Our Planet

Smart Home Devices Can Help Reduce Waste and Utility Bills

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 23, 2020
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Smart technology at home — Research says even just using more energy-efficient devices will conserve energy: a Consumer Technology Association study in 2017 found that while the number of tech devices in U.S. homes had increased 21% since 2010, those devices accounted for 25% less energy than they did in 2010. And that's before even getting into smart home tech. As early as 2011, researchers found an 18% decrease in energy consumption when people used home automation systems such as Z-Wave or ZigBee to manage power consumption of devices. More recent estimates of smart home tech suggest that net energy savings for various devices range from 8 to 15 percent for smart thermostats and 40 to 75 percent for smart lighting products. It's important to consider the power a smart device uses even in standby mode when calculating possible conservation, which might account for the wide range of energy savings to be found with different devices. Smart home tech is a new (and quickly expanding) industry, but there are already several ways you can incorporate it into your home to help save the planet. Image Source: Pixabay

By now, it’s common knowledge that smart home devices can help with a variety of daily tasks. From asking your Alexa device what song is playing to checking your phone to see who just rang your doorbell, more people are buying smart devices to fill a variety of life needs and interests.

With increased technology, though, people have also begun to see the environmental benefits of these devices. Smart home devices can help regulate home temperature, reduce water use, and conserve energy, among other things.

Solar System Space Exploration

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid Bennu

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 21, 2020
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This illustration shows NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending towards asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid's surface. Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Exciting news: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the first United States spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid has successfully touched down the Asteroid Bennu. The touchdown and sample collection occurred on October 20, 2020, at about 22:12 UTC.

Solar System

Oceans of the Solar System

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 18, 2020
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Created by the Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo (the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo) scientists, this amazing infographic shows the volumes of the oceans of the Solar System. The unit used is the volume of the liquid water on Earth, so the ocean volumes of the other planetary objects are given by the multiples of the volume of the oceans on our planet.

Environment Climate Global Warming Technology

Microsoft had a crazy idea to put servers underwater, and it totally worked

Post author By Singularity Hub
Post date October 18, 2020
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A little over two years ago, a shipping container-sized cylinder bearing Microsoft’s name and logo was lowered onto the ocean floor off the northern coast of Scotland. Inside were 864 servers, and their submersion was part of the second phase of the software giant’s Project Natick. Launched in 2015, the project’s purpose is to determine the feasibility of underwater data centers powered by offshore renewable energy.

Space Exploration

Soyuz makes a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the ISS

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 16, 2020
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Soyuz MS-17 makes a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the ISS — Soyuz MS-17 makes a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

On 14 October 2020, Soyuz MS-17 transported three crew members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station with a record-breaking 3-hour flight. It was the 145th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consists of a Russian commander (Sergey Ryzhikov) and a Russian and American flight engineer (Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Kathleen Rubins).

Environment

How Sustainable Building Creates Affordable Housing

Post author By Evelyn Long
Post date October 15, 2020
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Housing costs are a crucial part of your household budget. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] describes housing affordability as anything 30% or less of your gross salary. Still, when calculating expenses, you must include insurance, taxes, and utilities into the final equation. As a result, anyone spending over 30% on their housing costs is considered burdened.

Astronomy Astrobiology

NASA’s Planet Patrol Project lets the volunteers help to find exoplanets

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 10, 2020
No Comments on NASA’s Planet Patrol Project lets the volunteers help to find exoplanets

Want to hunt the skies for uncharted worlds from home? Join Planet Patrol! Watch to learn how you can collaborate with professional astronomers and analyze images from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on your own. You’ll answer questions about each TESS image and help scientists figure out if they contain signals from new worlds or planetary imposters.

NASA announced a new citizen science project called “Planet Patrol” which lets the volunteers help to find exoplanets using TESS Space Telescope (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) data. It is similar to another NASA citizen science project, “Backyard Worlds”, where volunteers or the “citizen scientists” are checking telescope images the same way the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) found Pluto, the original “Planet 9” in 1930. In this case, volunteers will collaborate with professional astronomers as they sort through a stockpile of star-studded images collected by NASA’s TESS Space Telescope (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).

Planet Earth

How High One Must Be to See the Curvature of the Earth?

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 9, 2020
13 Comments on How High One Must Be to See the Curvature of the Earth?

The curvature of the Earth - how high must one be to see it? — The curvature of the Earth is easily visible from space. But how high must one be to see it from the ground? Image: The sun shines above the Earth's horizon [NASA]

At what altitude can you start seeing the curvature of the Earth? Is it visible from the top of a skyscraper, a mountain peak, or a passenger plane? Can a high-altitude balloon provide a clear view, or is it something you can only witness from space?

Most people don’t realize how large the Earth is compared to the height of a mountain or the altitude of a passenger aircraft. It’s easy to think we’re really high up when standing on a mountain peak or flying in a passenger plane. However, even at these heights, we’re just skimming the surface of our planet. For perspective, commercial aircraft typically fly between 31,000 and 38,000 feet (about 5.9 to 7.2 miles) high, which is higher than even Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.

So, how high do you have to be to see the curvature of the Earth?

Moon Landing Artificial Intelligence Space Exploration Technology

Moon landing videos remastered

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 9, 2020
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Run by a Dutch restoration specialist who remastering historic videos using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Dutch Steam Machine (Dutchsteammachine) channel has published remastered Apollo Moon landing videos, as well as some other vintage space videos, and the results are astonishing.

Mars Astrobiology Space Exploration

Subglacial lakes on Mars: an oasis for life?

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 2, 2020
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More subglacial lakes on Mars have been discovered

Back in 2018, using the onboard radar instrument MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding), European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter discovered an underground reservoir that is buried about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) under the ice. Now, in September 2020, scientists analyzing Mars Express data have discovered three more subglacial lakes on Mars or pools of liquid water buried under the ice in the south polar region of the red planet. Could they be an oasis for microbial life?