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Upper row Associate American Corner librarian Donna Lyn G. Labangon, Space Apps global leader Dr. Paula S. Bontempi, former DICT Usec. Monchito B. Ibrahim, Animo Labs executive director Mr. Federico C. Gonzalez, DOST-PCIEERD deputy executive director Engr. Raul C. Sabularse, PLDT Enterprise Core Business Solutions vice president and head Joseph Ian G. Gendrano, lead organizer Michael Lance M. Domagas, and Animo Labs program manager Junnell E. Guia. Lower row Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, Frances Claire Tayco, Mark Toledo, and Jansen Dumaliang Lopez of Aedes project.

MANILA, Philippines — A dengue case forecasting system using space data made by Philippine developers won the 2019 National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s International Space Apps Challenge. Over 29,000 participating globally in 71 countries, this solution made it as one of the six winners in the best use of data, the solution that best makes space data accessible, or leverages it to a unique application.

Dengue fever is a viral, infectious tropical disease spread primarily by Aedes aegypti female mosquitoes. With 271,480 cases resulting in 1,107 deaths reported from January 1 to August 31, 2019 by the World Health Organization, Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, Mark Toledo, Frances Claire Tayco, and Jansen Dumaliang Lopez from CirroLytix developed a forecasting model of dengue cases using climate and digital data, and pinpointing possible hotspots from satellite data.

Sentinel-2 Copernicus and Landsat 8 satellite data used to reveal potential dengue hotspots.

Correlating information from Sentinel-2 Copernicus and Landsat 8 satellites, climate data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PAGASA) and trends from Google search engines, potential dengue hotspots will be shown in a web interface.

After ‘reanalyzing’ data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, scientists have discovered an Earth-size planet, named Kepler-1649c, residing in its star system’s habitable zone. Full Story: https://www.space.com/earth-size-exoplanet-habitable-zone-kepler.html

: Space.com / animation: NASA/Kepler Mission/Dana Berry / Kepler-1649c illustrations: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter / produced & edited by Steve Spaleta (http://www.twitter.com/stevespaleta)

The star itself is about the same mass and a little larger than the Sun — a minority in our exoplanet hunts. It’s orbited by six planets: a super-Earth and five mini-Neptunes.

After monitoring it for seven years, astronomers have discovered that all six of those planets are orbiting HD 158259 in almost perfect orbital resonance. This discovery could help us to better understand the mechanisms of planetary system formation, and how they end up in the configurations we see.

Kilopower is a small, light-weight fission nuclear power system capable of providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power — enough to run several average households continuously for at least 10 years.

Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost on the Moon or Mars.

#engineering

Modern circuitry operates in binaries – switches can either be 0 or 1 – which in turn restricts their computing power to discrete values. Qubits, on the other hand, can hold both values depending on their state, and derives this property from quantum physics. Qubits are modelled on subatomic particles like electrons, giving them an edge over Boolean systems. Quantum computers are difficult to operate, in part due its bulk, power consumption, hardware complexity, and reliance on low temperatures.

Intel’s “hot” qubit technology ought to address the latter concern. These qubits are capable of operating at temperatures higher than 1 Kelvin (−458F / −273K), which is the warmest temperature that quantum computers till now were able to tolerate. Computers in outer space operate at 3 Kelvin. The practical benefits of this breakthrough will manifest itself if Intel can combine quantum hardware and control circuitry on the same chip. It has hitherto been difficult for researchers to separate control electronics for qubits from the qubits themselves owing to the frigid temperature that the latter require to function.

Intel will be hoping that this development will help it fabricate more efficient chips that meld the two parts on the same chip without compromising on fidelity. The commercialization of quantum computing still remains a pipe dream, but large corporations like Google and Intel are paving the way for improvements that could make quantum computers more viable. Even so, make sure you’re wearing a scarf before you go to collect your first quantum computer.

:oooo.


At about 10:54 p.m. EDT, Parker Solar Probe surpassed 153,454 miles per hour — as calculated by the mission team — making it the fastest-ever human-made object relative to the Sun. This breaks the record set by the German-American Helios 2 mission in April 1976.

Parker Solar Probe will repeatedly break its own records, achieving a top speed of about 430,000 miles per hour in 2024.

An illustration of Kepler-1649c orbiting around its host red dwarf star. This newly discovered exoplanet is in its star’s habitable zone and is the closest to Earth in size and temperature found yet in Kepler’s data.
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter

A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water.

Scientists discovered this planet, called Kepler-1649c, when looking through old observations from Kepler, which the agency retired in 2018. While previous searches with a computer algorithm misidentified it, researchers reviewing Kepler data took a second look at the signature and recognized it as a planet. Out of all the exoplanets found by Kepler, this distant world – located 300 light-years from Earth – is most similar to Earth in size and estimated temperature.

A comparison of Earth and Kepler-1649c, an exoplanet only 1.06 times Earth’s radius
Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter


This newly revealed world is only 1.06 times larger than our own planet. Also, the amount of starlight it receives from its host star is 75% of the amount of light Earth receives from our Sun – meaning the exoplanet’s temperature may be similar to our planet’s, as well. But unlike Earth, it orbits a red dwarf. Though none have been observed in this system, this type of star is known for stellar flare-ups that may make a planet’s environment challenging for any potential life.