China's Secret Space Plane Has Released Another Unknown Object Over Earth

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At around 3 p.m. ET on May 24, China 's mysterious Shenlong space plane released an unidentified flying object 372 miles (600 kilometers) above Earth's surface. Experts outside China don't know exactly what the object is, but they believe it may be a small satellite or a piece of hardware ejected before the craft is scheduled to deorbit.

The U.S. Space Force has been tracking the space plane since it launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Launch Center on Dec. 14. Little is known about the craft, although it appears to be similar to the clandestine Boeing X-37B space plane developed by the U.S., which is capable of making years-long excursions into orbit. China's secret space plane first launched in 2020 and remained in orbit for just two days. However, it stayed aloft for 276 days during its second voyage, which began in late 2022.

Shenlong (which means "Divine Dragon") deployed six smaller objects shortly after launch last year; each appeared to be emitting some kind of signal. So far, Chinese officials have remained secretive about the plane and its activities, and have not addressed the nature of the mystery objects or even acknowledged them.

Related stories: China has launched a secret robot to the far side of the moon, new Chang'e 6 photos reveal

Meanwhile, the U.S. military's X-37B space plane is also in Earth's orbit. The craft launched on Dec. 28 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The fact that the two missions are operating simultaneously is "probably no coincidence," Space Force Chief of Space Operations B. Chance Saltzman told Air ⁘ Space Forces magazine .

⁘ Russia and China announce plan to build shared nuclear reactor on the moon by 2035, 'without humans'

Perhaps unsurprisingly, China's state-run media outlets have not indicated any military applications for the space plane. "After operating in orbit for a period of time, the experimental spacecraft will return to the designated landing site in China," Xinhua reported, according to Gizmodo . "During this period, it will carry out reusable technology verification and space science experiments as planned, providing technical support of the peaceful use of space."

Moon Orbiting 'Dinky' Asteroid Is Actually Two Tiny Moons Stuck Together

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Astronomers Surprised After Finding Tiny Moon Is Actually Two Tiny Moons in a Trenchcoat

Last year, images taken by NASA's Lucy spacecraft revealed that a tiny moon that orbits an asteroid nicknamed ⁘Dinky⁘ is, in fact, two tiny moons fused together.

The finding baffled scientists, who had never witnessed this kind of satellite, known as a contact binary, orbiting an asteroid.

But thanks to new research, we might be getting closer to piecing together the strange cosmic puzzle. A new NASA study about the strange Dinky discovery, published this week in the journal Nature , posits that the mid-size asteroid likely birthed one or both mini-moons — together dubbed ⁘Selam⁘ — itself. Cosmic twins!

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When NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past its first official target Dinkinesh in November 2023, researchers discovered that the asteroid⁘known as "Dinky"⁘was not alone in space. A satellite asteroid, which the team named "Selam," was orbiting Dinky. As Lucy sent more data back to Earth, the researchers discovered something surprising: Selam was not just one moon, it was a contact binary⁘or two moons melded together.

The Lucy team, which includes University of Maryland Professor of Astronomy and Geology Jessica Sunshine, detailed the unexpected finding in a paper published in the journal Nature on May 29, 2024.

The researchers noted that the unusual arrangement challenges existing theories about how asteroids and other celestial bodies formed over time and provides additional insight into the internal structure, dynamics and evolutionary history of both Dinky and Selam.

"There's a lot more complexity in these small bodies than we originally thought," said Sunshine, a co-author of the paper. "With the additional observations taken by the spacecraft, we were able to better analyze features such as Dinkinesh's rotation speed and Selam's orbit pattern. We also have a better understanding of what materials they're possibly made of, bringing us a step closer to learning just how terrestrial bodies are created."

The team theorized that Dinky's fast spinning motion⁘boosted by the uneven reflection of sunlight off the asteroid's surface⁘caused it to shed and eject rocky debris into orbit. Some of the debris could have aggregated to form Selam, while another portion of the fragments rained back down on Dinky as boulders and created the ridges photographed by the Lucy spacecraft.

"One of the things that's critical to understanding how planets like Earth got here is understanding how objects behave when they hit each other, and to understand that we need to understand their strength," said lead scientist Hal Levison of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, principal investigator for the Lucy mission.

OpenAI Is Restarting Its Robotics Research Group

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OpenAI Is Rebooting Its Robotics Team

After disbanding its efforts to build a general purpose robot in 2020, the AI juggernaut is embarking on a new attempt to supply models to other companies aiming to build robots of their own.

With investment into AI-powered robotics heating up , OpenAI is formally relaunching its previously abandoned robotics team, Forbes has learned.

The company is currently hiring research engineers to rebuild the team, which it had shuttered in 2020, according to three sources. OpenAI has yet to publicly announce the details of its homegrown robotics efforts, but in a recent job listing explains that new hires would be "one of the first members of the team." A source in position to know told Forbes the group has only existed for about two months.

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OpenAI robotics research is resuming, applying generative AI to tasks such as manipulation. | Credit: OpenAI

OpenAI LLC, which is best known for ChatGPT, is restarting its robotics research group. The San Francisco-based company has been a pioneer in generative artificial intelligence and is returning to robotics after a three-year break.

This comes as no surprise, since The Robot Report has reported on several robotics companies working with ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) over the past year.

The reboot comes after the company shut down its robotics group in July 2021 . That shutdown was prior to all of the interest in generative AI after OpenAI released ChatGPT to the world.

⁘We're looking for people who have a strong research background, in addition to experience shipping AI applications,⁘ said the company.

OpenAI has also participated as an investor in humanoid developer Figure AI's Series B fundraising earlier this year. The Figure AI investment indicated that robotics is clearly on the radar for OpenAI.

The Quirky Underdogs Of The Solar System

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The Sun is orbited by eight planets, at least five dwarf planets, tens of thousands of asteroids, and around three trillion comets and icy bodies. Although not all objects of the solar system are as well known as Earth, Jupiter, or other celestial bodies with main character energy, they still make up a valuable part of our star system and contribute to our understanding of its origins.

From quasi-moons to asteroids with rings, the Solar System is beaming with weird and exotic objects that tell the story of how it came to be billions of years ago.

As an ancient planetesimal in the Kuiper Belt, Arrokoth likely formed 4 to 4.5 billion years ago from a sea of icy particles in the far reaches of the solar system. Scientists knew little about this icy world until the New Horizons mission probed the object in January 2019; the probe was 4 billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth at the time, making it the most distant exploration of a solar system object.

In the images sent back by New Horizons, Arrokoth appeared as two lumpy lobes fused together. The two lobes have light and dark patterns of unknown origin with a bright collar separating them. According to NASA, these features provide clues about how this object was assembled during the formation of the solar system.

As the smallest and innermost of Saturn's major moons, Mimas takes only 22 hours and 36 minutes to complete an orbit. Scientists believe the moon consists almost entirely of water ice, which is puzzling since it orbits so close to Saturn and has a much more eccentric orbit than the planet's other moon Enceladus, which has geysers of water, according to NASA .

Ceres was the very first object discovered in the main asteroid belt. It was first identified as an asteroid but was later upgraded to a dwarf planet because it was so much bigger and totally different from its rocky counterparts. Ceres was designated a dwarf planet in 2006, along with Pluto.

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The Mysterious Pairs Of Planets We Still Can't Explain

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We thought we broadly understood how planets and stars form. But the discovery of dozens of pairs of young planets in a nearby nebula threatens to turn that on its head.

They are worlds that simply defy explanation. Drifting through the Orion Nebula – an enormous cloud of dust and gas relatively close by in our galaxy – are what appears to be dozens of Jupiter-sized planets that don't conform to the conventional understanding of how planetary systems form. Rather than being bound to a star like the Earth is in our own Solar System, these planets are free-floating through space in pairs . Astronomers who spotted them with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could only scratch their heads in awe at the discovery.

⁘These things shouldn't exist,⁘ says Simon Portegies Zwart, an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. ⁘They go against everything we have learned about star and planet formation.⁘

In the subsequent months, efforts have been made to try and explain what's going on. These planets, called Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or Jumbos, still cannot be fully explained. But we are getting closer to an answer – with crucial observations on the horizon that may solve the mystery once and for all.

Jumbos were discovered by Mark McCaughrean, a former ESA astronomer in the Netherlands who now works at the at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, and Samuel Pearson, an astronomer at ESA in the Netherlands. They had been using data from JWST to study the Orion Nebula, around 1,500 light years away from Earth. They were particularly interested in a 10-light-year-wide region of young star formation called the Trapezium Cluster that is just one million years old.

JWST – which contains the biggest mirror to ever be launched into space – has immense infrared capabilities, allowing it to peer through the cloud and dust of the cluster like no telescope before it. Those observations revealed a myriad of interesting young stars and star-forming regions, where immense swirling masses of gas were condensing under gravity to form stars. But they also discovered something wholly surprising – amidst the cosmic dust were floating Jupiter-sized planets that appeared to be drifting in pairs . ⁘The finding was completely unexpected,⁘ says McCaughrean.

Was There A UFO On Display At A New York State Air Show?

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There has been a lot of talk and attention surrounding the phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) lately. Even Congress has held hearings about them. Most recently, people in New York State were talking about what they may or may not have seen during an air show downstate.

The celebrity and entertainment news website TMZ first released the video they obtained exclusively of the footage taken during a NAVY Blue Angels air show on Long Island. As TMZ reported , if you blink you will certainly miss it. But, you can see in the video above the split second of some object appear and disappear quickly.

The sighting happened during an annual pre-summer tradition, the⁘Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach State Park. While the show was cut shorter than usual due to weather over the weekend, it lasted long enough for the unusual blip to be spotted and caught on camera.

Despite government reports, people are still believers and for those in attendance at the Bethpage Air Show, they may now be part of the group of Americans who can attest to something unusual in the night or day skies. Are you a believer?

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China Stands Ready To Step Up Space Cooperation With Arab States

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Global Times reporter tracking China's space programs and cutting-edge science and technology projects.

China presents the Arab side with the flags of all Arab League member states and the Arab League flag, which were brought to the China Space Station via the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft on October 26, 2023, and returned to Earth with the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft on October 31, 2023. The presentation took place at the 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing on Thursday, symbolizing the enduring China-Arab friendship. Photo: Global Times

Astronomers Spot Giant Planet That's As Light As Cotton Candy

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WASP-193b, a newly discovered planet, is larger than Jupiter but has a remarkably low density similar to cotton candy. This anomaly challenges existing planetary formation theories and presents a unique case among known planets. Further analysis, particularly of its atmospheric properties, could provide deeper insights into its unusual characteristics. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Astronomers have discovered WASP-193b, an extraordinarily light planet orbiting a distant star in our galaxy. It outstrips Jupiter in size but matches the density of cotton candy, presenting a mystery in planetary science.

The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fraction of its density. The scientists found that the gas giant is 50 percent bigger than Jupiter, and about a tenth as dense ⁘ an extremely low density that is comparable to cotton candy.

WASP-193b is the second lightest exoplanet discovered to date, after the smaller, Neptune -like world, Kepler 51d. The new planet⁘s much larger size, combined with its super-light density, make WASP-193b something of an oddity among the more than 5,500 exoplanets discovered to date.

⁘To find these giant objects with such a small density is really, really rare,⁘ says lead author and MIT postdoc Khalid Barkaoui. ⁘There⁘s a class of planets called puffy Jupiters, and it⁘s been a mystery for 15 years now, as to what they are. And this is an extreme case of that class.⁘

⁘We don⁘t know where to put this planet in all the formation theories we have right now, because it⁘s an outlier of all of them,⁘ adds co-lead author Francisco Pozuelos, a senior researcher at the Instituto de Astrof⁘sica de Andaluc⁘a-CSIC (Spain). ⁘We cannot explain how this planet was formed, based on classical evolution models. Looking more closely at its atmosphere will allow us to obtain an evolutionary path of this planet.⁘

Artist⁘s impression of the density of WASP-193b compared to candyfloss. Credit: University of Liege

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Why The US Hasn't Sent Humans To Mars Yet

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I Just Learned What 'Milky Way' Stands For, And It Has Nothing To Do With Space

We've written before at HuffPost UK about why Hobnobs , Twix , and Snickers are called what they are.

But given how many chocolate bars' brands are space-themed ― Mars, Galaxy, and Milky Way, for instance ― it feels odd to think we haven't addressed any seemingly astronomic names yet.

Milky Way bars in the US are similar to the UK's Mars bars, boasting a creamy nougat base and a caramel topping.

The UK Milky Way bar, however, has a fluffy, vanilla-flavoured nougat filling ― but while the US version came first, the inspiration behind the name holds true for both.

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NASA discovers potentially habitable exoplanet 40 light years from Earth

NASA announced the discovery of a planet 40 light years from Earth that orbits every 12.8 days and is possibly even habitable.

Gliese 12 b is a ⁘super Earth exoplanet⁘ that is nearly the same size as Earth or slightly smaller, according to a NASA news release . Exoplanets are planets outside of our solar system, NASA's website says.

"We've found the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date," Masayuki Kuzuhara, a project assistant professor at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo, said in a statement. "Although we don't yet know whether it possesses an atmosphere, we've been thinking of it as an exo-Venus, with similar size and energy received from its star as our planetary neighbor in the solar system."

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Fact Check: This Is Supposedly an Accurate Rendering of a 1 Cubic Millimeter Sample of a Human...

With whispy blue, green, and orange-hued strands jetting atop a black background, an image shared to Reddit on May 12, 2024, claimed to show "1 cubic millimeter of brain." At the time of this writing, the post had received more than 26,000 upvotes.

A Google keyword search returned dozens of relevant results, including a Smithsonian Magazine article published in May 2024 that described researchers who created a "digital map showing a tiny chunk of a human brain in unprecedented detail."

This image is authentic and genuinely shows a 3D map of neurons found in the brain. We've rated this claim as "True," but let's first describe exactly what that research means – and what is featured in the rendering.

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Earlier this month, NASA announced it was funding a revolutionary high-thrust rocket — called a Pulsed Plasma Rocket — that could make crewed missions to Mars in just two months.

That's seven months faster than it'd take with current technology, and it would drastically reduce the risk and cost of a crewed Mars mission, according to Howe Industries, which is developing the concept. It "holds the potential to revolutionize space exploration," NASA said in a statement.

The PPR is just one of the latest developments in the US's decadeslong discussion to send humans to Mars . In the early '60s, for example, nuclear-bomb-powered spaceships were proposed for the trip.

"That's kind of like a joke within the space community or the Mars community," Matthew Shindell, a curator with the National Air and Space Museum, told Business Insider. "Putting humans on Mars is always 20 years away."

To fully understand why the US hasn't sent humans to Mars despite sending more robots there than any other country, it just takes a trip down memory lane. Here's a history of the US's most promising crewed Martian missions that never were.

In the '40s and '50s, no one really knew what they might find on Mars, but they knew getting there would be tricky. One of the first to seriously tackle the problem was Wernher von Braun.

He envisioned a 260-day mission that would launch in 1985 with 10 spaceships and 70 crew members. "He sat down and did the math and created a whole story around it," Shindell said.

Ed Dwight Finally Goes To Space On Blue Origin As 1st U.S. Black Astronaut

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Ed Dwight told himself the same story for decades: It didn't matter that he never made it into space.

Dwight was the first Black man selected for an American astronaut-training program in 1962. He had spent years at Edwards Air Force Base in California doing zero-gravity training, running test planes and manning experiments that help set the foundation for U.S. space travel. Despite the rigorous training, Dwight was never selected for a NASA mission.

Then, last week, Dwight broke another barrier when, at 90, he became the oldest person to travel into space. When he finally saw the view from 62 miles above Earth from a Blue Origin vessel, the atmosphere ended and his achievement began. Back on solid ground, friends said he spoke about how much it mattered to finally enter the cosmos.

When Dwight was first offered a seat on the May 19 flight, he thought about declining the offer. (Blue Origin was founded by Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post.)

"I'm a really busy guy," said Dwight, who became an accomplished sculptor after his astronaut training. "It didn't make a lot of difference to me at the time."

A group of current and former Black astronauts — including Bolden , NASA's Victor J. Glover Jr . and Leland D. Melvin — helped change his mind. Dwight had trained for years to go to space — he should finish what he started, he recalled his friends saying.

Bolden remembers Dwight telling them how he had lied to himself for all these years about how it didn't matter. Having lunch with one of the astronauts the day before the launch, Bolden said Dwight admitted it: "There's this hole in me. I didn't realize it was there because I had convinced myself it was okay."

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NASA Finds Potentially Habitable Earth-sized Exoplanet

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Scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable, Earth-size planet | CNN

Two teams of scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable planet, smaller than Earth but bigger than Venus , orbiting a small star about 40 light-years away.

Since its star is so much smaller than the sun, Gliese 12b still falls within the habitable zone — the ideal distance away from a star where liquid water can exist — even though it completes its orbit every 12.8 days.

Working on the assumption that the exoplanet doesn't have an atmosphere, scientists calculated its surface temperature to be around 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).

"We've found the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date," said Masayuki Kuzuhara, a project assistant professor at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo and co-leader of one of the research teams with Akihiko Fukui, a project assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, in a statement.

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Potentially habitable Earth-like exoplanet discovered 40 light-years away

Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable Earth-like exoplanet, Gliese 12b, situated 40 light years away, according to a recent study.

Scientists have confirmed "Gliese 12b," an exoplanet orbiting a "cool red dwarf star every 12.76 days within the habitable zone (or Goldilocks Zone)," with an "estimated surface temperature of 42⁘C (107⁘F)," which could support "liquid water."

At only "40 light-years away," Gliese 12b has been described as one of the "the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-size world located to date," with a radius just "1.0 times" that of Earth, making it "one of the smallest exoplanets discovered."

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SpaceX Launches Starlink Tuesday Morning From Cape Canaveral

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After multiple delays, a SpaceX Falcon 9 sprung off the launch pad and into the bright Florida morning sky Tuesday with the rocket's second stage carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit.

As countdown had moved towards what was planned to be a 7:30 a.m. EDT launch on Tuesday, SpaceX announced a launch hold. While SpaceX did not provide a reason, a statement was given on X (formerly Twitter) that the rocket and Starlink satellites were in good condition. The launch hold lasted more than two hours before the countdown resumed towards launch at10:24 a.m. EDT.

Following Tuesday's successful launch, the Falcon 9 rocket landed on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean just under eight and a half minutes after liftoff.

Upon landing, the particular Falcon 9 marked its tenth flight − it's most memorable mission being NASA's Crew 6 in early 2023 .

According to a Geospatial Navigational Warning, SpaceX is targeting between 6:43 p.m. to 11:14 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 31 to launch the next batch of Starlink satellites. This four and a half hour window indicates a Starlink launch. However, SpaceX has yet to confirm this mission or the location of this launch from Florida.

Then on Saturday, June 1, NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance plan to attempt the launch of Starliner's Crewed Flight Test at 12:25 p.m. EDT. This comes after a nearly one-month delay that followed the scrub on May 6 , which was due to an issue with an oxygen valve on the Atlas V rocket's second stage.

During the repairs, Boeing crews discovered a helium leak coming from a thruster in the Starliner service module — which is an expendable bottom to the spacecraft containing thrusters. Crews ensured the helium leak was stable, yet further detected an issue with the redundancy of the system during the deorbit burn phase of the mission − meaning if something fails, crews wanted to ensure that Starliner still would be able to return home safely.

'Traveling At 37,070 Kmph': NASA Alerts Of A Massive Aircraft-sized Asteroid Approaching Earth Today

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Business News India: Latest Business News Today, Share Market, Economy

High extreme fear (<20) suggests a good time to open fresh positions, as markets are likely to be oversold and might turn upwards

It suggests that investors are fearful in the market, but the action to be taken depends on the MMI trajectory.

If it is dropping from Greed to Fear, it means fear is increasing in the market ⁘ investors should wait till it reaches Extreme Fear, as that is when the market is expected to turn upwards

If MMI is coming Neutral towards Greed zone, it means greed is increasing in the market and investors should be cautious in opening new positions.

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NASA warns against 160-foot asteroid speeding at 37,070 kmph towards Earth | - Times of India

Anant Ambani ⁘ Radhika Merchant's 2nd pre-wedding Bash: Take a sneak peek inside the lavish cruise

The TOI Lifestyle Desk is a dynamic team of dedicated journalists who, with unwavering passion and commitment, sift through the pulse of the nation to curate a vibrant tapestry of lifestyle news for The Times of India readers. At the TOI Lifestyle Desk, we go beyond the obvious, delving into the extraordinary. Consider us your lifestyle companion, providing a daily dose of inspiration and information. Whether you're seeking the latest fashion trends, travel escapades, culinary delights, or wellness tips, the TOI Lifestyle Desk is your one-stop destination for an enriching lifestyle experience. Read More

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NASA has issued an alert about the approach of an asteroid named 2024 JY1, comparable in size to a commercial airplane, traveling at a speed of 37,070 kilometers per hour.

The asteroid measures approximately 160 feet in diameter and is classified as an Apollo asteroid, a group named after 1862 Apollo, first discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s.

2024 JY1 is expected to pass closest to Earth today, May 26, but NASA assures there is no cause for alarm despite its seemingly threatening size.

NASA confirms that the asteroid will maintain a safe distance from Earth, approaching within about 4.16 million miles, more than 17 times the distance to the Moon.

While the asteroid's size may sound alarming, NASA categorizes 2024 JY1 as a non-hazardous asteroid, emphasizing that not all asteroids pose a threat.

NASA has tracked the asteroid's trajectory using data from observatories such as Pan-STARRS and the Catalina Sky Survey, with missions like NEOWISE and the forthcoming NEO Surveyor providing additional insights.

Initiatives like JPL's Goldstone Solar System Radar Group are crucial in tracking these celestial objects, contributing to NASA's diligent monitoring efforts to ensure public safety.

ESA's Euclid Celebrates First Science With Sparkling Cosmic Views

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Today, ESA's Euclid space mission releases five unprecedented new views of the Universe. The never-before-seen images demonstrate Euclid's ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos and enable scientists to hunt for rogue planets, use lensed galaxies to study mysterious matter, and explore the evolution of the Universe.

The new images are part of Euclid's Early Release Observations. They accompany the mission's first scientific data, also made public today, and 10 forthcoming science papers. The treasure trove comes less than a year after the space telescope's launch, and roughly six months after it returned its first full-colour images of the cosmos .

"Euclid is a unique, ground-breaking mission, and these are the first datasets to be made public – it's an important milestone," says Valeria Pettorino, ESA's Euclid Project Scientist. "The images and associated science findings are impressively diverse in terms of the objects and distances observed. They include a variety of science applications, and yet represent a mere 24 hours of observations. They give just a hint of what Euclid can do. We are looking forward to six more years of data to come!"

The full set of early observations targeted 17 astronomical objects, from nearby clouds of gas and dust to distant clusters of galaxies, ahead of Euclid's main survey . This survey aims to uncover the secrets of the dark cosmos and reveal how and why the Universe looks as it does today.

"This space telescope intends to tackle the biggest open questions in cosmology," adds Valeria. "And these early observations clearly demonstrate that Euclid is more than up to the task."

Euclid will trace the hidden web-like foundations of the cosmos, map billions of galaxies across more than one-third of the sky, explore how our Universe formed and evolved over cosmic history, and study the most mysterious of its fundamental components: dark energy and dark matter .

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Network Of Robotic Telescopes Finds New Earth-Sized World Orbiting An Ultra-Cool Star

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Artist⁘s view of exoplanet SPECULOOS-3 b orbiting its star. The planet is as big as the Earth, while its star is slightly larger than Jupiter, but much more massive. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized planet, SPECULOOS-3 b, orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf star just 55 light years away. This tidally locked planet, which completes an orbit every 17 hours, was found by the international SPECULOOS project using a network of robotic telescopes.

The planet is only the second of its kind to be discovered around this type of star. Called SPECULOOS-3 b, it takes around 17 hours to complete an orbit of the star which is more than twice as cold as our sun, as well as ten times less massive and a hundred times less luminous.

Days and nights on SPECULOOS-3 b seem to be endless: the exoplanet is likely to be tidally locked, so the same side ⁘ the ⁘dayside⁘ ⁘ always faces the star in a relationship similar to our moon and Earth.

The discovery, published on May 15, 2024, in the journal Nature Astronomy , was made by the SPECULOOS project, which is led by the University of Li⁘ge, in Belgium, in collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Bern, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. SPECULOOS (Search for Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) was established to search for exoplanets orbiting ultra-cool dwarf stars using a network of robotic telescopes based around the world.

Ultra-cool dwarf stars are extremely common, making up around 70% of the stars in the Milky Way . But they are also very faint and scattered across the sky, so scientists have to observe data from telescopes over several weeks, monitoring each star individually to detect transiting planets.

An Approach To Enable Both Locomotion And Manipulation In A Snake-inspired Robot

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In contrast with many wheeled and legged robots, however, most snake-like robots cannot pick up and manipulate objects. This significantly limits their real-world applications , as it prevents them from completing tasks that entail more advanced interactions with their surroundings.

A research team at Northeastern University's Silicon Synapse Lab supervised by Prof. Alireza Ramezani recently introduced a new approach that could allow snake-like robots to move and manipulate objects simultaneously. This approach, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv , was initially implemented on COBRA, a robotic platform developed by a group of students at Northeastern as part of the BIG Idea Competitions.

"We've been developing the snake robot COBRA for almost three years," Adarsh Salagame, Ph.D. student at Northeastern University, told Tech Xplore. "This project started out as a means of exploring alternative locomotion capabilities.

By successfully allowing the COBRA robot to morph into different shapes, Salagame and his colleagues were able to broaden its locomotion skills, demonstrating five different types of locomotion styles. Subsequently, they also started exploring the possibility of enhancing the robot's object manipulation skills.

"To make the COBRA robot even more functional and versatile, expanding its applications to areas beyond those tackled by traditional robots, we came upon this idea of object loco-manipulation, which entails locomotion and manipulation together," Salagame said. "That's what we achieved with COBRA."

The COBRA robot has a gripper mechanism integrated in its head, which is designed to assist the robot during a specific locomotion mode, known as tumbling. While the robot is tumbling, its head and tail latch together to form a wheel-like structure, thus allowing it to passively roll down a slope at high speeds.

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James Webb Telescope Discovers Carbon Dioxide On The Outskirts Of Our Solar System

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The study was led by planetary scientists Mário Nascimento De Prá and Noemí Pinilla-Alonso from the University of Central Florida's Florida Space Institute. They used JWST's infrared spectral capabilities to examine 59 TNOs and Centaurs, identifying carbon dioxide in 56 objects and carbon monoxide in 28.

The groundbreaking study, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that carbon dioxide ice was abundant in the cold outer regions of the protoplanetary disk from which the solar system formed. The origins of the carbon monoxide ice remain uncertain and require further investigation.

The study found that carbon dioxide was widespread on the surfaces of the TNOs, independent of their size and dynamical class. Carbon monoxide was detected primarily in objects with a high abundance of carbon dioxide.

The discovery suggests that these ices can help us understand the formation and migration of celestial objects in the solar system. TNOs are considered relics from planetary formation, containing pristine information about the original composition of the protoplanetary disk.

Previous detections of carbon dioxide ice on TNOs were hampered by observational limitations and the possibility of the ice being buried or converted into other molecules. JWST's capabilities allowed for the precise detection and analysis of these ices.

The discovery opens up opportunities for further study. Researchers plan to explore the relationship between these ices and other compounds on TNO surfaces. The foundational knowledge gained from this study will support future planetary science and astronomy research.

NASA Sees A 'Platypus' Move On Jupiter's Moon Europa

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Why it's so special: Slightly smaller than Earth's moon , Europa is more like a planet. It has a magnetic field , a tenuous oxygen atmosphere and a liquid iron core. It also has an icy shell 11 miles (18 km) thick that hides a salty ocean beneath.

Does that salty ocean bubble up through the ice? Yes, suggests a newly published image of Europa returned to Earth by NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016.

Juno's ultra-sensitive Stellar Reference Unit instrument snapped an image during a close flyby on September 29, 2022, when the spacecraft passed within just 220 miles (355 km) of Europa's ice shell. It was one of the first high-resolution images of Europa since NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed by in 2000.

The black and white image ⁘ taken of Europa's night side when it was lit only with light reflected by Jupiter ⁘ shows a feature nicknamed "the Platypus" (in a yellow box). Measuring about 23 miles by 42 miles (37 km by 67 km), this "chaos terrain" contains hummocks, ridges, ice blocks and dark reddish-brown material. It's the youngest feature in the region imaged ⁘ and, scientists suspect, it's where Europa's ice shell allows pockets of saltwater from the moon⁘s subterranean ocean to pool.

About 31 miles (50 km) above "The Platypus" is a double ridge running east-west (blue box) with possible stains around it. It's thought these stains could be deposits from plumes of saltwater rising up to the surface from Europa's ocean.

Juno's mission will end in 2025, but two more missions are bound for Europa. NASA's Europa Clipper will launch later this year and arrive in 2030. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency 's slower Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) launched in 2023 and will arrive in 2031 to tour three of Jupiter's moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Jamie Carter is a freelance journalist and regular Live Science contributor based in Cardiff, U.K. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and lectures on astronomy and the natural world. Jamie regularly writes for Space.com, TechRadar.com, Forbes Science, BBC Wildlife magazine and Scientific American, and many others. He edits WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com .

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Do Aliens Exist? Are We Alone? Here's What We Know So Far

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In recent times, military pilots in the US have seen things that look otherworldly. The Pentagon has established an office to look into the sightings. US Congress has heard hearings. Moreover, UFOs were rebranded. Unidentified flying objects are now, per the US government edict, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

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Why Are The Department Of Defense And Space Force Talking About Buying Foreign Space Technology?

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In its United States Space Force Commercial Space Strategy , released April 8, the United States government discussed buying commercial, foreign-made, off-the-shelf products rather than investing solely in developing and building specific military solutions within the government or by using government contractors. This is a departure from the approach that the U.S. has taken in the past and provides leadership guidance to move in a new direction. And it tells us a number of important things about the space technology market today, and how the U.S. perceives the role that other countries can play in its own space and defense strategy.

First, that the commercial industry beyond the U.S. has reached a level of maturity and viability such that the U.S. government considers foreign products at least as desirable as home-grown ones — something that hasn't always been the case because of historic disparities (and lingering perceived disparities) in technological sophistication. Indeed, at April's Space Symposium, the mood among U.S. Space Force and U.S. Command representatives suggested a real optimism about the state of commercial space worldwide. This is supported by the available data: McKinsey ⁘ Co. valued the space market at approximately $447 billion in 2023 — up from $280 billion in 2010 — and said it could grow to $1 trillion by 2030.

But there is also a growing desire among U.S. decisionmakers for interoperability and scaling with the country's global partners. Looking abroad — and in particular, across the Atlantic to Europe — the U.S. sees real opportunities for synergy, the exchange of information and technology and the forging of stronger alliances. As retired General Joe Votel mentioned in his 2022 speech accepting the R. Lynn Rylander Award from the National Defense Industrial Association, networks have become a key organizing principle behind many recent business successes, from Amazon to Uber. The same must now be achieved for the defense sector. As General Votel said, we must move from "industrial-base thinking" to "network thinking." The National Space Industrial Strategy's approach is one that encourages the development of integrated defense space systems and systems-of-systems from their beginning, and one that integrates the national sovereign assets of American allies into the space enterprise.

Evidence For 'Planet Nine' Lurking On The Fringes Of The Solar System Is Building.

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A huge unknown lurks in the far reaches of our Solar System — something massive enough to pull distant space rocks into extraordinarily long, thin loops around the Sun.

In 2016, he and a colleague at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) proposed something almost unfathomable: a huge planet, up to 10 times heftier than Earth, way out on the edge of our Solar System.

Now, they have published a study , yet to be peer-reviewed, that simulated the movements of objects on the Solar System's fringes , and found that the chance of a Planet-Nine-type object not existing was just one in a million.

The honour of predicting it goes to mid-19th-century astronomers Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams.

They noticed that Uranus (which was only discovered about 60 years earlier) had irregularities in its orbit that could only be explained by the presence of another, more distant planet.

Le Verrier in Paris and Adams in Cambridge calculated coordinates for this hypothetical planet, and when German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle and his student pointed a telescope to that part of the sky in 1846, there it was: Neptune, the Solar System's eighth planet.

While Planet Nine might be found the same way, the most tantalising hints it exists come not from ice giants like Uranus, but the motion of dwarf planets and asteroids that typically orbit much further out in our Solar System.

More than 3,000 of these objects — including dwarf planet Pluto — have been found so far, although most have not yet been named or thoroughly investigated.

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