Giant asteroid crashed into Mars billions of years ago, study suggests

Giant asteroid crashed into Mars billions of years ago, study suggests:

Is it possible that past asteroid impacts could have caused the two distinct geological regions that we now see on the face of Mars? Image Credit: NASA

The complex geology of Mars and the origin of its two small irregular moons has mystified planetary scientists for some time. A new study, published in June in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, reveals that the Red Planet had suffered a giant asteroid collision nearly four-and-a-half billion years ago which could account for some of Mars’ geological oddities.

Mars is known for havings two geologically distinct hemispheres. The planet has smooth lowlands in the north and cratered, high-elevation surface in the south. The origin of this dichotomy has baffled geologists for decades.

A global false-color topographic view of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) experiment. The spatial resolution is about 15 kilometers at the equator and less at higher latitudes, with a vertical accuracy of less than 5 meters. The figure illustrates topographic features associated with resurfacing of the northern hemisphere lowlands in the vicinity of the Utopia impact basin (at the near-center of the image in blue). Image Credit: MOLA Science Team

Scientists have suggested that erosion, plate tectonics, or ancient oceans could have carved these two different landscapes; however, the most plausible hypothesis is thought to be that a giant celestial body that smashed into Mars was the cause of the planet’s geological dichotomy.

A new research conducted by Stephen Mojzsis of the University of Colorado Boulder and Ramon Brasser of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, adds new evidence supporting the “single impact hypothesis”.

The researchers have analyzed Martian meteorites and found an overabundance of rare metals such as platinum, osmium, and iridium. The results indicate that most likely a huge asteroid impact enriched Mars’ mantle with these noble metals.

“It is well within the realm of possibility that the Martian hemispherical dichotomy is the result of this giant impact,” the authors wrote in the paper.

The simulations carried out by Mojzsis and Brasser show that a giant collision might have taken place some 4.43 billion years ago, during first 130 million years of Martian history. According to the calculations, the impactor would have been at least 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) in diameter in order to cause the geological dichotomy that we see today on Mars.

The study also reveals that the debris ejected after the impact could have formed Phobos and Deimos – the two oddly shaped moons of Mars. The researchers suggest that the impact generated a ring of material around the Red Planet that later merged into the two satellites. This could partially explain why Phobos and Deimos are made of a mix of native and non-Martian material.

“An impact of this magnitude would also be expected to eject a substantial amount of material into orbit around Mars, which could then be the source material that eventually formed its satellites,” the paper reads.

In concluding remarks, the scientists noted that the geological dichotomy on Mars could be one of the oldest geophysical features of the Martian crust.

Mojzsis and Brasser plan more studies of Martian meteorites that will once again test the “single impact hypothesis”. They hope that further research focused on different isotopic systems in the oldest components of the meteorites will bring more promising results and further confirm the studied hypothesis.



The post Giant asteroid crashed into Mars billions of years ago, study suggests appeared first on SpaceFlight Insider.

Giant 'Rogue' Worlds Are Less Common Than Scientists Thought

Giant 'Rogue' Worlds Are Less Common Than Scientists Thought:

An artist's impression of a gravitational microlensing event by a free-floating planet.

Credit: J. Skowron/Warsaw University Observatory

There probably aren't nearly as many giant planets zooming alone through the Milky Way galaxy as scientists had thought, a new study reports.

Previous research had suggested that huge "rogue" or "unbound" worlds, which have no discernible host star, are extremely common in the Milky Way, perhaps outnumbering stars by a factor of 2 to 1. But that's probably not the case, according to the new study.

"We found that Jupiter-mass [rogue] planets are at least 10 times less frequent than previously thought," study lead author Przemek Mróz, a researcher at the Warsaw University Observatory in Poland, told Space.com via email. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

Astronomers think most rogue planets were likely booted out of their native solar systems by interactions with neighboring planets. Scientists generally hunt for these lonely worlds using a technique called gravitational microlensing, which involves watching for a foreground object to pass in front of a distant star. When this happens, the closer body's gravity bends and magnifies the star's light, in ways that can reveal clues about the foreground object's mass and other characteristics.

A 2011 study, based on 474 microlensing events detected by a telescope in New Zealand, estimated that gas-giant rogue worlds are nearly twice as common as main-sequence ("normal") stars in the Milky Way. (The number of stars in our galaxy is a matter of debate, with estimates ranging from 100 billion to 1 trillion.)

In the new study, Mróz and his team analyzed a much bigger data set — more than 2,600 microlensing events that were detected between 2010 and 2015 by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). This survey, which is run by researchers at the University of Warsaw, depends primarily on observations made at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

The researchers determined that the Milky Way likely hosts a maximum of one Jupiter-like rogue for every four main-sequence stars — still a lot, but to be sure, but not nearly as many as the previous study had suggested.

The gravity of a free-floating “rogue” planet may deflect and focus light from a distant star when passing closely in front of it. Owing to the distorted image, the star temporarily seems much brighter.

Credit: J. Skowron/Warsaw University Observatory


The new results make sense on a number of levels, Mróz said.

"Our new microlensing observations are in agreement with theoretical expectations on the frequency of free-floating Jupiters and with infrared surveys for planetary-mass objects in star-forming regions," he said.

Intriguingly, the OGLE survey also spotted a few extremely brief microlensing events, which Mróz said were likely caused by much smaller worlds — ones about the size of Earth, or just a bit bigger.

"Because our sensitivity to such short events was very low, free-floating Earths should be very common, perhaps more frequent than stars, but we are unable to provide a precise number owing to [the] small number of detections," he told Space.com.

Increasing the number of ground-based microlensing detections would give astronomers a somewhat better understanding of the population of small rogue planets, Mróz said. But big gains may have to wait for future space observatories, such as Europe's Euclid mission and NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

"Thanks to the superb quality of photometry from space-based observatories and the possibility of continuous observations during approximately 100-day-long windows, future space-based missions, such as WFIRST and Euclid, will have the potential to explore the population of free-floating Earth-mass planets in more detail," Mróz and his colleagues wrote in the new study, which was published online today (July 24) in the journal Nature.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Hubble’s Hunting Dog Galaxy

Hubble’s Hunting Dog Galaxy: Tucked away in the small northern constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs) is the galaxy NGC 4242.

Original enclosures:

Messier 51 – the Whirlpool Galaxy

Messier 51 – the Whirlpool Galaxy:

Welcome back to Messier Monday! In our ongoing tribute to the great Tammy Plotner, we take a look at Orion’s Nebula’s “little brother”, the De Marian’s Nebula!

During the 18th century, famed French astronomer Charles Messier noted the presence of several “nebulous objects” in the night sky. Having originally mistaken them for comets, he began compiling a list of them so that others would not make the same mistake he did. In time, this list (known as the Messier Catalog) would come to include 100 of the most fabulous objects in the night sky.

One of these is the spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici known as the Whirlpool Galaxy (aka. Messier 51). Located between 19 and 27 million light-years from the Milky Way, this deep sky object was the very first to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is also one of the best known galaxies among amateur astronomers, and is easily observable using binoculars and small telescopes.

Description:

Located some 37 million light years away, M51 is the largest member of a small group of galaxies, which also houses M63 and a number of fainter galaxies. To this time, the exact distance of this group isn’t properly known… Even when a 2005 supernova event should have helped astronomers to correctly calculate! As K. Takats stated in a study:

“The distance to the Whirlpool galaxy (M51, NGC 5194) is estimated using published photometry and spectroscopy of the Type II-P supernova SN 2005cs. Both the expanding photosphere method (EPM) and the standard candle method (SCM), suitable for SNe II-P, were applied. The average distance (7.1 +/- 1.2 Mpc) is in good agreement with earlier surface brightness fluctuation and planetary nebulae luminosity function based distances, but slightly longer than the distance obtained by Baron et al. for SN 1994I via the spectral fitting expanding atmosphere method. Since SN 2005cs exhibited low expansion velocity during the plateau phase, similarly to SN 1999br, the constants of SCM were recalibrated including the data of SN 2005cs as well. The new relation is better constrained in the low-velocity regime, that may result in better distance estimates for such SNe.”

Visible light (left) and infrared image (right) of M51, taken by the Kitt Peak National Observatory and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, respectively. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (Univ. of Arizona)/DSS

Of course, one of the most outstanding features of the Whirlpool Galaxy is its beautiful spiral structure – perhaps result of the close interaction between it and its companion galaxy NGC 5195? As S. Beckwith,

“This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy’s grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble’s clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years. As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool’s pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm’s inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool’s arms like city streetlights.”

But there were more surprises just waiting to be found – like a black hole, surrounded by a ring of dust. What makes it even more odd is a secondary ring crosses the primary ring on a different axis, a phenomenon that is contrary to expectations and a pair of ionization cones extend from the axis of the main dust ring. As H. Ford,

“This image of the core of the nearby spiral galaxy M51, taken with the Wide Field Planetary camera (in PC mode) on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, shows a striking , dark “X” silhouetted across the galaxy’s nucleus. The “X” is due to absorption by dust and marks the exact position of a black hole which may have a mass equivalent to one-million stars like the sun. The darkest bar may be an edge-on dust ring which is 100 light-years in diameter. The edge-on torus not only hides the black hole and accretion disk from being viewed directly from earth, but also determines the axis of a jet of high-speed plasma and confines radiation from the accretion disk to a pair of oppositely directed cones of light, which ionize gas caught in their beam. The second bar of the “X” could be a second disk seen edge on, or possibly rotating gas and dust in MS1 intersecting with the jets and ionization cones.”

History of Observation:

The Whirlpool Galaxy was first discovered by Charles Messier on October 13th, 1773 and re-observed again for his records on January 11th, 1774. As he wrote of his discovery in his notes:

“Very faint nebula, without stars, near the eye of the Northern Greyhound [hunting dog], below the star Eta of 2nd magnitude of the tail of Ursa Major: M. Messier discovered this nebula on October 13, 1773, while he was watching the comet visible at that time. One cannot see this nebula without difficulties with an ordinary telescope of 3.5 foot: Near it is a star of 8th magnitude. M. Messier reported its position on the Chart of the Comet observed in 1773 & 1774. It is double, each has a bright center, which are separated 4’35”. The two “atmospheres” touch each other, the one is even fainter than the other.”

It would be his faithful friend and assistant, Pierre Mechain who would discover NGC 5195 on March 21st, 1781. Even though it would be many, many years before it was proven that galaxies were indeed independent systems, historic astronomers were much, much sharper than we gave them credit for. Sir William Herschel would observe M51 many times, but it would be his son John who would be the very first to comment on M51’s scheme:

“This very singular object is thus described by Messier: – “Nebuleuse sans etoiles.” “On ne peut la voir que difficilement avec une lunette ordinaire de 3 1/2 pieds.” “Elle est double, ayant chacune un centre brillant eloigne l’un de l’autre de 4′ 35″. Les deux atmospheres se touchent.” By this description it is evident that the peculiar phenomena of the nebulous ring which encircles the central nucleus had escaped his observation, as might have been expected from the inferior light of his telescopes. My Father describes it in his observations of Messier’s nebulae as a bright round nebula, surrounded by a halo or glory at a distance from it, and accompanied by a companion; but I do not find that the partial subdivision of the ring into two branches throughout its south following limb was noticed by him. This is, however, one of its most remarkable and interesting features. Supposing it to consist of stars, the appearance it would present to a spectator placed on a planet attendant on one of them eccentrically situated towards the north preceding quarter of the central mass, would be exactly similar to that of our Milky Way, traversing in a manner precisely analogous the firmament of large stars, into which the central cluster would be seen projected, and (owing to its distance) appearing, like it, to consist of stars much smaller than those in other parts of the heavens. Can it, then, be that we have here a brother-system bearing a real physical resemblance and strong analogy of structure to our own? Were it not for the subdivision of the ring, the most obvious analogy would be that of the system of Saturn, and the idea of Laplace respecting the formation of that system would be powerfully recalled by this object. But it is evident that all idea of symmetry caused by rotation on an axis must be relinquished, when we consider that the elliptic form of the inner subdivided portion indicates with extreme probability an elevation of that portion above the plane of the rest, so that the real form must be that of a ring split through half its circumference, and having the split portions set asunder at an angle of about 45 deg each to the plane of the other.”

Sketch of M51 by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (Lord Rosse) in 1845. Credit: Public Domain

As with other Messier Objects, Admiral Smyth also had some insightful and poetic observations to add. As he wrote of this galaxy in September of 1836:

“We have then an object presenting an amazing display of the uncontrollable energies of the Omnipotence, the contemplation of which compels reason and admiration to yield to awe. On the outermost verge of telescopic reach we perceive a stellar universe similar to that to which we belong, whose vast amplitudes no doubt are peopled with countless numbers of percipient beings; for those beautiful orbs cannot be considered as mere masses of inert matter.

And it is interesting to know that, if there be intelligent existence, an astronomer gazing at our distant universe, will see it, with a good telescope, precisely under the lateral aspect which theirs presents to us. But after all what do we see? Both that wonderful universe, our own, and all which optical assistance has revealed to us, may be only the outliers of a cluster immensely more numerous.

The millions of suns we perceive cannot comprise the Creator’s Universe. There are no bounds to infinitude; and the boldest views of the elder Herschel only placed us as commanding a ken whose radius is some 35,000 times longer than the distance of Sirius from us. Well might the dying Laplace explain: “That which we know is little; that which we know not is immense.”

Lord Rosse would continue on in 1844 with his 6-feet (72-inch) aperture, 53-ft FL “Leviathan” telescope, but he was a man of fewer words.

“The greater part of the observations were made when the eye was affected by lamp-light, which made it difficult to estimate correctly the centre of the nucleus; it was of importance that no time should be unnecessarily spent, and after the lamp had been used a new measure was taken, as it was judged that the object was sufficiently seen. With the brighter stars this would frequently happen before the nucleus was well defined, as all impediments to vision seem to affect nebulae much more than stars the light of which would be estimated as of the same intensity. In the foregoing list the greatest discrepancies are in the measures of bright objects, and this is probably the proper account of it. No stars have been inserted in the sketch which are not in the table of the measurements. The general appearance of the object would have been better given if the minute stars had been put in from the eye-sketch, but it would have created confusion.”

May the stars from this distant island universe fill your eyes!

The Whirlpool Galaxy (Spiral Galaxy M51, NGC 5194), a classic spiral galaxy located in the Canes Venatici constellation, and its companion NGC 5195. Credit: NASA/ESA

Locating Messier 51:

Locating M51 isn’t too hard if you have dark skies, but this particular galaxy is very difficult where light pollution of moonlight is present. To find it, start with Eta UM, the star at the handle of the Big Dipper. In the finderscope or binoculars, you’ll clearly see 24 UM to the southwest. Now, center your optics there and move slowly southwest towards Cor Caroli (Alpha CVn) and you’ll find it!

In locations where skies are clear and dark, it is easy to see spiral structure in even small telescopes, or to make out the galaxy in binoculars – but even a change in sky conditions can hide it from a good location. Rich field telescopes with fast focal lengths to an outstanding job on this galaxy and companion and you may be able to make out the nucleus of both galaxies on a good night from even a bad location.

Object Name: Messier 51
Alternative Designations: M51, NGC 5194, The Whirlpool Galaxy
Object Type: Type Sc Galaxy
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Right Ascension: 13 : 29.9 (h:m)
Declination: +47 : 12 (deg:m)
Distance: 37000 (kly)
Visual Brightness: 8.4 (mag)
Apparent Dimension: 11×7 (arc min)

We have written many interesting articles about Messier Objects here at Universe Today. Here’s Tammy Plotner’s Introduction to the Messier Objects, , M1 – The Crab Nebula, M8 – The Lagoon Nebula, and David Dickison’s articles on the 2013 and 2014 Messier Marathons.

Be to sure to check out our complete Messier Catalog. And for more information, check out the SEDS Messier Database.

Sources:

• Constellation Guide – Whirlpool Galaxy
• SEDS – Whirlpool Galaxy
• Wikipedia – Whirlpool Galaxy

The post Messier 51 – the Whirlpool Galaxy appeared first on Universe Today.

What is the Weather Like on Mercury?

What is the Weather Like on Mercury?:

With the dawning of the Space Age in the 1950s, human beings were no longer confined to studying the Solar planets and other astronomical bodies with Earth-based instruments alone. Instead crewed missions have gone into orbit and to the Moon while robotic missions have traveled to every corner of the Solar System. And in the process, we have learned some interesting things about the planets, planetoids, and asteroids in our Solar neighborhood.

For example, we have learned that all the Solar planets have their own particular patterns and cycles. For instance, even though Mercury is an airless body, it does have a tenuous exosphere and experiences seasons of a sort. And while it is known for being extremely hot, it also experiences extremes of cold, to the point that ice can exist on its surface. While it is by no means what we are used to here on Earth, Mercury still experiences a kind of “weather”.

Mercury’s Atmosphere:

As noted, Mercury has no atmosphere to speak of, owing to its small size and extremes in temperature. However, it does have a tenuous and variable exosphere that is made up of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sodium, calcium, potassium and water vapor, with a combined pressure level of about 10^-14 bar (one-quadrillionth of Earth’s atmospheric pressure).

The Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer on board MESSENGER has found that the solar wind is able to bear down on Mercury enough to blast particles from its surface into its wispy atmosphere. Shannon Kohlitz, Media Academica, LLC

It is believed this exosphere was formed from particles captured from the Sun (i.e solar wind) as well as volcanic outgassing and debris kicked into orbit by micrometeorite impacts. In any case, Mercury’s lack of a viable atmosphere is the reason why it is unable to retain heat from the Sun, which leads to extreme variations between night and day for the rocky planet.

Orbital Resonance:

Mercury’s temperature variations are also attributed to its orbital eccentricity of 0.2056, which is the most extreme of any planet in the Solar System. Essentially, its distance from the Sun ranges from 46 million km (29 million mi) at its closest (perihelion) to 70 million km (43 million mi) at its farthest (aphelion). As a result, the side facing the Sun reaches temperatures of up to 700 K (427° C), the side in shadow dips down to 100 K (-173° C).

With an average rotational speed of 10.892 km/h (6.768 mph), Mercury also takes 58.646 days to complete a single rotation. This means that Mercury has a spin-orbit resonance of 3:2, where it completes three rotations on its axis for every two rotations completed around the Sun. This does not, however, mean that three days last the same as two years on Mercury.

The Orbit of Mercury during the year 2006. Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Eurocommuter

In fact, its high eccentricity and slow rotation mean that it takes 176 Earth days for the Sun to return to the same place in the sky (aka. a solar day). In short, a single day on Mercury is twice as long as a single year! Mercury also has the lowest axial tilt of any planet in the Solar System – approximately 0.027 degrees compared to Jupiter’s 3.1 degrees (the second smallest).

Polar Ice:

This low tilt means that the polar regions are constantly in shadow, which leads to another interesting feature about Mercury. Yes, despite how hot its Sun-facing side can become, the existence of water ice and even organic molecules have been confirmed on Mercury’s surface. But this only true at the poles, where the floors of deep craters are never exposed to direct sunlight, and temperatures within them therefore remain below the planetary average.

These icy regions are believed to contain about 10¹⁴–10¹⁵ kg (1 to 10 billion metric tons, 1.1 to 11 billion US tons) of frozen water, and may be covered by a layer of regolith that inhibits sublimation. The origin of the ice on Mercury is not yet known, but the two most likely sources are from outgassing of water from the planet’s interior or deposition by the impacts of comets.

The Big Bear Solar Observatory Captures a high-res image of this week’s transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Image credit: NJIT/BBSO

When one talks about the “weather” on Mercury, they are generally confined to talking about variations between the Sun-facing side and the night side. Over the course of two years, that weather will remain scorching hot or freezing cold. In that respect, we could say that a single season on Mercury lasts a full four years, and includes a “Midnight Sun” that lasts two years, and a “Polar Night” that lasts the same.

Between its rapid and very eccentric orbit, its slow rotation, and its strange diurnal and annual patterns, Mercury is a very extreme planet with a very extreme environment. It only makes sense that its weather would be similarly extreme. Hey, there’s a reason nobody lives there, at least not yet…

We have written many interesting articles about the weather on other planets here at Universe Today. Here’s What is the Weather like on Venus?, What is the Weather Like on Mars?, What is the Weather Like on Jupiter?, What is the Weather Like on Saturn?, What is the Weather Like on Uranus?, and What is the Weather Like on Neptune?

If you’d like more information on Mercury, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide, and here’s a link to NASA’s MESSENGER Misson Page.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Mercury. Listen here, Episode 49:  Mercury.

Sources:

• NASA – Solar System Exploration: Mercury
• Wikipedia – Mercury
• University of Illinois – Q&A: Weather on Mercury and Mars

The post What is the Weather Like on Mercury? appeared first on Universe Today.

Mercury as Revealed by MESSENGER

Mercury as Revealed by MESSENGER:

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2017 July 23

Mercury as Revealed by MESSENGER

Image Credit: MESSENGER, NASA, JHU APL, CIW


Explanation: Mercury had never been seen like this before. In 2008, the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft buzzed past Mercury for the second time and imaged terrain mapped previously only by comparatively crude radar. The featured image was recorded as MESSENGER looked back 90 minutes after passing, from an altitude of about 27,000 kilometers. Visible in the image, among many other newly imaged features, are unusually long rays that appear to run like meridians of longitude out from a young crater near the northern limb. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury in 2011 and finished its primary mission in 2012, but took detailed measurements until 2015, at which time it ran out of fuel and so was instructed to impact Mercury's surface.

New Moon Tonight: The next New Moon will block the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: hybrid eclipse

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Watch an astrophysicist explain how NASA's next space telescope will help us time-travel through the Universe

Watch an astrophysicist explain how NASA's next space telescope will help us time-travel through the Universe:

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This rocky ‘super-Earth’ planet may be in just the right spot for hosting life:

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Get hyped for this year’s total solar eclipse by watching a partial one seen from space

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On August 21st, the United States will have an epic front row seat to a total solar eclipse — one that can be seen from the coasts of South Carolina to Oregon. Because of the country’s unique vantage point, the event has been appropriately named the Great American Eclipse, and people have already solidified their travel plans so that they can get the best view of the astronomical phenomenon. Of course, we still have some time to go before the event takes place, so if you need an eclipse fix in the meantime, NASA has something just for you: a partial eclipse seen from space.

Seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory — tasked with staring at the Sun every day

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NASA is flying a probe to the Sun named after the man who changed our understanding of stars

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This cheesy cruise lets you watch an eclipse at sea that you can easily see from land

This cheesy cruise lets you watch an eclipse at sea that you can easily see from land:

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To mine the Moon, private company Moon Express plans to build a fleet of robotic landers

To mine the Moon, private company Moon Express plans to build a fleet of robotic landers:

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This DNA-mimicking protein can make gene editing more precise and safe

This DNA-mimicking protein can make gene editing more precise and safe:

Scientists have discovered a virus-made protein that can block the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 from cutting DNA. The protein allows researchers to better control CRISPR so that it doesn’t snip unintended pieces of genetic code. In the future, the technique could be used to make gene editing more precise — and safe.

The protein, called AcrIIA4, switches gene editing off by mimicking DNA: it basically acts like a decoy, fooling CRISPR’s molecular scissors into thinking they're cutting actual DNA. Scientists at several institutions — including CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley — showed that the protein could reduce undesired gene changes in human blood cells. The findings were published...

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NASA just released Juno’s first stunning close-ups of Jupiter’s giant storm

NASA just released Juno’s first stunning close-ups of Jupiter’s giant storm:

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has sent back the first photos from its close flyby over Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot. The mysterious, extraterrestrial cyclone — which is twice as wide as Earth — has captivated scientists since the 1800s. Now, people can see the closest ever view of the massive storm for themselves.

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter for a little over a year on a mission to study the planet’s interior, atmosphere, and magnetosphere. Its elliptical orbit around the planet takes the probe close to the surface for a few hours every 53 days. These are called perijove passes — and on July 10th, Juno completed its seventh. A little after its closest approach, Juno’s camera, JunoCam, snapped a few shots of the storm from about 5,000...

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A Russian Soyuz rocket provided a ride share to space for more than 70 satellites this morning

A Russian Soyuz rocket provided a ride share to space for more than 70 satellites this morning:

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched a whopping 73 satellites into space this morning, sending the spacecraft into three different orbits around Earth. The satellites — ranging from tiny probes the size of a shoebox to a half-ton satellite the size of a car — rode together into space, arranged in a tall tower stacked on top of the rocket. It’s the most amount of satellites a Soyuz has ever put into space at one time.

This mission was essentially a rocket ride share, as the satellites belong to various companies and universities. The largest number of satellites on the mission belong to Planet — a San Francisco-based company looking to create a huge constellation of space probes that can constantly observe Earth. The company was able to pack...

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These animals will live on Earth until the Sun dies

These animals will live on Earth until the Sun dies:

We already know tardigrades — those tiny eight-legged water creatures — are as tough as they are ugly. They can survive for 30 years in a freezer and live in space and other extreme temperatures. But a new study paints things in bleaker terms: these creatures will outlive all of us. They will be around for 10 billion years. They will survive until the Sun dies.

For the study, published in Scientific Reports, astrophysicists at Oxford and Harvard University calculated the probability of objects in space colliding into the Earth, boiling the oceans dry, and killing everything.

The key finding, write the scientists, is that no space phenomena are strong enough to dry up the oceans completely, and so the tardigrades can make do with what’s...

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Feel like you’re zooming over Pluto and its moon Charon with NASA’s new 3D animations

Feel like you’re zooming over Pluto and its moon Charon with NASA’s new 3D animations:

It was two years ago, on July 14th, 2015, that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto — marking the first time we had ever explored this mysterious small world. The probe whizzed by within 7,750 miles of the dwarf planet’s surface and snapped the first ever close-up images of Pluto and its weird moons. Now, New Horizons is way beyond Pluto, journeying to another object at edge of the Solar System. But you can relive the flyby with this new animation from NASA that takes you over Pluto’s unique terrain.

Members of the New Horizons mission team put together the animation using data collected by the spacecraft, as well as elevation models of Pluto’s surface. The video starts just southwest of Sputnik Planitia — the huge plains of...

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This probe paved the way for studying gravitational waves from space — and now it’s been shut off

This probe paved the way for studying gravitational waves from space — and now it’s been shut off:

Yesterday, the European Space Agency said goodbye to one of its spacecraft that has helped pave the way for a new method of studying the Universe: the LISA Pathfinder, a car-sized probe that has been testing out technology needed to detect ripples in the fabric of space-time — called gravitational waves — from space. LISA Pathfinder completed its mission in June with resounding success. Now, the ESA has shut down the vehicle and sent it on a course far away from Earth — that way the spacecraft doesn’t become another piece of space junk that interferes with future missions.

LISA Pathfinder was always meant to be the opening act for a future mission called the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA. Meant to launch sometime in the...

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NASA is uploading hours of aerospace history on YouTube

NASA is uploading hours of aerospace history on YouTube:

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is in the process of uploading hundreds of videos of rare test flight, launch, and landing footage to YouTube and the agency’s website. It’s all part of a continued effort to better open access to NASA’s archives, as well as help inform the public about the types of research and record-setting milestones the agency achieves each year across various fields of aerospace engineering.

About 300 out of a total 500 clips have been uploaded to YouTube thus far, with some footage going back many decades. The clips include everything from the assembly of the D-558 Skystreak aircraft back in 1947 to a 1991 takeoff of a Lockheed Martin SR-71 stealth jet to hypersonic test flights of the unmanned NASA X-43A...

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Elon Musk suggests SpaceX is scrapping its plans to land Dragon capsules on Mars

Elon Musk suggests SpaceX is scrapping its plans to land Dragon capsules on Mars:

Today, Elon Musk suggested that SpaceX will abandon its plans to land the company’s Dragon capsule on Mars — a mission the company had been aiming to do as early as 2020.

SpaceX will not fully develop the landing technique it was going to use to land the Dragon on Mars. Known as the Red Dragon mission, the capsule was meant to lower itself to solid ground using engines embedded in its hull, and then touch down gently on landing legs in a method known as propulsive landing. But Musk said the company will come up with another way to land vehicles on the Martian surface.

“I'm pretty confident that is not the right way. There's a far better approach.”

“There was a time when I thought that the Dragon approach to landing on Mars... would be...

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Google Street View lands on the International Space Station

Google Street View lands on the International Space Station:

If you’ve always wanted to poke around inside a spaceship but don’t ever wish to leave the safety of Earth, Google Street View now lets you explore the International Space Station (ISS) right from your computer.

Astronauts have been working and living on the ISS for the past 16 years, and Street View now allows you to explore everything from the sleeping quarters to where the space suits are kept. This is the first time Street View has ventured beyond planet Earth, and the first time the feature also comes with handy little dots you can click on to launch notes that explain what everything does. The notes detail things like where the astronauts work out to stay fit, the kinds of food they eat and where scientific experiments are...

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The team that took us to Pluto briefly spotted their next target at the edge of the Solar System

The team that took us to Pluto briefly spotted their next target at the edge of the Solar System:

This weekend, a team of scientists who sent the first spacecraft to Pluto caught a brief glimpse of their vehicle’s next destination: a tiny, primitive space rock at the edge of the Solar System. Members of the mission team trekked down to a remote part of Argentina and spotted the distant object with numerous telescopes as it passed in front of a background star, blocking out the star’s light. It was a momentary eclipse — known as an occultation — and though it lasted just seconds, the sighting will provide useful information about the shape and size of the object that the spacecraft will visit next year.

That spacecraft is New Horizons, which famously flew within 8,000 miles of Pluto in July 2015. The vehicle was never meant to stop at...

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Those weird radio waves that were puzzling astronomers have a new explanation

Those weird radio waves that were puzzling astronomers have a new explanation:

Last week, astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico announced they had picked up some strange radio signals coming from a small red dwarf star, and they couldn’t quite figure out what was causing them. Now, it seems they have an answer: it turns out these bizarre radio signals most likely came from the transmissions of a couple of satellites.

The radio signals initially perplexed the astronomers. A solar flare from the star could have caused the signals, but the waves weren’t at the right frequency. The astronomers said it was possible that the waves came from nearby satellites, but the structure of the signal made it seem like the waves had traveled a long way through space to reach Earth. No explanation perfectly fit the...

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Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun

Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun:

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2017 July 22

Explanation: Bright sunlight glints and long dark shadows mark this image of the lunar surface. It was taken July 20, 1969 by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the Moon. Pictured is the mission's lunar module, the Eagle, and spacesuited lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin unfurling a long sheet of foil also known as the Solar Wind Composition Experiment. Exposed facing the Sun, the foil trapped particles streaming outward in the solar wind, catching a sample of material from the Sun itself. Along with moon rocks and lunar soil samples, the solar wind collector was returned for analysis in earthbound laboratories.

Fanatic Frontier: Space.com Treks to Comic-Con 2017

Fanatic Frontier: Space.com Treks to Comic-Con 2017:

A fan dressed up as Iron Man at the 2016 Comic-Con International in San Diego. At the 2017 con, a panel discussed real-world Iron Man-like technologies.

Credit: Matt Cowan/Getty Images

SAN DIEGO -- Greetings from the happiest place on Earth for fans of comic books and science fiction — Comic-Con International in San Diego!

I'm here at the convention to report on some of the science fiction and real-world science being discussed. We'll be updating this page with small tidbits from the convention, so check back in to get more updates.

And for truly extensive coverage of the con, be sure to check out our sister site Newsarama, your source of comic book news, reviews and all things genre entertainment. [Comic-Con 2017: A Space Fan's Guide]

The state of Iron Man tech

How close is humanity to living in a world where people commute to work in individual flight suits like the one that Iron Man wears? Well, inventor Richard Browning certainly isn't claiming that such a thing is on the horizon, but he has invented a jet-engine-powered flight suit and has used it to levitate above the ground for about 10 seconds at a time.

During a panel discussion on Thursday (July 20), Browning discussed how he quit a corporate career in the oil and gas industry to create his company, Gravity, which is building the suit.

"Our technology combines body-mounted [miniaturized] jet engines with a specially designed exoskeleton allowing vertical takeoff and flight," according to the company website. "The 'Daedalus,' our mark 1 jet-engine suit, is pioneering an entirely new category in aviation history."

At the panel, Browning discussed the physical demands of wearing the suit, and said the movie "Iron Man" starring Robert Downey Jr. does a pretty good job of showing what it was like for Browning to try to learn to balance himself in his suit.

In a TED Talk he delivered in April, Browning showed footage of himself trying to keep his body steady using various arrangements of the miniature jet engines on his arms, legs and back. He said that with the current arrangement, which has a pair of engines on each arm, he must physically balance against about 130 kilograms of force (about 300 lbs. of force) on each side. For that reason, he's started doing intense calisthenics training.

Unlike the fictional Tony Stark's suit, which runs on an equally fictional device called the Arc Reactor, Browning's suit designs have run on jet fuel or kerosene. They burn about 1 liter (0.26 gallons) of fuel per minute, he said, which would add up quickly over a 20- or 30-minute commute. Browning said he doesn't see any safe way to utilize a more energy-dense fuel, so the next step might to be adding some kind of airfoil that would keep the rider aloft and help the individual move forward without the engine running constantly.

Also on the panel was Chris Gerty, an informatics system team lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Gerty is working on new spacesuit designs for NASA, and he discussed some new ideas he and his colleagues are working on to put digital displays inside spacesuit helmets — not unlike those portrayed inside Tony Star's suits in the "Iron Man" movies. For real-world astronauts, these displays could provide information about how the suit's critical systems are functioning, Gerty said.

When astronauts on the International Space Station go for spacewalks, teams down on Earth monitor the spacewalkers' suits. But that setup won't work on Mars, because it takes at least a few minutes for a signal to travel from Earth to the Red Planet, Gerty said. The status of an astronaut's suit will have to be monitored by a colleague who is also on Mars, or by the astronaut.

Gerty and Browning were joined on the panel by stuntwoman and actress Zoe Bell — who is the second person to test fly the flight suit — and Adam Draper, founder of Boost VC, an investment firm that focuses on futuristic technology and is backing Gravity. While discussing his reasons for investing in companies like Gravity, Draper said, "The future either looks like 'Mad Max' or 'Star Trek.' Whenever I can make it look a little more like 'Star Trek,' I invest."

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Not Aliens: Weird Radio Signal from Star Likely Has Duller Explanation

Not Aliens: Weird Radio Signal from Star Likely Has Duller Explanation:

The signal that seemed to emanate from the red dwarf star Ross 128, as detected by the Arecibo Observatory in May 2017 (enclosed in the red frame).

Credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo

A strange radio signal that seemed to emanate from a small nearby star probably came from Earth-orbiting satellites, astronomers say.

Late last week, researchers announced that, on May 12, the 1,000-foot-wide (305 meters) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico detected a bizarre radio signal in the vicinity of Ross 128, a red dwarf star that lies just 11 light-years from Earth.

The signal was theoretically consistent with a transmission from an alien civilization, the astronomers said, though they stressed that hypothesis was "at the bottom of many other explanations." Indeed, they pegged the leading candidates as flares from Ross 128, emissions from some other object in the same field of view as the star, and a burst from one or more high-orbiting satellites. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]

Now, follow-up observations — by Arecibo, as well as the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California — point to this last hypothesis as the most likely, team members said.

"The best explanation is that the signals are transmissions from one or more geostationary satellites," Abel Mendez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico, wrote in a statement today (July 21). (Geostationary satellites circle Earth at an altitude of about 22,300 miles, or 35,800 kilometers.)

"This explains why the signals were within the satellite’s frequencies and only appeared and persisted in Ross 128; the star is close to the celestial equator, where many geostationary satellites are placed," Mendez added. "This fact, though, does not yet explain the strong dispersion-like features of the signals (diagonal lines in the figure); however, it is possible that multiple reflections caused these distortions, but we will need more time to explore this and other possibilities."

But even though it's likely that the Ross 128 signal has a prosaic explanation, scientists should still follow up on similar detections in the future, stressed Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California.

"The historic lesson is clear — these things pop up, and you have to follow them up, because you never know what's going to be the real one, or even if there will ever be a real one," Shostak, who was involved in the recent ATA observations of Ross 128, told Space.com earlier this week. "Following up is mandatory."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

2017 Solar Eclipse Science Will Star Planes, Radio Waves and Citizen Help

2017 Solar Eclipse Science Will Star Planes, Radio Waves and Citizen Help:

This view of a 2010 total solar eclipse combines ground-based views (gray and white) taken from the South Pacific and space-based images from the SOHO spacecraft, which used a coronagraph to block out the sun and thus can't view as close to its surface.

Credit: Williams College Eclipse Expedition - Jay M. Pasachoff, Muzhou Lu and Craig Malamut; SOHO's LASCO image courtesy of NASA/ESA; solar disk image from NASA's SDO; compositing by Steele Hill, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

With the 2017 total solar eclipse only one month away, scientists from several science organizations highlighted how studying the sun during an eclipse will help improve understanding of the behavior of Earth's closest stellar neighbor.

The Aug. 21 eclipse's totality path will span 14 different states coast to coast, taking roughly 91 minutes to cross the country. While the location of greatest eclipse is Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the time of totality will average about 2.5 minutes across all locations.

Officials from NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) came together yesterday (July 21 to discuss their plans during a press conference in Boulder, Colorado. [The Best ISO-Certified Gear to See the 2017 Solar Eclipse]

"The neat thing about this — as a scientist, and is someone who has kids — is the whole lower 48 [states] will be in shadow," said Scott McIntosh, director of NCAR's High Altitude Observatory. Some states will see only partial eclipses, while others will see the sun totally disappear. The event will provide opportunities for millions of amateurs to get involved with the science alongside professional astronomers, McIntosh added. (Make sure to observe proper eye safety during the eclipse.)

Because millions of people will be rushing to the small band of totality, however, the Department of Transportation has a special website available for the best routes. That's something people should check ahead of eclipse day, said Madhulika "Lika" Guhathakurta, the NASA lead scientist for the 2017 eclipse. "Traffic is going to be a nightmare," she said.

The eclipse is also well-timed, as the science community gears up for some major science projects that will focus on the sun. The Parker Solar Plus Probe will launch in 2018 to provide an unprecedented close-up view of the sun's corona, its superhot outer atmosphere. And in 2020, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will act like a "microscope of the sun," as the 4-meter telescope begins gathering high-resolution imagery of Earth's closest stellar neighbor.

The science of totality

Astronomers can easily create an artificial eclipse for a particular observer using a device called a coronagraph, which blocks most of the sun except for its corona, its superheated outer atmosphere. Scientists want to study this feature of the star to better understand how energy is transmitted from the sun into space.

The corona "is a fairly blustery environment," McIntosh said, pointing out that the Earth is affected by the "space weather" that the corona's changes generate. The strongest solar flares can induce outages in satellites and power lines, which is another reason NASA and other organizations are interested in learning about the connection between the sun and the Earth's environment, he said.

The moon will provide an advantage, however, over a coronagraph when the eclipse occurs, the researchers said. The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun and, coincidentally, about 400 times closer to Earth — meaning it can cover the surface of the sun perfectly if the two bodies are aligned. A coronagraph, however, needs to be a bit larger than the sun's surface to avoid damage to the telescope.

"The moon is a perfect occulter. It blocks the surface of the sun just perfectly, so you can see very low into the solar atmosphere," said Carrie Black, the NSF's associate program director in the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.

In particular, scientists will be interested in studying the "low corona," where most of the sun's activity is generated. Black said this zone — which is also where space weather originates — is of particular interest to the federal government, which is "investing a lot of money and organizing folks" to protect communications links and the power grid from space weather event.

Additional information about the sun's behavior comes from NASA's missions across the solar system, said Guhathakurta. NASA's many orbital missions at Mars and the New Horizons mission that flew by Pluto in 2015, for instance, can provide a new perspective because they can measure how its particles have changed energy or direction as they travel further out than Earth. This provides additional information to help forecast the sun's activity, Guhathakurta said.

Incidentally, the moon's topography will also influence which regions on the Earth experience totality during the eclipse, as the moon is not a flat surface; it is full of craters and mountains that affect the shadow passing across the Earth's surface. Data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is available to help people predict where they should be standing in the United States to get the best view.

Science projects

Here is a partial list of science observations going on (a full list from today's discussion is at https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/eclipse-science-showcase-attendees-experiments):

• Solar-Eclipse Induced Changes in the Ionosphere Over the Continental U.S. (led by Phil Erickson and Nancy Wolfe Kotary of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Haystack Observatory): This will look at the electrically charged region of the sun's atmosphere, which is in part affected by sunlight. During an eclipse, cold spots can cause ionospheric disturbances that ripple across the atmosphere. The team will study these disturbances across the United States using a huge network of more than 6,000 sensors on the Earth, as well as NASA's space-based Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission.
• EclipseMob: Crowdsourcing for Radio Propagation in the Ionosphere (a National Science Foundation project led by Jill Nelson of George Mason University): This will measure the ionosphere's response to low-frequency radio waves to better understand this region of the atmosphere, especially how the ionosphere can block low-frequency radio broadcasts. Using two transmitters that probe the ionosphere, students and the public will operate receivers and attempt to receive the data at certain frequencies.
• Chasing the 2017 Eclipse (led by Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute): Two NASA WB-57 airplanes (flying from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston) will observe the sun and Mercury during the total solar eclipse, in both visible and infrared light. These aircraft will operate at 50,000 feet (15,000 m) of altitude and provide about 8 minutes of data of totality, nearly triple of what is available at ground level. Because the planes fly above 90 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, they will provide accurate measurements of the solar corona to see how energy propagates through the sun.

There also are crowdsourcing projects available, such as:

• Eclipse Megamovie: This will collect images from more than 1,000 volunteer photographers and amateur astronomers (and anyone else who is interested) to make a view of the total eclipse during its journey across the United States.
• Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse): This will take images of the inner solar corona, using 60 telescopes used by high schools, universities and citizen scientists. The goal is to get high-resolution imagery of the corona for 90 minutes.
• iNaturalist (California Academy of Sciences): This iTunes app will let people record the observations of organisms at their eclipse-watching locations. The academy suggests people record observations 30 minutes before totality, during totality and 30 minutes after totality.

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple and Android, and you can view it on the web.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.