Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena.
Right off the bat, one of the biggest improvements is the weight of the 4,680 shell itself – down to 49g from the 70g weight of a gen 1 cell. Tesla has essentially optimized the shell, making it thinner, and reducing its internal complexity. They do this by welding the tabless electrode to the cell cap.
That weight reduction is significant – at the battery pack level, the Cybertruck has 1,344 cells – which means that it reduces 28.2kg or 62.1lb of the overall pack weight. But rather than leaving that space empty, Tesla has instead filled that weight with more battery material. Calculated, that’s about a 10% increase in overall pack energy density.
Continue reading “A Look at Tesla’s 4680 Gen 2 Battery Cell” »
“By measuring sound travel time differences both forward and backward, we can accurately measure wind in three dimensions,” said Dr. Robert White.
The planet Mars has several similarities with Earth, including extinct volcanoes, dry lake beds, and active dust storms, the last of which is governed by the Red Planet’s prevailing winds. However, given the average surface pressure of Mars is 0.6 percent of Earth’s due to Mars’ paper-thin atmosphere, which means the wind speeds are far smaller than on Earth. But can we accurately measure this wind speed and how will it contribute to future missions to the Red Planet?
This is what a recent study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated using sound to measure wind speeds on Mars, which holds the potential to help scientists better understand the various processes that comprise the Red Planet and how these processes could influence future missions, as well.
Continue reading “Using sound to measure wind speeds on Mars” »
“Certainly,” says Christof Koch, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and prominent figure in the field of consciousness studies. “Any complex system, whether evolved on Earth or elsewhere, could be conscious.” What that consciousness might look like is another matter entirely. Could aliens exhibit empathy, self-awareness, love, hate, or fear?
To answer these questions, consider panpsychism, an ancient cosmic theory that suggests consciousness could be a ubiquitous feature of the universe, akin to gravity or charge. This idea, dating back to ancient Greek philosophers like Thales and Plato, has seen a resurgence in the 21st century as mainstream scientific approaches struggle to fully explain consciousness.
By analyzing the images obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has managed to identify more than 1,000 new star cluster candidates in the Cigar Galaxy. The finding was reported in a research paper published August 8 on the pre-print server arXiv.
This throws a curveball in my brain regarding UAPs.
A new study suggests Mars may be drenched beneath its surface, with enough water hiding in the cracks of underground rocks to form a global ocean.
Adding or removing neutrons from an atomic nucleus leads to changes in the size of the nucleus. This in turn causes tiny changes in the energy levels of the atom’s electrons, known as isotope shifts. Scientists can use precision measurements of these energy shifts to measure the radius of the nucleus of an isotope.
An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of a new brown dwarf, which received designation TOI-2490 b. The newfound object is about 74 times more massive than Jupiter and orbits a sun-like star on a highly eccentric orbit. The finding was detailed in a paper published August 8 on the pre-print server arXiv.
“These are the oldest rocks that may have been deposited by water, that we’ve ever laid hands or rover arms on,” said Dr. Benjamin Weiss. “That’s exciting, because it means these are the most promising rocks that may have preserved fossils, and signatures of life.”
Did life once exist on Mars, and if so, where will we find it? This is what a recent study published in AGU Advances hopes to address as a team of several dozen international researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) investigated rocks samples obtained by NASA’s Perseverance (Percy) rover obtained in Jezero Crater on Mars, and which allegedly contain minerals only found in water. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions for life to have emerged on the Red Planet long ago, along with identifying what evidence could be used to find life elsewhere in the solar system.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from seven rock samples collected by Percy along Jezero’s western slope, which scientists have hypothesized was an ancient lake long ago. After examining Percy’s images of the surrounding area and the chemical analyses from the rock samples, the team determined that the rocks contain evidence of water, meaning this location likely contained a lake long ago. However, the potential for this lake having life is still unknown since the team did not identify evidence of organic matter within the samples. Despite this, the team determined that the rocks were created more than 3.5 billion years ago, long before life emerged on the Earth.
Continue reading “NASA’s Perseverance Rover Uncovers Water-Borne Minerals in Mars’ Jezero Crater” »
Why we should look in caves for life, especially on Mars. For more info, see my new blog on BigThink with Link on:
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