Astronews Recent Space Discoveries (Iss News, Betelgeuse Mystery, Zhurong, Perseverance
& More)
Welcome to the ninth 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!
Astronauts install new solar panels in 6-hour spacewalk on International Space Station
Working outside the International Space Station two astronauts successfully rolled out a new
type of solar array, providing the orbiting outpost with its first power boost in decades.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space
Agency conducted a six-hour and 28-minute extravehicular activity last June, 20, to
finish the installation and deployment of the first International Space Station Roll-Out
Solar Array.
The two Expedition 65 crewmates resumed work where they had left off on a spacewalk on
June, 16, by overcoming an interference issue that initially prevented them from unfolding
the array fully.
The station's eight original arrays have begun showing degraded power output as they exceed
their 15-year design life.
The new roll-out solar arrays are being installed in front of, and partially overlaying, six
of the older arrays.
When used in tandem, the upgraded system will be capable of increasing the station's electricity
supply by 20 to 30 percent.
"These new ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays are pretty fantastic.
It is pretty incredible to see the material they are [made] out of, for one," Kimbrough
said in a recent NASA interview.
"They are this lightweight, flexible composite blanket material that can get stowed very
compactly, but when it is rolled out and deployed, it can bring in a lot of sunlight, which in
our case will give us a lot of power for the station."
Unlike the legacy arrays, no motor was needed to deploy the new panels to their 19-meter
length.
After Pesquet released two final bolts, the potential energy held by the array's rolled-up
carbon composite booms was enough to unroll the array.
The entire process took about six minutes.
In addition to ensuring that the space station has enough power, the new panels are also
serving as a test for NASA's Artemis Gateway to be deployed in orbit around the moon.
The Gateway's planned arrays will be longer and be deployed remotely but otherwise will
use the same technology from the same company.
This was the 240th spacewalk in support of Space station assembly.
The EVA was the eighth for Kimbrough and the fourth for Pesquet.
The pair arrived at the station as members of SpaceX's Crew-2 aboard Dragon Endeavour
in April.
Kimbrough has now spent 52 hours and 43 minutes on spacewalks.
Pesquet has logged 26 hours and 15 minutes.
China Orbital Station receives visit from three astronauts
The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft docked with China’s space station module hours after launch from
Jiuquan last June 16, marking the first crewed visit to the facility.
Shenzhou-12 and its crew of three launched on a Long March 2F from the Jiuquan Satellite
Launch Center at 9:22 p.m. Eastern June, 16.
The spacecraft docked with the Tianhe space station core module at 3:54 a.m. June 17,
six hours 32 minutes after launch.
Astronauts will spend three months aboard the 16.6-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe
(“harmony of the heavens”) module.
Shenzhou-12 mission objectives include extravehicular activities, testing performance of a large
robotic arm, and verification of a regenerative life support system.
The crewed mission is the third of 11 launches planned for the construction of the three-module
Chinese Space Station.
The Shenzhou-12 docking was also China’s first autonomous rapid rendezvous and docking
while carrying crew.
The outpost is currently in a 375 by 385-kilometer altitude orbit inclined by 41.5 degrees in
order to be suitable for visits from Jiuquan.
Tianhe was launched into orbit in late April, marking the start of the construction phase
of a Chinese space station project first approved in 1992.
The Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft launched to Tianhe in late May, carrying 4.69 tons of
cargo in a pressurized segment to supply the Shenzhou-12 mission.
The Shenzhou spacecraft itself carries five days of supplies for the crew.
Shenzhou-12 is commanded by Nie Haisheng, 56, a veteran of the Shenzhou-6 and Shenzhou-10
missions.
Also on the mission are Liu Boming, 54, who participated in Shenzhou-7, and Tang Hongbo,
45, making his first space flight.
The mission is China’s seventh crewed flight.
It is planned to far surpass the Chinese human spaceflight duration record of 33 days set
by Shenzhou-11 in 2016.
The Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft and Shenzhou-13 crewed missions will follow in September and
October respectively.
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Great Dimming of Betelgeuse star is solved.
Maybe
Astronomers say they've put to bed the mystery of why one of the most familiar stars in the
night sky suddenly dimmed just over a year ago.
Do you remember?
Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, abruptly darkened in late 2019,
early 2020.
The strange behavior led many to speculate that it might be about to explode.
But now, a team using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile says the cause was almost certainly
a giant dust cloud between us and the star.
Even if you can't name many points in the sky, you'll definitely know Betelgeuse by
sight.
It's the orange dot in the top-left corner of Orion - or bottom-right, if you're viewing
the constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Close to Earth, relatively speaking, at a distance of about 550 light-years, Betelgeuse
is what's known as a semi-regular variable star.
It naturally brightens and darkens for roughly 400 days.
But what happened 18 months ago was out of the ordinary.
The loss of brightness was far greater than anything previously recorded.
Astronomer Miguel Montargès and colleagues investigated the event with the European Southern
Observatory's VLT, one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth.
It has the resolution to directly image the surface of Betelgeuse.
The researchers compared pictures before, during and after the dimming, and did some
modeling to see what kind of behavior might give rise to the views obtained.
Two ideas were dominant.
Perhaps there was a large cool spot on the surface of the star, because red supergiants
like Betelgeuse are known to have very large convective cells that can cause hot spots
and cold spots.
Or maybe there was a cloud of dust forming right in front of the star as viewed from
Earth.
The explanation turns out to be "a bit of both", says colleague Emily Cannon: "Our overall
idea is that there was a cool spot on the star which, because of the local drop in temperature,
then caused gas ejected previously to condense into dust.
So, the cool spot on the surface would initially make the star look dimmer to us.
But then this condensation of dust would add to the rapid drop in brightness of the star."
Betelgeuse is about 15-20 times as massive as the Sun.
An object that big is likely to go supernova at some point.
So, it wasn't crazy to wonder when this unusual dimming occurred that Betelgeuse might be
about to let go in a spectacular explosion.
We know that red supergiants can display increased mass loss rates, which may indicate there's
a later stage in their lives when they are more likely to go supernova.
But Betelgeuse is a relatively young red supergiant and it probably has a lot more time left:
Tens, even hundreds, of thousands of years.
It would be an amazing thing to see; the event would be visible in daylight.
The last supernova observed in our Milky Way Galaxy was Kepler's Star, which was observed
in 1604.
Records from astronomers at the time indicate it was visible during the day for over three
weeks.
China releases stunning images of Mars taken by its Zhurong rover
The Zhurong rover, named after a god of fire in Chinese mythology, landed on the Utopia
Planitia region of Mars last May 15.
This is China's first Mars mission, making it the second country to land a rover on the
planet, after the United States.
The rover sent back its first images of Mars in May, several days after landing, showing
a deployed ramp and the flat landscape where it arrived.
This Friday, June 11, the new photos included a 360-degree panorama of the landing area,
stitched together from several images the rover took after landing before it began driving
through the area.
Another image showed the orange Martian surface, with scattered rocks, a circular crater on
the far side, and dunes in the distance.
A third image shows the Chinese flag near the landing platform.
The rover also took a selfie using a wireless camera, showing its extended solar panels
and a tiny Chinese flag emblazoned on its equipment.
The six-wheel solar-powered rover is intended to last three months, during which it will
search for signs or evidence of ancient life on Mars' surface.
While the rover explores the planet, its orbiter is also conducting scientific detection operations.
While Zhurong is not as technologically advanced as NASA's Perseverance, which is also currently
roving Mars, its presence sends a clear signal that China's space capabilities are catching
up with those of the US.
OK, It’s Time for Perseverance to get to Work
Given all of the news surrounding the landing and first few months of operation of the Perseverance
rover on Mars, it might be surprising that its actual science mission hasn’t even started
yet.
That changed on June 1st when the rover officially kicked off its first science mission by leaving
its landing site.
NASA has reported on a variety of firsts coming from the rover, including the first sound
recordings on Mars, when it first zapped a rock with its laser, first use of its MOXIE
experiment for the first historical oxygen production, and lately the trials and tribulations
of the Ingenuity helicopter.
But when all is said and done, there is still more science to do.
One big to-do on Perseverance’s task list is to collect samples that will eventually
be returned to Earth on the first-ever Martian sample return mission later in the decade.
The rover is carrying 43 sample tubes that can be filled with interesting rocks or regolith
that scientists want to take a closer look at.
Where those rocks and regolith come from is one of the most important considerations of
the mission as a whole, and Perseverance’s first science mission will focus on two major
areas of interest.
The first stop will be the “Crater Floor Fractured Rough”, which hopefully will be
blessed with a more whimsical name, if for no other reason than to make it easier on
us science writers when talking about it in the future.
For now, this stop can be thought of as the floor of the Jezero crater, where Perseverance
landed.
Almost 4 billion years ago it was covered with at least 100m of liquid water, and the
geology of the region should reflect that much wetter past.
The more whimsically named second area of the trip is the Séítah unit.
Meaning “amidst the sand” in Navajo.
Filled with rocks, ridges, and sand dunes, the area could potentially offer up a more
recent geological history than the samples found on the crater floor.
Navigating around these two areas of interest is no mean feat for a rover being controlled
from millions of miles away, so mission scientists have drawn up an old-school road map to help
illustrate the path the rover intends to take.
The overall route is expected to be between 2.5 km and 5 km, and will end with a return
to the “Octavia E. Butler” landing site, having left behind some samples for the return
mission to pick up.
From there the rover will transition into the second phase of science experiments, which
will see it travel north and west to a delta region of the crater, where a river once flowed
into the lake that used to occupy the area.
All of these areas could provide vital evidence for one of the big mission objectives of the
rover – signs of life.
It’s exactly these types of environments that evidence for any ancient life forms that
might have lived on the wetter, warmer Mars, might still show up.
Carbonates, which are common in the delta region, are known to have preserved fossils
on Earth.
At this point, any such evidence is still wishful thinking, and even the collection
of the samples that might eventually contain that evidence is still months away.
But Perseverance is finally ready to take that first step – or wheel rotation – on
the journey to collect even more data from the bottom of an ancient Martian lakebed.
OK guys, we’re done for the week too.
What do you think?
What news struck you the most?