Science

[ai_post_generator_toc] Introduction to Hall Thrusters Hall Thrusters are electric propulsion systems designed to provide thrust for spacecrafts and other vehicles that travel in space. They use a combination of electric and magnetic fields to generate thrust and can be used to propel a spacecraft in any direction. Hall thrusters are typically used for long-distance maneuvers, such as getting a spacecraft …

New research suggests that short-term exposure to a chemical compound created in the coffee roasting process may have damaging effects on lung health when paired with a second exposure, such as the flu. Led by a team at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, the study exposed mice to the toxic chemical compound diacetyl, a natural byproduct …

Sleep age, a projected age that correlates to a person’s sleep health, may be a predictor of overall health and mortality risk.

NASA engineers on Saturday detected a liquid hydrogen leak in the Artemis I rocket before its second launch attempt. The Space Launch System rocket was originally set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday but was delayed after one of the rocket’s engines failed to condition to the correct temperature. A hydrogen leak also …

Never before have we been able to view the universe the way the James Webb Space Telescope is showing it to us now. Our naked eye would never be able to see what the telescope sees: travelling through light and space, James Webb can see the origins of the universe – something our minds can hardly begin to grasp. Working …

A black hole is usually where information goes to disappear — but scientists may have found a trick to use its last moments to tell us about the history of the universe. In a new study, two University of Chicago astrophysicists laid out a method for how to use pairs of colliding black holes to measure how fast our universe …

Black holes don’t just swallow matter. They also spit it out. From their polar regions, they can launch massive jets of energetic plasma that travel at nearly the speed of light, stretch longer than our galaxy and last for many millions of years. Scientists who are part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project have announced they’ve imaged the magnetic …

The findings suggest that mothers who have had COVID-19, or asymptomatic exposure to the coronavirus, can provide some protection against the virus to their newborns through this antibody transfer. The authors of the new paper in JAMA Pediatrics hypothesize this may have implications for COVID-19 vaccines. Antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the blood of pregnant women cross the placenta …

They’ve also shown that it might be prevented or reversed by fixing a glitch in the immune system’s front-line soldiers. Certain cells of our immune system become increasingly irascible as we grow older. Instead of stamping out embers, they stoke the flames of chronic inflammation. Biologists have long theorized that reducing this inflammation could slow the aging process and delay …

If the theory is confirmed, the researchers’ findings could help reveal several mysteries of the universe. Their paper appears in Physical Review Letters. There are many kinds of particles that make up matter in the universe. The most common are protons, neutrons, and electrons. These particles collide with each other in certain settings, such as inside a star’s core or …