Science News Roundup: NASA chief announces Alabama facility as moon spacecraft headquarters; Planet 10 times Earth's mass may have smacked Jupiter long ago

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Japanese researchers build robotic tail to keep elderly upright

Millions of years after the ancestors of humans evolved to lose their tails, a research team at Japan’s Keio University have built a robotic one they say could help unsteady elderly people keep their balance. Dubbed Arque, the grey one-meter device mimics tails such as those of cheetahs and other animals used to keep their balance while running and climbing, according to the Keio team.

Genetic study implicates humans in demise of prehistoric cave bear

Genetic research that reconstructed the past population dynamics of the cave bear, a prominent prehistoric denizen of Europe, implicates Homo sapiens rather than climate cooling in the Ice Age extinction of these brawny plant-loving beasts. Scientists said on Thursday they obtained genome data from 59 cave bears from bones unearthed at 14 sites in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland.

China state agency successfully launches rocket for commercial use: CCTV

A Chinese government space agency successfully launched on Saturday its first rocket meant for commercial use, state television CCTV reported, as firms in the country compete to join a commercial satellite boom. Smart Dragon-1 rocket, which weighs 23 tonnes and was developed by a unit of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), successfully delivered three satellites into orbit after launch in Jiuquan, Gansu, CCTV said.

NASA chief announces Alabama facility as moon spacecraft headquarters

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Friday said Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will serve as headquarters for the U.S. space agency's program to build a spacecraft to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024. Bridenstine made the announcement at the Alabama facility, accompanied by lawmakers from that state. The announcement, which means potential jobs and prestige for Alabama, disappointed lawmakers from Texas who had lobbied for a site in their state.

Planet 10 times Earth's mass may have smacked Jupiter long ago

Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, may have been smacked head-on by an embryonic planet 10 times Earth's mass not long after being formed, a monumental crash with apparent lasting effects on the Jovian core, scientists said on Thursday. The violent collision, hypothesized by astronomers to explain data collected by NASA's Juno spacecraft, may have occurred just several million years after the birth of the sun roughly 4.5 billion years ago following the dispersal of the primordial disk of dust and gas that gave rise to solar system.

Also Read: FEATURE-Ancestors guide LGBT+ South African healers to mend mental scars

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)