Lifeboat Foundation

How did a giant impact 4 billion years ago affect Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede? This is what a recent study published in Scientific Reports hopes to address as a researcher from Kobe University investigated the geological changes known as a “furrow system” that Ganymede has exhibited since being struck by a giant asteroid in its ancient past, along with confirming previous hypotheses regarding the size of the asteroid. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand how the very-active early solar system not only contributed to Ganymede’s but how such large impacts could have influenced the evolution of planetary bodies throughout the solar system.

“The Jupiter moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto all have interesting individual characteristics, but the one that caught my attention was these furrows on Ganymede,” said Dr. Naoyuki Hirata, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Planetology at Kobe University and sole author of the study. “We know that this feature was created by an asteroid impact about 4 billion years ago, but we were unsure how big this impact was and what effect it had on the moon.”

For the study, Dr. Hirata used a series of mathematical calculations to ascertain the size of the object that impacted Ganymede billions of years ago along with the angle of impact that produced the furrow system. In the end, Dr. Hirata determined that the impactor’s radius was approximately 93 miles (150 kilometers) and the angle of impact was potentially between 60 to 90 degrees, resulting in the furrows that overlay a significant portion Ganymede’s surface. For context, Ganymede is not only the largest moon in the solar system at a radius of 1,637 miles (2,634 kilometers), but it is also larger than the planet Mercury.

A new study looking at the potentially hazardous asteroid 99,942 Apophis has suggested that the odds of an impact in 2029 or 2036 is ever so slightly higher than we thought.

When Apophis was first discovered in 2004, observations briefly placed it at level 4 on the Torino impact hazard scale, with a score of 0 meaning the likelihood of impact is zero or thereabouts, and 10 meaning “a collision is certain, capable of causing global climatic catastrophe that may threaten the future of civilization as we know it, whether impacting land or ocean.”

While level 4 might sound low, it is the highest level of any object that has been discovered since NASA first started monitoring potentially hazardous Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us all? In Japan, AI-driven technology promises better lives for an aging population. But researchers in Silicon Valley are warning of untamable forces being unleashed– and even human extinction.

Will artificial intelligence make life better for humans or lead to our downfall? As developers race toward implementing AI in every aspect of our lives, it is already showing promise in areas like medicine. But what if it is used for nefarious purposes?

Continue reading “Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us? | Us & Them | DW Documentary” »

The asteroid Apophis, named after the Egyptian god of chaos, was discovered in 2004. Early calculations raised concerns due to its potential collision with Earth, making it a focus for scientists.

Science fiction is riddled with artificial intelligence going rogue and turning on their human creators. HAL-9000. The Matrix. Skynet. GLaDOS. Cylons. Humanity, it seems, has a deep fear of the rebellion of the machine.

With the rise of ever more sophisticated large language models (LLMs), such as Chat GPT, the question of what dangers AI may pose has become even more pertinent.

Continue reading “AI Doesn’t Actually Pose an Existential Threat to Humans, Study Finds” »

In the scorched aftermath of World War III, the Earth is a nuclear wasteland, and humanity’s last hope lies in autonomous war machines called \.

Check out my quantum physics course on Brilliant! First 30 days are free and 20% off the annual premium subscription when you use our link ➜ https://brilliant.org/sabine.

The Fermi Paradox is an estimate that says: Given all we currently know about the universe, we should have found extraterrestrial life already. So why haven’t we? In a paper that just appeared two weeks ago, a physicist has now put forward the idea that aliens use quantum communication. How does that solve the Fermi Paradox? I’ve had a look.

Continue reading “Fermi Paradox Explained by Quantum Communication” »

The specimens provide insight into how tardigrades evolved cryptobiosis, a temporary and almost complete shutdown of bodily processes.

A space rock that smacked into Earth 66 million years ago and devastated the ancient life living thereon took a remarkably circuitous route to get here, a new study has found.

The Chicxulub event – the giant impact that ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs, clearing the way for mammalian life to rise – was triggered by an asteroid from a region of the Solar System out past the orbit of Jupiter, the cold, dark outer limits, far from the Sun’s light and warmth.

And an asteroid it was indeed, with the new findings by an international team of researchers ruling out that the object could have been a comet.