Universe Today

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Stranded Astronauts To Get Their Ride Home

You might remember the story of the two astronauts on board the International Space Station that went for an 8 day mission, that was back in June 2024! Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stranded there ever since but their ride home has just arrived at the ISS. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov has just docked so that the two can join the Expedition 72 crew already on board. There are now 11 people on boar the ISS but the Crew-9 capsule will return in February carrying Wilmore and Williams finally back home.

September 30, 2024October 2, 2024 by David Dickinson

An October Annular Solar Eclipse Rounds Out 2024

A remote annular solar eclipse bookends the final eclipse season for 2024.

The final eclipse of the year is almost upon us. If skies are clear, a few lucky observers and intrepid eclipse-chasers will get to witness the passage of the Moon in front of the Sun one last time on Wednesday, October 2^nd during an annular solar eclipse.

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Nuclear Detonations Could Deflect Dangerous Asteroids Away from Earth

Before you read the rest of this article know there are no known threats to life on Earth! We shouldn’t sit complacently on this tiny rock in space though so NASA have been working on ways to neutralise potential asteroid threats should they arise. The DART mission proved it was possible to alter the trajectory of an asteroid in space. Direct impact though where a probe smashes into the rock is one way but potentially not the best. A team of researchers have now been exploring ways that a nuclear explosion near an asteroid may send a blast of X-rays sufficiently powerful to vaporise material generating thrust to redirect the asteroid.

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Unloading Cargo on the Moon

LANDO prepares to move its payload to a safe spot on the simulated lunar surface. NASA/David C. Bowman

I don’t think it’s something I have ever really thought of! Robotic explorers can travel around the Solar System visiting our neighbouring planets but when they arrive, sometimes a scientific package must be deployed to the surface. Never occurred to me just how that’s achieved! With a number of landers scheduled to visit the Moon, NASA are testing a new robotic arm called the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for Surface Operations or LANDO for short! It will lift payloads off the lander and pop them down gently on the surface of the Moon.

September 28, 2024September 28, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

How Does the Milky Way Compare to Other Galaxies?

A mosaic of the images of 378 satellites across 101 Milky Way-like systems. Credit: Yao-Yuan Mao (Utah), with images from the DESI Legacy Surveys Sky Viewer

The Milky Way is special because it is our home. No matter where we are on Earth we can see its arc of light overhead if the night is dark enough. But how similar is our galaxy to others? Is it an unusual spiral galaxy, or is it rather typical in the cosmos?

September 28, 2024September 28, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Space Perspective Completes a Test Flight, Sending a Balloon to 30 km

It’s great to see so many private organisations entering the space sector. Space Perspective are another and they have just completed a successful uncrewed capsule ascent to an altitude of 30km. Their Neptune-Excelsior capsule was carried by a balloon and landed in the ocean 6 hours later. It was able to maintain its cabin pressure and stability throughout the flight proving that it met the requirements for future passenger flights starting in 2025.

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Europe Simulates the Moon on Earth

ESA's LUNA facility allows future lunar astronauts to train in simulated Moon conditions here on Earth. Courtesy ESA.

Where do you go to practice living and working on the Moon before you actually get there? That’s the question the European Space Agency and German Aerospace Center wanted to answer. So, they worked together to build a mockup of the Moon’s surface near Cologne, Germany.

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Martian Clay Could Be Hiding the Planet's Atmosphere

An illustration comparing modern Mars (left) with early Mars (right). Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Ages ago in its youth, Mars appeared much like Earth. It was a warm planet with lakes, rivers, and vast seas. It had a thick atmosphere with clouds and rain. One major difference is that the atmosphere was rich with carbon dioxide instead of oxygen. Then about 3.5 billion years ago much of the atmosphere disappeared, and we haven’t understood how. A new study in Science Advances suggests that the waters of Mars may have been the key, and much of the ancient atmosphere may be locked in the surface of the red planet.

September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Astronomers Find a Strange Lopsided Planet

Artist's illustration of the exoplanet WASP-107 b based on transit observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope as well as other space- and ground-based telescopes, led by Matthew Murphy of the University of Arizona and a team of researchers around the world.

I’ve often stated that planets come in a wide range of sizes but rarely do I find myself stating they come in a wide range of shapes too! The discovery of WASP-107b is a case in point since this planet is the size of Jupiter but only a tenth of its mass. But there’s more… Using the James Webb Space Telescope a team of astronomers have accurately identified that the planet has an east-west asymmetry in its atmosphere, in other words, it’s lopsided. It is tidally locked to the star and on one side, the atmosphere seems to be inflated compared to the other.

September 26, 2024September 26, 2024 by Evan Gough

Another Building Block of Life Can Handle Venus’ Sulphuric Acid

Radar image of Venus created by the Solar System Visualization project and the Magellan science team at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Venus is often described as a hellscape. The surface temperature breaches the melting point of lead, and though its atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide, it contains enough sulfuric acid to satisfy the comparison with Hades.

But conditions throughout Venus’ ample atmosphere aren’t uniform. There are locations where some of life’s building blocks could resist the planet’s inhospitable nature.