Universe Today (Page 418)

Here’s NASA’s New Plan to Get InSight’s Temperature Probe Into Mars The mole is still stuck. The mole is the name given to the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument on NASA’s Mars InSight lander. It’s job is to penetrate into the Martian surface to a depth of 5 meters (16 ft) to measure how heat flows from the planet’s interior to the surface. … Continue reading “Here’s NASA’s New Plan to Get InSight’s Temperature Probe Into Mars” The post Here’s NASA’s New Plan to Get InSight’s Temperature Probe Into Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Juno is Afraid to Death of Jupiter’s Shadow. So it Fired its Thruster for Over 10 Hours to Avoid It. In a death-defying maneuver for the spacecraft, NASA’s Juno has completed an unprecedented and unplanned engine burn. The purpose? To save the spacecraft’s “life,” or at least the rest of its mission to Jupiter. Jupiter casts a deep, dark shadow. Dark enough, in fact, to effectively kill Juno if it flies through it. Rather than … Continue reading “Juno is Afraid to Death of Jupiter’s Shadow. So it Fired its Thruster for Over 10 Hours to Avoid It.” The post Juno is Afraid to DeathRead More →

InSight Has Already Detected 21 Marsquakes The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument on NASA’s InSight lander has sensed 21 Marsquakes since it was deployed on December 19th, 2018. It actually sensed over 100 events to date, but only 21 of them have been identified as Marsquakes. SEIS is extremely sensitive so mission scientists expected these results. SEIS is a … Continue reading “InSight Has Already Detected 21 Marsquakes” The post InSight Has Already Detected 21 Marsquakes appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Is the Milky Way Gaining or Losing Mass? According to a study by The Milky Way Halo Research Group, we now know how quickly the Milky Way is losing and gaining new material – which is key to understanding how it changes over time. The post Is the Milky Way Gaining or Losing Mass? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

China’s Lander Successfully Grew Some Cotton Plants on the Moon. Fruit Flies and Potatoes Didn’t Fare So Well When China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft landed on the lunar far side on January 3rd 2019, it made history. It was the first spacecraft to visit that part of the Moon, and among its payload was a 2.6 kg (5.7 lb) mini-biosphere called the Lunar Micro Ecosystem (LME). The sealed, cylindrical biosphere is only 18 cm (7.1 in) long … Continue reading “China’s Lander Successfully Grew Some Cotton Plants on the Moon. Fruit Flies and Potatoes Didn’t Fare So Well” The post China’s Lander Successfully Grew Some Cotton Plants on theRead More →

Exoplanet Orbits its Star Every 18 Hours. The Quickest Ever Found The Next Generation Transit Survey recently discovered a hot-Jupiter with the shortest orbital period observed to date, just 18 hours! The post Exoplanet Orbits its Star Every 18 Hours. The Quickest Ever Found appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right Now The International Space Station’s usual complement of six astronauts grew by 50% recently, making things a little crowded up there. The nine astronauts come from four separate space agencies, and for the first time, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is onboard the ISS. The ISS is a multicultural place. Astronauts from around … Continue reading “Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right Now” The post Nine Astronauts from Four Different Space Agencies are on the International Space Station Right NowRead More →

Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space Society Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Alessandra “Sondy” Springmann (@sondy) Pamela Hoffman (http://everydayspacer.com/ / @EverydaySpacer) Veranika “Nika” Klimovich Emmy Award-winning television host and producer Geoff Notkin starred in three seasons of the cult television adventure series Meteorite Men for Science Channel and two seasons of the educational series STEM Journals for Cox Media. He … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space Society” The post Weekly Space Hangout: October 2, 2019 – Geoff Notkin, President of the National Space SocietyRead More →

Elon Musk Shows us What’s Inside the Starship Elon Musk recently upload a video that shows that the interior of the Starship’s prototype cargo bay. The post Elon Musk Shows us What’s Inside the Starship appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere This image of the lunar highlands is from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. You’d need superhuman eyesight to spot it, but India’s crashed Vikram lander is in there somewhere. The lander attempted to land on the Moon on September 6th, but when it was only 2.1 km above the surface, within reach of its objective, ISRO … Continue reading “India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere” The post India’s Crashed Lander is In This Picture, Somewhere appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars? In 2017, Elon Musk laid out his grand sweeping plans for the future of SpaceX, the company that would take humanity to Mars. Over decades, tens of thousands of Starship flights would carry a million human beings to the surface of the Red Planet, the minimum Musk expects it’ll take to create a self-sustaining civilization. … Continue reading “What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars?” The post What Will It Take To Feed A Million People On Mars? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. So Massive it Shouldn’t Exist, and Yet, There It Is Thanks to the Kepler mission and other efforts to find exoplanets, we’ve learned a lot about the exoplanet population. We know that we’re likely to find super-Earths and Neptune-mass exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars, while larger planets are found around more massive stars. This lines up well with the core accretion theory of planetary formation. But … Continue reading “A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. So Massive it Shouldn’t Exist, and Yet, There It Is” The post A Red Dwarf Star Has a Jupiter-Like Planet. SoRead More →

Carnival of Space #631 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #631. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #631” The post Carnival of Space #631 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion Years Ago, Really are Fossils. The Oldest Evidence of Life Found So Far The title of Earth’s Earliest Life has been returned to the fossils in the Pilbara region of Australia. The Pilbara fossils had held that title since the 1980s, until researchers studying ancient rocks in Greenland found evidence of ancient life there. But subsequent research questioned the biological nature of the Greenland evidence, which put the … Continue reading “Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion Years Ago, Really are Fossils. The Oldest Evidence of Life Found So Far” The post Confirmed. Fossils That Formed 3.5 billion YearsRead More →

Tracking Twilight: ‘Purple Sunset Effect’ Seen Worldwide Has twilight looked at little… mauve to you as of late? The effect is subtle, but noticeable on a clear evening. Sunsets are always colorful events, as the Sun’s rays shine through a thicker layer of the atmosphere at an oblique angle, scattering out at longer, redder wavelengths. The post Tracking Twilight: ‘Purple Sunset Effect’ Seen Worldwide appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Musk Presents the Orbital Starship Prototype. Flights will Begin in Six Months Coinciding with SpaceX’s 17th anniversary, Elon Musk provided the latest updates on the design of the Starship and Super Heavy launch system. The post Musk Presents the Orbital Starship Prototype. Flights will Begin in Six Months appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

New Technique for Estimating the Mass of a Black Hole A Russian-led team of astronomers has developed a method for estimating the mass of a supermassive black hole by looking at its powerful jets. The post New Technique for Estimating the Mass of a Black Hole appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →

Mice That Spend a Month in Space Were Able to Reproduce Once They Got Back to Earth A team of Japanese researchers have used sperm from mice that spent time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to fertilize female mice back on Earth. While previous research has shown that freeze-dried mouse sperm stored in space can experience radiation damage, these results show that the sperm from live mice may not suffer the … Continue reading “Mice That Spend a Month in Space Were Able to Reproduce Once They Got Back to Earth” The post Mice That Spend a Month in Space Were Able to ReproduceRead More →

Astronomers Have Found a Place With Three Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Around Each Other Astronomers have spotted three supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of three colliding galaxies a billion light years away from Earth. That alone is unusual, but the three black holes are also glowing in x-ray emissions. This is evidence that all three are also active galactic nuclei (AGN,) gobbling up material and flaring brightly. … Continue reading “Astronomers Have Found a Place With Three Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Around Each Other” The post Astronomers Have Found a Place With Three Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Around Each Other appeared first onRead More →

WFIRST Gets its Coronagraph, to Block the Light of Stars and Reveal Their Planets The coronagraph instrument, which will help NASA’s WFIRST mission to search for exoplanets, just passed a major milestone! The post WFIRST Gets its Coronagraph, to Block the Light of Stars and Reveal Their Planets appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →