outer space | M Thomas Apple Author Page

Newly discovered cosmic megastructure challenges theories of the universe

January 23, 2024
MThomas

The so-called Big Ring has a diameter of about 1.3bn light years, making it among the largest structures ever observed. At more than 9bn light years from Earth, it is too faint to see directly, but its diameter on the night sky would be equivalent to 15 full moons.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/11/newly-discovered-cosmic-megastructure-challenges-theories-of-the-universe

This is important because it contradicts the so-called “cosmological principle” that everything in the universe is basically evenly distributed.

Just thinking about it, though, it makes little sense to assume that galaxies are all evenly spaced. Assuming the Big Bang was a single point should not imply even spacing of anything.

FWIW the “Big Ring” is evidently more a corkscrew shape, directly aimed at us. Evidence of “cosmic strings”? Maybe.

This is not as interesting as technology that will allow us to build hotels and colonies at LaGrange points or communities on Mars, but it’s still interesting. Sorta. Maybe?

Happy Holidays!

December 28, 2023
MThomas

Congratulations on surviving one more turn around the Sun…see you all in 2024!

Webb reveals rocky planets can form in extreme environments

December 3, 2023
MThomas

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming. An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disc in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for rocky-planet formation, typically found in the discs of low-mass star-forming regions, can also occur in massive-star-forming regions and possibly a broader range of environments.

Because of its location near several massive stars in NGC6357, scientists expect XUE 1 to have been constantly exposed to a high ultraviolet radiation field throughout its life. However, in this extreme environment the team still detected a range of molecules that are the building blocks of rocky planets.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_study_reveals_rocky_planets_can_form_in_extreme_environments

In essence, this expands the possibility of finding many more rocky planets than were previous thought to be exist.

Lots of “gas giants” and a few “super Earths” have been found so far. But Webb is just getting started…

Mars missions are paused immediately…as of 11/11?

November 24, 2023
MThomas

“NASA will hold off sending commands to its Mars fleet for two weeks, from Nov. 11 to 25, while Earth and the Red Planet are on opposite sides of the sun. Called Mars solar conjunction, this phenomenon happens every two years,” NASA said in a statement.
https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/nasa-is-pausing-all-mars-missions-effective-immediately-heres-why

It’s funny that Live Science just announced this three days…given that the time period in which Mars is directly behind the Sun opposite the Earth only lasts from November 11th through November 25th.

Which is, ah, tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up, guys. Honestly…

Horned comet approaching Earth soon

October 30, 2023
MThomas

The comet has a core of dust, gas and ice surrounded by a bright cloud of gas known as a coma. Sunlight and solar radiation can heat the comet’s core, sometimes causing violent outbursts like the ones observed in July and Oct.

Herman said the comet’s temporary horns are thought to originate from these icy eruptions. The comet’s structure may be shaping how the spewed clouds of gas and ice appear from Earth, creating the appearance of horns to ground-based telescopes.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/devil-comet-will-bring-horns-swooping-earth-summer-rcna121989

Apparently some astronomers likened the shape to the Millenial Falcon.

I guess they have sharper eyes, bc I don’t see that.

Anyway, Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks only comes once every 71 years, so keep your eyes open next June. It may be visible even without a telescope.

O Isis OSIRIS-REx!

September 16, 2023
MThomas

Currently, OSIRIS-REx is located at a distance of 7 million km from our planet. On September 24, OSIRIS-REx will drop a capsule with samples of asteroid matter, after which it will enter the earth’s atmosphere and land on the territory of the Utah Test and Training Range.
https://universemagazine.com/en/osiris-rex-is-on-a-course-for-earth/

The tiny spacecraft launched back in 2016 and reached the asteroid Bennu in 2021.

One main reason for this mission is to find out what Bennu is made of. After the asteroid spewed out tiny “micromoons,” OSIRIS-REx successfully collected a tiny soil sample. By “tiny,” I mean less than 50 to 60 grams. And it couldn’t actually land, since the asteroid is too small to have enough gravity to support the spacecraft.

Now we have less than two weeks to find out what’s in the soil — assuming the capsule is retrieved without incident. And then OSIRIS-REx will head back out to visit yet another asteroid (Apophis) in 2029.

Yes, that famous “planet-killer” the media screamed about a few years ago as “the most dangerous asteroid in the world.” (uh. “in the world”?) It will “only” approach within 38,000 km in April 2029, but could possibly collide in 2036.

No problem.

Gateway not to be used until Artemis 4

September 4, 2023
MThomas

ESA image. Gateway is planned to be much smaller and more cramped than ISS (about 1/6 the size).

NASA and its international partners see Gateway as a key platform to support the agency’s Artemis moon program and to build the technology required for future deep-space missions. Although the first elements of the small space station are expected to launch before the Artemis 3 mission lifts off in 2025 or 2026, NASA previously said that those astronauts will not use Gateway to “make that mission have a higher probability of success.”
https://www.space.com/artemis-4-first-astronauts-visit-gateway-moon-space-station

While it’s a good idea to see some planning for this, I think maybe NASA should focus on getting Artemis 1 to work properly before they go on about Artemis 3 and 4.

Taking advantage of Gateway’s orbit far away from Earth’s protective magnetic field, three instruments will study risks due to radiation from the sun and from cosmic rays. Scientists hope this knowledge can help inform future long-term missions to the moon and Mars.

Since Gateway will orbit the Moon and not the Earth, the biggest problem will be preventing astronauts (and instruments!) from getting fried by solar radiation. Scientists need to come up with materials to shield people on Gateway and the Moon, or else we’re going nowhere…

(That said, regolith – soil, basically – has already been proposed and even tested: Llamas et al. (2022). “Effectiveness of Martian regolith as a radiation shield,” Planetary and Space Science, 218, 105517 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0032063322001039)

New (possibly) interstellar comet on a one-way trip…

August 24, 2023
MThomas

Comet Nishimura’s orbit means that this is likely its first and final trip through the inner solar system. It is possible that the comet originated outside our star system, which would make it the third known interstellar object ever detected, following ‘Oumuamua — which some astronomers speculatively suggested was an alien spacecraft — and Comet 2I/Borisov.
https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/new-potentially-interstellar-comet-will-be-visible-to-the-naked-eye-next-month-before-leaving-our-solar-system-forever

Discovered just two weeks ago by an amateur Japanese astronomer (after whom the comet is now named), the comet Nishimura will approach Earth at its closest on September 13th. But it will be at its brightest about five days later as it approaches the Sun.

Its fate?

Astronomers don’t know when the possible interstellar interloper will depart the solar system. However, it is also possible that the intense force of the comet’s solar slingshot will rip its solid nucleus apart, according to NASA.

Also, its nucleus gives off a “green glow,” which is the result of sunlight breaking apart dicarbon, or diatomic carbon. So getcher geek on, chemical lab rats!

“Cosmic unicorn”! Two planets in the same orbit?

August 13, 2023
MThomas

The two planets are in circles that kind of look like, er….let’s just call the whole thing a cosmic donut (the outer “halo” is the protoplanetary disc of gas and dust from which planets eventually coalesce).

We already know that more than one object can share the same orbit; Jupiter has a collection of 120,000 asteroids following its same path around the Sun, for example. Earth has one, too. But although it’s theoretically possible, astronomers have never discovered two whole planets sharing the same orbit around a star before.
https://www.inverse.com/science/astronomers-discover-cosmic-unicorn-two-planets-on-the-same-orbit

Hmm…the language here is a bit misleading. The two objects are technically not both “planets.”

The article comments later on that the object in the dotted line circle is “a cloud of debris about twice the mass of our Moon trailing a bit behind the innermost gas giant” in one of its LaGrange points (where “Trojan” asteroids follow gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn). So it’s way too early to say that “two” planets formed in the same orbit.

Still, this is the first time that astronomers have spotted two such objects this close to one another in the same orbit. Who knows if both will remain viable (the debris cloud could become partly or mostly absorbed by the gas giant with the rest either being expelled or thrust into separate orbits).

So why is this called a “cosmic unicorn”?

Apparently because although such Trojans “are allowed to exist by theory, but no one has ever detected them.”

Um. OK.

So, like, totally NOT at all like this? Kind of a bummer, really…

And no, I have no idea why Jetpack/WordPress did that

July 5, 2023
MThomas

Post once, get them twice!

No idea why my post about UV appeared twice.

Maybe it’s something to do with my connection speed on the train home…

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