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Boldly going where we already went fifty years ago
January 24, 2020
Have some Proxima Centauri with ESPRESSO
January 20, 2020
“Proxima is our closest neighbor in an immense universe. How could we not be charmed by it?”
Well, the planet may or may not exist (the confirmation data won’t be publicly available for another couple years).
And it is most likely not inhabitable — despite being dubbed a “Super-Earth” (which really only refers to size and not whether it’s “Earth-like” or not).
Still, regardless of these facts, the most important part of this article in Scientific American is the science:
“We tried different tools to prove ourselves wrong, but we failed. However, we have to keep the doors open to all possible doubt and skepticism.”
Yes, the astronomers tried to prove their own discovery was a mistake. That’s how it works, folks. Challenge your assumptions, not jump to conclusions. Continue Reading
99.9999999% of Your Body Is Empty Space
January 14, 2020
Are you sitting down for this? Well, youāre not really. Your butt isnāt actually touching the chair youāre sitting on. Since the meat of your atoms is nestled away in nuclei, when you ‘touch’ someone (or something), you arenāt actually feeling their atoms.
Nobody has ever really touched anything in their lives.
Sleep tight…
(Not exactly a new article, but still interesting; and, yes, I might be using this to justify an awful lot of my soon-to-be-beta-read new novel š
Itās a Nice Model youāve got there, Mars. Be a shame if something happened to it…
January 12, 2020
“Without this instability, Mars likely would have had a mass closer to Earthās and would be a very different, perhaps more Earth-like, planet compared to what it is today.”
Damn you, Jupiter and Saturn! Why couldn’t you have just stayed in your orbits and left Mars alone? (Shakes fist futilely at night sky.)
ā Read on www.universal-sci.com/headlines/2018/5/10/the-giant-planets-in-the-solar-system-stunted-the-growth-of-mars
New āhabitableā Earth? š
January 10, 2020
The newly discovered exoplanet, called TOI 700 d, is located about 100 light-years away from us and is roughly 20% larger than Earth.
Okay, not exactly close, but looking good…
A year on TOI 700 d takes 37 days.
Um. Wait. What?
One thing astronomers have discovered though is that TOI 700 d is tidally locked to its star, which means that one half bathes in eternal sunlight, and the other half always exists in darkness.
Oy.
And even better…
One of the burning questions is whether the planet has an atmosphere or not.
Is this really the best way to phrase this? š
I vote we pass on this one…
PS I’ve been trying futilely to get WordPress not to screw up the formatting. To no avail.
Khufu, I mean, Cheops is a go!
December 20, 2019
Ever wonder this about “Super Earths”?
Do they have atmospheres and how thick are they? What kind of clouds? Do they possess oceans on their surface? Do they have rings and moons? Cheops ought to be able to address such questions just from looking for these tiny dips in light during a transit.
ESA finally does something! Wow. Go Europe!
I love how BBC says “The Americans” when referring to NASA, as if a) American is an ethnic group and b) all NASA scientists are American.
But anyway…
Prof Didier Queloz, who won this year’s Physics Nobel for discovering the first planet orbiting a Sun-like star in 1995, was on hand to watch the launch.
You can watch/listen to his interview here.
The exciting world of regolith oxygen extraction
October 25, 2019
Future moon settlers might benefit from oxygen extraction from lunar regolith as it can be used to create breathable air as well as a source for fuel. In addition, the newly found extraction method might also be useful for Mars colonization.
Regolith covers the Moon and Mars (and presumably many other potentially habitable rocky bodies).
Of course, the composition of regolith on the Moon differs from that of Mars.
But if the new method can extract sufficient quantities of both oxygen and hydrogen, there should be ample amounts for both human usage and rocket fuel.
(Yawn.) “Dry” science? Sure. But think of the (fictional) possibilities!
