Science & Space

nasa may reroute perseverances earthbound twin to the lunar south pole The rover NASA hopes to drive across the moon's south pole has already been assembled. It has been sitting here on Earth the entire time.

NASA may reroute Perseverance’s Earthbound twin to the lunar south pole

inouye telescope spots plasma whirlpools rolling along the suns magnetic edges Physicists have understood for roughly a hundred and fifty years what two fluids do when they slip past one another at unequal speeds. First the boundary between them buckles, then it curls, and finally it winds up into vortexes. Named the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and described back in the late 1860s, it explains the ripples wind draws on water and the rows of curved shapes it shears out of clouds.

Inouye telescope spots plasma whirlpools rolling along the Sun’s magnetic edges

ten months of polar night 12 crew members and a result that undercuts mars assumptions Spending more time around your teammates made matters worse rather than better.

Ten Months of Polar Night, 12 Crew Members, and a Result That Undercuts Mars Assumptions

roman space telescope was built to hunt dark energy it could also catch city killer asteroids The observatory NASA sends up from Kennedy Space Center at the close of August was engineered to pursue the two greatest mysteries in physics: the dark matter holding galaxies together and the dark energy driving the cosmos apart. It may also wind up warning us which rock is headed for a city.

Roman Space Telescope Was Built to Hunt Dark Energy — It Could Also Catch City-Killer Asteroids

starlink dishes as cell towers spacex sets its sights on t mobile att and verizon subscribers The idea most likely to rattle America's Big 3 wireless carriers has nothing to do with orbit. It starts with a cellular base station strapped to a Starlink dish sitting on someone's rooftop.

Starlink Dishes as Cell Towers: SpaceX Sets Its Sights on T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Subscribers

endeavor optical networks exits stealth with 10 75m and a plan to beam data center traffic by laser Most of the internet rides on thin glass fibers resting on the ocean floor, and hauling one to the surface for repairs is exactly as awkward as it sounds. Meanwhile hyperscalers keep spinning up data centers in every corner of the map, and the traffic between them has to travel somehow.

Endeavor Optical Networks exits stealth with $10.75M and a plan to beam data center traffic by laser

the hard problem wont go away christof koch on why brain maps cant exp Decades into charting the machinery of awareness, Christof Koch used his opening address at the 15th "Behind and Beyond the Brain" Symposium to highlight the one thing that machinery still fails to account for. Brain imaging can reveal precisely what unfolds when a person looks at the color red. What it cannot reveal is why seeing red feels like anything whatsoever.

The Hard Problem Won’t Go Away: Christof Koch on Why Brain Maps Can’t Explain Redness

ai measured 15000 museum bird skeletons and rewrote how we picture evolutions pace Roughly 45 seconds. That's how long a computer needs to measure the skeleton of a single dead songbird, and that one number carries more weight in this study than almost any other detail — it's what converted a century-old argument among researchers into a question you can finally answer with data.

AI Measured 15,000 Museum Bird Skeletons — And Rewrote How We Picture Evolution’s Pace

china just finished testing a 582 ton magnet and its iter numbers are Nobody assembles a 582-ton superconducting magnet for a science fair. China has now wrapped up testing on one, and the figure worth noting isn't the tonnage. It's that the device holds roughly triple the energy of the comparable magnets built for ITER, the international fusion effort that has served as the world's benchmark for decades.

China Just Finished Testing a 582-Ton Magnet — and Its ITER Numbers Are the Headline

what happens if you slice a photon in half three physicists say you ge Whip a mirror out of the path while a lone photon is midway through bouncing off it, and the result isn't half a photon heading one way with the other half going the opposite direction. What you get instead is a rainbow.

What Happens If You Slice a Photon in Half? Three Physicists Say You Get a Rainbow