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Watch shock waves ripple from SpaceX's giant Starship rocket during 3rd test flight (video)

The third launch of SpaceX's Starship sent shock waves through the air, clearly visible in a stunning new slow motion video that captures the ignition of the spacecraft's 33 Raptor engines.

Starshot … Not? Get a Reality Check on the Search for Alien Civilizations

Fortunately, the real-world search for signs of extraterrestrial civilizations doesn’t have to deal with an alien armada like the one that’s on its way to Earth in “3 Body Problem,” the Netflix streaming series based on Chinese sci-fi author Cixin Liu’s award-winning novels. But the trajectory of the search can have almost as many twists and turns as a curvature-drive trip from the fictional San-Ti star system.

Take the Breakthrough Initiatives, for example: Back in 2016, the effort’s billionaire founder, Yuri Milner, teamed up with physicist Stephen Hawking to announce a $100 million project to send a swarm of nanoprobes through the Alpha Centauri star system, powered by light sails. The concept, dubbed Breakthrough Starshot, was similar to the space-sail swarm envisioned in Liu’s books — but with the propulsion provided by powerful lasers rather than nuclear bombs.

Today, the Breakthrough Initiatives is focusing on projects closer to home. In addition to the millions of dollars it’s spending to support the search for radio or optical signals from distant planetary systems, it’s working with partners on a miniaturized space telescope to identify planets around Alpha Centauri, a radio telescope that could someday be built on the far side of the moon, and a low-cost mission to look for traces of life within the clouds of Venus.

Pete Worden is the executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives. (Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)

Breakthrough Starshot, however, is on hold. “This looks to be quite feasible. However, it seems to be something that is still pretty, pretty expensive, and probably wouldn’t be feasible until later in the century,” says Pete Worden, executive director of the Breakthrough Initiatives. “So, we’ve put that on hold for a period of time to try to look at, are there near-term applications of this technology, which there may be.”


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Texas Eclipse Festival offers a 'choose your own adventure experience' for April total solar eclipse

The Texas Eclipse Festival will be unlike any camping experience you've ever imagined with it's "out of this world" lineup of live music, arts, yoga, speakers and more.

'Space headaches' are a literal pain for astronauts. Why do they happen?

Headaches are a common and recurring problem in space, even for astronauts that don't experience them on Earth.

Finding Atmospheres on Red Dwarf Planets Will Take Hundreds of Hours of Webb Time

The JWST is enormously powerful. One of the reasons it was launched is to examine exoplanet atmospheres to determine their chemistry, something only a powerful telescope can do. But even the JWST needs time to wield that power effectively, especially when it comes to one of exoplanet science’s most important targets: rocky worlds orbiting red dwarfs.

Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the Milky Way. Observations show that red dwarfs host many rocky planets in their habitable zones. There are unanswered questions about red dwarf habitable zones and whether the rocky planets in these zones are truly habitable because of well-documented red dwarf flaring. Astronomers want to examine these planets’ atmospheres and look for biosignatures and other atmospheric information.

New research suggests that it could take the capable JWST hundreds of hours of observing time to detect these atmospheres to a greater degree of certainty. The new research is “Do Temperate Rocky Planets Around M Dwarfs Have an Atmosphere?” The sole author is Rene Doyon from the Physics Department at the University of Montreal, Canada. The paper hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet.

Doyon points out that even though one of the JWST’s main goals is to probe exoplanet atmospheres, it’s only done that for a small handful of planets: Trappist-1d, e, f, g, LHS1140b, and the mini-Neptune K2-18b.

These results have shown that the JWST has the power to probe exoplanet atmospheres. But the effort has also shown how stellar activity poses an obstacle to even more success. The JWST examines exoplanet atmospheres by watching as the planet transits its star. The telescope dissects the light from the star as it passes through the exoplanet’s atmosphere, looking for the light signatures of different molecules.

Artist's impressions of two exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system (TRAPPIST-1d and TRAPPIST-1f). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This artist's impression shows the exoplanet LHS 1140b, which orbits a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth and may be the new holder of the title "best place to look for signs of life beyond the Solar System." Image Credit: By ESO/spaceengine.org - https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1712a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58165409
This table from the research outlines the types of observations and the hours needed to complete a deep habitability reconnaissance of the Golden-J exoplanets. Image Credit: Doyon 2024.
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The Europa Clipper may only need 1 ice grain to detect life on Jupiter's ocean moon

A single icy moon grain could host tiny microbes or cellular remnants of life. If so, NASA's Europa Clipper may one day be able to find life near Jupiter.

Save nearly $50 on these highly-rated astronomy binoculars

Start stargazing for less — Celestron Skymaster large astronomy binoculars are perfect for skywatching and are currently nearly $50 off on Amazon.

Russian rocket launch of 3 astronauts to ISS targeted for March 23 after abort

A Russian Soyuz rocket is now scheduled to launch three astronauts toward the ISS on Saturday (March 23), two days after a rare abort scuttled its first try.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to tie reuse record with 19th launch tonight

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch for a record-tying 19th time tonight (March 22), sending 23 Starlink internet satellites to orbit — if Mother Nature cooperates.

'Quantum tornado' allows scientists to mimic a black hole on Earth

Scientists created a giant vortex made of tiny quantum parts in a helium superfluid just a few degrees above absolute zero. This "quantum tornado" helped them to bring black hole physics down to Earth.

'Shiva and Shakti': The ancient star streams that helped weave the Milky Way

The Gaia space telescope has discovered two ancient stellar streams woven through the heart of the Milky Way, which were present 12 billion years ago.

Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut flight test for NASA could launch as soon as May 1

Boeing Starliner is ready to carry its first astronaut crew to the International Space Station. Two NASA astronauts will fly on the new spacecraft for a one-week mission in May.

NASA's latest 'Curious Universe' podcast showcases our life-giving star

A preview of NASA's new "Curious Universe" podcast episode, "The Sun, Our Star."

A journey through ice and fire

Image: ESA astronaut candidate Rosemary Coogan lighting a fire during winter survival training in the snowy mountains of the Spanish Pyrenees as part of her basic astronaut training.

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 22 – 31

The full Moon goes through a penumbral eclipse. Comet Pons-Brooks nears its best viewing after dusk. As Mercury fades in the sunset, Jupiter becomes the only easy planet in the entire sky.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 22 – 31 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Earth from Space: Southeast Kenya

Image: The striking contrast of the diverse landscape in southeast Kenya is featured in this false-colour image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Europa Might Not Be Able to Support Life in its Oceans

Can Europa’s massive, interior ocean contain the building blocks of life, and even support life as we know it? This question is at the forefront of astrobiology discussions as scientists continue to debate the possibility for habitability on Jupiter’s icy moon. However, a recent study presented at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) might put a damper in hopes for finding life as a team of researchers investigate how Europa’s seafloor could be lacking in geologic activity, decreasing the likelihood of necessary minerals and nutrients from being recycled that could serve as a catalyst for life.

Here, Universe Today speaks with Henry Dawson, who is a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the study, about his motivation behind the study, significant results, follow-up studies, and whether Dawson believes there’s life on Europa. So, what was the motivation behind this study?

Dawson tells Universe Today, “A large portion of the community has been looking at the habitability potential of the seafloor, and looking at processes that might occur at seafloor hydrothermal vents, or at water–rock interaction chemistry. However, it was never established that there would actually be any fresh rock exposed at the seafloor, or if the tectonic processes that drive hydrothermal vents would be present. The silicate interior of Europa is a similar size to that of Earth’s Moon, which is largely geologically dead on the surface.”

Artist’s cutaway illustration of Europa and its potential geologic activity. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Carroll)

For the study, Dawson and his colleagues examined the likelihood for geologic activity occurring on Europa’s seafloor through analyzing data on Europa’s geophysical characteristics and comparing them with known geologic parameters and processes, including the strength of potential fault lines and fractures within Europa’s rocky interior, how the strength of this rock changes with depth, and how the rock could react to ongoing stresses, commonly known as convection. Using this, they conducted a series of calculations to ascertain whether the seafloor crust could drive geologic activity. Therefore, what were the most significant results from this study?



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What Can Europa’s Surface Tell Us About the Thickness of Its Ice?

You can tell a lot about a planetary body just by looking at its surface, especially if it has craters. Take Europa, for example. It has a fairly young surface—somewhere between 50 and 100 million years old. That’s practically “new” when you compare it to the age of the Solar System. And, Europa’s icy crust is pretty darned smooth, with only a few craters to change the topography.

Planetary scientists already know that Europa’s icy surface is a thin shell over a large interior ocean of salty water. How thin? To find out, a team of researchers led by Brandon Johnson and Shigeru Wakita at Purdue University studied images of large craters on Europa. They used what they saw, coupled with a variety of physical characteristics, to create computer models of that shell. “Previous estimates showed a very thin ice layer over a thick ocean,” said Wakita. “But our research showed that there needs to be a thick layer—so thick that convection in the ice, which has previously been debated, is likely.”

The thickness of that shell may well influence whether or not life exists at Europa. Its existence is a topic of intense interest since Europa could provide a reasonably habitable ecosystem for life. It has water, warmth, and organic materials for life to eat. That makes the search for life at Europa quite important. So, what do craters have to do with all this?

Impact cratering performs a lot of gardening in the Solar System, according to Johnson. He is the first author on a recently published paper discussing these features on Europa. “Craters are found on almost every solid body we’ve ever seen. They are a major driver of change in planetary bodies,” he said.

Four featured craters among many on the Moon: the triplet of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina and Maurolycus. Many more craters can be seen across the lunar surface. Credit: Virtual Moon Atlas / Christian LeGrande, Patrick Chevalley

One of Galileo's images of the Tyre multi-ringed basin on Europa. There are at least  5-7 rings around the impact crater center. Courtesy: NASA/JPL/ASU.
Callisto has many more craters than Europa and a thicker icy crust. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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One in Twelve Stars Ate a Planet

That stars can eat planets is axiomatic. If a small enough planet gets too close to a large enough star, the planet loses. Its fate is sealed.

New research examines how many stars eat planets. Their conclusion? One in twelve stars has consumed at least one planet.

The evidence comes from co-natal stars, which aren’t necessarily binary stars. Since these stars form from the same molecular cloud, they should have the same ingredients. Their metallicity should be nearly identical.

But for about one in twelve stars, there are clear differences.

The new research is titled “At least one in a dozen stars shows evidence of planetary ingestion,” and it’s published in the journal Nature. The lead author is Fan Liu, an ASTRO 3D Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

There's a lot of specific scientific information in this figure from the study. But the primary takeaway is that the abundance of each chemical element in this pair of co-natal stars more closely matches a planet engulfment model (blue dashed line) than atomic diffusion (pink dashed line.) Image Credit: Liu et al. 2024
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Astronomers call for radio silence on the far side of the moon

There's a growing and passionate call for preserving radio silence on the far side of the moon in order to protect the possibility of conducting valuable radio astronomy.


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