Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: May 2016

Tuesday 31 May 2016

Trilobites: Following New Horizons’ Long Mission, Pluto Gets a Forever Stamp

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NASA and the United States Postal Service released two new Forever 47-cent stamps commemorating the voyage to Pluto.
via New York Times

Mapping the defects of a supermaterial

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Scientists have developed a technique that allows them to visualize defects on the surface of graphene. The technique may ultimately help scientists develop a better understanding of graphene’s properties in order to find novel applications for this supermaterial.
via Science Daily

Studying life on the rocks

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Researchers have developed an apparatus to meet the growing need for measuring ice as it changes in response to external forces, a process ice scientists call 'deformational behaviors.'' These forces occur on Earth in glacial ice as it flows due to gravity, and in space as icy satellite bodies respond to tidal forces from their parent bodies.
via Science Daily
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Stars and Gas of the Running Chicken Nebula

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Was Planet 9 once an exoplanet; stolen by our sun

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Astronomers show that it is highly likely that the so-called Planet 9 is an exoplanet. This would make it the first exoplanet to be discovered inside our own solar system. The theory is that our sun, in its youth some 4.5 billion years ago, stole Planet 9 from its original star.
via Science Daily
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Monday 30 May 2016

Trilobites: A Close Encounter for Earth and Mars

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The two planets will be at their closest in more than a decade, separated by just 47 million miles.
via New York Times

Born in a golden cloak

Space science image of the week: A young star fights its way through birth clouds cloaked in a golden swathe of light
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/05/A_golden_veil_cloaks_a_newborn_star

Galaxy Evolution Tracking Animation

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Sunday 29 May 2016

Decoding light for clues about dark matter

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An international team of researchers is developing an instrument that will decode the light of the night sky to understand the nature of dark matter.
via Science Daily
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Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars

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On Its Second Try, NASA Adds Space to Station

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station pumped air into an inflatable compartment that could be a forerunner to habitats on Mars and the moon.
via New York Times

Saturday 28 May 2016

Cat's Eye Wide and Deep

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle view. But the composite image combines many short and long exposures to also reveal an extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the left, some 50 million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral galaxy NGC 6552. Tomorrow's picture: mars approaches

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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NASA to Try Again to Inflate a Balloon-like Pod for the Space Station

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After a failed attempt, NASA will again pump air into the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or Beam, which will be a new room for astronauts.
via New York Times

Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life

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Ingredients crucial for the origin of life on Earth, including the simple amino acid glycine and phosphorus, key components of DNA and cell membranes, have been discovered at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
via Science Daily
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Friday 27 May 2016

Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

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

A planet 1,200 light-years away is a good prospect for a habitable world

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A distant 'super-Earth' size planet known as Kepler-62f could be habitable, a team of astronomers reports.
via Science Daily
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The Great Carina Nebula

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic close-up reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The field of view is over 50 light-years across. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the stars of open cluster Trumpler 14 (below and right of center) and the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star, seen here just above the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.

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Make music with ATLAS data

Thursday 26 May 2016

Astronomers find giant planet around very young star

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In contradiction to the long-standing idea that larger planets take longer to form, astronomers have announced the discovery of a giant planet in close orbit around a star so young that it still retains a disk of circumstellar gas and dust.
via Science Daily
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Graphenea Shareholders' Meeting 2016

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The Annual Shareholders' Meeting 2016 of Graphenea will take place on June 29, 2016. Read the official announcement.
via Graphenea

A look beyond the horizon of events

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Black holes are still very mysterious celestial bodies which, according to the majority of physicists, do not, however, escape the laws of thermodynamics. As a result, these physical systems possess an entropy though no real agreement has been reached about the microscopic origin of this propriety and how it should be calculated. Scientists have now achieved important results in this calculation by applying a new formalism (Group Field Theory) of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), a very popular approach in the area of quantum gravity.
via Science Daily
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IC 5067 in the Pelican Nebula

The prominent ridge of emission featured in this sharp, colorful skyscape is cataloged as IC 5067. Part of a larger emission nebula with a distinctive shape, popularly called The Pelican Nebula, the ridge spans about 10 light-years following the curve of the cosmic pelican's head and neck. This false-color view also translates the pervasive glow of narrow emission lines from atoms in the nebula to a color palette made popular in Hubble Space Telescope images of star forming regions. Fantastic, dark shapes inhabiting the 1/2 degree wide field are clouds of cool gas and dust sculpted by the winds and radiation from hot, massive stars. Close-ups of some of the sculpted clouds show clear signs of newly forming stars. The Pelican Nebula, itself cataloged as IC 5070, is about 2,000 light-years away. To find it, look northeast of bright star Deneb in the high flying constellation Cygnus.

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Near-Earth asteroid Bennu: NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission will have a map for that

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On Sept. 8, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to launch for terra incognita: the unknown surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Like expeditions of old, OSIRIS-REx's mission includes mapping the exotic terrain it explores.
via Science Daily
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Number of habitable planets could be limited by stifling atmospheres

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Fewer than predicted planets may be capable of harboring life because their atmospheres keep them too hot, new research suggests.
via Science Daily
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Wednesday 25 May 2016

Close encounters of a tidal kind could lead to cracks on icy moons

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Researchers are offering a new explanation as to how cracks on icy moons, such as Pluto's Charon, formed. Until now, it was thought that the cracks were the result of geodynamical processes, such as plate tectonics, but new models suggest that a close encounter with another body might have been the cause.
via Science Daily
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CLOUD shows pre-industrial skies cloudier than we thought

James Gillies

The CLOUD experiment at CERN has shown that before the industrial revolution the atmosphere was much cloudier than scientists had previously thought (Image: Maximillien Brice/CERN)

Our planet’s pre-industrial climate may have been cloudier than presently thought, shows CERN’s CLOUD experiment in two papers published today in Nature.

CLOUD shows that organic vapours emitted by trees produce lots of aerosol particles in the atmosphere when there’s no sulphuric acid – a main product of burning fossil fuels.

Previously, it was thought that sulphuric acid was essential to initiate the formation of these aerosol particles but the new research shows that these so-called biogenic vapours are also key to their growth, and can help them grow up to sizes where they can seed clouds.

“These results are the most important so far by the CLOUD experiment at CERN,” said CLOUD spokesperson, Jasper Kirkby. “When the nucleation and growth of pure biogenic aerosol particles is included in climate models, it should sharpen our understanding of the impact of human activities on clouds and climate.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers that the increase in aerosols and clouds since pre-industrial times represents one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate change. The CLOUD experiment is designed to better understand such processes.

CLOUD has also found that ions from galactic cosmic rays strongly enhance the production rate of pure biogenic particles – by a factor 10-100 compared with particles without ions. This suggests that cosmic rays may have played a more important role in aerosol and cloud formation in pre-industrial times than in today’s polluted atmosphere.

via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/05/cloud-shows-pre-industrial-skies-cloudier-we-thought

Mars Webcam goes pro

A modest ‘webcam’ on Mars Express has proven useful for outreach, education and citizen-science. Now ESA have decided to adopt it as a professional science instrument.

via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Mars_Webcam_goes_pro

NGC 5078 and Friends

This sharp telescopic field of view holds two bright galaxies. Barred spiral NGC 5101 (top right) and nearly edge-on system NGC 5078 are separated on the sky by about 0.5 degrees or about the apparent width of a full moon. Found within the boundaries of the serpentine constellation Hydra, both are estimated to be around 90 million light-years away and similar in size to our own large Milky Way galaxy. In fact, if they both lie at the same distance their projected separation would be only 800,000 light-years or so. That's easily less than half the distance between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. NGC 5078 is interacting with a smaller companion galaxy, cataloged as IC 879, seen just left of the larger galaxy's bright core. Even more distant background galaxies are scattered around the colorful field. Some are even visible right through the face-on disk of NGC 5101. But the prominent spiky stars are in the foreground, well within our own Milky Way.

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New de-icer gains anti-icing properties

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Scientists have modified their graphene-based de-icer to resist the formation of ice well below the freezing point and added superhydrophobic capabilities. The robust film is intended for use in extreme environments as well as on aircraft, power lines and ships.
via Science Daily

Diamonds closer to becoming ideal semiconductors

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The thirst for electronics is unlikely to cease and almost every appliance or device requires a suite of electronics that transfer, convert and control power. Now, researchers have taken an important step toward that technology with a new way to dope single crystals of diamonds, a crucial process for building electronic devices.
via Science Daily

Scientist suggests possible link between primordial black holes and dark matter

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An intriguing alternative view is that dark matter is made of black holes formed during the first second of our universe's existence, known as primordial black holes. A scientist suggests that this interpretation aligns with our knowledge of cosmic infrared and X-ray background glows and may explain the unexpectedly high masses of merging black holes detected last year.
via Science Daily
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Tuesday 24 May 2016

Hubble finds clues to the birth of supermassive black holes

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Astrophysicists have taken a major step forward in understanding how supermassive black holes formed. Using data from Hubble and two other space telescopes, researchers have found the best evidence yet for the seeds that ultimately grow into these cosmic giants.
via Science Daily
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Astrophysicists detect most luminous diffuse gamma-ray emission from Arp 220

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Astronomers have detected for the first time the most luminous gamma-ray emission from the merging galaxy Arp 220 -- the nearest ultraluminous infrared galaxy to Earth reveals the hidden extreme energetic processes in galaxies. Luminous infrared galaxies and ultraluminous infrared galaxies are the most luminous of all galaxies.
via Science Daily
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NASA Telescopes Find Clues for How Giant Black Holes Formed So Quickly

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Using data from three of NASA's Great Observatories (the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope), scientists have found the best evidence to date that supermassive black holes in the early universe were produced by the direct collapse of a gas cloud. If confirmed, this result could lead to new insight into how black holes were formed and grew billions of years ago. This artist's illustration depicts a possible "seed" for the formation of a supermassive black hole. The inset boxes contain Chandra (top) and Hubble (bottom) images of one of two candidate seeds, where the properties in the data matched those predicted by sophisticated models produced by researchers of the direct-collapse mechanism.

via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/19/

Call for Media: First results from ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission

Media representatives are invited to a briefing on the first results from ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission, a technology demonstrator for the observation of gravitational waves from space.

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

Milky Way Over the Spanish Peaks

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Terahertz communications circuits inch closer with graphene isolator

Graphenea's graphene has been used to make an optical isolator, an important component of optical communication circuits, in the terahertz part of the spectrum. Terahertz communication circuits would boast wireless transmission rates 10 times faster than they are today. Scientists in Switzerland constructed a graphene-based device that transmits light only one way. The device, functionally similar to electronic diodes, could also be used in terahertz lasers.

The research, published last month in the journal Nature Communications, makes use of stacks of alternating CVD graphene and polymer layers to produce a non-reciprocal isolator. The device filters backwards terahertz (THz) radiation, preventing reflected rays coming back to the source. Optical isolators are most commonly used at the output of high-power lasers, to prevent laser damage or instabilities caused by returning radiation.

Illustration: EPFL

The THz part of the spectrum provides a window of opportunity for developing faster communication networks, because THz waves oscillate at frequencies 10 times faster than GHz waves used in modern communication. Developing devices for this part of the spectrum is a challenge that is being addressed by researchers worldwide. Materials commonly used in telecom devices tend to absorb THz radiation, leading to detrimental losses. Graphene, on the other hand, is nearly transparent in most parts of the spectrum, including THz waves, and hence is a key material of choice for THz research.

The researchers, based at EPFL, Geneva and Lausanne, devised a method to get graphene to interact only with THz radiation polarized a certain way. By placing their devices in a strong magnetic field, they made light that is circularly polarized one way to be reflected off the device, while all other light was absorbed. This is effectively a filter that will find its use in optical circuits of the future. The researchers think that modified variants of their device could even be used in today's communication circuits.

via Graphenea

Monday 23 May 2016

A Spat Over the Search for Killer Asteroids

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A former Microsoft technologist questions NASA’s efforts to identify space rocks and their proximity to Earth.
via New York Times

Astronomers confirm faintest early-universe galaxy ever seen

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Scientists have detected and confirmed the faintest early-universe galaxy ever, using the W. M. Keck Observatory on the summit on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The team detected the galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago.
via Science Daily
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'Fresh' lunar craters discovered

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Scientists have discovered two geologically young craters -- one 16 million, the other between 75 and 420 million, years old -- in the Moon's darkest regions.
via Science Daily
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Jupiter blasted by 6.5 fireball impacts per year on average

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Jupiter is hit by an average of 6.5 objects per year that create impacts large enough to be visible from Earth, according to preliminary results from a worldwide campaign by amateur astronomers to observe the giant planet.
via Science Daily
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Are mystery Mars plumes caused by space weather?

Mysterious high-rise clouds seen appearing suddenly in the martian atmosphere on a handful of occasions may be linked to space weather, say Mars Express scientists.

via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Are_mystery_Mars_plumes_caused_by_space_weather

Inside a Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector

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Little fox’s starry heart

Space science image of the week: An infrared view inside a distant star nursery has revealed a surprising amount of structure in the cloud
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/05/The_Little_Fox_and_the_Giant_Stars

Sunday 22 May 2016

LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide

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Researchers demonstrate size quantization of Dirac fermions in graphene

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Physicists have demonstrated size quantization of charge carriers, i.e. quantized conductance in nanoscale samples of graphene.
via Science Daily

Saturday 21 May 2016

Milky Way and Planets Near Opposition

In this early May night skyscape, a mountain road near Bursa, Turkey seems to lead toward bright planets Mars and Saturn and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a direction nearly opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. The brightest celestial beacon on the scene, Mars, reaches its opposition tonight and Saturn in early June. Both will remain nearly opposite the Sun, up all night and close to Earth for the coming weeks, so the time is right for good telescopic viewing. Mars and Saturn form the tight celestial triangle with red giant star Antares just right of the Milky Way's central bulge. But tonight the Moon is also at opposition. Easy to see near bright Mars and Saturn, the Full Moon's light will wash out the central Milky Way's fainter starlight though, even in dark mountain skies.

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Friday 20 May 2016

Graphene makes rubber more rubbery

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Adding graphene to thin rubber films can make them stronger and stretchier, researchers have shown.
via Science Daily

NASA super pressure balloon begins globetrotting journey

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NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight.
via Science Daily
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New type of graphene-based transistor will increase the clock speed of processors

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Scientists have developed a new type of graphene-based transistor and using modelling they have demonstrated that it has ultralow power consumption compared with other similar transistor devices. The most important effect of reducing power consumption is that it enables the clock speed of processors to be increased. According to calculations, the increase could be as high as two orders of magnitude.
via Science Daily

Researchers in Antarctic discover new facets of space weather

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A team of National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported researchers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) discovered new evidence about how the Earth's magnetic field interacts with solar wind, almost as soon as they finished installing six data-collection stations across East Antarctic Plateau last January.
via Science Daily
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Supernova reserve fuel tank clue to big parents

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Some supernovae have a reserve tank of radioactive fuel that cuts in and powers their explosions for three times longer than astronomers had previously thought. A team of astronomers detected the faint afterglow of a supernova, and found it was powered by radioactive cobalt-57.
via Science Daily
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3D Mercury Transit

On May 9, innermost planet Mercury crossed IN FRONT of the Sun. Though pictures project the event in only two dimensions, a remarkable three dimensional perspective on the transit is possible by free viewing this stereo pair. The images were made 23 minutes apart and rotated so that Mercury's position shifts horizontally between the two. As a result, Mercury's orbital motion produced an exaggerated parallax simulating binocular vision. Between the two exposures, the appropriately named planet's speedy 47.4 kilometer per second orbital velocity actually carried it over 65,000 kilometers. Taken first, the left image is intended for the right eye, so a cross-eyed view is needed to see Mercury's tiny silhouette suspended in the foreground. Try it. Merging the text below the images helps.

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In Theory: Is theoretical physics in crisis?

Thursday 19 May 2016

Hubble takes Mars portrait near close approach

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On May 12, 2016, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of Mars, when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth. The photo reveals details as small as 20 miles to 30 miles across. This observation was made just a few days before Mars opposition on May 22, when the sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth, and Mars will be 47 million miles from Earth.
via Science Daily
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Cosmic heavy metals help scientists trace the history of galaxies

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The origin of many of the most precious elements on the periodic table, such as gold, silver and platinum, has perplexed scientists for more than six decades. Recently, however, a team of astrophysicists has provided an answer.
via Science Daily
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Hubble Takes Mars Portrait Near Close Approach

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On May 12, 2016, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this striking image of Mars, when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth. The photo reveals details as small as 20 miles to 30 miles across. This observation was made just a few days before Mars opposition on May 22, when the sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth. Mars also will be 47.4 million miles from Earth. On May 30, Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth in 11 years, at a distance of 46.8 million miles. Mars is especially photogenic during opposition because it can be seen fully illuminated by the sun as viewed from Earth.

via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/15/

NASA’s Van Allen probes reveal long-term behavior of Earth’s ring current

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New findings have revealed that the ring current -- an electrical current carried by energetic ions that encircles our planet -- behaves in a much different way than previously understood.
via Science Daily
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