A Japanese start-up is planning to test a ground-based fusion laser to combat the growing threat of space debris.
Category: space – Page 214
Moon’s Shrinkage: Surface Warping and Seismic Risks Revealed
“Our modeling suggests that shallow moonquakes capable of producing strong ground shaking in the south polar region are possible from slip events on existing faults or the formation of new thrust faults,” said Dr. Thomas R. Watters.
Objects expand and contract from heating and cooling, and planetary objects are no different, which includes our nearest celestial neighbor, our Moon. Billions of years ago, the Moon was very volcanically active which caused it to expand from all the internal heat driving the volcanic activity. However, as this internal heat died down, the Moon began to cool, and has been contracting, or shrinking, ever since. Now, a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal discusses how this shrinkage could be responsible for the lunar south pole becoming warped, leading to landslides and moonquakes, which increases safety risks for future astronauts, specifically with NASA’s Artemis program.
For the study, the researchers developed models of how seismic waves from moonquakes could cause powerful ground shaking and landslides near the lunar south pole, which is home to de Gerlache scarp, with a scarp being a geologic feature formed from the Moon contracting. Data from the Apollo Passive Seismic Network, which were a series of seismometers left on the lunar surface during Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16 and functioned between 1969 and 1977, indicates that de Gerlache scarp could have formed from an approximate magnitude-5.3 moonquake. The reason de Gerlache scarp is a crucial location is due to its proximity to one of the potential landing sites for the Artemis III mission, which is slated to be the first human landing of the Artemis program.
In the end, the researchers determined that strong to moderate ground shaking from a magnitude-5.3 moonquake could be felt as far as approximately 40 km (25 mi) from the epicenter with moderate to light ground shaking could be felt from approximately 50 km (31 mi) from the epicenter. Additionally, the researchers determined that such an event could cause lunar regolith landslides, noting that Shackleton Crater is particularly susceptible to such landslides.
Heat bursts from Iceland’s recent eruptions in eerie NASA satellite image
Satellite images reveal the heat still radiating from the reawakened volcano in Iceland.
Mysterious patch on Mars appears to be enormous lump of ice
Seems like there was water on Mars, for those that subscribe or want to, you can read the whole article.
A large formation near the equator of Mars is now thought to be made of water ice, which could indicate that the Martian climate went through huge temperature swings in the past.
By Leah Crane
What was it like when the cosmic web formed?
On the largest cosmic scales, galaxies line up along filaments, with great clusters forming at their intersection. Here’s how it took shape.
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detects Surprise Gamma-Ray feature Beyond our Galaxy
Astronomers analyzing 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found an unexpected and as yet unexplained feature outside of our galaxy.
“It is a completely serendipitous discovery,” said Alexander Kashlinsky, a cosmologist at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, who presented the research at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. “We found a much stronger signal, and in a different part of the sky, than the one we were looking for.”
Intriguingly, the gamma-ray signal is found in a similar direction and with a nearly identical magnitude as another unexplained feature, one produced by some of the most energetic cosmic particles ever detected.
NASA is planning a permanent moon base. What will it take to build it?
The US wants to build a long-term human outpost on the moon by around 2030. Here is all the tech that will be needed, from a space station in lunar orbit to a way to avoid ‘space hay fever’
Challenging Cosmic Ages: Galactic Dance Reveals Universe Is Younger Than Thought
A study using Sloan Digital Sky Survey data reveals that the Universe may be younger than estimated, challenging conventional cosmological models by analyzing satellite galaxy motions around massive groups.
In standard cosmological models, the formation of cosmological structures begins with the emergence of small structures, which subsequently undergo hierarchical merging, leading to the formation of larger systems. As the Universe ages, massive galaxy groups and clusters, being the largest systems, tend to increase in mass and reach a more dynamically relaxed state.
The motions of satellite galaxies around these groups and clusters provide valuable insights into their assembly status. The observations of such motion offer crucial clues about the age of the Universe.
Motion of satellite galaxies suggests younger universe
In standard cosmological models, the formation of cosmological structures begins with the emergence of small structures, which subsequently undergo hierarchical merging, leading to the formation of larger systems. As the universe ages, massive galaxy groups and clusters, being the largest systems, tend to increase in mass and reach a more dynamically relaxed state.
The motions of satellite galaxies around these groups and clusters provide valuable insights into their assembly status. The observations of such motion offer crucial clues about the age of the universe.
By using public data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a research team led by Prof. Guo Qi from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) analyzed the kinematics of satellite pairs around massive galaxy groups. The team’s findings suggest that the universe may be younger than predicted by the LCDM model with Planck cosmological parameters.
An impossibly huge ring of galaxies might lead us to new physics. Here’s how
The ring of galaxies, appropriately called the “Big Ring,” has a circumference of nearly 4 billion light-years.