Search Results for: nasa

Internet Satellite Swarm: SpaceX to develop fleet of Micro-Satellites

Pooja Kashyap

After creating a dent in the world of automobiles and aerospace by giving affordable electric cars and rockets, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk is moving towards delivering cheap Internet across the globe. This time, Mr. Musk is collaborating with Greg Wyler, founder of WorldVu Satellites Ltd., which happens to control a huge chunk of radio spectrum. Wyler has been working with Google Inc. but 2 months back he had left the tech giant and currently, he has been working with Elon Musk and SpaceX.

ECOSTRESS: The New Thermometer for detecting Earth’s Temperature

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a space-based instrument for detecting transpiration within plants so that the flora can effectively use water. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS) is the name of the device that will be docked on the space station for monitoring the water loss through nano-pores occurring within leaves.

Google’s First Quantum Computer: A Combination of D-Wave and Universal Gate-Model

Pooja Kashyap

Quantum logic gate based on qubits is what most of the quantum computing labs is working on to make the product a reality. However, these labs show no or less confidence in companies like D-Wave, the Canadian based that came out with world’s first commercially available quantum computer functioning on 128-qubit chipset, in 2011. Lately, in an interesting turn of events, Google went a step ahead by hiring a team of researchers for building their initial Google quantum computer using quantum annealing as per the D-Wave approach than the conventional…

Interplay between Subsurface Liquid and Clathrates Reservoirs on Titan: Methane Rainfall

Pooja Kashyap

Information gathered by NASA in collaboration with European Space Agency Cassini mission has surfaced presence of numerous lakes across the northern polar area of Titan. Instead of consisting of water, these seas are composed of hydrocarbons, the organic compounds that are also present on Earth. As per the previous studies, the rainfall from the surface clouds brings about major amount of liquid on Saturn’s moon. However, the cycle of liquid moving through the moon’s crust and the atmosphere is still under consideration.

Hellacious Lava Fountains on Jupiter’s Moon Io: Curtains of Fire

Pooja Kashyap

Within a two-week period Io, Jupiter’s moon, experienced two massive outbursts in August 2013. Astronomers speculated that these volcanic eruptions could be regular phenomenon that can spew materials in huge quantities above the surface. If we talk about ratio, it could be somewhere from one huge outburst per one or two years but Io suggested more than this. Io is the innermost moon out of the planet’s four large Galilean moons. It is more than 3,600 km across. It is the only space body that is known so far, by…

Earlier Asteroid Impacts led to the formation of Earth’s Crust: Geological Evolution

Pooja Kashyap

Last year we talked about how meteor impact led to pastoral revolution and now recent research on Earth’s surface revealed that the planet was in a constant reprocessing process due to the huge asteroid impacts. The new approach utilizing the terrestrial bombardment model based on lunar and terrestrial data disclosed that asteroid collisions where the game changer which caused evolution of the topmost layers of Earth during its initial stages, which happened around 4.5b years ago. Yvonne Pendleton, NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) Director added that repeated…

Building 3D Products in Space: Printing the Metals of the Future

Pooja Kashyap

One of the major drawbacks of 3D printing is its lack of ability to use varied types of materials in printing a particular product. The same inability has been hindering 3D printing in space travel as well, where at times, situation demands fabrication of certain parts from several different materials. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) space scientists in collaboration with researchers from Caltech and Penn State University have been working closely to resolve this problem of bringing 3D printing closer to space travel. They developed a process that allowed for…

US military to develop a Reusable Unmanned Spacecraft: The Experimental Spaceplane project

Pooja Kashyap

The US military is looking forward to create an affordable and efficient robotic space plane that has an ability of embarking payloads directly into the orbit. DARPA has already granted the design contract to three firms namely, Boeing, Masten Space Systems and Northrop Grumman. For the initial stage of the Experimental Spaceplane project, also called the XS-1, the firms have collaborated with similar other aerospace companies. For instance, Boeing is working with Blue Origin, Masten is teaming up with XCOR Aerospace and Northrop Grumman is collaborating with the Virgin Galactic.…

Tidal Forces influence Planets in Eccentric Orbits: Possibility of creating Habitable Worlds

Pooja Kashyap

Fixation towards heat for survival is the key element across planet earth and the solar system. During the origination of human life, early man stumbled upon the discovery of fire by rubbing sticks and since then it has evolved gradually. In an interesting study, researchers at NASA have discovered a similar fixation towards heat for survival across constellation. The findings are primarily based on the Earth sized planets in other star systems. Excessive heat denotes destruction but right amount of same heat results in creating habitual climatic conditions. 

Frozen Steller Twins Discovered: Orbits in Binary Star System

Pooja Kashyap

Lately a binary star system has attracted attention of many space scientists. This binary system consists of twin stars, mutually orbiting around a common center of mass. Situated around 3,000 light years away from Earth, astronomers’ expecting that it could shed some information regarding similar Earth like bodies floating in space. The planet weighs twice that of the Earth and orbits, in binary system, one star. Distance between the two corresponds to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. However, unlike the Sun, the planet’s host star is dimmer…

Titan’s Ice Shell overlies Salty Ocean: As Salty as Earth’s Dead Sea

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Cassini mission has given strong confirmation regarding the saltiness of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Space scientists have even compared the salt content with Earth’s Dead Sea. The result corresponds to 10 years observation, where Cassini was busy accumulating the gravitational and topographical data. Researchers organized this information and developed a model based on Titan’s structure. This resulted in gaining better insights of the moon’s exterior ice shell.

Kepler-10c the mega-Earth Discovered: Godzilla of Earths

Pooja Kashyap

Space scientists have discovered a new planet to which they call as “Godzilla of Earths”, maybe because of its rocky exteriors. The exoplanet weighs more than 17 times that of Earth. Until now researchers believe that the planet is all solid and is much gigantic with respect to previous discoveries of super-Earth, hence it falls into the casket of mega-Earth. Sasselov, one of the astronomers believe that Kepler-10c, the newly found mega-Earth, is high on probability with respect to implications for life.

10 Easiest Internet Tricks: Simplest Googling Tips to Remember

Pooja Kashyap

Lately, I realized that I have been using the following ten most simple tips while am working over internet. So I thought of jotting them down in form a post. Like me, some of you would find them equally interesting. I am sure, most of you have already know these tricks however, this post is for those who are still struggling and taking the long routes for particular tasks. So here we go, 1) Downloading music Type the following snippet into the google search bar. It’ll give you music downloads…

Bright Points in Solar Atmosphere: Gateway to Sun’s Roiling Interior

Pooja Kashyap

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been able to collect data regarding the depth of the shining star, bright spots in the solar atmosphere and the strings of magnetic signatures observed on the surface of Earth. With this data, space scientists will get a peek into the insights related to the real-time mapping of the sun’s roiling interior. These understandings will help them on converging the decade long investigations of its 22-year sunspot cycle and emission of solar flares. As per Scott McIntosh, one of the lead researchers, this data…