Universe Today

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 by Evan Gough

During Mass Extinction Events, Volcanoes Were Releasing About the Same Amount of CO2 as We Are Today

The Mount Redoubt volcano in Alaska. Image Credit: By R. Clucas - http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-39/album.html and http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/03_29_2013_otk7Nay4LH_03_29_2013_5#.UrvS2vfTnrc, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5768911

200 million years ago, a mass extinction event wiped out about 76% of all species on Earth—both terrestrial and marine. That event was called the end-Triassic extinction, or the Jurassic-Triassic (J-T) extinction event. At that time, the world experienced many of the same things as Earth is facing now, including a warming climate and the acidification of the oceans.

A new paper shows that pulses of volcanic eruptions were responsible, and that those pulses released the same amount of CO₂ as humans are releasing today.

April 14, 2020June 16, 2020 by Susie Murph

Weekly Space Hangout: April 15, 2020 – Rise of the Space Age Millennials with Laura Forczyk

Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)

Dr. Brian Koberlein (BrianKoberlein.com / @BrianKoberlein)

Beth Johnson (@planetarypan))

Michael Rodruck (@michaelrodruck)

This week we are please to welcome Laura Forczyk to the Weekly Space Hangout. Laura is the owner of space consulting firm Astralytical specializing in space science, industry, and policy, and offering space career coaching services. In January 2020, her new book Rise of the Space Age Millennials was published in which she explores how millennials working or studying to work in the space sector feel about space: priorities, opinions, goals, and motivations. It also looks at how the generations may differ and how that may effect future space priorities and missions.

April 13, 2020April 20, 2020 by Nancy Atkinson

Even More Things That Saved Apollo 13, part 1: The Barbecue Roll

The crew of Apollo 13 after landing safely. Credit: NASA.

Apollo 13 was supposed to be the third mission to land humans on the Moon. But on the night of April 13th, 1970, an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s Service Module exploded. And so began the most perilous but eventually triumphant situation ever encountered in human spaceflight.

The explosion crippled the Apollo 13 Command Module and endangered the lives of astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. During the four days that followed, thousands of people back on Earth worked around the clock to ensure the astronauts’ safe return.

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 by Evan Gough

When Comets Break Up, the Fragments Can Be Devastating If They Hit the Earth

Artist's conception of asteroids or comets bearing water to a proto-Earth. Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Comet breakups are a timely topic right now. The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov just broke into at least two pieces. And though that comet is speeding out of the Solar System, never to be seen again, most of them don’t leave the Solar System. Most of them orbit the Sun, and return to the inner Solar System again and again.

A new paper examines the potential hazard to Earth from comets that break into pieces. The author makes the case that comet breakups could have had a hand in shaping the ebb and flow of life on Earth. It could happen again.

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 by Susie Murph

Carnival of Space #658-659

Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major.

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog.

Click here to read Carnival of Space #658-659.

April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 by Matt Williams

This is How the ESA and NASA Will be Working Together to Bring Rocks Back From Mars

This is what the Mars Sample Return mission looked like in 2019. Updated plans eliminate the Fetch Rover and will instead used Sample Retrieval Helicopters to bring the samples to the Sample Return Lander. Once at the Lander, the samples will be launched into orbit by rocket, to be retrieved by an orbiter and sent to Earth. Credit: ESA

In the near future, sample-return missions from Mars will finally be a reality. For decades, scientists have analyzed the composition of Martian rocks and soil by either sending rovers to the surface or by examining meteorites that came from Mars. But with missions like Perseverance, which are equipped with a sample cache instrument, it won’t be long before Martian rocks are brought back to Earth for study.

Similar to how the Apollo astronauts brought back Moon rocks, which revealed the existence of water on the Moon and its similarity to Earth, Martian rocks could reveal a great deal about the formation and evolution of the Red Planet. The question is, what rocks should be returned? This is the question that the international Mars Sample Return campaign is considering on the eve of Perseverance’s launch.

April 11, 2020April 12, 2020 by Matt Williams

Trump Signs an Executive Order Allowing Mining the Moon and Asteroids

An illustration of a Moon base that could be built using 3D printing and ISRU, In-Situ Resource Utilization. Credit: RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018

In 2015, the Obama administration signed the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, or H.R. 2262) into law. This bill was intended to “facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry” by making it legal for American companies and citizens to own and sell resources that they extract from asteroids and off-world locations (like the Moon, Mars, or beyond).

On April 6th, the Trump administration took things a step further by signing an executive order that formally recognizes the rights of private interests to claim resources in space. This order, titled “Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources,” effectively ends the decades-long debate that began with the signing of The Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

April 9, 2020 by Matt Williams

NASA’s Plans For a Lunar Base Camp

Artist's illustration of the new spacesuit NASA is designing for Artemis astronauts. It's called the xEMU,, or Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Image Credit: NASA

When the Artemis III mission lands on the lunar surface in 2024, it will be the first time in over 50 years that astronauts will have set foot on the Moon. Unlike last time, where the Apollo missions left behind a flag and several science experiments, NASA hopes that Artemis will serve as a stepping stone towards the creation of a permanent human presence on the Moon.

A key part of this is the creation of an orbiting habitat and place for spacecraft to rendezvous, known as the Lunar Gateway. But equally important is the creation of a lunar base camp on the surface where astronauts will be able to hunker down between outings. Through the use of crewed and robotic missions, this base will help establish the infrastructure for a long-term, sustainable human presence on the Moon.

April 9, 2020April 9, 2020 by Evan Gough

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Appears to Have Broken in Half

In 2019, amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov discovered a comet, which now bears his name. There’s a long history of amateur astronomers discovering comets, as they approach our inner Solar System on their elongated orbits. But this one was different: it was moving much too fast to be gravitationally bound to the Sun.

It was an interstellar comet. And now, it looks like it has split into two chunks.

April 9, 2020 by Matt Williams

How Did the TRAPPIST-1 Planets Get Their Water?

Most exoplanets orbit red dwarf stars because they're the most plentiful stars. This is an artist's illustration of what the TRAPPIST-1 system might look like from a vantage point near planet TRAPPIST-1f (at right). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 2017, an international team of astronomers announced a momentous discovery. Based on years of observations, they found that the TRAPPIST-1 system (an M-type red dwarf located 40 light-years from Earth) contained no less than seven rocky planets! Equally exciting was the fact that three of these planets were found within the star’s Habitable Zone (HZ), and that the system itself has had 8 billion years to develop the chemistry for life.

At the same time, the fact that these planets orbit tightly around a red dwarf star has given rise to doubts that these three planets could maintain an atmosphere or liquid water for very long. According to new research by an international team of astronomers, it all comes down to the composition of the debris disk that the planets formed from and whether or not comets were around to distribute water afterward.