Lifeboat Foundation

Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago.

Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. But what if drastic changes like these are not only a result of Earth’s environment, but also the sun’s location in the galaxy?

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, lead author and astrophysicist Merav Opher—an astronomy professor at Boston University and fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute— found evidence that some two million years ago, the solar system encountered an interstellar cloud so dense that it could have interfered with the sun’s solar wind. Opher and her co-authors believe this shows that the sun’s location in space might shape Earth’s history more than previously considered.

Images from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have been combined to reveal how the Crab Nebula’s neutron star is changing.

While roboticists have developed increasingly sophisticated systems over the past decades, ensuring that these systems can autonomously operate in real-world settings without mishaps often proves challenging. This is particularly difficult when these robots are designed to be deployed in complex environments, including space and other planets.

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s recent exploration of asteroid Dinkinesh not only highlighted the asteroid’s internal complexities but also led to a fascinating discovery: the formation of a double moon, Selam. This rare configuration, known as a contact binary, formed from debris orbiting Dinkinesh after a significant geological event. Credit: NASA/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab.

NASA ’s Lucy spacecraft’s November 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh revealed significant geological features indicating its internal strength and complex history. Images showed a trough, a ridge, and a contact binary satellite, Selam. These findings, suggesting that Dinkinesh responded dynamically to stress over millions of years, help scientists understand the formation and evolution of small bodies in the solar system.

Continue reading “Twin Moons of Dinkinesh: NASA’s Lucy Unveils a Surprising Discovery” »

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The estimated $1 billion IDIQ contract — a pre-negotiated agreement between the government and multiple vendors — is for a program known as R2C2, short for Rapid Resilient Command and Control, focused on developing a next-generation ground system built on a commercial cloud architecture.

Stars die at different rates depending on how they kick the bucket.

Turns out growing food in the dry, rocky dirt of Mars holds valuable insights for growing crops in the climate-ravaged soil here on Earth.

Chen explained that the team is currently looking for other mechanisms that could also produce rogue planets. This includes the possibility that other stars could fly by planetary systems and cause a gravitational disturbance that leads to a planet being exiled. This could be a rather efficient way to produce rogue planets, whether from around a single star or from a binary system.

Chen is unlikely to give up his investigation into rogue planets. This means the Taiwanese astronomer’s efforts could help to bring these cosmic orphans unbound from their stars “in from the cold” — at least figuratively.

“I like planets! When I was 8 years old, I decided to become an astronomer and studied the nine planets in our solar system before Mike Brown changed that by reclassifying Pluto,” Chen joked. “However, nowadays, more than 10,000 exoplanets have been found, displaying unexpected characteristics for us to study. Rogue planets are not alone; we should not let them be orphans but consider them members of our planetary family.”

Traveling for centuries in a multi generation space ark at a small percentage of the speed of light a hollowed out asteroid the world is hollow and I have touched the sky.

Video for “Planet Caravan” a song performed by Black SabbathNew channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqjB_4bCKg80mnY5TFuN9egI do not own the rights.