A new virus called SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that has caused an outbreak of a disease called COVID-19. But what does that have to do with Mars?
Category: space – Page 738
With slide rules and pencils, Katherine Johnson’s brilliant mind helped launch our nation into space.
No longer a Hidden Figure, her bravery and commitment to excellence leaves an eternal legacy for us all: https://youtu.be/E8wBJ71zJ34
“I, personally, have pareidolia with respect to insects, beetles in particular,” Maddison told Space.com. “I’ve worked on beetles for decades; I have collected many thousands of beetles around the world. Through the years I have built into my brain a pattern-recognition system for picking out beetles.”
In other words, Rosomer is probably wrong, even though he probably thinks he’s right.
“I do not think there are insects on Mars,” Maddison added. “The photographs that are in that press release you sent are entirely unconvincing, as they fall within the range expected in zillions of non-insect objects photographed in lowish resolution on a Marscape.”
A surprising star collision is making scientists rethink what they know about the universe.
Molecular oxygen is a key component of the air humans breathe, and now astronomers have spotted it a half-billion light years away. But don’t hold your breath for quasar whippets.
Walking on the Moon
Posted in space
The discovery was made by a team of astronomers at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, led by Junzhi Wang.
The team identified the presence of molecular oxygen by analyzing light waves that had reached Earth from Markarian 231, a galaxy around 581 million light years away.
JAXA, Japan’s national space agency, has just approved a robotic mission to visit the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and retrieve a small sample from the former to bring back to Earth.
The mission plan: It’s called Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX. JAXA currently plans to launch MMX in 2024 and make it to the Martian system the following year. MMX will spend three years in the system studying and mapping the moons. The mission will make use of 11 different instruments, including a NASA-funded instrument called MEGAE that will measure the elemental composition of both bodies (perhaps revealing signs of ancient water).
The mission will also deploy a small rover to zip around the surface of Phobos, not unlike what JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission deployed on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu.
Astronomers have observed an exoplanet orbiting a star in just over 18 hours – the shortest orbital period ever seen for a planet of its type.
This means that a single year for this hot Jupiter-like planet – a gas giant similar in size and composition to Jupiter in our own Solar System – passes in less than a day of Earth time.
Scientists believe the discovery may help solve the mystery of whether such planets are in the process of spiralling towards their suns to their destruction.