Month: December 2024

Handle on history: Knives embedded with rocket parts honor 45 years of Ariane launches

NeRD

A French company that crafts knife handles from leftover rocket metal and the wood from trees surrounding the rocket’s launch pad has created a limited-edition piece celebrating the anniversary of Europe’s venerable expendable heavy-lift vehicle. SpacePep’s has introduced its “45 Years of Ariane” folding knife. Each of the 100 individually-numbered knives is made with metal from the production of an Ariane 5 rocket, which is embedded in the snakewood handle. “It was indeed on Dec. 24, 1979, that the first Ariane launcher in history took off from the ELA1 launch…

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Mysterious fast radio bursts could be caused by asteroids slamming into dead stars

NeRD

Scientists have discovered that mysterious blasts of energy called fast radio bursts (FRBs) may be created when asteroids slam into ultradense extreme dead stars called neutron stars. Such a collision releases enough energy to supply humanity’s power needs for 100 million years! FRBs are transient pulses of radio waves that can last from a fraction of a millisecond to a few seconds. In this period, an FRB can release the same amount of energy that it would take the sun several days to radiate. The first FRB was observed in…

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Could dark matter have been forged in a ‘Dark Big Bang?’

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Our common understanding of the universe tells us that all matter and energy were created at the beginning of time during a period of rapid inflation called the Big Bang. However, in 2023, Katherine Freese, director of the Texas Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, and Martin Wolfgang Winkler of the University of Texas suggested a radical new idea: a “second Big Bang.” This “Dark Big Bang” would have given rise to the universe’s most mysterious “stuff,” known as dark matter. Now, two scientists from Colgate University have expanded on…

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Interview with Luke Sollitt

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Let’s begin by Inquiring into your early years, your childhood, where you were born, where you grew up, what your family was like? Do you have siblings? What did your parents do, and how young were you when you developed an interest in what has become your career? I was born in Boston. My mom lived in Vermont at the time, so it’s kind of a home state. We moved to the Washington DC area, to Alexandria, when I was about four. I have a brother whose name is Ian.…

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4375-4381: A Stuffed Holiday Plan

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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto & Dwarf Planets Asteroids, Comets & Meteors The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud 3 min read 4375-4381: A Stuffed Holiday Plan NASA’s Mars rover…

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NASA to Cover its 31st SpaceX Resupply Mission Station Departure

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The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departs the International Space Station as it orbits 264 miles above the south Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand. Credit: NASA NASA and its international partners are set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 5, for its return to Earth. NASA’s live coverage of undocking and departure begins at 10:50 a.m. EST on NASA+. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media. The Dragon spacecraft will…

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Experience the Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Mission  

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jsc2024e064444 (Sept. 30, 2024) — The crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission (from left) mission specialist Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers, pilot, and Anne McClain, commander, along with Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), pose for a picture during training at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition mission as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.…

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Cyber Monday Meta Quest 3 deal: Get a free Batman game and a three-month trial of Meta Quest Plus.

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There’s a Cyber Monday Meta Quest 3 deal available and you’ve still got time to get it: A free game and a free three-month trial of Meta Quest+ included. We love the Quest 3 and it sits at the top of our best VR headset deals guide. Get Batman: Arkham Shadow and a three-month free trial of Meta Quest+: Included with the Meta Quest 3. You can check out our Meta Quest 3 review for a more in-depth look at it but we found that it’s the best overall VR…

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