December 28, 2020
Despite the impact, scientists believe that if anything survived the crash intact, it may well have been the tardigrades. The microscopic creatures were sandwiched between micron-thin sheets of nickel and suspended in epoxy, a resin-like preservative that acts like a jelly — potentially enough to cushion their landing.
https://www.inverse.com/science/tardigrades-may-have-taken-over-the-moon
I, for one, look forward to our lovably cute waterbear overlords…
December 27, 2020
This family of comets originated from a large parent comet that broke up into smaller fragments well over a thousand years ago. The sungrazers continue to orbit around the sun today.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/21/world/new-comet-solar-eclipse-scn/index.html
Now this is something I didn’t know. Learn a new thing ever day…
December 7, 2020
“As per the new simulations, it will take 100 billion years for any remaining planets to run off across the galaxy, leaving the dying Sun far behind.”
Pack your bags, folks!
November 30, 2020
The proposal is for a fission surface power system, and the goal is to have a flight system, lander and reactor ready to launch by 2026.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/15/why-nasa-wants-to-put-a-nuclear-power-plant-on-the-moon.html
The goal, apparently, is to generate 10 Kw, or about enough to power “five to eight large households.”
Um. That’s not really enough for an actual lunar base. Try again?
November 25, 2020
Visible from the Americas, Australia and Asia, the “Beaver Moon” will pass through Earth’s outer shadow (penumbra) at 07:32 Universal Time, causing a slight penumbral lunar eclipse that will see 83% of the Moon visibly darken at 9:42 Universal Time…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/11/22/the-moon-meets-mars-and-the-seven-sister-stars-what-you-can-see-in-the-night-sky-this-week/?utm_medium=40digest.intl.carousel&utm_source=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=campaign&sh=292a554e7c36
OK, I give up. “Universal Time”?
Continue Reading
November 19, 2020
…the team’s results suggest that, while the physical processes that drive the structure of the Universe and the structure of the human brain are extremely different, they can result in similar levels of complexity and self-organisation…
https://www.sciencealert.com/wildly-fun-new-paper-compares-the-human-brain-to-the-structure-of-the-universe?fbclid=IwAR1YjxGSpnNrJbgqRMs6_XNrRjiuloJ792UjzfT3L5NmVEEYxljyVcS4TQ8
As above, so below…
November 7, 2020
On the scorching hot planet, hundreds of light-years away, oceans are made of molten lava, winds reach supersonic speeds and rain is made of rocks. Scientists have referred to the bizarre, hellish exoplanet as one of the most “extreme” ever discovered.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astronomers-discover-hell-planet-k2-141b-rock-rain-lava-oceans/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=103730808&fbclid=IwAR2W9JqL9gjnrBTJeZ4bMbV4XsnqO_1kScgP0GLq7eYbq__0bDtmqcbH4BM
I think we may have seen this kind of planet before…
Yep, that’s it.
November 6, 2020
According to NASA estimates there are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, of which about 4 billion are sunlike. If only 7 percent of those stars have habitable planets — a seriously conservative estimate — there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable Earths out there in the whole Milky Way alone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/science/astronomy-exoplanets-kepler.html
It takes a while to collect, sort through, analyze, write up, endure peer review, and publish data from scientific projects.
That’s why finally we’re seeing this, 11 years after Kepler was launched to scour the galaxy for exoplanets.
Now the real challenge will be figuring out how to get there…
It’s time to move on the next factor in the Drake equation for extraterrestrial civilizations: the fraction of these worlds on which life emerges. The search for even a single slime mold on some alien rock would revolutionize biology, and it is a worthy agenda for the next half-century as humans continue the climb out of ourselves and into the universe in the endless quest to end our cosmic loneliness.
November 6, 2020
Cyclopropenylidene is the second cyclic or closed-loop molecule detected at Titan; the first was benzene in 2003. Benzene is an organic chemical compound composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms…Cyclic molecules are crucial because they form the backbone rings for the nucleobases of DNA, according to NASA.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/world/titan-atmosphere-molecule-chemistry-scn-trnd/index.html
The only moon in the solar system that has an atmosphere…4 times denser than the Earth, actually.
Except it rains ethane and methane and is -270C. Not exactly a place to plan a vacation.
But the organic molecules may (BIG may) hint at life of some sort.
And we only have to wait until 2034 to find out!
(See more about the “Dragonfly” here: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/27/world/nasa-dragonfly-titan-mission-scn-trnd/index.html)
November 3, 2020
On the the exact date of the winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn appear closer together in the night sky that and at any point since July 16, 1623.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/11/02/this-week-jupiter-aligns-with-saturn-what-happens-next-will-be-a-once-in-a-lifetime-sky-event/?sh=639906404b72
Mars to the East, Jupiter to the South…hey, is that a Saturn?
Also, go over to https://www.theplanetstoday.com to see how Jupiter and Saturn are both currently in a heliocentric conjunction (i.e., lined up with the Sun) on November 2nd.
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