Is there a link to the post #1719?
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Is there a link to the post #1719?
OK I found it: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...nsight-mission
Here is how it opens:
"NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to study the deep interior of Mars is targeting a new launch window that begins May 5, 2018, with a Mars landing scheduled for Nov. 26, 2018.
InSight’s primary goal is to help us understand how rocky planets – including Earth – formed and evolved. The spacecraft had been on track to launch this month until a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument prompted NASA in December to suspend preparations for launch.
InSight project managers recently briefed officials at NASA and France's space agency, Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), on a path forward; the proposed plan to redesign the science instrument was accepted in support of a 2018 launch.
“The science goals of InSight are compelling, and the NASA and CNES plans to overcome the technical challenges are sound," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "The quest to understand the interior of Mars has been a longstanding goal of planetary scientists for decades. We’re excited to be back on the path for a launch, now in 2018.”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will redesign, build and conduct qualifications of the new vacuum enclosure for the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), the component that failed in December. CNES will lead instrument level integration and test activities, allowing the InSight Project to take advantage of each organization’s proven strengths. The two agencies have worked closely together to establish a project schedule that accommodates these plans, and scheduled interim reviews over the next six months to assess technical progress and continued feasibility.
The cost of the two-year delay is being assessed. An estimate is expected in August, once arrangements with the launch vehicle provider have been made.
The seismometer instrument's main sensors need to operate within a vacuum chamber to provide the exquisite sensitivity needed for measuring ground movements as small as half the radius of a hydrogen atom. The rework of the seismometer's vacuum container will result in a finished, thoroughly tested instrument in 2017 that will maintain a high degree of vacuum around the sensors through rigors of launch, landing, deployment and a two-year prime mission on the surface of Mars."
Sorry, just back! Post #1719 is just a comment on the article you posted on # 1718Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
Interesting post, DW! The main goal of the project:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
"InSight’s primary goal is to help us understand how rocky planets – including Earth – formed and evolved. The spacecraft had been on track to launch this month until a vacuum leak in its prime science instrument prompted NASA in December to suspend preparations for launch."
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...nsight-mission
Also impoertant:
X-rays may sterilize otherwise habitable exoplanets
"Red dwarfs are far and away the most common type of star. These slow and steady burners are thought to account for roughly 75 percent of the stars in the Milky Way, and for the most part, astronomers agree that red dwarfs are prevalent throughout the entire universe. Furthermore, many exoplanets — including the seven Earth-size planets found in the TRAPPIST-1 system — have been detected around red dwarfs.
Because these stable stars are relatively cool (around 7,000 degree Fahrenheit) and live exceptionally long (trillions of years), it may seem like they would be the perfect places to hunt for habitable exoplanets. However, according to new research presented on April 3 at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Liverpool, red dwarfs may be much more inhospitable to life than we previously thought.
The problem lies in the fact that red dwarfs are so darn cool. For any exoplanet to get enough heat to be in a red dwarf’s habitable zone — the region around a star where liquid water can exists — the planet must sit extremely close to the star itself. And since red dwarfs often emit large radiation flares, spew out charged particles, and undergo coronal mass ejections (CMEs; think plasma torpedoes), being near one is a risky proposition.
[...]the X-ray radiation associated with the flare-up would have cut through an Earth-sized planet’s atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. This means that copious amounts of harmful X-rays would penetrate straight down to the surface of any potential exoplanet in the habitable zone around AD Leo, effectively sterilizing the entire planet."
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/0...ble-exoplanets
This was interesting. Thanks, Danik!
Interesting images:
Fascinating zoo of discs discovered around young stars
Date:
April 11, 2018
Source:
ESO
Summary:
New images from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope are revealing the dusty discs surrounding nearby young stars in greater detail than previously achieved. They show a bizarre variety of shapes, sizes and structures, including the likely effects of planets still in the process of forming.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0411111106.htm
There is a new storm brewing on Saturn: https://www.universetoday.com/138939...torm-emerging/
The impressive fact is that we get to know about these storms.
Yes, Saturn is quite far away from us.
This is fascinating: https://www.universetoday.com/139031...d-other-stars/
Sure! See also #1728.
Good news for amateur astronomers
THE NEWSPACE REVOLUTION IS ABOUT TO BRING US TINY SPACE TELESCOPES WE CAN ALL CONTROL
"One of the defining characteristics of the modern era of space exploration is the way the public and private aerospace companies (colloquially referred to as the NewSpace industry) and are taking part like never before. Thanks to cheaper launch services and the development of small satellites that can be built using off-the-shelf electronics (aka. CubeSats and microsats), universities and research institutions are also able to conduct research in space.
Looking to the future, there are those who want to take public involvement in space exploration to a whole new level. This includes the California-based aerospace company Space Fab that wants to make space accessible to everyone through the development the Waypoint Space Telescope – the first space telescope that people will be able to access through their smartphones to take pictures of Earth and space."
https://www.universetoday.com/138942...n-all-control/
Yes I saw this in Universe today. Also luxury hotels in space.
Lol! That will take a very long time, I think!
Two facts stand out regarding the Piri Reis Map of the Americas.
One is the island of Cuba in the far north: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map. It looks like it is drawn on an equidistant projection based on Cairo, Egypt. Such a map would have Cuba running north-south , instead of east-west just as on the Piri Reis map (see figures 25 to 27, pages 52 to 53).
The other is the map of Antarctica, its coasts shown free of ice, and possibly directly connected to the tip of South America (see the Piri Reis map above).
Sure. But in this comparison with a later image you can see what I mean. The Brazilian coast is very accurately drawn.
http://silentcircle.co.uk/the-myster...-civilization/
Thanks for introducing me to Piri Reis Maps.
Charles H. Hapgood's book is called Maps of the Ancient Sea KingsThe subtitle for this book is "Evidence for Advanced Civilisations in the Ice Age". This is not discussed in the book I bought, not at all. But it seems to be a conclusion Hapgood comes to anyway.
What has to do with space, or with astronomy?
See this article in Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/139034...ogical-record/
It all started with the Piri Maps. So I think we remained in the realm of space, but digressed from astronomy
So, back to astronomy:
"COULD WE DETECT AN ANCIENT INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION IN THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD?
As a species, we humans tend to take it for granted that we are the only ones that live in sedentary communities, use tools, and alter our landscape to meet our needs. It is also a foregone conclusion that in the history of planet Earth, humans are the only species to develop machinery, automation, electricity, and mass communications – the hallmarks of industrial civilization.
But what if another industrial civilization existed on Earth millions of years ago? Would we be able to find evidence of it within the geological record today? By examining the impact human industrial civilization has had on Earth, a pair of researchers conducted a study that considers how such a civilization could be found and how this could have implications in the search for extra-terrestrial life."
I think a similar civilization to ours in the regions astronomers have access to by now, would have been detected already. But who warants, there aren´t more sophisticated civilizations around, that are able to hide from our scrutinies and that aren´t interested in humans?
There is a lot of discussion about earlier periods of mild weather. Albert Einstein commented this in a communication to Professor Hapgood (see Note 18 p.239).
Back to the Antarctic. The coasts of the Piri Reis map showed the Antarctic to be ice-free, even putting two ships along the coast. The Oronteus Finaeus Map of Antarctica of 1531 gives the impression of the coasts being ice-free. It is also very close to how Antarctica is portrayed today. It even had rivers flowing into the sea. In 1949 one of the Byrd Antarctic Expeditions lowered coring tubes into the sea. Three cores were taken t learn something of the climate of Antarctica.
All three cores agree that the warm period ended about 6,000 years ago (about 4,000 BC). It was then that the glacial kind of sediment began to be deposited on the Ross Sea bottom in the most recent of Antarctic ice ages. The cores indicate that warm conditions had prevailed for a long time before that.
An important fact about they Oronteus Finaeus map is that all the rivers on it are flowing from the mountain ranges near the coast, except those near the southern tip of South America. No rivers are shown in the deep interior. This suggests that, very possibly, when the source maps were made, the interior was already covered by the ice cap. In that case, the ice cap was an advancing continental glacier that had not yet brimmed the encircling mountain ranges to reach the sea, nor had it yet stopped the flow of rivers n the seaward side of the mountains (p.98).
https://www.universetoday.com/139077...ld-its-oceans/
Earth’s magnetic field is one of the most mysterious features of our planet. It is also essential to life as we know it, ensuring that our atmosphere is not stripped away by solar wind and shielding life on Earth from harmful radiation. For some time, scientists have theorized that it is the result of a dynamo action in our core, where the liquid outer core revolves around the solid inner core and in the opposite direction of the Earth’s rotation.
In addition, Earth’s magnetic field is affected by other factors, such as magnetized rocks in the crust and the flow of the ocean. For this reason, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm satellites, which have been continually monitoring Earth’s magnetic field since its deployment, recently began monitoring Earth’s oceans – the first results of which were presented at this year’s European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria.
https://www.universetoday.com/139080...e-to-discover/
"In the course of looking for habitable planets, astronomers have used Earth as a guiding example. But would we recognize a truly “Earth-like” planet if we saw one? This question was addressed in a recent paper by two professors, one of whom is an exoplanet-hunter and the other, an Earth science and astrobiology expert. Together, they consider what advances (past and future) will be key to the search for Earth 2.0."
Earth is still undergoing major changes to its climate as a result of global warming. A couple more centuries will see this taken even further to extremes.
https://www.universetoday.com/139054...oyed-long-ago/
"What if our Solar System had another generation of planets that formed before, or alongside, the planets we have today? A new study published in Nature Communications on April 17th 2018 presents evidence that says that’s what happened. The first-generation planets, or planet, would have been destroyed during collisions in the earlier days of the Solar System and much of the debris swept up in the formation of new bodies.
This is not a new theory, but a new study brings new evidence to support it."
Here is the summary of the pdf of the paper"Earth as an exoplanet". It can be downloaded easily:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
"Earth as an Exoplanet
Tyler D. Robinson
Northern Arizona University
Christopher T. Reinhard
Georgia Institute of Technology
The search for habitable and inhabited environments beyond our planet commonly focuses on analogs to
Earth, especially in the case of exoplanets. Observations from ground-based facilities, satellites, and spacecraft
have yielded a rich collection of data that can be used to effectively view a distant Earth within the
context of exoplanet characterization. Application of planetary and exoplanetary remote sensing techniques
to these datasets then enables the development of approaches to detecting signatures of habitability and life
on other worlds. In addition, an array of models have also been used to simulate exoplanet-like datasets for
the distant Earth, thereby providing insights that are often complementary to those from existing observations.
Of course, Earth’s atmosphere and surface environment has evolved substantially in the 4.5 billion
years since our planet formed. A combination of in situ geological and bio-geochemical modeling studies
of our planet have provided glimpses of environments that, while technically bellonging to our Earth, are
seemingly alien worlds. Understanding the myriad ways Earth has been habitable and inhabited, coupled
with remote sensing approaches honed on the distant Earth, provides a key guide to recognizing potentially
life-bearing environments in distant planetary systems."
This paper is a proof how the methods of astronomical investigation are changing.
"Models of planetary formation show that terrestrial planets are formed by the accretion of smaller bodies into larger and larger bodies. Follow the process long enough, and you end up with planets like Earth. The smaller bodies that join together are typically between the size of the Moon and Mars. But evidence of these smaller bodies is hard to find.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
One type of unique and rare meteorite, called a ureilite, could provide the evidence to back up the models, and that’s what fell to Earth in the Nubian Desert in 2008. Ureilites are thought to be the remnants of a lost planet that was formed in the first 10 million years of the Solar System, and then was destroyed in a collision.
Ureilites are different than other stony meteorites. They have a higher component of carbon than other meteorites, mostly in the form of the aforementioned nanodiamonds. Researchers from Switzerland, France and Germany examined the diamonds inside 2008 TC3 and determined that they probably formed in a small proto-planet about 4.55 billion years ago."
And here is the abstractc of the also downloadable study:
"A large planetary body inferred from diamond inclusions in a ureilite meteorite
Abstract
Planetary formation models show that terrestrial planets are formed by the accretion of tens of Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos through energetic giant impacts. However, relics of these large proto-planets are yet to be found. Ureilites are one of the main families of achondritic meteorites and their parent body is believed to have been catastrophically disrupted by an impact during the first 10 million years of the solar system. Here we studied a section of the Almahata Sitta ureilite using transmission electron microscopy, where large diamonds were formed at high pressure inside the parent body. We discovered chromite, phosphate, and (Fe,Ni)-sulfide inclusions embedded in diamond. The composition and morphology of the inclusions can only be explained if the formation pressure was higher than 20 GPa. Such pressures suggest that the ureilite parent body was a Mercury- to Mars-sized planetary embryo."
http://earthsky.org/earth/loggerhead...field-like-gps
"It’s well known that loggerhead sea turtles will often return, sometimes over thousands of miles, to the beach where they hatched to lay their eggs. They use Earth’s magnetism to navigate back to their home beaches. But, as it turns out they might not always make it back to the exact beach where they were born, and instead might opt for beaches with similar magnetic properties, even if the beaches are far away from each other. It’s as if their internal GPS has just slightly mixed up addresses, said biologists from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose new research shows that loggerheads that nest on beaches with similar magnetic fields are genetically similar to one another."
Interesting post. I didn´t know that Earth´s magnetism was involved in the turtles migration cyclus.
http://earthsky.org/earth/how-do-flo...move-in-unison
I thought this was intriguing - its just a theory, though.
Thank you DW, this is beautiful. Even the 20 or 30 doves in my street seem to move together when they fly.
"Moving in unison": I think that is something men could learn from these birds.
This intrigued me too:
Projectile cannon experiments show how asteroids can deliver water
Date:
April 25, 2018
Source:
Brown University
Summary:
New research shows that a surprising amount of water survives simulated asteroid impacts, a finding that may help explain how asteroids deposit water throughout the solar system.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0425162042.htm
http://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-an-airplane-glory
I've been on many plane journeys but never seen a glory...
https://www.livescience.com/62405-wh...reversed.html?
This is something I have never thought of. Quite drastic!
Indeed!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreamwoven
"Deserts would cover North America, arid sand dunes would replace expanses of the Amazon rainforest in South America, and lush, green landscapes would flourish from central Africa to the Middle East, according to a computer simulation presented earlier this month at the annual European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018 in Austria."
https://www.livescience.com/62405-wh...reversed.html?
But why should it be reversed?
"Glories are common. They’re seen all the time by people traveling in airplanes. You need the sun to be directly behind your head. In front, you need an ordinary cloud. As you look toward the cloud, look for the shadow of the airplane. The plane’s shadow may be surrounded by a multi-colored circle of light. That’s the glory."
Not travelling much these days, but I shall watch out for them next time I am on a plane.
I've flown a lot, but didn't know about glories then: Real shame!
Neither did I.
Today is Pink Moon night!
April Full Moon 2018: When to See the 'Pink Moon' Tonight!
https://www.space.com/36040-april-full-moon.html