Space, Planets and eclipses

[ghost2509]

This Rare Asteroid May Be Worth 70,000 Times the Global Economy. Now NASA Is Sending a Spaceship to Explore It.

ROBB REPORT
yahoo.com
Rachel Cormack
January 27, 2023

NASA’s mission to an asteroid that could be worth 70,000 times the global economy is expected to begin this year.

The space agency decided back in 2017 that humankind would benefit from a closer look at 16 Psyche. The Psyche mission was initially slated to take place at the end of 2022 but was delayed due to “development problems.” NASA is now planning to launch the Psyche spacecraft this October. The vessel should reach the ultra-valuable asteroid in August 2029.

Here’s everything we know so far about the Psyche asteroid, the upcoming Psyche mission and the Psyche spacecraft.

What Is 16 Psyche?

Named after the Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche was discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on March 17, 1852. The giant M-Type asteroid is thought to be the partial core of a small planet that failed to fully form during the earliest days of our solar system.

The metal-rich asteroid is about the size of Massachusetts and shaped somewhat like a potato, according to astronomers. Its average diameter is about 140 miles—or roughly the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego. The asteroid orbits between Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles from the Sun. (You can get a real-time simulated view of Psyche here.)

A study published by The Planetary Science Journal in 2020 suggests that Psyche is made almost entirely of iron and nickel. This metallic composition sets it apart from other asteroids that are usually comprised of rock or ice, and could suggest it was originally part of a planetary core. That would not only represent a momentous discovery, it’s key to Psyche’s potential astronomical value: NASA scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton calculated that the iron in the asteroid alone could be worth as much as $10 quintillion, which is $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (yes, a 20-figure sum). For context, the entire global economy is worth roughly $110 trillion as of writing. However, more recent research out of the University of Arizona suggests that the asteroid might not be as metallic or dense as once thought. Psyche could actually be closer to a rubble pile, rather than an exposed planetary core, the research claims. If true, this would devalue the asteroid. NASA’s upcoming mission should settle the debate about Pysche’s composition for once and all.

Of course, Psyche isn’t the only valuable rock in space. NASA has previously said the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter holds mineral wealth equivalent to about $100 billion for every individual on Earth. Mining the precious metals within each asteroid and successfully getting them back down to earth is the hard part. Then you have the whole supply and demand conundrum that could drive the price of specific metals up or down. We’ll leave the complexities of space mining for another day.

Why Is NASA Traveling to 16 Psyche?

If Psyche is, in fact, the leftover core of a planet that never properly formed, it could reveal secrets about Earth’s own core. The interior of terrestrial planets is normally hidden beneath the mantle and crust, but Psyche has no such outer layers. The asteroid’s mantle and crust were likely stripped away by multiple violent collisions during our solar system’s early formation. By examining Psyche, we can further understand how Earth’s core came to be. The mission could also provide insights into the formation of our solar system and the planetary systems around other stars.

According to NASA, this marks humanity’s first exploration of a world made largely of metal. The Psyche spacecraft will use special tools to identify the types of materials that make up the asteroid. Is it actually iron and nickel, for instance? Or something else? The craft will also measure Psyche’s gravity and magnetic field and ascertain the asteroid’s topography. All of this will tell us more about Psyche’s formation history and evolution.

What Is the Psyche Spacecraft, and How Does It Work?

Measuring 10 feet by 8 feet, Psyche is a little larger than a smart car. Instead of running on traditional rocket fuel, the spacecraft will produce its own solar energy. It’s fitted with large solar panels, which make it as big as a tennis court once deployed, that will generate electricity to power the ion drive and the innovative new Hall thruster. Essentially, the electricity from the solar panels is used to convert the fuel source (xenon gas) to xenon ions that are expelled to provide thrust. (The xenon propellant also produces a cool blue glow.) Pysche will gradually build up speed using ion propulsion. The spacecraft will also swing past Mars for a gravitational push during its voyage to the asteroid.

In addition, Psyche will be equipped with an array of futuristic tech. The spacecraft will test out something called “Deep Space Optical Communication,” in which messages are encoded on photons (particles of light) instead of radio waves. It could mean transmitting far more data back to Earth in a given amount of time.

The craft will also feature a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer to identify the types of materials in Psyche; a magnetometer to measure the asteroid’s magnetic field; and a multi-spectral imager to capture high-resolution snaps of it. To top it off, Psyche will use radio waves to measure the asteroid’s gravity. This, combined with maps of the asteroid’s surface features, should give us some more intel about the asteroid’s interior structure.

How Much Will the Psyche Mission Cost?

NASA says the total life-cycle mission costs for Psyche (including the rocket) are $985 million. A total of $717 million have been spent on the project as of last July. Sounds like a pittance compared to that $10 quintillion.

How Long Will the Psyche Mission Take?

Psyche will cover some 280 million miles to reach its namesake asteroid. The spacecraft is expected to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in October 2023. The craft will aim for a gravity assist from Mars in 2026 to help it along the next stage of the journey. It will then spend 21 months measuring and mapping, gradually tightening its orbit until it passes just above Psyche’s surface. If all goes to plan, Psyche will arrive at the asteroid in August 2029. NASA says the mission team continues to complete testing of the spacecraft’s flight software in preparation for the October launch date. Godspeed, Psyche.

[ghost2509]

'A Bear On Mars?' NASA Spots Trippy Phenomenon On Planet's Surface

Huff Post
yahoo.com
Josephine Harvey
January 30, 2023

http://youtu.be/8ASl7p8UfyY"]http://youtu.be/8ASl7p8UfyY

A bear on Mars?

Scientists looking at the surface of Mars have spotted what looks like a bear staring back at them.

A camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a photo of the formation on Dec. 12. It was shared Wednesday by the University of Arizona, which operates the camera.

A hill with a V-shaped collapse structure forms the bear’s nose and a circular fracture pattern creates the head, the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory explained in the blog for its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

“The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater. Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit could be lava or mud flows?” it said.

Humans often see faces, animals, objects and other things in space phenomena. In the past, viewers have spotted everything from Godzilla in a cloud of space gas to a muppet, a human face and a Sasquatch on Mars.

This is due to a tendency for the human brain to try to see recognizable shapes in objects or data that are otherwise not familiar to us, known as pareidolia.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by alexora

Unfortunately, this mission didn't work out as planned, but they are not giving up just yeat...

UK rocket failure is a setback, not roadblock

Full story and video here:

http://bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64223882

The mission failure was apparently down to a dislodged fuel filter:

Virgin Orbit: Dislodged fuel filter caused
failure of UK space mission

The company’s Start Me Up mission from Cornwall failed in January.

A dislodged fuel filter caused last month’s failure of the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from the UK, Virgin Orbit has said.

This caused an engine to overheat, leading to the malfunction of components and the premature shutdown of the LauncherOne rocket’s thrust, according to the company founded by billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

The rocket components and payload then fell back to Earth within the approved safety corridor in the Atlantic Ocean without achieving orbit.

Virgin Orbit said in a statement: “The data is indicating that from the beginning of the second stage first burn, a fuel filter within the fuel feedline had been dislodged from its normal position.”

Chief executive Dan Hart said: “In space launch, a failure is painful for all involved.

“Intense disappointment gets quickly channelled into the motivation to dig into the cause, to understand all contributing elements and to thereby get back to flight with a better system and a wiser team.

“Our investigation is not yet complete; the team is hard at work and we’ll pursue the cause and contributors to wherever the system analysis takes us.

“However, with many clear clues from extensive data assessment now understood, we are modifying our next rocket with a more robust filter and we are looking broadly to assure that all credible contributors to mission failure are rooted out and addressed.

“With those modifications being incorporated on our factory floor, we will proceed cautiously toward the launch of our next rocket, which is well into the integration and test process.”

More than 2,000 spectators and VIPs gathered to watch the Virgin Orbit jumbo jet take off from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay on January 9 while carrying the rocket under a wing.

The plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean, where it jettisoned the rocket before returning safely.

Source:

http://standard.co.uk/news/uk/virgin-orbit-atlantic-ocean-earth-newquay-b1060422.html

[ghost2509]

Da Vinci understood key aspect of gravity centuries before Einstein, lost sketches reveal

LIVESCIENCE
yahoo.com
Ben Turner
February 15, 2023

Leonardo da Vinci may have had an understanding of gravity that was "centuries ahead of his time," his sketchbooks reveal.

Da Vinci's sketches, which were forgotten for decades, show triangles formed by sand-like particles pouring from a jar. These falling grains depicted experiments to show that gravity was a form of acceleration more than 400 years before Einstein did, a new study argues.

Albert Einstein first formulated the idea that the experience of being accelerated by gravity and being accelerated relative to a fixed frame of reference are indistinguishable, called the equivalence principle, in 1907. To do so, Einstein expanded upon ideas from Isaac Newton’s 1687 discovery of the universal law of gravitational attraction (which states every object in the universe attracts every other with a force linked to their masses and inversely related to the square of the distance separating them) and Galileo Galilei’s 1604 statement of the law of freefall (which states that without air resistance, all masses fall with the same acceleration).

"We don't know if da Vinci did further experiments or probed this question more deeply," lead-author Mory Gharib, a professor of aeronautics and medical engineering at Caltech, said in a statement. "But the fact that he was grappling with this problem in this way — in the early 1500s — demonstrates just how far ahead his thinking was."

Da Vinci was a painter, architect, inventor, anatomist, engineer and scientist. Primarily self-educated, he filled dozens of secret notebooks with fanciful inventions and anatomical observations. Along with detailed drawings of human anatomy, his notebooks contain designs for bicycles, helicopters, tanks and airplanes. Of the more than 13,000 pages of these sketches that were later collected into codices, less than a third have survived.

Gharib was poring over the digitizied copies of these notebooks to discuss da Vinci’s studies of flow dynamics with his students when he noticed the sketches in the pages of the Codex Arundel — a notebook dating to between 1480 and 1518. There he saw the triangles formed by particles pouring from moving jars, which were accompanied by an intriguing phrase written in da Vinci’s mirrored handwriting.

"What caught my eye was when he wrote ‘Equatione di Moti' [translated by the researchers as "equivalence of motions"] on the hypotenuse of one of his sketched triangles — the one that was an isosceles right triangle," Gharib said. "I became interested to see what Leonardo meant by that phrase."

Gharib and his colleagues discovered that da Vinci was describing water or sand being dumped from a pitcher as it moved along a straight path parallel to the ground. Da Vinci’s notes make it clear that he knew the particles would accelerate downwards, and that once they had left the pitcher, this acceleration was only caused by gravity.

If the pitcher moved at a constant rate, the line traced out by the falling particles would be vertical, da Vinci reasoned, but if it accelerated at a constant rate, then the particles make a straight but slanted line that forms the hypotenuse side of a triangle.

In fact, da Vinci observed, if the jug accelerates to release the drips at the same rate that gravity accelerates them towards the ground, an equilateral triangle is traced out — the first hint of the equivalence principle at play.

Gharib and his colleagues discovered that da Vinci was describing water or sand being dumped from a pitcher as it moved along a straight path parallel to the ground. Da Vinci’s notes make it clear that he knew the particles would accelerate downwards, and that once they had left the pitcher, this acceleration was only caused by gravity.

If the pitcher moved at a constant rate, the line traced out by the falling particles would be vertical, da Vinci reasoned, but if it accelerated at a constant rate, then the particles make a straight but slanted line that forms the hypotenuse side of a triangle.

In fact, da Vinci observed, if the jug accelerates to release the drips at the same rate that gravity accelerates them towards the ground, an equilateral triangle is traced out — the first hint of the equivalence principle at play.

[ghost2509]

What is the biggest known star in the universe? Its radius is 1700 times larger than the Sun's.

USA TODAY
yahoo.com
Olivia Munson
February 16, 2023

There are billions and trillions of stars in our universe. To put it into perspective, there are around 200 sextillion stars in the universe.

Within this expansive number are stars of all shapes and sizes. This includes the smallest star ever recorded, "EBLM J0555-57Ab," which is about the size of Saturn. But what about the biggest star in the universe?

You're going to need more than just a telescope to get a glimpse of this hypergiant star. Here is what you need to know about the biggest star in the universe and how it compares to our Sun.

What is the biggest star in the universe?

The largest known star in the universe is UY Scuti. It has an estimated radius of 1.188 billion kilometers. If UY Scuti were the center of our solar system, its photosphere, or outer shell, would reach just past the orbit of Jupiter.

It is a red hypergiant, meaning it has an enormous mass and luminosity. These types of stars are harder to find, however, because of their short life spans. Unlike other stars which last for billions of years, hypergiants only exist for a few million years.

UY Scuti was discovered in 1860 by German astronomers; at the time, it was named "BD-12 5055." This star can be found near the center of the Milky Way, around 9,500 lightyears away from Earth. It is a part of the constellation Scutum.

Is the Sun the biggest star?

The Sun may be the center of our solar system, but it is not the biggest star in the universe. The Sun has a mean radius of around 696,000 kilometers, or 432,450 miles.

In comparison to UY Scuti, the Sun's radius is 1,700 times smaller. About 5 billion Suns could fit inside UY Scuti.

[ghost2509]

A Bizarre Study Says People Can Live in Asteroids. It's Actually a Brilliant Idea.

Popular Mechanics
msn.com
Story by Darren Orf
Feb. 22, 2023

In a 1974 Physics Today article, physicist Gerard K. O’Neill laid out his theoretical designs for future space-based colonies that he touted as “far more comfortable, productive and attractive” than most cities on Earth. What started as a joke (O’Neill readily admits) turned into something more serious as his calculations began to make a startling amount of sense.

These O’Neill cylinders, which were subsequently detailed extensively in the physicist’s 1976 book High Frontiers, have captivated scientists and futurists for half a century. In 2019, Jeff Bezos gave an entire presentation divulging his desire to build O’Neill cylinders, and the idea is on full display in shows like Babylon 5, novels like Arthur C. Clark’s Rama, and films like Interstellar.

The basic concept of a O’Neill cylinder is that a spinning tube-like structure simulates gravity via a centripetal force acting on humans living on the cylinder’s inner surface. Although the physics of such a structure checks out, actually building one would likely be the most gargantuan megaproject in human history—but scientists from Rochester University think transforming asteroids into O’Neill cylinders might be the best strategy.

In a study published last year, scientists examined near-Earth asteroids, such as Bennu (the object of the OSIRIS-REx mission), as potential candidates for O’Neill cylinders. Asteroids are particularly attractive candidates because the building materials are already in space (ferrying materials from Earth would likely be prohibitively expensive) and they’d protect a colony from space radiation

However, the tricky part comes in figuring out how to hollow out the asteroid. Simply spinning the asteroid would cause the celestial body to break apart, so researchers suggest employing a lightweight, flexible, and strong carbon nanotube mesh to keep asteroid material from flinging out into space

“A cylindrical containment bag constructed from carbon nanotubes would be extremely light relative to the mass of the asteroid rubble and the habitat, yet strong enough to hold everything together,” says co-author Peter Miklavčič in a statement. “Even better, carbon nanotubes are being developed today, with much interest in scaling up their production for use in larger-scale applications.”

While the asteroid spins up using solar-powered rubble cannons (!), this mesh bag would expand and keep debris from floating out into space. This would also create a hollowed out sphere with a layer of rock suitable for building a settlement. How would humans build that settlement? That’s for other scientists to figure out. Study co-author Adam Frank says:

“Based on our calculations, a 300-meter-diameter asteroid just a few football fields across could be expanded into a cylindrical space habitat with about 22 square miles of living area. That’s roughly the size of Manhattan.”

While this paper is described as “wildly theoretical,” the revolutionary aspects of carbon nanotubes is very much a reality. Someday, it just might help fashion an asteroid into a place to call home.

[ghost2509]

An ‘impossible’ planet discovered: Where is TOI-5205b and why shouldn’t it exist?

AS USA
msn.com
Story by William Gittins
Feb. 23, 2023

Astronomers have been an exciting new discovery that could spark a rethink in our understanding of how planets are formed.

The report, led by Shubham Kanodia of the Carnegie Institution for Science, identified a small red dwarf star with a unique characteristic. Despite its size, TOI-5205b is at the centre of a planetary system that includes a huge gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter.

How does TOI-5205b host a gas giant?

TOI-5205b is considered a red dwarf – also known as an M dwarf – planet. They are typically smaller than our sun and are the most common stars in our galaxy. Due to their smaller size they tend to be roughly half as hot as the sun too, meaning that they appear less bright and often taken on a redder colour. From the earth there are no red dwarfs visible to the naked eye.

Due to the lower luminosity they tend to have far long lifespans. Their longer lifespan allows them to host more planets, because they accumulate over time, but the way in which they are formed means they rarely host gas giants.

TOI-5205b is a rare outlier that is able to support a huge gas giant, something that could offer new insight into the formation of planetary systems.

“The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising,” Kanodia said, upon announcing the new findings.

There have been a few other examples found with gas giants orbiting older red dwarf stars, but this is the first instance of a gas giant being present within a planetary system that centres on a low-mass red dwarf star.

What does TOI-5205b tell us about planet formation?

TOI-5205b is still considerably larger than the gas giant that orbits around it but the size discrepancy is less pronounced than is the case in most planetary systems. In our own solar system, the size ratio between the gas giant Jupiter and the sun is similar to that between a pea and a grapefruit.

However in the case of TOI-5205b, the size comparison is more like a pea orbiting around a lemon. This difference may seem fairly unremarkable but it sheds new light on the process of planetary formation.

Planets are formed in a disk of spinning gas and dust that is drawn together by young stars. It is typically believed that it takes the mass of around 10 earths to accumulate together and form a rocky core at the centre of a galaxy, and many millions of years for a gas giant to then form.

“TOI-5205b’s existence stretches what we know about the disks in which these planets are born,” Kanodia explained. “In the beginning, if there isn’t enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.”

“And at the end, if the disk evaporates away before the massive core is formed, then one cannot form a gas giant planet. And yet TOI-5205b formed despite these guardrails. Based on our nominal current understanding of planet formation, TOI-5205b should not exist; it is a “forbidden” planet.”

[alexora]

Originally Posted by ghost2509

An ‘impossible’ planet discovered: Where is TOI-5205b and why shouldn’t it exist?

Astronomers have been an exciting new discovery that could spark a rethink in our understanding of how planets are formed.

The report, led by Shubham Kanodia of the Carnegie Institution for Science, identified a small red dwarf star with a unique characteristic. Despite its size, TOI-5205b is at the centre of a planetary system that includes a huge gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter.

You Tube

You Tube

[ghost2509]

UFOs and UAPs explained: This is how NASA classifies unidentified aerial objects

USA TODAY
yahoo.com
Clare Mulroy
March 7, 2023

In the week following the takedown of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, three more unidentified objects have been shot down over Alaska, Lake Huron and Yukon, Canada.

A car-sized object in Alaska flew over “sensitive military sites” Feb. 10. It was much lower in altitude and smaller than the Chinese spy balloon, but it's the repeated headline, not the size, that’s raising questions about these four objects.

Here’s everything you need to know about how NASA and the U.S. government classify unidentified objects.

What does UFO mean?

UFO stands for “unidentified flying object,” a term for an aerial phenomenon whose cause or identity is unclear to the observer.

The United States Air Force coined the term in 1952, just five years after pilot Kenneth Arnold added “flying saucer” to the world’s lexicon. In 1947, Arnold flew past Mt. Rainier in Washington state where he saw “nine bright saucer-like objects.” Though he denied initially describing them as saucers, the name had already made its mark in popular culture.

According to the Air Force Declassification Office, UFOs were initially defined “as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators, though today the term UFO is colloquially used to refer to any unidentifiable sighting regardless of whether it has been investigated.”

What does UAP mean?

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration uses the more precise term “unidentified anomalous phenomena” to describe “observations of the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena.” Until December 2022, it was known as “unidentified aerial phenomena” rather than anomalous.

NASA began a study in October 2022 to further UAP data analysis, with promises of a mid-2023 report on its findings. The study is searching for the nature and origins of UAP, scientific analysis techniques, examining the risk to the National Air Space and ways to enhance air traffic management data acquisition systems.

In NASA’s 2021 UAP report, they classified five explanatory categories:

> Airborne clutter

> Natural atmospheric phenomena

> USG or U.S. industry development programs

> Foreign adversary systems

> Other

The report was largely inconclusive, but it stated that UAP “clearly pose” a risk to aviators and U.S. national security and NASA found “potential patterns” in shape, size and propulsion.

[ghost2509]

Pentagon officials suggest alien mothership in our solar system could send mini probes to Earth

FOX NEWS
yahoo.com
Greg Wehner
March 14, 2023

Pentagon officials said in a draft document last week that aliens could be visiting our solar system and releasing smaller probes like missions conducted by NASA when studying other planets.

A draft research report authored by Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and Abraham Loeb, chairman of Harvard University’s astronomy department was released on March 7 and focuses on the physical constraints of unidentified aerial phenomena.

"...An artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions," the report read. "These ‘dandelion seeds’ could be separated from the parent craft by the tidal gravitational force of the Sun or by a maneuvering capability."

The AARO was established in July 2022 and is responsible for tracking objects in the sky, underwater and in space – or possibly an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next.

Congress tasked NASA to find 90% of all objects near Earth that are larger than 140 meters in 2005, which resulted in Pan-STARRS telescopes, according to the report.

On October 19, 2017, the Pan-STARRS detected an unusual interstellar object that was later named ‘Oumuamua, or scout in Hawaiian.

The object was cigar-shaped, appeared flat, and was propelled away from the sun without showing a cometary tail, leading scientists to believe it was artificial.

Three years later, another object was discovered, the report noted, namely NASA’s rocket booster 2020 SO, which had no cometary trail. The report also said six months before ‘Oumuamua made its closest approach to Earth, a meter-sized interstellar meteor, IM2, crashed on earth and exhibited an identical speed relative to the Sun at large distances and an identical shape to ‘Oumuamua.

"With proper design, these tiny probes would reach the Earth or other solar system planets for exploration, as the parent craft passes by within a fraction of the Earth-Sun separation — just like ‘Oumuamua’ did," the authors wrote. "Astronomers would not be able to notice the spray of mini probes because they do not reflect enough sunlight for existing survey telescopes to notice them."

The research paper comes after a month of scrutiny over unidentified flying objects over the U.S. Most notably, a Chinese spy balloon was shot down, only after traversing across the skies over the U.S.