Universe Today

April 4, 2019April 4, 2019 by Evan Gough

Mars Express Saw the Same Methane Spike that Curiosity Detected from the Surface of Mars

Mars Express, which is now studying Phobos. — An artist's illustration of the Mars Express Orbiter above Mars. Its MARSIS instrument has been updated so it can study the moon Phobos. Image Credit: Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Mars: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

If you’re not a chemist, an astrobiologist, or a scientist of any sort, and that includes most of us, then a tiny, almost imperceptible whiff of methane in the Martian atmosphere might seem like no big deal. But it is, gentle humans. It is.

Why?

Because it could be a signal that some living process is at work. And even we non-scientists have wondered at some point if the only life in the Solar System, or maybe in the entire Universe, is confined here on Earth.

April 4, 2019April 5, 2019 by Matt Williams

The Starhops Have Begun!

SpaceX's first detailed render of the Starship reentering Earth's atmosphere. Credit: SpaceX

According to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s Starship Hopper just completed its inaugural hop test at the company’s South Texas Launch Site. As the first of many, this test is intended to validate the sophisticated Raptor engines that will be used aboard the full-scale Starship spacecraft, which is intrinsic to Musks’ long-term vision of providing intercontinental flights and making commercial trips to the Moon and Mars.

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Susie Murph

Carnival of Space #605

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 #605
Continue reading “Carnival of Space #605”

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Susie Murph

Weekly Space Hangout: Apr 3, 2019 – Dr. David Chudwin

Hosts:
Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Dr. Pamela Gay (astronomycast.com / cosmoquest.org / @starstryder)
Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier )
Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org)

David Chudwin, MD, is the author of the upcoming book I Was a Teenage Space Reporter: From Apollo 11 to Our Future in Space. Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: Apr 3, 2019 – Dr. David Chudwin”

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Matt Williams

India Destroyed a Satellite With a Missile Last Week, and Pieces Were Thrown Into an Orbit That Risks the International Space Station

Graphic showing the cloud of space debris that currently surrounds the Earth. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/JSC

Last week, in a move that left many perplexed, the nation of India destroyed one of its own satellites. According to a statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this operation (“Mission Shakti”) was conducted using a new type of anti-satellite missile. With this one act, Modi claimed that India had “established itself as a space power”, effectively joining the United States, Russia and China.

Unfortunately, this demonstration has created a cloud of orbital debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). According to a recent statement made by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, this debris poses an “unacceptable” threat to the International Space Station. In this sense, by flexing its muscle as a space power, India may have caused some serious disruption to international efforts in space.

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Evan Gough

Mars Helicopter Completes More Test Flights. It’s Almost Ready to go to Mars

Members of the NASA Mars Helicopter team inspect the flight model (the actual vehicle going to the Red Planet), inside the Space Simulator, a 25-foot-wide (7.62-meter-wide) vacuum chamber at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Feb. 1, 2019. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’ve known for some time that NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars. The vehicle, called the Mars Helicopter, is undergoing flight testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The little helicopter will make its eventual way to Mars as part of the Mars 2020 Rover mission.

The Mars Helicopter is pretty small, less than 1.8 kg (4 lb). It’s made of lightweight carbon fiber, and other materials like aluminum, silicon, and foil. The version being tested is the actual vehicle that will make the trip to Mars.

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by Matt Williams

Starhopper Tests Have Gotten Delayed Because of “Ice Formation in the Cryogenic Propellant Prevalves”

SpaceX is continuing with the development of their Starship Hopper, a miniature, stainless steel version of its proposed super-heavy lift vehicle known as the Starship. Most recently, test were conducted on the revolutionary heat shield that will protect the Hopper once it reenters Earth’s atmosphere, and a new rendering was released that showed the final version entering the atmospheres of Earth and Mars.

Another recent development has to do with the first scheduled test of the miniature Starship, which began in earnest last week. Unfortunately, there has been a bit of a delay due to some technical issues with the cryogenic fuel tanks. As usual, Musk made the announcement via twitter in response to questions about when the much-anticipated flight test will happen, which has been delayed multiple times now.

April 3, 2019April 4, 2019 by Evan Gough

The Wait is Almost Over. We’ll Finally See a Picture of a Black Hole’s Event Horizon on April 10th

This is what scientists at the EHT think they'll see. Image Credit: EHT, ESO

The rumours you’ve heard are true. And if you haven’t heard the rumours, you should check your internet connection.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has set an important press conference for April 10th. They haven’t come right out and said it, but a Media Advisory from the ESO, a partner in the EHT, says they will, “hold a press conference to present a ground-breaking result from the EHT.” If it’s not a black hole, what else would it be?

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by David Dickinson

See the Moon Photobomb Saturn in an Amazing Capture

Saturn photobomb — A composite capture of Saturn versus the Moon, minutes before the March 31st occultation. Image credit and copyright: Cory Schmitz, PhotographingSpace.com

Welcome to Saturn, as you’ve probably never seen it. It’s always awe-inspiring to see the clockwork motion of the heavens, transpire in real time. In a slow motion Universe, occultations give us the chance to see the cosmos pull off a celestial hat-trick. This can appear as a split second-type of event—such as when the Moon, a planet or an asteroid winks out a distant star—or transpire as a leisurely affair as the Moon covers, then uncovers the disk of a planet.

April 2, 2019April 2, 2019 by Evan Gough

Ground-Based Telescope Directly Observes the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet, and Sees Swirling Clouds of Iron and Silicates

An artist's illustration of the exoplanet HR8799e. The ESO's GRAVITY instrument on its Very Large Telescope Interferometer made the first direct optical observation of this planet and its atmosphere. Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

We’ve finally got our first optical look at an exoplanet and its atmosphere, and boy is it a strange place. The planet is called HR8799e, and its atmosphere is a complex one. HR8799e is in the grips of a global storm, dominated by swirling clouds of iron and silicates.