Birds of Pennsylvania by Henry Cleveland

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Image Source: Unsplash

Help the Dolphins by Juan Lorber

Did you know one of the most well-known marine animals is in great danger? The dolphins are fighting to survive because of prey shortage from human fishing, river trafficking, and most well-known, pollution. So many people are fishing for food and aren’t thinking about what it could change. But, it changes so much because sharks, other fish, and DOLPHINS still need food to survive like we do. Humans were hunting and selling dolphins, even killing them for food. This was until dolphin exports became illegal, but it was only for the Soloman islands. The oceans are also getting wildly polluted by people throwing trash into the ocean not thinking it would become a big cause until everyone followed. It caused so many marine animals to be endangered and some at the verge of extinction. But there are things we can do to help! We can stop using so much plastic, join beach cleanup clubs, and also travel the sea responsibly. 

Origin Of The Moon? Kale Cunningham

Introduction

Japan’s lunar mission, SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landed upside down on the moon on January 20, 2024. While making its descent, it suffered an engine malfunction that caused it to become unstable. Fortunately, the onboard computer managed to keep the spacecraft under control until landing, after which it flipped over. 

"The pinpoint landing was achieved (with an) accuracy of less than 10 meters, and probably about 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet)," an official for JAXA told NBS News later. "We believe that this is a great achievement for future exploration." 

The spacecraft being upside down couldn’t charge its solar panels, which were on top of it causing it to shut down. However, a few days later some sunlight managed to make its way onto the spacecraft’s solar panels due to the shift in lighting conditions. Even though the spacecraft was upside down, the mission team was able to get data and images from it (They had to use photo editing to get the images right side up).  SLIM discovered possible evidence about the origins of the moon. Using technology that compares Moon rocks to Earth rocks, scientists say that it's likely the moon came from Earth. 

What We Know So Far

Today most scientists agree that the Moon came from the Earth. There is a theory called the Giant Impact Origin Hypothesis that says that 4.5 billion years ago, before Earth had any life, our solar system was mass chaos. Planets would crash into each other, spraying smaller debris across towards other planets. Earth was seemingly in the middle of it, then one day a Mars-sized planet which scientists today call Theia smashed into Earth (it is still debated if Earth hit Theia or Theia hit Earth). The impact caused a massive explosion that ejected debris. Even though Earth survived, it still was torn apart. It is believed that the remains of Theia and some rubble from the destruction of Earth merged, creating our moon. 

Disagreements: Even though most people in the science community largely believe this theory, not everyone is on board with this idea. Some scientists argue that we don’t have enough evidence for this theory. 

Two main alternative ideas have emerged as a result: The first one is called the Fission theory, which was proposed by George Howard Darwin, the son of the famous scientist/theorist Charles Darwin, in 1878. The Fission theory states that during the early solar system, Earth was spinning at such an astonishing rate that a large part of it broke off. This large chunk of Earth formed the Moon. This theory however has been criticized by many experts because if it did happen, the material that emerged from our planet wouldn’t just be captured into Earth's orbit it would either go crashing back down or be captured by our Sun and go into an orbit around it. 

The second theory dubbed the Capture Theory was around for years, but it was primarily brought to attention by British physicist and planetary scientist Michael Woolfson. Woolfson argued that the Moon was a small planet or Moon that was kicked out of its orbit by a larger planet and it was captured by Earth's gravity, which resulted in it starting to orbit Earth. However, this theory has also been questioned by scientists because there simply isn’t enough evidence to prove this theory correct. 

The Answer: Even today we don’t have a true answer for how we got our moon. We have the evidence to support all of the three main theories, and the evidence that goes against it as well. Scientists hope that more advanced robotic spacecraft like SLIM and NASA’s Artemis program to send humans back to the moon can help us better understand the true origin of the Moon.               

Sources: 

Vanderbilt University

NPR

NASA.gov                                  

Once in a Lifetime Event: Stingray Pregnancy at North Carolina's Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team Ecco by Serena Tian

The pregnancy of this stingray was deemed by the aquarium “a once-in-a-lifetime science mystery.”

Something fishy was going on in one North Carolina aquarium’s female stingray who was pregnant with her pups. The problem is: there aren't any male stingrays at the aquarium.

There are two possible culprits of this problem. One is asexual reproduction, the other is a shark had mated with the stingray.

Asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, is quite common among the stingrays. Asexual reproduction is when a parent, typically female, copies its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and forms its own offspring. Usually this would occur when no other gender of that species is available near them. So, females in aquariums would asexually reproduce if the aquarium decided to have no other males of their species. It’s simply a survival mechanism to keep the species going.

The other answer may involve the two white-spot bamboo sharks that the Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team Ecco moved into her tank in July of 2023. 

The aquarium found out when workers noticed bite marks on Charlotte, a common practice by male sharks attempting to mate. They were afraid cancer had struck on Charlotte, so in order to confirm or deny their suspicions, an ultrasound was conducted. Thankfully the swells were growths in her body that later would be eggs.

Team Ecco told FOX Carolina that “... the most current ultrasound showing two if not three pups. DNA will need to be done after the pups’ birth – unless we have visual cues about a mixed breed.”

Interbreeding of sharks and stingrays are actually possible, as they are taxonomically, or the classification of something similar.

The aquarium has also confirmed that Charlotte is soon to give birth.

Works Cited

“Female stingray's mysterious pregnancy: Male shark could be culprit.” USA Today, 15 February 2024, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/10/stingray-pregnancy-shark-nc-aquarium/72551486007/. Accessed 15 February 2024.

“Female stingray's mysterious pregnancy: Male shark could be culprit.” USA Today, 15 February 2024, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/10/stingray-pregnancy-shark-nc-aquarium/72551486007/. Accessed 15 February 2024.

“Mystery of Pregnant Stingray Could Be Explained by a Male Shark: Scientists.” Business Insider, 11 February 2024, https://www.businessinsider.com/mystery-of-pregnant-stingray-could-be-explained-male-shark-scientists-2024-2. Accessed 15 February 2024.

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Axiom 3 Lands After Stay On ISS by Kale Cunningham

The crew of Axiom 3, a commercial space flight safely splashed down off the coast of Florida, today (Feb. 9.) After a series of delays regarding the weather, their mission was extended to 3 weeks onboard the space stations instead of the planned 2 weeks. 

The Crew

The Axiom mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 18th, NASA and SpaceX oversaw the launch activities until lift-off. The mission carried 4 people, the mission commander, Michael López-Alegría is a former NASA astronaut who signed up for the opportunity immediately. Walter Villadei also joined the mission. His former position used to be a colonel in the Italian Air Force. Joining them was Alper Gezeravcı, who became the frist citizen of Türkiye to reach space during this mission. To finish the crew, Axiom chose Marcus Wandt, a European Space Agency reserve astronaut.

All of the crew members were European, marking the frist time in history that an all-European crew reached space. 

An Out Of This World Vacation

After a 2 day trip through space, the crew docked with the International Space Station (ISS). They were greeted by the current seven occupants staying onboard the space station. The crew enjoyed being a part of their activities and routines as they learned how to live in space. Even though the ISS averages around the size of a football field, the crew members still had to make arrangements to find temporary bedrooms. It was more difficult than it sounded, the ISS is stuffed full of science experiments. So the crew had to sleep in sleeping bags pinned to the walls. One even slept in a reserved closet. However, it didn’t seem to bother the crew.

"It's been an incredible, busy and fun-filled two weeks up here," 

López-Alegría said during a live stream aboard the ISS 

"I am very proud of my Ax-3 crewmates, who helped their agencies achieve all of their science objectives, technology demonstrations, as well as the outreach events." 

However, the 2-week vacation was extended. Due to storms and gales in the planned landing area, it wasn’t safe for the crew to land. After being delayed for 6 extra days. It was time for the crew to come home. As they departed the ISS, astronaut Andreas Mogensen said a final farewell. 

"It's been a real pleasure and honor to have you onboard the International Space Station," he said "You guys have been great crewmates."

Fire! by Olive Hollis

Fire is awesome. That’s all there is to it. What could be better than fire? Nothing that’s what. You can do a lot of things with fire. Heck without fire humans would probably be dead by now. We preserve food with it and we keep warm and not die. 

Anyway you can do a bunch of really cool things with fire. Like when you add Borax to fire it will turn into a light green color.

 And supposedly sanitizer will make a light blue flame.

 But just because these things are in this article does not mean that you can do this all willy nilly. Fire can be dangerous and adding things to it can be even more dangerous. This is how explosions happen btw. So anyway… Fire is super awesome. 

• Copper sulfate makes fire green

• Cupric chloride makes fire blue

• Lithium chloride makes fire pink

• Barium sulfate makes fire a yellow-ish green color

• Potassium makes fire purple

  Hold on. So does that mean when you throw a banana into a fire it will turn purple?! I hope so. I’m going to try that out when I get home. And I looked up all these on google and got a variety of answers so I went with the most common one I got. And you have to put a certain amount of these things into the fire but I left that out cause I don’t know what will happen when you add these to fire other than change the color. Oh well.

And lastly magnesium makes fire white.

HOLD UP!!!! I did more digging on the internet and saw that you can make black fire? How come no one has ever told me this!?!? Okay okay so I’m getting that you need a sodium street light and add fire it turns black?!?!!?!?!? Okay so when I get home I need to burn bananas and some sodium and make this fire. I hope this was hopeful in some way or another. And remember that you should make sure that it’s safe to do 

all these things with fire because it’s dangerous as is. 

BE CAREFUL AND DON’T MESS WITH FIRE WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION!

Saving Peregrine by Kale Cunningham

Peregrine, a privately owned spacecraft launched on January 8, 2024, was supposed to attempt the first American moon landing in over 50 years. However, shortly after launch the spacecraft faced an anomaly due to a stuck valve in its propulsion system, which damaged the spacecraft. The spacecraft lost a shocking amount of fuel, and now a lunar landing is impossible, but there is still some hope left. 

Failure Is Not (Currently) An Option

It was very terrifying for the mission control team of Peregrine when they learned that the spacecraft was leaking a sufficient amount of fuel into space. But the spacecraft was also losing power as well. The mission team saved Peregrine by pointing its solar panels towards the Sun to keep itself and its 10 different payloads it was carrying, from losing complete power. That was successful, 

"We have successfully received data from all 9 payloads designed to communicate with the lander. All 10 payloads requiring power have received it, while the remaining 10 payloads aboard the spacecraft are passive." The Astrobotic team wrote on X. 

The spacecraft can also reach the Moon, it just can’t land. Using Earth’s gravity the spacecraft will hopefully shoot itself to the Moon. Peregrine will also be able to use most of its instruments, such as NASA’s five instruments and the radiation detector built by the German Aerospace Center. However, some other spacecraft such Ireland's first moon rover will not be able to be used.

Llamas by Natalie Hallgren and Gloria Chi

First of all, how you pronounce llama is ˈlämə. You may think that llamas look like camels, but do not be fooled, that camel might actually be a llama. A main way to figure out whether the animal is a llama or a camel is checking to see if the animal has three humps on their backs. Most camels do have at least one hump on their back, while llamas do not have any. Llamas are eaten in some parts of the world.  Some use llama in stews, but many people also use llamas as filling in empanadas. In case you were wondering, llamas are harvested at 24 months old.

Gloria - So, like I thought that empanadas were like a dragon hybrid thing, because I was reading this book and it said they were fighting an empanada. So it turns out empanadas aren’t dragons, but like a bagel with filling in it. 

Llama males fight each other for a female to mate with. Llamas have many ways to communicate; one way is body posture, which can show  dominance or subordination, and ear positioning indicates their emotions. Llamas usually quietly vocalize to scare away predators. 

FUN FACT: Llamas expectorate (spit) at other llamas to teach inferior llamas manners!

Article Vocabulary:

expectorate - synonyms: spit, gob

inferior - synonyms: lesser-than, lower, beneath, underneath

empanadas - a Latin American Spanish bonbon turnover filled with lots of tangy components, including llama!

Send Your Name To An Alien Moon By Kale Cunningham

Next October, NASA will launch its Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The spacecraft will start a 7 year-long voyage to the planet’s moon before arriving in 2031. But you can join the spacecraft on its journey too!

Send Your Name On A 1.6 Billion-Mile Trip

You can click the link at the bottom of this article to sign up.  Once you have, you can just enter in your name (first and last), your zip code, and your email! And that's it! It's free, and all you need is some sort of electronic device to register with. But time is running out. The last day to register is on December 31, 2023! 

More About Europa Clipper

The mission first started 26 years ago in 1997 when a proposal was made to send a spacecraft to Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa. Since then, scientists have been searching for an opportunity to send the probe to the moon. Europa is considered to be one of the most likely places to discover alien life. It has been revealed that a hidden ocean is underneath its thick ice. The Europa Clipper will conduct a series of fly-bys around the moon during its mission. Using its powerful radio scanner, it will hopefully be able to map out the ocean underneath the ice. If successful, then the mission will map out a landing site for a lander mission, which would sample its surface.        

Want to Sign up? 

Click here!      

6th Gen Fighters They are coming soonish! Who will develop one first? by Torsten Bilen

5th gen fighter jets rule the skies right now. But by 2030, they will most likely be obsolete. This is because 6th Gen fighters are rapidly being prototyped by many powerful nations such as China, Russia, India, a few countries in the EU like the UK and Italy, Japan, and of course, the United States.

What is a 6th gen fighter?

A 6th generation fighter jet must have many key features such as: Stealth capabilities, a high top speed and great maneuverability, a long flight range, and the ability to house many different types of weapons, such as various types of missiles and bombs. Many 6th gen fighter jet concepts, including ones from the U.S. and China, have some form of augmented reality being displayed on the pilot’s helmet visor. The concepts range from simple gauges for things like speed and fuel, to making the plane look almost transparent from the perspective of the pilot. When it comes to making a 6th generation fighter jet, all these features must be in place or the plane will not be able to engage enemy fighters and win.

Who will develop one first?

Many countries are racing to develop 6th generation fighters. As for who will develop one first, we can’t quite know for sure, but several countries are already developing concepts. The NGF (Next Generation Fighter) is a joint venture between France, Germany, and Spain, with a development budget of well over 100 billion dollars! The aircraft is expected to be flying by 2030, with full introduction by 2040, however there are some disagreements between these countries, which could push back these dates. And China or Russia might come out with something between 2030 and 2040, but both countries currently have mediocre 5th generation capabilities, so I am not too hopeful for a highly advanced 6th gen fighter from either of these countries, not to mention Russia's current military state after their invasion of Ukraine. So what about the U.S.?

NGAD

The Next Generation Air Dominance fighter platform (NGAD) could very well be the single most powerful fighter platform. Ever. The United States of America’s own 6th gen platform could be crucial in protecting the U.S. in the case of a potential Chinese invasion. The NGAD platform is going to include some of the most cutting edge technologies in the world. These range from adaptive engines, to an autonomous drone flying alongside the wings of the jet, to even making the pilot able to see through the plane using augmented reality! These planes might even be able to fly themselves, without a pilot! All this tech, combined with a several billion dollar development budget will be used to make this plane almost invincible in a battle with any other plane. In addition to these brand new technologies, NGAD will also incorporate some age old features such as missiles and bombs (all be it they will probably be laser guided and have some other insane mod cons) and possibly a gun, although the use for rapid firing machine guns on aircraft is fading, as there hasn’t been a dogfight in decades. Digital engineering technologies will play a crucial role in the development of this aircraft. Designers will be able to easily edit models and test features, without ever having to build an actual prototype during the early stages of development, although in later stages, test flights and wind tunnels will have to be used to make sure the aircraft works in real world scenarios.

Conclusion

I hope you have learned something from this article. Whether it is the technologies that will be part of these jets, or the countries involved in making 6th generation fighter jets, everything about these planes is just amazing!

Citations:

Losey, Stephen. “Future fighter program poses key test for US Air Force’s design method”, 30 Aug 2023, https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/08/30/future-fighter-program-poses-key-test-for-us-air-forces-design-method/

Tirpak, John A. “The Sixth Generation Fighter”, 1 Oct 2009, https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/1009fighter/

Mars Rover Passes 4,000 Days On Mars by Kale Cunningham

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring Mars for the past 11 years. It has driven over 20 miles (32 kilometers) and it has just passed its 4,000th day on Mars. 

4,000 Days Of Success

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012, for many years it was the most advanced device on another planet, until it was surpassed by the Perseverance Mars rover. Curiosity started driving around on the surface on sol 20 (A Mars day is called a sol.) Curiosity’s original mission was to discover evidence of life on Mars. Unlike all of the previous Mars rovers, that were only looking for evidence of water and dubbed ‘roving geologists.’ Curiosity was the first mission to be looking for life, therefore earning it the name, the roving biologist. The rover carries all the tools that you would see in a complex laboratory. 

The rover carries a drill that can collect samples and puts them inside a scanner that heats and cools the sample, trying to get a reaction out of the chemicals inside the sample. So far Curiosity has sampled 32 rock samples. 

4,000 Days Of Challenge

Curiosity has also had several challenges in its 4,000 days on Mars. One of the earliest challenges in the mission occurred in 2013 when the mission team noticed damage to the wheels of the rover. Curiosity’s wheels are made of aluminum, unlike the wheel design that cars use on Earth that are made of rubber, NASA uses light metals on Mars for their design. Unfortunately aluminum is one of the lightest and weakest metals, and on Mars, the winds sharpen the rocks making them sharp. In 2013, NASA discovered that the wheels had several holes and cracks in them. As of today the wheels are damaged but are still in operation. 

Another problem that Curiosity faced had to do with its drill. In 2016, when it was drilling into solid bedrock, the drill is supported by two small pillars that hold the drill into place. However one of these pillars jammed after all of the pressure that the rover was putting during the drilling operation. It would take almost two years before NASA could come up with a solution. In 2018, they finally decided to not use the supporting pillars to hold the drill in place and to just force the drill into the ground. This idea was tested in early 2019 and when proven successful has been the way the rover has drilled ever since. 

4,000 Days Of Discovery

Curiosity has found many supporting clues for life on Mars, one of the biggest clues came in 2022 when the rover reportedly found sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon in a sample. Which are all elements that help support life on Earth. Another major discovery came in 2015 when Curiosity discovered clues for a past ocean on Mars. Its most recent huge discovery was in February, 2023 when the rover found ripples in the rocks around it. They were believed to be carved out by waves on Mars 2.5 billion years ago. 

Curiosity has had an exciting 4,000 days on Mars and is expected to keep on exploring and making new discoveries.

Asteroid Sample Contains Carbon And Water by Kale Cunningham

On September 27, 2023 the Osiris-rex spacecraft returned a sample from a 4.5 billion year old asteroid. After a quick study, space scientists are already excited about the results. The asteroid sample had “evidence of high-carbon content and water” NASA wrote in a report released earlier this week. 

What Does This Mean?

Finding high evidence of Carbon and Water means that the 4.5 Billion year old asteroid that Osiris-rex collected could have been related to Earth in some way. Data collected says that in Earth’s early years it would have had high carbon content to help form water. And that water helped create life on Earth. Astroid  Bennu is believed to be from another planet, we have never fingered out which one. But now scientists are questioning if the asteroid could be a large chunk of
Earth orbiting less than 2 million miles away. 

“The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come – science like we’ve never seen before.”

Studying The Sample In The Future 

Even though we found some fantastic results from the sample, we still have much more to learn. The sample is like a 4.5 billion year old history book that we still have to read. NASA will ship some parts of the sample off to experts in other countries so they can research the sample trying to see if they can find something that researchers in the United States could have missed. One of the countries, Japan, has also done asteroid sample return missions. And most recently the Japanese Space Agency JAXA agreed to trade out one of their  asteroid samples for the Bennu sample. Which means that NASA will be able to have access to samples from another asteroid as well. 

A Update On Osiris-Rex

The remaining part of the Osiris-Rex mission, the spacecraft which is still operational in space, has recently sent course for its new target, a asteroid named Apophis. It should reach its target in 2029.     

Mission To Explore Metal Asteroid Launched by Kale Cunningham

On Friday, October 13th,  NASA launched their newest space probe to the asteroid Psyche. After years of planning and one year delay, the mission is now on track. 

Asteroid Psyche

Psyche or its original name 16 Psyche, was discovered in March, 1852. Its diameter is about 140 miles. It orbits around 7.5 million miles away from Earth. It may seem like a typical asteroid in our solar system, weirdly shaped, craters litter its surface, and it spins oddly like an out of control top. 

However there is something else that is very different about Psyche from the rest of the asteroids, it's made of metal. Unlike most asteroids that are from rock and dust, Psyche has an unusual amount of iron-nickel metal content. Which happens to be the same material that Earth and its neighboring planets cores are made out of. So scientists believe that Psyche used to be a planet’s core. However the planet that Psyche used to belong to must have been smashed to pieces in the early solar system.

Problems And Delays 

NASA approved the idea for a mission to the asteroid in 2018, the spacecraft was named after the asteroid that it was going to. However, Psyche has had its challenges, Covid-19 delayed critical testing and assembling dates. Testing that was supposed to start in 2020 was delayed to 2021. It was planned at the time that Psyche would launch in October 2022, but with a limited testing window and a major budget cut in the mission by Congress in the summer of 2022, the mission seemed over. However, the Psyche team did not want to have the mission canceled, so they delayed the Psyche mission by 12 months and in that time they successfully completed all of the testing and packed the spacecraft up for launch in Florida.

Going Up Close And Personal 

When the Psyche mission was launched the rocket pointed it in the direction of Mars, and sent it off towards the Red Planet. NASA plans to have the spacecraft fly by Mars and use its gravity to shoot it towards Psyche. However even going a shocking 15 kilometers per second (or nine miles per second), it will still take the spacecraft six years to reach Psyche. Once it does it will enter in a low orbit and start a 21 month mapping mission. The spacecraft will use its instruments to try and detect any unusual minerals inside the asteroid. The spacecraft will orbit as close as 75 miles above the surface of Psyche.

James Webb Makes New Discovery by Kale Cunningham

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021, and ever since its first images have been released to the public in July 2022, it's been a big hit. 

However, most recently astronomers noticed something different about the photographs that have been coming back. The stars and galaxies seemed to be much brighter than usual, which was a bit of a problem. Brighter light covered up many of the dimmer stars which meant that if the telescope were to do a counting of how many stars were in a particular area then the readings would come out false. At first some people thought that it may have been James Webb’s sensitive instruments that were giving the extra light, and that the telescope itself had a minor problem. But after doing a check up on the telescope nothing seemed off about its instruments or camera. Which means that James Webb was actually giving us the right information, and the early universe is just much brighter than we expected. 

"The discovery of these galaxies was a big surprise because they were substantially brighter than anticipated," Claude-André Faucher-Giguère of Northwestern University said. "Typically, a galaxy is bright because it's big, but since these galaxies formed at cosmic dawn, not enough time has passed since the Big Bang.”

James Webb will continue to study the early universe looking for more discoveries like this one, who knows what it will discover next?

An “AI” Solution for California Wildfires By Julian Nowlin

Wildfires. Because of climate change, there have been even more of them. Some didn’t do much damage before they were put out. But many did. One problem with stopping fires is spotting them before they get out of hand. If they get too big before firemen can react, there is a major problem. But Cal Fire has found a solution.

Before, to spot wildfires in California, people stood on top of watchtowers. But even on high ground, small, small wildfires can be very difficult to spot for the naked eye. So Cal fire has turned to something relatively new: AI. 

Cameras that are attached to a watchtower use artificial intelligence to spot fires that humans can’t. When the AI thinks it sees a fire, it reports back to a base. Then someone reviews the image to see if it is a real fire, not just clouds or dust.

But as you might know, AI is constantly learning. If an AI repeatedly reports a fire that is actually a cloud, and the person confirms it is fake over and over again, it begins to realize the difference between smoke from fires and clouds. And if the AI successfully identifies a fire, it can spot more clouds of smoke that are real fires. 

The planet is continuing to warm up, many people have died and many trees have burned. But when it comes to preventing wildfires, we are on the right track.

Source: CNN 10

Ancient River On Mars? by Kale Cunningham

For more than two years the Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars searching for life. It’s important when searching for life in unknown territory or on another planet for scientists to be aware and insightful of their surroundings. So they decided to have a look into a ridge that was believed to be carved out by a river billions of years ago. What they found were smoothly laid-out rocks, called Bedrock. Bedrock is a very smooth and bright rock that also forms on Earth only around water. The water smooths out the rock over time creating a very flat rock. So here’s scientists thinking, water on Earth made Bedrock here, then on Mars, there must have been water to form that bedrock as well. However, the theory goes much further than that, water is the key to life on Earth. All life needs water to survive on Earth in one way or another. But could there have been life on Mars that lived in this water? Not the big bug-eyed aliens in the UFOs that many think are in Area 51. But a microscopic life, possibly even plant life. 

That is one of the reasons that the Perseverance rover came to Mars, to try and find evidence of microscopic life on Mars. It also came to Mars to collect samples which will hopefully be returned sometime in the early 2030s. But rovers on Mars have an easier time trying to look at the history of the planet Mars, because, unlike Earth, Mars doesn’t have rainy weather to ease its history. Most craters and ridges on Earth get covered up by dirt and water. But Mars doesn’t have anything like that to hide its secrets. So going into a crater means the deeper you go the older the rocks get and the more you can see what early Mars was like. 

“Mars rover missions usually end up exploring bedrock in small, flat exposures in the immediate workspace of the rover,” said Katie Stack Morgan, a project scientist of Perseverance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory “That’s why our science team was so keen to image and study Belva. Impact craters can offer grand views and vertical cuts that provide important clues to the origin of these rocks with a perspective and at a scale that we don’t usually experience.” 

Perseverance will keep on exploring this landscape throughout the summer and hopefully will make some useful discoveries. 

Saturn: The Moon King by Kale Cunningham

For years it’s been a debate about which has the most moons, we know that Mercury and Venus have none. Our own planet has one moon, and Mars has two small moons. When we reach the outer planets of our solar system, however, the number of moons goes up by a lot. Jupiter the biggest planet in our solar system, has between 80 and 95 to date. Uranus has 27 moons and Neptune has 14. However, most recently new moons of Saturn have been discovered, revealing over 60 unknown moons. 

Moon King 

Saturn is famous for its dazzling rings, made primarily out of reflective ice and rocks. But now it has the most moons, with a jaw-dropping total of 145 moons. This number is bigger than all of the known moons in the solar system! However, most of these recently discovered moons are smaller than two miles in circumference and are very hard to track. 

“Tracking these moons makes me recall playing the kid’s game Dot-to-Dot because we have to connect the various appearances of these moons in our data with a viable orbit,” says Edward Ashton a scientist at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, “but with about 100 different games on the same page and you don’t know which dot belongs to which puzzle.”

These moons also could be false representations of something else, moons of these sizes are very easy to confuse with something else. Some of these so-called moons could be comets or astronomical objects that were in the area and are now in a different location than before. Saturn’s rings are very easily confused with moons sometimes because of the millions of small rocks inside the rings which can cause confusion. So some of these 62 new moons could be a false reading. 

And there still is the question of “Are there more moons out there?” and the answer is yes, there are still dozens of moons that have not been discovered. NASA estimates that there are several moons that orbit Jupiter, so we could see Jupiter or other planets get the title of moon king. It’s all a matter of what we can see and discover.    

Are Snakes Important in Life? By Maryam Alharrasi

Are snakes important in life? Yes, they are. But why are they important in life? And how can they be important? Many people know that snakes are one of the most dangerous animals in the world, but the scientists discovered that some of them have venom that treats people and gives them medicines. Let’s go back to the beginnings of snake venom and how it’s used so we can understand why snakes are important in the world and how their venom can make medicines for people. 

Snakes venom began in medicine:

Snake venom first began in 1981 when French scientist Albert Calmette, he found that some animals were injected with venom in small doses, their blood serum became a strong antidote[5]. Snake venom was first used for antivenom production only, but then their use has expanded. It's been used as a medical tool for thousands of years, especially in traditional Chinese medicine.

What Does the Snakes medicine contains?

Snake venom contains several proteins that can impact the human body.

These proteins don’t only inflict death to animals and humans, but also can be used for the treatment of thrombosis, arthritis, cancer and many other diseases.

These pictures refers to the logo of the pharmacies:

And this picture shows some of the snakes body and what it has in its mouth:

What does snake venom do to the human body?

Snake venoms, in particular, have evolved a wide diversity of peptides and proteins that induce harmful inflammatory and neurotoxic effects including severe pain and paralysis, hemotoxic effects, such as hemorrhage and coagulopathy, and cytotoxic/myotoxic effects, such as inflammation and necrosis.

And finally let's ask…are snakes important in life or not?

Snakes aren’t and are important in life at the same time, first, they are one of the most dangerous animals in the world. Snakes can cause animals and humans to die, but at the same time they could treat humans because of some of the venom that they have.

Snakes are dangerous animals, but they also help animals and people to get better via medicinal uses of venom.

Snake Robot Could Find Life In Other Worlds By Kale Cunningham

For decades many people have been looking for alien life everywhere, we have sent rovers and landers to Mars, mapped out icy moons, and even sent signals out to distant planets. And these have helped us find clues that help support this theory. But we have had no luck in finding the solid proof which is finding some kind of life from. This has caused debate in the space community about why we have at least not found microscopic life. Some people think that we are alone in the universe, others dismiss this idea and say that we are doing something wrong. And then there is a third section of people that think we should try different ways to detect life. And this is what a group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California is trying to do using different and new technology to find life.

Snake-Bot

NASA is currently testing a spacecraft called the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor, however, the mission team that is using the robot calls it EELS. This is a spacecraft that is designed to look and work like a snake. While it may sound crazy and a little creepy, it is also very useful for finding life. 

“It has the capability to go to locations where other robots can’t go. Though some robots are better at one particular type of terrain or other, the idea for EELS is the ability to do it all,” says Matthew Robinson, EELS project manager. “When you’re going places where you don’t know what you’ll find, you want to send a versatile, risk-aware robot that’s prepared for uncertainty – and can make decisions on its own.” Like a Snake, EELS can shrink its size in width to make it thinner at times. The robot is equipped with sensors and cameras to help it from falling and other objects. The snake also has an interesting way of getting around. It has small wheels that roll itself at a top speed of 4 miles per hour. Which means it would take about a few hours to cover the distance of one football field. But in another icy and cold world, it’s okay to slow down. 

Survival 

The robot snake, much like normal snakes also has its survival tactics, the spacecraft has been programmed to keep itself in working order for as long as possible. The idea of the snake was for it to work with limited human help and it decided which option is the best. The snake is expected to be moving around and inside caves. And these caves have some deadly drops from anywhere from 30 feet to 100 that could easily cause a robot to fall and crash onto the surface. 

“Imagine a car driving autonomously, but there are no stop signs, no traffic signals, not even any roads. The robot has to figure out what the road is and try to follow it,” says the project’s autonomy lead, Rohan Thakker. “Then it needs to go down a 100-foot drop and not fall.”  

And to help with this EELS creates a 3D map of its surroundings using multiple pairs of cameras and a new technology called lidar, which is similar to radar but uses more effective laser pulses instead of radio waves. This helps it give a new view of underground caves. 

When Will It Be Used?

EELS is a very interesting and unique way of technology and could be used sometime in the future. Unfortunately, to use it NASA would most likely have to invest billions of dollars to send to its destination a rocket. And NASA has other current goals like to o land people back on the moon sometime in the next few years. But this technology way make its way to alien words one day.            

U.S. And Russia, Friends In Space By Kale Cunningham

Russia and the United States disagree on almost everything: How to lead their countries, how to treat their people, how to respect one another, where you can and can’t put nuclear weapons, and what draws the limits of war. But who could have ever known that both countries work together peacefully in space? 

A History 

Russia and the United States were not always together in space. In fact, originally they were against each other in an event known as the “Space Race.” From 1957-1974, the two battled for space supremacy. Russia scored some early victories, launching the first man and woman into space. The United States, however, took a different path and chose to land humans on the moon in 1969. However, Russia was not going down without a fight. They continued the space race by launching space stations into orbit and sending people there. But one day, that all changed. When both countries signed an agreement for two manned spacecraft, one American and one Russian to dock together in space. The plan was set for July 1975, and just a little while later it happened for real. America’s ice-cream shaped Apollo spacecraft and the bug-looking Soyuz spacecraft met together in Earth’s orbit and the three American astronauts and the two Russian cosmonauts spent a few days together. But soon after this event, the governments had another big disagreement and Russia and America went back into the space race against each other. 

Mir Life

By 1994, America’s space agency, NASA, was in trouble. After the Challenger disaster in 1986, Congress cut a large amount of NASA’s budget. NASA had been able to kick-start the Space Shuttle program again, but with a limited budget. They couldn’t conduct long-term human experiments. Russia’s space agency, however, was doing much better; their Mir space station, the largest object ever constructed at the time, was a masterpiece. It could hold three cosmonauts for 6 full months! And with all of that space, there was a lot of possibility for conducting experiments. NASA noticed this and thought of an idea: They could put an American onboard the Russian space station! They would be able to do several long-term experiments and see what would happen. To try and befriend an enemy, they decided to give them a gift - a new docking port to Mir that could fit with the American docking ports on the space shuttle. The first astronaut who came to Mir was Norman Thagard, who didn’t enjoy his stay, because of what happened in the first couple of weeks. While he was running on a treadmill, the rubber band holding him down snapped and smacked him in the eye, damaging his eyesight. Another astronaut who stayed aboard witnessed a 5-minute fire that spread across the space station quickly. When he tried to use a fire extinguisher at the blaze, he discovered that it didn’t work. He scrambled to find another one, but then he found out that this one was also useless. Finally, a cosmonaut found a third extinguisher that worked, and the fire was put out. Many astronauts said that when the space shuttle came to take them down, it was like a miracle to them. The Americans also didn’t like the Russian’s carelessness. NASA makes sure that the American astronauts are clean of vaping products and alcoholic beverages. But Russia at the time, didn’t have those rules, and often lit cigarettes onboard the space station, making Mir smell very bad. Russian cosmonauts also never took out their junk, and Mir was crowded with lots of dirty socks and old experiments that were never taken out. It was considered very bad luck at NASA to go to Mir, and most astronauts were traumatized after they returned home. They often lost an unhealthy amount of weight. And some even resigned from NASA after they returned to Earth. 

Goodbye Mir

NASA wanted to build a large space station, and they had already added several space agencies. But these space agencies didn’t have the budget to help NASA build the space station, and they couldn’t build and launch their own rockets. They could only give NASA astronauts robotic arms and modules. So NASA decided to turn to Russia for help, who were also having problems. After the Soviet Union fell, they were left with limited money and were having trouble keeping Mir alive. So NASA asked Russia if they would like to join the International Space Station. Russia agreed, but NASA and the other space agencies also had some requests if they were to join the space station. First, they wanted to get rid of Russia’s smoking habits. Next, they wanted to make sure that they would use their own Soyuz spacecraft to get astronauts up into space. And last, they also requested that Mir would be sent down into Earth’s atmosphere. Mir would be a large piece of space junk that could cause harm to the new space station. However, Russia loved its space station, it was their one-in-a-million jewel, and they didn’t want to send it down to burn up into Earth’s atmosphere. But in the end, they agreed. And after the last crew completed their stay in June of 1995, they sent a spacecraft to pull it towards Earth. Mir burned up in Earth’s atmosphere in March of 2001. 

A New Era

The International Space Station was the next step in the United States and Russia’s relationship. Russia would supply the space station with a propulsion system, while the United States would supply a power system. And the idea became true. Between 1998 and 2011, the USA and Russia would supply the space station with several different modules and solar panels. And by the time the space shuttle program ended in July   2011, the United States was closer than ever to its relationship with Russia. And from 2012-2020, American astronauts only took the Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. NASA certainly had established a strong and strange bond with an enemy. And even though the two country's governments disagreed with each other, the scientists worked together in space. 

A Damage Done And a Hopeful Recovery

But unfortunately in 2022, that relationship was almost torn apart. When Russian troops invaded Ukraine and started a war. The United States supported the underdog Ukraine and funded them with money and weapon supplies. This made Russia very unhappy, and its space agency would threaten to crash the ISS into the United States. Which was a threat that the US and its partners would never take lightly. Russia would then claim that they would stop sending American astronauts into space, and even leave the International Space Station program completely. Of course, NASA didn’t support this idea, but Russia won’t listen to their reasoning. By June 2022, it seemed like Russia was leaving the program for good. They even released blueprints for a space station that they claimed would test nuclear weapons in space. This upset and scared  the US citizens and government greatly, and rumors started going around about a missile strike in space. But Russia seemed to have a change of heart, and by the next month in July, they asked if they could rejoin the space station. But they claimed that they would still leave in 2026. But more recently they have delayed that to 2028 at the latest. In September 2022, Russia started carrying Americans back up to the ISS again. 

The ISS is supposed to last until 2030 before it is deorbited in 2031. 

With the confusing history between the two countries, they are still able to work together in space even though their governments disagree with each other. They have shown that two enemies can work together in the right circumstances.