Georgia Tech scientists believe that microbes could be the key to producing the rocket fuel needed to take humans from Mars back to Earth.
Category: space – Page 639
Astronomers may have discovered the first planet outside of our galaxy
Signs of a planet transiting a star outside of the Milky Way galaxy may have been detected for the first time. This intriguing result, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, opens up a new window to search for exoplanets at greater distances than ever before.
The possible exoplanet candidate is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also called the Whirlpool Galaxy because of its distinctive profile.
Exoplanets are defined as planets outside of our Solar System. Until now, astronomers have found all other known exoplanets and exoplanet candidates in the Milky Way galaxy, almost all of them less than about 3,000 light-years from Earth. An exoplanet in M51 would be about 28 million light-years away, meaning it would be thousands of times farther away than those in the Milky Way.
NASA finds first ever planet outside our galaxy
A NASA telescope might have found the first ever planet outside of our own Milky Way galaxy.
If confirmed, the world would be thousands of times further away than the many exoplanets we have found in our own galaxy so far.
Scientists were able to do so using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, using techniques that could allow for the search for other worlds to dramatically the amount of space it is able to scan.
Digital Twins of Martian Cities — Alfredo Munoz — 2021 Mars Society Virtual Convention
Alfredo Munoz — Digital Twins of Martian Cities as a new frontier for Space Analogs.
From the 24th Annual International Mars Society Convention, held as a Virtual Convention worldwide on the Internet from October 14–17, 2021. The four-day International Mars Society Convention, held every year since 1,998 brings together leading scientists, engineers, aerospace industry representatives, government policymakers and journalists to talk about the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic developments that could help pave the way for a human mission to the planet Mars.
Conference Papers and some presentations will be available on www.MarsPapers.org.
For more information on the Mars Society, visit our website at www.MarsSociety.org.
#MarsSociety #MarsSocCon2021
An astronomer at Japan’s space agency is making simple animations that reveal the surprising physics of the solar system
As a scientist at both NASA and JAXA, James O’Donoghue has studied the planets. In his free time, he makes award-winning animations of them.
BepiColombo completes first Mercury flyby, science provides insight into planet’s unique environment
On October 1 2021, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo spacecraft successfully performed its first flyby of the solar system’s innermost planet, Mercury. The flyby is the first in a set of six such events BepiColombo will complete before entering orbit around Mercury in late 2025.
Following the flyby, initial science returns from different instruments onboard BepiColombo revealed interesting details about the environment surrounding Mercury, as well as details on the planet itself.
Astronomers catch a preview of the Sun’s grisly demise
Scientists have long known the fate of our solar system – and likely the fate of Earth itself. Our Sun will eventually become a red giant and swallow Earth.