Earth | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 11 Apr 2016 11:58:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Earth | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Space X Dragon Capsule docks with ISS after booster landing https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/space-x-dragon-capsule-docks-with-iss-after-booster-landing/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/space-x-dragon-capsule-docks-with-iss-after-booster-landing/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:29:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=289216 Space travel might be difficult and expensive, but sometimes everything goes to plan. That's what happened in the case of Space X's launch last week, which used a Falcon 9 to send a payload bound for the International Space Station into orbit, before touching back down on a drone barge. Completing the successful mission, the …

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Space travel might be difficult and expensive, but sometimes everything goes to plan. That's what happened in the case of Space X's launch last week, which used a Falcon 9 to send a payload bound for the International Space Station into orbit, before touching back down on a drone barge. Completing the successful mission, the resupply capsule has now successfully docked.

In this, Space X's third launch with its Falcon 9 v1.1 system, a giant success was recorded when it was returned safely to Earth and touched down without incident on Space X's automated barge. While previous attempts have been made and a successful land-based touchdown has been recorded, this was the first time it was able to land safely at sea.

While Friday saw a big success though, Sunday saw another, as the Dragon capsule, successfully launched into orbit by the returning rocket two days before, docked with the International Space Station, delivering the ever-needed supplies. Perhaps more importantly though, it also dropped off a new type of crew compartment, which could revolutionise space permanence.

As it stands, the ISS is constructed with heavy, metallic components. The new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, is an inflatable space ship habitat, which weighs far less than traditional ISS segments. It will be expanded and left for testing, un-crewed and uninhabited, for the next two years.

Experiments will be conducted in it and on its structural integrity, but safety precautions will be taken. It's hoped that all will be well by the end of its experimental phase, at which point it may be that future space stations are constructed from similar segments, making them far easier to put together and much more economical to get into space in the first place.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: An all round successful launch. Now we turn to the first Space X launch to re-use a booster segment. If that craft can land safely, then we have a truly re-usable rocket on our hands. 

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NASA releases new dark side of the moon image https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/nasa-releases-new-dark-side-of-the-moon-image/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/nasa-releases-new-dark-side-of-the-moon-image/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2015 08:01:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=262556 The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCO) was launched earlier this year atop a Space X Falcon 9 rocket and it currently sits within a Lissajous orbit 930,000 miles from Earth. It's been sending back data on the ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere since and it's all been very useful. But perhaps its …

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The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCO) was launched earlier this year atop a Space X Falcon 9 rocket and it currently sits within a Lissajous orbit 930,000 miles from Earth. It's been sending back data on the ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere since and it's all been very useful. But perhaps its most intriguing bit of data yet – at least for us laymen – is a beautiful image of the dark side of the moon as it crossed across the Earth.

Since our Moon is tidally locked, the face you see in the sky at night is always the same. That doesn't mean there isn't another side to it though, which is what the DSCO recently managed to take a picture of with its “EPIC” – Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera – system. The EPIC keeps a constant view of the earth as it rotates, but the moon crossing it's path like this only happens twice a year, so capturing it like this is quite an event.

It also shows how relatively easy such a viewing is these days however. As NASA's blog points out, the far side of the moon was a total mystery to everyone until the 1959 Soviet Luna 3 sent back the first images.

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It's amazing how much brighter the Earth is than the moon

Ever striving for perfection, NASA does point out that there is a small green artifact on the right hand side of the moon. This is due to the moon moving between images taken, all of which are actually in black and white, with filters used to add colour. Traditionally 10 images including ultraviolet and near-infrated are combined, but creating the colour for an image like this is as simple as combining a red one, a blue one and a green one.

Although new images of our blue marble are often hailed with big news, the EPIC camera system will begin delivering almost daily image updates next month.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: When we can send satellites out to these sorts of complicated orbits, land remote rovers on comets and other planets, it boggles the mind that people still don't think we've done something as comparably simple as land people on the moon.

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NASA announces discovery of most Earth-like planet yet https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/nasa-announces-discovery-of-most-earth-like-planet-yet/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/nasa-announces-discovery-of-most-earth-like-planet-yet/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2015 09:49:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=260595 The search for a planet that is as Earth-like as possible is an important one. Not only could it one day prove to be a second home for humanity when we stretch our influence outside of the confines of this solar system, but it could also potentially be a place to find life as we …

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The search for a planet that is as Earth-like as possible is an important one. Not only could it one day prove to be a second home for humanity when we stretch our influence outside of the confines of this solar system, but it could also potentially be a place to find life as we know it. So it's with great fan-fare that NASA has announced that its Kepler mission has discovered a planet that closely resembles our own home world: Kepler 452-B.

The catchily named planet is located in the Kepler 452 system, around 1400 light years from Earth, so we won't be visiting any time soon. However, we have learned a lot about it and what we know already is very exciting. The planet orbits a G2-type star, similar to our own sun and is located within the ‘habitable zone‘ which means liquid water can exist on the surface.

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An artist's interpretation of Earth and 452-B in an epic face off. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

That is one of the key components of life, but there are others to consider too. 452-B is a similar size to the Earth – around 60 per cent larger in diameter. That means that its gravity likely won't be so crushing as to prevent life from forming. We don't know the planet's mass as of yet, but we do know that its orbit around the Kepler system's star is only five per cent longer than our own 365 day trip around the sun.

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment,” said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California (via NASA).

The Kepler 452 system is about six billion years old, or 1.5 billion more than our own solar system. That means that 452-B is also likely older than Earth, meaning it will have had more time to generate life if indeed it has the correct conditions to do so. However the suggestion that it is a rocky planet and could house active volcanoes is further evidence that makes it a prime candidate for such a world.

In the near future, scientists hope to perform atmospheric tests to find out just what components make up the air on 452-B.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Exciting stuff. Now we just need to hold out hope that nothing goes wrong with the James Webb Space Telescope, as it should give us even better views of such planets when it's launched (hopefully) in 2018. 

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Rosetta data suggests comets didn’t seed Earth’s water https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/rosetta-data-suggests-comets-didnt-seed-earths-water/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/jon-martindale/rosetta-data-suggests-comets-didnt-seed-earths-water/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2014 09:51:31 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=225852 As smart as humans like to think they are, we have only been kicking around this planet in our current form for 200,000 years or so. When compared with the age of the universe, or even our own little rock within it, that's not even a minute on the cosmic calendar. Still, we did manage …

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As smart as humans like to think they are, we have only been kicking around this planet in our current form for 200,000 years or so. When compared with the age of the universe, or even our own little rock within it, that's not even a minute on the cosmic calendar. Still, we did manage to land a probe on a comet several hundred million miles away and thanks to it and its orbiting parent's scientific experiments we now know, probably, that Comets didn't seed our planet with water. At least not on their own.

The idea that water on Earth came from comets was a theory that has been bandied around for some time, but based on the chemical composition of the water found within the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, that now seems unlikely. Why? Because water on earth is almost entirely H20, that is, two hydrogen molecules combined with an oxygen molecule. However, very occasionally, say one in ever 10,000 water molecules, instead of the Hydrogen-1 isotope (protium) there is instead, a Hydrogen-2 isotope, known as deuterium. Otherwise known as “heavy water.”

On earth, that sort of molecule is very rare, but not in 67P.

Speaking with the BBC's Radio 4 Inside Science programme, professor Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern – who was the principle investigator of the instrument used to measure water on Rosetta – said:
“It is the highest-ever measured ratio of heavy water relative to light water in the Solar System.

“It is more than three times higher than on the Earth, which means that this kind of comet could not have brought water to the Earth.”

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Formed billions of years ago, 67P could hold all sorts of secrets about our solar system's formation

As convinced as she is however, it's worth noting that we have only analysed water on two comets that come from the Kuiper belt, a region of space within our solar system that extends beyond the planets. On top of that, the comet other than 67P that we looked at, the much more easy to pronounce, Hartley 2, did contain water profiles much more like our oceans on Earth.

Altwegg believes these differences account for different regions in the formation of the belt during the early life of the solar system. Instead of these comets seeding a young Earth's water, she believes that asteroids are more likely to be responsible. Her reasoning, was that in samples of asteroids – metorites – that we've studied, their “characteristics… are very much like our water.”

She also noted that they orbit closer to the Sun and are therefore far more likely to impact the Earth.

Not everyone agrees of course, with some still holding on to the comet-water theory. Those who do, want us to study comets from closer to the Earth, those currently orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, in what's known as the “main-belt.”

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: This is some real time machine stuff guys. Comets are time capsules from billions of years ago and we just dug this one up. 

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Earth like planet discovered by NASA spacecraft https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/raymond-daily/earth-like-planet-discovered-by-nasa-spacecraft/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/science/raymond-daily/earth-like-planet-discovered-by-nasa-spacecraft/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:01:09 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=69663 NASA's planet hunting spacecraft Kepler has discovered a new alien world in its host star's habitable zone. This find could mean the planet is capable of holding water. This latest find is the 2,326 find from Kepler, in the first 16 months of it being active. These findings, if confirmed would quadruple the current list …

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NASA's planet hunting spacecraft Kepler has discovered a new alien world in its host star's habitable zone. This find could mean the planet is capable of holding water.

This undated handout artist rendering provided by NASA shows Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/AP

This latest find is the 2,326 find from Kepler, in the first 16 months of it being active. These findings, if confirmed would quadruple the current list of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system.

This is the first planet which could be potentially habitable, a first. This planet orbits a star, like our own sun.

Kitguru says: Scientists are particularly excited as the first step to finding a planet like Earth has just been taken.

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Follow your crap on Google, for a good cause https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/faith/follow-your-crap-on-google-for-a-good-cause/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/faith/follow-your-crap-on-google-for-a-good-cause/#respond Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:52:40 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=24386 When scientists embark on multi-billion dollar projects to launch satellites, map the earth and set up the most advanced tracking & computational centres ever seen, they were probably in Star Trek mode. Certain that they were adding to the sum of human knowledge and helping NASA to reach for the stars. You'd think. What if, …

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When scientists embark on multi-billion dollar projects to launch satellites, map the earth and set up the most advanced tracking & computational centres ever seen, they were probably in Star Trek mode. Certain that they were adding to the sum of human knowledge and helping NASA to reach for the stars. You'd think. What if, instead, you took that technology and tracked your crap?  KitGuru dons a nose plug and heads into the world of high-tech sewage technology.

Many people have had dreams where they are trying to get away from an unseen threat. Normally, this feeling of fear is accompanied by an inability to reach escape velocity. You can't quite run as fast as you do in the waking world, the threat itself is always gaining on you and the environment changes suddenly to add even more adrenaline rush. Keep that in mind for now, we'll come back to it.

Domestos is the household cleaning project that kills all known germs dead (or, at least that's what it says on the bottle).

In addition to producing the most powerful bleach you're ever likely to pour down your toilet, they are also keen to bring better/safer toilet facilities to those around the world where human waste stays exactly where it's put.

Enter the smart applications development people and their ‘Toilet Tracker App'. What does it do?  Well, in a nutshell, you give it the starting time/place of your latest flush – and it provides tracking facilities in real time.

With your pop-up blocker disabled, you can access this intriguing application here, http://www.flushtracker.com

At first, you're certain that this is some kind of joke

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Having launched your missile, you will find yourself fascinated by the projectile's progress. It's like the first time you see an in-flight application showing where you are over Europe. It's dull, but gripping at the same time.

Since we started typing this piece, KitGuru's own log has managed to travel almost 2 miles at 4.23 miles per hour. Generally north. Saying that, there were some very interesting turns at the start. We guess that it's like a giant, underground torrent that swarms together.

If you find this fun and want to help the less fortunate around the world improve their toilet facilities and overall standard of life, then you have the option to donate here as well.

What a smart way to use technology in order to inform and help

KitGuru says: While some might say that this is a s**t idea, to us it seems like a really smart way to use technology in order to engage and inform.  Well done Domestos for thinking that far outside the box!   If you'd like to help those less fortunate than yourself, please ping this story to some friends. It will probably make them laugh – and it will definitely raise awareness of a real problem.

What's your thoughts ?

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