Universe Today

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 by Evan Gough

There are Places Where Salty Water Could Emerge Onto the Surface of Mars

A computer generated view of Mars, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The existence of water on Mars is a contentious subject. We know there used to be water on the surface of the planet, though it’s long gone now. We know there’s frozen water underground in the world, and we know there’s water vapour in the air. But life needs liquid water.

Could there be liquid water on Mars?

A new study shows how salty water could emerge from the atmosphere onto Mars’ surface under the right conditions.

February 3, 2022February 4, 2022 by Matt Williams

Ice Cores Tell the Tale of an Incredibly Powerful Solar Storm That Hit the Earth 9,200 Years Ago

For decades, climate researchers and Earth scientists have used cores from ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic to better understand Earth’s climate history. Given how sensitive our atmosphere and climate are to the Sun, these ice cores are also a record of Solar activity. In a recent analysis of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago – when solar activity was believed to be one of the Sun’s more “quiet” phases.

The team consisted of researchers from Lund’s Department of Geology & Quaternary Sciences, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research, the Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics at ETH Zürich, and the Ice Dynamics and Paleoclimate team (part of the British Antarctic Survey) at Cambridge University. Their results appeared in a paper that was recently published by Nature Communications.

February 3, 2022February 3, 2022 by Matt Williams

NASA and HeroX Want Your Ideas for How to Deal with Space Waste!

Space agencies worldwide have some very ambitious plans that will take place in this decade and the next. For starters, NASA and its agency and commercial partners plan to return to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. Beyond that, they also intend to build the infrastructure that will allow for a “sustained program of lunar exploration,” such as bases on the surface and the Lunar Gateway. Once all of that is in place, NASA will be contemplating sending crewed missions to Mars.

This raises many challenges, including logistics, energy requirements, and the health and safety of astronauts. One crucial concern that is not often thought of by the general public is what to do about the waste generated along the way. To address this, the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) has partnered with HeroX once again to launch the NASA Waste Jettison Mechanism Challenge. With a prize purse of $30,000, NASA is seeking solutions for safely and effectively jettisoning waste that cannot be recycled.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Alan Boyle

NASA Details Its Plan for the End of the International Space Station in 2031

NASA says it plans to plunge the vestiges of the International Space Station into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo in early 2031, after passing the baton to commercial space stations.

In an updated transition report just delivered to Congress, the space agency detailed the endgame for the space station, which has been hosting international crews continuously since the year 2000 — and hinted at what its astronauts would be doing in low Earth orbit after its fiery destruction.

“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth-orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance,” Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial space, said in a news release. “We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space.”

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Matt Williams

A Highly Eccentric Black Hole Merger Detected for the First Time

In February 2016, scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) confirmed the first-ever detection of a gravitational wave event. Originally predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, GWs result from mergers between massive objects – like black holes, neutron stars, and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Since 2016, dozens of events have been confirmed, opening a new window to the Universe and leading to a revolution in astronomy and cosmology.

In another first, a team of scientists led by the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) announced that they may have detected a merger of two black holes with eccentric orbits for the first time. According to the team’s paper, which recently appeared in Nature Astronomy, this potential discovery could explain why some of the black hole mergers detected by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration are much heavier than previously expected.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Evan Gough

North Korea Releases Pictures of Earth They Say Were Taken From Space

This is an image taken with a camera onboard North Korea's Hwasong-12 missile during a test launch in January 2022. Image Credit: NKNews.org

North Korea released some pictures they say come from their recent missile test. The missile they tested—the intermediate-range Hwasong-12—can reach the U.S. territory of Guam. According to most North Korea observers, the country hopes the tests will bring the U.S. back to the negotiating table.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Glowing Helicopters on Mars

This is an artist’s concept of a glow surrounding a drone at Mars during flight. The glow, exaggerated for visibility, might happen if the drone’s spinning rotor blades generate an electric field that causes electric currents to flow in the Martian air around the craft. Although the currents generated by the drone in the atmosphere are small, they might be large enough to cause the air around the blades and other parts of the craft to glow a blue-purple color. Credits: NASA/Jay Friedlander

If the Ingenuity helicopter would fly at night on Mars, its very possible the whirring rotors would create enough static electricity in the extremely dry Martian atmosphere to cause the air around the craft to glow.

“The faint glow would be most visible during evening hours when the background sky is darker,” said William Farrell, from Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of a paper on this topic. “NASA’s experimental Ingenuity helicopter does not fly during this time, but future drones could be cleared for evening flight and look for this glow.”

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by David Dickinson

Tiny NEA Scout Solar Sail Mission to Chase Asteroid

NEA Scout will hitch a ride to an asteroid on the Artemis 1 Moon mission.

Tucked away on the long-awaited, historic launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) this April is a small, shoebox-sized mission mission that with use an innovative solar sail technology, to chase down a school-bus sized asteroid.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Evan Gough

Latest Hubble Image Shows the Star-Forming Chamaeleon Cloud

This is a Hubble composite image of the Chamaeleon I cloud complex. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Luhman and T. Esplin (Pennsylvania State University), et al., and ESO; Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Stars form inside vast collections of molecular hydrogen called molecular clouds, sometimes called stellar nurseries or star forming regions. Instabilities in the clouds cause gas to collapse in on itself, and when enough material gathers and the density reaches a critical stage, a star begins its life of fusion.

But molecular clouds aren’t always alone. They often exist in association with other clouds, and astronomers call these formations Cloud Complexes. The Chamaeleon Cloud Complex (CCC) is one of the closest active star forming regions to Earth. It’s further divided into three substructures called dark clouds, or dark nebula. They are Chamaeleon 1 (Cha1), Chamaeleon 2, and Chamaeleon 3.

NASA created a new composite image of Chamaeleon 1 based on Hubble images, and the vivid panorama brings Chamaeleon I to life.

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Finally, a Practical use for Space-Based Power Beaming. Sending Power to Satellites in Shade

Power beaming is one of those technologies that can completely change the world. Almost unlimited power wherever it is needed, whenever it’s needed, is literally a technology straight out of science fiction. Researchers have been working on the technology for decades at this point, but there has been little commercial headway so far, so what is holding this revolutionary technology up? A “killer app” would certainly help move it along – and that is what a team from Space Power, a private company, and the University of Surrey think they have found in the form of powering other microsatellites.