Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA missions probe game-changing cosmic explosion      (via sciencedaily.com) 

On Dec. 11, 2021, astronomers detected a blast of high-energy light from the outskirts of a galaxy around 1 billion light-years away. The event has rattled scientists' understanding of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful events in the universe.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
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Peekaboo! Tiny, hidden galaxy provides a peek into the past      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Peeking out from behind the glare of a bright foreground star, astronomers have uncovered the most extraordinary example yet of a nearby galaxy with characteristics that are more like galaxies in the distant, early universe. Only 1,200 light-years across, the tiny galaxy HIPASS J1131-31 has been nicknamed "Peekaboo" because of its emergence in the past 50-100 years from behind the fast-moving star that was obscuring astronomers' ability to detect it.

Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
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Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Orbital observations unveil the presence of an enormous mantle plume pushing the surface of Mars upward and driving intense volcanic and seismic activity. The discovery reveals that Mars, like Earth and Venus, possesses an active interior, which challenges current views on the evolution of the red planet.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
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Researchers say space atomic clocks could help uncover the nature of dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Studying an atomic clock on-board a spacecraft inside the orbit of Mercury and very near to the Sun could be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: Quantum Computers Engineering: Robotics Research
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Pulses driven by artificial intelligence tame quantum systems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Machine learning drives self-discovery of pulses that stabilize quantum systems in the face of environmental noise.

Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
Published

Small asteroids are probably young      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The impact experiment conducted on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission which took place two years ago resulted in an unexpectedly large crater. With the use of simulations, a team has recently succeeded in gaining new insights from the experiment regarding the formation and development of asteroids.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Published

Making 'transport' robots smarter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders -- real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse space, picking items for shipping to the customer. This could become a reality sooner than later, thanks to researchers who are working to speed up the online delivery process by developing a software model designed to make 'transport' robots smarter.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mathematics: Modeling
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A simpler path to better computer vision      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Research finds using a large collection of simple, un-curated synthetic image generation programs to pretrain a computer vision model for image classification yields greater accuracy than employing other pretraining methods that are more costly and time consuming, and less scalable.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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A far-sighted approach to machine learning      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new technique enables artificial intelligence agents to think much farther into the future when considering how their behaviors can influence the behaviors of other AI agents, toward the completion of a task. This approach improves long-term performance of cooperative or competitive AI agents.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: Quantum Computers
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Quantum algorithms save time in the calculation of electron dynamics      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Quantum computers promise significantly shorter computing times for complex problems. But there are still only a few quantum computers worldwide with a limited number of so-called qubits. However, quantum computer algorithms can already run on conventional servers that simulate a quantum computer. A team has succeeded in calculating the electron orbitals and their dynamic development using an example of a small molecule after a laser pulse excitation. In principle, the method is also suitable for investigating larger molecules that cannot be calculated using conventional methods.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Self-organization: What robotics can learn from amoebae      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a new model to describe how biological or technical systems form complex structures without external guidance.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Artificial neural networks learn better when they spend time not learning at all      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers discuss how mimicking sleep patterns of the human brain in artificial neural networks may help mitigate the threat of catastrophic forgetting in the latter, boosting their utility across a spectrum of research interests.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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'Butterfly bot' is fastest swimming soft robot yet      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Inspired by the biomechanics of the manta ray, researchers have developed an energy-efficient soft robot that can swim more than four times faster than previous swimming soft robots. The robots are called 'butterfly bots,' because their swimming motion resembles the way a person's arms move when they are swimming the butterfly stroke.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Space: Exploration
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Trial by wind: Testing the heat resistance of carbon fiber-reinforced ultra-high-temperature ceramic matrix composites      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Carbon fiber-reinforced ultra-high-temperature ceramic (UHTC) matrix composites are extensively used in space shuttles and high-speed vehicles. However, these composites suffer from a lack of oxidation resistance. Recently, researchers tested the heat resistance of these composites at very high temperatures, providing insight into the modifications needed to prevent UHTC degradation. Their findings could have huge implications for the manufacture of space shuttle orbiters.

Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
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Mars was once covered by 300-meter deep oceans, study shows      (via sciencedaily.com) 

When Mars was a young planet, it was bombarded by icy asteroids that delivered water and organic chemistry necessary for life to emerge. According to the professor behind a new study, this means that the first life in our solar system may have been on Mars.

Environmental: Ecosystems Offbeat: Earth and Climate Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
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Exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial life living in caves      (via sciencedaily.com) 

For millennia, caves have served as shelters for prehistoric humans. Caves have also intrigued scholars from early Chinese naturalists to Charles Darwin. A cave ecologist has been in and out of these subterranean ecosystems, examining the unique life forms -- and unique living conditions -- that exist in Earth's many caves. But what does that suggest about caves on other planetary bodies? In two connected studies, engineers, astrophysicists, astrobiologists and astronauts lay out the research that needs to be done to get us closer to answering the old-age question about life beyond Earth.

Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
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Liftoff! NASA's Artemis I mega rocket launches Orion to Moon      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Following a successful launch of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, the agency's Orion spacecraft is on its way to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Carrying an uncrewed Orion, SLS lifted off for its flight test debut at 1:47 a.m. EST Wednesday from Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Safety in space: Synthetic hibernation could provide protection from cosmic radiation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

It is still a glimpse into the future: Astronauts could be put into artificial hibernation and in this state be better protected from cosmic radiation. At present, there are already promising approaches to follow up such considerations. An international research team now has found decisive indications of the possible benefits of artificial hibernation for radiation resistance.

Energy: Alternative Fuels Space: Exploration
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Improving the performance of electrodeless plasma thrusters for space propulsion      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Space missions already use electric propulsion devices, where electromagnetic fields are utilized to generate the thrust of spacecraft. One such electrodeless device, which harnesses radio frequency (rf) to generate plasma and a magnetic nozzle (MN) to channel and accelerate plasma, has shown immense promise in pushing the boundaries of space travel. But scientists have so far failed to achieve efficient conversion of the rf power to thrust energy. Now, a researcher has achieved a stunning 30% conversion efficiency.

Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Hubble captures three faces of evolving supernova in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The star exploded more than 11 billion years ago, when the universe was less than a fifth of its current age of 13.8 billion years.