By SpaceX
SpaceX
The SpaceX Grasshopper: On Aug. 13, the Falcon 9 test rig, also known as Grasshopper, completed a successful lateral fight maneuver.
Our theme this week is things that move in unexpected ways. In Texas, a rocket flew 800 feet in the air, then traveled sideways for 300 feet before returning to Earth. Elsewhere, two teams of researchers devised a method for teleporting small bits of information. And a wounded $600 million telescope is like a shopping cart with a broken wheel, says NASA. Onward and upward.
Developments
Engineering: A Reusable Rocket
The history of space travel is littered with disposable rockets. But the scientists at Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, have been working to develop one that can land safely and then be used again. In its latest test run, a 10-story rocket known as the Grasshopper lifted off and briefly flew sideways, then landed smoothly on the spot from which it came, remaining upright throughout. SpaceX is still a long way from producing a practical reusable rocket, but the one-minute flight represented a significant step forward, and made for the week's coolest science video.
Space: Big, Fussy Eater
There is an enormous black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and, given its size, scientists have long wondered why it doesn't grow faster and consume more than it does. Now, radio astronomers have discovered an elderly, rapidly rotating star known as a pulsar in the vicinity of the black hole, called Sagittarius A, that is providing some clues, reported Nature. By observing the pulsar's behavior, researchers have deduced that Sagittarius A generates a surprisingly strong magnetic field that may slow its intake of stellar material.
Biology: An Evolutionary Tail
Evolution isn't supposed to be predictable. But a common, single-tailed microbe, left alone to feed on sugar, consistently produced future generations with multiple tails that were better suited to eating and reproducing. The experiment, conducted by Joao Xavier of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, not only defies conventional wisdom, it suggests a path for disease research. The microbe in question can cause infections in the lungs, and clues to its behavior could help counter its natural defenses.
Physics: Quantum Leap
Two teams of physicists have successfully teleported tiny bits of information from one side of a computer chip to the other, reported National Geographic. The process involved two quantum bits, one on the sender side of the chip, and one on the receiving end. Because the bits were "entangled," to use a quantum physics term, what happened to one happened to the other. So when data was written to the sender side of the chip, it would leap to the receiving side without passing through the space between. The research could potentially improve computing and encryption speeds.
Environment: A Familiar Thaw
The modern melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be following a familiar pattern, says a study published in Nature. The middle of West Antarctica has warmed by about 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1958, but East Antarctica has warmed barely at all. The study, based on new ice records, suggests that the same pattern played out during the thaw from Earth's last big ice age. The ice sheet over West Antarctica started heating up 20,000 to 22,000 years ago, earlier than previously thought. But East Antarctica, which was higher and colder, was in a deep freeze until 18,000 years ago.
Coming Up
Astronomy: New Careers in Space
NASA is asking astronomers to help it find a new mission for Kepler, the celebrated spacecraft that broke down in May when a wheel that controls its telescope failed. Launched in 2009, Kepler collected a trove of data as it searched for Earthlike planets across the galaxy. That data will keep researchers busy for years, but without that wheel, the telescope is just too wobbly for its intended mission.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 23, 2013
A report in The Week column on Tuesday about physicists' successfully teleporting tiny bits of information misstated, at one point, the distance the information, known as quantum bits, traveled. As the report correctly noted elsewhere, the information traveled from one side of a computer chip to the other — not from one computer chip to another.
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