Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
NASA has just revealed a prototype of a unique telescope for a new space-based gravitational wave detection. This Telescope development is a part of the Laser Interferometer Space Antena (LISA) mission, a joint venture by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. The main objective of this mission is placing 3 spacecraft in a triangular orbit approximately 2.57 million kilometers on each side. The LISA mission is slotted to launch in the mid-2030s, which is believed to reveal unknown facts about the universe, especially black holes. Meanwhile, the concept of Gravitational waves was proposed by Albert Einstein in 1916.
(Credit - World Atlas)
As the climate crisis intensifies, scientists have been analyzing different strategies to cool the planet. According to a recently published study by a multi-institutional team, spraying millions of tonnes of diamond dust in the Earth's upper atmosphere annually could reduce the temperature. Employing 3D climate models, the team found the utility of diamond dust in cooling the planet. One major positive side of this approach is chemically inert nature of diamond which will not produce acid rain. However, this strategy will only be applicable before earth reaching the tipping point.
The crew members at the International Space Station (ISS) are continuously conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations. If you are a space enthusiast, you can now track all these research by Space Station Research Xplorer (SSRX) mobile application. It will provide information on experiments, special facilities, research benefits, as well as published results. The app will also provide summaries of each investigation along with photos, videos as well as additional reference links. The app, which gets updated every month, is also available to the astronauts in space.
We all know that an asteroid eradicated dinosaurs from the world millions of years ago. However, one asteroid might have caused formation of life on this planet. The meteorite under study was first discovered in 2014 and was 200 times bigger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. This caused a lot of heat generation boiling the oceans and promoting the biggest tsunami ever reported in the history of mankind.
“Iron-rich water from the depths came up to the surface because of the tsunami which gave early microbes extra energy. This finding cements the belief that early life received ample help from other rocks that struck Earth in its early years,” said Prof Drabon from Harvard University.
