Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
Artificial Intelligence has just helped astronomers discover a new crater on the surface of Mars that has revealed a long-hidden secret. As per the new findings, meteoroids striking Mars produce seismic signals that can reach deeper than previously known. The details are the result of joint work by Nasa Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the now-dead InSight lander, which had its ears to the ground listening for aftershocks. The team used an AI model to analyse pictures and search for craters within roughly 3,000 kilometers of InSight’s location. By comparing before-and-after images from the Context Camera over a range of time, they found 123 fresh craters to cross-reference with InSight’s data; 49 of those were potential matches with quakes detected by the lander’s seismometer.
In an innovative research, scientists are planning to observe marine life from space. Krill are food for some of the largest animals on the planet - including giant whales that migrate thousands of kilometres, to Antarctica, to feed on them. They are also the foundation of a healthy ocean - part of a virtuous cycle: Whales eat krill, krill eat microscopic plants that live in sea ice, and those plants absorb planet-warming carbon as they grow. When whales poop (in vast quantities), that fertilises the planet-cooling marine plants. Scientists said subtle differences in the colour of seawater will enable them to count tiny - but critically important - Antarctic marine creatures from Space.
NASA is set to launch a new telescope that will provide astronomers with a big-picture view of the cosmos like none before. SPHEREx space observatory will launch on February 27, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, to map the entire celestial sky in 102 infrared colours, illuminating the origins of our universe, and galaxies within it. SPHEREx stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. One of the key objectives of the new space observatory will be to search the Milky Way galaxy for essential building blocks of life. SPHEREx will also work in tandem with the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
A recent study has confirmed that sugary drinks are responsible for over 2.2 million cases of diabetes and 1.1 million cases of heart disease in a year globally. The research revealed that as many as one in six new cases of type 2 diabetes can be attributed to fizzy and sugary drinks, making up nearly 10 per cent of the total cases. The lead author said “We need urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, before even more lives are shortened by their effects on diabetes and heart disease.”
