哈伯望遠鏡發現了至今最大顆的彗星

星一般來說體型都不大，但顯然也是有例外存在的。天文學家利用哈伯望遠鏡拍下的影像進行分析，認為 C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) 彗星的核心直徑達 130 公里，超過之前的彗星大小紀錄保持者 C/2002 VQ94 的約 100 公里直徑。…

中國三名太空人由天宮返航，打破最長太空任務記錄

神舟 13 號任務的三名太空人翟志剛、王亞平和葉光富，稍早順利由天宮太空站返回地球，結束為期 183 天的任務。這除了刷新了中國太空人停留在太空站的時長記錄外，同時王亞平也成為首位出艙進行活動的女太空人。…

China’s record-breaking astronauts are back on Earth after six months in orbit

Chinese astronauts — or taikonauts, as the country calls them — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping have returned to Earth after spending 183 days in space. That’s the country’s longest crewed mission to date so far, with the taikonauts spending those six months aboard Tianhe, the living module of China’s Tiangong space station. As Space notes, Wang Yaping was also the first female taikonaut to live aboard Tianhe and the first Chinese woman to go on a spacewalk. 

The taikonauts were part of the Shenzhou-13 mission, which is the second of four crewed missions and the fifth out of the eleven overall missions China intends to launch to finish building its space station by the end of the year. They did two spacewalks and performed 20 science experiments while in orbit. The team also manually controlled the Tianhe module for a docking experiment with an unmanned cargo spacecraft. 

China, which isn’t an ISS partner, launched Tianhe to low Earth orbit in April 2021 and quickly followed that up with several more launches in an effort to meet its space station’s 2022 construction deadline. The country sent the first crewed mission to its fledgling station in June last year, and the three taikonauts involved spent three months in Tianhe testing systems and conducting spacewalks. In June, China is expected to launch its next crewed mission, the Shenzhou-14, with three taikonauts onboard who’ll also spend six months in orbit.

海王星に予想外の気温変動 ESOが画像公開

海王星の2006～2020年における大気温度の変動を捉えた赤外線合成画像。17年前に南半球の夏が始まってから気温が著しく低下し、その後ここ数年間は南極付近で急速な気温上昇が起きている（2022年4月11日公開）。(c)AFP PHOTO /EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY 【4月16日 AFP】太陽系の惑星の中で最も外側を公転している第8…

Hubble telescope spots the largest known comet to date

Comets aren’t known for being gargantuan, but there are clearly exceptions to that rule. Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted the largest known comet to date, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). With a nucleus 80 miles across, it easily overshadows the 60-mile girth of previous record holder C/2002 VQ94 — it’s about 50 times bigger than the typical comet. 

The comet was first discovered in 2010 by its namesake astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein. However, scientists only recently verified the size by comparing Hubble imagery against a computer model of the coma (the ‘atmosphere’ of the comet as it releases gas) and data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. At roughly 2 billion miles away from Earth, C/2014 UN271 is too far away for Hubble to visualize the nucleus.

And before you ask: no, there’s no danger of an Earth-shattering collision. C/2014 UN271 is on a 3-million-year-long elliptical orbit that will take it no closer than 1 billion miles from the Sun, or slightly beyond Saturn’s distance, in 2031. It appears to have originated from the Oort Cloud (the still-theoretical nest of comets at least 2,000AU from the Sun) and may travel up to half a light-year away. Its -348F temperature may seem frigid, but it’s warm enough to produce a carbon monoxide coma.

The size confirmation isn’t just about bragging rights. This finding widens humanity’s understanding of comet sizes, and adds to the still-small catalog of very distant comets. It might also provide more evidence of the Oort Cloud’s existence and, by extension, help explain the cloud’s role in Solar System development.

タンパク質の立体構造を予測するAI「AlphaFold」はどのように生物学の世界を変えているのか？

Alphabet傘下の人工知能企業であるDeepMindは、2018年にアミノ酸の配列情報からタンパク質の立体構造を予測するAI「AlphaFold」を開発しました。その後も改良が重ねられ、2021年7月にはオープンソース化もされたAlphaFoldが生物学の世界にもたらした影響について、科学誌のNatureでジャーナリストを務めるEwen Callaway…