The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
29-11-2024
Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet
These images are a small sample from the Frontier supercomputer simulations. They reveal the evolution of the expanding universe in a region containing a massive cluster of galaxies from billions of years ago to present day (left). Red areas show hotter gasses, where temperatures reach 100 million Kelvin or more. The panel on the right is a zoom-in, where star tracer particles track the formation of galaxies and their movement over time. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, U.S Dept of Energy
Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have created the largest astrophysical simulation of the Universe ever. They used what was until recently the world’s most powerful supercomputer to simulate the Universe at an unprecedented scale. The simulation’s size corresponds to the largest surveys conducted by powerful telescopes and observatories.
The Frontier Supercomputer is located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It’s the second-fasted supercomputer in the world, behind only El Capitan, which pulled ahead in November, 2024. Frontier is the world’s first exascale supercomputer, though El Capitan has joined the ranks of exascale supercomputing.
The new Frontier simulation is record-breaking and is now the largest simulation of the Universe ever conducted. Its exascale computing allows it to simulate a level of detail that was unreachable prior to its implementation. Exascale is so advanced that it’s difficult to fully exploit its capabilities without new programming paradigms.
Frontier is a significant leap in astrophysical simulations. It covers a volume of the Universe that’s 10 billion light years across. It incorporates detailed physics models for dark matter, dark energy, gas dynamics, star formation, and black hole growth. It should provide new insights into some of the fundamental processes in the Universe, such as how galaxies form and how the large-scale structure of the Universe evolves.
“There are two components in the universe: dark matter—which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally—and conventional matter, or atomic matter.” said project lead Salman Habib, division director for Computational Sciences at Argonne.
“So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things: gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies,” he said. “The astrophysical ‘kitchen sink’ so to speak. These simulations are what we call cosmological hydrodynamics simulations.”
Cosmological hydrodynamics simulations combine cosmology with hydrodynamics and allow astronomers to examine the complex interrelationships between gravity and things like gas dynamics and stellar processes that have shaped and continue to shape our Universe. They can only be conducted with supercomputers because of the level of complexity and the vast number of numerical equations and calculations involved.
The sheer amount of energy needed for Frontier to perform these simulations is staggering. It consumes about 21 MW of electricity, enough to power about 15,000 single-family homes in the US. But the payoff is equally as impressive.
“For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion,” Habib said. “Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.”
“It’s not only the sheer size of the physical domain, which is necessary to make direct comparison to modern survey observations enabled by exascale computing,” said Bronson Messer, Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility director of science. “It’s also the added physical realism of including the baryons and all the other dynamic physics that makes this simulation a true tour de force for Frontier.”
The Exascale-class HPE Cray EX Supercomputer (Frontier) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Image Credit: By OLCF at ORNL – https://www.flickr.com/photos/olcf/52117623843/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119231238
Frontier simulates more than just the Universe. In June, researchers working with it achieved another milestone. They simulated a system of 466 billion atoms in a simulation of water. That was the largest system ever modeled and more than 400 times larger than its closest competition. Since water is a primary component of cells, Frontier is paving the way for an eventual simulation of a living cell.
Frontier promises to make advancements in multiple other areas as well, including nuclear fission and fusion and large-scale energy transmission systems. It’s also been used to generate a quantum molecular dynamics simulation that’s 1,000 times greater in size and speed than any of its predecessors. It also has applications in modelling diseases, developing new drugs, better batteries, better materials including concrete, and predicting and mitigating climate change.
Astrophysical/cosmological simulations like Frontier’s are powerful when they’re combined with observations. Scientists can use simulations to test theoretical models compared to observational data. Changing initial conditions and parameters in the simulations lets researchers see how different factors shape outcomes. It’s an iterative process that allows scientists to update their models by identifying discrepancies between observations and simulations.
Frontier’s huge simulation is just one example of how supercomputers and AI are taking on a larger role in astronomy and astrophysics. Modern astronomy generates massive amounts of data, and requires powerful tools to manage. Our theories of cosmology are based on larger and larger datasets that require massive computing power to simulate.
Frontier has already been superseded by El Capitan, another exascale supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). However, El Capitan is focused on managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile according to the LLNL.
Simulating The Universe with Supercomputers
Simulating the Universe on a Supercomputer - Discover Our Universe
Popular media love talking about asteroid mining using big numbers. Many articles talk about a mission to Psyche, the largest metallic asteroid in the asteroid belt, as visiting a body worth $10000000000000000000, assumedly because their authors like hitting the “0” key on their keyboards a lot. But how realistic is that valuation? And what does it actually mean? A paper funded by Astroforge, an asteroid mining start-up based in Huntington Beach, and written by a professor at the Colorado School of Mine’s Space Resources Program takes a good hard look at what metals are available on asteroids and whether they’d genuinely be worth as much as the simple calculations say that would be.
The paper divides metals on asteroids into two distinct types—those that would be worth returning to Earth and those that wouldn’t. Really, the only metals judged to be worthy of returning to Earth are the platinum-group metals (PGMs), which are known for their extraordinarily high cost, relatively low supply, and high usefulness in a variety of modern-day technology. That includes catalytic converters, which is why they are commonly the target of thieves.
The other category would be metals used for in-space construction, such as iron, aluminum, and magnesium. While these might not be economically viable to send back to Earth because of their relatively low prices on our home planet, they are useful up in space for constructing large structures, such as space stations or solar power arrays. However, given the chicken-and-egg problem of not having any demand for these space-sourced metals because they are so expensive, it is hard to quantify how much they are worth. Its competition (i.e. launching the material from Earth), is priceable though, and at $10,000 / kg, plus $100 / kg for a common material such as iron.
Fraser talks about whether we would mine asteroids.
Those prices aren’t anywhere near the $500,000 / kg that a PGM such as Rhodium has ever back on Earth, but it could still make mining asteroids for iron economically viable if the material is used in space. So what do all those calculations mean for the actual value of the asteroids that we might mine?
First and most importantly, recent research suggests that asteroids made out of “pure metal,” such as Psyche is assumed to be, are likely pure fiction. While that might not be great news for any single benign asteroid worth a lot, the other part of that research is that even asteroids that were originally thought to be relatively low in metal content actually have reasonable quantities that could be economically extracted.
To prove the point, the paper looked in detail at a series of meteorite studies, which are the equivalent of left-over asteroids, and compared the “grades” of 83 different elements with ores found on or near the Earth’s surface. Since remote sensing has difficulty distinguishing between some of those elements, meteorite samples that can be subjected to advanced analysis techniques are our best bet at accurately calculating the chemical composition of asteroids, other than the few samples of in-tact asteroids that have been returned so far.
Isaac Arthur also discusses the prospects of asteroid mining. Credit – Isaac Arthur YouTube Channel
That data showed that PGMs, while lower in concentration than considered initially (because of an assumption in a foundational paper on the composition of asteroids), are still in much higher concentrations than the equivalent terrestrial ores. In particular, a material known as a refractory metal nugget (RMN) could have concentrations of PGMs orders of magnitude higher than anything found on Earth or other types of asteroidal material.
RMNs are primarily found in a calcium aluminum inclusion (CAI) structure, mainly on L-type asteroids. L-types are relatively uncommon asteroids with a reddish tint, but we haven’t yet visited them. They might be made up of more than 30% CAIs, though, in which case, they could contain a significant amount of extractable PGMs without additional processing.
However, RMNs themselves are very small, at the micron to sub-micron range, making them extremely hard to process in the first place. So, bulk extraction from asteroidal regolith could range up to hundreds of ppm, which is already a few orders of magnitude greater than their concentration in Earth’s regolith.
Fraser talks about mining Psyche, the largest “metallic asteroid” in the asteroid belt.
When looking at the metals for use in space, they are about as abundant as initially predicted, but they face challenges in processing them out of their oxidized states. Typically, this requires some high-energy procedure, such as molten regolith electrolysis, to break off the elemental metal, which is needed for further processing. Again, there’s the chicken and egg problem of having a power source that is large enough to perform these processes, but building it would require the material that would require the power source.
Eventually, that problem will disappear if companies like AstroForge have their way. Remember that the company funded this study, and its two co-founders and Kevin Cannon, the professor at CSM, were co-authors. The company plans to launch its next mission, a rendezvous with near-Earth asteroids, to try to tell if they’re “metallic” in January. Perhaps that mission will help contribute to our growing understanding of the composition and value of the asteroids surrounding us.
Scientists have used the world's fastest supercomputer to show the universe as it has never been seen before.
In this incredible video, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory reveal the largest computer simulation of the universe ever created.
The simulated area contains a staggering 311,296 cubic megaparsecs of space.
Through it, you can watch as vast clusters of galaxies come together over billions of years.
However, this staggeringly massive vista is just 0.001 per cent of the entire simulation.
The results of that enormous computation will enable scientists to investigate the evolution of the universe and the role played by mysterious dark matter.
Project leader Dr Salman Habib says: 'There are two components in the universe: dark matter — which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally — and conventional matter, or atomic matter.
'So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things.'
Scientists have revealed the largest simulation of the universe ever created, simulating an area of 31 billion cubic megaparsecs
When astronomers look at distant galaxies through a powerful telescope like the James Webb Space Telescope they are able to look back in time to the early days of the cosmos.
However, those images only give us snapshots of how the universe once looked.
To get a true god's-eye view of creation, astronomers need to create what is called a 'hydrodynamic simulation'.
Rather than just simulating the pull of gravity between different chunks of matter, hydrodynamic simulations get as close as possible to forces which shape cosmic evolution.
Dr Habib says that this requires scientists to simulate 'gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies. The astrophysical "kitchen sink" so to speak.'
The problem is that these kinds of simulations need vast amounts of computational power to create.
In order to run simulations at all, astronomers have typically left out all the other forces and factors which make hydrodynamic simulations so useful.
Dr Habib says: 'For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion.
In this incredible video, you can see as a vast cluster of galaxies condense in the expanding universe. This mindboggling clip (pictured) only shows 0.001 per cent of the whole simulation
This new simulation is on a scale with the largest maps of the cosmos ever created such as the ESA's Euclid cosmic atlas (pictured)
The simulation captures the formation of galactic filaments such as the Laniakea filament (illustrated) which contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies including the Milky Way
How many stars are in the universe?
Our Solar System revolves around one star, the Sun.
But, the Sun is only one of between 100 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
This is only one of more than 100 galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster which, itself only one part of even larger structures.
It is estimated that there could be between 100-200 billion and two trillion galaxies in the Universe.
Overall, scientists estimate that there could be around 70 septilion stars in the Universe.
That's 70 followed by 23 zeros.
'Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.'
To overcome these problems, the researchers used the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Even with a computer that fast, emulating the universe isn't simple and it's taken more than a decade for scientists to refine and upgrade the code in order to run a hydrodynamic simulation on this scale.
However, earlier this month, researchers were able to use 9,000 of Frontier's computing nodes to simulate a volume of the expanding universe measuring more than 31 billion cubic megaparsecs.
Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of the mysterious substance known as dark matter.
Dark matter is a theoretical type of particle which doesn't interact with the atoms and subatomic particles which make up the rest of the universe.
Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of dark matter. This theoretical substance could create vast, unobservable structures between galaxies which have given the universe the extra mass it needs to evolve into the form we observe today. Pictured: a NASA simulation of the formation of dark matter structures in the early universe
The only way that dark matter supposedly affects the universe around it is by exerting a gravitational pull.
Scientists first proposed that this strange substance might exist to explain why the gravitational forces in the universe seem to be stronger than the mass of all the galaxies should produce.
However, since we cannot observe dark matter in any way simulations like this are key to understanding how it might have influenced the evolution of the cosmos.
The team are yet to release any analysis based on the simulation but we should expect some exciting revelations to come.
Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 85 per cent of the universe.
The enigmatic material is invisible because it does not reflect light, and has never been directly observed by scientists.
Astronomers know it to be out there because of its gravitational effects on known matter.
The European Space Agency says: 'Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only what the torch illuminates.
Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 27 per cent of the universe. It is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together (artist's impression)
'That does not mean that the room around you does not exist.
'Similarly we know dark matter exists but have never observed it directly.'
The material is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together.
Calculations show that many galaxies would be torn apart instead of rotating if they weren't held together by a large amount of dark matter.
Just five per cent the observable universe consists of known matter such as atoms and subatomic particles.
Exploring our Mind-Blowing Universe | BBC Earth Science
The Mind-Blowing Mysteries of the Universe | Space Documentary 2024
An AI Chemist Made A Catalyst to Make Oxygen On Mars Using Local Materials
Breaking oxygen out of a water molecule is a relatively simple process, at least chemically. Even so, it does require components, one of the most important of which is a catalyst. Catalysts enable reactions and are linearly scalable, so if you want more reactions quickly, you need a bigger catalyst. In space exploration, bigger means heavier, which translates into more expensive. So, when humanity is looking for a catalyst to split water into oxygen and hydrogen on Mars, creating one from local Martian materials would be worthwhile. That is precisely what a team from Hefei, China, did by using what they called an “AI Chemist.”
Unfortunately, the name “AIChemist” didn’t stick, though that joke might vary depending on the font you read it in. Whatever its name, the team’s work was some serious science. It specifically applied machine learning algorithms that have become all the rage lately to selecting an effective catalyst for an “oxygen evolution reaction” by utilizing materials native to Mars.
To say it only chose the catalyst isn’t giving the system the full credit it’s due, though. It accomplished a series of steps, including developing a catalyst formula, pretreating the ore to create the catalyst, synthesizing it, and testing it once it was complete. The authors estimate that the automated process saved over 2,000 years of human labor by completing all of these tasks and point to the exceptional results of the testing to prove it.
Depiction of the process the AI Chemist went through to create the test catalyst.Credit – Zhu et al.
Before we get to that, though, let’s start with the “initial conditions.” The team developed an “all-in-one” robotic AI chemist capable of performing all these tasks. It was initially based on work done by more limited AI chemists who could read synthetic chemistry literature and estimate the efficacy of different chemical compounds for different tasks. After they built the model, they needed to feed it with some data.
For that data, they selected five different common rocks from the surface of Mars. They estimated that there would be 3,764,376 possible combinations to come out of the elements present in those rocks, depending on how the combinations were manufactured. So, the first task of the AI Chemist was to select one that could act as a catalyst for splitting off oxygen. Part of that dataset was built with 30,000 other theoretical datasets and the results of 243 experiments. The result is a “polymetallic” material composed of manganese, iron, nickel, magnesium, aluminum, and calcium.
Next, a sample of the catalyst would be manufactured for testing. The AI is equipped with a robot arm that took physical samples of meteorites that had been dissolved in hydrochloric acid and attempted to synthesize the suggested catalyst out of those materials. This process involved pretty extreme processes like centrifuging the samples at 7,500g for 5 minutes to separate out the necessary materials and drying out the resultant material. Impressively, all of this was seemingly done without human intervention.
Fraser goes into detail about how a potential mission to Mars will happen in the near future – including creating oxygen using catalysts.
After some of the material had been synthesized, the research team tested it by actually performing the reduction process it was designed to do. More importantly, they did so under Martian ambient conditions. The material performed admirably, similar to existing catalysts already used.
So, effectively, an AI just developed and tested a catalyst for use on Mars using local materials. And potentially saved over 2,000 years of intensive human labor in doing so. That is a testament to how effective AI is at finding patterns in existing data and extrapolating them using new data. It remains to be seen, though, if this catalyst will ever see the light of day on Mars, as the catalyst itself must be integrated with the rest of the system to perform the reduction reaction to split oxygen from water effectively. Given the complexity of the process used to create that catalyst, it might be easier for us to ship one directly from Earth, even if it doesn’t use Martian materials.
Odysseus continues its voyage to the lunar surface.
Odysseus landing on the Moon
Odysseus lunar lander’s first images of the Moon
Update for 7 pm ET: Touchdown! Intuitive Machines reports that its IM-1 lander Odysseus has landed on the moon and is transmitting a faint, but definite, signal. "Houston, Odysseus has found his new home," mission director Tim Crain said. See our full landing story, video and photos.
The Odysseus lander from Intuitive Machines obtained this picture of the Bel’kovich K crater on Feb. 21, 2024. (Image credit: Intuitive Machines/X)
Hours ahead of its moon landing, Odysseus snapped a picture of a lunar crater.
The Intuitive Machines lander beamed home an image of the Bel’kovich K crater, a roughly 31-mile (50-kilometer) divot in the moon's northern equatorial highlands. Mountains in the center were "made when the crater was formed," officials wrote Wednesday (Feb. 21) on X, formerly Twitter.
Odysseus successfully entered lunar orbit on Wednesday following a crucial engine burn, and is slated to touch down near the moon's south pole on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 22) no earlier than 6:24 p.m. EST (2324 GMT). You can tune in to the landing live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will begin at 5:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT).
1st image of Odysseus on the moon released after historic landing
If Odysseus makes it, the lander will be the first private machine to successfully soft land on the moon and the first American vehicle overall to do so since the crewed Apollo 17 mission achieved the feat in 1972. You can watch the attempt here at Space.com.
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander beams home a selfie in lunar orbit on Feb. 21, 2024. (Image credit: Intuitive Machines)
The mission launched on Feb. 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bringing along 12 payloads for lunar investigations. Six of those experiments are from NASA and associated with the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS.
NASA aims to use CLPS missions for science investigations ahead of the agency's Artemis program, which itself plans to put astronauts back on the moon in the 2020s and eventually establish a permanent base at the lunar south pole. The region is rich in water ice, which is useful for fueling and machinery.
One CLPS mission has already tried to reach the moon, but it didn't make it. Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander launched in January atop the first United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket. Peregrine, however, developed a fuel leak and instead was steered into Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 18.
Other private missions before Odysseus' IM-1 endeavor did indeed achieve lunar orbit before. Examples include Israel's Beresheet and Tokyo's Hakuto-R landers. Both missions, however, saw their spacecraft crash: Beresheet in April 2019 and Hakuto-R in April 2023.
This story was updated at 2:34 p.m. Feb. 22 with the updated landing time.
New Images of Odysseus On The Moon Have Been Released!
SpaceX deploys Intuitive Machines lunar lander in amazing view from space
Wetenschappers hebben ontdekt dat de Kuipergordel mogelijk bijna twee keer zo groot is als eerder werd gedacht. Niet alleen dat: het zou zelfs zo kunnen zijn dat er sprake is van een tweede gordel.
De ruimtesonde New Horizons heeft weer een nieuwe ontdekking gedaan: het zou zomaar kunnen zijn dat de Kuipergordel miljarden kilometers verder reikt dan de huidige modellen voorspellen. De ruimtesonde is inmiddels aangekomen op een afstand van 60 AU, wat betekent dat deze zestig keer verder verwijderd is van de zon dan onze eigen planeet: AU staat voor Astronomical Unit en is gelijk aan de afstand tussen de zon en de aarde, wat ongeveer 150 miljoen kilometer is. Op de huidige afstand van 9 miljard kilometer vanaf de zon vangt New Horizons een hoop meer stof is dan de bedoeling is, wat mogelijk betekent dat de Kuipergordel een stuk verder reikt dan eerder werd gedacht. Wetenschapper Alex Doner heeft meegewerkt aan het onderzoek. Hij laat weten: “New Horizons is momenteel bezig met de eerste directe metingen van interplanetair stof – ver voorbij Neptunus en Pluto. Op deze afstand kan elke kleine observatie leiden tot een grote ontdekking. Het idee dat we wellicht een verlenging hebben ontdekt van de Kuipergordel is een stap vooruit in het ontrafelen van de mysteries van het zonnestelsel.” Het onderzoek is gepubliceerd in het blad Astrophysical Journal Letters.
De Kuipergordel Als je vanaf de zon door ons zonnestelsel reist, kom je eerst de planeet Mercurius tegen. Vervolgens Venus, de aarde, Mars, Jupiter, Saturnus, Uranus en Neptunus. Tussen Mars en Jupiter bevindt zich dan ook nog de planetoïdengordel: een gebied met een grote hoeveelheid planetoïden. En voorbij Neptunus bevindt zich dan de Kuipergordel, bestaande uit miljarden komeetachtige – uit steen en ijs bestaande – objecten. Sommige van die objecten zijn groot – zoals Eris en Pluto – andere zijn juist aanzienlijk kleiner.
Ruimtestof De wetenschappers hebben de ontdekking kunnen doen omdat New Horizons zich momenteel dus door de Kuipergordel beweegt en hierbij stof tegenkomt. Dit stof wordt vervolgens gedetecteerd, waardoor er uiteindelijk een dichtheid bepaald kan worden. Die dichtheid is momenteel een stuk hoger dan deze zou moeten zijn. De verwachting is namelijk dat de buitenste ring van de Kuipergordel een lagere stofdichtheid heeft dan de regionen binnenin. Aangezien New Horizons vooralsnog geen lagere dichtheden heeft gemeten is het dan ook waarschijnlijk dat deze de buitenkant van de Kuipergordel nog niet heeft bereikt. Mede-wetenschapper Alan Stern licht toe: “Deze nieuwe bevindingen betekenen dat New Horizons waarschijnlijk het eerste ruimtevaartuig is dat een nieuwe verzameling hemellichamen heeft ontdekt. Ik ben dan ook erg nieuwsgierig om te zien tot hoever de hoge stofdichtheid zal reiken.”
IJsdeeltjes De metingen van New Horizons komen op het perfecte moment. Zo hebben wetenschappers van het New Horizons-team met behulp van observatoria zoals de Subaru Telescope in Hawaii eerder een aantal objecten gevonden die ver buiten het gebied liggen dat traditioneel gezien als de Kuipergordel wordt aangemerkt. En New Horizons lijkt nu dus ook ter plekke te bevestigen dat de buitengrens van de Kuipergordel op grotere afstand ligt dan gedacht. Zo werd eerst gedacht dat deze grens zich rond een afstand van 50 AU bevond, terwijl nu wordt gedacht aan een afstand van 80 AU. Concreet betekent dit een verlenging van 4,5 miljard kilometer. Het team van Doner is naarstig op zoek naar een mogelijke verklaring. Zo stelt Doner: “Het zou goed kunnen zijn dat New Horizons nu kleine ijsdeeltjes detecteert die niet dichter bij de zon kunnen komen. Een ander verklaring zou kunnen zijn dat kleine stofdeeltjes van de Kuipergordel door stralingsdruk een stuk verder worden geduwd dan voorheen werd gedacht. Dit laatste idee is niet heel waarschijnlijk, maar het zou kunnen.”
Het is ongetwijfeld niet de laatste keer dat New Horizons vanuit de buitenste regionen van ons zonnestelsel van zich laat horen; vooralsnog heeft de ruimtesonde nog meer dan genoeg brandstof. De verwachting is namelijk dat de ruimtesonde tot aan 2050 kan blijven werken, waarbij deze een afstand zal overbruggen van meer dan 100 AU. Het is trouwens ook niet de eerste keer dat New Horizons een opzienbarende ontdekking doet. Zo heeft de ruimtesonde in het verleden foto’s gemaakt van Pluto en is deze zeer dicht in de buurt gekomen van Arrakoth. Wil je meer weten over New Horizons? Kijk dan eens hier.
Recently-Discovered Active Asteroid is in Fact Main-Belt Comet, Astronomers Say
Recently-Discovered Active Asteroid is in Fact Main-Belt Comet, Astronomers Say
456P/PANSTARRS, an active, main-belt asteroid first spotted in 2021, is recurrently active, and activity is likely driven by the sublimation of volatile ice, according to new observations from the Magellan-Baade telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope.
Images of 456P/PANSTARRS taken with the Magellan-Baade telescope in Chile on October 3, 2024, and the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona on October 26, 2024, where the head, or nucleus, of the comet is at the center of each image, and the tail extends to the right.
Image credit: Scott S. Sheppard / Carnegie Institution for Science / Audrey Thirouin, Lowell Observatory / Henry H. Hsieh, Planetary Science Institute.
“Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — rather than the cold outer Solar System where icy bodies are typically expected,” said Planetary Science Institute senior scientist Henry Hsieh and colleagues.
“They sport comet-like features, like tails extending away from the Sun or fuzzy clouds as the Sun’s heat vaporizes their ice.”
These objects were first discovered in 2006 at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Hsieh and his then-doctoral advisor, Professor David Jewitt.
“Main-belt comets belong to a larger group of solar system objects known as active asteroids, which look like comets, but have asteroid-like orbits in the warm inner Solar System,” the astronomers said.
“This larger group includes objects whose clouds and tails are made of ejected dust produced after an impact or as they quickly rotate, rather than just those that eject dust due to vaporized ice.”
“Both main-belt comets and active asteroids in general are still relatively rare, but scientists are discovering them at a growing clip.”
456P/PANSTARRS was discovered as P/2021 L4 (PANSTARRS) from observations on June 9 and 14, 2021, by Pan-STARRS1, and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope observations on June 14, 2021.
Dr. Hsieh and co-authors observed the object twice using the Magellan Baade Telescope and Lowell Discovery Telescope in October 2024 to establish its status as a main-belt comet.
“This object is not just an asteroid that experienced a one-off event that caused it to show activity one time, but is an inherently active, icy body similar to other comets from the outer Solar System,” Dr. Hsieh said.
If 456P/PANSTARRS’s activity were due to something other than ice vaporization, then its tail would be expected to appear only once randomly, and not repeatedly appear when it was close to the Sun.
An icy object, on the other hand, heats up every time it approaches the Sun, and the vaporized ice drags dust out along with it.
When the object moves farther from the Sun and cools, the activity stops.
Observations of repeated dust ejection activity during close approaches to the Sun are currently considered the best and most reliable way to identify main-belt comets.
“There are still very few confirmed main-belt comets known,” Dr. Hsieh said.
“We want to build up the population so we can get a clearer idea of what their broader properties are — such as their sizes, activity duration and distribution within the asteroid belt, for example — so that they can be better used to trace ice in the Solar System in general.”
The findings were published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
Henry H. Hsieh et al. 2024. Confirmation of Recurrent Activity of Main-Belt Comet 456P/PANSTARRS (P/2021 L4). Res. Notes AAS 8, 283; doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad90a6
This article is a version of a press-release provided by the Planetary Science Institute.
Asteroid Samples Returned to Earth Were Immediately Colonized by Bacteria
We’ve known for a while that complex chemistry occurs in space. Organic molecules have been detected in cold molecular clouds, and we have even found sugars and amino acids, the so-called “building blocks of life,” within several asteroids. The raw ingredients of terrestrial life are common in the Universe, and meteorites and comets may have even seeded Earth with those ingredients. This idea isn’t controversial. But there is a more radical idea that Earth was seeded not just with the building blocks of life but life itself. It’s known as panspermia, and a recent study has brought the idea back to popular science headlines. But the study is more subtle and interesting than some headlines suggest.
Panspermia became popular in the 1800s and 1900s when it became clear that life arose surprisingly early on Earth. On a geologic scale, cellular life appears almost as soon as Earth cooled enough to support it. Given the complexity of DNA and living cells, how could such a thing have evolved so quickly? In the panspermia model, life evolved either in space or on some distant world, and was carried to Earth within asteroids or comets. We know that some living things can survive the harsh vacuum of space, so perhaps we have some alien, extraterrestrial origin.
But there are reasons to be skeptical. For one, the transition from organic to biological chemistry may be remarkably adaptive. While life appears to have appeared suddenly on Earth, that may be precisely what you’d expect. Without an example of extraterrestrial life, we simply don’t know. And while life can survive in space for a limited time, it’s not likely to survive for the millions of years it would take for an asteroid to traverse the solar system, much less the billions of years it would take to travel between star systems. Still, one step toward proving panspermia would be to gather material from an asteroid and find out it has life, and that’s exactly what this latest study found.
The Hayabusa2 mission, launched in 2014, landed on a small asteroid named Ryugu in 2018 and returned a sample of material to Earth in 2020. The sample was kept sterile the whole time, hermetically sealed for the journey back, and only opened in a pure nitrogen clean room using sterilized equipment. The sample was as clean and uncontaminated as we could get. When the team prepared a sample and looked at it under an electron microscope, they found rods and filaments of organic matter consistent with microbial life. In other words, the team found life on an asteroid.
Except they likely didn’t.
The size distribution is consistent with terrestrial life. Credit: Genge, et al
One thing to keep in mind is that microbial life is incredibly robust. It exists everywhere and spreads rapidly. You can find the stuff in the cores of nuclear power plants, in hot thermal vents, and in the cleanest clean room. And even if you sterilize something, microbial life will find a way. When the team found life on their sample, the first thing they did was to look for evidence of contamination, and there was plenty of evidence to be found. To begin with, the size distribution of the organic rods and filaments found in the sample is consistent with those commonly deposited by terrestrial life. Their data also found evidence of a growth and decline period of about five days, which is also consistent with Earth life. If the Ryugu samples had truly evolved beyond Earth, they would be genetically separated from us by millions or billions of years. Their size and growth rate wouldn’t match those of our common microbes. So the best explanation is that the sample became contaminated despite our best efforts.
While the study doesn’t support the panspermia model, it does tell us two important things. The first is that our sterilization procedures are likely inadequate. We may have already spread life to the Moon and Mars inadvertently. The second is that asteroids have organic materials that could sustain terrestrial life. That’s good news if we want to establish ourselves elsewhere in the solar system. Earth life may not have begun in space, but it could very well end up there.
Water and Carbon Revealed in NASA's Ancient Asteroid Samples
OKEANOS – A Mission That Would Have Retrurned Samples From the Trojan Asteroids
Getting a mission to the point of officially being accepted for launch is an ordeal. However, even when they aren’t selected for implementation, their ideas, and in some cases, their technologies, can live on in other missions. That was the case for the Oversize Kite-craft for Exploration and AstroNautics in the Outer Solar system (OKEANOS) project, originally planned as a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission. Despite not receiving funding to complete its entire mission, the project team released a paper that details the original plan for the mission, and some of those plans were incorporated into other missions that are still under development.
OKEANOS sought to build on JAXA’s success in returning samples from asteroids to Earth. Its most well-known mission in that regard was Hayabusa-2, which returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu in 2020 and has been the subject of dozens of scientific papers since. Ryugu is a near-earth asteroid, which means its origins in the solar system are dramatically different from those of other asteroids farther out from the Sun, which is where OKEANOS came in.
The original plan for OKEANOS was to launch a sample return mission to one of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids that sit in the Lagrange points in front of and behind Juptier and its orbital path. Scientists believe these asteroids originated outside of Neptune’s orbit in the Kuiper belt but were brought closer to the Sun due to gravitational fluctuations caused by the migration of the gas giant planets. Since they would hold clues to the early solar system, astronomers are interested in their composition, and some space exploration enthusiasts are interested in the materials they hold for in-situ resource utilization purposes. But so far, no missions have visited them yet.
A solar panel, like the one shown in the video, would have been a key component of the OKEANOS missions. Credit – The Japan Times YouTube Channel
That is about to change, though, with Lucy, a NASA mission that launched in 2021 to visit them. However, Lucy will simply do remote observations and lacks the equipment to sample them directly, let alone return a sample back to Earth. The project team had hoped OKEANOS would do just that.
Several novel technologies would be used to enable OKEANOS’ scientific objectives. One of the most interesting was a combination solar sail and ion drive known as a solar power sail. A solar power sail combines the solar pushing power of a solar sail with flexible photovoltaic solar collectors that can collect a significant amount of energy while deployed in a sail-like configuration. JAXA has also successfully tested a similar system with its IKAROS mission, demonstrating the technology in 2010.
Since solar sails have tiny thrust out near Jupiter, OKEANOS relies entirely on an ion engine and simply deploys its “sails” to deploy the solar panels that collect energy to power the ion drive. But once it reached its destination, it would utilize its second interesting technology—a lander.
Fraser talks about Lucy, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids.
The two main asteroid sample return missions – OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa-2 – directly touched down on the surface of their respective asteroids. However, there have been deployed landers that have at least attempted to land on an asteroid before – Philae, the lander that accompanied ESA’s Rosetta mission, is probably the most famous. But never before has a mission attempted to land a lander, collect a sample, and return it to a “mothership” that would then transport that sample back to Earth. Doing so out at the Trojan asteroids would add a new difficulty level of having significant communications lag time, making it difficult to troubleshoot any problems with the mission.
Given JAXA’s track record, it seemed likely that they could pull off that technical challenge. However, the mission was never fully funded due to a “cost issue,” according to the paper. JAXA selected a project known as LiteBIRD to study the cosmic microwave background as its large-class mission for this decade instead. Despite that, the technical details of some of the instrumentation have been described in other papers, and the project team feels confident that future asteroid sample return missions will adopt at least some of them. We’ll be sure to see more of those in the future as interest grows in understanding the roots of our solar system and how we might utilize the readily available resources on asteroids.
A prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons is reflected in the water’s surface during a pool test at Caltech in September. Conducted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the testing showed the feasibility of a mission concept for a swarm of mini swimming robots. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Europa, one of the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter is one of the most intriguing locations in the Solar System to search for life. However, its subsurface oceans are buried beneath thick layers of ice making exploration difficult. To explore its oceans, scientists have suggested using small swimming robots capable of penetrating the icy shell. Recently, NASA engineers tested prototypes designed to operate as a swarm, enabling them to explore the mysterious sub-ice oceans on Europa and other icy worlds in the Solar System.
Along with the other three Galilean satellites orbing Jupiter, Europa was discovered just over 400 years ago by Galileo. It is the smallest of the four measuring just 3,120 km across. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of 671,000 km in an almost circular orbit. In comparison to our own Moon, Europa is a little smaller but that is where the similarities end. Europa is made of a silicate rock and has a thick water ice crust below which is thought to be a liquid water ocean and it is this which has captured the interest of scientists.
The Galilean moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The deep oceans of Europa may well harbour forms of aquatic life. Consider the deepest parts of the oceans of Earth where whole eco-systems thrive off thermal vents. At these depths, no light from the Sun penetrates so the organisms and creatures living at these depths take all their energy from the heat escaping from inside the planet. It is this which tantalisingly suggests that maybe such life could have evolved in the oceans of Europa too.
A black smoker hydrothermal vent discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 1979. It’s fueled from deep beneath the surface by magma that superheats the water. The plume carries minerals and other materials out to the sea. Courtesy USGS.
The exploration of Europa is already underway with NASA’s Europa Clipper expected to arrive in 2030. It will explore Europa with a powerful set of scientific instruments over a total of 49 flybys. Each pass will see the instruments search for signs that the ocean under the thick icy crust could sustain life. This will just be a flyby mission with Europa being probed from high above its surface. NASA are already shaping up their next mission to include even more complex robots that could survey the depths of the sub-surface oceans of Europa.
Artist’s concept of a Europa Clipper mission. Credit: NASA/JPL
This is where NASA’s new mission called SWIM ‘Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers’ comes in. The concept at least, is simple…a swarm of self-propelled robots that can swim around in the underground oceans having been deployed by the ice piercing cryobot. Once underway, the swimming robots, which are about the size of a mobile phone, would hunt for chemical and temperature signals that might indicate life.
The swimming robots are not just on the drawing board. Engineers have already used 3D printers to create prototypes that have already been tested in a 23 metre pool. The devices which are propelled along by two propellers, with flaps for steering were able to stay on course. These prototypes however were a little larger than those destined to make it into space measuring about three times larger.
The results of the test were very promising but much more work is needed before they are ready for launch. Meanwhile the robots are likely to be trialled here on Earth to support oceanographic research before being sent on their way to Europa.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station(ISS) were sent into a panic after a cargo ship arrived with a 'toxic smell' and 'possible contamination hazard in the form of droplets.'
The Progress 90 docked with the Russian Poisk module at 9:31am ET on Saturday and Roscosmos cosmonauts identified a smell immediately after opening the hatch.
The Russian crew quickly strapped into protective equipment and activated an extra air-scrubbing system aboard their segment of the ISS for about 30 minutes.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit also reported some 'spray paint-like' smell in the Node 3 module of the US Segment, but it was not immediately clear if it had originated from Progress.
'Space station air scrubbers and contaminant sensors monitored the station's atmosphere following the observation, and on Sunday, flight controllers determined air quality inside the space station was at normal levels,' NASA shared in a statement.
The agency continued to explain that there are no concerns for the crew as of Sunday afternoon, but the hatch between the Russian modular and cargo craft is still closed.
The Progress 90 arrived at the Russian Poisk module at 9:31am, delivering three tons of food, fuel and supplies for members of the Expedition 72 crew on board the ISS.
The Progress 90 docked with the Russian Poisk module at 9:31am ET and Roscosmos cosmonauts identified a smell immediately after opening the hatch. NASA said the crew has yet to reopen the hatch
NASA reported that the US side of the orbiting laboratory also activated its own air-scrubbing system, while the hatch to Russia’s Poisk module remained closed.
While Russian outlets reported a toxic smell, NASA told a different story.
'After opening the Progress spacecraft’s hatch, the Roscosmos cosmonauts noticed an unexpected odor and observed small droplets, prompting the crew to close the Poisk hatch to the rest of the Russian segment,' the agency shared on X.
Progress 90 is scheduled to stay docked for about six months before returning to Earth.
The 'toxic smell' comes just months after a report revealed space agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, are tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a growing leak aboard the station.
Although officials have been aware of the issue since 2019, the exact source of the leak is still unknown.
All potential cracks have been covered with 'a combination of sealant and patches' but NASA warned that the leak reached its fastest rate yet in April this year.
Both the US and Russian side of the ISS activated its air-scrubbing systems after the toxic smell was identified
Concerns over the station's safety are now so high that NASA has negotiated with Roscomos to only open the hatch when necessary and to keep it sealed in the evenings.
And that's not the only cause for concern, as the space agency has warned that the ISS is at risk of being pelted with micro-meteors and space debris.
In 2019, it was noted that the module had begun to leak a small amount of air through an unidentified crack.
However, despite efforts to seal the module, the amount of air escaping the station has only increased over the last five years.
In February this year, NASA was forced to hold a press conference on the issue as the amount of air escaping temporarily increased from 0.2 lbs per day (0.09 kg) to 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg) per day.
A report published in September by NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) confirmed that the leak hit record rates in April - losing 3.7 lbs (1.68 kg) of air every day.
This has prompted the space agency to escalate the threat rating to the highest level and consider evacuation plans.
In May and June, NASA officials traveled to Russia to discuss 'heightened concerns' over the seemingly growing leak.
Speaking to the Washington Post, NASA associate administrator Jim Free says: 'We have conveyed the seriousness of the leaks multiple times, including when I was in Russia earlier this year.
'We've come to a compromise that they close it in the evening.'
The OIG report states: 'The Service Module Transfer Tunnel leak is not an immediate risk to the structural integrity of the Station, and there are no current concerns of long-term impacts to the overall structure.'
Likewise, ISS program manager Joel Montalbano told a press conference in February that the leak was 'not an impact right now on the crew safety or vehicle operations, but something for everybody to be aware of.'
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NASA has spotted mysterious 'spiderwebs' on a never-before-explored region near the equator of Mars.
The agency's Curiosity rover has been dispatched to probe these bizarre structures — which cover a six to 12 mile stretch of Martian desert — as the machine searches for signs that this long desolate world once supported alien life.
Geologists suspect that the spiderwebs are a gigantic version of a type of crystalized minerals, known as a 'boxwork,' which appear inside some caves on Earth.
They can be found on the ceiling of Wind Cave in South Dakota, which were created by calcium carbonate mineral water seeping into cracks between softer rocks that hardened into crystals.
But the sprawling, over 3,800-acre-wide boxwork on Mars differs in that it was likely formed by Martian seawater and may have trapped fossils of ancient life in its web.
'These ridges will include minerals that crystallized underground, where it would have been warmer,' according to Rice University geologist Dr Kirsten Siebach.
'Early Earth microbes could have survived in a similar environment,' Dr Siebach explained, nothing that the 'salty liquid water' that created these Martian webs an ideal location to find lingering fossil evidence of ancient alien microbes.
The discovery comes as Australian researchers have found that a Martian meteorite, which crashed into Northwest Africa, provides more evidence of hot water on Mars.
A chemical analysis of that meteorite suggests conditions were ripe for aquatic life to develop on Earth's nearest neighbor over four billion years ago.
According to satellite mapping work by 'Martian geologist' Dr Kirsten Siebach, at least 113.6 billion gallons of salty, warm mineral-laden water would have been required to create the vast field of crystal webbing (above), which is about as big or bigger than Los Angles Airport (LAX)
NASA's planetary geologists suspect the webs are a gigantic version of a type of crystalized minerals, known as a 'boxwork,' that appear inside caves on Earth. Above, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota has some of America's most spiderweb-like 'boxwork' on its ceiling
Ever since it first parachuted down to the Martian surface on August 6, 2012, Curiosity has been exploring the Red Planet for signs of life — as well as hunting for clues about Mars' climate, geology and where all its ancient water went.
But NASA researchers have been intrigued by the massive geological spiderweb for even longer, ever since their Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite first captured aerial images of this haunting landscape back on December 10, 2006.
The likelihood that evidence of aquatic microbial life of Mars might be caught in this giant web as fossils 'makes this an exciting place to explore,' Dr Siebach noted.
This web of potential dead alien microbes and bugs rests in the shadow of a three-mile tall mountain, officially known as 'Aeolis Mon,' but nicknamed 'Mount Sharp.'
Past explorations by the Curiosity rover have revealed many sedimentary layers along the cliff faces of Mount Sharp, suggesting in rich detail that it had been formed by water erosion via ancient lake deposits.
NASA scientists suspect that this erosion helped form the giant crystal spiderweb, as mineral-rich pulses of water seeped and cascaded down Mount Sharp into fractures in the surface rock and then crystallized.
According to satellite mapping work that Dr Siebach published in 2014, at least 113.6 billion gallons of salty, warm mineral-laden water would have been required to create the vast field of crystal webbing, which is bigger than Los Angles Airport (LAX).
Above, NASA's Curiosity rover takes a 'robotic selfie' on the Red Planet via its arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Each of the rover's selfies is really a composite image created from dozens of high-resolution photos taken at various angles by the MAHLI camera
Above, another view of the 'boxwork' webs on the ceiling of Wind River cave in South Dakota
'Mineralization,' the kind of crystal formation that likely occurred here, 'is known on Earth to help facilitate preservation of once-habitable environments,' they noted.
And in Australia this month, scientists working with Martian meteor NWA 7034, discovered after it crashed into Northwest Africa, have found still further evidence that ancient warm oceans on Mars could have easily supported alien life.
'We used nano-scale geochemistry to detect elemental evidence of hot water on Mars 4.45 billion years ago,' planetary scientist Dr Aaron Cavosie said in a statement.
'Geochemical markers of water' were discovered on meteor NWA 7034, Dr Cavosie explained, based both on the shape of its rocky grain patterns and its chemical composition: 'tell-tale signs of water-rich fluids from when the grain formed.'
It's believed that NWA 7034 was ejected from an asteroid impact on Mars that created a crater in the northeast of the 'Terra Cimmeria-Sirenum' province in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
Curiosity rover captured this panorama on November 2, 2024 as it was leaving Mars' so-called 'Gediz Vallis' channel on its way toward the mysterious gigantic spiderweb formation
Above, another panorama made by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover before it left Gediz Vallis
A special technique used to date the age of incredibly old zircon minerals via trace amounts of radioactive material, called 'Uranium–lead dating,' found that this meteor was made up of some of the oldest Martian volcanic rock ever obtained.
'The team identified element patterns in this unique zircon, including iron, aluminum, yttrium and sodium,' Dr Cavosie said, 'Through nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy.'
'These elements were added as the zircon formed 4.45 billion years ago,' he continued, 'suggesting water was present during early Martian magmatic activity.'
This mixture of hot and mineral-rich water, not unlike the hydrothermal vents that support life deep in Earth's oceans, point towards the possibility that life was developing on Mars billions of years ago, amid all this volcanic activity.
'Hydrothermal systems were essential for the development of life on Earth,' Dr Cavosie explained, 'and our findings suggest Mars also had water, a key ingredient for habitable environments, during the earliest history of crust formation.'
The Australian planetary scientist and his team at Curtin University in Australia published their results in the journal Science Advances this past Friday.
In its decade-plus on the Red Planet, NASA's Curiosity rover has trekked roughly 20 miles of the Martian surface for clues about the life that may have once thrived there.
Curiosity will begin studying the spiderweb ridges up close in 2025, according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, where it will stay for a 'monthlong journey through Mars' boxwork.'
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) searches for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.
It was launched August 12, 2005, and achieved an initial orbit around the red planet on March 10, 2006.
In November 2006, after five months of, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase.
Since its arrival, MRO and its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) telescope have been mapping the martian surface, which has been taking shape for more than three billion years.
MRO’s instruments analyse minerals, look for subsurface water, trace how dust and water are distributed in the atmosphere, and monitor daily weather in support of its science objectives.
MRO's missions have shown that water flowed across the Martian surface, but it is still unknown whether water persisted long enough to provide a habitat for life.
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The idea of a killer asteroid smashing into Earth might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster.
But it could become a reality, according to NASA, which puts the chance of a deadly asteroid striking Earth in any given year at roughly one in 300,000.
Before you panic about our impending doom, there's good news.
A scientist from the University of Murcia has come up with an equation to spot killer asteroids heading for our planet.
Professor Oscar del Barco Novillo's equation is based on the gravitational bending of light, and will allow scientists to pinpoint the precise positions of minor objects in the solar system.
This includes objects in the Kuiper Belt – a region of icy objects including Pluto and other dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Neptune – and a vast, frozen, spherical shell called the Oort Cloud, which is the most distant region in our solar system.
In turn, that could allow planetary defence networks to spot and prepare for any asteroids which could collide with Earth.
This advanced warning could be the difference between having time to deflect the asteroid onto a safe path and a cataclysmic impact.
The idea of a killer asteroid smashing into Earth might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster. But it could become a reality, according to NASA, which puts the chance of a deadly asteroid striking Earth in any given year at roughly one in 300,000 (stock image)
Before you anic about our impending doom, there's good news. A scientist from the University of Murcia has come up with an equation to spot killer asteroids heading for our planet
Normally, light takes a straight path from an object to our eyes, meaning where we see the image is where the object really is.
However, this isn't the case for distant objects like asteroids because of a phenomenon called 'gravitational deflection'.
When a beam of light passes through a strong gravitational field like the one around our sun it leaves its straight path and follows a curved trajectory.
You can think of this like a ball following a curving path as it rolls over some uneven ground.
The idea that gravity might bend passing beams of light was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1730.
The issue for astronomers is that gravitational deflection means that the image we see of a distant object doesn't line up with where the object really is.
Professor Novillo told MailOnline: 'When the sunlight is reflected on the minor objects in the solar system, such as asteroids, the light beams we receive on Earth are deflected due to the Sun and major planets such as Jupiter.
Normally, light takes a straight path from an object to our eyes, meaning where we see the image is where the object really is. However, this isn't the case for distant objects like asteroids because of a phenomenon called 'gravitational deflection'
The 6 asteroids that could hit Earth
1. Bennu
Diameter: 1,574 ft
Odds of collision: 1/2,700 on September 24, 2182
2. 1950 DA
Diameter: 6,561 ft
Odds of collison: 1/34,500 on March 16, 2880
3. 2023 TL4
Diameter: 1,083 ft
Odds of collision: 1/181,000 on October 10, 2119
4. 2007 FT3
Diameter: 2,165 ft
Odds of collision: 1/11.5 million on October 5, 2024
5. 2023 DW
Diameter: 166 ft
Odds of collision: 1/1,584 on February 14, 2046
6. 1979 XB
Diameter: 2,165 ft
Odds of collision: 1/1.8 million on December 14, 2113
'In this sense, the actual positions of these minor bodies are shifted, so this effect should be taken into account in the equations of motion of these minor bodies.'
For most applications that might not be an issue, but when it comes to calculating the orbit of a potentially hazardous asteroid even a small miscalculation could be fatal.
Professor Novillo's solution, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is to treat gravity as if it were a physical medium like water to work out how much light bends as it passes through.
Using this formula, Professor Novillo calculated the angle of deflection for light beams coming from Mercury at different points in its orbit.
Comparing the results to those based on Newtonian and Einsteinian equations, he found there was up to a 15.8 per cent difference when Mercury was at its greatest distance from the Sun.
Professor Novillo says that the most important consequence of this discovery is to enable 'a better calculation of the orbits of minor objects in the solar system, which could be potentially hazardous to the Earth.'
While it won't help detect asteroids in the first place, it will help determine a more precise location for these objects and, consequently, a better estimation of their orbits.
Just like in the movie Armageddon (pictured), humanity may be able to deflect an incoming asteroid so long as there is time to organise a response
For example, the ESA's DART mission used a fridge-sized satellite to slam into the space rock Dimorphos to see if an asteroid could be knocked from its path.
While the results are due to be confirmed by the Hera mission late next year, early observations show that the impact did deflect Dimorphos' orbit.
In theory, humanity could use a similar kamikaze satellite to deflect the orbit of a hazardous asteroid on its way to Earth.
However, doing this would require years of prior warning to give space agencies time to plan the mission and for the asteroid to drift out of Earth's path.
That is why it is so critical for space agencies to have an accurate way of assessing the locations and orbits of asteroids drifting through the solar system.
Beyond planetary defence, this equation could also be used to deepen our understanding of the universe.
The hope is that scientists will now be able to calculate the exact location of the nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri.
Proxima Centauri is 4.25 light-years away and is thought to have three exoplanets orbiting around it.
This discovery could also be used to determine the exact location of Proxima Centauri B (artist's impression). If this exoplanet is in its star's habitable zone, it could be the closest Earth-like planet to our sun
If its location could be precisely determined, that would also help scientists accurately study the orbits of its planets to learn whether they do indeed sit within their star's habitable zone.
Additionally, Professor Novillo's discovery could even help scientists map the most distant reaches of space.
Professor Novillo says: 'Distant galaxies, which are distorted and magnified by large amounts of intervening mass, such as galaxy clusters, might be precisely located with this new exact equation.'
Armed with this equation, scientists could produce even more accurate maps which might help understand how dark matter and dark energy have shaped the Universe into what we see today.
Currently, NASA would not be able to deflect an asteroid if it were heading for Earth but it could mitigate the impact and take measures that would protect lives and property.
This would include evacuating the impact area and moving key infrastructure.
Finding out about the orbit trajectory, size, shape, mass, composition and rotational dynamics would help experts determine the severity of a potential impact.
However, the key to mitigating damage is to find any potential threat as early as possible.
NASA and the European Space Agency completed a test which slammed a refrigerator-sized spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos.
The test is to see whether small satellites are capable of preventing asteroids from colliding with Earth.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) used what is known as a kinetic impactor technique—striking the asteroid to shift its orbit.
The impact could change the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing so well before the predicted impact, this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid's path away from Earth.
This was the first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defence.
The results of the trial are expected to be confirmed by the Hera mission in December 2026.
There was Hot Water on Mars 4.45 Billion Years Ago
This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago. The young planet Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
There was Hot Water on Mars 4.45 Billion Years Ago
Earth and Mars were very similar in their youth. Four billion years ago, both planets had vast, warm seas. But while Earth retained its oceans, the waters of Mars evaporated away or froze beneath its dusty surface. Exactly why these two worlds took such divergent paths is unclear, though it may lie in the origins of their water.
Based on geological studies, we know that Earth’s water cycle seemed to have stabilized early. From about 4.5 billion years ago to today, water has had a stable presence on Earth. For Mars, things are less clear. Clay minerals cover about 45% of the Martian surface and date to what is known as the Noachian period, which ranges from 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. We also see evidence of water flows from 3.7 to 3.0 billion years ago, in what’s known as the Hesperian period. During the Amazonian period, which dates from 3 billion years ago to today, Mars seems to have been mostly dry. We have little evidence of the earliest period of Mars, known as the pre-Noachian. But a new study peels back the Martian ages to give us a glimpse of the first epoch of Mars, and it comes from a Martian meteorite known as Black Beauty.
Black Beauty, or NWA 7034, is a Martian meteorite thought to have formed at a time when the Red Planet harbored a magnetic field. Credit: C Agee, Institute of Meteoritics, UNM; NASA
There are about 200 meteorites known to have come from Mars, and they are currently the only physical samples of Mars we have on Earth. One of the larger meteorites, Northwest Africa 7034, was discovered in Western Sahara in 2011 and is nicknamed “Black Beauty” because of its rich black coloring. It’s made of material that’s about 4.4 billion years old and contains more water than any other Martian meteorite. But since it was only ejected from Mars 1.5 billion years ago, it is difficult to determine whether Black Beauty formed in a wet environment or if it gained water during the Noachian or Hesperian period.
This new study doesn’t focus on Black Beauty as a whole, but rather on small crystals of zircon embedded within it. These crystals can be dated to 4.48–4.43 billion years, meaning they formed in the Pre-Noachian period. What’s interesting is that the crystals have layers of iron, aluminum, and sodium in a pattern known as oscillatory zoning. Since zircon is igneous in origin, this kind of banding is almost unheard of in zircon crystals. On Earth, there is only one place where such a pattern occurs, which is in hydrothermal geysers such as those found in Yellowstone National Park.
The presence of these crystals in Black Beauty proves not only that Mars was wet during the Pre-Noachian period, but that it was geologically active with warm thermal vents. Similar vents on Earth may have triggered the formation of life on our world. Whether life ever existed on Mars is still an unanswered question, but it is clear that the conditions for life on Mars did exist in its earliest history.
Scientists have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside our own galaxy - and some fantasy fans might find it strikingly familiar.
The 'Behemoth Star' WOH G64 is located a staggering 160,000 light-years from Earth in a neighbouring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Although scientists have known about this star for decades, it is only now that technological advances have made it possible to see it up close.
The incredible image reveals a bright core surrounded by an 'egg-shaped' cocoon of dust and gas that looks just like the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.
However, scientists say that the star's iris-shaped ring is actually a sign that this red supergiant could be on the brink of collapse.
The researchers found that the dying star has grown dimmer in the last 10 years as it jettisons its outer layers into space.
Co-author Dr Jacco van Loon, director of the Keele Observatory at Keele University, told MailOnline: 'Other distant supernova explosions often indicate the star had thrown off a lot of material in the years or decades prior to the explosion.
'If this is what WOH G64 is doing at the moment, then we might well see it explode in our lifetime.'
Scientists have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside our own galaxy (pictured), capturing this stunning image of the 'Behemoth Star' WOH G64
Fans of fantasy might notice that the image of the star bears a striking resemblance to the Eye of Saron from Lord of the Rings
Although stars are massive, the incredible distances that separate them from the Earth make them extremely difficult to image.
Even when it comes to stars inside our galaxy, astronomers have only been able to produce images of around two dozen stars such as Betelgeuse, the nearest red supergiant to the Sun.
To truly image a star outside the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of light-years from Earth requires the use of a specialised technique called 'interferometry'.
This is where multiple telescopes combine their information to act as if they were a single huge lens as wide as the distance between them.
By combining the data from multiple large telescopes, astronomers can get previously impossible levels of detail from objects incredibly far from Earth.
Using this technique, the researchers merged images from the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) four 8-metre wide telescopes.
This finally allowed the researchers to record a close-up image of WOH G64.
Lead author Dr Keiichi Ohnaka, an astronomer from the Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile, says: 'For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way.'
The star WOH G64 is located in a galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud over 160,000 light years from Earth
This is the first time a star in a neighbouring galaxy, such as the Magellanic Cloud (pictured), has ever been captured. This technique could allow scientists to observe the never-before-recorded processes which take place in dying stars
Capturing an image of the star required using a technique called interferometry to merge images from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) four 8-metre wide telescopes (pictured)
How does interferometry work?
For objects that are too far for normal techniques to see, astronomers need to use a specialised technique called interferometry.
This uses an array of telescopes placed some distance apart to act together as a single telescope.
The light from several telescopes is collected and combined into a single image.
This requires incredibly precise optics but creates a 'virtual telescope' with a diameter equal to the distance between the individual smaller telescopes.
This allows astronomers to see details of distant bodies that would usually be impossible to image.
While the researchers say they were mainly trying to prove these images were possible, they also discovered something unexpected about the Behemoth Star.
Dr Ohnaka says: 'We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star.
'We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.'
When a star expends the last of its hydrogen fuel, the balance of forces that keep it stable begins to fail and the star collapses in on itself.
As the outer layers fall inwards, the area around the core becomes so hot that it starts to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium.
The immense amounts of energy generated by this process cause the star to balloon into a vast red giant like WOH G64 and blasts the outer layers away into space.
Compared to observations made in 2005 and 2007, the researchers noted that WOH G64 has become significantly dimmer in the intervening decade.
The researchers believe that this dimming and the egg-shaped cocoon could be due to the star having 'thrown off its mantle' - a critical change that has never before been seen while happening.
The researchers say that the egg-shaped cocoon of dust surrounding the star could be a sign that WOH G64 could blow up in a supernova explosion within our lifetimes
Co-author Professor Gerd Weigelt, of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, says: 'We have found that the star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real-time.'
While some stars remain red supergiants for tens of thousands of years before exploding, the sudden change suggests there is a chance WOH G64 could blow relatively soon.
This groundbreaking image, therefore, is an unprecedented opportunity to watch the final days of a dying star.
The researchers are already planning further observations of the star to learn more about what is going on.
And, as ESO prepares to further upgrade the VLTI's equipment, even better images may soon be on their way.
Dr Loon concludes: 'To have been able to take the image is a first step to see directly what is going on around some of the rarest types of stars, when they are doing wild things before dying that are hard to catch in the act.
'We had not expected to see this star do something really dramatic, and to have imaged that will help us understand the final phases in the lives of massive stars before they explode.'
A supernova occurs when a star explodes, shooting debris and particles into space.
A supernova burns for only a short period of time, but it can tell scientists a lot about how the universe began.
One kind of supernova has shown scientists that we live in an expanding universe, one that is growing at an ever increasing rate.
Scientists have also determined that supernovas play a key role in distributing elements throughout the universe.
In 1987, astronomers spotted a ‘titanic supernova’ in a nearby galaxy blazing with the power of over 100 million suns (pictured)
There are two known types of supernova.
The first type occurs in binary star systems when one of the two stars, a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, steals matter from its companion star.
Eventually, the white dwarf accumulates too much matter, causing the star to explode, resulting in a supernova.
The second type of supernova occurs at the end of a single star's lifetime.
As the star runs out of nuclear fuel, some of its mass flows into its core.
Eventually, the core is so heavy it can't stand its own gravitational force and the core collapses, resulting in another giant explosion.
Many elements found on Earth are made in the core of stars and these elements travel on to form new stars, planets and everything else in the universe.
Astronomen zijn er voor de eerste keer in geslaagd gedetailleerde beelden te maken van een verre ster die zich in de laatste fasen van zijn leven bevindt.
“Voor het eerst is het gelukt om een ingezoomd beeld te maken van een ster die sterft in een sterrenstelsel buiten onze Melkweg.” Aan het woord is hoofdauteur Keiichi Ohnaka, een astrofysicus van de Universidad Andrés Bello in Chili. De foto markeert een belangrijke mijlpaal. Want hoewel astronomen al zo’n twee dozijn close-upbeelden van sterren in ons eigen sterrenstelsel hebben gemaakt, zien we nu pas voor het eerst een ster die verder weg ligt, van heel dichtbij.
Ster WOH G64 Dankzij de eerdere foto’s van sterren in onze Melkweg hebben we al veel geleerd over hun eigenschappen. Maar er bevinden zich ook talloze andere sterren in verre sterrenstelsels die zo ver weg zijn, dat het tot nu toe bijna onmogelijk was om zelfs maar één van hen in detail te observeren. Maar daar hebben onderzoekers nu verandering in gebracht. Op een verbluffende afstand van 160.000 lichtjaar van ons vandaan werd de ster WOH G64 vastgelegd, mogelijk gemaakt door de indrukwekkende scherpte van de Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht (ESO).
The New Largest Star in the Universe 2024! WOH G64
De foto De foto is hieronder te bewonderen. De betreffende ster ligt in de Grote Magelhaanse Wolk, een van de kleine sterrenstelsels die de Melkweg omcirkelen. Astronomen kennen deze ster al decennialang en hebben haar de toepasselijke bijnaam ‘behemoth ster’ gegeven. Met een omvang die zo’n 2000 keer die van onze zon is, wordt WOH G64 geclassificeerd als een rode superreus.
De betreffende close-upfoto van de ster WOH G64, gemaakt met het GRAVITY-instrument op de VLTI van de ESO. Het is de eerste close-upfoto van een ster buiten onze eigen Melkweg. De ster bevindt zich in de Grote Magelhaanse Wolk, op meer dan 160.000 lichtjaar afstand. Het heldere ovaal in het midden van de afbeelding is een stoffige cocon die de ster omhult. Een zwakker ellipsvormig ring rondom de cocon zou de binnenrand van een stoffige torus (een ringvormige structuur van stof en gas die de ster omringt) kunnen zijn. Afbeelding: ESO/K. Ohnaka et al.
Het team was al jaren gefascineerd door deze behemoth ster. In 2005 en 2007 gebruikten ze de VLTI om meer te leren over haar eigenschappen en sindsdien hebben ze haar continu bestudeerd. Toch bleef een echte afbeelding van de ster tot nu toe buiten bereik. Voor de gewenste foto moest het team namelijk geduldig wachten op de ontwikkeling van een belangrijk tweede-generatie-instrument van de VLTI: GRAVITY.
Supernova De nieuwe waarnemingen onthullen een ster die gas en stof uitblaast, vlak voor het moment dat het een supernova wordt, zo beschrijven de onderzoekers in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics. “We ontdekten een ei-vormige cocon die de ster strak omhult”, vertelt Ohnaka. “We zijn enthousiast, omdat dit mogelijk verband houdt met de enorme uitstoot van materiaal door de ster voordat hij explodeert als een supernova.”
Verandering Toen ze hun nieuwe bevindingen vervolgens vergeleken met eerdere waarnemingen van WOH G64, waren ze verrast te ontdekken dat de ster de afgelopen tien jaar ingrijpende veranderingen heeft doorgemaakt. “Dit biedt ons een zeldzame kans om het leven van een ster in real-time te volgen”, zegt Gerd Weigelt, mede-auteur van de studie. In hun laatste levensfasen verliezen rode superreuzen zoals WOH G64 hun buitenste lagen van gas en stof, een proces dat duizenden jaren kan duren. “Deze ster is een van de meest extreme in zijn soort”, stelt mede-auteur Jacco van Loon, die de ster al sinds de jaren 1990 observeert. “Elke drastische verandering kan hem dichter bij een explosief einde brengen.”
Links: de allereerste close-upfoto van een ster buiten ons sterrenstelsel. Op de afbeelding is een grote ei-vormige stofwolk te zien. Rechts is een artistieke impressie die de geometrie van de structuren rondom de ster reconstrueert, inclusief het heldere ovale omhulsel en een zwakkere, stoffige torus. Het bevestigen van de aanwezigheid en vorm van deze torus zal aanvullende waarnemingen vereisen. Afbeelding: ESO/K. Ohnaka et al., L. Calçada
Zwakker Eén van de veranderingen die WOH G64 heeft doorgemaakt, is dat de ster de afgelopen tien jaar veel zwakker is geworden. Het team vermoedt dat het uitgeblazen materiaal zowel de verduistering als de onverwachte vorm van de stofwolk rond de ster veroorzaakt. De nieuwe afbeelding toont zoals gezegd een uitgestrekte cocon, wat de wetenschappers verraste, omdat ze op basis van eerdere waarnemingen en computermodellen een andere vorm hadden verwacht. Het team denkt dat de ei-vormige structuur van de cocon verklaard kan worden door de uitstoot van de ster zelf, of mogelijk door de invloed van een nog onontdekte metgezelster.
Hoewel het maken van de nieuwe beelden een uitdaging was, opent het nieuwe mogelijkheden voor het bestuderen van verre sterrenstelsels. Bovendien levert het waardevolle inzichten op in de ingewikkelde processen die plaatsvinden tijdens de laatste levensfasen van een ster. Naarmate WOH G64 verder vervaagt, wordt het overigens wel steeds moeilijker om nieuwe close-upfoto’s te maken, zelfs met de VLTI. Toch zullen de geplande updates van de telescoop, zoals de toekomstige GRAVITY+, daar binnenkort verandering in kunnen brengen. “Vervolgwaarnemingen met ESO-instrumenten zullen cruciaal zijn om te begrijpen wat er met de ster gebeurt,” besluit Ohnaka.
New Supercomputer Simulation Explains How Mars Got Its Moons
Earth and Mars are the only two rocky planets in the solar system to have moons. Based on lunar rock samples and computer simulations, we are fairly certain that our Moon is the result of an early collision between Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet called Theia. Since we don’t have rock samples from either Martian moon, the origins of Deimos and Phobos are less clear. There are two popular models, but new computer simulations point to a compromise solution.
Observations of Deimos and Phobos show that they resemble small asteroids. This is consistent with the idea that the Martian moons were asteroids captured by Mars in its early history. The problem with this idea is that Mars is a small planet with less gravitational pull than Earth or Venus, which have no captured moons. It would be difficult for Mars to capture even one small asteroid, much less two. And captured moons would tend to have more elliptical orbits, not the circular ones of Deimos and Phobos.
An alternative model argues that the Martian moons are the result of an early collision similar to that of Earth and Theia. In this model, an asteroid or comet with about 3% of the mass of Mars impacted the planet. It would not be large enough to have fragmented Mars, but it would have created a large debris ring out of which the two moons could have formed. This would explain the more circular orbits, but the difficulty is that debris rings would tend to form close to the planet. While Phobos, the larger Martian moon, orbits close to Mars, Deimos does not.
This new model proposes an interesting middle way. Rather than an impact or direct capture, the authors propose a near miss by a large asteroid. If an asteroid passed close enough to Mars, the tidal forces of the planet would rip the asteroid apart to create a string of fragments. Many of those fragments would be captured in elliptical orbits around Mars. As computer simulations show, the orbits would shift over time due to the small gravitational tugs of the Sun and other solar system bodies, eventually causing some of the fragments to collide. This would produce a debris ring similar to that of an impact event, but with a greater distance range, better able to account for both Phobos and Deimos.
While this new model appears to be better than the capture and impact models, the only way to resolve this mystery will be to study samples from the Martian moons themselves. Fortunately, in 2026 the Mars Moons eXploration mission (MMX) will launch. It will explore both moons and gather samples from Phobos. So we should finally understand the origin of these enigmatic companions of the Red Planet.
Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter
The Solar Orbiter has captured the highest resolution images of the Sun ever during a recent close encounter. The detail is extraordinary. Image Credit: ESA - European Space Agency
Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter
74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million km isn’t such a big deal when the object is the Sun.
That’s how far away from the Sun the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter was when it captured these new images.
The Solar Orbiter was launched in 2020 to investigate the Sun. It’s studying the mechanism behind the Sun’s solar wind, the complex dynamics of its magnetic field, and eruptions like solar flares and coronal mass ejections. That’s just a sampling of its science goals.
One item on the mission’s long list of objectives is high-resolution images of the Sun’s surface. For that, the spacecraft carries different imagers that operate in different wavelengths. This allows the spacecraft to almost peel back the Sun’s layers and uncover relationships between them.
The ESA has released four new images of the Sun, each one giving us a different look at our star: visible light, magnetic, plasma, and UV. These images were captured with the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI-German contribution) and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI-Belgian contribution) instruments in March 2023. Each image is a composite of 25 images, all captured on the same day. They’re the highest resolution images of the Sun ever taken.
The images are remarkable for their detail. This image shows sunspots, regions that are darker and cooler than their surroundings. They appear where magnetic field lines are concentrated. The magnetic flux inhibits convection. Image Credit: ESA
According to Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter’s Project Scientist, the Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the star.
“The Sun’s magnetic field is key to understanding the dynamic nature of our home star from the smallest to the largest scales. These new high-resolution maps from Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument show the beauty of the Sun’s surface magnetic field and flows in great detail. At the same time, they are crucial for inferring the magnetic field in the Sun’s hot corona, which our EUI instrument is imaging,” Müller said.
This magnetic map of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter shows how magnetic field lines and sunspots are correlated. Image Credit: ESA.
The Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument also gives us a map of how plasma is moving around on the Sun’s surface. Blue regions are moving toward the Orbiter, while red regions are moving away.
The map of plasma movement clearly reflects the rotation of the Sun, with blue regions moving toward the orbiter and red regions moving away. However, it also shows how material is disoriented around the sunspots. Image Credit: ESA
The ultraviolet image of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter’s EUI instrument is probably the most visually stunning. It shows what’s happening above the photosphere, where glowing plasma extends out from sunspots. The plasma is superheated and follows the same magnetic lines that encourage the sunspots.
The Sun’s superheated plasma follow magnetic field lines and extends beyond the photosphere in the same regions the sunspots occur. Image Credit: ESA
The Solar Orbiter’s images are truly extraordinary. It’s easy to lose yourself in them, and to wonder about Life, the Universe, Nature, Evolution, How Everything Came to Be, and your own mortality in the face of it all.
Go ahead and lose yourself in these images for a while. The economy won’t grind to halt if you take a few moments. Image Credit: ESA
Now, back to your cubicle.
OTHER VIDEOS
2023 November 19 - Space Station, Solar Prominences, Sun
Sun's corona seen in 'exquisite detail' in new Solar Orbiter view
The Deepest We Have Ever Seen Into the Sun | SDO 4K
Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
This magnetar is a highly magnetized neutron star. This artist's illustration shows an outburst from a magnetar. Neutron stars that spin rapidly and give out radiation are called pulsars, and specific pulsars are rare in the core of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech
Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
Every now and then, astronomers will detect an odd kind of radio signal. So powerful it can outshine a galaxy, but lasting only milliseconds. They are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). When they were first discovered a couple of decades ago, we had no idea what might cause them. We weren’t even sure if they were astronomical in origin. FRB’s were so localized and so short-lived, it was difficult to gather data on them. But with wide-field radio telescopes such as CHIME we can now observe FRBs regularly and have a pretty good idea of their source: magnetars.
Magnetars are neutron stars with immensely powerful magnetic fields. Now that we can localize FRBs, we have been able to match a few of them to the region of a neutron star. While most FRBs occur in distant galaxies, in 2020 we observed one within the Milky Way. The magnetar source also happened to be a pulsar, and astronomers were able to show that the FRB [correlated with a glitch in the pulsar’s rotation,](https://briankoberlein.com/blog/power-of-magnetism/) thus confirming the source. So we are fairly certain that FRBs are caused by neutron stars, but we are still uncertain about the exact mechanism.
One popular idea is that fast radio bursts are caused by magnetic realignments. This is what drives flares on the Sun. Over time, the Sun’s magnetic field lines can get twisted up until they snap into realignment, releasing energy. If a similar effect occurs on magnetars, the resulting snap would be much faster and more powerful. One difficulty with this idea is that FRBs are so short-lived that they are almost too fast for magnetic field lines to realign. So astronomers keep looking for new ideas, and one recently proposed argues that they are caused by impact events.
Distribution of FRB duration and ISB sizes compared. Credit: Pham, et al
Collisions have long been known as the source of high-energy events. For example, some supernovae are caused by the collisions of neutron stars. We also know that comets and asteroids occasionally impact the Sun, so we would expect similar impacts to occur on neutron stars. In this new work, the authors propose that FRBs are caused when an interstellar body collides with a neutron star. The impact would trigger a powerful electromagnetic burst. To support their argument, the authors looked at the distribution of FRBs arranged by duration. The timing of FRBs follows a distribution similar to the distribution of solar system bodies. Not only that, the duration of an FRB seems to match the hypothetical duration of an impact event based on an object’s size.
While the data does seem to support the idea of impact-based FRBs, the study doesn’t solve all the mysteries surrounding these powerful bursts. We know, for example, that some FRBs are repeaters, meaning they occur multiple times from the same source. Some studies have shown that repeating FRBs are quasi-periodic, which would be difficult to explain through random collisions. It’s possible that repeating and non-repeating FRBs are caused by different mechanisms, though the data is still inconclusive on that point.
What Are Fast Radio Bursts? With Dr. Duncan Lorimer
Starship’s Booster (and Donald Trump) Make a Splash With Sixth Flight Test
SpaceX’s Starship launch system went through its sixth flight test today, and although the Super Heavy booster missed out on being caught back at its launch pad, the mission checked off a key test objective with President-elect Donald Trump in the audience.
Trump attended the launch at SpaceX’s Starbase complex in the company of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been serving as a close adviser to the once and future president over the past few months. In a pre-launch posting to his Truth Social media platform, Trump wished good luck to “Elon Musk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project.”
Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket, with 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines providing more than 16 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. That’s twice the power of the Saturn V rocket that sent Americans to the moon in the 1960s and early ’70s. The two-stage rocket stands 121 meters (397 feet) tall, with a 9-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) fairing.
Super Heavy had an on-time launch at 4 p.m. CT (22:00 UTC) and was set up to fly itself back to the launch tower to be caught by the giant “Mechazilla” arms that were successfully used during last month’s flight test. But four minutes after liftoff, mission controllers said the booster had to be diverted instead to make a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a recap of the flight, SpaceX said that “automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt.”
“It was not guaranteed that we would be able to make a tower catch today,” launch commentator Kate Tice said during today’s webcast. “So, while we were hoping for it … the safety of the teams and the public and the pad itself are paramount. We are accepting no compromises in any of those areas.”
While the booster settled majestically into the Gulf, the Starship second stage — known as Ship for short — continued on a track that sent it as high as 190 kilometers (120 miles). A plush banana was placed in Ship’s cargo bay as a zero-gravity indicator, and Tice wore a T-shirt bearing the words “It’s Bananas!” to play off the lighthearted theme.
Ship successfully relit one of its methane-fueled Merlin engines while in space, which was a key objective for today’s suborbital test. Relighting the engines under such conditions will be required in the future for Ship’s orbital maneuvers.
A little more than an hour after launch, Ship’s engines fired for a final time to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The daylight visuals, plus other data collected during the flight, will help SpaceX’s team fine-tune Starship’s design for future tests.
SpaceX plans to use Starship to accelerate deployment of its Starlink broadband satellites, as well as to fly missions beyond Earth orbit. The company has a $2.9 billion contract from NASA to provide a version of Starship that’s customized for lunar landings, starting as early 2026. And Musk has said Starship could take on uncrewed missions starting that same year — with the first crewed mission set for launch in 2028 if everything goes right.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson referred to those future flights in a message on Musk’s X social-media platform:
Check out these other postings tracking the progress of the flight test:
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
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Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
