An Ignoble Experiment: Astronomers detect powerful cosmic object unlike anything they've seen before

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January 27, 2022

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Out-of-control SpaceX rocket will smash into the moon in weeks

(Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

A SpaceX rocket that launched nearly seven years ago is now on course to crash into the moon, astronomers have predicted.

The Falcon 9 booster was launched in February 2015 as part of a mission to send a climate observation satellite 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, but since running out of fuel, the 4.4-ton (4 metric tons) rocket has been hurtling around space in a chaotic orbit.

The rocket is now expected to hit the far side of the moon while traveling at a blistering speed of 5,771 mph (9,288 km/h) on March 4, 2022, according to Bill Gray, a developer of software that tracks near-Earth objects.

Full Story: Live Science (1/26)

COVID-19

'Stealth' omicron is in the US. Here's what we know about it.

(Alessandro Biascioli via Getty Images)

A stealthy version of the omicron variant has been detected in the U.S., but so far, it makes up a very low proportion of the overall cases in the country.

This version of the variant, called BA.2, bears some genetic mutations not seen in the original omicron lineage, and some of these mutations lie in the spike protein, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some preliminary data hint that BA.2 may be slightly more transmissible, but not more severe, than the original omicron, but it's too early to interpret that data with any confidence.

Full Story: Live Science (1/26)

History & Archaeology

Vikings' 'blood eagle' torture was horrific — and may have actually happened

(Berig, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

A brutal, ritualized method of torture and execution that was allegedly practiced by Nordic people during the Viking Age was so gruesome that some scholars questioned whether it was even possible to perform on a human body.

However, researchers recently found that the act known as blóðǫrn, or "blood eagle," was in fact anatomically possible and could have been performed with known Viking weapons.

Full Story: Live Science (1/27)

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Math & Physics

'Burning' hydrogen plasma in the world's largest laser sets fusion records

(Damien Jemison)

The secret behind a record-breaking nuclear fusion experiment that spit out 10 quadrillion watts of power in a split second has been revealed: a "self-heating" — or "burning" — plasma of neutron-heavy hydrogen inside the fuel capsule used in the experiment, according to researchers.

Last year, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California announced the record release of 1.3 megajoules of energy for 100 trillionths of a second at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Live Science reported at the time. In two new research papers, NIF scientists show the achievement was due to the precision engineering of the tiny cavity and fuel capsule at the heart of the world's most powerful laser system, where the fusion took place.

Full Story: Live Science (1/26)

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Astronomers detect powerful cosmic object unlike anything they've seen before

(ICRAR)

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious, flickering object in the Milky Way that belches enormous amounts of energy toward Earth three times an hour.

This strangely powerful object — located about 4,000 light-years from the sun — is unlike any cosmic structure ever observed, researchers wrote in a study published Jan. 26 in the journal Nature.

The object in question — named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3 (but let's call it GLEAM for short) — appeared out of nowhere on a recent radio wave survey of the Milky Way. According to the researchers, GLEAM brightened rapidly over the course of about 60 seconds, briefly becoming one of the brightest objects in the entire sky, then suddenly disappeared into darkness again. About 20 minutes later, the object reappeared — steadily glowing to peak brightness once again, before dimming back to nothing a minute later.

Full Story: Live Science (1/26)

Curious Creatures

500 million-year-old, bug-like fossils have stunningly preserved nervous systems

(Ortega-Hernández et al. 2022, Nature Communications)

Two tiny fossils, each smaller than an aspirin pill, contain fossilized nerve tissue from 508 million years ago. The bug-like Cambrian creatures could help scientists piece together the evolutionary history of modern-day spiders and scorpions.

Still, it's not clear exactly where these fossils — both specimens of the species Mollisonia symmetrica — fit on the arthropod evolutionary tree, said Nicholas Strausfeld, a regents professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Arizona, who was not involved in the study.

Full Story: Live Science (1/26)