
Copernical Team
Unique CU Boulder, NSO collaboration allows journey into varied solar physics research paths

Observatory to unravel universe's mysteries

Amateur Astronomers Help Discover Cosmic Crash

How Rocks Say Don't Touch: Sols 4032-4034

Lost tomato found aboard International Space Station after eight months

Maritime Launch secures additional funding for Canada's first commercial spaceport

The longstanding mystery of Mars' moons—and the mission that could solve it

The two small moons of Mars, Phobos (about 22km in diameter) and Deimos (about 13km in diameter), have been puzzling scientists for decades, with their origin remaining a matter of debate. Some have proposed that they may be made up of residual debris produced from a planet or large asteroid smashing into the surface of Mars (#TeamImpact).
An opposing hypothesis (#TeamCapture), however, suggests the moons are asteroids that were captured by Mars's gravitational pull and were trapped in orbit.
To solve the mystery, we'll need material from the moons' surfaces for analytical analyses on Earth. Luckily, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) will launch a mission, named "Martian Moon eXploration" (MMX), to Phobos and Deimos in September 2024. The mission will be carried by a newly designed rocket, the H-3, which is still under development.
The spacecraft is expected to reach Martian orbit in 2025, after which it will orbit Phobos and finally collect material from its surface before returning to Earth by 2029.
This will make it the next in a series of recent missions bringing material from space back to Earth, following on from Jaxa's successful mission to asteroid Ryugu (Hayabusa2), as well as Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission to asteroid Bennu and the Chinese Space Agency's Chang'e 5 mission to the Moon.
Was going to space a good idea?

In 1963, six years after the first satellite was launched, editors from the Encyclopedia Britannica posed a question to five eminent thinkers of the day: "Has man's conquest of space increased or diminished his stature?" The respondents were philosopher Hannah Arendt, writer Aldous Huxley, theologian Paul Tillich, nuclear scientist Harrison Brown and historian Herbert J. Muller.
Sixty years later, as the rush to space accelerates, what can we learn from these 20th-century luminaries writing at the dawn of the space age?
The state of space 60 years on
Much has happened since. Spacecraft have landed on planets, moons, comets, and asteroids across the solar system. The two Voyager deep space probes, launched in 1977, are in interstellar space.
A handful of people are living in two Earth-orbiting space stations. Humans are getting ready to return to the moon after more than 50 years, this time to establish a permanent base and mine the deep ice lakes at the south pole.
There were only 57 satellites in Earth orbit in 1963. Now there are around 10,000, with tens of thousands more planned.
SETI: How we're searching for alien life at previously unexplored frequencies

Is there life beyond Earth? The question has turned out to be one of the hardest to answer in science. Despite the seemingly boundless expanse of the universe, which implies there's potential for abundant life, the vast distances between stars render the search akin to locating a needle in a cosmic haystack.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) constitutes a branch of astronomy dedicated to finding extraterrestrial life by searching for unusual signals, dubbed technosignatures. The identification of a technosignature wouldn't just signify the existence of life, but specifically point to the presence of intelligent life using advanced technology.
That said, 60 years of searches have so far come up short. But now my colleagues and I have started investigating a previously unexplored range of frequencies.
SETI makes the assumption that extraterrestrial civilizations might rely on technology in a similar way to people on Earth, such as using cell phones, satellites or radar.
Since a significant portion of such technology generates signals that are prominently detectable in radio frequencies, focusing on these wavelengths serves as a logical starting point in the quest for potential extraterrestrial intelligence.
Europa clipper could help discover if Jupiter's moon is habitable

Since 1979, when the Voyager probes flew past Jupiter and its system of moons, scientists have speculated about the possibility of life within Europa. Based on planetary modeling, Europa is believed to be differentiated between a rocky and metallic core, an icy crust and mantle, and a liquid-water ocean that could be 100 to 200 km (62 to 124 mi) deep. Scientists theorize that this ocean is maintained by tidal flexing, where interaction with Jupiter's powerful gravitational field leads to geological activity in Europa's core and hydrothermal vents at the core-mantle boundary.
Investigating the potential habitability of Europa is the main purpose of NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which will launch on October 10th, 2024, and arrive around Jupiter in April 2030. However, this presents a challenge for astrobiologists since the habitability of Europa is dependent on many interrelated parameters that require collaborative investigation.