This week:
🚀 Our NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover gets closer to launch ☄️ Comet NEOWISE spotted from the International Space Station 🛰️ Building a spacecraft to explore a metal-rich asteroid.
Yesterday, the official Twitter account of the International Space Station posted a short video interview in which NASA astronaut Doug Hurley explains what it’s like to try and capture the beauty of Earth from 250 miles above.
It’s a short video, but Col. Hurley tries to describe the feeling of looking down at the Earth from the edge of space, passing over recognizable landmarks and marveling at the beauty of it all—then trying your best to convey that feeling in every photo.
“Personally, it’s just trying to convey to as many people as we can … just what we see with our eyes when we look out the window up here. And how different it is to view the Earth from space than it is to be standing on the ground somewhere,” says Hurley. “[We’re] just trying to convey that it’s just an emotional response that you have when you look down at the planet.”
Continue reading “Astronaut Explains What It’s Like to Photograph Earth from the ISS” »
Calculations predict that a light ‘hypernucleus’ containing a particle with two strange quarks will be stable
Adding an exotic particle known as a Xi hyperon to a helium nucleus with three nucleons could produce a nucleus that is temporarily stable, calculations by RIKEN nuclear physicists have predicted. This result will help experimentalists search for the nucleus and provide insights into both nuclear physics and the structure of neutron stars.
Normal atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons, which are collectively known as nucleons. Each proton and neutron in turn is made up of three quarks. Quarks come in six types: up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. But protons and neutrons consist only of up and down quarks.
Continue reading “Light ‘Hypernucleus’ Predicted to Be Stable Despite Having Two Strange Quarks” »
A few scant equations can explain a variety of phenomena in our universe, over vast gulfs of space and time. Here’s a taste of just how powerful modern physics can be.
Scientists believe they have likely discovered a new and unexplained class of space object: the Odd Radio Circle, or ORC.
Innovation.
The U.S. Air Force plans to have an operational combat drone by 2023. The service plans to build out a family of unmanned aircraft, known as Skyborg, capable of carrying weapons and actively participating in combat. The Air Force’s goal is to build up a large fleet of armed, sort-of disposable jets that don’t need conventional runways to take off and land.
Continue reading “The F-16’s Replacement Won’t Have a Pilot at All” »
Address to: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group cluster, Virgo cluster, Laniakea supercluster.
Our Parker Solar Probe was at the right place at the right time to capture a unique view of comet #NEOWISE on July 5. Parker Solar Probe’s position in space gave the spacecraft an unmatched view of the comet’s twin tails when it was particularly active just after its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion. https://go.nasa.gov/3fkqTdm
The first image is unprocessed data from Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, which takes images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind in visible light.
The twin tails of comet NEOWISE are seen more clearly in the second image. This version of the image has been processed to increase contrast and remove excess brightness from scattered sunlight, revealing more detail in the comet tails.
Continue reading “Parker Solar Probe Spies Newly-Discovered Comet NEOWISE” »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A newly discovered comet is streaking past Earth, providing a stunning nighttime show after buzzing the sun and expanding its tail.
Comet Neowise swept within Mercury’s orbit a week ago. Its close proximity to the sun caused dust and gas to burn off its surface and create an even bigger debris tail. Now the comet is headed our way, with closest approach in two weeks.
NASA’s Neowise infrared space telescope discovered the comet in March.
Continue reading “Comet streaking past Earth, providing spectacular show” »
Knowing how the universe looks on such large scales helps confirm our current cosmological models, Neta Bahcall, an astrophysicist at Princeton University in New Jersey who was not involved in the work, told Live Science. But determining where exactly these enormous, crisscrossing structures begin and end is tricky, she added.
“When you look at the network of filaments and voids, it becomes a semantic question of what’s connected,” she said.
In their paper, the team acknowledges that they may not have plotted yet the entirety of the vast South Pole Wall. “We will not be certain of its full extent, nor whether it is unusual, until we map the universe on a significantly grander scale,” they wrote.
