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Space News
Knowridge
19h
18
Image Credit: Knowridge
NASA tests new moon rovers for Artemis Missions
- NASA recently tested new Lunar Terrain Vehicles (LTVs) developed by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab.
- The tests took place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, simulating the moon’s gravity and allowing astronauts to practice driving the rovers, handling equipment, and conducting scientific tasks.
- The LTVs are designed to assist astronauts in moving across the lunar surface, carrying tools, and completing scientific tasks.
- These tests are part of a year-long study to refine the rover designs, and by 2025, NASA plans to send the chosen rover to the moon for further testing in a demonstration mission.
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Guardian
22h
22
Image Credit: Guardian
Nasa solar probe to make its closest ever pass of sun on Christmas Eve
- Nasa's Parker solar probe will make its closest ever approach to the sun on Christmas Eve, getting as close as 3.8 million miles from the surface.
- Launched in 2018, the mission aims to deepen scientific understanding of the sun and forecast space weather events.
- During the closest approach, the spacecraft will lose direct contact with Earth and rely on a beacon tone for confirmation.
- The probe will endure scorching temperatures but its internal instruments will remain near room temperature as it explores the sun's corona.
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Digitaltrends
1d
78
Image Credit: Digitaltrends
ISS astronauts enjoy a microgravity holiday with Brussels sprouts and more
- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) celebrate the holidays with festive photos and a special meal.
- The ISS crew, consisting of American and Russian astronauts, enjoy a holiday lunch together.
- The holiday menu includes freeze-dried and irradiated turkey, along with mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and cranapple dessert.
- To ensure a taste of home, a team of chefs prepares a package of holiday foods, including items like crab meat, smoked salmon, and pumpkin spice lattes, to be sent to the ISS.
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Brighter Side of News
1d
361
Image Credit: Brighter Side of News
Scientists found compelling evidence of liquid water on Mars
- Recent discoveries suggest that liquid water may still exist within Mars' crust, defying earlier assumptions.
- NASA's InSight mission explored the Martian subsurface using geophysical measurements to collect seismic data.
- Analysis of the seismic data uncovered compelling evidence of water-saturated fractures within the mid-crust, located 11 to 20 kilometers below the surface.
- Parameters of the model applied featured a Bayesian inversion model combined with rock physics theories to analyze seismic velocities and bulk density within the Martian crust.
- The presence of liquid water enriches understanding of Mars climate history and serves as clues to the planet's evolutionary journey.
- The discovery of liquid water on Mars--even deep underground--opens new possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Geophysical techniques used could be adapted for other planetary bodies, broadening search for life and habitable conditions beyond Earth.
- International collaboration is essential to unraveling the mysteries of our solar system.
- Analysis of past missions, like InSight, helps create a more comprehensive picture of Mars' geological history and its potential for supporting life.
- Mars emerges as a more dynamic and potentially life-sustaining environment, bringing humanity closer to solving the mysteries of the Red Planet.
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Nasa
1d
883
Image Credit: Nasa
How a NASA Senior Database Administrator Manifested her Dream Job
- Latha Balijepalle, a senior database administrator at NASA Ames, fulfilled her dream of working for NASA after manifesting it and applying for a job opening.
- Originally from southern India, Balijepalle studied electrical engineering before moving to the United States with her husband. She joined NASA Ames as a Linux administrator and now supports researchers and developers at the Airspace Operations Laboratory.
- Balijepalle's language skills improved during her NASA career and she is recognized for her dedication to ensuring the lab's systems are safe and running smoothly.
- She encourages others to step outside their comfort zones and pursue their dreams, sharing that manifesting and taking risks can lead to unexpected opportunities.
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Brighter Side of News
1d
26
Image Credit: Brighter Side of News
Dark matter origins traced back to a mysterious “Dark Big Bang”
- Dark matter, an unseen yet influential component of the cosmos, continues to challenge physicists nearly a century after its effects were first noticed.
- The mystery of dark matter first emerged in the 1930s, when astronomers observed discrepancies in the motions of galaxy clusters that could only be explained by the presence of unseen mass.
- One groundbreaking idea is the “Dark Big Bang” (DBB) theory, proposed in 2023 by Katherine Freese and Martin Winkler from the University of Texas at Austin.
- This second Big Bang, occurring sometime after the first, would have generated dark matter through the decay of a quantum field trapped in a false vacuum state.
- The DBB model is particularly versatile, as it can accommodate a wide range of dark matter particle masses, from as light as a few keV to as heavy as 1012 GeV.
- Low-frequency GWs detectable by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) such as the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) could provide crucial evidence for the DBB.
- The DBB theory offers a fresh perspective on the early universe, suggesting a more complex interplay of forces and fields in the universe’s infancy.
- The search for dark matter is a central pillar of modern physics, driving advancements in technology and theory.
- Observational capabilities advance, the prospect of detecting GWs from a DBB becomes increasingly plausible, adding a powerful new tool to this arsenal.
- Understanding dark matter is not just a scientific pursuit but a quest to comprehend the fundamental nature of the universe.
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Universe Today
1d
314
Image Credit: Universe Today
Is the Universe a Fractal?
- For decades cosmologists have wondered if the large-scale structure of the universe is a fractal: if it looks the same no matter the scale.
- Our universe contains two trillion galaxies that form a series of ever-larger structures: groups, clusters, and superclusters.
- While the universe as a whole is not a fractal, parts of the cosmic web exhibit fractal-like properties, such as nested structures and sub-structures.
- Although Mandelbrot's idea did not hold up, fractals can still be found almost everywhere in the universe.
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Brighter Side of News
1d
319
Image Credit: Brighter Side of News
Scientists baffled by ‘Hot Jupiter’ exoplanet’s irregular motion
- The discovery of planets outside our solar system has reshaped humanity’s understanding of the universe.
- However, theories about the formation of hot Jupiters typically fall into two camps,
- Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists have discovered that TOI-1408c, a peculiar planet in a system featuring a hot Jupiter, sheds new light on planetary formation theories and the complex dynamics of such systems.
- TOI-1408b, a grazing hot Jupiter, orbits its star every 4.42 days.
- Its companion, TOI-1408c, is a smaller planet with a radius 2.2 times that of Earth and a mass approximately eight times that of Earth.
- Transit timing variations are changes in a planet’s orbital timing caused by gravitational interactions with nearby planets.
- For TOI-1408c, these variations amount to 15% of its orbital period—the largest relative TTV amplitude ever measured.
- TOI-1408c’s peculiarities lie not only in its orbital dynamics but also in its proximity to a hot Jupiter.
- Discoveries like TOI-1408c advance our understanding of how planets form and evolve.
- As TESS and other instruments uncover more exoplanets, scientists hope to build a more comprehensive picture of the processes governing planetary systems.
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Nasa
1d
15
Image Credit: Nasa
Commercial Moon Rovers Under Test
- NASA has completed the first round of testing on three commercially owned and developed Lunar Terrain Vehicles (LTVs) for the Artemis campaign.
- The LTVs were developed by companies like Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab.
- The testing took place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston using the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS).
- ARGOS creates an analog environment to simulate the reduced gravity experienced on the lunar surface.
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Nasa
1d
179
Image Credit: Nasa
Ken Freeman Receives Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) Award for ATM-X Digital Information Platform (DIP)
- Ken Freeman receives the ATCA Award for ATM-X Digital Information Platform (DIP)
- The award recognizes the team's efforts in supporting NASA's Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP)
- The DIP sub-project focuses on increasing access to digital aviation information for efficient and sustainable airspace operations
- DIP team has been conducting live operational demonstrations with commercial airlines using the Collaborative Digital Departure Reroute (CDDR) tool
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Nasa
1d
363
Image Credit: Nasa
Science Done by Volunteers Highlighted at December’s American Geophysical Union Meeting
- More than 30,000 scientists gathered in Washington, D.C. for the American Geophysical Union meeting.
- NASA-sponsored project team members presented discoveries made with volunteers on various research topics.
- Overall, 175 posters and presentations featured the work of volunteers, and 363 scientists described themselves as involved in citizen science research.
- Scientists discussed various projects about asteroids, solar eclipses, water quality, martian clouds, and more, highlighting the importance of citizen science in NASA research.
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Livescience
1d
19
Image Credit: Livescience
'There's no real competitor': Theoretical physicist Marika Taylor on how black holes could help us to find a theory of everything
- String theory is a mathematical framework as a candidate of a theory of everything which would combine quantum mechanics, with general theory of relativity of Albert Einstein, but these two theories contradict with each other. String theory suggests universe is made up of one-dimensional strings whose vibrations create particles observed in the universe. String theory is hoped to reduce to Einstein's theory with the new postulates and observations. Different versions of string theory exist as there are different ways to view the same physical phenomena. Experimental evidence for string theory is being sought by black hole observations and early universe calculations, where layers of information could be identified as quantum computers.
- String theory is seen as the ultimate step in describing the natural world around us towards providing a single theory to explain everything. This is significant, given the observations which remain inexplicable with existing theories. Some key postulates include a theory with predictable time, the fundamental postulate that every particle is a little string, and the actual behavior of strings at different excitations corresponding to different particles. Recent data on black hole mergers will help in looking for interesting new physics.
- Experiments are required to test some of the predictions of string theory, but much of the universe is well described by existing theories, making it hard to obtain experimental evidence. Therefore, information on the universe itself can be obtained through black hole observations. Studies have brought to light similarities in behavior between black holes and quantum computers. Hypothetical tests for string theory effects might be found in observations of cosmic microwave background radiation and 21 centimeter cosmology. However, scientists warn that smoke-gun evidence saying that string theory as a whole is wrong is unlikely.
- There is no competitor alternative to string theory. Although some aspects of string theory may be proven wrong, the parts that are left can still be focused on. There could be future predictions that will challenge string theory, such as dark energy, that could pave the way for the discovery of new hints. String theory remains a collection of ideas of fundamental physics that attempt to unify all the forces of nature.
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Livescience
1d
360
Image Credit: Livescience
Watch Chinese satellite burn up over US in spectacular 'fireball'
- A Chinese satellite, the GaoJing 1-02, disintegrated over the U.S. in a fiery spectacle.
- The satellite's reentry into the Earth's atmosphere was uncontrolled.
- The satellite had been inactive for almost two years, making its descent inevitable.
- The disintegration of the satellite was captured on camera, leading to mistaken sightings of the Ursid meteor shower.
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Universe Today
1d
142
Image Credit: Universe Today
How Did Black Holes Grow So Quickly? The Jets
- Supermassive black holes can grow quickly due to the powerful jets they produce.
- Black holes have a strong gravitational pull, but surrounding matter is more likely to orbit around it than fall directly in.
- Jets of high-velocity plasma from black holes can pull rotational motion from surrounding material, allowing it to fall into the black hole and facilitating rapid growth.
- Observing jets from the earliest period of the cosmos is challenging, but recent discoveries suggest that early black holes created jets, allowing them to appear early in cosmic time.
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