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- Wonderful breakthroughs: a flight to the moon and the icy mantles of the predecessors of the stars
Wonderful breakthroughs: a flight to the moon and the icy mantles of the predecessors of the stars
More than half a century after Apollo 17, the United States launched the Artemis II mission, a manned lunar flyby aboard an Orion spacecraft. Meanwhile, Russian scientists are making progress on Earth: they have developed innovative methods for producing rare earth metals and created a special plastic capable of absorbing carbon dioxide under stress, a reusable alternative to energy—consuming sorbents. Astrochemists have expanded the James Webb Space Telescope's data library, obtaining infrared spectra of interstellar ices with methane for the first time, and discovered unexpected combinations of substances in a young star. And psychologists offer an unusual tool to combat bullying: the story of Punch the monkey, abandoned by his mother and finding support in a plush toy, is a good example for fostering compassion in children. The most interesting science and technology news of the week can be found in the Izvestia article.
The first manned flight to the moon in 50 years
On April 1, the Orion spacecraft was launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in the United States using the SLS (Space Launch System) superheavy rocket. There are four astronauts on board. Artemis II's flyby of the Earth's satellite was the first manned mission to the Moon in more than half a century: the previous expedition, Apollo 17, took place in 1972. Then the astronauts landed on the surface and delivered 115 kg of lunar soil to Earth.
As explained in NASA, the main goal of Artemis II is to test how Orion will withstand the conditions of deep space flight: temperature fluctuations, radiation, microgravity and dynamic loads.
The planned duration of the mission will be 10 days, and technically the ship's reserves allow extending the flight for another four. For comparison, the Apollo 17 expedition lasted 12.5 days, but included the landing and long-term stay of astronauts on the surface of the Moon. Artemis II does not provide for landing or entering lunar orbit — the ship will fly around the satellite and return to Earth.
The crew included Commander Reed Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, as well as specialists Jeremy Hansen and Kristina Koch, the record holder for the longest stay on the ISS among women. The astronauts will conduct a series of scientific experiments. Special attention is paid to studying the effects of cosmic radiation, one of the key barriers to interplanetary flights. It is expected that the results of the mission will help improve protection systems for future lunar bases and expeditions to Mars.
Innovative methods for obtaining rare earth metals have been created in Russia
NUST MISIS specialists have patented two technologies for more efficient production of rare earth metal compounds (REM) — neodymium carbonate and cerium dioxide. Their implementation will help optimize production processes, reduce energy consumption and reduce the environmental burden. REM compounds are in demand when creating materials and devices with special properties: catalysts, ceramics, pigments, electronics, pharmaceuticals. At the same time, traditional methods of their production require high temperatures and multi-stage processing, which reduces efficiency and increases the volume of salt effluents.
"The use of a concentrated neodymium solution has increased the productivity of the process by 10 times and reduced the amount of waste by at least five times compared with known analogues. Now it is possible to control the morphology (structure) of particles, which is important for the production of catalysts, ceramics, pigments and electronic components," said Elena Bogatyreva, the author of the patent, professor of the Department of Non—Ferrous Metals and Gold at NUST MISIS.
The second method concerns the synthesis of cerium dioxide powders (used in automotive catalysts and polishing compounds). Unlike traditional calcination, the development uses microwave heating of a cerium carbonate suspension, which reduces processing from several hours to one or two minutes, eliminates the washing and drying stages, and reduces reagent costs.
A new way to fight carbon dioxide
Russian scientists have discovered a plastic that absorbs carbon dioxide from the air under tension and can release it after a power outage. This is an ideal basis for a reusable device to combat harmful emissions and global warming, experts believe. According to experts, in order to achieve a similar effect, the sorbents currently used have to be heated and cooled, which requires a lot of energy.
Reusable industrial emissions purification systems can be created on the basis of this plastic. The costs of their operation will only be needed for electricity. According to the researchers, a regular outlet is enough to operate such a device.
"First, we investigated the properties of graphene. And they found out that under the influence of a charge, it attracts CO2. And since graphene consists of carbon, and it, in turn, is part of polymers, we assumed similar properties for this group of materials. We have confirmed this hypothesis on polyacetylene, which belongs to conductive polymers. It is likely that other conductive polymers have a similar ability," said Nadezhda Andreeva, associate professor at the Higher School of High—Voltage Power Engineering at St. Petersburg State University.
The new technology does not have this disadvantage and is very convenient, so in the future, devices based on the material can be widely used in almost any public space.
A library for analyzing data from the largest space telescope
Astrochemists from the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin (Yekaterinburg) for the first time obtained infrared spectra of ices consisting of mixtures of methane with water, carbon dioxide, alcohol, methanol and ammonia. Such compounds are part of the icy mantles on dust particles in dark molecular clouds and precursors of stars.
The authors collected the spectra obtained using ISEAge equipment into a single library and compared them with data from the James Webb telescope obtained by observing the young protostar B335, located at a distance of 537 light-years from Earth in the constellation of the Eagle. The results showed that about 30% of the solid methane in B335 is surrounded by carbon dioxide molecules, rather than water, as previously thought. The amount of methane and carbon dioxide turned out to be correlated, which indicates their joint formation in the early stages of the formation of icy mantles of interstellar dust particles.
"We have made the full set of spectra publicly available in the Zenodo repository, making them available to the entire scientific community for interpretation of new James Webb observations. The relevance of these data will only grow with the accumulation of infrared observations of protostellar and prestellar objects," said Anton Vasyunin, head of the project supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant.
The "Punch phenomenon" is used to combat school bullying
A monkey named Punch, popular on social networks, can become a good example for the formation of children's aversion to bullying, Olga Valaeva, head of the Center for the Development of Digital Clinics at Moscow State University, told Izvestia. Videos of a baby macaque, which was abandoned by its mother at the zoo, but survived and adapted to the pack thanks to a plush toy thrown by the staff, are gaining a huge audience. The whole world is watching his dramatic relationship with his relatives.
— The story is suitable for working with a children's audience as part of bullying prevention. Due to the empathy that Punch evokes in children due to its appearance and behavior, it is possible to visually show what the victim of bullying is experiencing, and form a bridge from children to Punch, and from him to the person being bullied. This will create an aversion to bullying in a team or group," she said.
The story of Punch the monkey, if told or shown on the basis of video recordings to children of preschool and primary school age, can help to awaken feelings such as compassion, mercy, pity, good-naturedness. In the hands of a skilled teacher, this story can be a good tool for conducting a class hour on the prevention of school bullying, psychologists say. And according to primate experts, it is necessary to continue monitoring Punch in order to understand how an unusual childhood will affect his adult life.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
