SpaceX will today attempt to launch its largest rocket yet, the Falcon Heavy.
An upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket the spaceflight company has been flying for over two years now, the latest addition to the SpaceX arsenal will be capable of lifting more payload to orbit than any rocket today. The launch is set for sometime between 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. Eastern today.
The payload will is a red Tesla roadster (playing David Bowie's "Space Oddity," naturally), and the SpaceX CEO says i ...read more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense became the latest agency to adopt a burgeoning start-up boot camp pioneered by the National Science Foundation’s Errol Arkilic.
In 2011, Arkilic reached out to Steve Blank, a Stanford University professor who would soon be one of Silicon Valley’s most influential innovators.
“I’ve been reading your blog,” Arkilic told Blank. He had 10,000 scientists hoping to turn their research into tech startups. Blank’s m ...read more
A series of papers out today gives us further insights into the TRAPPIST-1 system discovered in 2016.
The seven planets that make up the system orbit a dim red dwarf star much smaller and cooler than our own Sun. The planets' orbits are much tighter than in our solar system, and they're all closer to their home star than Mercury is to the Sun. Three of them are thought to be in the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist.
The TRAPPIST Seven
The system is relatively close, only 4 ...read more
In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of Spanish astronomers announced the discovery of one of the first stars to form in the Milky Way. The unevolved star, called J0815+4729, is located 7,500 light-years away in the halo of the Milky Way and likely formed just 300 million years after the Big Bang, some 13.5 billion years ago.
“We know of only a few stars (which can be counted on the fingers of a hand) of this type in the halo [of the Milky W ...read more
Cheetahs evolved to become the fastest animals on land. Now scientists find that not only do swift limbs help cheetahs hunt down prey, but so too do tiny bony tubes within their skulls that help the cats keep their gazes locked on their targets.
Cheetahs have been clocked sprinting at up to 61 miles per hour, speeds that help them chase fleet prey such as gazelles. Intriguingly, while cheetahs run, their heads barely move, helping them hold an incredibly still gaze on their prey while in ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine