People have always been fearing the threat of an asteroid heading towards our planet. Although none of the recent impacts has actually been serious, researchers still keep an eye on any cosmic object that might approach Earth. Recently, they have spotted a small asteroid when it was already close to our atmosphere but, given its poor size and strength, it disintegrated while it was still above Africa.

A small asteroid got through our atmosphere

To avoid unpleasant situations, researchers always monitor all the objects that come near Earth. However, not all of them are big enough to pose a threat to our planet, and they are sometimes hard to spot until they reach our atmosphere.

This was the case of a small asteroid that entered our atmosphere and burst into smaller pieces above Africa. The object penetrated the atmosphere at the impressive speed of 38,000 mph. Fortunately, it measured only six feet in length, so there was no way it could produce any damage. While above Africa, not a long way from the ground, it caught fire and disintegrated in smaller pieces, producing an impressive display of lights.

The asteroid was much too small to cause any damage

Everything happened very quickly, leaving researchers no time to act. Soon after they spotted the small asteroid, they calculated its trajectory and saw it would come really close to Earth. However, soon afterwards, they realized the object might really strike Earth. Fortunately, its size made it harmless.

In fact, the small asteroid was a lot smaller than the equipment is trained to detect. However, this event was pretty welcome. It didn’t only give the researchers the chance to spot an asteroid coming dangerously close to Earth. This way, they tested their simulations and their ability to predict the outcome of an impact.

This small asteroid has first got the name of ZLAF9B2, but only as a temporary denomination. The name that is going to stick is asteroid 2018 LA.

Image source: NASA

Many people would agree that pizza is one of the best foods on the planet. It’s probably hard to live in a place where you cannot eat a cheesy slice of goodness whenever you feel like it, so we can understand what astronauts have to experience. One of them got his love of the Italian dish so far that he even ordered pizza from space.

The astronaut ordered pizza from space to wait for him at his landing

Spending some time on the International Space Station is one of the best experiences one can live. However, there is one disadvantage that is hard to cope with. There is no pizza in space, and none of the popular fast food chains will open a franchise there too soon.

This is why one astronaut found a smart solution to appease his cravings. Mike Massimino was about to end his stay in space and was getting ready for his journey back to Earth. Now, when he was so close to going back home, he suddenly became impatient. This way, he ordered pizza from space so that the dish will wait for him when he is back.

Astronauts often bake a space alternative to pizza that is much better than frozen food

Massimino revealed that all astronauts were crazy about pizza. They went so far that they created a space alternative for the dish but, unfortunately, it’s not even half as good as the real food. To bake this space pizza, they use food that is suitable to bring on the ISS. While it’s far from being the ideal dish, it’s still a lot better than the typical frozen food they eat.

Other astronauts actually enjoy this space pizza. Randy Bresnik, for instance, said this dish was the best thing he got to eat while on the ISS. In fact, he and his colleagues filmed all the baking process and, since the resulting dish was so different than other space foods, they praised it as being the best. However, none of these people took their love for pizza so far that they ordered pizza from space.

Image source: PxHere

Whenever we think of time travel, we automatically view a complex machine that pushes us into the past or into the future. This is precisely why the concept seems impossible, at least for the moment. However, what we often ignore is the fact that time travel is actually possible. Instead of using sci-fi machineries, all we need is a rocket.

Time travel has actually been achieved in a way

Albert Einstein was the first one to ponder the idea of time travel. He developed the theory of relativity, claiming that, depending on the speed of your movement, time can be relative. Therefore, if you are moving in outer space at great speeds, you are moving a lot slowly through time.

Time travel sounds so complicated in movies because it is a concept we are not so familiar with but, in fact, it is quite possible. There have been many people who have traveled through space. This means they have experienced the phenomenon in a way. All those people who spend time on the International Space Station are travelling at greater speeds than us on Earth. This means that time is passing slower for them than for us.

Just like some sci-fi scenarios have suggested, spending a long period of time in space can really distort time. For instance, when returning to Earth after such a period, you will actually be younger than a person of the same age who has spent all this time on Earth.

Our concept of time travel is really hard to achieve

In fact, scientists have succeeded in building some sort of a time travel machine, called the Large Hadron Collider. This mechanism brings protons close to the speed of light, meaning that they get around 6,900 times slower. In this case, times becomes relative, and we can say these protons are propelled into the future, even if only for less than a second.

This is quite a huge achievement, but it’s still far away from our idea of time travel. Before we are able to transport human beings into the future, we will need plenty of resources we currently don’t have. Therefore, such a machine won’t become a reality too soon, but we never know what the future is hiding.

Image source: Pixabay

By using a powerful radar to scan the ice in Antarctica, researchers from Northumbria University, UK, have made a breathtaking discovery. In the west part of the continent, they spotted some mountainous geology and traces of Antarctic canyons of impressive size. While they somehow expected such formations to hide there, it was their size that took them by surprise.

The Antarctic canyons took researchers by surprise

Researchers knew there was something hiding behind the ice in western Antarctica. This way, they decided to use a special radar to peek beneath the ice and perform some aerial studies of this region. When this study was over, they expected to find some formations that resembled mountains and other similar geological formations.

However, what they found took them by surprise. Apart from some mountainous features, the ice hid three massive Antarctic canyons. The biggest of them was Foundation Trough that sported a length of over 215 miles and width of over 20 miles. If you thought this was big, the second Patuxent Trough also features an impressive size, with 180 miles in length and the third Offset Rift Basin with over 90 miles.

The Antarctic geology can reveal more about reactions to climate change

These Antarctic canyons aren’t only scary because of their size, as their effect can be even more damaging. If global warming keeps causing the Antarctic ice to thin, these formations might cause some serious trouble. More precisely, the flow of melted ice to occur more rapidly from the center to the sea. As a result, sea levels will rapidly increase.

However, the discovery of these formations is extremely important for researchers. After mapping the exact distribution of the Antarctic canyons, they might get a clear picture of how the entire continent is reacting to climate change and its damaging effects.

Also, this discovery marks another landmark. This is the first time when researchers make public the results of PolarGAP, the radar that keeps an eye on Antarctica. They will continue studying the region and find out more about what lies beneath the ice. The study on these impressive Antarctic canyons was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Image source: Wikipedia

On June 18^th, we are celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the flight of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride. In her honor, the US Postal Service (USPS) will launch a special stamp that should commemorate this landmark event. The stamp will feature the portrait of Ride wearing a blue astronaut suit with a spaceship in the background.

Sally Ride is the first American woman in space

On June 18^th, 1983, NASA’s shuttle Challenger took off on the STS-7 mission. Ride was aboard and became the first American woman in space. However, she was only the second woman in the world to ever travel beyond our atmosphere. In fact, her flight took place precisely 20 years and two days after the first woman in space. The winner of the title was a Soviet astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, who performed her flight in 1963.

However, the launch of this special stamp commemorates something else as well. It also marks six years since the death of Sally Ride. She passed away at age 61 on July 23^rd, 2012. Given the title of first American woman in space and her importance for astronomy and science, USPS thought she deserved such an honor.

The stamps are followed by a series of other collectibles

You will be able to buy Sally Ride stamps for 50 cents each. Given it’s a special issue, you will be able to use such a stamp to send one ounce letters via First Class mail. However, others might be stamp collectors, so they are not looking for sending them away. The stamps come in a sheet of 20 but, if you order them online, you can even get sheets of 4 or 10 each.

If this wasn’t enough to honor the first American woman in space, USPS is releasing some more collectible objects. You can even get special postmarks if you attach the stamp to a regular envelope and mail it the USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services. One first special feature of the postmark would be Ride’s signature. Once you get these postmarks, your envelope will be delivered back to you, together with many other goodies you can opt for.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

For many decades, people have been insanely searching the depths of Loch Ness in hope they might find one small piece of evidence that the monster exists. So far, the search didn’t prove too successful, so researchers from the University of Otago, New Zealand, decided to adopt a new strategy to find the Loch Ness monster. This way, they are going to look for DNA samples.

Finding Nessie through DNA samples?

Throughout the years, people have come up with all kinds of so-called evidence to show the Loch Ness monster exists. In most cases, they were photos and snapshots that were relatively obscure, so it was hard to use them as a foolproof way to show Nessie is real. Now, New Zealand researchers, led by Professor Neil Gemmell, decided to take the search one step further.

Instead of looking for visual evidence, they will resort to science to find Nessie. They will collect DNA samples from the lake and then measure the environmental indicators in them. This means they will look at traces of DNA that might belong to the creatures in the lake.

Most of this DNA comes from animal leftovers, such as fur, skin, or scales. As it lingers in water, researchers will be able to catch these DNA strands and then sequence them. Soon after sequencing, they can compare the results with an already existent database of creatures on Earth. Also, they will get a list of all the animals in the Loch.

The analysis can highlight more about all the creatures living in the lake

Professor Gemmell isn’t too optimistic about this method, but he said it was worth trying. Through the analysis, he hoped they could find a strand of unknown DNA similar to a large reptile or a dinosaur. This would test the hypothesis that the Loch Ness monster is some sort of dinosaur who could survive the asteroid impact and retreated underwater. However, another viable theory is that Nessie should be a large catfish or another big marine creature.

However, the purpose of this study isn’t only to find the mysterious monster. By looking at all the DNA in the lake, researchers can learn more about all the creatures that live there. They don’t know much of the lake bacteria or the other microorganisms, so this is a great occasion to find out more.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

NASA is about to produce the coldest temperature in the universe by using some lasers and a tiny lab the size of a box. Called the Cold Atom Laboratory, the box in question will reach the International Space Station where it will produce a spot with a temperature 10 billion times lower than the one of the space vacuum.

The box-sized lab should achieve the coldest temperature ever recorded in the universe

Temperatures affect the properties of atoms, so studying them when they are hot or cold will return interesting observations. However, nobody has actually managed to look at the state of extremely cold atoms and see what quantum properties they exhibit. For this, NASA scientists decided to create the Cold Atom Laboratory.

The purpose of this box-sized lab is to achieve the coldest temperature in the universe. It will take a bundle of atoms, slow them down, and then bring them to the lowest temperature ever achieved in the universe. This is only a bit higher than absolute zero, but it’s known as zero Kelvin. In other words, it translates as -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

Atoms exhibit interesting quantum properties when they reach such low temperatures

Therefore, this is not precisely the coldest temperature in the universe, but it’s coldest than anything in the outer space. The absolute low is absolute zero, but this is basically impossible to achieve or to measure. At that temperature, atoms stop moving, so no observations are possible.

However, the Cold Atom Laboratory brings the atoms as close as possible to this coldest temperature. At that state, atoms get incredibly slow, and researchers are interested in the quantum phenomena they exhibit at this point.

It was absolutely necessary that the experiment should happen in space. Such slow atoms are technically possible to create on Earth. However, there’s one factor that intervenes, namely gravity. This makes them impossible to observe for more than a second, but the microgravity on the ISS will keep these atoms visible for up to 10 seconds.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Birds need to sit on their eggs if they want them to hatch, as the tiny embryos need warmth and protection. The same went for prehistoric reptiles, but can you imagine hatching dinosaur eggs without the massive monsters squashing them? A recent study developed by researchers from the University of Calgary discovered that dinosaurs used a different technique that kept the eggs safe.

Dinosaurs arranged their eggs in spiral formations

Incubation is essential for any egg. This process basically consists of the birds sitting on their eggs and keeping them warm until they hatch. Birds can easily do this without squashing the eggs but, throughout history, there have been bigger animals that had to bring their eggs to hatching.

If you think of the process in a classical manner, you might say dinosaur eggs were in great danger. However, researchers discovered the massive lizards adopted a completely different technique. This way, they could avoid squashing the eggs and keep their young ones safe.

It turns out dinosaurs arranged their eggs around themselves in a spiral shape. All formations depended on the actual size of the dinosaurs, so there were various shapes and sizes of each egg arrangement. Researchers discovered this phenomenon when they stumbled upon 40 dinosaur nests. These contained eggs fossilized in interesting formations that belonged to bird-like species, oviraptorosaurs.

The strange formation might have had a different purpose

Each nest had a different shape and appearance. Some of them were small and the dinosaur eggs were crowded against each other, while others had plenty of space. This means that dinosaurs of all sizes adopted this formation without crushing their eggs.

This doesn’t really resemble bird nests, so things might be really different here. Birds sit on their eggs for warmth, but dinosaurs might have done it with something else in mind. The strange formation of the nests might mean they were more interested in protecting the eggs.

The study on dinosaur eggs was published in the journal Biology Letters.

Image source: Pixabay

A team of Australian scientists have just discovered a monster black hole that would be ready to engorge our Sun anytime. The formation lies at the beginning of the universe, 12 billion light years away, and it has the fastest speed of growth ever seen.

The monster black hole would be capable of devouring our sun

While researchers were looking at the early universe, they stumbled upon this monster black hole. The impressive formation is able to absorb our sun and consume the equivalent of its mass once every two days. Its size is also impressive, as it measures about as much as 20 billion suns put together. It reached this tremendous size at an impressive speed, as it grows by one percent once every million of years.

Given its impressive size, it absorbs all sorts of gases that interact and produce all kinds of movements and heat. This makes the monster black hole incredibly bright, outshining even a big galaxy. If the hole were closer to us, it would look brighter than a full moon. Therefore, it’s easy to understand how researchers spotted it even if it’s so far away.

The black hole emits radiation that is detectable as infrared

However, it’s a good thing our planet is not so close to such a monster black hole. Apart from absorbing gases, it would have emanated all kinds of radiations that would have made life on Earth impossible. Since it’s so far away, the rays it emitted changed their formation and trajectory several times before reaching us. Therefore, researchers detected them by using infrared equipment.

This is the first monster black hole ever spotted by researchers. It’s interesting to see such formations came into being when the universe was so young, so they are now wondering if there are others that look the same. Therefore, they are currently looking for other fast-growing formations that might be comparable to this one.

The study on the monster black hole is soon to be published in a science journal but is already available on arXiv.

Image source: GoodFreePhotos

If you ever wondered why our climate is in a certain way, it turns out we are being influenced from outer space. For quite a long time, researchers have been assuming that Jupiter and Venus are issuing a gravitational pull on our planet that is influencing our life and climate. Now, they have finally managed to prove it through a new study.

Jupiter and Venus seem to be issuing a combined gravitational pull on Earth

Venus is the closest planet to ours, while Jupiter is the biggest one in the Solar System. Therefore, it is understandable that they should have some influence on Earth. Now, researchers have developed a study saying their gravitational pull slowly affects our life forms and climate. This should happen during a lengthy cycle that lasts about 405,000 years.

Venus is not such big of a planet to have a huge impact on us. However, its gravity combined with the gravity of Jupiter seem to produce some small disruptions of our orbit. As a result, whenever seasons are changing, we might perceive more intense effects. This means our summers are getting hotter, winters are getting colder, and storms occur more often.

This gravitational pull might have an influence on climate change

This sounds quite familiar. After a few observations, researchers concluded we are currently facing the peak of the Jupiter and Venus cycle. They also say this cycle has been happening for the past 215 million years. Therefore, many of the major events that happened throughout history could have been a result of this gravitational pull issued by Jupiter and Venus.

However, this influence on climate is more or less a speculation. While the phenomenon could have produced some changes, it’s a bit far-fetched to blame it for climate change. There are many other factors that contribute to it, and our carbon dioxide emissions probably make the top of the list. However, we still shouldn’t dismiss it as completely impossible.

The study on the gravitational pull of Jupiter and Venus was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image source: Pixabay