Space: The Final Frontier

[CaaC (John)+]

Sutherland spaceport plans cover 'extensive' site

A proposed spaceport would be built on an "extensive" site in a relatively "untouched landscape", according to a planning report.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is heading up the Space Hub Sutherland project.

Ahead of seeking planning permission in December, HIE has given Highland Council notice of what is proposed.

A control centre, launchpad complex and "antenna farms" are planned for the site of about 815 acres (330 ha).

Also proposed are a rocket assembly building, launch towers and security fencing.

Landowner

In the report to councillors, local authority planning officials said the satellite launch facility was planned for an area of "sweeping" moorland and peat bog wetland, known as "flows".

The nearest "significant" artificial structures are the A838 road and the ruins of a house.

The report will be discussed at next week's meeting of Highland Council's north planning applications committee.

Melness Crofters Estate owns the land on the Moine Peninsula, south-east of Tongue, and has agreed to HIE's development of it once planning permission has been secured.

HIE and other private companies, including aerospace firm Orbex, have said the project would create more than 100 jobs.

The venture is opposed by some who live in the area. They have raised concerns about the spaceport's impact on the environment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49905163

[CaaC (John)+]

Space dust 'is like badly baked cherry cake'

A team of astrochemists has recreated deep space in the laboratory and discovered that cosmic dust is more complex than previously thought.

Twelve years of research at Heriot-Watt University has led to the conclusion each grain of interstellar dust behaves "like a badly assembled cherry cake".

They were surprised to find that ice collects into lumps on the space dust rather than uniform layers.

Researchers said the discovery could hold the key to life in the universe.

Tiny flecks of space dust create spectacular cosmic formations such as the Eagle Nebula but they are more than just good looking.

They control the process that forms stars and create the organic molecules from which life may evolve.

In the deep cold of space, hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine to create water molecules on the surface of the dust grains.

At more than 250 degrees below the point at which water freezes you would expect it to take the form of immobile ice.

FULL REPORT

Edited October 4, 2019 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)+]

Milky Way's centre exploded 3.5 million years ago

A cataclysmic energy flare ripped through our galaxy, the Milky Way, about 3.5 million years ago, a team of astronomers say.

They say the so-called Sifter flare started near the supermassive black hole in the centre of the galaxy.

The impact was felt 200,000 light-years away.

The discovery that the Milky Way's centre was more dynamic than previously thought can lead to a complete reinterpretation of its evolution.

Milky Way galaxy is warped and twisted, not flat

"These results dramatically change our understanding of the Milky Way," says co-author Magma Guglielmo from the University of Sydney.

"We always thought about our Galaxy as an inactive galaxy, with a not so bright centre," she added.

The flare created two enormous "ionisation cones" that sliced through the Milky Way.

The team - led by Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn from Australia - used the data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope to calculate when the massive explosion of high-energy radiation took place.

The findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49955468

[Bluewolf]

Thought I would put this in here... 

 

[nudge+]

15 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

Thought I would put this in here... 

 

This is brilliant... Commander Hadfield is definitely my all time favourite (ex)astronaut. His autobiography is a great read as well...

[Bluewolf]

1 hour ago, nudge said:

This is brilliant... Commander Hadfield is definitely my all time favourite (ex)astronaut. His autobiography is a great read as well...

I watched the Martian the other night and was searching for the song and found this... Also found out that when he produced this song they initially took it down for copyright reasons but Bowie loved it so much he told them to put it back up apparently.... Class

He has been a Fighter Pilot as well I believe.. What a life!! 

[CaaC (John)+]

Heart of the Milky Way to Be Revealed by NASA in Unprecedented Detail

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and our solar system sits in the Orion Arm, about 26,000 light-years from the centre—one light-year is approximately six trillion miles. At the centre of the Milky Way there is a supermassive black hole with a mass about four million times that of our sun. This is surrounded by millions of stars travelling extremely fast. But this whole region is enveloped in interstellar dust, meaning scientists cannot see exactly what is going on. So far, only the brightest stars have been detected.

However, this will soon change, NASA has said. The JWST, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2021, will be able to peer through the dust and send back images of the heart of the Milky Way in "unprecedented detail," the space agency said in a statement. Often, the JWST is referred to as NASA's alien-hunting telescope, as its instruments onboard will be able to detect biosignatures coming from planets beyond our solar system. This will allow scientists to focus in on planets that may support life—potentially answering one of the most fundamental questions in the universe: are we alone?

However, the JWST will also be used to view the galactic centre in infrared, meaning it will be able to see this kind of light coming from the core. "We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg from the ground, Torsten Böker of the European Space Agency and Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), said in a statement. "Webb will be able to study fainter stars and tell us more about the overall stellar population."

Böker is co-investigator on one of the studies planned on the Milky Way's centre. It is hoped this research will help scientists understand more about the supermassive black hole that lies there— known as Sagittarius A*. "Even one image from Webb will be the highest quality image ever obtained of the galactic centre," Roeland van der Marel, from the STScI and principal investigator on another JWST study.

Sagittarius A* is a fairly quiet black hole, but when clumps of dust nearby get too close and fall in, it can produce flares of light. However, the glow from the black hole's disk has never been detected before. "Detecting the disk around Sagittarius A* with Webb would be a home run," Böker said.

The researchers are also hoping to find out more fundamental questions about how galaxies and black holes form. "So many interesting, strange things happen at the centres of galaxies. We want to find out what's happening in our own," Marcia Rieke, principal investigator on the JWST's Near Infrared Camera, said in a statement.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/heart-of-the-milky-way-to-be-revealed-by-nasa-in-unprecedented-detail/ar-AAIzGQF

[CaaC (John)+]

R.I.P. Alexei Leonov, you will now enter the final frontier and may your spirit live on. 

Alexei Leonov: First person to walk in space dies aged 85

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who became the first person in history to spacewalk in 1965, has died aged 85.

Tethered to a spaceship by a 4.8m (16ft) cable, the Russian floated above Earth for 12 minutes.

"You just can't comprehend it. Only out there can you feel the greatness - the huge size of all that surrounds us," Leonov told the BBC in 2014.

But the outing nearly ended in disaster as his spacesuit inflated and he struggled to get back in the spaceship.

At a time when the US and the USSR were jostling for space supremacy, Leonov's mission was lauded as a triumph at home.

But Leonov's ambitions did not stop at his spacewalk. He went on to become the commander of Soyuz-Apollo, the first-ever joint US-Soviet mission in 1975.

• Alexei Leonov describes his first spacewalk
• How Russia won the space race

Leonov described his sortie into outer space in numerous media interviews.

"It was so quiet I could even hear my heartbeat," he told the Observer. "I was surrounded by stars and was floating without much control. I will never forget the moment. I also felt an incredible sense of responsibility. Of course, I did not know that I was about to experience the most difficult moments of my life - getting back into the capsule."

In the vacuum of outer space, his spacesuit began to balloon out of shape and its fabric began to stiffen dangerously.

His hands slipped out of his gloves, his feet came out of his boots, and Leonov could no longer get through his spaceship's airlock. Even worse, the craft was hurtling towards Earth's shadow. In five minutes, the cosmonaut realised he would be plunged into total darkness.

He managed to release some of the oxygen from his spacesuit and was barely able to squeeze himself back into the capsule headfirst. He lost 6kg (13 pounds) in the process.

He and his pilot Pavel Belyayev were hailed as heroes on their return, but only after crash-landing in a forest in the Ural mountains and waiting three days to be rescued.

A decade later, Leonov was one of two Soviet cosmonauts involved in the first docking of US and Soviet spaceships - the Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 - during a period of detente between the two countries.

He was twice awarded the country's top medal, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Art in zero gravity

Although Leonov was best-known for his exploits as an astronaut, his artwork also garnered accolades throughout his life.

A self-taught artist, Leonov was adept at drawing in zero gravity. It was during the space-walking mission of 1965 that Leonov created the first artwork in space.

In the artwork, Leonov depicted a small yet remarkable sunrise from the vantage point of the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.

London's Science Museum exhibited Leonov's coloured pencil drawing as part of a major exhibition on cosmonauts in 2015.

"You can imagine it being a bit of a nightmare … but he wanted to stop the time and share this moment with other people," curator of the exhibition Natalia Sidlina said.

Leonov's artworks drew heavily on his experiences in space. His other notable artworks included a self-portrait of his 1965 spacewalk, sketches of fellow astronauts and landscapes in the former Soviet Union.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50017409

Edited October 11, 2019 by CaaC (John)
Spelling corrections

[CaaC (John)+]

Nasa unveils new spacesuit for next Moon landing

The US space agency has unveiled the prototype for a new spacesuit that could be worn by the next astronauts on the Moon.

Nasa chief Jim Bridenstine shared a close-up look at the next-generation suits for the agency's Artemis programme.

The xEMU prototype suit looks similar to ones used at the International Space Station.

But Nasa said it had been improved for comfort, fit and mobility on the Moon.

Mr Bridenstine also presented the Orion Crew Survival System, an orange flight suit with a helmet that will be worn by crews in the Orion spacecraft for launch and re-entry.

Orion is the replacement for the space shuttle, but, unlike that system, it's designed to carry astronauts to the Moon and other targets in deep space.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)+]

WATCH LIVE: Nasa astronauts make history with first-ever all-female spacewalk

 

[CaaC (John)+]

European SolO probe ready to take on an audacious mission

The European spacecraft that aims to take the closest-ever pictures of the Sun is built and ready for launch.

The Solar Orbiter, or SolO, probe will put itself inside the orbit of Planet Mercury to train its telescopes on the surface of our star.

Other instruments will sense the constant outflow of particles and their embedded magnetic fields.

Scientists hope the detailed observations can help them understand better what drives the Sun's activity.

This goes up and down on an 11-year cycle. It's sure to be a fascinating endeavour but it's one that has direct relevance to everyone on Earth.

The energetic outbursts from our star have the ability to damage satellites, harm astronauts, degrade radio communications, and even knock power grids offline.

"We're doing this not just for the sake of increasing our knowledge but also for being able to take precautions, for example by putting satellites in safe mode when we know big solar storms are coming or letting astronauts not leave the space station on these days," said Daniel Müller, the European Space Agency (Esa) project scientist on SolO.

FULL REPORT

 

 

[CaaC (John)+]

Bezos floats 'national team' to build Moon lander

Jeff Bezos has announced the formation of a "national team" that will aim to build the lander that will take astronauts back to the Moon in 2024.

Bezos' space company Blue Origin has teamed up with aerospace giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to bid for the landing system.

The White House has set the ambitious goal of sending a man and a woman to the lunar South Pole within five years.

Bezos outlined the plan at a meeting in Washington DC.

The Amazon founder called the partnership "a national team for a national priority".

Nasa had originally planned to mount the Moon return mission in 2028. But earlier this year, Vice President Mike Pence announced the administration's plan to accelerate that timeline by four years.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)+]

Telescope tracks 35 million galaxies in Dark Energy hunt

VIDEO

A super telescope has begun the most detailed survey of the Universe ever undertaken.

The aim of the five-year programme is to shed light on Dark Energy - the mysterious force thought to drive an accelerated expansion of the Universe.

The instrument effectively contains 5,000 mini-telescopes. Each one can image a galaxy every 20 minutes.

In just one year scientists will have surveyed more galaxies than all the other telescopes in the world combined.

What is Dark Energy?

The Big Bang theory of the creation of the Universe originally predicted that its expansion would slow down and that it would possibly begin to contract as a result of the pull of gravity.

However, in 1998, astronomers were shocked to discover that not only was the Universe continuing to expand but that this expansion was also accelerating.

The most widely held view is that something is counteracting the pull of gravity - and that something has been termed Dark Energy.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)+]

Voyagers shed light on Solar System's structure

Data sent back by the two Voyager spacecraft have shed new light on the structure of the Solar System.

Forty-two years after they were launched, the spacecraft is still going strong and exploring the outer reaches of our cosmic neighbourhood.

By analysing data sent back by the probes, scientists have worked out the shape of the vast magnetic bubble that surrounds the Sun.

The two spacecraft are now more than 10 billion miles from Earth.

Researchers detail their findings in six separate studies published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We had no good quantitative idea how big this bubble is that the Sun creates around itself with its solar wind - ionised plasma that's speeding away from the Sun radially in all directions," said Ed Stone, the longstanding project scientist for the missions.

"We certainly didn't know that the spacecraft could live long enough to reach the edge and leave the bubble to enter interstellar space."

The plasma consists of charged particles and gas that permeate space on both sides of the magnetic bubble, known as the heliosphere.

• Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System'
• Voyager 2 probe 'leaves Solar System'

Measurements show that the identical probes have exited the heliosphere and entered interstellar space - the region between stars. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012, Voyager 2 crossed over late last year. The key sign in both cases was a jump in the density of the plasma.

This showed that the spacecraft was passing from an environment with hot, lower density plasma characteristic of the solar wind and entering a region with the cool, higher density plasma thought to be found in interstellar space.

The boundary between the two regions is known as the heliopause.

"We saw the plasma density at the heliopause jump by a very large amount - a factor of 20, at this rather sharp boundary out there," said Prof Don Gurnett, from the University of Iowa.

"Actually, with Voyager One we saw an even bigger jump."

The findings suggest that the heliosphere is symmetrical, at least at the two points that the Voyager spacecraft crossed. The researchers say these points are almost at the same distance from the Sun, indicating a spherical front to the bubble - "like a blunt bullet", according to Prof Gurnett.

The results also provide clues to the thickness of the "heliosheath", the outer region of the magnetic bubble. This is the point where the solar wind piles up against the approaching wind of particles in interstellar space, which Prof Gurnett likens to the effect of a snowplough on a city street.

The heliosheath appears to vary in its thickness. This is based on data showing that Voyager 1 had to travel further than its twin to reach the heliopause, where the solar wind and the interstellar wind are in balance.

Some had thought Voyager 2 would make that crossing into interstellar space first, based on models of the magnetic bubble.

"In a historical sense, the old idea that the solar wind will just be gradually whittled away as you go further into interstellar space is simply not true," says Don Gurnett.

"We show with Voyager 2 - and previously with Voyager 1 - that there's a distinct boundary out there. It's just astonishing how fluids, including plasmas, form boundaries."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50289353

[CaaC (John)+]

The universe might not be flat (it could actually be curved like an inflating ball)

Just thinking about the shape of the universe we live in a slightly mind-boggling idea - but we might have got it completely wrong. 

Many scientists have believed that the universe is flat and that things continue in a straight line. 

But data collected the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite suggests another shape entirely - a curved, closed sphere

Video: Dive Into TESS's Southern Sky Panorama (CNET)

Researchers measured the effect of ‘gravitational lensing’ - how gravity distorts light.

Telescopes on Earth commonly detect gravitational lensing where light is ‘bent’ by massive objects on its way towards us. 

Researchers measured the effect of the gravitational lensing on the cosmic microwave background - the afterglow of the Big Bang. 

The ancient light is being distorted by gravity more than it should be if our universe is flat. 

But the researchers suggest that the data gathered in 2018 by the Planck satellite shows that our universe might be ‘closed’ and curved. 

The researchers write, ‘"A closed Universe can provide a physical explanation for this effect, with the Planck cosmic microwave background spectra now preferring a positive curvature at more than the 99 per cent confidence level.

© 2009 AFP POUR ILLUSTRER LE PAPIER : "L'OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS : AGE D'OR DE L'ASTRONOMIE, MAIS CRISE DES VOCATIONS" - French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) research director and designer in part of the first European cosmological satellite Planck (due to be launched by Ariane 5 by the end of April) at Laboratory for the Study of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics (LERMA) Jean-Michel Lamarre shows the model of satellite Planck (L) and the model of "Herschel observatory" (R) on March 19, 2009 in Paris, at the Paris Observatory, the most ancient of Europe (1667) and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Satellite Planck is a unique opportunity to revisit the primaeval Universe. AFP PHOTO PATRICK KOVARIK (Photo credit should read PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images)

"Here, we further investigate the evidence for a closed Universe from Planck, showing that positive curvature naturally explains the anomalous lensing amplitude."

If true, the finding would upend our ideas about our universe. 

The researchers led Eleonora Di Valentino of Manchester University in the UK. suggest that their findings could call for a "drastic rethinking of the current cosmological concordance model."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/the-universe-might-not-be-flat-it-could-actually-be-curved-like-an-inflating-ball/ar-AAJTSU9?li=BBoPWjQ

[CaaC (John)+]

Boeing aims for the Moon landing in 'fewer steps'

Aerospace giant Boeing has unveiled its proposal for a lander that could take humans to the Moon's surface.

Under a programme called Artemis, the White House wants to return humans to the Moon by 2024.

Its approach, named "Fewest Steps to the Moon", would use the huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The company says its plan reduces the complexity involved in sending several different bits of hardware into space on multiple launches.

For most robotic space missions, all the hardware needed for the mission is launched on one rocket. Likewise, the crewed Apollo missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s required only one lift-off.

However, the Artemis missions are expected to involve several flights to loft all the hardware needed. For example, the lander elements are likely to be launched separately from the Orion capsule carrying crew.

Bezos floats 'national team' to build Moon lander

To the Moon and Beyond

Boeing says it can land astronauts on the Moon with only five "mission-critical

events" - such as launch, orbit insertion and others - instead of the 11 or more required by alternative strategies.

Nasa previously said its preferred option was a lunar lander split into three stages, but it left the door open to "alternative, innovative approaches".

Boeing's proposal uses just two stages - a descent element that gets astronauts down to the surface, and an ascent element to get the crew off the surface and back into lunar orbit at the end of a mission. They are designed to be launched as one unit.

The company says its lander can carry itself from lunar orbit to the surface without an additional transfer element, or "tug", as previously specified by Nasa.

This, it said, would further reduce the launches needed for a mission and simplify the steps required for a successful landing.

The company says its lander would be ready for the 2024 mission, called Artemis-3. But Boeing's plan would depend on a more powerful variant of the SLS rocket called Block 1B.

Under current Nasa plans, the Block 1B version of the rocket wouldn't be ready until 2025.

However, Nasa's procurement process allows for the use of two separate landers from different companies on the Artemis-3 and Artemis-4 missions (Artemis-4 is due to fly in 2025).

"Whether serving in Nasa's 2024 or 2025 mission slot, Boeing's approach maximises return from agency investments in previous and ongoing programs to allow for the simplest and therefore highest probability path back to the lunar surface," the company said in a statement.

The lander will use key technologies from Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule, designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Boeing lander would be able to dock with the Gateway, a planned space station in lunar orbit, but it would not require it. It could instead dock with Nasa's Orion spacecraft directly for a simpler mission profile.

Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced the formation of a "national team" that would make a separate bid to build the lander for 2024.

Bezos' space company Blue Origin has teamed up with aerospace giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to put together a proposal for a three-stage lander.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50322402

[nudge+]

 

[CaaC (John)+]

5 minutes ago, nudge said:

 

That's so haunting, it's like sitting in a truck or car in the middle of an American or Australia outback and just looking at the surrounding hills and scenery, spell-bounding and to think all that is, is NASA's Curiosity all by itself, "Beam me up, please "  

 

 

[CaaC (John)+]

The snowman-shaped target of NASA’s New Horizons mission gets a brand-new name

A snowman-shaped object that NASA probe New Horizons flew by in early 2019 now has a brand-new name. On November 12th, NASA officials announced that the item is formerly known as MU69 — and once nicknamed Ultima Thule — would now have the name Arrokoth, which is the word for “sky” in the Powhatan / Algonquian language.

Arrokoth remains the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft — located approximately 4 billion miles away from Earth in a distant region of the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt. The name was chosen because the team of scientists who operate New Horizons is based in Maryland — the land where the Powhatan people lived historically, and where many still live today. NASA says that they consulted with Powhatan tribal elders and representatives before deciding on the name.

“We graciously accept this gift from the Powhatan people,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science division said in NASA’s announcement of the name. “Bestowing the name Arrokoth signifies the strength and endurance of the indigenous Algonquian people of the Chesapeake region.”

The name Arrokoth replaces the former official designation of 2014 MU69 — which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. It also replaces the object’s nickname, Ultima Thule, a name that dated to ancient Rome and meant “beyond the limits of the known world.” The term was appropriated by the predecessor of the Nazi Party. That made NASA’s original choice of nickname highly controversial.

The object itself has fascinated researchers since its discovery in 2014. It wasn’t until 2017 that researchers got any clue what Arrokoth looked like. Interest-only increased after the New Horizons spacecraft zipped by it on New Year’s Day 2019. Images from that flyby revealed that the object was far flatter than originally anticipated, and researchers are still analyzing data from the mission.

“Data from the newly-named Arrokoth, has given us clues about the formation of planets and our cosmic origins,” Marc Buie, one of the people who discovered Arrokoth, said in a statement. “We believe this ancient body, composed of two distinct lobes that merged into one entity, may harbour answers that contribute to our understanding of the origin of life on Earth.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/snowman-shaped-target-of-nasas-new-horizons-mission-gets-a-brand-new-name/ar-BBWGBv0?ocid=chromentp

[CaaC (John)+]

Hayabusa-2: Japan spacecraft leaves asteroid to head home

Japan's Hayabusa-2 spacecraft has departed from a faraway asteroid and begun its year-long journey back to Earth.

The spacecraft left its orbit around Ryugu on Wednesday with samples of the asteroid in tow.

Hayabusa-2 is expected to return to Earth in late 2020, completing its successful multi-year mission.

Japan's space agency, Jaxa, said the collected samples could shed light on the origins of the Solar System.

Hayabusa-2 first launched in 2014. Three and a half years later, it reached the asteroid Ryugu, located about 300 million km (190 million miles) from Earth.

Following its arrival in June 2018, the spacecraft made touchdowns twice, collecting data and rock samples from the Ryugu - a primitive space rock leftover from the early days of the Solar System.

FULL REPORT

Edited January 19, 2020 by CaaC (John)
Spacing correction

[CaaC (John)+]

Supernova 1987A: 'Blob' hides long-sought remnant from star blast

Scientists believe they've finally tracked down the dead remnant from Supernova 1987A - one of their favourite star explosions.

Astronomers knew the object must exist but had always struggled to identify its location because of a shroud of obscuring dust.

Now, a UK-led team thinks the remnant's hiding place can be pinpointed from the way it's been heating up that dust.

The researchers refer to the area of interest as "the blob".

"It's so much hotter than its surroundings, the blob needs some explanation. It really stands out from its neighbouring dust clumps," Prof Haley Gomez from Cardiff University told BBC News.

"We think it's being heated by the hot neutron star created in the supernova."

• Attenborough: World 'changing habits' on plastic
• New hope for trees affected by ash dieback
• Geologist blasts society's links with oil firms

When telescopes first spotted the explosion in 1987, it caused huge excitement.

Sited in the Large Magellanic Cloud, some 168,000 light-years from Earth - the blast was the nearest, brightest supernova seen in the night sky in 400 years.

As such, it's become the test case for what we think we know about stars when their fuel runs out and they suffer a cataclysmic collapse.

Three decades on, astronomers routinely observe Supernova 1987A and its constantly developing form.

It is a thing of beauty - a series of bright rings that represent bands of gas and dust thrown out by the star in its dying phases and which have since been excited by the expanding shockwaves emitted in the end-moment explosion.

One of these rings looks like a string of pearls, and it's at the centre of this celestial jewellery that the scientists reckon they've now located the star remnant.

It should be a dense object composed entirely of neutron particles and measuring just a few tens of kilometres across. The thick cloud of dust in which it sits, however, is perhaps 30 times the size of our Solar System and this makes the neutron star impossible to see directly.

"We see the recycled light if you like. The hot neutron star heats the dust grains and as they absorb that energy - they shine at sub-millimetre wavelengths. That's what we detect," explained Prof Gomez.

The team has been probing the area of interest using data from Europe's now-defunct Herschel space telescope and the international Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Alma) facility in Chile.

What Alma in particular reveals is that the blob also resides in a region deficient in carbon monoxide (CO) molecules. The CO is being destroyed, presumably in the same heating process that's making the dust shine.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to be more descriptive about the neutron star because of its dust shroud, but the group expects this to change with time.

"In maybe 50 to 100 years - the dust should clear to reveal this hot, energetic neutron star that everyone's been searching for for 30 years," Prof Gomez told BBC News.

Astronomers are interested in supernovas because they are integral to the evolution of the Universe.

The explosions stir up the environment, nudging nearby gas clouds to gravitationally fall in on themselves and birth new stars. The dust ejected in supernovas also seeds the cosmos with the heavier elements that go into building rocky planets.

A paper detailing the new findings is published in The Astrophysical Journal. It's lead author is Cardiff's Dr Phil Cigan.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50473482

[CaaC (John)+]

Astronomers Detect Violent Cosmic Explosion Which Is Brightest Source of High-energy Light in the Universe

An international team of astronomers have identified the brightest known source of high-energy light in the universe—a violent cosmic explosion which took place in a galaxy seven billion light-years away.

The light was produced by a so-called gamma-ray burst (GRB)—the most powerful explosions in the cosmos which occur as a result of cataclysmic events. These can include the collapse of massive stars as supernovae or the merging of neutron stars or black holes.

GRBs produce an initial rapid flash of gamma rays—the most high-energy form of light with the shortest wavelength—which usually lasts for a few seconds or minutes.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)+]

Europe's new space budget to enable CO2 mapping

Europe will press ahead with a network of satellites to track carbon dioxide emissions across the globe.

They will be developed out of a new European Space Agency (Esa) budget agreed in Seville, Spain.

Research ministers on Thursday approved a package of proposals worth some €14.4bn (£12.3bn/$15.9bn) over the next five years.

As well as the new CO2 monitoring system, the funds will also pave the way for missions to the Moon and Mars.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)+]

NASA spacecraft finds the crash site of Indian lunar lander

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around the Moon spotted the crash site of India’s ill-fated lunar lander, Vikram, which slammed into the Moon’s surface during a landing attempt in September. Images taken by the spacecraft confirm that the lander met an explosive end, revealing the lander’s impact site and the surrounding debris created by the accident.

Part of India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission to the Moon, Vikram was supposed to be the first Indian spacecraft to touch down gently on the lunar surface. India had put a vehicle on the Moon before, but that spacecraft purposefully slammed into the ground, kicking up lunar dirt and allowing researchers to learn more about the kinds of materials lurking on the Moon. With Vikram, India hoped to put a spacecraft intact on the Moon, to study the lunar environment in more detail. Vikram was even carrying a rover that was supposed to travel up to 1,640 feet (500 meters) and learn more about the composition of the surface.

But during Vikram’s scheduled landing on September 6th, officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) lost contact with the vehicle when it was about 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometres) above the lunar surface. It was unclear exactly what happened to the lander for a while. In the days following the landing, some ISRO officials claimed they had found the spacecraft on the lunar surface and were still trying to establish contact with it. But just last week, ISRO admitted that Vikram had a “hard” landing after the vehicle had trouble braking during its descent to the surface.

Now, researchers have provided visual confirmation of this hard impact, thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Moon since 2009. A team of scientists operating the camera on the orbiter first took pictures of the landing site on September 17th and released them to the public. They received a tip of possible debris in the pictures and confirmed that it came from Vikram. However, the place where Vikram hit wasn’t well lit, so the team took images of the site again in October and November to get a better look. Ultimately, they found the spot and captured a more detailed image of the site and debris field.

While these images provide some closure with Vikram, India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission isn’t a total loss. The Vikram lander travelled to the Moon along with another spacecraft — one designed to study the lunar surface from above. That vehicle successfully entered the Moon’s orbit in August and is still circling overhead, gathering data about the Moon and decoding what’s on the surface below.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/nasa-spacecraft-finds-crash-site-of-indian-lunar-lander/ar-BBXFSdw?ocid=chromentp

Edited December 3, 2019 by CaaC (John)
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Distant star's vision of our Sun's future 'death'

A newly discovered planet offers new insights into the Solar System after the Sun reaches the end of its life in 5-6 billion years.

Astronomers observed a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf, the small, dense objects some stars become once they have exhausted their nuclear fuel.

It's the first direct evidence planets can survive the cataclysmic process that creates a white dwarf.

Details of the discovery appear in the journal Nature.

The Solar System as we know it won't be around forever. In about six billion years, the Sun, a medium-sized yellow star, will have puffed up to about two hundred times its current size. In this phase, our parent star will be known as a Red Giant.

• Giant planet discovery bewilders astronomers
• Planet found circling neighbouring star
• Star system has record eight exoplanets

As it expands, it will swallow and destroy the Earth before collapsing into a small core called a white dwarf.

Researchers discovered a white dwarf that lies 2,000 light-years away had a giant planet thought to be about the size of Neptune (though it could be larger) in orbit around it.

"The white dwarf we're looking at is about 30,000 Kelvin or 30,000C. So if we compare the Sun, the Sun is 6,000 - almost five times as hot. This means it's going to be producing a lot more UV radiation than the Sun," said Dr Christopher Manser, from the University of Warwick.

In addition, he said: "The gravitational forces are very large so if a body gets too close to a white dwarf, like an asteroid, the gravity is so strong the asteroid would be ripped apart."

Future-gazing

The giant planet is losing its atmosphere to the stellar relic, leaving a comet-like tail in its wake. The white dwarf is bombarding the world with high-energy photons (particles of light) and pulling the gas towards it at a rate of more than 3,000 tonnes per second.

"We used the Very Large Telescope in Chile, which is an 8m-class telescope... to collect spectroscopy from the white dwarf. Spectroscopy is a method of splitting up light into its component colours," Dr Manser told BBC News.

"By looking at the different colours the system produces, we identified interesting features that told us there was a disc of gas around the white dwarf - which we inferred must be produced by a planet about the size of Neptune or Uranus."

The scientists want to further study the system to shed light on what could happen to our own Solar System when the Sun reaches the end of its life.

"When the Sun reaches its Red Giant phase, it will expand out roughly to the orbit of Earth. Mercury, Venus and, pretty much, Earth will be engulfed by the Sun. But Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter and the rest of the planets in the Solar System will expand out on their orbits, as the Sun loses mass because it will have less of a gravitational pull on those planets.

"Eventually, the Sun will become a white dwarf and still have Mars, the asteroid belt and Jupiter orbiting it. As the planets orbit, they can sometimes be scattered and thrown into the white dwarf."

But the radiation emitted by the Sun, once it becomes a white dwarf, will be powerful enough to evaporate the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus where they are orbiting now. This would leave only their rocky cores.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50665998