Universe Today

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 by Fraser Cain

A Spacecraft Is Going To Assemble Its Own Solar Panels In Space: Archinaut One

Artist's illustration of Archinaut One with its solar panels extended. Credit: Made In Space

As I’ve mentioned in several episodes now, humanity is in a bit of a transition period, a time when it makes sense to launch material up and out of Earth’s gravity well into orbit, and beyond. But it’s really expensive, costing up to $10,000 per pound you want in orbit, and 10 times if you want it on the Moon.

But over the coming decades, more and more of our space-based infrastructure will be built in space, manufactured out of materials that were mined in space.

August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 by Matt Williams

Earth is an Exoplanet to Aliens. This is What They’d See

Reconstruction of what Earth's light curve would look like. Credit: S. Fan et. al., arXiv (2019) arXiv:1908.04350

The study of exoplanets has matured considerably in the last ten years. During this time, the majority of the over 4000 exoplanets that are currently known to us were discovered. It was also during this time that the process has started to shift from the process of discovery to characterization. What’s more, next-generation instruments will allow for studies that will reveal a great deal about the surfaces and atmospheres of exoplanets.

This naturally raises the question: what would a sufficiently-advanced species see if they were studying our planet? Using multi-wavelength data of Earth, a team of Caltech scientists was able to construct a map of what Earth would look like to distant alien observers. Aside from addressing the itch of curiosity, this study could also help astronomers reconstruct the surface features of “Earth-like” exoplanets in the future.

August 21, 2019August 23, 2019 by Matt Williams

AI Could Help the Europa Clipper Mission Make New Discoveries!

Artist's concept of a Europa Clipper mission. Credit: NASA/JPL

In 2023, NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper mission, a robotic explorer that will study Jupiter’s enigmatic moon Europa. The purpose of this mission is to explore Europa’s ice shell and interior to learn more about the moon’s composition, geology, and interactions between the surface and subsurface. Most of all, the purpose of this mission is to shed light on whether or not life could exist within Europa’s interior ocean.

This presents numerous challenges, many of which arise from the fact that the Europa Clipper will be very far from Earth when it conducts its science operations. To address this, a team of researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Arizona State University (ASU) designed a series of machine-learning algorithms that will allow the mission to explore Europa with a degree of autonom.

August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 by Fraser Cain

Exploring The Icy Moons of Jupiter. NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE

On August 19th, 2019, NASA announced that their Europa Clipper mission has been approved to move to the next phase of the mission, progressing to the final design stage.

August 19, 2019August 19, 2019 by Matt Williams

ExoMars Parachute Test Fails, for the Second Time

Trace Gas Orbiter, Schiaparelli and the ExoMars rover at Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Next year, the European Space Agency (ESA) will be sending the ExoMars 2020 mission to the Red Planet. This mission consists of an ESA-built rover (Rosalind Franklin) and a Russian-led surface science platform (Kazachok) that will study the Martian environment in order to characterize its surface, atmosphere, and determine whether or not life could have once existed on the planet.

In preparation for this mission, engineers are putting the rover and lander through their paces. This includes the ongoing development of the mission’s parachute system, which is currently in troubleshooting after a failed deployment test earlier this month. These efforts are taking place at the Swedish Space Corporation testing site in Esrange, and involve the largest parachute ever used by a mission to Mars.

August 19, 2019August 19, 2019 by Susie Murph

Carnival of Space #625

Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major.

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by me at the CosmoQuest blog.

Click here to read Carnival of Space #625
Continue reading “Carnival of Space #625”

August 17, 2019August 17, 2019 by Evan Gough

When it Comes to Gamma Radiation, the Moon is Actually Brighter Than the Sun

NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope captures the hellish glow of gamma rays coming from the Moon. Image Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

The eerie, hellish glow coming from the Moon may seem unreal in this image, since it’s invisible to our eyes. But instruments that detect gamma rays tell us it’s real. More than just a grainy, red picture, it’s a vivid reminder that there’s more going on than meets human eyes.

It’s also a reminder that any humans that visit the Moon need to be protected from this high-energy radiation.

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019 by Fraser Cain

Why Build Big Rockets at All? It’s Time for Orbital Refueling

Stainless Steel Starship on the Moon. Credit: SpaceX

On Tuesday, July 30th, NASA announced 19 different partnerships with 13 different companies to use their expertise to help them develop space technologies, from advanced communications systems to new methods of entry, descent and landing.

Instead of contracting out specific projects, NASA will make its employees, facilities, hardware and software available to these companies, for free.

August 15, 2019August 15, 2019 by Evan Gough

An Astrophotographer Noticed a Chunk of Ice Orbiting Comet 67P in Rosetta’s Photos

"Churymoon," comet 67P/Churymuov-Gerasimenko's tiny, icy companion. It was brought to light by Spanish astrophotographer Jacint Roger who was working with the archive of images from the ESA's Rosetta mission. Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission spent two years at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the end of September 2016, its mission was ended when the spacecraft was sent on a collision course into the comet. During its time at comet 67P, it captured a vast amount of images.

The ESA made all those images freely available at their Rosetta website, and now an astro-photographer working with those images has found something interesting: a chunk of ice travelling through space with 67P.

August 14, 2019August 14, 2019 by Evan Gough

Neutron Star Suffers a “Glitch”, Gives Astronomers a Glimpse Into How They Work

An image of the Vela pulsar in combined optical and xray. Image Credit: NASA/Chandra

What, exactly, is the inside of a neutron star like?

A neutron star is what remains after a massive star goes supernova. It’s a tightly-packed, ultra-dense body made of—you guessed it—neutrons. Actually, that’s not absolutely true.