Space News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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NASA asteroid mission on hold due to late software delivery
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-nasa-aste ... -late.html
By SETH BORENSTEIN
NASA put an asteroid mission on hold Friday, blaming the late delivery of its own navigation software.

The Psyche mission to a strange metal asteroid of the same name was supposed to launch this September or October. But the agency's Jet Propulsion Lab was several months late delivering its software for navigation, guidance and control—a crucial part of any spacecraft. Engineers "just ran out of time" to test it, officials said Friday.

Now the space agency is going to step back, and an independent review will look at what went wrong, when the spacecraft could launch again and even if it should go ahead, NASA planetary sciences chief Lori Glaze said.

NASA has already spent $717 million on Psyche and its projected total cost, including the rocket to launch it, is $985 million. The small car-sized spacecraft was originally supposed to arrive at its asteroid in 2026 after a journey of more than 1 billion miles.

Now that the software has been delivered, there's no known problems with the spacecraft except "we just haven't been able to test it," said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Psyche mission lead scientist.
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caltrek
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Flashes From Neutron Star Tidal Waves May Signal Impending Mergers
by Paul Sutter
June 26, 2022

Extract:
(Space.com) (A) new method for observing the exotic behavior of neutron stars (is described in an article) published in May in the preprint database arXiv, (and) focuses on the neutron star oceans, which, besides free electrons and neutrons, can also contain carbon, oxygen and iron. Although the oceans are relatively shallow compared with the entire depth of the neutron star, they are the outermost layer (not including an incredibly thin "atmosphere") and the part of the neutron star that most readily reacts to the outside universe.

In particular, the researchers found that these shallow oceans can support tides, just as oceans do on Earth. But raising a tide on a neutron star requires a lot more gravitational pull to overcome all that extreme gravity. Tides on neutron stars appear only when the neutron star is close enough to a massive, dense object, like another neutron star or a black hole.

Thankfully, these kinds of binary pairs are relatively common, as stars tend to form in multiple systems and then go on through their life cycles, eventually leaving behind combinations of black holes and neutron stars.

When a neutron star begins to merge with another neutron star or a black hole, the objects spend a few years slowly spiraling in toward each other. As they orbit, gravitational waves carry energy away from the system, pulling the couple closer. Eventually, in the final moments, the merger is over in a matter of seconds.

But before that happens, the orbiting companion can raise a series of resonant tides on the neutron star. Those tides can maintain frequencies of up to 100 megahertz and carry up to a whopping 10^29 joules of energy. To give you a sense of just how awesome that number is, every year all of humanity uses a mere 10^20 joules. A single neutron star resonant tidal wave has more energy than the entire output of the sun shining for 10,000 years.
Read more here: https://www.space.com/neutron-star-mer ... al-waves

For the actual arXiv article, which is a more technical discussion: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.13541
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The star that survived a supernova
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-star-surv ... rnova.html
By Sandy Seale and Harrison Tasoff, University of California - Santa Barbara
A supernova is the catastrophic explosion of a star. Thermonuclear supernovae, in particular, signal the complete destruction of a white dwarf star, leaving nothing behind. At least that's what models and observations suggested.

So when a team of astronomers went to look at the site of the peculiar thermonuclear supernova SN 2012Z with the Hubble Space Telescope, they were shocked to discover that the star had survived the explosion. Not only had it survived—the star was even brighter after the supernova than it had been before.

First author Curtis McCully, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara and Las Cumbres Observatory, published these findings in an article in The Astrophysical Journal and presented them at a press conference at the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The puzzling results give us new information about the origins of some of the most common, yet mysterious, explosions in the universe.
wow, this is weird! :shock:
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caltrek
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New Fossil Galaxy Discovery Could Answer Important Questions About the History of the Universe
June 30, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) The fossil, which was uncovered via a systematic visual search of legacy survey images using the Mayall 4-metre telescope, led by Dr David Martinez Delgado, could teach scientists about how galaxies form and confirm their understanding of cosmology and dark matter.

Dr Michelle Collins, an astronomer at the University of Surrey, UK and lead author of the paper announcing this discovery said:
“We have found a new, extremely faint galaxy whose stars formed very early in the history of the Universe. This discovery marks the first time a galaxy this faint has been found around Andromeda using an astronomical survey that wasn't specifically designed for the task.”

Named ‘Pegasus V,’ the dwarf galaxy is located on the outskirts of Andromeda and appears as just a few sparse stars hidden in the sky.

The discovery was made in collaboration with NSF NOIRLab and the International Gemini Observatory.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957530
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Space Health: Resistance Training Exercises Could Help Limit Bone Loss During Spaceflight
June 30, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Astronauts that have returned after spaceflights over three months may show signs of incomplete bone recovery even after one year on Earth, but adding in more resistance-based exercises during spaceflight may help limit bone loss. The small study, published in Scientific Reports, on 17 international astronauts found that while the shinbone partially recovers, the sustained bone losses after one year are equivalent to ten years of normal age-related bone loss on Earth.

Steven Boyd and colleagues imaged 17 astronauts (14 male, three female) before spaceflight, at return to Earth, and after six and 12 months of recovery. They conducted bone scans on the tibia (shinbone) and radius (forearm) to calculate the resistance of the bone to fracture (failure load), bone mineral in the bone tissue, and tissue thickness. The authors also recorded exercises such as cycling, treadmill running and deadlifting completed by astronauts in-flight and post-flight
.
One year after flight the median results for 16 of the astronauts showed incomplete recovery of the shinbone. Median shinbone failure load, measuring bone strength, was reduced by 152.0 newtons from 10,579 newtons at pre-flight to 10,427 newtons after one year. Total bone mineral density reduced by 4.5 milligrams per cubic centimeter compared to pre-flight levels of 326.8 mg/cm3. Measures of the forearm across all astronauts did not differ at 12 months’ recovery compared to pre-flight.

The authors observed that astronauts on missions longer than six months (a total of eight astronauts) had substantially less bone recovery. In astronauts on missions over six months the median shinbone failure load reduced by 333.9 newtons after one year compared to pre-flight, while in astronauts on missions shorter than six months (nine astronauts) the failure load reduced by 79.9 newtons. Similar differences were found for total bone mineral density in the shinbone. Altogether, nine of the astronauts (seven from long missions) did not fully recover shinbone total bone mineral density after 12 months.

Across all astronauts, those who completed greater amounts of in-flight deadlift training, relative to their individual training pre-flight, were identified as part of those who recovered tibia bone mineral density. The authors propose that as well as currently used exercise routines, a jumping resistance-based exercise that provides high-impact dynamic loads on the legs may help prevent bone loss and promote the formation of bone on spaceflight missions.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957254
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Surprise 'fossil galaxy' spotted near mighty Andromeda
About 6 hours ago

An amateur astronomer found a fossilized surprise in the well-studied sky near the bright Andromeda Galaxy.

Skywatcher Giuseppe Donatiello spotted an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy, now dubbed Pegasus V, in archival data from a U.S. Department of Energy camera designed to hunt for dark energy. Intrigued astronomers who heard about his observations then studied the region using a bigger Hawaiian telescope, called Gemini North. Scientists now think that Pegasus V might be a "fossil" of the first galaxies, packed with very old stars.

"This discovery marks the first time a galaxy this faint has been found around the Andromeda Galaxy using an astronomical survey that wasn't specifically designed for the task," Michelle Collins, an astronomer at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom who led the new research, said in a statement(opens in new tab) from the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), which operates Gemini North.

Pegasus V (in circle) is an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy found on the fringes of the famous Andromeda Galaxy, M31. The discovery was announced June 30, 2022. (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgment: Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab))
The galaxy was first detected in data gathered by the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Donatiello was taking part in a search for Andromeda dwarf galaxies conducted by David Martinez-Delgado from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain, when his sharp eyes spotted Perseus V.

The new find, which contains only very small amounts of heavy elements, must therefore be a particularly old galaxy, the scientists argue.
https://www.space.com/fossil-dwarf-gala ... -andromeda
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"Largest interior volume in a standalone spacecraft. Ever."

https://www.gravitics.space/
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This is what the most powerful rocket in history looks like underneath. :shock:

To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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World’s oldest trees reveal the largest solar storm in history

June 29, 2022

While humanity reckons with many problems here on Earth — war, political turmoil, an ongoing pandemic, all alongside the energy, climate, and water crises — it’s important to remember just how relentless the Universe can be. While earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters haven’t exactly ceased in the meantime, there’s a looming threat for which we’re completely unprepared: a solar storm. Without any mitigations, widespread electrical fires and power station failures could come with damages costing trillions of dollars, impacting the lives of of billions.

Historically, the largest recorded solar event occurred back in 1859: the Carrington event. But more than a millennium prior to that, an even stronger cosmic event struck Earth. We know this because, back in the years spanning 774-775, there was a tremendous spike in the presence of carbon-14 in Earth’s atmosphere, and the evidence is found in tree rings all across the world. After a full decade investigating the possible causes of this spike, the scientific conclusion we’ve reached is that the Sun was to blame. A solar storm from more than 1200 years ago may have been the most powerful one recorded in natural history. The Earth, as a result, may be at an even greater risk from a worst-case solar storm than anyone thought possible.

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang ... lar-storm/


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