Trump signs an executive order allowing mining the Moon and asteroids – Universe Today
In 2015, the Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262) into law. This bill was intended to “facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry” by making it legal for American companies and citizens to own and sell resources that they extract from asteroids and off-world…
Gravitational wave detector completed in Gifu underground:The Asahi Shimbun – Asahi Shimbun
A ceremony was held Oct. 4 in Gifu Prefecture to mark the completion of the KAGRA gravitational wave detector that scientists hope will play a key role in detecting gravitational waves generated by catastrophic cosmic events, such as the birth of a black hole. The KAGRA in Hida city will be the fourth of its…
NASA Tests Water Powered Spacecraft in Orbit – Universe Today
Picture two tissue box-sized spacecraft orbiting Earth. Then picture them communicating, and using a water-powered thruster to approach each other. If you can do that, then you’re up to speed on one of the activities of NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP.) It’s all part of NASA’s effort to develop small spacecraft to serve their…
What was the boom heard around Puget… – Bothell-Kenmore Reporter
It was the sound heard all around Puget Sound. Or, as Mountlake Terrace resident David Carlos named it, “The Quarantine Boom of 2020.” Likely, it was a meteor’s sonic boom that sent vibrations through the region shortly after 7 p.m. May 6, scientists said. Carlos said he was watching television, his cat sleeping soundly beside…
Palaeo-artist breathes new life into ancient fossils – The Hindu
Even in pastels, this depiction of a rauisuchian sends a shiver down the spine. | Photo Credit: Viktor Radermacher more-in Viktor Radermacher says his job is to give the world an idea of what long-extinct species looked like It measures up to 10 metres from snout to tail, has four stumpy legs and —…
It might be possible to reverse a person’s biological age – Tech Explorist
Biological age is the objective assessment of an individual’s health status. Hypothetically, a ‘normal’ person’s biological age- – as far as appearance, performance, and functional capacity- ought to be equivalent to his chronological age. Until now, many scientists have endeavored to create systems to precisely determine people’s biological age. In a recent study in California,…
Stegosaurus footprints found on Isle of Skye – The Guardian
Grapefruit-sized depressions found in rocks on the Isle of Skye have revealed that a type of stegosaurus once wandered the landscape, researchers say. The newly discovered tracks form a single line, a few metres long, with a right-left pattern and two different-sized prints – as would be expected for an animal on all fours –…
NASA’s New View of Asteroid Bennu Transports Us Far Away From Our Troubles –...
The new global map of asteroid Bennu.Image: NASA/Goddard/University of ArizonaTo prepare for OSIRIS-REx’s pending touchdown onto the surface of Bennu, NASA used the spacecraft to photograph every nook and cranny of the weirdly shaped asteroid. The purpose of this exercise was to catalog potentially hazardous geological features, but a side benefit is that we have…
Freeman Dyson obituary – The Guardian
The physicist Freeman Dyson, who has died aged 96, became famous within science for mathematical solutions so advanced that they could only be applied to complex problems of atomic theory and popular with the public for ideas so far-fetched they seemed beyond lunacy. As a young postgraduate student, Dyson devised – while taking a Greyhound…
NASA adorns SpaceX rocket with famous ‘worm’ to celebrate imminent US astronaut launch –...
The worm is back. That is, according to NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine. The agency officially tweeted a photo on Thursday, April 2, showing a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that will be used in the upcoming Demo-2 mission for Elon Musk’s private space company. Adorning the booster’s side was NASA’s worm logo. Bridenstine said that the…