Tag: space

A mysterious green comet is approaching Earth and could be visible to the naked eye soon. Here’s how to see it.

A mysterious green comet, called Comet Nishimura, could be visible to the naked eye in mid-September.

Also known as Comet C/2023 P1, the cosmic object could be more easily visible from September 7 and will reach its peak brightness on September 17 when it will be 78 million miles from Earth. 

The comet, which got its name from the Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura, currently has a green tail and is gaining in intensity as it heads toward the sun, NASA reported.

This is a crucial stage. The sun can make comets brighter by freeing more gas into their tails. But it can also break them up before they reach the Earth. 

Still, NASA is optimistic. “Will Comet Nishimura become visible to the unaided eye? Given the unpredictability of comets, no one can say for sure, but it currently seems like a good bet,” NASA said in a blog post. 

Backyard astronomers are encouraged to take their telescopes out to spot the comet in case it breaks up in the coming days, comet-tracking app SpaceWalk suggested on its blog. 

For the rest of us, it’s worth turning our attention to the skies from early September in the hours before dawn. The comet is almost aligned with the sun, so the best chance of catching it is right before our star rises.

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Russia heads back to the Moon with Luna 25

Russia’s space agency successfully launched a robotic spacecraft Thursday on a journey to the Moon, the country’s first lunar explorer since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.

The Luna 25 mission lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in Russia’s Far East, at 7:10 pm ET (23:10 UTC). Heading east, a Soyuz-2.1b rocket propelled Luna 25 through an overcast cloud deck and into the stratosphere, then shed its four first-stage boosters about two minutes into the flight. A core stage engine fired a few minutes longer, and the Soyuz rocket jettisoned its payload shroud.

A third-stage engine fired next, then gave way to a Fregat upper-stage to place Luna 25 in orbit around Earth. The Fregat engine fired a second time to send the nearly 4,000-pound (1.8-metric ton) lunar probe on a roughly five-day trip toward the Moon. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, declared the launch a success less than 90 minutes after liftoff, shortly after the Luna 25 spacecraft separated from the Fregat upper stage.

This is historic for Russia’s space program. Russia hasn’t launched a lunar mission in nearly 50 years and hasn’t had a mission successfully fly to any other planetary body since 1988, despite several attempts. Thursday’s launch was a major moment for Luna 25, but its departure from Earth on a reliable and proven Soyuz rocket was not the riskiest part of the mission. That will come in a couple of weeks when Luna 25 begins its powered descent toward the lunar surface.

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Americans Love NASA, But Private Firms Do the Real Work in Space

Despite the successes of private space companies, many Americans cling to a notion of NASA as representing the country beyond the atmosphere. In fact, though, NASA relies on capabilities developed and owned by others. The Space Launch System [SLS] is supposed to restore the agency’s role, but it’s antiquated and clunky when compared to private competitors. Public opinion has yet to catch up with an innovation boom that has moved beyond misty memories of NASA in its moon-landing heyday.

“Most Americans continue to believe that the U.S. space agency NASA has a critical role to play, even as private space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are increasingly involved in space,” Pew Research reported earlier this month. “Overall, 65% of U.S. adults say it is essential that NASA continue to be involved in space exploration, the survey finds. A smaller share (32%) believe that private companies will ensure enough progress is made in space exploration, even without NASA’s involvement.”

The Biden administration is happy to play to such sentiments with its National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy which heavily emphasizes “the NASA Artemis program, with its near-term mission to return humans to the Moon.” But the publication of that strategy last November was no accident, coinciding as it did with the successful test of the long-delayed Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule. Without the SLS, plans for NASA’s return to the moon are pipe dreams, since it has largely relied on others for reaching space since the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle program.

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Scientist Finds ‘Evidence’ of Another Universe Before This One

Scientists believe that before our universe, another, previous cosmos existed. In a way, they are calling this process a cosmic cycle that repeats.“The next universe will be just like ours — but only in overall appearance, not in detail, of course…”A researcher may just have discovered conclusive evidence that another cosmos existed before this one. Not only that, but he also claims that ours is just the latest in an infinite series of universes. Professor Sir Roger Penrose argues that our known cosmos is the latest in a long line of previous universes, answering the question of what was ‘there’ before the Big Bang.

First spotted by astronomers in the mid-1960s, this radiation permeates the whole of space in the form of microwaves.

However, studies have shown that this radiation is not spread equally across the cosmos. Astronomers had argued that this inequality of distribution is due to the turbulence that existed when our universe was created.

According to Professor Sir Roger Penrose, a former College of late Professor Hawking, our universe still carries the scars of the events of our universe’s predecessor, which was destroyed some 14 billion years ago.

Prof Penrose, a researcher from the University of Oxford, is one of the world’s most distinguished theoretical physicists. He claims evidence suggests our universe is just the latest in an infinite series of universes, each emerging phoenix-like from its predecessor in a Big Bang.

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Human-induced stem cells from Seattle now in space

Scientists are taking a deeper dive into the impacts of micro-gravity on the human body. Seattle’s Allen Institute is playing a key role in this experiment.

This particular mission,” Allen Institute for Cell Science scientist Brock Roberts said, “will provide yet another test for the fundamental capability of these stem cells.”

On Monday morning, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon Spacecraft with four Axiom-2 crewmembers inside, docked at the International Space Station (ISS). Also on that flight are human-induced pluripotent stem cells produced by scientists at the Allen Institute. This is the first time cells from the Allen Institute have traveled to space.

The Axiom-2 crew members will spend eight days at the ISS. The four astronauts will conduct scientific experiments, which include observing the effects of micro-gravity on cell growth and development.

The stem cells are capable of many amazing things they can differentiate into many different tissues,” Roberts said. “They can proliferate indefinitely without changing their fundamental character, but we don’t know a lot about their ability to exist and preform all of those fascinating phenomenon in space, we we will find out about that.”

The stem-cell study is part of a series of NASA-funded experiments led by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

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Sabotage in Space: Russians Accuse Kiev of Targeting Civilian Satellites – Threaten ‘Appropriate Response’

From the bottom of the sea, high up to the Stratosphere: after the Nord Stream pipelines were destroyed in a deep sea op, Russians state that the next target for sabotage may be up in space.

TASS reported how the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to Ukraine’s attempts to influence Russian civilian communications satellites.

Foreign Ministry statement:

“The Kiev regime, with the participation of specialists from a number of foreign states, is attempting to influence Russian civilian communications satellites.

This is an outrageous violation of international law. The Russian side has the right to respond appropriately. All the necessary opportunities are available for this.”

Moscow has not clarified which foreign states would be aiding Kiev in this effort, nor was it clear the precise way in which Kiev is trying to disrupt these craft. Satellites have indeed become a much debated topic in this war.

TASS: “Western governments and private companies have provided Ukraine with satellite coverage for months.

Most notably, the Starlink satellites operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have become important tools for the Ukrainian troops in the ongoing conflict with Russia.”

Russian diplomats have warned that these satellites may end up becoming a legitimate military target.

This new spatial development comes just as it surfaces that SpaceX is further limiting Starlink service in Ukraine.

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Astronomer Have Discovered A Mysterious Object, Which Is 570 Billion Times Brighter Than The Sun

Billions of light years away, there is a giant ball of hot gas that is brighter than hundreds of billions of suns. It is hard to imagine something so bright. So what is it? Astronomers are not really sure, but they have a couple theories.

They think it may be a very rare type of supernova — called a magnetar — but one so powerful that it pushes the energy limits of physics, or in other words, the most powerful supernova ever seen as of today.

This object is so luminous that astronomers are having a really difficult time finding a way to describe it. “If it really is a magnetar, it’s as if nature took everything we know about magnetars and turned it up to 11,” said Krzysztof Stanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and the team’s co-principal investigator, comedically implying it is off the charts on a scale of 1 to 10.The object was first spotted by the All Sky Automated Survey of Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “assassin”), which is a small network of telescopes used to detect bright objects in the universe. Although this object is ridiculously bright, it still can’t be seen by the naked eye because it is 3.8 billion light years away.

ASAS-SN, since it began in 2014, has discovered nearly 250 supernovae, however this discovery, ASASSN-15lh, stands out because of its sheer magnitude. It is 200 times more powerful than the average supernova, 570 billion times brighter than the sun, and 20 times brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy combined.

“We have to ask, how is that even possible?” said Stanek. “It takes a lot of energy to shine that bright, and that energy has to come from somewhere.”

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A comet not seen in 50,000 years is coming. Here’s what you need to know

Typically, during the course of a year about a dozen comets will come within the range of amateur telescopes. Most quietly come and go with little fanfare, but some are particularly noteworthy. 

During the upcoming weeks, a newly-discovered comet will be making a relatively close approach to the Earth. On Feb. 1, comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will pass to within 28 million miles (42 million km) of our planet, its first approach in 50,000 years. While this will no doubt entice many skywatchers to attempt to view the comet, whether or not one will actually be able to see it will depend on a variety of factors including location and light pollution from both natural and artificial sources.

But don’t be dismayed! Even if you don’t have the right gear or conditions to see comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting a free livestream of the comet beginning at 11:00 p.m. EST on Jan. 12 (0400 GMT on Jan. 13). You can watch the live webcast courtesy of the project’s website(opens in new tab) or on its YouTube channel(opens in new tab).

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Comet Not Seen Since The Stone Age Will Fly Through The Sky In ‘Once-In-A-Civilization’ Event

A comet not seen since the Stone Age will streak across the night sky this month in a “once-in-a-civilization” sight, providing observers are lucky enough to catch a glimpse.

Initially believed to be an asteroid, the comet was first detected by astronomers Frank Masci and Bryce Bolin at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California in March 2022, according to Space.com.  Later observations however showed the “asteroid” had a “very tightly condensed coma” – an indicator of a comet –  traveling approximately 399 million miles away from the sun, near the orbit of Jupiter, the outlet reported.

After further observation, astronomers were able to determine that the comet, dubbed C/2022 E3, had an orbit that lasted approximately 50,000 years, placing its previous journey through our solar system during the Old Stone Age, Space.com reported.

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Mysterious shock wave CRACKS Earth’s magnetosphere that protects our planet from dangerous space radiation

A shock wave barreled toward Earth last night that cracked its magnetosphere, the region that shields our planet from harmful radiation.

The origin of the shockwave is unknown, but astronomers believe it came from an ejection of energetic and highly magnetized, superheated gas released from the sun – also known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).

The ejection may have been released from sunspot AR3165, which launched at least eight solar flares into space on December 14 that caused blackouts over the Atlantic Ocean, according to Space Weather.

While scientists are not sounding the alarm just yet, a crack can stay open for hours and let solar winds flow through.

The sunspot was observed crackling on December 14 and then released an M6-class explosion that hit Earth.

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