Category Archives: Futurist

Hitching a Ride

The discovery of phosphine gas, a potential biomarker, in the atmosphere of Venus made a big splash earlier this month, suggesting that life could survive in the Earth-like conditions inside Venuss clouds.

In a recently uploaded preprint, head of Harvard astronomy department Avi Loeb and undergraduate student Amir Siraj argue that the discovery may be chalked up to massive asteroids first grazing the Earths atmosphere,picking up some microscopic life, and later depositing it in Venuss skies [right?].

In other words, microbial life may have hitchhiked from Earth to Venus via atmosphere-grazing asteroids. In fact, the duo show that plenty of asteroids have already made such a trip in their paper.

Although the abundance of terrestrial life in the upper atmosphere is unknown, these planet-grazing shepherds could have potentially been capable of transferring microbial life between the atmospheres of Earth and Venus, the paper reads. As a result, the origin of possible Venusian life may be fundamentally indistinguishable from that of terrestrial life.

Its one of a handful of circulating theories. Other scientists have suggested that rather than originating from Earth, possible lifeforms on Venus may have originated back when Venus was a completely different planet not the acidic, boiling hellscape it is now.

Yet another team, from MIT, suggests that tiny microbes could be cycling up and down, first falling inside droplets before being swept back up by convection currents inside Venuss clouds.

READ MORE: Earth life may have traveled to Venus aboard sky-skimming asteroid [Space.com]

More on life on Venus: Scientists Speculate About How Life on Venus Could Have Begun

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Life May Have Hopped From Earth to Venus on Asteroid, Scientists Say - Futurism

Beyond Ludicrous

During Teslas Battery Day event Tuesday evening, CEO Elon Musk showed off a video of its upcoming Plaid version of its Model S sedan.

And its incredibly fast: zero to 60 mph in under two seconds, top speed of 200 mph plus a revolutionary range of 520 miles. Three motors bring the powertrain up to a whopping 1,100 horsepower even faster than the Ludicrous Model S.

The Plaid Model S the name is a reference to the 1987 film Space Balls is going on sale starting at $139,990, according to the companys website, with deliveries starting in late 2021.

The specs are striking, especially considering that Tesla has been making a big deal out of its Roadster, a hypercar capable of crossing the two second threshold from 0 to 60 mph. The Roadster was first announced in November 2017, and was slated for production in late 2020. That date was later pushed back during a July 2020 earnings call.

Fortunately, Tesla doesnt have to reinvent the wheel with its Plaid Model S. In fact, the company has been working on finetuning the car for the track. The variant was able to complete a lap of the Laguna Seca track in California in just one minute and 30.3 seconds according to Musk, the fastest production car to do so.

Although, if recently uploaded footage taken at the racetrack suggests, Tesla competitor Lucid might be getting pretty close to those numbers with its tri-motor variant Air sedan.

READ MORE: Tesla reveals its Plaid powertrain will be available for delivery in 2021 [The Verge]

More on Tesla: Elon Musk Promises $25,000 Tesla by 2023

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Tesla's "Plaid" Model S is Real and It's Fast as Hell - Futurism

Space Movie

Tom Cruise is officially in an international race to become the first movie star to shoot footage in space.

According to a statement by Russian space agency Roscosmos, Russia wants to become the first country in the world to make a movie in space.

Yellow, Black and White studio, one of the largest production studios in Russia, is behind the efforts, according to the news.

The plot will include a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for autumn 2021 on the Russian Soyuz MS crewed spacecraft, reads the statement. The protagonist to fly to the ISS, as well as his backup will be selected during an open contest.

Most of the logistics surrounding the film are still being discussed, including the name of the movie, cast, the plot itself, and how exactly they will film a movie in space.

Roscosmos doesnt beat around the bush when it comes to the purpose of the film.

The movie is aimed to popularize Russias space activities, as well as glorify cosmonaut profession, reads the statement.

The news comes after Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise reportedly partnered with SpaceX to film an action movie in space. NASA is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted following the report in May.

Should be a lot of fun! SpaceX CEO Elon Musk retorted.

READ MORE: Roscosmos, Channel One Russia and Yellow, Black and White studio to shoot first movie in space [Roscosmos]

More on movies in space: Tom Cruise Partners With SpaceX to Film Movie in Space

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Russia Wants to Be the First to Shoot a Movie In Space - Futurism

Evasive Maneuvers

On Tuesday night, the International Space Station (ISS) had to swerve out of the way of a piece of incoming space junk.

Its the third time this year alone that the ISS has had to pull an evasive maneuver, according to SpaceNews. The junk sailed past without incident, but now NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is calling for more funding to help the agency better track and manage the growing sea of dangerous garbage orbiting our planet.

NASA never announced what, exactly, the debris was, but Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell later suggested that it was a piece of an upper stage of a Japanese rocket that launched in 2018 before being left in upper orbit.

Whatever it was, it passed within 1.39 kilometers of the ISS after its crew used the thrusters of a docked spacecraft to push the station out of the way. The NASA crew hid in a Soyuz spacecraft as a safety capsule, according to SpaceNews, out of what NASA described as an abundance of caution.

The task of tracking space objects has been complicated by conflicting budget requests and missing data, SpaceNews reports. In a policy directive in 2018, U.S. President Trump delegated space junk management to the Commerce Department rather than NASA.

But so far, Congress hasnt approved the $15 million that the agency requested for its 2021 budget, as data supporting that the Commerce Department was better suited than NASA to handle space debris management still hasnt arrived.

Thankfully, in this case, the agencies still managed just fine.

READ MORE: Space station maneuvers to avoid debris [SpaceNews]

More on space junk: Earth Appears to be Capturing a Tiny new Moon

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The International Space Station Had to Dodge a Piece of Space Junk Last Night - Futurism

The new concept from the Chinese concern Great Wall turned out to be similar to the Russian Volga produced by GAZ. The Futurist sedan will debut at the Beijing Auto Show 2020 in Beijing.

Recently, the first renders and sketches of a new item from Great Wall appeared on the Web, which they decided to make in a retro style. In profile, the Futurist bears significant resemblance to the Volga. According to some experts, the Chinese brand copied the stern from the GAZ-3110. There will be protective linings around the perimeter of the sedan body, and the wheels will be multi-spoke. Although the car has a retro exterior, it is equipped with a number of modern features. For example, the door handles in the concept model are recessed in the body, and cameras served as a replacement for the rearview mirrors.

The dashboard in the Great Wall Futurist is virtual and has a futuristic design. The Beijing Auto Show, where the sedan will debut, kicks off on September 26 and runs through October 5. There, the manufacturer can reveal the characteristics of the novelty.

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The new concept from Great Wall was similar to the Volga - The Times Hub

Ancient History

NASA and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) are launching a spacecraft to the far side of the Moon so that they can look back into the very first days of the universe.

In particular, the spacecraft DAPPER will hunt for radio signals given off during the dark ages of the universe, or the era 380,000 years after the Big Bang when there were no stars or galaxies to light up the universe, according to a press release. If it finds them, DAPPER could give us a new level of understanding of how stars formed in the first place.

Unfortunately, any ancient radio signals around would be incredibly faint, so DAPPER has to go all the way to the dark side of the Moon to block out all the radio chatter from Earth.

No radio telescope on Earth is currently able to definitively measure and confirm the very faint neutral hydrogen signal from the early universe, because there are so many other signals that are much brighter, NRAO senior research engineer Richard Bradley said in the release.

It will still be several years before DAPPER, which still needs to be designed, is ready to launch. But that makes it a perfect project to piggyback on the back of Artemis, NASAs series of Moon missions that plans to eventually send humans to the Moon in 2024.

DAPPERs contributions to the success of NASAs [Artemis] mission will build on the rapid growth of space-based radio astronomy research weve seen over the past decade, NRAO Director Tony Beasley said in the release.

READ MORE: Spacecraft DAPPER will study Dark Ages of the universe in radio waves [NRAO]

More on the early universe: Evidence Suggests That the Entire Early Universe Was Rotating

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NASA Is Heading to the Far Side of the Moon to Study the Ancient Universe - Futurism

Its like a massive game of Asteroids.

NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spotted some strangely light-colored rocks on the surface of asteroid Bennu and after some investigating, scientists have figured out where theyre most likely from: an entirely different and much larger asteroid.

Since December 2018, the tiny spacecraft has been getting a close look at Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid just short of 500 meters across. In October, Osiris-Rex will attempt to plunge towards the asteroids surface to collect a sample.

But during their investigations analyzing a wealth of surface scans, the OSIRIS-REx team found itself puzzled by the strange rocks.

We found six boulders ranging in size from 5 to 14 feet (about 1.5 to 4.3 meters) scattered across Bennus southern hemisphere and near the equator, Daniella DellaGiustina of the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, and primary author of the paper published today in Nature Astronomy, said in a NASA statement.

These boulders are much brighter than the rest of Bennu and match material from Vesta, DellaGiustina said. In fact, according to scans by OSIRIS-RExs camera suite, the rocks appeared to be ten times brighter than their surroundings.

Vesta, first discovered over 200 years ago by German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, measuring over 500 kilometers from end to end. Scientists predict it accounts for about nine percent of the mass of the entire asteroid belt.

By analyzing spectrometer readings from OSIRIS, the team found that the light rocks were likely made out of the mineral pyroxene, exactly the kind of material that had been spotted on Vesta and its smaller fragments known as vestoids that were shaken loose when Vesta was bombarded by smaller asteroids.

The team concluded it was unlikely the bright rocks formed on Bennu itself, because pyroxene forms at extremely high temperatures. Bennus rocks, which contain mostly water-bearing minerals, wouldnt have experienced those kind of temperatures.

A powerful impact also couldnt have resulted in those temperatures, either. In fact, such an impact wouldve ended up breaking up Bennu.

It wouldnt be the first time astronomers have spotted bits of one asteroid on the surface of another. For instance, the Japanese space agencys Hayabusa 2 spacecraft spotted darker material from an S-type asteroid on the much darker C-type asteroid Ryugu in 2018.

Thanks to the discovery, scientists could glean details about Bennus trajectory the way the rocks orbit is affected by factors including gravitational forces from nearby planets and tiny asteroid impacts.

Future studies of asteroid families, as well as the origin of Bennu, must reconcile the presence of Vesta-like material as well as the apparent lack of other asteroid types, Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in the statement.

If everything goes according to plan, OSIRIS-REx will make its first sample taking attempt in October and drag it all the way back to Earth in 2023.

We look forward to the returned sample, which hopefully contains pieces of these intriguing rock types, Lauretta added.

READ MORE: NASAs OSIRIS-REx to Asteroid Bennu: Youve got a little Vesta on you [NASA]

More on OSIRIS-REx: NASA Probe Exploring Asteroid Accidentally Snaps Black Hole Image

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Astronomers Spot Bits of Entirely Different Asteroid on Surface of Bennu - Futurism

Fallen Pillar

For the first time, scientists have found that crows are capable of subjective, conscious experiences and perceptions.

Its a big step forward in our understanding of animal cognition. Prior to this, we only knew of conscious perception among humans and other primates. The brains of animals like birds were considered too different from our own to have subjective experiences, but this study, published Friday in the journal Science, potentially upends scientists assumptions about just how smart animals might be.

Crows and other corvid birds have long been known for their smarts and puzzle-solving abilities. But now brain scans conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Tbingen reveal that crows actively think about whatever stimuli they experience during an experiment, even when it wasnt present. Thats a pretty big deal, since bird brains have vastly different and smaller cerebral cortices, which are thought to be the source of human consciousness.

The results of our study opens up a new way of looking at the evolution of awareness and its neurobiological constraints, lead author Andreas Nieder said in a press release.

Assuming the study holds up to further scrutiny, the biggest question is when this consciousness originated, and whether its shared by any other non-primate animals or if it developed in crows independently

The last common ancestors of humans and crows lived 320 million years ago, Nieder said. It is possible that the consciousness of perception arose back then and has been passed down ever since.

READ MORE: Researchers show conscious processes in birds brains for the first time [University of Tbingen]

More on birds: Watch: The Amazing Intelligence of Crows

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Scientists Claim to Have Proved That Crows Have Conscious Experiences - Futurism

Teaming Up

NASA and the U.S. Space Force just formally teamed up on a number of objectives ranging from human spaceflight to planetary defense.

A five-page Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two agencies draws on the longstanding collaboration between NASA and the Pentagon, C4ISRNET reports, and reaffirms that the space agency and newly-launched military branch will continue to work together in the years to come. For the infamously cash-strapped NASA, this team-up presents a new opportunity to keep its research afloat.

The collaboration will heavily focus on the region of space around the orbit of the Moon, C4ISRNET reports. Thats both in terms of human space travel and the ongoing commercialization of space, which the current administration has embraced and encouraged.

Ironically, the document leaves the task of planetary defense up to NASA rather than the Space Force which pertains more to spotting and responding to potentially dangerous asteroids more than any military operations.

All in all, its not too surprising that the Space Force and NASA reached a formal arrangement to collaborate on future projects. NASA has long been intertwined with multiple branches of the military, and this new agreement is more useful as a framework for what those collaborations would actually look like.

NASA and the military share a long history dating back to the late 1950s, Space Force Chief of Space Operations General John Raymond told the press, there is power in our partnership.

READ MORE: Space Force and NASA focused on cislunar space in new agreement [C4ISRNET]

More on NASA: NASA Unveils Flabbergasting Budget for Moon Missions

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NASA and the US Space Force Are Officially Teaming Up - Futurism

Pi Earth

A team of scientists at MIT say theyve discovered a Pi Earth an Earth-sized planet that orbits its star every 3.14 Earth days.

The team found the planet, dubbed K2-315b, by analyzing 2017 data from NASAs Kepler Space Telescopes K2 mission.

The scientists then zoomed in on the system using SPECULOOS, an international network of telescopes, designed to hunt for ultracool dwarf stars.

The planet moves like clockwork, Prajwal Niraula, MIT graduate student and lead author of the paper published today in the Astronomical Journal, said in a statement.

Everyone needs a bit of fun these days, co-author Julien de Wit,also of MIT, added. De Wit also authored the fitting title of the paper: Earth: a 3.14-day Earth-sized Planet from K2s Kitchen Served Warm by the SPECULOOS Team.

K2-315b has a radius 0.95 that of Earths and orbits a cool, low-mass star, which is about one fifth of a Solar mass.

The planets orbit is pretty tight, and circles its star at 81 kilometers per second, completing a full rotation in just 3.14 Earth days hence its name.

Unfortunately, its surface is at a hellish 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

This would be too hot to be habitable in the common understanding of the phrase, Niraula said but just right to bake an actual pie, as MITs press release points out.

READ MORE: Astronomers discover an Earth-sized pi planet with a 3.14-day orbit [MIT]

More on Kepler planets: An AI Just Confirmed the Existence of 50 Planets By Digging Through NASA Data

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Astronomers Discover "Pi Earth" Planet That Orbits Every 3.14 Days - Futurism