Astro Wonders

2022-05-27 18:12:34 Open / Comment

2022-05-27 18:10:57 Open / Comment

2022-05-27 16:46:37 Cockroach-eaten Apollo 11 moon dust goes up for auction

For sale: One small sample of the moon brought back to Earth in 1969 by the Apollo 11 astronauts, the first humans to walk on the lunar surface.

Condition: Well-traveled and once digested. The dust was carefully extracted from the stomachs of cockroaches. Three of the insects are included with the lot.

That is, more or less, what is now being offered by RR Auction, a New Hampshire-based firm that specializes in space memorabilia. The cockroach-consumed moon dust is among the highlights of RR's "Remarkable Rarities" auction, which opened for bids on May 26 and runs through June 23.

"Whenever we represent something from Apollo 11 it is obviously thrilling because it is the most important mission, but when you get something like cockroaches that were fed lunar material, it just shows how diverse the Apollo program was," Bobby Livingston, RR Auction executive vice president, told collectSPACE.
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2022-05-27 16:33:15 Boeing’s Starliner Safely Lands on Earth – Completing Critical Test Flight to Space Station

NASA and Boeing successfully landed the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in the desert of the western United States, completing the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the International Space Station (ISS) to help establish that the system is ready to fly astronauts.

About four hours after departing the orbital outpost, Starliner touched down onto its airbags at 4:49 p.m. MDT (6:49 p.m. EDT), wrapping up the six-day flight, which tested the end-to-end capabilities of the crew-capable spacecraft. The landing followed a deorbit burn at 4:05 p.m., separation of the spacecraft’s service module, and successful deployment of its three main parachutes and six airbags.
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2022-05-27 05:35:06 Scientists have seen the explosion of a white dwarf for the first time

The flare was classified as a classic nova and occurred in a cataclysmic variable of the Sculptor type VY, which contains He/N-a white dwarf and is located at a distance of 8.2 thousand light-years from the Sun.

The flash of X-ray radiation began 11 hours before the nine-fold increase in the brightness of the nova in the optical range and lasted less than 8 hours. At the same time, the flare spectrum can be described by a model of the atmosphere of a white dwarf heated to 327 thousand kelvin, and the mass of the dwarf was estimated at 0.98 solar masses, which is quite a lot. Thus, the existence of X-ray flashes is now confirmed observationally

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2022-05-26 18:36:03 'Sharkcano' view from space shows an undersea volcano erupting

Superheated, acidic water surrounds an underwater volcano dubbed sharkcano in fresh imagery from the Landsat 9 satellite.

Discolored water is visible from space in the zone around Kavachi Volcano in the Solomon Islands.

Its unusual moniker, sharkcano, is a nod to the Solomon Islands' two species of sharks. The sharks appear quite tolerant to the acidic conditions, given that Kavachi is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the Pacific.

Kavachi is amid a tectonically active region, and nearby a subduction zone about 18 miles to the southwest. The volcano's lavas can range from basaltic (magnesium and iron rich) to the more silica-rich andesitic.
Yet there is a lot of life present even amid the harsh conditions.

A scientific expedition to the volcano found two species of sharks, including hammerheads, living in the submerged crater. The researchers also found microbial communities that thrive on sulfur.
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2022-05-26 18:22:27 Greenhouse gas monitoring from space to get a boost with SpaceX launch

Three greenhouse gas-detecting satellites will travel to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday (May 25) to improve emissions monitoring from space.

The satellites belong to Canada-based GHGSat, which currently runs the world's largest greenhouse gas-monitoring satellite constellations. The new additions will double the company's fleet, enabling it to spot polluters more quickly and accurately. GHGSat detects methane, a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Studies using GHGSat data, as well as those captured by Europe's Sentinel satellites, previously revealed large amounts of preventable methane emissions leaking from oil and gas processing facilities all over the world due to negligence and faulty technology.

GHGSat can track those emissions down to individual plants, refineries and pipelines, providing authorities with a tool to hold those climate offenders accountable.

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2022-05-26 09:50:25 The power of sound frequencies.

Imagine what these high intensity frequencies can do to our bodies which are made 70% of water if they are used by the wrong hands.

Think about it.

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2022-05-26 06:45:59 This is how the Curiosity rover sees the Martian landscape.

At first glance, you can't tell that this is something extraterrestrial.

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2022-05-25 16:38:09 Open / Comment