Posted on by Shawn DiCenza

Slimmed Down Red Giants Had Their Mass Stolen By a Companion Star

Millions of stars that can grow up to 620 million miles in diameter, known as ‘red giants,’ exist in our galaxy, but it has been speculated for a while that there are some that are possibly much smaller. Now a team of astronomers at the University of Sydney have discovered several in this category and have published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“It’s like finding Wally… we were extremely lucky to find about 40 slimmer red giants, hidden in a sea of normal ones. The slimmer red giants are either smaller in size or less massive than normal red giants.”

PhD candidate Mr Yaguang Li from the University of Sydney, as quoted from the source article.
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Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Here’s Something Rare: a Martian Crater That isn’t a Circle. What Happened?

An odd shaped crater in Noachis Terra on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Most impact craters are usually circular and fairly symmetric, but not all. This odd-shaped crater on Mars is obviously an impact crater, but it has a unique oblong shape. What happened?

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Posted on by Matt Williams

Holographic Doctors can now Provide Medical Advice on the International Space Station

In recent years, the practice of “telemedicine” has grown considerably. Similar to “telepresence” and “telecommuting,” this technology relies on high-speed internet and live-video streaming to allow a person in one part of the world to interact with people in another without being physically present. The technology has come in handy during the two-year COVID-19 pandemic, where doctors were in high demand, but physical travel was restricted.

This process has also allowed for the emergence of “holoportation,” which relies on holographic technology and 3-D modeling for the same purpose. In October 2021, the first “holoportation handshake” was conducted between Earth and space and demonstrated the technology’s potential for future missions. On this occasion, NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid, AEXA Aerospace CEO Fernando De La Pena Llaca, and their teams had a two-way conversation with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

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Posted on by Laurence Tognetti

Perseverance Begins the Next Phase of its Mission, Studying an Ancient River Bed on Mars

On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance (Percy) Rover successfully landed in the dried-up lakebed known as Jezero Crater on Mars, beaming back images and video of its descent and landing to millions of space fans living on the planet that built and launched this incredible robotic explorer. With this landing came enormous excitement for a new era of robotic exploration of the Red Planet as we slowly continue to unlock the secrets of Mars and its ancient past, to include (hopefully) finding evidence of past life.

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Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Here are All of Hubble’s Observations in One Picture

All of the Hubble Space Telescope's observations from the past 32 years, shown in one graphic. Credit and copyright: Casey Handmer. Used by permission.

Over the past 32 years, Hubble has made about 1.4 million observations of our Universe. Physicist Casey Handmer was curious how much of the sky has been imaged by Hubble, and figured out how to map out all of Hubble’s observations into one big picture of the sky.

It’s a gorgeous, almost poetic look at Hubble’s collective view of the cosmos. So, how much of the sky has Hubble imaged? The answer might surprise you.

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Posted on by Brian Koberlein

Venus' Atmosphere Stops it From Locking to the Sun

Venus
Venus' surface features are revealed in an image based on data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Of the thousands of exoplanets we’ve discovered, most of them closely orbit red dwarf stars. Part of this is because planets with short orbital periods are easier to find, but part of this is that red dwarf stars make up about 75% of the stars in our galaxy. This propensity of close orbiting planets has some pretty big implications for “potentially habitable” worlds, not the least of which is that most of these planets are likely tidally locked to their star. Or so we’ve thought.

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Posted on by David Dickinson

Chinese Astronomers Recorded Earliest Account of Aurora

How dating an ancient text revealed one of the oldest observations of aurora known.

It’s one of the greatest sky spectacles you can witness. Along with a total solar eclipse and a major meteor storm, I’d put a fine aurora display up there as one of the the most amazing things you can see in the night sky. And we’re not talking about the dull green glow that folks in the ‘lower 48’ see to the north and dismiss, but the glorious silent streamers of auroral curtains that can light up the entire sky.

Now, a recent study, entitled A Candidate Auroral Report in the Bamboo Annals Indicating a Possible Extreme Space Weather Event in the 10th Century BCE may have pinpointed one of the earliest accounts on ancient aurorae. In the study, University of Pennsylvania and Nagoya University researchers culled through the legendary chronicle known as the Bamboo Annals (also sometimes referred to as Zhushu Jinian) penned around the 4th century BCE. Chinese texts are some of the best documented sources of sky phenomena stretching back over the millennia, to include accounts of naked eye sunspots, supernovae and meteor outbursts.

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Posted on by Matt Williams

Jupiter’s Moon Io has Dunes. Dunes!?

Potential dunes on Jupiter’s moon Io. An analysis indicates that the dark material (lower left) is recently emplaced lava flows, while the repeated, line-like features dominating the image are potential dunes. The bright, white areas may be newly emplaced grains as the lava flows vaporize adjacent frost. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Rutgers

Within Jupiter’s massive system of satellites, four large moons really stand out. They’re known as the “Galilean Moons” in honor of Galileo Galilee, who made the first recorded observations of them in 1610. The innermost of these moons is the rocky moon Io, which is slightly larger than Earth’s Moon and slightly denser. With more than 400 active volcanoes on its surface, it is the most geologically active body in the Solar System.

Add to that the intense radiation it gets from Jupiter’s magnetic field, and it’s arguably one of the most hellish environments in the Solar System! Nevertheless, scientists have long been puzzled by the meandering ridges visible on the surface, which are as large as any seen here on Earth. Thanks to a recent study led by Rutgers University, there’s now an explanation for how these formations can exist on a surface as icy and volcanic as Io’s.

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