An ancient and far away galaxy has recently been discovered thanks to the Large Millimeter Telescope

One of the oldest galaxies to date has been discovered by a team of scientists courtesy of the Large Millimeter Telescope LMT). The galaxy is thought to have formed 12.8 billion years ago within and billion years after the Big Bang.

The discovery was made by an international team of researchers from the University of Massachusets Amherst and Mexico’s National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics. Designated G0 83808, the galaxy is so far away that in only showed as a blur on the Herschel space telescope. Only after scientists pointed the Large Millimeter Telescope could they focus on the find. The Telescope is located on the summit of Volcan Sierra Negra in the Galapagos and is the largest steerable dish in the world.

Distant objects are difficult to make out even with today’s state of the art Hubble telescope due to gigantic dust clouds. Telescopes like Hubble are effective when using visible and infrared wavelengths that unfortunately can’t see through the dust. The LMT, on the other hand, uses millimeter-length wavelengths capable of peering through.

This sets G09 83808 as the second oldest galaxy discovered so far with the findings being published in the journal Nature Astronomy. It holds great potential in finding out more about the Big Bang which scientists predict to have happened 13.7 billion years ago.

Astrophysicist at the University of Massachusets Amherst, Min Yu, considers G09 83808 to be one of the first galaxies ever to form after the Big Bang.

„Seeing an object within the first billion years is remarkable because the universe…was too hot and too uniform to form anything for the first 400 million years” he states.

The good news is the LMT telescope is getting upgraded and will be capable of looking even further into the universe as old galaxies tend to drift further to the edges of the universe.

Image Source: WikipediaCommons

Stephen Hawking is extremely concerned about the turn AI evolution might take

Many people are concerned about the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, and Stephen Hawking is one of them. He is afraid that we might soon be able to create a really advanced AI system, capable of performing better than humans. This might lead to the apparition of a new life form, which might come to replace humans.

The AI technology might easily become smarter than humans

Hawking is really afraid of the turn AI development might take. Since humans are already able to design viruses which corrupt computers, he thinks it’s not long until they create an AI capable of replicating itself. From there, it’s a small step until these machines become intelligent enough to surpass humans.

This is not the first time when Hawking is extremely concerned about the future of AI. During a conference on the future of intelligence at Cambridge University, he said the evolution of these machines will turn either into the best thing that ever happened to humanity, or into the worst.

The signs are already there, and AI won’t cease to progress

He thinks human brains are extremely similar to computers. This means that the machines should be able to imitate the functions of a real brain, and maybe outperform them. One alternative would be to use AIs to fight climate change and incurable diseases. However, if they are so powerful, then they might soon develop their own volition and use it in malicious ways.

Hawking things the signs are already there. Now, cars are capable of driving themselves, and a computer can outsmart a human at a game of Go. Also, researchers continue to invest a lot of time and resources into this technology, and the results won’t hesitate to come. This means that, in a couple of years, the AI achievements will seem both grand and maybe a bit disturbing, showing they should really be feared.
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Researchers have found a stable source of oxygen on Mars

Scientists are already making all kinds of preparations for a manned mission on Mars, and are even hoping that, one day, we would be able to establish a human colony on the Red Planet. One big challenge astronauts need to overcome is to find a stable oxygen source, but a recent discovery might solve this problem. It seems the Martian conditions are suitable for producing the gas necessary to maintain life.

There lies a bright future ahead for the next manned mission on Mars

Scientists are actively looking for ways to make it easy for astronauts to go on Mars and establish colonies there. Now, they made another step forward by discovering the Martian conditions are nearly perfect for obtaining oxygen. This would be possible via a process called decomposition, which only requires carbon dioxide.

Usually, the decomposition of carbon dioxide is facilitated by plasmas which reach low temperatures, as the electrons in its composition make the process possible. In a new study, published in the journal Plasma Sources Science and Technology, researchers studied the temperature and pressure present in the atmosphere of Mars.

Mars houses the perfect conditions to obtain oxygen

The results showed Mars has the optimal conditions which allow the production of oxygen from a non-thermal plasma. By combining the atmosphere made up of 96 percent carbon dioxide and the low temperature, the electrons might read a higher vibration than they do on Earth. This way, the molecules of carbon dioxide have enough time to split into oxygen and carbon monoxide.

By embracing such a technology for the next mission to Mars, astronauts will be able to get a stable source of oxygen which can last for a longer period. However, this is not the only useful product of the decomposition process. The resulting carbon monoxide can work perfectly as rocket fuel.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The caverns beneath the Moon’s surface can shelter future colonists

Researchers have hoped for quite a long time that the surface of the Moon is hiding caverns which can shelter possible colonists. Now, a team of researchers from the United States and Japan managed to find evidence that lava actually carved such formations, highlighting a great future for the next exploration missions.

Lava formed caverns beneath the Moon’s surface

While studying the surface of the Moon, scientists uncovered some elaborate caverns close to Marius Hill. It turns out these formations used to be lava tubes and, besides offering great resources of study and the perfect place to study the composition of the surface, they can be perfect for sheltering future colonists.

The Moon is surrounded by no atmosphere. This means that its surface and everything standing on it remains exposed to the harsh rays of the Sun, as well as other extreme conditions. However, the elaborate caverns provide instant protection against all these factors.

For quite a long time, researchers have been studying these formations. They have always assumed they were created by lava, but had no solid proof in favor of the hypothesis. The Moon used to have an intense volcanic activity and, when the lava dried, it left these formations under its surface. Now, the new research reveals that the caverns not only exist, but they can also provide stable shelter.

The caverns can offer shelter to future colonists

With the help of radar observation, researchers detected the hollow tubes under the lunar surface. The radar rays were launched by SELENE, a lunar observation spacecraft launched by JAXA, and, after bouncing on the surface, they returned with information on the composition and geological history of the Moon.

As soon as the radar bursts met the entrance to the caverns, they issued an echo. Then, judging from the pitch and the tone of the echo, they could tell the formations had a volcanic origin. All these caverns are located in areas where NASA had previously identified missing masses of land. Therefore, they are real, and might offer a much more welcoming shelter than we would have thought.

The study has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Image Source: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio