the salinity and depth of the underground ocean, and take photos of Europa down to one meter of resolution, among other things.<div type="image" title="illustration of a spacecraft with long wings of solar panels above a white moon covered in crisis crossed brown lines with jupiter in the distant background in space" height="1121" width="1995" msid="114225771" hostid="261" sizebytes="107104"></div>"Clipper is not actually going to look for life itself, but it's going to characterize the habitability of Europa," Gina DiBraccio, the acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in the briefing.The mission is designed to orbit Jupiter and fly past Europa 49 times, each time soaring over a different area to eventually cover almost the entire moon, pole to pole. The spacecraft will skim as close as 16 miles above Europa's surface.The mission plan is a marvel of engineering. Rather than a three-body problem, falling into orbit around Jupiter is a "seven-body problem" because of the planet's large moons, Jordan Evans, the mission's project manager, said in the briefing.During each flyby, Clipper will bathe in radiation from Jupiter that's equivalent to "a few million chest X-rays," Evans added.It might even find out if Europa's ice really <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-jupiter-oceanic-moon-europa-radioactive-glow-2020-11">glows in the dark from that radiation</a>, as NASA research has previously indicated.

NASA launches a probe to find out if there really could be alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa

The mission, known as <keyword id="19026307" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="atmospheric-perturbations" source="Orion">Atmospheric Perturbations</keyword> around the Eclipse Path or APEP, is led by <keyword id="19026308" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="aroh-barjatya" source="Orion">Aroh Barjatya</keyword>, will study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our upper atmosphere, the space agency has said. On October 14, people viewing the annular solar eclipse will experience the sun dimming to 10 per cent its normal brightness, leaving only a bright "ring of fire" of sunlight as the moon eclipses the sun. Some 50 miles up and beyond, the air itself becomes electric. Scientists call this atmospheric layer the ionosphere because it is where the UV component of sunlight can pry electrons away from atoms to form a sea of high-flying ions and electrons. The sun's constant energy keeps these mutually attracted particles separated throughout the day. But as the sun dips below the horizon, many recombine into neutral atoms for the night, only to part ways again at sunrise. During a solar eclipse, the sunlight vanishes and reappears over a small part of the landscape almost at once. In a flash, ionospheric temperature and density drop, then rise again, sending waves rippling through the ionosphere. "If you think of the ionosphere as a pond with some gentle ripples on it, the eclipse is like a motorboat that suddenly rips through the water," said <keyword id="40286" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="barjatya" source="Orion">Barjatya</keyword>, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. "It creates a wake immediately underneath and behind it, and then the water level momentarily goes up as it rushes back in." The APEP team plans to launch three rockets in succession -- one about 35 minutes before local peak eclipse, one during peak eclipse, and one 35 minutes after. They will fly just outside the path of annularity, where the moon passes directly in front of the sun. Each rocket will deploy four small scientific instruments that will measure changes in electric and magnetic fields, density, and temperature. If they are successful, these will be the first simultaneous measurements taken from multiple locations in the ionosphere during a solar eclipse. Barjatya chose sounding rockets to answer the team's science questions because they can pinpoint and measure specific regions of space with high fidelity. They can also measure changes that happen at different altitudes as the suborbital rocket ascends and falls back to Earth. The APEP rockets will take measurements between 70 to 325 kilometres) above the ground along their trajectory. In addition, a ground-based observation will collect ionospheric density and neutral wind measurements. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory in Westford, will run their radar to measure ionospheric perturbations farther away from the eclipse path. Finally, a team of students from Embry-Riddle will deploy high-altitude balloons (reaching 100,000 feet) every 20 minutes to measure weather changes as the eclipse passes by. The APEP rockets launched in New Mexico will be recovered and then relaunched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse will cross the US from Texas to Maine.

Riding into the sun: Indian-origin NASA scientist to lead rocket mission into 2023 solar eclipse

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (<keyword id="41780" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iisc" source="Orion">IISc</keyword>) have developed a brain-inspired analog computing platform capable of storing and processing <keyword id="6355729" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="data" source="Orion">data</keyword> in an astonishing 16,500 conductance states within a molecular film. Published on September 11 in the journal Nature, this breakthrough represents a huge step forward over traditional digital computers in which data storage and processing are limited to just two states, the IISc s<keyword id="6355999" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ai" source="Orion">ai</keyword>d. In a press release, the institute said that such a platform could potentially bring complex AI tasks, like training Large Language Models (LLMs), to personal devices like laptops and smartphones, thus taking us closer to democratising the development of AI tools. These developments are currently restricted to resource-heavy data centres, due to a lack of energy-efficient hardware. With silicon electronics nearing saturation, designing brain-inspired accelerators that can work alongside silicon chips to deliver faster, more efficient AI is also becoming crucial. "Neuromorphic computing has had its fair share of unsolved challenges for over a decade," explained <keyword id="23122611" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sreetosh-goswami" source="keywords">Sreetosh Goswami</keyword>, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), IISc, who led the research team. "With this discovery, we have almost nailed the perfect system - a rare feat," he said. According to IISc, the fundamental operation underlying most AI algorithms is quite basic - matrix multiplication, a concept taught in high school maths. But in digital computers, these calculations hog a lot of energy. The platform developed by the IISc team drastically cuts down both the time and energy involved, making these calculations a lot faster and easier. The molecular system at the heart of the platform was designed by <keyword id="23122609" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sreebrata-goswami" source="keywords">Sreebrata Goswami</keyword>, Visiting Professor at CeNSE. As molecules and ions wiggle and move within a material film, they create countless unique memory states, many of which have been inaccessible so far. Most digital devices are only able to access two states (high and low conductance), without being able to tap into the infinite number of intermediate states possible. By using precisely timed voltage pulses, the IISc team found a way to effectively trace a much larger number of molecular movements, and map each of these to a distinct electrical signal, forming an extensive "molecular diary" of different states. "This project brought together the precision of electrical engineering with the creativity of chemistry, letting us control molecular kinetics very precisely inside an electronic circuit powered by nanosecond voltage pulses," explained Goswami. "Tapping into these tiny molecular changes allowed the team to create a highly precise and efficient neuromorphic accelerator, which can store and process data within the same location, similar to the human brain. Such accelerators can be seamlessly integrated with silicon circuits to boost their performance and energy efficiency," the IISc said. IISc researchers said the key challenge that the team faced was characterising the various conductance states, which proved impossible using existing equipment. The team designed a custom circuit board that could measure voltages as tiny as a millionth of a volt, to pinpoint these individual states with unprecedented accuracy. It also turned this scientific discovery into a technological feat. The team was able to recreate NASA's iconic "Pillars of Creation" image from the James Webb Space Telescope data - originally created by a <keyword id="6537818" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supercomputer" source="Orion">supercomputer</keyword> - using just a tabletop computer. They were also able to do this at a fraction of the time and energy that traditional computers would need. Using their AI accelerator, the team recreated NASA's iconic "Pillars of Creation" image from the James Webb Space Telescope data on a tabletop computer - achieving this in a fraction of the time and energy required by traditional systems, it said. The team includes several students and research fellows at IISc. They also collaborated with Stanley Williams, Professor at Texas A&amp;M University and Damien Thompson, Professor at the University of Limerick, it added. The researchers believe that this breakthrough could be one of India's biggest leaps in AI hardware, putting the country on the map of global technology innovation. Navakanta Bhat, Professor at CeNSE and an expert in silicon electronics led the circuit and system design in this project. "What stands out is how we have transformed complex physics and chemistry understanding into groundbreaking technology for AI hardware," Goswami explained. "In the context of the India Semiconductor Mission, this development could be a game-changer, revolutionising industrial, consumer and strategic applications. The national importance of such research cannot be overstated," he said. With support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the IISc team is now focused on developing a fully indigenous integrated neuromorphic chip. "This is a completely home-grown effort, from materials to circuits and systems," he emphasised. "We are well on our way to translating this technology into a system-on-a-chip," he added.

IISc scientists develop brain-inspired analog computing platform capable of storing, processing data

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists have known for years that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-moon-is-shrinking-like-raisin-producing-moonquakes-2019-5">moon is shriveling</a> like a grape, causing moonquakes.</li><li>A new study said moonquakes in the south pole could put astronauts at risk from landslides.</li></ul>NASA has known for years that the moon is shrinking. In 2019, for example, scientists estimated the moon had contracted by about 150 feet over the last several hundred million years.The moon's interior is cooling, and its brittle crust is cracking, creating "thrust faults" where one piece slides over another, which can trigger <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/indias-moon-lander-detects-signs-of-possible-moonquake-2023-9">moonquakes</a>.That was all common knowledge in the scientific community at least five years ago.However, a new study published in the peer-reviewed <a target="_blank" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ad1332">Planetary Science Journal</a> shows some of these faults are near potential landing sites for NASA's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launching-artemis-mega-rocket-orion-spaceship-around-the-moon-2022-8">Artemis III</a> mission and could be an issue for long-term lunar settlements.<h2>Danger at the lunar south pole</h2>Artemis III plans to land astronauts near the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">moon's south pole</a>, which contains water ice, among other vital resources. It would be the first time a human has set foot on the lunar surface since 1972.Even small tremors at the moon's south pole could trigger landslides, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/earth/moon/shrinking-moon-causing-moonquakes-and-faults-near-lunar-south-pole/">NASA press release</a>, which may be dangerous to astronauts.That said, "short-term missions like Artemis III are not likely a risk because strong shallow moonquakes are infrequent," Tom Watters, lead author of the paper, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.newsweek.com/moon-shrinking-moonquakes-danger-lunar-missions-nasa-1864336">told Newsweek</a>.The bigger risk is to long-term settlements like those that NASA envisions to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-humans-to-live-moon-by-2030-says-official-2022-11">happen by 2030</a>."We're going to be sending people down to the surface and they're going to be living on that surface and doing science," the lead of NASA's Orion lunar spacecraft program, told the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63688229">BBC in 2022</a>.As the moon continues to slowly shrink, it will lead to new thrust faults and this "should be considered when planning the location and stability of permanent outposts on the moon," Watters said in a recent statement.<h2>Moonquakes can seem stronger than earthquakes</h2>Watters and other researchers created a model that predicts moonquakes could cause landslides along the walls of the region's Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole.Asteroids and comets have also broken up the lunar surface, Nicholas Schmerr, a co-author on the study, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/Nicholas-Schmerr-moon-shrinking-causing-landslides-and-instability-lunar-south-pole">said in a statement</a>."Loose sediments make it very possible for shaking and landslides to occur," he said.<div type="image" title="apollo astronaut moon 1971" height="3025" width="4096" msid="107338487" hostid="261" sizebytes="1122390"></div>The researchers believe slipping thrust faults triggered a series of moonquakes between 1969 and 1977. During their missions, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-astronauts-50th-moon-landing-anniversary-photos-2019-4">Apollo astronauts</a> placed seismometers on the moon that detected the quakes.While these seismic events were relatively mild — the largest was a magnitude 5.0 — by Earth's standards, the moon's lack of gravity makes them seem worse, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/31/world/moon-shrinking-moonquakes-south-pole-scn/index.html">Watters told CNN.</a>"That kind of shaking can really start throwing things around in a low G environment," he said.<h2>NASA's moon landings are already in jeopardy</h2><div type="image" title="illustration shows spaceship with solar panel wings flying past the far side of the moon with earth in the distance" height="1080" width="1440" msid="107338488" hostid="261" sizebytes="94360"></div>In January, NASA announced it had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-moon-flight-landing-delay-pushed-back-2024-1">pushed back</a> its mission to orbit the moon, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-missions-first-black-astronaut-woman-canadian-to-moon-2023-4">Artemis II</a>, from late 2024 to September 2025.The agency made the decision after the private space company Astrobotic's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vulcan-peregrine-us-mission-first-land-moon-astrobotic-human-remains-2024-1">Peregrine lunar lander</a> had to abandon its moon mission due to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peregrine-lunar-lander-no-chance-land-moon-fuel-leak-2024-1">fuel leak</a> shortly after launching from Earth.The setback will likely also delay NASA's later missions and the agency's aspirations to build a permanent base at the moon's south pole. So, at least for now, NASA has more pressing matters to concern itself with than moonquakes and lunar landslides.

Yes, the moon is shrinking but that's not the disturbing news scientists discovered that could threaten future NASA missions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists built the largest digital camera ever, weighing 3 tons with a 5-foot lens, for astronomy.</li><li>The LSST camera is designed to take thousands of 3,200-megapixel images of the entire southern sky.</li></ul>The world's largest digital camera is finally complete in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-particles-neutrinos-fermilab-dune-tunnels-south-dakota-2024-2">laboratory</a> in Menlo Park, California.The SUV-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cameras-left-in-glacier-legendary-explorer-found-85-years-later-2022-10">Camera</a> weighs about 6,200 pounds — roughly 3 metric tons — and its front lens is more than 5 feet wide.<div type="image" title="person in white jumpsuit wearing medical gloves appears faint taking selfie in a mosaic of blue green and yellow tiles inside a reflective lens inside a circle of mechanical gear with a gold circular frame around it" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109013691" hostid="261"></div>The LSST camera has to be that big to achieve its mission of taking a 10-year digital survey of the entire southern sky, scanning the whole area every few nights, eventually creating the largest <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-black-hole-milky-way-center-2019-10">astronomical movie</a> ever."No one has ever looked at so much of the universe so frequently," Aaron Roodman, the deputy director of Rubin Construction for SLAC and camera-program lead, told Business Insider.LSST isn't just a fun project to break records, though. Among its breakthrough science goals, the camera can also track down large, city-killer-sized asteroids so that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">NASA can identify any space rocks that might threaten Earth</a>.The camera's heft will also help investigate the mysterious dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunt-for-dark-matter-begins-in-old-gold-mine-underground-2022-7">dark matter</a> that fills our universe and puzzles scientists.Scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory built this leviathan lens over two decades at an approximate cost of $168 million.Finally, it's complete, ready to ship off to the Rubin Observatory in Chile, high in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peru-drug-laced-beers-helped-ancient-empire-prosper-wari-2022-1">Andes mountains</a>. Engineers plan to mount it to the observatory later this year.<div type="image" title="rubin observatory white boxy building with telescope dome in a driveway sitting on top of a mountain with brown mountains surrounding" height="1500" width="2061" msid="109013693" hostid="261"></div><h2>A full-sky panorama, but 10 years long</h2>Photos from the LSST camera will contain 3,200 megapixels.One megapixel is one million pixels. An ultra-high-definition, or 4K, TV can only display about 8 megapixels. To show an image from the LSST camera in its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-resolution-photo-lets-you-zoom-in-on-peoples-faces-2018-12">full resolution</a>, you would need hundreds of ultra-HD TVs."Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon," Roodman <a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-slac-largest-digital-camera-built.html">said</a> in a press release.<div type="image" title="The first full moon of the year seen in Lisbon in January 2024." height="1400" width="2100" msid="109013695" hostid="261"></div>The LSST is designed to take about 1,000 images each night, stitching them together to make one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">extremely detailed image</a> of the entire southern sky every few nights. Over 10 years, and tens of thousands of images, it should have what researchers call a 3D movie of the universe."This method allows us to observe changes in more than 20 billion galaxies, tracking both their movements and how they change," Travis Lange, the deputy project manager of the SLAC LSST team, said in a video on the project last month.<div type="image" title="galaxies stars in infrared jwst" height="2856" width="2799" msid="109013698" hostid="261"></div>Because of its diligence, the LSST should be able to capture all kinds of cosmic events in real time.<h2>Catching the universe red-handed</h2>Ultra-sensitive space observatories such as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/times-nasa-webb-space-telescope-spotted-something-hubble-missed">James Webb Space Telescope</a> have scheduled times to point at specific objects and aren't always able to make a last-minute pivot toward emerging supernovas or interstellar visitors passing through our solar system.<div type="image" title="image of the colorful nebula in space" height="1307" width="1500" msid="109013700" hostid="261"></div>The LSST won't have to pivot at all. If something is happening in the southern sky, this giant camera should spot it as it surveys the whole area.That's what will allow the new camera to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">discover asteroids in our galactic neighborhood</a> that may have so far flown undetectedr."We'll be able to see things smaller than other telescopes have seen," Roodman told BI. "And since we're surveying so quickly, we really do expect to see a lot of what's out there."The LSST is also designed to alert astronomers whenever it identifies something new or changing in the sky. That gives astronomers the chance to turn their telescopes to observe new supernovae, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-supermassive-black-holes-nearest-earth-merging-into-monster-astronomers-2021-12">black-hole mergers</a>, and other astronomical phenomena in every wavelength of light, gathering the most data ever about these dynamic events.The survey is also likely to uncover <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vanishing-radio-signals-mystery-objects-in-milky-way-galaxy-center-2022-1">new types of deep-space objects and events</a>, Roodman said.<h2>Hunting for dark clues</h2>The LSST's ability to track galaxies' changes over a decade will also give scientists fresh insight into how the universe has evolved over time. That's key to understanding dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dark-matter-map-universe-galaxies-cosmic-voids-2021-5">dark matter</a>."Dark energy" is the name scientists have given to the mysterious force that causes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">the universe to expand ever faster</a>. Dark matter is some type of matter that takes up space and has mass but doesn't seem to interact with light.Together, dark energy and matter make up most of the universe, and nobody knows what they are. The LSST could help find clues."If you <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-question-mark-space-galaxies-colliding-2023-8">look at one galaxy</a>, you can't tell anything. But if you look at hundreds of millions or billions — and we will look at billions of galaxies — you can see patterns across the sky," Roodman said. "You can see the imprint of how matter is distributed in the universe."

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA engineers may have found a clever trick to get Voyager 1 talking in ways engineers understand.</li><li>The probe, showing its age, has been sending back garbled data since November. </li></ul>Voyager 1 has taken to improvising in its old age, making it very difficult to understand what it has to say.The probe has sent back a steady flow of gibberish since November, worrying scientists trying to capture the final slivers of information from the 46-year-old spacecraft.Undeterred, NASA engineers have been working to rescue the data. A "poke" sent to Voyager 1's internal systems on March 3 may have brought it back from the brink, NASA announced on<a target="_blank" href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2024/03/13/nasa-engineers-make-progress-toward-understanding-voyager-1-issue/"> Wednesday.</a>NASA engineers spotted an unusual dataset in the response to their prompt. This may hold the key to deciphering the spacecraft's cryptic signal, the agency said.<div type="image" title="A photo montage shows pictures taken by the Voyager probes next to an illustration of what the Voyager probes look like." height="1500" width="3000" msid="108527928" hostid="261"></div>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-extends-voyager-2-probe-life-3-years-45-mission-2023-4">Voyager 1 and Voyager 2</a> probes have been feeding data about our universe since the late '70s when NASA first launched them.They remain marvels of engineering — no one expected them to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-pictures-45-year-journey-neptune-uranus-saturn-earth-2022-6#the-voyager-probes-were-designed-to-visit-jupiter-and-saturn-1">survive longer</a> than five years. But they have continued to send back information about the cosmos, exceeding their lifespan more than nine times over.Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 hold unique positions in space-exploration history as the only spacecraft to have ventured into interstellar space. Each spacecraft is more than 10 billion miles away from Earth and getting farther every day.While their instruments are feeling the weight of their age, NASA has managed to continue squeezing information out of the spacecraft with clever engineering tricks.This approach has provided an unprecedented glimpse into what happens beyond the sun's reach."That's what's most important is keeping these spacecraft operating as long as possible," Suzanne Dodd, NASA's project manager for Voyager, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-spacecraft-where-still-contact-communication-end-soon-2024-1">told Business Insider</a> in January.The glitch in Voyager 1 data is hardly unexpected. It is only the latest in a series of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-loses-contact-voyager-2-sent-wrong-command-mistake-space-2023-8">issues </a>in the probes' systems NASA has had to tackle. Experts have been concerned that repeat <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/engineers-turn-to-voyager-decades-old-documents-fix-a-glitch-2022-7">malfunctions</a> are signs the probes are entering the last moments of their functional lives.But NASA appears to have found a solution. Engineers knew Voyager 1's issue seemed to lie with one of the three on-board computers that package the probe's data before sending it to Earth — the flight-data subsystem, or FDS.The ping to the FDS on March 1 returned a mostly muddled signal on March 3, but it contained some data that "differed from the rest of the computer's unreadable data stream."One NASA engineer with its Deep Space Network decoded this precious signal, unlocking a "readout" of the FDS's memory that contains instructions and variables the engineers can use to understand what went wrong.This doesn't mean all is saved."The team is analyzing the readout. Using that information to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time," NASA said.Regardless of what happens, the probes' final missions will continue.Even when they can no longer communicate with Earth, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will continue to drift through the galaxy, carrying <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-voyager-golden-records-elon-musk-2024-3">golden records</a> with information about humanity.The hope is that these could act as interstellar messages for potential intelligent life that may intercept the iconic spacecraft.

Voyager 1 briefly came back to life after a 'poke' from NASA, giving scientists hope for the 46-year-old probe

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA conducted a new tabletop simulation of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">discovering a large asteroid headed for Earth</a>.</li><li>Experts feared Congress wouldn't fund a mission to an asteroid with a 72% chance of impacting Earth.</li></ul>NASA recently brought together about 100 experts to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-asteroid-couldnt-stop-impact-europe-2021-5">pretend that an asteroid was heading for Earth</a>.The tabletop <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulations-difficult-to-stop-2021-5">simulation presented a hypothetical scenario</a> in which cities like Dallas, Washington, DC, and Madrid were at risk of a large asteroid impact."A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">large asteroid impact</a> is potentially the only natural disaster humanity has the technology to predict years in advance and take action to prevent," Lindley Johnson, a NASA planetary defense officer emeritus, said in a press release.But it wasn't clear that they could prevent such a catastrophe — even with 14 years to figure it out.The simulation revealed that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">technology wasn't the problem</a> that could ultimately doom a city, region, or entire country. It was politics.<div type="image" title="Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol on December 12, 2023." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111347083" hostid="261"></div>"I know what I would prefer [to do], but Congress will tell us to wait," one participant said of their asteroid-response plan, in a selection of anonymized comments in NASA's summary of the exercise, published on June 20."The most important item of the morning was the discussion involving the political nature of the decision-making," another participant said.<h2 id="fff0e374-634e-421c-bed3-007449857a08">Congress may not move fast enough</h2>NASA has conducted nearly a dozen tabletop simulations since 2013. This one happened in May and included participants from the US State Department, FEMA, and the space agencies of Europe, the UK, Japan, and Canada.<div type="image" title="large conference room with long desks full of people in suits sitting at laptops and looking at a large presentation screen with a person at a podium presenting" height="900" width="1634" msid="111347084" hostid="261"></div>Past exercises showed that, in order to save the world, NASA would need at least <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">five years' notice that an asteroid was headed toward us</a>, maybe even 10 years.This time the simulators learned that, even when they had plenty of time, they might not be able to launch their preferred anti-asteroid offensive.That's because they didn't think Congress would approve funding for a critical space mission to study the asteroid "unless impact became certain," NASA's summary said.A major part of the simulation was figuring out how to impress the "seriousness" of the situation upon Congress and other leadership, Johnson said.What's more, the 14-year timeline spanned multiple budget cycles and presidential elections. At any of those junctures, the president, Congress, or NASA's own leadership could change priorities and disrupt the asteroid plan.<h2 id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">The most likely incoming asteroid scenario</h2>Here are the hypothetical conditions the participants were given in this year's exercise: Scientists have determined a 72% chance of this asteroid impacting Earth in 14 years. It could strike anywhere across a swath of North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.The asteroid's size was unclear. It could be anywhere from 60 to 800 meters (half a mile) wide — possibly big enough to devastate an entire country.All that uncertainty made this "a very realistic scenario," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT who specializes in potentially hazardous asteroids, but did not participate in the simulation, told Business Insider."In fact, it's the most likely type of scenario we will face, where an asteroid is discovered and we have limited information," Binzel said.Options for preventing an asteroid impact include shooting the asteroid with lasers, launching a nuclear bomb at it, or simply smacking a space probe into it to nudge it away from Earth.NASA has tested one of those options in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-crashes-dart-spacecraft-into-asteroid-to-test-planetary-defense-2022-9">mission that punched an asteroid</a> and dramatically changed its path in 2022, just to prove the technique could work.<div type="image" title="sequence of images showing asteroid from a distance then close up then video cutting out" height="1000" width="2000" msid="111347087" hostid="261"></div>In the simulation, experts wanted more information to understand their anti-asteroid options.Unfortunately, the fictional space rock was about to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">pass behind the sun and disappear</a> from view for seven months. To avoid wasting precious time, scientists would have to send a spacecraft to the asteroid to learn more about it.That's where they feared politics would get in the way. Participants weren't sure Congress would fund the mission unless the asteroid was a certain threat — not a 72% chance of threat.So far, NASA has not discovered any large asteroids on track to impact Earth.But scientists have identified fewer than 11,000 near-Earth asteroids that are at least 140 meters (460 feet) wide — big enough to crush a city. They believe there are 15,000 of them in our vicinity, meaning more than a quarter of city killers remain undiscovered.<h2 id="8dbc0625-4426-4bc0-ba2d-99b4f3dc63a5">NASA could plan a mission just in case</h2>Binzel says NASA could get political and bureaucratic barriers out of the way now, before any asteroid threats are identified, by developing a reconnaissance mission to have on standby."It's an adult thing to do that can protect us from becoming surprised," he said.The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made a similar recommendation in its last decadal survey of planetary science priorities.In that 2022 <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/26522/interactive/">report</a>, the Academies said that NASA should "develop an approach for a rapid-response, flyby" spacecraft to closely study newly-discovered threats. That way, it could launch a reconnaissance mission in less than three years if it became necessary. The Academies also recommended a demonstration to practice reconnaissance on a real asteroid.So why isn't NASA working on that right now?"It's not in the budget," Binzel said.First NASA has to make a proposal for such a mission, with a thumbs up from the White House, and then Congress would have to authorize and fund it."If there's an asteroid out there with our name on it, it's already there," Binzel said. "Fortunately, the chance in the next century or so is incredibly small. But it's not zero."

NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-telescope-discovery-jupiter-nasa-2023-10">NASA scientists</a> may have solved the mystery of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mercury-is-shrinking-and-its-giving-the-planet-wrinkles-2023-10">planets that seem to be shrinking</a>.</li><li>Planets beyond <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-animation-planetary-scientist-huge-solar-system-2019-11">our solar system</a> have a size gap, where worlds seem to shrink past a certain range.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">NASA</a> scientists have been puzzling over a group of planets that seem to be shrinking. The culprit might be radiation.All kinds of worlds exist beyond our solar system. Faraway alien planets, called exoplanets, can be gas behemoths like Jupiter, rocky globes about the size of our planet, or even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-super-puff-planets-density-of-cotton-candy-2019-12">"super-puffs" with the density of cotton candy</a>.But there's a mysterious gap where there should be <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-how-see-planetary-alignment-five-planets-visible-march-sky-2023-3">planets</a> about 1.5 to two times the width of Earth.<h2>A mysterious gap where there should be planets</h2><div type="image" title="illustration planets blue green brown red lining up in a circle in space" height="1500" width="2667" msid="105274885" hostid="261" sizebytes="111674"></div>Among over 5,000 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-spot-star-swallowing-planet-sneak-peek-earth-death-2023-5">exoplanets</a> that NASA has discovered, there are plenty of super-Earths (which are up to 1.6 times as wide as our planet) and plenty of sub-Neptunes (about two to four times Earth's diameter), but there are hardly any planets in between."Exoplanet scientists have enough data now to say that this gap is not a fluke. There's something going on that impedes planets from reaching and/or staying at this size," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-nasa-scientist-dinosaurs-milky-way-2019-10">Jessie Christiansen</a>, a research scientist at Caltech and science lead for the NASA Exoplanet Archive, said in a Wednesday press release.Scientists think this is because some sub-Neptunes shrink — losing their atmospheres and speeding through the size gap until they are as small as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-super-earth-2018-6">super-Earth</a>.<div type="image" title="An illustration of exoplanet HAT-P-7b, which is 1000 light-years away from Earth." height="3434" width="5181" msid="105274886" hostid="261" sizebytes="134590"></div>Christiansen's latest research suggests those worlds shrink because radiation from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-core-encased-by-ancient-ocean-mountains-taller-everest-2023-9">the planets' cores</a> pushes their atmospheres away, into space.The <a target="_blank" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/acf9f9">study</a>, published in The Astronomical Journal, on Wednesday, might solve the mystery of the missing exoplanets.<h2>The planets themselves may be pushing their atmospheres away</h2>Shrinking <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-exoplanets-discovered-astronomers-find-water-alien-worlds-life-2023-1">exoplanets</a> may lack the mass (and therefore the gravity) to hold their atmospheres close.The exact mechanism for the atmosphere loss, however, remains unclear.The new study supports one hypothesis scientists call "core-powered mass loss," per the release.Core-powered mass loss is not a trendy new workout plan. It's when a planet's core emits radiation that pushes its atmosphere from underneath, leading to it separating from the planet over time, per the release.The other hypothesis, called photoevaporation, says that a planet's atmosphere is dissipated by the radiation of its host star.But photoevaporation is thought to occur by the time a planet is 100 million years old — and core-powered mass loss could happen closer to the planet's one billionth birthday, per the release.To test the two hypotheses, Christiansen's team looked at data from NASA's retired Kepler Space Telescope.They examined star clusters that were over 100 million years old. Because planets are thought to be roughly the same age as their host stars, the planets in these clusters would be old enough to have experienced photoevaporation, but not old enough for core-powered mass loss.The scientists found that most of the planets there retained their atmosphere, making the core-powered mass loss a more likely cause of eventual atmosphere loss."However, recent work suggests an ongoing mass-loss sequence where both processes operate," Christiansen wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, sharing a <a target="_blank" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023arXiv230800020O/abstract">link</a> to a Harvard assessment posted online in July.So the mystery isn't solved yet.According to Christiansen's statement in the release, her work isn't over yet either — especially because our understanding of exoplanets will develop with time.

NASA scientists think some planets are shrinking because powerful radiation from their cores is pushing away their atmospheres

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA's Perseverance rover has found potential evidence of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">ancient microbial life on Mars</a>.</li><li>Scientists must bring the rock to Earth for further study, but three key features make it promising.</li></ul>NASA has snagged a chunk of rock on Mars that could someday prove to be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">the first clear evidence of alien life</a>.To be clear, NASA is not declaring that it's discovered Martian life. Rather, its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-first-mars-sample-mysteriously-missing-2021-8">Perseverance rover has drilled a sample from a rock</a> with attributes that could have come from ancient microbial activity, the agency announced Thursday.To confirm their suspicions, scientists would need to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">bring the rock sample to Earth</a> and study it in more detail."This is exactly the kind of sample that we wanted to find," Katie Stack Morgan, a lead scientist on the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-from-nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-2021-2">Perseverance mission</a>, told Business Insider.<h2 id="8f9afd20-4848-4691-a11e-024987bef6aa">3 key features could point to alien life</h2><div type="image" title="reddish rock on mars with a drill hole surrounded by dirt beside a patch of white dust" height="3502" width="8192" msid="112054808" hostid="261" sizebytes="2623576"></div>The rock, nicknamed Cheyava Falls, has three critical features:<ul><li>First, white veins of calcium sulfate are clear evidence that water once ran through it.</li><li>Second, the rock tested positive for organic compounds, which are the carbon-based building blocks of life, as we know it.</li><li>Third, it's speckled with tiny "leopard spots" that point to chemical reactions that are associated with microbial life here on Earth.</li></ul><div type="image" title="rocky mars ground with red strip in the middle speckled with off-white leopard spots with black outlines" height="1200" width="1648" msid="112054810" hostid="261" sizebytes="204828"></div>However, both the organic material and the leopard spots could have come from non-biological processes. That's why scientists need to study the sample more closely on Earth to know for sure.The rover has reached the limit of what it can learn about the rock."We're not saying there's life on Mars, but we're seeing something that is compelling as a potential biosignature," Stack Morgan said.A biosignature is any feature that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-may-have-accidentally-spread-life-to-mars-scientist-says-2021-5">points to the presence of life</a>."This is a very significant discovery," she added.It's a much-needed win for the space agency. In recent months, NASA has taken hit after hit from budget limitations and technical errors across missions.<h2 id="ffbc8916-53bf-4e09-9d46-a0a92e0c9401">NASA needs this win</h2>Earlier this year, the agency's first <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrobotic-moon-lander-leaking-fuel-after-launch-threatening-mission-2024-1">attempt to return to the moon </a>since 1972 failed. The NASA-funded Peregrine moon mission, by the company Astrobotic suffered a fuel leak shortly after launch, forcing it to return to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. (The next attempt, a mission by the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="c-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intuitive-machines-im-1-odysseus-moon-lunar-landing-mission-nasa-2024-2">company Intuitive Machines</a>, also funded by NASA, successfully landed on the moon.)Then, new budgeting decisions came down. NASA's budget proposal for 2025 effectively <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-chandra-xray-space-telescope-nasa-might-defund-2024-4">defunds the Chandra X-ray Observatory</a>, which is still a highly productive and functional mission.And just last week, NASA officials announced they were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scrapping-moon-rover-it-spent-450-million-to-build-2024-7">scrapping the VIPER moon rover</a> that the agency has already spent $450 million to build. NASA plans to disassemble it and reuse some of the parts for future moon missions.Meanwhile, two astronauts have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-speak-out-boeing-starliner-spaceship-issues-space-station-2024-7">stuck on the International Space Station</a> for 51 days because the NASA-funded Boeing spaceship that carried them there is leaking helium and having thruster malfunctions.Even Perseverance wasn't spared. In April, NASA announced it was canceling its $11 billion plan to send a follow-up mission, called Mars Sample Return, to collect the rover's tubes of Martian rock and carry them back to Earth. That was the plan that could've brought scientists the Cheyava Falls rock sample.Instead, NASA is <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">asking companies to step in</a> and propose their own cheaper, faster versions of the mission.<div type="image" title="mosaic of photos of light-saber-like sample tubes on the martian surface" height="1608" width="2860" msid="112054812" hostid="261" sizebytes="489456"></div>The Cheyava Falls rock especially needs the extra studying."This rock is also one of the most complex rocks we've seen on the surface of Mars. There is a lot going on in this rock," Stack Morgan said.<h2 id="bc7264ec-ecef-4ece-be0b-2d817095cffe">Is it aliens? Check the CoLD scale</h2>For now, this discovery is just a "step one" on the seven-step "confidence of life detection" (CoLD) scale.The CoLD scale is a rough rating of scientific confidence in any potential alien-life discovery.<div type="image" title="illustration of a line of scientists in white lab coats building a tall stepped wall of green bricks with numbers 1 through 7 going up the side of it to the top, indicating stages of confirming evidence of alien life. the illustration is labeled &quot;CoLD SCALE&quot;" height="2550" width="3300" msid="112054809" hostid="261" sizebytes="266750"></div>"We've taken us up to the start of that scale, and I think that's what the rover was sent to Mars to do," Stack Morgan said.A possible biosignature can climb to higher levels of confidence as evidence builds. For example, if scientists can confirm that known non-biological processes didn't create the leopard spots, the Cheyava Falls rock might ascend to step two or three.But they need to get the sample to Earth first. And NASA needs to figure out how to do that."We're hoping that our most recent sample can play into the conversation about whether this effort is worth it," Stack Morgan said. "And we believe that it is."

You Searched For "Nasa scientists" and got 9 results

NASA launches a probe to find out if there really could be alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Riding into the sun: Indian-origin NASA scientist to lead rocket mission into 2023 solar eclipse

IANS

IISc scientists develop brain-inspired analog computing platform capable of storing, processing data

PTI

Yes, the moon is shrinking but that's not the disturbing news scientists discovered that could threaten future NASA missions

Jenny McGrath

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Voyager 1 briefly came back to life after a 'poke' from NASA, giving scientists hope for the 46-year-old probe

Marianne Guenot

NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

NASA scientists think some planets are shrinking because powerful radiation from their cores is pushing away their atmospheres

Sebastian Cahill,Morgan McFal…

NASA just scored a badly needed win: The best potential evidence of alien life yet

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides