Universe Today

June 12, 2024June 12, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Next Generation Satellites Might Skim the Atmosphere, Using Air as a Propellant

Surrey Space Centre aims to enable extremely low-altitude spacecraft orbits in the upper atmosphere, thanks to funding from the UK Space Agency.

Satellites in orbit use rocket propulsion to maintain their altitude. These engines require fuel to power their chemical or ion engines but when the fuel runs out, the orbit slowly erodes with the satellite re-entering the atmosphere. A new type of electrical propulsion has been developed that has no need for onboard fuel. Instead it syphons air particles out of the atmosphere and accelerates them to provide thrust. Much like an ion engine but this time, the fuel source is air making it ideal for low Earth orbits.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Nearby Star Clusters Come from Only Three Places

The most well-known open cluster is probably the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. The Japanese call it the Subaru cluster, and keen observers might recognize its pattern on the Subaru automobile logo. New research shows that the Pleiades and more than 150 other star clusters all originated in only three star-forming regions. Image: By NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/20/image/a/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7805481

Many astronomy-interested people know of the Hyades and the Pleiades. They’re star clusters in the Taurus constellation. They’re two out of a handful of star clusters that are visible to the unaided eye under dark sky conditions.

It turns out that these clusters, along with more than 150 other nearby clusters, all originated in only three massive star-forming regions.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Frost Seen on Olympus Mons for the First Time

This simulated perspective oblique view shows Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire solar system. The volcano measures some 600 km across. CREDIT Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (A. Valantinas)

It’s been known for years that there are large quantities of water ice locked up in the Martian poles. Around the equator however it is a barren dry wasteland devoid of any surface ice. Recent observations of Mars have discovered frost on the giant shield volcanoes but it only appears briefly after sunrise and soon evaporates. Estimates suggest that 150,000 tons of water cycle between the surface and atmosphere on a daily basis.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

Remembering Apollo 8 Astronaut Bill Anders

The official NASA portrait of William Anders, who served as lunar module (LM) pilot for Apollo 8, the first lunar orbit mission in December 1968. Credit: NASA.

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo of our home planet from the Moon in 1968, was killed on June 7, 2024. Anders was flying alone in his Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft when the plane plunged into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. Anders was 90.

“At every step of Bill’s life was the iron will of a pioneer, the grand passion of a visionary, the cool skill of a pilot, and the heart of an adventurer who explored on behalf of all of us,” said NASA Administrator Bill in Nelson in a statement. “His impact will live on through the generations. All of NASA, and all of those who look up into the twinkling heavens and see grand new possibilities of dazzling new dreams, will miss a great hero who has passed on.”

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A Mission To Find 10 Million Near Earth Asteroids Every Year

So far, scientists have found around 34,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) that could serve as humanity’s stepping stone to the stars. These balls of rock and ice hold valuable resources as we expand throughout the solar system, making them valuable real estate in any future space economy. But the 34,000 we know of only make up a small percentage of the total number of asteroids in our vicinity – some estimates theorize that up to 1 billion asteroids larger than a modern car exist near Earth. A project from the Trans Astronautics Corp (TransAstra), an asteroid-hunting start-up based in California, hopes to find the missing billion.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Recent Solar Storm Even Had an Impact on Mars

During the May 20 solar storm, so much energy from the storm struck the surface that black-and-white images from Curiosity’s navigation cameras danced with “snow” — white streaks and specks caused by charged particles hitting the cameras. Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Planet Earth is in for some amazing geomagnetic storms in the next year or so. That’s because it’s in a period of peak activity called “solar maximum” (solar max, for short). But, what happens at other planets, especially Mars, during this time? Mars mission scientists got a sneak peek at the effect of a major solar storm thanks to one hitting the Red Planet on May 20th, 2024.

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Evan Gough

Was Earth’s Climate Affected by Interstellar Clouds?

About two million years ago, the Solar System may have passed through a dense cloud of hydrogen and radioactive material. It compressed the heliosphere, the protective cocoon the Sun provides for Earth and the other planets. It's shown here as the dark gray bubble over the backdrop of interstellar space. This could have exposed Earth to high levels of radiation and influenced the climate, and possible human evolution. Photo courtesy of Opher, et al., Nature Astronomy

Scientists scour the Earth and the sky for clues to our planet’s climate history. Powerful and sustained volcanic eruptions can alter the climate for long periods of time, and the Sun’s output can shift Earth’s climate over millions of years.

But what about interstellar hydrogen clouds? Can these regions of gas and dust change Earth’s climate when the planet encounters them?

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Webb Sees Asteroids Collide in Another Star System

Asteroid collision: CREDIT:NASA/LYNETTE COOK

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to make amazing discoveries. This time in the constellation of Pictor where, in the Beta Pictoris system a massive collision of asteroids. The system is young and only just beginning its evolutionary journey with planets only now starting to form. Just recently, observations from JWST have shown significant energy changes emitted by dust grains in the system compared to observations made 20 years ago. Dust production was thought to be ongoing but the results showed the data captured 20 years ago may have been a one-off event that has since faded suggesting perhaps, an asteroid strike!

June 10, 2024June 10, 2024 by Evan Gough

If Gravity Can Exist Without Mass, That Could Explain Dark Matter

Researchers are making progress mapping dark matter, but they don't know what it is. This is a 3D density map of dark matter in the local universe, with the Milky Way marked by an X. Dots are galaxies, and the arrows indicate the directions of motion derived from the reconstructed gravitational potential of dark matter. Image Credit: Hong et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/abf040.

Dark Matter is Nature’s poltergeist. We can see its effects, but we can’t see it, and we don’t know what it is. It’s as if Nature is playing tricks on us, hiding most of its mass and confounding our efforts to determine what it is.

June 10, 2024June 10, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A New Way to Search for the First Stars in the Universe

A Pop III star being torn apart by a close enounter with a black hole could shed light on the first stars in the Universe. Courtesy: HKU.

Observing the earliest stars is one of the holy Grails of astronomy. Now, a team at the University of Hong Kong led by astronomer Jane Lixin Dai is proposing a new method for detecting them. If it works, the approach promises to open a window on the origin of the cosmos itself.