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China Just Launched a Satellite that will Help Pave the Way for a Historic Mission to the Dark Side of the Moon
China launched a relay satellite on Monday as part of a groundbreaking program to land a probe on the far side of the moon later this year.
The satellite lofted into space aboard a Long March-4C rocket will facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang’e 4 mission, the China National Space Administration said on its website.
China hopes to become the first country to soft-land a probe on the moon’s far side, also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth and is comparatively unknown.
The satellite, named Queqiao, or “Magpie Bridge,” after an ancient Chinese folk tale, was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province, space administration officials said.
The launch is a “key step,” but the satellite’s mission must still overcome challenges including making multiple adjustments to its orbit, “braking” near the moon and using lunar gravity to its advantage, project manager Zhang Lihua was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The Japan Times News
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/05/21/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/china-launches-satellite-explore-dark-side-moon-report/#.WwO2V0iFM_4
Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/china-moon-dark-side-space-satellite-latest-nasa-queqiao-programme-a8362266.html
space.com
https://www.space.com/40646-china-queqiao-moon-relay-satellite-launch.html
Clips, images credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, & NASA/JPL
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
China launched a relay satellite on Monday as part of a groundbreaking program to land a probe on the far side of the moon later this year.
The satellite lofted into space aboard a Long March-4C rocket will facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang’e 4 mission, the China National Space Administration said on its website.
China hopes to become the first country to soft-land a probe on the moon’s far side, also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth and is comparatively unknown.
The satellite, named Queqiao, or “Magpie Bridge,” after an ancient Chinese folk tale, was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan province, space administration officials said.
The launch is a “key step,” but the satellite’s mission must still overcome challenges including making multiple adjustments to its orbit, “braking” near the moon and using lunar gravity to its advantage, project manager Zhang Lihua was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The Japan Times News
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/05/21/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/china-launches-satellite-explore-dark-side-moon-report/#.WwO2V0iFM_4
Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/china-moon-dark-side-space-satellite-latest-nasa-queqiao-programme-a8362266.html
space.com
https://www.space.com/40646-china-queqiao-moon-relay-satellite-launch.html
Clips, images credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, & NASA/JPL
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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New Earth-Sized Planet Found JUST 11 Light Years Away Could Support Life
A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b.
It is also the closest planet to be discovered orbiting an inactive red dwarf star, which may increase the likelihood that this planet could potentially sustain life. Ross 128 b will be a prime target for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, which will be able to search for biomarkers in the planet's atmosphere.
With the data from HARPS, the team found that Ross 128 b orbits 20 times closer than the Earth orbits the Sun. Despite this proximity, Ross 128 b receives only 1.38 times more irradiation than the Earth. As a result, Ross 128 b’s equilibrium temperature is estimated to lie between -60 and 20°C, thanks to the cool and faint nature of its small red dwarf host star, which has just over half the surface temperature of the Sun.
Many red dwarf stars, including Proxima Centauri, are subject to flares that occasionally bathe their orbiting planets in deadly ultraviolet and X-ray radiation. However, it seems that Ross 128 is a much quieter star, and so its planets may be the closest known comfortable abode for possible life.
Although it is currently 11 light-years from Earth, Ross 128 is moving towards us and is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbour in just 79 000 years — a blink of the eye in cosmic terms. Ross 128 b will by then take the crown from Proxima b and become the closest exoplanet to Earth!
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1736/
Research paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1736/eso1736a.pdf
Clips, images credit: Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser, ESA/HUBBLE
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
Ladybug - Quincas Moreira
A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b.
It is also the closest planet to be discovered orbiting an inactive red dwarf star, which may increase the likelihood that this planet could potentially sustain life. Ross 128 b will be a prime target for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, which will be able to search for biomarkers in the planet's atmosphere.
With the data from HARPS, the team found that Ross 128 b orbits 20 times closer than the Earth orbits the Sun. Despite this proximity, Ross 128 b receives only 1.38 times more irradiation than the Earth. As a result, Ross 128 b’s equilibrium temperature is estimated to lie between -60 and 20°C, thanks to the cool and faint nature of its small red dwarf host star, which has just over half the surface temperature of the Sun.
Many red dwarf stars, including Proxima Centauri, are subject to flares that occasionally bathe their orbiting planets in deadly ultraviolet and X-ray radiation. However, it seems that Ross 128 is a much quieter star, and so its planets may be the closest known comfortable abode for possible life.
Although it is currently 11 light-years from Earth, Ross 128 is moving towards us and is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbour in just 79 000 years — a blink of the eye in cosmic terms. Ross 128 b will by then take the crown from Proxima b and become the closest exoplanet to Earth!
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1736/
Research paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1736/eso1736a.pdf
Clips, images credit: Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser, ESA/HUBBLE
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
Ladybug - Quincas Moreira
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Angry Sun * The Sun As You've Never Seen It Before
Our sun is an incredible fusion engine. From the surface of earth, we see it as a mere ball of light, but through amazing high-res imaging capabilities, we can observe real solar activities thanks to Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Credit: NASA/SDO, STEREO
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
Our sun is an incredible fusion engine. From the surface of earth, we see it as a mere ball of light, but through amazing high-res imaging capabilities, we can observe real solar activities thanks to Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Credit: NASA/SDO, STEREO
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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Ancient Stone Carvings at Gobekli Tepe Confirm How a Comet Strike in 10,950BC Changed Human History
A team of researchers with the University of Edinburgh has found what they describe as evidence of a comet striking the Earth at approximately the same time as the onset of the Younger Dryas in carvings on an ancient stone pillar in southern Turkey. The group has published their findings in the journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.
Prior evidence based on ice cores taken from Greenland has suggested that a strike by a comet may have led to the onset of the Younger Dryas—a period of Earth cooling that lasted for approximately 1000 years. Other evidence also suggests that the cooling period caused groups of people to band together to cultivate crops, leading to the development of agriculture, which in turn led to huge leaps in technological innovations and societal developments, i.e. Neolithic civilization. In this new effort, the researchers describe evidence they found on a stone pillar at Gobekli Tepe (the oldest known temple site) that aligns with the ice core findings—that a comet struck the Earth in approximately 10,950BC.
The pillar was created by the people of Gobekli Tepe and now appears to have served as a means of commemorating a devastating event—perhaps a comet breaking up and its remnants crashing into the Earth, causing an immediate environmental impact around the globe and possible loss of life (one of the characters on the pillar was of a headless human.) The team fed likenesses of the images carved onto the pillar (known as the vulture stone) into a computer to determine if they might be linked with constellations. Doing so revealed associations between characters on the pillar and astronomical symbols in the sky for the year 10,950 BC. The fact that the people took the time and considerable effort to create the characters on the pillar suggests something very important must have happened during the same time period that the Greenland ice core suggests a comet struck, approximately 10,890BC.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-04-ancient-stone-pillars-clues-comet.html#jCp
Images credit: Travel The Unknown, Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis, NASA/JPL
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
A team of researchers with the University of Edinburgh has found what they describe as evidence of a comet striking the Earth at approximately the same time as the onset of the Younger Dryas in carvings on an ancient stone pillar in southern Turkey. The group has published their findings in the journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.
Prior evidence based on ice cores taken from Greenland has suggested that a strike by a comet may have led to the onset of the Younger Dryas—a period of Earth cooling that lasted for approximately 1000 years. Other evidence also suggests that the cooling period caused groups of people to band together to cultivate crops, leading to the development of agriculture, which in turn led to huge leaps in technological innovations and societal developments, i.e. Neolithic civilization. In this new effort, the researchers describe evidence they found on a stone pillar at Gobekli Tepe (the oldest known temple site) that aligns with the ice core findings—that a comet struck the Earth in approximately 10,950BC.
The pillar was created by the people of Gobekli Tepe and now appears to have served as a means of commemorating a devastating event—perhaps a comet breaking up and its remnants crashing into the Earth, causing an immediate environmental impact around the globe and possible loss of life (one of the characters on the pillar was of a headless human.) The team fed likenesses of the images carved onto the pillar (known as the vulture stone) into a computer to determine if they might be linked with constellations. Doing so revealed associations between characters on the pillar and astronomical symbols in the sky for the year 10,950 BC. The fact that the people took the time and considerable effort to create the characters on the pillar suggests something very important must have happened during the same time period that the Greenland ice core suggests a comet struck, approximately 10,890BC.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-04-ancient-stone-pillars-clues-comet.html#jCp
Images credit: Travel The Unknown, Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Tsikritsis, NASA/JPL
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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WOW! First 'Exomoon' may have been Discovered *
A team led by David Kipping of Columbia University has spotted what might be the first evidence of an exomoon.
An exomoon is a moon orbiting an exoplanet. Many moons have been found in our solar system and many planets outside of it, but to date, no one has captured evidence of a moon orbiting one of those exoplanets. This might change, as the team studying data from the Kepler Space Telescope believe they have found strong evidence for a moon orbiting a planet which is itself orbiting a star called Kepler-1625.
Researchers have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.08563
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-sighting-exomoon.html#jCp
Clips, images credit: ESO, ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
A team led by David Kipping of Columbia University has spotted what might be the first evidence of an exomoon.
An exomoon is a moon orbiting an exoplanet. Many moons have been found in our solar system and many planets outside of it, but to date, no one has captured evidence of a moon orbiting one of those exoplanets. This might change, as the team studying data from the Kepler Space Telescope believe they have found strong evidence for a moon orbiting a planet which is itself orbiting a star called Kepler-1625.
Researchers have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.08563
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-sighting-exomoon.html#jCp
Clips, images credit: ESO, ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
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7 TOP NASA Scientists Say There are Over 100 Planets in Our Solar System
7 Top NASA scientists say we actually have over 100 planets in our solar system. If the team’s version of planetary definition is indeed widely adopted it would greatly expand the number of planets in our solar system from the current eight to around 110.
http://releases.jhu.edu/2017/03/16/scientists-make-the-case-to-restore-plutos-planet-status/
Most of us grew up learning that there are nine planets in our solar system. Back in 2006 that all changed, when Pluto was demoted from being labeled a proper planet to its new classification as a dwarf planet, leaving just eight true planets in our celestial neighborhood. Now, a group of scientists says Pluto should definitely be added back to the planet list — oh, and that there are over 100 other objects in our solar system that should also be called planets.
Kirby Runyon of Johns Hopkins University headed a six-man team of authors from five different scientific bodies in preparing their own version of how planets should be classified. Their argument and supporting information displayed at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/
The other authors are: S. Alan Stern and Kelsi Singer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado; Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona; Will Grundy of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; Michael Summers of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
In their paper, the researchers insist that the factors that should define whether a celestial body is a planet or not should relate solely to the object itself rather than things like location.
YAHOO SCIENCE NEWS
BGR - Article by Mike Wehner
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/scientist-says-over-100-planets-solar-system-160435174.html
Clips, images credit: ESO, ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
7 Top NASA scientists say we actually have over 100 planets in our solar system. If the team’s version of planetary definition is indeed widely adopted it would greatly expand the number of planets in our solar system from the current eight to around 110.
http://releases.jhu.edu/2017/03/16/scientists-make-the-case-to-restore-plutos-planet-status/
Most of us grew up learning that there are nine planets in our solar system. Back in 2006 that all changed, when Pluto was demoted from being labeled a proper planet to its new classification as a dwarf planet, leaving just eight true planets in our celestial neighborhood. Now, a group of scientists says Pluto should definitely be added back to the planet list — oh, and that there are over 100 other objects in our solar system that should also be called planets.
Kirby Runyon of Johns Hopkins University headed a six-man team of authors from five different scientific bodies in preparing their own version of how planets should be classified. Their argument and supporting information displayed at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/
The other authors are: S. Alan Stern and Kelsi Singer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado; Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona; Will Grundy of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; Michael Summers of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
In their paper, the researchers insist that the factors that should define whether a celestial body is a planet or not should relate solely to the object itself rather than things like location.
YAHOO SCIENCE NEWS
BGR - Article by Mike Wehner
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/scientist-says-over-100-planets-solar-system-160435174.html
Clips, images credit: ESO, ESA/HUBBLE & NASA
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A Newly Discovered Solar System Object Hints at Hidden Planet Nine
Astronomers found a strange dwarf world that provides even more evidence that a giant planet is lurking at the edge of our solar system.
There might be a large planet lurking somewhere at the very edge of our solar system, and astronomers are hunting for it. While they have yet to find direct evidence of the planet, a recent discovery provides yet more indirect evidence that the planet does, in fact, exist. Astronomers found a small solar system body with a strange orbit that they say can only be explained by another, bigger planet hiding out there somewhere.
Astronomers have speculated for a few years that a ninth planet may be orbiting the sun at a great distance, and have spent the past few years searching for it. They first started the hunt back in 2016 after looking at a handful of distant solar system objects and noticing something strange. These objects, all orbiting further away than Pluto, had something similar in common: they orbited the sun at a distinct angle from all of the inner planets.
The observations suggest the gravitational influence of another planet is altering the orbits of the distant objects. Now additional findings of a newly discovered planetary object with an odd orbit, called 2015 BP519, supports the case for an undiscovered Planet Nine. 2015 BP519 orbits at a 54 degree angle compared to nearly everything in the inner solar system, and the theory is that Planet Nine is responsible.
If Planet Nine does exist, it’s likely only a matter of time until astronomers find it. It would be difficult, however, because it’s calculated orbit is so incredibly far away. Planet Nine is likely several times as far away as Pluto, meaning it’s barely a dot in even our most powerful telescopes—and it’s dark. Adding to the difficulty is the complication that we don’t know exactly where it’s supposed to be.
Still, if it’s out there, we’ll find it eventually.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/newly-discovered-object-hints-planet-124800354.html
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-worlds-extraordinary-orbit-points-to-planet-nine-20180515/
https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.05355
Clips, images credit: ESA/HUBBLE, ESO. NASA/JPL, Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Quanta Magazine
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
Astronomers found a strange dwarf world that provides even more evidence that a giant planet is lurking at the edge of our solar system.
There might be a large planet lurking somewhere at the very edge of our solar system, and astronomers are hunting for it. While they have yet to find direct evidence of the planet, a recent discovery provides yet more indirect evidence that the planet does, in fact, exist. Astronomers found a small solar system body with a strange orbit that they say can only be explained by another, bigger planet hiding out there somewhere.
Astronomers have speculated for a few years that a ninth planet may be orbiting the sun at a great distance, and have spent the past few years searching for it. They first started the hunt back in 2016 after looking at a handful of distant solar system objects and noticing something strange. These objects, all orbiting further away than Pluto, had something similar in common: they orbited the sun at a distinct angle from all of the inner planets.
The observations suggest the gravitational influence of another planet is altering the orbits of the distant objects. Now additional findings of a newly discovered planetary object with an odd orbit, called 2015 BP519, supports the case for an undiscovered Planet Nine. 2015 BP519 orbits at a 54 degree angle compared to nearly everything in the inner solar system, and the theory is that Planet Nine is responsible.
If Planet Nine does exist, it’s likely only a matter of time until astronomers find it. It would be difficult, however, because it’s calculated orbit is so incredibly far away. Planet Nine is likely several times as far away as Pluto, meaning it’s barely a dot in even our most powerful telescopes—and it’s dark. Adding to the difficulty is the complication that we don’t know exactly where it’s supposed to be.
Still, if it’s out there, we’ll find it eventually.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/newly-discovered-object-hints-planet-124800354.html
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-worlds-extraordinary-orbit-points-to-planet-nine-20180515/
https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.05355
Clips, images credit: ESA/HUBBLE, ESO. NASA/JPL, Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Quanta Magazine
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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Something Strange Going On in the Earth's Atmosphere
Something strange is happening with a now-banned chemical that eats away at Earth's protective ozone layer: Scientists say there's more of it—not less—going into the atmosphere and they don't know where it is coming from.
When a hole in the ozone formed over Antarctica, countries around the world in 1987 agreed to phase out several types of ozone-depleting chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Production was banned, emissions fell and the hole slowly shrank.
But starting in 2013, emissions of the second most common kind started rising, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature . The chemical, called CFC11, was used for making foam, degreasing stains and for refrigeration.
"Emissions today are about the same as it was nearly 20 years ago," researchers say.
phys.org
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-emissions-ozone-eating-chemical.html#jCp
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0106-2
Clips, images Credit: NOAA, & NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
Something strange is happening with a now-banned chemical that eats away at Earth's protective ozone layer: Scientists say there's more of it—not less—going into the atmosphere and they don't know where it is coming from.
When a hole in the ozone formed over Antarctica, countries around the world in 1987 agreed to phase out several types of ozone-depleting chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Production was banned, emissions fell and the hole slowly shrank.
But starting in 2013, emissions of the second most common kind started rising, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature . The chemical, called CFC11, was used for making foam, degreasing stains and for refrigeration.
"Emissions today are about the same as it was nearly 20 years ago," researchers say.
phys.org
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-emissions-ozone-eating-chemical.html#jCp
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0106-2
Clips, images Credit: NOAA, & NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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Citizen Scientists Discover Multi-Planet System
Citizen Scientists Discover Multi-Planet System
A system of at least five exoplanets has been discovered by citizen scientists through a project called Exoplanet Explorers, part of the online platform Zooniverse, using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. This is the first multi-planet system discovered entirely through crowdsourcing. A study describing the system has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/84280/
Thousands of citizen scientists got to work on Kepler data in 2017 when Exoplanet Explorers launched. It was featured on a program called Stargazing Live on the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). On the final night of the three-day program, researchers announced the discovery of a four-planet system. Since then, they have named it K2-138 and determined that it has a fifth planet -- and perhaps even a sixth, according to the new paper.
Caltech
Read more here: http://www.caltech.edu/news/citizen-scientists-discover-five-planet-system-80989
SUBSCRIBE TO THE KEPLER TELESCOPE CHANNEL HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MRSTARGAZERNATION
Clips, images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
A system of at least five exoplanets has been discovered by citizen scientists through a project called Exoplanet Explorers, part of the online platform Zooniverse, using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. This is the first multi-planet system discovered entirely through crowdsourcing. A study describing the system has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/84280/
Thousands of citizen scientists got to work on Kepler data in 2017 when Exoplanet Explorers launched. It was featured on a program called Stargazing Live on the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). On the final night of the three-day program, researchers announced the discovery of a four-planet system. Since then, they have named it K2-138 and determined that it has a fifth planet -- and perhaps even a sixth, according to the new paper.
Caltech
Read more here: http://www.caltech.edu/news/citizen-scientists-discover-five-planet-system-80989
SUBSCRIBE TO THE KEPLER TELESCOPE CHANNEL HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MRSTARGAZERNATION
Clips, images credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)
Music credit: YouTube Audio Library
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Gigantic Rolling Wave Captured on the Sun
A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from just around the edge of the sun on May 1, 2013, in a gigantic rolling wave.
CMEs can shoot over a billion tons of particles into space at over a million miles per hour. This CME occurred on the sun’s limb and was not headed toward Earth. The video, taken in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), covers about two and a half hours.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO
A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from just around the edge of the sun on May 1, 2013, in a gigantic rolling wave.
CMEs can shoot over a billion tons of particles into space at over a million miles per hour. This CME occurred on the sun’s limb and was not headed toward Earth. The video, taken in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), covers about two and a half hours.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO
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