The Eclipse is over now [don’t be down – there’s another coming in 2019!] and yet the excitement continues! These bloggers wrote up some of the cool things happening out there for you, so I hope you enjoy learning even more about our great big universe! There’s something here for everyone. If you’d like to be part of the Carnival, start by clicking here.
Breakthrough Detects Repeating Fast Radio Bursts Coming from Distant Galaxy
Matt Williams | Universe Today
In July of 2015, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced the creation of Breakthrough Listen, a decade-long project that would conduct the largest survey to date for signs of extra-terrestrial communications (ETI). As part of his non-profit organization, Breakthrough Initiatives, this survey would rely on…
Second Hyperloop Pod Design Competition A Success
Matt Williams | Universe Today
Back in 2012, Elon Musk proposed a revolutionary idea that he described as the “fifth form of transportation“. Known as the Hyperloop, his proposal called for the creation of a high-speed mass transit system where aluminum pod cars traveled through a low-pressure steel tube. This system, he claimed, would be able to…
Exoplanet-Hunters Detect Two New “Warm Jupiters”
Matt Williams | Universe Today
The study of extra-solar planets has turned up some rather interesting candidates in the past few years. As of August 1st, 2017, a total of 3,639 exoplanets have been discovered in 2,729 planetary systems and 612 multiple planetary systems. Many of these discoveries have challenged conventional thinking about planets, especially where their…
Watch Asteroid 3122 Florence Zip Past Earth This Weekend
David Dickinson | Universe Today
Ready to hunt for low-flying space rocks? We’ve got an interesting pass of a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) this upcoming U.S. Labor Day weekend, one that just slides over the +10th magnitude line into binocular range.
We’re talking about asteroid 3122 Florence, which passes 4.4 million miles from our fair planet (that’s 7 million kilometers, about 18 times…
NASA to Wake Up New Horizons for its Next Mission in the Mysterious Third Zone
Nina Mortera | The Evolving Planet
NASA is about to wake up its New Horizons spacecraft in September after a 5-month hibernation to prepare for a mission that will send it deeper into one of the most mysterious parts of the Solar System.
New Horizons, which captured amazing images of Pluto back in July 2015, was powered down in April to help it conserve energy as it passed through the Kuiper Belt – a region with icy debris around the Sun and planets, which is also referred to as the Third Zone.
On September 11, the New Horizons spacecraft will be awakened ahead of its 16-month journey to MU69, an ancient object that is believed to be…
Jellyfish Galaxies: How they Feed Supermassive Black Holes
Nina Mortera | The Evolving Planet
There are some galaxies in the cosmos with tentacles extending like hungry jellyfish, and now researchers have found that active supermassive black holes are at the centre of six of them. A new study released showed that the huge black holes are taking in lots of gas, and what keeps them properly fed is a mechanism that is similar to that which forms jellyfish galaxies.
What makes this discovery surprising is that most supermassive black holes in the universe are thought to be…
Spacex Will Have Decades of Commercial Launch Dominance
Brian Wang | Next Big Future
Spacex will have decades of commercial launch dominance, In 2018, Spacex could fully master reusable rockets that require no refurbishment for relaunch after landing. Spacex is already the low cost launch leader. Fully reusable (all stages) generation one capability will already reduce Spacex costs in half even while maintaining margins.
No future launch capability is a threat to Spacex dominance of commercial space launch. Blue Origin is working on reusability but they are still suborbital. Blue Origin is targeting about 2020 for having an low earth orbit capable reusable rocket. They would still have to scale up production even after proving this capability. Spacex will have…
AI Analyzes Gravitational Lenses 10 Million Times Faster
Brian Wang | Next Big Future
Researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have for the first time shown that neural networks – a form of artificial intelligence – can accurately analyze the complex distortions in spacetime known as gravitational lenses 10 million times faster than traditional methods.
“Analyses that typically take weeks to months to complete, that require the input of experts and that are computationally demanding, can be done by neural nets within a fraction of a second, in a fully automated way and, in principle, on a cell phone’s computer chip,” said…
3U Cubesat Launch Will be Months Instead of Years and Only $250,000 Starting in 2019
Brian Wang | Next Big Future
CubeCab will use standard Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technologies to enable less expensive and quicker launch platforms without compromising quality in order to simplify processes and bring down overall costs to launch for the customer.
For example, rather than complex cryogenic fuels and their associated hardware and insulation, our fuels are room-temperature storable. Because our rockets are small, we can 3D print most of their components in few pieces, keeping the parts count down and reliability up. And our air launch platform is the time-tested F-104, in the high-altitude mission profile it was designed for.
That’s a wrap! Watch for the next Carnival of Space, hosted by Brian Wang at Next Big Future coming in about a week!
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