admin, Author at Space History

NASA is developing the concept of building an observatory on the moon

Research to create a distributed radio observatory on the surface of the Moon has begun on a grant basis under the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts program. Representatives of the company note that the construction of such an observatory on the Moon will qualitatively improve the observation capabilities compared to similar installations on Earth. The construction of the lunar observatory is supposed to be on the far side of the Moon, the distributed building will be inscribed in a square with a side of 20 kilometers.

The sensitivity available to such an observatory will make it possible to discern the processes of formation of the first stars.

“Not only will we be able to engage in unique astrophysics, but we will also be able to explore the bowels of the Moon, develop detailed space weather forecasts, detect magnetic fields associated with potentially habitable planets around nearby stars, and even detect lightning and storms on Neptune,” said a representative of Lunar Resources Inc.

Lonestar company plans to transfer all the knowledge of mankind to the moon

Startup Lonestar intends to become a pioneer in the field of telecommunications in space, and the first test of the lunar data center is scheduled for next year.

Lone star plans to create a network of secure servers in lava tubes and transfer the most important information about humanity there in case a global catastrophe happens on Earth.

The colossal red supergiant VY of the Big Dog, visible to the naked eye a couple of centuries ago, and then disappeared from sight, plunged into a cloud of dust

This behavior suggests that the star is approaching the end of its life and in the next 100 thousand years it will either explode as a supernova or directly collapse into a black hole.

The huge red supergiant VY of the Big Dog is located at a distance of about 3.9 thousand light-years from Earth. It is 300 thousand times brighter than our Sun, 17 times more massive and 1,420 times larger. Light takes about 6 Earth hours to go around the VY of the Big Dog, and if you put the giant in the center of the Solar System, then this bloated monster would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. As Hubble’s observations have shown, VY Big Dog is surrounded by relatively compact nodes of matter that are still quite close to the supergiant and erupted only 100-200 years ago – just at a time when the brightness of the star dropped almost 6 times, making it invisible to the naked eye.

The star began its life as a super-hot, bright blue supergiant, whose mass was 35-40 times the mass of the Sun. After a few million years, when the rate of combustion of thermonuclear hydrogen in its core changed, the VY of the Big Dog passed into the phase of a red supergiant. Gorenje. According to astronomers, there is a possibility that in the future, instead of exploding as a supernova, it may immediately collapse into a black hole.

How does a black hole differ from a white one?

A black hole differs from a white one not only in color, but also in the quality of the opposite. If a black hole is an entrance without an exit, then a white hole is an exit without an entrance. Thus, they can form one “space tunnel”.

A white hole is a hypothetical physical object of the universe, into which nothing can get. From white holes, matter only comes out — unlike real-life black holes, which pull everything into themselves, including light. According to some scientists, if there are black holes in the universe, then there must be their antipodes — white holes into which nothing can enter.

Most theories about white holes explain their properties through the concept of a black hole, because black holes really exist and are actively studied. White holes have been discovered so far only in theory: this is a mathematical concept that has no real confirmation.

The argument for the existence of white holes is Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GRT). It has equations relating to wormholes or “wormholes” — tunnels in space-time. The general theory of relativity allows for the existence of such tunnels. In 1916, German scientist Karl Schwarzschild was the first in the world to use GRT to solve a specific astrophysical problem. One of the consequences of Schwarzschild’s decision is a wormhole named after him, which consists of a black hole, a white hole and two separate universes connected through them. His mathematical equations that predicted the existence of black holes also predict white holes.

*A white hole is a hypothetical physical object in the universe, their existence has not been proven.

What happens if the comet with the largest core crashes into the Earth?

Recently, scientists have discovered a comet with the largest nucleus in history. It is constantly flying towards the Sun and by 2031 it will reach the orbit of Saturn. It turned out to be Bernardinelli – Bernstein ‘s C/2014 UN271 . The diameter of its core is about 128 km, which is three times the size of Moscow within the MKAD at its widest point. C/2014 UN271 weighs 500 trillion tons, which is 100 thousand times more than ordinary comets of the Solar System.

Even a comet of the size of C/2014 UN271 will not be able to completely destroy our planet. This will require 20 thousand. times more energy. Therefore, the Earth will basically remain whole. However, the destruction will still be gigantic. In scale, they are thousands of times greater than the consequences of an asteroid impact about 66 million years ago, which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

A new super-Earth has been discovered around the nearest star

The new exoplanet, dubbed GJ 740 b, is located about 36 light-years from Earth. This super-earth is at least 2.96 times more massive than our planet. Recall that the “super-earth” is called an exoplanet having a mass exceeding the mass of the Earth, but significantly less than the mass of gas giants.

GJ 740 orbits its star every 2.377 days at a distance of approximately 0.029 A.E. Recall, one A.E. is equivalent to the distance from Earth to the Sun, or approximately 150 million kilometers. According to the authors, such a distance takes the planet beyond the habitable zone of its host star. The estimated equilibrium temperature for 740 and was approximately 555 °C.

Since the radius of 740 and is unknown, it is currently impossible to determine its composition. On the other hand, its mass and short period of circulation suggest that it is a rocky object.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner docked with ISS for the first time

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner manned spacecraft without a crew on board docked with the ISS for the first time. During the previous flight in 2019, the ship failed to reach the station due to incorrect operation of the engines. Starliner will spend four days at the station.

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner is a new American manned spacecraft. Like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, the Starliner was developed by order of NASA and is designed to transport astronauts to the station without the use of Russian “Unions”. It can accommodate seven crew members. The ship is built according to a partially reusable scheme.

If the Starliner returns safely to Earth, and the problem with the engines can be quickly fixed, then the ship can fly for the first time with people on board already this year — a preliminary test flight with astronauts is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022.

What will they do with the corpse of an astronaut on the ISS?

In the event of the death of any of the crew members, his body must be brought home: immediately or after the end of the mission, it is decided depending on the situation. This is a hypothetical answer – fortunately, such situations have not happened yet. The fact is that the health of astronauts is very, very monitored. Several times a week, astronauts get in direct contact with their doctors, in conversation with whom they can discuss all the existing health problems.

In addition, astronauts undergo a very serious medical examination before the flight and at the slightest suspicion they are excommunicated from the mission.

A planet with an atmosphere close to Earth has been found

International researchers have discovered the unique planet Gliese 486b in the constellation Virgo. The planet has a mass 2.8 times the mass of the Earth, it has an atmosphere whose composition can be studied. Gliese 486b orbits a local red dwarf at a distance of 2.5 million kilometers. At the same time, it is constantly facing the parent star with one side, which is why the daytime hemisphere is heated to 430 degrees Celsius.

According to scientists, the change in the atmosphere of Gliese 486b will be of great importance for deciding whether to look for signs of life around red dwarfs. It is planned to use a spectrograph to study the atmosphere.

Voyager-1 is slightly unwell

The orientation system of the device began to give out frankly garbage telemetry that does not correspond to reality. At the same time, so far it performs its main function and keeps the antenna of the device pointed at the Ground (without this, communication with it will instantly stop). At the moment, it is unclear what is causing the problem and whether it can be fixed.

By the way, Voyager-1 is now located at a distance of 23.4 billion km from the Sun, in interstellar space, being the farthest man-made object from Earth. Its signal takes over 21.5 hours to reach our planet.

The probe was launched back in 1977.