Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 661
Feb 25, 2020
NASA Remembers Hidden Figure Katherine Johnson
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
With slide rules and pencils, Katherine Johnson’s brilliant mind helped launch our nation into space.
No longer a Hidden Figure, her bravery and commitment to excellence leaves an eternal legacy for us all: https://youtu.be/E8wBJ71zJ34
Feb 24, 2020
University Deletes Press Release Claiming Evidence of Bugs on Mars
Posted by Roderick Reilly in category: space
“I, personally, have pareidolia with respect to insects, beetles in particular,” Maddison told Space.com. “I’ve worked on beetles for decades; I have collected many thousands of beetles around the world. Through the years I have built into my brain a pattern-recognition system for picking out beetles.”
In other words, Rosomer is probably wrong, even though he probably thinks he’s right.
“I do not think there are insects on Mars,” Maddison added. “The photographs that are in that press release you sent are entirely unconvincing, as they fall within the range expected in zillions of non-insect objects photographed in lowish resolution on a Marscape.”
Feb 24, 2020
Gravitational Waves Have Revealed a Stellar Mystery
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: physics, space
A surprising star collision is making scientists rethink what they know about the universe.
Feb 23, 2020
Scientists Found Breathable Oxygen in Another Galaxy for the First Time
Posted by Paul Battista in category: space
Molecular oxygen is a key component of the air humans breathe, and now astronomers have spotted it a half-billion light years away. But don’t hold your breath for quasar whippets.
Feb 22, 2020
Scientists discover BREATHABLE OXYGEN in a galaxy outside of the Milky Way for the first time — the only problem is it’s 581 million light years away
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: space
© Provided by Daily Mail Light wave readings taken at the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Granada, Spain (pictured above) helped scientists detect signatures of molecular oxygen in the Markarian 231 galaxy, the first time the compound has been… For the first time ever, astronomers have identified molecular oxygen in a galaxy outside the Milky Way.
The discovery was made by a team of astronomers at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, led by Junzhi Wang.
The team identified the presence of molecular oxygen by analyzing light waves that had reached Earth from Markarian 231, a galaxy around 581 million light years away.
Feb 21, 2020
Japan will launch the first-ever sample return mission from the Martian system
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: mapping, robotics/AI, space
JAXA, Japan’s national space agency, has just approved a robotic mission to visit the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and retrieve a small sample from the former to bring back to Earth.
The mission plan: It’s called Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX. JAXA currently plans to launch MMX in 2024 and make it to the Martian system the following year. MMX will spend three years in the system studying and mapping the moons. The mission will make use of 11 different instruments, including a NASA-funded instrument called MEGAE that will measure the elemental composition of both bodies (perhaps revealing signs of ancient water).
The mission will also deploy a small rover to zip around the surface of Phobos, not unlike what JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission deployed on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu.
Feb 21, 2020
Jupiter-like exoplanet orbits its star in only 18 hours
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
Astronomers have observed an exoplanet orbiting a star in just over 18 hours – the shortest orbital period ever seen for a planet of its type.
This means that a single year for this hot Jupiter-like planet – a gas giant similar in size and composition to Jupiter in our own Solar System – passes in less than a day of Earth time.
Scientists believe the discovery may help solve the mystery of whether such planets are in the process of spiralling towards their suns to their destruction.
Feb 20, 2020
The New Horizons spacecraft just revealed secrets of the most distant object we’ve ever visited
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: computing, space
Now, five years later, their gamble appears to have paid off. Not only did New Horizons achieve a next-to flawless flyby of Arrokoth, the most distant object ever visited, but buried in its gigabytes of data—which have been trickling back to Earth ever since the New Year’s Day 2019 rendezvous—lies empirical evidence that strikes against a classic theory of how planets form. The New Horizons team published their latest analysis of the ancient body and how it came to be in a trio of papers appearing in Science last week.