Following Cancer With Tiny Magnets

Amazon Unveils New Prime Air Drones. See It In Action

Amazon gives the world a glimpse of the future today, as they unveiled the Prime Air drone, which promises to deliver packages in under 30 minutes.

The Prime Air prototype, which weighs 24 kg (55 pounds), can carry packages of up to 2.2 kg (5 pounds) and is designed to fly under 152 meters (400 feet). It is also equipped with “sense and avoid” technology, which will allow it to dodge obstacles that it may encounter en route to its point of delivery.

Our video illustrates its features, and it takes you through the step-by-step process of how the unmanned aerial device will operate.

See the video at at: http://futurism.com/links/amazon-unveils-new-prime-air-drones/

Scott Kelly is two inches taller after 340 days in space

After 340 days on the International Space Station, Scott Kelly grew 2 inches taller than his twin brother who spent the time on Earth, CNBC reports.

Gaining a couple inches is pretty common among astronauts that spend a significant amount of time in space. That’s because the microgravity environment allows room for their vertebrae to expand. Here’s how NASA explains it:

Imagine that the vertebrae in your back form a giant spring. Pushing down on the spring keeps it coiled tightly. When the force is released, the spring stretches out. In the same way, the spine elongates by up to 3% while humans travel in space. There is less gravity pushing down on the vertebrae, so they can stretch out — up to 7.6 centimeters (3 inches).

He aged less than us Earth-bound humans too.

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Scientists have come up with an explanation for that 'alien megastructure' star

Probably not aliens.

Well, it had to come to an end some time. There’s been a whole lot of buzz over KIC 8462852 - a star located about 1,500 light-years away between the Cygnus and Lyre constellations of our Milky Way galaxy. It’s displaying such weird behaviour, one scientist even threw the possibility of an advanced alien civilisation building a giant Dyson sphere nearby.

But new research has come up with the most plausible explanation yet for KIC 8462852’s weirdness - a barrage of comet fragments are spinning in a tight orbit around the star. […] But despite the evidence, they’re still not ready to discount the alien megastructure idea entirely. “We can’t really say it is, or is not,” said Marengo. “But what the star is doing is very strange. It’s interesting when you have phenomena like that - typically it means there’s some new physical explanation or a new concept to be discovered.”

Continue Reading.

Sky-piercing towers, Hyperloop transports, driverless cars, and 3D-printed buildings. Welcome to Dubai, the City of the Future.

Li-Fi is 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

What’s next in high-speed Internet? Beams of light, flickering faster than the eye can see. A recent test by New Delhi-based startup Velmenni used “Li-Fi” to transfer data at 1 gigabyte a second. The futuristic tech uses LED lightbulbs to send the high speed data — which could have a great impact on our world.

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Our solar system is huge, let us break it down for you. Here are a few things you should know this week: 

1. Closeup of a King

For the first time since it entered orbit around Jupiter in July, our Juno spacecraft has flown close to the king of planets—this time with its eyes wide open. During the long, initial orbit, Juno mission managers spent time checking out the spacecraft “from stem to stern,” but the science instruments were turned off as a precaution. During this latest pass, Juno’s camera and other instruments were collecting data the whole time. Initial reports show that all went well, and the team has released a new close-up view that Juno captured of Jupiter’s north polar region. We can expect to see more close-up pictures of Jupiter and other data this week.

+Check in with Juno

2. Getting Ready to Rocket

Our OSIRIS-REx mission leaves Earth next week, the first leg of a journey that will take it out to an asteroid called Bennu. The mission will map the asteroid, study its properties in detail, then collect a physical sample to send back home to Earth. The ambitious endeavor is slated to start off on Sept. 8.

+See what it takes to prep for a deep space launch

3. New Moon Rising

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has already mapped the entire surface of Earth’s moon in brilliant detail, but the mission isn’t over yet. Lunar explorers still have questions, and LRO is poised to help answer them.

+See what’s next for the mission

4. A Mock-Eclipse Now

We don’t have to wait until next year to see the moon cross in front of the sun. From its vantage point in deep space, our Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) sometimes sees just that. Such an event is expected on Sept. 1.

+See the latest sun pictures from SDO

5. Jupiter’s Cousins

Our galaxy is home to a bewildering variety of Jupiter-like worlds: hot ones, cold ones, giant versions of our own giant, pint-sized pretenders only half as big around. Astronomers say that in our galaxy alone, a billion or more such Jupiter-like worlds could be orbiting stars other than our sun. And we can use them to gain a better understanding of our solar system and our galactic environment, including the prospects for finding life.

Want to learn more? Read our full list of the 10 things to know this week about the solar system HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

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