NASA wants a cheaper Mars Sample Return—Boeing proposes most expensive rocketNASA is looking for a more cost-effective way to conduct a Mars Sample Return mission, and Boeing has proposed a new concept that involves only one launch. This could potentially reduce the complexity and cost of the mission. However, Boeing’s proposed rocket is also the most expensive option, so it remains to be seen if this concept will be chosen by NASA.
Curiosity continues to make progress along the margin of upper Gediz Vallis ridge, investigating the broken bedrock in our workspace and acquiring images of the ridge deposit as the rover drives south.
Today’s 2-sol plan focused on a DRT, contact science, and drive on the first sol, followed by untargeted remote sensing on the second sol. The team had to make some decisions at the start of planning about whether to drive on the first or second sol of this plan, and how that would affect the upcoming weekend activities.
As it turned out, the team was able to fit all of the desired contact science and remote sensing activities on the first sol, in addition to the drive on the first sol, which means we’ll be able to downlink more information about our end-of-drive location to better inform planning for the weekend. Weekend plans provide opportunities for a lot of great contact science, so it will be really helpful to have that additional data down for planning.
The council will delve into the ongoing tug-of-war between military and intelligence agency leaders.
On Truth and Reality — Uniting Metaphysics, Philosophy, Physics and Theology (Science and Art) from One Thing, Absolute Space and the Spherical Standing Wave Structure of Matter. From Matter as ‘Particles’ generating ‘Fields’ in ‘Space-Time’, to Matter as Spherical Standing Waves in Space. The Wave-Center Causes ‘Particle Effect’, Wave Motion of Space Causes ‘Time’, Wave Interactions cause ‘Forces / Fields’
Explore the latest breakthroughs in science with us! From the mind-boggling discovery of the Big Ring in space to revolutionary advancements in battery technology, get ready to be amazed!
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An international research team at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University has successfully created five new isotopes, bringing the stars closer to Earth.
The isotopes — known as thulium-182, thulium-183, ytterbium-186, ytterbium-187, and lutetium-190 — were reported Feb. 15 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
These represent the first batch of new isotopes made at FRIB, a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, or DOE-SC, supporting the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics. The new isotopes show that FRIB is nearing the creation of nuclear specimens that currently only exist when ultradense celestial bodies known as neutron stars crash into each other.
The evidence that the Universe is expanding is overwhelming. But how? By stretching the existing space, or by creating new space itself?
The very lowest frequencies of the radio Universe have just been revealed in spectacular clarity.
A team of astronomers has used a new calibration technique to give us the first sharp images of the radio Universe in the frequency range of 16–30 megahertz – an achievement previously thought impossible, due to the turbulent interference generated by Earth’s ionosphere.
“It’s like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time and no longer seeing blurred,” says astronomer Christian Groeneveld of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who led the research.
How can studying an exoplanet’s ozone help astronomers better understand its habitability potential? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigated how an ozone on the nearest exoplanet to Earth, Proxima Centauri b, could influence its own climate over time. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand how an exoplanet’s ozone could influence its formation, evolution, and potential habitability, and could have implications on how astronomers study Earth-like exoplanets throughout the cosmos.
“Imagine a world where ozone affects temperature and wind speed and holds the key to a planet’s very habitability,” said Dr. Assaf Hochman, who is a senior lecturer in the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a co-author on the study. “Our study unveils this intricate connection and underscores the importance of considering interactive ozone and other photochemical species in our quest to understand Earth-like exoplanets.”
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer simulations to ascertain how an active ozone on Proxima Centauri b could influence the exoplanet’s climate and potential habitability. In the end, the researchers discovered that an ozone layer on Proxima Centauri b could greatly influence the temperature and wind circulation patterns throughout its atmosphere. Additionally, they also found altitude also played a high role in the atmospheric temperature and temperature variances, as well. The researchers emphasized how these findings could help future researchers better understand the potential habitability of an exoplanet, noting how a potential ozone layer on Proxima Centauri b could greatly influence its climate.
Astronomy Magazine — Project Lyra is the cover feature!
A big thank you to Maciej Rebisz for the images and the entire Project Lyra team for the research work!
Project Lyra develops concepts for reaching interstellar objects such as 1I / ‘Oumuamua and 2I / Borisov with a spacecraft, based on near-term technologies. But what is an interstellar object?
