Notices by Fraser Cain (fraser@m.universetoday.com), page 4

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is exploring the Kuiper Belt, an icy region of the Solar System that includes objects like Pluto. It was expected that the spacecraft would be starting to exit the region. However, scientists were surprised to discover higher dust levels from micrometeorite collisions with Kuiper Belt Objects. This means the Kuiper Belt could extend farther from the Sun than previously estimated, or a second belt could be even farther out.

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/nasas-new-horizons-detects-dusty-hints-of-extended-kuiper-belt/

Fire inside an enclosed space station is very bad, so NASA has been experimenting for the last 8 years to understand how fires could start and grow in a weightless environment. The program was called Saffire, and the final experiment, Saffire-VI, has just wrapped up. As uncrewed Cygnus cargo spacecraft departed from the ISS, researchers ignited a fire using materials like plexiglass and cotton. Then, they tracked how the fire spread, releasing toxic chemicals and smoke.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/flame-burns-out-on-nasas-long-running-spacecraft-fire-experiment/

After 72 flights on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter finally reached the end of its life, with damage to its rotors rendering it unable to fly. The Perseverance rover gave us one last look at the helicopter, resting on a dune in Neretva Vallis on Mars. Simeon Schmauß took several images from Perseverance, stitched them together into a mosaic, and upscaled them to give us a view that matches what the human eye would see. Farewell Ingenuity, you were a very good helicopter.

https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1754508386043924768

We've seen iterations of chemical rockets for decades, and it's fine for robots. But once humans start making long trips between Earth, Mars, and other destinations, they want to go much faster, spending less time in the hostile conditions of deep space. A new NASA study examines next-generation technologies, like nuclear rockets, Hall-effect thrusters, and other breakthroughs that could drop flight times to three months.

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2024-1808

We've got a new picture of Uranus captured by JWST using its NIRCam instrument, revealing the planet and its rings - even 9 of its 27 moons. Even though it's far, Uranus is a tricky subject to capture. It rotates once on its axis every 17 hours, which makes long-duration exposures difficult. Astronomers needed to combine several longer and shorter exposures of Uranus and its moons to get this final image.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/12/Uranus_close-up_view_NIRCam

Webb continues to find chemicals in the atmospheres of exoplanets, like carbon dioxide and water vapor. Astronomers report they've discovered methane in the atmosphere of WASP 80 b. Although life can produce methane, there are inorganic ways to generate it, too. Methane has been found in the atmospheres of all the giant planets in the Solar System. WASP 80 b is a "warm jupiter", warmer than our planets but nothing like the hottest planets found.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2023/11/22/nasas-webb-identifies-methane-in-an-exoplanets-atmosphere/

At the largest scales, the Universe resembles the growth of slime molds, which generate highly interconnected networks when searching for food. This behavior has been used in a variety of sciences, and it also applies to simulations of the cosmos. Researchers evaluated one of the most comprehensive simulations of the Universe ever made, IllustrisTNG, and compared the growth of large-scale galactic structures to slime mold feeding patterns.

http://arxiv.org/abs/2311.01443

The more we learn about Saturn's moon Enceladus, the more compelling a destination it becomes. New research from the Cassini Cosmic Dust Analyzer shows that the oceans of liquid water under the ice contain large amounts of inorganic phosphorus as well as ammonium, chemicals that can be used by life. For example, there are species of methanogen archaea that could thrive in this environment and could even be the source of some of these chemicals. We've got to go back!

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.29.564608v1.full.pdf+html

NASA's Lucy mission is on its way to Jupiter's Trojan belts to examine a collection of objects in the region. But its path brought it close to another asteroid in the main belt: Dinkinesh. The spacecraft flew past the asteroid on Nov. 1st, coming within 270 km. Mission controllers were surprised to discover the asteroid had a tiny moon. When Lucy was planned, they hoped it would fly past seven asteroids, but new objects have been discovered, bringing the total to 11.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-discovers-2nd-asteroid-during-dinkinesh-flyby/

Starlinks are Easily Detected by Radio Telescopes

Visible and infrared astronomers are concerned about light pollution from satellite megaconstellations, and radio astronomers should be concerned too. A team of astronomers used radio telescopes in Australia to image the sky as Starlink satellites overhead. The tests were done at the future Square Kilometer Array facility in Western Australia, using prototype stations that will become part of the array. According to the team, the satellites were easily detectable, and they could see them performing periodic bursts and steady transmissions. When the full SKA comes online, satellites will be another source of radio interference to contend with.

#starlink #squarekilometerarray

http://arxiv.org/abs/2309.15672

How Can We Bring Down the Costs of Large Space Telescopes?

JWST is the most powerful telescope ever built by humanity, but it cost around $10 billion. Astronomers are already planning next-generation telescopes that should be even bigger and more sensitive, but the costs can't keep rising. A new paper suggests new approaches that could lower the costs of large space telescopes, using bigger launch vehicles, advanced computing, and low-cost control systems. There's no single silver bullet, but these new techniques could get us more giant telescopes without accelerating budgets.

#spacetelescopes

http://arxiv.org/abs/2309.04934

I've just got to say how happy I am with the Mastodon community, especially all the science/space people that I'm following. This place is the clear winner after the social media meltdown, despite its outstanding issues and missing features.

What makes me even more excited is that it's open and unmonetized, so it's completely immune to shareholder demands or the whim of a billionaire.

Don't worry if your friends aren't here yet, we're your new friends.

#mastodon

China Has Begun Launching its Own Satellite Internet Network

A Chinese Long March rocket blasted off on Sunday carrying a prototype internet satellite into low Earth orbit. According to previous announcements from Chinese officials, the network will have more than 12,000 satellites by 2027, hoping to lock in valuable orbits before Starlink and competing networks can fill them up.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-07-09/China-launches-test-satellite-for-satellite-internet-technology--1liTDeK23HW/index.html

Can We Predict if a System Will Have Giant Planets?

It's assumed that planetary systems will be roughly similar to the Solar System, with smaller terrestrial planets close to the star and larger gas and ice giants farther out. But these planets take so long to orbit their stars that it'll take a long time for astronomers to find them with the current techniques. A new study suggests that the more easily discovered inner planets should also indicate whether the system has outer planets.

http://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08846

Advanced Life Should Have Already Peaked Billions of Years Ago

Astronomers are starting to work out what impact black holes have on their galaxies and those surrounding them. According to a new study, powerful winds coming from black holes could impact the formation of life itself. What were the best places and times in the Universe for these civilizations to form? The denser the environment with more black holes driving star formation, the less habitable the galaxy. The most successful civilizations arose in galaxies large enough to form stars but far away from galaxy clusters. Intelligent civilizations peaked around 6 billion years ago.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04033

It's Time to Start Planning your 2023/2024 Eclipse Adventures

Remember how exciting it was in 2017 when a total solar eclipse crossed the United States? We're in for two more well-placed eclipses over the next year, so it's time to get organized to take advantage of these celestial events. On October 14, 2023, an annular eclipse will be visible from the coast of Oregon to the Texas Panhandle. On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible from southern Texas to Eastern Canada. If you live near San Antonio, don't go anywhere. You'll get to see both eclipses from your backyard.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/sun/new-nasa-map-details-2023-and-2024-solar-eclipses-in-the-us

@tomlevenson they've actually seen this kind of thing before. In one case the supernova hasn't gone off in one of the images.

JWST Sees the Same Supernova Three Times in an Epic Gravitational Lens

Thanks to a powerful gravitational lens, astronomers were fortunate enough to see the same supernova three times in a distant galaxy. The lens is the galaxy cluster RX J2129, located about 3.2 billion light-years from Earth. When examining the region, researchers noticed that one of the lensed galaxies is duplicated three times - and they all contain the same supernova. Because the light took different paths, the same supernova is seen hundreds of days apart, showing its evolution in a single image.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/02/Seeing_triple