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Hubble Detects Mysterious Ghostly Glow Surrounding Our Solar System

Lead Image: This artist’s illustration shows the location and size of a hypothetical cloud of dust surrounding our solar system. Credit: NASA, ESA, Andi James (STScI) Exhaust from Infalling Comets Makes Space a Dusty Place Imagine walking into a room at night, turning off all the lights, and closing the shades. Yet an eerie glow comes from the walls, ceiling, and floor. The faint light is barely enough to see your hands before your face, but it persists. Sounds like a scene out of “Ghost Hunters?” No, for astronomers this is the real deal. However, looking for something that’s close…

Ashwagandha: 7 Proven Health Benefits of This Ancient Herb

Ashwagandha is an ancient herb with historical roots dating 6000 years back to India’s Ayurvedic system of medicine. It’s an adaptogen, which means it helps the body adapt effectively to stress.[1] Ashwagandha is also beneficial for brain function and potentially helpful for mental afflictions like anxiety and depression. It protects metabolic health and heart health while boosting sexual drive. If you want to reap the benefits of ashwagandha, you can find it as a dried powder or in capsule form. You can also drink ashwagandha tea or take an ashwagandha tincture. Here are 7 science-backed reasons to try ashwagandha: 1.…

After 15 Years and 1,000 Tests – Is Orion’s Heat Shield Ready To Take the Heat?

Lead Image: A sample of the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield material undergoes testing in the Laser-Enhanced Arc Jet Facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley on April 19, 2021. Orion’s thermal protection materials underwent more than 1,000 arc jet tests, during which extremely hot and fast-moving gases passed over the test material, approximating the heating a spacecraft experiences when entering the atmosphere. The test results helped certify the heat shield for the Artemis I mission. Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center When Artemis I launched on Wednesday, November 16, NASA’s new mega Moon rocket carried the Orion spacecraft –…

Wild Research Project Reveals How Future Cities on Asteroids Could Work

Lead Image: In what they deem a “wildly theoretical” paper, University of Rochester researchers imagine covering an asteroid in a flexible, mesh bag made of ultralight and high-strength carbon nanofibers as the key to creating human cities in space. Credit: University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw University of Rochester scientists show how asteroids could be future viable space habitats using physics and engineering principles. During this past year, Jeff Bezos launched himself into space, while Elon Musk funded a space flight for a non-astronaut crew. Space collaborations between government and private entities, including Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin,…

New Research Reveals That COVID Virus Alters RNA in Infected Cells

Lead Image: Structure of a coronavirus. Credit: Wikimedia A new study describes how the functioning of RNA changes in cells infected by SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus. The findings provide clues as to how different variants can escape the immune system, and serve as a basis for the development of novel treatments. For the first time, scientists have shown that infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, changes the functioning of host cell RNA. The researchers, from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil, arrived at this conclusion by analyzing 13 datasets obtained during four studies of viral,…