Even Though Red Dwarfs Have Long Lasting Habitable Zones, They’d be Brutal to Life Ever since scientists confirmed the existence of seven terrestrial planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, this system has been a focal point of interest for astronomers. Given its proximity to Earth (just 39.5 light-years light-years away), and the fact that three of its planets orbit within the star’s “Goldilocks Zone“, this system has been an ideal location for learning more about the potential habitability of red dwarf stars systems. This is especially important since the majority of stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs (aka. M-type dwarf stars). Unfortunately, not all of the research hasRead More →

This is the Strangest Idea Ever for a Spacecraft Propulsion System: Ferrofluids When it comes to the future of space exploration, some truly interesting concepts are being developed. Hoping to reach farther and reduce associated costs, one of the overarching goals is to find more fuel-efficient and effective means of sending robotic spacecraft, satellites and even crewed missions to their destinations. Towards this end, ideas like nuclear propulsion, ion engines and even antimatter are all being considered. But this idea has to be the strangest one to date! It’s known as a ferrofluid thruster, a new concept that relies on ionic fluids that become stronglyRead More →

NASA to Use Converted Bombers to Chase Totality A NASA WB-57B on the ramp at Ellington Field near Houston ready to chase totality next month during the historic August 21st total solar eclipse. Credit: NASA/JSC In a classic swords-to-plowshares move, two converted WB-57 aircraft flown by NASA’s Airborne Science Program will greet the shadow of the Moon as it rushes across the contiguous United States on Monday, August 21st on a daring mission of science. “We are going to be observing the total solar eclipse with two aircraft, each carrying infrared and visible light cameras taking high definition video,” Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Principal InvestigatorRead More →

Satellite Images Show a Trillion Ton Iceberg Broke Off Antarctica For several months, scientists have been keeping an eye on a piece of Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf, waiting for the inevitable. And now it has happened. Sometime between July 10 and July 12, 2017 a trillion ton iceberg split off, “changing the outline of the Antarctic Peninsula forever,” said one scientist. The new iceberg is now called A68, and at 2,240 square miles (5,800 square km) it is one of the biggest ever recorded, about the size of Delaware in the US, or twice the size of Luxembourg. A fissure on the ice shelfRead More →

Turns Out, Mars Sucks Even Worse Than We Knew One of the most significant finds to come from our ongoing exploration and research efforts of Mars is the fact that the planet once had a warmer, wetter environment. Between 4.2 and 3.7 billion years ago, the planet had a thicker atmosphere and was able to maintain liquid water on its surface. As such, it has been ventured that life could have once existed there, and might still exist there in some form. However, according to some recent lab tests by a pair of researchers from the UK Center for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh,Read More →

Here They are! New Juno Pictures of the Great Red Spot Earlier this week, on Monday, July 10th, the Juno mission accomplished an historic feet as it passed directly over Jupiter’s most famous feature – the Great Red Spot. This massive anticyclonic storm has been raging for centuries, and Juno’s scheduled flyby was the closest any mission has ever come to it. It all took place at 7:06 p.m. PDT (11:06 p.m. EDT), just days after the probe celebrated its first year of orbiting the planet. And today – Wednesday, July 12th, a few days ahead of schedule – NASA began releasing the pics thatRead More →

Why Are Planets Round? The Solar System is a beautiful thing to behold. Between its four terrestrial planets, four gas giants, multiple minor planets composed of ice and rock, and countless moons and smaller objects, there is simply no shortage of things to study and be captivated by. Add to that our Sun, an Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt, and many comets, and you’ve got enough to keep your busy for the rest of your life. But why exactly is it that the larger bodies in the Solar System are round? Whether we are talking about moon like Titan, or the largest planet in theRead More →

How Fast is Mach One? Within the realm of physics, there are certain barriers that human beings have come to recognize. The most well-known is the speed of light, the maximum speed at which all conventional matter and all forms of information in the Universe can travel. This is a barrier that humanity may never be able to push past, mainly because doing so violate one of the most fundamental laws of physics – Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. But what about the speed of sound? This is another barrier in physics, but one which humanity has been able to break (several times over inRead More →

Australia Enters Strategic Partnership with ESO At a ceremony today in Canberra, Australia, an arrangement was signed to begin a ten-year strategic partnership between ESO and Australia. The partnership will further strengthen ESO’s programme, both scientifically and technically, and will give Australian astronomers and industry access to the La Silla Paranal Observatory. It may also be the first step towards Australia becoming an ESO Member State. ESO News Feed Go to Source Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

We’re About to Get Our Closest Look at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot When the Juno mission reached Jupiter on July 5th, 2016, it became the second mission in history to establish orbit around the Solar System’s largest planet. And in the course of it conducting its many orbits, it has revealed some interesting things about Jupiter. This has included information about its atmosphere, meteorological phenomena, gravity, and its powerful magnetic fields. And today – on Monday, July 10th at 7:06 p.m. PDT (11:06 p.m. EDT) – just days after the probe celebrated its first year of orbiting the planet, the Juno mission passed directly overRead More →

SpaceX Dragon Returns Science Cargo to Earth, Falcon 9 Delivers Massive ‘Epic’ Intelsat Comsat to Orbit – Photo/Video Galley SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off with Intelsat 35e – 4th next gen ‘Epic’ TV and mobile broadband comsat for Intelsat – on July 5, 2017 at 7:38 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – July has begun with SpaceX maintaining a blistering pace of blasting rockets and spaceships flying to space and returning to Earth for a host of multipronged missions furthering NASA science both on the International Space Station (ISS) andRead More →

How Long is a Day on the Moon? The Moon has been around since the earliest days of the Solar System. To human beings, there has never been a time when we couldn’t look up in the night sky and either see the Moon hanging there, or know that it would be back the very next night (i.e. a New Moon). And thanks to the development of modern astronomy and space exploration, our understanding of the Moon has grown immensely. For instance, we know that the Moon formed early in Earth’s history, and that it may have played an important role in the development ofRead More →

Messier 50 – the NGC 2323 Open Star Cluster Welcome back to Messier Monday! We continue our tribute to our dear friend, Tammy Plotner, by looking at the open star cluster of Messier 50. Enjoy! In the 18th century, while searching the night sky for comets, French astronomer Charles Messier kept noting the presence of fixed, diffuse objects in the night sky. In time, he would come to compile a list of approximately 100 of these objects, with the purpose of making sure that astronomers did not mistake them for comets. However, this list – known as the Messier Catalog – would go on toRead More →

VP Pence Vows Return to the Moon, Boots on Mars during KSC Visit Vice President Mike Pence (holding Orion model) receives up close tour of NASA’s Orion EM-1 deep space crew capsule (at right) being manufactured for 1st integrated flight with NASA’s SLS megarocket in 2019; with briefing from KSC Director/astronaut Robert D. Cabana during his July 6, tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center – along with acting NASA Administrator Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., Senator Marco Rubio and Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at KSC. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Vice President Mike Pence,Read More →

Gaia Finds Six Stars Zipping out of the Milky Way In 2013, the European Space Agency launched the Gaia spacecraft. As the successor to the Hipparcos mission, this space observatory has spent the past three and a half years gathering data on the cosmos. Before it retires sometime next year (though the mission could be extended), this information will be used to construct the largest and most precise 3D astronomical map ever created. In the course of surveying the cosmos, Gaia has also revealed some very interesting things along the way. For example, after examining the Gaia catalog with a specially-designed artificial neural network, aRead More →

The Corvus Constellation Welcome to another edition of Constellation Friday! Today, in honor of the late and great Tammy Plotner, we take a look at the “Raven” – the Corvus constellation. Enjoy! In the 2nd century CE, Greek-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (aka. Ptolemy) compiled a list of all the then-known 48 constellations. This treatise, known as the Almagest, would be used by medieval European and Islamic scholars for over a thousand years to come, effectively becoming astrological and astronomical canon until the early Modern Age. One of these constellation was the Corvus constellation, a southern constellation whose name in Latin means “Raven”. Bordered by theRead More →

ESOcast 116: Success or Failure: How to Get Observing Time ESOcast 116 explores how astronomers request time to use an ESO telescope, and how ESO’s Observing Programmes Committee, embarking on its one-hundredth meeting, examines and judges these proposals in order to ensure that ESO is making the best use of its telescopes to advance our knowledge and understanding of the Universe. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →