Landing 12 people on the moon remains one of NASA's greatest achievements, if not the greatest.

Astronauts on the Apollo missions of the 1960s and '70s collected rocks, took photos, performed experiments, planted flags, and then came home. But those stays didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon.

More than 50 years after the most recent crewed moon landing — Apollo 17 in December 1972 — there are plenty of reasons to return people to Earth's giant, dusty satellite and stay there.

We're getting closer. In February, a US lunar lander touched down on the moon's surface for the first time since Apollo 17. The uncrewed Nova-C lander, named Odysseus, was designed by the Houston company Intuitive Machines with a $118 million contract from NASA. It was the first commercial mission to touch down on the moon and a huge step toward new human landings.

NASA has promised we will see US astronauts on the moon again soon-ish — maybe by September 2026 at the earliest, in a program called Artemis, which is set to include the first woman, first Black astronaut, and first Canadian to touch the lunar surface.

Jim Bridenstine, who ran NASA during the Trump administration, said it's not science or technology hurdles that have held the US back from doing this sooner.

"If it wasn't for the political risk, we would be on the moon right now," Bridenstine said on a phone call with reporters in 2018. "In fact, we would probably be on Mars."

Why a permanent crewed lunar base is worth it

Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station.

"A permanent human research station on the moon is the next logical step. It's only three days away. We can afford to get it wrong and not kill everybody," Chris Hadfield, a former astronaut, previously told Business Insider. "And we have a whole bunch of stuff we have to invent and then test in order to learn before we can go deeper out."

A lunar base could evolve into a fuel depot for deep-space missions, lead to the creation of unprecedented space telescopes, make it easier to live on Mars, and solve long-standing scientific mysteries about Earth and the moon's creation. It could even spur a thriving off-world economy, perhaps one built around lunar space tourism.

But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing.

It's really expensive to get to the moon — but not that expensive

A tried-and-true hurdle for any spaceflight program, especially missions that involve people, is the steep cost.

NASA's 2024 budget was $24.9 billion, which may sound like a windfall until you consider that the total gets split among all the agency's divisions and ambitious projects: the James Webb Space Telescope, the giant rocket project called Space Launch System, and far-flung missions to the sun, Jupiter, Mars, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, and the edge of our solar system. 

By contrast, the US defense budget for 2024 is about $883.7 billion.

With such a tight budget, NASA is vulnerable to government gridlocks. Congress was slow to pass its 2024 budget — a delay NASA cited as a major reason for laying off 8% of its workforce at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in February.

Plus, NASA's budget is somewhat small relative to its past.

"NASA's portion of the federal budget peaked at 4% in 1965," Walter Cunningham, an Apollo 7 astronaut, said during congressional testimony in 2015.

In comparison, NASA's 2024 budget represents roughly 0.36% of US spending, according to a report from the Planetary Society. It has fluctuated between 0.4% and 1% since the 1970s, the report said.

Returning to the moon costs a significant chunk of that budget. A 2021 report from NASA estimated that the Artemis program to return people to the moon would cost a total of $93 billion from 2012 through 2025.

The Apollo program, by comparison, cost about $257 billion in today's dollars.

"Manned exploration is the most expensive space venture and, consequently, the most difficult for which to obtain political support," Cunningham said during his 2015 testimony.

He added, according to Scientific American: "Unless the country, which is Congress here, decided to put more money in it, this is just talk that we're doing here."

Referring to Mars missions and a return to the moon, Cunningham said, "NASA's budget is way too low to do all the things that we've talked about."

The problem with presidents

President Joe Biden will no longer be in office in 2026, when NASA plans to send astronauts back to the moon.

And therein lies another major problem: partisan political whiplash.

"Why would you believe what any president said about a prediction of something that was going to happen two administrations in the future?" Hadfield previously told BI. "That's just talk."

The process of designing, engineering, and testing a spacecraft that could get people to another world easily outlasts a two-term president. But incoming presidents and lawmakers often scrap the previous leader's space-exploration priorities.

"I would like the next president to support a budget that allows us to accomplish the mission that we are asked to perform, whatever that mission may be," Scott Kelly, a retired astronaut who spent a year in space, wrote in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread in January 2016, before Donald Trump took office.

But presidents and Congress don't often seem to care about staying the course.

In 2004, for example, the Bush administration tasked NASA to come up with a way to replace the space shuttle, which was set to retire, and also return to the moon. The agency came up with the Constellation program to land astronauts on the moon using a rocket called Ares and a spaceship called Orion.

NASA spent $9 billion over five years designing, building, and testing hardware for that human-spaceflight program.

Yet after President Barack Obama took office — and the Government Accountability Office released a report about NASA's inability to estimate a realistic cost for Constellation — Obama pushed to scrap the program and signed off on the SLS rocket instead.

Trump didn't scrap SLS, but he did change Obama's goal of launching astronauts to an asteroid, shifting priorities to moon and Mars missions. Trump wanted to see Artemis land astronauts back on the moon in 2024.

Such frequent changes to NASA's expensive priorities have led to cancellation after cancellation, a loss of about $20 billion, and years of wasted time and momentum.

Biden seems to be a rare exception to the shifty presidential trend: He hasn't toyed with Trump's Artemis priority for NASA, and he's also kept the Space Force intact.

For Trump's second term, some space industry experts told BI that SpaceX founder Elon Musk could influence the space agenda and help finally get the US back to the moon and, ultimately, to Mars.

Buzz Aldrin said in testimony to Congress in 2015 that he believed the will to return to the moon must come from Capitol Hill.

"American leadership is inspiring the world by consistently doing what no other nation is capable of doing. We demonstrated that for a brief time 45 years ago. I do not believe we have done it since," Aldrin wrote in a statement. "I believe it begins with a bipartisan congressional and administration commitment to sustained leadership."

The real driving force behind that government commitment to return to the moon is the will of the American people, who vote for politicians and help shape their policy priorities. But public interest in lunar exploration has always been lukewarm.

Even at the height of the Apollo program, after Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, only 53% of Americans said they thought the program was worth the cost. For the most part, US approval of Apollo hovered below 50%.

A 2023 Pew Research Poll found most Americans said NASA should continue leading space exploration. But that doesn't mean people care about going back to the moon — only 12% of the 10,329 respondents said NASA should prioritize human lunar missions.

Support for crewed Mars exploration isn't much stronger, with 11% of the poll's respondents saying it should be a NASA priority. Meanwhile, 60% said scanning the skies for killer asteroids was important.

The challenges beyond politics include problematic regolith and eye-popping temperature fluctuations

The political tug-of-war over NASA's mission and budget isn't the only reason people haven't returned to the moon. The moon is also a 4.5-billion-year-old death trap for humans and must not be trifled with or underestimated.

Its surface is littered with craters and boulders that threaten safe landings. The US government spent what would be tens of billions in today's dollars to develop, launch, and deliver satellites to the moon to map its surface and help mission planners scout for Apollo landing sites.

But a bigger worry is what eons of meteorite impacts have created: regolith, also called moon dust.

Following the Apollo missions, scientists quarantined the astronauts for two weeks after they landed, in part because they were worried about the effects of the dust, according to a 2022 NASA study. The fine powder that sits on the moon's surface stuck to their suits and vehicles and even got inside their spacecraft.

Peggy Whitson, an astronaut who has spent 675 days in space, previously told BI that the Apollo missions "had a lot of problems with dust."

"If we're going to spend long durations and build permanent habitats, we have to figure out how to handle that," Whitson said.

There's also a problem with sunlight and deadly solar radiation.

For about 14 days at a time, the side of the moon facing Earth is a boiling hellscape that is exposed directly to the sun's harsh rays; the moon has very little atmosphere, and therefore no protection against solar radiation.

The next 14 days that same side is in total darkness, dipping to temperatures below minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit, making the moon's surface one of the colder places in the solar system.

NASA is developing a fission power system that could supply astronauts with electricity during weekslong lunar nights — which would also be useful on other worlds, including Mars.

"There is not a more environmentally unforgiving or harsher place to live than the moon," the astronautical engineer Madhu Thangavelu wrote. "And yet, since it is so close to the Earth, there is not a better place to learn how to live away from planet Earth."

NASA has designed dust- and sun-resistant spacesuits and rovers, though it's uncertain whether that equipment is anywhere near ready to launch.

"I already knew going to the moon was hard," Reid Wiseman, the Artemis II mission commander, said at a press conference in 2023. "But boy, it's harder than I thought."

A generation of billionaire 'space nuts' may get there

Another issue, astronauts say, is NASA's graying workforce. In 2019, more American kids polled said they dreamed about becoming YouTube stars than astronauts.

"You've got to realize young people are essential to this kind of an effort," the Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt previously told BI. "The average age of the people in Mission Control for Apollo 13 was 26 years old, and they'd already been on a bunch of missions."

An estimated 14% of NASA's workforce is over 40 years old, according to a Zippia analysis.

"That's not where innovation and excitement comes from. Excitement comes from when you've got teenagers and 20-year-olds running programs," Rusty Schweickart, a former NASA astronaut, said. "When Elon Musk lands a [rocket booster], his whole company is yelling and screaming and jumping up and down."

Musk is part of what retired astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman has called a "generation of billionaires who are space nuts," developing a new, private suite of moon-capable rockets.

"The innovation that's been going on over the last 10 years in spaceflight never would've happened if it was just NASA and Boeing and Lockheed," Hoffman told journalists during a roundtable in 2018. "Because there was no motivation to reduce the cost or change the way we do it."

Hoffman was referring to the innovative work of Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, as well as to Jeff Bezos, who founded the aerospace company Blue Origin.

"There's no question: If we're going to go farther, especially if we're going to go farther than the moon, we need new transportation," Hoffman added. "Right now we're still in the horse-and-buggy days of spaceflight."

Many astronauts' desire to return to the moon aligns with Bezos' long-term vision. Bezos has floated a plan to start building the first moon base using Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket system. 

"We will move all heavy industry off of Earth, and Earth will be zoned residential and light industry," he said in April 2018.

Musk has also spoken at length about how SpaceX's Starship launch system could pave the way for affordable, regular lunar visits.

"My dream would be that someday the moon would become part of the economic sphere of the Earth — just like geostationary orbit and low-Earth orbit," Hoffman said. "Space out as far as geostationary orbit is part of our everyday economy. Someday I think the moon will be, and that's something to work for."

SpaceX successfully launched its complete Starship system in October.

It was a huge feat, proving the reusable rocket could launch toward space and safely come back to Earth.

With space enthusiasts, both public and private, making strides, astronauts don't doubt whether we'll get back to the moon and onto Mars. It's just a matter of when.

"I guess eventually things will come to pass where they will go back to the moon and eventually go to Mars — probably not in my lifetime," said 96-year-old retired astronaut Jim Lovell, who flew to the moon on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. "Hopefully, they'll be successful."

• This story was originally published on July 14, 2018. It has been updated. 
• Correction: February 27, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the size of NASA's contract with Intuitive Machines. It was $118 million, not $118 billion. A prior version of this story also misstated the number of moonwalkers. During NASA's Apollo program, 12 people landed on the moon.

{https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

14-11-2024 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

Researchers find strong evidence for “Snowball Earth” theory

Study “presents the first physical evidence that Snowball Earth reached the heart of continents at the equator” says lead author Liam Courtney-Davies.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents strong evidence that massive glaciers covered the entire globe during the Cryogenian Period, including thick ice sheets that likely formed over Colorado. Led by the University of Colorado Boulder, the research focuses on the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains, where geologists found physical evidence related to the Snowball Earth hypothesis. The study describes a missing link found in an unusual pebbly sandstone encapsulated within the granite that forms Colorado's Pikes Peak.

Liam Courtney-Davies, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geological Sciences at CU Boulder, stated, "This study presents the first physical evidence that Snowball Earth reached the heart of continents at the equator." The discovery that glaciers reached the center of continents, where conditions would have been very dry, deepens the mystery of where and how life survives. Physical evidence that ice sheets covered the interior of continents in warm equatorial regions had eluded scientists until now.

During the Snowball Earth period, around 720 to 635 million years ago, the Earth cooled so much that massive ice sheets encased the entire planet like a giant snowball. Temperatures plummeted, and ice sheets that may have been several miles thick crept over every inch of Earth's surface. Evidence of ice in Colorado dating back 661 million years supports this hypothesis. Scientists believe that ice sheets possibly surrounded the entire planet, even at the equator, where it is warmer today.

Despite decades of research, scientists have not agreed whether the entire globe actually froze during the Snowball Earth period. Initially, geologists were skeptical about finding far more ancient hints of glaciers in tropical regions. It seemed implausible that the planet had ever been cold enough for thick sheets of ice to have reached the equator. The new findings further cement the global Snowball Earth hypothesis, which suggests that this global deep freeze endured for tens of millions of years.

The study focuses on the Tava sandstones, a series of rocks nicknamed the Tavakaiv or "Tava," which hold clues to the frigid period in Earth's past. The Tava rocks are composed of solidified sand injectites, formed when sand-rich fluid was forced into underlying rock, similar to fracking for natural gas or oil. To the untrained eye, the Tava sandstones might seem like ordinary yellow-brown rocks running in vertical bands less than an inch to many feet wide. For geologists, however, they have an unusual history; they likely began as sands at the surface of Colorado at some point in the past.

The researchers used a dating technique called laser ablation mass spectrometry, which zaps minerals with lasers to release some of the atoms inside. Recent advancements in laser-based radiometric dating allowed the researchers to measure the ratio of uranium to lead isotopes in iron oxide minerals, revealing how long ago the individual crystals formed. This allowed them to figure out an age bracket for the sand injectites, which must have formed between 690 million and 660 million years ago, during the Cryogenian Period.

The group suspects that thick ice sheets formed over Colorado during the Snowball Earth period, exposing the sands to intense pressures. The researchers envision the following scenario for how the sand injection happened: A giant ice sheet with areas of geothermal heating at its base produced meltwater, which mixed with quartz-rich sediment below. Similar to fracking for natural gas or oil today, the pressure cracked the rocks and pushed the sandy meltwater in, eventually creating the injectites seen today.

Liam Courtney-Davies says, "These are classic geological features called injectites that often form below some ice sheets, including in modern-day Antarctica." He added, "You have the climate evolving, and you have life evolving with it. All of these things happened during Snowball Earth upheaval." The researchers argue that mineral veins injected into sandstones are a sure sign of a combination of glacial pressure and geothermal heating.

At the time of the Snowball Earth period, Colorado rested over the equator as a landlocked part of the ancient supercontinent Laurentia, and the Tava rocks found on Pikes Peak would have formed close to the equator. If glaciers formed in Colorado, scientists believe they could have formed anywhere on Earth. The Colorado sites fit the criteria of being tropical, low altitude, and far from continental margins at the relevant time.

Rebecca Flowers, co-author of the study and professor of geological sciences at CU Boulder, said, "We're excited that we had the opportunity to unravel the story of the only Snowball Earth deposits that have so far been identified in Colorado." The discovery provides crucial evidence supporting the idea that the entire planet may have been encased in ice.

The findings also have implications for understanding the history of life on Earth. Before the Cryogenian period, life on Earth was dominated by single-celled organisms. After Snowball Earth thawed, the earliest examples of large organisms appeared during the Ediacaran period, which lasted from 635 to 541 million years ago. Scientists still don't understand the processes which led to this explosion in life after Snowball Earth.

Liam Courtney-Davies emphasized the importance of the study, saying, "We have to better characterize this entire time period to understand how we and the planet evolved together." He added, "If such features formed in Colorado during Snowball Earth, they probably formed in other spots around North America, too." The researchers hope that the secrets of these elusive Cryogenian rocks in Colorado will lead to the discovery of further terrestrial records of Snowball Earth.

Such findings can help develop a clearer picture of Earth during climate extremes and the processes that led to the habitable planet we live on today. The researchers' results support that a Great Unconformity near Pikes Peak must have been formed prior to Cryogenian Snowball Earth. This finding is at odds with hypotheses that attribute the formation of the Great Unconformity to large-scale erosion by Snowball Earth ice sheets themselves.

Ultimately, the study not only sheds light on a critical phase in Earth's geologic history but also deepens the mystery of where and how life survives during extreme climate events. The researchers' work underscores the interconnectedness of Earth's climate and the evolution of life, providing new avenues for exploration and understanding.

Sources:

• Science Alert,
• Cosmos,
• Phys.org,
• IFLScience,
• Science Daily

This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq

{ https://www.jpost.com/ }

14-11-2024 om 21:19 geschreven door peter  

Mars has been a fascination to us for centuries. Early observations falsely gave impressions of an intelligent civilisation but early visiting probes revealed a stark, desolate world. Underneath the surface is a few metres of water ice and a recent study by NASA suggests sunlight could reach the layer. If it does, it may allow photosynthesis in the meltwater. On Earth this actually happened and biologists have found similar pools teeming with life. 

The exploration of Mars by space probes began in the 1960’s. It began with the Soviet Union Mars 1 and NASA’s Mariner mission and was soon followed by the well known Viking landers in 1976. They were the first missions to test surface material for signs of life. The Mars Pathfinder mission took along the Sojourner rover and was followed by Spirit and Opportunity rovers after the turn of the century. Curiosity rover was among the latest of the visitors along with Perseverance and China’s Tianwen-1. The focus of later missions has been the hunt for water and analysis of the climate and geology of the planet. This was not only to understand the conditions as the planet evolved but to pave the way for human exploration. 

To date, there has been no evidence of life on Mars. The question has intrigued us for decades though. Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is the most likely place to have once harboured primitive life, chiefly due to the discovery of liquid water in the distant past. Evidence of ancient dried river beds has been found across the planet with mineral deposits indicating that Mars was once warmer, wetter and potentially far more habitable. Even organic molecules have been discovered by the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers but researchers continue to hunt for evidence (past or present) of microbial life. 

A team of researchers from NASA have published a paper articulating their use of computer modelling to help the search. They have shown that sunlight can shine through the Martian water ice, perhaps even enough for photosynthesis to occur in shallow pools of meltwater. 

There are two types of ice on Mars, frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide. The study explored water ice which had mostly formed as snow had fallen on the surface during a Martian ice age millions of years ago. The team believe that the key to the study are the dust particles that obscure light reaching the deeper layers of ice. They suggest that sunlight will warm the dark dust more than surrounding ice and then cause ice to warm and melt. Some scientists believe that ice at the surface cannot melt due to the thin dry atmosphere causing it to turn straight to a gas. This won’t apply to the ice deeper in the surface layer. 

Such a process has been observed on Earth where dust heats ice, melts and allows the dust to sink. Over time, the dust particles will stop sinking through the ice but still generate enough heat to melt the ice and create tiny voids. It is here that thriving ecosystems have been found hosting simple forms of life. 

The paper published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, suggests the dusty ice can produce enough light at depths up to 3 metres to allow photosynthesis to occur. The subsurface pools of meltwater are protected from evaporating by the ice above. It also provides some protection from radiation too providing a possibly habitable environment for simple forms of life. The authors suggest the areas would likely form in the Martian tropics between 30 and 60 degrees latitude in both hemispheres. 

Source : 

• Could Life Exist Below Mars Ice? NASA Study Proposes Possibilities

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-11-2024 om 14:54 geschreven door peter  

• READ MORE: Doctors raise concerns about Sunita Williams' health on the ISS

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The stranded NASA astronaut at the center of growing health fears has finally broken her silence in a video recorded from space.

Health experts and NASA insiders had raised concerns that Sunita Williams, 59, was rapidly losing weight after photos appeared to show her looking 'gaunt' earlier this month, after spending over 150 days stuck on the International Space Station. 

But Williams hit back at the 'rumors' in a live video published by NASA today, claiming that she has actually put on muscle. 

'My thighs are a little bit bigger, my butt is a little bit bigger. We do a lot of squats,' she said.

She added that she is the same weight as when she launched to the ISS in June, and bizarrely claimed the apparent change in her appearance was due to 'fluid shift.'

'I think things shift around quite a bit, you probably heard of a fluid shift,' Williams said.

'Folks in space you know, their heads look a little bit bigger because the fluid evens out along the body.'

During spaceflight, weightlessness instantly shifts blood and fluids from the lower portion of the body to the upper areas, which can sometimes result in a puffy pace and thinner legs.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has broken her silence about fears that her health has deteriorated since becoming stranded on the International Space Station (ISS)

The health concerns surface when a photo from September appeared to she her with 'sunken' cheeks and a thinner frame 

Williams and her crewmate Barry Wilmore, 61, have been living on the ISS for five months after Boeing's faulty Starliner spacecraft was deemed unsafe to return them to Earth.

The mission was initially only supposed to be eight days but the astronauts won't return until February 2025. 

Williams spoke with the New England Sports Network Clubhouse Kids Show Tuesday while more than 250 miles above Earth's surface. 

During the interview, she addressed health concerns, calling them 'rumors,' and discussed her food intake, such as dining on a Turkish fish stew with olives and rice.

Williams did not provide details about her caloric intake while aboard the ISS.

A photo taken September 24 initially sparked health fears. A doctor told DailyMail.com at the time her cheeks looked 'sunken', possibly as a result of rapid weight loss.

Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran in Seattle, told DailyMail.com at the time that although she did not seem at a place where her life was in danger, 'I don't think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.' 

More recently, a NASA source told the New York Post that NASA has been scrambling to 'stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it.'

The unnamed employee who is 'directly involved with the mission' said that Williams has been 'unable to keep up with the high-caloric diets that astronauts must consume' while on the ISS. 

'The pounds have melted off her and she's now skin and bones. So it's a priority to help her stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' the NASA source told the New York Post.

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore before their mission on June 5. Williams said that she is the same weight now as she was at launch

Williams did not touch on her caloric intake while on the ISS, but alluded that she was eating well 

Williams and Wilmore still have to wait about three to four months until they can return to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon.

At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that Williams' alleged health decline will impact this timeline.

But the female body suffers more in space than their male counterparts.

A study assembled by NASA in 2014 found that women have greater loss of blood plasma volume than men during spaceflight, and women’s stress response characteristically includes a heart rate increase while men respond with an increase in vascular resistance.

Read More

• The frightening amount of radiation NASA's stranded astronauts have endured because of Boeing's faulty spaceship 

The loss of blood plasma causes your metabolic rate to temporarily increase while your body mobilizes resources to adjust to the loss of plasma.

And this response can slightly elevate your calorie burn, resulting in weight loss similar to what Williams may be experiencing.

Another study released by Ball University in 2023 also found that women lose more muscle than men in a microgravity environment such as spaceflight.

'The amount of oxygen in the air is lower than it is at baseline, their nutritional intake is not going to be as robust as can be on the ground,' said Dr Gupta.

'Their ability to work out is going to be limited. So every every sort of physiologic variable that defines our well being is going to be suboptimal, especially even in a pressurized cabin, but in, you know, in outer space in their case, right?

'So what you're seeing there in that picture, especially with Sunita, is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

13-11-2024 om 21:00 geschreven door peter  

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).

The new findings could improve the chances of life having once existed on Mars, as well as the likelihood that additional evidence for it may be uncovered during current investigations at promising sites like Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently conducting studies.

Harsh Living Conditions

The cold, dry conditions on Mars right now make it an unlikely place for organisms to be able to thrive, and a demanding place for humans who may undertake extended missions there in future decades.

Yet geological evidence suggests that this might not have been the case in the distant past. Around 3.7 million years ago, Mars may have possessed liquid water and an environment in which at least simple organisms could have thrived.

According to the Tohoku University team, formaldehyde might have also formed during this period of relative habitability on Mars. This is significant because formaldehyde is an important precursor in the formation of biomolecules through abiotic processes.

Modeling Early Mars

The Tohoku University team employed a computer model that allowed them to simulate conditions on the Red Planet long ago and see whether the formation of formaldehyde seemed likely based on the premise that the atmosphere then would have had an abundance of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Based on their simulations, Mars would have had an atmosphere 3.6 to 2.8 billion years ago that could have provided enough formaldehyde to allow several different organic compounds to form. This is significant since it means there is a chance that organic materials found on Mars could have had atmospheric origins during the earliest geological periods on the planet.

Shungo Koyama, the lead author of a new study outlining the team’s research, says their findings offer potentially groundbreaking insights into what chemical processes might have been occurring on Mars in the past, which provide a clearer picture of the conditions there that might have been conducive to life long ago.

Building Blocks of Life

“Our results show that a continuous supply of atmospheric [formaldehyde] can be used to form various organic compounds, including amino acids and sugars,” the team writes in the paper, offering a potential origin for its presence on the Martian surface.

With formaldehyde’s conversion into ribose, the team reports that “a continuous supply of bio-important sugars on early Mars, particularly during the Noachian and early Hesperian periods,” seems plausible.

Future studies by the team aim to explore geological data NASA’s rovers have collected to find additional clues about the presence of organic molecules on ancient Mars, and compare their models with samples obtained from the planet.

The team’s recent study, “Atmospheric formaldehyde production on early Mars leading to a potential formation of bio-important molecules,” was published in Scientific Reports.

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

{ https://thedebrief.org/ }

13-11-2024 om 20:38 geschreven door peter  

Watch this private Varda Space capsule's blistering return to Earth in amazing onboard video

13-11-2024 om 18:23 geschreven door peter  

Scientists propose a shocking new theory for the origin of the moon - and claim the popular 'collision theory' is WRONG

• READ MORE: Our moon went through physical changes during Covid 

By WILIAM HUNTER

Despite being our planet's closest neighbour, scientists have been grappling with the mystery of our moon's origin for hundreds of years. 

Since the 1980s, experts have assumed that our lunar satellite was formed in the aftermath of an explosive impact with the protoplanet Theia early in Earth's history.

But now, a study suggests that this so-called 'collision' theory may not be correct after all.

Instead, researchers from Penn State University say that the Earth might have neatly nabbed the moon as it drifted by in a process called binary-exchange capture.

This radical theory suggests that the moon might have started life as one part of a 'terrestrial binary', a pair of rocky objects orbiting one another.

As this pair passed within Earth's pull, the moon was yanked into orbit while the second body was catapulted out into space.

Lead researcher Professor Darren Williams says: 'No one knows how the moon was formed.

'For the last four decades, we have had one possibility for how it got there. Now, we have two.'

A new theory suggests that the moon might not have been formed by a collision with  an ancient protoplanet but through a process called 'binary-exchange capture'  

Researchers suggest that the moon might have started out as one part of a planetary binary, two large rocky bodies which orbit each other as they drift through space (file photo)

In 1984, scientists gathered for the Kona Conference in Hawaii to come to a consensus on how the moon had formed.

Using the 800lbs (363kg) of lunar material taken back by NASA's Apollo missions, the scientists found that the moon had a similar but not entirely identical chemical composition to Earth.

From this evidence, they came to the conclusion that the moon must have been formed out of debris knocked loose when a celestial body slammed into the young Earth.

This theory was popular because it fits well with much of what we now know about the chemical composition of the moon - but it doesn't explain all the details.

For example, Professor Williams and his co-author point out that, if the moon were formed from a ring of debris slowly condensing into a sphere, we should expect to find it orbiting above the equator.

However, the moon's orbit is actually tilted onto a totally different plane about seven degrees away from the equatorial plane. 

To find an alternative explanation for why this might be the case, the researchers looked at a phenomenon called binary-exchange capture.

This suggests that Earth might have snagged one of a pair of passing rocky bodies and made it into its satellite.

Earlier theories suggest that the moon was formed when a protoplanet called Theia collided with the young Earth. Scientists believe the moon was formed as the resultant ring of debris collected into a sphere 

The binary-exchange capture theory

The moon may have started out as one part of a 'planetary binary', two rocky bodies orbiting each other as they drift through space.

As this binary entered Earth's gravitational pull, the moon might have been yanked out of the binary pair.

The moon would then become the Earth's satellite while the other part of the pair was catapulted into space.

This would explain why the moon doesn't orbit over the equator as we would expect from a collision.

It also provides a reason why the moon is chemically similar to, but not identical to Earth.

In support of this idea, Professor Williams points to the example of Triton, Neptune's largest moon.

Current theories suggest that Triton was pulled into Neptune from the Kuiper Belt where one in 10 objects are thought to be a binary.

Just like our moon, Triton orbits at a significantly tilted angle, leaning 67 degrees away from the planet's equator.

And, according to mathematical models, it is quite plausible that the same thing could have happened to our moon.

In their paper, published in The Planetary Science Journal, the researchers calculate that Earth could have captured an object between one and 10 per cent of its total mass.

At just 1.2 per cent of the Earth's mass, the moon falls comfortably within this range.

The only caveat is that the planetary binary would have had to have passed within just 80,000 miles (128,750km) of Earth at a speed below 6,700 miles per hour (10,800km).

While that might seem incredibly fast, in the scale of the solar system that is the equivalent of a leisurely stroll.

Researchers point out that if the moon were formed from a collision we should expect it to orbit Earth around the equator. But the moon's orbital plane is angled at about 7 degrees from the equator 

Using a mathematical model (pictured), the scientists calculated that the Earth could capture an object between one and 10 times its mass if it was travelling at the right speed and the other part of the binary had a large enough mass. As this graph shows, the Earth is easily capable of capturing something as large as the moon at speeds of up to 3km per second 

The problem is that, even at these sedate speeds, when it first arrived, the moon's orbit would have been massively elliptical much like that of a comet around the sun.

However, the researchers also show how this orbit would have evolved under the influence of tidal forces.

As the moon races around the Earth, the tides would have slightly lagged behind its orbit, exerting a gravitational pull which would have slowly tamed its wild orbit.

Over thousands of years, that constant tug would have made the orbit more regular and circular until it settled into the close orbit it currently has.

Professor Williams says: 'Today, the Earth tide is ahead of the Moon, high tide accelerates the orbit.

'It gives it a pulse, a little bit of boost. Over time, the Moon drifts a bit farther away.'

Now the moon is so far out that both the Sun and Earth pull on it, leading it to drift about 3cm further away every year.

This theory has some key advantages in that it explains why the moon's orbit is so tilted and accounts for the presence of certain chemical isotopes found on the moon and not on Earth.

Scientists believe that Triton (pictured), the largest moon of Neptune, was originally a planetary binary in the Keuper belt before being captured 

As this graph shows, when the moon first arrived, its orbit would be shaped like an oval rather than the circle we are more familiar with 

The researchers admit that their theory would be hard to prove and relies on several 'implausible events' happening at once.

However, Professor Williams maintains that binary-exchange capture is a viable alternative to the standard collision theory and one that merits further consideration.

The researchers argue that planetary binaries may have been more common in the early solar system and could have plausibly gone on to create the moon. 

Professor Williams adds: 'This opens a treasure trove of new questions and opportunities for further study.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

12-11-2024 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

NASA's ice-hunting VIPER moon rover getting ready to slither to the launch pad

Moon-orbiting satellite missions have collected data regarding water on the moon before, but VIPER will get "up close and personal" with the lunar surface, scanning with its scientific tools and investigating soil at varying depths with its 3.3-foot (1 meter) drill. Some of the regions VIPER will explore are permanently shadowed craters that are some of the coldest places in the solar system. It is believed that the bottoms of these craters harbor ice that has been undisturbed for billions of years.

As it conducts its mission, VIPER will be exposed to the extreme environment of the moon and the incredibly cold temperatures of these permanently shadowed areas while having to overcome complex terrain.

Testing of VIPER's systems is a crucial stage for the mission. Andrews explained that, as the team assembles and installs various subsystems onto the rover, they perform "channelization" tests. These trials enable the team to confirm that pieces and parts like cable harnesses and connectors between systems are working. 

"Now, you might think, 'Of course what we installed should work!' But it’s important to remember how complicated these space systems, and planetary rover systems in particular, are," Andrews said. "Sometimes we will perform even more complex tests, like sending a command to the Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer Subsystem (NIRVSS) instrument to take an image: Is the image taken successful? Is the field of view of the image correct? Did the image make its way into the rover’s avionics for downlink?"

This "test as we go" approach ensures that the NASA team doesn't discover issues that could impact VIPER later in its development or, even worse, when it is unreachable on the lunar surface. 

"So we test as we go to decrease risk later when we’re performing whole-rover environmental tests. This way, if the rover doesn’t work as expected after one of VIPER’s environmental tests, we know it once worked fine, and that can help us more quickly problem-solve what might have gone wrong," Andrews concluded. "The pace in which we’ve been working through the build and subsystem checkouts has been blistering lately, and we’ve had a good run of successes.

"Go VIPER!"

VIDEOS

{ https://www.space.com/ }

12-11-2024 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

'Otherworldly' crash site discovered on surface of Mars by NASA helicopter

Sinead Butler

An "otherwordly" crash site of another spacecraft was photographed by a NASA helicopter.

Back in 2020, the Perseverance Rover was sent up to the Red Planet with the Mars Helicopter called Ingenuity strapped to the bottom of it.

The initial plan was for Ingenuity - otherwise known as Ginny - to make no more than five test flights within 30 days but in the end, the aircraft surpassed expectations when it completed 72 flights between April 2021 and January 2024.

It's more impressive when you consider the fact that the helicopter was just half a meter (1.6 feet) tall and weighed less than two kilograms (four pounds).

As the first aircraft to successfully complete a powered, controlled flight on another planet, the purpose of the flights was to explore parts of Mars that couldn't be reached by the Perseverance rover.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

One of the notable aerial images was captured in 2022 when the helicopter took photos of debris on the dusty, cold, desert.

"There's definitely a sci-fi element to it. It exudes otherworldly, doesn't it?" Ian Clark, a Perseverance parachute system engineer, told The New York Times.

“They say a picture's worth 1,000 words, but it's also worth an infinite amount of engineering understanding.”

But before you go and make assumptions that Martians or alien life were responsible for the wreckage, this wasn't the case but rather was the result of us humans.

So what was the debris?

Basically, it was landing equipment used to help Ingenuity and the Peersererance Rover land on the surface of Mars in 2021.

In the photos, you can see the upright backshell and the debris which is thought to have impacted the surface at about 78 mph (126 kph).

“The backshell’s protective coating appears to have remained intact during Mars atmospheric entry. Many of the 80 high-strength suspension lines connecting the backshell to the parachute are visible and also appear intact," the space agency said.

“Spread out and covered in dust, only about a third of the orange-and-white parachute - at 70.5 feet (21.5 meters) wide, it was the biggest ever deployed on Mars - can be seen, but the canopy shows no signs of damage from the supersonic airflow during inflation.”

{ https://www.indy100.com/ }

12-11-2024 om 17:28 geschreven door peter  

While concepts for an interstellar spacecraft go back to the early Space Age, interest in the field has grown considerably in the past two decades. This is largely due to the recent explosion in the number of known exoplanets in our galaxy, which currently stands at 5,787 confirmed planets in 4,325 star systems. This is illustrated by concepts like Breakthrough Starshot, Swarming Proxima Centauri, and the Genesis Project. These concepts leverage gram-scale spacecraft, directed energy (lasers), and lightsails to achieve speeds of up to 20% of the speed of light, allowing them to make the journey in decades rather than centuries or millennia.

However, sending crewed spacecraft to other star systems with enough passengers to settle on another planet is far more challenging. As addressed in a previous article, a spacecraft relying on known or technically feasible propulsion methods would take between 1,000 and 81,000 years to reach even the nearest star (Proxima Centauri). While some advanced concepts like Project Orion, Daedalus, and Icarus could theoretically reach Proxima Centauri in 36 to 85 years, the costs and amount of propellant needed are prohibitive.

The alternative to these “go fast” concepts is to settle in for the long ride, which may last centuries or even millennia. This necessitates a spacecraft of sufficient size capable of accommodating hundreds (or thousands) of human beings over multiple generations. To save room and reduce the mass of cargo space, the crews will need to grow much of their food and rely on life support systems that are bioregenerative in nature. In short, the ship would need to be self-sustaining so the passengers could live comfortable, healthy lives until they reached their destination.

Andreas Hein, an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Luxembourg and the Chief Scientist at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, is part of the Hyperion Project’s Organizing Committee. As he told Universe Today via email:

“Think about the difference between a drone and an ocean liner. Previous designs for interstellar spacecraft, such as Orion, Daedalus, and Icarus, focused on uncrewed probes with the primary objective of gathering scientific data from target star systems, including searching for signs of life. In contrast, generation ships are designed to transport a crew, with the primary goal of settling an exoplanet or other celestial body in the target star system. They also tend to be much larger than interstellar probes, though they would likely use similar propulsion systems, such as fusion-based propulsion.”

Generation Ships

The first known description of a generation ship was made by rocketry engineer Robert H. Goddard, one of the “forefathers of modern rocketry,” for whom NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is named. In his 1918 essay, “The Ultimate Migration,” he described an “interstellar ark” leaving the Solar System in the distant future after the Sun reached the end of its life cycle. The passengers would cryogenically frozen or in a state of induced torpor for much of the journey except for the pilot, who would be awakened periodically to steer the ship.

Goddard recommended that the ship be powered by atomic energy if the technology were realized. If not, a combination of hydrogen, oxygen, and solar energy would suffice. Goddard calculated that these power sources would allow the vessel to achieve velocities of 4.8 to 16 km/s (3 to 10 mi/s), or roughly 57,936 km/h (36,000 mph). This was followed by famed Russian rocket scientist and cosmologist Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, also recognized as one of the “forefathers of modern rocketry.” In 1928, he wrote an essay titled “The Future of Earth and Mankind” that described an interstellar “Noah’s Ark.”

In Tsiolkovsky’s version, the spaceship would be self-sufficient, and the crew would be awake for the journey, which would last for thousands of years. In 1964, NASA scientist Dr. Robert Enzmann proposed the most detailed concept to date for a generation ship, known as an “Enzmann Starship.“ The proposal called for a ship measuring 600 meters (2,000 feet) in length powered by a fusion thruster that uses deuterium as a propellant. According to Enzmann, this ship would house an initial crew of 200 people with room for expansion along the way.

In recent years, the concept has been explored from various angles, from biological and psychological to ethical. This included a series of studies (2017-2019) conducted by Dr. Frederic Marin of the Astronomical Observatory of Strasbourg using tailor-made numerical software (called HERITAGE). In the first two studies, Dr. Marin and colleagues conducted simulations that showed that a minimum crew of 98 (max. 500) would need to be coupled with a cryogenic bank of sperm, eggs, and embryos to ensure genetic diversity and good health upon arrival.

In the third study, Dr. Marin and another group of scientists determined that the ship carrying them would need to measure 320 meters (1050 feet) in length, 224 meters (735 feet) in radius, and contain 450 m² (~4,850 ft²) of artificial land to grow enough food to sustain them. In short, these proposals and studies establish that a generation ship and its crew must bring “Earth with them” and rely on bioregenerative systems to replenish their food, water, and air throughout generations.

As noted, most studies regarding interstellar exploration have focused on probes or ships and tended to emphasize speed over ensuring passengers could make the journey. As Hein explained, this makes the Hyperion Project the first competition to focus on generation ships and ensuring the interstellar voyagers remain healthy and safe until they arrive in a nearby star system:

“This competition is unprecedented—a true first. To our knowledge, it marks the first time a design competition specifically focused on generation ships has been launched. It builds on our team’s prior research, conducted since 2011, which addresses fundamental questions such as the required population size. This competition uniquely explores the complex interplay between generation ship technologies and the dynamics of a highly resource-constrained society.

“Most studies have focused on the technological aspects, such as propulsion and life support, while often treating the ship’s technology and onboard society as separate issues. This approach is understandable given the challenge of analyzing these interdependencies. We even got the advice to stay away. Our goal is to take an initial step toward exploring and envisioning these interdependencies. We aim to be Cayley instead of Da Vinci. Da Vinci imagined aircraft, but Cayley conceived their basic design principles, which paved the way for the Wright Brothers.”

The Competition

Registration for the competition will remain open until December 15th, 2024, and all participating teams must pay a $20 registration fee. The top three winning entries will be announced on June 2nd, 2025, and awarded $5000 for first place, $3000 for second, and $2000 for third. In addition, ten teams will receive honorary mentions for creative and innovative ideas. For more information, check out Project Hyperion’s website and the Mission Brief.

Per their mission statement, Project Hyperion is a preliminary study and feasibility assessment for crewed interstellar flight using current and near-future technologies. The goal is to inform the public about the future possibility of interstellar space travel and to guide future research and technology development. As they state on their website, the competition has the following theme:

“Humanity has overcome the great sustainability crisis in the 21st century and has transitioned into an era of sustainable abundance, both on Earth and in space. Humanity has now reached the capacity to develop a generation ship without major sacrifices. An Interstellar Starship flies by an icy planet in a nearby solar system. Going beyond the classical examination of the problem of Interstellar propulsion and structural design for a voyage lasting multiple centuries, what might be the ideal type of habitat architecture and society in order to ensure a successful trip?”

Participants will be tasked with designing the ship, its habitat, and its subsystems, including details on its architecture and society. The Project Brief describes other important Boundary Conditions, including the duration of the mission, its destination, and other important considerations. The mission duration is 250 years from launch to arrival at the target star system, consistent with the ship having advanced propulsion capable of achieving a fraction of the speed of light.

To ensure the health and safety of the crew, the ship’s habitat must have atmospheric conditions similar to Earth, protection from galactic rays, micrometeorites, and interstellar dust (necessary for relativistic space travel). The ship must also provide artificial gravity via rotating sections, but “parts of the habitat can have reduced gravity.” The habitat must also provide accommodation and decent living conditions for 1000 plus or minus 500 people throughout the trip. The habitat will also need to be designed in such a way that it can be modified to meet changing needs.

The society’s structure must allow for cultural variations, including language, ethics, family structure, beliefs, aesthetics, family structure, and other social factors. The competition also considers knowledge retention and loss relative to Earth, which they describe as “almost inevitable.” Cameron Smith, an anthropologist at Portland State University and the University of Arizona’s Center for Human Space Exploration (CHaSE), is also a member of Project Hyperion’s Organizing Committee. As he explained to Universe Today:

“[T]he situation of a population, let’s say thousands or even 1500 people, traveling in isolation for centuries would be unique to the human experience. So just as we plan for the health of the architecture and the hardware, maintaining them to keep them in a good state over this time span, we can plan for the health and maintenance of both biology and culture. And we have an excellent guide which is evolution.

“Evolution is at the heart of all life sciences, and it also, in many ways, applies to cultural change through time. Biology evolves, and cultures evolve. And we have learned how to manage our cultures on Earth to fit a wide variety of situations.”

“The idea, however, is to get people thinking about how culture might be adjusted for the unusual conditions I’ve outlined. Separation from Earth, separation from other populations of humans, except by radio or video communication – which will become less and less as they get farther from Earth – what could change through time of the voyage that would require cultural adjustment?”

Throughout the trip, the population must also have access to basic products (clothing, shelter, etc.). The mass of the habitat is to be as low as possible, reliable over the entire duration of the journey, and include redundant systems. The generation ship’s target destination is a rocky planet in a nearby star system (like Proxima b). In an interesting twist, the competition stresses that this planet will have an artificial ecosystem created by a precursor probe, à la Project Genesis. As a result, the crews will not require any significant genetic or biological adaptations to survive in that ecosystem. As Hein explained:

“250 years in a tin can and staying happy, aka. can a society thrive in a severely resource-constrained environment? Answering this question is essential for designing a generation ship and may also offer insights into sustainable futures on Earth. From my perspective, there has been a significant lack of imaginative solutions to this challenge.’250 years in a tin can and staying happy, aka, can a society thrive in a severely resource-constrained environment?’

“Answering this question is essential for designing a generation ship and may also offer insights into sustainable futures on Earth. From my perspective, there has been a significant lack of imaginative solutions to this challenge.”

“We also hope to raise awareness of the complexities underlying today’s technologies. Which technologies could or should be preserved on a generation ship, and which may be lost? Research shows that a society’s population size affects the diversity and complexity of its technologies. Most modern technologies require intricate supply chains involving numerous companies, infrastructure, and regulatory systems. Therefore, a generation ship will likely rely on low-tech solutions unless disruptive technologies, like molecular manufacturing or Standard Template Constructs (as depicted in Warhammer 40k), become feasible.”

An Interdisciplinary Approach

A major focus of the competition is interdisciplinary research, reflective of the organizing committee itself. This has become a trend in space research, thanks in large part to the rise of the commercial space industry. For many companies and non-profits today, traditional research is expanding beyond aerospace engineering and incorporating architecture and interior design, biology, sociology, psychology, agriculture, and other disciplines to create concepts that will allow for healthy and sustainable living in space.

Per the rules, teams must consist of at least one architectural designer, engineer, and social scientist (a sociologist, anthropologist, etc.). As Yazgi Demirbas Pech, an architect and designer with the Organizing Committee, explained:

“We hope this competition will inspire greater interdisciplinary collaboration, emphasizing the value of fields such as architecture and social sciences—especially critical in planning for long-duration, long-distance missions. A holistic approach that integrates these diverse fields can contribute to more sustainable and human-centered solutions for space exploration.

“Unlike traditional architectural practices on Earth, space architecture requires a delicate balance between strict technical constraints—such as limited physical space, extreme environmental conditions, and restricted resources—and the essential human needs for comfort, safety, and psychological well-being. Here, architecture becomes a life-sustaining element, enabling people to live, work, and thrive across vast distances and timescales.

“Through this competition, we invite teams to challenge conventional design principles and redefine what “home” means among the stars. Including architects or architecture students on teams will undoubtedly add fresh perspectives to this thought-provoking competition.”

Solving for Space Solves for Earth

Another important aspect of the competition is the desire to inspire ideas that will also have applications and benefits here on Earth. This is another crucial aspect of the future of space exploration, which includes plans for creating outposts on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Like a generation ship, missions operating farther from Earth cannot rely on regular resupply missions sent from Earth. This means that habitats must be as self-sufficient as possible and ensure that inhabitants have enough air, water, and food to live comfortably.

For decades, scientists and planners have looked to Earth’s natural environment for inspiration. This was the purpose of the Biosphere 2 project, which conducted two experiments between 1991 and 1994 in which volunteers lived in a sealed biome that mimics Earth’s many environments. Since 2007, the University of Arizona has used the facility to conduct research through its CHaSE program while remaining open to the public.

“Since the 1990s, [Biosphere 2] has been a research center for closed ecosystems as though on a starship, and the research here continues. [I am] actually residing at the biosphere until January, and I am looking at the stars and engaged in all of this right now,” said Smith, who wrote to Universe Today from the facility. As he went on to note, research from this experiment and similar studies have significant applications for life here on Earth, mainly because there is no margin for error in space:

“[T]he planning and preparation going into the starship in terms of its culture and biological protections for the offspring would be very carefully designed to give the greatest protections to them, perhaps in ways more specifically tailored to their survival and good health than in any culture ever on Earth. On the interstellar voyage, things must go just right to survive over multiple generations in the closed ecosystem, so planning and preparation would have to be very thorough.”

Since failure in space often means death, especially when people are stationed far from Earth where rescue missions would take too long to reach them, the technologies future explorers and settlers rely on must be regenerative, fail-proof, and sustainable over time. This research and development will have direct benefits when it comes to the most pressing problems we face here on Earth: climate change, overpopulation, poverty and hunger, and the need for sustainable living. As Pech emphasized:

“I believe that thinking beyond Earth can offer valuable insights into how we might improve life here on ‘spaceship Earth.’ Just as in space, where we face numerous challenges, our planet requires innovative approaches to foster harmony and resilience amidst current global conflicts and challenges.”

There’s also the added benefit of stimulating questions about life in the Universe and where extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) could already be traveling among the stars. For decades, scientists have explored these questions as part of the Fermi Paradox. As Hein explained:

“Finally, just as Project Daedalus demonstrated the theoretical feasibility of interstellar travel, we aim to establish a similar ‘existence proof’ for human travel to the stars. Achieving this will add new perspectives to the Fermi Paradox: if we can envision crewed interstellar travel today, a more advanced civilization should have achieved it already. So, where are they?”

Those interested in the competition or have more questions are encouraged to contact the Initiative for Interstellar Studies at info@i4is.org. The i4is will remain open to Q&A until December 1st, 2024.

Further Reading: 

• Project Hyperion

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

12-11-2024 om 16:43 geschreven door peter  

Uranus mystery is SOLVED after 38 years - and it suggests the planet isn't as weird as we thought

• READ MORE: Uranus' moon could harbour extraterrestrials, scientists say 

By SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE 

Uranus is often regarded as the weirdest planet in our solar system.

But a new study suggests that the gas giant may not actually be as strange as we thought.

Researchers from University College London (UCL) say that the mysteries surrounding Uranus may have been the result of an unusually powerful solar storm that happened to occur just as a spacecraft visited the planet.

That spacecraft – NASA's Voyager 2 – flew by Uranus back in 1986 and provided the first close glimpse of the planet.

And since then, no spacecraft has been back.

'Almost everything we know about Uranus is based on Voyager 2's two-day flyby,' said co-author Dr William Dunn.

'This new study shows that a lot of the planet's bizarre behaviour can be explained by the scale of the space weather event that occurred during that visit.'

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a return mission to Uranus to find out what it's really like when not in the midst of a solar storm.

Uranus is often regarded as the weirdest planet in our solar system. But a new study suggests that the gas giant may not actually be as strange as we thought

Researchers from University College London (UCL) say that the mysteries surrounding Uranus may have been the result of an unusually powerful solar storm that happened to occur just as a spacecraft visited the planet

In January 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 became the first, and so far the only, spacecraft to explore Uranus.

The mission snapped the first images of Uranus – but also discovered several oddities.

Uranus' radiation belts were found to be incredibly intense, while its magnetosphere was nearly empty of plasma.

This meant that there was no apparent source of charged particles to feed those intense belts.

In their new study, the researchers found that a 'hurricane' of extreme solar weather could explain this result.

The hurricane likely squashed Uranus' magnetosphere, pushing plasma out of it and intensifying radiation belts by feeding electrons into them.

And Uranus itself wasn't the only celestial object affected by this event.

Uranus' five moons were long assumed to be dead worlds because of the planet's nearly empty magnetosphere.

NASA's Voyager 2 snapped the first images of Uranus – but also discovered several oddities. Uranus' radiation belts were found to be incredibly intense, while its magnetosphere was nearly empty of plasma. This meant that there was no apparent source of charged particles to feed those belts

But the new findings suggest that the moons could be geologically active after all - and may even have oceans.

'If Voyager 2 had arrived just a few days earlier, it would have observed a completely different magnetosphere at Uranus,' said Dr Jamie Jasinski of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who led the study.

'The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4% of the time.'

Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for a new – and carefully considered - mission to Uranus.

'We now know even less than we thought about what a typical day in the Uranian system might look like and are even more in need of a second spacecraft to visit to truly understand this mysterious, icy world,' Dr Dunn said.

'A big piece of evidence against there being oceans on Uranus's moons was the lack of detection of any water-related particles around the planet – Voyager 2 didn't find water ions.

'But now we can explain that: the solar storm basically would have blown all that material away.

'The design of the upcoming NASA flagship mission to Uranus should be carefully considered in the context of these findings.

'For instance, we might want instruments that could detect nudges to the magnetic field from a moon's salty ocean and instruments that could measure all the particles in the system to test whether we find water or other important material from the moons.'

HOW DOES URANUS'S MAGNETIC FIELD COMPARE TO EARTH'S?

A study analysing data collected more than 30 years ago by the Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that the Uranus's global magnetosphere is nothing like Earth’s, which is known to be aligned nearly with our planet’s spin axis.

A false-color view of Uranus captured by Hubble is pictured 

According to the researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, this alignment would give rise to behaviour that is vastly different from what’s seen around Earth.

Uranus lies and rotates on its side, leaving its magnetic field tilted 60 degrees from its axis.

As a result, the magnetic field ‘tumbles’ asymmetrically relative to the solar wind.

As a result, the magnetic field ‘tumbles’ asymmetrically relative to the solar wind.

When the magnetosphere is open, it allows solar wind to flow in.

But, when it closes off, it creates a shield against these particles. 

The researchers suspect solar wind reconnection takes place upstream of Uranus’s magnetosphere at different latitudes, causing magnetic flux to close in various parts.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-11-2024 om 23:11 geschreven door peter  

America's top city for UFO sightings revealed - and the exact time of day you should watch the skies

By LAUREN ACTON-TAYLOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

If you are hoping to spot a UFO zipping across the evening sky, there is one major US city where your chances are highest, new research has revealed.

Phoenix, Arizona, has been ranked as America's supernatural hotspot, with a whopping 323 sightings in the last decade, according data from the National UFO Reporting Center compiled by BetUS. 

New York City came in second place with 313 reported incidents and Nevada, which is home to the infamous Area 51,  came in third with 309 alleged sightings.

While the data only goes as far back as 2013, Phoenix has long been a hotbed of paranormal activity - with its biggest UFO event occurring on March 13, 1997.

The city has earned the number one spot with a whopping 323 sightings in the last decade alone

Phoenix has long been a hotbed of paranormal activity - with its most major, and widespread, account of UFO sightings happening on March 13, 1997

On this date, hundreds of people reported seeing 'The Phoenix Lights'.  

The sightings were so widespread that even a 12-year-old Meghan McCain claiming she saw them - with what she witnessed that night leaving a mark.

After her mom allowed her 'to go out to the yard to take a look', McCain told the DailyMail.com that she saw 'giant, bright objects floating in a straight line in the distance'.

'Even today, it is hard to explain, and there are varying descriptions of what happened over Phoenix between approximately 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm,' she added.

Years later in 2016, locals in Gilbert, just southeast of Phoenix, claimed they had seen a strange set of three lights moving north to south in the East Valley area.

One resident, Todd, shared footage to his X account, writing in the caption: 'Did anybody else just see a UFO!?' 

Even more eerily, in 2019, a live-stream just outside Phoenix captured a purple beam of light bursting through the foreground, and multiple alleged UFOs were caught zipping through the night sky.

In 2019, a live-stream just outside Phoenix captured a purple beam of light burst through the foreground, and multiple UFOs were caught zipping through the night sky

Around 65 percent of Americans believe that intelligent life exists on other planets, according to Pew Research Center. 

The recent BetUS data showed that some of the other top scoring cities for UFO sightings are in close proximity to notorious locations known for suspected alien activity, such as Area 51 or Roswell, New Mexico. 

Roswell had been dubbed the 'UFO capital of the world' and was believed to be near the site of an alleged alien spaceship crash in 1947 known as the 'Roswell Incident'. 

In the same year, the National UFO Reporting Center was founded and it has processed more than 180,000 reports. 

In 2016, locals in Gilbert, just southeast of Phoenix, claimed to see a strange set of three lights moving north to south in the East Valley area

The city is home to the International UFO Museum and Research Center, which has been open for nearly 30 years and hosts an annual UFO Festival. 

Area 51 in Nevada, meanwhile, is one of the most notorious spots for alien conspiracy theories. The site became forever associated with aliens after an interview in 1989. 

Former government physicist, Robert Lazar, told a Las Vegas news station that the site housed and studied alien spacecraft. He has said it was his job to to recreate the technology for military use, according to National Geographic.    

Other top cities for UFO sightings include Portland, Oregon, in fourth place with 279 reports, and Tuscon, Arizona, ranked fifth with 244 . 

Roswell was dubbed the 'UFO capital of the world' following an alleged spaceship crash in 1947 known as the 'Roswell Incident'. Above, a sign directing Roswell, New Mexico visitors to the start of a '1947 UFO Crash Site Tour' circa 1997

Arizona Man gets excited filming 'UFO' sighting in Arizona

A man takes a selfie with his son in front of a sign at the Alien Research Center in Hiko, Nevada on September 21, 2019

Many cities listed were notably large, with more potential eyes looking at the sky and therefore a higher likelihood of a potential sighting. 

On the West Coast, six California cities featured on the list of 200 - with the state's highest ranking held by Los Angeles which came in seventh place with 222 sightings. 

According to the BetUS, July is best time of year to spot a UFO in New York, Ohio, Colorado and Oregon - with the most common time between 9pm and 10pm. 

For states such as California and Arizona, November is reportedly the best month to watch the skies. 

In 2019, potential evidence of alien life was announced by an Oxford research project, Breakthrough Listen, with hints that the proof would eventually be released to the public. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

11-11-2024 om 18:22 geschreven door peter  

No Star Wars: Claims about Elon Musk and a “UFO fighter jet” are Pants on Fire!

Is Elon Musk preparing for real-life "Star Wars"? 

"Breaking News: Elon Musk unveils UFO fighter jet that defies physics," a Nov. 2 Facebook post said. "The spacecraft, named Ethereon, is said to be equipped with propulsion technology that transcends known aerodynamics, utilizing an anti-gravity drive system based on principles of quantum physics." 

The Facebook post is one of many making the same claim. Each post features a photo of a vessel, likely generated by artificial intelligence, each with a different design. 

(Screenshot of Facebook posts)

The posts earned thousands of likes, and commenters appeared to believe the claim, writing, "An amazing achievement!!!," and, "This is an amazing invention of man." 

Musk is no stranger to social media misinformation. He is the world’s richest man, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump and the CEO of SpaceX, a rocket company that has had several successful launches into outer space. But viral claims about a gravity-defying fighter jet are invented. 

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

PolitiFact reviewed Nexis news archives and found no reports of Musk "unveiling" a fighter jet created by SpaceX. The "updates" page on SpaceX’s website makes no mention of a new product that fits this description.

A gravity-defying, physics-shattering spaceship with an "infinite energy source" would have made major headlines – but none exist.

We rate the claim that Elon Musk unveiled a UFO fighter jet that defies physics Pants on Fire!

{ https://www.politifact.com/ }

10-11-2024 om 16:43 geschreven door peter  

'God of chaos' asteroid could trigger astroquakes when it skims past Earth on Friday the 13th

• READ MORE:  Inside the mission to meet a 'city-killer' asteroid before it hits Earth

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

When the 'God of Chaos' asteroid flies by our planet in five years, Earth's gravity could cause it to experience 'astroquakes,' scientists have predicted. 

Their research suggests that when the asteroid Apophis - named for the Egyptian God of Chaos - passes within just 19,000 miles of Earth, our planet's gravitational pull will cause it to violently shake.

The theoretical shaking could happen due to gravitational tidal forces, which are the stretching or pulling effect on an object caused by the uneven gravitational pull from another massive body.

The team identified two physical processes that could occur. One would cause rocks and dust to fly off the surface, and the other would trigger landslides that would happen gradually over tens of thousands of years. 

Both would ultimately change the surface structure of the four-billion-year-old asteroid.

Apophis, set for the flyby on April 13, 2029, is a 'city-killer' space rock the size of the Empire State Building. 

If it were to hit Earth directly, its impact would be equivalent to detonating tens or hundreds of nuclear bombs, according to The Planetary Society.

It wouldn't destroy the entire Earth, but it could easily annihilate a city, spreading destruction over a radius of hundreds of miles. 

This illustration shows Apophis' size relative to New York City. A direct hit from this asteroid wouldn't destroy the whole Earth, but it could wipe out a major metropolitan area

Scientists have paid close attention to this asteroid's path since it was first discovered in 2004. Initially, the chances of a potential impact in 2029 were relatively high at 2.7 percent.

But more recent studies have found that the odds are closer to one in two billion.   

A team of researchers led by Ronald-Louis Ballouz, an asteroid scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, investigated what might happen to Apophis when it passes through Earth's gravitational field. 

Asteroids typically have weathered surfaces because they are constantly bombarded by meteoroids in a process called space weathering, Ballouz told Live Science, but astronomers have long observed space rocks that pass close to planets lack weathered surfaces. 

He suspected that the reason why could be because the planet's gravity removes the outer layer of the asteroid's surface.

To test this, the researchers created a computational models of Apophis and then simulated each model's path to Earth while tracking its physical changes, revealing our planet's gravitational pull could drive two different physical processes on Apophis.

The first is earthquake-like tremors that would likely begin about an hour before the asteroid reaches its closest distance from Earth and continue for some time after.

When Apophis encounters Earth's gravity, it could experience tremors strong enough to lift boulders from its surface and allow some rocks to escape into space, researchers say

It's difficult to say how intense this shaking will be. But Ballouz expects it will be strong enough to change Apophis' outer appearance, lifting boulders from the surface and allowing some rocks to escape into space.

The other process is a change in the asteroid's tumbling. Space rocks like Apophis don't rotate on an axis, as planets do. Rather, they tumble somewhat haphazardly through space. 

Earth's gravitational pull could alter Apophis' tumbling pattern, triggering landslides over the course of tens of thousands of years that could further 'refresh' its surface to reveal the layers beneath. 

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• Earth's ancient APOCALYPSE: Huge comet hit Earth 12,000 years ago - sparking an ice age that decimated humans, expert claims in controversial Netflix series 

The research team's findings are currently available on the arXiv preprint database, and have been accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal.  

If Ballouz's hypothesis proves correct, it could explain why other asteroids that have been subjected to planetary gravity don't show signs of space weathering on their surfaces. 

But he and his team won't know for sure until NASA's OSIRIS-APEX mission rendezvous with Apophis during its 2029 flyby. 

This spacecraft will study the asteroid for 18 months to document any physical changes that it endured during its encounter with Earth. 

As for whether Apophis could directly hit Earth anytime soon, research has determined that we're safe for at least the next 100 years, according to the Planetary Society. 

But to prepare for the unlikely event that another 'city-killer' asteroid could collide with Earth, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is developing ways to deflect or destroy them before they make impact.

VIDEOS

What is the ‘God of Chaos’? New study reveals giant asteroid could hit Earth if…

Asteroid 'God of Chaos' could hit Earth sooner than expected according to experts from NASA

 { https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-11-2024 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

China unveils $36mil new stealth jet fighter built with 'stolen American military technology'

• READ MORE: China launches top-secret military spacecraft CSSHQ into orbit

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

China has posted the first official photo of its brand 'new' stealth fighter.

But if you feel like you've seen it before, there might be a reason for that.

The J-35A jet is rumored to have been built using 'many terabytes' of stolen US military data.

A decade ago, documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden laid out the case that radar designs, engine schematics and other top secret specs from America's $2 trillion stealth F-35 program had been hacked by Chinese spies. 

Photographed in a three-quarter profile, taxiing on the tarmac, the new J-35A is the land-based sibling to China's equally secretive and stealth J-35, which the emerging superpower plans to deploy from its growing fleet of naval aircraft carriers. 

The image came a week ahead of the fighter's November 12 debut at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, held at Zhuhai Airport in Guangdong.

At the time of Snowden's leak, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that 'the so-called evidence that has been used to launch groundless accusations against China is completely unjustified.' 

But the similarities between the Chinese and the American jets are striking — both have the same characteristic internal weapons bays to maintain its radar-evading stealth shape and aerodynamic air-intake channels beneath their cockpits.

China posted the first official photo of its J-35A stealth fighter (above) on Tuesday, teasing the debut of a jet that's accused of originating with 'many terabytes' of stolen US military data

'For the first time, new equipment such as the medium-weight, stealth multi-role fighter J-35A, the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile and a new type of reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle will be on display,' officials told CCTV state television.

But aside from providing the picture of the J-35A, Chinese military spokesman Colonel Niu Wenbo did not provide further details to CCTV on the new craft.

Both J-35 and J-35A were built off China's FC-31 stealth fighter prototype, which has been unofficially documented for years in leaks and snapshots, according to military aerospace author Thomas Newdick.

Newdick emphasized that — while espionage likely played a role in the development of China's fifth-generation stealth fighter fleet — the craft were not outright 'copies.'

'Critical outright differences' are discernable in the new photo, he noted, including twin-engines on the J-35A distinct from the F-35's massive single turbofan engine, and a more slender and sleek design that avoids the some of the F-35's design flaws. 

The J-35A is also reportedly faster than the F-35, capable of a maximum speed of Mach 2.0, compared to the American stealth fighter's top speed of Mach 1.6.

A former deputy captain with the Chinese Air Force's Bayi Aerobatic Team, Zhang Xinmin, told Aaj News that the J-35A had been custom made to withstand harsh conditions, like high-salt and high-humidity environments.

But, as Newdick wrote for The War Zone, 'clearly many elements' were 'at least heavily inspired if not cribbed from the F-35,' including its 'diverterless supersonic inlets' air-intakes on its engines and the shape of its cockpit canopy.

'Even its official designation [i.e. '35'] isn't trying to hide that reality,' Newdick said.

The clearest previous image of China's future carrier-borne stealth fighter known as J-35 surfaced in July of 2020 on Chinese social media Weibo (above)

Carrier fighter mockups of the J-35 (right) and J-15 (left) were spotted on the aircraft carrier Liaoning and posted to social media on what was then Twitter but is now X.com

The expensive program to develop and integrate three variations of the F-35 into America's fighting force has led to at least 29 incidents and accidents over the years.

Last May, an F-35B crashed shortly after attempting a takeoff at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. 

The F-35B is a variant designed for 'short takeoff and vertical landing' (STOVL), a bulk-adding technical specification that's notably absent from both J-35 models.

The J-35 is the second radar-evading stealth jet in China's military arsenal, after the J-20 'Dragon' which entered service in 2017. 

The J-20 is a 'heavy-duty stealth fighter jet' and the J-35 is a 'medium-sized multi-role stealth fighter jet,' according to Military analyst Wang Mingzhi.

'The primary distinction is that the J-20 focuses on air superiority missions, while the J-35A is versatile, capable of pursuing air superiority and accomplishing a variety of ground and maritime strike missions,' Wang explained.

'In future operations, these two aircraft can precisely target at both land and sea objectives in a coordinated manner, thus playing a crucial role for achieving air superiority,' the analyst continued in a post for China's Defense Ministry website.

The expensive program to develop and integrate three variations of the F-35 into America's fighting force has led to at least 29 serious incidents over the years. Above emergency workers respond to a crash of an F-35B near the Albuquerque International Airport on May 28, 2024

China's defense ministry said the J-35 was built by the Shenyang Aircraft Design and Research Institute, a subsidiary of the Asian country's Aviation Industry Corporation. 

Heavy state-planning and secrecy characteristic of the communist 'people's republic' has shielded the exact cost for any of China's stealth fighters from view — but a 2024 report by defense publication Janes priced the J-20 at $110 million.

But extrapolations, based on estimates from Zhou Chenming of Beijing-based Yuan Wang military tech think tank, place the J-35s at about $21 to $36 million each.

'The price of Chinese self-developed military weapon is normally one-fifth to one-third of the price of a similar US weapon,' Zhou said. And the current reported cost of America's F-35s are around $109 million apiece.

'The J-35 series is designed to be one platform with multiple variants for both Chinese air and naval forces,' the ministry said.

Analysts, including Newdick, have noted that China's new stealth fighter's J-35 version appears to be optimized for takeoff via an 'electromagnetic catapult launch system,' onboard China's latest and state-of-the-art carrier, Fujian.

But photos of fighter mock-ups show the jets will also be deployed from China's older aircraft carriers like Liaoning and Shenyang, via their 'ski-jump' takeoff ramps. 

Above, a visual timeline of the China's progess on the stealth J-35: the original FC-31 airframe (2014), the revised FC-31 (2016), the first J-35 prototype (2021) and an updated J-35 (2022) 

German magazine Der Spiegel was the first to publish the cache of Snowden documents in 2015 that revealed a top secret US government presentation alleging China's theft of 'many terabytes' of F-35 program data.

According to sources, the data breach occurred in 2007 — a cyberattack at the prime defense contractor undertaking America's effort to construct the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter jet (F-35B), Lockheed Martin. 

Shortly after the Snowden leak, US officials claimed that 'classified F-35 information is protected and remains secure,' according to The Diplomat.

China's cyber-spying operation, which had been code-named 'Byzantine Hades' by US investigators, had first been revealed by Wikileaks in 2011.

Investigators claimed that they had traced the origin of some of these past hacks to a specific unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

German magazine Der Spiegel was the first to publish the cache of Snowden documents in 2015 that revealed a top secret US government presentation (above) alleging China's theft of 'many terabytes' of F-35 program data. Investigators called the alleged op 'Byzantine Hades'

US officials broadly characterized that 'Byzantine Hades' hacking operation as a plot to 'cause serious damage to DoD interests,' according to the top secret power point presentation

It's unclear when US officials may have first suspected that 'Byzantine Hades' had also been working to obtain stealth fighter secrets from Lockheed. 

However they broadly characterized that operation as a plot to 'cause serious damage to DoD interests,' according to the top secret power point presentation leaked by Snowden.

Pushing back on these accusations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong noted in 2015 that China has sought international collaborations to improve security and prevent hacking. 

'According to the materials presented by the relevant person, some countries themselves have disgraceful records on cybersecurity,' Hong added.

Infamously, Snowden's 2013 revelations as a former contractor to the National Security Agency (NSA) revealed a massive and questionably legal spying program by the agency. The revelations sparked international outrage.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-11-2024 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

Shock photos show physical deterioration of stranded NASA astronaut Sunita Williams

• READ MORE: 'Gaunt' photo sparks health concerns about stranded astronaut

By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Photos have revealed NASA astronaut Sunita Williams' shocking weight loss as she and her crewmate remain stuck on the International Space Station (ISS). 

Williams, 59, and Barry Wilmore, 61, have been living on the ISS for five months after Boeing's faulty Starliner spacecraft was deemed unsafe to return them to Earth. 

A 'gaunt' photo of Williams taken on September 24 recently sparked concerns due to her 'sunken' cheeks which suggested she'd rapidly lost weight.

More recent images also show her with a pronounced facial structure and a thinner frame - a concern given she still has three months until she returns.  

Publicly, NASA has said Williams' is 'in good health' and that she's been undergoing 'routine medical evaluations'.

But behind the scenes, the space agency has been scrambling to 'stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' according to a well-placed source. 

The unnamed NASA employee who is 'directly involved with the mission' told the New York Post that Williams has been 'unable to keep up with the high-caloric diets that astronauts must consume' while on the ISS.

Long-stay space missions take a toll on astronaut's health, especially women, leading to weight loss, muscle breakdown, bone loss, heart and vision problems and kidney stones.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore on June 5, gearing up for the Starliner launch that would deliver them to the International Space Station 

Female astronauts have been found to lose more weight - particularly through loss of muscle mass - than men during spaceflight.

'The pounds have melted off her and she's now skin and bones. So it's a priority to help her stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' the NASA source told the New York Post. 

About a month ago, NASA doctors began working with Williams to help her regain weight, the source said, even before DailyMail.com's original story brought attention to her deterioration.

To stop and reverse her weight loss, Williams could have to eat up to 5,000 calories per day, the source added. 

For comparison, the average woman on Earth has to eat between 1,600 to 2,400 calories to maintain her weight. The source said that Williams started the mission at approximately 140 lbs.

Williams and Wilmore launched toward the orbiting laboratory on June 5 for what was supposed to be a 10 day mission, but have been stuck there for 156 days. 

Now, they are set to return to Earth on SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon capsule. Williams, Wilmore and the four Crew-9 astronauts will journey home together in February 2025.

By then, the Starliner crew will have spent roughly eight to nine months on the ISS, depending on when in February they splash down. 

During that time, they will have endured microgravity, close quarters and high doses of space radiation.

A doctor has raised concerns about Williams' health, claiming this September 24 showed her looking 'gaunt'

Over the last five months, photos sent back to Earth have offered glimpses into the lives of Williams and Wilmore as they adapt to their unforeseen circumstances. 

Just hours before the Starliner launch on June 5, the crew was photographed beaming in their blue Boeing spacesuits as they geared up for their short mission.

In that photo, the astronauts - especially Williams - look strikingly different than in recent images, including the September snapshot. 

That image was one of several posted on the official ISS Instagram page that showed Williams, Wilmore and the other ISS astronauts making pizza together. 

It recently went viral as the public raised concerns over Williams' shocking appearance.  

In it, she appears 'gaunt,' Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and veteran in Seattle, told DailyMail.com earlier this week.

'What you're seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods,' he said. 

'Her cheeks appear a bit sunken - and usually it happens when you've had sort of total body weight loss.'

'Based on what I'm at least seeing in the photo, I don't think she's quite at a... place where I say her life's in danger.'

'But I don't think you can look at that photo and say she has sort of healthy body weight.'

The NASA source told the New York Post that they were shocked by the image. 'I gasped out loud when I saw the last picture,' they said.

'And it's something we're talking about, but not something we're obsessing about. It's a real concern and everyone is taking it seriously.' 

More recent photos, including one in which Williams and Wilmore pose for a group-shot with the other members of the Expedition 72 crew on October 4, show that Williams is still looking thin. 

NASA declined to comment on the statements made by the anonymous agency employee, and instead referred DailyMail.com back to their original statement which asserts that all astronauts aboard the ISS are 'in good health.' 

Wilmore (front left) and Williams (front right) pose with the other members of the Expedition 72 crew for a photo posted on October 4

The body burns more calories in space as it adjusts to the changes in gravity and tries to maintain its body temperature in cold, harsh conditions.

'They have to eat about 3,500 to 4,000 calories per day, just to maintain their current weight,' the NASA source said. 

'And when you start falling behind, your weight drops fast.' 

To prevent muscle and bone loss, astronauts exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which burns even more calories. 

'There's just things that the human body cannot adjust to, and one of which is, you know, she's probably losing more calories than she's intaking,' Dr Gupta said.

'Her body's probably working harder to do basic things, because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower than it would be on sea level.'

The problem of the body breaking down is a particular worry for women. 

A study assembled by NASA in 2014 found that women have greater loss of blood plasma volume than men during spaceflight.

And women’s stress response characteristically includes a heart rate increase while men respond with an increase in vascular resistance.

Read More

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•  NASA gives health update on astronauts mysteriously hospitalized after space mission 

The loss of blood plasma causes your metabolic rate to temporarily increase while your body mobilizes resources to adjust to the loss of plasma.

And this response can slightly elevate your calorie burn, resulting in weight loss similar to what Williams may be experiencing.

Another study released by Ball University in 2023 also found that women lose more muscle than men in a microgravity environment such as spaceflight.

Williams and Wilmore still have to wait about three to four months until they can return to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon. 

At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that Williams' alleged health decline will impact this timeline. 

Though the Starliner mission has extended significantly, Williams and Wilmore's ISS mission will not be the longest one ever completed by an astronaut.  

That record is held Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who returned to Earth aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on September 23 after 374 days on the ISS.

More recently, a crew of four NASA/SpaceX astronauts returned to Earth on October 25 after a 232-day stay on the ISS. 

All four crewmembers were taken to the hospital after splashing down. Three received medical evaluations and were discharged that same day, while one was kept for overnight observation. 

NASA has not disclosed any details about why the astronauts required medical attention, or which one was kept overnight.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-11-2024 om 20:19 geschreven door peter  

The planet’s surface is characterized by features that indicate water’s presence. River channels, impact craters, and basins that were once paleolakes illustrate Mars’ complex climatic history. Mars is much different from Earth, but they both follow the same set of natural rules.

In Earth’s frigid climates, rivers can flow underneath thick, protective ice sheets. New research shows that a similar thing happened on Mars. The research is published in JGR Planets and is titled “Massive Ice Sheet Basal Melting Triggered by Atmospheric Collapse on Mars, Leading to Formation of an Overtopped, Ice-Covered Argyre Basin Paleolake Fed by 1,000-km Rivers.” The lead author is Peter Buhler, a Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

The research examines a period about 3.6 billion years ago when Mars was likely transitioning from the Noachian Period to the Hesperian Period. At that time, most of the surface water was frozen into large ice sheets in Mars’ southern region, according to the research. The planet’s CO₂ atmosphere suffered periodic collapses, and sublimated out of the atmosphere. Those collapses formed a layer of CO₂ 650 meters (0.4 miles) thick that created a massive ice cap over the South Pole. It insulated the 2.5-mile-thick (4 km) layer of frozen water that made up the ice sheets.

Buhler modelled how the CO₂ cap acted as a thermal blanket and showed that it released massive amounts of meltwater from the frozen pole. This water flowed down rivers, with the top layers freezing and insulating the liquid water underneath.

“You now have the cap on top, a saturated water table underneath and permafrost on the sides,” Buhler said. “The only way left for the water to go is through the interface between the ice sheet and the rock underneath it. That’s why on Earth you see rivers come out from underneath glaciers instead of just draining into the ground.”

According to Buhler’s work, enough water was liberated to fill the Argyre Basin.

The Argyre Basin is one of the largest impact basins on the planet, measuring roughly 1800 km (1100 mi) in diameter. This massive impact basin was formed billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid striking Mars. It drops about 5.2 km (3.2 mi) below the surrounding plains, making it the second deepest basin on Mars. Scientists have long thought that the basin once held water—as much as the Mediterranean Sea—and Buhler’s work shows how it may have filled.

“Eskers are evidence that at some point there was subglacial melt on Mars, and that’s a big mystery,” Buhler said. Eskers are long stratified ridges of sand and gravel deposited by meltwater streams that flow under glaciers. They’re common on Earth, where glaciers once covered the surface. Mars’ eskers support the idea that the same thing happened on that planet.

The subglacial rivers would have flowed underneath the ice, where they were insulated from the cold. When they exited the glacier, they would have oozed along until a thick enough ice cap formed to insulate them. Buhler says that the ice would’ve grown until it was hundreds of meters thick, and the water flowing under the ice caps would’ve been several feet deep. The water would’ve carved out river channels thousands of miles long, and there are several of those that go from the polar cap to the Argyre Basin.

“People have been trying to discover processes that could make that happen, but nothing really worked,” Buhler said. “The current best hypothesis is that there was some unspecified global warming event, but that was an unsatisfying answer to me, because we don’t know what would have caused that warming. This model explains eskers without invoking climatic warming.”

Argyre Basin is massive and voluminous, and proposed explanations for how it was filled with water were left wanting. It has approximately the same volume as the Mediterranean Sea. Buhler’s model shows that it took about ten thousand years for the basin to fill, and after it filled, the water emptied into plains about 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away.

This process happened repeatedly over a one-hundred-million-year era, with each event separated by millions of years.

“This is the first model that produces enough water to overtop Argyre, consistent with decades-old geologic observations,” Buhler said. “It’s also likely that the meltwater, once downstream, sublimated back into the atmosphere before being returned to the south polar cap, perpetuating a pole-to-equator hydrologic cycle that may have played an important role in Mars’ enigmatic pulse of late-stage hydrologic activity. What’s more, it does not require late-stage warming to explain it.”

Buhler’s work is supported by other research. “Previous literature supports the presence of a ~0.6 bar (atmospheric) CO₂ inventory, as utilized in the model, near the Noachian-Hesperian boundary,” he writes in his research. The history of Mars’ atmospheric pressure is backed up by cosmochemistry, mineralogy, atmosphere and meteorite trapped-gas isotopic ratios, geomorphology, and extrapolations of modern-day atmospheric escape.

“Thus, there is strong evidence that Mars had a sufficiently large mobile CO₂ reservoir to drive the atmospheric-collapse-driven melting scenario described in this manuscript, with collapse occurring at a time commensurate with Valley Network formation during Mars’ intense, Late Noachian/Early Hesperian terminal pulse of intense fluvial activity,” Buhler writes.

That period of Mars’ history stands out as its own distinct phase of geological activity, whereas changes were more gradual in the earlier Noachian Period. The Late Noachian/Early Hesperian saw intense valley network formation. Many of these valleys are deeply carved into the landscape, often cutting through older geological features. That suggests that the water flow was powerful and erosive. This fluvial activity also created large deposits of sediment, like the ones NASA’s Perseverance Rover is exploring in Jezero Crater.

Buhler’s research is partly based on modern-day observations of Mars’ atmospheric CO₂ and its cycles. Much of it is actually frozen and bound to the regolith. Mars’ rotational tilt shifts over a 100,000-year timeline. When it’s closer to straight up and down, the Sun hits the equator, and CO₂ is released from the regolith into the atmosphere. It eventually reaches the poles, where it’s frozen into the caps.

When Mars is tilted, the poles are warmed, and the CO₂ sublimates and is released into the atmosphere again. It eventually reaches the now-cooler regolith, which absorbs it. “The atmosphere is mostly just along for the ride,” Buhler said. “It acts as a conduit for the real action, which is the exchange between the regolith and the southern polar ice cap, even today.”

Buhler is still working with his model and intends to continue testing it more rigorously. If it successfully withstands more testing, our understanding of Mars will take a big leap forward.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/  }

09-11-2024 om 18:41 geschreven door peter  

By manufacturing satellites out of wood, the University of Kyoto scientists expect they will burn up when they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at the end of their service. This will prevent potentially harmful metal particles from being generated when a retired satellite returns to Earth. The small satellite measures just 10 cm (4 in) on a side and weighs only 900 grams, making it one of the lightest satellites ever sent to space. Its name comes from the Latin word for wood (“lingo”) and CubeSat, a class of small satellites with a form factor of 10 cm cubes.

Before launch, the science team installed LingoSat in a special container prepared by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). According to a spokesperson for Sumitomo Forestry, LignoSat’s co-developer, the satellite will “arrive at the ISS soon and will be released to outer space about a month later.”

Once the satellite reaches the ISS, it will dock via the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) before deployment. It will then spend the next six months in space, and data will be sent from the satellite to researchers who will monitor it for signs of strain. Ultimately, the goal is to determine if wooden satellites can withstand the extreme temperature changes and conditions in space. A second satellite, LingoSat 2, is a double-unit CubeSat currently scheduled for launch in 2026.

Further Reading: 

• The Guardian

{ https://www.universetoday.com/  }

09-11-2024 om 18:40 geschreven door peter  

Massive stars about eight times more massive than the Sun explode as supernovae at the end of their lives. The explosions, which leave behind a black hole or a neutron star, are so energetic they can outshine their host galaxies for months. However, astronomers appear to have spotted a massive star that skipped the explosion and turned directly into a black hole.

Stars are balancing acts between the outward force of fusion and the inward force of their own gravity. When a massive star enters its last evolutionary stages, it begins to run out of hydrogen, and its fusion weakens. The outward force from its fusion can no longer counteract the star’s powerful gravity, and the star collapses in on itself. The result is a supernova explosion, a calamitous event that destroys the star and leaves behind a black hole or a neutron star.

However, it appears that sometimes these stars fail to explode as supernovae and instead turn directly into black holes.

New research shows how one massive, hydrogen-depleted supergiant star in the Andromeda galaxy (M31) failed to detonate as a supernova. The research is “The disappearance of a massive star marking the birth of a black hole in M31.” The lead author is Kishalay De, a postdoctoral scholar at the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT.

These types of supernovae are called core-collapse supernovae, also known as Type II. They’re relatively rare, with one occurring about every one hundred years in the Milky Way. Scientists are interested in supernovae because they are responsible for creating many of the heavy elements, and their shock waves can trigger star formation. They also create cosmic rays that can reach Earth.

This new research shows that we may not understand supernovae as well as we thought.

The star in question is named M31-2014-DS1. Astronomers noticed it brightening in mid-infrared (MIR) in 2014. For one thousand days, its luminosity was constant. Then, for another thousand days between 2016 and 2019, it faded dramatically. It’s a variable star, but that can’t explain these fluctuations. In 2023, it was undetected in deep optical and near-IR (NIR) imaging observations.

The researchers say that the star was born with an initial mass of about 20 stellar masses and reached its terminal nuclear-burning phase with about 6.7 stellar masses. Their observations suggest that the star is surrounded by a recently ejected dust shell, in accordance with a supernova explosion, but there’s no evidence of an optical outburst.

“The dramatic and sustained fading of M31-2014-DS1 is exceptional in the landscape of variability in massive, evolved stars,” the authors write. “The sudden decline of luminosity in M31-2014-DS1 points to the cessation of nuclear burning together with a subsequent shock that fails to overcome the infalling material.” A supernova explosion is so powerful that it completely overcomes infalling material.

“Lacking any evidence for a luminous outburst at such proximity, the observations of M31-2014-DS1 bespeak signatures of a ‘failed’ SN that leads to the collapse of the stellar core,” the authors explain.

What could make a star fail to explode as a supernova, even if it’s the right mass to explode?

Supernovae are complex events. The density inside a collapsing core is so extreme that electrons are forced to combine with protons, creating both neutrons and neutrinos. This process is called neutronization, and it creates a powerful burst of neutrinos that carries about 10% of the star’s rest mass energy. The outburst is called a neutrino shock.

Neutrinos get their name from the fact that they’re electrically neutral and seldom interact with regular matter. Every second, about 400 billion neutrinos from our Sun pass right through every person on Earth. But in a dense stellar core, the neutrino density is so extreme that some of them deposit their energy into the surrounding stellar material. This heats the material, which generates a shock wave.

The neutrino shock always stalls, but sometimes it revives. When it revives, it drives an explosion and expels the outer layer of the supernova. If it’s not revived, the shock wave fails, and the star collapses and forms a black hole.

In M31-2014-DS1, the neutrino shock was not revived. The researchers were able to constrain the amount of material ejected by the star, and it was far below what a supernovae would eject. “These constraints imply that the majority of stellar material (?5 solar masses) collapsed into the core, exceeding the maximum mass of a neutron star (NS) and forming a BH,” they conclude. About 98% of the star’s mass collapsed and created a black hole with about 6.5 solar masses.

M31-2014-DS1 isn’t the only failed supernova, or candidate failed supernova, that astronomers have found. They’re difficult to spot because they’re characterized by what doesn’t happen rather than what does. A supernova is hard to miss because it’s so bright and appears in the sky suddenly. Ancient astronomers recorded several of them.

In 2009, astronomers discovered the only other confirmed failed supernova. It was a supergiant red star in NGC 6946, the “Fireworks Galaxy.” It’s named N6946-BH1 and has about 25 solar masses. After disappearing from view, it left only a faint infrared glow. In 2009, its luminosity increased to a million solar luminosities, but by 2015, it had disappeared in optical light.

A survey with the Large Binocular Telescope monitored 27 nearby galaxies, looking for disappearing massive stars. The results suggest that between 20% and 30% of massive stars can end their lives as failed supernovae. However, M31-2014-DS1 and N6946-BH1 are the only confirmed observations.

SHOCKING Transformation: How a STAR Turns into a BLACK HOLE

We Just Found Neutron Stars Crashing Into Black Holes

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

09-11-2024 om 18:39 geschreven door peter  

Laser Mapping Reveals Previously Unknown Maya City with Stone Pyramids in Mexico

Using a laser-based detection system, archaeologists have discovered over 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures — including a previously unknown Maya city named Valeriana — in Campeche, Mexico.

Detail of the major site of Valeriana in Campeche, Mexico.

Image credit: Auld-Thomas et al., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148.

“Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense with settlements, but it also revealed a lot of variability,” said Luke Auld-Thomas, a doctoral student at Tulane University and instructor at Northern Arizona University.

“We didn’t just find rural areas and smaller settlements. We also found a large city with pyramids right next to the area’s only highway, near a town where people have been actively farming among the ruins for years.”

“The government never knew about it; the scientific community never knew about it.”

“That really puts an exclamation point behind the statement that, no, we have not found everything, and yes, there’s a lot more to be discovered.”

Lidar technology uses laser pulses to measure distances and to create 3D models of specific areas.

It has allowed the scientists to scan large swaths of land from the comfort of a computer lab, uncovering anomalies in the landscape that often prove to be pyramids, family houses and other examples Maya infrastructure.

“Because lidar allows us to map large areas very quickly, and at really high precision and levels of detail, that made us react, ‘Oh wow, there are so many buildings out there we didn’t know about, the population must have been huge’,” Auld-Thomas said.

“The counterargument was that lidar surveys were still too tethered to known, large sites, such as Tikal, and therefore had developed a distorted image of the Maya lowlands.”

“What if the rest of the Maya area was far more rural and what we had mapped so far was the exception instead of the rule?”

The team’s results provide compelling evidence of a more complex and varied Maya landscape than previously thought.

“Lidar is teaching us that, like many other ancient civilizations, the lowland Maya built a diverse tapestry of towns and communities over their tropical landscape,” said Tulane University’s Professor Marcello Canuto.

“While some areas are replete with vast agricultural patches and dense populations, others have only small communities.”

“Nonetheless, we can now see how much the ancient Maya changed their environment to support a long-lived complex society.”

• A paper on the findings was published on October 29, 2024 in the journal Antiquity.
• Luke Auld-Thomas et al. 2024. Running out of empty space: environmental lidar and the crowded ancient landscape of Campeche, Mexico. Antiquity 98 (401): 1340-1358; doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

08-11-2024 om 20:54 geschreven door peter