Space Stuff

Event Horizon Telescope captures birth of black hole jet in Centaurus A​

Images narrow down possible theoretical explanations for how black hole jets form.​


Highest-resolution image of Centaurus A obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope on top of a color composite image of the entire galaxy.

Enlarge / Highest-resolution image of Centaurus A obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope on top of a color composite image of the entire galaxy.
 

Saturn’s core is a big, diffuse, rocky slushball​

There are still uncertainties, but data from the rings rules out a layered model.​

Black and white image of Saturn's rings.

The formation of a gas giant involves a race against time. Planets come into being as newly forming stars heat up, a process that quickly drives all the stray gas out of the planet-creating regions nearby. To create a gas giant, a large, rocky planet has to form prior to this process and generate a large enough gravitational pull to draw in gas before it's all pushed away.

The process should leave planets like Jupiter and Saturn with a solid, rocky core buried deep within the envelope of gas. But confirming that core composition has been difficult. Now, researchers have used features in Saturn's rings to detect subtle gravitational influences from the core. While not definitive, the results suggest that the core is large, and the solid, rocky portion is widely spread out across that area.
 

After a dozen flights, NASA’s chopper has yet to come a cropper​

Kitty Hawk a century ago. Mars today. Where 100 years from now?​

This image depicts the ground tracks of NASA’s Perseverance rover (white) and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (green) since arriving on Mars on Feb. 18. The upper yellow ellipse depicts the “South Séítah” region, which Ingenuity flew over during its 12th sortie.

This image depicts the ground tracks of NASA’s Perseverance rover (white) and Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (green) since arriving on Mars on Feb. 18. The upper yellow ellipse depicts the “South Séítah” region, which Ingenuity flew over during its 12th sortie.

NASA's tiny Mars helicopter, which has a fuselage about the size of a small toaster, has successfully flown above the planet for the 12th time.
Nearly half a year after the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter is still going strong on the surface of the planet. The small flyer has done so well that it has been separated from Perseverance for some time as it scouts ahead on the red planet.
 

"How do you do this in a way that you haven't created a death ray?"​

Where the sun always shines: Putting solar in space​

Thanks to a big donation, Caltech has funded a sci-fi-sounding project.​

Image of the International Space Station.

See these solar panels in space? They're way too heavy to economically provide power to Earth.

"This is an idea that's older than even the space program," Caltech's Harry Atwater told Ars over Zoom. Citing Asimov and Clarke, Atwater conjured an image of gleaming solar panels floating above the Earth on a large metal truss, all wired in to hardware that converts the current to a form suitable to beam back down to Earth. Unlimited clean power, delivered around the clock.

He then explained why the system he is working on will end up looking nothing like that vision, even if it will ultimately accomplish the same thing.
 
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Robert said:

"How do you do this in a way that you haven't created a death ray?"​

Where the sun always shines: Putting solar in space​

Thanks to a big donation, Caltech has funded a sci-fi-sounding project.​

Image of the International Space Station.

See these solar panels in space? They're way too heavy to economically provide power to Earth.

"This is an idea that's older than even the space program," Caltech's Harry Atwater told Ars over Zoom. Citing Asimov and Clarke, Atwater conjured an image of gleaming solar panels floating above the Earth on a large metal truss, all wired in to hardware that converts the current to a form suitable to beam back down to Earth. Unlimited clean power, delivered around the clock.

He then explained why the system he is working on will end up looking nothing like that vision, even if it will ultimately accomplish the same thing.
Click to expand...
I remember hearing about this in the 70s (around about the same time I invented the hyperloop - but I didn't give it a cool name and it ran on maglev, not an air cushion). Mine wouldn't have worked either.
 

China's Mars rover assigned extended mission after exceeding life expectancy​

But first, a holiday while Mars is on the other side of the Sun​

China's rover has done well, travelling 889 metres in its time on Mars and gathering ten gigabytes of data. The Space Administration says it is in fine condition, has put all of its scientific instruments to work, and has sufficient energy to head off in the direction of what it's described as "the ancient land-sea junction in the southern Utopia Plain to implement expansion missions".

But it has also warned that we should expect to hear rather less from Zhurong from mid-September to late October, when Mars and Earth will be on opposite sides of the Sun – which makes radio communications a tad tricky.

Mars as seen by China's Zhurong rover
 
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I know there's still debate about whether this even qualifies as space stuff but I'll leave it here anyway:

The FAA grounds Virgin Galactic’s spaceship after flight deviation​

"The most misleading statement today was Virgin Galactic's."​

Images from the flight of VSS Unity.

VSS Unity burns its rocket motor on July 11, 2021.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it has grounded Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle until the agency completes an investigation into the vehicle's flight outside its designated air space.
"Virgin Galactic may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety," the aviation agency said in a statement.

The statement follows a report on Wednesday that the spacecraft, carrying Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and three other passengers, flew outside of its designated airspace over New Mexico for 1 minute and 42 seconds on July 11.
During that flight, a red light appeared on a console of the spacecraft, alerting the crew to an "entry glide-cone warning." Pilots Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci faced a split-second decision: kill the rocket motor or take immediate action to address their trajectory problem. The pilots chose to continue the engine burn and corrected the trajectory error. But in doing so, they flew outside of their designated air space, which had been cleared for the safety of other aircraft and people on the ground.
 
I'm not saying it's aliens because.... well, it isn't aliens.

Promising-looking SETI signal turns out to be of human origin​

The first observation at issue was potentially the most distant supernova ever observed. The paper describing it observed a flash in the near-infrared that coincided with the location of one of the Universe's first galaxies. If the flash originated there, the red shift caused by the intervening distance would mean that the original burst was in the UV range, suggesting it was the product of a supernova. That would mean we had observed the death of one of the first stars formed in the Universe, a potentially significant finding.

But since then, other papers have suggested that, giving the timing and source of the observations, the location would also have coincided with the position of a defunct Russian booster. And the odds of having watched a bit of space junk are considerably higher than the odds of us happening to be watching when a star that distant exploded. So, the papers argued that we probably haven't actually seen a supernova.
 
The seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the International Space Station sheltered inside their respective spacecraft, a Crew Dragon and Soyuz, on Monday morning as the orbiting laboratory passed through an unexpected debris field.

This was not a pre-planned collision avoidance manoeuvre in low Earth orbit, in which the station would use on board propulsion to move away. Rather, the situation required the astronauts to quickly take shelter.

Had there been a collision during the conjunction, the two spacecraft would have been able to detach from the space station and make an emergency return to Earth.
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It appears likely that the debris field that had alarmed flight controllers on Monday was caused by an anti-satellite test performed by Russia's military early on Monday.

The US Department of Defense on Monday issued the following statement on the test: "US Space Command is aware of a debris-generating event in outer space. We are actively working to characterize the debris field and will continue to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to maneuver satellites if impacted."
 
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