New’s of the week selected by Impactscool – April 23rd

Borofene: the new super material

Stronger and more flexible than graphene, borophene is a good conductor of heat and electricity. A single layer of boron atoms that combine to form two-dimensional lattice structures of various shapes. Borofene is the material that could revolutionize various sectors, from batteries to sensors. Stronger and more flexible than graphene, borophene is a good conductor of heat and electricity. The challenge now is to understand how to produce it on a large scale.

Advertising projections in the night sky

Pepsi is planning a new advertisement for its energy drink. Pepsi is planning a new advertisement for its energy drink: in collaboration with the Russian company StartRocket it would like to create a projection of the brand in the night sky as an artificial constellation. The Russian company StartRocket plans to throw cubes in space, the sky will act as an “orbital billboard”, projecting huge advertisements. Pepsi could be the company’s first customer and use the service to promote its new energy drink. The project has already raised several complaints: many, in fact, have opposed the project of invading the night sky with advertising.

China is relying on nuclear fusion

It intends to complete an experimental nuclear fusion reactor and start generating energy from it around 2040. China intends to complete an experimental nuclear fusion reactor and start generating energy from it around 2040. Reuters writes, reporting what was declared by a senior researcher involved in the project. China has invested large sums of money for this project, which should lead to the production of clean and almost inexhaustible energy through nuclear fusion, a process equal to that which occurs in the stars, such as the Sun: the hydrogen atoms merge, forming helium and producing large amounts of energy. A different process than the one used by nuclear fission plants, where the problem of waste is still relevant.

SpaceX will try to deflect an asteroid on behalf of NASA

The DART mission will be launched by a Falcon 9, it will have the task of demonstrating the possibility of modifying the trajectory of an asteroid. What if an asteroid were on a collision course with our planet? The probability of it happening is low but real, it is a question of when, not of itself, and the ways to thwart the threat are many but none has ever been tested. Forget about suicidal attacks with Armageddon nuclear weapons, one of the possibilities studied by NASA involves the launch of a small probe – called DART -, a “kinetic impactor” that will crash at very high speed towards the asteroid. The mission, which saw several cancellations and second thoughts due to lack of funds, finally got the go-ahead. It will be launched in 2021 by a SpaceX Falcon9. The objective of DART is a small binary system, two asteroids that orbit each other, Didymos A and Didymos B, respectively 800 m and 150 m. The probe, after about a year of travel, will impact at a speed of about 6 km / s on the smallest of the two asteroids that orbit millions of km from the Earth, so it will be impossible that in some way the trajectory of the two objects will be changed into so as to endanger our planet. After impact, using powerful telescopes, it will be measured if and how much Didymos B has modified its motion. The purpose of the mission, in fact, is to understand if such a collision will be able to modify the trajectory of the asteroid or if the elasticity of the materials that compose it will absorb the kinetic energy without therefore altering the path.

Boston Dynamics puts to test its SpotMini robot

The small four-legged robots drag a truck showing off their power. Boston Dynamics, famous for its viral videos in which it shows the capabilities of its robots, has published a video in which it tests the power of its SpotMini, the small 30 kg four-legged robots able to move independently thanks to their sensors and cameras that map the area in which they are located. In the clip ten models of the robot tow, up the slight rise of the parking of the Boston Dynamics, a truck, without showing too many difficulties. The umpteenth proof of the incredible capabilities of SpotMini built by the Massachusetts company that will soon be put up for sale.

Identified the first type of molecule that ever appeared in the universe

From this molecule the first step for the formation of the very first stars. 100,000 years after the Big Bang the Universe was still a soup of primordial elements. The first stars had not yet formed and therefore the elements that arise from the fusion processes that take place in their nucleus did not yet exist. However, there was a lot of hydrogen and a lot of helium, and for years we have been searching in space for the first type of molecule that should have been formed from these two elements, helium hydride. Thanks to the SOFIA flying observatory it was possible to identify, in a nebula at 3,000 light years from us, NGC 7027, near the Swan constellation, the conditions necessary for this molecule to be formed. The formation of helium hydride is the first step that led to the formation of molecular hydrogen and therefore of the first stars. The discovery is a confirmation of our understanding of the chemistry of the early universe.