Since There’s no Up or Down in Space, How do our Brains Deal With This?

Group portrait of the seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the ISS on January 13, 2021. Credit: NASA/Mike Hopkins..

Astronauts and cosmonauts in space have reported spatial disorientation problems, where they find it hard to get a sense of direction, or distinguish between what might be considered “up” or “down.”  This is called “Visual Reorientation Illusions” (VRIs) where the spacecraft floors, walls and ceiling surfaces can suddenly exchange subjective identities.

An extreme example of this came when one shuttle astronaut reported feeling like the room was rotating around him when he opened his eyes one morning. Other astronauts have reported briefly not knowing where they were during a spacewalk.

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Will Solar Cycle 25 Dazzle or Fizzle in 2021?

Solar flare

A new study suggests that Solar Cycle 25 may be more powerful than previously predicted.

It’s the big question in solar astronomy for 2021 and the new decade. Will Solar Cycle 25 wow observers, or be a washout? A new study goes against the consensus, suggesting we may be in for a wild ride… if predictions and analysis of past solar cycle transitions hold true.

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Astronomers can use Pulsars to Measure Tiny Changes of Acceleration Within the Milky Way, Scanning Internally for Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Using pulsars to measure mass distribution in the Milky Way. Credit: Dana Berry, IAS

As our Sun moves along its orbit in the Milky Way, it is gravitationally tugged by nearby stars, nebulae, and other masses. Our galaxy is not a uniform distribution of mass, and our Sun experiences small accelerations in addition to its overall orbital motion. Measuring those small tugs has been nearly impossible, but a new study shows how it can be done.

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With its New Extension, Juno is Going to be Visiting Jupiter’s Moons

Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill created this image using data from the spacecraft's JunoCam imager. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Juno mission to Jupiter has been extended to September 2025 – or however long the spacecraft can keep operating around Jupiter.

While Juno has so far focused its attention on the giant planet alone, the mission extension will include observations of Jupiter’s rings and large moons, with targeted observations and close flybys planned of the moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io.

This will be the first close flybys of these moons since the Galileo mission in 1995-2003.

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A Robot Made of Ice Could Adapt and Repair Itself on Other Worlds

This illustration of Jupiter's moon Europa shows how the icy surface may glow on its nightside, the side facing away from the Sun. Variations in the glow and the color of the glow itself could reveal information about the composition of ice on Europa's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Some of the most tantalizing targets in space exploration are frozen ice worlds. Take Jupiter’s moon Europa for instance. Its warm salty subsurface ocean is buried under a moon-wide sheet of ice. What’s the best way to explore it?

Maybe an ice robot could play a role.

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Astronomers see Swirling Weather on the Closest Brown Dwarf

An artist's conception of a brown dwarf. A new study identifies CK Vulpeculae as the remnant of a collison between a brown dwarf and a white dwarf. Image: By NASA/JPL-Caltech (http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/image/114) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
An artist's conception of a brown dwarf. Brown dwarfs are more massive than Jupiter but less massive than the smallest main sequence stars. Their dimness and low mass make them difficult to detect. Image: By NASA/JPL-Caltech (http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/image/114) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Brown dwarfs are the weird not-planets but not-stars in the universe, and astronomers have wondered for decades if their atmospheres are striped like Jupiter’s, or splotchy like the sun’s. A team of astronomers based at the University of Arizona used NASA’s TESS Observatory to find the answer: if you saw a brown dwarf for yourself, it would look more like a giant planet than a star.

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The Mystery of Sunquakes is Deep; One Million Meters Deep!

Lead Image: Side-by-side of M-Class solar flare in visible and ultraviolet light. The ‘IP’ in the timeline indicates ‘impulsive flare’, and the following ripples can be seen radiating in the ultraviolet for up to 42 minutes following. Credit: NASA/SDO
Lead Image: Side-by-side of M-Class solar flare in visible and ultraviolet light. The ‘IP’ in the timeline indicates ‘impulsive flare’, and the following ripples can be seen radiating in the ultraviolet for up to 42 minutes following. Credit: NASA/SDO

The Sun, as it turns out, is a pretty big deal. The thermonuclear behemoth at the center of the solar system makes up well over 99% of all the mass in the solar system. Despite being the most well-studied star in the universe, there are still many mysteries about its works. 

One of the Sun’s mysteries is the nature of sunquakes, massive ripples traveling thousands of kilometers across the sun’s surface. Occasionally, when a solar flare erupts, so-called seismic transients can be seen rippling through the solar surface over the next hour. The energy source driving these ripples was thought to be either the transient heating of the solar atmosphere during the flare event or by the powerful flexing of magnetic flux applied directly to the photosphere(the sun’s visible surface) itself, also originating in the flare event above. Using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), scientists have published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal of Letters that, for the first time, describes submerged sources of transient acoustic emission (sunquakes). The source of these mysterious waves seems to be, as it turns out, a thousand kilometers deep below, in the churning, seething hot interior of the star.

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SpaceX’s Next Idea: to Catch Super Heavy Boosters With the Launch Tower

Animation of the SpaceX Super Heavy being caught by its launch tower. Credit: Mini3D

SpaceX is getting closer and closer to realizing the design for its Starship and Super Heavy launch system. Once complete, it will be the world’s first fully-reusable launch system and will facilitate trips to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the Moon, and Mars. Construction began on the system’s booster element (Super Heavy) this past summer and, according to a recent tweet by Musk, will be “caught” by its launch tower.

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This is the Fireworks Galaxy. It’s had ten Supernovae in the Last Century Alone

NGC 6946, also known as the Fireworks Galaxy due to the stupendous number of active supernovae. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Leroy, K.S. Long

Say hello to NGC 6946, otherwise known as the Fireworks Galaxy. This little galaxy is the most prolific producer of supernovae in the known universe, popping off those incredible explosions roughly once a decade. It’s secret? An incredibly high rate of star formation.

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There's no way to Measure the Speed of Light in a Single Direction

Special relativity is one of the most strongly validated theories humanity has ever devised. It is central to everything from space travel and GPS to our electrical power grid. Central to relativity is the fact that the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute constant. The problem is, that fact has never been proven.

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