This means that in this decade we will be able to send people to the moon, where they can not only live, but also fully engage in science!
It is assumed that the base will be built in the Shackleton crater and will include a main residential module, a habitable mobile platform and a lunar rover.
Astronomers have discovered a cataclysmic variable with the shortest period of rotation among the currently known systems of this type
The stellar duo consists of a white dwarf and a sun-like star that make one revolution around each other in just 51 minutes!
The ZTFJ 1813+4251 system was screened out of more than a billion stars observed as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility survey, and then studied in detail using the Keck Observatory telescope. The collected data allowed modeling of the present and future object.
The white dwarf in the ZTF J1813+4251 system is 100 times smaller than the Sun and twice as “lighter” than it. The Companion is 10 times inferior to the Sun in both parameters.
The new map of the Universe for the first time displays the coverage of the entire known cosmos with extreme accuracy.
Created by astronomers at Johns Hopkins University based on data collected over two decades using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the map provides an opportunity to get acquainted with data previously available only to scientists.
“As a child, I was very inspired by astronomical images, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it’s our time to create a new type of images to inspire people,” says the creator of the map, Bryce Menard. “Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for many years, which has led to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But no one has taken the time to create a beautiful, scientifically accurate and accessible map for people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everyone what the universe really looks like.”
The Capstone spacecraft reached the lunar orbit on Sunday, where it will spend at least six months. This is reported on the NASA website.
The tasks of the device include the calculation of the orbit for the future Gateway lunar station. Its mass is about 25 kg.
NASA announced in the spring of 2019 that the astronaut landing program on the Moon, called Artemis, includes three stages. The first is the launch into space of the Orion spacecraft using the new Space Launch System launch vehicle, which in unpiloted mode will make several orbits around the Moon and return to Earth. The second is a flyby of a natural satellite of the Earth already with a crew on board, which is planned for 2023. At the third stage in 2025, NASA expects to deliver astronauts to the Moon, and then send them to Mars in the mid-2030s.
James Webb photographed the Pillars of Creation
Thanks to its technical capabilities, the James Webb telescope has the ability to penetrate the dust curtain and capture previously unseen details of the internal structure of nebulae and regions of active star formation. No wonder NASA used it to shoot the Pillars of Creation.
The JWST image was obtained in the near infrared range. A number of newly formed stars can be seen on it, which can be identified by their characteristic bright red color. When clumps of matter with sufficient mass form inside gas-dust clusters, they begin to shrink under the influence of their own gravity, slowly heat up and eventually form new luminaries.
It is worth noting that despite the fact that infrared vision helps JWST to penetrate through the dusty veil, it is impossible to see distant galaxies in the image. The density of gas and dust at the center of the Milky Way is so high that it blocks our view of the deeper universe.
Flying into space can increase the risk of cancer.
American scientists from the Icon Medical School on Mount Sinai analyzed the blood of 14 NASA astronauts. The samples showed signs of somatic DNA mutations. Because of them, the risk of developing cancer and heart disease may increase.
On average, astronauts stayed in space for 12 days. They flew shuttles in 1998-2001. Before the start and on the day of landing, doctors took blood from them. All this time, the samples were stored at -80 °C.
Most of the mutations occurred in the TP53 gene – it produces a protein that suppresses the tumor. Also in DNMT3A – this gene is often mutated in acute myeloid leukemia.
SpaceX was one and a half years ahead of the schedule for the deployment of Starlink satellites in orbit — the FCC demanded that 2204 satellites be put into operation by March 2024.
Currently, 2,941 satellites have been deployed — 66% of the total plan of 4,408 satellites. Of these, 2,383 are already in operation.
In total, the FCC ordered 4,408 satellites until March 2027. Easy
Scientists want to smash a satellite on an asteroid to change its flight path. This will be the first such experiment in the history of mankind. The clash is scheduled for September 27.
The object is located at a distance of 5.6 thousand light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Cygnus
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured an image of the impressive concentric rings of light surrounding the binary star WR 140. According to astronomers, such an unusual appearance of the nebula is the result of the interaction of powerful stellar winds and dust thrown into space by the rapidly losing mass components of the system.
The stars in the WR 140 system rotate around each other in an elliptical orbit and at the moment of maximum convergence, when the distance between them is approximately 1.3 astronomical units, their powerful winds collide. As the substance cools, dust forms, which is then gradually blown out.
Close encounters of the system components occur once every eight Earth years, and each of them leads to the appearance of another dust ring. In total, there are 20 of them in the James Webb image, which means that the age of the outermost ring does not exceed 160 years.
Apollo 11 on the moon began researching the exact distance from Earth to the moon. To do this, they brought devices resembling small arrays of mirrors – they are called retroreflectors
Research using such a simple device continues to this day
