Month: September 2024

[It is only in recent years that I learned about the concept of "wandering planets" and "wandering stars". They call them rogue planets and rogue stars. These bodies were expelled from other solar systems and they wander through space. It is one of the creepiest and most dangerous things you can imagine. It is very freaky actually. And it's happened several times to our solar system. One day I'll do a video about this. To me it's the creepiest, weirdest thing I ever heard about in astronomy. It's firmly proven. It happens, and there is a star already on it's way to our solar system and it will mess things up in about 2 – 3 million years! Jan]

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2LgS6U4Cg

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV2wIfDzFMk

[Venus is the closest planet to Earth. It's also the brightest. You can see it easily with the naked eye, and even a small telescope will show its features. Yet you will almost NEVER hear scientists talking about it. And they hardly ever send any satellites there because they would just be DESTROYED. Yet Venus is almost exactly the same size as Earth and very close to Earth and could in theory be Earth's twin – but it's NOT! Instead, it's a HELL! Jan]

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRziGUnNlpI&t=1s

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSeXeez5dv8

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDxnFge00Vc

Elon Musk has big ambitions to colonize Mars by 2050, and a new scientific discovery could make those dreams a reality.

A team of scientists have proposed an ‘innovative’ way to warm the Red Planet by more than 18 degrees Fahrenheit in just a matter of months, which they believe would be enough to sustain human life.

They proposed injecting large quantities of Martian dust into the atmosphere to improve its ability to trap heat, just like water vapor and carbon dioxide do on Earth.

Shooting about 10 liters of dust, consisting of iron and aluminum, per second for at least a decade could warm the planet from -85F to 86F.

A groundbreaking new discovery suggests that Elon Musk’s dream of terraforming Mars might not be as far-fetched as people think.

Musk himself has said that he plans to use the natural resources on Mars to ‘terraform’ its existing atmosphere and make the planet warmer, wetter and overall more like Earth.

The idea of being stuck in space might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster. But it has become a reality for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore – two unlucky astronauts who are potentially stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) until 2025, despite only expecting to be there for eight days. Although the views might be out of this world, the ISS is far from the ideal destination for an impromptu eight-month trip. With little spare room and zero gravity, even simple tasks like eating or going to the toilet can be extremely difficult. And whether it’s in their phone box-sized bedrooms or on the vacuum-powered toilet, the astronauts aboard the orbiting station can often be cramped, smelly, and uncomfortable.

This study suggests he may be onto something.

‘It’s not that often you get some really quite new, innovative idea for terraforming,’ Colin McInnes, a space engineer at the University of Glasgow not involved with the work, told Science Magazine.

‘The gap between where Mars is and where Mars could be for habitability is narrower than we might think,’ he added.

The researchers’ approach is actually based on the same atmospheric mechanism that’s driving climate change here on Earth: the greenhouse effect.

Currently, Mars’ atmosphere is so thin that heat from the sun easily escapes the planet’s surface.

The microscopic size and spherical shape of Martian dust mean that it isn’t great at absorbing radiation or reflecting heat back down to the surface.
But the research team believes they could use the iron and aluminum in the dust to engineer nine-micrometer-long rods.

That’s roughly twice the size of a Martian dust particle, but smaller than a speck of glitter.

Currently, the surface of Mars is a freezing, barren desert. But scientists have come up with a simple way to warm up the Red Planet.

Terraforming Mars’ atmosphere would bring us one step closer to establishing a human colony on the red planet.

When the researchers tested how their particles would absorb heat radiation and reflect it down to the planet’s surface, they found ‘unexpectedly huge effects,’ Samaneh Ansari, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University and the study’s lead author, told Science Magazine.

This approach would require about two million tons of particles per year, but manufacturing them would be relatively easy because the ingredients are right there on Mars.

That sets this new approach apart from previous schemes to globally warm the Red Planet.

By comparison, this method would be roughly 5,000 times more efficient, the researchers claimed.

This strategy would still take decades, but it seems logistically easier than any other ideas proposed so far.

Warming up Mars would be a critical first step towards making this planet a suitable home for humans, or any other life form for that matter.

It would free up the little water that’s frozen in polar ice caps beneath the planet’s surface, and make Mars a more suitable place for agriculture and out own bodies.

Mars’ atmosphere is too thin to trap heat at the surface. Scientists want to inject it with engineered dust to make it more insulating.

This is all great news for Musk. But warming up Mars is just one step down a long road he’ll need to travel before he can colonize the Red Planet.

Even with this new atmosphere, humans still wouldn’t be able to breathe the air on Mars because it doesn’t contain enough oxygen.

Plus, the air pressure on Mars is 150 times lower than on Earth, which would cause human blood to boil.

Musk will have to solve these problems and more before he builds a bustling Martian metropolis. But this new research brings him a little bit closer to realizing his dream.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/humans-closer-to-living-on-mars-with-new-theory-to-terraform-planet/ar-AA1oC7jL?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=0d319a90373241dcabc4adfd85339b2f&ei=32

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COaWZtI7r_Y

Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx4UzkzjERM&t=214s

On September 24, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped a capsule to Earth containing pristine carbonaceous regolith collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. These samples were obtained after the probe took an impressive, seven-year roundtrip journey through the solar system and back.

Since these space rock pieces arrived (approximately 120 grams of sample, to be precise) scientists have highly anticipated an analysis of the specimens that can tell us what molecules lie within Bennu. They’ve been hoping to find clues about the history of our solar system, seeing as Bennu should’ve been present when our cosmic neighborhood was coming together, and prebiotic molecules that might provide insights into the origin of life on Earth. It’s possible, many experts speculated, that these samples could host the seeds of other essential ingredients, such as water, that could have contributed to Earth’s habitability if they ended up on our planet, too.

"The sample we returned is the largest reservoir of unaltered asteroid material on Earth right now," Dante Lauretta, co-lead author of the paper and principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement.

While initial studies did indeed indicate the OSIRIS-REx samples exhibited evidence of carbon and water, perhaps even more remarkable is the team’s recent, and unexpected, discovery of magnesium-sodium phosphate. This is an ionic compound composed of the magnesium cation (Mg2+), sodium cation (Na?) and phosphate anion (PO43-).

On Earth, magnesium-sodium phosphate can be found in certain minerals and geological formations. According to a NASA press release, however, its presence on Bennu surprised the research team because it wasn’t seen in the OSIRIS-REx probe’s remote sensing data prior to sample collection. The team says its presence "hints that the asteroid could have splintered off from a long-gone, tiny, primitive ocean world."

"The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid," said Lauretta. "Bennu potentially could have once been part of a wetter world. Although, this hypothesis requires further investigation."

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained a sample of Bennu’s regolith on October 20, 2020 using its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), which comprises a specialized sampler head situated on an articulated arm. Bennu is a small B-type asteroid, which are relatively uncommon carbonaceous asteroids. "[Bennu] was selected as the mission target in part because telescopic observations indicated a primitive, carbonaceous composition and water-bearing minerals," stated the team in their paper.

Further analysis on the samples revealed the prevailing component of the regolith sample is magnesium-bearing phyllosilicates, primarily serpentine and smectite — types of rock typically found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth. A comparison of these serpentinites with their terrestrial counterparts provides possible insights into Bennu’s geological past. "Offering clues about the aqueous environment in which they originated," wrote the team.

While Bennu’s surface may have been altered by water over time, it still preserves some of the ancient characteristics scientists believe were present during the early solar system’s days. Bennu’s surface materials still contain some original features from the cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system’s planets formed — known as the protoplanetary disk.

The team’s study also confirmed the asteroid is rich in carbon, nitrogen and some organic compounds — all of which, in addition to the magnesium phosphate, are essential components for life as we know it on Earth.

"These findings underscore the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu — especially low-density material that would typically burn up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere," said Lauretta. "This material holds the key to unraveling the intricate processes of solar system formation and the prebiotic chemistry that could have contributed to life emerging on Earth."

In addition to the important scientific discoveries made during this mission, it underscores the significance of sample return in unraveling the geological and geochemical intricacies of asteroids like Bennu, and their implications for the formation and evolution of the solar system.

"The data we have presented here are only the tip of the iceberg: there is likely more about the sample that we do not know than we do know," concluded the scientists.

The paper about these results was published on June 26 in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

Source: https://www.space.com/nasa-osiris-rex-sample-return-phosphate-ocean-world?utm_term=AF536F6D-055D-443A-91F7-FD448D0CCA73&lrh=4cd1bd23c622eeb1274411ac3b55b43215b8c098a20f14a3285c9e8ae13a98ca&utm_campaign=58E4DE65-C57F-4CD3-9A5A-609994E2C5A9&utm_medium=email&utm_content=48248DFA-EB74-4B4A-B41E-0744E07D5CC2&utm_source=SmartBrief

New research suggests the timing of human gestation is not a compromise between the size of a woman’s hips and the size of a baby’s head. Instead, it’s determined by a woman’s energy limits.

Have you ever wondered why women stay pregnant for nine months? For decades, anthropologists have explained the timing of human gestation and birth as a balance between two constraints: the size of a women’s hips and the size of a newborn’s brain. But new research says that’s not the case. Instead, the timing of childbirth occurs when women’s bodies can no longer keep up with the energy demands of pregnancy. That happens at around nine months, Holly Dunsworth of the University of Rhode Island and colleagues report online August 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The traditional explanation of gestation length is known as the obstetric dilemma. The hypothesis suggests that the width of the pelvis, and thus the width of the birth canal, is limited by the demands of efficient upright walking. But as brain size expanded over hominid evolution, heads got bigger. To make sure a baby’s head could fit through the birth canal, gestation decreased and babies were born at an earlier stage of development; today, newborns enter the world with the least developed brain of all primates at less than 30 percent adult size.

Dunsworth and her colleagues wanted to see if they could find any actual evidence to support the obstetric dilemma. First, they considered gestation length. Traditionally, human gestation has been considered short when looking at how much additional growth the brain needs to reach adult size. But such a measure is unfair when compared to other primates since humans have abnormally large brains, the researchers say. Instead, Dunsworth’s team compared gestation length to maternal body size and found humans actually have relatively long pregnancies—37 days longer than would be expected for a typical primate our size. Our gestation is also relatively extended compared with chimpanzees or gorillas, suggesting pregnancies got longer, not shorter, in hominids.

The team also looked for evidence that widening the pelvis to accommodate bigger brained babies would make walking less efficient. Researchers have assumed that broadening the hips would increase the force needed by hip muscles to walk and run, thus making locomotion less energy efficient. But one recent study shows the dimensions of the hips don’t actually affect the muscle’s required force, calling into question the long-held belief that wider hips would interfere with women’s walking. Furthermore, the team calculated how much wider the hips would have to be if humans were born with the same brain development as chimps (40 percent adult size). All that would be needed is a three-centimeter increase. Women’s hips already vary by three or more centimeters, the researchers say, suggesting that hip size really doesn’t limit gestation.

Instead, gestation is determined by energy. Studies of mammals show that during pregnancy females reach their species’ “metabolic ceiling,” the upper limit of the amount of energy they can expend. In humans, the metabolic ceiling is 2 to 2.5 times the baseline amount of energy needed during rest. Dunsworth and her colleagues say women reach that limit by their sixth month of pregnancy. Then at nine months, the energy demands of a fetus go beyond this metabolic threshold. “Extending gestation even by a month would likely require metabolic investment beyond the mother’s capacity,” the team writes.

But even though hip size doesn’t appear to limit the size of a baby’s head, women around the world often have trouble delivering babies because of the tight fit of the head going through the birth canal. One possible explanation is that childbirth has only become problematic recently in human evolution. Changes in diet that have led to increased energy consumption may be allowing women to produce bigger babies, and natural selection hasn’t had enough time to broaden the hips. Figuring out why modern childbirth is so difficult, and dangerous, is an area that needs further research.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/timing-of-childbirth-evolved-to-match-womens-energy-limits-18018563/