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Category: space – Page 348

Scientists Just Uncovered Two Earth-Like Alien Worlds covered in Water

Scientists’ insatiable search for finding another planet that could support human life has just got a leg up following the discovery of two Earth-like alien worlds. Both the spatial bodies have a mass similar to that of Earth and have been found in the habitable zone of a star so far known as GJ 1002. The star is one of the dwarf stars referred to as M dwarfs, which are stars that have only a fraction of the Sun’s mass and luminosity.

The discovery was made by scientists working at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain. Astrophysicist Vera María Passenger explained to Science Alert that GJ 1,002 was a “dwarf” star with a mass only one-eighth that of the Sun. “It is quite a cool, faint star. This means that its habitability zone is very close to the star.”

‘Star Trek’ Fan Creates Interactive LCARS-Themed Website

LCARS is the fictional computer operating system used by Starfleet starships in several Star Trek TV shows and films. The system is currently displayed in the animated comedy Trek series Lower Decks. Now, one intrepid fan has adapted the Lower Decks version of LCARS into a “crazy fan project:” Project RITOS.

RITOS is a webpage that recreates the LCARS system. It’s a fun little site to poke around on. But, since this is just a recreation, there’s no actual functionality you can incorporate onto your computer. As the RITOS About page states, you just “point & click & watch. There are no goals nor wrong thing to do here. It’s just a mindless site.”

It may be mindless, but it’s also a faithful recreation of the LCARS system as depicted not just in Star Trek: Lower Decks but also in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Users can click around into various displays that show crew quarters, a ship map of the Cerritos (the Federation starship in Lower Decks), JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) images, and a Sick Bay screen. There are plenty of fun things to click on and little easter eggs to uncover for dedicated Trek fans.

“Transforming Industries” — Light-Based Tech Could Inspire Moon Navigation and Next-Gen Farming

Leading scientists in the field predict that lithium niobate chips, which are extremely thin, will surpass silicon chips in light-based technologies. These chips have a wide range of potential applications, from detecting ripe fruit from a distance on Earth to guiding navigation on the Moon.

According to the scientists, the artificial crystal of lithium niobate is the preferred platform for these technologies because of its superior performance and advancements in manufacturing techniques.

RMIT University’s Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell and University of Adelaide’s Dr. Andy Boes led this team of global experts to review lithium niobate’s capabilities and potential applications in the journal Science.

Neutron Stars Create ‘Perfect’ Explosion in Space, Forming Senseless Symmetrical Sphere

Two neutron stars collided which caused a huge explosion but with an unusually flawless form, baffling scientists. Usually, a collision between neutron stars would lead to a flattened cloud but the recently observed explosion formed a perfectly spherical shape, SpaceAcademy.org reports.

It is still unclear how this is possible, but a new study may shed light on the fundamental physics involved and help scientists calculate the universe’s age. Astrophysicists from the Universe of Copenhagen discovered the kilonova and described it in full in their study, titled “Spherical Symmetry in the Kilonova At2017gfo/GW170817,” which was published in the journal Nature.

Reinforcement Learning Course — Full Machine Learning Tutorial

This is NOT for ChatGPT, but instead its the AI tech used in beating GO, Chess, DOTA, etc. In other words, not just generating the next best word based on reading billions of sentences, but planning out actions to beat real game opponents (and winning.) And it’s free.

Reinforcement learning is an area of machine learning that involves taking right action to maximize reward in a particular situation. In this full tutorial course, you will get a solid foundation in reinforcement learning core topics.

The course covers Q learning, SARSA, double Q learning, deep Q learning, and policy gradient methods. These algorithms are employed in a number of environments from the open AI gym, including space invaders, breakout, and others. The deep learning portion uses Tensorflow and PyTorch.

The course begins with more modern algorithms, such as deep q learning and policy gradient methods, and demonstrates the power of reinforcement learning.

Then the course teaches some of the fundamental concepts that power all reinforcement learning algorithms. These are illustrated by coding up some algorithms that predate deep learning, but are still foundational to the cutting edge. These are studied in some of the more traditional environments from the OpenAI gym, like the cart pole problem.

Continue reading “Reinforcement Learning Course — Full Machine Learning Tutorial” | >

The Planck Temperature: How hot can the Universe get?

The Planck Temperature – Absolute Hot: What is the hottest temperature possible.

Today I’m going to look at the Planck Temperature and it’s about to get very strange. Let’s find out more.

Planck temperature is what we think is the highest temperature possible. It is the temperature at which our understanding of the universe breaks.
In this video we’re going to try to imagine just how hot that is, and what the implications of this value are. In order to do this, we’re going to look at some other very hot things to compare.

Cup of tea image by TerriC
https://pixabay.com/photos/tea-cup-vintage-tea-cup-tea-cup-2107599/

Desert image by photo-graphe.
https://pixabay.com/photos/desert-landscape-sunset-dune-sand-2774945/

LHC tunnel image by Maximilien Brice at CERN, used under creative commons CC 4.0

Continue reading “The Planck Temperature: How hot can the Universe get?” | >

New type of bolometer detector for far-infrared telescopes

To study how stars and planets are born we have to look at star cradles hidden in cool clouds of dust. Far-infrared telescopes are able to pierce through those clouds. Conventionally, niobium nitride bolometers are used as the detectors, despite their low operating temperature of 4 Kelvin (−269° Celsius).

Now Yuner Gan (SRON/RUG), together with a team of scientists at SRON, TU Delft, Chalmers University and RUG, has developed a new type of bolometer, made of magnesium diboride, with an operating temperature of 20 Kelvin or above. This can significantly reduce the cost, complexity, weight and volume of the space instruments.

Conventional, superconducting niobium nitride (NbN) hot electron bolometers (HEBs) are so far the most sensitive heterodyne detectors for high-resolution spectroscopy at far-infrared frequencies. Heterodyne detectors take advantage of a local oscillator to convert a terahertz line into a gigahertz line.