A colossal impact destroyed the atmosphere of an alien world

All the mars rovers just came back to life, Israel took one step closer to making compact wingless ‘flying cars’ real. Oct 23, 2021 # Together with [Anycart]( Good morning! After a solid two-week-long radio silence, all the rovers and probes on Mars recently turned back online. Both NASA's and China National Space Administration's rovers are safe and back online. Farther away in the universe, about 95 light-years ahead, an Earth-sized terrestrial planet was hit by a humongous object, stripping parts of its atmosphere. It was the first time scientists had a chance to observe such an event. And finally, with a vision to make Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles take up less space while accommodating more people, an Israeli company is one step closer to making 'flying cars' a reality. This is The Blueprint. Keep going. SCIENCE [A Colossal Impact Destroyed the Atmosphere of an Alien World]( [Artist's impression of celestial bodies colliding]( Did you know that, in our own solar system, the Earth and moon are thought to be [the product of a giant collision]( However, although these impacts are thought to be common occurrences in early planetary systems, astronomers have struggled to observe them around other stars until now. What did the researchers spot? Astronomers at MIT, and other institutions, [have spotted evidence]( of a giant impact that occurred in a nearby star system named HD 172555. The star system is about 23 million years old, and is located just 95 light-years from Earth. A world first! “This is the first time we’ve detected this phenomenon, of a stripped protoplanetary atmosphere in a giant impact,” said lead author Tajana Schneiderman, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, in a statement. “Everyone is interested in observing a giant impact because we expect them to be common, but we don’t have evidence in a lot of systems for it. Now we have additional insight into these dynamics.” What was the collision like? The team has determined that the collision likely occurred at least 200,000 years ago, at a speed of about 22,000 miles per hour (10 kilometers per second). The impact was between a roughly Earth-sized terrestrial planet and a smaller impactor. Do you think [humanity would stand a chance]( against such a danger? [Read More]( INNOVATION [All the Mars Rovers Just Came Back to Life]( [China's Tianwen-I orbiter, and NASA's Perseverance taking a selfie.]( They're back! After a two-week-long solar conjunction that forced the agency to shut down some functions amid the radio blackout, NASA's Perseverance rover just [resumed its nominal operations](. What happened? After the Earth and Mars emerged from the opposing sides of our sun, radio blackouts commenced. As you might guess, trying to communicate radio waves when there's a blazing-hot ball of plasma between you and your target is not very viable. Such was the case for China's first-ever Mars rover, [the Zhurong]( too. Late last month, probes and rovers in the Mars system started experiencing heavy blackouts. Chinese citizens had started expressing their worry online, fearing that something bad would befall over their first Mars rover. But as NASA's comms started coming back online, so did China National Space Administration's. As the blackouts began, China's ground control team suspended exploration tasks and ran [a suite of preventive algorithms]( such as an advanced autonomous working state capable of confronting a wide variety of scenarios. [Read More]( TRANSPORTATION [Israel Took One Step Closer to Making Compact Wingless 'Flying Cars' Real]( [The flying car concept from Urban Aero]( When talking about Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicle concepts, we pretty much mean a scaled-down version of an aircraft that's intended to carry four to five people and some cargo. Now, Israel-based Urban Aeronautics is [coming forward to announce]( they're doing a pretty good job at it. Last year, we featured Urban Aeronautics' [City Hawk and Falcon XP models](. Contrary to most other VTOL concepts, their design resembles a traditional car. Apart from its promise of carrying more people per trip, these concepts also tout not requiring any specialized infrastructure for landing. 'Landing four where others would land one' is the idea with these vehicles according to the CEO, Nimrod Golan-Yanay. This way, the limited amount of space is used to ferry more people around and a higher return on infrastructure investment. - With no moving external parts, the vehicles have less chance to collide with power lines or accumulate ice. The company's biggest leap is working with [hydrogen fuel cells]( rather than battery-based electric propulsion. Urban Aeronautics is confident that this technology will give its vehicles 20 times the energy density of an electric battery. [Read More]( SPONSORED [Now, There’s a Search Engine For Grocery Stores]( You’ve heard of Google and Bing, but have you heard of Anycart? Grocery stores are often cluttered, out-of-the-way, or simply too expensive. What’s more, the myriad of grocery store options can leave you bewildered. Using Anycart search engine, you can order groceries with a few clicks, saving both time and effort. Pick your items, time for delivery, and pay the bill to get your items delivered to your doorstep. You can skip the store lines and get $15 off on your first order! Don’t start cooking before you [sign up on Anycart]( QUOTE OF THE DAY “ A complete survey of life on Earth may appear to be a daunting task. But compared with what has been dared and achieved in high-energy physics, molecular genetics, and other branches of “big science,” it is in the second or third rank. ” Edward O. Wilson - In 'The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science' from Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985) AND ANOTHER THING... - Good news: The ‘[first-ever free-flying commercial space station]( will launch in 2027. - Microplastics may be [both cooling and heating]( our planet’s climate. (Ars Technica) - MIT engineers showed a robotic cheetah [how to take one giant leap](. - Apparently, ISPs want more money, because [so many people are streaming Squid Game](. (Vice) - Purchasing Bitcoin just became a bit easier [thanks to Walmart](. - Reportedly it was the Feds that [hacked the REvil ransomware group]( and forced it offline. (The Hacker News) - Surprise! The Vikings [beat Christopher Columbus to America by 500 years](. Prepared by Loukia Papadopoulos and Utku Kucukduner Enjoy reading? Don't forget to forward to a friend! Was this email forwarded to you? [Subscribe]( [About Us]( | [Advertise]( | [Contact Us]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to our newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( to manage your newsletter subscriptions. © Copyright 2021 | The Blueprint is by Interesting Engineering, Inc. 201 Spear Street, Suite 1100 San Francisco, CA 94105 | All Rights Reserved [Interesting Engineering]