Astronomy

Meteorologists predicted a busy Atlantic hurricane season—and a recent lull in activity doesn’t negate that

Wispy whorls on the moon’s surface are as lovely as they are strange. Scientists are starting to unravel their origins

Boeing's Starliner capsule will depart the ISS without astronauts today (Sept. 6), and you can watch the action live.

Caring for aging loved ones brings its own set of emotional and physical hurdles. Experts offer guidance on finding support.

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Rover trials in a quarry in the UK showing a four-wheeled rover, known as Codi, using its robotic arm and a powerful computer vision system to pick up sample tubes. 

The rover drives to the samples with an accuracy of 10cm, constantly mapping the terrain. Codi uses its arm and four cameras to locate the sample tube, retrieve it and safely store it on the rover – all of it without human intervention. At every stop, the rover uses stereo cameras to build up a 180-degree map of the surroundings and plan its next maneouvres. Once parked, the camera on top of the mast detects the tube and estimates its position with respect to the rover. The robotic arm initiates a complex choreography to move closer to the sample, fetch it and store it. 

The sample tubes are a replica of the hermetically sealed samples inside which NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting precious martian soil inside. To most people on Earth, they resemble lightsabres.

The reddish terrain, although not fully representative of Mars in terms of soil composition, has plenty of slopes and rocks of different sizes, similar to what a rover might encounter on the martian surface. Quarry testing is an essential next step in the development process, providing a unique and dynamic landscape that cannot be replicated indoors. 

ESA continues to run further research using the rover to maintain and develop rover capabilities in Europe.

Read the full article: Rovers, lightsabres and a piglet.

In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft made history, and changed the Solar System forever, by impacting the Dimorphos asteroid and measurably shifting its orbit around the larger Didymos asteroid. In the process a plume of debris was thrown out into space.

The latest modelling, available on the preprint server arXiv and accepted for publication in the September volume of The Planetary Science Journal, shows how small meteoroids from that debris could eventually reach both Mars and Earth – potentially in an observable (although quite safe) manner.

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite captured this image over Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 2 September, just ahead of the Sentinel-2C launch.

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ESA’s Metal 3D Printer has produced the first metal part ever created in space. 

The technology demonstrator, built by Airbus and its partners, was launched to the International Space Station at the start of this year, where ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen installed the payload in the European Drawer Rack of ESA’s Columbus module. In August, the printer successfully printed the first 3D metal shape in space.  

This product, along with three others planned during the rest of the experiment, will return to Earth for quality analysis: two of the samples will go to ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands (ESTEC), another will go to ESA’s astronaut training centre in Cologne (EAC) for use in the LUNA facility, and the fourth will go to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). 

As exploration of the Moon and Mars will increase mission duration and distance from Earth, resupplying spacecraft will be more challenging.  Additive manufacturing in space will give autonomy for the mission and its crew, providing a solution to manufacture needed parts, to repair equipment or construct dedicated tools, on demand during the mission, rather than relying on resupplies and redundancies. 

ESA’s technology demonstrator is the first to successfully print a metal component in microgravity conditions. In the past, the International Space Station has hosted plastic 3D printers.

The largest pterosaurs, ancient reptiles that were the first vertebrates to master flight, may have mostly soared while smaller ones flapped their wings, a pattern that persists in today's birds

The largest pterosaurs, ancient reptiles that were the first vertebrates to master flight, may have mostly soared while smaller ones flapped their wings, a pattern that persists in today's birds

SpaceX launched a batch of spy satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office tonight (Sept. 5), the company's second orbital mission of the day.

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its final Vega rocket this week, lofting a Sentinel-2C Earth observation satellite into orbit. This wraps up 12 years of service and 20 successful flights for the venerable Vega. The rocket launched several well-known missions, including LISA Pathfinder (2015), the Earth-observing satellites Proba-V (2013), and Aeolus (2018). ESA will now launch these types of payloads on the new Vega-C rocket, capable of launching heavier payloads at a lower price.

Vega’s final launch was on September 5, 2024 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, and ESA said that it was fitting the rocket boosted to orbit one of the Sentinel satellites, as Vega had previously launched Sentinel-2A in 2015 and Sentinel-2B in 2017.

Vega was a smaller but powerful rocket launcher designed to loft smaller science and Earth observation satellites, specializing in launching of satellites into polar orbit. At 30 meters (98 ft) tall the rocket weighs 137 tons on the launch pad. Vega consisted of three solid-propellant powered stages with the a liquid-propellant fourth stage.  before the fourth liquid-propellant stage took over to bring satellites to their required orbit. Vega could reach space in just six minutes.

On 13 February 2012, the first Vega lifted off on its maiden flight from Europe’s South American Spaceport in French Guiana and deployed 9 science satellites. Credits: ESA – S. Corvaja

Vega’s first launch took place in February 2012, conducting a perfectly executed qualification flight to deploy 9 science cubesats into Earth orbit.

On Vega’s second flight in 2013, a secondary payload adapter called Vespa was added. This provided different options for payload ride-sharing where multiple satellites could be launched on one rocket. This flight brought three satellites to orbit — Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V, Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1A and Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube-1 technology demonstrator. All three were released into different orbits and the complex mission required five upper-stage boosts, with the flight lasting about twice as long as its first launch.

Countdown and launch of Vega’s final flight.

The most satellites Vega ever launched to orbit was in 2020 when a variant of Vespa was used — called the Small Spacecraft Mission Service — and brought over 50 satellites at once to orbit.

2015 was Vega’s’ busiest year, launching three ESA missions including a reentry demonstrator called IXV that prove the technology to launch a vehicle to space and return it safely to Earth. According to ESA, in less than two hours Vega accelerated IXV to speeds of 27,000 km/h (16,777 mph) at a height of 412 km (250 miles) before the reentry vehicle splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean.

But now ESA is building on Vega’s heritage, and the era of Vega-C has already begun. This new rocket completed its inaugural flight in July of 2022, putting the main payload LARES-2 – a scientific mission of the Italian Space Agency ASI – into orbit as well as six research CubeSats from France, Italy and Slovenia. ESA said Vega-C will provide better performance and greater payload capability as it has two new solid propulsion stages, an uprated fourth stage, a newly designed fairing, and new ground infrastructure.

Lift-off of a Vega-C rocket, with the Lares-2 mission plus rideshares. Credit: ESA

The post The Final Vega Rocket Blasts Off appeared first on Universe Today.

Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede, is a fascinating celestial body. Measuring 2,634 km (1,636 mi) in diameter, it is also the largest satellite in the Solar System and even larger than Mercury, which measures 2,440 km (1,516 mi) in diameter. Like Europa, it has an interior ocean and is one of the few bodies in the Solar System (other than the gas giants) with an intrinsic magnetic field. The presence of this field also means Ganymede experiences aurorae circling the regions around its northern and southern poles due to interaction with Jupiter’s magnetic field.

In addition, based on its surface craters, scientists believe that Ganymede experienced a powerful impact with an asteroid about 4 billion years ago. This asteroid was about 20 times larger than the Chicxulub asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, or the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (ca. 66 million years ago). According to a recent study by Naoyuki Hirata of Kobe University, this impact occurred almost precisely on the meridian farthest away from Jupiter. This caused a reorientation of Ganymede’s rotational axis and allowed Hirata to determine exactly what type of impact took place.

Naoyuki Hirata is an assistant professor with the Department of Planetology at Kobe University’s Graduate School of Science. His paper, “Giant impact on early Ganymede and its subsequent reorientation,” recently appeared in Science Reports. Since the Pioneer 10 and 11 and the Voyager 1 and 2 probes flew through the Jupiter system in the 1970s, scientists have known that large parts of Ganymede’s surface are covered by furrows that form concentric circles around a single spot. This led researchers in the 1980s to conclude that these were the result of a major impact event.

On large parts of its surface, Ganymede is covered by furrows (right) that form concentric circles around one specific spot (left, red cross). © HIRATA Naoyuki

The exact nature of this impact and its effects on Ganymede has been the subject of debate ever since. As Hirata said in a Kobe University press release:

“The Jupiter moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all have interesting individual characteristics, but the one that caught my attention was these furrows on Ganymede. We know that this feature was created by an asteroid impact about 4 billion years ago, but we were unsure how big this impact was and what effect it had on the moon.”

Using data obtained by the New Horizons mission of Pluto, Hirata drew on similarities with an impact event on Pluto that caused a shift in the (dwarf) planet’s rotational axis. As a specialist who simulates impact events on moons and asteroids, Hirata was able to calculate what kind of impact would have caused Ganymede’s orientation to shift. According to his estimates, the asteroid had a diameter of around 300 km (~186.5 mi) that created a crater measuring between 1,400 and 1,600 km (870 and 995 mi) in diameter before the debris resettled on the surface.

Evidence of this impact is visible today in the center of the furrow system on the anti-Jovian side of Ganymede (the hemisphere facing away from Jupiter) and currently measures roughly 1,000 km (662 mi) in diameter. Looking ahead, Hirata hopes to learn how this impact could have affected the moon’s evolution, particularly where its internal ocean is involved:

“I want to understand the origin and evolution of Ganymede and other Jupiter moons. The giant impact must have had a significant impact on the early evolution of Ganymede, but the thermal and structural effects of the impact on the interior of Ganymede have not yet been investigated at all. I believe that further research applying the internal evolution of ice moons could be carried out next.”

Distribution of furrows and the location of the center of the furrow system shown in the hemisphere that always faces away from Jupiter (top) and the cylindrical projection map of Ganymede (bottom). © HIRATA Naoyuki.

The ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is currently en route to Jupiter and will establish orbit around Ganymede by 2034. The observations it makes over the next six months will help shed light on these and other questions regarding Ganymede and its sibling satellites, Europa and Callisto – not the least of which is whether or not these “Ocean Worlds” can support life.

Further Reading: Kobe University, Scientific Reports

The post Ouch! A Monster Asteroid Crashed Into Ganymede 4 Billion Years Ago, Rolling it Over appeared first on Universe Today.

Those of you following the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System may have heard that its booms and sail are now deployed. It is receiving light pressure from the Sun to propel it through the Solar System. Like a test pilot in a new aircraft, NASA are now testing out just how it handles. Before deployment, the spacecraft was slowly tumbling and now the controllers will see if they can get it under control and under sail power. The reflectivity of the sail means its an easy spot in the night sky, just fire up the NASA app to find out where to look.

Solar sails are an ingenious propulsion technique that employs pressure from sunlight to generate low levels of thrust. As the photons of light strike the surface, they transfer momentum to the solar sail and therefore the spacecraft is accelerated. The thrust is small but when applied over long periods of time can provide a very efficient way to propels small spacecraft. The first successful deployment of a sail occurred in 2010 with the IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun) spacecraft launched by the Japanese space agency JAXA. 

IKAROS spaceprobe with solar sail in flight (artist’s depiction) showing a typical square sail configuration. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Andrzej Mirecki

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACSSS) was developed by NASA to test the technology. The boom that supports the sail is made of lighter and more durable composite materials. By testing the deployment of the booms and efficient sale operation NASA hopes to prove the viability of the technology. The ACSSS uses lighter more flexible materials than previous attempts and will enable more efficient deep space exploration, asteroid rendezvous and other missions requiring low-thrust propulsion. 

ACSSS orbits the Earth in a low orbit with an altitude of between 500-600 kilometres. Following launch, it was released purposely without attitude control and was as a result tumbling through space. Once the analysis has been completed, and the boom and sail deployment has been understood the team will re-engage the attitude control to stabilise the spacecraft. The next phase then begins as the team analyse flight handling and dynamics to adjust the spacecrafts orbit. 

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft in orbit as the Sun crests Earth’s horizon. Credits: NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart

Since the deployment of the sail, the operations team continue to receive images and data to help them understand how the boom technology has deployed. So far so good it seems for demonstrating the deployment and initial operations. The team will continue to monitor and analyse the incoming data and images in preparation for further technology tests and demonstrations in the week ahead.

Any keen eyed sky watchers may be able to spot the spacecraft as it passes overhead. The high reflectivity of the sail will make it clearly visible to the unaided eye.  NASA have added a new feature to their app so that users can setup notifications to get alerts when it is visible from their location. NASA is inviting the public to share their pictures of the spacecraft online using the hashtag #SpotTheSail.

Source : NASA Evaluates Deployed Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

The post NASA’s Putting its Solar Sail Through its Paces appeared first on Universe Today.

Saline drops and sprays have already been linked to reduced cold symptoms in adults and now a study suggests they also work in children

Saline drops and sprays have already been linked to reduced cold symptoms in adults and now a study suggests they also work in children

September's Full Harvest Moon will be a supermoon in addition to experiencing a partial lunar eclipse. Here's everything you need to know for this month's full moon.

A new teaser and plot description has arrived for Hulu’'s "Alien: Earth" TV series.

In the 17th century, astronomers Giovanni Domenica Cassini and Christian Huygens noted the presence of hazy white caps while studying the Martian polar regions. These findings confirmed that Mars had ice caps in both polar regions, similar to Earth. By the 18th century, astronomers began to notice how the size of these poles varied depending on where Mars was in its orbital cycle. Along with discovering that Mars’ axis was tilted like Earth’s, astronomers realized that Mars’ polar ice caps underwent seasonal changes, much like Earth’s.

While scientists have been aware that Mars’ polar ice caps change with the seasons, it has only been within the last 50 years that they have realized that they are largely composed of frozen carbon dioxide (aka. “dry ice”) that cycles in and out of the atmosphere – and questions as to how this happens remain. In a recent study, a team of researchers led by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) synthesized decades of research with more recent observations of the poles. From this, they determined how the Martian poles differ in terms of their seasonal accumulation and release of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The team was led by Dr. Candice Hansen, a Senior Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and a member of the HiRISE imaging team. She was joined by researchers from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona, the University of Nevada, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center (USG-ASC), the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at UC Boulder, IUCLA, the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The paper that details their findings recently appeared in the journal Icarus.

Mars’ south polar ice cap imaged by the HRSC camera on the ESA’s Mars Express. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin

For their study, Hansen and her colleagues relied on data acquired by Mars orbiters over the past few decades. They then compared this with more recent data from the High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This allowed them to track the growth and recession of the Martian ice caps, which cycle about a quarter of the planet’s atmosphere throughout a Martian year. The ultimate purpose was to learn more about the processes that shape the planet’s surface and overall environment. As Hansen summarized in a PSI press release:

“Everybody knows there’s a difference in how carbon dioxide interacts with the poles, but how many people understand why? That was what I was setting out to describe. And fortunately, I have a whole bunch of really talented co-authors who were willing to fill in their own pieces.”

Like Earth, Mars experiences seasonal changes due to its axial tilt, about 25 degrees relative to the orbital plane, compared to Earth’s tilt of about 23.5 degrees. But since Mars has a much longer orbital period (~687 days), the seasons last about twice as long as they do here on Earth. In addition, Mars has a greater orbital eccentricity – about 9% compared to 1.7% – which means its orbit is more elliptical. Because of this, Mars is farthest from the Sun when its northern hemisphere experiences Spring and Summer, while the south experiences Fall and Winter.

This means that summer in the southern hemisphere is shorter (while winter is longer in the north), coinciding with the dust storm season. As a result, the northern polar seasonal cap contains a higher concentration of dust than the south polar cap. “So ultimately, southern fall and winter bring the most freezing and lowest atmospheric pressure since so much of the atmosphere is frozen as dry ice,” said Hansen. “These are the major drivers of differences in seasonal behavior of carbon dioxide between the hemispheres. They’re not symmetric seasons.”

Mars’ Barchan Dunes, captured by the MRO’s HiRISE Camera. Credit: NASA/ HiRISE/MRO/LPL (UofA)

There are also significant differences in terms of elevation between the northern and southern hemispheres—i.e., the Northern Lowlands and Southern Highlands. Differences between the northern and southern polar terrain also influence seasonal change. For example, black dust fans are distributed across the southern landscape, resulting from dry ice sublimating and causing dust plumes. As Hansen explained:

“A layer of carbon dioxide ice builds in the southern hemisphere fall, and over the course of the winter, it thickens and it becomes translucent. Then in the spring, the sun comes up, and light penetrates this ice layer to the bottom enough that it warms up the ground underneath. Now, gas is trapped under pressure. It’s going to look for any weak spot in the ice and rupture like a champagne cork.”

Once the gas finds a weak spot and ruptures the ice, it blows dark plumes of dust into the atmosphere. The dust is blown in different directions depending on the wind direction and lands in fan-shaped deposits. This process shapes the landscape by creating gully channels, colloquially called “spiders” (araneiforms) because of their arachnid-like appearance. While the northern hemisphere also experiences dust plums in the Spring, the relatively flat terrain causes them to form dune-like features. Said Hansen:

“When the Sun comes up and begins to sublimate the bottom of the ice layer, there are three weak spots – one at the crest of the dune, one at the bottom of the dune where it meets the surface and then the ice itself can crack along the slope. No araneiform terrain has been detected in the north because although shallow furrows develop, the wind smooths the sand on the dunes.”

These findings demonstrate that Mars is an active place, not only over the course of eons but on a seasonal and even daily basis.

Further Reading: PSI, Icarus

The post There are Important Differences Between the Ice Caps on Mars appeared first on Universe Today.

NASA's testing a solar sail system in space, and the spacecraft that brought the tech there has snapped a photo.