Published By: Sayan Paul

Science & Space Roundup: Top News of the Day (Nov 26)

Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.

Earth's Rotation Has Tilted 31.5 Inches - And It's Because Of Humans

According to a recent study (conducted in South Korea), the Earth has tilted approximately 31.5 inches since 1993. And it happened solely due to human activities, and not any space phenomenon. The findings have been published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.

Ki-Weon Seo, the geophysicist with Seoul National University who led the study, said in a statement, "Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole." He added that the movement of this water is also leading to a massive rise in sea levels.

The study found that over 2,150 gigatons of groundwater have been extracted by humans. As Seo explained, our planet "spins differently as water is moved", adding the redistribution of waters alters the angle of Earth’s rotational axis.

(Credit: Firstpost)

SpaceX Launches 23 Starlink Satellites into Space

SpaceX launched another 23 Starlink internet satellites (including 12 with direct-to-smartphone capability) on Monday. As the US space company revealed, these satellites were all launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. And it was the 13th launch and landing for this particular booster.

(Credit: SpaceX)

Notably, this is part of the Starlink constellation, which currently comprises over 6,600 active satellites - regarded as the largest satellite constellation ever assembled. It aims to provide high-speed internet access worldwide, including in remote areas. This is expected to advance global communication infrastructure and enhance overall user experiences.

What Lies Beneath Uranus and Neptune's Surfaces? Study Says 5,000 Miles of Deep Oceans

For several decades, scientists and researchers have been trying to understand what lies beneath the surfaces of Uranus and Neptune - the two ice-giant planets. There have been some theories that these planets have diamond rain within them. However, a recent study suggests that there may be 5,000 miles of deep ocean of water. It also suggests that there's a layer of hydrocarbons beneath the waters, which is a highly compressed fluid of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen.

This research was led by Burkhard Militzer, a planetary scientist from the University of California, Berkeley. The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(Credit: FarLife)

As Militzer explained in a statement, "We now have, I would say, a good theory why Uranus and Neptune have different fields, and it's very different from Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. We didn't know this before. It's like oil and water, except the oil goes below because hydrogen is lost.”

NASA Tests SWIM Robots for Potential Missions to Jupiter's Moon

It was earlier reported that NASA - the US Space Agency - has developed futuristic robots called SWIM (Sensing With Independent Microswimmers) to explore potential extraterrestrial oceans on Jupiter and Saturn's moons. Now, according to the latest reports, these small underwater robots were recently tested in the swimming pool at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). They executed a back-and-forth "lawnmower" pattern, and even spelled out "J-P-L".

A team of scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who designed and tested the SWIM robots, stated that these will be sent to the icy moons in the solar system (such as Europa of Jupiter) to detect chemical and temperature signals that might indicate alien life. As Ethan Schaler, the project's principal investigator at JPL, said in a statement, "People might ask, why is NASA developing an underwater robot for space exploration? It's because there are places, we want to go in the solar system to look for life, and we think life needs water."