Universe Today

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by Matt Williams

Elon Musk Tweets with Starlink. Services Could be Available Next Year.

Still image from Hadley's simulation of the Starlink satellite constellation. Credit: Mark Hadley

In January of 2015, Elon Musk shared his vision of creating a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that would provide broadband internet access to the entire planet. Back in May, SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 Starlink satellites to orbit, with plans to send an additional 1,584 to space by 2024 and 2,200 more by 2027.

Naturally, consumers have been wondering when they will be able to avail themselves of this new internet service. As SpaceX Chief Operations Officer Gwynne Shotwell announced on October 22nd, the company should be able to offer broadband access within the US by mid-2020. This came a day after Musk sent the inaugural tweet using Starlink services.

October 23, 2019October 29, 2019 by Evan Gough

James Webb Tests its Sun-Shield. So Far, So Good.

During a recent test, engineers and technicians fully deployed all five layers of the James Webb Space Telescopes sun-shield. Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Rigorous testing is at the heart of any successful space mission. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a million miles away when it deploys its mission-critical sun-shield, and if it doesn’t function as planned, that’s it. Game over.

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by David Dickinson

Did an Ancient Supernova Force Humans to Walk Upright?

Crab nebula — The Crab Nebula (Messier 1) a recent supernova remnant noticed as a bright new star in Taurus in the 11th century. Image credit and copyright: Nick Howes.

A new study hints at a possible fascinating twist in human evolution. Did a chain of cosmic events triggered by a nearby ancient supernova force humans to walk upright?

October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 by Matt Williams

Now that Many Countries Have the Ability to Destroy Satellites, the US is Figuring Out Ways to Make Them More Armored

An air-to-air left side view of an F-15 Eagle aircraft releasing an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile during a test. Credit: USAF

As long as human beings have been sending satellites into space, they have been contemplating ways to destroy them. In recent years, the technology behind anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons has progressed considerably. What’s more, the ability to launch and destroy them extends beyond the two traditional superpowers (the US and Russia) to include newcomers like India, China, and others.

For this reason, Sandia National Laboratories – a federal research center headquartered in New Mexico – has launched a seven-year campaign to develop autonomous satellite protection systems. Known as the Science and Technology Advancing Resilience for Contested Space (STARCS), this campaign will fund the creation of hardware and software that will allow satellites to defend themselves.

October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 by Evan Gough

A NASA Panel Says We Don’t Need to be so Careful About Infecting Other Worlds

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover exploring Mars. Credit: NASA

It’s time to update the rules. That’s the conclusion of a panel that examined NASA’s rules for planetary protection. It was smart, at the dawn of the space age, to think about how we might inadvertently pollute other worlds with Earthly microbes as we explore the Solar System. But now that we know a lot more than we did back then, the rules don’t fit.

October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 by Evan Gough

Time-lapse Captured from the International Space Station

Time lapse photography from astronaut Christina Koch aboard the ISS. Image Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit.

400 photos. 11 minutes. That’s what it took to create this time-lapse of the Earth and stars as the International Space Station over Namibia toward the Red Sea. NASA astronaut Christina Koch captured these images.

October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 by Evan Gough

How Long is a Day on Venus? Astronomers Make Their Best Measurement Yet

A radar image of the surface of Venus showing one of the surface features used to measure a revised value for the length of the Venusian day. Image Credit: Campbell et al., 2019

There’s a problem with Venus. We don’t know how fast it rotates. For a space-faring civilization like ours, that’s a problem.

Measuring the length of day, or rotation rate, of most bodies is pretty straightforward. Mark a prominent surface feature and time how long it takes to rotate 360 degrees. But Venus is blanketed in thick clouds. Those clouds give it its reflectivity, and make it bright and noticeable in the sky, but they make it hard to measure Venus’ day length.

October 21, 2019November 4, 2019 by Susie Murph

Carnival of Space #634

Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major.

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog.

Click here to read Carnival of Space #634

And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, sign up to be a host. Send an email to the above address.

October 21, 2019December 2, 2019 by Tammy Plotner

Messier 93 – the NGC 2447 Open Star Cluster

Welcome back to Messier Monday! Today, we continue in our tribute to our dear friend, Tammy Plotner, by looking at the open star cluster known as Messier 93!

During the 18th century, famed French astronomer Charles Messier noticed the presence of several “nebulous objects” while surveying the night sky. Originally mistaking these objects for comets, he began to catalog them so that others would not make the same mistake. Today, the resulting list (known as the Messier Catalog) includes over 100 objects and is one of the most influential catalogs of Deep Space Objects.

Continue reading “Messier 93 – the NGC 2447 Open Star Cluster”

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019 by Matt Williams

The Most Massive Galaxies Spin More Than Twice as Fast as the Milky Way

Hubble Space Telescope image of Messier 77 spiral galaxy. A version of this image won second place in the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures Image Processing Competition. Image: NASA, ESA & A. van der Hoeven, 2013

It’s a difficult thing to wrap your head around sometimes. Though it might feel stationary, planet Earth is actually moving at an average velocity of 29.78 km/s (107,200 km/h; 66600 mph). And yet, our planet has nothing on the Sun itself, which travels around the center of our galaxy at a velocity of 220 km/s (792,000 km/h; 492,000 mph).

But as is so often the case with our Universe, things only get more staggering the farther you look. According to a new study by an international team of astronomers, the most massive “super spiral” galaxies in the Universe rotate twice as fast as the Milky Way. The cause, they argue, is the massive clouds (or halos) of Dark Matter that surround these galaxies.