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Post by jandl100 on Oct 29, 2020 8:50:40 GMT
More interesting asteroid/comet insights. This time from a(nother?) bodged Lander mission. A couple of years back the Philae probe crash landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03043-4Recently published detailed analysis of the crash site shows that "Philae touched the surface at four points over two minutes: it slid down a slope, cartwheeled through a crevice and hit a boulder, then bounced on its head before departing for its resting place. The third impact was the most revealing. The top of the craft made a 25-centimetre-deep imprint in boulder ice." Woof!! What a cockup. But, the aforementioned detailed analysis of the multiple crash impacts has allowed a lot of new discoveries about the surface to be made. Apparently, the comet doesn't have a solid surface at all, it's more like cappuccino froth, even fluffier than recently fallen snow. Which may also explain why the plan to fire a harpoon into the surface to anchor the probe failed to work. So, learning a lot, even from apparently disastrous failures! |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 29, 2020 9:39:14 GMT
Nice to still be able to learn things from it.
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 30, 2020 4:50:37 GMT
Apparently, the overstuffed asteroid rubble sampling container has been safely stowed away in the Osiris-Rex probe at asteroid Bennu after leaking some of its contents. The probe will wait for a suitable planetary alignment next March before firing up its rockets to start its journey back to Earth, arriving about 3 years from now. phys.org/news/2020-10-asteroid-samples-tucked-capsule-earth.html |
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 30, 2020 4:55:27 GMT
"How many habitable planets are out there? Recent research has estimated that there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy. Some could even be pretty close, with several likely within 30 light-years of our Sun." For the first time this research takes into account observations from both the Kepler and Gaia orbiting telescopes. Kepler looking specifically for Exoplanets and Gaia observing the positions and movement of millions of stars in our galaxy. phys.org/news/2020-10-habitable-planets.html |
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Post by jandl100 on Oct 31, 2020 5:32:42 GMT
Dark matter found? This would be a tad embarrassing if it's correct. The multi-billions spent in the hunt for exotic dark matter particles... when actually dark matter is merely a non-interacting state of the ever so normal hydrogen atom? Whoops. Interesting article, but I am way underpowered to know if there are strong counter arguments. I shall have a look round. sciencex.com/news/2020-10-dark-hypothetical-undiscovered-particles-physical.html |
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Post by MartinT on Oct 31, 2020 11:14:51 GMT
Oops! I'll have a read.
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Post by MartinT on Oct 31, 2020 11:36:15 GMT
How has it not shown up in any collider tests since the early cyclotrons? Even if it doesn't respond to EM forces, you'd have thought they might have seen evidence of smashing one.
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 3, 2020 5:34:59 GMT
An asteroid called Apophis - maybe it's the next major impactor on Earth, in 2068. And its orbit is changing unpredictably due to pressure from sunlight. Interesting article here with a good animation showing how its orbit intersects with the Earth's for the 2029 encounter. earthsky.org/space/asteroid-99942-apophis-encounters-2029-2036-2068 |
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 3, 2020 19:03:47 GMT
Here's an impressive mind boggle. ... Two black holes each weighing around 85 and 66 times the mass of the Sun, collided to form a larger black hole weighing 142 times the mass of the Sun. Something strange is happening to simple addition arithmetic here ... the remaining deficit, totalling 9 solar masses, was released as gravitational wave energy, making it the most energetic event in the universe that we’ve ever detected. So 9 solar masses was converted to pure energy in this merger. Phweesh. astrobites.org/2020/11/03/bh-escape-speed/ |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 3, 2020 21:48:41 GMT
So...
e=mc2
Yes, that's quite a lot of energy!
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 5, 2020 4:59:26 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Nov 5, 2020 8:47:05 GMT
Absolutely brilliant. Such delicate control over such a distance - I salute the designers.
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 5, 2020 12:49:58 GMT
Here's an extreme exoplanet. K2-141b, an Earth-size exoplanet with a surface, ocean, and atmosphere all made up of the same ingredients: rocks. .. . featuring the evaporation and precipitation of rocks, supersonic winds that rage over 5000 km/hr, and a magma ocean 100 km deep. The night side experiences frigid temperatures of below -200 C. The day side of the exoplanet, at an estimated 3000 C, is hot enough to not only melt rocks but vaporize them as well It would be an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. phys.org/news/2020-11-supersonic-rocky-lava-planet.html |
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 12, 2020 6:55:18 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Nov 12, 2020 13:22:47 GMT
Wonder what the ninth will feel like  |
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 14, 2020 11:20:06 GMT
 New Radio Images Show Galaxies Like Flames Burning in The Dark The Perseus galaxy cluster is huge, one of the most massive objects in the known Universe. It contains thousands of galaxies enveloped in a huge cloud of hot gas. And the new VLA images - the first in high resolution in the low-frequency 230 to 470 mergahertz range - reveal previously unseen details in the large-scale radio structures. www.sciencealert.com/new-radio-images-show-galaxies-like-flames-burning-in-the-dark |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 15, 2020 17:34:14 GMT
Voyager 2 Has Found Something Weird In Outer Space!
43 years old and still sending back incredible data.
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Post by user211 on Nov 15, 2020 18:34:52 GMT
This is a problem if you want to go fast. Even at a miserable 20% the speed of light you'd need some pretty serious shielding.
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Post by MartinT on Nov 15, 2020 19:06:16 GMT
We're no closer to enabling Shields Up!
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Post by user211 on Nov 15, 2020 20:01:45 GMT
Nope.
And those laser sails we're supposed to be sending to Alpha Centauri are supposed to go that fast.
I don't think they'll make it.
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