NASA’s Paker Solar Probe is currently in stage two of its mission, and just recently, it managed to capture solar winds for the first time. It’s set to become the first spacecraft to fly into the low solar corona and will assess the structure and dynamics of the Sun’s coronal plasma, magnetic field, the energy flow that heats the solar corona as well as the mechanisms that accelerate energetic particles. Read more for the video and additional information.
You’re not looking at a specimen placed under a microscope, but rather NGC 2022, a jellyfish-like planetary nebula. How do these form? When stars like the Sun grow advanced in age, they expand before glowing red, and then these red giants begin to lose their outer layers of material into space. Since over half of a star’s mass can be shed in this manner, a shell of surrounding gas is formed, while causing the star’s core shrinks and grows hotter, thus emitting ultraviolet light. Read more for a video on nebulae and additional information.
Boston Dyamics may be the most well known robotics maker online for their SpotMini and BigDog robots, but researchers at Florida Atlantic University may have something to rival them, called “Astro”. This robot dog uses AI, powered by NVIDIA Jetson TX2 graphics processing units installed in its 3D-printed head, to respond to commands. Yes, it has four teraflops of computing power as well as a radar imaging module, cameras, and a directional microphone to interpret exactly what you’re saying, while still being aware of its environment. Read more for a video and additional information.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has officially opened Spaceport America, its future hub for space tourism. We get a first glimpse at its luxurious lounge area and amenities for future travelers. Ticket holders who have already paid $200,000 or more for a Virgin Galactic flight will soon be checking in at this spaceport before they board a supersonic plane for a 90-minute ride into Earth’s upper atmosphere. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Photo credit: Instagram
Finally, Apple’s first-ever credit card launched earlier this month, and simply put, it lives in the Wallet app on your iPhone. Once activated, it shows you a plethora of information about your spending habits, and the card even changes color depending on what you buy. Unlike a traditional credit card, the Apple Card conceals your identifying information and uses machine learning to interpret transactions into stunning graphs. Read more to see a famous YouTuber unbox his as well as provide some hands-on first impressions.
NASA teases us with new pictures of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley performing “suit-up procedures” at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. In other words, they tested the suits in various scenarios, such as dry runs, launch, and even emergency events, walking through every step required before launching into space on the Falcon 9 rocket towards the International Space Station. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
Russia’s FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Research) humanoid robot is set to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 22nd, where it will spend a 1.5-weeks aboard the orbital outpost. In the future, humanoid robots like this will be sent to the moon in preparation for a manned mission to the Earth’s natural satellite. “We will have a preparatory stage on that matter – first, we will send a humanoid robot there, and only after that we will send humans, after we study all the risks and learn to cope with them,” said Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
Snap officially unveiled Spectacles 3 today, the latest version of their sunglasses, packed with dual HD cameras to empower creativity in 3D. They begin shipping during Fall 2019, and are capable of providing a rich 3D canvas for self-expression as well as a suite of new 3D Effects on Snapchat. This next-generation model comes equipped with two HD cameras to capture Snaps in 3D and also allow you to seamlessly transfer in HD to Memories within Snapchat for new lighting, landscapes, and other magical effects. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: Alexey Andreev
Typically, a Mars rover refers to a motor vehicle capable of traversing across the Red Planet, whether it be relocating to sunny positions for recharging or to a safer area to weather the violent winter months. JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) has successfully landed four of these rovers: Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity. However, it’s only a matter of time until we see commercial vehicles on the Martian surface, including Land Rover’s Mission Terraform concept by Alexey Andreev. Read more for additional pictures and information.
Samsung in close collaboration between Xiaomi today officially introduced the world’s first 108-megapixel ISOCELL Bright HMX mobile image sensor. It’s the first to go beyond 100 million pixels, and it expands its 0.8μm image sensor offerings from its recently announced ultra-high 64Mp to 108Mp, a resolution equivalent to that of a high-end DSLR camera. Read more for another picture and additional informationn.