Astronews Recent Space Discoveries ( Mars Orbiter Finds, Dangerous asteroids, Alma Telescope & More)
Welcome to the thirteenth review of "Space and Astronomy" news,
selected for you by Insane Curiosity Channel. The news, which will be weekly,
will try to provide a quick overview of everything interesting that has happened in recent days in
the field of astronomical research and space exploration. Keep following us!
Europe's Mars orbiter finds no trace of methane on Red Planet
Great surprise! A joint European-Russian spacecraft orbiting Mars has found
no signs of gases related to the existence of life in the atmosphere of Mars...
Scientists were hunting for telltale signs of methane gas
in data from a spacecraft called the Trace Gas Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2016 as part
of the ExoMars mission by the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos.
Specifically, they used two instruments to look for traces of methane, as well as the byproducts
of its chemical reactions triggered by sunlight, ethane and ethylene. But despite gathering over
two and a half years worth of measurements, the researchers found no trace of their target gases.
A separate team, which was looking for another possible signature of life in the
atmosphere of the planet, the presence of phosphines, was also unsuccessful.
The funny thing is that findings are in contrast with measurements obtained by NASA's Curiosity
rover, which detected occasional bursts of methane in the lower layers of the
atmosphere of Mars as well as near its surface. The ground-based measurements estimated there
might be up to 30 molecules of methane in every billion molecules in the atmosphere of the planet.
But the newest measurements by Trace Gas Orbiter indicate a maximum of 0.05 molecules per billion,
but more likely only 0.02 molecules per billion. Methane, which could be found in Earth's
atmosphere in quantities of nearly 2,000 molecules per billion, could be either
produced by living organisms or generated in geological processes. The scientists,
however, cannot distinguish between the biologically and geologically produced gas.
The researchers concluded that since the instruments aboard the spacecraft are extremely
sensitive, the concentration of methane in the upper atmosphere of Mars, if the gas is present
there at all, must be extremely low in order to prevent detection over such a long period of time.
They, however, still believe the gas might be present closer to the surface.
Curiosity measures right at Mars' surface while the orbiter takes measurements a few kilometers
above, so the difference between these two findings could be explained by any methane
being trapped by the lower atmosphere or the immediate vicinity of the rover.
The scientists, in fact, attempted to detect methane also above Gale Crater,
the area explored by the Curiosity rover. The mystery of methane on Mars is therefore
becoming more and more intense, although personally, we prefer to give more credit
to the surveys of Curiosity, which at the time of measurement could have
passed right near a source of gas. The further problem would then be
to understand if it is methane of biological or geological origin...
Russia launches huge Nauka science module to space station after years of delays
The Multipurpose Research Module, also known as Nauka (“Science”, in Russian language),
blasted off toward the International Space Station on July 21 atop a Proton-M
rocket from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch was a longtime coming for Nauka,
which was originally slated in 2007, but was repeatedly delayed for various reasons.
Nauka, conceived in the early 1990s, experienced many obstacles on its way to space. Originally
designed as a back-up for the station's first module, Zarya, which launched in 1998,
Nauka spent over two decades waiting on the ground, getting outdated. Which obviously
forced the Russian space agency Roscosmos to redesign and replace much of the equipment.
Three minutes after the launch, the Russian space agency confirmed Nauka successfully
deployed its solar panels and antennas. Nauka, which is expected to dock at the
orbital outpost on July 29, will become the largest Russian component of the Station.
Over 13 meters long and with a maximum diameter of 4.3 meters,
20 tons, the module will house research laboratories, but also will serve for rest area.
Before Nauka reaches the space station, cosmonauts will have to remove the Pirs docking module
on the station's Russian-built Zvezda service module to allow Nauka to take its place.
Cosmonauts started preparing for the departure of Pirs last month during a series of spacewalks.
Pirs is departing the space station after nearly 20 years serving as a docking port and airlock
for the orbiting laboratory. It will partially burn in the atmosphere, but pieces from it
will land in the Pacific Ocean approximately four hours after its departure from the space station.
On arrival, Nauka will add 70 cubic meters of space to the internal volume of the Station,
a third bed on the Russian side, an additional toilet, as well as a new regeneration of water
and oxygen production systems. Better late than never, you might
say... But this decision by the Russians is a sign of their will not to give up
their historical role as a hegemonic power in space. And we think that is a very good thing.
Dangerous asteroids? China says: "strike first, and very hard!"
Chinese scientists have decided to save the world from asteroid impacts, even those that have only
a small chance of hitting our planet someday. And to do so, they claim the best method is
to "strike first, and very hard." And they've demonstrated this by
simulating the bombardment of a very famous space rock with Long March 5 rockets .
The asteroid in question is called Bennu, recently visited by the U.S. probe OSIRIS-REx,
which also collected samples from its surface to bring back to Earth in 2023.
Classified as a Near-Earth Object because of its orbit that dangerously crosses that of Earth,
Bennu could have at least eight potential impacts with Earth between 2169 and 2199.
The asteroid has an average diameter of about half a kilometer and, with this size,
the collision would be catastrophic, although only locally and not globally. The estimated
kinetic energy of the impact between Bennu and Earth is in fact 1,200 megatons,
which is about 80,000 times greater than the energy of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
According to experts in celestial mechanics, the chances that Bennu can really hit the Earth
during its approaches are not very high: only one in 2,700, nevertheless, scientists
at China's National Space Science Center have calculated that if 23 Long March 5 rockets,
each weighing about 990 tons, hit the asteroid at the same time, it would be enough to deflect
the asteroid from its path by almost 9000 kilometers (1.4 times the radius of the Earth).
"Asteroid impacts pose a serious threat to all life on Earth," said Mingtao Li, a space science
engineer at the National Space Science Center in Beijing and lead author of the new study.
"Deflecting an asteroid on an impact trajectory is critical to mitigating this threat.
A kinetic impactor remains the most feasible asteroid deflection method." The study also seeks
to demonstrate that orbital deflection of large asteroids similar to Bennu can be accomplished
without resorting to a nuclear device, as long as it is planned 10 years in advance of impact."
The Chinese plan follows a similar, but slightly more expensive, past proposal by NASA,
called the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER),
a fleet of 8-ton spacecraft that could deflect an asteroid without the use of nuclear explosions.
NASA simulations suggest that 34 to 53 HAMMER probe impacts, launched 10 years
before the asteroid's potential collision with Earth, would be needed to move Bennu.
However, NASA will be the first space agency to take the field,
and will do so on November 24 this year with the launch of the mission DART (Double Asteroid
Redirection), which will send a vehicle to the asteroid Didymos, 11 million kilometers away.
Once there, the spacecraft will strike Didymos' moon,
Dimorphos, a rock orbiting the asteroid. Then the effects will be measured,
trying to derive confirmations to the theoretical calculations.
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Alma radio telescope detects how a moon is born on an exoplanet
A paper recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters reported the detection of a
planetary system in formation, in which two protoplanets emerge from
the disk of dust still surrounding the star. What's more exciting, however, is something
else... The observations, conducted with the radio telescopes of the Alma interferometer, have also
shown that around one of the two planets there is a small disk of dust from which they are probably
generating satellites similar to our Moon. This is not the first time astronomers have
been interested in this system. The star, an orange dwarf called Pds 70 and located 370 light
years away from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, had been previously observed at
optical and infrared wavelengths with the Very Large Telescope in Chile,
which had revealed traces of hydrogen gas associated with planetary systems in formation.
A first observational follow-up conducted with Alma then had confirmed this and had also hinted
at the sure presence of two planets, one of which was probably surrounded by a disk of dust.
Thanks to new high-resolution observations made with the same instrument,
the system appeared for the first time clear in all its parts: around the star Pds 70, two
planets have "cleaned" the annular region in which they orbit, collecting the circumstellar dust.
The first, already known as Pds 70b, is a gas giant with a mass eight times that of Jupiter;
historically important because it was the first extrasolar planet
to have been photographed directly (by Hubble). The other, Pds 70c, is similar but with a mass
even greater, about ten times that of Jupiter, and it is precisely the latter to appear surrounded
by a disk of dust with a radius similar to the distance Earth-Sun.
A disk that astronomers believe is the place of formation of an entire satellite system!
A bit like what happened for Jupiter and Saturn, or for the other gas giants of our solar system,
which with their mass were able to attract a large amount of material from which then, by aggregation
and mutual collisions formed their many moons. Until now there was no direct observation of
these early stages of formation, the knowledge of astronomers had to be based on the formulation of
theories not completely confirmed by data. Now, the great ability of Alma to
analyze with its 66 antennas the light at submillimeter wavelengths,
the one emitted by the cold and dark clouds of dust where - precisely - stars and planets are
formed, is allowing astronomers to understand that, contrary to what happened to our Moon,
formed by an accidental and fortuitous collision, the process of formation of satellite systems
is to be considered a normal consequence of the tendency of matter to aggregate.
The Martian helicopter Ingenuity has completed its tenth flight, covering a total of one
mile since the day of its first flight. A milestone in the exploration of the Red Planet
Ingenuity has done it again this time. Last weekend, NASA's helicopter completed its
tenth flight into the atmosphere of Mars, the most technically difficult so far and which allowed it
to complete its first mile (1.609 kilometers). Ingenuity surprised even its creators
by proving capable of continuing to fly well beyond expectations.
The drone was a gamble for NASA, a challenge that can be said to have been won.
The little helicopter, in fact, was designed to make 5 flights of increasing difficulty.
Its technologies would have been put to the test to test the limits of speed and
resistance and collect information to design future Martian aircrafts.
It was expected, therefore, that already at the fourth/fifth flight Ingenuity would have crashed
somewhere or that its batteries would be exhausted soon. But instead, it has surprised everyone and
has come to complete its tenth flight, one that has allowed him to reach a significant distance
flying in the tenuous Martian atmosphere. So far, Ingenuity has lasted 107 Martian days
(76 more than expected) and has also successfully performed two software upgrades that have improved
its flight and imaging capabilities. At this point, it is likely that NASA
will continue to fly it as long as it holds up. From a simple demonstration mission, then,
that of Ingenuity has turned into a full-fledged exploration, in support of the Perseverance rover
that is probing the surface of Jezero crater and collecting samples to hunt (also) for
traces of alien life in the past of Mars. According to the program published by NASA,
the tenth flight of Ingenuity lasted about 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
It was the most complex flight of the small drone, which touched down on 10 waypoints.
The helicopter went to a record altitude of 12 meters
and headed south-southwest for 50 meters to take pictures of the Raised Ripple, rock formations
that may have been waterways in the past. In the next steps of the path, Ingenuity continued
to acquire images that will be combined by experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to obtain useful
information to define the routes of the rover Perseverance and future exploration missions.
OK guys, we’re done for the week too. What do you think? What news struck you the most?