communityoflights

Author name: communityoflights

Cutaway diagram of a jet engine showing airflow and combustion.
technology

The Superpowers’ Hypersonic Arms Race

The latest global arms race has gone hypersonic. Capable of flying faster than 5000km/h without losing manoeuvrability and lower in the atmosphere than traditional ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons will offer clear advantages in penetrating missile defences — once they’ve actually been perfected. Though still in development by nations around the world, once fully operational, the missiles are expected to be capable of destroying targets anywhere on the planet within an hour of getting data and permission to launch. The weapons will also lessen the timelines for a response by a nation under attack.

A drone flying over a cityscape during sunset.
technology

A Look at the Future in 2050

The world is advancing at unprecedented rates and by 2050, we can expect to see life on earth change drastically. If this is true, then what can we expect from the future? Lets time travel into world in 2050. Nanotechnology Scientists have already made great leaps in the world of nanotechnology and they remain unrelenting in making more of such progress. What will the future of work be like by 2050? A flexible workforce? Therapy delivered by AI? Experts predict what the future of work will be like by 2050.

A train arriving at a snowy, futuristic station at night.
technology

The World’s Most Beautiful Subway Stations

In 1933, the Soviet Union began construction work on what would become some of the world’s most beautiful subway stations. The Moscow Metro opened in 1935. Built mainly by hand, the train stations resemble a palace more than a place of transit. And they were palaces of a sort: they articulated, through architecture, the Soviet creed that the worker, not a king, queen or Tsar, reigned supreme. The irony—and tragedy—is that these palaces required the punishment of the very people they venerated: working conditions on these palatial subway sites were notoriously cruel.

Portrait of a distinguished man with a mustache and vintage style.
technology

Raymond Loewy – The Man Who Designed Everything

What does it mean to be a celebrated designer? Is it being on the cover of Time Magazine, designing some of America’s best-loved exports, or is it something as simple as being recognized with a Google Doodle? Raymond Loewy, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential designers has now achieved all three, thanks to Google celebration of his 120th birthday a few years ago.. In the same spirit, we’ve compiled a few of Loewy’s most memorable designs:from Air Force One, Lucky Strikes and Coca-Cola — French American Raymond Loewy basically created Americana.

A large blue moon reflected on rippling water at night.
space exploration

Water Molecules Found Trapped in Minerals on the Surface of the Moon

Water is a precious resource and a relatively plentiful lunar presence could prove important to future astronaut and robotic missions seeking to extract and utilize water.The moon lacks the bodies of liquid water that are a hallmark of Earth but scientists said on Monday lunar water is more widespread than previously known, with water molecules trapped within mineral grains on the surface and more water perhaps hidden in ice patches residing in permanent shadows. While research 11 years ago indicated water was relatively widespread in small amounts on the moon, a team of scientists is now reporting the first unambiguous detection of water molecules on the lunar surface. At the same time, another team is reporting that the moon possesses roughly 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) of permanent shadows that potentially could harbor hidden pockets of water in the form of ice.

SpaceX Inspiration4 mission patch featuring a rocket and four crew members.
space exploration

Inspiration4 – The First All-Civilian Mission to Space

The launch of the first all-civilian mission to orbit scheduled for September 15, 2021, is an ambitious test for a burgeoning space industry’s futuristic dream of sending many more ordinary people to space in the next few years. Companies and nations envision millions of people living and working in space without having to become professional, government-backed astronauts. Those hopes are riding on SpaceX’s next crewed mission, called Inspiration4. Previous launches have taken billionaires to suborbital space or sent space tourists to the International Space Station alongside professional astronauts, but this mission is the first with a crew made up entirely of amateur astronauts.

Spacecraft on launch pad under a full moon at night.
space exploration

An Inside Look at NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever – the Space Launch System

The Space Launch System, with the Orion spacecraft sitting on top, has a central role in the Artemis I mission to orbit the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s newest rocket is set to lift off Monday morning, kicking off a new era of lunar exploration for the U.S. The Artemis I mission is an uncrewed practice run that will launch NASA’s most powerful rocket—called the Space Launch System, or SLS—with the Orion spacecraft sitting on top. Orion is designed to withstand the harsh environment of space.

Collage of colorful cosmic phenomena including galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.
space exploration

First Images from James Webb Telescope Released by NASA

NASA’s revolutionary, long-delayed $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has produced its first full-color image, and it’s a doozy: a glimpse deep into space and back in time, capturing the faint light of galaxies forming in the infancy of the cosmos. The image, revealed Monday in a White House ceremony by President Biden and top NASA officials, shows a cluster of galaxies, called SMACS 0723, that functions as a massive lens, magnifying the extremely faint and cosmically distant objects behind it.

Intricate spherical and grid-like geometric patterns in monochrome.
science

Scientifically Impossible Places that Actually Exist

The Seven Wonders of the Natural World may have been named too quickly. Wonders like The Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls are certainly big, and anyone who sees them will surely be impressed—but sheer size isn’t enough to truly leave a person in awe. There are other places in this world, though, that are far stranger. Places that seem almost alien, as if they could only exist on a planet that evolved separately from our own. These are places that scientists have had to struggle just to understand how they ever could have been formed. Places that will truly make you wonder—not just because they’re beautiful, but because they seem to follow scientific laws that don’t exist anywhere else on earth.

The United States Capitol building under a partly cloudy sky.
science

The American Abyss – A Historical Perspective by Professor of History Tim Snyder

When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6, 2021 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version. Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.

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