“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has undertaken, and it is critical that we carry it out more quickly, with less risk, and at a lower cost. I’m excited to see the vision that these companies, centers and partners present as we look for fresh, exciting, and innovative ideas to uncover great cosmic secrets from the Red Planet.”

The MSR mission represents the culmination of decades of efforts to learn more about the early history of Mars. NASA had originally hoped that the first crewed mission (planned for 2033) would retrieve the samples and transport them back to Earth. However, delays and budget concerns have led to growing concerns that a crewed mission will not reach Mars until 2040 (at the earliest). As a result, NASA and the European Space Agency adopted a joint mission architecture consisting of multiple robotic elements that would return the samples by 2031.

This included the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL), two Sample Recovery Helicopters (SRH), the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), and the Earth Entry System (EES). However, the current budget environment forced NASA to announce that the 15-year MSR mission architecture (which would cost $11 billion) was too expensive and that waiting until 2040 was impractical. As a result, NASA has adopted a revised plan that leverages current technology and will return the Mars samples by the 2030s. As NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time:

“Mars Sample Return will be one of the most complex missions NASA has ever undertaken. The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away. Safely landing and collecting the samples, launching a rocket with the samples off another planet – which has never been done before – and safely transporting the samples more than 33 million miles back to Earth is no small task. We need to look outside the box to find a way ahead that is both affordable and returns samples in a reasonable timeframe.”

In addition to the NASA-led studies, seven aerospace companies have been selected to develop sample-return concepts. They include NASA’s regular commercial partners, such as Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman, as well as relative newcomers Quantum Space and Whittinghill Aerospace. A total of $10 million has been awarded to these companies to develop their concepts, the full list of which can be found here.

Once again, NASA is facing a budget crunch and has reached out to its commercial partners to develop cost-effective alternatives. This is in keeping with NASA’s long history of collaborating with the commercial sector to develop key mission concepts. However, the need to outsource major elements of its Moon to Mars program highlights the agency’s ongoing budget problems. As independent experts have concluded, a budget increase is necessary if NASA is to realize its ambitious goals for the future.

Further Reading: 

• NASA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

18-06-2024 om 01:25 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

18-06-2024 om 01:14 geschreven door peter  

 BY MATT WILLIAMS

Don't Get Your Hopes Up for Finding Liquid Water on Mars

In the coming decades, NASA and China intend to send the first crewed missions to Mars. Given the distance involved and the time it takes to make a single transit (six to nine months), opportunities for resupply missions will be few and far between. As a result, astronauts and taikonauts will be forced to rely on local resources to meet their basic needs – a process known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). For this reason, NASA and other space agencies have spent decades scouting for accessible sources of liquid water.

Finding this water is essential for future missions and scientific efforts to learn more about Mars’s past, when the planet was covered by oceans, rivers, and lakes that may have supported life. In 2018, using ground-penetrating radar, the ESA’s Mars Express orbiter detected bright radar reflections beneath the southern polar ice cap that were interpreted as a lake. However, a team of Cornell researchers recently conducted a series of simulations that suggest there may be another reason for these bright patches that do not include the presence of water.

The research team was led by Daniel Lalich, a research associate at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CCAPS). She was joined by Alexander G. Hayes, a Jennifer and Albert Sohn Professor, the Director of CCAPS, and the Principal Investigator of the Comparative Planetology & Solar System Exploration (COMPASSE), and Valerio Poggiali, a CCAPS Research Associate. Their paper that describes their findings, “Small Variations in Ice Composition and Layer Thickness Explain Bright Reflections Below Martian Polar Cap without Liquid Water,” appeared on June 7th in the journal Science Advances.

When the first robotic probes began making flybys of Mars in the 1960s, the images they acquired revealed surface features common on Earth. These included flow channels, river valleys, lakebeds, and sedimentary rock, all of which form in the presence of flowing water. For decades, orbiters, landers, and rovers have explored Mars’ surface, atmosphere, and climate to learn more about how and when much of this surface water was lost. In recent years, this has led to compelling evidence that what remains could be found beneath the polar ice caps today.

The most compelling evidence was obtained by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express orbiter. This instrument was designed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to search for water on the Martian surface and down to depths of about 5 km (3 mi). The radar returns indicated that the bright patches could be caused by layered deposits composed of water, dry ice, and dust. These South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) are thought to have formed over millions of years as Mars’ axial tilt changed.

Subsequent research by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) revealed dozens of other highly reflective sites beneath the surface. The implications of these findings were tremendous, not just for crewed missions but also for astrobiology efforts. In addition to being a potential source of water for future missions, it was also theorized that microbial life that once existed on the surface might be found there today. However, the findings were subject to debate as other viable explanations were offered.

While the same bright radar reflections have detected subglacial lakes on Earth (such as Lake Vostok under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet), Mars’s temperature and pressure conditions are very different. To remain in a liquid state, the water would need to be very briny, loaded with exotic minerals, or above an active magma chamber – none of which have been detected. As Lalich said in a recent interview with the Cornell Chronicle:

“I can’t say it’s impossible that there’s liquid water down there, but we’re showing that there are much simpler ways to get the same observation without having to stretch that far, using mechanisms and materials that we already know exist there. Just through random chance you can create the same observed signal in the radar.”

In a previous study, Lalich and his colleagues used simpler models to demonstrate that these bright radar signals could result from tiny variations in the thickness of the layers. These variations would be indiscernible to ground-penetrating radar and could lead to constructive interference between radar waves, producing reflections that vary in intensity and variability – like those observed across the SPLD. For their latest study, the team simulated 10,000 layering scenarios with 1,000 variations in the ice thickness and dust content of the layered deposits.

Their simulations also excluded any of the unusual conditions or exotic materials that would be necessary for liquid water. These simulations produced bright subsurface signals consistent with observations made by the MARSIS instrument. According to Lalich, these findings strongly suggest that he and his colleagues were correct in suspecting radar interference. In essence, radar waves bouncing off of layers too close together for the instrument to resolve may have combined, amplifying their peaks and troughs and appearing much brighter.

The team is not prepared to rule out the possibility that future missions with more sophisticated instruments could find definitive evidence of water. However, Lalich suspects that the case for liquid water (and potential life) on Mars may have ended decades ago. “This is the first time we have a hypothesis that explains the entire population of observations below the ice cap, without having to introduce anything unique or odd. This result where we get bright reflections scattered all over the place is exactly what you would expect from thin-layer interference in the radar. The idea that there would be liquid water even somewhat near the surface would have been really exciting. I just don’t think it’s there.”

If so, future missions may be forced to melt polar ice deposits and permafrost to get drinking water or possibly chemical reactions involving hydrazine (a la Mark Watney). In addition, astrobiology efforts may once again be placed on the back burner as they were when the Viking Landers failed to find conclusive evidence of biosignatures in 1976. But as we’ve learned, Mars is full of surprises. While the results of the Viking biological experiments were disappointing, these same missions provided some of the most compelling evidence that water once flowed on Mars’ surface.

Moreover, scientists once suspected that the Red Planet was geologically dead, but data obtained by NASA’s InSight Lander showed that it is actually “slightly alive.” This included evidence that hot magma still flows deep in the planet’s interior and that a massive magma plume still exists beneath the Elysium Planitia region, which may have caused a small eruption just 53,000 years ago (the most recent in Martian history). Perhaps the same will hold true for briny patches of liquid water around the poles and the equatorial region.

With any luck, some of these patches may even house countless microorganisms that could be related to life on Earth. How cool would that be?

Further Reading: 

• Cornell Chronicle, 
• Science Advances

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

18-06-2024 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

Unfortunately, astronomers lost track of the spot. Nobody saw the GRS for 118 years until astronomer S. Schwabe observed a clear structure, roughly oval and at the same latitude as the GRS. Some think of that observation as the first observation of the current GRS and that the storm formed again at the same latitude. But the details fade the further back in time we look. There are also questions about the earlier storm and its relation to the current GRS.

New research in Geophysical Research Letters combined historical records with computer simulations of the GRS to try to understand this chimerical meteorological phenomenon. Its title is “The Origin of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,” and the lead author is Agustín Sánchez-Lavega. Sánchez-Lavega is a Professor of Physics at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain. He’s also head of the Planetary Sciences Group and the Department of Applied Physics at the University.

“Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is the largest and longest-lived known vortex of all solar system planets, but its lifetime is debated, and its formation mechanism remains hidden,” the authors write in their paper.

The researchers started with historical sources dating back to the mid-1600s, just after the telescope was invented. They analyzed the size, structure, and movement of both the PS and the GRS. But that’s not a simple task. “The appearance of the GRS and its Hollow throughout the history of Jupiter observations has been highly variable due to changes in size, albedo and contrast with surrounding clouds,” they write.

“From the measurements of sizes and movements we deduced that it is highly unlikely that the current GRS was the PS observed by G. D. Cassini. The PS probably disappeared sometime between the mid-18th and 19th centuries, in which case we can say that the longevity of the Red Spot now exceeds 190 years at least,” said lead author Sánchez-Lavega. The GRS was 39,000 km long in 1879 and has shrunk to 14,000 km since then. It’s also become more rounded.

The historical record is valuable, but we have different tools at our disposal now. Space telescopes and spacecraft have studied the GRS in ways that would’ve been unimaginable to Cassini and others. NASA’s Voyager 1 captured our first detailed image of the GRS in 1979, when it was just over 9,000,000 km from Jupiter.

Since Voyager’s image, the Galileo and Juno spacecraft have both imaged the GRS. Juno, in particular, has given us more detailed images and data on Jupiter and the GRS. It captured images of the planet from only 8,000 km above the surface. Juno takes raw images of the planet with its Junocam, and NASA invites anyone to process the images, leading to artful images of the GRS like the one below.

Juno also measured the depth of the GRS, something previous efforts couldn’t achieve. Recently, “various instruments on board the Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter have shown that the GRS is shallow and thin when compared to its horizontal dimension, as vertically it is about 500 km long,” explained Sánchez-Lavega.

Jupiter’s atmosphere contains winds running in opposite directions at different latitudes. North of the GRS, winds blow in a westerly direction and reach speeds of 180 km/h. South of the GRS, the winds flow in the opposite direction at speeds of 150 km/h. These winds generate a powerful wind shear that fosters the vortex.

In their supercomputer simulations, the researchers examined different forces that could produce the GRS in these circumstances. They considered the eruption of a gigantic superstorm like the kind that happens, though rarely, on Saturn. They also examined the phenomenon of smaller vortices created by the wind shear that merged together to form the GRS. Both of those produced anti-cyclonic storms, but their shapes and other properties didn’t match the current GRS.

“From these simulations, we conclude that the super-storm and the mergers mechanisms, although they generate a single anticyclone, are unlikely to have formed the GRS,” the researchers write in their paper.

The authors also point out that if either of these had happened, we should’ve seen them. “We also think that if one of these unusual phenomena had occurred, it or its consequences in the atmosphere must have been observed and reported by the astronomers at the time,” said Sánchez-Lavega.

However, other simulations proved more accurate in reproducing the GRS. Jupiter’s winds are known to have instabilities called the South Tropical Disturbance (STrD). When the researchers performed supercomputer simulations of the STrD, they created an anti-cyclonic storm very similar to the GRS. The STrD captured the different winds in the region and trapped them in an elongated shell like the GRS. “We therefore propose that the GRS generated from a long cell resulting from the STrD, that acquired coherence and compactness as it shrank,” the authors write.

The simulations show that over time, the GRS would rotate more rapidly as it shrank and became more coherent and compact until the elongated cell more closely resembled the current GRS. Since that’s what the GRS appears like now, the researchers settled on this explanation.

That process likely began in the mid-1800s when the GRS was much larger than it is now. That leads to the conclusion that the GRS is only about 150 years old.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

18-06-2024 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

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!

Beta Pictoris is a young star located 63 light years away in the constellation Pictor. It has become well known for its fabulous circumstellar disk of gas and dust out of which a new system of planets is forming. It has been the subject of many a study because not only does it provide an ideal opportunity to study planetary formation but one of those planets Beta Pictoris b has already been detected. 

Wind the clock back 20 years and the Spitzer infra-red observatory was observing Beta Pictoris. It was looking for heat being emitted by crystalline silicate minerals which are often found around young stars and on celestial bodies. Back in 2004-2005 no traces were seen suggesting a collision occurred among asteroids destroying them and turning their bodies into find dust particles, smaller even than grains of sand and even powdered sugar. 

Radiation was detected at the 17 and 24 micron wavelengths by Spitzer, the result of significant amounts of dust. Using JWST, the team studied radiation from dust particles around Beta Pictoris and were able to compare with these Spitzer findings. They were able to identify the composition and size of particles in the same area around Beta Pictoris  that was studied by Spitzer. They found a significant reduction in radiation at the same wavelengths from 20 years ago. 

According to Christine Chen, lead astronomer from the John Hopkins University ‘With Webb’s new data, the explanation we have is that, in fact, we witnessed the aftermath of an infrequent, cataclysmic event between large asteroid-sized bodies, marking a complete change in our understanding of this star system.’

By tracking the distribution of particles across the circumstellar disk, the team found that the dust seems to have been dispersed outward by radiation from the hot young star. Previously with observations from Spitzer, dust surrounded the star which was heated up by its thermal radiation making it a strong thermal emitter. This is no longer the case as that dust has moved, cooled and no longer emits those thermal features. 

The discovery has adjusted our view of planetary system formation. Previous theories suggested that small bodies would accumulate and replenish the dust steadily over time. Instead, JWST has shown that the dust is not always replenished with time but that it takes a cataclysmic asteroid impact to seed new planetary systems with new dust. The team estimate the asteroid that was pulverised was about 100,000 times the size of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs!

Source : 

• WEBB TELESCOPE REVEALS ASTEROID COLLISION IN NEIGHBORING STAR SYSTEM

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

17-06-2024 om 01:33 geschreven door peter  

(Credit: NIKHEF)

EINSTEIN TELESCOPE TO USHER NEW ERA IN ASTROPHYSICS WITH OBSERVATIONS OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

MICAH HANKS

The Einstein Telescope will build on the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves and observations in 2017 produced by the collision of two neutron stars. This unprecedented achievement marked the first time such events were detected both optically and as a spacetime-rippling gravitational wave.

The remnants of burnt-out stars, neutron stars, are relatively small but extremely dense objects that weigh slightly more than the Sun. When these celestial objects collide, they are so powerful that atomic nuclei are ripped apart, resulting in the ejection of large amounts of mass that produce heavy atoms like gold.

Professor Achim Stahl, an astrophysicist from RWTH Aachen University, says that when compared to the mass of the neutron stars themselves, very little gold is created by comparison, comparable in mass to the size of Earth’s moon. Yet most of the gold in the universe was likely produced by such explosions.

In other words, the gold rings, necklaces, and other jewelry we wear probably have origins that would have allowed them to witness events in galactic history.

GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTION

The recent dawn of gravitational wave detection has opened a new chapter in astrophysics. Created when extremely massive objects orbit each other and eventually collide, the resulting “ripples” in spacetime provide us with a once unimaginable way to perceive distant cosmic events.

The initial gravitational wave detected in 2015 was very short, lasting slightly more than 0.2 seconds. However, subsequent detections like the one logged in 2017 lasted 100 seconds, revealing the collision of two neutron stars and the first simultaneous observation of both gravitational waves and electromagnetic signals.

Such advancements are significant since most of the history of astronomy has relied on observations that were limited only to the visible spectrum. However, predictions first made by Einstein more than a century ago revealed the theoretical existence of gravity waves, which only became detectable and able to be measured with the help of laser interferometry, a process that allows movements smaller than the diameter of an atom to be registered.

THE EINSTEIN TELESCOPE

The new Einstein Telescope, representing the third generation of gravitational wave detectors, will be ten times as sensitive as any current detector.

“We want to examine an area that is a thousand times larger than what is possible today for gravitational waves,” Professor Stahl said in a statement. “This also applies to heavier objects that emit gravitational waves at lower frequencies.”

Comprised of a trio of nested detectors, each possessing 10-kilometer arms and built 250 meters belowground to provide shielding from electromagnetic interference, the observatory will represent the pinnacle of multi-messenger astronomy, a nascent approach in astronomy that collects and interprets information from a variety of different signals produced by different astrophysical processes, which include gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation, as well as particles like neutrinos, and cosmic rays.

Measurements obtained by the Einstein Telescope will rely on international cooperation due to their complexity and will form a network in conjunction with the U.S. Cosmic Explorer, with the project included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap in 2021. Currently, construction of the new telescope could begin as early as 2026, and observations may begin as soon as 2035.

New laser technologies are also being developed for the new telescope, which is being produced by a team that includes engineers from RWTH Aachen University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT. Such technologies could be beneficial beyond the detection of gravity waves, potentially extending to areas that include quantum and medical technologies.

“With gravitational waves, we can look much further into the universe than with normal telescopes,” Professor Stahl said in a recent statement. Once it enters operation sometime in the next decade, the Einstein Telescope will mark a new horizon in observations of distant galaxies and their formation, as well as glimpses at some of the first stars in the universe as it peers deeper into universal history than optical telescopes can allow.

“In astrophysics, looking further into the universe means – above all – looking back in time,” Stahl said. “With the Einstein Telescope, we will receive signals from the time when the galaxies and the first stars were formed. This goes back further than is possible with optical means.

“And we will hear cosmic explosions live with the gravitational waves before we see them,” Stahl added.

• Picture of staff and #telescope - Albert Einstein Yerkes Observatory ...

Along with expanding our perspective of the universe and its formation, the telescope will also help scientists perform systematic measurements of cosmic events and yield other exciting developments for the future of astrophysics.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

• https://youtu.be/siDAJbHmd6M

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

17-06-2024 om 01:23 geschreven door peter  

Something 'kicked' this hypervelocity star racing through the Milky Way at 1.3 million miles per hour (video)

Related: 

• 'Vampire stars' explode after eating too much — AI could help reveal why

To crack the secrets of this hypervelocity star, University of California, San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Adam Burgasser turned to the W.M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii, aiming to observe its infrared spectrum. 

This investigation revealed that the star belongs to a class of the oldest stars in the Milky Way: L subdwarfs. These stars are very rare and remarkable because of their highly low masses and relatively cool temperatures. 

The team's spectral data was combined with a new set of atmospheric models created specifically to study L subdwarfs. This revealed J1249+36's position and velocity through the Milky Way. "This is where the source became very interesting," Burgasser said in a statement. "Its speed and trajectory showed that it was moving fast enough to potentially escape the Milky Way."

The question is, what launched this subdwarf star on its rapid escape trajectory? Well, that brings us to our two suspects.

Is this star running from a white dwarf vampire? 

In the first scenario used to explain the hypervelocity nature of J1249+36, Burgasser and colleagues hypothesized that the low-mass star was once the stellar companion of a type of a "dead" star called a white dwarf.

White dwarfs are born when smaller stars like the sun exhaust the hydrogen supply in their cores. When that happens, a star's nuclear fusion ceases. This cuts off the outward flow of energy that supports the star against the inward pressure of its own gravity. While this ends the lives of lonely, isolated stars like the sun, however, white dwarfs in binary systems can return from the grave by cannibalistically feeding on stellar material stripped from a nearby "donor" star.

This material piles up on the white dwarf until that stellar remnant's mass exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit of around 1.4 times the mass of the sun, above which a star can go supernova. This results in a type of cosmic explosion called a "Type Ia supernova" that completely obliterates the white dwarf.

"In this kind of supernova, the white dwarf is completely destroyed, so its companion is released and flies off at whatever orbital speed it was originally moving, plus a little bit of a kick from the supernova explosion as well," Burgasser explained. "Our calculations show this scenario works. However, the white dwarf isn’t there anymore, and the remnants of the explosion, which likely happened several million years ago, have already dissipated, so we don’t have definitive proof that this is its origin."

Could twin black holes have something to do with it?

The second scenario considered by the team sees this hypervelocity star begin life in a globular cluster, a dense and compact conglomeration of stars bound together by gravity. These spherical clusters can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of stars.

The stars are concentrated toward the center of globular clusters, where scientists theorize that black holes of varying masses also lurk. These black holes can come together and form binaries that are adept at launching any stars that venture too close to them out of their home systems.

"When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster," Kyle Kremer, an incoming Assistant Professor in UC San Diego's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said. 

Simulations generated by Kremer revealed that, on rare occasions, these kinds of interactions can kick a low-mass subdwarf out of a globular cluster and put them on trajectories similar to what's observed with J1249+36.

The team also traced the trajectory of this hypervelocity star back to an extremely crowded region of space, which could indeed be the location of a currently undiscovered globular cluster — or, perhaps. more than one.

The team will now look at the elemental composition of J1249+36 in an attempt to determine which of these ejection scenarios is the correct one. Composition could be a possible indication of origin because when white dwarfs "go nova," they pollute the stars they kick away. In addition to this, stars born in globular clusters have distinct chemical compositions. 

Whatever the origins of this star are, its discovery offers scientists the unique opportunity to investigate hypervelocity stars as a whole. And it's all very cool.

Burgasser presented the team's results at a press conference on Monday (June 10) during the 244th national meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Madison, Wisconsin.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

17-06-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Boeing’s Starliner Will Attempt A First-Of-Its-Kind Landing For A U.S. Capsule

Watch out for Starliner’s unique landing as early as next week.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA 

Boeing

Two astronauts will break from American spaceflight tradition next week, when their capsule drops down onto land, instead of splashing at sea.

As early as next Tuesday, the Boeing Starliner will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) with two astronauts inside. Instead of landing in the ocean, as their fellow NASA Commercial Crew Program partner, SpaceX, has been successfully doing with its Crew Dragon at least twice each year since 2020, Starliner will become the first and only American orbital crew capsule to touch down on land.

Capsules of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs landed in the ocean. The Space Shuttles touched down on land, but they coasted onto a runway, a much different approach.

Fortunately, most modern astronauts have experience with soft landing in capsules on land. When the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, and up until Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission in 2020 restarted the launch of astronauts from American soil, the U.S. would pay for seats onboard Russian Soyuz capsules to get their astronauts to and from space. Soyuz would and still does touch down on land, over open terrain in Kazakhstan.

Soon it will be Starliner’s turn to utilize this approach. It is in the midst of its Crew Flight Test, which got underway when NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore successfully launched inside a Starliner called Calypso on June 5. The duo are now onboard the ISS, but as early as June 22, they’ll reboard Calypso to come home.

The Boeing Starliner is important because it provides dissimilar redundancy — a backup plan, in essence — for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. If SpaceX has a problem, or vice versa, the other company offers a different way for astronauts to continue visiting low-Earth orbit.

One difference is how their astronauts come home. Crew Dragon’s latest return from space for the Crew-7 mission in March delivered four astronauts to the calm waters off the coast of Florida. Teams on boats mobilized to fish the capsule out of the water, and onto a ship, where the hatch was successfully opened roughly 42 minutes after splashdown.

Both Starliner and Crew Dragon begin their descents with parachutes to slow them down.

When Calypso is about 3,000 feet off the ground, the heat shield on its base will jettison. This exposes the Starliner’s airbags. They’ll absorb the initial force of landing at touchdown.

According to NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who is part of the Starliner Commercial Crew Program, the Starliner can deploy an extra airbag if an emergency water landing must be made.

Boeing will only use this for emergencies, he adds. Salt water is abrasive. This makes refurbishing the capsule tough to do after exposure to the ocean. Landing on land is one way Boeing aims to have the reusable Starliner capsules ready on time with a six-month turnaround.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

16-06-2024 om 21:39 geschreven door peter  

Story by Elisha Sauers

If looking at this Mars vista conjures up childhood memories of the song, "One of these things is not like the others," NASA scientists are right there with you. 

Perseverance, a car-size lab on six wheels, traveled into the Red Planet's Neretva Vallis last week. Though this region may look like a barren desert, it was once an ancient river channel that fed into the Jezero crater billions of years ago. 

As Perseverance traversed the inlet, the rover came upon a hill covered in boulders, with one in particular attracting the science team's attention: a light speckled rock amid a sea of dark lumps. 

"Every once in a while, you'll just see some strange thing in the Martian landscape, and the team is like, 'Oh, let's go over there,'" Katie Stack Morgan, deputy project scientist of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, told Mashable. "This was like the textbook definition of (chasing) the bright, shiny thing because it was so bright and white."

The boulder is so exceptional, scientists have said it's in a league of its own. Closer analysis with the rover's instruments shows it is likely an anorthosite, a rock type never seen before while exploring Mars, Stack Morgan said, though there have been signs such rocks should exist. Not even the Curiosity rover, which has observed more variety in Gale Crater, has seen one quite like this.

The Perseverance rover found an exceptional boulder on Mars, thought to be an anorthosite.

© Provided by Mashable

Though such anorthosite rocks are on the moon and in mountain ranges on Earth, they're generally considered rare in the solar system. True Martian examples have eluded researchers, including within our planet's inventory of Red Planet meteorites that traveled through space to get here. 

Related video: 

• NASA prepares to examine samples from Mars (FOX News)

This discovery could bolster the idea that Mars' early crust was way more complex than once thought — and perhaps similar to Earth's original crust. Understanding the ancient Martian crust also could help unlock secrets about the evolution of Earth and how life emerged here. 

"This was like the textbook definition of (chasing) the bright, shiny thing."

The rover team named the special boulder, about 18 inches wide and 14 inches tall, "Atoco Point" after a landmark in the Grand Canyon. 

Perseverance has been exploring Jezero crater, an ancient dried delta on Mars, since 2021.

© Provided by Mashable

"Seeing a rock like Atoco Point is one of these hints that, yes, we do have anorthosites on Mars, and this might be a sampling of that lower crust material," Stack Morgan said. "If we see it later on in the context of other rocks, it can give us a sense for how the earliest crust of Mars kind of came to be."

Anorthosites are predominantly made of feldspar, a mineral linked to lava flows. Feldspars are more rich in silica than basalts and some of the last stuff to crystallize out of magma. On the other hand, basalts, dark volcanic rocks rich in iron and magnesium, are ubiquitous on Mars' surface. 

Many of Perseverance's scientists think magma below the surface made the minerals in Atoko Point, and that a giant impact on Mars may have excavated the rock to the surface, a chunk later falling from the crater rim to its present site. Others think the boulder was made somewhere else far away and a gushing ancient river carried it there.

The NASA team hopes to discover many more rocks like Atoco Point in a couple of months when Perseverance reaches the crater rim.

© Provided by Mashable

Whether scientists will ever get their hands on this rock or one like it remains to be seen. Perseverance has been collecting samples from Jezero crater since 2021. The region, an ancient dried delta, is one where scientists think microscopic organisms might have existed long ago. But the plan to fly rocks and dust grains to Earth, a complex mission called Mars Sample Return, is in jeopardy. Its rising costs have led to layoffs and warnings of cancellation from Congress. The agency is now making a desperate plea for ideas to save the mission.

Perhaps surprisingly, the rover team chose to drive away from Atoco Point without even taking a sample, despite its significance. That's because the team hopes to discover many more like it in a couple of months when the rover reaches the crater rim. Finding examples from its original location could provide the scientists with a lot more context. 

"We said, 'OK, let's keep this rock in mind,'" Stack Morgan said. "'Maybe we'll come back here if we don't find this elsewhere in the crater rim.'"

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/  }

16-06-2024 om 01:44 geschreven door peter  

Private space-junk-inspection probe spots discarded rocket in orbit up close (photo)

ADRAS-J, which is short for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, launched into orbit atop Rocket Lab's Electron rocket on Feb. 18. By April the 330-pound (150-kilogram) probe had used its onboard cameras and successfully maneuvered within a few hundred meters of its target — the upper stage of the Japanese H-2A rocket that launched the GOSAT Earth-observation satellite back in 2009. This striking photo released late April memorialized the achievement.

ADRAS-J - Astroscale, Securing Space Sustainability

Related: 

• Wow! Private space-junk probe snaps historic photo of discarded rocket in orbit

In an update posted today (Friday, June 14), Astroscale wrote that ADRAS-J had completed a safe and controlled approach to the rocket, which spans 36 feet long by 13 feet wide (11 by 4 meters). The latest image is one of many ADRAS-J captured while holding a fixed position relative to the upper stage, the company said, adding that the mission will soon try snapping additional pictures of the target through various close approach operations.

Spaceflight historian Gunther Krebs previously noted that ADRAS-J is not the first mission to capture close-up images of space junk. In 2003, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's XSS-10 satellite had photographed the used upper stage of a Delta II rocket; those tasks were less complex than ADRAS-J's.

Following the successful safe and controlled approach of the dead rocket, in late April, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) chose Astroscale for the second phase of the mission, which will progress onto capturing and removing the rocket body using a robotic arm that is lighter version of the one on the International Space Station.

"This next phase holds significance in addressing the space debris issue and laying the foundation for a sustainable environment for future generations," Eddie Kato, the president of Astroscale Japan, said in a previous statement.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

16-06-2024 om 01:31 geschreven door peter  

Trip naar Mars zo gevaarlijk voor de nieren dat Marsreizigers

Caroline Kraaijvanger

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

15-06-2024 om 01:13 geschreven door peter  

Huge amount of water frost "unexpectedly" found on Mars' volcanoes

An international team of planetary scientists has recently discovered patches of water frost atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars. These volcanoes are not only the tallest on Mars but in the entire solar system. 

This is the first time frost has been observed near Mars’ equator, challenging existing views of the planet’s climate.

Remnants of an ancient climate cycle 

“We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’ equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures during the day relatively high at both the surface and mountaintop — unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” said lead author Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who led the work as a PhD student at the University of Bern. 

“What we’re seeing may be a remnant of an ancient climate cycle on modern Mars, where you had precipitation and maybe even snowfall on these volcanoes in the past.”

The study revealed that this frost is present only for a few hours after sunrise before evaporating in the sunlight. It is incredibly thin, likely about one-hundredth of a millimeter thick, roughly the width of a human hair. 

Water frost on Tharsis volcanoes

Despite its thinness, the frost covers a significant area. Researchers estimate that at least 150,000 tons of water cycles between the surface and atmosphere daily during the cold seasons, equivalent to about 60 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The Tharsis region, where the frost was found, contains numerous towering volcanoes, some of which are one to two times the height of Earth’s Mount Everest. Olympus Mons, for example, is as wide as France. 

The frost is located in the calderas of these volcanoes, large hollows at their summits formed during past eruptions. The team suggests that air circulation above these mountains creates a unique microclimate allowing the frost to form.

Significance of frost on Mars

Modeling the formation of these frosts could help scientists uncover more of Mars’ secrets, including the distribution and movement of water and the planet’s complex atmospheric dynamics.

This is crucial for future exploration and the search for potential signs of life.

The frost was detected using high-resolution color images from the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter. 

The findings were validated with observations from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on the ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery spectrometer on the Trace Gas Orbiter.

Tracing the signatures of frost on Mars

The researchers analyzed over 30,000 images to initially find and then confirm the frost. Valantinas filtered the images based on their location, time of day, and season to isolate spectral signatures indicative of water frost and identify where it formed on Mars’ surface.

“This notion of a second genesis, of life beyond Earth, has always fascinated me,” said Valantinas, who began analyzing the images in 2018.

As he transitions to his role at Brown, Valantinas plans to continue exploring Martian mysteries, pivoting towards astrobiology.

Working with Brown planetary scientist Jack Mustard, he aims to characterize ancient hydrothermal environments that could have supported microbial life. 

Samples from these environments might be returned to Earth by the NASA-led Mars Sample Return mission.

a, Global view of Mars with white box marking the location of Olympus Mons. b, HRSC wide-angle image of Olympus Mons acquired in the early morning (LST = 7:20, Ls = 346.7°, latitude = 18.2° N, longitude = −133.2° E). The black dashed line indicates the orbit of the TGO corresponding to the images in d and e. The white box highlights the close up in c. c, Zoomed-in view of the Olympus Mons caldera. The white and blue dashed rectangles show the footprints of the CaSSIS and NOMAD-LNO observations, respectively. d, High-resolution (4.5 m pixel^–1) CaSSIS colour image of frost on the caldera floor and northern rim of Olympus Mons (LST = 7:11, Ls = 344.1°). Frost is absent on the well-lit steep slopes. The blue rectangle marks the footprint of the one NOMAD-LNO observation that falls within the frost-covered area. e, NOMAD-LNO channel observation of the Olympus Mons caldera. The ice index values (Methods) indicate the presence of frost over the caldera floor (>µ + 3σ). The coloured areas on the plot indicate the confidence intervals. HRSC image ID: hn889_0000 (b,c). CaSSIS colour image ID: MY36_022332_162_0_NPB (d). NOMAD-LNO observation ID: 20221125_082524 (e). Credit: b, ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; d, ESA/TGO/CaSSIS under a Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Signs of life on Mars

Signs of life on Mars have been a subject of intense scientific investigation. Researchers have been particularly interested in the presence of water, as it’s a crucial ingredient for life. 

Liquid water

Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance have found evidence of ancient riverbeds, lake beds, and mineral deposits that typically form in water, suggesting that Mars once had liquid water on its surface. 

Organic molecules 

Additionally, organic molecules, which are the building blocks of life, have been detected in Martian soil samples. 

Methane

Methane detection has also piqued interest because on Earth, methane is predominantly produced by biological processes. However, methane can also be generated by geological processes, so its presence alone does not confirm life. 

The seasonal fluctuations of methane observed by the Curiosity rover suggest that the gas may be produced and destroyed through unknown processes. 

Future missions

Despite these promising signs, no definitive evidence of current or past life on Mars has been found yet. Future missions aim to bring back samples to Earth for detailed analysis, which may provide clearer answers.

• The study is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
• Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berli

{ https://www.earth.com/ }

14-06-2024 om 23:03 geschreven door peter  

Story by Eric Ralls

New theory: Gravity can exist without mass, so dark matter does not exist

© Provided by Earth

For centuries, scientists have grappled with the fundamental forces that govern our universe, chief among them being gravity, and more recently, dark matter.

Gravity is the invisible force that attracts objects with mass towards each other, playing a crucial role in shaping the cosmos, from the formation of galaxies to the orbits of planets.

However, as our understanding of the universe has expanded, so too have the mysteries surrounding it.

Dark matter dilemma

One of the most perplexing of these mysteries is the concept of dark matter, a hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up a significant portion of the universe's total mass.

Unlike ordinary matter, which we can see and interact with directly, dark matter does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it invisible to telescopes and other detecting instruments.

Dark matter's existence, first suggested by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1932, is inferred solely from the gravitational effects it exerts on visible matter, such as the rotation curves of galaxies and the motion of galaxies within clusters. This leads scientists to question the very nature of gravity itself.

These observations suggest that there is far more matter present in the universe than can be accounted for by visible matter alone.

Related video: New Theory Posits Gravity Can Exist Without Mass (Amaze Lab)

Despite decades of research, the exact nature of dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries in modern physics, with scientists exploring various theories, such as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and axions, to explain its properties and behavior.

Ever-present force of gravity

Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, alongside electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. It is the force that attracts objects with mass towards each other, and it plays a crucial role in shaping the universe at all scales.

At the Earth's surface, gravity pulls objects towards the center of the planet, giving them weight and keeping them grounded.

On a larger scale, gravity governs the orbits of planets around the sun, the motion of stars within galaxies, and the formation and evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters.

According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity arises from the curvature of space-time caused by the presence of mass and energy. The more massive an object is, the greater its gravitational influence on other objects.

Despite its ubiquity and importance, gravity remains one of the least understood forces in physics, with ongoing research seeking to reconcile it with the principles of quantum mechanics and to explain phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy.

Seeing gravity and dark matter in a new light

Taking a fresh perspective, a recent study by Dr. Richard Lieu at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) hopes to solve the puzzle by adding a new twist to this age-old problem.

Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Lieu's paper demonstrates, for the first time, how gravity can exist without mass.

This radical and thought-provoking research provides an alternative theory that could potentially mitigate the need for dark matter.

"My own inspiration came from my pursuit for another solution to the gravitational field equations of general relativity," says Lieu, a distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at UAH.

"This initiative is in turn driven by my frustration with the status quo, namely the notion of dark matter's existence despite the lack of any direct evidence for a whole century."

Topological defects may hold the key

Lieu contends that the "excess" gravity necessary to bind a galaxy or cluster together could be due to concentric sets of shell-like topological defects in structures commonly found throughout the cosmos.

These defects were most likely created during the early universe when a cosmological phase transition occurred, a physical process where the overall state of matter changes together across the entire universe.

"It is unclear presently what precise form of phase transition in the universe could give rise to topological defects of this sort," Lieu says.

"Topological effects are very compact regions of space with a very high density of matter, usually in the form of linear structures known as cosmic strings, although 2D structures such as spherical shells are also possible."

Massless gravity effect resembles dark matter

The shells proposed in Lieu's paper consist of a thin inner layer of positive mass and a thin outer layer of negative mass.

While the total mass of both layers is exactly zero, a star lying on this shell experiences a large gravitational force pulling it towards the center of the shell.

As gravitational force fundamentally involves the warping of space-time itself, it enables all objects to interact with each other, whether they have mass or not.

Massless photons, for example, have been confirmed to experience gravitational effects from astronomical objects.

"Gravitational bending of light by a set of concentric singular shells comprising a galaxy or cluster is due to a ray of light being deflected slightly inwards -- that is, towards the center of the large-scale structure, or the set of shells -- as it passes through one shell," Lieu notes.

He explains that as light traverses through multiple shells, the cumulative effect results in a measurable deflection that closely resembles the gravitational influence typically attributed to the presence of a significant amount of dark matter, akin to the observed velocities of stellar orbits within galaxies.

Role of massless shells in galaxy formation

The deflection of light and stellar orbital velocities are the only means by which one gauges the strength of the gravitational field in a large-scale structure, be it a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies.

Lieu's paper contends that the shells it posits are massless, suggesting that there may be no need to perpetuate the seemingly endless search for dark matter.

Questions for future research will likely focus on how a galaxy or cluster is formed by the alignment of these shells, as well as how the evolution of the structures takes place.

"Of course, the availability of a second solution, even if it is highly suggestive, is not by itself sufficient to discredit the dark matter hypothesis -- it could be an interesting mathematical exercise at best," Lieu concludes.

Lieu emphasizes that his research does not aim to address the issue of structure formation in the universe, and acknowledges that there are still open questions regarding the initial state of the shells and how to definitively confirm or refute their existence through targeted observations.

Despite these limitations, Lieu asserts that his work represents the first demonstration of the possibility of gravity existing without mass.

Dark matter vs. Massless gravity: Let the games begin

In summary, Dr. Richard Lieu's fascinating research challenges the century-old notion of dark matter and offers a revolutionary perspective on the nature of gravity.

By demonstrating how gravity can exist without mass through the concept of massless shells, Lieu's work opens up new avenues for understanding the universe and its fundamental forces.

While further investigation is necessary to confirm or refute the existence of these massless shells, this study represents a significant leap forward in our comprehension of the cosmos.

As the scientific community continues to explore the implications of Lieu's findings, we may be on the cusp of a new era in astrophysics, one that reshapes our understanding of the mysterious force that binds galaxies and clusters together.

• The full study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society..
• Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

 { https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

14-06-2024 om 22:19 geschreven door peter  

NASA Returns Voyager 1 Spacecraft to Normal Science Operations

Voyager 1 is conducting science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023.

Voyager 1 launched from Florida’s NASA Kennedy Space Center on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. This artist concept depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though the mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.

They partially resolved the issue in April, 2024 when they prompted Voyager 1 to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft.

On May 19, they executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data.

Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately.

Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.

The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles.

This infographic highlights NASA’s Voyager mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

The twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

Launched in 1977, both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first.

Together, they unveiled much about the Solar System’s two largest planets and their moons.

Voyager 1 is more than 24 billion km (15 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is more than 20 billion km (12 billion miles) from the planet.

The probes will mark 47 years of operations later this year.

“Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun,” the NASA engineers said.

“While Voyager 1 is back to conducting science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the effects of the issue.”

“Among other tasks, we will resynchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s three onboard computers so they can execute commands at the right time.”

“We will also perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument that is sent to Earth twice per year.”

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

14-06-2024 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

A Radio Telescope Captured the Noise Humanity Leaks Into Space

ROLSES had a bumpy ride aboard the Odysseus Lander earlier this year, but it still pulled off some cool science.

BY KIONA SMITH

 

Intuitive Machines

EVERYTHING GETS A REBOOT THESE DAYS

Along the way to the Moon, ROLSES repeated a famous Carl Sagan experiment from 1993: It captured the spectrum of radio waves pouring from our planet out into space. What they measured was an electronic fingerprint of all the wavelengths of radio broadcasts that passing aliens could see if they, too, pointed a radio spectrometer at Earth. They hope the data will give them a more detailed idea of what to look for in radio data from planets around nearby stars.

In 1993, Carl Sagan used the Galileo spacecraft — then on its way to Jupiter — to measure Earth’s atmospheric composition and radio signature.

“The presence of narrow-band, pulsed, amplitude-modulated radio transmission seems uniquely attributable to intelligence,” wrote Sagan in his 1993 paper in the journal Nature. “These observations constitute a control experiment for the search for extraterrestrial life by modern interplanetary spacecraft.” In other words, Sagan hoped that an alien’s-eye view of Earth from Galileo could help astronomers interpret what they saw in observations of planets orbiting other stars. If we could see what the signs of life on Earth looked like from a distance, then we might recognize them if we ever saw them on a distant world.

Astronomical instruments have come a long way since 1993, both literally and figuratively. With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are finally able to measure how light filters through the atmospheres of planets like the TRAPPIST-1 worlds as they pass in front of their stars. And the radio spectrometer on ROLSES could measure Earth’s radio output in much more detail than the Galileo spacecraft’s instruments could.

“We can re-do the Sagan experiment from 1993 with a much improved radio spectrum,” says Burns in a presentation at the 244^th American Astronomical Society conference on Monday.

ROLSES was meant to spend about 8 days gathering data about how much radio energy from Earth, and the Sun, reaches the southern pole of the Moon. But Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus Lander had a difficult landing in Malapert A crater, and it came to rest with one broken leg, leaning on a nearby slope at about a 30-degree angle. That left the lander’s high-gain antenna pointed at the lunar surface, instead of back toward Earth.

“We were supposed to have 8 days worth of data. We ended up with an hour and a half to 2 hours worth of data,” says Burns.

ROLSES spent only about 20 minutes doing radio astronomy from the surface of the Moon — still a major first and (Burns and others hope) a precursor to full-scale radio observatories on the far side of the Moon. Because the observation time was so short, the data is more noise than signal. The rest, about an hour and a half of much clearer data, was collected on the way to the Moon, when ROLSES wasn’t supposed to have been up and running at all, which underscores how much of spaceflight still relies on being able to improvise quickly.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

14-06-2024 om 01:36 geschreven door peter  

POSTED BY MARK THOMPSON

The Inner and Outer Milky Way Aren’t the Same Thickness, and that’s Surprising

At first glance, the universe and night sky seem largely unchanging. The reality is very different, even now, a gas cloud is charging toward the Milky Way Galaxy and is expected to crash into us in 27 million years. A team of astronomers hoping to locate the exact position of the expected impact site have been unsuccessful but have accidentally measured the thickness of the Milky Way! Analysing radio data, they have been able to deduce the thickness of the inner and outer regions and discovered a dramatic difference between the two. 

The team of astronomers from the US National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory were attempting to study the Smith Cloud. This high velocity cloud of hydrogen gas is located in the constellation Aquila at a distance of somewhere between 36,000 and 45,000 light years. Previous studies from the Green Bank Observatory have shown the cloud contains at least 1 million times the mass of the Sun and measures 9,800 light years long by 3,300 light years wide. 

The plan was simple enough, to observe the spot where the cloud is currently interacting with the Milky Way. The observation is tricky enough though as the cloud is on the far side of the Milky Way and there is a lot of stuff in the way! The team, led by Toney Minter used the 20m Green Bank Telescope to search for dust and emissions from hydroxyl molecules (composed of a hydrogen and oxygen molecule.)  What the team expected to see was a difference in composition in the region of the Milky Way interacted with the cloud which, should have very little dust and hydroxyl molecules. Clouds in the Milky Way tend to have both so a difference should be detectable. 

Minter was candidly open about the study joking ‘I knew there was a low probability that I’d find what I was looking for—and I didn’t,. But this is all part of the scientific process. You learn from what you DO and DON’T find.’

Disappointingly the team did not detect any differences in composition but what they did find was equally as interesting. The study revealed information about the Milky Way itself and the structure of its inner regions. Minter and his team had to look through the Milky Way’s inner regions for their study and what they were able to determine was the thickness of the layer of molecules in the inner Galaxy. The information enabled them to deduce the scale height of the clouds of molecular gas in the inner Milky Way. The results showed that the layer of molecules in the inner region measured 330 light years thick while those in the outer parts measured twice as much, around 660 light years. 

The discovery still leaves questions unanswered. The observation certainly shows the difference in thickness between the inner and outer regions but it doesn’t give any clue as to what is driving the difference. Further observations are now required to follow up on this discovery to try and model the underlying process.  Of course one other question remains unanswered and that is the nature and mechanics of the Smith Cloud and how it will impact our own Galaxy. Far from being disappointed though, Minter stated ‘That’s why astronomy is exciting, our knowledge is always evolving’

Source : 

• While Aiming for Massive Gas Cloud, Astronomers Spot Differences in Thickness of Milky Way Galaxy

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-06-2024 om 01:19 geschreven door peter  

Many space fans have been following the successful launch of the Boeing Starliner, another commercial organisation aiming to make space more accessible. It successfully reached the International Space Station, delivering Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams into orbit but it wasn’t without a hitch. Three of its thrusters experienced problems and there were ‘five small leaks on the service module.’ The crew and ground teams are working through safety checks of power and habitability. To ensure a safe return of the astronauts NASA has extended the mission by four days to 18th June. 

Boeing Starliner is a reusable (partly) spacecraft designed to transport crews to low Earth orbit. NASA is the lead customer so, once certification has been achieved, will be used to deliver astronauts regularly to the ISS. It consists of a crew capsule that can be used ten times and an expendable service module. Measuring 4.6 metres in diameter it is slightly larger than the Apollo Command module that was a part of the historic Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins mission to the Moon.

The Boeing Starliner launch marked its first crewed trip into orbit, with the objective of data collection for certification by NASA for regular crewed missions to ISS. The tests are numerous and include; running the spacecraft in minimal power mode (for when docked to ISS), checking suitability to support crew on its own in the event of an emergency, performing habitability studies for a four person crew and a multitude of other system checks. The module has been docked to ISS since 6th June. 

Teething problems for any new module are always expected but when the word ‘leak’ pops up it is most definitely a cause for concern. In the case of Starliner, five small leaks have been detected in the service module helium manifolds. When Starliner launched, the ground team already knew there was one leak in the propulsion system but now, four more have been detected! The flight engineers initially suspected a flaw in a manifold seal or possibly even faulty installation but now, with the four additional leaks they’re trying to understand if there is a common problem.

The leaks are not the only problem that has been experienced. As Starliner approached ISS, it relied upon precise pulses from the 28 reaction control thrusters. During this critical phase of the docking process, five of them failed. More accurately, the spacecraft control software deduced they were not working and deselected them. The first docking window was missed as a result but the crew were able to test and restart four of the five engines allowing them to safely dock. Engineers are still looking into the thruster problem but are confidence it will allow the safe return of the astronauts. 

As for the helium leak, flight engineers have examined the leak rate and confirmed that Starliner has sufficient margin to support a return trip to Earth. With Starliner docked to the ISS the manifolds are all closed preventing any helium loss until the return trip which takes just seven hours. Even with the manifolds open and the rate of leak there is sufficient helium to support 70 hours of flight time. 

Ground support teams are continuing to work through the problems and the return plan. They will explore tolerances and possible operational mitigations for the remainder of the mission. As the team depart from the ISS, no earlier than 18th June they will slowly adjust orbit away from the Space Station. A deorbit burn will be completed before entering the atmosphere and landing in south-western United States.

Source : 

• NASA, Boeing Progress on Testing Starliner with Crew at Space Station

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-06-2024 om 01:11 geschreven door peter  

What Protects Planets from the Solar Storm?

There’s not much we as a species can do to protect our planet from a solar storm. However, we’re lucky—we have a strong magnetic field to ward off the worst solar outbursts. Mars is not so lucky. It doesn’t have as much of a magnetic field to ward off the deadly radiation. Space weather experts estimated that if someone had been standing on the Martian surface during that storm, they would have been irradiated with the equivalent of 30 chest X-rays in just a short time.

That storm, and others have sparked auroras on Mars (as well as on Earth). A storm earlier in May sparked off major auroral displays on Earth on May 10-11, but otherwise didn’t severely damage any vital systems. Solar storms, however, do offer a good chance for scientists to track the Sun’s outbursts as they rampage across the Solar System. The data they get gives more insight into solar activity. However, the data from the Mars missions also provides a chilling look at just what kind of risky environment Mars is for future explorers.

Sheltering from the Solar Storm on Mars

Here on Earth, if we have plenty of notice of a solar outburst, people can get ready for the inevitable damage a solar storm can cause. For example, satellite operators can prepare their assets to protect them. NASA can advise astronauts in space to take shelter and other precautions. Ground-based power and telecommunications operators have plans in place to protect their systems from the tremendously strong ground currents that get stirred up by solar storms.

But, what if you’re on your way to Mars when a storm hits? Or, you’re actually ON Mars? Those questions occupy a lot of study time at NASA and other space agencies. People in space, whether orbiting Earth or en route to the Moon or Mars can take shelter inside their craft. In those cases, they have to depend on hardened shelters to keep them safe. But, on Mars, things are different. There’s no strong magnetic field to ward off the strong particles from the Sun. Inhabitants will have to take shelter, according to Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division.

“Cliffsides or lava tubes would provide additional shielding for an astronaut from such an event. In Mars orbit or deep space, the dose rate would be significantly more,” Hassler said.“I wouldn’t be surprised if this active region on the Sun continues to erupt, meaning even more solar storms at both Earth and Mars over the coming weeks.”

What Happened on May 20th?

The storm that Curiosity recorded began with an X12-class solar flare. That’s one of the strongest solar flares recorded and, if it had been aimed at Earth, could have caused some major damage. As it turns out, Mars was in the pathway of that flare and a subsequent coronal mass ejection. It launched a cloud of charged particles through space. When the outburst from the flare and the CME arrived at Mars, it triggered auroral displays on the Martian night side. At the same time, the outbursts showered the surface with charged particles. If someone had been on Mars and working outside a shelter, they would have been dosed with the equivalent of 30 chest X-rays. That’s not a deadly exposure, but over time if someone experienced many such events, the damage to their body would add up.

Luckily, the storm did no damage to Curiosity or any of the spacecraft at Mars. But, that won’t always be the case, and mission planners can use the data from this storm and others to figure out how best to protect future explorers.

For More Information

• NASA Watches Mars Light Up During Epic Solar Storm
• NASA Curiosity Mars Mission

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

13-06-2024 om 01:02 geschreven door peter  

In an Extremely Unlikely First, Scientists Found Frost On the Peak of Mars’ Volcano Olympus Mons

A team of scientists recently discovered frozen water in an unlikely place on Mars.

BY KIONA SMITH

 

Rain will probably never fall on Mars’ giant volcano, Olympus Mons (our condolences to the MMC). But a glittering swath of frost covers the Martian mountaintop on chilly mornings, according to new research, suggesting that the planet has an active, if sparse, water cycle.

A team of scientists recently discovered frozen water in an unlikely place on Mars: 13.5 miles above the surface, nestled near the peak of our Solar System’s largest mountain, Olympus Mons (which is also a volcano, though its last eruption was 25 million years ago.) For a few hours each morning during the colder Martian seasons, huge patches of frost settle in the ancient calderas of Mars’s Tharsis Mountain range, which includes Olympus Mons. The recent study is the first time scientists have seen frost anywhere near the planet’s equator, and it could suggest new places to look for water and potential signs of life on Mars.

Brown University planetary scientist Adomas Valentinas and his colleagues published their work in the journal Nature Geoscience.

FROST-CAPPED MOUNTAIN PEAKS IN THE MARTIAN TROPICS

Valentinas and his colleagues spent five years poring over data from an instrument called CaSSIS (Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System) aboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter. In 2018, the scientists thought they had glimpsed frost in the high calderas of Olympus Mons and some of the other dormant volcanoes of Tharsis, and more data from the Mars Express Orbiter confirmed what they had seen. The team spent the next five years studying more than 30,000 images of the region, captured at different times of day and in different seasons, to piece together a record of how the frost came and went.

It turns out that during Mars’s colder months, a super-thin layer of frost forms at the peaks of the towering mountains and in their calderas — the collapsed craters formed by cataclysmic volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. The icy layer is only about as thick as a human hair, and it lasts just a few hours before it evaporates under the heat of the Martian Sun. However, it covers such a wide swath of ground that even that thin, short-lived frost layer contains about 150,000 tons of water, enough to fill 6 Olympic swimming pools. And in the mostly-dry environs of modern Mars, that’s a lot of water.

“We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’s equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures during the day relatively high, at both the surface and the mountaintops — unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” says Valentinas in a recent statement.

Valentinas and his colleagues suggest that there’s something about air circulation around the tops of the mountains and through the calderas that creates a microclimate that’s cool enough and humid enough to allow frost to form on cold mornings. Building computer simulations of how the frost forms and evaporates could help scientists understand Mars’s water cycle, such as it is, in more detail.

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11-06-2024 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

11-06-2024 om 01:05 geschreven door peter