Space photo of the week: James Webb and Hubble telescopes unite to solve 'impossible' planet mystery

• Why it's so special: This James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image has helped astronomers untangle a long-standing mystery about how planets form. The mystery arose more than 20 years ago, when the Hubble Space Telescope spotted the universe's oldest known planet, which formed earlier in the universe's history than scientists thought was possible.

Stars form in large clouds of gas and dust called molecular clouds. Any remaining gas and dust gather in disks around the stars. Planets, in turn, form from these disks. Scientists believed that early stars didn't have planets because there was a lack of heavier elements, such as carbon and iron, which are created by stars' nuclear fusion and supernova deaths. They thought that these heavier elements were essential for planet-forming disks to exist long enough for planets to form.

Related: 

• Space photo of the week: The tilted spiral galaxy that took Hubble 23 years to capture

But in 2003, Hubble detected a massive planet orbiting an ancient star in the M4 globular cluster, which is about 5,600 light-years distant in the Milky Way. Globular clusters are extremely old and, therefore, lack heavier elements. The exoplanet is about 13 billion years old, which suggests that planets may have formed earlier in the universe's history than scientists thought was possible. But astronomers were unsure exactly how it formed so early in the universe's history

To learn more about the early universe, astronomers use proxies that have similar conditions to ancient galaxies. One such proxy is the star cluster NGC 346, a star-forming region within the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. Like early galaxies, the SMC lacks heavier elements and is made up mainly of hydrogen and helium.

When astronomers pointed Hubble at NGC 346, they found signs that planet-forming disks existed around stars for 20 million to 30 million years — about 10 times longer than theories predicted such disks could survive. However, the signs were faint, so astronomers needed further proof.

In 2023, JWSTused the unprecedented sensitivity and resolution provided by its Near Infrared Spectrograph and Mid-Infrared Instrument to confirm the existence of long-lived planet-forming disks in NGC 346.

The findings, published Dec. 16, 2024, in The Astrophysical Journal, affirm the Hubble result and suggest that the lack of heavier elements may slow the star's ability to disperse its planet-forming disk — giving planets more time to form. Another theory is that the initial gas cloud from which the star forms might be larger, resulting in a more massive, longer-lived disk.

• For more sublime space images, check out our Space Photo of the Week archives.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

02-02-2025 om 22:11 geschreven door peter  

High-Resolution Imaging of Dyson Sphere Candidate Reveals no Radio Signals

Dyson Spheres are a class of megastructures originally proposed by physicist Freemon Dyson, who proposed how advanced civilizations could create structures large enough to enclose their stars (thus harnessing all of their energy). Project Hephaestos, led by Prof. Erik Zackrisson, has published numerous papers exploring possible Dyson Sphere candidates using different methods and data sources. The fourth and most recent paper in the series focused on seven potential candidates (designated A to G) around M-type stars from a sample of 5 million detected by the ESA’s Gaia Observatory.

Previously, Ren and his team have investigated these candidates to identify possible natural explanations. As they explored in a previous paper, these include dust-rich debris disks that absorb light and re-emit it as infrared radiation. This will lead to an observed infrared excess, which Dyson proposed as a possible indication of his proposed megastructure. However, as they indicate in their most recent paper, the Project’s measurements do not appear to resemble typical debris disks. As Garrett explained to Universe Today via email:

“When I saw the original results from Project Hephaestos last year, I was skeptical – they had surveyed 5 million stars, and if you do that, there is a good chance your measurements might include emission from background sources. You don’t expect stars to show radio emission at this level, and it basically tells you that the radio emission is probably coming from background (radio) galaxies. But then you also need a special kind of galaxy that is faint in the optical but very bright in the infrared – the only galaxies I knew that had this characteristic are DOGs – Dust Obscured Galaxies.”

The team was also inspired by another paper by Jason T. Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, the director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSETI), and a member of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds (CEHW). In this paper, Wright hypothesized that a true Dyson Sphere might use radio emissions to discharge waste heat. This led them to consider the possibility that these candidates were indeed Dyson Spheres.

As Tongtian explained, they were also inspired by previous research by Garrett:

“Mike briefly argued in 2015 that even in a Kardashev Type I Civilization, where energy consumption is significantly higher than that of humans on Earth, their radio communication signals are too weak to detect. However, the Dyson Spheres could correspond to a Kardashev Type II Civilization—one that harnesses over a billion times more energy than a Type I Civilization. Therefore, regardless of whether the beings reside on planets or elsewhere near the Dyson Sphere, it might be possible to detect their use of similar electromagnetic technologies.”

To investigate these possibilities further, the team searched through data obtained by the enhanced Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (e-MERLIN) and the European VLBI Network (EVN) for data on the brightest radio source (candidate G). To their surprise, they found that three candidates from Project Hephaestos had radio counterparts in the astronomy databases. As Tongtian explained, the most logical explanation is that these signals (including candidate G) were due to contamination from bright radio sources – Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) – in the background:

“They shouldn’t belong to one civilization. Otherwise, many anomalous stars would be connected as a swarm in the sky, not isolated seven. At that moment, we realized that either different extraterrestrial civilizations located hundreds of light-years away all have mastered the same or similar advanced radio emission technologies, or these signals originate from some form of natural contamination. We preferred to assume that they were some natural objects beyond the Milky Way – and most likely to be hot DOGS.”

These results effectively confirmed their earlier hypothesis that at least some of the candidates identified by Project Hephaistos are contaminated by bright radio sources that are also very bright in the infrared wavelength. This causes them to mimic the characteristics that Freeman Dyson predicted and what astronomers expect from Dyson Spheres. However, this does not rule out the remaining six candidates and highlights the importance of thoroughly analyzing each candidate with high-resolution radio observations.

“We don’t know that all of the candidates are contaminated, but some, maybe all, probably are. I really hope some of them are indeed good Dyson Sphere candidates,” said Garrett. “This all shows that a multiwavelength approach is really required when looking for candidates in order to rule out background contamination.”

“The development of new astronomical instruments does not follow the rapid update cycles of consumer electronics—it takes decades,” added Tongtian. “Gaia (launched in 2013 and recently decommissioned) and WISE (launched in 2009 and expired in 2024) provided a crucial observational window. The next generation of similar probes may not be available for a long time, making it unlikely that a large-scale Dyson Sphere search program like Project Hephaistos will be conducted again in the near future. So the current seven Dyson Sphere candidates deserve to be carefully examined.”

Further Reading: 

• arXiv,
• MNRAS

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

02-02-2025 om 21:39 geschreven door peter  

Stranded NASA astronaut says she's lost ability to perform vital bodily function after being in space so long

• READ MORE:  NASA's stranded astronaut leaves ISS for the first time in months
• PODCAST: On Welcome to MAGAland - Trump’s response to the tragic D.C plane crash, plus is project 2025 really a myth?

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

One of NASA's stranded astronauts has revealed she has lost the ability to perform several basic tasks after being stranded in space for eight months. 

Sunita Williams admitted this week that she has forgotten what it's like to walk after spending 234 days in microgravity.

'I've been up here long enough, right now I've been trying to remember what it's like to walk. I haven't walked. I haven't sat down. I haven't laid down,' she said during a video call with students at Needham High School in Massachusetts on Monday. 

Williams, 59 and her crewmate, Barry Wilmore, 62, were supposed to spend eight days on the ISS when they embarked on their mission on June 5, but the Boeing capsule that took them was plagued by technical issues.

The capsule has since returned to Earth empty, leaving the two astronauts stuck on the ISS until at least late March when they can catch a ride home on SpaceX's Crew-9 spacecraft.

President Donald Trump said 'the two brave astronauts' were 'virtually abandoned by the Biden administration' and asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to 'go get' them.

'Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe,' the president said. 'Good luck Elon!!!'

The 53-year-old billionaire vowed in a post to retrieve Wilmore and Sunita Williams 'as soon as possible.' 

otten how to walk after spending 234 days in microgravity Sunita Williams admitted this week that she has forg

Musk said he was asked by President Donald Trump to bring NASA's stranded astronauts home as soon as possible 

Musk's SpaceX was already tasked with bringing astronauts Williams and Wilmore back from the ISS prior to this new order due to Boeing's Straliner malfunctioning in space.

The capsule experienced helium leaks and thruster malfunctions before, during and after its launch.

By August, NASA decided Starliner was unfit to safely bring the astronauts home, and announced that Williams and Wilmore would instead hitch a ride back to Earth on SpaceX's Crew-9 capsule, which is currently docked to the ISS.

NASA previously said that Crew-9 would return home as soon as February, but the agency changed the mission timeline in December.

In a statement, officials explained that SpaceX needed more time to complete work on the Crew-10 capsule, which must launch to the ISS before Crew-9 can leave the ISS. 

Thus, the astronauts' return was pushed back to late March. By that time, they will have spent eight months in space. 

During long space missions, microgravity takes a toll on astronauts' bodies, causing significant muscle and bone deterioration.

For every month in space, astronauts' weight-bearing bones become roughly one percent less dense if they don't take precautions to counter this loss, according to NASA.

If Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams do return in late March as expected, they will have spent 10 months on the ISS, which is two months longer than a standard long-term ISS mission

President Donald Trump asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to 'go get' two astronauts who remain stuck in space

And their muscles which are usually activated by simply moving around on Earth also weaken because they no longer need to work as hard, the agency says. 

When astronauts return from long-term space missions, it's not uncommon for them not to be able to walk under their own power.  

The recent statements from Musk and President Trump suggest the timing of Williams and Wilmore's rescue mission could change again, potentially bringing them home sooner. 

There are a couple ways SpaceX might do this, according to astrophysicist and science communicator Scott Manley.

One option is to launch Crew-10 earlier, which would also allow the Crew-9 capsule to bring Williams and Wilmore home earlier, he explained in a recent X post. 

Welcome to MAGALAND: Insider Trump's Second 100 Days - The podcast bringing you the latest news and gossip from the White House. Listen here. 

This would require SpaceX to finish work on the spacecraft ahead of schedule, but the company has not said that it is on track to do so. 

Option two is to allow Crew-9 to return to Earth before Crew-10 launches, Manley said. 

This would go against NASA protocol, which requires the agency to maintain a critical mass of astronauts on the ISS during the 'handover process,' or the overlap between a departing ISS crew's time on the space station and a new crew's arrival. 

This period allows the departing crew (in this case, Crew-9 and the Starliner crew) to share any lessons learned with the newly arrived crew (Crew-10) and support a better transition for ongoing science and maintenance at the complex, according to NASA.

The handover process helps operations on the ISS run smoothly, but it is not an absolute necessity. 

Should NASA opt to let the Crew-9 capsule leave the ISS before Crew-10 arrives, Russian Soyuz astronauts would be there to receive the Crew-10 astronauts. 

SpaceX's Crew-9 capsule launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in September. The capsule is currently docked on the ISS and ready to bring its crew plus Williams and Wilmore home by late March, unless NASA and SpaceX move its departure up

There are a couple ways SpaceX might do this, according to astrophysicist and science communicator Scott Manley.

One option is to launch Crew-10 earlier, which would also allow the Crew-9 capsule to bring Williams and Wilmore home earlier, he explained in a recent X post. 

This would require SpaceX to finish work on the spacecraft ahead of schedule, but the company has not said that it is on track to do so. 

Option two is to allow Crew-9 to return to Earth before Crew-10 launches, Manley said. 

This would go against NASA protocol, which requires the agency to maintain a critical mass of astronauts on the ISS during the 'handover process,' or the overlap between a departing ISS crew's time on the space station and a new crew's arrival. 

This period allows the departing crew (in this case, Crew-9 and the Starliner crew) to share any lessons learned with the newly arrived crew (Crew-10) and support a better transition for ongoing science and maintenance at the complex, according to NASA.

The handover process helps operations on the ISS run smoothly, but it is not an absolute necessity. 

Should NASA opt to let the Crew-9 capsule leave the ISS before Crew-10 arrives, Russian Soyuz astronauts would be there to receive the Crew-10 astronauts.

It's also possible that the timing of the Starliner crew's return will not change at all. 

When Musk stated he would bring the astronauts home 'as soon as possible,' he may actually have been referring to the current mission schedule, Manley said. 

What's more, it could be that 'Elon is trolling,' he added. In other words, these statements from Musk and Trump may be displays of political showmanship that do not actually promise any real changes to the rescue mission's timeline.

Neither SpaceX, NASA, nor the White House have made any official public  statements regarding a revised return date for Williams and Wilmore.

In an emailed statement, NASA told DailyMail.com: 'NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions.' 

SpaceX and the White House did not  immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.  

Despite the astronauts' dramatically extended stay on the ISS, NASA has repeatedly stated that they are not stranded. 

The agency has also emphasized that NASA astronauts always train for lengthy missions, and that medical experts have been closely monitoring the Starliner crew's health as they endure the harsh conditions aboard the ISS, including low-gravity, heightened radiation exposure and the psychological stress of confinement. 

If Williams and Wilmore do return home in late March as expected, their mission will have lasted two months longer than a standard long-term ISS mission, which typically lasts six months.

But they will not break astronaut Frank Rubio's record for the longest stretch of time spent on the ISS, which is 371 consecutive days. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-02-2025 om 01:10 geschreven door peter  

NASA says chances of 'city-destroying' asteroid hitting Earth have increased

• READ MORE: Study confirms asteroid Bennu contains building blocks of life

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The odds of a 'city-killer' asteroid smashing into the Earth on December 22, 2032 appear to have ticked up slightly.

NASA previously estimated that Asteroid 2024 YR4, a nearly 200-foot-wide space rock, has a one-in-83 chance (1.2 percent) of striking our planet.

But now, the agency's 'Sentry' Earth Impact Monitoring system reports a one-in-77 chance (1.3 percent) of a direct hit.

Astronomers have also calculated a predicted impact zone that stretches from South America across the Atlantic Ocean to sub-Saharan Africa.

The asteroid has the potential to cause significant damage, especially if it lands in a densely populated area like a major city due to it being the size of another space rock that hit Earth in 1908 with a blast equivalent to detonating 50 million tons of TNT.

Though estimates suggest a very small increase in the likelihood of impact, astronomer and professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Richard P Binzel told DailyMail.com that it is nothing to worry about. 

'The difference between 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent doesn't matter,' he said. 

'Until the data are sufficient to pinpoint which of these two final answers is correct, we can expect the probability numbers to wobble around a bit. This is simply how scientific data measurements play out,' he added. 

The current 'risk corridor,' or the geographical area where the 2024 YR4 is most likely to hit, runs from South America across the Atlantic Ocean to sub-Saharan Africa

Regardless, the odds of this asteroid impacting our planet are still very low.

Astronomers say it is much more likely to safely pass us by, coming within roughly 66,000 miles of Earth. 

Astronomers believe 2024 YR4 is roughly the same size as the Tunguska asteroid, which caused the most explosive impact in recorded history when it shot through Earth's atmosphere in 1908, reportedly killing three people.

It exploded in the air over Siberia in what's known as an 'air burst,' flattening an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles of forest.

If 2024 YR4 infiltrates Earth's atmosphere, it could cause a similar event, astronomers say. 

Alternatively, it could remain intact during the descent and slam into the ground, creating a massive crater and decimating human communities in the impact zone. 

Asteroid 2024 YR4 shot to the top of NASA's automated Sentry risk list that ranks known Near Earth Objects (NEOs) on how likely they are to collide with our planet. 

NEOs are asteroids and comets that orbit the sun and pass close to Earth. 

The recently found space rock, however, is currently the most threatening NEO astronomers are aware of, ranking as a three out of 10 on the Torino risk scale,  a tool for categorizing potential Earth impact events. 

It's a scale from zero to 10, with higher numbers indicating a greater risk of impact. 

Most NEOs never reach higher than two on the scale. 

Analysis of 2024 YR4's orbit indicates that the asteroid will come within 66,000 miles of Earth on December 22, 2032. But when orbital uncertainties are factored in, it turns out there is a 1.2 percent chance of it directly hitting out planet 

Asteroid 2024 YR4 is about the same size as the Tunguska asteroid, which caused the largest impact event in recorded history when it shot through Earth's atmosphere in 1908

The Tunguska asteroid exploded in the air over Siberia in what's known as an 'air burst,' and a blast equivalent to detonating 50 million tons of TNT that flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles. Experts say Asteroid 2024 YR4 could cause a similar event

While NASA and astronomers worldwide are keeping a close eye on the incoming asteroid, they are unable to predict how much damage it would cause. 

Experts will need to determined the asteroid's composition and true size before calculated its impact, which can only be done when it moves closer to our planet Rankin told Space.com. 

'Size and composition are big players in possible damage, along with impact location,' he said. 

'It's hard to constrain size and composition with the current orbital situation, as it's outbound,' or moving away from us, he added.

Experts still aren't 100 percent sure how much damage a direct hit from 2024 YR4 would cause (STOCK)

But best way to measure an asteroid's size is with radar observations, he added.

This technique reflects radio waves or microwaves off an asteroid's surface and then analyzes the reflections to calculate its size. 

Astronomers may have a chance to perform radar observations in 2028 when the asteroid passes within roughly five million miles of Earth, Rankin said. 

Until then, astronomers must rely on the asteroid's absolute magnitude, or brightness, to indirectly estimate its size.

This calculation gives them a rough diameter of 196 feet, but this estimate assumes that the asteroid's surface has a certain level of reflectivity that may not be accurate. 

'If the asteroid has a darker surface, that number is too small; if it has a more reflective surface, that number is too high,' Rankin said.

Asteroid reflectivity depends on its composition, which also plays an important role in how space rocks behave once they penetrate Earth's atmosphere.  

'If [asteroid 2024 YR4] is made of stony material, it could cause a significant air burst and fireball reaching the ground,' Rankin said. 

'If made of iron, it will punch right through the atmosphere with little trouble and make an impact crater. This is why understanding not just the orbit but also the composition and size are so critical.'

Due to these risk scenarios, astronomers will closely study and monitor 2024 YR4 in the years leading up to its approach. 

But 'people should absolutely not worry about this yet,' Rankin said. 

'Impact probability is still very low, and the most likely outcome will be a close approaching rock that misses us,' he said.

Now that 2024 YR4 has been identified as a potential — but unlikely — threat, the race to learn as much about it as possible before 2032 is on. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-02-2025 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Discover Vast Traces of Life Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface

The study shows that microbial life deep in Earth’s crust is far more diverse than previously thought, rivaling or even surpassing surface ecosystems in some cases.

An illustration of the interior of the Earth.

Credit: Shutterstock

“It’s commonly assumed that the deeper you go, the less energy is available, and the fewer cells can survive,” said Emil Ruff, a microbial ecologist at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and lead author of the study. “But our research demonstrates that in some subsurface environments, diversity can match or exceed that of the surface.”

The researchers identified a universal ecological principle showing that subsurface microbial ecosystems are not anomalies but a significant and thriving part of Earth’s biosphere.

The Global Collaboration Behind the Discovery

This breakthrough is the result of an eight-year international effort that analyzed over 1,400 datasets from microbial ecosystems worldwide. A lack of standardization in microbial DNA data had long hindered global comparisons, but that changed with a project led by molecular biologist Mitchell Sogin of the Bay Paul Center.

Sogin and his team worked to harmonize data collection and analysis techniques, enabling researchers to compare microbial samples from diverse environments, such as caves in Utah and subsurface layers in Spain. This collaborative approach revealed striking similarities in microbial diversity across vastly different regions.

Kimberlites are complex rocks that came to the Earth's surface from great depths. The picture shows a thin section of a carbonate-?rich kimberlite.

(Photograph: David Swart / Messengers of the Mantle Exhibition)

The study not only highlights the resilience of life on Earth but also provides a template for exploring life in extreme environments elsewhere in the solar system.

The discovery of microbial ecosystems thriving under extreme conditions has profound implications beyond Earth. These microbes rely on chemical energy rather than sunlight, making them analogous to potential life forms that might exist in subsurface environments on Mars or the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

This research serves as a reminder of the untapped potential within Earth’s hidden ecosystems and reinforces the importance of international collaboration in uncovering the planet’s secret

{ https://curiosmos.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

“RESILIENCE knows what it means to be alone in the vastness of space. Looking back at Earth on Jan. 25, 2025, the lander was about 10,000km from our Blue Marble, poignantly capturing Point Nemo, the most remote place on our planet, about 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land.”

The most well-known picture of our Blue Marble came from astronauts on Apollo 17 in 1972. It appeared during a boom in environmental activism and helped people around the world understand the planet they live on and consider its future and our impact on it.

The second most well-known image of Earth is probably Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot image. Voyager 1 captured that image in 1990 on its way to the outer Solar System. The spacecraft captured the image from 6 billion km away when it passed Saturn. Carl Sagan proposed the idea not for scientific reasons but to drive home the idea that humanity’s home was just a tiny dot in the dark.

It seems de rigueur now for space missions to turn around and capture an image of Earth on their way to their destinations.

OSIRIS REx did it.

So did Artemis 1’s Orion spacecraft.

So have Lucy and many others. Now, they’re as common as pictures of their homes that young people take as they leave for college.

Yet, we don’t seem to ever tire of them. For some reason.

Maybe it’s because we’re accustomed to looking at maps with borders and labels on them, emphasizing how we see our planet through a political and historical lens. In those images, the context is human.

"The RESILIENCE lander remains in excellent health as it continues to orbit Earth in its planned trajectory towards the Moon!" ispace updated about its lander's health as it shared the visual.

But images of Earth from space have none of that. They show the true context of our planet. It’s a brilliant blue sphere, rippling with life, delicate and precious. It’s at the mercy of greater events that go on elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond, events beyond our control.

The people at ispace might not have intended their image to trigger this type of thinking. But regardless, this image takes its place in a long lineage of images of Earth captured by our departing spacecraft.

Hopefully, that lineage will continue for a long time.

ALSO SEE: 

• Moon Lander Captures Eye-Watering Views Of Earth During Lunar Journey; Watch

 { https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

The research was conducted by Cole Nypaver and Thomas R. Watters, a postdoctoral student and Senior Geologist with the NASM’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian Institute. They were joined by Jackie Clark, an Assistant Research Scientist with UMD’s Department of Geology. The paper detailing their findings, “Recent Tectonic Deformation of the Lunar Farside Mare and South Pole–Aitken Basin,” recently appeared in the Planetary Science Journal.

Based on previous research, scientists have determined that the Moon once had a magnetic field. Like Earth’s, this field was powered by a dynamo in the Moon’s interior caused by a liquid outer core (surrounding a solid inner core) that rotated opposite to its axial rotation. However, crystallization began in the Moon’s core about 4 billion years ago, causing this dynamo to disappear between 2.5 and 1 billion years ago. This led to the disappearance of its magnetosphere and volcanic activity, ceasing about 3 billion years ago. As Clark summarized in a recent UMD press release:

“Many scientists believe that most of the Moon’s geological movements happened two and a half, maybe three billion years ago. But we’re seeing that these tectonic landforms have been recently active in the last billion years and may still be active today. These small mare ridges seem to have formed within the last 200 million years or so, which is relatively recent considering the moon’s timescale.”

Using advanced mapping and modeling, Nypang, Watters, and Clark found 266 previously unknown small ridges on the Moon’s far side. These were largely arranged in groups of 10 to 40 ridges that likely formed in narrow areas 3.2 to 3.6 billion years ago where underlying weaknesses in the lunar crust may have existed. Based on a technique known as “crater counting,” the team found that these ridges were notably younger than other features in their surroundings.

“Essentially, the more craters a surface has, the older it is; the surface has more time to accumulate more craters,” said Clark. “After counting the craters around these small ridges and seeing that some of the ridges cut through existing impact craters, we believe these landforms were tectonically active in the last 160 million years.”

The team also noted that the ridges observed on the far side of the Moon were similar in structure to ones found on the near side. This suggests both were created by the same forces, possibly by shallow moonquakes first detected by the Apollo missions. Scientists have since deduced that these are caused by a combination of shifts in the Moon’s orbit and its gradual shrinking – which explains why the Moon still experiences landslides. Understanding the factors that shape the lunar surface is of immense importance to future lunar missions.

As Clark indicated, this presents opportunities for further studies of lunar evolution:

“We hope that future missions to the moon will include tools like ground penetrating radar so researchers can better understand the structures beneath the lunar surface. Knowing that the moon is still geologically dynamic has very real implications for where we’re planning to put our astronauts, equipment and infrastructure on the moon.”

Further Reading: 

• University of Maryland, 
• The Planetary Science Journal

 { https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 18:06 geschreven door peter  

Currently, 2024 YR4 has a 3 on the scale, which means it “merits attention by astronomers.” It is currently the only object with a number other than 0 on the Torino Scale, and it means a couple of things come into play. The first is that the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) will work to pin down the orbit of the asteroid. Chaired by NASA, the IAWN coordinates with observatories around the world to make detailed observations of 2024 YR4. It will take time to gather enough data. But what will likely happen is that they will determine there is no risk of collision, and 2024 YR4 will be demoted to 0 on the scale.

The second thing initiated is the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), chaired by the European Space Agency. They have a scheduled meeting next week when there will be some initial discussions about a possible mission to 2024 YR4 to shift its orbit. If we do find there is a real risk of impact, this group would ramp up quickly. But again, this isn’t likely.

Statistically, asteroids the size of 2024 YR4 strike Earth every couple thousand years or so. This is why astronomers track these objects and are constantly looking for more. So even though the odds of an impact are never zero, with planning and preparation we should be able to ensure that any real risk can be mitigated.

Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 observed with the VLT

This is a sequence of observations of the Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 carried out with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in January 2025, shortly after it was discovered in December 2024. The asteroid is the faint source moving diagonally against the background of fixed stars. Follow-up observations such as this one have found that, as of 29 January 2025, it has an almost 99% chance of safely passing Earth on 22 Dec 2032, but a possible impact cannot yet be entirely ruled out.

Credit:

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

01-02-2025 om 17:54 geschreven door peter  

EXCLUSIVE - Tim Peake reveals what life is REALLY like for NASA's astronauts stuck in space - and warns dirty laundry and cramped conditions are the least of their concerns

• READ MORE: Trump asks Musk to 'go get' the two stranded NASA astronauts

By WILIAM HUNTER

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were only meant to visit space for an eight-day round trip.

That brief excursion has stretched into a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that is now likely to last 10 months.

While many of us back on Earth might be sympathetic to their situation, there are very few people who really know what they are going through.

However, one person who knows exactly what Williams and Wilmore are feeling is Tim Peake, Britain's first astronaut to live on the ISS.

After arriving on the ISS in December 2015, Peake spent more than six months living in the same conditions as NASA's stranded astronauts.

According to Peake, Williams and Wilmore will be more than ready to come back to Earth, having now spent seven months aboard the station.

Speaking exclusively with MailOnline, Peake says: 'They'll be loving their time in space, but it's a long time to spend up there.

'They'll probably be looking forward to coming home.'

Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) have now been stranded on the International Space Station for seven months, after planning to stay for just eight days 

Tim Peake, Britain's first astronaut to live on the ISS, says that Williams and Wilmore will now be 'looking forward to coming home'

Wilmore and Williams first landed at the ISS on June 5 last year aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

The plan was to launch the experimental capsule into space, perform some routine tests, and briefly dock with the station before returning to Earth.

However, issues almost immediately arose after Starliner experienced a series of helium leaks and engine failures.

By the time the capsule arrived at the station, it had sprung more helium leaks and five of its 28 thrusters had failed.

After weeks of tests, NASA ultimately decided that Starliner wasn't safe enough to carry humans back to Earth.

In September, the doomed spacecraft was sent back empty leaving Williams and Wilmore stranded aboard the ISS until a replacement crew could be sent to relieve them.

NASA was so confident that the pair would be home in a week that they were not even packed a spare change of clothes.

Although the ISS has an area of 520 metres squared (5,600 square feet) the seven astronauts share their space with laboratories, gyms, docking and cargo bays, and toilets.

After arriving on the Boeing Starliner capsule in June last year, a series of technical issues meant that the NASA astronauts were unable to return home on the same spacecraft

With only four phone booth-sized 'sleep stations' in the Harmony Module, the remaining astronauts have to sleep tethered to the walls wherever they can find space.

And with mandatory exercise, no showers, and fewer changes of clothes, life aboard the station can often be hot, smelly, and uncomfortable. 

However, Peake says that the dirty laundry and cramped conditions will not be the worst thing about life aboard the station.

Peake says: 'The things I missed most while I was in space were fresh air and nature.

'I love the outdoors and getting out into nature. I love going hiking and climbing; so that was very hard.'

With the ISS whizzing around the planet 16 times a day, astronauts are treated to a near-constant reminder of what they are missing out on.

'On the ISS I would look down and see this beautiful blue planet beneath me,' says Tim.

'I'm sure they'll be looking forward to coming back to Earth.'

Tim 

Peake (pictured during a spacewalk) told MailOnline that the things he missed most on the ISS were 'fresh air and nature' 

The only time Suni Williams (pictured) has stepped outside the station since her arrival was for a six-hour spacewalk earlier this month 

Despite all the difficulties of being in space, Peake maintains that Williams and Wilmore won't be feeling hard done by.

He says: 'I don't think they'll be regretting a single moment that they've had in space.'

Peake adds that the pair will be keeping busy 'mucking in' as part of the regular ISS crew, taking part in scientific work, maintenance, and even spacewalks.

After their arrival, Williams and Wilmore were rolled into the ISS Expedition 72 crew with Williams taking the role of commander and Wilmore stepping in as flight engineer.

That means the stranded pair's time in space will be far from a relaxing holiday.

ISS expedition members are expected to work 16-hour days starting at 6:00 am GMT which include two hours of mandatory exercise.

The gruelling realities of working out in space are something Peake is intimately familiar with, having run the London Marathon remotely from the ISS's treadmill.

Just as Peake did during his stay on the ISS, Williams and Wilmore will also be undertaking daring spacewalks to work on the outside of the station.

Tim Peake says that Williams (left) and Wilmore (right) will be 'mucking in' as part of the regular ISS crew. That means conducting scientific work, making repairs to the station, and carrying out mandatory exercise

While Tim Peake says that the pair of stranded astronauts will not regret having gone to space, he adds that seven months is a long time to spend away from friends and family 

Earlier this month, Williams was joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague on a six-hour spacewalk to conduct repair work on the outside of the station.

Today, Williams and Wilmore will step outside of the space station together for the first time since their arrival.

The duo will spend about six and a half hours in the vacuum of space making repairs and collecting samples to see if bacteria are growing on the exterior of the ISS.

During his own expedition in 2016, Peake became the first British spacewalker when he made a four-hour and 43-minute spacewalk to make critical repairs to a failed power regulator.

Contrary to some claims, Williams and Wilmore are not strictly trapped aboard the ISS.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled to take them home has been docked with the ISS since September and could leave at any moment should an emergency arise.

However, before the pair leave, a relief crew needs to arrive on the ISS to take over the day-to-day operation of the station.

Under the original plans, that crew was supposed to arrive in February, but that mission has now been pushed back.

Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule (pictured) in March or April. Their return has been delayed while SpaceX prepares its next spacecraft

Musk vowed in a post to retrieve Butch Wilmore, 62, and Sunita Williams, 59, 'as soon as possible'. However, it is not clear how it would be possible to conduct the rescue mission any earlier than planned

NASA has revealed that the new SpaceX capsule isn't going to be ready in time to hit that deadline.

The capsule isn't expected to arrive at the SpaceX facility in Florida until early January and will still need more than a month of testing before it is ready.

NASA is now targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch the rescue crew, meaning Williams and Wilmore might not get back to Earth until April.

This week Donald Trump claimed he had asked Elon Musk to 'go get' the pair of astronauts.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: 'I have just asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to "go get" the two brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned by the Biden administration.

'Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe,' the president said.

In a post on X, Musk wrote: 'Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.'

However, given that the SpaceX craft is not ready for flight it isn't clear how Musk plans to bring Williams and Wilmore home any sooner than planned.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

31-01-2025 om 17:49 geschreven door peter  

Strange Signal Coming From Dead Galaxy, Scientists Say

This makes no sense.

Getty / Futurism

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

31-01-2025 om 16:13 geschreven door peter  

Astronomen zijn continu het heelal af aan het speuren op zoek naar verre werelden en andere interessante ruimte-objecten, maar het is zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. Australische wetenschappers hebben nu een nieuwe technologie ontwikkeld die mysterieuze hemellichamen opspoort door inkomende radiosignalen op bijzondere wijze te filteren. Deze innovatieve aanpak heeft in korte tijd al een aantal verrassende resultaten opgeleverd.

Astronomen en ingenieurs van CSIRO, het nationale wetenschappelijke agentschap van Australië, hebben hun krachten gebundeld en CRACO (CRAFT COherent detector) ontwikkeld. CRACO bestaat uit een cluster van computers en processoren die verbonden zijn met de ASKAP-telescoop, gelegen in het gebied van de Wajarri Yamaji-gemeenschap in West-Australië. Dit geavanceerde systeem is ontworpen om vliegensvlug raadselachtige verschijnselen, zoals fast radio bursts (FRB’s), op te sporen.

FRB’s en neutronensterren

De technologie is nu voor het eerst getest en een nieuwe studie laat zien dat CRACO al een aantal bijzondere ontdekkingen heeft gedaan: er zijn twee FRB’s geïdentificeerd, maar ook twee neutronensterren die met tussenpozen actief zijn, en het is gelukt om de locatiegegevens van vier pulsars sterk te verbeteren. Sindsdien zijn met het systeem nog eens meer dan twintig FRB’s opgespoord.

Hoofdonderzoeker Andy Wang van ICRAR maakt duidelijk dat de resultaten veel spectaculairder zijn dan het team ooit had kunnen denken. “Ons doel was om fast radio bursts te vinden, een mysterieus fenomeen, waaromheen een geheel nieuw onderzoeksgebied binnen de astronomie is ontstaan”, legt een enthousiaste Dr. Wang uit. “Met CRACO kunnen we deze flitsen beter detecteren dan ooit tevoren. Momenteel zoeken we naar signalen met een snelheid van 100 flitsen per seconde, en in de toekomst verwachten we dit te verhogen naar 1000 flitsen per seconde.”

Een kosmische zandzeef

CSIRO-astronoom Dr. Keith Bannister vergelijkt de schaal waarop CRACO waarnemingen doet met het zoeken naar een speld in een hooiberg. “CRACO benut ASKAP’s liveweergave van het heelal om FRB’s op te sporen. Het systeem verwerkt hierbij gigantische hoeveelheden data – zo’n 100 miljard pixels per seconde – om bursts te detecteren en hun locatie te bepalen”, legt Bannister uit. “Het is alsof je een heel strand afzoekt naar een muntje van vijf cent, en dat elke minuut opnieuw.”

Volgens Dr. Wang belooft CRACO een revolutie teweeg te brengen in de internationale astronomie, zodra het systeem op volle capaciteit werkt. De technologie is ontworpen om de triljoenen pixels die de telescoop ontvangt, te analyseren op zoek naar afwijkingen. Zodra iets ongewoons wordt gespot, geeft CRACO de wetenschappers direct een seintje, zodat zij snel extra gegevens kunnen verzamelen en de vondst verder kunnen analyseren.

Indrukwekkende technologie

Het onderzoeksteam zit niet stil: CRACO’s mogelijkheden worden continu uitgebreid om nog exotischere verschijnselen te detecteren. “Naast fast radio bursts van buiten ons sterrenstelsel detecteren we nu ook zogenaamde ‘langzame transiënten’. Dit zijn kortdurende hemelverschijnselen die door mysterieuze objecten binnen onze Melkweg worden veroorzaakt. Beide fenomenen zijn in Australië ontdekt, en het is geweldig dat we met deze indrukwekkende technologie verder kunnen gaan. Er liggen ongetwijfeld nog een aantal fantastische ontdekkingen in het verschiet”, zegt Wang.

Mysterieuze signalen uit het universum: fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRB’s) zijn korte, intense uitbarstingen van radiostraling die afkomstig zijn van onbekende bronnen in het universum. Ze duren slechts enkele milliseconden, maar in die korte tijd kunnen ze evenveel energie uitstralen als de zon in een heel jaar. Sinds hun ontdekking in 2007 blijven FRB’s astronomen fascineren. Veel FRB’s lijken eenmalig te zijn, maar sommige vertonen een repeterend patroon. Het is onduidelijk waar FRB’s vandaan komen. Mogelijke verklaringen zijn magnetars (extreem krachtige neutronensterren), gammaflitsen en botsingen tussen massieve objecten, zoals zwarte gaten of neutronensterren. Ook exotischere theorieën, zoals signalen van buitenaardse technologie, worden geopperd.

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

31-01-2025 om 12:43 geschreven door peter  

'City-killer' asteroid has a 1-in-83 chance of smashing into Earth in 2032, NASA says

Although the asteroid is currently moving away from us, Earth will have several close shaves with the space rock in the next half century. Its next sideswipe will occur in late 2028, followed by six more close approaches between 2032 and 2074. Of these, the one with the highest chance of impact will be on Dec. 22, 2032, according to NASA.

All of these factors place 2024 YR4 at Level 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, the system scientists use to determine an asteroid's threat level. For objects at this level, "attention by public and by public officials is merited if the encounter is less than a decade away." However, most asteroids in this category are eventually downgraded to Level 0, which means "the likelihood of a collision is zero, or is so low as to be effectively zero."

Threats like this are the reason NASA and other space agencies are interested in developing techniques to redirect asteroids, as demonstrated by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission. The chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact are usually very low, so it is crucial to continue monitoring objects of interest, astronomers say. Even though 2024 YR4 probably won't trigger a mass extinction like the dino-killing space rock that slammed into what is now Mexico 66 million years ago, astronomers will keep a close eye on the asteroid as it circles back toward our planet.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

Their results represent the first in-depth analyses of the minerals and molecules in the Bennu samples. Among the most compelling detections (reported in the Nature Astronomy paper) were 14 of the 20 amino acids life on Earth uses to make up protein cells. They also detected five nucleobases vital to DNA and RNA, which most complex lifeforms on Earth use to store and transmit genetic instructions, including how to arrange amino acids into proteins. As Associate Administrator Nicky Fox of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters explained in a NASA press release:

“NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission already is rewriting the textbook on what we understand about the beginnings of our solar system. Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu’s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth.”

The teams also reported exceptionally high abundances of ammonia in the Bennu samples and formaldehyde. Ammonia is an important component in biology since it can react with formaldehyde to form complex molecules like amino acids. These building blocks have previously been detected in other rocky bodies, including meteorites retrieved on Earth. However, the way OSIRIS-REx found them in pristine condition on an asteroid supports the theory that objects that formed far from the Sun could have delivered the raw material for life throughout the Solar System. Said Glavin:

“The clues we’re looking for are so minuscule and so easily destroyed or altered from exposure to Earth’s environment. That’s why some of these new discoveries would not be possible without a sample-return mission, meticulous contamination-control measures, and careful curation and storage of this precious material from Bennu.”

Glavin and Dworkin’s team analyzed the Bennu samples for hints of compounds related to life on Earth. Meanwhile, Tim McCoy and Sara Russell, the curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington and a cosmic mineralogist at the Natural History Museum in London (respectively), looked for evidence of where these molecules formed. As they reported in the study appearing in Nature, they discovered hints that they came from an ancient prebiotic environment.

These included traces of 11 minerals ranging from calcite to halite and sylvite, compounds that form from salts dissolved in water that become solid crystals (brines) once the water dissolves. Evidence of similar brines have been detected on Ceres, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and other bodies in the Solar System. While scientists have also detected brines in meteorites that fell to Earth, they have never seen a complete set created by an evaporation process that could have lasted thousands of years or more. Moreover, some minerals found in Bennu have never been detected in other extraterrestrial samples.

Another analysis was carried out by members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team, including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Hokkaido University, Keio University, Kyushu University, and Tohoku University. Together, they analyzed a 17.75 mg sample using high-resolution mass spectrometry for organic molecules with a ring structure containing carbon and nitrogen (N-heterocycles). This revealed a concentration of N-heterocycles 5-10 times higher than that reported from the sample taken from Ryugu (~5 nmol/g) by the Hayabusa2 mission.

In addition to the five nitrogenous bases, their analysis showed evidence of the purines xanthine, hypoxanthine, and nicotinic acid (vitamin B₃). “In previous research, uracil and nicotinic acid were detected in the samples from asteroid Ryugu, but the other four nucleobases were absent,” said team member Dr. Toshiki Koga of JAMSTEC. “The difference in abundance and complexity of N-heterocycles between Bennu and Ryugu could reflect the differences in the environment to which these asteroids have been exposed in space.”

While these findings have provided compelling evidence of where the building blocks of life on Earth came from, several unanswered questions remain. For starters, amino acids can be created in “mirror-image” versions, similar to how complex lifeforms have a left and right side – hands, feet, brains, lungs, heat chambers, etc. While life on Earth almost exclusively exhibits the left variety, the Bennu samples contain an equal mixture of both. This could mean amino acids started in equal mixtures on Earth billions of years ago but made a left turn along the way.

This is not unlike theories regarding matter and antimatter in the early Universe and how “normal” matter came to be predominant. In any case, these findings are a key piece in the ongoing study of how and where life may have emerged in the Solar System. “OSIRIS-REx has been a highly successful mission,” said Dworkin. “Data from OSIRIS-REx adds major brushstrokes to a picture of a solar system teeming with the potential for life. Why we, so far, only see life on Earth and not elsewhere, that’s the truly tantalizing question.”

Further Reading: 

• NASA, 
• Hokkaido University, 

• Nature Astronomy

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:26 geschreven door peter  

Trips to other worlds have been the stuff of science fiction for more than a century — going back to Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” and continuing today with shows like “For All Mankind.” But most of those tales are told from the perspective of intrepid explorers who have to deal with life-threatening dramas.

In contrast, most of the stories in “Daydreaming in the Solar System” have to do with space travelers having fun, or handling the day-to-day challenges of living in an otherworldly locale.

“Often you’re visiting a place for the very first time, and of course it’s an amazing, awe-inspiring place, but you’re also very concerned about not dying,” Moores said. “So, we wanted to take that away — that bit of danger — so that people dive into the environment. Everywhere we went, we needed the right combination of an interesting activity, an interesting environment.”

Moores and Rogerson also use a second-person perspective. You’re the one riding a submarine through the hidden seas of Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. You’re the one spelunking on Hyperion, a spongy Saturnian moon that appears to contain 40% empty space.

The end of each chapter takes a deeper dive into the peculiarities of each extraterrestrial environment. For example, riding a balloon around Venus makes sense because the surroundings at an altitude of 30 to 40 miles are similar to Earth’s when it comes to temperature and atmospheric pressure. In contrast, the surface of Venus is hellishly hot.

Ballooning on Venus is much more than a daydream. More than a decade ago, NASA engineers came up with a concept that called for sending habitable airships into the Venusian atmosphere. More recently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been looking into a mission that would use robotic balloons to study the clouds of Venus.

Similarly, the idea of sending mini-subs through Europa’s subsurface ocean is being considered as a follow-up to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. A robotic submarine has also been proposed for exploring Titan’s hydrocarbon seas — although NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, which relies on a rotorcraft, will be taking precedence.

The authors don’t shy away from the important issues: In one chapter, they describe in depth how to brew a delicious cup of coffee on Titan — and then explain why you could conceivably put on a pair of mechanical wings and flap your way through the Saturnian moon’s dense atmosphere after your morning cup of joe.

Will humans ever be able to experience the adventures described in the book? “I hope so,” Moores says.

“One thing that our publisher pointed out when we submitted our final manuscript, which wasn’t actually intentional, was that they felt that the book was actually very optimistic and very hopeful — just the framing of it, that you could imagine the future in a way that actually allows these things to happen,” he says. “So many other works are a little bit apocalyptic right now.”

• My co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an award-winning writer who is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and lives in San Francisco. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website, DominicaPhetteplace.com.

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Adventures of an interplanetary architect | Xavier De Kestelier

5 Fascinating Missions in Space | Planet Explorers: Full Series | BBC Earth Science

Adventures of an interplanetary architect | Xavier De Kestelier

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 21:11 geschreven door peter  

The warming ground sublimates frozen CO2 into vapour that accumulates under the solid CO2. Eventually, the gas escapes through weak spots in the ice. It can erupt into geysers that spread darker material out onto the frozen surface.

The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of these geysers on Mars in October 2018. It has also captured other images of Martian CO2 geysers.

Some of Mars’ CO2 geysers erupt and create dark spots as large as 1 km across. They are fueled by considerable power and can erupt at speeds up to 160 km/h.

Sometimes the eruptions create dark regions under the ice which look like spiders.

Scientists are calling these features araneiform terrain or spider terrain. They are found in clusters that give the surface a wrinkled appearance. NASA scientists recreated these patterns in lab tests to understand the processes behind their formation. “The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,” said Lauren McKeown of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The process that explains how the CO2 cycle creates these features is called the Keiffer model. Hugh Keiffer was with the US Geological Survey when he and his colleagues published a paper explaining the model in 2006 in Nature titled “CO2 jets formed by sublimation beneath translucent slab ice in Mars’ seasonal south polar ice cap.”

“We propose that the seasonal ice cap forms an impermeable, translucent slab of CO2 ice that sublimates from the base, building up high-pressure gas beneath the slab. This gas levitates the ice, which eventually ruptures, producing high-velocity CO2 vents that erupt sand-sized grains in jets to form the spots and erode the channels,” Keiffer and his co-authors wrote in their paper.

Maybe humans are biased, but there’s nothing as beautiful and splendorous as Earth. Generations of poets have acclaimed its beauty to the point where it borders on the spiritual. However, when it comes to CO2 geysers and the natural patterns they create, Mars has something that Earth doesn’t.

“These processes are unlike any observed on Earth,” the authors of the 2006 paper stated.

Source: 

• Geyser Season on Mars

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-01-2025 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

ESA houdt de onlangs ontdekte ruimterots nauwlettend in de gaten.

Astronomen hebben een nieuwe ruimterots ontdekt die mogelijk op ramkoers ligt met de aarde. Deze planetoïde, 2024 YR4 genoemd, heeft een diameter van 40 tot 100 meter – groot genoeg om flink wat schade aan te richten als hij zou inslaan.

2032
2024 YR4 werd op 27 december 2024 door de ATLAS-telescoop aan het licht gebracht. Vlak na de ontdekking berekenden slimme waarschuwingssystemen dat de planetoïde, hoewel de kans miniem is, op 22 december 2032 de aarde zou kunnen raken.

Grootte
2024 YR4 heeft zoals gezegd een diameter van meer dan 50 meter. Ter vergelijking: een passagiersvliegtuig zoals een Boeing 747 is ongeveer 70 meter lang. Planetoïden van deze grootte slaan gemiddeld eens in de paar duizend jaar in op de aarde. Mocht 2024 YR4 inderdaad inslaan, dan zou dit niet per se catastrofale gevolgen hebben. Wel zal het ernstige schade kunnen aanrichten als hij bijvoorbeeld dicht bij een grote stad of dichtbevolkt gebied landt. Op dit moment is het nog te vroeg om te bepalen waar op aarde een eventuele inslag zou kunnen plaatsvinden.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 Is Level 3 On The Torino Scale, With A Very Close ...

Gevaarlijke planetoïde
Door dit risico staat de ruimterots nu bovenaan ESA’s lijst van gevaarlijke planetoïden. Sinds begin januari hebben astronomen prioriteit gegeven aan vervolgwaarnemingen met telescopen over de hele wereld. Wat we nu over de planetoïde weten, is dat zijn baan rond de zon ellipsvormig (excentrisch) is. Op dit moment beweegt de planetoïde zich bijna in een rechte lijn van de aarde weg, waardoor het moeilijk is om zijn exacte baan te bepalen. Nieuwe gegevens zullen echter helpen om de grootte en koers van de planetoïde nog nauwkeuriger in kaart te brengen.

Hoe wordt de baan van aardscheerders berekend?
De baan van planetoïden wordt berekend door het elliptische pad rond de zon te bepalen dat het beste past bij de beschikbare waarnemingen. Dat wil zeggen, het berekende pad van het object rond de zon wordt aangepast totdat de voorspellingen van waar de planetoïde op verschillende waargenomen tijdstippen aan de hemel had moeten verschijnen, overeenkomen met de posities waar het object daadwerkelijk op diezelfde tijdstippen werd gezien. Naarmate het aantal waarnemingen toeneemt, kan ook de exacte baan van de ruimtesteen verbeterd worden. Op die manier krijgen astronomen een goed beeld van waar het object zich in de toekomst zal bevinden.

Toch is er geen reden om in paniek te raken. ESA schat de kans dat 2024 YR4 op 22 december 2032 de aarde zal raken, namelijk op slechts 1,2 procent. Omdat de kans op inslag binnen de komende vijftig jaar meer dan 1 procent is, wordt de planetoïde nauwlettend in de gaten gehouden. Op dit moment heeft geen enkele andere grote planetoïde een inslagkans van meer dan 1 procent. Maar vergeet niet: er is ook een 99 procent kans dat 2024 YR4 ons voorbij zal schieten.

Risico neemt eerst toe, dan weer af
Toch kan een mogelijke inslag niet volledig worden uitgesloten. Daarom staat planetoïde 2024 YR4 op dit moment op niveau 3 van de Schaal van Torino: een nauwe passage die de aandacht van zowel astronomen als het publiek trekt. Het is goed om te weten dat de kans op inslag vaak eerst toeneemt, maar naarmate er meer waarnemingen zijn, meestal snel weer naar nul daalt. In het verleden zijn er meerdere objecten met een vergelijkbare beoordeling geweest die uiteindelijk van de lijst verdwenen naarmate er meer gegevens binnendruppelden. Wil je weten waarom? Bekijk dan de onderstaande video.

Bombardement uit de ruimte
Overigens is het niet heel zeldzaam dat onze aarde wordt geraakt door stof en gesteente vanuit de ruimte. Elke dag wordt de aarde gebombardeerd met meer dan 100 ton stof en deeltjes ter grootte van zandkorrels. Ongeveer één keer per jaar raakt een planetoïde ter grootte van een auto de aardse atmosfeer. Dit heeft weinig gevolgen, behalve dat ze als oplichtende vuurbollen kunnen worden gezien terwijl ze in onze atmosfeer opbranden. Elke 2000 jaar treft een steen ter grootte van een voetbalveld de aarde, wat wel aanzienlijke schade kan aanrichten. Slechts eens in de paar miljoen jaar komt er een object langs dat groot genoeg is om al het leven op aarde om te leggen (denk aan de planetoïde die een einde maakte aan het dino-tijdperk). Inslagkraters op de aarde, de maan en andere planetaire lichamen zijn hiervoor het bewijs.

Risicolijst
De komende maanden zal 2024 YR4 steeds moeilijker zichtbaar zijn vanaf de aarde. In die tijd zal ESA de waarnemingen blijven coördineren met steeds krachtigere telescopen. Uiteindelijk wordt ook de beroemde Very Large Telescope van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht in Chili ingezet om zoveel mogelijk gegevens te verzamelen. Het is overigens ook mogelijk 2024 YR4 uit het zicht verdwijnt voordat we een inslag in 2032 volledig kunnen uitsluiten. Als dat gebeurt, zal de planetoïde waarschijnlijk op ESA’s risicolijstje blijven staan totdat hij in 2028 weer te zien is.

Hoewel het nog steeds uiterst onwaarschijnlijk is dat 2024 YR4 over zo’n zo’n zeven jaar op aarde neerstort, hebben we gelukkig een plan klaarliggen voor het geval het ergste scenario werkelijkheid zou worden. Zo bewees de DART-missie namelijk dat we in staat zijn de baan van een ruimterots te veranderen. Dit betekent dat we de koers van een gevaarlijke aardscheerder kunnen afbuigen, waardoor we de aarde kunnen beschermen. En dat is toch een geruststellende gedachte!

Bronmateriaal

• "ESA actively monitoring near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4" - ESA
  
• "NASA Shares Observations of Recently-Identified Near Earth Asteroid" - NASA

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

30-01-2025 om 20:21 geschreven door peter  

Scientists uncover the 'strongest evidence yet' for aliens: Breakthrough study confirms asteroid Bennu contains the building blocks of life

• READ MORE: Scientists come up with a way to save Earth from asteroid collision

By XANTHA LEATHAM DEPUTY SCIENCE EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Experts have unearthed the 'strongest evidence yet' for aliens on other planets after pieces of an asteroid were found to contain the building blocks of life.

In 2020, a NASA spacecraft collected a sample from an asteroid called Bennu as part of a nail-biting mission that took place more than 200 million miles away.

Once it had returned to Earth samples of the dust were sent to laboratories around the world, including in the UK, to be studied by scientists.

Now, analysis has revealed that traces of ancient brine within the sample contain minerals crucial to life and which kicked off the chemical processes that led to a lush and fertile Earth.

And experts say this is the 'strongest evidence yet' that the building blocks for life as we know it are spread across the solar system – and have been there for billions of years.

The discovery has been published across two papers – one which indicates Bennu was part of a long-lost wet, salty world which originated at the dawn of the solar system, and another which reveals a 'suite' of organic materials that were detected in the sample.

Among them are all five nitrogenous bases - molecules required for building DNA and RNA - and amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.

Professor Sara Russell, from the Natural History Museum, was one of the scientists studying the 'dust'.

Experts have unearthed the 'strongest evidence yet' for aliens on other planets after pieces of an asteroid were found to contain the building blocks of life

In 2020, a NASA spacecraft collected a sample from an asteroid called Bennu as part of a nail-biting mission that took place more than 200 million miles away. Once it had returned to Earth samples of the dust were sent to laboratories around the world, including in the UK, to be studied by scientists

Analysis has revealed that traces of ancient brine within the sample contain minerals crucial to life and which kicked off the chemical processes that led to a lush and fertile Earth

She said: 'One of the interesting things we found in there was a whole range of salts. That includes sodium chloride, which is what we put on our chips, and loads of other salts like phosphates and carbonates.

'We think these actually formed a briny, salty water that may have been underground in the asteroid.

'This sort of salty fluid would be a perfect place to make organic molecules. And in the early solar system there would have been millions of asteroids like Bennu, so it could have been really important for "seeding" the Earth and other planets with all these ingredients they can use for life.'

She said although there isn't any evidence for life elsewhere in the solar system yet, 'now we know there were there were all of these ingredients around'.

'I imagine that whatever rained down on Earth would have also rained down on Mars and on the moons of the giant planets, and they might have been really great environments for life to begin,' she added.

'I think it's likely that the fact we've found these things in abundance means that life may have begun elsewhere.

'This is really strong evidence that these building blocks for life were widespread throughout our solar system.'

The two new studies, which appear in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy, are among the first published analyses of the Bennu samples.

Scanning electron microscope images of trona found in samples of the asteroid Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission

Earth-originating examples of minerals found in Bennu samples. Foreground, left to right: calcite, gaylussite, sylvite with halite, villiaumite

Some of these crucial 'building blocks' have not been detected in meteorites that have fallen to Earth – most likely because their composition would have been altered after burning through the atmosphere and they would have been easily contaminated after hitting the ground.

Bennu consists of pieces of a larger asteroid that formed nearly 4.6 billion years ago, around the same time as the solar system.

By understanding the composition of the Bennu samples, scientists can gain insights into the conditions of that time, helping answer questions about how the solar system - and Earth - formed.

'It's interesting that although Bennu had everything needed for life, it did not form,' Professor Russell added.

'The complex and delicate conditions needed to catalyse life really bring into focus the abundance of biodiversity here on Earth.'

Co-lead author Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington said: 'This extraordinary work, done at the scale of microns, will help us understand what happens at the scale of planets.'

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29-01-2025 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

Asteroid Bennu contains the 'seeds of life,' OSIRIS-REx samples reveal

The two teams of researchers who made the discoveries published their findings Jan. 29 in two papers in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We now know from Bennu that the raw ingredients of life were combining in really interesting and complex ways on Bennu's parent body," study co-lead author Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said in a statement. "We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life."

Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid that has a 1-in-2,700 chance of striking Earth in the year 2182 — the highest odds of any known space object. But scientists are more interested in what's trapped on the space rock: As a carbon-rich asteroid, it likely contains many of the primordial molecules present when life first emerged on Earth.

Related: 

• NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission almost bit the dust — then Queen guitarist Brian May stepped in

OSIRIS-REx launched in September 2016 and traveled 200 million miles (320 million kilometers) to reach Bennu.

Once there, the spacecraft orbited the asteroid for nearly two years as flight engineers searched for a landing site. Upon making contact with the space rock, OSIRIS-REx fired a burst of nitrogen from its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism to stick the landing and prevent itself from sinking through the asteroid. The nitrogen burst captured a 4.29-ounce (121.6 grams) sample in the process.

In October 2023, the sample was brought to Earth aboard OSIRIS-REx's capsule, which reached speeds of up to 27,000 mph (43,000 km/h) before it deployed its parachute and landed safely in the Utah desert. To avoid contamination, the sample container was taken to a clean room before being opened.

The researchers behind the first study received slices of the Bennu sample, which they examined under a scanning electron microscope. This enabled the team to study features on the sample's surface with a resolution of one-hundredth the width of a human hair.

The scientists discovered sodium carbonate, typically found in evaporated lakes that once contained life on Earth, on the space rock's surface. Within the sodium carbonate, the team found 11 minerals that are important precursors for organic compounds. The mineral compositions differed subtly from those found on our planet; being rich in phosphorus and poor in boron, when the reverse is true in Earth’s lakes.

The researchers think brine similar to that found on Bennu could also exist on other bodies in the solar system, such as the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.

In the second study, conducted by scientists in Japan, a separate piece of the sample was also found to contain the five nucleobases — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil — which combine with ribose and phosphate to form DNA and RNA, the ladder-like structures that make up the genetic code of all life on Earth.

This is the first time that scientists have found these nucleobases on a distant asteroid. In 2023, a sample taken from the Ryugu space rock by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft was found to contain uracil, yet the other nucleobases were missing.

It's unclear what this means for life beyond our planet. While the existence of these minerals on Bennu is a sure indication that the asteroid had the right ingredients for life, the researchers are unsure if the asteroid's environment was too harsh for the compounds to grow into complex organic structures. To further investigate, the scientists plan to reexamine meteorites in their collection for similar salts and compounds.

"We now know we have the basic building blocks to move along this pathway towards life, but we don't know how far along that pathway this environment could allow things to progress," McCoy said.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

29-01-2025 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space using 1st-of-its kind 'artificial photosynthesis'

In this case, the astronauts created the hydrocarbon ethylene, which can be used as rocket fuel. But by using different catalysts in the reaction, the researchers believe they could instead produce methane, which could also be used for fuel; and formic acid, which can be used as a preservative, antibacterial agent or precursor to making sugars, Interesting Engineering reported.

"This technology mimics the natural photosynthesis process of green plants through engineered physical and chemical methods, utilizing carbon dioxide resources in confined spaces or extraterrestrial atmospheres to produce oxygen and carbon-based fuels," Chinese state television channel CCTV reported Jan. 19. "The work is expected to provide critical technical support for human survival and exploration in outer space."

Related: China plans to build enormous solar array in space — and it could collect more energy in a year than 'all the oil on Earth'

The researchers have not revealed details about the technology. However, it supposedly requires much less energy than the electrolysis technology used to create oxygen from water on the International Space Station (ISS), the South China Morning Post reported. Electrolysis uses up to a third of the ISS's power output, according to a 2023 study.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

29-01-2025 om 20:26 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Visitor from outer space may have warped the solar system

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

For millennia, humans have asked whether we are alone in the universe, yet the discovery of aliens still eludes us. 

But if extraterrestrials do exist, scientists have found a promising location for where they could be hiding. 

Researchers from the University of Oxford have discovered an exoplanet dubbed HD 20794 d that could have the right conditions for life. 

More than six times as massive as Earth, scientists are describing it as a 'super Earth'. 

It is located in the Eridanus constellation and is in the habitable zone of its star, meaning liquid water – and therefore life – could potentially exist. 

Best of all, it's just 19.7 light-years away from Earth. 

This raises the tantalizing possibility that we could snap pictures of any aliens lurking there.

'Excitingly, its proximity with us – only 20 light-years – means there is hope for future space missions to obtain an image of it,' said Dr Michael Cretignier, who first spotted signs of the planet in 2022. 

Pictured, an artist's impression of the new planet HD 20794 d orbiting its star. The planet is six times as massive as Earth and just 20 light-years away

Its orbit places it within the habitable zone of the system, meaning it is at the right distance from its star to sustain liquid water on its surface, a key ingredient for life as we know it

Researchers from the University of Oxford have discovered an exoplanet dubbed HD 20794 d that could have the right conditions for life (stock image)

HD 20794 d was found using the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. 

Described as one of the most successful ever planet finders, HARPS spends most nights monitoring stars for signals that indicate the presence of 'exoplanets' – planets outside of our solar system. 

It uses a planet-detecting method called radial velocity, also known as the wobble or Doppler method, which can detect 'wobbles' in a star caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. 

Using HARPS, Dr Cretignier spotted distinct, periodic shifts in the spectrum of light emitted by host star HD 20794, which he thought could have been caused by the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. 

But due to the faintness of the signal, it was not clear whether this was caused by a planet or due to background 'noise' or a subtle instrumental error. 

To verify the signal, an international team analysed precise measurements recorded over two decades by HARPS and its successor ESPRESSO, also in Chile.

By combining the results from the two instruments, the discovery was finally confirmed – a 'relief' according to Dr Cretignier because the original signal was at the edge of the spectrograph’s detection limit. 

The discovery, detailed in a new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics,also relied on data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). 

European Southern Observatory's (ESO) La Silla facility in La Higuera, Chile, home to the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph

Described as one of the most successful ever planet finders, HARPS (pictured) spends most nights monitoring stars for signals that indicate the presence of 'exoplanets' - planets outside of our solar system

Planet HD 20794 d: Key facts 

Discovered: 2022

Star: HD 20794 (82 G. Eridani)

Orbital duration: 600 days

Constellation: Eridanus

Mass: 6 times that of Earth 

Distance away from us: 19.7 light years 

Dr Cretignier and colleagues know HD 20794 d has a mass six times that of Earth, but as yet they do not know the diameter. 

'The method we are using only provides the distance to the star (the orbital period) and the minimum mass of the planet and not the radius,' Dr Cretignier told MailOnline. 

Although the planet is located in the system’s habitable zone, it is too early to say whether it could host life. 

'It’s important to remember that having a planet in the habitable zone is not sufficient at all to have life on it,' he added.

'Both Mars and Venus are inside the habitable zone of the sun, but I highly don’t recommend you to go there on holiday.'

More questions will have to be answered about the planet first, such as whether it has water on it and if it has an atmosphere, according to the expert.

'The checklist is still long and we have decades of work in front of us,' Dr Cretignier told MailOnline.

Unlike most planets, HD 20794 d’s orbit around its star is 'elliptical' – elongated and not perfectly circular. 

This image shows the flux (the number of photons) on NASA's TESS detector while observing the star HD20794. TESS is a space mission measuring the photometry of the full sky from now a decade with the primary goal of detecting exoplanets using the transits method

Read More

• Visitor from outer space may have warped the solar system 

Its distance from its star changes significantly, causing the planet to move from the outer edge of the habitable zone to the inner edge throughout its year. 

The star is 'a naked-eye star', meaning you could even observe it if you are looking the sky in the south hemisphere, Dr Cretignier added. 

Ultimately, the discovery could eventually give us the first signs of life outside our solar system – although there are many other promising exoplanet candidates. 

'Such a target will be among the primary target list of future space missions with such a purpose that will be on sky the next decade,' Dr Cretignier said. 

Already, NASA has a webpage dedicated to an exoplanet called 'HD 20794 d', which was discovered in 2011.

Dr Cretignier points out that this planet has an outdated name and is actually a different planet in the same system – HD 20794 c. 

The HD 20794 star has three known planets orbiting around it – but there could potentially be more out there waiting to be found. 

The whole system is 19.7 light years away, which, although relatively close to us in the universe is 'desperately out of reach'.

'On the scale of the universe, this is our neighbourhood,' Dr Cretignier said.

'Such is the paradox of the universe – it can be observed, not visited.' 

NASA CONFIRMS THERE ARE MORE THAN 5,000 PLANETS BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM 

NASA has confirmed that there are more than 5,000 known planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. 

As of January 28, 2025, there are 5,830 confirmed exoplanets, according to NASA's online exoplanet archive.

The total reached a milestone of 5,800 in early 2022. 

Exoplanets found so far include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and 'hot Jupiters' in scorchingly close orbits around their stars.  

The more than 5,000 exoplanets confirmed in our galaxy so far include a variety of types - among them a mysterious variety known as 'super-Earths' because they are larger than our world and possibly rocky

However, NASA stresses that only 'a tiny fraction' of all the planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone have been found.   

The majority of exoplanets are gaseous, like Jupiter or Neptune, rather than terrestrial, according to NASA's online database.     

Most exoplanets are found by measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it, called the transit method. 

Another way to detect exoplanets, called the Doppler method, measures the 'wobbling' of stars due to the gravitational pull of orbiting planets.  

5,000 Exoplanets: Listen to the Sounds of Discovery (NASA Data Sonification)

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28-01-2025 om 22:52 geschreven door peter