SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk will donate $50 million to benefit childhood cancer research by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, launching an ambitious fundraiser by the private Inspiration4 space mission beyond its $200 million goal. Musk made the pledge late Saturday (Sept. 18) after the four private astronauts of the Inspiration4 mission returned safely to Earth with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Florida coast. The mission was financed by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who bought the flight with SpaceX and served as its…
Read MoreMonth: September 2021
1st ‘atom tornado’ created from swirling vortex of helium atoms
Physicists have created the first-ever atomic vortex beam — a swirling tornado of atoms and molecules with mysterious properties that have yet to be understood. By sending a straight beam of helium atoms through a grating with teeny slits, scientists were able to use the weird rules of quantum mechanics to transform the beam into a whirling vortex. The extra gusto provided by the beam’s rotation, called orbital angular momentum, gives it a new direction to move in, enabling it to act in ways that researchers have yet to predict.…
Read MoreSpaceX’s private Inspiration4 crew returns to Earth with historic splashdown off Florida coast
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After three days in space, SpaceX’s first all-civilian crew returned to Earth tonight, splashing down off the Florida coast to end a historic mission. “It’s been an amazing ride for everyone,” Inspiration4 mission director Kip O’Keefe said in a post-splashdown news conference. “We couldn’t ask for a more successful mission.” The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience gently landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida tonight (Sept. 18) at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT) marking the end of the Inspiration4 mission, a private…
Read MoreHasbro unveils new Star Wars ‘Black Series’ and ‘Vintage Collection’ figures (including a new lightsaber!)
Become one with the force with Hasbro’s latest additions to “The Black Series” and “The Vintage Collection” lines of models, including a replica of Rey Skywalker’s iconic lightsaber from “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.” The new products were unveiled during Hasbro’s “Star Wars Fan First” livestream and will include many fan favorites such as The Mandalorian and Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), Emperor Palpatine, Stormtroopers and Lando Calrissian. All the toys and models revealed by the toy maker will be available to purchase from the Spring of 2022, but no…
Read MoreOtherworldly ‘time crystal’ made inside Google quantum computer could change physics forever
Researchers working in partnership with Google may have just used the tech giant’s quantum computer to create a completely new phase of matter — a time crystal. With the ability to forever cycle between two states without ever losing energy, time crystals dodge one of the most important laws of physics — the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the disorder, or entropy, of an isolated system must always increase. These bizarre time crystals remain stable, resisting any dissolution into randomness, despite existing in a constant state of flux. …
Read MoreSpaceX’s Inspiration4 crew is having a blast and doing science in orbit (video)
From ultrasounds to ukulele jam sessions and space art, it appears the Inspiration4 crew is staying busy in orbit. The four private astronauts, who are currently orbiting Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, made a video call to Earth on Friday (Sept. 17) to give a live tour of their spacecraft, show off their amazing view and share some of the science and extracurricular activities they’ve been doing while in space. “We’ve been doing a lot of great things here, like looking out the window at Earth,” Jared Isaacman,…
Read MoreSpaceX Inspiration4 mission crew talks to St. Jude patients from space (video)
In between playfully snacking on M&Ms, the all-civilian Inspiration4 crew took a break from their science-heavy mission to chat with kid patients from a Memphis children’s hospital. The three-day Earth-orbiting mission, which launched Wednesday (Sept. 15), aims to raise $200 million and a lot of publicity for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, which is where the adorable press conference came in. Among the four crew members on the private SpaceX mission is former hospital cancer patient Haley Arceneaux, 29, who is the first astronaut to fly with a prosthetic. Arceneaux is…
Read More60-second Astro News: Solving Supernova Mysteries
This week, astronomers have solved one supernova mystery and predicted a new one — to be solved in 2037. The post 60-second Astro News: Solving Supernova Mysteries appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreSpace Station Science Highlights: Week of September 13, 2021
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of Sept. 13 that included detecting and quantifying human stressors during spaceflight, examining 3D structures assembled from small particles, and using microorganisms to study how life adapts to the extreme environment of space.
Read MoreIndie artist’s space-bound song features a New Jersey planetarium
[embedded content] Indie-pop artist Foxanne’s new single, “I Could Go On,” which is currently in orbit around Earth, highlights the contribution of a science center that continues to provide science education to the community amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The song flew to space Sept. 15 with the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in the personal playlist of mission pilot Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and science communicator who is befriended Foxanne during a simulated, or analog, Mars mission in 2020. (Full disclosure: Foxanne’s real name is Chelsea Gohd, a senior writer at Space.com. The…
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