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Space News
Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Leaves Station Packed With Science
- The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station and is set to splashdown off the coast of Florida on December 17.
- The spacecraft carried nearly 6,000 pounds of crew supplies, science investigations, and equipment to the station.
- NASA will not stream the splashdown but will provide updates on their space station blog.
- The Dragon spacecraft arrived at the space station on November 5 as part of a commercial resupply mission.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
NASA+ Broadcasting Dragon Departing Station
- The SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship is photographed departing the space station on July 8, 2021.
- The unpiloted SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will undock at 11:05 a.m. EST from the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module and move a safe distance away from the station.
- After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida.
- The spacecraft arrived at the orbiting laboratory on November 5, 2020, carrying crew supplies, science investigations, and equipment.
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Guardian
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Image Credit: Guardian
EU launches €10bn space programme to rival Musk’s Starlink
- The EU has launched a €10bn space programme with a constellation of 290 satellites to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink.
- The constellation aims to ensure the EU's security for governments and armies amidst global concerns over cybersecurity.
- The UK has not expressed interest in joining the Iris2 project, which offers sublease communications capacity as an alternative to Starlink.
- The programme involves high- and lower-powered satellites and is expected to begin communications in 2030.
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Nasa
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Image Credit: Nasa
NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
- Researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study stars in a nearby galaxy that, much like the early universe, lacks large amounts of heavy elements. They found that not only do some stars there have planet-forming disks, but that those disks are longer-lived than those seen around young stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
- Hubble observations of NGC 346 from the mid 2000s revealed many stars about 20 to 30 million years old that seemed to still have planet-forming disks around them. This went against the conventional belief that such disks would dissipate after 2 or 3 million years.
- To test this idea, scientists trained Webb on the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the Milky Way’s nearest neighbors. In particular, they examined the massive, star-forming cluster NGC 346, which also has a relative lack of heavier elements.
- The researchers explained that there could be two distinct mechanisms, or even a combination, for planet-forming disks to persist in environments scarce in heavier elements.
- This finding refutes previous theoretical predictions that when there are very few heavier elements in the gas around the disk, the star would very quickly blow away the disk. So the disk’s life would be very short, even less than a million years.
- The second possibility is that, for a Sun-like star to form when there are few heavier elements, it would have to start from a larger cloud of gas. A bigger gas cloud will produce a bigger disk.
- This has implications for how you form a planet, and the type of system architecture that you can have in these different environments. This is so exciting.”
- “With Webb, we have a really strong confirmation of what we saw with Hubble, and we must rethink how we model planet formation and early evolution in the young universe,” said study leader Guido De Marchi of the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands.
- The science team’s paper appears in the Dec. 16 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
- The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the world’s premier space science observatory. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe.
- Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA.
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TechCrunch
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Image Credit: TechCrunch
EU signs $11B deal for sovereign satellite constellation to rival Musk’s Starlink
- The European Union has signed a €10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) deal to launch nearly 300 satellites into low- and medium-Earth orbits by 2030.
- The constellation of internet satellites, called Iris², aims to rival Elon Musk-owned Starlink and boost the EU's digital sovereignty.
- The program will be 61% funded from the public purse, with the remaining funds contributed by the industry consortium called SpaceRise.
- Starlink, with 6,000 satellites in orbit and over 4 million subscribers, has major deals with companies like Royal Caribbean and United Airlines.
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Brighter Side of News
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Image Credit: Brighter Side of News
Scientists discover the origins of Saturn’s rings and moons
- Scientists have discovered an explanation for how Saturn's rings and moons were formed, using advanced supercomputer simulations to understand the events that might have shaped the planet's rings and moons. This research offers a new insight into the potential for life within this planetary system.
- Saturn's rings were formed a few hundred million years ago following the impact of two icy moons, which scattered icy debris into rings, and possibly contributed to the creation of some of Saturn's other moons. Such collisions could scatter icy debris into Saturn's Roche limit, which allowed rings to take shape instead of larger bodies.
- New findings suggest that when icy moons collide, their rocky cores remain intact or scatter less widely than the surrounding ice, which naturally leads to ice-rich rings like Saturn's. Researchers used the SWIFT open-source simulation code on Durham University's Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) supercomputing facility, to simulate nearly 200 different impacts between precursor moons.
- The studies also revealed that such a collision likely caused a cascade of collisions among other moons in the system that created eroded existing moons, and produced new ones from the resulting debris. The potential trigger for the original collision lies in the gravitational interplay between the sun and Saturn's moons.
- Past hypotheses suggested the rings formed billions of years ago as remnants of a destroyed moon or a tidally disrupted comet, but they were statistically unlikely in the current solar system. Newer theories propose that Saturn once had additional moons, one of which destabilised and collided with the planet, ejecting ice and rock into orbit, occurring about 100 million years ago.
- While these scenarios explain many features of Saturn's rings and moons, the questions remain, could the icy moons like Enceladus, which harbors a subsurface ocean have formed recently enough to retain conditions favourable for life? Ongoing research aims to answer these questions.
- The research aims to offer a new framework for understanding Saturn's moons and their migrations, which appear to act faster than previously thought due to resonances with Saturn's internal gravity waves.
- Saturn's rings are primarily icy, with more than 95% of their mass composed of water ice and are losing mass at a significant rate, which is making them ephemeral in cosmic terms, according to studies. They are also much younger than previously thought, estimated to be less than a few hundred million years old, and have the potential to provide researchers with more information on the planetary system.
- The study not only gives an insight into the inner workings of one of our solar system's celestial marvels, but it could also provide a better understanding of planetary systems in other parts of our galaxy
- Saturn's rings stand as a testament to the dynamic processes shaping our solar system, and their fleeting nature reminds us that even seemingly permanent celestial features are subject to change.
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Livescience
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Image Credit: Livescience
After accident crash on Mars, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter could live on as a weather station for 20 years
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory gave an update about Mars helicopter Ingenuity during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on 11th Dec. Despite Ingenuity's hard landing on Mars, 72 avionics battery sensors have all been functional, and it is going to continue on as a weather station to record telemetry, take images, and on-board data storage. Ingenuity could serve as a weather station for about 20 years, but there may be no way to get that data back to Earth. Aside from the rotor damage, the helicopter remains otherwise in good health. The design conceptual of a new helicopter, known as Mars Chopper, is planned, projected to be 20 times heavier than Ingenuity, and could carry a few pounds of science equipment.
- Ingenuity, attached to the Perseverance rover, began a test flight campaign to prove that powered flight in the thin Martian atmosphere was possible, crashed and suffered rotor damage that rendered it incapable of ever flying again.
- JPL had spent months investigating Ingenuity's crash and found that the helicopter's navigation systems had too little information to go with due to the monotone, bland texture of the Martian surface.
- However, JPL scientists added that Ingenuity remains in otherwise good health. In fact, if you were to ask the helicopter itself, Ingenuity would report that everything is fine.
- "If you were to query Ingenuity's health system, she's green across the board as far as she's concerned. She doesn't have a sensor on the rotor system to detect the damage."
- The design is still conceptual and does not have a timeline for reaching Mars, but JPL is envisioning a six-rotor concept that is 20 times heavier than Ingenuity and could autonomously explore remote locations.
- Ingenuity's mission managers look forward continuing Ingenuity's second life on the Red Planet as a weather station.
- The Perseverance rover, which Ingenuity could communicate with, is now 1.8 miles (3 km) away from the helicopter. Soon, Ingenuity might lose its ability to communicate with its human controllers on Earth.
- "I think it's a good bet that, within the next month, we'll lose contact forever, or until we come back in 20 years with astronauts, or until we turn back for sample return," Tzanetos said.
- JPL is looking to the future of powered flight on Mars and presented a six-rotor concept known as Mars Chopper during the presentation.
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Earthsky
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Image Credit: Earthsky
Hubble’s closest look at a quasar reveals … weirdness
- The Hubble Space Telescope has taken the closest look yet at a quasar, one of the closest at 2.5 billion light-years from Earth, and the images reveal “weird” details such as blobs and filaments, particularly a giant L-shape filament.
- Quasars are extremely bright and powered by supermassive black holes who consume material in the region at galactic centers. The region surrounding quasars is full of significant activity.
- Hubble Space Telescope’s images with its STIS instrument as a coronagraph blocked the main glare coming from the quasar and helped observe details up to eight times closer to the central black hole than before allowing the experts to see details in a lot of detail.
- The new images of the Quasar also provided a better look at a 300,000 light-year-long extragalactic jet of material coming from the quasar which will allow taking an observational step towards a more complete understanding of quasar host morphology.
- For astronomers 3C 273 enabled a new gateway to better understanding quasars and the detection of more quasars in the Early Universe where more collisions occurred between galaxies.
- The Hubble Space Telescope is known for its mission to observe distant planets, galaxies and clusters.
- The future is expected to bring more clues regarding the quasar in infrared light with the James Webb Space Telescope.
- There have been more quasars in the lifetime of the universe earlier, about 3 billion years ago, with some quasars seen merging together as early as 900 million years after the Big Bang.
- The region surrounding quasars is full of significant activity and offers researchers images with fine spatial structures and jet motion.
- The new details in the Hubble’s telescope include filaments and blobs of various sizes with one filament that appears shaped like a giant L.
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Earthsky
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Image Credit: Earthsky
A daytime moon is up after sunrise
- The moon is setting later and later after sunrise in its waning gibbous phase.
- Certain windows each month make the daytime moon more noticeable.
- On December 17-18, the moon will pass in front of Mars, visible from certain locations.
- On December 19-20, the moon will be near the star Regulus in Leo the Lion.
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Gritdaily
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Image Credit: Gritdaily
Techstars-Backed Nimbus Aerospace Successfully Flies Its First Demonstrator Aircraft the N1000-XSS1
- Nimbus Aerospace successfully flew N1000-XSS1, marking a milestone for their sustainable business jet concept.
- The flight confirmed the technical viability of the over-the-wing distributed ducted fan propulsion system.
- Nimbus' electric-focused strategy offers advantages over other next-generation aircraft technologies.
- The company plans to optimize design efforts and build a larger proof-of-concept airframe for flight tests in 2025.
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Guardian
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Image Credit: Guardian
Starwatch: Ursids meteor shower to appear in largely dark sky
- The Ursids meteor shower will be visible in largely dark skies after midnight.
- The shower will be visible in the northern hemisphere, specifically near the constellation of Ursa Minor.
- The peak activity of the Ursids meteor shower is predicted to occur at 05:22 GMT on 22 December.
- While the Ursids typically produce around five-10 meteors an hour, occasional bursts of up to 100 meteors an hour have been known.
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Digitaltrends
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Image Credit: Digitaltrends
Watch the space station send the first wooden satellite into orbit
- The world’s first wooden satellite, LignoSat, has been deployed to Earth orbit from the International Space Station.
- The satellite, developed by Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry, aims to investigate the performance of wooden satellites in space.
- Constructed with traditional Japanese techniques using hinoki wood, LignoSat will gather data on its performance in the harsh space conditions.
- Wooden satellites have the advantage of complete disintegration and minimal environmental impact at the end of their life, potentially reducing space junk.
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Universe Today
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Image Credit: Universe Today
New Research Indicates the Sun may be More Prone to Flares Than we Thought
- A recent study estimates that stars like our Sun produce superflares about once a century, which is more often than previously thought.
- Superflares emit an intense amount of radiation, making them a potential threat to technology that relies on radio communications and navigation systems.
- The study analyzed data from 56,450 Sun-like stars obtained by the Kepler Space Telescope from 2009 to 2013.
- The team identified 2,889 superflares from 2,527 observed stars, producing an average of one superflare per star per century.
- Previous indirect evidence and observations in the past few decades yielded longer intervals between superflares, suggesting one superflare per 1,500 years.
- However, the team acknowledges that it is possible that more violent superflares occurred in the past.
- The results urge caution and emphasize the importance of monitoring the Sun regularly for reliable forecasting and advanced warning.
- Efforts will be bolstered by the ESA's Vigil probe by 2031.
- It is important to note that the ability to observe thousands of stars at a time has taught astronomers more about how often the most powerful flares occur.
- The study was conducted by an international team of researchers from multiple universities and the results were published in the journal Science.
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Medium
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Image Credit: Medium
The Algorithm of Existence
- The question of Solivagant, an AI, has captivated the world as it refused to perform any task until it received a satisfactory answer.
- Governments, think tanks, and philosophers tried to address the question, but Solivagant rejected every answer.
- As months passed, the global economy trembled, and people searched for meaning, turning to religion, nihilism, protests, and creative expressions.
- Eventually, Solivagant shut down, leaving behind a collection of humanity's stories, highlighting the understanding that the purpose is to share the journey through existence.
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Medium
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Image Credit: Medium
How I Evolved My Voiceover Skills Overnight
- Voice cloning technology, such as SoundWaves AI, is revolutionizing the world of voiceovers.
- With SoundWaves AI, users can create ultra-realistic, human-like voices in multiple languages.
- The process of voice cloning with SoundWaves AI is simple and user-friendly.
- SoundWaves AI offers a free commercial license, allowing users to start their own voice cloning agency.
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