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Feb- 2022 -25 FebruaryNASA
NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter: After Dusty Flight 19, Team Prepares for Flight 20
Lead Image: Mars Helicopter Sol 345 – Navigation Camera: Navigation camera image captured just as Ingenuity took off for Flight 19, showing accumulated sand flying off of one of Ingenuity’s feet. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech The Ingenuity team is beginning preparations for Flight 20! Flight 19 was successfully completed on February 7, 2022, at 20:21 PST (Sol 345 of the Perseverance mission, 12:00 LMST Local Mean Solar Time), and placed Ingenuity safely within the designated landing ellipse just above the eastern ridge of the “South Séítah” basin. Flight 19 was a reminder of the challenges and unpredictability of the Martian environment. As…
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25 February3D
What We Know About the Origin and Future of Hologram Tech
You must have seen Princess Leia as a floating image in Star Wars or the gesture-controlled three-dimensional models in the Iron Man films, those intriguing, moving 3D images are called holograms. Some experts define holograms as two-dimensional surfaces capable of manifesting information in three dimensions. In movies, holograms are an illusion created using VFX and animation, but in reality, they can be generated using a technique called holography. Holograms have featured in numerous video games and sci-fi movies and since holography is a complicated technique (when it comes to creating 3D holograms), for years, it was believed that holograms would…
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24 FebruaryAstronomy
Chinese Lunar Rover Discovers “Mind-Blowing” Translucent Glass Globules on the Moon
Yutu-2 rover on lunar surface. Credit: CSNA/Siyu Zhang/Kevin M. Gill This study is led by Dr. Zhiyong Xiao (Planetary Environmental and Astrobiological Research Laboratory, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University), who is a core scientific team member of the first in-situ lunar mission to the Moon, Chang’E-4. The team examined images taken by the panorama camera onboard the Yutu-2 rover, and discovered several translucent spherical and dumbbell-shaped glassy globules (see images below). Perching on the surface regolith, the globules are transparent to translucent, and they exhibit a light brownish color. Such centimeter-sized translucent glass globules was not found on…
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23 FebruaryNeuroscience
Branch-Like Projections Called Dendrites May Help Neurons Perform Complicated Calculations
Lead Image: Researchers at MIT have demonstrated how dendrites — branch-like extensions that protrude from neurons — help neurons perform computations on information that comes in from other parts of the brain. Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of dendrites. Different types of these branch-like projections process incoming information in different ways before sending it to the body of the neuron. Within the human brain, neurons perform complex calculations on information they receive. Researchers at MIT have now demonstrated how dendrites — branch-like extensions that protrude from neurons — help to perform those computations. The researchers found that within a single…
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20 FebruaryNASA
Space Missions To Watch: A Lunar Return, a Jupiter Moon, and the Most Powerful Rocket Ever Built
Lead Image: Artist’s rendering of a SpaceX Starship leaving a lunar colony. Credit: SpaceX Space travel is all about momentum. Rockets turn their fuel into momentum that carries people, satellites, and science itself forward into space. 2021 was a year full of records for space programs around the world, and that momentum is carrying forward into 2022. Last year, the commercial space race truly took off. Richard Branson and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos both rode on suborbital launches – and brought friends, including actor William Shatner. SpaceX sent eight astronauts and 1 ton of supplies to the International Space Station…
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