Space News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Maybe we should start a thread entitled "Space Inc." to discuss the behavior of space oriented businesses back here on earth.

Threatened With Prosecution, SpaceX Defends Its Activities in South Texas
Erik de la Garza
June 26, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/threaten ... uth-texas/

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — A Texas district attorney’s threat to prosecute SpaceX over unauthorized road and beach closures and the overzealous actions of its private security guards has the Elon Musk-owned company defending its activities in the remote South Texas beach town of Boca Chica, where it launches rockets into outer space from a site it refers to as “Starbase.”

The complicated relationship between SpaceX and Cameron County, where Musk announced he would donate $30 million to schools and downtown revitalization, has been on full display in recent days after District Attorney Luis Saenz issued a warning letter following a complaint from environmental group Save RGV.

Spurred by multiple concerns from the non-profit group, the letter from the county’s top prosecutor to SpaceX outlined how the company could be in violation of at least two state laws: obstructing a highway or other passageway, a Class B misdemeanor, and impersonating a public servant, which is punishable by a third-degree felony in the Lone Star State.

The brouhaha took flight when staff from the district attorney’s office went to investigate the environmental group’s complaint when, according to the prosecutor’s office, a SpaceX security guard “immediately approached, stopped, and detained” them before exchanging words and ordering that they return to the highway.

If that conduct were to happen again, the district attorney warned, not only could the individual security guard be subject to prosecution, but the company could open itself up to criminal liability as well.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon 2 spacecraft lifts off on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center for a re-supply mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 3, 2021.
(AP Photo/John Raoux)

[Time_Traveller]

NOAA to replace GOES17 satellite ahead of schedule

June 25, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced plans June 25 to move its geostationary weather satellite scheduled to launch in December into an operational role “as soon as possible.”

NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-T, will replace the GOES-17 satellite in the GOES West position because of problems with the satellite’s main instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), according to a NOAA news release.

Within months of launching the GOES-17 satellite in 2018, NOAA discovered a blockage in ABI’s loop heat pipe that restricted the flow of coolant and caused the instrument to overheat. Engineers were able to mitigate the problems, but the resulting fixes decreased the satellite’s lifespan.

https://spacenews.com/goes-t-to-become-goes-west/

[weatheriscool]

Lack of water rules out life on Venus: study

Scientists determined no life on Earth could cope with the miniscule amount of water in Venus's atmosphere.

A study measuring water concentration in Venus's atmosphere concluded Monday that life as we know it is not possible among the sulphuric acid droplets that make up the planet's famously cloudy skies.

The search for life on our nearest neighbor has so far proved fruitless, although a 2020 paper rekindled hopes for Venus when it claimed to have detected phosphine gas—known to be produced by bacteria on Earth—in the planet's clouds.

The authors have since called their own findings into question.

But the claim inspired scientists led by Queen's University Belfast to test the theory from a different angle: whether there is enough water in Venus's atmosphere to make life possible.

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-lack-life-venus.html

[wjfox]

Lack of water rules out life on Venus: study

[...]

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-lack-life-venus.html

[wjfox]

Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

41 minutes ago

Scientists have detected two collisions between a neutron star and a black hole in the space of 10 days.

Researchers predicted that such collisions would occur, but did not know how often.

The observations could mean that some ideas of how stars and galaxies form may need to be revised.

Prof Vivien Raymond, from Cardiff University, told BBC News that the surprising results were fantastic.

"We have to go back to the drawing board and rewrite our theories," he said effusively.

"We have learned a bit of a lesson again. When we assume something we tend to be proved wrong after a while. So we have to keep our minds open and see what the Universe is telling us."

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57639520

[caltrek]

I used to say that while one might b e able to communicate with animals about emotions, that one could never hold a conversation with them about astronomy. Looks like I might have to re-think that example.

Animals Can Navigate by Starlight.
by Brian Resnick
June 28, 2021

https://www.vox.com/22538268/animal-nav ... xperiments

Introduction:

(Vox) “No, no, no, no, Brian. No, no, no, no.”

I had asked Stephen Emlen, a Cornell emeritus professor of neurobiology and behavior, what seemed to me an obvious question: When he brought birds into planetariums in the 1960s and 70s, did they ever, um, make a mess in there?

“No poops in the planetarium,” Emlen assures me.

I had called Emlen to talk not about poops, but a series of experiments that have captured my imagination. He brought migratory birds into a planetarium at night and turned the stars on and off, as though erasing them from the universe of a bird’s brain.

Through these experiments, Emlen pieced together what was then a mystery: how birds know which way is which, even flying in the dark of night without the sun for guidance.

[caltrek]

NASA Releases Pictures of the International Space Station Transiting the Sun

June 28, 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/57634574

Introduction:

(BBC) (NASA has)...released an image of the International Space Station (ISS) crossing the sun.

The rare image shows the ISS transiting the sun - transiting is when one object crosses in front of another in space.

Nasa captured the ISS as a silhouette at different points and merged the images together. The ISS looks like a really small object compared to the huge sun.

At the time the photo was taken astronauts were out on a spacewalk.

The ISS was captured as it moved from right to left across the sun while orbiting 400km above Earth.

NASA/Joel Kowsky

[caltrek]

Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

More on that:
For the First Time, Astrophysicists Detect a Black Hole Swallowing a Neutron Star
by Wilson Wong
June 29, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... uxbndlbing

Introduction:

(NBC) Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, a black hole swallowed a neutron star. Then, 10 days later, another black hole ate up another star. The two separate events triggered ripples through time and space that eventually hit Earth.

Those ripples, first detected in January 2020, offered researchers two distinct looks at the never-before-measured cosmic collisions, according to research published Tuesday in the academic publication The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This is the first detection of a merger between a black hole and neutron star," said Chase Kimball, a Northwestern University graduate student and one of the study's co-authors. "Basically, the black hole eats the neutron star and becomes fatter."

Astrophysicists have previously observed two black holes colliding with two neutron stars in separate events, but never the two paired together.

"We long thought they exist, but this is the first direct confirmation that will help fine-tune future astrophysical models about the binary star systems in our universe and how they interact with each other," Kimball said.

[caltrek]

Does Outer Space End – or Go On Forever?

https://theconversation.com/does-outer- ... ver-162333

(The Conversation) Q: What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California

Conclusion:

(A:) Some scientists think it’s possible the universe might eventually wrap back around on itself – so if you could just keep going out, you would someday come back around to where you started, from the other direction.

One way to think about this is to picture a globe, and imagine that you are a creature that can move only on the surface. If you start walking any direction, east for example, and just keep going, eventually you would come back to where you began. If this were the case for the universe, it would mean it is not infinitely big – although it would still be bigger than you can imagine.

In either case, you could never get to the end of the universe or space. Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.

But nobody knows for sure. How to answer this question will need to be figured out by a future scientist.

[raklian]

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

A white dwarf living on the edge
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-white-dwarf-edge.html
by W. M. Keck Observatory

Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is heavy, "packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a body about the size of our Moon," says Ilaria Caiazzo, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech and lead author of the new study appearing in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature. "It may seem counterintuitive, but smaller white dwarfs happen to be more massive. This is due to the fact that white dwarfs lack the nuclear burning that keep up normal stars against their own self gravity, and their size is instead regulated by quantum mechanics."

The discovery was made by the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, which operates at Caltech's Palomar Observatory; two Hawai'i telescopes—W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai'i Island and University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy's Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui—helped characterize the dead star, along with the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar, the European Gaia space observatory, and NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

[weatheriscool]

On its first try, China's Zhurong rover hit a Mars milestone that took NASA decades
https://www.space.com/china-mars-rover- ... FZ_x7w7Cpc
By Sara Webb, Rebecca Allen about 12 hours ago

China's Zhurong rover landed safely on Mars on May 15, making China only the third country to successfully land a rover on the red planet.More impressively still, China is the first Mars-going nation to carry out an orbiting, landing and rovering operation as its first mission.

Planetary scientist Roberto Orosei told Nature China is "doing in a single go what NASA took decades to do," while astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell described China's decision to include a rover in its maiden Mars outing as a "very gutsy move."

[weatheriscool]

James Webb Space Telescope Passes Key Launch Clearance Review

By European Space Agency July 2, 2021
James Webb Space Telescope Ariane 5 Launcher
https://scitechdaily.com/james-webb-spa ... ce-review/

The international James Webb Space Telescope has passed the final mission analysis review for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

This major milestone, carried out with Arianespace, the Webb launch service provider, confirms that Ariane 5, the Webb spacecraft, and the flight plan are set for launch. It also specifically provides the final confirmation that all aspects of the launch vehicle and spacecraft are fully compatible.

During launch, the spacecraft experiences a range of mechanical forces, vibrations, temperature changes, and electromagnetic radiation. All technical evaluations performed by Arianespace on the mission’s key aspects, including the launch trajectory and payload separation, have shown positive results.

[weatheriscool]

Billionaire Richard Branson Will Beat Jeff Bezos to Space
July 2, 2021 by Brian Wang

Richard Branson is racing Jeff Bezos to their first sub-orbital flight into space.

Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Galactic. He plans to fly into space aboard his company’s VSS Unity rocketplane on July 11 for an up-and-down test flight. Amazon-founder and rival Jeff Bezos plans to fly on his Blue Origin rocket into sub-orbital space on July 19.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are competing for sub-orbital tourist launches.

SpaceX will fly its first orbital space tourists (4 at a time) later in 2021 through Inspiration4.

Nextbigfuture wishes Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and the rest of the Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin crews safe journeys this month.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/07/b ... space.html

[Yuli Ban]

The space race is now between billionaires instead of countries

Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic, will fly into space aboard his company's VSS Unity rocketplane on July 11 for an up-and-down test flight, beating Amazon-founder and rival Jeff Bezos into sub-orbital space by nine days.

The announcement from Virgin came just a few hours after Bezos announced that aviation pioneer Wally Funk will be joining him, his brother Mark and the yet-to-be named winner of an online auction for blastoff July 20 aboard his company's New Shepard spacecraft.

Both Virgin Galactic and Bezos' Blue Origin are competing head-to-head in the emerging space tourism marketplace, both offering short rides just above the discernible atmosphere for a few minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views before returning to Earth.

Spoiler alert: it's also between countries.

[caltrek]

Moon-Size White Dwarf is the Smallest Found to Date
by Monica Young
June 30, 2021

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... -collapse/

Introduction:

(Sky & Telescope) Not far from us is a faint, hot cinder of a star, a white dwarf still smoldering from its formation less than 100 million years ago. Most such objects are the collapsed cores of low-mass stars, and since most stars are low-mass, almost all of them (97%) end their lives as white dwarfs. But this one is different.

In the July 1st Nature, Ilaria Caiazzo, Kevin Burdge (both at Caltech), and their colleagues report evidence that this white dwarf was born out of the union of two punier siblings. As a result, it’s the smallest white dwarf known — and just this side of collapse.

SMALL YET MASSIVE

White dwarfs owe their existence to quantum mechanics. While stars fuse elements to release thermal pressure and counteract gravity, white dwarfs can’t muster the conditions for fusion. Instead, gravity compacts their cores until electrons are forced practically next to each other. But according to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, electrons won’t stand for that — they physically cannot share the same energy state. So electrons that don’t fit in the lowest energy levels, where they’d prefer to be, instead go to higher and higher levels, whizzing around the core at greater and greater speeds.
These fluttering electrons provide their own kind of pressure that supports the core against gravitational collapse. The result is counterintuitive: The more mass a white dwarf has, the smaller it becomes in order to generate the necessary pressure to stave off collapse.

That works until there’s too much mass, and the fastest electrons are forced to flit about at near the speed of light, at which point they can’t generate enough pressure to forestall destruction. When a pair of white dwarfs merges, the scale often tips over the Chandrasekhar limit, beyond which runaway nuclear reaction ensues and the stellar cinder detonates.

A close pair of orbiting white dwarfs spiral inward as they radiate gravitational waves.
NASA / Dana Berry, Sky Works Digital

[caltrek]

European Plan for Gigantic New Gravitational Wave Detector Passes Milestone
by Adrian Cho
July 2, 2021

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/07 ... -milestone

Introductiomn:

(Science) It’s far from a done deal, but plans by European physicists to build a huge new gravitational wave observatory with a radical design received a boost this week. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), which advises European governments on research priorities, added the €1.9 billion observatory, called the Einstein Telescope, to a road map of large science projects ripe for progress. Developers hope the move will give them the political validation needed to transform the Einstein Telescope idea into a project.

“This isn’t a promise of any funding, but it shows the clear intention to pursue this,” says Harald Lück, a gravitational wave physicist at Leibniz University Hannover and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and co-chair of the Einstein Telescope steering committee. “It is more of a political commitment.”

U.S. gravitational wave physicists welcomed the announcement, too, as they think it may bolster their plans to build a pair of detectors even bigger than the Einstein Telescope in a project called Cosmic Explorer. “In the U.S., I think the momentum is going to start to build,” says David Reitze, executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and a physicist at the California Institute of Technology.

Gravitational wave detectors sense tiny fleeting ripples in space itself when massive astrophysical objects, such as black holes, whirl together and collide. In the past 5 years, scientists have spotted dozens of merging pairs of black holes, the ghostly superintense gravitational fields left behind when massive stars collapse to infinitesimal points, spiraling together. They have also spotted the gravitational waves—and spectacular explosion—set off by the merger of a pair of smaller neutron stars, the ultradense corpses of middle-weight stars that burn out and blow up. This week, researchers announced they had twice sensed gravitational waves from a black hole swallowing a neutron star.

With its novel subterranean, triangular design, Europe’s Einstein Telescope would be a gravitational wave observatory unlike any other.
ET CONCEPTUAL DESIGN TEAM

[Yuli Ban]

LIGO and Virgo detect rare mergers of black holes with neutron stars for the first time

Today, an international team of scientists, including researchers at MIT, have announced the detection of a new kind of astrophysical system: a collision between a black hole and a neutron star — two of the densest, most exotic objects in the universe.

Scientists have detected signals of colliding black holes, and colliding neutron stars, but had not confirmed a merging of a black hole with a neutron star until now. In a study appearing today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the scientists report observing not just one, but two such rare events, each of which gave off gravitational waves that reverberated across a large swath of the universe before reaching Earth in January 2020, just 10 days apart.

[caltrek]

The "Crisis in Cosmology" Might not be a Crisis After All
By Brian Koberlein
July 7, 2021

https://www.universetoday.com/151745/th ... ore-151745

Introduction:

(Universe Today) The standard model of cosmology is known as the LCDM model. Here, CDM stands for Cold Dark Matter, which makes up most of the matter in the universe, and L stands for Lambda, which is the symbol used in general relativity to represent dark energy or cosmic expansion. While the observational evidence we have largely supports the LCDM model, there are some issues with it. One of the most bothersome is known as cosmic tension.

It centers on our measurement of the Hubble constant, which tells us the rate at which the universe has expanded over time. There are lots of ways to measure the Hubble constant, from the brightness of distant supernovae, to the clustering of galaxies, to fluctuations in the cosmic background, to the light of microwave lasers. All of these methods have advantages and disadvantages, but if our cosmological model is right they should all agree within the limits of uncertainty.

The problem is, they don’t agree. Back in the early days of cosmology the uncertainty of our measurement was so large that all these results overlapped, but as our measurements got better it became clear different methods gave slightly different values for the Hubble constant. In polite company, astronomers say there is tension between these values.

This tension means that either our measurements are a bit off, or there is something wrong with our model. This has led some astronomers to propose some missing aspects to our model, such as how the mass of neutrinos might realign our Hubble values. But as new measurements of the Hubble constant keep coming in, it looks as if the tension is just getting worse. Now a new paper from Wendy Freedman argues that the tension problem isn’t that bad and that the tension will likely fade as the next generation of telescopes gives us even better data.