August 2017 (Page 4)

NASA Plans to Send CubeSat To Venus to Unlock Atmospheric Mystery From space, Venus looks like a big, opaque ball. Thanks to its extremely dense atmosphere, which is primarily composed of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, it is impossible to view the surface using conventional methods. As a result, little was learned about its surface until the 20th century, thanks to development of radar, spectroscopic and ultraviolet survey techniques. Interestingly enough, when viewed in the ultraviolet band, Venus looks like a striped ball, with dark and light areas mingling next to one another. For decades, scientists have theorized that this is due to the presence ofRead More →

Gravitational Lensing Provides Rare Glimpse Into Interiors of Black Holes The observable Universe is an extremely big place, measuring an estimated 91 billion light-years in diameter. As a result, astronomers are forced to rely on powerful instruments to see faraway objects. But even these are sometimes limited, and must be paired with a technique known as gravitational lensing. This involves relying on a large distribution of matter (a galaxy or star) to magnify the light coming from a distant object. Using this technique, an international team led by researchers from the California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) were able to observeRead More →

Prelude to Totality: A Final Look at the Total Solar Eclipse Totality! The view during the November 2012 total solar eclipse. Image credit and copyright: Sharin Ahmad (@Shahgazer) It’s hard to believe: we’re now just one short weekend away from the big ticket astronomical event for 2017, as a total solar eclipse is set to cross over the contiguous United States on Monday, August 21st. Celestial mechanics is a sure thing in this Universe, a certainty along with death and taxes that you can bet on. But there are still a few key question marks leading up to eclipse day, things that we can nowRead More →

Can Astronauts See Stars From the Space Station? I’ve often been asked the question, “Can the astronauts on the Space Station see the stars?” Astronaut Jack Fischer provides an unequivocal answer of “yes!” with a recent post on Twitter of a timelapse he took from the ISS. Fischer captured the arc of the Milky Way in all its glory, saying it “paints the heavens in a thick coat of awesome-sauce!” Can you see stars from up here? Oh yeah baby! Check out the Milky Way as it spins & paints the heavens in a thick coat of awesome-sauce! pic.twitter.com/MsXeNHPxLF — Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) August 16,Read More →

Station Crew Grapples SpaceX Dragon Delivering Tons of Science After Thunderous Liftoff: Launch & Landing Gallery The SpaceX Dragon CRS-12 cargo craft is now attached to the International Space Station after arriving on Aug. 16, 2017. It delivered over 3 tons of science and supplies to the six person Expedition 52 crew. Credit: NASA TV KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Following a two day orbital chase and ballet of carefully choreographed thruster firings, the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule launched at lunchtime on Monday Aug. 14 with tons of science and supplies arrived in the vicinity of the International Space Station (ISS) this morning, Wednesday, AugRead More →

The Most Distant Galaxy Observed to Date Provides Insight into the Early Universe In their pursuit of learning how our Universe came to be, scientists have probed very deep into space (and hence, very far back in time). Ultimately, their goal is to determine when the first galaxies in our Universe formed and what effect they had on cosmic evolution. Recent efforts to locate these earliest formations have probed to distances of up to 13 billion light-years from Earth – i.e. about 1 billion years after the Big Bang. From this, scientist are now able to study how early galaxies affected matter around them –Read More →

Potentially Habitable, Tidally-Locked Exoplanets May be Very Common, say New Study Studies of low-mass, ultra-cool and ultra-dim red dwarf stars have turned up a wealth of extra-solar planets lately. These include the discoveries of a rocky planet orbiting the closest star to the Solar System (Proxima b) and a seven-planet system just 40 light years away (TRAPPIST-1). In the past few years, astronomers have also detected candidates orbiting the stars Gliese 581, Innes Star, Kepler 42, Gliese 832, Gliese 667, Gliese 3293, and others. The majority of these planets have been terrestrial (i.e. rocky) in nature, and many were found to orbit within their star’sRead More →

Stunning SpaceX Space Station Cargo Blastoff and Cape Landing Kicks Off Sunshine State Liftoff Trio SpaceX launched its 12th resupply mission to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:31 p.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Todays (Aug. 14) stunning SpaceX Space Station cargo delivery blastoff to the International Space Station (ISS) and flawless first stage landing from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the Sunshine State kicked off a rapid fire sequence of liftoffs planned for mid August. All 9 SpaceX Falcon 9 Merlin 1DRead More →

Scientists Discover TRAPPIST-1 is Older Than Our Solar System In February of 2017, a team of European astronomers announced the discovery of a seven-planet system orbiting the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. Aside from the fact that all seven planets were rocky, there was the added bonus of three of them orbiting within TRAPPIST-1’s habitable zone. As such, multiple studies have been conducted that have sought to determine whether or not any planets in the system could be habitable. When it comes to habitability studies, one of the key factors to consider is the age of the star system. Basically, young stars have a tendency to flareRead More →

Science Laden SpaceX Dragon Set for Aug. 14 ISS Launch, Testfire Inaugurates Triad of August Florida Liftoffs: Watch Live SpaceX conducts successful static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket on Aug. 10, 2017 at Launch Complex 39A on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fl as seen from Playalinda causeway. Liftoff of the uncrewed Dragon CRS-12 resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Aug. 14, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – A triad of August liftoffs from the Florida Space Coast inaugurates Monday, Aug. 14 with a science laden commercial SpaceX Dragon bound for the International SpaceRead More →

NASA Reignites Program for Nuclear Thermal Rockets In its pursuit of missions that will take us back to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond, NASA has been exploring a number of next-generation propulsion concepts. Whereas existing concepts have their advantages – chemical rockets have high energy density and ion engines are very fuel-efficient – our hopes for the future hinge on us finding alternatives that combine efficiency and power. To this end, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are once again looking to develop nuclear rockets. As part of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program, the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) project would see the creationRead More →