CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.
Scientists announced the news Tuesday during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The Parker Solar Probe actually flew through the corona in April during the spacecraft’s eighth close approach to the sun. Scientists said it took a few months to get the data back and then several more months to confirm.
Scientists have discovered a planet 10 times as massive as Jupiter orbiting a pair of stars in another solar system, according to new research.
The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, points to the discovery of a planet named b Centauri (AB)b or b Centauri b, with an image captured by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
The planet is 10 times as massive as Jupiter and “one of the most massive planets ever found,” according to the observatory.
On April 28, 2021, at 933 UT (3:33 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time), NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached the sun’s extended solar atmosphere, known as the corona, and spent five hours there. The spacecraft is the first to enter the outer boundaries of our sun.
The results, published in Physical Review Letters, were announced in a press conference at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021 on December 14. The manuscript is open-access and freely available to download.
“This marks the achievement of the primary objective of the Parker mission and a new era for understanding the physics of the corona,” said Justin C. Kasper, the first author, Deputy Chief Technology Officer at BWX Technologies, and a professor at the University of Michigan. The mission is led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL).
Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn’t one to follow rules, particularly when he thinks they’re bogus.
The billionaire likes to envision a world, or perhaps a much smaller society on Mars, in which everybody can do as they please without a greater hierarchy of power.
“If there’s a utopia where people have access to any goods or services that they want, there’s plenty for everyone,” Musk told Time magazine after being named the Person of the Year today. “If we have a highly automated future with the robots that can do anything, then any work you do will be because you want to do it, not because you have to do it.”
Dear SRI Friends and Supporters.
Many thanks, to you all, for following and supporting the Space Renaissance during 2021!
We are asking you to keep on doing the next year, and to do more: join the SRI Crew if you didn’t yet, and help us growing our membership world-wide.
All of you are invited to the special event “Goodbye 2021!”, with our president Prof. Bernard Foing. The event will take place next Monday, December 20th, 20:00 UTC.
You can follow it on the live streaming, on the Space Renaissance YouTube channel or, directly taking part to the Zoom meeting: please register yourself using this form: https://spacerenaissance.space/register-to-the-sri-special-event/
During the meeting the SRI President and the Board of Directors will comment the many initiatives we have done in 2021, and present the SRI programme of the next year.
When Jeff Bezos announced he was blasting off to space in the summer, there was a petition that he shouldn’t return to Earth. Actually, there were quite a few. Questions like this often pop up online: “Why do people like Elon Musk and dislike Jeff Bezos?” And Musk has just been named the 2021 Time person of the year.
We’re going to examine the reasons Musk has an army of fangirls and fanboys whereas Bezos not so much, and why Musk is starting to alienate some people as well.
A Quora user gave his two cents on why he thinks Musk is more likable: Maybe because…He engages people more via his social media. Musk loves to respond to the general public on Twitter, allowing him to build a powerful connection with his 65 million and counting followers.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
The international team looked to the stars — a pair of extreme stars called pulsars to be precise – through seven radio telescopes across the globe.
And they used them to challenge Einstein’s most famous theory with some of the most rigorous tests yet.
Humans have been dreaming of living on the Moon, but what would that look like exactly?
Put simply, an outpost (or outposts) on the Moon could benefit humanity in numerous ways. It would allow for regular access to the lunar surface, enable vital research into low-gravity and its effects on terrestrial organisms, and shave billions off of the cost of missions destined for Mars and other locations in deep space.
Beyond the scientific and spaceflight-related, a lunar outpost would also allow for the creation of new industries, such as lunar mining, space-based solar power, commercial space stations, and lunar tourism. The infrastructure created for this purpose could also lead to a thriving economy in the Earth-Moon system, including asteroid mining and space-based manufacturing.
**The Moon is our gateway to the rest of the Solar System and the first step in any plan for “going interplanetary.” Granted, the challenges are enormous, and the cost of developing all this architecture is nothing short of immense. But as the Loonies say, “TANSTAAFL!”
Have been dreaming of living on the Moon, but what would that look like exactly? Welcome back to our ongoing “Interplanetary” series. In our p.
What To Watch For In The Night Sky This Week: December 13–19, 2021 An era-defining rocket launch happens this week. Much-delayed, over budget and high on science promises, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will—finger’s crossed—finally go skywards this week… though it might be wise to expect delays. Also this week is the year’s most prolific meteor shower and a final full Moon for fall—the “Cold Moon.”
Here’s everything you need to know about stargazing, moon-watching and rocket launches this week:
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