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Exploring Alien Planets: New Cereal Box-Sized Spacecraft Has Mighty Goals

Lead image: Artist’s depiction of a “hot Jupiter” planet. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech A new miniature satellite designed and built at CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is providing proof that “cute” things can take on big scientific challenges. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is slated to launch into space on September 27, 2021. The approximately $4 million spacecraft, a smaller-than-usual type of satellite known as a “CubeSat,” is about as large as a “family-sized box of Cheerios,” said LASP researcher Kevin France, principal investigator for the mission. But it has mighty goals: Over the course of about 7…

Untangling the Formation of Planetary Systems With Heavy Hydrogen

Lead image: ALMA images of the protoplanetary disks around young stars AS 209 and HD 163296. Different molecules have different distributions. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Cataldi et al./Aikawa et al. An international research team using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) revealed the distribution of heavy hydrogen, or deuterium, in planet formation sites with the highest resolution ever achieved. This provides clues to understand the physical and chemical conditions during the formation of exoplanets and Solar System objects. “The various bodies in our Solar System have a variety of chemical compositions,” says Yuri Aikawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo.…

In a Gene Tied to Growth, Scientists See Glimmers of Human History

A paper in Science Advances focuses on the evolution of the human growth hormone receptor gene. A new study delves into the evolution and function of the human growth hormone receptor gene, and asks what forces in humanity’s past may have driven changes to this vital piece of DNA. The research shows, through multiple avenues, that a shortened version of the gene — a variant known as GHRd3 — may help people survive in situations where resources are scarce or unpredictable. Findings were published on September 24, 2021, in Science Advances. Here’s the story the study tells: GHRd3 emerged about…

New Engine Design Could Muffle Roar of Fighter Jets – U.S. Navy To Test on F-18 Super Hornets

Lab tests show promise for reducing jet noise in commercial and military aviation. Aerospace engineers at the University of Cincinnati and the Naval Research Laboratory have come up with a new nozzle design for F-18 fighter planes they hope will dampen the deafening roar of the engines without hindering performance. Distinguished professor Ephraim Gutmark, an Ohio Eminent Scholar, and his students in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science designed and tested the new nozzles on 1/28th-scale jet engines in his aeroacoustics lab. The interior of the nozzles features triangular fins like rows of shark teeth that significantly reduced jet…

Winged Microchip Is Smallest-Ever Human-Made Flying Structure – The Size of a Grain of Sand

Lead image: A 3D microflier sits next to a common house ant to show scale. Credit: Northwestern University The size of a grain of sand, dispersed microfliers could monitor air pollution, airborne disease, and environmental contamination. Northwestern University engineers have added a new capability to electronic microchips: flight. About the size of a grain of sand, the new flying microchip (or “microflier”) does not have a motor or engine. Instead, it catches flight on the wind — much like a maple tree’s propeller seed — and spins like a helicopter through the air toward the ground. By studying maple trees…