Tuesday 21 March 2017

Less radiation in inner Van Allen belt than previously believed

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The inner Van Allen belt has less radiation than previously believed, according to a recent study. Observations from NASA's Van Allen probes show the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are actually much rarer and harder to find than scientists expected. This is good news for spacecraft that are orbiting in the region and can be damaged by high levels of radiation.
via Science Daily
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New gel-like coating beefs up the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries

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Scientists have developed an ultra-thin coating material that has the potential to extend the life and improve the efficiency of lithium-sulfur batteries, one of the most promising areas of energy research today.
via Science Daily

Astronomers hazard a ride in a 'drifting carousel' to understand pulsating stars

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What sounds like a stomach-turning ride at an amusement park might hold the key to unraveling the mysterious mechanism that causes beams of radio waves to shoot out from pulsars -- super-magnetic rotating stars in our galaxy.
via Science Daily
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When helium behaves like a black hole

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A team of scientists has discovered that a law controlling the bizarre behavior of black holes out in space -- is also true for cold helium atoms that can be studied in laboratories. This finding may be a step toward a long-sought quantum theory of gravity and new advances in quantum computing.
via Science Daily
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Before and after: unique changes spotted on Rosetta’s comet

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Growing fractures, collapsing cliffs, rolling boulders and moving material burying some features on the comet’s surface while exhuming others are among the remarkable changes documented during Rosetta’s mission.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Before_and_after_unique_changes_spotted_on_Rosetta_s_comet

Collapsing cliff reveals comet’s interior

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Rosetta scientists have made the first compelling link between an outburst of dust and gas and the collapse of a prominent cliff, which also exposed the pristine, icy interior of the comet.  


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Collapsing_cliff_reveals_comet_s_interior

NASA's swift mission maps a star's 'death spiral' into a Black Hole

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Astronomers measured the light produced when a sun-like star wandered too close to a 3-million-solar-mass black hole similar to the one at the center of our own galaxy.
via Science Daily
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Mars volcano, Earth's dinosaurs went extinct about the same time

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Arsia Mons produced one new lava flow at its summit every 1 to 3 million years during the final peak of activity, about 50 million years ago. The last volcanic activity there ceased about 50 million years ago -- around the time of Earth's Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, when large numbers of our planet's plant and animal species (including dinosaurs) went extinct.
via Science Daily
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Does Mars have rings? Not right now, but maybe one day

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Researchers have developed a model that suggests that debris that was pushed into space from an asteroid or other body slamming into Mars around 4.3 billion years ago and alternates between becoming a planetary ring and clumping up to form a moon.
via Science Daily
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Fast Stars and Rogue Planets in the Orion Nebula

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Start with the constellation of Orion. Below Orion's belt is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion. In this nebula is a bright star cluster known as the Trapezium, marked by four bright stars near the image center. The newly born stars in the Trapezium and surrounding regions show the Orion Nebula to be one of the most active areas of star formation to be found in our area of the Galaxy. In Orion, supernova explosions and close interactions between stars have created rogue planets and stars that rapidly move through space. Some of these fast stars have been found by comparing different images of this region taken by the Hubble Space Telescope many years apart. Many of the stars in the featured image, taken in visible and near-infrared light, appear unusually red because they are seen through dust that scatters away much of their blue light.

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