Tag: science news

Intuitive Machines clinches $4.8 bln navigation services contract from NASA

September 18, 2024 admin

Intuitive Machines clinches .8 bln navigation services contract from NASA

The Nova-C lunar lander designed by aerospace company Intuitive Machines is displayed at the company’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, U.S., October 3, 2023. | Photo Credit: Reuters Intuitive Machines said on Tuesday (September 18, 2024) it has bagged a navigation and communication services contract of up to $4.82 billion from NASA for missions in the…

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Hidden craters suggest earth once had a Saturn-like ring

September 17, 2024 admin

The rings of Saturn are some of the most famous and spectacular objects in the Solar System. Earth may once have had something similar. In a paper published last week in Earth & Planetary Science Letters, my colleagues and I present evidence that Earth may have had a ring. The existence of such a ring, forming around…

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Polaris Dawn: why world’s first private spacewalk wasn’t just a vanity project

September 17, 2024 admin

This handout photo provided by SpaceX and Polaris on September 15, 2024 shows the manned Polaris Dawn mission’s “Dragon” capsule aboard the rescue vessel after it splashed down off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, after completing the first human spaceflight mission by non-government astronauts of the Polaris Program. | Photo Credit: AFP Two astronauts…

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Exceptional new fish fossil sparks rethink of how earth’s geology drives evolution

September 17, 2024 admin

Coelacanths are deep-sea fish that live off the coasts of southern Africa and Indonesia and can reach up to two metres in length. For a long time, scientists believed they were extinct. In new research published in Nature Communications, we reveal the best-preserved coelacanth fossil ever found from the ancient period hundreds of millions of years ago…

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How skuas, frigatebirds, and gulls are helping spread avian influenza

September 17, 2024 admin

It’s not easy finding food at sea. Seabirds often stay aloft, scanning the churning waters for elusive prey. Most seabirds take fish, squid, or other prey from the first few metres of seawater. Scavenging is common. But there are other tactics. Frigatebirds, skuas, and gulls rely on the success of other seabirds. These large, strong…

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Research rewrites where, when humans first domesticated horses

September 11, 2024 admin

Across human history, no single animal has had a deeper impact on human societies than the horse. But when and how people domesticated horses has been an ongoing scientific mystery. Half a million years ago or more, early human ancestors hunted horses with wooden spears, the very first weapons, and used their bones for early tools. During…

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New measurements reveal the enormous halos shrouding all galaxies

September 11, 2024 admin

Have you ever wanted to make a $150,000 gamble? If you’re right, you open a new window to the universe. But if you’re wrong, you’ve just wasted a lot of money and time. That is exactly what my team did when we pointed the Keck telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawai’i at what looked…

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Shielding humans alone won’t prevent pandemics if animals can fall ill

September 6, 2024 admin

In this file photo dated Friday November 6, 2020, mink look out from a pen at a farm near Naestved, Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has appointed Thursday Nov. 19, 2020, a new agriculture minister, after Mogens Jensen resigned after the government ordered the culling of all Danish mink because of the coronavirus, but…

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Chip that steers terahertz beams sets stage for 6G internet

September 5, 2024 admin

Imagine a future where internet connections are not only lightning-fast but also remarkably reliable, even in crowded spaces. This vision is rapidly approaching reality, thanks to new research on terahertz communications technologies. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Imagine a future where internet connections are not only lightning-fast but also remarkably reliable, even in crowded spaces….

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Avalanches can grow 100-times larger undersea than on land

September 5, 2024 admin

This underwater photograph shows light penetrating the water surface in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Batroun city on August 1, 2023. | Photo Credit: AFP Underwater avalanches are powerful natural events that happen all the time under the surface of the ocean. They are impossible to see and extremely difficult to measure, which…

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