An experiment aimed at learning more about how plants grow in space will be aboard a National Aeronautics and Space Administration launch in early August from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Category: space – Page 137
Scientists pin down the origins of the moon’s tenuous atmosphere
While the moon lacks any breathable air, it does host a barely-there atmosphere. Since the 1980s, astronomers have observed a very thin layer of atoms bouncing over the moon’s surface. This delicate atmosphere—technically known as an “exosphere”—is likely a product of some kind of space weathering. But exactly what those processes might be has been difficult to pin down with any certainty.
Sun’s Next Solar Cycle Detected Early in Sound Waves
The Sun’s next 11-year solar cycle has been detected in internal sound waves, even though the current Cycle 25 is at its solar maximum and won’t end until mid-2025. This peak period increases sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections, sending more electromagnetic energy towards Earth.
Even though the Sun is only halfway through its current 11-year solar cycle, the first rumblings of the next one have already been detected in sound waves inside our home star.
This existing cycle is now at its peak, or ‘solar maximum’ — which is when the Sun’s magnetic field flips and its poles swap places — until mid-2025.
Mission Possible? NASA and Boeing Advance With Starliner Flight Test Evaluations
NASA and Boeing are meticulously analyzing recent testing data of the Starliner spacecraft’s propulsion system to ensure its readiness for undocking and safe return from the International Space Station.
The teams are working on finalizing undocking procedures, ensuring system reliability, and conducting simulations. Additionally, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are assisting with various tasks aboard the station, maintaining continuous communication with mission control.
Testing and analysis of starliner’s propulsion system.
New Model Challenges Giant Planet Formation Hypothesis
How do giant planets form and is this process slow or fast based on the amount of available dust used to build those planets? This is what a recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as a team of researchers from Germany investigated how sub-micron-sized dust kicks off the planetary formation process within a protoplanetary disc. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of planets throughout our solar system and exoplanetary systems, as well.
For the study, the researchers developed first-of-its-kind model to involve all constituents responsible for the physical processes that from planets. Focusing on sub-micron-sized dust, they included factors such as pebble accumulation, planetary gas buildup, planetary migration, and dust buildup, among others. In the end, they found that ring-shaped disturbances in the protoplanetary disk, which they refer to as substructures, can result in multiple gas giants’ formation in rapid sequence.
Dr. Til Birnstiel, who is a professor of theoretical astrophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and a co-author on the study, said: “When a planet gets large enough to influence the gas disk, this leads to renewed dust enrichment farther out in the disk. In the process, the planet drives the dust – like a sheepdog chasing its herd – into the area outside its own orbit.”
Astronaut Captures Stunning Nighttime Image of the World’s Deepest Lake
An astronaut’s photo from the International Space Station showcases Siberia and Lake Baikal at night, with snow and ice brightening the landscape.
Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake, known for its significant age and biodiversity. The image also highlights bright city lights, oil fields, and parts of the Trans-Siberian Railway. UNESCO has designated Lake Baikal a World Heritage site due to its unique fauna.
Siberia and lake baikal at night.
Mark Kelly Could Halt Plans To Crash The International Space Station
If Mark Kelly, the Space Shuttle pilot who played a pivotal role in assembling the International Space Station, is catapulted into the White House as Vice President, he could quickly help reverse the death sentence that NASA’s current leaders have placed on the ISS.
Now a widely popular U.S. senator and potential running mate of Kamala Harris, Kelly spent the first decade of the new millennium ferrying European and Japanese modules to the Station — and guiding gigantic robotic builders to put the ISS together — all while the outpost was circling the planet at 17,000 miles per hour.
The space hero — recently inducted into the pantheon of the greatest American astronauts — is likely part of a contingent of ISS spacefarers who back saving the orbiting icon from NASA’s death decree by boosting it into a higher orbit and transforming it into an eternal monument to human ingenuity, says Rick Tumlinson, a torchbearer in the “Save Our Station,” or SOS movement.
Expect Auroras, Solar Flares and More Space Weather from the Solar Maximum
Space weather is heating up in our current solar cycle peak.
By Clara Moskowitz & Matthew Twombly
Aurora sightings may become more common, and satellite communications and power grids could be disrupted, as solar activity peaks. Our nearest star is always volatile, but its magnetic action waxes and wanes on an 11-year loop. The sun is thought to be in a peak now, although scientists will need another year or two to analyze data before they can say for sure. During this high point we should see more sunspots (dark areas where the sun’s magnetic field reaches the surface) and solar storms (ejections of energy from the sun that reach into space and can affect Earth).
