A tremendous pulse of gamma-ray radiation that swept through our solar system on October 9, 2022, overwhelmed the gamma-ray detectors on multiple orbiting satellites and sent astronomers on the run to investigate the event using the most potent telescopes in the world.

The newly discovered source, designated GRB 221009A in honor of the time it was found, ended up becoming the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed.The gamma-ray burst, which lasted for more than 300 seconds, is thought to be the first sign of the birth of a black hole, which is created when the center of a large, rapidly spinning star shatters under the weight of itself.At nearly light speed, powerful plasma jets are ejected from the growing black hole, penetrating the falling star and emitting gamma rays.

Observations of GRB 221009A from radio waves to gamma rays, including crucial millimeter-wave observations with the Centre for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonians Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawaii, shed new light on the decades-long quest to understand the origin of these extreme cosmic explosions, according to a new study that appears today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

What would happen after the initial burst of gamma rays was the mystery of GRB 221009A, the brightest explosion ever seen. The studys principal author is Tanmoy Laskar, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah. According to him, a dazzling afterglow of light spanning the entire spectrum is produced as the jets collide with the gas surrounding the dying star. We must be quick and nimble to capture the light before it vanishes and take its secrets because the afterglow fades because the afterglow fades pretty quickly, he added.

In an effort to employ the greatest radio and millimetre telescopes in the world to analyse the afterglow of GRB 221009A, astronomers Edo Berger and Yvette Cendes of the Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) immediately obtained data with the SMA.

Garrett Keating, a SMA project scientist and CfA researcher, states they were able to swiftly turn the SMA to the site of GRB 221009A due to its capacity to respond quickly. The crew was impressed by the brightness of the GRBs afterglow, which we could observe for more than 10 days before it faded.

Astronomers were perplexed when they combined and analyzed data from the SMA and other telescopes around the world and discovered that the millimeter and radio wave measurements were significantly brighter compared to what the visible and X-ray radiation would suggest.

According to Cendes, CfA research associate, one explanation is that the potent jet created by GRB 221009A is more complicated than in other GRBs. Its likely that one part of the jet produces visible light and X-rays while another part generates radio waves and early millimeter waves.

According to researchers, this afterglow is so intense that we will keep looking into its radio emission for months, if not years. With this much longer time span, they hope to solve the riddle of the early excess emissions mysterious origin.

Unrelated to the specifics of this GRB, astronomers now have a crucial new skill: the capacity to react quickly to GRBs and other comparable phenomena with millimeter-wave telescopes.

According to Edo Berger, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and the CfA, the key lesson from this GRB is that without fast-acting radio and millimeter telescopes, such as the SMA, We would not be able to learn more about the most intense explosions in the cosmos. If we want to benefit from these gifts from the cosmos, we have to be as responsive as we can because we never know when such events will occur.

Read more on : https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-missions-study-what-may-be-a-1-in-10000-year-gamma-ray-burst/

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Unraveling new insights on cosmic explosions - Asiana Times

According to a report, scientists have discovered and produced a new type of uranium isotope, known as uranium-241.

This is the first time a new neutron-rich isotope of uranium has been discovered since 1979, and it was identified by researchers at the High-energy Accelerator Research Organization located in Japan. Uranium-241 is an extremely radioactive element with 92 protons and 149 neutrons, and it is predicted to have a brief half-life of around 40 minutes.

Uranium, one of the most radioactive elements, is a member of the actinide series, which includes all elements with atomic numbers between 89 and 103. Uranium-241 is known as a neutron-rich isotope because it has more neutrons than is typical for uranium isotopes. This discovery has significant implications for the study of nuclear and astrophysics, as well as our understanding of heavy elements' behavior and stability.

The researchers utilized a technique called multinucleon transfer to create uranium-241 by firing uranium-238 at platinum-198 nuclei using Japan's RIKEN accelerator. The resulting nuclei were observed to determine their mass as they traveled a certain distance through a medium. This process led to the creation of 18 new isotopes with between 143 and 150 neutrons.

The discovery of uranium-241 illustrates the capabilities of modern particle accelerators and experimental methods in advancing scientific knowledge and exploration. The collision of atomic nuclei at high speeds and energies enables the creation and study of short-lived and exotic isotopes that were previously unobservable and unobtainable.

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Multinucleon transfer creates short-lived uranium isotope - Interesting Engineering

The University of Miami professor, National Geographic Explorer, inventor, and fashion photographer has created and developed next-generation remote sensing instruments capable of mapping the seafloor in remarkable detail.

One misstep and Ved Chirayath would have been a goner. Cut off from civilization and his cell phone useless, he knew that medical aid would never reach him in time if he were bitten by one of the countless sea snakes that surrounded him.

Theyre curious creatures, the University of Miami researcher and National Geographic Explorer said of the highly venomous snakes. Theyll swim right up to you and lick you. And when they sleep, they sleep head down in the rocks. So, my real concern was not to step on one.

But despite the very real prospect of death, Chirayath concentrated on the task at hand: mapping a colony of stromatolites in Australias snake-infested Shark Bay.

He would spend the entire two months of that 2012 field campaign navigating around the deadly snakes, the thought of dying only occasionally entering his mind. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge allowed him to stay focused.

Its that same thirst that drives him today in his quest to explore Earths last unexplored frontier: its oceans.

We have mapped more of Mars and our Moon than we have of our planets seafloor, and we know more about the large-scale structure of our universe and its history than we do about the various systems in our oceans, said Chirayath, the G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth Sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. And we know so much more about our universe because we can see very far into space and in different wavelengths.

Peering into the deep ocean, however, is another matter. Light penetrates only so far below the sea surface, and ocean waves greatly distort the appearance of undersea objects.

But using a camera he invented that literally sees through ocean waves, Chirayath is removing those distortions and helping to reveal the trove of deep secrets hidden by our oceans. Mounted on a drone flying above the water, FluidCam uses a technology called Fluid Lensing to photograph and map the ocean in remarkable clarity. From American Samoa and Guam to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, he has used the device to map more than a dozen shallow marine ecosystems such as coral reefs at depths as low as 63 feet.

That still pales in comparison to the average depth of the ocean, which is nearly 4,000 meters. And 99 percent of the habitable volume of our planet is in that region, said Chirayath, who also directs the Rosenstiel Schools Aircraft Center for Earth Studies (ACES).

So, he created the more powerful MiDAR. The Multispectral Imaging, Detection, and Active Reflectance device combines FluidCam with high-intensity LED and laser light pulses to map and transmit 3D images of the sea floor at greater detail and depths. Chirayaths research will be on display April 2021 at the Universitys showcase exhibit during the eMerge Americas conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Recently, he used MiDAR to conduct multispectral mapping of corals in Guam, validating the airborne images during subsequent dives.

Still, even MiDAR will not illuminate objects 4,000 meters deep. But install the device on a robot sub that can dive thousands of meters deep, and the possibilities of imaging the seafloor in the same detail and volume that satellites have mapped land are limitless, according to Chirayath.

It keeps me up at night, he said of MiDARs potential. He envisions his creation, awarded NASAs invention of the year in 2019, exploring not only the Earths deep oceans but worlds beyondfrom sampling minerals on Mars to looking for signs of life beneath the icy ocean moons like Jupiter's Europa.

Chirayaths fascination with studying and surveying the ocean deep was born out of his love of the stars.

He grew up in Los Angeles, looking up at the stars and contemplating the possibility of life on other planets. As a youngster, he would attend open house events at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in nearby Pasadena, learning from the scientists and engineers who were building the Cassini space probe that explored Saturn and its intricate rings.

I knew at 5 years old that I wanted to work for NASA and make a contribution to discovering other worlds, Chirayath said.

By the time he was a teenager, astronomy had been his passion for more than half his life. It was also an escape, a methodology, he said, to deal with some of the challenges he faced at that time. I was homeless for about three years, and I used that time to sit on top of a mountain and do as much astronomy as I could, Chirayath noted.

At 16, he detected an exoplanet one and a half times the size of Jupiter and 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, doing so with a consumer digital camera he modified and attached to a telescope. His refashioned scope allowed him to employ the transit photometry method for detecting exoplanets. Whenever a planet passes directly between a star and its observer, it dims the stars light ever so slightly. Chirayaths modified telescope detected just such a dip in light.

Earth- and space-based observatories that look continuously at stars for weeks and even months at a time use the technique. It took Chirayath three years to locate the planet, but his patience paid off in the form of a scholarship he won and used to help study theoretical physics at Moscow State University in Russia.He later transferred to Stanford University, where he earned his undergraduate degree.

To help pay the bills while he attended college, he worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue. His pictures have also appeared in Elle, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

He earned his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, reconnecting with his passion for astronomy and always asking himself, What can I do with small telescopes? How can I make an impact? How can I develop new technologies and explore our solar system?

He came to the University of Miami in 2021 after a decade-long career at NASAs Ames Research Center, where he founded and led its Laboratory for Advanced Sensing, inventing the suite of next-generation remote sensing technologies that are now the cornerstones of his work at ACES.

While at NASA, he also created NeMO-Net, a single player video game in which players help NASA classify coral reefs. The space agency awarded Chirayath with its 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Medal for organizing its first participation in the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade.

His fluid lensing mapping of the ocean promises to improve the resilience of coastal areas impacted by severe storms as well as assess the effects of climate change on coastal areas around the world.

While his origins are in astronomy, today he is more of a marine scientist than an astrophysicist. Still, the two fields are incredibly similar, Chirayath pointed out. Theyre both very difficult to study and require thinking beyond our terrestrial comfort zone. I love them both, and they can easily coexist. You can have large space observatories, and they can even help one another. A lot of the technologies that Ive created were inspired by things I learned in astrophysics and applied astronomy. But theres not that curiosity for understanding our own planet in a way that there is for space, and Im hoping to change that.

He applauds the $14 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which has been taking the deepest infrared images of our universe ever taken.

But weve never invested $14 billion into an ocean observatory, into something that looks critically at a piece of the puzzle that if we miss, we do so at our own peril, Chirayath explained. Im one of the many technologists who are looking inward and saying, This is what we understand about the universe and its large-scale structure, but a lot of the questions that are being posed to understand our universe and whats in it can also be posed for the ocean. If we dont map it, if we dont understand it, if were not able to characterize it, then when it fails or changes, humans may not be a part of the future.

The University of Miami is a Titanium Sponsor of eMerge Americas. Visit the Universitys research and technology showcase April 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Registration for an Unlimited TECH Pass is free for all University of Miami students and faculty and staff members.

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Whoosh

What would happen if the International Space Station was orbiting the planet not hundreds of miles above the surface, but right up close, at the altitude of, say, a commercial jetliner?

In a new video, airplane enthusiast Benjamin Granville used the popular game Microsoft Flight Simulator to show what the space station would look like at just 10,000 feet in altitude— and the results are equal parts amazing and terrifying.

The video shows the ISS blasting across the sky at ludicrous speeds — roughly 17,150 miles per hour, or five miles per second to be exact — in a stunning demonstration of blistering velocity that objects in low-earth orbit need to maintain.

In other words, if you were standing below and trying to take a picture of it, you'd need to be extremely well prepared as you'd only have a fraction of a second to hit the shutter.

Speed Record

Of course, such a maneuver could never be pulled off in real life. Not only would the space station need to overcome a monstrous amount of air resistance, it would also need a ludicrous amount of propulsion to maintain its velocity.

And that's not to mention the fact that, unlike an airplane, the space station would simply fall out of the sky and succumb to gravity, since it's not designed to glide through the air.

But it's a fun demonstration, nonetheless, of the extraordinary speed of an object that — from far away, at least — seems to be peacefully drifting through the night sky.

READ MORE: This is What the ISS Would Look Like if It Flew at Airplane Altitude [PetaPixel]

More on the ISS: Cargo Spacecraft Breaks Down En Route to Space Station

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Amazing Video Shows What the ISS Would Look Like If It Flew at the Height of a Jetplane

Gust Buster

The winds really started to pick up at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as Hurricane Nicole made landfall earlier today.

And that's bad news, as the agency's uber-expensive Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket is currently sitting on the launch pad, fully exposed to the elements, awaiting its November 14 launch attempt next week.

Now, engineers are starting their inspections, ensuring the rocket weathered the storm intact and is ready for prime time.

Hurri-Can't

Winds reached 87 knots (about 100 mph) at the site, in strong hurricane-level gusts that were forecast by the National Weather Service.

Earlier this week, the National Hurricane Center predicted a 15 percent chance of hurricane-grade winds at the launch site — which appear to have materialized, Ars Technica reports.

And that's a problem: while NASA claimed on Tuesday that "high winds that are not expected to exceed the SLS design," according to documentation, the rocket is only designed to withstand gusts of up to 74.4 knots.

"Almost certainly there is some safety margin above 74.4 knots, but is it 15 or 20 percent higher?" Ars' Eric Berger tweeted. "Rockets are simply not designed to be battered like this by sideways winds for hours and hours."

According to weather sensors on Launch Complex-39B, the Artemis I stack saw wind gusts as high as 87 knots on the 120-foot level last night. The rocket is designed to withstand 74.4-knot gusts. pic.twitter.com/pkBuwFB6TH

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) November 10, 2022

Inspecting the Damage

Now, engineers are starting to inspect the rocket to see if the winds have left a mark.

"I am imagining, if the rocket is exposed to excessive winds, the effort that will ensue to redo the structural analysis and convince everyone to sign the waiver to let it fly," former NASA space shuttle engineer Phil Metzger tweeted. "It’s gonna be a busy couple of weeks for NASA structural engineers."

In short, the SLS rollout was one big gamble. As Ars points out, it would've taken days for NASA to roll its massive rocket back in to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the rocket spent the last couple of months following several failed launch attempts earlier this year.

Where that leaves next week's launch attempt remains to be seen. NASA is giving itself until Sunday evening to make the call.

It's a scary moment for NASA: billions of dollars were literally exposed to the elements. All we can do is hope it held up.

READ MORE: NASA leaves its Artemis I rocket exposed to winds above design limits [Ars Technica]

More on the rocket: NASA Watches Nervously as Hurricane Threatens Exposed Moon Rocket

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NASA Inspecting Moon Rocket for Damage From Hurricane Nicole

Lucky Shot

To see a star right as it explodes in a supernova is extremely rare. Luckily, researchers combing through the archives of the Hubble Space Telescope's observational data from 2010 have spotted imagery of an exploding star from some 11 billion years ago, lurking behind a galaxy cluster — making it the first time such an event has been observed from so early in the universe.

"It is quite rare that a supernova can be detected at a very early stage, because that stage is really short," said Wenlei Chen, who is the lead author of an accompanying study published in the journal Nature and a researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy, in a NASA statement.

"It only lasts for hours to a few days, and it can be easily missed even for a nearby detection," he added. "In the same exposure, we are able to see a sequence of the images — like multiple faces of a supernova."

Third time’s the charm?

Hubble witnessed three faces of a star’s evolving supernova explosion, thanks to a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Read more: https://t.co/dGbvAXeFkR

Learn more in this video! pic.twitter.com/yZbK6ZrMMJ

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) November 9, 2022

Warped Perception

The faraway supernova was revealed due to a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. When the gravity of a galaxy warps and magnifies the light behind it, it allows telescopes to observe distant objects that would otherwise be too faint.

Amazingly, the warping proved to be an even greater boon than expected, because it resulted in multiple images, or "three faces," from different time periods to be captured in one go. Light from separate moments in the supernova traveled varying distances through the lensing and were in effect slowed down due to the immense gravity of the lens galaxy, causing the different "routes" of light to all arrive at the same time.

Thanks to that instant timelapse, the researchers were able to measure the supernova's rate of cooling and calculated the star's size before it exploded. They believe it was a red giant over 500 times larger than the Sun.

"You see different colors in the three different images," said Patrick Kelly, who led the study and is an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota's School of Physics and Astronomy, in the statement. "You've got the massive star, the core collapses, it produces a shock, it heats up, and then you're seeing it cool over a week. I think that's probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen!"

More on stars: Astronomers Find Wreckage of Destroyed Solar System Right Near Our Own

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NASA Releases Hubble Images of Star Right as It Explodes

Smol Means

Hawaii has a big problem: little fire ants that have begun quite literally raining down on people and stinging them — and it's reportedly changing life on the islands as residents know it.

In interviews with SFGate, Hawaiian officials described infestation scenes straight out of a horror flick, replete with people being bitten in their beds while sleeping, causing painful welts that can last for weeks.

"They’re changing the way of life for our residents here in Hawaii," Heather Forester of the University of Hawai'i's Hawaii Ant Lab told the Gate. "You used to be able to go out hiking and go to the beach. They can rain down on people and sting them."

"In heavily infested areas, the ants can actually move into people’s homes," she continued. "We have a lot of reports of them stinging people while they sleep in their beds."

Invasion

While little fire ants have been detected on the islands since 1999, this latest infestation – which has hit the island of Kauai the hardest — is reportedly the largest Hawaii's ever seen.

It's gotten so bad there that the Kauai Invasive Species Committee (KISC) has executed a huge public service announcement campaign to alert residents about help they can receive to detect or deal with these minuscule monsters, including home testing kits to detect them before they invade their houses.

Riverside Blues

This latest infestation, the Gate notes, appears to have begun on private property and spilled over a cliff and into a lush valley near the Wailua River that provides the ants with the opportunity to float downriver and create colonies elsewhere.

So far, it's unclear if the ants have gotten to the river — but when and if they do, it'll only get worse, officials say.

"That would infest the entire state park," KISC's Haylin Chock told the website. "If they are at that point, they can start climbing trees. It’s like a paradise for them. If that happens, how are we supposed to know where they are?"

The whole situation is taking the tenor of a plague, which the islands certainly don't need after being unduly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

More buggies: These Dancing Bugs Are Straight Out of a Miyazaki Film

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Furious Fire Ants "Rain Down" on Hawaiian Residents and Bite Them in their Sleep

MIRI Me

One of the James Webb Space Telescope's most important instruments had been offline for months — but thanks to some ingenuity at NASA, it's now been brought back to full functionality.

As the Space Telescope Science Institute wrote in a statement, the "supercold" Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) camera, which lets astronomers see the universe from the wavelength of their choosing, went offline on August 24 after its grating wheel started to malfunction.

Described by the European Space Agency as Webb's "coolest" instrument — a pun that references the uber-cold temperatures it can see — MIRI is the camera responsible for some of the most stunning Webb images. Having it offline didn't make the telescope completely dysfunctional, but it was certainly missed.

How did #MIRI become @ESA_Webb's coolest instrument, now making awe-inspiring images like these?

Ambition, leadership, teamwork, and international collaboration between @esa, @nasa and institutions and industry from 10 European countries https://t.co/qM3evUBYS6 #Webb pic.twitter.com/b04wvFqqGY

— ESA Science (@esascience) November 8, 2022

Changing of the Guard

Upon discovering the problem, NASA took the instrument — which is one of four on board — offline upon discovering the issue. Weeks of remote investigations ensued, and finally, the Webb team determined that MIRI's wheel's problem was caused by "increased contact forces between the wheel central bearing assembly’s sub-components under certain conditions."

In English, that means there was too much friction between the wheel and its grate, which was in turn screwing with the camera.

The Webb team went ahead and assigned some new operational rules for the instrument while it was being remotely worked on, and on November 2, NASA enacted those rules so that it could finally bring the camera back online after more than two months of it being shut off.

For its next move, the STScI notes, MIRI will be "taking advantage of a unique opportunity to observe Saturn’s polar regions" — not bad for an instrument that spent two months on the bench.

More Webb: NASA's New James Webb Shot Is Much Better When You Put Googly Eyes On It

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NASA Fixes Months-Long Issue With James Webb Telescope

But His Emails

In emails to his new employees, freshly-minted Twitter czar Elon Musk painted a pretty doom-tastic portrait of the road ahead for the social network's remaining employees — and told them that soon, they may all be out of a job.

Emails Musk sent to Twitter staff that were reviewed by the New York Times show that, at very least, he's repeating the same line internally as he is on his own account: Twitter needs to be monetized — or else.

"Without significant subscription revenue," the serial CEO wrote, "there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn."

And at a company meeting today, Musk reportedly told employees that "bankruptcy isn't out of the question."

Elon Musk emails Twitter employees

November 9, 2022 pic.twitter.com/Qeg5CA979W

— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) November 10, 2022

PO'd

It's not a great way to start a friendly CEO-staff relationship, to say the least, but it's nevertheless the posture Musk is taking as he makes sweeping changes to the social network that are, unsurprisingly, very unpopular with some of the workers left at the company following his mass layoff of half of Twitter's staff.

"Elon has shown that he cares only about recouping the losses he’s incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter," one disgruntled employee wrote in an email to coworkers, according to the NYT. "This will put huge amount of personal, professional and legal risk onto engineers: I anticipate that all of you will be pressured by management into pushing out changes that will likely lead to major incidents."

To be fair, Twitter is now in some seriously dire financial straits under its new ownership, and per the Times is going to be required to pay $1 billion annually in interest under Musk's deal. Paired with advertisers' increasing wariness about the site's trajectory, things aren't looking great in Twitterland.

Nevertheless, this whole mess is indeed shaping up to be as bad as many predicted, with the new CEO following through with his $8 verification plan and all.

It forces us to beg the question: was killing Twitter Musk's plan all along?

More Musk: Elon Musk Is Suddenly Selling Tesla Stock Like Crazy

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Elon Musk Says That Under His Brilliant New Management, Twitter May Go Out of Business

Martian Bouncy Castle

It was an impressive feat: NASA launched a massive inflatable heat shield all the way into space, only to test it by crashing it down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

The stunt, dubbed the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID), was meant to lay the groundwork of a system capable of landing humans safely on the surface of Mars.

At 30 feet in diameter, the flying saucer-shaped device is meant to act like a giant crash pad for spacecraft as they make their way through the atmosphere of an alien planet.

In other words, it's not unlike a bouncy castle that can be packed away when not in use, as The New York Times' Kenneth Chang suggested.

But that kind of comparison didn't sit well with the people in charge of the project.

"I would say that would be inaccurate," Neil Cheatwood, principal investigator for LOFTID, told Chang.

Splashdown

Early Thursday morning, an Atlas V rocket blasted off with LOFTID in its packed-up state in tow into low-Earth orbit.

Just over two hours later, the massive inflatable device screamed through the Earth's atmosphere, harmlessly splashing down near Hawaii.

The heat shield can act as a huge brake during descent, slowing down large payloads. It's designed to survive a massive 18,000 mph fall, and ward off blistering temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

During future missions to the Red Planet, it could be our ticket to getting to the surface in one piece, according to NASA, when used in tandem with other systems such as parachutes or rockets.

But before we plan our first crewed mission to Mars, where's the harm in investigating if LOFTID could serve double duty as a bouncy castle once we get there?

READ MORE: NASA Launched an Inflatable Flying Saucer, Then Landed It in the Ocean [The New York Times]

More on landing on Mars: NASA Testing Giant "Crumple Zone" Gadget That Would Let Rovers Crash Into Mars and Survive

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NASA Disputes Calling Its Inflatable Heat Shield a "Bouncy Castle"

Nemo's Garden

Welcome to "Nemo's Garden," a surreal — and beautiful — underwater garden off of Italy's Northwestern coast.

There, National Geographic reports, terrestrial plants are grown in submerged plastic greenhouses dubbed "biospheres," which can be seen glowing from the surface. And we gotta say: the pictures of these plastic, herb-filled oddities are absolutely stunning.

An Italian project, known as Nemo’s Garden, is testing the viability of underwater greenhouses https://t.co/Y1PQDM4p3Z

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) November 10, 2022

Water Cycle

Sergio Gamberini, the man behind this almost fantastical project, isn't just out to create something that looks beautiful.

He's hoping that his plastic orbs, which rest between 15 and 36 feet below the ocean's surface and hold about 528 gallons of air, will provide a water-conserving, overall sustainable alternative to on-land agricultural operations, particularly helping dry coastal nations grow more food without having to desalinate more water — a costly and resource-intensive process. The plants require just a small bit of starter water, but from there, they're self-sustaining. Sunlight heats the submerged spheres, which contain humid air that naturally condenses into freshwater on the walls and drips back into the soil.

"Since the underwater farm needs an external source of water only for the start-up of plants growing," reads the company's site, "our system could be useful for those locations far from the bodies of water available."

Deep Food

Nemo's Garden is still in its earlier phases, but results have been promising. One 2020 study showed that the organization's underwater-grown basil actually had more chlorophyll and antioxidants than land-reared basil — a fascinating finding, considering that the water pressure actually forces the Nemo plants to grow a bit differently than they might on the surface.

Excitingly, marine life is reportedly drawn to the glowing orbs as well; according to NatGeo, the structures act like an artificial coral reef for nearby species.

Whether Nemo's Garden will one day be coming to a coastline near you remains to be seen. In the meantime, though, we might agree with NatGeo photographer Luca Locatelli, who says he's excited to see someone take a well-intentioned leap — or perhaps a dive — of faith.

"We need someone who thinks about crazy things — not only ordinary inventions — that are coming out of a real passion," Locatelli told the magazine. "It might be something, it might not, [but] I like the fact that someone is so brave to invest money on such a thing."

READ MORE: Look inside Nemo's Garden, a surreal underwater farm [National Geographic]

More on alternative gardening: Nasa Let Astronauts Feast on Space-grown Vegetables

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Divers Growing Veggies in Underwater Greenhouses

Pesky Potholes

Tesla has "recalled" more than 40,000 of its vehicles due to a glitch that could cause a loss of power steering, according to a safety-recall report from the National Highway Traffic Administration released last week that was made public on Tuesday.

Despite officially being labeled as a recall, though, it's really just an over-the-air software update that can be downloaded by owners remotely.

Nevertheless, the issue does sound consequential. It applies to rare cases in which the company's 2017-2021 Model S and Model X cars' electronic power assist steering systems erroneously identify abrupt bumps such as potholes as "unexpected steering assist torque," the NHTSA said. In such cases, drivers could still steer their Teslas, but with much greater effort required, especially at lower speeds.

Fortunately, it doesn't look like anyone was hurt or got into any accidents as a result of the oversight, which is estimated to only affect one percent of the cars in question. As of the NHTSA report's release, 314 vehicles have been reported to have been affected by the bug.

Pile Driver

The Elon-Musk-led automaker can let out a sigh of relief that this issue didn't turn out worse, because it's already garnered unwanted scrutiny from the NHTSA and other government bodies that could have potentially ruinous implications.

On the NHTSA's part, the regulator has been investigating crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot driving assistance system since August 2021. In June, it stated that it was significantly widening the scope of its investigation.

In August, Tesla's home state of California's DMV accused the automaker of lying to customers by calling its separate driving assistance systems Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, names that could fool a driver into thinking the systems can fully drive on their own — which they can't.

And now, it was revealed in October, even the Department of Justice has reportedly been furtively probing into Autopilot's misleading marketing.

At the end of the day, it's a fairly minor slip up from Tesla, but one that's amplified by all the magnifying glasses it's provoked from government bodies, both stateside and federal.

More on Tesla: Elon Musk Pulling Engineers From Tesla Autopilot to Work on Twitter

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Spaced Out

In an unprecedented experiment, two teams of scientists on either sides of the Atlantic have replicated a material that was previously not produced anywhere on Earth.

As NPR reports, the replication of this powerful compound could have huge implications not just for the manufacturing of high-end machinery, but also for international relations to boot.

Called tetrataenite, the primarily iron-and-nickel compound is normally able to cool for millions of years as it tumbles around in asteroids. As a press release out of the University of Cambridge notes, the researchers who worked in tandem with Boston's Northeastern University found that if they add phosphorous to the mix, they were able to make synthetic tetrataenite.

Scientists made a material that doesn't exist on Earth: The compound is called tetrataenite. If synthetic tetrataenite works in industrial applications, it could make green energy technologies significantly cheaper. via @nprscience @planetmoney https://t.co/LclRNO5d6w pic.twitter.com/4yd2s4U8oj

— RealClearScience (@RCScience) November 9, 2022

Trader Gold

Beyond it being really awesome that scientists have synthesized a mineral from space, the discovery of synthetic tetrataenite is also huge because it could be used as an alternative to rare earth minerals, those valuable and difficult-to-extract materials used in the production of the heavy-duty "permanent magnets" that power tech ranging from electric vehicles to NASA experiments.

Over the past few decades, China has dominated the rare earths market because a lot of these minerals are found on the outskirts of its mainland, and it has inexpensive manufacturing and worker capabilities to undertake the laborious process of extracting them from other compounds.

Ramp It Up

With the new synthesis of terataenite, however, a future beyond a China-dominated rare earths market could unfold because, as an expert who spoke to NPR noted, it can be used as a replacement for most of the components of permanent magnets.

Northeastern's Laura Lewis cautioned against premature optimism, saying that ample testing needs to be done to make sure the synthetic is as hearty as the one found in meteorites — and even then, it'll still be at least five years, and probably more like eight, before it's "pedal to the metal" on manufacturing with it.

That said, however, it does provide an exciting look at the ways space materials can help us here on Earth — and hopefully bring about some positive international developments, too.

More on space: China Approves Three Moon Missions After Discovering Mineral That Could Be Energy Source

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Scientists Reproduce Fascinating, Powerful Material Found in Meteorite

Not Again

It happened again. ABC News reports that Chinese space debris from another one of the nation's heavy lift Long March 5B rockets was just discovered at sea off the Philippines' coastline.

The rocket remains are believed to be those of the Long March 5B that launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan island last week, which was reportedly carrying a payload with laboratory materials to the Tiangong Chinese space station.

This isn't the first time that the Philippines has been threatened by Chinese space junk. Now, per ABC, officials from the Philippine Space Agency are pushing authorities in Manila to ratify UN treaties regarding space junk. If those treaties are signed, citizens of the island nation would be allowed to seek restitution for any injury or damage caused by falling rocket debris.

Sky Fall

Considering that the Philippines are under China's direct space flight path, it's fair for officials to worry. In fact, back in August the nation was technically hit twice by Long March 5B junk — once at the beginning of the rocket's launch, and once at the end.

"This shows that the risk is higher for us," an official told the Philippine newspaper the The Inquirer at the time, "because we are under the flight path of most Chinese rocket launches."

Though neither of the recent Long March 5B crashes near the island actually hit land, they very well could. After all, they've done so before. A defunct rocket core made landfall in West Africa last Spring, and more recently, a chunk of a Long March 2D — a different, but apparently equally chaotic — rocket crashed into a Chinese field. And while no lives have been taken by falling space junk thus far, there's certainly a risk, and experts have even warned that there's a ten percent risk that falling cosmic trash will cause human casualties in the next decade.

For its part, China has yet to express any legitimate concern over its extremely messy rockets. And as there's yet to be much in the way of international governance for ensuring that any and all spacefaring nations keep potentially dangerous debris in check, it appears to have little incentive to change its ways.

READ MORE: Suspected Chinese rocket debris found in Philippine waters [ABC News]

More on dangerous debris: Large Chunk of Chinese Rocket Comes Crashing down, Lodges in Field

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Chinese Space Debris Crashes Down in the Philippines

A Russian soldier was rushed to the ER. His diagnosis? An unexploded shell lodged so deep in his chest it was almost touching his spine.

The soldier, junior sergeant Nikolay Pasenko, probably should've been dead already from either the impact or the impending detonation. But instead, defying all expectations, he lived — thanks to surgeons at the Mandryk Central Military Clinical Hospital who successfully removed the shell in an operation that's been dubbed a "miracle" by TASS, a state-owned Russian news agency.

Given Russia's ongoing and near-universally condemned war in Ukraine, you might be inclined to doubt the veracity of the source — but miracles like this have happened before.

"The patient was admitted with a wound that had penetrated [his] chest," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, as quoted by TASS. "The examination revealed that the miraculously unexploded ordnance had pierced [his] ribs and lungs and got lodged close to the spinal cord, between the aorta and the inferior vena cava near the heart."

There was no guarantee that the munition wouldn't explode mid-surgery. The doctors — some military, some civilian — decided to operate on the soldier anyway, wearing body armor under their medical gowns, the Ministry said.

And the surgery had to be done fast — Pasenko was bleeding so profusely that there was no time to dawdle on a decision, let alone relocate to a safer or better equipped location.

"The unexploded shell was stuck between the aorta and the inferior vena cava close to the heart, which could have caused fatal bleeding even without the ordnance's detonation," Medical Corps Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Kim, who led the operation, told TASS. "A decision was made to carry out the surgery locally."

That decision proved to be the right call. The shell was removed without detonation, and a recovering Pasenko was shipped off to a central hospital.

But post-surgery, Pasenko said that, at the time, he was opposed to the doctors risking their lives.

"The surgeon ventured to perform the operation, I was against it," he told the Russian news agency. "And now you see that I am sitting in front of you."

"My thanks to surgeon Dmitry Kim and I will be grateful to him for the rest of my life. He replied: 'So, we will explode together.' That's it. He is a very courageous man," Pasenko said.

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Unexploded Shell Removed From Soldier's Chest by Surgeons Wearing Body Armor

The Sun Sets

Eager customers of Tesla's solar roof program have been left holding the bag as the EV automaker says it's nixing operations in numerous markets, Electrek reports.

The cancellations underscore the degree to which the program has never really taken off. By Elecktrek's estimates, Tesla only installed its solar roofs on around 300 houses during the second quarter of 2022 — an underwhelming figure, especially since CEO Elon Musk has claimed the company's energy division will become as large as its automotive one.

And now, some Tesla Solar customers have been receiving emails from the company telling them that their orders for solar panels are being canceled.

"Upon further review of your project, our team has determined that your home is in an area we no longer service," the emails read, as quoted by Electrek. "As we cannot complete your order, we have processed your cancellation."

Solar Scapegoat

Tesla tends to be opaque when it comes to its energy division, so it's unclear which specific markets got screwed over. Electrek says the reports it's received have come from customers "in major solar markets including the greater Los Angeles area, Northern California, Oregon, and Florida."

In addition, the outlet also reports that Tesla has laid off employees in the solar scheduling, planning, and design department, but just how many is unspecified.

Historically, Tesla's solar program — controversially acquired by buying the company SolarCity in 2016 — is the one that gets the short end of the stick when it comes to reining in the budget.

In 2019, Musk admitted in a pre-trial deposition that, "If I did not take everyone off of solar and focus them on the Model 3 program to the detriment of solar, then Tesla would have gone bankrupt."

"So I took everyone from solar, and said: 'instead of working on solar, you need to work on the Model 3 program.' And as a result, solar suffered, as you would expect," he added.

Musk similarly admitted in 2022 that, for the year before, he had "shortchanged" Tesla's energy division in favor of pushing out more cars.

Considering that Musk bought the division from SolarCity with the alleged intention of bailing out his cousins that owned it, maybe it's not too surprising that the CEO seems to have no qualms over gutting it multiple times.

More on Tesla: Elon Musk Is Suddenly Selling Tesla Stock Like Crazy

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Tesla Reportedly Canceling Solar Roof Installations Across the Country

Making Moves

It seems ill-advised to hire an employee who's under investigation at one of your other companies in a ranking position, but then again, Elon Musk is far from an ordinary CEO.

That's on full display as SpaceX hires Tesla's Texas plant lieutenant Omead Afshar, who according to sources close to the matter that spoke to Bloomberg has been brought on as vice president of Starship production.

Over the summer, Afshar — reportedly a close confidante of Musk's — was, as the news site reported at the time, under internal investigation for a sketchy plan he allegedly had to buy difficult-to-source construction materials for Tesla. During the investigation, some of the executive's subordinates were fired. But Afshar himself seems to have had a golden, well, Starship.

And pickle ball! https://t.co/InqxFkip7y

— Omead Afshar (@omead) November 6, 2022

Shuffleboard

It remains unclear whether Afshar is still working at Tesla as well, or if he was shuffled over to SpaceX as a result of his investigation. Sources did, however, tell Bloomberg that he hasn't been seen at Tesla's Austin plant in weeks.

Whether he was moved from Tesla to SpaceX or is working both companies, it wouldn't be the first time for either. Musk sent has shuffled Tesla employees to SpaceX previously and even sent them to Twitter in recent weeks. And as Bloomberg notes, another of his close consiglieres, Charles Keuhmann, is an executive at both companies.

To make this kind of hiring move would be weird enough in a regular context, but the fact that Musk is doing so while wreaking havoc over at his other new company makes it seem all the stranger.

More on Musk: MSN Ran a Story About Grimes and Elon Musk That's Completely Fake

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A Tesla Executive Under Investigation Is Now Working at SpaceX for Some Reason

A Rare Find

A TV documentary crew of divers who were looking for the wreckage of a World War II aircraft off the Florida Space Coast made a startling and unexpected discovery: the heat shield remains of NASA's space shuttle Challenger.

It's an incredibly rare space artifact that acts a somber reminder of the deadly 1986 disaster, a dark chapter in the history of space exploration.

"While it has been nearly 37 years since seven daring and brave explorers lost their lives aboard Challenger, this tragedy will forever be seared in the collective memory of our country," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. "This discovery gives us an opportunity to pause once again, to uplift the legacies of the seven pioneers we lost, and to reflect on how this tragedy changed us."

What they uncover off the coast of Florida, outside of the Triangle, marks the first discovery of wreckage from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger in more than 25 years. Don’t miss the premiere of The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters on Tuesday, November 22 at 10/9C. pic.twitter.com/LWUoFXxEnK

— HISTORY (@HISTORY) November 10, 2022

Challenger Discovery

According to the TV network History, it's the first Challenger wreckage to have been discovered in more than 25 years. Footage shared by the network show divers examining small eight-inch tiles making up a large mosaic.

NASA now has to decide whether it wants to recover the wreckage. Other pieces of the Challenger spacecraft were put on display to the public for the first time back in 2015 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The fateful 1986 launch was NASA's 25th Shuttle mission, but 73 seconds after liftoff, it disintegrated at 46,000 feet, a tragedy watched live by countless people around the world on TV.

"Challenger and her crew live on in the hearts and memories of both NASA and the nation," said Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro in the statement.

"Today, as we turn our sights again toward the Moon and Mars, we see that the same love of exploration that drove the Challenger crew is still inspiring the astronauts of today’s Artemis Generation," she added, "calling them to build on the legacy of knowledge and discovery for the benefit of all humanity."

The History Channel will air its documentary about the rare find on November 22.

READ MORE: NASA Views Images, Confirms Discovery of Shuttle Challenger Artifact [NASA]

More on NASA: NASA Inspecting Moon Rocket for Damage From Hurricane Nicole

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Divers Discover Fragment of Challenger Space Shuttle Under Ocean

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's just might get shredded this time.

Richard Tornetta, a former metal drummer who made a small investment in Tesla, sued CEO Elon Musk and the company's board in what is called a "shareholder derivative lawsuit" back in 2018, Reuters reports.

The case survived a 2019 motion to dismiss and is set to kick off in a Delaware court on Monday — which will feature Musk's own testimony and Kathaleen McCormick, the same judge who oversaw his initial bid to get out of his chaotic Twitter deal.

If Tornetta were to win, Musk would have to rescind his 2018 stock grants pay package worth $55 billion, a potentially devastating blow, especially considering the fact that Musk has already been selling off appreciable amounts of Tesla stock to fund his acquisition of Twitter.

While these kinds of lawsuits are usually dismissed as "nuisance suits" by business groups, "this case looks different," as Jessica Erickson, a professor at University of Richmond School of Law, told Reuters.

Tornetta, who runs an aftermarket car parts company and used to drum for a now-defunct metal band called "Dawn of Correction," maintains Tesla's board had undisclosed conflicts.

His suit alleges that Musk came up with his own pay plan with help of with his former divorce attorney Todd Maron, who also happened to sit on Tesla's general counsel until late 2018, CNBC reported back in March.

Musk also allegedly set the bar too low for hitting 12 performance targets, as laid out in the 2018 stock grants plan. The plan allows Musk to buy one percent of Tesla stock at a significant discount for each met target.

So far, Tesla has hit 11 out of the 12 targets, according to Reuters, but Tornetta's lawyers argue that three of those goals had already been met when shareholders met to vote on the pay package, something they say wasn't properly disclosed.

Musk and his legal team maintain that the targets kept Musk on track during a difficult time, and eventually led to a massive rise in stock price.

"The plan designed and approved by the board was not a typical pay package intended to compensate the ordinary executive for overseeing the day-to-day operations of a mature company," Musk's attorney said during a pre-trial brief, as quoted by Bloomberg, arguing that the situation called for an extraordinary pay package.

For now, all we can do is wait and see whether the lawsuit will bang heads in court.

READ MORE: Elon Musk braces for $56 billion battle with heavy metal drummer [Reuters]

More on Tesla: Tesla Issues Software Patch So That Its Cars Don't Lose Power Steering on Potholes

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Elon Musk Might Get Thrashed by Lawsuit From Heavy Metal Drummer

Spying @ Home

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic drove a wave of working from home, companies have been relentless in their efforts to digitally police and spy on remote employees by using what's known as "bossware." That's the pejorative name for software that tracks the websites an employee visits, screenshots their computer screens, and even records their faces and voices.

And now, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an agency of the federal government, is looking to intervene.

"Close, constant surveillance and management through electronic means threaten employees' basic ability to exercise their rights," said NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, in a Monday memo. "I plan to urge the Board to apply the Act to protect employees, to the greatest extent possible, from intrusive or abusive electronic monitoring and automated management practices."

Undoing Unions

In particular, Abruzzo is worried about how bossware could infringe on workers' rights to unionize. It's not hard to imagine how such invasive surveillance could be used to bust unionization. Even if the technology isn't explicitly deployed to impede organization efforts, the ominous presence of the surveillance on its own can be a looming deterrent, which Abruzzo argues is illegal.

And now is the perfect moment for the NLRB to step in. The use and abuse of worker surveillance tech in general — not just bossware — has been "growing by the minute," Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown Law School, told CBS.

"Employers are embracing technology because technology helps them run a more efficient business," Gaston explained. "… What comes with that is monitoring a lot of things that employers have no business doing."

Overbearing Overlord

In some ways, surveillance tech like bossware can be worse than having a nosy, actual human boss. Generally speaking, in a physical workplace employees have an understanding of how much privacy they have (unless they work at a place like Amazon or Walmart, that is).

But when bossware spies on you, who knows how much information an employer could be gathering — or even when they're looking in. And if it surveils an employee's personal computer, which more often than not contains plenty of personal information that a boss has no business seeing, that's especially invasive.

Which is why Abruzzo is pushing to require employers to disclose exactly how much they're tracking.

It's a stern message from the NLRB, but at the end of the day, it's just a memo. We'll have to wait and see how enforcing it pans out.

More on surveillance: Casinos to Use Facial Recognition to Keep "Problem Gamblers" Away

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US Gov to Crack Down on "Bossware" That Spies On Employees' Computers