Dyson Spheres

In 2015, astronomer Tabeta Boyajian and her colleagues reported that a star at a distance of 1400 light-years from us sometimes dims quite a lot, which initially seemed extremely unusual. One explanation was the assumption that the luminary is surrounded by a Dyson sphere.

The idea, proposed many years ago by physicist Freeman Dyson, is that advanced civilizations may be building giant structures in space consisting of a swarm of solar panels. This helps them to collect enough starlight for the development of technology and life. Such structures can sometimes interfere with the passage of light from the star, causing periodic darkening visible from Earth.

A “hellish” planet has been discovered, the surface of which is hotter than some stars

The new planet was named TOY-1431 b and has quite impressive dimensions. It is about three times more massive than Jupiter and is located near a bright star that heats its atmosphere during the daytime to 2,700 °C. During the night, TOI-1431b cools down only to 2,300 °C.

The author of the study, Dr. Brenn Addison from the astrophysical Center of the University of Southern Queensland, said that the conditions on this planet are really “hellish”. No life forms can exist on it. Most of the metal reserves at the facility evaporated under the influence of extreme temperatures. According to the scientist, such planets belong to “super-hot Jupiters” and are rare. In fact, it is a gas giant, so in reality it does not have a solid surface, like other planets in the Solar System. In other words, it is a big and deep atmosphere.

Is it possible in the near future to launch a payload into space without using rockets?

In the near future, i.e. in 10-30 years, most likely nothing will change. The old grandfather’s method of using chemical-fueled rocket engines to detach from the Earth’s surface has proven itself perfectly, and fundamentally new methods are not being worked out yet.

Perhaps the rocket method has only one drawback – the cost, a huge astronomical cost, unbearable for most countries of the world, not to mention individual companies and individuals. Accordingly, the economic return from the space field is still negative. Much more money is invested than is earned. So thanks to this disadvantage, there will definitely be progress in the space field, but not soon.

I consider the technology of the space elevator to be the most promising of all the fantastic ideas available today without a rocket launch. The idea is very simple. At the equator, the cable is attached to the surface of the Earth, and a counterweight clings to its other end.

As a counterweight, it is best to use a gateway station. The work schedule of space trucks may not coincide with the work schedule of the elevator, warehousing is necessary.

China plans to launch the world’s most powerful telescope by the end of 2023

In terms of power, it surpasses the famous Hubble by 350 times.

The new heavy-duty telescope was named “Xuntian”. Experts expect that in 10 years of work he will explore 40% of the celestial surface.

As explained by Liu Jifeng, deputy director of the National Astronomical Observatory of China, in an interview with Xinhua, Hubble can observe a tiny territory of 1% of the size of a fingernail at arm’s length. Or, he sees only one sheep, while “Xuntian” captures thousands of them in the lens at once and all in high resolution.
This result was achieved through the use of a three-mirror anastigmatic approach. This gives advantages when conducting survey studies. The telescope is able to scan a huge part of the universe in a shorter time.

“Xuntian” is equipped with an 81 MP camera consisting of 30 detectors. It is capable of taking pictures in 17,500 square degrees of the sky in several ranges. The telescope, which is scheduled to launch at the end of next year, can observe exoplanets and conduct mapping.

What are the real chances of an alien invasion of bacteria?

In the early 2030s, NASA plans to deliver pieces of Mars to Earth. This decade will see missions to Titan and Europa, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, where life may well exist. Anthony Ricardi, professor of invasive ecology and aquatic ecosystems, suggests that without technical analysis it will be difficult to distinguish alien organisms from terrestrial life.

The science fiction novel and movie “Andromeda Strain” described in detail what would happen if a deadly alien microbe made its way to Earth, and the world would have to look for means to contain it. Despite the fact that the author of the novel, Michael Crichton, rather fantasized about the likelihood of such an invasion, in 2013, researchers described a new bacterial life form. She was less than 95% similar to her closest genetic relative. The found bacterium was called tersicoccus phoenicis — in translation it means something like “clean room error”, since it was found in the sterile rooms of NASA and ESA spacecraft located at a distance of almost two thousand kilometers from each other.

Superimposed on this example is the fact that some experts believe in the theory of panspermia, which states that life first originated not on Earth at all, but somewhere in the universe, and was brought here by falling meteorites or comets.

This idea can easily be turned in the opposite direction. For example, in 2019, an Israeli spacecraft with slow—moving vehicles, one of the most indestructible life forms known on Earth, inadvertently fell to the surface of the Moon. Slow walkers can withstand extreme temperatures and pressure, including the vacuum of space.

What are space explorers most afraid of?

One of the most terrifying scenarios for NASA and other space agencies is the unexpected spread of an alien virus on Earth. With each mission, the agency is making more and more efforts to ensure that none of these scenarios become a reality.

However, some researchers believe that the current threat prevention standards are not enough: with the advent of increasingly ambitious missions and private space companies, the risk of cross-fee pollution increases.

There is silence in space, everyone knows that, but what does space smell like?

What is a smell? Or rather, how the human sense of smell works – in the process of breathing through the nose, together with the air, the molecules of substances contained in it enter the human body, to which olfactory receptors react.

In space (or rather in outer space) there are no conditions for the transfer of these molecules, and a gas medium of sufficient density that will allow a person to draw these molecules inside himself.

Theoretically, if it is directed to bombard a person’s nose with a stream of molecules, then probably some kind of smell can be felt, but a person cannot live at zero pressure. And the speed of flight of atoms and molecules in outer space is such that it will simply destroy the olfactory receptor before it has time to react.

So space doesn’t smell.

Lunar soil is capable of producing oxygen and fuel

After analyzing the lunar soil brought by the Chinese Chang’e-5 spacecraft, their team found that the sample contains compounds rich in iron and titanium substances that can work as a catalyst to produce desired products, such as oxygen, using sunlight and carbon dioxide.

Based on these observations, the team proposed a strategy for “extraterrestrial photosynthesis “. Basically, the system will use lunar soil for water electrolysis , extracted on the moon and from astronauts, into oxygen and hydrogen. Carbon dioxide exhaled by the future “inhabitants of the Moon” is also collected and combined with hydrogen obtained by electrolysis of water in the process of hydrogenation , catalyzed by lunar soil.

As a result of this process, hydrocarbons such as methane are formed, which can be used as fuel. The strategy uses no external energy other than sunlight to produce various desired products such as water, oxygen and fuel that could support life on the lunar base.

A mysterious system has been discovered three thousand light-years from Earth

One of the stars in it changes brightness once in 62 minutes. This is probably due to the fact that one of its sides is much brighter than the opposite. And the reason for this is the radiation of the pulsar tearing it. It probably represents the pulsar “black widow”, which is slowly absorbing its low-mass companion, and the third star orbiting this duo with a period of 10 thousand Earth years.

“At the moment, about two dozen “black widows” are known in the Milky Way. However, our candidate, who received the designation ZTF J1406+1222, is unique in that it was identified in the optical range by the periodic increase in brightness of the side of the dying star facing the pulsar, and not by the gamma or X-ray radiation of the pulsar itself,” the authors of the study say.

How the system was formed remains a mystery. However, based on the collected data, astronomers suggest that, as in the case of known analogues, ZTF J1406+1222 originated in a globular cluster – a dense constellation of old stars – which for a long time slowly drifted to the center of the Milky Way, where the gravity of the central supermassive black hole was torn apart, leaving behind many disparate systems.

On May 6, asteroid 2009 JF1 will approach the Earth.

According to NASA experts, asteroid 2009 JF1 will fly by the Earth at a minimum distance tomorrow.

Scientists said that if a celestial body collides with our planet, the force of the explosion will reach 230 kilotons in TNT equivalent, which is ten times more than in the explosion in Hiroshima in 1945.

However, the probability of a collision is negligible and is 1:140,000. NASA said that the size of the asteroid is 10 meters, so the inhabitants of the planet have nothing to fear.

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